Booklists · Beyond Bestsellers: Notable New Fiction Titles (May 2009)

The preindustrial people of Tibbet’s Brook are assaulted by nightly, savage attacks from the demonic “corelins,” which they try to deflect using symbolic, mystical shields called “wards.” But sometimes the fragile wards falter. Three brave crusaders rally to battle the demons of the night while they uncover the secrets of the past in this first bracing novel in Brett’s new fantasy series.

In its heday, Starvation Lake boasted the state’s top boy’s hockey team. Ten years after the team’s beloved coach drowned in a snowmobile accident, his machine suddenly washes up on the shores of another lake, five miles from where he supposedly died. Local reporter and former team goalie Gus Carpenter probes the mystery, earthing dark secrets of the town’s past in a gripping thriller reminiscent of Dennis Lehane’s Mystic River.

Pushed to the limit after being fired from his job in a Glagow factory, seventeen-year-old Harry Grass steals the factory owner’s car. Unfortunately, the man’s wife happens to be in the car. No worries though—as they speed north together, an unlikely bond develops between the runaways. Eventually they take cover at a small farm in northern Scotland but safety comes with a dangerous price…Kirkus Reviews promises that this psychological thriller will “scare the bejesus out of you.”

Hobbled by excruciating pain that no one can explain, Phil Camp, the author “Where Do I Stow My Baggage,” a fictitious self-help book that everyone took seriously, turns to Dr. Samuel Abrun, author “The Power of Ow!” for advice. Dr. Abrun assures Phil that the pain is all in his head. Could it be true? Or is Dr. Abrun, like Phil, a charlatan? A sharp-witted, amusing satire of the self-help movement from one of the David Letterman show’s veteran writers.

Reeling from the death of their seven-year-old son, Frank and Ellie Benton decide to pull up stakes and move to a small city in rural India. Initially the move appears to be a successful one, but things quickly fall apart when Frank’s attachment to their housekeeper’s young son sets in motion a tragic series of events. A strongly rendered story of bereavement and good intentions gone awry.

Morry Martinez “cleans out” the homes of the elderly who have passed on. He enjoys his job since, as a “feeler,” he has the ability to discover where the deceased stashed their life savings. One fortuitous apartment yields enough dough to send him into retirement, but rival feelers are hot on his trail, making it difficult for Morry to jet off to Mexico as planned. The wacky author of Pipsqueak and Stuffed makes delightful fun of life’s darker realities in this comic mystery, which has been likened to the escapades of Carl Hiaasen and Elmore Leonard.

12-year-old David Kim and his family who immigrated from Korea to Oakbridge, NJ, to open a gift shop in a rundown strip mall called Peddler’s Town. As an adult, David reflects on his father’s struggles to get the shop going in order to bring the rest of the family to New Jersey, his mother’s flirtations with their ESL teacher, and the colorful and eccentric characters who introduced them to America. As the Kims acclimate to their new country, they must also come together as a family again. Publishers Weekly says, “Woo's text strikes a true chord while drawing readers into its strange, strip mall world."

In the small, bleak, Queensland town of Desperance, Normal Phantom is patriarch of a large Aboriginal family enmeshed in conflicts with rival clans of the Pricklebush people, as well as with white settlers who support and profit from the area’s mining operations. White, author of Plains of Promise, brilliantly combines quotidian realities of modern Aboriginal life with the epic and chimerical power of the Dreamtime in a dazzling work that was awarded the 2007 Miles Franklin Award.