Bones to Ashes by Kathy Reichs

I picked up this Temperance Brennan novel at the library book sale, pretty sure that I hadn't seen this before. Luckily I was right.

I needed a good book to get me back into reading for fun, rather than schoolwork. This was it. I devoured this one in 2 days. The TV show Bones is based on the Temperance Brennan novels but I personally love the novels more although I really enjoy the show.

Bones to Ashes takes us to Brennan's past as her baby brother dies, her father dies and her mom and sister and her are uprooted to live with her Gran. Brennan meets a girl named Evangeline and they play together every summer until Evangeline disappears. No one wants to talk about her disappearance and Brennan is told it's very "dangerous" and to go away.

In present time, several corpses have landed in Brennan's lab, including the old skeleton of a girl who is possibly Brennan's old friend. Several disappearances of young girls over several years has Ryan, Hippo and Brennan rushing to trying to figure the case out before another young girl ends up missing.

A very fast paced and untimately surprising book.

Top Ten Book 2 by Alan Moore

Book 2 was just as good as the first, I think. Are there any more Top Ten books out there, I wonder?

The same cast of characters comes to Book 2, most of whom are fairly likable. A main character is killed and many more injured in a duel with the Commissioner. Some odd little twists and one slightly weird/off "wrap up" of the super mice storyline.

All in all, good book.

Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman

Love Love Love Love.

LOVE.

I'm only NOW finding Neil Gaiman and cursing myself for taking so long to do so! I listened to Neverwhere on audiobook read by Mr. Gaiman himself. He does a fantastic job with the characters but the story is just so tremendous and engrossing. Gaiman has created a place called London Below and it's quite different from London Above (well, duh). London Below consists of people who fall through the cracks and Richard Mayhew accidentally becomes one of those people. All because he is a kind person and went out of his way to help Door, a young girl from LB who was hurt.

Door has a special gift, she can open any door, locked, stuck or not even there. She is avenging the deaths of her family and Richard, having no where else to go down in LB, goes along with her. The enlist the help of the Marquis de Carabas, a trickster who calls in favors to help him out. Door also employs a bodyguard, Hunter, since the assassins Mr. Croup and Mr. Vandemar are trying to kill her.

Their journey leads them all through the LB and they meet up with an angel (Islington), battle in an ordeal at the Black Friars, encounter the Beast of London and meet Sewer People.

Neverwhere really is non-stop adventure with some of the strangest but most endearing characters you could ever want to meet.

Top Ten (Book 1) by Alan Moore

Alan Moore is kind of a scary looking guy. And I'm just thinking of the Simpson's episode that he was in. Scary as he may look, he's pretty damn talented. Watchmen was my first foray into the world of Moore and then I was lent both books of Top Ten.

Top Ten (book 1) was illustrated by Gene Ha and Zander Cannon. It introduces us to the cops of the Tenth Precinct in the city of Neopolis. Everyone in Neopolis, it seems, has a superpower. Even the children and, I think, pets. You would think this would put the cops at a disadvantage. Hmm.

Robyn Slinger is just starting out on the force. Her power is the ability to control toys which is why her nickname is Toy Box. (That's just a bad nickname for a chick). She's teamed with Smax, who is big and blue and indestructible with a mean disposition. They are off to help track down the killer of someone named Saddles who was dealing drugs. The Libra serial killer is also at large, severer of the heads of prostitutes.

Enter also a deranged, pyschokentic Santa Claus, ultra powerful mice and some chick with big...boots and you have a pretty entertaining story.