The Stars Turned Inside Out

This is a 2nd novel from author Nova Jacobs -- and isn't that a perfect name with the title of this book

(nova means "a star showing a sudden large increase in brightness and then slowly returning to its original state over a few months.") In this book the title--as best I can tell--refers to the experience of falling in love. The setting is the CERN laboratories and campus on the Swiss/French border, where the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) resides. One of the central characters is Eve Marsh, a postdoc there and falls in love with a new postdoc name Howard Anderby who is assigned to her "group" that is looking for new particles. Howard's claims to fame are these: he's a brilliant astrophysicist and thinker, his aunt was one of the key designers of the LHC, and he has just spent a year working in China, which is attempting to build a significantly larger LHC.When Howard is found dead from radiation poisoning inside the LHC underground tunnels, puzzles abound. The LHC was supposedly shut down at the time for maintenance. He somehow got into these secure tunnels without ever passing through one of the security checkpoints. What was he doing there in the first place--was this suicide or murder. Part of the problem lies with the underfunded security systems at CERN which only take still pictures of the LHC tunnels every 60 seconds, rather than providing contuous video coverage. So someone else could have been in the tunnels if they were very quick. 

To avoid negative publicity, the CERN director brings in private investigator and good friend from Cambridge days, Sabine Laroux. Through interviews, Sabine uncovers plenty of professional rivalries and resentments. To thicken the soup, it turns out that Howard had discovered evidence of China having access to reams of data from the LHC's "Atlas" collector, so he may have been targeted from outside the campus. Publishers Weekly calls this an "engrossing whodunit" and concludes their review by saying, "Jacobs bestows even minor characters with such convincing motives that the plot's momentum never slows, no matter how complex things get. Golden age mystery fans will love this."

Booklist offers, "Jacobs ...elevates the death-in-the-workplace trope to staggering heights in this science-based thriller that fuses physics and philosophy in mind-bending ways....As her high-minded cast of characters seeks the answers, Jacobs delves into subjects as deep as the nature of the universe and the space-time continuum and as quotidian as romantic love and professional jealousy, giving careful readers much to contemplate." In their brief review, the Wall Street Journal gushes, "Many and wondrous are the charms of this witty, suspenseful and enchanting book..." The Los Angeles Times opens their interview/ review by quipping, "Who knew particle physics could be so bewitching?"

There is a conversation with Nova Jacobs on You Tube.

 

Among the Living

This is the newest release (Feb. 2024) of horror and fantasy author Tim Lebbon, an author new to me; I am a fan of some fantasy but not so much horror.  I would also characterize this book as speculative fiction, i.e., near possible future scenarios. Set in our world, now in advancing climate change, we encounter two teams with opposite goals. One is a team of 4 rare mineral prospectors, exploring areas that were previous inaccessible before the planet warmed up, and the other team of 3 are eco-activists, trying to prevent further destruction of a dramatically changing world. On team 1 is Dean, whose growing unease about what they are doing causes him to send an email to former friend Bethan, a member of team 2;  team 2 is not on the same island by chance, but due to Dean's warning. It reminds me of "The Body Snatchers," except, instead of aliens from another world, the threat comes from within our own. I'll let Publishers Weekly offer a further summary in their review.

"Combining a plausible existential threat with vivid depictions of a forbidding landscape, Lebbon (The Last Storm) crafts an expert work of ecological horror. In the near future, catastrophic climate change has so devastated the planet that America’s drought-afflicted farming belt is now known as the Desert. The demand for new sources of rare-earth minerals leads four experts to the Arctic’s Hawkshead Island, where they’ve identified a cave system that could yield riches. But when they enter, the researchers encounter an unusual group of mummified human remains, apparently tens of thousands of years old. Despite every indication that the bodies are long dead, one of them, whose head is in “an impossible position,” appears to move, sending the expedition members fleeing for their lives. When three of the four emerge from the caves, they meet another team, this one comprising activists and ecoterrorists, who are concerned that the intrusion may have unleashed a contagious intelligent disease that could kill every human on Earth. Lebbon skillfully exploits the very real concern that melting permafrost could release deadly viruses to create a nail-biting scientific thriller worthy of Michael Crichton. Readers will be wowed."

The New York Times brief review recommends it. "This novel is wildly entertaining. The ragtag band of survivors must traverse dangerous, unpredictable terrain full of snow bears and sinkholes, all while fighting creatures that emerge from the ground. The tension and violence are as aggressive as a revving engine here, but Lebbon’s timely message — that hurting our planet is hurting ourselves — is just as loud."

 

The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store

The only other book I have read by James McBride is his amazing memoir, The Color of Water, although Deacon King Kong and The Good Lord Bird are both on my TBR pile. Having read only his memoir, I wondered if the character Chona in this book was an homage to his mother, a Jewish woman, who lived in Harlem, married to a Black man and who truly considered them all equal as human beings. Kirkus also comments on this, "It’s possible to draw a clear, straight line from McBride’s breakthrough memoir, The Color of Water (1996), to the themes of this latest work."

Set in small town Pennsylvania in the 1930's, in the neighborhood of "Chicken Hill, a hardscrabble section of Pottstown, Pennsylvania, that is home to African Americans who fled racial violence in the Deep South and Jews who escaped the pogroms of Eastern Europe" (Booklist);  the rest of the white Christian town considers them lesser than. Of course, long after running water and sewer systems, paved sidewalks and streets have come to the main town, Chicken Hill remains without. Still the community is strong and Chona, a young Jewish woman who limps from polio, insists on running the only grocery store there at a loss, even though her husband has succeeded financially with 2 dance/ concert halls in town--both of them integrated. Although the book begins with a skeleton found in a well in the 1970's, that mystery is not resolved until the penultimate chapters of the book, while the focus for the remainder is on Chona and Moshe, their neighbors and a deaf Black boy, Dodo, they seek to hide from the state investigators who want to put him in a state asylum. Booklist goes on to say, "their neighbors are vibrant, complicated individuals, each improvising ways to get by, ultimately joining forces to try to keep the authorities from taking Dodo, a smart, sweet, Black, orphaned deaf boy, to the hellish state asylum. McBride incisively and prismatically evokes the timbre of Jewish and Black lives of the times, while spinning intriguing backstories and choreographing telling struggles over running water, class divides, and prejudice of all kinds. Funny, tender, knockabout, gritty, and suspenseful, McBride's microcosmic, socially critiquing, and empathic novel dynamically celebrates difference, kindness, ingenuity, and the force that compels us to move heaven and earth to help each other."

Library Jounal praises the book, closing their review by saying, "A compelling novel, compellingly written, and not to be missed." Publishers Weekly effuses, "McBride's pages burst with life, whether in descriptions of Moshe's dance hall, where folks get down to Chick Webb's 'gorgeous, stomping, low-down, rip-roaring, heart-racing jazz,' or a fortune teller who dances and cries out to God before registering her premonitions on a typewriter. This endlessly rich saga highlights the different ways in which people look out for one another." Likewise, Kirkus opens their review, "McBride follows up his hit novel Deacon King Kong (2020) with another boisterous hymn to community, mercy, and karmic justice." and praises his "the depth of characterizations and the pitch-perfect dialogue of his Black and Jewish characters."

The Raging Storm

I have not read any of Ann Cleeves books previously--at least any that I have written down--but I have watched multiple episodes of two TV series based on her Vera and Shetland books. Not familiar with the protagonist in this series, Detective Matthew Venn.  I'm relying on Library Journal's review for a plot summary:

"Greystone, in England's North Devon, is a remote, forbidding, stormy coastal community where lifeboats are essential. When Jeremy Roscoe walks into the Maiden's Prayer, he's welcomed as a local legend, an adventurer who attended Greystone schools and left to sail the world, becoming a TV star and celebrity. Now he's right there, renting a cottage, buying rounds in the bar every night. He slyly hints he's waiting for someone. But when he fails to show up one night, the locals feel cheated. Then the lifeboat is called out for a rescue, but it's too late--national treasure Roscoe is dead, in a stolen dinghy. Detective Matthew Venn and his small team report to Greystone, and it's a bitter return for Venn, who was there as a child with his parents' religious group, the Barum Brethren; some of the locals still belong to the group that Venn left. When another body is found, Venn realizes he's not the only one with bitter memories of Greystone. The third... in Cleeves's award-winning series is an atmospheric police procedural that builds on the other books while introducing fascinating suspects." This novel can easily be appreciated on its own without reading the previous two.

Booklist closes their review by saying, "Quiet tension, a moody atmosphere, and engaging characters heighten the mystery." There is also a nice summary of the story in Kirkus' review which closes with this high praise, "A surprising denouement moves this character-based mystery to the top tier." The New York Journal of Books rightly notes that the novel "includes the weather as a factor so strong as to qualify as a character—in this case, gray, cold, and wet, a ferociously windy antagonist that influences almost every character’s attitude." Their overall review is more lengthy and nuanced, starting by saying, "...for mystery readers who like boots-on-the-ground British police procedurals, book three in the Two Rivers series delivers." And they conclude their review, "...for readers who want a brainteaser to unravel by following the characters through the procedures of investigation—including coaxing needed information out of a recalcitrant, oftimes hostile community—The Raging Storm will keep them plenty intrigued." Publishers Weekly lands on the positive side, closing with "Cleeves crafts a devilishly intricate mystery that will surprise even seasoned genre fans, and Venn remains an appealing lead every bit as memorable as the author’s Vera Stanhope or Jimmy Perez."

The Queens of London

This is the latest of Heather Webb's 10 historical novels, this one centered on England's first all-female gang of thieves. The queen of the gang, Alice Diamond or, as she's known on the streets, Diamond Annie, has her own perspectives on justice and loyalty and isn't afraid to mete out punishment to anyone who crosses the line, male or female. The gang is called the Forty Elephants and they focus on shoplifting from high-end clothing stores, selling on to their fences, and dividing the money equally. With a different point of view is DC Lilian Wyles, one of the first women officers at the Met. She is trying to break free of the restrictive "women's work" --catching orphans--and is also trying to protect her women colleagues' standing in the police by being the best detective she can be. Catching the head of the Forty Elephants would certainly go some way towards convincing the higher ups that women are a valuable addition to the force.

Into the mix comes Hira, a young girl whose East Indian mother and English father have just died of cholera in India. Hira has been living with a wealthy but negligent uncle in Mayfair and she finds out that he plans to send her to a miserable boarding school for poor and delinquent girls in the north of England. She runs away into the seedier districts of London with absolutely no idea of how to survive. Befriended by a small scruffy dog, she is living in an empty flour barrel in an alley, trying to avoid the gangs of boys and the police, who would return her to her uncle. Alice finds her and uncharacteristically takes pity on the girl; she brings Hira home but warns her to stay out of sight of the abusive father of the family. She also introduces Hira to the Forty Elephants as a messenger and lookout, but Hira hates the thieving and violence she witnesses. On one of their jobs, Hira meets Dorothy, a kind sales woman at one of the department stores who offers the obviously hungry child her lunch. When Ruth, Alice's closest friend in the gang, is killed by her abusive boyfriend, Alice decides she must do more to protect her crew and starts scheming to buy a building that can be a safe house for all of them. But that's going to take more money than their usual shoplifting hauls provide. 

Booklist says of this book, "With engaging characters and strong women protagonists, Webb's page-turning historical work speaks to the challenges that women faced in the 1920s and the fortitude they needed in order to succeed in society led by men." Historical Novel Society also praises the book. "Queens of London is a whirlwind adventure through the streets of the Elephant and Castle neighborhood in early 20th-century London...And after only the first few pages you’ll be reading as much because you care about the characters as you will for the plot."

The author kindly provides notes and research sources so you can find out who and what events are based on actual persons/events and who/what is  fictional. I have to admit that for a significant part of the book, my sympathies were with the criminal gang.  

Look Closer

A member of my mystery book group, Diana, recommended this book because she said it had such a twisty ending. Absolutely left me astounded and made me want to read it a 2nd time to see if I missed any clues or was misled. Author David Ellis was the youngest judge to be on the Illinois Appellate Court but has nevertheless found the time and imagination to write several crime/thrillers on his own and many more in partnership with James Patterson. 

The book introduces "an unlikely ensemble [who] recount... the devious events that led to a grisly Halloween murder" (Kirkus). Beautiful Lauren Betancourt is found hanging from the 2nd floor balustrade of her home in a wealthy Chicago suburb. The book uses a lot of time shifts which are labeled with separate pages saying, for example, "Before Halloween: May 13." Each section then offers background information from several points of view: Simon Dobias, a well-respected law professor currently vying for tenure; his "wife" Vicky Lanier, to whom he has ostensibly been married for almost 10 years, although he is more in love with her than vice versa; Christian Newsome, a con artist who targets unhappily married women with access to a lot of money; and Sargent Jane Burke of the local police department, and the investigator assigned to Lauren's suspicious death. The reader is also privy to a journal, in which David keeps detailed notes of an affair he started with Lauren earlier in the year. Meanwhile, Vicky is planning to leave David after their 10th anniversary on Nov. 3rd, when she will have access to Simon's trust fund containing over $20 million; that's how she comes to meet Christian and begin an affair with him.

Kirkus goes on to say, "But whatever else you think you know in this twisty, intricately plotted story is likely wrong...Murder is far from the only crime committed among this shady lot, though, or even the most recent; the full extent of these devious characters’ various schemes and revenge plots is revealed in carefully scattered clues leading to a shocking, if somewhat improbable, conclusion. Even seasoned mystery readers won’t be able to predict all the knots in Simon and Vicky’s tangled web of deception. A roller-coaster ride full of unexpected twists and turns." 

Publishers Weekly describes the seminal event preceding the murder: "Vicky discovers the journal revealing Lauren's pressure on Simon to divorce Vicky before their anniversary, and she encourages Christian to take drastic action. ..the serpentine revelations will surprise even the cleverest mystery readers...[a] complex tale of triple-crossings and devious revenge..." 

The New York Times praises, "the fun is figuring out what parts of the story — if any — should be trusted...Though Ellis juggles a great many plot strands, he doesn’t drop them; the result is wildly entertaining...It helps that just about every character in the book is the very definition of unreliable."

The Mysterious Case of the Alperton Angels

This very twisty tale by Janice Hallett could be called an epistolary novel, or as the book jacket describes it, ""A novel about a journalist in pursuit of a story about a child who survived a cult mass suicide, which may not be all that it appeared to be, told in Janice Hallett's signature original and innovative style of emails, messages, news clips, and screenplay excerpts."

Publishers Weekly summarizes in their review, "...true crime author Amanda Bailey investigates the Alperton Angels, a cult that carried out a mass suicide after one of its members—a teenager whom the cult was convinced had given birth to the anti-Christ—alerted the police to its criminal activities. Eighteen years have passed since the Angels’ death ritual, and no one has been able to track down the mother or her child since. Planning to write a book about the incident, Bailey searches for the missing Alperton baby, now presumably a young adult. There’s only one problem: rival author Oliver Menzies, with whom Bailey shares a checkered history, is on the same trail... Hallett isn’t afraid to make demands of her readers: she pieces most of the novel together via a series of WhatsApp messages and discarded drafts of Bailey and Menzies’ work. The twists never let up as Hallett barrels toward the finish, frequently undermining reader expectations along the way while staying firmly in the realm of fair play. Hallett’s fans and newcomers alike will relish this brilliantly constructed and eminently satisfying mystery."

The New York Times says of its characters. "The book works as a juicy mystery — what really happened all those years ago? — but is equally satisfying as a story about the combative relationship between Amanda and Oliver, observed and commented on by Ellie Cooper, Amanda’s wry, kibitzing transcriber. It’s also an unlikely ode to the joys and frustrations of shoe-leather research, especially when the case is as crazy and convoluted as this one. Amanda is a nimble, occasionally ruthless investigator who flatters and sometimes lies to potential interview subjects. Some of her sources flake out, a few mislead her and others are too frightened to reveal much. Worryingly, fatal accidents befall a number of people right before they disclose any information."  They also sum up my feelings about the book's challenges and rewards. "...At times it can feel as if Hallett is juggling too many balls — interpersonal dynamics, characters’ back stories, a dizzying cat’s cradle of conspiracies and interlocking crimes, not to mention a very complex denouement. It might help to jot down a few notes as you go along, just to keep things straight.But it’s worth the trouble to pay close attention to this highly entertaining tale as you parse the evidence, invited to be an armchair sleuth alongside the characters."

The Wager: A Tale of Shipwreck, Mutiny and Murder

Yet another compelling non-fiction read from David Grann (see also Killers of the Flower Moon), this is the story of the British ships sent to steal treasure from a Spanish galleon in the mid-18th century and of the survivors. 

Kirkus provides this summary and review: Grann "returns with a rousing story of a maritime scandal. In 1741, the British vessel the Wager, pressed into service during England’s war with Spain, was shipwrecked in a storm off the coast of Patagonia while chasing a silver-laden Spanish galleon. Though initially part of a fleet, by the time of the shipwreck, the Wager stood alone, and many of its 250 crew members already had succumbed to injury, illness, starvation, or drowning. More than half survived the wreckage only to find themselves stranded on a desolate island. Drawing on a trove of firsthand accounts—logbooks, correspondence, diaries, court-martial testimony, and Admiralty and government records—Grann mounts a chilling, vibrant narrative of a grim maritime tragedy and its dramatic aftermath. Central to his populous cast of seamen are David Cheap, who, through a twist of fate, became captain of the Wager; Commodore George Anson, who had made Cheap his protégé; formidable gunner John Bulkeley; and midshipman John Byron, grandfather of the poet. Life onboard an 18th-century ship was perilous, as Grann amply shows. Threats included wild weather, enemy fire, scurvy and typhus, insurrection, and even mutiny. On the island, Cheap struggled to maintain authority as factions developed and violence erupted, until a group of survivors left—without Cheap—in rude makeshift boats. Of that group, 29 castaways later washed up on the coast of Brazil, where they spent more than two years in Spanish captivity; and three castaways, including Cheap, landed on the shores of Chile, where they, too, were held for years by the Spanish. Each group of survivors eventually returned to England, where they offered vastly different versions of what had occurred; most disturbingly, each accused the other of mutiny, a crime punishable by hanging. Recounting the tumultuous events in tense detail, Grann sets the Wager episode in the context of European imperialism as much as the wrath of the sea. A brisk, absorbing history and a no-brainer for fans of the author’s suspenseful historical thrillers." 

Booklist says "A new account of the Wager Mutiny, in which a shipwrecked and starving British naval crew abandoned their captain on a desolate Patagonian island, emphasizes the extreme hardships routinely faced by eighteenth-century seafarers as well as the historical resonance of the dramatic 1741 event...Grann ... vividly narrates a nearly forgotten incident with an eye for each character's personal stakes while also reminding readers of the imperialist context prompting the misadventure."  Likewise, Publishers Weekly offers, "Grann packs the narrative with fascinating details about life at sea--from scurvy-induced delirium to the mechanics of loading and firing a cannon--and makes excellent use of primary sources, including a firsthand account by 16-year-old midshipman John Byron, grandfather of the poet Lord Byron. Armchair adventurers will be enthralled." Soon to be a movie directed by Martin Scorsese and starring Leonardo diCaprio.

Lost City of the Monkey Gold

I knew Douglas Preston wrote thrillers but imagine my surprise when I started this book and found out it was a true account of the discovery of a lost civilization in the unexplored jungles of Honduras. Not only is Preston a prolific and accomplished non-fiction writer, but also an intrepid explorer. Since the time of Cortes, there have been stories about a prosperous ancient city often referred to as the "White City" or the "City of the Monkey God." There were claims in the 1940's by journalist Theodore Morde that he had found the lost city, but he killed himself without revealing the location. Preston was offered the chance by "nature-documentary filmmaker Steve Elkins" (Booklist) to join a team of archaeologists, photographers, botanists and other experts to try and locate the city. In 2012, using cutting edge and, at that time, highly classsified technology--lidar--they located not just once city but several settlements, strung along a river valley in the mountainous jungles of Honduras. Finally in January of 2015, they had gathered the resources to investigate on foot. Enlisting the help of the newly elected Honduran president and his minister of the interior and population, they were given permission. They were accompanied by "a trio of ex-military, jungle-warfare veterans" (Booklist)., as there were also drug dealers known to be working in the surrounding area. It was a grueling trek to reach the targeted location, and the camp they established was as challenging as the worst sort of survival test. It often rained ceaselessly for days, turning the camp into ankle-deep mud, the surrounding jungle was filled with lethally poisonous snakes (fer-de-lance) as well as disease carrying mosquitos and sandflies. Nevertheless, they persisted in some basic exploration, uncovering several partial structures and numerous artifacts, which they jointly agreed should be left in situ. By the time they had to leave and then return to the U.S. to regroup, half the team had starting showing signs of a potentially fatal type of parasitic disease, leishmaniasis. Fortunately for them, it was the variety for which some treatment options were available; although these could be as lethal as the disease itself.  Remarkably, most of the party returned to the site one year later to document their findings and to retrieve and preserve any visible artifacts that might be looted. 

Kirkus calls the book "A story that moves from thrilling to sobering, fascinating to downright scary—trademark Preston, in other words, and another winner." Library Journal says "Preston's journalistic experience is on full display as he gives not only the viewpoint of those in the expedition but also those on the outside....A great story with many paths to interest fans of history, archaeology, adventure, environmentalism, South America, or diseases." Booklist closes their review by asserting "Replete with informative archaeology lessons and colorful anecdotes about the challenges Elkins' crew faced during the expedition, including torrential rains and encounters with deadly snakes, Preston's uncommon travelogue is as captivating as any of his more fanciful fictional thrillers."

Publishers Weekly elaborates:"Novelist Preston’s irresistibly gripping account of his experiences as part of the expedition to locate an ancient city in the Honduran mountains reads like a fairy tale minus the myth. 'There was once a great city in the mountains,' he writes, 'struck down by a series of catastrophes, after which the people decided the gods were angry and left, leaving their possessions. Thereafter it was shunned as a cursed place, forbidden, visiting death on those who dared enter.'... Preston...brings readers into the field while enriching the narrative with historical context, beginning with 16th-century rumors of the city’s existence reported by explorer Hernán Cortés after his conquest of Mexico. Along the way, Preston explains the legendary abandonment of the City of the Monkey God and provides scientific reasoning behind its reputation as life-threatening.”

Sanctuary

I thought this book by V.V. James was really well-done, keeping me up late into the morning hours to finish. The small Connecticut town of Sanctuary got it's name when the local populace successfully drove all the witches out at the height of the mass hysteria about witches in the late 17th and early 18th century. But in this book, in more modern times, witches are licensed and more or less accepted and many in the town's population have taken advantage of Sarah Fenn's magic--their resident witch. Sarah's daughter, Harper, is 17 and graduating from high school. Sarah was devastated when she learned, on Harper's 13th birthday, that she did not have the "gift."

At the high school graduation party in a rented house, Daniel Whitman, the school's promising quarter back, falls from the 2nd floor landing and the house catches fire. Student flee the burning building and Daniel is left behind. His mother goes mad with grief and then rage. A detective from the state polic, Maggie Knight, who was assigned to this town once before in years past, is brought in for the investigation and, initially, everyone thinks this is a tragic accident. But then Jake, Dan's sycophantic friend and also the son of Sanctuary's chief of police, shows his father a video clip and swears that ex-girlfriend Harper killed Dan with magic. Everyone swears Harper has no magic abilities, but Harper has made herself scarce in town--understandably--so Maggie tries to keep the lid on emotions in town until more evidence is obtained. She brings in a witch investigator who verifies that magic was used. Sarah is the only registered witch in town and she swears her daughter has no power and, she was at a dinner party with her three closest friends, who include Dan's mother, at the time the fall and fire happened. But the witch hunt is on and people who have relied on Sarah begin to turn on her and she is no longer safe in Sanctuary.

The ending was not at all what I expected. Publishers Weekly gave the book a glowing review, calling it a "riveting mystery," and concluding that author James' "Assured prose and a tight plot lift this tale ...[and]  is off to a fine start."

Here is an interview with author Vic James about the writing of Sanctuary and the TV series that was made from it.

 

Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore

I believe this is a debut nobel by Robin Sloane. Definitely an entertaining and provocative read once you get into it, all tied up with a bow at the end. Book lovers will enjoy it; geeks will enjoy it; mystery lovers will enjoy it. In fact, this is my mystery book group's read for this month. This takes place largely in the Bay Area and for a while in New York City. It is early days of the Great Recession and Clay Jannon has just lost his job as a web designer and marketer for New Bagel. He finally takes a night shift job at the eponymous bookstore, which not only looks very odd in it's layout, but also has some pretty weird customers, most of whom appear to belong to an exclusive book club that allows them to borrow the enormous books in the back of the store that are shelved several stories high. Clay is under strict orders from Mr. Penumbra to NOT read those books, but to keep a detailed log of who comes in to borrow them. 

When one of Clay's friends stops by, he grabs a book and opens it and the mystery begins to deepen, for the tomes are clearly in some kind of code that looks like strings of numbers or letters--page after page. When a cute "Googler" walks into the store one night, Clay is attracted and they eventually become a couple. Kat is passionate about concepts like immortality and singularity and the role of technology in creating our future. I don't want to reveal any of the secrets that Clay uncovers with the help of his friends, but there will be a collaboration with Google and thousands of hackers and a trip to New York City. 

Library Journal concludes their review by opining, "Though the depiction of Google as a utopian meritocracy seems rather farcical, Sloan has created an arch tale knitting the analog past with the digital future that is compelling and readable." Likewise, Booklist's favorable reaction is that "Sloan has crafted a delightful modern-day fantasy adventure, replacing warriors, wizards, and rogues with a Silicon Valley entrepreneur, a Googler, and a book clerk. Even nongeeks will appreciate the technological wizardry used by Clay and his sidekicks as they jet from San Francisco to New York in an attempt to unlock the secret message encrypted in a mysterious pattern of codes." Kirkus starts and end on a high note. "All the best secrets are hidden in plain sight. The trick is to notice the secret in front of you. Sloan’s debut novel takes the reader on a dazzling and flat-out fun adventure, winding through the interstices between the literary and the digital realms...From the shadows of Penumbra’s bookshelves to the brightly lit constellation of cyberspace to the depths of a subterranean library, Sloan deftly wields the magicks (definitely with a “k”) of the electronic and the literary in this intricate mystery"

I am including Publishers Weekly review in its entirety as it's fun to read. "For those who fear that the Internet/e-readers/whatever-form-of-technological-upheaval-is-coming has killed or will kill paper and ink, Sloan's debut novel will come as good news. A denizen of the tech world and self-described "media inventor" (formerly he was part of the media partnerships team at Twitter), Sloan envisions a San Francisco where piracy and paper are equally useful, and massive data-visualization-processing abilities coexist with so-called "old knowledge." Really old: as in one of the first typefaces, as in alchemy and the search for immortality. Google has replaced the Medici family as the major patron of art and knowledge, and Clay Jannon, downsized graphic designer and once-and-future nerd now working the night shift for bookstore owner Mr. Penumbra, finds that mysteries and codes are everywhere, not just in the fantasy books and games he loved as a kid. With help from his friends, Clay learns the bookstore's idiosyncrasies, earns his employer's trust, and uses media new, old, and old-old to crack a variety of codes. Like all questing heroes, Clay takes on more than he bargained for and learns more than he expected, not least about himself. His story is an old-fashioned tale likably reconceived for the digital age, with the happy message that ingenuity and friendship translate across centuries and data platforms."

Lavinia

This historical novel by Ursula LeGuin was a somewhat new direction for her. In case you don't check out the website above, I offer this summary of her achievements here: 

"Ursula Kroeber Le Guin (1929-2018) was a celebrated author whose body of work includes 23 novels, 12 volumes of short stories, 11 volumes of poetry, 13 children’s books, five essay collections, and four works of translation. The breadth and imagination of her work earned her six Nebula Awards, seven Hugo Awards, and SFWA’s Grand Master, along with the PEN/Malamud and many other awards. In 2014 she was awarded the National Book Foundation Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters, and in 2016 joined the short list of authors to be published in their lifetimes by the Library of America." 

Of all the reviews I read, I thought this one from Library Journal the most accurate:"She was a minor character in The Aeneid, a "silent, shrinking maiden," but in Le Guin's brilliant reimagining of the last six books of Virgil's epic poem, Lavinia, the Latin king's daughter with whom the Trojan hero Aeneas founds the Roman Empire, finds her voice and springs fully to life. Protesting the Roman poet's dull, conventional portrait of her-"He slighted my life in his poem"-Lavinia takes us back to a Bronze Age Italy inhabited by Latin-speaking tribes. Under the rule of her father, the kingdom of Latinus is at peace until Lavinia turns 18 and the suitors arrive. Her mother Amata wants her daughter to marry her handsome, ambitious nephew, Turnus, but Lavinia is reluctant. Like her father, she can commune with the sacred spirits and in a memorable dreamlike scene meets the dying Virgil, who tells her Aeneas's story and her role in his life. Thus armed, Lavania resists her mother's will and decides to make her own destiny when early one morning the Trojan black ships sail up the Tiber River. As Le Guin's afterword acknowledges, this beautiful and moving novel is a love offering to one of the world's great poets..." 

Kirkus offers high praise: "...Le Guin has researched this ancient world assiduously, and her measured, understated prose captures with equal skill the permutations of established ritual and ceremony and the sensations of the battlefield...Arguably her best novel, and an altogether worthy companion volume to one of the Western world’s greatest stories." School Library Journal adds, "This novel takes a minor character from Vergil's Aeneid and creates a thoughtful, moving tale of prophecy, myth, and self-fulfillment...Best known for her works of fantasy, Le Guin takes a more historical approach here by toning down the magical elements; gods and prophecies have a vital role in the protagonist's life, but they are presented as concepts and rituals, not as deities playing petty games with the lives of mortals. This shifts the focus of Vergil's plot from action to character, allowing Le Guin to breathe life into a character who never utters a word in the original story. Lavinia is quite compelling as she transforms from a spirited princess into a queen full of wisdom who makes a profound impact on her people." And finally, Booklist praises in this way: "Fantasist and SF writer Le Guin turns her attention and her considerable talent to fleshing out a secondary character mentioned briefly in Virgil's masterpiece, The Aeneid...Lavinia herself remains strangely mute and is given no scope in the epic poem. Here, as Le Guin reworks the story, Lavinia evolves into a true woman of destiny, eventually forging a strong partnership with the legendary founder of Rome. The compulsively readable Le Guin earns kudos for fashioning a winning combination of history and mythology featuring an unlikely heroine imaginatively plucked from literary obscurity."

I understand that LeGuin includes an essay about writing this book in her collection, 
The Wave in the Mind, and when I finally get my hands on it, I'll add anything that enlightens my understanding. I found this book initially hard to get into, but as LeGuin continues to build the character of Lavinia, I couldn't help but admire and root for her.

Venco

This novel for adults from YA author Cherie Dimaline was engrossing. Lucky St. James had a tumultuous childhood with a drug addict mother who came and went and finally left for good--dead from cancer when Lucky was eight. Her dad died from drugs before Lucky could even remember him. Lucky was taken in by her paternal grandmother, Stella and now that Lucky is a young adult, the tables have turned and she is taking care of an increasingly confused and obstreperous old woman. Stella still has lots of spirited energy but drives Lucky crazy by wandering off at all hours. And now they have received an eviction notice from the only home Stella has ever known, even if it is just a tiny Toronto apartment. When Lucky investigates one of Stella's old stories about a tunnel from the next building that comes in to theirs in the basement laundry room, she finds the tunnel does exist, and as she explores, she come across a small silver spoon that says "Salem" on the handle with a crudely engraved witch. Thus begin adventures for Lucky and Stella they could never have imagined. 

Lucky is the sixth to find her spoon, from the seven that are destined for witches to form a world changing coven. Lucky is skeptical to say the least when she is recruited to join them in Salem and then sent off to find the 7th spoon and witch. "As Lucky and Stella head to New Orleans in search of the spoon, they journey through an American landscape populated with wise women working against the oppressive forces of patriarchy and capitalism. The regionally based magic system values multicultural traditions, including Lucky's Métis Indigenous knowledge" (Library Journal). Meanwhile, the lone remaining member of an ancient and vengeful group of witch hunters, the Benandanti, is determined to stop her. 

As Booklist points out, Lucky hasn't been lucky so far, but maybe she will find a new family along with her substantial powers; they also liked the tale. "Through the various coven members and MacGuffin-hunting road trips we are shown a vibrantly diverse cross section of womanhood as well as folk beliefs and magical thought across the country. ...Fans of magical realism and ladies getting stuff done will enjoy this ride."

Kirkus concludes their review by saying, "A propulsive read full of intriguing detail, this novel is well written, engaging, and, more than anything, enjoyable. If the dichotomy between the feminine (good) and masculine (bad) is a bit stark, this is made up for by the genuine affection the reader will feel for Dimaline’s irreverent, badass witches as they battle for the future of their family and the future of the world, one and the same in Dimaline’s inclusive vision. Fast, fun, and full of charm(s)." I agree.

Secrets Typed in Blood

This is the 3rd installment of the "Parker and Pentecost" series by Stephen Spotswood. Although I read this book several months ago, I apparently failed to write a blog post, so here I am trying to catch up. See my posts for the previous 2 books if you want more background on this  pair of unique women detectives (Fortune Favors the Dead and Murder Under Her Skin). 

Here's a plot summary and review from Publishers Weekly: "It's 1947 in Spotswood's strong third mystery featuring Lillian Pentecost, 'the greatest detective in New York City,' and her assistant, Willowjean 'Will' Parker (after 2021's Murder Under Her Skin), and the duo's newest client, Holly Quick, arrives with a particularly knotty problem. 'Somebody is stealing my murders,' Holly declares. A prolific writer for a pulp magazine called Strange Crimes, she's certain that someone is using the details in the stories she pens under the name Horace Bellow as the basis for three recent murders. Indeed, the descriptions of a hanging in Stuyvesant Square, a stabbing in Sunnyside, and a suspicious death at an antique shop on the Upper East Side all closely match her stories. Holly wants the detectives to investigate, but without tipping their hand to the cops, as it seems she has some secrets of her own to protect. Spotswood plays fair with readers in a complex plot offering plenty of vivid characters, clever dialogue, and plausible suspects. Pentecost and Parker are a great crime-fighting partnership..."

Kirkus had both positive and negative things to say about this installment and concluded, "Untidy but undeniably engaging." The New York Times reviewer was somewhat more effusive on the plus side: "'Secrets Typed in Blood' reads as easy as fine whiskey goes down. Even when I guessed a plot twist, surprises awaited a few pages later. Mostly I was keen to spend time in Pentecost and Parker’s company. I urge every mystery lover to get acquainted with them." Similarly, the Star Tribune praises, "Spotswood's third Pentecost and Parker adventure is a constant delight...Spotswood allows his heroines to shine...The dialogue crackles, the mysteries intrigue and there is an abundance of wit and grit. This is a rollicking ride with a class double-act.."

Murder Crossed Her Mind

This 4th installment of Stephen Spotswood's "Pentecost and Parker" series held up equally well, in my opinion, to the first 3 (Fortune Favors the Dead, Murder Under Her Skin, and Secrets Typed in Blood.) Although you can read this as a stand-alone, it's highly recommended to read then in order to have a fuller picture of the characters and their relationships. 

Willowjean "Will" Parker falls for one of the oldest scams in the book--a woman yelling for help, with a partner waiting in hiding to attack any would-be rescuer and rob them. She loses her wallet, her gun, and her pride; she'll not tell Ms. Pentecost about her stupidity. Parker is determined to find the culprits herself and exact her own revenge. But her time is also taken up with a new case brought to them by a local defense attorney, Forest Whitsun, who often defends indigent clients. In this case though, he wants them to find an old friend who has gone missing. She's an elderly woman with a photographic memory who may have made enemies through her work with a powerful legal firm, or maybe from her work helping the FBI locate Nazis who had escaped to New York City after the war. Former secretary Vera Bodine has become a recluse and a hoarder, never leaving the house according to their client, but she wasn't there when he came for his biweekly visit to check on her. Unlike their other cases that have often remained unsolved for long periods of time, if this is a kidnapping, time is of the essence. Will's wise cracking attitude and Pentecost's often silent problem solving will evoke another New York detective duo, Nero Wolfe and Archie Goodwin. 

Booklist says "Will's first-person narrative is witty, gritty, and 'as smooth as Lauren Bacall between silk sheets.'"  and calls the book a "superb retro noir..."Although Publishers Weekly did not have a particularly favorable review, calling the book "overstuffed," they do credit the dialogue with keeping the reader engaged. Kirkus also praises the narration but finds the storylines to be unsatisfactorily resolved.

The French Girl

This psychological thriller by Lexie Elliott is set in contemporary London and the cast of characters are six former Oxford chums who shared a graduation vacation at a French country farmhouse, the summer home of one of the student's family. The titular French girl was Severine who lived next door and came over almost every day to lounge by the pool. While the six afterwards move on with their lives, Severine is reported missing, and because they were ostensibly the last to see her, they were all interviewed and unanimously swore they saw Severine board a bus to town the morning of the day they left. Now, ten years later, the body has been found at the bottom of the well that was on the property, and the same French detective has returned to London to interview them again.  Of all the group, Kate Channing seems to be the most distressed by this turn of events. As lies and betrayals are reveled, she learns that her boyfriend Seb had sex with Severine the night before they returned to England. She has the additional stress of having gone out on her own to open a headhunting business for lawyers rather than continuing. Her firm is struggling financially and she is afraid it will fail, unless she wins the big for a lucrative contract with a major law firm, where one of her former fellow students is employed and whose father is already a senior partner there. Kate has also started seeing the ghost of Severine everywhere she goes, first as a skeleton--like the one found at the bottom of the well--and then as the beautiful and aloof young woman they all knew that summer.

Library Journal notes that the characters are well developed and offers: "As the detective continues to dig, the shifting dynamics within the group will keep the reader guessing until the end...First novelist Elliott has done a phenomenal job of combining a whodunit with a Big Chill vibe." Booklist says the author, who holds a doctorate in theoretical physics from Oxford (check out her bio), "launches a fiction-writing career with a smart, suspenseful thriller." The Washington Post also praises the character and setting development. "The author provides the perfect dose of character development before unveiling eerie details from her cast’s past, ensuring that we’re properly unnerved when their lives begin to unravel. Katie’s charming demeanor combined with her endearing self-awareness produce a main character that readers will find themselves begging, 'Please don’t be the murderer.' Her multifaceted relationships with her friends prove realistic and engaging, and the British pubs, flats and offices where their lives intertwine serve as relevant backdrops." I agree with their assessment of the structure: "While the crux of the story rests in events that occurred 10 years ago, Elliott opts to forgo the alternating past-and-present chapter layout and instead digs deep into her characters’ current lives, allowing history to reveal itself naturally through dialogue and memories. So stark is this difference from current thrillers that the book reads like a fresh genre." They conclude: "'The French Girl' demands a one-sit read." While I didn't finish it in one read, I did stay up late a couple of nights.

The Helsinki Affair

Set in relatively contemporary times, with regular flashbacks to the Cold War era, Anna Pitoniak has achieved a really engrossing and complex tale of espionage and betrayal.  Protagonist Amanda Cole is 2nd in command of the CIA station in Rome when she receives intel that a prominent American senator is going to be assassinated in Egypt the following day. In his typically dismissive way, her boss ignores the warning and the consequent death of the senator results in his early retirement and Amanda's promotion to station chief. She nurtures the relationship with the disaffected Russian bureaucrat who brought her the intel and sets up the usual channels for him to pass along anything of note. Anna returns briefly to Washington, D.C. for Senator Vogel's funeral. In the interim, the senator's aide brings a folder of notes to Amanda's father, Charlie Cole, who is still in the CIA though now in public relations, demoted after his post in Helsinki during the Cold War. He passes this information to Amanda, who is disturbed to find her father's name written on the last page of the notes. He asks to be left out of her investigation but expects she won't. 

Amanda teams up with a senior female agent, Kath Frost, to find out why the senator was killed and what role her father's past plays. The chapters on Charlie Cole's years at the Helsinki station slowly reveal the fateful events that catalyzed his downfall, but the ending will be a surprise.

Kirkus says of these two women characters: "The developing mentorship and friendship between Amanda and Kath as well as the unfolding of the Cole family’s unhappy past give the novel emotional weight and interest that add to its espionage plot. These excellent female spy characters deserve a series." Library Journal praises, " Pitoniak does everything well in this twisty spy thriller that should please the most discriminating connoisseur of the genre." The Washington Post also lauds Pitoniak for providing espionage lovers with capable female protagonists: "The novel, Pitoniak’s fourth, is atmospheric, well-researched, and packed with tradecraft, conspiracies, murder and, best of all, two fascinating women — Amanda Cole and Kath Frost, hard-nosed CIA agents who thrive on chaos and who are often smarter than their male counterparts."

The Weed that Strings the Hangman's Bag

Although I have frequently heard about this series of books by Alan Bradley, I have never read one, so I was pleased to have the opportunity when I picked this book at my mystery book group holiday party. "All six [now actually 11 in the series] of the Flavia de Luce books published to date have been New York Times bestsellers, and are presently published in thirty-nine countries and thirty-six languages and the series has been optioned for television by the Academy Award-winning producer/director Sam Mendes..." This is the 2nd in the series, but can certainly be read as a stand-alone.

Our protagonist, Flavia, is an 11-year-old genius, living in the family manor house with her father and two tormenting (i.e., mean) older sisters. Her mother died in a climbing accident when Flavia was quite young.  Here is the review from Kirkus: "Almost 11 and keen on poisons, Flavia de Luce gets a second chance to broaden her lethal knowledge.

Roused from a detailed fantasy of her own funeral by a nosy jackdaw and the sound of a woman weeping, Flavia encounters Mother Goose—or so the pretty redhead introduces herself. Actually Nialla only plays the role in Rupert Porson’s puppet show, currently bogged down with van trouble. The vicar of Bishop’s Lacey suggests a mechanic and puts the puppeteer and his assistant up with the Inglebys at Culverhouse Farm. Rupert will repay the help by staging his production of “Jack and the Beanstalk” at St. Tancred’s parish hall. Oddly, although Rupert claims never to have met the Inglebys before, his Jack puppet bears the face of their son Robin, deceased five years ago in what a 1945 inquest termed misadventure. Inspector Hewitt, whose first acquaintance with Flavia (The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie, 2009) solved a murder, must wait patiently once more while Flavia chats up the neighbors, breaks into the library, researches the past, washes down scones, horehound candies and cucumber sandwiches with tea, and sabotages a box of chocolates meant for one of her tormenting sisters. A gloriously eccentric cast of characters, from Flavia’s dad, whose stamp collection is bankrupting the ancestral digs, to her sisters Ophelia and Daphne, who tell Flavia she was a foundling. There’s not a reader alive who wouldn’t want to watch Flavia in her lab concocting some nefarious brew."

The Historical Novel Society says of Flavia's character and methods: "Flavia is a keen observer and listener and appoints herself as their assistant. Rupert claims never to have visited the village previously, yet one of the marionettes at the performance bears an uncanny resemblance to a boy found hanging in Gibbet Wood many years before. Flavia’s suspicions are aroused, and she begins to investigate the boy’s death using guile, cheek and lies to gain information. In a memorably funny scene involving Mrs.Mullet, the family’s housekeeper, she learns about the boy’s inquest and post-mortem."

I will definitely go back and read the first Flavia adventure, Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie. Here is an impressive summary of the awards and nominations that Bradley's first Flavia de Luce book garnered: "The first book of his Flavia de Luce series, “The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie” won the 2007 Debut Dagger Award of the Crime Writers Association in the UK; the 2009 Agatha Award for Best First Novel; the 2010 Dilys, awarded by the International Mystery Booksellers Association; the Spotted Owl Award, given by the Friends of Mystery, and the 2010 Arthur Ellis Award, given by the Crime Writers of Canada for Best First Novel. “The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie” has also been nominated for an Anthony Award, a Barry Award, and a Macavity Award. Besides appearing on the New York Times bestsellers list as a Favorite Mystery of 2009, “Sweetness” was also, among other honours, an American Library Association nominee as Best Book For Young Adults; a Barnes and Noble Bestseller, and was named to the 2009 Bloomer List. The audiobook version of “The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie” was voted Best AudioBook by iTunes."

Tom Lake

You might think the title of Anne Patchett's 9th and newest novel (2023) would refer to a man with that name, but, in fact, it refers to a summer stock theatre in Michigan that has played a pivotal role in the life of narrator/protagonist Lara Nelson, nee Kenison. I have read 4 of Patchett's books and this would probably be my favorite. (See my posts on These Precious Days and The Dutch House; I also read Bel Canto long ago.) The reviews of this work are numerous and uniformly favorable, although a few did more elegantly express than I could a sense that this family/setting/dynamics were a little too perfect. Here is a short summary from Patchett's website:

"In the spring of 2020, Lara’s three daughters return to the family's orchard in Northern Michigan. While picking cherries, they beg their mother to tell them the story of Peter Duke, a famous actor with whom she shared both a stage and a romance years before at a theater company called Tom Lake. As Lara recalls the past, her daughters examine their own lives and relationship with their mother, and are forced to reconsider the world and everything they thought they knew. Tom Lake is a meditation on youthful love, married love, and the lives parents have led before their children were born. Both hopeful and elegiac, it explores what it means to be happy even when the world is falling apart. As in all of her novels, Ann Patchett combines compelling narrative artistry with piercing insights into family dynamics. The result is a rich and luminous story, told with profound intelligence and emotional subtlety, that demonstrates once again why she is one of the most revered and acclaimed literary talents working today."

Here are selections from and links to additional reviews: 

Kirkus: "Patchett expertly handles her layered plot, embedding one charming revelation and one brutal (but in retrospect inevitable) betrayal into a dual narrative that deftly maintains readers’ interest in both the pastand present action. These braided strands culminate in a denouement at once deeply sad and tenderly life-affirming. Poignant and reflective, cementing Patchett’s stature as one of our finest novelists."

The Guardian: "Patchett’s new novel, in which a mother tells her daughters about her early romance with a famous actor, is a gentle but revealing meditation on lost love and destiny."

The New York Times: "This author is such a decorated and beloved figure in American letters — spinning out novels, memoirs and essays like so many multicolored silks; ... — that I sometimes think of her as Aunt Patchett...With 'Tom Lake,' she treats us — and perhaps herself — to a vision of a family beautifully, bucolically simple: nuclear, in its pre-bomb meaning...'Tom Lake' is a quiet and reassuring book" 

The New Yorker: "In these scenes, the source of Lara’s contentment is sweetly obvious. When Nell laments the celebrity Lara could perhaps have been, she exclaims, “Look at this! Look at the three of you! You think my life would have been better spent making commercials for lobster rolls?” The pandemic portions of the book conjure an adult world of trade-offs and compromise, in which family offers abundant recompense for lacklustre Google search results. The girls themselves are delicious creations." 

The Washington Post: "So many books about love are actually about heartbreak. Ann Patchett’s new novel, 'Tom Lake,' is not. 'Tom Lake' is about romantic love, marital love and maternal love, but also the love of animals, the love of stories, love of the land and trees and the tiny, red, cordiform object that is a cherry. Not that a heart is not broken at some point, but it breaks without affecting the remarkable warmth of the book, set in summer’s fullest bloom...Ann Patchett’s wisdom about love has run though all of her novels and nonfiction books.. As soon as you finish 'Tom Lake,' you should go back and read them all." 

Publishers Weekly: "Patchett ... unspools a masterly family drama set in the early months of Covid-19...'There's a lot you don't know,' Lara tells Emily, Maisie, and Nell at the novel's opening, and as Patchett's slow-burn narrative gathers dramatic steam, she blends past and present with dexterity and aplomb, as the daughters come to learn more of the truth about Lara's Duke stories, causing them to reshape their understanding of their mother. Patchett is at the top of her game." 

Booklist: "Lara's three twentysomething daughters are back home in northern Michigan, thanks to the COVID-19 lockdown, just in time to harvest the cherries. Emily has already committed herself to the family orchard and farm and her other great love, neighbor Benny. Maisie discovers that she can continue her veterinarian studies by caring for their neighbors' animals. Only Nell, an aspiring actor, is distraught because of their isolation, but all are ravenous for distraction as they work long hours handpicking cherries, so they insist that their mother tell them, in lavish detail, the story of her romance with a future megawatt movie star. Lara strategically fashions an edited version for her daughters, while sharing the full, heartbreaking tale with the reader. "

A Woman I Know: Female Spies, Double Identities, and a New Story of the Kennedy Assassination.

Written by Mary Haverstick, "a film director, writer, and cinematographer" (book jacket), this non-fiction book is--if nothing else--a remarkable piece of research strething over several years and requiring dozens if not hundreds of FOIA requests. The book has over 80 pages of notes documenting her sources. What started out to be a documentary on the first woman to pass all the astronauts tests at NASA, it evolved into an in-depth examination of a woman who lived multiple lives within the CIA. I cede the floor to Kirkus for a summary of the book:

"A cat-and-mouse search for a woman’s identity opens onto a shadowy corner of the assassination of John F. Kennedy.

Filmmaker Haverstick’s title is ironic, for the woman in question—Jerrie Cobb—is essentially unknowable. An unsung participant in NASA’s Mercury program, she was trained as an astronaut along with a dozen other women volunteers: “She’d been the first to ace the physical exams and had then gone on to tackle flight simulators, endurance tests, and spatial orientation studies, something the others hadn’t done.” When NASA scrubbed the women’s program, deeming men alone to be potential astronaut material, Cobb faded into the woodwork. Not quite: She logged time in Cuba as a supposed confidant of Fidel Castro, turned up in Mexico at the same time as Lee Harvey Oswald, explored the headwaters of the Amazon and advocated for its Indigenous peoples, spoke Spanish fluently—and was a CIA agent. Or was she? Cobb, a skilled pilot, was also on the tarmac at the Dallas airport as Oswald was making his way there, apparently to be transported elsewhere. Complicating the picture is a chain of false identities, pseudonyms, and the possible existence of another woman of the same skill set and physical appearance named June Cobb. “If Jerrie’s life was intertwined with June Cobb’s as a CIA cover,” writes the author, “then Lee Harvey Oswald was a covert player in intelligence, too.” Haverstick takes a few speculative steps into the engineers of the assassination—maybe Castro, maybe the Mafia, maybe renegade intelligence insiders. No definitive answer emerges, of course, but meanwhile, Jerrie Cobb’s fascinating life reveals her to be “a spy, an explorer, a gambler, an astronaut, an illusionist, a narcissist, and a con”—and, to say the least, a puzzle.

Assassination buffs and students of spycraft will find this intriguing and endlessly enigmatic." 

The New York Times opens their review this way: "In 'A Woman I Know,' Mary Haverstick discovers that the subject of her documentary may have once been a key player in Cold War espionage. Near the beginning of her new book, Mary Haverstick quotes James Angleton, the head of the C.I.A.’s counterintelligence division during the Cold War. Angleton described the world of spycraft as a 'wilderness of mirrors,' where no one could be trusted and nothing was quite what it seemed." And they conclude, "As a fresh history of U.S. espionage, “A Woman I Know” is an absorbing read. As a smoking-gun investigation into the Kennedy murder, it’s less convincing. Even Haverstick admits that, after years spent in the wilderness of mirrors, she still wasn’t sure what to believe. Of Jerrie Cobb’s life story — or stories — Haverstick writes: 'She has still eluded me.'"

A Curious Beginning

This book by Deanna Raybourn is the first in her "Veronica Speedwell" series; she has written nine of these so far. She is also the author of the "Lady Julia Gray" series as well as some stand-alone novels, one of which is Killers of a Certain Age, which I read and really liked.  Set in 1887, we meet our protagonist, 20-something-years-old Veronica, an orphan raised by two "aunts." She is a lepidopterist and has already had several adventures in remote spots of the globe seeking rare specimens; she earns her own money by selling these on to wealthy collectors. When the last of the two aunts dies, she decides to leave the most recent small village they lived in and head for London. Her departure is interrupted by coming home to find someone has broken into the house, and who then also tries to kidnap Veronica. Saved by the arrival of another stranger in an elegant coach, Baron von Stauffenbach, Veronica accepts his offer of a ride to London--saving the train fare she reasons to herself. On the long journey, the Baron tells her that he was acquainted with her mother and that she is in grave danger. Veronica has never known who her mother was, but the Baron fears this revelation could put her in even more danger and refuses to reveal the name. He wants to take her to stay with a friend he would "trust with his life" in London. This turns out to be our other protagonist, Mr. Stoker, who is definitely not  what he first appears to be--a down-on-his-luck taxidermist living in a filthy warehouse trying to preserve an elephant shot by a wealthy patron, Lord Rosemorran.  

Kirkus continues the plot, "Before the Baron can return to tell Veronica what he knows of her mother, he's found dead, and the police like Stoker for a suspect. Stoker and Veronica partner up to find the real culprit, hurtling pell-mell into a captivatingly intricate plot, including a traveling circus, the fetid Thames, and the Tower of London, as they dodge villains with murky motives and hulking henchmen. Soon, they realize that Stauffer’s [von Stauffenbach's] death may be connected to the mystery of Veronica’s birth parents, and Stoker himself has a few secrets to discover, including what really happened on his disastrous expedition to the Amazon, which left him scarred and disgraced. As Veronica and Stoker careen through dastardly plot twists, they match wits, bantering with skill worthy of Tracey and Hepburn. A thrilling—and hilarious—beginning to a promising new series."

Library Journal also approves: "Creating strong character pairings, placing the action in ... unusual but actual historical settings, and folding it all into a clever mystery are hallmarks of this author's magical, signature style. Victoria engages in boldly inappropriate activities for women of the Victorian era but remains genuinely likable, adding a pleasant zest. Stoker's backstory allows his upbringing and past experiences to aid Victoria's investigations without becoming the primary focus. Readers will discover just enough about these two and hints of curiously reticent secondary characters to make the next in this ... series eagerly anticipated. ...For ... [those] ...who like out-of-the-ordinary historical mysteries that are completely satisfying, this new series starts off with a bang."