BY MARY ANN GWINN AND MICHAEL UPCHURCH ILLUSTRATION BY CELESTE ERICSSON

"Nights of Rain and Stars" by Maeve Binchy (Dutton). The popular Irish storyteller sets her newest book on a Greek island, weaving stories of several natives and expatriates that converge when tragedy strikes.

"Trace" by Patricia Cornwell (Putnam). The new forensic thriller featuring Dr. Kay Scarpetta finds her tracking "strange details in order to make the dead speak."

"Fire Along the Sky" by Sara Donati (Bantam). The Bellingham author, who also writes under Rosina Lippi (her real name), pens a new installment in the lives of the Bonner family of upstate New York, struggling with love and loss in a world shadowed by the war of 1812.

"Gifts" by Ursula K. Le Guin (Harcourt). A fantasy novel for readers age 12 and up, about two supernaturally gifted young people who refuse to use their gifts.

"The Dark Tower VII: The Dark Tower" by Stephen King (Scribner). Concluding volume in the horror-meister's fantasy series.

"Shopaholic & Sister" by Sophie Kinsella (Dial). In the latest installment in the British writer's popular series, consumption-mad Becky Brandon discovers she has a long-lost sister — who hates shopping.

"Witch Hunt" by Ian Rankin (Little, Brown). The Scottish writer takes a break from his Inspector Rebus series with this suspense novel about an assassin known as "Witch," a mistress of escape, disguise and multiple identity who is wanted by three police agencies.

"The Sunday Philosophy Club" by Alexander McCall Smith (Pantheon). The creator of the "No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency" books begins a new series set in Edinburgh, with Isabel Dalhousie, editor of "The Review of Applied Ethics," as she enters a real-life moral labyrinth when she investigates the death of a young man. In December, Smith publishes "The Girl Who Married a Lion" (Pantheon), a collection of African tales from Zimbabwe and Botswana.

"The System of the World: Volume Three of the Baroque Cycle" by Neil Stephenson (Morrow). The final volume of the Seattle cyber-fiction's master trilogy.

OCTOBER

"Before You Know Kindness" by Chris Bohjalian (Shaye Areheart Books). Bohjalian, author of "Midwives," weaves a saga of a family whose summer home in New Hampshire becomes the locus of a tragedy that threatens to tear the family apart.

"Any Place I Hang My Hat" by Susan Isaacs (Scribner). A grown-up orphan tracks down the mother who abandoned her at 10 months old, in the new novel by the popular author ("Compromising Positions").

"Double Homicide" by Jonathan and Faye Kellerman (Warner). The husband-and-wife thriller writers team up for the first time to co-write two short suspense novels, one set in Boston, the other in Santa Fe.

"Going Postal" by Terry Pratchett (HarperCollins). The fantasy writer ("Monstrous Regiment") takes a comically nightmarish turn with this tale of a convicted con-man/forger who's offered the choice of the death penalty or getting a dilapidated post-office back in shape. Tons of undelivered mail and an 18,000-year-old employee are among his challenges.

"Virtues of War: A Novel of Alexander the Great" by Steven Pressfield (Doubleday). Pressfield, author of "Gates of Fire," writes a historical novel in the voice of Alexander himself.

"To the Last Man" by Jeff Shaara (Ballantine). Shaara moves on from the American Revolution ("Rise to Rebellion") and the Civil War ("Gods and Generals") with a novel about a World War I flying ace.

NOVEMBER
 
"Metro Girl" by Janet Evanovich (HarperCollins). The popular suspense writer gives her heroine Stephanie Plum a vacation, penning a thriller with a new gutsy gal (Alexandra Barnaby) set in the Florida Keys.

"Skeleton Man" by Tony Hillerman (HarperCollins). Hillerman pens a new Joe Leaphorn/Jim Chee mystery, this one about a diamond, missing for a half-century, that turns up in a trading-post robbery.

"Falling Awake" by Jayne Ann Krentz (Putnam's). The prolific Seattle writer's latest is set in a sleep-research center, featuring a heroine whose talents for "lucid dreaming" lead to peril along a "razor-thin line between dreams and reality."

"The Rottweiler" by Ruth Rendell (Crown). The queen of crime fiction (a kingdom co-ruled by P.D. James) pens a creepy tale of murder victims, all young women, whose belongings turn up in a London antique shop.

"Nobody Runs Forever" by Richard Stark (Mysterious Press). A new Parker novel by Stark (a.k.a. Donald Westlake) in which "money problems and sheer boredom" help derail a promising heist.

"Wolves Eat Dogs: An Arkady Renko Novel" by Martin Cruz Smith (Simon & Schuster). Smith's iconic Russian detective is back, as Renko investigates the questionable death of a Russian billionaire and its connection with the radioactive no-man's land around Chernobyl.

DECEMBER

"Loop Group" by Larry McMurtry (Simon & Schuster). Two women in their "sunset years" look for "one last great adventure" on the road from California to Texas. By the author of "Lonesome Dove."

"Rumpole and the Penge Bungalow Murders" by John Mortimer (Viking). The story of Horace Rumpole's very first case.

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