On vacation recently, and I had a bunch of very short books on my kindle, so that adds up to too many books to address individually. For my own records, though (or in case I decide to go back and expand on them...)
Mute Witness, Stanley Fish. A decent crime story, but nothing stand-out.
The Score, Richard Stark (Donald Westlake). Another Parker novel, I liked this much better than the first one. But I think I prefer Westlake in funny mode (ala Dortmunder).
The House of Dr Edwardes, Francis Beeding. Gothic novel from the early 20th century. OK, but the last quarter was awful. The worst deus ex machina I've read in a long time.
Skulduggery Pleasant, Derek Landy. Kid's book, my kids liked it, I thought it was decent, but I won't be reading more of the series.
The Habitation of the Blessed, Katherynne M. Valente. The only book mentioned so far that's worth writing more than a line or two about. A very lyrical work (typical of Valente), with interesting thoughts about mortality, stories, and things like that. It's the first part of a series (a duology? not sure) so I'll probably write more after I read part 2.
The American Envoy, Garbhan Downey. Thanks to Adrian McKinty for pointing this one out. Very funny novel about an American envoy to an Irish town, trying to get some businesses to create jobs, while trying to crack a drug ring at the same time. Nice bonus: it's an epistolary novel, something very rare in this day & age.
An Unpardonable Crime, Andrew Taylor. Set in Victorian England, Taylor gets the writing down perfectly (to my untrained ear). But the story was too diffuse for my tastes, and I ended up giving up halfway through. Every time an interesting thread would develop, Taylor dropped it to pick up something else.
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