strange and random happenstance

Cape Fever by Nadia Davids
Published by: Simon and Schuster
Publication Date: December 9th, 2025
Format: Hardcover, 240 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"From award-winning South African author Nadia Davids comes a gothic psychological thriller set in the 1920s, where a young maid finds herself entangled with the spirits of a decaying manor and the secrets of its enigmatic owner.

I come highly recommended to Mrs. Hattingh through sentences I tell her I cannot read.

The year is 1920, in a small, unnamed city in a colonial empire. Soraya Matas believes she has found the ideal job as a personal maid to the eccentric Mrs. Hattingh, whose beautiful, decaying home is not far from The Muslim Quarter where Soraya lives with her parents. As Soraya settles into her new role, she discovers that the house is alive with spirits.

While Mrs. Hattingh eagerly awaits her son's visit from London, she offers to help Soraya stay in touch with her fiancé Nour by writing him letters on her behalf. So begins a strange weekly meeting where Soraya dictates and Mrs. Hattingh writes - a ritual that binds the two women to one another and eventually threatens the sanity of both.

Cape Fever is a masterful blend of gothic themes, folk-tales, and psychological suspense, reminiscent of works by Silvia Moreno-Garcia and Daphne du Maurier, and Soraya Matas is an unforgettable narrator, whose story of love and grief, is also a chilling exploration of class and the long reach of history."

Daphne du Maurier you say?

Dark Sisters by Kristi DeMeester
Published by: St. Martin's Press
Publication Date: December 9th, 2025
Format: Hardcover, 336 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"In this fiercely captivating novel, horror meets historical fiction when a curse bridges generations, binding the fates of three women. Anne Bolton, a healer facing persecution for witchcraft, bargains with a dark entity for protection - but the fire she unleashes will reverberate for centuries. Mary Shephard, a picture-perfect wife in a suffocating community, falls for Sharon and begins a forbidden affair that could destroy them both. And Camilla Burson, the rebellious daughter of a preacher, defies conformist expectations to uncover an ancient power as her father’s flock spirals into crisis.

Three women. Three centuries. One legacy of fury, love, and a power that refuses to die."

Yes, women will burn it down!

Murder in Manhattan by Julie Mulhern
Published by: Forever
Publication Date: December 9th, 2025
Format: Paperback, 352 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"Inspired by one of the first real-life female columnists at the New Yorker, this enticing historical mystery follows Freddie Archer as she solves crimes while reporting on the glamorous world of the rich and famous in 1920s Manhattan.

This writer just found her next scoop...and it's deadly.

New York, 1925 - Freddie Archer frequents speakeasies and wild parties with her friends Dorothy Parker and Tallulah Bankhead. And the best part is that it's all in a day's work. Freddie loves her job writing the nightlife column for Gotham Magazine.

But Freddie's latest piece just won her a bit more attention than she bargained for - from the police. A man mentioned in her column has been murdered. And Freddie is asked to keep an eye out for his fashionable female dinner companion. She's told in no uncertain terms to stay out of the case herself.

So naturally, Freddie throws herself into an investigation that takes her from the elegant stores that line Fifth Avenue to the tenements south of Houston Street. Now between sipping gin rickeys with Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald and casting Broadway shows with Groucho Marx, she's dodging bullets and dating a potentially dangerous bootlegger.

Freddie wanted adventure and excitement. But will she survive it?"

This fills the void left by the end of J.J. Murphy's Dorothy Parker mysteries! 

An Ambush of Tigers by Sarah Yarwood-Lovett
Published by: Embla Books
Publication Date: December 9th, 2025
Format: eBook, 352 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"At Finchmere, beneath the snow, an ambush lies in wait...

After a dazzling Indian wedding, Nell and Rav return to a frost-kissed Finchmere, eager to host their blessing in the woodland Nell loves best. But, as their nearest and dearest gather, someone is setting a deadly snare.

The country estate is in its winter finery, with new artisans creating crafts for the Festive Finchmere Christmas Market. Before the celebrations unfold, a shocking secret is revealed, which shows how their families were fatally intertwined, centuries before Nell and Rav said, 'I do.'

As their newlywed bliss unravels, some of their party are poisoned - and Rav is forced to face the risk of losing those he loves. While Nell wrestles with her own family history, the tragedies in Rav's sow seeds of doubt as she hunts down the murderer.

But Nell cannot expose the truth that will save Rav, his family, and their relationship without evidence.

Using all her ecological skills - and all her nerve - Nell must set a dangerous trap for the most cold-blooded killer she's encountered yet.

With the predator poised to pounce, can Nell lure them out of hiding before someone else she loves becomes their prey?"

Always here for any murder even in the vicinity of a "frost-kissed" estate.

How to Grieve Like a Victorian by Amy Carol Reeves
Published by: Canary Street Press
Publication Date: December 9th, 2025
Format: Paperback, 320 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"It's fine. She's fine. Really.

When life's turned you into a big hot mess, there's still love, laughs, and snark to be had...

Dr. Lizzie Wells, professor of British literature and bestselling author, is not okay. She wasn't consulted when her beloved husband died unexpectedly, so she's going to grieve however she damned well chooses. Keeping a lock of his hair in a choker around her neck and donning widow's weeds. You bet. Notifying colleagues and students that she will only accept paper letters instead of email. Why not? Very nearly kissing her late husband's best friend, Henry. Unfortunately, er...yes.

So when she's offered a trip to London, Lizzie grabs it. What better place to escape, heal, and be reborn than in the same city where Queen Victoria famously mourned her beloved Prince Albert? Encouraged by new friends to be bold, have champagne and oysters before noon, and celebrate the beauty and the messiness of life, Lizzie begins to embrace it all.

Still, there's that almost kiss with Henry she just can't forget. Their cross-Atlantic 'check-ins' turn into FaceTime hangouts and their friendship evolves into something more. When Henry shows up in London, Lizzie fears she's falling in love with him... Will she bravely embrace this second chance, too?"

Hell, go for it! It's not like Lizzie is the Queen and has an appearance to maintain. 

An Archive of Romance by Ava Reid
Published by: HarperCollins
Publication Date: December 9th, 2025
Format: Hardcover, 240 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"The enchanting world of A Study in Drowning comes to life through letters, poems, art, and more in this novella from #1 New York Times bestselling author Ava Reid. This full-color illustrated collector's edition is a jaw-dropping addition to the beloved dark academia series with stunning painterly endpapers, romantic rose gold foil flourishes, over 40 illustrations, and expanding and new text.

"I will love you to ruination," the Fairy King said, brushing a strand of golden hair from my cheek.

"Yours or mine?" I asked.

The Fairy King did not answer.

Effy and Preston have been torn apart by the wars of men, the power of words, and the specter of magic - but it was through stories that they found each other. Relive Effy and Preston's love story through their own pens in this immersive collection of mementos, illustrations, maps, blueprints, diary entries, and more. Read Angharad with Effy's annotations; sneak excerpts of Preston's diary; see the architectural sketches that brought Effy to Hiraeth; get your own ticket to Saltney; and experience, for the first time, the epilogue to Effy and Preston's romance. This deluxe package includes:

-Full color throughout with painterly endpapers
-Over 40 illustrations
-Romantic rose gold foil
-Expanded and new text from the world of A Study of Drowning
-An enchanting never-before-seen epilogue

A perfect gift for fans of A Study in Drowning and A Theory of Dreaming and anyone who wants to embark on their own dark academia journey, this gorgeously illustrated novella collects ephemera from Effy and Preston as they remember the romance and prepare for a new chapter in their lives - together."

Ephemera from literary worlds is my catnip!

Complete Labyrinth: Beyond the Goblin City by Various
Published by: Archaia
Publication Date: December 9th, 2025
Format: Hardcover, 304 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"Celebrate the beloved Jim Henson fantasy film with this complete hardcover collection of stories from inside the magical walls of the labyrinth!

Jim Henson's Labyrinth: Beyond the Goblin City spotlights the secret history of Sir Didymus and the untold story of one of Jareth's Masquerade guests, in addition to tales featuring fan-favorite characters like Ludo, Hoggle, Ambrosius, and the Goblin King himself.

This epic collection showcases imaginative tales from critically acclaimed writers and artists including Jonathan Case (The New Deal), Delilah S. Dawson (Star Wars: Phasma), Gustavo Duarte (Bizarro), Roger Langridge (Snarked), Katie Cook (Star Wars: ABC-3PO), Jeff Stokely (The Ludocrats), S.M. Vidaurri (Labyrinth: Under the Spell), Sina Grace (Superman: Kal-El Returns), Michael Dialynas (Wynd), Sarah Webb (The Storyteller: Sirens), Boya Sun (5 Worlds), Lara Elena Donnelly (The Amberlough Dossier), French Carlomagno (The Dead Lucky), Pius Bak (Eat The Rich), Samantha Dodge (Catwoman: Soulstealer), and many more!

Collects Jim Henson's Labyrinth: Shortcuts and Jim Henson's Labyrinth: Under the Spell."

It really is amazing how expansive the world of Labyrinth has become, especially in comics, over the last few years.

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments  

Labels: A Study in Drowning, Amy Carol Reeves, Ava Reid, Daphne Du Maurier, Dark Academia, Dorothy Parker, Gothic, J.J. Murphy, Jim Henson, Julie Mulhern, Kristi DeMeester, Labyrinth, Nadia Davids, Queen Victoria, Sarah Yarwood-Lovett

The Vanishing Stair by Maureen Johnson
Published by: Katherine Tegen Books
Publication Date: January 22nd, 2019
Format: Paperback, 400 Pages
Rating: ★★★★★
To Buy

Stevie feels like the world has turned upside down. If there was one person in the world whom she thought she would never be grateful for it's Edward King. The conservative politician with White House dreams whom her parents worship and work for has been a divisive subject for years. And yet here he is in her living room giving her what she most desires in the world, a return ticket to Ellingham Academy. After the tragic death of Hayes Major and the disappearance of Ellie Walker, Stevie's parents pulled her out of Ellingham faster than she thought possible. They never thought she belonged there, hell she was never sure she belonged there, but it's where she needs to be. She needs to solve the Truly Devious case, and if that means making a deal with the devil then so be it. Even if it means spying on David. To be fair, David is the one who dropped the bombshell that he's Edward King's son on her only when his hand was forced. But that can be unpacked another day, what needs to be unpacked now is the tin she found in Ellie's room with new evidence relating to the Truly Devious case. Who exactly are Frankie and Edward and how do they tie into the mystery? Well if anyone alive knows that it's Dr. Irene Fenton. Dr. Fenton wrote THE BOOK on the crime; Truly Devious: The Ellingham Murders. Charles Scott, the head of Ellingham Academy and Stevie's advisor, has arranged for her to be Dr. Fenton's research assistant. Stevie has access to the attics at Ellingham Academy and has been cataloging the items within and therefore can verify china patterns used and other seemingly useless details for an updated edition of Dr. Fenton's book. Because if there's one thing she's quickly learned about Dr. Fenton it's that she is even more obsessed with the Truly Devious case than Stevie herself. Dr. Fenton's house looks like a cliched conspiracy theorist's hideout. But somewhere among all those secreted papers maybe Dr. Fenton has found a new clue, one thing Stevie does learn from her is that there's a secret tunnel in her school lodging. On Halloween Stevie and David and Nate look for the tunnel in Minerva House and find more than they bargained for, Ellie's body. Stevie feels in over her head. Everyone seems to have a secret and none moreso than Ellingham Academy itself. One thing is clear, with all these bodies piling up she might solve the case but she might also end up dead.

This is THE BOOK that made me fall in love with this series. Perhaps I related too strongly to a quirky writer with a few too many cats... and I also have a borderline obsession with moose. But really it was Frankie and Edward that captured my imagination. What I loved is that this book took the ingeniously repurposed Dorothy Parker poem that was viewed as the ominous warning of the crime to come and in fact gave the case it's moniker and turned it on it's head. Which in turn made me think of something else tangentially related and kind of blew my mind as to why I never thought of it before. It's also extra ironic that it has to deal with Jack the Ripper, a case that Stevie views as a little too sensationalized and therefore not for her. So in her book Portrait of a Killer: Jack the Ripper - Case Closed Patricia Cornwell makes a big deal of the fact that the "From Hell" letter which is believed to written by Jack the Ripper was written on the same kind of paper the artist Walter Sickert used, meaning that he must be Jack the Ripper. She has spent millions buying up his artwork and trying to find DNA evidence to prove her point but here Stevie got me wondering, what if Cornwell is right about the letter but wrong about Sickert? Yes, it's commonly believed that the "From Hell" letter is genuine, but what if it's not? What if it was written by a deluded artist and actually had nothing to do with the crime? In other words, the person who writes the letter might not be the killer. This revelation that Stevie stumbles upon with regard to the "Truly Devious" letter and Frankie and Edward just ignited my brain. Coincidences can happen, especially when someone wants to be thought of as evil. If you're two teenagers wanting to be Bonnie and Clyde or an artist wanting to be the most notorious serial killer of all time, wouldn't you do something to try to get that notoriety? In Frankie and Edward's case they didn't know things would play out as they did, but they sure got what they wanted. And this gave me what I wanted. A case I thought was pretty straightforward, a case I figured I had solved, but then Maureen Johnson throws this little wrench in and makes me think, I mean really think. That's why this series is so good, nothing is as it appears and death is a very real possibility. The question is is moose also a possibility?

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments  

Labels: Bonnie and Clyde, Dorothy Parker, Ellingham Academy, From Hell, Jack the Ripper, Maureen Johnson, Moose, Patricia Cornwell, Portrait of a Killer, Stevie Bell, Summer School, The Vanishing Stair, Truly Devious

Truly Devious by Maureen Johnson
Published by: Katherine Tegen Books
Publication Date: January 16th, 2018
Format: Kindle, 432 Pages
Rating: ★★★★
To Buy (different edition than one reviewed)

Ellingham Academy is known to an elite few in academia for it's unique approach to learning while it is known to everyone who is a true crime aficionado for Truly Devious. Albert Ellingham was rich, eccentric, and a true original. So what do rich, eccentric men do? They carve out the side of a mountain in Vermont and open a school to encourage unique thinking and a love of the game with their home being the crown jewel of the campus that holds parties worthy of Jay Gatsby. But rich men have enemies and Ellingham Academy became the scene of one of the most notorious unsolved crimes of the twentieth century. On April 13th, 1936, Albert's wife Iris and daughter Alice went for a drive and never returned. There was a phone call, a ransom demand, it was paid, a young student, Dottie Epstein, went missing, another phone call, more ransom demanded, it was paid again, Dottie and Iris's bodies were found, a local man became the scapegoat for the murders but all believed he was innocent, Alice was never seen again. And then there was the letter signed "Truly, Devious." In 1938 Albert Ellingham died in a tragic boating accident with his confidant George Marsh. The Truly Devious case has never been solved. Surprisingly, in all the years since the tragedy, Ellingham Academy is still flourishing, not letting the past blight the present. They still look for the best and the brightest to offer a unique and tailored two year education. Stevie Bell is part of the incoming class. Who would have thought that Stevie, a 16-year-old from Pittsburgh raised by right wing conservatives who isn't the most stellar of students would be at Ellingham academy rubbing elbows and sharing digs with authors and internet famous actors and solving the Truly Devious case? Because that is why she is there, that is why she was accepted, she said she was going to solve Truly Devious. And Stevie must be doing something right because the more she investigates the more odd things happen, and soon tragedy will strike Ellingham Academy again. Can Stevie solve a cold case when a current case is threatening her safety and sanity? And will she ever see a moose?

Truly Devious has a split personality disorder. The historic crime is witty and literary and has allusions to Dorothy Parker and F. Scott Fitzgerald and the Lindbergh kidnapping, while the modern half is oozing YA angst the likes of which I haven't seen since I read the dreck that Cassandra Clare calls "writing." And OMG I just looked up Maureen Johnson and she wrote for The Bane Chronicles and Ghosts of the Shadow Market and Tales from the Shadowhunter Academy and is friends with Cassandra Clare! Life actually makes sense! I wasn't just losing my mind. Well, I'm probably still losing my mind but not in regards to this. The problem of this split in the narrative is that I wasn't yet invested in Stevie and her angst and her feelings for David and her panic disorder and instead was just waiting for the story to take me back to the thirties. I wanted to be in that glittering world. I wanted to immerse myself in the Truly Devious crime. I wanted to solve it along with Stevie, only I wanted to do it without really learning anything about her. Which isn't really fair to Stevie, but that's just how it is. But then again, Maureen Johnson doesn't really play fair either. The main complaint I've seen with regard to this book is that the mystery isn't solved. Not the historic or the present day crime are in any way concluded. We are just left with more questions than answers. Which, at the time, only slightly irked me. I had gotten the book from the library and as soon as I finished it I was able to buy the boxed set and was able to continue reading the trilogy so as to solve the crime. But when I told a friend of mine how much I loved the series, which he eventually agreed with, he pointed out the lack of resolution in the first book and how this just wasn't done. And the more I thought about it the more I agreed. I didn't expect the historical mystery to be resolved but the modern mystery needed to be at the very least. I was able to binge these books one right after the other, but imagine having to wait a year between each installment? That could lead to some very disgruntled readers. Thankfully as you read this review, know that you can, over the course of three books, learn whodunit.

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments  

Labels: Albert Ellingham, Cassandra Clare, Charles Lindbergh, Dorothy Parker, Ellingham Academy, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Maureen Johson, Stevie Bell, Summer School, True Crime, Truly Devious, Unsolved Mysteries, Vermont

The Author's Guide to Murder by Lauren Willig, Beatriz Williams, and Karen White
Published by: William Morrow and Company
Publication Date: November 5th, 2024
Format: Hardcover, 416 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"Agatha Christie meets Murder, She Wrote in this witty locked room mystery and literary satire by New York Times bestselling team of novelists: Beatriz Williams, Lauren Willig, and Karen White.

There's been a sensational murder at historic Castle Kinloch, a Gothic fantasy of grey granite on a remote island in the Highlands of Scotland. Literary superstar Brett Saffron Presley has been found dead - under bizarre circumstances - in the castle tower's book-lined study. Years ago, Presley purchased the castle as a showpiece for his brand and to lure paying guests with a taste for writerly glamour. Now it seems, the castle has done him in...or, possibly, one of the castle's guests has. Detective Chief Inspector Euan McIntosh, a local with no love for literary Americans, finds himself with the unenviable task of extracting statements from three American lady novelists.

The prime suspects are Kat de Noir, a slinky erotica writer; Cassie Pringle, a Southern mom of six juggling multiple cozy mystery series; and Emma Endicott, a New England blue blood and author of critically acclaimed historical fiction. The women claim to be best friends writing a book together, but the authors' stories about how they know Brett Saffron Presley don't quite line up, and the detective is getting increasingly suspicious.

Why did the authors really come to Castle Kinloch? And what really happened the night of the great Kinloch ceilidh, when Brett Saffron Presley skipped the folk dancing for a rendezvous with death?

A crafty locked-room mystery, a pointed satire about the literary world, and a tale of unexpected friendship and romance - this novel has it all, as only three bestselling authors can tell it!"

Treat yourself for helping to save democracy with a new book! You'll be out voting anyway. And this books is all about a sexual predator getting his just deserts. So VERY applicable to our current situation. Hopefully. Just please go vote.

The Village Detectives and the Poison Pen Letters by Fiona Walker
Published by: Boldwood Books
Publication Date: November 5th, 2024
Format: Kindle, 368 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"We regret to announce the tragic death of Phoebe Fredericks...

When crime novelist Phoebe opens the post and receives an invitation to her own funeral, she's horrified. Not least because the date of her death is marked as tomorrow.

Deciding it's nothing more than a prank from an enemy from her past, she determines to put it to the back of her mind.

But the next morning, when her completely infuriating postman (who likes to think himself her no.1 literary critic) rings her doorbell, a parcel of poisoned pen-nibs explodes in his face. Forced to confront the fact her correspondence is more RIP than RSVP, Phoebe realises someone must want her dead.

Together with the newly-formed Village Detectives - Juno, Mil and Felix - Phoebe resolves to find out who is behind the poison pen letters before they strike again and her fate is signed, sealed and delivered!

An totally hilarious, modern cozy crime mystery, from million-copy bestselling author Fiona Walker, perfect for fans of Richard Osman, Janet Evanovich and Janice Hallett."

Did the poor postman die for being her no. 1 critic!?!

Constant Reader: The New Yorker Columns 1927-1928 by Dorothy Parker
Published by: McNally Editions
Publication Date: November 5th, 2024
Format: Paperback, 224 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"Dorothy Parker's complete weekly New Yorker column about books and people and the rigors of reviewing.

When, in 1927, Dorothy Parker became a book critic for the New Yorker, she was already a legendary wit, a much-quoted member of the Algonquin Round Table, and an arbiter of literary taste. In the year that she spent as a weekly reviewer, under the rubric "Constant Reader," she created what is still the most entertaining book column ever written. Parker's hot takes have lost none of their heat, whether she's taking aim at the evangelist Aimee Semple MacPherson ("She can go on like that for hours. Can, hell - does"), praising Hemingway's latest collection ("He discards detail with magnificent lavishness"), or dissenting from the Tao of Pooh ("And it is that word 'hummy,' my darlings, that marks the first place in The House at Pooh Corner at which Tonstant Weader Fwowed up").

Introduced with characteristic wit and sympathy by Sloane Crosley, Constant Reader gathers the complete weekly New Yorker reviews that Parker published from October 1927 through November 1928, with gimlet-eyed appreciations of the high and low, from Isadora Duncan to Al Smith, Charles Lindbergh to Little Orphan Annie, Mussolini to Emily Post."

The House at Pooh Corner review is a classic takedown. I can't wait to read all the rest!

The Gardener's Plot by Deborah J. Benoit
Published by: Minotaur Books
Publication Date: November 5th, 2024
Format: Hardcover, 336 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"A woman helps set up a community garden in the Berkshires, only to find a body in one of the plots on opening day.

After life threw Maggie Walker a few curveballs, she's happy to be back in the small, Berkshires town where she spent so much time as a child. Marlowe holds many memories for her, and now it also offers a fresh start. Maggie has always loved gardening, so it's only natural to sign on to help Violet Bloom set up a community garden.

When opening day arrives, Violet is nowhere to be found, and the gardeners are restless. Things go from bad to worse when Maggie finds a boot buried in one of the plots...and there's a body attached to it. Suddenly, the police are looking for a killer and they keep asking questions about Violet. Maggie doesn't believe her friend could do this, and she's going to dig up the dirt needed to prove it.

The Gardener's Plot takes readers to the heart of the Berkshires and introduces amateur sleuth Maggie Walker in Deborah J. Benoit's Minotaur Books/Mystery Writers of America First Crime Novel Award-winning debut."

Personally I would have expected Violet to be the body blooming out of the garden... An intriguing twist!

The Lake of Lost Girls by Katherine Greene
Published by: Crooked Lane Books
Publication Date: November 5th, 2024
Format: Hardcover, 320 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"Told in alternating timelines, The Lake of Lost Girls is a haunting novel that will thrill fans of All Good People Here and We Are All the Same in the Dark.

Using suspenseful podcast clips to weave a twisty tale of a missing student and her sister who is desperate for answers, The Lake of Lost Girls is perfect for fans of I Have Some Questions for You.

It's 1998, and female students are going missing at Southern State University in North Carolina, but freshman Jessica Fadley, once a bright and responsible student, is going through her own struggles. Just as her life seems to be careening dangerously out of control, she suddenly disappears.

Twenty-four years later, Jessica's sister Lindsey is desperately searching for answers and uses the momentum of a new chart-topping true crime podcast that focuses on cold cases to guide her own investigation. Soon, interest reaches fever pitch when the bodies of the long-missing women begin turning up at a local lake, which leads Lindsey down a disturbing road of discovery.

In the present, one sister searches to untangle a complicated web of lies.

In the past, the other descends ever deeper into a darkness that will lead to her ultimate fate.

This propulsive and chilling suspense is a sharp examination of sisterhood and the culture of true crime."

I really love this trend of books set now but investigating crimes that were at seminal years in my life. Here it's my freshman and sophomore year of college.

Misery Hates Company by Elizabeth Hobbs
Published by: Crooked Lane Books
Publication Date: November 5th, 2024
Format: Hardcover, 320 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"A young woman is invited to a mysterious relative's estate and winds up entangled in a murder investigation in this witty historical mystery that pits the Gothic eeriness of Crimson Peak against the comic absurdities of Knives Out.

Miss Marigold Manners may be steeped in the etiquette of her old-money Boston family, but she is also an accomplished, modern woman and an avid student of archaeology who can handle any situation with poise. When the death of her parents leaves her too destitute to pursue her academic career and she receives a letter from a distant relative on Great Misery Island, Marigold decides she must do what any person of superior sense and greater-than-average curiosity would: she mounts her trusty bicycle and heads up the craggy, fog-shrouded coast of New England for a date with fate.

Marigold arrives at Hatchet Farm, a moldering, Gothic pile of a house inhabited by relatives so mired in the sins of the past, they have no future. She sets out to modernize the recluses with a brisk, ruthless efficiency, but her well-intentioned plans to manage their lives lead to malice - and murder. Marigold spies a body floating in the stormy waters surrounding the island, and her suspicions immediately turn to her hostile, weapon-wielding relatives when one of the local girls turns up missing. And she might not be the only one.

When another dead body is found in the garden of the estate, Marigold finds herself accused. She must enlist the help of an eccentric, colorful cast of friends and found family to save herself - and everything she holds dear. As secrets are uncovered and lies exposed, the question of "who done it?" turns into "who didn't do it?" and Marigold must face a truth that shatters her steely poise and shakes her very sense of self."

Hopefully Marigold can keep herself in the "didn't do it" category and get out alive!

Limelight by Emily Organ
Published by: Storm Publishing
Publication Date: November 5th, 2024
Format: Kindle, 335 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
""Miss Green, the actress Lizzie Dixie has been murdered." I stared at the young inspector. "But it's impossible. She drowned. Years ago."

London, 1883. Fleet Street's pioneering lady reporter Penny Green is stunned when a long-dead actress is found murdered in Highgate Cemetery. Lizzie Dixie supposedly drowned in the River Thames years ago, so how did she end up shot to death on a foggy October night? Penny's personal connection to the victim draws her into the case, as does the charm of Scotland Yard inspector James Blakely. But her return to work sparks the attentions of someone with evil intent.

Why did Lizzie fake her own death? Who knew she was still alive? With each revelation, the killer draws nearer. Can Penny unmask the culprit before she becomes the next victim? Or will the bright lights of Victorian London be forever dimmed by a killer lurking in the shadows?

An enthralling and atmospheric historical mystery that will have you reading deep into the night. Limelight is the first instalment in the bestselling Penny Green Victorian Mystery series."

Oh, so did Lizzie Dixie fake her death? I know you need to know as much as I do!

Where the Library Hides by Isabel Ibañez
Published by: Wednesday Books
Publication Date: November 5th, 2024
Format: Hardcover, 400 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"Where the Library Hides is Isabel Ibañez's stunning conclusion to the story that started in What the River Knows. A lush immersive historical fantasy set in Egypt filled with adventure, and a rivals-to-lovers romance like no other!

Inez Olivera traveled across the world to Egypt, seeking answers into her parents' recent and mysterious deaths. But all her searching led her down a perilous road, filled with heartache, betrayal, and a dangerous magic that pulled her deep into the past.

When Tío Ricardo issues an ultimatum about her inheritance, she's left with only one option to consider.

Marriage to Whitford Hayes.

Former British soldier, her uncle's aide de camp, and one time nemesis, Whit has his own mysterious reasons for staying in Egypt. With her heart on the line, Inez might have to bind her fate to the one person whose secret plans could ruin her."

I love duologies and Egypt. Win win!

Stranger Skies by Pascale Lacelle
Published by: Margaret K. McElderry Books
Publication Date: November 5th, 2024
Format: Hardcover, 608 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"Ninth House meets The Hazel Wood in this riveting sequel to the New York Times bestselling dark academia fantasy Curious Tides, following Emory, Baz, Romie, and Kai on their desperate quests through space and time!

Opening locked doors has a price - even for those who hold a key.

After going through the door that called to them both in dreams, Emory and Romie find themselves in the Wychwood: the same verdant world written of in Song of the Drowned Gods, albeit a twisted, rotting version of it. A sinister force has awoken with their arrival, intent on destruction as it spills across realms, and now Emory and Romie must stop it before it reaches their own shores.

Meanwhile, Baz and Kai are desperate to follow their friends through the door to other worlds, but a mishap pulls them back in time instead - where they come face to face with Cornus Clover himself, famed author of Song of the Drowned Gods. Stuck together in the past, they must navigate a very different Aldryn as they unravel the school's darkest secrets.

Across time and worlds, Emory, Romie, Baz, and Kai find their fates eerily interwoven with the heroes from Clover's book. But when stories can't be trusted, friendships are put to the test, and deadly enemies are not always as they seem, they must decide who gets to be a hero - and who is desperate enough to see themselves become a villain."

I know you're as curious as I am about this sequel. See what I did there?

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments  

Labels: Beatriz Williams, Deborah J. Benoit, Dorothy Parker, Elizabeth Hobbs, Emily Organ, Fiona Walker, Isabel Ibañez, Karen White, Katherine Greene, Lauren Willig, Pascale Lacelle, The Author's Guide to Murder, Vote

The Portable Dorothy Parker by Dorothy Parker
Published by: Penguin Books
Publication Date: 1944
Format: Paperback, 626 Pages
Rating: ★★★★★
To Buy

Hazel is a beautiful busty blonde, always putting on a show for one lover or another. Marriage allows her to finally be herself, which doesn't please her husband one bit. He misses the good-time girl he married. She takes to drinking and hanging out with her neighbor who always seems to have a plethora of men at her place. One particular man takes a shine to her and her husband is out of the picture and she's a kept woman. Until one day she isn't. She moves from one man to another, being the good-time girl, a fate she's destined for as even suicide didn't take. Suicide is a theme returned to again and again, "Razors pain you; Rivers are damp; Acids stain you; And drugs cause cramp. Guns aren't lawful; Nooses give; Gas smells awful; You might as well live." All these people living desperate lives, barely scraping by. Yet the Crugers are well off. They have staff to take care of their every whim. Miss Wilmarth is a nurse that works for them. She is neither above nor below stairs. She is in her own world. But her employers let her little by little into their world. Of course to the Crugers she is a joke. They believe she is unattractive and like showing off their "Horsie." Because if one thing is true, those with money will make sport of their lessers. So the truth of "society" is revealed, it is there to be the punching bag, a position they aren't used to. But the truth is, behind the veil even those who are well off, those with jewels and pearls, they too suffer from melancholia. The world makes everyone suffer in the end. Though one lady out on a date might just adopt "Horsie," it's something she's prone to do after "just a little one." But as she gets drunker and drunker, her companion Fred has to hear her slur the reputation of their mutual acquaintance, Edith. Because the alcohol makes her maudlin and apt to say what she shouldn't even be thinking. But it will all be alright if they adopt just a little horse... Alcohol, class, loneliness, depression, this is the world as it is, but also with the cut and thrust of someone who has been there.

Everyone knows Dorothy Parker even if they don't know they know her. She is remembered primarily for her pithy one-liners. If you've ever heard someone say that men "seldom make passes at girls who wear glasses" that's one of hers. As is "what fresh hell can this be?" And "I hate writing, I love having written." Timeless snark that people use to this day, even if it's been slightly bastardized and altered. Despite her dislike of writing her output was prodigious, a poet, a reviewer, and short story writer, she did it all. What's more she even followed the writers inevitable journey west to Hollywood and garnered two Academy Award nominations. One of which might surprise you. She just happened to write the first version of A Star is Born. Though personally I'm more impressed with her doing Saboteur for Hitchcock. Her stories became wildly popular due to her and Alexander Woollcott producing an anthology of her work for servicemen stationed overseas during World War II. It was finally published for the masses in 1944 as The Portable Dorothy Parker. Since then it's been revised twice to add in more material and make it the behemoth that it is today, a paperback clocking in at 626 pages that could clock anyone if wielded properly. One would think that reading this vast conglomeration of work from her scatching review of The House at Pooh Corner to letters about staying with friends in a tuberculosis sanitarium in Europe to poetry and prose might give you a little whiplash. That you might just be overwhelmed by the sheer disparate quality of her work. But for me, this wasn't the case. Instead I felt like I got a glimpse of this fully rounded character, and boy was she a character. Her poetry showed her depth of feeling along with her astounding use of language. Her letters showed her inner life and her social conscience and how she was always fighting for the underdog, even if it did get her on the Hollywood blacklist. Her reviews showed that even if you were her friend she'd come at you both barrels blazing. And her short stories showed her wicked wit. While many people point to "Big Blonde" as her best story, might I counter with "The Game." Written for Cosmopolitan in 1948 it's about a newlywed couple hosting a few of their friends at their apartment. The game they play becomes more and more vicious with secrets revealed, especially about the husband's first wife... With this story alone you can see why she worked with Hitchcock. It's a marital version of Rope. You NEED this story in your life so you might as well buy the book. You wouldn't want her ghost showing up and decimating you with the perfect pithy put-down now would you?

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments  

Labels: A Star is Born, Alcoholism, Big Blonde, Cosmopolitan, Dorothy Parker, For the Love of Book Clubs, Hitchcock, Poetry, Screenplay, Short Stories, Suicide, The House at Pooh Corner, The Portable Dorothy Parker

The Vanishing Stair by Maureen Johnson
Published by: Katherine Tegen Books
Publication Date: January 22nd, 2019
Format: Paperback, 400 Pages
Rating: ★★★★★
To Buy

Stevie feels like the world has turned upside down. If there was one person in the world whom she thought she would never be grateful for it's Edward King. The conservative politician with White House dreams whom her parents worship and work for has been a divisive subject for years. And yet here he is in her living room giving her what she most desires in the world, a return ticket to Ellingham Academy. After the tragic death of Hayes Major and the disappearance of Ellie Walker, Stevie's parents pulled her out of Ellingham faster than she thought possible. They never thought she belonged there, hell she was never sure she belonged there, but it's where she needs to be. She needs to solve the Truly Devious case, and if that means making a deal with the devil then so be it. Even if it means spying on David. To be fair, David is the one who dropped the bombshell that he's Edward King's son on her only when his hand was forced. But that can be unpacked another day, what needs to be unpacked now is the tin she found in Ellie's room with new evidence relating to the Truly Devious case. Who exactly are Frankie and Edward and how do they tie into the mystery? Well if anyone alive knows that it's Dr. Irene Fenton. Dr. Fenton wrote THE BOOK on the crime; Truly Devious: The Ellingham Murders. Charles Scott, the head of Ellingham Academy and Stevie's advisor, has arranged for her to be Dr. Fenton's research assistant. Stevie has access to the attics at Ellingham Academy and has been cataloging the items within and therefore can verify china patterns used and other seemingly useless details for an updated edition of Dr. Fenton's book. Because if there's one thing she's quickly learned about Dr. Fenton it's that she is even more obsessed with the Truly Devious case than Stevie herself. Dr. Fenton's house looks like a cliched conspiracy theorist's hideout. But somewhere among all those secreted papers maybe Dr. Fenton has found a new clue, one thing Stevie does learn from her is that there's a secret tunnel in her school lodging. On Halloween Stevie and David and Nate look for the tunnel in Minerva House and find more than they bargained for, Ellie's body. Stevie feels in over her head. Everyone seems to have a secret and none moreso than Ellingham Academy itself. One thing is clear, with all these bodies piling up she might solve the case but she might also end up dead.

This is THE BOOK that made me fall in love with this series. Perhaps I related too strongly to a quirky writer with a few too many cats... and I also have a borderline obsession with moose. But really it was Frankie and Edward that captured my imagination. What I loved is that this book took the ingeniously repurposed Dorothy Parker poem that was viewed as the ominous warning of the crime to come and in fact gave the case it's moniker and turned it on it's head. Which in turn made me think of something else tangentially related and kind of blew my mind as to why I never thought of it before. It's also extra ironic that it has to deal with Jack the Ripper, a case that Stevie views as a little too sensationalized and therefore not for her. So in her book Portrait of a Killer: Jack the Ripper - Case Closed Patricia Cornwell makes a big deal of the fact that the "From Hell" letter which is believed to written by Jack the Ripper was written on the same kind of paper the artist Walter Sickert used, meaning that he must be Jack the Ripper. She has spent millions buying up his artwork and trying to find DNA evidence to prove her point but here Stevie got me wondering, what if Cornwell is right about the letter but wrong about Sickert? Yes, it's commonly believed that the "From Hell" letter is genuine, but what if it's not? What if it was written by a deluded artist and actually had nothing to do with the crime? In other words, the person who writes the letter might not be the killer. This revelation that Stevie stumbles upon with regard to the "Truly Devious" letter and Frankie and Edward just ignited my brain. Coincidences can happen, especially when someone wants to be thought of as evil. If you're two teenagers wanting to be Bonnie and Clyde or an artist wanting to be the most notorious serial killer of all time, wouldn't you do something to try to get that notoriety? In Frankie and Edward's case they didn't know things would play out as they did, but they sure got what they wanted. And this gave me what I wanted. A case I thought was pretty straightforward, a case I figured I had solved, but then Maureen Johnson throws this little wrench in and makes me think, I mean really think. That's why this series is so good, nothing is as it appears and death is a very real possibility. The question is is moose also a possibility?

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments  

Labels: Bonnie and Clyde, Dorothy Parker, Ellingham Academy, From Hell, Jack the Ripper, Maureen Johnson, Moose, Patricia Cornwell, Portrait of a Killer, Stevie Bell, Summer School, The Vanishing Stair, Truly Devious

All Good People Here by Ashley Flowers
Published by: Bantam
Publication Date: August 16th, 2022
Format: Hardcover, 320 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"In the propulsive debut novel from the host of the #1 true crime podcast Crime Junkie, a journalist uncovers her hometown's dark secrets when she becomes obsessed with the unsolved murder of her childhood neighbor - and the disappearance of another girl twenty years later.

You can’t ever know for sure what happens behind closed doors.

Everyone from Wakarusa, Indiana, remembers the infamous case of January Jacobs, who was discovered in a ditch hours after her family awoke to find her gone. Margot Davies was six at the time, the same age as January - and they were next-door neighbors. In the twenty years since, Margot has grown up, moved away, and become a big-city journalist. But she’s always been haunted by the feeling that it could've been her. And the worst part is, January's killer has never been brought to justice.

When Margot returns home to help care for her uncle after he is diagnosed with early-onset dementia, she feels like she's walked into a time capsule. Wakarusa is exactly how she remembers - genial, stifled, secretive. Then news breaks about five-year-old Natalie Clark from the next town over, who's gone missing under circumstances eerily similar to January's. With all the old feelings rushing back, Margot vows to find Natalie and to solve January's murder once and for all.

But the police, Natalie's family, the townspeople - they all seem to be hiding something. And the deeper Margot digs into Natalie's disappearance, the more resistance she encounters, and the colder January's case feels. Could January's killer still be out there? Is it the same person who took Natalie? And what will it cost to finally discover what truly happened that night twenty years ago?

Twisty, chilling, and intense, All Good People Here is a searing tale that asks: What are your neighbors capable of when they think no one is watching?"

Who better to write a book about someone going home a solving a cold case than a true crime podcaster?

Love in the Time of Serial Killers by Alicia Thompson
Published by: Berkley
Publication Date: August 16th, 2022
Format: Paperback, 352 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"Turns out that reading nothing but true crime isn't exactly conducive to modern dating - and one woman is going to have to learn how to give love a chance when she's used to suspecting the worst.

PhD candidate Phoebe Walsh has always been obsessed with true crime. She's even analyzing the genre in her dissertation - if she can manage to finish writing it. It's hard to find the time while she spends the summer in Florida, cleaning out her childhood home, dealing with her obnoxiously good-natured younger brother, and grappling with the complicated feelings of mourning a father she hadn't had a relationship with for years.

It doesn't help that she's low-key convinced that her new neighbor, Sam Dennings, is a serial killer (he may dress business casual by day, but at night he's clearly up to something). It's not long before Phoebe realizes that Sam might be something much scarier - a genuinely nice guy who can pierce her armor to reach her vulnerable heart."

That old story of is he a killer or is he my perfect man...

A Cornish Recipe for Murder by Fiona Leitch
Published by: One More Chapter
Publication Date: August 16th, 2022
Format: Kindle, 263 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"Jodie 'Nosey' Parker is back!

When popular TV baking contest and national institution 'The Best of British Baking Roadshow' rolls into town and sets up camp in the grounds of Boskern House, a historic stately home near Penstowan, former police officer Jodie 'Nosey' Parker finds herself competing to represent Cornwall in the grand final.

But with a fellow contestant who will stop at nothing to win and a drag queen host with secrets of their own, Jodie discovers that the roadshow doesn't just have the ingredients for the perfect showstopper cake, but also for the perfect murder...

And when a body is found in the grounds of the house, Jodie is drawn into another high-stakes case along with local DCI Nathan Withers.

Can Jodie expose the culprit? Or will the murderer become the real showstopper?"

Anything vaguely Bake Off themed with murder is my jam. Or should I make that jam roll?

The Life of Crime by Martin Edwards
Published by: Collins Crime Club
Publication Date: August 16th, 2022
Format: Hardcover, 599 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"In the first major history of crime fiction in fifty years, The Life of Crime: Detecting the History of Mysteries and Their Creators traces the evolution of the genre from the eighteenth century to the present, offering brand-new perspective on the world's most popular form of fiction.

Author Martin Edwards is a multi-award-winning crime novelist, the President of the Detection Club, archivist of the Crime Writers' Association and series consultant to the British Library's highly successful series of crime classics, and therefore uniquely qualified to write this book. He has been a widely respected genre commentator for more than thirty years, winning the CWA Diamond Dagger for making a significant contribution to crime writing in 2020, when he also compiled and published Howdunit: A Masterclass in Crime Writing by Members of the Detection Club and the novel Mortmain Hall. His critically acclaimed The Golden Age of Murder (Collins Crime Club, 2015) was a landmark study of Detective Fiction between the wars.

The Life of Crime is the result of a lifetime of reading and enjoying all types of crime fiction, old and new, from around the world. In what will surely be regarded as his magnum opus, Martin Edwards has thrown himself undaunted into the breadth and complexity of the genre to write an authoritative - and readable - study of its development and evolution. With crime fiction being read more widely than ever around the world, and with individual authors increasingly the subject of extensive academic study, his expert distillation of more than two centuries of extraordinary books and authors - from the tales of E.T.A. Hoffmann to the novels of Patricia Cornwell - into one coherent history is an extraordinary feat and makes for compelling reading."

Who doesn't want to read a history of crime fiction?

The Manhattan Girls by Gill Paul
Published by: William Morrow Paperbacks
Publication Date: August 16th, 2022
Format: Paperback, 416 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"It's a 1920s version of Sex and the City, as Dorothy Parker - one of the wittiest women who ever wielded a pen - and her three friends navigate life, love, and careers in New York City. Perfect for fans of Fiona Davis, Beatriz Williams, and Renée Rosen.

NEW YORK CITY 1921: The war is over, fashions are daring, and bootleg liquor is abundant. Here four extraordinary women form a bridge group that grows into a firm friendship.

Dorothy Parker: renowned wit, member of the Algonquin Round Table, and more fragile than she seems. Jane Grant: first female reporter for the New York Times, and determined to launch a new magazine she calls The New Yorker. Winifred Lenihan: beautiful and talented Broadway actress, a casting-couch target. And Peggy Leach: magazine assistant by day, brilliant novelist by night.

Their romances flourish and falter while their goals sometimes seem impossible to reach and their friendship deepens against the backdrop of turbulent New York City, where new speakeasies open and close, jazz music flows through the air, and bathtub gin fills their glasses.

They gossip, they comfort each other, and they offer support through the setbacks. But their biggest challenge is keeping their dear friend Dottie safe from herself.

In this brilliant new novel from the bestselling and acclaimed author of Jackie and Maria and The Secret Wife, readers will fall right into Jazz Age New York and into the inner lives of these groundbreaking, influential women."

While I can't wait to read this, I will point out that if she knew what Sex and the City was Dorothy Parker would not be pleased by the comparison.

Second Spear by Kerstin Hall
Published by: Tordotcom
Publication Date: August 16th, 2022
Format: Paperback, 288 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"Kerstin Hall's Second Spear is the thrilling follow-up to the Nommo Award finalist, The Border Keeper.

After surviving the schemes of a vengeful goddess and learning some shattering truths about her former life, the warrior Tyn feels estranged from her role guarding her ruler. Grappling with knowledge of her identity, she unleashes her frustrations on all the wrong people.

When an old enemy returns wielding an unstoppable, realm-crushing weapon and Tyn is swept up in the path of destruction, she must make a choice about who she is and who she wants to be."

To break your fantasy funk!

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments  

Labels: Alicia Thompson, Ashley Flowers, Cornwall, Crime Fiction, Crime Junkie, Dorothy Parker, Fiona Leitch, GBBO, Gill Paul, Jane Grant, Kerstin Hall, Martin Edwards, Podcast, Serial Killer, The New Yorker, True Crime

The Sanatorium by Sarah Pearse
Published by: Pamela Dorman Books
Publication Date: February 2nd, 2021
Format: Hardcover, 400 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"You won't want to leave...until you can't.

Half-hidden by forest and overshadowed by threatening peaks, Le Sommet has always been a sinister place. Long plagued by troubling rumors, the former abandoned sanatorium has since been renovated into a five-star minimalist hotel.

An imposing, isolated getaway spot high up in the Swiss Alps is the last place Elin Warner wants to be. But Elin's taken time off from her job as a detective, so when her estranged brother, Isaac, and his fiancée, Laure, invite her to celebrate their engagement at the hotel, Elin really has no reason not to accept.

Arriving in the midst of a threatening storm, Elin immediately feels on edge - there's something about the hotel that makes her nervous. And when they wake the following morning to discover Laure is missing, Elin must trust her instincts if they hope to find her. With the storm closing off all access to the hotel, the longer Laure stays missing, the more the remaining guests start to panic.

Elin is under pressure to find Laure, but no one has realized yet that another woman has gone missing. And she's the only one who could have warned them just how much danger they are all in..."

I was recently reading some letters of Dorothy Parker's about her stay in a TP Sanatorium in the Alps helping out some friends, and the place sparked a Gothic curiosity in me, and then I read about this upcoming book and everything clicked into place! 

The Last Tiara by M.J. Rose
Published by: Blue Box Press
Publication Date: February 2nd, 2021
Format: Hardcover, 304 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"From New York Times and Wall Street Journal bestseller M.J. Rose comes a provocative and moving story of a young female architect in post-World War II Manhattan, who stumbles upon a hidden treasure and begins a journey to discovering her mother's life during the fall of the Romanovs.

Sophia Moon had always been reticent about her life in Russia and when she dies, suspiciously, on a wintry New York evening, Isobelle despairs that her mother's secrets have died with her. But while renovating the apartment they shared, Isobelle discovers something among her mother's effects-a stunning silver tiara, stripped of its jewels.

Isobelle's research into the tiara's provenance draws her closer to her mother's past-including the story of what became of her father back in Russia, a man she has never known. The facts elude her until she meets a young jeweler, who wants to help her but is conflicted by his loyalty to the Midas Society, a covert international organization whose mission is to return lost and stolen antiques, jewels, and artwork to their original owners.

Told in alternating points of view, the stories of the two young women unfurl as each struggles to find their way during two separate wars. In 1915, young Sofiya Petrovitch, favorite of the royal household and best friend of Grand Duchess Olga Nikolaevna, tends to wounded soldiers in a makeshift hospital within the grounds of the Winter Palace in St. Petersburg and finds the love of her life. In 1948 New York, Isobelle Moon works to break through the rampant sexism of the age as one of very few women working in a male-dominated profession and discovers far more about love and family than she ever hoped for.

In M.J. Rose's deftly constructed narrative, the secrets of Sofiya's early life are revealed incrementally, even as Isobelle herself works to solve the mystery of the historic Romanov tiara (which is based on an actual Romanov artifact that is, to this day, still missing)-and how it is that her mother came to possess it. The two strands play off each other in finely-tuned counterpoint, building to a series of surprising and deeply satisfying revelations."

You say Romanovs, I say hell yes!

Valentino Will Die by Donis Casey
Published by: Poisoned Pen Press
Publication Date: February 2nd, 2021
Format: Paperback, 208 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"WHO IS TRYING TO KILL THE WORLD'S GREATEST LOVER?

Though Bianca LaBelle, star of the wildly popular silent movie serial "The Adventures of Bianca Dangereuse," and Rudolph Valentino, the greatest screen idol of all time, have been friends for years, in the summer of 1926 they are making their first picture together, a steamy romance called Grand Obsession. One evening after dinner at Bianca's fabulous Beverly Hills estate, a troubled Rudy confesses that he has received anonymous death threats. In a matter of days, filming comes to an abrupt halt when Rudy falls deathly ill. Could it be poison?

As Rudy lies dying, Bianca promises him that she will find out who is responsible. Was it one of his many lovers? A delusional fan? Or perhaps Rudy had run afoul of a mobster whose name Bianca knows all too well? She calls on P.I. Ted Oliver to help her investigate the end of what had seemed to be the charmed life of Valentino."

Oh, a juicy and interesting mystery that Valentino died not as we thought!

Shadows of the White City by Jocelyn Green
Published by: Bethany House Publishers
Publication Date: February 2nd, 2021
Format: Paperback, 400 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"The one thing Sylvie Townsend wants most is what she feared she was destined never to have - a family of her own. But taking in Polish immigrant Rose Dabrowski to raise and love quells those fears - until seventeen-year-old Rose goes missing at the World's Fair, and Sylvie's world unravels.

Brushed off by the authorities, Sylvie turns to her boarder, Kristof Bartok, for help. He is Rose's violin instructor and the concertmaster for the Columbian Exposition Orchestra, and his language skills are vital to helping Sylvie navigate the immigrant communities where their search leads.

From the glittering architecture of the fair to the dark houses of Chicago's poorest neighborhoods, they're taken on a search that points to Rose's long-lost family. Is Sylvie willing to let the girl go? And as Kristof and Sylvie grow closer, can she reconcile her craving for control with her yearning to belong?"

If I could time travel the Chicago World's Fair would be high on my list. Thankfully I can do this via an armchair thanks to writers like Jocelyn Green.

The Umbrella Lady by V.C. Andrews
Published by: Gallery Books
Publication Date: February 2nd, 2021
Format: Hardcover, 304 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"A young girl who has lost her father finds herself at the mercy of a mysterious woman who is not quite what she seems in this atmospheric and unputdownable novel from the New York Times bestselling author of the Flowers in the Attic series turned into popular Lifetime movies.

Left on a train platform in an unfamiliar village, little Saffron Faith Anders is certain her father will return shortly, just like he promised. She holds out hope even as the hours pass and the station grows dark. When a strange old woman with a large umbrella approaches and inquiries about her situation, Saffron doesn’t immediately trust the imposing do-gooder, but with the chances of her father returning growing ever slimmer, she agrees to rest at the old woman’s house.

Her stay was supposed to be for a few minutes, hours at most, but soon, Saffron soon realizes she has been confined to a house of dark secrets and is now at the mercy of the enigmatic Umbrella Lady. One minute grandmotherly and the next wickedly cruel, she shears Saffron’s hair, burns all the clothes she had in her suitcase, and pretends that the photo of a young girl hanging on her bedroom wall is no one in particular. When strange letters arrive from Saffron’s father, claiming that he will send for her shortly, hope returns to her young heart. But Saffron soon discovers that those who claim to love you will often hurt you the most...."

Sounds deliciously classic V.C. Andrews!

Murder in the Belltower by Helena Dixon
Published by: Bookouture
Publication Date: February 2nd, 2021
Format: Kindle, 263 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"Kitty Underhay’s hymn book is open...at murder.

Winter, 1933. Kitty Underhay is enjoying a restorative break from sleuthing on a visit to her family at Enderley Hall. The only thing marring her peace - aside from the uncomfortable sensation she has of being watched – is the obvious history between her beau, ex-army captain Matthew Bryant and another guest, the beautiful Juliet Vanderstafen. So, when the parish clerk is found dead on her front doorstep, Kitty leaps at the chance of distraction.

The police are happy to conclude that Miss Plenderleith met her unfortunate end on a patch of ice, but Kitty isn’t convinced this was a case of bad weather and worse luck. And when the Reverend Crabtree fails to show for tea the next day, she heads to the church to speak to him. But she arrives to find the clergyman hanging from the bell rope, dead.

With Matt seemingly wrapped up with his alluring Austrian, Kitty must solve the case on her own. But as she snoops into parish affairs, she makes some less-than-saintly discoveries. Just who has broken the sixth commandment? Meanwhile the killer is preparing a churchyard grave for Kitty, and she’ll have to use all her wits to avoid falling in...

An addictive, absorbing and completely unputdownable Golden Age cozy murder mystery, perfect for fans of Agatha Christie, T.E. Kinsey and Lee Strauss."

I love all mysteries evoking the Golden Age of detection!

Low Expectations by Stuart Everly-Wilson
Published by: Text Publishing
Publication Date: February 2nd, 2021
Format: Kindle
To Buy

The official patter:
"I begin to record the history of it all, because if I don’t I will explode, leaving nothing to tell of me but a pile of ash. In this history I will try to leave nothing out, but I will also be careful not to incorporate any extraneous unnecessary shit. Like objectivity. Objectivity is for those who don’t have a point to make, or a side to take. There is only one side to this story and that’s mine.

1975, Western Sydney.
A street where neighbours keep an eye on everyone else’s business.
A boy and his mum - and a family secret, barely hidden.

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:01 AM 0 comments  

Labels: Alps, Chicago, Chicago World's Fair, Donis Casey, Dorothy Parker, Great Expectations, Helena Dixon, Jocelyn Green, M.J. Rose, Romanovs, Sarah Pearse, Stuart Everly-Wilson, V.C. Andrews, Valentino, White City

Your Might As Well Die by J.J. Murphy
Published by: Signet
Book provided by the author
Publication Date: December 6th, 2011
Format: Paperback, 336 Pages
Rating: ★★★★
To Buy
 
Ernie MacGuffin is a truly bad artist. No one likes his art and no one much likes him. He decides to end it all and gives his suicide note to Dorothy Parker figuring she'll understand. Yet Dorothy feels that something is not quite right when she sees the scene of the crime on the Brooklyn Bridge. Something doesn't add up, and to top it off, New York seems to be going cuckoo because now they all love MacGuffin and his work! The paintings values have skyrocketed. Ernie's ex-mistress decides to make a little extra for herself claiming that she's a medium and starts holding seances to talk to the deceased Ernie. Parker has Benchley benched for most of her investigation because she has a real seance skeptic to aid her, none other than Harry Houdini! He would give anyone good money to prove that contact with the other side is possible. And who's Dorothy to turn up her noise at good money when her credit is no longer good at the local speakeasy. But detective work is hard and detective work while sober is even harder. Racing around the city trying to figure out all the crosses and double crosses Dorothy feels like she's in Harpo Marx and Alexander Woollcott's famous game of croquet, being played anywhere and everywhere, football fields to rooftops to theaters! While solving the mystery of what truly is going on with MacGuffin is well and good, getting enough money to pay off her bar tab is the final solution.

Again JJ Murphy has delighted me beyond measure. Witty banter, shenanigans, antics, croquet, and the sheer joy of a 1920s screwball comedy with the addition of Houdini as a stronger foil than Faulkner in the first installment the book just buzzed along. Also addressing, even in an offhand manner, Dorothy's struggle with depression and her several attempts at suicide was a nice nod to the fact that Dorothy's life was much more than it appeared on the surface. What really made the book work for me though were two things I have a very strong interest in: art and spiritualism. The whole idea of an artist's work being more valuable after their death has led, I am sure, to many artists thinking of faking their death. I know, I've thought of it, but then, creating a new identity and all that rigmarole, too much effort, especially if the market is soft at the time or if they don't go up in value till a significant time after your "death" it just wouldn't be worth it. As for the spiritualism? Yes please! I find it interesting that the next book will have Arthur Conan Doyle as the literary guest star, who was a huge proponent of spiritualism, and who was in fact a good friend of Houdini's until they clashed over the idea of life after death. Houdini wanted to believe, desperately, but as a showman he could see through all the hoaxes and tricks better than anyone else. The whole history of this time period, the Cottingly Fairies, the unexplainable versus the people obviously tapping at tables just enthralls me. I went to an exhibit quite a few years ago at the MET where they showed all these original pictures as "proof" of spirits... while the pictures where interesting, much like Houdini, I think I need some more solid proof. I don't need more proof though as to how much I love this series. It's going to be a long hard wait for that next book, much like Dorothy waiting for a drink.

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments  

Labels: 1920s, Alexander Woollcott, Arthur Conan Doyle, Cottingley Fairies, Dorothy Parker, Harpo Marx, Harry Houdini, J.J. Murphy, Roaring Back to Reading, Spiritualism, The Algonquin Round Table, You Might as Well Die

Hair of the Dog by J.J. Murphy
Published by: Amazon
Publication Date: May 17th, 2011
Format: Kindle
Rating: ★★★
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Dorothy Parker just wants a quiet lunch, but the dining room at the Algonquin is anything but. There's a big brouhaha over some missing meat. With the owner steaming mad he points the finger at the likely suspects, the waiter, or Dorothy's dog. One being in the vicinity when the veal was purloined, the other being a dog. But in this day and age with liquor being illegal counterbalanced by the continuing need to slack the thirst, there's more fluidity to crime and punishment. There's a give and a take. There's a barter system that might just be what's at work. This quick little story was not nearly enough to slack my thirst for this new series. Hair of the Dog was a quick little read that offered yet another glimpse into the bygone era Dorthy Parker lived in. Here instead of the publishing world we see more the lower classes and how, even in the darkest of times, there are ways to have a grand celebration, if you are willing to turn a blind eye and bend the rules but not break them.

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments  

Labels: 1920s, Dogs, Dorothy Parker, Hair of the Dog, J.J. Murphy, Kindle, Murder Your Darlings, Mystery, Prohibition, Roaring Back to Reading, The Algonquin Round Table

Murder Your Darlings: Algonquin Round Table Mystery Book 1 by J.J. Murphy
Published by: Signet
Publication Date: January 4th, 2011
Format: Paperback, 336 Pages
Rating: ★★★★
To Buy

"In all reverence I say Heaven bless the Who-dunit, the soothing balm on the wound, the cooling hand on the brow, the opiate of the people." - Dorthy Parker

Dorthy Parker may be at the center of a vicious circle of writers in New York, in fact, THE Vicious Circle... that still doesn't mean that any of them are responsible for the appearance of a corpse under their celebrated round table at the Algonquin. But, as any good writer knows, that doesn't eliminate them from the suspect pool. The fact that the corpse is a reviewer that one or more of them has wished dead at one time or another doesn't help matters. Once the press gets a hold of the story and starts to sensationalize the scenario, things are libel to get out of hand. Dorthy and her fellow writer, Robert Benchley, decide to solve the case on their own without the cops, who seem to be questioning all the wrong people. Not to mention the flatfoots seem obsessed with the young wannabe writer Billy Faulkner, who Dorothy just knows couldn't have done it. She must make sure that Billy is safe and not the prime suspect! With her dog's lead in one hand, a cup of tea filled with anything but in the other, and a heart longing for the married Benchley, Dorothy will solve this crime if she has to go to every illegal gin joint, speakeasy, and bad play that stands in her way.

Murder Your Darlings throws you headlong into the heart of the Vicious Circle at the height of their powers. Therefore I will caution, the unwieldy cast coupled with the plethora of puns does take a while to adjust to, like getting your sea legs or finding your tolerance level for alcohol. But once you grasp who everyone is and what they're notorious for the story fully captures you. I wouldn't say that it's one of those books you just start and plow through cover to cover, with it's wonderfully short chapters and it's witty dialogue it's a book you can pick up and set down like an indulgent afternoon snack. You get a little bit of refreshment and go on with your day, mulling over the wonderful little world you've been reading about. It's a nice leisurely stroll to the conclusion, which, when reached, makes you wish that you had a few more hours to bask in the time period. I was left with a happy glow that I still look back on fondly and look forward to having again when the next book comes out. Perhaps this time a who's who and maybe a map would improve the reading experience. Or little bios of everyone... because this wonderful world is made that much more interesting when you know the history. Thanks Wikipedia, I phrase I rarely utter and which I'm sure Dorothy would abhor.

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 2 comments  

Labels: Bright Young Detectives, Dorothy Parker, J.J. Murphy, Murder Your Darlings, Mystery, Roaring Back to Reading, Robert Benchley, The Algonquin, The Algonquin Round Table, The Vicious Circle, William Faulkner