Dear Burning Questions,
I love Cold Zero author Christopher Whitcomb and have been anxiously waiting for his next book. Do you have any idea when that will be?

Jessi McGregor
Charleston, South Carolina

Christopher Whitcomb will return in June with Black (Little, Brown). It's the story of Special Agent Jeremy Waller, a man who is chosen for the FBI's hostage rescue team and swept into a dangerous world where all bets are off, and no rules apply.

Black is Whitcomb's fiction debut, but he's well versed in the world of federal law enforcement. Cold Zero, his 2001 memoir, chronicled his 15 years with the FBI, much of which was spent as a sniper on a hostage rescue team.

WAY OUT WEST

Dear Burning Questions,
I have read and enjoyed the first three books in Larry McMurtry's newest series—The Wandering Hill and By Sorrow's River. Can you tell me the name of the fourth book and when it will be available?

Myra R. Weber
Kenmore, New York

We have good news for you and other fans of McMurtry's Berrybender Narratives. Book four, Folly and Glory, will be published by Simon & Schuster this month. This will be the final volume in the series that chronicles the adventures of an aristocratic English family that settles out West. In Folly and Glory, the Berrybenders are taken by their Mexican captors on an arduous journey across the desert from Santa Fe to Vera Cruz, and Tasmin must make a decision regarding her relationship with her free-spirited husband, Jim Crow.

McMurtry is well known for his true-to-life westerns, one of which, Lonesome Dove, won the Pulitzer Prize. He lives in Archer City, Texas.

THE SIMPLE LIFE

Dear Burning Questions,
Do you know when the next Beverly Lewis novel in the Abram's Daughters series is going to be out? I can't wait to see where the plot goes.

Koryn Dimock
Dayton, Ohio

The third book in Beverly Lewis' heartwarming inspirational series, The Sacrifice, is being published by Bethany House this month. The Abram's Daughters series follows the lives of four young Amish sisters in 1940s Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. In The Sacrifice, middle sister Leah struggles with the apparent betrayal of her rebellious older sister, Sadie, and the rift that has developed between Leah and the man she loves.

BUCHANAN'S BACK

Dear Burning Questions,
When does Edna Buchanan expect to release her next book? Title please!

Sharon Baldwin
Des Moines, Iowa

Coming right up! Edna Buchanan's latest mystery, Cold Case Squad, will be published by Simon & Schuster in June. It's the first volume in a planned series that will feature a special homicide unit that takes up old, unsolved cases. Buchanan won the Pulitzer Prize for her crime reporting in the Miami Herald before turning to fiction, and her 13 previous novels have been solid successes with mystery lovers worldwide.

FAIRY TALES

Dear Burning Questions,
Do you know if children's author Gail Carson Levine is still writing? She is the author of the Newbery Honor book Ella Enchanted. If so, do you have any information on what her next book will be about, or when it will be published?

Julie Ropelewski
Erie, Pennsylvania

Gail Carson Levine is at work on a couple of new projects for children. The first, Fairy Dust and the Quest for the Egg, an original novel for Disney, will be published in spring 2005. "In it, Neverland is threatened, and Tinker Bell and three more Never-fairies do their best to save the island and their fellow fairies," the author tells BQ.

That's not all that's up her sleeve. "I'm also working on a longer book for HarperCollins. Aza's Tale takes place in the world of Ella Enchanted, and the heroine is the sister of Ella's Ayorthaian friend Areida. As usual, the fairy Lucinda gets things going with a truly terrible gift."

The film version of Ella Enchanted, released in April, stars Anne Hathaway as Ella, a young girl who receives an unexpected gift from a fairy.

Kiriyama Pacific Rim Book Prize

The 2004 winners of the Kiriyama Pacific Rim Book Prize, awarded annually to two books—one fiction, one nonfiction—that contribute to greater understanding and appreciation of Pacific Rim and South Asian cultures, were recently announced in California. The two winners will share a $30,000 award.

The Girl Who Played Go (Knopf), the first novel by Chinese author Shan Sa to be translated into English, was awarded the fiction prize. This ambitious work tells the story of a Chinese woman and a Japanese soldier who meet during Manchuria's occupation and match wits over a traditional Chinese board game.

Inga Clendinnen's Dancing with Strangers (Text Publishing, Australia) received the award for nonfiction. This intensive, well-researched study explores the first contact between Europeans and the natives of New South Wales in the late 18th century.