Review: A Present Past by Sergei Lebedev

Synopsis: The Soviet and post-Soviet world, with its untold multitude of crimes, is a natural breeding ground for ghost stories. No one writes them more movingly than Russian author Sergei Lebedev, who in this stunning volume probes a collective guilty conscience marked by otherworldliness and the denial of misdeeds. 

These eleven tales share a mystical topography in which the legacy of totalitarian regimes is ever-present—from Katyn to Chechnya, from Lithuanian KGB documents to the streetscape of unified Berlin, from the fragments of family history to the echoes of foot soldiers in Russia’s wars of aggression. 

In these stories, as in Lebedev’s acclaimed novels, the voices of things, places, animals, and people seek justice for a restless past, where steel claws scrape just beneath the surface and where the heredity of evil is uninterrupted, unacknowledged, unnamed.

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I loved Lebedev's "Untraceable" - so was looking forward to reading more from him.

This series of short stories, haunting tales of a Soviet past intruding on a Soviet present, were very different from the abovementioned work, but were intriguing in themselves nonetheless. I would have to say that my favourite tale was "Titan" - the story of a person of interest to the Soviet Secret Police, who managed to turn the tables on them in a rather unique way.

For anyone wanting to further explore Russian literature, definitely pick this up!

Review: The Spirit Engineer by AJ West

Sysnopsis: Belfast, 1914. Two years after the sinking of the Titanic, high society has become obsessed with spiritualism in the form of seances that attempt to contact the spirits of loved ones lost at sea.

William is a man of science and a sceptic, but one night with everyone sat around the circle something happens that places doubt in his heart and a seed of obsession in his mind. Could the spirits truly be communicating with him or is this one of Kathleen’s parlour tricks gone too far?

This early 20th century gothic set in Northern Ireland contains all the mystery and intrigue one might expect from a Sarah Waters novel. Deftly plotted with echoes of The Woman in Black, readers will be thrilled to discover West’s chilling prose.

Based on the true story of William Jackson Crawford and famed medium Kathleen Goligher, and with a cast of characters that include Arthur Conan Doyle and Harry Houdini, The Spirit Engineer conjures a haunting tale that will keep readers guessing until the very end.

Sad to say that I did not finish this - after fourteen chapters which failed to enthrall me in any way shape or form, I put it aside, and found that West's blog was much more interesting - and which can be found HERE.

Out of the Shadows by Emily Midorikawa

Queen Victoria’s reign was an era of breathtaking social change, but it did little to create a platform for women to express themselves. Not so within the social sphere of the séance – a mysterious, lamp-lit world on both sides of the Atlantic, in which women who craved a public voice could hold their own. Out of the Shadows tells the stories of the enterprising women whose supposedly clairvoyant gifts granted them fame, fortune, and, most important, influence, as they crossed rigid boundaries of gender and class as easily as they passed between the realms of the living and the dead. The Fox sisters inspired some of the era’s best-known political activists and set off a transatlantic séance craze. While in the throes of a trance, Emma Hardinge Britten delivered powerful speeches to crowds of thousands. Victoria Woodhull claimed guidance from the spirit world as she took on the millionaires of Wall Street before becoming America’s first female presidential candidate. And Georgina Weldon narrowly escaped the asylum before becoming a celebrity campaigner against archaic lunacy laws. Drawing on diaries, letters, rarely seen memoirs and texts, Emily Midorikawa illuminates a radical history of female influence that has been confined to the dark until now. “Midorikawa breathes life into these long-ago women in ways that make them feel contemporary despite their extraordinary circumstances and distance in time . . . By the book’s end, it no longer matters whether you believe these six remarkable spirit mediums were hoaxes or not; you’ll certainly believe in them. —BookPage (starred review) Join Emily Midorikawa on 5/16 for the virtual launch reading at Brookline Booksmith.

Weird Women: Classic Supernatural Fiction by Groundbreaking Female Writers: 1852-1923

Sysnopsis: From two acclaimed experts in the genre, a brand-new volume of supernatural stories showcasing the forgotten female horror writers from 1852-1923.

While the nineteen-year-old Mary Shelley may be hailed as the first modern writer of horror, the success of her immortal Frankenstein undoubtedly inspired dozens of female authors who wrote their own evocative, chilling tales. Weird Women, edited by award-winning anthologists Lisa Morton and Leslie S. Klinger, collects some of the finest tales of terror by authors as legendary as Louisa May Alcott, Frances Hodgson Burnett, and Charlotte Gilman-Perkins, alongside works of writers who were the bestsellers and critical favorites of their time--Marie Corelli, Ellen Glasgow, Charlotte Riddell--and lesser known authors who are deserving of contemporary recognition.

As railroads, industry, cities, and technology flourished in the mid-nineteenth century, so did stories exploring the horrors they unleashed. This anthology includes ghost stories and tales of haunted houses, as well as mad scientists, werewolves, ancient curses, mummies, psychological terrors, demonic dimensions, and even weird westerns. Curated by Klinger and Morton with an aim to presenting work that has languished in the shadows, all of these exceptional supernatural stories are sure to surprise, delight, and frighten today's readers.

read article here @ CrimeReads

Witch In The White City by Nick Wisseman

Synopsis: Thousands of exhibits. Millions of visitors. One supernatural killer.

Neva's goals at the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago are simple. Enjoy the spectacle—perhaps the greatest the United States has ever put on (the world’s fair to end all world’s fairs!). Perform in the exposition’s Algerian Theatre to the best of her abilities. And don't be found out as a witch.

Easy enough … until the morning she looks up in the theatre and sees strangely marked insects swarming a severed hand in the rafters. Before she can scream, the bugs drop and swarm her. And every one of them seems to have a stinger.

They strike fast—it only takes them a moment to inject her with so much venom that the same strange marks begin to rise on her skin. She's horrified, but there's worse to come: once the insects disperse, a Columbian Guard notices her rashes and warns that five people with similar sores have been murdered and dismembered. Before they died, the victims also seem to have lost their minds.

Neva considers fleeing the exposition. But that won't stop her from going mad. So she marshals her powers and searches for the killer. Soon enough, it becomes clear he's searching for her too.

This is truly a blend of real life events, alternate history fiction, fantasy fiction with a splash of the supernatural. If this is your genre, you will love this.!

I will admit that, personally, I guess I am a bit of an old-school fantasy fiction reader (Mists of Avalon, Lord of the Rings, etc), and my only real alternate history outing was a poorly done book about Anne Boleyn and a rather good one from Colin Taber on the Viking settlement of the US. So it was with a little bit of trepidation that I agreed to give this a go when offered by the author, Nick Wisseman.

The premise certainly was intriguing - being a non-US resident, I was not familiar with the names given to these "expos" - so that alone sent me scurrying away to do some more reading. I was delighted to know that this was a real event!

In 1893, an expo (or exposition) was held in Chicago in 1893 - ostensibly to celebrate Columbus' arrival 400 years previous. Here's me thinking it was an expo on actual Columbian culture! Anyway, from my additional reading, the setting is Wisseman's novel really taps into this event, and the events that occurred slightly before and after.

The Columbian Exposition covered 690 acres, made up on nearly 200 temporary neoclassical style buildings, canals and lagoons. The facade of every building was draped in white, giving rise to it's name - the white city. Artists and musicians, and people and cultures from 46 countries were featured in exhibits and many also made depictions and works of art inspired by the exposition. The expo ran for six months - May to October.

There were many "firsts" featured at this expo - the ferris wheel, electricity (which powered the event), the edison kinetoscope, morse code, the travelator and the telegram.

So, was there really a serial killer stalking the exposition grounds. Well, yes and no. Around this time lived a rather odd fellow called HH Holmes, who, it is speculated, may have killed as many as 200 people, in his "hotel" situated about three miles away from the expo. It is said he began construction of this hotel about ten years prior and may have begun his killings in the few years leading up to the expo - he is reported to have left Chicago about a year later when questions began to be asked about not only missing persons but from supplied about unpaid bills.

It is a slow build as the storyline unfolds, with multiple protagonists, each with their own agenda, who both help and hinder Neva (our heroine) in her quest to battle this supernatural enemy before she too, becomes one of its many victims. Throughout it all are the parallel (and challenging) themes of inequality, racism, political and social change, new ideas (including spiritualism) and concepts.

However, the Columbian Exposition was a mirage, an illusion, a temporary idyll - "Chicago changed its spots for a time, but not for long"  and "when the mask comes off, everyone is laid bare" - how very apt. For after the exposition's closure and subsequent fire, the idle smokestacks were fired up once again, blanketing the city in a perpetual grey cloak of fog that hid much from view.

Review: A Dangerous Inheritance by Alison Weir

Synopsis: England's Tower of London was the terrifying last stop for generations of English political prisoners. A Dangerous Inheritance weaves together the lives and fates of four of its youngest and most blameless: Lady Katherine Grey, Lady Jane's younger sister; Kate Plantagenet, an English princess who lived nearly a century before her; and Edward and Richard, the boy princes imprisoned by their ruthless uncle, Richard III, never to be heard from again. Across the years, these four young royals shared the same small rooms in their dark prison, as all four shared the unfortunate role of being perceived as threats to the reigning monarch.

Again I will preface this by saying that I am not a huge fan of Weir, however, I was interested to see how this would play out with three of the main characters (the Plantagenets: Kate, Edward, Richard) having lived and died long before Katherine Grey came on the scene. There are essentially three stories: Katherine Grey, Kate Plantagenet, and the Princes in the Tower.

I will start with Kate Plantagenet, illegitimate daughter of Richard III, and of whom very little by way of fact is known, especially of her childhood. Could she have known John de la Pole, Earl of Lincoln, with whom she was said to have had a relationship with in the novel? It is possible that she knew him if she was living in the household of her uncle as following the death of Richard's own son Edward, first Edward of Warwick then John de la Pole became his nominated heir. As both Edward and John were nephews of Richard, would he have counternounced a relationship between his own daughter (illegitimate or not) and his nephew and heir?. 

After Richard succeeded to the throne Katherine was married to William Herbert, Earl of Huntingdon, (1455-1491) as his second wife. On 29th February, 1484 Herbert covenanted 'to take to wife Dame Katherine Plantagenet, daughter to the King, before Michaelmas of that year'. Richard paid for the wedding and granted the couple an annuity of 400 marks from the lordships of Newport, Brecknok, and Hay on March 3, 1484. They probably lived at Raglan Castle, the Herbert family seat in Monmouthshire.

When Henry Earl of Richmond landed in south Wales in 1485, it is likely that a Herbert sent word to Richard of Henry's landing. William Herbert. however is not recorded as having fought for his father-in-law at Bosworth, though de la Pole quite possibly did. At the coronation of Elizabeth of York in November 1487, William Herbert is referred to as a widower, the marriage is not thought to have produced any children. What happened to Katherine is speculation - though it is commonly thought that she had died prior (she is last mentioned in March 1485), possibly in childbirth.

Now to Katherine Grey - one of the famous Grey sisters, the others being Jane and Mary; all granddaughters of Henry VIII"s sister, Mary. Katherine was initially wed to Henry, Lord Herbert, the son of the Earl of Pembroke (1553) - however when the plot to put Jane on the throne failed, this marriage was annulled and she was returned to her family (1554). She and her sister Mary were, at one stage, considered as potential heirs to their cousin, Elizabeth I of England. However, Katherine incurred the wrath of Elizabeth by secretly marrying (1560) Edward Seymour, 1st Earl of Hertford (it was forbidden to marry without the Queen's consent - it was considered treason to do so). Arrested (c.1561) after the Queen was informed of their clandestine marriage, Katherine was confined to a life in captivity until her death (1568), having borne two sons in the Tower of London.

The only tenuous link between the two women is that both their husbands were, at one point, Earls of Pembroke and both were in close proximity to the throne.  

So my thoughts.  Unfortunately, I found it rather average.  What appeared to me to be two potentially separate stories were merged together with the mystery of the princes binding them together in some strange manner.    The different narratives - first person for Katherine, third for Kate - does not really work and was at times unclear in its direction.  The addition of the "supernatural" element (supposedly binding both women together through history) merely creates a fog over the narrative and lends itself to confusion.  Then Weir trots out her standard anti-Richard bias.

Did either of women embark on a search for the truth behind the "princes in the tower" mystery?  Highly unlikely as I think both would have been more focused on their own survival in what were periods of great uncertainty.  Her handling of the paranormal component was not done well - she could easily have left Kate Plantagenet out of it altogether, the story may have flowed a bit better. And I question whether Katherine Grey would have even considered that Richard was innocent of the crimes landed at his doorstep, if indeed she gave any  thought to this at all.

I did like Weir's portrayal of Elizabeth's nastier side - people tend to forget that she was a jealous and vindictive woman, only seeing her as Gloriana. That was a refreshing change and the one upside.

So for me, this was average novel from Weir.  Just because she has written much on the era does not make what she writes as the gospel truth or perfect, there is always a great deal of supposition and inference in her works. This was not her best work of fiction - and is really only one for the Tudor fans. 

Review: Killing In C Sharp by Alexia Gordon

Third in the Gesthemane Brown series - and although I didn't read the first two, although there is a lot of character, background and scene setting before things actually start to kick off.

I'm not a fan. I loved the setting - Ireland - and the theme of ghostly revenge, however the character of Brown (and indeed of the supporting cast) did not illicit any connection / empathy that other "cozy crime" sleuths have done. I didn't have an invested interest in either character or the storyline that developed. For me personally, it just doesn't stack up with all the hype. Glad it was a freebie read.

Review: Saxon's Bane by Geoffrey Gudgion

Fergus Sheppard’s world changes forever the day his car crashes near the remote village of Allingley. Traumatised by his near-death experience, he returns to thank the villagers who rescued him, and stays to work at the local stables as he recovers from his injuries. He will discover a gentler pace of life, fall in love ¬ and be targeted for human sacrifice.

Clare Harvey’s life will never be the same either. The young archaeologist’s dream find ¬ the peat-preserved body of a Saxon warrior ¬ is giving her nightmares. She can tell that the warrior had been ritually murdered, and that the partial skeleton lying nearby is that of a young woman. And their tragic story is unfolding in her head every time she goes to sleep.

Fergus discovers that his crash is uncannily linked to the excavation, and that the smiling and beautiful countryside harbours some very dark secrets. As the pagan festival of Beltane approaches, and Clare’s investigation reveals the full horror of a Dark Age war crime, Fergus and Clare seem destined to share the Saxon couple’s bloody fate.

This is one of those stories when the reality of the main characters collide with something all-together unreal.

At the time Fergus is involved in a car accident outside of a small English village, archaeologist Clare is making a discovery of her lifetime. Fergus' return to the village is some sort of catharsis whilst visions of a past life of the Saxon warrior unearthed from the bog plague the dreams of Clare. As Beltane approaches, are Clare and Fergus doomed to relive the fate of the Dark Age couple?

The story immediately reminded me of "The Wicker Man" and "Children of the Corn". It is rich, evocative and descriptive, gripping and harrowing, as Gudgion weaves a tale shrouded in ancient folklore, superstition, dark fantasy and horror. The village of Allingley itself, with its diverse characters, conceals a deep, long hidden animosity - the menace of impending doom hovers in the air like a pall.

The story slowly builds, you are drawn deeper and deeper, until it reaches its apogee and the true horror is revealed.

Further Reading:

The Search for Anglo-Saxon Paganism by EG Stanley

Imagining the Anglo-Saxon Past by EG Stanley

Anglo-Saxon Paganism by David Wilson

Bog Bodies Uncovered by Miranda Aldhouse-Green

Bodies in the Bog and the Archaeological Imagination by Karin Sanders