Category: Read-a-likes

The Jane Lawless Series: Vital Lies by Ellen Hart

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Published in 1993, Vital Lies is the return of Ellen Hart’s restaurateur and sleuth Jane Lawless, featuring a remote island setting, wolves (real and imaginary), an escalating pattern of pranks and sabotage, and a motley cast of suspects. Come for the Murder, She Wrote vibes, and stay for the thoughtful insights into homophobia and coexistence.

Jane’s old friend Leigh has opened up the inn of her dreams – or it would be a dream, if someone wasn’t intent on sabotaging it. There’s been broken glass in the parking lot, gruesome surprises in the guest rooms, and the kitchen has even been ransacked. Leigh is starting to show the strain, just as Jane and Cordelia arrive for a stay. Jane suspects these attacks are deeply serious, a feeling confirmed by a death in the hotel. Now it’s up to Jane to figure out the who, how, and why before anyone else dies. It’s not going to be easy, either, considering the hotel’s current head count includes Leigh’s money-strapped partner Stephen, her quirky aunts, one of whom may have a secret romance brewing, Leigh’s troubled cousin Ruthie, a father and son with skeletons in the closet and a desire to own the inn themselves, a Wiccan practitioner, and her lover Tess, a woman definitely keeping something back — not to mention the new waiter, the cook with his young son always underfoot, and the grouchy handyman. Oh, and her melodramatic best friend Cordelia, stricken with an apparently dreadful cold. Jane’s got her work cut out for her on multiple fronts, as a determined and methodical killer gets ever closer…

I’m biased in this case because Murder, She Wrote is one of my comfort TV shows, but I found this very enjoyable. It’s very plot-focused, so we don’t see a lot of Jane’s internal life (though we do get some, including more information about her late partner Christine) and it’s more like a classic Golden Era whodunit or a stage play murder mystery. At the same time, there’s also honest portrayals of life as an LGBTQ person including parental rejection AND, more importantly, queer joy. After the rampant homophobia Jane runs up against in Hallowed Murder, it’s refreshing in this case to see Jane, Cordelia, and Winifred and Tess just living their lives as lesbians unapologetically and mostly unchallenged. I’m especially glad to be reading this series because it reminds me that LGBTQ authors have always existed and have been working for positive representation for a long time.

For me it falls in the cozy genre (which I don’t like quite as much), but book 2 in the Jane Lawless series still gets my thumbs-up, and you may like it too if you’re a fan of: Murder She Wrote, country house murder mysteries, vintage LGBTQ reads, or determined amateur sleuths unearthing long-buried secrets.

The Jane Lawless Series: Hallowed Murder by Ellen Hart

- Callen Leave a comment

After loving Devil’s Chew Toy by Rob Osler (you should read it!!) I was on the lookout for more LGBTQ mysteries, and discovered that Ellen Hart created a cult classic lesbian detective in Hallowed Murder, published 1989. Best of all, most of this series is still available through Rivershare at our local libraries.

In Hallowed Murder, we meet restaurateur Jane Lawless (and her theatrical friend Cordelia Thorne) and learn that she has started volunteering at her old college sorority, against the objections of Cordelia, who feels that Jane gives the sorority too much loyalty, considering it would have rejected her outright if it had known Jane’s sexuality. But then one of the senior students at the sorority dies suddenly, and while the police are dismissive (especially after the girl’s relationship with another woman comes out), Jane feels there’s more to the story and starts to investigate. Soon she finds herself drawn into a world of religious fanatics, blackmail, and fear, but remains determined to find out the truth.

As a longtime Agatha Christie reader I loved that this book paired a vintage tone and writing style with LGBTQ-inclusive characters. Like Christie’s work, it’s a product of its time, but in this case its time was the 1980s and 1990s, so it’s more aware of modern sensibilities and ethics. Unlike other modern cozy  mysteries, however, it doesn’t have that (apparently compulsory) formulaic storyline of the feisty heroine getting drawn into a turbulent relationship with a strong but sensitive local man or two — yawn! Instead there are slow hints of a relationship in Jane’s past that still haunts her, which is truer to Christie’s Poirot (as most recently shown in the recent Poirot films Murder on the Orient Express and Death on the Nile by Kenneth Branagh) than to a modern cozy detective.

It’s definitely fascinating to read a work of 80s queer literature in 2022 and see how the language has changed around identity, not to mention social perception. The religious abuse and general scandal that the LGBTQ characters face in this book paints a stark picture of what it was like to be queer at that time, and remind us that some places still feature this kind of social and religious persecution toward LGBTQ people. At the same time, Hart also chooses to have one toxic character begin to realize how flawed religious ideas are, which lends the whole thing a hopeful air.

I’m excited to see where this series goes and how Jane Lawless develops as a character – if you’re looking for an inclusive cozy mystery series to try, come along with me on this journey!

The Daughter of Doctor Moreau by Silvia Moreno-Garcia

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Cover of the novel bearing the text "New York Times Bestselling Author of Mexican Gothic, The Daughter of Doctor Moreau, Silvia Moreno Garcia" over a photorealistic scene: an orange wooden doorway set in a pink ivy-covered wall; a smaller door is set into the larger one, and offset with a green border; A woman in an old-fashioned green dress stands superimposed on a blue background in the smaller arched doorway.Perspective matters: that’s what I kept thinking while reading The Daughter of Doctor Moreau by Silvia Moreno-Garcia. Whose voice tells the story has a huge impact on the story’s effect. In this retelling of HG Well’s original classic science fiction novel, a change of perspective shows us that “monsters” are much more likely to be arrogant white men of power than animal-human hybrids.

In the original story, the narrator was a man shipwrecked on the island of Doctor Moreau, a man who was horrified to see the doctor’s creations: animals he had attempted to turn into humans. The hybrids in that case were obsessive and easily turned to violence as their animal natures inevitably reasserted themselves. In this case, the Doctor’s house is a peaceful haven in the jungle of the Yucatan for the doctor’s daughter Carlota, who knows no other home. Through her eyes we see the beauty of the natural setting and the easy community of the hybrids she has grown up with and loves like family. The handsome city men, sent by the doctor’s patron Hernando Lizalde, who come knocking one day are, by contrast, strange, alien, frightening, thrilling, and soon pose a great danger to her peaceful life. Alternating with her voice is that of the man hired to oversee the estate, the alcoholic Montgomery who is all too aware of his failings and is struggling to find a better sense of meaning. Gradually his growing bond with the hybrids and with Carlota drives him to take action for their protection.

Rather than focusing on the concept of human nature as opposed to, or entwined with, “animal savagery” as HG Wells did (which frankly reads now like eugenics and racism), this book meditates on who has power and how they harm others by using it and/or withholding it. One example of this – and of the power of perspective – is Carlota’s romantic storylines. Both Montgomery and the younger Lizalde are attracted to Carlota, and how they handle that (do they give Carlota any voice or power in that situation, do they act on the attraction, what action do they take) is very revealing about their respective characters’ values, motivations, and views on authority.

For myself, I didn’t find it quite as compelling as Mexican Gothic, but I love its improvements on the original source material and how it makes an iconic story accessible for modern audiences. I also think the questions it raises – questions the original raised as well, about the reasonable boundaries of science and innovation – are important ones to think about. If you like thoughtful retellings, chosen family, women’s empowerment, or the lush, entrancing prose of Silvia Moreno-Garcia, you’ll want to try reading this book.

The Women of Def Jam

- Callen Leave a comment

I love ordering music, partly because of how much I learn from it! For example, I was fascinated by The Smithsonian Anthology of Hip-Hop and Rap and its pretty comprehensive look at the growth and development of the genre. In a similar vein, recently I was able to order The Women of Def Jam, which “features the female artists that dominated hip-hop and R&B from the ’90s to the present day” (from publisher).

If, like me, you’ve only got a vague sense of what Def Jam is, here’s the breakdown I found from The Guardian’s “25 Years of Def Jam” piece back in 2011: “From humble beginnings in student digs, the record label Def Jam is credited with bringing New York’s street culture and music to the masses – and even helping to elect a president… Although not the only label to export the music and culture of inner-city America to the world, Def Jam is the most significant, artistically and commercially. Key signings have altered the art form, among them LL Cool J, Public Enemy, Beastie Boys, Jay-Z and Kanye West.” There’s a lot more to Def Jam now than hip-hop and rap, but it retains its reputation as helping to promote the cutting edge of the genre, especially at critical points in recent history.

The Women of Def Jam focuses on a specific part of that legacy which is not as evident in the stories told about Def Jam’s origins: what it owes to women. The album announcement in Variety explains that this album was put together for Women’s History Month, not least because “over half of the Def Jam staff are women, including seven women of color in senior executive positions. Two of the three executive leaders are women. Of ten department heads, eight are women” (Tunji Balogun, CEO). It’s an encouraging sign as in some genres of music, including arguably hip-hop and country music, women have had to fight against cultural conceptions of what their role ought to be to find success.

This album celebrates how far we’ve come in that journey by paying homage to the greats. Even for someone like me for whom hip-hop and R&B are not my top genres, this album is star-studded; both household names and lesser-known gems are represented for a voyage of nostalgia, discovery, or both. Explore this blast from the past today!

Vital Books for Polarized Times

- Callen Leave a comment

Today I’d like to share three books I’ve recently ordered for our library collections which feel like they have something very important to say about living in modern times. These authors have taken up their pens to encourage all of us to approach the world with more open minds and an understanding that people are varied, complex, and not ours to change.

See No Stranger: a Memoir and Manifesto of Revolutionary Love by Valarie Kaur

Valarie Kaur is a renowned Sikh activist and in this book, she argues that Revolutionary Love is the call of our times. When we practice love in the face of fear or rage, it has the ability to transform an encounter, a relationship, a community, a culture, even a country. Drawing from her personal experiences, Sikh wisdom, and the work of civil rights leaders of all kinds, Kaur has reenvisioned love as a public ethic: a commitment to loving others, opponents, and ourselves. She argues that this type of love is not a passing feeling; it is an act of will. It is an active, political, and moral response to violence, hate, and otherness.

Conversations With People Who Hate Me: 12 Things I Learned From Talking to Internet Strangers by Dylan Marron

Dylan Marron’s work has racked up millions of views and worldwide support. From his acclaimed Every Single Word video series highlighting the lack of diversity in Hollywood to his web series Sitting in Bathrooms with Trans People, Marron has explored some of today’s biggest social issues. Yet, according to some strangers on the internet, Marron is a “moron,” a “beta male,” and a “talentless hack.” Rather than running from this online vitriol, Marron began a social experiment in which he invited his detractors to chat with him on the phone–and those conversations revealed surprising and fascinating insights. Now, Marron retraces his journey through a project that connects adversarial strangers in a time of unprecedented division. 

The Believer: Encounters with The Beginning, The End, and Our Place in the Middle by Sarah Krasnostein

Some of the people Krasnostein interviews believe in things many people do not: ghosts, UFOs, the literal creation of the universe in six days. Some believe in things most people would like to: dying with dignity and autonomy; facing up to our transgressions with truthfulness; living with integrity and compassion. By turns devastating and uplifting, and captured in snapshot-vivid detail, these six profiles of a death doula, a geologist who believes the world is six thousand years old, a lecturer in neurobiology who spends his weekends ghost hunting, the fiancée of a disappeared pilot and UFO enthusiasts, a woman incarcerated for killing her husband after suffering years of domestic violence, and Mennonite families in New York will leave you convinced that the most ordinary-seeming people are often the most remarkable and that deep and abiding commonalities can be found within the greatest differences.

The Priory of the Orange Tree by Samantha Shannon

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This book is not for everyone. At 800+ pages it’s definitely a marathon, Iditarod, Great Race, good-lord-this-is-taking-a-long-time read. Not to mention that as high fantasy it’s an intricately woven, intimidatingly comprehensive tapestry of a universe — different cultures, traditions, and a number of unique characters. HOWEVER, if you can make it through, you’ll not only have the pride of finishing, but you’ll be breathless, teary-eyed, thrilled, and yearning to read it all again (but maybe not right away).

The Priory of the Orange Tree by Samantha Shannon is the story of three very different women who are vital to the survival of all their peoples. Queen Sabran the Ninth is one of a thousand-year-line of Berenthnets who have ruled her queendom, and as such bears a lot of weight on her shoulders — especially considering it’s her bloodline that’s supposed to keep the fearsome fire-based dragon known as The Nameless One from rising again and laying waste to the world. Too bad she’s not interested in getting married and continuing that line… Ead comes from a secret society deep in the South that trains up women to be powerful warrior mages, wielding magic to keep the world safe, mostly from The Nameless One. As part of her mission, Ead has been sent to guard Queen Sabran, without ever letting her know about the existence of magic. So why does she long to get closer to her? Meanwhile, far in the East, Tane is a former peasant girl about to be made a dragon rider in the sacred tradition of the water-based dragons native to the region – if an invader from the West doesn’t mess things up for her. Along for the ride are Doctor Niclays Roos, an alchemist in exile seeking the elixir of eternal life, and Lord Arteloth Beck, friend to Sabran and Ead, sent on a deeply perilous diplomatic mission into dragon-ruled lands — not to mention various plots and intrigues against Sabran, Ead, The Nameless One, or all of the above… All these disparate threads will gradually come together in a battle of good and evil that transcends all borders of region, religion, and reason — because if our hapless heroes don’t stand together, they’ll all burn.

Lush, detailed, beautifully written and sweetly hopeful, this is a fascinating and readable fantasy journey that captures your heart with its very human protagonists. Especially delightful is the way inclusivity is built into the universe, both in terms of LGBTQ relationships and various ethnicities. While the cultural parallels being drawn are fairly obvious, it works as an alternate universe / alternate history, especially because the cultural parallels are also very well done; the religions and traditions are familiar to readers, but with their own intriguing twists.

If you like chosen family, dragons, cosmic balance, a balance of humor and heartache, and books that double as dumbbells for your arm workout, this is the book for you. Seriously, don’t be afraid to put in the time on this one; it’s a masterful epic that leaves no one behind.

Never Coming Home by Kate Williams

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I picked up Never Coming Home by Kate Williams because I’m a sucker for a YA murder mystery, but squealed internally when I realized that it’s a modern retelling of Agatha Christie’s And Then There Were None – easily one of the most chilling and addictive mysteries published (made into a miniseries in 2015!). Even better, it also has bits of The Breakfast Club mixed in, which gives a one-two punch of cult classic storylines.

Unknown Island is a new, highly exclusive hospitality experience (read: fancy resort) that’s been building hype for months through a slick and tempting ad campaign. Now, the island has finally invited it’s First Ten guests: ten influencers from various platforms and niche interest areas, all under 21 and up-and-coming. But it’s not until they arrive that they realize there’s something else they all hold in common…they all hold a deadly secret. That in itself might just be unsettling, until the first of them dies. And then it soon becomes clear that whoever’s invited them has no intention of letting them leave alive.

I appreciated a lot of things about this book including the quick-paced storyline, the multiple POV narration, and the true diversity represented. As a fan of the original it was fun to find the echoes of the original material sprinkled throughout the text; while it skillfully follows the same path as the original, the characters and their backgrounds aren’t exact copies of Christie’s originals, so it’s not immediately obvious who’s the dastardly criminal mastermind.  Each of the characters gets their own voice and has a distinct identity — which is not to say it doesn’t get confusing at times to remember who’s who — but what’s really effective about the narrative style is that flipping quickly between different perspectives mirrors the horror of paranoia kicking in as the body count keeps climbing and you’re not sure who to believe. Moreover, while I wouldn’t say this adaptation is necessarily better than Christie’s original, it’s definitely more relevant to modern senses of what’s terrifying, as it shines a spotlight on how not anonymous social media is and what can really happen to kids who live mostly online. True to the original, however, it doesn’t shy away from a nuanced and unresolved examination of what it means to be a good or bad person, or what it really means to have justice be done.

If you’re a mystery lover, distrustful of social media, devour slasher films and psychological thrillers, or are generally haunted by Lord of the Flies‘ death-in-paradise vibes, DO NOT miss out on this genius, terrifying thrill ride.

The Hacienda by Isabel Cañas

- Callen Leave a comment

My quest to read every retelling and remix of Daphne DuMaurier’s Rebecca continues! This time around it’s The Hacienda by Isabel Cañas, featuring a mashup of themes and characters from Rebecca, Jane Eyre, Mexican Gothic, and The Death of Jane Lawrence, and a tense descent into bigotry, ghosts, magic, sin, and forging your own path.

Beatriz is the daughter of a general disgraced and murdered at the end of the Mexican War of Independence. She’s never gotten over it, not least because it forced her and her mother to move in with her high-class (and pale-skinned) Tia Fernanda – who never let Beatriz forget what a favor she was doing for them. A proposal from the landowning widower Rodolfo Solorzano seemed to be an unexpected gift that would allow Beatriz and her mother to claim their own home, status, and freedom. Her mother’s refusal to go along with it only strengthened Beatriz’ resolve, and she soon arrives at the hacienda San Isidro ready to make it her own. But little does she know what lurks in the house… between whispers of Rodolfo’s first wife, hostility from Rodolfo’s sister, and sinister red eyes in the darkness, Beatriz is in way over her head. She turns to the local church and finds herself leaning on the unusual young priest Andres in an increasingly terrifying fight for survival.

This is no mere retelling; many of the elements are unique and intriguing. Beatriz feels like a very unique character to me because of her defiant (and desperate) ambition to claw her way to a better life and a true home. Her noble young hero Andres is also refreshing, not least because he gets his own voice in alternating chapters and has his own journey of self-discovery to go on. Even the house itself is different — in this case the house is a nearly sentient character that holds all its history and expresses itself in its own way. All of these attributes are fresh, interesting to read, and deeply expressive of the culture and locale in which this book is set. The reader never forgets all the history that has soaked into the land, nor do they lose sight of the vital cultural contexts — oppressive religion, classism and colorist bigotry, or the violence and hardship of war.

While readable and refreshing, not everything about this book worked for me. The sinister happenings at the hands of “the darkness” were a bit too vague for me to really picture and latch onto, and the romantic plot was too slow-burn for my taste. But if you’re deeply scared of the dark and love forbidden and star-crossed romances, you’ll probably love this book.

Even if you’re like me and DON’T love those elements, there’s a lot to like about this book, so if you like ghost stories, murder mysteries, and romances — with a heaping helping of historical context and sprinkled with feminist and anti-racist social commentary, definitely give this book a try.

Best Sellers Club is now Simply Held!

- Stephanie Leave a comment

Best Sellers Club is now Simply Held, a service that automatically places you on hold for authors, celebrity picks, nonfiction picks, and fiction picks. Choose any author, celebrity pick, fiction pick, and/or nonfiction pick and The Library will put the latest title on hold for you automatically. Select as many as you want! Still have questions? Click here for a list of FAQs.

Fiction Additions

  • Isabel Allende
  • Louise Erdrich
  • Lisa Jewell
  • James McBRide
  • Mary Monroe
  • Lisa See
  • Karin Slaughter
  • Colson Whitehead

Mystery Additions

  • Walter Mosley
  • Louise Penny

Romance Additions (the below are only available in regular print)

  • Jasmine Guillory
  • Helen Hoang
  • Beverly Jenkins

Shadows Over Baker Street: A Holmes Meets Lovecraft Collection

- Callen Leave a comment

I’ve been on a kick of discovering older books recently, and really enjoyed the classic Shadows Over Baker Street from 2003, edited by Michael Reeves and John Pelan. It’s a collection of short stories from a number of fantastic authors including Neil Gaiman and Billy Martin (writing at the time as Poppy Z Brite). The stories feature characters from Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes universe, set in a world of HP Lovecraft’s monsters. The notoriously logical Holmes faces mysteries without rational explanation, tied to eldritch beings and their fanatical human worshippers.

The benefits of a short story collection are many. For one thing, the short form keeps the book readable and fast-paced; in this case there was still some feeling of repetitiveness by the end of the book, but it still held your interest as it moved through various vignettes. Because in this format, each story can take a different approach, timeframe, and set of characters, which lets the reader discover not only more of Lovecraft’s plots and characters but also more of Holmes’ cases and adventures. While many of the stories do rely on a Watson-and-Holmes-at-Baker-Street structure, a good number find Holmes in different places, with different narrators or helpers. In one case, Holmes doesn’t appear at all, and the story connects to him through Irene Adler (Tiger! Tiger! by Elizabeth Bear). The overall effect is of a somehow cozy journey into the terrifying and impossible adventures of yesteryear, like ghost stories told by the fire. If you like Sherlock Holmes, HP Lovecraft, or similar universes like Doctor Who, this is a great book to curl up with as the nights start to get colder and spookier.

However, if you’re looking for something slightly more recent but with the same vibe/premise, I’m planning to try 2019’s The Affair of the Mysterious Letter by Alexis Hall, which is also a Sherlock Holmes retelling set in an alternative universe, with plenty of monsters and action, but with all of Alexis Hall’s charm, humor, and LGBTQIA diversity.

What’s YOUR favorite Sherlock Holmes read?