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What's New
Like us, we know you're anxious to hear the book buzz from the experts. But, unlike us, you don't have the benefit of publisher's catalogs to browse through. So, in order to keep you up-to-date on up-and-coming releases, we've compiled this list of "what's hot" from Publishers Weekly reviews. Here at Baker Books we know that a well-informed reader is a happy reader. Enjoy.
General Fiction | Thriller/Suspense/Mystery | SF/Fantasy/Horror | Non-fiction | Back to Top
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Travel Writing
Peter Ferry
Harcourt © Aug. 2008
$24.00 hardcover
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Debut novelist Ferry builds his quietly tricky tale around an English teacher's amateur investigation into a traffic fatality. Driving home from work, narrator Pete Ferry pulls up beside a car being erratically driven; Pete considers taking action, but before he can, the car crashes into a lamp post, killing Lisa Kim, the young driver. The event haunts Pete, a high school English teacher and occasional travel writer, and he soon neglects his professional duties as he looks into who Lisa was and why she died. Pete is so obsessed with his quarry that he does not notice that his relationship with live-in girlfriend Lydia is failing, though he does turn up leads to Lisa's heroin connection and a sinister psychiatrist. Or perhaps not: Pete addresses much of his narrative to his English class, and it is not clear whether the reader is meant to believe that the car accident and ensuing intrigues have actually happened, or if Pete has invented them to teach his students a lesson about storytelling. The result is a novel that, for all the cleverness of its construction, is also earnest, engrossing and affecting.
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What Was Lost
Catherine O'Flynn
Holt © Jul. 2008
$14.00 paperback
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Stirring and beautifully crafted, this debut novel recounts how the repercussions of a girl's disappearance can last for decades. In 1984, Kate Meaney is a 10-year-old loner who solves imaginary mysteries and guesses the dark secrets of the shoppers she observes at the Green Oaks mall. Kate's unlikely circle includes her always-present stuffed monkey; 22-year-old Adrian, who works at the candy shop next door; and Kate's classmate, Teresa Stanton, who hides her intelligence behind disruptive behavior. Kate's grandmother has plans for Kate: send her to boarding school. But Kate doesn't want to go. Fast forward to 2003, where it's revealed through Lisa, Adrian's sister, that Kate disappeared nearly 20 years ago, and Adrian, blamed in her disappearance, also vanished. Lisa works at a record store in Green Oaks and is drawn to Kurt, a security guard whose surveillance-camera sightings of a little girl clutching a stuffed monkey hint that he might have ties to Kate's disappearance. Teresa, meanwhile, now a detective, has her own reasons for being haunted by Kate's disappearance. Gripping to the end, the book is both a chilling mystery and a poignant examination of the effects of loss and loneliness.
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The Dirty Secrets Club
Meg Gardiner
Dutton © Jun. 2008
$24.95 hardcover
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An intelligent and stubborn heroine who's just emotionally vulnerable enough to be empathetic lifts this novel from Gardiner (China Lake), a Californian now living in London making her U.S. debut. Dr. Jo Beckett, a forensic psychiatrist (or "deadshrinker"), performs psychological autopsies to uncover the truths behind grisly crimes. Recruited to consult on the possible suicide of prosecutor Callie Harding, who drove her BMW off a San Francisco bridge and struck an airport minivan on the road below, Jo discovers this accident is the latest in a string of high profile murder-suicides. As Jo and the SFPD's Lt. Amy Tang dig deeper, they uncover the Dirty Secrets Club, a shadowy group of citizens whose members include a noted fashion designer and a football star, both of whom committed very public suicides. Still coming to terms with her doctor husband's recent death, Jo struggles to pinpoint the club's origins, realizing that a former member may be systematically driving the remaining members to their deaths. Gardiner should win new fans on this side of the Atlantic with this adrenaline-filled thriller.
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Debut Fiction | Thriller/Suspense/Mystery | SF/Fantasy/Horror | Non-fiction | Back to Top
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The Open Door
Elizabeth Maguire
Other Press © Jun. 2008
$23.95 hardcover
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The former publisher of Basic Books, Maguire published her first novel, Thinner, Blonder, Whiter, in 2002; she had completed this second novel when she died of cancer in 2006. Pitch perfect from start to finish, the book is couched as the memoir of once-popular writer Constance Fenimore Woolson (1840-1894): a manuscript left behind at her death to counter her image as "a long-suffering, martyred spinster." At its center is the vibrant, intriguing relationship between Woolson and Henry James, whom she meets in Paris in 1879. James calls her Fenimore (she's the niece of The Last of the Mohicans author James Fenimore Cooper), and she calls him Harry; theirs was, Woolson says, "[a] marriage not of bodies, but of minds." The stuff of conventional memoir is judiciously tucked in (Woolson's travels; her encroaching deafness; James's sister, Alice, and his circle), but with an immediacy, embodiment and frankness 19th-century memoir almost always lacks. Through Maguire's elegant pen, Woolson, a writer who was often pigeonholed as a mere verbal colorist, gets to establish her significance to James: "Whenever Harry left he always took something from me, a little piece of my own imagination." Maguire's vivid depiction of those complex exchanges is utterly absorbing.
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The Enchantress of Florence
Salman Rushdie
Random © Jun. 2008
$27.00 hardcover
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Florence's artistic zenith and Mughal India's cultural summit -- reached the following century, at Emperor Akbar's court in Sikri -- are the twin beacons of Rushdie's ingenious latest, a dense but sparkling return to form. The connecting link between the two cities and epochs is the magically beautiful "hidden princess," Qara Köz, so gorgeous that her uncovered face makes battle-hardened warriors drop to their knees. Her story underlies the book's circuitous journey.
A mysterious yellow-haired man in a multicolored coat steps off a rented bullock cart and walks into 16th-century Sikri: he speaks excellent Persian, has a stock of conjurer's tricks and claims to be Akbar's uncle. He carries with him a letter from Queen Elizabeth I, which he translates for Akbar with vast incorrectness. But it is the story of Akbar's great-aunt, Qara Köz, that the man (her putative son) has come to the court to tell. The tale dates to the time of Akbar's grandfather, Babar (Qara Köz's brother), and it involves her relationship with the Persian Shah. In the Shah's employ is Janissary general Nino Argalia, an Italian convert to Islam, whose own story takes the narrative to Renaissance Florence.
Rushdie eventually presents an extended portrait of Florence through the eyes of Niccolò Machiavelli and Ago Vespucci, cousin of the more famous Amerigo. Rushdie's portrayal of Florence pales in comparison with his depiction of Mughal court society, but it brings Rushdie to his real fascination here: the multitudinous, capillary connections between East and West, a secret history of interchanges that's disguised by standard histories in which West "discovers" East.
Along the novel's roundabout way, Qara Köz does seem more alive as a sexual obsession in the tales swapped by various men than as her own person. Genial Akbar, however, emerges as the most fascinating character in the book. Chuang Tzu tells of a man who dreams of being a butterfly and, on waking up, wonders whether he is now a butterfly dreaming he is a man. In Rushdie's version of the West and East, the two cultures take on a similar blended polarity in Akbar as he listens to the tales. Each culture becomes the dream of the other.
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The Diplomat's Wife
Pam Jenoff
Mira © May 2008
$13.95 paperback
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Jenoff's stirring sequel to her debut, The Kommandant's Girl, chronicles the perilous post-WWII adventures of Marta Nederman, a member of the Polish resistance and best friend of the earlier book's heroine. When the Allies liberate Dachau, where Marta has been imprisoned and tortured by the Gestapo, Paul Mattison, a handsome American soldier, tenderly gives the weakened Marta a drink of water. Later, at a refugee camp outside Salzburg, Austria, Marta befriends Rose, another recovering survivor. After Rose's sudden death, Marta is able to use Rose's visa to travel to London. When en route Marta runs into Paul in Paris, the passion between the pair ignites. They promise to meet in two weeks, but tragedy ensues when Paul's plane crashes in the English Channel. Pregnant with Paul's baby, Marta marries Simon Gold, a British diplomat. Two years later, Marta goes on a dangerous mission to Poland, where a Communist takeover is imminent and where the seesaw plot takes more than one surprise twist. Historical romance fans will be well rewarded.
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Adam the King
Jeffrey Lewis
Other Press © May 2008
$21.95 hardcover
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Lewis's gripping fourth novel (after Theme Song for an Old Show) traces one man's heroic but flawed attempt to make good of past mistakes. In the summer town of Clement Cove, Maine, billionaire Adam Bloch, now in his 50s, returns to build an outsized mansion with his new wife, Maisie Maclaren, a prominent local family's divorced daughter. Bloch still smolders from the shame of having been involved decades ago in the car accident that killed Maisie's sister, Sascha -- an event not forgotten or quite forgiven by the locals, among whom is the narrator, an interested observer. While Bloch adores Maisie and hopes his new marriage will provide "the antidote to tragedy," Maisie's feelings for Bloch seem lukewarm, and her desire for a pool at the mansion pits them against longtime resident Verna Hubbard, who doesn't want to sell her adjoining spit of land and trailer to Bloch. Lewis juxtaposes the opinions of the locals at the general store as a kind of Greek chorus while the struggle between rich and poor plays out. The narrative is tense, and Lewis's well-meaning, blinkered hero is a marvelous creation.
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Thriller/Suspense/Mystery |
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Debut Fiction | General Fiction | SF/Fantasy/Horror | Non-fiction | Back to Top
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Holy Moly
Ben Rehder
St. Martin's Minotaur © May 2008
$24.95 hardcover
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Edgar-finalist Rehder's sixth Blanco County (Tex.) mystery (after 2007's Gun Shy) may be the best to date in this rollicking crime series. Soon after Hollis Farley, a backhoe operator clearing land for televangelist Peter "Pastor Pete" Boothe's controversial new religious complex, discovers an Alamosaurus skull, an arrow hits Farley in the back, and the fossil skull disappears. Whodunit and whotookit? Series regular Red O'Brien persuades his best friend and housemate, 300-pound Billy Don Craddock, to whom Farley had mentioned the valuable discovery, to court Farley's sister, Betty Jean, to see if she has the missing fossil. Other suspects include Vanessa, Pastor Pete's unfaithful wife; debt-ridden Alex Pringle, Pete's right-hand man; and Snake Sawyer, a convicted burglar who works for Darwin Parker, a dino-loving millionaire. Rehder's satirical take on greed, faith and foolishness moves at a swift clip, punctuated with dizzy twists and even bittersweet turns, like a good toe-tapping, country and western tune.
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The Lazarus Project
Aleksandar Hemon
Riverhead © May 2008
$24.95 hardcover
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MacArthur genius Hemon in his third book (after Nowhere Man) intelligently unpacks 100 years' worth of immigrant disillusion, displacement and desperation. As fears of the anarchist movement roil 1908 Chicago, the chief of police guns down Lazarus Averbuch, an eastern European immigrant Jew who showed up at the chief's doorstep to deliver a note. Almost a century later, Bosnian-American writer Vladimir Brik secures a coveted grant and begins working on a book about Lazarus; his research takes him and fellow Bosnian Rora, a fast-talking photographer whose photos appear throughout the novel, on a twisted tour of eastern Europe (there are brothel-hotels, bouts of violence, gallons of coffee and many fabulist stories from Rora) that ends up being more a journey into their own pasts than a fact-finding mission. Sharing equal narrative duty is the story of Olga Averbuch, Lazarus's sister, who, hounded by the police and the press (the Tribune reporter is especially vile), is faced with another shock: the disappearance of her brother's body from his potter's grave. (His name, after all, was Lazarus.) Hemon's workmanlike prose underscores his piercing wit, and between the murders that bookend the novel, there's pathos and outrage enough to chip away at even the hardest of hearts.
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Vodka Heat: A Faith Zanetti Thriller
Anna Blundy
St. Martin's Minotaur/Dunne © May 2008
$24.95 hardcover
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British journalist Blundy's brilliant thriller provides sharp insights into the new Russia vs. the old Soviet Union. Sixteen years after reporter Faith Zanetti left Russia, she returns to Moscow as a correspondent for a London newspaper only to be charged with a double murder her shady estranged husband, Dimitri Sakhnov, confessed to committing back in 1989. Faith learns Dimitri has recanted, fingering her as the killer. But when Faith visits the psychiatric prison where Dimitri is incarcerated, she discovers "Dimitri" is actually Adrian Smith, an old American friend gone Russian whom Dimitri has framed. While Adrian, who soon dies under suspicious circumstances, tells Faith Dimitri is dead, Faith suspects otherwise, and with the help of her boyfriend, a New Yorker staff writer on assignment in Russia, she gets on Dimitri's trail. This bracing portrait of an alcoholic, chain-smoking career woman struggling to recover her balance will leave American readers eager for more of Faith Zanetti's adventures.
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Sister Pelagia and the Black Monk
Boris Akunin, trans. Andrew Bromfield
Random/Mortalis © May 2008
$14.00 paperback
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Akunin, best known for his Erast Fandorin series (Special Assignments, etc.), has created another memorable sleuth in Sister Pelagia, a 19th-century Russian nun whose insights into human nature and curiosity will remind many of G.K. Chesterton's Father Brown. In this excellent second installment (after 2007's Sister Pelagia and the White Bulldog), Pelagia's superior, Bishop Mitrofanii of Zavolzshsk, dispatches a series of emissaries to investigate the horrifying apparition of a black monk that's haunting the monastery of New Ararat on the shores of the Blue Lake, a locale as creepy as the moors of The Hound of the Baskervilles. When all end up victims of the ghostly figure, Pelagia defies the bishop and travels to the remote community to pursue the case. Readers will savor Akunin's distinctive narrative voice as well as the artful blend of humor and horror with such elements of traditional detective fiction as cleverly concealed clues and numerous false solutions.
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Debut Fiction | General Fiction | Thriller/Suspense/Mystery | Non-fiction | Back to Top
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Free Fall
Laura Anne Gilman
Luna © May 2008
$14.95 paperback
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Picking up shortly after the devastating battle between humans and fey atop the Brooklyn Bridge in 2007's Burning Bridges, Gilman's compelling fifth foray into the fantastic netherworld of modern-day Manhattan takes an even darker turn. Most of the surviving members of the Cosa Nostradamus, an informal collective of demon Fatae and magic-using human Talents, have retreated into hiding, while the Silence, a violently anti-fey covert organization, has regrouped under the leadership of a dangerous fanatic. When Wren Valere, a professional thief and Talent, takes on a simple smash-and-grab job that turns out to be a setup, she swears to stop the Silence and their fey-hunting vigilantes once and for all. With streamlined prose, Gilman deftly weaves intricate plot threads and complex relationships into an almost painful buildup of violent suspense. The result is an intelligent and utterly gripping fantasy thriller, by far the best of the Retrievers series to date.
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From Dead to Worse
Charlaine Harris
Ace © May 2008
$24.95 hardcover
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Harris outdoes herself in this pivotal eighth Sookie Stackhouse novel (after 2007's All Together Dead), packing the story full of romantic tension and supernatural action. Having barely survived a catastrophic vampire hotel explosion, Sookie's back at work in Bon Temps, La., serving vintage blood and waiting tables at Merlotte's, a vampire bar. Participating in a friend's wedding and fending off the advances of her vampire ex-lover, Bill, and her blood-bonded pal, Eric, leaves Sookie chafing over the recent lack of communication from Quinn, her weretiger boyfriend. When a violent Were power struggle erupts as Vegas vampires attempt to take over Louisiana from disgraced queen Sophie-Anne, Sookie dives into the middle of it, determined to help her shape-changing, blood-drinking friends. Harris provides many fun twists, most significantly Sookie's meeting with her fae great-grandfather, Niall Brigant, which paves the way for a shock ending that will delight longtime fans.
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The Immortal Prince
Jennifer Fallon
Tor © May 2008
$27.95 hardcover
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First in the Tide Lords series, this complex saga, like Fallon's earlier Hythrun Chronicles, intertwines several vividly realized plots. One follows Arkady Desean, the "Ice Duchess" of Lebec and a scholar of ancient Amyranthan lore, as she interrogates Cayal, a hanged man who inexplicably did not die. She soon encounters legends of the immortal Tide Lords who created the human-animal hybrid slaves called the Crasii -- canines to serve, felines to fight, amphibians to pull watercraft -- and a thousand years earlier caused the Cataclysm that nearly destroyed the world. Arkady's husband, Duke Stellan, guards his own deadly secret as he maneuvers through palace intrigues and inter-kingdom clashes. Royal spymaster Declan Hawkes secretly aids renegade Crasii and preserves the Cabal, humanity's only protection from the Tide Lords. With snappy dialogue and deft characterizations, especially of her sympathetically drawn canine Crasii, Fallon neatly pulls the story threads together into a multihued tapestry of myth, deceit and ambition.
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Debut Fiction | General Fiction | Thriller/Suspense/Mystery | SF/Fantasy/Horror | Back to Top
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The Eaves of Heaven: A Life in Three Wars
Andrew X. Pham
Harmony © Jun. 2008
$24.95 hardcover
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In a narrative set between the years of 1940 and 1976, Pham (Catfish and Mandala) recounts the story of his once wealthy father, Thong Van Pham, who lived through the French occupation of Indochina, the Japanese invasion during WWII, and the Vietnam War. Alternating between his father's distant past and more recent events, the narrative take readers on a haunting trip through time and space. This technique lends a soothing, dreamlike quality to a story of upheaval, war, famine and the brutality his father underwent following a childhood of privilege ("And that strange year, the last of the good years, all things were granted. Heaven laid the seal of prosperity upon our land. We were blessed with the most bountiful harvest in memory"). For those not familiar with Vietnamese history, Pham does an admirable job of recounting the complex cast of characters and the political machinations of the various groups vying for power over the years. In the end, he also gracefully delivers a heartfelt family history.
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The Importance of Music to Girls
Lavinia Greenlaw
Farrar, Straus & Giroux © May 2008
$23.00 hardcover
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In her first memoir, British novelist and poet Greenlaw (Mary George of Allnorthover) tells of coming to know the world and her place in it through her love of music. The story begins as she first awakens to her inchoate senses, a tiny child waltzing with her father, lulled by her mother's singing and clamoring amid the boisterous play of her three siblings and the entire family's constant chatter. She discovers that outside her home, the world is a series of social rings she must struggle to break into, from joining Ring-a-ring o' Roses games to finding a sense of belonging as a plainly English girl in a culturally diverse school. Growing up in the late 1960s and '70s, she's captivated by her transistor radio and the shifts in pop culture that it heralds, from hippie music to glam rock to disco. As she matures, she swears her allegiance to the latter, moving en masse with primping and dancing girlfriends. She then turns to punk, which "neutralized and released" her from the weight of femininity, and then to new wave, which suited her "seriousness and pretensions." Her punk sensibilities confuse her sense of how to love and be loved, "how to have feelings without ironizing them too." Greenlaw's coming-of-age story is smartly and tenderly told, likely to snag readers like an infectiously catchy tune.
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