10th Anniversary Page and Pictures

Carol Fitzgerald (Carol@bookreporter.com)

List of titles reviewed and featured on February 9th.

List of titles reviewed and featured on February 2nd.

Our newest featured Suspense/Thriller author is David Morrell, whose innovative and award-winning CREEPERS was a hit with critics and readers alike. Morrell's follow-up to CREEPERS is SCAVENGER, coming out March 12th, and it is destined to thrill Morrell fans and garner him new ones as well.

We have 20 advance copies of SCAVENGER to share with readers who would like to read the book and comment on it. Interested? Then send your name and mailing address to SuspenseThriller1@bookreporter.com by Friday, February 23rd.

More about SCAVENGER:
David Morrell's CREEPERS was a publishing event in 2005, a powerful, edgy, dark thriller by a master of the genre. A New York Times best-seller, it won the prestigious Bram Stoker Award and earned numerous critical raves. SCAVENGER, Morrell's latest novel, takes us in a harrowing new direction: a desperate high-tech scavenger hunt for a 100-year-old time capsule. Frank Balenger, the resolute but damaged hero of CREEPERS, now finds himself trapped in a nightmarish game of fear and death. To save himself and the woman he loves, he must play by the rules of a god-like Game Master with an obsession for unearthing the past. But sometimes the past is buried for a reason.

SCAVENGER is a brilliant, frightening hunter-hunted tale that layers modern technology over the dusty artifacts of earlier times. The result is a surreal palimpsest, one that contains the secret of survival for Balenger and a handful of unwilling players who race against the game's clock to solve the puzzle of the time capsule, only to discover that time is the true scavenger. Morrell's trademark action sequences are embedded with fascinating historical clues that make SCAVENGER a thrill-a-minute page-turner as well as a mesmerizing literary experience.

We are thrilled to introduce you to Tim Maleeny, our newest featured Debut Suspense/Thriller author. Tim's first dark and compelling page-turner is STEALING THE DRAGON, which hits shelves March 1st. Called "Tough, original, compelling - a perfect thriller debut" by Lee Child, STEALING THE DRAGON is bound to put Tim Maleeny's name on the map.

We have 10 advance copies of STEALING THE DRAGON to share with readers who would like to read the book and comment on it. Interested? Then send your name and mailing address to DebutSuspenseThriller@bookreporter.com by Friday, February 16th.

More about STEALING THE DRAGON:
In the midst of a cutthroat mayoral election, a ship smuggling Chinese refugees runs aground on Alcatraz. With the entire crew murdered, the crime screams professional assassin. Is it a coincidence that Cape Weather's friend Sally --- trained to be a deadly force by a Chinese secret society --- has disappeared? The private investigator knows little about Sally's murky history as an orphan in Hong Kong. But she has saved his butt umpteen times, and Cape wants to return the favor. With help from a neurotic cop, a drug lord, and an autistic computer genius, he scours the darkest corners of San Francisco's Chinatown searching for the "snakehead" --- the leader of the human smuggling ring --- that will lead him to Sally.

>From the ancient Triads of Hong Kong to Chinatown's underground, this electrifying thriller penetrates the sinister and fascinating world of organized crime.

The countdown to Valentine's Day is on! Stuck on what to buy your Valentine? Our featured Valentine's Day titles have the bookish answer: DATING UP by J. Courtney Sullivan, THE ESSENCE OF CHOCOLATE by John Scharffenberger, I LOVE YOU, LET'S MEET by Virginia Vitzthum, NOT QUITE A BRIDE by Kirsten Sawyer, SEDUCING HARRY by Judith Marks-White and STEALING HOME by Sherryl Woods. Our Valentine's Day Contest is over, but thanks to all the readers who entered and told us who they would like to spend Valentine's Day with --- we had some great responses.

-Click here to read more about our featured Valentine's Day titles.

-Click here to see our winners and read who they would like to spend Valentine's Day with.

We are thrilled to bring you Elizabeth Crook, author of THE NIGHT JOURNAL, as one of our featured One to Watch authors. Seductive and richly told, THE NIGHT JOURNAL, which came out in paperback on January 30th, is an enthralling tale and establishes Elizabeth Crook as a true literary talent.

-Click here to see our advance copy winners.
-Click here to read a new excerpt from THE NIGHT JOURNAL.
-Click here to read a Reading Group Guide for THE NIGHT JOURNAL.
-Click here to read critical praise for THE NIGHT JOURNAL.

More about THE NIGHT JOURNAL:
Elizabeth Crook's novel is a lavish and transporting tale of a young woman discovering the truth about her family's mythic past.

Meg Mabry has spent her life with her back turned to her legendary family legacy. In the 1890s her great-grandmother Hannah Bass composed starkly revealing diaries of her life on the southwestern frontier, first as a Harvey Girl at the glamorous Montezuma Resort in New Mexico and later as the wife of brilliant, and often absent, railway engineer Elliott Bass. A generation later, Hannah's daughter, Claudia Bass, a renowned historian known to all as Bassie, staked her academic career and reputation on these vibrant accounts, editing and publishing them to great acclaim, and establishing the Bass family as a pillar in the history of the American southwest.

Karen Harter, whose lyrical prose and compelling characters where showcased in her debut novel WHERE MERCY FLOWS, is one of our featured One to Watch authors. AUTUMN BLUE is Karen's newest title --- a finely-observed tale of family and community that is coming out in paperback on March 1st.

-Click here to read an excerpt from AUTUMN BLUE.
-Click here to see our advance copy winners.

More about AUTUMN BLUE:
Sidney Walker is doing her best at raising her three children alone. But lately her sweet teenage son, Ty, has become broodingly angry. When the deputy sheriff arrests Ty and later invades their home with a search warrant connected with another local crime, Sidney is overwhelmed. As much as she wants to believe her son is innocent, the evidence is too strong to ignore.

As autumn rolls across the landscape, Sidney fights to save her son from himself and give him renewed hope. Though her options seem to grow more limited, Sidney finds she is not as alone as she thinks, and the solution just may be in the most unlikely of people.

Karen Harter grew up in Seattle, Washington. From her parents, she learned early to appreciate the beauties and intricacies of family, nature and God which are prevalent themes in her writing. With her family of six she spent countless hours exploring, camping and fishing, often singing together around campfires or as they drove in the car.

Barbara Delinsky is the bestselling author of such novels as AN ACCIDENTAL WOMAN, FLIRTING WITH PETE, THE SUMMER I DARED and LOOKING FOR PEYTON PLACE. In this interview, Delinsky talks about the inspiration behind her latest work of fiction, FAMILY TREE, and its various themes, such as race relations and the concept of family. She also sheds light on the disparities between attitudes of today's generation and those that preceded it, and explains why she favors New England as the setting for many of her books.

FAMILY TREE by Barbara Delinksy (Fiction)
Dana Clarke has always longed for the stability of home and family --- her own childhood was not an easy one. Now she has married a man she adores who is from a prominent New England family, and she is about to give birth to their first child. But what should be the happiest day of her life becomes the day her world falls apart. Reviewed by Jennifer McCord.

-Click here to read an excerpt from FAMILY TREE.

- In a book group? FAMILY TREE is our featured Newsletter Contest Book on ReadingGroupGuides.com. Click here for details on how to subscribe to the newsletter and receive up to 20 copies of FAMILY TREE for your group.

-Click here to see our Reading Group Guide for FAMILY TREE.

Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist William Dietrich's latest work, NAPOLEON'S PYRAMIDS, is a historical thriller centered on the eponymous French dictator's invasion of Egypt in 1798. In this interview, Dietrich explains what first drew him to this particular time period and describes the mysteries surrounding the ancient structure that figures largely in the book. He also details the kind of research he performed in preparation for writing the novel and shares his own experiences touring through Egypt.

NAPOLEON'S PYRAMIDS by William Dietrich (Historical Thriller)
A medallion with mysterious markings lands in the hands of an American in 1798 Paris. Are the scratchings on it some kind of code, or is it just an old bauble? Some say it may hold the secrets of the pyramids, which is why Ethan Gage is running for his life. Reviewed by Kate Ayers.

-Click here to read an excerpt from NAPOLEON'S PYRAMIDS.

We have comments from our advance copy winners for our featured Suspense/Thriller author William Landay (THE STRANGLER) and for our featured Romantic Suspense authors Lisa Jackson, Beverly Barton and Wendy Corsi Staub (MOST LIKELY TO DIE).

-Click here to read advance reader comments for THE STRANGLER.

-Click here to read advance reader comments for MOST LIKELY TO DIE.

STEP ON A CRACK by James Patterson & Michael Ledwidge (Thriller)
With a James Patterson novel, readers expect vivid characters engaged in fast-paced action --- and STEP ON A CRACK delivers precisely that. What makes his latest thriller so appealing is the presence of NYPD Detective Michael Bennett, especially the tender moments between him and his beloved wife, Maeve. Reviewed by Donna Volkenannt.

-Click here to read an excerpt from STEP ON A CRACK.

IN BROAD DAYLIGHT: A Murder in Skidmore, Missouri by Harry N. MacLean (True Crime)
On July 10, 1981, Ken McElroy was shot to death in Skidmore, Missouri. The forty-five people who witnessed the crime protected the killers with silence. In this powerful, true-life account --- originally published in 1989 --- Edgar Award-winning author Harry N. MacLean reveals what drove a community of everyday American citizens to commit murder. Reviewed by Ron Kaplan.

-Click here to read an excerpt from IN BROAD DAYLIGHT.
-For more, visit Harry N. MacLean's website, InBroadDaylightBook.com.

THE SUNDAY LIST OF DREAMS by Kris Radish (Fiction)
Connie Nixon's career as a nurse is over, her three daughters are grown up and on their own, and her marriage is kaput. She's finally free...and now the list of dreams that she has been making for 30 years comes true in ways she never could have expected. Reviewed by Jana Siciliano.

BY THE TIME YOU READ THIS by Giles Blunt (Thriller)
In his fourth crime novel featuring Detective John Cardinal, Giles Blunt takes his lead character on a journey that includes death, mental illness and grief, while casting light on the healing process. The result of all the twists and turns through this morass makes BY THE TIME YOU READ THIS a book worth reading. Reviewed by Barbara Lipkien Gershenbaum.

SURVEILLANCE by Jonathan Raban (Fiction)
Jonathan Raban, most recently the author of WAXWINGS and MY HOLY WAR, has written an intelligent, provocative novel of an all-too-familiar near-future Seattle where fear and paranoia rule, and privacy and hope are an increasingly rare commodity. Reviewed by Eileen Zimmerman Nicol.

HURRICANE PUNCH by Tim Dorsey (Fiction)
Spring has sprung, and the brave citizens of Florida are about to face two lethal forces: a killer storm season and two seasoned killers vying for the title "Florida's most-wanted psychopath" --- complete with dueling letters to the local newspaper. Serge A. Storms and his companion, Coleman, get ready for the wildest ride ever. Reviewed by Joe Hartlaub.

THE GRAVE TATTOO by Val McDermid (Mystery)
No more urban serial killers for Val McDermid. The Scottish mystery writer's new book is a literary historical thriller involving Fletcher Christian, the man who faced down Captain Bligh in the mutiny on HMS Bounty and wound up exiled on Pitcairn Island. Or did he? Reviewed by Kathy Weissman.

A MARCH INTO DARKNESS: Volume II of The Destinies of Blood and Stone by Robert Newcomb (Fantasy)
The defeat and death of the evil Wulfgar should lead to rejoicing throughout Eutracia. But before anyone has time to settle, Prince Tristan and his band of heroes are once again forced to fight against the threat of doom in this middle chapter of a trilogy. Reviewed by Stephen Hubbard.

ACE OF SPADES by David Matthews (Memoir)
David Matthews recounts his life growing up in the racially divided Baltimore of the 1970s and '80s. Should he align himself with his single black father or with the Jewish mother he never knew? His classmates don't seem to want to see him as anything other than a freak of nature --- or at least as the exact opposite of whatever race they happen to be. Reviewed by Shannon Luders-Manuel.

CATHERINE THE GREAT: Love, Sex, and Power by Virginia Rounding (Biography)
How did Empress Catherine II of Russia rise from being merely princess of an obscure German city-state to ruling for 34 years with wisdom, guile and political smarts over the vast Russian empire? How much of what we "know" about her is really true? Virginia Rounding tells her story and answers at least a few of the many questions it raises in this ambitious political-sexual narrative. Reviewed by Robert Finn.

Poll:

Does the bookstore that you shop in usually have the books in stock of what you want to read?

-Always
-Most of the time
-Some of the time
-Never
-I do not buy books.

Where do you have the most trouble finding books?

-Chain Stores (B&N, Borders, Booksamillion, etc.)
-Big Box Stores (BJs, Costco, Wal-Mart, etc.)
-Independent Stores
-Airport Stores
-Used bookstores
-None of the above
-I do not buy books.

-Click here to answer our Poll.

Question of the Week:

What are some titles that you were looking for when you were in a store that were not available?

-Click here to answer our Question of the Week.

Tell us what books YOU are reading and loving --- or even those you don't.

This week we have two great prizes: FIVE readers each will win a copy of FAMILY TREE by Barbara Delinsky and HIGH PROFILE: A Jesse Stone Novel by Robert B. Parker

Please note that our next Word of Mouth update will be on February 16th.