Obsidian Butterfly by Laurell K Hamilton (2000) Ace 

Anita Blake, a vampire executioner is called to pay a favor to her darkest friend.

Furies of Calderon by Jim Butcher (2004) Ace 

A world where most people can train 'furies' to do their bidding - it's also a world threatened by other types of beings who were the natives of the world.

Midnight Crossroad by Charlaine Harris (2014) Ace 

A town in the southwest where a variety of supernatural beings are trying to live peacefully in a world where evil lurks in the hearts of ordinary people.

The Girl Who Takes an Eye for an Eye by David Lagercranz (2017) Knopf 

In this episode, our heroine, Libeth Salander takes on the NSA as she reaches for her own past.  She makes a lot of enemies by doing what is right, and looking into things other people will kill to keep quiet.  And she finds her twin sister, the evil one.

The Concrete Blond by Michael Connelly (1994) Little Brown 

Bosch is on trial for having killed a serial murderer, and then a note, like the serial killer used, comes to the police station and points out where a victim was buried, unlike all the other victims, a blond under the concrete in a burned-out storage unit.

The Girl in the Spider's Web by David Lagercranz (2015) Knopf 

A continuation of Steig Larson's series about the Girl with the Dragon Tattoo.  I don’t usually read a book where the writer has based it on someone else’s character, but this is so well done, it’s like reading Larson himself.

Lizbeth Salander and Michael Blonkvist join forces once more, to help him create a scoop that will save his Millennium magazine and expose a web of spies and cybercriminals.

Win by Vera Nazarian (2017) Norilana Books 

A heroine finds herself surprised that the Crown Prince chooses her as his consort bride.  But she is more surprised that the Imperiator wishes to grant her desire to compete in the deadly games.  

Silver Borne by Patricia Briggs (2010) Ace Books 

A borrowed book leads to fey trying to kill Mercy Thompson and her mate, the alpha werewolf is hurt, then challenged through the manipulation of a coward.

Shakespeare's Landlord by Charlaine Harris (1996) St. Martin’s Press 

A free-lance housekeeper, who studies marshal arts, with a horrible secret in her past, finds a body in the town of Shakespeare, Arkansas.

Warrior Spirit by Alex Archer (2007) Gold Eagle 

Annja Creed, with Joan of Arc's sword, helps a Japanese ninja find a family relic

Compete by Vera Nazarian (2015) Norilana Books 

Refugees from Earth have qualified to be saved by the Atlanteans, but taking the year-long journey requires training - in driving a space shuttle - the best scores will help determine the jobs these refugees can have once they land.  

Qualify by Vera Nazarian (2014) Norilana Books 

Earth will be destroyed by an asteroid that is too big to move off path - this is what the residents of Atlantis have returned from their far-off planet tell us - only teenagers can withstand the journey through space and there is only room for so many - so they must qualify for a position on the space fleet.  Can a nerd and her siblings qualify?

Pop Goes the Weasel by James Patterson (1999) Little Brown & Co. 

Alex Cross and his fiancé are engaged in a twisted mystery with a British diplomat who uses the courtroom as well as his murder weapon.

True Life Adventure by Julie Smith (1985) Mysterious Press 

Paul McDonald is a ghost writer – for a private detective.  When the man is murdered, Paul becomes the prime suspect and the next target.

Night of the Purple Moon by Scott Cramer (2012) Train Renoir Publishing 

Earth passes through a comet tail that makes the moon look purple and causes a pandemic that kills older teens and adults.  Abby Leigh and her little brother and her baby sister hide on a small island off the coast of Maine.  But Abby is facing adolescence and that could mean her death.

3rd Degree by James Patterson (2004) Little Brown & Co.

A member of the Women’s Murder Club is hiding a secret – one that could get all of them killed.

Side Jobs by Jim Butcher (2011) Roc 

A collection of short stories about Harry Dresden:

-          Restoration of Faith

-          Publicity and Advertising

-          Something Borrowed

-          It’s My Birthday Too

-          Heorot

-          Backup

-          The Warrior

-          Las Call

-          Love Hurts

-          Aftermath

Cold Days by Jim Butcher (2013) Roc 

Harry finds himself bound as the winter knight to Mab, the queen of air and darkness.  He has to follow her orders to kill an immortal and prevent an apocalypse while keeping his sanity.

The Killing Dance by Laurell K Hamilton (2006) Berkley

Anita Blake is being hunted by professional hit men.  A bounty of $500,000 is on her head.  She turns to an alpha werewolf and a master vampire to help.  But is that any better?

Ghost Story by Jim Butcher (2012) Roc 

Harry Dresden is shot and left to die in Lake Michigan.  Then things get worse.  Now he has to find his murderer and save his friends without body or powers while avoiding the ghosts who want to make him suffer.

Secret of the Slaves by Alex Archer Gold Eagle 

Annja Creed is looking for a lost city in the Brazilian jungle.  Slaves were rumored to have found eternal youth.  But the place is not for outsiders and the entire jungle seems to be against intruders.

Changes by Jim Butcher (2010) Roc 

An old lover of Harry Dresden is back after she was attacked and turned by vampires of the bloody red court.  She has spent her time trying to kill all of the red court, but her niece is in their hands and she needs Harry’s help.

Bone Crossed by Patricia Briggs (2009) Ace

A vampire is slain by Mercy Thompson, so the vampire queen is out for revenge.  But Mercy is protected by the local werewolf pack, so the queen focuses on them.

The Bounty Hunters by Elmore Leonard (1954) Houghton Mifflin 

A novel that set standards for other western books.  David Flynn, a former scout sees the Apache as something more than a savage.  There are the rurales, former bandits who are considered the local police, but are out to rob whomever they can.  And there are  the bounty hunters who are paid for scalps of Apaches or Mexicans being passed-off as Indians.  Some of the bounty hunters are just plain murderers who want to kill all native Americans, no matter what tribe. 

The Grand Banks Cafe by Georges Simenon (1938) Gallimard 

Maigret and his wife take a holiday at Fécamp, Normandy.  While there, he looks into a murder of a ship’s captain.  Like all Maigret mysteries, his approach is to take in the scene and the people involved.  Once he knows all that, he follows his instinct and uncovers the motives of people involved, then life goes on.

 

I could only find the original French through the Internet Archive.  You can also get it in English from Penguin.

Ceremony in Death by J.D. Robb (1997) Berkley 

Eve Dallas investigates the death of a fellow police officer.  When a dead body is left outside her home, it becomes personal.

American Gods by Neil Gaiman (2001) William Morrow 

When the old gods are no longer worshipped, where did they go?  In this book, they came to America.

An ex-con going by the name of Shadow, is released, but just before that, his best friend and his wife died in a car accident.  Then, on the way home, he is hired by a stranger, a Mr. Wednesday, as a bodyguard, a driver and occasional errand boy.  What he doesn’t know is that the man is really who we named the middle of our work week for.  And Odin/Wednesday is trying to organize things with the gods over here.  A wild ride through the alliances and enemies of the Norse gods.

A Wanted Man by Lee Child (2012) Bantam Press 

Reacher hitches a ride, unknown to him, a man has been murdered in a place where the car came from.  This ties him into a conspiracy that the police and FBI are reaching to find all the conspirators.

Turn Coat by Jim Butcher (2009) Roc 

Harry Dresden is called upon by his least favorite wizard, the warden of the white council of wizards.  He’s known for executing wizards who break the rules and he’s had his eye on Harry for years.  Now, he’s been accused of treason against the council.  Harry has to find the real traitor and avoid becoming a victim himself.

Lilac Girls by Martha Hall Kelly (2016) Ballentine Books 

Three women go through WWII with different experiences from both side - two women are in Poland, one a doctor's sister who, along with her mother and sister, becomes a POW because her mother was a Jew, one a doctor who is drafted into service at Ravensbruk, the concentration camp for women, where her sense of right and wrong is shattered, making her a war criminal, and a woman in New York who has spent a decade helping French orphans.

Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman (2017) William Morrow 

Gaiman never ceases to amaze.  This is a story about an upright, naïve man helping a young woman who is hurt and finds himself in a world behind our world on an adventure.

God of Thunder by Alex Archer (2007) Gold Eagle

Someone is going to great lengths to find the Hammer of Thor. Annja Creed finds this out when she collects a package from a colleague.  He has been murdered, and the killers think Annja has what they wanted from him.

The Unbroken Line of the Moon - Johanne Hildebrandt (2014) Amazon Crossing 

A well-researched historical novel about real people in the early days of the Danes, Geats and Swedes.

Indeh: A Story of the Apache Wars by Ethan Hawke, Illustrated by Greg Ruth (2016) Grand Central Publishing 

Being the true story of Goyahkla (Geronimo), whose chief, Cochise only wanted peace with the white eyes.  Indeh are the dead – from a war that decimated the Apache and their enemies.

2nd Chance by James Patterson (2002) Little Brown & Co.

The women’s murder club has to solve unspeakable murders while being targeted themselves.

Bloody Bones by Laurell K Hamilton (2008) Berkley 

Something with more power than Anita Blake has felt before lurks under a graveyard and someone wants it awakened

Iron Kissed by Patricia Briggs (2012) Ace 

Mercy Thompson, mechanic and coyote walker, is asked to look into a series of murders on the fae reservation.  Meanwhile, two of the werewolves want her to decide which she will take for a mate.

Retribution by Megg Jensen (2017) 80 pages (5/6)

Book 3 of Dragonlands – Tressa must prepare for battle with the dragonlords, but first she has to get well.  In that process a dark magic awakens.  She discovers that some of her greatest enemies are those she trusted.

Hunted by Megg Jensen (2014) 80 Pages 

Book 2 of Dragonlands – Tressa has returned to Hutton’s Bridge only to find that the villagers have disappeared.  Now she teams up with Bastian and must navigate the politics and dragonloards to keep save their people.

Hidden by Megg Jensen (2013) 80 Pages 

Book 1 of Dragonlands – A dragon falls dead out of the fog that hovers at the border of  Hutton’s Bridge.  Tressa, a girl raised by her grandmother, ventures where no one as returned before and endangers everyone.

Open Season by C. J. Box (2001) Putnam Adult 

1st in a series about a Game Warden who starts out naive and at the climax becomes the man he should be.

The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman (2008) HarperCollins

A toddler wanders away from his house through a door opened by a murderer and into a graveyard where the murderer cannot find him.  He is raised by the ghosts and protected by a vampire and a werewolf who are members of the Honor Guard of God.  David Copperfield in a weird universe.  Winner of the 2009 Newbery Award.

Me Before You by Jojo Moyes (2012) Pamela Dorman Books

Advertised as a Romance - but it is far more than that.  It's mainstream.  It's about living in a situation where none of us want to find ourselves.  It's tough, it's heartbreaking, it's redemptive like so few books are today.  This will stick around and sell year after year unless booksellers are heartless and illiterate.

Small Favor by Jim Butcher (2008) Roc 

Dresden finds himself fulfilling one of Mab's favors - a small favor that may only cost him his life and the lives of those he loves and knows.

The Lost Scrolls by Alex Archer (2007) Gold Eagle 

A wonderful find - scrolls from the library of Alexandria become the immediate target of a megalomaniac who will stop at nothing, including murdering everyone between him and what he wants.  He just didn't factor-in a woman with Joan of Arc's supernatural sword, nor her immortal resources.

Rapture in Death by J.D. Robb (2009) Thorndike Press

Someone has developed a new drug that makes a person feel rapturous, the only problem is that it kills them.

Immortal in Death by J.D. Robb (2009) Thorndike Press 

A new, illegal and deadly drug makes people feel immortal.  Until it kills them.  And Eve Dallas finds a close friend has been made a patsy to take the focus off the real scoundrels.  But Eve is nothing if not loyal and by the book.

Cousin Joseph by Jules Feiffer (2016) Liveright \

Feiffer’s prequel to Kill My Mother, the detective father, who is patriotic and believes in the American way.  This is in contrast to his bare-knuckles approach to getting information and secret trips to Hollywood, paying off producers to make sure they only make films that are upbeat about an idealistic America where no injustice goes uncorrected.

Kill My Mother by Jules Feiffer (2014) Liveright 

A noir graphic novel by a man who has won numerous awards (a Pulitzer, an Academy Award, among others).  Here there are three femme fatales, a daughter obsessed with finding her father’s killer, and a hapless heroine.  There’s a thug, a hit man, a taxi driver, a movie star, and a communist who owns a liquor store.

The Truth is a Cave in the Black Mountains by Neil Gaiman (2015) William Morrow 

A dazzlingly tour-de-force – quite possibly the story masterpiece of one of the world's best writers.  A man wants to know what happened to his little girl and travels on foot to find a guide to take him to the Black Mountains.  What he finds out and how he deals with the knowledge will change the reader.

Queen of the Night by J.A. Jance (2010) William Morrow 

Every summer, the Queen of the Night blooms on the Tohono O’odham nation.  A young girl witnesses a murder. At the same time, a retired homicide detective looks into a cold case from almost half a century ago. Meanwhile, the homicide detective’s wife deals with memories of another murder.

The Black Ice by Michael Connelly (2003) Little Brown & Co.  

Harry Bosch finds a narcotics officer killed with a suicide note that he doesn’t believe.  He has to follow a trail of drugs across and into Mexico.  He can’t save everybody, but he can wreak justifiable revenge.

Blood Bound by Patricia Briggs (2011) Ace

Mercy Thompson, a walker who turns into a coyote, is the only one who can battle a vampire who has been targeting the local werewolf pack.  She is immune to vampire wiles, and that let’s her get close enough to make a difference.

The Affair by Lee Child (2011) Delacorte Press

Reacher is re-activated and sent to a murder scene to find out what happened, who did the deed, and then to cover it up because it involves a top-secret project.  But the local sheriff, a woman, is also trying to get to the truth.  The attraction leads to a bed, but the problem needs to be solved.  There is conspiracy and those who want to keep Reacher from his mission.  Not a good place to be.

Cat & Mouse by James Patterson (1997) Little Brown & Co. 

Alex Cross is almost murdered in his own home by a prison escapee who blames Alex for putting him in prison.  In the meantime, another killer is pursued by a detective from Europe.  While the detectives try to trap the men they are pursuing, the killers try to trap the detectives.  Who will survive?

Forbidden City by Alex Archer (2007) Gold Eagle 

Annja Creed, archaeologist, working on a dig in California, uncovers evidence of a tragedy that leads her back to China looking for lost city.

Worth Dying For - Lee Child (2010) Delacorte Press 

Reacher walks into a town in Nebraska and a mystery about the disappearance of a child decades in the past.  Then someone tries to push him out of town to cover-up the drug shipment they’re expecting.  This is not a wise way to deal with Reacher.

Moon Called by Patricia Briggs (2010) Ace 

Mercy Thompson is a walker who can turn into a coyote.  She was raised in a werewolf pack.  Her boss at the car-repair shop is a very old elf.  Some clients are also of the supernatural types; vampires, werewolves, gremlins.  This is her normal world.  Then someone gets killed – at work, and all things fae break loose.

Turbo Twenty-Three by Janet Evanovich (2016) Bantam

Stephanie Plum, part-time bounty hunter, is after a skip who stole a truck full of ice-cream and a dead body.  She goes undercover at the ice-cream factory for a P.I., Ranger, whom she has strayed with, while trying to make a go with her boyfriend, Morellli, a cop.

A Man Called Ove by Fredrik Backman (2014) Atria Books

A curmudgeon is retired from his job at the railroad.  His wife was disabled and has died.  He has no reason to go on, though he’s not very good at ending his own life.  Every attempt gets interrupted by his new incompetent neighbors and the man he’s had a long-standing feud with is no longer able to talk, much less do anything.

This is a story about how people need other people.  How life is enriched by family,, including the people around you who don’t have your experience or tenacity.

 Glory in Death by J.D. Robb (2009) Thorndike Press

Suspect everyone, even your lover.  Two very successful women are murdered and they seem to be tied to a lot of rich men, including Roarke.

Best Books I read in 2016:

I read 74 books this year.  These are the best from the list (in the order I read the books).

1. The Martian by Andy Weir (2011) Crown 
   All the ways Mars wants to kill you - Themes: fate (Mars is trying to kill him through no fault of it's own), hope (the indomitable human spirit) and humanity (people want him to live and go to extraordinary lengths to help him survive)
   
   
2. The Invention of Wings by Sue Monk Kidd (2014) Viking
   Sarah Grimke, living in pre-Civil War Charleston, is given Handful, a slave, to be her handmaiden.  Sarah doesn’t want a slave, but she is given no choice.  Over the next thirty-five years as the girls get closer and Handful looks for a way to freedom, Sarah and her younger sister, Angelina, go north to help with abolition and women’s rights.
   
   
3. Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn (2012) Ballentine Books 
   The book was so good, I hated it.  Ms. Flynn can pull your emotions every which way.  On Nick and Amy Dunne’s fifth wedding anniversary, with the celebration planned and ready to get underway, Amy disappears.  The police jump to the regular conclusion that the husband killed the wife.  And Nick does himself no favors, caught in lie after lie.  The ending will make you jump.
   
   
4. The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver (1998) Harper
   Nathaniel Price, an evangelical Baptist, takes his family to the Congo on a mission.  Everything they planned is turned on its head.  Their garden refuses to grown, their attempt to convert the local populous only works to enrage their enemies.  Told over three decades from the point of view of one of the daughters, the family is torn apart and reconstructed.
   
   
5. The Traveler by John Twelve Hawks (2005) Doubleday 
   There are people who want to control the world by forcing it to follow orders.  There are Travelers who bring change to the world.  The Tabula see Travelers as dangerous to world order.  And there are Harlequins who protect Travelers.  This is a story of a Harlequin who is called to serve and protect a set of brothers who may be Travelers against the Tabula agents sent to kill them.
   
   
6. Mrs. Peregrine's Peculiar Children - Ransom Riggs (2011) Quirk Books
   Teenage Jacob goes to an island off the coast of Wales with his birding father who is immersed in writing a new book.  Jacob, bored and wandering the island, finds the ruins of an abandoned house.  Only it’s not exactly abandoned, it’s trapped in a time loop from World War II.  And its occupants are peculiar indeed.
   A wonderful and well thought out adventure.  You'll fall in love with the children.
   
   
7. The Nightingale - Kristin Hannah (2015) St. Martin’s Press 
   Two sisters in German occupied France during World War II find their separate ways of surviving and finding a way to resist Nazism.  One joins the resistance, the other leads children and wounded fighters over the Pyrenees into Spain and freedom. 
   
   
8. Raven Girl - Audrey Niffenegger (2013) Harry N. Abrams 
   A raven and a postman have a daughter who wants nothing but to be able to fly.  Like her mother, she is a raven, but she has a human body like her father.
   
   
9. The Golem and the Jinni - Helene Wecker (2013) Harper 
   A man who loses his business desires to go to America, but with a wife.  When no woman will have him, he purchases the ability of a local Jewish Kabbalist to create a Golem for him. On the way across the ocean, his utters the words to wake her and then dies.  In New York, a Syrian woman takes an old oil flask of her mothers and asks a local tinsmith if he can repair it.  But when the tinsmith removes some of the scroll work, out comes a Jinni in the form of a man, but with an iron band on his wrist.  Thus starts a winding story that brings everyone's lives together with an unexpected and well-deserved twist.
   
   
10. And Sometimes I Wonder About You - Walter Mosley (2015) Little Brown 
    Leonid McGill is still trying to find a way to care for his wife, Katrina, love his girlfriend Aura and escape the magnetism of a new woman, Marilla, while keeping himself, his secretary, his children and acquaintances from being killed by people who think they want more than is possible.  This is the best craftsmanship to be found in writing.  

The Spy Who Loved Me - Ian Fleming (1962) Jonathan Cape 

A very different James Bond story, this time from the woman's point of view.  She's independent, had her heart broken, twice, does not trust men as a result, but she's off on an adventure, riding her Vesta from Canada down to Florida.  Caught a little low on cash, she stops at a motel in the Adirondacks and is offered a job as a receptionist.  The couple running the summer business for an absentee owner, ask her to stay an extra day after they leave for the owner to arrive for the winter shutdown.  Only the two guys who show up have less than honorable intentions.  Bond shows up during a storm with a flat and stays the night, rescuing her from her fears about the men she thought were going to rape her.  Only their intentions were much worse.

The Black Echo - Michael Connelly (1992) Little Brown 

Twists upon twists in the first Bosch novel.  Bosch is a celebrated and demoted detective in the LAPD.  A dead vet is found in a pipe at the reservoir in Hollywood Hills.  Bosch is able to identify the body as someone he served with in Viet Nam. Bosch sees what others don't and realizes it is not an OD, but a murder - he goes to the man's apartment and finds it has been ransacked, but he comes across a pawn ticket for a piece of jewelry.  He visits the pawnshop and discovers it was robbed the night before, taking the item from the ticket, but there is a picture of the item.  It turns out that both the dead guy and Bosch were looked at by the FBI for a bank robbery that happened while Bosch was on a forced vacation.  The IAD want Bosch so bad they can barely restrain themselves.  This looks to them like a tie-in that they can use against Bosch.  When he braces the FBI for info on the robbery, they call his boss and get him taken off the case, then call back and ask to have him put back on as a liaison to them.  He figures-out that there was a high-up Vietnamese police chief that had a box with no declared value in the first robbery, but as he digs further, there is reason to believe that the man had a fortune in diamonds in his box.  There is another Vietnamese who had diamonds in different bank and he suspects the other man is a target.  

Charcoal Joe - Walter Mosley (2016) Little Brown 

Mouse brings a job to Easy Rawlins; Joe needs his son, who has been framed by the cops, cleared of murder charges.  Easy is planning on proposing to his love, but that turns out to not be possible.  The boy in question turns out to be a Phd in Physics and likely an innocent bystander in un-innocent murder, theft and triple-crosses.  Fearless Jones covers Easy's rear. Lots of bad guys get their final ticket punched, and one gets a angelic gift when Easy returns her unconscious body to her home.  

And Sometimes I Wonder About You - Walter Mosley (2015) Little Brown 

Leonid McGill is still trying to find a way to care for his wife, Katrina, love his girlfriend Aura and escape the magnetism of a new woman, Marilla, while keeping himself, his secretary, his children and acquaintances from being killed by people who think they want more than is possible.  This is the best craftsmanship to be found in writing.  

The Golem and the Jinni - Helene Wecker (2013) Harper

A man who loses his business desires to go to America, but with a wife.  When no woman will have him, he purchases the ability of a local Jewish Kabbalist to create a Golem for him. On the way across the ocean, his utters the words to wake her and then dies.  In New York, a Syrian woman takes an old oil flask of her mothers and asks a local tinsmith if he can repair it.  But when the tinsmith removes some of the scroll work, out comes a Jinni in the form of a man, but with an iron band on his wrist.  Thus starts a winding story that brings everyone's lives together with an unexpected and well-deserved twist.

The Space Between - Brenna Yovanoff (2011) Razorbill 

Lilith's daughter searches for her brother on Earth, seeking the help of a boy who attempted suicide, but was sent back.  He's the only courage she finds to start her search.  To her, Earth is terribly cold, but it has unexpected discoveries, like humanity and love.

White Night - Jim Butcher (2007) Roc

Wizard Harry Dresden, now a Warden, has a personal puzzle to work out; his first love has surfaced and is trying to guard a club of minor witches, with no luck. Surveillance video shows his brothe, Thomas, an emotion sucking vampire, abducting the missing women. All this and more is going on during a lull in a war between the wizards and the vampires.  And there may be a third party in the background.

61 Hours - Lee Child (2010) Delacorte Press

A Jack Reacher novel - the hours are used as a suspense device counting down.  A small town in South Dakota - in the end we don't even know if Reacher survives.

Naked in Death - J.D. Robb (2004) Putnam 

A mix of Sci Fi, murder mystery and bodice ripper with an anachronistic killer using 20th century guns as the weapon of choice in a 22^nd century world.

Raven Girl - Audrey Niffenegger (2013) Harry N. Abrams 

A raven and a postman have a daughter who wants nothing but to be able to fly.  Like her mother, she is a raven, but she has a human body like her father.

The Chosen - Alex Archer (2007) Gold Eagle 

The third in the Rogue Angel series - Anja Creed has become the bearer of Joan of Arc's sword and it stays in a dimension within her reach at all times.  In this episode, odd sightings of a holy child and of horrific animals threaten small towns in New Mexico while a former mercenary, turned Jesuit priest and hitman for high ranking church officials threaten to eradicate Anja while she tries to halt the violence of innocents.

 Poison Fruit - Jacqueline Carey (2014) Ace

The third, and perhaps final installment of the Agent of Hel series.  Daisy Johannssen has to navigate not only her love life, trying to decide between a werewolf and a 600 year old Ghoul who used to be a Bohemian Knight, but try to outwit another Hellspawn and prevent Persephone from taking Little Niflheim from Hel.  In the end, she makes everyone proud, even her demon father, by bargaining with God for the good of everyone.

Thunderball - Ian Fleming (1961)

SPECTRE is trying to steal two British nuclear bombs to extort the government.  Bond recruits Domino Vitali, whose brother is a pilot in the pay of SPECTRE who plans to highjack a bomber carrying the bombs.  She is discovered trying to use a Geiger counter disguised as a camera.  She is tortured but refuses to give up any information.  The bomber is highjacked and ditched in the ocean where SPECTRE hops to recover the bombs.  Bond dives to the bomber and gets targeted by the enemy, but Domino, who escaped, shoots the bad guy, saving Bond. 

Perhaps the template for every Bond movie that followed.  The tough girl who falls for Bond, but is a force to be reckoned with on her own.

Day of the Dead – J.A. Jance

The Walker Saga continues.  After surviving attacks by serial killers, their daughter Lani becomes a target.  Former sheriff Walker joins the Last Chance Club, a group of former policemen who look into cold cases.  One case is of girls being sent for adoption from Mexico to Arizona, then disappear.  When he mentions it to his family, his daughter becomes involved and threatened.

Kiss of the Bees – J.A. Jance (2000) William Morrow

The second book in the series about the Walkers.  In this one Davy has grown-up and his adopted sister has been kidnapped.  The main story is still choppy, but the Indian stories are better.  The final part of the book is much better written, the timing and the climax work-out with a lot of action.  The return is well done also, showing the sister growing into a strong medicine woman.  At first, I was not interested in reading any more of the series, but the ending provides encouragement.

Unterzakhn (Underwear) - Leela Corman (2012) Schoken 

A graphic novel about the lives of two girls growing up in the early part of the 20th century in New York.  The story follows them through learning life's lessons along different paths.  One becomes a women's rights advocate, discreetly helping women who do not want to be pregnant (providing 'sheaths' was illegal), the other becomes a prostitute and then a stage star.  The ending is tragic, with the death of the advocate in child birth, leaving her childless sister to raise the girl.

Hour of the Hunter - J.A. Jance (1991) William Morrow 

A thriller with the requisite elements.  You know who the bad guy is from the beginning, you just don't know how they will stop him, each time you see how the good guys will save the day, they are diverted.  In the end it is the bad guy's target victim who defeats him.  The author weaves the local native culture into the story.  The scenes are brief.  Yet the story is so strong that it became a bestseller.

The Wolves of Midwinter - Anne Rice (2013) Knopf

There are more than just shapeshifters in the world.  Reuben, a wolf-man finds other spirits haunting the halls of his mansion.  And they have magic of their own.

The Wolf Gift - Ann Rice (2012) Knopf 

A reporter visits a mansion up for sale by a family whose fortunes have dwindled.  He is attacked and bitten in the night.  He begins to change and is afraid he is becoming a monster.  But he discovers that his feelings are not of a ravening beast, but of a duality that has the power of the wolf, with the heart of a man.

The Nightingale - Kristin Hannah (2015) St. Martin’s Press

Two sisters in German occupied France during World War II find their separate ways of surviving and finding a way to resist Nazism.  One joins the resistance, the other leads children and wounded fighters over the Pyrenees into Spain and freedom.

The Atlantis World - A.G. Riddle (2014) Legion Books

Dr. Kate Warner discovered the cure for a global pandemic, but she can’t cure herself.  Now it becomes apparent that the structure found in Antarctica is an alien ship and to save humanity, she must use the ship to call for help from somewhere else in the galaxy.

The Atlantis Plague - A.G. Riddle (2013) Legion Books 

The Atlantis Gene has become a pandemic.  It either causes a person to evolve or devolve.  A drug is developed for those who devolved, only it treats just the symptoms, not the disease.  Another group wants to simply wait for the complete results of the pandemic so the new race can rule the planet.  This becomes open warfare.  One researcher finds that looking into the past, at the events occurring at the same time as sudden changes in human DNA might be the only answer.

The Atlantis Gene - A.G. Riddle (2014) Legion Books

Researchers discover a structure in the ice in Antarctica.  A researcher in Jakarta discovers a treatment that could change the lives of autistic people.  Things are not as they seem and not everyone wants these discoveries to be revealed.

LaRose - Louise Erdrich (2016) Harper

Landreaux Irons accidentally kills the five-year-old son of his neighbor, Peter Ravich.  The boy was best friends and first cousin with his own son, LaRose.  Following a tradition of the Ojibwe, Landreaux gives LaRose to Peter’s family to be their son.  His new mother, Nola dotes on the boy, but has dark thoughts and only LaRose and his new sister keep the family stable.  Then a man with a grudge against Landreaux threatens the fragile peace of the families.

Library of Souls - Ransom Riggs (2015) Quirk Books

In this third volume of Mrs. Peregrine’s Peculiar Children, Jacob and his companions go to Devil’s Acre, a Victorian slum where the final showdown with monsters trying t5o destroy all peculiar children must decide their fates.

Hollow City - Ransom Riggs (2015) Quirk Books 

Mrs. Peregrine is trapped in the body of a bird and monsters are after the children.  Jacob takes his friends from their time-looped home to London.  But it’s the London of World War II.  But teenage love gets in the way and in order to save the children, Jacob must confront his feelings.

Mrs. Peregrine's Peculiar Children - Ransom Riggs (2011) Quirk Books (8/19)

Teenage Jacob goes to an island off the coast of Wales with his birding father who is immersed in writing a new book.  Jacob, bored and wandering the island, finds the ruins of an abandoned house.  Only it’s not exactly abandoned, it’s trapped in a time loop from World War II.  And its occupants are peculiar indeed.

A wonderful and well thought out adventure.  You'll fall in love with the children.

Miracleman - Neil Gaiman, Illustrated by Mark Buckingham (2016) Marvel 

In a world where London was destroyed, Miracleman presides over the new world.  There is no war, no famine, no poverty.  The dead return as androids.  An age of miracles, but not everyone is happy.

Sandman Overture - Neil Gaiman (2015) Vertigo 

This origin story of the Sandman covers the creation of the galaxy to the capture of Morpheus.  It features The Corinthian, Lucien the librarian, and of course, the Endless, the Sandman’s siblings; Death, Desire, Despair, Delirium, Destruction and Destiny.

Proven Guilty - Jim Butcher (2007) Roc

War with the vampires has cost a lot of wizards.  Harry gets drafted by the White Council to be a warden.  Then Michael, a guardian angel, asks Harry to intercede with his daughter, who is rebelling and may be in trouble.  As usual, Butcher delivers a tense, action filled story with surprises and feeling.