Talking Writing on The House of Mystery
It’s always a pleasure to chat with true crime author and podcast host, Alan R. Warren.
Blue Lily, Lily Blue by Maggie Stiefvater
Can you believe it? I found this book sitting on the very end of the free shelf at my local library this morning. I’d checked it out and returned it last week, which means, that I was the last person to read it. How do libraries decide what ends up in the slush pile? I don’t understand. I mean, this series is amazing. Blue’s story is the focus of book three–this book. I actually finished The Raven King, which is book four, and realized I’d forgotten to write anything about this book. So, it’s come back to me. You see how that works? It’s not that I don’t have anything to say about it; in fact, I was so tucked into the characters, I didn’t really realize what was happening plot-wise. Urban fantasy doesn’t really work like that. It’s more about characters and emotions. And these characters are some of the best characters you’ll ever meet. So, what do I remember about Blue Lily, Lily Blue?
-the illicit love between Blue and Gansey. Illicit only because Blue kind of had a hand-holding thing with Adam to begin with and, Gansey and Adam are best friends, and well, there’s a social rule being broken
-her funky home with her psychic mother and aunts
-something tasty evolving between Ronan and Adam
-a ton of angst occurring at Gansey’s political mansion in Washington, DC. This is not the best space for trailer-park-son-of-an-abusive-father Adam. Or maybe it is.
-the elusive Cabeswater . . . What the hell is it, anyway? And when they finally get there, will Gansey find his Immortal Welsh King? And why a Welsh King? Is this the orphaned child of a real mythological legend? Damn. I wish I’d thought of this.
-details of Gansey’s horrific hornet experience. Have you ever been bitten by vicious meat-eating hornets with giant stingers and long, wispy legs? I have. When I was seven or eight, I climbed into my father’s old black pick-up truck. We started rumbling down the road. The hornets had build a nest under the bench seat on my side. Before we hit Dixie and Finch, they flew up my pant legs. I went so ballistic, my father pulled over, dragged me out of the truck, and ripped off my pants. I was horrifically embarrassed—I mean, there I was standing on the side of the road in my white cotton undies in front of my father. Now, I think, how did he have the presence of mind to do that? I mean . . . child-eating hornets? Did he get stung?
-something horrible happening at 300 Fox Way which I will not divulge
-some nasty-pants villains developing, of course.
Do I recommend this series? Yes. In fact, it’s in my Amazon Wishlist. Just sayin’. There may come a day when I pass this hardcover on to a little library somewhere in the world. Oh Maggie, what have you done?
Glamor & Grit Spliced with McLean’s Marvelous Magic
If you’re unfamiliar with JP McLean’s award-winning supernatural crime novels, you should investigate her Dark Dreams series from the beginning. The first two books, Blood Mark and Ghost Mark, are narrated by a gnarly and lovable trio: Jane Walker, protagonist, dreamer, and bearer of magical marks; Jane’s boyfriend, Ethan Bryce, swaggering manager of the Riptide bar in Vancouver; and Jane’s loyal sidekick, former foster child, and high-class escort, Sadie Prescott. In Scorch Mark, the narration expands to include Sadie’s love interest, undercover Vancouver cop Dylan O’Brien.
In Blood Mark, we learn that the scarlet marks snaking around Jane’s body were gifted to her in an ancient Incan ritual to protect her from death. Now, McLean reveals that anyone who tries to kill Jane will end up dead themselves, and this threat has been proven true. Jane also suffers from lucid dreams in which she appears as a shadowy figure whose actions can affect history. In Ghost Mark, the blood marks transform, and she appears in her dreams dressed in whatever she wore when she fell asleep. Since she’s visible, you can imagine the problems this presents. Jane also discovers a vivid white “escape valve” on the back of her hand that rewinds a dream if she turns it counterclockwise and jumps her out of the dream if she moves it clockwise. The spectral marks remain in Scorch Mark, but in a clever stake-raising move, McLean introduces a villainous group of cowboy thugs who intend to use the marks for their own evil purposes. She also reveals much more about the old Peruvian families, the old silver offering bowl, and the Incan ritual itself.
McLean deftly intertwines three plots in Scorch Mark. In one, the psychologist who abducted Jane in Blood Mark goes on trial, and we await the verdict with bated breath. Will the defence attorneys create enough reasonable doubt for the jury to allow him and his accomplice to go free? And how will the attorneys twist Jane’s story? As is typical of courtroom drama, it’s a fist-squeezing, jaw-grinding experience for the reader. Meanwhile, Detective Dylan O’Brien is investigating “ghost guns” — a shipment of illegal firearms that have been produced using a three-D printer, and Jane is dreaming about the evil producers. Interspersed are Jane’s dangerous dreams, where she must act as a witness without being caught by the villains who are changing history. Tension anyone?
Wickedly clever, original, suspenseful, and action-packed, McLean’s impeccable writing and razor-sharp plotting will draw you in and keep you riveted. Scorch Mark is glamour and grit, spliced with a magical sense of the macabre, and wildly Canadian. Detailed, descriptive scenes of the Vancouver Law Courts will have you sitting tensely beside Jane as she watches her attacker from the gallery through thick, bulletproof glass. Then it’s a race across the country to a 12,000-acre Alberta ranch and a massive criminal takedown.
JP McLean is a bestselling author of urban fantasy and supernatural thrillers. She’s been the recipient of numerous honours for the Dark Dreams series and her six-book Gift Legacy series. Among them are a Global Book Award, CIBA and Page Turner Award, the National Indie Excellence Awards, the UK Wishing Shelf Book Awards, and the Whistler independent Book Awards.
As appears in the Ottawa Review of Books, December 2023.
Get it while it’s hot.
Give a Friend the Love of Reading This Year
Come by and see me this weekend!
What Did You Steal From Your Dream Tonight?
Book II of Magie Stiefvater’s “Raven Cycle” series brings us closer to Ronan Lynch and his family secrets. We learn more about his homelife and gifts, his mother’s condition, and his father’s murder. Ronan is an eccentric character. Traumatized by finding his father murdered, he seems violent, yet he has a caring side that is revealed in various ways throughout the series.
Imagine being able to design an object in your dream and bring it back to your waking life and into this physical reality. This is Ronan’s gift—his secret. Chainsaw, the strange raven creature that travels on his shoulder is one of his dream creations. Knowing that he can create living creatures raises the stakes, and we wonder who or what else he has created in his dreams. Are there other dreamers like him? Is this a gift or a curse? Ronan is the Greywaren.
A new character appears—Joseph Kavinski—as Ronan’s antagonist. I hate Kavinski . . . just sayin.
Blue Sargent has become one of the Raven Boys, and the group continues to search the magical Cabeswater for the dead Welsh king, Glendower, as emotions spiral. Blue’s psychic mother, Maura, and the mysterious Gray Man grow closer while Blue tries to sort out her feelings. Does she love Adam Parrish or Gansey? And how can she be with either of them when both obviously have feelings for her, are best friends, and are part of the same group? And then there’s that whole prophecy about her killing her first kiss. This is typical teenage trauma with a supernatural twist.
We also learn more about Richard Campbell Gansey III in this book as we attend one of his mother’s political soirees at their Washington, DC mansion. Lowly Adam Parrish attends with Gansey and disappears (but that’s another story.)
I know I’ll come back to these books time and again. Why hasn’t someone made them into a TV series yet?
Ronan is the subject of various fan art. His obsessive personality lends itself to that.
https://theravenboys.fandom.com/wiki/Ronan_Lynch?file=IMG_20181110_132130.jpg
