Short Fiction Friday: Five Fires by Laura Lippman

Happy Friday, everyone! Today's short fiction is a gem of a story that I recently discovered. Laura Lippman, as you may know, is one of my go to authors. Every new release makes it to the TBR, though I do still have some backlist to work through (coming soon!). And her short stories have long been some of my favorites.

In fact, Lippman's short fiction caught my attention back with the release of one I'm sure you're sick of hearing about here on the blog, the 2004 mystery/thriller anthology Like a Charm. Edited by Karin Slaughter, this collection of linked shorts featured a literal who's who of the thriller genre - including Lippman herself with a tale called "Not Quite U."

And so, when I discovered "Five Fires" I knew that not only did it have to be next on my to read list, it had to be my next Short Fiction Friday pick as well.

The town of Belleville has seen three random fires since the start of summer. Three fires that could be accidental, though Beth suspects otherwise. Beth will be a senior when school starts and after that she plans to go on to college to major in Criminal Justice, so of course she has a keen interest in discovering the real story behind the fires. She knows the fires are connected. She knows there will be more. And she thinks she knows who is responsible. 

If your concern - as mine typically was and still occasionally is - is that the short will feel incomplete or lacking in some way, have no fear! "Five Fires" is a short short, but it's still full of Lippman's signature suspense, character and plot development, and unexpected twists.

Rating: 5/5

The short is the first release from the newly acquired Byliner imprint at Vook. I was not familiar with either Byliner or Vook before this, but I will definitely be on the lookout for new shorts. You can read more about both here.

Bluebeard: Brave Warrior, Brutal Psychopath by Valerie Ogden

I know I rarely do history posts, but I really couldn't resist Valerie Ogden's debut, Bluebeard: Brave Warrior, Brutal Psychopath.

While I am by no means any sort of historical scholar, I do admit to having a keen fascination for history - and dark history in particular. I love historical fiction and have read any number of late tied to the events and people that are featured in this book. And I came to this particular story in a bit of a roundabout way - reading up on Joan of Arc.

Many might not realize that Joan of Arc shared close ties to the man who is the basis for the Bluebeard legend. And as Ogden points out both in her book and in this fabulous Huffington Post piece, "The True Stories Behind Classic Fairy Tales," the Bluebeard story is actually downplayed quite a bit. Because it wasn't wives this man was murdering, but children. And it was well above eight. In fact, the numbers are said to range into the hundreds.

But why and how did this man - a member of high society, a war hero in his own right - become one of the most twisted and brutal serial killers in all of history? This is something Ogden attempts to answer in her recently released history of Gilles de Rais.

Here's a bit about the book from Goodreads:

Joan of Arc's close companion on the battlefield, one of the wealthiest and most respected men in France, became a notorious serial killer, nicknamed Bluebeard, who performed bizarre sexual rituals, brutal mutilations and murders on hundreds of children. How could this happen to Baron Gilles de Rais, a Marshal of France, a renowned intellectual, a paragon of the high medieval prince, almost Renaissance in his talents an accomplishments? There is no clear explanation. There is only speculation. Yet historic evidence indicates strongly de Rais, a returning soldier, suffered from severe PTSD, which perhaps triggered his latent psychopathy. His extreme depravity, his shocking fall from grace and explosive end add fuel to the precept that the barbarity of war turned this celebrated hero into a monster.

Really, Gilles de Rais was a monstrous individual. And yet I doubt many readers realize that he's the basis for such a well-known tale. I doubt many readers realize Bluebeard is even inspired by a real person at all.

Top Ten Tuesday: Books I Want to Reread

I've decided to jump on board with Top Ten Tuesday, hosted by The Broke and the Bookish. This week the topic is: top ten books I'd like to reread.

The Red Book of Primrose House by Marty Wingate + a giveaway

Good morning, readers! Today I'm a stop on the TLC book tour for Marty Wingate's second Potting Shed Mystery, The Red Book of Primrose House. Do note that there is a tour wide giveaway with this one. Be sure to read through to the end to enter.

When we last left Pru, she had just been hired on as head gardener at Primrose House. It was a position she'd dreamed about for ages. And not only that, it allowed her to stay in England and it was close enough that she and her new love interest could still manage a relationship.

Pru couldn't be more excited about her new position as head gardener of Primrose House. The current state of the gardens is... well... pretty awful, but Pru is bolstered by the discovery of Humphrey Repton's original Red Book for the estate. The book, something Repton was known for, outlined all of the man's plans for the grounds and will allow Pru to bring them back to their original and historic state, with a  little twist. A local journalist plans to chronicle the restoration through a series of blogs, but with each new installment something on the estate is vandalized. At first it's small - the primroses, specially ordered for Primrose House, are demolished in what could have been a rabbit spree. When an old shed catches on fire and then the yews are mangled, everyone agrees it's something much more sinister than hungry bunnies. 

Then one of Pru's staff is found murdered. Though the authorities are certain the killer is in hand, Pru knows they couldn't be more wrong. 

As with the first installment, The Garden Plot, Wingate once again brings readers a quirky cozy packed with fun characters, gardening history, and suspense. It's a blend that I quite enjoy - especially the gardening history (I'd wondered where the title came from and was pleased that it was explained early on in the book - it's the kind of interesting factoid that sends me searching for more info!).

I thought this one had a bit of a rough start, though, with a few minor hiccups in the narrative. Nothing major, just that the writing didn't seem quite as smooth in transitioning us from London to Primrose House and the early days of Pru's relationship.

All in all, though, this is a series that I find I'm really looking forward to continuing.

And now for the giveaway:

a Rafflecopter giveaway

To see more stops on the tour be sure to visit the official TLC tour page here.

Dreamer's Pool by Juliet Marillier + a giveaway

Hi, readers! Today I was supposed to run a review and giveaway for the first title in Juliet Marillier's latest series. Instead, I have to do more of a "What I'm Reading" post and here's why: this weekend was insane. Truly insane!

Friday was, of course, Halloween, which some of you might remember is also my wedding anniversary. Yep, it's been four whole years (married - ten together) now. And Saturday our longtime friends welcomed their firstborn, Owen Jackson, into the world! We headed over to meet him - and he's already a charmer - on Sunday and then made the mistake of going to Ikea for the bed frame we'd promised ourselves just before hubs broke his hand. Now that the cast is off we figured we needed it (it's got under bed storage and we've got super small closets). What we didn't realize was that said bed frame was going to take upwards of 6 hours to assemble.

So yes, my weekend reading plans got pushed to bits I could fit in between moments of madness. But that was ok, too, because Dreamer's Pool was perfect for those moments! Everything I've come to love about Marillier's work - vibrant settings, fully realized characters, and overall enthralling tales - is here. And though I'm not quite finished, I'm already looking forward to more of Blackthorn's story!

Here's the description from the publisher:

Blackthorn, an embittered healer, is incarcerated and awaiting execution when a mysterious visitor offers her a chance to escape; in exchange, she has vowed to set aside her bid for vengeance against her enemy. Accompanied by her former cell-mate, the hulking and silent Grim, Blackthorn flees northward where she settles in a derelict cottage on the fringe of the mysterious Dreamer’s Wood. There, she will live duty bound for seven years to assist anyone who asks her help, with Grim as her unofficial, and self-appointed guard. 

Meanwhile, the Crown Prince Oran has been waiting anxiously for the arrival of his future bride, Lady Flidais, whom he knows only from a portrait and her sweetly poetic letters. Convinced that she is his true love, he is stunned to find that while Lady Flidais matches her portrait, her brutality fails to match up to their correspondence. But now, it’s far too late, with the marriage imminent and his parents delighted to see their troublesome son wed at last.

But word has spread that Blackthorn possesses a remarkable gift for solving problems, and Oran turns to her and Grim. But this is a problem that will require all of their resources: courage, ingenuity, and leaps of deduction. Not to mention, more than a little bit of magic.

If you're a fan of Marillier's work, then you'll love this latest. If you've not yet had the pleasure of reading her work, I highly suggest starting now!

Dreamer's Pool officially hits shelves tomorrow.

Thanks to the publisher, I'm able to offer up one copy of Dreamer's Pool! Fill out the Rafflecopter below - before Monday, November 17 - to enter. US only and no PO boxes please.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Dreamer's Pool is also available as an audiobook through Audible. You can check out a clip of the opening chapter here:

New Releases 11/4/14

Some of the new titles hitting shelves this week are:

Black Karma by Thatcher Robinson

Path of Needles by Alison Littlewood

Dreamer's Pool by Juliet Marillier

Color Blind by Colby Marshall

The Turning Season by Sharon Shinn

The Burning Room by Michael Connelly

Bad Country by CB McKenzie

Citizens Creek by Lalita Tademy

The Laughing Monsters by Denis Johnson

Let Sleeping Dogs Lie by Rita Mae Brown

A Map of Betrayal by Ha Jin

Proof of Angels by Mary Curran Hackett

Metrophage by Richard Kadrey

Coming Home by Jack McDevitt

Something Rich and Strange by Ron Rash

Proxima by Stephen Baxter

Mortal Heart by Robin LaFevers

Waistcoats & Weaponry by Gail Carriger

The Walled City by Ryan Graudin

The Retribution of Mara Dyer by Michelle Hodkin

New on DVD:
Maleficent
The One I Love
About Alex
Most Wanted Man
Hercules

New reviews at Bookbitch.com:
The Forgotten Girl by David Bell

Pre Pub Book Buzz: The World Before Us by Aislinn Hunter

Aislinn Hunter's The World Before Us has been on my radar for a while now. It was released in Canada in September and has been on my wish list as I bided my time for either a US release or inevitably broke down and ordered it internationally. Well, the wait is finally over! The World Before Us is due out from Hogarth in March.

Here's a bit about the book from Goodreads:

When she was just fifteen, smart, sensitive Jane Standen lived through a nightmare: she lost the sweet five-year-old girl she was minding during a walk in the woods. The little girl was never found, leaving her family, and Jane, devastated. Now the grown-up Jane is an archivist at a small London museum that is about to close for lack of funding. As her one last project, she is searching the archives for scraps of information related to another missing person--a woman who disappeared some 125 years ago from a Victorian asylum. As the novel moves back and forth between the museum in contemporary London, the Victorian asylum, and a dilapidated country house that seems to connect both missing people, it unforgettably explores the repercussions of small acts, the power of affection, and the irrepressible vitality of everyday objects and events.

Seriously, an archivist at a museum (a bookish character), a missing-person mystery, AND a Victorian asylum... yes, this hits the right notes for me already!