The Pleasures of Men by Kate Williams

The Pleasures of Men by Kate Williams
Genre: Mystery, Fiction, Historical
Format: Paperback
Rating: **
Bought at Barnes & Noble
The Pleasures of Men

Summary:

July 1840: The young Queen Victoria has just entered her third year on the throne, when a major recession brings London's desperate and destitute into its sweltering streets. While the city crackles with tension, orphaned Catherine Sorgeiul stays locked away in her uncle's home, a peculiar place where death masks adorn the walls and certain rooms are strictly forbidden. Nineteen years old and haunted by a dark past, Catherine becomes obsessed with a series of terrible murders of young girls sweeping the city. Details of the crimes are especially gruesome - the victims' hair has been newly plaited and thrust into their mouths, and their limbs are grotesquely folded behind them, like wounded birds - and the serial killed is soon nicknamed the Man of Crows.

Catherine begins writing stories about the victims - women on their own and vulnerable in the big city - and gradually the story of the murderer as well. But she soon realizes that she has involved herself in a web of betrayal, deceit, and terror that threatens her and all those around her.

Mister Monday (Keys to the Kingdom Series #1) by Garth Nix

Mister Monday by Garth Nix
Genre: Fantasy, YA, Fiction
Format: Paperback
Rating: ++++
Bought: So long ago, I can't remember. Possibly B&N
Mister Monday

Summary:

Arthur Penhaligon is not supposed to be a hero. He is, in fact, supposed to die an early death. But then his life is saved by a key shaped like the minute hand of a clock.

Arthur is safe - but his world is not. Along with the key comes a plague brought by bizarre creatures from another realm. A stranger named Mister Monday, his avenging messengers with bloodstained wings, and an army of dog-faced Fetchers will stop at nothing to get the key back - even if it means destroying Arthur and everything around him.

Desperate, Arthur ventures into a mysterious house - a house that only he can see. It is in this house that Arthur must unravel the secrets of the key - and discover his true fate.

Harry Potter and the Cursed Child by J.K. Rowling, John Tiffany, & Jack Thorne

Harry Potter and the Cursed Child by J.K. Rowling
Genre: Fantasy, YA, Fiction
Format: Hardback
Rating: +++
Bought at Barnes and Noble
Harry Potter and the Cursed Child

Summary:

Nineteen years after the Battle of Hogwarts.....

It was always difficult being Harry Potter, and it isn't much easier now that he is an overworked employee of the Ministry of Magic, a husband, and a father to three school-age children.

While Harry still grapples with a past that refuses to stay where it belongs, his youngest son Albus must struggle with the weight of a family legacy he never wanted. As past and present fuse ominously, both father and son learn the uncomfortable truth: Sometimes, darkness comes from unexpected places.

The 9th Girl by Tami Hoag

The 9th Girl by Tami Hoag
Genre: Crime Fiction, Mystery
Format: Audiobook
Rating: +++
Bought at Barnes and Noble
Good Reads The 9th Girl

Summary:

On a frigid New Year's Eve in Minneapolis, a young woman's brutalized body falls from the truck of a car into the path of oncoming traffic. Questions as to whether she was alive or dead when she hit the icy pavement result in her macabre nickname, Zombie Doe. Unidentified and unidentifiable, she is the ninth nameless female victim of the year, and homicide detectives Sam Kovac and Nikki Liska are charged with the task of not only finding out who Zombie Doe is but who in her life hated her enough to destroy her. Was it personal, or could it just have been a crime of opportunity? Their greatest fear is that not only is she their ninth Jane Doe of the year but that she may be the ninth victim of a vicious, transient serial killer they have come to call Doc Holiday.

The Silkworm by Robert Galbraith

The Silkworm by Robert Galbraith (AKA J.K. Rowling)

Genre: Crime Fiction

Format: Audiobook

Bought at Barnes & Noble

Rating: ++++
The Silkworm GoodReads

Summary:

When novelist Owen Quine goes missing, his wife calls in private detective Cormoran Strike. At first, she just thinks he has gone off by himself for a few days - as he has done before - and she wants Strike to find him and bring him home.

But as Strike investigates, it becomes clear that there is more to Quine’s disappearance than his wife realizes. The novelist has just completed a manuscript featuring poisonous pen-portraits of almost everyone he knows. If the novel is published, it will ruin lives - so there are a lot of people who might want to silence him.

And when Quine is found brutally murdered in bizarre circumstances, it becomes a race against time to understand the motivation of a ruthless killer, a killer unlike any Strike has encountered before....

In Cold Blood by Truman Capote

In Cold Blood by Truman Capote

Genre: True Crime

Format: Book
Rating: +++ 1/2
Bought at Barnes and Noble
In Cold Blood GoodReads

Summary:

On November 15, 1959, in the small town of Holcomb, Kansas, four members of the Clutter family were savagely murdered by blasts from a shotgun held a few inches from their faces. There was no apparent motive for the crime, and there were almost no clues.

As Truman Capote reconstructs the murder and the investigation that led to the capture, trial, and execution of the killers, he generates both mesmerizing suspense and astonishing empathy. In Cold Blood is a work that transcends its moment, yielding poignant insights into the nature of American violence.