RIP IX

How did it get to be September already?

So, I love the autumn, always have done, but the onset of mellow fruitfulness and longer nights and all that stuff is made even more pleasurable by the advent of Carl’s annual RIP challenge now in its ninth year where we all come together to read dark stuff with ghosts and horror and mystery and danger. It starts on 1 September and runs to 31 October.

I have a list that’s far too long even for someone who’s playing a blinder in her reading plans (already only four volumes away from my target for the year) out of which I will attempt to read four so I can take part in Peril the First.

Before I go on I must say that I love the Abigail Larson art that Carl has chosen, partly because she has designed the cover for the first book on my list but mostly because I am lucky enough to have a framed print of her Masque of the Red Death.

But enough of that; to the list:

• The Book of Whispering Spirits by Jeff Ferrell
• Carpathia by Matt Forbeck
• Murder by Sarah Pinborough
• The Cold Calling by Phil Rickman
• The Jennifer Morgue by Charles Stross
• Savage Magic by Lloyd Shepherd
• Goth Girl and the Ghost of a Mouse by Chris Riddell
• The Island of Dr Moreau by HG Wells which will lead to
• The Madman’s Daughter by Megan Shepherd
• Let the Old Dreams Die by John Ajvide Lindqvist
• The Abominable by Dan Simmons (because it wouldn’t be RIP without DS even though I suspect there are no yetis in this novel)

That looks like a pretty fine haul.

I will also try to take part in Peril on the Screen by finding stuff that is suitably creepy. At the very least I hope to watch Triangle which I’ve had for ages and still not seen. And maybe some revisits to old favourites, Theatre of Blood springing to mind.

Looking forward to seeing everyone else’s lists!