Monday, December 30, 2024

Tuesday Tomorrow

Dating and Dragons by Kristy Boyce
Published by: Delacorte Romance
Publication Date: December 31st, 2024
Format: Paperback, 336 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"From the author of the nationally bestselling Dungeons and Drama comes another gaming romance that's sure to win you over!

Quinn Norton is starting over at a new high school and hopes that joining a D and D game will be the trick to making friends. The plan sounds even better when she's invited into a group that includes Logan Weber, the cute and charming guy she met on her first day of class. But this isn't your average D and D campaign - this group livestreams their games and enforces strict rules: no phones allowed, and no dating other group members.

Quinn is willing to accept the rules, even if it makes Logan off-limits. And she quickly learns that doing so won't be a problem, since Logan goes from charismatic to insufferable as soon as she agrees to join. As their bickering - and bantering - intensifies inside and outside the game, Quinn can't help wondering: Is Logan's infuriating behavior a smokescreen for hidden feelings? Quinn is risking it all, and the twenty-sided dice are rolling!"

Come on, risk it all on the roll of a twenty-sided die!

The Dilemma of a Dead Scholar by Patricia Rice
Published by: Book View Cafe Publishing Cooperative
Publication Date: December 31st, 2024
Format: Paperback, 246 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"At Wycliffe Manor, a legendary pirate treasure draws danger...

Bestselling author Patricia Rice brings you another haunting country house mystery in Regency England...

An heiress haunted by ghosts, Dotty Dorothea knows her family believes her mad. Fearing fortune hunters who would lock her and her awkward little brother in an asylum, she flees behind the ancient walls of Wycliffe Manor.

A French artist and émigré, his soul bearing scars from a French prison, Comte Arnaud Lavigne has lost everything to war. His only foreseeable future is restoring bad artwork in his cousin's decrepit manor. Mad heiresses aren't his concern, until the day a mathematical scholar is murdered. The deceased leaves a coded journal that might lead to Wycliffe Manor's lost treasure - inside the sealed tower the terrified heiress swears is haunted.

Ghosts don't exist as far as Arnaud is concerned, but killers and thieves are real, especially when stolen treasure is involved. How is he to work with the dotty heiress when neither of them trusts the other-or themselves? But the inhabitants of Wycliffe Manor, young and old, are in peril unless a heartless killer and thief is caught..."

A haunted manor house in Regency England with pirates!?! Oh my, yes.

The Losting Fountain by Lora Senf
Published by: Union Square and Co.
Publication Date: December 31st, 2024
Format: Hardcover, 352 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"Ember, Miles, and Sam have been called home - only home is a place none of them have ever been before. The choices they make will not only determine their own futures but will also have vast and permanent consequences - they will either restore a cosmic balance or destroy the dams that separate two worlds, ending them both. Ember was called because she belonged, Miles because his mother belonged, and Sam...well, Sam arranged his own invitation.

The Fountain itself is beautiful and alluring - yet so is the light of an anglerfish. Hidden below the surface, the world of the Fountain is vast: unexplored and unmapped and full of wild things - leviathan and tiny, scuttling things and all manner of creature in between. There are other entities as well, entities that haunt and hunt in the Fountain, because it rewards nearly as often as it punishes, and it has been punishing the greedy and merciless and cruel for a very long time. For those, the Fountain becomes a prison.

The borders between our world and the world of the Fountain are already porous. If the balance between them is upset and control of the Fountain is lost, the consequences will be rapid, merciless, and world-ending. In every timeline that has been or will be, everywhere that water stands in our world will become a passageway for the violent damned to enter ours from the Fountain. For Ember, Miles, and Sam, all from different times, what starts as a journey to take control of their lives quickly becomes a quest to save - or destroy - both worlds, depending on whom you ask.

Rising star and Bram Stoker Award-winning author, Lora Senf has created a gorgeously written, pitch-black fantasy that will transport readers to a world that is as beautiful as it is horrifying and will keep readers on their toes as they devour it page by page."

I've always loved the idea of fountains as portals.

Friday, December 27, 2024

Slow Horses

When I first heard of Slow Horses I was totally indifferent to it. A spy show starring Gary Oldman? No thanks. I didn't care that everyone was talking about it and lauding it, I was totally uninterested. And then three things happened in close succession to make me change my mind. First, one of my best friends asked me if I watched it, describing the show as Gary Oldman farting. A lot. That intrigued me. And yes, I have the comedic taste of a preschooler. Second, I saw Kristin Scott Thomas on The Graham Norton Show, admittedly an episode from at least two seasons ago because I hoard them to watch when I decorate for Christmas, and the way she described the show piqued by interest. Personally I don't like tales of espionage, I'm not my Dad, I couldn't watch The Bourne Identity on a loop and be entertained, but hearing that this was about disgraced and dysfunctional spies I was far more interested. Third, and finally, over the years I've kind of developed a dislike of Gary Oldman. I think it's because this man who was the darling of independent cinema was viewed as "selling out" when he campaigned so hard for the Oscar that he won. Personally, in my mind, he sold out earlier when he starred in the Harry Potter films, a role for which I particularly felt he was miscast. For the new season he was opening up about his other roles and mentioned that he only took Harry Potter to support his kids and he thinks his acting is shit in it. That was such a refreshing answer that I thought, you know what, it's finally time to give Slow Horses a shot. And I'm very lucky I waited so long because I binged all three seasons available so quickly I'm still suffering from withdrawal. But hopefully by the time this posts I'll be in the midst of season four. Because thankfully there's a season four. This show is addictive and propulsive. The agents of Slough House are used again and again as pawns by their higher ups and yet because they are basically all basket cases they don't approach anything normally and therefore are able to thwart expectations and come out ahead. I mean, still in a shitty building at the ass end of the service, but they have skills that others don't and that ironically makes them a valuable asset. None more so than Gary Oldman's Jackson Lamb. Lamb is a slob. But it's my opinion that he uses this offensive behavior to make people underestimate him. People are so repulsed they don't pay attention to him. He was once a top agent, he could have been First Desk, but having to kill one of their own broke him. He decided he just wanted a boring job and to keep those around him safe. To create a haven for all the misfits. He might badmouth them all, but the truth is, he cares, probably too deeply, and therefore shrouds himself in a miasma that only the brave dare approach. And while each season is wonderful on its own, this season, based on Real Tigers, is so batshit off the wall you might need to watch it in one sitting. There's plots within plots, but most importantly, we see how Jackson Lamb would have fared in Kevin McCallister's shoes. The answer is very well, and Harry and Marv would have been very very dead. I particularly liked the knife IN the bannister.

Wednesday, December 25, 2024

Ripley

When The Talented Mr. Ripley came out in 1999 it was a national obsession. I don't know how best to put it but that it took over everyone like some weird Italian Jazz fever. Everyone had the soundtrack. It became the soundtrack of our lives, like Trainspotting in 1996 or Rushmore in 1998 or Garden State in 2004. There was no escape. You were going to listen to Jude Law and Matt Damon sing "Tu Vuo' Fa L'Americano" and you were going to like it! In my house the obsession obviously went the literary route with my mother asking for all the Patricia Highsmith Ripley books for Christmas, which was a tall order because bookstores couldn't keep them on the shelves. But this was something I could totally get behind. Because, for me, I just didn't like the film. It was too many big names trying to be edgy and independent and it just felt false. I didn't buy into the conceit that Matt Damon was a genius of deception and could get away with all this. Jason Bourne yes, Tom Ripley no. Which is why when they announced they were making a miniseries starring Andrew Scott I got beyond excited. Kermit flailing his little froggy arms and running around the house to tell everyone excited. Because if there's one actor I love out there who is magnificent in everything it's Andrew Scott. What's more, his portrayal of Jim Moriarty on Sherlock showed just how menacing he can be with just a look. How his emotions can turn on a dime. How he can go from loveable goof to imminent threat in the span of a heartbeat. Andrew Scott is a chameleon, as is Tom Ripley. He was born to play this role. So I had no doubt Andrew Scott could deliver. I just didn't expect it to be as magnificent as it is. This is as far from the 1999 film as it is possible to be. Going back to the noir roots of the novel and filming the entire miniseries in black and white except for one very deliberate and perfect splash of red, I love you Lucio! The choice to film it in black and white might have been what made Showtime balk but just to Netflix's gain. This show, not even taking into account the magnificent pacing and acting, might be the most beautiful show I have ever watched. The crystalline detail of Italy. The pores in each hewn rock step. The amazing depth of field. I couldn't believe this kind of mastery of detail and light and dark could exist and immediately looked up the director and the cinematographer. Well, they're both Oscar winners if you were wondering, Steven Zaillian having written Schindler's List, and therefore making that pop of red make so much sense. I've often looked at old books of Italian masterpieces and the black and white reproductions of pictures and been confused, because I never thought they did the work justice. But it was the fault of the book not the art, because not only is every frame of this a work of art, but the art itself is masterful. You get a different appreciation for it without the color to distract from form. If you don't believe me look to the third episode, "III Sommerso." This episode details Tom and Dickie's trip to Sanremo where out on the water Tom kills Dickie. This entire episode is almost completely shot in the boat and has virtually no dialogue. Yet even second is tight. It's so taut that you feel yourself holding your breath. For forty-nine minutes you are on the edge of your seat and yet it feels like it's no time at all. Or possibly forever. And that's how long this show will stay with me. Forever. Though I wouldn't be adverse to another season or four... They did a bit of setup for the next book in the most meta of fashions...

Monday, December 23, 2024

Tuesday Tomorrow

Miss Amelia's List by Mercedes Lackey
Published by: Daw Books
Publication Date: December 24th, 2024
Format: Hardcover, 336 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"The seventeenth novel in the magical alternate history Elemental Masters series follows Amelia Stonehold and Serena Meleva as they navigate property acquisition, marriage proposals, and other ancient horrors in Regency England, but with the help of elemental magic.

The year is 1815, and an American, Miss Amelia Stonehold, has arrived in the Devon town of Axminster, accompanied by her "cousin" Serena Meleva. She's brought with her a list to tick off: find a property, investigate the neighbors, bargain for and purchase the property, staff the property and...possibly...find a husband. But Amelia soon finds herself contending with some decidedly off-list trouble, including the Honorable Captain Harold Roughtower, whose eyes are fixed on her fortune. Little does Amelia know that his plans for her wealth extend far beyond refurbishing his own crumbing estate - they include the hidden Roman temple of Glykon, where something very old, very angry, and very dangerous still lurks.

But Roughtower isn't prepared to reckon with the fact that neither Amelia nor Serena are pushovers. And he certainly isn't ready for the revelation that he has an Earth Master and a Fire Mage on his hands - or that one of them is a shapeshifter."

Mercedes Lackey writing Regency Magic!?! How did she know what I wanted for Christmas!?!

The Matter of the Secret Bride by Darcie Wilde
Published by: Kensington Publishing Corporation
Publication Date: December 24th, 2024
Format: Hardcover, 448 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"Jane Austen meets Fleabag in Regency London, as a resourceful young woman with a talent for helping ladies of the ton with their most delicate and pressing predicaments finds herself facing a task of royal proportions. Literally.

King George IV is petitioning Parliament for a divorce from his queen on the grounds of her adultery. But rumor has it that the king secretly married Maria Fitzherbert - long before he married the queen. Now Mrs. Fitzherbert has been robbed - and she's frantically calling on Rosalind for help.

Because what those thieves took is proof that she and King George did really marry. That single piece of paper could destroy Mrs. Fitzherbert and her family - or it could prove the king guilty of bigamy.

Rosalind races to investigate. With her is ex-Bow Street officer, Adam Harkness, with whom Rosalind shares a complex and rapidly intensifying bond. But a case of theft soon turns to murder...

Josiah Poole, a disreputable attorney specializing in helping debtors - and who was seen entering Mrs. Fitzherbert's house - is found brutally murdered. Mrs. Fitzherbert has debts. Could she have staged the theft, and employed Mr. Poole to sell the marriage certificate? Or is the truth even more complicated? Mrs. Fitzherbert's daughters have secrets of their own. And Poole himself had no shortage of enemies.

With suspicious coincidences mounting, and more danger encroaching, Rosalind and Adam must move quickly to unravel a history-making mystery that might just lead them straight to the palace itself..."

Oh, a mystery rooted in very real history! I love it!

The Case of the Missing Maid by Rob Osler
Published by: Kensington Publishing Corporation
Publication Date: December 24th, 2024
Format: Hardcover, 320 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"The acclaimed author of the Anthony, Agatha, Macavity, and Lefty Award-nominated Devil's Chew Toy delights with the first in a new historical mystery series set in turn-of-the-19th-century Chicago, as America is entering its Progressive Era and Harriet Morrow, a bike-riding, trousers-wearing lesbian, has just begun her new job as the first female detective at the Windy City's Prescott Agency...

Chicago, 1898. Rough-around-the-edges Harriet Morrow has long been drawn to the idea of whizzing around the city on her bicycle as a professional detective, solving crimes for a living without having to take a husband. Just twenty-one with a younger brother to support, she seizes the chance when the prestigious Prescott Agency hires her as its first woman operative. The move sparks controversy - with skeptical male colleagues, a high-strung office secretary, and her boss, Mr. Theodore Prescott, all waiting for her to unravel under the pressure...

Only an hour into the job, Harriet has an assignment: Discover the whereabouts of a missing maid from one of the most extravagant mansions on Prairie Avenue. Owner Pearl Bartlett has a reputation for sending operatives on wild goose chases around her grand estate, but Harriet believes the stunningly beautiful Agnes Wozniak has indeed vanished under mysterious circumstances - possibly a victim of kidnapping, possibly a victim of something worse...

With Mr. Prescott pushing a hard deadline, Harriet's burgeoning career depends on working through a labyrinth of eccentric characters and murky motives in a race to discover who made Agnes disappear. When her search leads to Chicago's Polish community and a new friendship in Agnes's charming older sister, Barbara, clues scattered across the city slowly reveal just how much depends on Harriet's inexperienced investigation for answers...and the deep danger that awaits once she learns the truth."

I miss the bygone times when detective agencies were rather large instead of one of two people.

Friday, December 20, 2024

The Other Black Girl

During the final season of Riverdale Ashleigh Murray returned for one episode as Josie McCoy. She hadn't been a regular since season three when she fled to the short-lived Katy Keene. Her channeling of Eartha Kitt on Rivderdale was phenomenal. It was wonderful to see an actor who had been so overlooked on the show to come back and do a defining episode. So I looked up what else she's been up to and that's when I first heard about The Other Black Girl. A show that quickly was added to my calendar when I watched the first trailer. A show that after I watched a single episode I knew I'd be binging. If you took Severance, You, and The White Lotus, put them in a blender and came out with the smoothest most wonderfully unique concoction ever, that would be The Other Black Girl. This show isn't just horror, it's about identity and connection and community and, above all, books and what they mean to us. Our heroine for all time, Nella, got a job at Wagner Books, because back in the eighties they published Burning Heart by Diana Gordon. Burning Heart was the first book to make Nella feel seen and that's what she wants to do for other little black girls like herself. The book's editor, Kendra Rae Phillips, is who Nella wants to be, as she walks past her photograph everyday in the halls of Wagner Books. And yes, she took a selfie with the picture. But something strange happened to Kendra Rae, as we see in gloriously retro eighties publishing flashbacks, seriously, look at that spot-on retro publishing logo. Something strange that is starting to happen to Nella. But Nella thinks she finally has an ally. Someone on her side. There is finally another black girl in the office, Hazel. Though, of course, Hazel has ulterior motives, and as each revelation comes to Nella we see it on her expressive face. Sinclair Daniel is an actress to watch. She's going to be big if there's any justice in this world. As for those revelations? Well, she shouldn't have put so much faith in Diana Gordon, because Diana has been up to no good. She's basically created a pod people cult of young black women. I mean, the goal of her "organization" is noble, the raising up of black women, it's just the execution that makes it go all cultish. And the thing I love about that is she falls prey to what aliens always misunderstand about humans time and time again in science fiction. They don't understand that out pain and our trauma are what make us human. So to have a human create a "shortcut" to acceptance by removing rage and emotion to make a more pliable and therefore socially acceptable and upwardly mobile black woman is horrendous. An author is to mine the very depth of the human experience, and Diana wrote a seminal book, which I kind of wish was real, and yet, she is completely and totally out of touch. And I want to see her face her own ignorance. I don't know what I'll do if we don't get a second season. Because now that Nella is "undercover" at Wagner Books, I need to see how that mobile and flexible face pulls off pod person. Also I need more of her BFF Malaika played by Brittany Adebumola. I just need more of all of this. Now. Saldy The Other Black Girl was cancelled on May 10th. A day that will live in infamy.

Wednesday, December 18, 2024

My Lady Jane

The Princess Bride is my favorite film of all time. Yes, there are other contenders; Clue, Vertigo, L.A. Confidential, but when it comes down to it, there really is no choice, it's The Princess Bride. It has been since the moment I first watched it during the summer of 1988 heatwave while I hide from the sun in my bedroom with all the shades drawn and watched movies all day. Therefore when something is recommended to fans of The Princess Bride as being "like" it I am wary. I mean, first, how can you match perfection? Second, I do not think you mean what you think you mean. But I will forgive everyone who labeled My Lady Jane as like The Princess Bride for the simple fact that for the first time ever I agree. And not just because they totally recreate the scene when Fezzik catches Princess Buttercup when she jumps out the window. Because honestly that didn't quite work, but it was a clever idea. The two are obviously greatly different, one dealing with the real history of Lady Jane Grey warped and the other being more Ruritanian romance than anything else, but the same vein of humor and heart runs through both. I first heard of My Lady Jane because it was part of a YA subscription box I got. Here's the thing about me and subscription boxes... We're not the best match. I like to curate my reading for long periods of time in advance so just having a random book show up is cool, but I can guarantee you it will be years before I read it. So it wasn't on my radar. In fact, like many people bemoaned when it was unjustly cancelled, they had no idea that My Lady Jane had become a series. I thankfully was not in the dark because I follow Rob Brydon on social media. In fact before I looked into who else starred in this show I knew I was going to watch it because Rob Brydon is in it. It's Rob Brydon in Tudor England, how could I not? He has a codpiece. And there are many codpiece jokes. So if that alone doesn't sell you, I'm sorry I don't think we can be friends. Throw in Anna Chancellor, Jim Broadbent, Dominic Cooper, Kevin Eldon, Edward Bluemel, and the plummy tones of Oliver Chris and I was watching it the night it dropped and paying the extra to watch it ad free. And the first episode was a totally ride, but also eye-opening. While I knew this was an alternative history, I totally didn't know it was also a fantasy, so I was quite shocked when people turned into animals. Yeah, that guy totally turned into a bear in a bar. It's chaotic and classic! But you know what? It worked. Everything about this worked. I mean, it's hard for me to explain things I love. I can detail everything that a show gets wrong, but when a show it right it just sings. I can point to Noel Fielding's horrible show, The Completely Made-Up Adventures of Dick Turpin, and say that My Lady Jane is actually the show he wanted to make but failed miserably. The jokes were flat, the delivery bad, and it didn't ground itself. Back to My Lady Jane... I usually hate anachronistic music in shows to the point where I'm yelling at the television, and yet, I want the soundtrack for this show. The song choice and humor, damn. Several times I laughed out loud when I realized what was about to play because it fed into my memories and complemented what was happening in the story. "Nights in White Satin" was beyond genius! Then there's the chemistry. Emily Bader and Edward Bluemel should always star together. You were rooting for this princess and her steed, because of course her husband turns into a horse and he married her for her brain. I mean, there's just so many funny moments that turn everything on their head. And yet, somehow it all works, the warped history, everything, it works. But the cherry on the top of the cake is Oliver Chris as the narrator. His unctuouse voice smarmily and knowingly narrating the show gives it that extra connection to The Princess Bride. It's us viewers and how we're reacting as we're watching, commenting on cliffhangers and gasp-worthy moments. We all are Oliver Chris, and he is us, and why am I not getting a second season? I mean, come on. Do have have to get the ghost of Peter Falk to wander into the Amazon offices and subtly mumble, that he had one more thing he had to do, get a second season of My Lady Jane made? Oh, and stop anyone from ever rebooting The Princess Bride. So I guess that's two more things...

Monday, December 16, 2024

Tuesday Tomorrow

Celebrating All Creatures Great and Small: For the Love of the Yorkshire Dales by All Creatures Great and Small
Published by: Michael O'Mara Books
Publication Date: December 17th, 2024
Format: Hardcover, 224 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"The official visual celebration of All Creatures Great and Small and its incredible setting: the Yorkshire Dales.

Featuring over 200 spectacular shots from all four series, plus an in-depth look at the characters and real-life inspiration for the show, this book tells the fascinating story of the program's main character: the Yorkshire Dales.

The official All Creatures Great and Small companion offers a glimpse behind the scenes of the award-winning show, with beautiful photography throughout."

I mean, we're days away from Christmas and this is the perfect gift for those who love a cozy heartwarming tale every Sunday night... Also I'm personally hoping for lots of pictures of Samuel West in those delicious brown boots Siegfried occasionally wears...

Invisible Helix by Keigo Higashino
Published by: Minotaur Books
Publication Date: December 17th, 2024
Format: Hardcover, 288 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"Detective Galileo, Keigo Higashino's best loved character from The Devotion of Suspect X, returns in a case where hidden history, and an impossible crime, are linked by nearly invisible threads in surprising ways.

The body of a young man is found floating in Tokyo Bay. But his death was no accident - Ryota Uetsuji was shot. He'd been reported missing the week before by his live-in girlfriend Sonoka Shimauchi, but when detectives from the Homicide Squad go to interview her, she is nowhere to be found. She's taken time off from work, clothes and effects are missing from the apartment she shared. And when the detectives learn that she was the victim of domestic abuse, they presume that she was the killer. But her alibi is airtight - she was hours away in Kyoto when Ryota disappeared, forcing Detectives Kusanagi and Utsumi to restart their investigation.

But if Sonoko didn't kill her abusive lover, then who did? A thin thread of association leads them to their old consultant, brilliant physicist Manabu Yukawa, known in the department as "Detective Galileo." With Sonoko still missing, the detectives investigate other threads of association - an eccentric artist, who was Sonoko's mother figure after her own single mother passed; and an older woman who is the owner of a hostess club. And how is Sonoko continuing to stay one step ahead of the police searching for her? It's up to Galileo to find the nearly hidden threads of history and coincidence that connect the people around the bloody murder- which, surprisingly, connect to his own traumatic past - to unravel not merely the facts of the crime but the helix that ties them all together."

And if the person you're buying a Christmas present for isn't into the cozier side of life, how about some murder? It's not the holidays without murder, in my mind...

Friday, December 13, 2024

Loki

Superhero fatigue is real. I honestly want to know if there's someone out there who has watched all of the almost forty movies out there in the Marvel Cinematic Universe and loved every single one. Because I sure as hell haven't. There were ones I liked and enjoyed, but there are literally only three that I can watch over and over. They're Captain America: The First Avenger, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 1, and Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, if you were interested to know. The thing that amazes me most is that Marvel takes actors I really like and makes them almost unwatchable. Seriously, what is that accent Benedict Cumberbatch is using? And as for Paul Rudd's Ant-Man? I'd rather watch his CoBro. But the actor and character criminally underutilized is Tom Hiddleston's Loki. Therefore I couldn't at first bring myself to actually watch Loki, we shall ignore the fact that I actually didn't get Disney+ until long after it started. Yes, Marvel seems to have a far better handle on their television properties, but for every win like Agent Carter, there's a massive loss. Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D anyone? How did that show last seven seasons? I don't know if I got beyond season two it was so bad. Tom Hiddleston has been in seven movies as the God of Mischief and they just never knew what to do with this character and his glorious purpose. Well, his glorious purpose was this show. A show that's written almost as a play. Loki is notorious for monologuing, but by teaming him up with Owen Wilson's Mobius he has someone perfectly dispositioned to play off of and chew the scenery with. This show makes Marvel more cerebral. You actually have to think versus mindlessly enjoy. It's multilayered and deals with Loki's true purpose, his villainy, and his possible redemption. There's a Wizard of Oz quality to the first season's arc, to the reveal of the Kang behind the curtain. And that's where we start to encounter a possible problem, Kang. Not just that Loki was what jump-started Phase Four which begins Marvel's Multiverse Saga which is built around Kang, but they felt a need to link it into the greater mythos. Therefore Loki suffers a bit because it feels like it's serving the Multiverse versus just serving itself. And lets not even get into the problem that is Jonathan Majors. All this means is going into season two the stakes were even higher, especially given how disappointing Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania performed and how depressing Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 was. But the thing about how Loki is written is, for the most part, it doesn't make sense until the end. It's this big puzzle and they know where every single piece is going to slot and you have to just have faith. And episode three, "1893," really tried my faith. Aside from the fact they somehow actually made The World's Columbian Exposition boring and obviously didn't know where Wisconsin was, we are NORTH of Illinois not "across the lake" not that that matters seeing as that boat was going south and would be shortly in Indiana, but they really failed the female stars of the show. A trend that was consistent throughout this season. Sylvie was almost a nonentity, and as for Renslayer? Her and Miss Minutes should talk to their agents. But then the ending happened. The most perfect episode that rested completely on the shoulders of Tom Hiddleston. Loki's "Glorious Purpose" was revealed and he was redeemed, and who knows, he might not just have saved all timelines he might have saved the MCU. Rarely is an ending so perfect that I don't want more. It's a compliment to this show, the cast, and the writers, that I don't want more. Take a bow, you've earned it. Bonus points if it's in a seventies tux.

Wednesday, December 11, 2024

Shōgun

When I was growing up there wasn't this glut of television. Miniseries were special events. Everyone, and I mean everyone, would watch them. When Roots aired over 100 million people tuned in, accounting for 85% of all homes with a television in the United States. But there was a miniseries up there with Roots, always talked about in the same reverential tones, and that was Shōgun. Airing three years after Roots in 1980. While it didn't break the records Roots did, it came in a close second and lead to other prestige adaptations, from North and South to The Thorn Birds. Starring Richard Chamberlain, also of The Thorn Birds fame, as John Blackthorne, the show was well received in the United States, but less so in Japan. There was a lack of authenticity in their eyes, despite being filmed in Japan. And this was a valid complaint. I mean only now, over forty years later, are television shows taking the time and effort to actually be historically accurate and culturally sensitive. I'm not trying to slag off the original, I'm just saying that our understanding, our desire to do better, means that shows are now more culturally aware. And I think that is what made people connect to this new adaptation so strongly. It didn't feel like a television show, it felt like a window into the past. And, I really don't know how they did it, but they became the show everyone was talking about. This new adaptation of Shōgun recaptured the fervor of the original! It was a special event that everyone was talking about and which rightfully swept the Emmy Awards with eighteen awards, setting a record for most awards won by a show in a single season. For me though, it took me awhile to get into the show. And no, it's not because over 70% of the show is subtitled, which just adds to its authenticity, it's because the character who brings us into this world, John Blackthorne, this time played by Cosmo Jarvis, was a bit of an asshole. He's too belligerent and in your face. It's the connection with the other characters, and in particular Anna Sawai as Mariko, that finally give you the in into this world. Although my Dad would totally disagree, after five minutes he would have been willing to lay down his life for Hiroyuki Sanada as Lord Toranaga. In fact he had forgotten the original miniseries so I had to look up to make sure Lord Toranaga didn't die because he "couldn't have handled that." So, I guess all types of people connected to this show in all different ways. But for me what really got me loving this show is oddly something really stupid. Do you remember the Jennifer Love Hewitt show Ghost Whisperer? I mean, it wasn't that good of a show and the best thing about it was the opening credits... I mean, the logic of the show never quite worked but what always annoyed me was when Jennifer Love Hewitt's character, Melinda Gordon, was passing on the messages of the dead to their loved ones she edited what they said. She always paraphrased and pissed me off. I know it's because it was usually the guest actor of the week, I still can't believe Colin Firth's little brother Jonathan was one, and said guest actor would have a big speech and obviously you don't want to have Melinda repeat it verbatim, but it still pissed me off. This person came back from the dead to pass on this message and you can't bother to pass it on properly? Fuck you ghost whisperer. Which brings me to Mariko acting as John Blackthorne's interpreter. She is perfect. She repeats everything, she translates everything, and somehow it isn't repetitive, it just makes you satisfied at a job well done. Like a perfect line of poetry, it brings you peace.

Monday, December 9, 2024

Tuesday Tomorrow

We Are the Beasts by Gigi Griffis
Published by: Delacorte Press
Publication Date: December 10th, 2024
Format: Hardcover, 352 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"Deaths and disappearances pile up as a mysterious beast stalks the French countryside and two girls seize an unlikely opportunity that just might save them all - or serve them up on a platter.

Step into this chilling, historical horror inspired by the unsolved mystery of the Beast of Gévaudan.

When a series of brutal, mysterious deaths start plaguing the countryside and whispers of a beast in the mountains reach the quiet French hamlet of Mende, most people believe it's a curse - God's punishment for their sins.

But to sixteen-year-old Joséphine and her best friend, Clara, the beast isn't a curse. It's an opportunity.

For years, the girls of Mende have been living in a nightmare - fathers who drink, brothers who punch, homes that feel like prisons - and this is a chance to get them out.

Using the creature's attacks as cover, Joséphine and Clara set out to fake their friends' deaths and hide them away until it's safe to run. But escape is harder than they thought. If they can't brave a harsh winter with little food... If the villagers discover what they're doing... If the beast finds them first...

Those fake deaths might just become real ones."

You gotta take what opportunities you're given!

What the Woods Took by Courtney Gould
Published by: Wednesday Books
Publication Date: December 10th, 2024
Format: Hardcover, 336 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"Yellowjackets meets Girl, Interrupted when a group of troubled teens in a wilderness therapy program find themselves stranded in a forest full of monsters eager to take their place.

Devin Green wakes in the middle of the night to find two men in her bedroom. No stranger to a fight, she calls to her foster parents for help, but it soon becomes clear this is a planned abduction - one everyone but Devin signed up for. She's shoved in a van and driven deep into the Idaho woods, where she's dropped off with a cohort of equally confused teens. Finally, two camp counselors inform them that they've all been enrolled in an experimental therapy program. If the campers can learn to change their self-destructive ways - and survive a fifty-days hike through the wilderness - they'll come out the other side as better versions of themselves. Or so the counselors say.

Devin is immediately determined to escape. She's also determined to ignore Sheridan, the cruel-mouthed, lavender-haired bully who mocks every group exercise. But there's something strange about these woods - inhuman faces appearing between the trees, visions of people who shouldn't be there flashing in the leaves - and when the campers wake up to find both counselors missing, therapy becomes the least of their problems. Stranded and left to fend for themselves, the teens quickly realize they'll have to trust each other if they want to survive. But what lies in the woods may not be as dangerous as what the campers are hiding from each other - and if the monsters have their way, no one will leave the woods alive.

Atmospheric and sharp, What the Woods Took is a poignant story of transformation that explores the price of becoming someone - or something - new."

As long as there isn't cannibalism right? 

The Intruders by Louise Jensen
Published by: HQ
Publication Date: December 10th, 2024
Format: Paperback, 416 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"They were told to leave. They should have listened.

The perfect opportunity...

A manor house available rent-free to house-sitters is an offer too good to miss for Cass and James, who have been saving for a deposit on their own home for so long.

Although it had been abandoned for almost thirty years, after a home invasion left almost all the inhabitants dead, it is an amazing chance for them to build their future.

But is it worth the price?

Shortly after moving in things take a sinister turn. Objects disappear and turn up in odd places, the clock always stops at the same time, the house is strangely oppressive and sometimes it feels like Cass and James are not alone.

Newington House may have bad energy, and a dark reputation. But surely there's no reason for history to repeat itself, is there?"

I don't think I'd say cause it's rent-free... Now if I got the house for staying that might be a different matter...

Pretty Dead Things by Lilian West
Published by: Crooked Lane Books
Publication Date: December 10th, 2024
Format: Hardcover, 272 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"A bride-to-be's discovery of long-lost wedding rings at an estate sale reveals the key to a decades-old cold case in a small-town mystery perfect for fans of Louise Penny.

2024. Recently-engaged city girl Cora is new to the small town of Hickory Falls. Still adjusting to the change in pace, she's delighted when she stumbles upon a quaint estate sale. Drawn in by the knickknacks, she buys a jar of colorful baubles and is surprised to find two rings at the bottom of the jar. When she innocently sets out to find the original owner of the rings, she instead stumbles upon a decades-old mystery.

1953. Clarity Grey should've known better than to get involved with a married man, but their connection went too deep to ignore. When he divorces his wife for her, they marry, and she gets the family life she's always dreamed of, with a new stepdaughter and a child of her own. But just as suddenly, her new life slips out of her hands when she simply vanishes, never to be seen or heard of again.

Clarity is labeled as flakey and a homewrecker, so nobody in town takes her disappearance seriously - until Cora, seventy years later.

Told in dual timelines, this engrossing novel exposes one family's secrets and the twisted lies that are hidden in small towns."

Jumble sales to the rescue of cold cases!

The Birdcage Library by Freya Berry
Published by: Union Square and Co.
Publication Date: December 10th, 2024
Format: Paperback, 368 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"Spanning Gilded Age New York society to the 1930s Scottish Highlands, this Gothic novel is a mystery within a mystery, featuring a compelling heroine, an engrossing puzzle with fiendish clues, and not one but three big twists.

It's 1932: Scottish adventuress and plant-hunter (and surviving twin) Emily Blackwood, now living in Australia, accepts a commission from Heinrich Vogel, a former dealer of exotic animals in Manhattan. Vogel now lives with his macabre collection of taxidermy in a remote Scottish castle. Emily is tasked with finding a long-lost treasure that Heinrich believes has been hidden within the castle walls. But instead, she discovers the pages of a diary written by Hester Vogel, who died after falling from the Brooklyn Bridge on the eve of its opening in 1883. Hester's diary leads Emily to an old book, The Birdcage Library, and into a treasure hunt of another kind - one that will take her down a dangerous path for clues, and force her to confront her own darkest secret..."

I mean, you can't overstate how important rare birds were once upon a time. Mainly for their feathers and as specimens to show off your wealth... But still, important!

No Ordinary Duchess by Elizabeth Hoyt
Published by: Forever
Publication Date: December 10th, 2024
Format: Paperback, 352 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"From a New York Times bestselling author, the much-anticipated third novel in the Greycourt series.

Cold and brooding, Julian Greycourt, the heir to the Windemere dukedom, has always known that his uncle the duke was responsible for his mother's death. Now he's determined to exact revenge against his uncle - if he can find the proof. But Julian hides a secret so explosive it will destroy him if it's ever revealed, and the duke is watching. The last thing he needs is a distractingly sensual woman whose very presence threatens to destroy his plans.

Sunny and cheerful, Lady Elspeth de Moray doesn't know why her brother and Julian fell out all those years ago, but she can't let the autocratic man get in the way of her mission: to retrieve an ancient family text that she believes is in one of the Windemere libraries. Locating the tome, however, proves trickier than she anticipated, and at each turn, she's thrown together with the maddingly mysterious Julian. And the temptation to give in to her family's greatest enemy grows stronger with each intriguing encounter..."

So much yes!

UPROAR!: Staire, Scandal and Printmakers in Georgian London by Alice Loxton
Published by: Icon Books
Publication Date: December 10th, 2024
Format: Paperback, 416 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"London, 1772: a young artist called Thomas Rowlandson is making his way through the grimy backstreets of the capital, on his way to begin his studies at the Royal Academy Schools. Within a few years, James Gillray and Isaac Cruikshank would join him in Piccadilly, turning satire into an artform, taking on the British establishment, and forever changing the way we view power.

Set against a backdrop of royal madness, political intrigue, the birth of modern celebrity, French revolution, American independence and the Napoleonic Wars, UPROAR! follows the satirists as they lampoon those in power, from the Prince Regent to Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire. Their prints and illustrations deconstruct the political and social landscape with surreal and razor-sharp wit, as the three men vie with each other to create the most iconic images of the day.

Alice Loxton's writing fizzes with energy on every page, and never fails to convince us that Gillray and his gang profoundly altered British humor, setting the stage for everything from Gilbert and Sullivan to Private Eye and Spitting Image today. This is a book that will cause readers to reappraise everything they think they know about genteel Georgian London, and see it for what it was - a time of UPROAR!"

The rise of the political print was so influential that it has its own section in British history. And I argue it should also have its own section in art history...

Friday, December 6, 2024

The Umbrella Academy

Of all the shows my friends and I have watched on our Thursday Night Teleparties since the pandemic started The Umbrella Academy is easily my favorite. Each week I'd patiently wait for the next episode, and let me tell you, there's something about spending that prolonged time with them that makes the show hit so differently than if you binge it. They became my family, a wonderfully fucked up family of ex-childhood superheroes and their continued efforts to thwart the apocalypse that just seems to follow them wherever and whenever they go. The dark humor, the dancing, I was in love with all of it. Until the end. And let's acknowledge upfront, there was no way that the seven Hargreeves siblings and Lila were going to get a happy ending. This isn't the world that they live in. Time and time again they clawed their way to some sort of happiness only to have it brutally taken away. Their deaths were a given. I mean for most of the show one of them actually was dead. So I'm not arguing that ending, I'm arguing how they got there. And I probably should have said spoiler alert, they all die... Now I'm in no way blaming the actors and their spectacular work, it's the writers who let them down. In fact, the ending of season three, with the universe being rebooted would have been a preferable ending to this, whatever this was. Because it seemed like the writers weren't serving the characters, they were serving themselves. They had all these little ideas they'd been kicking around for years and decided to shoehorn them into the overall arc at the expense of the greater story. Why else would we have Klaus wasted on a storyline where he gets pimped out and has a ghost possess him to have sex with his ex? A job he does just to get the drugs. Oh, and he's also buried alive and rescued by a ghost dog, but again, how does this serve the overall story? It doesn't. Nor does Luther being a stripper or Diego working at the CIA or finally having Lila and Five be together. This season started strong because the family was together. But as soon as they separated them they started chipping away at what makes this show work. Their bickering and their badass skills are what brings them together. Also, they weren't paying attention to their own rules. Marigold, AKA what made them them, was a name Harlan gave to his powers. IT WAS NOT THE UNIVERSAL TERM! It was Harlan's term! But then again, they end with a big old plothole; a grandfather paradox. If the Hargreeves don't exist how do their children? It breaks the rules! I just wanted Five to pop in after the credits and be like, actually... This isn't how it happened. At this point you're thinking, damn, she hated this season, why did she rate it in her top ten adaptations of the year? Because I love me my Hargreeves. That's why. This might have ended on a whimper instead of a bang, though the end did kind of start with a bang, Ben and Jennifer sex joke! But it's still one of the best shows out there. It was clever, it was unique, and I want more. I'd be willing to totally forget this season ever happened in fact... But this season did give us something. Closure on why Luther was on the moon and Ben's death. We actually learned how Ben died, and it was way more brutal than you could ever have imagined. And then he died again with the worst CGI I've ever seen that is some horrific tribute to Junji Ito and Kaju. Though I'll let that go. I'll let it all go. So what if I had no emotional connection to this Ben. I at least got to see Megan Mullally and Nick Offerman get down to Cher. Something I imagine is a typical Saturday night for them.

Wednesday, December 4, 2024

The Fall of the House of Usher

When I first watched The Haunting of Hill House I realized that for the first time an adaptation got the source material. Not that it was actually a direct adaptation of Shirley Jackson's work. It was reinterpreted and remolded and what Mike Flanagan did was create a series that is in the spirit of the original and a loving tribute to it while being its own thing. It was the start of his Netflix empire, the Flanaverse. And the start of his "house" series. Because audiences adored The Haunting of Hill House and were demanding more. More of Mike Flanagan's unique take on classic literature. More spooky tales in amazing structures. They got their wish two years later with The Haunting of Bly Manor, an adaptation that actually made me no longer hate The Turn of the Screw. And that lead to speculation, what was next? He threw us for a loop when it turned out to be an original show followed by another adaptation without architecture but with amazing sets, but thankfully, he came to his senses and decided that after Shirley Jackson and Henry James he was bringing Edgar Allan Poe into the Flanaverse with The Fall of the House of Usher. And unlike The Haunting of Bly Manor he didn't even have to change the title! So he assembled his stable of actors, adding in Frank Langella, which turned out to be a massive mistake, and got to work. What I marvel at with this adaptation is how Mike Flanagan created a narrative that not only encompassed so many works by Poe but also was such a showcase for his actors with each of the six Usher children getting their own deadly tale. And yet, for all the Poe, this is something more, this is a story about greed, this is a story about the opioid crisis in America, this is a story that someone who doesn't know anything about Poe could watch and enjoy. Because while the "Poe" of it all is wonderful for the literary geeks out there hoping they'll do this or that, or in my case chanting for monkey carnage, this is more about a family falling apart because they made a deal with the devil. This show is, without doubt, based on the Sackler family. They owned Purdue Pharma and were a cornerstone if not the cornerstone of the opioid crisis we now face. There are so many films and television shows and documentaries on them, two, Painkiller and Pain Hustlers, also done by Netflix. Though Dopesick probably got the most attention and awards. These are all shows I avoided like the plague in "The Masque of the Red Death." I like escapism in my entertainment, not to wallow in human suffering. Even if I will admit it's very important shows like this are made. We need a record of what happened. But here, here we have the same evil told through a fantastical lens, and the fantasy aspects make the truth of what this family is doing all the more horrifying. But unlike lawsuits and the striping of a family's legacy, here we see them pay more viscerally for their crimes. The character of Verna, an anagram of Raven, has appeared to the Ushers because the time has come to pay the piper. And yes, that might just be "The Rains of Castamere" the piper is playing. Yet if you notice, for the "innocent" among the Ushers, she offers them a chance at redemption. Those who are not fully evil are given an out, a chance to not go there, and time and time again, they show that their greed, their villainy, is the true drive in their lives, and therefore they must die. This show is cathatic and wonderful and dark and perfectly encapsulates the human condition and as for Frank Langella? He couldn't have done what Bruce Greenwood does. Bruce Greenwood is Roderick Usher.

Monday, December 2, 2024

Tuesday Tomorrow

The Wrong Lady Meets Lord Right by Suzanne Allain
Published by: Berkley Books
Publication Date: December 3rd, 2024
Format: Paperback, 272 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"When a young woman trades places with her noble cousin, their innocent ruse leads to true love in this sparkling new Regency-era romantic comedy of manners from the author of Mr. Malcolm's List.

When Arabella Grant's wicked aunt dies suddenly, both Arabella and her cousin Lady Isabelle cannot help but feel relieved. She'd made their lives miserable, and now Lady Issie is free to read to her heart's content, and Bella is free from taunts about her ignoble birth.

Their newfound freedom is threatened, however, when Issie's great-aunt commands her to travel to London for a come-out Issie has never wanted. Issie, who is in poor health, is convinced she'll drop dead like her mother did if she drops into a curtsy before the queen. So when her great-aunt turns out to be nearsighted and can't tell the noble Lady Isabelle from her commoner cousin Arabella, Issie convinces Bella to take her place. Bella can attend all the exclusive entertainments that her lower birth would typically exclude her from, and Issie can stay in bed, her nose in a book.

Bella agrees to the scheme for her cousin's sake, but matters turn complicated when she meets the irresistible Lord Brooke. He begins courting her while under the impression she's the rich and aristocratic Lady Isabelle, who, unlike Bella, is a suitable bride for an eligible young earl. And Bella, who is convinced that she has met "Lord Right," worries what will happen when she reveals that he's actually fallen for...the wrong lady."

All the Regency romance swoon you could hope for!

Murder in Season by Mary Winters
Published by: Severn House
Publication Date: December 3rd, 2024
Format: Hardcover, 240 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"Join Countess turned advice columnist Amelia Amesbury as she tries to juggle a new Season and a new murder in this charmingly deadly historical mystery.

"A beautiful debutante, a wealthy widow, and a dead would-be baron. What could be more exciting?"

Countess by day, secret advice columnist by night, Amelia Amesbury has life happily balanced on a quill's edge...until her sister Margaret shows up in London under a blanket of scandal and Amelia is catapulted out of mourning and into the ton's unforgiving Season.

However Madge's Season debut is marred by a rather inconvenient death at the dining table as the infamous Mr. Radcliffe takes ill and is later confirmed dead by poisoning. With Madge being the last person to have cross words with the soon-to-be baron, the ton's gossip mill - and the police - are looking to pin the murder on her.

Adding to the ton's troubles is a jewellery thief targeting the most lavish of Society's houses. Is the murderer and the thief one in the same? It falls to Amelia once again to uncover the secrets buried deep within the pages before her sister goes down for the crimes.

Perfect for fans of witty historical mystery and Regency romances with a similar feel to Verity Bright and T.E. Kinsey."

Ah, but a jewel thief is so much classier than a lowly murderer. Yes, in my mind there's even class systems in the underworld.

Schemes and Scandals by Kelley Armstrong
Published by: Subterranean Press
Publication Date: December 3rd, 2024
Format: Hardcover, 176 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"It's Mallory Atkinson's first Christmas in Scotland. Victorian Scotland, that is. Also, as the twenty-first-century detective learns, Christmas really isn't a thing in Victorian Scotland. It's all about Hogmanay. But her boss, Dr. Duncan Gray, treats her to an early gift of tickets to the event of the season: a Charles Dickens reading. There, they bump into Lady Inglis - the lovely widow who has sent Gray sexy letters trying to entice him back to her bed.

Lady Inglis introduces Mallory to Dickens - the meeting of a lifetime - but in return she wants their help. She's being blackmailed. Someone stole letters she wrote to another lover and is threatening to publish them.

Mallory isn't sure what to make of Lady Inglis, but no woman deserves that, so she insists on taking the case with or without Gray's help. Growing tension between them soon tells Mallory that Gray is hiding a secret of his own. She has until Hogmanay to uncover the blackmailer…and, hopefully, to put things right with Gray so they can enjoy the holiday together.

Note this is not a full-length novel. It's a novella set after Disturbing the Dead."

Hogmanay and Dickens!?! That's the kind of holiday season I approve of. Heartily.

The Secret of the Three Fates by Jess Armstrong
Published by: Minotaur Books
Publication Date: December 3rd, 2024
Format: Hardcover, 336 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"Following the atmospheric and award-winning Gothic historical mystery debut, The Curse of Penryth Hall, USA Today bestselling author Jess Armstrong's heroine, Ruby Vaughn, returns in The Secret of the Three Fates, where the Scottish Hills hold ghosts of the past that threaten Ruby's present.

American heiress Ruby Vaughn still hasn't entirely forgiven her octogenarian employer and housemate Mr. Owen for bringing the occult into their lives during her recent trip to Cornwall. He claims their journey to Manhurst Castle in the Scottish Borders is simply to appraise and acquire illuminated manuscripts for their rare books shop, however when Ruby discovers there are no manuscripts and receives news of a séance to be held that very night, she begins to grow suspicious about the true reason why they have come.

The Great War left grieving families willing to sacrifice anything for the chance to say goodbye to a lost loved one. Mr. Owen is no exception. He is desperate to speak to his son, but he doesn't want to face the spirits alone. When the séance - hosted by a trio of mediums billing themselves as The Three Fates - goes awry, Mr. Owen's secrets begin to unravel, threatening to reveal a history that he has been running from for half his life.

Something Ruby knows all too well how to do.

When Ruby finds one of the Three Fates murdered the night of the séance, she and Mr. Owen quickly become the prime suspects. To clear their names, Ruby enlists the help of Ruan Kivell, the folk healer Pellar who helped her weeks before in Cornwall. As their investigation progresses Ruby and Ruan realize someone is determined to prevent them from uncovering the truth about what happened to the dead medium."

I am seriously considering doing a theme month where every book features mediums. I am such a sucker for spiritualism. 

The Peculiar Garden of Harriet Hunt by Chelsea Iversen
Published by: Sourcebooks Landmark
Publication Date: December 3rd, 2024
Format: Paperback, 320 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"True magic is found among the bluebells and brambles.

Harriet Hunt is completely alone. Her father disappeared months ago, leaving her to wander the halls of Sunnyside house, dwelling on a past she'd rather keep buried. She doesn't often venture beyond her front gate, instead relishing the feel of dirt under her fingernails and of soft moss beneath her feet. Consequently, she's been deemed a little too peculiar for popular Victorian society. This solitary life suits her fine, though - because, outside, magic awaits.

Harriet's garden is special. It's a wild place full of twisting ivy, vibrant plums, and a quiet power that buzzes like bees. Caring for this place, and keeping it from running rampant through the streets of her London suburb, is Harriet's purpose.

But a woman alone in the world is vulnerable. Soon, a sinister plot involving her father's disappearance begins to take shape, with Harriet herself at its center. Everything she holds dear - from the thorny roses she tends to her very freedom itself - is at stake. To save herself, Harriet will have to unearth her past, discover the secrets of her garden, and finally embrace the wild magic inside of her."

Yes, have the garden kill all suitors! Though that might be a darker tale...

A Five Letter Word for Love by Amy James
Published by: Avon Books
Publication Date: December 3rd, 2024
Format: Paperback, 368 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"A heartwarming and humorous romance in which an unlikely couple fall in love over Wordle.

Twenty-seven-year-old Emily doesn't have a lot going well in her life right now. She dreams of a creative career but works as a receptionist in an auto shop. She longs for big city life but lives in a small town on Prince Edward Island. She craves a close group of friends but is stuck with irritating, car-obsessed coworkers.

What Emily does have is a 300+ day streak on the New York Times Wordle. But one day, with only one guess left and no clue what the answer is, she's forced to turn to one of her irritating, car-obsessed coworkers, John, for help - and in doing so, realizes that he might not be so irritating after all.

As they make their way, word by word, toward a 365-day streak, Emily is drawn into a surprising romance that will take her outside of her comfort zone - and challenge everything she thought she knew about happiness, success, and love."

I love the cover design, I just wish somehow that they could have found a five letter word to use instead of "Letter..." Also I feel Emily's pain, I lost a 438 day streak because I forgot to play one day.

The Rivals by Jane Pek
Published by: Vintage
Publication Date: December 3rd, 2024
Format: Paperback, 416 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"A most anticipated book - A witty and thought-provoking mystery that reimagines the spy story to explore the nature of relationships in a digital age: the follow-up to Jane Pek's "thoroughly modern twist on classic detective fiction," The Verifiers (New York Times Book Review)

Claudia Lin - mystery novel superfan and, until recently, clichéd underemployed English major - has scored her dream job: co-running Veracity, a dating detective agency for chronically online New Yorkers who want to know if their prospective partners are telling the truth. Unfortunately, along the way, she and her colleagues - tech savant Squirrel, and the elegant and intimidating Becks - have uncovered a far-reaching AI conspiracy. And the corporate matchmakers may be resorting to murder to protect their secrets.

In the wake of a client's sudden death, Claudia convinces his ex, an industry insider, to turn on his employer and feed the verifiers information about what the powerful dating platforms are really up to. But even as Claudia starts to get a feel for this new genre - just call her Lin, Claudia Lin - she's distracted by the possibility of romance with both Becks and a very charming target. She also fears that her beloved older brother is unwittingly being drawn into the matchmakers' deadly web. And as Becks reminds Claudia: spy tropes dictate that someone you trust will betray you."

Eh, but only sloppy writing and sloppy living means you fall for tropes...

I Might Be in Trouble by Daniel Aleman
Published by: Grand Central Publishing
Publication Date: December 3rd, 2024
Format: Hardcover, 336 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"A suspenseful dark comedy about a struggling writer who wakes up to find his date from the night before dead - and must then decide how far he's willing to go to spin the misadventure into his next big book.

A few years ago, David Alvarez had it all: a six-figure book deal, a loving boyfriend, and an exciting writing career. His debut novel was a resounding success, which made the publication of his second book - a total flop - all the more devastating. Now, David is single, lonely, and desperately trying to come up with the next great idea for his third manuscript, one that will redeem him in the eyes of readers, reviewers, the entire publishing world...and maybe even his ex-boyfriend.

But good ideas are hard to come by, and the mounting pressure of a near-empty bank account isn't helping. When David connects with a sexy stranger on a dating app, he figures a wild night out in New York City may be just what he needs to find inspiration. Lucky for him, his date turns out to be handsome, confident, and wealthy, not to mention the perfect distraction from yet another evening staring at a blank screen.

After one of the best nights of his life, David wakes up hungover but giddy - only to find prince charming dead next to him in bed. Horrified, completely confused, and suddenly faced with the implausible-but-somehow-plausible idea that he may have actually killed his date, David calls the only person he can trust in a moment of crisis: his literary agent, Stacey.

Together, David and Stacey must untangle the events of the previous night, cover their tracks, and spin the entire misadventure into David's career-defining novel - if only they can figure out what to do with the body first."

But hear me out... His sales would have gone up if he was a suspect in a murder... So, he could have just called the cops...

The Party by Natasha Preston
Published by: Delacorte Press
Publication Date: December 3rd, 2024
Format: Paperback, 352 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"#1 New York Times and USA Today bestselling author Natasha Preston is back with another pulse-pounding, twisty read!

Are you invited?

In the heart of the English countryside, Bessie and her closest friends gather at a remote castle for a secret party destined to make this the best spring break ever. But when the first of them dies, the party takes a lethal turn.

As the body count continues to rise, Bessie and her friends must contend with a deadly storm and growing internal suspicion, all while trapped inside with a killer.

Set against the backdrop of a sprawling English estate, Natasha Preston's latest thriller will keep you on the edge of your seat until the party's over..."

The sprawling English Estate will hopefully distract me from obsessing over the fact that I've totally seen the stock imagery on the cover before...

Havoc by Christopher Bollen
Published by: Harper
Publication Date: December 3rd, 2024
Format: Hardcover, 256 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"In the vein of The Bad Seed comes a twisty, atmospheric psychological suspense about a meddlesome elderly guest at a decadent luxury hotel who believes she has left her problematic past behind, until she decides to interfere in the lives of a young mother and her eight-year-old son, and finally meets her wicked match.

The war between age and youth has never been so vicious.

Eighty-one-year-old widow Maggie Burkhardt came to the Royal Karnak to escape. But not in quite the same way as most other guests who are relaxing at this threadbare luxury hotel on the banks of the Nile. Maggie, a compulsive fixer of other people's lives, may have found herself in hot water at her last hotel in Switzerland and just might have needed to get out of there fast... But here at the Royal Karnak, under the hot Saharan sun, she has a comfortable suite, a loyal confidante in the hotel manager, Ahmed, and a handful of sympathetic friends, similar "long-termers" who understand her still-vivid grief for her late husband, Peter. Here, she is merely the sweet old lady in Room 309.

One morning, however, Maggie notices a new arrival at check-in: a mournful-looking young mother named Tess and her impish eight-year-old, Otto. Eager to help, Maggie invites them into her world. But it isn't long before Maggie realizes that in her longing to be a part of their family, she has let in an enemy much stronger than she bargained for. In scrawny, homely Otto, Maggie Burkhardt has finally met her match.

A propulsive, addictively-readable breakout from the critically acclaimed author of A Beautiful Crime and The Lost Americans, Havoc is brilliant, twisty psychological suspense that will get under your skin like the most unforgettable Hitchcock classics."

Evil kid in an Egyptian hotel with Hitchcock vibes? I NEED THIS RIGHT NOW!

Alter Ego by Alex Segura
Published by: Flatiron Books
Publication Date: December 3rd, 2024
Format: Hardcover, 320 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"Alex Segura, award-winning author of Secret Identity, returns with a clever and escapist standalone sequel set in the world of comic books. In the present day, a comics legend is given the chance to revive a beloved but forgotten character. But at what price?

Annie Bustamante is a cultural force like none other: an acclaimed filmmaker, an author, a comic book artist known for one of the all time best superhero comics in recent memory. But she's never been able to tackle her longtime favorite superhero, the Lethal Lynx. Only known to the most die-hard comics fans and long out of print, the rights were never available - until now.

But Annie is skeptical of who is making the offer: Bert Carlyle's father started Triumph Comics, and has long claimed ownership of the Lynx. When she starts getting anonymous messages urging her not to trust anyone, Annie's inner alarms go off. Even worse? Carlyle wants to pair her with a disgraced filmmaker for a desperate media play.

Annie, who has been called a genius, a sell-out, a visionary, a hack, and everything else under the sun, is sick of the money grab. For the first time since she started reading a tattered copy of The Legendary Lynx #1 as a kid, she feels a pure, creative spark. The chance to tell a story her way. She's not about to let that go. Even if it means uncovering the dark truth about the character she loves.

Sharply written, deftly plotted, and with a palpable affection for all kinds of storytelling, Alter Ego is a one-of-a-kind reading experience."

I mean, it's like a car crash, you can't turn away. Unexploited IP in comics? Let the trolls run wild!

Cult of the Lamb Volume 1: The First Verse by Alex Paknadel and Troy Little
Published by: Oni Press
Publication Date: December 3rd, 2024
Format: Paperback, 104 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"In partnership with Devolver Digital and Massive Monster, Oni Press proudly presents Cult of the Lamb: The First Verse - the hugely anticipated first official graphic novel exploration into the sprawling cosmology of the millions-selling, multiple BAFTA Award-nominated video game phenomenon that has Polygon begging players to "smash that worship button"!

In a land pervaded by cruelty and evil, the most innocent among us - young Lamb - was selected to become a noble sacrifice.... Their death would be the magical rite that would forever seal the darkest of the Old Gods out of our realm and usher in a new age of bounty.

So Lamb died...but then they made a deal of their own.

At the crossroads of eternity, Lamb was met by the imprisoned deity known as the One Who Waits, who revealed the falsehoods and distortions of the false prophets who rule the world and the Old Faith. And so, Lamb was given a choice: Enter oblivion as intended...or return to the land of living with unholy powers and deliver a new cult unto the Earth.

The Four Bishops of the Old Faith must fall. The disbelievers must be destroyed. And, as Lamb assembles their flock, a new master shall reign over all of creation. Praise be to the Cult of the Lamb! From acclaimed writer Alex Paknadel (All Against All, Red Goblin) and Eisner Award-nominated artist Troy Little (Rick and Morty vs. Dungeons and Dragons, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas) comes a deviously delightful, heretic-smashing excursion into the borderlands of the worldwide video game hit that IGN calls "adorably demonic."

Collects Cult of the Lamb (2024) #1-4."

Every week when I saw this comic in my email I thought, I really want to read that... And now I can!

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