Selwyn College

34,033 pages read and 1,101 team points

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Bonnetpunk

4,736 pts

(3,250 pages read)

Ghosts of the Catacombs

By Janna Ruth

4 stars

I needed something more light after all the horror and murder I've been reading, so I picked up this urban fantasy by Wellington-based writer Janna Ruth. It was a really fun read - compelling plot, likeable characters and lots of cool historical detail about Paris and the catacombs beneath the city. It's the first in series about a ghost whisperer named Alix who does favours for ghosts, who ends tangled in the complex ghost politics of the catacombs. It wasn't a YA book (the protagonist is in her 20s) but it had a bit of a YA feel at times in the voice. Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed it and am picking up book two soon to continue the adventure.
Diavola

By Jennifer Marie Thorne

5 stars

A horror novel set at a Tuscan villa where an American family has gone for a vacation. I genuinely don't know what was more horrific, the haunting or the family dynamics. Claustrophobic and unsettling on every level.
A Madness of Sunshine

By Nalini Singh

5 stars

A very dark thriller set in an isolated West Coast town, around a missing young woman. A tense, smouldering fire of a read. I couldn't put it down.
Union Belle

By Deborah Challinor

3 stars

A story set during the industrial action in New Zealand in 1951, specifically around the coal miners in the town of Pukemiro near Huntly. Beautifully written to capture the day to day life of a small town during a crisis, with historical detail that enhanced the story rather than slowed it down. The central emotional story however, of Ellen McCabe and her being torn between her husband and newcomer Jack Vaughan was left rather unsatisfyingly. After spending the novel pulling the reader into the uncomfortable depths of a real marriage crisis, it's resolved with a "and then it all turned out okay the end", and after all that investment, I really wanted to see how it turned out okay rather than just be told it was 'fine' and be left to assume that somehow the husband's personality did a complete 180 to everything we'd been shown thus far.
Murder Road

By Simone St James

5 stars

Simone St James blends crime mystery and ghost story - I've read several previous books of hers and they've been quite good but the supernatural side of her stories have fallen short of the how good her mystery story telling is. Each successive book has gotten however, and this one has been the best yet. I couldn't put it down. I was invested in every element: the protagonists April and Eddie, the ghost of the Lost Girl, and the series of hitchhiker murders. Her supernatural story telling still isn't quite up there with her mystery game, but that's because her mystery game is so darn good.
The Pale Horse

By Agatha Christie

4 stars

This one is famous for helping a real-life nurse diagnose a case of a rare poisoning because she was reading this book at the time! It was a good, convoluted mystery that kept me guessing until the end. Agatha Christie well deserves her title as the Queen of the Whodunnit. There's a mystery writer character in this one who complains about the difficulties of being a mystery writer which made me laugh, because it feels like Christie is breaking the fourth wall there. Anyway, I took a star off because the narrative structure - hopping between two minor narrators and one main narrator wasn't well done and kept confusing me about who knew what.
The Lady of the Bog

By Gillian St Kevern

5 stars

A delightful gothic paranormal novella with a touch of romance by NZ author Gillian St Kevern. Inspired by the classic gothics of the 19th century, but with far livelier prose, tongue in cheek wit and a cast of LGBTQIA main characters this was a joy to read - it had all the fun of the gothic atmosphere with none of the baggage.
The Village Library Demon-Hunting Society

By C. M. Waggoner

3 stars

This one just squeaks in at a 3 stars. Had a really great premise: what if someone in a cozy-mystery-esque town suddenly started questioning just why exactly there were so many murders in their quaint little town and discovered there was a supernatural hand in the mix? Unfortunately, while the writing was at times lively and entertaining, the pacing dragged, the narrative was oddly depressing at times, and the combination of elements didn't successfully fire.
An Artless Demise

By Anne Lee Huber

4 stars

Book 7 in the Lady Darby Mysteries, set in Britain and Ireland in 1830-1831. Murder mysteries set amidst exquisite historical detail. This particular installment wasn't my favourite, in that was a little too heavy on the historical detail and the actual murder mystery suffered for it, and Lady Darby's terrible backstory came back to haunt us yet again (again) which at this point in the series I thought we'd moved past but even so it was a compelling read, but I'm hoping future installments move back towards Scotland where they started out and swing focus back towards the murder mystery.
The Bookshop Detectives: Dead Girl Gone

By Gareth Ward and Louise Ward

5 stars

Set in a bookshop in Aotearoa's own Havelock North, two ex-cop bookseller's are tasked with solving the cold case of a missing school girl and end up in a lot more trouble than they bargained for. This book combines a lot of my favourite things: a New Zealand setting, bookshops and a murder mystery, and it was a fast paced entertaining read with a satisfying ending. I was delighted to learn a sequel (same leads, new mystery) is coming out in April.

38 - 0 - 1

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Selwyn College

34,033 pages read and 1,101 team points

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