Terror at the Shore

Terror at the Shore by Seamus Cooper
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

The author of Mall of Cthulhu tells a story about a family that takes a seaside vacation at Dagon Heights, NJ.

Families should not take vacations at places called Dagon Heights.

Tongue-in-cheek horror tale (a riff on Lovecraft's The Shadow Over Innsmouth, if you missed the reference), there aren't enough outright jokes to call this a comedy--it's more a very light thriller and reading it is a perfectly good way to spend an evening.

It could also double as the novel version of a teen horror flick (just as Mall of Cthulhu could have been the pilot for a Buffy-knockoff TV series.)  There is the requisite morality play built in, but happily Cooper is enough of a mensch that in his world smoking dope and having sex are not the sins that get punished.

The Iron Druid

Kevin Hearne's Hounded and Hexed:

A druid who's something north of 2000 years old has pissed off enough Irish gods that he moves to Tempe, Arizona to get away from them.  Not that they can't get there at all, but there's not enough oak or ash or whatever it is they need to cross over easily.  Unfortunately one of them finds him through the internet and crazy high jinks ensue.

I read this book and immediately got the next one in the series and read that as well.  To be sure, "crazy high jinks" includes a lot of fantasy violence, but otherwise I think the book delivers exactly what my summary would imply.  Even less complexity or shades of grey than a typical Dresden Files book, but it and the sequel are pulpy fast paced entertaining fun.

Oh, and did I mention the conversations he has with his Irish wolfhound?