In New Orleans an attorney, depressed and suicidal, does himself in. But it is neither deft nor private and in fact is witnessed by Mark Sway, a bright 11-year-old, who hears from the dying man a deadly secret about a Louisiana senator's murder. The accused killer, Mafia thug Barry Muldanno, is about to go on trial.
Veronica Davis's life is tumbling out of control. It's bad enough just to come home to Fossil, Washington, but even worse to have to do it because her sister, Crystal, is dead. On top of that, Crystal's longtime lover, Eddie, went into hiding when accused of the murder, and it was weeks after the tragedy before Veronica got the news that Lizzie,
Matthew Shardlake, the marvelous hunchbacked 16th-century attorney who first appeared in Sansom's Dissolution, returns in this spellbinding Tudor-era tale of murder, conspiracy and betrayal. Shardlake normally handles property cases and the occasional dangerous mission for Lord Thomas Cromwell, the king's high counselor. Now he is engaged to defend a young woman accused of a curious murder, and the case seems hopeless. The girl refuses to speak and, under English law, unless she offers a plea in court she will be slowly crushed to death.
Added by: Kahena | Karma: 11526.37 | Fiction literature | 20 September 2011
4
Tides of War
Brilliant at war, a master of politics, and a charismatic lover, Alcibiades was Athens’ favorite son and the city’s greatest general. A prodigal follower of Socrates, he embodied both the best and the worst of the Golden Age of Greece. A commander on both land and sea, he led his armies to victory after victory. But like the heroes in a great Greek tragedy, he was a victim of his own pride, arrogance, excess, and ambition. Accused of crimes against the state, he was banished from his beloved Athens, only to take up arms in the service of his former enemies.
Added by: Kahena | Karma: 11526.37 | Fiction literature | 7 September 2011
5
The Circle of Reason
Amitav Ghosh’s extraordinary first novel makes a claim on literary turf held by Gabriel Garcia Marquez and Salman Rushdie. In a vivid and magical story, The Circle of Reason traces the misadventures of Alu, a young master weaver in a small Bengali village who is falsely accused of terrorism. Alu flees his home, traveling through Bombay to the Persian Gulf to North Africa with a bird-watching policeman in pursuit.
