strange and random happenstance

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

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

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

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments  

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

Wild Sign by Patricia Briggs
Published by: Ace
Publication Date: March 16th, 2021
Format: Hardcover, 368 Pages
Rating: ★★
To Buy

It started with a song. A song Leah was humming under her breath. A song she couldn't remember and yet couldn't forget. And then the pack was alerted by the FBI to the disappearance of an entire community that was living off the grid in Northern California. They named themselves "Wild Sign" and happened to be squatting on land owned by the Marrok's pack. Land that has a connection to Leah. It was in that very area when mourning Charles's mother that Bran first found Leah and made her his mate. Therefore they will be the ones to look into "Wild Sign." It is decided that Charles, Anna, and another werewolf, Tag, will go and investigate. Thanks to some supernatural locals that Tag knew they hear how that entire area was avoided by their kind. There are runes carved into the trees. Warning signs. Signs the community should have heeded once Charles and Anna make the discovery that the community was made up of witches. Which makes their complete disappearance even more disconcerting. These people weren't defenseless. These people were powerful. Any idea that they just got up one day and left is soon dismissed. The items they left behind, powerful magical objects, would not have been abandoned. This was no longer a rescue mission. The inhabitants of "Wild Sign" were dead. Now it was time to find out what exactly happened to them so their deaths could be avenged. Anna is the first to fall under the oppressive force within the forest. It starts out with a song and soon strips her of her present and traps her in the past. A past more horrible than most people have to deal with. But this evil knows what it's doing. It knows what it wants. And Charles, Anna, and Tag don't have the first clue. But Leah does.

Patricia Briggs is my ride or die. I adore her series. But I'm not blindly following her praising everything she's written, as an artist myself that's not constructive or conducive to getting better so if I wouldn't want to be treated as such and I will never treat another in that way. So there's occasionally a book by Patty that doesn't reach the heights of the others. I find this most common in her Alpha and Omega series. There's no middle ground here. Unlike the steady terrain of Mercy Thompson I either adore or dislike the Alpha and Omega books. It's the two ends of the spectrum, love or hate, and of all Patty's books, I've loved some of Anna and Charles's adventures more than any other books out there. I mean, Burn Bright!?! Damn! But this, right here, this is the price. A book I don't like. And yes, at times I did hate it, but oddly enough this time it's to do with me. In fact my dislike of Dead Heat might be down to me too... I just can't deal with those creepy little children that are dressed like western themed pageant kids, pink rhinestones and all, riding their horses. Shudder. So yes, it might all be me. I know it is this time. My problems with Wild Sign are all to do with the suffering I've had to deal with this past year. In fact I had to forewarn one of my friends who is a fellow Patty devotee before I posted my rating of Wild Sign because I thought she'd go into shock. Because I was a little shocked myself. But she got it. She understood that in the past year I'd lost my mother and I'd lost my home and because of this there's just some things I can't handle. My mother spent years in a skilled nursing home because of her Parkinson's, and seeing as I don't want to spoil anything for you, just know that my experiences because of this made me unable to handle certain plot points. Like seriously unable to. I almost felt like I needed a trigger warning and I'm usually not that kind of person. I know one day I will enjoy this book, it has so many wonderful reveals we devoted fans have waited years for, I gasped at some of them, but for the moment, this book just isn't for me.

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments  

Labels: Alpha and Omega, Anna Cornick, Burn Bright, Charles Cornick, Dead Heat, DEATH, Disappearance, FBI, Loss, Mercy Thompson, Northern California, Nursing Home, Patricia Briggs, Reveals, Tag, Trigger Warning, Wild Sign

Funny Girl by Nick Hornby
Published by: Riverhead Hardcover
Publication Date: February 3rd, 2015
Format: Hardcover, 464 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"From the bestselling author of High Fidelity, About a Boy, and A Long Way Down comes a highly anticipated new novel.

Set in 1960's London, Funny Girl is a lively account of the adventures of the intrepid young Sophie Straw as she navigates her transformation from provincial ingénue to television starlet amid a constellation of delightful characters. Insightful and humorous, Nick Hornby's latest does what he does best: endears us to a cast of characters who are funny if flawed, and forces us to examine ourselves in the process."

It's been a long five years since Hornby's last book, too busy with screenplays I guess... but we have a new book. At last!

Death of a Liar by M.C. Beaton
Published by: Grand Central Publishing
Publication Date: February 3rd, 2015
Format: Hardcover, 272 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"Sergeant Hamish Macbeth is alarmed to receive a report from a woman in the small village of Cronish in the Scottish Highlands. She has been brutally attacked and the criminal is on the loose. But upon further investigation, Hamish discovers that she was lying about the crime. So when the same woman calls him back about an intruder, he simply marvels at her compulsion to lie. This time, though, she is telling the truth. Her body is found in her home and Hamish must sort through all of her lies to solve the crime."

My mom's favorite author, hands down. And this is her favorite series of the two Beaton writes as well.

The Eterna Files by Leanna Renee Hiber
Published by: Tor Books
Publication Date: February 3rd, 2015
Format: Hardcover, 320 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
" London, 1882: Queen Victoria appoints Harold Spire of the Metropolitan Police to Special Branch Division Omega. Omega is to secretly investigate paranormal and supernatural events and persons. Spire, a skeptic driven to protect the helpless and see justice done, is the perfect man to lead the department, which employs scholars and scientists, assassins and con men, and a traveling circus. Spire's chief researcher is Rose Everhart, who believes fervently that there is more to the world than can be seen by mortal eyes.

Their first mission: find the Eterna Compound, which grants immortality. Catastrophe destroyed the hidden laboratory in New York City where Eterna was developed, but the Queen is convinced someone escaped—and has a sample of Eterna.

Also searching for Eterna is an American, Clara Templeton, who helped start the project after the assassination of Abraham Lincoln nearly destroyed her nation. Haunted by the ghost of her beloved, she is determined that the Eterna Compound—and the immortality it will convey—will be controlled by the United States, not Great Britain."

If you seriously can read this description and NOT seeing me buying this book, I think we need to have a talk...

Trigger Warning by Neil Gaiman
Published by: William Morrow
Publication Date: February 3rd, 2015
Format: Hardcover, 352 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"From one of the most critically acclaimed and beloved storytellers of our time comes a major new collection of stories and verse.

"We each have our little triggers . . . things that wait for us in the dark corridors of our lives." So says Neil Gaiman in his introduction to Trigger Warning, a remarkable compendium of twenty-five stories and poems that explore the transformative power of imagination.

In "Adventure Story"—a thematic companion to the #1 New York Times bestselling novel The Ocean at the End of the Lane—Gaiman ponders death and the ways in which people take their stories with them when they die. "A Calendar of Tales" is comprised of short pieces about the months of the year—stories of pirates and March winds, an igloo made of books, and a Mother's Day card that portends disturbances in the universe. Gaiman offers his own ingenious spin on Sherlock Holmes in his award-nominated mystery tale "The Case of Death and Honey." Also included is "Nothing O'Clock," a very special Doctor Who story that was written for the beloved series in 2013, as well as the never-before-published "Black Dog," a haunting new tale that revisits the world of American Gods as Shadow Moon stops in at a village pub on his way back to America.

Gaiman, a sophisticated writer whose creative genius is unparalleled, entrances with his literary alchemy and transports us deep into an undiscovered country where the fantastical becomes real and the everyday is incandescent. Replete with wonder and terror, surprises and amusements, Trigger Warning is a treasury of literary delights that engage the mind, stir the heart, and shake the soul."

OK, I am a little tired of the Doctor Who story being everywhere, seriously, it wasn't that memorable. BUT I am uber excited about the story "The Return of the Thin White Duke!" 

Dragons at Crumbling Castle by Terry Pratchett
Published by: Clarion Books
Publication Date: February 3rd, 2015
Format: Hardcover, 352 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"This never-before-published collection of fourteen funny and inventive tales by acclaimed author Sir Terry Pratchett features a memorable cast of inept wizards, sensible heroes, and unusually adventuresome tortoises.

Including more than one hundred black-and-white illustrations, the appealingly designed book celebrates Pratchett’s inimitable wordplay and irreverent approach to the conventions of storytelling.

These accessible and mischievous tales are an ideal introduction for young readers to this beloved author. Established fans of Pratchett’s work will savor the playful presentation of the themes and ideas that inform his best-selling novels."

Anybody else feel they're trying to make Terry Pratchett Roald Dahl?

The Accidental Dragon by Dakota Cassidy
Published by: Berkley Trade
Publication Date: February 3rd, 2015
Format: Paperback, 304 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"Firefighter McAllister "Mick" Malone knows he has a protective streak, especially when it comes to his deceased best friend's sister, Tessa. But after twenty-five years of verbal sparring, Mick can't help but notice that their recent arguments have started to feel a lot like foreplay. And while Tessa knows exactly what to say to get him going, Mick is thrown for a loop when he actually starts breathing fire.

Antique-store owner Tessa Preston has loved Mick Malone since she was ten years old—not that she'd ever admit it. Fighting with Mick is the only thing keeping her from an embarrassing romantic confession, but when the sexy firefighter accidentally ingests some ancient dragon scales masquerading as powdered aspirin, Tessa finds herself handling something much hotter than long-simmering sexual tension."

From dragons to dragons... I hope I'm never accused of not having a flow to my posts.

Casually Cursed by Kimberly Frost
Published by: Berkley
Publication Date: February 3rd, 2015
Format: Paperback, 352 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"From the national bestselling author of Slightly Spellbound comes the latest Southern Witch novel featuring Tammy Jo Trask.

Tammy Jo rarely sets a toe outside Texas, but when she learns her mother is in trouble, Tammy is determined to save her—even if it means going to hell and back…

Fresh off her engagement to wizard Bryn Lyons, Tammy Jo is surprised to make another new family connection when she meets the twin sister she never knew she had. After being spirited away to the fae kingdom of Never as an infant, Kismet has finally escaped, and arrived in Duvall, Texas, with some terrible news: their mother, Marlee, is a prisoner of the Seelie fae.

Crossing the ocean to battle the fae isn’t Tammy Jo’s idea of a romantic getaway, but Bryn refuses to let her go alone—as do her aunt Edie and her ex-husband Zach. Unfortunately, their plot to free Marlee is foiled when they are caught by the fae queen. And the only chance the queen gives them to save Marlee’s life may be an impossible quest…"

Have I mentioned lately how much I love this new look and format?

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments  

Labels: Dakota Cassidy, David Bowie, Doctor Who, Dragons, Funny Girl, Kimberly Frost, Leanna Renee Hieber, M.C. Beaton, Neil Gaiman, Nick Hornby, Southern Witch Series, Terry Pratchett, The Eterna Files, Trigger Warning