#17 The Secret History, by Donna Tartt

In the first sentence you know Bunny is dead. By the end of the first page you surmise it's murder. The rest of the first half of the book tells the tale of how four college Classics majors came to kill their friend. The second half details the effects of guilt and fear of discovery on this tight little group. One of the young scholars makes an ironic reference to Crime and Punishment, a book that kept coming to mind as I witnessed them steadily spiral toward tragedy. Engrossing, highly recommended.

# 16, The King of Fear, by Drew Chapman

This is the second so far in a series featuring Garrett Reilly, whose "superpower" is recognizing patterns in the massive amounts of data flowing available to him in this Age of the Internet. This helps him in his job at a b0pkerage house, and also makes him valuable to the US intelligence community. In this novel, he senses something is up, and concludes that someone is planning to disrupt the US economy and bring the country to his knees. The question is, who? And how does he convince his government contacts that all this is not just a trick of his overactive imagination? I thought the pace was a little slow at first, but by the end it rips right along. If you are looking for a book to read on your next flight or while you sit in the doctor's office, this could be it.