Prepub Alert

Berenson, Alex. The Faithful Spy. Random. Jun. 2006. 352p. ISBN 0-345-47899-1. $24.95. Berenson escapes from his job as a business reporter at the New York Times to pen this debut thriller about an agent so deeply undercover as a member of al Qaeda that the CIA doesn’t know whether he’s still on our side. With a five-city tour.

Brashares, Ann. The Girl of Lost Things. Riverhead: Putnam. Jun. 2006. 304p. ISBN 1-59448-917-3. $23.95. CD: Penguin Audio. Having conquered YA fiction with The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants and its sequels, Brashares takes on adult fiction with this story of a young woman who’s getting leery of her talent for returning lost objects. But reuniting a backpack with its charming male owner turns out to be one smart move. With a 15-city tour.

Eisler, Barry. The Last Assassin. Putnam. Jun. 2006. 352p. ISBN 0-399-15359-4. $24.95. Assassin John Rain is back—even if he’s not in the title, as in Rain Fall, etc.—and this time his effort to reconcile with former lover Midori and their child puts them in harm’s way. With a whopping 25-city tour.

Furst, Alan. The Foreign Correspondent. Random. Jun. 2006. 288p. ISBN 1-4000-6019-2. $24.95. The foreign correspondent is Carlo Weisz, who edits an underground newspaper opposing Italian fascism when not reporting on the gathering war clouds for Reuters. With a ten-city tour.

Griffin, W.E.B & William E. Butterworth Griffin IV. The Saboteurs: A Men at War Novel. Putnam. Jun. 2006. 320p. ISBN 0-399-15348-9. $25.95. CD: Penguin Audio. Griffin hooks up with his son to pen another tale featuring Wild Bill Donovan’s agents, who are prepping for the Allied invasion of Italy.

Hyde, Elisabeth. The Abortionist’s Daughter. Knopf. Jun. 2006. 304p. ISBN 0-307-26366-5. $23.95. As Dr. Diana Duprey was the lightning-rod director of the Center for Reproductive Choice, a motive for her murder isn’t lacking. But she also battled with both her husband and her daughter hours before her death. With a three-city tour; a 150,000-copy first printing.

Johansen, Iris. Killer Dreams. Bantam. Jun. 2006. 352p. ISBN 0-553-80344-1. $26; lrg. prnt. Random. ISBN 0-7393-2595-7. $28. Cassette/CD: Random Audio. Sleep therapist Sophie Dunston is about to have a really big nightmare.

Koontz, Dean. The Husband. Bantam. Jun. 2006. 416p. ISBN 0-553-80479-0. $27; lrg. prnt. Random. ISBN 0-7393-2661-9. $29. Cassette/CD: Random Audio. Kidnappers have nabbed the wife of Mitchell Rafferty, and they expect the modest working man to come up with $2 million to get her back alive. Who knows how far he will go to get the money.

McFadyen, Cody. Shadow Man. Bantam. Jun. 2006. 384p. ISBN 0-553-80465-0. $24; lrg. prnt. Random. ISBN 0-7393-2571-X. $26. CD: Random Audio. After a tense auction and multiple foreign sales, this thriller has earned the right to be called Bantam’s big book for late spring. Heroine Smoky Barrett used to hunt serial killers for the FBI, but with her husband and daughter dead she’s about to blow herself away. Then the Shadow Man comes on the scene.

Monardo, Anna. Falling in Love with Natassia. Doubleday. Jun. 2006. 400p. ISBN 0-385-51466-2. $23.95. Raised by both doting paternal grandparents and committed godparents, Natassia is doing just fine without the self-absorbed mother and father who conceived her in college and then drifted off. But a romance gone sour at age 15 has Natassia suddenly off the tracks. One of those big debuts.

Moore, Jane. The Second Wives Club. Broadway. Jun. 2006. 352p. ISBN 0-7679-1692-1. $19.95. Alison joins up with four other women when she finds that being somebody’s second wife is not all champagne and roses.

Othmer, James P. The Futurist. Doubleday. Jun. 2006. 304p. ISBN 0-385-51722-X. $23.95. Self-proclaimed futurist Yates dispenses advice on what’s to come for a hefty fee. Then he blows it spectacularly at a Futureworld Conference in Johannesburg. A debut from an exec at advertising monster Young & Rubicam.

Parker, Robert B. Blue Screen: A Sunny Randall Novel. Putnam. Jun. 2006. 320p. ISBN 0-399-15351-9. $24.95. Nothing’s sunny for Sunny Randall when he’s hired to protect a sleazy movie mogul’s girlfriend and the woman’s best buddy ends up dead. But joining forces with Paradise, MA, police chief Jesse Stone sure helps.

Putney, Mary Jo. The Marriage Spell. Ballantine. Jun. 2006. 352p. ISBN 0-345-44918-5. $24.95. Lord Frayne must hide his ability as a sorcerer; it’s just not acceptable in Regency circles. But then he needs the help of a peer’s daughter, the talented sorceress Abigail. Eventually, there’s magic between them—after they marry.

See, Carolyn. There Will Never Be Another You. Random. Jun. 2006. 256p. ISBN 0-679-46317-8. $24.95. A widow assuages her loneliness by volunteering at the hospital where her son serves as a doctor, even as the son’s career and marriage are being slowly upended. With a four-city tour.

Snyder, Scott. Voodoo Heart. Dial Pr: Random. Jun. 2006. 256p. ISBN 0-385-33841-4. $24. Short stories from an author who’s starred in Zoetrope, Tin House, and other venues.

Stewart, Mariah. Final Truth. Ballantine. Jun. 2006. 372p. ISBN 0-345-48383-9. $19.95. In this series finale, true-crime writer Regan Landry helps free a rapist/murderer who seems to have been wrongly convicted. Then she wonders whether she’s made a really big mistake.

Updike, John. Terrorist. Knopf. Jun. 2006. 272p. ISBN 0-307-26465-3. $25. Part Egyptian, part Irish American, and thoroughly disgusted with contemporary U.S. society, young Ahmad is good and ready to sacrifice himself for a cause. With a 75,000-copy first printing.

Nonfiction

Ackroyd, Peter. The Lambs of London. Nan A. Talese: Doubleday. Jun. 2006. 224p. ISBN 0-385-51461-1. $23. Fresh from his success with Shakespeare (an LJ Best Book of 2005), Ackroyd examines the fascination of Charles Lamb and his notorious sister, Mary, with reports that a young bookseller has discovered a new Shakespeare play.

Bracco, Lorraine. On the Couch. Putnam. Jun. 2006. 320p. ISBN 0-399-15356-X. $25.95. The Sopranos’ Dr. Jennifer Melfi gives us a thorough going analysis of her life. With an eight-city tour.

Buford, Bill. Heat: An Amateur’s Adventures as Kitchen Slave, Line Cook, Pasta-Maker, and Apprentice to a Dante-Quoting Butcher in Tuscany. Knopf. Jun. 2006. 320p. ISBN 1-4000-4120-1. $24.95. CD: Random Audio. New Yorker staff writer Buford went to work in the kitchen of Mario Batali’s three-star establishment Babbo to find out what it’s really like to slave over a hot restaurant stove. With an eight-city tour; a 100,000-copy first printing.

Cornwell, John. Seminary Boy. Doubleday. Jun. 2006. 320p. ISBN 0-385-51486-7. $24.95. Author of the best-selling Hitler’s Pope, Cornwell here reconstructs his education at an isolated seminary that seemed worlds away from the advancing youth culture of the 1950s.

Delaney, Frank. Simple Courage: A True Story of Great Peril on the High Seas. Random. Jun. 2006. 352p. ISBN 1-4000-6524-0. $24.95. Delaney sails beyond the best-selling Ireland to the North Atlantic so that he can discover why Capt. Kurt Carlsen refused to abandon his sinking freighter when it broke apart on Christmas Day, 1951. With a ten-city tour.

Goldberg, Michelle. Kingdom Coming: The Rise of Christian Nationalism. Norton. Jun. 2006. 224p. ISBN 0-393-06094-2. $23.95. Salon.com editor Goldberg examines the growing belief among some Chirstians that they have a right to take over governing in Christ’s name.

Greenfield, Robert. Timothy Leary: A Biography. Harcourt. Jun. 2006. 512p. ISBN 0-15-100500-1 [ISBN 978-0-15-100500-0]. $28. Revisiting the professor who tuned in, turned on, and dropped out.

Joffe, Josef. Überpower: The Imperial Temptation of America. Norton. Jun. 2006. 256p. ISBN 0-393-06135-3. $24.95. Überpower: America’s got it, notes Die Zeit publisher/editor Joffe, but isn’t using it in a true leadership capacity. On the other hand, smaller nations shouldn’t be so envious.

McRae, Donald. Every Second Counts: The Race To Transplant the First Human Heart. Putnam. Jun. 2006. 336p. ISBN 0-399-15341-1. $25.95. South African surgeon Christian Barnard may have performed the first heart transplant, but three other surgeons at the time were ready and waiting to do the same. Here’s their story.

Martin, James. The Meaning of the 21st Century: An Urgent Plan for Ensuring Our Future. Riverhead: Putnam. Jun. 2006. 400p. ISBN 1-57322-323-9. $26.95. A renowned expert on the impact of technology—institutes on the subject at Oxford bear his name—Martin argues that we’re headed for destruction and had better reverse course.

Montgomery, Sy. The Good Good Pig: The Extraordinary Life of Christopher Hogwood. Ballantine. Jun. 2006. 288p. ISBN 0-345-48137-2. $21.95. Shoved aside as a runt, Christopher Hogwood was rescued by Montgomery and soon grew to be 750 pounds—and very famous. Find out about the pig featured on National Public Radio.

Safina, Carl. Voyage of the Turtle: In Pursuit of Earth’s Last Dinosaur. Holt. Jun. 2006. 288p. ISBN 0-8050-7891-6. $26. MacArthur Fellow Safina introduces us to the leatherback turtle, which has been around in some form or other for 125 million years but is now endangered.

Shields, Charles J.  Mockingbird: A Portrait of Harper Lee. Holt. Jun. 2006. 352p. ISBN 0-8050-7919-X. $25. Former English teacher Shields spent four years researching this biography of the woman behind To Kill a Mockingbird.

Wilmut, Ian & Roger Highfield.  After Dolly: The Uses and Misuses of Human Cloning. Norton. Jun. 2006. 256p. ISBN 0-393-06066-7. $24.95. The scientist who helped give us Dolly the cloned sheep argues against cloning babies but foresees cloning human embryos with genetic modifications as a way of battling hereditary disease.