Spring into Horror Read-a-Thon Wrap-up

Spring into Horror

Read-a-Thon

April  18 - 24

I beat down my horror of horror and joined up for Michelle's read-a-thon over at Season's of Reading. Fortunately, for those who are weenies when it comes to horror (like me!), that included a thriller, mystery, Gothic novel, or something similar. In addition to the required one book in the theme, I managed three more--and two of them were fairly spine-tingling. The Chalk Circle Man featured a serial killer of sorts and I wrapped it all up with a collection of 13 ghost stories. Thanks for hosting, Michelle!

I'll list my books below:
1. One Foot in the Grave by Peter Dickinson (4/18/16)
2 The Chalk Circle Man by Fred Vargas (4/21/16) 
3. Death in Cyprus by M. M. Kaye (4/22/16)
4.The Pocket Book of Ghost Stories edited by Philip Van Doren Stern (4/24/16)
 

The Pocket Book of Ghost Stories: Review

"...there's a ghost, but that nobody knows it's a ghost?"
"Well--not till afterward, at any rate."
("Afterward" by Edith Wharton) 

The Pocket Book of Ghost Stories by Philip Van Doren Stern (ed) is a collection of spine-tingling stories from the mid-1800s to the early 1940s. It brings together such famous stories as "The Tell-Tale Heart" by Poe as well as tales that I had never heard of before. An excellent group--that gave me something a little more spooky for the Spring Into Horror Read-a-Thon. Well work a look, if you can find yourself a copy. ★★★ and a half.

A run-down of the stories:

"The Beckoning Fair One" by Oliver Onions (1911): A classic haunted house story where an unsuccessful writer moves into rooms in an otherwise empty house, in the hope that isolation will help his failing creativity.  Things get creative all right--but not in the way he anticipates.

"The Mezzotint" by Montague Rhode (M. R.) James (1904): Mr. Williams is sent, on approval an engraving (the titular mezzotint) of a view of a manor-house.  It comes highly recommended from trusted dealer.  But it seems a very amateurish thing.  Williams is of a mind to send it back.  Then he realizes that scene is not static...it changes and a frightful story is acted out.

"Tarnhelm" by Hugh Walpole (1933): A young boy is sent to Cumberland to spend Christmas with his uncles. He is haunted by dreams and waking visions of a ghastly yellow dog. Or is it just a dream?

"The Willows" by Algernon Blackwood (1907): Two friends are canoeing down the Danube.  They run into more than they bargained for on an island covered by "willows."

"August Heat" by W. F. Harvey (1910): Two men meet, as if by chance, on a hot August day but each has had a vision of sorts about the other's future.  And the "heat is stifling.  It is enough to send a man mad."

"The Mark of the Beast" by Rudyard Kipling (1890): Three Englishmen living in India make rather free with the drinks on New Year's Eve. One of their party desecrates an idol of Hanuman, the Monkey-god, is bitten by a strange leprous "Silver Man," and then told by one of the temple priests, "You may be done with Hanuman, but Hanuman is not done with you." How right the priest is.

"Couching at the Door" by D. K. Broster (1942): A poet is stalked by an odd, furry creature (somewhat resembling a woman's boa)--that apparently only he can see.He tries drowning it and burning it up in his bedroom fire...but it keeps coming back.

"The Familiar" by Sheridan Le Fanu (1872): The story relates events leading up to the death of Captain James Barton, who is haunted by a strange figure who may or may not be a ghost, but whose relentless appearance causes Barton to lose his senses and eventually his life.

"The Upper Berth" by F. Marion Crawford (1894): Brisbane, a young man is crossing the Atlantic on his favorite ship, the Kamtschatka. He stays in Cabin 105 but all is not as it seems and soon Brisbane will have to fight for his life as the secret of the upper berth is revealed. [You can listen to a version of this below.]

"The Tell-Tale Heart" by Edgar Allan Poe (1843): The classic Poe story about a man whose conscience gets the better of him.

"The Yellow Wallpaper" by Charlotte Perkins Gilman (1892): The story revolves around a young wife and her descent into madness. She's diagnosed with "hysteria" and must remain quiet in her room where she becomes obsessed by the pattern and color of the wallpaper. "It is the strangest yellow, that wall-paper! It makes me think of all the yellow things I ever saw – not beautiful ones like buttercups, but old foul, bad yellow things. But there is something else about that paper – the smell! ... The only thing I can think of that it is like is the color of the paper! A yellow smell."

"Afterward" by Edith Wharton (1910): Mary and Ned Boyne leave behind their dreary life in Wisconsin for a home in rustic Dorsetshire. But you can only run so far, and some things – some secret things – may follow you. A creepy and tragic ghost story about how things from your own life may haunt more than any ghost could.

"Full Fathom Five" by Alexander Woollcott (1929): Two sisters whose car had broken down on a lonely country road, spent the night in a deserted house. Late that night, they see the ghost of a sailor standing at the fire place. The next morning there was a pool of salty water there that had a piece of seaweed in it. A few years later, they had the piece of seaweed analysed. It was the kind that grows only on dead bodies.

The Chalk Circle Man: Review

The Chalk Circle Man (1996) by Fred Vargas introduces readers to a new character, the quirky and thoroughly unorthodox Commissaire Jean-Baptiste Adamsberg who has just recently been appointed to his post in Paris. Adamsberg doesn't do so well with the routine of policework so he lets his associate, Adrien Danglard, take care of that. The Commissaire prefers to ask (what seems to Danglard) off-the-wall questions and take long walks. Not to think things over, because he doesn't really call what he does "thinking things over"--every time he tries do that, nothing happens. But somehow taking a walk helps everything to sort itself out and the picture of the crime with fall into place. Every time.

One of his first cases in Paris starts as a mere odd bit of sensational graffiti. Someone that the newspapers dub "The Chalk Circle Man" begins drawing large chalk circles surrounding a variety of objects--everything from empty beer cans to four trombones to a pigeon's foot to a doll's head. Appearing around the outside of the circles is the phrase "Victor, woe's in store, what are you out here for?" When a dead cat appears in the latest circle, Adamsberg, who has already sensed a cruel streak underlying the senseless oddities, predicts that the worst is yet to come. And he's right. The next circle contains the body of a murdered woman. That's just the beginning. But there are indications that the puzzle may be more complicated than it first appears. Is the Chalk Circle Man a serial killer? Or is someone else using his harmless mania to disguise their crimes?

I normally don't like mysteries where the detective just "knows" whodunnit and why, but Vargas paints such a vivid picture that she makes you believe in the way Adamsberg operates. It's perfectly natural for this Commissaire to work the way he does and have the successful endings to his investigations. The characters she introduces are memorable as well--from Adamsberg to an odd marine biologist to the blind man she befriends and brings to live in the flats she rents out to the Chalk Man himself. You leave this world feeling as though you have really met and followed these folks around for the duration of the case. Oh...and Vargas manages to plant plenty of clues so armchair detectives who don't just "know" the solution can work it out--if they're clever enough. I almost got there....but missed the final curveball. By the time I connected, Vargas was already showing me the solution through Adamsberg. ★★★★ for a terrific beginning to an acclaimed series.

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This counts for "white" (as in "chalk white") for the Color-Coded Challenge. And Fred Vargas is a woman, so this counts for the Women Challenge as well.

All Challenges Fulfilled:  100 Plus Challenge, A-Z Mystery Author Challenge, Around the World, Color Coded Challenge, European Reading Challenge, Mad Reviewer, Mount TBR Challenge, My Kind of Mystery, Outdo Yourself, Women Challenge, Spring Into Horror,52 in 52

One Foot in the Grave

One Foot in the Grave (1979) by Peter Dickinson is my first entry for the Spring Into Horror Read-a-Thon. Fortunately Michelle is allowing those of us who are horror weenies to count mysteries. I have a few ghost story collections hanging out on the TBR pile--so I may venture into those. But my first book is a straight mystery.

This is the sixth book in the series featuring Scotland Yard's Jimmy Pibble. The now retired ex-Superintendent  is in a fancy nursing home called Flycatchers where he is recovering from a stroke brought on by the death of his wife. He has determined that he doesn't have much left to live for and wants to end it all while he still has all his faculties and having recovered enough to have just enough strength. He waits for a wild and windy night and makes his way out to a tower on the property--with the intention of flinging himself from the top. But his plans are interrupted when he discovers a corpse shot through the back of the head, almost execution-style.

His old instincts kick in and he can't help but be interested, especially when his old friend Chief Superintendent Mike Crewe becomes involved. When he learns that the victim had been acting as added security for the mysterious Mr. X (whom Pibble recognizes as a rather important informer in the underworld), it begins to look like someone is making a move on Mr. X to eliminate him before he can provide major information to the police. But the case is complicated by an elderly woman who claims that someone has been killing off wealthy patients--ostensibly so their heirs won't have to wait so long for their inheritance. Crewe tends to trust Pibble's instincts, even if he's not quite up to his previous standard yet, but the local Superintendent is sure that the killer will be found among the victim's discarded conquests on the nursing staff. Could it be that the truth lies somewhere in the middle?

I have had an on-again, off-again relationship with Peter Dickinson's work. My very first taste (back in the 80s and I don't even remember the book) did not go down at all well. For a long time, his name was on my TBF list (To Be Found) with no titles and simply the comment "NO NO NO NO NO NO NO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" --to keep me from bringing more of them home. But then in 2011 I decided to give him another try when I needed another book with a "Y" as the first letter of a title (not counting "The, A, or An" and brought The Yellow Room Conspiracy home with fear and trepidation. As I note in the review (linked), the book did not wow me as mystery but it did have excellent characters and was a good historical period piece. It gave me hope that I might like Dickinson after all.

After reading One Foot in the Grave, I have decided that Dickinson's strength is his characters. It's not his plots or his ability to mystify--the culprit is, quite frankly, glaringly obvious in this one and I don't think that was planned. But it is definitely worth the price of admission to watch Pibble work his way back from a stroke and his interactions with the nurses, previous colleagues on the force, and, most particularly his fellow residents. Lady Treadgold is a hoot--don't get anywhere near her and her walker if you are a nefarious evil-doer, trust me. Two things keep this from being a five- or even a full four-star outing. The first is the aforementioned weakness in the mystery itself. The second is that while the general outline of Pibble's return to strength is good, especially in his interactions with others, the long internal monologues are a bit taxing. The first chapter where he is making his way to the tower is especially so. It is only 32 pages long, but it reads like it is much longer. Overall, a strong showing and good reason to try the other Dickinson books sitting on my TBR pile. ★★★ and a half


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This also counts for the "Blood Stains" category on the Silver Vintage Scavenger Hunt card.

Spring into Horror Read-a-Thon

Spring into Horror

Read-a-Thon

April  18 - 24

Hosted by Michelle at Seasons of Reading
For more information and to sign up, click here

#SpringHorrorRAT
Seasons of Reading Facebook group here

Official dates are April 18 through 24, starting at 12am CDT Sunday and ending at 11:59pm CDT the following Sunday. I probably won't start reading until much later on Sunday. 

There is a whole page of guidelines so check that out but the main goal for this read-a-thon is to read at least one scary-to-you book. Fortunately, for those who are weenies when it comes to horror (like me!), that can include a thriller, mystery, Gothic novel, or something similar. So--I'm in for at least one scary-to-me book and whatever else I can cram into a week's worth of reading. Come join us!

I'll list my books below:
1. One Foot in the Grave by Peter Dickinson (4/18/16)
2 The Chalk Circle Man by Fred Vargas (4/21/16) 
3. Death in Cyprus by M. M. Kaye (4/22/16)
4.The Pocket Book of Ghost Stories edited by Philip Van Doren Stern (4/24/16)