Mr. Mercedes, by Stephen King

Yep. Another Stephen King. This one is pretty much a pure detective-adventure novel. It features a retired detective named Bill Hodges, who had investigated a bizarre mass murder committed by an unknown person who drove a large Mercedes Benz 12-cylinder sedan into a crowd of people waiting in line to get into a job fair. The murder was unsolved at the time of Hodges' retirement.

When we meet Hodges, he has settled into an uneasy routine of mostly doing nothing, watching afternoon TV (a show is described that sounds a lot like Jerry Springer), and  contemplating suicide with his father's .38 calibre revolver.

Hodges receives a letter from someone who claims to be "Mr. Mercedes," the murderer in question, and seems to be goading Hodges toward suicide by taunting him with his failure to identify and apprehend the killer.

The investigation and subsequent action build up to speed quickly. Several interesting characters come into the plot, including one Olivia Trelawney, the owner of the car (it was stolen from her, there is no doubt, but there is some belief that she may have left the key in its ignition, thereby making the murderer's job a little easier). Trelawney's sister Janey comes on the scene as well, and is an important part of the story.

One remarkable thing about this book: it is a detective novel, no more, no less. There are no aliens, no supernatural beings, no other dimensions of reality. There is no time travel, no element of weirdness or horror other than those found in real human beings. There is plenty of evil in the character of Mr. Mercedes (we find out who he really is before long), but it is the evil of real life: he is a psychopath.

New York Times review

The Black Book, by Ian Rankin

An Inspector Rebus novel, (copyright 1993) in which Rebus becomes involved in several mysteries at once, which he, in his inimitable fashion, ties together, during which process he offends and alienates much of the Edinburgh police force.

This is a great book, a great mystery, and full of colorful language. While reading this book I decided to keep a list of what I imagine are "Scottish" words. Some of these I know the meaning of, some I guessed from context, some I need to look up. Page numbers are from my St. Martin's / Minotaur paperback edition, ISBN 0-312-97675-5.

• harr, n. Scot. and North Eng., a thick, wet fog along the seacoast.
  [1665–75; north var. of HOAR]*
• polis -- police
• ca' canny -- be careful?
• snell, adj. [Appears on p. 18 "weak sunshine and a snell wind" and 247.] Chiefly Scot. 1.    active; lively: a snell lad.
  2.    witty: a snell remark.
  3.    severe: snell weather. [bef. 900; ME, OE; c. OHG snel (G schnell) quick, ON snjallr excellent]*
•  stews -- I lost the page number for this one, but here's the quote I wrote down: "The Edinburgh establishment has never bided too far from the stews." (brothels)
• guttered -- "is he guttered?" [p.96]
• tadger -- penis [p.115]
• bunnet -- some kind of headgear [p.131]
• gey -- extremely? "...guide dogs are gey expensive these days..." [p.160]
• skited -- slipped, skidded? " ...nearly skited on wet linoleum..." [p.172]
• gardyloo -- "stepped under a gardyloo bucket..." [p.180] gardyloo, interj.
  (a cry formerly used in Scotland to warn pedestrians when slops were about to be thrown from an upstairs window.)
  [1760–70; Anglicized form of F gare (de) l'eau beware of the water]*
• heid-the-ba -- henchman? [p.189]
• keech -- shit? "They used to chuck all their keech out of the windows and onto the street ... the locals called it the Flowers of Edinburgh..." [p.190]
• blether -- talk, conversation [p.193]
• pulses -- beans? [p.241]
• fly-halfs [p.251]
• scoor-oot [p.263] -- a scattering, like throwing a handful of coins on the ground for children to scramble after -- search this page for "scoor-oot." Also, there's a rather expensive dictionary of Scottish words and phrases on Amazon.com with this word as its title.
• thrawn [p.321]
• teuchters [p.322]
• donnert [p.325]
• glaur -- mud? shit? [p. 333] 

*Thanks to my friend R.S. for these definitions

Another wonderful bit of color from the book: at one point, Rebus visits an elderly aunt that he hasn't seen since he was a child. She surprises him by grabbing his wrists and reciting the following grace before they eat:

     Some hae meat and cannae eat
     and some hae none that want it
     but we hae meat and we can eat
     so let the Lord be thankit

The Black Book is violent, funny, and beautifully written.

Rankin's favorite moments from his books, in The Guardian

Summary of The Black Book on Ian Rankin's website

Fearless Jones, by Walter Mosley

This novel is narrated by a character named Paris Minton. When Paris gets into some serious trouble, he springs his friend Fearless Jones from jail. Jones helps Minton unravel the mystery. Set in LA, soon after World War II.

I haven't read anything by Mosley in a while. This novel was about a 3-1/2 on a scale of 1 to 5. 

Farewell My Lovely, by Raymond Chandler

I've read this book at least twice before, but I picked it up for fifty cents at a used book sale, and can't resist reading it once again. Moose Malloy is looking for Velma. Mr. Marriott has an easy job for Marlowe, just be there when he hands $8000 to a bunch of jewel thieves to retrieve a friend's necklace. What could go wrong?

Moonlight Mile, by Dennis Lehane

Robert B. Parker has left us, and, by implication, so has Spenser; but Dennis Lehane has given us a new Bostonian. Patrick Kenzie is not Spenser, Angela Gennaro is not Susan, and Bubba is not Hawk, but there are parallels. The differences are somehow endearing, though, and more interesting.

Kenzie doesn't like guns, and if I'm not mistaken doesn't fire one in this entire novel. He is more likely to be hurt than to hurt anyone. We are not told that Angela is beautiful or perfect, but that Patrick and Angela are very much in love, with each other, and with their four-year-old, Gabby. Bubba is probably the closest to his Parker shadow, a more or less omnipotent force or trump card with fierce and uncompromising loyalty to his friends.

We are brought into a complicated story that involves incompetent parenting, kidnapping, teenage pregnancy, mobsters from the former Soviet Union, and a bit of priceless jewelry from the history of Kiev.

It's a masterfully done piece of detective fiction. I look forward to reading another one soon. Lehane's Mystic River was made into a movie starring Sean Penn and others.

Lehane's latest book is Live By Night.