January booklist

Kate Ellis, The Skeleton Room
#7 Wesley Peterson

One of my favorite series. The plot always mixes a present day case with a historical one. Our police detective Wesley has a degree in archaelogy.

Charlaine Harris, Ice Cold Grave
latest Harper Connelly

I don't really like supernatural themes that much, but I like Harris so much I just can't help but love this series. Harper has the ability to find dead people and see what killed them as a result of being struck by lightning. In this outing, Harper is drawn into a serial killer case -- and finally works out her relationship with her step-brother.

John King, The King of Lies

I loved this book. Main character is a lawyer with a messed up family history who has to solve the murder of his father.

Carol Goodman, The Sonnet Lover

One of my favorite authors. In this one, an English professor gets pulled into a situation involving murder and stolen poetry. The poems in question may provide the answer to long-lived literary mysteries: who was Shakespeare's Dark Lady? and did he ever go to Italy?

Joanna Trollope, Friday Nights

This is her new one - got it to review for Library Journal. I like her books a lot, and this one was very good too. It's about a group of women who become friends and go through some challenges, but they don't get together for a book club or knitting group, and no one is terminally ill, so it was quite refreshing!

John Hart, Down River

I was initially disappointed to realize this one wasn't a continuation with the characters from King of Lies but I got over that pretty quick. In this novel, a man who was acquitted of murder charges returns to his hometown after 5 years when a friend calls him for help. King is a master of writing about dysfunctional families. The mystery elements are pretty good, too :-)