So this month I concentrated on working my way through my TBR pile, since I have to justify the great glut of books I picked up recently. 

Nothing really blew me away this month, but a lot of decent entertainment. 
 
Have You Seen Her? - Karen Rose.  Rose writes a reliable thriller, heavy on the body count and violence, reasonable on the romance. 
 
The Moonstone - Wilkie Collins.  Probably my favorite of the month even with the bizarre shenanigans of the female lead.  But this is a great book for looking at characters and since I love characterization stories… I enjoyed it.  It's told in a series of different POVs, each one a distinctive voice.  I loved the butler, and really liked the crazy, slightly bitter Drusilla.  She's both amusing and horrifying at the same time.
 
Mindhunter - Journey into Darkness - John Douglas & Mark Olshaker.  Somewhere along the line, I picked up a whole slew of true crime books.  I thought these might be dull, but they were a really engaging read, if a bit repetitive read back to back.  Terrible of me, but I find accounts of serial killers and their captures vaguely soothing.  Plus, as I read these, it became very apparent that so had the Criminal Minds writing team. 
 
Love Kills - Dianne Emley.  Some months ago I read Emley's First Cut and found it okay.  This one fell into my lap and pretty much reinforced the "okay" of the first one.  It's not that these are bad books; they're just not to my taste. 
 
14 - Judas Kiss - The Cold Room - The Immortals - So Close the Hand of Death - JT Ellison.  My workplace has a pile of thrillers, so therefore I have a pile of thrillers.  These were most of a series, and they went up and down the scale in terms of enjoyability/plausibility.  The writing is solid enough that even when I was getting aggravated at plot contrivances, I kept on reading.  And picking up the next book. 
 
Heart of Steel - Meljean Brook.  I loved, loved, loved The Iron Duke, the first in this series, and this one was almost as good.  Steampunk-infused paranormal romance with some interesting world-building.
 
The Haunted Hotel - Wilkie Collins.  After reading The Moonstone, I went online to see what else was available and discovered kindle classics which are mostly post-copyright books for zero money.  So I downloaded and read The Haunted Hotel, which, like The Moonstone, I enjoyed…with the exception of the villainness.  I'm not sure Wilkie Collins was the best writer of female characters.  Despite that, the book was creepy and enjoyable and sent me back to download some more.
 
Explosive Eighteen - Janet Evanovich.  Two Stephanie Plum books in one year!  I could pick on these books a lot--nagging at repetitive word choices, one-note characterization, super-thin plots--yet I keep buying and reading because they're just fun.  It's like sitting down to a much beloved sitcom.  Nothing ever really changes but that's okay with you.
 
I only managed to read one new-ish short story this month.  I am trying to do better than that as a rule, and in Dec, I've already read three so...

"Sweet Sixteen" Kat Howard on Lightspeed (Jul 2011) and I tentatively recommend it.  The writing is good, the characterization is lovely, and as a story in a microcosm, it works wonderfully.  I have doubts about the viability of the world as a whole, and that sort of undercut all the good stuff.  On the other hand, there's lots of chewy gender stuff here that I really liked.

Currently reading: Swamplandia!  

ETA: Fixed a horrible typo!