The Inky Whisk

Published October 20, 2015
Harper Perennial

The first thing I did when I returned from my Library Association’s spring conference this past April was riffle my notes looking for the email to request a “Welcome to Night Vale” galley. I was thrilled when I heard in a Book Buzz session that one of my favorite podcasts (and how could it not be, with its formidable public library and ferocious librarians?) was branching into a novel.

Set in the world of the deliciously weird podcast from which it gets its name, WtNV the novel focuses on two minor characters who are in search of the mysterious King City: Jackie, who has been 19 for a very long time, and Diane, the PTA officer struggling to connect with her shape-shifting teenage son.

One of the delights of WtNV is the sly surreality and dry humor that seems effortless. Fink and Cranor have built a sizable world by putting a strange, sometimes macabre, little twist in the day-to-day occurrences of mundane small-town civic life. Throughout the novel the more prominent characters from the podcast (most notably Cecil and Carlos) are peppered in, in settings that will be familiar to fans. Some questions are answered, or at least addressed. Overall it is a good addition to all things Night Vale. Is it accessible for readers who have never heard a single episode?  I kept asking myself that as I was reading and finally settled on, “I don’t know.” Give it a try. Or give the podcast a try then try the novel.

Happy reading!

An advance galley of this book was kindly provided by the publisher with no expectations other than an honest opinion.

Published October 13, 2015
Gallery Books

A chance meeting between Isabel Lyon, an unmarried nanny living in genteel poverty with her mother, and Samuel Clemens led to a partnership in which she served as his loyal secretary. Late in life Isabel married Clemens’ business partner Ralph Ashcroft. Not long after both were fired and then subjected to a well-documented, public smear campaign by Clemens and his daughter Clara. Cullen has crafted a credible speculation based on personal research of what soured the long relationship.

In “Twain’s End” Isabel is in thrall to the Great Man, whom she refers to as “The King.” He calls her “Lioness” and engages in a years-long flirtation with her, with little effort made to hide it from family, staff, or visitors.

Careful details give dimension to this absorbing story of a woman forsaking a personal life for slavish devotion to a legendary personality in his waning years. “Twain’s End” is bound to be a popular choice for book clubs. Recommended for fans of period fiction, particularly Cullen’s previous book “Mrs. Poe.”

An advance galley of this book was kindly provided by the publisher with no expectations other than an honest opinion.

Published October 6, 2015
Tor Books

It’s banshees and Bolsheviks in this third – and final – book in the Delia Martin paranormal mystery series.

A parade in post-war (1919) San Francisco is disrupted by suddenly unruly parade-watchers and sniper fire, resulting in a riot. Delia, having received a warning from a watching ghost moments before the shots ring out, ushers her companions to safety while her husband, police Captain Gabriel Ryan runs toward the danger. It soon becomes apparent all the chaos is meant to flush a single young woman and her doomed guardians out of hiding. When the dust settles around the dead, the wounded, and the disoriented, Captain Ryan and his partner Jack Fitzgerald are left to puzzle out the mystery of the young woman who remembers nothing but her name: Alina. Delia, along with her mentor in all things to do with spirits Isadora Bobet, will assist the police as it becomes more apparent that this case straddles the world of the living and the dead.

Moyer’s Delia Martin books are great when you want a little extra spooky with your mystery. The San Francisco setting is beautifully drawn and even if you can see the resolution a bit early, the cast of characters and their milieu makes it still enjoyable getting there.

An advance galley of this book was kindly provided by the publisher with no expectations other than an honest opinion.

Published September 29, 2015
ROC

This is not my typical reading material but I have heard so much good about Butcher over the years that when I saw this galley come available I took the opportunity to give him a try.

Kicking off a new steampunk series, Butcher has written a rousing adventure with elements of scifi, fantasy, and the old-fashioned naval warfare novel. It was slow-going getting into the story – a reason I don’t read much fantasy is I don’t always have patience for world-building. I’m still not entirely sure what a “Habble” is and while I could picture the carefully-detailed airships, the Spires and surrounding atmosphere they inhabit are murkier. Perhaps later books in this planned series will flesh the world out more.  All that aside, once I sorted the players (Rowl being a favorite), learned a little unique vocabulary, and the action began it was easy to stay interested to the end, 600-plus pages notwithstanding. I am glad I went out of my comfort zone for this tale of old family lines and loyalties, etherealists, pirates, and monsters.

An advance galley of this book was kindly provided by the publisher with no expectations other than an honest opinion.

New books by Steph Cha, Chris Nickson, and Deanna Raybourn

August and September have been great months for mysteries. Three standouts I got to curl up with featured two old favorites, and one new favorite. We will go in 3-2-1 order – third in a series, second in a series, and first in what I hope is a new series.

“Dead Soon Enough” (Juniper Song book #3) by Steph Cha
Minotaur Books
published August 11, 2015

I love Cha’s flawed young heroine Juniper Song and am always pleased to see a new entry in this excellent series. “Dead Soon Enough,” is the third title featuring Song, who has evolved from wayward Ivy League dropout to officially licensed private investigator (like her hero Philip Marlowe) working for her P.I.  mentors at the firm Lindley & Flores. Song is hired by Rubina Gasparian to shadow her cousin Lusig who is carrying a child as a surrogate for her. She is concerned that stress and despair over the recent disappearance of Lusig’s best friend Nora, an active blogger and vocal activist, may endanger her and the baby’s health. It doesn’t take long for the investigation to widen and complicate, with Song’s noir-ish inner monologue moving the story to its complex resolution. If you haven’t met Juniper Song, put her on your list of sleuths to get to know.

“Two Bronze Pennies” (Tom Harper Mystery #2) by Chris Nickson
Severn House Publishers
August 1, 2015

Chris Nickson has been producing excellent Leeds-based historical mysteries for a while now and I have yet to be disappointed. His first series set in the first half of the 18th centurty featured Constable Richard Notingham. “Two Bronze Pennies” features a somewhat more modern Leeds crime solver – Detective Inspector Tom Harper. Harper’s second outing (after 2014’s “Gods of Gold”) opens on Christmas Eve 1890 with the detective content at home with his new wife looking forward to having the holiday off. Their cozy evening is interrupted when Harper is summoned to the scene of a murder. The victim, a young man, is a resident of the Leylands, a poverty-stricken Jewish neighborhood of Leeds. Harper and his partner Billy Reed must race to find a killer or killers that might be striking out against London’s immigrant Jews before the young men of the community, many second-generation, grow too impatient and take matters into their own hands.
Nickson’s evocations of historic Leeds are one reason I never miss a new Nottingham or Harper mystery. The excellent development of characters and relationships over the course of a series is another. Add a top-notch police procedural and you have a book I can most definitely recommend to lovers of historical mysteries.

A Curious Beginning (Veronica Speedwell Mystery) by Deanna Raybourn
NAL/Penguin
September 1, 2015

Deanna Raybourn’s new heroine Veronica Speedwell is a pure delight – sensible, resourceful, independent, with an adventurer’s heart, a quick wit, and a sharp tongue. Set in 1887, the amateur lepidopterist (butterfly specialist and collector) has buried her last living relative, a spinster aunt who, along with a second aunt, was her guardian since she was a baby.
Hers was a peripatetic childhood with the aunts periodically and with little notice pulling up stakes for a new location. As an adult she does not let moss grow under her feet and has undertaken many solo expeditions to procure exotic butterfly specimens for wealthy sponsors. But soon after the funeral a near-kidnapping and the appearance of a man who claims to have known her mother convinces her to delay her next overseas adventure and instead lay low with a grumpy taxidermist named Stoker.
The mystery in “A Curious Beginning” is not overly complicated. The real enjoyment of this book comes from Veronica’s laugh-out-loud observations, and exhuberant – a bit exaggerated but not overdone – pluck. Raybourn has developed a promising team with Veronica and Stoker. I would recommend this to fans of Elizabeth Peters’ Amelia Peabody.