Mrs. Sorensen and the Sasquatch by Kelly Barnhill (2014) Tor.com

A fun, quick read of fantasy by a master in the genre.  Mrs. Sorenson has been widowed and is free to have her animal friends again.  No one has seen a sasquatch since she was married 30 years ago.  But now, one seems to be following her around.

OCDaniel by Wesley King (2017) Simon & Schuster

Daniel has a problem that affects him every day.  He goes through the routine before he can cry himself to sleep, and that can take hours.  In his waking hours, life can still present panic in the form of zaps.  He avoids stepping on cracks, avoids numbers that are bad, and hates being on the football team as a backup kicker.  He has a crush on the most popular girl at school, though he could never tell her.  And the girl everyone calls psycho talks to him when she won’t talk to anyone else.  Somehow, he’s agreed to solve a murder.  And he’s writing a novel.  Just an everyday kid who is hiding his own problems while wishing he was normal.
It's a good read, a complicated plot, with a good twist ending.

Murder on Cold Street by Sherry Thomas (2020) Penguin Publishing Group

In which our heroine, Charlotte Holmes, appearing in her fifth book of the series, continues to work as the confidant of a non-existent brother, Sherlock Holmes, who is supposedly bedridden with sickness.  This time it is Inspector Treadles who is in trouble, and it is up to Holmes and her close associates to prove he is innocent of a double murder.  Charlotte ups the game on her attraction to Lord Ingram, whom she has known since they were very young.  Still romance is mostly promises and no permanent situation presents itself in this book.

Like it's predecessors, the writing keeps you glued to the page trying to outdo Ms. Holmes in deducing the real culprits while keeping herself and her associates safe and sound.

Parable of the Talents by Octavia Butler (1998) Seven Stories Press

The sequel to The Parable of the Sower, our Heroine, Lauren Ova Olamina, has collected her verses into The Book of Life, about Earthseed, created a community called Acorn and gathered people to teach and help in a near-post apocalyptic U.S. – but her tests in life are about to get so much worse.  ‘Crusaders’ reminiscent of the KKK, enforced slavery in the name of Christianity, separation of children from the parents, a megalomaniac who promises to ‘Make America Great Again’ (the book was written in the 1990s).  This volume is told from her diaries and from her daughter’s perspective, having been abducted as a baby and raised in a home affiliated with the same church as the Crusaders.  Yet in the end, life goes on and Earthseed reaches for its goals.

A prophetic warning for our times.

The Night Window by Dean Koontz (2019) Random House Books

The final book in the Jane Hawk series.  She is still trying to find the leader of the Arcadians and failing that, find a way to bring their crimes and agenda to the attention of the world.  Two of the Arcadians’ top assassins are coming close to catching her.  A thief stumbles upon the house where her son is being kept safe by an old man and a very large man with issues and two German shepherds – he knows the boy could be worth a fortune to the Arcadians as leverage to get to Jane.  The ultimate leader of the Arcadians indulges himself with destroying a small-time Hollywood producer and for shock value makes a beautiful young woman kill herself in front of them.  The thrills come in every chapter.  Will Jane be killed, or will she save her son and the rest of humanity?

Me and Sam-Sam Handle the Apocalypse by Susan Vaught (2019) Simon & Schuster

A Best Juvenile Edgar winning book about a girl, Jesse (with an 'e'), with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) who wants to save her father from going to jail over money stolen from his desk at school.  Sam-Sam is her dog who provides emotional support.  Like many kids with ASD, she is shunned, bullied and generally treated badly by other students and even some of the adults at school.  Her mother is away in Iraq for the Army and has another dog who can sniff out bombs.  Jesse tries to train Sam-Sam to find treats hidden in plastic containers, but that ongoing project hasn't gone very far.  She gains a new friend, who is also picked-on because he won't hit.  Between the two of them, they start their own detective agency.  How will they deal with the local bullies and adults with other problems?  Will they solve the mystery of the theft in time to keep Jesse's father from going to jail?  And how will they deal with the apocalypse of a tornado?

This is a wonderful read, teaching about kids with ASD and how they see and handle the world in all its weirdness.  It's also going to hit my best of the year list.

The Poppy War by R.F. Kuang (2018) Harper Voyager

A war orphan makes her way into a military academy and learns military and arcane arts to serve her empress.  War comes, interrupting her studies and forces the harsh realities of inhumanity into her experiences.  Will she survive?  Will she make a difference?
The writing varies from sophomoric romantic wishes to clear vengeance.  I’ll read the rest of the series because what it does best is leave you wondering what happens next.