Too close to home, by Linwood Barclay

Note to residents of Racine, Wisconsin: I finished reading this book the week our Mayor was arrested.
Jim Cutter's next door neighbors are murdered, while his son Derek hid in their basement. Derek is afraid to say anything about what he saw and heard -- until he is arrested for their murder. Jim used to work for the Mayor of Promise Falls (don't you love that name?) until he got aggravated and punched him in the nose; now he has his own lawn maintenance business while his wife works at the local university. More people are killed while Jim tries to find the thread holding the murders together. Finally it leads back to the Mayor, who had sex with a 15-year-old girl (hence the punch in the nose) and is now about to run for Congress. Barclay is a great writer, but towards the end of the book I just kept saying out loud, oh my goodness. The coincidences between our newspaper headlines and the storyline were just too amazing.

Milk (movie)

Sean Penn does a wonderful job portraying Harvey Milk, the San Francisco city/county supervisor who was murdered by former supervisor Dan White (creator of the "Twinkie defense").
The movie shows Milk's character changing, becoming more politically active, and yet he is still innocent and charming.
I find it depressing that society hasn't evolved much since Milk's murder. This movie is rated "R" because of the subject matter, not because of what you see on screen. And not all families and couples have the same civil rights. We have a long way to go.

Brass verdict, by Michael Connelly

A brass verdict is street justice, not necessarily legal justice. Defense attorney Mickey Haller inherits Jerry Vincent's cases after Vincent is murdered. Detective Harry Bosch is investigating Vincent's death and how it relates to Haller's new big case, a Hollywood mogul charged with killing his wife and her lover. Connelly is first rate, several good surprises here.

Living dead girl, by Elizabeth Scott

This horrifying story's first chapter begins with, "This is how things look." The second chapter begins with, "This is how things are," and we learn about a girl who was abducted five years ago and is still kept in terror by her abductor. She is numb. He won't let her eat, to keep her young looking, but she's growing anyway. He forces her to find her another, younger girl.
There are monsters living among us, and we don't see them; we only see "how things look."
Powerful and moving.