The Perfumed Sleeve by Laura Joh Rowland

Sano is back and he's got a particularly messy mystery on his hands. A high court official with an complex sexual past and a slew of enimies is dead. The old man was beaten to death and no-one, not his wife who was sleeping next door, his half witted concubine or his handsome houseguest will admit to knowing anything about it. Sano finds himself attempting to deal with the crime while carefully walking a thin line between two opposing factions and the weaked willed Shogun. If he finds the murderer it may ruin his career and life. If he doesn't the country may be plunged into a war.

Fire Cracker by Shirley Kennett

PJ Gray, psychologist and computer whiz, is feeling pretty satisfied with herself after successfully solving her first case as head of the St. Louis Police Department's Computerized Homicide Investigations Project. But she doesn't have much time to rest on her laurels: someone is using brilliantly engineered computer scams to alter hospital records, making lethal adjustments in prescribed treatments and drug dosages that have caused the deaths of two patients. Using virtual-reality computer simulations, PJ reenacts the murders, hoping she'll find a clue to the killer's identity. Instead, she finds that a fiendish computer hacker has prepared a series of horrifying computerized "clues" to warn her of more deaths to come. PJ and her feisty partner, Detective Leo Schultz, combine their considerable skills to mount a devious trap for the killer, who will stop at nothing to exact the revenge he's spent his entire life plotting.

Overall a book that kept me interested, tho I did find Schultz annoying.

The Telling by Ursula K LeGuin

The
plot involves an envoy from the Ekumen sharing hardships and learning
from the oppressed people of the planet she is visiting. The
twist to the story is that the envoy is from Earth (a middle-distance
future Earth which has suffered and freed itself from a worldwide
theocratic state) and is watching the "Corporation State" on Aka
repeat all the mistakes she witnessed and escaped on her home world.

Sutty,a lesbian linguist who reads and loves the old Akan ideogrammatic
writing, has arrived to find that ideograms are banned and books
are burned. She travels to the provincial interior and finds
remnants of the old culture surviving underground, harried but
not completely suppressed.

A quick, entertaining read.

Fire Get by Cheryl Franklin

Ancient powers awake pitting wizards against kings. Caught in between is Rhianna, sorceress who has been taught to deny her power.

It was a good, light fantasy. Much better than I had expected from the cover.

Shadowfire by Tanith Lee

"He was the son of the witch woman, and of Vazkor the warrior lord. He was brought up by the barbarian tribes, but the mark of strangeness was with him always."

Adventure, magic and mystery. What more could you ask for?

A pleasant light fantasy.

Earthly Possessions by Anne Tyler

Charlotte Emory has always lived a quiet, conventional life in Clarion, Maryland. She lives as simply as possible, and one day decides to simplify everything and leave her husband. Her last trip to the bank throws Charlotte's life into an entirely different direction when a restless young man in a nylon jacket takes her hostage during the robbery--and soon the two are heading south into an unknown future, and a most unexpected fate....

The main theme is families - you can't live with them and you can't escape them. Touches a chord at the moment.

Prince of Fire by Daniel Silva

Allon is the physically underwhelming yet world renowned art restorer, who lives a double life in the Israeli Intelligence Service. Once "activated" Allon has no peer as the secret protector of Israeli security.

His mission is a search for the terrorist mastermind behind a recent horrific and deadly bombing of the Israeli Embassy in Rome. All indications are that there is much more death and destruction to follow, so Gabriel is in a rush to find this terrorist before he strikes again. Along the way he learns that the life of his target and his own life are inextricably interwoven. The chase, which does not disappoint, covers a lot of ground and takes the reader from Rome, to Venice, Cairo, London, Paris and Jerusalem, and along the way Silva gives a factual history lesson from 1910 to the present, on the struggles between the Palestinians and the Israelis.

Definitely padded out by the history lesson, but it kept me interested nevertheless. The second half more than the first.