Get Lost in Literature

 What is the difference between a mystery and a thriller? Some of you may already know this, especially if you are mystery or thriller readers, but I only learned the difference recently. I always assumed a thriller was a mystery with a lot of action in it. After all, action is thrilling. I was always perplexed when a book classified as a thriller, had no action in it at all and read like a mystery. Apparently, there can be a bit of crossover between the two. A thriller can be mysterious and a mystery can be action packed, so maybe I’m not the only one who has been confused. The biggest defining characteristic of a mystery is that it should revolve around crimes that take place in the past . It’s usually intellectually driven, slow burn, and filled with clues that dribble out over time. The antagonist is kept a secret, usually not revealed until the end, or the climax at the earliest. The biggest defining characteristic of a thriller? The opposite of a mystery, it revolve...

“Shadows in the corridor loomed, only to scurry away. They seemed taller in the witching hour, dawn mere hours away.” In this sequel to One Dark Window , Nightmare has finally taken over Elspeth’s mind, leaving her imprisoned in the dark. Ravyn, who is desperate to save her and break the curse on Blunder, must find the last Providence card before time runs out. With Hauth on his deathbed, Elm finds himself becoming an unwilling heir to the throne. I loved the plot of this a little bit better than the first. I think maybe the first book was simply introducing the world… The second book is more of a quest as the future of Blunder hangs in the balance. There was no waffling about either, nothing extraneous included. RG knew where she wanted her characters to go and she sent them there. The romantasy elements were really fun. The story is passionate without being super smutty. Ravyn’s determined to save Elspeth even if it means allying himself with the monster that lives in her head, even ...

“He didn’t particularly like being himself, but he didn’t want to be anyone else either.” Julia Malmros is a successful mystery novelist with a whole career ahead of her. When she’s asked to ghostwrite for the Millennium series she reaches out to Kim Ribbing, a mysterious hacker, to help her prepare for the task. Olof Helander is throwing a Midsummer’s Eve party when armed assassins unleash a rain of bullets. Julia and Kim find themselves drawn into the violent murder when they discover the brutal aftermath. This author is on my auto-buy list. Doesn’t matter what it is, if he wrote it, I’ll give it a try. Up until now, I’ve only known him as a horror writer. I was deeply intrigued when I saw this newest translated novel was a mystery. The characters are interesting to say the least. Julia is a retired cop, turned crime-writer investigating the murder of a childhood friend. Kim, a hacker, lives his life under the oppressive weight of childhood trauma as revealed in flashbacks throughou...

For this year’s A-Z Challenge, I decided to focus my posts on bookish topics. I don’t think all of them were as bookish as I wanted them to be, but I took a shot at it. I’m proud to say this is the third year in a row I managed to blog from A-Z without missing any letters. If you want to take a look at some of my topics, I posted a list here . I am disappointed in myself though. The difference between this year and the previous two, is I didn’t have time to blog as thoroughly as I wanted. I usually visit ten new blogs a day, but my blogging this year was restricted to weekends. I tried to visit everyone who visited me, but some days that just wasn’t possible. So I apologize if you were kind enough to visit me and I couldn’t make it to your blog in return. Mostly when I look back at this challenge, I consider it a semi-success. I found some new blogs and rejuvenated my interest in some old ones. I managed to post from A-Z even if I didn’t have time to enjoy as many of your blogs as I ...

"When the world of man collapses in ruin, beauty will take over. " This is the sequel to Interview with the Vampire , where Lestat has returned to the limelight quite literally. Lestat has become a rock star, flaunting his vampireness to the world. He, having read Louis’s book, has decided to publish one of his own. His own memoir details his life as a human, his transformation into a vampire, and his quest for knowledge. I actually liked this book a little more than Interview with the Vampire but not by much. Lestat is super narcissistic which is on par with his character from IwtV .   But unlike Louis’s story, Lestat has been changed from a creepy pedo into a killer of killers which makes him a little more likable, but makes the story inconsistent. I like the question it presents though: Which vampire is telling the truth? As a human, he was a noble who felt trapped by his family. He longed to be an actor from a very young age and when he meets Nikki, a musician, that ...

  Happy Sunday! I hope you are all doing well and enjoying your weekend. The Sunday Post is a news meme created by CaffeinatedReviewer . I'm also linking up with Sunday Salon at ReaderBuzz . I will be posting on the first Sunday of each month and I hope you'll join me. The weather has been wild this month for this time of year. We got a heatwave of 80 degrees and then we dropped right down to a more normal 50-60 with rain. It is environmentally concerning, but at the same time, I’m so ready for the summer heat. This year I finished my A-Z Challenge . You can find a complete list of my topics here if you’re interested. I considered it a semi-success. I did manage to post for every letter of the alphabet, and I tried to visit all of those who visited me, but I didn’t have the time I wanted to visit every blog I wanted. When I did visit blogs, I stuck mostly to Blogspot/Blogger blogs because they load easier on my computer and I was a bit frustrated that some blogs I liked ...