Are you all okay out in California? I worry about you whenever I see pictures on the news, although I knew you’ve been okay so far.

Let’s talk about next week’s schedule for a moment. Glen’s Favorites of 2022 will be up on Tuesday, Jan. 17. I have a guest post on the 18th. That’s because the publicist wanted it on the 19th, and I told them no. Thursdays are sacred to What Are You Reading? unless I have to push it around for a Treasures in My Closet post or something else. So, watch for Glen’s post next Tuesday!

I’m having a terrible time settling into something to read. I needed a break from mysteries. I’ve tried nonfiction, a mystery I discovered I had already read. Last weekend, I read several older historical romances. I’m about to try Simon R. Green’s latest Ishmael Jones novel, Haunted By the Past. Those usually work for me.

Here’s the brief summary since I haven’t jumped into it yet.

Ishmael Jones knows all there is to know about solving mysteries. Together with his love and partner in crimes, Penny Belcourt, he specializes in cases of the weird and uncanny. Lucas Carr went to Glenbury Hall, an old country manor house turned hotel. He signed in at reception, took his key, and went upstairs to his room. But he never got there. Somehow he vanished along the way, with not a single clue to suggest what might have happened to him. Lucas belonged to the same mysterious organization that employs Ishmael and Penny, so they are sent in to solve the mystery. But when they arrive at grim and isolated Glenbury Hall, they discover it has a reputation as one of the most haunted old houses in England. None of the usual headless monks or walled-up nuns—just stories of lost souls that dance with the statues in the grounds; doors that won’t stay shut, and rooms that aren’t always there; and something that prowls the house in the early hours, endlessly searching. They say . . . it crawls. Does Lucas’ disappearance have something to do with the organization or the Hall’s haunted past? Ishmael and Penny have to work their way through a series of mysterious clues and misleading suspects, uncovering secret after secret, before they finally arrive at a truth that no one suspected.

The problem with history is that it’s not always content to stay in the past.

I might like this one. The review in Library Journal said, “Recommended for those who like antiheroes with more than a bit of snark.” That’s me! I love snarky antiheroes. So, I hope this works.

What about you? What are you reading this week?