NETGALLEY MYSTERIES/THRILLERS/CRIME STORIES: Burgoines to read for #Deathtober 2024

Midnight at Maidenstone Hall by Alison Clare

Rating: 3.5* of five

The Publisher Says: In the spring of 1919, a young man assumes the alias of Marsden Fisher and travels to Maidenstone Hall, the Yorkshire country residence of the Earl and Countess of Scarborough, to tutor their daughter Alice. Searching for the truth about the death of his lover, Alice’s late brother Simon, Marsden arrives to find that nothing is as he expected it to be. The house has been half destroyed by fire, the family’s financial ruin is imminent, and only a small core of frightened but loyal servants remain to serve them.

Alice and her twin sister Beatrice are feuding so terribly that they cannot be in the same room together. It is clear the family is hiding a terrible secret and the lies surrounding Simon’s death convince Marsden to fear for his own safety. The longer he stays at Maidenstone, the more he fears the family will discover his true identity and his relationship with Simon, but Marsden cannot leave until he discovers the about Simon, and the terrible screams that echo through the Hall at midnight.

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My Review: Very fun queering of the gothic-novel tradition. The atmospherics of the story are deft, absolutely in the gothic tradition, and marred by some typos that are, I hope, corrected by now. The aftermath of the Great War is underused by gothic storytellers as yet. May that change after this.

Recommended, despite queer themes, for all audiences in search of a creepy read for #Deathtober.

Level Best Books asks $5.99 for a Kindle edition (non-affiliate Amazon link).

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The Vanishing of Carolyn Wells by Rebecca Rego Barry

Rating: 4.25* of five

The Publisher Says: The Vanishing of Carolyn Wells is the first biography of one of the “lost ladies” of detective fiction who wrote more than eighty mysteries and hundreds of other works between the 1890s and the 1940s.

Carolyn Wells (1862–1942) excelled at writing country house and locked-room mysteries for a decade before Agatha Christie entered the scene. In the 1920s, when she was churning out three or more books annually, she was dubbed “about the biggest thing in mystery novels in the US.”

On top of that, Wells wielded her pen in just about every literary genre, producing several immensely popular children’s books and young adult novels; beloved anthologies; and countless stories, prose, and poetry for magazines such as Thrilling Detective, Life, The Saturday Evening Post, Harper’s , and The New Yorker. All told, Wells wrote over 180 books. Some were adapted into silent films, and some became bestsellers. Yet a hundred years later, she has been all but erased from literary history. Why? How?

This investigation takes us on a journey to Rahway, New Jersey, where Wells was born and is buried; to New York City’s Upper West Side, where she spent her final twenty-five years; to the Library of Congress, where Carolyn’s world-class collection of rare books now resides; and to many other public and private collections where exciting discoveries unfolded.

Part biography and part sleuthing narrative, The Vanishing of Carolyn Wells recovers the life and work of a brilliant writer who was considered one of the funniest, most talented women of her time.

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My Review: Think of women writers from 1850 to 1950. Pull up some names from your memory hole. Virginia Woolf? Willa Cather? Maybe Agatha Christie? Not Anna Katherine Green, or Carolyn Wells, despite those women's sales eclipsing all the others combined. Not highbrow enough for scholars to study. A damned shame.

Resembling the masterful HAD SHE BUT KNOWN: A Biography of Mary Roberts Rinehart, this rescue of a (deliberately?) forgotten woman bestseller from the past is definitely one for your shelves be they physical or digital, if you have the slightest interest in the development of the mystery genre by and for women.

Post Hill Press charges $14.99 for a Kindle book (non-affiliate Amazon link), and well worth it in my opinion. (NB gutenberg.org has sixty-seven of her books across genres free to download)

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Lighthouse Burning (Harlan Winter #1) by Jordan Farmer

Rating: 3.25* of five

The Publisher Says: In a small Appalachian town, an amateur detective unearths a dark conspiracy and his own haunted past, in a chilling novel about sacrifice, art, and revenge.

Med school dropout Harlan Winter returns to his impoverished West Virginia hometown, where the law is scarce, arsonists are turning everything to ash, and his family’s turbulent history lingers. All he wants is to keep the peace in a community cowering from The Lighthouse, a local cult preying on people’s fears. Harlan’s own fears, too, when he’s hired to play detective and find a young couple gone missing.

The vanished artist and his girlfriend have left behind a series of paintings that enrage The Lighthouse’s Pastor Logan, who believes art can have divine power. It’s not easy to believe for a rational man like Harlan. And impossible to ignore when his investigation is haunted by visions of the dead lurking in the shadows of his own violent past.

Revelations about the disappearances are being unearthed. The Lighthouse’s grip on the community is tightening. And Harlan fears he’s losing control. As the threats against his town, his sanity, and his life begin to mount, Harlan doesn’t know which is more what’s real, or what’s in his mind.

I RECEIVED A DRC FROM THE PUBLISHER VIA NETGALLEY. THANK YOU.

My Review: This chilling story is very much a genre-blender between amateur-sleuth mystery, small-town gothic, and violent revenge thriller. The magical overtones are both obtrusive (for the resistant) and underdeveloped (for the congregation). I'm down with anti-church stories, though, so I was flipping pages.

It's easier to forgive underdevelopedness than obtrusiveness, so non-horror unsupernaturalizers are warned off. The rest of us need reasonably good #Deathtober reads. Here's one.

Thomas & Mercer say it's worth $4.99...I'd say less, but it's decent enough I wouldn't be mad if I'd spent that. (non-affiliate Amazon link)

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Head Full of Lies (Harlan Winter #2) by Jordan Farmer

Rating: 3* of five

The Publisher Says: The southbound trail of a stolen spell book becomes a nightmare road trip in a propulsive novel about the unrelenting power of evil by the author of Lighthouse Burning.

Harlan Winter has returned to his corner of Appalachia, where his fiery history with a depraved cult has made him a legend. All Harlan wants is to run his occult bookshop and get on with his life—if only his unsettling visions would let him. But when a fellow devotee of the dark arts moves to Coopersville and Harlan’s coveted grimoire is stolen, he’s pulled into a world deadlier than the one that already scarred his soul.

The foolish thieves are two local teenagers hightailing it out of Appalachia in a stolen car and heading south to Florida where a buyer for the coveted grimoire is waiting. They have no idea what evil lies on the road ahead. But Harlan does. Blood has already been spilled. He’s following them mile by mile on a mission to save them before it’s too late. Because once their prized possession is in the wrong hands, there will be hell to pay.

I RECEIVED A DRC FROM THE PUBLISHER VIA NETGALLEY. THANK YOU.

My Review: Second time around...do NOT skip #1 or lots won't make sense. The stupid kids who come for Harlan's precioussss were under relatable, saddening pressure. What happens is a lot like the violence tinged with supernatural shenanigans from before, only being #2, they turned up the volume.

It was a mistake to pound 'em down one after the other. Don't do that and you'll like the results better. Same advisories as for #1: "It's easier to forgive underdevelopedness than obtrusiveness, so non-horror unsupernaturalizers are warned off. The rest of us need reasonably good #Deathtober reads. Here's one."

Thomas & Mercer only want $2.49 for this one, which is exactly my idea of the right price. (non-affiliate Amazon link)

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Truth’s Labyrinth by Jørgen Steines (tr. Sinéad Quirke Køngerskov)

Rating: 3.5* of five

The Publisher Says: The year is 1943; World War II rages on.

Major Johann Richter of the German military intelligence service, Abwehr, is tasked with a case of great importance for the war effort. Several incidents point to a traitor among the top Nazis, and Johann starts investigating generals, field marshals and party leaders.

As the investigation progresses, Johann witnesses the extensive atrocities of the regime—atrocities that ordinary German people know little about. His loyalty to the Third Reich is severely tested, and an unexpected chain of events places him and his family in grave danger.

As Johann finally comes close to revealing the traitor, he is faced with a difficult choice that could radically change the course of the war...

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My Review: This isn't heralded as such, but it really counts as "alternate history", as the author's endnote says it's a "counterfactual." It's also a very intense, soul-searching tale of family's daily relations under an evil, totalitarian system.

What makes this read better than average is the fact that we're in the world of Fatherland and The Man in the High Castle, among the groudlings under the Nazi Party's control. A perspective check for the triumphalist Allied viewpoint, here we're given a...not sympathetic exactly, but more human-centered narrative from Danish Author Steines.

Matador want $6.99 for a Kindle book. Those interested in alternative history should not hesitate.

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A New Lease on Death (Supernatural Mysteries #1) by Olivia Blacke

Rating: 3.5* of five

The Publisher Says: In this darkly funny supernatural mystery about an unlikely crime-solving duo that launches a commercial, unique, and genre-blending series, death is only the beginning.

Ruby Young's new Boston apartment comes with all the usual perks. Windows facing the brick wall of the next-door building. Heat that barely works. A malfunctioning buzzer. Noisy neighbors. A dead body on the sidewalk outside. And of course, a ghost.

Since Cordelia Graves died in her apartment a few months ago, she's kept up her residency, despite being bored out of her (non-tangible) skull and frustrated by her new roommate. When her across-the-hall neighbor, Jake Macintyre, is shot and killed in an apparent mugging gone wrong outside their building, Cordelia is convinced there’s more to it and is determined to bring his killer to justice.

Unfortunately, Cordelia, being dead herself, can't solve the mystery alone. She has to enlist the help of the obnoxiously perky, living tenant of her apartment. Ruby is twenty, annoying, and has never met a houseplant she couldn't kill. But she also can do everything Cordelia can't, from interviewing suspects to researching Jake on the library computers that go up in a puff of smoke if Cordelia gets too close. The roommates form an unlikely friendship as they get closer to the truth about Jake's death…and maybe other dangerous secrets as well.

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My Review: Entertaining buddy comedy featuring a ghost, her living subtenant, and a lot of very hinky people doing crappy things to each other. I got a lot of good fun from Cordelia, the ghost, being...well, let's say herself. Trying to figure out her afterlife was a major hassle when she hadn't even figured out her life! Ruby interested me less, seeming sort-of clueless and naïve.

A lovely cozy series I'll follow as it unfolds. This is a solid series-starter and one that repays you for reading it with fun and laughter.

Minotaur Books brings this out on 29 October 2024. Preorder now for some smiles in your #Deathtober.