RIP CHALLENGE: Case Histories Ep. 1 and 2

Jackson Brodie, the former cop turned PI in the best-selling novels by brilliantly ironic writer Kate Atkinson is played in the BBC series by the also brilliantly ironic Jason Isaacs. This often graphic, dark series which plays with the macabre in gloriously gothic Edinburgh is a perfect addition to Peril on the Screen.

Jackson is an English ex-pat living in Edinburgh and taking the oddest cold cases while grappling with his dark past and trying very hard to stay close to his young daughter: especially due to the friction between Jackson and his ex-wife. Atkinson understands the inner perplexities and passions of her readers and fortunately the series picks up the same eccentric and bubbling minutiae of the colourful cast of characters.

In Case Histories (the title of the first Brodie novel and, here, the name of the tv series) Brodie is involved in three very odd, very cold cases involving a girl missing for 30 years, a murder of a young woman from 10 years before ---still lingeringly unsolved, and the murder of a man by a mother whose young girl, Tanya, watched as an infant from a nearby crib.

All three cases force Jackson to remember snippets of the death of his sister while confronting his anxiety that his ex-wife will spirit is own (adorable) daughter to New Zealand for a new job.

The show is very humane and captures the winding, whirling kaleidoscope of characters and interwoven plots boasted in the critically acclaimed books.

Murder, abuse, missing persons, strange cars that drive down sleek, rain-soaked pavement: This is contemporary crime drama at its best.

In comparing it with other modern British crime dramas, I am led to cast a thought for Rebus (obviously as Edinburgh plays its gritty, smoky and perfectly ambienced back-drop ) and also of Lynley, who, when played by Nathaniel Parker especially, has the same bemused charm Isaacs has in the role of detective. Moreover, he really cares: from helping the somewhat batty Binky with the consistent rescue of her erstwhile cat, to being absolutely smitten with his daughter, to caring so deeply when a case strikes a resonant chord: Jackson's tough, battle-scarred but compassionate.

I always thoroughly enjoy a new crime drama from the BBC: their literary adaptations in a myriad of genres consistently prove extraordinary.  While its hard to shift-mediums from book to screen, the series maintains the spirit of the character-driven and less-procedural stories.  For example, you won't find any Sherlockian clue-finding here; rather, like Columbo, or Lynley or even Richard Jury, it is the stories that are told, the people peppering the scene: in crime and out of  that slowly leak the truth....

I highly recommend the book series by Kate Atkinson. I watched Case Histories on BBC Canada; but Masterpiece Mystery viewers will be happy to note it starts up soon on PBS and you can pre-order the dvds on amazon.

A Study in Sherlock: Murder by Decree (1979)

For another instalment in A Study in Sherlock and to add to my on-going contribution to the RIP Peril on the Screen Challenge, I give you Murder by Decree.

Holmes: Christopher Plummer
Watson: James Mason

Le Plot: Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson meet Jack the Ripper and discover a layered conspiracy wherein people are protecting the Ripper....

Should I start with the positive? There's not a lot positive ....so would you like the best first?  Okay.

I loved the Victorian London setting and, for a 1979 film, I thought they did a greatly luminous job: all cobblestones and gas lanterns and grimy brick, bells, dogs barking, fog.... hansom cabs, hoofs on pavement and a generously portentous feeling of uncertainty.

Jack's eyes are an inhumane black that penetrate the screen and give this (rather abysmal ) adaptation moments of perfect Hallowe'eny goodness.

notes:
I like James Mason's voice.
Christopher Plummer is Canadian.

Unfortunately, the aforementioned is about the range of the good.  I detested this movie. In fact, I detested it so much I didn't even finish it.  John Gielgud shows up! Donald Sutherland (knack! Canadian!) also shows up with a few well-played premonitions but the casting is all wrong, the plot reeks and my Sherlockian sensibilities were not bemused ( as they are in, say, the Guy Ritchie enterprise), rather ....bored.

Look, Watson, I have my deductive face on! 

Plummer, god bless his thespian soul, is just not a very good Holmes. He's not caricatured in the Matt Frewer way (more on Frewer and his less- than- stellar offering in another post); but he just doesn't suit---despite earnest trying.  He doesn't have the look ( Roxburgh didn't, also, but he had more of the feel.)
Plummer doesn't have the shrewdly resonant intelligence and irony of Holmes and the Watson/Holmes chemistry....

.....It's like James Mason ( great voice! Really! It's James Bloody Mason!) is in a completely different movie and he plays to the baffled Nigel Bruce-ean type rather than to the Jude Law/ Ian Hart/ Martin Freeman type. Since I am a huge Watson fan, I like my Watson's to be smart men-of-action. In other words, I like the Watson that Doyle created.

So, we've got Whitechapel, we've got gory murders, we've got foggy streets and ciphers and codes and something to do with the "Juwes" and royal uproar and crinolines brushing the damp street .... and even Sherlock playing Bach's cello suites on his overheard violin ----

...and there's Freemasons!
...and it's a co-Anglo/Canadian production ( more on those when we get into the baffling horror that is the Christopher Lee take on Holmes)

Holmes, you may have your deductive face on, but I am wearing exactly the same expression I did in the previous picture.
Shut up, Watson, I am admiring the fake set and trying to remember all of the words to Edelweiss

If you want Jack the Ripper in your Holmes, I have heard that this film is particularly good--it's novelization written by ELLERY QUEEN and all...

...and you can always find Dust and Shadow: An Account of the Ripper Killings by Dr. John H. Watson,
The Whitechapel Horrors by Edward B. Hanna or The Mycroft Memoranda by Ray Walsh and plenty more. It makes a lot of sense to pit Holmes against the Ripper: especially as Sir Arthur Conan Doyle was consulted by the police regarding the unending mystery. (My favourite is that some theorists list him as a suspect! how bizarre)

Long live Sherlockian pastiches! and long live Sherlock on Film.  Unfortunately, not this film.

Previously: The Hound of the Baskervilles

A Study in Sherlock: the Hound of the Baskervilles, BBC, 2002

Holmes: Richard Roxburgh
Watson: Ian Hart

This is a perfect way to start A STUDY in SHERLOCK: a short series I plan on undertaking as part of the RIP Challenge: Peril on the Screen.


This is not a faithful adaptation in terms of minute plot points; but it is faithful to the horror and gothic elements of the harrowing story.  The film opens in eerie fashion with Doctor Mortimer (here played by INSPECTOR BARNABY from Midsomer Murders) describing the horrible death of the wealthy Baskervilles upon the dreaded moors.  It's a perfectly Hallowe'eny overture to the hauntings to come.

A lot of Sherlockians find major faults with this adaptation: mainly in its straying from being pure to the tale. I would like to defend it.  First, it captures the spirit of The Hound of the Baskervilles: what with its supernatural premonitions that so enticed Doyle's fluid pen. Moreover, this Hound was released after a long drought in respectable Sherlock Holmes adaptations ( the Matt Frewer enterprise does NOT count as a respectable Sherlock Holmes adaptation. I don't care if they're as Canadian as I am).  Secondly, though many cite that Richard E. Grant ( here chilling in his silent, smiling portrayal of Jack Stapleton) has a physiognomy better suited to the aquiline-profiled Holmes... especially when seen next to Richard Roxburgh, our Holmes in the tale, I like Roxburgh.  What I appreciated about Richard Roxburgh was although decidedly of a different flavour than other actors ( sort of like when Daniel Craig emerged as the first blond Bond!), Roxburgh was not emulating any Holmes before him: his take is relatively fresh.   He's alert, his ears stick out slightly as if always ready to preamble him into action and he has a delicious sort of irony about him.

I also adore Ian Hart's Watson. Hart had a chance to revisit the role opposite Rupert Everett in Sherlock Holmes and the Case of the Silk Stocking; but I much preferred him in this canonical adaptation.  Watson is very much the antithesis here to the buffoon silly Nigel Bruce made him out to be: as in the novel, Watson is an essential part to the narration of the story ( as per always) because Holmes is off-screen for much of the action while Watson accompanies Sir Henry Baskerville to Baskerville Hall. Watson is a humane observer and he stands up to Sherlock when he needs to.  He also asserts his own medical skills and slightly lesser powers of deduction.  An ongoing spat between the two men about how trust weighs into their close friendship is welcome.  You truly see Holmes' affection for his roommate/biographer and Watson returns the favour with awed respect, yes, but also a modicum of understanding Holmes' limits.

I am an AWESOME Watson.

The style and dialogue do not fail to capture the essence of Doyle's work and his passion for the supernatural.  Sherlockians will appreciate small details, like Holmes' partaking of his infamous Seven Per Cent solution near the beginning of the film.

The villain is heartless and roguish and deceptively welcoming, the Baker Street rooms are comfy, beautiful and seem to completely adapt from our mental image of them and the moors are perfectly fogged and dim-lit as they paint the ground for the crumbling old gothic mansions which provide the action for the many scenes.



This is not the best Sherlock Holmes adaptation out there; but it has many, many memorable moments and is a swell undertaking for the initiated (and uninitiated) this spooky season.

The Empire of Ruins: Book three in the Hunchback Assignments Series by Arthur Slade

Guess what, lucky Americans?....today is your day!...Empire of Ruins is the third installment in the Steampunk-ed Hunchback Assignments by award-winning CANADIAN Arthur Slade  and it is available in your country. Like, right now. 

This is what the book looks like in AMERICAN

Heard of Arthur Slade?  He's the guy whose e-book version of Dust (winner of the Governor General's Award--- a big deal here up in Canada) is currently beating Stephen King in horror sales for Kindle... yah.

As is the case with the first two books chronicling Modo’s adventures as a shape-shifting spy, so the third speaks to darker themes lurking slightly beneath the over-arching fantasy fun.  Here, Modo,at one point, is forced to stand up to his father-figure/mentor Mr. Socrates when it comes to a matter of protecting an Australian tribe and their customs.

Yes, Colonization is a theme that fits well in a book which speaks to British subjects, territory expanse and the looming threat of the Clockwork Guild.  A languid sea voyage, hot air balloons, an archaeologist gone mad, foreboding spikes, eerie caves, a fantastical God Face and odd, mechanical birds populate the intrepid Modo and the delightful Octavia Milkweed's adventures.   You even get a glimpse of explorer David Livingstone’s pompous funeral within the enclaves of glorious Westminster Abbey.

Didactic title, n'est pas?

Octavia gets a pair of trousers (finally), Modo is reunited with one of his closest friends, Tharpa gets his game on, Mr. Socrates has a heart (sort of) and Modo and Octavia reach a point in their bond that could further solidify or break it.

I found Australia a very interesting geographical choice: British enough for the whole colonial motif; wild enough with unknown tribes and vast, unpopulated expanses to set the stage for mayhem and close enough to Canada (in a theoretically comparative sense--I am not that geographically-challenged) to be, sort of, Canadian (FACT: Canadians travel to Australia when they want to "live exotically" in "perpetual summer" while still maintaining all of the stuff they are familiar with. TRUE STORY).   Unfortunately, it has no prairie-like terrain and we all know that I find Slade to be at the height of his powers when writing about the geography he knows best: that of the Saskatchewan prairies.

I have enjoyed the Hunchback Assignments series and highly recommend them for kids --- boy and girl (Really, Octavia! She be of the empowering type); there’s an inkling of romance to keep your heart tripping and enough compassion to have readers of all ages rooting blindly for Modo ( as his new tribal friends do), but I find myself missing the Slade of old…. Of Dust and Tribes and JOLTED!

This is what the book looks like in CANADIAN!

AND NOW, I GIVE YOU....


OCTAVIA MILKWEED MOMENTS:
a.) "I'm not dainty! I'm Octavia!"
b.) Octavia:"'Sorry, I meant busybody, not bumblebee. Where are my manners? And, about Mr. Socrates, you know you agree with me in your gut at least, even if your mind hasn't caught up yet.' she paused.' I have missed our reparting.'"
Modo: "I believe the word you want is repartee"
c.) "It was a pair of trousers, perfectly sewn and softer than any material a man would wear---but trousers! She read the note in Mrs. Finchley's tidy handwriting[...] Octavia promised herself she would hug the woman the moment they next met. Trousers!"
d.) On David Livingstone: "She would have been amazed to meet the man while he was living and breathing, but now that he was dead he was rather a bore"
(NOTE: it's worth reading these books for Octavia alone)

 Read Rachel's rambles on Hunchback I

 Read Rachel's rambles on Hunchback II

Perfect addition to my RIP reading ( Steampunk madness and the same Chapter font as the Horatio Lyle books---again!)

Courtney also liked it.

RIP CHALLENGE: A Stranger in Mayfair by Charles Finch

A Stranger in Mayfair is the fourth Charles Lenox mystery and equally as simply and cozily enjoyable as the first three.

It begins while Charles Lenox and his long time friend ( and now wife), Lady Jane Grey are on their Continental honeymoon. We are given our first snapshot of the Parliamentary man/Amateur Detective by two gossiping women in a restaurant who remark on Charles’ physical appearance, his past successes and his lovely wife. Thus, ushers in another quiet adventure about class systems, intelligence and the baser points of human nature.

Charles, his assistant Dallington, his medical friend McConnell and his butler-turned-parliamentary assistant Graham all help in discovering the death of a young servant worker in a prominent Mayfair household.



The Graham/Lenox relationship will remind readers of Bunter and Wimsey; but somehow, although Finch keeps reminding us of the camaraderie and affection which exists between the two men, we never actually see it. I am told by the narrator that they are fond of each other (knowing each other since Lenox’s youthful Oxford days) and yet Graham is not given enough page time to prove this. The same can be said for the other relationships stranded through the series: I am told that Charles and Lady Jane Grey have a long and meaningful friendship; but it is not demonstrative on page. Hopefully as the series continues, Finch will show the same competence for character development as he does for quietly ushering in plot twists, exuding a wealth of London parliamentary, historical and geographical knowledge and painting a life-like 19th Century world.

The writing style is charming as befits cozies set in this time period: with a knack for intelligence as befits Lenox’s upper-end station. However, the chapter endings seem so dense in their portentous foreshadowing that one is reminded of the cliffhangers in those RL Stine Fear Street mysteries. This is another case in which we are TOLD to feel and fear; rather than shown.

Nonetheless, with the exception of my little gripes, I do enjoy this series and the lovely Victorian world it recreates. This is a perfect addition to the RIP challenge due to its murder, mayhem, smoke and hansom cabs.

Readers of Anne Perry and Dorothy L. Sayers, above all, will find themselves at home here.

We are treated to Lenox’s next adventure in November

R.I.P. Challenge ...Again

I am so excited that Carl V's ( of Stainless Steel Droppings) R.I.P. Challenge is here once more.  This is my favourite blog challenge because it is so atmospheric and it ushers in my favourite reading time of year: The languid transition from Fall to Winter: harrowing winds, chilly nights, incendiary leaves in a cornucopia of colour, rain-shone pavement after misty precipitation, lanterns flickering---- a biblophile's dreamworld for Things That Go Bump in the Night and mysterious yarns. R.I.P. runs from September 1 to October 31st and it is open to everyone!

I am going to participate in Peril the First: Read four books, any length, that you feel fit (my very broad definitions) of R.I.P. literature. It could be Stephen King or Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Ian Fleming or Edgar Allan Poe…or anyone in between.


The Genre Criteria for R.I.P. remains as it has for past years:
Mystery.
Suspense.
Thriller.
Dark Fantasy.
Gothic.
Horror.
Supernatural.




I am so looking forward to reading some marvellously mysterious yarns! 
This year,  I am planning on reading:


A Stranger in Mayfair by Charles Finch 

The Forgotten Garden by Kate Morton

Among the Shadows by L.M. Montgomery (re-read)

Fear the Worst by Linwood Barclay

The Black Hand by Will Thomas

I may add to this list if I find some other novels which fit the criteria of R.I.P. over the next few months.


Next, I am going to participate in Peril on the Screen

For this challenge, I am quite excited to pursue an activity similar to my Great Adaptations series: I have decided to revisit Sherlock Holmes film and television adaptations.  A few favourites, some different takes on the Holmes' canon , some versions great and some not-so-great.  Expect to see the following on the blog over the next two months:

The Great Mouse Detective :-)
The BBC Sherlock (Benedict Cumberbatch)
The Granada Sherlock Holmes( Jeremy Brett)
The Hound of the Baskervilles( Richard Roxburgh)
The Hound of the Baskervilles(Peter Cushing)
The Seven-Percent Solution
Sherlock Holmes and The Case of the Silk Stocking (Rupert Everett)
Sherlock Holmes (Robert Downey Jr.)
House, M.D. (Hugh Laurie)
Sherlock Holmes and the Baker Street Irregulars (Jonathan Pryce)
Murder by Decree (Christopher Plummer)
Sherlock Holmes and the Leading Lady (Christopher Lee)
Without a Clue (Michael Caine)
Basil Rathbone ( his name is in italics for no reason)
Ronald Howard
...you get the point

...and, assumedly, several more ( maybe even a nod to those HORRIBLE Matt Frewer adaptations).


I don't promise these adaptations are all stellar; all are re-visits and some I was never fond of ... but, watching Sherlock Holmes movies is a talent of mine...and no one can think of R.I.P. without thinking of his Victorian gaslit streets...we'll hopefully ignite some great conversation on their source material, too---as i subscribe to any and all things Sherlockian

RIP CHALLENGE: Murder on Astor Place by Victoria Thompson

This is the first in the Gaslight Mystery series set equally in lower and higher society New York City at the turn of the 20^th Century.

Historical figures such as Teddy Roosevelt and Jacob Riis populate the book in a subdued way to give flavour to very well-researced murder mystery about the murder of a young socialite fallen-from-grace.

Frank Malloy has his own secret reasons for wanting to climb the chain of command to make Police Captain in an altogether hopeless police force: decrepit, shady and undermining any semblance of justice. Sarah Brandt is an intelligent widow who makes her living as a midwife: most often in the slums where residents of tenements can barely scrape together her fee.

Sarah comes from an upper crust family and immediately relates to the plight of innocent murder victim, Alicia Van Damme. Frank, whose hard demeanor and sardonic manner speak to tragic experiences in his recent history, finds Sarah’s interest in the case unsettling. But, together they bring the right ingredients to see the killer brought to justice in a largely unjust town.

The spark and fire between Frank Malloy and Sarah Brandt alone is what makes this intriguing historical mystery worth reading. Thompson is a very atmospheric writer and the sights and smells of gaslit New York spring perfectly to light… yet, it is the characters that jump off of the page. At first, seemingly having nothing in common, Sarah and Frank are oil and water; but the more they discover about their common interest to bring justice and the more they reconcile with the similarities in their pasts, the more they are able to harbour each other’s strengths and reach a common outcome.

I really enjoyed this murder mystery. The plot of the fallen socialite: found dead and pregnant and the snub of her family trying desperately to bury scandal is, albeit nothing new, very well-plotted. Moreover, Thompson’s obvious love for this period of history helps her etch the perfect setting for her grim tale.

I learned a lot about the police force and criminal justice of the day and Brandt and Malloy do a magnificent job of bringing a voice of reform that echoes their contemporaries Riis and Roosevelt.

Fans of Rhys Bowen’s Molly Murphy Mysteries will find themselves on common ground.

RIP CHALLENGE: Smith by Leon Garfield

Smith is, with the exception of Catherine Webb’s the Dream Thief, the best YA novel I have read this year.

I have often heard it spoken of by experts in the field of Children’s Literature and I had been desperate to read it for awhile. I did, however, wait until it was just turning into fall, ‘til the chill was creeping in, the leaves changing and the clouds hanging grey and lugubriously low in the sky.

I was well-rewarded for my attention to atmosphere.

Set in a gritty and fascinating maze of Victorian London, the story involves Smith: a beguiling pickpocket who witnesses a murder and retrieves from the victim a document he knows must be of infinite importance.

Smith takes the document and holds it close to his heart--- he is desperate to uncover its worth and why it led to tragedy and determines to solve the case--- only problem is: Smith is illiterate.

So begins this gruff but compassionate boy's quest to Learn to Read. Smith pops in and out of alleys and corners and nooks asking all of the local roundabouts: from magistrates to priests to those holed in the damply decrepit Newgate to Learn Him to Read.

When a fateful encounter with a blind judge changes Smith’s life, Smith learns ever so much about justice, humanity and the mysteries of life beyond the horrors of the street.

Unexpected heroism, betrayal and plot turns--- as well as a dollop of heart and feel-good-ness permeate each spectacularly-written page.

The writing is what most stands out about this book. It is chockfull of consonance, alliteration, symmetry, symbolism, analogies and descriptive paragraphs so delicious they will loll on your tongue for days.

The closest comparison I can think of to the painstaking attention placed to the writing and rhythm ---as well as the dark evocation of London --- is Catherine Webb’s Horatio Lyle series ( which everyone knows as my favourite YA series ever).

Thus, I encourage everyone to pick up a copy. Published in the late 1960s and a Carnegie Medal book, libraries and used bookstores will be a good place to find it.

Enough murder and mayhem and dark alleys to count for RIP!

RIP CHALLENGE: the Keeper of Secrets by Judith Cutler

The Keeper of Secrets by Judith Cutler is basically the anti-Sebastian St. Cyr novel though both are set during the Regency. While the St. Cyr novels deal with an overtly grizzly society and mix the horrors of the outskirts with the vicious underbelly of London; Tobias Campion and friends are nestled in shrouded Moreton St. Jude: a village seemingly outset from the crimes of urban centre….

Tobias Campion is a young minister who has recently stepped into clerical role in the small country parish of Moreton St. Jude. Relinquishing his family’s rich status and devoting himself to a higher calling, Toby is confused by the sinister under-workings of the seemingly small and well-functioning town.

Together with his servant Jem and the delightful Dr. Hansard, Toby is forced to utilize his intuition, integrity and deductive skills to solve whether or not one Lord of the Manor was killed by accident and the gruesome murder of a young maid with whom Tobias ( minister or not ) was completely smitten.

The book is wracked with social commentary and minutiae on daily life in rural Regency England. This is the coziest of historical tea cozies and, like the best detective stories, the murder and mystery take second precedent to the charm of daily life and the excellent, if soft-handed, characterization of the village people.

Rather than spouting facts about the Regency period and some of its social inequalities and atrocities, Cutler, instead, couches her humane and inspiring story within the confines of Regency setting. You do not feel you are reading a historical novel because you are so very much involved in the historical novel.

The people and places and little happenstances of every day life are what colour the outlines of this superbly-written mystery.

Though set a century-and-some before, Cutler’s tale reminded me very much of Foyle’s War: another character piece where murder is sewn into the fabric of society and daily life in Hastings, as daily life in Moreton St. Jude, is painted in unobstructed colour. All of the characters are easy to emotionally invest in and the tale plays out in vividly relatable circumstance.

I so look forward to reading Shadow of the Past.

You can read more about Judith Cutler and the Tobias Campion books on her website!

RIP CHALLENGE: the Dark Deeps by Arthur Slade

Modo and Octavia, under the orders of the complicatedly sinister Mr. Socrates have re-emerged from their last disastrous adventure to trace the whereabouts of a missing fellow spy.

To New York they go, disguised as husband and wife and then to sea where a twist of fate sends the inimitable Modo to the very depths of the abyss.

A french spy, Colette, a man with the amazing power to make himself invincible named Griff and the villainous Captain of the steam-powered submarine ship Ictineo pepper the fast-paced homage to Victoriana.

I must confess that these stories are especially fun for those who are familiar with their source material. Drawing on Jules Verne, Robert Louis Stevenson, Dickens, Hugo ( to a lesser extent in this volume than in the first Hunchback Assignments ) and even Arthur Conan Doyle, this addition to the extremely popular Steampunk genre will be a hit with kids.

The isolating cabin wherein Modo finds himself trapped at the bottom of the Ocean as well as the gruesome circumstances surrounding Modo and Octavia’s missing colleague and the re-appearance of the Clockwork Guild add the thrills and chills needed for the Hallowe’en Season.

I was at a reading of Arthur Slade’s where an adorable child reader pronounced that Modo satisfied all of her “reading needs.” The Dark Deeps is a compelling follow- up to the ˆHunchback Assignments and a perfect addition to the RIP challenge.

As per usual, Slade writes deliciously and there are few contemporary writers whose prose seems so sparkly and alive. Humour (also, as per usual) is threaded throughout and I caught myself laughing aloud more than once: even in public places!

When the cunning spy Octavia ( probably my favourite character in the series) attests : “ I do not cough. I expel air daintily”, I snorted coffee up my nose on my morning train commute. Just before Modo falls deep deep into the ocean, he has a last, fleeting moment to part with Octavia: “He tried to find some final, memorable words to leave her with, but all that came out of his mouth was ‘uh—ohhhhh!’ and he fell into the Atlantic.”

Not wanting to leave Modo without a wily and winsome heroine, Colette and Modo join tentative sides aboard the Ictineo. Colette is as equally as savvy and sassy as Octavia and bemoans her boredom in captivity on the ship: “Twenty-eight day and four hours, not that I’m counting. I hope you like reading books and looking at fish!”

When Colette questions Modo’s being in Iceland, Modo cleverly quips: “We were travelling to Iceland for diplomatic reasons. And smoked cod, of course”

Slade doesn’t really stop. Ever. There is a winning line on almost every page.

Thematically, the emphasis of Utopia and Captain Monturiol’s obsession with an underwater Utopia provides a deep and level contrast to the moments of humour, of monsters and of invisible men. Slade also quotes Coleridge for good measure ( seriously, folks, when was the last time someone threw Xanadu into a kids’ book? )

The only thing the book lacked was MORE OCTAVIA! While Colette was certainly interesting and Griff a surprising foil for Modo, Octavia and Modo’s relationship and the chemistry in the snap-crackle-pop dialogue flitting between them was sorely missed. I can only hope she turns up to greater extent in the next Hunchback novel.

This series is absolutely, tremendously and utterly unique and, as always, proves its writer’s almost ridiculously wide-spanning literary range.

Slade’s narrative voice is like a comfort zone to me: like the smell of pumpkin pie or macaroni and cheese--- it’s something I am so used to and so enjoy sinking into. A tremendously great yarn full of things that go bump in the night ( and at the bottom of the ocean, no less); of gaslight and creaking carriage wheels; of people who are not who they say they are; of steam-powered madness; of distant utopias on strange, green lands--- or on the crust of the ocean’s silvery bottom. The Dark Deeps is an imaginative smorgasbord.

( and while you're at it---- read Jolted ---one of my favourite books ever)

RIP CHALLENGE: Edgar Allen Poe ( with ratings!!!) Vol. 1

10 ravens= scary as hell

5 ravens= mildly discomforting; but really just me thinking E.A.P was on drugs

1 raven= try harder: that Gilmore Girls Episode with the dueling Raven-recitations when the Poe Society visited Stars Hollow was scarier.

The Pit and the Pendulum:

Bloody hell! I could hear the pendulum squeaking back and forth in creaking time like the deathly toll of a clock. This is one long-played-out-heart-catching-throat-tightening tale of horror.

From the beginning of the story when the narrator ( I am hesitant to say protagonist because it is hard to know anything about him: other than his willful wiles when it comes to executing a desperate plan ) is sentenced to death and he pronounces his absolute hopelessness at his situation; through his captivity in a prison like a damp catacomb; to his reaching through a parade of rats for the heavily spiced meat meant to spring him into even further thirst and madness by his tormentors and finally through his realization that he has been strapped to a board with the dangling axe of a lethal pendulum swinging ever nearer him, I was completely hooked. This is brilliant suspense reading and kept me, as it did the narrator, hanging by a thread.

The fact that the story is set during the trials of the Inquisition painted an even more eerie canvas 10 RAVENS

( read it online)

The Black Cat:

Okay, this one is just gruesome. Poe, you are one strange cookie. There is some thematic relevance pointed when the narrator’s affection for the cat is thus transplanted to the cat when the narrator first kills him.

Yes, there is a dead cat: with a white patch of fur noose-like ringing his neck and one eye gone. There is also a woman. And a wall. And blood and gore and monsters and gore and …..

Weirdness. 6.3 RAVENS

(read it online)

The Masque of the Red Death:

Ummm…. So I guess our friend Poe is into history because here we are again in another century: this time engulfed by the Black Death or Plague. A pompous prince throws a shin dig at his gothic castle and from tile to buttress there is an impending whistle of doom. This castle is populated by several coloured rooms: one a glowing, ethereal red that just forebodes death and destruction. And, well, whatdy’a know…. It does.

WTF? 2.0 RAVENS

(read it online)

The Fall of the House of Usher:

This one begins very much like I imagine Robert Frost’s Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening to play out. Traveler on the crust of the woods overlooking an estate he knows ----or once knew---- but, it really turns into very much like I imagine Robert Frost’s Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening to play out if it ended with BLOODSHED, DESTRUCTION and MAYHEM! And people built into walls and houses crashing ( think House of Clennam at the end of Dickens’ Little Dorrit ) and DESTRUCTION and MAYHEM. I bet E.A.P. had trouble sleeping at night. 8.7 RAVENS

(read it online)

The Tell-Tale Heart

Umm. This is the one with the floorboards. And the creaking. And the throbbing and the pulsing and the ….GOOD GOD ….make it stop. It reminds me of that bloody pendulum. 9.0 RAVENS

( read it online)

The Cask of Amontillado

This is the one that you don’t want to read if you are in any way, shape or form claustrophobic. 8.0 RAVENS

(read it online)

More Poe soon to come: including The Poe Shadow by Matthew Pearl: because if he did such a stellar job of Dickens, his Poe can't be half-bad!

I love RIP CHALLENGE TIME!