Lesa's Book Critiques: Out Law: A Dresden File Novella by Jim Butcher

 Lesa's Book Critiques: Out Law: A Dresden File Novella by Jim Butcher

Bookblog of the Bristol Library: The Cat’s Eye Charm: A Witch Cats of Cambridge Mystery by Clea Simon

Bookblog of the Bristol Library: The Cat’s Eye Charm: A Witch Cats of Cambridge Mys...: Reviewed by Jeanne   Becca’s life seems a bit fraught right now.   Business has been slow at Charm and Cherish the magic shop where sh...

Lesa's Book Critiques: The Charmed Library by Jennifer Moorman

 Lesa's Book Critiques: The Charmed Library by Jennifer Moorman

Bookblog of the Bristol Library: Isabella Nagg and the Pot of Basil by Oliver Darkshire

Bookblog of the Bristol Library: Isabella Nagg and the Pot of Basil by Oliver Darks...: Reviewed by Jeanne Henric Nagg lives on a cursed farm with his wife in a marriage of mutual disrespect and heavy-duty annoyance.  It’s reall...

Bookblog of the Bristol Library: The Teller of Small Fortunes by Julie Leong

Bookblog of the Bristol Library: The Teller of Small Fortunes by Julie Leong:   Reviewed by Jeanne Tao is a travelling fortune teller, but will only tell “small fortunes,”minor things that do make a difference but ar...

Lesa's Book Critiques: Half Magic by Edward Eager

 Lesa's Book Critiques: Half Magic by Edward Eager

Lesa's Book Critiques: Throwing Shade by Deborah Wilde

 Lesa's Book Critiques: Throwing Shade by Deborah Wilde

Lesa's Book Critiques: A Trinket for the Taking by Victoria Laurie

 Lesa's Book Critiques: A Trinket for the Taking by Victoria Laurie

Lesa's Book Critiques: A Fellowship of Bakers & Magic by J. Penner

 Lesa's Book Critiques: A Fellowship of Bakers & Magic by J. Penner

George Kelly: WEDNESDAY’S SHORT STORIES #188: MARGOLYAM By Matthew Hughes

 George Kelly: WEDNESDAY’S SHORT STORIES #188: MARGOLYAM By Matthew Hughes

Bookblog of the Bristol Library: The Lost Bookshop by Evie Woods

Bookblog of the Bristol Library: The Lost Bookshop by Evie Woods:   Reviewed by Jeanne London, 1921: Twenty-one year old Opaline Carlisle has just been informed by her brother that he has arranged a mar...

Bookblog of the Bristol Library: The Raven Thief by Gigi Pandian

Bookblog of the Bristol Library: The Raven Thief by Gigi Pandian:   Reviewed by Jeanne Former stage magician and current designer for Secret Staircase Construction Tempest Raj is invited to a recent cli...

Bookblog of the Bristol Library: Other Birds by Sarah Addison Allen

Bookblog of the Bristol Library: Other Birds by Sarah Addison Allen:   Reviewed by Jeanne Eighteen-year-old Zoey is ready to spread her wings.   After her mother’s death and her father’s remarriage, Zoey has...

Scott's Take: A Door in the Dark by Scott Reintgen

A Door in the Dark by Scott Reintgen is the first book in the Waxways series. Ren Monroe is a scholarship student attending a floating magical college in the sky. A group of six students are supposed to take a teleportation spell by traveling through a system of magical candles to their various destinations. All six of the college students are supposed to calmly wait for the spell to go off and not disrupt the spell while it is charging.

Except that does not happen as the brooding rich boy, Theo Brood, gets into a fight with the jock, Avery, causing the spell to malfunction. Instead of arriving at their individual destinations, the group is sent out of the city into the magical woods that are filled with creatures and monsters. They are also far from anyone that can help them.

One of the students dies upon arrival in this untamed land. The five survivors must rely on each other to try to get home. Except they all have secrets that they are hiding from the others.  Those secrets could impact their ability to get back. Not only that, but something is out there and after them.

With incredibly detailed world building and a unique magical system, this is a well thought out novel. There is humor, action, romance, revenge, and high stakes. There is death, torture, and more. This book has strong horror elements which are not fully implied in the synopsis.  Also, this does not really matter that much, but the book cover is incredible. The floating college is depicted in candle wax on the front page.

I am very much looking forward to the sequel, A Whisper in the Wall, expected to come out next year. 

 

My reading copy came from the Skillman Southwestern Branch of the Dallas Public Library System.

 

Scott A. Tipple ©2023

Lesa's Book Critiques: FOR LOVE OF MAGIC BY SIMON R. GREEN

 Lesa's Book Critiques: FOR LOVE OF MAGIC BY SIMON R. GREEN

George Kelly: WEDNESDAY’S SHORT STORIES #125: THE COLLECTED ENCHANTMENTS By Theodora Goss

 George Kelly: WEDNESDAY’S SHORT STORIES #125: THE COLLECTED ENCHANTMENTS By Theodora Goss

George Kelly: HOW TO STUDY MAGIC: A GUIDE TO HISTORY, LORE, AND BUILDING YOUR OWN PRACTICE By Sarah Lyons

 George Kelly: HOW TO STUDY MAGIC: A GUIDE TO HISTORY, LORE, AND BUILDING YOUR OWN PRACTICE By Sarah Lyons

Scott's Take: In The Shadow of Lightning by Brian McClellan

In The Shadow of Lightning by Brian McClellan is the latest series and features a new world. His previous series include the two separate Powder Mage trilogies. This new series is very good, but has many strong similarities to the Powder Mage series. Instead of gun powder being the basis of the magic system of the world, in this case, the source is glass. As in his other books, there are multiple characters and perspectives at work here in the first book of The Glass Immortals.

The main character is Demir who is a troubled genius with PTSD that is forced to return home after his mother is murdered. She was beaten to death in the streets by a group of masked individuals. He returns home to uncover her murderers, protect what is left of his family and the people she protected, and try to prevent the other families from taking advantage of his loss. 

The main characters are similar in tropes to the various leads of the Powder Mage series, but the ending here is far different and this sets this series apart from the others. As in his other series, here there is action, humor, mystery, and plenty of strategizing.

If you liked the Powder Mage series, then you should like this one too. The twist ending will either intrigue you or make you quit the series depending on how you feel about the new elements being introduced.

 

My reading copy came from the Polk-Wisdom Branch of the Dallas Public Library System. 

Scott A. Tipple ©2022

Bookblog of the Bristol Library: Nevermore Report: ShadowMan, Witch and Wizard, The Mathmaker: A Spy in Berlin, Never Let Me Go, Klara and the Sun

Bookblog of the Bristol Library: Nevermore Report: ShadowMan, Witch and Wizard, Th...:   Reported by Garry ShadowMan: An Elusive Psycho Killer and the Birth of FBI Profiling by Ron Franscell is a fascinating look at the be...

Joan Leotta Reviews: Under Lock & Skeleton Key by Gigi Pandian

Hardcover $21.99 on Amazon

Kindle $13.99

Publisher : ‎ Minotaur Books (March 15, 2022)

341 pages

Review by Joan Leotta

 

Gigi Pandian’s newest release, Under Lock & Skeleton Key  is a read you will find hard to put down. Pandian has a reputation as the “Queen of the Impossible Mystery.” This latest entry into her canon is another proof that this reputation is well deserved. 

I asked Pandian why these “impossible” mysteries like the locked room variety, fascinate her. She responded, “An impossible crime is the ultimate mystery. It brings another level to a story.” She added that the best of them combine fantastic atmosphere and entertaining characters like John Dickson Carr with his character, Dr. Fell. It’s a high bar, but one that she manages to reach with facility. Her writing is a joyful amalgamation of deftly drawn portraits of people, dialog that is bright, fresh, and entertaining, locale descriptions that build the mystery and cleverly constructed, mind-bending plot lines. 

Tempest Raj, a new character for Pandian, like other protagonists in her short stories and novels, often share this love of impossible mysteries which leads  to that character recommending or mentioning classic impossible mysteries to other characters (and thereby also to the reader). It’s through these references that I discovered the work of Carr and others. This new character, Raj brings yet another element of to the mystery—magic. 

In an article on the site, novelsuspects.com Pandian explains that from childhood she has also been fascinated with magic and the idea of a magician who solves mysteries. In fact, she notes that her second published short story a locked-room mystery, features a stage magician (Sanjay Rai, who performs as The Hindi Houdini). She adds that stage magicians have “a perfect skill-set for solving seemingly impossible crimes.” These are the skills of the art of misdirection  key to a magician’s work. She does not mention the books used to fortify her research for this novel, but on request gave me these titles: Slight of Mind, Hiding the Elephant, and The Rise of the Indian Rope Trick. Pandian puts all of these interests, the locked room mystery, the art of misdirection, and a protagonist who is a stage magician together masterfully in Under Lock & Skeleton Key.

Tempest Raj, our protagonist, has been working as a stage magician in Las Vegas. A horrific accident on stage involving the woman who is both her stage double and rival, threat of lawsuits, forces her to take a career break and  move back to her childhood home in California. Although this financially necessary arrangement is necessary, moving in with parents as an adult has a set of potential plot points all its own. In the case of Raj, this move also  adds an element of the discovery of a family curse, reconnection with childhood friends, and renewal of her own relationship with the family’s construction business. 

Her loving family is a talented group of storytellers, cooks, artists, and builders whose construction company specializes in creating “mystery rooms” and other wonderful, fantastic features in homes and other buildings. These features are a part of their own family home. In fact,Tempest reaches her own childhood bedroom via a secret staircase. No wonder she became a magician. 

When the murder of her dead rival/double occurs on the family doorstep, Tempest wants to help solve it to both keep the police from suspecting her and also simply to solve the mystery. The theft of her beloved charm bracelet, a gift from her long -dead mother, adds to the mists of mystery and danger surrounding this young woman’s life. Along the way, she unravels secrets about the family curse and renews herself with the love and support of family and friends. The young detective assigned to the murder adds a of a love interest, but it is the twists and turns and the older friendships and family relationships that keep this plot rolling forward. I look forward to seeing what develops with the detective in future adventures of this young woman. Yes, this mystery is concluded cleverly and well—but I still want to know more about Tempest Raj! She is a fascinating young woman. Pandian told me she does plan to write more about her, so I will return this book to the library, secure in the knowledge that I can look forward to meeting with Tempest Raj again and embroiling myself in the art of magic and the solution of yet another impossible mystery with her and her creator, Gigi Pandian. 

Note: When you look this book up on Amazon you will see that the title is listed with a subtitle: A Secret Staircase Mystery. I did not ask Pandian if this was a subtle nod to Nancy Drew’s classic titles. I look forward to finding out when I see the next installment in the adventures of Tempest Raj.

 

 

Joan Leotta ©2022 

Joan Leotta plays with words on page and stage. Her poetry, essays, cnf, short stories, and articles are widely published. Mysteries are favorite things to read.. short and long.. and to write.