Book Spotlight - Cabaret Macabre: A Locked-Room Mystery (Joseph Spector Series) by Tom Mead + Giveaway

About The Book:

Title: CABARET MACABRE: A Locked-Room Mystery (Joseph Spector Series)

Author: Tom Mead

Pub. Date: July 16, 2024

Publisher: Mysterious Press

Formats: Hardcover, eBook, Audiobook

Pages: 320

Find it: Goodreads, https://books2read.com/CABARET-MACABRE 

This latest puzzle mystery from the author of Death and the Conjuror and The Murder Wheel takes stage magician sleuth Joseph Spector to a grand estate in the English countryside.

Victor Silvius has spent nine years as an inmate at The Grange, a private sanatorium, for the crime of attacking judge Sir Giles Drury. Now, the judge’s wife, Lady Elspeth Drury, believes that Silvius is the one responsible for a series of threatening letters her husband has recently received. Eager to avoid the scandal that involving the local police would entail, Lady Elspeth seeks out retired stage magician Joseph Spector, whose discreet involvement in a case Sir Giles recently presided over greatly impressed her.

Meanwhile, Miss Caroline Silvius is disturbed after a recent visit to her brother Victor, convinced that he isn’t safe at The Grange. Someone is trying to kill him and she suspects the judge, who has already made Silvius’ life a living hell, may be behind it. Caroline hires Inspector George Flint of Scotland Yard to investigate.

The two cases collide at Marchbanks, the Drury family seat of over four hundred years, where a series of unnerving events interrupt the peace and quiet of the snowy countryside. A body is discovered in the middle of a frozen pond without any means of getting there and a rifle is fired through a closed window, killing a man but not breaking the glass. Only Spector and his mastery of the art of misdirection can uncover the logical explanations for these impossible crimes.

An atmospheric and puzzling traditional mystery that pays homage to the greatest writers of the genre’s Golden Age, Cabaret Macabre is the third book in Tom Mead’s Joseph Spector series, hailed by the Wall Street Journal as “a recipe for pure nostalgic pleasure.” The books can be enjoyed in any order.

 

Reviews:

"Ingenious . . . Mead hides all the clues in plain sight, constructing a fair-play puzzle that will delight and challenge readers who love pitting their own wits against the author’s. It’s another crackerjack entry in an exceptional series."― Publishers Weekly STARRED REVIEW

"Mind-bogglingly complex . . . A lovely valentine to Mead’s idol, John Dickson Carr, and even more to Clayton Rawson’s tales of The Great Merlini."― Kirkus

 

About Tom Mead:

Tom Mead is a Derbyshire mystery writer and aficionado of Golden Age crime fiction. His debut novel, Death and the Conjuror, was an international bestseller, nominated for several awards, and named one of the best mysteries of the year by The Guardian and Publishers Weekly. Its sequel, The Murder Wheel, was described as “pure nostalgic pleasure” by the Wall Street Journal and “a delight” by the Daily Mail. It was also named one of the Best Traditional Mysteries of 2023 by CrimeReads. His third novel, Cabaret Macabre, will be published in 2024.

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Giveaway Details:

3 winners will receive a finished copy of CABARET MACABRE, US Only.

Ends August 6th, midnight EST.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Tour Schedule:

Week One:

7/1/2024	Two Chicks on Books	Interview/IG Post
7/2/2024	Lady Hawkeye	Excerpt/IG Post
7/3/2024	Book Review Virginia Lee Blog	Excerpt/IG Post
7/4/2024	Daily Waffle	Excerpt
7/5/2024	Writer of Wrongs	Excerpt
7/6/2024	@darkfantasyreviews	Excerpt

Week Two:

7/7/2024	@dreaminginpages	IG Review
7/8/2024	Brandi Danielle Davis	IG Review/TikTok Post
7/9/2024	Books and Zebras	IG Review
7/10/2024	@evergirl200	IG Review
7/11/2024	GryffindorBookishnerd	IG Review
7/12/2024	@katemageau	Review/IG Post
7/13/2024	Bookborne Hunter	Review/IG Post

Week Three:

7/14/2024	Lifestyle of Me	Review
7/15/2024	Fire and Ice	Review/IG Post
7/16/2024	@jaimes_mystical_library	IG Post
7/17/2024	Edith's Little Free Library	IG Review/LFL Drop Pic/TikTok Post
7/18/2024	Country Mamas With Kids	Review/IG Post
7/19/2024	Kim's Book Reviews and Writing Aha's	Review/IG Post
7/20/2024	The Momma Spot	Review/IG Post

Week Four:

7/21/2024	@lara.maynard	IG Review
7/22/2024	Dana Loves Books	Review/IG Post
7/23/2024	heyashleyyreads	IG Review/TikTok Post
7/24/2024	Deal sharing aunt	Review/IG Post
7/25/2024	One More Exclamation	Review/IG Post
7/26/2024	@amysbookshelf82	IG Review
7/27/2024	A Blue Box Full of Books	IG Review/LFL Drop Pic/TikTok Post

Week Five:

7/28/2024	@nolareads504	IG Post
7/29/2024	two points of interest	Review
7/30/2024	More Books Please blog	Review/IG Post
7/31/2024	FUONLYKNEW	Review

Book Review - Owner of a Lonely Heart: A Memoir by Beth Nguyen

Owner of a Lonely Heart: A Memoir by Beth Nguyen is about a woman coming to terms with her relationship with her family, her identity, and what it means to be a refugee. At the end of the Vietnam War, Beth Nguyen was eight months old when she and her family fled Saigon for America. Beth’s entire family went to America except her mother. Beth didn’t reconnect with her mother until she was nineteen years old. Over the course of her adult life, Beth and her mother have spent less than twenty-four hours together.

When I first started this memoir, I thought it was going to be about Beth and her relationship with her mother. However, it turns out to be more than that plus it had a lot of random and “incomplete” stories thrown in.  For example, in one of the first chapters, Beth talks about one of her earliest visits to see her mother and she portrays it in one way but then in a later chapter she mentions she wasn’t completely honest and she didn’t share the full background on that visit. I didn’t understand why she didn’t give those details when she first mentioned the visit. Beth would rehash a particular visit a few times and sometimes, she would get repetitive with the details. It felt like the story was dragging with the repetitive and sometimes, mundane details.

As the book progresses, she talks about the relationship she has with her family, her Vietnamese identity, and being a mother. At times, I felt like the memoir was all over the place and I couldn’t understand the point that Beth was trying to make. Towards the end, I was a bit over the book. I wish we found out more details on why her father thought it was okay to leave Beth’s mother behind, but he kept in contact with her. It didn’t seem like there was any malice between Beth’s father and mother. It felt like that most of Beth’s interaction with her mother was bland and without emotion. I didn’t feel connection between the two and why we should care about their relationship or even root for them.

Book Review - Westside Saints by W.M. Akers

Westside Saints by W.M. Akers is about a private detective, Gilda Carr, who specializes in finding tiny treasures and solving tiny mysteries. In 1922, six months ago from the start of our story, there was a civil war that ruined the Westside of Manhattan. The residents are still facing the aftermath from the war. In the Lower West, the area is frozen, and life is hard. Gilda Carr nearly died during the war after she tried to protect her city. Now, she wanders the streets and is cold and weary. She hopes for something better even though life seems bleak.

While spending her days drinking, she comes across a friend whose family wants to hire Gilda to solve a mystery for them. They want her to find a biblical relic, a saint’s finger, that was stolen from their church. The church needs to find the relic because the church leaders believe it’s the cornerstone of their promise of an “electric resurrection” when the dead will return to life. Gilda is hesitant to believe that can happen. However, that all changes when her mother, Mary Fall, who has been dead for years, walks through the parlor door. Mary doesn’t remember anything of her daughter or how she died. Gilda wants to keep Mary’s resurrection a secret so they can work together to investigate what brought her back to life. 

When I spotted this book, I didn’t realize it was a part of a series. It wasn’t made very clear when I picked up the novel, that it was the second book in the series. Unlike other serialized books, this series needs to be read in order. I found the story to be confusing and the writing wasn’t the easiest for me to get into. I had to re-read the same sentence several times. I didn’t find myself connecting with any of the characters so, I was not motivated to keep reading. I quickly abandoned this novel a few chapters in as it wasn’t worth my time anymore.

Book Review - Unnatural Order Vol. 1: The Prisoner by Chris Yost + Giveaway

 

 

 

Unnatural Order Vol. 1: The Prisoner by Chris Yost is about a group of warriors trying to save the planet from a great evil, the Druid. The Druid wishes to bring change, but doing so will cause the world to end and be reborn into something different. A group of warriors is trying to exact revenge on the Druid for killing their respective families, and they are hunting for its weakness. They heard of a rumor that there is a prisoner from a different time who knows the Druid’s secrets and weaknesses. Will the warriors be able to save the prisoner and put a stop to the Druid’s plans?

The graphic novel was an okay read. It did take a bit for me to get into it as there were many characters. The story got interesting as it progressed, albeit a bit predictable. I thought it was an entertaining read and I would be open to read more chapters from the author. I did enjoy the graphics and thought they were well done.

 

 **Disclosure - I received a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest opinion**

About The Book:

Title: UNNATURAL ORDER Vol. 1: The Prisoner

Authors: Christopher Yost & Val Rodrigues (Illustrator)

Pub. Date: June 18, 2024

Publisher: Vault Comics

Formats:  Paperback, eBook

Pages: 144

Find it: Goodreads, https://books2read.com/UNNATURAL-ORDER-Vol-1-The-Prisoner 

ZERO DARK THIRTY meets LORD OF THE RINGS and GAME OF THRONES in UNNATURAL ORDER Vol. 1: The Prisoner, a genre-blending tale of dark fantasy, science fiction, and action adventure by writer/creator Chris Yost (co-creator of Marvel's X-23 and writer of films (THOR: Ragnarok) and series STAR WARS: THE MANDALORIAN) and artist Val Rodrigues where the world is not how it's supposed to be.

EVERYONE WANTS TO CHANGE THE WORLD.

One will transform it.
One will save it.
One will destroy it.

After the fall of the Britons and the Roman invasion of Hibernia, the captive known only as the Druid is released, sending a darkness across the world…an age of horrors, of fire, and entrails. As the innocent burn in the Wicker fields, those who would resist learn of the existence of a man who even the Druid fears. For it is this prisoner, a soldier from a different time, who alone knows the Druid’s secret: this is not how the world is supposed to be.

Collects issue #1- 4 of the gripping, genre-bending, action-packed sci-fi dark fantasy series!

For fans and readers of: Lord of the Rings, Game of Thrones, Rainbow Six (Tom Clancy), Rainbow Six: SIEGE (video game); Timeline (Michael Crichton), The Man in the High Castle (Philip K. Dick), The Castaways in Time series (Robert Adams), Seven to Eternity(Rick Remender / Image Comics), Black Science(Rick Remender & Matteo Scalera / Image Comics), Vanish (Donny Cates /Image Comics), Barbaric(Michael Moreci & Nathan C. Gooden / Vault), Brandon Sanderson’s Dark One (Vault), Monstress (Marjorie Liu and Sana Takeda / Image Comics),The Sacrificers (Rick Remender / Image Comics), Briar (Christopher Cantwell & German Garcia / BOOM!)Coda (Simon Spurrier & Mattias Bergara / BOOM!), Once Upon A Time at the End of the World (Jason Aaron & Alexandre Tefenkgi / BOOM!), Something is Killing the Children (James Tynion and Werther Dell'Edera /Image),Grim, W0rldtr33 (James Tynion, Jordie Bellaire, Fernando Blanco / Image),Conan the Barbarian, and Hellboy

From writer Chris Yost ,(co-creator of X-23, writer ofX-men, Amazing Spider-man, Batman, Avengers, and more!), films (Thor: Ragnarok and Secret Headquarters), and television/streaming (Star Wars: The Mandalorian and Cowboy Bebop) and in-demand artist Val Rodrigues!

 

INSERT YOUR POST OR REVIEW HERE!

 

About Christopher Yost:

CHRISTOPHER YOST (he/his) has written for films (THOR: RAGNAROK, SECRET HEADQUARTERS), television (STAR WARS: THE MANDALORIAN, COWBOY BEBOP) and animation (the upcoming TIGER’S APPRENTICE and Seth Rogen’s TALES OF THE TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES), but his first love has always been comic books, where he’s written for AMAZING SPIDER-MAN, X-MEN, BATMAN, AVENGERS and his own original series KILLER OF DEMONS.

Yost lives and works in Los Angeles, California and he can be found on X/Twitter @Yost and Instagram @versus_yost

Unnatural Order from Vault Comics has been cooking in his head for about 10 years, representing his desire to find a modern day take on the sword and sorcery genre after years of sci-fi and superheroes. It’s a mash up of military and fantasy stories, and the idea of a group of dungeon crawlers in a helicopter gunning down a dragon so they can go fight a wizard who’s taken over a nuclear power facility felt like a tale that needed to be told. 

Twitter | Instagram

 

About Val Rodrigues:

VAL RODRIGUES is a Brazilian comic book artist.
He lives in São Paulo with his wife Miriam and their two cats Chico and Frida.
Val is the artist for UNNATURAL ORDER with writer Christopher Yost for Vault Comics. His previous published work includes Deep Roots (Vault Comics) and MEZO (A Wave Blue World).

 

Twitter | Instagram | TikTok

 

 

Giveaway Details:

2 winners will receive finished copies of UNNATURAL ORDER Vol. 1: The Prisoner, US Only.

Ends July 20th, midnight EST.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Tour Schedule:

Week One:

6/17/2024	Two Chicks on Books	Excerpt/IG Post
6/18/2024	MoonShineArtSpot	Review or Excerpt
6/19/2024	Fire and Ice Reads	Excerpt/IG Post
6/20/2024	Sadie's Spotlight	Excerpt/IG Post
6/21/2024	Writer of Wrongs	Excerpt
6/22/2024	Comic Book Yeti	Val Rodrigues Interview/IG Post

Week Two:

6/23/2024	Daily Waffle	Excerpt
6/24/2024	The Momma Spot	Excerpt
6/25/2024	GryffindorBookishnerd	IG Review
6/26/2024	@dana.loves.books	IG Review/TikTok Post
6/27/2024	@blueeez_away	IG Review
6/28/2024	@evergirl200	IG Review
6/29/2024	Lifestyle of Me	Review

Week Three:

6/30/2024	@enthuse_reader	IG Review/TikTok Post
7/1/2024	Edith's Little Free Library	IG Review/LFL Drop Pic/TikTok Post
7/2/2024	kaylyn_s_booknook	IG Review/TikTok Post
7/3/2024	@sparks_books	IG Review
7/4/2024	jlreadstoperpetuity	IG Review/TikTok Post
7/5/2024	Socrates is Downstairs	Review/IG Post
7/6/2024	A Blue Box Full of Books	IG Review/LFL Drop Pic/TikTok Post

Week Four:

7/7/2024	Kim's Book Reviews and Writing Aha's	Review/IG Post
7/8/2024	nerdophiles	Review
7/9/2024	@thepagelady	IG Review
7/10/2024	Country Mamas With Kids	Review/IG Post
7/11/2024	Brandi Danielle Davis	IG Review/TikTok Post
7/12/2024	Ramblings of a Coffee Addicted Writer	Review/IG Post
7/13/2024	@stargirls.magical.tale	IG Review

Week Five:

7/14/2024	Books and Zebras	IG Review
7/15/2024	The Book Critic	Review/IG Post
7/16/2024	@jaimes_mystical_library	IG Review
7/17/2024	Two Points of Interest	Review/IG Post

Book Review - The Glorious Heresies by Lisa McInerney

 

The Glorious Heresies by Lisa McInerney is about how one murder had a chain effect on other people. Maureen accidentally bludgeoned a man in her kitchen. Not knowing the man nor who to trust, Maureen turns to Jimmy, the son she had given up years before. Jimmy has turned into one of the most fearsome and prolific gangsters in the city. Maureen seeks atonement for the murder and past sins, and she is willing to risk everything that Jimmy has worked hard for by bringing the Irish underworld into the spotlight.

The book seemed like an interesting read. However, I had a hard time getting into it. I found the slang confusing, and I felt like I didn’t understand what was going on. I can see some people enjoying this book, but it wasn’t for me, and I stopped reading the novel.

Book Review - Half a Cup of Sand and Sky by Nadine Bjursten

 

 

Half a Cup of Sand and Sky by Nadine Bjursten is about a young woman, Amineh, finding a place to belong. In Iran 1977, people are becoming restless with the current political regime.  The anti-shah protests at Tehran University are increasing in intensity with more people joining in. Unlike her fellow country people, Amineh isn’t focused on the future of her country. 

Amineh is focused on writing and reading beautiful literature. She wants to document her parents’ rose harvests and their familial history. Her parents tragically passed away when she was very young. Amineh is trying to keep her parents alive through her story but she is having a hard time putting her thoughts to paper.

While accompanying a friend to a protest meeting, Amineh crosses paths with Farzad. Farzad is leading the opposition against the shah and is an nuclear disarmament activist.  The pair finds themselves drawn to each other, even though they are from different backgrounds. Amineh struggles when Farzad's ambitions start to overshadow and overwhelm their lives together.

I was excited to read the book because I didn’t know much about Iran’s history. However, my interest started to wane when I got towards the middle of the book and nothing was happening. For more than 200 pages, we see Amineh struggle to have a place in her husband’s life with very little  story advancement. I was disappointed that we didn’t get much history about Iran. I also didn’t understand why the book would jump years during the narration because it didn’t add much to the story. I did like reading about the ethnic dishes Amineh prepared for her family. I felt like the entire book was a fluff and moved very slowly. I stopped reading halfway through because I couldn’t keep my eyes open while reading.

 

Book Review - Devil Is Fine: A Novel by John Vercher

 

 Devil Is Fine: A Novel by John Vercher is about a biracial Black man who inherits property from his estranged grandfather.

The narrator is still coping with the sudden death of his son, Malcolm, when he receives an unexpected letter. He has inherited land from his grandfather who he hasn’t spoken to in years.  He decides to travel several hours away to a small beach town to sell the land and come back home. However, what was supposed to be a quick sale, turned into a headache when something was discovered on the land.

The book was an interesting read. It had a few supernatural elements that I wasn’t sure if it happened in the story or if the narrator imagined it because he was grieving. I also wasn’t sure why these elements were included in the book. The book started very slow and took a bit to get into. At times, I struggled to understand what the point of the novel was. Was it about the narrator coming to terms with identity or dealing with his grief? It didn’t help that the book jumped around timewise without any warning. The book kept me interested until the end, so I would be open to reading more books by the author.