Best Books of 2002

Fiction

Paul Auster, The Book of Illusions.
A man grieving for his family becomes obsessed with a silent-film star and embarks on a journey into a shadow world of lies, illusions, and unexpected love.

Robert Boswell, Century’s Son.
A couple whose son committed suicide and whose daughter is an unwed mother are forced to reexamine their lives when the wife’s flamboyant Russian father moves in.

Melvyn Bragg, The Soldier’s Return.
A British soldier returns from the Burma campaign and has a difficult time readjusting to family and village life.

Hortense Calisher, Sunday Jews.
A family story about the five children of a Jewish woman and a Catholic man.

Peter Cameron, City of Your Final Destination.
A scholar whose grant depends on his writing a biography of a novelist travels to Uruguay to convince the man’s heirs to give him permission.

Sandra Cisneros, Caramelo.
A multi-generational story of a Mexican-American family whose myriad voices create a dazzling weave of passion, poignancy and the stuff of life.

Anthony Doerr, The Shell Collector.
A collection of stories that range in setting from the Ohio suburbs to the African coast and chart a vast and varied emotional landscape.

Helen Dunmore, The Siege.
An artist who is responsible for her younger brother, her invalid father, and her father’s ex-mistress learns to survive the devastation and starvation during the siege of Leningrad.

Louisa Ermelino, The Sisters Mallone.
Italian sisters who grew up in Hell’s Kitchen take matters into their own hands when their younger sibling’s husband goes astray.

Jeffrey Eugenides, Middlesex.
The story of a girl who learns that she is a hermaphrodite, what she does about it, and how she came to be that way.

Michel Faber, The Crimson Petal and the White.
In Victorian London, a prostitute who longs to escape the brothel for a better life becomes the mistress of a perfume maker with a troubled family.

Richard Flanagan, Gould’s Book of Fish.
A forger sent to a penal colony in Tasmania in the 1830s is given the task of creating a guide to the island’s fish in which he includes his observations of life in prison.

Jonathan Foer, Everything Is Illuminated.
A writer trying to find the woman who saved his grandfather from the Nazis travels to the Ukraine along with a translator.

Michael Frayn, Spies.
Two English boys spy on one’s mother thinking she’s a German spy and uncover a tragic secret.

Julia Glass, Three Junes.
Three fateful summers in the lives of a Scottish family both at home and abroad. Winner of the National Book Award.

Joyce Hackett, Disturbance of the Inner Ear.
A former child prodigy finds herself teaching cello in Italy and traces her late father’s roots back to a prison orchestra in Theresienstadt.

Aleksander Hemon, Nowhere Man.
A Bosnian man who leaves Sarajevo to visit Chicago just before the war begins finds himself observing his country’s troubles from afar while trying to create a new life for himself.

Oscar Hijuelos, A Simple Habana Melody.
A Cuban musician who was sent to Buchenwald because of his Sephardic name returns to Habana after the war and looks back on his life.

Tess Uriza Holthe, When the Elephants Dance.
While the U.S. and Japan fight for control of the Philippines, a family hide in their basement and tell mythical tales to take their minds off their fear.

Robert Inman, Captain Saturday.
A man reinvents himself after he loses his job as a TV weatherman, his wife announces she wants a divorce, his son entangles him in legal trouble, and an unexpected visitor from his past appears.

Elizabeth Inness-Brown, Burning Marguerite.
A man discovers the frozen body of the elderly woman who raised him, leading to a reflection on how their lives became intertwined.

Paulette Jiles, Enemy Women.
A girl accused of being a Confederate spy for trying to rescue her father is sent to a women’s prison where she wins the admiration of the commandant.

Laura Kasischke, The Life before Her Eyes.
A woman’s seemingly perfect life begins to unravel as memories of a fateful confrontation with a high school gunman begin to intrude.

Nora Okja Keller, Fox Girl.
After the Korean War, three young people—a girl disowned by her parents; a teenage prostitute; and a boy who pimps for neighborhood girls—long to come to America and start a new life.

Sue Monk Kidd, The Secret Life of Bees.
A 14-year-old white girl and her black nanny flee from an encounter with racists and take refuge with a trio of beekeeping sisters who may hold the key to the fate of the girl’s mother.

John Lanchester, Fragrant Harbor.
In Hong Kong, from the 1930s through the war to the Chinese takeover, the lives of English and Chinese residents intersect.

Mary Lawson, Crow Lake.
A successful zoologist looks back on her childhood in rural Canada and the tragic accident that killed her parents and thrust her older brothers into assuming responsibility for the family.

Doris Lessing, The Sweetest Dream.
In 1960s London, a woman takes in her daughter-in-law and grandchildren when her communist son abandons them to pursue his political cause.

Daniel Mason, The Piano Tuner.
An Englishman travels to a remote outpost in Burma to tune the piano of an eccentric and controversial British commander.

Colleen McCullough, The October Horse.
McCullough’s Roman saga concludes with Julius Caesar’s romance with Cleopatra and his eventual downfall.

Ian McEwan, Atonement.
A 13-year-old girl misunderstands the relationship between her older sister and the housekeeper’s son and makes an accusation that has terrible consequences.

Andrew Miller, Oxygen.
The story of a dying woman and her sons is inter-twined with that of a Hungarian playwright burdened by regret for his actions during the 1956 revolution.

Rohinton Mistry, Family Matters.
When man with Parkinson’s becomes bedridden he is moved from his resentful stepdaughter’s large home into his daughter’s small, crowded flat.

Bharati Mukherjee, Desirable Daughters.
Family ties come back to haunt a woman from a privileged Calcutta family who now lives in the U.S. and is divorced from the man her father arranged for her to marry.

Jamie O’Neill, At Swim, Two Boys.
Two boys who make a pact to swim to an island in Dublin Bay become involved in the Easter Rising of 1916 and fall in love with each other.

Julie Otsuka, When the Emperor Was Divine.
Two Japanese-American children and their mother are taken to an internment camp in Utah after their father is arrested on suspicion of conspiracy.

Iain Pears, The Dream of Scipio.
Three love stories set in Provence during the Roman Empire, the Black Death, and World War II are connected by an ancient text that poses timeless philosophical questions.

Jeanne Ray, Step Ball Change.
A dance teacher’s peaceful life is disrupted by home repairs, her daughter’s engagement to a wealthy blueblood and her sister’s impending divorce.

Alice Sebold, The Lovely Bones.
A 14-year-old girl who is murdered is able to observe and touch the lives of those she left behind.

Carol Shields, Unless.
A writer tries to determine why her daughter suddenly dropped out of college and began begging on a street corner.

Donna Tartt, The Little Friend.
A girl whose brother died mysteriously when she was a baby decides to solve his murder.

William Trevor, The Story of Lucy Gault.
A woman in Ireland spends her life longing for forgiveness when an impulsive childhood act tears her family apart.

Darren Williams, Angel Rock.
Two boys get lost in the Australian Outback but only one returns with no memory of what happened to his little brother.

Thrillers

Steve Alten, Goliath.
A group of renegades hijack a high-tech submarine and threaten destruction if the nations of the world do not disarm, but the sub has a mind of its own.

William Bayer, Dream of Broken Horses.
A courtroom sketch artist covering a trial in his hometown is reminded of the death of his father, who committed suicide after a woman he was treating for nightmares was murdered.

Stephen Carter, The Emperor of Ocean Park.
A judge who was rejected for the Supreme Court because of his connection to a suspected criminal dies and leaves a mysterious note and a chess piece for his law professor son.

Lee Child, Without Fail.
Reacher is asked by a Secret Service agent to test the defenses of the Vice President’s security detail and soon learns there is a real threat. Part of the Jack Reacher series.

John Connolly, The Killing Kind.
An ex-cop investigates the suspicious suicide of a woman who was researching a religious commune whose members disappeared over 30 years ago. Part of the Charlie Parker series.

Kurt Corriher, Someone to Kill.
A man seeking revenge for the assassination of his wife and child follows a trail that leads back to a Cold War secret.

John Darnton, Mind Catcher.
A boy whose brain was damaged in an accident undergoes an experimental procedure that sends his mind into another realm, while his father struggles to bring him back.

Patrick Davis, The Commander.
A former Air Force investigator in South Korea agrees to look into the murder of a bar girl but is thwarted by the U.S. and Korean governments.

Jeffery Deaver, The Stone Monkey.
A team of investigators try to track down a group of illegal Chinese immigrants before the murderous sociopath who brought them to the U.S. finds them. Part of the Lincoln Rhyme series.

Nelson DeMille, Up Country.
A veteran is asked to return to Vietnam 30 years later to seek a witness to a murder that an American officer may have committed during the Tet Offensive. Sequel to The General’s Daughter.

Barry Eisler, Rain Fall.
A half-American, half-Japanese assassin in Tokyo kills a government official and then gets involved with the man’s daughter who is being pursued by intelligence agents.

Joy Fielding, Whispers and Lies.
A Florida nurse thinks she has found the ideal tenant for the cottage in her backyard, but soon something goes very wrong.

Clare Francis, Betrayal.
A man trying to save his family business from a corporate takeover becomes a suspect in the murder of a woman he once loved.

Alan Furst, Blood of Victory.
A Russian émigré is recruited by the British Secret Service to disrupt the Nazis’ oil supply.

Lisa Gardner, The Survivors Club.
Three survivors of a brutal rapist become suspects when their attacker is murdered before his trial.

Brian Haig, Mortal Allies.
A JAG lawyer and his law school rival defend an officer accused of raping and murdering the son of South Korea’s defense minister. Part of the Sean Drummond series.

Tami Hoag, Dark Horse.
A troubled former cop is asked by a young girl to find her missing sister, who disappeared from a stable where a horse died in suspicious circumstances.

Baine Kerr, Wrongful Death.
A lawyer returns from prosecuting war crimes in Bosnia and is appointed conservator for a woman in a coma who was involved in an accident case he worked on.

Philip Kerr, Dark Matter.
In 1696, a young man becomes Sir Isaac Newton’s assistant at the Royal Mint and discovers a group of counterfeiters embroiled in a plot that reaches the highest echelons of society.

Elmore Leonard, Tishomingo Blues.
A high diver witnesses a murder and is convinced to take part in a Civil War battle reenactment.

Paul Lindsay, Traps.
The father of a girl who was kidnapped 3 years ago and is still missing threatens to set off a bomb in the Cook County Jail unless the FBI solves the case.

Robert Littell, The Company.
An engrossing saga of two generations of CIA operatives during the Cold War years.

Jeff Long, Year Zero.
On a remote Greek island, an artifact collector opens a relic and unwittingly releases an ancient airborne plague that is primed to obliterate all life on Earth.

Kyle Mills, Sphere of Influence.
A pair of FBI agents investigating a bomb threat from al-Queda are led to a drug trafficker who operates an international cartel. Part of the Mark Beamon series.

Kate Morgenroth, Saved.
After a rescue mission that resulted in her partner’s death, a Coast Guard helicopter pilot is drawn into reckless behavior by a stranger.

Chuck Palahniuk, Lullaby.
Two people whose children apparently died of SIDS set out to destroy all copies of a book containing a deadly lullaby.

Vince Passaro, Violence, Nudity, Adult Content.
A lawyer on the fast track finds his conscience is troubled by a client accused of murdering his wife, while at home his own wife requests a divorce.

George Pelecanos, Hell to Pay.
A private eye in D.C. contemplates taking matters into his own hands when a PeeWee football player is an accidental victim in a drug war. Part of the Derek Strange series.

Henry Porter, A Spy’s Life.
A former SIS agent survives a suspicious plane crash and uncovers a plot that involves a war criminal from Bosnia and a son he never knew he had.

Douglas Preston & Lincoln Child, The Cabinet of Curiosities.
The discovery of dozens of skeletons buried by a 19th century serial killer seeking immortality sets off a new string of murders in 21st century New York.

David Rosenfelt, Open and Shut.
A lawyer’s D.A. father asks him to take on the appeal of a death row inmate he prosecuted, but when his father dies suddenly the lawyer uncovers a secret in his father’s past.

Alan Russell, Exposure.
A photographer who accidentally caused the deaths of two celebrities is blackmailed into working for the CIA but is caught in a nightmare when he defies them.

John Sandford, Mortal Prey.
A Minnesota cop tracks down the hitwoman who nearly killed him and is now targeted for death herself. Part of the Lucas Davenport series.

Manda Scott, No Good Deed.
An undercover operative who saw her father and brother killed as a child takes in a boy who is the only witness to the leader of a crime syndicate.

Lisa Scottoline, Courting Trouble.
A lawyer who wakes up to the news that she’s been murdered decides to play dead until she can uncover the truth. Part of the Rosato and Associates series.

Dan Simmons, Hard Freeze.
An ex-con tries to avoid a contract on his life while he seeks a master of disguises who may have killed a violinist’s daughter. Part of the Joe Kurtz series.

Martin Cruz Smith, December 6.
A man who runs a nightclub in Tokyo has one chance to escape before the war breaks out but he has trouble extricating himself from his life there.

Scott Turow, Reversible Errors.
A corporate lawyer is appointed to handle a last-minute appeal by a death-row inmate and discovers evidence that could exonerate his client.

Donald Westlake, Put a Lid on It.
A prisoner denied parole gets a reprieve when a member of the President’s reelection campaign asks him to steal an incriminating video.

Robin White, The Ice Curtain.
A geologist from a Siberian diamond mine seeks his partner’s killer and traces a missing shipment of diamonds that Russia’s economy depends on.

Stephen White, Warning Signs.
A psychologist is torn between protecting his patient and preventing a crime when a woman confides that her son may be on a mission of vengeance. Part of the Alan Gregory series.

David Wiltse, Hangman’s Knot.
A 50-year-old hate crime puts a deputy sheriff in the sights of a man will stop at nothing to keep his role in it a secret. Part of the Billy Tree series.

Mystery

Bruce Alexander, Experiment in Treason.
Benjamin Franklin becomes a suspect when a packet of letters disappears from the home of the British Secretary for Colonial Affairs. Part of the Sir John Fielding series.

Sarah Andrews, Fault Lines.
A forensic geologist studying an earthquake in Salt Lake City is asked to help the FBI investigate a fellow geologist’s death. Part of the Em Hansen series.

Stephen Booth, Blood on the Tongue.
An understaffed Derbyshire police department deals with two dead bodies in the snow, two assaults that may have been racially motivated, and a missing baby. Part of the Cooper & Fry series.

C. J. Box, Savage Run.
A Wyoming game warden is called to the scene of an explosion that may have killed an environmental activist. Part of the Joe Pickett series.

Tom Bradby, The Master of Rain.
A newly arrived English police officer in 1920s Shanghai is assigned to investigate the brutal murder of a Russian woman.

Simon Brett, The Torso in Town.
Two neighbors in a English seaside village attend a dinner party that is interrupted by the discovery of a body. Part of the Fethering series.

James Lee Burke, Jolie Blon’s Bounce.
A Cajun blues singer is suspected in the seemingly unconnected murders of a prostitute and a teenage girl. Part of the Dave Robicheaux series.

Caroline Carver, Blood Junction.
A reporter who travels to an Outback town to meet a fellow journalist finds herself suspected of murder and must unravel a conspiracy involving Aborigines and a research lab to clear her name.

Harlan Coben, Gone for Good.
A man finds evidence that his missing brother — who is wanted for a girl’s murder — may be alive just as his own girlfriend disappears.

Tim Cockey, Hearse Case Scenario.
A Baltimore undertaker sets out to prove his childhood friend didn’t kill her boyfriend even though she did shoot him. Part of the Hitchcock Sewell series.

Michael Connelly, City of Bones.
A dog unearths the bone of a child buried for 25 years, leading an L.A. detective to a troubled family with dark secrets. Part of the Harry Bosch series.

K. C. Constantine, Saving Room for Dessert.
During one evening shift, three beat cops deal with disturbances large and small while coping with their own problems. Part of the Rocksburg series.

Natasha Cooper, Out of the Dark.
Recovering from a miscarriage, a barrister finds an injured child on her doorstep and tries to determine the boy’s identity. Part of the Trish Maguire series.

Deborah Crombie, And Justice There Is None.
The death of an antique dealer’s wife in London’s Notting Hill may be related to a past murder. Part of the Kincaid & James series.

G. M. Ford, Black River.
A crime writer attends the trial of a Russian mobster whose shoddy building practices may have caused a children’s hospital to collapse. Part of the Frank Corso series.

Earlene Fowler, Steps to the Altar.
While planning two weddings and struggling to save her marriage, a museum curator inventories the possessions of a woman thought to have killed her husband. Part of the Benni Harper series.

Sara Frommer, Witness in Bishop Hill.
At Christmas in a Swedish-American community in Illinois, the only witness to a murder is a detective’s mother who has Alzheimer’s. Part of the Joan & Fred Lundquist series.

Steve Hamilton, North of Nowhere.
When the poker game he joins is robbed at gunpoint, a private eye feels compelled to find the thief. Part of the Alex McKnight series.

Donald Harstad, Code Sixty-One.
A dead girl with a strange throat wound is found in a remote mansion occupied by a group of gloomy young people. Part of the Carl Houseman series.

John Harvey, In a True Light.
An artist and forger learns he has a grown daughter and tracks her to New York, where she’s a nightclub singer working for a dangerous man.

Libby Fischer Hellmann, An Eye for Murder.
A single mom tries to find out why her phone number was in a dead man's pocket and unveils startling secrets about World War II, Chicago's Jewish community, and her own family. First in the Ellie Foreman series. Northbrook author.

Jonnie Jacobs, Cold Justice.
A San Francisco attorney who helped send a serial killer to death row must determine if new murders are the work of a copycat or if the wrong man was executed. Part of the Kali O’Brien series.

Quintin Jardine, Autographs in the Rain.
A movie star who is an old friend of Detective Skinner’s comes to film in Scotland and is hounded by a stalker. Part of the Skinner series.

Jonathan Kellerman, The Murder Book.
Alex Delaware receives a “murder book” of crime scene photographs that leads to the reopening of one of Milo Sturgis’s first homicide cases from over 20 years ago. Part of the Alex Delaware series.

Christine Kling, Surface Tension.
A salvage boat operator goes to the rescue of a yacht captained by her ex-boyfriend and finds him missing and his new girlfriend dead.

Rochelle Krich, Blues in the Night.
A true crime writer investigates a hit-and-run victim who may either be a grieving mother with postpartum depression or a cold-blooded killer. Part of the Molly Blume series.

Alexander McCall Smith, The No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency.
A woman in Botswana opens a detective agency and helps people solve a variety of mysteries. First in the Precious Ramotswe series.

Barry Maitland, SilverMeadow.
A girl’s disappearance at a huge shopping mall may be related to the return of a fugitive crime boss. Part of the Brock & Kolla series.

Margaret Maron, Slow Dollar.
A North Carolina judge discovers that a man murdered at a carnival was a member of her family. Part of the Deborah Knott series.

Archer Mayor, The Sniper’s Wife.
Detective Willy Kunkle leaves Vermont for the mean streets of New York to prove that his ex-wife’s death was no accident. Spin-off of the Joe Gunther series.

T. Jefferson Parker, Black Water.
An Orange County detective believes that a deputy who seems to have shot his wife and then himself is really innocent. Part of the Merci Rayborn series.

Bill Pronzini, Bleeders.
A P.I. descends into San Francisco’s underworld to find the killer of a client who was tricked into paying blackmail money for her wayward husband. Part of the Nameless Detective series.

Ben Rehder, Buck Fever.
At the start of deer season, a game warden has his hands full with a drug smuggling ring and the accidental shooting of a guy in a deer costume.

Ruth Rendell, Adam and Eve and Pinch Me.
Two women who received letters claiming their lovers were killed in a train wreck find their fates intertwined as a serial killer roams London.

Cynthia Riggs, The Cranefly Orchid Murders.
A 92-year-old gardener in Martha’s Vineyard is asked to look for a rare plant on land slated for development and instead finds a dead body. Part of the Victoria Trumbull series.

Laura Rowland, Pillow Book of Lady Wisteria.
When a lord is found murdered in a famous courtesan’s bed, the shogun’s investigator must find the missing lady and the pillow book that may contain a vital clue. Part of the Sano Ichiro series.

S. J. Rozan, Winter and Night.
When a P.I.’s nephew disappears, he heads to the boy’s New Jersey hometown where he discovers that football is more important than anything — even life. Part of the Bill Smith & Lydia Chin series.

Harrison Gradwell Slater, NightMusic.
Stranded in Milan, a music scholar discovers a manuscript that may be a diary kept by Mozart.

Julia Spencer-Fleming, In the Bleak Midwinter.
An Episcopalian priest assigned to an upstate New York parish finds a baby on her doorstep and is soon drawn into a murder investigation.

Mike Stewart, A Clean Kill.
A woman asks a lawyer to discover the truth behind the death of her mother, who was serving on a jury when she supposedly succumbed to food poisoning. Part of the Tom McInnes series.

Kate White, If Looks Could Kill.
A journalist agrees to help a magazine editor determine who delivered the box of poisoned chocolates that killed her nanny.

Romance

Contemporary:

Judith Arnold, Love in Bloom’s. Romance
A lawyer who takes over her family’s Upper West Side deli after her father’s death tangles with a business reporter looking for a scoop.

Louise Bagshawe, For All the Wrong Reasons. Fiction
A trophy wife’s world collapses when she discovers her husband’s infidelities, but she manages to rebuild her life and career and find new love.

Stephanie Bond, I Think I Love You. Romance
Three sisters who were torn apart by one man reunite to deal with family business problems and solve a decades-old mystery.

Suzanne Brockmann, Out of Control. Romance
A Navy SEAL feels betrayed when the woman he’s fallen for reveals that she wants him to negotiate ransom for her kidnapped uncle in Indonesia.

Linda Castillo, The Perfect Victim. Romance
A woman searching for her birth mother learns she was murdered and soon finds herself targeted by the killer.

Paula Cohen, Jane Austen in Boca. Fiction
Pride and prejudice threaten the course of romance among Jewish seniors at a Boca Raton retirement community.

Jennifer Crusie, Faking It. Fiction
An artist trying to retrieve a painting she forged ends up hiding in a closet with a man trying to get back $3 million that was stolen from him.

Julie Garwood, Killjoy. Fiction
An FBI analyst who is seeking her missing aunt teams up with an ex-government operative who is on the trail of a hired assassin.

Stef Ann Holm, Girls Night. Romance
A widowed mother who runs a failing coffee shop falls for a true crime writer who is wrestling with demons from his past.

Marsha Moyer, Second Coming of Lucy Hatch. Fiction
A woman who had a loveless marriage returns to her hometown after her husband’s death and is courted by a man she knew in high school.

Mary Jo Putney, The Spiral Path. Romance
An actor agrees to star in his estranged wife’s debut film but finds that his character’s dark secrets are similar to his own.

Emilie Richards, Prospect Street. Fiction
After discovering her husband with another man, a woman returns to her family home and uncovers old secrets, rebuilds her life, and finds new love.

Nora Roberts, Chesapeake Blue. Fiction
A painter who survived a troubled childhood settles in Chesapeake Bay and falls in love with a florist, but a secret from his past threatens to destroy him.

Barbara Samuel, No Place Like Home. Fiction
A woman who ran off with a guitar player as a teen returns home 20 years later with a son and a dying friend and rediscovers family ties and love.

Kathryn Shay, Promises to Keep. Romance
A high-school principal resents the new Crisis Counselor assigned to her school not realizing he’s an undercover Secret Service agent.

Historical:

Nita Abrams, A Question of Honor. Romance
A wounded British agent returns to his sister’s home to recuperate and is intrigued by an enigmatic governess with a secret past.

Mary Balogh, A Summer to Remember. Fiction
A lady who was left at the altar agrees to pose as a lord’s fiancee if he’ll give her a memorable summer.

Connie Brockway, Bridal Favors. Romance
Seeking an estate to hold a society wedding, a wedding planner calls in a debt from an ornithologist who is really a spy on a mission.

Liz Carlyle, No True Gentleman. Romance
A magistrate joins forces with a lady from the upper class to solve a society murder.

Jennifer Donnelly, The Tea Rose. Fiction
When two Londoners hoping to marry and open a tea shop are forced apart, they build their own lives and fortunes but never forget one another.

Alice Duncan, Just North of Bliss. Romance
A nanny who attends the Chicago World’s Fair is pursued by a photographer.

Diane Farr, Duel of Hearts. Romance
A spoiled lady reluctantly joins forces with an overbearing lord to prevent her father from marrying his young cousin.

Dorothy Garlock, High on a Hill. Fiction
In 1920s Missouri, a lady whose bootlegger father has condemned her to a nomadic life is attracted to a suspicious sheriff.

Tracy Grant, Daughter of the Game. Fiction
A married couple who met during the Peninsular War must revisit their past when someone kidnaps their son.

Karen Hawkins, An Affair to Remember. Romance
An earl suddenly saddled with the guardianship of five children hires a strong-willed governess to handle the unruly brood.

Lorraine Heath, To Marry an Heiress. Romance
An earl who needs a fortune to rebuild his estate marries an American heiress, but when her father dies the couple learns that the money is gone.

Judith Ivory, Untie My Heart. Romance
A lord who inherits his father’s estate but finds that his uncle has stolen from it persuades a vicar’s widow who’s a former con artist to help him.

Lisa Kleypas, Lady Sophia’s Lover. Romance
A lady will do anything to win an unattainable gentleman, even ruin his reputation with a scandal.

Edith Layton, The Devil’s Bargain. Romance
A lady agrees to help a lord evade a marriage-minded female not realizing he’s on a quest for revenge.

Susan Kay Law, Marry Me. Romance
A lady heads west to stake a claim on a Montana homestead, but then the owner shows up and demands she leave.

Julia London, The Secret Lover. Romance
A lady who shocked the ton by divorcing her husband returns to society as a lady’s companion.

Isolde Martyn, The Knight and the Rose. Fiction
A lady tries to end her marriage to a brute by asking a stranger to claim that he married her first.

Karen Ranney, When the Laird Returns. Romance
A laird returns to Scotland to claim his birthright but finds his lands occupied by a cruel man who demands the claimant marry his daughter.

Tina St. John, Black Lion’s Bride. Romance
An assassin is sent to kill Richard the Lionheart and rid her land of crusaders but first she must get past one of the king’s bravest knights.

Lauren Wittig, The Devil of Kilmartin. Romance
A Scottish lady fleeing a brutal man who wants to use her to assume control of her clan meets a stranger afflicted with bouts of madness.

Regency:

Nicola Cornick, The Blanchland Secret. Romance
In response to a mysterious letter, a lady must return to her former family home, which is now owned by a debauched rake, and receives an offer of help from a lord who may have ulterior motives.

Gail Eastwood, The Rake’s Mistake. Romance
A lord training for a sailboat race hopes to make a lady with a scandalous reputation his mistress but soon finds himself helping her track down forged paintings.

Amanda McCabe, The Golden Feather. Romance
A genteel widow who runs her late husband’s gaming establishment hides her identity from a reformed rake looking out for his wayward brother.

Andrea Pickens, The Storybook Hero. Romance
A lady exiled from her family takes a governess post in Russia and meets a gamester hoping to redeem his reputation on a rescue mission as Napoleon's armies invade.

Donna Simpson, A Matchmaker’s Christmas. Romance
An elderly lady throws a Christmas houseparty with matchmaking in mind, but love has its own designs.

Fantasy:

Lisa Cach, George and the Virgin. Romance
A professional wrestler ends up in medieval England and is expected to slay a virgin-eating dragon, but he finds that one virgin has already taken care of things.

Susan Grant, Contact. Romance
A pilot must take control of her passengers and crew when an apparent hijacking turns out to be a rescue by an alien commander’s ship.

Science Fiction & Fantasy

John Barnes, The Sky So Big and Black.
A young woman helping to terraform Mars is stranded in the Martian outback with a group of children after disaster strikes.

Steven Barnes, Charisma.
A group of high-risk youth are imprinted with the personality of a community leader in hopes of improving their lives but the experiment goes awry.

C. J. Cherryh, Explorer.
A ship carrying humans and atevi sets out on a rescue mission to Reunion Station, where they find political intrigue and a threatening alien vessel. Sixth in the Foreigner series.

David Coe, Rules of Ascension.
When the heir to the throne is wrongfully accused of murder, he becomes a fugitive and must accept help from a member of a rival faction. First in the Winds of the Forelands series.

Dave Duncan, Paragon Lost.
A disgraced member of the King’s Blades is given the chance to reclaim his sword and his honor. Part of the King’s Blades series.

Jasper Fforde, The Eyre Affair. Fiction
When Jane Eyre is kidnapped right out of Charlotte Bronte's original manuscript, Special Ops agent Thursday Next sets out to rescue her.

Robin Hobb, Fool’s Errand.
An adventurer who has become a recluse is drawn out of retirement to find a missing prince & prevent political chaos. 1st in the Tawny Man series.

Eva Hoffman, The Secret. Fiction
A teenager with a seemingly normal life is disturbed when she learns the truth about her origins.

Sharon Lee & Steve Miller, I Dare.
Members of Clan Korval evade the Department of the Interior and help an ally thwart an invasion. Seventh in the Liaden Universe series.

Laurie Marks, Fire Logic. Young Adult
When their land is invaded, a group of people with the power of the elements struggle to resist.

China Mieville, The Scar.
A woman in exile finds herself trapped in a floating city made up of thousands of pirate vessels where no one is allowed to leave.

Laura Mixon, Burning the Ice.
An outcast from a colony on a remote ice world finds intelligent life in the sea, but her discovery is not welcome by the other colonists.

L. E. Modesitt, Archform: Beauty.
In a future where nanotechnology is prevalent, five people are caught in a political conspiracy that spawns a string of murders.

Patrick O’Leary, The Impossible Bird.
Two estranged brothers are told to contact one another and together they uncover the truth about the world they inhabit.

Terry Pratchett, Night Watch.
When the commander of the City Watch is swept back in time 30 years to an era of rebellion he must stop a criminal from changing the course of the future. Part of the Discworld series.

Alastair Reynolds, Chasm City.
A soldier seeking the man who killed his lover tracks his quarry to a once-Utopian city that is now home to a decadent society of mutants.

R. A. Salvatore, Transcendence.
A woman sets out to free her homeland from a group of warrior priests concealing a dark secret. Second in the Second Demon Wars Saga.

Sherri Tepper, The Visitor.
A thousand years after Earth’s civilization was destroyed by an asteroid, a woman discovers a book that may help save her world.

Harry Turtledove, Ruled Britannia.
In an alternate history that supposes the Spanish Armada was victorious, William Shakespeare is called upon to write a drama that will stir his countrymen to rebel against the invaders.

Jeff Vandermeer, City of Saints and Madmen.
A collection of tales set in the haunted city of Ambergris peopled by bizarre inhabitants.

John Wright, The Golden Age.
Ten thousand years in the future, a man sets out to discover why his memories have been erased and his identity stolen. First in a series.