#45: Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince by J.K. Rowling

Next-to-last in the Harry Potter series (as read by possibly the last person on Earth to read it) focuses less on the scholastic goings-on at the academically suspect Hogwarts than on the ongoing battle against Lord Voldemort and the Death-Eaters, who have pledged to destroy our teen protagonist. This outing also spends a lot of time in a parallel story with Harry and his mentor, the wizard Dumbledore, exploring the mysteries of Voldemort's upbringing.

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, despite its length, is a fast and entertaining read; I laughed out loud in several places, and continually enjoyed how Rowling plucked at threads from all the other books in the series. It was so much fun, in fact, that it wasn't until about three-fourths of the way through that I realized that nothing much had happened at all. The last quarter is an explosive battle royale with a fairly surprising body count, including one of the major characters (one of my favorites, who I hope appears as a ghost or in flashbacks or something in the last book, or I fear a loss of steam).

I checked this out from the Morrison-Reeves Library in Richmond, Indiana, in the excellent audio book series by the incomparable Jim Dale.

#44: His Majesty's Dragon by Naomi Novik

A British Navy captain engages in a skirmish with one of Napoleon's ships and ends up capturing a coveted Dragon's egg. Before he knows it, the dragon hatches and bonds to him, and our loyal captain finds himself reluctantly joining England's Aerial Corps, where he brings a bit of spit and polish to the rank and file while deepening his friendship to his unique ward.

Absolutely engaging and entertaining first novel in a series by Naomi Novik is touted as being a little bit Christopher Paolini meets Jane Austen, but I think (for genre fans) a more nuanced comparison would be Anne McCaffrey meets Patrick O'Brian. His Majesty's Dragon sports a fully-realized fantasy world with interesting historic trappings.

I bought this one for a shiny quarter at a library book sale but immediately went out and bought the second one with a Books A Million gift card my wife gave me for our anniversary. I haven't had a chance to start it yet, though, because my mother tore through the first one and snatched the second out of my hand.

Recommended for genre fans.

#43: Priest by Ken Bruen

Relentlessly downbeat noir from Irish writer Ken Bruen picks up where he left off with highly tarnished detective Jack Taylor at the end of The Dramatist; coming back from a nervous breakdown after accidentally contributing to the death of a child in his care.

Things don't get much rosier from there, as Jack starts to look into the beheading of a pedophile priest and tries to help a friend with a stalker, all the while struggling against alcoholism.

Fairly rough pavement, as one might suspect, but Bruen writes in a dark-humored vein favorably reminiscient of Roddy Doyle, if the author of The Snapper and The Commitments were to turn to hard-boiled detective fiction. But I enjoy Bruen's style and plotting, right up to another punch-in-the-gut finale, and would recommend him to readers who think the Hard Case Crime series is too light and cheery.

I checked this out from the Morrison-Reeves Library in Richmond, Indiana, and read it at a good clip.

#42: Mad River by Donald Hamilton

Sturdy western by Donald Hamilton, the author of the excellent (and today, I think somewhat underrated) Matt Helm spy series, features a rancher fresh out of Yuma (after serving a stretch for a crime he didn't commit) having problems fitting back into town.

Although we have the usual Western templates--the wise older man, the fiery woman, the young hothead, and so on--Hamilton writes clear-eyed and often cool-hearted prose. Mad River also features a rather startingly bloodthirsty denouement before all is set to rights.

I did not know Hamilton had written in the Western genre and found this outing highly agreeable. I nabbed this paperback for a shiny quarter at a flea market and craft bazaar on a sunny weekend outing.

#41: The Wandering Ghost by Martin Limon

Two military policemen in 1970s Korea search for a missing female MP, and uncover her ties to a string of murders at the wintry edge of the DMZ, in Martin Limon's military mystery The Wandering Ghost.

Limon's two protagonists, Sueno and Bascomb, follow their own sometimes offbeat code of honor more than strict military protocols as they move through the Red Light districts and the army's corridors of power with equal ease. Sueno, the narrator, remains more reflective, while Bascomb is somewhat more prone to give in to both carnal and violent desires. They bring to mind two of my favorite characters in mystery fiction, Coffin Ed Johnson and Gravedigger Jones, the Harlem policemen who run rampant through Chester B. Himes' memorable detective novels.

Limon also has a real knack for a time and place, reminding me again of some of my favorite authors, Walter Mosely, Michael Connelly, and Ross Macdonald. Limon's stint as an MP in Korea during the time period, uncovered with a little light googling, is obviously what gives the mystery this weight.

I was an exchange student in Asia way back in 1987 and like to seek out fiction that takes place in countries I visited. I had never heard of Martin Limon before grabbing this from the library on a whim, but will look for more books in the Sueno and Bascomb series.

I checked this out from the Morrison-Reeves Library in Richmond, Indiana.