37. A Fatal Grace–Louise Penny

Poor little Three Pines. A tiny village is once again the scene of a murder. This one very odd indeed. But Armand Gamache and his team are on the case, despite cold and snowstorms and Christmas.

Penny does create some intriguing characters, I’ll give her that. Although I knew who the murderer was immediately, still how the whole thing played out was interesting.

She’s also very good at setting and describing a scene. And Three Pines is admittedly a great little town. But really, I hope there are no more murders set there. It’s definitely stretching credulity to see even two there.

Too bad the b**** was back again.

“Be Calm.”

36. the Keeper of Lost Causes–Jussi Adler-Olsen

 

Carl Morck is just back to work with the detective bureau in Copenhagen. He was shot, one partner killed and another paralyzed from the neck down. To say he’s depressed and feeling guilty is no stretch of the imagination. He’s burned out, tired, and just wants out.  Instead he finds himself promoted to head up a new division. He’s locked away in the basement, away from everyone and left to stew alone, with a pile of old unsolved cases.

His only employee, a naturalized citizen from Syria, who is supposed to have been hired to clean, ends up pushing Carl into picking up one of the cases, that of a missing female politician. Carl reluctantly begins to look at the case, but is drawn into it, more by the cleaners plan than by his own, until he begins to think he might have found out where the first investigation went wrong.

Very very noir mystery. Grim situation, horrible bad guys, and a detective who’s barely hanging on to his own sanity, all come together for a nail-biting conclusion.

Great characterization and a slow but steady build to the finale.

35. Sandstorm–James Rollins

When a mysterious explosion rips apart a wing of the British Museum, a special force of scientist/soldiers is dispatched to the site. If their fears prove true, this explosion could be only a hint of what might happen if the forces that brought this about are triggered again.

Thriller that keeps you guessing from start to finish. Lots of archaeology and physics and a storm of action accompany the small group of scientists who race the clock to head off a possible disaster.  Their task though, is complicated when it becomes apparent, they have not one, but two mysterious organizations also in pursuit of a scientific breakthrough of enormous potential.

And the women are just as kick-ass as the men.

Characterization, settings and plot combine to create a great read. I’ll definitely be continuing this series.

34. The Damnation Affair–Lilith SaintCrow

 

 

Steampunk!

A Boston miss accepts a teaching post out in the Westron frontier in order to find out what’s happened to her brother. She lands in Damnation, the last place she’s heard from him.  He’s not in town and she’s reluctant to ask about him given what she finds there.  What she finds there is a bit unsettling for someone raised in civilization. Not to mention zombies, a Chinois sorceror, and a Sheriff who is definitely more than he pretends to be.

I found Cat to be annoying because she’s depicted as so timid but she learns fast, as is necessary. Not much in the way of steampunk in town but lots of strange ‘mancy.  Not to mention all those walking dead.

33. The Poet–Michael Connelly

Jack McAvoy, a reporter with the Rocky, finds it hard to believe that his twin, Sean, committed suicide. A detective, he’d seemed happy and although he was troubled by a child’s murder case, still, suicide seemed hard to take.

Jack begins looking into things when he decides to write an article about cops who suicide. What he finds leads him to a serial killer.

Fast paced, intricate, police procedural that keeps you guessing up to the very end.  Great read.

32. The Devil You Know- Mike Carey

Felix (Fix) Castor is an exorcist  A not very happy one. He has no idea where he sends the ghosts he exorcises to, nor does he spend much time worrying about it. But he’s been avoiding his prime calling for awhile now for personal reasons, when he gets a call to exorcise the ghost from a business. He could use the money and it sounds like a simple enough job so he takes it. Well, naturally, he couldn’t have been more wrong.

It’s dark and noir, and Fix’s world isn’t for the faint of heart. Still, the story was interesting and the mystery surrounding the ghost is confusing enough so that even when you know a bit about what happened to her, you can’t quite figure it all out until the end.

I’ll be definitely continuing this series..

31. Darwin’s Radio–Greg Bear

 

 

If the next evolutionary step happened, would we recognize it? Or would we think it a disease to destroy?

When a part of our genetic code suddenly activates, and women's pregnancies start go go wrong, it's a race to find the cause and cure it. Or is something else, entirely, happening?

Exciting and thought provoking look at how we react to change and what we might do to keep the status quo rather than take a step into the unknown.  It's science vs politics and fear.