The Sun Down Motel

The Sun Down Motel
by Simone St. James
Rating: ★★★★
isbn: 9780440000174
Publication Date: February 18, 2020
Pages: 327
Genre: Mystery, Suspense
Publisher: Berkley

Something hasn’t been right at the roadside Sun Down Motel for a very long time, and Carly Kirk is about to find out why in this chilling new novel from the New York Times bestselling and award-winning author of The Broken Girls.

Upstate New York, 1982. Viv Delaney wants to move to New York City, and to help pay for it she takes a job as the night clerk at the Sun Down Motel in Fell, New York. But something isnʼt right at the motel, something haunting and scary.

Upstate New York, 2017. Carly Kirk has never been able to let go of the story of her aunt Viv, who mysteriously disappeared from the Sun Down before she was born. She decides to move to Fell and visit the motel, where she quickly learns that nothing has changed since 1982. And she soon finds herself ensnared in the same mysteries that claimed her aunt.

I am not a fan of horror, but I’m a big fan of old-fashioned ghost stories, when read in broad daylight. I’ve been a big fan of Simone St. James’ ghost stories since I first found The Haunting of Maddy Claire, the first of … five?… historical ghost stories. She branched off in a new direction with The Broken Girls, going with a dual time-line plot, which I read hesitantly, but enjoyed thoroughly. The Sun Down Motel is another such book: a dual time-line mystery firmly rooted around a haunted place, this time a hotel that was pretty much doomed before it ever opened its doors.

I’m still a fan of St. James – I think this was a riveting read, and I devoured it in 2 sittings (daylight hours, all of them), but it wasn’t as good as some of her others for two reasons, both purely subjective. The first was the heavy handedness of the message: that women have always been, and sadly will always be, to some extent, vulnerable and expendable. This is as unavoidable a fact as it is an inexcusable one, but more subtle writing would have had more powerful an impact. Instead, there were times – just a few – that I felt like I was the choir and I was being preached at. This wasn’t a massive issue; it was just enough to pull me out of my head and the story a time or two.

The second reason is almost silly: the ghosts. They were almost exactly my right level of scary, but, and it took me some time to figure this out, they didn’t have quite the effect on me as the ghosts in her previous books, because they never really focused on the main characters. These hauntings were almost the remnant-kind: they were there acting in an endless loop, whether anyone witnessed or not, although there was a trigger. The main ghost communicated with the historical time-line mc, but only once without being pushed into it by Viv. The other ghosts communicated with the present day mc, Carly, but benignly. They were spooky, absolutely, but at a remove, so that they fell just short of spine-tingling.

And I guess, as I write this I was left unsatisfied by Nick’s story; it felt like it should be going somewhere and it didn’t. I’m also disappointed that there was never an explanation for the present-day entry in the guest book of one James March who registered the day Carly and Nick had their first real experience with the Sun Down Motel. That was a BIG little thing to leave hanging with no follow up.

But overall, it was a good story; I liked that both Viv and Carly had solid friendships in their timelines; I liked that Nick was her support from pretty much page 1, and I liked the investigatory process of the mystery plot, even if I thought Viv was a reckless idiot. The story sucked me in, and I remain a solid fan of St. James’ books.

Left to my own devices, I’d have read this book as soon as I got it back in August, but I held off because it was a perfect fit for Halloween Bingo’s Ghost Stories square.

Halloween Bingo 2020: September 12 update

I’m currently going through a bingo-call dry spell, with only one call made in the last 5 that’s on my card, American Horror Story, which is going to get Spell-packed, because I don’t do horror. I’ll be using the Transfiguration Card to turn American Horror into Spellbound and plan on reading Kevin Hearne’s Ink and Sigil.

I’ve finished two squares since my last update, having read The Betel Nut Tree Mystery for International Women of Mystery, and Imaginary Numbers for In the Dark, Dark Woods. That gets me another square filled and another half-way there. As you can see, I’m strategy poor and am sort of reading all over the card as I choose books that strike my fancy.

What’s striking my fancy next is both my American Horror Story transfigured into Spellbound read, Ink and Sigil, and my Ghost Story read, The Sun Down Motel. I’ll likely start The Sun Down Motel first, so I can be reading it during daylight hours.

Calls made so far that are on my card:

*Note: I’ve removed Psych in favour of Romantic Suspense, as it’s the square I flipped.

How it works:

If I read a square that hasn’t been called yet, a ghost of stickers-yet-to-come will appear; once the square has been called, the sticker will become fully corporeal. (Alas, this only works in regular browsers, but I’m in too deep to try to do something different now.) As the squares get ticked off, a fully formed image will appear. Previously, I posted the finished image, but this year I’m going to leave it a mystery.

Below is the table that will summarise the books I’ve read for each square, and note if I took advantage of one of the Spell Pack cards, and which one. Book Titles link to my review of the book here.

	Bingo Square	Date Called	Book Title	Date Read
Row #1
	Gothic
	Genre: Suspense
	Ghost Stories
	Dark Academia		Murder 101	Sept. 2
	Southern Gothic
Row #2
	Darkest London
	Black Cat
	Cozy Mystery		Quick Study	Sept. 5
	Genre: Mystery	Sept. 3
X	International Women of Mystery	Sept. 7	The Betel Nut Tree Mystery	Sept. 10
Row #3
	Grave or Graveyard
	Deadlands
	FREE SPACE	n/a
	In the Dark, Dark Woods		Imaginary Numbers	Sept. 12
	Psych / Romantic Suspense	Sept. 6
Row #4
	American Horror Story/Spellbound	Sept. 10
	A Grimm Tale
	It was a Dark and Stormy Night
	Monsters
	Trick or Treat
Row #5
	Country House Mystery
X	13	Sept. 1	The Thirteen Problems	Sept. 6
	Locked Room Mystery
	Halloween
X	Murder Most Foul	Sept. 5	Extracurricular Activities	Sept. 3

The Spell Pack cards are below – I’ve used a border in the same color as the card to mark the squares where I’ve used one.

Cards used:
Bingo Flip: Lillelara has agreed to trade my Psych square for her Romantic Suspense square.

Transfiguration Spell: Used to transform American Horror Story into Spellbound

Imaginary Numbers (InCryptid)

Imaginary Numbers
by Seanan McGuire
Rating: ★★★★
isbn: 0756413788
Series: InCryptid #9
Publication Date: February 18, 2020
Pages: 431
Publisher: DAW Books

The InCryptid series is an outlier for me; it’s the only series I’ve ever read where I feel comfortable picking and choosing which books to read, and have no problem skipping those that don’t appeal to me. My favourites are the Verity novels, and in those novels one of the best characters in my opinion, was Sarah. So when this book came out, I was excited about seeing where the author would take this character when given her own space.

I went in with few expectations, but still, even though it was a good book I read in almost one sitting (I fell asleep with 10 pages to go), I was disappointed. It started off great but went pear shaped once Sarah was forced to work with the other cuckoos. Because at this point the story became more science fiction than urban fantasy, and I don’t like science fiction.

Still, I could have coped, but there were two biggies for me: 1. The all-or-nothing we have to save the world from annihilation trope drives me insane. Like nobody would notice this apocalyptic occurrence? It’s totally unreasonable and gets more unreasonable as the book comes to an end. 2. The end. It’s a damn cliffhanger. I hate cliffhangers. Especially when the cliffhanger is in a book that’s just been released and how long am I going to have to wait until the resolution? Will I care by that point?

In spite of all this complaining, you’ll notice I still gave the book 4 stars. Because McGuire can write. She made me devour a story that was irritating me more and more from the mid-way point because her characters are awesome, and the dialog, oh, the dialog is a joy to read. So much sass and wit that’s perfectly balanced and never over-played. Also, the Aeslin mice – they’re always good for at least a 1/2 star bump.

I had planned to use this book for a Spell Pack card in Halloween Bingo, I think. But after reading it I realise it fits perfectly for the In the Dark, Dark Woods square, as most of the story takes place on the Price compound in the middle of the Oregon woods and Sarah is very descriptive about the drive through those woods to get to the compound. Also, 2 significant events to the plot take place in those woods.

The Betel Nut Tree Mystery (Crown Colony, #2)

The Betel Nut Tree Mystery
by Ovidia Yu
Rating: ★★★½
Series: Crown Colony Mystery #2
Publication Date: June 12, 2018
Pages: 312
Publisher: Constable

What we came to think of as the betel nut affair began in the middle of a tropical thunderstorm in December 1937 . . .

Singapore is agog with the news of King Edward VIII's abdication to marry American heiress Wallis Simpson. Chen Su Lin, now Chief Inspector Le Froy's secretarial assistant in Singapore's newly formed detective unit, still dreams of becoming a journalist and hopes to cover the story when the Hon Victor Glossop announces he is marrying an American widow of his own, Mrs Nicole Covington, in the Colony. But things go horribly wrong when Victor Glossop is found dead, his body covered in bizarre symbols and soaked in betel nut juice.

The beautiful, highly-strung Nicole claims it's her fault he's dead . . . just like the others. And when investigations into her past reveal a dead lover, as well as a husband, the case against her appears to be stacking up. Begrudgingly on Le Froy's part, Su Lin agrees to chaperon Nicole at the Farquhar Hotel, intending to get the truth out of her somehow. But as she uncovers secrets and further deaths occur, Su Lin realises she may not be able to save Nicole's life - or even her own.

I’m not sure what to say about this book; it both is and isn’t the type of mystery I normally read. The plotting and setting is totally in my wheelhouse, but I don’t really connect with the characters, and it’s always easier to really get into books where you connect with the characters. The secondary characters are, for me, the most lively and fleshed out of the lot, and I enjoyed their short time on the pages.

The setting of pre-WWII Singapore is a rich setting about which I know nothing, so I find that part of the reading compellingly interesting. Yu does a spectacular job bringing the monsoon season to life, as well as the city itself.

There are two reveals in the plot of The Betel Nut Tree Mystery, and unfortunately, both were transparent. I knew the identity of the columnist after the first few chapters, and I guessed who the murderer was soon thereafter. This unfortunate transparency wasn’t enough to stop me reading the book, obviously, but it did ding my rating.

In spite of this post making it sound like I only found the book to be ‘meh’, I’m looking forward to reading the next book; even if the mysteries themselves aren’t perfect, their setting and time are, and I want to see what happens next.

I read this book off my TBR as part of Halloween Bingo 2020, for the International Women of Mystery square.

Final Exam (Murder 101 Mystery, #4)

Final Exam
by Maggie Barbieri
Rating: ★★★½
isbn: 0312376774
Series: Murder 101 #4
Publication Date: December 8, 2009
Pages: 336
Genre: Mystery
Publisher: St. Martin's Minotaur

Well, this book was better than the last one, Quick Study, but it wasn’t as good as the first two books. Allison, our now-fearless MC, is back to being thrust into situations beyond her control, albeit with some serious authorial license – in the first book Allison was tenured. Now, she’s not, which I guess gives the administration the power needed to force her into being a Resident Admin at one of the dorms when the current RA goes missing. Allison is determined to find out where the missing RA is, so she can move back home and off the dry, catholic campus.

When Allison moves into her room, her toilet explodes, revealing a brick of pure heroin. This only spurs her on, of course.

What results is a bit convoluted, and the story is further muddied by a side plot involving her best friend’s marriage which didn’t quite work. Ultimately, the plot, distilled down to its essence, is a good one involving unwitting college students, drug runs and what a less-than-ethical parent will do in the name of ‘what’s best’ for their child. No dead bodies in this one, just a lot of chases and head wounds. But in my opinion, it could have been better with, perhaps, a different editor. This author writes good crime mysteries, and efforts at high-jinks just fall flat.

Halloween Bingo 2020: September 8 update

Calls made so far that are on my card:

*Note: I’ve removed Psych in favour of Romantic Suspense, as it’s the square I flipped.

I’ve looked at my recent re-reads of the Murder 101 Series and I can use two of them: one for my Cozy Mystery square and one for Murder Most Foul. Technically I could use all of them, but I’m unwilling to give up my plans for Genre: Mystery and the centre free space.

This means I get to ‘sticker’ two more squares! Squee! I think this is the first Halloween Bingo – EVER – that I’ve had most of the squares called right off the bat. I think I’ll either tackle International Women of Mystery, or the Free Space/Edgar Square next.

How it works:

	Bingo Square	Date Called	Book Title	Date Read
Row #1
	Gothic
	Genre: Suspense
	Ghost Stories
	Dark Academia		Murder 101	Sept. 2
	Southern Gothic
Row #2
	Darkest London
	Black Cat
	Cozy Mystery		Quick Study	Sept. 5
	Genre: Mystery	Sept. 3
	International Women of Mystery	Sept. 7
Row #3
	Grave or Graveyard
	Deadlands
	FREE SPACE	n/a
	In the Dark, Dark Woods
	Psych / Romantic Suspense	Sept. 6
Row #4
	American Horror Story
	A Grimm Tale
	It was a Dark and Stormy Night
	Monsters
	Trick or Treat
Row #5
	Country House Mystery
X	13	Sept. 1	The Thirteen Problems	Sept. 6
	Locked Room Mystery
	Halloween
	Murder Most Foul	Sept. 5	Extracurricular Activities	Sept. 3

The Spell Pack cards are below – I’ve used a border in the same color as the card to mark the squares where I’ve used one.

Cards used:
Bingo Flip: Lillelara has agreed to trade my Psych square for her Romantic Suspense square.

Non-book post: Spring is here!

Yesterday was our first nice weather day, with a high of 21C (70F) and full sunshine. We’re still in total lockdown, but the government amended the rules a few weeks ago to allow us to drive to our exercise, as long as it’s within 5km, so I dragged MT out to a new-to-us park known as Willsmere Park or Kew Billabong. For those who may not know, a billabong is a backwater or stagnant pool, made by water flowing from a main stream or river during a flood. We had no idea it was there until recently, and it’s lovely. We got there ‘early’ by MT’s standards, a bit later than I wanted to, but in time to have the park to ourselves for about 45 minutes, before everyone else in a 5km radius descended.

I didn’t get a lot of pictures, mostly because we were busy checking out the lay of the land at first, and then, well… people. But we did chat (at a distance) with a lovely woman for whom the park was obviously her ‘local’, and she pointed out a pair of Tawny Frogmouths sleeping off the day, though one woke up long enough to shuffle his feathers and sun himself for a moment before dozing back off.

She also pointed out a nesting box for a pair of sugar gliders and told us if we were there at dusk we’d have half a chance of seeing them depart the box. Guess where we’ll be at dusk sooner rather than later? (Sugar gliders, if you’re unfamiliar with them, are the cutest damn tiny possums that fit in the palm of your hand.)

We’re only allowed to be out a couple of hours a day, and by the time I’d done the circuit there were hoards of people socially distancing, and cyclists trying their hardest to thin the herds (a major bike path goes through the park), so we headed back to the lot in time to see that it wasn’t only the humans enjoying the sunshine and cavorting in the spring weather:

I suspect, if you asked the neighborhood dogs, they’d say that water bowl was for them, but I doubt any of them would try to tell the cockatoos that.

Halloween Bingo 2020: September 7 update

Calls made so far that are on my card:

I’ve finished Agatha Christie’s The Thirteen Problems going for the 13 square – my first sticker! I’ve been on a re-reading kick of an old series which has put me behind on planned Halloween reads. At least one of the re-reads I’ve recently done will qualify for Genre: Mystery though, so it’s not a total failure. I’ll update that when I’ve figured out which one I’ll use. I’ll also likely use another for the Raven/Free Space.

Below is the table that will summarise the books I’ve read for each square, and note if I took advantage of one of the Spell Pack cards, and which one. If all goes well, Book Titles will link to my review of the book here.

	Bingo Square	Date Called	Book Title	Date Read
Row #1
	Gothic
	Genre: Suspense
	Ghost Stories
	Dark Academia		Murder 101	Sept. 2
	Southern Gothic
Row #2
	Darkest London
	Black Cat
	Cozy Mystery
	Genre: Mystery
	International Women of Mystery
Row #3
	Grave or Graveyard
	Deadlands
	FREE SPACE
	In the Dark, Dark Woods
	Psych / Romantic Suspense
Row #4
	American Horror Story
	A Grimm Tale
	It was a Dark and Stormy Night
	Monsters
	Trick or Treat
Row #5
	Country House Mystery
X	13	Sept. 01	The Thirteen Problems	Sept. 6
	Locked Room Mystery
	Halloween
	Murder Most Foul

The Spell Pack cards are below – I’ve used a border in the same color as the card to mark the squares where I’ve used one.

Cards used:
Bingo Flip: Lillelara has agreed to trade my Psych square for her Romantic Suspense square.

I’m planning a follow up post with tentative titles for each square.

The Thirteen Problems

The Thirteen Problems
by Agatha Christie
Rating: ★★★★½
Series: The Agatha Christie Collection #
Publication Date: September 2, 2002
Pages: 201
Genre: Mystery
Publisher: Agatha Christie Ltd/Planet Three Publishing

Thirteen short stories of unsolved crimes, solved by Miss Marple.

I (re)read this book for two reasons: I belong to a group reading Agatha Christie’s oeuvre in order of publication, and it fit a Halloween Bingo prompt – 13. Either one of those reasons would have been a good enough excuse to read this charming little collection of Miss Marple showing everyone up.

13 short stories: the first 6 of which share a common tie of being stories told at the Tuesday Night Club, an impromptu gathering where each person tells the tale of a mystery that went unsolved at the time. The next 6 stories are tied together in a similar way, as stories all told around the dining table one evening. The last story is a ‘stand-alone’ although it relies on the friendship established in the previous stories between Miss Marple and Sir Henry Clithering.

Without exception, each story is excellent. Some are more excellent than others; in my opinion, The Blue Geranium is the absolute stand-out, though Motive vs Opportunity comes close. The weakest was probably the last, for me, Death by Drowning. It’s solid, but in comparison, duller than the previous 12 stories.

I have a confession to make about Agatha Christie’s books: I dislike both Miss Marple and Hercule Poirot. I find that in the longer books Miss Marple tends to natter on a bit too much and plays the “old spinster” and “aww shucks” hands a little too strongly. Hercule Poirot is just … an amalgamation of the worst traits of Holmes and Dupin is as close I can come to a description. I don’t find him as comical as most.

However, these short stories offer the perfect dose of Miss Marple: for almost all the stories, her participation is relegated to the end, so the simpering is contained. I also really tried, while reading these, to re-imagine Miss Marple in my mind by remembering the subjectivity of the descriptor ‘old’ and the stereotype of ‘spinster’. Yes, Miss Marple has white hair and knits, but I know many a 50-60 year old that has white hair and knits. I don’t recall her age ever being mentioned in the books I’ve read so far, so perhaps I dislike Miss Marple because of popular portrayals, combined with current attitudes about the adjectives that Christie used 100 years ago, when they covered broader spectrums.

I was partially successful; it was a struggle. Ingrained conceptions die hard. Fortunately I have a lot of books ahead of me to use for mental re-programming. Now if only I could figure out a way to like Poirot…

As I mentioned, I read this for Halloween Bingo 2020 to fit the 13 square.

Quick Study (Murder 101, #3)

Quick Study
by Maggie Barbieri
Rating: ★★★
isbn: 0312376758
Series: Murder 101 #3
Publication Date: December 9, 2008
Pages: 336
Genre: Mystery
Publisher: St. Martin's Minotaur

This is where the series falters; at least short-term. While the first two books in the series were excellent stories about our very-human MC shoved into circumstances beyond her control, Quick Study is all about the hubris. Allison thinks she’s a one-woman crime-fighting team, taking on all comers. It’s silly and it cheapens what was a good series (and might be again, I can’t remember). Looking at the publication date of 2008 (about the time cozy mysteries started becoming derivative) I can’t help but wonder if the author just hit a dry patch inspiration-wise, or if she was following the dictates of big-publishing in it’s single-minded pursuit of the bandwagon.

Either way – poorest entry of the bunch so far.