Evadare Volney's Blog - Posts Tagged "book-reviews"

The Killer Wore Leather: A Mystery by Laura Antoniou

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


I had a wonderful time with this book, a murder mystery set at an IML-like leather pageant/convention. At first I thought it might be a bit long for a weekend-set whodunit, but Antoniou really dives in and lets us spend time with all the characters - a huge cast representing so many different aspects of the kink community, as well as the detectives who turn out to not really be as much of fish out of water as they thought they were. So much delicious, witty detail, so many touching moments, so many engaging characters, and a few genuine twisty surprises. Although I didn't find the identity of the killer to be a surprise, by the time we get there I'd become so immersed in this world that the initial mystery plot was just one storyline out of many and not even the most compelling one. The journeys of the living characters surrounding the dead man are richly rewarding.



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My Grave Ritual by G.S. Denning

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


I dithered over the number of stars because it didn't make me howl with laughter quite as much as the first two books in the series, but then I decided it was just that the novelty had worn off and this one is really just as good - and maybe even better in that it's definitively building towards a series finale that's probably going to be gruesome and painful. Anyway, if you like the premise - Watson is the real detective, Holmes is a rather dim but extremely powerful sorcerer who's usually completely riddled with demons - and you like continually surprising re-writes of the canon stories that turn them into pulpy slapstick horror, you'll enjoy this one just as much as the others.

You'll be rewarded by various cultural easter eggs too if you happen to catch them ("Bellinger leaned in with renewed vigor and insisted, “Destroy the doctor!” “Destroy!” Hope agreed, in high-pitched, strident tones. “Destroy! Destroy! Destroy!”), and droll asides on social behavior ("The man was an arch-conservative politician, but famous for his even temper and courtesy. His political reputation was for upholding basically indefensible beliefs by remaining calm and genial until his opponent’s patience ran out, he yelled, and by the laws of British propriety therefore forfeited the debate.")

But I'm worried. I love this universe, and yet I know I will fail to take Watson's very wise advice here: "To the reader who loves our world and wishes to believe it will continue, let me say: Stop. Stop, right now. Close this book, set it aside and never read anything else I write."



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The King in Yellow Rises [Annotated] [Illustrated] [Translated]: The Lost Book of Carcosa by Charles Baudelaire

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


The TV series True Detective brought a revival of interest in the King In Yellow mythos, and this eerie little book is a great handy source to link not only all Robert W Chambers stories that involve the sinister play, the Yellow Sign, and the lost city of Carcosa, but a lot of his sources and inspirations as well, most directly Ambrose Bierce. And while Baudelaire's poem and Charlotte Perkins Gilman's story The Yellow Wallpaper, and the Lord Dunsany tales aren't properly part of the mythos, it's not a reach to see why they're included here, for cultural context of nothing else - and if Poe's The Masque of the Red Death didn't inspire RWC at least a little bit, I'll eat my...um...mask. It's a pity the relevant stories of HP Lovecraft can't be included here for copyright reasons (and the editor/translator explains which stories you need to read in the afterward essay anyway), but the star I'd have docked for missing them is restored by the inclusion of the decadent, surrealistic, nightmarish illustrations, which bring this collection up to a new level.



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