CW: Domestic violence, violence against women, violence against animals, references to sexual assault A Madness of Sunshine by Nalini Singh is a tightly plotted thriller that has pervasive feeling of rage coiled around it. Every character in this book feels angry and on edge, on the verge of snapping. This creates a superb tension that carries throughout the novel and, when combined with a perfectly plotted mystery and well-developed characters, results in a fantastic reading … Continue reading A Madness of Sunshine by Nalini Singh →
Jane Austen’s Ghost is a ghost story and a mystery of sorts, with romantic and historical elements. There is a satisfying romance in the middle, and there is a lot of humour, but, as befits a ghost story, there will be parts that make you cry, too. It’s quite a gentle, comforting sort of story to read and comes together in a very satisfying way at the end. I enjoyed it a lot. The story … Continue reading Jane Austen’s Ghost by Jennifer Kloester →
I’ve just discovered my new catnip. Old soldiers protecting their adopted granddaughters as they move through the forests of southern England seeking justice. Dare I say it, they are on a QUEST! Yes, please! Welcome to the Kingdom of Wessex in Britain in the year 838. Here, we meet Dunston, a former warrior, who now lives in the woods with his one-eyed dog, Odin. He is willfully self-sufficient and months will pass before he travels … Continue reading Wolf of Wessex by Matthew Harffy →
Poppy Redfern and the Midnight Murders is a mystery set in a small English town named Little Buffendon in 1942, just after the US joined WWII. Poppy, who lives with her grandparents, is the local Air Raid Warden. Her job is to walk through the village late at night and remind folks to put their blackout shades in place lest there be an actual aerial attack. The community has been dealing with war rationing, food … Continue reading Poppy Redfern and the Midnight Murders by Tessa Arlen →
The Shape of Night by Tess Gerritsen is a ridiculous book. I had hoped that it would transcend into glorious F+ territory, but sadly, despite all of its WTFery, it doesn’t. I also thought it might be romantic suspense, but it’s not. The Shape of Night is a thriller with erotic and paranormal elements (BDSM ghost sex, for real) but it fails to stick the landing on the thriller portion, it isn’t particularly erotic, and … Continue reading The Shape of Night by Tess Gerritsen →
Recently, I treated myself to a trawl through Bikini Books, a legendary secondhand bookstore in Gordon’s Bay, South Africa. It is the kind of shop that gifts you with surprises, if you take the time to look. One such book was The Coroner’s Daughter by Andrew Hughes. It is a whodunnit with the coroner’s daughter, Abigail Lawless, taking up the investigator’s mantle when those in authority aren’t brave enough to wade into uncertain waters. This … Continue reading The Coroner’s Daughter by Andrew Hughes →
Caution warnings: In MJ James’ debut Out of the Ashes, Alex Porter loses everything when the bookshop that he rebelled against his wealthy family to build goes up in flames. His overbearing mother insists that a fire marshall be called for, so Matt Fields has to drop everything and devote himself to the case, and Alex. I wanted to like Out of the Ashes. Queer mysteries are my wheelhouse, and I’m always looking for new … Continue reading Out of the Ashes by MJ James →
In Jane Austen’s Northanger Abbey, the heroine is mesmerized by the scandalous gothic novel, The Mysteries of Udolpho. Readers, I read that novel. My paperback Oxford World’s Classics edition (1998) of The Mysteries of Udolpho is 679 pages long, not counting introduction and notes. That’s a lot of mysteries. I read this so you don’t have to. SPOILERS AHEAD. The Mysteries of Udolpho was a huge hit for author Ann Radcliffe when it first came out in … Continue reading The Mysteries of Udolpho by Ann Radcliffe →
Oh my goodness, this book made me just ridiculously happy. The Vanished Bride is the first of what I hope will be many in the Bronte Sisters Mysteries series. I found this book to be surprisingly true to what I know about the Bronte’s lives and personalities, and entertaining without diminishing the historical characters. The story takes place in 1845. All of the Bronte siblings (who have survived so far) are living with their father … Continue reading The Vanished Bride by Bella Ellis →
TW: This book contains the graphic depiction of a rape. The Glass Woman by Caroline Lea is billed a Gothic mystery set in 1686 in Iceland that has shades of Jane Eyre to it. It’s about the dangers of rumors, and how they can poison a community. It’s wonderfully atmospheric and creepy…at least at first. About two-thirds of the way through the book, The Glass Woman shifts from a traditional Gothic to something more like … Continue reading The Glass Woman by Caroline Lea →
The summers when I was 11 and 12 years old stand out more clearly in memory than other points in my childhood; I was too young to have even a babysitting job, but old enough to roam the neighborhood with my friends largely unsupervised. It was a stage where I was starting to be aware of the adult world, but was still pretty naïve. The Van Apfel Girls Are Gone taps into that period of … Continue reading The Van Apfel Girls Are Gone by Felicity McLean →
