Title: A Hat Full of Sky

Author: Terry Pratchett

Rating: 4 stars out of 5

Publisher: HarperTeen

Copyright: 2004

ISBN: 0060586621

Pages: 407

Keywords: humor, fantasy

Reading period: 25–26 January, 2010

Sequel to The Wee Free Men.

Tiffany Aching, now 11, becomes a trainee witch. But an ancient evil, the hiver, has noticed her and possesses her. Her Nac Mac Feegle friends, the diminutive and indomitable blue pictsies, come to her aid.

She may only be eleven, but she's as tough as nails.

Recommended.

Title: Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell

Author: Susanna Clarke

Rating: 4.5 stars out of 5

Publisher: Bloomsbury

Copyright: 2004

ISBN: 1582346038

Pages: 846

Keywords: fantasy

Reading period: 1–9 January, 2010

In the year Eighteen-Six, it has been two hundred years since last a practical magician walked in England, when Mr. Norrell shews himself after many years of study. In time, he is joined by a student Jonathan Strange who later distinguishes himself in the Peninsular War against the tyrant Bonaparte. But their most dangerous adversary is the capricious gentleman with the thistle-down hair from Faerie.

Susanna Clarke's debut novel is a startling take on fantasy, evoking the work of Austen and Dickens, pitting madness against reason, exploring magic and Englishness.

Highly recommended.

Title: Nature Girl

Author: Carl Hiaasen

Rating: 3.5 stars out of 5

Publisher: Grand Central

Copyright: 2006

ISBN: 0446581755

Pages: 304

Keywords: humor

Reading period: 30 December, 2009–1 January 2010

Hiaasen drags a motley cast of characters to a remote key in the Everglades and lets their various lunacies duke it out.

An entertaining romp.

Title: White Riot

Author: Martyn Waites

Rating: 3.5 stars out of 5

Publisher: Pocket Books

Copyright: 2008

ISBN: 1847390587

Pages: 452

Keywords: mystery

Reading period: 29–30 December, 2009

The Northern English city of Newcastle is on edge as racial tensions have been whipped up. Joe Donovan's team are asked to investigate a seemingly unrelated case where a one-time radical is getting threatening calls.

The main characters—Donovan's team and some teenaged no-hopers way out of their depth in a white supremacist organization—are credible and well-drawn. The plot however relies overly on coincidence after coincidence.

Title: This Girl for Hire

Author: G.G. Fickling

Rating: 2 stars out of 5

Publisher: The Overlook Press

Copyright: 1956

ISBN: 1585676845

Pages: 220

Keywords: mystery

Reading period: 28–29 December, 2009

Honey West is a “private eyeful”, a kick-ass statuesque private investigator tough enough to take on the guys at their own game and sexy enough to dazzle them. Somehow she manages to lose her top all the time, but it never goes further than that. The plot is ludicrously complicated, switching gears on every page, with snappy Mike Hammeresque dialog.

The books inspired a mid-sixties TV show that Emma remembers with great fondness. The sex was excised from the show, of course.

Title: Silent in the Grave

Author: Deanna Raybourn

Rating: 4.5 stars out of 5

Publisher: Mira

Copyright: 2007

ISBN: 0778325245

Pages: 511

Keywords: mystery, historical

Reading period: 27–28 December, 2009

A year after Sir Edward Grey's sudden collapse and death, his widow Lady Julia realizes the truth in what Nicholas Brisbane, the private inquiry agent, had told her: Sir Edward had received threatening letters. She engages Brisbane to investigate the possible murder and starts asking questions herself.

The most respectable member of her large, eccentric family, Julia starts to shed her Victorian conventionality as she is drawn to the enigmatic Brisbane.

Title: River of Darkness

Author: Rennie Airth

Rating: 4 stars out of 5

Publisher: Penguin

Copyright: 1999

ISBN: 0140291962

Pages: 435

Keywords: mystery, historical

Reading period: 26–27 December, 2009

Inspector John Madden, like so many of his generation, came back from the Great War a changed man. When a particularly savage and senseless murder takes place, he must persuade his superiors at Scotland Yard to adopt some new and unwelcome practices, such as psychological profiling.

This well-done thriller is as much about the aftermath of World War I as it is a police procedural.

Title: The Wine-Dark Sea

Author: Patrick O'Brian

Rating: 4.5 stars out of 5

Publisher: W.W. Norton

Copyright: 1994

ISBN: 0393312445

Pages: 352

Keywords: historical fiction

Reading period: 23–26 December, 2009

After the events of The Truelove, Aubrey and Maturin set sail for Peru to undertake the intelligence mission originally begun four books ago in The Letter of Marque. O'Brian packs more than usual into this book: multiple sea battles, the Reverend Martin's descent into madness, Stephen inciting a revolution of independence against the Spanish, naturalism high in the Andes, Jack almost being lost at sea in a small boat, and a nerve-wracking encounter with an American frigate amongst the ice floes of Cape Horn.

Highly recommended.

Title: In the Woods

Author: Tana French

Rating: 4.5 stars out of 5

Publisher: Penguin

Copyright: 2007

ISBN: 0143113496

Pages: 429

Keywords: mystery

Reading period: 16–22 December, 2009

Twenty years ago, three twelve-year-olds went into their local woods in Knocknaree near Dublin. Hours later, only one was found, catatonic. Now, under a different name, Rob Ryan is a detective in the Irish Murder Squad and another twelve-year-old has been murdered in Knocknaree.

Tana French's debut is subtle and gripping. The story unfolds in unexpected ways. Ryan's relationship with his partner in detection, Cassie Maddox, is tested to the breaking point while he tries to conceal his past and stay on the case.

Highly recommended.

Title: Where There's a Will

Author: Aaron Elkins

Rating: 3.5 stars out of 5

Publisher: Berkley

Copyright: 2005

ISBN: 0425208524

Pages: 278

Keywords: mystery

Reading period: 13–16 December, 2009

Gideon Oliver, the “Skeleton Detective”, is on vacation again; this time he's staying on a family cattle ranch in Hawaii. The bones of the Torkelsson paterfamilias who disappeared ten years ago have just been found. When Gideon formally identifies them, the Torkelsson survivors get more than they bargained for.

Elkins works in the cozy mystery vein and, despite the anatomical detail, the deaths and murders in his books always feel detached and unthreatening.

Title: Too Many Magicians

Author: Randall Garrett

Rating: 4 stars out of 5

Publisher: Ace

Copyright: 1966

ISBN: 0441816983

Pages: 342

Keywords: fantasy, mystery

Reading period: 13 December, 2009

In an alternate world where the Laws of Magic have been codified, a master sorcerer has been murdered in a locked room at a convention of sorcerers. Lord Darcy must resolve the mystery.

The puzzle is first-rate, well constructed, yet plausible on its own terms. The characters, alas, are perfunctory.

Title: The Truelove

Author: Patrick O'Brian

Rating: 4.5 stars out of 5

Publisher: W.W. Norton

Copyright: 1993

ISBN: 0393310167

Pages: 256

Keywords: historical fiction

Reading period: 12–13 December, 2009

Leaving Sydney after the events of The Nutmeg of Consolation, Aubrey and Maturin sail for Moahu, a fictional British island near Hawaii. Jack Aubrey is out of sorts for various reasons; most notably a young female convict, Clarissa Harvill, has been smuggled aboard by Midshipman Oakes. Like many sailors, he is superstitious about women on board his ship. Not without reason: even after her shipboard marriage to Oakes, men vie for her attention and factions form aboard the ship.

Few battles in this one. Most of the conflict arises from individuals.

Highly recommended.

Title: The Flood

Author: Ian Rankin

Rating: 3.5 stars out of 5

Publisher: Orion

Copyright: 1986

ISBN: 0752873091

Pages: 205

Keywords: fiction

Reading period: 7–11 December, 2009

Ian Rankin's first novel is a coming-of-age tale. Mary Miller is a single mother, with a reputation as a witch since childhood. Her son, Sandy, is fifteen, and as lost and confused as you'd expect. They live in Carsden, a small, dying Scottish town in the 1980s.

A creditable first novel.

Title: Princep's Fury

Author: Jim Butcher

Rating: 4 stars out of 5

Publisher: Ace

Copyright: 2008

ISBN: 0441017967

Pages: 622

Keywords: fantasy

Reading period: 4–7 December, 2009

Princep's Fury is the fifth book in Jim Butcher's fantasy series, Codex Alera, and the sequel to Captain's Fury.

Tavi, now recognized as the princeps (heir apparent to the Crown), has been sent on a diplomatic mission to the distant Canim homeland. There he finds that they have been overrun by the Vord hivemind. Back at home in Alera, the Vord have returned too, killing and enslaving huge numbers of humans. Desperate rearguard actions follow.

Butcher knows how to spin a yarn that moves quickly from one cliffhanger to the next. Grim in places, but it certainly holds the attention.

Title: The Lizard's Bite

Author: David Hewson

Rating: 4 stars out of 5

Publisher: Bantam Dell

Copyright: 2006

ISBN: 0440243009

Pages: 498

Keywords: mystery

Reading period: 29 November–3 December, 2009

A married couple die in a bizarre murder in an archaic Venetian glass foundry. Three exiled Roman cops are asked to investigate by the Venice authorities but are given to understand that their work should be pro forma. Of course, they don't listen and find far more than was wanted.

The cops and their visiting girlfriends are interesting characters. Their stubborn insistence on digging for the truth has real consequences for their own lives, and the case scars most of them. Venice itself is also a character, a shabby strumpet living on its former glory, as are the bizarre Arcangeli family of glassblowers.

Title: Industrial Magic

Author: Kelley Armstrong

Rating: 3.5 stars out of 5

Publisher: Seal Books

Copyright: 2004

ISBN: 1400025281

Pages: 528

Keywords: urban fantasy

Reading period: 28 November, 2009

Paige is a modern young witch. Her boyfriend, Lucas, despite being the heir apparent to the Cortez Cabal of sorcerers, wants nothing to do with the family business. But they get sucked in when the teenaged children of the various cabals are being murdered.

An entertaining urban fantasy that's ridiculously fast-paced.

Title: The Ghost Brigades

Author: John Scalzi

Rating: 4 stars out of 5

Publisher: Tor

Copyright: 2006

ISBN: 0765354063

Pages: 347

Keywords: science fiction

Reading period: 27 November, 2009

Sequel to Old Man's War.

Jared Dirac is a superhuman clone in the elite Colonial Defense Forces. A backup of the brain patterns of the traitor Charles Boutin have been implanted in his head so that his superiors can learn what happened. He can't access those memories so he's sent out on missions. Then the memories start trickling in.

Scalzi has constructed a scary but credible universe, where the clones can be more human than the “Realborn”.

Title: The Digger's Game

Author: George V. Higgins

Rating: 4 stars out of 5

Publisher: Popular Library

Copyright: 1973

ISBN: 0948164077

Pages: 223

Keywords: fiction

Reading period: 26–27 November, 2009

Digger Doherty is a smalltime Boston crook who went to Vegas for a few days and blew a lot of money that he didn't have. Now he has to figure something out.

It seems like all of George V. Higgins' books—[1], [2]—involve lowlifes who like to talk. A lot. He had a wonderful ear for dialogue. Surprisingly, none of his books seem to have been adapted for the stage and only The Friends of Eddie Coyle was filmed.

Title: The Nutmeg of Consolation

Author: Patrick O'Brian

Rating: 4.5 stars out of 5

Publisher: W.W. Norton

Copyright: 1991

ISBN: 0393309061

Pages: 384

Keywords: historical fiction

Reading period: 22–26 November, 2009

At the end of The Thirteen-Gun Salute, Aubrey, Maturin, and the crew of the Diane were marooned on an East Indian island. They are rescued eventually by a passing junk and taken to Batavia, where the governor gives them a new ship, the Nutmeg of Consolation. They resume their original mission and travel to the penal colony in New South Wales. Sydney is a hellhole, ruled by capricious sadists.

This is another fine entry in the long-running Aubrey–Maturin saga. Seafaring, a long chase, a couple of battles, politics, and a great deal of naturalism occupy the pages delightfully.

Highly recommended.

Title: The Kite Runner

Author: Khaled Hossein

Rating: 4 stars out of 5

Publisher: Riverhead Books

Copyright: 2003

ISBN: 1594483019

Pages: 401

Keywords: fiction

Reading period: 21–22 November, 2009

Two boys grow up together in Kabul in the 1970s. Amir is the son of Baba, a wealthy merchant; Hassan is the son of Ali, Baba’s servant. Amir betrays Hassan, and his guilt pushes Hassan and Ali away. When the Russians come, Amir and Baba flee to America. Twenty years later, Amir returns to Taliban-controlled Afghanistan to atone.

The Kite Runner is well written and touching. Betrayal and redemption, fathers and sons, love and hatred, cowardice and sacrifice—all against a backdrop of Afghanistan's horrible modern history.

In the end, I found the story circled around too neatly. I think the author has spent a little too much time in writer's workshops.

Title: Dead Beat

Author: Val McDermid

Rating: 3.5 stars out of 5

Publisher: Harper

Copyright: 1992

ISBN: 0007142919

Pages: 275

Keywords: mystery

Reading period: 20–21 November, 2009

Kate Brannigan normally investigates white-collar crimes, but reluctantly agrees to find popstar Jett's lost muse, Moira. When Moira is murdered at Jett's mansion six weeks after Kate finds her, Jett engages her again to discover which of his entourage did it.

Kate is engaging and cheeky and it's fun to ride along with her.

Title: Public Enemies

Author: Bryan Burrough

Rating: 4 stars out of 5

Publisher: Penguin

Copyright: 2004

ISBN: 0143115863

Pages: 592

Keywords: history

Reading period: 7–20 November, 2009

For two tumultuous years of the Depression, 1933 and 1934, the first war on crime caught the American imagination. John Dillinger, Machine Gun Kelly, Bonnie and Clyde, Baby Face Nelson, Pretty Boy Floyd, and the Barkers robbed banks and killed people, mostly across the Midwest. The war on crime also caused the FBI to rise from obscurity.

The movie of the book concentrated on Dillinger and Melvin Purvis of the FBI. The book itself tells a broader, more nuanced story, skipping between its subjects in chronological order.

Hoover's FBI comes off badly. Staffed mostly by clean-cut college boys with no law enforcement experience, they regularly miss clues, fail to ask the right questions, lose evidence, fight with other agencies, and generally exhibit incompetence. By the end of the book, though, they have started to learn some lessons. Ironically, much of the material in the book is drawn from declassified FBI records.

That's not to say that the crooks come off well either. They're robbers and killers, generally stupid and often unpleasant. Baby Face Nelson is an out-and-out psychopath; Bonnie and Clyde are nasty children, way out of their depth. Only Dillinger and Alvin Karpis of the Barker gang have any smarts or charms.

An interesting history, told well.

Title: The Hanging Valley

Author: Peter Robinson

Rating: 4 stars out of 5

Publisher: Pan

Copyright: 1989

ISBN: 0330491644

Pages: 324

Keywords: mystery

Reading period: 2–6 November, 2009

A faceless corpse has been found in a remote valley in the Yorkshire Dales. Is it connected to another murder there, five years earlier? Chief Inspector Alan Banks investigates in the village of Swaineshead, which leads him to Toronto to dig into the dead man's background.

Competent, thoughtful police procedural told from the viewpoints of Banks and Katie Greenock, the doormat wife of one of the villagers.

Title: The Scourge of God

Author: S.M. Stirling

Rating: 4 stars out of 5

Publisher: Roc

Copyright: 2008

ISBN: 0451462661

Pages: 511

Keywords: speculative fiction

Reading period: 1 November, 2009

Sequel to The Sunrise Lands. The travellers continue to head eastwards across post-apocalyptic America. They encounter many obstacles and not a few enemies on their quest.

Entertaining enough that I read it in one day. Scourge did not fall prey to Middle Book Syndrome.

Title: Farthing

Author: Jo Walton

Rating: 4.5 stars out of 5

Publisher: Tor

Copyright: 2006

ISBN: 076535280X

Pages: 319

Keywords: alternate history

Reading period: 26–31 October, 2009

Farthing is set in a world where the British agreed to a peace with Hitler in 1941, eight years ago. This book starts out like a classic British murder mystery: a prominent right-wing politician is murdered at the Farthing country estate and Scotland Yard are called in. The story is told from two viewpoints, that of the secretly homosexual Inspector Carmichael and that of the daughter of the house, Lucy Kahn, who married a Jew. The dead man has a yellow star pinned to his chest, making David Kahn a likely suspect.

The murder precipitates Britain's further descent into a police state, and both Lucy and Carmichael lose their illusions as it happens.

Highly recommended.