Special Feature: The Spine Tingling Literary Canon List for Halloween

Halloween is just around the corner and this week on The Lit Bitch we are talking about the books that make you want to curl up and hide under the covers of your bed. You know those books that scare you so bad that every little noise in your house makes you jump and wonder….is there a monster under my bed???

The folks at Casper Mattresses have a great blog called Pillow Talk and they are doing a super fun ‘haunted’ feature on their blog for Halloween where they talk about spooky hotels (including the Heathman Hotel in Portland, a personal fav of mine being from Oregon and all). Casper is a great company full of fellow bibliophiles like myself and they asked me to share what books I have read that have kept me up at night to celebrate Halloween!

I haven’t read a lot of ‘horror stories’ but I have read a few classic novels that certainly belong in the ‘spine tingling’ literary canon and I also added a few other books that were so suspenseful that I found myself jumping at any little noise. I am sure there are a lot of other creepy-tastic books out there that I am forgetting…..Stephen King comes to mind and I’ll be honest….I want to read Stephen King but I’m a little too scared! If you have a favorite scary book that makes you want to hide under your covers please share it in the comments below!

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Review: Moriarty (Sherlock Holmes by Anthony Horowitz #2) by Anthony Horowitz

Shortly after Sherlock Holmes and his adversary, James Moriarty, go over Reichenbach Falls a body is pulled from the water. American detective, Frederick Chase, rushed to Switzerland where he hopes to identify the body as Moriarty’s and ultimately recover a letter sent from notorious American criminal, Clarence Devereux.

Devereux and Moriarty had planned to form a partnership that would make them the most formidable crime syndicate in Britain and America. But with Moriarty dead, that leaves Devereux holding the reigns.

Chase plans to stop Devereux by any means necessary. When he arrives are Reichenbach falls he meets British detective Athelney Jones who has learned many of Sherlock Holmes’s methods of deduction. The soon for a team and start investigating the links between Devereux and other criminals in Britain but at every turn they meet a dead end…..literally.

The body count is piling up and the pressure is on for Chase and Jones to stop the criminal gang before it’s too late. Chase has spent a good deal of time studying Devereux and though no one has seen his face, he suffers from a rare condition known as agoraphobia. Chase and Jones hope to identify Devereux by exploiting his phobia.

The two detectives encounter many unspeakable crimes and twisted plots as they track the gang through London. Together Chase and Jones make a great team….they almost mirror Holmes and Watson.

Continue reading “Review: Moriarty (Sherlock Holmes by Anthony Horowitz #2) by Anthony Horowitz”

Review: The Counterfeit Heiress (Lady Emily #9) by Tasha Alexander

Lady Emily and her husband, the dashing Colin, are enjoying their evening out at an exclusive costume ball.

A strange encounter with a masked man leaves Emily scratching her head.

She was certain that she was the only Artemis at the ball but clearly the masked man was expecting a different sort of Artemis.

Well the only other Artemis at the ball is the eccentric Estella Lamar. Estella hasn’t been seen in society for years. She is known for her world travels and is rarely….if ever…..seen in society.

Emily’s long time friend Cecile knows Estella well from a childhood spent together. When Cecile sees Estella at the ball, she knows she’s a fraud. Someone is impersonating Estalla…..but why?

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Review: The Witch of Painted Sorrows by M.J. Rose

Sandrine Salome is running away to France. Her father has just died and her husband most likely had a hand in it.

She cannot continue to be in his house so she flees to Paris where her grandmother lives.

Sandrine used to live with her grandmother when she was younger but then she was whisked away when she was caught in a compromising situation with a boy.

Since then she has only seen her grandmother a handful of times but it’s almost like Paris is calling her home from America. When she arrives, her grandmother’s home is empty.

Her grandmother claims its due to renovations but Sandrine feels like she is hiding something. When she follows her grandmother one morning to the house, she meets a dashing architect….Julien.

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Review: Die I Will Not (John Chase Mystery #3) by S.K. Rizzolo

British mysteries are some of my favorite books to read….especially those set in either the Victorian or Regency eras. Who doesn’t love a good murder by gaslight novel?

The John Chase series intrigued me. I often gravitate toward British mysteries/detective novels with female protagonists, so a series that boasted a male detective grabbed me.

Penelope Wolfe has married the wrong man. She tried to break away from her father and in her attempt at ‘independence’ she has found herself very unhappily married. Jeremy is basically gambling himself into the ground.

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