Honey, I Shrunk The Microviews!

Halfway through Genre-ary and I'm having a whale of a time. Six books. A grant application. Even the odd bit of sun (shielded, of course, by my head-to-toe black get up). All this free brain time got me thinking about the old Mircorviews and how they seem, in the past three years, to have grown far too big for my liking. Time to rejig 'em. From now on, Microviews will be as originally conceived. Pithy chunks of glee or bile, with the added bonus of some sort of book-appropriate rating. And what better way to get it all going than with my first five books of 2013.

Seeking Whom He May Devour by Fred Vargas
Country bumpkins mistake serial killer for werewolf. No clues to piece together, so just sit back and watch it unfold. More goofin' than sleuthin', really.
3 out of 5 Fang Marks.

The Guard by Peter Terrin
Waiting For Godot with guns, as reimagined by Ridley Scott and directed by Quentin Tarantino. Paranoia and tedium do the tango in post-apocalyptic parking garage.
3 out of 5 Flux Capacitors.

The Thief by Fuminori Nakamura
Note to budding thieves. There's cash to be had in the short term, but you don't want in on the repayment plan. Uber-slick Japanese crime thriller let down only by a rather lame-o ending.
4 out of 5 Picked Pockets.

The Collini Case by Ferdinand Von Schirarch
Following two patchy truish-crime story collections, Von Schirarch finally goes for the long form and mostly succeeds. A murder mystery where the why-dunnit is all that counts and Germany's post-war criminal justice system is hanged, drawn and quartered.
4 out of 5 Panzer Tanks

In A Lonely Place by Dorothy B. Hughes
A creepy peek into the mind of a misogynist serial killer with all the classic noir belles and whistles. Its no The Killer Inside Me but it slays most of the other dick swingers from the 50s.
3.5 out of 5 Shell Casings.