Joe R. Lansdale’s In the Mad Mountains: Stories Inspired by H. P. Lovecraft collects several stories where weirdness prevails. “The Bleeding Shadow” features a blues recording with vinyl magic which opens the gate between dimensions. Dread Island is a tale of Huck Finn, Tom Sawyer, and Jim exploring an island in the Mississippi that appears and disappears with sinister aspects.

I really enjoyed Lansdale’s Edgar Allan Poe tribute in “The Gruesome Affair of the Electric Blue Lightning.” The Necronomicon makes a cameo appearance. “The Tall Grass” reveals an incident where a stopped train exposes a passenger to the horrors around it. “The Case of the Stalking Shadows” tells the story of a young girl’s experience with inter-dimensional terror. “The Crawling Sky” is one of Landsdale’s weird westerns. “Starlight, Eyes Bright” confronts the impact of alien artifacts.

If you put Lovecraft’s At the Mountains of Madness, the Titanic, and Philip Jose Farmer into a blender, the result would be “In the Mad Mountains.” Survivors of the sinking of the Titanic face more peril when their life boat lands in a freezing, bizarre hell-scape. If you’re a fan of Lovecraft pastiches, In the Mad Mountains delivers plenty of eerie entertainment. GRADE: B

TABLE OF CONTENTS:

Introduction by Joe R. Lansdale — 1
“The Bleeding Shadow” — 11
Dread Island — 47
“The Gruesome Affair of the Electric Blue Lightning” — 91
“The Tall Grass” — 123
“The Case of the Stalking Shadows” — 135
“The Crawling Sky” — 159
“Starlight, Eyes Bright” — 189
In the Mad Mountains — 201

About Joe. R. Lansdale — 251

Director and screenwriter Jon Watts–who also directed three Tom Holland Spider-Man movies–brings George Clooney and Brad Pitt together in a twisty caper film. Amy Ryan (aka, Steve Martin’s psycho girlfriend in Only Murders in the Building), a District Attorney with an embarrassing problem, calls George Clooney–a fixer–for help. But Brad Pitt–also a fixer–shows up, too. Circumstances force Clooney and Pitt to work together…a lot a fun friction results.

Wolfs definitely has a Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid vibe. Clooney and Pitt have the same rare chemistry that Paul Newman and Robert Redford put on the screen. I liked Wolfs and I was delighted to learn that a sequel has already been Green Lighted. If you’re looking for a solid buddy movie, Wolfs delivers action and laughs. GRADE: B

“We should ALL want the freedom to read what we want and have access to reading materials from a variety of viewpoints. Protecting our libraries is exactly how we do that. The attack on librarians and libraries is shameful and something everyone should fear.” (p. 11)

Amanda Jones, who wrote that belief in That Librarian, tells the story of how her life was upended when she ran afoul of a local group called Citizens for a New Louisiana–part of a far-right, nationwide movement that targets authors, books, librarians and institutions considered too liberal, too permissive, and too inclusive.

Thousands of books have been banned in the United States as schools and libraries are under attack by conservative groups. Amanda Jones found herself the target of a brutal and vicious social media campaign that accused her of grooming perverts and pedophilia, of encouraging children to engage in anal sex, and encouraging gender changes. Amanda Jones was attacked by neighbors she had known for years and had once considered friends. Parents of children Amanda had taught brought accusations that she was threatening their children with dangerous books.

The allegations were false, but that didn’t matter to the hostile groups. Amanda’s long record of dedicated public service, deep community ties, and Christian affiliation provided no protection, either as the attacks against her and the books she defended increased. Jones experienced such anxiety, depression, and fear that she needed a leave of absence from the job she loved. Her family suffered from the angry phone calls. Amanda Jones received death threats. Jones considered retreating from public view, but she chose to defend her reputation and stand for the principles she believed in by confronting the forces trying to drive her into hiding.

Along with filing a defamation lawsuit, Amanda Jones organized other librarians across the country by networking and defending books these malicious groups seek to ban. We all should protect the value of information, free inquiry, and the libraries that provide them. That Librarian is a moving story of a woman standing up for freedom. Very moving! GRADE: A

TABLE OF CONTENTS:

Liars and buzzards and trolls, oh my — 1

How we got here — 20

Here, there, everywhere — 39

WWJ: What would Judy do? — 61

(Wo)man in the mirror — 78

Hell hath no fury like a librarian scorned — 91

The battle begins : initial court proceedings — 103

Are you there Michelle? It’s me, Amanda : it’s hard to go high when the haters go so low — 123

The mob song — 135

Some people are ride or die, some people aren’t — 147

The longevity of hate — 167

Think of the children — 184

It’s raining sin, Hallelujah — 202

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times — 215

What you can do in your own community — 234

Don’t let anyone dull your sparkle — 248

My July 19, 2022, speech to the Livingston Parish Library Board of Control — 255

Acknowledgments — 259

Bibliography — 263

1 POINT FAVORITES

“This has been no ordinary mystery. There have been more bodies, more clues, more deceptions, than even Joseph Spector is accustomed to. And yet there remains only one solution. A single answer to this concatenation of puzzles and impossibilities. Spector has found it. Have you?” (p. 239)

When I was reading Ellery Queen’s early mysteries back in the 1960s, I was always thrilled by Challenge To the Reader, Here’s the one from one of my favorite Queen mysteries:

Challenge To the Reader

And so once more I come to what might be termed the “seventh-inning stretch” of my novels. Time out, ladies and gentlemen.

I ask in a variation of a theme I have harped on now for four years: Who killed the two horsemen in the arena of the Colosseum?

You don’t know? Ah, but really you should. The whole story is now before you: clues galore, I give you my word; and when put together in the proper order and the inevitable deductions drawn, they point resolutely to the one and only possible criminal.

It is a point of honor with me to adhere to the Code. The Code of playfair- with-the-reader-give-him-all-the-clues-and-withhold-no thing. I say all the clues are now in your possession. 1 repeat that they make an inescapable pattern of guilt.

Can you put the pieces of the pattern together and interpret what you see?

A word to the small army of well-intentioned hecklers who worry the life out of the author each time he blithely lays down a challenge. The contents of the telegram which in the story I send to Hollywood, and the contents of the reply thereto, are not necessary to your logical solution. As you shall see, a solution is possible without knowledge of either; they are merely confirmation of logical conclusions arrived at from analysis. So that actually you should be able to tell me what my telegram said! —Ellery Queen, The American Gun Mystery (1933) p.176

I’ve read Tom Mead’s Death and the Conjurer (you can read my review here) and Cabaret Macabre ups the locked room/impossible crime ante. Mead loves the classic locked room mystery and models his approach after John Dickson Carr.

A complex series of murders in this impossible-crime mystery are set in the run-up to Christmas 1938. Lady Elspeth Drury hires professional illusionist, Joseph Spector, to save her husband from the death threats he’s received from Victor Silvius, a man who stabbed her husband years ago. Five more murders, plenty of red herrings, and some mind-twisting plotting makes Cabaret Macabre (2024) must reading for locked room/impossible crime fans! GRADE: B+

AA

TABLE OF CONTENTS:

Preface — vii

Sources and Uses of Comparisons — 3

The use of animals to describe humans — 22

The use of nature to describe abstractions — 46

The Use of Nature to describe Inner States — 65

The use of nature to describe language — 84

Human biology — 101

Extreme people and states — 116

Occupations and institutions — 126

Circumstances — 143

The classical world & other sources of story — 155

Architecture & other man-made things — 175

Personification — 195

The construction of similes — 204

The construction of metaphor — 227

What if Sherlock Holmes was a woman?

That’s the premise of Sherry Thomas’s A Study in Scarlet Women (2016). Charlotte Holmes lives with a dysfunctional family and yearns to use her exceptional talents despite a society that relegates most women to the kitchen.

Sherry Thomas, best known for her romantic novels, pulls off a careful balancing act in having Charlotte (aka, Sherlock) investigate a trio of unexpected deaths that might be murders. Given the strictures of the times, Charlotte relies on a kindhearted widow, an intelligent police inspector, and a powerful man from her past who still loves her to provide her with the means to probe into the three suspicious deaths.

Here’s part of a conversation Charlotte has with her sister, Livia, about Love and marriage: “Love is by and large a perishable good and it is lamentable that young people are asked to make irrevocable, till-death-do-we-part decisions in the midst of a short-lived euphoria.” Despite Charlotte’s turning down several proposals, Charlotte does love one man…who is unavailable.

I found it both difficult and intriguing to read about Charlotte trying to survive in London during such trying times. Charlotte is not yet the genius A. Conan Doyle invented. She is brilliant but inexperienced after spending her first 25 years in a sheltered, hostile household. Sherry Thomas convincingly creates opportunities for Charlotte to learn, grow, and develop what will be her true calling.

It won’t surprise you when I write that I’m presently in the process of accumulating all seven mysteries in the Lady Sherlock series. I enjoyed A Study in Scarlet Women and you might, too! GRADE: B

THE LADY SHERLOCK SERIES:

• 1. A Study in Scarlet Women. Berkley. October 2016. ISBN 9780425281406.
• 2. A Conspiracy in Belgravia. Berkley. September 2017. ISBN 9780425281413.
• 3. The Hollow of Fear. Berkley. October 2018. ISBN 9780425281420.
• 4. The Art of Theft. Berkley. October 2019. ISBN 9780451492470.
• 5. Murder on Cold Street. Berkley. October 2020. ISBN 9780451492494.
• 6. Miss Moriarty, I Presume?. Berkley. November 2021. ISBN 9780593200599.
• 7. A Tempest At Sea. Berkley. March 2023. ISBN 9780593200605.

What if Nero Wolfe was a woman?

I’m sure most of your have seen the classic film directed, produced and co-written by Billy Wilder, starring Marilyn Monroe, Tony Curtis and Jack Lemmon, with George Raft, Pat O’Brien, Joe E. Brown, Joan Shawlee and Nehemiah Persoff. This musical version “modifies” the original screenplay and does some gender bending.

The main plot remains the same: two Chicago musicians disguise themselves by dressing as women to escape from gangsters when they witness them committing multiple murders. The two musicians join an all-woman jazz band that is touring the U.S. and will finally end up in San Diego. But, the gangsters–who plan to eliminate the witnesses–aren’t far behind.

While I found the music just okay–jazz from the 1930s–the choreography is just great! If you like tap dancing, this is the musical for you! Terrific energy and agility! I also enjoyed the many comedy moments in this production. GRADE: B

“Neil Gaiman won both the British Carnegie Medal and the American Newbery Medal recognizing the year’s best children’s books, the first time both named the same work. The Graveyard Book also won the annual Hugo Award for Best Novel from the World Science Fiction Convention and Locus Award for Best Young Adult Book selected by Locus subscribers.” —Wikipedia

This 2014 graphic novel version of The Graveyard Book traces the story of the boy named Nobody “Bod” Owens, who is adopted and reared by the supernatural occupants of a graveyard after his family is brutally murdered. Bod grows up learning about the dead and their lives after death. He makes attempts to learn about the world outside the graveyard and those efforts have mixed results.

While Bod is “protected” in the graveyard, the killer of his mother, father, and older sister still lurks nearby waiting to kill Bod to complete his murderous assignment. When The Graveyard Book won the Newbery Medal for Best Children’s Book in 2008, I was a bit surprised. No previous Newbery Medal winner had this degree of noir. If you haven’t read The Graveyard Book you’re in for a fascinating experience. GRADE: A (for both graphic volumes)