It's been with much anticipation that I've been waiting for Carl's announcement for this year's R.I.P. Challenge. This is his fifth year hosting it and I've participated and enjoyed reading wonderful ghostly or suspenseful tales each year. In order to keep things simple I am going to 'sign up' for Peril the Third, which is to simply read one book and will combine it with the Short Story Peril as I love ghost stories! Last year I made my way through Daphne du Maurier's collection of stories Don't Look Now, which is excellent by the way. I think this year I will just pick and choose at random as I have lots of great collections on hand. Once again I'll save Sundays for reading and posting on my choices.
As for which novel I am choosing? I have been planning this all year. I usually read at least one Wilkie Collins novel a year and this year it is going to be No Name. It sounds a little less 'sensational' than some of his other stories, but I've heard it is a page turner.
"In this compelling, labyrinthine story Wilkie Collins brilliantly demonstrates the gap between justice and the law, and in the subversive Magdalen he portrays one of the most exhilarating heroines of Victorian fiction."
I want to finish No Name by the end of the challenge--by Halloween, and it is a lengthy book, but if it proves to be as gripping as I expect it to be, I don't preclude the possibility of reading a few shorter novels on the side. So a few 'just in case' books:
- Mist in the Mirror by Susan Hill
- Endless Night by Agatha Christie
- A Jealous Ghost by A.N. Wilson
- Come Along with Me by Shirley Jackson
- Or perhaps one of Ruth Rendell's novels of suspense!
All in all I think I've got a pretty decent list to choose from and am quite excited to start reading. No Name begins: "The hands of the hall-clock pointed to half-past six in the morning. The house was a country residence in West Somersetshire, called Combe-Raven". Now I'm off to go read more.