Tag Archives: mystery

Blackwater – Jeannette Arroyo & Ren Graham

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Blackwater, a YA graphic novel, by Jeannette Arroyo and Ren Graham has a lot going for it. First of all, lots of representation including POC, trans, teens with health issues, werewolves, ghosts. Yes, you read that last part right.

Tony is a high school track star with a side of delinquent. Eli is the new kid who misses a lot of time because of an autoimmune disorder. Neither of these boys has the world’s best home life (Tony’s father works a lot and doesn’t seem all that invested in Tony’s life and Eli’s mother just seems completely checked out, perhaps worn down by her son’s health issues.)

A tentative friendship begins to develop between the two boys. Eventually, Tony has to admit that his feelings towards Eli might be something more than “friends.” Then, there’s an incident in the woods and suddenly Tony is dealing with a lot more than just his feelings.

Blackwater is part ghost-story, part high school drama, part m/m romance. I did feel that it was a little top heavy-so the end felt rushed. That said, it’s an hour of your time and it delivers on themes of acceptance, family and friendship.

Darkmere – Helen Maslin

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I love a ghost story, especially if it takes place in a creepy castle on a windswept British coastline. Helen Maslin’s YA novel Darkmere offers readers two stories, one more successful than the other.

Seventeen-year-old Kate has been invited to Darkmere for the summer holidays by Leo, the boy she has a bit of a crush on. Darkmere is a castle he’s inherited, although he suggests “it isn’t a posh castle. It’ll be in a shit state because no one’s lived there for years. But it’s still a castle. And best of all it’s supposed to be haunted.”

Kate agrees to join Leo and his friends Beano, Hat-Man Dan and his girlfriend Lucie (who is only allowed to go if there will be another girl) and Jackson. The castle turns out to be remote and without any modern comforts or access to the Internet.

Darkmere Castle was built in 1825 by George Francis St Cloud as a wedding present for his young bride, Elinor. Tragically, Elinor took her own life during the second year of her marriage, and local legend has it that she died cursing her husband and his male heirs.

It is Elinor’s story that makes up the other part of the story. We learn about how she comes to be St Cloud’s bride and what her life is like when she arrives at Darkmere. As we learn more about her story – and it’s definitely the more interesting of the two narratives – things start to go sideways for the teens in the modern setting.

Maslin’s story, while not particularly scary, is atmospheric and filled with the requisite secret passages, strange sightings, and things that go bump in the night. I could have done without Kate’s story, really, although I guess without her arrival things at Darkmere would never have been stirred up.

House of Hollow – Krystal Sutherland

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I can’t say that fantasy is one of the genres I gravitate towards. I’m not sure what it is about other-worldly fiction; I guess I just like my stories to be rooted in reality. But that doesn’t mean I never read them nor haven’t enjoyed some of the fantasies that I have read. I very much liked Empire of the Vampire; Starling House was slightly less successful for me. Krystal Sutherland’s YA novel House of Hollow lands squarely on the winner side for me.

Sisters Iris, Vivi and Grey are special.  Not only did something remarkable happen to them when they were children (all three disappeared from an Edinburgh street, only to reappear one month later with absolutely no memory of where they’d been), but now the two oldest sisters have fabulous careers in fashion and music, while the youngest, the narrator Iris, is just hoping to get through her last year of high school.

Everyone knew who we were. Everyone had heard our story. Everyone had their own theory about what had happened to us. My sisters used this to their advantage. They were very good at cultivating their own mystery like gardeners, coaxing the heady intrigue that ripened around them into the shape of their choosing. I simply followed in their wake, quiet and studious, always embarrassed by their attention.

Then, strange things start happening in the sisters’ lives. Iris sees a strange man “wearing a horned skull over his head” during her morning run. Then her eldest sister, Grey, disappears without a trace. When she and Vivi go to investigate, they discover a dead body in Grey’s apartment. And that’s not all.

House of Hollow is a breathless romp through a malevolent fairy tale world, but it is also a mystery (just what happened to these girls when they were younger) and a timeless tale of what sacrifices siblings might be willing to make for each other. The language is lush, the body horror just squicky enough and I had a great time reading it.

Twenty-Seven Minutes – Ashley Tate

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Canadian author Ashley Tate’s debut Twenty-seven Minutes begins with a horrific car accident in which teenager Phoebe Dean, who is “too young and too beautiful and too good to die”, dies. Her older brother Grant, was driving. Her friend, Becca, was in the back seat. They survived.

Ten years later, as Grant’s mother plans a memorial for the perfect daughter she lost, townsfolk are petitioning to have the bridge where the accident happened demolished. Not so much because of what happened to Phoebe but because of Rose Wilson, an elderly woman who has also had on accident on the bridge.

The memorial is stirring up a lot of drama in the town. Grant, who has always been troubled despite the fact that he was a big football star back in the day, is clearly imploding. He drinks, sleeps around and is clearly still grieving over the loss of his sister, but he comes across as an asshole more than as someone who can’t seem to shake off what happened that night.

There is also some sort of weird relationship between Grant and Becca. They have made some sort of agreement about what happened on the bridge the night Phoebe was killed and have also agreed not to talk about the status of their relationship.

June is also in mourning. On the night Phoebe died, her older brother, Wyatt, left home and never returned. Now June’s mother has died, leaving her all alone in the world until, miracle of miracles, Wyatt returns. He won’t tell her where he has been for the last decade, he just hints that all will be revealed.

The novel tracks multiple perspectives, each of them having a vested interest in what actually transpired on the bridge that night. This reveal is what we wait almost 300 pages for. 300 long pages of people shrieking at each other or saying the same thing over and over. It was not a fun time.

The title refers to the twenty-seven minutes between when the accident happens and when Grant actually calls for help. The reveal is both unbelievable and kind of ridiculous. The teenage versions of these characters sound exactly like their twenty-something selves and none of them are particularly likeable or sympathetic. I understand how people can get mired in grief, but this book was interminable and the ultimate payoff not worth the effort.

Not for me.

The Offing – Roz Nay

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I have had good luck and so-so luck with Canadian writer Roz Nay. I LOVED Our Little Secret and I enjoyed reading The Hunted, although it was a little bit less successful overall. Her latest novel, The Offing swings more to the so-so side of the scale. It was certainly an easy book to read and it definitely had its heart-pounding moments, but it was also slightly unbelievable – especially the big reveal.

So, Ivy and her bestie, a beautiful model named Regan, have escaped their lives in New York and are currently backpacking in Australia. Ivy, especially, had a need to get out of NYC. Her elicit relationship with one of her professors has imploded and now he seems to be stalking her. She needs to get off the grid, so she convinces Regan to take a job crewing on a sail boat bound for Darwin. The boat’s owner, Christopher, and his eleven-year-old daughter, Lila, are on a Christmas Break adventure. The only other passenger will be Desh, the boat’s cook (and also a new hire.)

Christopher gives off total Dad vibes, and the fact that his daughter (and her cat) is with him, makes him seem even more harmless, so the girls sign on and off they go. Of course, nothing is ever that simple in this type of novel, right?

First of all, Ivy’s creepy ex-lover seems to have made his way to Australia. Secondly, Lila suffers from night terrors. Christopher seems indecisive and odd. Desh is friendly and hot and Ivy is drawn to him, but her insecurities over Regan’s physical appearance—what dude wouldn’t find her more attractive?—causes a strain in the girls’ relationship. Then there’s Blake Coleman, skipper of The Salty Dog, a boat that keeps showing up.

As is the way with these books, you are supposed to be thrown off by everyone’s shady behaviour —and there is certainly plenty of it in this book. There are some truly tense moments and some instances where I turned the pages super fast because…what’s going to happen?! But…

That denouement just didn’t totally work for me.

That said, The Offing is a twisty, fun, and entertaining book. It’s perfect if you are looking for something fast-paced and not too difficult to read…which, as I was returning to another school year when I picked it up, made it the perfect book for me.

Little Eve – Catriona Ward

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Catriona Ward’s novel The Last House on Needless Street was fabulous, so I snapped up a couple more of her novels for my tbr shelf and Little Eve was the first to be read.

This is the story of Evelyn, Little Eve, who lives with her “family” on Altnaharra, an island off the coast of Scotland. This family consists of her “Uncle”, two adult women, Nora and Alice, and her “siblings” Dinah, Abel and Baby Elizabeth – who is actually eleven. This de facto family is hunkered down on Altnaharra waiting for the arrival of the Adder. Power is transferred from one person to another by way of Hercules, a snake, that will choose one of them to “see with his eyes”.

Yeah – it’s a cult.

When the novel opens, James MacRaith, town butcher, has been called to deliver a side of beef to Altnaharra – a rather unusual request, but everyone in Loyal knows that what happens on the island is unusual anyway. When he arrives, he finds the gate at the end of the causeway open and Jamie enters, eventually making his way up to the house where he follows the “trail of mud and blood” to a ghastly scene.

How these events come to happen and the aftermath that follows is the plot of Little Eve.

Did you think you had heard the last from me? No, I have more gifts for you; more days I do not need. It has been ten years but the memories are still bright.

This is a book that I wish I had read in one or two settings because at some points I sort of got lost in its labyrinth. I enjoyed the writing and subject matter (I am a big fan of books about cults) but I have to admit that I didn’t always catch how I got to where I ended up. That’s on me, not on the author. This book is atmospheric and compelling.

Distant Sons – Tim Johnston

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It was on page 32 of Tim Johnston’s latest novel Distant Sons when I realized that I recognized his main character, Sean Courtland. It wasn’t his name; it was a passing reference to “the high pines of the Rockies, the summer she was eighteen, a track star floating up the mountain on pink Nikes while he, age fifteen, fell increasingly behind on the bike.” Wait a minute! I know that scenario. I raced for my copy of Descent and sure enough there he was. Cool, I thought. I LOVED Descent and I loved Sean, so I was happy to spend more time with him. Then, a while later, when we are introduced to Dan Young, I had the same niggle in the back of my head. Again, it wasn’t the name, it was the fact that he had a twin brother named Marky. Wait a minute! I ran for my copy of The Current. Yep. Tim Johnston is cannibalizing his previous novels and, oh, what a feast it is.

First of all, you don’t need to know anything about Descent or The Current to understand the plot of Distant Sons. This is not the sort of novel where the reader loses out if they are not familiar with the backstories. That said, I highly recommend both of those novels. Descent, in particular, blew me away and made Johnston an auto buy author for me. Nevertheless, you will not suffer for not having read these books before reading this one because Distant Sons isn’t really a sequel.

It’s ten years past the events of Descent (not totally sure what that means for the timeline of The Current.) Sean Courtland, now 26, has landed in small town Wisconsin and isn’t able to go much farther because his car has broken down. He finds a job doing some carpentry work for Marion Deveraux, an elderly reclusive oddball. The townspeople have long been suspicious of Devereaux because of three boys who’d gone missing thirty-odd years ago.

Not long after he arrives in town, he finds himself in trouble with the local police for getting into a bar fight, where he was defending the honour of local waitress Denise Givens against jack off Blaine Mattis. Then, he crosses paths with Dan Young, who has also run into some of his own bad luck with a vehicle. Sean offers him some work because, as luck would have it, Dan has plumbing experience and the job at Devereaux’s needs plumbing work done.

These are the main characters in Johnston’s story. Their intertwining lives, the stuff of chance, has a profound impact on each of them. As much as I loved Sean when I first met him, I love him just as much – or more – in this book. I feel as though he has been punishing himself for a decade and I wanted him to be able to let the past go and find something good to hold on to. His new relationships with Dan, Denise and Denise’s father are thoughtful and it is refreshing to see male relationships in particular that are not merely posturing. Sean’s interactions with other people errs on the side of kindness always. Although Dan and Sean are reluctant to reveal too much about themselves, I felt as though I was watching an authentic relationship unfold.

There is a mystery at the core of this novel, and Johnston certainly has a few surprises in store for the reader, but this is a novel about people – some of whom who are just trying to do the right thing. Slow burn, for sure, but 100% worth the effort. I gasped. I teared up. I loved every second of this book.

If you haven’t ever read this author, I beg you to give him a try. He’s fantastic.

Midnight is the Darkest Hour – Ashley Winstead

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I really wish the cover flap hadn’t compared Ashley Winstead’s novel Midnight is the Darkest Hour to Verity because it really does her book a disservice. Winstead’s book is far superior to Hoover’s (but I am not a fan of Hoover at all, so there’s that).

Ruth Cornier lives in Bottom Springs, Louisiana, where her father is the evangelical preacher in charge of Holy Fire Baptist. An only child, Ruth leads a sheltered, friendless life; her only companions are books, in particular, Twilight. She dreams of one day finding her own Edward Cullen.

…in the vampire Edward, I found everything I’d ever wanted in a man. He loved Bella with single-minded devotion, a self-effacing passion beyond anything a human man was capable of. That’s in turn how I loved him.

(I too have loved a taciturn vampire, although mine was a little less sparkly than Edward. LOL)

But anyway.

Everett Duncan also lives in Bottom Springs. An act of violence brings Everett and Ruth together and bonds them when they are seventeen and the story flips between this early period of their relationship and several years later, when they are 23. When a skull is discovered in the swamp, Everett and Ruth work together to uncover Bottom Springs’ dark underbelly.

In the present day, Ruth lives on her own and works at the local library. She has very little to do with her parents, stepping away from the church’s fire and brimstone teachings. Everett has left Bottom Springs, returning “every year on the first true day of summer.” Things are different this year, though, and not only because the discovery of the skull, but because Ruth has a boyfriend, Deputy Barry Holt.

I read Midnight is the Darkest Hour in one sitting. It’s the perfect blend of southern gothic and mystery, plus a dash of angsty romance. (Which, c’mon, if you’re going to love a vampire, you gotta love the angst.) This book has a lot to say about the patriarchy, religion, and family. Ruth has been cowed all her life, but when she decides she’s not going to take it anymore – well, that’s a journey worth taking.

I think Winstead’s only gotten better. I wasn’t a huge fan of In My Dreams I Hold a Knife (although there were some parts of it I really did enjoy), but I LOVED The Last Housewife. Midnight is the Darkest Hour is another winner and I can’t wait to see what she writes next.

Theme Music – T. Marie Vandelly

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T. Marie Vandelly’s debut Theme Music promises a lot with its prologue. At just eighteen months, Dixie Wheeler is the only member of her family to survive a chilling event in the family home. One day at breakfast, her father left the kitchen, went to his shed and returned with an axe.

He rentered the kitchen, extra warm and cozy thanks to a turkey in the oven, looked upon the bewildered faces of his adoring family, and butchered them all. Well, not all, of course. I lived.

After he was done, her father slit his own throat.

Now, twenty-five years later, Dixie happens upon an advertisement announcing the sale of her family home – not that she has any real memories of it. After the death of her family, Dixie lived with her father’s sister, Celia, and her uncle, Ford, and her cousin, Leah. Now, as an adult, she cohabitates with her boyfriend, Garrett. What can it hurt to go check out the house, she wonders.

The house is “charming” in fact, despite its horrific history. Garrett falls in love with it, too, although he isn’t aware of what happened there. In fact, Dixie hasn’t been forthcoming with the details of her past at all. That’s bound to cause some friction and it does which ultimately means that Dixie moves into the house solo. Not only does she move in, but she brings with her all the household belongings that her father’s brother Davis had stored in his own basement. This includes, unfortunately, a file folder filled with crime scene photos. Davis, it seems, always believed his brother was innocent and until his death was working to prove it.

Theme Music isn’t quite sure whether it wants to be a thriller or a horror novel. Dixie’s house is haunted because of course it is, but most of the book is concerned with Dixie picking up the threads of her uncle’s investigation, and trying to figure out what really happened that day.

Books of this type depend on a likable main character, which I am sad to say, Dixie was not. Was there peril? Yes. Did she do some stupid things? Yes. Were there some twists and suspense? Also yes. But I also often found the tone uneven, sarcasm when it was uncalled for and a fair number of unbelievable plot machinations that caused a little bit of eye rolling.

All that said, Theme Music is a promising debut even if it wasn’t quite sure what kind of book it wanted to be.

All the Colors of the Dark – Chris Whitaker

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Chris Whitaker’s novel We Begin at the End is one of the best books I’ve read in the last few years and so when I heard that he had a new book coming out I purchased it as soon as it was available. (Sadly, it’s a flimsy paperback with a stupid unremovable “Read with Jenna” sticker on it. ) Not only did I race out to purchase All the Colors of the Dark, but I started reading it almost immediately. The weather cooperated, too; I got a rainy Saturday with nothing much to do and so I didn’t stop reading until just after 2 a.m. when I turned the final page (595 of them!)

Patch and Saint meet as kids. They’re both outsiders in their small town of Monta Clare, Missouri. Patch lives with his single mother, Ivy, who has barely been able to keep it together; Saint lives with her grandmother, Norma. Their friendship sustains them for many years and is the central relationship in the novel.

At the beginning of the story, Patch rescues another local girl, Misty, from a man who clearly intends to do her harm. He has admired Misty from afar and when he encounters them in the woods, he recognizes that something is not right.

Patch desperately looked around for anyone at all. Anyone who could handle this, who could ease the responsibility, the acute burden of seeing a girl in trouble.

He has no choice but to act, and he does, and it changes the trajectory of his life.

When Patch disappears, Saint lets nothing stand in her way until she finds him. But he is not the same person he was and as the details of what happened to him emerge, it also reveals a dogged determination to get to the truth.

I can’t say any more than that.

This is an epic story because it takes place over many years. It is also a story that moves swiftly. There’s a lot of dialogue in this story and so despite its length it almost begs to be read in one sitting. I think Whitaker’s super power is his characters. I loved Saint and Patch, who are revealed to us through their actions and their dialogue. But they are not the only characters to love. There’s Chief Nix, Norma and Sammy, too. I felt like I knew and cared for each and every one of them.

There’s not a lot of exposition here. (Honestly, this would make a terrific series and given the author’s connection to Jordy Moblo, I’ve got my fingers crossed.) But there is a compelling mystery and some heart-stopping moments. In fact, there’s a lot going on in this book and while the conclusion wasn’t as punch-you-in-the-gut as We Begin at the End, I finished feeling very satisfied. And as a person who generally falls asleep relatively early, the fact that I had to stay awake – in fact, couldn’t fall asleep even after I finished – to find out what happened to these people I had fallen in love with should tell you everything you need to know about All the Colors of the Dark.