Heart of Stone, by C.E. Murphy
Readers who love cross-genre books will like this mixture of crime drama and supernatural romance, though I see it appealing more to women then to men. Lawyer Margrit Knight tests her mettle by running through Central Park after dark each night, aware but uncaring of the danger. There is someone watching her, however, every night she runs, and he's been watching her for years -- not to hurt, but to protect. His name is Alban, and he appears to her one night in the park just to speak with her out of curiosity, an act that ends up getting him accused of murder when a women is found murdered in the park the same night (scant hours after Margrit returns home from her run). Alban appears to Margrit again, proclaiming his innocence, and asks her to help him avoid the police while they hunt for the real killer. At first she wants to refuse, but there's something about him that she can't ignore -- and once he lets her in on his real secret, she's drawn into a world she didn't even know existed.
Alban, it turns out, is a gargoyle, one of the five Old Races who have hidden among us for centuries. And now that Margri's takes his case, gargoyles aren't the only of the five Old Races that she has to contend with -- there are also djinn, vampires, selkies, and dragons, all masked as human and walking among us.
I enjoyed Heart of Stone despite its wandering beginning (it takes a while to get to the real action). Margrit is a scrappy, smart-mouthed, tough woman, and she pretty much carries the book where it needs to go. Alban is moody and gentle, yet capable of being dangerous, which are always appealing characteristics for the supernatural romantic lead. Other characters -- her roommates; her on-again, off-again cop boyfriend Tony; and the various members of the Old Races that she runs into -- are colorful enough to be interesting while keeping the focus on Margrit and Alban. (Though I have to confess that Janx, the dragon, is my favorite out of the entire book.) The murder plot is strong enough to exist side-by-side with the romance, making this book a great blend of genre. The urban fantasy/supernatural romance genre is hot right now, and adding a murder mystery makes it even better.
This is book one of a series (the next is House of Cards) and I liked this one enough to read the next and see where it goes. We have this book in our Fiction section under call number F Murphy.