October Publications

Following on the heels of The Selected Stories of Patricia Highsmith (2001) comes Nothing That Meets the Eye: The Uncollected Stories of Patricia Highsmith, with an afterword by Paul Ingendaay and notes on the stories by Anna von Planta. Most of these 28 tales, which Highsmith (1921—1995) wrote between 1938 and 1982, are previously unpublished. (Norton, $27.95 480p ISBN 0-393-05187-0)

Fans of Kathy Acker (1948—1997) will welcome the first publication of two early short crime novels, Rip-Off Red, Girl Detective and The Burning Bombing of America, by the late postmodern author. Both are imbued with the raunchy and subversive wit typical of Acker's more mature work. (Grove, $14 paper 208p ISBN 0-8021-3920-5)

Bad girls aplenty act tough in Tart Noir, an all-original anthology edited by Stella Duffy and Lauren Henderson. Gathered from both sides of the Atlantic, this volume includes 20 tales by such female mystery mavens as Val McDermid, Laura Lippman, Sujata Massey, Sparkle Hayter, Denise Mina and the co-editors themselves. (Berkley Prime Crime, $13 paper 320p ISBN 0-425-18643-1) Crossword buffs can curl up with Nero Blanc's Crossworder's Holiday, a collection of five Christmas-themed tales, each with its own crossword puzzle (answers in the back). Blanc is the pseudonym of husband and wife Steve Zettler and Cordelia Frances Biddle. In the best holiday spirit, they are donating a portion of the book's earnings to the St. Barnabas Mission in Philadelphia. (Berkley Prime Crime, $22.95 224p ISBN 0-425-18733-0)

Gaylord Dold (Samedi's Knapsack, etc.) offers spare prose and first-class entertainment in his stand-alone thriller, Six White Horses. After his Marine sergeant, Harry Wilde, frames him for drug possession, Palmer manages to break out of jail and escape to Mexico, but seven years will pass before Palmer catches up with Wilde, now a wealthy drug dealer—and the woman and child he left behind. (St. Martin's Minotaur/Dunne, $23.95 304p ISBN 0-312-29025-X)

George Beahm, the compiler of The Stephen King Companion and The Unauthorized Anne Rice Companion, has now assembled The Unofficial Patricia Cornwell Companion. Beahm examines both the bestselling author's life and her works, while appendices include a technical guide to the world of Kay Scarpetta and a guide to collecting Cornwell from Postmortem (1990) to the present. (St. Martin's Minotaur, $17.95 paper 320p ISBN 0-312-30732-2)