Dear Burning Questions,
When can we expect the next Kenzie/Gennaro book from Dennis Lehane?

Cheryl Sease
Des Moines, Iowa

Shamus Award winner Dennis Lehane is currently at work on his next novel, Missing Delores, due out next year from HarperCollins. Diehard fans of his gritty books featuring Boston investigators Patrick Kenzie and Angela Gennaro may be disappointed to learn that Missing Delores won't be part of that series. But the new novel will feature the same kind of relentless suspense and fine writing that won acclaim for his previous stand-alone, 2001's Mystic River. Lehane says major characters from Mystic River may appear as minor characters in Missing Delores, which will be set in the fictitious neighborhood of Buckingham in the very real town of Dorchester, Massachusetts.

One thing's for sure—the Kenzie/Gennaro series will be continued at some point. Lehane has indicated that the break to write Mystic River was, in part, an attempt to give the popular pair some well-deserved breathing room after all they've been through.

FILLING THE GAP

Dear Burning Questions,
I am a fan of Stephen R. Donaldson. The absolute best science fiction series I ever read was the Gap series by Donaldson. I have been trying through the local bookstore to see if Donaldson is working on anything new, specifically additional Gap series books. Can you shed any light on this?

Tom D'Agostino
Brownsville, Vermont

We're in the business of shedding light, but the outlook may not be as bright as you had hoped. Stephen R. Donaldson has been writing for more than 20 years, publishing his first sci-fi books under the pseudonym Reed Stephens. In November, you can sample one of those early works when Forge Books publishes The Man Who Killed His Brother in revised and expanded form and appearing for the first time under Donaldson's own name.

The news on the Gap series is dimmer. Donaldson had this to say from his home in New Mexico: "Sadly for one of my rare Gap fans, I have no new Gap books in the works—or even in mind. I'm sure he'll understand that I put everything I had into Angus and Morn, Warden and Davies, and that I can't imagine going any farther with them."

WATCH OUT

Dear Burning Questions,
Could you please, please, PLEASE tell me when Susan Howatch will be coming out with a new book? The wait has been interminable!!!

Jana Turner
Rogers, Arkansas

Since you said please, the BQ goddesses tried very hard to come up with an answer to your question, but as Howatch's own publicist concedes, this is one author who "works in strange and mysterious ways." Following The Wonder Worker and Absolute Truths, British novelist Howatch is reported to be busily at work on a third novel in her healing series, tentatively titled The Heartbreaker. Her American publisher, Knopf, hasn't received a new manuscript from Howatch yet, but promises to give BQ a head's up when it's on the horizon. So please, please PLEASE, stay tuned.

BAKER'S SECOND

Dear Burning Questions,
Any word on the follow-up to Dreamland by Kevin Baker? I read somewhere it was supposed to be the first book in a trilogy, but have seen nothing since. He must keep a low profile, I guess.

Jami Reed
Mishawaka, Indiana

You weren't dreaming—Dreamland is, in fact, the first book in a trilogy, and the second installment is due to arrive in bookstores this month. Paradise Alley moves backward in time from the turn of the century setting in Dreamland to tell the story of three Irish immigrant women in New York City during the Civil War-era Draft Riots. As in his first novel, Kevin Baker mines historical detail to offer a rich portrait of the immigrant experience.

AT YOUR SERVICE

Dear Burning Questions,
I really enjoyed Ruth Ozeki's 1998 My Year of Meats. Is she still writing? Are there any plans for a new book in the near future?

Cathy Barr
Columbus, Ohio

Ruth Ozeki's debut novel, the semi-autobiographical story of a Japanese-American documentary filmmaker working for the beef industry, won critical and popular acclaim and left readers hungry for more. According to our sources at Viking, Ozeki's next novel—All Over Creation—is due out in March 2003. Just to whet your appetite, we'll tell you that the new novel involves genetically engineered potatoes.

STORMY WEATHER

Dear Burning Questions,
I am trying to find out about Mary Francois Rockcastle, the author of the novel Rainy Lake. Did she write anything else?

Amelia Clark
Topsfield, Massachusetts

Mary Rockcastle's publicist at Graywolf Press tells us this Minneapolis author hasn't published a novel since Rainy Lake, her 1995 debut about growing up in the 1960s. But there's a ray of sunshine behind the clouds—the publicist also says Rockcastle is currently working on a new novel.

DEM BONES

Dear Burning Questions,
My husband and I just loved Dr. Williams C. Harris' novel Delirium of the Bones, set in Savannah. We understand he has written a second novel and were wondering when it is due.

The Sivers
Berkley, Michigan

You'll be delirious with joy to learn that No Enemy but Time: A Novel of the South is just out from St. Martin's Press and that it brings back some of the same characters who appeared in Delirium of the Bones. Central to the tale is an IRA soldier turned Nazi spy who is now prominent in Savannah society. But his past is about to catch up with him.