Skin Trade by Laurell K Hamilton

"When a vampire serial killer sends Anita Blake a grisly souvenir from Las Vegas, she has to warn Sin City’s local authorities what they’re dealing with. Only it’s worse than she thought. Ten officers and one executioner have been slain—paranormal style. Anita heads to Vegas, where’s she’s joined by three other federal marshals, including the ruthless Edward. It’s a good thing he always has her back, because when she gets close to the bodies, Anita senses “tiger” too strongly to ignore it. The weretigers are very powerful in Las Vegas, which means the odds of her rubbing someone important the wrong way just got a lot higher."

More men in Anita's life. A couple that have been mentioned before take a step into the limelight. I would like to see more of Jean-Claude, Micah and Nathaniel.

With the death of the Mother of all Darkness I wonder who the new baddie will be.

Tall Tales on the Iron Horse by Colin P Davies

TALL TALES ON THE IRON HORSE is a collection of Science Fiction stories that has you wondering if what you have just read is true, are you on earth or in on another planet and what time of history are you in!!

A mix of stories as usual in a volume of short stories.

My favourites were The Girl With The Four-Dimensial Head, The Hay Devils and Clifford and the Book Mole.

THe Shape of Snakes by Minette Walters

It is November 1978. The winter of discontent. Britain is on strike. The dead lie unburied, rubbish piles in the streets ? and somewhere in West London a black woman dies in a rain-soaked gutter. She was known as ?Mad Annie? and was despised by her neighbours.

Her passing would have gone unmourned and unnoticed but for Mrs. Ranelagh, the young woman who finds Annie as she dies and who believes ? apparently against reason ? that she was murdered.

Whatever the truth about Annie ? whether she was as mad as her neighbours claimed, whether she lived in squalor as the police said, whether she cruelly mistreated the many cats found starving in her house ? something passed between the two women in the moment of death which binds Mrs. Ranelagh to Annie?s cause for the next twenty years.

But why is she so convinced it was murder when, by her own account, Annie died without speaking? Why does the subject make her husband so angry that he refuses to talk about what happened that night? And why would any woman spend twenty years painstakingly uncovering the truth ? unless her reasons are personal??

I liked the way part of the story was told with e-mails and letters. There were lots of twists and turns.

Blood Noir by Laurell K Hamilton

A favor for Jason, vampire hunter Anita Blake’s werewolf lover, puts her in the center of a fullblown scandal that threatens master-vampire Jean- Claude’s reign—and makes her a pawn in an ancient vampire queen’s new rise to power.

I enjoyed this installment of Anita Blake's story. Lots of plot development, well written sex scenes and not too many of them.

The Cynic by Elizabeth Michaels

Miss Meg Sutton was the wealthiest debutante to come to Town for some time. She did not lack for instant admirers from amongst the best Society had to offer.

This did not, however, include Lord Wrendale, dubbed "The Cynic" for his jaundiced view of The Marriage Mart and his pledge to remain in single blessedness forever.

He had never looked to meet such a one as Meg, whose own disparaging sentiments towards holy matrimony proved a challenge too unique for even the most seasoned of cynics!

The usual misunderstandings but ,as always, 2 unlikely people end up together.

All Our Worldly Goods by Irene Nemirovsky

Pierre and Agnes are in love but Pierre is engaged to someone else approved by his snobbish mother and the tyrannical family patriach, the industrialist Julian Hardelot. Their love provokes a family fued which cascades down the generations."

This was a beautifully written book.

Horse Heaven by Jane Smiley

Two years in the lives of horses and horse people. The characters include the trainers, the hyper-rich owners, the gamblers, the jockeys, horse-crazy teenage girls - and best of all, the horses.

The characterizations of ALL creatures, be they human, equine, or canine, to be right on target. Wonderful reading for the equestrian-minded!