mystery | The Book Canaries

The latest, greatest and (sometimes) strangest blurbs from the book world.

You don’t have to be a die hard Sherlock Holmes fan (which I am) to appreciate this blurb. (But before you read the blurb, check out the cover. For a split second, aren’t you convinced this is a story about Sherlock Octopus? Alas.)

Letter

“Upon returning to the city of Khelathra-Ven after five years fighting a war in another universe, Captain John Wyndham finds himself looking for somewhere to live, and expediency forces him to take lodgings at 221b Martyrs Walk. His new housemate is Ms. Shaharazad Haas, a consulting sorceress of mercurial temperament and dark reputation.

When Ms. Haas is enlisted to solve a case of blackmail against one of her former lovers, Miss Eirene Viola, Captain Wyndham is drawn into a mystery that leads him from the salons of the literary set to the drowned back-alleys of Ven and even to a prison cell in lost Carcosa. Along the way he is beset by criminals, menaced by pirates, molested by vampires, almost devoured by mad gods, and called upon to punch a shark. “

—The Affair of the Mysterious Letter by Alexis Hall

Canaries, what books have caught your eye recently?

In an interview published just before Castle first premiered four seasons ago, creator Andrew Marlowe delightedly told eager fans that the protagonist’s name may have chosen specifically because when it’s shouted loud and fast, it sounds like a choice piece of profanity. Any show that has that level of levity built right into the title was surely meant to be a winner.

Four seasons later, and Castle remains one of Monday’s highest ranking shows. This is in no small part to the leads, the fierce Detective Kate Beckett (Stana Katic) and the endlessly-charming Richard Castle (Nathan Fillion), who have created the best will-they-just-go-make-out-already pairings this side of Boothe and Bones. Add in a stellar supporting cast (I have a special place in my heart of Ryan and Espisito-centric shenanigans), and this lighthearted cop drama is one of the best studies in character development out there.

Castle-lovers, here are our reading picks for you… Continue reading →