% '------------------------------------------------------------ ' This function finds the last date of the given month '------------------------------------------------------------ Function GetLastDay(intMonthNum, intYearNum) Dim dNextStart If CInt(intMonthNum) = 12 Then dNextStart = CDate( "1/1/" & intYearNum) Else dNextStart = CDate(intMonthNum + 1 & "/1/" & intYearNum) End If GetLastDay = Day(dNextStart - 1) End Function '------------------------------------------------------------------------- ' This routine prints the individual table divisions for days of the month '------------------------------------------------------------------------- Sub Write_TD(sValue, sClass) Response.Write "
july_books.gif)

Four on the Shore
There’s nothing like grabbing a goodmystery and
losing yourself in it while sitting out on the beach in July. These four new
page-turners will definitely keep you reading through several applications
of sun block.
(Caution: They’re also guaranteed to keep you reading after the sun goes
down.)
Silence, (Harcourt, 448 pages, $25), Edgar Award-winning Thomas Perry’s
latest psychological thriller, is a roller coaster ride between the present
and past as former policeman Jack Till takes it on himself to prove that
Wendy Harper, a woman he helped “disappear” years ago, is in no way
responsible for the recent murder of her former partner.
As Till winds his way through the labyrinth of Wendy’s six-year-old new
identity, in itself a story that will keep you wanting to know more, it’s
Perry’s villains—high-styling, tango-dancing Paul and Sylvie Turner—who
steal the show. “Silence” is due in bookstores July 2.
Former Boston big-shot attorney Scott Finn also takes it on himself to
right a wrong in Innocence, the new legal whodunit from David Hosp, due out
July 11 (Warner, 420 pages, $24.99). An illegal Salvadoran immigrant charged
with shooting a policewoman has been in prison for 15 years, but new DNA
evidence may show he’s the wrong man, despite eye-witness testimony and
heaps of forensics that convicted him.
Finn reluctantly agrees to take a look at the case, and as new evidence (and
bodies) mounts, he is propelled—as is the reader—into solving what may be a
decades-old conspiracy that extends from street gangs to the top of the
police force.
For those who like a lighter tone with their reading, here’s good news:
Lomax and Biggs are back in Boodthirsty (MacAdam/Cage, 425 pages, $26).
Marshall Karp’s wise-cracking West Coast detectives, who gained a strong
following from his debut “The Rabbit Factory,” return during a fast-paced,
brings-a-smile-to-your-face series of killings in La-La Land. Want dead
producers in garbage cans? You got it. Want sycophantic assistants drained
of all their, um, enthusiasm? You got that, too. And much, much more.
Karp’s humorous tone and larger-than-life approach (or is it really more
ordinary and lifelike?) never interfere with what is a truly good police
plot written in crisp, quick language.
On the other hand, Icemoon by Jan Costin Wagner (Harcourt, 288 pages, $25) can be described as a haunting work that uses the mystery form to reach deep into the reader’s soul. Using the barest of language and emotion, this German novel set in Finland explores loss from dual perspectives: that of Detective Kimmo Joentaa, whose wife has just died, and of the serial killer he’s tracking. The results, like the title moon, are chilling.
John Denniston lives and writes in Richmond.