A clash of Kings by George R.R. Martin

Page-turning plot, some characters you love and some you hate,and a believable world. It took me a while to sort out the different characters, but once I had I got very involved with some of them and didn't want their chapters to end just yet.

Who Killed Marilyn Monroe? by Liz Evans

Marilyn Monroe has been brutally murdered. Down in luck ex-cop PI Grace Smith draws the short straw and is assigned the case and hired to track down the murderer. However this is England, not LA, and in the seedy run down English beach resort, Marilyn Monroe is not a glamorous movie star but a decidedly dead male donkey. Despite this, Grace is inexorably drawn into a web of greed, betrayal and murder, where she is barely one step behind the killer.

I found it slow at first, but the pace soon picked up. I loved December and the donkeys.

Talk Before Sleep by Elizabeth Berg

A painful, gripping story about two best friends, Ann and Ruth, and Ruth's ultimate death of cancer. While the outcome may be tragic, the telling is lyrical. The women met when they both were in their late 30s, and for the 4 or 5 years of their friendship, Ann has been the follower and pupil to Ruth's exhilarating and thought-provoking leadership and teaching. Ruth has forced Ann to examine her comfortable life with her husband and child by her example of freedom and independence. She seems to be everything Ann is afraid or unable to be-beautiful, artistic, appealing to both sexes, and self-confident. Her love life thrives and her times with Ann provide excitement and challenges. When Ruth is diagnosed with terminal cancer, Ann, once a nurse, becomes the mainstay of the small group of women who surround their friend, but feels little in common with them. Much of this brief novel focuses on the interplay among these characters as they all try, each in her own way, to do her best for Ruth.

To me this book was more about friendship than death. A quick read but a very moving one.

Quiet Murder by Nancy Livingston

The amateur detective team of retired tax collector G.D.H. Pringle and his lively companion, barmaid Mavis Bignell, pursue a case of murder in their own London neighborhood. Elderly Ernest Clare is found killed shortly before his annual disbursement of Christmas club money at Mavis's pub. Suspicion falls on former resident Karl Gough, a young truck driver and petty criminal inexplicably returned to the area that day, who disappears after the crime is uncovered, having stolen another senior citizen's credit card. Mavis convinces her paramour to break into Ernest's house to see if the money is still there; Mr. P. is caught, but not before finding a possible clue.

A nice cosy with some unexpected twists.

Death Be My Theme by Hannah March

Recuperating from illness in Chelsea - in 1764, a rural spot - Robert Fairfax expects to be bored. But a chance meeting leads to his involvement with the Mozarts of Salzburg, whose son is the musical prodigy creating a stir throughout Europe. The boy is as inquisitive as any child, and it is this that makes him a witness to the events surrounding a suspicious death. The mystery deepens with the discovery of a girl's murdered body. Perhaps even Fairfax's famed ingenuity cannot solve this puzzle - unless he can garner a crucial clue from the boy whom the world will know as Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart..

Slow at first, lots of red herrings and twists.

Dear John by Nicholas Sparks

John Tyree is a soldier first, a man second. Or so he thinks until he meets Savannah Lynn Curtis. While on leave, he falls desperately in love with Savannah, the proverbial girl of his dreams. Sweet, intelligent, and giving, John knows he'll always carry her torch.

When September 11 changes the world, John is no exception. Moved by patriotic loyalty, he chooses to "re-up" in the army, adding time to his service and breaking his promise to return to Savannah. More promises are broken when he must attending to his ailing father.

This is an old fashioned love story...full of love, heartache, romance, fulfillment, tragedy, and sacrifice.

Stray by Rachel Vincent

There are only eight breeding female werecats left . . .

And I'm one of them

I look like an all-American grad student. But I am a werecat, a shape-shifter, and I live in two worlds.

Despite reservations from my family and my Pride, I escaped the pressure to continue my species and carved out a normal life for myself. Until the night a Stray attacked.

I'd been warned about Strays—werecats without a Pride, constantly on the lookout for someone like me: attractive, female, and fertile. I fought him off, but then learned two of my fellow tabbies had disappeared.

This brush with danger was all my Pride needed to summon me back . . . for my own protection. Yeah, right. But I'm no meek kitty. I'll take on whatever—and whoever—I have to in order to find my friends. Watch out, Strays—'cause I got claws, and I'm not afraid to use them . . .

Faythe is believable, if at the beginning rather selfish. She keeps getting herself into trouble by being unable to keep her mouth shut. Faythe grows up a little by the end of the book and I want to see what happens next.

Cause of Death by Patricia Cornwell

An investigative reporter is found dead in Virginia's icy waters .....

New Year's Eve and the final murder scene of Virginia's bloodiest tear takes Scarpetta thirty feet below the Elizabeth River's icy surface. A diver, Ted Eddings, is dead, an investigative reporter who was a favourite at the medical examiner's office. Was Eddings probing the frigid depths of the Inactive Shipyard for a story, or simply diving for sunken trinkets? And why did Scarpetta receive a phone call from someone reporting the death before the police were notified?

What happened to the great murder cases? Now it's terrorists and religous fanatics in an unbelievable plot. The ending was weak and felt rushed.

Handle with Care by Jodi Piccoult

Willow O'Keefe is born with osteogenesis imperfecta, or brittle bone disease, which means she will suffer hundreds of broken bones as she grows, and a lifetime of pain. As the family struggles to cover medical expenses, her mother Charlotte decides to file a wrongful birth lawsuit against her obstetrician for the compensation which might ensure a lifetime of care for Willow.

But it means that Charlotte has to say in a court of law that she would have terminated the pregnancy if she'd known about the disability in advance. And the obstetrician she's suing isn't just her physician - she's her best friend.

The usual Jodi Piccoult pattern, heart- wreneching story line, drama after drama, writing that keeps you hooked even tho you know all is not going to end well. I have to agree with freelunch - this time it did not only not end well - it really sucked.

Au Revoir by Mary Moody

It was OK. I didn't feel Mary did what she went away to do, have some time to herself and takes herself off to France where sheimmerses herself in local culture, food and wine. This book is really a diary of sorts where she records the impressive meals she consumes and the gallons of red wine with which she washes them down. Most of the friends she makes, with a few exceptions, are expat Australians, Brits and Americans which somewhat defeats her intentions of living the life of a local and learning to speak French like a native, but her descriptions of the local gardens and flora are excellent.

It's a quick, light read.