Blackout: Oct. 28, 2022
Reading Blackout: September 30, 2022.
The Books
Amateur Sleuth: Ianthe Jerrold: Let Him Lie – finished Sept. 6, 2022.
Murder & Mayhem by the Book: Terry Pratchett: Mrs Bradshaw’s Handbook – finished August 29, 2022.
Cozy Mystery: Miranda James: Murder Past Due – finished Sept. 22, 2022.
Spellbound: Terry Pratchett: The BBC Radio Drama Collection (Mort, Wyrd Sisters, Guards! Guards!, and Eric) – finished Sept. 20, 2022.
Spies & Assassins: Tim Hodkinson: Lions of the Grail – finished Sept. 12, 2022.
Death Down Under: Fergus Hume: The Mystery of a Hansom Cab – finished Sept. 1, 2022.
Golden State Nightmares: Marcia Muller: The Cheshire Cat’s Eye – finished Sept. 25, 2022.
Home for the Horrordays: Barbara Hambly: A Free Man of Color – finished Sept. 15, 2022.
Portal Fantasy: Terry Pratchett: Lords and Ladies – finished Sept. 5, 2022.
Darkest London: John Rhode: The Paddington Mystery – finished Sept. 25, 2022.
Dark Academia: M.S. Morris: Aspire to Die – finished Sept. 28, 2022.
Genre: Horror – WILD CARD: THE LOTTERY => Vintage Mystery: Mo Moulton: Mutual Admiration Society & Dorothy L. Sayers: Busman’s Honeymoon (BBC radio play) – both finished Sept. 29, 2022.
Free (Raven) Square: Hallie Rubenhold: The Five: The Untold Lives of the Women Killed by Jack the Ripper – finished Sept. 13, 2022.
Monsters: Barbara Hambly: Dragonsbane – finished Sept. 19, 2022.
Relics & Curiosities: Michael Jecks: The Templar’s Penance – finished Sept. 30, 2022.
Gallows Humor: Helena Marchmont: Bunburry 7-9 (Sweet Revenge / Sheep Secrets / Deadlier Than Fiction) – finished Sept. 9, 2022.
Halloween: Karen Menuhin: The Curse of Braeburn Castle – finished Sept. 4, 2022.
Mad Scientists and Evil Geniuses: Robert Louis Stevenson: The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde and Other Tales of Terror – finished Sept. 4, 2022.
Plague & Disease: Barbara Hambly: Fever Season – finished Sept. 17, 2022.
Locked Room Mysteries: Seishi Yokomizo: The Honjin Murders – finished Sept. 21, 2022.
When Mother Nature Strikes: Martin Edwards (ed.), Various Authors: The Edinburgh Mystery and Other Tales of Scottish Crime – finished Sept. 7, 2022.
Genre: Mystery: Tony Medawar (ed.), Various Authors: Bodies from the Library 5 – finished August 29, 2022.
Urban Decay: Cath Staincliffe: Hit and Run – finished Sept. 8, 2022.
A Grimm Tale: Terry Pratchett: Witches Abroad – finished August 31, 2022. *
Death in Translation: Arturo Pérez-Reverte: Captain Alatriste – finished Sept. 7, 2022.
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* Change of plans: I’d originally assigned Terry Pratchett’s Witches Abroad to Spellbound (’cause, err, witches), but even though this was a reread — of the book that first got me hooked on Pratchett, no less — and I was surprised to find that despite not having revisited it for several years I still remembered the plot and the points that Pratchett wants to get across in a high degree of detail, it took a re-immersion in the text to remind me just how perfect a fit this is for A Grimm Tale. So, into row 5 of my card it goes instead!
My HB 2022 Mighhavebeens (Bonus Books)
A friend’s word for the books in my 2022 book pool that didn’t make it onto my official card, and which I ended up using as bonus reads.
Book 1: Peter Grainger: But for the Grace – finished Oct. 4, 2022 / Ice Cold Fear
Book 2: E.C.R. Lorac: Murder in the Mill-Race – finished Oct. 6, 2022 / Terror in a Small Town
Book 3: Peter Tremayne: Shroud for the Archbishop – finished Oct. 7, 2022 / Arsenic & Old Lace
Book 4: Terry Pratchett: Small Gods – finished Oct. 13, 2022 / Genre: Supernatural
Book 5: Martin Edwards (ed.), Various Authors: Guilty Creatures – finished Oct. 13, 2022 / Creepy Crawlies
Book 6: Donald Bain / Jessica Fletcher: Murder She Wrote: Margaritas and Murder – finished Oct. 14, 2022 / Terror in the Tropics
Book 7: Suzanne Chazin: Land of Careful Shadows – finished Oct. 17, 2022 / Day of the Dead
Book 8: Ellen Kushner: Swordspoint – finished Oct. 19, 2022 / Sword and Sorcery
Book 9: Caroline Graham: Death of a Hollow Man – finished Oct. 21, 2022 / Film at 11
Book 10: The Medieval Murderers: Hill of Bones – finished Oct. 23, 2022 / Dem Bones
Book 11: Catherine Aird: The Stately Home Murder – finished Oct. 24, 2022 / Country House Mystery
Book 12: Terry Pratchett, Neil Gaiman: Good Omens – finished Oct. 25, 2022 / Black Cat
Book 13: Peter Mayle: The Vintage Caper – finished Oct. 26 / Read by Flashlight or Candlelight
Book 14: Edogawa Rampo: Japanese Tales of Mystery and Imagination – finished Oct. 31, 2022/ Gothic
Book 15: Neil Gaiman: Fragile Things – finished Oct. 28, 2022 / Magical Realism
Book 16: Neil Gaiman: The Monarch of the Glen – finished Oct. 28, 2022 / The Barrens
Book 17: Chris Cander: Grieving Conversations – finished Oct. 29, 2022 / In the Dark, Dark Woods
Book 18: Jeffery Deaver: Stay Tuned – finished Oct. 29, 2022 / Ghosts and Hauntings
Book 19: Jeffery Deaver: The Intruder – finished Oct. 31, 2022 / Psych
Book 20: Dervla McTiernan: The Sisters – finished Oct. 31, 2022 / Home is Where the Hurt Is
My Square Markers
Called ~~~~~~~~ Read ~~~~~~~~ Called & Read
My Spreadsheet
The Bingo Calls
(+) / (-): on my card / not on my card
bold / italics / crossed out: both read and called
September
09 / 01 Dystopian Hellscape (-)
09 / 02 Fear the Drowning Deep (-)
09 / 03 Genre: Thriller (-)
09 / 04 Mad Scientists and Evil Geniusses (+)
09 / 05 Portal Fantasy (+)
09 / 06 A Grimm Tale (+)
09 / 07 Halloween (+)
09 / 08 Modern Masters of Horror (-)
09 / 09 Magical Realism (-)
09 / 10 The Carpathians (-)
09 / 11 When Mother Nature Strikes (+)
09 / 12 Plague and Disease (+)
09 / 13 Psych (-)
09 / 14 Vintage Horror (-)
09 / 15 Day of the Dead (-)
09 / 16 Dark, Darker, Grimdark (-)
09 / 17 Monsters (+)
09 / 18 Shifters (-)
09 / 19 Genre: Mystery (+)
09 / 20 Country House Mystery (-)
09 / 21 Splatter (-)
09 / 22 Lost in Space (-)
09 / 23 Gallows Humor (+)
09 / 24 Romantic Suspense (-)
09 / 25 Noir (-)
09 / 26 Black Cat (-)
09 / 27 Death in Translation (+)
09 / 28 Amateur Sleuth (+)
09 / 29 Sword and Sorcery (-)
09 / 30 Genre: Supernatural (-)
October
10 / 01 Terror in the Tropics (-)
10 / 02 Genre: Horror (-) (wild card conversion)
10 / 03 Spellbound (+)
10 / 04 Dem Bones (-)
10 / 05 Creepy Crawlies (-)
10 / 06 Gothic (-)
10 / 07 Home for the Horrordays (+)
10 / 08 Urban Decay (+)
10 / 09 In the Dark, Dark Woods (-)
10 / 10 Locked Room Mystery (+)
10 / 11 Arsenic and Old Lace (-)
10 / 12 Ghosts and Hauntings (-)
10 / 13 The Barrens (-)
10 / 14 Dark Academia (+)
10 / 15 Cozy Mystery (+)
10 / 16 Murder & Mayhem by the Book (+)
10 / 17 Relics & Curiosities (+)
10 / 18 Ice Cold Fear (-)
10 / 19 Golden State Nightmares (+)
10 / 20 Creepy Carnivals (-)
10 / 21 Vintage Mystery (+)
10 / 22 Spies & Assassins (+)
10 / 23 Darkest London (+)
10 / 24 Terror in a Small Town (-)
10 / 25 Deadlands (-)
10 / 26 Film at 11 (-)
10 / 27 Punk’d! (-)
10 / 28 Death Down Under (+)
10 / 29 Grave or Graveyard (-)
10 / 30 Home Is Where the Hurt Is (-)
10 / 31 The River Styx (-)
The Wild Cards
THE LEGEND OF SLEEPING HOLLOW
Read by firelight or candlelight and substitute for any square. By popular consensus, square converted to a wild card.
Reconverted to individual square stand-in for my bonus read of Peter Mayle’s The Vintage Caper.
ALICE IN WONDERLAND
Any book written by an indigenous author or an author from a historically marginalized community. Also going from a square to a wild card!
Options:
Roseanne A. Brown: A Song of Wraiths and Ruin
Alafair Burke: 212
Edwidge Danticat: Krik? Krak!
Edwidge Danticat: Breath, Eyes, Memory
Emma Donoghue: Kissing the Witch
Emma Donoghue: Frog Music
Emma Donoghue: The Sealed Letter
Tananarive Due: Ghost Summer: Stories
Aminatta Forna: The Devil That Danced on the Water
Stephen Fry: The Liar
Stephen Fry: Heroes
Marlon James: A Brief History of Seven Killings
Attica Locke: Heaven, My Home
Alexander McCall Smith (ed.): The Girl Who Married a Lion (African Folk Tales)
Mukoma Wa Ngugi: Unbury Our Dead with Song
Arturo Pérez-Reverte: Captain Alatriste
Luis J. Rodriguez: Always Running: La Vida Loca: Gang Days in L.A.
S.J. Rozan: Winter and Night
S.J. Rozan: Paper Son
Taiye Selasi: Ghana Must Go
Namwali Serpell: The Old Drift
Vladimir Sorokin: Der Schneesturm (The Blizzard)
Sarah Waters: The Paying Guests
Oscar Wilde: The Picture of Dorian Gray
Oscar Wilde: Lord Arthur Savile’s Crime
Tiphanie Yanique: Monster in the Middle
Seishi Yokomizo: The Honjin Murders
THE LOTTERY
Switch out any square for another, preferred, square. This is an old favorite and can help avoid that square that you just can’t find a book for!
Used to swap out Vintage Mystery for Genre: Horror.
THE TELL-TALE HEART
Read any book by a favorite author to play this card.
I’m keeping an open mind here — if I use this wild card, it will most likely be for a book by either of these authors:
- Arthur Conan Doyle
- Agatha Christie
- Dorothy L. Sayers
- Martin Edwards
- Margaret Millar
- Michael Jecks
- Ellis Peters
- Candace Robb
- the Medieval Murderers collective
- … or, of course, Terry Pratchett.
WIND IN THE WILLOWS
Read a book with a friend and use for any square.
Bonus / Swap-Out Squares Considered
Bingos listed on page 2, book pool on pages 3 and 4!
