Murder, Mysteries and Mermaids, Part 2

Another new horror/murder mystery series that I've recently read is the Stalking Jack the Ripper series by Kerri Maniscalco. The first book in the series, Stalking Jack the Ripper, introduces Audrey Rose Wadsworth, a 17 year-old young lady who, despite her wealth and privilege, longs to learn more about the field of scientific study. The field of forensic medicine is not proper at all for a young lady, but Audrey Rose is intrigued by the gruesome work of dissection. In particular, she wants to work for her uncle in his laboratory. She becomes drawn into his work more fully as a serial killer is on loose on the streets in London. She is determined to help discover the murder's identity through the research and dissection of the deceased done in her uncle's lab.

This series is horrifying and intriguing as Audrey partners with her uncle's lab assistant Thomas Cresswell through the perilous streets of London in Stalking Jack the Ripper, through the Romanian castle of Prince Vlad the Impaler in Hunting Prince Dracula, and aboard a ship bound for America with a vicious killer in Escaping from Houdini.

Murder, Mysteries and Mermaids, Part 1

I made a move this year from Hot Springs Junior Academy to Bryant High School, and I’m taking advantage of having some driving time by listening to audiobooks. I definitely think this is a learned skill, as I used to have difficulty focusing on listening and not having my mind wander. However, I have learned to thoroughly enjoy listening to books. I borrow audiobooks on from Garland County Library’s Overdrive, and I also subscribe to Audible.

I thought I’d share some of my recent reads (and listens) that I have loved so far this school year. I discovered the mystery series How to Hang a Witch by Adriana Mather, and you NEED to read these books! Your students will love them!

The first book, How to Hang a Witch, is about a girl, Samantha Mather, who is a descendant of Cotton Mather. She is living with her stepmother, and her father is desperately ill in ICU. They have recently moved to Salem from New York because of his illness and the cost of his care, to stay in the house of her late grandmother. Samantha soon discovers that the house is peculiar, and the students at school even more so. The descendants of the Salem Witch trials attend the local high school and are NOT fans of Samantha, to say the least. Samantha soon discovers that she and the descendants are under a curse, and they must find a way to destroy the curse before it destroys them. Check out the book trailer and an author video in which Adriana Mather explains her connection to Salem and what led to her writing this book series.

The next book in the series is just as enthralling and picks up where this story leaves off. In Haunting the Deep, Samantha wants nothing more than to forget what happened last fall. But when the students vote to make Titanic the theme of the dance and the teachers ban together to create lessons revolving around it, Samantha begins to be visited by ghosts of the sunken ship and struggles to understand how it connects to her and her family’s past. There's a great book trailer for this one too!

The author is writing a new novel, Killing November, not included in this series, due out in March of 2018.

TCEA 2018