Crime, Mysteries & Thrillers discussion

June Group Read #2

Our group read lead for Johannes Cabal: The Necromancer is Leigh Anne.

As usual please note we discuss all aspects of the books we read - the plots, the characters, the settings and so on - on our discussions threads. Hence the discussion threads will contain spoilers from the start. If you haven't finished the book yet be careful not to read others' posts until the end.


If you have not made a selection from this month's books here is the Goodreads summary of Johannes Cabal The Necromancer.

" A charmingly gothic, fiendishly funny Faustian tale about a brilliant scientist who makes a deal with the Devil, twice.

Johannes Cabal sold his soul years ago in order to learn the laws of necromancy. Now he wants it back. Amused and slightly bored, Satan proposes a little wager: Johannes has to persuade one hundred people to sign over their souls or he will be damned forever. This time for real. Accepting the bargain, Jonathan is given one calendar year and a traveling carnival to complete his task. With little time to waste, Johannes raises a motley crew from the dead and enlists his brother, Horst, a charismatic vampire to help him run his nefarious road show, resulting in mayhem at every turn."

While looking around for reviews of this book I found some neat fan art to share.

Source: http://indubitablyjohannescabal.tumbl...

Thanks for sharing the art... I enjoy the upper one which has a fin de siecle air to it. I guess the bottom one is Johnny Depp (minus 20 yrs).

Ray wrote: "Thanks for sharing the art... I enjoy the upper one which has a fin de siecle air to it. I guess the bottom one is Johnny Depp (minus 20 yrs)."

LOL!!!! I didn't see that when I saw it.

Just started this book and I am excited for it's potential - thanks for nominating it and for the art!

I LOVED THIS BOOK!!! I started reading it yesterday and just finished it!! It is so funny!! My dogs kept on getting up and checking on me since I was laughing so loud. (I really think they believe there's something wrong with me for making such a noise.)

I've already reviewed it: http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/...

The language is delightful and quirky. The torments in Hell were wonderful and so appropriate. I was also very happy to see some of my relatives showed up. Namely the infamous Dr. Crippen and his not-so-dearly departed wife, Cora.

Can't wait to see if others were as amused and delighted with it as I was. It was a wonderful up to my week.

I am glad you liked this book Kirsten. You must have a very interesting family tree. I am going to have to look up some of the other names used in the book and the inhabitants of Hell to see which are based on real people. I have about 35 pages left and I love the book too. He is a dick, but a very interesting, charismatic one. His singular focus on getting what is wants at all costs is fascinating.

I was very happy to finally get a description of the Latex Lady-- I didn't think we were going to get one. The author did a great job of creating this world, still not quite sure what year it is, not that it matters. I loved the language too.

When I first picked this up in the bookstore a couple of years ago, I wasn't sure about the Hell stuff, but the author's depiction of said place was hilarious. As Kirsten said above, the use of endless forms is very fitting and would surely fit into many people's description of what hell would be.

I will post more when I finish. I am so glad that other readers are enjoying this book too.

Leigh wrote: "I am glad you liked this book Kirsten. You must have a very interesting family tree. I am going to have to look up some of the other names used in the book and the inhabitants of Hell to see whi..."

Leigh, if you ever are in Madame Tussaud's in London, you can see Dr. Crippen -- in the Chamber of Horrors! When my parents went through Customs in the 1980's, they were made a big deal of. "Oh, Crippen, we haven't seen YOU in a while!" A side note is that there is plenty of evidence that suggests that Dr Crippen didn't do it.

You'd be surprised how often he shows up in mysteries. "Oh, he's an unlikely suspect." "So was Crippen!"

Kirsten wrote: "Leigh wrote: "I am glad you liked this book Kirsten. You must have a very interesting family tree. I am going to have to look up some of the other names used in the book and the inhabitants of H..."


I looked him up after you mentioned you were related to him, glad to see they think he is innocent now.

I simply must get my person over to London, sooner rather than later.

If you are like me when you read the sentence mentioning this picture you stopped reading to look it up, well you you go.

Bosch's Garden of Earthly Delights .






It is very big so you might want to check out the link for the larger version.

Source: http://classconnection.s3.amazonaws.c...

Or here in HD: http://www.computus.org/journal/wp-co...

Leigh wrote: "If you are like me when you read the sentence mentioning this picture you stopped reading to look it up, well you you go.

Bosch's Garden of Earthly Delights .

Hieronymus Bosch (Michael Connelly's Harry Bosch's namesake) is one creepy dude.




It is very big so you might wa..."

I finished this last week but didn't write a full review,; but as I have previously stated I loved this book. Johannes is a really interesting character. It was difficult to get to know him and I am sure that the author will continue to dole out morsels of information about Johannes as the series progresses. I like that we are not quite sure what year it is and that Johannes is almost a person who is out of time. He is definitely different from everyone around him, and seems to aggressively work at being different. I was sad to see Horst die, but somehow I think that his death is not the end of him in this series.

I look forward to reading books the next two book. I have also read the that author got a new book deal here in the US that will see the series through book five.

I loved this book. The characters are marvelous and the description of hell is so artfully depicted. Leigh, I do hope you're right about Horst; I really hated to see the end of him. I've added the next two books to my ever growning to-read pile, and from what I've read, Leonie Barrow is featured in the second book. Look forward to reading!

Overall, I really enjoyed this book and am excited to start the second book in this series! The concept was great, the classic battle between good and evil and the gray area in between. I enjoyed the characters, especially the Cabal brothers. I also enjoyed the ending, although I could tell fairly soon why Johannes wanted his soul back, and I'm ok with it. What made up for the fact that I could understand the outcome was that they don't confirm it until the end and the entertaining story that led us there.

When I first started the book, there were a lot of descriptive words that I did not know, almost as if the author used a thesaurus every couple of words. However, since I was reading this book on my Kindle, I was able to look up the definitions of a lot of those words and I have to say that my personal vocabulary has increased. So, something I thought would drive me nuts about the book, actually turned out to be a good thing.

Leigh wrote: "I finished this last week but didn't write a full review,; but as I have previously stated I loved this book. Johannes is a really interesting character. It was difficult to get to know him and I ..."

I definitely agree with you on all fronts, I enjoyed how we couldn't tell what year this was set in, and Johannes as seemingly old fashioned. I was also saddened by Horst's death, but not overwhelmingly because I have hope to hear from him again.

I am glad you guys enjoyed the book. I am also going to read the next two books in the series. I have already requested book #2 from my library.

Amber I had to reach for a dictionary a few times too. :-)

Leigh wrote: "While looking around for reviews of this book I found some neat fan art to share.

Source: http://indubitablyjohannescabal.tumbl...
"
Oh hey, that bottom one's mine! Sweet!

and I'll take that Johnny Depp comment as a compliment, thanks!