Today's Read: The Poison Thread by Laura Purcell

Can you determine someone's character just through touch? Can you kill someone just through the act of sewing an item of clothing? Dorothea Truelove and Ruth Butterham each believe the answer to at least one of these questions is yes.

Here's how the novel begins:

My sainted mother taught me the seven acts of corporeal mercy: to feed the hungry; refresh the thirsty; clothe the naked; shelter the traveller; comfort the sick; visit those imprisoned; and bury the dead. Most of these we undertook together, while she lived. Then Papa and I buried her, so that was another one checked off the list.

A single merciful act eluded me: visiting those imprisoned. A lady in my position has ample opportunity to feed and clothe, but who can she call upon in gaol? Which of her general acquaintances is ever incarcerated?

—The Poison Thread by Laura Purcell (Penguin Books, June 18, p. 1)

Quick Facts

• Setting: Victorian England
• Circumstances: Dorothea is a good Christian young woman who does acts of charity and has an interest in science. Her particular passion is for phrenology, a method of determining a person's true character and deepest secrets by measuring and touching his or her skull. Despite her upbringing, Dorothea wants to marry a man beneath her station; her father, however, has other plans for her. Ruth, a teenage seamstress, is no stranger to hard living, unkindness, and abuse by those who think they are her betters. She is currently in Oakgate Prison for murder, which she claims to have committed by sewing hate-filled thoughts and death into the victims' clothing. When Dorothea gets the chance to practice phrenology on Ruth, the two very different women meet. Each tells her story in alternating chapters, but can either be believed? Which one has a better hold on reality? Which one needs to be saved?
• Genre & themes: Gothic thriller with themes of class differences and women's suppression
• Why I want to read it: I'm not sure I've read a novel with two unreliable narrators, and that alone intrigues me. I wonder if these women will end up helping or harming each other. Reviews say that Purcell gets the period details just right. I find it hard to resist a good Gothic story.
• Extra things to know: The idea of a killing through sewing comes from two true crimes: a 1758 murder in a milliner's shop and a 1861 poisoning of a craftswoman. Phrenology was once considered a scientific field of study. The novel was originally published in the UK under the title The Corset.
• Acknowledgments: Thanks to Penguin Books for a finished copy of The Poison Thread by Laura Purcell.

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Stacked-Up Book Thoughts: Reading across the Genres

First, for my friends in Florida and the South -- I'm hoping you are safe and that you have electricity and that you spared the worst of the hurricane.

For the rest of you north of the Equator, I hope you are enjoying the fall weather. I'm thrilled I can pull out my sweaters and long-sleeved shirts. I'm so ready for cooler temperatures and afternoon tea. I still have a window or two cracked during the day, but it's definitely cold out there!

With October comes a seasonal busy time for my work, and my personal reading time is crawling. I've gotten through only 4 books in two weeks. Oh well, the books will still be there waiting after I meet my deadlines.

The Labyrinth of the Spirits by Carlos Ruiz Zafon (Harper; September 18). This is the final installment in Zafon's Cemetery of Forgotten Books quartet. I listened to the first book (The Shadow of the Wind) when it first came out, before I was blogging, and that audiobook has remained one of my all-time favorites. I don't know why I didn't listen to the next two books, but I'm glad I gave Labyrinth of the Spirits a try. The plot follows Spanish secret police agent Alicia Gris as she attempts to complete her last mission before she returns to civilian life. The book is part thriller and part mystery and is set mostly in Barcelona. I barely remember the first book, but I didn't feel lost and I actually ended up recognizing the names of some of the characters. I liked the book, although I wasn't as blown away as I hoped. The tension was definitely there--as Alicia and her partner begin to uncover corruption stemming from the Franco regime, the danger increases--and I was invested in the outcome. I probably would have appreciated the book more if I had read the entire quartet; still I like the way Zafon conducted a kind of meta analysis as he tied up lose ends to the series. Narrator Daniel Weyman did a fine job reading the unabridged audiobook (HarperAudio; 27 hr, 55 min), which was a good thing, because this is a long audio. My only complaint was his British accent, which meant I had to keep reminding myself the book took place in Spain, not the UK. But all in all, his performance kept me invested. (For more on the audiobook; see AudioFile magazine.)

Swing by Kwame Alexander with Mary Rand Hess (Blink, October 2). I've become fond of novels in verse and so was looking forward to reading Alexander's newest. This coming-of-age story is about two high school friends who share a love a baseball, though neither of them made the team; who are good students, though they can still have fun; and who are different enough to push each other and teach each other. Noah is currently obsessing over his other best friend, Sam (a girl), and wondering how he can cross the line from buddy to boyfriend. The only problem is that Sam has a boyfriend, and she likes the other guy a lot, even if he is a jock and a bit of a jerk. Walt, on the other hand, is determined to make the baseball team and practices almost every day. He's also a trivia buff and and jazz lover. This short novel, though, is no high school romp; it covers themes of friendship, young love, diversity and race (Noah is white; Walt is black), responsibility, and larger societal issues. Alexander himself reads the audiobook (Blink Audio; 4 hr, 8 min), and I think this was a brilliant choice. His characterizations were spot-on and his diction is clear. He infused his performance with measured emotion. Swing may break your heart, but you won't want to miss this in print or in audio. You'll be thinking about Noah and Walt long after you close the book. (For more on the audiobook; see AudioFile magazine.)

On Sunset by Kathryn Harrison (Doubleday, October 2). I didn't know what to expect when I started this memoir of growing up in the sixties in Los Angeles. Instead of a straightforward chronology, Harrison's approach is more of a love song to her eccentric grandparents, who provided her with a unique upbringing. Her grandmother came from a wealthy family of multicultural Jews in Singapore, and her grandfather was raised poor in London. Each became world travelers and had fairly full lives when they met late in life. Their one irresponsible daughter went the other direction, getting pregnant while still a teenager. Though her mother didn't live in the big house on Sunset Boulevard, Harrison saw her often and wasn't abandoned in the usual sense. Her memoir is mostly a collection of her grandparents' stories: eight-day train trips from the Orient to Paris, fur trapping in the wilds of Alaska, meeting a Russian prince, fighting in World War I, immigration, and learning to accept one's fate without losing one's past. I loved Harrison's voice and her grandparents' stories. Don't miss this one. I listened the unabridged audiobook (Random House Audio; 6 hr, 39 min) read by Rebecca Lowman, who beautifully blurred the line between author and performer. My only regret is that by listening I missed out on the photographs included in the book. I'll have to see if my library has a copy. (For more on the audiobook; see AudioFile magazine.)

Jar City by Arnaldur Indridason (Picador, 2006): When I was doing my big book culling the other week, I made a vow to myself to start reading from own shelves. We're all drawn to the new and shiny and sometimes forget those books we always meant to read. I learned about Indridason's Reykjavik police procedural series starring Inspector Erlendur when I was lucky enough to attend a BEA book blogger reception in Picador's offices; I left the party with the first couple of books in the series. Since then, I've collected all the Erlendur books to date. I thought it was about time I actually read them.

Oh boy have I missed out. I really like the setting, the mystery, and getting to know Erlendur and his family. Jar City starts with a murder that leads the inspector to revisit a cold case involving rape. Meanwhile, a bride disappears from her wedding reception and no one has heard from her and two elderly sisters were assaulted. Besides juggling multiple police cases, Erlendur (divorced) is dealing with a troubled daughter. Family issues, police department relationships, and the way rape victims are treated, all come into play. Indridason builds the tension and writes a tight story, and I really enjoyed getting a peek at life in Iceland. If you like mysteries set outside the United States or the UK, give this series a try. I'm already looking forward to the second book.

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Today's Read: What Should Be Wild by Julia Fine

What if your very touch had the ability to kill and resurrect? Could you live without directly touching any living (or once-living) thing? That is Maisie Cathey's fate, who killed her mother when still in her womb.

Deep in the wood there is a dappled clearing, a quiet space between two hills heavy with trees. A prickling bower joins the fists of land, letting through a single shaft of dusty light. Muffled birdsong can be heard, if you are quiet, carried on the whispering breeze. Old oaks cast heart-deep shadows. Alders bow their branches low.

—What Should Be Wild by Julia Fine (Harper Books, 2018, p. 1; Prologue)

Quick Facts

• Setting: 1990s; a centuries-old family estate
• Circumstances: In the modern world, Maisie Cathey is, like other women in her family's long history, cursed. She lives an isolated life in her late-mother's mansion, never feeling the comfort of another's touch. Wearing protective clothing, she may go outside but her father forbids her to go into the woods. Some of her female ancestors who dared walked among the trees disappeared forever. Maisie copes well enough until her 16th year, when she loses both her housekeeper and her father within days of each other, leaving the girl entirely alone. With a few clues to guide her, Maisie finally steps beyond the confines of her home to search for her missing father . . . but all the while, she feels the pull of the woods behind her house.
• Genre: feminist Gothic mystery (how do you like that for a genre?)
• Characters: Maisie, 16 years old, cursed, and innocent of the world; Peter, her father, an anthropologist; Mrs. Blott, their housekeeper; seven of Maisie's female ancestors who entered the woods but never returned
• More than just Maisie: For 1,300 years, women in Maisie's family tree have entered the woods to escape the burdens of their gender, never to return. We hear their voices and learn their stories.
• The good so far: I'm not quite halfway through the novel, but I'm invested: I want to know what happened to Peter, and I want to know how the stories of the seven lost women tie into Maisie's story. I want to know if Maisie's condition is permanent. I love the fairy tale / folk tale elements and the dark, Gothic atmosphere that Julia Fine has created.
• The not so good so far: It took me a few chapters to be pulled into What Should Be Wild, but once Maisie had a reason to leave her estate, things picked up.
• Who would like this novel: fans of Gothic mysteries, stories with strong female characters, books with feminist themes, and/or dark fairy tales

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6 Thrillers to Read in August

How can it be August already? Time to pack the bags and head off on vacation to escape the summer heat. Along with your bathing suit, sun block, and beach chair, don't forget a stash of books. Here are a half dozen new thrillers; look for them at a bookstore near you.

• The Darkness Knows by Cheryl Honigford: After the murder of a radio star, an up-and-coming actress helps a handsome private detective solve the crime. Set in 1930s Chicago, this debut sets the stage for a new series and introduces a likeable duo. (Landmark, August 2)
• The House between Tides by Sarah Maine: I'm just past halfway in this atmospheric Gothic mystery set in the Outer Hebrides. Alternating between the early 1900s and modern times, the story has pulled me in totally--crumbling mansion, a skeleton beneath the floor, and closed-mouthed islanders. (Atria, August 2)
• Watching Edie by Camilla Way: Set in England, this psychological thriller focuses on two childhood friends who are reunited in their thirties. One is a single mom; the other moves in, saying she can lend a hand, but what are her true motives? (New American Library, August 2)

• The Couple Next Door by Sheri Lapena: I just started to listening to this thriller about a parent's worse nightmare. After a night of celebrating with their neighbors, Anne and Marco discover their infant daughter has been taken from her crib. The police aren't buying the couple's story. (Pamela Dorman, August 23)
• Unknown Caller by Debra Spark: When Joel goes to the airport to pick up the teenage daughter he's never met, she fails to get off the plane. Is this a cruel joke played by his ex-wife, or has something really happened to the girl? (Louisiana State University Press, August 22)
• Behind Closed Doors by B. A. Paris: This sounds like a pretty creepy psychological thriller. Everyone wants to be Jack and Grace. But if they are really the perfect couple, how come Grace is never seen out and about on her own? (St. Martin's Press, August 9)

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Review: Black Rabbit Hall by Eve Chase

I was attracted to Eve Chase's debut novel, Black Rabbit Hall, because the premise hit some of my can't-resist buttons: Gothic, rambling Cornish estate, dual time periods, and a bit of mystery. Plus I really loved the cover and the title (I'm kind of shallow like that).

The basic setup: The story of what happens at Black Rabbit Hall, a country home owned for several generations by the Alton family, is told from two perspectives, separated by about thirty years. In the late 1960s, fifteen-year-old Amber Alton introduces us to the magic of the estate, where her happy family is spending a school holiday. As a storm blows in off the ocean, we sense something foreboding.

In the twenty-first century, Lorna Dunaway and her fiance, Jon, are lost on a rainy afternoon, trying to find Pencraw Hall, a Cornish estate, recently billed as a wedding venue. Lorna's family often vacationed in Cornwall, and she's determined to get married there, in part to honor her recently deceased mother. When the couple finally find the house, they learn the locals refer to it as Black Rabbit Hall. Although Jon is leery and is ready to return to London, Lorna accepts an invitation from the elderly Mrs. Alton to come back alone and spend a weekend to familiarize herself with the house and grounds.

As the dark secrets of Black Rabbit Hall are revealed, so too are far-reaching consequences brought about by the actions of a selfish, evil woman.

Genre: literary fiction with Gothic tones, including a Cornish country house furnished with secrets

Themes: family, loss, mothers, siblings, being caught in the between places

Characters: Each person we meet within the walls of Black Rabbit Hall is emotionally authentic and easy to envision. The characters are complex and motivated by conflicting circumstances. I may have hated what some of them did, but I believed they acted consistently with their personalities, age, and situation.

General thoughts: Eve Chase's Black Rabbit Hall is wrought with atmosphere, tension, and enough mystery to keep us invested, even in the characters we dislike. I was able to imagine how special Black Rabbit Hall was to the young Amber and understood her devastation and confusion when her world collapsed. As Lorna is pulled to the house and its history, we feel the range of her reactions from curiosity to enchantment and then to horror and disbelief. I was as caught up in her journey as I was in Amber's.

A couple more things: (1) Black Rabbit Hall is not meant to have a big mystery with a huge reveal; instead, most of us will soon have an idea of where the story is going. On the other hand I doubt anyone will figure out all the details. And, as they say, the devil is in those details. (2) I usually really hate epilogues, but in this case it seems to work. I think Chase was right in jumping us ahead a few months to create the final scene. It was satisfying to have a clearer idea of where the characters were heading.

Thoughts on the Audiobook: I listened to the unabridged audiobook (Penguin Audio; 12 hr, 6 min), which was read by Nathalie Buscombe, Katie Scarfe, and Cassandra Campbell. No point being coy: The performances were excellent. Each narrator perfectly captured the novel's ambiance and nailed the characters' personalities. The smooth transitions between the readers kept me fully immersed in the story and on track for whose perspective (Amber's or Lorna's) was being presented. The narrators were equally adept at building the tension and drawing out the suspense. Even after I had figured out one of the principal plot points. I was still glued to every word.

I'm sure I would have loved Eve Chase's Black Rabbit Hall in print, but I'm grateful I chose the audiobook. It's one of my favorites of the year so far -- and will likely make my best-of list for 2016.

Published by Penguin Random House / Putnam, 2016
ISBN-13: 9780399174124
Source: Review--audio (see review policy)
Copyright © cbl for Beth Fish Reads, all rights reserved (see review policy)

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Today's Read: When We Were Animals by Joshua Gaylord

Suppose your town had a dark, secret rite-of-passage for all adolescents. Could you keep your promise to refuse to participate? For Lumen, things became complicated. Years later, living in another place and using another name, she tells us what she remembers.

For a long time, when I was a girl, I was a very good girl.

You should have known me then. You would have liked me. Shy, undergrown, good in school, eager to please. At the diner table, especially when my father and I went visiting, I didn't eat before others, and I sometimes went without salt because I was too timid to ask anyone to pass it. . . .

I did all my homework. I ate celery sticks as a snack. I went to bed early and knew that the shrieking outside my window had nothing to do with me at all.

—When We Were Animals by Joshua Gaylord (Hachette Book Group / Mulholland Books, 2015, p. 1)

Quick Facts

• Setting: rural middle America, modern times
• Circumstances: Years after Lumen has moved away from home, she lives a conventional life, overprotecting her son, just like she's supposed to. But memories of her youth bubble up, and she wonders how the teen she was became the unremarkable wife and mother she is now.
• Characters: Lumen/Ann (young & old); people from her childhood: father, friends, neighbors; people from now: husband, son, friends
• Genre: coming-of-age with Gothic and thriller elements
• Themes: secrets, family, social pressures, escaping one's past, self-discovery, marriage, love
• Words & thoughts from reviews: dark, fascinating, emotional, Gothic, different, a story of how childhood experiences shape adult perceptions, well written, couldn't stop reading
• My thoughts: I haven't read more than a few pages, but I'm intrigued by both Lumen's past and her present.

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Today's Read: Fiercombe Manor by Kate Riordan

Imagine it's the 1930s and you've foolishly entangled yourself with a married man. What would happen if you found yourself pregnant? On the insistence of her mother, 20-year-old Alice Eveleigh pretends to be a widow, fleeing London to wait the birth of her child under the care of an old family friend.

Fiercombe is a place of secrets. They fret among the uppermost branches of the beech trees and brood at the cold bottom of the stream that cleaves the valley in two. The past has seeped into the soil here like spilt blood. If you listen closely enough, you can almost hear what's gone before, particularly on the stillest days. Sometimes the very air seems to hum with anticipation. At other times it's as though a collective breath has been drawn in and held. It waits, or so it seems to me.

—Fiercombe Manor by Kate Riordan (HarperCollins / Harper, 2015, p. 1 [ARC])

Quick Facts

• Setting: 1930s and 1890s England (the Cotswolds)
• Circumstances: In the 1930s, Alice is sent to a country manor to give birth to her illegitimate child and then leave him or her at an orphanage. In the 1890s Lady Elizabeth Stanton is pregnant for the second time, praying that she'll give her husband the son he desires. As Alice wanders the empty manor (the owners live abroad), she uncovers secrets about Elizabeth and begins to fear for her own safety.
• Characters: Alice Eveleigh, pregnant and unmarried; Elizabeth Stanton, lady of the manor, no longer living on the estate; Edith Jelphs, housekeeper of the manor; Tom Stanton, heir to the estate; various family members and people in London and in the Cotswolds
• Genre: historical mystery with strong Gothic elements
• Plot device: Told in alternating chapters: Alice as she explores her temporary home and Elizabeth as she worries about what her husband will do if her pregnancy doesn't turn out as planned.
• Some themes: treatment of women, pregnancy, mental health, women under the control of men, secrets, marriage, love
• Early thoughts: Riordan's descriptions of the setting are vivid and the characters are believably flawed. The premise intrigues me: uncovering secrets, hearing unexplained sounds, and wondering what happened to Elizabeth and why she is scared. Reviews, however, have been mixed, citing disappointment with the ending, a weak creep factor, and an unoriginal plot. I'm going to reserve judgment until I finish reading.

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Today's Read: Heap House by Edward Carey

What if you could hear objects talking to you? Young Clod Iremonger's "talent" helps him learn more about his family's sacred belongings, but it also leads him to some unexpected discoveries when those objects begin to disappear. As chaos and danger threaten, will Clod be able to save the day?

It all really began, all the terrible business that followed, on the day my Aunt Rosamud's door handle went missing. It was my aunt's particular door handle, a brass one. It did not help that she had been all over the mansion the day before with it, looking for things to complain about as was her habit. She had stalked through every floor, she had been up and down staircases, opening doors at every opportunity, finding fault. And during all her thorough investigations she insisted that her door handle was about her, only now it was not. Someone, she screamed, had taken it.

—Heap House by Edward Carey (The Overlook Press, 2014, p. 1)

Quick Facts

• Setting: alternate history Victorian Britain, in a strange house on top of London's rubbish heap
• Circumstances: When fifteen-year-old Clod and downstairs servant Lucy Pennant team up to figure out what's gone wrong with the Iremongers' Birth Objects, they uncover strange family secrets.
• Characters: Clod Iremonger, a sickly teen; mean Aunt Rosamud; feisty servant Lucy Pennant; various Iremonger cousins and adults (not all of them pleasant)
• Genre & audience: Gothic mystery for middle grade and young teen readers, but fun for the whole family
• Themes: family; friendship (a bit of romance?); secrets; upstairs / downstairs; sense of self; our relationship with our belongings
• General thoughts: I've truly just started this, but I'm taken with the fun creepiness of the book and the fractured names of the Iremongers. I like that the story is told from the alternating viewpoints of Clod and Lucy and that the Birth Objects are crazy things, like safety pins and bathtub plugs, and that they have ordinary human names. I also can't resist the black-and-white drawings (by author Edward Carey) and the maps of the house.
• Miscellaneous: This first in a planned trilogy. If you want to know more about the books, see some of the drawings, and discover your very own Birth Object (mine's a key!), check out the Iremonger Trilogy website.
• Recommendations: I haven't read enough to make a real recommendation, but if you like Gothic, a clever story, and a bit of creepiness mixed in with some deeper themes, then you'll want to give Heap House a try.

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