Fiction:
Brigands and Breadknives by Travis Baldree will be out in November. It takes a different path from Legends and Lattes and Bookshops and Bonedust; rattkin bookseller Fern is reunited with the orc coffeeshop proprietor Viv in her new life, fits into Viv’s new found family, and then learns that what ought to be her heart’s desire…isn’t. I loved this story; it’s a middle-aged woman’s quest to find what makes her happy, exploring discomfort and new ideas. And of course she finds weird and dangerous friends along the way.
A Gentleman’s Position by K.J. Charles is part of a series but I have not been reading it in order. In a pretty classic setup, Lord Richard Vane is in love with his valet/henchman, David Cyprian, but feels it’s a terrible moral wrong to do anything about it. Meanwhile, David is in love with Richard, and frustrated with his employer’s propriety and ideals strangled by his social class. The plot was nothing particularly new for a historical m/m romance, involving rescuing a friend from blackmail, but Charles’ characterization is always great, and the conflicts complex and realistic, making the resolution satisfying.
A Theory of Haunting by Sarah Monette is part of her Kyle Murchison Booth series dark fantasy short fiction. Booth, bookish and socially awkward archivist at the Parrington Museum, is dragged out of his office and sent to a house that is very haunted in order to extract one of the museum’s major funders, or at least make an effort to persuade her the cult in residence is not in her best interest. Unlike most of the inhabitants at the weekend gatherings, Booth senses Bad Things. His dread is extremely relatable and builds slowly throughout the story. I love this series, and always wish there was more.
Saving Susy Sweetchild by Barbara Hambly is third in her series of Silver Screen historical mysteries, set in 1924 California. Like all mystery novels, especially Hambly’s, this one is about finding the criminal or criminals, but more about achieving justice. Widowed Emma Blackstone, her family dead from the Influenza pandemic and her husband dead in World War One, now works as a companion to her sister-in-law, a silent film star whose three Pekinese need to be cared for; Emma has also begun working as a scenario writer, piecing together and altering storylines when the vagaries of filming require changes. The whole studio is shocked when their child star is kidnapped. There’s also a secondary mystery Emma learns about when one of her father’s former colleagues enlists her to work through accidentally disassembled student papers and manuscripts on Etruscan archaeology. This was gripping, and as usual I enjoyed visiting with familiar characters.
Strange New World by Vivian Shaw is the newest Dr. Greta Helsing book, in which the renowned doctor to supernatural beings meets a new challenge. I love this series because of how science is applied to supernatural beings; I find having that base level of caring for beings of whatever sort, to the best of the doctor’s ability, to be incredibly calming and soothing, even when the plot is not calming at all.
Re-read: Mort by Terry Pratchett (1987) is one of the Discworld books I’d never re-read. It was fun to revisit one of Pratchett’s earlier works; it’s so, so relatable and hilarious to read about Death trying to find another job, something involving cats and flowers, via an employment agency.
Poetry:
The Jacarandas are Unimpressed by your Show of Force by Gwynne Garfinkle is OOF, about Los Angeles in the current moment. Fantastic.
