“Gargoyles” by Bill Gaston

An enjoyable, mostly psychologically dark, but sometimes uplifting, collection of short stories.

“The Lonely Hearts Hotel” by Heather O’Neill

It is a dark, whimsical tale. And for the most part, I loathed this book because there was so much ugliness in it. It’s about the lives of 2 talented orphans in a Montreal orphanage who have always loved each other, but are kicked around by a disgusting society. Needless to say, their adult lives are no easier. I could not wait to finish the book, and to my amazement, the ending was brilliant. Pierrot’s funeral brought tears to my eyes, and Rose’s destiny was a well written surprise.

“Juliet was a Surprise” by Bill Gaston

This was an interesting and rather sad group of short stories. It took me awhile, but after reading them all, I’ve come to appreciate Bill Gaston. I would say that the overarching theme was extreme self involvement, to the exclusion of living a life.

“Sick of Shadows” by Sharyn McCrumb

I like Sharyn McCrumb as a writer very much, but this was not one of her better efforts, I think. This book is volume 1 in the Elizabeth Macpherson mystery series, and I expect that McCrumb was still developing her skills as a detective writer. One problem is that the pace is kind of slow because it consists mainly of dialogue. Also, the book did not resolve all issues to my satisfaction. I would especially like to know why the schizophrenic murder victim became upset when her psychiatrist arrived for the wedding. Did she infer that he was expecting trouble? And why did the murder victim decide to write a will?