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”

Spotlight Feature: MARGARET KERR MYSTERY SERIES

Please join Margaret Kerr as she tours the blogosphere for her Margaret Kerr Mystery Series, from October 12-23, with HF Virtual Book Tours, and enter to win one of three (3) Sets of A TRUST BETRAYED and THE FIRE IN THE FLINT in eBook!

A Trust Betrayed (Book One)

03_A Trust Betrayed
“Thirteenth-century Edinburgh comes off the page cold and convincing, from the smoke and noise of the tavern kitchen to Holyrood Abbey under a treacherous abbot. Most enjoyable.” —THE LIST

In the spring of 1297 the English army controls lowland Scotland and Margaret Kerr’s husband Roger Sinclair is missing. He’d headed to Dundee in autumn, writing to Margaret with a promise to be home for Christmas, but it’s past Easter. Is he caught up in the swelling rebellion against the English? Is he even alive? When his cousin, Jack, is murdered on the streets of Edinburgh, Roger’s last known location, Margaret coerces her brother Andrew, a priest, to escort her to the city.

She finds Edinburgh scarred by war—houses burnt, walls stained with blood, shops shuttered—and the townsfolk simmering with resentment, harboring secrets. Even her uncle, innkeeper Murdoch Kerr, meets her questions with silence. Are his secrets the keys to Roger’s disappearance? What terrible sin torments her brother? Is it her husband she glimpses in the rain, scarred, haunted? Desperate, Margaret makes alliances that risk both her own life and that of her brother in her search for answers. She learns that war twists love and loyalties, and that, until tested, we cannot know our own hearts, much less those of our loved ones.

AMAZON | BARNES & NOBLE | GOOGLE PLAY | ITUNES | KOBO

 

The Fire in the Flint (Book Two)

04_The Fire in the Flint“Intrigue abounds…. Robb’s captivating blend of history and mystery vividly evokes medieval Scotland.” —BOOKLIST

Scots are gathering in Murdoch Kerr’s Edinburgh tavern, plotting to drive out the English forces. Margaret takes her place there as innkeeper, collecting information to pass on to William Wallace—until murder gives the English an excuse to shutter the tavern. The dead man was a witness to the intruders who raided chests belonging to Margaret’s husband and her father, the latest in a string of violent raids on Margaret’s family, but no one knows the identity of the raiders or what they’re searching for.

Margaret’s uncle urges her to escape Edinburgh, but as she flees north with her husband Roger, Margaret grows suspicious about his sudden wish to speak with her mother, Christiana, who is a soothsayer. Margaret once innocently shared with Roger one of Christiana’s visions, of “the true king of Scotland” riding into Edinburgh. Now she begins to wonder if their trip is part of a mission engineered by the English crown…

AMAZON | BARNES & NOBLE | GOOGLE PLAY | ITUNES | KOBO

 

A Cruel Courtship (Book Three)

05_A Cruel Courtship“This is history as it should be told!” —GOOD BOOK GUIDE

In late summer 1297, Margaret Kerr heads to the town of Stirling at the request of William Wallace’s man James Comyn. Her mission is to discover the fate of a young spy who had infiltrated the English garrison at Stirling Castle, but on the journey Margaret is haunted by dreams—or are they visions?—of danger.

He who holds Stirling Castle holds Scotland—and a bloody battle for the castle is imminent. But as the Scots prepare to cast off the English yoke, Margaret’s flashes of the future allow her to glimpse what is to come—and show her that she can trust no one, not even her closest friends.

A CRUEL COURTSHIP is a harrowing account of the days before the bloody battle of Stirling Bridge, and the story of a young woman’s awakening.

AMAZON | BARNES & NOBLE | GOOGLE PLAY | ITUNES | KOBO

Continue reading “Spotlight Feature: MARGARET KERR MYSTERY SERIES”

Review: Mrs Roosevelt’s Confidante (Maggie Hope Mystery #5) by Susan Elia MacNeal

Maggie Hope has just landed state side after being in England for quite some time. She has come with Prime Minister Churchill and the rest of his cabinet to meet with President Roosevelt weeks after the attack on Pearl Harbor.

The two world leaders plan on presenting a unified front to the world as allies in the wars against Germany and the Japanese but their relationship is tedious. Any little scandal could threaten to undo their diplomatic relationship.

And the murder of a White House aide qualifies as a scandal!

Mrs Roosevelt’s secretary, Blanche, failed to show up for work and Mrs Roosevelt herself insists on checking up on her. She takes Maggie along with her, and when they arrive at Blanche’s apartment, she is already dead. It appears that she committed suicide but as the story unfolds, murder appears to be more likely. They also discover a rubbing of a note that incriminates the First Lady in a scandal….but the original note is missing.

Maggie plans on protecting the First Lady and solving the murder before the note gets leaked to the press and over turns the diplomatic relations between the two nations. Continue reading “Review: Mrs Roosevelt’s Confidante (Maggie Hope Mystery #5) by Susan Elia MacNeal”

Review: The Mystery of the Lost Cezanne (Verlaque and Bonnet #5) by M. L. Longworth

This book combined three of my favorite things…..art, France, and mystery. Judge Antoine Verlaque is enjoying his life and work in the small town of Aix-en-Provence. Provence was once home to the art worlds most famous painters, Paul Cezanne.

A friend in Judge Verlaque’s cigar club asks him to visit René Rouquet, a man who not only lives in Cezanne’s old apartment, but thinks he found a previously unknown Cezanne portrait. When the Judge and his friend arrive at Rouquet’s apartment, they are shocked to find him dead…..and the canvas is missing.

After tracking down the canvas, the Judge and his girl friend Marine Bonnet, begin looking into the canvas’s authenticity. The woman in the portrait is clearly not Madam Cezanne, so the natural question is ‘who is the women in the portrait’?

Continue reading “Review: The Mystery of the Lost Cezanne (Verlaque and Bonnet #5) by M. L. Longworth”