Mike Shea on the month’s new releases
Mitch Cullin
Nan A. Talese/Doubleday
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Texas-raised MITCH CULLIN has taken a lion-in-winter approach to the Sherlock Holmes myth, portraying the legendary sleuth as a beekeeping retiree drifting into the mists of forgetfulness on his Sussex Downs estate in A SLIGHT TRICK OF THE MIND (Nan A. Talese/Doubleday). And he’s done so in an elegantly entertaining fashion, triangulating his book between Holmes’s daily domestic concerns, a visit to post–World War II Japan, and a manuscript written by the man himself about a mystery from his heyday as an investigator. Cullin shrewdly employs young Roger, the housekeeper’s son, as the device to tie the narrative together and lead it to a brilliant conclusion. Inventive and thoroughly satisfying.
Alicia Erian
Simon & Schuster
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Thirteen-year-old Jasira’s sexual explorations are the truest gauge of her emotional state in ALICIA ERIAN’S brassy novel TOWELHEAD (Simon & Schuster). She is variously transported when she discovers the Big O, confused and hurt by a predatory neighbor, and finally satisfied by her first real boyfriend in this no-holds-barred fiction set against the sprawling suburbs of Houston (think NASA scientists). Former Austinite Erian pushes all the hot buttons, playing the race card without fear. Jasira’s father, a Lebanese immigrant prone to irrational rage, explodes when the neighbor’s son calls her a “towelhead.” But he forbids Jasira to date classmate Thomas because he’s black. It’s a complicated world, and Jasira can’t decide whether to fight or retreat. Dark and funny, the story flows like quicksilver—fast and unstoppable— to its inevitable conclusion.
Liz Smith
Simon & Schuster
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“We ate our way through the Eisenhower recession, the Cuban missile crisis, Vietnam,” and a smorgasbord of other tragedies, says New York Post gossip maven LIZ SMITH of her ready-for-prime- rib social circle in DISHING (Simon & Schuster). This sassy memoir-with-occasional-recipe is the Fort Worth native’s lip-smacking tribute to her favorite foods, the memorable places she has eaten, and most of all, the marquee-worthy people she’s broken bread with. The name-dropping inspires awe (Dick and Liz, Kate Hepburn—you get the picture), but Smith gossips with such relish that only a curmudgeon would take offense. Her self-deprecating manner and easygoing wit make Dishing a page- turning hoot. And the recipes look good enough to eat.
