The 47th Samurai
by Stephen Hunter

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Review Publishers Weekly: Memo to bad guys: Don't mess with Bob Lee Swagger (Black Light), even if he is getting old. Swagger returns in an exciting adventure that begins in the closing days of World War II, when Bob Lee's father, Earl (Havana), earns the Medal of Honor on Iwo Jima and takes a Japanese officer's samurai sword as a souvenir. Decades later, Bob returns the sword to the dead officer's son and family. But the sword turns out to be historically and politically important, and the Japanese family is slaughtered to get it. This horror causes Bob Lee to obsess about both avenging the family and retrieving the sword. In effect, he becomes a samurai, and his confrontations with the murderers are extremely bloody. Although heavy on both the explanations of Japanese customs and the sordid world of incredibly savage Japanese criminals, this work is compelling, exciting, and satisfying, a dark adventure that will appeal to thriller fans. Hunter is also a chief film critic at the Washington Post, where he won a Pulitzer Prize in 2003. Recommended. [See Prepub Alert, LJ 5/15/07.]—Robert Conroy, Warren, MI Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

The Various Haunts of Men
by Susan Hill

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Review Library Journal:Starred Review. Lafferton, an idyllic village just far enough from the madness of London, is a paragon of tranquility and peace, with a lovely cathedral and a stand of ancient stones on "the Hill." But then a woman goes missing from there, and then another, and another. Young policewoman Freya Graffham is assigned to investigate the suspected serial killings. Recently transferred from London, she is young, bright, inquisitive, dedicated, and smitten with Detective Chief Inspector Simon Serrailler, although her new friends warn her that he's enigmatic, withdrawn, and withholding of both affection and commitment. As their relationship and the investigation unfold, the killer is revealed in a series of eerie first-person passages. He is close to both Simon and Freya—and getting closer. This is the first of Whitbread Award the winner Hill's three Simon Serrailler mysteries (following Pure in Heart and Risk of Darkness) to be published in the United States after receiving high praise in Britain. Hill is a master storyteller with real talent for building atmosphere and suspense. Readers will be instantly drawn to her likable characters and beautiful landscape and will be carried along by the plot, right up to the shocking final twist. Fans of British mysteries will love this new series and Simon Serrailler as well. Highly recommended.—Susan Clifford Braun, Aerospace Corp. Lib., El Segundo, CA Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

The View from Mount Joy
by Lorna Landvik

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Landvik's latest light drama opens as Joe Andreson transfers into a Minneapolis high school as a class of '72 senior. Like everyone else, Joe has a major thing for head cheerleader Kristi Casey—a version of Reese Witherspoon's character in Election. Joe gets some action, but is estranged from Kristi by graduation. As the years pass, and they stay in touch sporadically, Joe, who narrates, can't quite let go of his infatuation. He becomes an innovative grocer, still unmarried at mid-book, and Kristi transforms into a Bible-thumping radio/televangelist. Joe builds solid relationships with his mother and her new husband, and reconnects with high school friend Darva Pratt (who returns to town with her daughter, Flora), while Kristi sets her sights on the White House. Landvik (Angry Housewives Eating Bon Bons) deftly mixes humor and pathos in Kristi's ditzy On the Air with God radio show, starkly contrasted by her quietly powerful portrait of Joe, a man with real family values. (Sept.) Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Crusade
by Robyn Young

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The second volume in Youngs internationally bestselling Brethren trilogy, this gripping historical fiction reads like tomorrows headlines--portraying a rising tide of political pressures that led East and West to war in the 13th century.

The Big Girls
by Susanna More

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Starred Review. In spare yet hypnotic prose, Moore (One Last Look) examines the bond between a young psychiatrist and a mentally ill patient in her devastating sixth novel, set at an upstate New York federal women's prison. Sloatsburg Correctional Institution, a former sanitarium on the west bank of the Hudson, is dangerous, understaffed, underfinanced and overwhelmingly grim. The place epitomizes what's wrong with our nation's prison system and stands as a warning about our growing mental health crisis. Moore deftly shifts perspective among her principal characters—Dr. Louise Forrest, Sloatsburg's psychiatry chief; Helen Nash, a suicidal inmate who's been convicted of killing her children; Capt. Henry "Ike" Bradshaw, a corrections officer who's in love with Louise; and Angie Mills, a Hollywood actress (and Louise's ex-husband's girlfriend), whom Helen believes is her long-lost sister—as the action hurtles to an oddly satisfying resolution. Reading this heartbreaker is like watching a train wreck while dialing for help on your cellphone. You can't turn away. 75,000 printing; author tour. (May) Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.