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Hotlists 2008
Crime Fiction - embedded
Seeing Stars
Lists of (mostly) hardcover books which received at least one starred review (indicating a work of unusual merit) from the following review sources: Booklist , Publisher's Weekly (PW), Kirkus and Library Journal (LJ).
The review journal assigns the star.
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Stellar All Stars
Tree of Smoke
by Denis Johnson
The Zookeeper's Wife
by Diane Ackerman
The Dead Father's Club
by Matt Haig
Consumption
by Keith Patterson
Down River
by John Hart
The Terror Dream by Susan Faludi
Overbooked specializes in providing timely information about fiction (all genres) and readable nonfiction. Overbooked has been online since 1994. Overbooked is a work in progress . . .
Starred Reviews
Crime Fiction Stars of 1997 July - December
April 2, 2008
July - December
Titles are listed by approximate date of publication, then by alpha by author. Annotations are from Advance, the Ingram Book Magazine - unless otherwise noted. A
indicates an Overbooked
Jump
for Joy book.
December
- A Dance in Deep Water
Author: Allyn, Douglas
Publisher: St Martins List Price: $ 21.95 ISBN: 0312168071 Date: 1997
BL - Heirs of the Fire
Author: Cullen, Robert
Publisher: Fawcett List Price: $ 23 ISBN: 0449000257 Date: 1997PW
(ACT note - a SF thriller) - The Ordained : Owen Keane
Author:
Faherty, Terence
Publisher: St. Martin's List Price: $ 21.95 ISBN: 0312169582 Date: 1997PW
From the St Martin's catalog: Back in Indiana for the parole hearing of a man he helped convict twenty years ago (The Lost Keats), Owen Keane is drawn into a mystery surrounding the town of Rapture, founded by an adventist sect whose members believed the world would end in 1844 and they would be taken bodily to heaven. Now, 150 years later, their descendants are disappearing one by one. Encouraged by a young doctor who has shut herself away in Rapture, and disarmed by the legend of the sect, Keane steps directly into the the grasp of an implacable, murderous evil. - Shakespeare's Champion
Author: Harris, Charlaine
Publisher: St Martins List Price: $20.95 ISBN: 031217005x Date: 1997Kirkus - Certain Justice
Author: James, P.D.
Publisher: Knopf List Price: $ 25 ISBN: 0375401091 Date: 1997PW
PW Best Book of '97
In her first new novel in more than two years, P.D. James, for the first time, takes her readers - and Commander Adam Dalgliesh - into the labyrinthine world of the law. When distinguished criminal lawyer Venetia Aldridge defends young Gary Ashe for the brutal murder of his mother, the case is, for her, simply another opportunity to demonstrate her brilliance in the courtroom. But when Aldridge is found dead in her office, Dalgliesh and his team must make sense of events. - Survival of the Fittest
Author: Kellerman, Jonathan
Publisher: Bantam List Price: $ 24.95 ISBN: 0553089234 Date: 1997PW
In this riveting follow-up to Kellerman's bestselling The Clinic, psychologist Dr. Alex Delaware confronts an almost unimaginably cruel, arrogant, and obsessed killer who takes as much pleasure in matching wits with the police as he does in robbing human life - all in the name of science. "Jonathan Kellerman doesn't just write psychological thrillers - he owns the genre" - Detroit Free Press. - Left in the Care Of
Author: Kung, Dinah
Publisher: Carroll & Graf List Price: $ 23 ISBN: 0786704942 Date: 1997PW
A Hong Kong novel like no other, Left in the Care Of is a sparkling tale of suspense about a mother's worst fear. Along a shaded residential lane overshadowed by Victoria Peak, a little English boy is discovered dead by his Filipina babysitter. When a second boy disappears the next day, an American foreign correspondent summons all her reporter's intuition and experience to avoid a possible third tragedy. - The Hydrogen Murder
Author: Minichino, Camille
Publisher: Avalon Price: $ 17.95 ISBN: 0803492685 Date: 1997BL - Blood at the Root
Author: Robinson, Peter
Publisher: Avon List Price: $ 22 ISBN: 0380975807 Date: 1997PW
Suburban Yorkshire is rocked by the discovery of the body of a young man found stomped to death. Detective Inspector Banks thinks he has an airtight case, especially after he realizes the victim was a member of a secretive neo-Nazi hate group. Haunted by the feeling that there's a darker side to the murder, however, Banks probes further - and ends up suspended from the force. - The Poison Tree
Author: Strong, Tony
Publisher: Delacorte List Price: $ 21.95 ISBN: 038531941x Date: 1997Kirkus
This outstanding new noir thriller, written in the bestselling tradition of Elizabeth George and Minette Walters, ushers in an exceptional new voice in suspense fiction. A young academic's dream of a quiet life in a sleepy university town is shattered when she discovers that her new home was once the scene of a savage sexual murder - the horrific consequences of which continue to resound in the present. - Question of Belief
Author: Yorke, Margaret
Publisher: Mysterious List Price: $ 23 ISBN: 0892966491 Date: 1997BL
In the provocative style of her novels Serious Intent and Almost the Truth, the acclaimed British novelist Margaret Yorke tells a haunting tale of dangerous obsessions and false accusations. "Once again, Yorke offers an engaging combination of psychological intensity and murderous intent"- Library Journal.
- To Shield the Queen
Author: Buckley, Fiona
Publisher: Scribner List Price: $ 21 ISBN: 0684838419 Date: 1997Kirkus
Set in Queen Elizabeth I's court, this compelling historical debut mystery introduces Ursula Blanchard, a widowed young mother who has become lady-in-waiting to the queen. In To Shield the Queen, Ursula finds herself at the center of a plot that could disgrace and threaten Her Majesty.
Suggested Reading: Historical Crime Fiction | Queen Elizabeth I - Reign in Hell
Author: Diehl, William
Publisher: Ballantine List Price: $ 25 ISBN: 0345411447 Date:
1997BL
An electrifying new novel by the bestselling author Primal Fear. "Better to reign in hell than serve in heaven" are the famous words of Satan in Paradise Lost. And the deadly hate-mongering world of the white supremacist movement provides a suitably infernal battleground on which attorney Martin Vail and psycho killer Aaron Stampler grapple in their greatest conflict, where one will triumph and the other will be crushed. - Without Consent
Author: Fyfield, Frances
Publisher: Viking List Price: $ 21.95 ISBN: 0670876828 Date: 1997PW
Prosecutor Helen West is a rare combination of jaundiced pragmatism and well-guarded vulnerability. When the overall evidence in a string of recent rape cases points to a police officer who is best friend to her craggy, rumpled lover, Geoffrey Bailey, their brooding romance forms a bittersweet counterpoint to Helen's delving into this most upsetting of crimes. - The Case Has Altered: Inspector Jury
Author: Grimes, Martha
Publisher: Holt List Price: $ 24 ISBN: 0805056203 Date: 1997PWKirkus
NYTBR Notable
The accusation that Jenny Kensington, whom he has long loved, is behind the murders of two women recently connected with the Fengate estate, leads Richard Jury to the conclusion that he needs someone inside Fengate - someone who can impersonate an antiques expert. Enter Melrose Plant, detective manque. And in his wake follows a cast of characters that Martha Grimes's fans have come to love in this affecting story that is by turns crushingly sad and wonderfully funny. - Lucky You
Author: Hiaasen, Carl
Publisher: Knopf List Price: $ 24 ISBN: 0679454446 Date: 1997PWKirkusLJ
NYTBR Notable
The newest- and funniest- novel yet by the bestselling author of Strip Tease and Stormy Weather. When JoLayne Lucks, the most recent winner of the Florida state lottery, has her ticket stolen by two would be "domestic terrorists", she enlists the help of Tom Krome- a journalist stretched thin by divorce, lite news, and a fool of a managing editor- in a chase that leads them to a deliriously righteous outcome - the inspired hallmark of Carl Hiaasen.
Suggested Reading: All Stars | Florida Fiction - Practice to Deceive
Author: Housewright, David
Publisher: Norton List Price: $ 22 ISBN: 0881504041 Date: 1997Kirkus - Bluefin Blues
Author: Kemprecos, Paul
Publisher: St Martin's List Price: $ 20.95 ISBN: 0312167873 Date: 1997BL - The Last Day
Author: Kleier, Glenn
Publisher: Warner List Price: $ 24 ISBN: 0446522856 Date: 1997BLKirkus
With the explosive energy of David Baldacci's Absolute Power and the cutting-edge science of Michael Crichton, The Last Day presents a brilliantly conceived thriller by an exceptional new writer. New Year's Eve, 1999: As the clock ticks toward the new millennium, the planet is suddenly rocked by a geological event of staggering proportions - followed by reports of the appearance of a woman with extraordinary supernatural powers.
Suggested Reading: If You Like Michael Crichton . . . | Bio Thrillers - Lost Man's River
Author: Matthiessen, Peter
Publisher: Random List Price: $ 26.95 ISBN: 0679403779 Date: 1997PW
PW Best Book of '97
NYTBR Notable
From one of the most celebrated writers of our time comes a dazzling new novel to follow his highly acclaimed and bestselling Killing Mr. Watson. A story of epic scope and ambition, Lost Man's River confronts the primal relationship between father and son and looks at ways it can shape a man's identity. ACT note: This is the second in a projected trilogy dealing with the death of Mr. Watson and the environment and people of Lost Man's River in southern Florida.
Suggested Reading: Florida Fiction - Bellows Falls
Author: Mayor, Archer
Publisher: Mysterious List Price: $ 22 ISBN: 08902966378 Date: 1997PW
NYTBR Notable
Vermont homicide detective Joe Gunther takes on a disturbing case of spousal abuse, police corruption and murder in his latest outing. Asked to conduct a minor Internal Affairs investigation in Bellows Falls, Gunther has to work quickly to separate fact from fiction - but nothing he's heard will prepare him for what he's about to see.
Suggested Reading: Cops | Domestic Violence - Always Outnumbered, Always Outgunned: Socrates Fortlow
Stories
Author:
Mosley, Walter
Publisher: Norton List Price: $ 23 ISBN: 0393045390 Date: 1997Booklist
From the creator of the Easy Rawlins mystery series comes the eagerly awaited debut of Socrates Fortlow, a tough ex-convict who's determined to challenge and understand the violence and anarchy in his world - and in himself. In each of the stories that comprise this richly brooding novel, Socrates, like his namesake, explores philosophical questions of morality, in world beset with crime, poverty, and racism. Soon to be a TV movie from HBO.
Suggested Reading: African American Stars - Black and Blue
Author: Rankin, Ian
Publisher: St Martin's List Price: $ 24.95 ISBN: 0312167830 Date: 1997BLKirkus
"Bible John" terrorized Glasgow in the sixties and seventies, raping and murdering three women he met in a local ballroom - and was never caught. Now a copycat is at work, nicknamed "Bible Johnny" by the media, a new menace with violent ambitions. Inspector Rebus must proceed with caution, because one mistake could mean an unpleasant and not particularly speedy death. - Eyes of the Cricket
Author: Sallis, James
Publisher: Walker List Price: $ 21.95 ISBN: 0802733131 Date: 1997PW
PW Best Book of '97
Lew Griffin is a survivor, a black man in New Orleans, a detective, teacher, and writer. Having spent years finding others, he has lost his son ... and himself in the process. Now a derelict has appeared in a hospital claiming to be Lewis Griffin and displaying a copy of one of Lew's novels. It is the beginning of a quest that will take Griffin into his own past while he searches in the present for three missing young men. - Publisher Marketing.
Suggested Reading: New Orleans - A Samba for Sherlock
Author: Soares, Jo
Publisher: Pantheon List Price: $23 ISBN: 0679400656 Date: 1997BL
Sherlock Holmes is summoned from London to Rio in 1886 to investigate the theft of a Stradivarius violin - a gift from the Emperor of Brazil to his favorite lady friend. A bestseller in Brazil, and published to wide acclaim in Europe, this brilliant literary thriller is now poised to capture the imagination of American readers.
Suggested Reading: Sherlockian Stars - Death in Good Company
Author: Sprague, Gretchen
Publisher: St Martins List Price: $ 21.95 ISBN: 0312168136 Date: 1997Kirkus
Barely into her first week as a volunteer lawyer with a Brooklyn poverty-law office, retiree Martha Patterson stumbles upon the body of a murdered client. Her sense of noblesse oblige combines with an unquenchable curiosity to involve her in the investigation, leading her among strange people in stranger surroundings. - Irrestistible Impulse
Author: Tannenbaum, Robert K.
Publisher: Dutton List Price: $ 23.95 ISBN: 0525943102 Date: 1997PW
Butch Carp and Marlene Ciampi, husband and wife, are each involved in important turning points in their lives: Butch prepares to prosecute a suspect in the brutal slayings of elderly women; Marlene's detective agency helps woman in domestic disputes. What neither realizes is that they are both about to become flash points in two of the hottest controversies to rock New York in years. - Codes of Betrayal
Author: Uhnak, Dorothy
Publisher: St. Martin's List Price: $ 23.95 ISBN: 0312155824 Date: 1997BL
For the first time in a decade, Dorothy Uhnak gives readers a new police novel of double jeopardy and triple cross that will seize fans of Puzo as well as Wambaugh. Codes of Betrayal is a story of intense drama and fiendish complication, in which one man is tested by his own drive for justice.
Suggested Reading: Mobbed Up - Shadow Walk
Author: Waterhouse, Jane
Publisher: Putnam List Price: $ 23.95 ISBN: 039914305x Date: 1997PWKirkus
ACT note: The second book about crime writer Garner Quinn is a fine follow-up to the excellent thriller Graven Images. Partially set in Charlottesville, VA. - Revision of Justice
Author:Wilson, John Morgan
Publisher: Doubleday List Price: $ 21.95 ISBN: 038548525 Date: 1997BL
- The Defense
Author: Buffa, D.W.
Publisher: Holt/Macrae List Price: $ 20 ISBN: 0805053077 Date: 1997PWLJ
Defense attorney Joseph Antonelli is a stranger to defeat. Until Judge Rifkin asks Antonelli to defend Johnny Morel, a con man and convicted drug dealer accused of raping his 12-year-old step-daughter, Michelle. The prosecution's case is riddled with inconsistencies. Antonelli never confused the legal system with justice, so it should have been routine to defend a man he knew was guilty. And it should have ended there. No one suspected it would end in murder.
Suggested Reading: Legal Stars - The Angel of Darkness
Author: Carr, Caleb
Publisher: Random List Price: $ 25.95 ISBN: 0679435328 Date: 1997PWBL
The wait is over. The Alienist is back in this novel of modern evil in old New York. It has been a year since Dr. Kreizler and his companions tracked down the brutal serial killer John Beecham. Now they reunite to help the wife of a Spanish diplomat solve the kidnaping of her baby daughter. The trail leads the group into the courtroom in a case so controversial it will put the sanctity of American motherhood on trial. And culminate in a race against time to find the child before it is too late.
Suggested Reading: Psychological Suspense Stars - Dreaming of the Bones
Author: Crombie, Deborah
Publisher: Scribner List Price: $ 22 ISBN: 0684801418 Date: 1997PW
NYTBR Notable
When talented and tormented poet Lydia Brook dies, it is assumed that she has taken her own life. Uneasy about the manner of Lydia's death, feminist biographer Victoria McClellan calls her ex-husband, Duncan Kincaid, for help. But before he can take action, Vic herself is dead - and there's no question that this one is murder. - Furnace
Author: Gray, Muriel
Publisher: Doubleday List Price: $ 23.95 ISBN: 0385480024 Date: 1997PW - The Calcutta Chromosome
Author: Gosh, Amitav
Publisher: Avon List Price: $ 23 ISBN: 0380975858 Date:
1997PWLJ
In a near future New York City, Antar, a low-level programmer, comes across and I.D. card of a man he once knew, who vanished somewhere in Calcutta years before. While researching the man's disappearance, Antar is drawn into bizarre alternate history of medical science. - London Blood: The Further Adventures of the American Agent
Abroad - A Benjamin Franklin Mystery
Author: Hall, Robert Lee
Publisher: St Martins List Price: $ 21.95 ISBN: 0312169086 Date: 1997Kirkus
A killer is stalking London's women, leaving an ancient coin inscribed with the words "do what you will" by his victim's bodies. It leads Franklin to the watering holes of the spoiled aristocracy, where drunken young men carouse with prostitutes and commit street crimes for sport. A fraternity of young lords dedicated to the pleasures of the flesh beckons - but the initiation fee may be too high. - The Devil's Chimney
Author: Landsman, Anne
Publisher: Soho List Price: $ 24 ISBN: 1569471010 Date: 1997PW
In Oudtshoorn, South Africa, Connie Lambrecht is haunted by two ancient mysteries - the disappearance of a native servant girl and the misfortunes of an upper-class Englishwoman. In recounting the stories of these two women, Connie finally discovers the deepest secret of her own life. An unforgettable tale of the fragile relationship between the races in South Africa. - Deadspin
Author: MacGregor, Gregory Michael
Publisher: Bantam List Price: $ 22.95 ISBN: 0553105841 Date: 1997PWKirkus
In the page-turning tradition of Airframe and Pandora's Clock, Deadspin is a riveting debut thriller about a fatally defective airplane - and the lawsuit that could bring down a future president... or destroy the attorney hired to prosecute it. Chilling, authentic, and gripping.
Suggested Reading: Legal Stars - The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle
Author: Murakami, Haruki
Publisher: Knopf List Price: $ 26.95 ISBN: 0679446699 Date: 1997BLPW
NYTBR Notable
Touching many themes in one seamless display, The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle looks at a mysteriously failed marriage, the superficiality of contemporary politics, suppressed memories of war, and a young man's search for his own and his nation's identity. With this ambitious magnum opus, Japanese writer Haurki Murakami joins Salman Rushdie, Gunter Grass, and Umberto Eco in the pantheon of international literature. - Flower Net
Author: See, Lisa
Publisher: HarperCollins List Price: $ 24 ISBN: 0060175273 Date: 1997PW
NYTBR Notable
A Chinese cop and an American DA travel the breadth of modern China - revealing to the reader the country's venerable culture, its teeming economy, its omnipotent mafia, its institutionalized cruelty - as they attempt to uncover the conspiracy behind a series of high-profile murders.
Suggested Reading: Mobbed Up - Murder and Other Acts of Literature
Edited by Slung, Michelle
Publisher: St. Martins List Price: $ 24.95 ISBN: 031216937x Date: 1997BL - Comeback
Author: Stark, Richard
Publisher: Mysterious List Price: $ 18 ISBN: 0892966610 Date: 1997PWKirkus
NYTBR Notable
Masterful hard-boiled crime writer Richard Stark returns for the first time in 23 years to deliver a tough-as-nails story featuring his brilliant invention, Parker. A robbery of a Christian Crusade engineered by Parker, Liss and Mackey comes off without a hitch. But now the evangelist wants his money back, and cops, crooks, and ex-Marine are all after the loot. - The Perfidious Parrot
Author: Van de Wetering, Jan
Publisher: Soho List Price: $ 22 ISBN: 1569471029 Date: 1997PW
- Person or Persons Unknown
Author: Alexander, Bruce
Publisher: Putnam List Price: $ 22.95 ISBN: 0399143092 Date: 1997PW
PW Best Book of '97
Eighteenth-century London judge Sir John Fielding returns in the fourth of Alexander's highly praised mysteries. Now the blind magistrate and his young assistant and ward, Jeremy Proctor, face a series of crimes that hit shockingly close to home - Gone Bamboo
Author: Bourdain, Anthony
Publisher: Villard List Price: $ 23 ISBN: 0679448802 Date: 1997PW
This wry, blistering thriller by the author of Bone in the Throat pits a CIA -trained assassin and his equally hard-nosed wife against two governments and a cross-dressing Mafioso. Sexy, raucous, and funny, Gone Bamboo is destined to burnish Bourdain's reputation and bring him the readership he so richly deserves.
Suggested Reading: Mobbed Up - Flood Tide: A Dirk Pitt Novel
Author: Cussler, Clive
Publisher: Simon & Schuster List Price: $ 26 ISBN: 0684802988 Date: 1997Kirkus
Dirk Pitt returns in a masterful tale of villainy on the high seas and the Mississippi River, in this latest exciting novel by the author of Raise the Titanic. Tracking down the nefarious activities of a Chinese smuggler, Pitt is led to Louisiana, where his quarry is mysteriously constructing a huge shipping port. Pitt's final showdown takes him to the site of a ship sunk during World War II - and perhaps the bones of the legendary Peking Man. - Hard Bargain: Cat Marsala
Author: D'Amato, Barbara
Publisher: Scribner List Price: $ 21 ISBN: 0684833530 Date: 1997Kirkus
Responding to a domestic violence call, Chicago cop Shelley Daniello finds a man attacking his wife with a knife, forcing Shelley to shoot to kill. The dead man is a fellow police officer and his wife is Officer Daniello's sister. Chief of Detectives Harold McCoo comes under attack for his actions following the shooting, and his old friend Cat Marsala wants to help him out. But just as the puzzle starts to take shape, McCoo is pulled off the case. - The Shaman's Bones
Author: Doss, James D.
Publisher: Avon List Price: $ 22 ISBN: 038097424x Date: 1997PW
In the third entry in James Doss's widely acclaimed series, spiritual and earthly universes collide in a mesmerizing tale of murder and magic. After a call from an aged shaman, Ute Reservation police officer Charlie Moon and his police chief pal Scott Paris find themselves following a gruesome trail left by a rogue member of the tribe. - Apparation Alley
Author: Forrest, Katherine V.
Publisher: Berkley Prime Crime List Price: $ 21.95 ISBN: 0425159663 Date: 1997PWKirkus - 10 lb. Penalty
Author: Francis, Dick
Publisher: Putnam List Price: $ 24.95 ISBN: 0399143025 Date: 1997PW
In this Grand Master's most gripping novel yet, menace and murder go neck-in-neck. Twelve years after he has given up his aspiring career as a steeplechase jockey, Benedict Juliard is plunged into a frightening morass of lies and treachery. His father enters the political arena to run for prime minister, and Ben finds himself the target of a vicious attack mounted by his father's violent political enemies. - The Death of an Irish Tinker
Author: Gill, Bartholomew
Publisher: Morrow List Price: $ 23 ISBN: 0688141846 Date: 1997PW
Peter McGarr, the chief superintendent of Ireland's Special Crimes Unit, is on his home turf, the streets of Dublin, battling his most dangerous enemy - Desmond Bacon, king of Ireland's heroin trade. When a body is found shackled to the upper branches of the tallest tree in Ireland, the murder bears all the signs of being Bacon's work - but who was the victim and why was he killed? - Serpent's Tooth
Author: Kellerman, Faye
Publisher: Morrow List Price: $24 ISBN: 0688156495 Date: 1997PW
The New York Times bestselling author of Justice and Prayers for the Dead delivers a new novel of explosive suspense. A terrifying mass murder transforms a trendy L.A. restaurant into a slaughterhouse. As Lieutenant Peter Decker relentlessly attempts to solve the crime, he finds unlikely allies in unexpected places, and is thrust into a lurid realm where anything and everything can be bought. - Bad Chili
Author: Lansdale, Joe R.
Publisher: Mysterious List Price: $ 22 ISBN: 089296619x Date: 1997PWKirkus
A crackling third adventure starring the noir buddy team of Hap Collins and Leonard Pine, late of The Two-Bear Mambo. Hap's relationship with the woman of his dreams is nipped in the bud by murder. Hap and Leonard are soon caught in a web of intrigue involving ice blocks, car batteries, the Chili Cook-Off King of LaBorde, Texas and a secret organization called "the Correctors". - Omega
Author: Lynch, Patrick
Publisher: Dutton List Price: $ 23.95 ISBN: 0525943277 Date: 1997KirkusPW
The bestselling author of Carriers delivers a cutting-edge, all-too-real medical thriller set against the terrifying backdrop of an imminent and devastating plague. As an increasing number of his patients succumb to a series of drug-resistant infections, surgeon Marcus Ford seeks out a genetically engineered antibiotic - the existence of which is only rumor.
Suggested Reading: Medical Fiction | Medical Thrillers - In the Hat
Author: Martin, Dannie
Publisher: Simon & Schuster List Price: $ 23 ISBN: 0684833352 Date: 1997PW
This explosive tale of cops and robbers, murder and mayhem, told from the wrong side of the law with gritty realism, is written by a career criminal turned celebrated writer. Someone wants Vernon dead -his name is "in the hat"- and the only person who can help him is his brother Weldon. The only problem is Weldon is serving 16 years for armed robbery. - Wilful Neglect
Author: Morgan, Mary
Publisher: St Martins List Price: $ 22.95 ISBN: 0312156944 Date: 1997Kirkus
A moving first novel about the tragedy of losing a child. Convinced that her young son died because of a local hospital's neglect, Angel Ambrose commits herself to making sure the hospital pays for its wrongdoing. With compelling prose, Mary Morgan paints an intricate picture of the defensive world of medicine and the personalities that populate a deceptively tranquil small town. - Deja Dead
Author: Reichs, Kathy
Publisher: Scribner List Price: $ 24 ISBN: 0684841177 Date: 1997PWLJKirkus
A dazzling debut, this forensic thriller was the toast of the Frankfurt Book Fair, leading Variety to hail Reichs as " the next Patricia Cornwell". Tempe Brennan had planned a quiet weekend, but duty calls. The chopped-up body parts she is faced with remind Tempe of the unsolved case of the torture and murder of a 16-year-old girl. Tempe suspects a connection between the two and must use all her forensic and investigative skills to convince police.
Suggested Reading: All Stars | Crime Scene Investigations - Road Rage
Author: Rendell, Ruth
Publisher: Crown List Price: $ 25 ISBN: 0609600567 Date: 1997Kirkus
Winner of multiple Edgar and Golden Dagger awards, including the most prestigious of them all, The Grand Master, Ruth Rendell returns with a novel that pits Chief Inspector Wexford against a quite personal foe: environmental terrorists who kidnap and threaten the lives of five hostages- including Wexford's own wife. - The Devil in Music
Author: Ross, Kate
Publisher: Viking List Price: $ 23.95 ISBN: 0670863599 Date: 1997PW
Kate Ross throws down the gauntlet to P.D. James with a sweeping 1820's novel, where murder snakes through Italy's sensuous landscapes, grand opera, passionate aristocracy, and turbulent fight for freedom. The ever-popular Julian Kestral joins a rich cast of characters, drawn from the best Italian opera tradition in this lush and intricate historical suspense novel. - No Colder Place
Author: Rozan, S.J.
Publisher: St Martin's List Price: $ 23.95 ISBN: 031216811x Date: 1997PWKirkus
PW Best Book of '97
P.I. Bill Smith goes undercover on a Manhattan construction site plagued by a series of thefts and misfortunes. With his sometimes-partner Lydia Chin, Smith finds himself in the midst of a much more serious case - one of fraud and murder that could reach into the deepest and most secret levels of the underworld.
Suggested Reading: Private Investigators - Behold the Fire
Author: Salinger, Steven D.
Publisher: Warner List Price: $ 23 ISBN: 0446520799 Date: 1997PW - Rough Justice
Author: Scottoline, Lisa
Publisher: HarperCollins List Price: $ 23 ISBN:0060187468 Date: 1997PWKirkus>
The Edgar Award-winning author of Legal Tender and Final Appeal launches a riveting new series set in an all-female Philadelphia law firm. When defense attorney Marta Richter agrees to defend millionaire Elliot Steere , accused of murdering a homeless man who tried to steal his car, she is confident of her client's innocence. But just as the jury begins to deliberate, Marta learns the shocking truth: Steere is a cold-blooded killer.
Suggested Reading: Legal Stars - Gator Aide
Author: Speart, Jessica
Publisher: Avon $ 5.99 ISBN: 0380792885 Date: 1997PW
Wildlife agent Rachel Porter is called to investigate a dead alligator found chained to the bathtub of a murdered hooker. She realizes that the gator did not die from the gunshot wounds in its head but was killed by a drug overdose from the heroin-stuffed condoms packed into its stomach. Rachel soon finds herself pursued by corrupt politicians, drag queens and a sexy police detective while trying to solve the murder.
Suggested Reading: New Orleans | Wild Life
Updated 7.6.04 - Buddha Kiss
Author: Tasker, Peter
Publisher: Doubleday List Price: $ 23.95 ISBN: 0385485522 Date: 1997PW
A brilliant atmospheric financial thriller - written by a top British financial analyst based in Japan - that does for contemporary Tokyo what Gorky Park did for Moscow. Gritty, fast paced, filled with unique characters, and absolutely sizzling with the oddities and obsessions of Tokyo life, Buddha Kiss is a vivid journey into the complex heart of Japan.
Suggested Reading: Financial Thrillers
- Death of a Dentist
Author: Beaton, M.C.
Publisher: Mysterious List Price: $ 22 ISBN: 0892966432 Date: 1997BL - The Lazarus Hotel
Author: Bannister, Jo
Publisher: St Martins List Price: $ 22.95 ISBN: 0312155654 Date: 1997Kirkus - The Scent of Murder
Author: Block, Barbara
Publisher: Kensington List Price: $18.95 ISBN: 1575661950 Date: 1997BL
Gutsy Syracuse pet shop owner and amateur sleuth Robin Light returns for her fourth outing. This time, Robin pursues a vanished teenager through a seamy underworld of drugs, violence, and murder. - Cimarron Rose
Author: Burke, James Lee
Publisher: Hyperion List Price: $24.95 ISBN:0786862380 Date: 1997PWBLKirkus
NYTBR Notable
The acclaimed author of the Dave Robicheaux novels presents a new work that explodes with the violence, beauty, and history of the American West. To defend his illegitimate son, who has been wrongly accused of murder, Billy Bob Holland takes on the powerful class interests controlling the small town of Deaf Smith, Texas. As a result, he ends up facing the demons of his own past. - Missing Pieces
Author: Fielding, Joy
Publisher: Doubleday List Price: $23.95 ISBN: 0385485212 Date: 1997Kirkus
Keenly observed psychological detail and breathtaking suspense combine to make this the best novel yet form the author of See Jane Run and Don't Cry Now. When her half-sister announces she is going to marry a man on trial for the killings of thirteen women declared missing in the Palm Beach area, family therapist Kate Sinclair finds the carefully constructed edifice of her past beginning to break apart. - Key Witness
Author: Freedman, J.F.
Publisher: Dutton List Price: $ 23.95 ISBN: 052594334x Date: 1997Kirkus
The acclaimed author of Against the Wind delivers thrilling courtroom suspense in his latest breathtaking novel. When a young black man is charged with a series of rape murders, lawyer Wyatt Matthews, burnt-out from his high-paying corporate role with a major law firm, joins the public defender's office to take on the case.
Suggested Reading: Legal Stars - Monstrum
Author: James, Donald
Publisher: Villard List Price: $24.95 ISBN: 0679457704 Date: 1997PWBLLJ
Gorky Park visits Fatherland in this thrilling suspense novel, starring a Moscow homicide detective and set in war-torn Russia in the year 2015. Nationalist forces in the new Russia have finally defeated the Anarchist rebels in an enervating campaign. As the nation attempts to rebuilt, a serial killer implants a fear worse than bombings and firefights in the citizens, and Provencial Detective Constantine Vadim is summoned to Moscow to crack the case.
Suggested Reading: All Stars - Already Dead
Author: Johnson, Denis
Publisher: HarperCollins List Price: $25 ISBN: 0060187379 Date: 1997PW
NYTBR Notable
The author of Jesus' Son storms back into the public eye with his first novel in five years. Desperate, terrified, and alone, Nelson Fairchild Jr., owner of a thriving marijuana business in California's redwood country, faces his most deadly and dangerous scheme ever after he botches a $90,000 cocaine smuggling deal and must face the wrath of a major drug kingpin.
Suggested Reading: Drug Traffic Stars - Sacred
Author: Lehane, Dennis
Publisher: Morrow List Price: $23 ISBN: 0688143814 Date: 1997PWKirkus
Nothing is remotely what it seems as two private detectives travel from the wind-blown streets of Boston to the rum-punch sunsets of Florida's Gulf Coast and back again, searching for a woman and a man who could be saints or sinners, victims or victimizers, alive or dead. And the more P.I. Patrick Kenzie and Angela Gennaro discover, the more they realize that on this case, any wrong steps will certainly be their last.
Suggested Reading: Private Investigators - Walking Back the Cat
Author: Littell, Robert
Publisher: Overlook List Price: $ 22.95 ISBN: 0879517646 Date: 1997PW - King Suckerman
Author: Pelecanos, George P.
Publisher: Little Brown List Price: $ 22.95 ISBN: 0316695904 Date: 1997BLPW
From a rising star in crime fiction comes a sizzling noir thriller set amid the blaxploitation films, drug deals, soul music, and racial tensions of Washington, D.C., in the 1970's. In the weeks before the Bicentennial celebration, two small time bunko artists become unwilling players in a savage game of cross and double-cross. - Illusions
Author: Pronzini, Bill
Publisher: Carrol & Graf List Price: $23 ISBN: 0786704039 Date: 1997BL
The "Nameless Detective's" 24th case presents a superb psychological mystery that delves deeply into the human imagination. "Nameless" has become obsessed with the investigation of the suicide of his estranged friend and former partner, Eberhardt, when he decides to take on the job of finding a Santa Fe businessman's ex-wife. The job soon takes on frightening dimensions when the client turns up dead.
Suggested Reading: Private Investigators - Blind Justice
Author: Stockley, Grif
Publisher: Simon & Schuster List Price: $22 ISBN: 0684815648 Date: 1997PW
Gideon Page returns to the Arkansas Delta area where he grew up and where Doss Bledsoe, a poor African-American factory worker, stands accused of murdering his Chinese-American employer. As tense race relations heat to a full boil, Gideon must also confron the agonizing memories of his father's suicide as well as his own desire to exact revenge from the rich family responsible for his family's pain - perhaps even at the expense of the truth.
Suggested Reading: Legal Stars - Troubled Waters
Author: Wheat, Carolyn
Publisher: Berkley List Price: $ 21.95 ISBN: 0425157849 Date: 1997Kirkus
From the author of Where Nobody Dies and Dead Man's Thoughts comes a new mystery featuring Brooklyn attorney Cass Jameson. Cass' activist past come thundering forth with a vengeance when her brother, a quariplegic Vietnam vet, is charged with a long-ago murder of a federal agent.
Suggested Reading: Legal Stars
- Denial
Author: Ablow, Keith
Publisher: Pantheon List Price: $24 ISBN: 0679442111 Date: 1997Kirkus
A stunning psychological thriller by an electrifying new author. Emotionally tormented forensic psychologist Frank Clevenger has all his understanding and expertise put to the test when he is asked to rubber-stamp the competence of a homeless schizophrenic who has confessed to a particularly grisly murder.
Suggested Reading: Crime Scene Investigations - MEG: A Novel of Deep Terror
Author: Alten, Steve
Publisher: Doubleday List Price: $22.95 ISBN: 0385489056 Date: 1997Kirkus
Seven miles beneath the Pacific Ocean, a prehistoric predator survives in the black depths: Megalodon - the 100-million-year-old, sixty-foot-long, twenty-ton progenitor of today's great white shark. When one of these monsters accidentally reaches the tropical head of the ocean's warm surface, only paleontologist Jonas Taylor has the knowledge and expertise to keep it from destroying everything in its path.
Suggested Reading: If You Like Michael Crichton . . . | Shark Stars - The Burglar in the Library
Author: Block, Lawrence
Publisher: Dutton List Price: $23 ISBN: 0679442723 Date: 1997BL
Bookseller/burglar Bernie Rhodenbarr's plans for a cozy weekend at a country bed & breakfast with the lovely Lettice Runcible are dashed by the young lady's plans for getting married that same weekend - to someone else. Bernie goes anyway - with his friend Carolyn - and is soon involved in a caper to steal a first edition of The Big Sleep. - Deception On His Mind
Author: George, Elizabeth
Publisher: Bantam List Price: $24.95 ISBN: 0553102346 Date: 1997PW
In her most electrifying mystery novel yet, Elizabeth George again demonstrates why she is hailed as the "queen of the mystery genre" (Entertainment Weekly). When a resident of a sleepy seatown on the coast of Essex is found murdered, Barbara Havers, working without her longtime partner Detective Thomas Lynley must probe not only the mind of a murderer and a case very close to her own heart, but the terrible price people pay for deceiveing others and themselves... - Detective
Author: Hailey, Arthur
Publisher: Crown List Price: $ 24 ISBN: 0517700255 Date: 1997PW
Master storyteller Arthur Hailey's new novel bristles with the sights, sounds, and authentic details of a contemporary urban homicide division and with the narrative suspense that has made him one of the bestselling fiction writers of our time. On the eve of his execution, a serial murderer asks to make his confession. But he will deliver it only to Miami Detective Sergeant Malcolm Ainslie, a former priest and the man responsible for his being on death row. - Red Sky at Night
Author: Hall, James W.
Publisher: Delacorte List Price: $23.95 ISBN: 0385316380 Date: 1997BL
Hailed as "a master of suspense" (New York Times), the author of Buzz Cut and other bestsellers delivers his most arresting and action-packed thriller yet. In this harrowing novel, Thorn, crippled by a brutal beating, faces the ultimate test: will he risk lifelong paralysis to save a stranger's life? - Robak's Witch
Author: Hensley, Joe L.
Publisher: St Martins List Price: $21.95 ISBN: 0312156421 Date: 1997PW - A Spider for Loco Shoat
Author: Jones, Douglas C.
Publisher: Holt List Price: $25 ISBN: 0805048499 Date: 1997PW
The return of the beloved investigator from The Search for Temperance Moon - former Deputy U.S. Marshall Oscar Schiller. 1907: When seventeen-year-old Jay Bird Joey Schwartz, resident orphan of the Fort Smith bordello, finds the murdered body of one of the town's most powerful citizens, Schiller finds it odd that the local sheriff's office is so quick to close the case. - Freedom to Kill
Author: Lindsey, Paul
Publisher: Villard List Price: $23 ISBN: 0679450165 Date: 1997PW
Ebola virus unleashed on crowds at Disneyland...plastic explosives hidden on 747's...random car bombings on interstate highways - tense, thrilling, and real as today's headlines, Freedom to Kill presents an authentic novel of suspense by a former FBI agent. Facing a man named the "Cataclymist", FBI agent Mike Devlin races against time to break a case that threatens the security of the whole country. - Verdict Unsafe
Author: McGown, Jill
Publisher: Fawcett List Price: $ 22 ISBN: 0449910679 Date: 1997Kirkus
Colin Arthur Drummond, who stands accused of being the serial rapist known as the "Stealh Bomber" has publically denied the charges... while privately threatening to make Detective Judy Hill his next victim. The verdict is in on this new novel of psychological suspense by the acclaimed author of A Shred of Evidence - " ingenious, stylish, and distinguished" (Mystery News). - Both Ends of the Night
Author: Muller, Marcia
Publisher: Mysterious List Price: $23 ISBN: 089296622x Date: 1997PWKirkus
PW Best Book of '97
The extraordinarily popular Sharon McCone takes readers on a deadly missing persons case. Soon after her flight instructor, Matty, confides to Sharon that her boyfriend is missing, she is killed in an "accidental" plane crash. Following sinister leads, Sharon travels to a frozen wilderness - and comes face to face with Matty's suspected killer.
Suggested Reading: Private Investigators - Stone Angel
Author: O'Connell, Carol
Publisher: Putnam List Price: $23.95 ISBN: 0399142347 Date: 1997PWBL
The author of Mallory's Oracle brings back NYPD sergeant Kathleen Mallory, a wild-child-turned policewoman, possessed of a ferocious intelligence and a unique inner compass of right and wrong. Seventeen years after her mother died there, Mallory returns to a small town in Louisiana, determined to find out who killed the innocent woman - and why. - Shadow Woman
Author: Perry, Thomas
Publisher: Random List Price: $22 ISBN: 0679453024 Date: 1997PWKirkus
Washington Post Book World Informed Opinion Best Book
In her latest adventure, Jane Whitefield, who helps people in trouble disappear from one life and establish a new identity, is hired by a Las Vegas gambling executive running from contract killers. But the killers on the trail of the shadow woman and soon Jane becomes the target of their rage and revenge. - Players
Author: Reynolds, Clay
Publisher: Carrol & Graf List Price: $ 24 ISBN: 0786704071 Date: 1997BL
The energy and decadence of James Ellroy meet the style and humor of Elmore Leonard in this break-out crime extravaganza. Through a masterfully orchestrated series of feints and double-crosses, a loser from Texas and a small-town girl with big dreams learn that winning requires more than playing a role. Real players compete for much higher stakes than money of fame - they stake their lives. - Big Red Tequila
Author: Riordan, Rick
Publisher: Bantam $ 6.50 ISBN: 0553576445 Date: 2004PW
Ten years ago, Jackson "Tres" Navarre left San Antonio and the memory of his father's murder behind. Now he's back, looking for answers, but all he finds is mob-style corruption and local politicians out to ruin his homecoming. When his girlfriend turns up missing, Tres must act fast to rescue her, nail his Dad's killer--then save his own hide!
Suggested Reading: Private Investigators
Updated 7.12.04 - Finder
Author: Rucka, Greg
Publisher: Bantam List Price: $ 22.95 ISBN: 055310098x Date: 1997BL
From a chance encounter with a teenage runaway in a seedy S&M club on Manhattan's lower East Side, Atticus Kodiak - the bodyguard readers met in Keeper - is forced to seek a missing juvenile, an elusive lover, and a fortune in embezzled funds - and to take a look at his own tangled life. - Exchange Alley
Author: Walsh, Michael
Publisher: Warner List Price: $24 ISBN: 0446520691 Date: 1997PW - Dead in the Water
Author: Woods, Stuart
Publisher: Harpercollins List Price: $ 25 ISBN: 0060183683 Date: 1997Kirkus
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