Page Turner Books

Atherton, Nancy, Aunt Dimity, Vampire Hunter, Viking. $22.95.  Aunt Dimity is on the trail of, well, a vampire.

Baer, Will Christopher, Godspeed, MacAdam Cage.  $24.00.  Purgatory is the setting for this thriller that combines dark fantasy with noir.

Barron, Stephanie, A Flaw in the Blood, Bantam.  $24.00.  In Windsor Castle in 1851, Prince Albert, the Queen's Consort, is dying of typhoid fever. Victoria summons Patrick Fitzgerald, barrister, but within hours his ward is nearly murdered, his chambers are ransacked, and a young girl lies dead.

Bass, Jefferson, The Devil's Bones, Wm. Morrow.  $24.95.  Forensic anthropologist Bill Brockton investigates improper body disposal at a crematorium little knowing that he is entering a deadly game of cat and mouse.

Beaton, M.C., Death of a Gentle Lady, Grand Central Publishing.  $23.99. Hamish Macbeth investigates the death of a woman who may not have been as sweet as she appeared.

Bernhardt, William, Capitol Conspiracy, Ballantine.  $25.95.  Idealistic junior senator Ben Kincaid finds himself in the thick of a terrorist killing campaign of  key government officials.

Born, James O., Burn Zone, Putnam.  $25.95.  ATF agent Alex Duarte is in New

Orleans to check out a mysterious Panamanian who likes to trade guns illegally.

Cain, Tom, The Accident Man, Viking.  $24.95.  I reviewed this first novel a couple of issues back when the UK edition was published.  But if you haven't read this superb thriller, rush out and get it now.  Anything can be made to look like an accident, right? Even the car crash that killed Princess Diana!

Charyn, Jerome, Johnny One-Eye, W.W. Norton.  $25.95.  The American Revolution is reimagined here with a one-eyed spy, a heroic whorehouse madam, and a cunning

George Washington.

Crider, Bill, Of All Sad Words, St. Martin's Minotaur.  $23.95.  Sheriff Dan Rhodes investigates a crime wave that seems to be rolling through Blacklin County, Texas. Daheim, Mary, The Alpine Traitor, Ballantine.  $23.95.  Emma Lord investigates murder in the town of Alpine, Washington - the twentieth in this series set in that town which, between murders, is idyllic.

Doherty, P.C., The Poisoner of Ptah, St. Martin's Minotaur.  $24.95.  A murder in the reign of Pharaoh Hatusu featuring Judge Amerotke as the crime-solver.

Emerson, Earl, Primal Threat, Ballantine.  $24.95.  Thomas Black returns in this tale of mountain bikers in over their heads.

Ferrigno, Robert, Sins of the Assassin, Scribner.  $24.95.  Rakkim Epps battles radical fundamentalists in America, which is now a blood-soaked dystopia.  This is the second volume in the trilogy that began with Prayers for the Assassin.

Fioretos, Aris, The Truth About Sascha Knisch, Overlook Press.  $25.95.  Set in Berlin in 1928, Knisch is a person with special sexual habits.  When the woman who indulges these habits is found dead, Knish is charged with murder.  As he tries to clear his name, he discovers a scientific conspiracy at the Foundation for Sexual Research!

Ford, G.M. Nameless Nights, Wm. Morrow.  $25.95.  A stand alone about an amnesiac accident victim with facial reconstruction who finds himself at the center of a conspiracy he can't understand.

Freeman, Brian, Stalked, St. Martin's Minotaur.  $24.95.  Lieutenant Jonathan Stride knows his partner Maggie Bei is in trouble when she reports a deadly crime on a bitter winter night.  She's obviously hiding a terrible secret and her silence only feeds suspicion.  Freeman's third novel featuring Stride and Serena Dial.

Grisham, John, The Appeal, Doubleday.  27.95.  A ruthless chemical company CEO

weaves a web of conspiracy to purchase a seat on the Supreme Court.

Harvey, John, Gone to Ground, Harcourt.  $25.00.  Will Grayson and Helen Walker discover a wealthy family's decadent secrets in the US edition of this stand alone. Hensley, Joe L., Snowbird's Blood, St. Martin's Minotaur.  $24.95.  Cannert is a man coping with terminal cancer.  When he is well enough to get out of the hospital, he must spend his last days looking for Martha, his wife who has disappeared without a trace. Hockensmith, Steve, The Black Dove, St. Martin's Minotaur.  $23.95.  Big Red and Old Red Amlingmeyer do some 'detectifying' in San Francisco in 1893 with an eye towards a real detective job.

Holt, Anne, What Never Happens, Grand Central Publishing.  $24.99.  A serial killer is murdering celebrities in Oslo.  Police commissioner Adam Stubo and former FBI profiler Johanna Vik investigate.

Hyland, Adrian, Moonlight Downs, Soho Press.  $24.00.  Introduces a new sleuth -

Australia's part-Aboriginal Emily Tempest - a woman torn between her native world and that of the "whitefellers."

Kidd, Chip, The Learners, Scribner.  $25.00.  Advertising, electro-shock torture, potato chips, murder, powdered milk, suicide, shoes with buckles, crippling despair, and giant dogs.  And the Holocaust.  From the author of The Cheese Monkeys.

Macpherson, Rett, The Blood Ballad, St. Martin's Minotaur.  $23.95.  Gunshots send genealogist Torie O'Shea stumbling through the woods and over a dead body with ties to her family.

Meaney, John, Bone Song, Bantam.  $24.00.  Set in the future bone-fueled city of Tristopolis, Lieutenant Donal Riordan must keep the Diva, Maria deLivnova, safe after four famous performers have been murdered in recent months.

Mina, Denise, Slip of the Knife, Little Brown.  $24.99.  Paddy Meehan investigates when an old boyfriend is murdered and she discovers he has left her his house and a suitcase full of notes.

Palmer, Michael, The First Patient, St. Martin's Press.  $25.95.  Gabe Singleton, a country doctor, is tapped to be physician to the president of the United States after the prez's previous physician disappears.  But it is not until Gabe is in the White House that he realizes that there is evidence that the president is going insane.

Parker, Robert B., Stranger in Paradise, Putnam.  $25.95.  Police Chief Jesse Stone is asked by an old adversary to keep out of his way while he takes a young girl away from her mother, who is mixed up with a Latino gang, and bring her back to her father. Patterson, James, 7th Heaven, Little Brown.  $27.99. The Women's Murder Club is back in action chasing a killer with a taste for fire.

Pickens, Cathy, Hush My Mouth, St. Martin's Minotaur.  $23.95.  A Southern Fried mystery featuring Avery Andrews who is trying to settle into her life as a small-town lawyer.

Rees, Matt Beynon, A Grave in Gaza, Soho Press.  $24.00.  As he tries to save two men's lives, Omar Yussef confronts corruption and violence amidst Gaza's warring factions and gangs.

Robb, J.D., Strangers in Death, Putnam.  $25.95.  Featuring Lieutenant Eve Dallas who, in 2060 New York, is investigating the murder of a prominent businessman, strangled in his Park Avenue apartment.

Smith, April, Judas Horse, Knopf.  $23.95.  FBI Special Agent Ana Grey is back (at last) going undercover to infiltrate the core of a domestic terrorist cell.

Sokoloff, Alexandra, The Price, St. Martin's Press. $23.95.  Will Sullivan dreams of becoming the next governor of Massachusetts, but when his daughter, Sydney, is discovered to have a malignant tumor growing in her stomach, he and his wife resolve to do anything to save her life.  That means taking her to Briarwood Medical Center.  But nothing there is as it seems.  Some patients on the brink of death are thriving, while others are withering away.  Will begins to find himself losing his grip on reality.

Stabenow, Dana, Prepared for Rage, St. Martin's Minotaur.  $24.95.  A renegade terrorist targets the most visible symbol of American prestige and power one morning in Florida as NASA prepares to launch the Space Shuttle.  A thriller from the creator of Kate Shugak.