56.
Title: [The G-String Murders]
Author: Gypsy Rose Lee
Genre: Pulp
Medium: Paperback
Acquisition: Beach Read
Date Completed: June 23, 2016
Rating: *****

Before there was Dita Von Tese there was Gypsy Rose Lee, a vaudeville performer turned strip teaser who went on to become a cultural icon with fluctuating media success.  According to her son’s introduction, Gypsy Rose Lee was never formerly educated, having spent her whole life travelling for the stage, but had a voracious appetite for reading, individual books becoming her tutors and her windows into different worlds and different lives.  Lee is no stranger to the pen, either, and in 1941 turns to pulp fiction with her publication of The G-String Murders.

The G-String Murders takes readers behind the scenes of a burlesque theatre, illustrating contentious and complex human relationships between stage performers, which leads to the very real (and welcomed, at times) murders of women with more enemies than back-door Johnnies. Gypsy Rose Lee herself is the protagonist, adding a realistic and identifiable voice to the telling of a series of garish murders, when strip-teasers are found strangled with glittering g-strings in a performance that seems fit for a stage. A classic whodunit, nearly everyone is suspicious, and the animosity between burlesque performers and the police force add a tension to the plot that adds believability to the suggestion that a comic and his dancer girlfriend need to investigate on their own.  The scenes backstage and in the dressing rooms are just as grand and engaging as the acts on stage, and the pace runs high and keeps twirling from beginning to end.  The G-String Murders will delight fans of mystery, pulp, and cozy-mysteries alike, and would be a real treat for anyone interested in burlesque and strip tease. Strong personalities and an intimate understanding of narrative make this pulp a real winner.

57.
Title: [Mother Finds a Body]
Author: Gypsy Rose Lee
Genre: Pulp
Medium: Paperback
Acquisition: Beach Read
Date Completed: June 25, 2016
Rating: ***

The sequel to The G-String Murders, Mother Finds a Body directly follows the conclusion of the first, removing Gypsy Rose Lee and a handful of familiar characters from the theatre, and and places burlesque performers in a tenuous position in the "real" world. Outside of the performing space, these characters lose a bit of their polish, and with it the interest of the reader. Though the introduction of Lee's mother as a principal characters adds a layer of enjoyable anxiety, the narrative as a whole is more traditional as a murder mystery, and thus less successful overall, as it is the unique perspective and setting which makes the first such a success.  The suspension of disbelief is a bit more difficult, as it's impossible to imagine travelling for several days in a packed trailer with an undiscovered murder victim in a bathtub, and the rest of the story is just as contrived. The saving grace is the character of Gypsy herself, who can still charm readers into going along for the ride. The second book is definitely second-best, but it's worth a look for a quick beach read.

58.
Title: [Sex Criminals: Vol. 1]
Author: Matt Fraction
Genre: Graphic Novel
Medium: Paperback
Acquisition: Beach Read
Date Completed: June 27, 2016
Rating: ***

The premise of Matt Fraction's Sex Criminals is curious and compelling: a young girl discovers at her sexual awakening that her orgasms stops time for all but her, allowing her variable stretches of experience in what she dubs "the Quiet Place." Faced with grief over the death of her father, and her mother's subsequent withdrawal and alcoholism, the Quiet Place gives Suzie the time and space she needs to heal and come to grips with her life, even as it leaves her feeling extraordinarily isolated and lonely following intimate bodily and emotional connections. Just when se determines that she'll never share this quiet moment with another she meets Jonathan, who has the same ability, albeit with a far more lascivious understanding, and a destructive inclination that leads him to use the time freeze for juvenile delinquency rather than quiet reflection and self-discovery. Together, they decide to use their intimate powers for both harm and good: robbing banks to raise the money to keep Suzie's library out of foreclosure.

For a book that uses sex as its narrative vehicle, Sex Criminals is not itself pornographic, keeping far from Alan Moore's level of sexual revelation, and playing the sex shop for gags rather than titillation. The artwork itself is oddly sweet and cartoonish, setting the tone of the book as approachable and well=meaning, with none of the grit and hard lines of, say, caped comics. However, the introduction of the sex police derail the story, adding an unnecessary layer of conflict and distracting fro the stories already put into motion. This, and the abrupt conclusion of the first volume, keep the book from being a full success, and ultimately will prevent me from seeking the next volume.

55.
Title: [Burial Rites]
Author: Hannah Kent
Genre: Historical Fantasy
Medium: Hardback
Acquisition: Library Book
Date Completed: June 20, 2016
Rating: *****

Hannah Kent's Burial Rites tells the story of an Icelandic farm family charged with the temporary holding of a condemned murderess, and the difficult and intimate human relationships that are formed when people are forced by circumstance and necessity to occupy the same small spaces for the sake of survival. Agnes, having been tried and convicted of the murder of her lover Natan, is placed with a family in the community in which she was first born, living and working with them more as a hired servant than a condemned criminal for the circumstances of her imprisonment. At first fearful and repulsed by both their charge of keeping and Agnes' proximity to their wholesome, god-fearing family, the members of the household each form individual and nuanced relationships with the young woman, illustrating their own humanity as Agnes' is revealed, and the texture of the human spirit.

The novel as an object is a work of poetry, carefully weaving a tale that draws the reader in, teasing with developing stories, and sharing a realistic space and time clearly informed by careful and extensive research; the novel has a quiet patience that allows relationships to unfold and develop and for an intimacy and depth of character to come forth naturally, echoing the real relationship and community building of such households and villages. . Far from the courts and intrigue that so often inspires the genre of historical fiction, Burial Rites tells the story of ordinary people living ordinary lives, and the extraordinary circumstances that punctuate their existence, and yet fails to change it permanently.  Kent's work is thoughtful and beautiful, and Burial Rites is a book that deserves extensive attention.

53.
Title: [Amazing X-Men: The Quest for Nightcrawler]
Author: Jason Aaron
Genre: Comic
Medium: paperback
Acquisition: Comic shop suggestion
Date Completed: June 17, 2016
Rating: ***

Like the last X-Men book on my list, The Quest for Nightcrawler is a shop-employee suggestion. In this first volume of Amazing X-Men, strange creatures begin appearing around the school, leading to a portal which suddenly transports a number of X-Men to heaven and hell, where they meet Azazel and a band of demonic pirates on a quest to collect souls and overthrow the afterlife.  Nightcrawler, himself deceased and pining for adventure despite his secure place in heaven, leads his former comrades in the fray against his father, literally captaining a hell-ship and defeating the empowered souls of notorious sinners such as Jack the Ripper.  At first, the entire plot device smacked of barely-palatable shark jumping, but as the book developed Nightcrawler as a conflicted and nuanced character, and brought the X-Men back from the afterlife to the present reality, it became far more compelling, and holds a promise of something interesting to come. Though a bit clumsy as a whole, the narrative reigns itself in successfully, and delivers appealing artwork to help fans through the rough patches.


54.
Title: [Batman: The Court of Owls]
Author: Scott Snyder
Genre: Comic
Medium: paperback
Acquisition:
Date Completed: June , 2016
Rating: ****

Batman: The Court of Owls is a dark and thrilling ride through a Gotham both familiar and not, taking well-known characters and complicating them in ways the series has failed to do in the past. A Gotham-known nursery rhyme speaks of a "Court of Owls," a shadowy cabal which controls the city. Having unsuccessfully searched for the court as a child, Batman dismisses the possibility of their existence, even after Bruce Wayne receives threats, and a subsequent assassination attempt, from the death-dealer of the Owls. As the plot unfolds, Batman realizes that he may not know the city quite as well as he thought, and his assertion that the city is "his" is soundly challenged.

One of the great appeals of Batman over supernatural superheroes is his fallibility - the very real possibility that he can fail, physically and intellectually, because he is human - and this first New 52 volume takes full advantage of his undeniable humanity. His struggles with the Court of Owls push him to the very brink psychologically, challenging the hero in ways far more poignant and compelling than brute and brawn. The book is well-paced and carefully developed, and much of the artwork is breathtaking, textured, and dark.  This book is a real winner.

50.
Title: [Extraordinary X-Men: X-Haven]
Author: Lemire and Ramos
Genre: Comics
Medium: Paperback
Acquisition: Purchased
Date Completed: May 2016
Rating: **

The subject of "Punk Storm," as I know her (or "mohawk Storm," as the comic shop clerk called her) first came to my attention when I was researching Storm cosplay and crossplay for a PhD course. At the time my object of study was the cosplay itself, and not the comic, so I spent my time researching backstories and reading images of fan productions. Now, with a few weeks of actual leisure time before me, I decided to seek out the stories in their original forms, and walked into the comic store saying (literally), "I need her in my life."  This time, though, the store recommendation did not meet my expectations. In X-Haven, Ororo is the headmistress of the famous school, and is facing down a series of exterior threats to mutant kind, as per the conflict that is familiar to any X-text. Given my limited experience with X-Canon, I had a very difficult time putting things in place; luckily my past research into narrative arcs prepared me for, for example, "Old Man Logan and young Jean Grey," but the story itself would have made next to no sense without that research. The excessive use of dimension transcendence and time travel leads to a sloppy story full of holes and an excess of expressive emotion over character development - what takes the whole book to establish could have been much more deftly done, and with greater interest, if layered with (forgive the pun) a sense of humanity and interiority.

ComicVine.com is quoted on the cover as saying, "A good place for new readers to jump on..." which is grossly inaccurate - those who have a passing understanding of these characters from other popular media (i.e. films and cartoons) will have no clear idea what is going on, and will struggle to put the pieces together as they race through the melodrama. If one is familiar with the larger narrative this book may be more satisfying; however, this is not a "place ... to jump on" for anyone who really wishes to engage with the characters.


50.
Title: [A Discovery of Witches]
Author: Deborah Harkness
Genre: Fantasy
Medium: Hardcover
Acquisition: Library Book
Date Completed: 352 pages read
Rating: **

A Discovery of Witches is the first novel in a trilogy which follows a plain, grounded young woman who magically captures the interest of a stunning and elusive ancient vampire who finds himself powerlessly drawn to protect her, despite over a thousand years of control and autonomy. He frequently threatens her with the aggressive poetry of his vampiric existence, and she stubbornly refutes all who stand in the way of what she claims can be nothing other than love.

Sound familiar?*

Unlike Twilight, which is in one sense a guide for accepting emotionally-abusive relationships, the protagonist Diana Bishop (of the Salem line) truly has a mind of her own (academically, at least), which she exercises enthusiastically through her research into the history of science and medieval alchemical texts.  A brilliant PhD with accolades to spare, Diana finds herself in Oxford conducting research, when she calls a text which seems to have a mind of its own - especially to her (largely suppressed) witch's instincts. Determined to stand by a resolution to avoid magic, a theme that is painstakingly detailed int he book itself, Diana send the book back, unintentionally bringing down the attention of a horde of supernatural creatures who have sought the text for decades, believing it was lost forever. Matthew is one such creature, and shoe-horns his way into her life and trust in search of the book, which he believes holds the secret to their supernatural existence, a question that has informed his genetic research since the nineteenth-century (at least. Perhaps longer? I can no longer remember).

Though I have a deep love of both history and vampires, I had much less for this book, which I found to be poorly paced and overly developed. Though threats, movements, and action are named, most of the 300+ pages I read took place in Diana's thoughts, with only the suggestion of things happening over there. In trying to be both a fantasy novel and an historical novel the book became neither, plodding through historical trivial and assertions of intelligence, stepping once in awhile to vaguely supernatural territory.  As I have two dear friends who devoured the trilogy, I'm willing to wager that I'm too much of a "fantasy" (horror) and historical (rather than historical fiction) reader to enjoy what Harkness has done.  Having read a short novel's worth and maintaining next to no interest I decided it was best for me to move on.


* Twilight is first published in 2005, and A Discovery of Witches is published in 2011. Although Wikipedia sites a newspaper article in which the authors claims to have never read Twilight (or other popular vampire texts), the resemblance in character dynamics can easily have come from a general awareness of the media franchise. Likewise, given her role as a female academic, I think it's probable she's familiar with at least the feminist critique of the romantic relationship of the series, which may have, at least subconsciously, informed her own writing.


51.
Title: [The Bullet-Catcher's Daughter]
Author: Rod Duncan
Genre: Fantasy
Medium: paperback
Acquisition: Library Book
Date Completed: June 9, 2016
Rating: **

The most creative and engaging aspect of this novel was the cover, over which the author likely had no control nor influence. Elizabeth Barnabas, having fled The Kingdom under the threat of sexual slavery, comes to operate as a private intelligencer in The Republic, utilizing her skills as a transvestite from a youth spent in a travelling show to secure the confidence of customers and the social freedoms of a man in a purportedly nineteenth-century influenced puritanical society. When a creditor threatens to repossess her beloved houseboat, Elizabeth is forced to accept a suspicious assignment to track down a Kingdom aristocrat who fled with a circus with the officials of the all-powerful Patent Office on his, and a mysterious contraption's, tail. Seeing not just the possibility of a mortgage, but the potential to return to the Kingdom a free woman, Elizabeth bullishly follows every lead, and finds herself in frequent hot water.

Elizabeth Barnabas has all the charisma of her traveling case. That is to say, her one distinguishing characteristic, and skill, is her life as a frequent transvestite and her assertion that she transforms into a twin brother in only two minutes (clearly the author has little technical experience with corset busks, breast bindings, or nineteenth-century clothes in general). Though there may be some use in creating an Everywoman protagonist, allowing for the reader's projection of self, there is so little personality in Elizabeth that she becomes a cardboard waif, generating just as much care. The false Victoriana is a drudgery, without the charm and nuance of the real thing, and lacking the fantastical delights of steampunk and alternative history. Given the rich potential of these genres, the author seems almost lazy in both world and character creation, moving the Berlin wall to the UK, and essentially placing a fantastic ahistoric France on once side, and a Puritanical US on the other. There is much to criticize, too, of the casual use of sexual indenture, but even this seems like an afterthought - after all, Duncan had to give his female protagonist something to fear in her homeland. Ultimately, there is too little for suspension of disbelief, and it was a real chore to complete.

49.
Title: [Batman: Year One]
Author: Frank Miller and David Mazzucchelli
Genre: Comics
Medium: Paperback
Acquisition: Purchased
Date Completed: 28 May 2016
Rating: ****

According to the introduction of Batman: Year One, DC Comics decides to revamp their bi names in the 1980s, afraid that the characters had grown stale. Denny O'Neil writes that Wonderwoman and Superman needed new stories, "but Batman was a problem. He was fine just as he was." Thus, the "editors decided, Batman's origin should not be changed. It could be given depth, complexity, a wider context." This is precisely what Frank Miller aims to do in Year One, originally published in 1986, and offering an origins story that fixes Gotham in the cultural imagination, and broadens the task of origin narration to include other significant characters. I haven't yet made it to my omnibus to see how much of, say, Gordon's story is original to Miller, but the book as a whole is dedicated to a consistent level of struggle and searching, looking forward to the characters so well known today.  Jim Gordon is transferred to Gotham after past failures, bringing along a newly-pregnant wife and a deep-seated repulsion for his newly assigned city; Bruce Wayne returns from twelve years in Europe, perfectly charming and confident, but in secret plagued with a sense of inadequacy that drives him to work harder and harder. Selina Kyle watches from the shadows before developing her own alternative identity, and pits herself in a contest of reputations with the mysterious Bat.

Batman: Year One does exactly what it promises, returning to the real origins of Batman - not the murder of the Waynes, but when Bruce Wayne seeks out an alternative identity through which to exercise his manic desire for revenge and street justice. What Batman No. 1 does in approximately nine frames Frank Miller details in ninety-six pages of thoughtful development.  Bruce Wayne, though wealthy and physically practiced, is uncertain of his means, and blunders in his first days on the street, making mistakes and earning scars - and a nasty official reputation.  Gordon, too, has his flaws, not quite the boyscout he is in my head, but with a sense of right stronger than a sense of self-preservation.  Selina Kyle isn't given quite the same attention, to my dismay, but it's not her book.  Though I found the clipped and awkward narrative jarring and pedestrian, the story itself was well paced, and the visual narrative more than made up for the staccato writing.  This is the Batman I've known all my life (I'm only a year older), and it was a pleasure to go back and see where he came from.

48.
Title: [Instructions for American Servicemen in Britain, 1942]
Author: United States War Department.
Genre: Historical Guide
Medium: Web
Acquisition: Read Online
Date Completed: 20 May 2016
Rating: *****

Conduct guides are rich and valuable cultural objects capable of articulating not just the guidance f their intention, but the cultural and social values of a society. Conduct guides allow historians a better understanding of social anxieties and expectations of behavior, and clearly articulate politics of identity at a given time. Such is the case with the 1942 Instructions for American Servicemen in Britain, written and distributed by the US War Department to educate (and correct) American soldiers stationed in Britain after the United States formally enters World War II. Opening with an identification of a joint threat seeking to disrupt a potentially powerful alliance (Hitler), the guide opens with the assertion that this is "No Time to Fight Old Wars," and in the resulting paragraph illustrates the prolonged mistrust of the British by Americans in the 1940s due to the Revolutionary War: "you may think of them as enemy Redcoats who fought against us in the American Revolution and the War of 1812.  But there is no time today to fight old wars over again or bring up old grievances... The most evident truth of all is that in their major ways of life the British and American people are much alike. "

The text that follows represents the building of contentious masculinities in the US and UK, constructing a definable American cultural standard even as it seeks to inform Americans of the culture of their new station. "It is militarily stupid to criticize your allies" the guide says. Twice.

There is much to value in this text, which serves as a primary source useful for defining masculinity central to my research. But here are some of my personal favorite quips:

1. "Don't be misled by the British tendency to be soft-spoken and polite.  If they need to be,  they can be plenty tough.  The English language didn't spread across the oceans and over the mountains and jungles and swamps of the world because these people were panty-waists."

2. "You will find that English crowds at football or cricket matches are more orderly and polite to the players than American crowds.  If a fielder misses a catch at cricket, the crowd will probably take a sympathetic attitude.  They will shout "good try" even if it looks to you like a bad fumble.  In America the crowd would probably shout "take him out." This contrast should be remembered."

3.  "British churches, particularly the little village churches, are often very beautiful inside and out.  Most of them are always open and if you feel like it, do not hesitate to walk in. But do not walk around if a service is going on."

4. "The British welcome you as friends and allies. But remember that crossing the ocean doesn't automatically make you a hero. There are housewives in aprons and youngsters in knee pants in Britain who have lived through more high explosives in air raids than many soldiers saw in first class barrages in the last war."

5. On "British Women at War": "When you see a girl in khaki or air-force blue with a bit of ribbon on her tunic-remember she didn't get it for knitting more socks than anyone else in Ipswich."

6. "The British have phrases and colloquialisms of their own that may sound funny to you.  You can make just as many boners in their eyes. "

You can read the conduct guide online here.

47.
Title: The Astonishing X-Men
Author: Joss Whedon and John Cassaday
Genre: Comic
Medium: Paperback
Acquisition: By shop recommendation
Date Completed: 18 May 2016
Rating: ****

All I've ever known of the X-Men is the animated cartoon, which certainly did its job to hold my attention and spark a strong interest.  Though I've written two papers on a related subject - specifically, Storm cosplay - I've never read a comic proper, and so during our last comic book store trip I asked an employee to point out a good starter book. His suggestion was the Joss Whedon The Astonishing X-Men, both for the interesting premise of a "cure" for a mutation gene, and more generally for Joss Whedon's decision to parse down the field and focus on a select few characters.  After reading I appreciate the employee's care, as I can see how it would be easy to become overwhelmed by the thousands of mutants who appear throughout the lifetime of the property; focusing on a select team makes it easier to think about character development and interpersonal relationships.  With the very little knowledge I have of the title I found it easy to navigate the stories of Hope and Danger (and I'll leave my allusions at that, to avoid spoilers), even though a few characters were barely familiar.  Whedon does well to focus on quiet tension both within the team and in the world at large, and presents believable personal scenarios that, excuse the term, humanize the tensions and politics ad clearly reflect thematic issues introduced by the subject itself.  In short, I found it well done, if not the most compelling comic I've read.  Now that I have my foot in the door I feel more confident seeking out particular story lines that have come up in my research - specifically, when Storm steps up as a team leader, and her punk phase.  In the cartoon

44.
Title: [American Vampire]
Author: Scott Snyder, Rafael Albuquerque, and Stephen King
Genre: Comic
Medium: Paperback
Acquisition:
Date Completed: 12 May 2016
Rating: ***1/2

American Vampire is a fantasy of the Old West and silent film Hollywood, each dominated by tyrannical Old World vampires who own banks and studios, and treat humans ("humes." Yes, actually) as the cattle they are so often read to be within the genre.  The Old West sees the birth of Skinner Sweet, whose backstory is penned by Stephen King, and a new, distinctly American race of vampires. Skinner Sweet is no hero - his actions are fairly repugnant, and stereotypically outlaw: theft, rape, and countless murders, including the shooting of a toddler. When he gets into a physical altercation with a vampire whom his gang has robbed a drop of blood gives him new life, and the reader again meets him in 1920s California, acting the same sweets-guzzling creeper that he is in the late nineteenth-century.

While the characters are fairly stock, they're very well-executed, and Skinner Sweet has a ghastly charm that holds attention even as the reader understands that he has no redeeming qualities. Whatsoever. Truly.  Pearl shows promise, although she's given little room to be "new," and could develop into something wonderful if given half a chance. The story itself is likewise trite, but not so wooden that it wears thing, more like a familiar and comfortable sweater than a sodden mess, blending genres in a way that firmly grounds the story geographically and culturally, and leaning heavily on beautiful artwork to pull the book through.

Stephen King's introduction nearly ruins the experience before it begins.  He opens by saying, "Here's what vampires shouldn't be: pallid detectives who drink Bloody Marys and only work at night; lovelorn southern gentlemen; anorexic teenage girls; boy-toys with big dewy eyes. What should they be? Killers, honey. Stone killers who never get enough of that tasty Type-A. Bad boys, and girls. Hunters. In other words, Midnight America." In typical King fashion he thus demonstrates his blinder-version of genre and characters, asserting his "rightness" over the "wrongs" of other authors in a brazen display of ignorance. Clearly, King is not a fan of Vampire Diaries, Twilight, Interview With a Vampire, or ... one I haven't heard of. Nor will I say he should be - each have their targeted audience, and readers like King are not among them. What King here asserts is exactly what this books is - an assertive rewriting of an ageless figure against overly aggressive American archetypes. Essentially, King is arguing for a distinctly masculine American vampire - a violent and twisted creature that runs parallel with a culture of physical violence as old as our first war of Independence. Vampires begin as sexual creatures, which then evolves into romance - their true origins are as spectral figures raping dreamers and strangling children. In their Victorian hey-day they are feared for their sensuality and sexuality more than their physical violence; they are consumptive figures standing in for the tuberculosis that becomes an epidemic in the nineteenth-century, stealing away beautiful young women and supporting the romantic cult of mourning and death in Victorian England.  They are representatives of deviance and inversion - feared for social transgressions rather than outright slaughter. Historically, and personal taste aside, Edward Cullen's theft of Bella is more historically grounded than Skinner Sweet's murderous rampages.  But American horror generally doesn't go for subtlety, and the King I've read hasn't ever struck me as slow, creeping horror. For a good, junky, American punch in the gut, King's vampires will do; to suggest what vampires should and shouldn't be is to artificially limit a tradition that has gone on long before, and will thankfully outlast her abusers.

45.
Title: [Wytches]
Author: Scott Snyder, Joch, Hollingsworth, Robins
Genre: Comic
Medium: Paperback
Acquisition:
Date Completed: 13 May 2016
Rating: *****

Pledged is pledged.

Scott Snyder's Wytches is a stunning and horrific graphic novel perfect for a Friday the 13th, or any day one is looking for a creep. Snyder slowly builds a narrative to come back full circle, drawing on pathos and looming shadows to engage readers as they follow Sailor, and the difficult times she's had. Sailor is an adored only child, and when she is involved in a traumatic incident her family decides to move, hoping a fresh start will give her the peace she needs to recover.  In a typical-but-still-enjoyable fashion the new house proves to be less of a fresh start than they believe, and Sailor soon comes face-to-face with a horror story much bigger than she, in which she is enmeshed by the actions of others. It's difficult to be much more clear without ruining the plot, which I certainly don't wish to do - the build and resolution are much better with a veil of uncertainty. I will say that the story is well-paced and fantastically executed, and the dark, sketchy artwork adds perfectly to the tension and the horror.  A sure hit for horror fans - I'll even agree with King on this one, as he says on the cover "It's fabulous. A triumph."


46.
Title: [Coffin Hill] Volume 1: Forest of the Night
Author: Caitlin Kittredge
Genre: Comic
Medium: Paperback
Acquisition:
Date Completed: 13 May 2016
Rating: ***1/2

Moving back and forth through time in a series of exposes, Caitlin Kittredge's first volume of Coffin Hill tells the story of Eve Coffin, the youngest in a line of wealthy witches dating back to Salem. Notoriously selfish, and not balking at evil, Coffin women (Coffin Witches) unapologetically pursue black magic, and when Eve "rebels" she goes straight to the family tradition, leading to a catastrophe that builds for a decade.  Eve is a compelling protagonist, deeply flawed but essentially good, with a hand in both worlds that allows her to function in a series of supernatural conflicts. There is a strong suggestion that there is far more to the story than the first volume relates, establishing enjoyable tension and a drive to the second volume. The epilogue seemingly confuses its own genealogy, which is unfortunate, but Eve's narrative itself is compelling. Though less of a thrill than Snyder's Wytches, it's an enjoyable book with a well-paced narrative and attractive art.

43.
Title: [Lord of the Wings]
Author: Donna Andrews
Genre: Cozy Mystery
Medium: Ebook
Acquisition: Library Book
Date Completed: 12 May 2016
Rating: ***1/2

Lord of the Wings takes place during another Halloween in Caerphilly, and follows Meg as her volunteer schedule leads her to manage the "Goblin Patrol" for a week-long town festival; when a series of pranks leads to the discovery of a body in the woods the town discovers that there are more sinister plans in place for the week, and work to balance the festivities with a murder investigation. As usual, Meg's primary focus is her "volunteer" work, but this book at least makes an attempt to address some of the problems of priority. Ironically, Meg laments the time her actual job would take from her family, and many of her volunteer responsibilities are given to a new city employee; here Meg tries to balance time with her twins and her time on the festival. But still I'm left to wonder - why spend all of this time volunteering and longing to go back to work? Why not, as nearly every other resident does, focus on her job? Her father works, her husband works, the librarians work, the police all work ... and Meg volunteers instead of working. Strange. An effort is made to rectify this discrepancy at the conclusion, so an even further balance may be found in the next in the series. I'm not sure I'll continue myself - I've grown bored - but more dedicated fans will likely be pleased with the new direction.

41.
Title: [The Good, The Bad, and the Emus]
Author: Donna Andrews
Genre: Cozy Mystery
Medium: Ebook
Acquisition: Library Book
Date Completed: 8 May 2016
Rating: ***

It must be difficult to maintain a cozy mystery series for so long, as small towns and craft fairs can only yield so many bodies. To alleviate some of the body count, and protect the convivial small-town feel of Cearphilly, Andrews sends Meg Langslow into a neighboring community in The Good, The Bad, and the Emus with P.I. Stanley, sent on a mission by her grandfather. After all of this time, and having made the acquaintance of the family he didn't before knew he had, Meg's grandfather has hired Stanley to locate his former lover - only to discover that she is not only dead, but was likely murdered six months before. In an effort to win over the reclusive cousin with whom Cordelia lived before her death, Meg manipulates her grandfather into capturing and re-homing the emus Cordelia and Annabel were recently working to protect, placing them in close proximity and allowing for snooping, cautious family bonding, and bird-rescue.  Though the story can feel a bit claustrophobic, and the shallow characters wooden, the plot maintains a consistent pace, and delivers on the promise of the series thus far.

42.
Title: [The Nightingale Before Christmas]
Author: Donna Andrews
Genre: Cozy Mystery
Medium: Ebook
Acquisition: Library Book
Date Completed: 10 May 2016
Rating: **1/2

In an effort to protect her home and peace of mind, Meg volunteers to manage a show house decorated by local professionals as a fundraiser for the historical society - provided the show house isn't her house. This puts Meg into the position in which she does best. No, not blacksmithing - she certainly doesn't have time to work, now that she has twin boys! And no, not parenting those boys - sure, she sneaks off for a couple of outings, but largely leaves their care to other family. She's too busy managing decorators to be bogged down with the children! ... For whom she (apparently?) gave up her job...

I intend to raise no arguments about mothers and work and parenting responsibilities - real life is full enough of those empty debates. Rather, I'm snarking because I am less certain of Meg's priorities, and thus connect less with her as a character. Once very capable, Meg now just seems flighty. If she's going to resolutely pursue one occupation over another, which she seemingly feels she needs to do, I wish she would. I want to see Meg as herself, and less of Meg as a tool for everyone else around her.

At one point in the needless character criticism that makes up Meg Langslow's internal (or in this case, actual) dialogue, she asks if a "self-respecting Goth" would actually carry a coffin purse.  This is a passing and relatively insignificant moment, to be sure, and Andrews uses it to offer the suggestion that the character in question has an eye for quality and detail, and could be successful if she outgrows the macabre. It makes a good point of illustration, though, for the trope into which Andrews falls, and one that is beginning to grate so far into the series: wooden stock characters that establish a critical social hierarchy irrelevant to the narrative progress, and reflective of a stodgy world view that masquerades for broad observation.  The decorator is not the first victim of this lack of understanding, as before the same could be said about so many, from computer geeks, to New Agers, to theater types. Heck, Meg even paints Michael into a corner before realizing he "defied type" and isn't actually gay. By pigeon-holing characters into cartoon-like personae, Andrews is carelessly coloring her texts and masking a lack of depth, which is problematic in a series that attempts to drive plot through character.  Meg herself would bristle at being judged on the surface knowledge of being a blacksmith (not that she works much anymore), so she seems much less reasonable than she's otherwise presented in her poor social readings. This works to challenge the suspension of disbelief, and ultimately renders the book - and the unnecessarily repetitive Christmas plot - tiring.

The fact that I'm so focused on poor character development in a character-driven novel is symptomatic of the lack of surface pleasure I found in reading the book, which is the real reason I pick up cozy mysteries. I don't expect them to be anything more than good fun (and highly value them as such!), and when they're not I start to wonder just why that may be. The holiday theme is exactly like the last. The decorating discussions are what you've seen before. The characters are all recycled.  If I didn't have one more book from the library I'd say it was time for me to put down Meg for good, but I'll give it one more shot.