Read Recently -- June -- Vampires, Werewolves, and . . . other things.
Gil's All Fright Diner by A. Lee Martinez
Duke and Earl are just two good ol' boys travelling around the country in a beat-up (and soon to die forever) pickup truck, except that Duke's a werewolf and Earl is a vampire. And they're about to stop at Gil's All Night Diner, outside the town of Rockwood (my mind is saying Texas, but I can't find anything in the book just now to confirm that). Gil's is sort of the Sunnydale High of Rockwood; supernatural phenomena seem just drawn there. Gil completely vanished a few years back, and right now zombies are crawling out of the cemetary across the road to attack the diner. Loretta, the current owner of the diner, is not too bothered by the zombies themselves; she has a shotgun, after all, but she is bothered by the fact that more zombies have come out of the graveyard than could ever have been buried there. Earl and Duke suspect not only black magic but a cult, and they're right: a cult worshipping the Old Ones is infecting Rockwood.
Okay, it's a small cult. There are only two of them, and they're both in High School. And he's more interested in getting it on with her than in raising elder gods. But she has a copy of the abridged Necronomicon, and a ghost in her magic 8-ball, so she has power enough to raise the dead . . . with the use of the true magic language of pig latin.
I wouldn't want you to think this book was never serious. I mean, Duke's wolf half is a terrifying monster, and there are flesh-eating zombies and ghouls; Earl and Duke and Loretta are in real danger at several points in the story. And the girl is trying to rasie the Old Ones and destroy the world. And all the characters are well-written and likeable; Earl even gets a romance storyline. On the other hand, some of those flesh-eating zombies are a herd of cows, and Rockwood is used to cults popping up every now and then. There just isn't enough entertainment in town.
Basically, this book is a lot like what you might get if Joe R. Lansdale wrote A Night in the Lonesome October. If that sounds like a good combination to you, well, this book is still highly recommended. If not, well, the book is still highly recommended. Just not to you.
Kitty Goes to Washington by Carrie Vaughn
After the ending of Kitty and the Midnight Hour, Kitty Norville, late-night radio host and werewolf public figure, takes her show on the road. Literally. Denver being barred to her, she's travelling from town to town, working with local people to do the local tech and her Denver people to do the national feed. One night, she gets a call from her lawyer, who informs her that she has been subpoenaed to testify before a Senate hearing regarding the "Center forthe Study of Paranatural Biology". As America's most public werewolf, Kitty is expert enough for the Senate. She also has business with the CSPB; its Director, Dr. Paul Flemming, served as her "Deep Throat" in the government in the last book. Now he wants to make sure the Center keeps its funding. Could he have plans for Kitty?
Arriving at DC, Kitty is picked out of traffic by the cops (a roadblock), and then taken by a couple of "Men-in-black" who work for Alette, the Vampire mistress of the city. All very open and friendly; Alette offers a safe place to stay and free parking in DC. Not an easy offer to turn down. But can Kitty trust the ancient vampire? Particularely when she discourages Kitty from investigating the lycanthrope situation in the city . . .
As if that weren't enough problems, the Chair of the Senate committee is a literal witch-hunting reactionary, someone who always believed in witches and vampires (and werewolves), even when the rest of society didn't. He's certainly not going to regard Kitty as a friendly witness.
Kitty's still a fun character. Her world is growing and she's growing along with it. The Kitty we met at the start of the first book would not have been able to handle half of the things that happen in this one. We get a look at an unusual "master" vamp and the culture around her, and an unusual group of lycanthropes. And, amazingly, Vaughn actually wraps up two subplots in this story: the CSPB, and the mysterious Elijah Smith, wandering faith healer who claims to cure vampires and werewolves of the problems caused by their conditions (bloodlust and the need to change shape and hunt). But he never lets anyone go . . . in the last book we met him briefly. This time we get to find out who he is and what he is.
I should also mention that, as with the first book, Vaughn thoughtfully provides the playlist she was listening to as she wrote the book (probably not all of it, but the high points). And the playlist was what convinced me to give the first book a try.
Anyway, this comes highly recommended. But read the first book first.