The Which Way Tree

This novel by Elizabeth Crook reprises the setting she has used in several other of her novels, the Texas Hill country, this time during the post-Civil War era. When a marauding panther invades the Shreve homestead, it catches 6-year-old Samantha outside.

"...her mother fights it long enough to save the girl but loses her own life. The incident leaves young Sam disfigured and bent on vengeance. Six years later, she and her half brother, Ben, having also lost their father to “fever,” are living miserably by themselves when the big cat returns. Their efforts to trap the beast fall short, but they find an ally in a Mexican man named Pacheco while they make a dire enemy of a Confederate soldier named Hanlin, who aims a gun at Sam in their first confrontation and loses a finger when she gets off a lucky shot. Also lucky is Hanlin’s knowledge of a dog in the vicinity that specializes in panther tracking and is owned by his uncle, Preacher Dob. After much palaver, Hanlin departs, for a time, while Dob and his old dog join the quest. The trek that follows recalls Cormac McCarthy’s horseback meandering and keen eye for terrain and flora in The Crossing. There are also obvious echoes of True Grit, though Sam is even more fiercely single-minded than Mattie. Most unavoidable is the 90-ton whale in the room. Ben, the engaging narrator who delivers the story in the form of dispatches written for a judge weighing evidence against Hanlin, mentions early on that he has twice read Moby-Dick. He refers to it many more times for any reader who doesn’t make a connection with Sam’s obsessive drive to destroy an almost-mythic beast that scarred her face and is known to some as El Demonio." (Kirkus)

Booklist concludes, "This is a story of unremitting deprivation allayed by unexpected kindness, with a dangerous chase motivated by love and suffused with humanity." I would agree with with School Library Journal that "Samantha Shreve remains an enigmatic character throughout Crook's new novel and emerges as a heroine in her wayward, single-minded resolve to end the life of the panther that killed her mother and left Samantha...scarred." Speaking of brother Benjamin, Publishers Weekly says "Crook crafts Benjamin's narration beautifully, finding a winning balance between naiveté and wisdom, thoughtfulness and grit." Library Journal suggests who might enjoy this book. "Crook's ... fifth novel will be a must-read for fans of Joe Lansdale's Western adventures and Patrick deWitt's The Sisters Brothers. Readers new to the Western genre will be hooked if they start with this compelling novel."

Under the Harrow

Flynn Berry's debut publication received an Edgar Award for Best First Novel. It is a twisty psychological thriller that explores both the complex relationship between narrator Nora and her sister Rachel and the depths of obsession that love and guilt can lead one to. The book opens with Nora, who is heading for a semi-regular weekend visit with her sister Rachel. Nora lives in London and Rachel lives alone in a farmhouse with her dog near a small town outside London. But instead of finding Rachel in the kitchen preparing dinner, she discovers her body, stabbed multiple times and Rachel's dog hanging from the stairway banister. When they were teens--fairly wild ones based on flashbacks--Rachel was attacked and brutally beaten on her way home from a party. The police never took the case seriously and never found the attacker. For years afterwards, Rachel and Nora went on their own vigilante hunt for the perpetrator until Rachel finally called it quits. Now Nora wonders if the earlier attacker has somehow tracked Rachel and killed her. Based on their earlier experience, Nora has no faith that the police will solve this crime either and so, once again, she undertakes her own investigation, managing to alienate almost everyone that Rachel knew in the process. She becomes so obsessed that she sublets her London flat, distances herself from friends, takes up residence in the small town's hotel, and cultivates one of the detectives assigned to the case. As the backstory is revealed, we realize that Nora is less than a reliable reporter.  And it turns out that Nora knew less about her sister than she thought she did. The ending is definitely a surprise.

The New York Times say of her writing, "Such precise sentences call to mind Hitchcock’s meticulous storyboards and enrich the work with a cinematic scope." Kirkus concludes, "Berry accomplishes the rare feat of making the victim come alive on the page without ever sacrificing the deep, all-encompassing loss felt by those left behind." The Washington Post calls this an "exquisitely taut and intense debut thriller."

The Dutch House

Ann Patchett doesn't need any introduction from me, having already written several highly acclaimed books. But, what you may not know is that she also owns an independent bookstore in Nashville, TN (Parnassus Books) and is an activist for independent bookstores. Yay!

In their younger years, Maeve and Danny Conroy lived in the titular Dutch House, a mansion outside Philadelphia that their father bought at auction in 1946, completely furnished, as a surprise for his wife. Unfortunately, his wife, Elna, hated the house and walked away when Maeve was 10, Danny was 3. Ostensibly she went to India to work with the poor; they haven't heard from her since. Their father managed with the help of housekeeper, cook and nanny for a time until a young widow, Andrea--18 years Cyril Conroy's junior--gets her heart set on living in the house.  She has two younger daughters in tow and as soon as she moves in, things begin to change--and not for the better, in Maeve and Danny's opinion. When Maeve goes to college, Andrea moves her belongings to an attic bedroom and moves her older daughter into the room. Maeve never comes back to the Dutch House after that. When Cyril Conroy unexpectedly dies of a heart attack, Maeve and Danny are dismayed to find that Andrea has convinced her husband to put her name on all of the business and personal assets; Maeve and Danny inherit nothing. She kicks Danny out of the house and they are left penniless. Maeve is already working as a bookkeeper and living in a one bedroom flat in a nearby town. The lawyer does say that there is an educational trust that will cover Danny's education and Maeve is determined to take every penny she can for Danny. So he is sent off to an expensive boarding school (Choate) and when he finishes, she makes sure he gets into Columbia and then into Columbia med school. Danny honors Maeves wishes because she is all he has, even though he has no interest in being a doctor and really just wants to follow in his father's footsteps, buying and fixing up old buildings. Maeve remains fixated on The Dutch House, driving over to sit out front in her car every time Danny comes home from school for a visit, and even long after. Danny seems to get on with his life as he wants it after he finally finishes his residency. He gets married, has kids, buys up and renovates old buildings. When Maeve suffers a heart attack, their mother makes an appearance and, surprisingly to Danny, Maeve accepts her into her life. That is, until Andrea seems to need Elna more.  Complicated relationships and obsessions characterize every aspect of this book. Ann Patchett said in an interview with The Guardian in 2016 that "I’ve been writing the same book my whole life — that you’re in one family, and all of a sudden, you’re in another family and it’s not your choice and you can’t get out.” That pretty well sums up this situation here, as well.

Glowing reviews from NPR,  The New York Times, The Guardian, The Washington Post, and Kirkus.

The Crusader

This is an historical novel by Michael Alexander Eisner (his debut as a writer of fiction) set in late 13th C eastern Spain and "The Levant," as the areas of the eastern Mediterranean were called. It is certainly a competently crafted novel in terms of character development, plot line, descriptions of setting. I have to ask myself, therefore, why it did not engage me.
Primarily, it was because I did not particularly like or empathize with any of the characters. The narration is primarily reported by a self-serving monk, Brother Lucas, at Santes Creus monastery, who has risen to the position of Prior (just below the abbot in the chain of authority). The main story line revolves around him being assigned to "exorcise" a crusader, Francisco Montcada, who has returned to Spain from The Levant after fighting and being subsequently imprisoned, and is now apparently possessed. Once Francisco begins to talk again, the bulk of the tale is his report of what happened while in Syria (Toron, Krak des Chevaliers, and Aleppo). Francisco was trained to an order of monastic Knights by a family friend, "Uncle Ramon," the leader of the Knights of Calatrava. When Ramon is betrayed by the King's son, Don Fernando, at Toron and dies, Francisco and his cousin and fellow Knight, Andres, are devastated. In a subsequent and futile  battle to save the fortress at Krak des Chevaliers, these two are also betrayed and traded to the Saracens by Don Fernando in exchange for the freedom of the remaining fighters. Andres is eventually beheaded with many of their fellow prisoners, but Francisco is finally ransomed and returns home a broken man. Brother Lucas is encouraged to bring Andres' sister, Isabel, to the monastery to tempt Francisco back to life and the light. Don Fernando, who had thought both of the knights dead, shows up and tries to murder Francisco, but is killed instead. Lucas, Isabel, and Francisco are exiled to Isabel's family home, Girona. So, in sum, we have a rather unlikable monk, a really nasty bad guy, and a guilt-ridden Crusader. Meh.
The historical events are described in rather grisly but not very enlightening detail. That is, I learned more about the cruelty of the warring parties than I did about the actual setting or events. I will often be engaged in a book if I feel I am learning new and interesting things about a period of history. I guess I have already such a jaded view of organized religion, and certainly of the Crusades, that it did not apply here.
I was curious to see how things turned out and, although the ending seemed realistic, it was not compelling. In short, I would not read this book again or recommend it unless you are particularly fond of reading about the Crusades. One reviewer summed it up by saying, "I found myself just wanting to get it over with." A somewhat more flattering review is offered by Kirkus, a source I generally find to be reliable and similar to my own.

All Our Yesterdays

This is a book by Robert Parker that is not one of his well-known series (Spenser, Jesse Stone, Cole & Hitch, or Sunny Randall) but a stand-alone that looks at three generations of two families: the Sheridans and the Winslows. It is only when  3rd generation Christopher Sheridan is threatened with the loss of his long-term love, Grace Winslow, that it appears the self-destructive cycle of marrying the wrong woman for the wrong reason might be broken. Christropher not only breaks out of his safe ivory tower life as a professor of criminology at Harvard by accepting a special prosecutor's job tasked with investigating gang warfare, but he delves into his history by going back to his roots in Dublin where the trouble all began.
Chris' grandfather, Conn Sheridan, was a soldier with the IRA and became involved with a sympahtetic American woman, Hadley Winslow, during "the Troubles." When he was ordered to leave Dublin, he begged her to come with him, but she had seen their affair as no more than an adventurous fling and had no intention of abandoning her upper class life. She betrayed him to the British and he was put in jail, sentenced to hang. With the help of his colleagues in the IRA, he escaped and went overseas to Boston--not coincidentally, where Hadley was from. He became a cop, then a detective, and then a case came his way that brought Hadley not only back into his life, but also at his mercy.
This is also the story of Gus, Conn's son and Chris' father, who became a police chief, taking money from the gangs. He loves Chris to distraction and would and did do anything for him. But he never found a woman to love until he met the wife of Hadley's son, who was also the mother of Grace, Chris' partner. Yep, the three generations of Winslows had all been romantically involved with the three generations of Sheridans, mostly with disastrous consequences. But everyone is freed from their obsessions in the end--one way or another. As usual, Parker does an outstanding job of creating characters through dialogue even more than action. It is a long'ish book (nearly 500 pages) spanning several decades, but eminently readable.

In the House upon the Dirt between the Lake and the Woods

I did not finish this book by Matt Bell. I would characterize it as magical realism, not a favorite genre of mine to start with, but again I was enticed by glowing reviews. There is too much despair, too little storyline for me here. The description is well crafted. A man and a woman marry, move away from their family and friends to an isolated plot of land. He builds a house and they try to start a family. But time after time, she miscarries. Eventually, her ability to sing things into existence is put to full use as she creates a child. But he knows of the deception--that this being is not the result of their physical union and he begins to destroy the natural world around them while she places a threatening 2nd moon in the sky above. You can read more extended reviews in the New York Times, and at NPR, among others.