By Stieg Larsson
Knopf | 576pgs
Release Date: May 25, 2010

Rabid fans of Stieg Larsson’s Millennium Trilogy rejoice! The final installment, The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest arrives in stores tomorrow. The third novel, following The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo and The Girl Who Played with Fire opens right where the second novel leaves off. “The Girl” in question, crazy-smart computer hacker Lisbeth Salander, lies in a hospital bed under police guard, suffering a gunshot wound to the head. The man who shot her, arch enemy and father, Alexander Zalachenko, is located a few doors down, convalescing from an ax wound in the head, the blow dealt by his daughter. Besides fighting for her life, Salander must also fight for her freedom as she stands accused of three murders, and will face a trial back in Stockholm, if she survives. She again teams up with journalist Mikael Blomkvist, to clear her name. Working with Salander, mainly through digital communications, and recruiting a group of hackers and journalists to aid in the fight, Blomkvist uncovers a long-term government conspiracy that has hurt many innocent people, chief among them, Lisbeth Salander herself.
Read more…

By Brady Udall
W. W. Norton & Company | 602pgs
Release Date: May 3, 2010

Golden Richards struggles with indecision and loneliness while surrounded by his four wives and 28 children in The Lonely Polygamist, Brady Udall’s second novel. The Mormon patriarch is under tremendous strain as he divides his time between his family’s three separate households in remote Utah and tries to keep his failing construction business afloat, all while grieving over the death of his young daughter. In an effort to support his family, he goes against his religious beliefs and takes a contacting job building a brothel in Nevada, though he glosses over the truth with his family and tells them it is a retirement home. Richards may have a “God-given patriarchal authority”, yet he constantly struggles to keep up with the demands of his wives, and further complicates his life when he develops romantic feelings for a woman he meets at the construction site. Udall’s story of a man in crisis and a family in chaos encompasses the tragic and comedic elements of real life, with an ultimate message of love and redemption.
Read more…

"The Secret of the Old Clock" 1930 edition cover illustrated by Russell Tandy (left). New 80th anniversary limited edition cover (right).

The world’s most famous girl detective turned 80 last week. The Nancy Drew series, beloved by generations of young girls, debuted on April 28, 1930 with three adventures The Secret of the Old Clock, The Hidden Staircase and The Bungalow Mystery. These would be the first in a series of over 300 books written by numerous writers under the pen name Carolyn Keene. The constant throughout the books was Nancy’s perky, brave and inquisitive character. At the dawn of the series, Nancy was a uniquely independent and capable female lead, and some of today’s most powerful women, including Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor and Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, have named her as an early role model. In an interview with USA Today, Melanie Rehak, author of Girl Sleuth: Nancy Drew and the Women Who Created Her (Mariner Books, 384pgs) explains the character’s lasting popularity. “The writing was formulaic, the plot twists implausible, but it’s Nancy Drew herself, ‘daring, intelligent, with tons of initiative,’ who continues to appeal to young readers,” she says.
Read more…

Today marks the centennial anniversary of the death of celebrated American author Mark Twain. The people and themes that Twain wrote about still strike a chord with modern audiences, as Huckleberry Finn and Tom Sawyer remain among the world’s most beloved literary characters. Also a testament to his enduring popularity, is the fact that many of his books are still in print. In an interview with USA Today, author Wally Lamb (I Know This Much Is True) calls Twain “America’s most influential writer.” Lamb believes “Huck Finn‘s young narrator…is a prototype for J.D. Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye and Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird.” Scholars and writers continue to be fascinated with Twain’s novels, as well as the rocky events of his real life. Several new books analyzing the author’s life and work are slated to be released this year, including Mark Twain: The Adventures of Samuel L. Clemens by Texas A&M professor Jerome Loving (University of California Press, 491pgs) and The Mark Twain Anthology: Great Writers on His Life and Works edited by Shelley Fisher Fishkin (Library of America, 492pgs). Additionally, several new editions of his books will are schedule to be published this year in Portuguese, French, and Japanese.
Read more…

By Alexander Mccall Smith
Pantheon | 224pgs
Release Date: April 20, 2010

Botswana’s intrepid lady detectives return in The Double Comfort Safari Club, the eleventh installment of Alexander Mccall Smith’s charming No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency series. Precious Ramotswe and her assistant detective Grace Makutsi tackle a variety interesting cases, investigating a potentially adulterous husband and extricating another client from the clutches of a gold-digging girlfriend. Mma Makutsi also battles personal difficulties as well. Her patience is growing thin, waiting for her fiancé Phuti Radiphuti to set a wedding date. But, things get worse when he suffers a serious leg injury and his abrasive aunt does everything in her power to keep Grace from visiting him in the hospital. A more upbeat case involving an unexpected inheritance sends the ladies to a safari lodge on the Okavango Delta, where the stunning beauty of nature leaves them in awe. Yet, the beautiful landscape is soon forgotten when a guest turns up dead, and the detective duo work to solve the case with their unique mix of logic and compassion.
Read more…

By Ian McEwan
Nan A. Talese | 304pgs
Release Date: March 30, 2010

Nobel prize–winning physicist, Michael Beard is skating by on his celebrity and little else, as Ian McEwan’s Solar opens. His exorbitant public speaking fees and regular paychecks from his post at Britian’s National Centre for Renewable Energy, give him plenty of time and resources to over-indulge in food, drink and women. In Part One of the book, Beard’s voracious appetites and infidelities have ruined his personal relationships, and caused his professional life to stagnate. In Part Two, the physicist attempts to jump start his career by passing off a dead colleague’s research as his own, and gains sponsorship to study climate change in New Mexico. Because Beard comes by his fresh start in the U.S. dishonestly, he decides to work on mending his deceitful ways. Part Three has him striving to save the environment from Global Warming and himself from a life of debauchery.
Read more…

By Lynn Cullen
Putnam Adult | 400pgs
Release Date: March 23, 2010

Lynn Cullen depicts the lavish and politically charged court of Spain’s Golden Age, in her new historical novel The Creation of Eve. Based on the obscure true-life story of Sofonisba Anguissola, one of the few distinguished female painters of the Renaissance, the book opens in 1559 as she leaves her Italian homeland amid rumors of a scandal involving a fellow art student. At the invitation of King Felipe II of Spain, Sofi becomes a lady-in-waiting at his court, and begins giving painting lessons to his new bride. The young Queen Elisabeth finds an ally in Sofi, as the artist helps the Queen maneuver through the gossipy trenches of the Spanish court and win the affections of the King. The painter yearns only to focus on her art, but is soon entangled in a dangerous love triangle between King Felipe, Queen Elisabeth and Don Juan, the King’s half brother. Drawing on historical fact, Cullen spins an engrossing tale of art, love and Renaissance culture.
Read more…

By Seth Grahame-Smith
Grand Central Publishing | 336pgs
Release Date: March 02, 2010

Seth Grahame-Smith’s fantastical foray into the horror/history genre Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter, opens in a small cabin in Indiana, during the year 1818. Lincoln, a boy of just nine years, watches his mother’s life slip away as she suffers from a mysterious illness called “Milk Sickness.” Later as a young man, he learns that his mother’s death was caused by a vampire, and embarks on a life-long crusade to fight against the undead masses. Though Lincoln’s great accomplishments of ending slavery and fighting to keep America united have been well documented, his vendetta against vampires remained secret. Author Seth Grahame-Smith is finally able to bring these secrets to light with the discovery of The Secret Journal of Abraham Lincoln. Drawing on events recorded in the diary, Grahame-Smith stages an epic “biography” of the 16th President, revealing the shrouded history of the Civil War, and the role the undead evil-doers played in the upheaval.
Read more…

By Robert B. Parker
Putnam Adult | 288pgs
Release Date: February 23, 2010

A body found in a trunk sends police chief Jesse Stone on the trail of the mob in Split Image, the ninth installment of Robert B. Parker’s immensely popular series. When a lackey for “retired” crime boss Reggie Galen turns up dead, Stone initially believes the case to be a straight-forward mob hit. As a second body is found on Paradise Beach, this time that of a high-ranking mobster, the investigation becomes more complicated. Battling the pressures of the case, and his personal demons, Stone takes comfort in his friendship with PI Sunny Randall (star of Parker’s widely read series, Spare Change, etc.). Randall is in town to track down a young girl involved with a shady religious cult. As their cases unravel, and the investigators get closer to the truth, the pair learn they have much in common and form a deeper personal bond.
Read more…

By Joe Hill
William Morrow | 384pgs
Release Date: February 16, 2010

After a night of hard partying, a hungover Ignatius Perrish wakes to find a pair of horns growing from his forehead in Horns, the new supernatural thriller by Joe Hill. The horns mark another bizarre and unwelcome experience for Ig, whose life has been a living hell for the past year. Born into a family of prestige and power, he had previously been living a charmed, happy life with his true love, Merrin Williams. But after Merrin is viciously raped and murdered, Ig’s life falls apart, as he becomes the prime suspect in her death. Though he is never prosecuted, due to lack of evidence, the court of public opinion has found him guilty and condemned him. The people of Gideon, New Hampshire believe that Ig’s freedom is not a testament to his innocence, but rather to his parents’ deep pockets. Ig is shocked to learn that curious powers accompany the grotesque horns; people blurt out their deepest, most private thoughts, at his touch. He’s soon hellbent on using his dark powers to bring Merrin’s true killer to justice and exacting a satisfying revenge.

Read more…