16. Suitable for hanging : selected stories / Margaret Maron (4/7; fiction)
17. Slow dollar / Margaret Maron (4/10; fiction)
18. The surrogate thief / Archer Mayor (4/14; fiction)
19. Rosemary's Baby / Ira Levin (4/16; fiction)
20. High country fall / Margaret Maron (4/21; fiction)
21. Southern fried divorce : a woman unleashes her hound and his dog in the Big Easy / by Judy Conner (4/23; non-fiction)
22. Open season / Archer Mayor (4/27; fiction)
23. What is meditation? : Buddhism for everyone / Rob Nairn (4/29; non-fiction)
24. Mr. Lucky / James Swain (4/30; fiction)
i still can't say enough good things about Margaret Maron. one of my big complaints about a lot of series is that the characters just don't grow very much (which is the case with the Stephanie Plum books, but i keep reading them anyhow because they're fun; next one is due out June 21) or grow in ways that just don't make sense (see also, the Anita Blake books. i stopped with Obsidian Butterfly, and from what i hear, that was a good thing.) the characters in the Deborah Knott series by Maron keep growing and changing. these books are novels that happen to be mysteries, and they're great. however, i am now caught up with the author, and the next one isn't due out until the end of August, so i'm done raving about her for awhile.
i picked up The surrogate thief randomly, because it had a nice cover and i liked the description on the inside of the dust jacket, not realizing it was part of a series. Joe Gunther is part of the Vermont SBI, solving crimes and dealing with some ghosts from his past. it was a lot less trite than it sounds, with characters that came across as real people. it was good enough to make me go check out the first in the series, Open Season, and swallow it whole. i checked the next in the series, Borderlines, out of the library today.
Rosemary's Baby made me want to shake the herorine and scream at her "you stupid dolt! don't you see what's going on?", as does quite a bit of horror fiction. it was fun and campy and made good between class reading for a couple days.
Southern Fried Divorce was... okay. i've read much better Southern humor (Lewis Grizzard is the best that comes to mind.) the book is about a man, a woman, and how relationships, friendships, and love can continue long as the ink has dried on the divorce paperwork. i approved of the subject matter, but the book got a lot better after she stopped trying so damned hard to be cute.
Mr. Lucky is the latest in a series of mysterious/adventurish books about a retired cop who runs a business catching people who try to cheat casinos. i wasn't sure i was going to keep reading this series, as it felt like the characters weren't going anywhere after the last book, but this one was much, much better (and had a good scam, to top it off.) i'm looking forward to the next one.