Finished Night Life by Caitlin Kittredge. I heard Caitlin speak on an urban fantasy panel at RT this year and picked up her book from the freebie room.

This urban fantasy focuses on Luna Wilder, a detective in Nocturne City who’s on the trail of a vicious serial killer. Complicating matters is the fact Luna is a lone werewolf without a pack, which means she’s pretty far down on the magical totem pole. Also, her police captain is doing everything in his power to keep Luna from finding the truth. Then, Luna meets Dmitri Sandovsky, a pack leader who was close to one of the victims. Sparks fly, to say the least. Too bad the killer has Luna in his sights — and is willing to do anything to bring her down.

One of the things I liked most about this book was Luna and her job. The reader actually gets to see Luna doing police work, visiting a crime scene, following up at the morgue, tracking down a suspect, etc. You get a feel for the mechanics of the job, and it’s a real part of the story and not just a toss-in or wallpaper, like some of the professions are in other books I’ve read. Also, the scenes between Luna and her sexist pig of a co-worker were hilarious — especially when she roughs him up for being, well, an idiot. 😎

I also liked the descriptions, particularly the one where Kittredge describes Dmitri and his Fu Manchu mustache. When’s the last time you read about a hero with a Fu Manchu mustache? (Although he doesn’t have it when Luna meets him.) Her characters resembled real people and not the perfectly buff guys or busty gals you see in a lot of novels.

I also really liked the map in the front of the book, which laid out where everything was in Nocturne City. Maps and glossaries are always pluses in my book. Yes, I know, I’m a total geek. :rolleyes:

The only real quibble I had was the relationship between Luna and Dmitri. I thought it developed a little too quickly, since Dmitri was sleeping with one of the serial killer’s victims and was going to make her his mate. I would have liked to have seen more of Dmitri’s grief and the two of them taking things a little slower.

Still, if you want to go on an urban fantasy reading binge (like I’ve been doing lately) and are looking for titles to try, pick up Night Life and add it to your TBR. You’ll probably enjoy it. Thumbs up.

Up next: Wild Thing, an anthology featuring Marjorie M. Liu, among others

Finished The 47th Samurai by Stephen Hunter. This book is part of Hunter’s saga about the Swagger family from Arkansas, including Earl (the World War II hero dad) and Bob Lee (his son and a Vietnam-era sniper).

This book focuses on Bob Lee, who’s now in his sixties and has retired to Idaho where he’s building a house for his wife. One day, a Japanese man, Philip Yano, shows up on Bob Lee’s land asking about a sword that Bob’s father, Earl, might have brought back from from Iwo Jima. Bob Lee eventually tracks down the sword and returns it to Yano in Japan — but soon after, Yano and his family are brutually murdered. So Bob Lee goes all samurai and returns to Japan, determined to track down the sword and kill the men who murdered Yano and his family.

Samurai follows a predictable thriller formula, as Bob Lee bcomes a one-man killing machine roaming through Japan. Nothing wrong with that, but I expected a few more twists than I got (although there is one character whose motivations came as a complete surprise at the end).

Hunter gives the reader a lot of info about Japan, swords, and the samurai tradition. You can tell he did extensive research (and I also know because I work with his daugther, who mentioned it to me). If you like swords or want to learn more about the samurai tradition, this book contains a wealth of information about both. 

But one thing that drove me crazy was the dialogue. Hunter doesn’t put any tags in his dialogue (like “Bob said”), so it was hard to tell who was speaking. A couple of times, I had to go back up and count down the lines to see who was talking. Very annoying. Also, Bob Lee’s speech was a little more aw-shucks and country than I remember from previous books.

Samurai isn’t the best Bob Lee book. (That would be the first book, Point of Impact, a truly great thriller read.) But even a lesser Bob Lee book is better than most. So thumbs up.

Up next: Night Life by Caitlin Kittredge.