New Book Alert: The Ghost of Villa Winter (Canary Islands Mysteries Book 4) by Isobel Blackthorn; Engaging Murder Mystery Set On A Beautiful Island

 

New Book Alert: The Ghost of Villa Winter (Canary Islands Mysteries Book 4) by Isobel Blackthorn; Engaging Murder Mystery Set On A Beautiful Island

By Julie Sara Porter

Bookworm Reviews

When last we left the lovely but intriguing Canary Islands in Isobel Blackthorn's A Prison in the Sun,  ghostwriter Trevor Moore found a backpack of stolen money, a manuscript about a gay man imprisoned during Franco's Spain, and a dead body. In short order, he kept the money for himself, translated and edited the manuscript and kept the credit, and was left the target of sinister figures who were probably responsible for the dead body.

In Blackthorn's latest caper, The Ghost of Villa Winter, Trevor is in prison and his only remaining friend, Clarissa, is fighting a so far fruitless endeavor to get him released. Clarissa knows Trevor well and knows that he is innocent of the murder. Okay, sure he's a literary thief for passing off the manuscript as his own. Sure he was foolish and greedy for not reporting the money. And sure, he's well….kind of a bumbling idiot, but a murderer? Never!

Clarissa is staying with her niece, Claire and Claire's husband, Paco while she waits to visit Trevor in prison and reopen his case. Claire and Paco want her to forget about Trevor for a while and just enjoy herself. So, she takes their advice and notices a flier for a guided tour of Villa Winter. She decides to take the tour and gets to know a group of eccentric tourists and their tour guide, Francois. It is on the trip to this historical building with a sinister past, in which it was the farmhouse of Gustav Winter, a member of the Nazi Party, where things take a dangerous turn. She and novelist, Richard Parry, get separated from the group and discover the corpse of a murdered woman inside the Villa. Even more terrifying is that the apparent time of death had to be within the last few minutes, so the woman's murderer had to be a part of the tour, but who?

The Ghost of Villa Winter is just as effective a murder mystery as its predecessor. Blackthorn once again provides a real strong sense of place throughout the book. Unlike Prison in the Sun which took advantage of the gorgeous beaches and outdoor views, most of the action is set in and around Villa Winter and the village of Cofete. However, the setting never feels claustrophobic or contained as there is always something new to explore.

Villa Winter is itself described as an imposing building. Blackthorn writes, "Villa Winter presented its visitors with a very high and imposing stone wall that appeared to serve as the dwelling's foundations. The two corners of the wall were finished off with square turrets, each sporting a small casement window set about two-thirds of the way up the front wall-too high for anyone outside to peer in-and topped with a stone parapet. The house itself sat above a stone wall and sported a somewhat austere veranda contained within a series of stone arches. A low pitched roof of terracotta tiles completed the look. Attached to the front of the house on the far side was a large round tower. The whole edifice was more imposing close up than (Clarissa)'d imagined viewing photos on the Internet."

Between the stone wall, tower, the strange bunkers on the lower floor, and a kitchen that looks more like an autopsy room, Villa Winter leaves a general impression that no one comes in and no one comes out. 

The setting isn't the only thing that leaves a memorable eerie impression on the Reader. The tour group are an odd crew that would be at home in an Agatha Christie locked room mystery. From the mean looking tour guide, Francois, to the know it all married couple, Fred and Margaret, to the oddly quiet, Helen, to the thrill seeking backpackers, Dave and Steve, to the gossipy Vera, to the no nonsense, Carol, to the mysterious, Simon who seems unsure even of his name at times. These characters give off a bizarre vibe particularly when they enter Villa Winter and seem to engage in a verbal competition over who knows the most about Gustav Winter, WWII trivia, and conspiracy theories. These are people who constantly bicker and don't mind showing off their knowledge to anyone who asks, and to anyone that doesn't. Anyone of them could be a murderer and their odd behaviors suggest that no one could be ruled out.

The only character that Clarissa finds completely trustworthy is Richard and that's because he is too much of a sniveling wimp to be a murderer and he hasn't left Clarissa's side since they entered Villa Winter. (He had no time to steal away and murder the young woman the way the others would have). 

There are some genuinely suspenseful moments that evoke a Hitchcockian film. Clarissa and Richard are abandoned by the tour group and trapped in the tower where they hear footsteps and the sounds of someone turning on the crematorium down below. 

They also plan a daring escape from Villa Winter that requires a long climb downhill as the sun threatens to set. Then,  they find that the road out of Cofete is closed so they are trapped in a small village with no electricity and no phone, with their tour group, one of whom is a murderer. The chapters are designed to keep the Reader clenched in suspense throughout this tour.

Even though there is a dark undercurrent, particularly with the murder and the history of Villa Winter, the protagonists keep things light-hearted veering this book towards a cozy mystery more than its darker predecessor. In particular, Clarissa is a great lead character. She has some unique traits such as her interest in astrology. (Really she should have known there would be trouble with the arrangement of Saturn, Pluto, and Mars and a Scorpio Moon present). She has a gift of being a good of judge of character, such as her initial observations of the tour group, that is seldom proven wrong. This gift seems to border on intuition, a sixth sense, love of mysteries, and good common sense that comes with age. That's how come she knows that Trevor is innocent. She knows him well.

Clarissa is also a brave and physically fit woman. She is like Miss Marple or Jessica Fletcher juiced up. When she and Richard have to escape Villa Winter, she proves her mettle by pushing herself and her cowardly companion outside of the Villa and harm's way. Most of that mettle is proven by carrying Richard's useless weight around as he spends most of the time, sniveling, whining, and contributing very little to their survival or solving the mystery around them.

Clarissa shows a protective streak towards Richard and Trevor, showing more competency than either of them. She isn't romantically attached to either one (Richard because of his personality and Trevor because of reasons that are revealed in A Prison in the Sun.) She has a sisterly protectiveness that wants to care and look after these guys. This leads to a heartfelt and sweet reunion between Clarissa and Trevor that strengthens their friendship.

The Ghost of Villa Winter is an engaging follow up to A Prison in the Sun that shows in scenic locations all may not be Paradise. Not with terrifying histories, dead bodies, and curious odd tourists and locals lurking around every beach and villa. 

New Book Alert: Solstice Shadows (A VanOps Thriller) by Avanti Centrae; Follow Up To The Lost Power Offers More Adventure, Suspense, Treasure Hunting, and Characterization

New Book Alert: Solstice Shadows(A VanOps Thriller) by Avanti Centrae; Follow Up To The Lost Power Offers More Adventure, Suspense, Treasure Hunting, and Characterization

By Julie Sara Porter

Bookworm Reviews


Spoilers: When last we left the Wonder Twins, Maddy Marshall and Will Argones and their secret agent friend, Bear Thorenson, they found some obelisks that acted as a superconductor and a star chart that points to an ultimate power source. This journey led them to the top of the Great Pyramid of Giza where Maddy used the superconductor to create ball lightning to blast their pursuers sky high. Will accepted the offer to join Van Ops still in mourning for his murdered wife, Maria. Maddy got accepted into a secret organization, the Order of the Invisible Flame, and considered joining Van Ops and adopting A.J., her orphaned student in aikido martial arts, while beginning a romance with Bear.


The second volume in the Van Ops series, Solstice Shadows, is pretty much more of the same. Usually, that's not a good thing but in this case, that is definitely a compliment. Avanti Centrae gives us more adventure, more treasure hunting, more suspense, more exotic locations, and more great characterization. It is not better or worse than the previous one. Instead they are equals in great escapism and high adventure.


The star chart that Will, Maddy, and Bear found is stolen from Maddy's apartment. Now, a dangerous assassin, with a taste for garroting his enemies, is after them. Meanwhile the Indian ambassador to Russia is murdered and his mistress is kidnapped and tortured. It flies right into Will and Maddy's world when they learn that the mistress is their step-grandmother and that they were attacked so their enemies could find the star chart and the location of the power source.

So now the twins, Bear, and a pair of new allies are led on yet another treasure hunt to look for this power source before the winter solstice (where the chart predicts that it can be found). They have to hurry because their enemies knocked out the power in the Philippines where a terrified populace is rioting and A.J. is hiding with an ally.


The novel jumps around from various locations to the Maldives, to the United States, to Brazil, to Russia, to Israel, to Mexico, to Belize, to the Philippines, to Turkey, to Morocco, to Egypt, to Sudan, to Jordan. If Readers want to take an imaginary journey to get their mind off their troubles, this book is the literary equivalent of getting your Imaginary Frequent Flier Miles.


The adventure is pure Indiana Jones meets James Bond. Everywhere the characters go, they run into villains in hot pursuit and have to use their wits to escape. There are many tense passages such as when Will and co-agent, Jags have to travel through the Sahara to avoid assasins.

Another suspenseful moment is when Maddy, Bear, and Will come to the archaeological dig of Anu Kumar, an archaeologist who can provide information on the star chart. She becomes the sole survivor in an attack that almost comes out of a psychological thriller or a horror movie.


The characterization is as sharp as ever mostly because Centrae doesn't forget the human element that lies in the adventure. Maddy goes through some angst and indecision throughout the book. She is reluctant to join VanOps because of how guilty she felt about committing murder in the last book, even though it was in self defense of herself, Will, Bear, and A.J. She is also torn between living a normal life as an adopted mother and getting back together with her ex fiancee or saving the world and taking all these dangerous risks with her new boyfriend, Bear. There is an emotional moment where Maddy has to face the consequences of keeping secrets even from her and Will's older sister, Bella.

One part that doesn't quite fit is her relationship with A.J. While she clearly cares for the boy, the fact that he is in danger in this book, yet again, suggests that he could become a frequent target by their  enemies. Maddy debates whether to adopt him, but this book gives several good reasons why she shouldn't.


Will also benefits from the extra care that Centrae provides in writing him. He is no longer grieving for his late wife. In fact, Maria's death and his last adventure has turned him into a dedicated agent who has learned to use his physical skills in knife throwing as well as his mental skills in engineering.

Will also has a potentially romantic relationship with Jags and a lot of cute moments as the two are running from their potential assailants. Jags also provides a sympathetic ear when Will confesses that he feels guilty about being involved with another woman so quickly after Maria's death.


While the antagonists aren't as well written as Ivan, the Hitman with a Heart of Gold from The Lost Power, there is some depth provided within Pyotr Argones, a relative of Will and Maddy's that is after them. While chasing the twins, Pyotr is also worried about his mother who is kidnapped and tortured by a sinister Russian character called the Baron. Oh yeah, and his mother is the aforementioned Indian ambassador's mistress. Pyotr realizes that he is a pawn in a larger game and the players that claim to be on his side could careless about him.

With extra adventure, locations, and great characters on both sides, Solstice Shadows continues the excitement started by The Lost Power. The VanOps Series is a series that could be considered The Great Escape.

New Book Alert: Loose Threads (Cool Assassins Book One) by J.O. Quantaman; Confusing But Involving Suspense Thriller About Spies and Assassins

New Book Alert: Loose Threads Cool Assasins Book One by J.O. Quantaman; Confusing But Involved Suspense Thriller About Spies and Assassins

By Julie Sara Porter

Bookworm Reviews


LopSugar Reading Challenge: A book recommended by your favorite podcast, blog, or online group (BookTasters, Twitter)

Spoilers: This is the second book in a row that I have reviewed about assassins and it's not as straight forward as Blood of the Assassin. In fact, it is downright confusing. However, there is a lot more involvement and investment in world building that pays off.

Cool Assassins takes place in 2073-2076 in various solar colonies, particularly the Dog Breakfast Co-op, a cooperative which appears to be a training ground for spies and assassins. The training is largely seen through the eyes of Nyssa Person, a former actress/call girl on the run from her dangerous former employers. The Dogs draw her into this new world of bloodthirsty fellow trainees, new identities to be forged, and a chance to gain strength and self reliance when facing sinister figures.

Meanwhile, three years later Mishima Security has a breach and Yamazaki Kazuo, security chief, is on the trail of someone called hotfeet. Three guesses who hotfeet works for and how the Nyssa plot is tied to the Kazuo plot.

In Loose Threads, the Nyssa plot is far better than the Kazuo plot. Quantaman does a great job of creating this futuristic environment and taking the Reader inside. He puts news press releases that provide exposition towards the socioeconomic and political situation that abounds. He also includes a much required glossary that defines such terms as acks (acolyte, trainee), creche (educational institution for those under 18), and qat (Quantum Assasination Theory, physical excellence aquired through intensive practice and phisiologic meditation.) The glossary helps define these terms that would otherwise cause the Readers to be lost.

As Nyssa trains with the other acks, she learns quite a bit about their methods. One of the more interesting passages is one that appears to be borrowed from Eastern philosophy that describes psigns, the framework of any natural group. They include taste, urgency, smell, hearing, seeing, breathing, moving, gravity, coordinating, warmth, balance and touch. The psigns are treated like a metaphysical and spiritual following that are meant to bring balance in physical activity and life.

Characterization is also particularly strong. Besides Nyssa, we also meet Jen, an expert climber and former acrobat who is always on the look for a thrill. Meg and Subie are a lesbian couple who have suffered tremendous loss and cling to each other even while mocking and teasing one another. Then there's Ahab "Cook" Ho, Dog Breakfast co-founder who captures Nyssa's heart by simply being a decent man and kind hearted leader. This is a pretty likable bunch, even if they are in the business of spying on people and taking lives.

What doesn't particularly mesh is the Kazuo plot. It distracts the Reader and makes the process confusing. The fact that it is three years ahead of the rest of the story doesn't help. The characters that we have gotten to know only make appearances towards the end, though it becomes evident and obvious that one has been there all along. It might have served better to tell this book as a straight chronological story and leave the Kazuo subplot to fill a later book. Plus, it could make Kazuo a more interesting character as he is being targeted and how the gang moves in to investigate and surround him. Let's hope later volumes in the series are more linear.

Despite the confusion, Loose Threads introduces us to an intricate and well thought out world that would be great to return. 

Forgotten Favorites: The Lamplighter by Anthony O'Neill; Dark and Bloody Supernatural Thriller About The Terrors Found in Dreams

Forgotten Favorites: The Lamplighter by Anthony O'Neill; Dark and Bloody Supernatural Thriller About The Terrors Found in Dreams

By Julie Sara Porter

Bookworm Reviews




Spoilers: Dreams can be great things to have. They reflect stress that a person has throughout the day and create breaks and possible solutions. They connect the Dreamer to various archetypes and symbols in the Collective Consciousness. They reflect our strongest desires and ambitions and possibly foretell the future. However, they also reflect our worst fears and sometimes can seem worse than reality. What if those nightmares came true and not only affected the Dreamer but the world around them?




That is the premise behind Anthony O'Neill's fascinating but little known novel, The Lamplighter. Evelyn Todd, a young woman in 19th century Edinburgh had a vibrant imagination that helped her through a troubled childhood at a home for destitute girls. As a girl, she is fascinated by a lamplighter outside the girl’s home. She creates stories and draws pictures about the adventures of a traveling lamplighter which she calls “Leerie,” (a slang term for Lamplighter). When her stories begin to frighten the other girls, the home's director orders her to stop talking about them. He no sooner gives her the order, then a mysterious man arrives claiming to be Evelyn's father and takes her to his home. She tells him about her Leerie stories and a few days later, her father introduces her to a man who resembles her drawings and claims to be Leerie.




Twenty years later, as the narrator tells us, “the streets of Edinburgh were filled with blood.” A professor is murdered and his body is scattered along the road. Inspector Groves, a conceited police inspector, links the murder to a similar one to a lighthouse keeper and other murders that follow. Meanwhile Thomas McKnight, a professor of logic and metaphysics, and his friend, Joseph Canavan, a gravedigger, are also investigating the murder since the deceased professor was a colleague and professional rival of McKnight's. McKnight, Canavan, and Groves are led to the now-adult Evelyn who works for a bookseller and whose nights are filled with dreams of detailed serial murders and her old imaginary friend (or is it enemy?) ,Leerie. Also many people, including Canavan and Evelyn, report sightings of a sinister demonic figure in the shadows.




The book is filled with suspense and horror-filled moments that rather than provide lame attempts at creating jump scares, instead enhance the plot and the surreal quality of the murders and Evelyn's dreams which either foretell the murders or are active participants. The chapters detailing the murders and the demonic figure are scary the way that H.P. Lovecraft's writing is scary. The creature doesn't have a specific shape and is seen in and out of the shadows like a figure of nightmares that changes shape and wouldn't have a specific form in the material world.




O'Neill puts interesting characters into this dark daymare of a novel. The most fascinating is Evelyn herself. She is secretive and cynical when Groves, Canavan, McKnight question her. (When Groves repeats his claims that her descriptions of the dreams as “vague”, she responds, “Yes, you told me that before.”) While the men particularly McKnight, think she's mentally ill or at least suffering from guilt from an overactive imagination that places her at the scene of the crime, Evelyn appears to have some dark secrets that she hides with her cryptic comments and scars that she hides behind gloves and scarves. In one tense chapter through hypnosis Evelyn explains her past in a story that is both creepy and heartbreaking. She recounts abuse and torture from guardians and her rage against them which might manifest in sinister creatures formed from her mind.




McKnight, Groves, and Canavan appear to be less defined. Groves is more interested in his memoirs and getting his name heard and considers solving the case as nothing more than adding a decisive finish to his illustrious career. McKnight is a very logical left-brained sort of man who questions her account constantly. Canavan is a more emotional sort who wants to rescue Evelyn seeing her as a damsel in distress. They are almost stereotypes but it makes sense when it is hinted that Evelyn's nightmare creatures not only come true, but she is also able to create protections and safeguards against them. Could those safeguards include creating people who open up repressed memories that manifest themselves as a demon that attacks her abusers on her behalf? This possibility is purposely left open-ended but is very meta and clever the more the Reader thinks about it.




The Lamplighter's protagonists have a hard time telling fantasy from reality and the more that Evelyn's nightmares take shape, the more frightening they become. This leads to a spellbinding and captivating conclusion that leaves the Reader with questions about the division between Reality and Imagination. This is the type of book that is both a standard horror story and a metaphysical journey. It is a dream come true, but not always the best dreams.

Weekly Reader: The Girl On The Train by Paula Hawkins; A Deep Psychological Thriller With An Unreliable Narrator

Weekly Reader: The Girl On The Train by Paula Hawkins; A Deep Psychological Thriller With An Unreliable Narrator
By Julie Sara Porter,
Bookworm Reviews

Spoilers: Rachel Watson, the protagonist of Paula Hawkins' psychological thriller, The Girl On the Train, is the very definition of the unreliable narrator. She is a character who gives her first person account of the events but it is hampered by her psychological state which is filled with rash judgments and blackouts caused by frequent alcoholism.

Rachel is a very depressed woman for many reasons. She turned to alcohol to cope with her inability to bear children. Her husband, Tom, left her for another woman and they live in Tom and Rachel's old home with their infant daughter. Rachel lost her job because of habitual drunkenness and still rides the train to and from work, convincing her roommate that she is still employed, but is actually job searching and beating herself up over her guilt and despair over her current situation.

While riding the train, she sees a seemingly happily married couple through a window. She becomes obsessed with the couple that she names "Jess" and "Jason" picturing their lives as perfect. She imagines Jason as a doctor and Jess as an art gallery owner and the two have a loving marriage of frequent sex, romantic dates, and amorous expressions. As Rachel's life spirals more out of control, she becomes obsessed with her imaginative perspective of Jess and Jason.

What is particularly fascinating is as we find out about Rachel's life, we also get into the lives of "Jess" and "Jason" which are hardly the paragons of perfection of Rachel's fantasy. Instead Jess, who is actually named Megan, is just as troubled as her observer. Megan is given to frequent anxiety attacks, feels stifled in her marriage to Scott (not "Jason"), and commits acts of infidelity with other men. The portrayals of Megan and Rachel reveal how little that we know of people. Even when we imagine they live lives better than ours, theirs may be the same or worse than our own.

Rachel's fantasies of Megan and Scott's life comes to a head when Megan turns up missing. Unfortunately, Rachel has no memory of the night Megan was missing and Tom says he saw her in the area in a violent drunken state, which needless to say does not bode well for an alibi. Hoping to make things right, Rachel ingratiates herself into the investigation and in Scott's life.

Tension mounts as Rachel cannot account for that missing time nor what happened or why she was bleeding afterwards. She becomes suspicious of Scott and of herself. The Reader has no preconceived knowledge of Rachel's actions so they are finding out events as she is. Hawkins also cleverly withholds information from The Reader until the time is right.

As the investigation continues, Rachel becomes the proverbial woman on the verge of a nervous breakdown always one drink away from oblivion. She knows she has a problem, but feels unable to do anything about it. Alcohol becomes a security blanket that she clings to until it chokes her with her avoidance of the troubles in her life and what happened to Megan.

It takes until Rachel learns the truth of that night from an unlikely source that she takes some positive changes to her life. She calls to question herself and the people around her including those she thought she could trust.
When Megan was a ghost, an unimaginable standard, Rachel felt that she was doomed to fall. Then when she learned the truth of who Megan was and the truth of her disappearance does Rachel take stock in her own life and seeks to change it. That's when Hawkins makes the Unreliable Narrator more Reliable.