December's New Bestsellers

Our Kind of Traitor by John le Carre

Library Journal –

Le Carré (A Most Wanted Man) launches his latest exploration into the dodgy world of espionage on a surprisingly cozy note. An attractive couple vacationing in Antigua meet Dima, a hale and hearty Russian businessman, and his charming children. Tennis, then parties, and soon Perry and Gail are trusted companions of the family. Shockingly, Dima asks Perry to be his negotiator with British intelligence. The payload? Dima is a world-class money launderer and can reveal embarrassing and compromising deals at the highest (and lowest) levels of the world's financial brotherhoods. In his inimitable and engrossing way, Le Carré put us right at the 50-yard line of the ensuing desperate brawl as the Brits fight to control this asset. VERDICT As fresh as this morning's dish on Twitter and as nerve-racking as the evening news, this novel is sure to thrill faithful fans and attract newcomers to Le Carré's considerable list of 21 previous novels.





Edge by Jeffery Deaver

Publishers Weekly –

Thriller Award winner Deaver (The Bodies Left Behind) unveils some nifty new tricks in this edge-of-your-seat thriller that pits two worthy antagonists against each other. Henry Loving, "a lifter," specializes in extracting information from human targets by any means necessary (i.e., torture). Corte, "a shepherd," is an agent in the Strategic Protection Department of a secret government agency normally assigned to protect high-profile targets. An intercepted communication identifies Loving as the lifter ordered to target Ryan Kessler, a Washington, D.C., metro detective. While Corte attempts to protect Kessler's family and identify the "primary," Loving's employer, Loving seeks the edge to get the information he needs to extract. Corte, a board game aficionado and game theory student, and Loving are well matched, sharing a history that ups the stakes and makes the contest personal. Deaver's first first-person narrator, Corte, is an exciting new weapon in the author's arsenal of memorable characters.



Side Jobs: Stories From the Dresden Files by Jim Butcher

Publishers Weekly –

Fans of Butcher's long-running and bestselling urban fantasy series featuring Chicago wizard PI Harry Dresden were stunned by the concluding events of the 2010 novel Changes. They'll probably want to skip ahead to the last of this collection's 11 stories, "Aftermath," set just hours after the end of that book. With Dresden's fate uncertain, it's his longtime ally, Sgt. Karrin Murphy, who must help find a kidnapped werewolf. This entry is the collection's strongest, full of powerful emotion. The rest of the book is a mixed bag, ranging from Butcher's first attempt at short fiction--"a novice effort" that "wasn't up to par for professional publication"--to more recent tales set around and between the novels. First-timers will be lost, and this uneven volume mostly makes the case that Butcher's talent is best displayed in longer form.