Publisher: Tor
Check Library Catalog Pub Date: 08/04/2009
ISBN-13: 9780765319296
ISBN-10: 0765319292
Call Number: SF Lam

Hundreds of years after The Tempest, Prospero's immortal daughter, Miranda, heads Prospero, Inc., which secretly prevents natural disasters and makes possible modern technologies by brokering deals with spirits of the natural world. Her eight siblings have abandoned the family business, but Miranda is forced to seek them out when their father disappears, leaving behind a warning to beware of the Shadowed Ones. Accompanied by Mab, an aerie being turned noir detective, Miranda discovers the Shadowed Ones are after the magical staffs Prospero gave to his children. Along the way, she uncovers so many betrayals and secrets among her family, along with disturbing connections to the powers of Hell, that she fears they may already be damned. Lamplighter has created a fascinating secret history centered on the mystical (and dysfunctional) Prospero family, cleverly working in bits of Milton as well as of Shakespeare and weaving everything into a compelling detective story. The large cast of colorful, unique characters; the complicated family dynamics; and the many burning questions left unanswered ensure readers for any prospective sequel.

- Booklist

Table of Contents  

Publisher: Atria Books
Check Library Catalog Pub Date: 10/06/2009
ISBN-13: 9781439172636
ISBN-10: 1439172633
Call Number: m Con

Young Samuel Johnson and his dachshund, Boswell, are trying to show initiative by trick-or-treating a full three days before Halloween, which is how they come to witness strange goings-on at 666 Crowley Road. The Abernathys don't mean any harm by their flirtation with the underworld, but when they unknowingly call forth Satan himself, they create a gap in the universe, a gap through which a pair of enormous gates is visible. The gates to Hell. And there are some pretty terrifying beings just itching to get out....

Can one small boy defeat evil? Can he harness the power of science, faith, and love to save the world as we know it?

First Chapter  

Publisher: Iuniverse Inc
Check Library Catalog Pub Date: 04/29/2009
ISBN-13: 9781440134715
ISBN-10: 1440134715
Call Number: SF Lot

2044 starts where George Orwell's 1984 left off. The problem isn't Big Brother and the leviathan government. It's Big Brother, Inc., and the all-powerful marketplace.In 2044, engineer Malcolm Moore discovers a cheap, easy way to take the salt out of seawater. Fresh water is scarce enough right now; by the year 2044, people will die and countries will go to war for water.Malcolm's discovery could help people everywhere - but it also threatens interests who are happy the way things are. Malcolm is branded a terrorist. People who know his secret are harassed, jailed and even killed. With the assistance of Jessica Frey, an attorney he met on a bad date, Malcolm tries to stay alive long enough to bring his water to the world. Quickly they learn that change isn't easy when big business prefers the status quo. Join them on an adventure filled with danger, invention and surprise in 2044.

Publisher: Roc
Check Library Catalog Pub Date: 08/04/2009
ISBN-13: 9780451462770
ISBN-10: 0451462777

Mystery Fantasy. Just as Seattle-based paranormal private eye Harper Blaine is finally starting to come to terms with her present reality as a "Greywalker," a living person who can travel between this world and the next, her past intrudes. First, she gets a call from an old boyfriend--who's been dead for years. Then, she learns some surprising new information about her father's death. This 4th installment of Kat Richardson's Greywalker series is a fast-paced, suspenseful story with an atmospheric Pacific Northwest setting. However, since it deals with Harper's history, you'll want to have first read its predecessors, Greywalker, Poltergeist, and Underground.

Publisher: Roc
Check Library Catalog Pub Date: 04/01/2000
ISBN-13: 9780451457813
ISBN-10: 0451457811
Call Number: SFp But

Urban Fantasy. Meet Harry Blackstone Copperfield Dresden, a Chicago-based private investigator who also happens to be the only person listed under "Wizards" in the phone book. A frequent consultant for the police on paranormal crimes, Harry is called in to investigate when two mutilated corpses are discovered in a hotel room. Someone is using magic to commit murder--and it's up to Harry to find the killer. Storm Front is the first book in the Dresden Files series. If you're wild about Harry, the 12-volume series continues with Fool Moon. There is also a television series based on the books, although certain details differ.

Publisher: Grand Central Publishing
Check Library Catalog Pub Date: 06/01/2008
ISBN-13: 9780446618700
ISBN-10: 0446618705
Call Number: F Car

Urban Fantasy. Ever since he accidentally caused a close friend to be possessed by a demon, business has been bad for freelance exorcist Felix "Fix" Castor--so bad that he's been reduced to making ends meet by performing magic at birthday parties. But when a sudden surge in supernatural activity brings a new case his way, Fix has to deal with a violent ghost who won't rest in peace, threats from a pushy pimp and his werewolf henchman, and a succubus who's been summoned from hell to kill him. This debut novel by comic book writer Mike Carey, who's written for the Lucifer and Hellblazer series, is followed by Vicious Circle.

Publisher: Ace Books
Check Library Catalog Pub Date: 01/02/2008
ISBN-13: 9780441015580
ISBN-10: 0441015581
Call Number: SF Gre

Noir Fantasy. Operating out of the Nightside--a weird alternate version of London--P.I. John Taylor has a magical gift for locating anyone and anything. His latest client, the publisher of the popular Nightside tabloid The Unnatural Inquirer, wants him to find Pen Donavon, a man who claims to have in his possession a DVD featuring a recording of the afterlife--and who signed an exclusive contract with the paper before vanishing. Naturally, Taylor isn't the only one looking for the missing man. But someone or something is blocking Taylor's magical powers...meaning that if he wants to find anything, he'll have to do it the old-fashioned way. The Unnatural Inquirer is the 8th volume of Simon R. Green's Nightside series, which begins with Something from the Nightside.

Publisher: William Morrow
Check Library Catalog Pub Date: 02/01/2008
ISBN-13: 9780061375385
ISBN-10: 0061375381
Call Number: SF Bar

Set in Victorian London, this superb debut from British author Barnes raises the bar for historical thrillers, starting with its curious opening line: "Be warned. This book has no literary merit whatsoever." A page-turner, it's full of peculiar characters, notably Edward Moon, a highly unorthodox detective, and Moon's bizarre sidekick, known only as the Somnambulist. Moon, "a conjuror by profession" whose act has fallen on hard times, has cracked some of the city's most notorious murders. Now, he's leading the investigation into a shadowy religious group aiming to overtake London and do away with its oppressive, bourgeois tendencies. Moon is a remarkable invention, a master of logic and harborer of all sorts of unnatural habits and mannerisms. The Somnambulist—a giant, milk-swigging mute—doesn't appear to be human at all, yet serves as Moon's moral as well as intellectual compass. Together, they wend their way through a London rich in period detail. Barnes saves his best surprise for the story's homestretch, when he reveals the identity of his narrator, who's been cleverly pulling strings since the opening.

- Publishers' Weekly

First Chapter  

Publisher: Bantam Books
Check Library Catalog Pub Date: 03/01/2005
ISBN-13: 9780553382969
ISBN-10: 0553382969
Call Number: F Tut

Yank-in-London Ian Kennedy is a professional finder of missing persons. As an amateur, he found the father who deserted his family when Ian was 10, and at 30, the longtime girlfriend who walked on him. Now fortysomething, he needs business to pick up. Enter Laura Lensky, whose daughter, Peri, vanished after a peculiar date with her fiance three years ago. As Ian's investigation proceeds, more and more resemblances to his first professional case crop up, which is worrisome because that job required recovering the missing person from the Celtic fairies of Scotland, who aren't to be trifled with. Using brief summaries of famous fairy kidnappings and other disappearances to space chapters that either follow Ian's present case or hark back to that first one as well as his preprofessional life, and evoking Ian's loneliness to strike romantic sparks between him and Laura, Tuttle tells a tale of romance and the supernatural that perhaps even Daphne du Maurier might have been proud to have penned.

-Booklist

First Chapter  

Publisher: Viking
Check Library Catalog Pub Date: 07/21/2005
ISBN-13: 9780670034239
ISBN-10: 0670034231
Call Number: m Ffo

It's tough being a detective in the unglamorous world of nursery rhyme crimes, especially when your power-hungry rival hogs the limelight, your commanding officer is looking to eliminate your division, and you have a nasty reputation for killing giants. Detective Inspector Jack Spratt is investigating the violent death of Humpty Dumpty, disreputable philanthropist and business mastermind, who may have been shot by his ex-wife. As Spratt and his ambitious assistant Mary Mary delve into the crime, they uncover several suspects and a sinister plot involving money laundering, woodcutters, and podiatry. Like Fforde's "Tuesday Next" series, The Big Over Easy is set in an alternative world where fiction is real-a place where Georgy Porgy is a crime boss, the Three Little Pigs are prosecuted for killing the Wolf, and Wee Willy Winkie has been diagnosed with narcolepsy.

- Library Journal

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