8/3/2019: Favorite Ghostly Tales

I love ghost stories, but they have to be just ghost stories - no veering into psychological horror, or slasher type stories.  My imagination is too impressionable and I value my sleep and the ability to stay home alone without sedation.  For this reason, my ghost story collection is small.

The Canterville Ghost by Oscar Wilde has made several lists already.  I used to faithfully watch the US adaptation (b/c it was the only one aired in my area), and when I finally read the book I was bowled over by the hilarity; the tv adaptation focused on the ghost's redemption, and in doing so, short-changed the viewers.  As almost always, the book is better.

The Haunted Grange Of Goresthorpe by Arthur Conan Doyle is one of the first stories he ever wrote, and Holmes 'aficionados' consider it an amateur effort.  Horsefeathers.  It's delightfully spooky and creepy, especially given its short length.

The Haunting of Maddy Clare by Simone St. James, and all the other books I've listed by her, are the only ghost stories I've read by a current author.  I love her writing; she writes a tale that is spooky and a little hair-raising in the best old-fashioned sense.  For me, her books are just scary enough to make me wonder if I'll sleep that night, but not so scary that I actually can't.  There's an element of romance to most of them, but I don't care, because the ghosts get center stage.

Now I must check St. James' website... surely it must be time for a new book?

An Inquiry into Love and Death

by Simone St. James

An Inquiry into Love and Death was just as beautifully written as I remember St. James' writing in Maddy Clare... that was at least a year or two ago since I first read this author's work.  The small seaside town gave off a wonderfully atmospheric feel, and I could just imagine the moodiness of Barrow House, the woods, and the rough waters nearby.  The inclusion of how the war affected the men and and women in this time frame was also a lovely touch, and St. James weaved the post-WWI aftermath into this mystery rather well, I think.

Inquiry was really more mystery and legend than it was romance.  And it also focused more on Jillian's own self-revelations, which became quite clear as the book progressed.  I loved the tidbits of folklore and tales of history told by the local residents in Rothewell, and found myself more immersed in those than in the book's actual present-day story line with Jillian and Inspector Merriken.  In fact, I found myself wanting to know more about the lore and about the Walking John hauntings, as well as the other unnamed hauntings that were said to take place.

I loved the little mention about how most of the hauntings, save for the Walking John, seemed to be about certain people who may have lived in Rothewell, now all forgotten.  Hauntings by people who have been forgotten seems like a wonderful idea for more books!

Meanwhile, as I'd already mentioned, the romance kind of takes a backseat in this book, which, in a way, I'm not really complaining about.  I didn't have any strong feelings about Inspector Drew Merriken one way or another, though I also didn't particularly like him.  I found myself more interested in how things would turn out for Jillian concerning her family, the secrets she started uncovering, and what her Uncle Toby was doing in Barrow House when he died.

The outcome of the romance was really the last thing on my mind, surprisingly.

This was a lovely, enjoyable read, overall.

Another re-read, this one for the Terrifying Women square - because I think this woman writes the scariest books on my shelves, and her new one isn't out yet.  

In my original review I went the whole 5-star hog, but my re-read would probably be 4.5 stars.  But only because I found the start of the book a tiny bit tedious this time around; I knew what was coming and I was in a rush to get to it.  Once it started though, it was just as good as I remember and still had the ability to scare the bejeezus out of me. 

This is a good old fashioned ghost and haunted house story; nothing psychological or gory, just spooky as hell.  To keep the story rounded there's also a romance, a murder, unexpected emotional journeys, and a cat.  Because there's almost always a cat.

My favourite fiction reads of 2016 were probably as varied as they've been been.  While once I was a tried and true mystery-or-bust sort of gal, my favourites this year only include 2 mysteries, both historical.  2 were popular fiction, something I almost never read; 1 an almost forgotten classic re-released, 1 Urban Fantasy and 1 collection of comics from my personal comic hero, Berkeley Breathed.

I had a lot fewer 5 star, books-I-want-to-hug in fiction but I had a lot more 4.5 star fiction reads this year.  It's been a great year for me reading-wise: while admittedly generous with my ratings, I rarely rate much 4.5 or 5 stars; I usually top out at 4 (something I'd re-read but not gush about).

My 4.5 star reads this year were:

Christmas at The Mysterious Bookshop

Lady Cop Makes Trouble

Girl Waits with Gun

Undeniably Yours

Stiff Competition

The Circular Staircase

The Locked-room Mysteries

Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children

Goodwood

The Single Undead Moms Club

Dear Committee Members

A Bed of Scorpions

Design for Dying

The Curse of Tenth Grave

The Semester of Our Discontent

The Canterville Ghost

The Folio Book of Comic Short Stories

The Other Side of Midnight

Something Rotten

The House at the End of Hope Street

Marked In Flesh

Fire Touched

Faux Paw

Daisies For Innocence

My first love, mysteries, make a very strong showing in the 4.5 star list.  Lots of cozies, of course, and historicals, and lots of UF, but a couple of classics and some great literature are on this list too as well as some YA and a sneaky contemporary fiction.

Overall, I'd incredibly pleased with my reading this year; I broke my personal record for most books read, yes, but I'm even more thrilled with how much broader my reading has become.  I even read a Science Fiction book this year!  *gasp*.  (I still don't like SF.)  This is 100% because of this community.  I've said it before, but it bears repeating:  I owe my TBR mountain range entirely to this community.  Without all of you I'd still be reading all cozies, all the time.  So thank you, and keep 'em coming!

So, this cover is so gorgeous (and, fortuitously fills one of my last remaining bingo squares) that I couldn't resist buying it a few years ago. And there it languished, on my kindle, in a TBR pile that would reach halfway 'round the world. But a comment from Hooked on Books, and the need to fill a "paranormal + romance" category on a team challenge got me thinking about this book.

I really liked this book! I'm a fan of Victoria Holt's brand of new gothic romance from my teens and this book definitely hits a lot of those same high points. However, because her books were written and published in the 1970's, re-reading Victoria Holt, for me, is always nine parts enjoyment and one part cringing at the gender roles. Simone St. James, in updating the genre, has also updated the gender interactions a bit - not so much that they are absurd for their time, but a nod to her audience and more modern thinking. In this book, the heroine, Jillian, is a student in one of the few women's colleges at Oxford University. She's not, perhaps, as strong willed as the likes of Harriet Vane, but she is also no shrinking violet.

The book is set in Cornwall, a nod to Daphne DuMaurier's Rebecca perhaps, although the long history of Lorna Doone-style smugglers always makes Cornwall a go to setting for this style of novel.

All in all, I thoroughly enjoyed An Inquiry into Love and Death, and would recommend it for fans of Victoria Holt, Barbara Michaels, and Susanna Kearsley.