TITLE: THE GHOST AND THE HAUNTED MANSION
AUTHOR: ALICE KIMBERLY
Pages: 446
Date: 12/03/2010
Grade: 4+
Details: no. 5 Haunted Bookshop Mystery
Large Print
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I am enjoying this series. Not that they are especially good mysteries; the reader isn't given enough clues to solve the problem for themselves, but I do like the characters in these books and the interaction between Penelope Thornton-McClure and her ghost, P.I. Jack Shephard.
This story starts with Pen delivering some books to an elderly, reclusive lady who lives in a Victorian mansion which is rumoured to be haunted. When Pen enters the house she finds its occupant dead, and judging by the look on her face she was scared to death.
The police decide that Pen's friend, mailman Seymour Tardish must have murdered the old woman, an impression which is strengtened when it turns out that he is to inherit the mansion.
But Pen knows there must be something else going on and starts her own investigation, which turns out to have close links to a case Jack was investigating in 1947.
And, before long, Jack isn't the only ghost haunting Pen.
As always, a fun read.
TITLE: THE DEVIL'S BONES
AUTHOR: JEFFERSON BASS
Pages: 309
Date: 13/03/2010
Grade: 3.5
Details: no. 3 Body Farm Mystery
Own
I think I may have to stop reading this series. I enjoyed the first one, liked the second one a bit less and was really disappointed with this instalment.
This book had several story threads going, all involving one similar feature; fire, but it felt really disjointed while I was reading.
Dr. Bill Brockton is asked to investigate the suspect cremains (who knew that word existed?) of his lawyer's aunt, and is also involved in trying to determine whether a woman who died in a car fire did so as a result of an accident or was murdered by her husband.
Foremost on his mind though is Garland Hamilton, Brockton's nemisis who has escaped from custody and is determined to get his revenge on Brockton.
None of these story lines were sufficiently developed for my liking. And there was so much technical detail in this book that the story itself slipped into the background.
I can't help feeling that the makings of a great read were here, but just not used in the right way by the authors. A real shame.
TITLE: SOVEREIGN
AUTHOR: C.J. SANSOM
Pages: 579
Date: 09/03/2010
Grade: 5-
Details: no. 3 Matthew Shardlake Historical Mystery
Library
Setting: Autumn 1541
King Henry VIII's Progress to the North
This series of historical mysteries is so well researched that I always feel a bit like I'm time travelling when I read them. There is no polishing of reality in these books; Tudor England is described in, sometimes gruesome, detail, showing a fascinating but scary world with very little safety or security for anyone.
It's 1541 and Matthew Shardlake's hopes of a quiet life now that Cromwell has died are shattered when Archbishop Cranmer sends him to York to assist with some legal work for the Progress. Shardlake is also to take charge of a dangerous conspirator, who needs to be delivered to the Tower in London, fit for "interrogation".
Once in York, Shardlake witnesses the murder of a local glazier. The investigation of this murder uncovers the existance of documents that could upset the Tudor claim to the throne. But before the documents can be studied in detail, they are stolen and soon afterwards Matthew manages to survive three attempts on his life. And while his assistant Barak finds love, he and Matthew also find themselves involved in Royal intrigue and facing old and very powerful enemies.
The long awaited return to London should bring Matthew back to safety, but instead he finds himself facing the most terrifying situation a person could find themselves in in those days.
These are not light or quick reads, so I'll give myself a little break before progressing to the next one. Only a little break though since I am fascinated by these books.
TITLE: THE AFFINITY BRIDGE
AUTHOR: GEORGE MANN
Pages: 350
Date: 06/03/2010
Grade: 4.5
Details: no. 1 Newbury & Hobbes Investigations
Library
This is a very hard book to categorize. Part historical mystery, part fantasy and part horror story, this book doesn't easily fit into any of the genres as known to me. It is however totally engaging and fascinating.
The story is set in 1901 in a version of Victorian London that closely resembles the one we know from the history books, but differs from it in a few quite essential details. In this version technology has developed a lot further. We find mechanical carriages and ground trains travelling through London and airships in the air providing transport to anywhere in the world. We also find clockwork automatons, programmed to do lots of different menial tasks.
But it's not all goodness in this world; there is a ghostly glowing policeman killing apparently random victims and a plague haunts Whitechapel, turning people into mindless zombies and killing machines.
In this world operates Sir Maurice Newbury, gentleman investigator for Queen Victoria, assisted by Veronica Hobbes who has recently started working for him.
When an airship crashes from the sky, killing everyone inside, the Queen instructs Newbury to investigate. At the same time he's trying to assist his friend Charles Bainbridge, Chief Inspector with Scotland Yard with the apparently motiveless murders being committed by a glowing policeman.
Newbury, Hobbes and Bainbridge will find themselves facing all sorts of horrors and life threatening situations before all cases are solved.
And just when you thought the story had surrendered all its secrets, there is one more surprise awaiting the reader.
This was a wonderful read and I hope to get stuck into the next one soon.
TITLE: MR. DARCY, VAMPIRE
AUTHOR: AMANDA GRANGE
Pages: 308
Date: 05/03/2010
Grade: 3
Details: Paranormal Romance
Library
This book was rather under-whelming. All through the reading of it I felt that the story was neither here nor there. It didn't have the thrill of a romance, nor the danger of a vampire story.
Thsi story starts on the day Elizabeth Bennett marries her Mr. Darcy and the two of them leave for their honeymoon. It should be a time of sheer bliss, but Elizabeth is worried by the look of torment that crosses Darcy's face when he reads a message. And her worries deepen when Darcy won't spend the night with her; not that first night, and not on any of the subsequent nights either.
They travel through Continental Europe, visiting Paris, the Alpes and several places in Italy. All are fascinating new places for Elizabeth, but always there is an under-current of danger and strangeness as well as the worry that maybe Darcy doesn't love her after all.
When all secrets are at last revealed a decision has to be made, a decision that could mean death or worse for both of them.
As I indicated before, this book left me indifferent, probably because there didn't seem to be a lot of emotion in the characters as they appear in this book. Nor where the intimate scenes romantic enough or the scary scenes really frightening. It was easy enough to read this book, but nothing here inspires me to go and find other works by this author.
TITLE: MURDER ON THE CELTIC
AUTHOR: CONRAD ALLEN
Pages: 421
Date: 04/03/2010
Grade: 4
Details: George Porter Dillman & Genevieve Masefield Mystery
Large Print
Library
This was the 8th book in this series, and, rather against my principles, I hadn't read any of the previous ones before starting on this book. But, since by the looks of it, only the two main characters are recurring ones, this wasn't an issue at all.
This is a mystery series set on ocean liners during the early 20th century, with George Dillman and Genevieve Masefield being on-board detectives hired by the liners to solve any crimes committed during a voyage.
On this trip from New York to England, the two detectives meet Sir Arthur Conan Doyle when a to him very important copy of "A Study in Scarlett" is stolen from Doyles cabin.
But, events soon escalate with more thefts from first class cabins and the disappearance and suspected murder of a passenger.
This was an entertaining and light read, and as such just what I needed after the much heavier and darker story that was "Drood".
However, I won't be rushing out to find the rest of the series. The story felt a bit superficial to me with none of the characters appearing to have any depth to them and any issue broached only getting the most passing of detail.
TITLE: DROOD
AUTHOR: DAN SIMMONS
Pages: 771
Date: 03/03/2010
Grade: 4+
Library
This was a very hefty, at times cumbersome, yet fascinating book.
This is the story of the last five years of Charles Dickens's life as told by his colleague and friend, Wilkie Collins. It starts with the train crash in Staplehurst, which Dickens miraculously survives, and goes on from there.
Wilkie Collins, being a user of ever increasing amounts of opium and later morphine as well, is a very unreliable narrator who suffers from paranoia and delusions.
When Dickens tells Collins about the rail crash, he also tells him about a mysterious and ghostly figure he encountered there, a creature called Drood who resembles Death both in appearance and in actions.
Initially Collins refuses to believe in the existance of this Drood, but that doesn't stop him from joining Dickens on a quest to find this shadowy figure and the two authors find themselves searching the Slums of Victorian London as well as its opium dens, catacombs and sewers.
When Collins starts believing in Drood, this belief takes over his life and his actions, but because his use of drugs is increasing at the same time the lines between our narrator,s realitiy and his hallucinations becomes increasingly unclear and his actions ever more driven by paranoia, eventually leading to murder.
Like I said, this book was fascinating. However there were a few things that rubbed me the wrong way.
To start with, the book was too long, and contained quite a few repetitions.
I didn't like the way the Collins, who wants this particular manuscript kept unpublished for over 100 years, keeps addressing his future reader, keeps on referring to what that future world might look like, yet seems to know too much about it.
I also found the long discussions of the works by both authors as well as comparisons between their stories getting somewhat tiresome after a while.
And considering the book is called DROOD, I would have expected this shadowy figure to play a more dominant role in the book. Instead he seems to hover in the background for the majority of the story.
However, I did enjoy reading about these two authors, their friendship, their writing and the world they lived in. I am convinced though that I would probably have enjoyed this book more if I had known more about Dickens and Collins and had been (more) familiar with their works.
TITLE: THE GHOST AND THE HAUNTED MANSION
