Sting in the Tail Carnival of Mysteries Anthology
Anthology,
Rogue Firebird Press
Oct 4, 2023
Kindle
289
Amazon
The Carnival of Mysteries just arrived in Sutton County. They say if you cross the fortune teller’s palm with silver she can read your future like a map. Right now all Ledger Conroy wants to know is if he has a future.
Back in Sutton after over a decade, Ledger’s plan had been to bury his father--recently deceased convicted serial killer and less-well known warlock, Bell Conroy--clear the property, and then finally wash his hands of being a Conroy. Instead there’s a cured human heart in the larder, a pissed off pretty boy who is definitely not human at the door, and a debt to the devil that Ledger’s just inherited.
Devil. Monster. Something like that. He’d not asked for its pedigree
Whatever it was, it's given Ledger a week to fulfill the terms of his father’s contract. Or else he’s never going to leave Sutton again. With pretty-boy Wren at his heels, more to make sure Ledger doesn’t skip town than to provide assistance, Ledger tries to track his father’s sins across Sutton. The problem is there’s so many of them.
Ledger is faced with old grudges, a Sheriff that thinks Ledger knows more about his father’s crimes than he’s ever said (and isn’t wrong), and a dead man with a book shop. Not to mention the on-going distraction of Wren, who can't decide whether to be a hindrance, a help, or just hot.
Luckily Ledger has a nose for this sort of work.
Sting in the Tail is part of the multi-author Carnival of Mysteries Series. Each book stands alone, but each one includes at least one visit to Errante Ame's Carnival of Mysteries, a magical, multiverse traveling show full of unusual acts, games, and rides. The Carnival changes to suit the world it's on, so each visit is unique and special. This book contains a dealer in dark collectibles, a man who's NOT people, and a monster with a debt it expects to be paid.
DUAL REVIEW BY LINDA TONIS
DUAL REVIEW BY ULYSSES DIETZ
Linda Says:
Ledger Conroy has returned to Sutton County, Ohio, a place he left behind over fifteen years ago.
Ledger’s father Bell was brought to trial after killing eighteen people, sentenced to life and freed Ledger from the town and him. Unfortunately, Bell had cancer and was released early and within only months to live he took his own life. Now Ledger is back to the place of horror he called home to settle his father’s estate, a house filled with evil. As a child Ledger began to see what his father was and when he went to the Sheriff, he found himself committed to a mental health hospital. It was easier for the Sheriff to believe that Ledger was crazy instead of his father being a serial killer.
Although the town didn’t blame him, he is still the last person in the world they want back. Arriving at his father’s home he is met by a competitor of his, Hark, another man who finds and sells relics from dead monsters and his father was one. Hark had no idea that Ledger was the son and he had made a deal with a buyer for all the contents of the home. Hark would set off a chain of fear and horror and put a demon on Ledger’s tail. Ledger finds himself face to face with the scarecrow he remembered from his childhood only this scarecrow is Earl, and he wants Ledger to settle the debt his father owed him.
The terms of the agreement Earl made were for him to find an original deed to replace the forged one Bell had given him. The deed would allow Earl to die, and Ledger has till the equinox to fulfill his agreement or suffer unspeakable pain. Earl also expects his employee Wren to assist Ledger and as soon as the two meet Wren states he is not human. What is he? It doesn’t really matter because Ledger is smitten.
Earl was the one Hark contacted and he is the one who has placed Ledger’s life in jeopardy. Ledger has days to find the missing deed or Earl will debone him like a chicken, so a normal death is not in his future. One lead after another leads to nothing positive and time is running out. Even having Earl bring part of his father back so he can be asked questions proves useless. He tries dealing with the owner of the bookstore his father used and he was no help, he isn’t even human anymore. Earl takes the shape of any body or creature he inhabits.
Ledger is constantly confronted by the sheriff wanting to know where Bell buried his victims, but Ledger doesn’t know and still resents him for having committed him. With Wren tagging along Ledger wracks his brain trying to think of anything that could lead him to the deed. But each time he thinks he has figured it out he winds up at a dead end. Time is running out, but Ledger learns about secrets and betrayals. Despite his knowledge to never get involved with a demon because there is always a price to pay his attraction to Wren puts him in the position of do I or don’t I.
Then the Carnival of Mysteries shows up in town and Ledger is hoping the fortuneteller he was led to will have answers. The answers he receives do not enlighten him or do they. Sometimes you must understand what is given to you.
The Carnival of Mysteries is a multi-author series, and they are all standalone. I have loved everyone I have read, the characters, the Carnival, the mysteries and in this case the fear. I don’t think there was one page that didn’t make my hair stand up, gory horror, sex, lies, surprises and fear. I was glued from page one.
Ulysses Says:
Distinctive in the Carnival of Mysteries series thus far, Sting in the Tail is about as grisly and dark as it gets. The title image itself is apt: scorpions are scary enough from the front, but the stinger at the end of their bodies is the killer surprise.
The cleverly gruesome set-up is that Ledger Conroy has returned to Sutton County, Ohio, to close out his late father’s estate. Two things make this unusual: Ledger’s father, Bell Conroy, was a notorious serial killer, and, secondly, Ledger, like his late father, traffics in the sin-soaked objects of evil people (like his father).
The idea that holy relics, associated with saints, are part of an international trade is not terribly far-fetched. In fact, there’s a centuries-old historic truth to this. One need only visit museums and churches in Europe to find such things on proud display. This book presents the flip-side of that, with the paranormal premise of the story beingthat the power of evil and sin creates its own artifacts. That power is something that people are willing to pay for.
Ledger might not be the most admirable of romantic heroes, but given his childhood and teenage years, it’s remarkable that he’s still a functional human being. He is not without a strong moral compass; but he is surely damaged. This is delved into with relentless care by the author, helping us both sympathize with and shudder at the predicament in which Ledger finds himself.
The romantic complication, if you can call it that, is Wren Bones, known popularly as Bird, who looks like a hot tatted muscle boy, but in fact is…something else. We never quite learn what Wren is, other than being inextricably linked to Ledger’s worst nightmare by some unexplained obligation. But Wren is also somehow drawn to Ledger himself—the human, feeling, being so much in opposition to the unremitting evil of his late father. Wren, like Ledger, seems to be trapped in a situation not of his own making.
This is both very romantic and constantly uncomfortable. Moore’s skill as a storyteller manages to make that discomfort appealing, even as she revels in grotesque imagery and unimaginable darkness wrought by creatures beyond our understanding.
The Carnival of Mysteries itself plays quite a small role in this narrative, but a critical one. In the context of the whole series so far, it is interesting to see how Arrante Ame’s carnival deals with such darkness in its midst. The Carnival, we are told once more, is there for those who need it. As in every visit to the Carnival, help is offered, but there is never an easy solution.
