Charles Stross is an author to watch. I loved Saturn's Children, and THE JENNIFER MORGUE shows another aspect of Stross' amazing inventiveness. A truly fantastic book.

I have to say more than that, so I'll try and say THE JENNIFER MORGUE is so good - which will be somewhat tricky to do without gushing. The first is the setting, which is based on the inspired concept that the cthulhu mythos of HP Lovecraft is real, all the world's governments know about it, and they've signed treaties with the Deep Ones to keep the peace. Even worse, computers make remarkably good tools for summoning up things that should best not be summoned up. So the world's governments have set up agencies to monitor unauthorized demonic programming, and to make sure that nobody hacks off the Deep Ones. Toss into this inspired setting a wonderfully geeky system- administrator turned counter-intelligence agent for the lead, and tell the story in a breezy style with tongue (and footnotes) planted thoroughly in cheek, and you have a book that's hard to put down, and leaves you wanting more. Which, thankfully, the author provides in the form of a short story and an essay on James Bond that had me in stitches.

THE JENNIFER MORGUE follows our hapless hero, Bob Howard, as he finds himself sent up against one of the world's most powerful industrialists, with no clue as to what he's doing or why he was picked for the job. Before long, he's in the caribbean, sipping martinis, hanging out in casinos in a tuxedo, and partnered with a true femme fatale in a plot that's starting to seem way too much like a Bond movie. And then things start getting weird. Part Terry Pratchett, part Robert Ludlum, part HP Lovecraft, part Ian Flemming, and all Charles Stross -- and all fantastic.