#10: Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen

Catherine finds reality veering from her favorite Gothic novels in Northanger Abbey, one of Jane Austen's posthumous works.

Northanger Abbey is widely perceived to be a parody of the Gothic novels of the time, as well as full of Austen's pointed observations about marriage, wealth, and society.  

Austen riffing so much on the tropes of Gothic fiction, from moody landowners to imprisoned wives to mysterious castles, sets this apart from some of her more serious works.  A fun read.

I chose this to read along with a class trip to London and Bath with my wife's collegiate field study.  I listened to it on audiobook on loan from the New Castle-Henry County Public Library.

#9: The Wheel of Doll by Jonathan Ames

Hard-luck P.I. Happy Doll is back, and looking for a lost love in a very personal case, in Jonathan Ames' The Wheel of Doll.

Doll's search for his drug-addicted former girlfriend, at the behest of the woman's mysterious daughter, takes a number of dark twists and turns.  

Ames is known for writing across genres but focusing on humor and crime; his first in this series, A Man Named Doll, leaned more towards comedy but the sequel veers into darker territory.  The novel definitely has a harder noir edge than its predecessor.

I hope Ames continues to write Happy Doll novels and I would look forward to reading more.

I checked this out from the Morrisson-Reeves Public Library in Richmond, Indiana.