strange and random happenstance

The Dagger in the Desk by Jonathan Stroud
Published by: Disney-Hyperion
Publication Date: October 31st, 2013
Format: Kindle, 46 Pages
Rating: ★★★
To Buy

School is somewhere where you should feel safe. Many children haven't been afforded the luxury of school since the Problem. They are needed to protect society from the ghosts and ghouls and things that go bump in the night. They are the nation's first defense against the Problem. Therefore those lucky enough to receive an education deserve to feel safe. And the children attending St. Simeon’s Academy for Talented Youngsters have not been feeling safe. A ghost is stalking the halls and the headmaster is worried that the very sharp and very real dagger it wields might do harm to one of his students. Therefore he enlists the help of Lockwood and Co. After all they did get a big publicity bump after their handling of their perilous investigation of Combe Carey Hall. They agree to take the case and Lockwood, George, and Lucy show up at the Academy that same evening. They set up base in the library, which is a beautiful new structure, and fan out from there. They take in the classroom with the dagger but Lucy is being drawn to a closet. What could a janitor's closet have to do with the dagger? Soon they are under a supernatural attack, books are flying everywhere, and it's just another night's work for Lockwood and Co.

This short story was apparently conceived as a collaborative piece with The Guardian, where readers could decide the location and title. I have to say, I agree, schools are the perfect place for hauntings. It's not just all the trauma and hormones that give schools that creepy vibe, it's something extra. Something about them being empty when they are usually filled with life. My Mom was a school librarian, so I spent quite a lot of time in my old school after hours. It was always slightly disconcerting and unsettling, especially the number of janitors they went through because they refused to be in the building at night. Now I never saw anything spooky there, and I have been known to see spooky things. I was even there at the witching hour once or twice, but again, saw nothing, out it felt off. I really enjoyed how this short story tapped into this unease. What's more, school is a place where Lockwood, George, and Lucy, wouldn't be attending, because they are so good at their job. So it was wistful and creepy. Though the worst crime the ghost did was to harm all those books in that beautiful new library!

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments  

Labels: Anthony Lockwood, Collaboration, Combe Carey Hall, George Cubbins, Jonathan Stroud, Library, Lockwood & Co., London Calling, Lucy Carlyle, School, Short Story, The Dagger in the Desk, The Guardian, The Problem

Ruin and Rising by Leigh Bardugo
Published by: Henry Holt and Co.
Publication Date: June 17th, 2014
Format: Hardcover, 432 Pages
Rating: ★★★★★
To Buy (Different edition then one reviewed)

The Apparat's plan to win the war is to bide his time underground in his white cathedral with his disciples and rise victorious when all Alina's enemies have killed each other. While this kind of strategy has led to his long and successful career in the halls of Os Alta, Alina is going crazy underground as his saintly prisoner. Her illness after the battle with the Darkling has left her sick and frail, but being so far away from the light she summons means she is unable to fully heal, unable to escape the Apparat and her growing fear that he might realize a dead saint is less work than a living one. Luckily for Alina her fellow Grisha are concocting a plan to release her from this underground tomb and resume their hunt for the final amplifier in the hopes that then Alina will have the strength to defeat the Darkling. Escaping though is the first and easiest step, and in truth, it wasn't easy at all. But working their way out of a labyrinth of underground caverns is quite easier than locating a rebel prince who has become a sky pirate employing guerrilla tactics or hunting down a mystical creature that may not even exist. All this just in the hopes that they might succeed. Yet with the Darkling striking out faster, sooner, and unexpectedly at every turn, Alina wonders how her small misfit band of Grisha can survive and how they even became compatriots in the first place. With despair driving them more than hope, Alina wants to be the light in the darkness but fears that her lust for power might make her more similar to the Darkling than she dares admit to anyone, even Mal. And what if victory is only possible by letting go of the only thing that matters to her?

A satisfying conclusion is the hardest thing to achieve. A delicate balance of all the possible outcomes while remaining true to the characters and giving the readers closure. Some might say it's impossible, others improbable, but Leigh Bardugo comes very close to a perfect ending with a relentless pace maintained until the final pages of Ruin and Rising. I will just miss the Darkling horribly though. Perhaps I should stop falling for the baddies and the rogues so that when they are vanquished or cast aside I won't be left here pining and brokenhearted. Yet my inability to stop falling for the bad guys was a foregone conclusion with the Darkling. What made Ruin and Rising so amazing and so fully rounded a book was the insight Bardugo gave us about him. Here we don't have just a mindless baddie whose sole goal is power and destruction. We don't have a cookie cutter villain with a goofy gimmick, like a bullseye iris (don't ask me why I'm thinking of Charles Dance in Last Action Hero, I honestly don't know.) Bardugo gets that bad guys can't be all that bad, there has to be more. Here we have a multifaceted villain. He's not black like Spinal Tap none more black, he's black like an oil slick or the night sky, there's rainbows and depth, there's hints of blue that make the black blacker, but a splash of light every now and then. His back story is gut wrenching, especially if you read this edition with the prequel story "The Demon in the Wood." To the rest of the world he's this improbable being of such destructive force that he is terrifying, but to Alina, he's just a boy, like calling to like. What wouldn't we do if we spent lifetimes alone and persecuted? Your only wish to be loved and safe and have someone tenderly say your name. Your true name. To learn at the end that you are in fact truly alone, that would destroy anyone.

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments  

Labels: Alina, Bardugo Bash, Charles Dance, Conclusion, Grisha, Last Action Hero, Leigh Bardugo, Mal, Prequel, Ruin and Rising, Saints, Short Story, Spinal Tap, The Apparat, The Darkling, The Demon in the Wood, Trilogy

Lusus Naturae: A Lord Carlston Story by Alison Goodman
Published by: Speak
Publication Date: July 1st, 2016
Format: ebook, 51 Pages
Rating: ★★★★
To Download*

Lord Carlston has returned to England to see if the late Lady Catherine was right about her daughter Helen, that she is a rare direct inheritor of Reclaimer powers. Such an occurrence could mean many things, but in Reclaimer lore it means that a great evil will rise, a Grand Deceiver. This possibility has led Lord Carlston to face the enmity of the ton. He was driven from England three years prior for the murder of his wife, though no body was ever found. His duties have led him to the last place he wants to be on returning to England, part of the clamoring crowd waiting for all the young debutantes to be presented to the Queen and under the gimlet eyes of their mothers. But it affords him the opportunity to catch up with his dear friend and fellow Dark Days Club member Beau Brummel while surreptitiously watching Lady Helen before her debut. While his main purpose attending this event was to meet Lady Helen he cannot ignore the appearance of a Deceiver in their midst. A Deceiver that obviously wants to parlay. The Deceiver, Solanski, promises Lord Carlston information if he will check his mentor, the renowned Reclaimer Benchley, who has been breaking the accord between their kinds, killing Deceivers who are abiding by the rules. Lord Carlston agrees and Solanski confirms that there is a Grand Deceiver... To Lord Carlston it looks like Lady Helen might be their only hope.

What's great about authors writing little stories that fit into their larger series is that they're willing to experiment more with a concept that would otherwise be tossed aside as incompatible with the main books. The "Lady Helen" series by Alison Goodman by it's name alone shows that it follows Lady Helen and is told exclusively from her point of view. There's no switching of characters, no narrative gymnastics, it's all Lady Helen all the time. Therefore this short story is a welcome change of pace. I wouldn't want to see the complete story through the eyes of Lord Carlston, but seeing this one moment, when Lady Helen's and Lord Carlston's paths first cross, it's fascinating, not so much because of Lord Carlston but because we get to see Helen in a different light. Rarely in books do characters sit around and physically describe what they look like. There's usually a passing reference to hair color or height, but it's up to the readers imagination to fill in the rest. Having this short story immediately follow the first book wherein we've already formed a specific view of Helen hearing Lord Carslton's thoughts about her looks and that defiant jaw made me think about her from the outside instead of the inside and somehow this really brought home to me how the other Reclaimers might be worried about this girl being their only hope.

Though this story is also clever in that it helped bridge the one year gap between the first and second books in the series, a time during when details and specifics might become fuzzy in the readers minds. Therefore this story is very neatly done as a reclarification of what the Deceivers AKA the demons of this world are and what exactly the purpose of a Reclaimer is. I say it's neatly done because I really hate when the first few chapters of a book in a series is basically rehashing what we already know and you're just sitting there thinking, are you going to get on with it already? In fact that is how I felt through the entire first episode of the new season of Game of Thrones. The episode was all, hey, remember where we were? And I was all, hey, yes I do, and remember you only have six episode to wrap this all up and you just wasted one of them? Get to the killing already! So thank you Alison for thinking of a nice little alternative to creating reader rage. What's more with the conversation between Lord Carlston and Solanski we not only see that the Deceivers are a little worried about how crazy Benchley has become, I mean, come on, he committed the Ratcliff Highway murders after all, but Solanski definitively states that a Grand Deceiver is here. This is yet another Deceiver warning about what is coming and it fits in so well to know that Lord Carlston knew all along and is therefore more receptive to Lady Helen when she gives him this information, but also why he's willing to help her. I love something I thought I knew shifting every so slightly into a new light!

*This short story is also contained in the paperback edition of The Dark Days Club.

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments  

Labels: Alison Goodman, Deceivers, Game of Thrones, Grand Deceiver, Lady Helen, Lord Carlston, Lusus Naturae, POV, Ratcliff Highway Murders, Recap, Reclaimers, Regency, Regency Magic, Short Story, The Dark Days Club

The Bridal Strain: Emily and Colin's Wedding by Tasha Alexander
Published by: Tasha Alexander
Publication Date: 2009
Format: Kindle
Rating: ★★★★★
To Buy

After much temptation, much heartache, and much delay, Colin has decided that he can no longer wait to be married to Emily, his future mother-in-law and Queen Victoria be damned. So drenched to the bone high above the caldera on Santorini he proposes that he and Emily be married that very night and Emily agrees. Though Emily is swept away by the romantic gesture, not thinking of the practicalities of showing up at the church soaking wet and demanding to be wed, she is thankfully marrying a very organized man capable of pulling off the most elaborate of missions for the crown with the simplest of ease. So when they return to her villa she shouldn't be surprised that preparations are underway for a full wedding celebration, and yet she is. She's surprised and touched. The entire village has come together to see her and Colin wed. But that won't be the only surprise of the evening, as Emily's dearest friend Cecile is also on hand, there to celebrate the nuptials, but also there to provide emotional support while mourning such a handsome man leaving the marriage market. Though Cecile wouldn't let Emily marry unless the man was worry of her, luckily for Colin he is. And so, their married life begins.

So much of the first two books in Tasha's Lady Emily series is the will-they-won't-they of Emily and Colin. This isn't just played for romantic tension, though one can't deny that it is titillating, but it's practical. Emily, as a widow, has so much freedom that she has to be certain of Colin in order to be willing to shackle herself into another marriage where to the majority of Victorian society she would be nothing but a possession, and viewed, in the extreme, as a slave. But thankfully Colin loves her not as the ideal her first husband Philip viewed her as, but as this intelligent woman willing to fight at his side, not sit home and be content as the typical wife would in raising her brood. He loves her for what she has become, what she has evolved into, and that's why their relationship is so epic and why it would have been a shame not to see their wedding day. To be there as they became one, but still stayed themselves. Colin's wedding gift to Emily, of a gorgeous Greek vase, shows that he loves her for who she is and he will never force her into a mold labelled "Standard Victorian Wife." Though Tasha's extras are interesting in that it sheds light on the fact that what we view as the "Victorian Standard" isn't truth. Not everything is as it seems, Victorians were far more liberal, and there were quite a few pregnant women walking down the aisle...

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments  

Labels: Alexander Autumn, Colin Hargreaves, Emily and Colin's Wedding, Freedom, Greek, Kindle, Lady Emily, Revisionist History, Santorini, Short Story, Tasha Alexander, The Bridal Strain, Victorian, Weddings

Don't Look Now by Daphne Du Maurier
Published by: NYRB Classics
Publication Date: October 28th, 2008
Format: Paperback, 368 Pages
Rating: ★★
To Buy

John and Laura have gone to Venice in the hopes of putting the past behind them by revisiting places they loved when they were whole. They haven't been whole for awhile. They have been drifting apart, trapped in depression since the death of their daughter Christine due to meningitis. Venice is supposed to reinvigorate them. Instead what starts as a pleasant trip soon turns incomprehensible. One day they see elderly twin sisters in a restaurant. Laura runs into them in the restroom and discovers that one of the sisters is blind and claims to be a psychic. She tells Laura that she sees Christine there with her and her husband and that she is happy. When Laura tells John this story he claims they are nothing more than charlatans and goes out of his way to avoid them. Yet fate has other plans. That night after getting lost in the labyrinth of Venice they again meet the sisters in a restaurant and the sisters are very enthusiastic to meet Laura again.

John, in his cynicism, thinks it's the sisters sinking their claws into Laura, while Laura insists it's because the sisters have a message for John from Christine; he is to leave Venice at once because he is in danger. John scoffs at this but when they get back to their hotel there's a message that their son Johnnie, who is away at boarding school, is sick with appendicitis and Laura thinks this is the reason that Christine wanted them to leave. Laura is able to get an early flight out but John has to wait. When the plane was supposed to be in the air he sees his wife and the sisters on the grand canal. Thinking there must have been a mix up or the sisters are up to something he spends the day trying to find his wife and the sisters. But perhaps he should have paid more attention to Christine's warning and the sister's insight that John himself has the power of psychic understanding.

"Don't Look Now" is an odd little story, perhaps best remembered by the movie with the same name. The problem I faced with this story is that we are given this glimpse into the marriage of John and Laura but it's as if we are looking through glass from the famous Murano workshops. There's this weird distance that stops us from forming any real connection with the couple. This entire story is written in such a way that the reader always feels like an outsider. It's not just the lack of connection with John and Laura but "Don't Look Now" was written with an insider's knowledge of Venice. Of course during the time period Du Maurier wrote this story her readers would have been more familiar with Venice as it was a common tourist destination but that doesn't help me. I've sadly never been to Venice so the way John rattles off locales makes me think he's smug and is just another way I am excluded from becoming a part of the story. But then again, John is kind of an idiot. His ham-handed approach to finding his wife to his complete unwillingness to actually listen to the sisters means he gets what's coming to him. As for the supernatural of it all? Du Maurier has done better, but that ending. It is a shocker. Mostly because it was so vaguely foreshadowed.

But if you've only read Daphne Du Maurier's novels you truly haven't experienced her range as an author. Yes, her novels are some of the best and most beautifully written and suspenseful books you'll ever read from Rebecca to Jamaica Inn to The Scapegoat, but they often cover the same ground and don't even touch on the supernatural and strange that her short stories, such as "Don't Look Now" and "The Birds" delve into. It's like Du Maurier felt a freedom in this shorter format that let her handle the outre, the other, and the persecuted that will surprise you in their range and occasional depravity. Each story is easily worthy of Rod Serling and The Twilight Zone with a supernatural agency at work in the everyday lives of our heroes and heroines that is never quite fully explained. In "Blue Lenses" Mrs. Marda West has ocular surgery with special lenses inserted to regain her sight only to open her eyes and see that everyone has an animal's head. At first she thinks it's a joke being perpetrated on her but soon comes to realize that these visions are giving her insight into the true nature of people. People whom she trusted are animals of dubious nature and ill repute.

"The Blue Lenses," besides showing this "otherness," showcases an ongoing theme in these shorter works. Du Maurier's protagonists often think that they are the object of a joke being played at their expense. They are the victim of a con and the proper authorities are often viewed as conspiring against them. From "Split Second" to "La Sainte-Vierge" to "Don't Look Now" to the aforementioned "Blue Lenses" delusion and trickery are what everything hinges on. But this paranoia that has these people confused by what they see, hoping they are mistaken, actually shines a light on Du Maurier's true interest, plumbing the depths of humanity. The fact that these characters are so willing to believe that someone would go to the trouble of conning them shows a fear of the "other," a fear of what people are capable of. Because looking deeper, past the supernatural trappings, at the root these stories show that people are capable of murder.

In fact sometimes Du Maurier forgoes the supernatural entirely and tells a tale that is, in the end, just about murder. In fact my favorite story, "Kiss Me Again Stranger," is about a troubled girl who kills RAF men she meets. Of course it wouldn't be a true Du Maurier story if you weren't bamboozled into thinking it was a love story until the very last page, but again and again that is why these stories work, she is continually subverting your expectations. Yes you could boil this all down to man versus nature, be it's man's inner nature or actual nature or something against nature, but trying to condense it down does an injustice to the writing. Du Maurier through stories about killer birds, "The Birds," and killer usherettes, "Kiss Me Again Stranger," and women joining mountain cults that may be leper colonies, "Monte Verità," touches on so many truths and so many weighty topics that you can see why she was always miffed that people called her a "romance" author. She is so much more. If you don't believe, just pick up this book. I think it will change your mind.

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments  

Labels: Daphne Du Maurier, Don't Look Now, Du Maurier December Deux, Jamaica Inn, Kiss Me Again Stranger, Monte Verita, Psychic, Rebecca, Rod Serling, Short Story, The Birds, The Scapegoat, The Twilight Zone, Venice

Fall of Poppies by Jessica Brockmole, Hazel Gaynor, Evangeline Holland, Kate Kerrigan, Jennifer Robson, Marci Jefferson, Heather Webb, Beatriz Williams, and Lauren Willig
Published by: William Morrow Paperbacks
Publication Date: March 1st, 2016
Format: Paperback, 368 Pages
Rating: ★★★
To Buy

The cat stands, stretches, and meows to be let out. Simple, ordinary things that punctuate the hour, the day, a year, a life. - Hazel Gaynor, "Hush"

Life changed the day war was declared, but it changed again on November 11th, 1918, when the war stopped. The problem was in four years of fighting, of death, of destruction, the world could never go back to the way it was. Atrocities were perpetrated with lasting ramifications. Bodies forever disfigured from the brutality of battle. The earth and it's people, forever scarred. To survive women and men did things they want to leave in the shadows, in the dark garrets of Paris, and in the blood soaked trenches of France. With war over for the first time in a long time hope is once again possible. A future can be contemplated, planned, dreamed of. Children will have a future. Love will have a chance to take root. From a hospital in Belgium to an artists studio in Paris, from the coffee fields of Kenya to the riotous streets of Dublin, the war hasn't just changed the world, but forever shaped the course of these peoples stories told by these different authors. The armistice has come and their voices will now be heard.

I have many short story collections and anthologies just laying about neglected. I feel really bad about this because years ago when I read Nick Hornby's selection of monologues, Speaking with the Angel, I found some amazing new voices in fiction whose books I then read and loved. But since then I've been very bad. I keep buying these books because there's one author I love and just have to read their story, so I get the book, I read the story, and then the book is relegated to my neglected, deprived, and languishing shelf. And yes, I do have such a shelf, peopled by many short story anthologies that feature Charlaine Harris and a lot of Dickens. What compounds the problem is that if I've waited too long all the author's stories spread throughout all these books get republished in their own book, like Charlaine Harris's A Touch of Dead of Patricia Briggs's Shifting Shadows, which ironically is also on this shelf. Therefore I kind of felt it my duty that while I picked this book up for Lauren Willig, I knew the other authors names and felt that it was time to read something they'd written and actually finish a book by multiple authors.

While I feel somewhat biased saying Lauren's story, "The Record Set Right," was my favorite, I have a feeling this was more to do with the fact I'd read it out of context as a kindle release prior to reading it amongst the rest of the tales. Therefore it felt like I was revisiting an old friend. But there are quite a few authors I feel will be new friends, and a few I might be reluctant to read, but none I will outright avoid. In fact I think many of these stories will work better taken out of context, because read all together the sameness of some of the writing techniques used makes them blend together into a confusing jumble. Fall of Poppies is definitely a book I'd encourage to read leisurely, a story every few days, to not only get the full impact of the narrative, but to clear your palate of the previous story. Because otherwise the structure of how so many of the first person narratives are weighted to the front of the book combined with all the HEAs and female narrators, it makes them all blend together into a jumpling mass where they all feel like they're telling the same story with the same trite ending.

Now I'm not a hater of first person narration like some people I know, in fact some dear friends I know, but it's hard to get first person right. The key is a very strong voice for the character. "The Daughter of Belgium" had a very timid narrator, followed directly by Lauren's strong narrator, there was a weird disconnect. You've been living in one characters head and you've suddenly switched to another's and it's jarring. It's like you're seeing first hand what it would be like to live in someone's head who has a multiple personality disorder, and in this instance Lauren's character Camilla is the dominate personality, while Marci Jefferson's unnamed narrator, in the vein of Du Maurier's Rebecca, is the submissive personality. In fact, so submissive she has no name! While as the book progresses there is only one more story written in first person, Jessica Brockmole's "Something Worth Landing For." So why did this book feel the need to have two of these stories back-to-back? The book starts out on such a wrong footing that it takes awhile to recover and actually become enjoyable.

Then there's the gimmicky nature of every story having Armistice Day as it's focal point. Yes, the description of the book should have tipped me off with it's themes of "renewal" and "hope." But you can build your story before or after this event, yet SO MANY chose to have Armistice Day as THE DAY the story was set. It made any story with a little time before the bells pealing away at 11AM on the eleventh novel and far more interesting. Yes, to an extent it's interesting to see how nine different authors tackle the inclusion of Armistice Day in their story, but please, think outside the box. Make it a jumping off point. Not EVERYTHING has to happen on that day. True love doesn't have to magically be found in the last minutes of the war. As for love at first sight? Every time it happened I kept thinking, what happens when they get home? What happens when the scales fall from their eyes and they really get to know this person they picked at random for their HEA? Some of the stories seriously need that something more.

Which is why those with this "otherness" really stand out. Those that are set apart just jump off the page. When a male narrator shows up it's like manna from heaven! But the ones that stood out most where those that looked at the diversity of people fighting in the war and where they were fighting. The story that stood out head and shoulders above the rest for me was "The Photograph" by Kate Kerrigan. I mean, I can seriously see this as an independent Irish film starring Saoirse Ronan and Harry Lloyd. See, I've already cast it, just make it now! What makes this story so unique is that it's set in Ireland. What's more it's about soldiers who were sent to quell the Irish Rebellion and their fight for freedom. With the greater Great War, there was a clear villain with Germany, here it's Britain against Ireland and the justifications for fighting are murkier. The Irish deserve and eventually win their independence, but those English soilders fighting them are just doing their job. It's just dumb luck they weren't sent to France, like many Irish soldiers were. Also, when Armistace happens, it's not an end to the hostilities in Ireland, it's just the beginning. This one story brings all the rest into context. It's "otherness" shows all the stories in a clearer more brillant light and elevates the whole book. So when am I getting my movie adaptation?

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments  

Labels: A Fall of Poppies, Anthology, Beatriz Williams, Charlaine Harris, Daphne Du Maurier, Fall of Poppies, Hazel Gaynor, HEA, Kate Kerrigan, Kenya, Lauren Willig, Patricia Briggs, Rebecca, Short Story, WWI

Death of a Nurse by M.C. Beaton
Published by: Grand Central Publishing
Publication Date: February 23rd, 2016
Format: Hardcover, 256 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"M. C. Beaton's New York Times bestselling Hamish Macbeth series continues with a new mystery featuring Scotland's most quick-witted but unambitious policeman.

James Harrison has recently moved to a restored hunting lodge in Sutherland with his gorgeous private nurse Gloria Dainty. When Hamish visits Mr. Harrison to welcome him to the neighborhood, the old man treats him very rudely. Gloria apologizes for her employer's behavior, and Hamish takes the plunge and invites her out for dinner. On the appointed evening, Hamish waits for Gloria at the restaurant. And waits. Gloria never shows up. Four days later, Gloria's body washes up on the beach near Braikie. Now without a date and without his former policeman Dick Fraser (who left the force to buy a bakery), Hamish must find out who killed the beautiful new resident of Sutherland, and why, before the murderer strikes again..."

Ah how my mom loves this series, and this book. Yes... I might have let her read my ARC... in fact I might have requested an ARC just so she could read it. Yes, I do hope that makes me a good daughter.

Montalbano's First Case by Andrea Camilleri
Published by: Penguin Books
Publication Date: February 23rd, 2016
Format: Paperback, 560 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"From the author of the New York Times–bestselling Inspector Montalbano mystery series, twenty-one short stories spanning the beloved detective’s career Inspector Montalbano has charmed readers in nineteen popular novels, and now in Montalbano’s First Case and Other Stories, Andrea Camilleri has selected twenty-one short stories, written with his trademark wit and humor, that follow Italy’s famous detective through highlight cases of his career. From the title story, featuring a young deputy Montalbano newly assigned to Vigàta, to “Montalbano Says No,” in which the inspector makes a late-night call to Camilleri himself to refuse an outlandish case, this collection is an essential addition to any Inspector Montalbano fan’s bookshelf and a wonderful way to introduce readers to the internationally bestselling series."

Seriously, Penguin does such a wonderful job with these books even if I wasn't a fan of the series I might have to own them all...

Doctor Who Coloring Book
Published by: Price Stern Sloan
Publication Date: February 23rd, 2016
Format: Paperback, 96 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"Planets, galaxies, villains, heroes, the Doctor, the TARDIS and the time vortex--all intricately illustrated in this adult coloring book packed with original Doctor Who art. With 96 stunning pages to color, plus all the best quotes from the beloved TV show, this out-of-this-world adult coloring book is perfect for any creative Doctor Who fan."

Seeing as this is British shouldn't it be colouring book? Just wondering? Also, yes please, I want to color it no matter how you spell it. 

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments  

Labels: Andrea Camilleri, Coloring Book, Death of a Nurse, Doctor Who, Hamish Macbeth, Inspector Montalbano, M.C. Beaton, Montalbano's First Case, Short Story, Tuesday Tomorrow

Stars Above by Marissa Meyer
Published by: Feiwel and Friends
Publication Date: February 2nd, 2016
Format: Hardcover, 400 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"The enchantment continues...

The universe of the Lunar Chronicles holds stories - and secrets - that are wondrous, vicious, and romantic. How did Cinder first arrive in New Beijing? How did the brooding soldier Wolf transform from young man to killer? When did Princess Winter and the palace guard Jacin realize their destinies? With nine stories - five of which have never before been published - and an exclusive never-before-seen excerpt from Marissa Meyer's upcoming novel, Heartless, about the Queen of Hearts from Alice in Wonderland, Stars Above is essential for fans of the bestselling and beloved Lunar Chronicles."

Even if I wasn't addicted to this world and needed to read all that I can get my hands on, all the new stories! Oh, and rumors of a royal wedding in one! Oh stars!

Jane and the Waterloo Map by Stephanie Barron
Published by: Plume
Publication Date: February 2nd, 2016
Format: Hardcover, 416 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"Jane Austen turns sleuth in this delightful Regency-era mystery

November, 1815. The Battle of Waterloo has come and gone, leaving the British economy in shreds; Henry Austen, high-flying banker, is about to declare bankruptcy—dragging several of his brothers down with him. The crisis destroys Henry’s health, and Jane flies to his London bedside, believing him to be dying. While she’s there, the chaplain to His Royal Highness the Prince Regent invites Jane to tour Carlton House, the Prince’s fabulous London home. The chaplain is a fan of Jane’s books, and during the tour he suggests she dedicate her next novel—Emma—to HRH, whom she despises.

However, before she can speak to HRH, Jane stumbles upon a body—sprawled on the carpet in the Regent’s library. The dying man, Colonel MacFarland, was a cavalry hero and a friend of Wellington’s. He utters a single failing phrase: “Waterloo map” . . . and Jane is on the hunt for a treasure of incalculable value and a killer of considerable cunning."

Um, yes please! Anything Austen if you don't mind.

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments  

Labels: Alice in Wonderland, Heartless, Jane and the Waterloo Map, Jane Austen, Marissa Meyer, Mystery, Short Story, Stars Above, Stephanie Barron, The Lunar Chronicles, Tuesday Tomorrow

Word Puppets by Mary Robinette Kowal
Published by: Prime Books
Publication Date: November 17th, 2015
Format: Paperback, 336 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"Celebrated as the author of five acclaimed historical fantasy novels in the Glamourist series, Mary Robinette Kowal is also well known as an award-winning author of short science fiction and fantasy. Her stories encompass a wide range of themes, a covey of indelible characters, and settings that span from Earth's past to its near and far futures as well as even farther futures beyond. Alternative history, fairy tales, adventure, fables, science fiction (both hard and soft), fantasy (both epic and cozy)-nothing is beyond the reach of her unique talent. WORD PUPPETS-the first comprehensive collection of Kowal's extraordinary fiction-includes her two Hugo-winning stories, a Hugo nominee, an original story set in the world of "The Lady Astronaut of Mars," and fourteen other show-stopping tales."

What did I do to have two of my favorite authors have books on the same day? Also, how perfect is the title of this book for Mary?

A Bride's Story Volume 7 by Kaoru Mori
Published by: Yen Press
Publication Date: November 17th, 2015
Format: Hardcover, 3192 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"As Mr. Smith continues his journey to India, he is welcomed into the home of a wealthy tradesman and his wife, Anis. Custom dictates that, as a woman, Anis is not permitted to meet their visitor face-to-face, but even so, she counts herself blessed to live in such a beautiful estate and be married to a man who devotes himself solely to her. Still, one cannot help but long for the companionship of another person when one's closest friend is a reluctant Persian cat. In her loneliness, Anis visits the public bath house and discovers a place where she feels immediately free among her fellow sisters."

I seriously think I might love this series more than her "Emma" series... and that's saying something...

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments  

Labels: A Bride's Story, Glamourist Histories, Kaoru Mori, Manga, Mary Robinette Kowal, Short Story, Tuesday Tomorrow, Word Puppets

Dead But Not Forgotten by Charlaine Harris and Toni L.P. Kelner
Published by: Ace Hardcover
Publication Date: November 25th, 2014
Format: Hardcover, 352 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"The #1 New York Times bestselling Sookie Stackhouse novels by Charlaine Harris spawned a hit TV show and captivated fans around the world—including other authors. Now this group of writers, specifically chosen by Charlaine, pays tribute to “the southern, mind-reading belle who gets mixed up in the world of vampires and magical creatures” (The Kansas City Star) with a collection of fifteen all-new stories about your favorite residents of Bon Temps."

While I've never been a fan of short stories, especially the Sookie ones which have always lacked the fun of the books, the fact that it's a whole bunch of authors writing in the Sookieverse, well, it intrigues me!

Buffy: New Rules by Joss Whedon
Published by: Dark Horse Books
Publication Date: November 25th, 2014
Format: Paperback, 136 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"While slaying the zompires that have overrun a small California town, Buffy and her pals are shocked to discover a new kind of vampire: harder to kill, able to transform and walk in the light of day—like Dracula . . . If that weren't enough, the rules of magic are literally being rewritten. While the crew attempts to find out exactly what this means and restore the status quo, Xander is the victim of a haunting as his relationship with Dawn crumbles."

Gaw, I am so far behind! I'm barely into season nine and it's already season ten!?! I blame this on the rising price of comics and there being too many offshoots of this series.

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments  

Labels: Buffy, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Charlaine Harris, Dracula, Joss Whedon, Rachel Caine, Seanan McGuire, Short Story, Sookie Stackhouse, Southern Vampire Series

The Casebook of Newbury and Hobbes Volume One by George Mann
Published by: Titan Books
Publication Date: October 22nd, 2013
Format: Paperback, 400 Pages
Rating: ★★★★
To Buy

From disappearing valets to monstrosities lurking in the shadows of Cheyne Walk, creatures from the deep to lost Indian jewels, become an armchair detective with the best from Sir Maurice Newbury to the Doctor John Watson. And every great detective has to have his or her Moriarty. We learn more about Sir Maurice's adversary, Lady Arkwell, as well as Veronica Hobbes's "chess" partner with whom she has had several contretemps, Zenith the Albino. Whether you are returning to the world of Newbury and Hobbes or just stopping in for your first visit, this collection of stories will chill your spine and leave you wanting to read just one more story before your bedtime. That is if you can sleep once you find out the secret of "What Lies Beneath."

I have said it before and I'm sure I'll say it again, books with short stories are always a risk. There's the whole consistency issue as well as flow. I can guarantee that you will spend more time thinking about that one story that wasn't up to scratch then you do all the other ones that were great. But more importantly is the flow of the book. Because each story is so different and starts a new narrative there's sometime not the impetus to keep going to the end, especially if you hit one of those weaker stories. Luckily The Casebook of Newbury and Hobbes is the exception that proves the rule full of unique individual stories within a connected world.

The Newbury and Hobbes series has always lent itself to comparisons with Sherlock Holmes, and rightfully so in my mind. Therefore, like Conan Doyle's writing, it lends itself to the short story format. In fact sometimes the longer Newbury and Hobbes books have too much going on and these little stories are a nice way to have a short and sweet little tale that isn't bogged down by the overarching narrative but still gives you nudges and winks as to the universe they inhabit.

What sets this above other compendiums though is that we are given insight into George's process. At the back of the book there is a timeline of events (very handy), but more importantly little story notes in which George talks about why he wrote the story or what drove his decisions. It gives you a feeling that at the end of perusing this volume, like Newbury and Bainbridge, you have sat down on opposites sides of the fireplace in great comfy chairs and had a chinwag with George as to what he was doing. The insight into his writing makes it all the more memorable. There was one turn of phrase that caught me most when he was discussing "The Maharajah's Star" and that was that he likes the "smaller, nested stories that all come together at the last moment." This is exactly how I feel and also how I think some of the stories work and some don't.

To succeed the stories need to be encapsulated, like a little jewel that sparkles on it's own but only at the end does it shine out and radiate among the expanded universe. Which is an overly flowery way of saying separate but connected. Take "Christmas Spirits" as the prime example and easily the weakest story in the book. In this loose re-imagining of A Christmas Carol Newbury dwells on his life and what has happened and what is to come. This stories makes almost no sense without the knowledge gleaned from the longer books. It pulled me out of the moment and destroyed the flow of being entranced by these jewel like stories.  Which goes to show what a balancing act it is when compiling a collection. Just one that's not quite right and you're distracted.

But this one flaw which might have more to do with my hatred of that particular Dickens tale leads me to that aspect which George just nailed, and yes, it oddly has to do with Dickens. George is able to mimic other writers. I wouldn't say he's aping them, because despite giving the feel of Arthur Conan Doyle or Wilkie Collins his writing is still distinctly his own; clean, concise and conversational, with an approachability that I feel Nancy Mitford is the paragon of and which George captures as well. But he's able to lend an air to his stories that connect with writers that are contemporary to his stories, giving them a depth most other Steampunk books aren't able to do.

In my favorite story "The Dark Path" George gives us a more classic detective story that brings to mind Wilkie Collins and The Moonstone... a copy of which is found in the missing valet's room. A coincidence? I think not! "What Lies Beneath" gives us an utterly delicious and creepy story that would have made Poe proud. While the aforementioned "Christmas Spirits" channels some Dickens and "The Case of the Night Crawler" brings John Watson back to life, though in a far more modern story then Conan Doyle would have penned. By writing in this way he acknowledges his predecessors while creating his own path. I am again reminded of something George said in his story notes. George says that in "Old Friends" he shows that "the old guard [can] retire in peace ... safe in the knowledge that someone else is out there now." Well, the old writers can retire in peace safe in the knowledge that George is carrying on their legacy in grand style but never forgetting what he owes to them!

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments  

Labels: A Christmas Carol, Charles Dickens, George Mann, John Watson, Mann Month, Moriarty, Nancy Mitford, Newbury and Hobbes, Poe, Short Story, The Casebook of Newbury and Hobbes, The Moonstone, Wilkie Collins

Poirot Investigates by Agatha Christie
Published by: Harper Collins
Publication Date: 1924
Format: Hardcover, 320 Pages
Rating: ★★★
To Buy

While Poirot takes on cases that are immense in scope, occasionally he takes on those smaller, but still significant cases, sometimes with the fate of the world in the balance, that can be solved very quickly, comme ca. From jewel heists to mysterious deaths, people in disguises to Egyptian curses, disappearances, both staged and unfortunate, to a will most cunningly hidden, Poirot has a host of clients, thankfully none of them with missing dogs. Poirot's genius succeeds at every turn and the police and Hastings are baffled that his little grey cells are able to make such leaps of intuition, in more than one case, without even leaving his bed. Because all you need is your little grey cells, everything else is just fodder.

Recently I read an article about Terry Pratchett and his distaste for modern storytelling, in particular Doctor Who. In the interview he said "On planet Earth it's generally taken for granted that it's a bad thing to introduce into a narrative some last-minute solution that was totally unexpected and unheralded ... The unexpected, unadvertised solution which kisses it all better is known as a deus ex machina – literally, a god from the machine. And a god from the machine is what the Doctor now is. A decent detective story provides you with enough tantalising information to allow you to make a stab at a solution before the famous detective struts his stuff in the library. Doctor Who replaces this with speed, fast talking, and what appears to be that wonderful element 'makeitupasyougalongeum'."

This is exactly my problem when you take a Poirot story and make it short. I have always had reservations about short stories. They can be shallow and way too short. With the case of Poirot, you don't get the joy of following him every step of the way so that it's conceivable that you could solve it, instead you get his, and here's how it happened, with Poirot as God. We aren't given "enough tantalising information!" Also, while I was familiar with a lot of these stories from the TV series, I can see why they had to expand and pad them out, they were making them what Christie should have made them in the first place, fully formed stories without "unexpected and unheralded" endings. Instead, we are left with Hastings scratching out heads. And if I've said it once I'll say it a thousand times, I do not want any comparison between me and Hastings, thank you very much.

Speaking of Hastings... he seems really a little hard on Poirot in his narration. Always commenting on how Poirot is full of himself, a little man with a big ego and unjustifiably vain in his abilities. I'm sorry Hastings, but seeing as he can solve cases without leaving his house and is able to get a result every time, that isn't unjustifiably vain, it's justifiably vain. That lovely little Belgian has every right to toot his own horn, and you even are going "How does he do it?" and marvelling at his little grey cells. You can't praise him to his face and then grumble about his genius too! You can't have it both ways the way you are written. Either you think he's vain or he's a justifiably vain genius, you aren't written to begrudgingly talk about his genius. You are astounded so much that your carping on makes you sound like a bitter little man not accepting of his friends personality quirks but still riding his coattails. Another reason not to like Hastings. The Argentine can't come soon enough for you matey.

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments  

Labels: Agatha Christie, Belgian, Deus Ex Machina, Doctor Who, Egypt, Golden Summer, Hastings, Poirot, Poirot Investigates, Short Story, Terry Pratchett, Vanity

The Doll Short Stories by Daphne Du Maurier
Published by: Virago
Publication Date: May 5th, 2011
Format: Paperback, 224 pages
Rating: ★★★★
To Buy
While this collection of short stories is making a name for itself based on the racy titular story, it is all the other stories that have been long lost or forgotten that Daphne wrote at such a young age and showed the writer that she was to become that made it memorable to me. Things we have come to know and love as distinctly Du Maurier are present in these earliest writings. Nameless characters who we connect with so readily. Bleak situations. The foibles and follies of humanity. The clash of the sexes. Daphne had a distinct voice from the very beginning of her career. I feel though that this book is being overshadowed by "The Doll." A story, with an odd sexual predilection of the female protagonist, which I will not spoil here, but is being spoiled everywhere from the dust jacket to the introduction to numerous other reviews. Perhaps I wouldn't have found it so lacking had I not known what was going on the whole time, they are called spoilers for a reason and should have been labeled as such.

Suspense and uncertainty is key in Du Maurier's world, with that being taken away, we are left with just the bleak ending to come. We can never be certain where we stand, and that keeps us hooked. In the short story "The Limpet" you start out having such sympathy for the lead, but slowly realization dawns on you as to what her soul is really like. The title is apt, the masterful storytelling that unravels before us keeps the pages turning. While reading I wrote little notes to myself as to what it was that drew me to each story. From the self satisfied priest who is pitch perfect in his pomposity to the young newlywed who dreams of a bleak future, each story has a dark charm and a magnetic draw. I don't want to spoil anything, but I will strongly encourage you to order this from Amazon UK now... the wait till November when it is published stateside is too long a wait for anybody. Yes, it is that good.

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments  

Labels: Daphne Du Maurier, Short Story, The Doll, The Limpet

A Touch of Dead: The Complete Sookie Stackhouse Short Stories by Charlaine Harris
Published by: Ace Trade
Publication Date: October 6th, 2009
Format: Hardcover, 208 Pages
Challenge: Fantasy
Rating: ★★★
To Buy
From learing that Claude and Claudine are really triplets, to Eric's obsession with Dracula, to the queen of Louisiana punishing the killer of Sookie's cousin Hadley, to an insurance agent who takes more than his share of the worlds luck to a very lucky Christmas for Sookie, the Sookie short stories are all combined in this handy, yet slim volume. Of course... they aren't really all the Sookie short stories, just the ones where Sookie makes an appearance, omitting all other Sookieverse stories, which makes it less handy in my mind. Plus, it's still irritating to those who are trying to read everything Sookie that we have all the other, rather stupid anthologies we have to buy to get the other stories. Also the thing is, short stories don't seem to be Charlaine's strong suit. They're funny (occasionally) and interesting (some of the time), but they are also boring too (the insurance one, really!?!) I think for cannon, the one with Hadley is the most important, and really should have been included in the beginning of book six, but other than that, they are all throw away. Also, Sookie's fairy granddad hooking her up with some sex for Christmas, can we saw eww!?! Just read it quickly, get a few laughs and move on. But if you are a die hard Sookie fan, I have a feeling you already have this book.

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments  

Labels: Charlaine Harris, Claude, Claudine, Dracula, Eric, Hadely, Reading Challenge, Short Story, Sookie Stackhouse

Old Habits by Melissa Marr
Published by: Harper Collins
Publication Date: January 11th, 2011
Format: Kindle
Challenge: Horror and Urban Fantasy
Rating: ★★★
To Buy
Old habits die hard. For me as much as for Niall and Irial. I have to read everything in a series, even if it's pretty pointless short stories that are really cheap on Amazon. Melissa Marr has to keep adding addendums to Niall and Irial. As with her other short story, Stopping Time, Marr seems to have this sick need to return to the story that had a perfect ending in Ink Exchange. I should add that I haven't finished the Wicked Lovely series, so I'm sure there's much more to the story, but I just really like where Ink Exchange ended. Adding all this fluff on, because, if it wasn't worth putting in the book it's fluff, just cheapens the story. Sometimes you have to know when to quit. So Melissa, quit it already! Niall and Irial will figure out a way to make there tenuous relationship work, we don't need to hear about it in excruciating detail. Sheesh.

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments  

Labels: 2011 Reading Challenge, Amazon, Ink Exchange, Irial, Melissa Marr, Niall, Old Habits, Short Story, Stopping Time, Wicked Lovely

Rear Window and Other Stories by Cornell Woolrich
Published by: Penguin
Publication Date: 1950
Format: Paperback, 176 Pages
Rating: ★★ (Rear Window aka It Had to Be Murder only)
Out of Print

Hal Jeffries has never been one for reading. So when he's laid up in his swelteringly small apartment he doesn't have the solace of books to turn to, instead he turns to his window and the lives of his neighbors. He becomes fascinated with their routines. The young newlyweds who stay out every night who always forget to turn out the light and come rushing back five minutes later to turn it off. The young mother who tarts herself up every night after tucking her son into bed. The devoted husband who waits on his ill wife. But why he keeps her shut up in that hot apartment while the building is under construction and never calls a doctor worries Jeff. But then again, those people and their worries are all he's got. One night the husband's behaviour strikes him as odd. He surveys the surrounding apartments not in the detached way of one under strain but in the highly observant way of a man who has something to hid from those around him. Soon little things start to pile up, curtains drawn, the man sleeping in the living room but never really succumbing to dreams, his glowing cigarette a reminder of his wakefulness. When Jeff realizes that the wife is no longer in residence he calls his friend Boyne who works homicide. There was no time that the wife could have left without him seeing so it has to be murder. But after a perfunctory check, it turns out the wife left town for her health and that's the end of that. Jeff knows that's not the whole story. He sends his manservant Sam over their to investigate this Lars Thorwald. Sam also comes up empty handed. Jeff decides that perhaps Lars can be baited into confessing... just a look would be enough for Jeff. He sends an anonymous note saying he knew what he did, followed with a phone call arranging a time and a place for the "exchange." Jeff thinking that if Thorwald is willing to pay a blackmailer then it's a sure sign of his guilt. But Jeff sees Thorwald leave for the assignation with a gun and he realizes that not only has this man killed once, but he's willing to kill again to cover up his first crime. Can Jeff save himself from Thorwald and prove to Boyne that it had to be murder all along?

It's very hard to find the suspense in a forty page short story. There's not much time for character development and therefore there is no real connection to the characters. It might have been purposeful, that our look into this world of Jeff's is just as sketchy as his glimpse into the world of his neighbors, but still, what Hitchcock later brought to this story was depth. The plot is surprisingly very similar to the film, with many of the same things happening. It's just that Hitchcock was able to give a pacing and a depth that Cornell Woolrich couldn't in those few short pages. We don't even know what Jeff's injury is till the last page and never learn more than his name. How can you feel for Jeff when Thorwald becomes a threat if you know nothing of Jeff. His death would be just another death, nothing traumatic to the reader, just a fact. That is what I feel this story is, just facts laid out one after the other. Some more substantial than others and then it's over. Jeff thinks it's murder, and murder it is. You don't share his journey of discovering, you don't watch with him, you're just told the facts. Perhaps it's just the bare writing style of the times, paring it down to grim, noir details, but I like a little substance in my literature and I love Hitchcock's Rear Window, so perhaps there was no way I could fully get along with the story, but I think I've come to accept that, and we're good with each other.

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 3 comments  

Labels: Boyne, Cornell Woolrich, Hal Jeffries, Hitchcock, It Had to Be Murder, Lars Thorwald, Rear Window, Short Story