One of my favorite authors is back with a new mystery novel — and it centers around books. The (unreliable?) narrator, Will, is a master forger. He specialized in faking inscriptions and small pieces of ephemera by classic authors. Then he got caught. Having paid his debt to society, Will has promised to…
31 Days of Halloween — October 25, 2013
“The others went upstairs, a slow unwilling procession. If this had been an old house, with creaking wood, and dark shadows, and heavily panelled walls, there might have been an eerie feeling. But this house was the essence of modernity. There were no dark corners – no possible sliding panels – it was flooded…
REVIEW: THE BAT by Mary Roberts Rinehart
I am so excited to tell people about this book. It’s witty and campy at the same time. It belongs firmly in the “B” or pulp category — but deliciously so. Reminiscent of the smart, slapstick movie Clue, it is just plain fun. Older (but not elderly) Miss Cornelia is of New York blue-blood stock. She…
REVIEW: THE CUTTING SEASON by Attica Locke
Caren Gray has returned to her knotted, complicated roots ont he plantation of Belle Vie. Generations of her family have lived on this land, some under the heavy oppression of slavery. Now Caren is the caretaker and manager of the estate that is no loner inhabited. It is rented for parties and weddings and…
REVIEW: DEATH AT THE CHATEAU BREMONT by M.L. Longworth
Any lover of wine, cigars, and old world charm — as well as a good yarn — should read this mystery. It poses no genre-defying questions, and it really doesn’t really hold any gasp-enducing surprises. But that’s ok, because it is the perfect hammock read for the summer. Antione Verlaque is a slightly cranky, somewhat…