Tag Archives: Crime

Martha by Columbkill Noonan

Book Review, , ,
Overview
Image result for the mammoth book of jack the ripper stories book cover

Title: Martha
Author: Columbkill Noonan
In: The Mammoth Book of Jack the Ripper Stories (Maxim Jakubowski)
Rating Out of 5: 4 (Really good read!)
My Bookshelves: Crime, Historical fiction
Dates read: 7th March 2019
Pace: Medium
Format: Short story
Publisher: Robinson
Year: 2015
5th sentence, 74th page: And there were that time last year, when you done got so jealous and threatned that one lady with her own scissors.

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Synopsis

Martha is jealous of all of the women that her man is spending time with. But, when the Ripper starts killing these same women, she’s not sure whether it was her or something more sinister…

Thoughts

I really need to do a little more research on Jack the Ripper before I continue reading too many of these short stories. They’re amazing, and I love the journey that they take me on, but I don’t click as to the character’s names and the theories as quickly as I do with topics I’m far more knowledgeable on. So, it took me a while to figure out whether Martha was a woman who was a likely suspect, or one that was a likely victim.

At the beginning I thought that this was a great little retelling with the woman as the villain. It made sense in a completely perverse way, and it made me intrigued as to the who and the why (as I know many, many, many people have been before me). But, then, as the story progressed, I became more uncertain and confused. The misleads and the vagueness surrounding this story was actually surprisingly fun and has made me dig out my book on Jack The Ripper (the one that is actually the historical background, not the retellings).

 <- The Guided Tour ReviewThe Ripper Legacy Review ->
Image source: Amazon

A Murder of Vampires by Bev Vincent

Book Review, , ,
Overview
Evolve

Title: A Murder of Vampires
Author: Bev Vincent
In: Evolve (Nancy Kilpatrick)
Rating Out of 5: 3 (On the fence about this one)
My Bookshelves: Crime, Vampires
Dates read: 22nd February 2019
Pace: Slow
Format: Short story
Publisher: Edge
Year: 2010
5th sentence, 74th page: You’ve got to help me.

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Synopsis

When vampires came out of the closet (so to speak) all hell broke loose. And it just keeps getting worse, with a human murderer on the prowl, hunting vampires…

Thoughts

This had a very crime, noir theme and atmosphere to this story. The call in the middle of the night, leaving a comfortable bed. The idea that a murder down a dark alley is being investigated.

The scene setting in this story is brilliant and it draws you in very quickly. But, I just didn’t really feel overly attached to the characters. I didn’t even query who was killing the vampires. Which is odd for me, since I always like to figure out the angles and the whys of crime. But I just didn’t really get involved in this. At all. In the slightest. Which is why I rated it a 3 out of 5 stars. I still enjoyed the storyline. But I didn’t really get very involved within it.

 <- When I’m Armouring My Belly ReviewThe Greatest Trick Review ->
Image source: Goodreads

The Guided Tour by Rhys Hughes

Book Review, , ,
Overview
Image result for the mammoth book of jack the ripper stories book cover

Title: The Guided Tour
Author: Rhys Hughes
In: The Mammoth Book of Jack the Ripper Stories (Maxim Jakubowski)
Rating Out of 5: 4 (Really good read!)
My Bookshelves: Crime, Horror
Dates read: 6th March 2019
Pace: Medium
Format: Short story
Publisher: Robinson
Year: 2015
5th sentence, 74th page: The incidentals and tangents assisted not only in setting the scene, coagulating the right atmosphere, but proved to be fascinating in their own right.

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Synopsis

Being a tour guide can be tough, but what happens when you want to get a little more hands-on experience with your tour?

Thoughts

This kind of wigged me out. But in a really good way. To start with, this story was about a man practicing to be a tour guide. Talking about Jack the Ripper, highlighting his crimes and the mystery surrounding the Butcher of Baker Street. Then it becomes far more twisted…

I really liked the twists and turns that this short story had. Every few paragraphs, the story is flipped completely on its head. Once you think that it is going in one direction, you find out that it is kind of going somewhere completely different. It very much reminds me of all of the theories and ideas surrounding Jack the Ripper in the first place – a lot of twists and turns, where no one is 100% sure of the truth.

 <- Bertie ReviewMartha Review ->
Image source: Amazon

Day Off by Jim Butcher

Book Review, , , , , , ,
Overview
Blood Lite

Title: Day Off
Author: Jim Butcher
Series: The Dresden Files #10.3
In: Blood Lite (Kevin J. Anderson) & Side Jobs (Jim Butcher)
Rating Out of 5: 4 (Really good read!)
My Bookshelves: Crime, Paranormal fantasy, Urban fantasy, Wizards
Pace: Fast
Format: Short story
Publisher: Edge
Year: 2008
5th sentence, 74th page: The golden lightning of a practitioner at work also flickered through their auras – which shouldn’t have been happening.

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Synopsis

Harry finally has a day off, and he plans to spend it showing a beautiful woman a good time. However, friends, apprentices and young morons keep getting in the way of his best laid plans.

Thoughts

I haven’t picked up anything in The Dresden Files for a while. Mostly because I’ve just been distracted by the multitude of amazing books that are out there. And reading this short story reminded me of just why I love this series so much. It’s funny. It’s quirky. And it always abides by Murphy’s Law – anything that can go wrong will go wrong.

I love how Butcher can take such a small thing as a day off and twist and turn it until all hell is breaking lose. Not just one moment of oh crap, or even one thing going wrong. It is a calamity of things going wrong. There’s the apprentice. The friends. And some weird wannabe rival kids. Anhy one of which would make an entertaining short story. But when you put all three together? I was laughing out loud… luckily there was no one else in the house at the time.

 <- Dead Hand ReviewBlood Lite II Review ->
Image source: Goodreads

PR Problems by Eric James Stone

Book Review, , , , ,
Overview
Blood Lite

Title: PR Problems
Author: Eric James Stone
In: Blood Lite (Kevin J. Anderson)
Rating Out of 5: 5 (I will read this again and again and again)
My Bookshelves: Comedy, Crime, Dark fantasy, Vampires
Pace: Medium
Format: Short story
Publisher: Pocket Books
Year: 2008
5th sentence, 74th page: So I did.

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Synopsis

“What annoys me the most about vampires and werewolves is their good P.R.” — Thus begins the tale of a ghoul and his quest for proper respect.

Thoughts

I laughed so damn hard throughout this story. It’s rare to find a story that features a ghoul instead of werewolves and vampires and the sass with which the storyline is delivered were brilliant.

I love that throughout the story, the ghoul bitches and moans about the bad PR that they get. The fact that it ends with him wanting to eat someone doesn’t really improve my opinion of him… but he made quite a few good points. Ghouls don’t waste, vampires do… yet vampires are seen as something romantic and glorious in the literature.

This improvement on PR has certainly made me want to find a story or ten that features the glories of the ghoulish world…

 <- High Kicks and Misdemeanors ReviewWhere Angels Fear to Tread Review ->
Image source: Goodreads

Altered Carbon by Richard Morgan

Book Review, , , ,

Overview

Altered CarbonTitle: Altered Carbon
Author: Richard Morgan
Series: Takeshi Kovacs #1
Rating Out of 5: 3 (On the fence about this one)
My Bookshelves: Crime, Cyberpunk, Science fiction
Pace: Slow
Format: Novel
Publisher: Gollancz
Year: 2002
5th sentence, 74th page: Yeah, and look where that stupid bitch ended up.

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Synopsis

It’s the twenty-fifth century, and advances in technology have redefined life itself. A person’s consciousness can now be stored in the brain and downloaded into a new body (or ‘sleeve’), reducing death to a minor blip on a screen. Onetime U.N. Envoy Takeshi Kovacs has been killed before, but his last death was particularly painful. Resleeved into a body in Bay City (formerly San Francisco), Kovacs is thrown into the dark heart of a shady, far-reaching conspiracy that is vicious even by the standards of a society that treats existence as something that can be bought and sold. For Kovacs, the shell that blew a hole in his chest was only the beginning.

Thoughts

I really liked this. And I think that if I re-read it while I was more in the mood for this type of book, I would think that it was phenomenal. The premise is amazing, the message is intense and the action is continuous. But, after over a month of slowly reading through this, it’s just not quite intensely intrigued me. Again, just because I wasn’t in the mood for it.

This is an incredibly intense, fast-paced story that is a conspiracy wrapped in a conspiracy. Alongside trying to figure out who’s the “bad guy” whose behind everything, there’s also a lot of playing catch up in this world. The world building in this cyberpunk story is amazing, and the complexity of it means that half the time I was trying to follow the story, and the other half of the time I was trying to figure out more about the world that Morgan has built.

I could spend all day tweezing apart the themes and messages throughout Altered Carbon. But what I like most is that life is precious, and not to be wasted. It might not be exactly what the author was originally intended, but I found that the idea of shells and murder and mayhem simply highlighted the fact that life is something to be revered and treasured, not something that can be traded away lightly. Even if there is just another shell around the corner…

 <- Woken Furies Review Broken Angels Review ->
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To Ease the Rage by C.T. Adams & Cathy Clamp

Book Review, , , , , ,

Overview

The Mammoth Book of Vampire RomanceTitle: To Ease the Rage
Author: C.T. Adams & Cathy Clamp
In: The Mammoth Book of Vampire Romance (Trisha Telep)
Rating Out of 5: 5 (I will read this again and again and again)
My Bookshelves: Cops, Crime, Romance, Vampires
Pace: Fast
Format: Short story
Publisher: Robinson
Year: 2008
5th sentence, 74th page: Could you change your number?

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Synopsis

Her partner died two years ago. And now she has a mysterious stalker. When her ex-partner comes back from the dead, she finds out that her life is about to completely change.

Thoughts

When I started reading this story, I didn’t really understand how it tied into the idea of vampire romance (since I found it in The Mammoth Book of Vampire Romance). It starts out with a cop who is being stalked. And I kind of assumed that this stalker was probably going to be a vampire… but still, it was probably the least romantic of the tales in this collection so far. At least at the beginning, the end had that za za zing that I’ve come to expect.

The premise that there are a bunch of rogue vampires running free, and that Tim is desperate to stop them with the help of his old partner was kind of fun. That it involves sex, romance and true and deep love just made it all the more intriguing. It did, however, annoy me a little that his condition was caused by a creepy little girl with a crush… but I digress, the story wouldn’t have happened without this catalyst.

All in all this was a fun and engaging short story that featured a vampire, sex and crime. There’s not really much more I could ask for from a vampirific short story.

 <- Coming Home Review Dancing with the Star Review ->
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A Lodging for the Night by Robert Louis Stevenson

Book Review, , ,
Overview
A Lodging for the Night

Title: A Lodging for the Night: A Story of Francis Villon
Author: Robert Louis Stevenson
In: Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde & Other Stories (Robert Louis Stevenson)
Rating Out of 5: 3.5 (Liked this)
My Bookshelves: Classics, Crime
Pace: Slow
Format: Short story
Publisher: Word Cloud Classics
Year: 1877
5th sentence, 74th page: What right has a man to have red hair when he is dead?

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Synopsis

It was late in November 1456. The snow fell over Paris with rigorous, relentless persistence; sometimes the wind made a sally and scattered it in flying vortices; sometimes there was a lull, and flake after flake descended out of the black night air, silent, circuitous, interminable. To poor people, looking up under moist eyebrows, it seemed a wonder where it all came from. Master Francis Villon had propounded an alternative that afternoon, at a tavern window: was it only Pagan Jupiter plucking geese upon Olympus, or were the holy angels moulting? He was only a poor Master of Arts, he went on; and as the question somewhat touched upon divinity, he durst not venture to conclude. A silly old priest from Montargis, who was among the company, treated the young rascal to a bottle of wine in honor of the jest and the grimaces with which it was accompanied, and swore on his own white beard that he had been just such another irreverent dog when he was Villon’s age.

Thoughts

I’m still not entirely sure of the gist of this story. I even read a few passages multiple times. But I still enjoyed it. Even when I didn’t quite get what was going on…

What I loved about this story was the dialogue. I am not the best at writing dialogue at the best of times. And even worse at writing long, heavy conversations. Yet, Stevenson pulls this off amazingly. There are aspects of the prose that are completely constructed of the dialogue between two individuals, and although it is a little long-winded, it is certainly beautifully done and well-written.

 <- The Pavilion on the Links ReviewTreasure Island Review ->
Image source: AbeBooks

The Pavilion on the Links by Robert Louis Stevenson

Book Review, , , ,

Overview

The Pavilion on the LinksTitle: The Pavilion on the Links
Author: Robert Louis Stevenson
In: Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde & Other Stories (Robert Louis Stevenson)
Rating Out of 5: 3.5 (Liked this)
My Bookshelves: Classics, Crime, Romance
Pace: Slow
Format: Short story
Publisher: Word Cloud Classics
Year: 1880
5th sentence, 74th page: Fresh provisions were brought under cover of darkness by the old woman from the mansion-house.

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Synopsis

Two solitary men, once as close to being friends as men of their temperament could ever be, meet again on a bleak Scottish coast. Northmour has brought the corrupt banker Huddlestone, and his beautiful daughter whom Northmour is pursuing, to seek concealment in an isolated pavilion by the sea.

Thoughts

This was quite a fast-paced and unexpected story. I didn’t really have much of an idea about what to expect, but it was certainly fun. And unexpectedly romantic considering all of the other Stevenson stories that I have read so far. Or at least, I kind of found it that way with all of the foreshadowing which he uses throughout.

Each small chapter throughout the story highlights a new discovery, and a new moment in the journey that helps the protagonist to eventually overcome all odds and obtain his heart’s desire. There is also a great juxtaposition between Northmour and the main protagonist. Where one is honourable and honest, the other is quite underhanded and certainly scary in the way in which he claims Clara. Luckily, there is triumph of good over evil and a hope for the future.

 <- The Rajah’s Diamond Review A Lodging for the Night Review ->
Image source: Wikimedia Commons

The Rajah’s Diamond by Robert Louis Stevenson

Book Review, , ,

Overview

The Rajah's DiamondTitle: The Rajah’s Diamond
Author: Robert Louis Stevenson
In: Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde & Other Stories (Robert Louis Stevenson)
Rating Out of 5: 3.5 (Liked this)
My Bookshelves: Classics, Crime
Pace: Slow
Format: Novella
Publisher: Word Cloud Classics
Year: 1878
5th sentence, 74th page: What have you done?

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Synopsis

Sir Thomas started his career in India. He did some secret favor for Rajar of Kashgar. In acknowledgement Rajah presented Thomas a valuable thing – his famous diamond. In his homeland this English soldier became one of the most richest and famous people. After returning to England he married to a rich and noble woman. Harry Hartley was a sixteen-year-old orphan and worked as a private secretary for Sir Thomas. This work was no pleasure. His master was a difficult person. He always shouted and was angry with Harry. Unlike Sir Thomas his wife Lady Vandeleur was kind and friendly. The young servant often carried out many different private errands for her. Unfortunately, the next errand led Harry to the bad consequences.

Thoughts

I will admit that I read half of this story while I was kind of delirious from a migraine. But I still thoroughly enjoyed it. And somehow being a little loopy with pain made the mystery and darkness surrounding the Rajah’s diamond all the more intriguing.

I love the lyrical waxing and waning of the tale as the diamond falls from one set of hands to another reveals the depths to which people will sink. Greed, lust, and pride all play a part in the four tales of the diamond. I love that Stevenson is so seamlessly incorporate psychological commentary with fantastic storytelling. And, like all of his other stories that I’ve so far had the pleasure of reading, I know that next time I read it, I will find so much more to enjoy and be enthralled by.

 <- The Suicide Club Review The Pavilion on the Links Review ->
Image source: Goodreads