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REVIEW: Interlude – C.S. Poe

Interlude - C.S. Poe

Genre: Mystery, Romance

LGBTQ+ Category: MM Gay

Reviewer: Maryann

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About The Book

Interlude is a collection of short stories spanning the complete timeline of the Snow & Winter series, beginning with The Mystery of Nevermore, to after the conclusion of The Mystery of the Bones. They feature the point of view of Sebastian Snow and Calvin Winter and consist of mini mysteries, as well as scenes from daily life.

Please note: While many of these titles were previously made available for free to readers, they have all since been rewritten, expanded, and edited for this collection. Several shorts are brand-new and exclusive, including Someone’s in the WallSt. Louis What Now?, and Trope: Only One Bed.

The Review

For those who not familiar with Sebastian Snow or Calvin Winter, here’s a little information about them and other important characters.

Sebastian Snow is the owner of Snow’s Antique Emporium in NYC. He was born with achromatopsia – he can’t see colors, only shades of gray, and has difficulty with bright lights.  He makes his way fine through life, with the occasional mix up of color coordinating his clothes. Sebastian is either an amateur detective or busy-body, and gets involved in variety of mysteries with historical facts.

Calvin Winter is a NYC detective who shows up when a heart is found under the floor board in Snow’s Emporium. He served in the military, deals with PTSD, and is in the closet.   

William Snow is Seb’s Pop, a wonderful, warm and understanding man. Max Ridley works at the Emporium, lots of fun, and he gets caught up in Seb’s mysteries. And then there’s Maggie and Dillon!

“Interlude” offers some wonderful moments from the course of this four novel series:  “The Mystery of Nevermore”, “The Mystery of the Curious”, “The Mystery of the Moving Image” and “The Mystery of the Bones”.  The ideas for all four novels come from historical facts.

There are many heart-warming moments in “Interlude.” It’s a great look at Seb and Calvin’s life, without all the heavy crime solving.  It has love, humor, and heartfelt moments and just a sprinkle of mystery. All the stories are great, but I really liked “Dopamine:  Take Only as Directed” and “The Ghost of Durango”. This short story collection is a fantastic idea, and a welcome addition to the novels in the Snow and Winter series. It tempted me to want to read the books all over again! It will be fun to see what Poe creates for volume two.

The Reviewer

Hi, I’m Maryann, I started life in New York, moved to New Hampshire and in 1965 uprooted again to Sacramento, California.  Once I retired I moved to West Palm Beach, Florida in 2011 and just moved back to Sacramento in March of 2018.  My son, his wife and step-daughter flew out to Florida and we road tripped back so they got to see sights they have never seen.  New Orleans and the Grand Canyon were the highlights. Now I am back on the west coast again to stay! From a young age Ialways liked to read.

I remember going to the library and reading the “Doctor Dolittle” books by Hugh Lofting. Much later on became a big fan of the classics, Edgar Alan Poe, Mary Shelley, Bram Stoker and as time went by Agatha Christie, Ray Bradbury and Stephen Kingand many other authors.

My first M/M shifter book I read was written by Jan Irving the “Uncommon Cowboys” series from 2012.  She was the first author I ever contacted and sent an email to letting her know how much I liked this series.  Sometime along the way I read “Zero to the Bone”by Jane Seville, I think just about everyone has read this book! 

As it stands right now I’m really into mysteries, grit, gore and “triggers” don’t bother me. But if a blurb piques my interest I will read the book.

My kindle collection eclectic and over three thousand books and my Audible collection is slowly growing.  I have both the kindle and audible apps on my ipod, ipads, and MAC. So there is never an excuse not to be listening or reading.

I joined Goodreads around 2012 and started posting reviews.  One day a wonderful lady, Lisa Horan of The Novel Approach, sent me an email to see if I wanted to join her review group.  Joining her site was such an eye opener.  I got introduce to so many new authors that write for the LGBTQ genre. Needless to say, it was heart breaking when it ended.

But I found a really great site, QRI and it’s right here in Sacramento. Last year at QSAC I actually got to meet Scott Coatsworth, Amy Lane and Jeff Adams. 

 

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