After the jump check out the January 2011 releases that I’m looking forward to reading.
How about you, what are you looking forward to?
The Science of Paul by Aaron Philip Clark from New Pulp Press (don’t have)
Ex-convict Paul Little has just walked out on the only woman who has ever loved him to return to a life of crime in Philadelphia. But when Paul gets involved with a petty thug who is later murdered, he finds himself pinned between the volatile gangster accused of the crime and the straight-laced detective who put Paul away years ago. Realizing the city may be the death of him, Paul looks to escape to North Carolina and live alone on a farm left to him by his recently deceased grandfather. Can Paul survive long enough to make it to the succor of the farm? Will he inevitably return to a life behind bars? Or is it his fate to die a victim in Philadelphia? THE SCIENCE OF PAUL is a stunning tale of redemption and self-exploration, as one man navigates the precariousness of the streets and the inner workings of his mind.
Crime: Stories by Ferdinand von Schirach from Knopf (don’t have)
From Ferdinand von Schirach, one of Germany’s most prominent defense attorneys, comes a jolting debut collection of short stories that daringly brings to light the motivations stirring within the criminal mind. By turns witty and sorrowful, unflinchingly brutal and heartbreaking, the deeply affecting, quietly unnerving cases presented in Crime urge a closer examination of guilt and innocence.
In “Fähner,” a small-town physician and avid gardener betrays little emotion when he takes an ax to his wife’s head, an act that shocks the locals but provides a long-awaited reprieve for the good doctor. Abbas, a Palestinian refugee who is cornered into a life of crime, finds true love and seemingly a saving grace with a beautiful student named Stefanie in “Summertime.” But when she is viciously murdered in a hotel room after having been paid to sleep with one of the country’s wealthiest men, is Abbas to blame or is it the man who seems to have it all? And in the startling story “Love,” a young man’s infatuation with his girlfriend takes a grisly turn as he comes to grips with his unconventional—and uncontrollable—impulses to truly know a woman.
“Guilt,” writes von Schirach, “always presents a bit of a problem.” In this beautifully nuanced and telling collection, guilt is indeed never as clear-cut as the crime, and justice is more nebulous still.
Trailer Park Noir by Ray Garton from e-reads.com (have)
Welcome to Riverside Mobile Home Park, where there’s plenty of shade but no escape from the heat. Marcus Reznick watched the love of his life blow her brains out and then dove to the bottom of a bottle of vodka. Now he’s living in Riverside Mobile Home Park and trying to pull his life together…until a powerful temptation comes his way. Steve Regent is an internet pornographer who has moved to Riverside Mobile Home Park to work on a new website-Trailer Park Girls. He’s looking for beautiful women…but instead, he finds something very ugly. Sherry Manning is a drug addict living in the trailer park with her boyfriend, Andy Winchell, who’s a dealer. When a friend of a friend ODs in their trailer and turns out to be the son of a powerful politician, the truth about his death is covered up in the media. But Sherry and Andy know that truth…and she fears what might be done to silence them. Anna Dunfy is trying to make ends meet by doing temp jobs and stripping at night to support her mentally handicapped daughter, Kendra…an astonishingly beautiful girl with a woman’s body, a child’s mind, and a dangerous urge to do something naughty. It’s a run-down little trailer park in northern California, but it could be anywhere in the United States. It is unassuming, unremarkable and looks like a million other trailer parks. But don’t let the sleepy appearance fool you. It’s a nest of dark secrets, boiling lusts and murder waiting to happen.
Rat Catcher by Andy Diggle from Vertigo (don’t have)
New York Times bestselling-author Andy Diggle creates a tale of the FBI’s manhunt for a peerless assassin who specializes in silencing mob informants hidden deep within the Witness Protection Program.
But the Rat Catcher has finally slipped up — and one washed-up FBI agent has one last chance to hunt him down before he disappears again forever. As the two men spiral in towards each other in a deadly game of cat-and-mouse that plays out across the badlands of West Texas, each of them hides a deadly secret from the other — a secret that could destroy them both.
Popular Hits of the Showa Era by Ryu Murakami from Norton (have)
In his most irreverent novel yet, Ryu Murakami creates a rivalry of epic proportions between six aimless youths and six tough-as-nails women who battle for control of a Tokyo neighborhood. At the outset, the young men seem louche but harmless, their activities limited to drinking, snacking, peering at a naked neighbor through a window, and performing karaoke. The six “aunties” are fiercely independent career women. When one of the boys executes a lethal ambush of one of the women, chaos ensues. The women band together to find the killer and exact revenge. In turn, the boys buckle down, study physics, and plot to take out their nemeses in a single blast.
Who knew that a deadly “gang war” could be such fun? Murakami builds the conflict into a hilarious, spot-on satire of modern culture and the tensions between the sexes and generations.
Outsourced by Dave Zeltserman from Serpent’s Tail (have)
A classic heist thriller pitched somewhere between Ocean’s Eleven and Dog Day Afternoon, it’s the story of a group of software engineers who lose their jobs due to an industry push to outsourcing. Desperate, and seeing their middle-class lives crumbling apart, they come up with a brilliant plan to use their computing skills to rob a bank. But not even a systems analyst can foresee every eventuality, so the group falls afoul of the Russian Mafia . . .
The Dead Women of Juarez by Sam Hawken from Serpents Tail (don’t have)
This is a visceral crime novel based on the true story of mass murder in a Mexican border town. In the last twenty years, over 3000 women have disappeared from Ciudad Juarez, on the border between Mexico and the USA. Sam Hawken takes this story of mass murder and abduction and weaves around it the story of Kelly Courter, a washed up boxer from Texas, who is past playing the stooge in the ring, as long as he gets paid. Courter is sucked into the underworld of organised crime that flourishes in the city, finding himself in way over his head. As his life spins out of control he becomes obsessed with seeking the truth about the female victims of Juarez. Fast paced and brutal, Sam Hawken is a classic American voice and Kelly Courter is a timeless American hero, fighting for freedom and justice.
I read OUTSOURCED (do I ever miss a Zeltserman?), and I have THE SCIENCE OF PAUL in the TBR. And I’ve been considering that Sam Hawken book, that one is calling my name.
My outsourced review drops tomorrow and I’ll definitely be reading SCIENCE. Agreed about the Hawken, looks badass.