Two Mysteries for Summer, Sans Private-I

Title: Try Fear

Author: James Scott Bell
Publisher: Center Street
Release date: July 16, 2009
Read? :-) :-)

Try Fear by former trial lawyer James Scott Bell is fabulous! The third in the series starring Ty Buchanan, high-powered LA attorney brought low by the death of his fiancée. As the book opens, Ty is living in a trailer at a convent in the outskirts of LA, taking on cases of the down-and-out pro bono from a coffee shop. He is assisted by Sister Mary Veritas, a nun who is a crack researcher and whose calling is in question. Ty puts his stellar trial skills to use in his latest case defending a man accused of killing his own brother, and Ty doesn't stop until he's used a little muscle and ju jitsu to find the truth, which has been well-hidden from him and the reader alike. Fast-paced, funny, and surprising; a must-read for mystery lovers.

Title: Get Real
Author: Donald E. Westlake
Publisher: Grand Central
Release date: July 17, 2009
Read? :-)

Thief John Dortmunder and his crew become the cast of a reality television show. While this entails a paycheck - a concept that Dortmunder detests - he and the gang see potential for additional (and unofficial) profit, so they give it a try. Complications galore follow, along with a large helping of behind-the-scenes action at the show. The result is both a fun caper novel and a fine send-up of the reality TV industry. Perfect for summer, and a book to make you smile. Sadly, Donald E. Westlake died on December 31, 2008, so this is the last of the Dortmunder series.

Til Divorce Do Us Part

Two novels that chronicle the dissolution of marriage.

Title: The Last War: A Novel
Author: Ana Menendez
Publisher: Harper
Published: May 26, 2009
Read? :-/

"Flash" is an American photojournalist spending the summer in Istanbul while her journalist husband is in Iraq. Ostensibly planning to join him, she finds herself procrastinating, and then a letter arrives hinting that he is cheating. Flash's indecision and obsession over the letter is maddening to read at times, and the conclusions she reaches are sometimes grim, but her story is a beautifully written and thoughtful work about marriage, war, and truth, punctuated by amusing observations, keen insights, kaleidoscopic shifts in perspective.

Title: The Idea of Love
Author: Louise Dean
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
Published: July 1, 2009
Read? :-/

English businessman Richard Bird has risen through the ranks in the pharmaceutical industry. Living in France, married to an unhappy French woman, his life unravels when the travel, sleeping around, and drinking take their toll and his wife has an affair with the American next door. The writing is terrific in this perceptive and sometimes troubling story where every character has a theory of what love is but only a few find out what it really means. Recommended for those who like realism in their fiction.