{I've Been Reading} House Haunters

House Haunters by KC Jones

I tend to add books to my to-be-read pile and then pick them up to read without rereading the description and that's how I started this book without realizing that the same author also wrote White Line Fever and Black Tide (both great books). That might've been the best way to go into it, without preconceived ideas of what kind of book it was going to be -- because it kind of felt like it might be a romance and it kind of felt like it was a horror novel and it landed in an absolutely perfect spot in between. I loved the characters, a reality television producer who is trying to develop a show without the help of the AI that's taken over her job and Fear Not Frank, a home inspector who also checks the property for the sometimes dangerous remnants that he calls spectrals. Frank has no sense of fear, so he relies on his dog, Fish Stick, to determine if a place is safe or not. They're filming the pilot episode in a condominium that's already killed the real estate photographer, so it's clear from the first few pages that these ghosts do exist and that they're deadly. I absolutely loved this book. I wouldn't call it scary, but it's definitely effective. 

The Elegance of Decay by Stoney Brooks

Six researchers gather on a remote cliffside to study the unique moss that grows there. Supported by metal platforms, there's only one way back up and no safe way down. This short horror novel reads like a creature feature. It's claustrophobic and tightly plotted, only breaking away from the cliffside in brief flashbacks to develop the characters. Don't let your attention wander while reading or you'll be flipping back to figure out what just happened. 

Disclosure -- The publishers provided me wtih advance review copies.

{I've Been Reading} Yesteryear

 Yesteryear by Caro Claire Burke 

I think it's fair to say that the thriller market is full of tradwives. I've read two books called "The Trad Wife" (and also The Trad Wife's Secret) and have another with the same title in my TBR. So of course as soon as I heard about Yesteryear, I wanted to read it. It's taken me this long to get my hands on a copy -- the reserve list at the library is REALLY long. While I was waiting, I made some assumptions about what the book would be like. I was wrong. So, so wrong. Not much of the plot takes place in the past. Instead it's Natalie's story before she became a popular influencer. I kept guessing what was going to happen and I came nowhere close to figuring it out. 

Quaint Folk by Bitter Karella 

A family moves to a remote island with strangely old fashioned ways. It's one of the basic tropes of  folk horror, but this is like nothing I've ever read before. The locals have cutesy names that sound straight out of a children's book. They're preparing for an annual festival and everything is just so adorable it makes your teeth hurt. There's nothing scary or forboding -- and I think that's what makes it so effective when everything changes. Honestly, I wanted to put it down after the first few chapters because I couldn't stand Jessica, but I'm glad I stuck with it. It's weird and effective and kind of beyond description. 

And Then There Were Bun by Vivian Chien 

This cozy mystery was a fast paced engaging read that pulled me right in. I'd read the description and forgotten the details before picking the book up to start, so I didn't know what was coming. That's probably my favorite was to read cozies. Lana is an engaging narrator who quickly establishes the details of her life. A couple of references to previous murders and bodies made it clear that this wasn't the first book in the series, but I was suprised when I checked later and found out that it's is the thirteenth book. It was easy to jump right in and enjoy Lana's world and the mystery. Even though I didn't already know her friends and family, I was worried when the investigation seemed like it might turn in that direction.  I'll definitely be reading more of the Noodle Shop mysteries. 

Disclosure -- The publishers provided me with advance review copies. Yesteryear came from the library. 

{I've Been Reading} The Pumpkin Vice Cafe

 The Pumpkin Vice Cafe by Ellie Alexander

Twenty-three books into the Bakeshop Mysteries, this felt like the perfect cozy. Jules and her friends are home in Ashland, the twins are due any day, Lance is making wedding preparations, and snow is starting to fall. There's lots of delicious baking going on (I took a break from reading to put a pan of apple cider cake in my own oven -- it was from a box, but I don't have the skills that Jules and her staff have perfected!) Then Jules discovers the body of Lance's wedding planner in an icy creek and the perfect season has a satisfying and complex murder investigation added to the mix. I loved every page!  

Monsters in the Archive by Caroline Bicks

This is everything that I wish On Writing (actually written by Stephen King, unlike this book) would have been. I loved this book so much more than I expected to! Written by a scholar who was given access to Stephen King's private archives, it compares early drafts to the published versions of his work. It's a welcome peek behind the curtain, showing what a few of my favorite King stories started as and then evolved into. Sometimes that's big changed to the plot and sometimes it's tiny word choices that made a huge different. Seeing how he played with language and explained those choices to the copy editors was really interesting, especially when you compare the idea of hand typed drafts with today's spell check and grammar editors. This reminded me of why I loved his earlier stuff so much. 

A Map to Murder by Michelle Chouinard

This time around, the tours of San Francisco are focused on the Summer of Love and Capri is helping one of her clients find out what happened to a string of missing women dating back to the 1960s. Betweeen the tours and flashbacks to one of the victims before she went missing, I felt totally immersed in the setting. Cliffhangers at the ends of the flashbacks kept me guessing and turning pages. Capri and friends have a lot going on outside of their investigation and there's just enough backstory to remind me what had happened in the two previous books. 

Witch Trial by Harriet Tyce

Wow. The end of this book is....well, I can't figure out what words to use without venturing into spoiler territory and if you're going to read this one you DON'T want spoilers. So I'll keep my mouth shut. It's an investment of time and energy to get to the payoff. I was ready to put this one down after the first thirty or so pages. That murder trial in the description? You're reading about it filtered through the eyes of a jury member, an unlikable doctor with marital and career problems. It's the slowest of slow burns. I slogged my way through to the end...and then that end changed my mind about the whole thing. I'm still not sure I enjoyed it, but I'm more impressed than I expected to be. 

Disclosure -- The publishers provided me with advance review copies. 

{I've Been Reading} #VanDeath

 #VanDeath by Brian Asman 

This road trip is the stuff of nightmares, or maybe the stuff of grindhouse films. It takes a while to get going, but once our van life couple hits the road, it doesn't slow down. I didn't particularly like either Jasper or Morgan, but by the time things started to go really bad, I was pulling for both of them.  Camping in Death Valley would be precarious enough, but every bit of safety is gradually stripped away. At one point, I was so caught up in the book I actually screamed when my husband startled me. 

I am the Monster Under the Bed by Emily Zinnikas

This book straddled the line between thriller and horror. There are familiar thriller elements -- a young woman has returned to her childhood home after years away even though she's still blamed for the unsolved murders of her friends. Then throw in the fact that she's tossing food into the forest every night and wishing she could still deciper the language of the trees. And the monster under her bed that almost has to be real because whatever it was taught her to read... I couldn't put it down. Every time I thought I understood what was going on, something made me question myself. 

Antiques Web by Barbara Allen

The Trash 'n' Treasures series always delivers plenty of entertaining fun. Vivian and Brandy are bickering. (How did I manage to miss the last book, where Brandy apparently got married?!) There are lots of details about antiques and vintage things and a section on the history of pinochle. (I'll admit that I skimmed over the rules because there's no way I'll be playing that card game anytime soon.) You'll find  recipes within the chapter and mourning jewelry and a couple of murders and a whole lot of parantheses, which I have a new appreciation for after trying to summarize all of the delightful chaos. 

And apparently there's a MOVIE that's streaming free on Tubi, which I'll be watching while I work on my latest knitting project. 

Disclosure -- The publishers provided me with advance review copies.