Book Review: The Cathedral of Lost Souls by Paula Brackston

 Book Review

The Cathedral of Lost Souls

The Hectate Cavendish Series, Book 2

Paula Brackston

Book Description:

Book two in the Hecate Cavendish series from New York Times bestselling author Paula Brackston - a magic infused series about an eccentric and spirited young woman who can see ghosts.

Hereford, England 1881.

The adventure continues! After the fire and the tumultuous events in the cathedral library, Hecate is determined never again to come so close to losing the beloved mappa mundi. She has shown herself to be the greatest threat to the Essedenes and their plans and they will stop at nothing to be rid of her. With the help of her
archeologist father, and the support of the redoubtable and loyal Inspector Winter, she must take the fight to her enemies.

But the numbers of Embodied Spirits are growing with terrifying speed, and an atmosphere of violence and danger has taken hold of the ancient city of Hereford. Hecate dare not trust anyone beyond her inner circle, no matter how benevolent they might seem. Nor will she risk the lives of those she loves ever again. The goddess Hekate has called her to action. She must draw upon all her gifts, and the assistance of her family of ghostly allies, if the city is not to be lost to darkness forever.

 

Preorder on Amazon

Release Date: November 11, 2025

 

My 5-Star Review:

 

Cathedral of Lost Souls is a beautifully written novel that grips the reader from the opening chapter and doesn’t let go. The author masterfully blends suspense, emotion, and a touch of the supernatural into a story that feels both thrilling and deeply human. Every page carries an undercurrent of mystery and heart that keeps you eagerly turning to the next.

 

The true brilliance of this book lies in its remarkable characters. Each soul—living or departed—is portrayed with warmth, compassion, and emotional depth. Their intertwined stories evoke genuine feeling, and the relationships that stretch across time and mortality are handled with exquisite sensitivity. You’ll find yourself caring deeply for every one of them.

 

The pacing is seamless, with just the right balance between heart-pounding suspense and quiet, reflective moments. Each twist feels earned, each revelation satisfying. It’s the kind of novel you want to savor slowly, yet can’t resist reading late into the night.

 

Ultimately, Cathedral of Lost Souls is a moving testament to the endurance of love and the redemptive power of the human spirit. It’s both haunting and hopeful—a rare combination that lingers long after the final page. A truly unforgettable read that shines with five-star brilliance.

 

 

About the Author:

Paula Brackston lives in the historic city of Hereford on the Welsh border. She has an MA in Creative Writing from Lancaster University, and has been a Visiting Lecturer for the University of Wales, Newport. Before becoming a writer, Paula tried her hand at various career paths, with mixed success. These included working as a groom on a racing yard, a travel agent, a secretary, an English teacher, a script reader, and a goat herd. Everyone involved (particularly the goats) is very relieved that she has now found a job she is actually able to do properly.

 

In 2007 Paula was shortlisted in the Creme de la Crime search for new writers. In 2010 her book 'Nutters' (writing as PJ Davy) was shortlisted for the Mind Book Award. The following year she was selected by the BBC under their New Welsh Writers scheme. 'The Witch's Daughter' became a New York Times bestseller. Her books are translated into five languages and sold around the world.

 

Book Review – The Crimes that Inspired Agatha Christie: The Facts Behind the Fiction by Jonathan Oates and Anna-Lena Berg

 Book Review

The Crimes that Inspired Agatha Christie: The Facts Behind the Fiction 

Jonathan Oates

Anna-Lena Berg

Book Description:

Did you know that many of Agatha Christie’s best-selling detective stories have their basis in reality?

‘Who killed Charles Bravo and why?’ asks retired Superintendent Spence in Elephants Can Remember. He refers to an unsolved Victorian murder mystery, one of many allusions to real life crime and criminals in Agatha Christie’s fiction. The infamous Dr Crippen, Jack the Ripper, John George Haigh, and many other real killers, fraudsters and spies, figure prominently in her plots, both explicitly and implicitly.

Many of these cases belong to British criminal history, others originate from the USA and France. They cover a time frame from the eighteenth century to the 1960s, showing that Agatha Christie was not only an inspired writer of fiction but had a knowledge of true crime as well. There are even instances where she seems to have anticipated real life crimes, as in the case of the infamous poisoner Graham Young.

This book explains the reality of these criminals and their crimes - some of which are well known, others largely forgotten - and how they are utilised in Agatha Christie’s stories.

Armed with this book, fans of the author’s work will be able to gain new insights when reading her books either for the first time or on a repeat reading.

 

Order now on Amazon

 

My 5-Star Review:

The Crimes That Inspired Agatha Christie by Jonathan Oates and Anna-Lena Berg is an irresistible journey into the darker corners of real-life mysteries that fueled Christie’s imagination. The authors skillfully uncover the true crimes—poisonings, swindles, disappearances, and betrayals—that found new life in her classic tales, offering fresh perspective without ever spoiling her plots.

Richly illustrated and meticulously researched, the book captures both Christie’s fascination with human nature and her gift for turning reality into masterful fiction. Even for readers well-versed in true crime, there are intriguing new discoveries and connections to savor. A captivating and respectful tribute to the Queen of Crime—perfect for any admirer who wants to glimpse the real cases behind her legendary stories.

 

About the Authors:

Dr Jonathan Oates is the Ealing Borough Archivist and Local History Librarian, and he has written and lectured on the Jacobite rebellions and on aspects of the history of London, including its criminal past. He is also well known as an expert on family history and has written several introductory books on the subject including Tracing Your London Ancestors, Tracing Your Ancestors From 1066 to 1837 and Tracing Villains and Their Victims.

Dr Anna-Lena Berg is a Swedish writer focusing on historical true crime. Her background as a veterinary surgeon and specialist in pathology is of value also for her literary projects. Anna-Lena is the author of "Blood on the Ocean: the forgotten true story of the Veronica mutiny", an account of a violent mutiny aboard a British sailing ship in 1902. She has a lifelong love for Agatha Christie’s novels.

Book Review – America’s Most Gothic: Haunted History Stranger Than Fiction by Leanna Renee Hieber and Andrea Janes

 Book Review

A great choice for Halloween!

America's Most Gothic: Haunted History Stranger Than Fiction

Leanna Renee Hieber

Andrea Janes

Book Description:

From the Bram Stoker nominated author team who penned A Haunted History of Invisible Women, the first book of its kind to investigate gothic tropes that define American lore. Here is the hidden, dark history of what frightens us—and why.

The Gothic. Brooding, atmospheric, chilling, and not always the outpouring of a feverish imagination. Reality can be even stranger as borne out in this lush and ghostly look at real people who lived--and died—amidst the trappings of the Gothic.

Fog clinging to an isolated mansion. A dangerous patriarch or an overbearing matron. Locked doors and forbidden rooms. Whispers of murder and madness. And a woman shadowed by omnipresent threats. You’ve guessed it. You’ve stumbled into a Gothic tale, and it will haunt you like a ghost.

We often think of the enduring tropes of the Gothic in terms of fiction and film—breath-catching escapes that tap into our fears, anxieties, forbidden desires, and unsettling dreams. But what if some of these chilly vibes are rooted in the experiences of real and tragic people who danced a macabre waltz with love and death? That’s why we’re here. Take the case of teenage Mercy Brown, victim—or was it predator?—of Rhode Island’s vampire hysteria of the 1890s. Marguerite de la Roque, a French noblewoman condemned for “sexual crimes” to Canada’s long-lost Isle of Demons. What happened to her and the barren landscape itself is the stuff of legend. And “Mad Lucy” Ludwell, the decidedly peculiar eighteenth-century high-society hauteur driven mad in the Virginia estate she prowls to this day. President Helen Peabody’s spirit still stringently watches over her Women’s College, now part of Ohio’s Miami University. Ghosts of workers lost in horrific conditions while building the Hoosac Tunnel warn of imminent danger. Settle in. There are more.

Welcome to the phantom ships, haunted academic halls, menacing landscapes, and family curses of America’s Most Gothic—a tour of true spectral sightings and disordered minds. But beware: it’s sure to get under your skin. The haunted—and haunting—figures herein want it that way.

 

Buy Now on Amazon

 

My 5-Star Review:

America’s Most Gothic: Haunted History Stranger than Fiction by Andrea Janes and Leanna Renee Hieber is more than a collection of eerie tales—it’s a thoughtful journey into the shadows where folklore and history intertwine. With a storyteller’s grace and a historian’s care, the authors peel back layers of legend to reveal the real lives and forgotten voices that linger behind America’s most haunting myths.

What makes the book stand out is its blend of atmosphere and empathy. The stories never feel like sensational ghost lore; instead, they carry the weight of the people who lived, suffered, and sometimes were silenced in history. The feminist perspective woven throughout brings a refreshing depth, reminding us that behind every ghostly figure was once a woman or man with a story worth hearing.

The writing is vivid yet accessible, capturing the reader with Gothic elegance while staying grounded in fact. At times chilling, at times poignant, the book balances the thrill of the supernatural with the humanity of its subjects. It’s a work that not only entertains but also enlightens, encouraging us to look at Gothic tales not just as curiosities, but as reflections of very real struggles, injustices, and hopes.

A captivating read for lovers of Gothic literature and haunted history alike, America’s Most Gothic is both unsettling and deeply moving—a reminder that the past never quite lets go.

 

 

About the Authors:

 

Leanna Renee Hieber is an actress, playwright, artist and the award-winning, bestselling author of fiction and non-fiction for adults and teens such as A HAUNTED HISTORY OF INVISIBLE WOMEN: TRUE STORIES OF AMERICA'S GHOSTS, co-authored with Andrea Janes, which was a Bram Stoker Award Finalist for Superior Achievement in Non-Fiction. Her Gothic, Gaslamp Fantasy fiction such as the Strangely Beautiful, Eterna Files, Magic Most Foul and Spectral City series, have garnered numerous awards and accolades.

 

Leanna grew up in rural Ohio inventing ghost stories, graduating with a BFA in Theatre and a focus in the Victorian Era from Miami University. While working with the Cincinnati Shakespeare Company, she began adapting works of 19th Century literature for the stage. Her debut Strangely Beautiful series hit Barnes & Noble's bestseller lists, won three Prism Awards and are now available in revised editions. DARKER STILL: A Novel of Magic Most Foul, hit the Kid's/YA Indie Next List as a recommended title by the American Booksellers Association and was a Daphne du Maurier award finalist. Leanna's short fiction has been featured in numerous notable anthologies and her books have been translated into many languages. Leanna has been featured on film and television on shows like Mysteries at the Museum and Beyond the Unknown discussing Victorian Spiritualism. An enthusiastic public lecturer, Leanna speaks at major conventions and notable institutions around the country about the intersections of women's history and the paranormal. She lives in New York where she leads ghost tours for Boroughs of the Dead.

 

 

Andrea Janes lives in Brooklyn, New York. She loves ghost stories, sailing ships, New York City history, and tremendously big breakfasts.

Book Review: The Girl in the Green Dress by Mariah Fredericks

 Book Review

The Girl in the Green Dress

Mariah Fredericks

Book Description:

From the author of The Lindbergh Nanny comes an evocative mystery about the 1920 murder of the gambler Joseph Elwell, featuring New Yorker writer Morris Markey and Zelda Fitzgerald.

New York, 1920.

Zelda Fitzgerald is bored, bored, bored. Although she’s newly married to the hottest writer in America, and one half of the literary scene’s "it" couple, Zelda is at loose ends while Scott works on his next novel, The Beautiful and the Damned.

Meanwhile, Atlanta journalist Morris Markey has arrived in New York and is lost in every way possible. Recently returned from the war and without connections, he hovers at the edge of the city’s revels, unable to hear the secrets that might give him his first big story.

When notorious man-about-town Joseph Elwell is found shot through the head in his swanky townhouse, the fortunes the two southerners collide when they realize they were both among the last to see him alive. Zelda encountered Elwell at the scandalous Midnight Frolic revue on the night of his death, and Markey saw him just hours before with a ravishing mystery woman dressed in green. Markey has his story. Zelda has her next adventure.

As they investigate which of Elwell’s many lovers—or possibly an enraged husband—would have wanted the dapper society man dead, Zelda sweeps Markey into her New York, the heady, gaudy Jazz Age of excess and abandon, as the lost generation takes its first giddy steps into a decade-long spree. Everyone has come to do something, the more scandalous the better; Zelda is hungry for love and sensation, Markey desperate for success and recognition. As they each follow these ultimately dangerous desires, the pair close in on what really happened that night—and hunt for the elusive girl in the green dress who may hold the truth.

Based on the real story of the unsolved deaths of Joseph Elwell and New Yorker writer Morris Markey, Mariah Fredericks’s new novel is a glittering homage to the dawn of the Jazz Age, as well as a deft and searing portrait of the dark side of fame.

 

Buy on Amazon

 

My 5-Star Review:

The first book I read of Mariah Fredericks was The Lindbergh Nanny, which I highly enjoyed so I was excited to read The Girl in the Green Dress. I must admit, it was the fact that Zelda Fitzgerald was in the book that hooked me. But the book ended up being very different than I anticipated.

In the story, journalist and WWI veteran Morris Markey is on the case when his neighbor is murdered. Knowing a detail no other journalists knows, he quickly begins trying to solve the case while writing articles for his newspaper. He enlists the help of famed author, F. Scott Fitzgerald’s wife, Zelda, who is more than happy to help him solve the murder. Together, they squeeze their way into the homes and entertainment places of the rich to figure out who the woman was who left the murder scene – the woman in the green dress.

This was a fun and interesting tale of a real-life cold case taking quite a lot of literary license placing Zelda and Scott into this story. I had hoped the story would be more true-to-life about the Fitzgerald’s, but it was instead more of a fantasy than reality. However, the story was entertaining and fun to read and I enjoyed it.

 

About the Author:

Mariah Fredericks was born and raised in New York City. She graduated from Vassar College with a degree in history. She enjoys reading and writing about dead people and how they got that way. She is the author of the Jane Prescott mystery series.