Continuing with the theme of 'murder murder murder' I picked up It Takes One by Kate Locke which is a psychological thriller taking place in a small rural town. (Looking at the descriptions of some of Locke's other books it seems like 'small town murder mystery' might be a specialty of hers.) Audrey Harte is a criminal psychologist who is frequently asked to lend her opinion on true crime shows where a professional analysis is required. Unbeknownst to her colleagues, she has a dark past that she's been trying to leave behind for years. You see Audrey murdered her best friend's father when they were kids and spent several years at a juvenile facility for violent girls. O_O So when she goes home for the first time in several years and a body turns up...you can imagine where the fingers start pointing. Now Audrey has to find the killer before either she's found guilty or dead. I will say that when you find out whodunit it is a SHOCK to say the least.

This is the first in a series featuring Audrey Harte as the main character but I think I've probably had my fill after reading this one. (She's not particularly likable if you want my opinion and the explicit sex scenes are not my cup of tea.) A surprising ending doesn't override the fact that I've read better psychological thrillers. 5/10

What I'm Currently Reading: Ninth House by Leigh Bardugo

This one is a hard one to rate. I had some major issues with it, but it was also kind of fun, and I’m curious to check out the rest of the series. This is a kind of alternate history fantasy-ish steampunk world where continued exposure to the bubonic plague mutated humans into becoming vampires and werewolves, and when the two sub-species mix, goblins. The vampires and werewolves are all aristocrats, naturally, and run the world. Queen Victoria is still around and ruling in 2012.  If you only have one vampire or werewolf parent, you’re considered half-vamp or half-were (or a halvie), like our main character, Xandra.

One major issue I had was the book’s inability to spell “lieutenant.” It insisted on using “leftenant”, which is ridiculous regardless of how you decide to pronounce it, and that’s a major fail by someone on the publishing side. I even found it was used outside of dialogue in one case, so there’s really no excuse.

The other issue that I had was that Vex, for one, didn’t sound like he was old. He sounded exactly the same as Xandra. Furthermore, I didn’t see what he saw in Xandra. I mean, yes, she’s our heroine, but she came across mostly as an unthinking bruiser despite her worries of spending too much time in her own head. And it seems like all of the halvies were reasonably attractive with bright hair so she couldn’t have stood out that much. I guess there’s her smell, but that tiptoes into spoiler territory and provides an unsatisfactory answer anyway. So the romance aspect was mostly a fail, although I didn’t mind it until he called her “sweetheart.” Also, Xandra never considered that the original aristocrats were born to humans, wth? It’s basic logic.

The world building, although interesting, also had random details thrown out, like the cure for hysteria which came out of nowhere. It was a weird aside. Not everything in the world worked for me, but it was interesting enough to hold my attention. The book ended up being far more gruesome than I was expecting. I liked the cannibalistic goblins. [Aside: Are they cannibalistic though? Would they eat other goblins? Does it count if goblins eat vampires, werewolves, and humans? Plus: they wouldn’t eat a cat.] The goblins drove the book up to three stars.

I also loved this poster, which was on the back of my copy:

I’m counting this book for the Vampires vs. Werewolves square for the Hallowe’en Bingo.

All this antagonism with Ophelia is getting tiresome. For someone who’s worried about spending too much time in her own head, Xandra doesn’t seem very introspective. As she says at one point, “My brain was starting to hurt from all this pointless thinking. Thinking did nothing. Action was the only thing that would truly yield results.” So unless you equate starting to think with spending too much time in her own head…

Also, there’s a problem with using “were” as short for werewolf since it resembles the verb so much. It would be worse in audio because there was one sentence that started “Every were…”

"Leftenant" ?

Yes, that's how you pronounce it, but it's spelled lieutenant. It was in speech, but still. 

This book may have just taken a dive...

Actually...if it was Church's day to teach, what was that all about him locking himself in his vault? *Pokes logic lapse. It crumbles.* Grr.

A solid conclusion to this series. :) Though I really wish there were more.

A new monster is terrorizing the city, and Xandra has to work together with all sorts of strange bedfellows to try to bring peace back to the people. Things from previous books are brought in, interpersonal loose ends are tied up, and our main character continues to be her awesome self.

This book got a little more into the politics of this world than previous ones had, and as someone who loves political fantasy, that kinda tweaked my interest. And the sheer power and danger of the enemy they face was fascinating to me.

Overall, I found this enjoyable, I rec the series for people who like urban fantasy stuff. It feels a bit wish-fulfillment-y, but that's not a bad thing. In fact, it's pretty refreshing to get that from a book with a woman as the protagonist. :)