JACKABY - William Ritter

I had a feeling, soon after starting Jackaby, that it might be my favorite novel read this year.  What I didn't expect was it would became my favorite book read in YEARS, nor that it'd be the first in a very long time that I remembered actually tearing up over as I finished, so sorry I was to let go.  Set in the 1892, when a spirited young British woman named Abigail Rook has just arrived by ship in the small New England town of New Fiddleham in the U.S., the story gets off to a ripping start when Abigail meets R. F. Jackaby - a young, eccentric, often aggravating private investigator, specializing in the paranormal, who embodies all the best (and most irascible) traits of Sherlock Holmes and Doctor Who combined.  Desperately seeking employment, Miss Rook talks Jackaby into taking her on as his assistant, on trial, and what follows is a dangerous, thrilling, at times even humorous adventure that begins with the bizarre murder of a local respected journalist.  Author Ritter's prose is lyrical on the page, the characters and story bursting with life from page one, and I had literally forgotten how it felt to fall in love with a book ... until now.  Marketed to lucky YA readers, Jackaby is a feast for all ages - and a pure joy you will dearly regret finishing; it's THAT good.  *****

ZOM-B - Darren Shan

It's been rare, lately, to come across a novel that kept me glued to its pages, turning them like crazy, until I finished.  Fewer still, one that had me nearly toss the book (or in this case, my Kindle) across the room when something ... well, bad ... happened to a character I really cared about.  Darren Shan's Zom-B, the first of a 12-book zombie series geared toward teens, changed that.  The narrator of the novel is B (we don't find out B's gender until toward the end of the book) Smith, a British teen who's grown up with an extremely racist/bigoted father and a docile mother and is suffering the consequences of both; even knowing deep-down its wrong, B's own hate and racist attitude often bubbles to the surface, and a past spent with an abusive father has set a big chip on B's shoulder as well.  When word breaks out, on the news, of a horrific, zombie-like attack in Ireland, B - along with the clique B hangs with - thinks it's all some big hoax or sham ... until a few creepy incidents lead to a massive attack of the undead on B's school, when the book becomes officially un-put-down-able (and the gore/violence begins).  An excellent beginning, and the most emotionally involved I've been with a book in awhile.  ****1/2

THE STAND (1978 ed.) - Stephen King

NOTE: As it says above, this review is for the original 1978 edition of Stephen King's massive end-of-world tale, not the decades-later re-release of the novel as it was original written, with 400+ restored pages.  That said, this novel is a masterpiece of fiction, the story of a disease called Captain Trips that wipes out 99.4% of the world's population ... and that's only the beginning!  The rest of this giant page-turner is about those who survive, with vividly-drawn characters you will grow to both desperately love and hate, as they make their way to either side of the Rocky Mountains for what will be the final confrontation between good and evil - the good team led by the elderly but feisty Mother Abigail, those who've fallen under the watchful gaze of the indefinably evil Randall Flagg.  From the early stages of the super-flu's decimation to those friends and foes lost along the way to the riveting finale, King's incredible attention to detail and imbuing of life into his fully-realized characters make The Stand an epic that's horrific yet magnetizing, heartbreaking yet hopeful, and - perhaps to this day - arguably King's most lyrical, literate read.  *****

KILLER HAIR - Ellen Byerrum

Book one of the "Crimes of Fashion" mystery series (and Byerrum's first mystery novel) is set in Washington, D.C. - a city not exactly known as a stylish mecca, which can be confirmed by Lacey Smithsonian (no relation to the Institute), fashion reporter for The Eye Street Observer hell-bent on moving up in the journalistic world.  Her chance comes early in the novel, when hairstylist Angie Woods - a co-worker of Lacey's friend Stella - is found dead one morning sitting in her stylist's chair, her long hair cut off and wrists slit.  Convinced it was a suicide, the police soon lose interest, but when Lacey learns that Angie was a sort of "stylist to the stars" for local celebrities - in particular a lady White House staffer currently under investigation for her involvement with both a congressman and a particularly sexy website - Lacey, with no short list of suspects to choose from, begins to investigate ... putting herself, naturally, right in the sights of someone who's already killed once.  Some of the characters in Killer Hair lean toward the one-dimensional types you often find in cozy mysteries, but (thankfully) the potential romantic element of Lacey having to work on the case with one very hot ex is kept to a minimum, and the finale is actually sort of kick-ass for a cozy.  Definitely worth a read, Lacey intriguing and charming - and fun - enough to also move onto book two in the series.  ***1/2

GHOST STORY - Peter Straub

There is just something so disturbing, so chilling, and so under-your-skin creepy about Peter Straub's Ghost Story, you can't help but also call it one of the best ghost stories ever written (and many have).  Telling the seemingly straightforward tale of four successful, wealthy older men who all share a common bond via a horrible secret from over fifty years ago, the weirdness begins when the bill comes due on that secret, and someone - or something - begins going after them one at a time to collect, their only even possible way out being to fess up to their past.  This is not a book to be read at night, or right before going to sleep (provided you can sleep, if reading it in bed in the first place); Straub's narrative is intricate and unsettling, slithering under your skin before you realize the creepy-crawlies are there rather than hitting you over the head with excessive blood and gore.  Instead, Ghost Story combines reality with fantasy so seamlessly and without effort, messing with your head, the reader will wonder what the heck is truly going on even as the pages fly by.  Chilling, and a genuine classic in the horror genre, worthy of comparison to Lovecraft or Poe.  ****1/2