Monday With Kaye: "Johannes Cabal: The Fear Institute" by Jonathan L. Howard

First things first, if you have not heard, Kaye George also writes under the name of Janet Cantrell. Under that name she has a new book out titled FAT CAT SPREADS OUT. A cozy mystery series I have yet to read as there are so many books and so little time.

As to today, Kaye brings us news of Johannes Cabal: The Fear Institute by Jonathan L. Howard. Another series I have not read though when Scott was younger we did do all the Lemony Snickett series. Karl listened to a couple of them way back when and was quickly done. But, Scott really liked them and was always eager for the next installment. So, we ended up reading them all.

Considering my TBR pile I don’t think I will be starting these any time soon though sarcasm and I are intimately acquainted. Do you know anyone else who was once written up by a store manager for looking at someone wrong?

“Johannes Cabal: The Fear Institute” by Jonathan L. Howard:

If you’ve read the two previous Johannes Cabal books, you know that Howard is Lemony Snickett for grown ups.

The premise this time is that Cabal, a necromancer, is approached by a weird trio who say they’re representing the Fear Institute and intend to engage his services. First of all, a necromancer is a person who communicates with the dead by summoning them. Cabal takes great pride in this talent. Secondly, Cabal is very difficult to approach, but these guys manage it. They make Cabal a proposal that he’s inclined to refuse—at first. The group claims to have discovered where Fear resides, in the Dreamlands. Thirdly, Cabal wants very much to go to the Dreamlands, and these men have a way to get there.

Lewis Carroll’s Wonderland has nothing on Howard’s Dreamlands, which comes complete with a flyleaf map. Try to keep in mind while you make your way through the dense, Dickensian prose, that nothing is necessarily as it seems in this shadowy place, although that will be hard as you are drawn into a fabulous tale that winds and slips in its arcane journey.

There’s a lot of sarcasm and satire. And a bunch of chuckles along the way. I wish Churchill could have read this. But if he’s in the Dreamlands, maybe he can.

Reviewed by Kaye George, author of Death in the Time of Ice for Suspense Magazine