strange and random happenstance

The Half Life of Valery K by Natasha Pulley
Published by: Bloomsbury Publishing
Publication Date: July 26th, 2022
Format: Hardcover, 384 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"From the author of The Watchmaker of Filigree Street and The Kingdoms, an epic Cold War novel set in a mysterious town in Soviet Russia.

In 1963, in a Siberian prison, former nuclear specialist Valery Kolkhanov has mastered what it takes to survive: the right connections to the guards for access to food and cigarettes, the right pair of warm boots, and the right attitude toward the small pleasures of life so he won't go insane. But one day, all that changes: Valery's university mentor steps in and sweeps him from the frozen camp to a mysterious unnamed city. It houses a set of nuclear reactors, and surrounding it is a forest so damaged it looks like the trees have rusted from within.

In City 40, Valery is Dr. Kolkhanov once more, and he's expected to serve out his prison term studying the effect of radiation on local animals. But as Valery begins his work, he is struck by the questions his research raises. Why is there so much radiation in this area? What, exactly, is being hidden from the thousands who live in the town? And if he keeps looking for answers, will he live to serve out his sentence?

Based on real events in a surreal Soviet city, and told with bestselling author Natasha Pulley's inimitable style, The Half Life of Valery K is a sweeping new adventure for readers of Stuart Turton and Sarah Gailey."

I'm always here for Natasha Pulley, even if I've had a bit too much of Russia lately.

Old Country by Matt Query and Harrison Query
Published by: Grand Central Publishing
Publication Date: July 26th, 2022
Format: Hardcover, 352 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"Based on the Reddit sensation, a horror thriller of a young couple who buys the perfect, secluded house - only to discover the terror within.

It's the house of their dreams. Former marine Harry and his wife, Sasha, have packed up their life and their golden retriever, Dash, and fled the corporate rat race to live off the land in rural Idaho. Their breathtaking new home sits on more than forty acres of meadow, aspen trees, and pine forest in the Teton Valley. Even if their friends and family think it’s a strange choice for an up-and-coming pair of urban professionals, Harry and Sasha couldn’t be happier about the future they’re building, all by their lonesome.

That is, until their nearest neighbors, Dan and Lucy Steiner, come bearing more than housewarming gifts. Dan and Lucy warn Harry and Sasha of a malevolent spirit that lives in the valley, one that with every season will haunt them in fresh, ever-more-diabolical ways. At first, it seems like an old wives' tale. But when spring arrives, so does the first evil manifestation, challenging everything Harry and Sasha thought they knew about the world.

As each season passes, the spirit grows stronger, the land more sinister, and each encounter more dangerous. Will Harry and Sasha learn the true meaning of a forever home before it’s too late? Haunting and bone-chilling, Old Country is a spellbinding debut in the horror genre."

Never knock stories that start out non-traditionally, I've spent many a sleepless night due to horror stories on Twitter and Reddit, and I'm not talking about the news thank you very much.

The Last to Vanish by Megan Miranda
Published by: Scribner / Marysue Rucci Books
Publication Date: July 26th, 2022
Format: Hardcover, 336 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"New York Times bestselling author Megan Miranda returns with a gripping and propulsive thriller that opens with the disappearance of a journalist who is investigating a string of vanishings in the resort town of Cutter's Pass - will its dark secrets finally be revealed?

Ten years ago, Abigail Lovett fell into a job she loves, managing The Passage Inn, a cozy, upscale resort nestled in the North Carolina mountain town of Cutter's Pass. Cutter's Pass is best known for its outdoor offerings - rafting and hiking, with access to the Appalachian trail by way of a gorgeous waterfall - and its mysterious history. As the book begins, the string of unsolved disappearances that has haunted the town is once again thrust into the spotlight when journalist Landon West, who was staying at the inn to investigate the story of the vanishing trail, then disappears himself.

Abby has sometimes felt like an outsider within the community, but she's come to view Cutter's Pass as her home. When Landon's brother Trey shows up looking for answers, Abby can't help but feel the town closing ranks. And she's still on the outside. When she finds incriminating evidence that may bring them closer to the truth, Abby soon discovers how little she knows about her coworkers, neighbors, and even those closest to her.

Megan Miranda brings her best writing to The Last to Vanish, a riveting thriller filled with taut suspense and shocking twists that will keep you guessing until the very end."

A close community and a history of outsiders vanishing? Yes please!

Into the Sublime by Kate A. Boorman
Published by: Henry Holt and Co. (BYR)
Publication Date: July 26th, 2022
Format: Hardcover, 368 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"A new YA psychological thriller from the author of What We Buried about four teenage girls who descend into a dangerous underground cave system in search of a lake of local legend, said to reveal your deepest fears.

When the cops arrive, only a few things are clear:
- Four girls entered a dangerous cave.
- Three of them came out alive.
- Two of them were rushed to the hospital.
- And one is soaked in blood and ready to talk.

Amelie Desmarais' story begins believably enough: Four girls from a now-defunct thrill-seeking group planned an epic adventure to find a lake that Colorado locals call "The Sublime." Legend has it that the lake has the power to change things for those who risk - and survive - its cavernous depths. They each had their reasons for going. For Amelie, it was a promise kept to her beloved cousin, who recently suffered a tragic accident during one of the group's dares.

But as her account unwinds, and the girls' personalities and motives are drawn, things get complicated. Amelie is hardly the thrill-seeking type, and it appears she's not the only one with the ability to deceive. Worse yet, Amelie is covered in someone's blood, but whose exactly? And where's the fourth girl?

Is Amelie spinning a tale to cover her guilt? Or was something inexplicable waiting for the girls down there? Amelie's the only one with answers, and she's insisting on an explanation that is more horror-fantasy than reality. Maybe the truth lies somewhere in between?

After all, strange things inhabit dark places. And sometimes we bring the dark with us."

Personally, I would have been out at the underground cave system, which I why I love to read about spooky things I would never ever do.

The Three Dahlias by Katy Watson
Published by: Mobius
Publication Date: July 26th, 2022
Format: Hardcover, 304 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"It wouldn't be a country house weekend without a little murder...

Three rival actresses team up to solve a murder at the stately home of Lettice Davenport, the author whose sleuthing creation of the 1930s, Dahlia Lively, had made each of them famous to a new generation. A contemporary mystery with a Golden Age feel, perfect for fans of Agatha Christie and Jessica Fellowes - and Janice Hallett and Richard Osman, of course!

In attendance at Aldermere: the VIP fans, staying at house; the fan club president turned convention organizer; the team behind the newest movie adaptation of Davenport's books; the Davenport family themselves; and the three actresses famous for portraying Dahlia Lively through the decades.

There is national treasure Rosalind King, from the original movies, who's feeling sensitive that she's past her prime, TV Dahlia for thirteen seasons, Caro Hooper, who believes she really IS Dahlia Lively, and ex-child star Posy Starling, fresh out of the fame wilderness (and rehab) to take on the Dahlia mantle for the new movie - but feeling outclassed by her predecessors.

Each actress has her own interpretation of the character and her own secrets to hide - but this English summer weekend they will have to put aside their differences as the crimes at Aldermere turn anything but cosy.

When fictional death turns into real bodies, can the three Dahlias find the answers to the murders among the fans, the film crew and the family - or even in Lettice's books themselves?"

It's like meta Agatha Christie if David Suchet and Kenneth Branagh stopped by!

The Unkept Woman by Allison Montclair
Published by: Minotaur Books
Publication Date: July 26th, 2022
Format: Hardcover, 320 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"Allison Montclair returns with the fourth Sparks and Bainbridge mystery, The Unkept Woman: London, 1946, Miss Iris Sparks - currently co-proprietor of the Right Sort Marriage Bureau - has to deal with aspects of her past exploits during the recent war that have come back around to haunt her.

The Right Sort Marriage Bureau was founded in 1946 by two disparate individuals - Mrs. Gwendolyn Bainbridge (whose husband was killed in the recent World War) and Miss Iris Sparks who worked as an intelligence agent during the recent conflict, though this is not discussed. While the agency flourishes in the post-war climate, both founders have to deal with some of the fallout that conflict created in their personal lives. Miss Sparks finds herself followed, then approached, by a young woman who has a very personal connection to a former paramour of Sparks. But something is amiss and it seems that Iris's past may well cause something far more deadly than mere disruption in her personal life. Meanwhile, Gwendolyn is struggling to regain full legal control of her life, her finances, and her son - a legal path strewn with traps and pitfalls.

Together these indomitable two are determined and capable and not just of making the perfect marriage match."

Because life, and marriage, are always in need of investigative assistance.

Mint Chocolate Murder by Meri Allen
Published by: St. Martin's Paperbacks
Publication Date: July 26th, 2022
Format: Paperback, 304 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"Riley Rhodes returns in the second delicious cozy set in a New England ice cream shop, Meri Allen's Mint Chocolate Murder!

When Udderly Delightful Ice Cream shop manager Riley Rhodes is summoned to Penniman’s Moy Mull Castle, it's the cherry on top of a successful summer season. The Gothic pile built by an eccentric New England Gilded Age millionaire has been transformed into a premiere arts colony by Maud Monaco, a reclusive former supermodel. As part of Moy Mull's Fall Arts Festival, Maud is throwing a fantasy ice cream social and hires Riley to whip up unique treats to celebrate the opening of an exhibit by Adam Blasco, a photographer as obnoxious as he is talented.

As Penniman fills up with Maud’s art-world friends arriving for the festival, gossip swirls around Blasco, who has a dark history of obsession with his models. Riley’s curiosity and instincts for sleuthing - she was a CIA librarian - are piqued, and she wonders at the hold the cold-hearted photographer has over the mistress of Moy Mull.

But when Adam is found dead behind the locked door of Moy Mull's dungeon, Riley realizes there’s more than one suspect who’d wanted to put the malicious photographer on ice."

Yes, the Gothic pile and Gilded Age mansion are all well and good but I can't be the only one willing to kill for that ice cream on the cover can I?

Bayou Sweetheart by Lexi Blake
Published by: Berkley
Publication Date: July 26th, 2022
Format: Paperback, 336 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"Sparks fly in Louisiana's Butterfly Bayou when a Hollywood starlet falls for a local deputy in a small-town contemporary romance from New York Times bestselling author Lexi Blake.

After leaving the military, Major Blanchard moved to Papillon, Louisiana, to be with his aging father, where he's taken a deputy position with the sheriff's department. Now that he's settling into life on the bayou, he's trying out the dating scene. Every single woman in town seems to be pining after the handsome newcomer. But so far, nothing's worked out, and he's had some spectacularly bad dates. Major's getting ready to give up on love when a new lady roars into town to film a movie and turns his world upside down.

Actress Brynn Pearson is trying to make a successful transition from child star to leading lady. Now that she's landed her first lead in a major film, nothing can stop her. She's committed to focusing solely on her work, so romance is the last thing she needs - too bad she can’t get her mind off the dreamy deputy she keeps running into. He’s gorgeous, and something about him makes her feel safe. As Brynn’s feelings for Major deepen, she starts to wonder if maybe there’s more to life than her career.

When a family crisis throws Major's life into a tailspin, he turns to Brynn for support, and hopes their budding relationship will shine brighter than Hollywood lights."

A little southern comfort of a lazy summer day.

The Rake's Daughter by Anne Grace
Published by: Berkley
Publication Date: July 26th, 2022
Format: Paperback, 368 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"An earl is forced to play matchmaker for the daughters of a rake in a smart and witty new Regency romance from the national bestselling author of The Scoundrel;s Daughter.

Recently returned to England, Leo, the new Earl of Salcott, discovers he's been thrust into the role of guardian to an heiress, the daughter of a notorious rake. Even worse, his wealthy ward has brought her half-sister, the beautiful but penniless Isobel, with her. Leo must find Clarissa a suitable husband, but her illegitimate half sister, Izzy, is quite another matter. Her lowly birth makes her quite unacceptable in London’s aristocratic circles.

However, the girls are devoted to each other and despite the risk of scandal if Izzy's parentage is discovered, they refuse to be separated. To Leo’s frustration, nothing will convince them otherwise. Even worse, sparks fly every time Leo and Izzy interact.

Called away to his country estate, Leo instructs the young ladies to stay quietly at home. But when he returns, he's infuriated to discover that Izzy and Clarissa have launched themselves into society - with tremendous success! There's no going back. Now Leo must enter society to protect Clarissa from fortune hunters, and try not to be driven mad by the sharp-witted, rebellious, and intoxicating Izzy."

Here for ALL the Regency and ALL the Rakes!

Storm Echo by Nalini Singh
Published by: Berkley
Publication Date: July 26th, 2022
Format: Hardcover, 384 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"New York Times bestselling author Nalini Singh takes us into the hearts of two fractured people in a world on the brink of a psychic Armageddon...

Silence has fallen. The Psy are free to feel emotion. Free to love. But Silence was never a prison for Ivan Mercant. The biggest threat to his future lies dormant in his brain - a psychic monster that wants only to feed. And now, the brutal leash he's kept on that monster is slipping. He prepared for this day, for the end of Ivan Mercant...but that was before he met Lei.

As primal as she is human, this wild changeling brings color into his life, laughter to his soul. Then the dream shatters in a rain of blood, in silent bodies in the snow. Lei is gone. Vanished without a trace...until he meets strangely familiar eyes across a busy San Francisco street.

Soleil Bijoux Garcia is a healer who has lost everything. She exists in a world of desolate aloneness...till the day she finds herself face-to-face with a lethal stranger. The animal who is her other half knows this man, but her memories are tattered fragments. Sorrow and a need for vengeance are all that drive her. Her mission? To kill the alpha of the DarkRiver leopard pack.

But fate has other plans. Soon, a deadly soldier who believes himself a monster and a broken healer might be all that stand between life and death for the entire Psy race...."

A different side of San Francisco!

Master of Shadows by Joss Walker and R.K. Perez
Published by: Two Tales Press
Publication Date: July 26th, 2022
Format: Paperback, 368 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"A lost grimoire. A dangerous new enemy. And a powerful magical weapon that could destroy the world.

Jayne Thorne, CIA Librarian, is back for another exciting mission. When her mentor goes missing, Jayne is sent to Paris to find him, only to land in the crosshairs of a deadly terrorist organization and their diabolical weapon, a mysterious poison that renders their enemies powerless.

Fighting to combat this weakness, Jayne struggles to make peace with her sister, who has been hiding the truth of their family history for years, and overcome difficulties with her shifter boyfriend, who can't quite sync up with Jayne's new powers. Even worse, the terrorists demand she locate a necromantic grimoire in France, or they will kill her mentor.

As Jayne hunts for the grimoire, she unlocks the secret to summoning the Master of Shadows-a long-dead master magician possessing a dark and destructive magic. With this lethal power unleashed, she must protect her team from the worst magical threats they've ever faced...or suffer the deadly consequences."

A series heartily endorsed by Johnnie Cakes, and therefore a must buy from me!

Violet Made of Thorns by Gina Chen
Published by: Delacorte Press
Publication Date: July 26th, 2022
Format: Hardcover, 368 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"A darkly enchanting fantasy debut about a morally gray witch, a cursed prince, and a prophecy that ignites their fate-twisted destinies - perfect for fans of The Cruel Prince and Serpent and Dove.

Violet is a prophet and a liar, influencing the royal court with her cleverly phrased - and not always true - divinations. Honesty is for suckers, like the oh-so-not charming Prince Cyrus, who plans to strip Violet of her official role once he's crowned at the end of the summer - unless Violet does something about it.

But when the king asks her to falsely prophesy Cyrus's love story for an upcoming ball, Violet awakens a dreaded curse, one that will end in either damnation or salvation for the kingdom - all depending on the prince's choice of future bride. Violet faces her own choice: Seize an opportunity to gain control of her own destiny, no matter the cost, or give in to the ill-fated attraction that's growing between her and Cyrus.

Violet's wits may protect her in the cutthroat court, but they can't change her fate. And as the boundary between hatred and love grows ever thinner with the prince, Violet must untangle a wicked web of deceit in order to save herself and the kingdom - or doom them all."

A very Storyteller Sleeping Beauty vibe. 

The Book of Gothel by Mary McMyne
Published by: Redhook
Publication Date: July 26th, 2022
Format: Hardcover, 384 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"This dark, lush, and beautiful reimagining of the story of Rapunzel presents the witch's perspective in this tale of motherhood, magic, and the stories we pass down to our children.

Everyone knows the tale of Rapunzel in her tower, but do you know the story of the witch who put her there?

Haelewise has always lived under the shadow of her mother, Hedda - a woman who will do anything to keep her daughter protected. For with her strange black eyes and even stranger fainting spells, Haelewise is shunned by her village, and her only solace lies in the stories her mother tells of child-stealing witches, of princes in wolf-skins, of an ancient tower cloaked in mist, where women will find shelter if they are brave enough to seek it.

Then, Hedda dies, and Haelewise is left unmoored. With nothing left for her in her village, she sets out to find the legendary tower her mother used to speak of - a place called Gothel, where Haelewise meets a wise woman willing to take her under her wing.

But Haelewise is not the only woman to seek refuge at Gothel. It’s also a haven for a girl named Rika, who carries with her a secret the Church strives to keep hidden. A secret that reveals a dark world of ancient spells and murderous nobles behind the world Haelewise has always known...

Told from her own perspective, The Book of Gothel is a lush, historical retelling filled with dark magic, crumbling towers, mysterious woods, and evil princes. This is the truth they never wanted you to know, as only a witch might tell it."

I have always been obsessed with the story of Rapunzel and still remember being four or five and being shocked my teacher didn't know how to spell her name. She forever went down in my estimation.

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments  

Labels: Allison Montclair, Anne Grace, Cold War, Gina Chen, Harrison Query, Joss Walker, Kate A. Boorman, Katy Watson, Lexi Blake, Mary McMyne, Matt Query, Megan Miranda, Meri Allen, Nalini Singh, Natasha Pulley, Russia

Skywatchers by Carrie Arcos
Published by: Philomel Books
Publication Date: August 18th, 2020
Format: Hardcover, 368 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"From National Book Award Finalist Carrie Arcos comes a thrilling, genre-bending mystery about the history of the Cold War and the UFO phenomenon. Perfect for fans of In the Woods by Tana French and Netflix's Stranger Things.

The year is 1952. The threat of invasion from the Soviet Union has people in a panic. The government has issued a call to civilians to act as radar - and Teddy, John, Caroline, Eleanor, Bunny, Frank, and Oscar eagerly answer. As members of their high school's "Operation Skywatch" club, they, along with others across the country, look to the sky in an effort to protect the country from attack.

But they're not prepared for the strange green light they see when on duty, which looks like nothing they've been trained to look out for. So when the mysterious object lands in the forest, Teddy, John, Caroline, and Bunny go in to investigate. Then, they disappear.

In this thrill of a novel inspired by real events, one group of teens will come face to face with the UFO phenomenon and the vastness of the unknown as they try to save one another, and possibly, the world. A powerful exploration of what if."

YA Project Blue Book!

Strange Skies of East Berlin by Jeff Loveness and Lisandro Estherren
Published by: BOOM! Studios
Publication Date: August 18th, 2020
Format: Paperback, 112 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"A chilling and intense thriller about an American spy who encounters a terrifying inhuman threat at the heart of the Cold War.

East Berlin, 1973. Herring, a disillusioned American spy, has spent the entire Cold War infiltrating the inner circles of East German intelligence for a cause he barely believes in anymore. He’s seen everything and done anything his government asked, but his latest mission pits the brilliant, embittered operative against an enemy force so vast it could obliterate all of humanity.

The Space Race had greater consequences than even the Soviets could have guessed, and when they sent the first human ever to the stars, something not quite human followed them back. When a mysterious alien probe lands outside East Berlin and into Soviet control, the Americans send their top spy in to investigate. But as Herring gets ever closer to the truth at the heart of the conspiracy, he may find that the power he so desperately seeks is too dangerous for anyone to control or contain.

Writer Jeff Loveness (Judas) and artist Lisandro Estherren (Redneck) present a chilling and intense thriller about a terrifying inhuman threat at the heart of the Cold War - and the one American spy who can save the world...if he can save himself first."

Because aliens and the Cold War go hand in hand! 

Cruel Summer by Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips
Published by: Image Comics
Publication Date: August 18th, 2020
Format: Hardcover, 288 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"Brubaker and Phillips' Criminal epic, collected in a gorgeous hardback edition.

In the summer of '88, Teeg Lawless comes home to plan the biggest heist of his career. But Teeg's son Ricky and his friends are starting down the same dark path their fathers are on, and this is about to become the worst summer of their lives.

An epic tale of tragedy handed down from generation to generation, Cruel Summer is a crime comic masterpiece from the most celebrated noir masters in the industry, creators of Criminal, Fatale, Kill or Be Killed, and The Fade Out.

Collects Criminal #1 and #5-12 in a beautiful new hardback edition with additional behind-the-scenes material."

While this arc of Criminal had high and low points I guarantee you you'll be kicking yourself if you don't pick this edition up before it goes out of print.

Vicious Spirits by Kat Cho
Published by: G.P. Putnam's Sons Books for Young Readers
Publication Date: August 18th, 2020
Format: Hardcover, 416 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"New romance and dangers abound in this companion to the crowd-pleasing Wicked Fox.

After the events of Wicked Fox, Somin is ready to help her friends pick up the pieces of their broken lives and heal. But Jihoon is still grieving the loss of his grandmother, and Miyoung is distant as she grieves over her mother's death and learns to live without her fox bead. The only one who seems ready to move forward is their not-so-favorite dokkaebi, Junu.

Somin and Junu didn't exactly hit it off when they first met. Somin thought he was an arrogant self-serving, conman. Junu was, at first, amused by her hostility toward him until he found himself inexplicably drawn to her. Somin couldn't deny the heat of their attraction. But as the two try to figure out what could be between them, they discover their troubles aren't over after all. The loss of Miyoung's fox bead has caused a tear between the world of the living and the world of the dead, and ghosts are suddenly flooding the streets of Seoul. The only way to repair the breach is to find the missing fox bead or for Miyoung to pay with her life. With few options remaining, Junu has an idea but it might require the ultimate sacrifice. In usual fashion, Somin may have a thing or two to say about that.

In Vicious Spirits, Kat Cho delivers another beguiling and addictive read full of otherworldly dangers and romance."

Sometimes I wish authors didn't get books out so fast because I have yet to read Wicked Fox! Also GRRM doesn't apply to this theory. At. All. Neither does Patrick Rothfuss.

Death at High Tide by Hannah Dennison
Published by: Minotaur Books
Publication Date: August 18th, 2020
Format: Hardcover, 304 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"Death at High Tide is the delightful first installment in the Island Sisters series by Hannah Dennison, featuring two sisters who inherit an old hotel in the remote Isles of Scilly off the coast of Cornwall and find it full of intrigue, danger, and romance.

When Evie Mead’s husband, Robert, suddenly drops dead of a heart attack, a mysterious note is found among his possessions. It indicates that Evie may own the rights to an old hotel on Tregarrick Rock, one of the Isles of Scilly.

Still grieving, Evie is inclined to leave the matter to the accountant to sort out. Her sister Margot, however, flown in from her glamorous career in LA, has other plans. Envisioning a luxurious weekend getaway, she goes right ahead and buys two tickets - one way - to Tregarrick.

Once at the hotel - used in its heyday to house detective novelists, and more fixer-upper than spa resort, after all - Evie and Margot attempt to get to the bottom of things. But the foul-tempered hotel owner claims he's never met the late Robert, even after Evie finds framed photos of them - alongside Robert's first wife - in his office. The rest of the island inhabitants, ranging from an ex-con receptionist to a vicar who communicates with cats, aren't any easier to read.

But when a murder occurs at the hotel, and then another soon follows, frustration turns to desperation. There’s no getting off the island at high tide. And Evie and Margot, the only current visitors to Tregarrick, are suspects one and two. It falls to them to unravel secrets spanning generations - and several of their own - if they want to make it back alive."

I was sold at the mention of "remote Isles of Scilly off the coast of Cornwall."

An Old Money Murder in Mayfair by Sara Rosett
Published by: McGuffin Ink
Publication Date: August 18th, 2020
Format: Paperback, 282 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"Midnight treasure hunts, fancy-dress parties, and a blue-blooded murder...

November, 1923. Olive's school chum, Gigi, invites Olive to London because Gigi's dotty grandmother fears for her life - or so she's said to Gigi. However Olive is surprised to find that the dowager is far from muddled. The sharp and imperious matriarch refuses to admit to her worries and sends Olive on her way.

Without a client or case, Olive is swept into the glittering lifestyle of the "fast set," and their decadent excess. But then among the cocktails and champagne, a murderer strikes during a frivolous party game, and Olive realizes the dowager's fears were well-founded.

Can Olive unmask the upper crust culprit before the party's over for a Bright Young Person?

An Old Money Murder in Mayfair is the fifth installment in the popular High Society Lady Detective series from USA Today bestselling author Sara Rosett. Join Olive and her dapper sleuthing partner, Jasper, as they navigate the extravagant parties of the Bright Young People as well as their own budding relationship..."

Because right now I literally can not get enough of the 1920s!

Who's That Earl by Susanna Craig
Published by: Kensington Publishing Corporation
Publication Date: August 18th, 2020
Format: Paperback, 204 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"Will scandalous secrets stand in the way of a second chance at love?

Miss Jane Quayle excels at invention. How else could the sheltered daughter of an English gentleman create lurid gothic novels so infamous someone wants their author silenced forever? Fortunately, Jane has taken steps to protect herself, first by assuming a pen name, and second, by taking up residence at remote Dunnock Castle, surrounded by rugged scenery that might have been ripped from the pages of one of her books. Her true identity remains a secret, until one dark and stormy night...

After years of spying for the British army, Thomas Sutherland doubts the Highlands will ever feel like home again. Nevertheless, thanks to a quirk of Scottish inheritance law, he's now the Earl of Magnus, complete with a crumbling castle currently inhabited by a notorious novelist. When the writer turns out to be the woman Thomas once wooed, suspicions rise even as mutual sparks reignite. As danger closes in, can Jane and Thomas overcome their pasts to forge a future together?"

Anyone else rewriting a certain Eurythmics song in their head to fit with the plot of this book? It can't be only me! 

Grown Ups by Emma Jane Unsworth
Published by: Gallery/Scout Press
Publication Date: August 18th, 2020
Format: Hardcover, 352 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"Fleabag meets Conversations with Friends in this brutally honest, observant, original novel about a woman going through a breakup...but really having more of a breakdown.

Jenny McLaine’s life is falling apart. Her friendships are flagging. Her body has failed her. She’s just lost her column at The Foof because she isn’t the fierce voice new feminism needs. Her ex has gotten together with another woman. And worst of all: Jenny’s mother is about to move in. Having left home at eighteen to remake herself as a self-sufficient millennial, Jenny is now in her thirties and nothing is as she thought it would be. Least of all adulthood.

Told in live-wire prose, texts, emails, script dialogue, and social media messages, Grown Ups is a neurotic dramedy of 21st-century manners for the digital age. It reckons with what it means to exist in a woman’s body: to sing and dance and work and mother and sparkle and equalize and not complain and be beautiful and love your imperfections and stay strong and show your vulnerability and bake and box...

But, despite our impossible expectations of women, Emma Jane Unsworth never lets Jenny off the hook. Jenny’s life is falling apart at her own hands and whether or not she has help from her mother or her friends, Jenny is the only one who will be able to pick up the pieces and learn how to, more or less, grow up. Or will she?"

I was intrigued by the Fleabag comparison and sold on the different prose style.

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments  

Labels: 1920s, Aliens, Carrie Arcos, Cold War, Cornwall, Cruel Summer, Ed Brubaker, Emma Jane Unsworth, Fleabag, Hannah Dennison, Jeff Loveness, Kat Cho, Project Blue Book, Sara Rosett, Sean Phillips, Susanna Craig

Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy by John le Carré
Published by: The Franklin Library
Publication Date: 1974
Format: Hardcover, 355 Pages
Rating: ★★
To Buy (different edition than one reviewed)

When you're a spymaster for the Circus you don't really think about what your retirement will be like, yet that's what George Smiley has been forced to ponder for the last year. Forced out because of a botched operation in Czechoslovakia he spends his days waiting for his faithless wife to return to him. He has come to terms with the fact he'll never know what exactly happened, how Control botched things up so badly that Jim Prideaux got two bullets in his back and all their networks were blown. Yet fate as something different in store for Smiley. The Circus might be under new management, but there's now evidence that perhaps Operation Testify was brought down by a mole. Ricki Tarr is also on the outs with the Circus. Ricki was in Hong Kong to follow a member of the Soviet Trade Delegation code named Boris and ended up falling for Boris' wife, Irina. She was willing to defect for Ricki, but when Ricki contacted the Circus she was swept back to Moscow. Ricki was shaken, he knew this was proof of a mole and went to ground himself. He's come out of hiding to help bring down the mole. But the small enclave of agents working with Under Secretary Oliver Lacon agree, it's George Smiley who must run the operation. He's been called back into action and he must dig into the Hong Kong events, he must look into Czechoslovakia, he must use all the spycraft he's ever learned to smoke out a traitor among his own former colleagues and save the Circus from disaster.

Picking up a book that many people view as a Classic with a capital "C" is daunting. There are those books that legitimately deserve that classification... and there are those that, in my mind, don't. I truthfully don't think I have a prejudice against certain modern classics, but maybe I do... because if it's modern and about war, I just tune out. A Farewell to Arms, Catch-22, both modern classics that I just couldn't stand. Now along comes Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy and I'm torn. Because it's a classic of spy fiction, it's about the cold war, and well, it just left me cold. Yes, it's a clever and probably more realistic alternative to the image of Bond, but if this is a more truthful representation of the Cold War era perhaps that era isn't for me. It is rare for me to admit, but this book, about 95% of it just left me baffled. If was confusing and at times completely incomprehensible. Every so often I'd get into a good groove, I'd be like, yeah, I'm finally in the book, I totally know what's going on, then I'd put down the book for two seconds and when I picked it back up again it's like all the words had rearranged themselves on the pages and I had no idea what I had read, who anyone was, or what the hell was going on. At the close of the book it's almost like everything you read doesn't matter, it was a foregone conclusion that Smiley would catch the mole, and the mole doesn't justify himself, explain himself, or anything. So why exactly did I read this book again?

I read this book because it's THE spy book to read. Though I find it interesting that after reading it I find all these caveats from people complaining about Carré overwriting his characters and having tedious descriptions of all those who people his pages. I'd say that half that is right. Carré overwrites. He loves minutiae and getting into Smiley digging deep into files for what feels like hundreds of pages. And the thing is, it's not badly written, it's just badly plotted, like he's very purposefully trying to throw the reader off track and kind of forgets that was his purpose and he has now fallen down a rabbit hole and is writing gibberish. Nicely written gibberish, occasionally beautiful, but still gibberish. Whereas for his characters? I could really actually do with a bit more description. Because I have no way of telling them apart. Their names all kind of blended together and sometimes they were referred to by first names sometimes by last, and yet there's no mental image of what they look like to differentiate them. And seriously, one of the characters is named Bland!?! Yeah, cause that's SO going to make me remember him. I think that perhaps this is one of those books that would be better as a re-read because you supposedly know the characters, but the thing is I still don't know who these characters are. I figured out the mole in like five minutes and the rest was just hundreds of pages of sitting around literally reading about Smiley sitting around.

The reason the mole isn't that hard to spot is because Carré based this book on his own experiences, in particular the revelation of the Cambridge Five, Philby, Maclean, Burgess, Blunt, and Cairncross. I know quite a bit about this from watching the Cambridge Spies miniseries as well as all the documentaries on the DVD set which were actually far more interesting. So knowing this history going in it was just about matching the ill-defined character to the real life counterpart. Of course later in the book they are all given codenames, Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Poor Man, and Beggarman. But that doesn't matter because obviously the mole is the one most like Philby, aka "Tailor." In fact Tailor is the only one really described in detail of the group, so it's not that much of a leap to deduce him as the mole. The only real question that needs answering in this story is if the mole was working alone or as part of a group, like the Cambridge Five. I think it's a bit of a cop-out that Tailor was working alone, but in a way that used the rest of his group and kind of made them look complicit. Having the taint of Communisim be more deep-seated, more wide spread would have made Smiley's task harder. It wouldn't have been just one word, but several. After all that palaver to end with just one? Seems kind of wasteful.

What was fascinating about reading this book in the current world climate is that this book is still very relevant. Until the last few years, and in particular since the election, I think the vast majority would have said that the Cold War ended with the dissolution of the USSR in 1991. While now we see that it's never ended, just went black ops, underground. So all this spycraft was still ongoing. This isn't a book about 1974 and the events before, this is a book about now. This book is so relevant it's actually a little spooky. To think that everything we had kind of relegated in our mind to being something of the past to realize it's of the now... Carré knows what he's writing about, even if it's not that linear or succinct. There's a reason why The Night Manager resonated so much with viewers, and it's not just because of Tom Hiddleston's ass. In the labyrinth of Smiley's world and all the dealing and double-dealing that goes on, there was one thing that really struck me. That sometimes a country would welcome a defector with open arms, promise them safety, security, a new life, not just for their secrets. There was a hidden agenda. Yes, a vast majority would be taken in, some played back into their country, but some, some were just taken in for bargaining down the road. Some were then sold to other countries, some even sold back to the country they had defected from. That just scares the shit out of me. To be promised this new life only to be passed along.

But what I found most startling was that at the root of it, the mole's reason for turning against his country wasn't a hatred for Britain, it was a hatred for the United States. Tailor clearly saw Britain's position on the world stage and realized that they could never bring down the United States, he saw their ineffectualness. Only the USSR could destroy America, so he should align himself with them in order to achieve his goal. While I fully admit, especially right now, America isn't a popular country, I don't quite get why Tailor felt this way. His reveal as the mole and his summation of why was given so few pages that his hatred of America felt a bit like a slap in the face. I just wanted the why. Why did he come to this conclusion personally. America is barely mentioned in the book. A few of the spies are in Washington from time to time but years previously, and Karla, the Russian spymatser, ran a failed radio scheme in San Francisco, but that is the only real mention of America. So why should Tailor, who was, let's face it, a lover of the finer things, including lots of pretty men and women, and wasn't logically the traitor aside from the fact he aligned with Philby's profile, a strident hater of all things American? I think this is what will stick with me most. Not the rambling and meandering of Carré but the xenophobic hatred of America that comes out of nowhere at the last second. Just why!?!

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments  

Labels: A Farewell to Arms, Benediction, Cambridge Spies, Catch-22, Cold War, Communist, England, George Smiley, John le Carré, Modern Classic, Russia, Spies, The Night Manager, Tinker Tailor Solider Spy, Tom Hiddleston

Don't Look Now by Daphne Du Maurier
Published by: NYRB Classics
Publication Date: October 28th, 2008
Format: Paperback, 368 Pages
Rating: ★★★
To Buy

On December the 3rd life changed forever for Nat Hocken and his family. The day before was like any other, he worked at the farm and ate his lunch on the cliffs overlooking the channel. But the birds seemed agitated. That night, the wind came in from the East and turned fall into winter in Cornwall. While he slept soundly next to his wife he was awoken by a tapping on the glass. Upon opening the window a bird attacked him and flew off. This happened once more, though his wife insisted in her groggy state that it was a dream. But once the children were attacked in the room across the hall his wife became scared as well. Nat spent the night fighting the birds off to find fifty little corpses on the floor of his children's bedroom by morning. The day after the night attack they tried to resume life as normal. After walking his daughter Jill to the school bus stop he decided to stop in at the farm to see if this was a unique occurrence to his family. Up at the farm they had heard nothing, but on his way back to his family the home service announced that birds were massing all over the country. Nat went home and prepared his house for the coming attack which he could feel coming deep in his bones. They survived that second night, those at the farm weren't so lucky. But how long can his family survive with their supplies ever dwindling and the birds become ever more fierce and silent?

There are many ways to interpret "The Birds." You can read that the East wind is the tide of Communism, a threat that could arrive at any moment, which was what Du Maurier intended seeing as this was written at the height of the Cold War. I, like Patrick McGrath who selected the stories for this book, found "The Birds" post apocalyptic setting more compelling. Yes, the story IS more Russian scare than world destroying plague, but this 1952 story could be seen as a prototype for what was to come in literature and television. Walking Dead anyone? Yet this is a far more languid way to tell a story that is about "the end." It's peaceful and quiet. The Hocken family trying to withstand an unknown force on limited rations in a desolate landscape sounds just like the best in horror films, but this would be of far more artistic fare, where the lighting of Nat's cigarette signals giving in to the inevitable.

The scope of this story is what I find most compelling. Knowing that this was the impetus for an Alfred Hitchcock classic I had assumptions as to what this story would be. Assumptions that I should have second guessed knowing Du Maurier's dislike of the adaptation. This shows horror on a very intimate and knowable scale with a single family facing off against the mundane omnipresent birds. Could we die because of something we took for granted as being peaceful turning against us? Could the known become unknown? You can see why this story still appeals to readers today, fear of the unknown, and attack by the previously known will always be a real threat, be it the reanimated corpses of loved ones as zombies or birds. Yet here it boils down to the fatalism in that last ambiguously bleak cigarette.

If you've only read Daphne Du Maurier's novels you truly haven't experienced her range as an author. Yes, her novels are some of the best and most beautifully written and suspenseful books you'll ever read from Rebecca to Jamaica Inn to The Scapegoat, but they often cover the same ground and don't even touch on the supernatural and strange that her short stories, such as "Don't Look Now" and "The Birds" delve into. It's like Du Maurier felt a freedom in this shorter format that let her handle the outre, the other, and the persecuted that will surprise you in their range and occasional depravity. Each story is easily worthy of Rod Serling and The Twilight Zone with a supernatural agency at work in the everyday lives of our heroes and heroines that is never quite fully explained. In "Blue Lenses" Mrs. Marda West has ocular surgery with special lenses inserted to regain her sight only to open her eyes and see that everyone has an animal's head. At first she thinks it's a joke being perpetrated on her but soon comes to realize that these visions are giving her insight into the true nature of people. People whom she trusted are animals of dubious nature and ill repute.

"The Blue Lenses," besides showing this "otherness," showcases an ongoing theme in these shorter works. Du Maurier's protagonists often think that they are the object of a joke being played at their expense. They are the victim of a con and the proper authorities are often viewed as conspiring against them. From "Split Second" to "La Sainte-Vierge" to "Don't Look Now" to the aforementioned "Blue Lenses" delusion and trickery are what everything hinges on. But this paranoia that has these people confused by what they see, hoping they are mistaken, actually shines a light on Du Maurier's true interest, plumbing the depths of humanity. The fact that these characters are so willing to believe that someone would go to the trouble of conning them shows a fear of the "other," a fear of what people are capable of. Because looking deeper, past the supernatural trappings, at the root these stories show that people are capable of murder.

In fact sometimes Du Maurier forgoes the supernatural entirely and tells a tale that is, in the end, just about murder. In fact my favorite story, "Kiss Me Again Stranger," is about a troubled girl who kills RAF men she meets. Of course it wouldn't be a true Du Maurier story if you weren't bamboozled into thinking it was a love story until the very last page, but again and again that is why these stories work, she is continually subverting your expectations. Yes you could boil this all down to man versus nature, be it's man's inner nature or actual nature or something against nature, but trying to condense it down does an injustice to the writing. Du Maurier through stories about killer birds, "The Birds," and killer usherettes, "Kiss Me Again Stranger," and women joining mountain cults that may be leper colonies, "Monte Verità," touches on so many truths and so many weighty topics that you can see why she was always miffed that people called her a "romance" author. She is so much more. If you don't believe, just pick up this book. I think it will change your mind.

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments  

Labels: Cold War, Communist, Daphne Du Maurier, Don't Look Now, Du Maurier December Deux, Hitchcock, Jamaica Inn, Kiss Me Again Stranger, Post-Apocalyptic, Rebecca, Rod Serling, The Birds, The Scapegoat, The Twilight Zone

The Dead in Their Vaulted Arches (Flavia De Luce Book 6) by Alan Bradley
ARC Provided by the Publisher
Published by: Delacorte Press
Publication Date: January 14th, 2014
Format: Hardcover, 336 Pages
Rating: ★★★★
To Buy

Harriet is returning to Buckshaw. Buckshaw, the home of the de Luce's for not much longer as it is to be sold. With Harriet comes all the other de Luce's. Cousins young and old that Flavia has never met. Considering Flavia doesn't get along with her own siblings, she doesn't hold out much hope for this lot either. But having the family returning and seeing each other for the first time in years means that things that have been buried, old family secrets, rivalries, bodies, including that new one under the train who whispered to Flavia before his demise, all of it could be unearthed by a skilled sleuth who has had a little practice, which she would easily say and even crow about if it didn't annoy the others so much. Flavia is sure something is afoot, and she will figure it out and play God if she is given half a chance.

Originally the Flavia de Luce series was to end with The Dead in Their Vaulted Arches. Luckily, we fans of the series won't have to result to weeping and wailing, pulling out hair and gnashing our teeth because Alan Bradley's contract was extended to include two more books. Sweet relief! Yet there is a nice sense of closure in The Dead in Their Vaulted Arches. We get the denouement he had originally planned to be the culmination of the series, which ends with just the right note and doesn't go in for unrealistic surprises, but we also get a glimpse into what Flavia's future will hold and where the books will go from here.

With the fate of Buckshaw decided and the mystery of Harriet resolved, we get the closure that both us as readers and Flavia as our favorite little precocious poisoner have needed since The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie. Yet just having all the strings tied together and handed to us in a neat little bow, while giving us closure, wouldn't have given us the depth and intrigue we have come to expect in Bradley's books. Bradley shows us this world of spies and secrets that has always been there, lurking beneath the surface, but never obvious enough to spoil the big reveal. A family as intelligent and as well connected as the de Luce's would be a perfect fit to become government agents, Flavia's governess was teaching her substitution cyphers at a rather young age as it happens. Why else would Winston Churchill show up at Buckshaw for Harriet's return and tell Flavia the cryptic phrases "Pheasant Sandwiches." The book was just delicious with secrets and spies and it made me feel like I was watching the perfection of the first season of The Hour, where you don't know where anyone stands and in a moment your whole world will be upset. In fact, Flavia's world is about to be turned upside down.

While The Dead in Their Vaulted Arches feels like we have reached some sort of endgame, by bringing in the spies and the fact that the Cold War is just beginning in 1951, it feels as if Bradley is securing the longevity of the series by switching gears. Old plots have been wrapped up in order to start anew. By showing the true history of the de Luce's Bradley is setting Flavia center stage for the Cold War. Her genius and her penchant for solving crimes is exactly the kind of genius needed to fight the fight that is to come. Because of all these revelations we see that Flavia herself has changed. She has grown and matured. She realizes that her sisters taunts and jabs were not because she wasn't one of them, but because she was the most like the rest. Daffy and Feely were really the odd ducks out all along. Flavia is the one to carry on the family legacy into this new era.

All this soul searching and revelations make The Dead in Their Vaulted Arches a more intimate novel then in past. While it is the world outside that is at risk, it is what happens within the family, within Flavia, that matters most. There is a shift in Flavia, she is growing up and being able to see herself and her actions from the point of view of others. This insight turns her world on it's head. The way Flavia is even written has changed subtly. For the first time I can remember she makes references to the future and speaks as if what is happening is not in the present but that she is looking back. I will be sad to see this old Flavia go, but I am excited to continue on this journey with her. Though for those who might miss her precocious ways, the introduction of Undine might be a palliative... that's if she doesn't turn into the cousin Oliver of the series.

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments  

Labels: Alan Bradley, Cold War, Cousin Oliver, Flavia De Luce, Harriet, Spies, The Dead in Their Vaulted Arches, The Hour, The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie

The Silent Stars Go By by Dan Abnett
Published by: BBC Books
Publication Date: September 29th, 2011
Format: Paperback, 279 Pages
Rating: ★★★★
To Buy

The Doctor has promised to get Rory and Amy home to Leadworth for Christmas. Rory should know by now that, well, there's a strong chance this won't happen. The Doctor does find them a very Christmasy/Christmas-esque, planet. Meaning it's not the planet Earth, but an Earth like planet. At least there are humans though... humans that are scared. Getting quickly separated, The Doctor and Amy are taken to the small settlement and put under arrest, while Rory is the first to encounter the creatures that are terrorizing this small community. The Doctor and his trusty companions are faced with two of their more common problems that can be summed up in one sentence, save the people who don't trust them. So The Doctor vows to help them and his suspicions are soon confirmed... but there are perplexing inconsistencies... what else might be going on here? And can The Doctor ever get Rory home for Christmas... the right one?

My journey with The Doctor has not been the smoothest of rides, but at least it ended on just the right note. The Silent Stars Go By was a quick read that would translate easily to screen and had a wonderful Firefly meets Salem, Massachusetts circa 1692 vibe. While there were things I could nitpick about, instead I will revel in what it nailed. The anticipatory glee that this pre-holiday time of year can bring means that this was a case of right book right time. In this week leading up to Thanksgiving, snow still holds a mystical quality. The big fluffy flakes as they tumble out of the sky have a mesmeric quality. Just last night I watched snow come from the heavens holding my breath to see if the temperature had decreased enough to allow for a little ground covering. I'm not yet at the stage where I wish I had heat vision to melt the snow off my car or am screaming into the wind because it's so cold it's literally making me cry. Dan Abnett caught this elusive and fleeting feeling with his book. He marvelled in the snow with both his Morphan settlers and in Rory's glee to get home for Christmas. There was a childlike wonder that this reverence of the snow captured with this book, a childlike wonder that I think embodies what Doctor Who is all about. Well done Abnett, well done.

With the snow the adversary might be easy to guess, and is really easy to guess if you've seen the non-fiftieth cover. Ice Men... I mean Warriors, Ice Warriors. A lot was made of the Ice Warriors return earlier this year in the episode "Cold War." That episode left me cold... ok, yes, I know, bad bad pun. The redesign of the Warrior itself wasn't the problem, I think that was actually wicked awesome, it was the lack of suspense or any real plot. It was Alien on a sub... so Alien written by Tom Clancy? There's a part of me that so wishes that this book had been the Ice Warriors return to Doctor Who, and not just because I'm a Clara hater... which I am. Abnett was able to capture the menace, yet still show us the multifaceted nature of the Ice Warriors. Oh... just thought of that, the Ice Warriors are like a snowflake, multifaceted, could be good, could be bad, like the first lovely snow fall verses the blizzard that takes out your roof... hmmm, this is something to think more about. But I was seriously almost dancing up and down, if I hadn't been comfortably lounging, because for one of the rare occasions in these books there was a proper use of a monster! Also, near the end, he brings out the big guns and it turns into this Island of Dr. Moreau tribute that made it go above and beyond what I expected and I felt it tied in very well with the show and it's moral questions raised in "The Rebel Flesh."

Yet it wasn't just that Abnett used the monster properly, he also understood how to write the story to introduce the monsters to new readers by also to give little jokes to those who are long time fans. Instead of just being an inside joke of saying, oh, Victoria thought of the name Ice Warriors, instead he adds that Victoria was his friend and fellow time traveller! See what a little qualifying can do? It can make a book work for new and old readers alike! The Doctor's throw away line about having a coat around somewhere would just make sense on it's own, but if you know the ridiculous coat that Patrick Troughton wore when he and Jamie, with the aforementioned Victoria, first met the Ice Warriors... well, a little inside joke that works for both levels of readers. Thank you so much for writing a book that didn't require prior knowledge! I didn't have to spend half my time on Wikipedia.

I have seen some reviews that felt it stagnated at parts, which I can't disagree with, because there's only so many chase scenes you can read. You say run on a tv show, it's a nice little romp. You say run in a book, it's pages and pages of boredom, or at least, partial boredom. But then I'd say the feeling of stagnation is one that came and went as I read all the Doctor Who books for the fiftieth. There are some that are wonderful and some that made me want to cut people. A show like Doctor Who which has been on for fifty years will have times when it's right on and times when it doesn't just miss, it strikes out. Yet, at the end, am I glad I did this challenge? Am I glad I read all these books? Yes I am! I feel more connected to The Doctor then ever before. I think I have a deeper understanding of his universe, and I have to say, our world would be a far far sadder place without him. Oh, and just a heads up authors, stop referencing you old covers in your intros. You got pretty new ones, get over it, signed the Graphic Designing book junkie Miss Eliza.

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments  

Labels: Alien, Amy Pond, Cold War, Dan Abnett, Doctor Who, Firefly, Ice Warriors, Island of Dr. Moreau, Matt Smith, Patrick Troughton, Rory, The 11th Doctor, The 2nd Doctor, The Silent Stars Go By, Tom Clancy

The Birds and Other Stories by Daphne Du Maurier
Published by: Virago
Publication Date: 1952
Format: Paperback, 320 Pages
Challenge: Thriller and Suspense
Rating: ★★★ (The Birds only)
To Buy
On December the 3rd life changed forever for Nat Hocken and his family. The day before was like any other, he worked at the farm and ate his lunch on the cliffs overlooking the channel. But the birds seemed agitated. That night, the wind came in from the East and turned fall into winter in Cornwall. While he slept soundly next to his wife, he heard a tapping on the glass. Upon opening the window a bird attacked him and flew off. This happened once more, though his wife insisted in her groggy state that it was a dream. But once the children were attacked in the next room his wife became scared as well. Nat spent the night fight the birds off to find fifty little corpses on the floor by morning. After walking his daughter Jill to the school bus stop he decided to stop in at the farm to see if this was a unique occurrence to his family. They had heard nothing, but on his way back to his family, the home service announced that birds were massing all over the country. Nat went home and prepared his house for the coming attack which he could feel coming deep in his bones. They survived the first night, those at the farm weren't so lucky. But how long can they survive with their supplies ever dwindling and the birds become ever more fierce?

While, you can read a lot into this story, such as the east wind being the Communist threat that could arrive at any moment, this was written during the height of the Cold War after all, I found it very interesting in it's post apocalyptic setting. With the small family trying to withstand an unknown force on limited rations in a desolate landscape, this is just like all good horror films, in particular zombie films. Also the scope is what I find interesting. Knowing the story only because of the Alfred Hitchcock movie I assumed the book would be a small coastal town in Cornwall under siege. While this does deal with the horror on an intimate scale with the Hocken family, it is stated that this is obviously a country wide, and perhaps a world wide problem. While no explanation is given for anything, it's the fatalism that leads Nat to smoke his last cigarette that gives it such a bleak, if ambiguous ending. Also anytime something as mundane yet as omnipresent as birds changes to a treat, it speaks to the fears we all possess. Could we die because of something we took for granted as being peaceful turning against us? Could the known become unknown? You can see why this still appeals to readers today, fear of the unknown, and attack by the previously known will always be a real threat, be it zombies or birds.

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments  

Labels: Cold War, Communist Threat, Cornwall, Daphne Du Maurier, Hitchcock, Nat Hocken, Reading Challenge, The Birds, Zombies