strange and random happenstance

The Great Deceiver by Elly Griffiths
Published by: Quercus Publishing
Publication Date: October 24th, 2023
Format: Hardcover, 352 Pages
Rating: ★★★★
To Buy

Anyone who has ever tread the boards knows that performers are a rum lot. The distillation of this can be seen in the places they lay their heads. 84 Marine Parade is a boarding house run for vaudeville types by Linda Knight with the help of her live-in maid Annie. There's a comradery there as most of those currently in residence are performing in Larry Buxton's nostalgic review down on the pier. Which is why the murder of Cherry Underwood shocks them all. WDC Meg Connolly is on the scene in Brighton talking to the boarders while Max Mephisto is learning about the murder from the prime suspect. Up in London. Ted English, The Great Deceiver, has fled Brighton to accost his old colleague and beg him for help. Cherry was Ted's assistant. Having heard that Max is close to the head of Brighton police he has come to ask that he put in a good word. Which Max is willing to do, mainly just to get ride of Ted, as Max has places to be and a new granddaughter to see. While back in Brighton Meg is getting to know the denizens on the house, a strongwoman, Ida Lupin, a double act, the comedians Geoffrey Bigg and Perry Small, and singer Mario Fontana, AKA John Lomax. All with names and professions evoking the glory days of variety which is seeing a bit of a resurgence as the country embraces nostalgia. Because this is such a tight, incestuous community, where everyone has worked with everyone at some time or other Max's help would be much appreciated. Even if he doesn't exactly clear Ted's name, instead linking Ted to a rather notorious crowd of performers. The most famous of which is Gordon Palgrave. Pal is a nasty piece of work, especially when it comes to women. Cherry was his assistant for a time but now he's in television with a hit show. Literally. It's called Hug or Hit. It doesn't take a genius to work out the premise. But he's the genius who came up with it. He ran with Ted English, Tommy Horton, Rex King, and Dazzling Dave Dunkley back in the day. They passed around their assistants just like they passed around their wives. Dazzling Dave has been tapped to replace Ted English in the nostalgia show. His assistant, Joanie Waters, used to work for Tommy Horton, but he's now in a home, and she's fond of Dave, he's an eternal optimist, thinking that the next thing will be their big break, despite both of them getting on in years. Joanie is the second victim. This second murder opens new doors and indicates they have a serial killer on their hands. A serial killer who is targeting this group and this show. While Emma and Sam have been hired by Cherry's family to find her killer, they're willing to pool their resources with Edgar, Meg, and Max to catch a killer. And Max has an idea. The show is transferring to the West End and has an opening. Max wants to tread the boards again. Is their any chance that WDC Meg Connolly would like to go undercover as his assistant to catch a killer? It might be their only option.

As anyone who has been following my reviews knows that I was less than kind to this series when it skipped ahead a decade between the forth and fifth books. I still stand by this criticism, it was well deserved. Characters I had known and loved had changed so radically that I no longer recognized them. It was all anger and friction and just, not the series I loved. So why did I like this book? Well, I could be cynical, it is after all in my nature, and say that in the three years between reading The Midnight Hour and The Great Deceiver that I had missed the characters so much that I was willing to accept them no matter how inferior their current iterations were. But I actually don't think this is the case. I think that while The Midnight Hour had done a little to try to right this sinking ship that started taking on water with Now You See Them, The Great Deceiver found stability. The reason is actually quite simple. The characters have adjusted to their new roles and their complicated intertwined lives and instead of being at loggerheads they decided to pull together. The internecine politics have settled. Emma is no longer as jealous of Edgar and Meg. Edgar is encouraging of Emma and Sam's private detective agency. Max and Sam are somehow still a thing which is probably the main thing that still doesn't work, but I'm willing to overlook it in that I felt the magic again. A lot of this has to do with firmly entrenching this mystery within the vaudeville world again. I know as time goes on and the world moves on, vaudeville became less and less a thing and television was taking over, but that's what makes these mysteries work. They're old fashioned with a hint of modernity sneaking in. Which is why the lost decade was such a disservice to this series as a whole. But here Elly Griffiths latches on to, not just the bygone days, but to the very real reckoning of #MeToo. The creepy Pal and his cronies. These are men who are not good people and never were. Women were disposable to them and even interchangeable to a certain extent. Which is why I loved seeing them brought to their just desserts. Men in power need to be held accountable, and the sad thing is, especially during the sixties, women were never in power. Which is why Max's daughter and Meg are such important characters. I at first didn't like Meg in the least. She didn't work. And, well, Ruby, she was just in the way of Emma and Edgar finding their HEA. But now, I can see why Elly Griffiths is reforming the series with them. They are the future. Ruby and her Bewitched like television stardom while also being a single mother! Meg realizing she can be with whomever she wants, cops or sexy travelers. Though where I really felt Meg shine was as Max's assistant. They worked out a routine that played to the strengths of both and was about this female assistant, this shadow, being, for once, the equal of the magician. She's ready to step out of the shadows and into the spotlight. I just hope that this series continues. That I can get the word out there somehow that readers shouldn't give up. Because I had, and then I ordered this book from Waterstones because at least I'd have a signed first edition from an author whose work I had previously loved and was so pleasantly surprised I can't begin to actually properly express how I feel. My thoughts and words are a tad jumbled even after writing this. Just pick it up and see if you agree.

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments  

Labels: #MeToo, Boarding House, Brighton, Elly Griffiths, Magic Men, Max Mephisto, Murder, Murder Most Foul, Nostalgia, Now You See Them, Serial Killer, Television, The Great Deceiver, The Midnight Hour, Vaudeville

The Midnight Hour by Elly Griffiths
Published by: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
Publication Date: September 30th, 2021
Format: Kindle, 352 Pages
Rating: ★★
To Buy (different edition than one reviewed)

Bert Billington has been poisoned. This isn't exactly surprising as the theatrical impresario had made a lot of enemies in his long life. He was a womanizer and a cheat and so obviously suspicion falls on his wife, Verity Malone. Verity was once a very comely young thing. Everyone had picture cards of her, Max Mephisto even had a dalliance with her, but when she married Bert she became a stalwart housewife, raising their three children in the luxury to which Bert provided. But she was the only one there when he died. So she is the only suspect. And the police don't seem to be too keen to look elsewhere. She could have finally snapped after years of infidelity after all... Which is why Verity reaches out to Emma and Sam to exonerate her. Sure, it might be a bit sticky, Emma being married to the chief of police, but they expected that once she and Sam went into business for themselves that just such an occasion could arise. It just happened a little sooner than they expected. It's their first big case and they want to do right by Verity so they start digging into Bert's Music Hall past and are even given a list of all his women. To say this man had affairs is an understatement. If Verity had wanted revenge why did she wait so long? It just doesn't add up. His eldest son now runs the family business and they actually have women coming out of the woodwork with children they claim are Bert's. More rather than less are credible. Plus there was that nasty business years ago when his affections strayed from his mistress and she went on to kill herself and their child. It shook them all but Bert didn't change his ways. Emma and Sam even reach out to Max to see what he thought about Bert. As luck would have it Max might be more well placed than they could have imagined. Not only did he work with Bert back in the day, he was canoodling with Verity, and as of this moment he's starring in a Dracula film shooting up in Whitby with Bert's son Seth Billington. Maybe Seth, the light of his mother's life, wanted to avenge her? The fact is, with the way Bert lived there were a lot of people who could enact revenge. The question is who? The answer could very well even be Verity.

On the ninth and final season of Dynasty Sable crossed over from the lamentably cancelled The Colbys and got involved in a delicious relationship with Alexis's ex, Dex Dexter. Sable found out she was pregnant and had no plans to marry Dex, even if it would have destroyed her cousin Alexis once and for all. You might be asking why am I mentioning this in a book review, well, change furs for jewels and you have one of the plot points of The Midnight Hour. Yes, Ruby, Max's daughter, is pregnant by none other than a supposedly different Dex Dexter! While I disagree with people who say that Dynasty had lost it's magic in it's final season if you were to ask me if The Brighton Mysteries have lost their magic I would say undoubtedly yes. I mean even in the literal sense because they've renamed it The Brighton Mysteries from The Magic Men Mysteries! I'm sorry, but it's just not working. This second book after the time jump felt like Elly Griffiths was desperately trying to right a sinking ship. Frantically refocusing on the dying world of variety it had eschewed in Now You See Them it felt like it was grasping at straws to regain the fans it had lost with that previous installment. And as for the refocusing on feminine crime solvers, this series has always been fiercely feminine despite the series previously being named after the Magic Men and the continual conks on the noggin to the heroines, but here it's become darker, more toxically feminine. Men are evil and to be destroyed. There was just rancor and vitriol spewing off these pages. Yes, Bert deserved to die. Yes, he was an evil man. But does this mean all men are evil? No. Flawed, yes, evil no. A sad sack neighbor brings flowers and Verity can only see the machinations of the male of the species. I just can't with this negativity. And as for our new erstwhile heroine? I want to like Meg, I long to like Meg, I just am literally indifferent to Meg. She lacks the allure of Max, and yes, I'm saying "allure" like Miranda Hart because I will never picture anyone else as Meg. Meg feels like she is, along with Sam, trying to fill the Emma void with her becoming domesticated, but it just isn't working. And as for Sam and Max, please, dear God no. Just no.

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments  

Labels: Brighton, Dex Dexter, Dracula, Dynasty, Elly Griffiths, Magic Men, Max Mephisto, Miranda Hart, Murder Most Foul, Now You See Them, Sable Colby, The Brighton Mysteries, The Colbys, The Midnight Hour, Whitby

Now You See Them by Elly Griffiths
Published by: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
Publication Date: October, 3rd 2019
Format: Kindle, 352 Pages
Rating: ★
To Buy (different edition than one reviewed)

Ten years and three kids ago Edgar Stephens proposed to Emma Holmes. They were are the start of their lives together. Emma had loved Edgar so fiercely while Edgar was blinded by the dazzle that was his fiance Ruby, the daughter of his best friend, the famous magician Max Mephisto. Since their last case together in 1953 they all went in different directions; Edgar and Emma to wedded bliss, Ruby to television stardom, and Max to Hollywood where even he settled down and had a few more kids with a starlet. They are reunited in Brighton for the funeral of Diablo. Who would have thought the irascible old performer would last this long? But the funeral brings them all together to catch up. Only none of their lives are as perfect as they seem. Emma in particular is dissatisfied with her lot. Her husband is now chief of police whereas she's chief of nappies. They should never have had a third kid. Sure Edgar was happy to finally have a son, but Emma was finally thinking that she would be out from under the yoke of domesticity and could get back to work. She was once the amazing Emma Holmes, always cracking the case. Now Edgar is always talking about the young girl who has replaced her on the force, Meg. Damn Meg, damn nappies, damn them all. When a young girl goes missing from Emma's old school Roedean, she wants in on the case. She HAS to be in on the case. It's the only thing that will make her feel human again. With the help of her friend, local journalist Sam, the two of them start to uncover clues that this girl's disappearance is just one of many. Clues they decide to withhold from the police who are more concerned with a film star the missing girl was obsessed with. But Emma makes serious errors in judgement. Again and again. She has been out of the game too long and her desire to prove her worth clashes with her judgement and it places everyone in danger. But worst is that she has endangered her own daughter. Will they be able to save her daughter as the police have to deal with the violence of the Mods and the Rockers on the beaches or will it be too late?

I don't want to be all cliched and say this series has lost it's magic, because at this point I haven't read The Midnight Hour so it might redeem itself, but I have never read a series that went from sublime to shit so quickly. The time jump could be blamed, but I don't really think that's the source of the problems. It's just that everything about the book is wrong. Instead of letting the mystery be the driving force it's on the back burner until the last minute with a solution that I saw from the start and the cringeworthy cliche of child in danger and oodles of violence towards women. And as for the characters? Can we talk about a more morose and miserable lot? What happened to these people I knew and loved? Yes, ten years can change a lot, but it's more like Elly Griffiths lost her connection to the characters... Rivalry among the women? Emma who is now a stay at home mom is jealous of the new female cop Meg just because that used to be her? Emma could have welcomed Meg with open arms as the next generation, the woman to carry on her legacy, but no, that wouldn't be in fitting with this series new grim aesthetic. And as for Meg not liking Emma without even meeting her? Please. And that's not even my biggest issue! Was the point of this whole book to explode the myth of happily ever after with Emma and Edgar's marriage being so steeped in dissatisfaction? I mean, couldn't that at least have been a source of joy? A source of at least some version of contentment for at least one of them? I just wanted to yell at everyone and say that this wasn't them, following which I would channel Cher and tell them to snap out of it. What's most annoying though is if you look hard enough the elements were here, we could have had Max doing some Maxim de Winter shit at his big county house now that he's lord of the manor, we could have had Ruby doing a British Bewitched, instead, everyone is bemoaning and bitching about EVERYTHING. Which makes me bemoan and bitch about what happened to my favorite new series. Seriously, what happened? Where is the magic!?!

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments  

Labels: Bewitched, Brighton, Cher, Disappearance, Edgar Stephens, Elly Griffiths, Emma Holmes, Hollywood, Magic Men, Max Mephisto, Maxim de Winter, Moonstruck, Murder Most Foul, Now You See Them, The Midnight Hour

The Vanishing Box by Elly Griffiths
Published by: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
Publication Date: November 2nd, 2017
Format: Kindle, 368 Pages
Rating: ★★★★★
To Buy (different edition than one reviewed)

Max Mephisto and his daughter Ruby may be top billing at the Brighton Hippodrome for the holiday season but if Max ever wanted a clear sign that variety is on it's way out he need look no further than the rest of the bill. To be on the bill with a tawdry tableau act of "living statues" perfectly posed so as to skirt the nudity laws is lowering to say the least. But the salacious act might have one benefit, in the very attractive Florence Jones. There's no doubt about it, she's turned Max's head with her Cleopatra tableau and her forthright attitude. She's the type of woman who is the total package, a woman who has Max thinking about the future and marriage. He has been comfortably ensconced with Mrs. M since he left the cold attic room of his landlady's house for her bed but Florence is the type of woman whom you have passionate sex with at a hotel under assumed names in the middle of the day while contemplating the future. They might both be entangled with others, Florence being a kept woman to her show's producer, Vic Cutler, and Max with Mrs. M, but their attraction goes beyond what they are both getting out of their current relationships. In other relationship news Edgar is starting to drift from Ruby. They have been engaged for so long now that it seems unlikely they will ever be married. Something Emma wouldn't mind in the least. But affairs of the heart will have to take a backseat to murder. A young florist named Lily has been slain. Two of the girls from the tableau show were sharing digs with her. What the police don't want people to know is that Lily was posed. Like a classical tableau. In fact, she was posed like a famous painting. But she wasn't in show business despite her digs. In fact it was Lily's mother who was in show business and recommended the digs to her daughter. Could Lily's murder have something to do with the show at the Hippodrome? When Vic Cutler turns up dead it seems a foregone conclusion. Which means, who could be next? Are Ruby and Max in danger? Or someone closer to Edgar's heart?

The Vanishing Box is the turning point for this series. What was predominately a male dominated series is shifting to a female dominated series and in order for that transition to be complete the Emma and Ruby problem has to be laid to rest. Which means it's time for a showdown. Ever since she first appeared on the page I've been rooting for Emma, we've all been rooting for Emma. She's the perfect match for Edgar. Ruby is glamorous, standoffish, and keeps Edgar at a remove, never confirming a date for their wedding or even admitting they are engaged because she knows her life goals are so different from his. So obviously they were never going to work and Emma and Edgar are endgame. What I took issue with was here Elly Griffiths backpedals on Edgar and Ruby's true feelings for each other. We're supposed to believe that deep down Edgar has always loved Emma and that Ruby actually deeply cares about Edgar and is sad their relationship has come to an end? I don't know what books the author thought she was writing, but this wasn't what was going on. Yes, humanizing Ruby is necessary. She can't live up on that pedestal forever, but she could have locked down Edgar at any time and she chose not to. That was her choice. Don't rewrite it mawkishly to be some sort of unrequited or doomed love affair because I am not buying it. Especially with the bigger themes at play here. The Emma and Ruby dynamic feeds into how women are viewed by society. With the tableau we are shown a world in which women are nothing more than objects. They are there to be looked at and lusted after. But they don't have any agency. Whereas Emma is a woman with nothing but agency. She has a job and goals and is breaking away for societal expectations. With the humanization of Ruby we see her moving from an ideal, in particular Edgar's ideal, to an actual living and breathing person who is more similar to Emma than Emma would probably like to admit. The Vanishing Box fits perfectly into it's era and women's liberation. Women are no longer just the focus of men's gazes. They are cops and magicians and florists and writers and on and on. Yet the killer views them as the feminine ideal. The male feminine ideal. Which is why I love when the women take over the tableau show. They were exploited by men, but now, in control, they say what is and isn't permissible. Women finally have the power. But does that mean we have to say goodbye to Edgar and Max? Only time will tell.

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments  

Labels: Brighton, Edgar Stephens, Elly Griffiths, Emma Holmes, Endgame, Feminism, Living Statues, Magic Men, Magician, Max Mephisto, Murder, Murder Most Foul, Mystery, Tableau, The Vanishing Box, Variety, Women's Liberation

Smoke and Mirrors by Elly Griffiths
Published by: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
Publication Date: November 5th, 2015
Format: Kindle, 352 Pages
Rating: ★★★★★
To Buy (different edition than one reviewed)

The holiday season has descended on Brighton, which means it's Panto time! In seaside towns across England theaters are getting ready to open up for the Christmas season. In Brighton it's caused rather a stir that Max Mephisto is going to be staring in a production of Aladdin as the villainous Abanazar. But soon it's not the pantomime or the unending snow that is the number one conversation in Brighton, it's the disappearance of two children, Annie and Mark. Sadly there will be no happy ending in this case as their small bodies are found under the snow. They are staged like some sick version of Hansel and Gretel with candy strewn about their bodies. Who would abduct these children, destroying two families in the process? As Edgar starts to dig into the lives of Annie and Mark he realizes how amazingly talented and beloved these best friends were. They loved staging plays at an "uncle's" house. Annie would write all the dialogue while Mark was the production assistant. They had their own troupe of players, younger kids who admired them and in particular Annie's ability with a dark twist. The kids feed on dark material and are encouraged by their teacher, Miss Young, who loves to recount the darker of Grimms' Fairy Tales to her pupils. This raises eyebrows amongst the police force. Do children really crave and understand darkness like Miss Young insists? Annie's plays may indicate that this is the case, though to Edgar it makes Miss Young their prime suspect. That is until she is murdered as well. Desperate Edgar turns to his fellow Magic Man Max Mephisto to try to get a grip on the theatrical and fantastical aspects of these crimes and learns of a similar case years earlier that eerily echoes the one they are investigating. But that murder was so long ago and the culprit was caught and hanged. Could this be a copycat killer? Anything is possible, but there's one thing Edgar knows, he will do everything in his power to catch the killer before they strike again. The snow may fall, the wind may whip, but justice will be served.

As an ardent Anglophile there is one thing I will just never get and that's Panto. Whatever theatrical traditions it's origins, it has evolved, or in my opinion, devolved, into this weird spectacle of garish costumes, cross-dressing, lewd humor, and tons of double entendres. Like variety shows your grandmother would force you to watch where all the humor seems out of date and you are praying for it to be over but based on fairy tales or folklore, like Dick Whittington's cat, making it somehow more inherently English in the process. So the Brits actually go to these shows over the holiday season, most of the productions staring former B-List or lower celebrities, with the rare A-lister, all of whom are willing to tart themselves up to make the kiddies laugh. Yet that seedy celebrity angle combined with the fact that it's done for children gives it a duel edge that can go from cute to creepy in a second. Therefore it's the perfect backdrop for the investigation of the murder of some children. It somehow feeds into it so well. Yes, the murder of children will always have a seamy side, because what perverted person would cut a life so short. But having this added creepiness made this mystery something so much more. In fact, what it reminded me of, not the least of which because of the 1950s setting, is the second Flavia De Luce book, The Weed that Strings the Hangman's Bag. This is easily my favorite book in Alan Bradley's series, but more importantly, it's one of my most favorite mysteries ever and it deals with the murder of a beloved children's puppeteer. I can't get enough of murder mysteries that bridge the gap between horror and innocence, when it's done right, and Smoke and Mirrors does it oh so right. And as if this book couldn't be more perfect the fairy tale "Hans My Hedgehog" plays an important role. This is one of the fairy tales that was adapted for Jim Henson's The Storyteller and is therefore a favorite of mine. I feel like not enough people embrace how wonderful it is and am glad to find an author who agrees. Don't be surprised if this makes in on my top ten list of books I read in 2021.

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments  

Labels: Aladdin, Brighton, Elly Griffiths, Grimms' Fairy Tales, Hans My Headgehog, Jim Henson, Magic Men, Murder Most Foul, Panto, Smoke and Mirrors, The Storyteller, The Weed that Strings the Hangman's Bag

The Zig Zag Girl by Elly Griffiths
Published by: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
Publication Date: November 6th, 2014
Format: Kindle, 338 Pages
Rating: ★★★
To Buy (different edition than one reviewed)

A woman's body has been found in the Brighton train depot. Cut and placed in three boxes, one of which was sent directly to the police station. The task of catching the killer falls to Detective Inspector Edgar Stephens. His first thought is that the presentation of the body is rather theatrical. In fact it reminds him of a magic trick created by the great Max Mephisto called "The Zig Zag Girl" that he saw with his brother before the war. Edgar's hunch is confirmed when the identity of the victim turns out to be Max's old assistant, Ethel. Edgar got to know Max during the war. They served together in a unit called the Magic Men. The unit was basically a ghost unit running magicians up in Scotland to confound the Nazis, with Edgar being a civilian recruited to the MI5 unit due to his crossword savvy. None of them look back too fondly on the time, aside from losing the love of his life, Edgar had an easy war, unlike his brother who didn't survive it, something he is sure his mother is still holding against him. Edgar therefore felt it imperative that his life mean something, and instead of going back to college he joined the police. Max on the other hand liked having an audience, which is why as soon as the war was over he went back to the stage, as did their comrades Stan "The Great Diablo" Parks and Tony Mulholland. No one has heard from Diablo in years, but it can't be a coincidence that Max arrives in Brighton and is on the same bill as Tony Mulholland right when Edgar is looking into the murder being linked to the Magic Men. There is no doubt they are being targeted when Tony, who had his sights on taking his "magic" and "mesmerism" to the next level with American television, ends up dead right when he had something important to tell Edgar. This is personal. What's more, the killer isn't just targeting them now, they are being baited. "The Wolf Trap" will be their next trick, but who will be the victim?

There are few people whose book recommendations I always heed. One of those people is Lauren Willig. When she said that Elly Griffiths's series known as "The Brighton Mysteries" or "The Magic Men Mysteries," depending on where you are in the series, as Endeavour set in Brighton, I knew I had to instantly read them. Because in all seriousness, who doesn't need an Inspector Morse fix every once in awhile? And I instantly got the Morse vibe with Edgar Stephens and his crosswords, but with the Max Mephisto side of this I was getting a distinct Lost Empires vibe. Lost Empires is a horridly depressing adaptation of the book by the same name by L.B. Priestley about a young man played by Colin Firth and his experiences in music halls on the eve of the first World War. Other than being a completest, there was no reason I watched this miniseries to it's grueling end until now. Because that little extra insight of what it's like to travel from town to town and theater to theater made me understand Max's life and made Lost Empires worth it. And I seriously thought watching Lost Empires would never pay off in any tangible way other than giving me nightmares about Laurence Olivier dressed up as a munchkin offing himself. As for the book itself? There's no getting around the fact that it was obviously written as the first in a series. So while this book could work on it's own, it really works better knowing that this is setting everything up for the continued success of the series. This means that the plot was rather predictable. When a group of formally close colleagues that have a secret and a past start getting targeted, well, it's kind of obvious who's behind it all. So for me the plot just plodded along until the final reveal I had seen coming from the beginning. That isn't to say this book didn't work, it did, but as a character study. This was all about meeting the characters and understanding them for the adventures that are to come. And, oh, they are wonderful adventures. But the first outing... it suffers because of what it is and what it's meant to be. There is no mystery to solve there.

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments  

Labels: Brighton, Colin Firth, Crosswords, Edgar Stephens, Elly Griffiths, Endeavour, Ghost Armies, Inspector Morse, Laurence Olivier, Lost Empires, Magic Men, Max Mephisto, Murder, Murder Most Foul, The Zig Zag Girl, WWI

Smoke and Mirrors by Elly Griffiths
Published by: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
Publication Date: November 5th, 2015
Format: Kindle, 352 Pages
Rating: ★★★★★
To Buy (different edition than one reviewed)

The holiday season has descended on Brighton, which means it's Panto time! In seaside towns across England theaters are getting ready to open up for the Christmas season. In Brighton it's caused rather a stir that Max Mephisto is going to be staring in a production of Aladdin as the villainous Abanazar. But soon it's not the pantomime or the unending snow that is the number one conversation in Brighton, it's the disappearance of two children, Annie and Mark. Sadly there will be no happy ending in this case as their small bodies are found under the snow. They are staged like some sick version of Hansel and Gretel with candy strewn about their bodies. Who would abduct these children, destroying two families in the process? As Edgar starts to dig into the lives of Annie and Mark he realizes how amazingly talented and beloved these best friends were. They loved staging plays at an "uncle's" house. Annie would write all the dialogue while Mark was the production assistant. They had their own troupe of players, younger kids who admired them and in particular Annie's ability with a dark twist. The kids feed on dark material and are encouraged by their teacher, Miss Young, who loves to recount the darker of Grimms' Fairy Tales to her pupils. This raises eyebrows amongst the police force. Do children really crave and understand darkness like Miss Young insists? Annie's plays may indicate that this is the case, though to Edgar it makes Miss Young their prime suspect. That is until she is murdered as well. Desperate Edgar turns to his fellow Magic Man Max Mephisto to try to get a grip on the theatrical and fantastical aspects of these crimes and learns of a similar case years earlier that eerily echoes the one they are investigating. But that murder was so long ago and the culprit was caught and hanged. Could this be a copycat killer? Anything is possible, but there's one thing Edgar knows, he will do everything in his power to catch the killer before they strike again. The snow may fall, the wind may whip, but justice will be served.

As an ardent Anglophile there is one thing I will just never get and that's Panto. Whatever theatrical traditions it's origins, it has evolved, or in my opinion, devolved, into this weird spectacle of garish costumes, cross-dressing, lewd humor, and tons of double entendres. Like variety shows your grandmother would force you to watch where all the humor seems out of date and you are praying for it to be over but based on fairy tales or folklore, like Dick Whittington's cat, making it somehow more inherently English in the process. So the Brits actually go to these shows over the holiday season, most of the productions staring former B-List or lower celebrities, with the rare A-lister, all of whom are willing to tart themselves up to make the kiddies laugh. Yet that seedy celebrity angle combined with the fact that it's done for children gives it a duel edge that can go from cute to creepy in a second. Therefore it's the perfect backdrop for the investigation of the murder of some children. It somehow feeds into it so well. Yes, the murder of children will always have a seamy side, because what perverted person would cut a life so short. But having this added creepiness made this mystery something so much more. In fact, what it reminded me of, not the least of which because of the 1950s setting, is the second Flavia De Luce book, The Weed That Strings the Hangman's Bag. This is easily my favorite book in Alan Bradley's series, but more importantly, it's one of my most favorite mysteries ever and it deals with the murder of a beloved children's puppeteer. I can't get enough of murder mysteries that bridge the gap between horror and innocence, when it's done right, and Smoke and Mirrors does it oh so right. And as if this book couldn't be more perfect the fairy tale "Hans My Hedgehog" plays an important role. This is one of the fairy tales that was adapted for Jim Henson's The Storyteller and is therefore a favorite of mine. I feel like not enough people embrace how wonderful it is and am glad to find an author who agrees. Don't be surprised if this makes in on my top ten list of books I read in 2021.

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments  

Labels: Aladdin, Brighton, Elly Griffiths, Grimms' Fairy Tales, Hans My Headgehog, Jim Henson, Magic Men, Murder, Panto, Smoke and Mirrors, The Storyteller, The Weed that Strings the Hangman's Bag

The Vanishing Box by Elly Griffiths
Published by: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
Publication Date: November 2nd, 2017
Format: Kindle, 368 Pages
Rating: ★★★★★
To Buy (different edition than one reviewed)

Max Mephisto and his daughter Ruby may be top billing at the Brighton Hippodrome for the holiday season but if Max ever wanted a clear sign that variety is on it's way out he need look no further than the rest of the bill. To be on the bill with a tawdry tableau act of "living statues" perfectly posed so as to skirt the nudity laws is lowering to say the least. But the salacious act might have one benefit, in the very attractive Florence Jones. There's no doubt about it, she's turned Max's head with her Cleopatra tableau and her forthright attitude. She's the type of woman who is the total package, a woman who has Max thinking about the future and marriage. He has been comfortably ensconced with Mrs. M since he left the cold attic room of his landlady's house for her bed but Florence is the type of woman whom you have passionate sex with at a hotel under assumed names in the middle of the day while contemplating the future. They might both be entangled with others, Florence being a kept woman to her show's producer, Vic Cutler, and Max with Mrs. M, but their attraction goes beyond what they are both getting out of their current relationships. In other relationship news Edgar is starting to drift from Ruby. They have been engaged for so long now that it seems unlikely they will ever be married. Something Emma wouldn't mind in the least. But affairs of the heart will have to take a backseat to murder. A young florist named Lily has been slain. Two of the girls from the tableau show were sharing digs with her. What the police don't want people to know is that Lily was posed. Like a classical tableau. In fact, she was posed like a famous painting. But she wasn't in show business despite her digs. In fact it was Lily's mother who was in show business and recommended the digs to her daughter. Could Lily's murder have something to do with the show at the Hippodrome? When Vic Cutler turns up dead it seems a foregone conclusion. Which means, who could be next? Are Ruby and Max in danger? Or someone closer to Edgar's heart?

The Vanishing Box is the turning point for this series. What was predominately a male dominated series is shifting to a female dominated series and in order for that transition to be complete the Emma and Ruby problem has to be laid to rest. Which means it's time for a showdown. Ever since she first appeared on the page I've been rooting for Emma, we've all been rooting for Emma. She's the perfect match for Edgar. Ruby is glamorous, standoffish, and keeps Edgar at a remove, never confirming a date for their wedding or even admitting they are engaged because she knows her life goals are so different from his. So obviously they were never going to work and Emma and Edgar are endgame. What I took issue with was here Elly Griffiths backpedals on Edgar and Ruby's true feelings for each other. We're supposed to believe that deep down Edgar has always loved Emma and that Ruby actually deeply cares about Edgar and is sad their relationship has come to an end? I don't know what books the author thought she was writing, but this wasn't what was going on. Yes, humanizing Ruby is necessary. She can't live up on that pedestal forever, but she could have locked down Edgar at any time and she chose not to. That was her choice. Don't rewrite it mawkishly to be some sort of unrequited or doomed love affair because I am not buying it. Especially with the bigger themes at play here. The Emma and Ruby dynamic feeds into how women are viewed by society. With the tableau we are shown a world in which women are nothing more than objects. They are there to be looked at and lusted after. But they don't have any agency. Whereas Emma is a woman with nothing but agency. She has a job and goals and is breaking away for societal expectations. With the humanization of Ruby we see her moving from an ideal, in particular Edgar's ideal, to an actual living and breathing person who is more similar to Emma than Emma would probably like to admit. The Vanishing Box fits perfectly into it's era and women's liberation. Women are no longer just the focus of men's gazes. They are cops and magicians and florists and writers and on and on. Yet the killer views them as the feminine ideal. The male feminine ideal. Which is why I love when the women take over the tableau show. They were exploited by men, but now, in control, they say what is and isn't permissible. Women finally have the power. But does that mean we have to say goodbye to Edgar and Max? Only time will tell.

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments  

Labels: Brighton, Edgar Stephens, Elly Griffiths, Emma Holmes, Endgame, Feminism, Living Statues, Magic Men, Magician, Max Mephisto, Murder, Mystery, Tableau, The Vanishing Box, Variety, Women's Liberation

The Death of Mrs. Westaway by Ruth Ware
Published by: Gallery/Scout Press
Publication Date: May 29th, 2018
Format: Hardcover, 384 Pages
Rating: ★★
To Buy

Hal is destitute. She has been eking out a living reading Tarot cards for the punters on Brighton Beach but she's nowhere near as good as her mother Maggie was at this. But Maggie died tragically before Hal's eighteenth birthday and Hal had to take out some loans from some disreputable people and they won't let her forget that. Even if she's paid it all back, with interest. Then a letter arrives that could change everything. Hal has somehow been "identified" as the granddaughter of a Mrs. Westaway and stands to inherit, well, something. Really, anything would be fine. Only, Hal knows this woman couldn't possibly be her grandmother. Her whole family was Maggie and Maggie is gone. But what's the harm in getting out of town for a few days and seeing if she can convince the family that she's a Westaway long enough for her to make off with a few hundred pounds. Just enough to help ease her situation. Maybe relocate away from Brighton? It's not like she'd be taking advantage of them, they're probably wealthy and what's a few hundred pounds to them when to her it could change her life? The only problem is she hasn't been left a few hundred pounds, she's been left everything. Knowing that she isn't the missing granddaughter Mrs. Westaway was looking for Hal is ready to pack it all in until she is given a picture. A picture that proves that her mother knew the Westaway siblings. Could she really be related to Mrs. Westaway? Could the inheritance be rightfully hers by some quirk of fate? But the grand estate of Trepassen has many secrets. Maggie came to Trepassen an innocent and ended up pregnant with Hal. Unwilling to divulge the name of Hal's father, whom Hal was always told was a one-night stand, Maggie was locked away in the attic. She was in fact locked up in the same room that Maggie is staying in. That can't be a coincidence. What was the reason Maggie never returned to Trepassen and does that put Hal in danger now?

Tarot cards, check. Mysterious letter bequeathing an inheritance, check. Stately, if slightly run down, manor house, check. Right there are the official bullet points that made me sit up and take notice of The Death of Mrs. Westaway. Well, that and the fact that it kept being compared to Daphne Du Maurier, a trap I fall for way too often. She is without equal and I need to keep reminding myself of that. But while none of those bullet points are wrong, they are also very misleading. This book isn't the least bit charming or Gothic, it's prosaic. Hal barely makes a living reading Tarot cards for the tourists. She gets a letter about an inheritance that she's sure is mistaken while obviously it's not. But she assumes she can pull off the con because she's so good at reading people. It's like a boring heist but with snow. I'm sorry, but if you're going to go for the grab bag of Gothic goodies could something have been at least slightly menacing? Even throwing Hal up into the creepy neither regions of the house elicited barely a shudder from me. What's more is that I figured out everything too easily. I'm not saying I'm a savant when it comes to crime solving, but I am knowledgeable enough that if you're a writer who isn't very good at disguising your clues, leaving them a little too open to the elements, well, I'll pounce on them like a cat on catnip. I had the killer down within five minutes of them appearing on the scene. What's more, I was able to pick out the motive way too easily. There are some "tricks" that work only in literature because there's wiggle room for mistaken identities that aren't there in a visual medium. The most successful use I've seen of this in recent years was in Kate Morton's The Secret Keeper. She nailed it. This, this doesn't nail it. What's also annoying is that during the reveal there is a major blunder. Hal's mother Maggie is trying to escape a dangerous situation in a flashback and runs out onto the iced over lake. In July. Yes, watch out for that dangerous July ice everyone. And there's no way it could have been a mistake because the whole scene is set in summer and there's flowers and a picnic and ICE! Yeah... just... whatever. In fact, whatever is kind of my general feeling for this book overall. I was entertained but that was all.

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments  

Labels: Brighton, Cornwall, Country House, Daphne Du Maurier, Going Gothic, Gothic, Inheritance, Kate Morton, Loan Shark, Money, Murder, Ruth Ware, Tarot, The Death of Mrs. Westaway, The Secret Keeper, Trepassen, Whodunit

The Silver Tracks by Cornelia Funke
Published by: Pushkin Children's Books
Publication Date: November 9th, 2021
Format: Paperback, 368 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"The thrilling fourth instalment in Cornelia Funke's internationally bestselling Reckless series.

The fourth adventure through the Mirror leads to the Far East, where Jacob and Fox finally track down Will, who is travelling with rival hunter Nerron. In spite of his misgivings, Jacob agrees to go with them to the Island of the Foxes, in quest of another magical Mirror.

But their search quickly leads them into more peril, and as Jacob seeks security for himself and Fox, he is reminded of a disturbing promise he once made that now threatens everything.

Full of fairy tales and legends, old friends and new enemies, The Silver Tracks is the long-awaited fourth volume in the thrilling Reckless series."

Ever since the announcement of a forth book in the Inkworld series I have been doing a deep dive on reading Cornelia Funke and this book comes at just the right time. 

Amethyst: Princess of Gemworld by Shannon and Dean Hale 
Published by: DC Comics
Publication Date: November 9th, 2021
Format: Paperback, 160 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"Amaya, princess of House Amethyst in Gemworld, is something of a troublemaker. She and her brother have great fun together until a magical prank goes much too far and her parents ground her...to Earth! They hope a whole week in the mundane world will teach her that magic is a privilege...and maybe washing dishes by hand will help her realize the palace servants should be respected.

Three years later, Amy has settled into middle school and ordinary life. She doesn't remember any other home. So when a prince of the realm brings her home and restores her magical destiny, how will she cope?

Amethyst: Princess of Gemworld introduces a new generation to a fantastical place and a truly fantastic princess."

I SO didn't realize that this was a reboot of an old comic series, I just went, oh the Hales! And for me that's enough, for others, who knows, perhaps the revoot angle is what you're here for.

The Undertakers by Nicole Glover
Published by: Mariner Books
Publication Date: November 9th, 2021
Format: Paperback, 448 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"Nicole Glover delivers the second book in her exciting Murder and Magic series of historical fantasy novels featuring Hetty Rhodes and her husband, Benjy, magic practitioners and detectives living in post - Civil War Philadelphia.

Nothing bothers Hetty and Benjy Rhodes more than a case where the answers, motives, and the murder itself feel a bit too neat. Raimond Duval, a victim of one of the many fires that have erupted recently in Philadelphia, is officially declared dead after the accident, but Hetty and Benjy’s investigation points to a powerful Fire Company known to let homes in the Black community burn to the ground. Before long, another death breathes new life into the Duval investigation: Raimond’s son, Valentine, is also found dead.

Finding themselves with the dubious honor of taking on Valentine Duval as their first major funeral, it becomes clear that his passing was intentional. Valentine and his father’s deaths are connected, and the recent fires plaguing the city might be more linked to recent community events than Hetty and Benji originally thought.

The Undertakers continues the adventures of murder and magic, where even the most powerful enchantments can’t always protect you from the ghosts of the past..."

I love history reinterpreted with magic!

The Return of the Pharaoh by Nicholas Meyer
Published by: Minotaur Books
Publication Date: November 9th, 2021
Format: Hardcover, 272 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"In Nicholas Meyer's The Return of the Pharaoh, Sherlock Holmes returns in an adventure that takes him to Egypt in search of a missing nobleman, a previously undiscovered pharaoh's tomb, and a conspiracy that threatens his very life.

With his international bestseller, The Seven Per Cent Solution, Nicholas Meyer brought to light a previously unpublished case of Sherlock Holmes that reinvigorated the world's interest in the first consulting detective. Now, many years later, Meyer is given exclusive access to Dr. Watson's unpublished journal, wherein he details a previously unknown case.

In 1910, Dr. John Watson travels to Egypt with his wife Juliet. Her tuberculosis has returned and her doctor recommends a stay at a sanitarium in a dry climate. But while his wife undergoes treatment, Dr. Watson bumps into an old friend--Sherlock Holmes, in disguise and on a case. An English Duke with a penchant for egyptology has disappeared, leading to enquiries from his wife and the Home Office.

Holmes has discovered that the missing duke has indeed vanished from his lavish rooms in Cairo and that he was on the trail of a previous undiscovered and unopened tomb. And that he's only the latest Egyptologist to die or disappear under odd circumstances. With the help of Howard Carter, Holmes and Watson are on the trail of something much bigger, more important, and more sinister than an errant lord."

It's Sherlock Holmes and Egypt, I'm sold.

The Corpse in the Waxworks by John Dickson Carr
Published by: Poisoned Pen Press
Publication Date: November 9th, 2021
Format: Paperback, 288 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
""The purpose, the illusion, the spirit of a waxworks. It is an atmosphere of death. It is soundless and motionless... Do you see?"

Last night Mademoiselle Duchêne was seen heading into the Gallery of Horrors at the Musée Augustin waxworks, alive. Today she was found in the Seine, murdered. The museum's proprietor, long perturbed by the unnatural vitality of his figures, claims that he saw one of them following the victim into the dark - a lead that Henri Bencolin, head of the Paris police and expert of 'impossible' crimes, cannot possibly resist.

Surrounded by the eerie noises of the night, Bencolin prepares to enter the ill-fated waxworks, his associate Jeff Marle and the victim's fiancé in tow. Waiting within, beneath the glass-eyed gaze of a leering waxen satyr, is a gruesome discovery and the first clues of a twisted and ingenious mystery.

First published in 1932 at the height of crime fiction's Golden Age, this macabre and atmospheric dive into the murky underground of Parisian society presents an intelligent puzzle delivered at a stunning pace. This new edition also includes the rare Inspector Bencolin short story "The Murder in Number Four" by John Dickson Carr, and an Introduction by CWA Diamond Dagger-Award winning author Martin Edwards."

I'm feeling Poe and Collins overtones, yes please!

A Haunting at Holkham by Anne Glenconner
Published by: Mobius
Publication Date: November 9th, 2021
Format: Hardcover, 352 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"The thrilling new mystery from the bestselling author of Lady in Waiting and Murder on Mustique. Set during WWII in Holkham, think Downton Abbey meets Knives Out...

It's Christmas 1943 and Lady Anne Coke has returned to Holkham Hall from Scotland. But her home is now an army base, with large sections out of bounds. And 11-year-old Anne is in the care of a new governess, whom she hates and believes to be hiding something. At least her beloved grandfather is there with her, to share stories and keep her entertained.

But even though she's been told to stay away from certain parts of the house, Anne knows secrets about the hall that others do not; the passageways and the cellars that allow her to move around unnoticed, watching. And when mysterious events lead to a murder and disappearance, Anne is determined to uncover the truth."

It's that Knives Out comparison that had me sit up and take notice!

Psycho by the Sea by Lynne Truss
Published by: Raven Books
Publication Date: November 9th, 2021
Format: Hardcover, 320 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"In the latest installment of this charming and quirky series, a trio of detectives are faced with the arrival of an escaped criminal with an unlikely penchant for boiling the heads of policemen.

It's September in the British beach town of Brighton, and the city is playing host to weeks of endless rain and some brand new villains.

A trusted member of a local gang has disappeared part way through planning a huge heist; a violent criminal obsessed with boiling the heads of policemen has escaped a local prison, and at Gosling's department store an American researcher has been found dead in the music section.

Inspector Steine has other things on his mind - since the triumphant conclusion to his last case, Steine has so many awards and invitations coming his way that he has had to take on a secretary - but Sergeant Brunswick and Constable 'Clever Clogs' Twitten are both on the case. If only they could work out just who is behind these dastardly acts..."

I am ALL about crime in Brighton right now!

The Cottage by Lisa Stone
Published by: HarperCollins
Publication Date: November 9th, 2021
Format: Paperback, 352 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"The gripping new thriller with a difference from internationally bestselling author Lisa Stone.

An isolated cottage...
After losing her job and boyfriend, Jan Hamlin is in desperate need of a fresh start. So she jumps at the chance to rent a secluded cottage on the edge of Coleshaw Woods.

A tap at the window...
Very quickly though, things take a dark turn. At night, Jan hears strange noises, and faint taps at the window. Something, or someone, is out there.

A forest that hides many secrets...
Jan refuses to be scared off. But whoever is outside isn't going away, and it soon becomes clear that the nightmare is only just beginning."

What is in the woods!?!

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments  

Labels: Anne Glenconner, Brighton, Cornelia Funke, Dean Hale, Egypt, Golden Age, Inkworld, John Dickson Carr, Knives Out, Lisa Stone, Lynne Truss, Nicholas Meyer, Nicole Glover, Paris, Reckless, Shannon Hale, Sherlock Holmes

The Dark Days Pact by Alison Goodman
Published by: Speak
Publication Date: January 21st, 2017
Format: Paperback, 512 Pages
Rating: ★★★★★
To Buy

After being caught in her bedroom with Lord Carlston on the night of her ball Lady Helen has been tossed out by her uncle. If only she could tell her family it's not what they think! But her duties as a Reclaimer come first and that means only those in the Dark Days Club can know what really happened that night in her bedroom; that she killed the rogue Reclaimer Benchley and lost her chance of ever having a normal life. She has luckily clung to respectability by the discretion of all involved and by being whisked away to Brighton for the rest of the season. While it might seem odd that she has withdrawn to Brighton "for her health" with her new acquaintances, Lady Margaret and her brother Mr. Hammond, they at least lend her an air of respectability while helping to train her in her duties as a Reclaimer. As Lord Carlston's aides the siblings are helping Lady Helen in Lord Carlston's grand scheme to disguise her as a man for her Reclaimer duties. A task that sounds easier than it's turning out to be as she must unlearn all that is feminine in order to be masculine. Add to that that she must also maintain the life expected of Lady Helen and there's barely time to sleep. Though her sleepless nights might be more the memory of an embrace shared with Lord Carlston and worrying over his declining mental health than trying to maintain two separate lives simultaneously.

Due to the rigors of the job and the demands on their bodies Reclaimers at some point have to retire before going completely mad. Yet Lord Carlston seems to be getting rapidly worse. A fact that must be kept from the bureaucratic arm of the Dark Days Club. Mr. Pike would relish the chance to put Lord Carlston out to pasture or in the ground because he was going the way of Benchley. So it is rather disconcerting when Mr. Pike arrives in Brighton. Though he's not just there to monitor Lord Carlston, he's there to force Helen to swear her allegiance to the government and to assign her a mission which she must accomplish without her full training and with only the help of Mr. Hammond. Benchley's Terrene Lowry claims to have a journal that his Reclaimer kept written in the blood of his victims that Mr. Pike is desperate to get his hands on. Only when Helen confronts Lowry his price is unacceptable to her. She must find another way to get the journal, which becomes more desperate when a Deceiver, the Comte d'Antraigues, tells Lord Carlston that the journal is the only thing that will cure his madness. Lady Helen is caught between her duty and her desire and either outcome could prove fatal.

The first book in Lady Helen's series, The Dark Days Club, for all it's darkness in showing the seamy underbelly of Regency England was still nestled in the comfortable world of Jane Austen with the drawing rooms and balls and Dukes plighting their troth. Here that life is gone. Lady Helen is no longer ensconced in society but clinging to the edges as best she can. This is a darker world from the one she was cast out from. There are whore houses catering to all tastes. Cruelty, depravity, sexual congress, all that which Lady Helen was shielded from her entire life is now on full display as she walks through Brighton disguised as a man. She was raised to arrange dinner parties not cavort around in men's garb in back allies. Yet she readily accepts the change as the duties of a Reclaimer. I fully embraced this darker tale, it's kind of like comparing an adaptation of Jane Austen to the Tom Hardy series Taboo, both take place during the same time period, but both show such radically different views of that time period. And the thing I've noticed with me, as I get older, I'm less inclined to the happily ever after and more drawn to the ambiguous, darker endings. To me they feel more real, like they're reflecting the world as it is versus how we want it to be.

And poor Helen, she is trying so hard to fit herself into this new world order but underneath it all you can see she is struggling. The scene that I think best exemplifies this is when she's told that she's getting a radical new haircut. While I've never been a girl who longs for the long hair, there is that connection between gorgeously flowing hair and femininity, more so during earlier time periods. Think how much of an impact O. Henry's The Gift of the Magi had? Or when Fantine has to sell her hair in Les Misérables? Yet for how revolutionary she is being in embracing this new life and the challenges that it presents I think she occasionally is willing to fall back on her upbringing a little too much. She was raised to listen to her Uncle, listen to men, they know what's right, so as soon as Mr. Pike swoops in with all his horrid ideas that he says she must follow she follows them when instead she should tell him to STFU. She questions Pike in her mind yet there's a part of her that just follows him blindly despite disagreeing with everything he says and does. This just shows the larger problem endemic to society and that's women should obey because they are nothing more than property. They are to do what is expected, they can not color outside the lines. Helen might be a Reclaimer, but to her brethren she is just there for their use not her opinions.

Now, to get off my high horse, let's talk about something else, let's talk about the Deceivers. So Deceivers, if they are acting in accord to the compact they have with Reclaimers they skim energy off of people without them knowing it. They are taking a little bit of their life force in order to survive. When I started reading this series I had just been on a day trip to Chicago after which one of my friend's credit cards got a fraud warning. My other friend was convinced that the number had just been swiped by an unscrupulous waitress at the restaurant we had ate at, which wasn't at all the case, because the card had never once left my friend's wallet and had been scanned with a RFID reader. The scanner takes all your vital information and gives it to the thief without you even knowing until you get a ping on your credit card. They can take away your entire life without you knowing it and as I was explaining this a light went off above my head and I realized that is what an Deceiver does! Here was a real life example of the supernatural elements in the book and it made me appreciate Alison Goodman's worldbuilding even more. To be able to explain a supernatural element in terms that those who don't necessarily get fantasy can understand made me so happy! Now I just have to convince everyone I know to read this series and invest in RFID wallets.

In another real world and book world colliding incident I'm going to shift to Mr. Hammond. I know I've talked about this in another review before but seeing as I tend to dream cast books as I read them when an aspect of my dream casting and an aspect of the character come together it's fascinating and a little unnerving and is therefore worth repeating. From the second Mr. Hammond entered this story I have pictured him as Lord Alfred Paget from Victoria. There's something just so sweet and reassuring about this character as he threads his way through the politics and paramours of the royal household that his caring and concern rang true to who Mr. Hammond is. In season two of Victoria Lord Alfred falls in love with Edward Drummond, the Private Secretary to the Prime Minister, which was doomed from the beginning and oh so heartbreaking. When Alison Goodman, through the deplorable Mr. Pike, reveals that Mr. Hammond is homosexual I had a moment of confusion. Had I totally, through my dream casting, learned a secret part of Mr. Hammond's character without even realizing I was doing it? I'm not sure, but it sure looks that way! Whatever the case is, whether I was subconsciously picking up on something or I just can somehow predict the future, I don't know, but it was simultaneously spooky and cool.

Putting my uncanny abilities aside there was an aspect of this story that just warmed the cockles of my heart, and that was to do with Delia Cransdon. Poor Delia who was ruined by a Deceiver who then killed himself to body jump when surrounded by Reclaimers and has since been under lock and key at her parents estate with the asylum looming ever larger. Her parents estate is close to Brighton and Helen views it as her duty to at least tell Delia what she can so that Delia will know she's not insane. Of course there's lots of back and forth with what can and can not be told but in the end Delia knows all that Helen does and is sworn in as Helen's aide. While the book doesn't go into specifics about how acceptable society views it that Helen is championing Delia, especially as Delia is viewed as rather "loose" at the one party they attend, that doesn't bother me so much as how glad I was to see how honorable Lady Helen is. Even before she knew about this other world Helen wanted to rush to Delia's side. As soon as Helen knew the truth and was shown the door by her relatives she reached out to Delia to ease her mind and also to reaffirm their friendship. If their was still any doubt in Helen's maid Darby's mind about whether Helen is on the side of the angels, this would have been proof enough. Lady Helen, saving the world one friend at a time.

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments  

Labels: Alison Goodman, Brighton, Deceivers, Homosexuality, Lady Helen, Les Misérables, Lord Carlston, O. Henry, Reclaimers, Regency, Regency Magic, Taboo, The Dark Days Pact, The Gift of the Magi, Tom Hardy, Victoria

The Dark Days Pact by Alison Goodman
Published by: Speak
Publication Date: January 21st, 2017
Format: Paperback, 512 Pages
Rating: ★★★★★
To Buy

After being caught in her bedroom with Lord Carlston on the night of her ball Lady Helen has been tossed out by her uncle. If only she could tell her family it's not what they think! But her duties as a Reclaimer come first and that means only those in the Dark Days Club can know what really happened that night in her bedroom; that she killed the rogue Reclaimer Benchley and lost her chance of ever having a normal life. She has luckily clung to respectability by the discretion of all involved and by being whisked away to Brighton for the rest of the season. While it might seem odd that she has withdrawn to Brighton "for her health" with her new acquaintances, Lady Margaret and her brother Mr. Hammond, they at least lend her an air of respectability while helping to train her in her duties as a Reclaimer. As Lord Carlston's aides the siblings are helping Lady Helen in Lord Carlston's grand scheme to disguise her as a man for her Reclaimer duties. A task that sounds easier than it's turning out to be as she must unlearn all that is feminine in order to be masculine. Add to that that she must also maintain the life expected of Lady Helen and there's barely time to sleep. Though her sleepless nights might be more the memory of an embrace shared with Lord Carlston and worrying over his declining mental health than trying to maintain two separate lives simultaneously.

Due to the rigors of the job and the demands on their bodies Reclaimers at some point have to retire before going completely mad. Yet Lord Carlston seems to be getting rapidly worse. A fact that must be kept from the bureaucratic arm of the Dark Days Club. Mr. Pike would relish the chance to put Lord Carlston out to pasture or in the ground because he was going the way of Benchley. So it is rather disconcerting when Mr. Pike arrives in Brighton. Though he's not just there to monitor Lord Carlston, he's there to force Helen to swear her allegiance to the government and to assign her a mission which she must accomplish without her full training and with only the help of Mr. Hammond. Benchley's Terrene Lowry claims to have a journal that his Reclaimer kept written in the blood of his victims that Mr. Pike is desperate to get his hands on. Only when Helen confronts Lowry his price is unacceptable to her. She must find another way to get the journal, which becomes more desperate when a Deceiver, the Comte d'Antraigues, tells Lord Carlston that the journal is the only thing that will cure his madness. Lady Helen is caught between her duty and her desire and either outcome could prove fatal.

The first book in Lady Helen's series, The Dark Days Club, for all it's darkness in showing the seamy underbelly of Regency England was still nestled in the comfortable world of Jane Austen with the drawing rooms and balls and Dukes plighting their troth. Here that life is gone. Lady Helen is no longer ensconced in society but clinging to the edges as best she can. This is a darker world from the one she was cast out from. There are whore houses catering to all tastes. Cruelty, depravity, sexual congress, all that which Lady Helen was shielded from her entire life is now on full display as she walks through Brighton disguised as a man. She was raised to arrange dinner parties not cavort around in men's garb in back allies. Yet she readily accepts the change as the duties of a Reclaimer. I fully embraced this darker tale, it's kind of like comparing an adaptation of Jane Austen to the Tom Hardy series Taboo, both take place during the same time period, but both show such radically different views of that time period. And the thing I've noticed with me, as I get older, I'm less inclined to the happily ever after and more drawn to the ambiguous, darker endings. To me they feel more real, like they're reflecting the world as it is versus how we want it to be.

And poor Helen, she is trying so hard to fit herself into this new world order but underneath it all you can see she is struggling. The scene that I think best exemplifies this is when she's told that she's getting a radical new haircut. While I've never been a girl who longs for the long hair, there is that connection between gorgeously flowing hair and femininity, more so during earlier time periods. Think how much of an impact O. Henry's The Gift of the Magi had? Or when Fantine has to sell her hair in Les Misérables? Yet for how revolutionary she is being in embracing this new life and the challenges that it presents I think she occasionally is willing to fall back on her upbringing a little too much. She was raised to listen to her Uncle, listen to men, they know what's right, so as soon as Mr. Pike swoops in with all his horrid ideas that he says she must follow she follows them when instead she should tell him to STFU. She questions Pike in her mind yet there's a part of her that just follows him blindly despite disagreeing with everything he says and does. This just shows the larger problem endemic to society and that's women should obey because they are nothing more than property. They are to do what is expected, they can not color outside the lines. Helen might be a Reclaimer, but to her brethren she is just there for their use not her opinions.

Now, to get off my high horse, let's talk about something else, let's talk about the Deceivers. So Deceivers, if they are acting in accord to the compact they have with Reclaimers they skim energy off of people without them knowing it. They are taking a little bit of their life force in order to survive. When I started reading this series I had just been on a day trip to Chicago after which one of my friend's credit cards got a fraud warning. My other friend was convinced that the number had just been swiped by an unscrupulous waitress at the restaurant we had ate at, which wasn't at all the case, because the card had never once left my friend's wallet and had been scanned with a RFID reader. The scanner takes all your vital information and gives it to the thief without you even knowing until you get a ping on your credit card. They can take away your entire life without you knowing it and as I was explaining this a light went off above my head and I realized that is what an Deceiver does! Here was a real life example of the supernatural elements in the book and it made me appreciate Alison Goodman's worldbuilding even more. To be able to explain a supernatural element in terms that those who don't necessarily get fantasy can understand made me so happy! Now I just have to convince everyone I know to read this series and invest in RFID wallets.

In another real world and book world colliding incident I'm going to shift to Mr. Hammond. I know I've talked about this in another review before but seeing as I tend to dream cast books as I read them when an aspect of my dream casting and an aspect of the character come together it's fascinating and a little unnerving and is therefore worth repeating. From the second Mr. Hammond entered this story I have pictured him as Lord Alfred Paget from Victoria. There's something just so sweet and reassuring about this character as he threads his way through the politics and paramours of the royal household that his caring and concern rang true to who Mr. Hammond is. In season two of Victoria Lord Alfred falls in love with Edward Drummond, the Private Secretary to the Prime Minister, which was doomed from the beginning and oh so heartbreaking. When Alison Goodman, through the deplorable Mr. Pike, reveals that Mr. Hammond is homosexual I had a moment of confusion. Had I totally, through my dream casting, learned a secret part of Mr. Hammond's character without even realizing I was doing it? I'm not sure, but it sure looks that way! Whatever the case is, whether I was subconsciously picking up on something or I just can somehow predict the future, I don't know, but it was simultaneously spooky and cool.

Putting my uncanny abilities aside there was an aspect of this story that just warmed the cockles of my heart, and that was to do with Delia Cransdon. Poor Delia who was ruined by a Deceiver who then killed himself to body jump when surrounded by Reclaimers and has since been under lock and key at her parents estate with the asylum looming ever larger. Her parents estate is close to Brighton and Helen views it as her duty to at least tell Delia what she can so that Delia will know she's not insane. Of course there's lots of back and forth with what can and can not be told but in the end Delia knows all that Helen does and is sworn in as Helen's aide. While the book doesn't go into specifics about how acceptable society views it that Helen is championing Delia, especially as Delia is viewed as rather "loose" at the one party they attend, that doesn't bother me so much as how glad I was to see how honorable Lady Helen is. Even before she knew about this other world Helen wanted to rush to Delia's side. As soon as Helen knew the truth and was shown the door by her relatives she reached out to Delia to ease her mind and also to reaffirm their friendship. If their was still any doubt in Helen's maid Darby's mind about whether Helen is on the side of the angels, this would have been proof enough. Lady Helen, saving the world one friend at a time.

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments  

Labels: Alison Goodman, Brighton, Deceivers, Homosexuality, Lady Helen, Les Misérables, Lord Carlston, O. Henry, Reclaimers, Regency, Regency Magic, Taboo, The Dark Days Pact, The Gift of the Magi, Tom Hardy, Victoria