Elizabeth Moon is my favorite sci. fic. author.  I have read most of her books from cover to cover twice and parts of them 9 or 10 times.

Cold Welcome is a bit different from her other series, yet she keeps the same well developed characters.  Her female protagonist, Ky, is returning to her home world after years away fighting a war.  She is returning  as a hero. But her shuttle is sabotaged by a group that is determined to kill her and all her family. Survival is the name of the game. Ky is strong, both physically and mentally, but her enemy is old, well financed, established, and has a secret they are desperate to keep.  Ky and the passengers she is marooned with must die if the enemy's secret is to be kept.

The passengers are not military and sometime reluctant to follow Ky's leadership. They don't really believe they are in danger from people meaning to actually KILL them dead and cause Ky trouble. The discovery of the enemies' hidden cave proves to be both Ky's possible salvation or her and the group's death warrant.

This is a novel that will be difficult for the reader to put down before the last page is read.

Santa Fe Dead

Santa Fe Dead by Stuart Woods is not a Who Dune It as our mother classified all such books where the reader guesses who the murderer is right up until the last page.  In Santa Fe Dead the reader knows who the murderer is from the first chapter.People are being knocked off all through the novel and the reader knows what will happen beforehand and who pulls the trigger. Even the detectives and the police know who the murders are.  The problem is proving it.  The reader, at lest this reader, frantically turned page after page sure the police or someone would step in and do something. Stuart Woods pulls it all together in a mind boggling climax. Even though Mr. Woods planted a seed several pages back, this reader forgot about it in the final maneuvering of the men hired to take care of the clever killer. This reader could have kicked herself for not anticipating the final killing on the last page. For lovers of fast, action based crime type novels, Santa Fe Dead is a must read.