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The Drollery Letters #1
The Case of the Devil's Interval
This edition will no longer be released.
Josephine Drollery is a very disgruntled new ghost.
She, her parents, her future fiancé and many other dinner guests have been murdered, although only Josephine's spirit still lingers.
It was at that ill-fated dinner party that Josephine first met Mr. Edmund Serious, billing himself as The Great Montesquieu, Prophet of the Mystic River, and two other entertainers, Mr. Coffin and his harpist Mr. Cank, whose performance of a tune -- "The Devil's Interval" -- terrifies ladies and is forbidden in proper society.
Now Josephine must team up with Serious to find the murderer, uncover more plots, and outwit two industrious ghost-hunters hot on Josephine's ghostly trail.
A slyly humorous mystery perfect for fans of THE INCORRIGIBLE CHILDREN OF ASHTON PLACE about a ghost who tries to solve the mystery of her family's murder while dodging two ghost hunters among other obstacles in Boston in the early 1800s.
Josephine Drollery is a very disgruntled new ghost.
She, her parents, her future fiancé and many other dinner guests have been murdered, although only Josephine's spirit still lingers.
It was at that ill-fated dinner party that Josephine first met Mr. Edmund Serious, billing himself as The Great Montesquieu, Prophet of the Mystic River, and two other entertainers, Mr. Coffin and his harpist Mr. Cank, whose performance of a tune -- "The Devil's Interval" -- terrifies ladies and is forbidden in proper society.
Now Josephine must team up with Serious to find the murderer, uncover more plots, and outwit two industrious ghost-hunters hot on Josephine's ghostly trail.
A slyly humorous mystery perfect for fans of THE INCORRIGIBLE CHILDREN OF ASHTON PLACE about a ghost who tries to solve the mystery of her family's murder while dodging two ghost hunters among other obstacles in Boston in the early 1800s.
176 pages, Hardcover
First published September 8, 2015
22 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
August 27, 2015
Arc provided by Egmont USA through Netgalley
Book Status: The release Date has been postponed
A delightful, fast paced and quirky adventure who happens to feature a sharp witted ghost as its main character.
Josephine Drollery had everything to lead a happy and successful life..okay, thereis was the small matter of an arranged marriage with an idiot..but she was still twelve years old, a lot of things could happen until then.
He could die in the meantime! ;)
*Focus* And did I mentioned that she has a sharp tongue?
Well, she has, and that's something that Josephine doesn't lose, contrary to what happens with her pulse. Poor girl.
Here was someone dotted by her parents and having a pretty good life. And what happens?
Someone kills them. All of them. Even the not so interesting fiancée...
One day, Josephine awakes. Her body is on the ground, and her spirit is no longer attached to it, and she has no idea of what just happened.
Luckily, the girl is more tough than Rambo and Terminator put together, and on the face of such tragedy, decides to undergo her own investigation.
Also, being a new ghost and such, has some perks _ which I am not going to divulge _ and she ends up being able of putting together a small and non-orthodox "task-force" in order to help her.
The author also plays with the so called "paranormal database", in the sense that this story manages to avoid the same old storylines, opting instead for creating a new dynamic and a whole set of characteristics _ normally associated with other paranormal beings _ for Josephine, who is unlike any other ghost I have ever read about.
Basically, I now see ghosts as cousins of vampires and Fae, lol.
This is a relatively small book and one of the things that shines throughout all the narrative it's the quirkiness, intelligence and humour that it displays.
It manages to be funny without being crass or idiotic.
It doesn't take itself too seriously.
And it left me wanting more. Definitely a series that I hope to follow.
I'll leave you with a quote from the Arc:
*quote removed from Arc and prone to changes.
Book Status: The release Date has been postponed
A delightful, fast paced and quirky adventure who happens to feature a sharp witted ghost as its main character.
Josephine Drollery had everything to lead a happy and successful life..okay, there
He could die in the meantime! ;)
*Focus* And did I mentioned that she has a sharp tongue?
Well, she has, and that's something that Josephine doesn't lose, contrary to what happens with her pulse. Poor girl.
Here was someone dotted by her parents and having a pretty good life. And what happens?
Someone kills them. All of them. Even the not so interesting fiancée...
One day, Josephine awakes. Her body is on the ground, and her spirit is no longer attached to it, and she has no idea of what just happened.
Luckily, the girl is more tough than Rambo and Terminator put together, and on the face of such tragedy, decides to undergo her own investigation.
Also, being a new ghost and such, has some perks _ which I am not going to divulge _ and she ends up being able of putting together a small and non-orthodox "task-force" in order to help her.
The author also plays with the so called "paranormal database", in the sense that this story manages to avoid the same old storylines, opting instead for creating a new dynamic and a whole set of characteristics _ normally associated with other paranormal beings _ for Josephine, who is unlike any other ghost I have ever read about.
Basically, I now see ghosts as cousins of vampires and Fae, lol.
This is a relatively small book and one of the things that shines throughout all the narrative it's the quirkiness, intelligence and humour that it displays.
It manages to be funny without being crass or idiotic.
It doesn't take itself too seriously.
And it left me wanting more. Definitely a series that I hope to follow.
I'll leave you with a quote from the Arc:
*quote removed from Arc and prone to changes.
September 6, 2015
Josephine Drollery is a very disgruntled new ghost. She, her parents, her future fiancé and many other dinner guests have been murdered, although only Josephine's spirit still lingers. It was at that ill-fated dinner party that Josephine first met Mr. Edmund Serious, billing himself as The Great Montesquieu, Prophet of the Mystic River, and two other entertainers, Mr. Coffin and his harpist Mr. Cank, whose performance of a tune -- "The Devil's Interval" -- terrifies ladies and is forbidden in proper society. Now Josephine must team up with Serious to find the murderer, uncover more plots, and outwit two industrious ghost-hunters hot on Josephine's ghostly trail.
This book is a pretty good read - primarily because of the vivacious protagonist, Josephine, a young pre-teen girl who has been a ghost for three decades, now writing her adventures of mystery solving to a publisher. On the night of her death, there was a dinner party at her house where a strange person played a harp. On waking up as a ghost, she is at first, scared, surprised and confused, but soon she figures out what happened. What she then intends to do is to expose the guilty party, and save some important people also in the process.
Josephine is snarky, sassy and brave - and the way she talks down to the publisher in her letter, which is the format the book is in, is hilarious. She is disgruntled with him, for having published an erroneous account of her adventures, which promises more books in this series. Besides the mystery, the other arc of the book is her figuring out the rules of being a spectre, and she smartly figures out a lot of things on her own, until she meets an Oxford professor, who gives her plenty of reading material. The writing is witty and humorous, making this a light read than a morbid one. 3.5 stars.
Received a free galley from Egmont USA via Netgalley; this does not influence my opinions or review.
This book is a pretty good read - primarily because of the vivacious protagonist, Josephine, a young pre-teen girl who has been a ghost for three decades, now writing her adventures of mystery solving to a publisher. On the night of her death, there was a dinner party at her house where a strange person played a harp. On waking up as a ghost, she is at first, scared, surprised and confused, but soon she figures out what happened. What she then intends to do is to expose the guilty party, and save some important people also in the process.
Josephine is snarky, sassy and brave - and the way she talks down to the publisher in her letter, which is the format the book is in, is hilarious. She is disgruntled with him, for having published an erroneous account of her adventures, which promises more books in this series. Besides the mystery, the other arc of the book is her figuring out the rules of being a spectre, and she smartly figures out a lot of things on her own, until she meets an Oxford professor, who gives her plenty of reading material. The writing is witty and humorous, making this a light read than a morbid one. 3.5 stars.
Received a free galley from Egmont USA via Netgalley; this does not influence my opinions or review.
January 31, 2015
The first thing that comes to mind when I read the first pages of this book was originality. I have to say without a doubt that this book has been a fresh breath of air to me. I have fallen prey to the usual plots and twists you see repeat themselves in literature for a long time but this story helped me escape the well of repetition and cliche. The story follows a young girl named Josephine who finds herself in the precarious situation of being a ghost with a mystery to solve. With the help of two friends, a scoundrel, and another scholarly ghost, Josephine must solve the mystery of her death before the killer murders somebody else. I enjoyed the humor and the folktale portion of the story. However, the only problem I see with this book is the targeted audience. It says for ages 8-12 and although I see how this quirky little number may appeal to children, I can also see how disturbing it could be to read descriptions of a corpse. Nonetheless, this book is destined to amaze and would recommend, perhaps better, to a slightly older audience.
"Live, Read, and Imagine" ;)
"Live, Read, and Imagine" ;)
May 26, 2017
A Sly and Engaging Treat
Twelve year old Josephine Drollery awakens under a hedge in her back yard to discover that she, her parents, and various friends and guests have all been murdered by someone who attended her parents' dinner party. She eventually realizes that she's a ghost, and shortly thereafter she resolves to solve the mystery behind the murders. (Actually, the book is framed as a rebuttal, written years later, of an error ridden account of the event, but it reads as though in the present tense.)
It takes place in the early 1784 so we get to have a lot of fun with what a spunky, smart and sassy young lady of that era would sound like. It's a tricky feat, but the author manages to meld the natural restraint and modesty of a proper Bostonian lady with a modern girrlll power attitude, and the result is one of the wittiest, sharpest, and deadpan funniest young heroines I've encountered in some while.
In addition to Josephine, who would undoubtedly be able to carry the entire book if called upon to do so, we encounter a wide cast of reprobates, helpers, acquaintances, suspects, villains, and fools, who each contribute some flash to the project. On top of that, Josephine is being pursued by two ghost hunters, which introduces just a touch of slapstick, and menace.
Josephine can be disgruntled, resigned, angry, unorthodox, sharp-tongued, and laugh out loud funny. The ghost angle adds a nice element, but it isn't the heart of the book. (Everyone she needs to interact with seems to take her ghostly state into stride almost immediately, so we don't have any of that tedious yes-it's-really-me stuff over and over. Indeed, some of the funniest scenes involve how blase, or envious, some her friends and acquaintances can be when she reveals herself to them.)
The actual mystery is interesting enough, and there are a few thriller style moments, but the main appeal here, to me, was just following Josephine's adventure and her quick mind and wit. If you have a younger reader who likes spunky heroines, then this strikes me as an amusing and entertaining change of pace that he or she might very much enjoy.
(Please note that I received a free ecopy of this book without a review requirement, or any influence regarding review content should I choose to post a review. Apart from that I have no connection at all to either the author or the publisher of this book.)
Twelve year old Josephine Drollery awakens under a hedge in her back yard to discover that she, her parents, and various friends and guests have all been murdered by someone who attended her parents' dinner party. She eventually realizes that she's a ghost, and shortly thereafter she resolves to solve the mystery behind the murders. (Actually, the book is framed as a rebuttal, written years later, of an error ridden account of the event, but it reads as though in the present tense.)
It takes place in the early 1784 so we get to have a lot of fun with what a spunky, smart and sassy young lady of that era would sound like. It's a tricky feat, but the author manages to meld the natural restraint and modesty of a proper Bostonian lady with a modern girrlll power attitude, and the result is one of the wittiest, sharpest, and deadpan funniest young heroines I've encountered in some while.
In addition to Josephine, who would undoubtedly be able to carry the entire book if called upon to do so, we encounter a wide cast of reprobates, helpers, acquaintances, suspects, villains, and fools, who each contribute some flash to the project. On top of that, Josephine is being pursued by two ghost hunters, which introduces just a touch of slapstick, and menace.
Josephine can be disgruntled, resigned, angry, unorthodox, sharp-tongued, and laugh out loud funny. The ghost angle adds a nice element, but it isn't the heart of the book. (Everyone she needs to interact with seems to take her ghostly state into stride almost immediately, so we don't have any of that tedious yes-it's-really-me stuff over and over. Indeed, some of the funniest scenes involve how blase, or envious, some her friends and acquaintances can be when she reveals herself to them.)
The actual mystery is interesting enough, and there are a few thriller style moments, but the main appeal here, to me, was just following Josephine's adventure and her quick mind and wit. If you have a younger reader who likes spunky heroines, then this strikes me as an amusing and entertaining change of pace that he or she might very much enjoy.
(Please note that I received a free ecopy of this book without a review requirement, or any influence regarding review content should I choose to post a review. Apart from that I have no connection at all to either the author or the publisher of this book.)
September 9, 2015
I don’t know if it’s always been the case, but I feel as if I’ve seen a lot of books lately published as “volume one” in a series, which leaves me curious. Was the novel so good that the publisher immediately contracted for more? Was the author expressing a sort of writer’s optimism? Whatever the reason, I’ve just finished a book for grade school-aged (more or less) readers that I’m glad to see is presented as volume one in a series: Emily H. Butler’s The Case of the Devil’s Interval, the first volume in The Drollery Letters.
The central character here is Josephine Drollery and the novel is set in 1784, in the newly independent U.S.—but if you’re expecting something American Girl-ish, you’re in for a surprise. The book is a sort of historical, humor, paranormal, slightly steam punk mash-up. Josephine is a brand-new ghost trying to solve her own murder with the help of a fraudulent spiritualist, who styles himself as “The Great Montesquieu,” a pair of orphaned African-American cousins, who trade odd jobs in a tavern for the privilege of sleeping in the stables, and a dead-but-still-teaching Harvard professor in the Study of Every Known Scientific Principle.
Josephine is livid because the great Montesquieu has begun publishing the cases they’ve worked on—without giving her any credit! So she’s penning her version of the story and sending it Montequieu’s publisher, with whom she is equally miffed: “I do not wish to mince words, you great nitwit. But if stupidity were contagious, you would be the plague. If it were candy, you’d be a sugar-dusted nut ball.”
While Josephine is tracking her killer (and she’s not the only victim), she’s facing additional challenges. The first of these is learning to be a ghost. Even the lightest material objects, for example, are impossibly heavy for a ghost to lift: “A candle was a luxury in those days, one that my friends couldn’t afford and that I couldn’t carry.” The second is evading a pair of Harvard paranormal researchers who are the Revolutionary-era equivalent of ghost busters. (The equipment they use is where the steam punk comes in.)
Dead or alive, Josephine is a remarkable girl, full of imagination and gumption. She refers to the nursery where she sleeps as the crow’s nest, noting “(I suppose people of limited imagination would refer to it as the nursery.)” Whether or not you’re in grades 3-7, you’ll enjoy spending time in her company and, like me, will be looking forward to meeting up with her again.
The central character here is Josephine Drollery and the novel is set in 1784, in the newly independent U.S.—but if you’re expecting something American Girl-ish, you’re in for a surprise. The book is a sort of historical, humor, paranormal, slightly steam punk mash-up. Josephine is a brand-new ghost trying to solve her own murder with the help of a fraudulent spiritualist, who styles himself as “The Great Montesquieu,” a pair of orphaned African-American cousins, who trade odd jobs in a tavern for the privilege of sleeping in the stables, and a dead-but-still-teaching Harvard professor in the Study of Every Known Scientific Principle.
Josephine is livid because the great Montesquieu has begun publishing the cases they’ve worked on—without giving her any credit! So she’s penning her version of the story and sending it Montequieu’s publisher, with whom she is equally miffed: “I do not wish to mince words, you great nitwit. But if stupidity were contagious, you would be the plague. If it were candy, you’d be a sugar-dusted nut ball.”
While Josephine is tracking her killer (and she’s not the only victim), she’s facing additional challenges. The first of these is learning to be a ghost. Even the lightest material objects, for example, are impossibly heavy for a ghost to lift: “A candle was a luxury in those days, one that my friends couldn’t afford and that I couldn’t carry.” The second is evading a pair of Harvard paranormal researchers who are the Revolutionary-era equivalent of ghost busters. (The equipment they use is where the steam punk comes in.)
Dead or alive, Josephine is a remarkable girl, full of imagination and gumption. She refers to the nursery where she sleeps as the crow’s nest, noting “(I suppose people of limited imagination would refer to it as the nursery.)” Whether or not you’re in grades 3-7, you’ll enjoy spending time in her company and, like me, will be looking forward to meeting up with her again.
August 6, 2016
A fast-moving, witty Middle Grade historical/ghost story, this will appeal to precocious kids who've wondered what it would be like to be a ghost, but in this case also while solving one's own murder mystery and saving important historical figures. The "dead boy [girl] detective" idea is not entirely original, of course, but it's pulled off here with panache. The POV heroine's outspokenness is a bit historically inaccurate -- so too the depiction of spiritualist demonstrations as a popular New England dinner party pastime as early as the 1780s, among other things -- but it works well to pull the modern reader in. Josephine Drollery is quite kick-ass in her way, and her friends, associates, and enemies are charming and/or colorful characters themselves. I loved seeing the late-18th century Boston area, and I loved all the over-the-top surnames.
I could have done without the "Native American Creature" bit, though. It is explicitly not an "Evil Indian", just a legendary (but not supernatural?) local being that traditionally terrorized the Native Americans long before the arrival of the Europeans, but still. In a novel like this, it would have been enough to weave the British/American post-war political landscape into the mix without adding a half-baked indigenous creature plot. One that also ends up needing to rely on imported Celtic lore because... why?
This book was not released in Fall 2015 as planned because the publishing house, Egmont USA, closed up shop earlier in the year. I'm not sure what the protocol is for reviewing an ARC that I received for a book that ended up not being released, but I enjoyed it. I'd give it 3.5 stars, rounding up vis-a-vis its target audience. So, hopefully some other publishers will snap it up. I'd love to see the planned series continue.
** I received a Review Copy of this book via NetGalley **
(2015 Egmont USA edition -- PUBLICATION CANCELLED)
I could have done without the "Native American Creature" bit, though. It is explicitly not an "Evil Indian", just a legendary (but not supernatural?) local being that traditionally terrorized the Native Americans long before the arrival of the Europeans, but still. In a novel like this, it would have been enough to weave the British/American post-war political landscape into the mix without adding a half-baked indigenous creature plot. One that also ends up needing to rely on imported Celtic lore because... why?
This book was not released in Fall 2015 as planned because the publishing house, Egmont USA, closed up shop earlier in the year. I'm not sure what the protocol is for reviewing an ARC that I received for a book that ended up not being released, but I enjoyed it. I'd give it 3.5 stars, rounding up vis-a-vis its target audience. So, hopefully some other publishers will snap it up. I'd love to see the planned series continue.
** I received a Review Copy of this book via NetGalley **
(2015 Egmont USA edition -- PUBLICATION CANCELLED)
September 27, 2015
It is the year 1784 and Josephine Drollery is writing to a publisher because someone else has written an account of her adventures full of errors and she will now set the record straight. Thirty years ago, her life was a pretty good one – that is, until her parent’s dinner party where everyone including Josephine were murdered. Now, Josephine is a ghost with a mission – she is determined to discover the murderer(s) and bring them to justice. With the aid of two orphaned African American cousins, a Harvard Professor who, though dead, continues to teach, and a fraudulent spiritualist known as The Great Montesquieu who is a bit disconcerted to discover a real ghost contacting him. But before she can solve the murders, she must first learn the skills of being a ghost.
The Drollery Letters Number one: The Devil’s Interval by author Emily Butler is aimed at a Middle Grade audience and is definitely not your typical ghost story. It is more historical mystery with ghost and just a touch of steam punk thrown in so don’t expect any frights or chills. It is, however, a fun fast read – Josephine is spunky, her friends are an interesting lot and there’s plenty of humour to keep the reader engaged.
The Drollery Letters Number one: The Devil’s Interval by author Emily Butler is aimed at a Middle Grade audience and is definitely not your typical ghost story. It is more historical mystery with ghost and just a touch of steam punk thrown in so don’t expect any frights or chills. It is, however, a fun fast read – Josephine is spunky, her friends are an interesting lot and there’s plenty of humour to keep the reader engaged.
July 13, 2016
This entertaining story will have you laughing out loud and rooting for the plucky heroine in unfortunate circumstances. I loved the post-Revolutionary War Boston setting, quirky characters, and the hint that there may be more to come!
never-finished
August 20, 2015I can't get into this book it's a DNF for me
Want to read
March 30, 2017I wonder what ever happened to this book.
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews