February Publications

For his 13th Det. Insp. John Rebus volume, Ian Rankin (The Falls) has traded the full-length police procedural for a collection of 12 gripping stories. The king of tartan noir puts his popular Scottish "heart attack material" supersleuth to work investigating arson, a ghostly vision, a converted ex-con and the "perfect murder" in A Good Hanging's fast-paced mini-mysteries. (St. Martin's Minotaur, $23.95 256p ISBN 0-312-28027-0)

An antiques dealer happens upon a stolen jade dish, a pharmacist becomes an accomplice to murder and a man tries to kill his best friend in Criminal Intentions, a collection of 15 stories from as many different perspectives by Welshman David Williams (Unholy Writ and 16 other Mark Treasure mysteries). While the stories' abbreviated length prevents Williams from developing fully realized characters, his final moment plot twists make them compulsively readable. (Robert Hale [Trafalgar Square, dist.], $27.50 270p ISBN 0-1090-6945-6)

Bestselling U.K. author Tessa Barclay (A Lovely Illusion) turns her talents to crime fiction in Farewell Performance, the story of a concert agent turned amateur detective. Gregory Crowne—whose real name happens to be Crown Prince Gregory of Hirtenstein—wants to discover who stole a maestro's priceless cello, but when a suspicious case of food poisoning kills one of his clients, he realizes that his investigation is more complicated and dangerous than he ever could have suspected. (Severn, $25.99 256p ISBN 0-7278-5773-8)

When Indian tribal police and air force officials clash over who should investigate the crash of a Stealth fighter plane on reservation land, Tommy Spottedhorse joins forces with friend Ben Pecos (hero of The Pumpkin Seed Massacre) to sniff out clues about the disappearance of a young woman (on whom Tommy had a crush) near the wreckage. Spanning everything from identity politics to theories about aliens, Susan Slater's Thunderbird is a witty, absorbing tale. (Intrigue [www.intriguepress.com], $23.95 280p ISBN 1-890768-41-3)

D.W. St. John's (A Terrible Beauty) See Night Run is a densely written cop drama that takes aim at the war on drugs. Night Hume, a ponytailed member of the Interagency Narcotics Enforcement Team, is supposed to bust a pretty biology professor for dealing marijuana, but instead he rents a spare room in her house and watches deals go down without a word. Torn between enforcing and flouting the law and caught in the middle of a government coverup, lovestruck Hume is forced to question everything he's ever believed in. (Poison Vine [1393 Old Homestead Dr., Oakland, Ore. 97462], $29.95 228p ISBN 1-930859-17-1)

Claire Reynier, the 50-something Albuquerque librarian last seen in Judith Van Gieson's Vanishing Point, returns to cope with a case of a stolen book (a first edition of Melville's The Confidence-Man worth thousands) and a stolen identity (her own) in Confidence Woman. Evelyn Martin was a friend from college whom Claire agreed to help get back on her feet, but when Evelyn turns up dead with Claire's credit cards, Claire becomes a suspect in her murder. (Univ. of New Mexico, $23.95 208p ISBN 0-8263-2888-1)

January Publications

In Christopher Brookmyre's wild and wildly funny debut crime novel, Quite Ugly One Morning, which won Britain's First Blood Award, journalist and hedonist Jack Parlabane ("different day... same hangover") investigates the murder of a young, well-to-do citizen of Edinburgh. Crooked cops, guns-for-hire and cheating spouses complicate matters—as does Jack's growing affection for the dead man's wife. (Grove, $12 paper 214p ISBN 0-8021-3861-6)

Crime and comedy abound in this reprint of sibling mystery mavens Constance and Gwenyth Little's 1945 The Black Cat, in which a cast of lunatic characters grapple with problems of murders and manners. Eugenia Gates (who's staying at her friend's apartment for what's supposed to be a relaxing mini-vacation) has to fend off the advances of an amorous sergeant, deal with a nosy chaperone and put up with oddball neighbors and a lot of partying—and that's even before folks start turning up dead. (Rue Morgue [P.O. Box 4119, Boulder, Colo. 80306], $14 paper 160p ISBN 0-915230-45-3)