BLOOD RITES (Wizard/Detective-Chicago-Cont.) – G+

Jim Butcher – 6th in series

ROC Fantasy, 2004 – Paperback

Chicago Wizard Harry Dresden has been hired to protect an adult movie set from an entropy curse causing women to die. He accepted the job as a favor to vampire Thomas, who turns out to be much more than an acquaintance.

With a blend of gore, humor and pathos we learn more of Harry background while…

SKINNER’S RULES (Police Procedural-Scotland-Cont.) – G+

Quintin Jardine – 1st in series

St. Martin’s Press, 1994 – Hardcover

Scottish Det. Chief Superintendent Robert Skinner leads the investigation into, what appears to be, a series of gruesome murders by a serial killer. But as the investigation

proceeds, he finds the local murders are linked to international, political

power and intrigue.…

THE LAST TEMPLAR (Historical Mystery-14th Cent. England) – G+

Michael Jecks – 1st in series

Headline, 1995 – Paperback

Simon Puttock, newly appointed bailiff of Lydford Castle, is called to investigate a fire and death thought to be accidental. However, his new friend, Sir Baldwin Furnshill, convinces him it was murder.

When another, much more brutal, death by fire occurs, Simon has to find

out whether…

DARKLY DREAMING DEXTER (Psychological Thriller-Miami-Cont) – G+

Jeff Lindsay – 1st book

Doubleday, 2004 – Hardcover

Miami PD blood splatter expert is also a sociopathic serial killer. When his policewoman foster sister, Deb, asks him to come to a crime scene, he’s more than interested as

body has been surgically cut into pieces and there is no blood; very much the

style of Dexter’s own.…

THE DANGEROUS HOUR (Private Investigator-San Francisco-Cont.) – VG

Marcia Muller – 23rd in series

Mysterious Press, 2004 – Hardcover

Sharon McCone has come a long way in her career and her agency is growing. Now it’s all at risk with the arrest of her new street-wise employee Julia Rafael for credit-card

fraud from Supervisor Alex Aguilar. When

it becomes clear that Aguilar is not all he seems and the threat…

THE SHIFTING TIDE (Private Investigator-Victorian England) – Ex

Anne Perry – 14th in Monk series

Headline, 2004 – Hardcover (U.K. release)

Thomas Monk is hired by ship owner Clement Louvain to locate and recover stolen ivory tusks. Monk is also committed to find who killed one of the ship’s crewmembers. Unknown to Monk, Louvain brings a very ill woman to Hester’s

clinic for abused and ill prostitutes.…

CRIMINAL INTENT (Legal Mystery-San Francisco-Cont.) – G+

Sheldon Siegel – 3rd in series

Putnam, 2002 – Hardcover

San Francisco attorneys Mike Daley and Rosie Fernandez are partners in a law firm and ex-partners in marriage. When they take

on the case of Rosie’s niece, actress Angel, who is accused of murdering her

movie director husband, they discover there’s more involved than the silver

screen.…

A TAINT IN THE BLOOD (Private Investigator-Alaska-Cont) – VG

Dana Stabenow – 14th in series

St. Martin’s Minatour, 2004 – Hardcover

Kate Shugak is hired by wealthy Charlotte Muravieff to prove her mother, Victoria, innocent of the crime for which she has served 30 years in prison, the arson death of her son.

But Victoria

isn’t making it easy when she tried to fire Kate and no one else in…

FINAL WITNESS (Legal Thriller-England-Cont) – G+

Simon Tolkien – 1st book

Random House, 2002 – Hardcover

Young Thomas Robinson is alone with his mother in her family’s 16th century home. Two men break in and murder her after she manages to hide Thomas in a priest’s

cupboard, through which he sees one of the killers. Thomas suspects his father’s assistant,

Greta, is involved, particularly when the men come back some time later…

THE DISAPPEARANCE (Police Procedural-San Francisco-Cont.) – G

Colin Wilcox – 3rd in series

Random House, 1970 – Hardcover

Lieutenant Frank Hastings is investigating the disappearance of prominent San Franciscan Carol Connoly.

Even though it’s lacking today’s computers and cell phones, this is a solid police procedural with great characters, dialogue, suspense and sense of place. My greatest

regret is…