I know, you only saw this picture a couple of days ago, but I
did read these books again and they
are all about the darker side of real-magic Victorian London, and so I think they do actually count for the R.I.P challenge - though one of them is a short story, so I will bundle it up with one of the other two, to be fair! You know what I don't like about e-books, though? No blurb for me to read, and pages to flick through to remind me of the good bits... On the other hand, I can (mostly!) just cut and paste a blurb from t'interweb, so...
A Case of Possession:
... As he investigates a plague of giant rats sweeping London, his sudden increase in power, boosted by his blood-and-sex bond with Crane, is rousing suspicion that he’s turned warlock. With all eyes watching him, the threat of exposure grows. Stephen could lose his friends, his job and his liberty over his relationship with Crane. He’s not sure if he can take that risk much longer. And Crane isn’t sure if he can ask him to.A Case of Spirits:
There is rain in London, and Vaundrey wishes he was in Shanghai, except that Stephen wouldn't be there. Of course he has a minor case of the occult to sort out - again...Flight of Magpies:
With the justiciary understaffed, a series of horrifying occult murders to be investigated, and a young student who is flying—literally—off the rails, magical law enforcer Stephen Day is under increasing stress. And his relationship with his aristocratic lover, Lord Crane, is beginning to feel the strain. Crane chafes at the restrictions of England’s laws, and there’s a worrying development in the blood-and-sex bond he shares with Stephen. A development that makes a sensible man question if they should be together at all. When a thief strikes at the heart of Crane’s home, a devastating loss brings his closest relationships into bitter conflict—especially his relationship with Stephen. And as old enemies, new enemies, and unexpected enemies paint the lovers into a corner, the pressure threatens to tear them apart.Although these are also m/m romances, there's something rather dark about them - the Judas jack of
The Magpie Lord, the giant rats of
A Case of Possession, and then...well, it's not just Victorian London with magic, it's Victorian London with a kind of
dark magic, the oily actual kind that you can feel between your fingers and it comes with all the unpleasantness that humanity is capable of - luckily tempered and dealt with by a good dose of Lucien/Stephen, and all the other interesting characters in this world. Readable and hot and I would like more of these books and stories
now please!
All of which brief reviewing means that at 23.34pm on the 31st October 2014 I think I can safely say that I've Imbibed my last Peril for my first R.I.P. challenge, and although I enjoyed it I wasn't
quite as much in the spirit (ha!) of it as I'd planned to be. Next year I shall try
not to move house (twice) at the same time! But I
do rather hope that I can give it another go - when Halloween rolls around again...
(
Four books, any length, that you feel fit (the very broad definitions) of R.I.P. literature.)
Lord John and the Hand of Devils by Diana Gabaldon
The Bones of Avalon by Phil Rickman
The Magpie Lord by K.J. Charles
The Heresy of Doctor Dee by Phil Rickman
Frost Hollow Hall by Emma Carroll
The Shadowy Horses by Susanna Kearsley
The Woman in Black by Susan Hill
The Canterville Ghost by Oscar Wilde
The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson
A Case of Possession and
A Case of Spirits by KJ Charles
Flight of Magpies by KJ Charles
Eleven Halloween reads - not bad for a first, distracted attempt though! I'm also halfway through another book that I'd bought for its potential ghosts, but I keep being distracted from that too...
