Displeasure Island by Alice Bell

 

Reviewed by Kristin

Sometimes Claire Hendricks would really just like a moment to herself, but unfortunately that rarely happens. Since her BFF died when they were seventeen, Claire always has Sophie tagging along. Ghost Sophie, that is. They are tethered together with some invisible force, and that can get a little weird when others see her talking to . . . air. And it’s not just Sophie who Claire can see, she can see other ghosts too, including long dead pirates and the like.

Claire and her friends Basher and Alex have a chance to vacation at a new resort on a remote island off the coast of Ireland. They were to be the only guests, but unfortunately the owner was unaware of their booking and brought out a group of her own friends for a reunion. At least Basher and Alex do know about Sophie, but not so the other guests. Everyone tries to get along though.

Until the first dead body drops.

This is a classic locked room murder mystery with all players being fair suspects, but with a wicked edge of modern humor. With possible romance(s) brewing and everyone questioning who they can trust, it’s a fun romp across the desolate shorelines racing to beat incoming tides. With bands of ghost pirates looking to control a secret buried treasure, it’s all fun and games until someone loses an eye. Or a limb. Or a life.

Laugh out loud funny (as long as you don’t take your mysteries too seriously) this was an enjoyable read. The cover has a bit of a Scooby Doo vibe for me, with four figures (including one partially transparent) staring across a cove at ghostly figures approaching a crumbling castle. Definitely fluff, but I’d give it four sparkling stars.

The Widow of Rose House by Diana Biller

Reviewed by Christy

            It’s 1875, and Alva Webster has fled her abusive husband while living in France. She becomes quite the scandal amid upper crust society (thanks to her estranged husband feeding salacious and false stories to the press). While trying to work up the courage to file for divorce, Alva’s husband goes and dies, sending the rumor mill into a frenzy. Hoping for a fresh start, Alva finally returns home to New York City. There she purchases a rundown mansion in the hopes of fixing it up and maybe even publishing a book about her decorating skills. Unfortunately, the house appears to be haunted, and it’s very hard to find good workers when a ghost keeps scaring everyone away.

            Alva has a hard time believing in ghosts but eccentric scientist Samuel Moore wants to believe and would love nothing more than the opportunity to research it thoroughly by setting up camp in Alva’s manor. After much cajoling, Alva agrees and the odd pair start working together to solve the mystery.

            This was a very fun and engaging read. Though it deals with heavy themes (domestic violence, general oppression of women in the 19^th century, etc), it still manages to have an air of light-heartedness that I found refreshing in what is essentially a gothic romance. And the romance part is great! Alva and Sam have wonderful chemistry. Though they lean a little into the Insta Love trope, which I am not a fan of, I’m willing to overlook it because their dialogue made me laugh out loud a few times. Their banter reminded me a little bit of the screwball comedies from the 1930s. The ghost story is really more of a side plot but I think it’s done very well – a little scary but mostly heartbreaking.

            This ended up being one of my favorite reads of 2023, and I highly recommend it for the dark winter months.

           

Hex by Thomas Olde Heuvelt

 

Reviewed by Andrew

 

Hex by Dutch author Thomas Olde Heuvelt is the story of a small modern-day New England town called Black Spring, which has been terrorized by the ghost of a witch for centuries. The witch has placed a curse on Black Spring, so that whoever lives there but tries to leave is overcome with suicidal urges. Because of this curse, the town goes to extraordinary measures to ensure that no one new moves there. In addition, over the years, the townsfolk have formed a special committee that attempts to hide the witch from visitors to Black Spring, and keeps track of the witch through security cameras that have been placed across town. It is strictly forbidden to interact with the witch in any way, with the committee doling out punishment to anyone who breaks the rules revolving around the witch. When several teenagers who live in Black Spring decide to film pranks performed on the witch for a social media site, it starts a series of horrific events that places the lives of everyone in Black Spring in mortal danger.

Personally, most “horror” books don’t really scare me that much (probably from being de-sensitized from watching too many horror movies), so I have been looking around for a while to find the scariest books ever. This book came up on several people’s top-ten horror lists, so I thought I would give it a try. The book does have a certain amount of suspense and dread, and as I read it, I was constantly reminding of Stephen King’s earlier, darker material. This book definitely has a very dark, grim tone, but its interspersed nicely with occasional humor and interesting fictional history about the town of Black Spring, and how the people who live there have dealt with the witch’s curse for close to 400 years. I also really enjoy when a story has multiple plots that all end up converging together towards the end, similar to Needful Things by Stephen King or Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell, and Hex definitely had several interesting overarching plots. The story was also told in such a way that I had absolutely no idea how it would end.   I enjoyed reading as much of it as I could at a time, just to find out what happened in Black Spring next.

Something I wished the author had explored more is how the town of Black Spring deals with the outside world because of their curse. It was definitely touched on but I thought it would have been interesting to see more of the outside world’s view on the town. Maybe a scientific research team attempting to come to the town to try to discover how and why the curse works.  Still, I understood that the author wanted to keep the sense of extreme isolation that the people of Black Spring feel due to the curse.

The book also tends to be very bleak at times (I know, I know, I asked for a VERY scary horror book!)  It made me want to go read something much more light-hearted afterwards.

Overall, I did really enjoy this book. The plot was fast-paced, and always kept me engaged and wondering what was going to happen next in the small town of Black Spring. I would absolutely recommend this book to anyone who is a fan of Stephen King or Dean Koontz, or someone who is looking for a good extra-scary book to read right before Halloween.

Nothing But Blackened Teeth by Cassandra Khaw

 

 

Reviewed by Christy

            A group of twenty somethings gathers at an abandoned mansion, purportedly haunted. They're there to celebrate the wedding of two of their friends but tensions between the entire group threaten to spoil the weekend. That is, if the ghosts don't get to them first.

            The legend goes that many years ago, a bride was abandoned by her groom and in her grief, asked to be buried alive beneath the house. As the years passed, she got lonely. Each year thereafter, a new girl was buried with her to keep her company. The present day bride is thrilled at the idea of having a make shift wedding in such a spooky location. Everyone else is just kind of along for the ride.

            I listened to this as an audio book from READS. The narrator, Suehyla El-Attar, does a fantastic job of bringing Khaw's prose to life. Though a little too flowery here and there, overall I really liked Khaw's vivid writing style. The audio book is short, under three hours, and I'll admit that was a draw for me. Though I favor too short stories over too long ones, I do think this particular book could've benefitted from some filling out. I felt as though I was plopped down in the middle of the story and had to play catch up. The characters clearly had rich histories with one another but we as readers weren't given much time to sit with any of it. Most of them didn't even seem to like each other all that much – to the point where they came across as nasty and unlikeable. Khaw touches on backstories briefly, but I may have felt more sympathy if the book had explored their motivations more.

            Nothing But Blackened Teeth did have some genuinely unsettling imagery, and I do think Khaw is a talented writer. However, I was left a little underwhelmed by this particular work.

The Deep by Alma Katsu

Reviewed by Christy

It’s 1916, and Annie has just gotten a nursing job aboard the Britannic which has been refitted as a hospital ship. It’s been years since she worked on a ship but she’s thankful for the opportunity to try to start fresh. When she recognizes a wounded soldier, however, she can hardly believe her eyes. Not only has she seen him before but she’s been on a ship with him as well – when she was a servant and he a first-class passenger. But that should be impossible because she knows he couldn’t have survived the disaster that befell their previous voyage – the sinking of the Titanic.

            Katsu weaves dual timelines throughout her book – 1912 and 1916. Though Annie begins the book in 1916 in a psychiatric hospital, we have no idea why she is there though it does seem to be voluntary. Drawn out by her former roommate on the Titanic, Violet Jessop, Annie accepts a new position on the Britannic to help with the warfront. Being on a ship again, Annie is flooded with memories – obviously not all of them good. Katsu takes her time unfolding the plot and in doing so creates a wonderful sense of time and place. The novel is very atmospheric and although Katsu’s prose isn’t necessarily flowery, at times it feels a little decadent. Especially when she is describing first class accommodations. (Cream scraped across a plate after breakfast, descriptions of sparkling jewelry, etc.) I honestly would’ve welcomed more of that but I understand why she didn’t really lean into it.

            Though Annie is our protagonist, the story has a full ensemble of characters all of whom I became invested in. Some real-life names make appearances as well such as Benjamin Guggenheim and John Jacob Astor. Violet Jessop, who I had no idea was based on a real person, actually survived both the Titanic and the Britannic disasters! I particularly liked how casually Katsu dropped new information to help readers slowly piece together what was happening. This book was a solid, good old-fashioned gothic ghost story but with a unique premise. I enjoyed it very much, and yes, I had to watch 1997’s Titanic after I was done.

** I received a copy of this novel from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. **

The Unquiet Grave by Sharyn McCrumb

Reviewed by Kristin

Young and headstrong, Zona Heaster lived in Greenbrier County, West Virginia, round about 1896.  West Virginia was still a young state, fresh from the Civil War, at least in the memories of its older population.  Zona may have been young as well, but she was past twenty and ready to get married when the first opportunity presented itself.  When charmer Edward Erasmus Shue, or “Trout,” came along, Zona jumped at the chance, no matter what reservations her mama may have had.

A few months later, Mrs. Zona Shue is dead from an apparent fall down the stairs.

Mary Jane Heaster, Zona’s mother, never did trust that Trout.  When Zona had found out that he had two previous wives, it didn’t bother her none, but Mary Jane was afraid for her girl.  When Zona is brought back to her hometown for burying, Trout acts the grieving husband and insists that no one look closely at the body.  Soon after the funeral, Mary Jane has an unexpected visitor: Zona, telling her mother that her death was not natural.

Decades later, James P.D. Gardner recounts to his doctor what it was like to be an African-American attorney assisting in the defense of Edward Shue accused of murdering his young bride Zona.  Mr. Gardner is going through a tough time himself, remanded to the segregated insane asylum after a suicide attempt, and his story is intertwined with that of the Heasters and the Shues.

Sharyn McCrumb paints a rich narrative in her usual way:  the characters are strong, the settings are vivid, and she draws this novel from historical facts.  Zona’s story is well known in the West Virginia hollows and ridges as the tale of “The Greenbrier Ghost.”  Although long believed to be folklore, McCrumb followed the documents back into time, finding census records, death certificates, court records, maps and more to prove that there was a real Zona who died under suspicious circumstances.  McCrumb can always be counted upon to portray her Appalachian characters realistically with authentic voices that may as well have come straight from 1896.

McCrumb may be best known for her Appalachian Ballad novels, but here she proves once again that she has an unerring sense for a good story, and the ability to tell it in a way that draws  readers in, and keeps them wishing for more.

Haunted Yarn Shop Mysteries by Molly MacRae

Reviewed by Jeanne

Last Wool and Testament by Molly MacRae

Kath Rutledge didn’t expect to be caught speeding by an East Tennessee cop, but then she didn’t expect her beloved grandmother to die suddenly, either.  To make matters worse, the cop refers to her grandmother as “Crazy Ivy” and insinuates that she might have been in trouble with the law.  None of this fits in with the Ivy that Kath knew and loved—but then, that Ivy wouldn’t have deeded away her house without telling Kath either.  All that’s left is Ivy’s shop, The Weaver’s Cat, a host of Ivy’s fellow weavers and fabric artists, and a mystery that Kath is determined to solve to clear her grandmother’s name.

Oh, and deal with a despondent ghost who loves television.

I picked this series up because it had a local setting, and there was a cat on the cover.  I confess to being a bit disappointed in some of the local color or, rather, the lack thereof.  While I recognized some local references (the town is called Blue Plum, for example, and there's a nearby festival by that name), I just didn’t get a good sense of being in this area.   I didn’t want heavy handed dialect or ‘possum jokes or references to Jed Clampett, but on the other hand I didn’t want generic small town America either.  For a page or two I forgot if the book was set in Tennessee or Maine or Minnesota, since I’ve been reading mysteries set in all those places—and yes, all small towns with diners as the heart of town where one gets the gossip and a killer brownie/chocolate chip cookie/cupcake.  To be honest, I wondered if this was a mandate by the publisher to make the setting “relatable” or some such nonsense. A few details came in near the end but not enough for me to really feel that I was in this area.  On the up side, this meant no toothless natives or “Dueling Banjos.” That is definitely a plus for me. 

And by the way, there was a cat but it remained missing for most of the book.  This detail is for my cat mystery reading friends and should not reflect badly for anyone who does not read mysteries for the felines. I am reliably informed that not everyone is concerned about the presence or absence of felines, so those folks may just ignore this entire paragraph.

Because first novels have the burden of setting up characters, I decided to read a second book in the series. Plagued by Quilt sees Kath settled in at the Weaver’s Cat, making friends and succeeding as a shopkeeper.  She’s getting ready to put her background as a conservator to good use as she helps out at the Holston Living History Homeplace, a museum where visitors can tour an eighteenth century homestead and view re-enactors lecturing and performing tasks common to the day.  Phillip Bell, the new assistant director, is an enthusiastic interpreter and is leading an archaeological excavation on the site.  When a human elbow turns up, it seems that some secrets may not be too well buried after all.  

I found I enjoyed Plagued by Quilt much more.  Kath was more settled and comfortable, so I as a reader felt more comfortable.  The Holston museum setting gave more opportunity to build setting, as did Kath’s love for the antique tools and fabrics.  Geneva the ghost is back, dramatic as ever, but she does provide some comic relief with her TV references.  A couple of the characters were more developed than in the first book, though Kath remains someone who rushes in where angels (but not ghosts) fear to tread.  The TGIF (Thank Goodness It’s Fiber) group has some interesting possibilities but limited character development, though they are the source of a delightful stake-out scene.  I enjoy the way that MacRae incorporates bits of information about history and fiber work into her books:  the retting of flax, for example. It’s never a lecture or a chore, just interesting information.

The scraping sound you hear is the dragging of a soapbox.  I had two quibbles with the book that I put up with but found annoying—much like the flies that scoot inside in summer.  The biggest was the librarian who didn’t seem to want to do research and secondly, that when she finally did the research she failed to check online sources which should have yielded clues.  I will grant that it would have made solving the mystery take fewer pages, but I hope that librarian will either polish her skills or else find a new profession. And no, she won’t stop me from reading the next book. End of soapbox!

All in all, this is a solid little series with extra appeal for those who love fiber arts, be it knitting, sewing, quilting, or weaving.  The supernatural elements don’t overwhelm the story, nor do they spoil the detecting. I don’t think this is a series that needs to be read in order, as it’s fairly easy to catch up though Geneva might give one a moment’s pause when encountered for the first time. I have a couple of friends who are fiber artists and I will be recommending the series to them.

The author, Molly MacRae, lived in this area for a number of years and worked for a time in Jonesborough so she does know and like the area. While that didn't come through in the first book, it was much more evident in the second.

(And yes, a cat made more of an appearance in this book.  That did not influence my opinion.  At least not much.)