Books 2015 - Readers in Peril Challenge 4 - The Secret Casebook of Simon Feximal

[byslantedlight]

I managed to do that thing I do, where I commit to one thing and am then completely distracted by something else in the middle... so I've been re-reading Antonia Forest's Marlow Family books, which I've loved since I came across them as a teenager - they're both familiar (boarding school stories, adventure stories) and yet so different from other books (falconry! Nelson (and Hornblower) fandom! (I'd never heard of fandom when I first read them, but Nicola absolutely is a fan, down to the reading and collecting and... *g*) Catholicism!). But then I got to the sequel written by the author who wasn't Antonia Forest, and although I was ever so hopeful cos it had good review, it just isn't nearly the same - it's just a bit off to me, so I got bogged down and abandoned it...

...but I was reading spooky Pros short stories from the 1st of October, so I hadn't forgotten the challenge entirely! And my fourth R.i.P. book was finally published in paperback, and so I read that properly (it's never the same in ebook, it just isn't...) - The Secret Casebook of Simon Feximal, by one of my current still-favourite authors, KJ Charles. Yeay!

A story too secret, too terrifying - and too shockingly intimate - for Victorian eyes.
A note to the Editor
Dear Henry,
I have been Simon Feximal's companion, assistant and chronicler for twenty years now, and during that time my Casebooks of Feximal the Ghost-Hunter have spread the reputation of this most accomplished of ghost-hunters far and wide...

I won't quote the whole blurb, but the Samhain tongue-in-the-cheek warning is: Contains a foul-tempered Victorian ghost-hunter, a journalist who's too curious for his own good, villainy, horror, butterflies, unusual body modifications, and a lot of tampering with the occult. *g*

It's really a collection of short stories about Simon Feximal and his companion Robert Caldwell, but they're linked together as a book, so I'm saying novel. They are, of course, reminiscent of Holmes and Watson, but they're not any less their own characters for all that, and I do like Charles' Victorian London world. Another of her strengths is the way that she pulls out real old stories and myths, and spins them into something completely new and wonderful (and awful!) You wouldn't think butterflies could be made into a supernatural horror type story, but Charles manages it! There's a feel of writers like M.R. James and H.P. Lovecraft to it somehow, and I definitely recommend it!

(I'd also read three short stories even before I was distracted by the Marlow family books, but I got distracted from posting about them by looking up the true stories - but I will post them! I've also been re-watching Apparitions, for the Screen Challenge, but got distracted from that by having forgotten that they really are rather dark, aren't they - I lived in a house with other people the first time I watched them!)

Peril the First: Read four books, any length, that you feel fit (the very broad definitions) of R.I.P. literature. It could be King or Conan Doyle, Penny or Poe, Chandler or Collins, Lovecraft or Leroux… or anyone in between.
1. Night of the Living Deed by E.J. Copperman
2. Bedlam by Ally Kennan
3. The Ghosts of Motley Hall by Richard Carpenter
4. The Secret Casebook of Simon Feximal by KJ Charles


Peril of the Short Story: We are big fans of short stories and the desire for them is perhaps no greater than in Autumn. You can read short stories any time during the challenge.
1. The Phantom Schooner (In Shudders and Shakes: Ghostly Tales from Australia, compiled by Anne Bower Ingram)
2. The Phantom Schooner (In Shudders and Shakes: Ghostly Tales from Australia, compiled by Anne Bower Ingram)
The Cooee Hut (In Shudders and Shakes: Ghostly Tales from Australia, compiled by Anne Bower Ingram)
4-23. All the spooky short Pros stories I've been reading for October...

Peril On the Screen: This is for those of us that like to watch suitably scary, eerie, mysterious gothic fare during this time of year. It may be something on the small screen or large. It might be a television show, like Dark Shadows or Midsomer Murders, or your favorite film.
1. The Ghosts of Motley Hall (Granada Television, 1976-78)

Comments

[caffyolay.livejournal.com]

Oooh. Now I *really* like the sound of The Secret Casebook of Simon Feximal. Ooooh. This is a standalone, right? Not part of a series. I know you read *a* series by the same author, which I do plan to try at some stage, btw.

[byslantedlight.livejournal.com]

It is a standalone, yes! (The series I love is the Charm of Magpies series - and I'm also very impressed with the first book in her Regency trilogy and looking forward to the next two - and annoyed that the publisher makes no mention of paperback editions...) I can add The Secret Casebook to my lending-bag, if you like... *g*

[caffyolay.livejournal.com]

I wouldn't mind borrowing the first Charm of Magpies book at some stage if you can bear to part with it for a bit. *g* But I think I might treat myself to The Secret Casebook as it does sound *so* good. But thanks anyway.

[byslantedlight.livejournal.com]

Eeh, then I will cross my fingers that you like it as much as you're hoping you will - it's quite nerve-racking for someone to buy books on your recommendation, isn't it... *g*

I will see what I can do about temporarily parting with The Magpie Lord... *g*

Oh! You can try one of the stories (chapters) in the books for free! It was originally a short story (though not this one) and Butterflies was a second story in the universe, and it's still up on Smashwords free to download.

[caffyolay.livejournal.com]

It is nerve-racking I quite agree, but you've no need to worry, partly because I never hold it against someone if I don't like a book I've bought on their recommendation... it was my choice to buy it after all. They didn't force me. *g* But also we do have quite similar taste and standards - hope it doesn't sound too stuffy to say that - so I really wouldn't expect to hate a book that you like.

I will see what I can do about temporarily parting with The Magpie Lord... *g*

Ok then. ;-) We must arrange a get-together at some stage too.

Thanks for the link, I'll take a look at that later. Off to the library!

[byslantedlight.livejournal.com]

I don't think it sounds stuffy at all - I rather like the idea of having similar taste and standards (just cos we have specific standards doesn't mean that other standards are wrong, just different... *g*)

The library - how lush! I've not been for ages, I had such a flurry of buying books that I need to catch up... *g*

[caffyolay.livejournal.com]

Exactly. Not wrong, just different.

Good trip to the library. Two reserved books, only one of which I had to pay for as one was reserved at the rec of a male library assistant I got chatting to last week. He must've waived the fee when he reserved it for me. Plus, I found Cold by Ranulph Fiennes which I've been after for a while.

Ordered The Secret Casebook. Can't wait for it to come.

[byslantedlight.livejournal.com]

Sounds like an excellent time at the library to me!

I ended up in a bookshop again actually, cos I realised I had to send my nephew a birthday present - and he's at that age where he's sort of in between picture books and word-ier books, and I don't see him to know how he feels about it really, so I desperately didn't want to buy something that looks boring to him and gets chucked in a corner, but all the in-between books seemed to have deadly-dull stories... and then I spotted the last copy on the shelf of Fortunately, the Milk. *vbg*

[gilda-elise.livejournal.com]

Yay for finishing the challenge! And I would agree, a series of short stories that actually tell one long story is a novel. Just written, and then published, a little at a time. *g* I'm done with the reading part of the challenge, but still have Peril on the Screen to do. I wonder if there'll be another challenge soon.

[byslantedlight.livejournal.com]

Hah - I suppose technically I have finished it - I never thought of it that way! I have a couple more books I've got lined up to read for it, and some short-stories, and finishing Apparitions, and that scary movie that I've not yet managed to watch despite being given it years ago (it's set in Alaska!)

caffyolay is the one who knows about challenges - I've followed various of her links, and links-from-links to find them. I remember last year finding Christmas reading challenges, and thinking about giving that a go, and I think she did a snow/cold reading challenge one year (or maybe she just said she liked those settings, come to think of it, which I rather do too *g*)

There's the Once Upon a Time challenge which always starts earlier than I think... oh no, I know! There's the science fiction challenge that starts in December (but I always think its January so miss the beginning cos I'm being all Christmas-y!) I can't think what it's called now, and I don't seem to have tagged it in my lj, but it's run by Stainless Steel Rat Droppings who used to do this one (Carl Anderson is the blogger's name, iirc!)

I'm wondering about carrying on with a Pros reading/posting challenge in November, to take me to Christmas when I might do Pros Christmas stories, cos it's been a while since I concentrated on Pros fic, and I'm rather liking it again just now.... *g* (But I don't want to stop reading other things, either!)

(The Secret Casebook of Simon Feximal is a single publication by the way - I think it was prompted by two short stories that the author wrote, and then wanted to continue on in the universe. And actually there's also something of a story arc, come to think of it, so they're not entirely separate... *g*)

[caffyolay.livejournal.com]

Not much to add to what byslantedlight has said about challenges... those run by Carl at Stainless Steel Droppings anyway (his blog is here: http://www.stainlesssteeldroppings.com/). His SF one starts the 1st. Dec. and runs until the 31st. Jan. Then on the 21st. March his Once Upon a Time one begins and that goes through until the 21st. June.

That said, there are hundreds of challenges being run by many bloggers. A good blog site for lists of them is: http://novelchallenge.weebly.com/ but that's a new site (they moved) so there's not much there. The old site is: http://novelchallenges.blogspot.co.uk/. You can see there what kind of challenges there are. Most of them start to be advertised in November for the following year so if you keep an eye you can often see something you fancy.

[gilda-elise.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the links. I didn't see anything on the Stainless Steel blog, but I'll check back later to see if he mentions it. I've bookmarks the other site and plan on perusing it in the next day or two. I'm really sort of new at book blogging, so I know I have a lot of catching up to do!