Halloween Bingo Update, September 9

Since my last update, I finished Carpe Jugulum, which takes care of my Splatter square, Like a Charm, for my Center / Raven square, and On the Edge for my Relics and Curiosities square.  Without intending to, I’ve read for my middle row, across.  Yay!

I’ve started Donna Andrews’ Murder Most Fowl today.  My intention was to use it for Gallows Humor, but it’s just possible that it might fit Dark, Dark Woods; I’ve only read one chapter so far, but they’re in the woods where a camp of MacBeth re-enactors.  I’ve also got Kevin Hearne’s new one Paper & Blood that takes place in the Dandenong Ranges here outside Melbourne (AU), I’ve been there many times and it definitely fits Dark, Dark Wood, but how much of the story takes place there remains to be seen.

Squares on my card that have been called:  Tropical Terror and Mad Scientists and Evil Geniuses

Accumulative reading table with links to reviews below the card.

The spreadsheet:

Bingo Square Date Called Book Title Date Read
Row #1
X Mad Scientists and Evil Geniuses Sep. 7 Naked Brunch Aug. 30
Stone Cold Horror/Creepy Carnival Wild Ride Sep. 1
Vintage Mystery
Dem Bones
Read by Candlelight/Flashlight
Row #2
Murder Most Foul
Lethal Games No Nest for the Wicket Sep. 1
Spellbound The Once and Future Witches Aug. 31
Black Cat
Relics and Curiosities On the Edge Sep. 8
Row #3
Shifters Naked Brunch Aug. 30
Terror in a Small Town Agnes and the Hitman Sep. 3
FREE SPACE Like a Charm Sep. 7
Psych / Highway to Hell Archive of the Forgotten Sep. 3
Truly Terrifying The Cannonball Tree Mystery Sep. 5
Row #4
Noir
Genre: Mystery The Alchemist’s Illusion Sep. 2
Country House Mystery
X Tropical Terror Sep. 4 The Mimosa Tree Mystery Sep. 4
Locked Room Mystery
Row #5
Splatter Carpe Jugulum Sep. 9
Cryptozoologist
Plague and Disease Scourged Sep. 3
In the Dark, Dark Woods
Gallows Humor
  Wild Card Spell
  Amplification Spell
  Bingo Flip Spell
  Cell Conversion Spell
  Transfiguration Spell
  Double Trouble Spell

Carpe Jugulum (Discworld series)

Carpe JugulumCarpe Jugulum
by Terry Pratchett
Rating: ★★★★½
isbn: 9780857524157
Series: Discworld #23
Publication Date: November 22, 2016
Pages: 412
Genre: Fantasy, Fiction
Publisher: Doubleday

 

It’s done; I’ve read the whole thing.  Which really isn’t saying much because at only a little over 400 pages it’s not like it’s a door stop.  But, and I say this as one who thoroughly enjoys Pratchett, reading the discworld books is hard work for me.  I love the characters, and I laugh out loud at the jokes, and I welcome the footnotes, but something about Pratchett’s narrative style doesn’t flow effortlessly for me, and because of that I’m always looking at them and thinking up excuses to put off reading them.

This was the case with Carpe Jugulum although once Granny Weatherwax finally got involved, the story started moving along enough for me to ignore the effort.

On the surface, the story is a hilarious one that follows the efforts of Count Magpye and his family to overcome the stereotypes of being vampires, or vampyres, as they prefer.  It’s a cautionary tale of what can happen when the wrong mix of intelligence and self-help books come together.

Underneath that are some pretty dark musings, in my opinion.  How much of my opinion is coloured by the knowledge of Pratchett’s early onset Alzheimer’s I’m unable to say, but must be mentioned; there are also shades, I’m sure, of my own current and likely permanent cynicism about humanity.

The book starts off with Granny in a dark place; she’s feeling invisible and forgotten by her friends and her community, and an accident with a cow left her forced to make a difficult choice for someone else.  I’m not sure if we’re meant to believe that’s why she takes herself off to the gnarly moors or if I missed the moment when her true purpose was foreshadowed.  Either way, Granny puts her affairs in order and leaves without a word to anyone, in the throes of a dark depression.

Meanwhile, in an effort to be modern and embrace a modern tolerance for all beings, King Verence invites the vampires into the castle to celebrate the naming of his newborn daughter.  Tolerance taken too far is a touchy topic these days, when everybody is supposed to embrace inclusiveness in all forms but naïveté and inclusiveness aren’t a good mix and it wasn’t hard to draw a line from Pratchett’s vampires being invited in to today’s ‘open-mindedness’ that leads to widely accepted conspiracy theories and general apathy about all the ways the world is currently going to hell.

Then there’s the theological battle that takes place throughout the book.  This felt very auto-biographical to me, as if Pratchett used Oats and the witches to vent his spleen – a very bitter spleen from the feel of things.  So while I was laughing at the numerous moments of hilarity and sly humour, there was a stain over it of … sadness, I guess.  The idea that this genius of storytelling was at his core quite possibly an unhappy man.  And I don’t say that because I claim that without faith in a higher being it’s impossible to be happy, but because to spend so much time elucidating the reasons why such faith is misplaced doesn’t seem like something a person at peace with his personal philosophy, and fundamentally happy, would spend his time doing.  I don’t agree with him about the higher being, but I do agree with him (and Oats and Granny) that one can find the sacred everywhere.

The ending is both simplicity itself and a perfect reflection of the one-way thought processes of humanity.  Not to mention that justice and mercy don’t always come wrapped in bows and happiness.

 

I read this book, which had been on my TBR for years anyway, on the advice of Themis Athena as a good book for the Splatter square on my 2021 Halloween Bingo card.

On the Edge (Novel of the Edge, #1)

On the EdgeOn the Edge
by Ilona Andrews
Rating: ★★★★
isbn: 9780441017805
Series: Novel of the Edge #1
Publication Date: September 29, 2009
Pages: 336
Genre: Fiction, Urban Fantasy
Publisher: Ace

 

Well, it just goes to show you: people change and you should never say never.  I read this book back in 2016 and my review from that reading was … unfavourable, ending with my declaration that I’d never read the book again.

Shows you what I know.  I not only read it again, I liked it better than I did the first time.  It’s still a little too PNR for me, but I found it easier to get into the story, the setting and the characters.  Maybe because I’d already read it and had a vague recollection of not liking the romantic interest, I found him less unbearable than I expected to, and the non-consent issues didn’t feel as egregious this time around, only typically arrogant.

I can’t really say why, except maybe I’ve read more Ilona Andrews’ since, or my mood was more receptive to the story.  Who knows?  But I went from rating this 3 stars and never reading it again, to rating it 4 stars and buying a copy of it for my shelves.  Along with the other 3 book in the series.

 

I’ve been intending to read this since I ordered it back in July, but its arrival during Halloween Bingo was fortuitous;  it’s a great fit for the Relics and Curiosities square.  The story line centers on a powerful artefact from a previous civilisation that eats magic and spits out something very akin to a demon hound.

Charmed & Ready

Charmed & ReadyCharmed & Ready
by Candace Havens
Rating: ★★
isbn: 9780425222492
Publication Date: May 8, 2008
Pages: 292
Publisher: Berkley

 

So much worse than the one before it (Charmed and Dangerous).  The romance between Bronwyn and Sam is adolescent, and Bronwyn’s “professionalism” isn’t any better.  For a woman tasked with security detail, there’s a lot of drinking and dancing, witch or not.

Truly bad.

Charmed & Dangerous

Charmed & DangerousCharmed & Dangerous
by Candace Havens
Rating: ★★½
isbn: 9780425219003
Publication Date: April 12, 2007
Pages: 287
Genre: Fantasy, Fiction
Publisher: Berkley

 

Another Candace Havens, set in the same universe with the same characters, just a different MC.  And boy did it NOT hold up well to the test of time.  I remember liking Bronwyn (the MC) because she was her own person and powerful and didn’t let anyone intimidate her.  And she’s till all those things, but the rest of her is just so emotionally shallow and her romance was written … well, I’ve read more believable romances in 80’s teen fiction.  The non-romance part of the book didn’t do so well either.  The antagonists were all juvenile in the extreme (they all kept saying “Die Witch!”) and it was all just so silly.

I also got extremely irritated with the author re-writing history: Like a Charm takes place before Christmas and the characters’ relationship is resolved and their embracing their HEA well before then.  But this book takes place 3 months later and there are scenes with Kira and Caleb where they’re still in the hand holding stage and haven’t yet “done the nasty”.

Anyway – not a great book.

Like a Charm

Like a CharmLike a Charm
by Candace Havens
Rating: ★★★½
isbn: 9780425219263
Publication Date: February 5, 2008
Pages: 289
Genre: Fantasy, Fiction
Publisher: Berkley

 

I’ve had a few books by Candace Havens on the shelves for over a decade, and the other night I decided I had to re-read them; I remembered the broad strokes, but not much else.  I started with this one, Like a Charm and it held up surprisingly well, for the kind of story it is.

Like a Charm is a paranormal romance, but really the romance is only about half the story, the rest is about the MC, Kira, picking herself up and putting herself back together after a horrific work related experience that left her traumatised and seriously ill.  She goes back to her hometown and reconnects with the residents and her family, and while she’s there, the town librarian dies, a woman who was like a second mom to her.  Kira is bequeathed an extraordinary inheritance, and must weight accepting it against going back to her highly successful law career.

Of course that other half of the story is Caleb.  Caleb has all the requirements of a romantic hero: of course he’s hot, and he’s a carpenter, BUT only on the side, when he’s not running around the world being a highly successful investigative reporter, and of course he’s rich, although you’d never know it unless he’s in a suit.  And of course he’s a gentleman of the southern variety, holding doors, paying for everything – but only in the most enlightened and charming fashion.  I’m used to this sort of stuff in what few romances I read, and I accept that it’s a winning formula for a reason.  But where things got really out-of-date, was the whole first time in bed scene.  It was just soooo cheesy.

As is obvious, I enjoyed the non-romantic half more.  It was largely an ode to books and libraries and the book-title-author name dropping was fun.  It was a light, fun read that went fast.

 

I’ve decided to use this for the Raven/Free Square on my Halloween Bingo 2021 card.  It’s full of magic and I-see-dead-people and is set in a small town run and protected by a coven of witches.

Halloween Bingo Update, September 5: I got my first square!

I’ve had my first square on my card called: Tropical Terror, a square for which I had just yesterday finished The Mimosa Tree Mystery.  Woot!

I’ve also done my re-read of Agnes and the Hitman for Terror in a Small Town.  After reading and loving The Mimosa Tree Mystery, I dived right into The Cannonball Tree Mystery which I used, along with my Amplification spell card, for my Truly Terrifying square.

I have a few more books I know I want to read that will work for my Bingo card, but 2-3 of them haven’t arrived yet.  I’m going to take a break from reading for a few hours and then see what appeals to me from what I currently have on hand.

Accumulative reading table with links to reviews below the card.

The spreadsheet:

Bingo Square Date Called Book Title Date Read
Row #1
Mad Scientists and Evil Geniuses Naked Brunch Aug. 30
Stone Cold Horror/Creepy Carnival Wild Ride Sep. 1
Vintage Mystery
Dem Bones
Read by Candlelight/Flashlight
Row #2
Murder Most Foul
Lethal Games No Nest for the Wicket Sep. 1
Spellbound The Once and Future Witches Aug. 31
Black Cat
Relics and Curiosities
Row #3
Shifters Naked Brunch Aug. 30
Terror in a Small Town Agnes and the Hitman Sep. 3
FREE SPACE
Psych / Highway to Hell Archive of the Forgotten Sep. 3
Truly Terrifying The Cannonball Tree Mystery Sep. 5
Row #4
Noir
Genre: Mystery The Alchemist’s Illusion Sep. 2
Country House Mystery
Tropical Terror The Mimosa Tree Mystery Sep. 4
Locked Room Mystery
Row #5
Splatter
Cryptozoologist
Plague and Disease Scourged Sep. 3
In the Dark, Dark Woods
Gallows Humor

 

The Cannonball tree Mystery (Crown Colony, #5)

The Cannonball Tree MysteryThe Cannonball Tree Mystery
by Ovidia Yu
Rating: ★★★
isbn: 9781472132031
Series: Crown Colony Mystery #5
Publication Date: June 3, 2021
Pages: 313
Genre: Fiction, Historical, Mystery
Publisher: Constable

 

Blame it on being written, and punished during a pandemic, maybe, but this one wasn’t nearly as good as the last, The Mimosa Tree Mystery.  There were serious issues with editing and continuity, both within the story and with the overall series.  In the previous book, Hideki tells Su Lin her mother was the youngest of the cousins, but in this book he is said to have looked upon her as “an older sister or mother figure”.  The first murder victim in this book is the sister of Su Lin’s aunt by marriage, but the victim is referred to several times as Su Lin’s Aunt and as ‘being married to your uncle’.

There are at least half a dozen more instances where a character does or says something on one page and then is said to have said/done the exact opposite a page or two later.  I don’t know if this is poor story editing, or if it’s meant to reflect the hysteria of war time in an occupation where anybody could be shot for simply now bowing deeply enough.  If it’s the latter, then the editing still failed as the narrative left me confused about my confusion.

The storyline itself also failed to compete with the compelling storyline of Mimosa Tree, which involved war time codes, rebel forces, POW’s, treasures and a murder that happened just hours before the story started.  In this one, the first murder didn’t take place until well over 100 pages of household drama – pretty horrific household drama, I’ll grant, but overall, not worth the 100+ pages it was written on.  The last 200 pages have moments that are far more interesting, but not enough to really shine; I kept reading because I kept waiting for interesting things to happen, and they rarely did.

Most disappointing of all was the absence of Le Froy, a primary character of the series, obviously modelled after Sherlock Holmes.  While absent for 99% of Mimosa Tree he was a guiding and motivating force for Su Lin and the plot.  Here, his name was barely mentioned and only then in passing introspective thoughts.  It’s as if with the absence of Le Froy, the story – and the author – lost it’s focus, organisation, and its logic.

But then again, this book takes place in 1944, when the axis countries started to fall apart, and perhaps this books disorganisation is a reflection of the unraveling  of the Japanese Empire towards the end.  Who knows?  I only know it wasn’t nearly as good a story as I know the author is capable of.

 

I read this for Halloween Bingo 2021.  I’m using it for my Truly Terrifying square by invoking my Amplification spell card.  Ovidia Yu is a Singaporean author and qualifies as a diverse voice from an historically marginalised community.

The Mimosa Tree Mystery (Crown Colony, #4)

The Mimosa Tree MysteryThe Mimosa Tree Mystery
by Ovidia Yu
Rating: ★★★★½
isbn: 9781472132024
Series: Crown Colony Mystery #4
Publication Date: June 4, 2020
Pages: 311
Genre: Fiction, Historical, Mystery
Publisher: Constable

 

Even though I’ve enjoyed the previous three entries in this series, I hesitated over this one.  The first three were pre-WWII, but The Mimosa Tree Mystery moves the series into Japanese occupied Singapore.  I couldn’t see how Yu would be able to write a story that maintained the gentility of a traditional mystery in the middle of a Japanese occupied war-torn setting and maintain any semblance of authenticity.

Yu not only managed, she outdid her previous efforts.  There’s no sugar-coating the atrocities perpetuated by the Japanese during that time – Su Lin and her family are Chinese, and the story starts in the middle of a roundup into a killing field – but by focusing on Su Lin and the murder mystery the author avoids the story being overwhelmed by the horror of the times.

I was genuinely surprised by how much I enjoyed this story.  I liked the previous ones, but I had a hard time becoming invested in the characters.  This time around it wasn’t a problem – the story was riveting enough and the pace fast enough that whether I became wholly invested in the characters didn’t matter.  My only complaint was the denouement scene.  I understand that the point was the murderer wasn’t rational, but Yu did the job too well and it became extraordinarily difficult to follow along with who supposedly was working with whom and who ordered what, etc.  It was a small thing in the overall enjoyment of the story, but it was at the end, so it stuck.

I now find myself eager to dive into the next book, The Cannonball Tree Mystery to find out what happens next with Su Lin, her family, and (former) detective, now POW, Le Froy.

 

I read this for 2021 Halloween Bingo.  It fits the Tropical Terror square rather well, as it is set in Singapore (Tropical) during the WWII Japanese occupation (Terror).