and apparently killed, Yvette honors his
last wish and, with the help of a stranger,
Louis Carreau, reclaims his unpublished
score from his parents’ house. Pierre then
appears to resurface in Scotland several
years later as a factory worker. Whether he
lived or died—or both—is the question,
as modern-day pianist David Conroy, his
career on the wane, ponders if a rediscovered Klauer score might be the answer to
all his problems. Though the chapters featuring Pierre and his milieu read like
heavy-handed melodrama, the philosophical questions the book raises are clever
and insightful. (Mar.)
The Retail
Joshua Danker-Dake. CreateSpace, $11.99
trade paper (320p) ISBN 978-1-5002-2695-4
Danker-Dake incorporates humor,
emotion, and social commentary into his
debut novel, which reads like the script
for a smart comedy film. Self-deprecating narrator Penn Reynard is a
young, aspiring writer making ends
meet by working behind the returns
desk at the House Station, a fictional
big-box store in Leetown, Mo., modeled
after Home Depot and Lowe’s. He’s also a
virgin, saving himself for marriage. In
the Paint department, he meets Chloe
van Caneghem, a sweet girl with like-minded morals, and their evolving relationship is at the heart of this dialogue-rich story. The couple’s sidekick is
service-desk commander Angry
Pete—a shrill-voiced young man whose
mind and mouth are constantly moving.
Danker-Dake’s blunt and brief portrayals
of clueless customers add to the book’s
charm, as do the outrageous names he
assigns to characters: Promilla, Kord,
Osric, Thoth, and Fielding. At times,
the book satirizes the retail world, portraying high-level personnel at the
House Station as despicable automatons
who refuse to acknowledge the toll
employees pay for working for a soulless
corporation. With many scenes occurring
inside the store, in a booth at the local
IHOP, or at Penn’s apartment, the plot
doesn’t take many significant turns. That
readers won’t care speaks volumes about
Danker-Dake’s ability to propel a character-driven narrative. Here’s to a sequel.
(BookLife)
Mystery/Thriller
Falling in Love
Donna Leon. Atlantic Monthly, $26 (256p)
ISBN 978-0-8021-2353-4
In bestseller Leon’s pleasurable 24th
mystery to feature Commissario Guido
Brunetti (after 2014’s By Its Cover),
Flavia, performing in a production of
Tosca, confides that an unknown admirer
has followed her from London to St.
Petersburg to Venice, showering her with
increasingly extravagant displays of
yellow roses. As the fan intrudes into her
personal space—placing flowers in her
apartment building, leaving a priceless
necklace in her dressing room, and
writing possessive notes—Brunetti educates himself about stalking. When two
people connected to Flavia are seriously
injured, he realizes the singer herself is in
danger. Leon’s Venice is peopled with
urbane, sophisticated characters, and she
flavors the novel with insights into stagecraft, Tosca, and the storied La Fenice
opera house. Series aficionados as well as
those who appreciate elegant settings and
cultured conversation should find this a
deeply satisfying escape. Agent: Susanna
Bauknecht, Diogenes Verlag (Switzerland).
(Apr.)
★ Someone Is Watching
Joy Fielding. Ballantine, $27 (384p) ISBN 978-
0-553-39063-6
This engrossing standalone from best-
seller Fielding (Shadow Creek) makes you
care about Bailey Carpenter, a Miami-
based investigator who’s raped while on
surveillance. Previously, the biggest prob-
lems in Bailey’s life had been her mother’s
death, her affair with a married colleague,
and her five half-siblings’ attempt to over-
turn their father’s will, which left millions
to Bailey and her often-stoned brother,
Heath. Now Claire, a nurse as well as the
half-sister Bailey barely knows, becomes
her guardian angel as she starts on her
slow path to recovery. Not sleeping and
afraid to leave her high-rise apartment,
Bailey suspects every man of evil intent,
and she has a number of encounters, both
frightening and embarrassing, in her
quest to re-establish some control over her
life. The characters pulsate with life, and
there are a few shocks in store—for Bailey
and the reader—before the denouement.
And the presence of Jade, Claire’s outspoken teen daughter, blows everyone else
off the page. Agent: Tracy Fisher, WME
Entertainment. (Mar.)
The Pocket Wife
Susan Crawford. Morrow, $25.99 (320p) ISBN
978-0-06-236285-8
Dana Catrell, the heroine of Crawford’s
quirkily endearing debut, desperately
needs to figure out what happened in those
boozy, woozy hours between her argument
with neighbor Celia Steinhauser and the
discovery of the woman’s body—ideally
before Paterson, N.J., Det. Jack Moss gets
to the bottom of it. Though suburban
homemaker Dana doesn’t believe herself
capable of murder, she can’t be sure since
she stopped taking meds for her bipolar
disorder. Fortunately for Dana, Jack, who
reminds her of her first love, is also somewhat off his game in the wake of his wife’s
