The Circular Staircase

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Michael Dibdin

Ratking, Vendetta, Cabal, Dead Lagoon, Cosi Fan Tutti--in each of these masterfully suspenseful and atmospheric novels we have met Michael Dibdin's Italian Criminalpol officer Aurelio Zen. Intelligent and urbane (if a little weary), Zen galvanizes us not only with his ability to solve the most intractable crimes but also with his methodology. He is both devious and moral, a slave to the status quo and original in his thinking, amused by his own tor-por and surprised by his drive. Now, in The Long Finish, he is driven by something new: a steelyinstinct for self-preservation coupled with a love of good food and wine. After a riotous and heroic stint in Naples, Zen is back in Rome, meeting with a world-famous film director at the instruction of his superiors. In the privacy of a remarkably well stocked wine cellar, the director--whose influence clearly reaches beyond the entertainment industry--convinces Zen to arrange for the release of the scion of an important wine-growing family, who has been jailed for the murder of his own father. At stake for the director, a connoisseur of Piedmontese wines, is this year's vintage: only the jailed man can ensure the timely harvesting of his family's precious grapes. At stake for Zen: avoiding a posting to the dreaded Sicily.In Alba--an outwardly serene village set among rolling hills that are planted with vines for as far as the eye can see--Zen discovers that only spilled blood can separate a family from its land. And though murder here is rare, it is complex. But at least it's accompanied by heaping plates of pasta, generous shavings of white truffles, and bottomless glasses of wine. If only Zen can keep his policing skills as sharp as his palate is pampered. . . .From the Hardcover edition.

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Norah McClintock

Mike McGill, quinze ans, habite désormais avec John Riel, professeur d'histoire et ancien policier de la brigade des homicides, qui a accepté de l'adopter à la suite de la mort de son cousin Billy (cf. ##Délit de fuite##, du même auteur). L'adolescent se fait peu à peu à sa nouvelle vie en dépit des règles très strictes établies par son père adoptif. Or, la situation s'envenime lorsque Robbie Ducharme, un compagnon de classe de Mike, est battu à mort dans un parc. Riel semble en effet soupçonner son fils d'être impliqué dans le meurtre, même si Mike affirme que ses poings meurtris ne sont que le résultat d'une bagarre entre copains. Cependant, lorsqu'un mystérieux témoin affirme avoir vu Mike dans le parc le soir du meurtre et que la police commence également à le soupçonner, tout se complique. Le jeune homme se retrouve bientôt pris au coeur d'une infernale spirale de mensonges et en vient à ne plus savoir à qui il peut réellement se fier. Qui sont ses véritables amis? -- Une intrigue policière menée de main de maître, dans laquelle on retrouve avec plaisir les personnages crédibles et nuancés de ##Délit de fuite##. L'auteure réussit avec brio à maintenir le suspense et à créer chez son lecteur une suspicion qui va crescendo jusqu'au dénouement final. [SDM].

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Alexandra Frye

As a good-bye to the '80s mania for the high-stakes Big Deal, A Perfect Wife and Mother is a classic American nightmare of people who seem to have everything until the thing that matters most is taken away.

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Stephen Mooser

Horace and Mildred Flopbottom hire the young professionals of the Treasure Hounds organization to find out where Aunt Henrietta stashed her fortune before she died. Also includes two descriptions of actual treasures which have never been found.