Crime Fiction Stars 2000: January - June

Annotated lists of books receiving at least one starred review from one of four major review sources: Booklist, Kirkus, LJ and PW. The review source assigns the star.

January
February
March
April
May
June

January

Death from the Woods
Author: Aubert, Brigitte
Publisher: Welcome Rain $ 24.95 ISBN: 1566491096 Date: 2000
PW
Named France's Best Thriller of 1997, Death from the Woods is one of the most acclaimed suspense novels to hit the world in years. In a suburb of Paris, a series of grisly murders has left residents shaken. A little girl says she knows who the killer is, but she has confided only in one person: Elise Andrioli, a blind, mute quadriplegic. She's defenseless and helpless. And she may very well be the next target.
Cover Story
Author: Boyle, Gerry
Publisher: Prime Crime $ 22.95 ISBN: 042516893x Date: 2000
BooklistPWKirkus
Who killed the mayor of New York City? The answer lies in award-winner Boyle's biggest and boldest novel yet. "Boyle is the genuine article."- Robert B. Parker.
Outfoxed
Author: Brown, Rita Mae
Publisher: Ballantine $ 24 ISBN: 0345428188 Date: 2000
Kirkus
The author of the classic Rubyfruit Jungle and the bestselling Sneaky Pie Brown mysteries offers an original look into the pristine world of Virginia foxhunting. Outfoxed is a mystery that features a captivating cast of Southerners and their unforgettable animal counterparts.
Void Moon
Author: Connelly, Michael
Publisher: Little Brown $ 24.95 ISBN: 0316154067 Date: 2000
BooklistLibrary Journal
Cassie Black is lured back to a profession she'd left behind--robbing casino gamblers of their winnings - by a setup that looks too good to pass up, and is soon caught up in a scam that may cost her the one thing she holds dearer than her own life.
Suggested Reading: Grift Sense
The Lion's Game
Author: DeMille, Nelson
Publisher: Warner $ 26.95 ISBN: 0446520659 Date: 2000
PW
Detective John Corey must somehow capture the world's most dangerous terrorist - a young Arab known as "The Lion" - who will stop at nothing in his quest for revenge against America for bombing Libya and killing his family.
Suggested Reading: Terrorism
Wake Up Little Susie
Author: Gorman, Ed
Publisher: Carroll & Graf $ 22.95 ISBN: 0786706651 Date: 2000
Booklist
In 1958, Sam McCain makes some troubling discoveries about his hometown's upstanding citizens as he tracks down 19-year-old Susie's elusive murderer.
Suggested Reading: Historical Mystery Stars
Afterburn
Author: Harrison, Colin
Publisher: Farrar Straus Giroux $ 25 ISBN: 0374102058 Date: 2000
KirkusPW
Charlie Ravich is a survivor whose brutal experience as a POW in Vietnam has more than prepared him for the cutthroat world of global commerce. This high-voltage, international thriller follows the millionaire businessman as he is catapulted into a world of criminal intrigue, sexual obsession, extortion, and death, spanning the mean streets of New York's underworld and Hong Kong's corridors of high finance.
Birdman
Author: Hayder, Mo
Publisher: Doubleday $ 23.95 ISBN: 038549694x Date: 2000
PW
Five young women with their hearts cut out, gone without a trace; and not a single loved one has filed a missing persons report. All Detective Inspector Jack Caffery has to work with are five mutilated corpses and five little dead birds - a tiny finch replacing each womans heart.
Suggested Reading: Serial Killers
All the Lucky Ones Are Dead
Author: Haywood, Gar Anthony
Publisher: Putnam $ 23.95 ISBN: 0399145400 Date: 2000
PWBooklist
L.A. private eye Aaron Gunner investigates a rap artist's so-called suicide and comes face-to-face with some of the music business's most notorious power brokers - who don't seem to like Gunner's presence on the case.
Suggested Reading: Music & Fiction Reading List | Private Investigators | African American Stars
Murder@Maggody.Com
Author: Hess, Joan
Publisher: Simon and Schuster $ 22 ISBN: 0684845636 Date: 2000
BooklistPW
E-mail provides the clue to murder in the newest entry in the madcap Maggody series - starring mystery fans' favorite offbeat sleuth, Arly Hanks. "Bawdy, cheerful entertainment."- Kirkus Reviews.
Suggested Reading: Humorous Mysteries
Hunting Badger: Leaphorn/Chee
Author: Hillerman, Tony
Publisher: HarperCollins $ 26 ISBN: 0060192895 Date: 2000
PW
Navajo crimebusters Leaphorn and Chee in a novel set on the vast Navajo Reservation sprawling across Arizona, New Mexico, and Utah, and played out against the unhappy memories of an actual 1998 manhunt that produced canyon country legends of FBI bungling, but no arrest.
The Dress Lodger
Author: Holman, Sheri
Publisher: Atlantic Monthly $ 24 ISBN: 0871137534 Date: 2000
KirkusPW
The author of A Stolen Tongue now delivers a stunning exploration of sinister Industrial England, prostitution, and the dark secrets of 19th-century medical science. Reminiscent of the works of lain Pears and Caleb Carr, The Dress Lodger is a historical thriller charged with a distinctly modern voice.
Suggested Reading: Historical Mystery Stars
Ex-Libris
Author: King, Ross
Publisher: Walker $ 26 ISBN:0802733573 Date: 2001
BooklistKirkus
A cryptic summons to a remote country house launches a London bookseller on an odyssey through 17th-century Europe. Given the task of restoring a magnificent library that has been pillaged during the English Civil War, Isaac Inchbold finds himself slipping from the surface of 1660s London into an underworld of spies, smugglers, ciphers, and forgeries.
Updated 9.18.06
False Memory
Author: Koontz, Dean
Publisher: Bantam $ 26.95 ISBN: 055310666x Date: 2000
PW
On the heels of the critically acclaimed bestsellers Fear Nothing and Seize the Night, " "America's most popular suspense novelist" (Rolling Stone) now stuns readers with a deeply sinister and endlessly surprising tale of a rare and terrifying phobia: autophobia - fear of oneself.
Chaos Theory
Author: Krist, Gary
Publisher: Random House $ 24 ISBN: 0375500804 Date: 2000
PW
When two teenage boys try to buy marijuana in Washington, D.C., one evening, the deal goes sour, an undercover cop ends up dead, and the boys soon realize they've stumbled onto a major conspiracy of epic proportions.
Nothing But the Truth
Author: Lescroart, John
Publisher: Delacorte $ 24.95 ISBN: 0385333536 Date: 2000
KirkusPW
San Francisco Defense Attorney Dismas Hardy knows his wife is the most reliable of mothers. So when she fails to pick up their children from school one day, he's convinced something terrible has happened.
Suggested Reading: Legal Stars
The Missing World
Author: Livesey, Margot
Publisher: Knopf $ 23 ISBN: 037540581x Date: 2000
PW
Replete with compelling characters and an extravagant plot, this novel of memory and redemption weaves together four separate quests for love and truth in a manner both thrilling and, ultimately, revealing about the imperfections of human nature.
Figure of 8
Author: Lynch, Patrick
Publisher: Dutton $ 24.95 ISBN: 0525945105 Date: 2000
Kirkus
From the acclaimed author of The Policy comes a "top-notch thriller" (Publishers Weekly) about a former Olympic skater being stalked by "the Ice Man."
Bloody London
Author: Nadelson, Reggie
Publisher: Minotaur $ 24.95 ISBN: 0312243723 Date: 2000
PW
When the head of a swank Manhattan co-op is found beheaded in the apartment building's pool, Artie Cohen is called in to investigate. The trail takes Cohen from the city where people would kill for an apartment to the rain-soaked, post-Diana city of London.
Shame the Devil
Author: Pelecanos, George
Publisher: Little Brown $ 24.95 ISBN: 0316695238 Date: 2000
PWBooklist
Several restaurant workers are murdered by a robber, whose brother is killed by police during the chaotic event. As everyone struggles to heal after the incident, the gunman is determined to kill everyone involved in his brother's death.
Blood Money
Author: Perry, Thomas
Publisher: Random $ 24.95 ISBN: 0679453040 Date: 2000
Kirkus
Jane Whitefield meets her most terrifying opponents ever when she leaves her quiet new life as Mrs. Carey McKinnon to save a young girl fleeing the deadly mafioso Delfina.
Pieces of Light
Author: Thorpe, Adam
Publisher: Carrol & Graf $ 25.95 ISBN: 0786706619 Date: 2000
Kirkus
A masterfully inventive novel of psychological adventure, as magical as a memoir of colonial Africa and as sinister as a ghost story set in rural England.
No Defense
Author: Wilhelm, Kate
Publisher: Minotaur $ 24.95 ISBN: 03122098533 Date: 2000
Library Journal
In the Oregon desert, Barbara Holloway takes on a murder-or-suicide case for which there's no defense. Or is there?
Suggested Reading: Legal Stars

February

Scream in Silence
Author: Bland, Eleanor Taylor
Publisher: Minotaur $ 23.95 ISBN: 0312203780 Date: 2000
Booklist
An arsonist on the loose in sleepy Lincoln Prairie appears to be graduating from simple blazes to sophisticated bombs. Before his acts become deadly, middle-aged homicide detective Marti MacAlister and her tired but dedicated partner, Matthew Jessenovik, must stop the culprit.
Suggested Reading: African American Stars | Cops
Remorseful Day: The Final Inspector Morse
Author: Dexter, Colin
Publisher: Crown $ 24 ISBN: 0609606220 Date: 2000
KirkusPW
The final Inspector Morse mystery finds the cunning detective and the long-suffering Sergeant Lewis in pursuit of nurse Yvonne Harrington's murderer . . . two years after her death.
Suggested Reading: British Police
Staring at the Light
Author: Fyfield, Frances
Publisher: Viking $ 23.95 ISBN: 0670887307 Date: 2000
Kirkus
Maverick London lawyer Sarah Fortune finds herself protecting a man whose worst enemy turns out to be his twin brother. But this evil twin has one fear: the dentist's chair.
The Winter of the Wolf Moon
Author: Hamilton, Steve
Publisher: Minotaur $ 23.95 ISBN: 0312252951 Date: 2000
PW
In this hardboiled sequel to A Cold Day in Paradise, Alex McKnight has retreated from his private eye business on the frozen shores of Lake Superior. But events have begun to spin out of control, and he'll soon have to deal with drug-crazed hockey goons, mysterious men wearing hunting caps and guns, and a cold-blooded killer from the other side of the world.
Suggested Reading: Private Investigators
Blue Deer Thaw
Author: Harrison, Jamie
Publisher: Hyperion $ 23.95 ISBN: 0786864222 Date: 2000
KirkusPW
When three bodies are found in the oddest places near Blue Deer, Montana, Sheriff Jules Clement looks for clues, which are surprisingly difficult to come by in a town as cozy as Blue Deer. More difficult is that Jules must work with Deputy Caroline Fair, whose charms interfere with his concentration. As the line of suspects grow, so does their mutual attraction.
Freeze My Margarita
Author: Henderson, Lauren Milne
Publisher: Crown $ 12.95 (trade paper) ISBN: 0609804871 Date: 2000
Booklist
Sam Jones is back! Lauren Henderson's sexy, streetwise artist-cum-detective returns in Freeze My Margarita, the sequel to her enormously popular Black Rubber Dress. - Publisher Marketing.
The J Factor
Author: Kanar, Stephen
Publisher: Bantam $ 5.99 (paper) ISBN: 0553580795 Date: 2000
PW
From a new author comes this debut about an America overrun and controlled by private industry. An enormous pharmaceutical company controls the majority of organ transplants around the world. A young transplant surgeon discovers the company's sinister motives and knows he must go public. But he also knows what will happen to him if he does.
Suggested Reading: Debuts | Medical Thrillers
Sick Puppy
Author: Hiaasen, Carl
Publisher: Knopf $ 25 ISBN: 0679454454 Date: 2000
PWLJ
Litterbugs, eco-terrorists, easy politicians, greedy folk, righteous folk, a kidnapped (but cheerfully oblivious) Labrador retriever, and thousands of squashed toads - that's only a partial accounting of the characters who inhabit this unbridled and outrageously funny novel that is Hiaasen at his riotous and muckraking best!
Suggested Reading: Florida Fiction | If You Like Carl Hiaasen
Mouth to Mouth
Author: Kimball, Michael
Publisher: Avon $ 23 ISBN: 0380978202 Date: 2000
Kirkus
From the acclaimed author of Undone comes an electrifying novel of an uninvited wedding guest whose presence forms an inescapable web of lies, secrets, betrayal, and death.
A Slow Burning
Author: Pottinter, Stanley
Publisher: Dutton $ 24.95 ISBN: 0525945415 Date: 2000
PW
The author of the bestselling The Fourth Procedure is back with a provocative thriller that takes readers to a place where memories can become a living nightmare. As a brilliant scientist comes close to an astonishing neurological breakthrough that will alter the very nature of mankind, three lives intersect with shattering consequences.
Suggested Reading: Medical Fiction | Medical Thrillers
Indictment for Murder
Author: Rawlinson, Peter
Publisher: Minotaur $ 22.95 ISBN: 0312253257 Date: 2000
BooklistPW
Jonathan Playfair, Knight of the Realm, stands trial for the murder of a man with whom he had fought side-by-side 50 years earlier in the mountains of North Africa. As he sits in the courtroom, Jonathan is consumed by long-buried memories of North Africa and the recurring scene of a man's death.
Suggested Reading: Legal Star
The Last King of Texas
Author: Riordan, Rick
Publisher: Bantam $ 23.95 ISBN: 0553801562 Date: 2000
BooklistPW
Tres Navarre has a passion for tequila, a Ph.D. in English, and a penchant for trouble. His latest assignment puts him on a carousel-ride collision course with a killer - one-way ticket to betrayal and death in a novel of suspense in which everyone is guilty of something.
Suggested Reading: Private Investigators | Amusement & Theme Parks

March

Deep South
Author: Barr, Nevada
Publisher: Putnam $ 23.95 ISBN: 0399145869 Date: 2000
BooklistPW
The handwritten sign on the tree said it all: Repent. For Anna Pigeon, this should have been reason enough to turn back for her beloved Mesa Verde. Instead she heads for the Natchez Trace Parkway and stumbles upon a gruesome murder with frightening racial overtones.
The Brethren
Author: Grisham, John
Publisher: Doubleday $ 27.95 ISBN: 0385497466 Date: 2000
PW
Housed at Trumble, a minimum security federal prison, are three former judges who call themselves The Brethren. They meet each day in the law library where they write briefs, handle cases for other inmates, practice law without a license, and sometimes dispense jailhouse justice - and they also spend hours hatching schemes to make money. Then, when one of their scams goes awry and ensnares an innocent man with dangerous friends, The Brethren's days of quietly marking time are over.
Suggested Reading: Legal Stars
Aloha, Mr. Lucky
Author: Hirschfeld, Corson
Publisher: Forge $ 24.95 ISBN: 0312870027 Date: 2000
BooklistLibrary Journal
When a woman answering his personal ad turns up dead on a beach, a Hawaiian journalist is pulled into a conspiracy involving an ex-military sadist, an oddly titillating rock formation, two dim-witted Appalachian twins, and a financier with dreams of turning an earthly paradise into the ultimate golf resort.
Suggested Reading: If You Like Carl Hiaasen
Updated 3/13/00.
Night Work: Kate Martinelli
Author: King, Laurie R.
Publisher: Bantam $ 23.95 ISBN: 055310715 Date: 2000
PW
The Edgar Award-winning author of A Grave Talent plunges readers back into the gritty world of homicide detective Kate Martinelli. In this complex suspense tale, a piece of candy may be the key to a brutal murder case growing more sinister - and deadly- by the minute.
Suggested Reading: Cops
Conspiracy of Paper
Author: Liss, David
Publisher: Random $ 25 ISBN: 0375502920 Date: 2000
KirkusPWBooklistLibrary Journal
"In A Conspiracy of Paper, David Liss has woven a tale of 18th-century finance, murder, and religion that is a remarkable debut and a thoroughly satisfying novel." - Arthur Golden, author of Memoirs of a Geisha.
Suggested Reading: Historical Mystery Stars | All Stars
Hugger Mugger
Author: Parker, Robert B.
Publisher: Putnam $ 23.95 ISBN: 0399145877 Date: 2000
Kirkus
Someone has been killing racehorses at stables across the south, and Spenser, the Boston P.I., travels to Georgia to protect the two-year-old destined to become the next Secretariat. The case takes a deadly turn when the attacker claims a human victim and Spenser must revise his impressions of the Three Fillies racing stables.
Suggested Reading: Private Investigators
Updated 4/17/00.
The Whole Truth
Author: Pickard, Nancy
Publisher: Pocket $ 23 ISBN: 0671887955 Date: 2000
PW
When true-crime author Marie Lightfoot follows a twisted path that leads to a young victim's parents - and ultimately to the dark recesses of her own soul - she becomes a sitting duck for a killer who just might be smart enough to outwit her.
Suggested Reading: Author Author
Just Passing Through
Author: Taibo, Paco Ignacio
Publisher: Cinco Puntos $ 21.95 ISBN: 0938317474 Date: 2000
Library Journal
This elegant and literate adventure novel is set in 1920's post-revolutionary Mexico finds the author searching for a hero, specifically a leftist hero, and he thinks he has found him in the person of Sebastian San Vicente. But everyone - including the baffled novelist - is trying to figure out exactly who San Vicente really is.
Suggested Reading: Historical Mystery Stars
God's Favorite
Author: Wright, Lawrence
Publisher: Simon & Schuster $ 25 ISBN: 03684868105 Date: 2000
KirkusBooklist
A fascinating work of fiction from an award-winning New Yorker writer captures all the gripping drama and black humor of Panama during the final, nerve-racking days of its legendary dictator, Manuel Antonio Noriega.
Updated 3/16/00.

April

The Stick Game
Author: Bowen, Peter
Publisher: Minotaur $ 23.95 ISBN: 0312202970 Date: 2000
Booklist
Gabriel Du Pre investigates the disappearance of a friend's 16-year-old son and the disturbing parallels between the high incidence of birth defects in the Indian population and the activities of a gold mine located near the reservation - and finds the two are related in complicated, troublesome ways.
The Haunting of Torre Abbey
Author: Bugge, Carole
Publisher: Minotaur $ 22.95 ISBN: 0312245572 Date: 2000
Kirkus
Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson abandon their usual methods to find a murderer at Torre Abbey, a 12th-century monastery in Devon with a long history of hauntings.
Suggested Reading: Sherlockian Stars
The Trophy Wife
Author: Diamond, Diana
Publisher: St Martins $ 23.95 ISBN: 0312206003 Date: 2000
Booklist
When he leaves the arms of his lover to dump his wife, Walter is stunned to find Emily gone amidst clear evidence of violence. Meanwhile, in her basement prison, Emily wonders if the husband she still loves cares enough to answer the kidnapper's ransom note. The over-the-top ending is a shocker in this exciting and clever novel of marriages, mistresses, and money.
Updated 3/16/00.
Blood Rain: Aurelio Zen
Author: Dibdin, Michael
Publisher: Pantheon $ 23 ISBN: 0375409157 Date: 2000
Booklist
Set against the backdrop of the 3,000-year-old city of Catania, in the shadow of the smoldering volcano of Etna, Blood Rain reveals Inspector Aurelio Zen at his most desperate and driven, as he undertakes a case more chilling and threatening than any he has faced before.
Suggested Reading: European Mysteries
Updated 4/3/00
Skeleton Dance
Author: Elkins, Aaron
Publisher: Morrow $ 23 ISBN: 0688159281 Date: 2000
PW
After a dog drags home a few bones, the village's chief inspector finds reason to suspect foul play and places a call to his old friend Gideon Oliver, the famed "Skeleton Detective." Once Gideon arrives, murder piles on murder, puzzle on puzzle, and electrifying surprise on surprise.
Suggested Reading: Crime Scene Investigations
Updated 4/13/00.
Red Light
Author: Parker, T. Jefferson
Publisher: Hyperion $ 23.95 ISBN: 0786866004 Date: 2000
Kirkus
In this emotionally charged thriller, detective Merci Rayborn faces the challenge of the lifetime--a high-profile murder case that points to her lover as the main suspect.
Suggested Reading: Cops
Daughter of God
Author: Perdue, Lewis
Publisher: Tor/Forge $ 24.95 ISBN: 0312890745 Date: 2000
Booklist
For more than 1,000 years, the Vatican hid proof that a female Messiah named Sophia performed healing miracles. But the secret is out, and the revelation of this long-shrouded conspiracy could shake the very foundation of Western religions to the ground.
Suggested Reading: If You Liked the Da Vinci Code
Moment of Truth
Author: Scottoline, Lisa
Publisher: HarperCollins $ 25 ISBN: 0060196092 Date: 2000
PW
When Jack Newlin discovers his wife's lifeless body, he decides instantly to frame himself for her murder. He confesses to the police and hires Mary DiNunzio, an inexperienced associate at the Philly law firm of Rosato & Associates. Mary isn't certain she wants to be a lawyer at all, but begins to suspect that instead of having a guilty client protesting his innocence, she has an innocent client protesting his guilt. Mary decides to find out the truth and save Jack's life - but her biggest obstacle will be Jack himself.
Suggested Reading: Legal Stars
The Fig Eater
Author: Shields, Jody
Publisher: Little Brown $ 23.95 ISBN: 0316785644 Date: 2000
Library Journal
When a young woman's body is discovered in the summer of 1910 Vienna, the Inspector's wife is certain the figs found in her stomach during the autopsy are the clue to the identity of the murderer - for there are no fresh figs in Vienna at this time of year.
Suggested Reading: Historical Mystery Stars
Updated 3/26/00.
Brown Eyed Girl
Author: Swift, Virginia
Publisher: HarperCollins $ 24 ISBN: 00601955x Date: 2000
Kirkus
In this debut of an exciting new mystery series, Professor Sally Alder leaves L.A. and drives home through the Rockies to Laramie. There she revisits the scenes of her misspent youth, finds a cache of priceless diamonds, and discovers secrets hidden deep within this richly imagined Wyoming town.
Suggested Reading: Debuts
The Tunnel
Author: Wager, Walter
Publisher: Forge $ 23.95 ISBN: 0312864884 Date: 2000
Booklist
Terrorists seal one end of New York City's Lincoln Tunnel and place a missile at the other, threatening to activate it. Convinced that negotiating with the terrorists is a waste of time, Police Capt. Jake Malloy searches for their leader, knowing that the woman he loves - DEA agent Jo Velez - is in double danger.
Suggested Reading: Terrorists
Updated 4/17/00.

May

Demolition Angel
Author: Crais, Robert
Publisher: Doubleday $ 24.95 ISBN: 0385495846 Date: 2000
KirkusPWLibrary Journal
On the heels of the bestselling and critically acclaimed L.A. Requiem, Crais returns to the City of Angels with the most ambitious novel of his career, a stand-alone thriller featuring a complex and engaging female protagonist. When Carol Starkey, a bomb squad technician, survives an explosion designed to kill her, she is pitted against a frighteningly brilliant mastermind for the modern age.
Suggested Reading: All Stars
Updated 4/13/00
The Empty Chair
Author: Deaver, Jeffrey
Publisher: Simon & Schuster $ 25 ISBN: 0684855631 Date: 2000
Booklist
From the bestselling author of The Bone Collector and The Devil's Teardrop comes a spine tingling new thriller that pits reknowned quadripelgic criminalist Lincoln Rhyme against the ultimate opponent - Amelia Sachs, his own brilliant protegee. - Publisher marketing.
Suggested Reading: Crime Scene Investigations
Updated 3/16/00.
An English Murder
Author: Doughty, Louise
Publisher: Carroll & Graf $ 23 ISBN: 0786707577 Date: 2000
Kirkus
In this darkly comic mystery novel, the brutal murder of a middle-aged couple in their own home punctures the idyllic tranquility of rural Rutland County. And a reporter learns about the uncomfortable consequences that follow her investigation of the murder. Because nothing here is as it seems.
Updated 3/16/00.
Beneath the Skin
Author: French, Nicci
Publisher: Mysterious $ 24.995 ISBN: 0892967269 Date: 2000
Booklist
Joe, Jenny, and Nadia each receive a note stating they will be killed. A cruel joke? The police don't think so, but with no clear suspect amid the growing threat of violence, the victims become the accused.
Suggested Reading: Psycho Killers | Serial Killers | Psychological Suspense Stars
Updated 4/17/00.
At End of Day
Author: Higgins, George V.
Publisher: Harcourt $ 24 ISBN: 0151003580 Date: 2000
KirkusBooklist
An explosive secret about the reality of crime and justice in America forms the heart of this first-class crime novel inspired by a true story. The author of The Friends of Eddie Coyle penned this latest work just prior to his death in 1999.
In Her Defense
Author: Horn, Stephen
Publisher: HarperCollins $ 25 ISBN: 0060194405 Date: 2000
PW
A former prosecutor with the Department of Justice capitalizes on his knowledge of law in this debut book which packs all the right ingredients of a classic legal thriller into a tale that's sure to grab fans of this popular genre.
Suggested Reading: Legal Stars
Updated 4/6/00.
Kill Me: Harpur & Iles
Author: James, Bill
Publisher: Norton $ 22.95 ISBN: 0393049205 Date: 2000
Kirkus
Naomi Anstruther's undercover operation among the drug gang has gone terribly awry, ending in a bloody shootout. Now a young woman named Esme wants to avenge the deaths, bringing danger to herself, Naomi, and Chief Superintendent Colin Harpur.
Updated 4/19/00.
Remembrance Day
Author: Porter, Henry
Publisher: Simon & Schuster $ 25 ISBN: 0684865491
Library Journal Date: 2000
After witnessing a London bus explode, Constantine Lindow wakes up the next day to find himself in the hospital with two cops frowning down at him. To prove his innocence, he must locate a maniac who sets off bombs with nothing more than a cell phone.
Updated 4/3/00.
Affinity
Author: Waters, Sarah
Publisher: Riverhead $ 24.95 ISBN: 1573221562 Date: 2000
Kirkus
A pulse-quickening read by the author of Tipping the Velvet, Affinity is a sophisticated and spine-tingling historical mystery awash with the sights, scenes, and smells of 19th century London. This spellbinding ghost story has left British reviewers "transfixed with horror and excitement" (Daily Mail, London).
Suggested Reading: Historical Mystery Stars
Updated 5/1/00.
Ten Thousand Islands
Author: White, Randy Wayne
Publisher: Putnam $ 23.95 ISBN: 0399146202 Date: 2000
PW
Florida marine biologist Doc Ford returns in an electrifying novel of new murder, and old, in this newest work by the author of The Mangrove Coast.
Suggested Reading: Florida Fiction
Updated 5/4/00

June

Bridesmaids Revisited
Author: Cannell, Dorothy
Publisher: Viking $ 22.95 ISBN: 067089205x Date: 2000
Booklist
More laugh-out-loud lunacy is offered by the wickedly witty outrageously popular Cannell as sleuth Ellie Haskell ventures beyond the grave and through the murderous maze of her family tree.
Suggested Reading: Humorous Mysteries
Updated 7/5/00
The Unquiet Night
Author: Carlon, Patricia
Publisher: Soho $ 22 ISBN: 1569471940 Date: 2000
PW
After strangling a girl, Mart stalks a woman and her niece, realizing they are the only ones who can connect him to the crime. Tracking them to a small Australian town, Mart corners the aunt and traps her inside a steel vault where no one can hear her screams, and where air is running out.
Suggested Reading: Psychological Suspense Stars
Updated 5/11/00.
Darkest Fear
Author: Coben, Harlan
Publisher: Delacorte $ 23.95 ISBN: 0385334338 Date: 2000
PW
Sports agent and amateur detective Myron Bolitar plunges into a search for a missing bone-marrow donor to save the life of his college sweetheart's 13-tear-old son--whom she has just revealed is "his" son as well.
Updated 5/11/00.
Grievance
Author: Constantine, K.C.
Publisher: Mysterious Press $ 23.95 ISBN: 0892966483 Date: 2000
KirkusBooklist
When a steel magnate is found shot to death, the town of Rocksburg is suddenly overtaken by a wave of murderous violence that touches the ranks of the local union hierarchy and threatens public order. This won't be an easy case for Rugs, who is dealing with one personal crisis after another.
Suggested Reading: Cops
Updated 5/19/00.
Places in the Dark
Author: Cook, Thomas H.
Publisher: Bantam $ 23.95 ISBN: 0553105639 Date: 2000
Booklist
From the Edgar Award-winning author of The Chatham School Affair comes an unforgettable novel about two brothers and the woman they both love - a tale of brotherly bonds and damning betrayal, a story of the terrible deeds done in the name of love.
Updated 5/19/00.
Hot Six
Author: Evanovich, Janet
Publisher: St Martins $ 24.95 ISBN: 0312205406 Date: 2000
KirkusPWBooklist
In this sixth Stephanie Plum adventure, Ranger the super bounty hunter is on the lam and Stephanie has to team up with vice-cop Joe Morelli to find him. But has Ranger really broken the law? Is he a psychotically dangerous criminal? "(Evanovich) is in a class by herself when it comes to plot and humor".--Liz Smith, syndicated columnist.
Suggested Reading: All Stars | If You like Janet Evanovich
Updated 5/19/00.
The Death of an Irish Lover
Author: Gill, Bartholomew
Publisher: Morrow $ 23 ISBN: 0380977974 Date: 2000
PW
Murder roils the fishing life on the quiet River Shannon in the latest Irish mystery from Bartholomew Gill. When two police officers are found murdered at an inn, Chief Inspector Peter McGarr of Dublin is called in to investigate.
Suggested Reading: British Police
Updated 5/11/00.
Conventional Corpse
Author: Hess, Joan
Publisher: Minotaur $ 23.95 ISBN: 0312246625 Date: 2000
Kirkus
Dragooned into running Farber College's first ever mystery convention, local bookseller Claire Malloy finds herself catering to the whims of five writers, including one who arrives with her cat in tow. When one of the attendees dies in a suspicious car accident, it becomes evident that the murder mystery is more than a literary genre.
Updated 5/1/00.
Hot Springs
Author: Hunter, Stephen
Publisher: Simon & Schuster $ 25 ISBN: 068486360x Date: 2000
KirkusBooklistPW
The undisputed master of the tough thriller delivers a masterpiece of crime fiction. In the summer of 1946 in Hot Springs, Arkansas, a lawman is called upon by the district attorney to help bring down the mob. As casino raids erupt into nerve-shattering combat, the body count mounts - along with the suspense.
Suggested Reading: Historical Mystery Stars | All Stars
Updated 6/1/00.
La Donna Detroit
Author: Jackson, Jon A.
Publisher: Atlantic $ 24 ISBN: 0871138107 Date: 2000
PW
In this compelling and unpredictable page-turner, Detective Sergeant "Fang" Mulheisen's latest investigation thrusts him into the nerve center of the Detroit mob. "Jon Jackson makes the hard-boiled form look as if he thought it up himself last week".--Newsday.
Suggested Reading: Mobbed Up | Cops
Updated 5/4/00
The Night Bus
Author: Law, Janice
Publisher: Forge $ 24.95 ISBN: 031284882x Date: 2000
Kirkus
Updated 5/12/00.
Middle of Nowhere
Author: Pearson, Ridley
Publisher: Hyperion $ 23.95 ISBN: 0786865636 Date: 2000
Booklist
From the bestselling author of The First Victim comes a new novel in which Lou Boldt, Daphne Matthews, and Sergeant John LaMoia team up to try and save Seattle from sinking into total chaos. "One hell of a writer. He grabs, he twists, he tightens the screws until you're drained by a superior read". --Clive Cussler.
Updated 4/17/00.
He Shall Thunder In the Sky
Author: Peters, Elizabeth
Publisher: Morrow $ 25 ISBN: 0380976595 Date: 2000
PW
The clouds of World War I hang heavy over Cairo as Amelia Peabody and her family return to Egypt for another season of archeological excavation. When an exquisite sculpture is found where it ought not to be, it confirms Amelia's most unsettling suspicion about the reemergence of her villainous arch-nemesis, Sethos, the Master Criminal.
Suggested Reading: Historical Mystery Stars | Egyptian Stars
Updated 5/9/00.
The Confirmation
Author: Powers, Thomas
Publisher: Knopf $ 25.95 ISBN: 0375400206 Date: 2000
PWLJ
This novel about the power brokers in Washington D.C. revolves around a nominee for CIA director who is forced to confront a dangerous secret from this past. Among those caught up in the ordeal are an idealistic CIA analyst, an old bull of the Senate, an unprincipled investigative reporter, and two disgruntled war veterans.
Suggested Reading: Political Fiction
Updated 7/20/00
Omerta
Author: Puzo, Mario
Publisher: Random $ 25.95 ISBN: 0375502548 Date: 2000
KirkusPWLibrary Journal
First came The Godfather, then The Last Don. Now prepare for the final chapter in Puzo's Mafia trilogy about power and morality in America. Omerta, from the Italian word for "code of silence", is a powerful epitaph for the Mafia at the century's end and a final triumph for a great American storyteller.
Suggested Reading: All Stars | Mobbed Up
Updated 5/11/00
Lost Girls
Author: Pyper, Andrew
Publisher: Delacorte $ 23.95 ISBN: 038533446x Date: 2000
PWBooklistKirkus
This literary gothic debut, a #1 "National Post" bestseller in Canada, is a chilling tale in which one mystery fractures into many as a young defense attorney, assigned to his first murder trial, returns to the haunted town of his past.
Suggested Reading: All Stars
Updated 4/13/00.
Distemper
Author: Saulnier, Beth
Publisher: Warner $ 6.50 (paper) ISBN: 0446608610 Date: 2000
PW
Still recovering from the shocking murder of her lover during her first outing in Reliable Sources, journalist Alex Bernier covers the case of a serial killer at Vassar who is eying Alex as a potential victim.
Updated 5/4/00.
A Dirty Death
Author: Tope, Rebecca
Publisher: Minotaur $ 23.95 ISBN: 0312261446 Date: 2000
Booklist
In this "promising first novel" (Sunday Telegraph--England), a not-so-idyllic farm serves as a backdrop for a series of murders. No one wants to help with the investigation, and even the ubiquitous village gossip seems to know more than she will admit. "Much enjoyed . . . subversively creepy".--Susan Moody.
Suggested Reading: Debuts
Updated 5/19/00
Death of a Red Heroine
Author: Xiaolong, Qiu
Publisher: Soho $ 25 ISBN: 1569471932 Date: 2000
KirkusBooklist
In contemporary China, Inspector Chen Chao is investigating the murder of a National Model Worker, a celebrity of utmost probity. He must rekindle an old flame with the daughter of a Politburo member to keep a murderer from going unpunished.
Updated 5/19/00.