Serial killer point-of-view books are becoming their own popular subgenre in the thriller-horror axis…
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We all go into books with certain expectations, maybe provided by the cover, or the blurb, or the buzz we get on social media about a new release. I had come to Fyneshade expecting a neo-Victorian Gothic romp with a bit of witchcraft thrown in for good measure. Little did I know my expectations were about to be smashed.
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The 1920s is such a special decade, full of discords. The bright young things and the shell-shocked. The optimism for the future and the inevitability of more war. The development of travel technology and the closing in of nationalism. It’s famous, of course, for Lovecraft’s existential horror, and the beginning of the golden age of crime. And Hokey Pokey sits somewhere squarely between that monstrous horror and desire for a good cosy mystery, with some cultural dissonance mixed in for good measure.
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I personally think the claim of almost any new, ingenious crime novel to be The New Agatha Christie is over-used. I love Agatha Christie, and her stories have some very particular qualities. I do not generally approve of her usage as a shorthand to sell books.
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When you read a lot of horror, in particular a lot of haunted horror, you get to think you know the ghost story. There will be grief, there will be unearthed secrets, a wrong will be righted. What I love about Grady Hendrix is his ability to destabilise even the most jaded horror fan.
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There are three things needed to make the ideal heist story. First, a great ensemble cast, and the capacity to make you care about each member and their individual motivations and angles in a short space of time. Second, a mark who kind of deserves it — no one wants to feel bad for whoever’s being cleared out. And finally, plenty of things that go wrong. Even the best-laid plans fly out the window when applied to a real situation, and a heist where everything goes perfectly just isn’t interesting.
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This blog has been a fan of Janice Hallett from the outset, and her particular brand of multimedia crime fiction.
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A few months ago, I read a truly excellent sample kindly sent to me by Corvus, and it turned out to be a book that was right up my street.
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It’s been a while since I enjoyed a really good remote community/borderline cult book.
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I’m getting to that age, and I may be getting to it prematurely. No, not the menopause. That age when the relationship of responsibility between parent and child switches. All my friends are having to deal with aging, cantankerous, increasingly conservative parents. But for some of us, this balance of responsibility has been skewed almost their entire lives.
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