My October readathon has come to a FrightFall end

Here we are in the early days of November and yet I must look briefly back at Halloween, which heralded the end of the FrightFall readathon(hosted by Michelle Miller at Seasons of Reading). My finale was short and sweet, with sadly one book left unfinished but hopefully not for long.

The last book that I did complete was The Readaholics and the Falcon Fiasco by Laura DiSilverio, the first in a series and ironically enough, the last one from that trio that I read.

The title group is a book club set in the small town of Heaven, Colorado and our leading lady is Amy-Faye Johnson, who is building up her event planning business quite nicely. As the story begins, she rescues a kitten on her way to a meeting with a new client, which sets things off on a topsy-turvy vibe.

That vibe gets even more wonky as Amy-Faye learns that her new client Madison Taylor is planning a wedding and that her intended groom is Doug, a former beau of Amy-Faye's who she has had an on-again,off-again relationship for years. With Madison being the one to announce the upcoming nuptials, it's clear that Doug is definitely over her but Amy-Faye is not so sure that she's done with him just yet:

A welcome distraction from that problem for Amy-Faye is her Readaholics meeting to discuss Dashiell Hammett's The Maltese Falcon, their latest selection.

The group includes such biblio buddies as Brooke, who is hoping to have a baby via adoption much to the objection of her snooty in-laws, Lola, the gentle hearted florist raising her younger sister with the help of their grandmother(she becomes the owner of Amy-Faye's rescue kitty,btw) and Maud, whose love of mystery books reflect her deep suspicions about the world at large.

While the talk is a lively one, the follow-up meeting to watch the classic film version is delayed due to the shocking discovery made by Amy-Faye the next day. Another Readaholics member, Ivy Donner, is found dying by poison in her own kitchen. The authorities later rule her death as a suicide, which all of her friends find rather hard to believe, particularly Amy-Faye, who decides that it's her duty to find out who the killer is.

The story is well paced,allowing the other members of the group to contribute to the case(especially Maud, with her computer skills and tendency to see conspiracies  almost everywhere) while keeping Amy-Faye at the center of the action. Plus, weaving in elements of The Maltese Falcon into the overall arch of the mystery is nicely done.

My only regret is that there are only three books in this Book Club Mystery series and because of a library loan, I've read them out of order and now I'm done. Perhaps Laura DiSilverio will bring these characters back in the near future but until then, I do recommend checking The Readaholics series out as it's the stuff that bookish dreams are made of:

Meanwhile, as of this writing, I have not yet finished Gaudy Night but still intend to keep it in circulation among my regular reading. In a way, it might be best to do that as Dorothy Sayers is not a writer that you want to fast forward through.

The plot features Harriet Vane, an author whose casual romance with Lord Peter Wimsey(the main detective in Sayers' novels) not only helped her from being executed for a crime she didn't commit but now may be of some use in a new mystery she's landed herself in.

Upon attending the college reunion event of the title held at Shrewsbury, Harriet notices some strange drawings and notes left for her on campus. Thinking that they are due to her past notoriety, she discards them yet some time later, she gets a request from the Dean to quietly look into a string of odd occurrences that have popped up at Shrewsbury since Gaudy Night ended.

 Acts of vandalism, including the burning of collegiate robes, and vulgar notes with vague threats keep happening and since Harriet is a mystery writer, it is thought that she might have a better insight into who might be doing all of this. She does her level best ,however, it soon becomes clear that she is in need of serious assistance in this matter and fortunately, Lord Peter is able to provide just that. In addition to that, Harriet has to examine the mystery of her own feelings for Lord Peter, a man she is drawn to yet is uncertain of committing to when it comes to marriage.

This is my first major attempt at reading Sayers and I do enjoy the leisurely elegance of her writing, so taking my time with Gaudy Night feels like a good call:

All in all, this was a good FrightFall to be had and much thanks to Michelle at Seasons of Reading for hosting another wonderful readathon. Later this month, SOR will have the Christmas Spirit readathon and yes, I do have books ready for that!

I hope that my fellow FrightFall readers enjoyed their page turning terrors as well but weren't frightened too much. Scary stuff is fun at times but if it makes you crawl into your favorite hiding place,too reluctant to come on out, that might be a sign to take your literary fear fest down a level there: