THRILLERS

The Lisbon Crossing

By Tom Gabbay. William Morrow, $24.95.

The year is 1940, and the war in Europe is building to a crescendo. Jack Teller is a former gangster, bit actor, stand-in and sometime lover and friend of beautiful Hollywood star Lili Sterne. Jack finds himself in Lisbon as Lili's escort as she attempts to find a lost childhood friend named Eva Lange, who may or may not be a German spy. A private eye in Lili's employ who had been searching for Eva has met a gruesome end. As stand-in gumshoe, Jack's going to need all the skills he can muster - and a heaping helping of luck - to stay alive and unravel the story of Eva Lange.

Final word: Gabbay has taken on the mantle of countless previous WWII thriller writers and has done them proud with a hairpin plot and believable suspense.

Peter Mergendahl

FANTASY

The Last of the Red-Hot Vampire

By Katie MacAlister. Signet, $7.99.

Over the last few years, the paperback market has been inundated by the cross genre called "supernatural romance" or "paranormal romance." I thought it was about time I read one to see what the hubbub is all about.

MacAlister's lighthearted romp covers nearly all the bases: spooky castles; secret passages; demons; magic spells; a good-hearted fallen angel who is cursed to be a vampire; and a beautiful and skeptical physicist, who accidentally is given the power to change the weather. And, of course, although the beautiful physicist resists at first, there's the occasional wild and graphic sex.

Final word: Sex aside, MacAlister's plot is filled with twists and turns and a lot of fun - not that there aren't all of those in the bedroom, as well. This is a blazing fast read. Not the stuff of great literature, but an entertaining bodice-ripper.

Mark Graham

CHILDREN

The Flying Bed

By Nancy Willard; paintings by John Thompson. The BlueSky Press, $17.99, ages 4-8.

It's not often that a book illustration receives acclaim a year before it's published, but in 2006, Thompson's Bed Flying over Rooftops garnered the prestigious Hamilton King Award for Best Illustration of the Year. It's just one of the stunning paintings in this magical book by Newbery Medalist Willard about a bed that chooses its owners and tests their worth to each other.

Guido the baker and wife Maria barely can make ends meet and slowly sell away their belongings, but when Guido sells their bed, Maria insists she can't live without one. So Guido searches for one that's cheap, miraculously finding an exquisite four-poster that's free. But the baker can have it only on the condition that he doesn't return it. The bed, it turns out, can fly and takes them on magical late-night rides that leave them sleepless and tests what is truly important.

Final word: This is a gorgeous book that will have kids trying to wish their beds to fly.

Jennifer Miller