Tuesday Tomorrow
Blood on Her Tongue by Johanna Van Veen
Published by: Poisoned Pen Press
Publication Date: March 25th, 2025
Format: Paperback, 368Pages
To Buy
The official patter:
""I'm in your blood, and you are in mine..."
The Netherlands, 1887. Lucy's twin sister Sarah is unwell. She refuses to eat, mumbles nonsensically, and is increasingly obsessed with a centuries-old corpse recently discovered on her husband's grand estate. The doctor has diagnosed her with temporary insanity caused by a fever of the brain. To protect her twin from a terrible fate in a lunatic asylum, Lucy must unravel the mystery surrounding her sister's condition, but it's clear her twin is hiding something. Then again, Lucy is harboring secrets of her own, too.
Then, the worst happens. Sarah's behavior takes a turn for the strange. She becomes angry...and hungry.
Lucy soon comes to suspect that something is trying to possess her beloved sister. Or is it madness? As Sarah changes before her very eyes, Lucy must reckon with the dark, monstrous truth, or risk losing her forever."
Could it be vampires? I think vampires.
Gothictown by Emily Carpenter
Published by: Kensington
Publication Date: March 25th, 2025
Format: Hardcover, 368 Pages
To Buy
The official patter:
"In an immersive Southern Gothic with echoes of Shirley Jackson's The Lottery and Sharp Objects by Gillian Flynn, a restauranteur lured by pandemic-era incentives moves her family to a seemingly idyllic small town in Georgia, only to discover a darkness lurking beneath the Southern hospitality and sun-dappled streets...
Welcome to gentle Juliana, where you can have it all...if you pay the price.
The email that lands in Billie Hope’s inbox seems like a gift from the universe. For $100, she can purchase a spacious Victorian home in Juliana, Georgia, a small town eager to boost its economy in the wake of the pandemic. She can leave behind her cramped New York City rental and the painful memories of shuttering her once thriving restaurant and start over with her husband and her daughter. Plus, she'll get a business grant to open a new restaurant in a charming riverside community laden with opportunity. It seems like a dream come true…or a devil's bargain.
A few phone calls and one hurried visit later, and Billie, Peter, and six-year-old Meredith are officially part of the Juliana Initiative. The town is everything promised - two hours northwest of Atlanta but a world away from city living, a "gentle jewel" with weather as warm as its people. Between settling into their lavish home and starting her new restaurant, Billie is busy enough to dismiss any troubling signs...
But Billie's sleep is marred by haunting dreams, and her marriage with Peter is growing increasingly strained. Meanwhile the town elders, all descended from Juliana's founding families, exert a level of influence that feels less benevolent and more stifling day by day.
There's something about "Gentle Juliana" - something off-kilter and menacing beneath that famous Southern hospitality. And no matter how much Billie longed for her family to come here, she's starting to wonder how, and if, they'll ever leave.
For readers of Stacy Willingham, Sarah Langan, Ashley Winstead, and Jess Lourey, a bewitchingly foreboding story about sacrifice, privilege, family, guilt, and the vengeful ghosts of a haunted past - from the bestselling author of Burying the Honeysuckle Girls."
I really like this new and interesting take on what has become pandemic literature.
The Song of the Blue Bottle Tree by India Hayford
Published by: A John Scognamiglio Book
Publication Date: March 25th, 2025
Format: Paperback, 352 Pages
To Buy
The official patter:
"Disguised by a name she found on a tombstone and accompanying a Vietnam vet she met in a graveyard, an unconventional young snake-handler who talks to the dead returns to the ghosts of her childhood home in 1967 Arkansas...
Readers of Delia Owens, Barbara Kingsolver, Kelly Mustian, and Quinn Connor will be captivated by this haunting Southern debut about found family, folk magic, the long shadow of trauma, the salvation of human connection, and the transcendent beauty of nature.
Genevieve Charbonneau talks to ghosts and has a special relationship with rattlesnakes. In her travels, she's wandered throughout the South, escaping a mental hospital in Alabama, working for a Louisiana circus, and dancing at a hoochy-kootch in Texas. Now for the first time in a decade, she's allowed her winding path to bring her to the site of her grandmother's Arkansas farmhouse, a place hallowed in her memory.
She intends only to visit briefly - to pay respects to her buried loved ones and leave. But a chance meeting with a haunted young Vietnam vet reconnects her with the remnants of a family she thought long gone, and their union becomes a catalyst for change and salvation. An abused woman and her daughters develop the courage to fight back, a ghost finds the path away from life, and a sanctimonious predator becomes the prey. In the process, Genevieve must choose between her longing for meaningful connection after years as an outsider and her equally excruciating impulse to run.
Written by a naturalist and set on the land where her family roots stretch back two centuries, The Song of the Blue Bottle Tree is a haunting story about letting go and the things we leave behind, the power of names, and the ties that bind. It is both harrowing and triumphant, a visceral Southern debut as otherworldly and beautiful as it is unflinching and wry."
When roots run deep.
I Am the Swarm by Hayley Chewins
Published by: Viking Books for Young Readers
Publication Date: March 25th, 2025
Format: Hardcover, 336 Pages
To Buy
The official patter:
"A propulsive YA novel in verse that blends the contemporary magic of Jandy Nelson with the simmering feminist rage of Laurie Halse Anderson's Shout.
As far back as anyone can remember, the women of the Strand family have been magical.
Their gifts manifest when they each turn fifteen, always in different ways. But Nell Strand knows that her family's magic is a curse. Her mother's age changes every day; she's often too young to be the mother Nell needs. Her older sister bleeds music and will do anything to release the songs inside her. Nell sees the way magic rips her family apart again and again.
When Nell's own magic arrives in the form of ladybugs alighting on the keys of her beloved piano, the first thing she feels is joy. The ladybugs are a piece of her, a harmless and delicate manifestation of her creativity. But soon enough, the rest come. Thick-shelled glossy beetles that creep along her collarbone when her piano teacher stares at her. Soft gray moths that appear and die alongside a rush of disappointment. Worst of all are the wasps. It doesn't matter how deep she buries her rage, the wasps always come. Nell will have to decide just how much of herself she's willing to lock away to stop them - or if she can find the strength to feel, no matter the consequences.
An intense, emotional read simmering with rage and magic, I Am the Swarm is a captivating YA novel in verse that beautifully speaks to the complicated nature of growing up as a girl."
Damn, I'd hate to have my emotions literally tied to wasps.
The Keeper of Lonely Spirits by E.M. Anderson
Published by: Mira Books
Publication Date: March 25th, 2025
Format: Hardcover, 400 Pages
To Buy
The official patter:
"In this mesmerizing, wonderfully moving queer cozy fantasy, an immortal ghost hunter must confront his tragic past in order to embrace his found family.
Find an angry spirit. Send it on its way before it causes trouble. Leave before anyone learns his name.
After over two hundred years, Peter Shaughnessy is ready to die and end this cycle. But thanks to a youthful encounter with one o' them folk in his native Ireland, he can't. Instead, he's cursed to wander eternally far from home, with the ability to see ghosts and talk to plants.
Immortality means Peter has lost everyone he's ever loved. And so he centers his life on the dead - until his wandering brings him to Harrington, Ohio. As he searches for a vengeful spirit, Peter's drawn into the townsfolk's lives, homes and troubles. For the first time in over a century, he wants something other than death.
But the people of Harrington will die someday. And he won't.
As Harrington buckles under the weight of the supernatural, the ghost hunt pits Peter's well-being against that of his new friends and the man he's falling for. If he stays, he risks heartbreak. If he leaves, he risks their lives."
Them folk are dangerous for sure. Just read a book about them.
Kindred Spirits at Harling Hall by Sharon Booth
Published by: Boldwood Books Ltd
Publication Date: March 25th, 2025
Format: Paperback, 362 Pages
To Buy
The official patter:
"The first in a delightfully warm, cosy and romantic new series with a fantasy twist, for fans of the BBC series Ghosts.
Can Callie give some needy ghosts their happy-ever-afterlife, while making Rowan Vale her own forever home?
When cash-strapped single mum Callie visits the beautiful Cotswold village of Rowan Vale on a school trip with her daughter, she is enchanted. It's run as a living museum, with a steam railway, vintage teashop, Elizabethan manor house and old water mill allowing tourists to see history in action.
But there's more to Rowan Vale than meets the eye...
To Callie's surprise, the owner of the village, elderly Sir Lawrence Davenport, requests a meeting with her. It appears Callie has been observed talking to several villagers she shouldn't be able to see - as they're ghosts.
Sir Lawrence then makes an astonishing offer: to sell Callie the whole estate for a tiny sum, if she agrees to protect the village's present tenants and make sure the headstrong ghosts are represented too.
With a spectral lord of the manor and his imperious wife, a naughty 1940s schoolgirl and the man who once taught William Shakespeare among them, it seems Callie's role as owner wouldn't be easy.
And that's without the added complication of Lawrie's disinherited grandson, the gorgeous Brodie.
Rowan Vale and Callie may need each other. But is this a match made in heaven or hell?
Fans of the BBC's Ghosts, or books by Lucy Jane Wood, Laurie Gilmore and Heidi Swain will love this heart-warming and magical novel."
Oh, but think of the money should could make proving exactly who Shakespeare was!
A Wager at Midnight by Vanessa Riley
Published by: Zebra
Publication Date: March 25th, 2025
Format: Paperback, 320 Pages
To Buy
The official patter:
"The stakes are high in this dazzling and diverse Regency romance, in which a clever duke has made a wager with the now-widowed Viscountess who is the love of his life: To win a second chance with her, he will find husbands for her two sisters - or resign himself to a life of longing in this enchanting tale from award-winning author Vanessa Riley.
Scarlett Wilcox is willing to live out her life as a spinster if it means being able to continue her medical research to help a friend in need. After all, few husbands would tolerate her dressing as a man to attend lectures at the Royal Academy of Science. If the Duke of Torrance finds her such a specimen, she'll agree to a marriage in name only, much to the dismay of her elder sister, the Viscountess.
When she's unmasked at a lecture on ophthalmology, Scarlett prepares to be disgraced, but she's saved by Trinidadian-born physician Stephen Carew who claims her as a cousin. Dedicated to caring for his community, Stephen has no wish to marry a frivolous and privileged lady, no matter how many fall for his disarming accent and seductive charm. But Scarlett proves the opposite of any he's ever met before. Yet the pressure to marry blinds them both to the chemistry growing between them, pitting their brilliant minds against their reluctant hearts - as the Duke and Viscountess await with bated breath to see who will win...A Wager at Midnight."
How about the Duke of Tolerance, amiright?
The Lady Sparks a Flame by Elizabeth Everett
Published by: Berkley
Publication Date: March 25th, 2025
Format: Paperback, 384 Pages
To Buy
The official patter:
"A Lady with a past. A man with ambition. A romance far from London society that might bridge their divides.
Lady Phoebe Hunt never anticipated returning from exile. A fatal choice drove her from England, but the death of her father - and the revelation of his debts - has brought her home. Once she settles her father's estate, she will return to America, where she has reinvented herself. There's no reason to remain, not even for one gravitationally challenged but deliciously tempting entrepreneur: Sam Fenley.
Samuel Fenley is all ambition. Rising from shop boy to wealthy investor, he's left knocking on doors that open only for those with a title. Unless he buys the damned door itself - and the estate that goes with it. Sam offers to relieve Phoebe of her burdens, but is her crumbling mansion all Sam wants? Or is it the Lady herself?
When threats from Phoebe's past spark new dangers, Sam and Phoebe discover that neither is what the other expected. Standing on the edge of disaster, the disgraced Ice Queen will have to decide if she wants to forge through life alone, or let an unlikely hero melt her heart."
Come on, new money and old falling for each other, who doesn't love that?
Miss Austen Investigates: A Fortune Most Fatal by Jessica Bull
Published by: Union Square and Co.
Publication Date: March 25th, 2025
Format: Paperback, 384 Pages
To Buy
The official patter:
"A witty, engaging murder mystery featuring Jane Austen as an intrepid sleuth - the second installment in the Miss Austen Investigates series.
1797: A broken-hearted Jane Austen travels to Kent to look after her brother Neddy's children and further her writing. She soon realizes it's imperative she uncovers the true identity of a mysterious young woman claiming to be a shipwrecked foreign princess before the interloper can swindle Neddy's adoptive mother out of her fortune and steal the much-anticipated inheritance all the Austens rely on."
So, I guess we've sticking with this cover design. I thought it was cute on the first, now it's just too repetitive.
The Whitechapel Widow by Emily Organ
Published by: Storm Publishing Ltd
Publication Date: March 25th, 2025
Format: Paperback, 414 Pages
To Buy
The official patter:
"London hunts the Ripper. A widow hunts her husband's killer.
London, 1888. While Jack the Ripper's reign of terror grips the city, Emma Langley's world shatters when her husband is found murdered in Whitechapel. But grief is quickly overshadowed by a startling discovery: William Langley was not the man she thought she knew.
As panic fills London's streets, Emma delves into her husband's secret life, uncovering a web of lies that stretches from glittering society drawing rooms to the seedy gambling dens of the East End. Aided by Penny Green, a former reporter with a nose for trouble, Emma follows a trail of blackmail and corruption.
But exposing her husband's killer could make her the next victim and in the shadows of gaslit streets, a murderer waits, ready to strike again...
From the bestselling author of Penny Green comes a spellbinding new Victorian mystery series introducing Emma Langley."
I think Emma is safe from Jack the Ripper and any other killer as she's being proudly "introduced."
Homicide in the Indian Hills by Erica Ruth Neubauer
Published by: Kensington
Publication Date: March 25th, 2025
Format: Hardcover, 432 Pages
To Buy
The official patter:
"Intrepid American newlywed Jane Wunderly learns that tigers aren't the only dangers lurking in 1920s India, when a murder in a popular resort town threatens to destabilize the local government and undermine the resistance movement for Indian self-rule...
Ooty, 1927: Accompanying Mr. Redvers on an assignment to Ootycamund to quell revolutionary rumblings, Jane finds there's more than meets the eye to India's Queen of Hill Stations. Ooty's lush tea plantations and tranquil gardens barely conceal its secrets - scandalous affairs, political sabotage, and a mounting anti-colonial movement. Even Redvers intends to subvert his official mission in Ooty, by arranging a series of clandestine meetings with local resistance leaders. But it's not until the shocking death of a British national that Jane and Redvers are truly drawn into Ooty's deepest shadows.
Jane's suspicions that the death is more than a tragic accident are soon confirmed, but word of a murder could stoke Ooty's simmering tensions into a full boil. Navigating corrupt local officials, festering personal vendettas, and a complicated network of bureaucratic entanglements that lead to the top tiers of government, Jane and Redvers edge closer to the truth…and its deadly consequences. Someone is willing to spill blood to protect their interests, will Jane become just another of Ooty's darkest secrets?"
Gotta support local authors! It helps when they're this good.
The Secret Detective Agency by Helena Dixon
Published by: Bookouture
Publication Date: March 25th, 2025
Format: Paperback, 264 Pages
To Buy
The official patter:
"Meet Miss Jane Treen - the coffee-drinking cat lover dressed head to toe in tweed, who just happens to be a secret super sleuth!
London, 1941: Miss Jane Treen is at her desk, strong black coffee in hand and fluffy ginger cat by her side, when her top-secret government work is interrupted by an urgent call to Devon. A woman has been found dead in a lake in a place where she shouldn't have been. Jane needs to gather the clues and find the killer before someone else from the agency gets hurt...
Shy and handsome code-breaker Arthur Cilento is bewildered by the arrival of the efficient Miss Treen and her cat Marmaduke. She bursts into his life unexpectedly, forcing him out of his comfort zone. Placed at his country home to unravel the mystery, together, the reluctant colleagues huddle near the warmth of a crackling fire to piece together the murderous puzzle at hand.
In the sleepy Devon village, someone is hiding something: but is it the busybody vicar and his sister, the dutiful housekeeper and her secretive son, the stern librarian, or someone else altogether? And who were the people with the woman in the lake on the day she died?
No sooner have Arthur and Jane have drawn up a list of suspects, than a parcel reveals a clue that sends them in hot pursuit of a coded diary stashed in a village church. But as the heavy wooden door slams behind them and a key turns in the lock, one thing is sure: they need to unravel the truth and crack this code before the killer decides their number is up...
But if they can catch the culprit in time, might this unusual pair become the finest crime solving partnership since Sherlock and Watson hung up their hats...?
If you love twisty crime novels, top-secret intrigue and the very best of Golden Age mysteries, then you will adore Helena Dixon's totally gripping cozy novel, perfect for fans of Agatha Christie, T.E. Kinsey and Verity Bright!"
Personally I'm glad knowing she took her cat with he. That fluffy ginger couldn't be left behind in the Blitz!
The Other People by C.B. Everett
Published by: Atria Books
Publication Date: March 25th, 2025
Format: Hardcover, 320 Pages
To Buy
The official patter:
"A group of strangers gathered at a mysterious country house are in a race against time to stop a serial killer in this twisty, high-concept thriller that combines Agatha Christie with Shutter Island.
Ten strangers.
An old dark house.
A killer picking them off one by one.
And a missing girl who's running out of time...
And then there was one.
Ten strangers wake up inside an old, locked house. They have no recollection of how they got there. In order to escape, they have to solve the disappearance of a young woman. But a killer also stalks the halls of the house and soon the body count starts to rise. Who are these strangers? Why were they chosen? Why would someone want to kill them? And who - or what - lurks in the cellar?
Forget what you think you know.
Because while you can trust yourself, can you really trust The Other People?"
Give that cover art I'd say really horrific giant eyes lurk in the cellar.
Saltwater by Katy Hays
Published by: Ballantine Books
Publication Date: March 25th, 2025
Format: Hardcover, 336 Pages
To Buy
The official patter:
"On glittering Capri, anything can be a mirage. And no one holds a grudge like family.
From the New York Times bestselling author of The Cloisters comes an electrifying thriller about an opulent family retreat to Italy that's shattered by the resurfacing of a decades-old crime.
In 1992, Sarah Lingate is found dead below the cliffs of Capri, leaving behind her three-year-old daughter, Helen. Despite suspicions that the old-money Lingates are involved, Sarah's death is ruled an accident. And every year, the family returns to prove it's true. But on the thirtieth anniversary of Sarah's death, the Lingates arrive at the villa to find a surprise waiting for them - the necklace Sarah was wearing the night she died.
Haunted by the specter of that night, the legendary Lingate family unity is pushed to a breaking point, and Helen seizes the opportunity. Enlisting the help of Lorna Moreno, a family assistant, the two plot their escape from Helen's paranoid, insular family. But when Lorna disappears and the investigation into Sarah's death is reopened, Helen has to confront the fact that everyone who was on Capri thirty years ago remains a suspect - her controlling father, Richard; her rarely lucid aunt, Naomi; her distant uncle, Marcus; and their circle of friends, visitors, and staff. Even Lorna, her closest ally, may not be who she seems.
As long-hidden secrets about that night boil to surface, one thing becomes clear: Not everyone will leave the island alive."
First question, when did the aunt start being rarely lucid? Could she be hiding something!?!
A Lesson in Dying by Ann Cleeves
Published by: Minotaur Books
Publication Date: March 25th, 2025
Format: Paperback, 240 Pages
To Buy
The official patter:
"Before Shetland and Vera, Ann Cleeves wrote the Inspector Ramsay series featuring a talented, brilliant detective - now in print for the first time in the US.
Who hung the headmaster in the playground on the night of the school Halloween Party?
Almost everyone in Heppleburn either hated or feared the viper-tongued Harold Medburn. Inspector Ramsay is convinced it was the headmaster's enigmatic wife but Jack Robson, school governor and caretaker, is determined to prove her innocence.
With the help of his restless daughter Patty, Jack digs into the secrets of Heppleburn, and uncovers a cesspit of lies, adultery, blackmail and madness..."
First time in the US unless your mother made you order them from England for her. Just saying...
The Deathly Grimm by Kathryn Purdie
Published by: Wednesday Books
Publication Date: March 25th, 2025
Format: Paperback, 400 Pages
To Buy
The official patter:
"In this spellbinding sequel to Kathryn Purdie's bestselling dark fairy tale, Clara and Axel must return to the forest - and its monsters - if they have any hope of finally breaking the curse on their village.
Emerging from the shadows of the Forest Grimm, Clara and Axel return to their village, the one place they can be safe behind the forest's border. But when the woods begin luring villagers into the forest, it becomes clear that the darkness they battled was merely a whisper of the true horror lurking there.
Burdened by unsettling visions and bound by a love as perilous as the cursed woods that call to them, Clara and Axel must once again enter the forest to unearth the sinister secret at its heart. As they fight murderous woodsmen wielding riddles sharp as blades, spectral maidens who threaten to drag them into an eternal dance, and phantoms able to use the very essence of the forest against them, Clara and Axel realize the stakes are higher than ever. If they can't break the curse once and for all, they may not have a home to return to..."
Yeah, don't go back into the forest. Flee!
Elphie by Gregory Maguire
Published by: William Morrow
Publication Date: March 25th, 2025
Format: Hardcover, 288 Pages
To Buy
The official patter:
"What happened to young Elphaba before her witchy powers took hold in Wicked? Almost 30 years after the publication of the original novel, for the first time Gregory Maguire reveals the story of prickly young Elphie, the future Wicked Witch of the West - setting the stage for the blockbuster international phenomenon that is Wicked: The Musical.
Elphaba, the Wicked Witch of the West, will grow to have a feisty and somewhat uncompromising character in adult life. But she is always a one-off, from her infancy; Elphie is the riveting coming-of-age story of a very peculiar and relatable young girl.
Young Elphie is shaped and molded by the behaviors of her promiscuous mother, Melena, and her pious father, Frex. She suffers ordinary childhood jealousies when her sister, saintly Nessarose, and brother, junior felon Shell, arrive. She first encounters the mistreatment of the Animal populations of Oz, which live adjacent to but not intertwined with human settlements, haunted by a Monkey and receiving aid from Dwarf Bears. She thrashes through her first bruising attempts at friendship, a possible lifeline from her tricky family life. And she gleans the benefits of an education, haphazard though it must be - until she arrives at the doors of Shiz University, about to meet the radiant creature that is Galinda.
Elphie is destined to be a witch; she bears the markings from childhood - most evidently in her green skin but more obscurely and profoundly in her cunning and perhaps amoral behaviors, as she seeks to make do, to slip by, to sneak out, to endure, and to aspire."
I mean, the new cover art direction is fine... I just wish it matched the series as a whole, not the reprints.
When the Moon Hits Your Eye by John Scalzi
Published by: Tor Books
Publication Date: March 25th, 2025
Format: Hardcover, 336 Pages
To Buy
The official patter:
"New York Times bestselling author John Scalzi flies you to the moon with his most fantastic tale to date: When the Moon Hits Your Eye.
The moon has turned into cheese.
Now humanity has to deal with it.
For some it's an opportunity. For others it's a moment to question their faith: In God, in science, in everything. Still others try to keep the world running in the face of absurdity and uncertainty. And then there are the billions looking to the sky and wondering how a thing that was always just there is now... something absolutely impossible.
Astronauts and billionaires, comedians and bank executives, professors and presidents, teenagers and terminal patients at the end of their lives - over the length of an entire lunar cycle, each get their moment in the moonlight. To panic, to plan, to wonder and to pray, to laugh and to grieve. All in a kaleidoscopic novel that goes all the places you'd expect, and then to so many places you wouldn't.
It's a wild moonage daydream. Ride this rocket."
Freak out. Far Out. In Out.
The Legendary Scarlett and Browne by Jonathan Stroud
Published by: Knopf Books for Young Readers
Publication Date: March 25th, 2025
Format: Hardcover, 448 Pages
To Buy
The official patter:
"The death-defying conclusion to the "audacious," "razor-sharp," and "raucous" exploits of the notorious outlaws Scarlett and Browne from the bestselling author of Lockwood and Co., Jonathan Stroud.
Throughout their lawless careers, Scarlett McCain and Albert Browne have gotten out of trouble by shooting first, then running away. Now that's no longer an option.
In this non-stop thrill-ride of a novel, we witness Albert's return to the terrifying Stonemoor prison, follow Scarlett's search for her long-lost brother, see a town besieged by the cannibal Tainted, and join the final confrontation against the cruel forces of the Faith Houses.
Along the way, our rebellious anti-heroes will have to face up to the secrets of their past, and accept the challenge of shaping a better future."
Damn I love Jonathan Stroud!
Play or Perish by Paige Andrews and John Peragine
Published by: Sterling and Stone
Publication Date: March 25th, 2025
Format: Kindle, 282 Pages
To Buy
The official patter:
"Cursed objects. Ruthless collectors. A world of haunted treasures.
Shondra Henry wasn't looking for trouble, but it found her anyway. A paranormal encounter at a college party exposes her to a world of spirits and haunted artifacts she can't seem to shake. In the aftermath, she discovers her connection to the spirit world might be deeper than she thought.
Searching for answers about a mysterious box, the evil it contained, and what it might have to do with her missing uncle, Shondra becomes drawn into the shadowy underworld where arcane relics are bought, sold, and fought over in high-stakes estate auctions.
Before she knows it, Shonda finds herself working with a team dedicated to tracking and destroying cursed artifacts against an organization that would rather exploit them for power.
When a board game turns deadly, Shondra has a choice: play by the rules or break them.
She better choose carefully, because once you enter the world of haunted artifacts, you don’t leave unscathed."
Jumanji meets Warehouse 13.
Rarely do you come across an adaptation that is perfection, which is probably why Netflix abruptly cancelled it. They couldn't see genius right in front of them that they commissioned and instead just made more Bridgerton. Not that I have anything against Bridgerton as a cultural phenomena, I have very highly specific issues which if I was to livestream would be me yelling about the music and sticking closer to the books. I love those books. But this review isn't about Bridgerton. Seriously it isn't. OK it is a little because Ruby Stokes quit playing Francesca on Bridgerton to play Lucy on Lockwood and Co.. But I swear that's the end of it. This is about the genius of Joe Cornish's adaptation of Jonathan Stroud's books. He literally brought the books to life. I know that's a cliched, hackneyed phrase, but do you really realize how rare of an occurrence this is? There are millions of adaptations out there, and many that I like, and a few that I love, but rarely does it happen where the book and the adaptation feel so aligned that the changes made don't annoy me. You could go in the opposite direction and pull a William Goldman, but I honestly think that William Goldman and both of his versions of The Princess Bride are a once in a lifetime event. And to have someone who isn't Andrew Davies pull it off? Well, tip of the hat to you Mr. Cornish. Though I shouldn't have been surprised once I realized so much of the production team were friends and colleagues of Edgar Wright and they did nail his flare for the perfect song at the perfect moment. From the second the opening credits rolled I knew this show was for me. Not only did it give background on The Problem with amazing infographics that I would have killed to have been talented enough to design, but the music has this Unsolved Mysteries meets The X-Files vibe that made me not only not "skip intro" but occasionally I'd watch them more than once. But this isn't a case where a bad show has amazing credits, looking at you final few seasons of Mad Men, the quality of the credits carried through to the show. The casting was perfect, the set, while it wasn't how I had pictured 35 Portland Row it was still 35 Portland Row. And as for how they were able to maintain Lucy's voice through her tape recorder taking the place of her first person narration, genius. I mean, if you want to quibble, some of my friends think that the show could have done a better setup with describing the different levels of ghosts, but seeing as I've read the books I don't think I'm able to speak to that because I've read the accompanying glossary in every volume so these facts are ingrained in me now. I'll say that I wish George had been more body positive, but at least with casting Ali Hadji-Heshmati they were able to still show inclusivity. Also Lucy tends to drop her sword a bit too much. And the pacing was a little too breakneck... But as you can see these are literally nitpicking. Because while Louise Brealey skeeved me out, she was meant to! I just am bereft that there is going to be no more of this show. I mean, it's not as bad as say the fate of Willow, I still have the books so I know how the story ends, but this, THIS was something special. This was it for me.
The Creeping Shadow by Jonathan Stroud
The Hollow Boy by Jonathan Stroud
The Whispering Skull by Jonathan Stroud
The Dagger in the Desk by Jonathan Stroud
The Screaming Staircase by Jonathan Stroud
If there's two things that get my geeky blood pumping it's London and urban fantasy. I read a lot of books that fall into either one category or the other but rarely both. But last year when the third Checquy book by Daniel O'Malley was released and I was deep into reading the Lockwood and Co. series by Jonathan Stroud I started to think, hang on, these are both urban fantasy with a paranormal bent all set in London, there's something here, I am living my dream. And of course I take any chance I can to read more books of a similar bent once I find something I love and I picked up the Rivers of London series by Ben Aaronovitch and the Kate Kane series by Alexis Hall on the recommendation of a friend, and I was like, this isn't just a theme month, this is an epic summer-long journey! This is going to be legendary. I hope you'll join me. Though it is mandatory to sing The Clash on a loop in your head... So get ready for London Calling! And get ready for that song to be stuck in your head for months and months..."London calling to the faraway towns. Now war is declared and battle come down. London calling to the underworld. Come out of the cupboard, you boys and girls...."
An Imporbable Season by Rosalyn Eves
Penelope Goes to Portsmouth by M.C. Beaton
An American Beauty by Shana Abe 
Mastering the Art of French Murder by Colleen Cambridge
Ashes to Ashes, Crust to Crust by Mindy Quigley
The Last Remains by Elly Griffiths
The Notorious Scarlett and Browne by Jonathan Stroud
In the Lives of Puppets by T.J. Klune
A Sleight of Shadows by Kat Howard
That Self-Same Metal by Brittany N. Williams
