Secrets in the Mist

Secrets in the Mist
by Anna Lee Huber
Rating: ★★★
isbn: 9780997939620
Series: Gothic Myths #1
Publication Date: October 25, 2016
Pages: 378
Genre: Fiction, Historical, Mystery
Publisher: Brightstone Media

2021 Update: I actually enjoyed this more the second time around, enough to give it a 4 star rating over the original 3.

——–

Hmm… how to sum up my thoughts about this book? Mostly, it needed a harsher editor.

I’m a huge fan of Anna Lee Huber’s Lady Darby series, and the writing in this is equally as good, but it’s just too long. The story dragged for at least the first half of the book, and as Ella is a poster child for co-dependency, a situation that was played to the hilt, the reading was tedious at the start.

Once it got going though, the reading became much easier, even at times, exciting. Huber never goes for the fantastical and cliched plotting choices, but still weaves an impressive story. The ending felt a bit abrupt, but I can’t say that’s a fair call; I think I tried to anticipate how the end would happen, and being completely wrong is what felt abrupt.

I’m not sorry to have read it – it was a good story (and a good romance) – but it \ could have been a more amazing story with tighter editing.

This was my Free Friday Read for BLopoly and it was 378 pages.

The Big Over Easy (Nursery Crimes, #1)

The Big Over Easy
by Jasper Fforde
Rating: ★★★★½
Series: Nursery Crimes #1
Publication Date: January 1, 2005
Pages: 398
Genre: Fantasy, Fiction, Mystery
Publisher: Hodder & Stoughton

This book… I have so many random thoughts about this book. In no particular order:

1. Easily the most highly quotable book I’ve ever read. Including books of quotes.
One of my favourites:
Mr. Pewter led them through to a library filled with thousands of antiquarian books.

‘Impressive, eh?’

‘Very,’ said Jack. ‘How did you amass all these?’

‘Well,’ said Pewter, ‘you know the person who always borrows books and never gives them back?’

‘Yes–?’

‘I’m that person.’

Don’t know why, but that cracked me up.

2. I’m pretty sure Fforde had no intention of writing a satire (based on what I’ve found on the interwebs) about the sensationalism of the free press, but this is definitely a case of current events shaping a reader’s interpretation of the text. I had a really hard time reading this and not drawing parallels.

3. I’m equally sure he definitely meant to write a satirised murder mystery and this was easily the closest I’ve ever read to my blog’s namesake movie, Murder By Death, which in my totally biased opinion is the acme of mystery satire. Which brings me to another quote:

Dog Walker’s Face Body-Finding Ban
Anyone who finds a corpse while walking their dog may be fined if proposed legislation is made law, it was disclosed yesterday. The new measures, part of the Criminal Narrative Improvement Bill, have been drafted to avoid investigations looking clichéd…

Now this is legislation I can get behind.

4. I wish I’d picked this book up directly after reading The Well of Lost Plots. It makes no difference to someone new to Fforde’s books, but I think those that have read TN would feel a stronger connection to the characters here when The Well… was still fresh in the memory.

5. Prometheus has an incredible monologue on pages 271-273. A popular fiction novel that can weave serious philosophy into its narrative always earns huge bonus points with me.

6. Oh, yeah – good mystery plot too!

Off to order the second one…

A Perilous Undertaking (Veronica Speedwell, #2)

A Perilous Undertaking
by Deanna Raybourn
Rating: ★★★★
isbn: 9780451476159
Series: Veronica Speedwell Mystery #2
Publication Date: October 1, 2017
Pages: 338
Genre: Fiction, Historical, Mystery
Publisher: Berkley

I’ve been looking forward to this second book for months and while it wasn’t quite as good as the first book, it definitely wasn’t disappointing.

In the first book, startling revelations about Veronica were a big part of the plot, and Stoker’s past was shared in teasing bits here and there. I suppose, given those revelations, the author couldn’t resist using them to prop up the plot in this book, but I’ll admit I found the device (especially the you must investigate this!) trite. At a guess, the family angst bit was perhaps meant to show Veronica’s vulnerability and humanity – we all just want to be accepted and loved, dammit! But it just didn’t work for me. I found the scene with the butterfly in the garden to be far more effective and moving, without being a cliché. I did enjoy learning more about Stoker’s family though.

A BookLikes friend of mine wrote, in her review, that the themes throughout this book seemed chosen as much for their shock value as for their ability to showcase Veronica’s conscious independence. She’s not wrong. I’m not sure if the author wanted to shock, or just combat the general assumption that Victorian England was the apex of prudishness, purity and virginal thinking, but either way, this book is not for anyone who prefers a chaste story. There’s no overt sex, but boy howdy, is it talked about. A lot.

The murder reveal didn’t surprise me; the more the author asserts a character’s innocence, the more I suspect them, but I hardly cared. The banter between Stoker and Veronica–actually the banter between anyone and Veronica–were what I enjoyed the most about this book. If you want a strong, intelligent, pragmatic, rational female heroine you cannot do much better than Miss Speedwell. Raybourn knows how to write.

My favourite highlights: Patricia the Galapagos tortoise, and that final scene between Stoker and Veronica. That final scene might, in fact, make my top 5 favourites of all time.

The Mangle Street Murders

The Mangle Street Murders
by M.R.C. Kasasian
Rating: ★★★★
Publication Date: November 1, 2013
Pages: 336
Publisher: Head of Zeus

After her father dies, March Middleton has to move to London to live with her guardian, Sidney Grice, the country s most famous private detective. It is 1882 and London is at its murkiest yet most vibrant, wealthiest yet most poverty-stricken. No sooner does March arrive than a case presents itself: a young woman has been brutally murdered, and her husband is the only suspect. The victim s mother is convinced of her son-in-law s innocence, and March is so touched by her pleas she offers to cover Sidney s fee herself. The investigations lead the pair to the darkest alleys of the East End: every twist leads Sidney Grice to think his client is guilty; but March is convinced that he is innocent. Around them London reeks with the stench of poverty and gossip, the case threatens to boil over into civil unrest and Sidney Grice finds his reputation is not the only thing in mortal danger.

I bought this at a library sale because the cover caught my eye; I had no expectations, as I’d never heard of it before but it had a vaguely Holmesian feel to it.

I wasn’t wrong; there are both subtle and blatant nods to Doyle and Holmes throughout the story, but… I don’t know how to say this. The Mangle Street Murders reads like it was written by someone well-versed in the Holmes cannon but who resented the varnish put on the Victorian age and so set out to reimagine a Holmes worthy murder mystery in all its gory, gritty detail.

If that’s indeed what Kasasian set out to do, then boy howdy did he/she succeed. Sydney Grice, the famous personal detective is what Holmes might look like if he were actually a sociopath. Self admittedly greedy, vain, selfish and without a shred of courtesy or decency he’s almost a comic figure, until the reader is forced to witness his delight in public executions and other examples of his inhumanity. The author tries half-heartedly to hint at some underlying decency, but frankly fails; they are too few and too brief to have any impact. Add to that the grisly, graphic details in just about every scene of the book and it’s a wonder I kept reading past the first mortuary scene. There were times I honestly felt like the author was trying to punish the reader, beating them over the head with the reality of the 1880’s.

But I did keep reading; I really liked the MC, March Middleton. From the introduction it’s clear she’s Grice’s historian, in much the same way Watson was for Holmes, only she is (sorry Watson, I love you) much smarter than Watson and a far more invested participant. Of course she has a hidden pain – a tragedy in her past – that is shared piecemeal in the form of old journal entries. These are done perfectly: just often enough that they tug at your soul and keep you on the edge of your seat dreading what must be the inevitable. The inevitable, however, must be part of a multi book story arc because we don’t get to it here.

The plotting was competent. Of course Grice is secretive so neither Marsh nor the reader are every privy to crucial details until very nearly the end when he waves his superiority around in a nauseating way, but Marsh gets hers back, making for a more even read. The ultimate criminal was a person I pegged very early in the book, but there were so many layers and complexities that really all I’d done was identify the tip of the iceberg.

All said, the writing is excellent, the story and characters were compelling and I definitely won’t read the second one. I’m not at all ashamed to admit that I don’t want this level of factual realism in my books. I enjoyed the mystery but it was overshadowed by the author’s need for verisimilitude; if you don’t mind that level of grittiness, and you enjoy a good historical mystery, then this one is worth exploring. Otherwise stick with Holmes and Watson.

Death Comes to the Fair

Death Comes to the Fair
by Catherine Lloyd
Rating: ★★★★
Series: Kurland St. Mary Mystery #4
Publication Date: November 29, 2016
Pages: 336
Publisher: Kensington

It’s harvest time in the village of Kurland St. Mary as Lucy and Robert prepare to take their vows—but a murderer has taken an unseasonable vow of vengeance…

As Miss Lucy Harrington, daughter of the village rector, and Major Sir Robert Kurland plan their nuptials, the major is beginning to wonder if he’ll ever hear wedding bells. He’s seen complex military campaigns that involved less strategy, and he’s finding Lucy’s meddling family maddening.

When the body of Ezekiel Thurrock, the church verger, is discovered crushed by a stone gargoyle that has fallen from the bell tower, the tragic death strikes a somber note and the wedding is delayed. But the evidence suggests this was no accident, and Lucy wonders if bad blood at the village fair had anything to do with the man’s mysterious demise, since there was much bitterness over Ezekiel’s prizewinning vegetables.

As Lucy and Robert uncover long-standing village feuds, the town’s dark secrets begin to take their toll and the couple soon finds they too are in grave danger…

Not quite the slump breaker I was hoping for, but not a bad little mystery either. The novelty the main characters had in the first novel has worn off (reasonably enough) and the author is left with the tried and true: killing off the villagers. From the sounds of this village, they may deserve it.

This book stumbled for me because a great draw is the chemistry and banter between the two MCs and they were kept apart quite a bit and their adventures when they were together lacked that certain something I enjoyed before. A well known, loathsome villager gets what’s coming by the end – which is great! – but there’s this giant hole at the end where we miss out on the reaction of at least one significant character whose life is directly affected by the outcome of events. That felt weird to me; the author couldn’t spare a few more pages to flesh that out?

But there was still a lot I liked about this cozy; I enjoyed it more than most of what I’ve been reading lately. It held my attention and the setting felt like an old friend. Given my general grumpiness lately, I’ll take that and be thankful for it.

An Unhappy Medium

An Unhappy Medium
by Dawn Eastman
Rating: ★★★★
isbn: 9780425282809
Series: A Family Fortune Mystery #4
Publication Date: April 5, 2016
Pages: 336
Genre: Mystery
Publisher: Berkley

Psychic Clyde Fortune and her zany family are back in the fourth in the national bestselling series from the author of A Fright to the Death.

Former cop and novice psychic Clyde Fortune finds herself in a race for justice when a Zombie Fun Run turns deadly…

All of Crystal Haven, Michigan, is psyching up to participate in a Zombie Fun Run organized by Clyde’s nephew Seth, but Clyde is fretful about the undead festivities. For one thing, her sister, Grace, has unexpectedly returned to town after fifteen years. For another, Clyde has the nagging feeling that something is about to go wrong…

When one of the zombie runners is found murdered and then Grace disappears, Clyde realizes her grim premonition is dead-on. Now, she and her police detective boyfriend Mac must find a ghoulish murderer before someone points the finger at Grace. And when a tangled web of family secrets and old grudges combines with a mysterious case of stolen diamonds, even someone as quick-witted as Clyde might not be able to outrun a killer…

If a book can hold your attention when you’re in a slump, it can’t be half bad right?

I enjoy this series as it’s one of the few rational cozy series out there; most of the characters are likeable, the small town setting is vivid and the plotting is usually pretty good. Clyde is a strong, normally intelligent main character trying to come to grips with a psychic gift she’s ignored most of her life and her family is just crazy enough to be realistic. Mac is a great romantic lead who doesn’t define himself by his ability to alpha male everyone around him.

This book’s plotting, though, wasn’t quite as strong as the others. I’m left with the impression that the mystery itself was just an excuse to further Clyde’s family’s story arc along. To string the mystery out, the author made Clyde dim: her visions were fairly easy for the reader to interpret as events unfolded, but Clyde remained clueless and the final denouement revealed a culprit that was never a suspect either for anyone in the book or the reader as there simply wasn’t any forward progression after the initial murder scene.

I was going to ding the rating for this, but my rating reflects my enjoyment and I did enjoy this book; the character sub-story was interesting enough that I didn’t miss what was missing from the mystery itself.

The Locked-Room Mysteries

The Locked-Room Mysteries
by Otto Penzler
Rating: ★★★★½
isbn: 9780307743961
Publication Date: October 28, 2014
Pages: 941
Genre: Mystery
Publisher: Vintage Crime / Black Lizard

In this definitive collection, Edgar Award-winning editor Otto Penzler selects a multifarious mix from across the entire history of the locked room story, which should form the cornerstone of any crime reader's library.

Virtually all of the great writers of detective fiction have produced masterpieces in this genre, including Agatha Christie, Edgar Allan Poe, Dorothy L. Sayers, Arthur Conan Doyle, Raymond Chandler, G.K. Chesterton, John Dickson Carr, Dashiell Hammett, Ngaio Marsh and Stephen King.

The purest kind of detective story involves a crime solved by observation and deduction, rather than luck, coincidence or confession. The supreme form of detection involves the explanation of an impossible crime, whether the sort of vanishing act that would make Houdini proud, a murder that leaves no visible trace, or the most unlikely villain imaginable.

There were so many promising selections and recommendations from everyone for locked-room mysteries, I found it a little overwhelming: what to choose?

Then I stumbled across this book at my library and it seemed the perfect answer; at 900+ pages I was certain to find a few good stories and all of them locked room mysteries.

I was not disappointed. In fact, I think I’ll probably buy a copy of this book for my personal shelves; if half the stories are as good as the ones I’ve read, I can’t go wrong.

For the Halloween Bingo challenge, I read the following stories; none of them less than 4.5-5 star reads:

A Terribly Strange Bed – Wilkie Collins
What do Disney’s Haunted Mansion and the movie Murder by Death have in common? This story! It was so much fun; I admit I wasn’t sure how much I’d like Collins’ writing style after listening to Mrs. Zant and the Ghost, but I found this story so entertaining, I’m feeling much more confident about picking up his longer classics.

The House of Haunts – Ellery Queen
A new author for me – I know, Queen is a legend! – but I’d never picked him up, thinking his work might be more noir or graphic than I’d like. HA! It was great! This is the longest of the stories I read, and it had all the elements: dark, forbidding atmosphere, gothic houses, mentally disturbed residents, an unending snow storm, a question of paranormal influences, and of course a locked room setup. The ending is nothing short of fantastical and cunning, with Queen coming across as a blend of Whimsey and Holmes.

The Burglar Who Smelled Smoke – Lawrence Block & Lynn Wood Block
Years ago I had a first date that took me to a bookstore and bought me a Bernie Rhodenbarr mystery. Despite such auspicious beginnings, the boyfriend didn’t last, but I’d read a few of the Burglar Who… books, so I pounced on this story as a guarantee of something light. After reading it, I sort of think Block would have been better off keeping Rhondenbarr confined to the short story format: this was a much better mystery than I remember the full-length books being. This is a true locked-room mystery, and while most relatively savvy readers will recognise the method of death, the details were really fiendishly clever, while still being a light, entertaining read.

The Poisoned Dow ’08 – Dorothy L. Sayers
My first Montague Egg mystery, and probably the ‘weakest’ of the stories I chose at 4.5 stars. Egg reminds me too much of Poirot, only a little bit… smarmy. This was also the most conventional of the locked room scenarios offered in the stories I read. Still, Sayers is a master and given a choice, I might choose Egg over Poirot in short story format. Maybe.

Death at the Excelsior – P.G. Wodehouse
Did you know Wodehouse wrote crime stories before he brought Wooster and Jeeves into the world? I didn’t, and when I saw him in the TOC there was no way I skipping it. It’s a classic mystery, and there are hints of the wry, dry humour Wodehouse would become famous for here and there. Another truly locked room mystery, with shades of The Adventure of the Speckled Band, but ultimately very different. This short could also be used for the Black Cat Square.

I’m looking forward to owning my own copy of this; I highly recommend it for classic mystery lovers.

(Read September 8-9 2016; Library copy; ISBN 9780857898920)

As Death Draws Near (Lady Darby Mystery, #5)

As Death Draws Near
by Anna Lee Huber
Rating: ★★★★★
isbn: 9780425277720
Series: A Lady Darby Mystery #5
Publication Date: July 5, 2016
Pages: 342
Genre: Fiction, Historical, Mystery
Publisher: Berkley Prime Crime

I love this book, but it’s getting a bonus 1/2 star bump for being both historically accurate and immediately relevant.

Gage and Kiera are on their honeymoon when they are summoned to Ireland to investigate the death of a young woman, a postulant at the Loretto convent; a recent convert from Anglicanism and a distant cousin of Wellington.

The story’s time – the early 1800’s – and its setting in Ireland, make it the perfect vehicle for exploring religious intolerance and prejudice. If I had to guess, I’d say the author is Roman Catholic, but it’s just a guess, as I think both the Protestants and the Catholics are treated equally. Either way, it is clear that the author is writing from a place of faith herself; the story does not proselytise and it’s not a ‘Christian’ book but its plot is entirely about religion and Huber writes without cynicism, whether she’s talking about its grace or its hypocrisy.

The mystery itself was devastating and complex; I was so very sure I knew where it was going, and I was so very wrong. I saw a small twist coming a mile away but it didn’t go where I thought it would at all. The ending was heart wrenching and gutting and that twist totally blind-sided me.

The author includes a note at the end that discusses what she used from history (a lot) and what she created; she also includes a few recommended reads for those interested in going further. This was an incredibly well-written, entertaining mystery with the added bonus of giving the reader quite a bit to chew on in terms of what people will do to each other in the name of religion and I thought it was handled deftly without being judgemental.

These people, these neighbors, both Protestant and Catholic alike, who spat at each other with such hatred that it sometimes erupted into violence, did so because their faith was slightly different. Because they couldn’t be bothered to learn the truth about each other.

Easily one of my top 5 favourite series – can’t wait for the next one.

Lost Among the Living

Lost Among the Living
by Simone St. James
Rating: ★★★★
isbn: 9780451476197
Publication Date: April 5, 2016
Pages: 318
Genre: Fiction, Paranormal
Publisher: NAL / New American Library

England, 1921. Three years after her husband, Alex, disappeared, shot down over Germany, Jo Manders still mourns his loss. Working as a paid companion to Alex's wealthy, condescending aunt, Dottie Forsyth, Jo travels to the family's estate in the Sussex countryside. But there is much she never knew about her husband's origins...and the revelation of a mysterious death in the Forsyths' past is just the beginning...

All is not well at Wych Elm House. Dottie's husband is distant, and her son was grievously injured in the war. Footsteps follow Jo down empty halls, and items in her bedroom are eerily rearranged. The locals say the family is cursed, and that a ghost in the woods has never rested. And when Jo discovers her husband's darkest secrets, she wonders if she ever really knew him. Isolated in a place of deception and grief, she must find the truth or lose herself forever.

And then a familiar stranger arrives at Wych Elm House...

Of the 5 Simone St. James books I’ve read (and she’s published), this is the one I’ve liked the least. Not to say it’s not a very good, well-written story–it is–it’s just much less gothic-y than at least 3 of the others.

This book felt like it was slow to start, because of that last line in the synopsis; they should have left that off, because I spent the first x% of the book waiting for the stranger to appear. Only after that happened did I feel like the book picked up speed. This story also felt somehow less creepy; maybe it’s just that I’ve read all the books too close together, and my threshold is lower. Old creepy mansion: check. Dark gray, misty atmosphere: check. Ghosts: check. But still, somehow, not that creepy.

Lost Among the Living was also a lot more of a straight-up mystery: while the other books had a mystery aspect to them, the focus was on the hauntings. Here, the focus is on what happened to Frances, the parallels between her life and Jo’s, and what Jo is going to do with her life going forward. There’s also a lot less (read: no) sexual tension in this book, and I do find that spices a read up, even when romance is not the point.

This sounds like a rather negative review, but I still thoroughly enjoyed this book; it’s a great story and it’s well written and it pulled me in. My small dissatisfactions stem from the expectations I had from previous reads that I unfairly applied to this book and the author isn’t writing cookie-cutter plots. Indeed, the next book’s preview is at the end of this one and it’s the first one she’s written that takes place in present day, with an alternating timeline in the 50’s. Not sure if I want to go there, but I have the next year to adjust to the idea.

An Inquiry Into Love and Death

An Inquiry into Love and Death
by Simone St. James
Rating: ★★★★★
isbn: 9780451239259
Publication Date: March 5, 2013
Pages: 355
Genre: Fantasy, Fiction, Historical
Publisher: NAL / New American Library

Boy howdy can St. James write a ghost story! I love this book; I woke up at 6.30 this morning and did nothing until I finished it and then I re-read a few passages just to make it last longer.

In 1920’s England, Oxford student Jillian Leigh’s uncle Toby, a renowned ghost hunter, is killed in a fall off a cliff, and she must drive to the seaside village of Rothewell to pack up his belongings.

Almost immediately, unsettling incidents—a book left in a cold stove, a gate swinging open on its own—escalate into terrifying events that convince Jillian an angry spirit is trying to enter the house. Is it Walking John, the two-hundred-year-old ghost who haunts Blood Moon Bay? Was Toby’s death an accident?

The arrival of handsome Scotland Yard inspector Drew Merriken leaves Jillian with more questions than answers. Even as she suspects someone will do anything to hide the truth, she begins to discover spine-chilling secrets that lie deep within Rothewell…

If you’re a horror or psychological horror lover, pass this review right on by; this book is a cream puff in comparison to your regular fare, but for the rest of us, this is truly an old-school, spooky ghost story with a mystery and a romance (oh the romance…). There’s nothing gothic about the story, but I keep thinking of the old gothics anyway, for lack of any better comparison.

I probably should have gone 4.5 stars because Jillian goes through an improbable – neigh, impossible – number of physical calamities to still be standing upright. Or breathing, really. But the story was just so good; I was sucked in so thoroughly that I was willing to overlook her superhuman regenerative powers. Inspector Merriken was incentive enough to spur on a rapid recovery.

Ok, anything else I say beyond this point would just be repetitive gushing. I loved this book; it gave me exactly the experience I hope for every time I start a new story and I’ll be looking for more of this author’s work.