It came out in the United States and the United Kingdom in 2007, and the movie based on the novel was released in 2008. I saw the movie first and although I ended up enjoying the movie more than the novel, the novel is also quite good. Oskar, a bullied twelve-year-old, lives with his divorced mother in a housing complex, just outside Stockholm. Mysterious neighbors move next door, heralding several brutal murders in the area. Oskar meets one of the new neighbors, Eli, a 200-year-old vampire child as lonely as he is. There are some nice touches as their relationship develops. And there are also some terrific scenes indicating what happens when a vampire doesn't follow its own kind's rules, such as when it enters a dwelling uninvited. Both novel and movie do a terrific job of depicting pre-teen loneliness and the cold, bleak Swedish winter.

The Sister by Poppy Adams (Knopf) is a subtle first novel of psychological suspense narrated by a fascinating voice. Virginia and Vivian are sisters who are unexpectedly reunited after almost fifty years, when Vivian returns to the family home in Dorset where her Ginny has lived alone for decades, continuing her father's work as a lepidopterist. The return of the vivacious and selfish Vivian churns up memories and causes a major upheaval in the measured ordered life that Virginia has constructed for herself.

Rain Dogs by Gary McMahon (Humdrumming) is the author's first novel, although he's written some fine short stories over the years. A rain dog is a dog that cannot find its way home because its trail has been washed away by the rain. This definition serves as the epigraph for the short novel, and perfectly describes the plight of the two main characters. An ex-con returns home, hoping to redeem himself in the eyes of the wife and child he left behind in the aftermath of the violence that sent him to prison. A broken, battered woman who can see ghosts returns to the family she fled two decades ago, sensing that she has unfinished business to attend to.