Review: She Lies in Wait

She Lies in Wait by Gytha Lodge
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

A sad, tragic, horrific, and ultimately avoidable crime lies at the heart of this riveting psychological suspense thriller: the crime, and everybody's secrets and suspicions and mistaken assumptions. A crime committed 30 years early is accidentally outed, and even the case detective, DCI Jonah Sheens, has a past and mislaid memories stabbing at his calm. Before the Truth outs, many will be raked over the coals, and almost all will reel at the immensity of unfolding revelations.

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Review: The Reckoning at Gossamer Pond

The Reckoning at Gossamer Pond by Jaime Jo Wright
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I was late discovering the superb novelistic creations wrought by author Jaime Jo Wright, but now that I have, I'm a committed fan. Ms. Wright capably demonstrates how the past is always with us and is in fact foundational, and she does so by cleverly interweaving a plot thread of the past side by side with the contemporary plot thread which it both prefaces and influences. If you like faith-based but not preachy novels; strong female protagonists with secrets and sins and deepset vulnerability who strive for authenticity; male characters unafraid to be more than a stereotype; taut suspense; and characters who elicit your empathy, do not waste another moment before discovering this author.

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Canadian Book Challenge

Canadian Book Challenge July 1 2019-June 30 2020

Interesting I discovered this challenge immediately after reading an award-winning book by an indigenous Canadian author: OF VENGEANCE.

Read:
July 2019:
THE MOSQUITO MAN by Jeremy Bates.
Setting: British Columbia (rural), Indigenous myths and legends.
https://thehauntedreadingroom.blogspot.com/2019/07/review-mosquito-man.html?m=1

THE GHOST COLLECTOR.
Indigenous generational, paranormal. Canadian author, publisher.
https://thehauntedreadingroom.blogspot.com/2019/07/review-ghost-collector.html

THE WHISPERED TALES OF GRAVES GROVE n.y.
Horror/Lovecraftian. Shared World Anthology.
Setting: British Columbia/Canadian Rockies.
https://thehauntedreadingroom.blogspot.com/2019/07/review-whispered-tales-of-graves-grove.html?m=1

TROUBLE AT CAMP STILL WATERS.
Setting: British Columbia. Canadian author.
https://thehauntedreadingroom.blogspot.com/2019/07/review-trouble-at-camp-still-waters.html

Read in August 2019

DEAD SILENCE by Wendy Corsi Staub. Multiple settings including Ontario, Canada and Quebec, Canada.
https://thehauntedreadingroom.blogspot.com/2019/08/review-dead-silence.html?m=1

FIRE LAKE by J. C. Paulson. Canadian setting (Saskatchewan), Canadian characters. https://thehauntedreadingroom.blogspot.com/2019/08/review-fire-lake.html

THE HAUNTED MINE by Carrie Bates. (Quebec author)
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2950724793


Read in September 2019:

THE BIGFOOT SINGULARITY. Settings: Upper Peninsula Michigan and Toronto and Lake Superior, Canada. Near-future sci fi.
https://intotheabyssreviews.blogspot.com/2019/09/reviewthe-bigfoot-singularity.html?m=1

Read in October 2019:

EVIL SUSHI by C. A. King: Canadian author. Canadian setting. Fishing village. Near-futuristic sf. Marine Horror.

https://thehauntedreadingroom.blogspot.com/2019/10/review-evil-sushi_55.html?m=1

DARK ANGELS PREY by Elizabeth Genovese. Canadian author. Canadian setting. Fantasy/Horror.
  https://intotheabyssreviews.blogspot.com/2019/10/review-dark-angels-prey-by-elizabeth.html?m

Overcome Your Fear of Flying: Strategies for Getting Rid of Anxiety and Stress So You Can Start to Enjoy Flying by Donelle Hargrave. Up

Nonfiction. Canadian Author.

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/3030495485

THE POOR AND THE HAUNTED by Dwight McKissen. Canadian author.

https://thehauntedreadingroom.blogspot.com/2019/10/review-poor-and-haunted-by-dwight.html?m=1

Read in November 2019:
THE MOVING HOUSE by Duncan Ralston (prequel to GHOSTLAND). Canadian author.

MY WINTER CITY. Children's. Canadian authors, publisher, grants.

READ IN DECEMBER 2019:

DECK THE BLOODY HALLS by Carrie Bates. Quebec author.
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/3074727394

A CHRISTMAS HAUNTING: CLARK MANSION by Carrie Bates. Quebec author.
 https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/3076112034

THE HAUNTING OF CAMP LAKEWOOD by Carrie Bates. Quebec author. 
https://thehauntedreadingroom.blogspot.com/2019/12/review-haunting-at-camp-lakewood-by.html?m=1

WHITETOOTH  FALLS by Justin Joschko. Canadian author, Canadian  setting.
https://thehauntedreadingroom.blogspot.com/2019/12/review-whitetooth-falls-by-justin.html



Read in January 2020:
THE GOD GAME by  Jeffrey Round (Dan Sharp  Mysteries  #5). Canadian author, Canadian setting. 
https://mallorysmysteryclearinghouse.blogspot.com/2020/01/review-god-game-by-jeffrey-round-dan.html?m=1

SHADOW PUPPET by Jeffrey Round  (Dan Sharp  Mysteries  #6) Canadian author,  Canadian setting. 
https://mallorysmysteryclearinghouse.blogspot.com/2020/01/review-shadow-puppet-by-jeffrey-round.html?m=1

LION'S HEAD REVISITED by Jeffrey Round (Dan Sharp Mysteries #7)
Canadian author,  Canadian setting 
https://mallorysmysteryclearinghouse.blogspot.com/2020/01/review-lions-head-revisited-by-jeffrey.html?m=1

THE MYSTERY OF BLACK HOLLOW LANE by Julia Nobel (BLACK HOLLOW LANE #1) Canadian author 
https://thehauntedreadingroom.blogspot.com/2020/01/review-mystery-of-black-hollow-lane-by.html?m=1 

THE SECRET OF WHITE STONE GATE by Julia Nobel (BLACK HOLLOW LANE #2) Canadian author 

SHANTALLOW by Cara Martin. Canadian author,  Canadian setting,  Indigenous publisher. 

CAST IN WISDOM by Michelle Sagawa. Fantasy.  Canadian author. 

THE DARK CONTINENT by Scott Reardon. One of continuing settings is Quebec.
https://intotheabyssreviews.blogspot.com/2020/01/review-dark-continent-by-scott-reardon.html?m=1

February:
THE SUN DOWN MOTEL by Simone St. James. https://thehauntedreadingroom.blogspot.com/2020/02/review-sun-down-motel-by-simone-st-james.html?m=1

March: 
THE MIDWIVES by Duncan Ralston 
Canadian author 
https://thehauntedreadingroom.blogspot.com/2020/03/review-midwives-by-duncan-ralston.html?m=1

LOST GIRLS: THE MAINE MURDERS [50 STATES OF MURDER] by Jon Mills. 
Author is Canadian resident [Ontario].

April:
MOTHER OF FLOODS 
(Canadian press)
https://intotheabyssreviews.blogspot.com/2020/04/review-mother-of-floods.html

May:
BITTER PARADISE 
https://mallorysmysteryclearinghouse.blogspot.com/2020/05/review-bitter-paradise.html?m=1

Review: Of Vengeance

Of Vengeance by J.D. Kurtness
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Set in contemporary Quebec and translated from its original French, OF VENGEANCE is the narration of a psychologically skewed protagonist, a woman who dislikes humans and prefers animals, who exemplifies nondescriptness to an art form, whose greatest power is invisibility--and who is a self-proclaimed vigilante for justice. We may not agree with her viewpoint; but it is certain that she is rare among contemporary humans: an individual who knows her life purpose and endeavours to fulfill it.

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Review: If You See Her

If You See Her by Ania Ahlborn
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Well I hope I Never see "her!" My goodness, IF YOU SEE HER is one tremendously terrifying novel! A one-sitting compelling read, this novel definitely affected both my quality of sleep and my dreams. Even after so many decades of devouring the horror genre, well-tuned implacable supernatural horror can still do this reviewer in. And how implacable it is! No one can escape! Incredibly powerful book. With every Ania Ahlborn novel, I never know what to expect, and every single time I'm blown away. IF YOU SEE HER was no exception.

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Review: Never Nerida

Never Nerida by Shane Drummy
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

An intensely compelling, twisting psychological thriller, NEVER NERIDA is the story of a child, suddenly orphaned, and the will and strong determination that guide her throughout life, always protective of "the other," Nerida. Always "on the outside looking in," ostracized, Livia cleaves to her own rules, as little as they--or Nerida--could be comprehensible to "normals."

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Review: Never Nerida

Never Nerida by Shane Drummy
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

An intensely compelling, twisting psychological thriller, NEVER NERIDA is the story of a child, suddenly orphaned, and the will and strong determination that guide her throughout life, always protective of "the other," Nerida. Always "on the outside looking in," ostracized, Livia cleaves to her own rules, as little as they--or Nerida--could be comprehensible to "normals."

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Review: Never Nerida

Never Nerida by Shane Drummy
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

An intensely compelling, twisting psychological thriller, NEVER NERIDA is the story of a child, suddenly orphaned, and the will and strong determination that guide her throughout life, always protective of "the other," Nerida. Always "on the outside looking in," ostracized, Livia cleaves to her own rules, as little as they--or Nerida--could be comprehensible to "normals."

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Review: The Reunion

The Reunion by Guillaume Musso
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

THE REUNION, by bestselling French author Guillaume Musso, is astonishingly complex and riveting, a one-day read for me. On one level, it is a compelling clear-eyed examination of life at age 44, and whether success and life goals have been achieved; whether one has lived up to one's expectations and those of others. On another level, it is a finely-tuned and very complicated mystery from "out of the past," and I was engrossed from the beginning as over and over our protagonist - narrator, novelist Thomas Delagais, predicts his complete and sudden downfall, created by a seemingly chance event. On a third level yet, the novel is a comedy of errors, a tragic and fatal minuet in which almost nobody knows the truth, assumptions are made--wrongly, some assume responsibility not theirs, and nobody wins. As a backdrop are first love, maniacal obsession, and a terrifically nasty villain, unseen, pulling the strings. All in all, definitely one of my favourite novels of 2019.

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Review: The Curse of Misty Wayfair

The Curse of Misty Wayfair by Jaime Jo Wright
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

A deep and compelling literary novel, weaving both contemporary and historical settings, rich in emotion, faith, psychology, and history, THE CURSE OF MISTY WAYFAIR is a novel both stunning and compelling. I so identified with both protagonists: Thea in 1908, Holly in our time. Their search for metaphysical understanding, for faith, for ancestry and roots, to understand "where they came from" and from whom: my heart resonated with them throughout. I seldom discover a novel as personally compelling as this one, and I'm off to devour author Jaime Jo Wright's other novels.

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Review: Violet

Violet by Scott Thomas
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I read the author's 2017 debut novel KILL CREEK the day before I read his upcoming horror novel VIOLET. Both are literate horror, set in Kansas, in economically deprived locales. Both center on a house, in both cases long abandoned and uninhabited (by the living). The setting in VIOLET is a lake house on a bluff near "Lost Lake" in Southeastern Kansas. When Colorado veterinarian Kate's husband dies in a horrible auto accident, she and eight-year-old daughter Sadie travel to the lake house of Kate's childhood, inherited from her late father. Her last summer there was tragic, as her mother died from cancer, so already there are parallels to the current situation and little Sadie's silent grief.


But Pacington, the tiny community near Lost Lake, suffers from its own griefs. Several families have suffered unspeakable, inexplicable tragedies. As Kate will eventually discover, the explanations of accident or roving child predator are far too facile and too far from the Truth. The answer is Supernatural.


As with KILL CREEK, VIOLET was a one-day, non-stop read for me.

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Review: Kill Creek

Kill Creek by Scott Thomas
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Words fail me. KILL CREEK is extraordinary, all the more so as a debut novel of literary and psychological horror. Be not mistaken: there's plenty of the Supernatural here too, so intricately blended with the psychological horror as to become one. I read this in one day, figuratively glued to the virtual pages, and couldn't stop. My only regret is that somehow I missed reading it at the novel's 2017 release, and in fact it was the upcoming release of author Scott Thomas' second horror offering, VIOLET, that nudged me to first read KILL CREEK. I am unafraid to admit that likely I will never forget the novel's denouement concerning the House's third-floor bedroom...nor the Epilogue. Never. I will not forget KILL CREEK, and yes, I will reread it....when my nerves settle.

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Review: Old Bones

Old Bones by Douglas Preston
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I read this in one day, totally enthralled. OLD BONES is the first in the new Nora Kelly series. Long-time fans of Preston and Child's Agent Pendergast Series will remember the feisty and strong-willed Nora as a museum curator and archaeologist. Now working in Santa Fe, Nora is approached by a historian who has discovered a long-lost diary by the wife of George Donner, of the tragic Donner Party. He persuades the Institute at which Nora is employed to search for the "Lost Camp," an offshoot of the main Donner Party which became lost and snowbound in the Sierra Nevada Mountains.


OLD BONES also stars Agent Pendergast's protege Corinne Swanson on her debut FBI investigation. Her clashes with the equally strong-willed Nora Kelly and the Institute"s Director, Dr. Jill Fugit, create a lot of fireworks. For history buffs, there's a plethora; and for thriller and mystery addicts, you'll stay riveted.

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Review: The Haunted Cabin

The Haunted Cabin by Michelle Dorey
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

HAUNTED CABIN contains a twisty mystery, plus supernatural elements. There's also a lot of that familiar "Don't go there!" feeling we all remember from Horror films, and for me it was both "Don't go there!" and "Don't go with him!" as the protagonist doesn't listen to intuition and gives the guy yet another chance.

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Review: Slash

Slash by Hunter Shea
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

SLASH hearkens back, almost longingly, to the slasher B-movie horror films of the 1980's, with its "crazed maniac massacre" settings and especially its "Final Girl" emphasis. So be prepared to expect a plethora of gore, splatter, and violence--because that's what crazed maniacs do, right? However, that's not all. There's a lot of delving into psychology: survivor guilt; post-traumatic stress syndrome; fear, rational or irrational, that "it's not over"; the psychology of the loved ones--family and friends. Author Shea also gives a compelling riff on history plus a strongly supernatural element (which also has a historical basis).

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Review: Brimstone

Brimstone by Tamara Thorne
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

What an incredibly engrossing Paranormal/Horror novel is this! Featuring a STRONG middle-grade heroine (Holly is eleven), but not designed for a middle-grade audience, BRIMSTONE encapsulates paranormal and supernatural elements, Native American legendry, ceremonial black magick, an early 20th century hospital, copper mining, and the stunning arid beauty of Arizona, into one finely-wrought and intensely satisfying horror story. I couldn't put it aside. BRIMSTONE is packed full of excitement, tension, terror, and wonderfully designed characters, both "good guys" and "villains." Of the latter are included both present-day (late 20th century) and deceased (who are not stopped at all by the fact of death). I can't recommend it highly enough, and I can't wait to read the author's other novels.

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Review: The Invocation

The Invocation by Carl Alves
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I found THE INVOCATION a heartwarming horror novel, due to the characters' devotion to their friends and family, sometimes to the extent of imperiling and endangering themselves. I also enjoy horror involving spirit possession, which is a strong theme of this novel.

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Review: Typhoid Mary

Typhoid Mary by Charlie Dalton
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Short but scary! Tremendously scary because the horror is implacable, and because of the gore and violence it wreaks. Just remember: all that glitters is not gold

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Review: Whispers in the Dark

Whispers in the Dark by Laurel Hightower
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

What an incredibly engrossing tale of Supernatural and Paranormal Horror! What strong characters! What horrifying villainy! I couldn't stop reading; in fact, I felt as if I were "on the scene." No suspension of disbelief necessary; I resonated with the characters, the plot and various subplots while I lived through the story vicariously. Simply fantastic!


18+ for violence, gore, language (and villains)

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Review: The Face in the Marsh

The Face in the Marsh by Elizabeth Hirst
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Rural historic horror in a Canadian setting, this novel also has an LGBT emphasis. It's also supernatural in nature, and features a couple of strong (or learning to be strong) female characters in the protagonist Kenzie and her friend/lover Maria.

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Review: The Face in the Marsh

The Face in the Marsh by Elizabeth Hirst
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Rural historic horror in a Canadian setting, this novel also has an LGBT emphasis. It's also supernatural in nature, and features a couple of strong (or learning to be strong) female characters in the protagonist Kenzie and her friend/lover Maria.

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