Cemetery Dance

by Douglas Preston. My first, in a long time, book on tape. A long round trip ride, five hours plus each way, alone. Well, not quite as alone and it might seem. My car quickly crowded with Detective D'Agosta, FBI Agent Pendergast, a plethora of the walking dead, several nearly dead main characters, culminated in a twist, a second twist and served up nicely with a side of bacon. My trip ended just in time.

You Know When the Men Are Gone

by Siobhan Fallon. An amazing collection that looks into the eyes of the question, "The ones left behind, when the half to your whole has pulled on combat boots and sighed away to Iraq, Afghanistan, war, how do you live, survive, in the void left behind. Eight tales, eight lives, how to, how not to, go on for a while, forever.

Mine was only a year, years ago, Korea. Still, reading the stories brings back the emotions; loneliness, fear, hope for news, dread of news; one day at a time, interminable, touching, unforgiving, real. A good read!

The Vanishing of Katharina Linden

by Helen Grant .... wow! We watch through the eyes of ten year old Pia as the events of her life are superimposed over the mysterious disappearances of young girls, one after another. Branded an outcast through the outlandish events surrounding her grandmother's demise, Pia and her only friend, an outc ast like herself, decide to investigate the disappearances and the well crafted tale is off and running, pulling the reader along in an inexorable race to solve the mystery.

The Sherlockian

Soon to be published, in December 2010. Graham Moore shows us what 1803, Arthur Conan Doyle, Bram Stoker and 2010 have in common. I can't wait and hope you can't either.

The Girl Who Played With Fire

Stieg Larsson has come up with another winner, in this sequel to "The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo". I haven't had the pleasure of reading his first book, although I can tell you that the movie based on his book was riveting! His sequel begins with a bang, an enticing glimpse into the past of our cryptic heroine, Lisbeth Salandar quickly followed by non-stop action involving her as well as another character from the first book, Mikael Blomkvist. Is he a continuing love interest? Is Lisbeth guilty of murdering not only her heinous guardian but two of Mikael's friends and investigators into a sex-trafficking underworld? Is it a set-up? By whom? All of these questions are answered as I plowed through this fast paced extravaganza of a novel. I can't wait to see what Stieg Larsson comes up with next!

The Tin Ticket

Well, I don't read a lot of non-fiction, out of school, but this book caught my eye, both the title and the description captured my interest and so I 'gave it a read'. Wow! An amazing book about the women convicts who were sent to Australia. Deborah J. Swiss has done a fine job writing about the experiences of these women transported to 'Van Dieman's land' to satisfy their government's need to balance out the uneven ratio of men to women. She pulls out a fascinating tale by using historical records and weaving them into an accurate picture. Don't let the 'non-fiction' label distract you from a fascinating and readable excursion into the past!