Newly Released Books

By Amy Virshup, New York Times: December 17, 2008

In publishing, as in many fields, there are leaders and there are followers. Stephenie Meyer gives birth to legions of the undead. Marley begets Dewey who begets a pet shop in bookstore aisles. Among the authors on this month’s list, there are definite leaders, including J. K. Rowling and the forensic-thriller writer Patricia Cornwell — blame her for all those television shows with whooshing close-ups of scalpels slicing through dead flesh. The rest, well, there is a talking-dog book (going Almondine one better?). And not one, but two novels based in Florida in which tarot cards play a part. A genre in the making?

Mini-reviews of six titles recently released in the US.