Here is such a cool post: Neil Gaiman interviews Stephen King. It was for the UK's Sunday Time Magazine, but because the paper is locked, Neil kindly posted the full interview on his blog. How could anything be better than two of the favourite writers of our generation sitting down to talk writing, fame, and family? I have to read Stephen's new book 11/22/63, which is coming out in paperback on July 5.
Here are some reviews from bloggers so far on 22/1163:
Caribousmom
Becky's Book Reviews
Book Den
Rhapsody in Books
Bibliophile By the Sea
Continuing the theme of horror:
Ghosts......Emily over at Telecommuter Talk has a lovely post on the kind of ghost she likes to find in stories she reads. It got me to thinking, because I loved Caspar because he was a friendly ghost and Emily didn't, about the nature of ghosts and what we want in our ghost stories. I write ghost stories too (like Emily), as well as read them voraciously. So, what she wants to know is, do you like your ghosts malevolent, or friendly? Let Emily know.....For myself, I love a ghost story. The scarier the ghost, the creepier the setting, the better the chill and the goose-flesh feeling. It's very difficult to write a good ghost story, and while Emily quotes MR James (I am in the midst of reading a collection of his ghost stories), I myself think The Haunting of Hill House (by Shirley Jackson), The Shining (Stephen King), and The Woman in Black (Susan Hill) are three of the most frightening novels featuring ghosts ever written. They each came close to inducing a real state of fear in me, so much so that I had to keep checking that the doors were locked and no one could get in. Stephen, in the interview above, talks about writing a sequel to The Shining, called Dr Sleep. Danny Torrance, all grown up, and still with the shining. Let me tell you, I don't care if it's in hardcover and weighs 20 pounds, I will find some way to buy it the day it comes out and get it home, and lock myself in my house to get it read uninterrupted. Then there's Joyland, about a serial killer in an amusement park. That one is creepy just to think about! Oh, I can hardly wait! So I have to say Emily is right: malevolent ghosts make the best horror stories.
I do have to say that I love sad ghost stories too. I think I just love ghost stories, period. If you like ghost stories, is there a kind that you prefer? Victorian? Modern? Angry ghosts, vengeful ghosts, sad ghosts? How about haunted things?
Some recent books featuring ghosts that I really enjoyed are:
The Secrets of Pain - Phil Rickman (Oh, I haven't reviewed this one yet, bad me, this was so good and eerie and one of the best sense of being haunted books I have read recently)
Maureen Johnston's The Name of the Star (this was particularly frightening and riveting, I loved it, still have to review it)
Dark Matter - Michelle Paver - this was terrifying and fabulous and yet another to review. Go read it if you haven't.
Anya's Ghost - Vera Brosgol (graphic novel, the ghost is not who you expect, very good)
The Ghosts of Belfast - Stuart Neville - modern thriller with an ex-soldier of the IRA haunted by the ghosts of the people he killed. It was much more moving than I would ever expect.
Uncle Montague's Tales of Terror - Chris Priestly Oh yes, this was another good novel of ghosts and hauntings and shadows that move......
Tamsin - Peter S Beagle- that judge!!!! talk about malevolent! a wonderful ghost story
There is something vulnerable that I think ghosts make us feel. They penetrate our fears and reveal that death does exist. I don't like when madness is linked to horror, as if the mind has to break down before it can see the other side, or see things here that a normal mind can't see. It makes me wonder who is making the rules up, who has decided that ghosts don't really exist? And why is it more sane to not see them? less scary, yes, but isn't it the scariest when the person is sane, and see ghosts? I think so.
What are some of your favourite ghost stories? Let me know, and Emily, please.
And now for something completely different:
Fringe is renewed! Yaaaay! For 13 episodes only, though it does let
the writers wrap up my favourite show on tv. Friday's episode saw a
tear or two when they had to close the bridge to the other world. I am
constantly amazed and surprised by Fringe, even after 4 years, even when
I think the episode is slow, or the story is familiar, there is all the
delights of watching variations of our characters in other worlds, and
how they are different.
Showing posts with label The Ghosts of Belfast. Show all posts
Showing posts with label The Ghosts of Belfast. Show all posts
Monday, 30 April 2012
Wednesday, 14 March 2012
Irish ghost short story for Irish Week
So, as I mentioned in my last post, Mel over at The Reading Life is hosting Irish Short Story challenge for Irish week, which is this week. Luckily for me, I am starting my mini-vacation today for our Spring break for the kids from school, so I found myself with some time to read this morning. Even luckier for me, Mel posted about a ghost short story he'd just read, "No Angel" by Bernie McGill, for his challenge. I loved his review so much, so I went and found the story online, here.
"No Angel" by Bernie McGill is set in Belfast and the outlying countryside. It is a ghost story, about a woman being haunted by her recently deceased father. The reason he is haunting her is the best of all reasons: he wants to protect her, still. And, he's lonely. I won't say what happens in this story, because it's lovely and melancholic, in the best way ghost stories can be. How can a ghost story be anything but, when the background - the reason for the ghost - is death? One death makes a ghost.
Mel did ask, do you believe in ghosts? And do you have a favourite Irish ghost story? Please let him know if you do, and do. For me, yes, I believe in ghosts. I've had some experiences that can only be described as being brushed by the other world. Since I believe that our souls continue after death - we came from something, and are going back to something after - it makes perfect logical sense to me, as much as it can when dealing with something nebulous like ghosts. I don't have a favourite Irish ghost story at this time. I am just starting to explore Irish fiction, partly because now I know we are Irish , as well as from all the countries that make up the British Isles, I want to discover my literary heritage.
So what makes this story Irish? Is there an Irish style of writing, or seeing the world? Definitely in seeing the world, there is. All the events of the 20th century are making their way through the soul of Ireland, through the fiction and poetry. How could something that has divided the island in half, and one sector of the population from the other, not shape their world view, and not impact on every idea and word shaped? When for decades, everyone was suspect, everyone was watched, and who to trust changed daily? Whatever our views on the Troubles in Ireland, English vs Irish, Catholic vs Protestant, Loyalists vs Republicans, all this conflict touched every corner of Ireland. Fiction and poetry is one way to work out what it means, and what it meant. History is still evolving in Ireland - and remnants in all of our consciousnesses, who have been alive since before 1980. When the bombings made news over here, the terrible cost of lives, throughout the 80's and into the 90's. Something as simple as there being no litterbins in London today is a reminder of how much the violence was real, and not so long ago.
All this is to say, that both this short story and the mystery I am currently reading, have echoes, the past very much something to do with the present. And that is what a ghost is too, isn't it?
I am so happy Mel posted about this short story. I am now going to get The Butterfly Cabinet, Bernie McGill's first novel, just published last summer. I think it is going to have a similar tone of melancholy and memory, it looks very interesting - the memoirs of a woman who was a nursery maid when a young girl dies, and the secret she keeps all her life.
So that is my Irish short story for Mel's challenge, although I want to see if I can find some more ghost stories for this challenge.
Irish mystery reading:
The mystery I am reading is Stuart Neville's Collusion. This is the second book, a sequel to The Ghosts of Belfast (published as The Twelve in Europe), which I read last year. My review is here. Collusion picks up where The Ghosts of Belfast finished, several months later. Gerry Fagan, who was haunted in The Ghosts of Belfast by the ghosts of the men he killed, is back, as is Detective John Lennon, father of Marie McKenna's daughter Ellen, and Bull O'Kane, whom Gerry left alive at the end of The Ghosts of Belfast. I am halfway through now, and loving it. I see there is a third book out now, Stolen Souls, featuring John Lennon, so I am thrilled that I don't have to wait long to continue this series. It is gripping, it is dark and violent and is right in the middle of the current modern Ireland, with politics mixed with the military and the police. It's also about love and how it makes people do interesting things. I quite like Lennon (and yes the name does come up in the book and reference to the Beatles!) even if he is not quite on the up-and-up, possibly. This is a dark Ireland, still bloody, and gripped by the remnants of the war just finished. Here is a link to the author's site, which lists his three books.
Are you reading anything to celebrate St Patrick's Day? Do you have a favourite Irish author, or book?
Books I'm looking forward to reading this year:
One last thing: In the review from last year that I linked to in the paragraph above, was also a review of The Passage by Justin Cronin, which I read then and loved. I have just received my current issue of EW, which has a short preview of the book, a glimpse of Chapter 2 from the new sequel, The Twelve, coming out on October 16. You can't read it online, it's only in this week's issue. I've linked you to the post and the new cover reveal. Another book to look forward to! I really liked how Justin portrayed the vampires as a result of viral testing gone wrong, and how 'wrong' the vampires feel, the darkness around them. The Passage was a dark book, scary in places, and very good at depicting how society would - could survive if this happened. Very dystopian. Yes, Oct 16 and The Twelve is on my calendar now.
"No Angel" by Bernie McGill is set in Belfast and the outlying countryside. It is a ghost story, about a woman being haunted by her recently deceased father. The reason he is haunting her is the best of all reasons: he wants to protect her, still. And, he's lonely. I won't say what happens in this story, because it's lovely and melancholic, in the best way ghost stories can be. How can a ghost story be anything but, when the background - the reason for the ghost - is death? One death makes a ghost.
Mel did ask, do you believe in ghosts? And do you have a favourite Irish ghost story? Please let him know if you do, and do. For me, yes, I believe in ghosts. I've had some experiences that can only be described as being brushed by the other world. Since I believe that our souls continue after death - we came from something, and are going back to something after - it makes perfect logical sense to me, as much as it can when dealing with something nebulous like ghosts. I don't have a favourite Irish ghost story at this time. I am just starting to explore Irish fiction, partly because now I know we are Irish , as well as from all the countries that make up the British Isles, I want to discover my literary heritage.
So what makes this story Irish? Is there an Irish style of writing, or seeing the world? Definitely in seeing the world, there is. All the events of the 20th century are making their way through the soul of Ireland, through the fiction and poetry. How could something that has divided the island in half, and one sector of the population from the other, not shape their world view, and not impact on every idea and word shaped? When for decades, everyone was suspect, everyone was watched, and who to trust changed daily? Whatever our views on the Troubles in Ireland, English vs Irish, Catholic vs Protestant, Loyalists vs Republicans, all this conflict touched every corner of Ireland. Fiction and poetry is one way to work out what it means, and what it meant. History is still evolving in Ireland - and remnants in all of our consciousnesses, who have been alive since before 1980. When the bombings made news over here, the terrible cost of lives, throughout the 80's and into the 90's. Something as simple as there being no litterbins in London today is a reminder of how much the violence was real, and not so long ago.
All this is to say, that both this short story and the mystery I am currently reading, have echoes, the past very much something to do with the present. And that is what a ghost is too, isn't it?
I am so happy Mel posted about this short story. I am now going to get The Butterfly Cabinet, Bernie McGill's first novel, just published last summer. I think it is going to have a similar tone of melancholy and memory, it looks very interesting - the memoirs of a woman who was a nursery maid when a young girl dies, and the secret she keeps all her life.
So that is my Irish short story for Mel's challenge, although I want to see if I can find some more ghost stories for this challenge.
Irish mystery reading:
The mystery I am reading is Stuart Neville's Collusion. This is the second book, a sequel to The Ghosts of Belfast (published as The Twelve in Europe), which I read last year. My review is here. Collusion picks up where The Ghosts of Belfast finished, several months later. Gerry Fagan, who was haunted in The Ghosts of Belfast by the ghosts of the men he killed, is back, as is Detective John Lennon, father of Marie McKenna's daughter Ellen, and Bull O'Kane, whom Gerry left alive at the end of The Ghosts of Belfast. I am halfway through now, and loving it. I see there is a third book out now, Stolen Souls, featuring John Lennon, so I am thrilled that I don't have to wait long to continue this series. It is gripping, it is dark and violent and is right in the middle of the current modern Ireland, with politics mixed with the military and the police. It's also about love and how it makes people do interesting things. I quite like Lennon (and yes the name does come up in the book and reference to the Beatles!) even if he is not quite on the up-and-up, possibly. This is a dark Ireland, still bloody, and gripped by the remnants of the war just finished. Here is a link to the author's site, which lists his three books.
Are you reading anything to celebrate St Patrick's Day? Do you have a favourite Irish author, or book?
Books I'm looking forward to reading this year:
One last thing: In the review from last year that I linked to in the paragraph above, was also a review of The Passage by Justin Cronin, which I read then and loved. I have just received my current issue of EW, which has a short preview of the book, a glimpse of Chapter 2 from the new sequel, The Twelve, coming out on October 16. You can't read it online, it's only in this week's issue. I've linked you to the post and the new cover reveal. Another book to look forward to! I really liked how Justin portrayed the vampires as a result of viral testing gone wrong, and how 'wrong' the vampires feel, the darkness around them. The Passage was a dark book, scary in places, and very good at depicting how society would - could survive if this happened. Very dystopian. Yes, Oct 16 and The Twelve is on my calendar now.
Wednesday, 29 June 2011
Some book reviews and some more garden fairies
So, what are some of the fabulous books I read the past two months?
The Broken Shore - Peter Temple. Winner of the Duncan Lawrie Dagger from the UK for foreign crime fiction, it is set in rural Australia, far from the lights of Sydney. Peter Cashin has taken a post near the seaside where he grew up, on semi-permanent leave from the Homicide Squad after getting a colleague killed and almost dying himself in a stake-out that went horribly wrong. The book opens in Port Munroe, the seaside town where nothing happens, except the background racism of 'accidental' beatings and deaths of the nearby Aborigine community. Joe's broken heart haunts this book; he is unable to move comfortably, almost permanently disfigured by the accident in a back injury. Then an old rich man, the richest man in town, is found unconscious in a robbery gone wrong, and the seedy side of Australian life is exposed. Countering this are two new people entering Joe's life, and he comes to recognize that he can feel, and live again. Wonderful characters, superb setting, solid mystery that is sad and haunting when the truth is finally revealed. Worth every word of acclaim it has gotten. 5/5
The Ghosts of Belfast - Stuart Neville. I finally ordered this book a few weeks ago when I looked and looked and couldn't find it. It was worth the effort. Set in Northern Ireland for once, in Belfast, it is the story of an IRA killer who is seeing the ghosts of the people he killed. Twelve ghosts haunt him day and night. One day he can't bear it, and sets in motion the events of the book by telling the mother of one of his victims where the body is buried. Gerry Fegan is a fascinating character. As the story unfolds, we see how he has discovered in jail remorse, that he has always carried guilt for the victims of his crimes. He sets out to kill the men who gave him the orders - this is what the ghosts request over and over - like Ireland is trying to wipe the slate clean by not talking about what happened during the Wars. What happened then, happened then, is the attitude, though plenty of people in the novel are benefitting from the new peace in Stormont. Neville shows how unstable the peace process always is between Ireland and Northern Ireland, and how the new 'war' is the money coming in to line the same pockets as those who got rich during the War years. All this is shown in counterpoint to Gerry's eliminating those who ordered him to kill. It is another haunting mystery, one that presents the people of N Ireland as the real victims, always, of those in power. I really enjoyed the ghosts also, as well as Gerry discovering that he can feel again, after all, although he doesn't feel like he deserves to. Highly recommended mystery. 5/5
Read for the Ireland reading Challenge
Crime Machine - Giles Blunt. The fifth John Cardinal mystery, it takes place a year after John's wife has died. This is quite an interesting mystery, not the least of which is because part of the book is about the crime machine itself, a 'family' of criminals who are bizarre and scary and very very violent. The book opens with things being quiet in Algonquin Bay, and the police team are given old cold cases to work on. ATM's start being robbed, then the beheading of two people in an empty house starts the real mystery in the book. Who killed them? There is one witness, and her story - she is aboriginal, young, and very foolish - gives the heart to this mystery. Her freshness is counterpoint to the very different life led by the killers, the hardness, violence and manipulation masking as love - it's all very dark, very noir, and very very good. John is in the grips of recovering from his wife's death, and I enjoyed seeing how he was coping with the changes in his life. I really enjoy this mystery series, it's one of my favourites, and I'm glad to see John back after a two year wait. 4.7 /5
Read for the Canadian Book Challenge.
The Brutal Telling - Louise Penny. This is the darkest mystery yet from Three Pines and Chief Inspector Armand Gamache. Louise Penny is beginning to develop a theme of exploring the darkness that lies in human hearts and what it drives people to do. She is specializing in the darkness at the heart of families, and this mystery deepens this theme. It is gripping, and very difficult to put down. An unknown man who is a hermit living in the woods behind Three Pines is found murdered in Olivier's Bistro, the wonderful bistro which is filled with Gabri's fabulous cooking. Yum! I always find myself drooling over the food that Penny describes so lovingly. I want to eat there. Despite all the murders, I want to live in Three Pines too. Ok, back to the mystery: I find it hard to write about because this mystery involves one of the central characters, and something is revealed that literally pulls the mask off to reveal what can lie hidden in a person. I really enjoyed this mystery. I liked what the Brutal Telling was about, the wood carvings, Gamache's search out to the Queen Charlotte Islands where the wood comes from that the victim carved, to meeting some more of the people who live in and around Three Pines. The Brutal Telling is the story that the murdered man told his killer, and carved in pieces of wood, which eventually reveals why he was killed. This is another mystery that you really won't want to put down until you know it all. we have more of Gamache and his wonderful idiosyncratic police team. Inspector Beauvoir, the impeccably dressed fastidious man, is central to this story. He is given lines of poetry, which when he finally puts them together, has an effect on him that shows what effect words can have on a person, whether in the form of a story or poem. I'm really happy I already have the next one already lined up to read. This series is addictive, and I think it's the place of Three Pines that really pulls me in. Wonderful mystery. 5/5
Read for The Canadian book Challenge
The Janus Stone - Elly Griffiths. I couldn't wait to get to this one. I'd been waiting for it to come out in paperback for almost a year. The Crossing Places was evocative and gripping and I was hoping this one would be too. It is. The Janus Stone is about the discovery of a child's skeleton under the doorway of a Children's home that is being demolished to make way for new condos. Two children disappeared many years ago, and one of the children was the same age as the skeleton. Ruth Galloway is the forensic archaeologist called in to examine the bones. The Janus Stone is the stone set in the archway over the doorway, Janus the Roman God of looking forwards and backwards in time. This mystery is about that, discovering the history of the land beneath the Children's home, the story of the people who lived there before, and of madness. While the mystery is quite good, the best part for me is Ruth herself, her lovely home by the saltmarshes in Norfolk, and her growing pregnancy, the result of a one-night stand with DCI Nelson during the previous book. It's fun watching Nelson and Ruth dance around the truth, and to see how Ruth copes with it all. The secondary characters are well-done, from Shona the friend who is gorgeous and irresistably drawn to married men, to the various weird characters Ruth gathers around herself, especially Cathbad the Druid. I really like this series - I want to live where Ruth is living! Maybe I could divide my time between Three Pines and Norfolk England? - and am trying to talk myself into the buying the hardcover of the next book in the series, The House at Sea's End, since I'm not sure I can wait until it comes out in paperback.
Delightful series, 4.7/5.
The last book I am going to review tonight is not a mystery. It is a horror book. I have been reading more horror this spring, I'm not exactly certain why, although it has been a long-time interest of mine. I'd been waiting for The Passage to come out in softcover ever since Stephen King mentioned it last year in his Entertainment Weekly column that it was a must-read for 2010. So at last, it came out in paperback:
The Passage - Justin Cronin. Everything Uncle Stevie said it would be. I read it in less than two days. I could not literally put this book down. It is the story of what happens when a bat is discovered that supposedly can cure illness.....only it's really wanted for secret experimentation that goes horribly, terribly wrong, and wipes out most of the world's population, turning the victims into vampires. This is an incredibly cool book. Not because of Stephanie Myers and Twilight, not even because of Buffy (I'm a Slayer girl from way back!), or even Dracula. This is dystopian end of the world is here, and what happens to the enclaves that are left behind, the survivors who didn't turn. What would the world look like 100 years after this devastation? Who would be left? How would history be transferred? How would society evolve in these enclaves? This is a terrifically imagined story. It's also the story of the Girl Who lived - who survived the vaccine that turned the other victims of the experiment into monsters. Who she is, and the people who try to help her, makes a fantastic ride. This was fun, and enjoyable to read, and it was creepy and nightmarish in many places, and sad, too. One of my favourite reads of the year, and really, most of these books might end up on that list, they are all so very, very good. 5/5
So that's some of what I read while I lost myself in books these past few months. More reviews will be forthcoming, because there are some more excellent books that I read. What have been some of your favourite reads of the year so far? Have you lost yourself in some books too?
Just for Chris, and Cath, and the other gardeners out there, here are some more of the fairies etc who fill odd corners and under leaves in my garden. My new header is from my garden also.
The Broken Shore - Peter Temple. Winner of the Duncan Lawrie Dagger from the UK for foreign crime fiction, it is set in rural Australia, far from the lights of Sydney. Peter Cashin has taken a post near the seaside where he grew up, on semi-permanent leave from the Homicide Squad after getting a colleague killed and almost dying himself in a stake-out that went horribly wrong. The book opens in Port Munroe, the seaside town where nothing happens, except the background racism of 'accidental' beatings and deaths of the nearby Aborigine community. Joe's broken heart haunts this book; he is unable to move comfortably, almost permanently disfigured by the accident in a back injury. Then an old rich man, the richest man in town, is found unconscious in a robbery gone wrong, and the seedy side of Australian life is exposed. Countering this are two new people entering Joe's life, and he comes to recognize that he can feel, and live again. Wonderful characters, superb setting, solid mystery that is sad and haunting when the truth is finally revealed. Worth every word of acclaim it has gotten. 5/5
The Ghosts of Belfast - Stuart Neville. I finally ordered this book a few weeks ago when I looked and looked and couldn't find it. It was worth the effort. Set in Northern Ireland for once, in Belfast, it is the story of an IRA killer who is seeing the ghosts of the people he killed. Twelve ghosts haunt him day and night. One day he can't bear it, and sets in motion the events of the book by telling the mother of one of his victims where the body is buried. Gerry Fegan is a fascinating character. As the story unfolds, we see how he has discovered in jail remorse, that he has always carried guilt for the victims of his crimes. He sets out to kill the men who gave him the orders - this is what the ghosts request over and over - like Ireland is trying to wipe the slate clean by not talking about what happened during the Wars. What happened then, happened then, is the attitude, though plenty of people in the novel are benefitting from the new peace in Stormont. Neville shows how unstable the peace process always is between Ireland and Northern Ireland, and how the new 'war' is the money coming in to line the same pockets as those who got rich during the War years. All this is shown in counterpoint to Gerry's eliminating those who ordered him to kill. It is another haunting mystery, one that presents the people of N Ireland as the real victims, always, of those in power. I really enjoyed the ghosts also, as well as Gerry discovering that he can feel again, after all, although he doesn't feel like he deserves to. Highly recommended mystery. 5/5
Read for the Ireland reading Challenge
Crime Machine - Giles Blunt. The fifth John Cardinal mystery, it takes place a year after John's wife has died. This is quite an interesting mystery, not the least of which is because part of the book is about the crime machine itself, a 'family' of criminals who are bizarre and scary and very very violent. The book opens with things being quiet in Algonquin Bay, and the police team are given old cold cases to work on. ATM's start being robbed, then the beheading of two people in an empty house starts the real mystery in the book. Who killed them? There is one witness, and her story - she is aboriginal, young, and very foolish - gives the heart to this mystery. Her freshness is counterpoint to the very different life led by the killers, the hardness, violence and manipulation masking as love - it's all very dark, very noir, and very very good. John is in the grips of recovering from his wife's death, and I enjoyed seeing how he was coping with the changes in his life. I really enjoy this mystery series, it's one of my favourites, and I'm glad to see John back after a two year wait. 4.7 /5
Read for the Canadian Book Challenge.
The Brutal Telling - Louise Penny. This is the darkest mystery yet from Three Pines and Chief Inspector Armand Gamache. Louise Penny is beginning to develop a theme of exploring the darkness that lies in human hearts and what it drives people to do. She is specializing in the darkness at the heart of families, and this mystery deepens this theme. It is gripping, and very difficult to put down. An unknown man who is a hermit living in the woods behind Three Pines is found murdered in Olivier's Bistro, the wonderful bistro which is filled with Gabri's fabulous cooking. Yum! I always find myself drooling over the food that Penny describes so lovingly. I want to eat there. Despite all the murders, I want to live in Three Pines too. Ok, back to the mystery: I find it hard to write about because this mystery involves one of the central characters, and something is revealed that literally pulls the mask off to reveal what can lie hidden in a person. I really enjoyed this mystery. I liked what the Brutal Telling was about, the wood carvings, Gamache's search out to the Queen Charlotte Islands where the wood comes from that the victim carved, to meeting some more of the people who live in and around Three Pines. The Brutal Telling is the story that the murdered man told his killer, and carved in pieces of wood, which eventually reveals why he was killed. This is another mystery that you really won't want to put down until you know it all. we have more of Gamache and his wonderful idiosyncratic police team. Inspector Beauvoir, the impeccably dressed fastidious man, is central to this story. He is given lines of poetry, which when he finally puts them together, has an effect on him that shows what effect words can have on a person, whether in the form of a story or poem. I'm really happy I already have the next one already lined up to read. This series is addictive, and I think it's the place of Three Pines that really pulls me in. Wonderful mystery. 5/5
Read for The Canadian book Challenge
The Janus Stone - Elly Griffiths. I couldn't wait to get to this one. I'd been waiting for it to come out in paperback for almost a year. The Crossing Places was evocative and gripping and I was hoping this one would be too. It is. The Janus Stone is about the discovery of a child's skeleton under the doorway of a Children's home that is being demolished to make way for new condos. Two children disappeared many years ago, and one of the children was the same age as the skeleton. Ruth Galloway is the forensic archaeologist called in to examine the bones. The Janus Stone is the stone set in the archway over the doorway, Janus the Roman God of looking forwards and backwards in time. This mystery is about that, discovering the history of the land beneath the Children's home, the story of the people who lived there before, and of madness. While the mystery is quite good, the best part for me is Ruth herself, her lovely home by the saltmarshes in Norfolk, and her growing pregnancy, the result of a one-night stand with DCI Nelson during the previous book. It's fun watching Nelson and Ruth dance around the truth, and to see how Ruth copes with it all. The secondary characters are well-done, from Shona the friend who is gorgeous and irresistably drawn to married men, to the various weird characters Ruth gathers around herself, especially Cathbad the Druid. I really like this series - I want to live where Ruth is living! Maybe I could divide my time between Three Pines and Norfolk England? - and am trying to talk myself into the buying the hardcover of the next book in the series, The House at Sea's End, since I'm not sure I can wait until it comes out in paperback.
Delightful series, 4.7/5.
The last book I am going to review tonight is not a mystery. It is a horror book. I have been reading more horror this spring, I'm not exactly certain why, although it has been a long-time interest of mine. I'd been waiting for The Passage to come out in softcover ever since Stephen King mentioned it last year in his Entertainment Weekly column that it was a must-read for 2010. So at last, it came out in paperback:
The Passage - Justin Cronin. Everything Uncle Stevie said it would be. I read it in less than two days. I could not literally put this book down. It is the story of what happens when a bat is discovered that supposedly can cure illness.....only it's really wanted for secret experimentation that goes horribly, terribly wrong, and wipes out most of the world's population, turning the victims into vampires. This is an incredibly cool book. Not because of Stephanie Myers and Twilight, not even because of Buffy (I'm a Slayer girl from way back!), or even Dracula. This is dystopian end of the world is here, and what happens to the enclaves that are left behind, the survivors who didn't turn. What would the world look like 100 years after this devastation? Who would be left? How would history be transferred? How would society evolve in these enclaves? This is a terrifically imagined story. It's also the story of the Girl Who lived - who survived the vaccine that turned the other victims of the experiment into monsters. Who she is, and the people who try to help her, makes a fantastic ride. This was fun, and enjoyable to read, and it was creepy and nightmarish in many places, and sad, too. One of my favourite reads of the year, and really, most of these books might end up on that list, they are all so very, very good. 5/5
So that's some of what I read while I lost myself in books these past few months. More reviews will be forthcoming, because there are some more excellent books that I read. What have been some of your favourite reads of the year so far? Have you lost yourself in some books too?
Just for Chris, and Cath, and the other gardeners out there, here are some more of the fairies etc who fill odd corners and under leaves in my garden. My new header is from my garden also.
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