strange and random happenstance

Career of Evil by Robert Galbraith
Published by: Mulholland Books
Publication Date: September 20th, 2015
Format: Hardcover, 492 Pages
Rating: ★★★★★
To Buy

Robin Ellacot's life is about to change. It has changed many times over the last year, professionally from taking a job as Cormoran Strike's secretary and gaining his confidence, allowing her to tail clients as a full fledged investigator, and personally, from getting engaged to Matthew to Matthew's mother dying thus resulting in their wedding being postponed. She has swung with the punches and has everything under control. When she arrives at work one day there's a package addressed to her and she's confident it's just another item on her checklist for wedding prep. She couldn't be more wrong. Within the box is a severed woman's leg along with a Blue Öyster Cult quote from "Mistress of the Salmon Salt (Quicklime Girl.)" While the package was addressed to her it is obviously a message for Cormoran. The leg, severed just as his was, the song, a favorite of his mother's. Cormoran has many enemies in his past, but there are four capable of such cruelty and perversity; Terrence 'Digger' Malley, a mobster, Noel Brockbank, a pedophile whom Strike investigated when he was in SIB, Donald Laing, a domestic abuser whom Strike had locked up, and his number one suspect, Jeff Whittaker, his stepfather whom he believes responsible for his mother's death. Who else but his stepfather would quote that specific song?

The police though think the mobster Malley is their number one suspect and don't follow up on the other leads. Which leaves it up to Cormoran and Robin to track down the other three suspects. Because Cormoran knows he's prejudiced to his stepfather he won't eliminate the other two until he has conclusive evidence one way or the other. But that doesn't stop the memories from flooding in. The horror of the bedsit, finding his mother dead, the trial that acquitted Whittaker. Cormoran, Robin, and even Matthew are being haunted by their pasts, but whose past will prove deadly? When Robin starts to become the focus of the killer her inability to step back from the case leads to a rupture with Matthew while simultaneously bringing her and Cormoran closer together. They travel the length and breath of England trying to track down these three disturbed men, yet perhaps the world of body dysmorphia and those who want to be handicapped and amputated is the most disturbing of all. Especially to Cormoran who can't see why anyone wouldn't want two functioning legs. As the bodies pile up the stakes get higher and the danger more immediate. Can they find the killer before he gets to one of them or are all three men guilty of something and will stop at nothing to protect their secrets?

When J.K. Rowling was revealed to be Robert Galbraith the first book in the Cormoran Strike series, The Cuckoo's Calling, instantly moved up my to be read list, though I take a little bit of pride in the fact that it was on my to be read list prior to the reveal. The first book introduces us to her cast of characters and a crime that needs to be solved, but it's quickly apparent that Rowling is more interested in the characters than the crime. Which is fine, as long as the balance is correct. There needs to be enough of a connection between the characters and the crime in order for them to jointly propel the narrative. This balance wasn't achieved until Career of Evil, the third book in the series. The first two books deal with celebrity and the literary world, which is personal, for Rowling, only tangentially so for Strike. Therefore to have such a personal story, a crime so entangled with Cormoran and Robin, the series not only reached it's zenith, it reached it's full potential. To have fallen in love with these two characters over the course of this series but to have that feeling that their journey could be so much more, to feel the wasted potential, it was almost painful to read. But if I were to compare this series to Rowling's far more famous wizarding series, there too the third volume is where it all clicked for me. So in the future, if Rowling ever starts another series under her own or another name, remind me to give her until the third installment to pass judgment.

Cormoran's relationship with Robin has benefited from this slow burn of narrative construction. In the very first book, almost from the second Cormoran meets Robin, he says to himself that their relationship can only ever be platonic, despite her looks, her talents, and that dress he got her. She is with Matthew, and that is that. Therefore as a reader you also put it out of your mind. They are colleagues nothing more. They will not fall prey to the "Moonlighting Effect!" Yet having just watched all of Moonlighting again, you can clearly see how they failed. The constant bait and switch, the characters acting out of character, and finally just trying to deny there ever was any chemistry to begin with. Here we have seen strangers become friends become colleagues and maybe, one day, they will become something more. When Robin temporarily breaks things off with Matthew and is more and more with Cormoran, she wonders, he wonders, we all wonder, could this be the first step? So while there has been a little of that Moonlighting frisson sprinkled into this latest installment, I kind of do and don't want something to happen. But what I did want was to luxuriate in each and every page as I went on this journey with a couple who might never become a couple...

Because Robin has a complicated past. Long hinted at and finally revealed. I applaud that Robin's assault in college shows what a strong person she is. Yes, she dropped out of college and retreated into herself and stays with Matthew because he's "safe." Yet at the same time she was able to pay attention when she was attacked and came forward to be the key witness to send the rapist to prison. This is such a key insight into Robin's personality. She preservers despite whatever odds are stacked against her. She wants to fight for what is right, she wants to catch the bad guys, she wants to be there, at Cormoran's side, not hiding away in a bedroom staring at the same four walls day in and day out. Despite being published three years before the launch of the #MeToo movement, Robin's story shows us strength through pain. She has taken what many still unjustly view as a stigma and didn't let it define her but let it inform who she became. Before this revelation of hers I didn't so much wonder why she left college, there are myriad reasons for people to do so, but I did often wonder what Robin the psychologist would have been like. Would she have been able to help people in as tangible a method as she does with Cormoran? Or did her attack lead her to the life she was meant to lead? Of course, this is a book so it's all staged to be fate, but to me Robin is real and she's a survivor who has come into her own.

Switching gears, for all those people out there who don't read books and instead wait for them to be adapted into movies or TV series I have to really restrain myself from beating them about the head and instead I will take the higher ground and tell them why sometimes books are better for certain narrative techniques. There are things you can do in a book that just don't work in a visual medium. For example the trope of seeing through a killer's eyes works so much better in prose versus tricky POV shots and shaky camera angles on screen where we see their lair or their next victim between some foliage. It's not just that it's a cliche, it's that sometimes it plays the final hand without the filmmakers really realizing it. I will take the movie Kiss the Girls as an example. Now hopefully you won't get mad at me for spoiling a film that came out over twenty years ago based on a book by James Patterson from 1995, but you've had ample chances to watch it before now and if you're honest with yourself, you would have seen it sometime in the last twenty years if you really wanted to. So, my mom was watching the opening of the movie and the killer is narrating, and I said, "I didn't know Cary Elwes was in the movie." So the ending was ruined because I recognized the killer's voice... That can't happen in books! There's so much more tension not knowing and not inadvertently spoiling it for yourself. Books for the win!

Also, Rowling, I mean, Galbraith, doesn't just know the tropes and what works better when, she revels in toying with the reader. The use of red herrings in Career of Evil is masterful, because some are made purposefully obvious and others are hidden, but all the while you're thinking, is this a red herring or is this something else? While red herrings are traditionally thought of as just misleading information that has to be worked through in order solve the crime they are also meant as a distraction. Here's something shiny, is it important? And I was like a cat, pouncing on every single one and playing with it, holding it up to the light, wondering, is this a real clue, gnawing on it a bit, and eventually just waiting for the next one to show up and start me thinking all over again. Even the title of the book is a red herring! The song "Career of Evil" by Blue Öyster Cult makes you think that only one of the three suspects that Cormoran has fingered could possibly be the perpetrator, and Galbraith toys with that assumption again and again. For over four hundred pages the three suspects are deftly juggled with red herrings so that you never know where the finger will finally point. This made me devour this book late into the night wanting to know the answer but at the same time hoping it would never end. Thankfully I have Lethal White now lined up...

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:01 AM 0 comments  

Labels: #MeToo, Blue Öyster Cult, Career of Evil, Cary Elwes, Cormoran Strike, James Patterson, Kiss the Girls, Lethal White, Moonlighting, Red Herrings, Robert Galbraith, Robin Ellacot, Ten Years, The Cuckoo's Calling

Career of Evil by Robert Galbraith
Published by: Mulholland Books
Publication Date: September 20th, 2015
Format: Hardcover, 492 Pages
Rating: ★★★★★
To Buy

Robin Ellacot's life is about to change. It has changed many times over the last year, professionally from taking a job as Cormoran Strike's secretary to gaining his confidence, allowing her to tail clients as a full fledged investigator, and personally, from getting engaged to Matthew to Matthew's mother dying thus resulting in their wedding being postponed. She has swung with the punches and has everything under control. When she arrives at work one day there's a package addressed to her and she's confident it's just another item on her checklist for wedding prep. She couldn't be more wrong. Within the box is a severed woman's leg along with a Blue Öyster Cult quote from "Mistress of the Salmon Salt (Quicklime Girl.)" While the package was addressed to her it is obviously a message for Cormoran. The leg, severed just as his was, the song, a favorite of his mother's. Cormoran has many enemies in his past, but there are four capable of such cruelty and perversity; Terrence 'Digger' Malley, a mobster, Noel Brockbank, a pedophile whom Strike investigated when he was in SIB, Donald Laing, a domestic abuser whom Strike had locked up, and his number one suspect, Jeff Whittaker, his stepfather whom he believes responsible for his mother's death. Who else but his stepfather would quote that specific song?

The police though think the mobster Malley is their number one suspect and don't follow up on the other leads. Which leaves it up to Cormoran and Robin to track down the other three suspects. Because Cormoran knows he's prejudiced to his stepfather he won't eliminate the other two until he has conclusive evidence one way or the other. But that doesn't stop the memories from flooding in. The horror of the bedsit, finding his mother dead, the trial that acquitted Whittaker. Cormoran, Robin, and even Matthew are being haunted by their pasts, but whose past will prove deadly? When Robin starts to become the focus of the killer her inability to step back from the case leads to a rupture with Matthew while simultaneously bringing her and Cormoran closer together. They travel the length and breath of England trying to track down these three disturbed men, yet perhaps the world of body dysmorphia and those who want to be handicapped and amputated is the most disturbing of all. Especially to Cormoran who can't see why anyone wouldn't want two functioning legs. As the bodies pile up the stakes get higher and the danger more immediate. Can they find the killer before he gets to one of them or are all three men guilty of something and will stop at nothing to protect their secrets?

When J.K. Rowling was revealed to be Robert Galbraith the first book in the Cormoran Strike series, The Cuckoo's Calling, instantly moved up my to be read list, though I take a little bit of pride in the fact that it was on my to be read list prior to the reveal. The first book introduces us to her cast of characters and a crime that needs to be solved, but it's quickly apparent that Rowling is more interested in the characters than the crime. Which is fine, as long as the balance is correct. There needs to be enough of a connection between the characters and the crime in order for them to jointly propel the narrative. This balance wasn't achieved until Career of Evil, the third book in the series. The first two books deal with celebrity and the literary world, which is personal, for Rowling, only tangentially so for Strike. Therefore to have such a personal story, a crime so entangled with Cormoran and Robin, the series not only reached it's zenith, it reached it's full potential. To have fallen in love with these two characters over the course of this series but to have that feeling that their journey could be so much more, to feel the wasted potential, it was almost painful to read. But if I were to compare this series to Rowling's far more famous wizarding series, there too the third volume is where it all clicked for me. So in the future, if Rowling ever starts another series under her own or another name, remind me to give her until the third installment to pass judgment.

Cormoran's relationship with Robin has benefited from this slow burn of narrative construction. In the very first book, almost from the second Cormoran meets Robin, he says to himself that their relationship can only ever be platonic, despite her looks, her talents, and that dress he got her. She is with Matthew, and that is that. Therefore as a reader you also put it out of your mind. They are colleagues nothing more. They will not fall prey to the "Moonlighting Effect!" Yet having just watched all of Moonlighting again, you can clearly see how they failed. The constant bait and switch, the characters acting out of character, and finally just trying to deny there ever was any chemistry to begin with. Here we have seen strangers become friends become colleagues and maybe, one day, they will become something more. When Robin temporarily breaks things off with Matthew and is more and more with Cormoran, she wonders, he wonders, we all wonder, could this be the first step? So while there has been a little of that Moonlighting frisson sprinkled into this latest installment, I kind of do and don't want something to happen. But what I did want was to luxuriate in each and every page as I went on this journey with a couple who might never become a couple...

Because Robin has a complicated past. Long hinted at and finally revealed. I applaud that Robin's assault in college shows what a strong person she is. Yes, she dropped out of college and retreated into herself and stays with Matthew because he's "safe." Yet at the same time she was able to pay attention when she was attacked and come forward and be the key witness to send the rapist to prison. This is such a key insight into Robin's personality. She preservers despite whatever odds are stacked against her. She wants to fight for what is right, she wants to catch the bad guys, she wants to be there, at Cormoran's side, not hiding away in a bedroom staring at the same four walls day in and day out. Despite being published three years before the launch of the #MeToo movement, Robin's story shows us strength through pain. She has taken what many still unjustly view as a stigma and didn't let it define her but let it inform who she became. Before this revelation of hers I didn't so much wonder why she left college, there are myriad reasons for people to do so, but I did often wonder what Robin the psychologist would have been like. Would she have been able to help people in as tangible a method as she does with Cormoran? Or did her attack lead her to the life she was meant to lead? Of course, this is a book so it's all staged to be fate, but to me, Robin is real, and she's a survivor who has come into her own.

Switching gears, for all those people out there who don't read books and instead wait for them to be adapted into movies or TV series I have to really restrain myself from beating them about the head and instead I will take the higher ground and tell them why sometimes books are better for certain narrative techniques. There are things you can do in a book that just don't work in a visual medium. For example the trope of seeing through a killer's eyes works so much better in prose versus tricky POV shots and shaky camera angles on screen where we see their lair or their next victim between some foliage. It's not just that it's a cliche, it's that sometimes it plays the final hand without the filmmakers really realizing it. I will take the movie Kiss the Girls as an example. Now hopefully you won't get mad at me for spoiling a film that came out over twenty years ago based on a book by James Patterson from 1995, but you've had ample chances to watch it before now and if you're honest with yourself, you would have seen it sometime in the last twenty years if you really wanted to. So, my mom was watching the opening of the movie and the killer is narrating, and I said, "I didn't know Cary Elwes was in the movie." So the ending was ruined because I recognized the killer's voice... That can't happen in books! There's so much more tension not knowing and not inadvertently spoiling it for yourself. Books for the win!

Also, Rowling, I mean, Galbraith, doesn't just know the tropes and what works better when, she revels in toying with the reader. The use of red herrings in Career of Evil is masterful, because some are made purposefully obvious and others are hidden, but all the while you're thinking, is this a red herring or is this something else? While red herrings are traditionally thought of as just misleading information that has to be worked through in order solve the crime they are also meant as a distraction. Here's something shiny, is it important? And I was like a cat, pouncing on every single one and playing with it, holding it up to the light, wondering, is this a real clue, gnawing on it a bit, and eventually just waiting for the next one to show up and start me thinking all over again. Even the title of the book is a red herring! The song "Career of Evil" by Blue Öyster Cult makes you think that only one of the three suspects that Cormoran has fingered could possibly be the perpetrator, and Galbraith toys with that assumption again and again. For over four hundred pages the three suspects are deftly juggled with red herrings so that you never know where the finger will finally point. This made me devour this book late into the night wanting to know the answer but at the same time hoping it would never end. Thankfully I have Lethal White now lined up...

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments  

Labels: #MeToo, Blue Öyster Cult, Career of Evil, Cary Elwes, Cormoran Strike, James Patterson, Kiss the Girls, Lethal White, Moonlighting, Red Herrings, Robert Galbraith, Robin Ellacot, The Cuckoo's Calling

Lethal White by Robert Galbraith
Published by: Mulholland Books
Publication Date: September 18th, 2018
Format: Hardcover, 656 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"Lethal White is the fourth book in the Cormoran Strike series from the international bestselling author Robert Galbraith.

“I seen a kid killed…He strangled it, up by the horse.”

When Billy, a troubled young man, comes to private eye Cormoran Strike’s office to ask for his help investigating a crime he thinks he witnessed as a child, Strike is left deeply unsettled. While Billy is obviously mentally distressed, and cannot remember many concrete details, there is something sincere about him and his story. But before Strike can question him further, Billy bolts from his office in a panic.

Trying to get to the bottom of Billy’s story, Strike and Robin Ellacott - once his assistant, now a partner in the agency - set off on a twisting trail that leads them through the backstreets of London, into a secretive inner sanctum within Parliament, and to a beautiful but sinister manor house deep in the countryside.

And during this labyrinthine investigation, Strike’s own life is far from straightforward: his newfound fame as a private eye means he can no longer operate behind the scenes as he once did. Plus, his relationship with his former assistant is more fraught than it ever has been - Robin is now invaluable to Strike in the business, but their personal relationship is much, much trickier than that.

The most epic Robert Galbraith novel yet, Lethal White is both a gripping mystery and a page-turning next installment in the ongoing story of Cormoran Strike and Robin Ellacott."

I wasn't fully on the whole J.K. Rowling/Robert Galbraith bandwagon until earlier this year, but now I'm all in and CAN NOT WAIT for this next installment. The problem will be the waiting for the next after I devour Lethal White in a matter of days... 

Black Diamond Fall by Joseph Olshan
Published by: Polis Books
Publication Date: September 18th, 2018
Format: Hardcover, 304 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"From the acclaimed author of Clara's Heart and Cloudland comes a rich, literary mystery based and united by two real events that occurred at Middlebury College; the disappearance of a student during winter break; and the vandalism of the Robert Frost Homestead located on one of the outer campuses.

Luc Flanders has just finished playing a game of pond hockey with his college roommates when he realizes he has lost something precious and goes back to the ice to find it. He never returns, and the police department in Middlebury, Vermont are divided in their assessment of what may have happened to him. Some feel that Flanders left on his own accord and is deliberately out of touch. Others, including detectives Nick Jenkins and Helen Kennedy, suspect that harm may have come to him. As the search for Luc Flanders widens and intensifies, suspicions about several different people, including his Middlebury College roommates and ex-girlfriend arise. Unfortunately, Sam Solomon an older man with whom Luc has been having a secret relationship, cannot prove his whereabouts during the hours when the younger man may have disappeared and Solomon, too, comes under suspicion.

As Luke Flanders disappears, the Robert Frost house near the Middlebury campus is vandalized. And there seems to be a link between the two events that the police are determined to discover. Alternating points of view between Luc Flanders Sam Solomon, Luc’s mother and detective Nick Jenkins, Black Diamond Fall races to a disturbing and astonishing conclusion in a lush, literary mystery that could only come from the mind of acclaimed author Joseph Olshan."

I was sold on the linked real events!

Wychwood - Hallowdene by George Mann
Published by: Titan Books
Publication Date: September 18th, 2018
Format: Paperback, 336 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"Former London journalist Elspeth Reeves is trying to carve a new life for herself in the sleepy Oxfordshire countryside, until she's sent to cover the excavation of a notorious local witch's grave. Three hundred years ago, her name mixed up with murder and black magic, Agnes Levett was hanged and then buried under an immense stone, to prevent her spirit from ever rising again. Elspeth investigates, but soon finds there is far more to the old tale than meets the eye, as the surrounding area is rocked by a series of mysterious and brutal murders, all of people somehow connected with the dig. She and her childhood friend DS Peter Shaw race to uncover the truth, but secrets lain buried for centuries are not easily discovered."

I have literally had George's new book preordered from the second I could. I can't wait to dive into this book that's so timely for this season...

Labyrinth of the Spirits by Carlos Ruiz Zafon
Published by: Harper
Publication Date: September 18th, 2018
Format: Hardcover, 816 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"The internationally acclaimed, New York Times bestselling author returns to the magnificent universe he constructed in his bestselling novels The Shadow of the Wind, The Angel’s Game, and The Prisoner of Heaven in this riveting series finale—a heart-pounding thriller and nail-biting work of suspense which introduces a sexy, seductive new heroine whose investigation shines a light on the dark history of Franco’s Spain.

In this unforgettable final volume of Ruiz Zafón’s cycle of novels set in the universe of the Cemetery of Forgotten Books, beautiful and enigmatic Alicia Gris, with the help of the Sempere family, uncovers one of the most shocking conspiracies in all Spanish history.

Nine-year-old Alicia lost her parents during the Spanish Civil War when the Nacionales (the fascists) savagely bombed Barcelona in 1938. Twenty years later, she still carries the emotional and physical scars of that violent and terrifying time. Weary of her work as an investigator for Spain’s secret police in Madrid, a job she has held for more than a decade, the twenty-nine-year old plans to move on. At the insistence of her boss, Leandro Montalvo, she remains to solve one last case: the mysterious disappearance of Spain’s Minister of Culture, Mauricio Valls.

With her partner, the intimidating policeman Juan Manuel Vargas, Alicia discovers a possible clue—a rare book by the author Victor Mataix hidden in Valls’ office in his Madrid mansion. Valls was the director of the notorious Montjuic Prison in Barcelona during World War II where several writers were imprisoned, including David Martín and Victor Mataix. Traveling to Barcelona on the trail of these writers, Alicia and Vargas meet with several booksellers, including Juan Sempere, who knew her parents.

As Alicia and Vargas come closer to finding Valls, they uncover a tangled web of kidnappings and murders tied to the Franco regime, whose corruption is more widespread and horrifying than anyone imagined. Alicia’s courageous and uncompromising search for the truth puts her life in peril. Only with the help of a circle of devoted friends will she emerge from the dark labyrinths of Barcelona and its history into the light of the future.

In this haunting new novel, Carlos Ruiz Zafón proves yet again that he is a masterful storyteller and pays homage to the world of books, to his ingenious creation of the Cemetery of Forgotten, and to that magical bridge between literature and our lives."

While I wasn't blown away by the first book in this series, it has stuck with me enough that I really want to check out the rest of the series, this being the newest installment with, easily, the best cover.

Escaping from Houdini by Kerri Maniscalco
Published by: jimmy patterson
Publication Date: September 18th, 2018
Format: Hardcover, 448 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"The #1 New York Times bestselling series that started with Stalking Jack the Ripper and Hunting Prince Dracula continues in this third bloody installment! A luxurious ocean liner becomes a floating prison of madness and horror when passengers are murdered one by one...with nowhere to run from the killer.

Audrey Rose Wadsworth and her partner-in-crime-investigation, Thomas Cresswell, are en route to New York to help solve another blood-soaked mystery. Embarking on a week-long voyage across the Atlantic on the opulent RMS Etruria, they're delighted to discover a traveling troupe of circus performers, fortune tellers, and a certain charismatic young escape artist entertaining the first-class passengers nightly.

But then, privileged young women begin to go missing without explanation, and a series of brutal slayings shocks the entire ship. The disturbing influence of the Moonlight Carnival pervades the decks as the murders grow ever more freakish, with nowhere to escape except the unforgiving sea. It's up to Audrey Rose and Thomas to piece together the gruesome investigation as even more passengers die before reaching their destination. But with clues to the next victim pointing to someone she loves, can Audrey Rose unravel the mystery before the killer's horrifying finale?"

I've had Houdini on my mind lately...

Time's Convert by Deborah Harkness
Published by: Viking
Publication Date: September 18th, 2018
Format: Hardcover, 448 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"From the #1 New York Times bestselling author of A Discovery of Witches, a novel about what it takes to become a vampire.

On the battlefields of the American Revolution, Matthew de Clermont meets Marcus MacNeil, a young surgeon from Massachusetts, during a moment of political awakening when it seems that the world is on the brink of a brighter future. When Matthew offers him a chance at immortality and a new life free from the restraints of his puritanical upbringing, Marcus seizes the opportunity to become a vampire. But his transformation is not an easy one and the ancient traditions and responsibilities of the de Clermont family clash with Marcus's deeply held beliefs in liberty, equality, and brotherhood.

Fast-forward to contemporary Paris, where Phoebe Taylor - the young employee at Sotheby's whom Marcus has fallen for - is about to embark on her own journey to immortality. Though the modernized version of the process at first seems uncomplicated, the couple discovers that the challenges facing a human who wishes to be a vampire are no less formidable than they were in the eighteenth century. The shadows that Marcus believed he'd escaped centuries ago may return to haunt them both - forever.

A passionate love story and a fascinating exploration of the power of tradition and the possibilities not just for change but for revolution, Time's Convert channels the supernatural world-building and slow-burning romance that made the All Souls Trilogy instant bestsellers to illuminate a new and vital moment in history, and a love affair that will bridge centuries."

Let's go back to the universe of Deborah Harkness shall we?

The Good Demon by Jimmy Cajoleas
Published by: Amulet Books
Publication Date: September 18th, 2018
Format: Hardcover, 320 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"It wasn’t technically an exorcism, what they did to Clare. When the reverend and his son ripped her demon from her, they called it a “deliverance.” But they didn’t understand that Clare and her demon - known simply as Her - were like sisters. She comforted Clare, made her feel brave, helped to ease her loneliness. They were each other’s Only.

Now, Clare’s only comforts are the three clues that She left behind:
Be nice to him
June 20
Remember the stories

Clare will do anything to get Her back, even if it means teaming up with the reverend’s son and scouring every inch of her small, Southern town for answers. But if she sacrifices everything to bring back her demon, what will be left of Clare?"

Sounds like her demon is a bit of a daemon, and yes, I'm leading into the next book out this week...

Daemon Voices by Philip Pullman
Published by: Knopf
Publication Date: September 18th, 2018
Format: Hardcover, 480 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"From the internationally best-selling author of the His Dark Materials trilogy, a spellbinding journey into the secrets of his art--the narratives that have shaped his vision, his experience of writing, and the keys to mastering the art of storytelling.

One of the most highly acclaimed and best-selling authors of our time now gives us a book that charts the history of his own enchantment with story--from his own books to those of Blake, Milton, Dickens, and the Brothers Grimm, among others--and delves into the role of story in education, religion, and science. At once personal and wide-ranging, Daemon Voices is both a revelation of the writing mind and the methods of a great contemporary master, and a fascinating exploration of storytelling itself."

While yes, I'd prefer a new fiction book by Pullman, one can't look a gift horse in the mouth that in under a year we're getting a new Pullman book...

Soulless by Gail Carriger
Published by: Orbit
Publication Date: September 18th, 2018
Format: Hardcover, 416 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"A delightful illustrated edition of Soulless, the first novel in the New York Times bestselling Parasol Protectorate series: a comedy of manners set in Victorian London, full of werewolves, vampires, dirigibles, and tea-drinking. Featuring illustrations by Jensine Eckwall.

Alexia Tarabotti is laboring under a great many social tribulations. First, she has no soul. Second, she's a spinster whose father is both Italian and dead. Third, she was rudely attacked by a vampire, breaking all standards of social etiquette.

Where to go from there? From bad to worse apparently, for Alexia accidentally kills the vampire -- and then the appalling Lord Maccon (loud, messy, gorgeous, and werewolf) is sent by Queen Victoria to investigate.

With unexpected vampires appearing and expected vampires disappearing, everyone seems to believe Alexia responsible. Can she figure out what is actually happening to London's high society? Will her soulless ability to negate supernatural powers prove useful or just plain embarrassing? Finally, who is the real enemy, and do they have treacle tart?"

While one might ask, how many copies of Soulless are too many, I'd point out the illustrated aspect of this one... though by the cover I'm not sure I'll like the style at all.

The Impossible Girl by Lydia Kang
Published by: Lake Union Publishing
Publication Date: September 18th, 2018
Format: Paperback, 364 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"Two hearts. Twice as vulnerable.

Manhattan, 1850. Born out of wedlock to a wealthy socialite and a nameless immigrant, Cora Lee can mingle with the rich just as easily as she can slip unnoticed into the slums and graveyards of the city. As the only female resurrectionist in New York, she’s carved out a niche procuring bodies afflicted with the strangest of anomalies. Anatomists will pay exorbitant sums for such specimens - dissecting and displaying them for the eager public.

Cora’s specialty is not only profitable, it’s a means to keep a finger on the pulse of those searching for her. She’s the girl born with two hearts—a legend among grave robbers and anatomists - sought after as an endangered prize.

Now, as a series of murders unfolds closer and closer to Cora, she can no longer trust those she holds dear, including the young medical student she’s fallen for. Because someone has no intention of waiting for Cora to die a natural death."

This book had me sold at resurrectionist add in the Whovian vibe of two hearts, and it's a must read.

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments  

Labels: Carlos Ruiz Zafon, Cormoran Strike, Daemons, Deborah Harkness, George Mann, Harry Houdini, J.K. Rowling, Jimmu Cajoleas, Joseph Olshan, Kerri Maniscalco, Lydia Kang, Philip Pullman, Robert Galbraith, Soulless

Strike, because I refuse to call it by it's stupid and really pointless US title C.B. Strike, is based on the popular Cormoran Strike series by J.K. Rowling. I mean C.B. Strike!?! Really!?! Call it Cormoran Strike or even Cormoran Blue Strike or even just Cormoran, why his initials which he NEVER uses in the books or on the series!?! OK, rant over. I promise. Or at least I promise the "initial" rant is over. Strike is a show that has a lot going for it but all the elements have yet to fall into place to make it what it could become, one of the best mystery shows out there. The most important aspect is the casting, and they NAILED it with Tom Burke of The Musketeers and The Hour as Cormoran and Holliday Grainger of The Borgias and the recent adaptation of My Cousin Rachel as Robin. The casting is literally so perfect that when reading the books I now see them as the leads. The problem is in how they've been adapting the books, the first book, The Cuckoo's Calling, which is my least favorite in the series was the best adaptation. And I know what you're thinking, but it's not because it was my least liked book, it's because it was the only three part adaptation of the series, the further two books being adapted as two parters. These books are so dense that a three parter is necessary and thankfully Lethal White, out later this month, will be getting a three part adaptation. Now they just have to stop doing stupid things like changing Robin's motivation from selfless to selfish and I'll be content.     

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments  

Labels: Adaptation, And the Emmy Goes To, C.B. Strike, Cormoran Strike, Holliday Granger, J.K. Rowling, Lethal White, My Cousin Rachel, Robert Galbraith, Strike, The Bogias, The Hour, The Musketeers, Tom Burke

The Cuckoo's Calling (Cormoran Strike Book 1) by Robert Galbraith aka J.K. Rowling
Published by: Mulholland Books
Publication Date: April 30th, 2013
Format: Hardcover, 464 Pages
Rating: ★★
To Buy

Cormoran Strike's day starts in free fall. Charlotte and him have been on and off for years. After he returned wounded from Afghanistan she walked right into the hospital and back into his life. But this breakup is different. For the first time it was Cormoran's decision. This signals the end. And at his little office, now his home, if things don't pick up this will also signal the end of his career as a PI. He has one client and one stalker and had hoped to have no assistant, having given the previous temp the heave-ho. But in walks Robin, his new temp, which he can't afford. But then in walks a lifeline. A new client. A new client who has money and is willing to pay double. Cormoran knew John Bristow's brother Charlie when they were little. Charlie died in a tragic accident over the Easter holidays and Cormoran viewed it as yet another loss in a life full of them. John has come to Cormoran because his other sibling has died and John won't accept the police verdict of suicide. He needs Cormoran's help.

Lula Landry was a world famous supermodel when she plunged to her death on a cold night in January. Even Cormoran had heard about the tragedy. Another shooting star that burned too bright and died too young. It's almost baffling that the myopic man in front of him was related to the angelic Lula. But Lula, like John and Charlie, was adopted. Cormoran feels a kinship with John over his unconventional family, Cormoran being the bastard of a famous rock musician with famous siblings strewn all over the world. John's belief in Lula convinces Cormoran to take the case. He is soon shoved into the shadowy world of celebrities and their hangers-on. Where paparazzi blind you with their flashes at every chance. This is a world Cormoran's siblings know well, one he has always studiously avoided. But the deeper he digs he starts to have the same conviction as John. Lula didn't jump, she was pushed. Which means there's a killer out there who might strike again...

For someone who doesn't just love, but adores the Harry Potter books as much as I, it's kind of shocking to admit that I've never read any of Rowling's other books. Oh, don't get me wrong, I have them all ready to read, The Casual Vacancy, the next two Cormoran Strike books after this one, I've just never gotten around to them. I think there's a bit of the fear of the next. When you love an author who has written a series the first time they step outside that comfort zone, be it your comfort zone or theirs, it's a seismic shift. It's something entirely new. That new could be good or it could be bad, but one thing is certain, it will be different. Which I think is one of the reasons that Rowling tried to step back and release The Cuckoo's Calling under a pen name. She was harshly judged for The Casual Vacancy and she just wanted to write a book to write a book and avoid the PR machine that would swing into action. In fact I actually had this book on my "to be read" list long before it was revealed who the true author is. But reading this book I was struck by one thing, I think you NEED to know that Rowling is the author to get the full impact.

What I mean by this is that the celebrity of Lula has an extra punch because Rowling wrote her story. Rowling is, let's face it, the most famous author in the world. Just the hype building up to a play set in the world of Harry Potter is causing mass hysteria. If an unknown author had actually written The Cuckoo's Calling the viciousness of the paparazzi couldn't have been as viscerally real and accurate. You the reader get that Rowling is exorcising some of her demons, giving the press a little bit back of what they've done to her over the years. This isn't some imagined horror of what the press could do, but what they have actually done, and done to her. The sad fact is this practice continues. We still have paparazzi hounding people because their readers just have to know every detail of famous people's lives. To me, this world that Cormoran is shoved into in his investigation, a world where paparazzi can hound celebrities to death, is what grounds this book. This is what I connected to. Would I have connected to it as strongly had I read this without knowing Rowling had written it? I don't think I would, because I think I would have doubted the veracity. I know that this world exists, but it's something more to read about it from someone who has experienced it firsthand.

Yet beyond this grounding I was expecting something more. The Cuckoo's Calling was billed as a Neo-Noir. Hence I thought the book would be dark and mysterious. The book isn't. And that's letting you down easy. Yes, it has the building blocks of Noir. We have the down and out protagonist with a bad history with women, or in this case, a woman. We have the starlet who died too young. We have the world of celebrities and it's seamy underbelly. Heck, I almost sound like I'm writing a loose outline for my favorite movie, L.A. Confidential. But it just falls short. The sheer number of cigarettes smoked can't ever bridge the gap between what it is and what it wants to be. Noir needs that something more. We connect to Cormoran, but we don't really get true insight into his mind and thought processes. This I think is where it fails on the Noir front. We understand who he is and what he is like, but not really what he's thinking, what he's figuring out. There's just a void where we need to connect to him on a visceral level, to key into his feelings, his ups and downs, and instead we like him, but we just don't quite get him. Noir is never about liking, it's about understanding.

This in fact is the fatal flaw of the entire book. While the way the characters are written give us people we like and make them real in our eyes there's just too much character development. Now this makes sense for a long series, because the groundwork is being laid and it's best to have a solid foundation, BUT for the initial outing it's so overlong that the mystery suffers at the expense of making these characters fully rounded human beings. There needed to be a balance between character and forward momentum. I am honest when I say I fully love Robin and her lifelong desire to basically be Nancy Drew and Cormoran and the complete mess he is because of his childhood and his injuries, both physical and mental, but this needed to be either trimmed down or balanced by the case of Lula. I picked up this book expecting a twisty-turny murder mystery, instead I got a really well written character study. In fact a lot of my friends think it's sacrilegious the rating I gave this book, but it's how I felt. If I adjust my expectations for the rest of the series, perhaps I'll come to love these books, but my love of the characters can't forgive the narrative all it's flaws.

And boy does this narrative have it's flaws. More than any other genre mystery books have to have a constant forward momentum. That desire to keep turning the page long into the night until you're shocked that there are birds chirping and the sun is actually cresting the horizon. Now I'm not going to be all superior and say that I had figured out the mystery in five minutes and the solution was a foregone conclusion, because I actually didn't. I had one key aspect early on, but by the time that Rowling actually planted the final two pieces of evidence that were essential to solving the death of Lula I no longer cared. I was bored by the mystery. The plot just limped along while the characters were luxuriated with detail. As time went on it got harder and harder for me to pick up this book because I just didn't care anymore. Obviously Cormoran and Robin lived to fight another day, seeing as there's another book, and they were all that mattered to me, so why should I care about the murderer? Why should I pick up to book again? The final thirty pages took me almost two days to get through because it didn't seem pressing. For me to willingly put aside a book... right there is the answer as to why I thought it was just meh.

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments  

Labels: Backlog Bonanza, Character, Cormoran Strike, Harry Potter, J.K. Rowling, L.A. Confidential, Mystery, Noir, Paparazzi, Robert Galbraith, The Casual Vacancy, The Cuckoo's Calling

To me a good mystery isn't just a genre, but the key building block to ALL stories. What better driving force for any narrative than a question that begs answering? It doesn't have to be a true "whodunit" with a murderer caught at the end of the day, but all books should have some "mystery" to them. So what makes a book labelled a "mystery" actually one? Especially considering my weird take on the need of all books to have this driving force? Well, personally, it's that there is a murder. The more complex, the more convoluted, the more devious, the better. If I was said to have any kind of weird superhuman abilities it would be that I'm really good at solving crimes, of the televisual and written variety. Therefore I really like my mysteries to try to trick me. But more than that, the crime shouldn't get in the way of good character development. There has to be a balance between finding the killer and wanting the detective to succeed. All while making the book stick to your hand so that you can't set it down until the very last page. I remember some of the first "adult" books I read were mysteries. Of course they happened to be Lilian Jackson Braun's "Cat Who" books, but they are still a staple of the mystery genre, if at the cozy end of the spectrum. But that's what is wonderful about mysteries! They have all these subgenres from cozy to true crime. From books for those who like the mystery but can't handle the darkness of humanity, to those who love it. Personally, I love it all!

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments  

Labels: Agatha Christie, Alan Bradley, Backlog Bonanza, Cat Who, Cozy, Detective, Flavia De Luce, Lilian Jackson Braun, Louise Penny, Murder, Mystery, Robert Galbraith, Stephen King, Subgenres, True Crime, Whodunit

Ruin and Rising by Leigh Bardugo
Published by: Henry Holt and Co.
Publication Date: June 17th, 2014
Format: Hardcover, 432 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"The capital has fallen. The Darkling rules Ravka from his shadow throne.

Now the nation's fate rests with a broken Sun Summoner, a disgraced tracker, and the shattered remnants of a once-great magical army.

Deep in an ancient network of tunnels and caverns, a weakened Alina must submit to the dubious protection of the Apparat and the zealots who worship her as a Saint. Yet her plans lie elsewhere, with the hunt for the elusive firebird and the hope that an outlaw prince still survives.

Alina will have to forge new alliances and put aside old rivalries as she and Mal race to find the last of Morozova's amplifiers. But as she begins to unravel the Darkling's secrets, she reveals a past that will forever alter her understanding of the bond they share and the power she wields. The firebird is the one thing that stands between Ravka and destruction—and claiming it could cost Alina the very future she’s fighting for.

Ruin and Rising is the thrilling final installment in Leigh Bardugo's Grisha Trilogy."

Oh, it's so hard picking which book to read first this week... but I have a feeling Ruin and Rising shall win...

The Long Mars by Terry Pratchett and Stephen Baxter
Published by: Harper
Publication Date: June 17th, 2014
Format: Hardcover, 368 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"The third novel in Terry Pratchett and Stephen Baxter’s “Long Earth” series, which Io9 calls “a brilliant science fiction collaboration.”

2040-2045: In the years after the cataclysmic Yellowstone eruption there is massive economic dislocation as populations flee Datum Earth to myriad Long Earth worlds. Sally, Joshua, and Lobsang are all involved in this perilous rescue work when, out of the blue, Sally is contacted by her long-vanished father and inventor of the original Stepper device, Willis Linsay. He tells her he is planning a fantastic voyage across the Long Mars and wants her to accompany him. But Sally soon learns that Willis has an ulterior motive for his request...

Meanwhile U. S. Navy Commander Maggie Kauffman has embarked on an incredible journey of her own, leading an expedition to the outer limits of the far Long Earth.

For Joshua, the crisis he faces is much closer to home. He becomes embroiled in the plight of the Next: the super-bright post-humans who are beginning to emerge from their “long childhood” in the community called Happy Landings, located deep in the Long Earth. Ignorance and fear have caused “normal” human society to turn against the Next. A dramatic showdown seems inevitable..."

While there's a part of me super excited to read this right away, there's also a part of me that's not sure... the first book was amazing, the second was kind of meh... plus Mars, really?

The Silkworm by Robert Galbraith aka J.K. Rowling
Published by: Mulholland Books
Publication Date: June 17th, 2014
Format: Hardcover, 464 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"When novelist Owen Quine goes missing, his wife calls in private detective Cormoran Strike. At first, Mrs. Quine just thinks her husband has gone off by himself for a few days-as he has done before-and she wants Strike to find him and bring him home.

But as Strike investigates, it becomes clear that there is more to Quine's disappearance than his wife realizes. The novelist has just completed a manuscript featuring poisonous pen-portraits of almost everyone he knows. If the novel were to be published, it would ruin lives-meaning that there are a lot of people who might want him silenced.

When Quine is found brutally murdered under bizarre circumstances, it becomes a race against time to understand the motivation of a ruthless killer, a killer unlike any Strike has encountered before... A compulsively readable crime novel with twists at every turn, THE SILKWORM is the second in the highly acclaimed series featuring Cormoran Strike and his determined young assistant, Robin Ellacott."

So I should probably get around to reading the first one now right?

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments  

Labels: Grisha Trilogy, J.K. Rowling, Leigh Bardugo, Robert Galbraith, Ruin and Rising, Stephen Baxter, Terry Pratchett, The Long Earth, The Long Mars, The Silkworm