strange and random happenstance

The Burial Witch by Cari Thomas
Published by: HarperCollins Publishers
Publication Date: June 5th, 2025
Format: Hardcover, 150 Pages
Rating: ★★★★★
To Buy (different edition than one reviewed)

It's summer and Miranda Richardson has every second of her time accounted for. She has spent her life trying to live up to the expectations of her parents who already have two perfect children. But she never thinks she's good enough. If she can't even smile right for the family photo how is she going to achieve all her goals? They're laminated and on her wall; GOALS BEFORE THIRTY. Which is why instead of going to the park with her brother she is digging through boxes in the attic for a school project on the Richardson Family Tree. She's learning all about the Smiths and Evans from Shropshire and the local steel industry. Despite her father's enthusiasm she doesn't think she could be more bored if she tried. Yet she chose to look into her father's family and not her mother's. As she shifts the boxes of the past in the attic she finds a suitcase. It obviously belonged to her maternal grandparents. They emigrated from Nigeria to Peckham. Since their deaths her mother never talks about them. They are Richardsons, they can achieve anything they set their minds to. They don't dig into their past, they are a future-facing family. Which would be why Miranda is learning about Shropshire's steel industry. Her mother has made it clear that that part of their lives, her life, is over. The past is the past. But it's about to affect Miranda's present. In the suitcase she finds a box. There is something inside the box. When she moves it there is a clunking sound. Getting it open becomes her obsession. It's like a fairy tale come to life, this is her test. And she's failing because fairy tales don't come with instructions. She starts to slip in her work and she's distracted at church and lashing out. This little coffin shaped box leads her to do the unheard of. She has never disobeyed her parents, she wants to be like her mother when she grows up, and yet she goes to a shop that is off-limits. When A Sense of Craft opened in Richmond Miranda's mother tired to have it shut down. But this store and it's owner, Maya, might be Miranda's only hope. Though Miranda can't help but feel that Maya is a threat. That she's somehow involved in what's happening. Especially when Maya's advice opens the box to reveal a wooden doll. What could this mean? Miranda has to get to the bottom of this. Her summer was written and now she's dealing with magical forces, first loves, demonic dreams. If she wasn't highly strung before the events of the last few weeks she is now. The question is, will she embrace what's to come or bury it in a shallow grave?

Since I finished Shadowstitch I have been desperately craving anything new in Cari Thomas's The Language of Magic series. So when The Burial Witch novella was announced I was overjoyed. Preordered it from England to get it two months early overjoyed. And then I learned it was about Miranda. And my joy was somewhat tempered. It's not that I dislike Miranda, she's just the least interesting member of this Scooby Gang. Miranda has just been there, doing her thing, being conflicted about her religious beliefs and equally fighting and embracing this new aspect to herself, this magical aspect. She just is. And then The Burial Witch comes out and now I have to reread the whole series because of this new insight I have into her. Her OCD nature, her wanting to please her parents, her fear of the "other," all of this I relate to. Some from when I was her age, some from now. It's like she represents the different stages of my life and she's had to have all these changes thrust on her over one short summer. But what really struck me about her book, this book, is that you have to have no foreknowledge of anything else in this series for this book to work. It is a self-contained little masterpiece of a novella. Really, think British Stephen King at the top of his game and that's The Burial Witch. This is a perfect standalone horror novella in the tradition of Carrie. A religious girl is confronted by the unknown, there's temptation in this new knowledge, then, being who she is, she must find out more and goes to a forbidden shop where it's revealed that magic is real. And that dichotomy, that struggle in Miranda that Maya tries to help her with is to show her that not all religion is Christian and not all magic is bad. Which brings in the Vodun religion. Most people just think of rather racist and stereotypical Voodoo tropes. Whereas real Vodun is nothing like the movies would have you think. Yes, it's far away from anything Miranda might have experienced, and let us not forget she's lived a very sheltered life, but it's still holy. It's still divine. And so many books only use Vodun for the tropes, here it's handled thoughtfully. And what I really appreciate is that seeing as this series is set in England there's a certain kind of view of British magic. It's very Anglocentric. Yet England, like the rest of the world, is a melting pot. Therefore it makes sense that there are different kinds of magic. And having Vodun from Nigeria just works. There's a balance here that makes it both terrifying and respectful. Because it's how Miranda handles the changes where all the fear arises. The villain isn't magic, the villain is change. The villain is a future that wasn't planned out and laminated. That's a horror we can all relate to.

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments  

Labels: Anglocentric, Cari Thomas, Carrie, Horror, Miranda Richardson, Nigeria, Novella, OCD, Religion, Scooby Gang, Shadowstitch, Stephen King, Summer School, The Burial Witch, The Language of Magic, Threadneedle, Top Ten, Vodun, West Africa

The Burial Witch by Cari Thomas
Published by: HarperCollins Publishers
Publication Date: June 5th, 2025
Format: Hardcover, 150 Pages
Rating: ★★★★★
To Buy (different edition than one reviewed)

It's summer and Miranda Richardson has every second of her time accounted for. She has spent her life trying to live up to the expectations of her parents who already have two perfect children. But she never thinks she's good enough. If she can't even smile right for the family photo how is she going to achieve all her goals? They're laminated and on her wall; GOALS BEFORE THIRTY. Which is why instead of going to the park with her brother she is digging through boxes in the attic for a school project on the Richardson Family Tree. She's learning all about the Smiths and Evans from Shropshire and the local steel industry. Despite her father's enthusiasm she doesn't think she could be more bored if she tried. Yet she chose to look into her father's family and not her mother's. As she shifts the boxes of the past in the attic she finds a suitcase. It obviously belonged to her maternal grandparents. They emigrated from Nigeria to Peckham. Since their deaths her mother never talks about them. They are Richardsons, they can achieve anything they set their minds to. They don't dig into their past, they are a future-facing family. Which would be why Miranda is learning about Shropshire's steel industry. Her mother has made it clear that that part of their lives, her life, is over. The past is the past. But it's about to affect Miranda's present. In the suitcase she finds a box. There is something inside the box. When she moves it there is a clunking sound. Getting it open becomes her obsession. It's like a fairy tale come to life, this is her test. And she's failing because fairy tales don't come with instructions. She starts to slip in her work and she's distracted at church and lashing out. This little coffin shaped box leads her to do the unheard of. She has never disobeyed her parents, she wants to be like her mother when she grows up, and yet she goes to a shop that is off-limits. When A Sense of Craft opened in Richmond Miranda's mother tired to have it shut down. But this store and it's owner, Maya, might be Miranda's only hope. Though Miranda can't help but feel that Maya is a threat. That she's somehow involved in what's happening. Especially when Maya's advice opens the box to reveal a wooden doll. What could this mean? Miranda has to get to the bottom of this. Her summer was written and now she's dealing with magical forces, first loves, demonic dreams. If she wasn't highly strung before the events of the last few weeks she is now. The question is, will she embrace what's to come or bury it in a shallow grave?

Since I finished Shadowstitch I have been desperately craving anything new in Cari Thomas's The Language of Magic series. So when The Burial Witch novella was announced I was overjoyed. Preordered it from England to get it two months early overjoyed. And then I learned it was about Miranda. And my joy was somewhat tempered. It's not that I dislike Miranda, she's just the least interesting member of this Scooby Gang. Miranda has just been there, doing her thing, being conflicted about her religious beliefs and equally fighting and embracing this new aspect to herself, this magical aspect. She just is. And then The Burial Witch comes out and now I have to reread the whole series because of this new insight I have into her. Her OCD nature, her wanting to please her parents, her fear of the "other," all of this I relate to. Some from when I was her age some from now. It's like she represents the different stages of my life and she's had to have all these changes thrust on her over one short summer. But what really struck me about her book, this book, is that you have to have no foreknowledge of anything else in this series for this book to work. It is a self-contained little masterpiece of a novella. Really, think British Stephen King at the top of his game and that's The Burial Witch. This is a perfect standalone horror novella in the tradition of Carrie. A religious girl is confronted by the unknown, there's temptation in this new knowledge, then, being who she is, she must find out more and goes to a forbidden shop where it's revealed that magic is real. And that dichotomy, that struggle in Miranda that Maya tries to help her with is to show her that not all religion is Christian and not all magic is bad. Which brings in the Vodun religion. Most people just think of rather racist and stereotypical Voodoo tropes. Whereas real Vodun is nothing like the movies would have you think. Yes, it's far away from anything Miranda might have experienced, and let us not forget she's lived a very sheltered life, but it's still holy. It's still divine. And so many books only use Vodun for the tropes, here it's handled thoughtfully. And what I really appreciate is that seeing as this series is set in England there's a certain kind of view of British magic. It's very Anglocentric. Yet England, like the rest of the world, is a melting pot. Therefore it makes sense that there are different kinds of magic. And having Vodun from Nigeria just works. There's a balance here that makes it both terrifying and respectful. Because it's how Miranda handles the changes where all the fear arises. The villain isn't magic, the villain is change. The villain is a future that wasn't planned out and laminated. That's a horror we can all relate to.

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments  

Labels: A Sense of Craft, Anglocentric, Cari Thomas, Carrie, Horror, Miranda Richardson, Nigeria, Novella, OCD, Religion, Shadowstitch, Stephen King, Summer School, The Burial Witch, The Language of Magic, Threadneedle, Vodun, West Africa

The Hedge Witch by Cari Thomas
Published by: Voyager
Publication Date: June 6th, 2023
Format: Hardcover, 144 Pages
Rating: ★★★
To Buy (different edition than one reviewed)

Rowan's family is large and quirky. The Greenfinchs are part of the Wort Cummings grove, another mark of eccentricity against Rowan. Yet Rowan would turn her back on all that for a chance at being popular. She doesn't want to think about how she fits into her family or her grove, she wants to dream about her first kiss and boys. But dreams will have to wait as reality crashes in. She's going to be spending the summer tending to hedges. In Wales. Rowan should be pleased she's leaving the crowded homestead and spending the summer in the Welsh countryside helping her Aunt Winnie who is a hedge witch. After all, those hedges do need watching. But Rowan is convinced her socials need watching more. How else can she know what all her classmates are up to? And it's not like remote Welsh villages are known for their cell service. Though her mother insists they are known for their rugged and handsome boys, which Rowan does not want to hear about from her mother. Especially when she learns that her Aunt Winnie has a boyfriend, meaning Aunt Winifred officially has more of a life than herself. Remote Welsh villages also aren't known for their magic. Because magic is supposed to be locked down. There's a lid on it so that the non-magical folk, the cowans, don't learn of it's existence. And someone isn't playing by the rules in Coedyllaeth. And unbeknownst to Rowan she's about to fall in with them. There aren't many kids her age about and the few magical ones there are form a little band. A band that has their own rules. Laila seems to be the leader, a daughter of a Moon Sower who takes Rowan under her wing. As Rowan informs her, she is desperate for gossip. Any gossip. And that's how she learns about the the oddly quaint town that is chockablock with eccentrics, after all a remote Welsh village surrounded by mystical woodlands with plenty of space and privacy does attract them. What these secretive folk don't like is odd happenings. And they've been occurring. Words disappearing from signs, hands disappearing from clocks. Things that could be written off as vandalism but that others would say is magic. They need to stop. And Rowan might be the only one who can stop them. Maybe summer won't be so boring after all?

When you find a series you love it's hard to wait for each volume to be completed. It might feel like eons when it's just a year or two. We're not bringing George R.R. Martin of Patrick Rothfuss into this conversation. Obviously. And I feel a bit of a hypocrite mentioning this in regard to Cari Thomas's The Language of Magic series because I binged all three available books one after the other last summer. It took me about a month and as I'm writing this review I am feeling the need to do a reread to stave off the withdrawal but will probably save that for when the next book in the main series is minimally announced. Because Cari Thomas is a thoughtful author and besides the man tetraology she is writing a companion prequel novella tetraology with each volume focusing on one of our heroines, Anna Everdell, Effie Fawkes, Rowan Greenfinch, and Miranda Richardson. As I type this I am awaiting the shipping notification for the second novella focusing on Miranda, The Burial Witch, but the first novella wisely focused on Rowan. I say wisely because Rowan is my favorite. Or maybe I should say, because I am Rowan. The thing about this world and these character that Cari Thomas has built is is they are relatable, they are wonderful, and they are occasionally problematic, which makes them painfully real. Effie and Manda in particular aren't written to be sympathetic, but that doesn't mean reading about them isn't enjoyable. You are completely drawn into the drama. The four of them bouncing off each other and causing chaos. Of course, taking them out of that dynamic and seeing them on their own is what this spin-off series is about. And that brings us back to Rowan. I loved Rowan for the moment she first appeared on the page with Darcey being mean about her weight. And then I met her family. They out Weasley the Weasleys. The Christmas celebrations in Shadowstitch are ones I want to crawl into the book and live. Here though she's thrown out into the country, away from her copious family, and she has to learn to solve problems on her own. Which she does with great aplomb. I also love that she has a batty Aunt that is basically a combination of the Witches from Discworld, prickly like Granny Weatherwax but with a libido of Nanny Ogg. I'm so glad she made an appearance in Shadowstitch. Dare I say I just want more of all of it? Yes I do dare. More!

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments  

Labels: Aunt Winnie, Cari Thomas, Cowans, Discworld, Granny Weatherwax, Moon Sower, Nany Ogg, Novella, Prequel, Rowan Greenfinch, Summer School, Tetraology, The Burial Witch, The Hedge Witch, The Language of Magic, Wales, Weasleys

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

Tales from the Folly by Ben Aaronovitch
Published by: JABberwocky Literary Agency, Inc.
Publication Date: November 17th, 2020
Format: Paperback, 238 Pages
Rating: ★★★
To Buy

The world surrounding the Folly and it's denizens grows every time Peter and Nightingale investigate a crime or meet a strange new creature or practitioner. Peter has his own share of adventures. There's an old French wizard whose guilt over the death of his master during the last London Olympics has caused him to return to the scene of the crime and attempt suicide by Nightingale. Then there's the domestic disturbance which is much more disturbed than the little old lady's neighbors could ever guess. There's a ghost. But is it the ghost of her supposedly dead husband or something else? Peter doesn't trust her one bit. Also when a bookstore appears to develop a poltergeist it's dangerous when it likes to hang out in the section containing the art books because some of those Taschen books are huge. Plus, what's a man to do when his girl, who happens to be an all powerful goddess, decides to adopt a granny? The answer is agree and do whatever your goddess asks of you. And what would happen if a genius loci wasn't human but just possibly an ape... Also, what happens when you investigate a magical book when your colleague will try to make off with anything mystical for "research purposes" of course. You don't want to alienate the British Library, but you also don't want to endanger their collection. Who knew that Professor Postmartin was known as "Pirate" Postmartin? Then there are the stories that happened before Peter was even born. There was a drug dealer in London in the sixties. He had a love for fashion and in order to cover his loses bought the most beautful fabric and stored it in the basement of a house he and his friends were living in. Only there was a flood from the canal. The room sealed itself tight. There was no way in or out. But then beuatiful fabric threads started to come through the door. Soon there were flowers made of the most amazing silks. Then, one day, when the thugs came to collect their payment in blood, the door opened and there was a baby instead a cocoon of fabric. A baby who would captivate all the men and become their lives work. And babies seem to be the order of the day as two years after Dominic and Victor got married they receive a rather elaborate congratulatory speech from the foxes. But what is it the foxes know that they don't? They're sure to find out when three river goddesses show up the next day.

I'm not really a fan of short stories. They're an art form in and of itself that many authors who write full length novels aren't able to transition to. But Aaronovitch, more than any other writer, has created a large universe for his characters to play in. From the novels to the novellas, the comics to the short stories to the moments, his characters weave in and out of all these different mediums, and if you're not following all the disparate threads, you might find yourself scratching your head. Because he will reference it. It doesn't matter what it is, Abigail talking to a fox or Guleed helping Peter with mould or the River Lugg finally being born again, Aaronovitch will at some point reference it and if you're not au courant you will feel like you've missed a step. Therefore I've read the comics, for my sins, and everything else I can get my hands on. I'm still not sure how I'll ever get my hands on ROBOT100. Povídky, but one day I will. I might have to learn Czech... Therefore it was a forgone conclusion that I would read Tales from the Folly. And occasionally Aaronovitch knocks it out of the park. In particular "Three Rivers, Two Husbands and a Baby" was just perfection. Getting to see Dominic and Victor from Foxglove Summer get their happily ever after with a bit of a twist was wonderful. Plus it neatly tied up the one loose end that Peter and Bev left in Herefordshire. But Aaronovitch displays time and time again the number one reason I dislike short stories, he ends them too abruptly. This is why I like television shows over movies and doorstop books over novellas, I really want to be fully immersed in the world I'm reading about. I want to know everything, not be left feeling dissatisfied. Which is why the short story is an art form. To tell all you want to tell and tell it perfectly in a limited capacity is hard. Looking over my notes from Tales from the Folly for "The Loneliness of the Long-Distance Granny" I wrote "3 Stars, ended abruptly" for "King of Rats" "2 Stars, NO ending!" and "A Rare Book of Cunning Device" as "3 Stars, would have been four but again abrupt ending." The "non-endings" really took their toll. And trust me, it wasn't just these three, there were others. Yet that isn't the only problem here, the other is this sense of déjà vu. Aaaronovitch was occasionally lifting his plotlines from his own material. The most obvious is "A Dedicated Follower of Fashion" which used plot points from both The Furthest Station and Rivers of London Volume 2: Night Witch. I mean, another author whose work isn't so entwined might have been able to get away with this... but not Aaronovitch. We fans are hardcore. I read the comics for him! And I don't like them. At all.

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments  

Labels: Ben Aaronovitch, Comics, Foxglove Summer, London Calling, Moments, Novella, Peter Grant, Rivers of London, Rivers of London Volume 2: Night Witch, Short Stories, Tales from the Folly, The Furthest Station

The Price of Salt by Patricia Highsmith
Published by: Dover Publications
Publication Date: 1952
Format: Kindle, 260 Pages
Rating: ★★
To Buy (different edition than one reviewed)

Therese Belivet moved to New York in the hopes of being a set designer. But waiting and hoping and making models doesn't pay the bills so she is working at Frankenberg's department store during the holiday season. She's in the toy section selling dolls and is oppressed by the noise of the toy train by the elevators, the din of the customers, and the general chaos that working in retail entails. Her life is a grind, a depressing mix of cafeteria meals and hoping her boyfriend Richard comes through with a job opportunity for her in the theater after Christmas. All this changes when she sees Carol. Carol Aird comes into Frankenberg's to buy a doll for her daughter. The doll is to be sent to Carol's home in New Jersey and the address is emblazoned on Therese's heart. She doesn't know what possesses her but after Carol leaves she rushes to send her a card. Carol calls the store, intrigued by being sent a card from an employee of Frankenberg's. She wonders if this is common practice but learns that it, and the girl who sent it, are not in the least common. Carol is going through a divorce and is separated from her daughter Rindy for the holiday season so she takes in Therese like a stray. They drive around together, sit for hours doing nothing, listening to music, having dinners out, even getting a Christmas tree for which Therese makes all the decorations. They are fast friends. As Therese muses, "It would be almost like love, what she felt for Carol, except that Carol was a woman." But women can love. And that's one of the reasons that Carol is being kept away from Rindy. The divorce isn't going well because of something that happened in her past with her friend Abby. But what Therese feels, Abby could never have felt. As Carol and Therese take to the open road the future is wide open but their past is closing in.

The Price of Salt is a classic of lesbian fiction and it's easy to see why; two women fall in love and are given a chance at a happily ever after. This was something unheard of in literature of the time as it defied all tropes of the genre. Which makes it an important book even if it's a very flawed book. The problem is that both characters are enigmas. They are ciphers. Neither really shows themself to the other fully. We have full insight into Therese's fractured and half finished thoughts as the story is from her point of view but Carol is a conundrum. Yes, I know that they are two people dancing around a taboo subject and it isn't until their trip that they take the risk to finally put their feelings into words and actions, but this makes most of the book an almost excruciating read. It isn't just a "will they won't they" situation it's a Waiting for Godot level situation. And if you're not in the mood for that level of interminable fatalism, well, then this book might not be for you. For the most part it wasn't for me until it was. Because buried among all the things not done and said all of a sudden there's this heart of gold. Yes, I'm saying The Price of Salt should have been a road trip novella. Therese and Carol finally being a couple, just touring the country, oddly skipping Wisconsin on the way from Rockford to Minneapolis, I mean, who seriously goes via Iowa, is a delight. They take pictures and do things normal couples do, they talk, they love, and we learn more about them in these few chapters than in the whole rest of the book. Plus Highsmith, with her accomplished crime fiction background, has this delicious foreboding building. Could they be being followed? Has Carol's husband given her enough rope to hang herself? All the while there's that gun in Carol's suitcase and you can't help but wonder, will it be used? Could Highsmith be going for a dark ending for our lovers? Because literature of the day demands it. When she taps the breaks, that's when you realize what a genius she is. Just not a genius at editing.

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments  

Labels: Carol, Carol Aird, Christmas, Crime Fiction, Divorce, Frankenberg's, HEA, Lesbian, LGBTQIA+, Love, Novella, Patricia Highsmith, Pride, Set Design, The Price of Salt, Theater, Therese Belivet, Tropes, Waiting for Godot

The Stolen Letters by Andrea Penrose
Publication Date: September 4th, 2017
Format: Kindle, 138 Pages
Rating: ★★
To Buy

Lady Stirling, Constantina as she is known to her beloved family, or The Dragon as she is known to the ton, is in a quandary. Yet she doesn't want to tell her nephew, as he's involved in government and it could be quite compromising for him, and she doesn't want to tell her great-nephew because while she knows Sandro could help her it's very personal. Therefore she turns to Sandro's wife, Arianna. Constantina knows that Arianna is the real brains behind all the cases that Sandro and she have solved. She also knows that Arianna can keep a secret. Arianna's past is dark and treacherous and something she doesn't talk of, therefore she is the perfect person to help Constantina. Constantina has been foolish. At her age in life she has developed a tendre. Her paramour is French, which given the current peace talks isn't as shocking as it could be. But apparently the contents of their letters are quite shocking, and they have gone missing along with some very sensitive political documents. Constantina is asking Arianna to find the documents and return them to their rightful owner. The problem is, there are literally no clues and too many suspects. Was it the British? Or how about the Russians or the Prussians or anyone else involved in jockeying for more power at the peace conference. When Arianna is approached by Lord Grentham she at least knows it's not the British because they want the documents, supposedly to just keep them safe until after an important meeting, but can Grentham be trusted? No. But he's willing to offer her the identity of the thieves if she will herself retrieve the documents. She agrees because it's better to bargain with the devil you know. The Prussians have the documents and Arianna can steal them back at an upcoming party for the diplomats. First Constantina needs to get Sandro out of town, because he's too clever by half. Second they need an invite, which is gotten through Constantina's nephew at the behest of Lord Grentham. Third they need more help, so they enlist Sophie Kirtland to the coterie. What could possibly go wrong? Oh yeah, the Russians.

The Lady Arianna Regency Mysteries were a serendipitous find at my local Barnes and Noble. It's a precious memory to me of the day I first stumbled on the series because my Dad and I went to the store together and then he said the magic words; "I'll pay." Not wanting to be greedy or bankrupt my father I was very careful in my selections, in fact looking at my database, now don't judge because I have a database of books and you don't, I can see I bought the first two books in this series and well as Cinder by Marissa Meyer and The Soul Mirror by Carol Berg. This series was an obvious must buy with two of my favorite authors, Lauren Willig and Tasha Alexander, both having pull quotes on the cover. But after Recipe for Treason I no longer saw additional volumes. Sometimes I am oddly lazy and don't go online to see what is up with series ending, probably because we rarely get answers, I'm looking at you Madelyn Alt! But when preparing to romp through the Regency and knowing Andrea was going to be a part of Lauren Willig's Pink Carnation Read Along I thought, well, I'll include the Lady Arianna series. So I looked it up and was shocked, there were more books!?! After a five year gap Andrea started self-publishing the further adventures of Arianna and Sandro! I obviously bought them all and am now devouring them at a rapacious rate. The Stolen Letters is a little novella bridging the traditionally published books and the new eBooks. And while I really like the whole "Sisters Are Doin' It for Themselves" vibe the whole lying to Sandro stuck in my craw. Years ago I remember my friend Jess and I discussing the whole trope of lying to your significant other. We were both obsessed with Audrey Tautou at the time and were watching all her films and had rented The Spanish Apartment. Now a BIG plot point in this movie is the flatmates helping one of their number to cheat on their significant other. We both agreed that this just made us cringe. It's just wrong. Sure, here there's justification because Arianna is helping her husband's relative and she has asked her to keep it secret from him. But that's just not on. Constantina should not have asked this of Arianna OR Arianna should have told Constantina why she had to tell Sandro. Either way, it's a trope that is common and all too cringe.

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments  

Labels: Andrea Penrose, Arianna Hadley, Audrey Tautou, Lauren Willig, Madelyn Alt, Novella, Pink Carnation Read Along, Prussians, Regency Romp, Sandro, Tasha Alexander, The Spanish Apartment, The Stolen Letter

Bunny and Biscuits: A Very Dorrington Valentine’s Day by Lauren Willig
Publication Date: February 14th, 2012
Format: Kindle
Rating: ★★★★★
To Read

Some couples lives entirely change when they enter the married state. Some couples aren't Miles and Henrietta. Not very much has changed since they were forced into wedded bliss. Their day to day lives are basically the same except for the simple fact that they share a bed. This starts to trouble Miles. He worries that Hen doesn't realize how much he actually loves her. What with the Duke of Dovedale putting on a huge production in front of the King and asking for Charlotte's hand Miles is worried that he should have done something equally grand for Henrietta. She is after all Charlotte's dear friend, who knows, was she jealous of that elaborate profession of love? Why didn't Miles think of using the King himself? Thankfully they are attending Penelope's wedding to Freddy where love will be the furthest thing from everyone's mind. Especially once Henrietta has a run in with a certain Gardener. Oh, he just pisses her off royally. He's so smug and so French. Hen begs Miles to chase after Penelope to warn her about a spy called the Marigold. It's very important. So important that Miles's attempt ends him in the drink. He literally ran after a ship that had already sailed. But that's how crazy he is about Hen. He'd do anything for her. In fact, he'd heard about this Saint Valentines chap and had decided to surprise his wife with champagne and flowers and foodstuffs, mmm, ginger biscuits. But she had asked him to chase down a ship. So without any hemming or hawing, or at least very little, he was willing to postpone his big declaration of love because that's how much he loves her. And now he's pretty sure he knows that she feels the same way. They were meant for each other. That's why it's been so easy. Well, relatively easy.

Bunny and Biscuits holds a very very special place in my heart. In 2012 the most favorite of Lauren’s couples, voted on by the readers, was to get a Valentine’s Day novella. The much loved Miles and Henrietta Dorrington, stars of The Masque of the Black Tulip, trounced the competition. One day I was trolling Lauren's site, as I do, and I noticed that the time had come to name the upcoming story. Everyone was throwing out flowery names, but I literally had an instant of pure clarity, and Bunny and Biscuits just came into my head. The title roles off the tongue in an alliteration that I hope Miss Gwen would approve of, and if not it can be Miles and Hen’s crime fighting aliases for when they get a 60s style Avengers TV show. Much like Henrietta I had a cute yet redundantly named duo of stuffed animals when I was little. Hen had Bunny-the-Bunny, I had Big Bear Bear and Little Bear Bear, the little one was obviously smaller, and the Big was added to Bear Bear so that they would both have unique names once the little one appeared on the scene. Therefore, despite perhaps being an easily forgettable fact of Hen’s childhood to most readers, to me it made us simpatico. And that’s where the "Bunny" came from. As for "Biscuits" well, all Dorrington men past and present have a love of ginger cookies, or biscuits as the Brits would say… So the title made itself really, as all good titles do. It was there in the work waiting to be said. And I said it and I won. Yet my greatest joy was to come when reading the story, because ginger biscuits and Bunny the Bunny played an important part. So it felt like the story was written for me. Yeah, I know it wasn’t, but I can pretend. I have always had a deep connection to Lauren's characters, but here...here I felt like every word was for me and I love them all the more as the years pass.

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments  

Labels: A Very Dorrington Valentine's Day, Big Bear Bear, Bunny and Biscuits, Bunny-the-Bunny, Competition, Henrietta Selwick, Little Bear Bear, Miles Dorrington, Novella, Regency Romp, The Avengers, Valentine's Day

Ivy and Intrigue: A Very Selwick Christmas by Lauren Willig
Publication Date: August 28th, 2011
Format: Paperback, 112
Rating: ★★★★★
To Buy

It's been nine months since Richard Selwick was unmasked as the Purple Gentian and he fled France in the arms of his lady love Amy Balcourt. Nine months away from the action and rusticating with the new missus. Nine months in which the newlywed sheen has dulled just a little under the stresses of the everyday, not to mention the pressures of family and the holidays. Amy and Richard are celebrating their first Christmas together at Uppington Hall with both their families and surprisingly Richard's ex Deirdre. The Deirdre who had sonnets written to her and who was Richard's first love. The Deirdre that resulted in Tony's death due to her unscrupulous lady's maid. Of course her presence is more for Lady Uppington's benefit, to knock Deirdre's nose out of joint and show off her new daughter-in-law Amy, but still, she is one more stress. Especially once the snow strands her at Uppington Hall. Deirdre is the embodiment of all that Richard left behind, all that he was forced to give up because of Amy. If it wasn't for her Richard would still be a romantic hero. While standing nearby Richard's thoughts are veering along the same lines, that it was he who cut short Amy's potential as a super spy, the potential that Jane took and made a reputation of as the Pink Carnation. If he let Amy go back to France could she be happy? He knows he wouldn't be but at least they both wouldn't be miserable. Can these two sort through their holiday misunderstandings and do what they do best, work as a couple? Or will French spies once more try to thwart their chance at happily ever after?

In this cute little Christmas novella full of Yuletide charm we get to catch up with those Selwicks we know and love. As Lauren has said, this is her A Very Brady Christmas without anybody being trapped in the debris of a building. Yes, for some reason the building collapse is all I really remember from the TV movie. But what this novella does so wonderfully is give of a sweet story, sweet revenge that is, while also doing a "where are they now" roll call. Because there were loose ends that needed tying up as the series moved away from the set cast of characters we know and love and moved on to deeper and darker plot developments. Plus, Amy and Richard, more than any other couple in this series, really are just thrown into their happily ever after and sail off into the sunset, while at the same time ignoring that they both kind of ruined what they were best at for the other, spying. So yes, they run the spy school, but they haven't really felt it's importance until Jane mentions the need for Miss Grey. What's more, when one of their working weekends ruined Henrietta's reputation and Richard and Miles's friendship... Well, those are loose ends that need to be mended. And I loved that Richard and Miles are slowly bridging the gap back to how they were before Miles and Hen's precipitous marriage. Also seeing Uppington Hall, first through the eyes of Eloise, and then through her Regency heroes', made for a lovely Christmas treat, not to mention, Richard swinging from the chandelier in his best Errol Flynn imitation a hundred years before Errol Flynn, a move that Eloise would love to have seen. Ah, what's Christmas without a little chandelier swinging and an ex in custody?

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments  

Labels: A Very Brady Christmas, A Very Selwick Christmas, Amy Balcourt, Christmas, Errol Flynn, Ivy and Intrigue, Lauren Willig, Novella, Regency Romp, Richard Selwick, The Secret History of the Pink Carnation

Jane and the Year Without a Summer by Stephanie Barron
Published by: Soho Crime
Publication Date: February 8th, 2022
Format: Hardcover, 336 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"May 1816: Jane Austen is feeling unwell, with an uneasy stomach, constant fatigue, rashes, fevers and aches. She attributes her poor condition to the stress of family burdens, which even the drafting of her latest manuscript - about a baronet's daughter nursing a broken heart for a daring naval captain - cannot alleviate. Her apothecary recommends a trial of the curative waters at Cheltenham Spa, in Gloucestershire. Jane decides to use some of the profits earned from her last novel, Emma, and treat herself to a period of rest and reflection at the spa, in the company of her sister, Cassandra.

Cheltenham Spa hardly turns out to be the relaxing sojourn Jane and Cassandra envisaged, however. It is immediately obvious that other boarders at the guest house where the Misses Austen are staying have come to Cheltenham with stresses of their own - some of them deadly. But perhaps with Jane’s interference a terrible crime might be prevented. Set during the Year without a Summer, when the eruption of Mount Tambora in the South Pacific caused a volcanic winter that shrouded the entire planet for sixteen months, this fourteenth installment in Stephanie Barron’s critically acclaimed series brings a forgotten moment of Regency history to life."

Anyone else as obsessed as I am with 1816 and how they didn't have a summer?

The Great Mrs. Elias by Barbara Chase-Riboud
Published by: Amistad
Publication Date: February 8th, 2022
Format: Hardcover, 416 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"The author of the award-winning Sally Hemings now brings to life Hannah Elias, one of the richest black women in America in the early 1900s, in this mesmerizing novel swirling with atmosphere and steeped in history.

A murder and a case of mistaken identity brings the police to Hannah Elias’ glitzy, five-story, twenty-room mansion on Central Park West. This is the beginning of an odyssey that moves back and forth in time and reveals the dangerous secrets of a mysterious woman, the fortune she built, and her precipitous fall.

Born in Philadelphia in the late 1800s, Hannah Elias has done things she’s not proud of to survive. Shedding her past, Hannah slips on a new identity before relocating to New York City to become as rich as a robber baron. Hannah quietly invests in the stock market, growing her fortune with the help of businessmen. As the money pours in, Hannah hides her millions across 29 banks. Finally attaining the life she’s always dreamed, she buys a mansion on the Upper West Side and decorates it in gold and first-rate décor, inspired by her idol Cleopatra.

The unsolved murder turns Hannah’s world upside-down and threatens to destroy everything she’s built. When the truth of her identity is uncovered, thousands of protestors gather in front of her stately home. Hounded by the salacious press, the very private Mrs. Elias finds herself alone, ensnared in a scandalous trial, and accused of stealing her fortune from whites.

Packed with glamour, suspense, and drama, populated with real-life luminaries from the period, The Great Mrs. Elias brings a fascinating woman and the age she embodied to glorious, tragic life."

Murder AND mistaken identity? Yes please! Also, can you imagine what a five-story twenty-five room mansion on Central Park West cost then AND now!?!

The Grayson Sherbrooke by Catherine Coulter
Published by: Blackstone Publishing
Publication Date: February 8th, 2022
Format: Paperback, 454 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"Much like the hero of his frightening Gothic adventure stories, well-known English author Grayson Sherbrooke has his own share of run-ins with peculiar supernatural beings, both good and evil. From his home on the northern coast of England, Sherbrooke leaps into these otherworldly mysteries to find the truth with the help of his son, Pip; his beautiful neighbor, Miranda, and her daughter, P. C.; and an orphan named Barnaby.

Set in the mid-nineteenth century and featuring a delightfully quirky cast of characters, The Grayson Sherbrooke Novella Collection will keep you entertained for hours as you join Sherbrooke and his rag-tag team of investigators to solve bizarre, out-of-this-world cases.

This collection includes five books in Coulter's supernatural series: The Strange Visitation at Wolffe Hall, The Resident Evil at Blackthorn Manor, The Ancient Spirits of Sedgwick House, The Virgin Bride of Northcliffe Hall, and The Red Witch of Ravenstone Folly."

I love period Gothic monster adventures!

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments  

Labels: Barbara Chase-Riboud, Catherine Coulter, Central Park West, Emma, England, Gothic, Jane Austen, New York, Novella, Stephanie Barron, The Grayson Sherbrooke, The Great Mrs. Elias, The Year Without a Summer

Gwendy's Button Box by Stephen King and Richard Chizmar
Published by: Cemetery Dance Publications
Publication Date: May 30th, 2017
Format: Hardcover, 180 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"The little town of Castle Rock, Maine has witnessed some strange events and unusual visitors over the years, but there is one story that has never been told... until now.

There are three ways up to Castle View from the town of Castle Rock: Route 117, Pleasant Road, and the Suicide Stairs. Every day in the summer of 1974 twelve-year-old Gwendy Peterson has taken the stairs, which are held by strong (if time-rusted) iron bolts and zig-zag up the cliffside.

At the top of the stairs, Gwendy catches her breath and listens to the shouts of the kids on the playground. From a bit farther away comes the chink of an aluminum bat hitting a baseball as the Senior League kids practice for the Labor Day charity game.

One day, a stranger calls to Gwendy: "Hey, girl. Come on over here for a bit. We ought to palaver, you and me."

On a bench in the shade sits a man in black jeans, a black coat like for a suit, and a white shirt unbuttoned at the top. On his head is a small neat black hat. The time will come when Gwendy has nightmares about that hat...

Journey back to Castle Rock again in this chilling new novella by Stephen King, bestselling author of The Bazaar of Bad Dreams, and Richard Chizmar, award-winning author of A Long December. This book will be a Cemetery Dance Publications exclusive with no other editions currently planned anywhere in the world!"

A little Stephen King novella for you!

The Dispatcher by John Scalzi
Published by: Subterranean
Publication Date: May 30th, 2017
Format: Hardcover, 128 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"One day, not long from now, it becomes almost impossible to murder anyone—999 times out of a thousand, anyone who is intentionally killed comes back. How? We don't know. But it changes everything: war, crime, daily life.

Tony Valdez is a Dispatcher—a licensed, bonded professional whose job is to humanely dispatch those whose circumstances put them in death's crosshairs, so they can have a second chance to avoid the reaper. But when a fellow Dispatcher and former friend is apparently kidnapped, Tony learns that there are some things that are worse than death, and that some people are ready to do almost anything to avenge what they see as a wrong.

It's a race against time for Valdez to find his friend before it's too late…before not even a Dispatcher can save him."

Followed by a John Scalzi novella, with the typical bad cover art of Subterranean Press.

Eliza and Her Monsters by Francesca Zappia
Published by: Greenwillow Books
Publication Date: May 30th, 2017
Format: Hardcover, 400 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"Eighteen-year-old Eliza Mirk is the anonymous creator of Monstrous Sea, a wildly popular webcomic, but when a new boy at school tempts her to live a life offline, everything she’s worked for begins to crumble.

Scott Westerfeld’s Afterworlds meets Nimona in this novel about art, fandom, and finding the courage to be yourself. Features illustrations by the author throughout. Perfect for readers of Rainbow Rowell’s Fangirl, this is the second novel by the acclaimed author of Made You Up.

In the real world, Eliza Mirk is shy, weird, smart, and friendless. Online, Eliza is LadyConstellation, the anonymous creator of a popular webcomic called Monstrous Sea. With millions of followers and fans throughout the world, Eliza’s persona is popular. Eliza can’t imagine enjoying the real world as much as she loves her digital community. Then Wallace Warland transfers to her school, and Eliza begins to wonder if a life offline might be worthwhile. But when Eliza’s secret is accidentally shared with the world, everything she’s built—her story, her relationship with Wallace, and even her sanity—begins to fall apart. With pages from Eliza’s webcomic, as well as screenshots from Eliza’s online forums, this uniquely formatted book will appeal to fans of Noelle Stevenson’s Nimona and Rainbow Rowell’s Fangirl."

OK, yes, I did first go, oooooh, the title! But the description sounds cool as well...

Ex Libris: Stories of Librarians, Libraries and Lore edited by Paul Guran
Published by: Prime Books
Publication Date: May 30th, 2017
Format: Paperback, 384 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"Portals to all the knowledge in the world, libraries are also created universes of a multitude of imaginations. Librarians guide us to enlightenment as well as serving as the captains, mages, and gatekeepers who open the doors to delight, speculation, wonder, and terror. Both inspire writers of speculative fiction to pen wonderful tales woven around them.

This captivating compilation of science fiction and fantasy short fiction showcases stories of librarians-mysterious curators, heroic bibliognosts, arcane archivists, catalogers of very special collections-and libraries-repositories of arcane wisdom, storehouses of signals from other galaxies, bastions of culture, the last outposts of civilization in a post-apocalyptic world . . . grand adventures and small sagas of the magical places we call libraries and the wizards who staff them!"

Even IF this collection didn't have all the authors it did, seriously, it's about libraries, I'm in. 

Aunt Dimity and the Widow's Curse by Nancy Atherton
Published by: Viking
Publication Date: May 30th, 2017
Format: Hardcover, 240 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"Nancy Atherton's twenty-second cozy mystery in the beloved, nationally bestselling Aunt Dimity series.

It's early April in the small English village of Finch. Lori Shepherd's husband and sons are spending Easter break camping, and Lori is perfectly happy to be left at home with Bess, spared a week of roughing it with a curious toddler. The two attend a village events committee meeting and Lori is astonished when the elderly, soft-spoken widow Mrs. Annabelle Craven stands to make an announcement: she's decided to hold a quilting bee in the old schoolhouse.

At the quilting bee, Lori ends up seated beside Mrs. Craven, delighted at the opportunity to learn more about her neighbor's life in the village of Old Cowerton. But dear, sweet Mrs. Craven's stories reveal a startling secret about her first husband's death.

With Aunt Dimity's advice, Lori sets out to learn the truth about what the residents of Old Cowerton refer to as the "widow's curse"--and the deeper she digs, the more horrifying the tale becomes, until she discovers the most astounding revelation of all."

Aunt Dimity, the female and dead Inspector Barnaby of Midsomer Murders. 

The Descent of Man by Grayson Perry
Published by: Penguin Books
Publication Date: May 30th, 2017
Format: Paperback, 160 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"What does it mean to be male in the 21st Century? Award-winning artist Grayson Perry explores what masculinity is: from sex to power, from fashion to career prospects, and what it could become—with illustrations throughout.

In this witty and necessary new book, artist Grayson Perry trains his keen eye on the world of men to ask, what sort of man would make the world a better place? What would happen if we rethought the macho, outdated version of manhood, and embraced a different ideal? In the current atmosphere of bullying, intolerance and misogyny, demonstrated in the recent Trump versus Clinton presidential campaign, The Descent of Man is a timely and essential addition to current conversations around gender.

Apart from gaining vast new wardrobe options, the real benefit might be that a newly fitted masculinity will allow men to have better relationships—and that’s happiness, right? Grayson Perry admits he’s not immune from the stereotypes himself—yet his thoughts on everything from power to physical appearance, from emotions to a brand new Manifesto for Men, are shot through with honesty, tenderness, and the belief that, for everyone to benefit, updating masculinity has to be something men decide to do themselves. They have nothing to lose but their hang-ups."

I'll admit I didn't know who Grayson Perry was until recently. Then I watched him on Graham Norton, and damn, so intelligent and witty. So yes, I'm picking up this book!

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments  

Labels: Aunt Dimity, Eliza and Her Monsters, Ex Libris, Francesca Zappia, Graham Norton, Grayson Perry, John Scalzi, Nancy Atherton, Novella, Richard Chizmar, Stephen King, The Descent of Man, The Dispatcher

The Final Solution by Michael Chabon
Published by: HarperCollins
Publication Date: November 9th, 2004
Format: Hardcover, 131 Pages
Rating: ★★
To Buy (different edition than one reviewed)

Sherlock Holmes is retired to the South Downs where he doesn't concern himself with more than his bees and not falling over some detritus in his house and dying ignominiously. But one day he is intrigued when he sees a young boy with a parrot on his shoulder walking down the railway tracks. He observes the boy is about to urinate on the third rail and rushes as fast as his feeble frame will allow him to stop this dangerous pursuit. The boy doesn't answer to his shouts, yet the parrot does, issuing a long string of numbers in German. Curiouser and curiouser. It turns out that the young boy Linus is a Jewish refuge living at the Vicarage, which the Panickers also run as a boarding house. There the parrot has excited some of the residents and his strings of numerals are believed to be more than random. In fact the parrot's abilities are of interest to more people than just those in the South Downs... could the numbers in fact mean something to the war effort? When one of the Panickers's lodgers is brutally murdered and the parrot goes missing with young Reggie Panicker as chief suspect, the local police think perhaps it is time to consult the great detective himself. Holmes agrees to help. Not out of concern for Reggie Panicker or for the war effort or to stop a murderer, his bees are all that he really cares about. He agrees to help to reunite the young boy with his parrot. Because if ever there were two creatures more in need of each other it is this young boy and his bird. If he happens to solve the murder and the mystery of the numbers along the way, well, that's why he was at one time the greatest consulting detective in the world. A world which has now radically changed.

I'm fairly confident that The Final Solution became the "must read" book for me almost ten years ago because of a really good blurb in the Bas Bleu catalog. The problem with the Bas Bleu catalog is that they are masters of writing the perfect precise that makes you not just want to, but need to read the book they are selling. I have had Bas Bleu backlash many a time, most memorably with Agatha Christie's Endless Night. Yet the Endless Night debacle was in my future at this point, and so I excitedly curled up on a summer's day on my side porch to delve into The Final Solution; where I instantly felt I needed to be reading the book with a dictionary constantly open. My initial feelings were that Chabon was a little too self-impressed with his ability to obfuscate his story while simultaneously being a bit of a show-off. For some reason, despite what should be viewed as negatives, because a writer shouldn't try to make his book inaccessible, I was left with this impression that The Final Solution was a masterpiece that I just couldn't fully understand or appreciate. Flash forward almost a decade, with all the expanded knowledge and vocab that time can bring to a voracious reader and I now see the truth. This is a self-indulgent novella that exudes smug self-importance. Just because a book is dense and impenetrable to the point of incomprehensibility doesn't mean it's good and you are the problem in the equation. It means you need to look closer at the book and realize that the dense narrative might be hiding the author's smug self-satisfaction in plain sight. The purposeful use of obscure and highfalutin language combined with the "gimmick" to never actually state outright that this book is about Sherlock Holmes and only deal in allusions and asides makes this book smack of pretension and alienates the reader. A book should service the story NOT the ego of the writer, and hence this book is a failure.

Finally being able to see beyond the veil of academic and writerly gimmickry you see that all it did was mask the problems of the story. The major problem is that this isn't an ode to Conan Doyle but more posturing by Chabon. The LEAST Chabon could have done is capture the essence of Holmes in the slightest. Instead this book seems to intentionally set out to be the exact opposite of all things Holmes and Conan Doyle. Conan Doyle is a writer that is only occasionally melodramatic when writing as Watson, but he is never superfluous. If he is writing as Holmes, as is the case in two of his short stories, the language is terse and to the point. The Final Solution, being in the waning days of Sherlock Holmes, would obviously be written from Holmes's POV, and therefore would necessitate Holmes's narration style. Yet here Chabon luxuriates in description and verbiage. The actual plot could be summed up by Holmes or Watson in a couple of sentences, but it's spun out for 131 pages! This wallowing in the unnecessary and insignificant might be a nice idyl for a writing exercise, but not for a story which suffers under these pretensions. Plus, I don't know if it's just me, but there's a reason Conan Doyle didn't write Holmes into his dotage, aside from being sick of writing him, and that's because no one wants to see the great and mighty struggling to get out of a chair. Yes it might be interesting if handled properly, like the recent film Mr. Holmes, but here it isn't handled properly or reverently like it should be. It's all just Chabon showing off. But what got under my skin more than anything was that while he peppers the book with allusions to Holmes's great works at the end Chabon doesn't understand Holmes. He got him so wrong. "The business of detection has for so many years been caught up with questions of remuneration and reward that although he was by now long beyond such concerns he felt, with surprising vigor, that the boy owed him the payment of a smile." Holmes rarely took any form of payment! I can think of one, maybe two times that entered into it, in ALL of his adventures. All SIXTY of them. As for a reward? He liberally gave all the credit away to different police officers. Gaw! Just SO WRONG!

The Final Problem could have been a sweet little story about a boy and his parrot, but the need to make the story ostensibly about Sherlock Holmes, though remember he's never directly named, derails the tale and drags it out. To make a book of only 131 pages seem overly long is a true talent that Chabon should be congratulated on. Instead of focusing on the relationship of the boy and his bird, we suffer through long reminiscences of what it is to be old and dying. Oh, and not just dying, but to die in an ignominious way. To die sprawled out in an inglorious way that would be very embarrassing for one's reputation, though technically you shouldn't care because, you know, you're dead. The reason I think The Final Solution would have been more successful concentrating on Linus is that you forge a connection with the boy. You never really make a connection to Holmes. Holmes is a character of wonder and magic, and to make him old and feeble, it stripes the character of what connection the reader had. Dwelling on his various daydreams of death doesn't help us connect either. There is only one time you feel a connection to Holmes and the man he was and that's when he journeys back to London in search of Linus's bird. London was the epicenter of Holmes's world. This is a city that bowed down to his greatness and the villains were in constant fear of him. Now London is no longer the place he rules but a place he no longer recognizes. With the onslaught of the Germans he expected to see the city in ashes, and one wonders if perhaps he actually wished this to be true. That London, without the great Sherlock Holmes, had ceased to exist. That it's very lifeblood no longer flowed because of his exodus. Instead there is destruction, but more then that, new buildings, new life, all the new that he doesn't know. He knew this city like the back of his hand, every alley and every bolthole. To see that the city moved on, changed while his knowledge didn't, is the first and only time in the book you feel what it's like to be Holmes, the pinnacle of the previous discarded century.

Going back to Linus and his parrot, I can not express how much a story concentrating only on the two of them would have succeeded. Their relationship is a connection between two souls. When you are young and form a connection to an animal something magical happens. It's not that you're just kindred spirits, you are each others soul mates. Chabon so eloquently describes this connection with the looks exchanged between the two, the way the boy mummers to his parrot and the way the parrot ruffles Linus's hair, that it's almost painful in it's beauty. I had this relationship once with my little cat Spot. We met when I was only eight and we were together for twenty-two years. He was my best friend, my confidant, my better half. He was everything and I see that relationship mirrored in this book. This is the heart and while to an extent it is also the driving force of the narrative, it's too often relegated to the sidelines to actually keep your interest. But to look at their relationship further, I can't help but think about how this bird is truly a service animal. The boy is effectively a mute and is therefore viewed as developmentally disabled by many of the people in the community where he lives. So much study has gone into the aid animals can give to children who are autistic or have learning disabilities, and here we have a story that shows the depth of these connections and how they work yet it is constantly pushed aside. The most interestingly narrated chapter in the book is when the parrot's POV is explored. Here we get more insight into his relationship with Linus, but again this is second fiddle to the importance of the crime committed. Chabon, I am totally calling you out. You set this up so well and had such an opportunity and you wasted it time and time again to indulge yourself and not serve the story or the characters. Get with it already. Edit, rewrite this and get back to me.

Yet the biggest flaw in the book has nothing to do with the story, it has to do with the illustrations. Jay Ryan created a memorable and unique cover, but his interior illustrations leave something to be desired. They feel unfinished and childish, which is the exact opposite of the story whose language is so polished it almost blinds you and is very adult in nature. Seriously, only an adult could have the vocabulary to get through this book not to mention the themes of aging, persecution, espionage, and murder. I am a graphic designer and have done many illustrations. Illustrations are different than regular drawings, they are there to accompany and add insight to the text. They REFLECT the text. Image and words in a symbiotic relationship that is balanced. Here it's not balanced. Stupid childish drawings that you could argue were to capture the childishness of Linus, but I refute that argument. Linus doesn't live in the world of a child and the things he's seen make him unique. Therefore dumbing down the illustrations doesn't enhance his viewpoint, it harms it. While the style of writing and the narrative annoyed me to no end, there is a beauty in the images that Chabon conjures up. There is a lushness in the text that is completely derailed by these technical and awkward images. This isn't how the words make this world appear. If anything these images are 100% the exact opposite of what I see in my mind's eye while reading this book. While most people will probably just flip to the next page ignoring the images, I can't. They are a stumbling block that brings down the book even lower in my estimations. Quite literally you start the book thinking it will be amazing, a five star tour de force. Then Holmes is introduced and mishandled, then the drawings start showing up, then this, then that, and you are left with a book that could have been something magical, but isn't. Not in the least.

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments  

Labels: Agatha Christie, Arthur Conan Doyle, Bas Bleu, Endless Night, Illustration, Michael Chabon, Mr. Holmes, Novella, Parrots, Pretentious, Sherlock Holmes, Sherlocked, South Downs, Spot, Watson, WWII

The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner by Stephenie Meyer
Published by: Little Brown
Publication Date: June 5th, 2010
Format: Hardcover, 192 Pages
To Buy
The official patter:
"Fans of The Twilight Saga will be enthralled by this riveting story of Bree Tanner, a character first introduced in Eclipse, and the darker side of the newborn vampire world she inhabits. In another irresistible combination of danger, mystery, and romance, Stephenie Meyer tells the devastating story of Bree and the newborn army as they prepare to close in on Bella Swan and the Cullens, following their encounter to its unforgettable conclusion."

Even though I'm not technically a Twilight fan (read the books, they were ok, kindda digging the movies though in a cultural studies way, and I need something till the next Harry Potter ok?) I really could not not mention that which is getting such big press and pr. Yes it's a new Twlight book, yes I will read it, and yes, it will be a bestseller. What more is there to say? Oh, except I love the novella format.

Posted by Miss Eliza at 3:45 PM 2 comments  

Labels: Novella, Stephenie Meyer, The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner, Twilight