strange and random happenstance

The Bishop of Durham Attempts to Surrender the City by Susanna Clarke
Published by: Bloomsbury Publishing
Publication Date: October 20th, 2026
Format: Hardcover, 96 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"From the bestselling and prize-winning author of Piranesi, an enchanting, beautifully illustrated short story set in the world of Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell.

'He had already served three kings. He did not see why he should not be useful to a fourth.'

During the conquest of Northern England, the fairy host sweeps across the countryside. The city of Durham finds itself surrounded. But the encircling forces are not fairies, nor even other humans, but trees that trap the city within an eerie wood.

Ranulf, Bishop of Durham - a consummate politician - understands that the survival of the Northern English people depends on his finding a way to unite the two races, human and fairy. And he's not averse to improving his own position at the same time. With these aims in view, he sets off for the New Castle, in search of the new King - the leader of the fairy host, rumored to be a mysterious human boy, no more than fourteen years old, who speaks no word of any human language.

Set 700 years before the events of Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell, The Bishop of Durham Attempts to Surrender the City is a bewitching, must-have addition to any fantasy reader's shelf, featuring beautiful illustrations throughout."

Whenever Susanna Clarke writes a short story everyone is hoping against hope that it is directly tied into the epic tale of Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell. I can put your minds at ease, it is. Though from the timeline I think you'll understand it's someone important to that book's backstory. 

Royal Witch by Philippa Gregory
Published by: William Morrow
Publication Date: October 20th, 2026
Format: Hardcover, 432 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"Royal Witch: the gripping new novel from the international bestselling author.

Ambition. Sorcery. Treason. How far will one woman dare to go?

1420. Eleanor Cobham arrives at the court of Henry V. Pretty but not highborn, she hopes for nothing more than to marry well.

It is a golden age for England, its royal family's dynasty stretching across Europe. But chaos waits in the shadows. Betrayals and shifts of power change the flourishing world Eleanor has stepped into.

Working in the household of a Countess who commands her own army, Eleanor begins to see for the first time what a woman is capable of…what men's promises are truly worth.

As the safe, comfortable future she'd envisioned begins to shift, Eleanor changes with it. Now she must use her wits to survive - and to rise. Her newfound ambition will to carry her further than any woman before has dared. But if she is to rule England itself, she will need to turn to darker arts..."

I love that Philippa Gregory's stance is that if the people of the time viewed someone as a witch, well then she can write them as a witch. 

The Slantwise Histories by Alix E. Harrow
Published by: Tordotcom
Publication Date: October 20th, 2026
Format: Hardcover, 304 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"Dive into a dazzling collection of short fiction from Alix E. Harrow, the New York Times bestselling author of The Everlasting and Starling House.

These are stories about the past as it wasn't quite, but might have been - or could still be.

These are stories about dreamers and liars and lovers and ghosts; people just like you.

These are stories about places the world has seen, and some that hide just beyond the periphery of possibility.

Most of all, these are stories for anyone who ever wanted more.

What's a legend, except a history told slantwise?

The Slantwise Histories: Collected Stories presents the best known short fiction of Alix. E. Harrow, including the Hugo-award winning "A Witch's Guide to Escape: A Practical Compendium of Portal Fantasies" as well as five all-new stories. The collection also includes the author's preferred text of previously published stories "The Long Way Up", "Roadside Attraction", "Mr. Death", "The Ransom of Miss Coraline Connelly", "The Sycamore and the Sybil", "Do Not Look Back, My Lion", "The Whisper in the Weld", "Dustbaby", and Amazon Original short stories, "The Six Deaths of the Saint" and "The Knight and the Butcherbird.""

I am not a fan of short stories. Too short is my opinion. But when they're written by the likes of Alix E. Harrow, bring them on.

The Chosen Ones by Jasmine Ahmad
Published by: Jasmine Ahmad
Publication Date: October 20th, 2026
Format: Paperback, 370 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"For centuries, witches have lived among humans, hidden in plain sight - their magic passed down through bloodlines, their existence shrouded in secrecy.

Then, the fear of mere mortals nearly destroyed them, and one witch paid the ultimate price, her death meant to protect the future of witch kind.

Generations later, that future has arrived.

Carmen Jimenez knew her daughters' magic was different. Powerful. Dangerous. From the moment they were born, she understood their twin destinies.

The Chosen Ones.

Carmen spent her life preparing them for the darkness hunting them all. But when she sacrifices herself to ensure their kind's survival, the countdown to the end begins.

The underworld eagerly awaits, and now, the Jimenez sisters may be the only witches powerful enough to stop the danger rising from beneath their world.

Even if it costs them everything."

The most important things cost everything.

The Haunting of Lavender House by Natalie Kikić
Published by: Park Row
Publication Date: October 20th, 2026
Format: Hardcover, 320 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"A crumbling home surrounded by lavender fields. A decades-long curse. A nightmare from Croatian folklore with a thirst for blood. The Lost Apothecary meets The Hacienda in this multigenerational, haunting gothic saga set on the Adriatic Sea.

2026. All Petra has inherited are tales of loss. Which is why, after her mother's passing, she is shocked to learn that her grandmother is not dead like she's always believed, but alive and living on Tolba, a small island in Croatia. Desperate to find her last surviving family member, Petra ventures to her ancestral home, famed for its sprawling lavender fields. While she's happy to be reunited with her grandmother, rarely does a night go by that Petra doesn't lose herself to vivid nightmares and the dizzying sense that something - or someone - is always watching in Lavender House.

1895. Whore. Sinner. Witch. No matter how many people Magdalena heals, the rumors persist. So, when she's asked to help the matriarch of Lavender House, she seizes the opportunity to rehabilitate her reputation. As Magdalena races against time to heal the ailing woman, she finds herself unexpectedly falling for the son of her greatest enemy, the man responsible for her ostracization. But are true love and acceptance possible for a woman who has always lived on the margins?

Back in the present, Petra finds it increasingly difficult to ignore the rumors plaguing her family: that a mora, a spirit from Croatian folklore, haunts Lavender House for revenge. As the sole heir to Lavender House, Petra must discover the truth of her inheritance, or else fall prey to the same curse that claimed her family.

Through the intersecting stories of Petra and Magdalena, Natalie Kikic's gorgeous debut asks us to consider the lengths to which we go to belong, the cost of choosing love, and what it really means to be a monster."

And also, what creates that "monster."

A Lady's Guide to Vampire Hunting by Michelle Maxstoke
Published by: One More Chapter
Publication Date: October 20th, 2026
Format: eBook, 384 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"In the gaslit dark, love is never tender. It's teeth at your throat. Blood on silk. It is the sweetest surrender - and the most exquisite damnation.

By day Lady Euphemia Butterworth is a dutiful daughter - corseted, perfumed, and groomed to marry a lecherous duke twice her age. By night, she dreams of freedom, the dangerous thrill of adventure and a life not dictated by men with money and cruel smiles. But when a vampire attack shatters her world, Effie is branded hysterical, locked away and desperate to prove the truth.

Liam Rafferty has ghosts of his own. Ex-orphan, ex-boxer, ex-patient of the asylum, he stalks the shadows as a reluctant hunter, his body inked with sins and his soul fraying at the edges. He finds refuge in a travelling circus, but it cannot silence the devil whispering in his ear - or the fangs waiting in the dark.

When Effie's gilded cage collides with Liam's world, the sparks are as dangerous as the bite of the monsters they hunt..."

Rule number one, if you think you've encountered a vampire, do not, I repeat, do not tell someone who has the power to have you locked up.

My Darling Girls by Marina Scott
Published by: Lake Union Publishing
Publication Date: October 20th, 2026
Format: Paperback, 251 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"In 1904 Chicago, where secrets cling as thickly as the soot on every windowsill, Jo earns her living by photographing the dead. The work is quiet and cloistered, allowing her to hide from a past that haunts her: the grief over her husband's mysterious death, a spiraling addiction, and the guilt she carries over the things she's done to survive.

When a notorious crime family hires Jo to make a final portrait of their daughter Millie, it stirs up a spirit that refuses to rest. In opium-fueled dreams, Millie lures Jo into a realm called "the courtyard," where the dead burn to tell her their half-finished stories.

As Jo investigates Millie's murder, she forms a fragile bond with her sister, Grace, who's desperate for an escape of her own. Amid the whispers of the dead is a truth Jo must confront if she is to free them all from the shadows of the past."

So deliciously dark for this time of year!

Needlemouth by K-Ming Chang
Published by: Simon and Schuster
Publication Date: October 20th, 2026
Format: Hardcover, 288 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"From the award-winning author of Bestiary, three cousins are forced to complete an impossible and violent task set by a vengeful demon.

Cousins Cindy, Yangyang, and Mandy's hot, tedious summer unfolds in their grandmother's hauntingly familiar house. Mandy, the eldest, seeks connection online and exchanges emails with a stranger. Yangyang, the youngest, retreats into her own imagination in search of meaning. But every morning Cindy wakes with strange objects in her mouth: a button, a berry, a coin.

One night, a starved figure with a mouth the size of a needle-tip appears at Cindy's bedside. She is hunger-afflicted, a demon with no descendants to feed from: she is Needlemouth. Part vampire, part hungry ghost, Needlemouth forces the girls into a grim task to end a man's life.

Cindy, Yangyang, and Mindy are plunged in and out of the demon realm, where they are called to break out of the indifference and numbness of their claustrophobic worlds, and where they are met with the most rageful and resistant parts of themselves. In a quest to satisfy the demon's hunger, they unravel their shared grief and reckon with the cyclical violence that shaped their family. For readers of Akwaeke Emezi and Carmen Maria Machado, K-Ming Chang has crafted a reimagined coming of age novel that asks: what does it mean to become the monster instead of slaying it?"

Another shudder inducing read.

Is It There or Not? by Natsuhiko Kyogoku and Naoko Machida
Published by: VIZ Media LLC
Publication Date: October 20th, 2026
Format: Hardcover, 32 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
""It's dark up there...I couldn't stop wondering what was up there."

Deceptively simple picture books with sinister stories.

You went to live with Grandma in her rambling old house. High above the rafters is a world of darkness. You can't shake the feeling that something is lurking there.

Natsuhiko Kyogoku and Naoko Machida spin a riveting web of fear of the unknown."

Images can inspire fear more than words.

The Boy Behind the Wardrobe by Suzanne Poulter Harris and Mira Miroslavova
Published by: Eerdmans Books for Young Readers
Publication Date: October 20th, 2026
Format: Hardcover, 56 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"A lonely, imaginative boy becomes the world-renowned author of The Chronicles of Narnia in this spellbinding biography of C.S. Lewis.

Once a boy was born to make stories: C.S. Lewis. He insisted on being called "Jack" and loved to write and draw with his older brother. But after his mother died, he was shipped to boarding school, where he longed for real friends and sought refuge in books. And words and stories would strengthen him during World War I, connect him to bookish friends like J.R.R. Tolkien, and drive him toward his destiny as a world-renowned author...

With lyrical words from Suzanne Poulter Harris and lush, fantastical art from Mira Miroslavova, The Boy Behind the Wardrobe goes beyond the traditional picture book biography to explore the history and emotional trajectory of a child who struggled to fit in, yet created books beloved by millions around the globe. Like the wardrobe transporting the Pevensies to Narnia, this biography will transport readers into Lewis's solitary childhood, his fantastic imagination, and his journey of hope. An author's note, timeline, bibliography, and other back matter offer additional insights into Jack's life and inspiration.

The Boy Behind the Wardrobe is Suzanne Poulter Harris's debut picture book, shaped by the echoes of Narnia that she found in her homeland of Northern Ireland."

I've always found C.S. Lewis more lyrical and a better writer than Tolkien, even if Narnia went a bit too religious for me in the end. This book is a wonderful insight into his becoming.

Black Moon by Stephen Wright
Published by: Little Brown and Company
Publication Date: October 20th, 2026
Format: Hardcover, 432 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"An utterly wild, debauched, romantic, and violent ride inspired by the 18th-century Irish pirate Anne Bonny, reimagined here as Amethyst "Meeks" Connell, one of the most extraordinary outlaws of any age. For readers of George Saunders, Percival Everett, and Maggie O'Farrell.

Meeks is a poor Irish orphan whose energy, wit, and native sensitivity to the "main chance" take her to the unlikeliest of places. She marries into the aristocracy and follows her war-besotted husband into the latest of England and France's seemingly endless scrapes where her husband is killed and she, on her way home, is taken prisoner by pirates, resulting in a tryst with the pirate captain that sets in motion an unlikely turn of events, leading her to join his crew. Upon the open sea, her ambition and cunning become her greatest assets as she reinvents herself anew.

From Irish reformatories to the battlefields of Europe to the swashbuckling high seas, Black Moon introduces a character you'll never forget in an adventurous world you'll never want to leave. Throughout Meeks' globe-spanning narrative, we come to know a heroine of unconquerable ambition, boundless intelligence, and insatiable appetite - and to recognize a lawless, brutal, and bounteous world much like our own."

If Becky Sharp boarded a ship.

The Queen's Command by Sarah Raughley
Published by: HarperCollins
Publication Date: October 20th, 2026
Format: Hardcover, 384 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"The Inheritance Games meets Bridgerton in the riveting companion novel to The Queen's Spade, where our heroine must play a deadly game and risk everything to get to the truth that's poisoning Victorian England's royal court.

Favored by Queen Victoria, Vicky Davies has survived royal courts, financial ruin, and the loss of her mother, Sarah Forbes Bonetta - the famous African princess turned royal goddaughter - but Cheltenham Ladies' College is about to test her in new and wicked ways.

Every Thursday evening, the senior girls play a secret game and Vicky just became their latest pawn. Truths must be confessed, commands obeyed, and whoever claims the coveted title of winner will have her wish granted, no matter how outrageous and seemingly impossible it may be.

But when the game yields frightening and fatal results, Vicky vows to put an end to this ghoulish tradition that twists minds and makes enemies out of friends. With dangerous foes closing in and truths that could shatter her world clawing to the surface, Vicky must uncover the secrets buried not only in Cheltenham but by her own mother. In a school where survival is a gamble, will she emerge victorious - or fall victim to its deadly game?"

Well if her mother in this book is anything like how she's portrayed in A Thousand Blows.... Watch out!

The Betrayal of Cora Wexford by Bethany Joy Lenz
Published by: Simon and Schuster
Publication Date: October 20th, 2026
Format: Hardcover, 352 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"From the New York Times bestselling author of Dinner for Vampires, Bethany Joy Lenz, comes a romantic psychological suspense set in Victorian-era London amidst the Jack the Ripper murders.

1880s London. Cora Wexford is alone at thirty-eight, with secrets that drove her to flee life in America and come to London. Now, she makes a living by painting the dead. On the evening of her birthday, she is introduced through friends to a charming stranger named Miles Vale. As Cora falls deeper into trust and surrender with Miles, she's given an opportunity to catapult her career. A suffragist and esteemed gallery owner commission Cora to create a series of portraits featuring ordinary women whose recent deaths have been caused or enabled by a system that ignores them. Then a killer in Whitechapel begins murdering women in the same gruesome way.

As Cora works tirelessly to honor the victims of this "Jack the Ripper," she finds herself increasingly disoriented within her own relationship. Her unraveling leads to one question: will anyone notice a woman being dismantled over time by someone sharing her bed?

The Betrayal of Cora Wexford is a haunting novel of psychological suspense that examines themes of desire, manipulation and community complicity, showing how easily someone surrounded by witnesses can disappear - and how truly terrifying love can be."

I need an ARC of this book! I NEED IT! The artist and Ripperologist in me needs it!

The Body at Waterloo Station by Emily Organ
Published by: Storm Publishing
Publication Date: October 20th, 2026
Format: Paperback, 292 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"A murdered clerk. A body at Waterloo. A letter with a deadly secret.

London, 1889. In the gloomy Dead Letter Office at St Martin's Le Grand, young clerk Andrew Peverell spends his days sorting through letters that never found their intended reader. When three anonymous notes cross his desk - each inviting a stranger to a public house near Buckingham Palace - Andrew makes a decision that will cost him his life.

Four days later, a foul smell leads to a black leather trunk in Waterloo Station's left-luggage office. Inside is Andrew's body.

When the story reaches the morning papers, Emma Langley recognises the victim's name - a man her late brother once knew as a boy. Together with her friend Penny Green, she sets out to find the truth. Their investigation takes them from the hushed rooms of the Dead Letter Office to the grand halls of Marlborough House, where a footman has vanished and a menacing lawyer is hunting him down.

But the truth about Andrew's death lies somewhere no one has thought to look. And by the time Emma understands what she is really searching for, the killer is closer than she has ever imagined..."

Huh. Naming a murder victim after a Harry Potter character sure is a choice.

Queen of Lombard Street by Lisa Kleypas
Published by: Avon
Publication Date: October 20th, 2026
Format: Hardcover, 448 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"From New York Times bestselling author Lisa Kleypas - a sweeping, richly layered Victorian novel about a trailblazing female economist who's determined to build Britain's first women's bank, but she must fight both financial corruption and a system intent on destroying the newly found family she's created.

In Victorian England, no woman - not even a brilliant economist like Reina Martin - is allowed to open her own bank account. Men will take care of everything, women are told. But Reina knows better. As the illegitimate daughter of a Spanish immigrant mother, she's haunted by the memory of living with unpaid grocer's bills and no coal for the hearth.

So together with her mentor, the powerful banker William Farlow, Reina will build the first all-women's bank, where women can manage their own financial security.

At home, Reina's domestic staff of recently paroled prisoners are building new lives and becoming a found family. But soon Reina is shocked to discover that her enigmatic butler, John Pembroke, is an undercover police detective. He's been assigned to investigate Farlow, who's suspected of financial crime on a scale so massive, it could destabilize the British economy. Pembroke needs Reina's expertise for a high-stakes nighttime heist to obtain incriminating evidence.

Now Reina faces the agonizing choice of betraying her mentor or turning her back on thousands of working-class families who stand to lose everything. Either way, her dream of the women's bank may be over.

But courage and sacrifice aren't limited to the battlefield - they also occur at the kitchen table, where women who believe in compassion and community are working to remake the future. And when the stakes are highest, Reina knows to trust her heart as well as her intellect.

Based on real-life trailblazers such as Mary Paley Marshall, Britain's first female economist, and financial titan Hetty Green, Queen of Lombard Street brings to light the hidden history of extraordinary women whose achievements should be celebrated. How can we know who we are, if we don't know who we were?"

Lisa Kleypas in her Barbara Taylor Brandford era!

The Queen of Roses by Julia Kelly
Published by: Gallery Books
Publication Date: October 20th, 2026
Format: Hardcover, 400 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"Spanning the ballrooms of Pasadena and the sunlit gardens of Altadena, a new novel of love and sacrifice from the internationally bestselling author of The Light Over London and The Last Garden in England.

1960: Frustrated reporter Theresa Johnson's life changes when she receives a phone call from a Miss Pearce who claims her obituary about one of Pasadena's last great hoteliers is wildly inaccurate. Seeking the truth, Theresa drives to the mysterious Rosewood House nestled high in the Altadena foothills. Even more intriguing than the house's beautiful garden is Miss Pearce's proposal that Theresa help her settle old scores by writing her biography.

1903: Beautiful but haughty, Adele Pearce is reluctant to leave the London Season and her last hope of a proposal. When she arrives in California, she discovers the startling truth of why her mother has called her there: her father has squandered his fortune and Adele must marry a wealthy American to save the family.

Stifled by expectation as Pasadena's newest doyenne, Adele's only comfort is Rosewood House and the beautiful garden she creates with the help of taciturn gardener Alexander Macalister. However, as Adele's feelings for Alex flourish, a fire ignites in the San Gabriel Mountains above Rosewood House, threatening everything Adele holds dear, while in 1960, Miss Pearce learns that history has a terrible habit of repeating itself."

Of course she falls for the gardener. Honestly I would too.

Miss Wolcott's Ghost by Louise Penny
Published by: Minotaur Books
Publication Date: October 20th, 2026
Format: Hardcover, 416 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"Armand Gamache returns!

"There's a body in Lost Nation."

"Where?" demands Armand as he scribbles on the pad by his bed.

But the line goes dead before Chief Inspector Gamache can question the caller.

The head of homicide for the Sûreté du Québec has no idea where Lost Nation is, or who woke him in the small hours of the morning at his home in Three Pines. What he does know is that the man was terrified.

And so Armand is thrust out of a deep sleep and into the surrounding forests in search of the mythical Lost Nation. And a body.

When he and his team of Jean-Guy Beauvoir and Isabelle Lacoste find both, the situation only grows more bizarre. The unidentified dead man appears to be from an era more than a century old. He's lying in a long-abandoned cemetery, on top of a grave with a date, but no name.

Adding to the mystery, the early morning call appears to have come from Gamache's friend and neighbor, Clara Morrow. While she denies any knowledge of it, it becomes clear there is some connection between her, the Morrow family, and Lost Nation.

Soon, Gamache and his team are faced with tracking down not just the legend of Lost Nation, but a lost ship, lost documents belong to an eccentric Victorian botanist, and a mysterious plant not seen in a century, that might save, or take, countless lives.

As the murder investigation deepens, nightmarish spectres from the past begin to haunt the Sûreté officers, only heightened by the appearance of one of Gamache's former and now disgraced proteges, with whom he must form an uneasy alliance.

As the ghosts begin to gather, Gamache, Beauvoir, and Lacoste, with the help of Reine-Marie, Clara, and the other villagers of Three Pines, realize that the body on the grave is far from the only death. To solve the crime and avert catastrophe they must look to rancid secrets and old lies no longer dead and buried."

Score! Victorian botanist and a mysterious plant not seen in a hundred years!

The Key to a Killer by Olivia Blacke
Published by: Minotaur Books
Publication Date: October 20th, 2026
Format: Hardcover, 368 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"A woman and her ghost roommate investigate their most personal case yet in Olivia Blacke's The Key to a Killer, the next book in the Anthony Award winning Ruby and Cordelia Mysteries.

When Ruby Young discovered that her Boston apartment was haunted, she did what any reasonable person would do: befriend the ghost. Their relationship overcame a shaky start - Cordelia Graves never wanted a roommate in life, she certainly didn't want one in death. After working together to solve a few murders, the two are close friends, but there's a lingering question neither of them have been able to answer: what led to Cordelia's death?

Lately things have been adding up that suggest foul play. And when Cordelia's memories of that day start to come back, the roommates can't ignore it anymore: Cordelia was murdered. Ruby and Cordelia are going to have to piece together what Cordelia's final days looked like - otherwise a killer could go free."

Just saying, you'd think that solving Cordelia's death might be more urgent than to wait until the third book...

A Reunion to Die For by K.J. Whittle
Published by: Sourcebooks Landmark
Publication Date: October 20th, 2026
Format: Paperback, 448 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"They all wanted their bully dead. Now someone's granted the wish. From the author of Seven Reasons to Murder Your Dinner Guests comes the twisted tale of a school reunion turned murderous - and the suspects must catch the real killer before they're framed. Perfect for fans of Benjamin Stevenson and We Solve Murders.

In a dingy pub, a high school reunion brings five old friends back together. As they catch up after twenty years, painful memories surface, all centered around the disastrous prom night that broke them all apart and the school bully at the heart of it all. King of the class turned handsome sport superstar, Eric Stewart poses as a charming local celebrity, but his old friends know of his hidden cruel streak that made each of them miserable. The more they drink, the more a morbid plan takes shape, with everyone tossing in ideas for how they could get the ultimate form of revenge.

The next morning, heads-pounding and hearts racing, they discover Eric has been found dead, exactly the way they drunkenly planned it.

When a cryptic, anonymous message containing a recording of their conversation from the night before starts to circulate, the group knows they need to act, and fast. Who was listening to them? Who arranged the reunion? And, most importantly, who carried out their murderous plans? Soon, they find themselves dragged into a series of sinister games devised to reveal the truth about prom night and Eric's death. Before they become the main suspects, the group will need to share their secrets from all those years ago, or risk going down for murder."

Things are going to get messy!

The Christmas Clue by Nicola Upson
Published by: Union Square and Co.
Publication Date: October 20th, 2026
Format: Paperback, 192 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"In this festive whodunit, set in a cozy snowed-in country house, an innocent mystery game goes horribly wrong, leaving the real-life couple who invented the game Clue to solve a real murder.

It is Christmas Eve, 1943, when Anthony and Elva Pratt arrive at a snowy English country house to host a murder mystery game, but instead find themselves solving a real murder.

The Pratts had planned on a festive game to liven up the dreary wartime atmosphere, where guests using prop weapons as clues would explore the house to solve the whodunnit.

It is all fun and games until Anthony discovers the cook's sister Miss Silver beaten to death, leaving the sleuthy couple to solve an all-too-real murder. The hotel manager Mr. Browning is trying to keep calm, but the guests are agitated, Colonel Colman seizes the opportunity to take over the hotel for the war effort - and the enigmatic Mrs. Threadgold's whereabouts remain a mystery.

Snowed-in with a murderer in their midst, the Pratts must investigate the novel's colorful cast. But can they solve this Christmas mystery before someone else is killed?"

This is the number one book I'm reading this Christmas! Country House and Clue!?! 

Death Under the Hammer by E.C. Bateman
Published by: One More Chapter
Publication Date: October 20th, 2026
Format: eBook, 384 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"A brilliant new whodunnit from fan favourite E.C. Bateman, perfect for fans of M.C. Beaton and Richard Osman!

It may be the season of goodwill, but when auctioneer Felicia Grant finds herself in the frame for murder, suddenly life doesn't feel so festive...."

For those who want a festive murder and are going through Lovejoy withdrawal. AKA, this was written for me.

Daphne and Me by Jane Leeves and Isabella Kathryn Coben
Published by: William Morrow
Publication Date: October 20th, 2026
Format: Hardcover, 224 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
""Oh, hello! Caught me with me hand in the biscuit tin!"

With one iconic line, Daphne Moon burst onto the set of Frasier and Jane Leeves's life changed forever. A former ballerina from a small English town that David Hyde Pierce lovingly nicknamed "Muffin-on-Poot," Leeves perfectly embodied her character - a live-in physical therapist for Frasier Crane's father and a quirky, down-to-earth foil to pompous Frasier and his equally pretentious brother, Niles.

In Daphne and Me, Leeves offers a surprising, behind-the-scenes look at Frasier, filled with unexpected stories from the show's eleven seasons and beyond. She opens the door to the fabled - and shockingly cramped - greenroom, where John Mahoney started each morning with a cup of coffee while reading the newspaper, and where the tight quarters quickly bonded the cast into a family. (Nothing brings people together like sharing a bathroom.) She recounts the times Kelsey Grammer broke his scene-mates by delivering lines in a spot-on Bette Davis impression, and how Moose - the talented terrier who starred as Eddie - was a holy terror on set and upstaged the entire cast with his popularity, even flying in first class.

As Daphne and Niles were falling head over heels for each other in a great television romance, Leeves was finding her true love on the Paramount lot, too, and when she started a family of her own, it was Peri Gilpin who held her hand in the hospital.

Written with Leeves's daughter Isabella, Daphne and Me is the story of a young woman taking a risk, discovering herself, and finding a family on and off screen, and a love letter to one of the most successful sitcoms of all time."

I adore the cover for this book so much, the sketch looks so much like Niles it's eerie. 

Last Night I Dreamed of Home by Sophie Li
Published by: Norton Young Readers
Publication Date: October 20th, 2026
Format: Hardcover, 336 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"After botching the only exam that matters in China, Alice arrives at college eager to party like the North Americans on TV - not to hang out with a studious boy who reminds her why she left home.

All Haoran wants is a business degree. His father has spent all his money sending Haoran overseas, and in return, he must graduate and find a stable job. If only he could get rid of the nagging itch to draw a comic book.

From burnt cooking, a stuck elevator, and late-night bubble tea, Alice and Haoran's unlikely friendship promises something more - unless their differences drive them apart. When a creative opportunity arrives, Haoran must choose between his passion and his family, and Alice must discover her own identity or lose touch with her roots altogether.

Last Night I Dreamed of Home is a richly nuanced and sweetly satisfying rom-com from a brilliant new graphic novel creator."

Can I get a late-night bubble tea?

The Little Shop of Gentle Magics by Jessica Rosenberg
Published by: Storm Publishing
Publication Date: October 20th, 2026
Format: Paperback, 300 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"Meg MacIntosh comes from a long line of kitchen witches - women who can work miracles with a pinch of flour and a ray of moonlight. But there's nothing magical about Meg, or the beautiful hand-decorated sugar cookies she pours her heart into.

When her marriage falls apart, instead of going home to the family she never fit into, Meg impulsively buys a run-down tea shop in the tiny Scottish town of Banhaven.

Then Art walks through the door. One perfect date back home was all it took for Meg to feel truly seen - and to panic and end things. Now, thanks to a job transfer, a very meddling assistant and a housing disaster, he's suddenly here. With his two kids.

Before Meg can talk herself out of it, the rooms above her shop are full: a moody teenager, a boisterous five-year-old, a stray cat, and a man who already feels like home. It's all happening so fast. But as visions start to swirl in her teacup, Meg begins to wonder if some things are simply meant to be...

Falling apart isn't the end...it's the beginning. With the right people by your side, what comes next is magical. Perfect for fans of The Ex Hex and The Very Secret Society of Irregular Witches."

Oh, I really am feeling the vibe that falling apart is the beginning. 

Enchanted Village by Lily Starling
Published by: Avon a
Publication Date: October 20th, 2026
Format: Paperback, 320 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"A cozy, magical, slice-of-life holiday romance set in a village adjacent to a magic school - if the Dream Harbor series were set at Hogsmeade!

I solemnly swear not to fall in love...

Silas Birchwood wasn't sure what to expect when he joined Emberwind Academy as the school's first non-magical teacher. But he knows he's found his calling, even if his wand-wielding pupils struggle with the scientific method.

Living in Hex Hollow, the quirky village adjacent to the magical school, certainly has its charms - most notably Margaret Nettle, the witch proprietor of The Toasty Owl. Every night, villagers gather in the glow of the fireplace to sip her warming magical drinks.

Margaret has devoted her life to running the pub left to her by her beloved mother and grandmother, even if it stings living so close to the magical school that rejected her.

When a rival bar opens across the street, Silas is determined to help Margaret save her business. And despite herself, Margaret finds herself warming to the man who can fix anything in her pub - with a smile that melts her grumpy heart.

When the secret to her magical drinks is stolen, Margaret fears she's destroyed her family's legacy. Can Silas help her see what he's always known…that the magic was hers all along?"

A bit tone-deaf to be so overtly Harry Potter fanfic. 

Creatures and Corridors by Brandon Auman and Andrea Mutti
Published by: The Lab Press
Publication Date: October 20th, 2026
Format: Paperback, 120 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"When the line between player and character disappears, a group of friends must face the consequences of the game they started.

In the summer of 1992, a forbidden role-playing game, Creatures and Corridors, takes a dark turn for five high school students, warping reality into a nightmarish fantasy. With orcs, tentacled horrors, and deadly traps, their living room, yard, and basement become a battleground. Now, they must navigate the game's perilous challenges, playing for their lives under the sinister scrutiny of a devilish Gamemaster. Blending fantasy, horror, and tabletop RPG storytelling, Creatures and Corridors explores what happens when survival becomes part of the story."

Here for everything RPG right now!

Goblin Market by A.J. Hackwith
Published by: Ace
Publication Date: October 20th, 2026
Format: Paperback, 368 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"A goblin changeling caught between the human and fey worlds must find a way to save her home in this warm and heartfelt fantasy from the author of Toto and the Hell's Library series.

Being a changeling is hard enough, but Toast was older than most changeling children when her goblin parents stole her back from her human family and returned her to the harsh, bustling world of the Goblin Market, where anything from your fondest dream to your strongest talent can be bought - or sold.

Nearly a decade later, Toast has grudgingly cobbled together a life there as the Market's guide for mortal visitors. But when the next arrival is her long-lost sister and the ancient beast whose magic the Market depends on disappears under strange circumstances, everything starts falling apart.

Now the Market itself is dying. With the Summer Court of noble fey plotting to claim the weakened Market for themselves, Toast, her friends, and an infuriatingly charming fey knight with an agenda of her own must negotiate their differences to make the trade of a lifetime and win back the Market's future. To do so, Toast will have to decide what home - and the flawed community within - is ultimately worth."

I've always wondered how I would have fared as a goblin changeling. 

Knight of the God King by Lauren Blackwood
Published by: Wednesday Books
Publication Date: October 20th, 2026
Format: Hardcover, 384 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"A powerful knight and her handsome squire must stop the deadly schemes of a savior king in this romantic fantasy of dark deeds and court intrigue.

Calliope's wish has always been to become a knight, an elite healer and protector who uses music to summon magic. Yet despite her exceptional skill, she's stuck lifting up her talentless cousin, whose family begrudgingly took Cali in as a child. But when an opportunity to become the royal knight of the immortal God King arrives, Cali finally gets a chance at a fairytale life - until her cousin blackmails her.

Forced to bring her cousin to court so she won't share Cali's shameful past, Cali immediately snubs Beric, the alluring, handsome squire tending to her. Now she must contend with his ire, even while feeling helplessly drawn to him. If that wasn't enough, her duty means accompanying the king into The Dark, a demonic entity that only the king's magic is powerful enough to battle - a fight he has been waging for centuries. She must also keep the king's secret under pain of death: He's not a god at all, and the only thing keeping him alive is the magic held by the royal knight. It seems serving the God King isn't a fairytale at all, and when people start dying around her, she and Beric realize that they have no choice but to take their fate - and that of an entire kingdom - into their own hands.

In Lauren Blackwood's thrilling fantasy, Knight of the God King, a knight's power and her squire's love are the only things that can help her defeat a man playing at being a god."

When your leader isn't capable of leading you might be the one who has to save the kingdom. Never forget, you have the power.

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments  

Labels: A.J. Hackwith, Alix E. Harrow, Emily Organ, Jane Leeves, Jessica Rosenberg, Julia Kelly, K.J. Whittle, Lauren Blackwood, Lily Starling, Lisa Kleypas, Louise Penny, Nicola Upson, Olivia Blacke, Philippa Gregory, Susanna Clarke

These Fleeting Shadows by Kate Alice Marshall
Published by: Viking Books for Young Readers
Publication Date: August 9th, 2022
Format: Hardcover, 368 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"The Haunting of Hill House meets Knives Out in a bid for an inheritance that will leave Helen Vaughan either rich...or dead.

Helen Vaughan doesn't know why she and her mother left their ancestral home at Harrowstone Hall, called Harrow, or why they haven't spoken to their extended family since. So when her grandfather dies, she's shocked to learn that he has left everything - the house, the grounds, and the money - to her. The inheritance comes with one condition: she must stay on the grounds of Harrow for one full year, or she'll be left with nothing.

There is more at stake than money. For as long as she can remember, Harrow has haunted Helen's dreams - and now those dreams have become a waking nightmare. Helen knows that if she is going to survive the year, she needs to uncover the secrets of Harrow. Why is the house built like a labyrinth? What is digging the holes that appear in the woods each night?And why does the house itself seem to be making her sick?

With each twisted revelation, Helen questions what she knows about Harrow, her family, and even herself. She no longer wonders if she wants to leave...but if she can."

Firstly, in the last year I've really gotten into Kate Alice Marshall. Secondly, yeah to Hill House meets Knives Out!

The Trust by M.H. Eccleston
Published by: Head of Zeus - An Aries Book
Publication Date: August 9th, 2022
Format: Paperback, 352 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"When London art restorer Laura Kisner's marriage unravels in spectacular fashion, she has no idea what to do. Then she finds out she has inherited a property in Dorset. She doesn’t hesitate in packing in her job and heading west. But when she gets there, she discovers the property isn't a pretty cottage by the sea, but a leaky boat on a muddy estuary.

Her new job at a nearby National Trust stately home brings a few surprises, too. Rather than a genteel charity, the Trust is a hotbed of politics and intrigue. As her new friend Kath from the village says, 'It's like the mafia, but with scones.' So when a local man is found murdered there, there are more than a few suspects. Laura thinks she's perfectly placed to solve the case: it's like restoring a painting, slowly peeling back the layers to reveal the clear, true picture beneath.

But as the suspicious deaths mount up and the threat draws closer, Laura has to use every gadget in her restorer's toolkit to solve the mystery, save her reputation - and maybe even her life."

If there's one thing years of British television and mysteries has ingrained in me, obviously nothing is as it appears, so I totally buy the National Trust as the Scone Mafia!

Dear Little Corpses by Nicola Upson
Published by: Crooked Lane Books
Publication Date: August 9th, 2022
Format: Hardcover, 336 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"It takes a village to bury a child...

September 1st, 1939. As the mass evacuation takes place across Britain, thousands of children leave London for the countryside, but when a little girl vanishes without a trace, the reality of separation becomes more urgent and more deadly for those who love her.

In the chaos and uncertainty of war, Josephine struggles with the prospect of change. As a cloud of suspicion falls across the small Suffolk village she has come to love, the conflict becomes personal, and events take a dark and sinister turn.

Blending a Golden Age mystery with the timeless fears of a child's abduction, Dear Little Corpses is an atmospheric snapshot of England in the early days of war."

But but where is the Mick Wiggins cover?

Nameless Acts of Cruelty by Julie Cameron
Published by: Scarlet
Publication Date: August 9th, 2022
Format: Hardcover, 312 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"Decades after the loss of his younger sister, a man haunted by horrific memories returns to the sleepy English village where she died.

Jeremy Horton is a man denying his past, haunted by a dysfunctional childhood full of dark secrets - including the suspicious death of his younger sister.

Married to lawyer Sarah and with children of his own, Jeremy keeps his eyes firmly focused on the present, never daring to glance in the rear-view mirror for fear of what he might see there. But when a chance encounter awakens the memories he's fought so hard to suppress, and the death of his estranged mother takes Jeremy back to his sleepy hometown and the scene of the family tragedy, he determines to finally uncover the truth behind his sister's death.

Villages hold long memories, and Jeremy's presence quickly becomes an unwelcome reminder of nameless cruelties and shameful secrets. The more he learns, the more the stories from his past take on a sinister significance, leading him to question his own innocence. Meanwhile, someone desperately wants him gone, and their efforts to drive him out escalate as Jeremy's anxiety spirals out of control. Do they fear him for what he knows - or for what he's done? "

Here's the thing, don't go back!

The Family Remains by Lisa Jewell
Published by: Atria Books
Publication Date: August 9th, 2022
Format: Hardcover, 384 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"From the #1 New York Times bestselling author Lisa Jewell comes an intricate and affecting novel about twisted marriages, fractured families, and deadly obsessions in this standalone sequel to the "brilliantly chilling" (Ruth Ware, New York Times bestselling author) The Family Upstairs.

Early one morning on the shore of the Thames, DCI Samuel Owusu is called to the scene of a gruesome discovery. When Owusu sends the evidence for examination, he learns the bones are connected to a cold case that left three people dead on the kitchen floor in a Chelsea mansion thirty years ago.

Rachel Rimmer has also received a shock - news that her husband, Michael, has been found dead in the cellar of his house in France. All signs point to an intruder, and the French police need her to come urgently to answer questions about Michael and his past that she very much doesn’t want to answer.

After fleeing London thirty years ago in the wake of a horrific tragedy, Lucy Lamb is finally coming home. While she settles in with her children and is just about to purchase their first-ever house, her brother takes off to find the boy from their shared past whose memory haunts their present.

As they all race to discover answers to these convoluted mysteries, they will come to find that they’re connected in ways they could have never imagined.

In this masterful standalone sequel to her haunting New York Times bestseller, The Family Upstairs, Lisa Jewell proves she is writing at the height of her powers with another jaw-dropping, intricate, and affecting novel about the lengths we will go to protect the ones we love and uncover the truth."

Tell me more about this cold case in a Chelsea mansion!

Whatever Happened to Cathy Martin by Mim Eichmann
Published by: Living Springs Publishers Llp
Publication Date: August 9th, 2022
Format: Paperback, 348 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"A Midwest Gothic journey set in southern Indiana in 1978, unraveling a deadly tangled web of lies surrounding three former high school friends, one of whom has been missing for over a decade...but which one? And why?"

Always drawn to the Gothic, always drawn to 1978.

The Orphans of Mersea House by Marty Wingate
Published by: Alcove Press
Publication Date: August 9th, 2022
Format: Hardcover, 288 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"In the tradition of Kristin Harmel and Elise Hooper, USA Today bestseller Marty Wingate transports us to postwar England's Suffolk coast in a rich historical drama about love lost - and promise found.

England, 1957. Olive Kersey’s only love never returned from World War II, and now, she’s alone and penniless. Then, the last person she ever expected to see again returns to Southwold. Olive's childhood friend, Margery Paxton, arrives to claim her inheritance: Mersea House, a stately old home she plans to turn into the town's only lodging. Olive's life takes a sunny turn when Margery hires her to run the establishment. But Mersea House holds its own mysteries - and its own dangers.

First, rumors begin to fly when two enigmatic lodgers move in: Hugh Hodson, manager of the town cinema, and Mrs. Abigail Claypool, a recluse and war widow. And then, the completely unexpected: Margery is informed she has a new ward, eleven-year-old Juniper Wyckes, the orphaned daughter of Margery's first love. Mrs. Lucie Pagett, Children's Officer at the local authority, informs Margery that Juniper was severely stricken with polio as a child, and makes clear that she could be taken away if her welfare is in jeopardy.

But the past is never far behind for the inhabitants of Mersea House, and looming secrets may destroy these friendships they've created."

Oh, secrets at a boarding house that used to be a stately home? When can I visit?

House of a Thousand Lies by Cody Luke Davis
Published by: Crooked Lane Books
Publication Date: August 9th, 2022
Format: Hardcover, 320 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"Perfect for fans of Julia Heaberlin's We Are All the Same in the Dark and Megan Collins's The Family Plot, Cody Luke Davis' debut psychological thriller brings a sinister serial-killer tale to life with hair-raising twists and chilling turns.

How far will some families go to protect their legacy?

Diana Wolf likes to think she has it all: a rock god husband, an empty nest, a wine cellar, and a dream home in the woods. Life is good. It has to be. But when she hires a cartographer, Kerry Perkins, to survey and map her estate in rural Tennessee, she pulls back a frayed corner of the lie that is her fairytale life. On his first night at Wolf Hollow, Kerry stumbles across a young girl's skeleton buried in the woods. But what really scares Diana is a familiar symbol carved into the girl's skull: two wolves.

A week later, the cops are digging in her backyard. Diana begins to question how good her life really is. How good of a man is her husband and how good a father? She's not the only one with questions. Kerry Perkins can't shake what he saw in the woods that night. He suspects that Diana recognized that symbol, that she lied to the police; that someone is watching him, and that whoever it is, they desperately want him to keep his mouth shut.

His search for answers leads him to Pink, a deeply disturbed man obsessed with the Wolfs' celebrity. Pink knows the family better than they know themselves - and he knows that the more he and Kerry dig, the more bones they will find.

Told through the eyes of multiple narrators, none reliable, this is a story about parents, the lies they tell their children, and the lies they tell themselves."

Unreliable narrators and wolves carved on a skull? YAS!

You're Invited by Amanda Jayatissa
Published by: Berkley
Publication Date: August 9th, 2022
Format: Hardcover, 384 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"What could be worse than your ex-boyfriend marrying your childhood best friend? Getting accused of her murder… From the author of My Sweet Girl comes a dangerously addictive new thriller about a lavish Sri Lankan wedding celebration that not everyone will survive.

When Amaya is invited to Kaavi's over-the-top wedding in Sri Lanka, she is surprised and a little hurt to hear from her former best friend after so many years of radio silence. But when Amaya learns that the groom is her very own ex-boyfriend, she is consumed by a single thought: She must stop the wedding from happening, no matter the cost. But as the week of wedding celebrations begin and rumors about Amaya's past begin to swirl, she can’t help but feel like she also has a target on her back. When Kaavi goes missing and is presumed dead, all evidence points to Amaya. However, nothing is as it seems as Jayatissa expertly unravels that each wedding guest has their own dark secret and agenda, and Amaya may not be the only one with a plan to keep the bride from getting her happily ever after..."

Is it just me or do destination weddings and murder just go together perfectly?

Terminal Peace by Jim C. Hines
Published by: DAW
Publication Date: August 9th, 2022
Format: Hardcover, 368 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"The third and final book of the Janitors of the Post-Apocalypse follows a group of unlikely heroes trying to save the galaxy from a zombie plague.

Marion "Mops" Adamopoulos and her team were trained to clean spaceships. They were absolutely not trained to fight an interplanetary war with the xenocidal Prodryans or to make first contact with the Jynx, a race who might not be as primitive as they seem. But if there's one lesson Mops and her crew have learned, it's that things like "training" and "being remotely qualified" are overrated.

The war is escalating. (This might be Mops' fault.) The survival of humanity - those few who weren't turned to feral, shambling monsters by an alien plague - as well as the fate of all other non-Prodryans, will depend on what Captain Mops and the crew of the EDFS Pufferfish discover on the ringed planet of Tuxatl.

But the Jynx on Tuxatl are fighting a war of their own, and their world's long-buried secrets could be more dangerous than the Prodryans.

To make matters worse, Mops is starting to feel a little feral herself..."

Any chance Mops and her team could come clean up the mess that is Earth? They couldn't make it worse!

Death at the Manor by Katharine Schellman
Published by: Crooked Lane Books
Publication Date: August 9th, 2022
Format: Hardcover, 352 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"The tortured spirits of the dead haunt a Regency-era English manor - but the true danger lies in the land of the living in the third installment in the Lily Adler mysteries, perfect for fans of Deanna Raybourn.

Regency widow Lily Adler is looking forward to spending the autumn away from the social whirl of London. When she arrives in Hampshire with her friends, the Carroways, she doesn’t expect much more than a quiet country visit and the chance to spend time with her charming new acquaintance, Matthew Spencer.

But something odd is afoot in the small country village. A ghost has taken up residence in the Belleford manor, a lady in grey who wanders the halls at night, weeping and wailing. Half the servants have left in terror, but the family seems delighted with the notoriety that their ghost provides. Intrigued by this spectral guest, Lily and her party immediately make plans to visit Belleford.

They arrive at the manor the next morning ready to be entertained - only to find that tragedy has struck. The matriarch of the family has just been found killed in her bed.

The dead woman’s family is convinced that the ghost is responsible. Lily is determined to learn the truth before another victim turns up - but could she be next in line for the Great Beyond?"

Ghosts and a Deanna Raybourn namecheck? YES!

High Times in Low Parliament by Kelly Robson
Published by: Tordotcom
Publication Date: August 9th, 2022
Format: Paperback, 160 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"Award-winning author Kelly Robson returns with High Times in the Low Parliament, a lighthearted romp through an 18th-century London featuring flirtatious scribes, irritable fairies, and the dangers of Parliament.

Lana Baker is Aldgate's finest scribe, with a sharp pen and an even sharper wit. Gregarious, charming, and ever so eager to please, she agrees to deliver a message for another lovely scribe in exchange for kisses and ends up getting sent to Low Parliament by a temperamental fairy as a result.

As Lana transcribes the endless circular arguments of Parliament, the debates grow tenser and more desperate. Due to long-standing tradition, a hung vote will cause Parliament to flood and a return to endless war. Lana must rely on an unlikely pair of comrades - Bugbite, the curmudgeonly fairy, and Eloquentia, the bewitching human deputy - to save humanity (and maybe even woo one or two lucky ladies), come hell or high water."

There's an air of Regency Magic here! 

Fire Touched by L.E. Modesitt Jr.
Published by: Tor Books
Publication Date: August 9th, 2022
Format: Hardcover, 528 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"L. E. Modesitt, Jr., bestselling author of Saga of Recluce and the Imager Portfolio, continues his brand new, gaslamp, political fantasy series with Councilor the thrilling sequel to Isolate. Welcome to the Grand Illusion.

Continued poor harvests and steam-powered industrialization displace and impoverish thousands. Protests grow and gather followers.

Against this rising tide of social unrest, Steffan Dekkard, newly appointed to the Council of Sixty-Six, is the first Councilor who is an Isolate, a man invulnerable to the emotional manipulations and emotional surveillance of empaths.

This makes him dangerous.

As unknown entities seek to assassinate him, Dekkard struggles to master political intrigue and infighting, while introducing radical reforms that threaten entrenched political and corporate interests."

Yes to all things gaslamp fantasy!

Hellboy: The Silver Lantern Club by Mike Mignola
Published by: Dark Horse Books
Publication Date: August 9th, 2022
Format: Hardcover, 136 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"Hellboy learns firsthand about the history of the famed Silver Lantern Club!

His uncle and former member Simon Bruttenholm relates tales from his time with the Silver Lantern Club, which included Sir Edward Grey, Sarah Jewell, Lady Bai, and Major Singh, as they investigated the mysterious happenings in London near the end of the 19th century!

Mike Mignola and Chris Roberson expand the Hellboy universe with a new tale of strange spiritual happenings. They're joined by artists Ben Stenbeck and Christopher Mitten, with colors by Dave Stewart.

Collects Hellboy: The Silver Lantern Club #1–#5."

I've been dying to read more about the Silver Lantern Club since I've read about Sarah Jewell and was so sad everything was out of print. It's like someone read my mind...

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments  

Labels: Amanda Jayatissa, Cody Luke Davis, Jim C. Hines, Julie Cameron, Kate Alice Marshall, Katharine Schellman, Kelly Robson, L.E. Modesitt Jr., Lisa Jewell, M.H. Eccleston, Mike Mignola, Mim Eichmann, Nicola Upson

The Devil and the Dark Water by Stuart Turton
Published by: Sourcebooks Landmark
Publication Date: October 6th, 2020
Format: Hardcover, 480 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"A murder on the high seas. A remarkable detective duo. A demon who may or may not exist.

The extraordinary new novel from Stuart Turton, author of the bestselling The 7 1/2 Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle, winner of the Costa Best First Novel Award.

It's 1634 and Samuel Pipps, the world's greatest detective, is being transported to Amsterdam to be executed for a crime he may, or may not, have committed. Travelling with him is his loyal bodyguard, Arent Hayes, who is determined to prove his friend innocent.

But no sooner are they out to sea than devilry begins to blight the voyage. A twice-dead leper stalks the decks. Strange symbols appear on the sails. Livestock is slaughtered.

And then three passengers are marked for death, including Samuel.

Could a demon be responsible for their misfortunes?

With Pipps imprisoned, only Arent can solve a mystery that connects every passenger. A mystery that stretches back into their past and now threatens to sink the ship, killing everybody on board."

After devouring The 7 1/2 Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle earlier this year Stuart Turton instantly became an author to watch and an author to recommend to anyone willing to listen to me. Hence the publication of his second book is a BIG DEAL in my world!  

The Lives of Saints by Leigh Bardugo
Published by: Imprint
Publication Date: October 6th, 2020
Format: Hardcover, 128 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"Enter the world of the Grishaverse and Shadow and Bone, soon to be a Netflix original series!

Dive into the epic world of international bestselling author Leigh Bardugo with this beautifully illustrated replica of The Lives of Saints, the Istorii Sankt’ya, featuring tales of saints drawn from the beloved novels and beyond. Out of the pages of the Shadow and Bone trilogy, from the hands of Alina Starkov to yours, the Istorii Sankt’ya is a magical keepsake from the Grishaverse.

These tales include miracles and martyrdoms from familiar saints like Sankta Lizabeta of the Roses and Sankt Ilya in Chains, to the strange and obscure stories of Sankta Ursula, Sankta Maradi, and the Starless Saint.

This beautiful collection includes stunning full-color illustrations of each story."

Anyone else love how many "in world" books Bardugo has written in her Grishaverse?

The Archive of the Forgotten by A.J. Hackwith
Published by: Ace
Publication Date: October 6th, 2020
Format: Paperback, 368 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"In the second installment of this richly imagined fantasy adventure series, a new threat from within the Library could destroy those who depend upon it the most.

The Library of the Unwritten in Hell was saved from total devastation, but hundreds of potential books were destroyed. Former librarian Claire and Brevity the muse feel the loss of those stories, and are trying to adjust to their new roles within the Arcane Wing and Library, respectively. But when the remains of those books begin to leak a strange ink, Claire realizes that the Library has kept secrets from Hell - and from its own librarians.

Claire and Brevity are immediately at odds in their approach to the ink, and the potential power that it represents has not gone unnoticed. When a representative from the Muses Corps arrives at the Library to advise Brevity, the angel Rami and the erstwhile Hero hunt for answers in other realms. The true nature of the ink could fundamentally alter the afterlife for good or ill, but it entirely depends on who is left to hold the pen."

A slightly more literary Thursday Next.

Magic Lessons by Alice Hoffman
Published by: Simon and Schuster
Publication Date: October 6th, 2020
Format: Hardcover, 4416 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"In an unforgettable novel that traces a centuries-old curse to its source, beloved author Alice Hoffman unveils the story of Maria Owens, accused of witchcraft in Salem, and matriarch of a line of the amazing Owens women and men featured in Practical Magic and The Rules of Magic.

Where does the story of the Owens bloodline begin? With Maria Owens, in the 1600s, when she’s abandoned in a snowy field in rural England as a baby. Under the care of Hannah Owens, Maria learns about the “Unnamed Arts.” Hannah recognizes that Maria has a gift and she teaches the girl all she knows. It is here that she learns her first important lesson: Always love someone who will love you back.

When Maria is abandoned by the man who has declared his love for her, she follows him to Salem, Massachusetts. Here she invokes the curse that will haunt her family. And it’s here that she learns the rules of magic and the lesson that she will carry with her for the rest of her life. Love is the only thing that matters.

Magic Lessons is a celebration of life and love and a showcase of Alice Hoffman’s masterful storytelling."

October is Practical Magic month, so what better way to celebrate than a new book about the Owens women?

A Wild Winter Swan by Gregory Maguire
Published by: William Morrow
Publication Date: October 6th, 2020
Format: Hardcover, 240 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"After brilliantly reimagining the worlds of Oz, Wonderland, Dickensian London, and the Nutcracker, the New York Times bestselling author of Wicked turns his unconventional genius to Hans Christian Andersen's "The Wild Swans," transforming this classic tale into an Italian-American girl's poignant coming-of-age story, set amid the magic of Christmas in 1960s New York.

Following her brother's death and her mother's emotional breakdown, Laura now lives on the Upper East Side of Manhattan, in a lonely townhouse she shares with her old-world, strict, often querulous grandparents. But the arrangement may be temporary. The quiet, awkward teenager has been getting into trouble at home and has been expelled from her high school for throwing a record album at a popular girl who bullied her. When Christmas is over and the new year begins, Laura may find herself at boarding school in Montreal.

Nearly unmoored from reality through her panic and submerged grief, Laura is startled when a handsome swan boy with only one wing lands on her roof. Hiding him from her ever-bickering grandparents, Laura tries to build the swan boy a wing so he can fly home. But the task is too difficult to accomplish herself. Little does Laura know that her struggle to find help for her new friend parallels that of her grandparents, who are desperate for a distant relative’s financial aid to save the family store.

As he explores themes of class, isolation, family, and the dangerous yearning to be saved by a power greater than ourselves, Gregory Maguire conjures a haunting, beautiful tale of magical realism that illuminates one young woman’s heartbreak and hope as she begins the inevitable journey to adulthood."

We could all use some magical realism right about now as we enter what looks to be a bleak holiday season. 

Snow by John Banville
Published by: Hanover Square Press
Publication Date: October 6th, 2020
Format: Hardcover, 304 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"The incomparable Booker Prize winner's next great crime novel - the story of a family whose secrets resurface when a parish priest is found murdered in their ancestral home.

Detective Inspector St. John Strafford has been summoned to County Wexford to investigate a murder. A parish priest has been found dead in Ballyglass House, the family seat of the aristocratic, secretive Osborne family.

The year is 1957 and the Catholic Church rules Ireland with an iron fist. Strafford - flinty, visibly Protestant and determined to identify the murderer - faces obstruction at every turn, from the heavily accumulating snow to the culture of silence in the tight-knit community he begins to investigate.

As he delves further, he learns the Osbornes are not at all what they seem. And when his own deputy goes missing, Strafford must work to unravel the ever-expanding mystery before the community's secrets, like the snowfall itself, threaten to obliterate everything.

Beautifully crafted, darkly evocative and pulsing with suspense, Snow is "the Irish master" (New Yorker) John Banville at his page-turning best."

1: A Country House. 2: A murder. 3: A snowstorm. 4: A must read.

The Searcher by Tana French
Published by: Viking
Publication Date: October 6th, 2020
Format: Hardcover, 464 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"A spellbinding, propulsive new novel from the bestselling mystery writer who "is in a class by herself." (The New York Times)

Cal Hooper thought a fixer-upper in a bucolic Irish village would be the perfect escape. After twenty-five years in the Chicago police force and a bruising divorce, he just wants to build a new life in a pretty spot with a good pub where nothing much happens. But when a local kid whose brother has gone missing arm-twists him into investigating, Cal uncovers layers of darkness beneath his picturesque retreat, and starts to realize that even small towns shelter dangerous secrets.

"One of the greatest crime novelists writing today" (Vox) weaves a masterful, atmospheric tale of suspense, asking what we sacrifice in our search for truth and justice, and what we risk if we don't."

After "discovering" Tana French earlier this year, and yes, I knew about her books I'd just never read her, she's now a MUST READ! Can not wait for this book!

Still Life by Val McDermid
Published by: Atlantic Monthly Press
Publication Date: October 6th, 2020
Format: Hardcover
To Buy

The official patter:
"Val McDermid is the award-winning, international bestselling author of more than thirty novels and has been hailed as Britain’s Queen of Crime. In Still Life, McDermid returns to her propulsive series featuring DCI Karen Pirie, who finds herself investigating the shadowy world of forgery, where things are never what they seem.

When a lobster fisherman discovers a dead body in Scotland’s Firth of Forth, Karen is called into investigate. She quickly discovers that the case will require untangling a complicated web - including a historic disappearance, art forgery, and secret identities - that seems to orbit around a painting copyist who can mimic anyone from Holbein to Hockney. Meanwhile, a traffic crash leads to the discovery of a skeleton in a suburban garage. Needless to say, Karen has her plate full. Meanwhile, the man responsible for the death of the love of her life is being released from prison, reopening old wounds just as she was getting back on her feet.

Tightly plotted and intensely gripping, Still Life is Val McDermid at her best, and new and longtime readers alike will delight in the latest addition to this superior series."

I love Val McDermid, I just think for a Queen of Crime they could have gotten a better book title than the same one Louise Penny used to start off her famous series...

On Borrowed Crume by Kate Young
Published by: Crooked Lane Books
Publication Date: October 6th, 2020
Format: Hardcover
To Buy

The official patter:
"A shoe-in read for fans of Ellery Adams and Kate Carlisle, On Borrowed Crime is the first in Kate Young's new Georgia-set, sweet tea filled, Jane Doe Book Club mysteries.

The Jane Doe book club enjoys guessing whodunit, but when murder happens in their midst, they discover solving crimes isn't fun and games...

Lyla Moody loves her sleepy little town of Sweet Mountain, Georgia. She likes her job as receptionist for her uncle's private investigative firm, her fellow true crime obsessed Jane Doe members are the friends she's always wanted, and her parents just celebrated their fiftieth wedding anniversary. But recently, with her best friend Melanie on vacation, and her ex-boyfriend and horrible cousin becoming an item and moving in next door to her, her idyllic life is on the fritz. The cherry on top of it all is finding Carol, a member of the club, dead and shoved into a suitcase, left at Lyla's front door.

Unusual circumstances notwithstanding, with Carol's heart condition, the coroner rules Carol's death undetermined. But when they discover the suitcase belongs to Melanie, who had returned from her vacation the following morning, Sweet Mountain police begin to suspect Lyla's best friend. Determined that police are following the wrong trail, to clear her friend's name, and to not allow Carol become one of the club's studied cold cases, Lyla begins to seek out the real killer. That is, until she becomes the one sought after. Now, finding the truth could turn her into the killer's next plot twist, unless she wins the game of cat and mouse."

OK, yes, I'm all here for the true crime and the book club angle! 

The Sicilian Method by Andrea Camilleri
Published by: Penguin Books
Publication Date: October 6th, 2020
Format: Paperback, 288 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"In the new novel in the transporting New York Times bestselling Inspector Montalbano mystery series, Montalbano finds his answers to a murder in a theatrical play.

Mimi Augello is visiting his lover when the woman's husband unexpectedly returns to the apartment; he climbs out the window and into the downstairs apartment, but one danger leads to another. In the dark he sees a body lying on the bed. Shortly after, another body is found, and the victim is Carmelo Catalanotti, a director of bourgeois dramas with a harsh reputation for the acting method he developed for his actors.

Are the two deaths connected? Catalanotti scrupulously kept notes and comments on all the actors he worked with, as well as strange notebooks full of figures and dates and names. Inspector Montalbano finds all of Catalanotti's dossiers and plays, the notes on the characters, and the notes on his last drama, Dangerous Turn - the theater is where he'll find the answer."

I don't just love this series for the mysteries but also for how gorgeous it looks on my bookshelf.

Murder is in the Air by Frances Brody
Published by: Crooked Lane Books
Publication Date: October 6th, 2020
Format: Hardcover
To Buy

The official patter:
"Frances Brody's twelfth Kate Shackleton mystery will positively intoxicate fans of Jacqueline Winspear and Nicola Upson.

A competition for the crown proves deadly when confidences are betrayed and secrets are spilled.

North Yorkshire, 1930. It's the season for warm and spirited countryside celebrations. Ever since the war, pubs have been in the doldrums, and in an attempt to promote and breathe new life back into the business, brewers select a charismatic employee as local queen - to be the face of their industry. And this year's queen, wages clerk Ruth Parnaby, has invited the ever intrepid Kate Shackleton and her niece Harriet to accompany her on public engagements at a garden party thrown in her honor. But when Ruth leads children to the stables for pony rides, the drayman is missing, later found in the last place imaginable - the fermentation room, deceased.

What looked to be a simple case of asphyxiation in the dangerous fermentation room is quickly clarified by the pathologist as murder - the drayman was already dead before he was taken into the room. Someone was looking to cover it up. The horse dealer who sold the pony to the drayman comes under suspicion, but more and more Ruth's nasty father, Slater Parnaby's strong motive to dissuade his daughter from any festivities lingers in Kate's mind, despite his having an alibi. The case is muddy, at best, and it's going to take Kate at her keenest to decipher the truth."

A sign of a good series, you've hit twelve books and they still feel as fresh as the first! 

The Secrets of Winter by Nicola Upson
Published by: Crooked Lane Books
Publication Date: October 6th, 2020
Format: Hardcover
To Buy

The official patter:
"A snowy Christmas gathering on an island off the Cornish coast goes murderously wrong in this festive Golden Age mystery.

December 1938, and storm clouds hover once again over Europe. Josephine Tey and Archie Penrose gather with friends for a Cornish Christmas, but two strange and brutal deaths on St. Michael's Mount - and the unexpected arrival of a world famous film star, in need of sanctuary--interrupt the festivities. Cut off by the sea and a relentless blizzard, the hunt for a murderer begins.

Pivoting on a real moment in history, the ninth novel in the Josephine Tey series draws on all the much-loved conventions of the Golden Age Christmas mystery, while giving them the contemporary twist which has come to distinguish the books so far."

And speaking of Nicola Upson... is it wrong I like these more than Tey's own books?

Premeditated Myrtle by Elizabeth C. Bunce
Published by: Algonquin Young Readers
Publication Date: October 6th, 2020
Format: Hardcover, 368 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"Introducing Myrtle Hardcastle, your favorite new amateur detective: a wickedly smart twelve-year-old with a keen interest in criminology and a nose for murder.

Twelve-year-old Myrtle Hardcastle has a passion for justice and a Highly Unconventional obsession with criminal science. Armed with her father’s law books and her mum’s microscope, Myrtle studies toxicology, keeps abreast of the latest developments in crime scene analysis, and Observes her neighbors in the quiet village of Swinburne, England.

When her next-door neighbor, a wealthy spinster and eccentric breeder of rare flowers, dies under Mysterious Circumstances, Myrtle seizes her chance. With her unflappable governess, Miss Ada Judson, by her side, Myrtle takes it upon herself to prove Miss Wodehouse was murdered and find the killer, even if nobody else believes her - not even her father, the town prosecutor.

With sparkling wit and a tight, twisty plot, Premeditated Myrtle, the first in a series from an award-winning author, introduces a brilliant young investigator ready to take on hard cases and maddening Victorian rules for Young Ladies of Quality in order to earn her place among the most daring and acclaimed amateur detectives of her time or any other."

Ten year old me is wondering why this book wasn't in my life when I was ten! The first two books are available NOW!

Over the Woodward Wall by A. Deborah Baker
Published by: Tor.com
Publication Date: October 6th, 2020
Format: Hardcover, 208 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"Writing as A. Deborah Baker, New York Times bestselling and award-winning author Seanan McGuire introduces readers to a world of talking trees and sarcastic owls, of dangerous mermaids and captivating queens in Over the Woodward Wall, an exceptional tale for readers who are young at heart.

If you trust her you’ll never make it home...

Avery is an exceptional child. Everything he does is precise, from the way he washes his face in the morning, to the way he completes his homework - without complaint, without fuss, without prompt.

Zib is also an exceptional child, because all children are, in their own way. But where everything Avery does and is can be measured, nothing Zib does can possibly be predicted, except for the fact that she can always be relied upon to be unpredictable.

They live on the same street.
They live in different worlds.

On an unplanned detour from home to school one morning, Avery and Zib find themselves climbing over a stone wall into the Up and Under - an impossible land filled with mystery, adventure and the strangest creatures.

And they must find themselves and each other if they are to also find their way out and back to their own lives."

Again, how does Seanan McGuire have the time!?! She's up to what, four names she's writing under!?!

The Princess in Black and the Giant Problem by Shannon Hale and Dean Hale
Published by: Candlewick
Publication Date: October 6th, 2020
Format: Hardcover, 96 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"With a noisy giant crashing around the kingdom, the Princess in Black uses the Sparkle Signal to call ALL her heroic friends together - for the biggest adventure yet.

The Princess in Black is ready for her snowy playdate with the Goat Avenger and the Princess in Blankets. It’s a perfect day to build snow monsters and battle them for practice. But just when they’re about to wage battle, a huge foot smashes their snow monster. “SQUASHY!”

It’s a giant, and it’s smashing everything in its path! The giant is too strong for the three friends, so the Princess in Blankets has an idea: it’s time to light the Sparkle Signal and summon help. With a rising crescendo of a plot and a delightfully surprising ending, the latest adventure in the New York Times best-selling series features all the Princess in Black’s friends as heroes for the first time."

Another delightful entry in this series by a favorite author team!

Spoiler Alert by Olivia Dade
Published by: Avon
Publication Date: October 6th, 2020
Format: Paperback, 416 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"Olivia Dade bursts onto the scene in this delightfully fun romantic comedy set in the world of fanfiction, in which a devoted fan goes on an unexpected date with her celebrity crush, who’s secretly posting fanfiction of his own.

Marcus Caster-Rupp has a secret. The world may know him as Aeneas, star of the biggest show on television, but fanfiction readers call him something else: Book!AeneasWouldNever. Marcus gets out his frustrations with the show through anonymous stories about the internet’s favorite couple, Aeneas and Lavinia. But if anyone discovered his online persona, he’d be finished in Hollywood.

April Whittier has secrets of her own. A hardcore Lavinia fan, she’s long hidden her fanfic and cosplay hobbies from her “real life” - but not anymore. When she dares to post her latest costume creation on Twitter, her plus-size take goes viral. And when Marcus asks her out to spite her internet critics, truth officially becomes stranger than fanfiction.

On their date, Marcus quickly realizes he wants more from April than a one-time publicity stunt. But when he discovers she’s Unapologetic Lavinia Stan, his closest fandom friend, he has one more huge secret to keep from her.

With love and Marcus’s career on the line, can the two of them stop hiding once and for all, or will a match made in fandom end up prematurely cancelled?"

This ticks so many boxes for those hardcore fans who love fanfiction!

Earthlings by Sayaka Murata
Published by: Grove Press
Publication Date: October 6th, 2020
Format: Hardcover, 240 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"As a child, Natsuki doesn't fit into her family. Her parents favor her sister, and her best friend is a plush toy hedgehog named Piyyut who has explained to her that he has come from the planet Popinpobopia on a special quest to help her save the Earth. Each summer, Natsuki counts down the days until her family drives into the mountains of Nagano to visit her grandparents in their wooden house in the forest, a place that couldn't be more different from her grey commuter town. One summer, her cousin Yuu confides to Natsuki that he is an extraterrestrial and that every night he searches the sky for the spaceship that might take him back to his home planet. Natsuki wonders if she might be an alien too. Back in her city home, Natsuki is scolded or ignored and even preyed upon by a young teacher at her cram school. As she grows up in a hostile, violent world, she consoles herself with memories of her time with Yuu and discovers a surprisingly potent inner power. Natsuki seems forced to fit into a society she deems a "baby factory" but even as a married woman she wonders if there is more to this world than the mundane reality everyone else seems to accept. The answers are out there, and Natsuki has the power to find them.

Dreamlike, sometimes shocking, and always strange and wonderful, Earthlings asks what it means to be happy in a stifling world, and cements Sayaka Murata's status as a master chronicler of the outsider experience and our own uncanny universe."

All the good I could say about this book just comes down to me saying "BUY THIS THERE'S A HEDGEHOG ON THE COVER!!!"

The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue by V.E. Schwab
Published by: Tor Books
Publication Date: October 6th, 2020
Format: Hardcover, 448 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"In the vein of The Time Traveler’s Wife and Life After Life, The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue is New York Times bestselling author V. E. Schwab’s genre-defying tour de force.

A Life No One Will Remember. A Story You Will Never Forget.

France, 1714: in a moment of desperation, a young woman makes a Faustian bargain to live forever - and is cursed to be forgotten by everyone she meets.

Thus begins the extraordinary life of Addie LaRue, and a dazzling adventure that will play out across centuries and continents, across history and art, as a young woman learns how far she will go to leave her mark on the world.

But everything changes when, after nearly 300 years, Addie stumbles across a young man in a hidden bookstore and he remembers her name."

If I could change one thing, and only one thing about this book, it's the "LaRue" part. There's an asshole by that name I know and therefore the name is tainted. 

Lon Chaney Speaks by Pat Dorian
Published by: Pantheon
Publication Date: October 6th, 2020
Format: Hardcover, 160 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"A stunning graphic debut: the life of the legendary silent-film actor Lon Chaney (the original Phantom of the Opera and Hunchback of Notre Dame), as imagined by an artist whose work recalls the style and skill of early-era New Yorker cartoonists.

From the artist: "'No one will ever love me!' I believe it was this near-universal fear that makes Lon Chaney's characters continue to resonate with us today. On their surface, most of them are distinctly unlikeable: they are monsters, outcasts, criminals. But through his unique magic, Chaney makes them empathetic. He pioneered the craft of makeup artist long before that term ever existed, and he used his expertise to hide himself from public view - what if nobody loved him?""

I'm a huge Lon Chaney fan, so obviously I need this book. Likewise if you don't know who Lon Chaney is, you obviously need this book.

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments  

Labels: A.J. Hackwith, Alice Hoffman, Andrea Camilleri, Frances Brody, Gregory Maguire, John Banville, Leigh Bardugo, Nicola Upson, Seanan McGuire, Shannon Hale, Stuart Turton, Tana French, V.E. Schwab, Val McDermid