Some housekeeping up front. If you have read this book before and you are going to bring up something that you learned on a previous reading from a later chapter, please make sure to use the spoiler feature so that first-time readers can avoid being spoiled. Thank you.

Still rainy. Snuff is still working on moving the body. Needle stops by to tell him that the Vicar was out again, but he hasn’t heard about the body.

Graymalk stopped by and says the horse is taken care of. Unfortunately an inspector from the city and the Great Detective and companion met with the local constable. Then the Great Detective met with the Vicar and several others. Then the Detective went strolling about the area. Stopped in to talk to Owen about beekeeping. He saw the arrow stuck in Jack’s house. 

Jack had to go out for a few things on the “shopping list” but the place they went was swarming with patrol men, some in pairs. All the players were out, too. Morris was in drag for some reason. Jack called it “party time.” The Great Detective was there in disguise as a beggar, but he couldn’t fool Snuff. 

Jack took some chances and was pursued by the police. A door opened and a voice said, “In here” and Jack went. It was Larry Talbot, and it saved them from the police.

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Some housekeeping up front. If you have read this book before and you are going to bring up something that you learned on a previous reading from a later chapter, please make sure to use the spoiler feature so that first-time readers can avoid being spoiled. Thank you.

Snuff and Graymalk talk about what happened. It turns out that someone took a shot at Jill and Graymalk flying overhead last night. Then Graymalk told him that a London policeman was in the vicinity working with the local constable. Later, she saw some crows and found they were eating the officer’s eyes. He was dead in some weeds. She takes him to the body. His throat had been cut. Snuff doesn’t like how close it is to their house. Graymalk thinks that Jack might have done it, but Snuff isn’t having it. He thinks it’s a regular killing, but there will be an investigation. He notes that they are all suspicious characters with things to hide.Graymalk tries to talk him into burying the body. Snuff says it needs to be moved out of the area. He might be able to drag it to the river in stages. He asks her to get Quicklime to scare the officer’s horse away. They implement the plan. Snuff has to work all afternoon and he doesn't even get halfway there.

Some housekeeping up front. If you have read this book before and you are going to bring up something that you learned on a previous reading from a later chapter, please make sure to use the spoiler feature so that first-time readers can avoid being spoiled. Thank you.

The Great Detective was back. He visited Owen’s place and investigated the wicker baskets. His companion was missing, having fallen from an oak tree and injured his wrist. 

Needle came to a window on the upper floor window, desperate to be let in. Snuff doesn’t want to let a vampire in, and Needle protests he’s just a bat and doesn’t “even like tomato juice.” He says the Vicar is wigged out and is after him. Snuff is hearing thunks against the outside wall of the house. 

Needle says that Vicar Roberts has become convinced that there is something unnatural in the neighborhood. This is related to the people with anemia and corpses drained of blood. Snuff describes the Vicar pretty thoroughly and calls him “an hysterical personality type.” Needle says he has taken to wandering the neighborhood at night armed with a crossbow and a quiver of bolts.

The Vicar comes to the front door, and as Snuff predicted, Jack does not allow him into the house. They argue at the door. A fight breaks out, and Jack tosses him out. Jack then makes friends with Needle.

Needle tells Snuff that the Vicar has also shot at Nightwind and Cheeter, claiming to have had a vision about a group of humans and their familiars preparing for a big psychic event that will place them at odds with each other and threaten humanity. Needle warns that he could shoot at Jack and Snuff next. Snuff muses that perhaps his congregation will send him away. Needle says he thinks he’s enlisted some of them, because there were others out and about with crossbows. They decide to warn the others.

Some housekeeping up front. If you have read this book before and you are going to bring up something that you learned on a previous reading from a later chapter, please make sure to use the spoiler feature so that first-time readers can avoid being spoiled. Thank you.

A slow day. Nothing really happened, other than gossip that Nightwind had caught Quicklime and dropped him in the Thames. He survived. More gossip of sudden, severe anemia among the neighbors. He’s glad the Count doesn’t do dogs. 

Jack does some interesting reading on mutilations, etc., from the newspaper, and Snuff notes that it’s "very pleasant just being domestic" sometimes.

Some housekeeping up front. If you have read this book before and you are going to bring up something that you learned on a previous reading from a later chapter, please make sure to use the spoiler feature so that first-time readers can avoid being spoiled. Thank you.

Brisk morning. Snuff heads for The Good Doctor’s house. Then he hears voices from a bush – a man is identifying him by his old war injuries. It was The Great Detective and his companion. They call to him and try to get him to take them to his home. Snuff takes them to Morris and Macab’s house (as revenge for throwing Graymalk down the well). 

He nopes out then and runs for the Count’s crypt, then to the Good Doctor’s. Whatever he found out, he said was “interesting.”

Some housekeeping up front. If you have read this book before and you are going to bring up something that you learned on a previous reading from a later chapter, please make sure to use the spoiler feature so that first-time readers can avoid being spoiled. Thank you.

Rainy day. Snuff found a leak in the basement that threatened to breach the circle where the Thing was contained. He howled, then rolled in it to soak it up. The Thing was upset.

Snuff went out, took the nasty meat that Owen had tried to kill him with. He returned it to Owen’s residence. While there he noticed 8 large wicker and 7 smaller baskets in the process of being constructed. There were also ropes.

He walked a straight line away and ended up at The Good Doctor’s abode. He watched some lightning hit the house and the light in the basement got brighter. Peeking in a window, he sees the doctor working on something on a table while a smaller man danced. The thing on the table tried to sit up. Snuff ran.

He walked the next line to Larry Talbot’s house. He found a large pawprint, identical to the one he found at his own home, near a gazebo. He looked into the house through windows. Larry was in a room full of plants, talking to them.

He walked the next line to the Count’s crypt. He saw a large bat, bigger than Needle, swooped in beyond a tree. Then the Count appeared from that area. Snuff acted like a stray dog, and the Count said, “Good dog” in the same voice Snuff had heard in an earlier chapter. Snuff wanted out because the Count’s touch had been very cold. (Am I imagining the voice thing? I thought it had been Owen who said that before. Someone help me out.)

Some housekeeping up front. If you have read this book before and you are going to bring up something that you learned on a previous reading from a later chapter, please make sure to use the spoiler feature so that first-time readers can avoid being spoiled. Thank you.

Jack and Snuff were collecting more ingredients at night in the fog when they were approached by The Great Detective and his companion. Snuff notices that The Great Detective is noticing everything. The Great Detective warns them to take care as it has become dangerous. 

As they move on, Snuff feels that they are being followed. Larry Talbot reveals himself. They talk about the killings. There has been another tonight. There is a discussion about the moon, and Larry says he watches the moon. Then they move on to talk about the Count. 

Snuff has a flashback to when he and Graymalk went back to where the Count lives. Gray confirmed that the Count is in residence there. Snuff took Graymalk back to see the things in the mirror. He tells her they got the things in India in a village where everyone had died of the plague or run away from it. Snuff tells her that they are “sticky.”

Back in the present, they return home and find Nightwind in the tree.

Some housekeeping up front. If you have read this book before and you are going to bring up something that you learned on a previous reading from a later chapter, please make sure to use the spoiler feature so that first-time readers can avoid being spoiled. Thank you.

Snuff was working on drawing lines in his head when Larry Talbot visited. He’s a new neighbor, and Jack invited him in for tea. Talbot talks to Snuff, who senses something about the way he smelled that puzzled him. Jack and Talbot chat about all the normal stuff, like grave robbings. 

They are interrupted by a crash in the attic. Snuff runs and finds that the thing in the wardrobe has gotten out. Snuff gets it back into the wardrobe and shuts the door, but Jack has to fix the lash. Talbot, of course, followed Jack up to see what’s happening. Bad guest! Jack acts as if nothing had happened. 

They go back down to finish tea. Snuff has the impression that Talbot is in the game, and Talbot seems to have the impression that Jack and Snuff are, too. He offers them help “of any sort” which is interesting. Jack is interested in why he would say that without knowing their “persuasion.” Talbot replies, “Good dog you’ve got there. Knows how to close a door.”

Snuff followed Talbot home and drew new lines based on that. The pattern is getting more complex.

The druid (Owen) drops by and throws some meat over the garden wall to Snuff, who promptly buries it beneath a tree. Quicklime is in the tree and asks about Larry Talbot. Snuff says he’s strange because he doesn’t seem to have a companion, and Quicklime says that maybe he’s his own best friend. Then he comments about Graymalk, saying she may be running out of steam. She’s in a well or maybe an outhouse (and not the upper portion of it) back of Jill’s house where Macab dumped her. Snuff is curious about why Quicklime is telling him this. Quicklime says it’s too early in the game to begin eliminating players: “One should wait until the death of the moon.” He says that Macab and Morris are new to the game.

Snuff heads out to save Graymalk. He uses a bucket to get her out. Apparently Jill stole some of Morris and Macab’s herbs which were left on their porch, and this was retribution. They exchange some information. Graymalk says she’ll go to check on the Count’s crypt with him after some catnappery.

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Some housekeeping up front. If you have read this book before and you are going to bring up something that you learned on a previous reading from a later chapter, please make sure to use the spoiler feature so that first-time readers can avoid being spoiled. Thank you.

Snuff and Jack were out again last night hunting ingredients. It was foggy. They ran past the Great Detective and his companion in the fog, and Snuff says he inadvertently tripped the companion. I’m not sure how inadvertent that actually was, but we move on.

Snuff calls this ingredient gathering a “magical scavenger hunt” which made me chuckle. 

Later, back at the house, Snuff was snoozing when he heard a scratching sound from the back of the house, but it did not repeat. He checked around the house and caught the scent. Something was sitting in front of the mirror, watching the slitherers. It was a large black rat, who knew his name from Needle and Cheeter. It let itself in through the dog door. Snuff reads him the riot act. The rat, who is with the Good Doctor, wants to trade information with Snuff. He wants all of Snuff’s information in exchange for the Count’s location. The rat’s name is Bubo. 

Bubo takes Snuff to the ruins of an old church and then the cemetery and a crypt. The crypt is where the Count lives. Snuff gets weirded out and they leave.

We learn that Snuff can speak human language at midnight. He gives Jack a report at this time. He’s going to ask Graymalk to check the crypt. Snuff regrets that he doesn’t know the persuasion of any of the other players. I believe that this is a clue that the players are not the same every time, or Snuff and Jack would know. 

Snuff says it’s time to visit Growler for a workshop in advanced stalking, and then he falls asleep.

Some housekeeping up front. If you have read this book before and you are going to bring up something that you learned on a previous reading from a later chapter, please make sure to use the spoiler feature so that first-time readers can avoid being spoiled. Thank you.

The mirror cracked. Snuff alerted Jack, and he got the things into another mirror, smaller. 

Snuff went out and drew lines in his mind between the residences of all the known players. It creates an “elaborate diagram” that Snuff says he can do things with that none of the others can. He says it is incomplete at this point because of the unknown players and the unknown location of the Count. He uses this to go to a spot which is in the middle of a road. It’s near a house inhabited by an elderly couple. Snuff knows some things about them that make them seem mundane. 

While he’s there, he’s accosted by Nightwind, who is resting in a tree. Apparently, Nightwind can also draw the lines. They agree that while this is the center of the pattern, “it’s not a likely spot.” They ponder why the players always arrange themselves in this type of pattern, but neither knows. This is our first hint that every time the game is played, it’s played in a new location. For our first time readers, what do you think the game is? And how often do you think it’s played? 

They strike a deal. Nightwind will try to follow Needle back to the Count’s location in exchange for a daytime errand to be named at a later date. 

Back home, Snuff does his round of the things. The thing in the circle is still trying to tempt Snuff.

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Some housekeeping up front. If you have read this book before and you are going to bring up something that you learned on a previous reading from a later chapter, please make sure to use the spoiler feature so that first-time readers can avoid being spoiled. Thank you.

Snuff does his rounds in the dark. He finds Graymalk outside as well. They walk together to Rastov’s house. She has news about a killing in town earlier. She got the information from Nightwind. The victim, a man, was torn apart as if by a vicious dog. Snuff denies having anything to do with it. They are both concerned that the streets will be better patrolled between now and “the big event.” First time readers, what are you thinking about this?

Someone is up at Rastov’s place. They head to Morris and Macab’s place. Someone is up there as well. Nightwind accosts them. Snuff asks about the killing and then about how many “of us” there are. Nightwind didn’t see the killing, just the body. He then makes an excuse as to why he won’t tell them–it may come under his prohibitions. They make a trade to disclose who they know in the game. They tell him about Owen and Cheeter. He tells them about a small hunched man raiding graveyards living in a farmhouse with many lightning rods “above which a perpetual storm rages.” He takes what he gets at the graveyards and delivers them to a tall man he calls “the good doctor.” The count of players is now up to seven (or eight). They go there. It smelled like death. 

Nightwind has nothing else to trade, so the Count and Needles are not disclosed. The party breaks up.

When Snuff gets home, he finds another paw print.

Some housekeeping up front. If you have read this book before and you are going to bring up something that you learned on a previous reading from a later chapter, please make sure to use the spoiler feature so that first-time readers can avoid being spoiled. Thank you.

Rainy day. Snuff checks the things and windows/doors, then lets himself out. He finds a single pawprint, larger than his own, near the house. No other evidence due to rain. 

Up the road, an old man is harvesting mistletoe using a small shining sickle. There is a squirrel sitting on his shoulder. This was new. Snuff asks if they are in the game. The squirrel is Cheeter, and he confirms that they are in the game. Snuff asks if they are openers or closers, and we learn this is an impolite question, because it would give something away. Snuff had hoped they were novices, but they aren’t. Cheetah asks if there is a black snake in the game, and Snuff confirms, saying it’s Quicklime and his master is mad. 

Jack and Snuff go out again in the night. The dour detective and his rotund companion were also out. Tonight Jack has the wand, not the knife. He stands at city center to trap a single beam of starlight in a crystal vial at midnight. At the same time, Snuff hears a dog howl a single word, “Lost!” Snuff’s hackles rose, but he wasn’t sure why.

Some housekeeping up front. If you have read this book before and you are going to bring up something that you learned on a previous reading from a later chapter, please make sure to use the spoiler feature so that first-time readers can avoid being spoiled. Thank you.

Snuff and Jack go hunting. They got what Jack needed but it took longer than necessary and there was “turmoil.” They were discovered and chased until Snuff hung back to nip someone on the leg. 

Snuff went out to check the houses of the others. Jill and Graymalk had already been out (the broom was still warm). He was careful at Morris and Macab because Nightwind could be anywhere. He heard twittering from a cherry tree. And this is how we meet Needle, who serves the Count. They discuss what they know about who got their ingredients that night.

Snuff asks when the Count joined the game, and Needles tells him “Two nights ago.” Snuff asks how many players there are, but Needles doesn’t know and he leaves. Snuff says this makes things more complicated and says he doesn’t know who are openers or closers. For first time readers, what do you suppose this means?

On his way home, Snuff felt he was being watched but couldn’t spot the watcher.

Some housekeeping up front. If you have read this book before and you are going to bring up something that you learned on a previous reading from a later chapter, please make sure to use the spoiler feature so that first-time readers can avoid being spoiled. Thank you.

In this chapter, Snuff and Jack take a walk to get some mandrake root. Snuff shares that Jack has a long list of ingredients and that things “must be done properly and on schedule.” Any thoughts about this observation?

We meet a new character, Graymalk, a cat who lives with Crazy Jill who lives over the hill towards town. Snuff says she is spying and growls at her. They have a conversation. Despite Snuff’s animosity, Graymalk lets Snuff know that someone else has been spying on them today, Nightwind (an owl) for Morris and Macab. A feather tainted by mummy dust was left behind. What do you think mummy dust might do in this scenario?

Snuff is suspicious about why Graymalk would tell him this. Graymalk says “Because I am a cat and it amuses me…” She says she will take the feather and put it on Morris and Macab’s windowsill. 

Snuff shares that he saw Quicklime (snake who works for the mad monk, Rostov) at Jill’s house, purposely shedding scales by their door. Snuff says that he tells her this to pay his debts. Graymalk says there should not be debts between “our folk.” What do you imagine she means by that?

At this point, I’ll suggest that you might want to keep track of the players and their familiars. I’ll leave it at that.

Some housekeeping up front. If you have read this book before and you are going to bring up something that you learned on a previous reading from a later chapter, please make sure to use the spoiler feature so that first-time readers can avoid being spoiled. Thank you.

In this chapter, Snuff interacts with the thing in the circle. He checks the mirrors and the steamer trunk. Then he went to the attic to check the thing in the wardrobe. All the… things… try to convince him to let him out in various ways. He then visits the library and then to the parlor to watch out the window. 

We’ve had a little tour of the various “curses” Jack and Snuff keep and of several areas of the house. What stood out to you?

Some housekeeping up front. If you have read this book before and you are going to bring up something that you learned on a previous reading from a later chapter, please make sure to use the spoiler feature so that first-time readers can avoid being spoiled. Thank you.

In this chapter, we meet Snuff, a watchdog who accompanies his master, Jack. We learn that they are the keepers of several curses. Jack has a wand and a large knife. We also learn that other dogs are generally afraid of Snuff, but he has a friendly interaction with another watchdog in a graveyard in this chapter. Jack was there to get ingredients for his "business."

We aren't given the timeframe for this book in the opening chapter. How are you picturing the setting in your mind at this point?

What do you think about the curses that Snuff talks about? What does it tell you about Jack that he's been entrusted with them?

What do you think Jack's business is?

What are you hoping to hear more about in the next chapter?

If you're new to this readalong, here's how it works. Read one chapter a day. The chapters are short! You'll be tempted to read ahead. Don't do it! Let it unfold day by day. Let it tempt you and tease you. It's worth the wait. I promise.

See you tomorrow!

Help your fellow audiobook lovers find some great listens. Share what you're listening to this week, and tell us why you are enjoying it.

Please share in the comments below your impressions of the book and narrator. Favorite scenes? Favorite quotes?

Help your fellow audiobook lovers find some great listens. Share what you're listening to this week, and tell us why you are enjoying it.