Centuries & Sleuths Bookstore's bestsellers for the Third Quarter of 2009. These Bestsellers are determined by a variety of factors (e.g. Author Signings, Mystery & History Discussion Groups' choices, Special Programs, Newspaper & Magazine listings, etc,)in addition to customer & staff recommendations.

	1. Ballads of Suburbia by Kuehnert, Stephanie Format:  Trade Paperback Price:  $13.00 Published: MTV Books, 2009 Inventory Status: Usually Ships in 1-5 days   See all editions of this title. Kara hasn't been back to Oak Park since the end of junior year, when a heroin overdose nearly killed her and sirens heralded her exit. Four years later, she returns to face the music. Her life changed forever back in high school: her family disintegrated, she ran around with a whole new crowd of friends, she partied a little too hard, and she fell in love with gorgeous bad-boy Adrian, who left her to die that day in Scoville Park.... Amid the music, the booze, the drugs, and the drama, her friends filled a notebook with heartbreakingly honest confessions of the moments that defined and shattered their young lives. Now, finally, Kara is ready to write her own.
	2. Killing Red by Perez, Henry Format:  Mass Market Paperback Price:  $6.99 Published: Pinnacle Books, 2009 Inventory Status: Usually Ships in 1-5 days   See all editions of this title. A serial killer on death row has one final request: to be interviewed by reporter Alex Chapa. But what begins as a dream story soon turns into a nightmare for Alex, as a copycat killer is on the prowl and is ready to pay the ultimate tribute to his idol. Original.
	3. The King of Vodka: The Story of Pyotr Smirnov and the Upheaval of an Empire by Himelstein, Linda Format:  Hardcover (Cloth) Price:  $29.99 Published: HarperBusiness, 2009 Inventory Status: Usually Ships in 1-5 days   See all editions of this title. In this sweeping history of vodka scion Pyotr Smirnov and his family, distinguished journalist Linda Himelstein plumbs a great riddle of Russian history through the story of a humble serf who rose to create one of the most celebrated business empires the world has ever known. At the center of this vivid narrative, Pyotr Smirnov comes to life as a hero of wonderful complexity--a man of intense ambition and uncanny business sense, a patriarch of a family that would help define Russian society and suffer from the Revolution's aftermath, and a loyalist to a nation that would one day honor him as a treasure of the state. Born in a small village in 1831, Smirnov relied on vodka--a commodity that in many ways defines Russia--to turn a life of scarcity and anonymity into one of immense wealth and international recognition. Starting from the backrooms and side streets of 19th century Moscow, Smirnov exploited a golden age of emancipation and brilliant grassroots marketing strategies to popularize his products and ensconce his brand within the thirsts and imaginations of drinkers around the world. His vodka would be gulped in the taverns of Russia and Europe, praised with accolades at World Fairs, and become a staple on the tables of Tsars. His improbable ascent--set against a sobriety crusade supported by Chekhov and Tolstoy, mounting political uprisings and labor strikes, the eventual monopolization of the vodka trade by the state--would crumble amidst the chaos of the Bolshevik revolution. Only a set of bizarre coincidences--including an incredible prison escape by one of Smirnov's sons in 1919--would prevent Smirnov's legacy from fading into oblivion. Set against a backdrop of political and ideological currents that would determine the course of global history--from the fall of the Tsars to the rise of Communism, from vodka's popularization by none other than James Bond to Smirnoff's emergence as a multi-billion dollar brand--Smirnov's story of triumph and tragedy is a captivating historical touchstone. "The King of Vodka" is much more than a biography of an extraordinary man. It is a work of narrative history on an epic scale.
	4. Cherry Bomb: A Jacqueline "Jack" Daniels Mystery by Konrath, J. A. Format:  Hardcover (Cloth) Price:  $23.99 Published: Hyperion Books, 2009 Inventory Status: Usually Ships in 1-5 days   See all editions of this title. At the end of Fuzzy Navel--a thriller so gripping, countless fans reported reading it in one sitting--J. A. Konrath surprised readers with a doozy of a cliffhanger: One of Lieutenant Jacqueline "Jack" Daniels's loved ones is dead. But who? The Internet has been abuzz with fans clamoring to know more. At last, their wait is over. Cherry Bomb, the sixth Jack Daniels mystery, opens at the funeral. While Jack stands graveside, tears in her eyes, her cell phone rings. It's the killer, escaped maniac Alex Kork, taunting Jack, drawing her ever further into a twisted game of cat and mouse. Because while Alex is more than willing to kill random victims, Jack is her true prey. But which woman wants revenge more?
	5. Pressure by Strand, Jeff Format:  Mass Market Paperback Price:  $7.99 Published: Leisure Books, 2009 Inventory Status: Usually Ships in 1-5 days   See all editions of this title. Darren and Alex first meet in boarding school and become best friends in college. Alex had always known Darren is a little odd. He doesn't know his friend is murderously insane until Darren asks Alex to join him in his blood-soaked fun--and he will not take no for an answer. Original.
	6. Some Danger Involved by Thomas, Will Format:  Trade Paperback Price:  $15.00 Published: Touchstone Books, 2005 Inventory Status: Usually Ships in 1-5 days   See all editions of this title. An atmospheric debut novel set on the gritty streets of Victorian London, Some Danger Involved introduces detective Cyrus Barker and his assistant, Thomas Llewelyn, as they work to solve the gruesome murder of a young scholar in London's Jewish ghetto. When the eccentric and enigmatic Barker takes the case, he must hire an assistant, and out of all who answer an ad for a position with "some danger involved," he chooses downtrodden Llewelyn, a gutsy young man with a murky past. As they inch ever closer to the shocking truth behind the murder, Llewelyn is drawn deeper and deeper into Barker's peculiar world of vigilante detective work, as well as the heart of London's teeming underworld. Brimming with wit and unforgettable characters and steeped in authentic period detail, "Some Danger Involved" is a captivating page-turner that introduces an equally captivating duo.
	7. The Zookeeper's Wife: A War Story by Ackerman, Diane Format:  Trade Paperback Price:  $14.95 Published: W. W. Norton & Company, 2008 Inventory Status: Usually Ships in 1-5 days   See all editions of this title. The "New York Times" bestseller: a true story in which the keepers of the Warsaw zoo saved hundreds of people from Nazi hands. When Germany invaded Poland, Stuka bombers devastated Warsaw--and the city's zoo along with it. With most of their animals dead, zookeepers Jan and Antonina Zabinski began smuggling Jews into empty cages. Another dozen "guests" hid inside the Zabinskis' villa, emerging after dark for dinner, socializing, and, during rare moments of calm, piano concerts. Jan, active in the Polish resistance, kept ammunition buried in the elephant enclosure and stashed explosives in the animal hospital. Meanwhile, Antonina kept her unusual household afloat, caring for both its human and its animal inhabitants--otters, a badger, hyena pups, lynxes. With her exuberant prose and exquisite sensitivity to the natural world, Diane Ackerman engages us viscerally in the lives of the zoo animals, their keepers, and their hidden visitors. She shows us how Antonina refused to give in to the penetrating fear of discovery, keeping alive an atmosphere of play and innocence even as Europe crumbled around her. 8 pages of illustrations.
Browse Sample Pages	8. Crazy Horse and Custer: The Parallel Lives of Two American Warriors by Ambrose, Stephen E. Format:  Trade Paperback Price:  $17.00 Published: Anchor Books, 1996 Inventory Status: Usually Ships in 1-5 days   See all editions of this title. On the sparkling morning of June 25, 1876, 611    men of the United States 7th Cavalry rode toward the    banks of the Little Bighorn in the Montana    Territory, where 3,000 Indians stood waiting for battle.    The lives of two great warriors would soon be    forever linked throughout history: Crazy Horse, leader    of the Oglala Sioux, and General George Armstrong    Custer. Both were men of aggression and supreme    courage. Both became leaders in their societies at    very early ages; both were stripped of power, in    disgrace, and worked to earn back the respect of    their people. And to both of them, the unspoiled    grandeur of the Great Plains of North America was an    irresistible challenge. Their parallel lives would    pave the way, in a manner unknown to either, for    an inevitable clash between two nations fighting    for possession of the open    prairie.
	9. The Gambler King of Clark Street: Michael C. McDonald and the Rise of Chicago's Democratic Machine (Elmer H. Johnson and Carol Holmes Johnson Series in Criminology) by Lindberg, Richard Format:  Hardcover (Cloth) Price:  $29.95 Published: Southern Illinois University Press, 2009 Inventory Status: Usually Ships in 1-5 days "The Gambler King of Clark Street: Michael C. McDonald and the Rise of Chicago's Democratic Machine" tells the story of a larger-than-life figure who fused Chicago's criminal underworld with the city's political and commercial spheres to create an urban machine built on graft, bribery, and intimidation. In this first ever biography of McDonald, author Richard C. Lindberg vividly paints the life of the Democratic kingmaker against the wider backdrop of nineteenth-century Chicago crime and politics. Twenty-five years before Al Capone's birth, Michael McDonald was building the foundations of the modern Chicago Democratic machine. By marshaling control of and suborning a complex web of precinct workers, ward and county bosses, justices of the peace, police captains, contractors, suppliers, and spoils-men, the undisputed master of the gambling syndicates could elect mayoral candidates, finagle key appointments for political operatives willing to carry out his mandates, and coerce law enforcement and the judiciary. The resulting machine was dedicated to the supremacy of the city's gambling, vice, and liquor rackets during the waning years of the Gilded Age.McDonald was warmly welcomed into the White House by two sitting presidents who recognized him for what he was: the reigning "boss" of Chicago. In a colorful and often riotous life, McDonald seemed to control everything around him--everything that is, except events in his personal life. His first wife, the fiery Mary Noonan McDonald, ran off with a Catholic priest. The second, Dora Feldman, twenty-five years his junior, murdered her teenaged lover in a sensational 1907 scandal that broke Mike's heart and drove him to an early grave. Michael McDonald's name has long been cited in the published work of city historians, members of academia, and the press as the principal architect of a unified criminal enterprise that reached into the corridors of power in Chicago, Cook County, the state of Illinois, and all the way to the Oval Office. "The Gambler King of Clark Street" is both a major addition to Chicago's historical literature and a revealing biography of a powerful and troubled man.
	10. Three Strikes You're Dead by Goldsborough, Robert Format:  Trade Paperback Price:  $12.99 Published: Echelon Press Publishing, 2005 Inventory Status: Special Order - Subject to Availability In the shadowy metropolis that is 1938 Chicago, Steve Malek is a Tribune police reporter in a city gripped by the Kelly-Nash political machine and the post-Capone crime syndicate. In Malek's depression-era world, the Tribune is the largest of the town's fiercely competative daily papers. With the winds of change blowing in, Malek senses the story of a lifetime when a reform candidate for mayor is gunned down by an unknown assailant. Incurring the anger of his editors, Malek ranges far beyond his beat, plunging into a maverick investigation of the murder that soon spins beyond his control. However, it's the other side of the law, displeased with Malek's inquiries, that leaves him dangling on the edge of life and death.