A famous writer creates a house of horrors to enact revenge upon the SaDiablo family for perceived injustices and to get new material for his next murder mystry book.

The SaDiablo family are the heros of Bishop’s Black Jewels Trilogy and the following book of short stories Dreams Made Flesh. I don’t believe this book would necessarily make much sense to a reader who hadn’t also read the previous material.

That said, Bishop is one of my favourite writers and I have been looking forward to reading this book for weeks. Her stories are wonderfully character driven, full of rich interaction and witty dialogue. This book certainly didn’t disappoint, in that sense. It made me both laugh and hold my breath.

I had a few little quibbles however. One of the characters comes late to the rescue and his reasons for doing so comes across as quite weak. A short story is also included at the end of the novel and this story felt clumsy, particularly in relation to the previous work. It is clearly a sample of her earlier work and I feel it added nothing to the characters or the world.

But overall the book was an absolute joy to read.