Early 2011 releases to drool over

So I made a tactical error today  – I started organizing my sticky notes of early 2011 releases, and now I’m so ridiculously excited that I’m practically drooling all over my computer. Then I thought – why should I only torture myself? So take a look and join me in the interminable waiting!

Bloodshot by Cherie Priest (coming January 25, 2011)

Book Jacket:

Vampire for Hire.

Raylene Pendle (AKA Cheshire Red), a vampire and world-renowned thief, doesn’t usually hang with her own kind. She’s too busy stealing priceless art and rare jewels. But when the infuriatingly charming Ian Stott asks for help, Raylene finds him impossible to resist—even though Ian doesn’t want precious artifacts. He wants her to retrieve missing government files—documents that deal with the secret biological experiments that left Ian blind. What Raylene doesn’t bargain for is a case that takes her from the wilds of Minneapolis to the mean streets of Atlanta. And with a psychotic, power-hungry scientist on her trail, a kick-ass drag queen on her side, and Men in Black popping up at the most inconvenient moments, the case proves to be one hell of a ride.

(Sounds a little X-Files-y, which always makes my heart go pitter patter)

Midnight Riot (aka Rivers of London) by Ben Aaronovitch (January 25, 2011)

Book Description:

Midnight Riot is a fresh and exciting London-based Urban Fantasy focusing on 20-something police constable Peter Grant who finds himself seconded – much to his surprise! – to a secret and arcane branch of the Met specialising in crimes of a supernatural nature, and thus apprenticed to the last wizard in Britain.

(Aaronovitch is an old-school Doctor Who writer, so this should be fun.)

Pale Demon by Kim Harrison (February 22, 2011)

“A witch, a vamp, a pixie, and an elf get into a car…”

(The road trip to hell? I can’t wait to find out!)

River Marked by Patricia Briggs (March 1, 2011)

Book Jacket:

Car mechanic Mercy Thompson has always known there was something different about her, and not just the way she can make a VW engine sit up and beg. Mercy is a shapeshifter, a talent she inherited from her long-gone father. She’s never known any others of her kind. Until now.

An evil is stirring in the depths of the Columbia River—one that her father’s people may know something about. And to have any hope of surviving, Mercy and her mate, the Alpha werewolf Adam, will need their help

(Werewolves AND Native American mythology? Yes, please.)

Steel by Carrie Vaughn (March 15, 2011)

Book Description:

Jill is a nationally ranked junior fencer who’s getting frustrated with the sport and is considering giving it up entirely. Then, while on vacation with her family in the Bahamas, she gets sucked back in time and ends up on an 18th century pirate ship. Suddenly, her fencing skills might save her life…

(Who doesn’t enjoy swashbuckling and swordplay, I ask you?)

The Company Man by Robert Jackson Bennett (April 11, 2011)


Book Jacket:

A trolley car pulls into the station with eleven dead bodies inside. Four minutes before, the inhabitants were seen boarding at the previous station. All are dead. And all of them are union.

The year is 1919. The McNaughton Corporation is the pinnacle of American industry. They built airships that cross the seas. Guns that won the Great War. And above all, the city of Evesden. But something is rotten at the heart of Evesden.

Caught between the union and the company, between the police and the victims, Hayes must find the truth behind the city before it kills him.

(This book has been described as H.P. Lovecraft + Chinatown (the movie), happening in Fritz Lang’s Metropolis. Noir, retro-futuristic, horror and a gumshoe detective – SOLD.)

And that’s only the beginning! So what 2011 releases are you counting down to?