>Fiction Reviews From Kirkus Reviews

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Butcher, Jim SIDE JOBS  October 1, 2010 – Eleven tales, 2002-2010, complete with author’s notes and chronology, embellishing the exploits of Chicago’s Harry Dresden, licensed PI and professional wizard, ranging from an apprentice piece written two years before the Dresden Files series achieved liftoff to an unpublished novelette … Full Review

Deaver, Jeffery EDGE  October 1, 2010 – Deaver’s latest nail-biter features a blank-faced hero from a shadowy federal agency whose job is to protect menaced innocents from kidnappers and killers who don’t want them to be protected. The bad news is that Henry Loving, the ruthless freelance … Full Review

Froderberg, Susan OLD BORDER ROAD  October 1, 2010 – In Froderberg’s highly stylized, uniquely voiced first novel, a young bride’s growing disillusionment about her marriage coincides with the drought plaguing her Arizona community. Seventeen-year-old Girl, whose briefly sketched, quickly forgotten parents have left her pretty much on her own, … Full Review

Fuentes, Carlos DESTINY AND DESIRE  October 1, 2010 – A novel of substance about friendship, philosophy and politics set in the “thousand-headed hydra of Mexico City” from the prolific pen of distinguished man of letters Fuentes (The Death of Artemio Cruz, 2009, etc.). The author immediately elevates the status … Full Review

Gordon, Jaimy LORD OF MISRULE  October 1, 2010 – A novel of luck, pluck, farce and above all horse racing—not at tony and elegant sites like Churchill Downs and Ascot but rather at a rinky-dink racetrack in Indian Mound Downs, W.Va. Gordon (Bogeywoman, 1999, etc.) clearly loves the subculture … Full Review

Guttridge, Peter CITY OF DREADFUL NIGHT  October 1, 2010 – A 2009 massacre in Brighton, England, may be linked to the notorious trunk murder of 1934. Chief Constable Robert Watts is pushed to resign after a police raid goes bad and four people are killed, causing riots, early retirements and … Full Review

Mankell, Henning DANIEL  October 1, 2010 – A haunting novel by the Swedish mystery master, one that proceeds from the indelible to the inscrutable. Well before Stieg Larsson became a (posthumous) international sensation with his Millennium Trilogy, his countryman Mankell had already sold millions of books in … Full Review

Mosley, Walter THE LAST DAYS OF PTOLEMY GREY  October 1, 2010 – An ancient man living in solitary squalor in Los Angeles is offered an experimental medicine that just might beat back his creeping dementia—and will almost certainly kill him in the process. At 91, Ptolemy Grey has outlived everyone he ever … Full Review

Page, Jeremy SEA CHANGE  October 1, 2010 – A lyrical and elegiac novel about a real past and an imagined future. A family tragedy forces Guy, the main character, to relocate on an old Dutch ship, the Flood, a 90-foot coastal barge on which he lives. The tragedy … Full Review

Pearson, Allison I THINK I LOVE YOU  October 1, 2010 – Welsh teenager obsessed with pop star David Cassidy finally gets an opportunity to meet her idol, 24 years later than expected. In 1974, with his bell-bottom catsuits, shaggy hair and come-hither green eyes, Partridge Family star David Cassidy is everything … Full Review

Russo, Richard THE BEST AMERICAN SHORT STORIES 2010  October 1, 2010 – Even by the consistently high standards of the venerable annual, this one’s a treat. Since the year’s guest editor has the final selection, this volume reflects the penchant of novelist Russo for storytelling rather than postmodern experimentation or self-conscious wordplay. … Full Review

Stock, Jon DEAD SPY RUNNING  October 1, 2010 – A discredited British spy seeks to rehabilitate himself and exonerate his deceased father—wrongly besmirched former head of MI6—while trotting the globe to escape the old man’s enemies and prevent the new American president from being assassinated. Daniel Marchant, the flawed … Full Review