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Staff Picks for September

Annie's Staff Picks

The Dragon of Despair by Jane Lindskold

"With "Through Wolf's Eyes and "Wolf's Head, Wolf's Heart, Jane Lindskold introduced us to young Firekeeper, one of the most appealing heroines in modern fantasy. Raised far from humans by smart, language-using wolves, then brought back to the court of Hawk Haven, Firekeeper has had to learn to cope with human society. And as it turns out, for one raised amidst intelligent social carnivores, the intrigues of the human pack aren't all that unfamiliar.

Now Melina Shield, the beautiful, unscrupulous, and thoroughly discredited sorceress whose power-hungry intrigues have already made so much trouble for Firekeeper, is once again using her power to cloud men's minds. She has induced the ruler of New Kelvin to marry her. This is bad news all round.

It's particularly bad news for Firekeeper. Melina has never abandoned her schemes to gain power through the use of forbidden ancient sorcery. And the leaders of the royal beasts who watch over this world have given Firekeeper -- and her intelligent wolf companion, Blind Seer -- the responsibility of stopping her."

$27.95 prior to 25% new hardcover discount

Spirits in the Wires by Charles de Lint

"Charles de Lint's Newford novels, loosely linked "tales" with overlapping characters set in an imaginary modern North American city, are tales of magic and myth afoot on today's city streets. But at the center of every de Lint story is the miracle of the human heart.

And at the heart of "Spirits in the Wires are Saskia Madding and Christiana Tree, both of whom are tied to perennial Newford character, the writer Christy Riddell. Are either Saskia or Christiana real? Christy's girlfriend, Saskia, believes she was born in a Web site, while Christiana is Christy's "shadow-self"--all the parts of him that he cast out when he was seven years old.

At a popular Newford on-line research and library Web site called the Wordwood, a mysterious "crash" occurs. Everyone visiting the site at the moment of the crash vanishes from where they were sitting in front of their computers. Saskia disappears right before Christy's eyes, along with countless others.

Now Christy and his companions must journey into Newford's otherworld, where the Wordwood, it transpires, has a physical presence of its own...to rescue their missing friends and loved ones and to set this viral spirit right before it causes further harm."

$27.95 prior to 25% new hardcover discount

Dreams Underfoot by Charles de Lint

"Welcome to Newford. . . .
Welcome to the music clubs, the waterfront, the alleyways where ancient myths and magic spill into the modern world. Come meet Jilly, painting wonders in the rough city streets; and Geordie, playing fiddle while he dreams of a ghost; and the Angel of Grasso Street gathering the fey and the wild and the poor and the lost. Gemmins live in abandoned cars and skells traverse the tunnels below, while mermaids swim in the grey harbor waters and fill the cold night with their song."

$15.95

Mad Maudlin by Mercedes Lackey & Rosemary Edghill

"Eric Banyon, better known as Bedlam's Bard, has just discovered that he has a younger brother named Magnus whom his parents have kept secret from him. Just as Eric did years ago, 17-year-old Magnus has run away from home to escape his dysfunctional family. Determined to find him, Eric finds himself caught in a desperate race against time. Young homeless children in New York have created a bizarre mythology about a demon called Bloody Mary who prays on young children--and somehow Bloody Mary has taken on an independent life and now stalks the streets of the city. Eric's friends, the Guardians, seem powerless to stop her. Anyone who sees her is marked for death. And Magnus has seen her. . . ."

$25.00 prior to 25% new hardcover discount

The Gathering Dark by Christopher Golden

"Golden returns to his critically-acclaimed Shadow Saga with this long-awaited follow-up to "Of Masques and Martyrs, " featuring Peter Octavian--once a vampire, now a powerful mage--as the only man powerful enough to stop a supernatural armageddon."

$6.99

Lelia's Staff Picks

The Mystery at Orchard House by Joan Coggins

"In this sequel to Who Killed the Curate? (1944), set on the eve of WWII, the kind-hearted, scatterbrained Lady Lupin Lorimer Hastings investigates a crime wave at a country hotel in Kent."

$14.95

Death at the Priory by James Ruddick

"In 1875 the beautiful widow Florence Ricardo married the handsome and successful young attorney Charles Bravo, hoping to escape the scandals of her past. But Bravo proved to be a brutal and conniving man, and the marriage was far from happy. Then one night he suddenly collapsed, and three days later died an agonizing death. His doctors immediately determined that he had been poisoned.

The graphic and sensational details of the case would capture the public imagination of Victorian England as the investigation dominated the press for weeks, and the list of suspects grew to include Florence, her secret lover the eminent doctor James Gully, her longtime companion the housekeeper Mrs. Cox, and the recently dismissed stableman George Griffiths. But ultimately no murderer could be determined, and despite the efforts of numerous historians, criminologists, and other writers since (including Agatha Christie), the case has never been definitively solved. Now James Ruddick retells this gripping story of love, greed, brutality, and betrayal among the elite -- offering an intimate portrait of Victorian culture and of one woman's struggle to live in this repressive society, while unmasking the true murderer for the first time. Simultaneously a murder mystery, colorful social history, and modern-day detective tale, Death at the Priory is a thrilling read and a window into a fascinating time."

$13.00

Corpus de Crossword by Nero Blanc

"Folks in Taneysville, Massachusetts, are furious when a builder decides to develop fifteen acres of their precious land. Then the determined developer is stopped cold in his tracks...not by a demonstration, but by a grisly discovery. The skeletal remains of a young woman have been unearthed by the construction crew. Belle and Rosco are fast on the case. It's not long before anonymous crosswords start pouring in--but even with so many clues, Belle and Rosco find that in this old-fashioned hamlet, not everything is black and white..."

$13.00

Exit the Milkman by Charlotte MacLeod

"A Professor Peter Shandy mystery Prof. Jim Feldster will do anything for his cows and his students of dairy management...and anything to avoid an evening at home with his bossy, house-proud wife, Mirelle. But on his way to a meeting of the Scarlet Runners, he disappears. Where is Professor Feldster? What dark secrets could possibly be lurking behind his life of grain supplements and electric milking machines?"

$6.99

Watchers by Dean Koontz

"From a top-secret government laboratory come two genetically altered life forms. One is Einstein, a magnificent dog of astonishing intelligence. The other, the Outsider, is a hybrid monster of a brutally violent nature. And both are on the loose..."

$7.99

Andrew's Staff Picks

Everyone In Silico by Jim Munroe

"In Vancouver in 2036, people are tired of the rain. They're willing to give up a lot for guaranteed sunshine, a life with no wasted hours. A life free of crime and disease. A life that ends when you want it to, not when some faceless entity decides its your time. Those who don't buy in-the poor, the old, the paranoid-have to watch as their loved ones, their friends, and their jobs leave the city. They have to watch as the latest prestige technology, Self, changes everything-not just the world but humanity itself. On the bright side, the rents have dropped. And in several unexpected ways, resistance is growing. This fascinating work of fiction tells what can happen when the cyberworld becomes more important than the real world."

$13.95

Holes by Louis Sachar

Stanley Yelnats is under a curse. A curse that began with his no-good-dirty-rotten-pig-stealing-great-great-grandfather and has since followed generations of Yelnats. Now Stanley has been unjustly sent to a boys' detention center, Camp Green Lake, where the warden makes the boys "build character" by spending all day, every day, digging holes: five feet wide and five feet deep. It doesn't take long for Stanley to realize there's more than character improvement going on at Camp Green Lake. The boys are digging holes because the warden is looking for something. Stanley tries to dig up the truth in this inventive and darkly humorous tale of crime and punishment--and redemption.

$6.50

Gun, With Occasional Music by Jonathan Lethem

"Gumshoe Conrad Metcalf has problems-there's a rabbit in his waiting room and a trigger-happy kangaroo on his tail. Near-future Oakland is a brave new world where evolved animals are members of society, the police monitor citizens by their karma levels, and mind-numbing drugs such as Forgettol and Acceptol are all the rage.

Metcalf has been shadowing Celeste, the wife of an affluent doctor. Perhaps he's falling a little in love with her at the same time. When the doctor turns up dead, our amiable investigator finds himself caught in a crossfire between the boys from the Inquisitor's Office and gangsters who operate out of the back room of a bar called the Fickle Muse.

Mixing elements of sci-fi, noir, and mystery, this clever first novel from the author of Motherless Brooklyn is a wry, funny, and satiric look at all that the future may hold."

$14.00

The Million Dollar Wound by Max Allan Collins

"From a foxhole on Guadalcanal (shared with Barney Ross) to the glitzy underworld of Hollywood in the '40s, Nate Heller fights his memories and the Mob. Something happened at the Canal, something Heller's blocking out. What he can't block, though, is the wound he received -- the million-dollar wound, the one that got him home. Back in the States, and back in Chicago, he becomes involved once again with Frank Nitti during the gang boss' last violent days, and with the gangland attempts to take over the movie unions. The homefront is every bit as violent as the war-torn Pacific, and even the solace of Sally Rand can do nothing to ease Heller, who is haunted by the death of a friend in Guadalcanal, and surrounded by the mayhem of gangland murders."

$6.99

The Parker Grey Show by Kristen Buckley

"When she isn't waiting tables, Parker Grey doesn't have much to do except watch reruns of her favorite medical drama and fantasize about its star. In fact, sometimes she feels like her life is one big TV show--one she'd channel-surf right past. But now Parker's roommate, Lil, has disappeared. Knowing she's a lot better at watching drama than creating it, Parker turns to TV for help. Inspired by the sexy star of "La Femme Nikita, " she takes to the streets of Manhattan. To find Lil. And to start writing a whole new script for her life."

$13.00