2006

Joseph Kanon. Alibi

It is 1946, and a stunned Europe is beginning its slow recovery from the ravages of World War II. Adam Miller has come to Venice to visit his widowed mother and try to forget the horrors he has witnessed as a U.S. Army war crimes investigator in Germany. Nothing has changed in Venice - not the beautiful palazzi, not the violins at Florian's, not the shifting water that makes the city, untouched by bombs, still seem a dream. But when Adam falls in love with Claudia, a Jewish woman scarred by her devastating experiences during the war, he is forced to confront another Venice, a city still at war with itself, haunted by atrocities it would rather forget.

2005

Chuck Hogan. Prince of Thieves

Hogan's brash tale of four men -- thieves, rivals, friends -- being hunted through the streets of Boston by a tenacious FBI agent, and the woman who may destroy them all, is a spectacular, stylish, heart-pounding thriller.

2004

Carol Goodman. Seduction of Water

Goodman skillfully weaves fairy tale themes into a modern web of intrigue. It is a novel about the secrets mothers keep, and the daughters who must live in their shadows.

2003

Owen Parry. Honor's Kingdom

Union Major Abel Jones arrives in London in 1862 to thwart the Confederates' plan to buy warships from the British. Instead, he finds the corpse of his predecessor in a basket of eels. Jones soon finds himself tangled in scandals in Parliament, murders among England's poor, and the danger that London will be drawn once again into war with the United States.

2002

Alan Furst. Kingdom of Shadows: A Novel

In spymaster Furst's most electrifying thriller to date, Hungarian aristocrat Nicholas Morath--a hugely charismatic hero--becomes embroiled in a daring and perilous effort to halt the Nazi war machine in Eastern Europe.

2001

Margaret Atwood. The Blind Assassin

Containing a novel within a novel, "The Blind Assassin" is a science fiction story told by two unnamed lovers who meet in dingy backstreet rooms. Told in a style that magnificently captures the colloquialisms of the 1930s and 1940s, it unfolds layer by astonishing layer and concludes in a brilliant and wonderfully satisfying twist.

2000

Martin Cruz Smith. Havana Bay

The body of a Russian embassy official is found floating in Havana Bay, and Arkady Renko, the memorable detective from "Gorky Park, " is sent to identify it. Renko, however, refuses to positively identify the body. Then, that night, somebody tries to kill him. And now Renko can't go home--he's stuck in Cuba. But what a Cuba it is!

1999

William Hoffman. Tidewater Blood

For two hundred and fifty years, the LeBlancs of Tidewater Virginia - landed, rich, and proud of it - have been celebrating their French Huguenot ancestry. Each year, over an extravagant lunch and in period costume dress, they relive the beginnings of the LeBlanc line, reminding everyone of their rise from meager beginnings to a position of great stature, wealth, and privilege. But this year's celebration goes horribly wrong.

1998

William Deverell. Trial of Passion

1997

Martin Cruz Smith. Rose

A wonderfully rich and intricate novel set in a 19th century English mining town finds Jonathan Blair, a mining engineer who has been chased out of Africa for "stealing" from the missionaries' Bible Fund, finds himself back in Africa to find John Maypole, the museum curate who disappeared three months before without explanation.

1996

Mary Willis Walker. Under the Beetle's Cellar

An Austin school bus driver and eleven of his young charges are kidnapped by religious fanatics and held in their fortified compound for 46 days.

1995

James Lee Burke. Dixie City Jam

A Nazi submarine buried off the coast of Louisiana provides the linchpin for the newest Dave Robicheaux novel.

1994

James Crumley. The Mexican Tree Duck

A blood-encrusted ceramic figure is at the center of private investigator C. W. Sughrue's search through the American West for the missing mother of his Vietnam buddy

1993

Alice Hoffman. Turtle Moon

When a young single mother is murdered and her baby disappears, Keith, a 12-year-old boy from the same Verity, Florida apartment building also disappears. In pursuit are Keith's divorced mother and a concerned policeman.

1992

Elmore Leonard. Maximum Bob

Someone wants bigoted, redneck judge Maximum Bob dead when they place a live 10-foot alligator in his backyard and fire shots into his house.