I quit reading Patricia Cornwell because her writing kept getting darker and darker. However, she's a really good writer so I thought I'd give her another try with investigator Win Garano and Massachusetts DA Monique Lamont. Again, great writing but there's not one character in these books that I like.

It's so great to have authors and continuing characters that you know you can count on. Gideon Oliver, "The Skeleton Detective", by Aaron Elkins is one of those. It's also refreshing, because Gideon's personal life is good. He's married to a wonderful woman so the book can concentrate on the murder, or murders, and the bones on hand with a lot of information on growth factors, etc., without feeling like it needs more conflict in the form of his personal life. This latest is Skull Duggery, set in Mexico, and has a full roster of bones to identify.

Homer and Langley by E.L. Doctorow was wondrful-and sad. It's based on a true story of two brothers in NY who start out as very privileged kids in an upper-crust Fifth Ave home across from Central Park. They end up, very sadly, as home-bound, blind, paranoid, hoarders. This book is the biographical imagining of how that happened. Poignantly, beautifully written.

Another Linda Fairstein-The Bone Vault. I am enjoying her descriptions of how things work in the D.A.'s office of New York's sex crimes unit. She obviously writes from experience. However, I'm still having trouble with the depiction of her personal life.

Also, Cool in Tucson by Elizabeth Gunn. This series follows Tucson police detective Sarah Burke. She's smart and ambitious and I'm liking the character. I had read the next one in the series and read this one to fill in some gaps. Her personal life is difficult. She's divorced, her sister is an addicted single mother, her mom is getting older, and she loves her niece and worries about the best way to help and protect her from her mother.

Another Jane Haddam-Cheating at Solitaire. Finally, Gregor and Bennis are planning their wedding. Or rather, Donna, Bennis, the rest of the neighborhood is planning the wedding while Gregor just tries to escape and is befuddled by most of the activity. This book, however, only mentions the wedding planning. Gregor spend the duration in Margaret's Harbor, a small island off the coast of Massachusetts where filming is going on for a new movie starring a bunch of young pop stars hounded by voracious media. One of them is killed, and another "townie" is mutilated. Because of the celebrity in a small community which has never seen a murder, Gregor is called in to help out. As usual, a delightful book. The story is always good but Haddam has made Gregor's neighborhood so compelling, the best part of her books is always when they are involved.

The other author that I'm beginning to like more and more is Linda Fairstein. She's actually the prosecutor of crimes of a sexual assault and domestic violence, and has led the Sex Crimes Unit of the DA's office in Manhattan for 25 years. This gives her books a realistic tone. This one had the added benefit of involving academics at Columbia which is always fun. Although her main character is becoming stupider and stupider about her personal life. Let's hope she rectifies that.