A CHILLING MIDDLEGRADE GHOST STORY SET IN A SPOOKY SANATORIUM DURING THE 1920S
The grown-ups all think she’s going to die soon-she can see it in their eyes. Still, when poor twelve-year-old Stina is sent to remote Raspberry Hill Sanatorium she can’t believe her luck. She gets to ride in a real motor car to the hospital, which looks like a magnificent castle hidden deep in the forest.
But as Stina explores the long, echoey corridors of her eerie new home, she begins to suspect that the building is concealing a dark secret. How did the old East Wing burn down? Why doesn’t her mother reply to any of her letters? And what are the nurses all so afraid of? Stina is determined to solve the mystery of Raspberry Hill-but as she edges closer to the truth, she finds herself in terrible danger…
My Thoughts
This exciting middle grade mystery will appeal to young readers who like a lot of drama and a little bit of ghostly activity in their stories.. It is dark, to be sure, but experienced readers who like scary stories will appreciate the spooky nature of the sanatorium and the danger in which Stina finds herself.
The ghostly element is actually pretty tame. However, children who are sensitive to scary stories involving humans (not ghosts) should avoid this. Foreshadowing adult horror, here the scariest monster is flesh and blood, not supernatural.
There are many potential triggers here: abandonment, confinement, deceitful adults, and chronic illness, all of which the author conveys with a smooth delivery of story. The main character, Stina, is a very adult-like child similar in ways to Dickens’ child characters who were born into poverty and lived in unimaginable conditions. Stina, while a “poor child,” is also a loved child from a solid family, which is the red thread throughout the story. I just knew her family would come through.
Publication Date: September 26, 2023 Published By: Pushkin Press Thanks to Netgalley for the review copy
Iain lives in the Highlands where a movie is being filmed. He has been chosen to play a part alongside twin child stars Carol and Melody. Odd and unpleasant things start to happen. Wild animals are released from a nearby open-air zoo – wolves and a wild ape disrupt filming and threaten the children. When they join up with old friends of Iain, Raj and Raveena, they witness one of the film crew being attacked and injured, and discover jewel thieves are operating in the area.
The Laird’s mansion (jokingly called Movie Manor by the locals), where all the actors are based, is burgled and personal items stolen. The Laird blames friends of Iain for everything, so the children investigate – a rather awkward investigation as they need to squeeze it in between filming scenes in the movie. Could their burglar be the same burglars who are stealing jewels? Are they releasing the wild animals?
Despite facing terrible danger, the children solve a puzzling double mystery – and discover an unexpected secret about the manor.
My Thoughts
I’m going to date myself, but this fast-paced middle grade mystery is a cross between The Bobbsey Twins and Marykate & Ashley movies, making it accessible, fun, and engrossing for young readers. We start out with a trio of young people, twins Carol and Melody and village boy Iain, soon joined by two more village kids, Raj and Raveena. These five form an impenetrable and persistent quad of young investigators, each bringing their own talents to the investigation. And what an investigation! There are jewel thefts, a serious beating (handled with care), wildlife activists, and hidden passages all surrounding a core story of a movie being filmed in a gorgeous Scottish location.
This is exactly the kind of mystery that got me hooked on the genre when I was 8 and reading Nancy Drew & the Phantom of Pine Hill. I envision a new generation of mystery readers growing out of this one.
Recommended.
Publication Date: August 28, 2023 Published By: Troubador Thanks to Netgalley for the review copy
When 30-year-old mystery author Tiggy Jones inherits an old boathouse in Devon from the grandmother she never knew, her shock turns to excitement.
But she’s walking into a labyrinth of clues that hint at a long-hidden secret.
A series of anonymous threats become increasingly menacing. Who is trying to stop her investigations?
As her new life unravels, what horrors will she uncover from her family’s past?
And will she survive them?
A Scrap of Silk is Book 1 in the addictive new Tiggy Jones Mystery Series.
Cancel a couple of night’s sleep and get it now.
My Thoughts
I always enjoy a new mystery series, and Virginia King has made me a fan with this mysterious, semi-creepy, and generally fun book. She has given readers a very appealing protagonist in Tiggy Jones, and dropped her into Topsham, a veritable bed of intrigue. The component of the mysterious locked cellar is handled nicely, even though it turns into a gruesome and sad story.
There are a lot of characters introduced throughout the story, which I did find a bit of a challenge to keep straight, but it all worked out in the end with a deliciously witty and ingenious narrative. I initially labeled this a “cozy” mystery, but there were definitely some dark traces included in the story, especially the diabolical antagonist. I can’t remember when I’ve enjoyed a commupance quite so much! Well done.
Publication Date: June 30, 2023 Published By: BooksGoSocial Thanks to Netgalley for the review copy
In the latest riveting thriller from the #1 New York Times bestselling author, an international research station in the Coral Sea comes under siege during a geological disaster that triggers massive quakes, deadly tsunamis, and volcanic eruptions. To stop the world from burning, it’s up to Sigma Force to uncover a secret buried at the heart of our planet.
The Titan Project—an international research station off the coast of Australia—discovers a thriving zone of life in an otherwise dead sea. The area teems with a strange bioluminescent coral that defies science, yet holds great promise for the future. But the loss of a military submarine in the area triggers a brutal attack and sets in motion a geological disaster that destabilizes an entire region.
Massive quakes, volcanic eruptions, and deadly tsunamis herald a greater cataclysm to come—for something is stirring miles under the ocean, a threat hidden for millennia.
As seas turn toxic and coastlines burn, can Sigma Force stop what has been let loose—especially as an old adversary returns, hunting them and thwarting their every move? For any hope of success, Commander Gray Pierce must search for a key buried in the past, hidden deep in Aboriginal mythology. But what Sigma could uncover is even more frightening—something that will shake the very foundations of humanity.
My Thoughts
I’ve been reading Rollin’s work for a long time and he is one of the few authors out there whose work never gets stale. While every book has the basic plot of “save the world from catastrophe,” Rollins continually serves up wildly inventive and interesting plots. In Tides of Fire, he blends extraterrestrial mysteries with the just-as-mysterious deep ocean environment on earth to spin as captivating a tale as I’ve ever read.
I always learn new things as I read Rollins’ work, and this round I learned a heck of a lot about deep ocean creatures and the early existence of our planet. Could the Dumbo Octopus be any cuter or the Viper Fish any more terrifying?
Rollins peoples Tides of Fire with the usual cast of characters, including one we all thought was a goner after his adventures in previous books. The relationship between Gray and Seichan continues to evolve, and we get a glimpse of her mysterious past here, which is a nice addition to the series. There is non-stop action from the first chapter straight through to the end.
And that epilogue! Mr. Rollins, get that next book out as soon as possible. Please!
Publication Date: August 15, 2023 Published By: William Morrow Thanks to Netgalley for the review copy
The Lilac. The bard songs say that she’s the world’s most fearsome bounty hunter. That there’s no criminal she can’t catch, no mystery she can’t solve.
None of that is true. Yet.
In reality, the Lilac is just a kid, and the bard who wrote all that is her best friend, Dulcinetta. But the Lilac has set her goals on becoming the best bounty hunter in the Thirteen Kingdoms—and when a priceless artifact goes missing from the home of famed monster hunter Baron Angbar, the Lilac and Netta are eager to apprehend the thief and make a name for themselves.
But when their investigation brings them to a dinner party at Castle Angbar, and they meet the Angbar family and their servants and guests—an unsavory group of nobles, mages, and assorted creatures, each more shady than the last—the Lilac begins to wonder if the reward is worth the trouble.
And that’s before the dead body is discovered.
Now everyone is magically sealed inside the castle—and there is a murderer among them. If the Lilac wants to make it out with her reputation intact, it’s going to be up to her to figure out who the killer is. But everyone in the castle—even the Lilac herself—has secrets to hide, and as the walls literally start to close in around them, the Lilac worries that her first job as a bounty hunter may be her last. . . .
My Thoughts
A bounty hunter called The Lilac who also happens to be a witty, clever, capable detective? Yes please!
Lila and Dulcinetta are a set of tag team adventurers who find themselves smack in the middle of a locked-room murder mystery. They manage to outsmart the bad guys, solve the mystery, and save the day while barely breaking a sweat.
While the characters are familiar from earlier Healy books, this one can stand on its own. The writing is irreverent and somewhat silly at times and could certainly be a gateway to Terry Pratchett’s work for young readers.
Published By: Harper Collins Childrens Books; Golden Pond Books Publication Date: August 15, 2023 Thanks to Netgalley for the review copy
Death strikes England’s foremost novelist Charles Dickens, his latest tale only half told. Was he murdered because someone feared a ruinous revelation? Or was it revenge for some past misdeed? Set in the Kent countryside and London slums of 1870, Lyn Squire’s “Immortalised to Death” (Level Best Books, September 26th, 2023) reveals the ending to Charles Dickens’s unfinished “The Mystery of Edwin Drood,” while diving deep into Dickens’ evolving and ultimately tragic double life.
Debut author Lyn Squire kicks off his electrifying Dunston Burnett Trilogy with legendary Victorian novelist Charles Dickens dead at his desk, pen still in hand. The mystery unravels as Dickens’ nephew and unlikely detective Dunston Burnett, tries to find the solution of his uncles’ unfinished novel. Convinced that the identity of Dickens’ murderer lies in the book’s missing conclusion, Dunston becomes obsessed with investigating those closest to Dickens. A stunning revelation crowns this tale about the mysterious death of England’s foremost novelist, and the long-held secret hidden in his half-finished manuscript.
The deft plotting will remind readers of Agatha Christie and the evocative prose will have them questioning which parts of the book are fiction and nonfiction. Squire seamlessly reimagines Dickens’ untimely death and final unfinished story while tying it neatly into a thrilling whodunnit. Is Dunston Burnett, a diffident, middle-aged, retired bookkeeper, able to crack the case of his uncle’s murder, or does he only find buried secrets in his brilliant continuation to Dickens’ novel?
My Thoughts
One of my favorite forms of the mystery novel are those that feature familiar characters from history or from other novels. In this case, it is the murder of Charles Dickens that kicks off one of the most unexpected and inventive mysteries I’ve read recently.
Squire’s introduction of Dunston Burnett as the family member turned accidental detective sets off as twisty a mystery as a reader could wish for, peppered with witty dialog, just-right narrative description, and an eyebrow-raising ending.
Immortalised to Death is an auspicious debut and left me looking forward to the next entry in the Dunston Burnett series. I’ll be recommending this novel and author to fans of historical mysteries.
Publication Date: September 26, 2023 Published By: Level Best Books Thanks to the author for the review copy
About the Author
LYN SQUIRE was born in Cardiff, South Wales. He earned his bachelor’s degree at the University of Wales, his master’s at the London School of Economics and his doctorate at Cambridge University.
Lyn is now an American citizen living in Virginia. During a twenty-five year career at the World Bank, Lyn published over thirty articles and several books within his area of expertise. Lyn also served as editor of the Middle East Development Journal for over a decade, and was the founding president of the Global Development Network, an organization dedicated to supporting promising scholars from the developing world.
Lyn has always been an avid reader of whodunits and has reviewed scores of mysteries for the City Book Review (Sacramento, CA), but it was the thrill of solving Charles Dickens’ unfinished ‘Mystery of Edwin Drood’ that convinced him to put aside his development pen and turn to fiction. Finding a solution to the mystery has attracted massive interest since the author’s death in 1870. A 1998 bibliography lists over 2,000 entries, with continuations ranging from the obvious (a Sherlock Holmes pastiche) to the absurd (The Mysterious Mystery of Rude Dedwin). Lyn’s version of what happened to Edwin is revealed in his first novel, Immortalised to Death. The adventures of his protagonist, Dunston Burnett, a non-conventional amateur detective, continue in Fatally Inferior and The Séance of Murder, the second and third stories in The Dunston Burnett Trilogy.
NATIONAL BESTSELLER • From the New York Times bestselling author of The Daughter of Doctor Moreau and Mexican Gothiccomes a fabulous meld of Mexican horror movies and Nazi occultism: a dark thriller about the curse that haunts a legendary lost film—and awakens one woman’s hidden powers.
Montserrat has always been overlooked. She’s a talented sound editor, but she’s left out of the boys’ club running the film industry in ’90s Mexico City. And she’s all but invisible to her best friend, Tristán, a charming if faded soap opera star, though she’s been in love with him since childhood.
Then Tristán discovers his new neighbor is the cult horror director Abel Urueta, and the legendary auteur claims he can change their lives—even if his tale of a Nazi occultist imbuing magic into highly volatile silver nitrate stock sounds like sheer fantasy. The magic film was never finished, which is why, Urueta swears, his career vanished overnight. He is cursed.
Now the director wants Montserrat and Tristán to help him shoot the missing scene and lift the curse . . . but Montserrat soon notices a dark presence following her, and Tristán begins seeing the ghost of his ex-girlfriend.
As they work together to unravel the mystery of the film and the obscure occultist who once roamed their city, Montserrat and Tristán may find that sorcerers and magic are not only the stuff of movies.
My Thoughts
Moreno-Garcia keeps turning out macabre, nightmarish stories that explore the darkest reaches of the human psyche. Silver Nitrate explores the needs and desires of two flawed friends who move through life dodging memories and resentments. Their shared love of old horror movies and their own skills in acting and sound editing open a door to a true nightmare.
The exploration of film as the vehicle for possession and magic is such an apt allegory of the Hollywood experience. Moreno-Garcia lays bare the superficiality of the film business combined with the insatiable desire of those in that industry for power, love, money, and youth.
I’d love to see this as a film directed by Quentin Tarantino because Moreno-Garcia writes like he directs.
What a wild ride.
Publication Date: July 18, 2023 Published By: Random House Publishing Group; Ballantine, Del Rey Thanks to Netgalley for the review copy
NEW YORK TIMES BEST SELLER • One of the most remarkable true-crime narratives of the twenty-first century: the story of the world’s most prolific art thief, Stéphane Breitwieser. • “The Art Thief, like its title character, has confidence, élan, and a great sense of timing.”—The New Yorker
“Enthralling.” —The Wall Street Journal
In this spellbinding portrait of obsession and flawed genius, the best-selling author of The Stranger in the Woods brings us into Breitwieser’s strange world—unlike most thieves, he never stole for money, keeping all his treasures in a single room where he could admire them.
For centuries, works of art have been stolen in countless ways from all over the world, but no one has been quite as successful at it as the master thief Stéphane Breitwieser. Carrying out more than two hundred heists over nearly eight years—in museums and cathedrals all over Europe—Breitwieser, along with his girlfriend who worked as his lookout, stole more than three hundred objects, until it all fell apart in spectacular fashion.
In The Art Thief, Michael Finkel brings us into Breitwieser’s strange and fascinating world. Unlike most thieves, Breitwieser never stole for money. Instead, he displayed all his treasures in a pair of secret rooms where he could admire them to his heart’s content. Possessed of a remarkable athleticism and an innate ability to circumvent practically any security system, Breitwieser managed to pull off a breathtaking number of audacious thefts. Yet these strange talents bred a growing disregard for risk and an addict’s need to score, leading Breitwieser to ignore his girlfriend’s pleas to stop—until one final act of hubris brought everything crashing down.
This is a riveting story of art, crime, love, and an insatiable hunger to possess beauty at any cost.
My Thoughts
An art thief who steals for the beauty and not the profit? And one who has standards regarding when and how the theft will occur? This is such an odd but utterly engrossing story that features one man who is so enamored of beauty that he amassed an unmatched collection of stolen art just to see the beauty every day.
This reminded me a bit of Art & Craft, the documentary about Mark Landis, a prolific art forger. The psychological aspect of what both these men accomplished through their theft has to be the stuff of legends.
The writing is engaging and a bit bombastic, but the incredible truth to this story sucks you in and keeps you reading to the last page. True crime fans will surely eat this up.
Publication Date: June 27, 2023 Published By: Knopf, Pantheon, Vintage & Anchor Thanks to Netgalley for the review copy
A dark YA fantasy debut perfect for fans of House of Hollow and Small Favors. In the wake of her father’s death, a teen girl discovers a side of her family she didn’t know existed, and is pulled into a dark—and ancient—bargain she is next in line to fulfill.
Kit’s father always told her he had no family, but his sudden death revealed the truth. Now Kit has a grandmother she never knew she had—Agatha Starling—and an invitation to visit her father’s hometown, Rosemont.
And Rosemont is picture perfect: the famed eternal roses bloom all year, downtown is straight out of the 1950s . . . there’s even a cute guy to show Kit around.
The longer Kit’s there, though, the stranger it all feels. The Starling family is revered, but there’s something off about how the Starling women seem to be at the center of the all the town’s important history. And as welcoming as the locals are, Kit can’t shake the feeling that they’re hiding something from her.
Agatha is so happy to finally meet her only granddaughter, and the town is truly charming, but Kit can’t help wondering, if everything is so great in Rosemont, why did her father leave? And why does it seem like he never wanted her to find it?
My Thoughts
This dark but uber-compelling blend of fantasy and horror with a touch of fairy tale will keep readers glued to their seats, devouring this in one sitting.
The base story is somewhat familiar – parent keeps their family secret from child, child is key to some age-old ceremonial activity, child kicks butt and breaks curse. In the hands of a less skilled writer, this could be second-rate drivel, but Linsmeier is no second-rate hack. Her plot is well-constructed and very clever, and her narrative prose is lovely and horrifying at the same time. I look forward to more from this debut author.
Fans of fantasy-horror will adore this.
Publication Date: June 27, 2023 Published By: Random House Children’s, Delacorte Press Thanks to Netgalley for the review copy
Deadly Depths by John F Dobbyn July 24 – August 18, 2023 Virtual Book Tour
The death by bizarre means of his mentor, Professor Barrington Holmes, draws Mathew Shane into the quest of five archeologists, known to each other as “The Monkey’s Paws,” for an obscure object of unprecedented historic and financial value. The suspected murders of others of the Monkey’s Paws follow their pursuit of five clues found in a packet of five ancient parchments. Shane’s commitment to disprove the police theory of suicide by Professor Holmes carries him to the steamy bayous of New Orleans, the backstreets of Montreal, the sunken wreck of a pirate vessel off Barbados, and the city of Maroon descendants of escaped enslaved people in Jamaica. By weaving a thread including the Aztec kingdom before the Spanish conquest of Mexico through the African Ashanti beliefs of Jamaican Maroons and finally to the adventures of Captain Henry Morgan during the Golden Era of Piracy, Shane reaches a conclusion he could never have anticipated.
My Thoughts
As a longtime fan and reader of action-adventure fiction, I don’t know how I’ve missed out on John F. Dobbyn’s work! Deadly Depths is one wild ride, beginning in Boston and ending in a forbidding Jamaican jungle.
All the elements of a pulse-pounding adventure are here – the charismatic protagonist, the mysterious powerful benefactor, the stoic but powerful wingman, the treacherous partners, and above all the fabulous treasure at the end of the quest.
A well-constructed plot, a vivid and engaging narrative (there’s an absolute nightmare of an underwater scene that had me at the edge of my seat!), and a non-stop pace make this one a winner for any reader looking to escape into an adventure for a few hours.
Praise for Deadly Depths:
“Deadly Depths gives readers characters they care about and gets hearts pumping as the mystery and adventure unfold!” ~ Janet Hutchings, Editor, Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine
“Deadly Depths is an exciting mystery novel that asks who has the right to seek and exploit lost treasures.” ~ Foreword Reviews
Following graduation from Boston Latin School and Harvard College with a major in Latin and Linguistics, three years on active duty as fighter intercept director in the United States Air Force, graduation from Boston College Law School, three years of practice in civil and criminal trial work, and graduation from Harvard Law School with a Master of Laws degree, I began a career as a Professor of Law at Villanova Law School. Twenty-five years ago I began writing mystery/thriller fiction. I have so far had twenty-five short stories published in Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine and Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery magazine, and six mystery thriller novels, the Michael Knight/Lex Devlin series, published by Oceanview Publishing. The second novel, Frame Up, was selected as Foreword Review’s Book of the Year.
It's All About the Book 