Fandom Snowflake Challenge 2016: Day 7
Day 7
In your own space, share a favorite piece of original canon (a TV episode, a song, a favorite interview, a book, a scene from a movie, etc) and explain why you love it so much. Leave a comment in this post saying you did it. Include a link to your post if you feel comfortable doing so.
Just this past December - as anyone whose read my 'What Am I Reading' entries knows - I fell in love with Jordan l. Hawk's Whyborne & Griffin series. Turn-of the century, Lovecraftian, town-with-a-dark-secret horror? (And sometimes 'temple with a dark secret', 'lost city with a dark secret'...) Sorcerors, evil cults, Old Gods, couples being sweet at each other while overcoming odds, possibly incoming cosmic horror? It's like someone peeked into my psyche, I swear, then dropped this in front of me.
Which is actually kind of like what happened. I'd been looking at these, debating, then just_ann_now messaged me to let me know book 1 is available free at Smashwords. It took me a while to get to it, seeing as there are a fair number of sex scenes in each book and I was at my in-laws over the holidays. They wouldn't intentionally read over my shoulder and certainly wouldn't go through my ereader but just in case there are some things I'd rather not explain.
Here's the author's blurb:
Some things should stay buried.
Repressed scholar Percival Endicott Whyborne has two skills: reading dead languages and hiding in his office at the Ladysmith Museum. After the tragic death of the friend he secretly loved, he’s ruthlessly suppressed any desire for another man.
So when handsome ex-Pinkerton Griffin Flaherty approaches him to translate a mysterious book, Whyborne wants to finish the job and get rid of the detective as quickly as possible. Griffin left the Pinkertons following the death of his partner, hoping to start a new life. But the powerful cult which murdered Glenn has taken root in Widdershins, and only the spells in the book can stop them. Spells the intellectual Whyborne doesn’t believe are real.
As the investigation draws the two men closer, Griffin’s rakish charm threatens to shatter Whyborne’s iron control. When the cult resurrects an evil sorcerer who commands terrifying monsters, can Whyborne overcome his fear and learn to trust? Will Griffin let go of his past and risk falling in love? Or will Griffin’s secrets cost Whyborne both his heart and his life?
The first book is very reminiscent of Sarah Monette's Kyle Murchison Booth short stories - not a copy, mind, just the same feeling - but less dark. And with more sex. It moves away from that feeling in books 2 and 3, though.
If you're curious, here's the link to the free copy of book 1, Widdershins.