Set immediately after Frank Herbert’s Dune Messiah (1969), this satisfying tale from Herbert’s son and Anderson (Paul of Dune) follows Jessica, the mother of galactic emperor Paul Atreides, as she returns to the desert planet Dune for her son’s funeral. Paul’s suicide after his mistress’s childbed death leaves his sister, the insane and brutal Alia, as regent for his twin children. Alia releases Princess Irulan, Paul’s wife and biographer, from house arrest on the condition that she present Paul as a god, even as Bronso of Ix circulates contrasting writings focusing on Paul’s humanity. Alia, Jessica, Bronso and Irulan can describe aspects of Paul, but no single narrative can capture him. Fans of the original Dune series will love seeing familiar characters, and the narrative voice smoothly evokes the elder Herbert’s style. (Aug.)
Order your signed copy of The Winds of Dune by Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson at www.vjbooks.com
(Publisher’s Weekly, June 22)
Four missing documents from WWII provide the fuel for Fesperman’s fine stand-alone thriller. The FBI hires Nat Turnbull, a Nazi expert at a second-tier New England university, to find the documents, but Nat soon discovers that the agency has reasons other than historical integrity for wanting them found: to keep a lid on certain war-era sins committed by a German industrialist whose enormous company has been a major weapons supplier to the West. As Turnbull shuttles between Europe and the U.S., he manages to stay a step ahead of a mysterious killer who’s knocking off anyone who may know something about the missing files. Fesperman (The Prisoner of Guantánamo) convincingly evokes the fraying Reich in 1944, a time of shifting allegiances when many Germans focused on positioning themselves for a Hitler-less future, though the who and why of all the recent killings remain somewhat murky. Still, readers who like a bit of history with their thrills will be thoroughly satisfied.
Order a signed copy of The Arms Maker of Berlin by Dan Fesperman at www.vjbooks.com
(Publisher’s Weekly, June 22)
Bestseller Goodkind (Confessor) ventures into thriller territory with results sure to please fans of his fantasy fiction. In the opening pages, Alex Rahl, the book’s unwitting hero, saves the beautiful Jax from being run down on the street in Orden, Neb., by a plumbing truck flying a pirate flag. Jax, who turns out to be from an alternate reality where evildoers are attempting to seize control of her civilization, has traveled to Nebraska to seek Alex’s help in saving her people. In Jax’s world, magic takes the place of technology, but on earth she’s stripped of her powers and forced to fight armed with only her trusty dagger. The author takes his time setting all this up, but once the story gets rolling, it’s a gripping ride as the bad guys whoosh in between their world, which remains unseen, and ours. Fantasy and thriller readers alike will find themselves swept along to the final confrontation and looking forward to the next installment.
Order your signed copy of The Laws of Nines by Terry Goodkind at www.vjbooks.com
(Publisher’s Weekly, June 22)
Thor has served as a member of the Department of Homeland Security’s Analytic Red Cell Program and has appeared on the major TV networks, says his Web site, “as a national Security expert to discuss terrorism and how closely his novels of international intrigue parallel the real threats facing the world today.” His new hardcover, The Apostle, hit the stores June 30.
Order your signed copy of The Apostle by Brad Thor at www.vjbooks.com
(Publisher’s Weekly, June 22)
Persistence pays. Cornwell‘s first crime novel, Postmortem, was rejected by seven major publishign houses before it was published by Scribner in 1990. It became the first novel to win the Edgar, Creasey, Anthony and Macavity awards as well as the French Prix du Roman d’Aventure in a single year. Lifetime TV has announced forthcoming movie versions of At Risk and its sequel, The Front.
See Patricia Cornwell titles at www.vjbooks.com
(Publisher’s Weekly, June 22)
Jeffery Deaver recently learned that a novelist’s life can be fraught with peril. To lend credibility to the fictional blog he created in Roadside Crosses, he roamed the shoreline near Monterey, Califo., taking pictures to accompany the posts. During a beach breakfast break he was “mercilessly attacked by a flock – gang is more accurate – of seagulls, who clearly had had a taste for Super-Seed bagels with cream cheese and wanted more. They are, by the way, very big birds.” Deaver just finished a 14-city tour (gull-free, we trust); Roadside imprint total: 210,000 copies.
Order your signed copy of Roadside Crosses by Jeffery Deaver at www.vjbooks.com
(Publisher’s Weekly, June 22)
Like Bond locations, Bourne locations are being talked about in the travel business. Lustbader used some of the scenes in and around Ball’s luxe Amankila Hotel as settings for The Bourne Deception, which has 301,000 copies in print. New York will soon be a real setting for Lustbader, when he participates in two panels at Thrillerfest on July 8 and 11.
Order a signed copy of Bourne Deception by Eric Van Lustbader at www.vjbooks.com
(Publisher’s Weekly, June 22)
The Last Oracle is Rollin’s fifth Sigma Force novel – after The Judas Strain, which spent 12 weeks on our fiction and mass market lists. Publisher’s Weekly review said, “Lots of absorbing scientific information and tantalizing sentences like “With two rifles strapped to his back and a boy and a chimpanzee in tow, Monk marched down pitch-black tunnel’ keep the pages flying by.” More pages will be flying soon, when Sigma Force #6, The Doomsday Key, is out June 23.
(Publisher’s Weekly, June 15)
Late last year, bestselling thriller writer Joseph Finder was walking around Bouchercon, the World Mystery Convention, and ran into “a couple of guys” from DC Comics. He had just finished Vanished, a novel coming out this August featuring a young alienated teenager who is creating his own comic book. Finder thought it would be cool if he could actually produce the comic and use it to promote the novel. (more…)
