Dear Burning Questions,
I have just read a book, Battlelines: The Last Good War, by James Reasoner, who used the pseudonym Dana Fuller Ross when he wrote the western series. My question is: Is he going to write more of the Battlelines series? It ended with loose ends which leads me to believe he will.

Jim Kittelberger
via e-mail

Reasoner's publicist at Forge Books assures us that yes, he is planning to write more in the Battlelines series. The next installment, Trial by Fire: The Last Good War, will be published in March 2002.

A horse of a different color

Dear Burning Questions,
Have you heard anything about a new Tami Hoag book? I have searched all over to no avail. I know Dust to Dust will be out in paperback in January 2002. Is there a new hardcover following? Thank you.

Heather
via e-mail

Hoag's publicist at Bantam tells us Tami Hoag will have a new hardcover out sometime in late summer 2002. The working title is Dark Horse. The story is a classic gritty private eye tale set against the backdrop of the glamorous world of international show jumping. It features a female ex-cop on the trail of a missing girl.

Raisin hell

Dear Burning Questions,
I adore M. C. Beaton's Agatha Raisin books. I noticed she has written a new Hamish MacBeth book, and am wondering if there is any news on a forthcoming Agatha Raisin book.

Karin
via e-mail

Cozy on up this winter; that droll sleuth is at it again in Agatha Raisin and the Love from Hell, to be published in December by Minotaur Books. Beaton (a pseudonym of Marion Chesney, a native of Scotland), will also release another Hamish MacBeth mystery in January, Death of a Celebrity (Mysterious Press).

To every series, turn, turn, turn

Dear Burning Questions,
I would like to ask Burning Questions if you know when Sandra Scoppettone will write another Lauren Laurano mystery. It has been several years now, and I would love to see another. Thanks.

Suzy Conmy
Endicott, New York

We recently spoke to Scoppettone via e-mail, and she had this to report: "The fifth in the series was the last. I have to move on to other characters. . . . I hope to be back with a new mystery in the future. Thanks so much for getting in touch with me." Lauren Laurano, a lesbian private investigator in Manhattan, is featured in Everything You Have Is Mine (1991), I'll Be Leaving You Always (1993), My Sweet Untraceable You (1994), Let's Face the Music and Die (1996), and Gonna Take a Homicidal Journey (1997).

Word on the streets

Dear Burning Questions,
We have the complete set of Mallory novels through Shell Game (1999). Is author Carol O'Connell planning any more of these wonderful books?

Audrie Rubin
University Heights, Ohio

Dear Burning Questions,
I was wondering if Carol O'Connell, author of the Kathy Mallory series, is going to release another book soon. Her last one was in 1999, and I'm dying for a new O'Connell book!

Amanda James
via e-mail

We've received countless queries about O'Connell. And the answer is, yes, she is. After taking some time off, O'Connell is now deep into another Mallory novel, which we hear will cast some surprising light on Mallory's time as a street child in New York, before being adopted by the Markowitzes.

Day of Atonement

Dear Burning Questions,
I am a huge fan of Booker Prize winner Ian McEwan. Enduring Love has perhaps the most gripping first chapter of any novel I've ever read. I enjoyed his last novel, Amsterdam, and am wondering what's next for him.

David
via e-mail

You'll be thrilled to know that McEwan's next novel is just around the corner, March to be exact. That's when Doubleday will publish Atonement. It is the story of a young girl who turns her family's world upside down and sets a course for her own life-long struggle.

Postponed

Ann Rule's book, Every Breath You Take, which was featured in the October issue of BookPage, did not go on sale in October as expected. After the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, Rule's publisher, Free Press, decided to delay release of the true crime story of stalking and murder. The book is now expected to reach stores in January.