tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-55791150007016773342024-03-15T01:40:59.123-07:00 MBTB's Mystery Book Blog Murder by the Book, Portland, Oregon, reviews mystery & crime books.Jill Hinckleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12343453016166841470noreply@blogger.comBlogger1162125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5579115000701677334.post-50518589471413842152022-07-03T13:24:00.001-07:002022-07-04T16:43:09.906-07:00 Trust by Hernan Diaz<p><span style="font-family: EB Garamond; font-size: medium;">Riverhead Books, 416 pages, $28</span></p>
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<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: EB Garamond; font-size: medium;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: EB Garamond; font-size: medium;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhRvbDAPmKNIpOGQ0siTmT9mzRmE7Ql51MGBkpDOmW7fi_jLIBIBlfDavv2tSPLpor4FE2ioItE8cWkEf-fN7shLfNBRpvVmrb5PKcb84XngQ03n9aPVxCdqEgb0imlINpyCHsMfcXbUr22WQ5-jJl6BOYS-tJJ05GVkdnVgOoJhUxN3VcRS-3DLRkAcQ/s360/trust.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="360" data-original-width="237" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhRvbDAPmKNIpOGQ0siTmT9mzRmE7Ql51MGBkpDOmW7fi_jLIBIBlfDavv2tSPLpor4FE2ioItE8cWkEf-fN7shLfNBRpvVmrb5PKcb84XngQ03n9aPVxCdqEgb0imlINpyCHsMfcXbUr22WQ5-jJl6BOYS-tJJ05GVkdnVgOoJhUxN3VcRS-3DLRkAcQ/s320/trust.jpg" width="211" /></a></span></div><span style="font-family: EB Garamond; font-size: medium;"><br />This is not a murder mystery, but there are certainly mysterious machinations afoot.</span><p></p>
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<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: EB Garamond; font-size: medium;">The reader involvement starts with the title. Trust? Should the reader trust Hernan Diaz, a potentially unreliable author? Hmm.</span></p>
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<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: EB Garamond; font-size: medium;">I enjoyed <a href="https://mbtb-books.blogspot.com/2017/11/in-distance-by-hernan-diaz.html" target="_blank">“In the Distance,”</a> another book by Diaz. It contained many diversions, all of which were inventive. So, inventive was my default expectation for Diaz’ new work. I entrusted him to fulfill this mission, and I was not disappointed.</span></p>
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<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: EB Garamond; font-size: medium;">There are major divisions: four stories, at first glance. The first story is about a man of great financial means who means to make more financial means, etc. In the meantime, his wife is going mad. The second story is about a man of financial means who means to make more financial means, etc. He has hired a secretary to help him write a book. I will omit descriptions of the last two works. This is the bottom line. Should you trust the narrative of the first book? the second book? the third? the fourth? What if they are mutually exclusive? Which one is worthy of your trust?</span></p>
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<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: EB Garamond; font-size: medium;">What is magnificent about “Trust’ is how Diaz concocts the stories. His writing, his description of the financial world — granted, I am not qualified to judge if it is an accurate rendering of the times and the possibilities of manipulation — his depiction of the gradations of madness, his drawing out the agony of his victims are brilliant.</span></p>
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<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: EB Garamond; font-size: medium;">I have to admit to a growing dissatisfaction with literary gimmicks, but I still make exceptions for books that impress me. For instance, I loved “The Cloud Atlas,” which rested on a gimmick. As did “The Cloud Atlas,” “Trust” impressed me.</span></p>
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</script>Barbara Tomhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08544062748223747253noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5579115000701677334.post-40818478646149712452022-06-24T10:04:00.000-07:002022-06-24T10:04:10.798-07:00 Bewilderment by Richard Powers<p><span style="font-family: EB Garamond; font-size: medium;">W. W. Norton, 288 pages, $27.95</span></p>
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<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: EB Garamond; font-size: medium;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: EB Garamond; font-size: medium;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgd1uz0Q6IAXDimd1AeVl4n4avcBrWe7wY-8v2Fpf0JX4M4ip_UfFb0wQfv5FHXW_GZjRfdSnIVtzGobX2S5hmXlj6BtLNHqj5AheizOTswhzHwuNrSBXj1bxAN5yBC0FnCces-gAHVBvrgeksHZ73sbcJb7nNu18EJSlJqMmhNUlstl6lGrx_EH-n5xg/s360/bewilderment.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="360" data-original-width="238" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgd1uz0Q6IAXDimd1AeVl4n4avcBrWe7wY-8v2Fpf0JX4M4ip_UfFb0wQfv5FHXW_GZjRfdSnIVtzGobX2S5hmXlj6BtLNHqj5AheizOTswhzHwuNrSBXj1bxAN5yBC0FnCces-gAHVBvrgeksHZ73sbcJb7nNu18EJSlJqMmhNUlstl6lGrx_EH-n5xg/s320/bewilderment.jpg" width="212" /></a></span></div><span style="font-family: EB Garamond; font-size: medium;"><br />This is not a mystery.</span><p></p>
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<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: EB Garamond; font-size: medium;">It is one of the most beautiful stories I’ve ever read. Richard Powers, author of the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, “The Overstory,” has created another wonderment that embraces the entire world (and beyond). “The Overstory” and “Bewilderment” bring us closer to the wonders of nature, but also closer to the certainty we will lose them if we continue on our carbon dioxide-spewing path.</span></p>
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<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: EB Garamond; font-size: medium;">It’s a story for our times, written in order to avoid what is around the corner. It is also a story of love and bewilderment.</span></p>
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</script>Barbara Tomhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08544062748223747253noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5579115000701677334.post-80912342838867866212022-06-17T06:36:00.000-07:002022-06-17T06:36:05.575-07:00 The City of Brass by S. A. Chakraborty<p><span style="font-family: EB Garamond; font-size: medium;">Harper Voyager, 576 pages, $17.99 (c2017)</span></p>
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<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: EB Garamond; font-size: medium;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: EB Garamond; font-size: medium;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhD-D_ku4SrgghL7QhzUIR1u0J8myoRf6ROMlW2HqvSfp92tG7N2NNyeuyxfEaSTOY2jACg4yqKrKzsmDxx2Q7SgiQd8fR6BGK_x3rTOVUOCY73HQe-GamDnAmEjThz5kyCmMOF36B-VlfI6eCGH1d4P2Q3laeW8e1dFKyaOZ6q90809mJXvHWmlZy07A/s360/cityofbrass.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="360" data-original-width="240" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhD-D_ku4SrgghL7QhzUIR1u0J8myoRf6ROMlW2HqvSfp92tG7N2NNyeuyxfEaSTOY2jACg4yqKrKzsmDxx2Q7SgiQd8fR6BGK_x3rTOVUOCY73HQe-GamDnAmEjThz5kyCmMOF36B-VlfI6eCGH1d4P2Q3laeW8e1dFKyaOZ6q90809mJXvHWmlZy07A/s320/cityofbrass.jpg" width="213" /></a></span></div><span style="font-family: EB Garamond; font-size: medium;"><br />This is not a mystery.</span><p></p>
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<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: EB Garamond; font-size: medium;">I admit a weakness for stories with genies. A recent favorite genie book didn’t even have an actual genie in it! “The City of Brass” is based on middle eastern tales of the djinn, or Daeva, as they are known in this book, </span></p>
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<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: EB Garamond; font-size: medium;">Eighteenth-century Cairo is pretty much our eighteenth-century Cairo. Where it veers into the fanciful begins with the supernatural healing powers of a young ragamuffin girl who tells “healing” fortunes. She is about eighteen or nineteen, does not remember her family, and lives by her (sometimes criminal) wits. One day the girl, Nahri, accidentallyconjures something bigger than she can handle. The menace she conjures is an “ifrit,” or evil spirit. What also is conjured -- but to help her this time -- is an unexpected and equally menacing Daeva, Dara, who saves Nahri’s life.</span></p>
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<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: EB Garamond; font-size: medium;">From that point on Nahri’s story alternates with (Prince) Ali’s. Ali Qahtani belongs to the magical realm that exists behind a veil regular people cannot cross. His tribe members are the peacekeepers between the “superior” Daevas and the shafit, the descendants of Daeva-human couplings. There are other Daeva tribes and other magical beings, some of whom are hostile to everyone else.</span></p>
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<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: EB Garamond; font-size: medium;">Dara is a Daeva who was exiled from the main Daeva city of Daevabad about a thousand years back. His sad story is slowly revealed. His family are the ancestral guardians of Nahri’s ancestral family; in other words, Dara is Nahri’s guardian. Although Dara has been exiled from Daevabad, he risks re-entering the city as an escort for Nahri, to return her to her rightful place as the last of her once-powerful family.</span></p>
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<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: EB Garamond; font-size: medium;">S. A. Chakraborty has created a complex history of the magical world and its inhabitants. The main characters are trying to reshape the magical world to accommodate their interests and beliefs. It makes for a story that is very “human” at its base. </span></p>
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<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: EB Garamond; font-size: medium;">“The City of Brass” is the first in a trilogy. The other titles are “The Kingdom of Copper” and “The Empire of Gold.”</span></p>
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<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: EB Garamond; font-size: medium;">P.S. There is a flying carpet.</span></p>
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</script>Barbara Tomhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08544062748223747253noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5579115000701677334.post-51808784045395077002022-06-10T17:29:00.000-07:002022-06-10T17:29:15.339-07:00 Bobby March Will Live Forever by Alan Parks<p><span style="font-family: EB Garamond; font-size: medium;">World Noir, 320 pages, $17 (c2021)</span></p>
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<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: EB Garamond; font-size: medium;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: EB Garamond; font-size: medium;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhfZ2yZjhF7W-JeGAAvhZIvLUuqVGeydWxkrFyZqFmOIuKhubObqxE5N03S1Y1e5dEq2bSbXntbqZZBaCKX4VYdqmkVUyijImMGpnnHHIcRexA_TPf4hiJubFsEtRuvoD77-IGqAwTeBljGMepj2uCY9TU050sGvZO_FNdV2P7Fdw_eKZkhJBDy2SxQqQ/s360/bobbymarsh.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="360" data-original-width="239" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhfZ2yZjhF7W-JeGAAvhZIvLUuqVGeydWxkrFyZqFmOIuKhubObqxE5N03S1Y1e5dEq2bSbXntbqZZBaCKX4VYdqmkVUyijImMGpnnHHIcRexA_TPf4hiJubFsEtRuvoD77-IGqAwTeBljGMepj2uCY9TU050sGvZO_FNdV2P7Fdw_eKZkhJBDy2SxQqQ/s320/bobbymarsh.jpg" width="212" /></a></span></div><span style="font-family: EB Garamond; font-size: medium;"><br />“Bobby March Will Live Forever” is the third in the Harry McCoy books by Scottish writer Alan Parks. I guiltily admit I did not read the first two but just jumped right into the third. I don’t think my comprehension suffered for that. Alan Parks is a good writer who can paint a large swathe of pertinent information efficiently and cohesively.</span><p></p>
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<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: EB Garamond; font-size: medium;">The story is set in the 1970s and is soaked in the music and dark vibe of a very noirish Glasgow.</span></p>
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<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: EB Garamond; font-size: medium;">Harry McCoy is a cop, a rare honest cop, with asterisks. *He knows the Glasgow criminal underworld very well. *Some of his best buddies are bad guys who sell drugs, have girlfriends who are prostitutes, and, yes, kill people. Mostly Harry cannot be bought. And that’s good enough to make him an exceedingly honest cop in a very corrupt section of the criminal affairs department of the Glasgow police.</span></p>
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<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: EB Garamond; font-size: medium;">As the story begins, Harry has been sidelined by his mortal enemy Bernie Raeburn, who has unfortunately become his boss. Even though he is the brightest bulb by far, Harry has to poke around with minor pencil-pushing cases instead of the higher profile ones he is usually gets. The big case of the moment involves the abduction of Laura Kelly, the teenage daughter of a working class couple. Despite a massive search, there are no clues. Is the girl dead? There hasn’t been a ransom demand. Even if there had been, Laura’s parents wouldn’t be able to pay it. Raeburn won’t let Harry anywhere near the case. </span></p>
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<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: EB Garamond; font-size: medium;">Harry’s usual partner, Wattie, has been drafted by Raeburn to assist him with the case. Most of the department has been drafted to help with the case. Wattie drops crumbs Harry’s way, so Harry can appreciate the incompetence of his nemesis.</span></p>
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<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: EB Garamond; font-size: medium;">Meanwhile …</span></p>
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<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: EB Garamond; font-size: medium;">There are several story threads involving Harry’s criminal and near-criminal friends. His ex-girlfriend, Angela, is a little morally wavy and is heavily involved in the music scene. A minor celebrity, Bobby March, has returned for a gig in his hometown of Glasgow. Then he is found dead of a drug overdose. How does Angela figure into that scenario?</span></p>
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<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: EB Garamond; font-size: medium;">Then a friend, Stevie Cooper, a crime boss, has managed to get hooked on heroin. It imperils his stake in the criminal world by emphasizing his weakness. It is up to Harry to help wean him from his drug of choice. What else does Harry have to do since he has been sidelined?</span></p>
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<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: EB Garamond; font-size: medium;">Then Raeburn catches a young man, Laura Kelly’s boyfriend, and locks him up for abducting Laura, despite there being no body and no evidence. The public is baying for justice, and Raeburn is determined to cover himself in glory with a quick resolution.</span></p>
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<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: EB Garamond; font-size: medium;">All of these threads result in Harry being concussed, beaten, knifed, and kidnapped. It is a wonder Harry is still crawling by the end of the book. This is the thing about series books: The hero must survive. Harry survives. In the process the Glasgow underworld is thrown into upheaval.</span></p>
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<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: EB Garamond; font-size: medium;">For the record, there are some moments of lightness and romance, too, although I wouldn’t quite label what Harry experiences with the fancy name of “romance.”</span></p>
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<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: EB Garamond; font-size: medium;">“Bobby March” is impressive in what it accomplishes with its many storylines. It is easy to cheer for the increasingly battered Harry McCoy as the book erupts in the drama of the last third of the book.</span></p>
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</script>Barbara Tomhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08544062748223747253noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5579115000701677334.post-50758997884715280282022-05-20T12:53:00.003-07:002022-06-27T11:46:15.025-07:00 Deer Season by Erin Flanagan<p><span style="font-family: EB Garamond; font-size: medium;">University of Nebraska Press, 320 pages, $21.95 (c2021)</span></p>
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<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: EB Garamond; font-size: medium;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: EB Garamond; font-size: medium;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEggTFn9up40PhT7-X-DDMWyKdp1ID8z7Zi3oDdoO1LoJVPA_N8u80yhwHAGIuJH1lPG9Peyh4zkSIA8vM_Bxt355sfBN8DfMMoGV58gPZnFW8rh_o6uynWWJkny5nQyvMP7s9uWE9cUZrxzNogeRVet0VGhFL66iJMEHRyDU0zV-yDCgewvjCRROjCU9g/s360/deerseason.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="360" data-original-width="233" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEggTFn9up40PhT7-X-DDMWyKdp1ID8z7Zi3oDdoO1LoJVPA_N8u80yhwHAGIuJH1lPG9Peyh4zkSIA8vM_Bxt355sfBN8DfMMoGV58gPZnFW8rh_o6uynWWJkny5nQyvMP7s9uWE9cUZrxzNogeRVet0VGhFL66iJMEHRyDU0zV-yDCgewvjCRROjCU9g/s320/deerseason.jpg" width="207" /></a></span></div><span style="font-family: EB Garamond; font-size: medium;"><br />This is a special book and it <i>is </i>a mystery, but the emphasis is on character development. And on setting. And on plot. It’s everything done well.</span><p></p>
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<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: EB Garamond; font-size: medium;">It won the 2022 Edgar Award for Best First Novel by an American Author.</span></p>
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<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: EB Garamond; font-size: medium;">If you have grown up in a small town, maybe this book will strike a particular resonance with you. Everybody is up in everybody else’s business. Everybody, it seems, gossips, even the most saintly sometimes. Not that Alma Costagan is saintly and she <i>hates</i> gossip.</span></p>
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<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: EB Garamond; font-size: medium;">Alma still sees herself as a Chicago girl. So what is this middle-aged woman with wrecked dreams of a large family doing in rural Nebraska, helping to run a farm? She married Clyle — that’s not a typo of “Clyde” — who wooed Alma at college and worked for IBM in Chicago. When Clyle’s widowed mother became ill, he and Alma shut down their lives in Chicago, temporarily they thought, to help with the family farm in Nebraska. Even after his mother died, Clyle was still drawn to the small-town life he had always treasured and the hard farm work in which he found satisfaction. Alma thought she could adjust. Fifteen years later, she is pretty tired of trying to adjust. Alma speaks her mind and, as an ex-social worker, tries to help others. Blunt and in-your-face.</span></p>
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<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: EB Garamond; font-size: medium;">Hal is the person Alma has silently chosen for her project. Because of a swimming accident that occurred when he was two — due to the negligence of his careless mother — Hal has a diminished intellect. Clyle and Alma have taken him under their wing. He helps with chores around their farm and when he was younger he slept in their house. They’ve been helping him mainstream, but that has its limits. On the outside, Hal seems normal, even somewhat attractive. Many a woman has flirted with him, only to be dismayed at his inability to maintain a social interaction. </span></p>
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<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: EB Garamond; font-size: medium;">Peggy Ahern is a 17-year-old next-door neighbor of the Costagans. She is smart, pretty, popular, and testing life on the wild side in Gunthrum, Nebraska, the latter on the sly, of course. Her 12-year-old brother Milo, also smart, knows she sometimes disappears late at night to meet up with her friends to party. In contrast, Milo follows the rules, is a good friend, tries to fly beneath the radar. He is the quiet to his sister’s loud. Surprisingly, they are mostly friends. Here’s a snippet about them:</span></p>
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<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: EB Garamond; font-size: medium;"></span></p><blockquote><span style="font-family: EB Garamond; font-size: medium;">For a twelve-year-old nerd and a volleyball-playing cheerleader, they had more in common than others might expect, and a lot of their time was spent talking about the days they’d leave for college, their Podunk years in Gunthrum behind them.</span></blockquote><p></p>
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<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: EB Garamond; font-size: medium;">We mostly view the book by hanging out with Alma and Milo, although sometimes we follow Clyle. it is through their interactions with each other and the town that we view the disappearance of teenage Peggy one cold night.</span></p>
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<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: EB Garamond; font-size: medium;">At first, no one can find Peggy. Her parents pretend she has run away in a youthful escapade. Milo half believes she has done just that, to begin her life in the bigger world, but she wouldn’t have left without telling him. It is Milo who first reckons with the fact that she is probably dead. To her family, other people mouth platitudes and wildly optimistic predictions for Peggy’s return.</span></p>
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<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: EB Garamond; font-size: medium;">Sheriff Peck Randolph has never had to deal with this kind of case before. He is a big and stolid presence in Gunthrum, and knows when to pull back and when to push the locals with their wrongdoing. It doesn’t help that Peggy’s family doesn’t alert his office until she has been gone awhile. </span></p>
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<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: EB Garamond; font-size: medium;">Mistaking a flirty move by Peggy one day at a picnic, Hal develops a crush on Peggy. He is twenty but does not understand adult interactions. He is besotted, and this is what eventually gets him into trouble. Peggy is gone; Hal must be responsible. The town’s focus has almost unanimously focused on Hal. Big, hot-tempered (because he can’t understand some situations), and with a dimming bulb, Hal cannot understand why people suspect him. He doesn’t even understand that people suspect him! It doesn’t help that when asked what he was doing the night of Peggy’s disappearance, it turns out he was in the vicinity of where she was last seen. When Alma and Clyle ask if he hit Peggy with his truck, Hal hems and haws and says he doesn’t think so.</span></p>
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<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: EB Garamond; font-size: medium;">That is the mystery in a nutshell. But the book is about so much more.</span></p>
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<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: EB Garamond; font-size: medium;">Using Peggy’s disappearance as a vehicle, author Erin Flanagan explores the dynamics of small town justice. People are guilty until proven innocent. Past behavior haunts families for generations. Alma now despises the people she once fraternized with when she first arrived. She no longer wants to bake “the best” brownies, drink herself into a lost weekend at other people’s homes, play kissy-face with other men, or attend their sanctimonious churches. Everything would be more tolerable if she had been able to bring any one of her miscarried babies to birth. As we meet her, she is filling in this void with driving the school bus and mother-henning Hal. But her sharp tongue has turned people away from her and even her husband, once loyal, kind, and loving to her, has gone silent around her. What has she lost and does she want it back? Here’s a bit about their disintegrating marriage, “The list of what one person would never understand about another went on and on.” As Alma becomes more frantic in her desire to protect Hal, and then Milo, she draws her emotions in tight and trusts no one.</span></p>
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<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: EB Garamond; font-size: medium;">Poor Milo, who has not done anything wrong, is caught up in his family’s storm. With difficult parents and unwanted sympathy from the community, Milo feels under siege. Another kid says, </span></p>
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<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: EB Garamond; font-size: medium;"></span></p><blockquote><p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: EB Garamond; font-size: medium;">‘You don’t know-know because you’re <i>twelve.’</i></span></p>
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<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: EB Garamond; font-size: medium;">Milo hated when people used that as an excuse. it was like people saying you’re a boy or from rural Nebraska. What did that have to do with anything?</span></p></blockquote><p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: EB Garamond; font-size: medium;"></span></p>
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<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: EB Garamond; font-size: medium;">Peggy’s disappearance coincides with the important family event of Milo’s confirmation at the Lutheran Church:</span></p>
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<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: EB Garamond; font-size: medium;">[Milo] thought about all the words he’d memorized for his confirmation, the oath he’d taken to God. Was that just another lie everyone told so they could get up in the morning? Were all these people who thought nothing bad could happen just fooling themselves?</span></p>
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<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: EB Garamond; font-size: medium;">What a fraught picture Flanagan paints of a community in crisis! There is a lot of finger-pointing and ill-based anger as the community fractures. Flanagan paints this so well. She tackles the thoughts of a 12-year-old and a middle-aged woman equally well. I almost thought Flanagan wasn’t going to solve the mystery. Other books have left things hanging, because, well, sometimes that’s real life.</span></p>
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<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: EB Garamond; font-size: medium;">MBTB star!</span></p>
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Barbara Tomhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08544062748223747253noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5579115000701677334.post-52503734268437702132022-05-09T12:30:00.000-07:002022-05-09T12:30:13.689-07:00 The Bangalore Detectives Club by Harini Negendra<p><span style="font-family: EB Garamond; font-size: medium;">Pegasus Crime, 304 pages, $26.95</span></p>
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<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: EB Garamond; font-size: medium;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: EB Garamond; font-size: medium;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiXZyvGiT-7zNQM1EPI_bMzauXSJk0zd7eZr5YKuLDdSBD9P2GoH5XhOxu2_OaYJRoVd6a3t4gA85xPfJ8uVx_6T-ecffAI2KtzmCRCD7XoTFOS6Prwq57bnhmvXRWBjrmHoTVrSKymwFeDD-b_aB29Q1vEz7rYihF--J2LGfb4MF0kbc7u3oUeGEix4w/s360/bangaloredetectives.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="360" data-original-width="240" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiXZyvGiT-7zNQM1EPI_bMzauXSJk0zd7eZr5YKuLDdSBD9P2GoH5XhOxu2_OaYJRoVd6a3t4gA85xPfJ8uVx_6T-ecffAI2KtzmCRCD7XoTFOS6Prwq57bnhmvXRWBjrmHoTVrSKymwFeDD-b_aB29Q1vEz7rYihF--J2LGfb4MF0kbc7u3oUeGEix4w/s320/bangaloredetectives.jpg" width="213" /></a></span></div><span style="font-family: EB Garamond; font-size: medium;"><br />Murder is an act most foul, and its portrayal in crime stories can be quite graphic. In 1920s India, there was overcrowding, shantytowns, beggars, a sense that life was cheap for a certain percentage of the population. There’s nothing sweet about the act at the center of a murder mystery or the problems emblematic of British-controlled India of that time period. The days of the Raj were not happy ones for the colonized, even if they were of a high caste or well-placed family. There was bigotry, racism, misogyny, religious persecution. Given all of that, “The Bangalore Detectives Club” is sweet.</span><p></p>
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<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: EB Garamond; font-size: medium;">It’s not as though all of the problems above are glossed over, either. Author Harini Negendra does the almost impossible task of including all those elements without making her story heavily laden with bitterness. Negendra does that with the use of her light and optimistic main characters.</span></p>
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<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: EB Garamond; font-size: medium;">Kaveri has just moved to Bangalore from her town to live with her husband, Ramu. They have been married for three years, but only started to live together after Kaveri reached a certain age. Fortunately, Ramu is a good husband with modern ideas, honed by his years in London as a student. It’s <i>that</i> kind of book. Kaveri cannot cook, so that is one of the wifely duties she undertakes to improve. But that’s not why you are reading the book — although the food sounds delicious (recipes follow in an appendix). When murder intrudes, her educated, mathematical, Sherlock-loving brain revs up. Sometimes accompanied by a grandmotherly type from next door with not enough to do (Uma aunty), she decides to solve the murder of a pimp, whose body was found on the grounds of the Century Club, where Kaveri and Ramu were having a fancy dinner with other doctors.</span></p>
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<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: EB Garamond; font-size: medium;">To be fair, there is a personal element to her involvement. The main suspect is her milkman. He would bring his cow to Kaveri’s house, milk it there, and sell the milk to Kaveri. When Manju suddenly stops showing up and his younger brother, Venu, takes over, the plot thickens. What has happened to the reliable Manju who was supporting his family with the cow’s milk and work as a helper at the hospital. Surprisingly, he has shown up as a waiter at the Century Club dinner, and Kaveri is dying to talk to him. She doesn’t get the chance because she witnesses confrontations on the lawn between Manju and a beautiful woman and between the beautiful woman and the pimp. Then Manju disappears.</span></p>
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<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: EB Garamond; font-size: medium;">Soon after, Manju’s long-suffering, pregnant wife is hit over the head and lapses into a coma. Then one of the doctors suffers the same fate. What is going on?</span></p>
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<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: EB Garamond; font-size: medium;">Flavored with both the British and Indian — I think most of the Indians are Hindi — points of view, Negendra gives us a good, gentle look at the clash of cultures.</span></p>
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<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: EB Garamond; font-size: medium;">Kaveri is young, smart, and intrepid. Caste or social status does not bother her. She socializes with the British upper class and comforts a prostitute. Because of her husband’s open mind, she learns how to drive a car, cook <i>with</i> her husband, and sift clues together. It doesn’t hurt that the investigation’s police detective, Ismail, is open minded as well! Ramu and Ismail give her access to clues, listen to her reasoning, and have her back.</span></p>
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<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: EB Garamond; font-size: medium;">This was quite enjoyable.</span></p>
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</script>Barbara Tomhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08544062748223747253noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5579115000701677334.post-63495690830402969072022-05-05T20:20:00.002-07:002022-05-05T20:20:37.767-07:00 The Appeal by Janice Hallett<p><span style="font-family: EB Garamond; font-size: medium;">Atria Books, 432 pages, $27.99</span></p>
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<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: EB Garamond; font-size: medium;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: EB Garamond; font-size: medium;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgBzhs_JcdsBQd32wBCw7kuW_smRPbwOkggLlVaP7PRiFm6AQ49ehzfDFvuF2xTWDZFT72NS26v05Sqn9Q4vO1EcjtowGv5XiYRq7KxRnPPnTEXWoXqq7XXS9ObKwU2826C-lhTVKlZGd7-NcVPvETHKH5BjuoC4_cO2RTDdVt0UbVeTg-ZO66_XBsxOA/s360/appeal.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="360" data-original-width="238" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgBzhs_JcdsBQd32wBCw7kuW_smRPbwOkggLlVaP7PRiFm6AQ49ehzfDFvuF2xTWDZFT72NS26v05Sqn9Q4vO1EcjtowGv5XiYRq7KxRnPPnTEXWoXqq7XXS9ObKwU2826C-lhTVKlZGd7-NcVPvETHKH5BjuoC4_cO2RTDdVt0UbVeTg-ZO66_XBsxOA/s320/appeal.jpg" width="212" /></a></span></div><span style="font-family: EB Garamond; font-size: medium;"><br />What did I like about this book? Some of the gimmicks. What did I not like about this book? The rest of the gimmicks.</span><p></p>
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<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: EB Garamond; font-size: medium;">Ostensibly, when you have many voices vying for attention, it’s great if they sound different. Mostly the characters in “The Appeal” were indistinguishable. That shows up especially because of the format of the story. It is an epistolary work; that is, you read a lot of emails, some phone texts, and a few letters, and an occasional legal memo. I guess the voice of Martin Hayward of the manor born sounds a little more sophisticated than that of Issy Beck, a shy nurse. I’m talking tone here, not content. In terms of content the various characters reveal very different aspects of themselves and the mystery.</span></p>
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<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: EB Garamond; font-size: medium;">What exactly is the mystery? It takes a really long time, but someone does die. And there are criminal irregularities. And there are criminous characters. And there is at least one killer. And there are characters who may not be real. And there are diseases <i>du jour. </i>There’s a lot in the mix.</span></p>
<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><span style="font-family: EB Garamond; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: EB Garamond; font-size: medium;">The basic plot revolves around the cast and crew of a tiny local drama society, The Fairview Players, in a small town in England. Some of those players are also connected to the local medical community, the other group around which the story revolves.</span></p>
<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><span style="font-family: EB Garamond; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: EB Garamond; font-size: medium;">The Hayward family is the local aristocracy and they run the Players and appear in the center of the drama that starts the story rolling. Martin Hayward is the patriarch. He is also the director of the Players’ productions. He has announced he cannot continue with the current production because his granddaughter, two-year-old Poppy, has a rare type of brain cancer and his whole family — most of whom are vital members of the cast and crew — must circle their wagons to help her. Everything is thrown into chaos, especially for Issy. The Players group is everything to her, balancing her aggravating, unsatisfying nursing job. She would do anything to help the Players continue.</span></p>
<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><span style="font-family: EB Garamond; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: EB Garamond; font-size: medium;">Martin announces he needs a lot of money to pay for a special American treatment that is in its preliminary stages. Sarah-Jane MacDonald is the local soccer mom. Not literally. She is just the one who can organize your sock drawers or your fundraising dinner. Also, let’s put on a play! The small group of Players dreams of many ways to eke money out of the local crowd. Maybe it will get wider press. Yay!</span></p>
<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><span style="font-family: EB Garamond; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: EB Garamond; font-size: medium;">Samantha Greenwood and her husband, Kel, have just moved to the town. They are both nurses and they meet Issy. Issy immediately adopts Sam as her new best friend and gets Sam and Kel involved in the Players.</span></p>
<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><span style="font-family: EB Garamond; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: EB Garamond; font-size: medium;">Hmm. Let’s throw some intrigue into this. The doctor handling Poppy’s cancer protocol and arranging for the experimental treatment is Dr. Tish Bhatoa. How odd that it turns out Sam knows Dr. Bhatoa from work they both did in Africa, where Kel and Sam lived for many years until moving to the little English town. There is some friction between the two, which, of course, is not explained for a long time.</span></p>
<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><span style="font-family: EB Garamond; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: EB Garamond; font-size: medium;">Let’s add one more layer to make it even more complicated. All the emails, texts, etc., are materials belonging to Roderick Tanner, QC. He has forwarded them to some assistants, Femi and Charlotte. They are to review the materials without knowing the outcome of the story or the disposition of the characters, and give their opinion on what strikes the wrong notes. Seriously? It’s a flimsy pretext, but okay, I’ll climb on board. Every once in a while, we get a text exchange between Femi and Charlotte reviewing the documents, i.e., let us hit you over the head with what has been covered so far.</span></p>
<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><span style="font-family: EB Garamond; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: EB Garamond; font-size: medium;">Roderick Tanner, QC, doesn’t really count. He appears as a relic to advance the story. From the start, he knows who was murdered and who was arrested for the murder. What he wants to know is did the right person get caught? He wants Femi and Charlotte to construct the case out of something close to thin air. Not all the parties to the events are represented by the emails, texts, etc. Some are noticeably absent. We never see anything from Sam, for instance. Stay calm and carry on.</span></p>
<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><span style="font-family: EB Garamond; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: EB Garamond; font-size: medium;">“The Appeal” refers both to the fundraising and to the overlying court case.</span></p>
<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><span style="font-family: EB Garamond; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: EB Garamond; font-size: medium;">The story is enticing enough that I read all 432 pages, but I’m telling you, the book should have been made a little leaner and meaner. I dodged and wove my way around the gimmicks. Kudos to the author for coming up with something original. I finished it. I want an award.</span></p>
<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><span style="font-family: EB Garamond; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
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Barbara Tomhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08544062748223747253noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5579115000701677334.post-43265947096983191792022-04-30T09:49:00.001-07:002022-04-30T09:49:54.780-07:00 A Dark and Twisted Tide by Sharon Bolton, aka S. J. Bolton<p><span style="font-family: EB Garamond; font-size: medium;">Minotaur Books, 448 pages, $21.99 (paperback) (c2014)</span></p>
<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: EB Garamond; font-size: medium;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: EB Garamond; font-size: medium;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhIgJKUkSaeEn-pgY2tKXHNBQzSaDu3a8NQcszz_M4CJ3QsB1xqJ2YolwU6HHMo2q0XvWxC3jJdVtEgTxhiLkYWbhcy_gqhr_2dmI3UgGZi9aJ99U9d41mLKnf3FYtOO6tMUpdPs2Pf0qRd6kT8ZFPCFnHoRYFKS0_GyTIy_KUeE1fzn99LxmpRuM2QtQ/s360/darkandtwistedtide.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="360" data-original-width="240" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhIgJKUkSaeEn-pgY2tKXHNBQzSaDu3a8NQcszz_M4CJ3QsB1xqJ2YolwU6HHMo2q0XvWxC3jJdVtEgTxhiLkYWbhcy_gqhr_2dmI3UgGZi9aJ99U9d41mLKnf3FYtOO6tMUpdPs2Pf0qRd6kT8ZFPCFnHoRYFKS0_GyTIy_KUeE1fzn99LxmpRuM2QtQ/s320/darkandtwistedtide.jpg" width="213" /></a></span></div><span style="font-family: EB Garamond; font-size: medium;"><br />I have a tremendous (tremendous!) number of books waiting to be read. Every once in a while I grab something from down deep in the pile, resist the siren call of newer titles, and dig in. “A Dark and Twisted Tide” is what I plucked out of the grab bag and it actually made it to the finish line.* That’s because it had a couple of elements I couldn’t resist.</span><p></p>
<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><span style="font-family: EB Garamond; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: EB Garamond; font-size: medium;">First, the heroine of the story, Lacey Flint, recreationally swims in the Thames. How clean is that river, really? How clean was it in 2014, when the book as issued. There is even a warning at the end by the author: “Please do NOT swim in the tidal Thames. Lacey Flint is a fictional character and a reckless one at that. The Thames is deep, fast, and dangerous.” Ooo, doggie! That is enough to get me started.</span></p>
<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><span style="font-family: EB Garamond; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: EB Garamond; font-size: medium;">In addition, as if I needed more incentive, the part of the Thames where Lacey swims and lives (on a houseboat) is haunted by stories of “The Mermaid.” She is spoken of in whispers, and seemingly, just by one who has seen her to another who has seen her. If you know, you know. Lacey has seen her. Maybe.</span></p>
<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><span style="font-family: EB Garamond; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: EB Garamond; font-size: medium;">“A Dark and Twisted Tide” is actually Bolton’s fourth Lacey Flint novel. I read it without having read the others (or, more accurately, having <i>remembered</i> if I had read any other), and it did not disappoint. Lacey has demoted herself to the river patrol unit of the police from a being detective with the crime squad. Her boyfriend is in the wind and may have delved a little too deeply into the underworld in which he is supposedly undercover. Her ex-boss still thinks highly of her and doesn’t mind when a series of dead bodies brings Lacey back to an association with her department.</span></p>
<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><span style="font-family: EB Garamond; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: EB Garamond; font-size: medium;">The dead bodies are all of young women of Middle Eastern descent. They are bizarrely wrapped like mummies in linen sheets, drowned in the Thames, and weighted down to live forever in the depths below. Except a couple corpses pop up to pique Lacey’s curiosity. What is an officer to do when a corpse literally bobs up in front of you while you are navigating the waters?</span></p>
<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><span style="font-family: EB Garamond; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: EB Garamond; font-size: medium;">Are the women victims of a human smuggling operation? a sex ring? a racist serial killer? to assuage family honor? All the clichéd reasons of why there are dead Middle Eastern women float to the top along with the corpses.</span></p>
<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><span style="font-family: EB Garamond; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: EB Garamond; font-size: medium;">There’s enough tension, sideways glances, and personal revelation to make a solid story.</span></p>
<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><span style="font-family: EB Garamond; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><span style="font-family: EB Garamond; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: EB Garamond; font-size: medium;">* As an aside, this book has been in my pile since it was an ARC in 2014!</span></p><script>
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</script>Barbara Tomhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08544062748223747253noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5579115000701677334.post-25867077930610525812022-04-25T16:08:00.004-07:002022-04-25T16:08:59.551-07:00Edgar Award Nominees<div class="kvgmc6g5 cxmmr5t8 oygrvhab hcukyx3x c1et5uql ii04i59q" style="caret-color: rgb(5, 5, 5); color: #050505; margin: 0px; white-space: pre-wrap; word-wrap: break-word;"><div dir="auto"><span style="font-family: EB Garamond; font-size: medium;">The Edgar Awards will be presented on April 28. See the Mystery Writers of America Edgar Awards webpage:<a href=" https://edgarawards.com " target="_blank"> https://edgarawards.com </a>for the complete list of nominees in the various categories.</span></div><div dir="auto"><span style="font-family: EB Garamond; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div dir="auto"><span style="font-family: EB Garamond; font-size: medium;">These are the nominees we have reviewed so far. Most of them are nominated for the Best Novel of 2021.</span></div><div dir="auto"><span style="font-family: EB Garamond; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div></div><div class="cxmmr5t8 oygrvhab hcukyx3x c1et5uql o9v6fnle ii04i59q" style="caret-color: rgb(5, 5, 5); color: #050505; margin: 0.5em 0px 0px; white-space: pre-wrap; word-wrap: break-word;"><div dir="auto"><span style="font-family: EB Garamond; font-size: medium;"><a href="https://mbtb-books.blogspot.com/2022/04/the-venice-sketchbook-by-rhys-bowen.html" target="_blank">Venice Sketchbook</a>, by Rhys Bowen (<a class="oajrlxb2 g5ia77u1 qu0x051f esr5mh6w e9989ue4 r7d6kgcz rq0escxv nhd2j8a9 nc684nl6 p7hjln8o kvgmc6g5 cxmmr5t8 oygrvhab hcukyx3x jb3vyjys rz4wbd8a qt6c0cv9 a8nywdso i1ao9s8h esuyzwwr f1sip0of lzcic4wl gpro0wi8 py34i1dx" href="https://mbtb-books.blogspot.com/2022/04/the-venice-sketchbook-by-rhys-bowen.html" rel="nofollow noopener" role="link" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: var(--blue-link); cursor: pointer; display: inline; list-style: none; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-align: inherit; text-decoration: none; touch-action: manipulation;" tabindex="0" target="_blank">https://mbtb-books.blogspot.com/.../the-venice-sketchbook...</a></span></div></div><div class="cxmmr5t8 oygrvhab hcukyx3x c1et5uql o9v6fnle ii04i59q" style="caret-color: rgb(5, 5, 5); color: #050505; margin: 0.5em 0px 0px; white-space: pre-wrap; word-wrap: break-word;"><div dir="auto"><span style="font-family: EB Garamond; font-size: medium;"><a href="https://mbtb-books.blogspot.com/2021/12/five-decembers-by-james-kestrel.html" target="_blank">Five Decembers</a>, by James Kestrel (<a class="oajrlxb2 g5ia77u1 qu0x051f esr5mh6w e9989ue4 r7d6kgcz rq0escxv nhd2j8a9 nc684nl6 p7hjln8o kvgmc6g5 cxmmr5t8 oygrvhab hcukyx3x jb3vyjys rz4wbd8a qt6c0cv9 a8nywdso i1ao9s8h esuyzwwr f1sip0of lzcic4wl gpro0wi8 py34i1dx" href="https://mbtb-books.blogspot.com/2021/12/five-decembers-by-james-kestrel.html" rel="nofollow noopener" role="link" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: var(--blue-link); cursor: pointer; display: inline; list-style: none; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-align: inherit; text-decoration: none; touch-action: manipulation;" tabindex="0" target="_blank">https://mbtb-books.blogspot.com/.../five-decembers-by...</a>)</span></div></div><div class="cxmmr5t8 oygrvhab hcukyx3x c1et5uql o9v6fnle ii04i59q" style="caret-color: rgb(5, 5, 5); color: #050505; margin: 0.5em 0px 0px; white-space: pre-wrap; word-wrap: break-word;"><div dir="auto"><span style="font-family: EB Garamond; font-size: medium;"><a href="https://mbtb-books.blogspot.com/2022/04/no-one-will-miss-her-by-kat-rosenfield.html" target="_blank">No One Will Miss Her</a>, by Kat Rosenfield (<a class="oajrlxb2 g5ia77u1 qu0x051f esr5mh6w e9989ue4 r7d6kgcz rq0escxv nhd2j8a9 nc684nl6 p7hjln8o kvgmc6g5 cxmmr5t8 oygrvhab hcukyx3x jb3vyjys rz4wbd8a qt6c0cv9 a8nywdso i1ao9s8h esuyzwwr f1sip0of lzcic4wl gpro0wi8 py34i1dx" href="https://mbtb-books.blogspot.com/2022/04/no-one-will-miss-her-by-kat-rosenfield.html" rel="nofollow noopener" role="link" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: var(--blue-link); cursor: pointer; display: inline; list-style: none; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-align: inherit; text-decoration: none; touch-action: manipulation;" tabindex="0" target="_blank">https://mbtb-books.blogspot.com/.../no-one-will-miss-her...</a></span></div></div><div class="cxmmr5t8 oygrvhab hcukyx3x c1et5uql o9v6fnle ii04i59q" style="caret-color: rgb(5, 5, 5); color: #050505; margin: 0.5em 0px 0px; white-space: pre-wrap; word-wrap: break-word;"><div dir="auto"><span style="font-family: EB Garamond; font-size: medium;"><a href="https://mbtb-books.blogspot.com/2021/11/never-saw-me-coming-by-vera-kurian.html" target="_blank">Never Saw Me Coming,</a> by Vera Kurian (<a class="oajrlxb2 g5ia77u1 qu0x051f esr5mh6w e9989ue4 r7d6kgcz rq0escxv nhd2j8a9 nc684nl6 p7hjln8o kvgmc6g5 cxmmr5t8 oygrvhab hcukyx3x jb3vyjys rz4wbd8a qt6c0cv9 a8nywdso i1ao9s8h esuyzwwr f1sip0of lzcic4wl gpro0wi8 py34i1dx" href="https://mbtb-books.blogspot.com/2021/11/never-saw-me-coming-by-vera-kurian.html" rel="nofollow noopener" role="link" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: var(--blue-link); cursor: pointer; display: inline; list-style: none; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-align: inherit; text-decoration: none; touch-action: manipulation;" tabindex="0" target="_blank">https://mbtb-books.blogspot.com/.../never-saw-me-coming...</a>)</span></div></div><div class="cxmmr5t8 oygrvhab hcukyx3x c1et5uql o9v6fnle ii04i59q" style="caret-color: rgb(5, 5, 5); color: #050505; margin: 0.5em 0px 0px; white-space: pre-wrap; word-wrap: break-word;"><div dir="auto"><span style="font-family: EB Garamond; font-size: medium;"><a href="https://mbtb-books.blogspot.com/2022/03/suburban-dicks-by-fabian-nicieza.html" target="_blank">Suburban Dicks</a>, by Fabian Nicieza (<a class="oajrlxb2 g5ia77u1 qu0x051f esr5mh6w e9989ue4 r7d6kgcz rq0escxv nhd2j8a9 nc684nl6 p7hjln8o kvgmc6g5 cxmmr5t8 oygrvhab hcukyx3x jb3vyjys rz4wbd8a qt6c0cv9 a8nywdso i1ao9s8h esuyzwwr f1sip0of lzcic4wl gpro0wi8 py34i1dx" href="https://mbtb-books.blogspot.com/2022/03/suburban-dicks-by-fabian-nicieza.html" rel="nofollow noopener" role="link" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: var(--blue-link); cursor: pointer; display: inline; list-style: none; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-align: inherit; text-decoration: none; touch-action: manipulation;" tabindex="0" target="_blank">https://mbtb-books.blogspot.com/.../suburban-dicks-by...</a>)</span></div></div><div class="cxmmr5t8 oygrvhab hcukyx3x c1et5uql o9v6fnle ii04i59q" style="caret-color: rgb(5, 5, 5); color: #050505; margin: 0.5em 0px 0px; white-space: pre-wrap; word-wrap: break-word;"><div dir="auto"><span style="font-family: EB Garamond; font-size: medium;"><a href="https://mbtb-books.blogspot.com/2022/04/razorblade-tears-by-s-cosby.html" target="_blank">Razorblade Tears</a>, by S. A. Cosby (<a class="oajrlxb2 g5ia77u1 qu0x051f esr5mh6w e9989ue4 r7d6kgcz rq0escxv nhd2j8a9 nc684nl6 p7hjln8o kvgmc6g5 cxmmr5t8 oygrvhab hcukyx3x jb3vyjys rz4wbd8a qt6c0cv9 a8nywdso i1ao9s8h esuyzwwr f1sip0of lzcic4wl gpro0wi8 py34i1dx" href="https://mbtb-books.blogspot.com/2022/04/razorblade-tears-by-s-cosby.html" rel="nofollow noopener" role="link" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: var(--blue-link); cursor: pointer; display: inline; list-style: none; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-align: inherit; text-decoration: none; touch-action: manipulation;" tabindex="0" target="_blank">https://mbtb-books.blogspot.com/.../razorblade-tears-by-s...</a>)</span></div></div>Barbara Tomhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08544062748223747253noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5579115000701677334.post-90920661591517894112022-04-24T15:43:00.001-07:002022-04-24T15:43:22.361-07:00 Razorblade Tears by S. A. Cosby<p><span style="font-family: EB Garamond; font-size: medium;">Flatiron Books, 336 pages, $17.99 (c2021)</span></p>
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<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: EB Garamond; font-size: medium;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: EB Garamond; font-size: medium;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhWffqFpVIAKEd1qz9l_0K0OSL8OBox1pqmF7P5GxGV00QPg7uThwBPbwsbBZae2S9RpuCcH43Eex9EWg8Rvxnw9boaHgW05wYEsVskSjPSXToV1M7hvwUYbNBRxxSmALJsqaZMhjxclZCSxWy-XICU1xzvvJiPlInI0cHcBsB8paU86PH3bWqB6_xLtA/s360/razorbladetears.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="360" data-original-width="237" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhWffqFpVIAKEd1qz9l_0K0OSL8OBox1pqmF7P5GxGV00QPg7uThwBPbwsbBZae2S9RpuCcH43Eex9EWg8Rvxnw9boaHgW05wYEsVskSjPSXToV1M7hvwUYbNBRxxSmALJsqaZMhjxclZCSxWy-XICU1xzvvJiPlInI0cHcBsB8paU86PH3bWqB6_xLtA/s320/razorbladetears.jpg" width="211" /></a></span></div><span style="font-family: EB Garamond; font-size: medium;"><br /><br /></span><p></p><p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: EB Garamond; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: EB Garamond; font-size: medium;">This has been nominated for an Edgar Award.</span></p><p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: EB Garamond; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: EB Garamond; font-size: medium;">S. A. Cosby’s most widely known books, “Blacktop Wasteland” and this book, “Razorblade Tears,” weren’t published until the author was in his 40s. His success is due to his perseverance <i>and</i> his outstanding writing.</span></p>
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<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: EB Garamond; font-size: medium;">“Razorblade Tears” is grim and compelling. After each chapter was finished, I gulped and gasped as if there weren’t enough air. I don’t find the word “propulsive” attractive except when referring to jet fuel, but were I to use that word I would use it for this book. Cosby knows how to keep his audience reading.</span></p>
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<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: EB Garamond; font-size: medium;">What Buddy Lee and Ike have in common: They are both fathers and grandfathers. They have both served time in prison. Life pitched them down and it has been hard to claw their way up. They are disgusted that their sons were gay. Their sons are dead.</span></p><p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: EB Garamond; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: EB Garamond; font-size: medium;">What Buddy Lee and Ike don’t have in common: Buddy Lee is white and Ike is Black. Buddy Lee is unemployed, lives in a trailer, and consumes a lot of beer. Ike has built up a successful lawn care business during the fifteen years he has been out of prison.</span></p>
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<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: EB Garamond; font-size: medium;">Derek, Buddy Lee’s son, was married to Isiah, Ike’s son. Neither of their fathers attended the wedding or would talk to their sons in any meaningful way. Derek and Isiah’s daughter, Arriana, is three. After Derek and Isiah were recently murdered, Ike and his wife, Mya, took over raising her. </span></p>
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<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: EB Garamond; font-size: medium;">Too late, Ike is trying to come to terms with his son's homosexuality and the fact that he no longer has an opportunity to tell him he loves him, something that went unsaid for a long time. Buddy Lee and his wife parted ways years ago. She remarried someone who is racist and homophobic. She’s no great shakes herself in the area of tolerance. Buddy Lee is no saint and despised his son's </span><span style="font-family: "EB Garamond"; font-size: large;">“</span><span style="font-family: EB Garamond; font-size: medium;">choice,</span><span style="font-family: "EB Garamond"; font-size: large;">” but between Ike and Buddy Lee, Buddy Lee is the one who is opening his heart.</span></p>
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<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: EB Garamond; font-size: medium;">Buddy Lee thinks he needs to atone for his past thinking by finding his son’s killer. He goads Ike into helping. It is a partnership forged in hell. Buddy Lee is racist and keeps putting his foot into his mouth around Ike. Ike hates Buddy Lee. The partnership starts off rocky and for every step forward, there are a couple of steps back. Of the two of them, Ike is the one who is built to intimidate. His old street name was “Riot.” He has killed before and is fighting with his better self to bring himself to kill again. It’s a short battle.</span></p>
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<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: EB Garamond; font-size: medium;">It’s a lesson in cutting to the chase when Buddy Lee and Ike begin to do some investigation. Grrr. Crack. Smash. Shake, shake, shake. They slowly build on the information they </span><span style="font-family: "EB Garamond"; font-size: large;">“</span><span style="font-family: EB Garamond; font-size: medium;">acquire.</span><span style="font-family: "EB Garamond"; font-size: large;">”</span><span style="font-family: EB Garamond; font-size: medium;"> One clue is getting to a woman, Tangerine, who may be the reason the young men were killed. More grr-ing, cracking, smashing, and shaking ensue.</span></p>
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<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: EB Garamond; font-size: medium;">While grim and violent, the book is not without some dark humor, mostly provided by Buddy Lee. Here’s Buddy when two men are giving him a beating:</span></p>
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<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: EB Garamond; font-size: medium;"></span></p><blockquote><span style="font-family: EB Garamond; font-size: medium;">The first monster that approached him had a mustache so full it was like a cat had taken up residence on his upper lip. The other grizzly bear was so cockeyed Buddy Lee figured he could see around a corner without turning his damn head.</span></blockquote><blockquote><p><span style="font-family: EB Garamond; font-size: medium;">Buddy Lee went at them like a windmill on legs. He swung on Cockeyed while he kicked a Cat Stache. </span></p></blockquote><blockquote><span style="font-family: EB Garamond; font-size: medium;"> </span></blockquote><p></p>
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<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: EB Garamond; font-size: medium;">Even though it is 2021 book, here is an MBTB star! I think it counts that I’ve had the book since 2021!</span></p><script>
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</script>Barbara Tomhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08544062748223747253noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5579115000701677334.post-75391168158835650632022-04-19T14:24:00.002-07:002022-04-19T14:24:44.417-07:00 Girl in Ice by Erica Ferencik<p><span style="font-family: EB Garamond; font-size: medium;">Gallery/Scout Press, 304 pages, $27.99</span></p>
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<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: EB Garamond; font-size: medium;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: EB Garamond; font-size: medium;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgWqsSZDvbDCJMzxn15SNyqK3WMuF7WH7IGoPKRBQX4apekDY0UuJlYZkDAGbftEpIEZrx1fIp0qeThqjlrqIXOhiXv4oMN9OPdrnHy3INCbED1YD6cIlpNSHwLidUlFFE9hVGG3VQUUTFKuzzvxfowLoSZzAu9sQ11-017IZaChy1sFlKPo_dU8FrItQ/s360/girlinice.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="360" data-original-width="240" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgWqsSZDvbDCJMzxn15SNyqK3WMuF7WH7IGoPKRBQX4apekDY0UuJlYZkDAGbftEpIEZrx1fIp0qeThqjlrqIXOhiXv4oMN9OPdrnHy3INCbED1YD6cIlpNSHwLidUlFFE9hVGG3VQUUTFKuzzvxfowLoSZzAu9sQ11-017IZaChy1sFlKPo_dU8FrItQ/s320/girlinice.jpg" width="213" /></a></span></div><span style="font-family: EB Garamond; font-size: medium;"><br />Portland has stuttered on the axis and turned back towards winter. After surviving an April snowstorm (<i>quelle horreur</i>!), of course I picked up a book about death in the Arctic! It made my piddling 30+ degree weather seem absolutely balmy.</span><p></p>
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<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: EB Garamond; font-size: medium;">Val Chesterfield is a professor and linguist. She has a working knowledge of some rare languages, one of which is West Greenlandic. It doesn’t come as a surprise, then, when she is asked by Professor Wyatt Speeks to see if she can communicate with a girl about eight years old who was dug out from inside a glacier, thawed, and brought back to life. Say, what?</span></p>
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<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: EB Garamond; font-size: medium;">Furthermore, Wyatt was mentor to Val’s brother Andy, her twin. Andy’s recent death right outside the front door of Wyatt’s research facility in Tarramiut Station, Greenland, has haunted Val since it happened. “Remote” doesn’t adequately describe the facility. “Cold” doesn’t begin to describe it either. Andy froze to death. He shouldn’t have been out of the main station at night, all alone. This is background to explain why Val, a depressed person with crippling anxiety, even would think about accepting Wyatt’s invitation. Also, Val’s father, an old codger, thinks Wyatt murdered Andy. He bullies Val into accepting the offer.</span></p>
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<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: EB Garamond; font-size: medium;">With a full supply of pills and the hope that there is adequate liquor at the station, Val shakily ventures forth. The research station is only accessible by plane when the weather isn’t bad. That area of the world is getting to the end of the habitable season, so the daylight is rapidly dwindling, the temperature is dropping, and the window for flying in or out is closing.</span></p>
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<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: EB Garamond; font-size: medium;">Also dropping into the station are two young polar divers, a married couple, Nora and Rajeev Chandra-Revard. They are giggly, passionate, and looking forward to the challenge of exploring how climate change has affected Arctic waters. Raj doesn’t accept that Wyatt chipped out an “ice girl” and revived her. What’s the gimmick, he wonders.</span></p>
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<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: EB Garamond; font-size: medium;">Already at the station is Wyatt’s assistant, Jeanne, a mechanic, cook, bottle washer, mysterious mother earth figure. Val will be rooming with Jeanne for the seven weeks she is scheduled to be at the station. </span></p>
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<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: EB Garamond; font-size: medium;">Wyatt is determined to understand what the young girl has to say. So far, she has been more like a child who was raised by wolves than someone ready to communicate with everyone.</span></p>
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<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: EB Garamond; font-size: medium;">Val realizes the immense task ahead of her when she thinks the girl has not vocalized any root words Val can associate with any known language. The girl takes to drawing, however, so there is that one advantage. But all she will draw are circles. Then she graduates to a bird of sorts. Val treats her like an English-as-a-second-language student, but the girl refuses to learn in a normal fashion. Val feels frustration but also an attraction to the mystery of the girl’s origin. Is it all an elaborate hoax?</span></p>
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<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: EB Garamond; font-size: medium;">Val treats everyone with suspicion. There is no doubt Andy froze to death. But why was he outside inadequately dressed? Andy wasn’t around when the ice girl was discovered, so it can’t be related to that, could it?</span></p>
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<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: EB Garamond; font-size: medium;">There is a weather phenomenon happening around the world. A sudden storm hits all kinds of communities with freezing winds. People are flash frozen and killed before they can react, a sort of hyper-piteraq, a Greenland katabatic wind. (You can look it up, too!) Weather chaos is the curse that keeps on giving.</span></p>
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<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: EB Garamond; font-size: medium;">There is no doubt in Val’s mind that something is amiss, but is it real or is it the product of Val’s disintegrating mental state?</span></p>
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<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: EB Garamond; font-size: medium;">“Girl in Ice” is a thrilling book with a lot of hooks to catch readers who like unusual twists. Sometimes, however, the book seems to take a step forward and two steps back, which mires the book a little. Mostly, though, it ran smoothly forward. The ending was appropriately shocking. And the underlying message of climate catastrophe on the horizon has not been lost.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><br /></p><script>
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</script>Barbara Tomhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08544062748223747253noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5579115000701677334.post-4256027722110141662022-04-15T13:45:00.002-07:002022-04-15T13:45:40.058-07:00 When I'm Gone, Look for Me in the East by Quan Barry<p>Pantheon, 320 pages, $27.99</p><p><span style="font-family: EB Garamond;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: EB Garamond;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhJBh5S2QluO8SxHVi1gM5n4ZIWSrnz6SlI0EFiL_jfydLubAKaW8BbK67eUve_u-uKT0OpALTszZryh8RCKfm3IeSiop_b1kcB7TUX7qqsjZwNomDzXTQUkgAfZSjSg1H0ORAq7eMwhzUWDO5v9avPTRiS_7yJ-DPf3W97RaF9sn1AwiVIJFfUTE5b2w/s360/whenimgone.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="360" data-original-width="239" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhJBh5S2QluO8SxHVi1gM5n4ZIWSrnz6SlI0EFiL_jfydLubAKaW8BbK67eUve_u-uKT0OpALTszZryh8RCKfm3IeSiop_b1kcB7TUX7qqsjZwNomDzXTQUkgAfZSjSg1H0ORAq7eMwhzUWDO5v9avPTRiS_7yJ-DPf3W97RaF9sn1AwiVIJFfUTE5b2w/s320/whenimgone.jpg" width="212" /></a></span></div><span style="font-family: EB Garamond;"><br /><span style="font-size: medium;">This is not a mystery, but it plays with the mystery and mysticism of Buddhism, specially Tibetan Buddhism.</span></span><p></p><p><span style="font-family: EB Garamond; font-size: medium;">Two young twin boys were released by their family to join the local monastery. All they had known to that point was their family's herding existence on the pastures of Mongolia. At the monastery they learn to be monks. One of them, Mun, is exalted to the Redeemer Who Sounds the Conch in the Darkness. Unlike other Buddhist sects, Tibetan Buddhists believe in the reincarnation of the special enlightened ones. Members of the Buddhist monasteries are sent out on quests to find the reincarnated holy one after his last incarnation dies. Mun is an incarnation. Although he is very young when he is exalted to his role, he nevertheless has more spiritual power than the other monks and is revered.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: EB Garamond; font-size: medium;">Mun's brother Chuluun, the narrator of the book, serves by Mun's side, although he is mostly just a regular monk. After Mun grows up, he suddenly casts off his robes and leaves the monastery, renouncing his vows. Chuluun is very lonely without him; the twins share the ability to sense each other's thoughts. Chuluun leaves for the faraway big city of Ulaanbaatar.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: EB Garamond; font-size: medium;">The Buddhist wheel turns on and another venerated figure dies. It is the mission of Chuluun to aid his mentor and other people with locating the reincarnated holy one. Because they pass through Ulaanbaatar, Chuluun asks his twin to accompany them. To Chuluun's surprise, Mun says yes.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: EB Garamond; font-size: medium;">There aren't a lot of landmarks to guide their journey throughout Mongolia, but these are no tourists venturing out to interview three young candidates spread far and wide. (And Mongolia is wide.) I love that the book is part travelogue.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: EB Garamond; font-size: medium;">But what is "When I'm Gone, Look for Me in the East" really about? (In her biography, Quan Barry says she was born in Saigon and was raised in Boston.) Her "story" is about the nature of Buddhism. Through Chuluun, she tells of the obstacles mortals must overcome to attain enlightenment. The primary tenet of Buddhism is all life is about suffering and the end of suffering. To participate in this cycle, is to rid oneself of desire. What are young men like Chuluun and Mun about but desire?</span></p><p><span style="font-family: EB Garamond; font-size: medium;">Barry has created tranquility and anxiety in her book. She asks the right questions. And you will love the character of Little Bat.</span></p><p><br /></p><script>
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<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: EB Garamond; font-size: medium;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: EB Garamond; font-size: medium;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjA8xKkF6ehy1H7xvD9jJj7iPZOs4UM0MgVW6zaM70t-63wsFhBl8JIdKbxsL6mBP5bMQp9u9Sv4sHaZEdeKu8GPYp8i9oM1eE8vfpmMp9y5r9-h2j113reZRUH9pjpspe_RjGJfan998TCUr34z6E8dqU9MviyLB8mNM4YypURIAKYqi5lO3xHGMn3-A/s360/venicesketchbook.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="360" data-original-width="240" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjA8xKkF6ehy1H7xvD9jJj7iPZOs4UM0MgVW6zaM70t-63wsFhBl8JIdKbxsL6mBP5bMQp9u9Sv4sHaZEdeKu8GPYp8i9oM1eE8vfpmMp9y5r9-h2j113reZRUH9pjpspe_RjGJfan998TCUr34z6E8dqU9MviyLB8mNM4YypURIAKYqi5lO3xHGMn3-A/s320/venicesketchbook.jpg" width="213" /></a></span></div><span style="font-family: EB Garamond; font-size: medium;"><br />“The Venice Sketchbook” has been nominated for an Edgar Award.</span><p></p>
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<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: EB Garamond; font-size: medium;">Wartime romance. Venice. Art. What more do you need? The end.</span></p>
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<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: EB Garamond; font-size: medium;">Well, maybe a little more description.</span></p>
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<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: EB Garamond; font-size: medium;">Rhys Bowen — of Evan Evans and Molly Murphy fame — has channeled Mary Stewart and given her readers a novel of love and danger set before and during World War II.</span></p>
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<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: EB Garamond; font-size: medium;">Juliet Browning has left her drab, repetitive life in England to study art for one year in Venice. Although she is slightly older than her fellow art students, she still manages to form friendships and have a good time. Her joy is enhanced by meeting again a dark-haired, dashing Venetian, a count, no less, named Leo. She had met him a few years before when an elderly aunt took her to Italy for a cultural tour. They only had a day or so at the time, but it was love at first sight and for the ages. Of course. Then they meet again years later. Juliet is an adult and Leo is attractive.</span></p>
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<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: EB Garamond; font-size: medium;">The story switches often to a story told by Caroline Grant, another Englishwoman, but one whose time is now. Her great-aunt Lettie has died and left her enough money to travel to Venice to scatter her ashes. Among Aunt Lettie’s few possessions are art sketches. They are quite good and Caroline is amazed to find that her aunt had such a passion. There are also some keys.</span></p>
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<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: EB Garamond; font-size: medium;">Good fortune follows Caroline in her quest to find out more of her aunt’s life in Venice and she manages to discover what the keys open. They open the past.</span></p>
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<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: EB Garamond; font-size: medium;">Caroline, too, manages to find a dark and attractive stranger, Luca, to help her in her quest. One of the keys fits a small apartment at the top of a building belonging to Luca’s family. It turns out the apartment belongs to Aunt Lettie and, therefore, now belongs to Caroline.</span></p>
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<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: EB Garamond; font-size: medium;">Juliet’s story is told by her in bits and pieces. She has come to love Venice. So she stays for one reason or another even after Hitler begins attacking countries. Even after Italy enters the war.</span></p>
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<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: EB Garamond; font-size: medium;">Rhys Bowen is a good storyteller. She creates tension without inducing panic and fear in her readers. In her writing, she tries to show her basic belief that most humans are very good. It’s a sweet, melancholy story.</span></p>
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</script>Barbara Tomhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08544062748223747253noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5579115000701677334.post-83531903787808715732022-04-08T10:57:00.003-07:002022-04-08T11:47:02.964-07:00 The Impossible Us by Sarah Lotz<p><span style="font-family: EB Garamond; font-size: medium;">Ace, 496 pages, $17</span></p>
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<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: EB Garamond; font-size: medium;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: EB Garamond; font-size: medium;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhvAxG9DiMJa1pT8IVbZGQ6ga7pU67XWkGsY1Fs6e6qJSIcrMne90QSdAoFafTkjNB7VwFZY8leTtGin5i-xVB-qgTM1ZBX1XMhnpqcLFFmKDjnW-gxL8ukJz_XLNEmrh1BBRW5OGqkib5FE9y3VBRMMR92_dC4bddwM6kLHgLPKKeEtRoQVQXJOFxzIw/s360/impossibleus.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="360" data-original-width="240" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhvAxG9DiMJa1pT8IVbZGQ6ga7pU67XWkGsY1Fs6e6qJSIcrMne90QSdAoFafTkjNB7VwFZY8leTtGin5i-xVB-qgTM1ZBX1XMhnpqcLFFmKDjnW-gxL8ukJz_XLNEmrh1BBRW5OGqkib5FE9y3VBRMMR92_dC4bddwM6kLHgLPKKeEtRoQVQXJOFxzIw/s320/impossibleus.jpg" width="213" /></a></span></div><span style="font-family: EB Garamond; font-size: medium;"><br />This is not a murder mystery, although there <i>may</i> be one or two murders revealed at the very end.</span><p></p>
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<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: EB Garamond; font-size: medium;">"The Impossible Us" is about Bee and Nick and their romance. Remember Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan in “You’ve Got Mail”? Remember Patricia Highsmith’s “Strangers on a Train”? Remember “Spiderman: Into the Spider-verse”? Rrrrr. That’s the sound of the tumbler tumbling all those ideas and mixing them up. Ta-dah! “The Impossible Us.”</span></p>
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<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: EB Garamond; font-size: medium;">Nick is a writer who has failed to publish a good book. He has resorted to ghostwriting and editing other people’s manuscripts. (A note: Personally, I think this is a highly honorable and difficult profession, but “The Impossible Us” seems to belittle it. It’s fiction. What can I say?) His last client, a rich posh person, has neglected to pay Nick for his recent, arduous work. So Nick fires off an irate (but caustically funny) email demanding money. The email goes astray and lands in Bee’s mailbox.</span></p>
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<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: EB Garamond; font-size: medium;">Bee has failed at a relationship (boo, hiss, Nate!) and her job keeps her indoors refashioning wedding gowns for disappointed brides. (“How about an asymmetrical jacket with a peplum?”) Until she gets Nick’s funny — to her — email, her days are dull and she has mostly neglected her social life.</span></p>
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<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: EB Garamond; font-size: medium;">You know how this is going to go, don’t you? Nick and Bee meet cute, are attracted cute, and — what’s the next step? They don’t know what the other looks like, so their attraction is based on their text exchanges. They are both good at writing their thoughts out, and soon become fluent and unselfconscious about their happiness and misery.</span></p>
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<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: EB Garamond; font-size: medium;">That takes us through quite a bit of the book. Finally it was time for the meet cute. And that takes up the rest of the book.</span></p>
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<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: EB Garamond; font-size: medium;">I am reluctant to tell you what that part of the book is about, because it’s Sarah Lotz’ secret weapon. I’ll say this: The problems Nick and Bee encounter are different, quirky, and daunting. </span></p>
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<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: EB Garamond; font-size: medium;">Patricia Highsmith gets lots of mention. There is probably at least one murder. But that is not the focus of the book. I read one other Lotz book and she crafts a twisty plot effortlessly.</span></p>
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<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: EB Garamond; font-size: medium;">I loved this book. (Also, the "Mandela Effect" reference.)</span></p>
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</script>Barbara Tomhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08544062748223747253noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5579115000701677334.post-16263629588752725292022-04-05T11:17:00.002-07:002022-04-05T11:17:20.556-07:00 No One Will Miss Her by Kat Rosenfield<p><span style="font-family: EB Garamond; font-size: medium;">William Morrow, 304 pages, $27.99</span></p>
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<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: EB Garamond; font-size: medium;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: EB Garamond; font-size: medium;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEifiFPUsKlZU-x8li8KVQG8f02joZlBxY5hVzOo7jp5UDW-BBbHmzrdGfxAEjVPZ8-peL_3DsexeUITzbzIFwxNkJdxA_TxywwjqtsOBY-9w-WSqybxHoUs_sWWHQmbllINuKI7DOWrYT_1yxlwFcfsBjPBu7VMzeiBcoiTo77K2Mu87DEKwULjq0R0KA/s360/noonewillmissher.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="360" data-original-width="239" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEifiFPUsKlZU-x8li8KVQG8f02joZlBxY5hVzOo7jp5UDW-BBbHmzrdGfxAEjVPZ8-peL_3DsexeUITzbzIFwxNkJdxA_TxywwjqtsOBY-9w-WSqybxHoUs_sWWHQmbllINuKI7DOWrYT_1yxlwFcfsBjPBu7VMzeiBcoiTo77K2Mu87DEKwULjq0R0KA/s320/noonewillmissher.jpg" width="212" /></a></span></div><span style="font-family: EB Garamond; font-size: medium;"><br />“No One Will Miss Her” has been nominated for an Edgar Award.</span><p></p>
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<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: EB Garamond; font-size: medium;">This book would have been massively better (and more surprising) had I not read the inner flap description. As it was, given the glaring hint, I figured out whodunnit after the first chapter. Be that as it may, I soldiered on.</span></p>
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<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: EB Garamond; font-size: medium;">A body is discovered in a rental cabin in a rural community in Maine. Although her face has been blown off by a shotgun, there is no doubt among the male police officers present that the victim was Lizzie Ouellette. Why are they so certain? There is a quite visible mole on one of her breasts. Lizzie had "a reputation." Never mind she had a husband, Dwayne Cleaves — where is he, by the way? Bingo, case solved. Dwayne killed Lizzie.</span></p>
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<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: EB Garamond; font-size: medium;">It is disconcerting to discover that many of the chapters are written in the first person by Lizzie, <i>à la</i> “The Lovely Bones.” Through her narrative we discover what a painful childhood she had as she got older. Her father was a loving man who tried his best. When they were poor, he shot squirrels for dinner. Lizzie thought it was a treat. But he couldn’t protect her from the school bullies who called her “trash,” mostly because that was her father’s business, tending a trash heap. Kids are cruel. Then those kids grow up and find other ways to show their cruelty.</span></p>
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<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: EB Garamond; font-size: medium;">The local police think they’ve sewn up the case, but along comes hotshot Maine criminal investigator, Ian Bird. He starts poking his nose into things and looks hard at the last occupants of the rental cabin, Adrienne and Ethan Richards, from Boston. Ethan is a disgraced investment banker who lost gazillions of dollars in investors’ money. He is lucky he is not in jail. In fact, he is so lucky to still have massive quantities of assets still available to him. Adrienne preens for Instagram and Facebook and her tens of loyal followers. It sucks to be married to a criminal. Ethan is a non-entity but Adrienne has some hidden depths.</span></p>
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<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: EB Garamond; font-size: medium;">Readers only have to wait until halfway through the book for the plot to begin its twisty churn towards the end.</span></p>
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<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: EB Garamond; font-size: medium;">Kat Rosenfield is a competent writer. Although her locals sound brutish, they also sound very human in their nastiness. Poor Lizzie.</span></p>
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</script>Barbara Tomhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08544062748223747253noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5579115000701677334.post-13984612393218496442022-04-04T13:42:00.002-07:002022-04-21T16:41:51.176-07:00 Under Lock and Skeleton Key by Gigi Pandian<p><span style="font-family: EB Garamond; font-size: medium;">Minotaur Books, 352 pages, $26.99</span></p>
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<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: EB Garamond; font-size: medium;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: EB Garamond; font-size: medium;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhRKBsPzAHa2TESHrG5t0ZtSpHJyNtWgBHauhf1mjQHCTvtjKfNJeLR_HAotMOgm5947JCKITvBzI5-gt0PTegV0A87Yh30gSrotlcho-NVd44M2FIpWcj8LRCkzUovYHq2oM39K90z4GKguDqq3gjZOAEvbL8pWK8iNrmh5UBQNiXMFTMFQqfuVxZY4Q/s360/underlockandskeletonkey.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="360" data-original-width="233" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhRKBsPzAHa2TESHrG5t0ZtSpHJyNtWgBHauhf1mjQHCTvtjKfNJeLR_HAotMOgm5947JCKITvBzI5-gt0PTegV0A87Yh30gSrotlcho-NVd44M2FIpWcj8LRCkzUovYHq2oM39K90z4GKguDqq3gjZOAEvbL8pWK8iNrmh5UBQNiXMFTMFQqfuVxZY4Q/s320/underlockandskeletonkey.jpg" width="207" /></a></span></div><span style="font-family: EB Garamond; font-size: medium;">I had been reading a lot of dour, serious books, most of which got eliminated after about twenty pages, when I first picked up “Under Lock and Skeleton Key.” I read a few pages and my first thought was, this is too light. So I put it down. But over the next few days, I found myself thinking about how Gigi Pandian’s book had a lot of intriguing elements in it. The tone was clean-cut and throw-back. There were shades of Nancy Drew and the Hardy Boys — although I am a die-hard Brains Benton fan — and I renamed Pandian’s book, “The Mystery of the Lock and Skeleton Key.”</span><p></p>
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<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: EB Garamond; font-size: medium;">What were those intriguing elements? Tempest Raj, the protagonist, is a defrocked magician. Something went wrong with her high-powered Las Vegas act, and she was left to skulk back to her family’s compound in Northern California, in a town named Hidden Creek. She is of mixed heritage; her grandfather came from India and her grandmother from Scotland. Her parents were just as quirkily matched, “What happens when a carpenter and a stage magician fall in love? They form a Secret Staircase Construction business to bring magic to people through their homes.”</span></p>
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<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: EB Garamond; font-size: medium;">There is a family legend/curse that the oldest child of the Raj family dies prematurely. Of the more recent generations, the victims have included her grandfather Ashok’s older brother and her mother’s older sister. And in defiance of the oldest child rule, Tempest’s mother also died in a suspicious manner a few years before “Under Lock” begins.</span></p>
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<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: EB Garamond; font-size: medium;">(An early P.S.: I commend Gigi Pandian for managing flashback information without indulging in convoluted, confusing chapters of flashbacks.)</span></p>
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<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: EB Garamond; font-size: medium;">(Another P.S.: There are many magicians in this book, but if you are looking for revelations, or even major descriptions, of magic secrets, you can move along. But then you’d be missing a really great book.)</span></p>
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<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: EB Garamond; font-size: medium;">Not only is twenty-six-year-old Tempest out of work and motherless, but a few years back she managed to scuff up the relationship with her best friend from public school days. Fortunately, Ivy, the ex-best friend, works for Darius, Tempest’s father, so can't help but meet occasionally. Darius still owns the small company specializing in constructing hidden rooms, secret staircases,<i> trompe l’oeil</i>, and other architectural illusions. Darius was the person who brought the stories of Emma, Tempest’s mother, to life. The company was in demand at the start. But not so much lately. The stories died when Emma died. And the customers liked stories.</span></p>
<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><span style="font-family: EB Garamond; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: EB Garamond; font-size: medium;">Needless to say, the family compound is a treasure trove of architectural misdirection. There are secret “keys” to access rooms in the house. It’s not just the stereotypical pulling on a book on a bookshelf to activate a hidden door; there are hidden buttons and keyholes, including panels with secret triggers and floors with switches. Tempest lives in the tower (accessed by a secret staircase, natch). It is while she is alone in the tower that she begins to hear a fiddle being played. It is playing a tune Tempest’s mother used to play. No one else has heard the ghostly, midnight serenade. Is Tempest out of work, humiliated in the magicians’ world, AND going crazy?</span></p>
<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><span style="font-family: EB Garamond; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: EB Garamond; font-size: medium;">Then a body appears lodged in a space where it could not possibly have been lodged. The body appears in the house of a customer for whom Darius is remodeling a kitchen pantry. The owner of the house has no connection to the Raj family, but the body has a definite connection to Tempest. What is going on?</span></p>
<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><span style="font-family: EB Garamond; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: EB Garamond; font-size: medium;">The delight of this book is also in the many characters Pandian introduces. Besides Ivy, Tempest’s friend and fellow magician, Sanjay, surfaces to help. Some of the people in the construction company are almost like family. Ashok and Morag moved to California to be with Tempest’s family, and in his retirement, Ashok has taken to cooking with much gusto. Some of his Indian-Scottish dishes are at the center of the family's feasts for friends.</span></p>
<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><span style="font-family: EB Garamond; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: EB Garamond; font-size: medium;">Although the full extent of what happened to Tempest during her magic act in Las Vegas is not revealed for quite a while, the incident almost killed her. Plus, there may be multiple lawsuits stemming from it. Plus, her contract with the venue hosting her act was terminated. Plus, she lost whatever money she had settling debts.</span></p>
<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><span style="font-family: EB Garamond; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: EB Garamond; font-size: medium;">Life is grim at the moment for Tempest. The haunting music adds to her unease. The dead body is the capper. If it weren’t for her friends and family supporting her, Tempest would more than likely have curled into a ball in a corner and stayed there. (Not really, because she’s not that kind of heroine.)</span></p>
<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><span style="font-family: EB Garamond; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: EB Garamond; font-size: medium;">In the best tradition of childhood mysteries — although I think this is meant to be an adult book — the protagonist is plucky, intelligent, intuitive, and intrepid. Many, many things are unexpected. I love the idea of hidden rooms. I love the idea of Indian-Scottish food. I love the ideas of truth, justice, and family mystery. I didn’t even need the stuff I usually complain about books not having: People needing to be people -- sleep? bathroom facilities? teeth-brushing? shower? At least there’s a lot of eating.</span></p><p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: EB Garamond; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: EB Garamond; font-size: medium;">MBTB "Rx": This is a cozy that actually makes you feel better. </span></p>
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<p style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><br /></p><script>
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</script>Barbara Tomhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08544062748223747253noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5579115000701677334.post-17383193507586972432022-03-27T15:45:00.002-07:002022-03-28T19:00:59.331-07:00 Suburban Dicks by Fabian Nicieza<p><span style="font-family: EB Garamond; font-size: medium;">G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 400 pages, $27 (c2021)</span></p>
<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: EB Garamond; font-size: medium;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: EB Garamond; font-size: medium;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiUPbyRTVHyWOtwGFCD_XAiQCTv7UDJnCk_DhgfzLvVnYIPZp810sIX1rfCZz1VD8BevGRc8NXRbkZR9oZNW2lmqWE3PMyZmbuKt5VgvayaU810dFlG8XNr5_0k9lvyvyOkVPNo_1ZQrtq1cs4V_k5yCpZLt2ByJ4EZGSTM_GyXkRZbT8csg3pY82V1YA/s360/suburbandicks.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="360" data-original-width="239" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiUPbyRTVHyWOtwGFCD_XAiQCTv7UDJnCk_DhgfzLvVnYIPZp810sIX1rfCZz1VD8BevGRc8NXRbkZR9oZNW2lmqWE3PMyZmbuKt5VgvayaU810dFlG8XNr5_0k9lvyvyOkVPNo_1ZQrtq1cs4V_k5yCpZLt2ByJ4EZGSTM_GyXkRZbT8csg3pY82V1YA/s320/suburbandicks.jpg" width="212" /></a></span></div><span style="font-family: EB Garamond; font-size: medium;"><br />According to the author’s bio on the back flap of the book, Fabian Nicieza “is an Argentine American comic book writer and editor who is best known as the co-creator of Marvel’s Deadpool and for his work on titles such as <i>X-Men, X-Force, New Warriors, Cable,</i> and <i>Thunderbolts</i>.”</span><p></p>
<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><span style="font-family: EB Garamond; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: EB Garamond; font-size: medium;">So you know the book is going to be funny, right.</span></p>
<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><span style="font-family: EB Garamond; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: EB Garamond; font-size: medium;">One of Nicieza’s main characters is Andrea Stern, who spends most of the book looking like a beach ball with feet, i.e., she’s pregnant, with her fifth child. The other main character is Kenneth Lee, a reporter who ran afoul of ethics considerations, i.e., he crossed the line and made up a quote on a major story. This book is about coming back from being knocked back for the protagonists and about being haunted and shackled by the past for the antagonists.</span></p>
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<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: EB Garamond; font-size: medium;">Andrea had a bright future ahead of her. She was gearing up to become an FBI profiler after helping to solve a major case while still in college. Then she got pregnant. The father of her child was set to make oodles of money on Wall Street, so Andrea put her dreams on hold. She married Jeff and they proceeded to bounce out a bunch of children. Some of them might be named Sadie and Sarah, and Eli, and … um, there’s another one. I’ll think on it. Another is definitely on the way. At the beginning of the book, Andrea is seven months pregnant, but maybe she miscounted the months because she looks as though she might burst. (Insert your own ripe fruit simile here.)</span></p>
<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><span style="font-family: EB Garamond; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: EB Garamond; font-size: medium;">Unfortunately, Jeff cheats, not with other women but from his clients. He “appropriated” funds, got caught, and is on probation. The family has downsized from a McMansion to (still a pretty big) house. They live in the suburbs. Jeff commutes by train. There is only one car. At 6:30 or so every morning the whole family drives him to the train station. Then, because it is summer, there are activities, friends, pool time, kids running wild. Not so secretly, Andrea is bored and disgruntled. </span></p>
<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><span style="font-family: EB Garamond; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: EB Garamond; font-size: medium;">Here’s an excerpt about Jeff:</span></p>
<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><span style="font-family: EB Garamond; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: EB Garamond; font-size: medium;"></span></p><blockquote><p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: EB Garamond; font-size: medium;">They had brought their furniture over from the old house even though Jeff had wanted to buy all-new stuff. He continued to act like the money would last forever even when so much of it had been lost.</span></p>
<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><span style="font-family: EB Garamond; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: EB Garamond; font-size: medium;">Not lost, since that implied an accidental misplacement. Squandered. Stolen, Litigated. Adjudicated. Reimbursed to the clients he had cheated. Paid to the IRS to avoid going to prison. Any and all of those better defined where the money had gone as a result of Jeff’s transgressions.</span></p>
<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"></p></blockquote><p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><span style="font-family: EB Garamond; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: EB Garamond; font-size: medium;">Kenneth Lee is a couple of years younger than Andrea and knew her in high school. He had a crush on her. She had a crush on his older brother. Kenneth is living out his disgrace at a small town paper in New Jersey and hoping for a big story that will send him back to the big leagues. However, he still carries the character defects that landed him in purgatory to begin with: arrogance and the ability to piss off just about anyone, especially his mother, Blaine (aka Huiquing, but “Blaine” looked better for the purposes of selling real estate). Huiquing lives in a retirement facility, where she is one of the youngest residents. This fact proves useful later in the book. Meanwhile, it provides great fodder for humor and a touch of humanity.</span></p>
<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><span style="font-family: EB Garamond; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: EB Garamond; font-size: medium;">What brings Andrea and Kenneth together again after many years is the murder of a gas station attendant. As the story begins, Andrea stumbles across the crime scene shortly after two patrol officers arrive. Her youngest child needs to pee. One of the officers will not let Andrea use the restroom, so the toddler, unable to hold it, pees all over the crime scene. While, ahem, events are unraveling, Andrea gets a good look at the scene. In rapid fire language, Andrea tells Officer Wu (daughter of the mayor) how she and the other officer mishandled the crime scene. Them she drives off.</span></p>
<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><span style="font-family: EB Garamond; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: EB Garamond; font-size: medium;">The official line is that the victim, Satkunananthan Sasmal, was killed in a robbery. Andrea knows that couldn’t possibly be true. She can’t help it; she’s hooked. She starts her own investigation, s</span><span style="font-family: "EB Garamond"; font-size: large;">ometimes dragging one or more children with her,</span><span style="font-family: "EB Garamond"; font-size: large;"> </span><span style="font-family: "EB Garamond"; font-size: large;">. When she combines forces with Kenneth, they make the most of their irregular resources: retired people, housewives, the tight-knit Indian community, a friend at the FBI. The FBI friend is Ramon. If Andrea hadn’t gotten pregnant, she would have broken up with Jeff and run off with Ramon. They met during the case that made Andrea famous. But that was then and this is now, and she hasn't seen Ramon since then. Neither she nor Kenneth have very weighty credentials to be investigating the crime and trying to uncover malfeasance in the community government. But they persevere.</span></p>
<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><span style="font-family: EB Garamond; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: EB Garamond; font-size: medium;">“Suburban Dicks” is a worthy tale. The plot line becomes more serious as the investigation digs deeper. Might be worth a hankie or two. It certainly is worth an MBTB star or two!</span></p>
<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><span style="font-family: EB Garamond; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: EB Garamond; font-size: medium;">MBTB star!</span></p>
<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><span style="font-family: EB Garamond; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: EB Garamond; font-size: medium;">Ah, Ruth — that’s the name of Andrea’s judgmental oldest child. I think she’s a rising star at the age of nine.</span></p>
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</script>Barbara Tomhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08544062748223747253noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5579115000701677334.post-48829310195130774312022-03-22T16:26:00.003-07:002022-03-24T10:15:22.881-07:00Murder at the Mena House by Erica Ruth Neubauer<p><span style="font-family: EB Garamond; font-size: medium;">Kensington, 304 pages, $15.95 (c2021)</span></p><p><span style="font-family: EB Garamond; font-size: medium;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: EB Garamond; font-size: medium;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhmNJMdhI00qQAYMpfZdnvj37u_QCsnwrgfGnaX42YhibA1YCemfwSLPA07J5y5m3egMbiz-SwcUlSsf4wUioecmqgLZimXQfeky8o_KwcgPbw-7v8mJFiMDjwG5FrplMZ-1YJTkXi_iUR0nkDzswikAQn3w-y8RQsJBxMQTOF_km9gW-EVsC0q3LZTHQ/s360/murderatthemenahouse.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="360" data-original-width="238" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhmNJMdhI00qQAYMpfZdnvj37u_QCsnwrgfGnaX42YhibA1YCemfwSLPA07J5y5m3egMbiz-SwcUlSsf4wUioecmqgLZimXQfeky8o_KwcgPbw-7v8mJFiMDjwG5FrplMZ-1YJTkXi_iUR0nkDzswikAQn3w-y8RQsJBxMQTOF_km9gW-EVsC0q3LZTHQ/s320/murderatthemenahouse.jpg" width="212" /></a></span></div><span style="font-family: EB Garamond; font-size: medium;"><br />Erica Ruth Neubauer has a new book coming out soon, part of her series starring young American widow, Jane Wunderly ("Danger on the Atlantic"). The books are set in the Roaring Twenties and the covers are quite charming. I thought I would begin with her first book in the series, "Murder at the Mena House." The setting was Cairo, Egypt. The characters were pretty much limited to the grounds of the famous Mena House resort. I was in the mood for an Agatha Christie-like mystery: dead body, sleuth, exotic setting, soupçon of romance, antiquities, Art Deco!</span><p></p><p><span style="font-family: EB Garamond; font-size: medium;">Alas, one should never take an author's template and slap it on another author's book. "Murder at the Mena House" was pleasant, but I lost a firm grip on who the heroine was. Was she plucky, traumatized, intrepid, or foolhardy? Also, she had a lot of adrenaline bursts.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: EB Garamond; font-size: medium;">The series has caught the fancy of quite a few readers and I find no fault with the setting. Perhaps this is just the mystery you need to cozy up to.</span></p><p><br /></p><script>
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</script>Barbara Tomhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08544062748223747253noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5579115000701677334.post-77152426912666197272022-03-17T15:30:00.002-07:002022-03-17T15:30:57.661-07:00 The Shadows by Alex North<p><span style="font-family: EB Garamond; font-size: medium;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: EB Garamond; font-size: medium;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEh5_m8_BV-XHsnesioPAsTXDnD_DOQgiRjRe4Yf0cPkcgGbg7XVcauWOmKiYC8g2EdD4EzWkG1XkG15dM07Z3EwiCRW9ZW1V0jhiHZdJ6E81RqNPiCk9unhZkTCPJw5fsYfLZAZU5B2591OdolxH-gd-cKCUaENtJK9Z2Nk41NLcISkCbRwPPutsNk6FQ" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="360" data-original-width="237" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEh5_m8_BV-XHsnesioPAsTXDnD_DOQgiRjRe4Yf0cPkcgGbg7XVcauWOmKiYC8g2EdD4EzWkG1XkG15dM07Z3EwiCRW9ZW1V0jhiHZdJ6E81RqNPiCk9unhZkTCPJw5fsYfLZAZU5B2591OdolxH-gd-cKCUaENtJK9Z2Nk41NLcISkCbRwPPutsNk6FQ" width="158" /></a></span></div><span style="font-family: EB Garamond; font-size: medium;"><br />Celadon Books, 352 pages, $16.99 (c2020)</span><p></p>
<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><span style="font-family: EB Garamond; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: EB Garamond; font-size: medium;">Alex North has already gotten on people’s nerves — in a good way — in “<a href="https://mbtb-books.blogspot.com/2019/12/the-whisper-man-by-alex-north.html " target="_blank">The Whisper Man</a>.” </span><span style="font-family: "EB Garamond"; font-size: large;">Although I’m a little late with this review, this is the second book in his series starring Amanda Beck, a detective in Featherbank, England. Never throw away a good formula, they say, so North is sticking to horrifying people with the (perhaps) occult and (definitely) murders. Again, children have been murdered. If you draw the line at reading books about children being murdered, opt out of this series. I don’t know if North is going to make Detective Beck a specialist in child murders, but this is the second book with that theme. Just saying.</span></p>
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<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: EB Garamond; font-size: medium;">This time the action takes place in the nearby town of Gritton and the outer area of Gritton Wood. Grrrritttton. Quite a grating, rasping noise. The name doesn’t lend itself easily to imaginings of bucolic woods and quaint thatched cottages, unlike Stow-on-the-Wold, for instance. It is an ideal representation for the economic wasteland the town and surrounding area have become and for the woods, which are not bucolic and are, in fact, gloomily called The Shadows.</span></p>
<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><span style="font-family: EB Garamond; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: EB Garamond; font-size: medium;">Paul Adams grew up in a sad house in Gritton Wood, as did his friend, James. Paul saw it as his duty to protect James from bullies when they were young school kids. Once they were older and transferred to a larger school in town, Paul was helpless to stop it when James was pulled into the orbit of fellow student, Charlie Crabtree. Charlie’s henchman, Billy Roberts, slavishly followed Charlie and resented the intrusion of James and Paul into their two-person cohort. But Charlie needed them.</span></p>
<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><span style="font-family: EB Garamond; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: EB Garamond; font-size: medium;">The book goes back and forth between the present day and when Paul was fourteen years old. Back then, Charlie was at the center of a trauma that haunted Paul so much he found himself unable to return to his town until now. He has returned because his mother, Daphne, has dementia and is living her last days. Occasionally, Daphne will wake up and urgently say things which make no sense. Like, “Red hands, Paul! There are red hands everywhere!” And, “Oh God, it’s in the house, Paul!” Of course, one might say that that “information” reaches Paul too late, since he is staying in his mother’s house while in town.</span></p>
<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><span style="font-family: EB Garamond; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: EB Garamond; font-size: medium;">Aaaaaaa.</span></p>
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<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: EB Garamond; font-size: medium;">What did Charlie do? It is alleged that Charlie masterminded the killing of another child. Then Charlie disappeared.</span><span style="font-family: "EB Garamond"; font-size: large;"> </span><span style="font-family: "EB Garamond"; font-size: large;">Fourteen-hear-old Paul was hauled into the police station. </span></p>
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<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: EB Garamond; font-size: medium;">Paul never returned home after he left for college. He became a teacher 400 miles away. He had wanted to be a writer, an activity he shared with Jenny, who became his girlfriend after he and James started to drift apart. But what was it about Charlie that broke the strong bond between James and Paul? Charlie referred to a local myth about a man who haunted The Shadows. If Charlie and the other boys could meet this man (who had a dark hole where his face should be) through lucid dreaming, they could use the man as a guiding spirit to punish people for slighting or tormenting them. Paul was hesitant but James was all in.</span></p>
<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><span style="font-family: EB Garamond; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: EB Garamond; font-size: medium;">While Paul is in Gritton he discovers that other children have been murdered over the years by people who claimed to have done the killings in the name of Charlie Crabtree. There’s an online discussion group in which a poster has adopted the handle, @CC666. They claim to know a lot about the case because they were there! This is what brings Detective Beck into the picture. In researching the old Charlie Crabtree case, she discovers Paul is now back home. It’s a golden opportunity to find out if he was involved in the subsequent killings or, more probably, has some insight into them.</span></p>
<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><span style="font-family: EB Garamond; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: EB Garamond; font-size: medium;">And that’s when spooky things start happening to grownup Paul. He finds spooky things in his mother’s attic. He meets people from long ago who mostly are reticent to discuss the past with him (and they’re spooky). Something spooky is pushed through his mother's mail slot. There are spooky glimpses of someone/thing in The Shadows.</span></p>
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<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: EB Garamond; font-size: medium;">I can hear you asking a lot of questions, because my bare-bones summary leaves a lot unaddressed. I can’t help you. To answer them would be to commit the ultimate sin of giving away the plot.</span></p>
<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><span style="font-family: EB Garamond; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: EB Garamond; font-size: medium;">I will say there is authorial trickery involved in this book. That’s my only hint. Maybe it’s too much of one. Maybe all it does is make you think I’m showing off. I offer that hint because I think the book could have done without it. That’s my rationale and I’m stuck with it.</span></p>
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<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: EB Garamond; font-size: medium;">North is great at creating atmosphere and giving glimpses of things that go bump or swish-swish-swish (the sound of a knife) in the night.</span></p>
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Barbara Tomhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08544062748223747253noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5579115000701677334.post-11190214288464893142022-03-13T14:19:00.006-07:002022-03-14T13:12:48.133-07:00 When You Are Mine by Michael Robotham<p><span style="font-family: EB Garamond; font-size: medium;">Scribner, 368 pages, $24.99</span></p>
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<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: EB Garamond; font-size: medium;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: EB Garamond; font-size: medium;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjEsVkiiHGdUwwd8whyu_0i3zXHiMTUUAGrzvxknb9_GYHR8jiDh5ykITx1XaSAmE3CUngjwS9WpIVMJG_ce-E7Vd8cM7jnMn5l65EPIZnzj_BTYLrhxsxiulOVqb16g_fjcGiki6rC_nHD6qhU4vByyTjBGBHAenGLSgac_hvQlwqUUhRh-zJBJN7mkw=s360" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="360" data-original-width="239" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjEsVkiiHGdUwwd8whyu_0i3zXHiMTUUAGrzvxknb9_GYHR8jiDh5ykITx1XaSAmE3CUngjwS9WpIVMJG_ce-E7Vd8cM7jnMn5l65EPIZnzj_BTYLrhxsxiulOVqb16g_fjcGiki6rC_nHD6qhU4vByyTjBGBHAenGLSgac_hvQlwqUUhRh-zJBJN7mkw=s320" width="212" /></a></span></div><span style="font-family: EB Garamond; font-size: medium;"><br />I have been a Michael Robotham fan for a long time. The first book of his I read was “The Night Ferry</span><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: "EB Garamond";">”</span><span style="font-family: "EB Garamond";"> (c2007). I especially liked the main character, a young Sikh woman named Ali Barba. She was a detective with the Metropolitan Police in London. What was amazing to me at the time was how Robotham, a man, so convincingly voiced his character, a woman. </span></span><p></p>
<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><span style="font-family: EB Garamond; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: EB Garamond; font-size: medium;">Being able to adequately express characters of a different gender often upends authors. Authors, good authors, writers with style, writers with a stylistic verve, are sometimes unable to convincingly voice a character of a gender different than what they are. Like Robert Parker, they might go overboard in expressing how smart, self-reliant, brilliant, independent, clever, tough, brainy, and — okay, I’ve run out of synonyms for “smart” and “doesn’t rely on men” — resplendent a character of a different gender is.</span></p>
<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><span style="font-family: EB Garamond; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: EB Garamond; font-size: medium;">In fact, since (and before) Robotham’s “The Night Ferry,” the author’s go-to characters are two men: Vincent Ruiz, ex of the police force, and Dr. Joseph O’Loughlin, a psychologist. I have loved those books as well, but I have been secretly waiting for the return of Ali Barba.</span></p>
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<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: EB Garamond; font-size: medium;">“When You Are Mine” is not that book.</span></p>
<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><span style="font-family: EB Garamond; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: EB Garamond; font-size: medium;">However, it comes close. The main character is Philomena “Phil” McCarthy, a constable at the Southwark Police Station, London. She has joined the police force despite being the daughter of one of the most notorious crimelords in England. Her parents divorced and her mother tried her best to keep her from her father’s world.</span></p>
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<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: EB Garamond; font-size: medium;">Phil has not seen her father, since remarried to the annoying Constance, in six years. Her father’s sixtieth birthday is coming up, and Constance has been relentless in trying to get Phil to visit. Truth be told, Phil has fond memories of her father’s large and boisterous family. Her uncles, all criminals, were kind to her and still love her. Blood is thicker than employment affiliations, apparently.</span></p>
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<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: EB Garamond; font-size: medium;">Henry, Phil’s fiancé, knows about her family and is intimidated but not bowed. With eyes wide open, they are beginning to plan their wedding. </span></p>
<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><span style="font-family: EB Garamond; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: EB Garamond; font-size: medium;">That’s when the manure hits the fan. In answering a domestic violence call, Phil runs afoul of Detective Sergeant Darren Goodall, the man suspected of beating his girlfriend, Temperence “Tempe” Brown. Tempe is grateful for Phil’s guidance and sympathy. DS Goodall is livid and vindictive. In the course of helping Tempe escape Goodall, Phil befriends her and opens up to her. Tempe seems to know what Phil needs; she can help with wedding plans <i>and</i> organize pantry items. Okay, you can say it with me. Ready? “If it seems too good to be true, it probably is.”</span></p>
<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><span style="font-family: EB Garamond; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: EB Garamond; font-size: medium;">It turns out Phil knows Tempe under a different name. She went to school with a Maggie Brown. Something happened, and Maggie transferred out. Maggie=Tempe. Perhaps the only thing I can fault Phil for is being too slow to realize something is amiss with Tempe, but then part of the book wouldn’t have existed. So, yay for slow. But this seems minor compared to the take-down Goodall is laying on Phil. Working his connections, Goodall is making it seem that Phil is a stalker and conniver, or worse.</span></p>
<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><span style="font-family: EB Garamond; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: EB Garamond; font-size: medium;">Perhaps Phil’s father can help?</span></p>
<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><span style="font-family: EB Garamond; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: EB Garamond; font-size: medium;">And there you have the mixings for a complex plot for a book. Happy reading!</span></p><p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: EB Garamond; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: EB Garamond; font-size: medium;">P.S. Once again, if I need to state it bluntly, Michael Robotham has created a female character with warmth and depth. Bonus: H</span><span style="font-family: "EB Garamond"; font-size: large;">er family, most assuredly guilty of heinous crimes, also has warmth and depth.</span></p>
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</script>Barbara Tomhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08544062748223747253noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5579115000701677334.post-24846356842950431832022-03-08T12:22:00.000-08:002022-03-08T12:22:05.731-08:00 The Shining Girls by Lauren Beukes<p><span style="font-family: EB Garamond; font-size: medium;">Mulholland Books, 363 pages, $16.090 (c2014)</span></p>
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<p style="color: #393939; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: EB Garamond; font-size: medium;"><span style="color: black; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"></span></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: EB Garamond; font-size: medium;"><span style="color: black; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjFQ9MBa5nZemN49fHj98fUZyC4k8ex2rHsNBTQ7qRGOyC1JLnWH7tsEhMdTKChOtpkc7rwGiINMgqJIBLqbG-iaKerravXKYoPIORSdBberOTZRPHV4-CnFwsHxgulFvJIreNhCLF70V_DR26JLMSmXCk91sSCSRPWyGRQbTdsi4hJow6sEAJfwHwLEw=s360" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="360" data-original-width="239" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjFQ9MBa5nZemN49fHj98fUZyC4k8ex2rHsNBTQ7qRGOyC1JLnWH7tsEhMdTKChOtpkc7rwGiINMgqJIBLqbG-iaKerravXKYoPIORSdBberOTZRPHV4-CnFwsHxgulFvJIreNhCLF70V_DR26JLMSmXCk91sSCSRPWyGRQbTdsi4hJow6sEAJfwHwLEw=s320" width="212" /></a></span></span></div><span style="font-family: EB Garamond; font-size: medium;"><span style="color: black; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"><br />I’m torn between admiration and confusion about “The Shining Girls,” by South African author Lauren Beukes [“</span><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; background-color: white; font-kerning: none;">Beukes, rhymes with ‘mucus’. Or, if you prefer, ‘George Lucas’. (That’s the anglicised version, of course. The correct Afrikaans pronunciation is slightly different, but I grew up English-speaking).” </span></span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "EB Garamond"; font-size: large;">—</span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "EB Garamond"; font-size: large;"> from Lauren Beukes' website]</span><p></p>
<p style="background-color: white; color: #393939; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16px;"><span style="font-family: EB Garamond; font-size: medium;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></span></p>
<p style="background-color: white; color: #393939; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-family: EB Garamond; font-kerning: none; font-size: medium;">On the one hand it is a recognizable serial killer story. A man with a compulsion — we’ll discuss that further in a bit — kills young women in a violent, ritualistic way. He takes trophies; he leaves a calling card. There is a young woman who was an incomplete victim several years ago. She is trying to find her would-be killer and avenge herself. She has the help of a washed-up reporter, reassigned from the homicide beat to sports. (No offense to sports writers.) She still lives in Chicago where her attack and the murders of the other victims took place.</span></p>
<p style="background-color: white; color: #393939; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16px;"><span style="font-family: EB Garamond; font-size: medium;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></span></p>
<p style="background-color: white; color: #393939; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-family: EB Garamond; font-kerning: none; font-size: medium;">Beukes reveals from the start who the killer is. The murders range from the 1930s to the 1990s. And here is the first trick. The killer travels through time. I wouldn’t, however, classify this as a science fiction book, although I would attach the word “horror” on a long string to the plot. This is the confusion. Not real confusion, but just stylistic confusion. Mostly the book reads in a straightforward manner, despite all the time traveling. The women who are murdered have their own short stories. They are sweet, or sad, or angry, or hopeful.</span></p>
<p style="background-color: white; color: #393939; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16px;"><span style="font-family: EB Garamond; font-size: medium;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></span></p>
<p style="background-color: white; color: #393939; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-family: EB Garamond; font-kerning: none; font-size: medium;">Harper is nuts and obsessed. The device which allows him to time travel may feed that obsession. There is no doubt he was damaged to begin with, but then he is handed the ultimate murder assistant. It is a wonder there aren’t more victims. Keep in mind, though, that despite the spread in years of the murders, to Harper, it is not a matter of 60 years but months. </span></p>
<p style="background-color: white; color: #393939; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16px;"><span style="font-family: EB Garamond; font-size: medium;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></span></p>
<p style="background-color: white; color: #393939; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-family: EB Garamond; font-kerning: none; font-size: medium;">Kirby, the young woman who escaped being 100 percent killed by Harper, has had her whole life jumbled and smashed by her trauma. She somehow still manages to be smart, brave — sometimes foolishly so — and intense. Her mother is ineffective in giving her solace, but that is not due to the attack; it’s just who her mother is.</span></p>
<p style="background-color: white; color: #393939; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16px;"><span style="font-family: EB Garamond; font-size: medium;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></span></p>
<p style="background-color: white; color: #393939; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-family: EB Garamond; font-kerning: none; font-size: medium;">Kirby is going to college in 1993 when her part of the book starts. She receives an internship at one of the Chicago newspapers. She has asked to be assigned to Dan because he knows about her case, although he doesn’t recognize her at first. Slowly, she persuades him to help uncover other murders that might have a similar <i>modus operandi. </i>It is difficult to assemble information because, well, the killer travels through time.</span></p>
<p style="background-color: white; color: #393939; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16px;"><span style="font-family: EB Garamond; font-size: medium;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></span></p>
<p style="background-color: white; color: #393939; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-family: EB Garamond; font-kerning: none; font-size: medium;">There’s no true attempt to explain how it is that Harper has a device that allows him to time travel, how the victims have been pre-selected for him, their names emblazoned on the wall of the magic house, shining and calling to him, how he knows automatically how to find his victims, both in their youth and again at the time of their deaths. It simply is. Perhaps the ending is a hint; maybe evil exists at all times, in all places, that some people are just doomed to die in a certain way.</span></p>
<p style="background-color: white; color: #393939; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16px;"><span style="font-family: EB Garamond; font-size: medium;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></span></p>
<p style="background-color: white; color: #393939; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-family: EB Garamond; font-kerning: none; font-size: medium;">The stories of the women slated to die are tiny gems shining in the book. These women do shine. They shine in their despair, desperation, hope, innocence, stubbornness. Never mind Harper. Never mind Dan. Maybe even never mind Kirby. They just tie all the stories together after all.</span></p>
<p style="background-color: white; color: #393939; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16px;"><span style="font-family: EB Garamond; font-size: medium;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></span></p>
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</script>Barbara Tomhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08544062748223747253noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5579115000701677334.post-21619339058565742342022-02-25T14:17:00.000-08:002022-02-25T14:17:59.998-08:00 Saint X by Alexis Schaitkin<p><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;">Celadon Books, 368 pages, $16.99 (c2021)</span></p>
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<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjRM55B4kCLzDM3i9Y4l23Uvi5tKZy3wAtjF4WdW9QtJ1uytMpla4awY56SeBmn59bk5Mo5Zy4dasEuw9LoP4wGrqKHMu5sFbSzrxopQPA5SbZOuXPOgtw28vLcreaZuCYh9dweCxYgwvPzxCE_Iquf9l-Xlo42VApn6_VKBo44bPhfA1cqUM8yiyDH5Q=s360" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="360" data-original-width="235" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjRM55B4kCLzDM3i9Y4l23Uvi5tKZy3wAtjF4WdW9QtJ1uytMpla4awY56SeBmn59bk5Mo5Zy4dasEuw9LoP4wGrqKHMu5sFbSzrxopQPA5SbZOuXPOgtw28vLcreaZuCYh9dweCxYgwvPzxCE_Iquf9l-Xlo42VApn6_VKBo44bPhfA1cqUM8yiyDH5Q=s320" width="209" /></a></span></div><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;"><br />“Saint X” initially presents a typical murder mystery scenario. A well-off family from White, Upper Middle Class America takes a vacation on an island somewhere in the Caribbean. Saint X could be any of a number of islands with rum drinks with little umbrellas in them. It could be any island with beautiful sand, inviting turquoise waters. It could be any island with a top-end resort. It could be any island with a resort staffed by smiling locals who have one of the charming, tourist-friendly Caribbean accents.</span><p></p>
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<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;">Perhaps the book is like Agatha Christie’s “A Caribbean Mystery.” Then, again, it may be something unexpected.</span></p>
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<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;">Alison is the teenage personality at the center of the book, but we hear her first-person voice only in her taped diaries. And how reliable can a teenage diary be? At the time of her death, Alison is 18 or 19 years old. She has just taken a break from an Ivy League college to travel with her family (mother, father, 7-year-old sister, Claire) to the island with the placeholder name of “Saint X.”</span></p>
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<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;">Claire adores her older sister and follows her when she can. Alison likes to break away from her family to join other young people in beach games and beach flirting. Two interesting locals staff the beach section. They carry chairs and towels, serve food and drinks, clean up mistakes, and acquire the forbidden drug or two for the guests. Alison makes their acquaintance. Soon, she is disappearing from the hotel after her sister has fallen asleep.</span></p>
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<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;">The night before they are set to return home, her family is befuddled when Alison is nowhere to be found. Sadly, her body is found on Faraway Island (ironically named because it is very close by) in the haunted pool at the base of the island’s waterfall. Legend has it that a woman with long black hair and hooves instead of feet haunts the island, drawing unwary people to their deaths in the pool at the base of the waterfall. </span></p>
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<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;">The local police slowly eliminate the suspects, even the most likely, the two staff members whom Alison liked to hang with. When the coroner cannot even determine if Alison was murdered, her parents finally leave the island with angry, resentful hearts. Little Claire’s obsessive tendencies are more intense. She draws in the air with her finger. She is within herself and it would be a wonder if she emerged undamaged from the ordeal.</span></p>
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<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;">This part of the tale only takes up a fourth of the book. In flashforwards and flashbacks, more of Alison’s tale is told. But in the end, it is not really Alison’s tale but Claire’s and Gogo’s (one of the local staff suspected of murdering Alison). Also, thoughts by other peripheral characters are inserted, too. It’s a juggling act that author Alexis Schaitkin performs. She never gives too much away at one time.</span></p>
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<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;">Claire has the main first-person voice. Most of her tale takes place about twenty years later. She is working in New York when a chance meeting with Gogo occurs. The narrative is riveting (but not thrilling in “that” way), sensitive, intense, clouded and then clear. The murder mystery is not really solved in a traditional fashion, and it truly becomes less murder mystery than an exploration of what tragedy and misfortune do to people with sensitive souls.</span></p>
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<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;">Although “Saint X” did not take me where I expected, it was a wonderful journey. I thought this was a remarkable book.</span></p>
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</script>Barbara Tomhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08544062748223747253noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5579115000701677334.post-16807971507862691542022-02-01T12:27:00.004-08:002022-02-01T12:37:30.340-08:00 State of Terror by Hillary Rodham Clinton and Louise Penny<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;">Simon & Schuster/St. Martin’s Press, 512 pages, $30 (c2021)</span></p>
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<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhlS-DCjyXpFVRQBCq4DtuG808fUNjGHgtRreamqAFV0KtsL14xl4X8MQGnsEgqSqkuV8u8u1qmzXLYsSFQF1_cZ_na04MDi6ICmAHErd0lopHkkoOc7_wAD_AzW2qVFP2e6_SxGqDnZ0LWuPC5iPGdTTg33pBAt60Vx1QpICBJov8TUCxmyhhIaAtH0Q=s360" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="360" data-original-width="239" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhlS-DCjyXpFVRQBCq4DtuG808fUNjGHgtRreamqAFV0KtsL14xl4X8MQGnsEgqSqkuV8u8u1qmzXLYsSFQF1_cZ_na04MDi6ICmAHErd0lopHkkoOc7_wAD_AzW2qVFP2e6_SxGqDnZ0LWuPC5iPGdTTg33pBAt60Vx1QpICBJov8TUCxmyhhIaAtH0Q=s320" width="212" /></a></span></div><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;"><br />I have almost too much to say about “State of Terror,” 99% of it good. I didn’t expect to like it so much. I thought it would be <i>just</i> a political thriller. But it was also about friendship, steadfastness, and the <i>character</i> of people. Not “character” as in, “He is such a character!!” But as in “He has a good character.” The internal state, not the outer one. </span><p></p>
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<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;">The start of the book seemed a bit rough as some of the main characters were introduced and we got a detailed description of Secretary of State Ellen Adams, just on her way back to DC from a disastrous trip to Korea. After I finished the book, I went back and reread the beginning. It was much better then when I knew who the characters were and what had happened to them.</span></p>
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<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;">As you will, too, should you read this book, I assumed Ellen Adams was Hillary Clinton. The physical description was not but the internal monologue? A big YAAAS for clearly hearing Hillary Clinton’s voice! Even if Clinton did not want you to picture her in the part, tough noogies. Adams’ best friend is a woman named Betsy Jameson, who, it turns out, is a homage to Clinton’s real best friend, the late Betsy Johnson Ebeling. Adams’ daughter, Katherine, is not Chelsea but is named after the daughter of a real Ellen, the late Ellen Tauscher, who served in Congress and the State Department. Real people shared their names and probably something of their defining characteristics with the fictional creations.</span></p>
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<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;">Ellen Adams was appointed Secretary of State despite having been newly-elected President Doug Williams’ opponent in the primaries. (That sounds familiar.) I have no idea how contentious the relationship was between President Obama and Secretary of State Clinton, but President Williams and Secretary of State Adams do not share a drink at the end of the day and stare off into the sunset thinking deep thoughts. As a matter of fact, Adams suspects Williams purposely sent her off to Korea just to humiliate her.</span></p>
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<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;">Let me quote the description of the first meeting in the book between Williams and Adams after Adams’ trip:</span></p>
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<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;"></span></p><blockquote><p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;">To the cameras and the millions of people watching, [Williams’] handsome face was stern, more disappointed than angry. A sad parent looking at a well-meaning but wayward child.</span></p>
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<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;">‘Madame Secretary.’ <i>You incompetent shit.</i></span></p>
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<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;">‘Mr. President.’ <i>You arrogant asshole.</i></span></p></blockquote><p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;"><i></i></span></p>
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<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;">One of the characters in the book is former president, Eric Dunn. He is a thinly disguised fictionalization of Donald Trump. Dunn is eviscerated by author Clinton (and presumably to a lesser extent by author Penny) with great glee. Some might say “State of Terror” is the ultimate revenge novel.</span></p>
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<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;">After Adams returns to DC, three bombs go off in three different cities in the world, although none are in the U.S. There are many victims, but the primary focus seems to be on killing nuclear scientists coming out of Pakistan. The U.S. intelligence people (and Secretary Adams) begin to assemble the clues. A man named Bashir Shah — a terrorist named Bashir Shah — was released from a Pakistani prison at the special request of former President Dunn. Is Shah masterminding a revenge against the U.S./world for imprisoning him? What were the scientists doing in three different cities? Assembling nuclear bombs? For sale? The ultimate horror on a worldwide stage.</span></p>
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<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;">Adams has to meet with several government heads to determine whether the U.S.’s suspicions are warranted. Then … what to do about the information she receives? The scenes of Adams meeting with ayatollahs and presidents are riveting. I was reminded of Frank Herbert’s “Dune” and all the levels of hidden meaning in the book’s diplomatic meetings. One of my favorite scenes takes place in the war room back at the White House. I have no idea how close we came to nuclear war in real life during any of the modern-day presidencies (with the exception of the “Cuban Missile Crisis”), but the different viewpoints and responsibilities of the disparate parts of government should give us pause to reflect on how tenuous our stability really is.</span></p>
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<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;">In fiction, Hillary Clinton — because I am assuming it was Clinton who wrote the war room scenes — presents an all-too-feasible scenario. I loved the look into the “back rooms” of power, and like a martini, I was shaken, not stirred. (Well, I was stirred but that would spoil the simile.)</span></p>
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<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;">Louise Penny definitely wrote the chapters which take place in Three Pines, Quebec. Yes, Inspector Gamache makes an appearance. Irascible poet Ruth Zardo is mentioned a couple of times. In addition, some of the book’s humor and warmth seems very Louise Penny. The melding of authorial forces was not seamless </span><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">—</span><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"> and that seemed to be on purpose sometimes </span><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">—</span><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"> but it did not detract from my enjoyment.</span></p>
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<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;">The plot had the requisite twists and turns and definitely earned the designation of thriller. I’m very grateful what happened in the book didn’t happen for real. (Or did it?)</span></p>
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<p style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><br /></p><script>
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</script>Barbara Tomhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08544062748223747253noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5579115000701677334.post-32737657545325182232022-01-15T13:59:00.002-08:002022-03-28T19:06:22.022-07:00 The Maid by Nita Prose<p><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;">Ballantine Books, 304 pages, $27</span></p>
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<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjPX3SuFni376-DDGBmijUqb8LUpnD27lo9ysitYqF0O3Bl-0MueaZCHN7130XqHex_B-64CboLWSpwxeVj9gCSCqMSRnj6HVdBvTLKftXdrfUDkJ93JDT0JnNoDW7ypYIUkzg4O25Gictilh_SbMggVN_14e04_clDrhqBS6o51pzccPr6noD0nGnGrg=s360" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="360" data-original-width="237" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjPX3SuFni376-DDGBmijUqb8LUpnD27lo9ysitYqF0O3Bl-0MueaZCHN7130XqHex_B-64CboLWSpwxeVj9gCSCqMSRnj6HVdBvTLKftXdrfUDkJ93JDT0JnNoDW7ypYIUkzg4O25Gictilh_SbMggVN_14e04_clDrhqBS6o51pzccPr6noD0nGnGrg=s320" width="211" /></a></span></div><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;"><br />“The Maid” sets an impossible level of cleanliness and joy for hotel and motel cleaning people to reach. Molly Gray, the maid in this book by Canadian Nita Prose, aspires to perfection in cleaning the rooms in the Regency Grand Hotel. The city which is home for the hotel is never named. That’s too bad because I’d stay there — except for the murder and criminal shenanigans, that is. Right, it’s fiction anyway.</span><p></p>
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<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;">In many ways, except for a puzzling bit at the end — I’ll get to that as a spoiler — it was a perfect, soothing book. Molly is someone to love and admire. She has social problems. She can’t read people’s expressions and cannot judge the intention of people speaking to her. She pretty much takes everything at face value, insofar as she can figure out what the face is doing. Before her grandmother died, Molly could bring the questions from her day’s activities home and have her grandmother explain the cues Molly missed. It looks as though Molly is on the autism spectrum, although author Prose doesn’t say that explicitly.</span></p>
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<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;">Molly’s grandmother was a housekeeper for rich people, and she taught Molly the right way to clean. Taking the job at the Regency is a no-brainer, especially since one of her grandmother’s dear friends is Mr. Preston, the doorman, and he can help look after Molly, not that there’s anything wrong with Molly’s brain, just her understanding of social interactions and her anxiety issues.</span></p>
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<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;">The story begins after Molly’s grandmother has been dead for a few months. Having been swindled out of her grandmother’s savings and no longer having her grandmother’s paycheck, Molly has found herself in a financial quandary. She can no longer afford to live in her apartment, run down and overpriced though it is. The bright spot in her life is cleaning rooms at her second home: the Regency.</span></p>
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<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;">A lot of the staff dismiss Molly. She is invisible to most of the rest of the world, but that’s the way she likes it. She gets along with a couple of the other maids, but her supervisor is conniving, unkind, and a cheat. Molly just keeps her head down and takes pride in what she does, even when she knows her boss is stealing the tip money from her and the other maids.</span></p>
<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;">One of the bright spots in Molly’s cleaning day is doing the Blacks’ suite. Mr. Black is rich, an important man, by his own lights, and has a beautiful, much younger wife. They stay at the hotel often while Mr. Black transacts business. His wife, Giselle, relies on the company of Molly when she comes to clean. Molly considers her a friend. But how much of a friend can a rich woman be to a hotel maid?</span></p>
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<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;">One day, when Molly has to return to the Blacks’ suite to finish cleaning, she finds the body of Mr. Black sprawled across the bed and Mrs. Black nowhere in sight. He is dead. When she calls the “penguins” at the front desk in a panic, they ignore her. She faints. When she recovers, Mr. Black is still dead. This time, Molly asks for the manager, Mr. Snow, and finally, the police and ambulance arrive. Eventually, it is determined Mr. Black was murdered.</span></p>
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<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;">A severe, no-nonsense police detective interviews Molly. She doesn’t catch on that Molly’s perspective is different than most people’s and decides that Molly is a suspicious person. Readers know Molly is the most innocent, naive, truthful, loyal person around. Maybe. The book is told in her voice, so just how reliable is she?</span></p>
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<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;">The other hotel characters are Juan Manuel, the dishwasher, and Rodney, the bartender. Molly has a crush on Rodney and has misinterpreted what he has said to her in the past. Other than when she is in the hotel, Molly now leads a lonely, isolated life. At one point, someone hugs Molly and she reflects on how long it has been since someone has touched her. Heartbreaking.</span></p>
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<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;">This is not a sad book, however. Yes, Molly gets into jams because of how she misunderstands people and situations, and she is sad when she finds out something is not what it seemed. But she is resilient. She hears her grandmother’s voice in her head, full of grandmotherly advice, when the going gets rocky. She takes great comfort in structure and cleanliness. For instance, she takes off her shoes every night when she gets back to her apartment,</span><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"> wipes the soles, </span><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">and puts them in her closet. That sort of detail is endearing to me.</span></p>
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<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;">As expected, Molly gets into hot water over Mr. Black’s death and it is no surprise to mystery readers when she becomes the prime suspect. At her lowest point, she wonders who she can turn to for help in her restricted world. Surprises await. The best surprise is how deep the book bores into Molly's life without over-narrating those parts.</span></p>
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<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;">I highly recommend “The Maid.” I thought it was charming. I like to read about characters cleaning things. I love Marie Kondo (although I must say, desire and practice may have a wide chasm between them in my real world). A shiny, dustless MBTB star for “The Maid,” the first of 2022! (Plus, what a great cover!)</span></p>
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<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;">Kind of a SPOILER:</span></p>
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<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;">Towards the end, Molly is in court. One of the attorneys is Charlotte. Why? Is Canadian law different from U.S. law? If the story takes place in a fictional country, are their trials held in a different fashion? Is dispensation given to Molly to have Charlotte question her? Huh?</span></p>
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</script>Barbara Tomhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08544062748223747253noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5579115000701677334.post-45273057842681881132022-01-09T14:04:00.002-08:002022-01-09T14:25:43.718-08:00 The Trees by Percival Everett<p><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;">Graywolf Press, 288 pages, $16 (c2021)</span></p>
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<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhcESxlKaEBkrO6-JA5oKFR-EesKTIbKmGVc1i4wsJ0rOeCqNUoPHifgjwSVhZxMConiMGNjx6T5sm9XuThFxtKPKXX5CpWXgsvawRlXR3oST71xhkDeGLTiNCshnuylb1GGHlHq2ZladsV5iSkZz9F4dw4OiWMQ14F_mtPY3K1y-QYDS2vKqfw0i3_BQ=s360" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="360" data-original-width="240" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhcESxlKaEBkrO6-JA5oKFR-EesKTIbKmGVc1i4wsJ0rOeCqNUoPHifgjwSVhZxMConiMGNjx6T5sm9XuThFxtKPKXX5CpWXgsvawRlXR3oST71xhkDeGLTiNCshnuylb1GGHlHq2ZladsV5iSkZz9F4dw4OiWMQ14F_mtPY3K1y-QYDS2vKqfw0i3_BQ=s320" width="213" /></a></span></div><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;"><br />Talk about unexpected! I expected a mystery and I got a mystery, but it wasn’t the one I could have envisioned in a million years. Make that two million years.</span><p></p>
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<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;">A White S***head Redneck Peckerwood has been murdered in Money, Mississippi. He has barbed wire wrapped around his neck. He is (ahem, polite euphemism) mutilated. Nearby is a corpse of a Black man holding onto the Peckerwood’s missing pieces. They killed each other maybe? Later it is determined the dead Black man has been dead a lot longer than the Peckerwood. The hunt is on. Then the corpse of the Black man disappears from the coroner’s refrigerator. The coroner is a sloppy White S***head Redneck Peckerwood, so maybe it was just an unfortunate oversight. Then a second WSRP is murdered and, oo-wee, there’s the same Black corpse again, this time holding onto the new WSRP’s pieces.</span></p>
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<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;">My thoughts may have roamed to zombies. I thought, okay, that’ll do as well. Southern mystery mutated into a horror story. Yay.</span></p>
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<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;">Called to solve the mysteries are Mississippi Bureau of Investigation agents, Ed Morgan and Jim Davis, because Money Sheriff Jetty is dumbfounded, confounded, and unmoored. Plus, he might be a WSRP himself. His deputies certainly are. Among the conversations reported by the author among the pertinent white locals is a liberal use of the N-word. Morgan and Davis are Black. No offense, one of the deputies says at one point after a slip-o-the-tongue. None taken, the agent deadpans.</span></p>
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<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;">Hey, more than one person notes, the Black corpse looks vaguely like Emmett Till. And what were the names of the deceased WSRPs? Milam and Brady.</span></p>
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<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;">Let’s step aside a moment for some history. In 1955, 14-year-old Emmett Till of Chicago was visiting relatives in Money, Mississippi. The white woman at the cash register of the store Emmett entered said he spoke inappropriately to her. She also may have alleged inappropriate physical contact by Till. Later, the woman’s husband, Roy Bryant, and J.W. Milam (and probably others) took Emmett from his relatives’ home and tortured and murdered him. Neither Bryant nor Milam were held to account for their actions. And that’s the way it was.</span></p>
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<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;">In real-life, J.W. Milam and Roy Bryant are long dead, but Carolyn Bryant, the woman at the register who started the whole series of actions that led to Emmett’s death, is still alive. According to Timothy B. Tyson, the author of a book about Emmett Till’s murder, Carolyn admitted to him that Emmett had done nothing to her. It was a lie that he had verbally or physically assaulted her.</span></p>
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<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;">Back to the book, which is set in modern times. A fictionalized version of Carolyn Bryant briefly appears as a character in “The Trees.” She is the first to note the connection between herself and the dead men, and is afraid whatever came for them will also come for her.</span></p>
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<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;">Agents Morgan and Davis shake their heads, join forces with an FBI agent, Herberta (“Herbie,” curse her parents) Hind, and plod forward to make what they can of the deaths and the disappearing Black corpse.</span></p>
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<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;">It is somewhere around here that I stopped believing this was going to be a typical murder mystery or horror book. How a horror book can be “typical,” I don’t know, since there are no holds barred in a horror story, but nevertheless, there I was.</span></p>
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<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;">Are you white and believe you are superior to non-whites? Are you a believer in the politics of Donald Trump? Are you someone who thinks you aren’t a racist, but like Amy Cooper (the Central Park dog walker and alarmist), you have an unacknowledged underlying psychopathy? If yes, then this book is probably not for you. The book points a harsh finger at people with those beliefs.</span></p>
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<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;">The concluding events come fast and furious. The lesson author Percival Everett has for his readers is not how to deconstruct a murder but how to stare a historical shame in the face. You may have come for the fiction, but you will stay for the truth.</span></p>
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<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;">Also stay to appreciate how the characters’ names get weirder and weirder. For instance: Helvetica Quip, The Doctor Reverend (neither of which is true) Cad Fondle (and his wife, Fancel), Damon Thruff, Chester Hobnobber, Ho Chi Minh, and many more. Jim Davis and Ed Morgan are purposely bland in contrast.</span></p>
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<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;">One of the thoughts that bubbled in my head about a quarter of the way through the book were the lyrics of the song, “Strange Fruit,” once upon a time banned from airplay — maybe still banned, I don’t know. The version sung by Billie Holiday is haunting. I think that thought was influenced by the book’s title. Also, the fictional Bryant and Milam victims are part of Emmett Till’s killers’ fictional family tree. Whatever. Hold that thought in your head should you continue through to the end.</span></p>
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