Tag Archives: June 2020

On Night’s Shore (Edgar Allen Poe #1) by Randall Silvis

Standing on the grimy banks of the Hudson River, street urchin Augie Dubbins spots a young woman toss her baby into the water, then jump in herself. As the only witness to the tragedy, Augie sees an opportunity to make a few pennies recounting the events, and in doing so encounters a struggling young journalist named Edgar Allan Poe, a poet and newspaper hack whose penchant for saying the wrong thing at the wrong time has earned him more than a few enemies.

When the unlikely duo discover the body of yet another young woman shortly after, they become entrapped in a mire of murder, greed, and power that stretches from the Five Points slums to the gleaming heights of Fifth Avenue.

Trigger Warnings – mentions of assault, mentions of sexual assault, mentions of abortion, mentions of incest

On Night’s Shore by Randall Silvis is a fictional account of real events.

Much like Edgar Allen Poe, Randall Silvis has a way with words. Whether this is a good or bad thing is completely up to the reader. The writing felt like Silvis had sat down with a dictionary picking as many large words as possible. It was more than a little disconcerting especially when one considers that the narrator is a street urchin.

Once one has become more comfortable with Mr. Silvis’ writing style, then it is easy to enjoy the story itself. It is easy to become drawn into the narrative and to follow along as Poe gathers information. And much like the detective C. Auguste Dupin, Poe’s genius is evident as he pieces the clues together.

This is the first book I have read by Randall Silvis. As a fan of Edgar Allen Poe, finding a novel with the famed author as the main character was a treat. I enjoy a good murder mystery and was hoping to enjoy this particular story.

It pleases me to say that I enjoyed reading On Night’s Shore very much. And it is one that I would recommend to my readers.

Moriarty by Anthony Horowitz

Review originally published February 2015

Like I have said before, I am a fan of Sherlock Holmes. I have read all the original stories and am currently enjoying the influx of new novels. Needless to say, when I saw this book bearing the title of Holmes’ nemesis, I was greatly intrigued.

Mere days have passed since Holmes’ and Moriarty have their final confrontation at Reichenbach Falls. Frederick Chase, an investigator from the infamous Pinkerton’s Detective Agency in New York arrives in Switzerland. There he meets Inspector Anthelney Jones from Scotland Yard, sent there to investigate and confirm Moriarty’s death.

Upon their meeting, Chase brings a dire warning: with Moriarty’s death a rather large vacancy has been left in London’s criminal underworld. While there is no shortage of candidates to fill the role, there is one particularly fiendish and cruel individual that Chase is after.

Joining forces, the two men travel from Switzerland to London in pursuit of this new threat. They must track down a man who has never been seen and is spoken of only in whispers and who is determined to take Moriarty’s place as his successor.

Moriarty is the second novel by Anthony Horowitz to sanctioned by the Arthur Conan Doyle Estate; and it is with good reason. In the novel Holmes’ world of Victorian London seems to come alive as Jones and Chase traverse its streets. Even those unfamiliar with the city of London will find themselves able to envision the settings in their mind.

Jones and Chase themselves are very interesting characters. Fans of the original Holmes’ stories will recognize Inspector Chase from ‘The Sign of Four’. Hating how he was portrayed in the published story, Chase becomes a devoted student of Holmes’ methods of deductions. He seeks to style himself as potentially Holmes’ successor just as he tries to find Moriarty’s successor. He delves in to his work much like Holmes’ does; head first and damned the consequences. Naturally this creates strife with his family and with his co-workers at Scotland Yard.

Chase is seemingly the penultimate Pinkerton Detective. Intelligent and headstrong he brings his own knowledge of the American criminals to London. He and Jones work well side by side as they try to solve a rather bizarre case.

Rare is the book, dear reader, that leaves me completely speechless by the end. Moriarty joins the rather short list that does just that. Now I will not spoil precisely what exactly left me so shocked, just know that while the entire book was a true page-turner it was those final few chapters that held me entirely entranced. With the final reveal and the final page, all I could say was “Oh wow…”

Well done Mr. Horowitz, well done.

Provided for Review: A Royal Kiss & Tell (A Royal Wedding #2) by Julia London

Every dashing young man in London’s ton is vying for Lady Caroline Hawke’s hand—except one. Handsome, delectable roué Prince Leopold of Alucia can’t quite remember who Caroline is, and the insult is not to be tolerated. So, Caroline does what any clever, resourceful lady of means would do to make sure a prince remembers her: sees that amusingly risqué morsels about Leo’s reputation are printed in a ladies’ gossip gazette…all the while secretly setting her cap for the rakish royal.

Someone has been painting Leo as a blackguard, but who? Socially, it could ruin him. More important, it jeopardizes his investigation into a contemptible scheme that reaches the highest levels of government in London. Now, Leo needs Lady Caroline’s help to regain access to society. But this charming prince is about to discover that enlisting the deceptively sweet and sexy Lady Caroline might just cost him his heart, his soul and both their reputations…

This book was provided for review by the publisher through NetGalley. Thank you!

It is very rare for me to not actually finish a book. It is even more rare when the book was provided with the intent to read and review it here. It saddens me when this happens, especially when the author is one I have read and enjoyed before.

Sadly, such is the case with A Royal Kiss & Tell by Julia London. I jumped at the opportunity to read and review one of Ms. London’s books as I have enjoyed many of them. Unfortunately, I made a little more than a quarter in to the book before I had to set it aside.

As always, Ms. London’s writing is quite well done. The scenes she sets up pull the reader in and it is easy to picture the action as it is happening. She has an ability to make the words jump from the page and to take the reader along for the ride.

My issue is with the characters themselves, especially Lady Caroline. She is a lady and yet her manners would claim otherwise. While she can be kind to most every one she meets, she often talks without caring if she is welcome or not. She also comes across as quite vain and shallow, taking great offense when those around don’t agree with her opinions of her own beauty.

Prince Leopold is thankfully a little better. While he finds Lady Caroline lovely to look at, he also finds her irritating with her apparent lack of manners. He chides her foolishness and spars with her in words. Being the second son, he is the “spare” to his elder brothers “heir”, a position he seems content with.

From some of the other reviews I have seen of A Royal Kiss & Tell, there are certain plot points that are not dealt with very well. They are supposedly dealt with in a ham-handed manner and often feel forced. I did not make it far enough in to the book to come across these particular sub-plots, so I cannot make any comments on to how they were written.

I have long been a fan of the author, Julia London. Having read numerous books by her, I have enjoyed many of them. While I personally did not enjoy reading A Royal Kiss & Tell, I will encourage other readers to give it a try. Just because it wasn’t for me does not mean it won’t be perfect for someone else.