A Box Full of Darkness

A Box Full of Darkness/ Simone St. James
NY: Berkley, c2026.
337 p.

I'm a big fan of fellow Canadian author Simone St. James. I read all of her books as they come out. This one is another spooky story told in her ghostly family drama style. But it's even more about families than usual. 

St. James returns to Fell, NY, the site of her previous novel The Sundown Motel (a fave for me). Strange things happen in Fell. There are drownings, children having heart attacks at far too young of an age, and finally the disappearance of six year old Ben, the youngest sibling of the three Esmies, a family who left Fell 18 years previously but are now reconvening thanks to a reported sighting of a ghost who may be Ben. 

The three siblings have all dealt with their childhood trauma differently -- Violet, the oldest, sees dead people and has had her life upended because of it in so many ways. Vail, the middle, used to be a diver but he is now a UFO true believer and drifts around the country searching for proof of aliens. Dodie, the youngest, is a brittle personality, living in NY City and working as a hair and hand model, but keeps people far away from her, emotionally. They have to come back to Fell and face up to who they were then and in the intervening years when they didn't really stay in contact too effectively. 

I really liked this. The characters were interesting - the interactions between siblings was unsettling, they were all so prickly and independent, but had to depend on one another as they are pulled back into their childhood trauma. Returning to a childhood home is always a great plot device but here it is to a mostly abandoned, haunted childhood home -- even less likely to lead to warm fuzzies! It had ghostly bits that were scary, but also real life encounters with nasty people. And the need for the siblings to break down and be honest with one another was another plot driver. It was fun read even if the plot wasn't quite as tight as some of her earlier books. 

Murder Road

Murder Road / Simone St James
New York : Berkley, ©2024
342 p.

Now for some contemporary mystery reading! I enjoy Simone St. James and will always pick up her books. This is the latest one, and it reflects her shift toward true crime inspired fiction that has informed her last couple of books. 

Set in 1995, it features a young couple, April and Eddie, who have just somehow gotten married and are heading for a country inn for their honeymoon. But it's late, and they miss a turn, and then they are suddenly on a dark and lonely stretch of highway where they pick up a hitchhiker who turns out to be bleeding heavily. They rush her to the nearest hospital, but she dies, and April and Eddie can't leave town - they are now the main suspects. 

This feels nostalgic, like it should even be set in 1985, with that tinge of Stranger Things vibe going on. April and Eddie are staying at a b&b with a no-nonsense policeman's widow who gives things to them straight. They also meet two odd sisters, high school students who are obsessed with true crime and give them the lowdown on the pattern of murders along that highway over the years and the many theories as to the killer's identity. 

But it's darker than everyone thinks, and there is a reason that April and Eddie have ended up there. Supernatural chills, mystery, library research, young love, and small towns combine into a book I really enjoyed. I found it chilling and spooky, but also liked the other parts of the book - the characters, the way this small town was described, and the final reveal. Great chilling summer reading for crime fans.


 

Funeral Songs for Dying Girls

 

Funeral Songs for Dying Girls / Cherie Dimaline
TO: Tundra, c2023.
271 p.

I read this one quickly, as it's a YA novel and by Cherie Dimaline - I have read most of her books so far. I liked it alright, it hooked me enough to keep reading but overall I ended up feeling meh about it. 

Winifred lives in a cemetery with her father; he has a job at the crematorium there. Her mother died when she was born so it's just the two of them. She wanders around moodily in the graveyard, and is eventually mistaken for a ghost, which brings the economic potential of ghost tours to their small and failing cemetery. 

Just this would have been enough for an interesting story, but there is also the angst of Winifred's so-called best friend Jack betraying her to his buddies, the father who is more involved with the memory of his dead wife than with Winifred herself, the potential loss of their home and livelihood, and, oh yes, the real ghost in the graveyard.

Win conjures the ghost of a girl around her own age, an Indigenous girl from the country who ended up dying in the ravine below the cemetery thanks to bad company. Phil is angry and punk, and she and Win end up spending a lot of the book mad at each other while simultaneously navigating their attraction to one another. Phil is also jealous of Jack every time he shows up, and this adds more teen angst. 

There are some good bits to this story, some nice interactions, especially with Win's Aunt Roberta. But there are also some characters who are more caricature, and the pace of the book was uneven to me. I liked it but didn't quite love it, which is often the case for me with Dimaline's writing. It's unique and has some thoughtful content that could spark discussion, but the uneven pacing/plotting and conclusion let me down a little. 

Murder on Millionaire's Row

Murder on Millionaire's Row / Erin Lindsey
NY: Minotaur Books, c2019.
340 p.

This was a delightful and very entertaining read which I recently picked up at my library. I thought it looked good -- a Gilded Age mystery featuring a housemaid and a cook as detectives. Fun! 

But it was more than it first appeared to be. Sometimes it's fun to know next to nothing about a book prior to picking it up. I was well into the book and enjoying it, when suddenly there appeared a ghost. Wait, what? I had no idea that this story was going in that direction. But it worked very well, and I loved the way that the paranormal became, well, normal, in this book.

It's like Amanda Quick's paranormal thrillers crossed paths with a charming historical New York mystery series and interbred, resulting in a cozy-ish, ghostly story with a sense of humour about itself and some fabulous characters -- alongside a well developed paranormal structure with clear rules, and a little bit of romance too. I always love a story with strong female characters, and there are lots of those here. 

Pretty much a book that could have been written just for me! I'm so looking forward to the second volume of this series, which is now on hold at the library as well. 

In this first entry in the series, we meet Rose Gallagher, Irish maid at a Fifth Avenue brownstone, in 1880s New York. Her friend Clara Freeman (the cook, with secret medical skills) supports her even when she thinks that Rose might be overreaching. Clara teases Rose about her infatuation with their employer Thomas Wiltshire, but when he goes missing, Rose can't help but search for him after feeling that the police aren't taking the household's concerns seriously. 

Rose uncovers some hidden talents, as well as a cast of supporting characters that include mediums, witches, freemasons, ghosts, and the local Chinese grocery owners. There is a combination of clever characterizations, amusing repartee, rich descriptions of life in uptown and downtown New York in the era, and lots of fantastical occurrences to intrigue a reader. Rose and Clara in particular, and some of the other women in the story as well, are interesting enough that I can't wait to see where they go next. 

Her employer, whom she eventually rescues from hoodlums, informs her of the presence of the supernatural in their world, and reveals his chops as a paranormal investigator. Because this is a first book, there is a fair amount of explanatory text as the author sets up this world. But even with all that, the pace is quick and the story doesn't lag. There is a great deal of fun but also some discussion of the social conditions in this era which deepens some of the characters, Rose included. 

Definitely an enjoyable read for me. It felt cinematic to me; lots of imagery, description, and concrete details about their lives. Recommended! 

The Saturday Night Ghost Club

The Saturday Night Ghost Club / Craig Davidson
Toronto: Knopf Canada, c2018.
272 p.

As the fall draws in, it is a good time to turn to reads that are a bit spooky, a bit shivery perhaps. The Saturday Night Ghost Club by Canadian author Craig Davidson is one of those books.

It begins with a Stranger Things, 80s vibe – young boys on their bikes, exploring strange places around Cataract City (Niagara). The cover also gives off that retro feel. But the sense of nostalgia for an 80s childhood which comes from the narrator looking back at those years and telling us all about them has a deeper significance, because this story is also about memory and trauma and how our minds manage those things. Very conveniently, the narrator, Jake, has grown up to be a neurosurgeon, with lots to say about how the brain works and how it stores memories - expanding on the theme. 

The heart of the book lies in the relationship between Jake and his Uncle Calvin. Calvin owns the Occultorium, a shop dedicated to the occult, conspiracy theories and the uncanny, and seems to be uncertain himself where that line between everyday life and the supernatural lies. He and Jake have a close relationship, partly because Uncle C seems to be a bit of a child himself, still believing in the kind of magic that gets "kicked out of you, churched out, shamed out - or worse, you steal it from yourself." As long as Jake has known him, Uncle C has never been ordinary. The summer that Jake turns twelve, Calvin invites both Jake and his new friend Billy Yellowbird to join the Saturday Night Ghost Club, in which they will visit haunted sites of Cataract City together.

After their first terrifying foray to a haunted railway tunnel, they almost call it quits. But Cal convinces them to keep checking out other locations connected to spooky urban legends. Sites which have deeper connections to their lives than any of them know. You'll have to read this fairly short book to get a sense of how these connections ultimately match up, and why. 

The tone of the story is nostalgic and folksy, with recollections of innocent adventures and misunderstandings of adult life. Jake's coming of age is centred on this summer; he loses his innocence and a belief in the world as a friendly place over the weeks of the Ghost Club. He's also experiencing his first love, once he meets Dove, Billy's tough and independent older sister. All of that 80s nostalgia and boys noticing girls thing, rolled up together with a pinch of melodrama and heartache. Perfect! 

Davidson has viscerally captured a sense of boyhood and nostalgia. The book reflects similar reads like Ray Bradbury's Dandelion Wine, or Stephen King's Stand By Me. It's a story you won't want to put down; it grabs you and forces you to look clearly at a summer recalled -- and to consider how we remember things and how we shape our own pasts to suit ourselves. 

I had a few quibbles with it: it did feel slightly emotionally manipulative in some ways - with dashes of sentimental writing and melodramatic revelations that made me wince slightly. And upon reflection, I'm not a fan of the golden haze laid over the intense masculinity of Jake's father and the other characters that the chubby, nerdy Jake encounters. It felt a little bit like a stage set of "the past" -- here's what real men are like, and Jake admiring it all the more because it's not what he is like. 

But as a quick literary/genre blend, with some great characters and memorable writing overall, it's a great pick. The interest in the 80s right now, even from those who didn't grow up then, added to the clear compassion that Davidson feels for his characters, equals a sure fire read. Well worth seeking out, even if it is only available in Canada for the moment. 

Bellewether by Kearsley

Bellewether / Susanna Kearsley
Toronto: Simon & Schuster Canada, c2018.
414 p.

I loved this book! I received a copy  from the publisher shortly before the release last week, and settled in to read the whole book that night. Couldn't put it down. 

I love Kearsley's mix of history and romance and hauntings -- this book is one of the best of her most recent titles, for me, as it covers an area of history that I personally enjoy: it's set in 1759 during the war between France & England in North America. It takes place in Long Island, where the Wilde family (made up of father and grown children) must board two French officers who have been captured by the English. One of these officers, Jean-Phillippe de Sabran, is much more respectful of the Wilde family than the other officer, and his interest in their lives grows to include the woman of the house, daughter Lydia. 

Meanwhile, in the story's contemporary setting, Charley Van Hoek comes to Long Island to be the new curator of the Wilde House Museum. Charley has family history in the area, including an estranged grandmother who is a big name in the local Daughters of the American Revolution group. Charley must adapt to her job, her connections to the community, and figure out just what is going on at the Wilde House - because she doesn't believe in ghosts. Not really. But the legend of the doomed love affair of Lydia Wilde has been passed down for generations, and spooky things do happen...

The story is enriched by Kearsley's ability to sketch characters quickly, but with depth and interest. The romance in the past was more vivid than the current day one, for me, but I enjoyed both storylines. I really do like the New France era, and there was a lot of detail about the politics and daily life of that time, thanks to Jean-Phillippe. The house/museum itself is a lovely character, well drawn and described in both eras; I would visit it if it really existed. I also liked how the family relationships in both eras were important to the story; it's nice to see those kind of ties instead of an isolated main character who seems to exist independently.

I can't say too much as I don't want to give away the unfolding of the plot and the joy of discovery while reading this, but I did think this was a great addition to Kearsley's novels, and certainly one that I will reread. The pacing, characters and setting all worked together wonderfully. If you are looking for a non-racy romance, a great historical setting, and a solid plot (with ghosts!), you must try it. 

The Broken Girls

The Broken Girls / Simone St James 
New York: Berkley Books, c2018.
326 p.

I just finished this new novel by Simone St James; I had to read it in two parts, since I put it down the first night when it was just getting too scary for bedtime reading, at least for me! 

I've read all of her novels, and always anticipate the arrival of a new one. This one is different from the previous five -- it's the same atmospheric writing, but mixes the expected Gothic ghost story with a contemporary police drama. It works really, really well. I think this may be the book that introduces her to a wider reading public. It's fascinating, tightly plotted, features a heroine who doesn't do stupid things to advance the story, has great characters in both timelines, and it just doesn't want you to look away. 

Set in Vermont, at Idlewild Hall, a boarding school for so-called troubled girls, it jumps between 1950 and a group of four roommates, and 2014, when journalist Fiona Sheridan finds out the long derelict school is being restored.

Fiona is fixated on the school in her own right; twenty years before, her older sister was found murdered, left on the deserted school playing fields. She can't let it go, and has started following old leads and investigating the now under-construction site. It's complicated by the fact that her new boyfriend Jamie, a younger man, is also on the local police force and doesn't feel comfortable with her digging up dirt about his father and grandfather's investigations into old cases, even her own family's case. 

Meanwhile we get to know the four girls in 1950: Sonia, CeCe, Roberta and Katie, all sent to Idlewild for varied reasons that they eventually disclose to one another. The traumas in their pasts haunt them -- literally. There is a legend that Mary Hand has always haunted the school, and in their turns, all of Idlewild's students see or hear her. She knows what your innermost terror is, and when you see her, that's what she shows you or says to you. It's a truly terrifying moment when Katie encounters Mary Hand when  locked into solitary detention. But beyond the ghost, the girls are tied to the future by their own cold case, when one of them goes missing. 

St James is able to portray the ghost story almost prosaically -- it feels like something you might hear of in real life, those whispered stories of ghostly encounters. It feels like this is a real experience which nobody wants but nobody really questions either. The ghost story carries forward into Fiona's own life as well, and plays a large part in the conclusion of both storylines. The mixture of journalistic investigation, police work, and ghostly revelation is perfectly blended. 

The story all makes sense, both plot-wise and emotionally. I found it a breath-holding, nail-biting read, one in which I couldn't see what was coming next. It's a change for St. James, being set in Vermont and in a contemporary time frame rather than the 20s England I've come to associate with her books. But if you are looking for a compelling and suspenseful boarding school/murder mystery/ghost story, this is most definitely it. 

*********************

Recommended Reading:

For more spooky school stories, I'd suggest Marika Cobbold's Drowning Rose, another story of a group of schoolgirls with a secret in their past, or Carol Goodman's The Lake of Dead Languages for added convoluted relationships.