What I'm Reading: Medieval Horror

 

 I'm reading Between Two Fires by Christopher Buehlman. I saw it mentioned quite a few times online and finally decided to get it at the library.

Wow. This really is fantastic and worth the praise. Others agree, judging from the reviews in the thousands. Funny, as the foreward by Joe Hill states, the book was first published in 2012, dropped like a stone unnoticed, but was republished and now has made a resurgence in popularity. Odd, how that works.

* Review: Wow. This is different, so different. Besides the amazing writing, it's a tale of medieval faith and religious fears come to life in horrific images of modern horror and monsters, and a supernatural fight for good vs. evil. In the end, it's a trail through hell and redemption. Truly worth a read. 

But it is a lush, descriptive tale of the horrors of living during the big plague outbreaks in 1348 in Europe....  Always found it a fascinating, yes, horrific topic that half a population could die based on ignorance, lack of hygiene, and lack of medical knowledge. Oh...are we heading that way again?

While the topic is horror enough, I'm thinking, what classifies this as "horror" as we define it? 

I'm halfway through and then I got to the monsters... still trying to figure out what this creature is and then there are other things that appear. I won't give it away, but I'll say it's different and weird and imaginative.

Looking forward to finding out what comes up next and what makes the little orphan girl Delphine, who appears to talk to angels and see "demons?",  seem like a saint, or a psychic, or as her traveling companions, a fallen knight and a drunken priest call her, a witch...

Really enjoying this one. I have to read fast as I have to get it back to the library in two weeks!

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New Horror Fiction - and Cookbook! - Coming

 I've got two new stories coming out soon! 

 I have a new story  - and recipe! - in a new book, Let the Right One Simmer, Volume 1, now up for pre-order on Amazon, only 99 cts!. (Releases June 2.). (400+ pages!) From Campfire Publishing.

 * And it's already crept into the Top 100 of the Bestsellers in Horror Collections. Yay!

Inside the pot lies something sinister, a strange spice, an out-of-place herb, a dash of the unexpected...

In my story, "Be Mine," Charlotte finds her life is about to change drastically but she's assured she'll soon have a special place in her exclusive community.

Story Start: Charlotte started bleeding the day after Easter. 

And....

My story, "The Change," will be in Behind the Shadows IV anthology, coming in July from Inkd Publishing.

** You can get in on some deals now via the Kickstarter (by June 7.)

In my story, Drusilla's formerly quiet life as an herbalist and healer becomes an unending cycle of misery after she's attacked by a strange, hairy intruder in her yard.

New Reads: Preston & Child Dark Mysteries

 I posted this on my other blog, but am reposting it on this blog as I figured the readers here would also enjoy these thriller-mysteries.

 If you like your mysteries dark with a touch of horror, then the Agent Pendergast series written by Preston & Child is for you. What took me so long to discover this series?

Wow! Amazing thrillers written a touch above other mysteries with bits of horror and the supernatural that find me even making a list of words to look up and I have a good vocabulary. Intrigue, weird situations, and some monsters, both human and other-worldly.

 I'm reading out of order (of course!), but it doesn't seem to matter too much. Some of the books are in sets so I'll be reading those together.

**  I'm just finishing book 20, Bloodless, so we'll see which one I read next.

The series starts with Relic where murders at a natural history museum exhibit of South American objects and weird religious fetishes can't be done by a human. And aren't. (Interesting settings though I wasn't as crazy about this one.) Book 2 Reliquary continues the hunt for the monster so read these two together. 

The first book I read in the series was The Cabinet of Dr. Leng (#21), a creepy serial killer, time-travel novel. Fascinating! I love finding a long series to read and this is a good one!

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The 22 book series list in order (plus a new prequel): (I'll link these as I read them and mark with * for myself.) I'm going to add a short description to remind myself of what they're about. I'm listing these, too, as the books don't really have a good list in order.

   

* 1 Relic  - a creepy museum exhibit and a mysterious (not of this world) murderer (Books 1 and 2 are a set.)

* 2 Reliquary - The hunt for the murdering Museum Beast deepens and continues as Pendergast and team search Manhattan's labyrinth of sewer tunnels.

3 The Cabinet of Curiosities

4 Still Life With Crows

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5 Brimstone (Books 5-7 make up the Diogenes Trilogy about a twisted criminal - Pendergast's brother, Diogenes.)

6 Dance of Death

7 The Book of the Dead

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8 Wheel of Darkness

9 Cemetery Dance

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10 Fever Dream (Books 10-12 make up the Helen Triology concerning Pendergast's late wife Helen)

11 Cold Vengeance

12 Two Graves

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13 White Fire

14 Blue Labyrinth

15 Crimson Shore

16 The Obsidian Chamber

17 City of Endless Night

 * 18 

19 Crooked River

 

* 20 Bloodless (2021) - Is a vampire stalking Savannah? (Good one! Might be my favorite so far.) Strange goings-on with links to alternate universes, AI, computers, and monsters, plus a link to DB Cooper's 1970s unsolved bank robbery and skyjacking.

* 21 The Cabinet of Dr. Leng - I read this one first and wow!  Pendergast's protege Constance Greene goes back to the 1800s to prevent the deaths of her siblings and find a creepy serial killer. Great time travel! (Beware it ends on a cliffhanger and continues in book 22.)

 

* 22 Angel of Vengeance - Constance Greene returns to the past to face the serial killer while Pendergast's brother appears with his own agenda. Some interesting twists in this one.

23 New Prequel: Pendergast: The Beginning (Jan. 2026) Pendergast's first case reveals his unorthodox style as he and his partner investigate ritual murders by a serial killer. (Waiting for the library to get it in.)

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