THRILLER

Acts of Nature

By Jonathon King. Dutton, $24.95.

Ex-cop Max Freeman, and his working-cop-girlfriend Sherry are spending some intimate time together deep in the Florida Everglades, trying to work out some issues before they commit to each other completely. That's when a devastating hurricane hits the Gulf. Sherry is grievously injured and all manner of lowlifes, swamp rats and government agents are tossed into the soup that is south Florida after a major storm.

Soon, Sherry and Max are right in the path of these thieves and murderers, and the onslaught may be more than both combined can overcome.

Final word: Acts of nature are often more deeply felt in places like the coast of Florida, and King takes full advantage of their ferocity, combining them with the stupidity and arrogance of criminals and the hubris of government lackeys. The result is a book so charged, you may have trouble holding it in your hands.

Peter Mergendahl

FANTASY

The Gospel of the Knife

By Will Shetterly. Tor, $25.95.

After an argument with his father, 14-year-old Christopher Nix, a self-styled hippie in the Vietnam-era South, runs away. Before the night is over, he nearly has a one-night-stand with a black girl named C.C. (significant in these racially charged times) and is returned home by the police.

Following his escapade, Chris and his family learn that his grandfather saved the life of Jay Dumont, one of the richest men in the world. Dumont offers Chris the opportunity to attend an exclusive prep school, all expenses paid, and off he goes.

Soon after arriving, Chris learns that he is a descendant of a race of powerful, charismatic beings. He also discovers an ancient text that retells the story of Jesus. The blade that was plunged into Christ's side comes into his possession, and, with it, the possibility of ruling the Earth, with C.C., who is far more than he realized, at his side.

Final word: Shetterly tells his story in second person, a technique that can be distracting. Despite this, it's an original and compelling tale.

Mark Graham

CHILDREN

Ginger bear

By Mini Grey. Knopf, $15.99,ages 5-8

Whenever a gingerbread cookie is the star of a children's book, one expects another rewrite of the tale of the cookie who can't be caught. But once in a while a Mini Grey comes along and retools the cookie plot into something delightful on its own.

This tale starts with a lump of pastry and a boy with a fondness for rolling dough on the floor and over the furniture until it's gray and fluffy (a dead-on insight that moms with boys will smile at). But this time, the boy's mom suggests he cut out a Ginger Bear instead. The problem is, between cooking time, cooling time, brushing teeth and bedtime, the boy never gets to eat it. So he sets it on his pillow for tomorrow.

What he doesn't expect is the bear to get up in the night and bake up a bunch of friends, only to have the family dog consume the lot of them. Ginger Bear barely escapes and, in an epiphany, decides there's one place a cookie won't be eaten.

Final word: Grey reimagines a classic into something so heartwarming kids may think twice before gobbling down their cookie cutouts.

Jennifer Miller

MYSTERY

End Games

By Michael Dibdin. Pantheon, $23.95

This is the last of a great mystery series: Author Dibdin, an Englishman living in Seattle, died earlier this year at age 60. Unpredictable, sophisticated and always amusing, each of Dibdin's 11 Aurelio Zen novels offers a cook's tour of a region of Italy.

In End Games, Zen fills in for the police chief in a small city in Calabria, the toe of Italy's boot, when an American lawyer is kidnapped. The American, ostensibly laying the groundwork for a movie to be filmed in the area, may have a connection to an old and much-hated family of landowners. A darker plot lays behind his visit, but Dibdin demonstrates with gusto how the locals outplot the plotters.

In the process he zings dot.com billionaires, egotistical movie directors, sly American businessmen and fundamentalist Christians, but the real meat of the book is his take on Italy and Italians, in particular, the laconic Zen.

Final word: If you like a spicy relish with your mysteries, you'll savor Dibdin's Zen books.

Jane Dickinson

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