Blog Post
Fabulous Fiction Firsts #233
by muffy
It's that time of year again and time for small gems.
Most appropriate to ring in the new year is François Lelord's Hector and the Search for Happiness, a charming parable about modern life.
Young psychiatist Hector travels the world over while keeping a list of observations about the people he meets, hoping to find the secret to happiness. At once entertaining and empowering, it combines the winsome appeal of The Little Prince with the inspiring philosophy of The Alchemist.
A former postdoc at UCLA, Francois Lelord is a psychiatrist who has worked in Paris, Hanoi, and Ho Chi Minh City. Hector and the Search for Happiness is his first novel, and the first in a series that includes Hector and the Search for Love and Hector and the Meaning of Time.
Brief and yet powerful, the 2008 winner of the Zerilli-Marimò Prize for Italian Fiction, Milena Agus' debut novel (her first to be translated into English) From the Land of the Moon* * chronicles the life and fortunes of a Sardinian woman as she struggles mightily to find happiness in the traditional island village she calls home.
"Agus' beautifully written tale allows room for a lovely ambiguity. The vivid descriptions of the Sardinian landscape are a fitting complement to the heroine's conflicted heart". A lush, haunting portrait of an artist born before her time.
* * = starred reviews
Blog Post
Fabulous Fiction Firsts #232
by muffy
Now for a change of pace...
Liar, Liar* * introduces P.I. Cat DeLuca and her Pants on Fire Detective Agency, known around the Windy City for its stellar reputation in catching cheaters, guaranteeing her clients evidence that would bring large divorce settlements.
Life takes a strange turn when a rogue reporter for the Chicago Tribune masquerades as a client with a liar-liar husband - one Chance Savino, a steamy guy with a pocketful of smuggled diamonds. When the FBI insists that Savino is killed in the same explosion that sends Cat to the hospital, Cat isn’t buying it. And when she finds her client dead on the floor with a knife in her chest and Savino rummaging through the apartment, she not only has to convince her family and the FBI she is not crazy, she has to get herself off the murderer's "Must Kill" list.
Debut author K.J. Larsen is in truth, Julianne, Kristen and Kari Larsen, three sisters who are hard at work on the next Cat adventure.
Liar has been picked as one of Library Journal Best Books 2010 Genre Fiction. Hey, Stephanie Plum, you have been warned. Cat is moving in.
* * = Starred reviews
Blog Post
Fabulous Fiction Firsts #231
by muffy
If you enjoyed historical mysteries by Louis Bayard ( Black Tower), and Ariana Franklin ( The Mistress of the Art of Death) then I am confident you will find The Rhetoric of Death* * * by Judith Rock just your cup of tea.
This "amazing"* debut is set in 17th century Paris where young Charles du Luc, a former soldier has been sent by The Bishop of Marseilles to assist in teaching rhetoric and directing dance at the prestigious college of Louis le Grand. On his first day, the school's star dancer disappears from rehearsal, and the next day another student is run down in the street. When the dancer's body is found under the worst possible circumstances, suspicion falls on him as a newcomer, and finding the actual killer becomes both a personal mission and a source of deadly danger.
Against the backdrop of a Paris swollen with intrigue and religious strife, first-novelist Rock (a dancer, choreographer, seminarian, and former auxiliary NYPD police office) brings first-hand knowledge of dance, choreography, acting, police investigation, and teaching to a new series rich with historical details and well-drawn characters.
Reader might also like S.J. Parris' Heresy which dramatizes religious strife in an earlier era.
* * * = Starred Reviews
Blog Post
Fabulous Fiction Firsts #230
by muffy
Published posthumously, Beverly Jensen's debut The Sisters from Hardscrabble Bay * comes highly recommended by someone I trust and I was not disappointed.
In 1916, Idella and Avis Hillock live on the edge of a chilly bluff in New Brunswick, a hardscrabble world of potato farms and lobster traps, rough men, hard work, and baffling beauty. From "Gone," the heartbreaking story of their mother's medical crisis in childbirth, to the darkly comic "Wake," which follows the grown siblings' catastrophic efforts to escort their father, "Wild Bill" Hillock's body to his funeral, the stories of Idella and Avis offer a compelling and wry vision of two remarkable women. The vivid cast includes Idella's philandering husband Edward, her bewilderingly difficult mother-in-law- and Avis, whose serial romantic disasters never quell her irrepressible spirit. Jensen's work evokes a time gone by and reads like an instant American classic.
Beverly Jensen earned an MFA in drama from Southern Methodist University. After her death in 2003, her story "Wake" was published in the New England Review, included in The Best American Short Stories of 2007, and was nominated for the Pushcart Prize.
Sisters brings to mind Richard B. Wright's Clara Callan another moving tale of two sisters. It won the 2001 Governor General's Award and the The Scotiabank Giller Prize - two of the most prestigious Canadian literary awards.
* = starred review
Blog Post
Fabulous Fiction Firsts #229
by muffy
The fact that Gentleman Captain is the first in a projected series is "jolly good news" for fans of Patrick O'Brian, C. S. Forester, and Dewey Lambdin.
1662: Restoration England. Cromwell is dead, and King Charles II has reclaimed the throne after years of civil war. It is a time of divided allegiances, intrigue, and outright treachery. With rebellion stirring in the Scottish Isles, the king asks Matthew Quinton to take command of a new vessel and sets sail for Scotland to defuse this new threat.
Matthew Quinton is loyal, if inexperienced, having sunk the first man-of-war under his command. Upon taking command of the Jupiter, he faces a resentful crew, a suspicion that the previous captain was murdered, and the growing conviction that betrayal lies closer to home than he had thought.
With cannon fire by sea and swordplay by land (and a hint of romance) Gentleman Captain is a "rousing high-seas adventure in the finest nautical tradition" from a talented storyteller.
Author J.D. Davies is one of the foremost authorities on the 17th century British navy and has won the 2009 Samuel Pepys Award for his Pepys's Navy: Ships, Men and Warfare, 1649-1689.
* * = Starred reviews
Blog Post
Fabulous Fiction Firsts #228
by muffy
It is not everyday that a debut novel is named as a finalist in these many awards:
- 2009 Governor General's Literary Awards for Fiction
- 2010 Commonwealth Writers Prize for Best Book (Canada & Caribbean)
- 2010 Amazon.ca/Books in Canada First Novel Award
- 2010 Canadian Booksellers Association Libris Award - Fiction Book of the Year
WINNER of the 2009 Rogers Writers’ Trust Fiction Prize, Annabel Lyon's The Golden Mean * does not disappoint.
"You must look for the mean between extremes, the point of balance," Aristotle advises his royal pupil, the future military genius in this bold reimagining of one of history’s most intriguing relationships: between legendary philosopher Aristotle and Alexander the Great, the rebellious son of his boyhood friend Philip of Macedon.
Told in the brilliantly rendered voice of Aristotle - keenly intelligent, often darkly funny, The Golden Mean brings ancient Greece to vivid life via the story of this remarkable friendship between them.
"But before this impressively researched, vividly detailed novel settles into a contest of wits and wills between determined teacher and often unmanageable student, Lyon builds a fascinating portrait of the Athenian sage " - a sensualist gratified and enthralled by the world's often inexplicable plentitude, emphatically earthbound in his affection for the bewitching Pythias; or in awakening the potential for rationality in Alexander's seemingly mentally retarded older brother Arrhidaeus (perhaps the novel's most sympathetic character).
"As authoritative and compelling as Mary Renault's renowned novels set in the ancient world. One hopes we may learn more about Lyon's immeasurably brilliant, unflappably human Aristotle."
* = starred review
Blog Post
Fabulous Fiction Firsts #227 (What's New in Urban Fantasy)
by muffy
"This may be the most beautiful book about zombies this reviewer (Library Journal) has ever read", now THAT! got my attention.
The reviewer is referring to Alden Bell's debut The Reapers are the Angels * *
For twenty-five years, civilization has survived in meager enclaves, guarded against a plague of the dead. 15 year-old Temple wanders this blighted landscape, keeping to herself and keeping her demons inside her heart. She can't remember a time before the zombies, but she does remember an old man who took her in and the younger brother she cared for until the tragedy that set her on a personal journey toward redemption. Moving back and forth between the insulated remnants of society and the brutal frontier beyond, Temple must decide where ultimately to make a home and find the salvation she seeks.
Alden Bell is a pseudonym for Joshua Gaylord. He teaches at a New York City prep school and is an adjunct professor at The New School. He lives in New York City with his wife, the Edgar Award-winning mystery writer, Megan Abbott.
Two other new Urban Fantasy series of note...
Cat Adams kicks-off a new series with Blood Song. (Cat Adams is the pen name of C.T. Adams and Cathy Clamp)
Betrayed by her royal employers, bodyguard Celia is changed into a part-vampire and targeted by both human and supernatural adversaries while she leans on friends to survive and help her discover the source of her transformation. "Adams hammers home a page-turner.... a treat for urban fantasy fans who like smart, feisty heroines and complex, fast-paced stories".
Clever and assured, with an authentic NYC setting, Black Swan Rising launches an urban fantasy series with an unusual heroine by Lee Carroll, a collaboration between Hammett Award winning mystery novelist Carol Goodman and her husband, Lee Slonimsky.
Stumbling into a strange antiques shop where an enigmatic clerk asks her to open a vintage silver box, New York City jewelry designer Garet unleashes a centuries-old prophecy tied to her true identity as the latest in a family of women who have been killed by an evil force.
* * = starred reviews
Blog Post
Fabulous Fiction Firsts #226
by muffy
The Blindness of the Heart*** is Julia Franck's English language debut (translated from the German by Anthea Bell), - a rich, moving, and complex novel from one of Europe's freshest young voices.
Winner of the German Book Prize (2007) and a finalist for the 2010 Independent Foreign Fiction Prize, it opens in 1945 with a young mother named Helene standing with her seven-year-old son in a provincial German railway station, amid the chaos of civilians fleeing west. Having survived with him through the horror and deprivation of the war years, Helene abandons her son on the station platform and never returns.
The story quickly circles back to Helene's childhood with her sister Martha in rural Germany at the outbreak of the First World War. As we follow Helene into adulthood, we watch as the costs of survival and ill-fated love turn her into a woman capable of the unforgiveable.
"Franck's impressionistic style and empathy encourage fresh responses to familiar subject matter—fine, disturbing, memorable work." ~Kirkus Reviews. Readers interested in character-driven war stories lyrical and spare, might find much to like in Chronicle in Stone by Ismail Kadare, translated from the Albanian.
*** = starred reviews (Read the New York Times review)
Blog Post
Fabulous Fiction Firsts #225 (What's New in Paranormal Romance)
by muffy
So you think you don't read romance. Well, you might want to think again. If you had dismissed Romance as a genre for its characteristic lack of character development, these two titles might change your mind.
Christine Feehan, spins-off on her Drake Sisters series with Water Bound* , - the first in her Sisters of the Heart series.
Again, set on the shores of Sea Haven (inspired by lovely Mendocino), sea urchin diver Rikki Sitmore rescues a man from drowning, a man with no memory yet he possess the violent instincts of a trained killer.
"Feehan takes readers into turbulent, uncharted waters as a courageous, high-functioning autistic heroine with the power of a water mage is paired with a tormented hero with numerous psychic gifts and major issues of his own, delivering an edgy, compelling, character-rich (contemporary) romance".
One Touch of Scandal** by Liz Carlyle is a supernatural Victorian trilogy opener.
Accused of murdering her employer, governess Grace Gauthier begs the mysterious--and possibly dangerous--Lord Ruthveyn to help her unmask the real killer and clear her name.
A dark-eyed Lucifer, Ruthveyn guards his secrets and his shadowed past carefully. Grace’s plight and her quiet beauty moves him. He is determined to save Grace. But his growing passion places his own heart at risk and threatens to expose his dark gifts to the world.
"Grace's tenacity, wit, and compassion make her a very believable, multidimensional character and the perfect match for Ruthveyn's brooding and dark secrets. The romance sizzles, its unpredictability propelling this complex story far beyond its contemporaries."
* (*) = starred review(s)
Blog Post
Fabulous Fiction Firsts #224
by muffy
First-time novelist John Verdon created an extraordinary fiction debut in Think of a Number** .
This suspense thriller begins in the idyllic Catskills (NY) where Dave Gurney, one of the most celebrated NYPD homicide detectives retires from a life dominated by violent crimes and attempts to repair a strained marriage rocked by personal tragedies. Then a college friend showed him a series of taunting letters that end with “Think of any number…picture it…now see how well I know your secrets.” Amazingly, those who comply find that the letter writer has predicted their random choice exactly. What begins as a diverting puzzle quickly ignites into a massive serial murder investigation.
Think of a Number is an exquisitely plotted novel that grows relentlessly darker and more frightening as its pace accelerates. An absolutely fresh brain-twister and a compulsive page-turner.
** = starred reviews