Tag: Book Review

Silence for the Dead – Book Review

Imagine you’re a young nurse in an old mansion turned into a mental hospital. It’s the middle of the night. All lights out except your small lamp. It’s June and the room is freezing. You can see your breath and out of the corner of your eye you see someone rush past you to the bottom of the stairwell. You can hear them waiting for you to come down the stairs to them…

By Simone St. James

“Portis House emerged from the fog as we approached, showing itself slowly as a long, low shadow…”

I am a Simone St James fan girl. I love her books. The first of her books I read was Sunset Motel. I then read The Book of Cold Cases. After I finished those, I looked for everything she had published and discovered her older historical books. I have slowly been reading through them, not because they take me a long time to read but because I want to savor them.

If you like a good ghost story, you need to read her books. Each book is about someone trying to solve a mystery that involves a haunting. She is skilled at making it creepy. Her characters are well developed and I did care about what happened to them. Her plot pulls me in.

Summary:

Silence for the Dead is the story of Kitty Weekes. She is pretty, smart, homeless, and a liar. From the beginning we know she is on the run but not exactly why.

Kitty loses her job. She desperately needs a job. She has a roommate who is a nurse and she finds out about an opening for a nurse at a mental hospital in an isolated location. It is the kind of place where if the weather turns bad, you are unable to get there because the bridge from the mainland floods.

Portis House is dark and full of secrets. It is not a happy place for anyone. The patients want help and to be able to see their families. The staff is overworked and no matter what they do, they don’t feel like it is enough. The Matron is harsh and makes life unbearable for everyone with her strict rules.

Kitty gets the job and soon finds out that they are desperate for help. The staff is stretched to the limit. The matron discovers that Kitty may not be who she says she is. She knows Kitty is not a nurse, but Matron doesn’t say anything because Kitty was hired by the owner. Matron does test Kitty by giving her disgusting jobs and pushes her, in a way that feels like torture.

Kitty had thought this would be an easy job. Soldiers from the war, recuperating. How difficult could that be? She quickly learns that the men have varying degrees of madness. Some are almost catatonic while others are violent and are not her friends.

She gets to know them but is afraid to always trust them, and she learns that they all have similar nightmares. Like her own. After she has been there a while and experienced the night shift, in a mental hospital, in total darkness except for a small lamp she carries. Kitty starts seeing things she can’t explain. She wants to help the patients and she knows she needs to find out what exactly is happening to be able to do so.

Kitty, with the help of a handful of patients and staff that she can trust, makes it her duty to find out exactly what is going on. Are the patients insane, is she insane, are there ghosts?

Review:

I gave this book 4 stars. It is definitely a keeper. Another book I stayed up late to finish.

St. James feeds us the information slowly, a little at a time. She hooks you and doesn’t let you go.

I loved the story line. I collect haunted house books, so these are perfect for me.

Each of her stories are stand alone and she is adept at spooky. All of her stories have scared me but I need to know what is going on so I suck it up and keep reading. Her books are not gory. They create a psychological fear.

Nominee for Best Horror 2014.

I would recommend this book to anyone who loves a good mystery with a ghost storyline.

Title: Silence for the Dead

Author: Simone St. James

Year Published: April 1, 2014

Category: Historical Fiction, Mystery, Paranormal

Pages: 374

Rating: Goodreads 3.92

Setting: Portis House – a mental hospital in England in 1919

About the Author:

Award Winning author Simone St James worked in Canadian television for many years before turning to writing full-time. She lives in Toronto with her husband.

I often find it difficult to give a good summary and review without telling too much information. There is a fine line between telling just enough and too much. I hope you enjoyed this review and if you’ve never read this author’s work, you will give it a try.

I hope you’re managing to enjoy a good book now and then. Let me know what you are reading.

Happy Reading,

Virginia

Murder in the First Edition

Addison Greyborne’s eyes glistened with the reflection of the glimmering snowflakes hanging from the delicate fairy lights she’d retrieved from her aunt’s attic. – First Line – Murder in the First Edition.

The back cover of this book says – Lauren Elliott devoured Nancy Drew before graduating to Agatha Christie. Eventually she tried her hand at penning a novel herself and is currently working on the next Beyond the Page Bookstore Mystery. I do like to see if there is any information about why the author chose to write a book or series. I tried unsuccessfully to find more information about this author.

This is a new series to me and I broke my own rule by not starting with the first in the series. I chose this book by the cover and that it was set around Christmas time and wanted a holiday book to read. From the blurb, I went on to purchase a second in this series set in January. It is part of my January to be read list.

This series involves a character who inherited her aunt’s book store and all of the characters she meets in the small town in seaside New England. We learn that she had been engaged but her fiancé died. In this book, his father shows up and at first she is excited to think that he wanted to spend time with her over the holiday since it appears she has no family. We learn fairly soon that she wants to like him but he has secrets that she fears make him not such a wonderful person. When she realizes he didn’t come mainly to see her, her excitement dims. She had already determined that he liked his ladies and when he attracts the eye of a local friend, she becomes concerned that he will break the woman’s heart.

When Teresa Lang, a local woman who was in charge of a charity auction that Addie had donated a first edition of -A Christmas Carol, falls down a flight of stairs to her death while the book disappears. Addie suspects murder because the book had been valued at $60,00, plenty reason for some people to kill. Because her fiancé’s father, who also has an interest in books may have been the last person to see her alive, Addie fears he could have had something to do with her death. Several other questionable characters come on the scene and she starts to question their true identity. Addie sets up a white board and notes what happened, with suspects and clues. A couple close friends get involved in the investigation with her.

Besides investigating a murder, she juggles two suitors, a past love, a local police officer, and a local doctor. Both are currently involved in the Teresa Lang death. The police officer tells her to leave it alone and let the police handle it but, of course, she ignores him. The doctor became involved by examining the body. There is plenty of sparring between the two prospective lovers and personally I might have liked this sub plot better if Addie had actually made a choice between the two men.

I can’t say I will commit to reading the whole series but since I bought the book set in January, I will read that one. Hopefully the author will resolve the romantic sub-plot and leave me feeling better at the end of that book. This book was well written but it felt fairly predictable. I feel most cozies do tend to do that and most of the time I am okay with that as long as they sprinkle a few surprises along the way. If you haven’t read this series and like the cozy genre, I would suggest you check it out maybe with the first in the series. I may have missed something by not starting at the beginning. If all goes well with the next book, I probably will do that too. If you have read this series, let me know what you think.

I look forward to sharing more reads with you in 2021. Celebrate safely and have a very Happy New Year!

Until next time,

Virginia

Stranger Diaries

“If you’ll permit me,’ said the Stranger, ‘I’d like to tell you a story. After all, it’s a long journey and, by the look of those skies, we’re not going to be leaving this carriage for some time. So, why not pass the hours with some story-telling? The perfect thing for a late October evening. – Stranger Diaries

Stranger Diaries is a story within a story.

Claire Cassidy, a high school English teacher who has immersed herself in the life of R. M. Holland, a fictional author in this book. He is the author of a ‘famous’ historical short story – The Stranger. The school where she teaches is R.M. Holland’s former home. It has been converted to include an addition that holds most of the classrooms. Most of his home is intact, including his personal office, kept almost like a shrine.

Claire uses The Stranger in her creative writing class while she also is writing a biography about H. M. Holland. The story is set in England where she lives with her teenaged daughter, Georgia. After a rocky divorce, the two moved from London so she could take this teaching position.

After a couple of murders, reminiscent of those in The Stranger, Claire notices that someone besides herself is making journal entries in her personal diary. She soon guesses that the killer is someone she knows even though the local police detective is starting to suspect her in the killings. During Claire’s investigation, she digs up several possible suspects.

The story is set around Halloween and includes some history about H.M. Holland’s wife committing suicide in the house by throwing herself off the second floor landing and that her spirit roams the halls. The legend is that when her spirit is seen, someone will die. There are also rumors that H.M. Holland had a daughter but no one has been able to confirm it.

I discovered this author through a YouTube channel I follow called ‘Diane in Denmark’. Her channel is actually about how she uses the FlyLady Housekeeping system but she is also an avid reader and shares some of her favorite reads.

I found a little more information about Elly Griffiths while watching another BookTube channel. Elly’s real name is Domenica De Rosa. She has written a few women’s fiction novels under that name. When she became interested in writing a mystery, her publisher suggested a new name; Elly Griffiths name belongs to her grandmother.

Elly wanted to write something scary and creepy. The story has two point of view characters, Claire and the police detective – Harbinder. Elly says that she loves telling ghost stories. Her inspiration was a place where she teaches creative writing. It is an older home owned by an art patron. It too has a spiral staircase similar to the one in this book.

When young, she used to write her own fan fiction about ‘Starsky and Hutch’. In her stories, the characters sometimes died and it made her readers cry. She wrote her first mystery novel at eleven.

She always wanted to be a writer and when on maternity leave 20 years ago for her twins, she wrote her first book.

Stranger Diaries is a stand alone but Elly is thinking about writing another one with Detective Harbinder as the protagonist.

This book reminds me of a modern Agatha Christie. I have read one of Elly’s Ruth Galloway mysteries and do like her writing style, so I will be adding Elly Griffiths to my favorite authors list.

If you decide to check this one out, let me know what you think. As always feel free to share what you are currently reading.

Will see you again soon,

Virginia

Book Review – A Year on Ladybug Farm

Title: A Year on Ladybug Farm

Author: Donna Ball

Publisher: Berkley

Publication Date: March 2009

1st Edition

Pages: 374

Price: $14.00

ISBN: 978-0-425-22587-5

A Year on Ladybug Farm is the story of three women in their fifties who strike out on an adventure together. When Bridget’s husband dies, the women who have lived most of their adult lives on the same street and have travelled the world together decide it might be time to purchase a home together.  They find a run down mansion in the Shenandoah Valley that they each fall in love with.  Cici wants to make use of her skills with tools, while Lindsey pictures the dairy barn becoming her art studio and Bridget is in love with the kitchen.  If nothing else, Cici runs the numbers and decides that with the needed improvements, it could be a great investment. The house gets its name from the multitude of ladybugs found in the vacant house.  They feel the ladybug is a good omen and decide to give it a year to see whether they feel the same way at years end.

 The main characters are Cecille Burke, a divorced, REALTOR with a daughter in college and an ex-husband who is wealthy and hob knobs with Hollywood celebrities.  Lindsey Wright is a single, teacher and an artist who seemed to have postponed her own attempts as an artist, while Bridget Tyndale is a recent widow with two grown children whose cooking skills make her the one the other two turn to for catering the grand parties, the three women have a reputation for putting together.

 The characters feel whole; in fact, I would love to find friends like them.  I was not ready to let the characters go by story’s end.  Luckily, I discovered a sequel coming out in October. 

 The author wove a ghost, other quirky characters, and subplots to make a most enjoyable read.  Her description of setting was realistic and pulled me deeper into the story.

 I would recommend this book to anyone who enjoys heart-warming stories about women who have lived long enough to experience life’s ups-and-downs and still have the courage to find new adventures.

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