Seraphs (2007) Faith Hunter Thorn St. Croix is now out of the closet as a neomage. Half the town wants to thank her for saving them, the other half wants to burn her at the stake. To make things worse, there are angels trapped under the mountain, and it looks like Thorn is the only […]

Better Off Undead (2008) edited by Martin H. Greenberg and Daniel M. Hoyt Anthologies edited by Martin H. Greenberg are usually ones I can pick up knowing that I’ll like the majority of stories within. This volume? Not so much. There were a handful of stories I thought were good, but for the most part? […]

Midnight Come Again (2000) Dana Stabenow Last year I picked up A Taint in the Blood and thoroughly enjoyed it. But from details mentioned in the book, wasn’t sure if I wanted to go back and read earlier in the series. However, I discovered that Midnight Come Again is set after her lover is brutally […]

Rosemary and Rue (2009) Seanan McGuire October Daye disappeared for thirteen years. When she returned, she refused to return to her life as a changeling knight or as a private investigator, but is instead trying to squeak by as a human. Unfortunately for her, Faerie refuses to let her go. The Faerie from which Toby […]

Trick of the Light (2009) Rob Thurman I’ve loved Rob Thurman’s writing since I stumbled across Nightlife, the first book in the Cal Leandros series. So when I came across a new book–even though it wasn’t a Cal Leandros book–I snatched it right up. Once I had the book I hesitated. What if it wasn’t […]

The Black Hand (2008) Will Thomas Barker is called down to the docks, where a barrel containing a dead Italian had been pulled from the river. This single body draws Barker and Llewelyn into a case involving an attempt by the Sicilian mafia to start in London–something Barker, Scotland Yard, and the Home Office want […]

Devil Bones (2008) Kathy Reichs Tempe is back in Charlotte NC, teaching and working for the local medical examiner. The discovery of a human skull in the basement of a house being renovated leads to rumors about satanic cults. Unfortunately for everyone involved, events spiral out of control from there. First things first. I am […]

Crimini: The Bitter Lemon Book of Italian Crime Fiction (2005) edited by Giancarlo de Cataldo translated by Andrew Brown After getting sucked into Andrea Camilleri‘s Inspector Montalbano series, when I came across this anthology of Italian crime fiction I decided to branch out and see what it had to offer. The fact that it contained […]

Night Life (2008) Caitlin Kitteredge Luna is a copy in Nocturne City who is hiding her true nature as a were. When a serial killer starts eviscerating women and taking their finger bones, Luna is assigned the case, but the deaths–combined with an unusual struggle to hide her true nature, threatens Luna’s secret and her […]

A Sea of Troubles (2001) Donna Leon I am failing to understand the hows and whys of Penguin’s publishing schedule for Donna Leon’s Commissario Guido Brunetti series. A Sea of Troubles was first published in 2001, but was published by Penguin and released in the US only this year (2009). Additionally, there was not notice […]

Bones to Ashes (2007) Kathy Reichs Tempe Brennan is back in Montreal for the summer. But almost as soon as arrives she’s called about a case waiting for her. First things first, I have had it with Tempe and Ryan. Really, I would just as soon not read another word about the relationship. Aside from […]

Bloodring (2006) Faith Hunter Thorn is a neomage. But unlike the rest of her mage brethren, she does not live in a mage Enclave, but instead is hiding in the small town of Mineral City running a gem and jewelry show with her friends–none of who know she is a neomage in hiding. Unfortunately for […]

Dancing on the Head of a Pin (2009) Thomas E. Sniegoski Remy Chandler may have averted the apocalypse, but things aren’t looking any better for him this time around. He’s been hired to recover some missing weapons–weapons that are most certainly more than they first appear. The second Remy Chandler novel actually follows the short […]

Madame Xanadu Vol 1 Disenchanted (2009) Matt Wagner, Amy Reeder Handley, Richard Friend First things first, I am not a regular comic reader. The first comic series I ever read was Sandman, and since then I’ve been reading a handful of titles, almost exclusively Dark Horse and Vertigo, simply because those are the titles that […]

Hit Man (1998) Lawrence Block Keller–he has a first name but no one uses it–is a hit man. He gets a call to visit the Old Man in the house in White Plains, receives instructions, and then does the job he’s paid to do. Hit Man is not a novel, it’s a collection of short […]

Flower Net (1009) Lisa See Liu Hulan is a detective for the Ministry of Culture in Beijing. When a body is found frozen in a lake, she is called out to investigate. When the body is discovered to be the son of the US Ambassador, the case takes the direction the Ambassador wants, regardless of […]

Must Love Hellhounds (2009) Charlaine Harris, Nalini Singh, Ilona Andrews, Meljean Brook I picked up this anthology solely because I saw Ilona Andrews had a story in it. Charlaine Harris also usually writes decent short stories, but not always. But I figured, I like everything I’ve read by Ilona Andrews, and there should be at […]