1996 mystery, sixth in the Robert Amiss series. "Jack" Troutbeck, newly Baroness Troutbeck, enlists Amiss to help organise opposition in the Lords to an anti-hunting bill. But even she didn't expect it to be murderous.
2016 modern fantasy, ninth in the Kate Daniels series. Kate's father Roland continues to poke at her claim of the city of Atlanta, this time by kidnapping people under her protection. Kate and Curran agree to marry. And then there's the matter of prophecies…
1991 Christmas-themed mystery anthology. Thirteen stories deal with crime (mostly murder) at, or themed on, Christmas.
I've been doing the Perl Weekly Challenges. This one dealt with difference series and prime factorisation.
1980 fantasy with SF elements. On the colony world of Nova Mars, the blood-drinking Sabella lives on her own… but her aunt has just died, and seems in her will to be set on outing her as a vampire.
2015 modern fantasy novella in the Kate Daniels series. Derek, now a vigilante known as the Grey Wolf, and Kate's adopted daughter Julie, deal with a killer and work out what it is the killer's trying to achieve.
1991 comic mystery; eighth of MacLeod's novels of Professor Peter Shandy. During the annual owl-counting survey, a newcomer to the town is distracted by what seems to be an out-of-place snowy owl… and is promptly hauled into a tree and stabbed to death.
I've been doing the Perl Weekly Challenges. This one dealt with sexy primes and LZW encoding.
2011 fantasy. On a parallel American frontier, thirteenth-child Eff Rothmer is a heroine of sorts for working out how to solve the plague of insects that was destroying settlements west of the Great Barrier Spell. But that doesn't help her work out what to do next.
I went to the Worldcon in Dublin. With images; cc-by-sa on everything.
2005 police procedural mystery/horror, third in the Bryant and May series. In the winter of 1973, a man dressed in Edwardian garb defaces a Waterhouse painting in the National Gallery; a guest at the Savoy dies of venom from a marshland snake. The Peculiar Crimes Unit investigates.
2015 modern fantasy, eighth in the Kate Daniels series. Kate and Curran have stepped down from leadership of the Pack, and are trying to make new lives for themselves. But supernatural threats to Atlanta don't stop; the ghouls are swarming…
This was my "set up a solo game and then people come along to play it" day. With images; cc-by-sa on everything.
2008 crime novella, stand-alone. In the USA, a serial killer is cutting off young women's arms and legs; nobody's found the bodies. But his latest victim is a mobster's daughter.
Saturday was a day mostly for fewer longer games. With images; cc-by-sa on everything.
Clarkesworld is a monthly on-line magazine edited by Neil Clarke.
I've been doing the Perl Weekly Challenges. This one dealt with e, and URLs again.
2014 police procedural mystery, third in the Fiona Griffiths series. A routine payroll fraud blows up into a murder enquiry, and Fiona goes undercover.
Still at the larger venue in Maidenhead, and it felt about the same size as last time rather than overflowing its space. With images; cc-by-sa on everything.
2014 modern fantasy, seventh in the Kate Daniels series. Kate's summoned to attend the Conclave, the icily polite meeting between Atlanta's vampire lords and shapeshifters. Of course it's a trap. But even the knowledge that it's a trap can be a trap.
2008 police procedural mystery, tartan noir, fourth in the Logan McRae series. Twenty years ago, "The Flesher" killed and butchered – literally – people all over the UK. Thanks to flawed police work, he got out eleven years later. But it's only now that more bodies are being found, or rather more packaged meat…
This Meetup-based boardgames group continues to meet at the Marlow Donkey.
2014 modern fantasy novella in the Kate Daniels series. Dali Harimau, myopic vegetarian weretiger sorceress, looks into a missing grandmother.
I've been doing the Perl Weekly Challenges. This one dealt with string splitting and amicable numbers.
2017 romantic mystery, first in the Mercy Kilpatrick series. Mercy is an FBI agent, but she grew up as a prepper, stocked up on goods and skills for the end of civilisation. Now she's sent back to the small town in Oregon that she left fifteen years ago, where preppers also seem to be the target of the latest murderer.
In a recent game using the World of Darkness system, a situation arose in which someone picked up a cat; then, later, they wished to clear their hands before engaging in combat, so they threw the cat at someone else. This needed a certain amount of improvisation from the GM because the rules had little to say about it. But surely GURPS can do better?
I've been doing the Perl Weekly Challenges. This one dealt with months and word-wrapping.
2013 modern fantasy, sixth in the Kate Daniels series. Curran is called to Abkhazia, ancient Colchis, to mediate in a dispute between three shapeshifter packs. It's obviously a trap. But the bait is really tempting…
Back to the boardgame café. With images; cc-by-sa on everything.
2014 action/mystery, first in the Miranda Vaughn series. Miranda worked hard to go to college and get a job in an investment bank… but it all fell apart, and she's spent eighteen months defending herself against fraud charges. Now she's been found not guilty… but that's not enough to get her life back.
Some trailers I've seen recently, and my thoughts on them. (Links are to youtube. Opinions are thoroughly personal. Calibration: the state abhors only one thing in the end, and that's the sound of laughter. Violence it can understand.)