The Library of the Unwritten

The Library of the Unwritten
by A.J. Hackwith
Rating: ★★★★
isbn: 9781984806376
Series: Hell's Library #1
Publication Date: October 1, 2019
Pages: 374
Genre: Fantasy
Publisher: Ace

A great tale for anyone who loves books, but especially for those who fancy themselves future authors, struggling authors, or really, anyone who’d embrace the title of author in any form.

Myself, I’ve never found the title of author appealing. My love of books is strictly that of the receiver of stories, and as such, some of the rhapsodic odes to unwritten stories was lost on me, though I connected with the idea of potentiality.

Regardless, once I got into the story, which admittedly took awhile, I was invested. I thoroughly appreciated the author’s take on Christian theology and judgement, but had a hard time buying into the creative license she took with heaven on several different levels. There’s a serious feminist vibe running throughout the narrative, which is fine, but for the record: God is no more a ‘she’ than God is a ‘he’; God is Omni; God is all, and while it makes no material difference which gender pronoun one uses, the overt use of “she’ has always felt petty to me. It was a small blip, but whenever it happened it yanked me out of the story, even if just for a second.

The author’s grasp of the mythology of the underworld felt less formed, but only if you really stop to consider; the logic of the plotting cracks a bit around the edges if you stop to consider how she’s got the bureaucracy of Hell set up. Don’t think about it too much though and it works well enough.

The characters are well written, though Leto’s story is obviously the one that is the most fully developed. This is the character the author thought most deeply about, or had enough life experience that bled through into his creation. Which is both unfortunate and haunting, though the result is a character the reader can care about and cheer for. To use Hackworth’s logic, Leto is the character most likely to leave his book.

Overall, an engaging story, an adventure. There’s a second book out next month that I’ll happily read, and I hope this time around we’ll spend more time in the library itself.

Halloween Bingo 2020: October 24th update

I’ve sort of fallen off the Bingo bandwagon the last couple of weeks; pushed off the back, really, as life has gotten exciting in that dryly ironic kind of way. Drastic improvements in Covid infection rates has meant a lifting of restrictions (Yay!) and a return to working on-site for me (Boo!) and it’s been exhaustingly busy. Then earlier this week, MT got stung by a bee and it was The Bee; the one that pushed his immune system too far and he went into anaphylactic shock, requiring an ambulance, a hospital stay, and a new constant companion in his life, the epipen. After all that, we woke up to find our beloved Eggy – the last of our first chickens – had died overnight. At that point I opted out of coping for a day or two.

Luckily none of this has put me in a reading slump; I’ve been churning through both new books and re-reads. Unfortunately, none of them are useful to my remaining Bingo squares. I have one more Wild Card I can use (Patricia Briggs) so I’ll likely use that on one of the remaining squares I’m struggling to find a read for.

I’ve also, in my own absence, managed a few bingos (6, I think?), as previously read squares got called. So here’s how things stand right now:

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, and American Horror Story has been transfigured into Spellbound

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
X	Gothic	Sept. 23	The Red Lamp	Oct. 12
	Genre: Suspense
X	Ghost Stories	Oct. 17	The Sun Down Motel	Sept. 13
X	Dark Academia	Sept. 24	Murder 101	Sept. 2
	Southern Gothic	Sept. 15
Row #2
X	Darkest London	Oct. 11	Capital Crimes: London Mysteries	Oct. 6
X	Black Cat	Oct. 20	Murders and Metaphors	Oct. 8
X	Cozy Mystery	Oct. 9	The Falcon Always Wings Twice	Oct. 3
X	Genre: Mystery	Sept. 3	Quick Study	Sept. 5
X	International Women of Mystery	Sept. 7	The Betel Nut Tree Mystery	Sept. 10
Row #3
X	Grave or Graveyard	Sept. 14	Grave Witch	Oct. 16
X	Deadlands	Sept. 29	Staked	Sept. 29
X	FREE SPACE	n/a	The Leper of St. Giles	Oct. 9
X	In the Dark, Dark Woods	Sept. 13	Imaginary Numbers	Sept. 12
X	Psych / Romantic Suspense	Sept. 6	Turquoise Mask	Oct. 2
Row #4
X	American Horror Story/Spellbound	Oct. 13	Ink & Sigil	Sept. 17
X	A Grimm Tale	Oct. 7	Burn Bright	Sept. 27
	It was a Dark and Stormy Night		Murder by Death	Oct. 6
X	Monsters	Sept. 18	Half-off Ragnorok	Sept. 25
	Trick or Treat	Sept. 16
Row #5
X	Country House Mystery	Oct. 5	Murder at the Manor	Oct. 8
X	13	Sept. 1	The Thirteen Problems	Sept. 6
X	Locked Room Mystery	Oct. 6	Big Book of Locked Room Mysteries	Oct. 4
X	Halloween	Oct. 15	Sympathy for the Devil	Oct. 4
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

Grave Witch

Grave Witch
by Kalayna Price
Rating: ★★★★
isbn: 9780451463807
Series: Alex Craft #1
Publication Date: October 5, 2010
Pages: 325
Genre: Urban Fantasy
Publisher: ROC Fantasy

As a private investigator and consultant for the police, Alex Craft has seen a lot of dark magic. But even though she's on good terms with Death himself, nothing has prepared her for her latest case. When she's raising a "shade" involved in a high profile murder, it attacks her, and then someone makes an attempt on her life.

Someone really doesn't want her to know what the dead have to say, and she'll have to work with mysterious homicide detective Falin Andrews to figure out why....

A re-read for me, as I needed a Grave/Graveyard book for Halloween bingo and I just wasn’t in the mood for the Ray Bradbury I had lined up.

Overall, the book holds up well, though the love triangle is a definite drag on what would have otherwise been a fantastic series. Price writes great characters and does an excellent job with world building and plotting; truly it’s the two men – both excellent specimens in their own right – vying for Alex that’s the only drawback. Not that I’m letting that stop me from re-reading the rest of the series in anticipation of the latest book coming out next month.

Emerald Blaze

Emerald Blaze
by Illona Andrews
Rating: ★★★★
isbn: 9780062878366
Series: Hidden Legacy #5
Publication Date: September 17, 2020
Pages: 389
Genre: Urban Fantasy
Publisher: Avon Books

When House Baylor is under attack and monsters haunt her every step, Catalina is forced to rely on handsome, dangerous Alessandro Sagredo, the Prime who crushed her heart.

The nightmare that Alessandro has fought since childhood has come roaring back to life, but now Catalina is under threat. Not even his lifelong quest for revenge will stop him from keeping her safe, even if every battle could be his last. Because Catalina won't rest until she stops the use of the illicit, power-granting serum that's tearing their world apart.

I’m a fan of this series, but admittedly I prefer Nevada and Connor over Catalina and Alessandro. Even so, this was a lot of fun to read and I was fascinated by the Abyss. What I appreciated most though, was that Andrews didn’t drag out the romantic interest story line; I expected another ‘Oh no! Will the couple ever find true happiness?’ cliffhangers, but instead it was all wrapped up rather neatly a little past midway. Nice. This allowed me to more fully enjoy the actual plot of the story, which involved a lot of fighting and magic using, which I prefer to the romance.

As a bonus, Nevada and Connor played a part in this story, although it was much too small, and a lot of backstory was filled in about Nevada’s split from the family.

All up it was a fun story I was disappointed to see come to an end. I hope there will be more with Catalina as the central character if only because I’m hugely intrigued by the Warden role and Linus.

The Red Lamp

The Red Lamp
by Mary Roberts Rinehart
Rating: ★★★★½
Publication Date: June 18, 2019
Pages: 289
Genre: Mystery
Publisher: Penzler Publishing

William Porter has just inherited Twin Hollows, an isolated lakeside estate shrouded in mystery and doom. But William and his wife aren't easily swayed by ghost stories and whispered rumors. Until a shadowy apparition beckons to them from the undying glow of a red lamp. Is a stranger with a deadly purpose trying to frighten them away? Or are they being haunted by a chilling warning from the grave?

I knew this was a ghost story, of sorts, so I started it bright and early yesterday morning, and became so engrossed in the story that I almost, almost, finished it last night. leaving nothing but 3 of the last 4 conclusion chapters for me to read today.

Mary Roberts Rinehart was an excellent writer; that her genius has been so far forgotten today is a tragedy. The Red Lamp was originally written in 1925, and putting aside the lack of technology and the beautifully elegant writing that today might be considered a tad verbose, the story holds up perfectly; it would take very little to make this story ‘modern’.

The Red Lamp is complex to the point of labyrinthine though. Like the main character, I stumbled through the story in ignorance. Some of this was by design, as the mc is meant to be a spectator not an active participant in solving the crimes, but some of it was because there was just so much going on and that beautifully elegant writing of Rinehart’s made for easy camouflage of any clues.

The book is, with the exception of the introductory and final 4 chapters, purely epistemological, with no chapters, just journal entries. This style doesn’t always lend itself to a submersive experience for the reader, but these journal entries are detailed enough that it makes almost no difference from a first person narrative.

The ghostly part of the story, in spite of the enormous potential for scarring the spit out of me, were subdued enough that they never raised so much as a hair. This was a wee bit disappointing, I admit, but it didn’t adversely affect the story; they were never the point of the book, it was always about the mysterious killings and there was never doubt that those killings were done by a very corporeal being.

All in all, this was an excellent mystery. I’d recommend this to anyone curious about Golden Age Mysteries who might be hesitant fearing dry or dated story-telling. While not perfect, The Red Lamp is most assuredly neither dry nor dated.

I read this for the Gothic square on my Halloween Bingo 2020 card.

Halloween Bingo 2020: October 10th update

I have bingos threatening to break out all over the place, but so far I remain in suspense. I’ve finished books for Black Cat, Cozy Mystery, Free Square, Country House, and Darkest London this week and today I’m going to start on my Gothic square with Mary Roberts Rinehart’s The Red Lamp.

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, and American Horror Story has been transfigured into Spellbound

How it works:

	Bingo Square	Date Called	Book Title	Date Read
Row #1
	Gothic	Sept. 23
	Genre: Suspense
	Ghost Stories		The Sun Down Motel	Sept. 13
X	Dark Academia	Sept. 24	Murder 101	Sept. 2
	Southern Gothic	Sept. 15
Row #2
	Darkest London		Capital Crimes: London Mysteries	Oct. 6
	Black Cat		Murders and Metaphors	Oct. 8
X	Cozy Mystery	Oct. 9	The Falcon Always Wings Twice	Oct. 3
X	Genre: Mystery	Sept. 3	Quick Study	Sept. 5
X	International Women of Mystery	Sept. 7	The Betel Nut Tree Mystery	Sept. 10
Row #3
	Grave or Graveyard	Sept. 14
X	Deadlands	Sept. 29	Staked	Sept. 29
X	FREE SPACE	n/a	The Leper of St. Giles	Oct. 9
X	In the Dark, Dark Woods	Sept. 13	Imaginary Numbers	Sept. 12
X	Psych / Romantic Suspense	Sept. 6	Turquoise Mask	Oct. 2
Row #4
	American Horror Story/Spellbound		Ink & Sigil	Sept. 17
X	A Grimm Tale	Oct. 7	Burn Bright	Sept. 27
	It was a Dark and Stormy Night		Murder by Death	Oct. 6
X	Monsters	Sept. 18	Half-off Ragnorok	Sept. 25
	Trick or Treat	Sept. 16
Row #5
X	Country House Mystery	Oct. 5	Murder at the Manor	Oct. 8
X	13	Sept. 1	The Thirteen Problems	Sept. 6
X	Locked Room Mystery	Oct. 6	Big Book of Locked Room Mysteries	Oct. 4
	Halloween		Sympathy for the Devil	Oct. 4
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

The Leper of St. Giles (Brother Cadfael Mystery, #5)

The Leper of St. Giles
by Ellis Peters
Rating: ★★★★
isbn: 9780333319857
Series: Chronicles of Brother Cadfael #5
Publication Date: August 27, 1981
Pages: 224
Genre: Fiction, Historical, Mystery
Publisher: Macmillan

Brother Cadfael has had no time to think about the grand wedding which is to take place in the church at Shrewsbury Abbey and is causing such excitement in the city. The groom is an aging nobleman; the bride a very young woman coerced into the marriage by her greedy guardians. But it soon becomes apparent that the groom, Huon de Domville, is a cold, harsh man -- in stark contrast to his beautiful bride-to-be. Before the wedding can take place, a savage killing occurs, setting Brother Cadfael the task of determining the truth, which turns out to be strange indeed.

For slower paced, traditional mysteries that are very skilfully written, you can’t go wrong with Brother Cadfael. When Peters created a crusader turned monk, she gave herself a large canvas on which to paint a variety of clever, interesting crimes.

The Leper of St. Giles takes place largely in and around St. Giles, the hospice for lepers that lies just outside Shrewsbury, but it’s largely about the wedding of an 18 year old girl, sold off by her guardians for a large portion of her own inheritance, to a cold, unfeeling 60-something land baron who only bought her lands and is taking her on sufferance. Of course she’s fragile and innocent and lovely and of course his squire is around the bend in love with her and incandescent over the injustice of her treatment. And of course the baron ends up murdered.

There’s a plot twist in this book; a rather major one, but it’s telegraphed early on, so that I knew long before it was revealed. It’s a good one, but if Peters hadn’t split the difference, the early guess would have ruined the story. As it is, Peters seems to have covered her bets and kept that reveal from being absolutely pivotal to the plot, making the ultimate solution a surprise, and a tragic one at that.

A few of the series characters readers enjoy aren’t here in this book, but there are other characters that endear themselves to the reader. There’s a bit of humor here and there too, making this a much more enjoyable read than the last, St. Peters’ Fair, which was a good story but dragged. I’d be best pleased if we saw Bran and Joscelin again, though I’m not counting on it.

This is one of the better of the 5 I’ve read so far, and I read it for the center square – Poe’s Raven – on my Halloween Bingo Card for 2020

Murders and Metaphors

This is one of those series where the premise and the characters are strong, but the writing and editing could be better. A bookshop with a magically sustained tree growing through the center that communicates through books with its owners; a raven that talks and a cat that understands more than he should; a native American sheriff that plays a strong role in the plots.

The mystery was ok; a little too frantic, but well done and I didn’t guess the murderer. The motive was weak; plenty of other suspects had much more compelling reasons to kill the victim, which leaves the murderer’s reasons feeling way too shallow.

There’s a lot to like, and it’s not an unenjoyable read, if you’ll excuse the double negatives, it’s just not a great read. I enjoyed the time I spent reading it enough to keep reading it, but not enough to feel anxious about reading the next one.

I read this for the Black Cat square on my Halloween Bingo 2020 card.

Murder at the Manor: Country House Mysteries

Murder at the Manor
Rating: ★★★
isbn: 9780712309936
Publication Date: February 1, 2016
Pages: 384
Genre: Fiction, Mystery
Publisher: The British Library

I read two stories from this anthology: Gentleman and Players and The White Pillars Murder. Both, it seems, stories I’ve already read elsewhere. Luckily I only remembered enough to recognise I’d read them before, not enough to remember how they end.

Gentleman and Players is a Raffles short story deeply embedded in a country house cricket competition and is less a mystery than an adventure sort of story. Mildly entertaining.

The White Pillars Murder is a G.K. Chesterton short mystery and it’s definitely a mystery, but the ending is beyond bizarre, and feels a bit like Chesterton is burning a bridge of sorts. A bit preachy too. Not a fan.

I read these for the Country House Mystery square on my Halloween Bingo 2020 card. Hopefully next time I pick up this book, I’ll remember I’ve already read these two stories.

Murder by Death: The book that was based on the movie that inspired the blog name

Murder by Death
by H.R.F. Keating, Neil Simon
Rating: ★★★★½
isbn: 0352397276
Publication Date: January 1, 1976
Pages: 176
Genre: Mystery
Publisher: Star Books

Novelization of the screen play by Neil Simon. Various "famous sleuths" (or their somewhat thinly disguised copies) are invited by a mysterious millionaire to stay at his house and solve a who-dun-it, with the winner getting millions.

I re-read this almost perfectly brilliant book, based on the absolutely brilliant movie, for Halloween bingo’s Dark and Stormy Night square.

If you haven’t seen the movie, written by Neil Simon and released in the 1970’s, and you’re a fan of classic mysteries and oddball humor, you’re missing out on a classic. It’s brilliantly written and brilliantly casted. It’s an homage and a spoof, so if spoof’s aren’t your thing, skip it, you’ll be disappointed. It’s the original Clue! only the characters are based on Nick and Nora, Miss Marple, Sam Spade, Hercule Poirot, and Charlie Chan.

The book was written to be a faithful reproduction of the movie, though H.R.F. Keating uses the opportunity of the written word to name drop additional authors like Conan Doyle and Sayers. And it is an exact, faithful reproduction of the movie – until the last 5 short paragraphs where Keating, apparently, couldn’t help himself and changed the ending. It’s a small thing, but it sets my teeth on edge because it’s a sop.

Still, I cherish this book as I do the movie. I just need to stop at the fifth to last paragraph.