strange and random happenstance

The Hawthorne Legacy by Jennifer Lynn Barnes
Published by: Little, Brown Books for Young Readers
Publication Date: September 7th, 2021
Format: Kindle, 369 Pages
Rating: ★★★★
To Buy (different edition than one reviewed)

Twenty years ago a tragedy befell the Hawthorne family. Tobias Hawthorne's only son, Toby, went on a cross country roadtrip of debauchery with friends he met in rehab that ended in a conflagration on his family's private island. The fire was blamed on a local girl to cover up any culpability on Toby's part as he was seen buying the accelerant. But as for Toby's body, it was never found. And that's when Tobias Hawthorne changed his will. Yet for twenty years Tobias believed his son was out there. Somewhere. So when his youngest grandson, the only one to know he was dying, requested one final game just for himself he knew he would ask Xander to find Toby. Little does Xander know that Avery might have already found him. When her mother died she took up playing chess in the park with a homeless man named Harry. When she sees a picture of Toby she realizes that she was playing chess with him. Only he has fled. Avery knows this because she tried to give "Harry" some money from her inheritance and he was already gone. The only place that she and Jameson can think to search for clues is in the bricked up wing of the house which was Toby's. There scrawled across the walls, only visible under blacklight because he was a Hawthorne after all, is the truth that drove Toby into a reckless tailspin. He was adopted. This revelation sends Avery into her own tailspin. Could it be that she really is a Hawthorne despite the DNA test? Could she be Toby's daughter? Her mother sure loved games and had a secret about the day Avery was born that Avery never learned while her mother lived. But the writing is on the wall. Literally. Toby's handwriting looks so familiar to Avery and then she realizes that she's seen it before. On her birth certificate. It might be her father's name, but Toby signed it. This makes Avery's desire to find Toby her number one priority. Nothing else matters. Not even losing her inheritance. She will find the truth whatever it takes. And it takes a lot; sifting through old wills, travelling to dangerous locales, discovering secrets long since buried, and family no one ever knew. But is the truth worth a life?

I think the problem I had with The Inheritance Games is I didn't feel there were real stakes. Sure, there was "a fortune at stake" as this book's cover proclaims but a fortune in the balance where wealthy people are concerned isn't really compelling. What is compelling is what the fortune makes other people do. Aside from some gunplay I didn't feel like anyone was really in danger. Avery was going to survive to see out the trilogy, them's the facts. The Hawthorne Legacy though upped the stakes to be about life and death while performing a wonderful bait and switch. Because anyone reading the final pages of the first installment would be convinced that this volume would be all about finding Toby, the missing Hawthrone. And while it is, it's more about Toby's legacy. The actual corpses he's left in his wake. While, like Emily's death, the death's in Toby's past were an accident, he is far more culpable. He did toy with the idea of burning it all to the ground, it's just that a tragically timed storm made the final decision for him. But another death changes everything and actually puts death on the table versus just another game. People could actually die now, and not just in the past. Finally life and death stakes! Yet oddly enough that wasn't the driving force of The Hawthorne Legacy, the driving force was the legacy of all the Hawthrones. Because here there's an interesting mirroring of the first book with the first will that Tobias wrote when Toby disappeared. That will, like the will that left everything to Avery, was meant to bring his family together. Though his daughters never saw that will it too was strewn with clues for them to reconnect and find Toby. And in their search for Toby they all learn something about themselves, Avery learns she isn't a Hawthorne by blood, Jameson and Nash find their fathers, and we learn about the truly convoluted nature of the relationship between the Hawthornes and the family retainers, the Laughlins. We get ALL the family secrets, ALL the tea is spilled, combined with actual stakes? More like this please!

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments  

Labels: Avery Grambs, Family, Family Secrets, Jameson Hawthorne, Jennifer Lynn Barnes, Murder Most Foul, Stakes, The Hawthorne Legacy, The Inheritance Games, Tobias Hawthorne, Toby Hawthorne, Wills, Xander Hawthorne

Middle of the Night by Riley Sager
Published by: Dutton
Publication Date: June 18th, 2024
Format: Hardcover, 384 Pages
Rating: ★★★★
To Buy

The inhabitants of Hemlock Circle, a quaint New Jersey cul-de-sac, are the same when Ethan Marsh moves home as they were when he left over twenty years ago. It's like the neighbors are trapped in amber. There's the old Barringer place on the left, continuing clockwise, the Van de Veers', the Wallaces', the Patel's, and the Chens'. Of the six original houses built in the late eighties only one isn't in the hands of its original owner. But no one holds onto the old Barringer place for long. Ethan has moved back home because his parents are moving to Florida and it would be easiest for them if he's around during the sale of the house. What they don't say is that he has nowhere else to go. But home brings with it unanswered questions from his past and a mystery that forever changed Hemlock Circle and gripped a nation. On Saturday, July 15th, 1994, Ethan and his best friend Billy Barringer set up a tent in Ethan's backyard. The ten-year-olds did this all summer, camping out within the safety of their own neighborhood. Only that night was different. Because when Ethan woke up on Sunday morning there was a large rend in the tent and Billy was gone. Billy became The Lost Boy. They searched everywhere, through the acres of preserved woodland surrounding the neighborhood, but he was just gone. Ethan still dreams about that night. Who took Billy and why? He always wakes when he hears the tent being slashed, never seeing the face of the culprit. He left home because he couldn't stand to see the constant reminder out his bedroom window of the last known location of Billy. But now that he's back home it's not just memories that are playing with him. First there's the motion activated lights on the houses. Lighting up one after another in the middle of the night. Then a baseball appears in his yard. A baseball thrown over the fence was his and Billy's secret code. Who else but Billy would know that? He decides to ask his neighbors. He wants to know who's playing with him. Everyone who was there the night Billy disappeared has returned to Hemlock Circle this summer. It seems portentous. And then he finds out his fellow neighbor and classmate, Ragesh Patel, is the police liaison for Billy's case and they've found something. They've found Billy. The dental records confirm it.

Riley Sager is the king of spooky nostalgia. His books often tap into his own past, the most blatant being Survive the Night, but due to the fact he's only four years older than me there's a universality to his tales for those raised in the seventies, eighties, and nineties. Common ground that we all feel nostalgic for that he then twists ever so slightly to make unsettling. And one of the common fears of growing up during this period was kidnapping, it was the height of "stranger danger" and kids on milk cartons. There was quite the incident of "stranger danger" to one of my classmates in grade school, but that's a story for another time. So to have this character, Ethan, experience the worst nightmare of any child growing up then that isn't quicksand, it's relatable. In fact, that's why I enjoyed this book, it's relatable. I grew up in a neighborhood where everyone knew everyone and kids were in and out of each other's houses. We moved in unruly gangs, playing elaborate city block-sized games of capture the flag. And I miss that. I don't just miss an easier time, I miss a time when everyone and their business was known to you. Your neighbors meant more than they mean today. The grandparents, the parents, and the kids all knew who you were and asked after your only family. There was a sense of community. I mean, this is still happening, I see the kids in my neighborhood roving around in gangs, but people aren't rooted to the same spot anymore. People pick up and move at a moments notice, whether it's due to job insecurity, the cost of living, or whatever life change that results in dislocation. Therefore you just don't have neighborhoods like Hemlock Circle anymore. More and more as everything becomes chaotic and unsettled I am searching for these nostalgic vibes that remind me of a time when I felt safe. Old shows, old books, things that bring comfort. And yes, Riley Sager brings me comfort. I know a lot of people would be questioning my sanity in that mystery and horror bring me comfort, but it's the subverting of the comforting within a set of rules. I mean, just look to Scream, it's a total comfort watch for my generation and it's because it's nostalgic and has rules. I should say, it has Rules, capital "R." Sadly, Randy Meeks, the king of the Rules, did not survive the sequel. But that didn't stop him from imparting his wisdom from beyond the grave. I'm sure he'd understand the pull of nostalgia, he was quite wise until he baited Mrs. Loomis. But his death for me will always be comforting. As comforting as a new Riley Sager book. No matter the death toll.

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments  

Labels: Billy Barringer, Community, Disapperance, Ethan Marsh, Hemlock Circle, Kidnapping, Middle of the Night, Murder Most Foul, Neighborhood, Nostalgia, Quicksand, Randy Meeks, Riley Sager, Scream, Stranger Danger, Survive the Night

Death at the Sign of the Rook by Kate Atkinson
Published by: Doubleday Books
Publication Date: September 3rd, 2024
Format: Hardcover, 320 Pages
Rating: ★
To Buy

Things are looking good for Jackson Brodie. Some might question if he's going through a midlife crisis due to his purchasing a Land Rover Defender, but as long as the cases keep coming in it's all good. His newest case involves a missing painting, a portrait of a woman with a weasel with dodgy provenance. Dorothy Padgett had always keep the Renaissance painting in her bedroom. It hung in such a way that she could look at it only while lying in bed. To anyone visiting or just looking through her bedroom door you'd have no idea that the masterpiece was there. It is believed that Dorothy's carer, Melanie Hope, has walked off with it when Dorothy died. Dorothy's children, Ian and Hazel, want him to retrieve the painting without involving the police. But Ian and Hazel give off a weird vibe. It's almost like they're the perpetrators not the victims. Their mother wasn't murdered and it looked as if Melanie was left the painting in the will, so why go through this rigmarole? Could it be that the painting isn't just some painting but a lost masterpiece? Which means the provenance must be very dodgy indeed. Which raises Jackson Brodie's hackles. The sole clue left behind by Melanie is an old golden age detective novel by Nancy Styles, Hark! Hark! The Dogs Do Bark. In other words, not much to go on. So he'll have to rely on nosy neighbors. Or on a simply bizarre coincidence. Lady Milton lives in Burton Makepeace House. Her family has fallen on hard times so they're turning the Rookery into a destination hotel, Rook Hall, that will hold murder mystery weekends, the idea of her son Piers with his madcap scheme to become a hotelier. She doesn't like to think about it. Nothing has been right since her housekeeper, Sophie Greenway, left. Sophie was a pillar of strength that helped unite the small community, being the calm at the eye of the storm. Even Reverend Simon Smallbones considered her his dearest confidant. And then she was gone in the night. As was a Turner valued at over thirty million. All that was left behind was a Nancy Styles mystery, The Secret of the Clock Cabinet. Surely it had to have been the same perpetrator. Could a competent woman show up and fix people's lives and care for them only to fleece them out of valuable artwork? This would be a very long and complicated con. But it's the only answer that fits the clues. As a storm brews and all the parties involved are drawn to Burton Makepeace, along with an escaped convict on the moors, the truth will be revealed, but at what cost?

I've read two Kate Atkinson books and that's it. That's me out. She cares more about characters than plots and while I don't mind a character study a good book should be something more. So, if anyone is in need of an unread copy of Life After Life, it's going cheap. Death at the Sign of the Rook was sold as an homage to Golden Age Detection. It's not. It's so not. Because there is no detection. Yes, she does know about the conventions because she mentions them, repeatedly, and then proceeds to gleefully ignore them but will then randomly name-drop Mabel Mora before going off and discussing the vicar's lack of faith for the next fifty pages. Good for you, you know about Only Murders in the Building, much like everyone else in the world, now are we going to move beyond mystery catchphrases and jokes and actually have a murder or are you going to piss me off more with lame joked? Yes. To both. Eventually there is a corpse or two, but it's too little too late and there was no detection involved, which makes me wonder if she can actually write a murder mystery at all, because using the evidence before me I would say no. Snide remarks about the greats and groanworthy jokes, yes, she can do that. Actually write like the greats? Hell no. And as for the immersive murder mystery experience at Rook Hall? That doesn't start until three-quarters of the way through the book and it's almost like an afterthought that plays more like dinner theatre than an immersive experience. I feel like she doesn't understand the word immersive, but that's beside the point. Kate Atkinson would really rather be writing about the vicar than what was literally the selling point of this book. She has a manor house, displaced and dysfunctional aristocrats, actors, guests, a snowstorm, a killer escaped from prison, and she does nothing with this. They wander around the house for a while until the police stumble on the escaped prisoner and the art thief literally just tells Jackson Brodie what she was up to. He didn't catch her, he didn't catch anything, except for a possible midlife crisis given his new car, but you could literally remove Jackson Brodie from this "Jackson Brodie Book" and it would effect the plot not a whit. I think your book is profoundly flawed if the protagonist is literally unnecessary. And I think by this point my saying how much I hated this book is unnecessary, but I don't want to leave you in any doubt. This is a pan, much like this isn't a murder mystery.

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments  

Labels: Art Thief, Death at the Sign of the Rook, Golden Age of Detection, Jackson Brodie, Kate Atkinson, Life After Life, Mabel Mora, Murder Most Foul, Nancy Styles, Only Murders in the Building, Protagonist, Snowstorm

Death at Morning House by Maureen Johnson
Published by: Harperteen
Publication Date: August 6th, 2024
Format: Hardcover, 384 Pages
Rating: ★★★★
To Buy

The Ralston family were the picture of American exceptionalism. Dr. Philip Ralston and his family summered on a private paradise renamed after the eminent physician in the Thousand Islands region of New York. Morning House was designed to foster good health and creativity for his six children, born within six months of each other, whom he adopted while working in England during the war. When he finally married a stage actress his young song Max increased his brood to seven. At Morning House the children lived in a playhouse worthy of the Brothers Grimm and followed a regimen of nutrition and exercise. But their perfect lives were shattered forever on July 27th, 1932. Four year old Max was found drowned in the waters of the St. Lawrence River. Later that night, overcome by grief, his eldest sibling, Clara, jumped off the roof of Morning House, ending her life at only sixteen. From that point on death stalked the family and Morning House was shuttered. Only one child, Benjamin, survived, returning just the once in 2002 to that ill-fated island. Marlowe Wexler is about to learn all about Morning House. At first, her summer seemed to be looking up. She got a job at the local ice cream parlor, Guffy's, with the girl of her dreams as her coworker and then everything went to hell because of petrichor. She was trying to impress Akilah and got a scented candle. There was a fire. The fallout wasn't good. She needed to put the town in her rear view mirror for the summer and her history teacher, Ms. Gibson, came to the rescue. A friend of hers is a professor of history at Syracuse and is working on a history of Morning House. Abandoned by the Ralstons in the 1930s and empty ever since it's about to be redeveloped and is open to tourists for the summer with a group of local teenagers that live and work there acting as guides and she's down one teen. Marlowe is one teen. But maybe she should have asked what happened to the teen she's replacing? The group at the house have known each other forever and have history. She's walked right into a fairy tale land that looks like it should be fictional and she has no idea what dynamics she's disrupting. Because she's there to replace a dead person. Sure, they say it was an accident, but could this house be cursed? Or is there something more at play? At least she has a clean slate if no one finds out about the fire... Or as long as there isn't another one...

I know some people complained when this book was announced because it is a standalone and not the sixth Truly Devious mystery. I would counter this complaint with the fact that this is the most Maureen Johnson book Maureen has ever Johnsoned. Mysteries in two time periods, check. Teen relationship angst, check. Cute LGBTQIA+ relationships, check. Snark and jokes aplenty, a thousand checks just for that dressing alone. What's more is that it's self-contained. While I love the Truly Devious series the fact that the first mystery doesn't resolve for three books came as a bit of a shock to me and then my wallet as I couldn't wait another six months to get to the head of the queue on OverDrive and had to buy the series. I just had to. So here, it's one and done. You get the mysteries solved, you get the love triangles worked out, and you aren't sitting here for over two years stewing about how David treated Stevie! I mean, how could he!?! Can they ever recover!?! Do I even want them to!?! But those are worries for another day, not today Satan! What really drew me into this book wasn't the teen angst, much like the Truly Devious series, it was the historical crime, and here, the Ralston family. Damn. They are a hot mess. And they're Nazis. So, hot messy Nazis. In this day and age it is more important than ever to stand up and say that Nazis are bad. Because, honestly, Nazis are all around us and it's terrifying. But saying nothing makes you complicit. And I will not be counted as one of those people who said nothing. And Maureen Johnson, oh, she has a conscience and a platform and she uses it for all she's worth. Really, if you do not follow her on her socials you are missing out. Yes, they are sometimes weird, but only in the best possible way, but more importantly, she is politically informed and helps out with valuable information about what is happening and even more pressing, what you can do about it. That's why I love Death at Morning House. A human connection to horror. Through a compelling story she shows why Nazis are evil. She shows how one person without a conscious and interest in eugenics can destroy an entire family. Of course, on person without a conscious and an interest in eugenics almost destroyed the world, but this shows it on a more human level. We connect with Clara and her siblings. We see their lives. We become a part of their lives and then their lives are snuffed out because of Nazis. Two of the siblings more literally because of a bomb during WWII. And the extra creepy eugenics twist? Well, I'll leave that for you to discover because this is a must read book. Though naming one of the kids Unity was chef's kiss brilliant. 

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments  

Labels: Death at Morning House, Eugenics, Fire, LGBTQIA+, Marlowe Wexler, Maureen Johnson, Mitfords, Morning House, Murder, Murder Most Foul, Nazis, Petrichor, Socials, Suicide, The Ralstons, Truly Devious, Unity Mitford

The Serpent Dance by Sofia Slater
Published by: Swift Press
Publication Date: June 6th, 2024
Format: Hardcover, 214 Pages
Rating: ★★★★
To Buy

Audrey and Noah are coming up on their one year anniversary. The only problem is that it happens to coincide with a big launch at Noah's art gallery. So instead of waiting they decide to celebrate on their ten month anniversary. In retrospect, this could have been inviting bad luck. Audrey is convinced that Noah has taken her copious hints and that they are going to Paris. Instead of working on the illustrations to the followup of her children's compendium of extinct animals which The Times called "equal parts urgency and enchantment" she has spent the last few weeks creating itineraries for Paris while obsessively checking that her passport is still valid and ignoring her looming deadline. The day of their getaway arrives and they head west to Paddignton, not north to St. Pancras. They are going to Cornwall. And maybe things would have worked out had she not thought they were going to Paris, but it's like Noah doesn't even know her and has some notion of recapturing the memories of a favorite childhood vacation of his instead of celebrating their relationship. Audrey spends the train journey to Trevennick for the midsummer festival mentally cataloging how her life has gone wrong. She wanted to be an artist, but was pushed by her parents to take the more sensible route and study graphic design. Her relationship with Noah was meant to open the door for her into the art world, instead he's constantly closing it. And now he's taking her to the country. She hates the country. She hates the dark. Does she secretly hate Noah? When they arrive they are taken up to the big house through the village with disturbing statues made of withies in the shape of amorphous animals being assembled on the green. Luckily their hostess is able to fill them in on these obby osses because she is none other than Stella Penrose, a tellie historian, who will be staying in her home with them. A home that is completely made of glass. They can literally see everything. This isn't the romantic weekend Audrey planned as she spends dinner getting drunk while Stella shamelessly flirts with Noah. Audrey goes to bed early and is wakened by Noah. He thinks something bad has happened. And he's right. Stella is dead. In a locked room in a completely glass house. But suicide doesn't sit right with the police or Audrey. And when Noah is arrested, perhaps this is the sign she needed that they are officially over. But the killer isn't. The town is backwards in more ways than one and the river will have its due.

The Wicker Man is one of the movies that will forever be a classic. It's camp, it's creepy, and it taps into our communal love of folk horror that we as viewers, and readers, can't get enough of. I love me some folk horror. But not Midsommar. Never that. Having discovered Sofia Slater when I read Auld Acquaintance I couldn't wait for this book being touted as folk horror with wicker man vibes to be released stateside and ordered it from England. It would be the book to usher in summer 2025. And, while yes, the obby osses bring a nice Summerisle vibe to Trevennick, that isn't what makes the book work. In fact I wouldn't even label it as folk horror, it's just a good old fashioned murder mystery with the trappings you might see on an episode of Midsomer Murders. In fact I'm thinking of the one where Nicholas Rowe is killed by an arrow while attempting a rite that would allow him to sleep with his sister/wife. But enough about my love for Nicholas Rowe, what makes this book work is that Sofia Slater is a writer that just makes her people and locations come alive. They are fully three-dimensional. I can picture myself going to Trevennick and walking into the Sacacren's Head and being served by the Kingcups. I am there. I am a part of this ill-fated getaway. But most importantly, it's the journey of Audrey that draws you in. She's on a legit heroine's journey. She is confronting the dark abuses of her past in a similar milieu which she has been forced into. This is full immersion therapy and I am here for it. She's figuring out who she is and what she wants and confronting how her expectations don't meet reality and it's a struggle so many of us have to face, thankfully without usually having to endure a trial by literal fire. When she tells Morwenna Kingcup things she hasn't even told Noah, you know this place is literally healing her. It also allows her to open up artistically. What starts at first as a way to make sense of the crime as well as appease her editor, she draws the crime scene and her surroundings in detail. Just remove a dead body here and add a cute bunny there, and her sequel about vanishing Britain is almost done! But the fact that what she uses for therapy helps to reveal the truth is delicious. Her artist's eye catches something that the normal person wouldn't notice and this thrills me as an artist. I am always looking at things differently, and when I go on walks with my Dad I'm pointing out all the ways to look at the world and this artistic sensibility is what saves the day. To me, as an artist, I can't explain my glee. But also, the fact that she releases her inhibitions and Noah finally see's in her art something worth exhibiting proves that our demons, our outlets, our deliverance, brings us to our true selves and only then can we achieve our goals.

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments  

Labels: Artist, Auld Acquaintance, Cornwall, Graphic Designer, Locked Room, Midsomer Murders, Midsommar, Murder, Murder Most Foul, Nicholas Rowe, Paris, Sofia Slater, The Serpent Dance, The Wicker Man, Vacation

The Most Wonderful Crime of the Year by Ally Carter
Published by: Avon Books
Publication Date: September 24th, 2024
Format: Hardcover, 304 Pages
Rating: ★★
To Buy

Maggie Chase has been having a hell of a year. Not only did she find out that her husband was cheating on her with her best friend but he was able to worm his way into a "legitimate" claim as co-writer of her cozy mysteries. He took everything. And she gets the consolation prize of overhearing her fellow authors discuss her downfall at her publisher's Christmas party. What's worse is the eager listener is none other than Ethan Wyatt, Leather Jacket Guy. One of her least favorite things in the world and he just happens to be a number one New York Times bestselling author. Her other two least favorite things are Christmas and parties. She knew she should have stayed home. But her editor Deborah insisted. Back in her office she hands Maggie an envelope. Maggie has been invited to the home of one of her biggest fans in England for Christmas. This is a nightmare. She was lured to one party to invite her to another. Deborah insists that this is legit and that something very big might be coming Maggie's way if she just gets on that plane. What Deborah didn't tell her was that Ethan Wyatt would also be on that plane. He would be there, calling her Marcie, and just being all leather clad and in her face. Though perhaps it's worth it as they cross the stone bridge and approach the palace made of stone and glass and centuries. They have arrived at Mistletoe Manor. Ethan is sure that someone wants to hunt them for sport and Maggie insists that that's the plot to an Eleanor Ashley novel. The author who has been with her as a guiding light her entire life who Ethan claims to have never heard of. Maggie's frayed paperbacks are nothing compared to the wall of first editions at her publisher's office. That's why she signed with Killhaven Books, because they're Eleanor's publisher. And then all the pieces click into place and she realizes that her host for Christmas is none other than Eleanor Ashley. Well, that and the fact that Eleanor is standing right behind her. She will be spending Christmas with the Duchess of Death. And her family. All of whom have ulterior motives. Eleanor is a wealthy woman, and where there is wealth there are those wanting to separate you from it. Even if you are related to them by blood. But as a storm moves in Eleanor disappears from a locked room. Is this stunt? Is she in danger? Cut off from the outside world Maggie and Ethan are the only ones capable of investigating what has happened to Eleanor and revealing all the secrets held in Mistletoe Manor. Even their own.

This is a book I was determined to love. I mean, even if it wasn't great anything was better than the cover. Seriously, that artwork, those horrid fonts, who designed this and where do they live!?! And there are aspects of the book I love, the leads have chemistry, there's incisive observations on what it's like to be gaslit and how that seeps into your every single decision, plus Thrombey level relatives. But there are two things I can't get past. Maggie and Ethan have wonderful snarky banter when she's under the misapprehension that they are each other's nemesis. And then halfway through the book her eyes are opened as Ethan comes in as a second narrator and the book stagnates. Now it's not that they aren't the perfect couple, because there are swoonworthy moments, it's that the pacing and the mystery of Eleanor Ashley are forgotten and it's more important for them to make out next to the entrance to the secret tunnel than to explore said secret tunnel. It was so...damn...glacial. I raced through the first half of the book and then limped to the finish line. That is not a momentum you should strive for in your storytelling. Yet, that could have been forgiven and forgotten. Because, as I've said, they are a perfect couple who I might have wished stayed more snarky than Nick and Nora once they hooked up, but then Ally Carter ruined it in the end. How you ask? Well, that requires spoilers, which I'm totally about to drop. You have been warned. So Ally Carter got the idea for this novel after learning about Agatha Christie's disappearance. This is a mystery that will endure forever. Where was she for those eleven days? Was it a mental break? Was it a PR stunt? Was she undercover solving a mystery? Was it giant alien space wasps? And yes, these are all theories that have been posited. Obviously one on Doctor Who, so that one probably isn't accurate. Or is it? So here's the fictional Eleanor Ashley, key FICTIONAL. She magics herself away from a locked room and the answer for how she did it is that she's Eleanor Ashley. That is a freakin' cop out of the highest magnitude. This is fiction, fiction is for resolution, not for giving us yet another unsolved mystery. This just enraged me. I was strongly reminded of the book Cartwheel by Jennifer duBois which was a fictionalized account of the Amanda Knox case. Again, fictional. And we got no resolution. None. And in the case of Cartwheel it has the EXACT SAME setup only for the answers to life's greatest mysteries to be what? Ineffable? Give me the answers or get out of my face. Which means that Ally Carter can still save this book with an additional epilogue for the paperback release. Let's make it so.

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments  

Labels: Agatha Christie, Ally Carter, Amanda Knox, Cartwheel, Christmas, Eleanor Ashley, Ethan Wyatt, Fictional, Jennifer DuBois, Maggie Chase, Murder Most Foul, Resolution, The Most Wonderful Crime of the Year

The Christmas Jigsaw Murders by Alexandra Benedict
Published by: Poisoned Pen Press
Publication Date: October 8th, 2024
Format: Paperback, 288 Pages
Rating: ★★★★
To Buy

Edie hates Christmas. With good reason. Christmas is when everyone she loves leaves her. On Christmas Day 1946 her mother died giving birth to her brother Anthony. On Christmas Eve 1988 Anthony died in a car crash after Edie and her partner Sky had a knock-down, drag-out fight, and he took to the icy roads to come get her. Two years later on Christmas Eve 1990 Anthony's son Duncan, daughter-in-law Melissa, and the older of their two children, William, died in another car crash, leaving Edie with nine-month-old great-nephew Sean to raise. She has so many dead bodies in her past, not all of them buried, that it's led her to build boundaries around her that puzzles others but has kept her safe. Cats, puzzles, and tea, they are Edie's triumvirate of solace as she casts her gimlet gaze on her neighbors putting up their holiday decorations. At least the curtains can shut out the world, like she shut Sky's memory up in the dining room. She hasn't opened that door in over twenty years. Not since Sky left. But the world seems determined to draw her out this holiday season when she finds a hand-delivered present on her doorstep on the first of December. Inside are six jigsaw pieces that form a part of a crime scene with an ominous message: 'Four, maybe more, people will be dead by midnight on Christmas Eve, unless you can put all the pieces together and stop me.' Signed Rest In Pieces. Edie is a puzzle setter, in fact she's developed quite a reputation, being dubbed the Pensioner Puzzler, and jigsaws are fascinating to her because it requires a mind that can hold the whole picture as well as the pieces. So a fan or anyone who read about her could have sent this, but it feels portentous. Which makes her call Sean, who's grown up to be a copper. She loves Sean, really she does, he's her person, she has room for no one else, not his husband Liam, or the rigmarole of their adoption saga. Sean doesn't think much of the puzzle and humors Edie's desire to be a recliner detective right up until a dead body is found with a jigsaw piece in their hand. And Sean shuts Edie out. But Rest in Pieces is still targeting Edie. And the subsequent pieces show that Sean might be in danger. They are both trying to protect the other and this puts them both in serious danger. It's time for Edie to exorcise her past and catch a killer or her person will be next.

Imagine, if you will, Ednia Monsoon, from the cult classic Absolutely Fabulous, with her Vivienne Westwood and Lacroix, aging and spending her golden years setting puzzles and being angry at the world and you've got The Christmas Jigsaw Murders. I kid you not. I mean, there's no way Edie is anyone other than Eddie! "It's Lacroix sweetie!" And that is just one of the reasons I love this book. Alexandra Benedict has had this interesting juxtaposition with her holiday oeuvre. People think they're going to be cozy, the covers give off that vibe, and then they're basically a trauma dump. And it's not like The Christmas Jigsaw Murders is without it's trauma. I mean, just look to Edie's backstory that's nothing but bodies. But here it's handled more deftly. There's almost a comedic slant. There's a high body count, but, like Midsomer Murders, it's done more tongue-in-cheek. When Edie's backstory is told it's almost humorous, the "but wait there's more" of it all. And the trauma is more removed, family members are just being killed off by automobiles in droves where previously it was all rape and pregnancy PTSD. The later you can't make light of but the former? Oh yes! And Alexandra Benedict goes there. In fact, when I saw that this book was getting a sequel, The Christmas Cracker Killer, out this November, I was really excited. Because the balance of dark to light is perfect in this book, she has nailed the perfect Christmas mystery here. Her crown as the 'Queen of the Christmas Mystery' has, in my mind, finally been earned. I enjoyed her first two tales, I loved this one and can't wait for the next. But there was also a depth here. It's not just all flash clothes, there's Edie learning to not wallow in her trauma. She starts to open up, and the doors to the dining room are just the first step. The thing is, if you aren't replacing bad memories with good memories then all you will have are the bad ones on a loop. Christmas will always be THAT Christmas of loss, that one in 1946 or 1988 or 1990 unless you rewrite it. Don't deny Sean Christmas, lean into it, make it special for him and it will be the happy memories you remember more than the sad ones. The sadness and the trauma never leaves, but they can coexist with happiness. Yes, it might occasionally veer into being wistful, but that's better than wallowing any day. As Ebenezer Scrooge showed us in a book Edie doesn't much like, put a little love in your heart!

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments  

Labels: Absolutely Fabulous, Alexandra Benedict, Edie O'Sullivan, Edina Monsoon, Lacroix, Midsomer Murders, Murder Most Foul, Pensioner Puzzler, Puzzles, Rest in Pieces, The Christmas Jigsaw Murders, Vivienne Westwood

The Cloisters by Katy Hays
Published by: Atria Books
Publication Date: November 1st, 2022
Format: Hardcover, 320 Pages
Rating: ★★★
To Buy

The Cloisters are located in Washington Heights, sitting on a hill in Fort Tryon Park on the Hudson River it is a world away from the hustle and bustle of New York City. The structure is made up of elements from abbeys in France and Catalonia that incorporate four cloisters, the Cuxa, the Saint-Guilhem, the Bonnefont, and the Trie. There are three gardens containing rare medieval species of plants but most people come to see the Met's collection of 5,000 pieces of medieval art. Illuminated manuscripts, tapestries, stained glass, paintings, and sculptures adorn the Gothic chapel, the Fuentidueña chapel, the Langon chapel, the Romanesque hall, and the Treasury room. With even more treasures contained in the library and archives. This is where Ann Stilwell will be spending her summer. An Early Renaissance scholar from Whitman, a small college no one has heard of in Washington, she had secured a position in the Summer Associates Program at the Metropolitan Museum of Art being a glorified intern. It wasn't what she had planned, but it was the only thing that panned out. And it was only for three months. But it was a start. A way to get away from home and its dark memories. When she arrives at the Met they inform her that they no longer have a place for her. She is nothing more than an administrative oversight. She can't believe what she's hearing. She's frozen to the spot. Unable to move when in walks Patrick Roland, the curator of The Cloisters. He's there to inform them that his temporary, and totally unsuitable, associate curator has left him in the lurch. He needs more hands and right there in front of him is Ann. She'll be perfect. And all Ann can think is that it's serendipity, that if she hadn't sat there a moment too long she wouldn't be being swept away from Museum Mile into another world, a sheltered haven of enigmatic curators. Rachel Mondray, the curatorial associate, and Leo Bitburg, the gardener, become her closest friends. When Ann proves adept they decide to bring her into their world of shadowy secrets, rare book dealers, poisonous plants, and, above all, the tarot. The tarot is Patrick's infatuation. But his obsession isn't just academic, he's a true believer, and Ann's discovery of a 15th-century Italian tarot card from a deck previously thought lost changes everything. The power dynamics in the group shift and control is lost and one night things get out of hand and Patrick ends up dead. Any one of them could have done it, but Ann will make sure it isn't her who takes the fall.

I picked up The Cloisters because I have a fascination with the tarot. Not so much it's mystical powers with regard to divination, but the history and the art. Pamela Colman Smith's illustrations for the Rider-Waite Tarot deck are iconic. You would most likely recognize them even if you knew nothing about tarot they are that famous. So while I am more into the practical side of tarot, the mystical side, especially in fiction, is irresistible to me. And the marketing for The Cloisters leaned into this dark academia vibe with a supernaturally aided power play via tarot. In fact Katy Hays went so far as to actually include Ann Stilwell's Guide to Reading Tarot with pages and pages of details about the Ferrara Deck. The major and minor arcana are laid out over twelve pages with associated gods and planetary rulers and detailed descriptions of the illustrations and their meanings. So I have to ask, if the tarot was seemingly so important why is it nothing more than a MacGuffin? You do not write the rules for an entire tarot deck to have that deck be a red herring! That just makes no sense. And yet that's exactly what this book did. The cards don't matter, it's just the shiny object that everyone wants because they think it will bring them power. It literally could have been anything. Hell, they're surrounded by medieval artifacts, why wasn't it a chalice? Go all Indiana Jones! Because the tarot brings baggage, it brings expectations, and none of those were met. There's nothing magical here other than a well told story about four people manipulating each other to see who comes out on top. Words are magic, so I don't need a promise of magic that is never fulfilled because now I feel cheated. I feel so let down. And I can't tell if it's because Katy Hays had other plans for when she outlined the book and what she ended up writing or it if was all an act of misdirection. A way for these sociopaths to justify their behavior by saying it's fate. By claiming the mystical when it's just the mundane. The Cloisters themselves gave such a sense of place, a sense of something bigger than them while still being precious, that I wish the actions of the characters matched the setting. Look to Rosemary's Baby. There is the sense of place, the wish fulfillment, and then the devil. This does show evil but it's not enough to save it from a failure to deliver. I can't help thinking that if Riley Sager was to do a rewrite, bring in a little more of Hill House, that this could be perfection. As it is, it's an incomplete deck lost to time.

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments  

Labels: Ann Stilwell, Dark Academia, Indiana Jones, Intern, Katy Hays, MacGuffin, Murder Most Foul, Museum, New York City, Red Herring, Riley Sager, Rosemary's Baby, The Cloisters, The Haunting of Hill House, The MET

Auld Acquaintance by Sofia Slater
Published by: Swift Press
Publication Date: November 3rd, 2022
Format: Kindle, 229 Pages
Rating: ★★★★
To Buy

Millie Partridge just can't catch a break. Going into the holidays single and unemployed makes her do something reckless. When her ex Nick sends her an invitation to a luxurious New Year's Eve party at a Downtonesque manor in the Outer Hebrides, Fairweather House, she uses the last of her money to get there. She is desperate for her life to turn around and this might be just what she needs, to ring in the New Year with an auld acquaintance that shouldn't be forgot. Though if she were looking for an omen, the scene of the fatal car crash she passes on the way to the ferry should have made her reconsider her plans. The island is so remote that the ferry only stops by when it feels like it and there's a storm moving in off the Atlantic, so the guests for the party are either on board with her or already ensconced in holiday merrymaking on the island. Which means Nick must have got there ahead of her. When she finally arrives at the supposedly stately home it's nothing like she imagined. This is more haunted house than manor house. And then there's Mrs. Flyte. The chatelaine who won't answer questions. Even the person who booked the venue is verboten. And as for the guests? Millie is crestfallen that despite inviting her Nick is nowhere to be seen. And what's more, these can't be his friends can they? There's an off-putting and enigmatic lawyer, Winston, a rather glamorous influencer Bella, and her partner Ravi, and James. James seems too normal to be there and like Millie he is rather out of place, which is making Millie ill at ease. Like she's fallen into a trap. But the biggest shock is that there is a guest that Millie does know. A person she hoped to never see again, her ex-colleague, Penny Maybury. What happened between them at their previous place of employment should never be thought of and Penny being here in the middle of nowhere is an unwelcome reminder. And if Millie thought that the party was off to a rocky start, well, it's nothing to what's in store. As they sit down for dinner it is revealed that the final two guests that were expected were none other than her and Penny's ex-employer and his wife and they were the fatalities in the crash that Millie passed that morning. This is a shock to the system. But not the first and certainly not the last. Come morning Penny is missing. Her coat out on the cliffedge the only sign of her. Was this deliberate or an accident? They have no way to call for help and soon it becomes all to apparent that this was no accident. Nothing was. They've all be brought here and not all will leave.

You can't talk about Auld Acquaintance without talking about And Then There Were None. And Then There Were None is the bestselling mystery of all time, which, OK, maybe that did surprise me, but at the same time, I get it. And it did bring us Aidan Turner in a towel. Of course this means that there have been many adaptations and reinterpretations, hello Aidan! Hell, even Agatha Christie changed the ending of her book for theatregoers thinking that her original ending was a little too bleak, which personally is why I like it. Auld Acquaintance is a retelling of this tale, and sadly a lot of people seem to hold that against it. Firstly, while Agatha Christie might be the best in the business, that doesn't mean that she somehow has the right to hold all the intellectual property rights over people going to an island and being killed off one by one. Yes, she did it spectacularly, but that doesn't mean that no one else can now use that trope in perpetuity. Because I personally found Auld Acquaintance to a complete and utter delight. Yes, it's derivative, but guess what? It has fun with the trope. This book brought me nothing but glee. Because while it takes from And Then There Were None it also takes from The Haunting of Hill House, making it this wonderfully Gothic melange that kept you guessing and wondering if, in fact, we did indeed possibly have something supernaturally Scotch. The "attacks" on the residents of Fairweather House really had the Shirley Jackson vibe of questioning your reality that I just can't seem to get enough of. And yes, even if you do figure out what is going on, which I did, it was still fun. This was the first book I read in 2024, in fact I started it on New Year's Eve 2023, and I would encourage everyone to do so. In fact I'm kind of wondering why I didn't reread it to ring in 2025... Because it is literally that fun. For me, the holidays mean murder, and if it can have a dash of Gothic dread, that just makes it all the more enjoyable. But most importantly, for me this book has given me a new author to look out for. While Sofia Slater's second book, The Serpent Dance, isn't available stateside yet, I couldn't wait to read it being as it sounds like it's heavily influenced by The Wicker Man and so I ordered it from Waterstones. Because once you find an author you love, you can never get enough.

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments  

Labels: Agatha Christie, Aidan Turner, And Then There Were None, Auld Acquaintance, Gothic, Murder Most Foul, New Year's Eve, Shirley Jackson, Sofia Slater, The Haunting of Hill House, The Serpent Dance, The Wicker Man

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

Authors Kat de Noir, Cassie Pringle, and Emma Endicott all had their own reasons for not wanting to hear Brett Saffron Presley's keynote address at Bouchercon. Which is why the bar was the place to be for those not worshiping at the altar of the "great man." The three authors walked into the bar and became besties at first sight. Besties with plans to concoct for their future collaboration, Fifty Shades of Plaid! At first it was a joke, a way to write, tour, and more importantly, drink together, with their publisher picking up the tab. And at first their shared editor, Rachelle Cohen, laughed off the suggestion, but she wasn't laughing a month later when they brought her a real book proposal. Which is how Kat, Cassie, and Emma end up at Brett Saffron Presley's Scottish castle. Years ago he rented Castle Kinloch from it's destitute heir and turned it into an overpriced writer's retreat where he could indulge his womanizing ways with the nubile young authors who were desperate for a leg up. Thankfully that descriptor fits none of the three collaborators. The trio are more interested in Naughty Ned than Badly Behaved Brett. Naughty Ned was the laird of Kinloch Island. Known for his sexual depravity and orgies, he was poisoned during a house party in 1900 and his murder was never solved. And this lewd laird is the perfect inspiration for Fifty Shades of Plaid. Though that might prove to be problematic as the locals don't like to talk about Naughty Ned. His murder is the most notorious thing to happen on the island until Brett Saffron Presley is found dead the night of the ceilidh. His body is bound in strategic strips of black leather, surrounded by erotic tapestries, and pseudomedieval accouterments in the castle's tower. The three female American writers staying at the castle soon become the prime suspects. But why could they possibly want Brett Saffron Presley dead? They're best friends, they're there to write... Or are they? Because at that Bouchercon over a year ago Brett Saffron Presley announced his new book, a "graphic and no-holds-barred memoir of his life as the most innovative and controversial writer of his generation" and all three women have had previous run-ins with him. Emma, when she and Brett were a couple, Kat when she was an up-and-coming author at Yaddo, and Cassie at the 2019 CrimeLovers Convention in New York City. But what happened between them and Brett Saffron Presley for them to fake friendship in order to exact revenge and possibly murder? How bad could it be?

Team W is known for their historical fiction. Intertwining narratives linking past and present. So, coming out with what basically amounts to a murderous roman à clef set in the present doesn't feel logical. Some might say that The Author's Guide to Murder doesn't feel like a Team W book at all. Counterpoint, it's the most Team W book EVER. They mine themselves and their shared history to create a meta melange where you're not sure what's real and what's not. Because them bonding in a bar and deciding to collaborate on a book called Fifty Shades of Plaid? That is one hundred percent true. As was their desire for their publisher to foot the bar bill. And all the sheep jokes. The thing is, usually an author's book isn't them unless it's a memoir. Who they are and what they write are totally separate things. But if you've ever been lucky enough to see Lauren, Beatriz, and Karen interact, to see them promoting a book, well, this book is them distilled down and then amplified. This is the Team W people clamor for on their book tours and yet so many reviews bemoan that this isn't what they wanted. What!?! This IS them. This is the pantomime version of them that then reveals a darker truth about the publishing industry. What I admire most about this book is that you really have to trust your fellow author, really be the best of friends, in order to do these caricatures of each other that aren't always the most flattering. I honestly don't think I could be this vulnerable and raw with another person let alone have it published, but that's the bond of this team. What's more, it's obvious that each character is one of the authors but that another of the authors wrote them. Kat is Karen, Cassie is Beatriz, and Emma is Lauren. Well, to a certain extent. But I can tell it's obviously Lauren writing Kat, so it's this fun tag team effort of exposing and making fun of each other that, if you know enough about them, just adds a whole level of fun to the book. And somehow this book is fun. It's dealing with three women who were the victims of one man and yet it's empowering and cathartic. When male authors have always been treated with more respect than their female counterparts and their indiscretions ignored it's nice to have women reclaiming the narrative. Especially when there's the predators out there, like Neil Gaiman, who need to be held to account. Here's to amusement and accountability!

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments  

Labels: Beatriz Williams, Cassie Pringle, Emma Endicott, Fifty Shades of Plaid, Karen White, Kat de Noir, Lauren Willig, Meta, Murder Most Foul, Revenge, Roman A Clef, Scotland, Sheep, Team W, The Author's Guide to Murder

Murder on the Christmas Express by Alexandra Benedict
Published by: Poisoned Pen Press
Publication Date: October 3rd, 2023
Format: Paperback, 272 Pages
Rating: ★★
To Buy

Roz Parker has something to celebrate. She's taken early retirement from the Met and is traveling home to Scotland to welcome her first grandchild. Though her daughter has gone into labor six weeks early. Which means she's broken her promise to her daughter. Again. But really, she had to tie up that last case. She's not one to leave a job unfinished. One thing Roz has always dreamed of doing is taking the sleeper train to Fort William. A dream that everyone at her station knew about, so they pitched in to buy her a first class ticket as part of her leaving present. Despite the seasonal, if problematic, weather, Roz's train hasn't been cancelled and she'll be home for Christmas and hopefully before the birth of her grandchild. To stave off panic she starts to manipulate her Mirror Cube, like the Rubik's Cube she mastered, but harder. Her solitude is broken into by a young couple arguing; Grant and Meg. Grant is what most would consider handsome and Meg is an influencer who won a singing contest with the song "In No Time." And she's not gone unnoticed by the fellow passengers. But Roz sees what her fellow passengers in the first class lounge don't, the bruise on Meg's upper arm. There's the students trying to get on the quiz show Geek Street. The family with the baby, their teenagers having been the ones who noticed Meg. Then there's Ember, a romantic, actually bringing a copy of Murder on the Orient Express with her. And Tony and his mother Mary who don't have tickets to the first class lounge, but seeing as it's Christmas, Roz gives Mary her seat, much to Grant's objections. Given the ructions in the lounge it's with a sense of relief that the passengers board the train. One might even say a festive air returns. But this isn't going to be a smooth ride. It's not just the weather threatening them, but the dynamics between the guests is combustible and there's a killer amongst them. And Roz's panic is rising, her own memories linked to her daughter's birth are surfacing, trauma sticking to trauma. When Roz makes it to the club car things really start to kick off, and that's before the train derails. And Meg is found dead. But hers won't be the only corpse on this train. Roz will be lucky to survive, let alone meet her grandchild.

Holy hell, this book should have been called Trauma Train. Having read Alexandra Benedict's previous holiday themed mystery, The Christmas Murder Game, I know that, despite appearances, these aren't cozy mysteries. And while you could say that Midsomer Murders is a cozy series despite a high death count, that's done with a light touch. There is no light touch here. It's blunt force trauma. Which leads me to mention that if you ever want a good laugh, read some of the reviews of this book from people who judged it by it's cover, they got a way different ride than they expected. I was luckily prepared. Though in all seriousness, did they really consider Trauma Train as a possible title? It would have been perfect! The holidays are hard on many people. Just the sight of a Christmas tree or a carol heard on the radio can send them into a deep depression that won't lift until the last of the snow has melted. I know many people like this. Add to that family stress and strain. Complicated relationships between family that's forced together and you can see why many people do as I do and spend the holidays reading about family gatherings where there's quite a cull. In my mind, one of the relationships that has the most strain put on it is between mothers and daughters. If you have issues with your daughter or your mother or sadly both, this book needs a big old trigger warning for you. In fact Trigger Warning Train, another good title. Because despite fraught family relationships, Benedict then piles on the PTSD, the sexual assaults, the psychological abuse, the domestic abuse, the pregnancy fears. The horror just keeps being piled on. Yes, you can say, at least the main abuser gets what they deserve so there's some sort of collective sigh of relief, but really, there isn't. Which means that this book could, quite conceivably, ruin your love of holiday murder mysteries. My solution was to read something else as fast as I could as a palate cleanser and seek psychological counseling. In fact, everyone in this book needs psychological counseling. They need psychiatrists, psychologists, and maybe a few exorcists. Also, I think primal scream therapy would do nicely. It's better than a Rubik's Cube and Scottish Tablet. But to each their own.

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments  

Labels: Alexandra Benedict, Murder Most Foul, Murder on the Christmas Express, Pregnancy, PTSD, Roz Parker, Rubik's Cube, Scotland, Sexual Assault, Sleeper Train, The Christmas Murder Game, Trauma Train, Trigger Warning

Hokuloa Road by Elizabeth Hand
Published by: Mulholland Books
Publication Date: July 19th, 2022
Format: Hardcover, 400 Pages
Rating: ★
To Buy

Grady Kendall's life imploded. But then so has so many others. The pandemic came and everything ground to a halt, including the construction on all the wealthy vacation homes in Maine where he worked as a carpenter. The first stimulus check went to back rent and two overdue truck payments. So he moved back in with his mother. Though the memories at home aren't the kind you want to dwell on, his father's suicide, his brother's addictions, and so much loss. Which is why he likes his Pabst. And then an opportunity lands in his lap he can't pass up. An eccentric billionaire is looking for a caretaker for his home in Hawai'i. Grady has always loved the wilderness and has felt that circumstances have limited his chances to see the world so he applies. Within days all the paperwork has been sorted and he is flying to his new home on Hokuloa Road. Another of Wes Minton's employee's, Dalita, picks him up from the airport and drives him out to the house. The compound appears wild but on closer inspection he sees it's just as meticulously designed as the empty beach resorts he saw from the plane, it's just in need of some care, and that's what Grady is here to give. His work isn't too onerous and he has his own cottage. His boss is often at the sight of his proposed hotel on the remote Hokuloa Peninsula, which he now uses for conservation work, particularly with rare birds. In fact the most important of Grady's tasks is tending an aviary of rare birds on the second floor of Wes's house. Some days it feels like these birds are his only companions. Which leads him to feel the loneliness and menace of his isolated surroundings. Sure, it's beautiful, but it's otherworldly too. And then he learns about the disappearances. There's a well-known surfer who's just gone, as well as a girl, Jessie, whom he met on the plane. Because of his personal connection to Jessie, Grady feels like he should ask questions. But Wes hired him because he's a stranger, an outsider, and will not ask questions. The island is filled with the absences left by the vanished. It's only when a tourist like Jessie arrives that anyone cares. But despite being the wrong guy for every possible reason, perhaps he is the tool at hand to break this mystery wide open?

I hated this book so much I don't know if I'll be able to coherently express my rage. I mean, just the cavalier attitude to Covid and declaring people "safe" without knowing where they've been or what they've been up to enraged me. And keep in mind this is set at the very beginning of the pandemic, so tests were impossible to find and there was no vaccine! But that was just the first of many many rage inducing incidences and I have many issues stemming from the new subgenre of pandemic literature which I won't go into here. So much of this book is rooted in the lore and people of Hawai'i. Dalita speaks Hawaiian Pidgin, alternately called Hawai'i Creole English. It's a very stilted language. I'm sure Hand did this to add to the authenticity of the book. She says she went to great effort to learn the dialect when she went to Hawai'i. But as much as I believe in her good intentions it comes across as a privileged white woman travelling to a foreign land and setting herself up to be the mouthpiece of these people. It doesn't sit right with me. I kept asking myself, is she the right person to tell this story? Well, given my next complaint, yes, but that then brings me to the fact that if this book wanted to be authentic maybe a native speaker or someone whose life this is should have been telling this story. And I am against censorship, anyone can write any story they want, but that doesn't make it feel right. Because this book exudes white privilege and Hand is nothing but a haole! Grady and his adventures are nothing but the biggest most nauseating example of white savior complex I have read in years. I mean, it's so horrid that if I had to summarize the book in one word it would be cringe. I physically recoiled from this book. At one point a character accosts Grady saying "You think you're the fucking chosen one." And that is the book, he IS the chosen one. A drunk, messed up chosen one, but it's the outsider status of a white man that's the problem. He comes in and Dalita is all, yeah, people disappear all the time, but no one's ever going to take the time to figure it out. Well their new white savior will! Because that's what he's here to do, make everything right for the natives. How could Hand, whose previous works I loved for their understanding and subtleties write this tone-deaf tome!?! That's the real mystery.

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments  

Labels: Authenticity, Caretaker, Chosen One, Covid, Disappearances, Elizabeth Hand, Grady Kendall, Hawai'i Creole English, Hawaii, Hawaiian Pidgin, Hokuloa Road, Maine, Murder Most Foul, Pandemic, White Savior Complex

The Witch Elm by Tana French
Published by: Penguin Books
Publication Date: October 9th, 2018
Format: Paperback, 528 Pages
Rating: ★★★
To Buy

Toby Hennessy is a golden child. Favored not just by his family but by the world. Nothing has ever stood in his way. Coddled in his privilege, that is what Toby is and assumes he will always be. But that is all about to change. There was a contretemps at work. He threw a colleague at the art gallery he does PR for under a bus in order to keep his job. Even though he himself was complicit. Such a victory deserves a celebration, a night out with the lads. A night that ends up with him being brutalized by burglars in a home invasion. He could have stayed in his room and called the cops. But he didn't. Because situations like this don't happen to people like him. People like him scare the burglars off, they don't end up forever changed, they don't end up with brain damage. His luck has finally run out. What's more, his family has been keeping secrets from him. The first of which is his beloved Uncle Hugo is dying of Cancer. Though this gives Toby an opportunity, to heal and help at the same time. Hugo has always lived in Ivy House. The home is the heart of the Hennessy family. Toby and his two cousins, Susanna and Leon, spent every summer there. There were perfect days and wonderful nights spent in the glorious garden out back under Hugo's benevolent eye. If anywhere can heal Toby it's Ivy House. He moves in with his girlfriend Melissa and for a short while it's perfect. Hugo spends his days working on genealogy with Toby's help and when Melissa get's home from work they spend the evening having a delicious meal in contented splendor. It almost seems as if this little bubble of calm and happiness with never burst. The attack is in the past and Hugo still seems his old self. But Susanna's son discovers a human skull in the wych elm and things start to fall apart. Ivy House is now a crime scene and the victim is Dominic Ganly. He was a classmate and friend of Toby's who supposedly committed suicide the summer before college. This is no suicide. This is murder. As Toby and Hugo both start to deteriorate, Toby is convinced that it was one his cousins who committed this crime. But obviously he would have helped them to take care of a bully and a pest, wouldn't he? He wishes he could remember. He wishes he knew the secrets. He should be careful what you wish for.

So far this is my favorite Tana French book after The Likeness. And I strongly suspect it's because of their similarities. They both are mysteries contained and concerning a home that is at once a safe haven and a crime scene. There's that bubble, that golden glow, that takes the characters out of time and they just live a small, circumscribed, but wonderfully content life. It's the day to day details, the joy taken in wandering from room to room and preparing a meal in the kitchen and strolling out into the garden that I just love. It's too bad that the story didn't stick to this cozy contained little world. And it's oddly not the murder or the secrets that implode this world, it's the fact that Toby is a privileged asshole. Yes he's an unreliable narrator, but you can love an unreliable narrator, you can't love Toby. What's the problem with Toby? Well, everything. He views that he's a good guy. He thinks he's always been a good guy. But, you know as well as I do, that golden boys aren't the good guys they appear to be. They have secrets, and if the worst of them is that they are oblivious to the plight of those around them, well, consider yourself lucky. So Toby could be worse, he just turned a blind eye to the torture of his cousins at the hands of Dominic, because Dominic was like him, he was his friend, and what his cousins said couldn't possibly be true. Here's the thing Toby. It's not how people treat their equals that matters but how they treat those who they view as their inferiors that does. And Dominic made Susanna and Leon's lives a living hell. And that's on you because you could have stopped it. And in your deluded PTSD brain you imagine that perhaps you did. Perhaps you helped them. You didn't. Your type never does. But that's not the main reason why I hate Toby. I hate Toby because he thinks doing a radical action will somehow free him, return him to his previous self. When Susanna and Leon did what they did to Dominic it released them from the horrors of their lives up until that point. Therefore Toby thinks that by doing a suitably grand gesture he too will be freed. There is no logic in Toby's thinking. He kills a cop who was simply doing his job, not a bully who was destroying lives, and he thinks, this will, what? Free him? That this will restore him? While I could just say two wrongs don't make a right, that's too trite. Too tidy. Instead I will say that Toby is a deluded narcissist who couldn't handle an imperfect life so decided to make it worse because there was no making it better or even sustainable. And this, this is why I hate him. You play the cards you are dealt, you don't shoot the dealer.

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments  

Labels: Art Gallery, Bullies, Burglary, Cancer, Cold Case, Dublin, Genealogy, Ivy House, Murder Most Foul, Privilege, PTSD, Secrets, Suicide, Tana French, The Likeness, The Witch Elm, Toby Hennessy, Unreliable Narrator

Homecoming by Kate Morton
Published by: Mariner Books
Publication Date: April 4th, 2023
Format: Hardcover, 560 Pages
Rating: ★★★
To Buy

Jess's life isn't exactly going to plan. She's lost her job and her partner in quick succession when she gets a call from Australia saying that her grandmother Nora has had a fall and Jess needs to return home. Her grandmother might be eight-nine years old but the woman who raised her has always seemed so young so she doesn't understand the urgency in the doctors' voices. But it's not exactly like she can claim she's busy at the moment so she returns to the home in which she was raised, Darling House, in Sydney. There she tries to piece together how Nora could have fallen. This seems so unexpected, but when she starts to ask questions she realizes that the grandmother she thought she knew and loved had been acting odd lately. Nora had been secretive, furtively reading a book which she wouldn't let anyone else see. She might even have been digging around in the attic when she fell. This could all be dated back to a letter she got in the mail from a solicitor in New South Wales. But Jess can't think of any connection her grandmother had there until she remembers that Nora had an older brother who died right around the time that Jess came to live at Darling House. A brother who lived in New South Wales. Her grandmother's injury seems to be tied to a secret in the past and so Jess, being a journalist, even if she's currently unemployed, starts to dig. Thomas Turner returned to Australia after World War II. He decided to settle in Tambilla in the Adelaide Hills. There he purchased and renovated a house that was commonly referred to as the Wentworth House. A large, sprawling home that had a tragic backstory, but not nearly as tragic as the one that would befall the house once it was rechristened Halcyon. Thomas brought his English bride Isabel to live there with their expanding family. When December 1959 rolled around they had four beautiful and precocious children, Matilda, John, Evie, and a newborn baby girl. On Christmas Eve Isabel took the children down to the creak to escape the heat of the day. That is where they lay when Percy Summers, the proprietor of the local grocery store, found them. They were all dead. Except for the baby. The baby was nowhere to be found. It was assumed that the baby was dragged off by some wild animal. This entire sorry affair was documented by Daniel Miller in his book As If They Were Asleep. Which happens to be the book that Nora was reading when she had her turn. Which means that Nora's preoccupation with the past does indeed figure into the present. It turns out Nora was there at Halcyon. She gave birth to Jess's mother Polly on Christmas Eve as her family lay dead. But why Nora's obsession? Could she have known something, some secret, that she's been holding on to all her life? And could Daniel Miller have the answers? He conducted extensive interviews with Nora. Did she confess something? And can Jess help lift the guilt from her grandmother's shoulders before it's too late?

If you're a fan of Kate Morton, you know you don't read her for the mysteries. You read her for the atmosphere; the old wallpaper crumbling in a stately manor, the creak of an old floorboard that the house's inhabitants have long grown accustomed to, the sense of elegant decay. This is what Kate Morton books are about and thankfully, after a misstep with The Clockmaker's Daughter, she is back in fine fettle, once again delving into the darkest secrets that Ancestry.com doesn't document. Family secrets that not even the family are aware of. These mysteries pepper all of Kate Morton's books, and sadly, are often easily solved. As I stated previously, you don't read her books for the mysteries. Which, ironically, would be doing this book a disservice, because for the first time I think the mystery steals the show. We have what amounts to a more deadly version of the Lindbergh baby kidnapping, an unsolved case she has taken inspiration from before, and we see it played out through dual timelines. But what I feel really sets Homecoming apart are two things, Daniel's Miller's book and her sticking to the Golden Age rule of fair play. Miller's book within the book, As If They Were Asleep, reads as just a wonderful gripping true crime story. It has such a unique and different voice and tone to Morton's usual work that it actually feels like it could conceivably exist and therefore the tragedy in Tambilla is given a greater weight. You actually feel as if this isn't a fictional story that Kate Morton has created for her dedicated readers, but that she stumbled on a real case and a real book and wove this narrative around it. Of course, this isn't the case, but it really feels like it is and that makes this book special. This makes the book something more, something unique, especially among her bibliography. The other thing that sets this apart is that she followed the Golden Age rule of fair play. The rule states that the reader has to be given all the information that they need in order to solve the crime. The author can't pull some weird Josephine Tey The Man in the Queue bullshit wherein there was no way in which the reader could conceivably solve the case. Ronald Knox codified this in his ten rules which, really, if you want a good laugh you should read them to see how badly some of them have aged. Also, he really didn't like secret passages. He would have hated the movie Clue. Therefore we could never have been friends. In fairness to Morton, I don't think she's ever played dirty, but here the way she draws out the information leaves you guessing until almost the very end when all the pieces click into place. It was masterfully done. Also, seriously, wicked vengeance. I approve. I can't wait to see where her writing goes next. Now to just sit here for her next book, which if it follows her average three year gap would mean a new book next year... Though it could be at least five. Here's hoping it's not more.

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments  

Labels: As If They Were Asleep, Australia, Cold Case, Darling House, Fair Play, Golden Age of Detection, Halcyon, Homecoming, Kate Morton, Lindbergh Kidnapping, Murder Most Foul, The Clockmaker's Daughter, True Crime

The Running Grave by Robert Galbraith
Published by: Mulholland Books
Publication Date: September 26th, 2023
Format: Hardcover, 960 Pages
Rating: ★★
To Buy

Sir Colin Edensor's son Will is trapped in a cult. To the public the "church" has a very charitable face, but to those few who have escaped, the Universal Humanitarian Church is pure evil and they live in fear of the day The Drowned Prophet will come to them. Starvation, indoctrination, sexual abuse, child abuse, and forced labor, are just some of the tortures inflicted on the congregation. Or at least those sequestered to their farm in Norfolk, Chapman Farm, which is nothing more nor less than a prison. And Sir Colin doesn't know how to get his son out. The last family who attempted this resulted in a well publicized suicide. Sir Colin doesn't even know if they are passing on the letters he's written to Will. Does Will even know his mother has died? He hired another detective agency who botched it up royally. He also had the help of an apostate on the outside, one Kevin Pirbright, who has since tragically been killed. Sir Colin will do anything to find out his son's well-being and, if possible, aid in his escape. This is the challenge he brings to Cormoran Strike and Robin Ellacott. Both want to take on the case. Strike once he learns that Chapman Farm is the remnants of Forgeman Farm which became famous as the Aylmerton Community, known for drugs and sexual abuse. A commune that Strike's mom Leda dragged him and Lucy to for some of the worst months of his childhood. And where he only recently finds out his sister was sexually assaulted. Robin views it as a chance to go deep undercover and save a lost soul. But Robin's desire to always risk her safety and sanity might have finally met its match with the charismatic Jonathan Wace, AKA Papa J, who runs the church with his wife Mazu Wace, and is built around their dead daughter, Daiyu, who is The Drowned Prophet. Seeing as one of the other prophet's of the church is the man who molested Lucy, you can tell the kind of people who are in power. Once inside the community, Robin is quickly malnourished and exhausted, trying to fed off unwanted sexual advances, and trying to find some way to communicate with Will. But the church thrives on total control. You can't speak freely. You are silenced and broken. Robin can analytically see this, but how soon until she's too far gone to help Will let alone herself? And can Strike save her? The UHC wants to hold onto their secrets and they will take them to the grave if they have to.

I want to state at the beginning of this review that I unequivocally do not stand for anything that the author does. I am not like many who read this series and bury their head in the sand with regard to her. You will not hear me declaiming that it's another stellar mystery in this series. Because I just can't. She needs to be called out for the despicable human being that she is. She's a TERF. She fully took off her mask with Troubled Blood, which besides showing what a horrible human being she is was just a badly written book. I let her words and her work speak for her and I have found her wanting. In many regards. But there's a part of me that's just in too deep. It's like, I can't not read the newest adventure of Cormoran Strike and Robin Ellacott. And it's not just for the characters, it's also because I feel a need to know. And what I need to know is what is she ranting on about now and is she able to actually fashion a book out of her prejudices. I mean, I don't think I would have believed that she wrote over a thousand pages that was nothing more than her showing her deep-seated persecution complex unless I had read The Ink Black Heart. As for The Running Grave? I heard it was about religion, and I was like, oh, let's see just how batshit this can get. The answer is very. But there was also a big helping of glee. You see, she's no longer just being homophobic and ableist and using her position of power to punch down, which she is still doing if you were wondering. Oh no. She's now going after bigger fish as well. She's taking on Scientology and MAGA and Doctor Oz and I am here for it! Because these people are the audience she has left and she just shits all over them. It was glorious, it was cathartic, and I just can't wait for the fallout. Because with Scientology for sure, there shall be fallout. She thinks she's above it all. She thinks she can silence all those who hate her for her hate by suing them, well, let's see what happens when she's no longer shitting on minorities. Let's see how she handles those who play in her tainted pool. As for the mystery? It's actually her strongest since Lethal White, though with a strong helping of trauma and cultural appropriation running rife in the cult. And as for the liberal use of the I Ching, there's only one writer allowed to go there, and that's Philip K. Dick, thank you very much.

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments  

Labels: Cormoran Strike, Cult, I Ching, J.K. Rowling, Lethal White, Murder Most Foul, Papa J, Philip K. Dick, Robert Galbraith, Robin Ellacott, Scientology, TERF, The Ink Black Heart, The Running Grave, Troubled Blood

The Ink Black Heart by Robert Galbraith
Published by: Mulholland Books
Publication Date: August 30th, 2022
Format: Hardcover, 1024 Pages
Rating: ★
To Buy

Edie Ledwell and Josh Blay are the creators of the successful cartoon The Ink Black Heart. An unknown assailant attacked them in Highgate Cemetery, killing Edie and leaving Josh paralyzed. The authorities believe that Edie was targeted by The Halvening, a right-wing terrorist group that targets powerful women. Robin isn't so convinced. Before her death Edie Ledwell had come into the agency to talk to Robin about an online harassment campaign directed against her by someone going by the name Anomie. Anomie is a hardcore fan who co-created the popular Drek's Game based on The Ink Black Heart. Ever since Edie disparaged Drek's Game in an interview Anomie has turned nasty. With film rights for The Ink Black Heart about to be signed the harassment had intensified to the point that Josh was led to believe that Edie herself was Anomie trying to get sympathy by playing the victim. Because Anomie's intelligence is eerily accurate. Not many people knew that Edie tried to kill herself, and yet within minutes Anomie had posted the details, down to which hospital Edie was admitted to. But Robin turned down the case, cybercrime isn't something she and Strike deal with. Though she did refer Edie to some other agencies that could help her. Obviously they didn't otherwise Edie wouldn't be dead and the producers of the film wouldn't be asking Robin and Strike to take on the case. Robin won't let Edie down a second time. Because of Edie's conviction that Anomie has to be someone close Robin and Strike compile a list of her acquaintances, especially those from the North Grove Art Collective, where Edie and Josh met and many of their friends still live. And they develop what they think is a foolproof form of elimination. If someone isn't online when Anomie is, well, then they couldn't be Anomie, right? Proving their ignorance of the internet and the need for an agency that specializes in cybercrime. What's more, it seems that all of their suspects are playing Drek's Game under pseudonyms. Ex's, both romantic and business, agents, family, anyone could be a suspect, but only one is a killer. To find that out Robin is going to have to get close to those in Drek's Game. But is it wise to interrogate someone who could be anyone and who brags that they killed Edie? They are playing with fire and they might just get burned.

She did it. She actually fucking did it. She wrote over a roman à clef that clocks in at over a thousand pages about how she, a white billionaire, is the victim at the hands of her unhinged fans. Talk about a persecution complex! Talk about an ego! I mean, the words almost fail me because I can't believe that anyone would be so lost in their own little bubble that they would think that writing this screed would be acceptable. Though it's not just the whole "woe is me" of it, because that might have been slightly tolerable, it's how she is the victims of her fans. Her fans have killed her for being who she is. Well, if this is what you really think of your fans, well, can anyone blame them? The fans are just, I mean, I really can't believe she would say this stuff let alone write it, but then again I hang my head every time she opens her mouth these days. She vilifies them and degrades them and makes them the obvious choice for who killed "her." Because they are all so beneath her that any one of them was capable of doing the deed because she betrayed them by being true to herself. I mean, the rage I feel on behalf of anyone who has ever loved her writing just infuriates me. How could you say these things about the children who literally made you a billionaire!?! Who lived in your magical worlds only to be told that they aren't worthy of the worlds anymore. They have been expelled from Narnia for being disabled and overweight and victimized and abused. Oh, and let's not forget that after creating this mammoth cast of characters with online personas and elaborate backstories she decides that the killer is the incel son of Josh's agent. An acne riddled mess who never leaves his room and doesn't limit his death toll to just Edie. That ending was a cop-out! I mean, at least it wasn't the Nazis, but remember, those Nazis are also out to take down powerful women. But if you can't beat them join them. And while you're at it why not totally forget that this book is set in 2015 so there wasn't a female Doctor yet and no one used Karen as an insult. Unless the "K" in J.K. stands for Karen and she's actually the OG Karen!?! And the thing is, I don't want to bait this Karen, especially because she's left behind a certain tax bracket. She's vindictive, as this book shows, and she'll come for you. And I just want to stay away from this fucking toxic dumpster fire. If you don't believe me and don't feel like reading this, watch the show. Having to distill down this toxicity to only four hours was a fete that succeeds while also making you feel physically ill. There's a lot of hate in the world and why someone would want to pile on, and pile on their supporters, is beyond my comprehension.

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments  

Labels: Anomie, Cartoon, Cormoran Strike, Degradation, Drek's Game, Edie Ledwell, Fandom, Highgate Cemetery, Internet, J.K. Rowling, Josh Blay, Murder Most Foul, Nazis, Robin Ellacott, Roman A Clef, The Ink Black Heart

The Christmas Guest by Peter Swanson
Published by: William Morrow and Company
Publication Date: October 17th, 2023
Format: Hardcover, 112 Pages
Rating: ★★★★
To Buy

Ashley Smith and Emma Chapman might look alike and matriculate at The Courtauld Institute of Art in London but that is where their similarities begin and end. Ashley is American, parentless, and never says the right thing. Whereas Emma is posh, wears cashmere, and grew up surrounded by her family in a manor house in the Cotswolds. She's perfect and always knows the right thing to say. Like when she heard that Ashley would be spending Christmas alone and invited her to join the family celebrations at Stravewood Hall. That was just the absolutely perfect thing to say and do. And here Ashley thought that Emma didn't like her. Now they will be the best of friends. Ashley is off to Clevemoor for Christmas! It's like something out of a romance novel or a murder mystery, a house that's all stone and stained glass and beams across the ceiling and servants quarters! But the real attraction comes in the form of Emma's brother, Adam. He's like Michelangelo's "David" come alive, but with cigarette breath and a penchant for whiskey. If Ashley's luck holds she might actually be in a romance. Though Ashley can't deny the evidence of her eyes when she goes with the siblings to the local pup, the Sheepfold. There she learns about Joanna Davies, a girl who went missing last summer, who might just have been dating Adam. He was questioned by the police and some still suspect him. But the oddest part is that Joanna and Ashley look alike. Her holiday is veering quickly toward the Gothic, a little bit creepy, and little bit sexy. Though Adam then fucks off back to London so Ashley doesn't know what to make of that. Especially as he left her a lovely Christmas present, a white cashmere scarf to keep her warm. Warm on her walks through the woods where she sees a menacing figure with a big bushy beard. Gothic thriller it is then now that the romantic lead has left. She shouldn't have doubted it when she's the doppelganger of a dead girl. Or when Emma returns to Stravewood Hall after being accosted by the menacing figure of Father Christmas. The same figure Ashley had seen. And that is all Ashley wrote. Because her diary ends prior to her brutal death. A diary that Emma has kept all these years with a newspaper article clipped and saved in the back detailing Ashley's murder. Because Emma "killed "Ashley. Set her up as the perfect victim. But why?

This is a novella in two parts. The first part, Ashley's diary, is perfection. It contains the hopes and desires of a young girl who is lovestruck and experiencing the Christmas of her dreams. Until it devolves into a nightmare. The second part is Emma explaining what actually happened and the guilt that weighs her down as she lives under another name in a country far from her family. Because the truth is, pause for spoiler, her brother, Adam, is a serial killer. And all his victims remind him of his sister. Because obviously he's working up to killing her. Which means way back in the eighties she invited Ashley to Stravewood Hall to be her brother's next victim. Ashley was the sacrificial lamb. Which is interesting when you look back on the events of her time in the Cotswolds. I actually liken it to what happened in season two of The White Lotus. Greg takes Tonya to Italy so that his old acquaintances, the 'Evil Gays,' can kill her. She's given the holiday of anyone's dreams. She is treated like a princess. In other words, she is given the treatment that you would give your dog on it's last day alive. Now I'm not denigrating dogs, I'm denigrating any humans who use the excuse of giving someone a perfect experience as some sort of balancing of the scales prior to murder. You can not balance out the scales here. One really good Christmas is not worth a lifetime of Christmases. Now if the person was actually dying, like said dog, well, then it's a sweet denouement to a life, not the brutal theft of a future. The problem I have with this second half is the ghostly aspect. We went from a top-notch, moody, thriller of a period piece with a lovesick narrator to a pale imitation of A Christmas Carol. Yes, Emma has a few more literal ghosts in her closet, but I feel like she should have had some sort of epiphany earlier. It shouldn't have taken her thirty years to get up the courage to rat out her brother. Because it wasn't just Ashley and Joanna, oh no, he's been killing all along. He's racked up quite the body count and if you were connected to one of the victims, how would you feel knowing that there was this person out there who could have stopped it? Personally Emma being haunted and on the run her entire life doesn't in the least make up for not speaking up. She's been a coward her entire life and, with regard to Ashley, a conspirator. I mean, I'll give the story props for trying something new, and I did enjoy it, it's just that it could have been something more. Something original, not Dickensian part deux.

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments  

Labels: A Christmas Carol, Ashley Smith, Charles Dickens, Christmas, Cotswolds, Emma Chapman, Gothic, Manor House, Murder Most Foul, Mystery, Novella, Peter Swanson, Serial Killer, The Christmas Guest, The White Lotus