• Wild Justice, Made to be Broken, The Boy Who Cried Bear, Kelley Armstrong
• The First Death of Winter, Kevin Wignall
• Fourth Wing, Rebecca Yarros
• The Lady in Glass, Anne Bishop
• The Good, the Bad, and the History, Jodi Taylor
• Red London, Alma Katsu
• The Paleontologist, Luke Dumas
• The Only Purple House in Town, Ann Aguirre
• An Honest Man, Michael Koryta
• Vampires of El Norte, Isabel Canas
• After that Night, Karin Slaughter

As you may have noticed by now, I’m a big, big fan of Kelley Armstrong. She writes a lot of books in differing genres and she does them all very well. I hadn’t read all her Nadia Stafford books (thrillers about a hitwoman with a difficult past), but now I’m caught up, and they were excellent. The Boy Who Cried Bear is her latest in the Rockton series, which is one of my favorites. A secret community in the Canadian wilderness composed of people who have paid to live there so they can vanish? Who could resist? If you haven’t sampled these before, start with the first one (City of the Lost).

Kevin Wignall’s The First Death of Winter is another of his thrillers with a protagonist who is a killer, though Matty Burkhalter, the night supervisor of a mountain resort in Switzerland, is only guilty of killing in self-defense. But he’s trying to stay hidden from those who might want him dead, and this isolated job is his best chance. During an intense snowstorm, a group of students and two teachers reach the Klimsen and Matty has to deal with them. The rest of the staff has left and won’t be able to return for a couple of days. Of course, this enforced stay doesn’t go well. One of the students is murdered, and the police put Matty in charge until they can get up there. This is a really rewarding read.

Fourth Wing has gotten so much acclaim I hardly need to add to it. It’s a wonderful fantasy novel set in a world in which warfare is constant, and training to fly a dragon is one way to defend one’s country. Violet Sorrengail plans to serve her country as a scribe, but her cold mother forces her to try out for the dragon school, where most of the students die in the first year. Violet surprises herself and everyone else by excelling, not by strength buy by cleverness. But the war is not what it seems, and neither are the government reports about it . . ..

Anne Bishop’s collection of short stories, The Lady in the Glass, is simply excellent. I read every single story and enjoyed it. Two stories are from the world of The Others, my favorite of Anne’s series, and there are more from the Dark Jewels series, too. But they’re all good.

The Good, the Bad, and the History is Jodi Taylor’s latest St. Mary’s book. I would never miss one of those! Max has infiltrated Oversight, but she’s been discovered. Things can always get worse for Max, and they generally do. She time-travels to an uprising in China, and of course, she’s immediately in danger of the worst kind. If you’ve been following Max’s adventures, you really should not miss this one. This is an EXCELLENT series. The first one is Just One Damned Thing after Another.

I’ve known Alma Katsu for a few years now, and she just keeps surprising me. Alma is a former intelligence analyst for the CIA and other government agencies. Her books about CIA Agent Lyndsey Duncan are certainly well-informed. Red London focuses on Russian oligarchs based in London and the havoc that’s wreaked when a government change in Moscow causes one of those men to be targeted. Duncan is charged with befriending the English wife of billionaire Mikhail Rotenberg. It’s a difficult and dangerous task, and has to be worked into the job Lyndsey is primarily in London for, handling a dangerous and temperamental Russian informant. No part of Lyndsey’s life is safe, and everyone has more than one motive for all their actions.

The Paleontologist (who wouldn’t read a book with that title) is Luke Dumas’s second book, which is pretty amazing. It’s a horror novel and a detective story, and the paleontologist who is the protagonist, Dr. Simon Nealy, falls pretty low before the ending. He returns to the small Pennsylvania town where he was born to a negligent mother, the town where his little sister disappeared on a trip to the local museum. Simon is hired to restore the museum’s lost glory, and from the moment he gets there, he knows he’s made a mistake. There are things in the museum that only Simon can see.

Ann Aguirre’s The Only Purple House in Town has a lot of charm. Iris Collins is in dire financial trouble, and when she inherits her great-aunt’s house she doesn’t have any choice but to return to her hometown so she’ll have a place to live. She rents rooms out, and starts to repair the house. Eli Reese, her secret admirer from grade school, sees Iris again and has to get to know her. Iris is a real trouble magnet, but she might be able to make a life with a troublesome house and its odd inmates.

An Honest Man is a great thriller with plot twists galore. Koryta’s such a good writer, they seem inevitable and organic. Israel Pike, who in one mistaken moment killed his father, has gotten out of jail and returned home to a cold welcome. His uncle, the police chief, is just waiting to do Israel in. So when Israel finds a drifting yacht with seven bodies aboard, he knows he’s the prime suspect. There are other things happening on the island that will tighten the noose around Israel’s neck. He has to look lively to dodge the bullets heading his way.

Isabel Canas’ The Vampires of El Norte is one of the most original vampire novels I’ve ever read, and I don’t say that lightly. Nena, daughter of the owner of hacienda in 1840s Mexico, is attacked by a strange creature one night. Her dearest friend, Nestor, flees because he knows he will be blamed for the attack, one way or another. After years, Nestor returns to find Nena strangely changed, and full of anger at Nestor’s disappearance. War is coming closer and closer to the hacienda, and Nena and Nestor face the greatest challenges of their lives.

Karin Slaughter is a world-renowned thriller writer, and her series adapted for  ABC (Will Trent) is very good. So Karin hardly needs a boost from me. But I did think I’d mention After that Night, one of her Will Trent/Sara Linton books. Sara Linton is an ER doctor who survived a terrible attach fifteen years ago. A woman comes into her ER suffering from the result of a similar attack. GBI Special Agent Will Trent, Sara’s fiancée, investigates the link between the two woman. This is a very tense and fast paced book.

Blog:

This week I’ll appear at Readers Take Denver, a new convention in Denver, Colorado. I look forward to meeting readers, talking to writers I haven’t yet met, and generally recharging my writer batteries.  I’m going to ask Sarah Simpson-Weiss (who’ll be with me in Denver) to post my schedule on Facebook, so if you want to have a word with me you’ll know how to find me.

You’ll notice I’m reading more thrillers than I used to, probably since I was declared a ThrillerMaster last year. If I’m a master, I need to know more about my field!

I did read many more books the past few weeks than I’ve listed, but some I didn’t care for enough to talk about. Also, there were just so many! I needed to do two Book & Blogs instead of one. I’ll catch up eventually, I promise.

I had a serious health scare the past two months. It was possible I had cancer in my left eye. Right, bet you didn’t know that was possible! I didn’t, either. After going to an ocular oncologist (bet you didn’t know about that, either) I have discovered I have a birthmark in my eye! Yes! Could that be any weirder? I am grateful for the diagnosis, grateful I can keep my eye, and just generally glad that I only had a few weeks of suspense.

Here’s more good news: I’ve sent the most recent Gunnie Rose book to my beta readers, so I can polish the book before I send it to my agent and my editor. I can’t tell you how good that feels.

Charlaine Harris