fantasy
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In Marts I found some great free books on Bookfunnel, from the very logical Saul Sheldon and the Crooked Shelf, to the two cozy 1920shistorical mysteries Murder Beneath the Roses and The Catalogued Corpse and the three contemporary cozy mysteries The Only Way is Larceny, Forecast: A Latte Trouble and A Mallard Point Mystery. I…
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“Should you happen to be dying and have a choice between me and a cactus to nurse you, the cactus will likely be less prickly and do a better job.” The poisoned apple. The magic mirror. The single drop of blood. If you know the story of Snow White, you’ll recognise these elements. What you…
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“Egypt. The mysterious jewel of the Orient, land of pharaohs, fabled Mamlukes, and countless marvels.” Fatma el-Sha’arawi is one of the only female agents of the Ministry of Alchemy, Enchantments and Supernatural Entities. She is tough, experienced, and she works alone. But when an entire secret brotherhood, led by the very prominent English basha, Lord…
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February was a month of great ARCs, from Belle Époque Paris glamour and bohemian vibes in Secrets of the Maison Fournier to contemporary best friend sleuths in Dying to Live Here and Golden Age murder mystery in A Pretender’s Murder. For the A-Z Cozy Mystery Challenge on Instagram I revisited the lovely sleuth duo Edwina…
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My January reading was dominated by great debut novels, from Tudor-era action in A Bastard’s Bosworth to delicious Japanese food in The Kamogawa Food Detectives, gothic Holmesian mystery in the early 1900s with Strange Beasts, a character-driven crime drama in Blood Between Us, colonialism and identity in A Memory Called Empire, strong women, representation and…
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Book 1 in the Harker & Moriarty series. A brilliant gothic fantasy horror mystery set in Paris in 1903. Samantha Harker, the daughter of Jonathan and Mina Harker, works for The Royal Society for the Study of Abnormal Phenomena. Originally a researcher, Sam is desperate to leave the library and be assigned as a field…
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A compelling murder mystery set in an intriguing fantasy world where people and plants are magically altered to be stronger, more productive, more alluring or more deadly. The story details the first case of Signum Dinios Kol, known as Din. Din is an Imperial engraver, magically enhanced to remember everything he has seen or heard.…
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Book 1 in the Anno Dracula series. What if vampires were the ruling class of Victorian England, with Dracula himself having turned and married Queen Victoria, installing himself in London as the ruler of the British Empire? And what if the victims of Jack the Ripper were all vampires? This is the premise of Anno…
Mostly Murders 