Books of the month
Adler, Warren, Funny Boys, The Overlook Press. $24.95. A hilarious and thrilling romp through 1920s New York gangster land by the author of The War of the Roses. Archer, Jeffrey, Prisoner of Birth, St. Martin's Press. $27.95. Danny Cartwright is sentenced to twenty-two years in jail for a murder he didn't commit and spends his time plotting to escape and revenge himself on the barrister who put him away.
Atkins, Ace, Wicked City, Putnam. $24.95. When crime-fighting attorney Albert
Patterson is gunned down in Phenix City, Alabama, in 1954, the town pauses for a moment and then starts up again. But a small group of men meet and decide they have had enough and over the next several months lives change and people die.
Becka, Elizabeth, Unknown Means, Hyperion. $22.95. The second Evelyn James thriller from real-life investigator Becka.
Bowen, Rhys, Tell Me, Pretty Maiden, St. Martin's Minotaur. $23.95. PI Molly
Murphy investigates the life of a young woman found lying in the snow near Central Park who has lost her ability to speak.
Brightwell, Gerri, The Dark Lantern, Crown. $24.95. Life inside a Victorian home is turned upside down when two women's dark secrets are revealed.
Clark, Mary Higgins, Where Are You Now, Simon & Schuster. $25.95. Lawyer Carolyn MacKenzie is driven to solve the mystery of older brother's sudden disappearance ten years ago. What she discovers leads her into the world of people who choose to disappear from their own lives.
Downie, Ruth, Terra Incognita, Bloomsbury. $23.95. Army doctor Gaius Petrius Ruso sets off for the uncivilized borders of Roman Britain, where he runs into murder and ghosts.
Fielding, Joy, Charley's Web, Atria Books. $24.95. An ambitious writer endangers her family when she tries to enter the mind of a killer.
Hunt, James Patrick, Goodbye Sister Disco, St. Martin's Minotaur. $23.95. George Hastings, St. Louis police detective, is back on the case when the daughter of a wealthy businessman is kidnapped and her boyfriend killed.
Johnson, Craig, Another Man's Moccasins, Viking. $23.95. Walt Longmire unravels a mystery that connects two murders over forty years - and brings back haunting memories of Vietnam.
Kellerman, Jonathan, Compulsion, Ballantine Books. $26.95. Alex Delaware helps track a quicksilver killer whose brilliant disguises, including one as a woman, are baffling the LAPD.
Latour, Jose, Hidden In Havana, St. Martin's Minotaur. $23.95. A complex, hard- boiled novel of betrayal, deceit, and cunning which takes place in a Cuba tourists rarely see.
Lutz, Lisa, Curse of the Spellmans, Simon & Schuster. $25.00. Second in the series featuring Izzy Spellman, ace female detective.
Martinez, Michelle, Notorious, Wm. Morrow. $24.95. A car bomb makes short work of a controversial rap star in the latest Melanie Vargas thriller.
May, Peter, The Killing Room, St. Martin's Minotaur. $24.95. When the mutilated bodies of eighteen women are discovered in a mass grave in Shanghai, detective Li Yan travels there to investigate. Meanwhile, American pathologist Margaret Campbell arrives to discover that her relationship with Li is threatened by another woman.
Meaney, John, Bone Song, Bantam. $24.00. An honest copy in a city of the dead must face his own dark impulses. A futuristic noir.
Meyer, Deon, Devil's Peak, Little Brown. $24.99. Revenge, forgiveness, and the race to catch a trained killer. Set in South Africa.
Penny, Louise, The Cruelest Month, St. Martin's Minotaur. $23.95. Chief Inspector
Armand Garache investigates when an impromptu séance at the local haunted house turns deadly at Easter time.
Perry, Anne, Buckingham Palace Gardens, Ballantine Books. $25.95. When Queen Victoria's son, Edward, Prince of Wales, awakes the morning after another night of debauchery, he discovers the corpse of one of his female escorts in the bed beside him. Thomas Pitt of Special Branch is called in the solve the puzzle discreetly.
Picoult, Jodi, Change of Heart, Atria Books. $26.95. A mother loses her child and a criminal is offered one last chance for salvation in the latest from Picoult.
Rice, Christopher, Blind Fall, Scribner. $26.00. Iraq war vet John Houck nearly got
his captain killed. Now he wants to redeem himself, but when he shows up unannounced on his captain's doorstep, he discovers a horrific murder scene.
Robinson, Peter, Friend of the Devil, Wm. Morrow. $24.95. DCI Alan Banks takes on the murders of two young women found at the same time: one on a bed of leather and the other a quadriplegic in her wheelchair posed at the edge of a cliff.
Saums, Mary, Mighty Old Bones, St. Martin's Minotaur. $23.95. The continuing adventures of Mrs. Thistle and Mrs. Twigg, two unlikely sleuths from Alabama. Sheehan, James, The Law of Second Chances, St. Martin's Press. $24.95. Benny Avrile is about to hit the big time. If he can carry out the robbery of a man who is
visiting his mistress with $10,000 in his pocket, he'll get a share of the profits. But when the mark dies, Benny is arrested and sentenced to death.
Stone, David, The Orpheus Deception, Putnam. $25.95. CIA cleaner Micah Dalton returns when an assassination attempt on the streets of Venice put him on a collision course with a Serbian warlord.
White, Randy Wayne, Black Widow, Putnam. $24.95. Doc Ford's god-daughter, Shanay, threw a pretty wild bachelorette party. Unfortunately, somebody taped it and is blackmailing Shanay who begs Doc for help.