Bad Things by Michael Marshall.

I was lucky enough to snag an ARC from Library Thing's Early Reviewers program two months in a row.  Unlike the mediocre Enemies & Allies, the latest Michael Marshall title showed up on my doorstep one rainy afternoon, and by the evening I had devoured it in pretty near one setting.

Thin Air  by Rachel Caine. After throwing Joanne through some serious crises and loss of loved ones, Caine effectively hits the hard reset button on her series in this fifth book, which opens with an amnesiac Jo waking up naked in the middle of the wilderness, unsure of who or what she is. As she tries to recover her memories, she's thrown into the middle of more djinn politics, and a science-fiction evil twin: the demon who has stolen her history and is doing it's best to convince the Djinn and the Warden that it's the real Joanne. Caine breathes successful new life into a series that had been escalating to a point that was hard to one-up itself. I'll likely continue reading these for the consistently solid characters and fun weather channel antics.

Burning Bridges by Laura Anne Gilman. Gilman's fourth in her Retrievers series manages to bridge her first three into a conflict-ridden conclusion that leaves more questions than answers. The plot arc follows on from the events in Bring It On as the disagreements between Nulls, Council and fatae clash with the mysterious Silence, taking the inhuman community into an all-out street war complete with riots, protest marches, and the inevitable grisly murders. Wren and the Lonejack community have plenty on their hands without the relationship problems she's having with partner Sergi and his growing addiction to Current. It's an unevenly paced novel that fans of the series should enjoy mostly for the question of what comes next. Gilman has set up the grounds for a nicely complicated fifth entry without given any great hints as to how it will all end up. If you've followed thus far, it's worth picking up.

No Humans Involved  by Kelley Armstrong. Armstrong's latest in her Women of the Otherworld series focuses less on the furry and the witchy, giving center stage to psychic Jamie. While filming a reality séance show, she finds indications of some serious evil – the souls of young children killed in rituals that baffle the council of practitioners. It's a solid mystery with a pleasant dose of romance, and made me like the well-dressed tv psychic much more than I had from Armstrong's other paranormal titles.

Coyote Dreams  by C. E. Murphy. In this third of the Walker papers, author Murphy finally brings Joanne into her own, and resolves to a point, some of the romantic tension underlying the first two volumes. Some time after the events of the second book, shaman mechanic cop Joanne Walker wakes up with a strange man in her bed – and the day only goes downhill from there. A significant portion of the police force, and later the general population, have been slipping into comas in their sleep. Walker suspects supernatural forces at work, and it takes some serious exploration of the Dreaming and an encounter with a violent Navajo world-ending demon before all approaches normal. It's a strong story, a good read, and more importantly, doesn't fall prey to the blinking "this is a plot point!" markers that marred the earlier entries. I'll enjoy any further Walker papers Murphy chooses to publish, and I look forward to reading her new Negotiator Trilogy sometime soon.

Iron Kissed by Patricia Briggs.  This third Mercy novel shifts the focus away from were politics to the fairytale side of the universe. Like most modern retellings, it's a dark roots rebound – Zee, investigating a series of fae murders, is taken into human custody after the death of a human reservation guard. Mercy, of course, feels compelled to investigate, despite his wishes, and soon finds herself in over her head, sometimes literally. Magic walking sticks, blind ravens, and dubious geek-bards make this a faster paced mystery than most of the other books. My one complaint is that the events in the conflict leading up to the ending should cause some deep character breaks in Mercy – and from the way the last scene plays out, they don't seem to. Even so, this is a remarkably good series, and one to watch if you're into paranormals.

Kitty Takes a Holiday by Carrie Vaughn. Vaughn's Kitty books have always carried a strong balance of mystery, relationship and humor – an important mix in the paranormal genre. Kitty Takes a Holiday is a bit darker than the first two series, but no less compelling. Following the backlash from the events in Kitty Goes to Washington, Kitty's holed up in a cabin in the woods. As might be expected, peace and tranquillity don't stay for long, and she's soon dealing with her lawyer's transformation into a were, a local curse aimed at her, and an evil and unnatural skinwalker wolf. Vaughn does a good job of integrating another culture's taking on werewolves with a relationship heavy murder-mystery; I'll look forward to reading the next Kitty book.

Poltergeist  by Kat Richardson.  Following up her PI paranormal Greywalker, Richardson's second novel is more a classic murder mystery with supernatural elements than most genreic entries. When Private Investigator Harper Blaine is called in to investigate the possible faking of results for a parapsychology experiment, she finds herself in the middle of a murder investigation that seems to be centered around a group-created ghost. "Ceilia" is less than friendly, and before long it emerges that one particular psychopath is pulling the strings. Richardson manages to craft a solid mystery without relying over-much on supernatural or magical crutches – while the creation of the 'ghost' and the method of it's capture pull the novel into the fantastic, the investigational method is pure Ellery Queen. It's a refreshing mix, and one I wouldn't mind seeing more often.

Haunted , Kelley Armstrong. The paranormal field is a fast-selling one right now, and Armstrong obviously knows it. The series that began with the startlingly original Bitten has become just another better-than-average big-bad-of the week. Haunted takes the viewpoint of Savannah's mother, a sort-of-ghost, as she's charged by Armstrong's version of TPTB to hunt down an escaped nasty. It's good fun, but it's not original anymore.

Every Which Way But Dead  Kim Harrison. Taking her series into the more familiar paranormal field of vampires, Harrison plays up the tension between her heroine, her vampire roommate, and another fanged bad-boy. This has a few gems; I loved the image of vampires line-dancing to Rob Zombie's "Living Dead Girl," and the conflict with pixie Jinx made for some interesting character development.