2 today!

Brought in two, although I swear I listed to one side as I was walking. The heavier, and worse offender, was Mr. Christopher Jones, and his Full Dark House, which I actually rather enjoyed. It's a mystery that is set mainly during the Blitz, but opens in contemporary London as an aging detective reflects on his first case with his long-time partner, when he joins a department devoted to solving "unusual" crimes - that is, anything ranging from seemingly paranormal to aggravatingly unsolvable to politically inconvenient for other branches. The book is clever, and while the more "colorful" detective of the pair is a bit too familiar (he's odd, socially awkward, open to thinking out of the box, so to speak, and making brilliant leaps of deduction no ordinary mortals can follow - ring a bell? Several?), overall the characters were appealing and believable. I feel like this is a set up for a series (or maybe an installment in a series) but I don't know. But I would definitely consider reading another book by the author. I think, in fact, I picked up the book because I heard about one Jones recently released, and it wasn't in the library or something, so I just picked the earliest one they did have by him and figured I'd give it a try. Plus, I liked the title.

The other book was Games to Play After Dark, Sarah Gardner Borden. MEH. Boy and girl meet, they get married, they get bored, they get into rough (ish?) sex, they have kids, they get bored again, they get violent without the sex. Honestly, I think the writing itself was pretty good, but the story really never captivated me. Not all that much sex, considering what I just wrote (and the back blurb "...the games they play after dark are far from routine"), but of course, one of them did pop up when I was on the bus to work. The bus that is never crowded, but that day was, and I had people squeezed on either side of me and I just thought, "nope, shut the book, this is awkward." And then I kind of forgot about it. I think it took me months to read the book, because I kept putting it down and then being like "oh, right, that thing. Must finish that." But when I was actually reading it, the tone and pacing were really nice, and SGB has an eye for detail and a talent for great descriptions. Very sensual, actually, which at least makes sense with what I think she was going for here.