Rivers of London by Ben Aaronovitch

Probationary Police Officer Peter Grant is doing sentry duty in Covent Garden in the aftermath of a body being found missing its head when he spots a possible witness, but as the short pale faced man steps into the light identifying himself as Nicolas Wallpenny it becomes clear that he is, in fact, transparent. Well trained PC that Grant is he continues with the interview and it becomes clear that Wallpenny's information is credible. Grant only speaks of his experience to fellow probationer (and unfulfilled love interest) Lesley May, but goes looking for Wallpenny for more information and it's then that he is asked what he's doing by Detective Chief Inspector Thomas Nightingale who responds to Grant's honest reply that he's looking for a ghost with interest. Nightingale turns out to head up a division of the Met that deals with the supernatural, but the joy of this book is that Grant is never more than a good well trained police officer so there is a strong thread of self deprecating humour throughout. The ideas are fascinating, a murderous spirit and personfications of the buried rivers of London, turf wars on a supernatural scale. There are similarities to writers such as Mieville and JK Rowling, tv staples such as X Files, Torchwood and Doctor Who, to Hot Fuzz and the graphic novel character Constantine but Aaronvitch writes about it all in a completely fresh way creating a world that whilst fantastical is still completely consonant with present day London and all its horrors, grime, wonder and human character.

Clockwork Angel by Cassandra Clare (Infernal Devices #1)

16 year old Tessa Grey is arriving in Southampton from New York on board the steamship the Main.  Her American aunt, leaving her alone and Tess is more than ready to be reunited with her brother Nathan at the docks and travel with him to their new home in London.  He is not there to meet her and she goes willingly with the strange people sent to meet her on his behalf, but they are not benign.  Kept prisoner by the sinister Dark Sisters she is forced to undergo changes that drive her to the edge of madness.  At last she is rescued in a shower of rubble by two strange boys her own age and pitched into a world where magic and the supernatural live alongside and unseen by 'normal' people.

A great steampunk evocation of Victorian London with a supernatural twist, very well written and plotted.  Any book that opens with the lines. 'London.  April 1878.  The demon exploded in a shower of ichor and guts' is going to get my attention, but Clare kept me gripped beyond for the full 472 pages of this book.  Mostly written from Tessa's point of view, Clare never loses the pace of the plot but also deftly handles the compelling developing relationships between the characters of her book in a way that is commensurate with the mores and conventions of society at the time.

What the Night Knows by Dean Koontz

Detective John Calvino has a wonderful life, three sparky intelligent children - artistic 13 year old Zach, dreamer Naomi 11, and 8 year old latent psychic Minnie - home schooled by his artist wift Nicky and tutors. But he is haunted by the horrors of a childhood, orphaned and robbed of his two sisters by a man of unspeakable depravity and violence. Now a 14 year old boy Billy has turned on his family in an eerily copycat violent spree and evil appears to be awakening. Vintage Koontz, where he pits good and innocence against mailign and less over forms of evil, without ever seeming trite or patronising and combining the earthly and grounded with the supernatural and demonic.

The Keep by F. Paul Wilson - graphic novel

This is quite interesting and the graphics are great, I love the use of a very limited palatte of black, white and red. However, the story is a little predictable and the oncoming horror not as acute as it could be because the people dying are Death's Head Nazis who it is clear deserve everything coming to them.