Publishers Tempt Fans of Fiction With Listings for Winter, Spring

Publishers and bookstores count heavily on cash registers to ring-ring-ring-a-ling at Christmas. But yes, Virginia, there is publishing life after the holidays.

Although publishers tend to bring on the blockbusters during autumn and spring, the winter season is also more than respectable.

Here is a look ahead to the bigger fiction titles due through winter and early spring.

*”Hayduke Lives!” by Edward Abbey. A gift for the cult following of the late Edward Abbey: a sequel to “The Monkey Wrench Gang.” Yes, Hayduke is alive, and he’s back to fight the despoilers of the Earth. (Little, Brown; January.)

*”The Great and Secret Show” by Clive Barker. In Barker’s latest horror show, the battle between good and evil is joined over a struggle for the Art, “the greatest power known to mankind.” (Harper & Row, February.)

* “Picturing Will” by Ann Beattie. In her first novel in five years, Beattie tells the story of 5 1/2-year-old Will and the adults in his life: his mother, her boyfriend and his father, down on his luck and living with his third wife in Florida. (Random House, January.)

* “Emperor of America” by Richard Condon. The author of “The Manchurian Candidate” and “Prizzi’s Honor” turns his satiric wit to the Oval Office. When a nuclear accident destroys Washington, an Army colonel assumes command and declares himself emperor. (Simon & Schuster, February.)

* “Hell-Bent Men and Their Cities: Stories” by Susan Dodd. Dodd follows up “Mamaw,” her fictional biography of Jesse James’ mother, with a book of short stories with a more contemporary bent. (Viking, January.)

* “Baptism of Desire: Poems” by Louise Erdrich. A second collection of poetry from the acclaimed author of the novels “Love Medicine,” “The Beet Queen” and “Tracks.” (Harper & Row, December.)

* “Cold Harbour” by Jack Higgins. The author of “The Eagle Has Landed” returns to Allied intelligence operations in a new World War II suspense thriller. (Simon & Schuster, January.)

* “The Evening News” by Arthur Hailey. Known for his blockbuster novels with one-word titles (“Airport,” “Hotel,” “Wheels”), Hailey returns to the fiction scene with his first novel in six years, a drama about a TV network battling a terrorist group. (Doubleday, April.)

* “Devices and Desires” by P.D. James. New Scotland Yard Commander Adam Dalgliesh tries to get away from it all by holing up in the English countryside, where he becomes a suspect in a series of stranglings. (Knopf, February.)

* “Any Woman’s Blues: A Novel of Obsession” by Erica Jong. The author of “Fear of Flying” lands in the ‘90s with an up-to-the-minute novel about a celebrity artist, a woman who is addicted to a younger man and numerous other vices, and the adventures she encounters as she tries to conquer her various dependencies. (Harper & Row, February).

* “Mary Reilly” by Valerie Martin. An imaginative retelling of the classic “Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde” story, Valerie Martin’s version is told from the perspective of young Mary Reilly, a girl from a brutal home who feels very fortunate to be working for the charming and respected scientist Dr. Jekyll. (Doubleday, February.)

* “Vespers: An 87th Precinct Mystery” by Ed McBain. The winner of the Grand Master Award of the Mystery Writers of America continues his series about crime and punishment with the story of the brutal murder of a Catholic priest. (William Morrow, January.)

* “The Message to the Planet” by Iris Murdoch. Does charismatic healer Marcus Vallar possess the secret of life and death? Murdoch poses questions fraught with meaning and creates a cast of intriguing characters in her 24th novel. (Viking, February.)

* “Because It Is Bitter, and Because It Is My Heart” by Joyce Carol Oates. In a novel that ends with the assassination of President Kennedy, Oates explores racial tensions in Upstate New York through the lives of two families, one white, one black. (E.P. Dutton, April.)

*”Vineland” by Thomas Pynchon. The first Pynchon novel in 17 years is set in California in 1984, as FBI sting specialist Frenesi Gates finds herself out of a job and getting to know the daughter she abandoned as a baby, a daughter determined to uncover her mother’s dark history. (Little, Brown, February.)

* “His Little Women” by Judith Rossner. Sex, satire and suspense mingle in this novel about a Hollywood producer and his four daughters by three different wives--all fierce rivals for their father’s affections--by the author of “Looking for Mr. Goodbar” and “August.” (Summit Books, April.)

* “The Cloning of Joanna May” by Fay Weldon. Dizzyingly prolific novelist Fay Weldon has written a modern horror story in this tale of childless Joanna May, 60, who suddenly discovers she has four 30-year-old daughters. The shock gets worse when Joanna learns that her millionaire husband had cloned her when she was at the height of perfection. (Viking, March.)

-------------------------------------------------------------------------- Publishers bring on the blockbusters during autumn and spring, but the winter season also offers a respectable list of stories.

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