Something More Than Night is a Dashiell Hammett and Raymond Chandler-inspired murder mystery set in Thomas Aquinas’s vision of Heaven. It’s a noir detective story starring fallen angels, the heavenly choir, nightclub stigmatics, a priest with a dirty secret, a femme fatale, and the Voice of God.
Somebody has murdered the angel Gabriel. Worse, the Jericho Trumpet has gone missing, putting Heaven on the brink of a truly cosmic crisis. But the twisty plot that unfolds from the murder investigation leads to something much bigger: a con job one billion years in the making.
Because this is no mere murder. A small band of angels has decided to break out of heaven, but they need a human patsy to make their plan work.
Much of the story is told from the point of view of Bayliss, a cynical fallen angel who has modeled himself on Philip Marlowe. The yarn he spins follows the progression of a Marlowe novel — the mysterious dame who needs his help, getting grilled by the bulls, finding a stiff, getting slipped a mickey
Angels and gunsels, dames with eyes like fire, and a grand maguffin, Something More Than Night is a murder mystery for the cosmos.
Bitten by Deceit (Hadley Werewolves, 1) – Shawntelle Madison
Alpha wolf Emma Parker is loyal to a fault, even if it means losing the love of her life when he’s ousted from the pack. She’s never stopped needing him, and when a black witch curses the pack, she wonders if she’ll even survive. It’s a poison of the blood, and with each bite, the virus spreads, leaving the infected rabid and under the control of an evil Alpha.
Kyle Benton is starting over. He’s a lone wolf, betrayed by the only woman he’s ever loved. Until Emma barges back into his life, as gorgeous and determined as ever. He’s hell bent on resisting her, or at least making her suffer. But she needs him in a way that touches him to his very soul. Now he has to determine how to set her free, and if he can, how he can ever let her go.
Beneath a Darkening Moon (Ripple Creek Werewolves, 2) – Keri Arthur
Keri Arthur, the New York Times bestselling author of the Riley Jenson Guardian series, returns to the Ripple Creek werewolf reservation of Beneath a Rising Moon—where the past has come back with a vengeance to haunt a beautiful ranger.
Savannah Grant still harbors deep secrets and carries emotional scars from a love affair gone bad many years ago. She has tried to bury her heartbreak in her job as chief ranger of the Ripple Creek werewolf reservation. But now someone is murdering humans on her turf, and the pattern matches a series of deaths she witnessed a decade ago: the same year that she met—and lost—the love of her life.
The murderer seems to have risen from the grave. Then Savannah’s old love appears. Cade Jones is an Interspecies Investigation Squad officer, determined to catch the killer he let slip through his grasp once before—in part because of a bewitching young werewolf. Now, as moon heat reignites their desire for each other, Savannah and Cade are forced to come to terms with long-buried secrets—not only to stop a monster from killing again . . . but to give their promise to the moon one more chance.
A Taste Fur Murder (Whiskey, Tango & Foxtrot Mystery, 1) – Dixie Lyle
Introducing an animal-loving Gal Friday with a telepathic cat, a shapeshifting dog, and a ghost of a chance of solving supernatural crime…
Meet Deirdre “Foxtrot” Lancaster. Trusted employee of eccentric zillionairess Zelda Zoransky, Foxtrot manages a mansion, a private zoo, and anything else that strikes her boss’s fancy. Her job title is Administrative Assistant, but chaos handler would be more accurate. Especially after she glimpses a giant ghost-beast in Zelda’s pet cemetery. For some strange reason, Foxtrot is seeing animal spirits. And, ready or not, the fur’s about to hit the fan…
Still reeling, Foxtrot comes home to find her cat, Tango—her dead cat Tango—alive and well and communicating telepathically. But that’s not all: There’s an ectoplasmic dog named Tiny who changes breeds with a shake of his tail…and can sniff out a clue like nobody’s business. So when a coworker drops dead while organizing closets, Tiny is on the case. Can Foxtrot and her new companions ferret out the killer among a menagerie of suspects—human and otherwise—before death takes another bite?
Gilded Hearts (The Shadow Guild, 1) – Christime D’Abo
Samuel Hawkins, Sergeant in the King’s Sentry, has been called in to investigate a murder case. As he awaits the Archivists to arrive—the team who will use a special device to extract the memories of the dead man to help find clues to his murder—he never expects to come face to face with the woman he’d left behind when he’d fled the Archives five years earlier.
Piper Smith has grown from the girl Samuel remembered into a strong woman and full-fledged archivist. Shadowed by her mentor, Master Ryerson, Piper will be performing her first extraction. When she sees Samuel, she must push aside her childhood crush, else risk her standing within the Guild.
As the two begin working together to find the killer, Samuel and Piper explore their intense attraction to each other. But “Jack the Ripper” proves to be harder to catch than the two originally thought. What’s worse, they discover he may very well work for the Archives. Now, Samuel and Piper must battle internal and external threats as they try to foil a plot against the Crown and stop Jack the Ripper from taking his next victim.
Iron Night (American Vampire, 2) – M.L. Brennan
Underemployed by day. Undead by night.
Underachieving film theory graduate and vampire Fortitude Scott may be waiting tables at a snooty restaurant run by a tyrannical chef who hates him, but the other parts of his life finally seem to be stabilizing. He’s learning how to rule the Scott family territory, hanging out more with his shapeshifting friend Suzume Hollis, and has actually found a decent roommate for once.
Until he finds his roommate’s dead body.
The Scott family cover-up machine swings into gear, but Fort is the only person trying to figure out who (or what) actually killed his friend. His hunt for a murderer leads to a creature that scares even his sociopathic family, and puts them all in deadly peril.
Keeping secrets, killing monsters, and still having to make it to work on time? Sometimes being a vampire really sucks.
blodeuedd
Ohhh yeah I still need that first Brennan book
Braine Talk Supe
Curious about Something More Than Night and Generation V is on my wishlist
aurian
Hmm I would like the Dixie Lyle and Christine d’Abo books.
Booketta
Good haul! I got five this week some ‘tree’ books, some ebooks.
kara-karina
Woohoo, you’ve got Gilded Hearts, D.! :)) me too! Happy reading, my dear, and Merry Christmas!
Jessica @ a GREAT read
Nice! These are all new reads to me! Hope you enjoy them all!
My STS will be up tomorrow, so be sure to stop by then!
Have a GREAT day!
Old Follower 🙂
Froggy80
De très belles acquisitions… et que dire de la couverture de Gilded Hearts!! WOW 🙂
pabkins
Iron Night wooohoo~!!!
I seriously want to read Something More Than Night also!!
Feflie
Bonnes lectures avec toutes ces nouveautés. 🙂
noisette2011
La couv d’iron night est superbe.
Ta pal est à combien désormais ? ^^
Bisoux
Melliane
lol je compte pas… ça fait trop peur. Mais j’ai hate de lire celui ci, une prochaine lecture.
brandileigh2003
Bitten looks great. Merry Christmas and happy reading!
Winifred
Joyeuses fêtes et bonnes lectures !!!
Lexxie @ (un)Conventional Bookviews
Great haul, Melliane 🙂 I hope all these new books will be to your liking 🙂
Happy Holidays 🙂