The Secret History, by Donna Tartt. Vintage Contemporaries, 1992.

This is a kind of strange book. I picked it up because I read that it’s the foundation of the ‘dark academia’ strain of books. Sadly, it did not have any supernatural aspects to it, but it was very, very dark.

Richard Papen is our narrator. He is from California, in an area where ( Read more... )

Madame Koska & the Imperial Brooch, by Ilil Arbel. Open Window, 2015This is a mystery set in the years after the first World War; it is the first in a series. Madame Koska, supposedly Russian royalty who has fled from the revolution, is opening a couture house. She seems to have money, or money behind her. In the middle of opening the shop and ( Read more... )

Death of a New American, by Mariah Fredericks. Minotaur Books, 2019In Fredericks second in this historical mystery series, it’s 1912, and ladies maid Jane Prescott is accompanying her charge, Louise, to the Long Island mansion of the Bentleys. Louise is marrying William Tyler at his aunt and uncle’s home, and they are going early to get everything ( Read more... )

Wild and Crooked, by Leah Thomas. Bloomsbury, 2019When Kalyn’s grandmother has a stroke, she and her unstable mother must move back to the small town Kalyn was born in. Due to circumstances, Kalyn enrolls into high school under an assumed name, Rose. Her last name, Spence, is dirt in this town; her teenaged father killed another teen, the high ( Read more... )

The Vanishing Box, by Elly Griffiths. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt 2018Set in 1950’s Brighton, this fourth installment in the authors Magic Man Mystery series gives us Max Mephisto- one of the Magic Men- and his daughter, Ruby, playing a gig at the Brighton Hippodrome. On the same bill is Vic Cutler’s tableaux vivante, where almost naked young women ( Read more... )

The Wolf and the Watchman, by Niklas Natt Och Dag. Atria Press, 2017
In Sweden in 1793, some children find a body floating in a particularly gross part of the river. They call on Mickel Cardell, a watchman moonlighting (and drinking) as a bouncer, and he fishes the body out. It’s not odd that there is a body in the river, but this one is missing ( Read more... )

October 29, 2018

The Golden Tresses of the Dead: A Flavia de Luce Novel, by Alan Bradley. Delacorte Press, 2019
Flavia de Luce is the 12 year old heroine of a series of mysteries; this is the tenth installment. At this point, she is an orphan, with one sister marrying and one sister ensconced in the library. Her father figure is Dogger, her late ( Read more... )

The Way of All Flesh, by Ambrose Parry. Canongate, 2018
In 1847, Will Raven has just been accepted as an assistant under the supervision of Dr. James Simpson. Simpson was a real person, an obstetrician who pioneered the use of anesthesia for childbirth. This granted him a room in the Dr.’s house to live in, which was a good thing as Raven already ( Read more... )

A Death of No Importance, by Mariah Fredericks. Minotaur Books, 2018
In 1910, Jane Prescott is hired as ladies maid by the Benchley family. They are new money, and in need of someone to tend to the needs of their two daughters. Louise, the elder, is awkward and not a beauty. Charlotte, the younger, is a demanding beauty who does not see why she ( Read more... )

The Council of Twelve, by Oliver Potzsch. Mariner Books, 2018
In 1672, the executioners of Bavaria are having a meeting of the Council of Twelve, a prestigious group- well, as prestigious as a hangman can be in a time and place where they are considered dishonorable and tainted. Jakob Kuisl takes his entire family there- his married daughter ( Read more... )