Lotería

Title: Loteria Writer: Cynthia Pelayo Publishing House: Agora Books Date of Publication: February 21, 2023 Rating: 5 stars ‘’In a few hours I will take you with me on the journey to the other world because I can’t leave you, not ever again.’’ In a game of Loteria, there is a multitude of paths one…

Seven Empty Houses

Title: Seven Empty Houses Writer: Samanta Schweblin (translated by Megan McDowell) Publishing House: Riverhead Books Date of Publication: October 18, 2022 (First published May 1, 2015) Rating: 5 stars Houses are our shelter. The space where memories are created. The places where we develop our personalities, where we are raised, where we raise our families…

White Fur

Title: White Fur Writer: Jardine Libaire Publishing House: Weidenfeld & Nicolson Date of Publication: May 30, 2017 Rating: 5 stars ‘’I’ll do anything in the world for you.’’ Elise and Jamey meet in New Haven in 1986. It doesn’t matter whether theirs is ‘love at first sight’ or not. The bond swiftly developed between them…

The Platform Edge: Uncanny Tales of the Railways

Title: The Platform Edge: Uncanny Tales of the Railways Writer: Various, edited by Mike Ashley Publishing House:  British Library Publishing Date of Publication: January 18th 2019 Rating: 5 stars ‘’Our love affair with trains – especially steam trains – is matched by our fear of them. Who amongst us has not, at one time or…

Armagh Folk Tales

Title: Armagh Folk Tales Writer: Frances Quinn Publishing House: THP Ireland Date of Publication: March 3rd 2014 Rating: 3 stars ‘’Like many counties in Ireland, stories are in the DNA of the people. The landscape is the fabric of the stories – what sews us together or unfortunately, at times, rips us apart. Stories are…

The Whistling

Title: The Whistling Writer: Rebecca Netley Publishing House: Michael Joseph Date of Publication: October 14th 2021 Rating: 5 stars ‘’As I neared Iskar, my eyes drifted to Hettie’s window, and something against the pane stopped me in my tracks. I pinned my attention to it and was assailed with a spike of disquiet. As I…

Haunters at the Hearth: Eerie Tales For Christmas Nights

Title: Haunters at the Hearth: Eerie Tales for Christmas Nights Writer: Various edited by Tanya Kirk Publishing House: British Library (Tales of the Weird) Date of Publication: October 2022 Rating: 5 stars ”There was a little snow on the ground, and the church clock had just struck midnight. Hampstead in the night of winter for…

Ghosts of Christmas Past

Title: Ghosts of Christmas Past Writer: Various edited by Tim Martin Publishing House: John Murray Date of Publication: October 19th 2017 Rating: 5 stars ”And what a long night it is, out there beyond the warm rooms and the firelight. Don’t worry about the noises. Ignore the moving shapes. It’s time to step out. Turn…

Stories for Christmas and the Festive Season

Τitle: Stories for Christmas and the Festive Season Writer: Various Publishing House: British Library Publishing Date of Publication: October 13th 2022 Rating: 4 stars ”To me, it’s the one time you are really a child at heart, however old you may be. It’s a time of lovely, darling surprises, of, for once, reaping the benefit…

Spectral Sounds

Title: Spectral Sounds: Unquiet Tales of Acoustic Weird Writer: Various edited by Manon Burz-Labrande Publishing House: British Library Publishing Date of Publication: September 22nd 2022  Rating: 5 stars ‘’Don’t you want to hear me speak my piece?’’ The Invisible Tenants of Rushmere (Florence Marryat): The young couple who rented Rushmere thought they had found the…

The Dutch House

Title: The Dutch House Writer: Ann Patchett Publishing House:Bloomsbury Publishing Date of Publication: September 24th 2019 Rating: 5 stars ‘’If you lived in Jenkintown in 1968 or went to school at Choate, chances were good you’d cross paths with most of the people there eventually, even if just to nod and say hello, but New…

Before Your Memory Fades

Title: Before Your Memory Fades Writer: Toshikazu Kawaguchi (translated by Geoffrey Trousselot) Publishing House: Picador Date of Publication: August 30th 2022 (first published September 2018) Rating: 5 stars ‘’I don’t like the idea of dying with regrets.’’ In the café Donna Donna in beautiful Hakodate, lives are unfolding as autumn approaches. A heartbroken daughter wants…

Hare House

Title: Hare House Writer: Sally Hinchcliffe Publishing House: Mantle Date of Publication: January 6th 2022 Rating: 5 stars ‘’We walked through a landscape bleached with frost, the earth standing hard and frozen. Ice crept everywhere. Even the streams had begun to freeze, ice fingering out from their edges, tombing them over. Yet the cold left…

The Lottery and Other Stories

Title: The Lottery and Other Stories Writer: Shirley Jackson Publishing House: Penguin Modern Classics Date of Publication: October 2009  Rating: 5 stars ”The only town lights were the street lights, the lights in the all-night lunchstand across the street, and the one remaining counter lamp in the bus station where the girl sat in the…

Mortal Echoes: Encounters With the End

Title: Mortal Echoes: Encounters with the End Writer: Various, edited by Greg Buzwell Publishing House: British Library Publishing Date of Publication: August 1st 2019 Rating: 5 stars ” ‘ You’re not really dying, are you?’ ” asked Amanda. ” ‘I have the doctor’s permission to live till Tuesday,” said Laura. ” Strange Even in the…

The Doll: Short Stories

Title: The Doll: Short Stories Writer: Daphne du Maurier Publishing House: Virago Modern Classics Date of Publication: 2011 Rating: 5 stars ”There was only the island. Beyond it lay the ghostly, the intangible; the truth was in the seared rock, in the touch of the soil, in the sound of the waves breaking against the…

Checkmate to Murder

Title: Checkmate to Murder Writer: E.C.R.Lorac Publishing House: British Library Crime Classics Date of Publication: August 10th 2020 (first published 1944) Rating: 5 stars As London descends into the familiar darkness of war, a man of questionable morality is murdered. The fog cannot hide the frightened young man who is arrested for the murder of his…

Murder of a Lady

Title: Murder of a Lady Writer: Anthony Wynne Publishing House: British Library Crime Classics Date of Publication: January 4th 2016 (first published 1931) Rating: 5 stars ”Autumn was dressing herself in her scarlets and saffrons; already the air held that magical quality of light which belongs only to diminishing days and which seems to be…

Death of a Bookseller

Title: Death of a Bookseller Writer: Bernard J. Farmer Publishing House: British Library Crime Classics Date of Publication:  March 17th 2022 (first published 1931) Rating: 5 stars A book collector is found murdered in his study, surrounded by valuable volumes. His friend, Sergeant Wigan, helps in arresting the alleged murderer. But what if the wrong…

The Black Dreams: Strange Stories from Northern Ireland

Title: The Black Dreams: Strange Stories from Northern Ireland Writer: Various edited by Reggie Chamberlain- King Publishing House: Blackstaff Press Date of Publication:  October 4th 2021 Rating: 5 stars ”A dream possesses all of Northern Ireland and Northern Ireland is a sort of fairyland too. It is a place of outspoken symbols and unspoken rules,…