INCOMING

Let's start June off with a pile of books.

Incoming:

• Poul Anderson, All One Universe.  Retrospective collection of 18 science fiction stories and articles.  Also, The Fleet of Stars.  Science fiction, the fourth novel in the Harvest of Stars series and a sequel to 1995's Harvest the Fire.  Anderson  "brings  back the wildly colorful Anson Guthrie, the iconoclastic hero of Harvest the Stars.  The staid, somber people of Earth are not only dependent on technology, they are all but ruled by machine intelligence.  suspecting a conspiracy to suppress the last vestiges of freedom known to humankind, Guthrie sets out on a dangerous and hair-raising journey encompassing the realm of the comets, the asteroids, and the stars themselves.  Among the many exciting characters he meets along the way are the brave, beautiful Kinna Ronay and her courageous friend Finn, who against the advice of the wise and cautious Chuan, will join Guthrie in his attempt to stop the Terrans.  Guthrie and his friends are determined that humankind will travel to the stars and roam the galaxies, even the universe itself, or die trying."
• Isaac Asimov, Understanding Physics, Volume II:  Light Magnetism, and Electricity.  Part of a 1966 tome that, while outdated, is still as relevant today as it was then.  Asimov's prose is clear and a pleasure to read and explains why he has been called America's Explainer.
• Katie Bernet, Beth Is Dead.  Mystery, an updated riff on Little Women.  "When Beth March is found dead, her sisters vow to uncover her murderer -- until they begin to suspect one another.  Jo, an aspiring author, with a huge social media following, would do anything to hook readers.  Did she kill her sister for the story?   Amy is desperate to study art in Europe, but she needs money from her aunt -- money that's always been earmarked for Beth.  Meg wouldn't dream of hurting her sister,  but her boyfriend might have done it -- and she'll protect him at all costs.  And the March sisters aren't the only ones with a story to tell.  There's Theodore Laurence, the neighbor who has feelings for not one but two sisters. Meg's manipulative best friend, Amy's flirtatious mentor, and Beth's lionhearted first ,love.  But the suspect pool stretches far outside family and friends. Months ago, the March sisters were dragged into the spotlight when their father published a controversial bestseller about his own neighbors, so anyone could have wanted Beth dead..."  I'm looking forward to this one, but I have to admit that I have never read Little Women and ;probably never will.
• David Brin, Existence.  Science fiction.  "Gerald Livingston is an orbital garbage collector.  For a hundred years, people have been abandoning things in space, and someone has to clean it up.  But there's something spinning a little higher than he expects, something that isn't on the decades-old orbital maps.  An hour after he grabs it and brings it in, rumors fill Earth's infomesh about an 'alien artifact.'  Thrown into the maelstrom of worldwide shared experience, the Artifact is a game changer.  A message in a bottle: an alien capsule that wants to communicate.  The world reacts as hun]mans always do:  with fear and hope and selfishness and love and violence.  And incredible curiosity."
• Algis Budrys, editor, L. Ron Hubbard Presents Writers of the Future, Volume XXII.  Annual volume presenting the winners of the Writer of the Future and the Illustrator of the Future contests of 2006.  Basically a contest for unpublished authors, most of the winners -- as expected -- are not that good, and most do not go on to greater things.  But there are some who make it; the inaugural class of 1985 included Nina Kiriki Hoffman, Leonard Carpenter, David Zindell, Dean Wesley smith, and Karen Joy Fowler; 1986 had Robert Reed and Howard Hendrix; bugt over the years, most of the authors and their stories vanished in the dust.  The WOTF contest is a big deal, however, drawing a lot of support from the writing and publishing community, but -- at tis heart -- it's just a promotional gimmick for scientology and its founder, the sometimes talented and often erratic L. Ron Hubbard.  Authors included in this volume are Blake Hutchins, Judith Tabron, Michael Velichansky, Lee Beevington, David Sakmyser, Diana Rowland, David John Baker, Brandon Sigrist, Joseph Jordan, Richard Kirslake, Sarah Totton, and Brian Rappatta -- the only name I recognize here is Diana Rowland, who has published six novels in the Angel Crawford/White Trash Zombie series and nine novels in the Kara Gillian/Demon series, but whose name I recognized only because she published in just one of G.R.R. Martin's Wild Cards series of "mosaic novels."  How many of these names did you recognize?  Also included are four article from Hubbard, Bob Eggleton, Robert J. Sawyer, and Orson Scott Card.  B ot, I'm afraid, a very worthwhile anthology.
• Gwendoline Butler, Coffin's Game.  The 29th (of 34) mysteries featuring John /Coffin.  "A series of random terrorist acts have struck the heart of Commander John Coffin's Docklands area.  The  body of a dead woman, rendered unidentifiable by her killer, is at first believed to be Stella Pinero, Coffin's wife.  While Coffin confirms it is not, he cannot explain the disappearance of Stella, or the treachery that is poised to shatter his personal and professional world.  A second body, obscenely costumed in theater clippings, implicates Stella in a double murder.  Coffin's deepest motivations and loyalties are put to the test as a puzzle of evil and deceit unfolds.  Only a third murder will tip the killer's hand, revealing a twisted, tragic mystery of blackmail, revenge, and madness unlike any other that /Coffin has faced."  Butler also wrote the Charmian Daniels series as "Jennie Melville."
• Michael Connelly, Lost Light.  A Harry Bosch novel, the ninth in the series.  "Only the money was real.  Four years ago, LAPD detective Harry Bosxh was on a movie set asking questions about the murder of a young production assistant when an armored car arrived with two million dollars cash for use in a heist scene.  In a life-imitates-art firestorm, a gang of masked men converged on the delivery and robbed the armored car with guns blazing.  Bosch got off a shot that struck one of the robbers as their van sped away, but the money was never recovered.  And the young woman's murder was in the stack of unsolved-case files Bosch carried home the night he left the LAPD.  Now Bosch moves back full bore into that case, determined to find justice for thee young woman.  Without a badge to open doors and strike fear into the guilty, he learns afresh how brutally indifferent the world can be.  But something draws him on, past humiliation and harassment.  It's not just that the dead woman had no discernable link to the robbery.  Nor is it his sympathy for the cops who took over the case, one of them killed on duty and the other paralyzed from the same attack.  With every conversation and every shred of evidence, Bosch senses a larger presence, an organization bigger than the movie studios and more ruthless than even the LAPD." 
• John Darton, Neanderthal.  Suspense thriller.  "In the  mountains of northern Asia, a guerilla fighter vanishes, a schoolgirl is  murdered, and an eminent Harvard paleontologist disappears.  To a shadowy government agency in Maryland, these are all signs that something has gone terribly wrong with the  most extraordinary expedition ever mounted.  Matt Mattison and Susan Arnot, who were once lovers and are now academic rivals, are dispatched to find the secret their Harvard mentor was seeking:  a species linked to the origins of mankind.  They have existed for over forty thousand years.  They possess powers man cannot even imagine.  And in a world dominated by humans, they are about to alter the face of civilization forever."
• Joe Gores, Glass Tiger.  Thriller.  "Brendan Thorne, ex-ranger in Panama, ex-sniper for a CIA front in Cambodia, has foresworn violence and is living in Kenya when FBI agent Terrill Hatfield arranges for Thorne's deportation back to the United States.  In a top secret meeting. Thorne is told that Halden Corwin, legendary Vietnam sniper and mercenary, has vowed to assassin ate the recently elected president of the United States.  The government's computers have picked Thorne as the most likely person to find Corwin and stop him.  Thorne won't have to kill anyone:  Hatfield's crack FBI tam will take care of that.  But when the plan doesn't go as described, Thonre discovers he can't trust anyone of anything he's been told.  Drawn into a wed of lies, ambitions, and double-crosses, Thorne must run for his life and, ultimately, stand and fight."
• Donald Hamilton, The Retaliators.  A Matt Helm spy-guy novel, the 17th (of 27) in the series.  "Matt Helm was unexpectedly rich and he didn't like it.  The $20,000 that had been deposited in his account was a complete surprise.  Very nice.  Except Matt knew that someone was setting him up, making it look as though he was a traitor and getting a payoff.  Someone who wanted Matt out of  business.  Suddenly, another secret agent with an unexplained surplus in his bank account was murdered.  Matt figured he'd better track down the 'benefactors' before they retired him for good."
• Anthony Horowitz, Magpie Murders.  Mystery, the first novel in the Susan Ryeland series.  "Alan Conway is a bestselling crime writer.  His editor, Susan Ryeland, has worked with him for years, and she's intimately familiar with his detective, Atticus Pund, who solves mysteries disturbing sleepy English villages.  Alan's traditional formula pays homage to queens of classic Briitish crime such as Agatha Christie and Dorothy Sayers.  It's proved hugely successful.  So successful that Susan must continue to pout up with his troubling behavior if she wants to keep her job.  When Susan receives Alan's latest manuscript, in which Atticus Pund investigates a murder in an English manor house, Pye Hall, she has no reason to think it will be any different from the others.  there will be dead bodies, a cast of intriguing suspects, plenty of red herrings and clues.  but the more Susan reads, the  more she realizes that there's another story hidden in the pages of the manuscript -- one of ruthless ambition, jealousy, and greed -- and that it will soon lead to murder."
• Joan Kahn, editor, The Edge of the Chair.  Suspense anthology with 35 stories and essays.  Kahn (1914-1994) was the legendary mystery/suspense editor at Harper & Row for nearly thirty-five years (which included the launch of her own imprint, Joan Kahn books); among her signing were John Creasey, Patricia Highsmith, Julian Symons, Dick Francis, and Tony Hillerman.  she has long been considered one of the premiere editors in the field.  The Edge of the Chair was the first of at least ten highly respected anthologies published over a twenty-year period, blending the usual suspects with writers from mainstream litersature, past and present.  An excellent anthology on every level.
• Elmer Kelton, Many a River.  Western.  "The Barfield family, Arkansas sharecroppers, are headed west with their sons, Jeffrey and Todd. to find good farmland they can call their own.  In far West Texas their camp is attacked by Comanche raiders, and the elder Barfields are savagely killed.  Todd, the younger son, is taken captive by the Indians.  Jeffrey manages to hide and is rescued by white militiamen.  While his older brother is given in the care of a homesteading family, Todd is sold -- for a rifle and gunpowder -- to a Comanchero trader named January.  Years later, after escaping from near-slavery with the trader, Todd, now fluent in the Spanish language, serves and an interpreter for Confederate troops marching to Santa Fe.  Jeffrey and his adopted family are forced to flee their North Texas farm and head south for the Mexican border to escape the turbulent battles between Unionists and Confederates.  Brothers Jeffrey and Todd, separated by violence, have crossed many rivers, but are determined to be reunited and discover hoe their separate lives have changed them."  Kelton was a seven-time Spur winner.  
• "Freida McFadden" (Sara Cohen), The Widow's Husband's Secret Lie.  Satirical novella.  "My husband is dead.  I attended his funeral.  I watched his casket be lowered six feet into the ground.  (Actually, it may have been only five feet, but that still seems like more than enough.)  And then we ate an array of finger sandwiches and deviled eggs and miniature beef wellingtons that cost more than my first car.  My pint is, Grant is gone.  And so are all his many, many deep, dark secrets which I never really bothered to ask him about.  He is never coming back.  So why do I still see his face everywhere I  go?"  The acclaimed author of thirty novels was named by Time as one of the 100 most influential people of the year, so i thought I'd see what all the hubbub was about  and am staring with this novella.
• Jo Nesbo, Cockroaches.  The second Inspector Harry Hole novel.  "When Norway's ambassador to Thailand is found dead in a Bangkok brothel, Inspector Harry Hole is dispatched from Oslo to help with the case.  Once he arrives Harry discovers that this case is about much more thana random murder.  Something else. something more pervasive, is scrabbling around behind the scenes:  for every cockroach you see, there are hundreds behind the walls.  Assaulted round-the-clock by traffic noise, Harry wanders the streets of Bangkok -- lined with go-go bars, temples, tourist traps, and opium dens -- trying to peace together the truth behind the ambassador's death even though no one asked him to, and no one wants him to -- not even Harry himself."
• Kim Newman, The Man from the Diogenes Club.  The first collection of mystery/fantasy/horror stories about the Diogenes Club, with eight stories.  "Introducing Richard Jeperson...in the 1970s the  most valued member of the Diogenes Club -- the least publicized of Britain's law enforcement and intelligence agencies.  his cases involved haunted trains and seaside resorts, murder in utopian communities and London's vice district, voodoo and mind-altering therapists.  His fashion sense is gaudy, his enemies deadly,  and his associates glamourous."  The Diogenes Club may ring a bell with long-time mystery fans.
• Warren Norwood (& Mel Odom, uncredited), Time Police, Volume 2:  Trapped!  The second of four science fiction novels in a series created buy Byron Preuss.  "Jackson Dubcheck's family  has vanished!  As if they never existed, Jackson's sister-in-law, mom, and nephew have disappeared.  Even their names had been erased from public records.  He must find them and knows where to look -- in the past.  The Second Republic, the dictators of 2249 and inventors of time travel, preserve their future by changing the past.  Jackson, an ordinary citizen, was no threat to the Republic until he discovered their secret.  Now Jackson is on the run.  With the Time Police hot non his track, can he help overthrow the Republic?  Can he rescue his future by fixing his past?"
• "Ellis Peters" (Edith Pargeter), The Confession of Brother Haluin.  The fifteenth chronicle of Brother Cadfael.  "After a mild autumn, December of 1142 brings a smothering, silent blanket of snow.  Thus it comes about that the great hall of the Bendictine Abbey of Saint Peter and Saint Paul is damaged, and the brothers must repair its roof before the damage worsens.  The treacherous icy conditions are to prove near-fatal for Brother Haluin.  He slips from the roof in a terrible fall., sustaining such grave injuries that he makes his deathbed confession to the Abbot and Brother Cadfael.  A startling story of trespasses hard for God or man to forgive emerges.  But Haluin does not die.  On his recovery, he sets out on a journey of expiation, with Cadfael as his sole companion.  An arduous trip, it leads to some shocking discoveries, and to murder."  Also, The Summer of the Danes.  The eighteenth chronicle of Brother Cadfael.  "In the summer of 1144, a strange calm has settled over England.  The armies of King Stephen and Empress Maud have temporarily exhausted each other.   Brother Cadfael considers peace a blessing, but a little excitement never comes amiss to a former soldier and Cadfael is delighted to accompany his young friend, Brother Mark, not expecting to be caught up in yet another royal feud.  The Welsh prince Owain Gwynedd has banished his brother Cadwaladr, accusing him of the treacherous murder of an ally.  The reckless Cadwaladr has retaliated by leading an army of Danish mercenaries, poised to invade Wales and retake his Just lands.  As the two armies teeter on the brink of bloody civil war, Cadfael is captured by the Danes, together with a headstrong young woman fleeing an arranged marriage, but before he can untangle such domestic passions, Cadfael has to survive the brotherly quarrel that could plunge an entire kingdom into deadly chaos."  I had a signed copy of this book years ago that went walkabout before I had a chance to read it, so I'm grateful for this copy.
• John Saul, Three Complete Novels.  Horror omnibus containing Hellfire (1986), The Unwanted (1987), and Sleepwalk (1990).  Hellfire:  "Westover's old mill hides a horrifying act behind the doors that slammed shut a century before.  The eleven youngsters caught within those doors faced a fierce inferno.  Just as the secretive townspeople must face a long-overdue vengeance."  The Unwanted:  "When her mother dies in a violent accident, sixteen-year-old Cassie Winslow goes to live with her father's new family.  Her increasingly bizarre dreams leave her to discover the frightening psychic forces of The Unwanted."  Sleepwalk:  "A sleepy New Mexico Town becomes the scene of nightmares that appear deathly real to the victims.  but what -- or who -- is the sources of these psychic attacks?"  Saul (b. 1944) made his bones with more than three dozen best-selling suspense and horror novels beginning in 1977, many of them dealing with children either in peril or causing peril.  his books readable, but because of his emphasis on putting kids through the wringer, I have to space reading them far apart.  He should not be confused with Canadian author and political philosopher John Ralston Saul (b. 1947).
• Mark Schorr, Diamond Rock.  The third, and thus far final, adventure of Red Diamond. Private Eye.  Simon Jaffe, New York cabbie, believes himself to be a tough 1940''s PI named Red Diamond in this series of hard-boiled detective novels.  Simon Jaffe, aka Red Diamond, has a .38 in his pocket and steel in his fists, and he's right on the money when it comes to cracking a case, catching a killer, or cuddling up to the doll of his dreams, Fifi La Roche.  This time out Red's looking for a mob boss named Becker who hustles all the angles.  But the angle that sends Red north on the West Side Highway and into a sharp left over the George is a fast lane straight to L.A. where an  eighties' scene of rock stars and dirty deals introduces Red Diamond to a deadly world of soft porn, hard drugs, and heavy metal -- heavy like the lead that's got his name and address on it."  I read the first book in  the series when it came out in 1983 and was impressed by the writing and the introduction of a delusional detective; for some reason I never followed up with the sequels.
• Jack Seabrook, Sources of Suspense:  Alfred Hitchcock Presents and the Stories That Shaped It.  Reference.  Covers all 268 episodes from the seven seasons of Alfred Hitchcock Presents (1955-1962) in chronological order.  Included is information about the source material, plots of both the episodes and the source material, details on the filming (including innovative camera angles), and details about the cast, directors, script writers, and authors of the source material, plus a plethora of interesting tidbits that Seabrook throw in gratis.  It is based on the long-running The Hitchcock project that Seabrook penned for the bare*bones website.  This is a heft oversized book with small, two-column type, one that is best reading in small doses to avoid being overwhelmed.  An essential book for fans of Hitchcock, his program, television history, and the suspense field in general.  Seabrook is now working on a companion volume detailing The Alfred Hitchcock Hour.
• Dan Simmons, Flashback.  Dystopian science fiction thriller.  "Some twenty years from now, the United States is near total collapse.  But 85 percent of the population doesn't care.  They're addicted to Flashback, a drug that allows its users to experience the best moments of their lives.  After former detective Nick Bottom's wife dies in a car accident, he started going under the flash to be with her; now an addict, he's lost his job and is estranged from his teenage son.  Nick may be a tortured soul, but he's still a good cop, so he's hired by a top government advisor to investigate the murder of the advisor's son.  Soon Nick becomes the one man who can change the course of an entire nation turning away from tomorrow to live in the past."
• Neil deGrasse Tyson, Astrophysics for People in Hurry.  Non-fiction.  Popularized description of our essential universe by one of the great explainers in the field.  Black holes, quarks, quantum mechanics, the search for planets and the search for extraterrestrial life, and more...  A  nifty book to read when I want to appear smart.
• Amanda Eyre Ward, The Lifeguards.  Suspense novel, the May pick for Erin's Family Book Club.  "Austin's Zilker Park neighborhood is a wonderland of greenbelt trails, live music, and moms who drink a few too many margaritas.  Whitney. Annette, and Liza have grown thick as thieves as they have raised their children together for fifteen years, believing they can shelter their children from an increasingly dangerous world.  Their friendship is unbreakable -- as safe as the neighborhood where they have raised their sweet little boys.  Or so they think.  One night, the three women have been enjoying happy hour when their boys, lifeguards for the summer, come back on bicycles from a late-night dip in their favorite swimming hole.  The boys share a secret -- news that will shatter the perfect world their mothers have so painstakingly created."  This one got a lot of good revues and I zipped through it quickly; I enjoyed the book despite some glaring plot holes.
• David Weber, Worlds of Honor #3:  Changer of Worlds.  Military science fiction collection in the Honor Harrington universe, including a novel, a short story, and a novella  by Weber, plus a novella by Eric Flint.  "Lady Dame Honor Harrington -- starship captain, admiral, Steadholder, and Duchess -- has spent decades defending the Star Kingdom of Manticore.   But it's a big universe, and Honor's actions affect a lot of lives, not all of them human."
• Dave Wolverton, editor, L. Ron Hubbard Presents Writers of the Future, Volume 30.  Annual collection of winning stories from the Writers of the Future Contest, along with illustrations from winners of the Illustrators of the Future Contest.  I find these compilations to be a mixed bag:  some previous winners have gone to have distinguished careers, while others sink into obscurity with tales that are IMHO pure dreck.  I am prejudiced because, despite the support of the project from many professionals I admire, I still consider this contest to be pure Scientology PR, and= part of their continuous effort to deify Hubbard  This volume covers  the year 2014 and also includes short stories from Orson Scott Card, Mike Resnick, and the long-dead Hubbard, as well as essays from Robert Silverberg, Val Lakey Lindahn, and the still-dead Hubbard.  For what it's worth, I do not recognize any of the names of that year's winners presented here.