The Saint, Melanie Jackson.  This last of Jackson's goblin books takes on Santa Claus.  I've always had an amused appreciation for Jackson's dabbling with historical figures, but this one should be read with tongue even more firmly in cheek, while applauding the sheer audacity of making Saint Nick an immortal drop dead gorgeous death god with a hand in everything from the Green Man legends to the Jesus myth.  As with many of her titles, a withdrawn young woman unaware of her fey blood comes into contact with the reality of the paranormal - in this case it's a ghostwriter with a fire problem that's hired to craft Nick's autobiography.  Skillfully executed, and a step above many entries in the paranormal romance genre.

Windfall, Rachel Caine.  Surprisingly, the series is holding up well in its fourth volume. Caine pulls out a previously unknown sister to mix things up, and the Human/Djinn conflict comes to a head. A bit too much waffling with what to do about David, but on the whole, pretty satisfying, with a clear opening for a sequel.

Nightingale's Lament, Simon R. Green.  The third Nightside novel is more of a straightforward mystery than the prior two, but still good fun. Green gets extra points for continuity, as there are several indications that the Nightside series is part of the same universe as Shadows Fall and Drinking Midnight Wine.

Dead Man Rising, Lilith Saintcrow. The second of Saintcrow's Dante Valentine books is far more a thriller than the last. Dante gets a call from the police when a serial killer starts disposing of paranormals who had all survived the horrific acts perpetuated by the headmaster of Rigger Hall, Valentine's old boarding school. Saintcrow does angst and mystery well, while adding to a well-realised world, and continues to show that she's not afraid to kill her characters for the sake of the story. It's a laudable second entry, and should appeal to fans of the first; my minor quibble is that Dante's emotional attatchment to her dead demon lover Japhrimel seems exaggerated given the little interaction in Working for the Devil.

Greywalker , Kat Richardson.  Yet another entry in the urban fantasy/paranormal mystery genre, Richardson's debut is well-executed, but just a bit hollow.  Private Detective Harper Blaine becomes a "greywalker" after spending two minutes clinically dead due to head trauma, and her newfound ability to see into the spirit realm takes her into contact with all manner of ghosts and undead as her clientele becomes increasingly more strange.  The mystery aspect of the novel's a bit too split to work well with the length of the book - equal time is given to a missing person-turned vampire case, and a ghostly battery, and Harper herself at times seems as thinly drawn as the Grey she vanishes into from time to time.  While the vampires and ghosts keep the book moving, I'm used to more in the way of character development - what history does Harper have, and what kind of danger is she used to being in?  One quibble is the literal maniacally laughing villain - this has be done badly far, far too often to work in fiction any longer.  For the most part, Richardson offers an interesting spin on a heavily mined subgenre, and I like what little I see of Harper.   Provided she sticks to future cases with as much effort as her creatures it should be a fun series to watch.

Kitty Goes to Washington, Carrie Vaughn. Vaughn's followup to Kitty and the Midnight Hour is nearly as good, as the first - high praise for a paranormal series these days. Werewolf DJ Kitty goes to the Capitol after being called before an investigative committee investigating the supernatural. Vaughn adds a local vampire Master, a club for weres of all description, and an unethical scientist, and manages to avoid the genreic cliches by poking fun at them. It works, and Kitty's still a sympathetic enough and interesting character that I'll certainly pick up the next installment in this series.

Micah, Laurell K. Hamilton.  I had the dubious honor of being the first person in the Allegheny County library system to read this. Longtime Hamilton readers know what they're getting, but the good news is that it's marginally better than Incubus dreams, mostly because of its brevity. A shortish paperback, it's mostly an interlude meant to set up the next Anita Blake hardcover, Danse Macabre.  What's laughable is that I suspect Hamilton was attempting to do legitimate relationship depth by setting up Anita with only one of her lovers. And the preview for the next book made me laugh outright – we’ve come a long way in a bad direction since Guilty Pleasures.

Full Moon Rising, Keri Arthur.  A decently-plotted, if average werewolf mystery.

Caballistics, Inc #1: Hell on Earth, Michael Wild. A Games Workshop title, this small page-turner of a paperback is strict Bondian horror. Light, referential, and requiring absolutely no mental effort, it's a quite passable way to spend a lunchbreak.

The Tears of the Furies, Christopher Golden, Thomas Sniegoski. The Second of the "Menagerie" books (featuring Arthur Conan Doyle and Eve) finds Golden and Sniegoski delving into some very old Greco-Roman background for their nasties. An old adversary pops up, the Grecian police are puzzled by an overabundance of tourist statuary, and before all ends, our collective find themselves enduring a literal descent to stop further havoc from occurring. An excellent second series entry that should appeal to fans of paranormal mystery series' like Green's Nightside books and Butcher's Dresden Files.