A sequel to Dead I Well May Be.

June 16, 2004: the Bloomsday centenary. Michael Forsythe's arch­neme­sis Bridget Callaghan needs him. Her eleven-year-old daughter has gone missing in Belfast, and Forsythe may be only one who can find her.

In the course of one very long day that loosely re­ca­pit­u­lates the events of Joyce's Ulysses, Forsythe cuts a bloody swathe through the criminal underworld of Belfast.

Gripping, if over the top.

(An earlier Rebus book than The Hanging Garden or The Naming of the Dead.)

A brutally murdered man has ties to Protestant loyalist para­mil­i­taries in Northern Ireland. He also happens to be the un­ac­knowl­edged son of Rebus’s old nemesis, Big Ger Cafferty, who wants revenge. Never a team player, Rebus goes his own way, solving the case against the backdrop of the Edinburgh Fringe Festival and a socially deprived housing scheme.

DI John Rebus is struggling with an incipient gang war in Edinburgh. He's in­ves­ti­gat­ing an elderly academic who might be a Nazi war criminal. A Bosnian prostitute has brought out the white knight in him. His personal life is a mess: He's off the booze, but work is the only thing keeping him going. And his daughter has been run down in the street, perhaps as a warning to him.

Rebus somehow struggles with all of this, coming out more or less victorious, but at a cost to …continue.

Three very different young men graduate from the Los Angeles Police Academy in 1960. Wambaugh's classic first novel follows them for five years until they meet again under fire in the Watts Riots.

In a series of vignettes, Wambaugh shows how they become hardened and cynical on the streets. Some will absorb the racist attitudes of their fellow officers. All will see horrifying things as they serve as patrol officers, vice cops, or juvenile officers.

Grim but en­thralling.

A loose sequel to Hammerhead Ranch Motel. The likable serial killer, Serge A. Storms, is suffering from amnesia and has found himself a job as the Press Secretary to the Governor of Florida, Marlon Conrad.

Conrad, formerly an airheaded child of privilege, has undergone an epiphany and has begun caring about the little people. He's running for re-election and he's on a road trip through Florida in an RV. This isn't to everyone's liking and several people are gunning for him.

Dorsey is slightly more in control of his plot …continue.

Maine PI Charlie Parker is asked to warn off Merrick, a father looking for answers, from harassing his client. The case leads him to uncover a decades-old project of sexually abusing children who've fallen through the cracks.

At­mos­pher­ic and disturbing, as Connolly's novels tend to be.

The sequel to Florida Roadkill. The hy­per­ac­tive serial killer, Serge A. Storms, is still in pursuit of $5 million, as are a new cast of goons.

The action centers around the eponymous Hammerhead Ranch Motel, which houses a wholly improbable set of sleaze­balls.

Moderately enjoyable.

Gideon Oliver, the forensic an­thro­pol­o­gist saddled with the un­for­tu­nate nickname of the "Skeleton Detective" by the press, is on vacation in the Scilly Isles, with his wife Julie. She's par­tic­i­pat­ing in a small biennial colloquium organized by an eccentric Russian mil­lion­aire.

Naturally, he happens upon a bone fragment, which leads him to a dis­mem­bered corpse, who turns out to be an attendee of the previous colloquium.

The main characters are likeable and, despite the somewhat gruesome de­scrip­tions of skeletons and post­mortems, it's an enjoyable, well-plotted whodunnit.

DCI Jack Spratt runs the Nursery Crimes Division of the Reading, Berks police. In­ves­tiga­tive reporter Goldilocks is found dead, after last being seen at the three bears' house. The Gin­ger­bread­man, a 7-foot psy­cho­path­ic cake, is rampaging around, randomly killing people. Punch and Judy have moved in next door: when they're not beating each other up, they're very good marriage coun­sel­lors. And enormous cucumbers are exploding under mysterious cir­cum­stances.

An extremely bizarre story, replete with puns, nursery rhymes, literary allusions, and shaggy dog stories.

En­ter­tain­ing, if silly.

Another book featuring Serge A. Storms, the almost-likable serial killer and amateur historian of Florida.

Serge, his coke-addict, stripper girlfriend, Sharon, and his stoner sidekick, Coleman, rent a house on Trig­ger­fish Lane, Tampa. Their landlord is trying to drive out the few remaining homeowners on the block, so that he can bulldoze it for condos.

It's quite the neigh­bor­hood. a former mil­lion­aire who likes to test-drive expensive cars; the psychotic Little League coach with a pit bull; the student party house; the South American death squad guy in hiding; and Jim Davenport, …continue.