Joining the Halloween Bing pre-party a bit on the late side, but having a blast with all the traffic on my feed. Now, let's see:

Mystery or Horror?: Horror all the way

Vampires, Werewolves, Zombies or Other?: I'm partial to Witches, though the hodgepodges where everything simmers on the same pot are mighty fun.

Favourite Ghostly Tales:

The Everlost Series by Neal Shusterman and The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman. They are all written for that nebulous gap between children books and adult, and they are the that perfect balance of cruel and kind that often becomes emotional.

Favourites from Halloween Bingos Past:

Lol! This might get long.

It took me 1 page to realize I had a new favourite author with Nights at the Circus, by Angela Carter. Naomi Novik's His Majesty's Dragon (Temeraire #1) amply jumped my expectation's bar. Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil by John Berendt surprised me by how engrossed I got into a book where there is not exactly something like a plot.

The year before last, I was happy to find that Murder on the Orient Express and The Murder of Roger Ackroyd by Agatha Christie are as good as promised. And horrified by how excellent and still current The Crucible by Arthur Miller is. I was also surprised by The Haunting of Hill House, after what I felt was a lackluster experience with Shirley Jackson's We've Always Lived in the Castle, and so very glad that I took the game's reviews to heart. Joyland by Stephen King ended up being a campy and perfectly nostalgic read. I also read The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula Le Guin, that while polarizing, is still my favourite of hers (well, maybe fighting for top with Four Ways to Forgiveness)

Favourite Series with Supernatural Elements:

Kate Daniels by Ilona Andrews. Takes a couple of books to find some polish, but they are immensely entertaining. On a darker bent, I quite liked the Darkfever Series by Karen Marie Moning, but they are more of a problematic-elements guilty pleasure.

Favourite Seasonal Covers:

Favourite Halloween Bingo Authors:

Since I always end up picking at least one more book, Stephen King. If I search for number of entries during the game, John Wyndham and Agatha Christie too. And Illona Andrews, because I'm always up for a re-read.

Three moonlighting characters:

1. Dr. John Watson:  The good doctor actually has a full-time practice as an MD -- which doesn't stop him from routinely going sleuthing with London's self-declared "only consulting detectivie", however.

Since "moonlighting" is built into the character profile of pretty much every amateur detective (and if not into theirs, at the very least into that of their sidekicks), I could probably just go on listing cozy mysteries ... but just to keep it varied, I'll add instead:

2. Jack Walser: Journalist by trade, who joins Sophie Fevvers's circus and moonlights there as a clown in order to be able to finish Sophie's biography (and just generally be close to her) in Angela Carter's Nights at the Circus.

3. Rincewind: Discworld's most hapless wizard, who is pressed into moonlighting as Twoflower's (and his luggage's) tourist guide in Terry Pratchett's The Colour of Magic.

This was bloody amazing!

The writing was gorgeous, the braided in stories colorful and as bizarre as you could expect, and even when at their most tragic, always running this underground hilarity out of sheer cynicism and pragmatic pizazz. All seasoned with a good dose of feminism and magical realism.

I laughed a lot, but it actually ran me through the whole gamut of emotions and I did not want it to end. Loved it, will read more by the author, and will buy whatever of hers I can find around here.

"What is your name? Have you a soul? Can you love?" he demanded of her in a great, rhapsodic rush as she rose up out of her curtsey. When she heard that, her heart lifted and sang. She batted her lashes at him, beaming, exuberant, newly armed. Now she looked big enough to crack the roof of the god-hut, all wild hair and feathers and triumphant breasts and blue eyes the size of dinner plates.
            "That's the way to start the interview!" she cried. "Get out your pencil and we'll begin!"

Full circle. Damn, this is such a good book. I'm sad to see it end.