4. A Certain Malice by Felicity Young (2005). Murder mystery set in a small Australian town. A cop investigates the death of the caretaker of a girls' school whilst trying to come to terms with losing his wife and son in a bomb blast that was meant for him. This was quite interesting: Young is particularly good at exploring the pressures of policing such a close-knit community, where everyone knows each other -- including the police. Sometimes it felt a bit too close-knit, though; at one point, the police use a civilian's dog to search for evidence -- would that really happen? Knowing next to nothing about Australian police procedure, I really couldn't say; but it seemed questionable to me. Regardless, the ending is too much of the evil-genius, moustache-twirling, I've-been-expecting-you kind. This book was reasonably diverting whilst I was reading it, but didn't really stay with me afterwards.

5. The Clock King and the Queen of the Hourglass by Vera Nazarian (2005). Now, this is better. Set in the far future, where the lines of fantasy and science fiction become indistinct, and humankind dwells in two cities on the floor and edge of the Pacific Basin (the ocean having shrunk considerably), it is the tale of Liraei, the Queen of the Hourglass, who was grown in a vat for one purpose -- to mate with the Clock King and ensure the species' survival. Whilst the writing isn't quite as poetic as what I've read of Nazarian's other work, that's more than made up for in this novella by the glorious sense of awakening and possibility. I might see if I can review this somewhere. (EDIT: This book is now reviewed at Serendipity here.)