This week for my Halloween Bingo reading, I have an early Golden Age Mystery, a contemporary horror novel and an Australian thriller.
For Country House Mystery, I’m reading, Clouds Of Witness, the second Lord Peter Wimsey book.
For Genre Horror I’m reading Ghost Radio which is about a cult radio show with what seems to be a sinister connection to the afterlife.
For Death Down Under, I’m reading Hades, the first book in the Archer & Bennett trilogy.
‘Clouds Of Witness‘ by Dorothy L Sayers (1926)
I tried an audiobook version of the first Wimsey book, Whose Body but set it aside fairly quickly because the narrator mangled the wit in the text with poor timing and zero sympathy with the spirit of the book. So my first real encounter with Wimsy was in Gaudy Night which really focuses on Harriet Vane. I learned much more about him from Strong Poison and The Nine Tailors. He’s an amateur detective who I feel quite comfortable with. I’m looking forward to seeing what he’s like in this early novel, newly back from the war, surrounded by his family and with his reputation not yet established.
Dorothy L. Sayers was an English crime writer, poet, playwright, essayist, translator and Christian humanist.
She was President of the Detection Club, a group of British mystery writers, from 1949-1957.
Clouds Of Witness is the second of the eleven Lord Peter Wimsey mystery novels that she published between 1923 and 1937.
‘Ghost Radio’ by Leopoldo Gout (2008)
I picked up Ghost Radio back in April because it sounded like it might be a good fit for Halloween Bingo.
Leopoldo Gout is a new author to me so I’m going in with an open mind.
I’m a fan of talk radio shows (excluding the shock jock/propaganda ones) and I’ve spent many hours driving through the dark with only the voices on the radio to connect me to the world beyond my windscreen.
I’m hoping that Ghost Radio will prove to be an atmospheric audiobook with a story that gets me to think about what else is travelling through the air in the dark hours.
Leopoldo Gout, author of Genius, is a writer, artist, and filmmaker who hails from Mexico. After studying in London, Gout produced the award-winning film Days of Grace, which A. O. Scott of the New York Times called “potent and vigorous.” He is the executive producer of the number one new show of the summer, sci-fi drama Zoo on CBS and is partnered with James Patterson Entertainment to produce Maximum Ride. Leopoldo Gout resides in New York City with his wife and two children.
‘Hades’ by Candice Fox (2014)
I picked up Hades because I enjoyed Crimson Lake which had two well-drawn, very unusual, main characters, an engaging plot and a strong sense of place.
From the publisher’s summary, it looks as though Hades also features a main character with an outside the mainstream way of viewing the world. I’m hoping that I’ll get engaged with the people and pulled along the plot of Hades, in which case, I’ll be reading the rest of the trilogy.
Candice Fox is the author of nine solo novels, three of which have won Australia’s prestigious Ned Kelly Award. All of her novels have been shortlisted for the award. In 2022, her novel ‘Crimson Lake‘ was made into the TV series ‘Troppo‘ starring Thomas Jane and Nicole Chamoun. She has multiple tv and film adaptations currently in production,
In 2015, Candice began collaborating with James Patterson. Each of their seven novels together have been New York Times best sellers.
Candice lives in Sydney with her family and is a volunteer rescuer of injured wildlife.
Mike Finn's Fiction 