I got a little thrill this year when I told Sherry Thomas on Twitter I was so excited for this book, and she liked my status. The Hollow of Fear is the third book in the Sherry Thomas series. For those who are fans of the slow burn romance between Lord Ingram and Charlotte Holmes, there are heartbreaking and breathtaking moments between those two. If that’s all we got, I would have been satisfied. There’s also a mystery involving Lady Ingram, who suddenly turns up […]
Dead Man Upright: An Elegy for Derek Raymond
I read this one for the Cannonball Run Bingo, category: “This is the End.” It is the last book in the Factory Series. I first came across Derek Raymond’s work on a list of unheralded dystopias. He had written his A State of Denmark in the late-60s in response to British politics of that time. I liked his voice as a write but couldn’t connect with the main character and so I set the book aside. A few months later, I discovered the “Backlisted” podcast, where a […]
“Thank you.” I smiled sweetly at him. “Your trousers are on fire.”
Oh well. Now I don’t have to feel bad about finishing up Deanna Raybourn’s Lady Julia Grey series. This one was kind of a bust. I’m a big fan of Raybourn and had more love for the Lady Julia books than the majority of her fans, but this final (?) book in the series was a huge disappointment. A lot of Cannonballers have read and reviewed her books. I reviewed two of them this year, here , so I’m not going to get into too much detail about […]
Same Song; Different Tune
This is the first book I’ve read by Attica Locke and it definitely won’t be my last. Bluebird Bluebird is a complex and gripping mystery with social commentary that never feels ham-handed or preachy. I enjoyed it so much I may even check out Empire on Hulu (Ms. Locke writes for the show). Darren Matthews has a lot going on. He is a black Texas Ranger is East Texas. His career is in jeopardy after sticking his neck out for a family friend. His […]
Do you disapprove of minstrels, too?
I often geek out when visiting historical sites. The whole “OMG, so and so ACTUALLY walked here, lived here, died here…” gets me every time. No surprise then that Juliana Gray’s dedication in “A Strange Scottish Shore” definitely spoke to me: To all those who have stood where history was made and felt its echo.” This is the second in what I truly hope is a continuing series about a no-nonsense administrator, Emmeline Truelove, her employer, the Duke of Olympia, and her would be paramour, […]
“You left me alone but you’re still my own”
The key to a good suspense/mystery novel is similar to that of a good horror film. The characters reactions to things have to be realistic and make sense. That doesn’t mean they have to necessarily be smart or follow basic common sense. It means they have to make sense given what we know about the character’s past experiences and personality. That way, when everything goes pear shaped, it feels like these things are being experienced by a real human and not merely a vessel to […]
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