Salon Books | Mystery roundup


	Search BarnesandNoble.com for more great mystery books! A L S O+.T O D A Y Turkey shoot Salon's critics pick the worst, and most overrated, books of 1998 Breakfast on Pluto Reviewed by Daniel Reitz Shortlisted for the 1998 Booker Prize, McCabe's new novel is partly about Ireland's troubles and partly about cross-dressing and the search for love T A B L E+T A L K Hate Shakespeare for no good reason? Share your irrational book prejudices in Table Talk's Books area B O O K C A S E A new service for book lovers R E C E N T L Y Remembering William Gaddis, neglected master By Carter Scholz (12/18/98) Coffee-table books for holiday giving -- and grabbing (12/16/98) Love Undetectable By Andrew Sullivan (11/30/98) Uncle Andrew's cabin By Peter Kurth (11/30/98) From he-man to holy man By Elaine Showalter (11/12/98) - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Browse the Books feature archive - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -		HUMOR AND HISTORY DOMINATE OUR ECLECTIC SELECTION OF 1998'S BEST CRIME FICTION. BY SUZETTE LALIME \| The sheer volume of mystery books published each year makes compiling a list of the best a pretty daunting prospect. I chose a number of these titles because they have a bit of humor and don't take themselves too seriously. This year, the impact of scientific research was a popular theme. So all of my choices make comments on technology and how it shapes the times in which the story is set. But one of the best things about a good mystery is that the author interweaves diverse topics with agility: The reader may not notice picking up a few new facts because she's having fun. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - The Northbury Papers BY JOANNE DOBSON \| DOUBLEDAY \| 288 PAGES BUY IT FROM BARNES&NOBLE.COM From the perspective of amateur sleuth Professor Karen Pelletier, we get a glimpse into academic politics at a small New York college. Despite discouragement from her colleagues, Karen reveals her enthusiasm for the melodramatic novels of 19th century American author Serena Northbury and pursues a course of research on the author. Just after Pelletier meets with Northbury's local relatives, one of them is killed. Pelletier is drawn into the family's conflicts, and into fiercer academic infighting, by a change in the heiress's will. Dobson has given Pelletier a feminist agenda, but a very practical sense of her position at the school, and uses the contrasting agendas of the other faculty and prominent players to create a realistic setting for the mystery. This is Dobson's second book featuring Pelletier. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - While Other People Sleep BY MARCIA MULLER \| MYSTERIOUS PRESS \| 368 PAGES BUY IT FROM BARNES&NOBLE.COM San Francisco detective Sharon McCone discovers that someone has stolen her identity when the impostor begins to make herself known to McCone's colleagues. In a chilling sequence of events, this intruder draws McCone into her game, and the detective can only follow, unaware of her nemesis's motivations. McCone is also hired by the lover of her office manager, Ted Smalley, who wants her to uncover why the loyal Ted has been so secretive and tense of late. As Sharon investigates her friend and tracks down her double, she finds herself visiting old haunts, trying to outwit two trespassers who know the intimate terrain of their subject's lives. Part thriller, part mystery, this book offers a look at the seedy nightclub scene and into McCone's past and larger questions of privacy. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - The Last Manly Man BY SPARKLE HAYTER \| WILLIAM MORROW \| 256 PAGES BUY IT FROM BARNES&NOBLE.COM Why do these things always happen to Robin Hudson, reluctant sleuth and professional newswoman for All News Network? Just when she has a real staff, a steady position and a romantic life, a mysterious man on the street hands her a hat -- containing a message. Before she knows it, she is rationalizing her involvement with an animal rights group as an assignment for ANN, getting involved in a plan to rescue a band of missing bonobo chimps, going hunting with the head of a corporation, attending a feminist conference and racing all over New York with co-conspirator Blue Baker. Hayter's fourth satirical mystery novel continues to investigate Robin's collection of personal quirks, which include keeping poison ivy in her window boxes to punish burglars and carrying a book on the subway called "So You Think You Have Lupus" to discourage men from asking her out. Check out Hayter's Web site (yes, that is her real name) and read her "I tried to quit smoking" journals. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - The First Eagle BY TONY HILLERMAN \| HARPERCOLLINS \| 278 PAGES BUY IT FROM BARNES&NOBLE.COM In Hillerman's 15th novel, he shows an artful patience -- his trademark -- as he unwinds the intricate motivations behind a new set of crimes in Indian Country. The book features Navajo Tribal policeman acting Lt. Jim Chee and the retired Lt. Joe Leaphorn. Readers will find two protagonists of subtle humor: Leaphorn, who is having a rough time retiring, is searching for a missing "flea catcher," a scientist who studies the spread of plague viruses. Chee is investigating the death of a fellow police officer and throughout the trial must work with his former fiancée. Hillerman is a great storyteller and uses a rich cultural mix of characters and unique landscapes to flesh out this tale. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Tanner on Ice BY LAWRENCE BLOCK \| DUTTON \| 256 PAGES BUY IT FROM BARNES&NOBLE.COM You can learn a lot of languages if you can't sleep. Evan Tanner, a sometime sleuth who has insomnia due to a brain injury, studies languages, makes his living writing theses for graduate students and organizes various political groups. That is, until he wakes up in 1997 and realizes he has been "on ice," cryogenetically frozen since 1972. One part Trevanian, one part Vonnegut, with plenty of surprises and heavy dashes of humor, Block's funnier moments include Tanner's arrival home to find that his ward, Minna, has maintained his apartment exactly as he left it 25 years earlier, except for the addition of "a strange sort of television set, all tricked out with a typewriter keyboard." His elusive employer sends him on a mission to stir up a revolution in Burma. Tanner's own agenda replaces the assignment and the reader is treated to adventures in the cultural and religious landscape of Burma, the practice of Thai and Burmese Buddhism, traveling in disguise and revolution. N E X T+P A G E+\| Sherlock Holmes' better half and other tales - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Become a Salon member. Click here.