Ten years ago, Rommy "Squirrel" Gan­dolph—­gen­er­al­ly regarded as a harmless thief not playing with a full deck­—­con­fessed to three murders. Now he's about to be executed and Arthur Raven, his court-appointed attorney, believes his protes­ta­tions of innocence. The book follows Arthur, who finds an ally in Gillian Sullivan, the disgraced ex-judge who presided over Gandolph's trial, and the prosecutor, Muriel Wynn, and the detective, Larry Starczek.

Turow digs deep into the characters of his four pro­tag­o­nists, as they struggle with each other and with the rev­e­la­tions of the case. They are all …continue.

Recently married, Lord Peter Wimsey and the former Harriet Vane take up residence at their townhouse. When the beautiful wife of an ac­quain­tance is murdered, Peter becomes involved in the in­ves­ti­ga­tion. Meanwhile, Harriet is coming to terms with having "married up", after fending off Peter's wooing for several years. Should she continue her career as a mystery novelist, now that she no longer needs the income, or do what is expected by some: have babies and give up writing. All of this is against the …continue.

In this sequel to The Dead of Winter, a young lady called Victoria Dawes travels from England to Al­bu­querque to seek the aid of Cora Oglesby, the now-retired monster hunter. The women draw the attention of a Navajo skinwalker and a vampire, and they spend the book dueling each other. Under Cora's sarcastic tough love tutelage, Miss Dawes grows from a sheltered Victorian lady into a semi-capable fighter.

The in­ter­ac­tion of the two main characters was fairly en­ter­tain­ing, not wholly pre­pos­ter­ous, and certainly passed the Bechdel test.

England, Spring 1940. The Phoney War is ending, millions have been evacuated from the cities to the coun­try­side, military bases have sprung up everywhere, and everything is topsy turvy. Lord Peter Wimsey and Bunter are abroad somewhere on a secret mission, while Lady Peter—the former Harriet Vane—minds a brood of children at their country house in Hert­ford­shire. A Land Girl is murdered in the village of Paggleham, and the local police su­per­in­ten­dent enlists Harriet's aid in solving the murder.

A Pre­sump­tion of …continue.

Cora Oglesby and her husband Ben have been slaying monsters and slinging guns all over the Old West for years, ever since the Civil War ended. In a bitterly cold winter, on the outskirts of a silver-mining town in Colorado, they take down a wendigo and then a nest of vampires.

Cora is tough and hardened and takes no crap from anyone, man or monster. But she's damaged too, more than we realize at first. I thought the first-time author did a decent job of writing a paranormal Western: the …continue.

The President of France must decide whether to commute a death sentence. A senior civil servant, finding both his wife and his daughter in flagrante delicto with an artist, shot them all dead. Inspector Henri Castang, the in­ves­ti­gat­ing officer, is summoned to the Élysée Palace. There is no doubt as to the accused's guilt. He admits it and seems to welcome the death sentence.

Freeling's novel examines the French judicial system. We've all heard that the Napoleonic Code says that a man is presumed guilty until proven innocent, but in fact, under …continue.

Red Ned Bedwell is an apprentice lawyer in Tudor London. He's trying to fatten his purse by running the Christmas Revels for his fellow clerks, but he's entrusted with minding a young innocent and keeping him from harm and temptation. The innocent is not nearly as naïve as his over­bear­ing mother believes and Ned must follow his trail through the stews of London.

The book is good at recreating the daily life of Tudor London in 1529 as the Re­for­ma­tion is developing under Henry …continue.

Bob Howard is a com­pu­ta­tion­al de­mo­nolo­gist working for the secretive British agency known as the “Laundry”. Some very nasty people are trying to hasten the end of the world, there's a mole in the Laundry, and Bob's superior, the mys­te­ri­ous­ly ageless Angleton, is missing. Bob moves back and forth between vicious office politics and es­cha­to­log­i­cal terrors. The Fuller Memorandum is fast-paced and darkly humorous. Rec­om­mend­ed.

Sequel to The Jennifer Morgue. More at Charlie Stross's Crib Sheet and the Laundry Files Wiki.

Benjamin Black (the mystery-writing pseudonym of Irish novelist, John Banville) channels Raymond Chandler as he writes a Philip Marlowe novel. Robert Parker wrote a couple of books about a quarter-century ago with the approval of the Chandler estate. Black's book is also authorized.

The book has all the familiar elements of a Marlowe novel: the femme fatale of the title, the idle rich, ungrateful offspring and murderous staff, cynical cops, the baking heat of California, beatings and booze, Marlowe cracking wise, and the trademark Chan­dleresque similes.

If you like Chandler, you'll probably like Black's con­tri­bu­tion to the …continue.

Dr. Cherijo Grey Veil flees Earth to the remote planet of Kevarzanga-2, seeking to get away from her dom­i­neer­ing father and the xenophobic Terrans. She finds in­ter­est­ing challenges and romance working with a variety of alien species at the FreeClinic. Then a plague strikes that kills thousands. When that's resolved, the news comes that her father really, really wants her back, and is bringing enormous resources to make that happen.

I didn't like the book at first, but it grew on me as I read more of it and I got caught …continue.