strange and random happenstance

The Mitford Secret by Jessica Fellowes
Published by: Minotaur Books
Publication Date: January 17th, 2023
Format: Hardcover, 384 Pages
Rating: ★★
To Buy

Deborah Mitford is now Lady Andrew Cavendish and she is determined to make her first Christmas as a newlywed a success. It doesn't matter that menus will have to be creative due to rationing, or that Andrew won't be there to celebrate, or that their hoped for child was stillborn, because her in-laws have given her free range of Chatsworth. Her first house party must be a success, and this is quite the house. Even if it's a bit of a mess what with it being used as a school now and the rest of the house being practically shut up, she's sure she can make one or two rooms comfortable and brimming with Christmas cheer. She needs a win. Even if it's small and might seem silly to anyone else, this is her chance to shine. From the Cavendish side, Andrew's grandmother, parents, brother, future sister-in-law, aunt, and uncle will all be in attendance. From the Mitford side, less of a showing what with Tom in Burma and Diana in prison, but Deborah's parents, Unity, and Nancy are all coming. As is Louisa Sullivan. Nancy, knowing her family, thinks a buffer would be a good idea and this way Louisa and her darling daughter Maisie get away from the constant bombing of London and get to have an actually restful holiday. Or that's the plan. Because as soon as Lord Redesdale sees Louisa he's convinced that a dead body will show up any minute. And while one would hope that he is wrong, he's not. One night before dinner a strange villager shows up at the door demanding entrance. A Mrs. Hoole. She has a message for Lady Andrew from, well, she can't really say from where, but they come to her. And the message is to "look in the vestibule." This is all a bit much and cook will be furious if dinner gets cold, but between them all they figure out exactly where in this enormous house there is a vestibule and there they find a maid's cap with dried blood. But as the dowager duchess points out, the style of the cap is from at least the last war. Intrigued and late for dinner they decide that Mrs. Hoole will return and perform a seance. The next night she puts on quite the show for them all but saves the best for last. She tells Deborah, Nancy, and Louisa, the truth after everyone else has retired for the night. She used to work at the house with her dear friend Joan Dorries who disappeared in 1916. The household and the police weren't interested in investigating. But Mrs. Hoole, hearing that a private detective was staying up at the house, realized this might be her last chance to find out the truth. Sadly Mrs. Hoole will be found dead the next morning. The local doctor can't say if it is suspicious or not. Louisa is convinced it is, Lord Redesdale is resigned. It's just another Mitford occasion with Louisa and a corpse. Everything is bound to work out in the end with some dramatics in the interim.

This is it! This is the book I've been waiting for. And not just because it's the end of the series, but because it's about my favorite Mitford, Deborah. Also, if you are wondering, my Mitford ranking goes Deborah, Jessica, Nancy, Pamela, Unity, and in the depths of hell, Diana. So, no pressure right? Jessica Fellowes, it's your duty to make Debo shine! And honestly, there literally was no pressure because my expectations for this series are so low, and yet this book failed to reach even this low bar. The thing is, back in 2020 I read the first three books in this series and, well, hate is almost too benign a word for what I felt. Though I was determined that I would finish this series. So I girded my loins and just finished the series this year. And yes, it did take me five years to mentally prepare myself for this task. At first I thought that maybe I had been too harsh on the series because the fourth book, The Mitford Trial, wasn't half bad. But the next two books were right back on form, subpar to say the least. From the beginning this series hasn't actually known what to do with the Mitfords. They're there but they add nothing. Which is why I think I actually enjoyed The Mitford Trial, because the Mitfords were integral to the plot not just ambiance. Here they're back to being wallpaper. Yes, we need Deborah because without her we don't have Chatsworth, but seeing as Jessica Fellowes has written so many books on Downton Abbey you think she'd get the dynamic right of the most classic of tropes, a murder mystery at a country house during Christmas. She doesn't. There's no forward momentum. At one point Louisa says that the house is in the dead days between Christmas and New Year's. Now I've never felt that these were dead days, just days to read and recharge, I now view them as dead days. Days that stretch on interminably by an inept author. Why are we supposed to care about a cold case? Why are we supposed to care about a dead woman who may or may not have been murdered? We were given no stakes, instead we were given an unhinged Louisa. She behaves so rashly and out of character that it made me remember why I hated her in the first place. I mean, she just finds the killer by a process of elimination because she has literally blamed everyone else for the crime. And in some cases called the police on them. I mean, this is her job and she is just shit at it. What's more, this running around like a chicken with it's head cut off endangers her child but she doesn't seem to care. But the real kicker is that Jessica Fellowes had a clever idea, I mean, it was bound to happen sometime. The crime scene is a red herring. This should have been played up not left until the end as an afterthought. Though thankfully, this is the end. Right? Don't even think about giving her a contract for a book about Tom!

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments  

Labels: Chatsworth, Christmas, Deborah Mitford, Downton Abbey, Duchess of Devonshire, Jessica Fellowes, Louisa Cannon, Mitfords, Murder Most Foul, Private Detective, Red Herring, The Mitford Secret, The Mitford Trial

The Mitford Vanishing by Jessica Fellowes
Published by: Minotaur Books
Publication Date: January 18th, 2022
Format: Hardcover, 368 Pages
Rating: ★★
To Buy

Louisa and Guy are about to start the next chapter of their lives. After their disillusionment with the establishment they have set up a private detective agency, Cannon and Sullivan. They hope to help those who the police overlook, though Guy is more sanguine, warning Louisa that they are probably going to spend most of their time on petty domestic disputes. Given their history with the Mitfords it shouldn't come as a surprise to Louisa that they are going to be their first clients now that she has finished her maternity leave. Louisa is summoned to Rutland Gate by Nancy because Jessica, familially known as Decca, has run away. This shouldn't be such a shock to the family. The nineteen year old Decca started her "running away" fund when she was twelve, so actually running away while claiming to be on a motoring tour of France with friends seemed inevitable. The problem is, if the press gets wind of this it would ruin her and her future. So they are hoping that Louisa and Guy can discretely discover what has happened by popping over to France. What has happened is that Decca's run off to the Spanish Civil War as the bride of her cousin, Esmond Romilly. From the family's point of view things couldn't be worse. She has divorced herself from her family forever. Esmond is a known firebrand and a Communist. He also happens to be Winston Churchill's nephew. Which is how the foreign office gets involved. And once the press finds out, it's front page headlines. With their reputation on the line, Louisa and Guy realize that they must succeed in finding Decca. The Mitford case will put their name on the map if they succeed. And if they fail? Their business will be a bust before it's even begun. Seeing as the government is now involved, they decide that not both of them are needed in France and Guy continues on to Bayonne while Louisa heads home to their darling daughter Maisie, and another disappearance all together. Julia Attwood has come to Cannon and Sullivan because her sister Petunia has gone missing. Petunia was a secretary at Lee Worth. A middle-aged woman who had no political power or clout. Someone who wouldn't be missed. The exact opposite of Jessica Mitford. This is someone not even the police are looking for. The poignancy of this makes Louisa take the case to heart. She learns about Petunia and a contretemps with her coworker, Bernard Plum. As soon as she starts digging into the man she finds connections to the Spanish Civil War, and, as impossible as this may seem, even Decca and Esmond. Could Petunia's case, as well as two other missing women cases that fall into Louisa's lap, all be tied together with the Mitfords for some inexplicable reason? Only time and Bayonne will tell.

Seeing as each book in this series has been focused on one of the six Mitford sisters, in the order they were born, before the title was even announced I knew this book would be about Decca. Once the title was revealed as The Mitford Vanishing I knew it would be about Decca running off to the Spanish Civil War with her cousin Esmond Romilly. Because, as any Mitford fan has, I've read Jessica Mitford's stellar autobiography, Hons and Rebels. Which makes me question the purpose of this book. Why did Jessica Fellowes choose this event from Decca's life to dramatize? It's been well documented and there's not much new ground to cover. Unless it was that Jessica Fellowes wanted us to see it from the point of view of the Mitford clan, collective noun still to be finalized, and how they were furious with Decca. Flipping the script of Decca's own writing and seeing her as throwing her life away and being nothing more than a spoiled brat than a girl on a romantic adventure. Well, having read extensively about the Mitfords, I say running away was the healthiest decision Decca could have made. Her family was a next of fascist vipers who would eat their own and this break with her family is what made her. But Jessica Fellowes takes this selfishness further and applies it to anyone who went to fight in the Spanish Civil War. Yes, there were people who viewed it as an romantic adventure, much as Jessica did at the start, but looking down on those who were actually trying to stop the spread of hate is hypocritical when Jessica Fellowes is also saying that we need to look to the past to stop the spread of fascism now. Plus it was because of the journalists on the ground that we learned about the true horrors of what was happening in Spain. It's weird to think of this large country involved in it's own conflict outside of the rest of the European theater. Yes, maybe this book took away some of the romanticism of those who went to Spain, but anyone who looks seriously at war knows there's nothing romantic about it. And Jessica Fellowes just felt like she was preaching. Hating on the naivete of these people while trying to give a teachable moment to her very naive leads. At the end I came away with the distinct feeling that Jessica Fellowes doesn't really like any of the Mitfords. And as for her mystery with the missing women? It was implausible and amorphous. No, like really implausible. Guy was in London on the phone with Louisa only hours before he showed up in Bayonne. That is the most implausible thing ever.

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments  

Labels: Esmond Rommilly, Guy Sullivan, Hons and Rebels, Jessica Fellowes, Jessica Mitford, Louisa Cannon, Missing, Mitfords, Murder Most Foul, Private Eyes, Romanticism, Runaway, Spanish Civil War, The Mitford Vanishing

The Mitford Trial by Jessica Fellowes
Published by: Minotaur Books
Publication Date: January 19th, 2021
Format: Hardcover, 368 Pages
Rating: ★★★
To Buy

Louisa Sullivan is finally Louisa Cannon. Her and Guy's wedding was the best day of her life. Until a couple of the Mitfords snuck off to Sir Oswald Mosley's BUF rally and her husband was called in to police said rally. But a wedding isn't a marriage. And Louisa is finding it a harder adjustment than she would have thought no matter how almost perfect the big day was. Living with her in-laws, if only temporarily, is a strain, especially when her mother-in-law is constantly complaining about her to Guy. Not that Guy would ever hurt Louisa by telling her this, she just happens to be in the wrong place at the wrong time and overhears them. But despite how hard her newly married life is at least she's not playing dogsbody to the Mitfords. Nancy practically begged Louisa to go on a cruise with Lady Redesdale, Diana, and Unity. The plan being to keep Diana away from Sir Oswald until her divorce to Bryan Guinness is finalized. Just thinking about escaping that fate has put a spring in her step. Until she realizes someone is shadowing her steps. Very closely. She has seen the same man at her wedding, outside the Mitfords after she talked with Nancy, and now outside her stenography course. He eventually approaches her. His name is Iain and the government would like it very much if Louisa were to take Nancy up on the job offer and report back anything unusual that might happen on Diana and Unity's travels. Who they meet, what they talk about, general surveillance from someone who already has the access to get close to them. While Louisa hates the prospect of working for the Mitfords again, as well as keeping secrets from Guy, this might be the first time in her life she's been approached to do something that uses her unique skill set. She hesitates, but knows in her heart that she will accept. Who wouldn't want do their bit for king and country? The Princess Alice departs from Venice for an excursion around the Italian coast. The three Mitford women are in first class, while many flights below Louisa is very happy to have a bed and not a hammock like some of the lower class passengers. At first her job is nothing more than what she's done before, fetching and carrying while pretending she's invisible. Pretending to not notice Unity's attraction to a German SS officer while squirreling away the information for Iain. Ignoring Diana's mild obsession with the twice divorced woman down the hall and thinking that this couldn't possibly interest Iain. That is until the woman's husband is murdered. That's when Louisa tries to contact Iain and realizes she's in over her head. But thanks to her husband's well-timed arrival they can work the case together. Until she's told to look the other way. Until she's told that the truth could get her husband killed. Playing at spies is far more dangerous than she realized. And this isn't her first murder!

In long running series it's common for authors to have a series bible. This will help them remember basic details like descriptions of characters, ages, potted histories. This will not help them if they've forgotten the sun has already risen in the previous chapter or if a witness has already been called to the stand or if they somehow transported a boat from the east coast to the west coast of Italy defying space and time. Jessica Fellowes is in desperate need of this because she actually forgot the ENTIRE PLOT of the previous book in this series. Part of me was like, FFS, she did it again. Because as I've pointed out in previous volumes, she desperately needs an editor to remove all her anomalies, the above examples all being taken from this book, but forgetting the entire plot of The Mitford Scandal is a cut above. I kind of am in awe of this complete amnesia. So what exactly did Jessica Fellowes forget? She forgot that her last book was set entirely on the continent when Louisa was lady's maid to the newly married Diana Guinness. Because when Nancy approaches Louisa about the job offer in this book all Louisa can think about is how she's never traveled. She's lived a small life and never got to see the world before her marriage. In her own words she says she has "barely left England, bar a short trip to Dieppe with the Mitfords years and years ago." And that is by far not the only time she mentions this desire. The chance to see the world is just an added bonus for doing her bit for king and country. A world which she's already seen. As has her husband, because they ran into each other in Paris when Louisa was working there. There's a slight backtrack when Jessica Fellowes has Louisa musing on taking the night train to Paris a few times when she worked for Diana, but it was too little too late. So, why all the musings and wanderlust for a place she's forgotten she's been to? Your guess is as good as mine. I mean, if fictional characters could take a bump on the head I'd say that this happened to our heroine but instead it had to have happened to our author AND any of her beta readers. Because this is a serious plot hole. It's a gaping maw that it was hard to get past. But oddly for me, get past it I did. Why? Again, I couldn't explain it if I tried. It was a combination of Jessica Fellowes knowing that Nazis are bad and my love of a good gruesome death on a cruise ship. Last year at this time I was watching the entertaining, if flawed show, Death and Other Details, about murder on a Mediterranean ocean liner. The Mitford Trial hit the same note and made me feel a little nostalgic. This book isn't perfect and occasionally veers to the absurd with Louisa taking a catnap at a crime scene, but compared to the rest of this series, it was stellar.

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments  

Labels: Amnesia, Cruise Ship, Death and Other Details, Editor, Guy Sullivan, Jessica Fellowes, Louisa Cannon, Mitfords, Murder Most Foul, Nazis, Plot Hole, Series Bible, Spies, The Mitford Scandal, The Mitford Trial, Travel

The Mitford Scandal by Jessica Fellowes
Published by: Minotaur Books
Publication Date: January 21st, 2020
Format: Hardcover, 384 Pages
Rating: ★ 
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Louisa Cannon has turned her back on the Mitfords. She had such hopes, such dreams, and here she is a temp hired for a glamorous party at the Guinness household in London. Nothing but a domestic and not even one with a reliable salary. But this is also the night her life will change again thanks to the Mitfords, whether she wants it to or not. The debonair heir, Bryan Guinness, has been wooing Diana Mitford and what transpires at the party makes him realize life is too short and he and Diana should be wed. A maid tragically dies in what appears to be an accident and Bryan pops the question to Diana and she accepts! Now that she's the wife to a Guinness the world is Diana's oyster and she needs her own personal lady's maid, and who better than dear old Louisa? As for dear old Louisa, she isn't exactly in a position to turn the offer down. Such prestige, power, and pay, it's worth putting up with Diana's tempers. Yet murder seems to shadow Diana and Bryan when there's a death at their Paris residence three years later. No one thinks back to that poor maid on the eve of their new lives except Louisa. Louisa senses that they are somehow connected. Two accidents that shouldn't have happened is too much of a coincidence. And who better to ask for help than her old friend Guy Sullivan? He happens to be in Paris following a missing persons case with his best friend Harry and Harry's new wife, Guy's partner, Mary Moon! They sadly get nowhere on either case and Louisa is whisked off in the wake of Diana once again. Though the company Diana is starting to keep is far more political. She's turning away from the bright young things and turning towards Oswald Mosley. Louisa knows it isn't any of her business, she's paid to be Diana's friend and secret keeper, but these secrets are dangerous. And it doesn't help that this confidence doesn't go both ways. Diana won't hear about there being a murderer amongst her friends, even when a third body appears. What is Louisa to do?

If you haven't guessed by now we're working our way through the Mitford sisters in Jessica Fellowes's series, the ironically titled "Mitford Murders Mystery." So the third book means it's Diana's turn, with Unity, Decca, and Debo waiting in the wings, and yes, I feel sorry for them in advance with whatever Jessica Fellowes has planned for them. The problem with Diana is she's a deplorable. She is a genuinely horrible human. The fact that she was married to Oswald Mosley in Goebbels's drawing room with Hitler in attendance is the one sentence bio that adequately covers what a horrid human being she was. While this series has always been more concerned with the "look" of the Mitfords than the "spirit" of them I have to say that Jessica Fellowes did a good job portraying Diana, because not only did I hate the book for myriad writing and plotting reasons, but I hated it for Diana. And thankfully it feels like Jessica Fellowes hates Diana too, because I've come to terms with her being a bad writer, but if she was also a bad human, if she made Diana a heroine, well, I don't think I could stomach that. Though her hatred of Diana made the writing at times a tad heavy handed with the Nazi side of things. But I think that can be forgiven, because now, more then ever, people need to be reminded that Nazis are bad. As I write this Nazi Germany is trending on Twitter, that is how relevant Nazis are. But the Diana hatred oozing off the pages made me dislike this book on a level not seen since I read Diana's autobiography A Life of Contrasts. It's really hard to like a book with an unappealing villain as the star. Add to that my myriad issues with the series as a whole, and there was no way I was going to like this. Throw in the weird timeline with us jumping years ahead at random intervals and we're supposed to believe that the crimes committed are in the front of everyone's minds all that time later? That's preposterous. Much like calling this series "A Mitford Murders Mystery."

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments  

Labels: A Life of Contrasts, Bryan Guinness, Diana Mitford, Guy Sullivan, Jessica Fellowes, Lady's Maid, Louisa Cannon, Murder, Murder Most Foul, Nazis, Oswald Mosley, The Mitford Murders, The Mitford Scandal

Bright Young Dead by Jessica Fellowes
Published by: Minotaur Books
Publication Date: October 30th, 2018
Format: Hardcover, 400 Pages
Rating: ★★
To Buy

Pamela may be turning eighteen, but she isn't one of the fast bright young things like her sister Nancy. Pamela would far prefer a quiet and sedate birthday party, perhaps with a nice ride through the country on her horse, but does Nancy listen? Oh no. Nancy and her friends have descended on Asthall Manor and have concocted quite a delicious scavenger hunt, because it is the done thing! Though most scavenger hunts don't end in a dead body at the base of the local church tower. Because if they did, this scavenger hunt would make all the partygoers winners. Adrian Curtis has been murdered and his sister's maid Dulcie is arrested. Dulcie's shadowy past working for Alice Diamond, the Queen of the Forty Thieves, makes her guilty because of her past. But Louisa Cannon is someone who was given a second chance from her own criminal past thanks to the Mitfords and she can't see someone else who has worked so hard trying to go straight to go down for a crime she didn't commit. Therefore it's time for Louisa to dust off her rusty detective skills and get to work. As luck would have it her old crime solving partner Guy Sullivan is now a Sergeant in the actual police force, no more of this railway police thank you very much! Even more of a coincidence is that he is working with his colleague, Constable Mary Moon, investigating Alice Diamond and her latest shoplifting spree. Who knows, the two cases could be connected! One thing is certain, they both need information the other has. As they flit through the underground of London's nightlife, from dance halls to pubs, responding to the thumping urgency of the music thrumming through the clubs, emotions will run high and relationships will be strained as a murderer is lured out into the open. Can they catch a killer before everything implodes?

The ability of humans to adapt shouldn't surprise me given everything we've all been through during the pandemic, but still it sneaks up on me occasionally. Case in point is this series. I can unreservedly say that I hate these books and yet I gave this one two stars. Meaning I didn't hate it as much as I thought I did, at least when I was rating it. I've often thought that a book should have two ratings, the one you give right after reading it and the one you give a few months later as to how your memories have either favored or soured to it. In this case they have soured, more and more. The reason this book got two stars is I have already adapted after reading only one book in this series to the fact they aren't good and any improvement, no matter how slight, means it's not complete shit. Perhaps there's a song here, "I've Grown Accustomed to Your Crap?" The main reason is I wasn't shocked this time around by the fact that there are basically no Mitfords in this series despite being "A Mitford Murders Mystery." In fact half way through Bright Young Dead Jessica Fellowes completely gives up on the Mitford pretense altogether and it's just Louisa, off doing stupid things, in particular abandoning herself to Jazz music, a trope that always annoys the hell out of me and makes me want to scratch out the author's eyes, until Jessica finally remembers she's writing a series with a veneer of Mitfords and drags them hastily back on scene for the denouement. A denouement I might add that is just ripping of the movie Clue. So watch Clue instead is my recommendation. Because besides being just boring and unoriginal, this book also talks down to the reader in a way that made me want to shake some sense into the author. You really had to tell us what a fence is in such a condescending manner? Because I think at this point you need all the good will you can get to have any reader pick up the next volume.

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments  

Labels: Alice Diamond, Bright Young Dead, Bright Young Things, Clue, Jessica Fellowes, Jessica Mitford, Louisa Cannon, Mitfords, Murder Most Foul, My Fair Lady, Nancy Mitford, Scavenger Hunt, The Mitford Murders

The Mitford Murders by Jessica Fellowes
Published by: Minotaur Books
Publication Date: January 23rd, 2018
Format: Hardcover, 432 Pages
Rating: ★
To Buy

Florence Nightingale Shore, the goddaughter of the famous nurse, was brutally beaten and left for dead on a train. Days later she would die. But why would anyone want to kill a woman who gave her life to good deeds, just has her namesake had? Three people who are tenuously connected to Florence will band together to solve her murder. First there is Louisa Cannon. She happened to be on the same railway line under duress when the crime happened. Second there is Guy Sullivan. He works for the railway as a policeman but longs to work for Scotland Yard and rescues Louisa from the clutches of her uncle. Finally there is Nancy Mitford. Louisa was on her way to interview for a position with the Mitford family at Asthall Manor in the Oxfordshire countryside when everything went pear-shaped. Nancy herself has a connection to the murder victim, in that her dear Nanny Blor's twin sister was a good friend to Florence Shore and that was where Florence was headed when she met her untimely demise. But it's only due to some grand plan that Louisa could never comprehend that despite being late for her interview she is taken on by the Mitfords and forges a friendship with Nancy that happens to revolve around solving this lurid crime that has everyone talking! So many what-ifs and twists of fate in Louisa's favor! But thanks to everything lining up just so it looks like Florence Nightingale Shore's murder will be avenged by a debutante, a nursery maid, and a four-eyed wanna be copper.

The Mitfords are what brought me to this book, but the truth is that this book only has the thinnest veneer of Mitfords while all the heavy lifting is done by two characters out of central casting, Guy and Louisa. I don't take issue with Guy and his tenacity that gets the job done where his intellect and poor eyesight can't, I take all my issues with Louisa. A Victorian street urchin whose family has fallen on bad times and who has learned some unsavory skills in order to make a few bob transplanted out of a hundred different stories and placed in the 1920s. I've read about a "Louisa" in so many books that having her the star here just baffled me. There was no hook, no interest, just her. Again. And this when you have the Mitfords right here! Mitfords that are so two-dimensional I seriously wonder if Jessica Fellowes did any research on them at all. She uses their nicknames and that's about it. Well, other people besides Mitfords have nicknames so really, they could have been anyone. Therefore I had to pin my hopes on the "true crime" angle. Alas, this let me down as well with the murder in the end not being properly explained. Also "no one saw her alive again" as a tagline is WRONG she didn't die for like four days! The bigger picture couldn't hold my attention so the little errors started piling up and annoying me, like an itch I couldn't scratch deep under my skin. Louisa drinking from a cup of tea and then the cup being untouched. Little things over and over that had me flipping back and forth through the book going, hang on a minute, that's wrong from what we learned earlier. Why did Nancy's birthday have to be moved up a year? Why does time have no meaning anymore? How long have I been reading this book again? Questions that will never have answers, especially that last one.

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments  

Labels: 1920s, Asthall Manor, Florence Nightingale Shore, Guy Sullivan, Jessica Fellowes, Louisa Cannon, Mitfords, Murder, Murder Most Foul, Nancy Mitford, Oxfordshire, Stock Character, The Mitford Murders, Trains

How to Sell a Haunted House by Grady Hendrix
Published by: Berkley
Publication Date: January 17th, 2023
Format: Hardcover, 432 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"New York Times bestselling author Grady Hendrix takes on the haunted house in a thrilling new novel that explores the way your past - and your family - can haunt you like nothing else.

When Louise finds out her parents have died, she dreads going home. She doesn't want to leave her daughter with her ex and fly to Charleston. She doesn't want to deal with her family home, stuffed to the rafters with the remnants of her father’s academic career and her mother’s lifelong obsession with puppets and dolls. She doesn’t want to learn how to live without the two people who knew and loved her best in the world.

Most of all, she doesn't want to deal with her brother, Mark, who never left their hometown, gets fired from one job after another, and resents her success. Unfortunately, she'll need his help to get the house ready for sale because it'll take more than some new paint on the walls and clearing out a lifetime of memories to get this place on the market.

But some houses don’t want to be sold, and their home has other plans for both of them...

Like his novels The Southern Book Club's Guide to Slaying Vampires and The Final Girl Support Group, How to Sell a Haunted House is classic Hendrix: equal parts heartfelt and terrifying - a gripping new read from "the horror master" (USA Today)."

Oh, how I've been dying to read this book. Perhaps that's not the best thing to say about a book with a haunted house?

The Motion Picture Teller by Colin Cotterill
Published by: Soho Crime
Publication Date: January 17th, 2023
Format: Hardcover, 240 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"An enchanting new standalone novel from CWA Dagger winner Colin Cotterill, set in Bangkok: a mystery without a crime, where the line between fact and fiction blurs, and nothing is as simple as it appears.

Thailand, 1996: Supot, a postman with the Royal Thai Mail service, hates his job. The only bright spot in his life is watching classic movies with his best friend, Ali, the owner of a video store. These cinephiles adore the charisma of the old Western stars, particularly the actresses, and bemoan the state of modern Thai cinema - until a mysterious cassette, entitled Bangkok 2010, arrives at Ali's store.

Bangkok 2010 is a dystopian film set in a near-future Thailand - and Supot and Ali, immediately obsessed, agree it's the most brilliant Thai movie they've ever seen. But nobody else has ever heard of the movie, the director, the actors, or any of the crew. Who would make a movie like this and not release it, and why?

Feeling a powerful calling to solve the mystery of Bangkok 2010, Supot journeys deep into the Thai countryside and discovers that powerful people are dead set on keeping the film buried."

Mysterious films that only a few people know about? Yes, that is totally my jam, can't you here me hyperventilating over here?

The Shards by Bret Easton Ellis
Published by: Knopf
Publication Date: January 17th, 2023
Format: Hardcover, 608 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"A novel of sensational literary and psychological suspense from the best-selling author of Less Than Zero and American Psycho that tracks a group of privileged high school friends in a vibrantly fictionalized 1980s Los Angeles as a serial killer strikes across the city.

Bret Easton Ellis's masterful new novel is a story about the end of innocence, and the perilous passage from adolescence into adulthood, set in a vibrantly fictionalized Los Angeles in 1981 as a serial killer begins targeting teenagers throughout the city.

Seventeen-year-old Bret is a senior at the exclusive Buckley prep school when a new student arrives with a mysterious past. Robert Mallory is bright, handsome, charismatic, and shielding a secret from Bret and his friends even as he becomes a part of their tightly knit circle. Bret's obsession with Mallory is equaled only by his increasingly unsettling preoccupation with the Trawler, a serial killer on the loose who seems to be drawing ever closer to Bret and his friends, taunting them - and Bret in particular - with grotesque threats and horrific, sharply local acts of violence. The coincidences are uncanny, but they are also filtered through the imagination of a teenager whose gifts for constructing narrative from the filaments of his own life are about to make him one of the most explosive literary sensations of his generation. Can he trust his friends - or his own mind - to make sense of the danger they appear to be in? Thwarted by the world and by his own innate desires, buffeted by unhealthy fixations, he spirals into paranoia and isolation as the relationship between the Trawler and Robert Mallory hurtles inexorably toward a collision.

Set against the intensely vivid and nostalgic backdrop of pre-Less Than Zero L.A., The Shards is a mesmerizing fusing of fact and fiction, the real and the imagined, that brilliantly explores the emotional fabric of Bret's life at seventeen - sex and jealousy, obsession and murderous rage. Gripping, sly, suspenseful, deeply haunting, and often darkly funny, The Shards is Ellis at his inimitable best."

A typical Bret Easton Ellis book, in that is loved and panned in equal measures.

What Lies in the Woods by Kate Alice Marshall
Published by: Flatiron Books
Publication Date: January 17th, 2023
Format: Hardcover, 336 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"They were eleven when they sent a killer to prison. They were heroes...but they were liars.

Kate Alice Marshall's What Lies in the Woods is a thrilling novel about friendship, secrets, betrayal, and lies - and having the courage to face the past.

Naomi Shaw used to believe in magic. Twenty-two years ago, she and her two best friends, Cassidy and Olivia, spent the summer roaming the woods, imagining a world of ceremony and wonder. They called it the Goddess Game. The summer ended suddenly when Naomi was attacked. Miraculously, she survived her seventeen stab wounds and lived to identify the man who had hurt her. The girls’ testimony put away a serial killer, wanted for murdering six women. They were heroes.

And they were liars.

For decades, the friends have kept a secret worth killing for. But now Olivia wants to tell, and Naomi sets out to find out what really happened in the woods - no matter how dangerous the truth turns out to be."

I will read ANYTHING Kate Alice Marshall writes.

Jumping Jenny by Anthony Berkeley
Published by: Poisoned Pen Press
Publication Date: January 17th, 2023
Format: Paperback, 288 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"A mystery dinner theater party thrown by local author with a taste "for rather gruesome humor" requires guests come dressed as infamous killers - Jack the Ripper, Dr. Crippen, and the like. Whatever could go wrong?

Know-it-all amateur criminologist Roger Sheringham settles in for an evening of beer, small talk, and analyzing his companions. Ena Stratton, the host's sister-in-law, catches his attention. Her erratic mood swings and loud, gossipy talk is winning her more than a few enemies amongst the guests. When she's found dead, it's clear that one of the partygoers helped her to an early grave.

Noticing a key detail that could implicate a friend in the crime, Sheringham decides to meddle with the scene and unwittingly makes himself a suspect.

Tightly paced and cleverly defying the conventions of the classic detective story, Anthony Berkeley's dark sense of humor and taste for the macabre drive this 1933 classic.

This edition includes an introduction by CWA Diamond Dagger and Edgar ® Award-winning author Martin Edwards."

I read the first two Roger Sheringham mysteries years ago when I was on a Golden Age kick and I simply adored them. I love that Poisoned Pen Press is re-releasing these classics with lovely covers. I want them all!

The Hopkins Manuscript by R.C. Sherriff
Published by: Scribner
Publication Date: January 17th, 2023
Format: Paperback, 400 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"A stunning speculative novel about a small English village preparing of the end of the world.

Edgar Hopkins is a retired math teacher with a strong sense of self-importance, whose greatest pride is winning poultry-breeding contests. When not meticulously caring for his Bantam, Edgar is an active member of the British Lunar Society. Thanks to that affiliation, Edgar becomes one of the first people to learn that the moon is on a collision course with the earth.

Members of the society are sworn to secrecy, but eventually the moon begins to loom so large in the sky that the truth can no longer be denied. During these final days, Edgar writes what he calls "The Hopkins Manuscript" - a testimony juxtaposing the ordinary and extraordinary as the villagers dig trenches and play cricket before the end of days.

First published in 1939, as the world was teetering on the brink of global war, R.C. Sherriff's classic science fiction novel is a timely and powerful missive from the past that captures human nature in all its complexity."

So eerily timely and timeless!

The Cabinet of Dr. Leng by Preston and Child
Published by: Grand Central Publishing
Publication Date: January 17th, 2023
Format: Hardcover, 416 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"Preston and Child continue their #1 bestselling series featuring FBI Special Agent Pendergast and Constance Greene, as they cross paths with New York's deadliest serial killer: Pendergast's own ancestor…and now his greatest foe.

AN INCREDIBLE JOURNEY

Astoundingly, Constance has found a way back to the place of her origins, New York City in the late 1800s, leaping at the chance, although it means leaving the present forever.

A DESPERATE OPPORTUNITY

Constance sets off on a quest to prevent the events that lead to the deaths of her sister and brother. But along the road to redemption, Manhattan's most infamous serial killer, Dr. Enoch Leng, lies in wait, ready to strike at the slightest provocation.

UNIMAGINABLE ODDS

Meanwhile, in contemporary New York, Pendergast feverishly searches for a way to reunite with Constance - but will he discover a way back to her before it's too late?"

I love a good mystery and a good time slip!

Tales of Carnival Row by George Mann, C.M. Landus, Charles Valasquez-Witosky, and Jordan Criar
Published by: Legendary Comics
Publication Date: January 17th, 2023
Format: Paperback, 156 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"Take a trip down The Row with the official expansion of the hit Amazon television series!

In the dark and magical world of Carnival Row, there are many stories to be told. Explore the Burgue, where war-weary humans and fae strike an uneasy peace and eke out a meager co-existence in Legendary Comics' new anthology graphic novel Tales from Carnival Row. Take a closer look at the myths and half-truths surrounding Philo, Vignette, Millworthy, Agreus, Tourmaline, and Aisling.

Writers George Mann (Wychwood, Newbury and Hobbes) and series writers C.M. Landrus, Charles Valasquez-Witosky, and Jordan Criar have crafted tales that will shed light on some of the most popular characters from the neo-noir Victorian fantasy television series."

I adore Carnival Row. I love George Mann more than I can say. This is a match made in heaven, or you know, the Burgue.

Pandora by Susan Stokes-Chapman
Published by: Harper Perennial,
Publication Date: January 17th, 2023
Format: Paperback, 416 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"Steeped in mystery and rich in imagination, an exhilarating historical novel set in Georgian London where the discovery of a mysterious ancient Greek vase sets in motion conspiracies, revelations, and romance.

London, 1799. Dora Blake, an aspiring jewelry artist, lives with her odious uncle atop her late parents' once-famed shop of antiquities. After a mysterious Greek vase is delivered, her uncle begins to act suspiciously, keeping the vase locked in the store's basement, away from prying eyes - including Dora's. Intrigued by her uncle's peculiar behavior, Dora turns to young, ambitious antiquarian scholar Edward Lawrence who eagerly agrees to help. Edward believes the ancient vase is the key that will unlock his academic future; Dora sees it as a chance to establish her own name.

But what Edward discovers about the vase has Dora questioning everything she has believed about her life, her family, and the world as she knows it. As Dora uncovers the truth, she comes to understand that some doors are locked and some mysteries are buried for a reason, while others are closer to the surface than they appear.

A story of myth and mystery, secrets and deception, fate and hope, Pandora is an enchanting work of historical fiction as captivating and evocative as The Song of Achilles, The Essex Serpent, and The Miniaturist."

The time period, the concept, the the, EVERYTHING!

I'm No Philosopher, But I Got Thoughts by Kristin Chenoweth
Published by: Harper Celebrate
Publication Date: January 17th, 2023
Format: Hardcover, 224 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"Aristotle. Socrates. Descartes. And now, Chenoweth. (How about some women, am I right?)

From television actress, Broadway star, and New York Times bestselling author Kristin Chenoweth comes I'm No Philosopher, But I Got Thoughts, an inspiring high-design, colorful book featuring philosophical-ish musings on connection, creativity, loss, love, faith, and closure. Just like Kristin's grandmother inspired her to trust her heart and develop her own belief system, you'll be inspired to develop your own life philosophies, as you journey through some of Kristin's most vulnerable and humorous personal stories, in her constant pursuit to make the most out of life.

In each chapter, you'll find:

Behind-the-scenes stories from Kristin's personal life
High-design, colorful pages of inspirational quotes
Engaging prompts, prayers, and inspiring quotes

Oh, and a warning: There will be Bible verses. There will be f-bombs. Read responsibly.

I'm No Philosopher, But I Got Thoughts is the perfect book to pick up on days when you need an extra shot of encouragement, a little laughter, and a gentle reminder that kindness can take you a long way. This is a great gift to give for birthdays, holidays, graduations, Mother's Day, or for fans of Kristin Chenoweth, known for her Emmy Award-winning role in the ABC hit series Pushing Daisies and Broadway's Wicked."

I adore the cover, Kristen Chenoweth is a true muse!

The Fraud Squad by Kyla Zhao
Published by: Berkley
Publication Date: January 17th, 2023
Format: Paperback, 368 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"A working-class woman who infiltrates Singapore's high society to fulfill her dreams risks losing everything in the process - including herself - in this propulsive novel by debut author Kyla Zhao.

For as long as she can remember, Samantha Song has dreamed of writing for a high-society magazine - and she'd do anything to get there. But the constant struggle to help her mom make ends meet and her low social status cause her dream to feel like a distant fantasy.

Now Samantha finds herself working at a drab PR firm. Living vicariously through her wealthy coworker and friend, Anya Chen, is the closest she'll get to her ideal life. Until she meets Timothy Kingston: the disillusioned son of one of Singapore's elite families - and Samantha's one chance at infiltrating the high-society world to which she desperately wants to belong.

To Samantha's surprise, Timothy and Anya both agree to help her make a name for herself on Singapore’s socialite scene. But the borrowed designer clothes and plus-ones to every glamorous event can only get her so far. The rest is on Samantha, and she's determined to impress the editor in chief of Singapore's poshest magazine. But the deeper Samantha wades into this fraud, the more she fears being exposed - especially with a mysterious gossip columnist on the prowl for dirt - forcing her to reconcile her pretense with who she really is before she loses it all."

Pretense and dreams.

The Mitford Affair by Marie Benedict
Published by: Sourcebooks Landmark
Publication Date: January 17th, 2023
Format: Hardcover, 352 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"From New York Times bestselling author Marie Benedict comes an explosive novel of history's most notorious sisters, one of whom will have to choose: her country or her family?

Between the World Wars, the six Mitford sisters - each more beautiful, brilliant, and eccentric than the next - dominate the English political, literary, and social scenes. Though they've weathered scandals before, the family falls into disarray when Diana divorces her wealthy husband to marry a fascist leader and Unity follows her sister's lead all the way to Munich, inciting rumors that she's become Hitler's mistress.

As the Nazis rise in power, novelist Nancy Mitford grows suspicious of her sisters' constant visits to Germany and the high-ranking fascist company they keep. When she overhears alarming conversations and uncovers disquieting documents, Nancy must make excruciating choices as Great Britain goes to war with Germany.

Probing the torrid political climate in the lead-up to World War II and the ways that seemingly sensible people can be sucked into radical action, The Mitford Affair follows Nancy's valiant efforts to stop the Nazis from taking over Great Britain, and the complicated choices she must make between the personal and the political."

One of two Mitford books this week. You'd think they'd spread them out a bit... It's not like EVERYONE is writing about the Mitfords now is it?

The Mitford Secret by Jessica Fellowes
Published by: Minotaur Books
Publication Date: January 17th, 2023
Format: Hardcover, 384 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"A mystery with the fascinating Mitford sisters at its heart, Jessica Fellowes's The Mitford Secret is the sixth and final intriguing installment in the Mitford Murders series.

It's 1941, and the Mitford household is splintered by the vicissitudes of war. To bring the clan together - maybe for one last time, Deborah invites them to Chatsworth for Christmas, along with a selection of society's most impressive and glamorous guests, as well as old family friend Louisa Cannon, a private detective.

One night, a psychic arrives, and to liven things up Deborah agrees she may host a séance. But entertainment turns to dark mystery as the psychic reveals that a maid was murdered in this very same house - and she can prove it.

Louisa steps forward to try to solve the cold case. But with a house full of people who want nothing more than to bury their secrets, will she be able to unmask the murderer? And how deep does the truth lie?"

And the series FINALLY ends.

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments  

Labels: Anthony Berkeley, Bret Easton Ellis, Colin Cotterill, George Mann, Grady Hendrix, Jessica Fellowes, Kate Alice Marshall, Kristin Chenoweth, Kyla Zhao, Marie Benedict, R.C. Sherriff, Susan Stokes-Chapman

The Mitford Vanishing by Jessica Fellowes
Published by: Minotaur Books
Publication Date: January 18th, 2022
Format: Hardcover, 416 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"A mystery with the fascinating Mitford sisters at its heart, Jessica Fellowes's The Mitford Vanishing is the fifth installment in the Mitford Murders series, inspired by a real-life murder in a story full of intrigue...

1937. War with Germany is dawning, and a civil war already rages in Spain. Split across political lines, the six Mitford sisters are more divided than ever. Meanwhile their former maid Louisa Cannon is now a private detective, working with her policeman husband Guy Sullivan.

Louisa and Guy are surprised when a call comes in from novelist Nancy Mitford requesting that they look into the disappearance of her Communist sister Jessica in Spain. But one case leads to another as they are also asked to investigate the mysterious vanishing of a soldier.

As the two cases come together, Louisa and Guy discover that every marriage has its secrets - but some are more deadly than others. Suddenly home feels a long way away..."

Me continuing to read this series shows I'm insane because I keep expecting them to improve.

Hotel Portofino by J.P. O'Connell
Published by: Blackstone Publishing
Publication Date: January 18th, 2022
Format: Paperback, 376 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"For fans of Downton Abbey and The Crown...welcome to Hotel Portofino, where romance, revelry, and intrigue await.

A heady historical drama about a British family who opens an upper-class hotel on the magical Italian Riviera during the Roaring Twenties.

Hotel Portofino has been open for only a few weeks, but already the problems are mounting for its owner Bella Ainsworth. Her high-class guests are demanding and hard to please. And she's being targeted by a scheming and corrupt local politician, who threatens to drag her into the red-hot cauldron of Mussolini's Italy.

To make matters worse, her marriage is in trouble, and her children are still struggling to recover from the repercussions of the Great War. All eyes are on the arrival of a potential love match for her son Lucian, but events don't go to plan, which will have far-reaching consequences for the whole family.

Set in the breathtakingly beautiful Italian Riviera, Hotel Portofino is a story of personal awakening at a time of global upheaval and of the liberating influence of Italy's enchanting culture, climate, and cuisine on British innocents abroad."

Exotic Bright Young Things, yes please!

Murder at the National Gallery by Jim Eldridge
Published by: Allison and Busby
Publication Date: January 18th, 2022
Format: Hardcover, 311 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"1897, London. The capital is shocked to learn that the body of a woman has been found at the National Gallery, eviscerated in a manner that recalls all too strongly the exploits of the infamous Jack the Ripper.

Daniel Wilson and Abigail Fenton are contacted by a curator of the National Gallery for their assistance. The dead woman, an artist's model and lady of the night, had links to artist Walter Sickert who was a suspect during the Ripper's spree of killings. Scotland Yard have arrested Sickert on suspicion of this fresh murder but it is not the last...

Copycat murders of the Ripper's crimes implicate the artist who loves to shock but Sickert insists that he is innocent. Who would want to frame him? Wilson and Fenton have their work cut out catching an elusive and determined killer."

Jack the Ripper! Jack the Ripper! Jack the Ripper! Oh, and Sickert as the suspect! Patricia Cornwell would be pleased.

The Tally Stick by Carl Nixon
Published by: World Editions
Publication Date: January 18th, 2022
Format: Paperback, 288 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"Lost in the wilderness: subjugation, survival, and the meaning of family.

Up on the highway, the only evidence that the Chamberlains had ever been there was two smeared tire tracks in the mud leading into an almost undamaged screen of bushes and trees. No other cars passed that way until after dawn. By that time the tracks had been washed away by the heavy rain. After being in New Zealand for only five days, the English Chamberlain family had vanished into thin air. The date was 4 April 1978. In 2010 the remains of the eldest child are discovered in a remote part of the West Coast, showing he lived for four years after the family disappeared. Found alongside him are his father's watch and what turns out to be a tally stick, a piece of scored wood marking items of debt. How had he survived and then died in such a way? Where is the rest of the family? And what is the meaning of the tally stick?"

New Zealand disappearance? I am here for this!

Disappearance of a Scribe by Dana Stabenow
Published by: Head of Zeus
Publication Date: January 18th, 2022
Format: Hardcover, 272 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"The second in the trilogy of Ancient Egyptian crime novels that began with Death of an Eye.

Two Alexandrian fishermen come across a horrifying sight - the body of a skeleton floating upright at the bottom of the sea, anchored in place by a cement weight around his feet. In Alexandria's rough-and-tumble construction trade they call that 'being fitted with a pair of Rhakotis sandals' and what's worse, he's the second such victim in two years.

Queen Cleopatra is busy rebuilding her city after the Alexandrian War and these murders are not to be allowed to interfere with this primary task, so she charges Tetisheri, her new Eye of Isis, with the task of finding out who these men were, when they were murdered, and, above all, why."

Egypt!!!

Servant Mage by Kate Elliott
Published by: Tordotcom
Publication Date: January 18th, 2022
Format: Hardcover, 176 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"In Kate Elliott's Servant Mage, a lowly fire mage finds herself entangled in an empire-spanning conspiracy on her way to discovering her true power.

They choose their laws to secure their power.

Fellian is a Lamplighter, able to provide illumination through magic. A group of rebel Monarchists free her from indentured servitude and take her on a journey to rescue trapped compatriots from an underground complex of mines.

Along the way they get caught up in a conspiracy to kill the latest royal child and wipe out the Monarchist movement for good.

But Fellian has more than just her Lamplighting skills up her sleeve..."

Dragons!!!

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments  

Labels: Bright Young Things, Carl Nixon, Cleopatra, Dana Stabenow, Dragons, Egypt, J.P. O'Connell, Jack the Ripper, Jessica Fellowes, Jessica Mitford, Jim Eldridge, Kate Elliott, Mitfords, New Zealand, Walter Sickert

Winterkeep by Kristin Cashore
Published by: Dial Books
Publication Date: January 19th, 2021
Format: Hardcover, 528 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"The highly anticipated next book in the New York Times bestselling, award-winning Graceling Realm series, which has sold 1.3 million copies.

For the past five years, Bitterblue has reigned as Queen of Monsea, heroically rebuilding her nation after her father's horrific rule. After learning about the land of Torla in the east, she sends envoys to the closest nation there: Winterkeep - a place where telepathic foxes bond with humans, and people fly across the sky in wondrous airships. But when the envoys never return, having drowned under suspicious circumstances, Bitterblue sets off for Winterkeep herself, along with her spy Hava and her trusted colleague Giddon. On the way, tragedy strikes again - a tragedy with devastating political and personal ramifications.

Meanwhile, in Winterkeep, Lovisa Cavenda waits and watches, a fire inside her that is always hungry. The teenage daughter of two powerful politicians, she is the key to unlocking everything - but only if she's willing to transcend the person she's been all her life."

I know you've been wanting to return to the Graceling Realm too!

Cast in Firelight by Dana Swift
Published by: Delacorte Press
Publication Date: January 19th, 2021
Format: Hardcover, 448 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"The first book in an epic, heart-pounding fantasy duology about two royal heirs betrothed to be married, but whose loyalties are torn, and a ruthless enemy who threatens their world, perfect for fans of Sabaa Tahir, Hafsah Faizal, and Renée Ahdieh.

Adraa is the royal heir of Belwar, a talented witch on the cusp of taking her royal ceremony test, and a girl who just wants to prove her worth to her people.

Jatin is the royal heir to Naupure, a competitive wizard who's mastered all nine colors of magic, and a boy anxious to return home for the first time since he was a child.

Together, their arranged marriage will unite two of Wickery's most powerful kingdoms. But after years of rivalry from afar, Adraa and Jatin only agree on one thing: their reunion will be anything but sweet.

Only, destiny has other plans and with the criminal underbelly of Belwar suddenly making a move for control, their paths cross...and neither realizes who the other is, adopting separate secret identities instead.

Between dodging deathly spells and keeping their true selves hidden, the pair must learn to put their trust in the other if either is to uncover the real threat. Now Wickery's fate is in the hands of rivals..? Fiancées..? Partners..? Whatever they are, it's complicated and bound for greatness or destruction."

I'm really into epic fantasy duologies!

The Mask of Mirrors by M.A. Carrick
Published by: Orbit
Publication Date: January 19th, 2021
Format: Paperback, 672 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"The Mask of Mirrors is the unmissable start to the Rook and Rose trilogy, a darkly magical fantasy adventure in which a con artist returns to the city that betrayed her, determined to have her revenge - only to find that her fate might be to save it.

This is your past, the good and the ill of it, and that which is neither...

Arenza Lenskaya is a liar and a thief, a pattern-reader and a daughter of no clan. Raised in the slums of Nadezra, she fled that world to save her sister.

This is your present, the good and the ill of it, and that which is neither...

Renata Viraudax is a con artist recently arrived in Nadezra. She has one goal: to trick her way into a noble house and secure her fortune.

This is your future, the good and the ill of it, and that which is neither...

As corrupt nightmare magic begins to weave its way through the city of dreams, the poisonous feuds of its aristocrats and the shadowy dangers of its impoverished underbelly become tangled - with Ren at their heart. And if she cannot sort the truth from the lies, it will mean the destruction of all her worlds."

M. A. Carrick is the joint pen name of Marie Brennan and Alyc Helms you say? No need to tell me more, I adore the delightful and talented Marie Brennan! Haven't read Alyc Helms yet but am so excited to!

A Curse of Ash and Embers by Jo Spurrier
Published by: Voyager
Publication Date: January 19th, 2021
Format: Paperback, 368 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"A dead witch. A bitter curse. A battle of magic.

Some people knit socks by the fire at night. Gyssha Blackbone made monsters.

But the old witch is dead now, and somehow it's Elodie's job to clean up the mess.

When she was hired at Black Oak Cottage, Elodie had no idea she'd find herself working for a witch; and her acid-tongued new mistress, Aleida, was not expecting a housemaid to turn up on her doorstep.

Gyssha's final curse left Aleida practically dead on her feet, and now, with huge monsters roaming the woods, a demonic tree lurking in the orchard and an angry warlock demanding repayment of a debt, Aleida needs Elodie's help, whether she likes it or not.

And no matter what the old witch throws at her, to Elodie it's still better than going back home."

I am REALLY into witches right now.

In the Garden of Spite by Camilla Bruce
Published by: Berkley
Publication Date: January 19th, 2021
Format: Hardcover, 480 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"An audacious novel of feminine rage about one of the most prolific female serial killers in American history - and the men who drove her to it.

They whisper about her in Chicago. Men come to her with their hopes, their dreams - their fortunes. But no one sees them leave. No one sees them at all after they come to call on the Widow of La Porte.

The good people of Indiana may have their suspicions, but if those fools knew what she'd given up, what was taken from her, how she'd suffered, surely they'd understand. Belle Gunness learned a long time ago that a woman has to make her own way in this world. That's all it is. A bloody means to an end. A glorious enterprise meant to raise her from the bleak, colorless drudgery of her childhood to the life she deserves. After all, vermin always survive."

OK, why am I just now learning about Belle Gunness!?! Thankfully this book came along to fill in this gap in my knowledge.

Dryad Vol. 1 by Kurtis Wiebe and Justin Osterling
Published by: Oni Press
Publication Date: January 19th, 2021
Format: Paperback, 144 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"Best-selling writer Kurtis Wiebe (Rat Queens) and newcomer artist Justin Osterling launch a new fantasy saga!

The Glass family has spent thirteen years hiding peacefully in the sleepy forest settlement of Frostbrook where Morgan and Yale planted roots and raised their twins, Griffon and Rana. But secrets never stay hidden, and the entire Glass family find themselves the target of an unearthly attack on Frostbrook.

Now on the run from Muse Corp., they must flee to the massive city of Silver’s Bay to hide in plain sight. Rana and Griffon find themselves uprooted and answering for their parents' mistakes. But, they’ll soon find that the past has a way of finding you, no matter where you run."

I have a feeling this Glass Family isn't like J.D. Salinger's...

Octavia E. Butler: Kindred, Fledgling, and Collected Stories by Octavia E. Butler
Published by: Library of America
Publication Date: January 19th, 2021
Format: Hardcover, 790 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"The definitive edition of the complete works of the "grand dame" of American science fiction begins with this volume gathering two novels and her collected stories.

An original and eerily prophetic writer, Octavia E. Butler used the conventions of science fiction to explore the dangerous legacy of racism in America in harrowingly personal terms. She broke new ground with books that featured complex Black female protagonists - “I wrote myself in,” she would later recall - establishing herself as one of thepioneers of the Afrofuturist aesthetic. In 1995 she became the first science fiction writer to receive a MacArthur Fellowship, in recognition of her achievement in creating new aspirations for the genre and for American literature.

This first volume in the Library of America edition of Butler’s collected works opens with her masterpiece, Kindred, one of the landmark American novels of the last half century. Its heroine, Dana, a Black woman, is pulled back and forth between the present and the pre–Civil War past, where she finds herself enslaved on the plantation of a white ancestor whose life she must save to preserve her own. In Fledgling, an amnesiac discovers that she is a vampire, with a difference: she is a new, experimental birth with brown skin, giving her the fearful ability to go out in sunlight. Rounding out the volume are eight short stories and five essays - including two never before collected, plus a newly researched chronology of Butler’s life and career and helpful explanatory notes prepared by scholar Gerry Canavan. Butler’s friend, the writer and editor Nisi Shawl, provides an introduction."

I'm always happy when an author whom I think needs to be included in the Library of America finally is. Also edited by Nisi Shawl! I've met her at WisCon! 

Meet Me in Bombay by Jenny Ashcroft
Published by: St. Martin's Press,
Publication Date: January 19th, 2021
Format: Hardcover, 352 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"All he needs is to find her. First, he must remember who she is.

Jenny Ashcroft's "Meet Me in Bombay is a powerful, poignant and deeply emotional tale of love, mystery, loss and joy."  - Kate Furnivall, New York Times bestselling author

It's New Year's Eve in Bombay, 1913, and Madeline Bright, new to the sweltering heat of colonial India, is yearning for all she has left behind in England. Then, at the stroke of midnight, Maddy meets Luke Devereaux, and as the year changes so do both their lives.

Bold and charismatic, Luke opens her eyes to the wonders of Bombay, while Maddy's beauty and vivacity captures his heart. Only her mother disapproves, preferring the devoted Guy Bowen as a match for her daughter.

But while Maddy and Luke are falling in love, the world is falling apart. World War I is on the horizon, and Luke will be given no choice but to fight. They will be continents apart, separated by danger and devastating loss, but bound by Luke's promise that they will meet again in Bombay."

The romance evoked in just a few simple lines...  

The Mitford Trial by Jessica Fellowes
Published by: Minotaur Books
Publication Date: January 19th, 2021
Format: Hardcover, 368 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"A timeless murder mystery with the fascinating, glamorous Mitford sisters at its heart, The Mitford Trial is the fourth installment in the Mitford Murders series from Jessica Fellowes, inspired by a real-life murder in a story full of intrigue, affairs and betrayal..."

Why do I keep doing this to myself?

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments  

Labels: Alyc Helms, Belle Gunness, Camilla Bruce, Dana Swift, Dryad, Jenny Ashcroft, Jessica Fellowes, Jo Spurrier, Justin Osterling, Kristin Cashore, Kurtis Wiebe, M.A. Carrick, Marie Brennan, Mitfords, Octavia E. Butler

The Mitford Scandal by Jessica Fellowes
Published by: Minotaur Books
Publication Date: January 21st, 2020
Format: Hardcover, 384 Pages
Rating: ★ 
To Buy

Louisa Cannon has turned her back on the Mitfords. She had such hopes, such dreams, and here she is a temp hired for a glamorous party at the Guinness household in London. Nothing but a domestic and not even one with a reliable salary. But this is also the night her life will change again thanks to the Mitfords, whether she wants it to or not. The debonair heir, Bryan Guinness, has been wooing Diana Mitford and what transpires at the party makes him realize life is too short and he and Diana should be wed. A maid tragically dies in what appears to be an accident and Bryan pops the question to Diana and she accepts! Now that she's the wife to a Guinness the world is Diana's oyster and she needs her own personal lady's maid, and who better than dear old Louisa? As for dear old Louisa, she isn't exactly in a position to turn the offer down. Such prestige, power, and pay, it's worth putting up with Diana's tempers. Yet murder seems to shadow Diana and Bryan when there's a death at their Paris residence three years later. No one thinks back to that poor maid on the eve of their new lives except Louisa. Louisa senses that they are somehow connected. Two accidents that shouldn't have happened is too much of a coincidence. And who better to ask for help than her old friend Guy Sullivan? He happens to be in Paris following a missing persons case with his best friend Harry and Harry's new wife, Guy's partner, Mary Moon! They sadly get nowhere on either case and Louisa is whisked off in the wake of Diana once again. Though the company Diana is starting to keep is far more political. She's turning away from the bright young things and turning towards Oswald Mosley. Louisa knows it isn't any of her business, she's paid to be Diana's friend and secret keeper, but these secrets are dangerous. And it doesn't help that this confidence doesn't go both ways. Diana won't hear about there being a murderer amongst her friends, even when a third body appears. What is Louisa to do?

If you haven't guessed by now we're working our way through the Mitford sisters in Jessica Fellowes's series, the ironically titled "Mitford Murders Mystery." So the third book means it's Diana's turn, with Unity, Decca, and Debo waiting in the wings, and yes, I feel sorry for them in advance with whatever Jessica Fellowes has planned for them. The problem with Diana is she's a deplorable. She is a genuinely horrible human. The fact that she was married to Oswald Mosley in Goebbels's drawing room with Hitler in attendance is the one sentence bio that adequately covers what a horrid human being she was. While this series has always been more concerned with the "look" of the Mitfords than the "spirit" of them I have to say that Jessica Fellowes did a good job portraying Diana, because not only did I hate the book for myriad writing and plotting reasons, but I hated it for Diana. And thankfully it feels like Jessica Fellowes hates Diana too, because I've come to terms with her being a bad writer, but if she was also a bad human, if she made Diana a heroine, well, I don't think I could stomach that. Though her hatred of Diana made the writing at times a tad heavy handed with the Nazi side of things. But I think that can be forgiven, because now, more then ever, people need to be reminded Nazis are bad. As I write this Nazi Germany is trending on Twitter, that is how relevant Nazis are. But the Diana hatred oozing off the pages made me dislike this book on a level not seen since I read Diana's autobiography A Life of Contrasts. It's really hard to like a book with an unappealing villain as the star. Add to that my myriad issues with the series as a whole, and there was no way I was going to like this. Throw in the weird timeline with us jumping years ahead at random intervals and we're supposed to believe that the crimes committed are in the front of everyone's minds all that time later? That's preposterous. Much like calling this series "A Mitford Murders Mystery."

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments  

Labels: A Life of Contrasts, Bryan Guinness, Diana Mitford, Guy Sullivan, Jessica Fellowes, Lady's Maid, Louisa Cannon, Murder, Nazis, Oswald Mosley, Roaring Back to Reading, The Mitford Murders, The Mitford Scandal

Bright Young Dead by Jessica Fellowes
Published by: Minotaur Books
Publication Date: October 30th, 2018
Format: Hardcover, 400 Pages
Rating: ★★
To Buy

Pamela may be turning eighteen, but she isn't one of the fast bright young things like her sister Nancy. Pamela would far prefer a quiet and sedate birthday party, perhaps with a nice ride through the country on her horse, but does Nancy listen? Oh no. Nancy and her friends have descended on Asthall Manor and have concocted quite a delicious scavenger hunt, because it is the done thing! Though most scavenger hunts don't end in a dead body at the base of the local church tower. Because if they did, this scavenger hunt would make all the partygoers winners. Adrian Curtis has been murdered and his sister's maid Dulcie is arrested. Dulcie's shadowy past working for Alice Diamond, the Queen of the Forty Thieves, makes her guilty because of her past. But Louisa Cannon is someone who was given a second chance from her own criminal past thanks to the Mitfords and she can't see someone else who has worked so hard trying to go straight to go down for a crime she didn't commit. Therefore it's time for Louisa to dust off her rusty detective skills and get to work. As luck would have it her old crime solving partner Guy Sullivan is now a Sergeant in the actual police force, no more of this railway police thank you very much! Even more of a coincidence is that he is working with his colleague, Constable Mary Moon, investigating Alice Diamond and her latest shoplifting spree. Who knows, the two cases could be connected! One thing is certain, they both need information the other has. As they flit through the underground of London's nightlife, from dance halls to pubs, responding the the thumping urgency of the music thrumming through the clubs, emotions will run high and relationships will be strained as a murderer is lured out into the open. Can they catch a killer before everything implodes?

The ability of humans to adapt shouldn't surprise me given everything we've all been through this year, but still it sneaks up on me occasionally. Case in point is this series. I can unreservedly say that I hate these books and yet I gave this one two stars. Meaning I didn't hate it as much as I thought I did, at least when I was rating it. I've often thought that a book should have two ratings, the one you give right after reading it and the one you give a few months later as to how your memories have either favored or soured to it. In this case they have soured, more and more. The reason this book got two stars is I have already adapted after reading only one book in this series to the fact they aren't good and any improvement, no matter how slight, means it's not complete shit. Perhaps there's a song here, "I've Grown Accustomed to Your Crap?" The main reason is I wasn't shocked this time around by the fact that there are basically no Mitfords in this series despite being "A Mitford Murders Mystery." In fact half way through Bright Young Dead Jessica Fellowes completely gives up on the Mitford pretense altogether and it's just Louisa, off doing stupid things, in particular abandoning herself to Jazz music, a trope that always annoys the hell out of me and makes me want to scratch out the author's eyes, until Jessica finally remembers she's writing a series with a veneer of Mitfords and drags them hastily back on scene for the denouement. A denouement I might add that is just ripping of the movie Clue. So watch Clue instead is my recommendation. Because besides being just boring and unoriginal, this book also talks down to the reader in a way that made me want to shake some sense into the author. You really had to tell us what a fence is in such a condescending manner? Because I think at this point you need all the good will you can get to have any reader pick up the next volume.

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments  

Labels: Alice Diamond, Bright Young Dead, Bright Young Things, Clue, Jessica Fellowes, Jessica Mitford, Louisa Cannon, Mitfords, My Fair Lady, Nancy Mitford, Roaring Back to Reading, Scavenger Hunt, The Mitford Murders

The Mitford Murders by Jessica Fellowes
Published by: Minotaur Books
Publication Date: January 23rd, 2018
Format: Hardcover, 432 Pages
Rating: ★
To Buy

Florence Nightingale Shore, the goddaughter of the famous nurse, was brutally beaten and left for dead on a train. Days later she would die. But why would anyone want to kill a woman who gave her life to good deeds, just has her namesake had? Three people who are tenuously connected to Florence will band together to solve her mystery. First there is Louisa Cannon. She happened to be on the same railway line under duress when the crime happened. Second there is Guy Sullivan. He works for the railway as a policeman but longs to work for Scotland Yard and rescues Louisa from the clutches of her uncle. Finally there is Nancy Mitford. Louisa was on her way to interview for a position with the Mitford family at Asthall Manor in the Oxfordshire countryside when everything went pear-shaped. Nancy herself has a connection to the murder victim, in that her dear Nanny Blor's twin sister was a good friend to Florence Shore and that was where Florence was headed when she met her untimely demise. But it's only due to some grand plan that Louisa could never comprehend that despite being late for her interview she is taken on by the Mitfords and forges a friendship with Nancy that happens to revolve around solving this lurid crime that has everyone talking! So many what-ifs and twists of fate in Louisa's favor! But thanks to everything lining up just so it looks like Florence Nightingale Shore's murder will be avenged by a debutante, a nursery maid, and a four-eyed wanna be copper.

The Mitfords are what brought me to this book, but the truth is that this book only has the thinnest veneer of Mitfords while all the heavy lifting is done by two characters out of central casting, Guy and Louisa. I don't take issue with Guy and his tenacity that gets the job done where his intellect and poor eyesight can't, I take all my issues with Louisa. A Victorian street urchin whose family has fallen on bad times and who has learned some unsavory skills in order to make a few bob transplanted out of a hundred different stories and placed in the 1920s. I've read about a "Louisa" in so many books that having her the star here just baffled me. There was no hook, no interest, just her. Again. And this when you have the Mitfords right here! Mitfords that are so two-dimensional I seriously wonder if Jessica Fellowes did any research on them at all. She uses their nicknames and that's about it. Well, other people besides Mitfords have nicknames so really, they could have been anyone. Therefore I had to pin my hopes on the "true crime" angle. Alas, this let me down as well with the murder in the end not being properly explained. Also "no one saw her alive again" as a tagline is WRONG she didn't die for like four days! The bigger picture couldn't hold my attention so the little errors started piling up and annoying me, like an itch I couldn't scratch deep under my skin. Louisa drinking from a cup of tea and then the cup being untouched. Little things over and over that hand me flipping back and forth through the book going, hang on a minute, that's wrong from what we learned earlier. Why did Nancy's birthday have to be moved up a year? Why does time have no meaning anymore? How long have I been reading this book again? Questions that will never have answers, especially that last one.

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments  

Labels: 1920s, Asthall Manor, Florence Nightingale Shore, Guy Sullivan, Jessica Fellowes, Louisa Cannon, Mitfords, Murder, Nancy Mitford, Oxfordshire, Roaring Back to Reading, Stock Character, The Mitford Murders, Trains