Recipe for a fun read:

Combine one streetwise pick-pocket, two curators from the British Museum, and the fiesty daughter of an English clergyman.

Mix in the secretive Department of Unclassified Artifacts, some graverobbers, a walking dead man, a lost diary, murder at the museum, and some mechanical monsters.

Add a dash of humor and a teaspoon of suspense.
Set in all in Victorian London and stir.


What do you get?


An entertaining mystery that reminded me of a Holmes and Watson adventure. I liked the characters, especially Eddie the pick-pocket and Liz. And George Archer, one of the museum curators, had some mad mechanical skills. And I thought those mechanical monsters were both creepy and cool. There were a few chapters in the middle that read a little slow, but overall I liked this one. And even though it's labeled as a YA, it didn't feel like a YA to me. The Death Collector by Justin Richards is a fun mystery that readers of all ages can enjoy.

Happy Reading!

A haunting tale...

"I was the daughter of a Spiritualist medium lately from Cheapside. I was used to simple rules:  Don't get caught."

 Violet Willoughby has helped her mother perform too many fake seances to believe in ghosts. So when she catches a glimpse of a drowned girl at Lord Jasper's country estate, she doesn't know what to think. She only knows she can't tell her mother. But she has to tell someone. Because the ghost girl didn't just drown--she was murdered. And she's not the only ghost Violet's seeing. There's one other small matter haunting Violet:  one of Lord Jasper's guests just might be the ghost girl's murderer. And it's up to Violet to figure out who and why. That's if she can ever get this particular ghost to talk to her...and all the others to leave her alone!

"I felt as if I'd dipped a toe in a narrow river only to find myself swept out to sea. Something else was happening here, but I didn't know what it was. Only that the undercurrents were strong, dangerous. A person could drown in this particular sea."

Haunting Violet by Alyxandra Harvey is an entertaining YA Victorian Gothic that leans more towards interesting mystery than suspenseful ghost story, although Violet's encounters with the ghost of the drowned girl do get a little tense and scary at times. I liked Violet's spunk, especially when she and her society friend, Elizabeth, decide to do some sleuthing on their own. I also liked Violet's childhood friend, Colin, who's always there when she needs him most. The two of them are great characters. And Haunting Violet is a well-written and engaging ghostly mystery. I liked it a lot.

Happy Reading!

Bookish fun and games...

My top 11 reasons for reading Til Death Do Us Part by Amanda Quick:
     *  Mystery & Murder
     *  Victorian London
     *  Humor
     *  Suspense
     *  Heroic Gentlemen
     *  Engaging Heroines
     *  Witty Banter
     *  Kissing
     *  Obsession
     *  Unexpected Twists
     *  Romance

At 26, Calista Langley is a spinster who hosts salons and arranges discreet introductions for other respectable single ladies and gentlemen in London. It's not a dangerous business. Until someone starts leaving eerie memento mori objects for Calista in her own house. She enlists the aid of Trent Hastings, an author of popular detective novels, for help in figuring out the identity of her tormentor before his obsession with her leads to murder.

I loved this book. Calista and Trent have great chemistry, both as amateur detectives working together to solve this mystery, and in their growing attraction to each other. This mystery never gets overshadowed by their romance, however, and Quick does an excellent job of building suspense and keeping everyone guessing right up to the end. I also loved how much humor there is in this book. It's a very fun read. I wish Quick would write more books about these two entertaining characters; I would read them all.

Happy Reading!

Amy Snow by Tracy Rees

The Where & When:  England, 1848

The Who:  Amy Snow, who is abandoned as an infant, and Aurelia Vennaway, the young heiress who saves her from freezing to death.

The What:  Despite the difference in their ages and social standings (and the objections of Aurelia's parents), Amy grows up with Aurelia at Hatville Court and becomes her friend and companion. But then Aurelia gets sick and dies. Her parents, Lord and Lady Vennaway, unceremoniously dismiss Amy from Hatville Court, ordering her never to return. But Aurelia planned for this eventuality and left Amy a very different legacy:

"...this is the start of my last treasure hunt for you. Think of my letters as the clues--each will lead on to the next. I have planned for my story to unfold just a little at a time, with every letter taking you farther from Hatville, farther from the ignominy of your treatment there:  safer and stronger and freer....Our friendship is precious and I hope that you will never regret it, but it kept you a prisoner also, tied to this house and dependent on me. Now you  can fly free, little bird! And I will help you, for you have helped me, more than you will ever know."

 So begins Amy Snow's journey. Aurelia's treasure hunt will take her across England, leading her to new friends, hidden secrets, and unexpected truths. I liked the people she met more than I did her search to uncover the secrets of Aurelia's past; I wish she could have spent more time with each of them, but she always had to move on to the next clue. Still, there are great characters in this book. Amy herself is very naive and young when she leaves Hatville Court, and I have to confess that it took me several chapters to warm up to her. But both she and the story get better as they go along. The only problem I had with this novel was the uneven pacing:  sometimes I got really caught up in the narrative and the pages just flew by, but there were other moments when I felt like the story dragged. Overall, though, it's an excellent read with a fun premise. I mean, who doesn't love a well-plotted treasure hunt?

Happy Reading!

Miss Marjoribanks

I was a bit apprehensive about reading this particular classic. There seemed to be more unfavorable reviews of it than favorable, and I was worried I might not like it. Happily for me, however, it turned out to be not only an enjoyable read, but a surprisingly funny one, too. Miss Marjoribanks by Margaret Oliphant is like a cross between Jane Austen's Emma and Elizabeth Gaskell's Cranford. It's heroine, 19-year-old Lucilla Marjoribanks, has been away at school, but now she's returned home to Carlingford with decided views about society and her father and her own duty to both.

"...the Doctor's daughter was not a mild young lady, easy to be controlled; but, on the contrary, had all the energy and determination to have her own way ... Lucilla felt more and more that she who held the reorganisation of society in Carlingford in her hands was a woman with a mission."

 She takes charge of her father's household, redecorates the drawing room in colors that complement her complexion so that she'll look especially well when she hosts her Thursday Evenings, and she quickly begins her successful "reign" over Grange Lane. But it's Lucilla's views on men, religion, marriage, and her own importance in society that really made me smile.  Here are four examples:

In such work as hers, a skillful leader is always on the outlook for auxiliaries; and there are circumstances in which a nice clergyman is almost as useful to the lady of the house as a man who can flirt.

For everybody knows that it requires very little to satisfy the gentlemen, if a woman will only give her mind to it." 

...(she) had been brought up in the old-fashioned orthodox way of having a great respect for religion, and as little to do with it as possible...  

 "I don't see the good of single women," said Lucilla, "unless they are awfully rich..."

I ended up really liking Miss Marjoribanks.  There's one sad thing that occurs in the second half of this book, but overall this classic novel not only made me smile, but on several occasions, it actually made me laugh out loud. I got the definite feeling that Oliphant was poking fun of Victorian society with Lucilla's egocentric yet "magnanimous" views of society and Carlingford's submission to this determined heroine, which is why I'm counting this book as my Humorous or Satirical Classic for Karen's Back to the Classics Challenge.

Happy Reading!

 

Eighth Classic of 2014...

The Odd Women by George Gissing

Written in 1893, this novel deals with the role of unmarried women in Victorian society. Some of Gissing's characters are militantly single and opposed to women marrying; some are women of independent means generously trying to help other, poorer women achieve the same; and some of the women just want to get married. I liked the mix of views; they gave the novel added depth and made it feel more honest. Rhoda Nunn is one of Gissing's militant characters. Her take on single women in society made me smile:

"Do you know there are half a million more women than men in this happy country of ours? So many odd women--no making a pair with them. The pessimists call them useless, lost, futile lives. I, naturally--being one of them myself--take another view. I look upon them as a great reserve. When one woman vanishes in matrimony, the reserve offers a substitute for the world's work."

Monica Madden, on the other hand, is the youngest of three single sisters. She's working as a shop girl in London when she meets an older gentleman named Edmund Widdowson. Although she doesn't love him, she wonders if marrying him might not be such a bad thing. After all, her older sisters don't appear to be very happy or satisfied in their single lives.

"As things went in the marriage war, she might esteem herself a most fortunate young woman. It seemed that he had really fallen in love with her; he might prove a devoted husband. She felt no love in return; but between the prospect of a marriage of esteem and that of no marriage at all there was little room for hesitation. The chances were that she might never again receive an offer from a man whose social standing she could respect."

I really enjoyed reading about these 'odd women'. Their lives are funny and sad, sometimes fulfilling, (more often not), hopeful, poignant and brave. As a single girl myself, I could relate. I also enjoyed Gissing's style of writing. It's as if he borrowed the best of Jane Austen--her characters and her wit--and combined it with Thomas Hardy's gritty realism. There aren't a lot of happy endings (or happy marriages) in his world, but then this book is a criticism of Victorian society and its oppression of women, not a romantic fairy tale. There were moments when I wished for a little more happiness, especially for Monica and Rhoda because I liked them both so much. But, in books as in life, we don't always get what we want. Still, I'm very glad I read this book.

 

Mayhem by Sarah Pinborough

Setting: Victorian London. Jack the Ripper is capturing all the headlines, but there's another murderer loose in London: the Thames Torso Killer...and he's even more dangerous than Jack.

Cast of Characters: police surgeon Dr. Thomas Bond, the police inspectors of Scotland Yard, a mysterious Jesuit priest, a young Polish immigrant who sees portents and visions, and, of course, the killer, his innocent victims, and the demonic myth from whence he sprung.

"The Jack they seek--this rabid killer of women--he is nothing. What I seek--the thing I seek--brings mayhem and wickedness in its wake, spreading it like this choking fog across the city. It runs in the water of the river, and it will destroy men's souls."

My thoughts: The way this story is told reminded me a lot of Bram Stoker's Dracula; so if you like that book, I think you'll like this one, too. It's part historical fiction, part detective/mystery story with a supernatural twist. And it's so well-written! I had never heard of the Thames Torso murders, but they actually took place in London in the late 1880s. Mayhem is the first of two books Pinborough plans to write based on real-life police surgeon Dr. Thomas Bond. I enjoy books set in Victorian England, and I found this one, with its Jack-the-Ripper backdrop, especially interesting. Mayhem is an otherworldly mystery that's deliciously suspenseful.

Happy Reading!

Recommended by the author:

     The Thames Torso Murders of Victorian London by R. Michael Gordon