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A Persistence of Geraniums
Enter a world where the psychic, the alienist and the assassin carry out their strange duties whilst quiet tragedies unfold. These are tales of murder, madness and the supernatural in an Edwardian England never quite what it seems. From rural Yorkshire to the heart of the City, death is on the air, and no one can sense it better than Mr Dry, the Deptford Assassin. On the cursed shores of Suffolk, an army widow loads her husband's revolver; in a small village, a vicar and his wife hear a tale which challenges their beliefs. The monstrous acts of a young gentleman are brought to an end by unlikely allies, whilst a deluded killer almost escapes the courts, only to discover another kind of justice. And if you want to know why a pale dog waits patiently in a London terrace, the true fate of the Whitechapel murderer, or simply the value of geraniums to one woman, then come inside… The first ever collection of Tales of the Last Edwardian, from John Linwood Grant. “A strong narrative voice, a keen mind and a masterful ability to create characters that stay with the reader long after the book is finished.”- Sam Gafford
140 pages, Paperback
First published March 11, 2019
23 people want to read
About the author
John Linwood Grant
101 books42 followersJohn Linwood Grant lives in Yorkshire with a pack of lurchers and a beard. He may also have a family.
When he's not chronicling the adventures of Mr Bubbles, the slightly psychotic pony, he writes a range of supernatural, horror and speculative tales, some of which are actually published.
You can find him every week on his website which celebrates weird fiction and weird art, greydogtales.com, often with his dogs.
When he's not chronicling the adventures of Mr Bubbles, the slightly psychotic pony, he writes a range of supernatural, horror and speculative tales, some of which are actually published.
You can find him every week on his website which celebrates weird fiction and weird art, greydogtales.com, often with his dogs.
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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
September 15, 2018
When you say 'Edwardian', do you conjure up a set of sights, sounds, and smells? Perhaps, in your mind, they are somewhat similar to those evoked by Conan Doyle's "eternally 1895" writings, but are also different subtly.
More nuanced. More tense. More 'modern'.
More dark, under the increasing glare of electric lamps.
This is a collection of Edwardian stories.
But, please don't think that this slim, well-illustrated, meticulously laid out paperback is full of short stories full of social realities and periodic details. Such stuff ARE there in these stories.
But there are so many things MORE!
Let me go step-by-step.
* The book begins with an 'Introduction' written by Alan. M. Clark. He gives a succinct description of things to come.
* "An Explanation" follows, where the author bares the nature of the Edwardian age.
1. "A Persistence of Geraniums"~ A cleanly told story that builds up all sorts of tension, makes the whole thing cracking, and then unearths a shocking twist at the tail.
2. "His Heart Shall Speak No More" ~ A darker & grimmer version of "Oh, Whistle!...", but with a new heroine unleashed at the end.
3. "Interlude 1: The Life of an Assassin" ~ A very-very brief peak into the world of Mr. Edwin Dry.
4. "A Word with Mr Dry" ~ The professional means business, as we get to see.
5. " The Workman and his Hire" ~ The professional performs, and we get to see a shine that's not only emanating from his knife or the barrel of his gun.
6. "The Intrusion" ~ Where the professional gets to meet some other people who are different, dealing with even stranger things.
7. "Interlude 2: The Conundrum of Mr Dry" ~ Another glimpse, some thoughts really.
8. "A Loss of Angels" ~ The biggest story of this book, this one is a labyrinthine story of murder, insanity, and vengeance that, for once, appears just and proper.
9. "Grey Dog" ~ One of the most poignant tales that I have read, this one is a study in grey, truly.
* "Afterwords & Secrets" ~ Summing up, with a hint of future of the characters introduced herein.
Overall, if you are looking for a book full of tales that are disturbing, at times horrifying, and yet who throb with a sense of justice that one can only associate with a very special type of professional, THIS is one for you. Look no further.
Highly Recommended.
More nuanced. More tense. More 'modern'.
More dark, under the increasing glare of electric lamps.
This is a collection of Edwardian stories.
But, please don't think that this slim, well-illustrated, meticulously laid out paperback is full of short stories full of social realities and periodic details. Such stuff ARE there in these stories.
But there are so many things MORE!
Let me go step-by-step.
* The book begins with an 'Introduction' written by Alan. M. Clark. He gives a succinct description of things to come.
* "An Explanation" follows, where the author bares the nature of the Edwardian age.
1. "A Persistence of Geraniums"~ A cleanly told story that builds up all sorts of tension, makes the whole thing cracking, and then unearths a shocking twist at the tail.
2. "His Heart Shall Speak No More" ~ A darker & grimmer version of "Oh, Whistle!...", but with a new heroine unleashed at the end.
3. "Interlude 1: The Life of an Assassin" ~ A very-very brief peak into the world of Mr. Edwin Dry.
4. "A Word with Mr Dry" ~ The professional means business, as we get to see.
5. " The Workman and his Hire" ~ The professional performs, and we get to see a shine that's not only emanating from his knife or the barrel of his gun.
6. "The Intrusion" ~ Where the professional gets to meet some other people who are different, dealing with even stranger things.
7. "Interlude 2: The Conundrum of Mr Dry" ~ Another glimpse, some thoughts really.
8. "A Loss of Angels" ~ The biggest story of this book, this one is a labyrinthine story of murder, insanity, and vengeance that, for once, appears just and proper.
9. "Grey Dog" ~ One of the most poignant tales that I have read, this one is a study in grey, truly.
* "Afterwords & Secrets" ~ Summing up, with a hint of future of the characters introduced herein.
Overall, if you are looking for a book full of tales that are disturbing, at times horrifying, and yet who throb with a sense of justice that one can only associate with a very special type of professional, THIS is one for you. Look no further.
Highly Recommended.
February 6, 2018
This highly enjoyable book is reminiscent of classic British mystery novels mixed with good old-fashioned ghost tales. This collection of stories presents well-rounded characters, some quirky, some ordinary, some chilling, but all entertaining and intriguing.
Each tale is solid and engaging, especially the ones featuring Edwin Dry, the Deptford Assassin. This extremely efficient and abundantly believable character is a stand-out and made me wish for more; I look forward his future stories. The book as a whole has a comfortable feel, but still gives a delicate touch of the occult and the strange, often with a nice flavour of dry wit or black humour. I recommend the book. Very entertaining.
Each tale is solid and engaging, especially the ones featuring Edwin Dry, the Deptford Assassin. This extremely efficient and abundantly believable character is a stand-out and made me wish for more; I look forward his future stories. The book as a whole has a comfortable feel, but still gives a delicate touch of the occult and the strange, often with a nice flavour of dry wit or black humour. I recommend the book. Very entertaining.
January 11, 2018
***this review originally appeared on The Ginger Nuts of Horror website***
If it weren’t for the 2017 copyright date stamped at the beginning of John Linwood Grant’s A Persistence of Geraniums, one could be forgiven for assuming Grant was a contemporary of Edwardian authors M.R. James and Arthur Conan Doyle. Each of the stories in this collection are utterly steeped in that bygone era, both in terms of setting and style.
It’s one thing to believably transport readers through space and time to immerse them in a vividly realized historical environment. It’s a whole ‘nother thing to be able to meaningfully evoke the tone and language of the writers from that period, all while still retaining a viably modern sensibility and enough of a unique voice to rise above mere facsimile. Through seven tales of mystery, murder, madness, and mysticism (plus a couple conversational interludes), Grant does exactly that.
Several of the stories here focus on “The Deptford Assassin,” Edwin Dry. A recurring character of Grant’s (one of several appearing in this collection), Dry is the best there is at what he does, but what he does isn’t very nice. He’s not some mustache-twirling villain, slavering psycho, or misunderstood antihero, though. He’s more like a perfectionist, bowler derby-clad version of “The Ice Man,” Richard Kuklinski (a real-life sociopath killer-for-hire notorious for his apparent wholesale lack of emotion and decidedly businesslike, matter-of-fact approach to life and death).
Plopping a character like that into the Edwardian era, what with its residual Victorian propriety and undercurrents of bubbling social unrest, works wonders. Whether giving a rare interview to a doomed writer, devising an elaborate scheme to arrange some private time with an otherwise inaccessible target, or even pitting his own inner darkness against that of an exorcised demon (!), Dry proves consistently compelling despite never once exhibiting so much as a dash of genuine likeability. In Dry, Grant has created a character fascinatingly disturbing in both how alien he is and how human he is.
Aforementioned encounter with a literal devil aside, the stories starring Dry tend to hew closer to detective fiction than outright horror. To wit, one standout tale feels a lot like a Sherlock Holmes story, only inverted. Instead of a meticulous detective solving a crime, piece by piece, after it’s already happened, a just-as-meticulous murderer commits his crime, piece by piece, with the reader witnessing the process as it happens. And instead of the reader going into the story knowing that this is the point, here the realization only dawns as one falls deeper down the rabbit hole.
Elsewhere, however, the collection’s non-Dry tales embrace the supernatural without reservation, specifically that most classic form of English terror: the ghost story. Grant makes good use of the subgenre’s inherent versatility. First, he opens the collection with an old woman recounting to a pair of uppity, unwanted guests her youthful brush with the spirit world. It’s an exercise in tongue-in-cheek gallows humor that nevertheless hits home with pangs of genuine pathos despite its jokey cartoon ending.
Grant follows that with a tragic yarn about a lovelorn young man who finds a wood-carving of a heart on the beach and yearns to return it to the drowned maiden who visits him in his dreams. This one is just as poetic and heartbreaking as the traditional folktales from which it takes its inspiration.
The collection eventually closes with one last ghost story that, while similarly mournful, is its own beast entirely. For starters, it’s a Carnacki story, starring the famed occult detective originally created by early 20th century fantasist William Hope Hodgson. What’s more, it may very well be the best Carnacki story Hodgson himself never wrote. Contemplative, sobering, and downright deconstructionist, Grant’s take on the character defies convention with a narrative that is unassuming and (to be honest) uneventful, but ultimately profound. It’s a stark reminder that behind every swashbuckling pulp hero there is (or at least could be) a real person, complete with secrets, regrets, and an overwhelming awareness of their own mortality.
Accompanying Grant’s prose throughout are numerous illustrations by Paul Boswell which mirror the writing’s tone by channeling shades of James McBryde, Edward Gorey, and, at times, Stephen Gammell. Altogether, A Persistence of Geraniums may be a slim volume, but it is one that fully realizes a very specific, and very engaging, vision. Readers may be able to finish the whole thing in one sitting, but that just makes it all the more tempting to dive back in a second go. Or a third. Or a fourth. Or…
If it weren’t for the 2017 copyright date stamped at the beginning of John Linwood Grant’s A Persistence of Geraniums, one could be forgiven for assuming Grant was a contemporary of Edwardian authors M.R. James and Arthur Conan Doyle. Each of the stories in this collection are utterly steeped in that bygone era, both in terms of setting and style.
It’s one thing to believably transport readers through space and time to immerse them in a vividly realized historical environment. It’s a whole ‘nother thing to be able to meaningfully evoke the tone and language of the writers from that period, all while still retaining a viably modern sensibility and enough of a unique voice to rise above mere facsimile. Through seven tales of mystery, murder, madness, and mysticism (plus a couple conversational interludes), Grant does exactly that.
Several of the stories here focus on “The Deptford Assassin,” Edwin Dry. A recurring character of Grant’s (one of several appearing in this collection), Dry is the best there is at what he does, but what he does isn’t very nice. He’s not some mustache-twirling villain, slavering psycho, or misunderstood antihero, though. He’s more like a perfectionist, bowler derby-clad version of “The Ice Man,” Richard Kuklinski (a real-life sociopath killer-for-hire notorious for his apparent wholesale lack of emotion and decidedly businesslike, matter-of-fact approach to life and death).
Plopping a character like that into the Edwardian era, what with its residual Victorian propriety and undercurrents of bubbling social unrest, works wonders. Whether giving a rare interview to a doomed writer, devising an elaborate scheme to arrange some private time with an otherwise inaccessible target, or even pitting his own inner darkness against that of an exorcised demon (!), Dry proves consistently compelling despite never once exhibiting so much as a dash of genuine likeability. In Dry, Grant has created a character fascinatingly disturbing in both how alien he is and how human he is.
Aforementioned encounter with a literal devil aside, the stories starring Dry tend to hew closer to detective fiction than outright horror. To wit, one standout tale feels a lot like a Sherlock Holmes story, only inverted. Instead of a meticulous detective solving a crime, piece by piece, after it’s already happened, a just-as-meticulous murderer commits his crime, piece by piece, with the reader witnessing the process as it happens. And instead of the reader going into the story knowing that this is the point, here the realization only dawns as one falls deeper down the rabbit hole.
Elsewhere, however, the collection’s non-Dry tales embrace the supernatural without reservation, specifically that most classic form of English terror: the ghost story. Grant makes good use of the subgenre’s inherent versatility. First, he opens the collection with an old woman recounting to a pair of uppity, unwanted guests her youthful brush with the spirit world. It’s an exercise in tongue-in-cheek gallows humor that nevertheless hits home with pangs of genuine pathos despite its jokey cartoon ending.
Grant follows that with a tragic yarn about a lovelorn young man who finds a wood-carving of a heart on the beach and yearns to return it to the drowned maiden who visits him in his dreams. This one is just as poetic and heartbreaking as the traditional folktales from which it takes its inspiration.
The collection eventually closes with one last ghost story that, while similarly mournful, is its own beast entirely. For starters, it’s a Carnacki story, starring the famed occult detective originally created by early 20th century fantasist William Hope Hodgson. What’s more, it may very well be the best Carnacki story Hodgson himself never wrote. Contemplative, sobering, and downright deconstructionist, Grant’s take on the character defies convention with a narrative that is unassuming and (to be honest) uneventful, but ultimately profound. It’s a stark reminder that behind every swashbuckling pulp hero there is (or at least could be) a real person, complete with secrets, regrets, and an overwhelming awareness of their own mortality.
Accompanying Grant’s prose throughout are numerous illustrations by Paul Boswell which mirror the writing’s tone by channeling shades of James McBryde, Edward Gorey, and, at times, Stephen Gammell. Altogether, A Persistence of Geraniums may be a slim volume, but it is one that fully realizes a very specific, and very engaging, vision. Readers may be able to finish the whole thing in one sitting, but that just makes it all the more tempting to dive back in a second go. Or a third. Or a fourth. Or…
November 29, 2019
As a roundabout hint of how much I was looking forward to delving into Geraniums, I must explain that I have enough books in my house at this moment to keep me entertained well into my dotage. I have books in the living room, books on the night table, books stacked on the floor beside the bed in tripping hazard towers, books in a crap-catcher--sorry ahem, magazine rack in the bathroom, books on shelves covering all wall spaces on the porch and recorded books in my ancient vehicle that still has a CD player.
Geraniums made it to the top of all heaps and was toted from living room to bed and back until it was finished this morning with my coffee.
Charming, entertaining, clever.
A titillating collage of characters and stories with delicious Edwardian nods to Sherlock Holmes, Mary Elizabeth Bradddon's Lady Audley's Secret, Carnacki, Jack the Ripper and more.
Bravo!
Several stories in this collection are of Edwin Dry, The Deptford Assassin, killer for hire. For all his cold, calculating efficiency, and despite being a man frugal with words, he charms and fascinates. Grant has brought this character to life so quickly, so deftly, one can only set the book down and think with the need of an addict, I need more Dry!
I'll hunt up more JLG works. They too will get the VIP treatment moving directly to the top of the read-next pile.
Geraniums made it to the top of all heaps and was toted from living room to bed and back until it was finished this morning with my coffee.
Charming, entertaining, clever.
A titillating collage of characters and stories with delicious Edwardian nods to Sherlock Holmes, Mary Elizabeth Bradddon's Lady Audley's Secret, Carnacki, Jack the Ripper and more.
Bravo!
Several stories in this collection are of Edwin Dry, The Deptford Assassin, killer for hire. For all his cold, calculating efficiency, and despite being a man frugal with words, he charms and fascinates. Grant has brought this character to life so quickly, so deftly, one can only set the book down and think with the need of an addict, I need more Dry!
I'll hunt up more JLG works. They too will get the VIP treatment moving directly to the top of the read-next pile.
October 29, 2017
A thoroughly enjoyable collection of stories set in Edwardian England. The first three stories are rather whimsical in tone, but the book takes a darker turn with the tales of Edwin Dry, the Deptford Assassin. Most of the stories in the collection are about Mr. Dry, and they are quite bone-chilling. The last story is about Carnacki the Ghost Finder. Thomas Carnacki was the creation of author William Hope Hodgson in the early 1900's, and lately there has been a second wave of Carnacki stories from such authors as William Meikle, Charles R. Rutledge, Robert M. Price, and John Linwood Grant himself. The story in this volume is unusual in that it is more about Carnacki himself and less about the story (although the story is haunting). Overall, A Persistence of Geraniums is a captivating mix of horror and dark whimsy, highly recommended for all who enjoy tales of murder, madness, and the supernatural.
October 6, 2017
Thoroughly enjoyable selection of strange, ghostly and otherwise intriguing tales lovingly crafted by John Linwood Grant. These stories are compelling, witty and moving, evoking the period (Edwardian England) and it's people with an easy style. Some fascinating characters from the author's 'Last Edwardian' series make appearances here and I look forward to meeting them further in other works. Top notch!
August 16, 2018
A delightful little collection of tales of murder, the macabre and the supernatural. John Linwood Grant has created a wonderful written series of Neo-Edwardian tales that would not have felt out of place on the bedside table of any Edwardian reader. In particular, Mr. Edwin Dry, the Deptford assassin is an inspired creation. Looking forward to reading more of his work. Highly recommended.
June 29, 2019
There are some dark and bitter liquids that endanger your health, even your sanity with their toxic yet cool tastes. You know that such stuff should be avoided, and yet you venture there, sinking deeper and deeper into that pool of death and ecstasy.
John Linwood Grant pens such stuff on a regular basis. Logic demands that I stay away from such stuff, but these days logic doesn't trade highly. Consequently, after treating myself with the previous, slimmer edition of this book, and getting blown away right and proper, I went ahead and procured this volume as well.
Since I have gone ga-ga over the contents of the previous volume, let me write down comments only pertaining to the pieces added to this volume. These are:
1. The Jessamine Garden: This tale of forbidden love and death, woven with sensuous words and haunting imagery, is bound to insert its roots deep into your psyche.
2. On Ullins Bank: A grim story of greed and the price one has to pay, this one may be interpreted by the reader as Lovecraftian, Biblical or simply 'haunting'.
3. The Second Life of Jabez Salt: Sherlock Holmes puts the ghost to rest in this snappy story full of atmosphere and wit.
4. Mr. Aloysius Clay: Mama Lucy gets a tale, and what an introduction this one is!
Apart from these stories, the book contains extracts from the novel 'The Assassin's Coin' and the novella ' A Study in Grey'. The former is available, and the teaser is just adequate to make one rush towards it. The latter is yet to be made available to us, and we can only wait impatiently.
In the meanwhile, enjoy this volume to the fullest extent.
Highly Recommended.
John Linwood Grant pens such stuff on a regular basis. Logic demands that I stay away from such stuff, but these days logic doesn't trade highly. Consequently, after treating myself with the previous, slimmer edition of this book, and getting blown away right and proper, I went ahead and procured this volume as well.
Since I have gone ga-ga over the contents of the previous volume, let me write down comments only pertaining to the pieces added to this volume. These are:
1. The Jessamine Garden: This tale of forbidden love and death, woven with sensuous words and haunting imagery, is bound to insert its roots deep into your psyche.
2. On Ullins Bank: A grim story of greed and the price one has to pay, this one may be interpreted by the reader as Lovecraftian, Biblical or simply 'haunting'.
3. The Second Life of Jabez Salt: Sherlock Holmes puts the ghost to rest in this snappy story full of atmosphere and wit.
4. Mr. Aloysius Clay: Mama Lucy gets a tale, and what an introduction this one is!
Apart from these stories, the book contains extracts from the novel 'The Assassin's Coin' and the novella ' A Study in Grey'. The former is available, and the teaser is just adequate to make one rush towards it. The latter is yet to be made available to us, and we can only wait impatiently.
In the meanwhile, enjoy this volume to the fullest extent.
Highly Recommended.
September 15, 2018
Like an old and yellowing newspaper found in an attic, A Persistence of Geraniums draws us into the past, to that post-Jubilee , pre-War period that can be called Edwardian. Modernity is coming, knawing away at the carapace of Victorian self-assurance, but it has not yet fully exposed the decay beneath the gilt. This is the interzone where these short stories are set.
Reading like some rediscovered works by Conan Doyle, for even the prose style recalls the turn of the century, Linwood Grant's tales include stand alone morcels and accounts that act as a sampler for recurring characters who appear in other of his works.
The persisting geraniums of the title feature in the first story, a wry little supernatural tale of tea with the vicar. An east coast ghost story of the evil that can lurk when love twists into a hard knot follows in "His Heart Shall Speak No More". Although the final full story "Grey Dog" returns us to things uncanny, most of the remaining tales tell of Edwin Dry, the "Deptford Assassin" a character so compelling and yet so often so arid of emotion as to be the uncanniest thing in the collection.
The sure touch, the deft sketching of character and the evocation of Edwardian Britain all combine to make this a slim yet filling work, and made me want to seek out more.
Reading like some rediscovered works by Conan Doyle, for even the prose style recalls the turn of the century, Linwood Grant's tales include stand alone morcels and accounts that act as a sampler for recurring characters who appear in other of his works.
The persisting geraniums of the title feature in the first story, a wry little supernatural tale of tea with the vicar. An east coast ghost story of the evil that can lurk when love twists into a hard knot follows in "His Heart Shall Speak No More". Although the final full story "Grey Dog" returns us to things uncanny, most of the remaining tales tell of Edwin Dry, the "Deptford Assassin" a character so compelling and yet so often so arid of emotion as to be the uncanniest thing in the collection.
The sure touch, the deft sketching of character and the evocation of Edwardian Britain all combine to make this a slim yet filling work, and made me want to seek out more.
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews