For Stacking The Shelves hosted by Reading Reality I’m posting the books I’ve added to my digital library this week, and the blurbs that made me download them in the first place.
The Murder at World’s End by Ross Montgomery
From Goodreads: Cornwall, 1910. On a remote tidal island, the Viscount of Tithe Hall is absorbed in feverish preparations for the apocalypse that he believes will accompany the passing of Halley’s Comet. The Hall must be sealed from top to bottom—every window, chimney, and keyhole closed off before night falls. But what the pompous, dishonest Viscount has failed to take into account is the danger that lies within… By morning, he will be dead in his sealed study, murdered by his own ancestral crossbow.
All eyes turn to Stephen Pike, Tithe Hall’s newest under-butler. Fresh out of Borstal for a crime he didn’t commit, he is the wrong man in the wrong place at the wrong time. His unlikely ally? Miss Decima Stockingham, the foul-mouthed, sharp as a tack, eighty-year-old family matriarch. Fearless and unconventional, she relishes chaos and puzzles alike, and a murder is just the thrill she’s been waiting for.
The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson
From Goodreads: Shirley Jackson’s The Haunting of Hill House is a landmark of psychological horror.
Four strangers arrive at the infamous Hill House to study its reputation for haunting. What begins as a scientific investigation quickly becomes something far more personal. Strange sounds echo in the night. Doors close on their own. The house seems to know their deepest fears—and it’s hungry.
Told through the eyes of Eleanor, a lonely woman desperate for belonging, this novel builds dread through silence, suggestion, and the slow collapse of reality. No gore, no cheap scares—just creeping terror that stays with you long after the last page.
Silent Nights: Christmas Mysteries by Martin Edwards
From Goodreads: Christmas is a mysterious, as well as magical, time of year. Strange things can happen, and this helps to explain the hallowed tradition of telling ghost stories around the fireside as the year draws to a close. Christmas tales of crime and detection have a similar appeal. When television becomes tiresome, and party games pall, the prospect of curling up in the warm with a good mystery is enticing – and much better for the digestion than yet another helping of plum pudding. Crime writers are just as susceptible as readers to the countless attractions of Christmas.
Over the years, many distinguished practitioners of the genre have given one or more of their stories a Yuletide setting. This book introduces readers to some of the finest Christmas detective stories of the past. Martin Edwards’ selection blends festive pieces from much-loved authors with one or two stories which are likely to be unfamiliar even to diehard mystery fans.
Daughter of Time by Sarah Woodbury
From Goodreads: Daughter of Time tells the story of a young widow, Meg, healing from the pain of a brief, unhappy marriage, who falls through time into the Middle Ages — and into the arms of Llywelyn ap Gruffydd, the last Prince of Wales. He saves her, and she in turn saves him, thanks to her knowledge of future events. Although powerful forces seek to divide them, by working together, Meg and Llywelyn have a chance to navigate the dangerous and shifting alliances that constantly undermine his rule and threaten the very existence of Wales — and to create a future in which Llywelyn’s death does not come too soon.
The Phoenix Crown by Kate Quinn, Janie Chang
From Goodreads: San Francisco, 1906. In a city bustling with newly minted millionaires and scheming upstarts, two very different women hope to change their fortunes: Gemma, a golden-haired, silver-voiced soprano whose career desperately needs rekindling, and Suling, a petite and resolute Chinatown embroideress who is determined to escape an arranged marriage. Their paths cross when they are drawn into the orbit of Henry Thornton, a charming railroad magnate whose extraordinary collection of Chinese antiques includes the fabled Phoenix Crown, a legendary relic of Beijing’s fallen Summer Palace.
His patronage offers Gemma and Suling the chance of a lifetime, but their lives are thrown into turmoil when a devastating earthquake rips San Francisco apart and Thornton disappears, leaving behind a mystery reaching further than anyone could have imagined . . . until the Phoenix Crown reappears five years later at a sumptuous Paris costume ball, drawing Gemma and Suling together in one last desperate quest for justice.
Carmilla by Sheridan Le Fanu
From Goodreads: In an isolated castle deep in the Austrian forest, Laura leads a solitary life with only her ailing father for company. Until one moonlit night, a horse-drawn carriage crashes into view, carrying an unexpected guest—the beautiful Carmilla. So begins a feverish friendship between Laura and her mysterious, entrancing companion.
But as Carmilla becomes increasingly strange and volatile, prone to eerie nocturnal wanderings, Laura finds herself tormented by nightmares and growing weaker by the day… Pre-dating Dracula by twenty-six years, Carmilla is the original vampire story, steeped in sexual tension and gothic romance.
Queen of the Forty Elephants by J G Delaney
From Amazon: Set against a backdrop of political rot and moral decay, the story chronicles a doomed alliance between two of London’s most powerful underworld figures: Alice Diamond, the ruthless leader of the legendary all-female shoplifting gang the Forty Elephants, and “Brilliant” Chang, the sophisticated Dope King of Soho. Thrown together by a stolen document that threatens high-ranking members of the British government -including the corrupt statesman Lord Christopher Vince – the iron-willed Queen and the silk-smooth Dope King forge a volatile partnership to survive. As a haunted and corrupt police investigator, Chief Inspector John Campbell, relentlessly hunts them down amidst escalating betrayals, high-society heists, and underground warfare, the alliance tests the limits of loyalty, ultimately culminating in a ruthless battle for absolute control of London.
Murder In Mykonos by Jeffrey Siger
From Amazon: When hotshot detective Andreas Kaldis is promoted out of Athens to serve as police chief for Mykonos island, he’s certain his homicide investigation days are over. Murders don’t happen in Greece’s tourist heaven. At least, that’s what he’s thinking as he stares at the remains of a young woman ritually bound and buried on a pile of human bones inside a remote mountain church. Then he starts finding bodies, bones, and suspects everywhere he looks. It’s Greece’s most unimaginable nightmare, one no politician wants to confront—a serial killer loose in paradise.
Teaming up with the canny, nearly-retired local homicide chief, Kaldis knows he must find the killer before the media attention can destroy the Greek island’s fabled reputation.
But then another young woman disappears, and political niceties no longer matter. With the investigation now a rescue operation, Kaldis finds himself plunged into ancient myths and forgotten island places, racing against a killer intent on claiming a new victim.
What books did you add to your shelves this week?
Stacking The Shelves
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