Two Envelopes And A Phone > Recent Status Updates

I'm looking forward to another Straub. It wasn't too long ago that I read A Dark Matter, which doesn't seem to be well-liked by the majority of readers...and I found it fascinating. Not always that scary, but compelling. This looks like a great Horror novel for late September - I'll save some monsters, some gore, and some Kafka bleakness for October.

Right - so the chapters are short and I've already done three of them; I like the style, I like beginnings of the mystery, Dr. Cavanaugh - now I just need the marsh! The Introduction has made me very curious to learn even more about Nancy Barr Mavity - but even what I learned causes me to love her personality.

I’ll save the no doubt deranged finale for shortly after tomorrow’s blood-red sunrise…

Not exactly what I expected, but I like hanging out with Dwight, Slim, and Rusty - plus, things just got a but more sinister.

That’s likely it for tonight. The jury is out on this one - I like it, I don’t love it. But I’m still very curious about where this is going.

A fun start. Coupla notes: (a) it's a weird coincidence that a character's name is Valeria in this, as Valeria was the name of a character in all the Conan fiction - two novels and a short story - I read recently. Of course, I haven't met Valeria the vampire yet, but I'm sure she'll be along; (b) My favourite Laymon book so far is Body Rides, though it's sort of outclassed by Touch by Claire North.

Well, I reneged on what I announced mere moments ago. I did not leave the last story in this book for tomorrow morning; I decided to put the kibosh on this odd collection tonight, clearing the way for my vampire novel to kickstart the oncoming a.m.. The last tale - ‘A Passage to Benares’ - was one of the most startling in the book. I liked it, cringe-y parts aside, but it made the whole book even more bizarre.

When this line of books - or the British Library Crime Classics line (which have become harder for me to get!) - put out something like this, an author and title I have never heard of, I can’t resist. I love when they take a break from yet another Erle Stanley Gardner, Ellery Queen, or John Dickson Carr book, and make a deeper cut. Plus…swamp crime! Always up for marshes, swamp, bogs, wetlands. Spooky season stuff!

One story left - I’ll leave it for tomorrow morning. If it was ten pages or thereabouts, I’d whisk through it right now, but I’m a bit tired and it’s long. This has been a strange bunch of stories, many of them not whodunits. I think the book should have been called Golden Age Crime Stories.

I'll finish it tonight. Hoping for a cracking final 100 pages.

Enjoying this - great pick for spooky season. I’m just winging it when it comes to what order I read the dozen or so Horror titles I have planned for right up until Nov. 1st. This one would have been great any week; it’s Young Adult, but it’s pretty unsettling. I like the characters - I wish they made some better decisions…but then we wouldn’t have the story.

Good start! I always have to remember, with a Thriller or Horror novel for Young Adults, that things will be a little different, and I have to adjust expectations - even when it comes to how things begin. But…I must beware a False Sense of Security. Frightening things will still be happening. Meanwhile - Courtney, who recommended this - is busy with one of my toppers: The Long Walk, by Stephen King!

Unless plans change, no Stephen King or Joe Hill to be read by me, over this Spooky Season. Peter Straub, yes. Ramsey Campbell, yes (hell, yes). The next order of business is, need at least one book featuring a ‘Famous Monster’ type. Never a bad idea to go with vampires - though we’ll see if I stumble into any werewolves, zombies, or mummies. Meanwhile, this seems to be well-respected Laymon.

YA time! Courtney, where I work, does sometimes put me on to books that look interesting…my potential jam. So, I’m gonna try this one. My fave ‘subterranean terrors’ novels, so far, are Styx by Christopher Hyde, and The Descent by Jeff Long (no relation to any movie with the same title). This will clearly not be your average novel with a Paris setting…

Off to a better start than I was braced for. Seemed at first like it would be some sort of ‘space western’, but our main character is being prepped to get beyond the Barrier that leaves the exiled Have-Nots scratching out an existence on the Outside. If the Inside is a city, then that Western feel will erode…unless we end up back Outside. We’ll see. Still not keen on the title.

I’ll do a bit more tonight - finish it up tomorrow morning.

It's excellent - long and involving, and there's a scurvy photo cover on my edition, but I'll look the other way regarding that (metaphorically, literally). This seems very much like the direct descendant of rural Golden Age whodunits, the ones where the cops are the stars, like Lorac's novels. I should get a lot more done, later today.

Well, just a taste, so far - but I feel good about this one. This is a pick from a reading guide called Brit Noir. That book of recommendations is broken down geographically, not so much a "100 Best" list or anything - but at the back of the book is a quick, "Top 25" books to focus on, and this one is 6th on the list. It will be my intro to the author - I had planned to get to Out of Bounds, but never did.

A fun story by Helen Reilly...but again, not really a whodunit. This book is strange that way.