"Tommy's Tale" by Alan Cumming (ReganBooks). The actor-director ("The Anniversary Party," "Cabaret," "Eyes Wide Shut") pens a first novel about a Londoner tempted by the idea of fatherhood, even though he can't meet his commitments to his boyfriend or drug dealer.

"Blood of Victory" by Alan Furst (Random House). World War II thriller in which the British employ a writer from Odessa to stop a shipment of Romanian oil from reaching Germany.

"The Grave Maurice" by Martha Grimes (Viking). A new Richard Jury mystery, in which the homicide detective investigates a 15-year-old girl's disappearance.

"Triss: A Tale from Redwall" by Brian Jacques (Philomel). The 15th novel in the British writer's popular fantasy series, primarily geared toward children.

"Dark Matter: The Private Life of Sir Isaac Newton" by Philip Kerr (Crown). A historical thriller, with Sir Isaac Newton in the role of "scientist/sleuth" investigating a "sinister plot that threatens widespread bloodshed, anarchy, and the collapse of of the English economy."

"The Sunday Wife" by Cassandra King (Hyperion). King, the wife of Pat Conroy, writes a first novel about a woman struggling to break free from her role as a preacher's wife.

"From a Buick 8" by Stephen King (Scribner). "A novel about the fascination deadly things have for us" - in this case, a Buick Roadmaster.

"No Certain Rest" by Jim Lehrer (Random House). The PBS news commentator's 13th novel is a Civil War murder mystery - as investigated by a contemporary Parks Department archaeologist called upon to examine an unmarked grave at Antietam.

"The Last Temptation" by Val McDermid (St. Martin's Minotaur). The popular English mystery writer tells the tale of a murderer who targets psychologists across northern Europe, and what this has to do with Nazi atrocities and other dark secrets of Europe's past.

"Shrink Rap" by Robert B. Parker (Putnam). A whodunit featuring Sunny Randall, in which the private investigator offers her services as a bodyguard to a best-selling author.

"Blessings" by Anna Quindlen (Random House). A baby abandoned on the drive of an exclusive estate belonging to matriarch Lydia Blessing provides the starting point for the latest by the popular writer ("One True Thing").

"Nights in Rodanthe" by Nicholas Sparks (Warner). A novel suggesting that "love is possible at any age," by the author of "Message in a Bottle" and "A Walk to Remember."

"Better to Rest" by Dana Stabenow (New American Library). Alaska state trooper Liam Campbell looks into the case of a downed World War II army plane found frozen in a glacier.

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"An Experiment in Treason" by Bruce Alexander (Putnam). Blind 18th-century London judge Sir John Fielding tries to find out how a controversial packet of letters disappears from London and turns up in the Massachusetts colony.

"Alexandria" by Nick Bantock (Chronicle). The latest installment in the Vancouver writer's Griffin and Sabine series takes an Egyptophile twist.

"Tricky Business" by Dave Barry (Putnam). A group of passengers on a floating casino get caught in the fiercest storm in years, and things get all shook up.

"Quentins" by Maeve Binchy (Dutton). A Dublin restaurant serves as the focal point of the new novel by the Irish writer who not long ago was threatening to retire.

"No Way to Treat a First Lady" by Christopher Buckley (Random House). One of our better satirists ("Thank You for Smoking") imagines the woes of "an ambitious first lady on trial for the death of her philandering husband."

"Chasing the Dime" by Michael Connelly (Little, Brown). The phenomenally popular Los Angeles noir author writes about Henry Price, a computer entrepreneur who inherits a phone number from a woman with a very troubling past and becomes entangled in a nightmarish race to save her.

"Visions of Sugar Plums: A Stephanie Plum Novella" by Janet Evanovich (St. Martin's Press). Stephanie Plum ("Seven Up") embarks on a holiday adventure. At 160 pages, we believe "novella" must mean "stocking stuffer."

"I, Richard" by Elizabeth George (Bantam). Five short stories by the highly praised British psychological-suspense writer.

"Q Is for Quarry" by Sue Grafton (Putnam/Marion Wood). Mystery about an unidentified murder victim - and the detectives who want to give the case one more try 18 years after the young woman's death.

"Nothing That Meets the Eye: The Uncollected Stories of Patricia Highsmith" (Norton). Twenty-eight more stories from the author of "The Talented Mr. Ripley."

"The House on the Point: A Tribute to Franklin W. Dixon and The Hardy Boys" by Benjamin Hoff (St. Martin's Minotaur). The author of "The Tao of Pooh" and "The Te of Piglet" rewrites a children's classic - and re-examines "the importance of reading mysteries for young readers" in an accompanying essay.

"The Murder Book" by Jonathan Kellerman (Ballantine). Psychological thriller about a psychologist-detective who puts himself and a friend in danger as he confronts "a long-unsolved murder of unspeakable brutality."

"Blue Shoe" by Anne Lamott (Riverhead). A divorced mother of two starts delving into her past.

"Swan" by Frances Mayes (Broadway). The author of "Under the Tuscan Sun" tries her hand at fiction, with a novel about a bizarre crime - the exhumation of a suicide's corpse - in a small Georgia town.

"Four Blind Mice" by James Patterson (Little, Brown). Alex Cross, Patterson's favorite crime-fighter, tries to help a friend who has been framed for murder and is being prosecuted by the U.S. Army.

"Death of a Stranger" by Anne Perry (Ballantine). Victorian mystery novel, featuring private investigator William Monk, about a railway magnate who dies in a sleazy brothel.

"Blackwood Farm: The Vampire Chronicles" by Anne Rice (Knopf). Polish those fangs and get out that broomstick: Anne Rice blends vampire legend with witches' lore in her new occult brew, set in the Deep South.

"All Is Vanity" by Christina Schwarz (Doubleday). The author of the surprise best seller "Drowning Ruth" delivers a second novel about two best friends - one of them a writer who steals the other's stories.

"The Glorious Cause" by Jeff Shaara (Ballantine). A sequel to Shaara's American Revolution novel, "Rise to Rebellion," this one covering the years 1776 to 1782.

"Answered Prayers" by Danielle Steel (Delacorte). Book No. 56 for Steel. A wealthy Manhattan wife embarks on a life of her own with the help of a very old friend.

"Lilith's Dream" by Whitley Strieber (Atria). A sequel to Strieber's "The Hunger," focusing on "the enigmatic and alluring Lilith, first wife of Adam - and ur-mother of all vampires."

"Only Child" by Andrew Vachss (Knopf). Vachss' new novel finds his perennial hero, Burke, back in New York City and becoming an Internet-porn "casting director" as he investigates the murder of a Mafia man's 16-year-old daughter.

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"Hotspur" by Rita Mae Brown (Ballantine). The lesbian writer ("Rubyfruit Jungle") sets her latest mystery in the world of Southern foxhunting gentry.

"Star Quality" by Joan Collins (Hyperion). The actress-writer covers a whole century's worth of show-business hi-jinks, in this melodrama about "four generations of women who'll give anything for stardom."

"Selected Stories of Philip K. Dick," introduced by Jonathan Lethem (Pantheon). Short fiction by the hottest dead author in Hollywood, including the tales on which the films "Minority Report," "Total Recall" and "Screamers" were based.

"Crossroads of Twilight" by Robert Jordan (Tor). The tenth volume in the Wheel of Time fantasy series.

"Domino" by Ross King (Walker). The novelist/art historian ("Ex-Libris," "Brunelleschi's Dome") tracks a "hapless young artist" through the "hurly-burly world of 1770s London" in his new novel.

"Late Bloomers" by Fern Michaels (Atria). The romance writer's latest portrays "a young woman who comes into her own as she recovers her memory of a childhood tragedy."

"Rumpole Rests His Case" by John Mortimer (Viking). The ever-popular Rumpole and his wife, She Who Must Be Obeyed, make their first appearance in six years with this collection of seven stories.

"Chesapeake Blue" by Nora Roberts (Putnam). The romance writer winds up her family saga about the Quinn family ("Sea Swept," "Rising Tides," "Inner Harbor") with a fourth novel set on Maryland's eastern shore.

"Alice in Exile" by Piers Paul Read (St. Martin's). The popular British author ("Alive!") writes a historical novel about an independent single mother who, taking work as a governess in Russia, ends up living through the Russian Revolution and World War I.

"Nightwatch" by Terry Pratchett (HarperCollins). Another adventure in the Discworld fantasy series.

"Breakout" by Richard Stark (Mysterious Press). Master criminal Parker finds himself back in jail in the latest novel by Stark (better known as Donald E. Westlake).

"The Little Friend" by Donna Tartt (Knopf). Tartt, whose debut novel, "The Secret History," was a hit ten years ago, sets her new book in smalltown Mississippi and explores the vengeful mindset of a 12-year-old girl whose brother was murdered when she was just a baby.

"Reversible Errors" by Scott Turow (Farrar, Straus & Giroux). An inmate on death row may be exonerated by new evidence, in the new legal thriller by the author of "Presumed Innocent."

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"Hornet Flight" by Ken Follett (Dutton). A novel set in England and Denmark during the early days of World War II. By the author of "Eye of the Needle."

"December 6" by Martin Cruz Smith (Simon & Schuster). The virtuoso suspense novelist ("Gorky Park") sets his story on the eve of Pearl Harbor, seen through the eyes of a con man - a rogue, a nightclub owner, possibly a spy - living in Tokyo, trying to flee West on the last flight out.

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