Abu-Jaber, Diana - Origin - Rogers U 2007

Publishers Weekly

Abu-Jaber, who dealt with Arab-American themes in her earlier novels, Crescentand Arabian Jazz, shows her versatility in this gripping contemporary thriller. A spike in the number of local SIDS deaths piques the interest of Lena Dawson, a fingerprint specialist at a Syracuse, N.Y., forensics lab. Is it a statistical fluke or is there a killer at work? Determined to account for the dead infants, Lena joins the investigation, which stirs tantalizing memories from her dimly recollected early childhood. Despite her fragile mental state, Lena proves capable of surprising resolve. Her relationship with her protective ex-husband, her budding romance with a detective and her quest for her own lost past add psychological depth. Abu-Jaber's lovely nuanced prose conveys the chill of an upstate New York winter as well as it does Lena's drab existence before she was drawn into the mystery of the crib deaths. This enthralling puzzle will appeal to both crime fans and readers of literary fiction.

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Abrams, Douglas - The Lost Diary Of Don Juan - Brick U 2007

Douglas Abrams’s magical debut novel captures the heart of the Spanish Golden Age and the secret life of the world’s greatest lover–Don Juan.It was a time of discovery and decadence, when life became a gamble and the gold that poured endlessly into the port of Sevilla devalued money, marriage, and love itself. In the midst of these treacherous times, Juan Tenorio is born and then abandoned in the barn of a convent. He wants nothing more than to be a priest, until he falls in love with one of the sisters. When their affair is discovered, Juan leaves the Church forever. He is soon recruited to be a spy by the powerful Marquis de la Mota, who teaches him to become the world’s greatest libertine and seducer of women. It is after knowing countless women that Don Juan is convinced by the Marquis to keep a diary, and it is here within its pages that he reveals his greatest adventures and the Arts of Passion he mastered. But what finally compels him to confess everything is the most per...

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Abrahams, Peter - Nerve Damage

Renowned sculptor Roy Valois receives the worst news since learning of his adored wife Delia's death in South America fifteen years ago. His doctor tells him he's dying—and a morbid curiosity about how he'll be remembered inspires Roy, with the help of a local computer geek, to hack into a newspaper's system to read his prewritten obituary. But the death notice includes a small discrepancy about his late wife—and by calling the mistake to the attention of the surprised obit writer, Roy has inadvertently sealed an innocent man's doom.

Suddenly Roy has a mission: to uncover the truth about the woman he can't stop loving—secrets guarded by powerful forces who believe murder is an acceptable price for keeping them buried. With his disease-ravaged body's final betrayal rapidly approaching, Roy must somehow stay alive long enough to find the answers: Who was Delia? How did she die? Why did she die?

Did she die?

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