A Work in Progress

The Devereaux Legacy by Carolyn Hart

Carolyn Hart's The Devereaux Legacy, published in 1986, is very much in the vein of stories by Mary Stewart or Elizabeth Peters.  It is a story of romantic suspense, but comparing the authors, I would call this story: romantic suspense-'lite'.  It's a slender novel, a quick and entertaining read, but it is also a little thin story-wise.  It has a beautiful and atmospheric setting, but there is not much in the way of history or description other than the house where the action takes place and not a whole lot of depth to the characters or the development of their romance. 

Elizabeth Peters is known for her detailed research with a heavy dose of history, and Mary Stewart's exotic locales whisk the reader away to foreign and inviting lands with a rich characterization and tension between characters.  Both authors have pacy, quick-moving and suspenseful plotting.  There is a bit of all that in the Hart story as well, but I think the reason for its 'being' is less the unraveling of a mystery or edge-of-your-seat nail-biting action, rather, this is a story that is mostly about the romance between characters and any ghosts or danger is incidental--a way simply to bring the hero and heroine together.

A number of Carolyn Hart's novels have been reissued as "Carolyn Hart Classics" and this one has a brief but interesting introduction by the author.  During the late 70s Hart wrote seven novels that were all turned down by publishers.  When it came to mysteries from this period readers (or maybe publishers who brought out all the books at the time) wanted either hard-boiled detective novels or traditional cozies written by English ladies a la Agatha Christie.  Hart's mysteries were simply not selling.  At least not in the guise in which she was writing them.  So, she began tailoring her stories to the reading public, and the reading public wanted romance.  Romance sold.

"I took an idea for a mystery, added what I hoped would be an appealing romance, a ghost who may presage evil, and a beautiful old South Carolina plantation."

The result was the story I just read, which was originally sold to Harlequin as a gothic romance.  I like the rejacketed editions.  I guess tastes have changed once again--no heroine on the cover swooning over a hunky hero.  This has a much more appealing cover which only hints at a family drama perhaps, or a story with some mystery to unravel.  Actually in thinking of the story and how I would describe it here, what comes to mind is a Lifetime movie.  You know the sort--heroine gets involved in shady business, or is being harassed or stalked but is in the sort of iffy circumstances that require a little help from a friend, usually of the male persuasion.  Love at first sight, romance and happiness on the horizon if only she can get herself out of a dangerous situation. 

That's pretty much what happens in The Devereaux Legacy.  From the very start, when Leah meets her cousins for the first time, particularly Merrick, you know she is smitten and romance is on her mind.  It is as much a tale of suspense for the ghost, and the omen of death as for the blossoming romance between Leah and Merrick.  There is some tension, both romantic and dramatic.  Leah is the true blood relative of the Devereaux's--the cousins were siblings adopted into the family.  They may still be Devereauxs but blood is blood it would seem. 

Leah's parents died when she was only a baby, and she was raised by her grandmother.  Something happened on that fateful night in South Carolina--something bad that resulted in her being whisked off and all ties severed.  She and her grandmother lived in Texas where she fully plans to return, but she has to find answers--she had discovered that the plantation in South Carolina was the last place her parents were known to have been.  Why was she never told the truth.  The article she finds by chance tells of the Devereaux family, their elegant home, and the ghost that haunts the property.  When the Whispering Woman is seen, she foretells the death of a family member.

There is a locked tower that everyone says is closed due to age and instability that just screams come and explore me.  Strange accidents begin to occur that the family tries to explain away and then the death of a family caretaker all create a build up to the uncovering of the mystery.  There is love at first sight and then misunderstandings and misgivings about the true intentions of both lovers.  Will they get together or is one behind the mysterious occurrences and the appearance of the ghost? 

Being a romance, you know pretty much how things are going to turn out, but it is still fun getting there.  The Devereaux Legacy is a nice, quick, entertaining read, but decidedly lighter fare--a nice way to while away an afternoon anyway.  It is the first of my RIP reads and I have now moved on to John Wyndham's wonderful novel Chocky--not scary especially--but much edgier and not a romance.  Maybe if I can squeeze in one more read I will ratchet up the tension just a little bit more?  Have you been reading along with RIP?  And if so, anything good?

A Brief Stitching Interlude: Prairie Fairy!

I've finished stitching my Prairie Scooler "Prairie Fairy" finally!  She seems to only just be watering her garden and here it is time for harvesting.  Harvesting might have to wait for next summer at this point.

But I am pleased with how she turned out.  I've got the backstitching finished on the front side and have decided that I am going to finish her as a little pillow with tassles on each of the four corner in same shade as the green backstitches.

It will be a "flat" pillow, and now I am working on the back side of it.  Counting out those backstitches on a blank piece of linen is very tedious as you might imagine so the progress is slow.  Perfect mindless sort of work that would be perfect for home movie watching, of which I seem to not being doing much of at all lately.  I am not sure what else will go on the back side.  Name and date, perhaps the season?  And definitely will carry over one of the smaller motifs--maybe a daisy and watering can?

Ah, so near and yet so far away from finishing in earnest.  And to think that some years I would stitch over twenty different little small projects and even finish a good number of them.  I wonder what has changed so much in my life to make this my very first finish of the year (in September!)?  More books and more reading I suspect.  If something is going to come in the way of my stitching, books are the most agreeable to me!

I think I have a new project chosen to work on next--a seasonal sampler for fall, but I had better get started soon.  Maybe it would be wiser to begin something for a future holiday?  St. Valentine's Day?  At the rate I am moving . . .

You may or may not have noticed a number of new books on my sidebar--new books just begun and several new finishes--I hope to write about them all in the coming days.

Ghost Story Sunday: Perilous Play

A story about the dangers and pleasures of hashish!  Who would have thought our beloved Louisa May Alcott of Little Women fame could write such a decadent and sensational story!  Actually I have read a few of her more sensational writings, written under a pen-name, in the past and know she was the breadwinner for her family and likely relied on such provocative stories to earn money.  I wonder which ones she enjoyed writing more?  As much as I love Little Women (which came after this story), the second half of the book moralizes a bit too much for my tastes these days.  "Perilous Play" which appears in A Marble Woman: The Unknown Thrillers of Louisa May Alcott, edited by Madeleine Stern is really great fun.  A little on the silly side, but fun nonetheless. I imagine it must have been quite shocking for readers in 1869--quite lascivious.  The sort of story you read when your parents think you are doing something else!

"'If someone does not propose a new and interesting amusement, I shall die of ennui' said pretty Belle Daventry." 

Famous last words.  A game of charades, would have been out of the question I suppose. Faced with an endless afternoon of boredom her friend Meredith is happy to comply, and given his talents at inventing amusing activities, the group knows he will come up with something interesting.  What he pulls from his pocket is a little box of tortoiseshell and gold and filled with bonbons.  Not to be confused with sugarplums these little morsels will amuse in "in a new, delicious, and wonderful manner."  What Meredith has in hand is hashish.

"'Oh, yes; it's that Indian stuff which brings one fantastic visions, isn't it?  I've always wanted to see and taste it, and now I will,' cried Belle, nibbling at one of the bean-shaped comfits with its green heart."

One prudent young lady tries to dissuade the group knowing that people end up doing all sorts of queer things, but six can surely do no harm.  Taking too many might elicit visions of phantoms and frenzies and a touch of the nightmare.  Having taken the drug the experimenters each sets off on their own giving in to foolish and uninhibited behavior.  Two of the group have decided to follow the moon and go sailing.  Not a wise idea under the circumstances and pass a frightening night in the maelstrom of a storm believing they are all but lost.

Alas no moralizing tone in this story.  As a matter of fact no ghouls or spirits but the luck of the devil since not only are the pair rescued but their nighttime adventure.  A nightmarish sleep follows--"incoherent wanderings haunted him like parts of a grotesque but dreadful dream."  Yet dare I tell you how the story ends?  Surely shocking to readers of the 19th century--our foolish pair not only live to tell their tale but fall in love in the undertaking of hashish experimentation.  The young man, who has now the courage to share his true feelings for the young lady says (ardently!) "Heaven bless hashish, if its dreams end like this!".

So,  not technically a ghost story, but Victorian sensationalism seems fitting for this time of year, too.

* * *

I did read a story by a writer who is likely to elicit a few chills up the spine however.  I'm not sure why I have never tried any of H.P. Lovecraft's stories before.  I guess I always assumed that as he wrote horror fiction I wouldn't really enjoy it.  But thanks to Caroline for suggesting his story "The Outsider" to me.  I found it in a collection of stories called The Dunwich Horror and Others.  It's a story of what seems to be a  young man looking back over his childhood who has been raised in the confines of what seems to be a great house or a castle.  He is cared for in a rather indifferent manner and with little in the way of affection by a caretaker.  

"Unhappy is he to whom the memories of childhood bring only fear and sadness.  Wretched is he who looks back upon lone hours in vast and dismal chambers with brown hangings and maddening rows of antique books, or upon awed watches in twilight groves of grotesque, gigantic, and vine-encumbered  trees that silently wave twisted branches far aloft.  Such a lot the gods gave to me--to me, the dazed, the disappointed; the barren, the broken.  And yet I am strangely content, and cling desperately to those sere memories, when my mind momentarily threatens to reach beyond the other."

This childhood spent in solitude and loneliness made him yearn to leave this place.  He learned all he knows from the books on the shelves, but he has no memory of hearing his own voice let alone the voices of others.  He narrates a story of his past where he dreams of leaving, escaping into the sunshine filled world that he sees in the illustrations of books.  And he waited and dreamed and bided his time until that moment when he could finally escape.

He tells of his adventure of finding a way out of the castle and into the world outside and he describes the things he sees and the people he encounters.  And it is with a growing sense of dread and understanding and horror the reader begins to understand what his situation means.  This is quite an effective story and very well done.  My own realization of what was happening coincided almost exactly with the narrators.  Maybe it was due to my own inexperience reading stories of horror, or else Lovecraft is just a very good storyteller.  I suspect it is the latter (as much as my own inexperience). 

Not sure what I will pick up next.  Part of the fun of short stories, and of ghost stories especially is the search for something really good.

Weekend Reading Notes: R.I.P. Edition

I finished Carolyn Hart's The Devereaux Legacy last night and I would have written about it for today, but between reading those last fifty pages or so and then thinking about what I want to read next, I ran out of time.  Besides, I just gave a teaser a few days ago, so I will save writing about it until next week.

So, on to the pleasure of choosing a new RIP read.  I do have a little pile of books at the ready to choose from, but you know how that goes--the moment you select books and create a pile of potential reads, every other book (that isn't on the pile) sounds just a little better and tempting.  So I had another glance around my mystery/thriller/crime novel stacks and came up with a few other books. 

These are a bit hodge-podgy and none traditional ghost stories, but all seem suspenseful or thriller-ish, so in no particular order:

The Devil's Disciple by Shiro Hamao -- Two Japanese novellas from the late 1920s considered "horror mystery literature" which took 1930s Japan by storm.  "A heady mix of the gothic, psychological and sexual, these first English translations of Hamao's work are a perfect introduction to a key figure in Japanese and crime fiction."

Birdman by Mo Hayder -- I pick up a novel by Mo Hayder with just a little trepidation knowing of her reputation for writing somewhat graphic crime novels.  Coming close on the heels of a very tame and gentle romantic suspense novel I am not sure I am mentally prepared for a story Elle magazine notes will "scare the hell out of you."  On the up side it is set in London which is quite appealing to me at the moment.

A Hank of Hair: an Exquisite Danse Macabre by Charlotte Jay -- I know nothing about this Australian writer, but I see that this novel was published in the mid-1960s.  It just sounds really creepy.  "A mounting sense of the supernatural brings chill into the room . . . A tale of subtle horror, to keep you awake at night."

Chocky by John Wyndham -- This is last month's NYRB Classics selection.  Chocky is a little boy's imaginary friend who seems rather inquisitive.  " . . . Wyndham confronts an enigma as strange as anything found in his classic works The Day of the Triffids or The Chrysalids--the mind of a child."

And for something a little different--a graphic novel murder mystery.

Britten and Brulightly by Hannah Berry -- "Imaginative, beautiful work . . . Hannah Berry conjures up exactly the right noir atmosphere."

I guess I shall sit down with my new little pile and flip through the book, read a few random lines and maybe the first few pages and see which one grabs my attention--unless anyone has a favorite or can recommend one over the other?

I am in the midst of reading a short story by Louisa May Alcott (one of her sensationalist stories) and have another by H.P. Lovecraft waiting for me. 

I had thought I would read two books (one for September and one for October) as well as a weekly story, but if I choose another slender novel I might just be able to squeeze in a third book as well.

Half the Human Race by Anthony Quinn

Here's a book for the 'had to have this when it came out in hardcover, but then let it sit for years, and now that I've read it am wondering--why ever did I wait so long' category.  Anthony Quinn's Half the Human Race is pretty much, in my opinion, pitch perfect.  The right book at the right time that also happens to be well written, well plotted and of admirable substance yet still hugely entertaining.  Ticking all the boxes on this one.

It is novel that begins during the famously hot summer of 1911 with a most likable and very human heroine who also happens to be a suffragette and a most likable and very human cricket player, both of whom have the very best intentions but are somewhat misguided (each in their own ways--at least in trying to figure out their emotions and how they relate to each other--but then which of us is not . . .misguided that is?).  They come together in attraction and appeal and then clash and fall apart, as if they are always talking at cross purposes and assuming things that the other might or might not be thinking or intending.  It's a 'will they or won't' they get together in the end sort of story and Quinn has you wondering and hoping and (and assuming, too--good and bad outcomes, that is) until the very end. 

Connie Calloway is a heroine after my own heart.  She is independent and smart and fairly fearless.  She is educated and well spoken and will speak her mind in whatever the circumstances.  She also is a devotee of the sport of cricket.  She doesn't just like it for the social aspect, she understands it.  When she is on holiday with her family she goes to see the game she loves most, mostly to see the 'Great Tam' play, a legendary cricketeer who has had an enviable and hugely successful career.  She, however, has a run in with another player, a rising star for the county, Will Maitland.

This is their first meeting, which is mostly like two differently charged atoms that spark but then fly apart.  Will is a perfect gentleman, and a fine specimen of Edwardian male chauvinism.  He does mean well, but some of the things he says.  Hmm.  To be expected perhaps, all things considered.  Connie is progressive, and did I already mention she speaks her mind?  Most particularly on the subject of the Vote for women, but it is not beyond her to give advice/her take on just what Will's shortcomings in his execution of the game are.  This is not something that is exactly happily received by ---shires most up and coming player, even if (upon proper reflection) she is not only well informed, but correct in her observations and assessments.

A subsequent meeting sees the pair cross paths once again, but this time Connie is trying to flee what is going to appear to the local constabulary as a compromising situation.  Some militant suffragettes, one being Connie's good friend, have just shattered shop windows, and while Connie is only an innocent bystander (she's unsure she is ready or willing to take her strongly held beliefs quite that far), it is guilt by association.  She dashes into a hotel where she is rescued by Will who happens to be lunching there.  And so the stage is set and this is the beginning of their 'romance'(?). 

Half the Human Race is a thoroughly enjoyable novel which is not to say it is not without weight and thoughtfulness in the telling.  There is a lot of expected misunderstandings on both sides.  How does a gentleman with traditional values reconcile an attraction to a lady who declares her mutual feelings and respect and then the lady goes off and commits a crime of vandalism potentially punishable by jail time.  It is the Great Tam, who is Will's friend and compatriot as well as Connie's savior in a rather sticky situation, who will prove to be the thread holding them together.  Will may be a gentleman but he's never met, or worse, been attracted to a woman like Connie.  A woman who can think for herself.

The Great War will interrupt and intervene and no one will emerge truly unscathed.  Wars have a way of  maturing people and shining a bright light on just what is important in life and all the rest which should really not be sweated about.  But is it too late?  Has too much happened for paths to cross once again in any meaningful sort of way?  I won't tell you, this is one you should pick up and find that answer out on your own.  I will only say the story has a most . . . 'satisfying' ending.  It goes without saying that it has earned its place on my most favorite reads of the year list.  I liked the story so much I would happily pick it up right now, once again, without barely a month having passed since I finished reading, and start from the beginning all over again.  I don't often think or say this about any story, especially the ones I like the most, but I think I might even like it if Quinn brought the characters back again in a new story.  Then again, maybe they are best left in these pages just as they are to be revisited later.

I am quite tempted, too, to go out and order every other book he has ever written, but I have tempered myself by choosing Curtain Call to start with.  Maybe I should say, 'reading pile--and those recent efforts to keep it small' be damned and march into my bedroom and pull it from its pile and start it now.  Caught up in the pages of this story, I was a little afraid to open another book by him right away, but as enough time has passed . . .  Don't be surprised if you see it in my hands sooner rather than later.  And Mr. Quinn, any time you are ready to publish a new book, I am ready to buy it.  Even in hardcover.  And I promise I won't let so much time pass before reading it.  (No pressure there, eh?!).

Teaser Tuesday: The Devereaux Legacy

I have a readalike author for you.  If you like romantic suspense along the lines of Mary Stewart or Elizabeth Peters-being mostly suspense with just a dash of romance--let me recommend to you Carolyn Hart.  Although she writes a number of cozy mystery series, she also has quite a few standalones that have been rejacketed and republished as "Carolyn Hart Classics", and if The Devereaux Legacy is anything to go by, they seem to be great fun. 

The Devereaux Legacy was written in 1986 and was just reissued a couple of years ago.  While the Elizabeth Peters novel I recently read did exude a sense of the 1970s (I don't use the word dated as it gave a sense of the era without losing anything in the telling of the story), this one travels very well through time so to speak.  It is set in South Carolina where a young woman, Leah, has returned home after the death of her grandmother. 

There is a catch--there's always a catch, right, or where would the story go otherwise?  Leah has been living in Texas with her grandmother who has just passed away after suffering a heart attack.  At the moment of her death she had been in the middle of composing a letter to Leah's other grandmother.  It is quite a cryptic letter and was meant to accompany an article ripped from a magazine about Devereaux House, the plantation owned by Leah's mother's family.  In the article it refers to a ghost, the Whispering Lady.  Leah, however, never knew about the family home or that she had any other family left.  Her parents died in a boating accident when she was a small child.

When Leah travels to South Carolina to follow up on what she had read, she discovers that she herself was thought to have perished along with her parents.  For the Devereaux clan it is Leah who is like a ghost, "seeking her earthly home."  She is the intruder, a ghost brought back from the grave.  Her arrival at Devereaux House is a shock, but she is mostly welcomed back with warmth.  But some in the family might not be quite so happy about her return from the dead, seeing that Devereaux House and all its environs will  now revert to Leah as the one living blood relative.  Her cousins are family by marriage alone.  Of course the Devereaux children (all now adults) will surely be loathe to give it all up:

"The picture of the house showed it glowing creamy white in the late-afternoon sunshine.  It had a high, stuccoed foundation, and two sets of steps mounted to the first-floor veranda.  Wrought-iron railings framed the steps in graceful arabesque curves.  Leaded windows sparkled fanlights.  Sleek Doric columns supported the second-story veranda.  The house was a magnificent symbol of an era long past,  yet fascinating in the reality it reflected of another age.  Leah could imagine a carriage turning up the oyster-shell driveway, carrying an elaborately gowned woman and her escort.  She could almost see their faces . . ."

There is also a very mysterious tower on the property kept locked at all times, which is supposedly too dangerous to enter.  And then there is the Whispering Lady.  She is not often seen, but when she is, it is as a portent of death--someone in the Devereaux family will die.  As a matter of fact one of the last time she was seen was when her parents were lost at sea.

This has been so far, a quick gentle sort of read.  I have several more Carolyn Hart Classics on my shelf, but for now I am enjoying the unraveling of the mystery of the Whispering Lady and Leah's search for answers--what happened that fateful night when her parents died at sea, and why was she supposed to have perished with them!

Ghost Story Monday: The Happy Valley

I've always loved Daphne du Maurier's short stories and have read quite a lot of them.  She is very good at the form and especially talented at telling stories that are suspenseful or unnerving.  Some of my favorite short stories are by her and if they've not been filmed they are certainly quite cinematic in their telling, if you know what I mean.  I have a collection of stories, which I have dipped into before, that is a collection of 'ghost stories' presented by Virago Press and the Asham Award (now defunct?) called Something Was There . . . , edited by Kate Pullinger.  The collection contains sixteen stories by writers who submitted their work and were chosen for inclusion--fifteen by contemporary authors and one story that had been recently discovered by Daphne du Maurier called "The Happy Valley".

This is a most delicious story of dreamlike quality, a story of déja vu that is quite unsettling.  Can you dream your future, or are you pulling things only from the past, and what happens when the dream becomes, or takes on a reality? 

"When she first used to see the valley it was in dreams, little odd snatches remembered on waking, and then becoming easily dimmed and lost in the turmoil of the day."

The dream is of a house in a valley with a stream running by.  Each time the unnamed narrator would dream of it she would feel a sense of peace and familiarity.  She could sense herself walking about it and know it was part of her life, but most importantly it gave her a sense of safety.  When she would wake from this dream it would fade from memory and she could never recall exactly how it would unfold or if it followed a particular sequence. 

Curiously she had suffered from an illness that caused her to be ever more absent-minded, and her aunt would tell her it was like living with a ghost, like someone who was not there.  But then she knew she did not belong there, that she was waiting for something to start.

" . . . she was waiting for something that would bring her security and peace like the sunken tangled path in her dream, and the house, and the happy valley."

Something does happen--she is, as her aunt tells her--in a moony sort of mood--and walks straight into a car, which knocks her to the ground.  When the man driving comes to her aid she feels like she knows him, there is a sense of familiarity about him.  She is white with shock, from seeing his face.  Some fragment of memory, so fleeting, is instantly gone like the dream she has which departs at daybreak.  But there is something about this moment, it has started something, the cycle has begun.

And when they have married he teases her about how the morning after they met he called her and roused her from sleep.  On their honeymoon he takes her to the shire where he grew up, a shire she remembers being colored yellow in her atlas at school.  One morning while he attends to filling up the gas tank and looking after the car, she takes a stroll in the countryside.  There she follows a road to the bend in the river and down to the beach, but the scene seems to change and become silent as if due to her presence.  The path dips and she begins to climb downwards into a valley, where she sees a house.  She walks up to it and looks in the window, and sees the most unusual of scenes . . .

Déja vu.  Has it happened?  Or maybe something is going to happen?  A waking dream that feels so real?  Her husband finds her wandering along the beach wondering if she fell again, or is hurt since she seems to just be mooning about again.  But the dream has left her.  "The memory of what had been gone from her."  Maybe some memories are best left forgotten?

I've pulled out my copy of Louisa May Alcott's A Marble Woman, which contains some of her "unknown thrillers".  I'm hoping for another good ghost (or otherwise) story for next weekend.  Hmm.  Maybe I will only read stories by women for this RIP.

(A Long) Weekend Reading Notes

I know I just recently came back from a long weekend away, but I am still ready for the upcoming three-day weekend!  It's too bad it is also going to be a hot, muggy one.  Of course, maybe I am looking at it the wrong way?  This is my chance to soak up sunshine and warmth (yes, that feeling of being swaddled in a fuzzy, ultra warm blanket from head to foot) and save it for those really nasty cold days in January when it is dark and grey and my fingers and toes are frozen.  Sure.  That's what I'm telling myself. 

I have lots of good reads to keep my mind off the weather however.  I am making slow but steady progress in The Portrait of a Lady by Henry James.  I was hugely enthusiastic when I first started reading, but my reaction has tempered a bit in the interim.  I am feeling ambivalent towards the heroine Isabel Archer, and I am not sure why.  She was so steadfast at first in her decision to turn down any suitors.  And now she has fallen for and agreed to marry an American expatriate living in Florence.  He has no money and an adolescent daughter.  I won't call him dissolute, as that's not entirely accurate, but he is certainly seemingly unambitious, definitely an aesthete.  But I question his motives and those of his friend (is or was she something more to him?) Madame Merle. 

Had I, as the reader,  not been privy to a few of their conversations--both are older and jaded and Isabel is a fresh young thing and maybe a little too naive for her own good, even though she would probably argue that point, I might like and believe him.  The thing is Madame Merle seems to be serving our young heiress (she has come into a substantial amount of money) up on a platter to Gilbert Osmond and in my mind I am shaking my head and thinking--no, don't do it, you are surely going to regret it.  But then I have met up with other of James's heroines in similar circumstances, so I wonder . . .  So, my hesitation is not with James's telling of the story, only of how he is (or, how she is herself) setting herself up for much unhappiness if things don't go well.  I try and read a chapter or so a day and will hopefully spend a little extra time with the book this weekend.

Of course, I have my short story reading to do, and I think I have a 'ghost story' or the equivalent RIP read lined up for Sunday.  I found one by Daphne du Maurier that I have not yet read that might do nicely.  I will share the stack of books--story collections and anthologies that I hope to draw from for the next couple of months.  I am going to try and draw entirely from my own books this year as I have enough with many unread stories--I would like to branch out and read outside my comfort zone as there are many good authors I simply have not dared try yet.

Did I tell you I have been reading Carolyn Hart's The Devereaux Legacy as my first RIP choice.  It is along the lines of a novel by Mary Stewart or Elizabeth Peters--romantic suspense, and in this case it is set in South Carolina and concerns a ghost--the Whispering Lady.  Her appearance portends a death in the family!  Good fun and a short and easy (and gentle) read.  I might even finish it this weekend, though that is probably a bit too optimistic.  I have been scanning my shelves for other potential reads--books off the beaten track that you might not ordinarily pick for 'scary' reading but that would work in quirky ways, but more about those later, too.

I have been trying hard to continue to whittle down my reading pile (maybe I will share a photo of it soon--a before and after, if you will) before starting any new books, but I must say it is getting hard as I look at potential reads and feel the draw of something new more and more.  I might finish another book along with the Hart which would mean potentially two new reads.  Finishing one book is such a nice incentive for choosing something new.  Maybe I am getting into a new habit after all?

If I am not actually starting new books, I am certainly thinking about them and some interesting reading opportunities are coming in the next couple of months.  The Omaha Reads book selection this year is local author, Rainbow Rowell's Eleanor & Park, which I bought last fall at a literary event (this year's litfest is in October) where Rainbow was speaking, so my copy is signed.  Surely more time has passed than should have and it is time to pick up the book and start reading, so it is waiting in the wings.

I have decided to subscribe to the upcoming Opera Omaha season.  I received such a good deal on tickets (half price) it was a shame not to get tickets to all three operas.  The first is in October and is Rossini's The Barber of Seville.  I will try and read Pierre de Beaumarchais's The Barber of Seville & the Marriage of Figaro beforehand so I am familiar with the story.  I'm really looking forward to it.  The other two operas are next year.

And one more temptation for you--did you know that (all?) Elizabeth Jane Howard's novels are being reissued by Pan Macmillan?  I can only say, wonderful, but dangerous.  Now I am going to have to fill in the gaps as I have a number of her books but not all of them.  Now the problem is not wanting to buy all of them with their gorgeous new book jackets. 

Have a great weekend everyone--happy reading!

Dominion by C.J. Sansom

It's been a while since I've read a heart-stopping sort of story due either to sheer suspense or a sense of dread that not all will be well when you so intensely wish it to be.  I can tell you the last time I read a book like that actually--Tom Rob Smith's Child 44 to be exact--and that was back in 2008!  It was a nail-biter for me, and while it was so scary because it could possibly be true, I had a similar reaction to C.J. Sansom's Dominion, the premise of which I know is not true and thankfully history played out much differently.  But still . . .

Dominion is an alternative history story (there is probably a proper name for the genre?) where England lost at Dunkirk and capitulated rather than going on to fight and win.  It's 1952 and the Fascists are in power, the Nazis govern, and the police are in the German's pockets.  Racism and antisemitism are rampant.  It's all very Vichy-like, though in this case the Germans are a palpable presence.  But people are tired.  Churchill is in hiding, the leader of the Resistance, but getting on in years.  The Resistance are growing stronger however. 

To appease the British the Jewish population remains, but there are rumblings of their relocation East becoming imminent.  As Churchill has aged so too has Hitler and everyone knows the German regime is at a rather precarious moment in their Empire.  They may occupy most of Europe, but the war to the East against Russia continues--the fighting mired in an unwinnable struggle.  Ever more men are sent to the Front and good Germans have begun emigrating and occupying those territories won through bitter struggles, but their hold is tenuous.

The story is told (all third person actually) from the perspective of several different people.  The most sympathetic and the characters whose survival is most worrisome is David Fitzgerald and his wife Sarah, several different Resistance members, and scientist Frank Muncaster.  Frank is a pivotal character and it is on him that whether everyone else lives or dies rests.  There are a number of baddies, but the two causing all my worries and dread are William Syme, an officer with London Special Branch and Gunther Hoth, a Gestapo Sturmbannfuhrer.  Syme is a smarmy, wheedly sort of man eager to please and quite thuggish.  He would sell out his own mother if he knew she had some secret against the State.  He wants to impress those above and get transferred North to more plum jobs.  Hoth is newly arrived from Germany and his job is essentially to hunt out Jews.  But he is on special assignment given his past successes and analytical abilities, and it revolves around Frank Muncaster.  Hoth is somewhat jaded, his brother is dead and his ex-wife and son have moved East, since the nature of his job means separation from his family, but he dedicated and driven and very good at what he does.  

This is a page turner, but part of the strain and dread (yes, I know, strong words, but then I tend to get too wrapped up in my characters' lives and even though I keep reading, I feel, too, like shielding my eyes from what might potentially be coming--I also have a very, very vivid imagination) is knowing how David is putting himself and Sarah on the line to help his college friend Frank Muncaster.  David is a social servant working in the Dominion offices where he has limited access to sensitive files.  Sarah, a Pacifist, has no idea of David's clandestine activities.  Their relationship has been strained ever since their young son died.  He was the bond keeping them together and now they feel as though they are mostly just going through the motions.

And Frank Muncaster?  He is an interesting character, quite sympathetic in his own way as well, yet sadly a victim of circumstances and an unhappy childhood.  He, like his elder brother, is a scientist, but Frank has always been a little odd.  He was sent away to Scotland to be educated and being "different", really a misfit who never quite fit in despite his genius, was tormented by his childhood compatriots.  He did better at Oxford where David helped him along and kept him under his wing along with another school chum.  When Frank becomes privy to secrets of his brother, now living in America and working with the American government on top-secret scientific experiments that could change the direction of the world's politics, a power struggle begins with each side wanting control of him.  The Americans have asked that he be smuggled out via the British Resistance--which is where David's problems begin.  There is a catch, Frank is incarcerated in a mental hospital.

Got all that?

Yes, and that is really just the tip if the iceberg.  This is a 700+ page novel and is many-layered, well researched and heart stopping in its plotting.  I read the second half of it on my recent long car rides, glued to the pages yet wanting at times to cover my eyes.  My copy, the second photo on the right with the red lettering and sepia tone is the UK edition, which I thought perfectly atmospheric and it does capture the feeling well.  After having finished the book, however, I must say the US cover design is actually spot on.  I won't give anything away, but towards the end of the story there is a long scene set in London during one of the worst bouts with smog the city ever beheld--hindering as much as helping everyone involved. 

This is not my first encounter with C.J. Sansom.  I read and thoroughly enjoyed another of his war stories, Winter in Madrid.  He is meticulous in his research and the stories are on the heavy side---both in the plotting and the complexity of the situations the characters find themselves.  But I felt quite rewarded on both counts.  I suspect this has earned a slot on the end-of-the-year favorites' list.  And I still must get to the Matthew Shardlake mysteries.  I am obviously in for a treat with them. 

My Favorite Time of Year, or R.I.P. X

(Banner created by and used courtesy of Abigail Larson--thanks!).

I love this time of year, or the promise of fall anyway.  Typical midwest weather--just as it begins to be really lovely outside and bearable we get another wave of heat and humidity.  So, windows closed to breezes (unless you want a hot one) and air condition (such that it is in my house) back on for 90F+ temperatures this week and on into the long upcoming weekend.  But no complaining today.  R.I.P. for me is always the forerunner of my favorite season--Autumn.  I already have a bag of pumpkin granola in my cupboard (ahh, the anticipation of opening it and sprinkling it onto my morning cereal and yogurt) waiting for those first crisp cool days.  Until that moment arrives I have ghost stories, or other books of autumnal suspense to look forward to. 

I've already been thinking about this, but I am doing my very best to show a little restraint. I'm all about restraint these days (and finishing books in a timely manner rather than letting them languish for weeks and months . . . ).  I have a larger stack of reading possibilities started than time to read them, but variety and choice is a good thing, right?

This year R.I.P. is being hosted by The Estella Society, though a nod in Carl's direction for his wonderful annual reading even.  This is the tenth year for it, and while I have not been so good at tagging my reading appropriately, I have read along each and every year.  This year my plan is to read a ghost story or something suspenseful each weekend.  I have not yet decided whether to look for new stories or revisit old favorites--maybe a combination of both.  My list of potential reads is long, but I will be wholly satisfied if I can read one book in September and then another in October. 

Forgive my laziness for not sharing a photo, but you can click on the links to see cover art and  more of a description.  Of course actual reads may vary, but I will draw my first book from these:

The Devereaux Legacy by Carolyn Hart - "A romance?  A ghost story?  A mystery?  The novel is all three and more, as heroine Leah Devereaux sifts through dark family secrets seeking to find out who she really is!"

The Ghost and Mrs. Muir by R.A. Dick - "Burdened by debt after her husband's death, Lucy Muir insists on moving into the very cheap Gull Cottage in the quaint seaside village of Whitecliff, despite multiple warnings that the house is haunted. Upon discovering the rumors to be true, the young widow ends up forming a special companionship with the ghost of handsome former sea captain Daniel Gregg."  This is probably more fun than chilling, but I like the sound of it.

A Kiss Before Dying by Ira Levin - "A Kiss Before Dying not only debuted the talent of best-selling novelist Ira Levin to rave reviews and an Edgar Award, it also set a new standard in the art of psychological suspense. It tells the shocking tale of a young man who will stop at nothing—not even murder—to get where he wants to go."

A Jealous Ghost by A.N. Wilson - "A convincing, compelling and icy reworking of Henry James's The Turn of the Screw, in which Sallie, an American girl obsessed by the subject of her PhD thesis, quits university to take on the job of temporary nanny in an English country house.  Sallie is so manipulated by words, so deluded by her own emotional fantasies that she interferes with James's original narrative and screws it into terrifying reality."

Something Wicked This Way Comes by Ray Bradbury - "For those who still dream and remember, for those yet to experience the hypnotic power of its dark poetry, step inside. The show is about to begin.The carnival rolls in sometime after midnight, ushering in Halloween a week early. The shrill siren song of a calliope beckons to all with a seductive promise of dreams and youth regained. In this season of dying, Cooger & Dark's Pandemonium Shadow Show has come to Green Town, Illinois, to destroy every life touched by its strange and sinister mystery. And two boys will discover the secret of its smoke, mazes, and mirrors; two friends who will soon know all too well the heavy cost of wishes. . .and the stuff of nightmare."  Asterisk this one as I really want to read some Bradbury this fall.

Set in Stone by Linda Newbery - "When Samuel Godwin, a young and naive art tutor, accepts a job with the Farrow family at their majestic home, little does he expect to come across a place containing such secrets and lies. His two tutees are as different as can be--younger sister Marianne, full of flightiness and nervous imagination, and Juliana, sensible and controlled. Helped by their governess, Charlotte Agnew, Samuel begins to uncover slowly why Marianne is so emotionally fragile, and in doing so uncovers a web of intrigue. But his discoveries lead to revenge and betrayal--and lives all around are turned upside down."  Ah, gothic goodness and this is written in diary format.

The Other Side of Midnight by Simone St. James - "London, 1925. Glamorous medium Gloria Sutter made her fortune helping the bereaved contact loved ones killed during the Great War. Now she's been murdered at one of her own séances, after leaving a message requesting the help of her former friend and sole rival, Ellie Winter."  I've read all of Simone St. James's books so far and as she has a new one coming out early next year I am hoping to read this one this fall in any case.

So, where to start?  They all sound good to me at the moment!  Will you be reading along?  Which books?  And if you have any suggestions for ghost stories/short stories, please feel free to let me know.