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The Squared Circle: An Alumière Sisters' Adventure
Who’ll protect a sleepy English village from a terrifying werewolf, when those who could, don’t believe in it?
When the silver screen comes to Hawkinge-By-Hythe, it unleashes a ravenous werewolf on the town. Ordinarily, the scientific Alumière sisters would jump at the chance to get their teeth into a really good werewolf. But the three identical, pork pie-hatted Alumières are sick of being called witches, and refuse to touch it.
Handsome, young entrepreneur, Lorry Tassel, would love to ignore the werewolf, but keeps bumping into it while visiting flame-haired beauty, Ruth Leeds. And he can’t shake his suspicion that the beast shares his taste for redheads… Then there’s the mystery of the town’s statues, sneaking about on some mission of their own, whenever people aren’t looking.
With torch-bearing vigilantes patrolling the streets, black-hooded figures in the graveyard, a werewolf stalking the woods, and statues popping out at people everywhere, events force the Alumières into reluctant action.
Can there really be a perfectly rational explanation for this much mayhem?
When the silver screen comes to Hawkinge-By-Hythe, it unleashes a ravenous werewolf on the town. Ordinarily, the scientific Alumière sisters would jump at the chance to get their teeth into a really good werewolf. But the three identical, pork pie-hatted Alumières are sick of being called witches, and refuse to touch it.
Handsome, young entrepreneur, Lorry Tassel, would love to ignore the werewolf, but keeps bumping into it while visiting flame-haired beauty, Ruth Leeds. And he can’t shake his suspicion that the beast shares his taste for redheads… Then there’s the mystery of the town’s statues, sneaking about on some mission of their own, whenever people aren’t looking.
With torch-bearing vigilantes patrolling the streets, black-hooded figures in the graveyard, a werewolf stalking the woods, and statues popping out at people everywhere, events force the Alumières into reluctant action.
Can there really be a perfectly rational explanation for this much mayhem?
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About the author
Morgan Delaney
11 books12 followersMorgan Delaney is an Irish writer of dark, strange, and fantastic fiction, some of which has appeared in Not One Of Us, ParSec Magazine, and Fraidy Cat Quarterly.
He reads peculiar bedtime stories on his YouTube channel.
If reincarnation were a thing, he would come back as a lizard.
His best friends say it is.
And he did.
Get 2 free, exclusive ebooks when you sign up to his newsletter here: morgandelaney.info/newsletter
He reads peculiar bedtime stories on his YouTube channel.
If reincarnation were a thing, he would come back as a lizard.
His best friends say it is.
And he did.
Get 2 free, exclusive ebooks when you sign up to his newsletter here: morgandelaney.info/newsletter
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
August 16, 2023
3.5 stars, rounding up because I had fun reading this one!
Is this a cozy mystery? I've never read one, so this might be my first foray into the genre. The hallmarks seem to be there - a small town, a cast of colorful characters, and, well, the requisite mystery, with a dash of feel-good atmosphere and a heaping helping of good humor.
The writing is clever and, at time, laugh-out-loud funny; Delaney's turn of phrase is witty and balancing on a knife's edge between dry and slapstick-y. There's something sly about the humor, yet good-natured. The writing drew me in and kept me engaged until the last page.
For me, the story came unravelled a bit when inspected too closely; for example, the characters didn't really grow or mature in any way, so we could say that it's a plot-driven novel, not a character-development one, except not a lot actually happened either. Yes, there are werewolves and living statues and romance aplenty, but the events are repetitive - lots of chases through the woods, playing of harmonicas, and well-meaning misunderstandings. I'd say read for the atmosphere and don't poke holes in the story, it won't withstand close scrutiny but will still be quite enjoyable if you just suspend disbelief.
And suspend I did when the time came to the scientific explanation for the goings-on. Delaney cleverly takes supernatural-seeming occurrences and turns them into science-based events, which I suspect is rather the point. However (and it may just be that I'm no good at quantum physics, which I'm not) the scientific explanations didn't make any sense to me; they seemed an afterthought. In a tale that pointedly replaces the supernatural with science, the science should be strong, no?
Regardless of the weaknesses of this book, I really did enjoy reading it, and would check out other works from Delaney again. Thanks to Book Sirens for the copy!
Is this a cozy mystery? I've never read one, so this might be my first foray into the genre. The hallmarks seem to be there - a small town, a cast of colorful characters, and, well, the requisite mystery, with a dash of feel-good atmosphere and a heaping helping of good humor.
The writing is clever and, at time, laugh-out-loud funny; Delaney's turn of phrase is witty and balancing on a knife's edge between dry and slapstick-y. There's something sly about the humor, yet good-natured. The writing drew me in and kept me engaged until the last page.
For me, the story came unravelled a bit when inspected too closely; for example, the characters didn't really grow or mature in any way, so we could say that it's a plot-driven novel, not a character-development one, except not a lot actually happened either. Yes, there are werewolves and living statues and romance aplenty, but the events are repetitive - lots of chases through the woods, playing of harmonicas, and well-meaning misunderstandings. I'd say read for the atmosphere and don't poke holes in the story, it won't withstand close scrutiny but will still be quite enjoyable if you just suspend disbelief.
And suspend I did when the time came to the scientific explanation for the goings-on. Delaney cleverly takes supernatural-seeming occurrences and turns them into science-based events, which I suspect is rather the point. However (and it may just be that I'm no good at quantum physics, which I'm not) the scientific explanations didn't make any sense to me; they seemed an afterthought. In a tale that pointedly replaces the supernatural with science, the science should be strong, no?
Regardless of the weaknesses of this book, I really did enjoy reading it, and would check out other works from Delaney again. Thanks to Book Sirens for the copy!
June 9, 2023
Maybe Not Witches, But Scientific Wizards
This book wasn't what I expected. I wondered at first if I was missing some context because I haven't read the first book. As I caught on to the essence, I found The Squared Circle to be whimsically surprising, clever, and very funny. Delaney's gift for using atypical words and phrases that are still utterly descriptive gave me multiple laugh attacks. I enjoyed myself immensely. Anything I may have been missing didn't matter, except that I now want to read more Alumière Sisters' Adventures.
My fondness for the characters came because of all their foibles, not despite them. I'd love to hear more stories about Curly! As they keep insisting to their neighbors, the Alumière sisters aren't witches, but between the three of them, I suspect that they know everything there is to know about witchcraft and have adapted anything useful into their scientific bag of tricks. They reminded me a tiny bit of Sherlock Holmes, if he were triplets with distinct and somewhat oppositional personalities.
Morgan Delaney employs a light, witty style of writing with a turn of the twentieth century flavor. I'd describe the book as an historical fiction cozy mystery horror fantasy comedy with a mild occult flavor, a touch of science fiction, and with chaste romances that are a comedy of errors.
Thank you to Morgan Delaney and BookSirens for the gift of an advance reader's copy of The Squared Circle. My review is freely given, unencumbered with any obligation. I loved the book and heartily recommend it
This book wasn't what I expected. I wondered at first if I was missing some context because I haven't read the first book. As I caught on to the essence, I found The Squared Circle to be whimsically surprising, clever, and very funny. Delaney's gift for using atypical words and phrases that are still utterly descriptive gave me multiple laugh attacks. I enjoyed myself immensely. Anything I may have been missing didn't matter, except that I now want to read more Alumière Sisters' Adventures.
My fondness for the characters came because of all their foibles, not despite them. I'd love to hear more stories about Curly! As they keep insisting to their neighbors, the Alumière sisters aren't witches, but between the three of them, I suspect that they know everything there is to know about witchcraft and have adapted anything useful into their scientific bag of tricks. They reminded me a tiny bit of Sherlock Holmes, if he were triplets with distinct and somewhat oppositional personalities.
Morgan Delaney employs a light, witty style of writing with a turn of the twentieth century flavor. I'd describe the book as an historical fiction cozy mystery horror fantasy comedy with a mild occult flavor, a touch of science fiction, and with chaste romances that are a comedy of errors.
Thank you to Morgan Delaney and BookSirens for the gift of an advance reader's copy of The Squared Circle. My review is freely given, unencumbered with any obligation. I loved the book and heartily recommend it
March 28, 2023
Absolutely fantastic story that takes you on an adventure. Impossible to not love everything about this book. Intriguing characters, strong. Don’t miss out.
June 24, 2025
The Squared Circle is the next installment in the Alumiere Sisters’ Adventures in the quaint, yet quirky English village Hawking-By-Hythe. While you do not need to read the previous stories to enjoy this one, the cast of characters continues to grow as you get to know more of the village locals and having this background adds to the enjoyment. This story like the last mixes a bit of playful dark fantasy to its mystery of the ravenous werewolf and odd grey people.
I would suggest starting with “The Phoenix” which is the first book in the series. If you enjoy it and the writing style you are likely the right audience for the subsequent books. Others may not enjoy the pacing, the roundabout storytelling, or the ample use of irrelevant/weird footnotes. I enjoy the books, but admittedly stopped reading the footnotes, as it was like an inside joke the author was telling himself. That’s the only criticism I have because I otherwise I found this book fun, wonderfully eccentric and enjoyable.
I would suggest starting with “The Phoenix” which is the first book in the series. If you enjoy it and the writing style you are likely the right audience for the subsequent books. Others may not enjoy the pacing, the roundabout storytelling, or the ample use of irrelevant/weird footnotes. I enjoy the books, but admittedly stopped reading the footnotes, as it was like an inside joke the author was telling himself. That’s the only criticism I have because I otherwise I found this book fun, wonderfully eccentric and enjoyable.
May 20, 2023
I just finished reading The Squared Circle and I enjoyed it very much. The characters are as varied as possible and the main characters easy to like and cheer for their success. My favorites are Curly, Ruth and Larry and I encourage you, the reader, to get to know them in their, sometimes hilarious adventures. When I requested this from BookSirens I didn't realize it's book 2 of a series but it's so entertaining I bought book 1 from Amazon because I didn't want to miss the fun it promises.
I did find the scientific explanation for the occurrence a bit deep but that is a very small part of the story and didn't take away from the great experience of laughing so hard I had to wipe tears from my eyes! I highly recommend it!
Disclaimer: I received an ARC from BookSirens and this is my voluntary review.
I did find the scientific explanation for the occurrence a bit deep but that is a very small part of the story and didn't take away from the great experience of laughing so hard I had to wipe tears from my eyes! I highly recommend it!
Disclaimer: I received an ARC from BookSirens and this is my voluntary review.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews