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40x40

Mark @ Carstairs Considers (2658 KP) rated Halloween Party Murder in Books

Sep 1, 2021 (Updated Sep 1, 2021)  
Halloween Party Murder
Halloween Party Murder
Barbara Ross, Leslie Meier, Lee Hollis | 2021 | Mystery
8
8.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
Partying with a Corpse or Three
This Halloween, we are being treated to another novella collection with these three cozy mystery authors as they feature their series sleuths. First up, Lucy Stone finds a dead body after a haunted house fund raiser. Then, Hayley Powell’s Halloween party in her new restaurant ends with the discovery of a corpse in the freezer. Finally, when Julia Snowden’s niece finds herself at a high school party, Julia goes to bring her home, only for the police to discover a dead body in the shed out back.

Out of these three authors, I only regularly read Barbara Ross’s Maine Clambake mysteries, so that story, featuring Julia Snowden, was my favorite. That’s not to say I didn’t enjoy all three of the novellas. All three feature a strong assortment of characters and a solid mystery. Even if I figured out a part of the story early, I didn’t have it all pieced together until the end. My only complaint was the politics brought into the first novella in the collection. Even then, I’m a bit torn since it did play a part in the story while also feeling like I was reading a lecture. Still, if you are in the mood for a murderous Halloween party, you’ll be glad you picked up this novella collection.
  
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ClareR (6256 KP) rated The Mars House in Books

Oct 1, 2024  
The Mars House
The Mars House
Natasha Pulley | 2024 | Science Fiction/Fantasy
9
9.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
Can I just say that I loved a book and leave it at that? Because this is one of those books.
Ok, a short summary:
January Sterling is a climate refugee, escaping the floods and intense heat for the Mars colony of Tharsis. Life as an Earthstronger on Mars isn’t ideal. He and the other Earthstrongers are seen as a danger to the native Martians: they are much stronger because of the weaker gravity, even though they’re much smaller. January and his fellow Earthstrongers are discriminated against and given the worst manual labour jobs.

January meets a Martian politician who is staunchly anti-Earth stronger, an somehow ends up in a sham-marriage. Of course, it’s a slow-burn romance with lots of peril, lies and climate change politics.

My only complaint, is that in trying to make the characters asexual, they all read as being very male. Perhaps it was just the way I read it.

The Mars House has a lot to say about climate change and its refugees - and the predictable refugee-haters. Instead of boats, they arrive in space ships, and the inhabitants of Mars are as scared of, and enraged by, these people, as some elements in our own society today.

I really enjoyed this book, and I loved how different it was to Natasha Pulley’s previous books. Whatever will she write next? I’ll be waiting!