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Starred Reviews
Crime Fiction Stars
of 1998
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
- Instruments of the Night
Author: Cook, Thomas H.
Publisher: Bantam Doubleday Dell List Price: $ 23.95 ISBN: 055310554x
Date:
1998
PW
Kirkus
An acclaimed master of literary suspense delivers a tale of the
raptures of violence and the recesses of fear, as he visits the
heart of the darkest crime imaginable and, in doing so, uncovers
profound truths about the power of forgiveness and the ruthlessness
of love.
- Dead in the Water: Daisy Dalyrmple
Author: Dunn, Carola
Publisher: St. Martins List Price: $ 21.95 ISBN: 0312191812 Date:
1998
Kirkus
In July 1923, the Honorable Daisy Dalyrmple travels to Henley-on-Thames
to visit her aunt and uncle, watch the annual intercollegiate
rowing races, and spend a quiet weekend with her fianc,, Alec
Fletcher of Scotland Yard. But things go awry when a murder occurs
on her cousin's team and Daisy is again in the middle.
- Ghost Walk
Author: Macdonald, Marianne
Publisher: Dunne List Price: $ 21.95 ISBN: 031219417x Date:
1998
Kirkus
- The Balloon Man
Author: MacLeod, Charlotte
Publisher: Mysterious List Price: $ 23 ISBN: 0892966572 Date:
1998
PW
A family wedding gone awry sets the pace in this deliciously deadly
Sarah Kelling/Max Bittersohn mystery from multiple-award-winning
author Charlotte MacLeod.
- Home Fires Burning
Author: Maron, Margaret
Publisher: Mysterious List Price: $ 22 ISBN: 089296656 Date: 1998
PW
PW's Best 98 Books selection
North Carolina judge Deborah Knott engages in her own investigation
of an arsonist in the midst of her campaigning for reelection
in this sixth installment of this award-winning series.
Suggested Reading: On Fire
- Wildcrafters
Author: Moody, Skye Kathleen
Publisher: St Martins List Price: $ 23.95 ISBN: 0312193645 Date:
1998
Kirkus
- Hoare and the Portsmouth Atrocities
Author: Perkins, Wilder
Publisher: Dunne List Price: $ 21.95 ISBN: 0312192835 Date:
1998
Kirkus
- The Caverel Claim
Author: Rawlinson, Peter
Publisher: Dunne List Price: $ 21.95 ISBN: 0312193432 Date:
1998
Kirkus
Suggested Reading: Legal Stars
- Smoker
Author: Rucka, Greg
Publisher: Bantam Doubleday Dell List Price: $ 22.95 ISBN: 055310716x
Date:
1998
PW
It's the kiss of death for a professional bodyguard to be known
as a man who attracts danger. But that's what has happened to
Atticus Kodiak. Now there's only one person who'll touch Kodiak
with a ten-foot pole, and the job he wants him to do, Kodiak normally
wouldn't touch with a pole twice that long!
November
- Wycliffe and the Redhead
Author: Burley, W.J.
Publisher: St. Martins List Price: $ 20.95 ISBN: 0312193742 Date:
1998
Kirkus
- Crime of Silence
Author: Carlon, Patricia
Publisher: Soho List Price: $ 21 ISBN: 1569471312 Date:
1998
PW
Kirkus
PW's Best 98 Books selection
A brilliantly plotted mystery by one of Australia's best suspense
writers, this chilling novel involves the kidnapping a child and
the two men, who each for their own reasons, must rescue the child
from his abductors. But something goes wrong, and a murder is
committed.
Suggested Reading: Psychological Suspense Stars
- The Northbury Papers
Author: Dobson, Joanne
Publisher: Doubleday List Price: $ 21.95 ISBN: 0385489636 Date:
1998
Booklist
An ill wind blows through the groves of academia as English professor
Karen Pelletier becomes embroiled in her second homicide investigation.
- Hammer of Eden
Author: Follett, Ken
Publisher: Crown List Price: $ 25.95 ISBN: 0609603086 Date:
1998
Booklist
This contemporary thriller takes readers to a new level of earth-shaking
excitement with a tale of a breathtaking showdown between man,
technology, and the power of the Earth. Against the clock, a crackerjack
FBI agent and a maverick seismologist race to track down an enigmatic
group of terrorists who threaten California with a man-made earthquake.
- The Stargazey
Author: Grimes, Martha
Publisher: Henry Holt List Price: $ 25 ISBN: 080505622x Date:
1998
Booklist
After following an intriguing woman he sees on the bus to the
gates of Fulham Palace, Richard Jury wonders if the death that
occurred inside the palace's walled gates could have been averted
if he had gone in - and if this precipitated still another death
in a London club. Before Jury can work out the connection between
the two killings, he finds himself both helped and hindered by
Grimes's usual band of eccentrics.
- Ambrose Bierce and the Queen of Spades
Author: Hall, Oakley
Publisher: California Academy of Sciences List Price: $ 22.95
ISBN: 0520215559 Date:
1998
Booklist
Kirkus
In a fast-paced novel that is a combination of murder mystery,
historical fiction, and quirky biography, Oakley Hall draws the
reader into 1880's San Francisco and the changing world that was
California in the latter part of the 19th century.
- The Big Law
Author: Logan, Chuck
Publisher: Harpercollins List Price: $ 24 ISBN: 006019133 Date:
1998
PW
In his most electrifying thriller to date, an emerging master
of the thriller pits one man's smoldering sense of justice against
the FBI's witness protection program when he tracks down a killer
shielded by the unwitting Feds.
Suggested Reading: Mobbed
Up
- Sore Loser: A Mickey Donovan Mystery
Author: McAlary, Mike
Publisher: Morrow List Price: $ 24 ISBN: 068815610x Date:
1998
PW
- When the Wind Blows
Author: Patterson, James
Publisher: Little Brown List Price: $ 25 ISBN: 0316693224 Date:
1998
Kirkus
In his best book yet, Patterson offers the most brilliant and
original "what if" suspense novel to come along in a decade. When
a young veterinarian whose husband has recently been murdered
comes across an astonishing discovery in the woods near her animal
hospital, she soon finds herself in the company of an unconventional FBI agent.
Suggested Reading: Bio Thrillers
- Drinker of Blood
Author: Robinson, Lynda S.
Publisher: List Price: $ ISBN: Date: 1998
Booklist
The highly celebrated Lord Meren mystery series featuring historical intrigue during the reign of Pharaoh Tutankhamen continues with the investigation of the murder of Queen Nefertiti.
Suggested Reading: Egyptian Stars
- y of an unconventional
FBI agent.
- Bluebottle: Lew Griffin Mystery
Author: Sallis, James
Publisher: Walker List Price: $ 22.95 ISBN: 0802733239 Date:
1998
PW
Lew Griffin's fifth outing begins when someone fires a shot towards
him. When he fully comes to, Griffin discovers that most of a
year has gone by since that night. Somewhere in the Crescent
City there's an answer . . . and some very strange allies . .
. if they can be trusted.
Suggested Reading: New
Orleans
October
- A Perfect Crime
Author: Abrahams, Peter
Publisher: Ballantine List Price: $ 24.95 ISBN: 0345423844 Date:
1998
Booklist
The masterful new suspense novel in the bestselling tradition
of Michael Connelly and James Patterson, from the acclaimed author
of The Fan. In Peter Abraham's stunning new thriller, four
lives hang in the balance - as a brilliant madman prepares A
Perfect Crime.
- Crossroad Blues: Nick Travers
Author: Atkins, Ace
Publisher: St Martins List Price: $ 21.95 ISBN: 0312192541 Date: 1998
PW
On August 15, 1938, the most celebrated figure in blues history,
Robert Johnson, was murdered outside a Greenwood, Mississippi,
juke joint. More than 50 years after, a college professor, following
rumors of nine unknown Johnson recordings, disappears in the Mississippi
Delta. Blues historian Nick Travers leaves New Orleans to track
down the missing professor - and to unravel the greatest mystery
in all of blues lore.
Suggested Reading: Music |
New Orleans
- The Time of the Wolf
Author: Blankenship, William D.
Publisher: Donald I. Fine List Price: $ 24.95 ISBN: 1556115482
Date:
1998
Booklist
- Everbody Dies : Matt Scudder
Author: Block, Lawrence
Publisher: William Morrow List Price: $ 25 ISBN: 068814182x Date:
1998
PW
Kirkus
PW's Best 98 Books selection
In his 14th adventure, Matthew Scudder, signs up to help his closest
and most unlikely friend, the larger-than-life Hell's Kitchen
hoodlum Mick Ballou - and soon finds himself living in a world
where the past is a mine field, the present is a war zone, and
the future's an open question.
Suggested Reading: Mobbed
Up
- Armadillo
Author: Boyd, William
Publisher: Knopf List Price: $ 24 ISBN: 0375402233 Date:
1998
Kirkus
From the acclaimed author of Brazzaville Beach and The
Blue Afternoon comes a new novel, set in present day London
- and demonstrating the superbly plotted storytelling that has
earned Boyd his reputation as a writer whose "eccentric wit and
restless intelligence exert a powerful appeal" (New York Times
Book Review).
- Riding the Snake
Author: Cannell, Stephen J.
Publisher: Morrow List Price: $ 25 ISBN: 0688158056 Date:
1998
Kirkus
International intrigue, nuclear terrorism, and nonstop action
are the components of this latest novel by Stephen J. Cannell,
successful TV producer and author of King Con and Final
Victim. A country club playboy and a beautiful black cop find
themselves going up against the toughest triad in Hong Kong, after
they follow the trial of a multi-billion dollar Chinese criminal
conspiracy that reaches to the top of the U.S. government.
- The Story Teller
Author: Coel,
Margaret
Publisher: Prime Crime List Price: $ 21.95 ISBN: 0425165388 Date:
1998
Booklist
The national bestselling author of The Dream Stalker and
The Ghost Walker brings back Arapaho attorney Vicky Holden
and confidante Father John O'Malley to reclaim a sacred treasure
of the past.
Suggested Reading: If You Like Tony Hillerman
. . .
- Jitterbug
Author: Estleman, Loren D.
Publisher: Forge List Price: $ 22.95 ISBN: 0312863608 Date:
1998
PW
Booklist
Wartime Detroit is dazzlingly recreated in Loren Estleman's latest
tour de force crime novel. Great auto manufacturers labor mightily;
blacks struggle for an economic toehold; whites strive for decent
lives in the chaos. The climax, during America's nastiest race
riots, is unforgettable.
- Blind Date
Author: Fyfield, Frances
Publisher: Viking List Price: $ 21.95 ISBN: 0670878898 Date:
1998
LJ
A complicated, prickly ex-police detective, recovering from a
brutal attack of deadly acid, tracks her quarry through a London
peopled the pathetic and the poisonous, as she heads for something
more chilling than loneliness, more savage than self-doubt.
- The Sensualist
Author: Hodgson, Barbara
Publisher: Chronicle List Price: $ 22.95 ISBN: 081881906x Date:
1998
Kirkus
- Mannequin
Author: Janes, J. Robert
Publisher: Soho List Price: $ 22 ISBN: 1569471290 Date:
1998
PW
A tale of missing persons in Paris. Set in German-occupied France,
1942-43. The detectives are Jean-Louis St-Cyr, or the Surete Nationale,
and Hermann Kohler of the Gestapo.
- The Mercy Rule
Author: Lescroart, John
Publisher: Delacorte List Price: $ 24.95 ISBN: 0385316585 Date:
1998
Kirkus
Dismas Hardy, the former bartender, loving husband and father,
and reluctant defense attorney if Lescroart's blockbuster novel
The 13th Juror, returns to face his most challenging case
yet - defending a could-have-been-great baseball player indicted
for the murder of his father.
Suggested Reading: Legal Stars
- A Breach of Promise
Author: Perry, Anne
Publisher: Fawcett List Price: $ 25 ISBN: 0449908496 Date:
1998
Booklist
The ninth novel of murder and detection in Victorian England featuring
sleuth William Monk. As Monk and barrister Oliver Rathbone scour
the city in search of clues to help the defendant in a sensational
breach-of-promise suit, the case comes to a tragic end. An outcome
that no one - except a ruthless murderer - could have foreseen.
- Fire and Ice: A Liam Campbell Mystery
Author: Stabenow, Dana
Publisher: Dutton List Price: $ 22.95 ISBN: 0525944389 Date:
1998
LJ
After losing his family and his career, an Alaska State Trooper
finds himself on a plane to his new posting - a small town far
from Anchorage. And fate isn't finished with him yet. No sooner
does he set foot off the plane than he is confronted with a dead
body and the accusing glare of the only woman he'd ever truly
loved... and lost.
September
- The Miracle Strip
Author: Bartholomew,
Nancy
Publisher: St. Martins List Price: $ 22.95 ISBN: 0312192991 Date:
1998
Kirkus
Sierra Lavontini, Bartholomew's unlikely detective, is a stripper
- pardon, an "exotic dancer" in Panama City, Florida. Her brash
and sassy debut pits Sierra against the manipulations of a putative
best friend, the Mob who left one of its members lying dead in
the woman's bathroom, the police - indeed, everyone but her dog
Fluffy. Sierra has no choice but to dig in her five-inch heels
and find the killer on her own.
From Murder
at the Flatiron Building
Suggested Reading: If You Like Janet Evanovich
- Vanishing Act: Robin Light
Author: Block, Barbara
Publisher: Kensington List Price: $ 20 ISBN: 1575663260 Date:
1998
Kirkus
Amateur sleuth and pet store owner Robin Light returns to solve
the mystery of a missing college student by the author of In
Plain Sight and Chutes and Adders.
- To Die in Provence
Author: Bogner, Norman
Publisher: Forge List Price: $ 24.95 ISBN: 0312866283 Date:
1998
Kirkus
Hired by a successful TV producer to keep an eye on his spoiled,
19-year-old daughter while she studies French in Aix-en-Provence,
Jennifer Bowen never imagines the lengths to which the girl will
go to get what she wants. And what she wants is her ex-con boyfriend.
- Verdict in Blood: A Joanna Kilbourn Mystery
Author: Bowen, Gail
Publisher: McClelland and Stewart List Price: $ 20.95 ISBN: 0771014872
Date: 1998
PW
- Dead Room Farce
Author: Brett, Simon
Publisher: Dunne List Price: $ 20.95 ISBN: 0312192517 Date:
1998
Kirkus
Devotees of the hapless actor, Charles Paris, find him far more
lovable than the drama critics do. But at least his incompetent
agent has found him a job with a bedroom farce that is touring
the provinces. Charles, accumlating his all-too-usual hilariously
bad reviews, also manages to get himself embroiled with two women,
both of whom take his half-hearted protestations of affection
more seriously than the actor himself does. Just to make matters
worse, an old drinking companion who is now a producer of audiotapes
gets himself murdered. Once more Charles plays detective. It must
be said that he does this more successfully than he plays the
character he portrays on stage. From Murder
at the Flatiron Building.
- Black Coffee
Author: Christie, Agatha and Charles Osborne
Publisher: 031219241x List Price: $ 22.95 ISBN: 031219241x Date:
1998
Kirkus
In Christie's first novel since 1976, her beloved detective Hercule
Poirot brings his "little gray cells" to bear on one last case.
1934: Poirot is summoned to Surrey by a prominent physicist who
fears that someone in his household is attempting to steal his
latest discovery, a formula critical to England's defense.
ACT note: Adapted from a Christie play.
- Mr. White's Confession
Author: Clark, Robert
Publisher: Picador List Price: $ 24 ISBN: 0312192177 Date:
1998
LJ
Kirkus
Heading a police investigation into the brutal murder of a showgirl,
Lt. Wesley Horner zeroes in on Herbert White, and eccentric recluse
who spends his days writing gushing fan letters to Hollywood starlets.
- The Best Defense
Author: Cose, Ellis
Publisher: HarperCollins List Price: $ 24 ISBN: 006071496x Date:
1998
Kirkus
When Felicia Fontaine is brought in to defend a man accused of
killing his office rival over a question of affirmative action
polices, she must go up against her former flame, prosecutor Mario
Santiago.
Suggested Reading: Legal Stars
- The Long Finish: Aurelio Zen
Author: Dibdin, Michael
Publisher: Pantheon List Price: $ 24 ISBN: 0375404295 Date:
1998
Kirkus
After his adventure under the sun-drenched skies of Naples in
Cosi Fan Tutti, Aurelio Zen finds himself back in Rome,
being given yet another unorthodox assignment: to release the
jailed scion of an important wine-growing family who is accused
of a brutal murder.
Suggested Reading: European Mysteries
- Ghostly Murders: The Priest's Tale of Mystery and Murder
As He Goes on Pilgimage from London to Canterbury
Author: Doherty, P.C.
Publisher: St. Martins List Price: $ 21.95 ISBN: 0312194188 Date:
1998
Kirkus
- A Species of Revenge
Author: Eccles, Marjorie
Publisher: St Martins List Price: $ 20.95 ISBN: 0312193386 Date:
1998
Kirkus
- Blast from the Past
Author: Friedman, Kinky
Publisher: Simon & Schuster List Price: $ 23 ISBN: 0684803798
Date:
1998
Kirkus
The irrepressible Kinkster follows his bestselling novel Roadkill
with a fresh, fabulous prequel in which down-and-out, sleazeball,
ace detective Kinky Friedman explains where those Village Irregulars
- Ratso, Rambam, and McGovern- come from and why.
- 30 Seconds
Author: Giancana, Sam
Publisher: Warner List Price: $ 24.50 ISBN: 044651716x Date:
1998
Kirkus
The nephew of mobster Sam Giancana and coauthor of the New
York Times bestseller Double Cross and his wife deliver
a compelling tale of one innocent man's fight against the international
drug trade, the CIA, and the Mafia.
Suggested Reading: Mobbed
Up
- Body Language
Author: Hall, James W.
Publisher: St. Martins List Price: $ 24.95 ISBN: 0312192436 Date:
1998
LJ
PW
From the nationally bestselling author of Under Cover of Daylight
and Red Sky at Night comes an electrifying suspense novel
about a female forensic photographer on the trail of a brutal
killer with ties to her past. "James Hall's prose runs clean and
fast as Gulf Stream waters" - The New York Times Book Review.
- A Cold Day in Paradise
Author: Hamilton, Steve
Publisher: Dunne List Price: $ 22.95 ISBN: 0312192487 Date:
1998
Kirkus
On a bitter, cold night in Michigan's Upper Peninsula, ex-Detroit
cop Alex McKnight answers a cry for help from wealthy Edwin Fulton
- only to find the man - a compulsive gambler who had gone to
meet with a bookmaker - in his motel room with his throat cut.
Suggested Reading: Private
Investigators
- The First Eagle
Author: Hillerman, Tony
Publisher: HarperCollins List Price: $ 25 ISBN: 0060175818 Date:
1998
Kirkus
The newest entry in Tony Hillerman's bestselling series finds
legendary Navajo tribal policeman Joe Leaphorn and Jim Chee on
the trail of a killer of a researcher struggling to control a
bubonic plague outbreak on the reservation.
Suggested Reading: If You Like Tony Hillerman . . .
- Iron Lake
Author: Krueger, William Kent
Publisher: Pocket List Price: $ 23 ISBN: 0671016962 Date:
1998
PW
Booklist
Once a Chicago cop, Corcoran "Cork" O'Connor, part Irish, part
Anishinaabe Indian, now lives in a small Minnesota town. When
the town's judge is brutally murdered, Cork finds himself in the
middle of a mind-jolting case of conspiracy, corruption, and scandal.
- Rumble, Tumble
Author: Lansdale, Joe R.
Publisher: Mysterious List Price: $ 22 ISBN: 0892966203 Date:
1998
Kirkus
In this thrilling follow-up to critically acclaimed Bad Chili,
crime fiction's hottest new star, Hap Collins, returns in a hilarious
and suspenseful trip through the Southwest.
- No Physical Evidence
Author: Lee, Gus
Publisher: Fawcett List Price: $ 24.95 ISBN: 044991139x Date:
1998
Kirkus
- The Policy
Author: Lynch, Patrick
Publisher: Dutton List Price: $ 23.95 ISBN: 0525943404 Date:
1998
Kirkus
A young analyst for a profitable life insurance company preparing
to make a big push into the business of health care coverage senses
something wrong: the statistics are too good to be true, and her
colleagues are suddenly making an enormous amount of money. Coincidence?
Or is the firm somehow manipulating the system for its own gain?
Suggested Reading: Bio Thrillers
- The Wall
Author: Marks, John
Publisher: Riverhead List Price: $24.95 ISBN: 1573221228 Date:
1998
PW
Written by a former Berlin bureau chief for U.S. News and World
Report, this thriller takes readers on a chase through Central
Europe in November, 1989, just as the Iron Curtain collapses.
- Lost in Translation
Author: Mones, Nicole
Publisher: Delacorte List Price: $ 23.95 ISBN: 0385319347 Date:
1998
Kirkus
In a novel of searing intelligence and startling originality,
Mones has created an unforgettable story of love and desire, of
family ties and human conflict, and of one woman's struggle to
lose herself in a foreign land - only to discover her home, her
heart, and herself.
- Blue
Author: Padgett, Abigail
Publisher: Mysterious List Price: $ 22 ISBN: 0892966718 Date:
1998
Kirkus
In an exciting new series starring Blue McCarron, a gay, independent
social psychologist/P.I. living outside San Diego. Hired by the
brother of a 72-year-old woman who has confessed to a brutal murder,
Blue uncovers the roots of an international conspiracy.
- The Ape Who Guards the Balance: Amelia Peabody
Author: Peters, Elizabeth
Publisher: Avon List Price: $ 24 ISBN: 0380976579 Date:
1998
Kirkus
In 1907 Egypt, Egyptologist Ameila Peabody, along with her sexy
yet irascible husband Radcliffe Emerson and their handsome son
Ramses, investigates the mystery of an extraordinary papyrus Book
of the Dead that may be connected to some recent murders.
- A Bitter Feast
Author: Rozan,
S.J.
Publisher: St. Martins List Price: $ 23.95 ISBN: 0312192592 Date:
1998
PW
Booklist
Kirkus
Chinese-American P.I. Lydia Chin has lived in New York City's
Chinatown all her life. But even to her, the complex interactions
of this city-within-a-city are often elusive. A simple missing
persons case leads Lydia and her sometime-partner Bill into a
deadly conflict between powerful rivals, the Feds, and the NYPD.
This is a brilliant thriller by one of the genre's emerging masters.
From the St. Martin's catalog.
Suggested Reading: All
Stars | Private Investigators
- A Criminal Appeal
Author: Schanker, D.R.
Publisher: St. Martins List Price: $ 23.95 ISBN: 0312192533 Date:
1998
Kirkus
- Reservation Road
Author: Schwartz, John Burnham
Publisher: Knopf List Price: $ 24 ISBN: 0375402632 Date:
1998
PW
Kirkus
Booklist
A compulsively readable novel of feeling and suspense about two
men and their families, and the hit-and-run death of a young boy.
"A nonstop read about people locked in a terrible embrace" (Ward
Just), Reservation Road is powerful, wrenching, impossible
to put down.
Suggested Reading: All Stars
- 82 Desire: Skip Langdon
Author: Smith, Julie
Publisher: Fawcett List Price: $ 24 ISBN: 0449000605 Date:
1998
Kirkus
Detective Talba Wallis is assigned to investigate the disappearance
of a councilwoman's husband. But the private eye who hired Talba
turns up with a bullet in his chest. At first, Police Detective
Skip Langdon thinks it's just a small case with some big names.
But something huge is starting to unfold--a violence motivated
by that old demon . . . desire.
Suggested Reading: New
Orleans
- An American Killing
Author: Smith, Mary-Ann Tirone
Publisher: Henry Holt List Price: $ 23 ISBN: 0805057021 Date:
1998
PW
Kirkus
A smart-mouthed, fast-paced tale of marriage, murder, and double-dealing
in the bestselling tradition of Olivia Goldsmith. When her lover
- a high-profile D.C. insider - dies under mysterious circumstances,
after urging her to look into an old murder case in his home district,
Denise Burke soon fears she may be next on the hit list.
Suggested Reading: Political Fiction
- Death in Summer
Author: Trevor, William
Publisher: Viking List Price: $ 23.95 ISBN: 067088202x Date:
1998
PW
Kirkus
PW's Best 98 Books selection
A chilling new novel by the author of Felicia's Journey.
After both his wife and mother-in-law die suddenly, Thaddeus's
household seems to settle down. But then an unwelcome guest appears,
heralding the third and final of the summer tragedies.
- Whacking Jimmy
Author: Wolf, William L.
Publisher: Villard List Price: $ 23.95 ISBN: 0375501738 Date:
1998
Kirkus
The Freshman meets Carl Hiaasen in this hip and hilarious
crime novel of an unwilling mafia heir's introduction to the ways
of his family.
Suggested Reading: Mobbed
Up
- Quicksand
Author: Wood, William P.
Publisher: Kensington List Price: $ 22 ISBN: 1575663244 Date:
1998
Kirkus
After his wife Alison, First Assistant United States Attorney,
unwittingly recruits an ex-CIA operative and former international
arms dealer to help in an undercover operation, Brock Andrews
learns that the man has a dangerous agenda of his own.
August
- Rainbow Six
Author: Clancy, Tom
Publisher: Putnam List Price: $ 27.95 ISBN: 0399143904 Date:
1998
Kirkus
At the heart of Clancy's extraordinary new novel is John Clark,
ex-Navy SEAL, a.k.a. "the dark side of Jack Ryan". And nothing
is darker of more demonic than the peril he faces when he confronts
Rainbow Six, a group of terrorists like none the world has ever
before encountered.
- Flying Blind
Author: Collins, Max
Allan
Publisher: Dutton List Price: $ 24.95 ISBN: 0525943110 Date:
1998
Booklist
- The Coffin Dancer
Author: Deaver, Jeffrey
Publisher: Simon & Schuster List Price: $ 25 ISBN: 0684852853
Date:
1998
PW
Kirkus
Quadriplegic detective Lincoln Rhyme, the foremost criminologist
in the NYPD, is reunited with his beautiful protege, Amelia Sachs,
in this masterful thriller about a chameleon-like assassin loose
on the streets of New York City.
Suggested Reading: Crime Scene Investigations
- Prey Dancing: Clare Burtonall
Author: Gash, Jonathan
Publisher: Viking List Price: $ 23.95 ISBN: 0670877646 Date:
1998
Booklist
From the creator of the bestselling Lovejoy mysteries comes the
second book in his new series, starring smart and sexy cardiologist
Dr. Clare Burtonall. Clare's attempt to deliver a message to the
boyfriend of a dying AIDS patient ironically makes her the target
of his sworn vengeance for the woman's death.
- Faithful Until Death
Author: Graham, Caroline
Publisher: St. Martins List Price: $ 23.95 ISBN: 0312185774 Date:
1998
PW
Kirkus
Graham's series of crime novels starring Chief Inspector Barnaby
has gotten rave reviews, and this one is destined for the same
happy response. Simone and Alan Hollingsworth have recently moved
to the village, and no one is very upset when Simone doesn't turn
up at bell-ringing practice. (Can you imagine a more cozy begining?)
But their next door neighbors have other ideas, although they
don't know that the strange behavior of Alan Hollingsworth is
connected in a surprising way to their overprotected only daughter
Brenda. "A real winner" says Publishers Weekly. From
Murder at the Flatiron Building.
- Wicked Games
Author: Hart, Ellen
Publisher: 0312186800 List Price: $ 24.95 ISBN: 0312186800 Date:
1998
Booklist
- Deadfall
Author: Henry, Sue
Publisher: Avon List Price: $ 22 ISBN: 0380976617 Date:
1998
Kirkus
To avoid the dangerous stranger who's been stalking her, an Iditarod
musher seeks refuge on a desolate island in Kachemak Bay - and
winds up playing a deadly game of hide-and-seek with a killer.
- A Life for a Life
Author: Hill, Ernest
Publisher: Simon & Schuster List Price: $ 23 ISBN: 0684822784
Date:
1998
Booklist
From the acclaimed author of Satisfied with Nothin comes
a searing novel of the bond between an African-American father
and the teenager who killed his son - a tale of violent self-destruction
reclaimed by the power of love and forgiveness.
Suggested Reading: African American Stars
- On Beulah Height
Author: Hill, Reginald
Publisher: Delacorte List Price: $ 22.95 ISBN: 0385332793 Date:
1998
PW
Kirkus
Booklist
PW's Best 98 Books selection
Inspector Andy Dalziel finds himself reliving an event that happened
15 years before, when a little girl goes missing and Dalziel and
Peter Pascoe must delve into the past in search of answers that
threaten to bring more pain.
Suggested Reading: All Stars
- Roses, Roses: A Harpur and Iles Novel
Author: James, Bill
Publisher: Norton List Price: $ 23 Date:
1998
ISBN: 0393046370
PW
Booklist
PW's Best 98 Books selection
Detective Chief Superintendent Colin Harpur's wife, Megan, lies
stabbed to death in a railroad station parking lot. Shocked by
this crime which has happened so close to home, Harpur outmaneuvers
his jealous colleague Desmond Iles and moves swiftly into a shadowy
world of informants to find the killer.
- By Any Other Name
Author: John, Katherine
Publisher: St. Martins List Price: $ 22.95 ISBN: 0312185472 Date:
1998
Kirkus
A novel that starts with a blood-stained man running naked down
a busy highway in an icy rain promises much. In this story, author
John delivers. At the hospital to which the police take him, the
doctor diagnoses him as suffering from trauma-induced amnesia.
He remembers nothing about himself, his recent past, or his situation.
But he does know he is running for his life. And there is nothing
wrong either with his intelligence, his multilingual ability,
ir with the extraordinary training in escape and survival he seems
to have received. This is a gorgeously suspenseful, and ultimately
satisfying tale. From Murder at the
Flatiron Building.
- Gone, Baby, Gone
Author: Lehane, Dennis
Publisher: William Morrow List Price: $ 24 ISBN: 0688153321 Date:
1998
PW
Kirkus
Hired to find a six-year-old girl who vanished from her home without
a trace a full year before, Boston private eyes Patrick Kenzie
and Angela Gennaro find themselves caught up in a frenzy of media
sensationalism after a second child disappears.
Suggested Reading: Private
Investigators
- Cold Comfort
Author: MacKay, Scott
Publisher: Carroll & Graf List Price: $ 23 ISBN: 0786705078 Date:
1998
Kirkus
- A Rage of Innocents
Author: Mitchell, Kay
Publisher: St. Martins List Price: $ 20.95 ISBN: 0312186568 Date:
1998
Kirkus
The crime rate in Chief Inspector Morrissey's village has taken
a sudden jump. A woman is murdered, her body found in a ditch,
a man is stabbed to death by a teen-age gang, a housewife is
raped
in her home. But the biggest shock of all is when police begin
to investigate and find that there is a single secret at the
heart
of all these acts. From Murder
at
the Flatiron Building
- The Pied Piper
Author:Pearson, Ridley
Publisher: Hyperion List Price: $ 23.95 ISBN: 0786863005 Date:
1998
PW
In Seattle, they're calling him "The Pied Piper" because he comes
at night and takes children away. To police lieutenant Lou Boldt
and psychologist Daphne Matthews, it's clear this isn't about
a single lunatic or random kidnappings: these crimes are well
orchestrated, well executed, and most chilling of all, occurring
in cities all over the country.
- The Sweet Forever
Author: Pelecanos, George P.
Publisher: Little Brown List Price: $ 23.95 ISBN: 0316691097
Date: 1998
PW
Booklist
PW's Best 98 Books selection
One of the 1990's rising stars of crime fiction delivers a bold,
brilliant tale of mystery, revenge, and survival in the 1980's,
when cocaine and money ruled the city streets and even the good
guys wanted a piece of the action. ACT note: Features Dimitri
Karras and Marcus Clay (King Suckerman).
- Boobytrap: A Nameless Detective Novel
Author: Pronzini, Bill
Publisher: Carroll & Graf List Price: $ 23 ISBN: 0786705051 Date:
1998
Booklist
- Love is a Racket
Author: Ridley, John
Publisher: Knopf List Price: $ 24 ISBN: 0375401423 Date:
1998
PW
A brilliant new noir farce by the author of Stray Dogs.
An ex-wannabe scriptwriter living on the skids in Hollywood stumbles
on a street-hardened, exquisitely beautiful young homeless woman
who inspires love... and the idea for the perfect con.
Suggested Reading: African American Stars
| Hollywood & Film Stars
- The Shangai Murders: A Zhong Fong Mystery
Author: Rotenberg, David
Publisher: St. Martins List Price: $ 24.95 ISBN: 0312181752 Date:
1998
LJ
A man's body is found cut into small pieces on a Shanghai street,
in a case that earns the ironic name the "dim sum murders". Zhong
Fong, the detective in charge, is haunted by the memory of his
dead wife and beset by spies and roadblocks in the investigation.
He is further upset when a Canadian theater director who had been
staging a Chinese version of Twelfth Night starring Fong's
wife at the time of her death, returns to Shanghai. There are
further "dim sum" murders, and Fong is thrown into collaboration
with the American widow of the first victim. Together, they rush
to outwit their enemies within and without the establishment,
find the killer, and ultimately save their own lives. From
Murder at the Flatiron Building
- Bait
Author: Songer, C.J.
Publisher: Scribner List Price: $ 23 ISBN: 0684850427 Date:
1998
Kirkus
Introducing Meg Gillis, a dynamic new heroine in the Kinsey Milhone
tradition. When her security partner goes missing, Meg investigates
and finds herself trapped in deadly circumstances.
Suggested Reading: Debuts
- Presidential Deal
Author: Standiford, Les
Publisher: Harpercollins List Price: $ 24 ISBN: 0060186550 Date:
1998
PW
Kirkus
Called the "unassailable new kingpin of the south Florida crime
novel" (James Ellroy), Standiford shows how richly he deserves
such praise in his most intricate, white-knuckle thriller yet,
in which reluctant hero John Deal gets kidnapped - along with
the First Lady of the United States.
Suggested Reading: Florida Fiction
- Sworn to Defend
Author: Wheat, Carolyn
Publisher: Berkley List Price: $ 22.95 ISBN: 0425163032 Date:
1998
Kirkus
Brooklyn lawyer Cass Jameson can't believe her luck! She finally
has an innocent client. But after she proves the man innocent
of robbery charges, she learns that he's guilty of a far worse
crime.
Suggested Reading: Legal Stars
- Tomato Red
Author: Woodrell, Daniel
Publisher: Henry Holt List Price: $ 20 ISBN: 0805055770 Date:
1998
Booklist
July
- Sunset Limited
Author: Burke, James Lee
Publisher: Doubleday List Price: $ 24.95 ISBN: 0385488424 Date:
1998
Booklist
PW
PW's Best 98 Books selection
Burke is at the top of his form in this story of racial violence,
class warfare, and the cruelty that privilege often brings. The
40-year-old crucifixation of prominent labor leader Jack Flynn
remains an unsolved atrocity. When Flynn's daughter, a photojournalist
drawn to controversial subjects, comes to New Iberia, it becomes
clear that her family's bloodstained past is not going to stay
buried.
- Eleven Days
Author: Harstad, Donald
Publisher: Doubleday $ 22.95 ISBN: 0385488947 Date:
1998
LJ
This Fargo set in Iowa is a small-town shocker inspired
by actual events. Deputy Sheriff Carl Houseman is in for the time
of his life after a 911 call from a terrified woman sets him on
the path to unearthing the dirty secrets hidden in his small community.
- Point of Origin
Author: Cornwell, Patricia
Publisher: Putnam $ 25.95 ISBN: 0399143947 Date:
1998
Kirkus
America's leading crime writer combines her literary talent and
style with a fierce commitment to justice in her thrilling and
complex new novel - a gripping story that pits Kay Scarpetta,
Virginia's Chief Medical Examiner, against and audacious and wily
killer who uses fire to mask his crimes.
Suggested Reading: Crime
Scene Investigations
- Four to Score
Author: Evanovich, Janet
Publisher: St Martin's List Price: $ 23.95 ISBN: 0312185863 Date:
1998
Booklist
Bounty-hunting Jersey girl Stephanie Plum is hot on the trail
of a revenge-seeking waitress wanted for bail jumping, theft,
and extortion. Aided by a plethora of eccentric characters, including
a funeral aficionado, an ex-hooker, and a transvestite rock musician,
Steph's humor and attitude never waver - even when her apartment
is firebombed!
Suggested Reading: If You Like Janet Evanovich
- Bombay Ice
Author: Forbes, Leslie
Publisher: Farrar Straus & Giroux List Price: $ 24 ISBN: 0374115303
Date:
1998
Kirkus
PW
In Bombay, the brutal murder of a transvestite with links to "Bollywood"
leads to events that eerily threaten two sisters, in this thrilling
novel of alchemy, murder, and violent weather.
- Fever Season
Author: Hambly, Barbara
Publisher: Bantam List Price: $ 23.95 ISBN: 0553102540 Date:
1998
PW
With a seductive prose style and period detail reminiscent of
The Alienist, bestselling author Hambly continues the "magically
rich and poignant" story of a free man of color in 1830's New
Orleans.
Suggested Reading: New
Orleans
- The Stalking of Sheila Quinn
Author: Healy, Jeremiah F.
Publisher: Dunn/St Martins List Price: $ 24.95 ISBN: 0312186673
Date:
1998
PW
A criminal defense attorney is stalked by the very murder defendant
she gets out on bail, in this electrifying new thriller by the
author the Shamus Award-winning John Cuddy series.
Suggested Reading: Legal Stars
- The Dog Who Bit a Policeman
Author: Kaminsky, Stuart M.
Publisher: Mysterious List Price: $ 22 ISBN: 089296667x
Date:
1998
PW
Booklist
PW's Best 98 Books selection
Moscow Police Inspector Porifry Rostnikov returns in another book
in the Edgar Award-winning series - this time putting himself
in league with members of the Russian Mafia, who feel the murders
of two of their own are related to new gang wars.
Suggested Reading: Mobbed
Up
- Perjury
Author: Latreille, Stan
Publisher: Crown List Price: $ 25
Date:
1998
ISBN: 0609601385
PW
From a writer and Circuit Court judge poised to join the ranks
of Scott Turow and Lisa Scottoline comes a fast-paced courtroom
drama about lies, sexual abuse, and justice - and a lawyer who
breaks an unwritten rule after he finds his passion for law jeopardized
by his love for a beautiful, vulnerable client.
Suggested Reading: Legal Stars
- Canaletto and the Case of the Westminster Bridge
Author: Laurence, Janet
Publisher: St Martin's List Price: $ 24.95 ISBN: 0312185510
Date:
1998
Kirkus
- Picture of Innocence
Author: McGown, Jill
Publisher: Fawcett List Price: $ 22 ISBN: 0449002500
Date:
1998
PW
Booklist
When a man whom the entire community detested is murdered, Officer
Judy Hill and her boss, Detective Inspector Lloyd, wonder why
it didn't happen sooner. But beneath the obvious lies a labyrinth
of deceit - and the truth lies deeper still - in the ninth intriguing
mystery by the acclaimed author of Verdict Unsafe.
- The Hearing
Author: Mills, James
Publisher: Warner List Price: $ 25 ISBN: 0446519588
Date:
1998
PW
Alabama Judge Gus Parham has it all: a successful career, a loving
wife, and now, his crowning achievement - a nomination to serve
on the U.S. Supreme Court. But when an old enemy digs into his
past, Gus is rocked by a revelation.
Suggested Reading: Legal Stars
- Masquerade
Author: Satterthwait,
Walter
Publisher: St. Martins List Price: $ 22.95
Date:
1998
ISBN: 0312186290
PW
Set in le jazz hot Paris of 1923, the sequel to Escapade
finds resourceful Pinkerton Phil Beaumont and ladies' paid companion
Jane Turner investigating the death of a rich American publisher
- along the way, running into such literary notables as Hemingway
and Gertrude Stein.
Overbooked is a volunteer project undertaken by Ann Chambers Theis: Collection Management Administrator, Chesterfield County (VA) Public Library. 9501 Lori Rd. or P.O. Box 297, Chesterfield, VA, 23832. Phone: 804.748.1760.
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I really appreciate all the e-mail I receive from avid readers and writers and regret that I am not able to respond to all correspondents. Special thanks to those folks who regularly help keep me on track - you know who you are....