Dead Witch Walking is the first Rachel Morgan fantasy novel by bestselling new author, Kim Harrison. Harrison seemingly came out of nowhere and exploded into the market, attracting an immediate audience then growing geometrically as people started talking this first book up. Her paperbacks have been reprinted dozens of times, and she’s now being published first in hardcover. Even the first paperbacks are now getting a hardcover treatment next year.Rachel Morgan is a witch in a world that’s not quite like ours. She’s also a cop for the Inderland Security, the police force that patrols the paranormal segment of Cincinnati. Unfortunately, Rachel hates her boss and hates her job. She ultimately wants to be able to call her own shots.

One night, a series of events puts that possibility into her grasp and she takes it. Before she knows it, though, she’s blackmailed into signing on Ivy, a female vampire that’s over six feet tall and as dangerous as they come, and Jenks, a pixie who’s got a sharp tongue and a way through electronic security, as her partners. In no time at all, she’s hanging out a shingle, VAMPIRIC CHARMS PRIVATE DETECTIVE AGENCY at an old church with stories of its own to tell.

I liked the way that Harrison sets up her world, designating the “normal” world and offsetting it with the Hollows, where most of the supernatural creatures and people live. It doesn’t take long to get into the background of her richly textured novel, though the fact that the USA never got to the moon in this world still kind of jars me.

The magic and use of the supernatural characters makes sense. Harrison creates a series of rules regarding them and plays fairly with them. And her imagination is HUGE. I could almost make a checklist of future books I want Harrison to write just so I can learn more about her world.

Rachel’s character is at once warm, vulnerable, and powerful, a hard combination to pull off for a writer, but Harrison makes it seem easy. In the beginning, the action seems a little slow, but there’s actually a lot going on. Rachel figures when she quits her job and goes out on her own it’s not going to be a problem. I. S. didn’t want her there anyway, which was one of the reasons she wanted to leave the agency.

However, when Ivy goes with her, I. S. is furious. Ivy buys out her assassination contract, though. Rachel isn’t so lucky. I. S. won’t touch Ivy because they’ve made a profit off of her, but they’re plenty willing to take out their mad on Rachel.

Ivy, in addition to being a living vampire from a royal family, is a complicated character. I didn’t get to learn everything about her in this novel that I wanted to, but I’ve got a whole series to explore. She’s incredibly interesting, and there’s something about her relationship with Rachel that’s piqued my curiosity.

Jenks, the pixie, is a laugh riot. He’s got a twisted sense of humor, a tremendous fighting spirit, and doesn’t even come close to being politically correct.

Dead Witch Walking sets up a lot of the ensuing series, but the exploration of the world and of the main characters is awesome. Harrison knows how to write emotion and action, and once the story was up and running, I was hard-pressed to keep up with all the twists and turns.

This book is a must-have for urban fantasy fans. But my advice is to start here with this one, because there’s a lot of backstory that gets unveiled. And, from what I’ve heard, the characters change and grow throughout the series.

Ms. Tree started out as a comic book series back in 1981. Conceived by writer Max Allan Collins and artist Terry Beatty, she began the longest ever career for a lady private investigator in the comics field. She also set some milestones in the publishing world. Much has been said of Sue Grafton’s Kinsey Milhone and Sara Paretsky’s V. I. Warshawski. I’ve read both those series, as well as Linda Barnes’s excellent Carlotta Carlyle books, and can honestly say that none of them have ever been as cold-bloodedly ruthless as Ms. Tree.

Of course the name is a tongue-in-cheek joke, but the lady’s work isn’t. Ms. Tree was written by Collins as a tribute to his friend and mentor Mickey Spillane, who penned the tales of Mike Hammer, who was about as hard nails as tough has ever been.I read all the comics that came out about the character, beginning with the release by Eclipse Comics and finishing up with the run at DC Comics. Those haven’t been re-released, but hopefully they won’t be long in coming now that interest has once more been stirred.Deadly Beloved is a new novel about Ms. Tree. In fact, it is the first – and thus far – only novel about the character. But longtime readers who remember the stories are going to get a feeling a déjà vu. Collins and Beatty recently got an option for Ms. Tree as a television movie, with the intention of potentially adding more movies to the initial one.

The book has been published by Hard Case Crime, a line of novels produced by Charles Ardai that is about 50% new material and 50% books that have been out of print as much as fifty years. All of the books are crime novels, and all of the covers offer noir stylings that make my heart beat faster. I can remember reading some of those books back when I was a kid and got them at the secondhand stores.

Dearly Beloved is a blindingly fast read. Clocking in at a little under 200 pages, Collins spins his story quickly, dipping in and out of two plotlines that he dovetails neatly back into one cohesive whole. The action is intense, the dialogue gripping and constant, and the feeling of the city around Ms. Tree and her colleagues feels true.

For me, this was a pleasant walk down memory lane with a few interesting twists and turns thrown in for good measure. I generally like all of Collins’s novels, and have re-read several of them over the years. I loved his Mallory series as well as his Nate Heller books.

If you haven’t met Ms. Tree before, this is the perfect place to do so. The book is lean and mean, and the character steps right off the first page and into your face. And if you have read about her before in one of the comics or graphic novels, it’s probably been too long. Pick this one up, put your feet up, and prepare to spend a couple hours in total tough gal noir bliss.

Max Allan Collins’s A Killing in Comics is both well-researched and a labor of love that’s masquerading as a mystery novel. Set in 1948, back in the days when the military was returning from World War II and the usual fiction heroes in comics and the pulps were transitioning to harder-edged fare, the novel is a fun, sort of hardboiled romp.To an accomplished comics fan, and I admit to my geek factor and claim that title, Collins’s portrayal of the industry tensions going on at the time was dead on. Wonder Man is really Superman, and the problems Siegel and Schuster had over trying to claim the rights to their greatest creation is true, and sad. But, as Collins points out, that was the way business operated in those days.

Batwing is, of course, Batman. And that tale offers up yet another depressing tale of a partnership where one partner took advantage of another. Amazonia is Wonder Woman.

I have to admit to distraction during the novel, so I wasn’t completely focused on keeping up with the clues. Most of the time I was relating my comics knowledge to the story and how Collins wove in the many details. Richard Lupoff and Don Thompson’s All In Color For A Dime is an excellent resource to go along with this novel. Reading it before or after Collins’s book is recommended for deeper enjoyment of everything that was going on at this time.

In the opening chapter of the novel, Donny Harrison, the publisher of Americana Comics, ends up dead at his own fiftieth birthday party while dressed in a colorful Wonder Man outfit. There are suspects aplenty. The two guys who invented Wonder Man are on hand and pretty upset about getting their own invention yanked away from them. Batwing’s creator has a way of beating his contract and getting his contract annulled so he can get control of his character back.

But the birthday party is being held at Harrison’s mistress’s apartment with Harrison’s wife in attendance. There are two more instant suspects.

The hero of the mystery is Jack Starr, a licensed private eye who works for Starr Syndicate, the company his father created. The syndicate is currently headed up by Maggie Starr, Jack’s stepmother who was an ex-stripper and is also the smartest woman Jack knows.

I liked the breezy way Collins unveiled the story in Jack’s first-person narrative. I was immediately reminded of Rex Stout’s Nero Wolfe mysteries with the way Jack worked for Maggie and she refused to leave syndicate headquarter.

Collins makes all the familiar moves of the hardboiled novel, including getting on the wrong side of the cops and the gangsters. While this is welcome in some respects, some it just seemed too familiar. Not hackneyed, but definitely in the old neighborhood of this kind of mystery.

I read the book in a couple of sittings and had a good time. The mystery was well planned, the research well executed, and the dialogue – most of the time – crackled. The time period was a welcome treat to the read.

I don’t know how Collins could do any more books about Jack and Maggie Star, but I’d definitely read them if any more are forthcoming. I liked the characters, and getting to see Jack and Maggie back in action would be great.

Until Nickelodeon decided to revamp and update the children’s world in 1991, parents had no problem keeping up with their kids’ cartoon experiences. After all, Bug Bunny and Daffy Duck, the Flintstones, and Scooby-Doo (in so many incarnations) were all staples of a kid’s fantasy world.

As hectic as the world is for a parent, it’s hard to keep up with what shows they’ve watched or are watching when they’re growing up. Sad to say, television cartoons have served as babysitters and best friends for kids for decades.

However, Nickelodeon changed the package when they released Doug, Rugrats, and The Ren and Stimpy Show. Questionable content began to invade American living rooms and kids’ bedrooms in subtle ways. Doug and Rugrats tended to be wholesome fare – though with strange ideas at times.

But there was just no excusing Ren and Stimpy’s behavior. They were gross and inelegant at best, and downright disgusting and offensive at worst. However, your kids thought they were hilarious. If you sat down and watched part of an episode with them, you’d swear they were way too young to be caught up in something as crass as that.

You’d probably be halfway right. But Nickelodeon took the stance that kids were a lot more intelligent – and socially inelegant – than most parents wanted to believe. So they created entertainment that took all those facets into account.

And man, what a whirlwind it’s been these past 16 years. My oldest son turns 25 soon, and my youngest is 10. I had five kids, and Nickelodeon has been a constant feature in my house from the beginning.

The problem with having kids, though, is that you have to work to provide for them. And to provide cable TV. So even though I tried to get in front of the TV to check out what they were watching, I couldn’t do it often enough. I watched some of the Nicktoons (as they came to be called) but not all of them because I didn’t have time.

Thankfully there’s a book out now that will catch you up almost overnight with the thirty cartoon that have and are airing on Nickelodeon. Jerry Beck’s (author of The Hanna-Barbera Treasury and The Art of Bee Movie and other works concentrating on the cartoon pays much you’)monstrous compendium is kid-intelligent and adult-friendly, and it’s heavy and sturdy enough to use as a shield or as a weapon. Not only that, but it was produced with the full support and cooperation of Nicktoons.

When I first pulled the book out of the box, I thought some had gone badly wrong. The book felt…squishy. I let go in a hurry and decided to finish opening the box to have a better look. Then I realized that the book was covered in green slime, another trademark of the network.

Just like a kid, I couldn’t help mashing on the slime book cover to see what I could change and see how long it would retain the impressions I made. It was great fun. If you really want to get a strange reaction from another adult, just hand them the book without warning. The first time they close their fingers in slime, they’re going to freak – and be instantly interested.

Once I opened the book, I was even more impressed. The table of contents is set up with icons of the television shows. One of the games you can play as an adult is try to identify the series from the icon, then open the book to that page to find out if you were right. I got more of them right than I thought I would.

The sections on the cartoons are adult-friendly too. There’s not a whole lot of reading to be done to get up to speed on what the cartoon series was. Background and creative spark, as well as the names of the writers and or directors, are wrapped up in easy-to-read chunks. The artwork is absolutely beautiful, gleaned from storyboards and character concepts all the way up to finished presentations.

While I was reading through the book, picking out my favorite cartoons first (like Doug, Rugrats, The Angry Beavers, Danny Fantom, and Hey Arnold), my ten-year-old dropped in, saw what I was reading, and snuggled into the couch next to me. Then he started telling me what he knew about the characters, favorite episodes, favorite comic bits, and when it was going to be on again, if that was the case. There are unexpected benefits that come from owning this book. And, unlike the television episodes, the book can be turned on at any time.

There’s not a whole lot of reading here to be done, which should be encouraging to you as an adult, because I’m sure your lives haven’t slowed down any more than mine have, but there are a ton of pictures and graphic media. If you don’t think there’s a ton there, try holding this book straight out from your body in one hand!

Not Just Cartoons: Nicktoon! is an amazing compilation of info regarding these shows. The beauty of it is the book makes a great Christmas present (maybe not so much a stocking stuffer) for a kid or an uninformed adult on your list that doesn’t know about Nicktoons but has children. Pick up the book and wander back through the history of your child’s imagination and excitement.

Honey West was a female private eye that invaded the hardboiled detective scene of the 1950s and muscled over some of the big boys. Created by G. G. Fickling (the pseudonym of husband and wife team, Gloria and Forest Fickling), Honey West starred in eleven novels before cashing out in 1971.

The 1950s were the heyday of the paperback novel. Men returning from World War II wanted something to read that was different from the relatively tame pulps they’d read prior to the war. Mickey Spillane was one of the first to offer the edgy kind of entertainment those men (and some women) wanted when he created his two-fisted private eye, Mike Hammer.

Honey West was the feminine version of the time. Before women’s lib, women depended on sexual allure and wiles to get what they were after. Honey oozed sex and wile, and frequently ended up in situations where clothing was not exactly optional, but she ended up underdressed all the same, usually through no fault of her own. She carries a .22 revolver holstered on her garter and is forever reaching up under her skirt/mini-dress to pull it out.

In A Kiss for a Killer, Honey gets a phone call from her police contact that lets her know one of the guys she’s been dating has just been ran over by a steamroller. She sets out to investigate and immediately gets framed for the murder.

The trail takes her to a nudist colony that we’d recognize as a cult these days. From there she finds an Italian actress hanging from a tree, and that mystery – when unraveled – strikes close to home.

The Honey West novels, like many of the private eye books in that era, weren’t written for serious entertainment. They were breezy, lightweight, and fun. It had been a while since I’d read anything like this, so it took me a little while to get back into the groove of reading something that was so thin.

The action comes so fast and furious that I kept turning pages. But the prose was deceptive. The faster I turned, the thinner the character, and soon I had to go back a couple of times to remember who I was reading about.

There’s some wonderful old dialogue that sounds like it was lifted from radio shows or old movies. Such as one guy telling Honey in a seductive way to take her clothes off while at a nudist colony. Honey responds, I only take these for one thing, and that’s to shower.

It was a lot of fun reading about what passed for scandal back in the late 1950s. Most people wouldn’t even blink an eye today. But it also made it hard to believe in some of the motives the authors trot out for inspection. Still, the pacing was so frantic that I got pulled along in spite of myself.

There’s a tremendous amount of dialogue. Coupled with the first-person narrative, the book kept my attention throughout.

However, unless you’re a fan of the 1950s private eye fare or want something simple that won’t engage you on a deep level, the Honey West series as a whole might be a little light.

Overlook Press has reprinted the first two books in the series. This one and the first novel, This Girl For Hire, have been the only two reprinted so far. Hopefully they’ll get around to the rest of them.

Over forty years ago, the partnership between Captain James Tiberius Kirk and Mr. Spock took place on television. That friendship, along with Dr. McCoy, has become one of the most iconic in fiction and television.

William Shatner, joined by Judith and Garfield Reeves-Stevens, penned the beginning of a multi-book new series in the Star Trek franchise. Star Trek: The Academy — Collision Course shows how 17-year-old James Kirk and 19-year-old Spock first meet, and all the trouble that sprang out of that relationship.

At the time, Kirk is trying to recover from a horrible experience he had on Tarsus IV. The view of that war and Kirk’s loss of innocence seems to mirror what’s going on in our world at the moment. But it’s a good, solid background story that explains why Kirk wants nothing to do with Starfleet and believes they’re worthless.

Spock struggles with his identity. Half-human and half-Vulcan, he finds that he fits comfortably into neither world. Not only that, but he’s uncovered a plot by someone within the Vulcan embassy that is selling priceless artifacts to a fence.

The book moves along at a lightning quick pace. Although it’s 450 pages, I whipped right through it in a single sitting, devouring this adventure for the sheer fun and pleasure it was. The idea of a young Kirk and young Spock is fascinating. The authors do a great job of showing the basis of the long friendship that is to come, as well as setting into play any of the things that Kirk and Spock agreed to disagree on.

Kirk is in love with a young Starfleet cadet who’s being brought up on charges for theft. In order to prove her innocence, Kirk undertakes to steal a Starfleet vehicle with a technological device he’s created. Of course this is over-the-top, but this is Kirk we’re talking about. Overkill should have been his middle name.

In the meantime, a Starfleet officer named Mallory has started an investigation into Kirk. Although operating under another name, I believe Mallory was in an agency that was a forerunner to Trek’s Section 31, their equivalent of spies.

The book also deals a lot with father figures. Spock argues – logically, of course – with his father Sarek, and Kirk confronts his father over his choice of lifestyles as well as his relationship with his brother Sam.

Most of the book takes place on Earth, and we don’t really get a clear idea of what the city looks like, which I found a little frustrating. And we don’t quite get the “feel” of the Academy.

However, Kirk and Spock do take to space in once of the most outrageous plot turns of the book at the end. When I saw where the plot was going, I told myself there was no way they were going to pull it off. But they did it anyway. And realistically, the plot twist doesn’t fly, but for the romantic in me, it was perfect.

Over the years, I’ve found the Shatner books sometimes uneven. Many people have complained that they’re Kirk-centric, but I’ve always forgiven that. Kirk is one of the most enduring characters of the series in all its interpretations. It only stands to reason that much of the focus would be on him.

But in this book, Kirk shares time and space with a lot of the other characters. I’m really looking forward to the next book in this series.

During the last year, I’ve become a fan of Archer Mayor’s Joe Gunther novels. Set in Vermont, the novels are an intelligent and emotional blend of mystery and slow-boil thriller. When you open one of the Gunther books, you get pulled into a world that is sharply realized and filled with real characters with real histories.

Archer Mayor writes about material he’s familiar with. He’s a death inspector for the state of Vermont’s Chief Medical Examiner, is a deputy sheriff, and has been a fireman and EMT for 25 years. His crime scenes are worked right, and his technology is up-to-date and not somewhere in the ranks of science fiction.

Agent Joe Gunther works for the recently formed Vermont Bureau of Investigation. He’s got a military background and a history with the state police. I like Joe a lot because he’s the kind of guy I grew up around and still know. They’re easy-going but hard-driven, the kind of guys who can talk with you all day and never take their eyes off the prize.

The latest novel, Chat, brings the reader in close to Joe’s family. Although his age is now permanently frozen in his mid-fifties by the author, Joe’s been in law enforcement long enough to become something of a legend. He’s been married once to a woman who died young of cancer. His family consists of a brother and invalid mother who still share their lives. I loved the way that Mayor introduces his characters and reveals how they relate to each other. Leo and his mother’s relationship, and their relationships to Joe, are sparsely portrayed, but entirely believable.

I knew something was going to happen when I started turning pages in the book. Things always do. And when they start, you’d best sit up and start paying attention. Mayor works quickly, and he isn’t afraid to juggle several different plot elements and expect you to keep up. When Joe and his mom nearly get killed in the opening chapter, I was keenly aware that I was reading a book that was going to further define Joe Gunther.

Chat focuses on the threat to Joe’s family. An old enemy reaches out of the past to even a score Joe doesn’t even know about. It doesn’t take Joe long to figure out that Leo’s car was sabotaged, ending in a traffic accident that nearly killed him and their mother.

While Joe is digging into that, a naked dead man is found. Then another. In short order, his team is tracking what is evidently a multiple killer, but they have no idea what the motive behind the killings might be.

In the meantime, Joe is still dealing with the fallout from his breakup with longtime lover Gail. But a new woman has moved into town and isn’t shy about letting Joe know she’s interested in him.

I enjoy reading these books a lot. I always look forward to a lazy weekend I can spend dogging Joe’s tracks as he hunts down the bad guys. The prose is light and easy to read, but due to the multi-layered plots, I often find myself reading so quickly to find out what happens next that I miss things and have to go back.

Archer Mayor is a great read, and a fantastic addition to the ranks of mystery sleuths on the shelves. If you haven’t read a Joe Gunther novel, feel free to dive into the series anywhere. Even when you find out things about the characters that were revealed in earlier books, it’s not really a big deal. You’ll still enjoy Mayor’s conversational writing and the well-plotted mysteries.

When I was a child back in the early 1960s, I wanted to grow up to be a hero. I tied a towel around my neck and was sometimes Superman or Batman. I ululated in the back yard like Tarzan and shamed the cats in the neighborhood. I ran as fast as Jonny Quest in my PF Flyers.

But the hero I loved most of all at that time was the Lone Ranger. His adventures came on every afternoon, and I’d get home from school in time to watch him shoot the guns out of the bad men’s hands, give lectures on the evils of, well…evil, and leave that cool silver bullet behind so people could ask, “Who was that masked man?”

The Lone Ranger was the brainchild of George W. Trendle, a radio producer, but he was given life by Fran Striker in radio script and novel form, and brought to iconic life on television by Clayton Moore.

But in the beginning, he was a young Texas Ranger named John Reid who was with his father and brother the day they were gunned down by Butch Cavendish’s men. Reid clawed his way out of the grave, donned his signature mask, and started cleaning up the West.

The last couple of years, Dynamite Entertainment Comics brought the Lone Ranger back to comics, which had to have been one of the coolest and riskiest things ever done. I mean, in an age of FaceBook and MySpace, who’d buy a cowboy hero?

More people should, because the graphic story rendered by Brent Matthews (a Hollywood scriptwriter) and Sergio Cariello (an award-winning graphic artist) is one of the best stories that came out in novel form this summer. The story is familiar to everyone, but Matthews’s way of telling it in cinematic presentation, and Cariello’s beautiful drawings, give the tale a life that hasn’t been seen before.

There’s enough new twists and turns, between the principal characters as well as the legend itself, that even old-time fans like me will find something to celebrate and enjoy.

I loved the pacing of the book. The story came to life and moved toward an emotional peak that will leave you breathless at the end. I enjoyed the way the friendship that developed between the Lone Ranger and Tonto was the same, yet different, from everything I’d known. That relationship was re-imagined in a way that works perfectly.

Matthews stays off the page as an author. Some comics authors give in to the temptation to clutter the pages up with narrative boxes and dialogue. Matthews is only there when he needs to be. He stays out of the way and lets Cariello work his magic.

The art is astounding. Vivid and raw, I could taste the dust and feel the heat of the day as I zipped through the panels. At first glance, Cariello’s art looks a lot like Joe Kubert’s pencils. Kubert was another favorite of mine for his tenure on Sgt. Rock and The Haunted Tank as well as several other war strips.

The graphic novel has drawn some flak from Lone Ranger purists, but I believe it’s one of the best stories that’s ever been done that brings in all the elements of the character. I loved the story enough that, after finishing it the first time, I opened the cover again and read it once more.

If you like the Lone Ranger, you’ll probably enjoy this book. Unless you’re one of those purists. If you want a good read or a fine example of everything the graphic novel can be, you’ll want this book. So saddle up, pardner, because it’s time to return to those thrilling days of yesteryear.

Nancy Springer is a noted fantasy author, but here lately she’s been re-writing some of her – and my – favorite childhood characters. I’ve always been partial to that Outlaw of Sherwood Forest, Robin Hood, but who knew he had a daughter? Nancy did. In fact, she’s written five novels about Rowan Hood and her merry band.

Morgan Le Fay has always been one of those strong woman, and evil, from Arthurian legend. But who knew her childhood stories? Nancy did. She wrote two of the young Morgan Le Fay.

When I think of private detectives, I always think of Sherlock Holmes, Dr. Watson, and Mycroft Holmes. But who knew that Sherlock and Mycroft had a younger sister? Nancy did. And she’s just now penning the curious adventures of Enola Holmes, the fourteen-year-old younger sister of the Great Detective.

I first met Miss Enola Holmes in the novel, Enola Holmes and the Case of the Missing Marquess. I found her to be utterly brilliant, like her older brothers, and quite given to solving mysteries. Her deductive reasoning is a delight, as is her particular views on society.

Regrettably, young Enola is not a proper young lady. She loves traipsing through forests, wearing men’s clothing, and having hideouts that require journeying through streams and across muddy earth. She’s also quite fearless and knowledgeable about a great many things.

The first-person narrative of the novels revealed a lot of Miss Holmes’s character to me within a few short pages. I found her to be, not so much a carbon copy of Sherlock Holmes, but rather a young lady with all of Sherlock’s best qualities who was also equipped with the vision of youth and feminine perspective.

There are a great many puzzles in Miss Holmes’s life. Not in the least of these is the reason why her mother abandoned Miss Holmes on the morning of her fourteenth birthday. As much as that bothered and stymied young Miss Holmes, it also burdened me with curiosity and speculation.

But Miss Holmes’s mother left many messages behind for her young daughter. They shared a passion for puzzles and curiosities. Miss Holmes’s first name, Enola, is actually ALONE spelled backward. Once you understand that, you begin to worry at what prompted her mother to name her such. The name, though, offers hints as to how to solve the other mysteries her mother left her. The interpretations are so obvious when the solution is given.

After she discovers she’s been abandoned, Miss Holmes puts the police to searching for her mother, but at the same time she knows that if her brothers find her alone and uncared for they’ll ship her off to a young ladies’ finishing school. That’s not something Miss Holmes wants.

Before long, she figures out a way to escape the watchful eye of Mycroft as he stays there to set his mother’s affairs right. Then she’s on her way to London, the Greatest City in the world, on her trusty bicycle. Along the way I was treated to a great many descriptions of the time and land that were truly amazing.

It also doesn’t take Enola long to come across a mystery that haunts her all the way to London. While at the estates of the Marquess of Tewksbury, Enola takes the case long enough to figure out what happened to the young boy. She doesn’t dream that this endeavor will follow her all the way to her destination and place her squarely in the path of the worst danger she’s ever known amid London’s seedier alleys.

Enola Holmes and the Case of the Missing Marquess is a wonderful book for the 9-12 year old minds. It’s small and compact, not overly long, and physically fits into small hands quite well. Not only that, but the cover art is outstanding. I also liked the fact that the cover is printed right on the hardcover under the dust jacket.

The second book is called Enola Holmes and the Case of the Left-Handed Lady, and is already out. Enola Holmes and the Case of the Bizarre Bouquets is coming in January 2008. The first two books would make excellent gifts for the upcoming Christmas season.

Ghost stories are sort of a staple with me. I enjoy them when they’re well done, in books as well as DVDs, and I especially enjoy them when it’s dark or overcast outside. There’s something about the mood, the fact that I can almost believe ghosts exist.I sat down with Alexandra Solokoff’s first novel, The Harrowing, and prepared for a fright fest based on the reviews and the creepy cover. I ended up getting a mixed bag of enjoyment.

The plot revolves around five college students left on their own over the long Thanksgiving holidays. Each of them, as it turns out, had his or her reason for not going home. For Robin Stone, the protagonist of the tale, the reason was her drunken mother. During the first 50 pages, we get a good look at each of these characters. Then, with the fall break in full swing, they lose the power to Baird College where they’re in attendance and all the lights go out for the night. I personally really liked the atmosphere of getting locked up in the college and losing power. So far, everything looked good, but it was also too familiar. However, a ghost story has to have a lot of the same earmarks in order to succeed.

However, the group doesn’t stay stymied long. They get the fire in the fireplace going and begin searching for something to do. In short order, to no one’s real surprise, Robin and the others find a Ouija board. I knew then that something was going to happen because this is the point in all the movies where stuff occurs. But the Ouija board was upsetting to a degree. I don’t know how many books I’ve read that have featured those, and there was even a series of B movies based on those devices (Witchboard, etc.)

Even with the red flags firmly in place at this point, I kept reading. Solokoff’s prose style is simple and moves quickly. Those are pluses that keep me turning pages. Unfortunately, the characters never grew past that point. I didn’t get any further revelations of their backgrounds, never saw them make any other deeper or more meaningful connections to each other or the story. They just followed their predestined course to get to the end of the book.

That was satisfying in one regard. I got the ghost story I was looking for. But it was unsatisfying because it didn’t offer anything new. I will admit that some of the Jewish legends that were mixed into the prose were interesting and entertaining, but they didn’t get deep or more fleshed out either. The ending was almost down to paint-by-number, even the final ending, which wasn’t a surprise and was totally expected.

Anyone reading this novel in a single sitting as I did will probably ultimately be satisfied. It’s an entertaining diversion. But if you lay the book down for any time and start thinking about it, or spend time thinking about it after you’ve finished, you’re going to see how thin it is. The plot and the characters are too familiar, and – as the old saying goes – familiarity breeds contempt.

Still, this was probably written more for younger readers who haven’t seen or read a plethora of ghost stories. I think they’ll be more satisfied than I was.

However, I enjoyed the book enough to look for Alexandra Solokoff’s second horror novel, The Price, coming out in hardcover in February 2008.