“But the heaviest things, I think, are the secrets. They can drown you if you let them.”
― Ally Carter
“Let them think what they liked, but I didn’t mean to drown myself. I meant to swim till I sank — but that’s not the same thing.”
― Joseph Conrad, The Secret Sharer and other stories
“There’s a sucker born every minute.”
― P.T. Barnum
Tragedy and loss are sounds. The slip of waves across rock. The cry of a loon across a dark lake. The patter of rain against midnight windows.
They are water, streaming from here to there, giving life. And taking it away.
His mother, Paulina, circus performer, fortune-teller, magician’s assistant, and mermaid, walked into the water when he was seven. His father soon followed, destroyed by grief. And only Simon, and his baby sister Enola, remain. Simon, a lonely young librarian, who clings to the home he grew up in, which itself clings desperately to the edge of the cliff above the sea, falling to wrack and ruin, a mere memory, a ghost of the warm family home it once was. Simon, who lives alone while his sister, like her mother before her, lives the life of the circus, the carnival, reading the fortunes of the lonely, the lovelorn, the lost.
But then, the book arrives. And time begins to waver, back and forth through time, the past melding with the present through the words of yet another “walking shadow, a poor player, that struts and frets his hour upon the stage, and then is heard no more.”* A poor player indeed, who struts and frets across a traveling carnival stage. There is magic here. Magic and pain and loss and death.
And drowning.
Always drowning.
Simon’s tale reaches back, back to Hermelius H. Peabody’s Portable Magic and Miracles Traveling Show. Hermelius H. Peabody, self-proclaimed visionary in entertainment and education. Hermelius H. Peabody, who one day comes upon a real Wild Boy – a Wild Boy who was left in the woods to die, and instead lives – lives, and learns to listen to the water. Learns to vanish.
“The Book of Speculation” is a small miracle. History and mystery, mysticism and the water. Always, always the water. A lost book, a lost soul. A lost history found, beliefs crumpled.
And the water sings, its quiet song of death.
I received “The Book of Speculation” from the publisher in exchange for a realistic review. All thoughts are my own.
Highly recommended.
Shakespeare, Hamlet
Nathalie is a trained lawyer but chose to work for peanuts for the police instead. She also volunteers at a women's center. All this is supposedly penance for a past life of teenage depravity, sex and drug use. At the women's center she meets Alex, who is her polar opposite. As Nat is dark and damaged, Alex is pure, unsullied and full of love. Can Nat get past her shame? Can she let Alex in? Can Alex stand Nat's terrible nightmares? Just when happiness finally seems to be within Nat's reach, a gut-wrenching twist threatens to take everything away. Damn, I should have seen that coming...but I didn't, even with the red herrings. Great plotting!
The Red Blazer Girls are back! New mysteries, new adventures and more.
Various happen in this book, you have a mystery and you also have the closure of the Perkatory (their coffee/place to be) and also the return of Mr. Winterbottom, and how they are trying to get him and his girlfriend to get together again.
I must say this was my favourite book so far. We got all the girls now + Lizz, and I must say this is perfect. The girls really amazing.
This time it is winter/almost Christmas and the girls are searching for presents.
Sophie buys a pen for her dad at an action, and thus the mystery starts when she finds a secret message in the pen. Who is Mister Dedmann, why did he leave the clues, and also how are they going to solve it.
I recently finished Dash & Lily's book of Dares, and what did I find in this book? Yes, a Reference towards that book!!! That was like instant love when they went to Strands and Sophie found that red notebook!
The mystery and how they solve it is wonderfully old-fashioned. They do everything by searching, hunting for clues and don't really use fancy gadgets for that.
I am really hoping for a fifth book, but I feel there is space enough for more books.
My rating: 1 of 5 starsI won this book in a giveaway hosted by Violette @ The Mystery Bookshelf.*I rarely give one stars, but this was bad and I feel the need to rant so spoilers beware! You've been warned.*The main character is Sunny Meadows (Nope, I am not fibbing. She changed her name because she was CLEARLY not a Sylvia. And Sunny is much better.) and wants to start her own Fortune Teller business. She decides it's time to move out of her parents house and has chosen Divinity, NY as her new home. She is 29 years old after all and wants to take care of herself... with her handy-dandy trust fund, of course. She buys up an old Victorian, which she promptly names Vicky, and plans to remodel and redecorate it herself so she can reside there and run her business out of it as well. This is all very shocking considering the degree of genius we're dealing with."Shivering, I realized how cold it was in the house. The thermostat read fifty-five degrees. It was a wonder the pipes hadn't burst."We're obviously dealing with Einstein-level genius here. So her business gets started and she has her first customer and she gives her a tea reading and reports that she sees a deer which of course means a dispute and also a flag which means danger! But then! THE KETTLE. Which means he won't be making her tea... he'll be killing her soon. DUN DUN DUN.Okay so dramatic business aside, in addition to the eye-rolling storyline this was very poorly written with the most ridiculous set of characters. She was extremely immature for a 29 year old and was so very unrealistic. This entire book was honestly unrealistic. Cozy mysteries have an air of silliness as a standard, however, the few I've read have managed to still at least make sense and been funny and entertaining. But when Sunny is made the prime suspect in the death and then is promptly recruited by the police department to aid in the investigation... I'm sorry, what? Plus, she acted like a teenager half the time and couldn't control herself from blurting out case details at the most highly inopportune times. Then there was the nonsensical romance between Sunny and the cop and her parents showing up to also assist in the case and then there's Morty the magic cat and Sunny's ongoing absurdity like when she broke into a suspects house but ends up having to hide in the closet while the suspect and her boyfriend watch porn....This was clearly not my cup of tea. (ha-Sorry. I couldn't resist.) I manage to somehow possess more willpower to keep going when I'm reading a crappy book as a buddy read so that's my only explanation for actually finishing this ridiculous mess of a book. As ridiculous and unbelievable as this book managed to consistently be, the ending and answer to the whole mystery was infuriating. I will definitely not be continuing this series
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