West of Eden / Harry Harrison

 

3.25 out of 5 stars 

Halloween Bingo 2025

I know that I read this in the 1980s, probably shortly after its publication. I've been a fan of dinosaurs since I was a very small child (and I never got over it). This year I picked this novel up at a charity book sale out of curiosity—I couldn't remember much, if anything, about it. While reading the first chapters it seemed like a brand new book. Also, I have read Harrison's Stainless Steel Rat books, and this couldn't be more different!

The dinosaurs (Yilane) in this fictional world have evolved to be the users of technology and they view low tech humans (Tanu) as animals. The author’s depiction of the Yilane reflects an older view—back when dinosaurs were thought to be cold blooded and sluggish. I checked, and Robert Bakker's The Dinosaur Heresies, which helped to start the change in paleontological thought, was published two years after this novel. It is also before the widespread acceptance of the meteorite impact theory to explain dinosaur extinction. Harrison was using an older theory about a cooling planet affecting exothermic reptiles.

I was fascinated by the Yilane tech using genetic manipulation and the growing of structures rather than building them. It's as if Harrison was channeling 21st century technology. I felt the same way about the climate fluctuations that drive the Tanu and the Yilane together. Today's climate refugees seem to be foreshadowed in the migration of both of these populations. The utter hostility between the two species reminds me strongly of much of the violence and prejudice implicit in colonialism, something that we are just starting to come to grips with. Needless to say, I saw NONE of this when I read it in my 20s.

(I also think that Kerrick's time as a captive among the Yilane was maybe Harrison anticipating the modern Monster Erotica genre, although it's pretty mild.) LOL

I read this fantasy novel for the Sword and Sorcery square on my Halloween Bingo card. It is also the 21st book in my 2025 Read Your Hoard Challenge.

The Librarians / Sherry Thomas

 

4 out of 5 stars 

Crime fighting librarians. What could be better? Four librarians in a small branch library are shaken when two of their patrons are murdered. One of them had been romantically involved with Astrid Sorenson, who has been sad ever since he disappeared without warning. He reappears one day, walks by Astrid like she is invisible, and asks Hazel, the new hire, exactly the same reference question that he first asked Astrid. He has a violent altercation with another patron and is found dead shortly thereafter. Of course Astrid is a suspect and her coworkers rally round to support her.

It turns out that each of the four employees have things in their past that they would rather not have revealed. Can they trust each other enough to confess their concerns and work together? Some of the secrets are more serious than others, but they are all personally significant. As they deal with their past histories, they must also confront mysterious events in the present. Can they discover who committed these murders?

I have enjoyed Sherry Thomas’ Lady Sherlock series and was quite excited to hear that she had authored another kind of mystery featuring librarians. I was not disappointed. She got the library details right (although I may find a department without at least one person who is a jackass stretches my credulity). I loved the four characters and couldn't put the book down. She wraps things up neatly, but I have to admit I'm hoping that she will write another of these feel good mysteries.

A Hidden Fire / Elizabeth Hunter

 

4 out of 5 stars 

Halloween Bingo 2025

There's slow burn, and then there's slow smouldering. If you are looking for lots of action plus a tidy ending, this book is not for you. I like slow moving romances with lots of anticipation, but this novel tested even my endurance. In some ways, I felt that Hunter described a relationship between a 22 year old woman and a many centuries old vampire in ways that seemed more realistic to me (I mean, if vampires were real, which—spoiler alert—they are not).

Beatrice is beautiful and brainy. She has an agreeably dry sense of humour. Giovanni is the handsome researcher who regularly visits the rare book room where Beatrice works. The women in the library are interested in him and speculation runs wild. But they don't realize exactly what he is, or they would run the other direction. Giovanni knows a good researcher when he studies her and he eventually offers Beatrice a job as a his researcher. (One of the side effects of vampirism is the frying of electronic devices of all kinds, so Gio must hire knowledgeable mortals to use his computers.)

The pair spend most of the book getting to know each other and building trust, kind of important to a young woman who is associating with one of her natural predators. Beatrice is starting to resent Gio's caution and to wonder why he is so unwilling to admit any strong feelings for her. So she continues to make plans to move across the country to go to grad school despite a heavy heart. (Really, not an unusual situation, even among human couples.)

And then, suddenly, the past catches up to Giovanni and Beatrice is swept up in the maelstrom. Will Gio be able to rescue her? Will he want to, or is she a disposable human in his life? The circumstances are chilling and Beatrice's danger is real. Even if he does come for her, will she be able to trust him ever again?

My only big complaint is that my library has none of Hunter's books, so if I want to continue the series (I do) I will have to buy them. I already own far too many books, so this is a predicament. This is something I will need to muse on for a while.

I read this for The Undead square on my Halloween Bingo card. It is also the 20th book in my 2025 Read Your Hoard Challenge.

Only Rogue Actions / Jennifer Estep

 

3.5 out of 5 stars 

This fifth installment of the Galactic Bonds series sees Kyrion and Vesper trying a new test of their true bond. They are guests of Asterin's parents in the Erzton Kingdom. This couple have paid for a private true bond test in Roderick Battis' exclusive state-of-the-art battle simulator and maze. When the last battle group clears out, it is their turn. They divest themselves of weapons and head into the maze on opposite sides. They must avoid the traps and find each other in the centre of the maze.

But Roderick isn't interested in just watching. He wants to participate. Suddenly, it's a science fiction version of The Most Dangerous Game. Kyrion must fight for his life barehanded against an armoured opponent with a deadly war hammer, while Vesper deals with a lethal Black Scarab robot. This is Vesper's chance to prove that seers and engineers can be badasses too. Knowing how to build things means you also can figure out how to destroy them. Vesper gets to indulge her inner vandal, all the while wondering where Roderick acquired the Techwave robot.

This book felt rather like a holding pattern. I'm unsure that it advanced the storyline at all, despite the fun of seeing Vesper blow shit up and Kyrion turn the tables on a bully who can't win a fair fight. The pair are no farther along in their opposition to the Techwave or Callus Holloway, ruler of the Imperium. They still can't return home and Vesper's half-brother Zane is still obliged to at least pretend to pursue them on behalf of Holloway. Don't get me wrong, it was a fun story, but it didn't have the momentum that this series has had up to this point. I am glad that my library bought it, however, and I'll look forward to the next installment (where just maybe Asterin and Zane will finally click as a couple).

This Rough Magic / Mary Stewart

 

4 out of 5 stars 

Halloween Bingo 2025

This is a typical Mary Stewart novel. You can count on beautifully described environments, in this case the Greek isle of Corfu. Also standard is a lovely young woman with definite opinions and more curiosity than is healthy for her. Add two attractive men, one destined to be the villain and the other the love interest. There's a good tense plot, as Lucy works out what's going on and which of her neighbours is sneaking about doing shady things. (The answer this time is both of them.)

Stewart uses Shakespeare's The Tempest very effectively as a framework to hang the novel on. Each chapter is preceded by a quote from the play, suitable to the action of the chapter and, of course, we have a character named Miranda. Our main character, Lucy, is a very young, out of work actress. She is delighted to find that one of her acting heroes, Sir Julian Gale, is staying nearby. His role in The Tempest is one of his most celebrated and Lucy has seen his performance. She is tremendously pleased to meet him and hear his hypotheses about connections between Corfu and the play. I respect Stewart's confidence that her audience would appreciate these details.

The Ancient Greeks had high regard for dolphins, probably having experience with them pushing people lost at sea towards land (mind you, we don't hear from the folks that they nudged out to sea). They were heralded as saviors and messengers of Poseidon. Stewart proves her excellent education and makes use of this tradition in the first chapters of the novel, by introducing Lucy to a habituated dolphin. She saves it first from an unknown gunman and later rescues it after a stranding. The cetacean definitely repays her kindness later in the action.

Lucy falls in love pretty much instantaneously, following the first kiss that the pair share. (Unlikely, but usual in these gothic mysteries during this time period. Men at this time must have been champion kissers.) At least they get to spend some time plotting together before she goes on a date with the villain to get him out of the way. Stewart's lovely writing makes this trope more palatable than lesser authors. I was surprised to learn that she died quite recently in 2014. I have this melancholic feeling that I could have let her know how much I enjoyed her novels while she was still alive.

I read this for the Romantic Suspense square on my Halloween Bingo card. It is also the 19th book in my 2025 Read Your Hoard Challenge.

Blind Date With a Werewolf / Patricia Briggs

 

4 out of 5 stars 

Halloween Bingo 2025

Patricia Briggs doesn't like to let a good idea get away, so she writes short fiction about some of the secondary characters in the Mercy Thompson universe. This collection features one of my favourite werewolves, Asil Moreno, otherwise known as Hussan the Moor. Asil played a pivotal role in the very first Alpha & Omega novel, Cry Wolf. While Anna and Charles were the main focus of the story, Asil was chewing the scenery right along side them.

I have learned a fair bit about Asil as the series has progressed. First, he is OLD. Like “hanging out in Europe when Charlemagne was crowned” old. In the third date of this collection, he informs Tami that he is descended from African Berbers and people of the Arabian Peninsula. His skin, a lovely teak colour, reflects this heritage. I knew from Cry Wolf that Asil has a high opinion of himself. He is powerful and he knows it. He is beautiful and he dresses to enhance it. This book reveals what a clothes horse he is. The guy must have an enormous closet.

But the most important thing to know about Asil is that he and his mate Sarai, took in a witch child during Inquisition times and attempted to raise her. She repaid their kindness by torturing Sarai to death and magically ensnaring Sarai's wolf as a guardian. (This is dealt with in Cry Wolf.) Between Asil's age and this painful loss, he has become a highly volatile werewolf who has come to the Marrock's pack to ensure that there is someone powerful enough to put him down should he fully short circuit. Many consider him to be insane and he often agrees with them.

And still, someone has had the nerve to set Asil up on 5 dates from various dating apps. They have produced ground rules to determine the “success” of each date and to protect the innocent. But they also inform Asil that there is a betting pool on the outcomes. These people know how to prick his pride, engage his protective instincts, and inspire his desire to win this “game.”

Three of these dating stories have been previously published in anthologies. The second and fifth dates are brand new. (Now I know the circumstances of the lioness of the second date, hinted at in the story of the third date.) In the acknowledgments at book's end, I learned that we have Kevin J. Anderson to thank/blame for this anthology. (I am somewhat regretting the purchase of the three short story collections that I bought in order to read these stories.) Briggs has cleaned up the previously published works and written connective tissue to smooth the transitions and to give a satisfactory ending. I was surprised at the identity of Asil's Concerned Friend and this has whetted my appetite for the next Alpha & Omega book next year.

This year once again I have the Magical Realism square on my Halloween Bingo card. I couldn't find a suitable book that appealed, so I utilized my Glimmer Potion, lit some candles, and grabbed this brand new book. It is also my 18th book in the 2025 Reading Your Hoard Challenge.

A Psalm for the Wild-Built / Becky Chambers

 

4 out of 5 stars 

Halloween Bingo 2025

A very Zen meditation on the nature of work, purpose, and our relationship to the natural world. In this post-industrial, post-capitalist world, people have everything they need in order to lead a fulfilling life. So why is Sibling Dex so restless? They feel compelled to leave the place and occupation that they are used to and to learn a new way of living as a tea-monk. It is initially a struggle, but Dex perseveres and learns to enjoy the new routine. For a while. Then even the joy of helping others begins to feel stale and Dex makes another life change, choosing to visit the ruins of an ancient monastery in the wilderness.

Meanwhile, the robots who gained sentience and walked away from mankind long ago have been living in the wilderness, making their own choices and studying whatever they please. Some of them meet up occasionally and have recently decided that someone should check on the humans to make sure that they are all right. Mosscap has volunteered and runs into Dex when they leave the normal bounds of human territory enroute to the monastery.

These two beings must relearn how to interact and they both make erroneous assumptions about the other. Dex has difficulty accepting assistance, especially from a being descended from purpose-built machinery. But Mosscap sees itself as choosing to help freely. Of the two, Dex seems to have the most cultural barriers to overcome. Dex's biggest hurdles are internal ideas, not external objects (although they will encounter those as well). Can two beings so different become friends?

I feel like this book is the warm, accepting antidote to busy culture. To exist and to be content is all that is required of a being. Don't fret if you have no grand purpose or big goal to accomplish. Sometimes it is enough to have a leisurely cup of tea with a friend.

I read this book for the Freaky Futures square of my Halloween Bingo card.

Trouble in Mudbug / Jana DeLeon

 

E

3 out of 5 stars 

Halloween Bingo 2025

This little mystery was a bit of light relief following a Victorian adventure novel. I have been enjoying DeLeon's Miss Fortune Mysteries, featuring CIA agent in hiding, Fortune Redding. That series is amusing enough that I decided to give her Ghost-in-Law series a try. The set up had promise: Botanist Maryse Robicheaux is attending her almost-ex-mother-in-law’s funeral when Helena's ghost sits up in the casket and starts yelling at the congregation. No one sees her except Maryse and when Helena finally processes the fact of her death, she tracks her reluctant daughter-in-law down and demands her assistance in discovering her murderer.

This plot leans heavily on the horrible mother-in-law trope. Helena has a reputation in the Louisiana town of Mudbug as a rich bitch. Her husband and son are both shiftless, pleasure seeking idiots. Maryse has been trying for years to locate the son, Hank, to serve him with divorce papers. Helena's lawyer advises Maryse to be present when the will is read and she is startled to realize that she has inherited the stewardship of a large chunk of bayou. Unluckily, someone seems to want her out of the way because of this. Luckily she has good friends who will help her out. Possibly including a man masquerading as a zoologist and insisting on sharing her office.

Somehow this book didn't seem as humerous to me as Miss Fortune, but a mystery is a mystery and I wanted to know whodunnit. It was a short, easy read and the mysteries are partially solved. Helena is still hanging around, leading to several more books, so I trust that all will be revealed eventually. A check of my library's database showed that the second book is unavailable. I can't say that I'm very disappointed—one book was fun, but I have no burning desire to read further.

I read this book for the Ghosts and Hauntings square of my Halloween Bingo card.

She / H. Rider Haggard

 

5 out of 5 stars 

Halloween Bingo 2025

This is one of the definitive books of my adolescence. There was a copy in my high school library that I borrowed repetitively and when it was close to falling apart, the school librarian offered it to me since I was the one who read it to death. I lost it at some point, which I now regret immensely. Part of the allure, I think, was the presence of a woman of substance. I had spent my time until this book having to try to identify with male characters and it was so delightful to find a feminine figure so central to the action.

The third chapter, with all its Greek and Latin documents, actually inspired me to take a number of Classical history courses in university, including 3 half courses in Ancient Greek translation. It was a challenging language for me and very little of it remains in my brain forty years later. I do, however, remember the first sentence that I ever translated: The boat is in Byzantium. Not dreadfully useful in regular life and I have no doubt that my parents secretly thought I was a loony, but I have never regretted it.

The lost civilization of Kor has lingered in my mind all these years. So many questions! Why did they build in such a difficult location? How did Ayesha end up there and what brought Kallikrates and Amenartas to the same remote, swampy location? And then Leo and Holly were drawn there by the writings of Leo's ancestress and her descendants. What in the world possessed Ayesha to remain in this god-forsaken location for hundreds of years? Why did she not return to her own people in Arabia?

Ayesha's confident faith in reincarnation has also stuck with me. Where did this certainty originate? She tells Holly that she has seen religions born and dying, but how could she while remaining isolated in Kor? She claims great wisdom, but where did she acquire it? Just living a long time doesn't guarantee wisdom. Holly and Leo are educated men, but Haggard uses Job as a contrast to them—he is much more conventional and religious and much more frightened than the other men. The Amahaggar people, too, are a contrast to Western values. They are gloomy, silent people with few redeeming features, cannibals when the opportunity arises. Holly espouses Christianity, but is not particularly devout. All have their vices and their virtues. Haggard seems to be exploring his characters’ relationships to religion, not blindly extolling the virtues of his colonial country.

I had forgotten a great many details—forty years will do that. As a young adult, I had no idea that Haggard had written a follow up novel. I know that I have read the next volume, but not so many times as the first and I remember even less. I think I own it too and I may track it down soon. My ranking at 5 stars will remain unchanged for old times sake.

I read this book for the Here Be Dragons square of my Halloween Bingo card.

The Long Goodbye / Raymond Chandler

 

4.25 out of 5 stars 

Halloween Bingo 2025

They say the rich can always protect themselves and that in their world it is always summer. I've lived with them and they are bored and lonely people.

Raymond Chandler wrote beautifully about brutal events. Philip Marlowe is taciturn, but when he does speak, his dialogue is spot on. In this sixth Marlowe novel, our private investigator gets into trouble by being a good Samaritan—he helps a polite drunk who gets tipped out of his car on his ass and abandoned by his date. Marlowe takes him home, cleans him up, pours coffee into him, feeds him, and drives him home. A half-assed friendship develops, mostly consisting of going for drinks together. But no good deed goes unpunished and Terry Lennox shows up at Marlowe's one morning with a more substantial request, to be driven to Tijuana to catch a plane.

Who knew that one kindness would involve Marlowe in a convoluted web of crimes. He is just stubborn enough to want the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth. He's like Peter Falk's portrayal of Columbo--"Just one more thing…” The people involved are well off and Chandler goes to great lengths to convince us that money certainly does not guarantee happiness. Marlowe may be a bit lonely, but he is more content than these fancy folk. They sure do like to try to dissuade Marlowe from his inquiries though.

The novel lives up to its title. It's very long and there were points where I wished Chandler would get on with things and say goodbye already. But one doesn't read Chandler for plot. One reads him for atmosphere, for dialogue, and for elegant turns of phrase. However the author attributes this talent to the French.

The French have a phrase for it. The bastards have a phrase for everything and they are always right.
To say goodbye is to die a little.

I read this book for the Noir square of my Halloween Bingo card.

Passenger to Frankfurt / Agatha Christie

 

2 out of 5 stars 

Halloween Bingo 2025

Overwrought and over the top, Passenger to Frankfurt is not representative of Christie's usual writing. I am convinced that it was published simply because of the author's reputation, which this novel did nothing to enhance. Christie is at her best when writing about village life and should have left global conspiracies to other writers.

I kind of liked Sir Stafford Nye, despite his willingness to go along with irrational plans on the spur of the moment. I wonder what Christie would have made of the world in 2026 and the alt-right? She did her part in WWII and knew a thing or two about fascism. IMO, she would have had a field day with QAnon.

I was pleased to see the momentary reappearance of Amy Leatheren (Murder in Mesopotamia) as Matilda Cleckheaton's companion. I enjoyed Matilda as well, the elderly aunt who knows things. Christie certainly enjoyed that type of character.

I read this book for the Blazing Inferno square of my Halloween Bingo card, after applying the Teleportation Potion to summon it from my TBR (just as I used interlibrary loan to summon it from another library).

Mate / Ali Hazelwood

 

4 out of 5 stars 

Book 16 of the 2025 Read Your Hoard Challenge

Last year, one of my most surprising obsessions was Ali Hazelwood’s Bride, the star-crossed lovers story of a Vampyre woman, Misery, and a Werewolf Alpha, Lowe. I was pretty sure that I would like it, but it grabbed me in a way I hadn’t thought I would encounter again. I read it multiple times and enjoyed it every time. I was delighted to realize that there would be another book featuring Misery's best friend, Serena.

Hazelwood set the scene in the first book, where Serena is revealed to be a human-werewolf hybrid. She has had a traumatic childhood, some years of it sharing the life of Misery, the vampyre girl sent to live with the humans as a hostage for good behaviour, known as the Collateral. Serena's an orphan with no memory of her family of origin and no indication that she has Werewolf abilities.

Koen, on the other hand, is the former guardian/big brother of Lowe and the Alpha of the Northwest, a position which requires celibacy. As this book progresses we learn the reason for this odd restriction and watch as Koen and Serena try to navigate it. Both of them must deal with their pasts if they are to survive and find equilibrium. A bit predictable, but this a romance novel so you know that a HEA is inevitable.

Don't get me wrong, I loved this book, but maybe just slightly less than Bride. The humour is still right on point for me, but there's a little less of it (or at least it felt that way—I didn't do a statistical analysis). I'm still very glad that I bought Mate and I have no doubt that I will reread both books numerous times in the future.

The Book of Witching / C.J. Cooke

 

2.5 out of 5 stars 

Halloween Bingo 2025

I can't say that I'm wild about this novel. I was mildly interested in both timelines, present day and 16th century Orkney, but the two didn't intersect until halfway through the book, leaving me, as a reader, adrift. The chapters alternated timelines and they were very short, making the narrative feel very choppy to me. Add that to the brutality in each: the witch trial in Orkney and the fire/murder?/missing person in the present, and it made for harrowing reading.

I've read a bit about the witch trials and in my opinion the author represents Alison's treatment very realistically. The men who are trying her have their minds made up and her word is neither listened to nor believed. She is humiliated by being strip searched, tormented with needles and hot iron, and sleep deprivation, fed only the bare minimum, and confined in horrible conditions. As a result, she looks and smells awful and better fits the stereotype of the witch at her trial. It's men and the church using a poor woman cruelly to distract from their own bad behaviour. It makes me volcanically angry!

I had a difficult time motivating myself to finish the book. Alison's timeline was so hopeless, I just didn't want to see it. Erin has a somewhat softer landing, but she has also lost so much. And I absolutely fucking hated the ending. Your mileage may vary.

I read this book for the Spellbound square of my Halloween Bingo card.

 

 

Clown Town / Mick Herron

 

4 out of 5 stars 

Halloween Bingo 2025

Book 9 of the Slough House series and Herron hasn't lost his touch. I read an interview with him where he claimed that what he most enjoyed writing was dialogue, but unfortunately then he had to invent situations for that dialogue to take place in. I find his characters up to the challenge.

Finally, River Cartwright is semi-back in action. He feels mostly recovered from the Novichok on the door knob of his grandfather’s house, but David Cartwright is the dangerous gift that keeps on giving. The O.B.’s library has been donated to the Spooks’ College and a book has gone missing. The graduate student in charge of the donation has identified the book in a video of the collection and it isn't a real title. River isn't yet back at Slough House from medical leave, so he has time to pursue the matter.

Meanwhile, Diana Taverner, the First Desk, is busy trying to get several problems to solve each other and has drafted Jackson Lamb and the slow horses to achieve this goal. Whether this is a wise decision is very questionable. As usual, the past has come back to haunt the present, plus a present day annoyance has reared its head again. Lady Di is determined to slap them all into place.

It's hard to believe that Herron has never been involved in the spy biz. He writes it so well, proving the old axiom that it's the quiet people that you have to watch. He obviously keeps a weather eye on the news of the day, incorporating aspects of current events to give his fictional creation a feeling of reality. There's no shortage of fodder these days, so I assume that Herron has another book percolating in his brain. I'll be thrilled to read it.

I read this book for the Genre: Mystery square of my Halloween Bingo card.