Kicking It (2013) edited by Faith Hunter and Kalayna Price “Forked Tongues” by Rachel Caine “Stolen Goods” by Shannon K. Butcher “The Girl with No Name” by Chris Marie Green “The Devil’s Left Boot” by Faith Hunter “High Stakes” by Chloe Neill “The Parlor” by Lucienne Diver “Red Really Isn’t My Color” by Christina Henry […]
Fables Vol. 19: Snow White (2013) Bill Willingham, Mark Buckingham Yeah, someone really screwed up with the publication of Fairest In All the Land prior to Snow White. The big surprise was already dropped in Fairest, so I spent my time wondering when The Bad Thing was going to happen, rather than enjoying the story […]
The Shadow Pavilion (2009) Liz Williams There are certain people who are not happy about the changes The Emperor of Heaven is making. But you’d think plotting assassination would be beyond Celestial Beings. You’d be wrong. The assassin is a strange creature; a centuries old child of a demon and a human who lives Between, […]
Precious Dragon (2007) Liz Williams The third Detective Inspector Chen book finds Chen back at work, and, after having stopped a rampaging goddess in the previous book, Chen and Zhu Irzh must now suffer the attentions of the public, and, more specifically, the accolades of part of the government of Singapore Three. This, of course, […]
The Demon and the City (2006) Liz Williams I really do love this series. Chen and Inari are on vacation, so Zhu Irzh is–in theory–handling the supernatural cases in Singapore Three. In reality, the captain is giving him very small-time crimes, fearing (perhaps justifiably) that Zhu Irzh could cause more problems than he solved. So […]
Snake Agent (2005) Liz Williams The Detective Inspector Chen series popped up as an Amazon ebook deal of the day, and I love this series so much I snatched them up as ebooks. (In my defense, my copies are all trade paperbacks.) Detective Inspector Chen is in charge of crimes that stretch into Heaven and […]
Fairest: Fairest In All the Land (2013) Bill Willingham Although this is supposed to be a stand-alone in the Fairest series, I think in many ways it is more of a Fables story. Unlike 1001 Nights of Snowfall, I wouldn’t recommend this to someone who hasn’t read the series. There is a lot happening that […]
Jar City (2000/2004) Arnaldur Indridason translated by Bernard Scudder Inspector Erlendur is a detective inspector with the Reykjavik CID. He’s a divorced loner with a terrible relationship with his two grown children, both of whom have issues with drugs. The body of an old man is discovered in his apartment. It looks like a crime […]
Libriomancer (2012) Jim C. Hines I really, really wanted to love this story. Instead, I just liked it, but came away with a vague feeling of disappointment–not because the book was bad–it wasn’t–but because I had wanted so much more out of the story, and it didn’t deliver. Isaac Vainio is working as a librarian […]
Bad Blood (2013) Dana Stabenow So, I was contentedly reading along, noting the parallels between part of this story and Romeo & Juliet, reading, reading, reading, and then I reach the last page. “What? What the hell?” (Looks for another chapter) “What the hell?” Is this the end of the series? I have no clue. […]
Those Who Fight Monsters: Tales of Occult Detectives (2011) edited by Justin Gustainis As the title says, this is a collection of supernatural mysteries. “Little Better than a Beast: A Marla Mason Story” by T. A. Pratt “Dusted: A Cosa Nostradamus Story” by Laura Anne Gilman “The Demon You Know… A Demon-Hunting Soccer Mom Story” […]
Chimes at Midnight (2013) Seanan McGuire I have mixed feelings about this book. I enjoyed it. And I tore through it pretty much in a single sitting. But it still felt off for some reason. First, the good things. I love Tybalt, and there was lots of Tybalt in this story, so that was great. […]
Treasure Hunt (2010/2013) Andrea Camilleri translated by Stephen Sartarelli Things are boring in Vigata for Inspector Montalbano and the police, until an elder brother and sister allow their religious mania to push them over the edge. But even that event doesn’t hold Montalbano’s interest for long, which is probably why he allows a “treasure hunt” […]
Through a Glass Darkly (2006) Donna Leon I actually started this weeks ago, put it back down, and then took a long time to get back to it. Commissario Brunetti is asked, as a favor, to go out with Vianello, to help bail out an environmental activist (and friend of Vianello) who was arrested during […]
The Thief (1996) Megan Whalen Turner I’ve been feeling out of sorts, and every book I start to read I put right back down, because it’s not what I’m in the mood for. Which is how I ended up re-reading The Thief, because it sucks me in and doesn’t let go. I keep trying to […]
River of Stars (2013) Guy Gavriel Kay First, this cover is gorgeous. The picture links to a large version of the cover and NOT the book at Amazon. The link to Amazon is the title text (if you’d like to help me earn bits of a penny.) Like all his work, this is an immense, […]
Jack The Giant-Killer (Jack of Kinrowan) (1987) Charles de Lint Jack of Kinrowan is actually two books, that were later published as a single compendium: Jack the Giant-Killer and Drink Down the Moon. I’ll write about them separately, as they’re two separate books, published three years apart, even though you can only find Jack of […]
Evil Diva Anthology Volume 1 (2013) Peter Menotti, Joe Cashman, Stephen Hood, Team Diva Last week I discovered Evil Diva comics, and me being who I am, I went ahead and ordered Volume 1, so as to support the artists. I have Volume II or pre-order, and the comic in my RSS feed. Diva Beelze […]
Blood from a Stone (2005) Donna Leon A young man–a vu cumpra–is assassinated on the streets a few days before Christmas. As always, Patta is up to his neck in the politics. And as always, this conflicts with Brunetti’s search for the truth and justice. Weirdly, I’d remembered part of the mystery, which is inherently […]
Doctored Evidence (2004) Donna Leon An elderly woman is discovered brutally murdered in her apartment. Suspicion immediately falls upon her maid, who has disappeared, and a man-hunt ensues. The interesting thing about this story is the book pretty much opens with the shocking injustice, rather than ending with it, the way these books normally do. […]
A Sea of Troubles (2001) Donna Leon I have no idea how I read this story out of order. The first time, I read it later, because of the order at which Penguin published this series. This time, however, there was no reason, except that the books ended up out of order. And when I […]
Uniform Justice (2003) Donna Leon This is an exceptionally depressing story. It starts with a young man–a boy, really–found dead. Hanging in the restroom of a military academy. Yeah. Depressing. Suddenly he had a vision of what it must have been for the Moros to attempt to remove evidence of Ernesto’s presence from their homes, […]
Willful Behavior (2002) Donna Leon One of Paola’s students asks her if Brunetti can answer a legal question for her. Brunetti says he can’t give her a clear answer without knowing more about her question, and the answers she does give him only lead to more questions. It also sidles up to a subject about […]
Friends in High Places (2000) Donna Leon When Commissario Guido Brunetti is visited by a young bureaucrat investigating the lack of official approval for the building of his apartment years earlier, his first reaction, like any other Venetian, is to think of whom he knows who might bring pressure to bear on the relevant government […]
Fatal Remedies (1999) Donna Leon This is one of my least favorite Brunetti stories, for a very specific reason. The story opens with Paola breaking the window of a travel agency. She does it for noble reason–she wants to make people aware of how these businesses were promoting the sex trade to third world countries. […]
Club Monstrosity (2013) Jesse Petersen I really wanted to like this book. The idea of it is marvelous: the monsters of the past: Dracula, the swamp thing, Dr. Frankenstein’s monster–all these creatures exist, and they are in hiding and in group therapy of a sort, to get past their pasts. The main character is Natalie, […]
A Noble Radiance (1998) Donna Leon A body is discovered in mountains–a body that had been hastily buried in a shallow grave some time before. The only immediately identifying feature is a signet ring–the ring of a family whose son had been kidnapped and held for random two years before. This was an especially dark […]
Quietly in Their Sleep/Death of Faith (1997) Donna Leon This was published as Death of Faith in Great Britain. So if you come across that, it’s the same as Quietly in their Sleep. Brunetti is surprised by a young woman who comes into his office, asking him to look into the deaths of five of […]
Acqua Alta (1996) Donna Leon This story returns to Brett and Flavia, who we met in the first book, Death at La Fenice. Brett has returned from China, only it appears that someone is not happy for her to have returned. It is the time of acqua alta, or high water, in Venice. The sirens […]
Last Watch (2009) Sergei Lukyanenko translated by Andrew Bromfield At last I come to Last Watch. Theoretically, there is a fifth book, called New Watch available, but it’s listed as unavailable. Boo. Although Last Watch is broken into three parts, Common Cause, A Common Enemy, and A Common Destiny, they are–far more so than the […]
Twilight Watch (2003/2007) Sergei Lukyanenko translated by Andrew Bromfield The third book in the Night Watch series may be my favorite. Like the previous two books, there are three stories: Nobody’s Time, Nobody’s Space, Nobody’s Power. Like the first book, Night Watch, all three stories center on Anton Gorodetsky and are told from his perspective. […]
Day Watch (2000/2006) Sergei Lukyanenko translated by Andrew Bromfield This sequel to Night Watch picks up after the events of the previous book, but while the first book was written from the perspective of Anton Gorodetsky, Night Watch agent, this story is told from the perspective of three different Dark Ones, all three Day Watch […]
Night Watch (2006) Sergei Lukyanenko translated by Andrew Bromfield This is not the first or even second time I’ve re-read this book (series, really). The book Night Watch is split into three separate story arcs, Destiny, Among His Own Kind, and All for My Own Kind, each building upon the previous. Anton Gorodetsky works for […]
The Fencing Master (1988) Arturo Pérez-Reverte translated by Margaret Jull Costa (1998) Don Jaime Astarloa is the fencing master of Madrid. He has a fencing school, and has private clients, including Luis de Ayala, the Marques de los Alumbres, but Don Jaime is getting old. His world is disappearing into the past, replaced with pistols. […]
Weird Detectives: Recent Investigations (2013) edited by Paula Guran This is a collection of short stories previously published elsewhere, so I’d already read several of these stories. But there were several I had not, and several of the ones I’d read before were well worth reading again. This book has been sitting around for awhile, […]
Death and Judgment (1995) Donna Leon This is a very dark story. In fact, considering my mood, I probably should have chosen something completely different to re-read. Attorney Carlo Trevisan was shot on the train, his body discovered right before the train reached the next station. There seem to be no obvious suspects, but the […]
Dressed for Death (1994) Donna Leon A body is discovered in Marghera–the industrial sector near Venice. It’s discovered because one of the worker’s in the slaughterhouse saw a pair of red high heeled shoes that he assumes were abandoned by one of the prostitutes who work in the area, and hoped they were clean and […]
Death in a Strange Country (1993) Donna Leon A body if found in the canal and all signs point to it being an American. ‘Ah, that could be it,’ the doctor said. ‘An American.’ ‘What?’ ‘Why he’s in such good shape,’ Rizzaldi answered… ‘That might explain it. They’re always so fit, so healthy.’ Together, they […]
Fairest Vol. 2: Hidden Kingdom (2013) Lauren Beukes, Bill Willingham, Inaki Miranda The first volume of Fairest was about Briar Rose and the Snow Queen. This volume features Rapunzel, and her search for her children. Like the first volume, Wide Awake, this is a stand-alone story. It’s set before most of the events in Fables, […]
Kitty in the Underworld (2013) Carrie Vaughn There are intruders in their territory, and with Ben out of town, Kitty goes out to investigate. She’s kidnapped and pulled into a strange plan, seemingly centered on Roman and his plans for world domination, but it’s not clear who is friend and who is foe. This was […]
Magic Rises (2013) Ilona Andrews European shape-shifters have given The Beast Lord and his pack an offer they can’t resist: come guard a pregnant were and you’ll receive barrels of panacea–the potion that reduces the chance of loupism in young weres. It’s a trap of some sort, but they can’t figure out what kind, until […]
Legacy of the Dead (2000) Charles Todd The fourth Inspector Ian Rutledge mystery finds Rutledge sent to Scotland–the last place he wants to go, for he still hears the voice of Hamish MacLeod over his shoulder, haranguing him, and reminding him of the dead lost in France during the Great War. But Lady Maude Gray […]
Death at La Fenice (1992) Donna Leon (A Commissario Brunetti Mystery) When I saw this on sale as an eBook deal of the day on Amazon, I snatched it up. I am slowly coming to prefer eBooks to paper books, and am always glad to get favorites in electronic format. I first stumbled across Commissario […]
Walking Your Octopus: A Guidebook to the Domesticated Cephalopod (2013) Brian Kesinger I’ve been following Otto and Victoria for awhile now, so how could I not have ordered when I saw they were going to get their own book? I’ve seen some–but not all–of these pictures before, but wanted a paper copy both because the […]
The Mammoth Book of Historical Crime Fiction (2011) edited by Mike Ashley Introduction: Return to the Crime Scene by Mike Ashley Archimedes and the Scientific Method by Tom Holt Something to do with Diana by Steven Saylor Eyes of the Icon by Mary Reed and Eric Mayer Night of the Snow Wolf by Peter Tremayne […]
The Privilege of the Sword (2006) Ellen Kushner I’ve been listening to the audio book version of this, when I reached a point where I gave up and started re-reading (from the beginning) on the Kindle. Mind you, I’m still listening to the audio version, but it had been too long since I’d read the […]
Anansi Boys (2005) Neil Gaiman Couldn’t decide upon a new-to-me book to read, so I went to my fall back position: a reread of a favorite. This is a follow-up of sorts to American Gods. It’s a follow-up only because it’s set in the same world, and contains Aunt Nancy/Anansi. But the story isn’t about […]
Kitty Rocks the House (2013) Carrie Vaughn Weirdly, this book was published in April, but it’s been sitting in The Pile, waiting for me to read it, and I just never got around to it. Weird, because I usually thoroughly enjoy the Kitty books. But after reading the last Jane True book, I decided I […]
Tempest Reborn (2013) Nicole Peeler Alas, all good things come to an end: this is the final book of the Jane True series. I’m honestly delighted with the whole thing. I hate series that go on too long, or series where every book is a cliffhanger that is little more than a teaser for the […]
Thieves’ World Book 12, Stealers’ Sky (1989) edited by Robert Asprin and Lynn Abbey Alas, the end of the series. Introduction by Robert Lynn Asprin Night Work by Andrew Offutt The Incompetent Audience by John DeCles Our Vintage Years by Duane McGowen Quicksilver Dreams by Diana L. Paxson Winds of Fortune by C.J. Cherryh The […]