Where I've Been

So. Where have I been?

Mostly, I've spent the last month waiting for test results to see if I have cancer. I've gotten a mostly clean report back, except for one thing that we still don't quite know is going on. I thought I was handling the waiting well - this has been going on since the middle of summer - but I found I couldn't engage in the world while I waited these past three weeks. I didn't know this beforehand, or I would have left a little message! I only realized I was withdrawing last weekend, when I realized I had missed shopping for our youngest's birthday last Monday because I didn't want to leave the house.


I have been able to read, and am half-way through Jane Eyre, and took a break to read Flashforward by Robert Sawyer, which the new tv series is based on. I missed the beginning (3 episodes) of the tv show so I decided to read the book instead! It's good SF - I love the premise, but as is the case with usual SF, the characterization peters out about half-way through, and it becomes explanation, telling the story instead of showing us. In writer's circles, we are always being told "show the reader, don't tell." Science fiction, when they are trying to fit the characters and story around the science idea, always reminds me of this lesson (and how not to tell a story!). A good example of writing for characters and science is anything by Connie Willis, the new Doctor Who on TV, Neal Stephenson (and I just looked at Anathem by him and added it to my Christmas wish list!), Kim Stanley Robinson, Ray Bradbury - character driven science fiction. Among the best? Dune by Frank Herbert. At least for me it is, I'm sure many of you have science fiction authors you love. So Flashforward is enjoyable, but don't go into it expecting great storytelling. It's still worth reading, just for how the flash-forward is explained, and the philosophical discussions around a fixed fate vs free will: is our future already fixed? Or is it fluid? If we see what's ahead, does it have to be that way?

So, as I begin to recover from my first scare (and hopefully many years before any more!), I find I can to talk again. It wasn't just you, my dear Gentle Reader, I stopped talking to really everyone but my immediate family, without knowing I was doing it. I used to do this as a child, and apparently some coping mechanisms never go away!

I hope you all have had a really good Hallowe'en in the meantime, and have watched the leaves falling as the year darkens. The good thing about this time of year, as many of you said in your comments to my post about autumn, is that it means we can spend more time reading happily in our homes. I certainly will be. After getting the good news on Wednesday, I can start thinking about Christmas happily, and the first thing I did was -

go to a bookstore.

Even my husband noticed that I hadn't bought any books for almost two months, which is most unlike me. So I'm going to make up for it now! :

My Christmas Wish List (to be added to until Christmas Eve, and possibly after if I don't get everything I want!!)


Canadian Living Slow Cooker Collection (I love my slow cooker!)


Slow Cooker: Best Cookbook Ever - Diane Phillips


Diabetic Cookbook - Bridget Jones (for me, still getting used to this too!)
Fearless Fourteen - Janet Evanovich


Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie - Alan Bradley (this looks really good, finally out in softcover)


Anathem - Neal Stephenson (one of the best books of last year, finally out in softcover, and it looks really good)


Champlain's Dream - David Hackett Fischer (since I didn't get it last year, and I still want to read it!)


All The Colours of Darkness - Peter Robinson (latest in Insp Banks series)

Arctic Chill - Arnaldur Indridason (the latest in the series)


Doors Open - Ian Rankin (stand alone mystery)


The Complaints - " " (new series with Malcolm Fox, I think is the main detective's name. Looks very dark and quite good).


The Private Patient - PD James


Tarot Wisdom - Rachel Pollack


Seventy-Eight Degrees of Wisdom - " " (both are classic books in tarot reading)
Winds of Marble Arch and Other Stories - Connie Willis (sadly the hardcover no longer available, still waiting for a soft cover version. Come on, Subterranean Press!!!)
oooh, her new one is just listed for next Feb '10:
Blackout - Connie Willis


I've only just begun looking, so more will be added! and I don't expect to get everything! It's just lovely to have lots to choose from. Is there anything on your Christmas lists yet, dear Gentle Reader?

I also have to apologize for not finishing the RIP1V challenge the way I'd planned, nor the ghost stories. In fact, I couldn't read any more horror or ghost stories; Jane Eyre was the closest I could come, and I put it down last week when it's her wedding day and she's about to find out about the wife. This is my least favourite part of the book and I hate her journey to the moors and the religious nut she finds (sorry but I loathe him!) so as my test results were given on Wednesday, I put it down until I'm ready to deal with Rochester's betrayal. I had forgotten what a masterful creation he is, such a complex character - he so loves Jane, but he's never quite fully honest with her, and I know he's trapped, but I still think lying to her was reprehensible. Do you have any thoughts about this, dear Reader? Let me know......

Do you want me to keep posting some of the ghost stories from Bluenose Ghosts? Or is it too close to Christmas now? I do intend to finish it now, so if anyone wants to hear a few more ghost stories, let me know (yes, Cath at Read-warbler, I'm looking at you.....)

Mmm. The pictures on the cookbooks have made me hungry.

And then, this book lover admits, it's time for my nightly viewing of an episode of Fringe. Yes, I've watched the entire first season (now on DVD) once, and am working my way through a second time. I love this series!! I won't confess to how often I watch each weekly episode of Season 2 as it airs this season, let's just say, this is one of those very rare tv shows that I can watch two or three times (in some cases many more!) and still feel there are things I'm missing.

Happy reading and Fringe-watching, everyone!

Sunday Salon - Stephen King is back!!!

Sometimes, very occasionally, a book is worth the buzz around it. Even more rarer, a book is better than the reviews. I am so thrilled to say that Duma Key deserves more rave reviews than it got. It's a return to vintage Stephen King, MINUS the extra gore-fest that he admitted in his first writing nonfiction look at horror book, Danse Macabre, that he would do if he got stuck when writing. He would go for the gross-out rather than holding back. In Duma Key, he has learned how to hold back, and for the first time since The Shining, I found myself scared, and hearing noises in the dark that weren't really there, and scared of my open windows at the back balcony - I had to close them both in order to get rid of the feeling someone was there, looking in, so I could finish the book. That's how effectively creepy Duma Key is. And I am so delighted to be able to say it. Uncle Stevie is back.

Duma Key is about a wealthy construction owner who survives a terrible accident at one of his worksites, and what happens to him afterward. A lot of people aren't aware that when there is a head injury, sometimes the personality changes, and anger and other emotions are much more uncontrollable for the victim. King writes about this in his character, and it is one of the strengths of this novel that the anger doesn't take over; this is not a novel about rage, it's a novel about finding strength to recover no matter the odds. And Edgar Freemantle loses a lot in this story, but he doesn't lose his sense of humour, and Stephen King the author doesn't lose the plot.

So now you are asking me, "So Susan, what about the horror? Is there any good horror in this story?" Oh my, yes, there is. To aid in his recovery, Edgar's doctor recommends a change of scenery, and Edgar goes, as many people do, to someplace warm: Florida. Except he's not in the centre of Florida with all the snowbirds (as we call our Canadians who head down south for the winter, and there are a lot of us, thus the term!), he's down on the edge of Florida in the Gulf, on a tiny island which is called a key. And this is not a good island to live on. It is owned by one family, the Eastbournes, that Edgar finds during the novel have a tragic history. But he only discovers this slowly, because Edgar discoveres that he can draw, and not only can he draw, he is almost possessed to do so.

This part of the book where Edgar lets the paintings come through him, the focus and the opening of himself to it, feels so authentic - this is what an artist does, this is what any creative person does, this is how Stephen himself recovered from his terrible car accident when he was hit by the truck driven by a man who had bent over to dig some food - a steak I believe -for his dog. The truck smashed into Stephen, as we all know, and he almost died. Some of that recovery process is used to excellent service in Duma Key. One of the best things is that Edgar doesn't question opening himself to his art; he does not know what he is painting or why, the pictures just come to him, so he paints them. When he discovers that the figure he is painting is someone he loves, both he and us the reader share in that awful moment of clarity that something dreadful might happen, might be happening, and can it be stopped?

There are genuinely terrifying moments in this book, of which one scene has direct links to a scene in The Shining, but I don't want to say any more. I do know that if I was alone in a house and woke up to find footprints that aren't mine leading to my bedroom door, I would be out of that house so fast there would be a puff of air behind me. Edgar doesn't leave, but I never felt the same about the Big Pink, as he calls the house he stays in, again. I felt dread throughout the rest of the novel that he was staying there still. It was like the horror was drawing nearer to him, only he couldn't quite grasp it, but we the reader can.

At the end of the book, when he could have so easily gone for the gross-out, King doesn't. And so I can genuinely say the ending is as effective as any he's done. This book is almost as good as The Shining. It has the same slow build of wrongness, the same slow build that terror is coming but we (and the characters) don't know where from, and of good people caught in a spiral that they can't get away from. When the evil is revealed, it's not a cop-out as say some of Stephen's middle books have had; the characters here have a choice of action, have a choice to fix it, and they try. They are heroes. This is like The Stand mixed with The Shining. Without the grand scale of The Stand, and without the absolute terror of Danny alone with his gift in that terrible hotel. For me, The Shining is one of the scariest novels of all time. Duma Key is not as scary as that, but it comes a very good second in Stephen King's books for me. It does not have as many scary moments as The Shining, but it shares some of the same themes: isolation, a gift one can't control, an old evil that needs to be contained, and good friends that help the hero. One of the main differences is that this is an adult novel, with the characters of varying ages, with adult themes of love, and loss, and death. Like Bag of Bones (the last Stephen King novel I read), the characters are thoughtful, and look backwards and forwards to try to explain what happens, but they do not have all the answers.

I like this restrained ghost-story telling. And don't get me wrong; there is plenty of death, and gruesomeness in Duma Key, but it fits into the story. And the ending is good, very satisfying. Indeed, when I closed the book late last night, I wanted more of Edgar Freemantle. I wanted to know what his life was like, the adventures he had, what he thought about things. I genuinely like him. And that is some achievement in any book, never mind a horror book.

This is a good horror novel, and one I can happily recommend as a scary read. 4.5 /5, because I would have liked more spookiness...

This is my first book read for Carl's RIP IV. I hope the others are as good. I'm just sad it took me a year after buying Duma Key to read it!

Today's Bluenose Excerpt:
"A dwelling known as Shelburne House was erected at the time of the Loyalists but it was torn down many years ago. The sound of the front door opening and of an officer's sword clanking as he ascended the stairs was heard at times, but only by certain people.
"One time a lady who had never been in the town before was a supper guest at Shelburne House and, during the evening, she heard this same mysterious interruption. When her husband called for her later she asked if the house was supposed to be haunted. He asked her whatever made her think such a thing? 'What did you hear?' he said.
" ' I heard the front door open and it was followed by the clank of a sword on the stairway, ' she said.
" ' I can't say you imagined it,' her husband said, 'for it's been heard before.' Nobody knows the reason for it, or whether this was a restless ghost or a scene re-enacted from the past. "

And as a treat, since I have missed a few days posting, here is another ghost story:

When Annapolis Royal was taken over by the English in 1710 a number of the people who came also brought slaves with them. Some of their descendants are there to this day....I visited one of the older women one day with the following result.
"When I was first married I lived in a house on the left hand side of the Granville road above the railway tracks. One day I was in my kitchen when I looked up and saw a man standing in the doorway with a chain around one leg and a dog sniffing at his heels, and I could hear the sound of the dog sniffing. That seemed so strange to me. I wasn't frightened, but I must have moved because suddenly they disappeared and I have never seen them since. He must have been trying to lift the wooden latch to come in. I didn't like to say anything about it to anybody until one day the rector's wife came to call. I thought she would laugh at me but I wanted to tell her and I did. But she didn't laugh. She knew the history of the houses in Annapolis and she said that years ago that house had belonged to a general and that he was known to have had a slave who was chained by the leg."

RIP IV - Ghost and horror stories challenge is here!!

Carl's RIP IV is here. I breathed a big sigh of relief when I saw his post here, and then I started piling books up. Up, up, and up. I ended up with over 20 books I wanted to read for this challenge! Now, I know that last year I read more than required, and I know this year I will, but even I think 20 is a huge pile. So I've been whittling away at the pile until it's more manageable.

I am choosing Peril the First, which is 4 books:

Here is my list of what I'm considering for the challenge:

1.Bluenose Ghosts - Helen Creighton (to be read
throughout the challenge) - this is the one I'm posting daily
quotes from. Sort of a blog gather around the campfire and
let's tell real-life ghost stories, as a few of you have commented on the first two excerpts I've given.















2.The October Country - Ray Bradbury (I've long
wanted to read this; The Small Assassin is one of the
classic short horror stories everyone refers to.)















3.Duma Key - Stephen King (finally! Uncle Steve,
please don't disappoint me with this one)

















4.Tricks - Ed McBain (takes place over Hallowe'en!!)














5.The Thirteenth Tale - Diane Setterfield (everyone
raves about this gothic featuring a writer. Fingers crossed!!)














6.Spirits That Walk the Shadows - Nina Kiriki Hoffman
(a YA by her I hadn't heard about, a Mythopoeic finalist,
about an emotional vampire encouraging one of the
teen characters to be depressed)











7. Pride and Prejudice and Zombies by Jane
Austen and Seth Grahame-Smith (can hardly wait!)












And, a special mention:
two VERY BAD BLOGGERS,
PLEASE STAND UP:


BRIDE OF THE BOOK GOD:
Thanks to your excellent review here,
I requested from my library and picked up yesterday:

8.Tales of Terror from the Black Ship by Chris Priestley;












and Tanabata at IN THE SPRING IT IS THE DAWN:
thanks to your post here, I requested and am also holding now:

9.The Monster of Florence by Douglas Preston.
This one looks creepy. True-life serial killers in Italy.










That's only 9 books! Don't worry, I have several waiting in the wings, Heart-Shaped Box by Joe Hill, Fool Moon by Jim Butcher, Not Flesh Nor Feathers by Cherie Priest, Haunted House Stories ed by Peter Haining, The Book Thief by Markus Zusak.......This is my "B" list, by back-up list......




October Country also counts for Short Story Peril, which for once I would like to participate in on Sundays! I keep signing up for them, and then Sunday whizzes by and once again no short stories get read.

I just love the art for this year, and I really appreciate the artist, Jennifer Gordon, for allowing Carl to modify one of her prints for the banners. It is so ghostly and eerie and sad, perfect for RIP. Thank you, Carl, for hosting this again! It's not too late to sign up, and indeed, I am number 216 after I sign up tonight.

Today's Ghost Excerpt
So, with that all done, here is today's ghostly excerpt from Bluenose Ghosts: (Note, we are now on the chapter dealing with Foresight; before, we were on the chapter dealing with forerunners, which are sounds.)

The forerunner, as you have read, usually deals with sounds. Foresight, on the other hand, is visual. On the island of Cape Breton it is known as double vision or double sight and people who have the gift are said to be double-sighted. It occurs here mostly among those of Scottish descent although there are isolated instances among other groups. On my field work for the National Museum of Canada in 1956 I visited many descendants of settlers who came originally from the highlands and islands of Scotland, and was amazed to find this strange faculty possessed by so many people. Perhaps the word gift as applied here is inappropriate, for a gift is a pleasurable attribute. This is not, for the vision is usually that of a funeral. Stories, of which there are a surprisingly large number, go like this. I quote from the words of Mr Hughie Wilson of Glace Bay.
"There was a woman in Mira who could see a funeral ahead of time, even sometimes before the person had been taken sick, and she would know whose funeral it was. When it happened she would be walking along the road and would be pushed to one side by the crowd following the hearse. The experience would exhaust her because not only could she feel the passing procession but also she could tell who were the people in it."

And to make up for missing yesterday, here is a bonus story:
A story of another boat comes from Broad Cove in Inverness County. It was a good boat as far as the owners could see, and they had built it themselves. Soon after it was finished, however, people began seeing lights on it and there was no accounting for them. Since no physical explanation could be found, the lights were taken as a warning and, one of the older men said, it must never be used again or it would drown its passengers. Consequently it was hauled up on the shore and left to rot until it was of no further use.
At this time a young man named McNeil was building another boat and he looked at this derelict lying idle. He thought he might as well remove the steering irons and use them in his boat. The older people, he thought, were pretty superstitious. Why listen to all their foolish talk? So he took the equipment and he and his brother set out for Prince Edward Island. They were sailing close to shore with everything well under control when a squall came up so suddenly and so unexpectedly that it capsized their boat and they were drowned. Was this mere coincidence? We shall never know.

Happy reading, my Gentle Readers!!

Last Rituals - an intriguing new Icelandic mystery series

Cath at Read-Warbler and I got together and decided to review a book that we were reading at the same time. This wouldn't be so surprising except that we live an ocean apart! I love how books cross time and space to join people together.

We both had picked up Last Rituals by Yrsa Sigurdardottir, the debut mystery of a series featuring Thora Gudmundsdottir, an attorney and single mother of two. To give you a little background, I'll copy from the back of the book, since I am awful at short storylines (I once failed a test at age 10! that asked me to write something in under 25 words. My teacher taught me the word 'verbosity', saying I suffered from it.)
"At a university in Reykjavik, the body of a young German student is discovered, his eyes cut out and strange symbols carved into his chest. Police waste no time in making an arrest, but the victim's family isn't convinced that the right man is in custody. They ask Thora Gudmunsdottir, an attorney and single mother of two, to investigate. It isn't long before Thora and her associate, Matthew Reich, uncover the deceased student's obsession with Iceland's grisly history of torture, execution, and witch hunts. But there are very contemporary horrors hidden in the long, cold shadow of dark traditions."

What this blurb doesn't say is that this is also a book about family - broken families, families with secrets, families where love isn't so easy to find. It also has more humour than I have encountered in the other Icelandic series I am reading, by Arnaldur Indridason - unexpected jokes the author makes through Thora about how Icelanders see their city, their streets, their driving, a sense of humour borne out of survival. I really liked Thora. The other thing the blurb doesn't say is that Matthew has good knowledge of the victim's family, and we aren't sure until near the end if he is Thora's friend, or monitoring the discoveries on the family's behalf.

I began the book review by asking the first question:
1. What made you pick this book up?

Susan: I read a review of Icelandic mystery writers somewhere (I can't find
out where now, the list I had turned out to be for Swedish crime writers)
and Yrsa Sigurdardottir's Last Rituals was on it. So when I saw Last Rituals
in the book store, I grabbed it. It's her first book, so it must have been a
review that I saw. Basically it's Icelandic, so I was interested!

Cath: I saw mention of it on Danielle's blog - A Work in Progress. I
previously had no idea that there *were* any Icelandic crime writers! Not
that I'd given the matter a great deal of thought because if I had I would
have realised that there had to be. Anyway, when I looked the book up I
decided I that I wanted to read it and found it quite easily in the library.
Result!

Me again:
2. Do you read many books that are translated (ie written first in a foreign
language)?

Susan: Yes. Well, I should categorize that - I really read mysteries that
are translated. From Iceland - Arnuldur Indridason, from Sweden - Henning
Mankell, Asa Larsson, Ake Edwardson, and new to me Karin Fossum and Steig
Larsson, and from France - Fred Vargas.

Cath: Before Last Rituals, no. Since then, by some odd coincidence, I've
read three! Grey Souls by Philippe Claudel and the first two Inspector
Montalbano books by Andrea Camilleri. Oddly enough they're all crime books,
although Grey Souls is slightly more than that. I clearly have an interest
in crime stories set overseas.

Another question from me:
3. What do you enjoy most about foreign language books?

Susan: I love the different view we get of other countries. Even when the
syntax of the English is a little bit strange - a direct translation, not
always idiomatic translation - I am fascinated by what that shows about the
writer and language, and I wish I could read in the original language.
Because Sweden and Canada share long cold dark winters, their gloom is
similar to Canada's bleak view and nature landscape that fills most of our
writing. Pine trees, cold winter nights, below freezing temperatures, broken
by short, searing summers when no one wants to sleep because it's light out.
I really enjoy seeing the world through another's eyes - it is sometimes
disconcerting, true, but I find it refreshing too. I also enjoy seeing how
people are characterized, what is similar about police procedurals,
investigating crime, and how similar people are no matter where they are in
the world. I also learn alot about places this way, not as a travel
guide, but as how the cities and streets are written about.

Cath: That's a difficult question because I'm not sure I've read enough to
judge properly. I *think* it's the glimpses of cultures that are quite
unlike your own. The Inspector Montalbano books, for instance, are set in
Sicily, where, if the books are anything to go by, there is a culture of
corruption and crime which impinges on the lives of everyone who lives
there. Whether this is a serious worry in the lives of normal people, I
don't know. Reading books like these tends to create certain questions in my
mind which I then search for the answers to. So the answer to the question
is probably that foreign language books broaden the mind and make me want
to read many more books from overseas - but not necessarily translated ones or, necessarily, of the crime genre. For me I think it's almost a secondary way of indulging in armchair travel.

Cathy finally got a turn! She asked:
4. Is there something about Iceland that particularly fascinates you?

Susan: I'm not sure. I became fascinated when I lived in England, and it
became a weekend getaway for the English - just a short plane ride away, and
very cheap! All of a sudden, I wanted to see the geysers, the volcanic
earth, and Reykjavik, and I have never lost the desire to go see. I think I
am fascinated by how this culture developed so far away from the rest of the
world, and what it's like that far north and still have a culture, a capital
city.

Cath: Yes but I'm not sure when my interest began. It could have been when I
read Avalon by Anya Seton... *many* years ago. The heroine (I can't even
remember her name) is captured by Vikings and taken to Iceland and I found
myself fascinated by the landscape and the history. I'd love to go there to
see the bleak volcanic landscapes for myself - geologically speaking I think
it's the youngest country in the world and that's an amazing concept to take
in, the fact that it's still growing and changing. One of these days I
*will* go.

Cath's next question was:
5. Have you read any other Icelandic authors?

Susan: Yes. Arnuldur Indridason is one of my favourite mystery writers! I
love Erlendur's sense of justice no matter how long it has taken, his
struggles as a father and divorced husband, and the cases he gets are
interesting. There is room for a lot of darkness in the human heart, and
pathos and tragedy. Against this are the police, some of whom are funny,
some bitter or mean, set against Erlendur and is determination to pursue a
case until answers are found.
I was so happy when I saw there was another Icelandic author writing
mysteries! So I was always going to read Last Rituals.

Cath: The simple answer to this is 'no'. To my shame I've always been completely unaware of Icelandic authors. But I do now have one other on my tbr mountain - Tainted Blood by Arnaldur Indridason, which I'm really looking forward to reading.

Cath's third question was:

6. As a working mother, did you find Thora's problems with mixing her
home-life and work true to life?

Susan: Yes! and it really added to the character, that she was juggling
both, and that her kids were moody and didn't always want to go with their
father. Very true to life.

Cath: Judging by my daughter's problems as a single mother it did seem to me
to be quite true to life. I liked that aspect of it too, as crime writers
usually focus on male policemen, it seems to me, and it was refreshing to
have a glimpse of life from a female perspective. It made me think about
reading other crime novels where the main 'investigator' is female. Ones
that spring to mind are the Kate Martinelli series by Laurie R. King and
P.D. James's Cordelia Gray books - but there must surely be a lot more?

I then asked two extra questions:

7. Did you enjoy the mystery? What was a strength and a weakness?

Susan: Yes, I enjoyed the mystery very much. I didn't guess who the killer
was until near the end, and then I couldn't figure out how it was done.
One streggth were the characters - they were all well-drawn, from Thora, to
her associate Matthew Reich, to the various suspects - I had no difficulties
telling anyone apart, or remembering who was who. I enjoyed the various
viewpoints as well, which added to the mystery, without revealing too much.
One weakness was the discovery of some key evidence - wouldn't the person
involved who hid it, have tried to retrieve it? It would have been more
interesting if the house had been broken into and the area searched, then to
have it accidentally discovered. That wasn't quite believable. All this time
and the person never noticed it.....

Cath:

Yes I did enjoy the mystery. Like Susan. I was close to the end before it dawned on me who the killer was. One strength of the book, for me, was how well the author concealed that. I thought that was very nicely done.

No real weaknesses jumped out at me, but of the book in general I could say that at times the translation was slightly simplistic. But that's real nit-picking and not something terrible; possibly it's symptomatic of many translations as I noticed it in the Andrea Camilleri books too. But in neither case was it enough to put me off.

And my final question:

Bonus question: Would you recommend the book to be read?

Susan: Yes! 4.7/5!!!

Cath: Yes, I most certainly would! It's a skillful crime story with an unusual setting and well worth anyone's time and trouble.

Cath asked her two final questions:

Bonus Question 1: Did you find the rather macabre background to this story - the manner of the student's death and so on - at all off putting?

Cath: I suppose I should have done, after all he fell out of the cupboard onto a tutor with his eyes gouged out and some weird markings on him and from then on there were some startling revelations about his interest in witchcraft and odd sexual practises. But the truth is I didn't find it off putting at all. I suppose I like reading books that deal with off the wall subjects and, it has to be said, that Yrsa Sigudardottir deals with these matters in a way that doesn't go into *really* gory detail. She states what happens in quite a matter of fact way and that's fine by me. If the details had been dealt with in the manner of say, a real horror story, then my reaction would doubtless have been different as I don't deal with blood and gore at all well.

Susan: Like Cath, I should have - some the sexual practices and how witchcraft was portrayed was gruesome, but the author deals with it matter-of-factly - this is what the victim was interested in - and like Cath says, the gory parts are NOT dwelled on. This is a crime novel with some horror aspects, which I found made it more intriguing. I do wish though that some good witchcraft would be portrayed for once. I get tired of it always being portrayed as leading to a bad end, when for the most part, the religion is about living in the world in a responsible way. Other than that, I found the macabre aspects very well done.

Bonus question 2: Are you planning to read book 2 in the Thora Gudmundsdottir 'My Soul to Take'?

Cath: Yes, I am. I'm keen to see what the author will come up with next in the way of a crime plot but also to see how her relationship with Matthew matures and how a certain occurrence within her family pans out. Hopefully it'll be a nice long series.

Susan: Oh yes! Please let it be out soon, because it looked very interesting - involves a haunted hotel......definitely an area of interest for me (hauntings, ghosts). Plus, as Cath said, there is that family angle that is very interesting too. I did enjoy her children, and the ex, and the partnership with the other lawyer, very much. Definitely a series to keep reading.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
This was fun to do with Cath! I really enjoy sharing reading experiences with a blogging friend, and then sharing with you how we found the book. I enjoy reading other bloggers when they do the same thing. I love seeing what people liked in a book, what they possibly didn't, and also the give-and-take as they/we make up the combined review style. I hope you enjoyed this too, and possibly brought a good mystery to your attention!

RIP IV news:
Now, onto some very good news: Carl has announced that we should check out his blog tomorrow!!! YES, THAT MEANS RIP4!!!!

I just checked for the link, and IT"S UP NOW! Link Here, it's here, it's here, RIPIV is here!!!
Oh yes, it's time for ghost stories and monsters and things that make my blood run cold! Hurray!!!!

And I was just on-line to my library last night, requesting some books for the challenge. See you at the challenge site! As Deslily keeps saying, let's hope Mr Linky works this time.....

***Added after initial posting: funny, isn't it? Because of Cath, I now have a new book to get: Grey Souls by Philippe Claudel sounds so interesting. And I just saw on Amazon.ca that the new book - the sequel to Last Rituals - by Yrsa Sigurdardottir, My Soul to Take, is out in hardcover. I love it when there are lovely, lovely new books to look forward to reading!!!