Dear Burning Questions,
Sacred Dust by David Hill is one of the finest books I have read in the past decade. Why haven't we heard from him since? Is anything new in the works? I'm not complaining; he is worth waiting for.

Tom Polzin
via e-mail

Your wait is almost over! Butterfly Sunday, Hill's next novel, will be available in November from Delacorte.

A not-so-patient reader

Dear Burning Questions,
Help! My main man, Robert B. Parker, has lost us! I introduced this "man's man" of authors to a number of people. His combination of Spenser, Hawk, and Susan cannot be beat. Detailing gourmet meals is another plus. Add Quark, Vinnie, Belson, and Henry, and you have an unbeatable combo. Please, Robert, it's good to introduce new characters, but come on, gimmie, gimmie, gimmie. I need, I need! Let's get back to basics. Thanks.

Norm "Big Man" Butler II
Yonkers, NY

Easy there, big guy. Call it a seasonal thing. Parker gets back to basics every spring when he writes his annual Spenser novel. Busy guy's guy that he is, he also writes a non-Spenser novel each fall. Hugger Mugger, the latest Spenser tale, came out in April, and Perish Twice, featuring female P.I. Sunny Randall, will be released October 2, so you can enjoy Parker all year 'round.

Hi ya, Carl!

Dear Burning Questions,
I would love to tell everyone about Carl Hiaasen's good books but don't know how to pronounce his name. The article about him in BookPage was so interesting. I enjoy reading about the new books and authors. Thanks.

ML
via e-mail

You're right. If you're going to spread the word, learning how to pronounce his name is probably a good place to start -- and we can help. We're also sharing a little Hiaasen history, courtesy of his publisher, Alfred A. Knopf, so you can start your very own fan club.

Carl Hiaasen (pronounced "hiya-sun") was born and raised in South Florida and presently lives smack in the middle of the Florida Keys. He attended Emory University and the University of Florida at Gainesville, where he graduated with a journalism degree in 1974.

Hiaasen began his journalism career writing weird public interest stories at Cocoa Today and joined The Miami Herald in 1976, where he's since been a reporter for their general assignment desk, Sunday magazine, and investigative team. As part of The Miami Herald's investigative team, Hiaasen has worked on projects exposing dangerous doctors in Florida, land corruption in the Florida Keys, and drug smuggling in the Bahamas and Key West.

Hiaasen turned his hand to fiction in the early '80s. His first novel, Tourist Season, was published in 1986. He is the author of seven other best-selling novels as well as Team Rodent, an essay on the Disney enterprise in Florida, and Kick Ass, a selection of his columns. Tony Hillerman calls Hiaasen "the Mark Twain of the crime novel."

Take it easy

Dear Burning Questions,
I've been searching for Walter Mosley's next installment of his Easy Rawlins mystery to no avail! You are my last hope. I believe his next was to be titled Bad Boy Bobbie Brown, but where and when can we expect this new title? Please end this miserable waiting.

Roscoe Humner
via e-mail

We're going to put you out of your misery -- at least partly. Mosley's publicist at Little, Brown tells us they are publishing his next novel, and it is a mystery, just not an Easy Rawlins one. Mosley has created a new character named Fearless Jones. It is scheduled to be published sometime next spring. Not to worry, that smoothest of sleuths Easy Rawlins isn't gone forever, but for the time being you'll have to give Fearless a chance.

Still Waiting

Dear Burning Questions,
I hadn't heard of Ha Jin until he won the National Book Award last year [for Waiting]. Now I'm a fan and am wondering if he has a new novel coming out anytime soon. Thanks.

Simon Dexter
via e-mail

The Bridegroom, a collection of short stories, will be released by Pantheon in October. Here Ha Jin depicts the daily dramas in the lives of Chinese men and women caught between two cultures. Waiting will be released in paperback in October from Vintage.

Telling tall tales

Dear Burning Questions,
When will Ursula LeGuin regale us with more tales in the Hainish Cycle?

via e-mail

We love this woman. The Left Hand of Darkness left us rethinking society and contemplating our feminist stirrings. The latest novel in the Hainish Cycle, The Telling, is being published this month by Harcourt, and is already garnering praise from authors such as Jonathan Lethem and Jane Yolen.

FBI, federal book investigation

Dear Burning Questions:
Last year, my daughter happened to pick up a book by Paul Lindsay, and it was so enjoyable, we read his other two, but can't find out anything else about any new books. Is he still writing? His are great FBI books and I recommend them highly -- and hope he has another coming soon. Thanks for any info you can give -- but mainly, thanks for a great publication.

Sharon L. Turpin
via e-mail

We 'preciate the praise (we're suckers for flattery). You might have missed The Fuhrer's Reserve: A Novel of the FBI, which was published in May by Simon & Schuster. If you've already read this one, you'll have to wait until 2002 for the next Paul Lindsay book.

Getting the message

Dear Burning Questions,
I'm a Jane Hamilton fan eagerly awaiting her next novel. Any info?

via e-mail

If you're a Hamilton fan, this news should be music to your ears. In Jane Hamilton's latest, Disobedience (Doubleday), to be released in October, e-mail turns deadly. When 17-year-old Henry accidentally reads a message to his pianist mother, he discovers she is having an affair with a violinmaker.

It's a mystery

Dear Burning Questions,
I was looking forward to the fourth book in the Phoebe Siegel mysteries, but Sandra West Prowell seems to have dropped off the planet. Can you find out when the next book will be? Thanks.

Shirley Duderstadt
via e-mail

We spoke to Phoebe Siegel's publicist at Walker & Co. who told us that, though Prowell is still on the planet, the fourth book is indefinitely postponed.

Think positively

Dear Burning Questions,
I really enjoy the historical novels and mysteries that Sharon Kay Penman has written. But it seems like a while since she has published anything. Is she still writing?

Jan
via e-mail

Sharon Kay Penman's editor at Putnam tells us that the author has had a severe case of mononucleosis for over a year. That, plus the death of her mother last fall, put the book on hold. Her editor recently spoke with Penman and says "she sounds better than I've heard for a long, long time . . . with any luck, maybe we will have book two of the Eleanor and Henry trilogy next year in the fall, or in late winter of 2002."