Samantha Wolf Mysteries, Book Seven - The Case of the Curious Canine

I can't believe it's already been a year since I read the last Samantha Wolf mystery.  I guess I never realize just how many books I have to read until I look at how long it is between each book of a particular series that I read.  Author Tara Ellis is already up to book eleven with this series, so I guess I am pretty far behind in my reading.  But, that's okay, because it just means I still have more stories of Sam and her friends, Ally and Cassy, solving mysteries and trying hard to not get grounded while doing it!

The Case of the Curious Canine features a mystery that will strike a chord with any animal lover.  Sam and her friends are volunteering at the local animal shelter - on a trial basis, since Sam has a very difficult time not getting attached; but since her brother is allergic to the animal dander, she can't have a dog at home.  But she promises her mother she can handle it, and Trish Spartan, the woman who manages the shelter, is glad for any help she can get.  Her last assistant left unexpectedly, and her current assistant can only work part time.  So, the help that Sam, Ally, and Cassy can provide on weekends is certainly welcome.  Of course, this is a mystery series, so it isn't long before a mystery manages to find Sam!

Who has been harming the dogs in Oceanside?  The girls thought volunteering at the shelter would be fun, but it changes to concern when more than one dog is brought in with what appears to be severe allergic reactions to something.  As if that isn't strange enough, Sam sees two men driving slowly along the wooded area to Cassy's house, as if they are looking for something.  When they see her watching, they speed off.  The next thing you know, one of the men shows up at the animal shelter and claims one of the dogs as his own!  Sam smells a rat, but everything thinks she is seeing something that isn't there.

Then there's the matter of Ally's neighbor, for whom she babysits the woman's daughter from time to time.  The little girl is highly allergic, and the lab coat her mother brings home one night nearly sends her daughter into an asthma attack.  Sam's suspicions grow stronger that something very wrong is happening in Oceanside, particularly since the initials on the woman's lab coat are identical to the initials she saw on the car!  The only problem is, no one will believe her.  In fact, Trish warns Sam, as do Cassy's mom and her own mom, to not look for mysteries where there are none.

Thankfully, Sam has faithful friends who will help her - and so they do, even to their own peril!

Ellis provides another well-plotted mystery, and I'm even reaching the point where I don't notice the present tense story-telling as much as I used to.  I think my mind is just automatically switching it to past tense as I read it - for some reason, present tense writing just doesn't seem to read as well as past tense (for me, at least).  I know some authors will say writing in present tense keeps the reader in the "here and now," as if everything you read is happening at that exact moment.  But, for me, the past tense style reads more naturally.  In any event, Ellis' characterization and mystery plots overpower any problems I have with the tense.

Oh, and spoiler alert - Sam makes yet another new friend by the end of this mystery - one that I have no doubt will be sticking around!

RATING:  7 L-shaped medicine dispensers out of 10 for showing that even the most hard-nosed people can have a soft-spot when it comes to animals!

Haunted Homicide - a Haunted Mansion Mystery (#1)

Wait, what? Another new series?  But, Todd, I thought you weren't picking up any new series!  And a cozy series, at that?! Yes, yes, yes, I know.  But when you go to Barnes & Noble time and time again, and there are no new books in the series you do read, and you stumble across the start of a new series about a haunted mansion with a ghost that helps the new young business manager of the woman's club that houses its meetings and events within that haunted mansion - plus, with the unique font used for the title and the awesome cover art - well, let's face it, I couldn't help myself.  I picked up the first two books in the series and figured I would give them a try.  If I didn't like them, I knew I could always pass them on to someone else.

Well, I have no intention of passing them on!

Haunted Homicide, the first of Lucy Ness's "Haunted Mansion Mystery" tales, is a delightful little mystery with plenty of colorful characters.  Of course, when you are dealing with a bunch of high society, older-than-dirt women, you're pretty much guaranteed to have some fun characters!  The story centers around Avery Morgan, who has come to the small town of Portage Path (interesting name) to take over as business manger for the PPWC (Portage Path Women's Club).  Avery's parents died when she was young, and she was raised by her rather eccentric aunt who claims to see and speak with the dead.  Avery has never believed in any of that, and his move to Portage Path gives her a chance to get away from it all.  Or so she thinks...

Avery is welcomed into the PPWC by everyone except one - Muriel Sadler, an old, rich socialite who makes it clear that she does not want Avery there.  All of the others ladies on the Board for the women's club are happy to have Avery - Patricia Fink, Gracie Grimm, Valentina Hanover, and Agnes Yarborough.  The cook, Quentin, and the hostess, Geneva, are also thrilled to meet Avery.  But as soon as she arrives, she realizes things are not going well for the club.  Membership is down, attendance at meetings is low, and one of the rooms in the old mansion is having to be repaired because Agnes fell asleep in the records room and dropped her cigarette, starting a fire that nearly wiped out the room.  Enter: Jack Harkness.

Yes, you read that right.  Jack Harkness. No, not THAT Jack Harkness.  Although, it would have been rather hilarious if Jack Harkness turned out to be Captain Jack Harkness (as played by John Barrowman) in the Doctor Who series.  But, sadly, this is only a super-tall, super-good looking restorationist who will be fixing the Marigold Room.  However, I did smile every time I read his name, as I could only picture in my mind John Barrowman as Jack Harkness.

Anyway, before you know it, Muriel Sadler winds up dead at the bottom of the basement stairs.  Avery stumbles across the body - literally! - and she is left to wonder if the young woman in the 1920s flapper outfit she sees in the basement is connected to the murder.  Of course, Sergeant Oscar "Oz" Alterman and his policemen are unable to locate any woman in the basement.  Avery gets the suspicion they think she imagined the woman.  But she didn't.  She knows she didn't.  She spoke with the woman.  She was real.  Wasn't she?

With a series called "A Haunted Mansion Mystery," I think you pretty much know the answer to that.  Ness plays the story realistically (well, as realistically as you can with a ghost), and Clementine Bow (the ghost) is not able to simply tell Avery who the killer is.  Rather, Clemmie simply helps Avery talk through all the facts she uncovers about the suspects and the night of the murder, and she even manages to eavesdrop on some conversations that help Avery connect some dots about Muriel Sadler.  Of course, if she's going to figure out who killed the former president of the PPWC (at the request of the other board members, of course), she's going to have to get some answers to some important questions, like:  where did Patricia get those bruises? why was Muriel's husband at a movie the night of the murder when he told the police he was at home? what was Gracie doing with some of the records books at her house?  why did the previous business manager not turn in her key when Muriel fired her? and was it true that the former groundskeeper was stealing from the club, as Muriel accused him of when she fired him?  So much misinformation, so many lies, and so many secrets - all of which make for a great mystery!

Ness is off to a great start with this first book in her new series, and I hope the series sticks around for a while and doesn't disappear like Clemmie after only two books!

RATING:  9 purple t-shirts and purple-glittered hair out of 10 for kicking off this new series with a fun new mystery-solving duo!

Tom Swift Inventors' Academy, Book 5 - The Spybot Invasion

While the stories are definitely shorter and a bit more juvenile (due to the title character's younger age), I am actually enjoying this latest Tom Swift series.  I liked the previous series S&S put out some years back, the Tom Swift, Young Inventor series, but sadly, that one did not last long - only six books.  And since this is book five, and books six and seven have already been solicited, I think this series has a good chance of outlasting the previous one.  The stories are creative, and being set in a scientific academy for students with an aptitude for creating inventions, there are certainly plenty of story ideas waiting to be told.

 

The Spybot Invasion features Tom and his friends, Noah, Sam, and Amy, going up against an army of cute little robots that are spying on the students at Swift Academy. Only, Tom doesn't find the strange little robots that have suddenly started appearing all over school to be that cute.  For Tom, they are a reminder of a movie he once saw that scared him - a movie "full of big-eared little monsters that looked a lot like these plastic goblins."  There are several references to the movie throughout the book, and it is finally revealed to be ... Gremlins!  Hard to think of Gremlins as being an "old" movie, but I guess it did come out more than thirty years ago at this point, so I suppose it can be considered old.  Which, of course, means I am old, too!

Anyway, the first clue that something is wrong is a conversation Tom overhears in an elevator, where one student is accusing a friend of ratting out something he said to a teacher.  A short while later, Tom overhears someone say the exact same thing he said to Amy earlier, but he can't catch who said it.  Who would want to mimic him?  And why?  Then, in one of his classes, a student is upset with her boyfriend for saying something he shouldn't have.  And more and more students begin to have fights over things that were said, but which the other party claims they never said.  And then it happens.  In class, one of the "cute" little robots repeats something that one of the students says.  Within seconds, all of the other robots begin repeating the same thing.  And thus begins Tom's latest mystery.

Lucky for Tom, he had thrown the robot attached to his locker inside his locker, so it didn't get confiscated when the principal had them all pulled away.  He and Noah take it home to inspect it - but they turn around for one second, and when they turn back, it's gone!  Something fishy is going on, and when Tom finds out that a shipment of technical supplies for his father's business has gone missing, there is a more compelling reason to uncover the truth.  Is someone using those robots to try and spy on his father?

The culprit is not really all that surprising - he is pretty easy to spot early in the story - but it is interesting to follow Tom and Noah as they navigate the clues they find to uncover the identity of the spy.  And while there are not really any life-threatening cliffhangers to speak of (which seems to be the case for most of these Tom Swift books), Tom and Noah do end up locked in a storage unit with no cell reception and no apparent way out.  Otherwise, the chapters conclude with either revelations, surprises, or simple statements of fact.  Not exactly what one would expect from a Stratemeyer series (regardless of who is publishing it now), but it does sort-of work for this series.  Tom and his friends do not need the hair-raising, death-defying cliffhangers, as their mysteries are more cerebral in nature and are more about technological tracing than finding kidnappers or swindlers or the such.

There is a fun reference in the book that made me smile.  On page 39, when Sam suggests the robot gremlins are actually an alien invasion, Noah tells her, "You watch way too much Doctor Who," to which she promptly (and accurately!) replies: "don't diss the Doctor!"  As a fan of the current Doctor Who series on BBC, I'm always pleased when books by American authors reference the show or its fandom.

RATING:  8 inflatable body protection bags out of 10 showing young readers that science can be just as much fun for kids and teens as it can be for adults!

Ms. Tree - Skeleton in the Closet (The Second Ms. Tree Graphic Novel)

Oh, how I miss Ms. Tree.  Michael Tree was probably the first hard-broiled, female detective that I ever "met," and when I first picked up issue 1 of Ms. Tree's Thrilling Detective Adventures at the Great Escape back in the early 1980s, I immediately fell in love with her.  The art by Terry Beatty was so beautifully rendered, and the writing by Max Allan Collins was exceptional, drawing you into the story and making you really feel for the characters, as if you were actually right there with them.  The stories usually had a dark twist to them, and the in most cases, it was the most unexpected, least likely characters who turned out to be the villains behind whatever crime Ms. Tree happened to be investigating.  (And yes, I'm not ashamed to admit - it took me a bit before I caught onto the pun of her name - Ms. Tree = "mystery.")  In any event, when her original series from Eclipse, then Aarvark-Vanheim, then Renegade Press ended with issue 50, I was extremely disappointed.  Then, DC Comics picked it up, and it returned to full color stories!  But sadly, that only lasted 10 issues before it was also cancelled back in 1993.  Now, though, over 25 years later, Ms. Tree is finally back on the scene thanks to Titan Comics and their "Hard Case Crime" line of graphic novels, and I am getting the chance to re-read those wonderful stories and re-acquaint myself with the world of Ms. Tree.

Skeleton in the Closet is the second volume in this series of collected tales, and it not only features the rest of the DC Comics stories, but it features one of the earlier Renegade Press tales that ties directly into an issue of the DC run.  While the first collection published by Titan featured an over-arching storyline involving Ms. Tree, the Muertas, and Ms. Tree's pregnancy, the stories in this second collection are not necessarily connected (other than the two Roger-centric tales), but are nonetheless some great reads.  And, in true Ms.Tree-style, the stories feature some "pulled-from-the-headlines" tales.

"The Devil's Punchbowl" takes Ms. Tree to a little town called Bloomington to find a young girl that seems to have been murdered by a Satanic cult.   As always is with Ms. Tree's stories, not everything is as it seems.  There are more secrets in Bloomington than just the cult, and while the God-fearing town hates the cult's presence, it's not necessarily the cult leader who is the most dangerous person there!

The next two stories, "Skeleton in the Closet" and "Cry Rape" both focus on Ms. Tree's stepson, Mike.  In the first story, Mike's homophobia takes the forefront, as his memories of a past story when he was kidnapped and forced to watch his friend sodomized and murdered come back to haunt him, triggering an anger in him that he did not know still existed.  But who killed the publishers of "The Blade," a gay magazine known for outing people?  In the second story, Mike is accused of raping a girl on campus, but he has no memory of the night.  Did he actually do it, or is someone setting him up?  Ms. Tree is on the case!

"Horror Hotel" was actually my favorite story in this collection.  It is an off-beat tale, not your typical Ms. Tree fare!  Ms. Tree is invited to spend the weekend in an old, supposedly haunted mansion, along with a parapsychologist, two mediums, and a man of the cloth to perform an exorcism, if necessary.  What Ms. Tree doesn't know is that the press will also be present - the same rag that tagged her with the "Female Mike Hammer" line.  But when the parapsychologist turns up dead ... and then Mr. Wicker, who organizes the event, is killed ... is it the ghosts that haunt the house, or is the monster someone more of the human variety?  There are plenty of twists in this little mystery, making it a really great read!

The final two stories are connected - "Roger's Story" from the Renegade Press days (and republished here in its original duo-tone format), followed up by by "To Live and Die in Vietnam," takes a look into Roger's past when he served with Dan Green's brother in Vietnam.  Roger made it back, but the rest of his troop - including Dan's brother, were left behind, presumed dead.  But the past always has a way of coming back to haunt everyone in Ms. Tree's vicinity, and Roger (and Dan) are no different.  In "Roger's Story," an old flame returns for Roger's help, but the secret she is hiding could get them both killed.  "To Live and Die in Vietnam" follows up on the anger Dan harbors against Roger for leaving his brother behind, but a trip to Vietnam to uncover the truth about his brother's death leads to more than just a few surprises.

There is also a short prose story at the end of the collection, "Louise," which finds Ms. Tree tracking down a missing child who was abducted by her abusive father.  Of course, she quickly learns that the truth is all a matter of perspective, and she does what she has to do to protect the child in a way only Ms. Tree can!

This second volume of the Ms. Tree collections finishes off the DC issues, and volume three will begin collecting the original run of Ms. Tree.  I am really looking forward to future volumes and the opportunity to re-read this amazing run of stories.  Max Allan Collins is a phenomenal mystery writer, his stories always providing just the right twist to keep you guessing.  And Terry Beatty's art, while in some ways very simplistic, fits perfectly with Ms. Tree to create a unique style that no one could ever duplicate.  That is why, despite how disappointed I am that we've had no new Ms. Tree comics for decades, I am happy that no other writer or artist has taken over and continued the series.  Ms. Tree would just never been the same without Collins and Beatty at the helm.

RATING:  10 late night exorcisms out of 10 for reminding the world just how magnificent Ms. Tree really is!

Escaping Dreamland - a novel of friendship and children's mystery books

People who know me know that I'm not a fan of "one-off" books. I don't normally buy or read books that are not part of a series.  But, once in a while, a book comes along that piques my interest due to its connection with comics, super heroes, or, as in this case, children's mystery books.  While there are plenty of books out there that reference or utilize Nancy Drew as a part of the plot; but recently, someone mentioned this book to me that referenced not only Nancy Drew, but also Hardy Boys, Tom Swift, Rover Boys, and so many other old Stratemeyer series books.  In fact, the entirety of the book is based upon the main character's love for children's series books!  Well, in that case, I had to have it.

Escaping Dreamland, by Charlie Lovett, tells two stories simultaneously - which, I'll admit, is a bit difficult to navigate in the beginning.  The book is not just the story of Robert Parrish, a best-selling author who has a love for children's mystery series, but which love comes with a heart-breaking secret; the book is also the story of Magda Hertzenberger, Thomas De Peyster, and Eugene Pickney, three children who grew up at the turn of the century and whose lives eventually collided, the results of which have lasting impacts well into the next century!  The chapters alternate between Robert Parrish (the odd-numbered chapters) and Magda, Thomas, and Eugene (the even-numbered chapters).  Not going to lie here - about the first third of the book reads like a simply "day in the life" kind of tale, making it somewhat difficult to truly get invested in the book.  But I stuck with it, and by the mid-way point, I was definitely all in!

The story of Magda, Thomas, and Eugene begins just before the end of the 19th century.  Three very different people from very different backgrounds - one, a German immigrant who is assimilating herself into the American way of life; one, an upper class member of society who desires nothing more than to experience the freedom of the lower classes; and one, an analytical lover of science who is just beginning to discover what his feelings for the same sex mean and how those feelings will change his life.  All three live within the small confines of New York City, but it is not until they are adults that their lives intersect.  Magda is a secretary for a small publishing firm trying to make its mark in a difficult market of publishing children's series books; Thomas is a reporter whose outlook on life has changed drastically after seeing death and destruction up close and personal in the big San Francisco earthquake; and Eugene has seen a dream come true while working for Tesla, while spending his night living an entirely other (and very secret) life.  The trio happen to meet one afternoon when Tom appears at Mary's place of employment ... and the two of them share a lunch at Child's, where Eugene happens to be and overhears their discussion of The War of the Worlds by H.G. Wells and joins in the conversation.  Pure happenstance sees the birth of an amazing and wonderful friendship that brings forth the most amazing stories...

Meanwhile, in the 21st century (2010, to be exact), Robert Parrish is dealing with his emotions after the success of his first published book.  It seems all of his dreams have come true - he is a published author, he lives in New York City, and he has the most beautiful, smart, amazing girlfriend.  So why, then, can he not get out of this rut he's in?  He can't seem to get anything new written.  He can't seem to communicate with Rebecca any more.  And when she decides to take a break and go move in with a friend for a while, Robert realizes he needs to do some soul searching.  While he may want to admit it, he knows part of the problem are the children's mystery series that he has kept hidden from Rebecca.  From the moment Rebecca first told him of her own love of reading Nancy Drew as a child, Robert thought he finally had someone with whom he could share his love and joy of children's series with - until she remarks how she has outgrown such things and moved on to real literature.  Which forces Robert to keep his continued love of those books a secret.  But it's more than that.  His love of those series books goes all the way back to when he first discovered those Tremendous Trio books in a box of his grandfather's belongings.  His father had read those books with his father, and Robert suddenly had a connection that he and his father could share.  And share they did!  Until Robert was a teenager.  And teenagers don't read such books, do they?  Robert had made a promise to his father all those years ago, and if he has any hope of getting Rebecca back, he realizes he has to not only fulfill that promise, but he needs to tell Rebecca the truth - no matter how much it hurts!

 

Escaping Dreamland follows Robert's journey as he tracks down the authors of those Tremendous Trio books - Dexter Cornwall, Buck Larson, and Neptune B. Smythe, who wrote the Daring Dan Dawson, Alice Gold, and Frank Fairfax series, and jointly, they wrote the Tremendous Trio books. Who were these authors?  Why are their books so hard to find?  Why does it seem no one has ever heard of them?  And whatever happened to the final Tremendous Trio story - the one that Robert's grandfather had the first chapter for which stuck inside his own books?

The author, Charlie Lovett, is clearly a huge enthusiast of children's series, or did a considerable amount of research.  While I will admit, it's a little unbelievable that a character such as Robert Parrish, with the availability of information on the internet at the touch of his fingers, would not know that the authors of Nancy Drew, Hardy Boys, Tom Swift, Bobbsey Twins, etc. were not real, but just pseudonyms for a plethora of ghostwriters, it was rather nice to see his reaction when he does find out the truth (which, I think, is the same way most of us fans first felt when we learned that Carolyn Keene and Franklin W. Dixon and Victor Appleton and Laura Lee Hope never really existed).  It was also great to see the Stratemeyer Syndicate and its numerous publications get the acknowledgement is deserved.  Sure, the books churned out by the Syndicate may not have been literary masterpieces as idealized by society, but there can be no denying that those series books made a great impact on countless generations of boys and girls.  And the fact that Lovett includes not only the well-known series such as Hardy Boys and Tom Swift, but also references many lesser known series, such as the Rover Boys and Ragged Dick (which came as the biggest surprise to me, as I had never even heard of that series until just a few years ago - and I am privileged enough to have obtained a complete set of that series!).

There were also some great mentions by the author about these books and characters.  On page 23, Robert reminisces about the old-fashioned language of the series "especially the almost obsessive need by the writers never to use the word said."  And he is right!  The Hardy Boys exclaimed or declared; Nancy Drew cried out or announced; Tom Swift demanded or retorted; and, as the author references here, some characters "ejaculated."  Which, back in the day, did not necessarily have the connotation that it does today, and it's pretty funny that Lovett has Robert acknowledge his own thoughts of that particular word at twelve years old, which made him laugh.

The Ragged Dick series gets its mention on page 75.  Obviously, Dick refers to the name of the title character; however, the title certainly has its own hilarious connotations.  And the fact that Lovett chose this particular book as the inspiration for Thomas De Peyster's own desire to discover what life on the streets was like is a nice way to honor the importance of those series books of yester-year.

There are so many other references throughout the book to various real series books (the Tremendous Trio and their individual series are, obviously, fictional creations for the story) that it brings to life the story, making ti feel more biographical in nature than pure fiction.  Robert's search for the identity of the authors and his (and his father's) hunt for the real-life locations that were utilized in their favorite books definitely draws parallels to the fun I and my fellow collectors have had over the years following in our favorite series characters' footsteps.  And, I'm not going to lie here, by the end of the book, I became attached to Magda, Thomas, and Eugene so much so that I hated the idea that they were now long gone, having lived their lives in the past and for whom no more stories could be told.  Or could they?  (Ask Robert!)

As far as how the title of the book fits in with the story?  Well, that definitely took quite a while to come into play, but there is a definite connection, a bittersweet one that ties all of the characters together.  Lovett has given series book collectors a definite love letter with this book, and I am definitely glad that I picked it up and read it. 

RATING:  9 conversations on the Bow Bridge out of 10 for honoring children's series and recognizing their place in history with the respect they so richly deserve!

The Gemini Mysteries No. 2 - The Cat's Paw

The latest group of young detectives are back in their second adventure!  After locating a stolen necklace being auctioned off at a charity event in the last book, twins Zach and Evie, along with their best friends, Vishal and Sophia, and ready to delve into another mystery, this time involving a missing (and very valuable) red panda!  Author Kat Shepherd treats readers to another fun mystery that not only tests the value of friendship, but also reminds readers to never judge someone based solely upon what you see!

The Cat's Paw (which turns out to have more than one meaning in this mystery!) begins innocently enough - the kids are attending a benefit at their local zoo where Sophia has been volunteering her time.  Before the night is over, Marvin the red panda goes missing, and the only clue is a large paw print in the dirt - a print that seems to be from a bobcat!  The authorities believe that a free-roaming bobcat in the area named B-17, which is currently being studied by an animal-rights organization, somehow got into the zoo and killed the panda.  Sophia, though, doesn't believe that.  She has also been involved with the organization tracking B-17, and she know that the cat would never do that.  But how can she prove it?  Well, that's what she has three mystery-solving friends for!

The Gemini Detective Agency is on the case, and it proves to be much harder than the could have imagined.  The obvious suspects turn out to be not quite so guilty after all, and before you know it, every clue is leading back to the benefit at the zoo and all of the people in attendance.  Shepherd takes her young protagonists down a twisting trail of clues and suspects, and half the fun of reading the book is not just trying to figure out what happened by reading the story, but also by picking up on the clues within each of the pictures at the end of each chapter!  Artist Damien Jones provides 29 black and white illustrations, and each one contains a clue that the reader can discover before moving on to the next chapter!  I enjoyed this in the first book, and now find it even more fun in the second.  I think it's an amazing way to help young readers not only with analytical thinking (solve the mystery!), but also help them improve their observational skills (finding sometimes very subtle clues within the scenes depicted!).

Now, as an adults, the culprit was not so difficult to discern; but for young readers, I have no doubt that Shepherd has provided an intriguing mystery that isn't the most obvious to solve.  Plenty of red herrings throughout the story, a number of possible suspects to weed through, and a mysterious thief known as "the Cat's Paw" that could potentially be involved.  Plus, since the four junior detectives are teenagers, there is typical drama that comes with that age, leaving one of the four wondering if they truly are a part of the group or just an object of ridicule!

This series has proved to be a lot of fun, and I'm hoping Shepherd has more books in the works.  I'm not seeing any evidence of a third book yet on Amazon, nor do I see anything on the author's own website, so it's possible this will only be a two-book series.  I hope not, as I see a lot of great potential with this series, and I, for one, would love to read more!

RATING:  9 blonde wigs out of 10 for continuing a tradition of mysteries with young sleuths in a well-written, fun series!

Vampirella: The Dark Powers - a Dynamite Entertainment mini-series

Some years ago, when Harris Publications came out with the Vengeance of Vampirella comic book series, I picked it up simply because it was a female-led comic.  I stuck with it for a few issues, but eventually gave it up, as I lost interest.  However, the character of Vampirella has stuck around, albeit via different publishers.  Currently, Dynamite Entertainment has the rights and has been publishing many varied series about Vampirella.  One of the most recent series presented a team-up between Vampirella and some of the public domain characters that Dynamite has been using in their Project Super Powers series.  As a fan of the Project Super Powers characters and series, I decided to pick it up and see how it faired...

Vampirella: The Dark Powers is a twist on the "fish out of water" tales, placing Vampirella into the world(s) of superheroes and multiversal crises.  The idea behind the book is that there is a multiverse of Earths out there, and so the heroes of all these Earths have united to defend their planets against the various threats that seem to pop up on a daily basis.  Whenever an Earth is discovered to have a super hero presence, the Project (as they are called - get it? Project Super Powers?) reaches out to that Earth and inducts one or more of its heroes into the Project to help defend the multiverse.  Thus, as Vampirella exhibits which might be considered superpowers, she gets inducted into the group (whether she wants to or not - and quite frankly, she's none too keen on being there...)

I readily admit, I find the concept to be mildly intriguing - Vampirella is a vampire (sort-of) that has no issues releasing her bloodlust to kill those who would threaten her or others; and here she is, teaming up with a bunch of do-gooders who abhor killing for any reason, and who are doing their best to tame Vampirella and teach her how to fight the "good fight" without killing.  Her probation does not seem to be going so well - she helps the team battle a dangerous villain; she goes to Plural World 5192 with The Flame and Flame Girl in order to prove herself worthy of being a member of the Project; and she ends up on her own world (conveniently called Plural World 0666) with Black Terror in tow to keep watch over her.  But what happens when the Terror gets a transmission from his own world, where his sidekick is crying out for help? It leaves Black Terror and the rest of the Project wondering - is Vampirella really on their side, or is she a daemonic terror that has unleashed unspeakable horrors on their worlds to destroy them all, starting with Black Terror's own Earth?

The story is a great mix of super-heroics and horror, and it definitely raises some very good points about comic book heroes in general.  While on the Flame's Earth, Vampirella discovers that the Flame has had sidekicks before Flame Girl - sidekicks who have been killed by the villains of that world.  When the Flame reminds Vampirella that they never use lethal force, Vampirella asks the question:

"You spare his life, and he returns to kill all over again ... If you'd killed him the first time, how many lives would have been saved? ... How many more victories will it take before you realize that you actually keep losing? How many more sidekicks before he finally wins and destroys you? Him, or any of the others you round and round with? ... You've enabled mass killers by playing their game."

And Vampirella has a point.  In these fictitious worlds of super heroes and super villains, how many innocent lives have been destroyed and lost, all because the "heroes" are unwilling to take the life of these villains - villains who have absolutely no qualms about taking lives, and they often do. Obviously, I'm not saying that super heroes should all act like Marvel's The Punisher and go out shooting and killing every villain in site.  However, if a super-villain is using deadly force, killing innocent people again and again, and a hero has a chance to put an end to that once and for all - which is more heroic?  Not killing the villain, putting him in a jail, only to have him break out and kill again - OR - killing the villain, and ending his murdering cycle, thus saving who knows how many lives?  Definitely food for thought.

While the writing is fairly strong, the art comes across somewhat jumbled and inconsistent, which is a shame.  Paul Davidson provides the art on the first two issues, but by the time we get to the third issue, the art is suddenly shared between Davidson, Jordi Perez, and Lee Ferguson.  Then, the fourth issue suddenly has art by Jonathan Lau, Alessandro Miracolo, Vincenzo Federici, and Jordi Perez! By the last issue, the art is provided solely by Federici.  I have no idea why the shuffle in artists - whether it was because of problems with meeting deadlines, or if there were other behind-the-scenes issues, but the constant change in artists caused a complete lack of consistency in the book, and sadly (for me), that detracted from the over all enjoyment of the series.  I mean, when you have an ongoing series that is lasting for 50 or more issues, you rather expect the artists to change at some point.  But, for a five-issue mini-series that couldn't even keep to a monthly schedule, you would think they could keep one artist on the book so that the art and the look of the characters remain consistent.

Overall, it was a pretty good read - and, oh, you should probably be aware - the last issue ends with a rather surprise guest appearance that leaves off with a big cliffhanger - - and leads directly into the fifth and final issue of the Red Sonja: The Super Powers mini-series, being concurrently published by Dynamite Entertainment (fortunately, I have been picking up that title as well, so I'll be able to read the conclusion to this series there!).

RATING:  7 multiversal-crossing super hero teams out of 10 for giving fans a story that questions both the hero-side and supernatural-side of comic fandom and makes readers actually stop and think for a  moment!

Peace Talks - A Novel of the Dresden Files (Book 16)

When I picked up Storm Front and Fool Moon, the first two novels in the Dresden Files series way back in 2001 (both of which were first printings, as Storm Front had come out in 2000, while Fool Moon was a new release in 2001), I certainly never expected that I would be here, 20 years later, still following this series of a wizard living in Chicago in the present day, trying to stop the supernatural world from taking over this one.  I will be the first one to say that, for me, I definitely judge a book by its cover.  Those first printings of Storm Front and Fool Moon had some great, stylistic covers with art that quickly drew you into the scene.  The fact that the stories involved vampires and werewolves only cinched the deal for me, having always been a huge fan of the supernatural worlds since watching my first episode of Dark Shadows back in the day.  Over the years, Jim Butcher's Dresden Files has expanded and evolved - starting out as only paperbacks, but eventually changing into hardcover editions first, with paperback versions being published a year later (which annoyed me at first, since that meant I had to wait nearly two years between Blood Rites and Dead Beat to read the next book...); going from covers that never featured the lead character to covers that focused solely on Dresden in his beat up coat and staff; expanding into comic book stories, collections of short stories, and even a one-season long television show.  It's clear that author Jim Butcher created a character that resonated with tons and tons of fans (and having met Butcher multiple times at DragonCon in Atlanta, I can attest to the enormous fan-following this author and series has!).  However, after Skin Games came out back in 2014, Butcher took a break.  And that break continued ... and continued ... to the point where six years passed with absolutely no Dresden book being published! There were a couple of comic book series published by Dynamite Entertainment that helped soothe fans' need for more Dresden, but quite frankly, I was beginning to give up.

Then came Peace Talks in 2020 (a year when we definitely needed something good to happen!).  And if that weren't enough, a few months after Peace Talks came out in hardback, it was followed up by Battle Ground!  After such a long gap, I was overjoyed to see not one, but two new books come out in the same year!  Of course, both came out in hardback, and being the cheapskate that I am, I was willing to wait for paperback versions.  And Peace Talks finally made its paperback appearance last month, so I snagged it the first day it was on the shelves.  Normally, I put my new books on a shelf in the order that I buy them so that I can read those books I bought previously - but with Dresden, I couldn't wait, so he immediately moved to the top of the stack!

Peace Talks picks up a bit after Dresden's gang descended into Hades' vault to steal the Holy Grail.  Karin Murphy is still recovering from the severe injuries she received during that heist, and Dresden is coming to terms with all of the changes in his life - he is now the Winter Knight; Molly is the Winter Lady; Karin is gravely injured, likely to never fully recover; Butters is a Knight of the Cross; his basement apartment is destroyed; his Blue Beetle is gone, replaced with a hearse; he has a brother who is a vampire in the White Court; and probably the biggest of all of his changes is the fact that he is the father of a little girl, for whom he will do just about anything to protect.  Dresden is hoping for just a little bit of down time, but of course, we all know that will never happen!

This book brings together the various factions of the supernatural world at a summit for the Accords, in which the various supernatural nations hope to reach and agreement for peace.  Dresden is called in by the Council to help provide security for the Accords, which doesn't sound too difficult.  Until his brother breaks into the svartalf embassy in Chicago (which happens to be where Harry and his daughter are living to keep her protected) and kills on of the svartalf guards.  One who was very important to the svartalf royalty.  And this places Dresden in a very precarious position.  The svartalf laws dictate that Thomas be put to death for his crime.  But Thomas is Dresden's brother.  He can't just let him die.  But if he takes action to rescue him, he could place himself at odds with not only the svartalf nation, but with the wizarding council as well, and he could destroy any chance the Accords have of brokering peace.  Just another typical Tuesday in the life of Harry Dresden!

It was such a true joy to fall back into the world of Harry Dresden - just like catching up with old friends that you haven't seen in a while.  The sarcasm, the tricks, the determination, the battles, the surprises, the plots, the villains, the twists, the allies, the enemies, and the sexual tension... wait, what? Sexual tension?  Since when did the Dresden Files heat up like that? I can honestly say the amount of sex and sexual tension in this book eclipses that of all the previous books combined!  Obviously, I never though Harry Dresden was celibate, but man - my friends and I wondered if perhaps Butcher was going through a dry spell in his life and compensated by releasing all that pent-up energy through Dresden in this book.  While none of it is explicit, it definitely heats up quite often in the book, leaving the reader rather ... uhm ... exhilarated? ... by the end of the book.  (Oh, and in this context, let's just say that Butters finally gets his due in this aspect - you'll definitely have to read the book to see what I'm talking about here!)

The battle between Dresden and McCoy has been a long time coming, and it was actually good to see that finally come to head in this book.  And I'm glad that Butcher has kept Dresden true to his nature by doing whatever it takes to protect his family, while juggling the Accords, the Council, and the city of Chicago (not to mention, the world!) at the same time.  If anyone can manage it, it's Dresden, and his multi-tasking capabilities and tactical planning really shine through in this book.  There are quite the number of subplots building in this book, and considering the cliffhanger at the end, I have no doubt many of them will get resolved (or at the very least, moved forward considerably) in Battle Ground. 

I also like the direction Dresden and Murphy's relationship is going.  That has been building for 20 years, and it's about darned time they started to build something.  And I absolutely love the fact that Murphy has no problems standing up to Dresden and the supernatural ilk of his world (including a Valkyrie that Murphy actually outsmarts and defeats!), proving that even a normal human being can have what it takes to defeat otherworldly creatures.

Overall a very satisfying read and a more-then-welcome return to the Dresden Files.  The only drawback to the book is that I managed to read all 455 pages in just a few days, leaving me now without a Dresden Files book to read until Battle Ground comes out in paperback!  ARGH!!!!

RATING:  10 pancakes made from scratch out of 10 for satisfying the Dresden-craving that has been growing for the past seven years with a spectacular new tale filled with more danger and disaster than every before!

Fence: Striking Distance

Fence is a comic book series published by BOOM! Studios - it is about a group of students at an all-boys academy where fencing is the sport everyone is talking about.  There is a new student at the school - Nicholas Cox - who is a bit rough around the edges and is there on a scholarship (unlike the rest of the boys, who are all trust-fund, rich kids who are there at mommy and daddy's expense!).  The comic series does delve into the world of fencing, and it's clear the author of that series, C.S. Pacat, is familiar with (or least did considerable research into) the world of fencing.  But the comic is more about the relationships of these boys, their conflicting personalities, and their competition with each other and other schools.  I enjoyed the comic series, so when I saw that a prose novel was advertised, I knew I was going to pick it up.

Fence: Striking Distance is a novel by Sarah Rees Brennan, a name that is not familiar to me.  I'm not aware of other works she may have written, but I do have to say - she captured Pacat's characters very nicely.  Each of the main characters - Harvard (the captain), Aiden (the looker), Seiji (the serious one), and Nicholas (the wildcard) - reads pretty much the same as the do in the comic, which makes for a great read!  The supporting cast is there - Eugene, Bobby and others - but they are not integral to the story, as Striking Distance is definitely about the main four.

Brennan provides alternating points-of-view to tell the story, shifting from Aiden to Harvard to Nicholas to Seiji, back and forth, so that each character not only gets equal time, but also so that the reader can get inside each of their heads and hearts to see exactly what they are thinking and feeling.  While I am not exactly fond of this type of storytelling when it comes to the Hardy Boys' current series, I must admit that it works pretty well here.  By the end of the book, the reader has a strong feel for each of the characters, and you end up finding yourself rooting for each of them (although, let's face reality - this is basically a soap opera set at a fencing school, so there will always be drama, and just when you think something will get resolved, a monkey wrench gets thrown into the works....).

Surprisingly, the plot of this book has very little to do with fencing and more to do with friendship, teamwork, and building relationships.  There is an obvious subplot for a fencing championship that is building in the background, and perhaps Brennan is planning that for a future story.  For now, though, it's all about the characters, their interactions with one another, and their relationships.

For Nicholas, it's all about fitting in.  He is the fish-out-of-water character, being a lower class member of society that is trying to fit in at a school full of rich kids.  And while he certainly is not refined, the other members of the team, as well as their coach, all recognize his potential and skill, and his roommate (Seiji) is the one person who Nicholas thinks could potentially be his best friend - something he has never had in his life!

For Seiji, it's all about coming to terms with the fact that he left his prior academy, which from all indications, was a much better school with a much better fencing team.  But Seiji does not want to live under anyone's shadow, and that's what he was doing at the other school.  He is determined to show everyone he is the best, particularly his parents.  Nicholas, however, has created a conundrum for Seiji, as he doesn't know how to react to someone who is not structured like he is.  Perhaps this whole idea of "friendship" could change things for them.  After all, how far is Seiji willing to go to protect his "friend."

For Aiden, it's all about Aiden.  He can have any boy he wants (and usually does), but he never goes on a second date with any of them.  He rarely shows up at the fencing matches, only when he is scheduled to be in it.  He's an excellent fencer, but he seems to have no time for anyone other than himself.  The coach is determined to do that by using the one thing that Aiden does care about - Harvard.  Aiden could never imagine losing his best friend - while secretly wishing that one day they could be so much more (not that he could ever tell Harvard that!).

For Harvard, it's all about leading by example.  He wants to encourage his teammates, to build them up and watch them succeed.  He wants the best for everyone, and will always go out of his way to help others.  The only problem is, he seems to neglect himself.  So, when the coach encourages him to go out on a date, he finally gives it a chance.  After one date with a girl, he realizes that may not be for him, so he goes out on a date with a boy ... and suddenly his entire world changes, and with it, his relationship with Aiden is put to the ultimate test!

Four boys, four stories, all intertwined and building upon one another.  By the end of the book, all four boys learn more about themselves and each other, and they discover that maybe - just maybe! - they might actually have a chance at being a winning team!  Striking Distance was an enjoyable read, worth the time spent, and I'll definitely be picking up the next book in the series when it comes out.

RATING:  9 broken watches out of 10 for giving us a well-written, character-driven story that doesn't focus too much on the angst, but provides plenty of fun and drama to enjoy!