From: "Madeleine Yeh" <myeh at wap.org>
Subject: [WSFA] Fantasy Mystery
To: WSFA members <WSFAlist at WSFA.org>
Date: Wed, 24 Nov 2004 18:04:46 -0500
Reply-To: WSFA members <WSFAlist at WSFA.org>

   I just read a new fantasy mystery called "Ghosts in the
Snow" by Tamara Siler Jones. I actually had to buy this
book, as oppose to getting it from Ernest. It wasn't bad,
actually it was fairly good.  Had a serial killer in a
castle, with the old tired gray Castellan trying to catch
him.  This is a sort of Medieval universe, with a bit of
magic.  The great mages were overthrown about 40 years
ago, and most of their magical tools were destroyed also.
   The hero is getting increasing desperate as the ghosts
of the murder victims accumulate around him.  He is
keeping this a secret from the rest of the castle, so has
problems like seeing a new ghost, and then waiting for
someone to discover the body.
    Science Fiction/Mystery and Fantasy/Mystery seems to
be increasingly common.  I can think of  half a dozen
series and a number of stand alone novels without really
trying.
   What do other people like in a fantasy/mystery?  I like
good characters and avoiding "miracle" solutions.  The
ones where Lord Darcy does a bit of tricky magic and voila
the villians are revealed.  In this book, I  like the
relative naivity of the good guys, serial killers are a
new experience and they haven't the faintest idea where to
start looking.  It must have been  hard in a preprinting
universe to deal with rare phenomen like murders, without
books and films and TV and magazines telling of past
cases.
   I don't like it where the detectives seem to be almost
omniscent
      Madeleine

P.S.  Keith where are the archives again for this email
list?