INCOMING

• Mike Carey, Vicious Circle.  Fantasy, the second in the Felix Castor series.  'Felix Castor has reluctantly returned to exorcism after a successful case convinces him that he can do some good with his abilities --'good' being a relative term when dealing with the undead.  But his friend Raffi is still possessed, the succubus Juliet still technically has a contract on him, and he's still dirt poor.  doing some consulting for the local cops helps pay the bills, but Castor needs a big private job to fill the hole in his bank account.  That's what he needs.  what he gets is a seemingly insignificant 'missing host' case that inexorably drags him and his loved ones into the middle of a horrific plot to raise one of hell's fiercest demons.  When satanists, stolen spirits, sacrifice farms, and haunted churches all appear on the same police report, the name Felix Castor can't be too far behind..."  I love Carey's comic book work and this ounds really interesting.
• Jasper Fforde, Lost in a Good Book.  Fantasy.  Thursday Next, the literary detective who works inside books, is forced to work as a Prose Resource Operative for Jurisfiction (the police force inside books) in an effort to save the love of her life, who has been erased by the Goliath Corporation.  There she apprentices to Miss Haversham from Great Expectations, then travels to Poe's "The Raven," and works by Kafka, Austen, and Beatrix Potter.  'Thursday finds herself the target of potentially lethal coincidences, the authenticator of a newly-discovered play by the Bard himself, and the only one who can prevent an unidentifiable pink sludge from engulfing all life on Earth."  This is the second of (thus far) seven books in the series.
• John Lutz, Mister X.  A Frank Quinn thriller.  "He mutilates his victimes.  Slices their throats. And carves an X into their flesh.  Five years ago, he claimed the lives of six women.  Then the killings abruptly stopped -- no one know why.  Ex-homicide detective Frank Quinn remembers.  which is why he's shocked to see one of the dead women in his office.  Actually, she's the identical twin of the last victim, and she wants Quinn to find her sister's murderer.  But when the cold case heats up, it attacts the media spotlight -- and suddenly the killings start again..."  Lutz is a master of the form and I just haven't been keeping up with his books as I should.  I was a big fan of both his Alo Nudger and Frank Carver series.  Maybe it's time for me to start catching up.
• Stuart MacBride, Cold Granite.  Mystery, the first in the popular Logan McRae series.  "After a long recuperation from a stab wound, Detective Sergeant Logan McRae's first night back on duty in Aberdeen, Scotland, takes him to the crime scene where the body of a missing boy has been found on a riverbank.  To the horror of even the most experienced cops on the job, all details point to a ritualistic murder -- a serial killer.  The twenty-four hours later, another child goes missing."  This one won the 2006 Barry Award for Best First Novel.  There are now eleven books in the series, which has been called a fine example of Tartan Noir.