Shelf Control: The Wine of Angels by Phil Rickman

Okey doke, it's time for another Shelf Control, a weekly meme hosted by Bookshelf Fantasies. Today's title is Phil Rickman's The Wine of Angels, first in his Merrily Watkins mystery series.

What it's about (from the back of the book):

A paradise parish of cobbled streets and timber-framed houses, a huge and haunted vicarage - not what the Rev. Merrily Watkins ever had in mind. Nor had she wanted to walk into a local dispute over a play about a curious seventeenth-century cleric accused of witchcraft... a story that certain old-established families would rather remained in obscurity.

But this is Ledwardine, steeped in cider and secrets. And also - as Merrily and her teenage daughter, Jane, discover - a village where horrific murder is a tradition spanning centuries.


How I got it:

I bought it at High Crimes, our sadly now closed mystery bookstore. They had a section devoted to imports, so you can bet that's where I spent a LOT of my time and money. I discovered Rickman there and bought both this book and The Man in the Moss, one of his stand alone horror titles.

In truth, I should probably have just made this an entire Phil Rickman post. I've since gotten my hands on a few of his other titles - Candlenight, Curfew, December, and at least one more Merrily Watkins title, too. The problem is that they're all whoppers clocking in at 600+ pages and while I'm definitely not afraid to get sucked into a long book, it is much harder to carve out time for them these days considering I keep overcommitting myself.

When I got it:

Oof, I'm gonna guess that I bought this back in 2005 when we first moved here. Yep, that's bad.

Why I want to read it:

Because it sounds fabulous. In fact, all of Rickman's titles sound super awesome - hints of paranormal (or outright horror) and mystery based in British folklore... what's not to love about that? Plus, if I do get hooked there's a slew of them to read. (There are 13 in the series alone.)

Merrily Watkins is an exorcist, by the way. One of the books has just been adapted for tv and I seriously hope it'll come out here at some point.

The Chili Cookbook by Robb Walsh

I love chili in all of its various forms. Love it!

I was, amazingly to some, a bit of a picky eater as a kid. My brother was even worse than I was. In our neighborhood there was a chili and tamale stand that served up the only chili both of us would eat. Years went by, the stand closed down and we moved anyway, but the whole family lamented the loss of that chili. Then in seventh grade I met one of my best friends who, as it turned out, was related to the women who ran that stand. She gave me their chili recipe - a pretty standard red that cooks long and slow to get that red slick of grease across the top - and it's been a go to beef chili for me since.

Sadly when my favorite local cafe closed down I wasn't able to get their recipe for vegetarian chili. Seems odd for someone who's not vegetarian but trust me when I say this dish was so amazing you didn't even miss the meat!

Then of course you have green chili, something I didn't discover until I moved to Colorado ten years ago. My family doesn't understand my obsession with this dish, but seriously, if you haven't tasted it you're missing out. I'm still on the hunt for the perfect recipe to make in house and I try it at pretty much every restaurant that serves it up. Come chile season I'm one of the ones buying up bags and cartons of roasted or fresh peppers (to roast myself) for freezing and using until the following season rolls around.

With beans or without, red, white, or green, meat or no meat, I'm a fan. I eat it in big bowls topped with everything from avocado (creamy cool avocado over a hot and spicy chili is a dreamy combination), onions, cheese, and jalapeños. I eat it over hot dogs, baked potatoes, french fries, or chips (Fritos are the best). I crave it when the season starts to turn. Yeah, I'd say I'm a bit addicted. And I already have a chili cookbook in hand, one that highlights a variety of recipes from restaurants and diners across the US (and even some in Canada). I also happen to know there's a new Terlingua Chili cookbook due out soon featuring some of the award-winning cook off recipes.

So why do I (or you) need another chili cookbook? Well, first Robb Walsh is a Texas food icon. His knowledge of Texas food ways and traditions is pretty unbeatable. He's a former restaurant reviewer, a restauranteur himself, and the author of five other Texas based cookbooks as well as being the co founder of Foodways Texas. Who better to write a chili cookbook?

Then there's the book itself. Walsh highlights not only the history of Texas chili but the history of chili in general. From the Aztecs and their surprising "chile tax" and the spread of chili around the country to other ethnic variations and twists on the dish, he covers it all.

Walsh includes recipes for making your own chile powder, an essential if you have access to dried chiles, and recommendations for store bought varieties if you don't, and then dives into the dishes themselves. Beginning with a Lobster Chili inspired by one of the earliest mentions of the dish, Walsh takes readers through every variety imaginable: from Texas red, New Mexico green, Route 66 classics (and dishes to use them on), through to the bean/no bean argument, vegetarian and beyond - pretty much every variation you can imagine is in The Chili Cookbook.

The recipes are easy to follow and Walsh makes suggestions (like store bought chile powder recs as mentioned above) for substitutions and such throughout. He's even added slow cooker instructions and variations where available.

Two things I really love about this book (aside from it being focused on what is clearly one of my favorite foods) are the accessibility (per my comments above) and the overall lack of pretension. Whether you eat it Cincinnati style, spiked with cinnamon and served over spaghetti, or classic Texas style in a Frito Pie, chili is a humble dish. It's something that has been served up for generations and by just about every culture in some form another. It's comfort food through and through. Whether you choose to go all in and make your own chile powder and chorizo, and serve it up with bison cooked in rendered tallow or go with store bought powder, ground beef, and vegetable oil, it's basically all about personal preference and Walsh won't hold it against you. Heck, there are multiple recipes that call for Velveeta! (The Old-Fashioned Tex-Mex Enchiladas. To. Die. For.)

So if you're like me and love a good chili, I can't recommend this book highly enough. Throw a chili party. Fall in love with the Green Chili with Pork and Potatoes. Try a vegetarian variety like the Lentil, Sweet Potato, and Ancho Chili. Maybe you'll even find your own favorite red in Richard Bolt's "Deviled Beef" or Walsh's El Real's Chili Con Carne. There's something for every chili enthusiast in this book!

Per Blogging for Books requirements: I received this book for free from Blogging for Books in exchange for an honest review.

Rating: 5/5

Pretty Girls by Karin Slaughter

Happy Monday, readers! Today I'm a stop on the TLC blog tour for Karin Slaughter's latest, Pretty Girls.

Julia disappeared on March 4, 1991. Over twenty years later, her case still hasn't been solved.

Lydia and Claire grew up with the shadow of their sister hovering overhead. Their father spent six years trying to find out what happened and eventually killed himself. Lydia partied hard and only managed to clean up her act after learning she was pregnant, but by then she had no contact with her mother or sister. Claire married well and spent almost twenty years trying to put her past behind her. When her husband is killed in a mugging, though, all of that changes. 

It turns out Claire's husband had been keeping things from her: what seems to be a shocking obsession with violent porn, alleged embezzlement, and more. Who was this man and how could he have kept so many secrets for so long? And why does the girl in one of his videos look like an area teen who's recently gone missing? His betrayal is the one thing that finally brings Claire and Lydia together as they search for answers. 

If you missed it, back in August I reviewed a little e short by Slaughter called "Blonde Hair, Blue Eyes." This prequel to Pretty Girls set the tone fabulously and left me pretty anxious to continue the story. Even from the start you know somehow that Julia is going to tie into what's going on even if it's just for the sisters to finally deal with the event emotionally. Chapters alternate between present day and their father's journals, written as if he were writing directly to Julia.

The book is quite graphic and dark, Claire's discoveries about her husband become increasingly more disturbing even though she's not sure what hand he had in the videos or even if they're real. The amount of effort he went to in keeping it from her, though, makes it clear to the reader that he can't have been an innocent bystander with a fetish.

You absolutely do not have to read "Blonde Hair, Blue Eyes" but I will say that reading that short gave me a great introduction to the story and the characters involved. Both Claire and Lydia are background characters in the short but they're still teens living at home, which means I got the chance to meet them through Julia's eyes as still innocent children not yet affected by their sister's disappearance. It provided a nice contrast - and context - to their characters in Pretty Girls.

Pretty Girls was a fantastic read, one that lived up to every expectation I had based on the short. It's twisted and excellently plotted and paced. A page-turner you definitely shouldn't start at bedtime considering you're likely to find yourself still wide awake hours later repeating, "Just one more chapter." Never a bad thing unless you, like me, need your eight hours to function the next day!

Slaughter's series work has always been highly acclaimed, but Pretty Girls is a standalone. Which means it's a perfect introduction to Slaughter if you've read her before.

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

For more on Karin Slaughter and her work you can visit her website here. You can also like her on Facebook.

Purchase Links: Amazon | IndieBound | Barnes & Noble

New Releases 10/13/15

Some of the new titles hitting shelves this week are:

The Monstrous edited by Ellen Datlow

We That Are Left by Clare Cook

The Adventuress by Tasha Alexander

The King's Justice by Stephen R. Donaldson

City on Fire by Garth Risk Hallberg

All the Stars in the Heavens by Adriana Trigiani

Twain's End by Lynn Cullen

Charlotte's Story by Laura Benedict (10/15)

Sacrifice by Phillip Freeman (10/15)

And West is West by Ron Childress

An Apprentice to Elves by Elizabeth Bear

Wrath of the Furies by Steven Saylor

Dark Reservations by John Fortunato

The Good Neighbor by Amy Sue Nathan

The Devil in Jerusalem by Naomi Ragen

The Survivors by Robert Palmer

Carrying Albert Home by Homer Hickam

Divorce Turkish Style by Esmahan Aykol

Foreign Affairs by Stuart Woods

The Mystics of Mile End by Sigal Samuel

Death Wears a Mask by Ashley Weaver

Forever Red by Margaret Stohl

The Rose Society by Marie Lu

Happily Ever After: Companion to the Selection Series by Kiera Cass

A Song For Ella Grey by David Almond

Ice Like Fire by Sara Raasch

Newt's Emerald by Garth Nix

The Immortal Heights by Sherry Thomas

New on DVD:
Tomorrowland
The Gallows
Dope
San Andreas

New reviews at Bookbitch.com:
Jillian Cade: (Fake) Paranormal Investigator by Jen Klein
The Einstein Prophecy by Robert Maselo

Pop Goes the Weasel by M. J. Arlidge

Detective Helen Grace and team are back in this follow up to Eeny Meeny.

WARNING if you have not read Eeny Meeny there are SPOILERS BELOW!

After killing her sister to stop a heinous series of murders, Helen Grace was - fortunately - allowed to keep her job, but things have been tense. Now, with a new Detective Superintendent in charge and Charlie returning to the job, Grace is on edge. 

And then another killer strikes. 

Two men seemingly on the prowl for prostitutes have been brutally murdered, their hearts removed. In the first case, a churchgoing man whose wife claimed he was volunteering, the heart was delivered to his family. In the second, a new father, it was his coworkers who received the heart. In both cases, evidence seems to suggest it was a sex worker who killed the men. But what was the motive and when will the killings stop?

Meanwhile, Charlie Brooks is investigating the possibly connected death of a high-end sex worker whose body was found in the trunk of a car. Her own investigation leads to a tenuous link to Helen Grace's case but it's not solid enough for a conviction of any kind. Yet.

As was the case with Eeny Meeny, Arlidge again leads readers through a twisty turny mystery that has to stem from the darkest corners of the imagination.

The case is compelling and dark - a reverse Jack the Ripper of sorts (or at least that's what the media is calling it) with a prostitute hunting and butchering johns. Even Helen Grace has to admit that the killer is clever, which makes the case that much more difficult to solve. When you add the stress she's under dealing with the new DS - who doesn't quite seem to be on the same page as Grace - and Charlie's return, you can clearly see that our lead is in a bit of a pickle. But that doesn't keep her from doing her job to the best of her ability.

I love that the characters have continued to grow in this follow up to Eeny Meeny. The focus is split between the case(s) and the characters, and Arlidge balances the two quite well. None of the personal information hampers the pace of the story nor does the case itself overshadow the development of these characters we've gotten to know and appreciate through two books now.

And there's more in store. Arlidge's third and fourth Helen Grace titles are out in the UK already. Book 3, The Doll's House, is due out here in the US in February 2016.

If dark and twisted is what you're looking for, Arlidge is a great choice. I'd compare him to Elizabeth Haynes in terms of content and tone and Jeffrey Deaver in terms of pacing and the can't-put-it-down quality. I would suggest reading these in order.

Rating: 4/5

The Apothecary Rose by Candace Robb

Good morning, everyone! Today I'm a stop on the TLC book tour for Candace Robb's Owen Archer series. This tour is in honor of the latest releases in the series, Guilt of Innocents and A Vigil of Spies. As such, I'll be featuring a few titles on this tour but today is the series debut, Apothecary Rose.

There is also a tour wide giveaway that will run for the duration of the tour. You can enter via the Rafflecopter at the end of this post.

Two soldiers are dead in York and Owen Archer has been tasked with finding out why. 

The first soldier was on pilgrimage to York. Identifying himself only as a pilgrim, he befriends the local Infirmarian who recognizes that the man is suffering from camp fever. But just a few hours after being dosed with a pysick that should help, the pilgrim has died. A few days later, another soldier also suffering from camp fever dies of the same symptoms. The Abbott believes the deaths to be of natural causes and the Archdeacon agrees, claiming his Summoner would know if there were anything untoward about the deaths. 

And all might have been forgotten except for the fact that the the second man was the ward of the Achbishop. 

So here we meet Owen Archer, a skilled archer who loses an eye in battle and must find another way to be useful. The Duke of Lancaster made Owen his spy but two years later has died, leaving Owen a bit of a free agent. Thankfully, in steps the Lord Chancellor of England and Archbishop of York, a much preferable employer to Lancaster's heir.  

Now we, the readers, know before Owen sets out that there is something fishy going on. The Infirmarian himself knows the deaths are unnatural and that the local apothecary is responsible. But, as we are told in the prologue, Wulfstan believes the deaths to be accidental and would protect the apothecary rather than alert anyone to the fact that the pysick was poison.

We also know that there was something sour between the pilgrim and the apothecary, though we don't quite know what. And we know the Archdeacon may have ulterior motives in claiming the deaths were accidental as well.

It might seem like we know quite a bit going into this mystery, but really we don't. We don't know the motive, we don't know the characters' varying back stories that led to where they are today. We don't even know if this was an intentional murder and, if it was, we may think we know who the killer is but we could very well be wrong.

You've seen Candace's work here on the blog before but likely didn't know it because she also writes as Emma Campion. And while her Campion titles are also historically focused, the difference is that as Robb she's writing mysteries. In her bio on her website she says Emma explores the actual historical characters who are secondary in the Robb titles.

Robb's focus on detail is quite admirable. Her setting and the characters are authentic (as they should be for someone with her impressive educational background) and the history is well incorporated. Robb includes a detailed Author's Note that outlines a lot of information about the time and setting. It's definitely worth the read (don't skip the Author's Notes!!!).

If you're intrigued by The Apothecary Rose, it is out now as an ebook from Diversion Books. As I mentioned above, I'll be featuring a few more titles in the series here on the blog, so be sure to check those out, too. (Book 3, The Nun's Tale, 10/14 and book 5, The Riddle of Saint Leonard's, on 10/19.)

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

For more on Candace Robb you can visit her website here. You can also like her on Facebook and follow her on Twitter and Goodreads.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Purchase Links

Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Kobo | Google | iTunes

 

Shelf Control: Crocodile on the Sandbank by Elizabeth Peters

Sooooo my TBR is and probably always will be OUT OF CONTROL! Ah, the perils of being a book junkie. As a fellow reader suffering the same issue Bookshelf Fantasies has created Shelf Control, a weekly meme to highlight those titles that have been hanging around our TBRs, waiting patiently for their turn.

My pick today is:

Crocodile on the Sandbank by Elizabeth Peters, the first book in the Amelia Peabody series.

What it's about (from Goodreads):

Set in 1884, this is the first installment in what has become a beloved bestselling series. At thirty-two, strong-willed Amelia Peabody, a self-proclaimed spinster, decides to use her ample inheritance to indulge her passion, Egyptology. On her way to Egypt, Amelia encounters a young woman named Evelyn Barton-Forbes. The two become fast friends and travel on together, encountering mysteries, missing mummies, and Radcliffe Emerson, a dashing and opinionated archaeologist who doesn't need a woman's help -- or so he thinks.

How I got it:

This was one of my grandmother's books. When she passed away my mom boxed up a lot of her collection and shipped them to me.

When I got it:

About two years ago now.

Why I want to read it:

I have heard wonderful things about this series. The fact that it's an Egyptology based historical mystery series only makes it that much more of a must read for me!

Peters, by the way, was a pseudonym used by Barbara Mertz who also wrote as Barbara Michaels.