Cold Granite by Stuart MacBride

Logan McRae is a Detective Sergeant with the Aberdeen police. After being away for a year, recuperating from a serious stabbing, he returns to find himself thrown into the worst kind of case. A child's mutilated body is found,and soon another child goes missing. The plot diverges into several, possibly-related, cases.

Detective Sgt. Logan McRae is a believeable cop, MacBride's description of Aberdeen and the way he skillfully weaves its lousy weather into his plot is satisfying.

Lots of twists and turns kept me guessing

Tirra Lirra by the River by Jessica Anderson

For Nora Porteous, life is a series of escapes. To escape her tightly knit small-town family, she marries, only to find herself confined again, this time in a stifling Sydney suburb with a selfish, sanctimonious husband. With a courage born of desperation and sustained by a spirited sense of humour, Nora travels to London, and it is there that she becomes the woman she wants to be. Or does she

Nora returns to her family home where she immediately falls very ill - as she recovers she journey's back in her mind and we learn about her past.

The timeline jumps backwards and forwards, but it is easy to keep track.

The Host by Stephanie Meyer

Earth has been invaded by a peaceful but parasitic alien species who call themselves 'souls'. A beautiful silvery jellyfish type species, they insert themselves into the brains of their human hosts and take over their bodies, memories and mind. The human entity 'disappears' and the soul becomes the human. The souls bring about peace and cure every known illness. However, some humans are resisting - strangely enough they want their planet to stay the way it was, and to remain in control of their minds.

One of these resistors is Melanie - she is captured and the soul 'Wanderer' is inserted into Melanie's body. Wanderer finds that Melanie doesn't disappear like she is suppose to and she finds herself overwhelmed with memories of Melanie's life. At first this is good - as Wanderer is suppose to report back Melanie's memories so they can capture the resistors. However Melanie can close off her mind and not let Wanderer see everything. Gradually Wanderer and Melanie form a friendship as they share Melanie's body. Wanderer allows Melanie to join the resistance group deep in the US desert. When they finally get there, the two of them have to figure out a way to live peacefully with each other as well as with a group of humans who have grown to hate the souls. Emotions flare and relationships are tested as two lives share one body and as enemies learn to co-exist to survive.

This is a beautiful story with many themes - tolerance, love, sacrifice and what it means to be human.

It captured me from the beginning and I didn't want to put it down.

The Gargoyle by Andrew Davidson

An accident plunges an unnamed narrator, a drug-addicted porn actor into a physical and mental nightmare in a life that is already spiraling downward. Horrifically burned, he loses the beautiful body of which he had prided himself. His manhood, his human resemblance and his very life are at stake as doctors and burn specialists try to help him survive and recover when death itself appears the best result in his own mind. Into the burn unit walks Marianne Engel, a carver of gargoyles. She recognizes him as her lover, the mercenary whom her medieval convent took in the first time he was burned. As he lies in the burn unit, she tells him the story of her life as a medieval scribe at Engelthal. Telling tales of spiritual and romantic love, of Meister Eckhart, medieval German Christian life, Dante's INFERNO, medieval Iceland and Japan, Marianne does for him what the doctors cannot do. She reaches the space in him beneath the body. Is she insane as some claim or is she a woman with a mystical vision from another time?"

This book had me hooked from the first few chapters. The writing style kept me going through the hard to read beginning.

The intertwining of past and present worked. The characters, a psychiatric patient and a drug addicted, burned pornographer worked.

A story of redemption and of what it means to love and be loved.

Lord Nick's Folly by Emily Hendrickson

When Nympha Herbert embarks on a journey to visit her wealthy great-aunt, she expects nothing more than a staid, dreary trip. But then a surprising twist of fate has her sharing a coach with Lord Nicholas - decidedly the most aggravating man in all of England. Only suddenly he seems far less irritating and infinitely more dashing than she remembered...

Lord Nick has been far too busy with what is widely considered his folly - constructing a golf course on his property - to get himself a bride. Besides, with his brother about to produce a successor, the burden of being the heir presumptive is off his shoulders. But when he finds himself travelling to Mansfield with the rector's lovely daughter, he decides it's his duty to save her from a gold-digging suitor - and convince her that his protection is required for her life's happiness...

A nice light read with a pretty good mystery and surprise resolution at the end.

Pyramids by Terry Pratchett

Teppic is the heir to the throne of Djelibeybi. For each generation going back as far as anyone can remember the new king, upon the death of his father, builds a pyramid that will serve both as his tomb and an eternal monument. This would be fine but for the fact that each succeeding generation is expected to build a monument that is greater than the last. This keep Djelibeybi locked in a perpetual financial crisis and has caused each succeeding ruler (Pharaoh) to lead a life that is overly regimented to the point of insanity, or at the very least officious inanity.

Teppic's father, Teppicymon XXVII, seems to want a bit more from his son then a life of idleness sitting on the throne and when the story opens we find Teppic going off to `college' in this instance the famed school run by the Guild of Assasins on Ankh-Morpork. No sooneer does Teppic pass his Assasin's exit examination (a typical Pratchett tour de `farce') then his father dies and Teppic is called back to assume the throne.

Teppic chafes at the constraints put upon him and his life by Dios, the nation's chief holy man and enforcement officer. Dios is the type of horrifically evil bureaucrat who, smitten with a bit of power, tends to be the person you must deal with at the Department of Motor Vehicles or at the bank or at the office who's biggest skill is the ability to say `NO!!!' in an infinite number of ways. The rest of the story follows Teppic's adventures as the power of the new pyramid built to honor his father causes havoc with the time-space continuum and which in turn threatens to engulf the region in a disastrous war.

This is my first Discworld novel, but won't be my last.

It's easily read, with lots of likeable characters and had me chuckling all the way through.

Where The Heart Leads by Stephanie Laurens

When attractive society belle Penelope Ashford enlists Barnaby's help in finding four kidnapped orphan boys, Barnaby is as intrigued by Penelope as he is by the case; her reputation as something of a firebrand and her dedication to her work at Foundling House far outstrip her desire to conform to society's wishes—a worldview not unlike Barnaby's. Penelope insists on accompanying Barnaby through every step of his investigation, and with some input from an old friend at Scotland Yard, the pair begins navigating the slums of London's East End in search of a burglary school. As the orphans' fate begins to slide into focus, so, too, does Barnaby and Penelope's attraction for one another.

The mystery was good. The writing, as always is well done, even if there is a few oft repeated phrases. I liked that although Barnaby felt protective, he wasn't constantly demanding that she obey him, or trying to force her to do things as he wished. He appeared to respect her opinion and listen to her comments.

There's a secondary romance between a policeman and his informant which was well-written and an interesting insight into life for the middle classes and working classes in Regency London.

All in all this was a really enjoyable read.