The Fairly Tale Detectives (The Sisters Grimm, Book 1), by Michael Buckley (author), L.J. Ganser (narrator)

Recorded Books, ISBN 9781436156127, December 2010

Sabrina and Daphne Grimm's parents disappear, and they land in the state foster care system, where they become a major trial to everyone who deals with them. Then after a year or so, when they  have run through all possible foster homes, they are told their grandmother has applied for custody. This is a great shock to them, because their parents told them their grandmother died before Sabrina was born.

The unexpected appearance in their lives of a supposedly dead grandmother is the least of the surprises in store for the sisters. From their grandmother's friend Mr. Canis, to Mayor Charming, to strangely aggressive fireflies, to a very strange boy called Puck, the inhabitants of Ferryport Landing are a very unusual bunch, and  in some ways, strangely familiar.

Elegy for Eddie (Maisie Dobbs #9, by Jacqueline Winspear (author), Orlagh Cassidy (narrator)

Harper Audio, ISBN 9780062217004, March 2012

Maisie Dobbs is asked by her father's old costermonger friends to investigate the sudden death of Eddie Pettit, Eddie is a much loved figure in their old neighborhood, a "slow" (more probably, autistic) man with a rare gift with horses. One of his side jobs had been running errands at a paper-making factory, and he was killed when a large roll of paper came off the overhead transport and landed on him. Purely an accident.

Except that while accidents at the paper factory are fairly common, no one has ever been killed by a falling roll of paper before.

Camelot: A Novel, by Caryl Rivers

Diversion Books, ISBN 9781626810037, March 2013

It's 1963, and Mary Springer is just starting to feel confident in her abilities as a reporter for the Belvedere (MD) Blade. Blade photographer Jay Broderick is itching to do more with his talent than mundane local news photos. And Don Johnson, a young black writer who has just returned from the Freedom Rides, is torn between desire to pursue writing and commitment to advancing civil rights. Their lives intertwine as competing forces of personal ambition, passion, and growing civic and political awareness draw them together and push them in new directions.

And in interludes, we enter the mind of JFK as he deals with both national and personal issues as late summer and early fall pass, and his November trip to Dallas approaches.

Dodger, by Terry Pratchett (author), Stephen Briggs (narrator)

Random House Audiobooks, September 2012

A talented young London tosher (sewer scavenger), going by the name of Dodger (because the one he was given at the orphanage was so awful), rescues a young woman escaping from a coach one dangerously stormy night, and stumbles into a meeting with Charles Dickens and Henry Mayhew.

The young woman is not willing to give her real name, but she clearly needs shelter, as well as protection from those she was escaping from. Despite initial mutual distrust, the tosher and the two gentlemen are soon working together to solve the mystery of the young woman whom Mrs. Mayhew quickly names Simplicity.

Redshirts: A Novel With Three Codas, by John Scalzi

Tor Books, ISBN 9780765316998, June 2012

Ensign Andrew Dahl has just been assigned to the Universal Union Capital Ship Intrepid, and he thinks his career dreams have come true. In fact, he's entering into a nightmare.

Dahl quickly acquires friends among other new crew members, and is thrilled to be assigned to the xenobiology lab. Yet his immediate supervisor and co-workers behave a little oddly. He and the other new arrivals--Maia Duvall, Jimmy Hanson, Finn, and Hester--all learn that they are replacing people killed in recent away team missions.

A Discovery of Witches (All Souls Trilogy #1), by Deborah Harkness (author), Jennifer Ikeda (narrator)

Penguin Audio, ISBN 9780142429112, February 2011

Diana Bishop is an historian doing research on alchemy and the history of science in the Bodleian Library at Oxford University. She is also, much to her regret, a witch, a descendant of Bridget Bishop, the first person to be hanged as a witch during the Salem witch trials. Traumatized by the deaths of her parents in Nigeria when she was a young child, she (mostly) avoids using her powers, has never learned to cast spells or make potions, and, on a major Wiccan holiday, stays at the Bodleian continuing to work, instead of dining and celebrating with her fellow witches.

It's on that evening, nearly alone in the library, that Diana calls up an alchemical manuscript, Ashmole 782, to check it against other references.

Out of Her Depth, by Brenda Hiatt

Bell Bridge Books, ISBN 9781611943712, March 2013

Newly divorced Wynne Seally heads off to Aruba on vacation, taking advantage of the already paid-for trip she booked for her wedding anniversary, the day she discovered her husband was involved with another woman. "No Fear" is her new motto, and she embraces it by going ahead with the scuba lessons she had planned to take with her husband.

But on her first real dive, exploring a sunken ship that's a popular tourist attraction, she finds an expensive wedding ring and braves a moray eel to pick it up. It's engraved with two names and a date, and it's a Cartier piece.

The island's Cartier shop recognizes it and says they'll have the owner contact her. Fellow diver Ronan Gale tells her the names suggest it may be connected to a major murder case.

The Fact/Faith Debate: Why Science Hasn't Killed Religion, by Jack Gage

Two Harbors Press, ISBN 9781938690228, January 2013

This book is framed as "case studies" voted on by a "jury" consisting of a Catholic, a Mormon, a Southern Baptist, a Jew, a Muslim, and an atheist. Once they've voted, an agnostic, and only the agnostic, is allowed to "comment." All of these individuals are nameless.

Let's be clear. The agnostic gets to comment on what the "jurors" say and what their thought process must have been, while the reader is not allowed to hear the voices of the actual jurors.

It's important to note that Jack Gage is not a scientist, and does not appear to have much if any scientific education. He's a businessman and a lawyer, and apparently of the school of thought that says that if you're a successful businessman and a lawyer, you're an expert on everything.

The J.M. Barrie Ladies' Swimming Society, by Barbara J. Zitwer

Atria Books, ISBN 9781476718743, December 2012

Joey Rubin is a rising young architect in New York, battling the glass ceiling and still hurting from the end of a romance with a co-worker. She's developed a hard, cynical edge, and has been losing touch with her friends from college and earlier. She's also starting to realize that maybe it was a mistake to get rid of everything that reminded her of her late mother, after her father remarried, moved to Florida, and deeded the condo they'd all lived in together to her.

Then the lead partner on a project she's done much of the work on is badly hurt in an accident, on the very day they're scheduled to make the presentation to the firm. First she has to make the presentation on her own--and then she finds out that she's going to make the trip to the UK, on nearly no notice, to get the project started.

Ordinary Grace, by William Kent Krueger

Atria Books, ISBN 9781451645828, March 2013

It's the summer of 1961, and thirteen-year-old Frank Drum is living in New Bremen, Minnesota, with his Methodist minister father, mother, older sister, and younger brother. The sister, Ariel, is a gifted young musician, and is bound for Julliard in the fall. Their brother, Jake, speaks with a stutter and so doesn't speak very much at all, but watches and listens and thinks. Ruth Drum, their mother, is a wonderful singer, an excellent music director--and not happy to be married to a minister. She thought she was marrying a hotshot young lawyer; then the war intervened and Nathan came home from the war headed for the ministry instead. Despite that disappointment, Ruth and Nathan have a loving and mutually supportive relationship, and cherish their children. It's an almost idyllic life.