Music Monday’s originated at The Tattooed Book Geek‘s fantastic blog and has shown up here and there since then.
1. Sure, it would’ve been more apropos to post this song yesterday, but then it wouldn’t be Monday, right?
Robert B. Parker’s Broken Trustby Mike Lupica
DETAILS: Series: Spenser, #51 Publisher: G.P. Putnam's Sons Publication Date: November 28, 2023 Format: Hardcover Length: 382 pg. Read Date: November 30-December 2, 2023
We sat there in silence for a few moments, as if each of us were waiting for the other to make the next move. It often went this way with potential clients, like an awkward first date, and just how much they wanted to drop their guard.
“So how can I help you, Mrs. Crain?”
“Please. Laura.”
“So how can I help you, Laura.”
Her blue eyes were so pale as to be as clear as glass.
“That’s the thing,” she said. “You probably can’t.”
From that promising start, Laura Crain—the wife of the US’s 6th richest man—asks Spenser to help. Her husband has been acting strangely, and neither Laura nor his business partner can understand why. Their company is on the verge of completing a merger that will make them richer yet and will secure the company’s place in the electric car market.
The richer part isn’t that important—outside of the increasing opportunities for the very philanthropic couple to give even more money to causes. But strengthening the company to keep doing what it’s been doing is important to the Crains—they’re committed to this kind of environmentally friendly industry.
Spenser has a hard time starting his investigation because it’s such a vague target—maybe he can’t help her after all, but something about Laura Crain makes him want to try. He’s (reportedly, although some downplay this) almost paranoid, having outbursts—one nearly violent one is witnessed by Spenser—and his volatility puts many things at risk.
Then someone tied to the company is murdered. Spenser is threatened. Not long after that, someone else dies, too (probably another murder, even if it’s initially unclear). And now Spenser has a bigger mess to look into, assuming he can keep everyone else connected to the case safe and the target off his back.
Each time a new author takes the reins of a Parker series, their first book is full of them establishing their bona fides when it comes to the series. They have to show that they understand the protagonist, the supporting characters, and the history of the series through references to past cases, quick/extended appearances of various supporting characters, etc. And Lupica goes above and beyond with these—almost all of them feeling like they were apropos in the moment, thankfully. I started to keep a mental list of his efforts, then I switched to writing them down when the list got long enough—then I abandoned it because I had better things to pay attention to and it was getting too long to print here.
The punchline? The dude knows his stuff and can show it off.
He even brings in a connection to Gino Fish. Given how long Gino’s been dead, that was nice. And, as difficult as it might be to justify returning to that connection, I’d enjoy Lupica finding a way to do it. I really enjoyed that particular character.
Now, I didn’t think that Sunny Randall’s quick appearance was necessary—nor do I think Richie Burke added much. But I liked how the latter was used (which may contradict what I just said about him), and it was a clever thing to do.
Martin Quirk gets a couple of good scenes here and his presence is felt outside of them, too—Belson brings him up a few times, which helps—but Quirk casts enough of a shadow it wasn’t that necessary. Part of that is due to the whole cred establishment, but not all of it, I don’t think. It also fits pretty well with this book—and you’d expect someone with his rank to be getting involved given the prominence of the people involved in these murders.
Beyond that, however, if Lupica wasn’t planting seeds for something major on the Quirk-front in the next book or two, then he faked me out pretty well. I hope he didn’t because I’m pretty curious about it—we haven’t gotten a lot of good Quirk material in a long time (since he got Spenser out of that southern jail cell back in the 90s, maybe?).
And what’s going on with Quirk is just one of the moves Lupica is making to put his own stamp on this series. And that’s one of the things I really appreciate about both the Publisher/the Estate’s handling of these authors taking over—they allow them to make changes to the characters. I’d absolutely understand if they had to keep the characters in some sort of stasis from how Parker had left them, like an ’80s TV drama or something.
I’m holding off forming an impression about what Lupica is doing with some of the characters at this point, I need to see it worked out a little more. But I do appreciate him taking ownership and making the moves.
I’ll be frank—I thought he did okay with the Sunny Randall books (the series I have the least attachment to, so I didn’t care too much how he did), and while I thought he was a step down from Coleman, he’s doing okay with the Jesse Stone books. But giving him the keys to the Ferrari of Parker’s series? That seemed like a dangerous move.
However, I think of all his Parker-verse work, this was the strongest. He rose to the occasion, and I’m greatly relieved. I hope he can continue it.
He looked around. “We looking fo anything in particular?” Hawk said.
“What we’re always looking for,” I said. “Something that will make us feel smart when we find it.”
“Could be here awhile,” he said.
One of my favorite parts about almost every Spenser novel is the initial conversation between Spenser and the client. Lupica nailed it, I thought. After that strong start, things kept rolling at or near that level for just about the rest of the book.
It wasn’t perfect, by any means, but it was quite good. For example, some of the Hawk-Spenser banter is a little jokier than usual—Hawk, in particular, seems a little looser as he teases Spenser over a handful of things. It’s subtle, but it’s there. I enjoyed it—maybe too much—but I think Lupica could dial back Hawk a notch or two.
To be a little more pointed: the last page (or so) of Chapter Eighty-Three, all of Chapter Eighty-Four, and the last half of Chapter Eighty-Five (which, sadly is the last half chapter of the book) were let-downs. If you took the first half of Eighty-Five and put it earlier and made Eighty-Tree/the novel end with the conversation in Spenser’s office, I’d have been more satisfied. I can’t remember when I’ve been so specific about this kind of thing (not a habit I’m inclined to get into, either)—but that probably says how much it rankled me. I probably would’ve given the book another half-star (at least) without these pages.
Lupica did a good job with Susan—a character that can frequently be divisive, but he dealt with her well (and the conversations with her about the case didn’t drag the book down). Other than Hawk’s teasing, I thought he did a great job with Hawk and the other returning characters*.
* He did brush off one of the more tantalizing things that Atkins left for him regarding Hawk in less than a sentence, however. I think that was a mistake, but I get it, too.
As for Spenser himself? I give Lupica high marks—both for keeping Spenser vulnerable, fallible, and human while seemingly superhuman at times. There’s a point where Spenser wonders if he’s invented a red herring for himself on one line of inquiry, which was a nice touch. Spenser takes probably the least likely punch he’s received in the series to date—and I believed it (and quite enjoyed the fallout). Basically, he treated the character with the respect due, and I suspect that comes from a fellow fan’s heart.
I really liked the case—and the turns it took. I do wonder if Lupica wrote himself into a little corner and had to use a deus ex machina to get him out of it in the latter chapters. It worked well enough that I’m not complaining—nor am I wholly convinced that’s what happened. It just seems like one (which is bad enough). But the layers to the case, the motives of the potential suspects, how everything played out in the end, and the secrets that came to light (and how they came to light) were really well handled and worthy of Parker at his best.
Color me satisfied with this one, and my trust in Lupica strengthened. I think this would be a decent jumping-on point for someone curious about the character—or the idea of an aging PI still plugging away at things. Check this one out.
This post contains an affiliate link. If you purchase from it, I will get a small commission at no additional cost to you. As always, the opinions expressed are my own.
The Holy Spirit:by Fred Sanders
DETAILS: Series: Short Studies in Systematic Theology Publisher: Crossway Publication Date: October 3, 2023 Format: Paperback Length: 157 pg. Read Date: October 15-November 12, 2023
This book introduces Christians to the Holy Spirit, which is a cheeky thing to do.
By definition, every Christian must already know the Holy Spirit in the most important way, since “anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him” (Rom. 8:9). So to publish a book for Christian readers under the title The Holy Spirit: An Introduction is to take on a peculiar project: introducing readers to somebody they already know. That is exactly what this book does. It presupposes that its readers are already engaged with the reality of the Holy Spirit and invites them to a theological encounter with that person.
It’s kind of summarized there in that last sentence: it’s an introductory work on the theology of the Holy Spirit assuming that the reader knows Him already, but needs to understand Him, His identity, and His work more fully.
As it’s an Introduction (like all the books in this series), and therefore accessible which is nice—but it does a thorough job of talking about things like the Doctrine of the Trinity and how it is informed by and informs our Theology of the Spirit.
Rather than try to paraphrase or summarize Sanders, let me just let him describe the design of the book:
But my approach in this book is, as I said above, indirect, which is why I began by highlighting the paradoxical character of studying the Holy Spirit. I hope to treat the paradoxical character of pneumatology not as a hindrance to be lamented but as a help to be cherished. If knowledge of the Holy Spirit is, in the ways described above, deflective, reflexive, and connective, then an introduction to the Holy Spirit might deliver a great deal of insight by arranging itself in a corresponding way. Think of the implications that follow from the work of the Spirit being deflective, reflexive, and connective. Deflective means that when you try to think about the Spirit, you find the Spirit himself changing the subject to the Father and the Son. Reflexive means that when you try to think about the Spirit, you find the Spirit himself requiring you to think about yourself and about thinking. Connective means that when you try to think about the Spirit, the Spirit himself draws you out into the full scope of all theology. But these things are all beneficial! To study the Holy Spirit according to his own characteristic way of working means to be personally engaged in a total Trinitarian encounter with the truth of God, We will engage the deflective character of pneumatology.
Many books about Him focus on things like how the Spirit acts in the world today, the gifts of the Spirit—what that phrase means and how one obtains them—the role of Pentecost and how it can/if it can be duplicated today, and so on. Sanders eschews that—focusing on more primary issues (which isn’t to say he doesn’t get into some of that). He starts looking at the Trinity, then he considers the Spirit in relation to the Father—and how by doing so we can gain a better understanding of them both. Then he moves on to the Spirit in relation to the Son—how that’s similar and how that relationship is different than the previous. The final chapter considers the Spirit Himself—yes, addressing some of the same information, but from a different angle.
As with many (sadly, not all) of this series, this comes with a nifty-looking Further Reading list—one I fully intend to use.
But the additional material I want to talk about is the Appendix, “Rules for Thinking Well about the Holy Spirit.” These are 27 brief rules that so usefully summarize the material in the book—and related ideas—for believers to bear in mind as we read Scripture or theology while working through doctrines/ideas about the Spirit. These rules are the kind of thing that students would do well to pin a copy of onto their wall/somewhere in easy reach.
The Holy Spirit makes himself known to us in a way that is better than we could have expected or imagined for ourselves. He is the prevenient person, always already at work, never Father-free or Sonless in his being or in his work, closer to us than our own breath, and making known to us in the depths of our selves the deep things of God.
This is definitely one of my top 3 books in this series—possibly the best thing in it so far.
Sanders’s tone is certainly engaging—he never loses sight of the importance of what he’s talking about, and the necessary reverence. But he’s okay with being chatty and a little witty with the reader. He’s able to break down some complicated and technical points in a way that the reader can find them understandable and compelling.
I really appreciated his approach—both in the way he focused on what he chose to and those things he didn’t seem that interested in writing about. I’m sure others would disagree with me, but it looks like he majored on the major issues and didn’t bother with the minor ones.
I’m not sure that this will supplant Ferguson’s The Holy Spirit in my own use and reference when it comes to pneumatology—but I can’t see me looking into Ferguson’s without looking into this next.
Get your hands on it, and be introduced to Someone you’re already close to.
You would not believe how many times I’ve tried to get this posted today…I barely do, and I was there for all of them. But, life has interfered (as it so often does). But it’s still Saturday, so I can live with it (the two posts I also planned on scheduling today, on the other hand are going to wait a week or more for attention).
But you didn’t come here for my whinging. You came here for this:
Odds ‘n ends about books and reading that caught my eye this week. You’ve probably seen some/most/all of them, but just in case:
Wisconsin libraries would have to notify parents about the books their kids check out under GOP proposal—I’m not fond of this, but I’m not sure it’s horrible. The other bill talked about in this story, on the other hand…
When Your Own Book Gets Caught Up in the Censorship Wars—a little BTS action
This Is Your Brain on Books
The big idea: should we abolish literary genres?
Webtoons and Webcomics Keep Scrolling into Print
Do You Believe in Magic? On The Timeless Charm of Children’s Books
It’s getting to be that time of year, isn’t it? Libro.fm’s Top 10 Audiobooks of 2023
S.A. Cosby lists His favorite books of the year—have read a couple of these and have several others sitting on a stack in my office, glaring at me
And looking in the other direction, FFA’s Most Anticipated Reads of 2024
Scaring Myself: The Story Behind How & Why I Wrote CALICO…—Lee Goldberg talks about the background to his latest novel (that I will write about ASAP, but you should read)
The Case for Never Reading the Book Jacket—I thought this was interesting and had planned on putting it here in the first place, and then:
Molly Templeton responded with What Do You Want to Know About a Book Before You Read It?—what are your thoughts?
#R3COMM3ND3D2023 wrapped up this week, so I only have a few more TBR add-ons for you:
…with Donna of Retirement Reflections
…with Rae of Rae Reads
…with Ayo Onatade of Shotsmag Confidential—
…with Sarah Hardy of bytheletterbookreviews
…with Jo of Jo’s Book Blog
Announcing Solstitia: a Fiction Fans Magazine—the brains behind Fiction Fans are launching a zine/litmag. Looking forward to some good reads.
Similarly, JCM Berne is starting up Grimdwarf Magazine—and is worth looking into
Managing my TBR—The Narratess talks about getting her TBR slimmed down. No offense intended, but having read her numbers, I’m feeling better about mine. But still…
Is It Easier to Write Negative Reviews?—Not for me, no. But I can see where Krsyta is coming from.
A Book-ish Related Podcast episode (or two) you might want to give a listen to:
The Joined Up Writing Podcast 204: S.A. Cosby—Cosby chats about All the Sinners Bleed and much more. I love listening to this guy.
This Week’s New Releases that I’m Excited About and/or You’ll Probably See Here Soon:
Robert B. Parker’s Broken Trust by Mike Lupica—Lupica takes up the Spenser torch from Atkins, and is much better than I assumed. (I’d planned on finishing this today, but, life intervened). PI Fans would be smart to pick this up.
Didn’t See That Coming by Jesse Q. Sutanto—okay, a YA take on You’ve Got Mail with gamers and a private school, isn’t really my cuppa. But I really liked Sutanto’s style at first contact. So, I’m going to give this a shot (as I try to work older books into my schedule, too).
Lastly, I’d like to say hi and extend a warm welcome to Taylor @ Taylor Fenner’s Bookish World, who followed the blog this week. I hope you enjoy the content and keep coming back.
The Ballad of Bonaduke—DETAILS: Series: The Ballad of Bonaduke, #40 Format: Kindle Vella Story Read Date: November 24, 2023
Alann smiled like a kid who was about to show something they thought was really cool, but ultimately underwhelming. However when he pushed open the door he spoke in a confident tone that would make any potential buyer visualize the open road.
A drunken Michael Bonaduke decides to use a grift (with maybe some sort of magic/magic-like “help”) to win on a scratch-off lottery ticket so he has money to buy more to drink. He pulls off whatever he did, gets his money and some booze and stumbles off into the darkness to drink himself into oblivion so he can start again the next day. He’s hit by dark memories (probably what’s driving him to the drinking) of fire, pleading, and screaming. There’s going to be a price to pay for his grift, and he’s trying to be ready.
He’s abducted by some representatives of a mysterious group who subject him to a test—if he passes, everything will be explained to him (and hopefully the reader, too). He passes—and is brought somewhere for answers, or maybe training, or maybe another test. Time will tell (or things are going to get really annoying). Answers aren’t quick to come—but the mysteries and questions keep piling up.
Things get hairy and Bonaduke leaves and finds himself back in the neighborhood he started from. He takes refuge in a homeless encampment shortly before a police raid. He’s apprehended and finds himself an interrogation room and shortly escapes after using his grift (but with results he didn’t quite intend). He finds himself by a group of squatters who seem to have strapped a woman to a chair for reasons that can’t be good. He attempts to rescue her before he even realizes what he’s doing, and seems to have succeeded—well, the two of them got away from the group anyway—breathing but bruised. They make their way to a fast-food taco joint and Bonaduke really needs to refuel to keep going. He tries, but fails to get food because he keeps passing out. Thankfully, the clerk is the same guy from the liquor store and he both recognizes him and gives him first aid. The woman (Zero) wakes up and shows some abilities of her on as she helps them escape from her captors who’ve tracked her down. One thing leads to another—Zero and Bonaduke’s magics don’t mix well (at least until they understand what each other can do?), and they end up in a video-game race against the squatters in a tricked-out version of Eric (the clerk’s) car. Note, I said video-game race, not a video-game-style race. They’re actually in one. When dumped back into reality, he’s surrounded by bruised and broken bodies (of people and cars). And then he gets into a supernatural fight and survives…just.
Or maybe not. But he gets better.
Um. On the one hand, not much happens. But it’s the way that not much happens that’s the interesting bit. Alan and Om deal with the lock that Bonaduke had flexed his magic on in the last episode. The results are better read than explained.
Then the injured Bonaduke and his two associates climb the apartment building’s stairs to the roof where they encounter, once again, something better read than explained.
Like I said, not much happens.
I’m not really sure what to say here. I think I liked it, but since so much of this episode needs grounding or fuller explanation in a future episode (hopefully 41), it’s hard to really know what I think.
I’m really tempted to spend the rest of the evening catching up to where Slaywood is currently with the story–if only so I have something to say here. I get this way from time to time, but I’m committed to the episodic approach.
But really, I don’t know what to say. It was well-written, worth sticking with, and I’m curious about what comes next.
I read 24 titles (1 down from last month, 2 up from last November), with an equivalent of 6,306+ pages* or the equivalent (351 down from last month, about the length of that one book I was short), and gave them an average of 3.8 stars (.3 up from last month). Five 4.5 star books is pretty remarkable–and one of those 5 stars books really should’ve been a 7 or 8.
Going to that Book Faire at the beginning of the month did not help my Mt. TBR at all. I’m not complaining, because I’m really looking forward to diving into those books. But I’m sitting on 30 more unread books that I own compared to last year in my second year of making a concerted effort to trim that number. I realize that math isn’t my strong suit, but I’m pretty sure that isn’t good.
Also, not good was the number of posts I produced. There were several outside-the-blog projects I was working on, but it wasn’t until last night when I started putting this together that I realized just how distracted I was by the outside stuff.
Still, I’m calling this a pretty good/decent month. Here’s the detailed look at November.
Books/Novels/Novellas Read/Listened to
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
|
|
 |
 |
 |
 |
|
|
 |
|
 |
 |
|
|
|
 |
 |
 |
|
|
 |
 |
 |
 |
|
? |
|
 |
 |
 |
|
|
|
 |
 |
 |
|
3 |
|
Still Reading
 |
 |
 |
|
Ratings
|
2 |  |
0 |
|
5 |  |
0 |
|
8 |  |
0 |
|
4 |  |
0 |
|
4 | |
1 |
| Average = | 3.77 |
|---|
TBR Stacks/Piles/Heaps
| Audio | E-book | Physical | Goodreads Want-to-Read |
|
|---|---|---|---|---|
| End of 2022 |
5 | 45 | 42 | 143 |
| 1st of the Month |
6 | 47 | 62 | 153 |
| Added | 6 | 2 | 14 | 1 |
| Read/ Listened |
5 | 2 | 7 | 1 |
| Current Total | 7 | 47 | 69 | 153 |
Breakdowns:
“Traditionally” Published: 18
Self-/Independent Published: 6 (eep!)
| Genre | This Month | Year to Date |
|---|---|---|
| Children’s | 1 (4%) | 25 (9%) |
| Fantasy | 3 (13%) | 30 (11%) |
| General Fiction/ Literature | 5 (21%) | 25 (9%) |
| Mystery/ Suspense/ Thriller | 5 (21%) | 81 (29%) |
| Non-Fiction | 2 (8%) | 20 (7%) |
| Science Fiction | 4 (17%) | 31 (11%) |
| Theology/ Christian Living | 2 (8%) | 25 (9%) |
| Urban Fantasy | 2 (8%) | 31 (11%) |
| “Other” (Horror/ Humor/ Steampunk/ Western) | 0 (0%) | 8 (3%) |
Review-ish Things Posted
Other Things I Wrote
Other than the Saturday Miscellanies (4th, 11th, 18th, and 25th), I also wrote:
Enough about me—how was your November??
Up on the Woof TopDETAILS: Series: Chet and Bernie, #14 Publisher: Forge Publication Date: October 17, 2023 Format: Hardcover Length: 307 pg. Read Date: November 15-17, 2023
Bernie accompanies his elderly neighbors to a book signing for Dame Ariadne Carlisle, the author of a series of Christmas-themed mysteries. This, as one has to assume, is interrupted by some canine-induced chaos. However, it wasn’t Chet that got out of hand this time. Nevertheless, Chet and his human partner do grab the attention of Carlisle.
She ends up offering the duo a job they can’t turn down. She owns quite the little compound up in the mountains. It’s called Kringle Ranch and has buildings with names like Cratchit House. Carlisle knows her brand and has fully embraced it. As part of this brand, she owns a group of nine reindeer—her favorite, Rudy, has gone missing. For a sizeable payday, successful or not, she wants Bernie (or probably his friend with the superior sense of smell) to find Rudy and bring him back home.
Once they get to the Ranch, Bernie learns that Carlisle is suffering a career-risking case of writer’s block—which is ascribed to Rudy’s absence, but it could be the pressure that book 100 is too much for her. Or a combination of things. But it’s this block that Bernie really focuses on.
Or he tries to, anyway. Shortly after they arrive, the duo finds Carlisle’s personal assistant at the bottom of a gorge, barely alive. It turns out that Carlisle’s one, true love was also found at the bottom of that gorge, murdered, before she started writing. Bernie assumes that there’s a link between the two and plunges into the unsolved murder case as a way of finding the attempted murderer.
Along the way, we get the occasional excerpt from Carlisle’s Trudi Termaine series—which is interesting enough and does help you understand the character. But…I’ve gotta say, I hope Quinn doesn’t go the Seanan McGuire/A. Deborah Baker route and put out books under her name, I don’t know that I could deal with an entire novel’s worth of it.
(of course I would inevitably try it)
Unlike the previous holiday-themed installment, It’s a Wonderful Woof, where I said that it “would be very easy to forget that this is a Christmas/Holiday Themed novel,” it is impossible to forget that about this book. I mean, for crying out loud, Bernie is hired to search for a reindeer named Rudolph.
Christmas just flat-out permeates Up on the Woof Top. Thankfully, not in a cheesy way, or one that should offend anyone, or put off Scrooges. It’s part of the setting, it’s part of every plotline*, and the holiday is discussed frequently.
* I should probably qualify that with a “nearly,” but I can’t think of an exception off the top of my head.
None of this makes this one of those novels/stories that you can only read during the holiday season—like The Nutcracker or A Christmas Carol. Whenever you get to it during the year, it’ll be fine—but you won’t forget for a second what time of year it takes place in. (which makes it different from almost every single other book in the series, which could take place anytime)
Sure, it wasn’t the biggest series-changing moment, but Chet getting out to…ahem…become a father was so subtle that you could be forgiven for missing it. And many of the series’ bigger moments (both for individual novels or overall) are underplayed—thanks in part to Chet not understanding them at the time or his unreliable narration.
That is not the case in this book. Not even close. Bernie does some things here that are going to change the books, his work, Chet’s life, and more in ways that readers can only guess at for now. (Quinn might only be guessing at for now, too)—and they make up the B-story, frequently distracting Bernie and the reader from murders, attempted murders, sleigh-pulling mammals, aging friends (new and old), and so on.
Here’s a fairly non-spoilery way to talk about how big and unusual Bernie’s actions in this novel are—he goes to his regular pawn shop not to hock or buy-back the watch. He goes there to just buy something. It threw me almost as much as it did the owners of the pawn shop.
“You did us proud. You’re the brains of the outfit, no doubt about it.”
Me the brains? That had to be one of Bernie’s jokes. He can be very funny at times. If I were the brains how could the Little Detective Agency be so successful, except for the finances part? Still, it was nice to hear. If only I knew exactly what I’d done I could do it again, and then hear Bernie say “You did us proud,” once more. Or even more than once! But you can’t have everything, which kind of makes sense, because who could possibly carry everything? You could have it, but you couldn’t go anywhere. What would be the point of that?”
I had a blast with this—there’s a subplot or scene or two that I wondered about. But they were either eventually justified or were fun enough that I didn’t care. The rest was just a ball of holiday-flavored Chet-goodness.
I never understood Bernie’s approach to the search for Rudy, I will admit. It really felt like he was just taking a vacation and occasionally remembered he had a chore to do. But that job was just an excuse to put him in this setting so he could look into this murder/attempted murder and associated shenanigans—that was clear from the jump (well, not what he was really going to be doing there, but that a case other-than the Rudy-hunt was in the wings)—so I didn’t worry about it too much. Also, the payoff to that particular gig was dealt with well enough by Quinn, that any quibbles just didn’t matter.
The novel is largely Bernie and Chet getting to play in the snow while doing what they do best while encountering a few characters that the reader will want to get to know better (a former Sheriff and a current deputy for starters). There’s a child that will steal your heart as he does Chet’s. And then there’s the setup for the series change that I mentioned above. Up on the Woof Top delivers plenty of fun from page 1 to 307.
Naturally, we get some healthy doses of what a friend calls Chet the Jet wisdom and other real heartwarming moments (see above quotation) that will flip in a moment to welcome silliness. There’s also a conversation about the lifespan of dogs that hit me right in “all the feels” after my dog’s recent death (it would’ve done it anyway, but the hit landed a bit harder). To be clear: I absolutely loved that moment and would’ve given the book 3 stars just because of it had I been annoyed by the rest of it.
Fans of this series will be very happy to unwrap this gift—and it should win a new reader over as well. If either of those two labels applies to you, I heartily recommend this novel to you.
This post contains an affiliate link. If you purchase from it, I will get a small commission at no additional cost to you. As always, the opinions expressed are my own.
We continue to celebrate Release Day for Marie Sinadjan’s Nameless Queen here with this excerpt.
Standing on the bank of the river Gjoll, Hel listened to the names of the Dead in the wind. This was her life now, as difficult and strange as it was to accept.
The Allfather had banished her from Asgard for treason, trapping her in Niflheim and erasing her name. However, she eventually realized that the realm itself was alive and had other plans. Niflheim did not intend for her to merely wallow in her despair and slowly starve herself to death.
The realm wanted her to be its caretaker.
A line of longships stretched toward the horizon and disappeared into the mist. In the ships were bodies, and the first one had come alive at Hel’s accidental touch.
The man lurched like he had been holding his breath underwater for far too long. “Where am I?”
For a moment she stared back at him with an equal measure of fear. What just happened? Was it her appearance that scared him?
But it soon became clear that it was not the case. “Who am I?” he asked her, distraught.
His name came to her in the wind. “Egil Hringson,” she repeated.
Her eyes flew wide as the man clung to her and wept like a child. She hadn’t realized how important it was for the Dead to be remembered, not until then. And while she did not have the details of his life, revealing his name seemed to help him find peace.
She did not sleep for three whole days, traversing the bank of the river to bring the newly deceased out of their stupor. There were surely hundreds of them; she’d stopped bothering to count after she reached twenty. Some ships had elaborate carvings on the prow, while others were simple wooden vessels that appeared to have been put together at the last minute. None of that mattered to her, however. It was not her place to judge or choose who awakened in this realm, unlike Odin the Allfather and his band of Valkyries.
At first, only the old woman helped her. But after three days of tireless work by the river, the inhabitants of Niflheim came to see that she was something more than merely a deranged soul who could not embrace the fact that she was dead. One by one, they joined her, seeing those she’d awakened into settlements and communities. Most of them were patterned and named after actual Midgardian locations, which provided a small comfort to the Dead.
“Who is she?” Egil asked the old woman when he returned to the river the day after his awakening.
“Hel,” the old woman answered.
It was not Hel’s real name, but it was all she had.
The one she had been born with had been taken away from her.
This morning, I’m very pleased to bring you this Release Day Spotlight for Marie Sinadjan’s Nameless Queen, part of the Norse-inspired Urban Fantasy series, The Prophecies of Ragnorak. Like the rest of this series, this really looks like something to check out.
Book Title: Nameless Queen by Marie Sinadjan
Series: The Prophecies of Ragnarok
Genre: Norse Mythology Urban Fantasy
Release date: November 30, 2023
Format: eBook
Length: 70 pages
Release Price: 99c (US) and equivalent / 99p (UK)
All things end, and all must die.
But death is not always the end.
When Geiravor Lokisdottir was stripped of her name and cast out of Asgard, torn from her family and the life she had known, she thought she’d lost it all. But in the shadows of Niflheim she discovers the path to her destiny, and what it truly means to be queen.
This is a prequel to THE PROPHECIES OF RAGNAROK trilogy by Meri Benson and Marie Sinadjan, and a retelling of the myths involving Hel, the Norse goddess of death and the queen of the underworld.
Universal Purchase Link ~ Goodreads
Marie Sinadjan is a Filipino fantasy author, singer-songwriter, and musical theatre actress. She is the co-author of The Prophecies of Ragnarok series, and her short stories have appeared in anthologies, magazines, and literary journals. She mainly writes fantasy of the mythology, fairytales, and folklore variety.
When not crunching numbers for her full-time job or spending time with her family, she’s traveling, drinking coffee, reading and reviewing books, dreaming up more worlds, writing more songs, or serenading vegetables. She currently lives in the United Kingdom with her husband.
You can find her online at @marienettist or at linktr.ee/mariesinadjan.
This meme was formerly hosted by MizB at A Daily Rhythm and revived on Taking on a World of Words—and shown to me by Aurore-Anne-Chehoke at Diary-of-a-black-city-girl.
The Three Ws are:
What are you currently reading?
What did you recently finish reading?
What do you think you’ll read next?
Easy enough, right?
I’m reading According to Mark by H.B. O’Neill, and boy howdy, am I going to spend a lot of energy talking about it next year when it’s published. I’m listening to The Bittlemores by Jann Arden on audiobook—which is so much better than I’d expected.
I just finished the incredible Bea Wolf by Zach Weinersmith and Boulet (Illustrator) and the almost-as-good Nerd: Adventures in Fandom from This Universe to the Multiverse by Maya Phillips (Narrator) on audio.
My next book should be Robert B. Parker’s Broken Trust by Mike Lupica, I hope the transition from Atkins to Lupica on the flagship Parker series is smooth. My next audiobook should be Brokedown Prophets by S. A. Cosby, narrated by a full cast—I have no idea what it’s about, really. I stopped reading at “S.A. Cosby.”
Powered by WordPress & Theme by Anders Norén
