A bookshop that sells nothing?
Precisely!
Perhaps someday a "real" shop will appear, but at the moment, this is just a small attempt to promote beloved titles and authors, and perhaps to provide a few resources for bringing books and readers happily together.
Featured title: The Tainted RelicNot quite as brilliant as I'd hoped, this first offering from The Medieval Murderers team is still an interesting and worthwhile read.
The titular relic is a fragment of the True Cross, cursed by its custodian after Jerusalem fell to the murderous frenzy of the First Crusade. The story traces the movements and effects of this relic down through the years, with an epilogue set in modern times.
Taking turns relating the tale are five popular British mystery writers, using their own series' characters and historical periods: Bernard Knight, who writes about the 12th century, Devon-based Crowner John; Ian Morson, the William Falconer series, 13th century Oxford; Susanna Gregory, the Matthew Bartholomew series set in 14th century Cambridge, and who, writing as Simon Beaufort, starts the story off with the 12th century Crusader Sir Geoffrey Mappestone; Michael Jecks, the Templar series featuring Sir Baldwin Furnshill and bailiff Simon Puttock, 14th century Devon; and Philip Gooden, who writes about Shakespearean actor and sometime sleuth Nick Revill in 17th century London.
2006-03-18
Coming this summer
The Medieval Murderers follow The Tainted Relic with The Sword of Shame: "From its first arrival in Britain, with the Norman forces of William the Conqueror, violence and revenge are the cursed sword's constant companions. From an election-rigging scandal in 13th century Venice to the battlefield of Poitiers in 1356, as the Sword of Shame passes from owner to owner in this compelling collection of interlinked mysteries, it brings nothing but bad luck and disgrace to all who possess it."
According to Ian Morson's website, he is introducing a new character in his section of the book: Nicolo Zuliani, "a Venetian wheeler-dealer with a bit of a reputation".
Featured title: Thud!- "It's a game of Trolls and Dwarfs where the player
must take both sides to win ...
It's the noise a troll club makes when crushing
in a dwarf skull, or when a dwarfish axe cleaves
a trollish cranium ...
It's the unsettling sound of history about
to repeat itself ... THUD!
It's the most extraordinary, outrageous,
provocative, insightful, and keenly cutting flight
of fancy yet from Discworld's incomparable
supreme creator ... Terry Pratchett."
And it really is a game : THUD, the game of Strategy and Skill
2005-12-04
Back from the bookstore...
Christmas shopping, list in hand, takes me to the bookshop I'd otherwise avoid: the Big-Chain-Store One.
It's just as big this year, but seems to have fewer books. Lots of gift-type stuff, chocolates, and such. All the best-seller-list titles are there, of course, and the prize-winners (I wonder how many copies of The Sea they've sold?), and the "seasonal" books, including, I'm pleased to see, Dr. Seuss' classic How the Grinch Stole Christmas.
Completed my list in short order, then browsed. I was rather startled by the amount of space devoted to the "Da Vinci Code" and "Harry Potter" phenomena, but then had to laugh at myself when I walked away with a book about Rat Scabies' quest for the Grail! I found it tucked away in the travel literature section, and it reminded me of my first introduction to the Rennes-le-Chateau story: in a video game!
Jane Jensen's Blood of the Sacred, Blood of the Damned, the third and final in her Gabriel Knight Mystery Series, was based on the Lincoln-Baigent-Leigh book "Holy Blood, Holy Grail", and it was only after playing the game that I finally got around to reading the book. The game showed some striking visuals of the town of Rennes-le-Chateau, including Berenger Sauniére's church and the Tour Magdala.
Rat Scabies and the Holy Grail, Sceptre Books- Author Christopher Dawes, according to his publisher, "lives in a quiet suburban street, opposite Rat Scabies, former drummer with The Damned and best noted for setting his drums on fire while still playing at a live concert. Life with Rat as a neighbour isn't run-of-the-mill, but things turn even stranger when Rat announces that the two of them are going on a search to find the Holy Grail - the magical relic which has eluded everyone from King Arthur to Monty Python. Rat and Chris's search begins in Rennes-le-Chateau in France, where in 1891 a local priest discovered a treasure whose mystery remains unsolved. Once they've written a list of things to do ("Buy metal detectors!") they need only unravel a tale involving the Cathars, the Knights Templar, the Man in the Iron Mask, Louis XIV - and along the way, visit Paris, Rome, Glastonbury and Tintagel and perhaps join the Masons (Rat thinks they know something)."
Not just for punk rock fans, this promises to be a delightful read for anyone exhausted by the endless hype of "The Da Vinci Code", but intrigued, nontheless, by the endless offshoots of "Holy Blood, Holy Grail". With a father who was president of the Sauniére Society, Rat had a good start on the history. Now it was time to investigate first-hand. As Dawes says, in an interview with the Fortean Times, "The Rennes mystery attracts some great characters - and the book doesn't take the piss out of them, because we're on their side."