Recreation

New Titles Fiction November 2013 (arrived in October)

Adventure

Vicious circle, Wilbur Smith.
Enemies from Hector Cross's past return with a sinister intent.
Out of range, Hank Steinberg.
Journalist who'd been in Uzbekistan can't forget what he saw and when his wife disappears he realises deadly secrets from the past are reemerging.
The never list, Koethi Zan.
Scary psychological thriller about four captives who become three and know not to venture out a night and never trust anyone.

American Fiction

Memories of a marriage, Louis Begley.
Reconnecting with a vibrant woman from his past, Philip is shocked to learn that her seemingly charmed marriage ended in divorce and tragedy and that the woman regarded her ex as a monster, a revelation that compels him to investigate the truth.
The last first day, Carrie Brown.
Story of a woman's life in its twilight as she looks back on both a harrowing childhood and eventual love and happiness.
At the bottom of everything, Ben Dolnick.
Coming of age in his twenties, a young tutor becomes involved with his pupil and the pupil's mother. Likeable and quirky tale.
The letters, Suzanne Woods Fisher.
The latest from the Amish romance expert is the first in the Inn at Eagle Hill series set amongst the Pennsylvanian Amish.
Songs of Willow Frost, Jamie Ford.
With his friend Charlotte, twelve-year-old William Eng, a Chinese-American boy, escapes from a Seattle orphanage determined to find his mother Willow and discover his connection to the exotic film star.
Local souls : novellas, Allan Gurganus.
Returning to his mythological Falls, North Carolina home of Widow, the author presents three novellas set in today's South, a place revolutionized around freer sexuality, looser family ties and superior telecommunications.
Enon, Paul Harding.
From the Pulitzer Prize winner. Follows a year in the life of Charlie, grandson of the main character from "Tinkers", as he tries to come to terms with a shattering personal tragedy.
The residue years, Mitchell S. Jackson.
A family struggles to stay together in a strong autobiographical novel set in the drug-ridden world of Portland, Oregon.
Dissident gardens, Jonathan Lethem.
An epic yet intimate family saga about three generations of all-American radicals. At the centre of this new novel stand two extraordinary women. Rose Zimmer, the aptly nicknamed Red Queen of Sunnyside, Queens, is an unreconstructed Communist and mercurial tyrant who terrorises her neighbourhood and her family with the ferocity of her personality and the absolutism of her beliefs. Her brilliant and willful daughter, Miriam, is equally passionate in her activism.
The secret keeper, Beverly Lewis.
Fourth title in the "Home to Hickory Hollow" series.
Someone, Alice McDermott.
The life of an ordinary woman - from childhood to old age - told with sympathy and insight. Very well reviewed.
The edge of normal, Carla Norton.
A woman can't shake off the memory of being captured for four years as a girl and now she realises - when girls go missing - a serial abductor may be at large.
Nine inches : stories, Tom Perrotta.
A collection of stories focuses on suburban nuclear families, including "Senior Season," "Nine Inches" and "The Smile on Happy Chang's face".
Subtle bodies, Norman Rush.
Couple trying to conceive go to the funeral of a friend from student days and the effect of the death leads to them examining their own lives.
Guests on Earth, Lee Smith.
It is 1936 when orphaned thirteen-year-old Evalina Toussaint is admitted to Highland Hospital in Asheville, North Carolina, a mental institution known for its innovative treatments for nervous disorders and addictions. Taken under the wing of the hospital's most notable patient, Zelda Fitzgerald, Evalina witnesses the cascading events leading up to the tragic fire of 1948 that killed nine women in a locked ward, Zelda among them.
Wake the dawn, Lauraine Snelling.
When a natural disaster threatens to destroy lives in the small mountain town of Pineville, Minnesota, Doctor Esther Hanson struggles to help her patients without giving in to overwhelming emotions triggered by a long-suppressed memory and U.S. Border Patrol agent Ben James, grieving the tragic loss of his wife, rushes an abandoned baby to Esther's clinic.
The longest ride, Nicholas Sparks.
The lives of 91-year-old Ira Levinson, young cowboy Luke, and Wake Forest College senior Sophia Danko converge in an extraordinary and unexpected way as Ira clings to his wife Ruth's words and his memories and Sophia finds herself imagining a future far removed from her plans.

Australian fiction

Traces of absence, Susan Holoubek.
A missing daughter and her distraught mother in a novel set in both Australia and Argentina.
Cairo, Chris Womersley.
17 year old Tom moves to the city to study. He lives in a rundown apartment block called Cairo where he meets a bohemian crowd and gets involved in an art heist.

British Fiction

Tangled lives, Hilary Boyd.
Lizzie Delancey is happily married, in her early 50s, with three grown children. But Lizzie guards a dark secret. At age 18 she had a baby boy, and gave him up for adoption. She still thinks of him every day. Then, out of the blue, she receives an official-looking letter from Kent Social Services.
The holiday home, Fern Britton.
Two sisters. One House. The holiday of a lifetime. Set on a Cornish cliff, Atlantic House has been the jewel in the Carew family crown for centuries. Each year, the Carew sisters embark on the yearly summer holiday, but they are as different as vinegar and honey.
Lion heart, Justin Cartwright.
Richard's father has an obsession with King Richard, Robin Hood and the Crusades and when he dies the son sets off on a quest to find whether his father was inspired or delusional.
Expo 58, Jonathan Coe.
One of Britain's best novelists returns with a clever and funny tale set in 1958 as the Cold War progresses and a junior civil servant is sent to Brussels to keep an eye on the British contribution to a huge world fair.
Mr loverman, Bernardine Evaristo.
French Barrington Jedidiah Walker is seventy-four and leads a double life. Born and bred in Antigua, he's lived in Hackney since the sixties. A flamboyant, wise-cracking local character with a dapper taste in retro suits and a fondness for quoting Shakespeare, Barrington is a husband, father and grandfather - but he is also secretly homosexual.
Bridget Jones : mad about the boy, Helen Fielding.
Bridget in contemporary London has the challenges of maintaining sex appeal as the years roll by along with drunken texting, skinny jeans, Twitter and true love.
Perfect, Rachel Joyce.
In 1972, two seconds were added to time. It was in order to balance clock time with the movement of the earth. Byron Hemming knew this because James Lowe had told him and James was the cleverest boy at school. But how could time change? The steady movement of hands around a clock was as certain as their golden futures. Then Byron's mother, late for the school run, makes a devastating mistake.
The Windsor faction, D.J. Taylor.
History revisited where, in 1939, King Edward doesn't abdicate and is keen to broker peace. Aristocrats, conniving politicians and country houses.
Dirty work, Gabriel Weston.
A mistake made in an operating room and a consequent tribunal feature in a powerful tale of a female doctor who performs abortions.

Fiction from the rest of the World

The orchard of lost souls, Nadifa Mohamed.
Somalia 1980 and the city of Hargeisa is seething with dissent. Three very different women wait, not knowing that what is to come will change their lives forever.
The banner of the passing clouds, Anthea Nicholson.
Life under the repressive communist regime in Georgia from the 1950s to the 1990s seen through the eyes of an eccentric.
Monsieur le commandant, Romain Slocombe
French academician and Nazi sympathiser writes a letter to his local SS officer in 1942 and this letter will devastate several lives including his own.
My mother's secret : based on a true holocaust story, J. L. Witterick.
Strong first novel from Canadian author that is based on the true story of a mother and daughter risking their lives to provide shelter to two families and a German soldier in a small house in Poland during the Nazi invasion.

Graphic Novel

Wake up, Percy Gloom!, Cathy Malkasian.
Kindhearted, Candide-esque Percy wakes up from a 200 year nap and finds himself in a strange new land. Searching for his mother, lamenting his long-lost love and soul-mate Miss Margaret, Percy meets bizarre, wise, naive, and sometimes dangerous characters, encounters inspired inventions, and forges friendships, discovering a few unexpected verities along the way.
Sleeping moon. Volume 1, Kano Miyamoto
In order to solve the mystery of a rumoured curse that brings early death to the male descendants in his lineage, Akihiko Sakaki goes back to stay in his family's ancestral home. One night, he experiences a time slip that lands him 100 years in the past!
A bride's story. 5, Kaoru Mori.
Acclaimed creator Kaoru Mori's tale of life on the nineteenth-century Silk Road takes on an air of celebration as, at long last, Laila and Leily's wedding day arrives.

Mystery

Something borrowed, someone dead, M.C. Beaton.
A jolly and raucous widow moves to The Cotswolds and is found poisoned from a bottle of elderberry wine.
A blind goddess, James R. Benn.
US Army Lt. Billy Boyle is back in England to tackle two cases, including the murder of an accountant who may or may not have had military connections, U.S. Army Lieutenant Billy Boyle begins to suspect that his superiors do not want him to solve the murder.
The backs, Alison Bruce.
Jane leaves Cambridge vowing not to return but her life there comes back to haunt her after confronting her sister's killer. DC Goodhew on his 5th case.
The silence of the wave, Gianrico Carofiglio
Standalone thriller about a former undercover agent racked with guilt.
The final cut, Catherine Coulter and J. T. Ellison.
Scotland Yard's new chief inspector Nicholas Drummond is on the first flight to New York when he learns his colleague, Elaine York, the "minder" of the Crown Jewels for the "Jewel of the Lion" exhibit at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, was found murdered. Then the centerpiece of the exhibit, the infamous Koh-i-Noor Diamond, is stolen from the Queen Mother's crown.
Shadows of death, Jeanne M. Dams.
Dorothy Martin and her retired policeman husband visit an old friend in Orkney and come upon death at an archaeological dig.
The October list : a novel in reverse, with photographs by the author, Jeffery Deaver.
This story begins with a mother shooting and killing a man in the aftermath of her daughter's kidnapping and moves backwards in time from there.
The keeper, Luke Delaney.
D.I. Sean Corrigan's second case sees him struggling with his gift to step into a crime scene and see it through the offender's eyes in a case of a man who abducts women.
Bitter Wash Road, Garry Disher.
Thrill killers have been targeting isolated back road farmhouses in Southern Australia.
Inspector Singh investigates : a calamitous Chinese killing, Shamini Flint.
Inspector Singh is on a mission to China, against his better judgment. The son of a bigwig at the Singapore Embassy has been bludgeoned to death in a back alley in Beijing. The Chinese security insist that he was the victim of a robbery gone wrong, but the young man's mother demands that Singapore's finest (in his own opinion) rides to the rescue.
Errors of judgment, Caro Fraser.
Leo Davies, highly successful QC of 5 Caper Court, has often indulged in a hedonistic private life at odds with his working persona. Now living a life away from this precarious past, Leo has come to see himself as 'a man of simplicity'. But deep down Leo, still possessing the same charm and good looks, knows that this won't be enough for long.
Just one evil act, Elizabeth George.
When Hadiyyah Upman disappears from London in the company of her mother, Detective Sergeant Barbara Havers is as devastated as the girl's father. They are her close friends as well as neighbours, but since the child is with her mother, nothing can be done.
W is for wasted, Sue Grafton.
Kinsey Millhone gets closer to the end of the alphabet!
Murder and Mendelssohn, Kerry Greenwood.
An orchestral conductor is murdered and the police call on the assistance of Miss Phryne Fisher.
Cry of the children, J.M. Gregson.
Chief Supt. Lambert and DS Hook investigate the case of the girl who disappears from a local funfair.
Silencing Eve, Iris Johansen.
The conclusion to her latest Eve Duncan trilogy.
The stranger you know, Andrea Kane.
Casey Woods and the Forensic Instincts team investigate a serial killer targeting young redheaded victims, each of whom has a unique connection to Casey.
The thicket, Joe R. Lansdale.
Love and vengeance at the dark dawn of the East Texas oil boom.
The watcher, Charlotte Link
Carla Roberts lives alone in the top of a highrise building in Hackney, frightened by the sound of the lift stopping and opening on her floor, with nobody getting out. Days later, she's found brutally murdered. Meanwhile, Samson Segal, an unemployed thirty-something has taken to spying on his neighbours, particularly beautiful and successful Gillian Ward.
The long shadow, Liza Marklund
A violent robbery has killed an entire family on the Costa Del Sol. Annika Bengtzon is assigned to cover the story for the Evening Post. But when she arrives in Spain she discovers there was a third child, a teenage daughter, who is unaccounted for.
Cross and burn, Val McDermid.
The crime fighting team of clinical psychologist Tony Hill and police detective Carol Jordan investigate a serial killer who is targeting women who look suspiciously like Carol.
The King's corrodian, Pat McIntosh.
Latest in the Gil Cunningham historical mystery series set in medieval Glasgow.
The impersonator, Mary Miley.
Debut winner of the Mystery Writers of America First Crime Novel Competition, the story of a young heiress in 1917 who goes missing.
Police, Jo Nesbo
Latest Harry Hole sees him powerless to intervene as policemen are brutally slain at crime scenes they had failed to solve.
The disappeared, Kristina Ohlsson
Frederika Bergman and her colleagues in the Stockholm police investigate a series of murders linked to an elderly author.
Visitation street, Ivy Pochoda.
Summer in a blue collar Brooklyn neighbourhood where two girls disappear in the bay and only one is found. Gritty and vivid psychological thriller debut that has echoes of writers like Dennis Lehane.
Thankless in death, J. D. Robb.
As the household of NYPSD Lieutenant Eve Dallas and her billionaire husband Roarke prepares for an invasion of family and friends for Thanksgiving, an ungrateful son decides to stop the nagging from his parents by ending their lives.
Others of my kind, James Sallis.
Set in a future of political turmoil where a young woman who'd been abducted years ago and has her memories revived.
Storm front, John Sandford.
Latest in the Virgil Flowers series.
A song from dead lips, William Shaw
First rate debut. Set in 1960s London where a girl's body is found in St. John's Wood. The sexism and racism of the period and corruption in the police force are emphasised in this less than rosy portrait of the era.
A price to pay, Chris Simms.
Second case for Detective Constable Ilona Khan of Greater Manchester Police's Counter Terrorism Unit.
The detective's daughter, Lesley Thomson.
Kate Rokesmith's decision to go to the river changed the lives of many. Her murder shocked the nation. Her husband, never charged, moved abroad under a cloud of suspicion. Her son, just four years old, grew up in a loveless boarding school. And Detective Inspector Darnell, vowing to leave no stone unturned in the search for her killer, began to lose his only daughter.
A question of honor, Charles Todd.
While tending to the wounded on the battlefields of France during World War I, Bess Crawford discovers that the officer who killed five people in India and England is still alive, and, setting out to clear her father's name, instead makes a horrific discovery that changes everything.
The last winter of Dani Lancing, P.D. Viner.
Crime debut about a woman who met a brutal end and what happened to those left behind with her mother driven to become a killer.
Next to die, Neil White.
Manchester's top defence lawyer and their top homicide detective bear the burden of the unsolved murder of their sister fifteen years ago. Now a new series of crimes emerge.
The passion of the purple plumeria : a Pink Carnation novel, Lauren Willig.
Colonel William Reid has returned home from India to retire near his children, who are safely stowed at an academy in Bath. Upon his return to the Isles, however, he finds that one of his daughters has vanished, along with one of her classmates Gwendolyn Meadows' little sister.
Doing hard time, Stuart Woods.
Stone Barrington goes on a trip to Bel-Air for business but never expects he'll become involved with murder, disguise and subterfuge in California and Las Vegas.

New Zealand Fiction

Huia short stories. 10 : contemporary Māori fiction.
Here are the best short stories and novel extracts from the Pikihuia Awards for Māori writers 2013 as judged by Sir Mason Durie, Hana O'Regan and Reina Whaitiri.
Manhood : a New Zealand post-apocalyptic speculative fiction, Gregory French.

Romance

Girl least likely to marry, Amy Andrews.
The lone wolf's craving, Tina Beckett.
Faking it to making it, Ally Blake.
Greek for beginners, Jackie Braun.
Resisting the new doc in town, Lucy Clark.
Duty at what cost?, Michelle Conder.
A royal without rules, Caitlin Crews.
His most exquisite conquest, Emma Darcy.
A child to heal their hearts, Dianne Drake.
Daring to date Dr. Celebrity, Emily Forbes.
The wife he never forgot, Anne Fraser.
Challenging Dante, Lynne Graham.
Miracle in Bellaroo Creek, Barbara Hannay.
Bound by a baby, Kate Hardy.
The rebound guy, Fiona Harper.
Last-minute bridesmaid, Nina Harrington.
An inheritance of shame, Kate Hewitt.
The chieftain's curse, Frances Housden.
A whisper of disgrace, Sharon Kendrick.
Patchwork family in the Outback, Soraya Lane.
Captivated by her innocence, Kim Lawrence.
Miracle on Kaimotu Island, Marion Lennon.
Prince of secrets, Lucy Monroe.
A love forbidden, Kathleen Morgan.
Marriage for her baby, Raye Morgan
Lost to the desert warrior, Sarah Morgan.
Stranded with the tycoon, Sophie Pembroke.
All bets are on, Charlotte Phillips.
Maid of dishonour, Heidi Rice.
The rings that bind, Michelle Smart.
The courage to say yes, Barbara Wallace.
A marriage made in Italy, Rebecca Winters.
If you can't stand the heat, Joss Wood.

Saga & Historical

Sunset ridge, Nicole Alexander.
Historical novel that takes three brothers from the drought-stricken outback of Queensland to the horror of the trenches in World War One. They went to war and fought for love.
Mistress of the sea, Jenny Barden.
Mistress Cooksley may be a wealthy merchant's daughter, but she blushes at my words and meets my eyes look for look. Yet I cannot hope to court her without fortune, and a dalliance with a pretty maid will not hinder me from my path. Captain Drake's endeavour might bring me gold, but I, Will Doonan, will have my revenge.
Tell me tomorrow, Lynda Bellingham.
Daytime TV star seems to have it all but behind the façade it's very different. First novel by popular British actress and TV panelist.
The curse of Babylon, Richard Blake.
Fifth in series set in 6th century has British adventurer Aelric who is kidnapped by a seductress out to rule the Empire herself.
The spymistress, Jennifer Chiaverini.
Set during the American Civil War and inspired by the life of "a true Union woman as true as steel" who risked everything by caring for Union escapees.
The pagan lord, Bernard Cornwell.
Latest in the Warrior Chronicles sees Alfred the Great's son Edward on the throne as the Danes seek to take back the emerald crown.
Seven for a secret, Lyndsay Faye.
Follows "The gods of Gotham" with Timothy and Valentine Wilde venturing again into the underbelly of old New York.
Ember Island, Kimberley Freeman.
1891: Orphaned as a small child, Tilly Kirkland found a loving, safe home with her grandfather in Dorset. But nineteenth-century England is an unforgiving place for a young woman with limited means and as her grandfather's health fails, it seems perfect timing that she meets Jasper Dellafore. Yet her new husband is not all he seems.
An officer and a spy, Robert Harris.
Recreation of the Dreyfus case in late 19th century France that has echoes of our own world of scandal, spying and miscarriage of justice.
Stolen moments, Rosie Harris.
18 year old Kate is nanny for an aristocrat when she falls for the brother of the girls, then becomes involved in the Chartist movement.
The storyteller and his three daughters, Lian Hearn.
Sei has devoted his life to storytelling, captivating audiences with his tales. But now he is starting to wonder if the new world has left him behind. Just when he thinks he will never write again, his own life and the lives of the people around him begin to spiral out of control providing the inspiration for the greatest story he has ever told.
The outcasts, Kathleen Kent.
19th century Gulf Coast where a woman who's escaped from a Texas brothel goes after her treasure-hunting lover.
Bittersweet, Colleen McCullough.
The tale of two sets of twins who struggle against the laws, prejudices and prohibitions of 1920s Australia.
The last crusaders : blood red sea, William Napier.
1571. Chained to a slave galley in the heart of the Mediterranean, it seems that English adventurers Ingoldsby and Hodge might have finally run out of luck. But as former Knights of St John, they've survived worse, and while the men around them drop dead at their oars, they're determined to escape.
The outback heart, Fiona Palmer.
Indianna Wilson is a country girl through and through. She'll do anything she can to save her beloved home town from disappearing off the map even if she has to die trying. She brings Troy Mitchell to her tiny outback town, with hopes that he can bring a breath of fresh air to the Saints football club and lift the wider farming community.
Eden Falls, Jane Sanderson.
Jamaica 1909 where a millionaire has a dream of a luxury hotel and gradually the secrets he is hiding begin to emerge.
The pagoda tree, Claire Scobie.
The Pagoda Tree is an epic, sensual novel set in 18th century India. It begins in 1765 in the beautiful temple city of Tanjore, and traces the story of Maya, a young girl destined from birth to be a temple dancer, or devadasi.
One night in winter, Simon Sebag Montefiore.
Based on a true story. Moscow 1945 where two teenagers lie dead on a bridge. Stalin himself demands an investigation.
Winners, Danielle Steel.
Lily Thomas is an aspiring young ski champion training for the Olympics, a young woman with her heart set on winning the gold. But in one moment, Lily's future is changed forever, her hopes for the Olympics swept away in a tragic accident.

Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror

Shadows of the new sun : stories in honor of Gene Wolfe, J.E. Mooney and Bill Fawcett.
Perhaps no living author of imaginative fiction has earned the awards, accolades, respect, and literary reputation of Gene Wolfe. His prose has been called subtle and brilliant, inspiring not just lovers of fantasy and science fiction, but readers of every stripe, transcending genre and defying preconceptions. In this volume, a select group of Wolfe's fellow authors pay tribute.
Proxima, Stephen Baxter.
The very far future. The Galaxy is a wreck of black holes, neutron stars and Proxima Centauri is a red dwarf star and a new Eden may be about to be discovered.
The days of the deer, Liliana Bodoc
Argentinian author, called the Tolkien of the Americas. First in a lvish fantasy series. Ursula Le Guin has raved about it.
Children of fire, Drew Karpyshyn.
First in epic fantasy about The Immortal Daemron, a wizard, a warrior, a prophet and a king.
Kinslayer, Jay Kristoff.
Second in the Lotus War fantasy series featuring butt-kicking heroine Yukiko in a Japanese dystopian steampunk fantasy world.
The dead run, Adam Mansbach.
An edgy novel set in the netherworld of the Mexican-American border. On both sides of the border, girls are going missing and bodies are beginning to surface. It's a deadly epidemic of crime that plunges a small-town police chief into a monster of an investigation he's not equipped to handle. An ancient evil has returned, and now everyone the innocent and the guilty must face their deepest terrors.
On the steel breeze, Alastair Reynolds.
1000 years in the future and mankind is journeying out into deep space in massive ships.
Possession : a Greywalker novel, Kat Richardson.
Harper Blaine was your average small-time PI until she died for two minutes. Now Harper is a Greywalker, treading the thin line between the living world and the paranormal realm.
Shaman, Kim Stanley Robinson.
Story of young man's journey into adulthood and an extraordinary vision of how our ancestors lived 30,000 years ago.