Elaine's Picks

San Francisco private eye, Wyatt Hunt, finds a message on his phone, “How did your mother die?” Hunt knows he was adopted but he doesn’t know anything about his birth parents. As Hunt investigates his own past, he learns that his mother was murdered and his father is “the person of interest.” As we follow him through the twists and turns of this very personal investigation, we get involved in some smarmy San Francisco history. The Hunter may be the best Wyatt Hunt novel yet from this master of mystery. Some signed first editions.

Bernard Fairclough, a man who made a fortune with his improved design for toilets, uses his influence to get Inspector Lynley assigned to investigate the death of his nephew. The coronor has pronounced it an accidental drowning but Fairclough suspects otherwise. The victim recently came out to his family, and his wife and children are not handling it well. His lover was having second thoughts, and his cousin has a lot to gain from the death. Meanwhile, a sleazy tabloid has learned of the secret investigation and will do anything for a sexy story. Some signed first editions.

Come to Paris between the World Wars and join the circle of Jean Cocteau, Picasso, Gertrude Stein, bookseller Sylvia Beach and artist Tamara de Lempicka. Alone and destitute having just escaped an arranged marriage, 17-year-old Rafaela Fano was desperate when Tamara Lempicka brought her home to be her model. They become lovers and de Lempicka’s seductive nude paintings of Rafaela became sensations. Although we recognize the vibrant paintings, there are few facts available about this couple, but Avery brings them and 1920s Paris gloriously to life. Some signed first editions.

Akhtar takes us to 1980s Milwaukee where a boy, Hayat Shah, the son of a secular Pakistani doctor and an angry religious mother is delighted when his mother’s best friend and her little boy come from Pakistan to live with them. As his gorgeous “auntie” teaches Hayat about the Quran, his sexual feelings awake. When she falls in love with a Jewish doctor, he takes a path that will haunt him forever. Akhtar tells a vivid, moving story that involves religion, racism, and anti-Semitism. Some signed first editions.

It’s fitting that Pico Iyer wrote the forward to the Penguin Edition of The Complete Short Stories of Graham Greene. He can’t get the man out of his head. As Iyer has traveled the world and written about everything from love in Kyoto to his journey with the Dali Lama, Greene’s writing and travels have continued to have a profound influence on him. But is it just Greene, or is it Iyer’s philosophy professor father who is also “The Man Within My Head?” As he describes his fascinating journeys and his near obsession with Greene, Iyer shows us that we can run from who we are but we really can’t put it behind us. Some signed first editions.

Berta is a girl from a Jewish working-class family in early 20th century Ukraine. She gets a taste of the good life in Moscow but then has to return to her parents’ little store. When a handsome wheat trader comes into the store they fall in love, and she thinks he’s her ticket back to the sumptuous life. But she finds that her husband’s business was a cover for his real work, smuggling guns to Jews. Her bad decisions lead to some terrifying adventures. Through it all, she remains headstrong, spoiled and fascinating. Some signed first editions.