Summon the Keeper by Tanya Huff

Summon the Keeper

Cosmic accidents require procedures to keep the world safe. Thus the role of the Keeper, a protector who keeps evil at bay.

Claire Hansen is the Keeper, who along with her familiar, a cat named Austin, is summoned to a B & B where an opening to hell exists in the basement.  Claire is not a happy camper and is afraid that this particular assignment may require her presence... forever.  Not what she had in mind for the rest of her life. 

This is a light and funny book filled with an odd assortment of characters and plenty of contemporary allusions (although dated now, as the book was published in 1998).  

Two love interests:  a handsome young caretaker and a sexy Quebecois ghost, who is definitely missing female companionship.  Add "Sleeping Beauty" in Room 6, a vampire, some werewolves, and other unusual characters to the mix and the result is often hilarious mayhem.

R.I.P.  Challenge

Read in Sept.
Purchased paperback.

Supernatural/Fantasy.  1998.  336 pages.

The Wolf in Winter by John Connolly (RIP #1)

The Wolf in Winter is a Charlie Parker mystery that blends the supernatural with mystery.  I've read and reviewed two other books by John Connolly:  The Book of Lost Things (a YA novel) and The Whisperers, another Charlie Parker mystery.  I liked them both, although one is a YA fantasy about a boy who gets lost in fairy tales and the other a dark adult mystery/paranormal novel.

The Wolf in Winter finds Charlie Parker looking into the death of Jude, a homeless man that had recently wanted to hire Parker to look for his missing daughter.  It appears that Jude's death is a suicide, but one of Jude's homeless friends has doubts, and Parker begins to wonder.

Parker's investigation leads him to Prosperous, Maine, a town that has an unusual ability to "prosper" even in hard times and that shuns outsiders.  The inhabitants are all descendants of the town's founders, except for those who have married into one of the original families.  

There you go.  Bound to be some supernatural element when a centuries-old town remains peopled by descendants of the same founding fathers.  Especially since their church, which no longer has an official congregation, was brought over stone by stone from England and rebuilt.  The church has a certain threatening atmosphere, emphasized by leering images of the Green Man and definitely lacks the feel of any Christian sect.  

The town leaders of Prosperous are not pleased with Jude's inquiries, and after his death, Parker's questions create a threat the Selectmen of the town will not tolerate.

Angel and Louis play a small part, as do villains from the past like the Collector and the lawyer Eldritch, the Believers, the Backers, and Cambion.

Mostly character driven, the plot does keep the suspense building.  Connolly manages to do this extremely well and without gory details.  The lack of gory details (oh, there are few of those with Cambion), does not affect the tension the novel evokes.

A great RIP novel that has good writing, well-developed characters, suspense, and a lingering feeling of evil.  Since I'm reviewing this for Carl's RIP Challenge, I'm reviewing it a little early and will mention it again closer to the publication date.  You can get it from NetGalley if you want it for the challenge.


NetGalley/Atria Books

Suspense/Mystery/Supernatural.  Oct. 28, 2014.  Print length:  416 pages.

Time for RIP IX !

Time for Carl's RIP Challenge! 

The first challenge was in 2006 (that hardly seems possible), and that year I read:

 The House on the Borderland, a short novel by William Hope Hodgson, written in 1908.  I chose it because Hodgson was an influence on H.P. Lovecraft, who called Hodgson's work "cosmic horror."  I didn't like it all that much, in spite of all of the Gothic elements, but I'm glad I read it.

Lolly Willows or The Loving Huntsman by Sylvia Townsend.  This was actually The Book of the Month Club's first selection...in 1926.  My main interest was in the way Townsend rearranged The Wild Hunt myth.

The Wyvern Mystery by Sheridan J. Le Fanu, who cannot hold a candle to Wilkie Collins in any way, but remains a classic in the genre.

The Haunted Hotel by Wilkie Collins--not his best and written near the end of his life,   THH is very short.  But  Collins at his worst still beats Le Fanu.  At his best, Collins is Mr. Gothic for me.  The Woman in White by Collins remains one of my favorite books of all times.  I read it in high school (along with The Moonstone), then reread for a later RIP challenge and was delighted to find it still kept me engrossed, beginning to end.

The Keep by Jennifer Egan, a much more contemporary choice, but unlike the majority of readers, I didn't much care for it.

Death in the Garden by Elizabeth Ironside was a pleasure to read.  Has some similarities to Lolly Willows with a theme of a woman's quest for independence from a domineering male, but for me this story was eminently more readable.  Part I deals with Diana Pollexfen's acquittal of her husband's murder.  Part II moves to the days preceding his death, and Part III moves forward sixty years when Diana's grand-niece and heir finds Diana's diaries.

Grave Sight by Charlaine Harris is the first in the Harper Connelly series.  Harper can find dead people.  Got a missing body?  Harper might be able to help you locate it.  I've read a couple in this series since then.  While not a fan of the Sookie Stackhouse series by Harris (please don't hate me),  I have thoroughly enjoyed the Harper Connelly series.

*****

I'm starting this year's Challenge with The Carpathian Assignment.  Initially, I got a garbled version from NetGalley, but when I mentioned that I was interested in the book, just couldn't decipher the e-manuscript, the publisher sent me an ARC in the mail.  Started it yesterday! 

You guessed it, Dracula and Transylvania.  

Visit Stainless Steel Droppings if you'd like to join the fun!  You can choose to read or watch films or television or combine the two.

I'm watching The Night Watchman's Journal, can't wait for the  next episodes to be released.  Another good Kdrama for this Challenge is Arang and the Magistrate.

My Eccentric figures for Halloween continue to take shape.

Marigold the Hedge Witch likes to be prepared.