Blog Tour: Lock and Mori by Heather W. Petty

Good morning, all! Today I'm so excited to welcome Heather W. Petty to the blog. I'm so excited to share her guest post from Heather--- and not only because I agree with almost her answers --- but because she's the author of an amazing adaptation that I think should be on everyone's TBR lists!

Since this book is a pastiche of my favorite sleuth, I couldn't help but ask Heather to write a little bit about her top five twisted adaptations. 

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Heather W. Petty's Top Twisted Retellings: 

House M.D. (television show)

I couldn't help but include at least one Sherlock adaptation, and I think this is the most clever of them all. For those who haven't seen the show, it's the story of a genius diagnostician Dr. Gregory House, who solves medical mysteries with a group of diagnostic students at Princeton-Plainsboro Teaching Hospital. His only friend (and Watson) is Dr. Wilson, who runs the Oncology department. It's a very cool, fast-paced, emotionally complex medical drama. 

The Tower at Stony Wood by Patricia A. McKillip

Patricia McKillip is one of my favorite writers of all time. She has this amazing ability to create fantasy worlds that read like timeless stories. It's almost like she's creating new fairytales using all of the folklore elements that we expect to see, but in new ways. In this book, a knight discovers that the King is marrying an imposter, and the real Queen is locked in a tower in a magical land. A prince of that land is looking for a tower filled with gold to help rebuild his father's army. And a third female character, goes up to a tower near Stony Wood to watch a woman imprisoned in a tower and embroider her story. The novel is a subtle nod to Rapunzel, but so much more complex and amazing as the three characters' lives and quests weave together.

A Werewolf Boy (Korean movie)

I'm not sure if this technically counts as an adaptation, but this is kind of Tarzan meets werewolf lore. It's the story of a family who moves out into a remote countryside and find a wild boy who is living in the woods around their house. The mother feels bad for him and brings him into the house and the teenaged daughter trains the boy to fit into society a little. The movie is amazing, sometimes hilarious, and completely heart-wrenching, and also one of my absolute favorite movies of all time. 

Joss Whedon’s 2012 adaptation of Much Ado About Nothing

I love Shakespeare and I love Joss Whedon, and they basically got together and made a beautiful

baby starring most all of my favorite actors of the Whedonverse with a modern backdrop and a super cool soundtrack. I loved this movie so much. And while Kenneth Branagh and Emma Thompson will probably always be my one true Beatrice and Benedick, Amy Acker and Alexis Denisof were so brilliant in the parts I couldn't help but fall in love with them.  

Till We Have Faces by C.S. Lewis

This book is a retelling of the Psyche and Cupid myth told from the perspective of Psyche's older, ugly sister. I love it so much. I think it's one of those books that leaves you reeling for days after, where you find yourself marking pages to read again and writing down quotes to ponder. This is one of the very few books that I've reread more than once. Definitely my favorite of all of Lewis' books.

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More about Lock and Mori:

In modern-day London, two brilliant high school students—one Sherlock Holmes and a Miss James “Mori” Moriarty—meet. A murder will bring them together. The truth very well might drive them apart.

Before they were mortal enemies, they were much more…

FACT: Someone has been murdered in London’s Regent’s Park. The police have no leads.

FACT: Miss James “Mori” Moriarty and Sherlock “Lock” Holmes should be hitting the books on a school night. Instead, they are out crashing a crime scene.

FACT: Lock has challenged Mori to solve the case before he does. Challenge accepted.

FACT: Despite agreeing to Lock’s one rule—they must share every clue with each other—Mori is keeping secrets.

OBSERVATION: Sometimes you can’t trust the people closest to you with matters of the heart. And after this case, Mori may never trust Lock again.

More about Heather W. Petty: 

Heather has been obsessed with mysteries since she was twelve, which is when she decided that stories about murders in London drawing rooms and English seaside villages were far superior to all other stories. Lock & Mori is her first novel. She lives in Reno, Nevada with her husband, daughter, and four hopelessly devious cats. You can learn more about Heather and her books at heatherwpetty.com.

The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie

Author: Alan Bradley
Goodreads Rating: 3.75
My Rating: 4/5 Stars
Pages: 294


Beside the fact that this title is a total mouthful (both in the sense of pie and being long) it was a wonderful story. I can't rightly tell you why I picked it up because I vaguely remember someone insisting that I read it, but I can't tell you who or why or when-a mystery in itself. As a lover of crime books (I'm in the middle of yet another at the writing of this post) and a lover of crime shows, I can tell you that this book isn't quite like anything I've read before or really encountered. The closest I can get to describing it is the lovechild of, an older, Nancy Drew and Richard Castle from the TV Show.


Goodreads Synopses:


In his wickedly brilliant first novel, Debut Dagger Award winner Alan Bradley introduces one of the most singular and engaging heroines in recent fiction: eleven-year-old Flavia de Luce, an aspiring chemist with a passion for poison. It is the summer of 1950—and a series of inexplicable events has struck Buckshaw, the decaying English mansion that Flavia’s family calls home. A dead bird is found on the doorstep, a postage stamp bizarrely pinned to its beak. Hours later, Flavia finds a man lying in the cucumber patch and watches him as he takes his dying breath. For Flavia, who is both appalled and delighted, life begins in earnest when murder comes to Buckshaw. “I wish I could say I was afraid, but I wasn’t. Quite the contrary. This was by far the most interesting thing that had ever happened to me in my entire life.”
To Flavia the investigation is the stuff of science: full of possibilities, contradictions, and connections. Soon her father, a man raising his three daughters alone, is seized, accused of murder. And in a police cell, during a violent thunderstorm, Colonel de Luce tells his daughter an astounding story—of a schoolboy friendship turned ugly, of a priceless object that vanished in a bizarre and brazen act of thievery, of a Latin teacher who flung himself to his death from the school’s tower thirty years before. Now Flavia is armed with more than enough knowledge to tie two distant deaths together, to examine new suspects, and begin a search that will lead her all the way to the King of England himself. Of this much the girl is sure: her father is innocent of murder—but protecting her and her sisters from something even worse….

An enthralling mystery, a piercing depiction of class and society, The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie is a masterfully told tale of deceptions—and a rich literary delight.


My review following the jump.