THRILLER
Requiem for an Assassin
By Barry Eisler. Putnam, $24.95
Assassin-with-a-conscience John Rain is once again trying to right the ship of his life and sail away from his past. In his latest story, Rain has spent such a large part of his life being someone other than himself just to survive that when he yearns for a real life, he still has to fall back on being a deadly chimera - hoping he can come out of his hiding with something emotionally worth living for. When one of his only true friends is kidnapped and used as bait, Rain has no choice but to reveal more of himself to the world than he would prefer. For an assassin, that's like a first confession preceded by first communion.
Final word: The Rain thrillers can be either completely absorbing or massively off-putting because of the supercharged arrogance and hubris of their hero. If the latter doesn't bother you, this could be the escape read of the summer.
- Peter Mergendahl
HORROR/SUSPENSE
The Midnight Road
By Tom Piccirilli. Bantam, $6.99
Flynn, a social worker who specializes in child-abuse cases, dies on page 28 of Colorado author Piccirilli's 17th and best novel. Flynn has just saved an autistic young man named Nuddin, his sister Kelly and their French bulldog from a home where Nuddin had been locked in a cage and physically abused. When his car is forced off the road onto a frozen pond by the children's enraged mother, it breaks through the ice. Flynn saves Kelly and Nuddin, but he and the dog are lost under the ice.
A half hour later, Flynn is revived by paramedics. From this point on, he is pursued by a serial killer, with the sarcastic talking ghost of the French bulldog his constant companion.
Final word: I read this novel nonstop. A combination of noir suspense and humorous ghost story, Piccirilli, winner of multiple Bram Stoker Awards, is at the top of his game.
- Mark Graham
MYSTERY
Wash This Blood Clean From My Hand
By Fred Vargas. Penguin, $14
Vargas, a best-selling author of romans policiers in France, joins a host of other European authors whose works have been translated into English for voracious American mystery readers. Wash This Blood flavors the genre with a Gallic flair.
Vargas, whose real name is Frédérique Audouin-Rouzeau, is a medieval historian and archaeologist known as an expert on the plague. Her womanizing Inspector Adamsberg, mild-mannered with occasional flashes of sauvagerie, finds himself hunting an old foe who's been getting away with murder for decades. The case is complicated by the fact that the suspect has been dead for years - yet his special M.O. keeps appearing.
Meanwhile, Adamsberg and his team of officers head to Canada to learn about DNA testing. The inspector gets into trouble in Montreal with his tendency to cherchez les femmes, but his hardworking colleagues on both sides of the Atlantic pull through for him.
Final word: This crime series has a quirky flavor all its own - mystery fun with a French accent.
- Jane Dickinson
CHILDREN
My Dog Is as Smelly as Dirty Socks and Other
Funny Family Portraits
By Hanoch Piven. Schwartz & Wade Books, $15.99, ages 4-8
Piven's newest collage book is as funny as, well, a family album retouched with odds and ends from the junk drawer.
This giggly good book follows the curious changes a young girl makes to line drawings of her family and pet. Facial features are replaced with marbles, fluff, light bulbs and other found objects that reflect each family member's personality. Dad is so nutty he gets bolts for eyes and springs for eyebrows, and baby brother is sweet enough to have Gummi Bear hair, but so noisy he gets whistles for eyes. The dog Shmutz is so smelly its nose is pepperoni. And when it comes to the girl, well, only the sweetest, prettiest objects will do - and, of course, she gets a furry stuffed heart to love her very odd-looking family.
Final word: The creator of What Presidents Are Made Of delivers another book sure to give kids the sillies.
- Jennifer Miller
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