The Last Woman in the Forest

Diane Les Becquets is not an author I am familiar with but is a good writer who weaves a complex tale. The killer is obvious almost from the beginning, but it doesn't diminish the suspense. The protagonist is an unusual one. She's 26-year old Marian Engstrom, whose peripatetic existence as a "conservation gypsy" on one quest after another to save the environment. But when she joins a conservation study in Alberta, and starts working with rescue dogs trained to find scat for various species conservation projects, she feels like she has finally found her true passion, i.e., as a conservation canine handler. Already an avid outdoorswoman, the author did a lot of research with the Center for Consrvation Biology at the University of Washington, the Conservation Canines organization, and with Working Dogs for conservation in Bozeman, Montana. So we learn a lot about scat detection and analysis as a way to survey various species of animals in their wild habitats.
Marian's love for dogs threads through the story as does the recent loss of her lover, Tate Matthias, the man who trained her to be a dog handler. He was fatally mauled by a bear while working on another project to a bear attack. When Tate's sister comes to claim his body and belongings, certain inconsistencies begin to surface, leading Marian  to question her relationship with Tate. Desperate to clear her mind about Tate, she contacts a retired forensic psychologist about a series of murders in the same areas where Tate had worked. As she reconstructs her history with Tate to the psychologist, Nick Shephard, more and more discrepancies in Tate's personal history come to light. He lied to Marian about where he was born, who his parents were, where he went to college, and maybe about where he was at the times when the women were murdered. Marian does not want to believe that she could have been so badly misled. And throughout the story, we get hints that someone is stalking Marian. But Tate is dead, isn't he? The settings and the wildlife are lovingly rendered so this will appeal to those who also love the wilderness, as long as you have a strong stomach for the evil that humans can do to one another.  Reviews from Publishers Weekly and Kirkus.

The Elephant of Surprise

A take off on "the element of surprise" and no doubt the watch word of this unlikely PI duo of a "gay, black, Republican Vietnam vet" and a"self-proclaimed white-trash rebel" who work together out of a small town in East Texas, LaBorde. This is the newest (the 12th) in the "Hap & Leonard series" by Joe Lansdale. There are posts for the 1st and 2nd in the series (Savage Season and Mucho Mojo, respectively). Sundance originally picked up the option for made-for-TV movies, and now apparently they are available on Netflix streaming. We don't subscribe to either, so I haven't seen them.
In this installment, while coming home in a driving rain, they nearly hit and then stop to rescue a young woman who is bleeding badly. Someone tried to cut out her tongue. Before they can even get back on the road, they are being shot at and chased. They manage to elude the hit and get the young woman to the hospital. But the men who hurt her are not giving up, in spite of a hurricane that seems to be headed right for town. It's a relentlessly paced game of cat and mouse under adverse conditions, but Hap and Leonard have the elephant of surprise on their side since no one expects a couple of low-profile PI's to withstand the heavy firepower of the local mob boss and his hired thugs. A quick and engaging read. Not necessary to have read previous books in the series, although that would certainly enhance your feel for the characters. Reviews available from Kirkus, and Publishers Weekly, and a blow by blow rundown of the storyline from the New York Journal of Books.

Americanah

I'll open with an excerpt of the review from The New York Times. "Americanah examines blackness in America, Nigeria and Britain, but it’s also a steady-handed dissection of the universal human experience — a platitude made fresh by the accuracy of [Chimamanda] Adichie’s observations.

'So an African-American is a black person with long generational lines in the United States, most likely with slave ancestors. She might write poetry about 'Mother Africa,' but she’s pleased to be from a country that gives international aid rather than from one that receives it. An American-African is an African newly emigrated to the United States. In her native country, she didn’t realize she was black — she fit that description only after she landed in America. In college, the African-American joins the Black Student Union, while the American-African signs up with the African Students Association.'"
This book is all about race and culture and how those concepts and realities can affect one's sense of self.

Ifemelu and Obinze are high school sweethearts, separated when Ifemelu goes to America, the land of Obinze's dreams, to attend college in Philadelphia. After years of near destitution, Ifemelu finds success, writing a wildly popular blog that makes observations about race in America, and then getting a fellowship to Princeton. Obinze attends university in London, overstays his student visa, works illegally to try and get money to buy a bride with EU citizenship, and is eventually caught and deported. Back in Nigeria, friends introduce him to a man who helps Obinze launch into a lucrative real estate career. Obinze marries and has a child, but he never forgets Ofemelu, who, for reasons unknown to him, cut off all contact just a couple of years after going to America. When Ifemelu decides to return home to Nigeria, they eventually reunite, and find they still love one another.

Although the writing is occasionally evocative and lyrical, and the observations about race and culture and human nature in the 3 countries (U.S., Nigeria, England) are astute, the book felt overlong. I found Ifemelu's character wearying. Obinze was a more empathetic character-- solid and thoughtful and not so contrary and self-destructive. 

There was general agreement regarding the fine quality of writing and the length of the book by other book group members and it generated a lively discussion. One of the members noted that it was also a book about the difficulties of "going home" once one has emigrated. I was surprised how much discussion there was about hair! Some of my favorite (evocative, lyrical, pointed) quotes from the book follow:
Describing her malaise just before she decides to return to Nigeria, Ifemelu says, "It had been there for a while, an early morning disease of fatigue, a bleakness and borderlessness. It brought with it amorphous longings, shapeless desires, brief imaginary glints of other lives she could be living, that over the months melded into a piercing homesickness." Of her relationship at the same time she said it "was like being content in a house but always sitting by the window and looking out."
Obinze was given some notable quotes, too. He said of his wife, Kosi, "There was something immodest about her modestly: it announced itself." And of another friend complimenting him on how humble he was, Obinze thought "humility had always seemed to him a specious thing, invented for the comfort of others: you were priased for humility by people because you did not make them feel any more lacking than they already did. It was honesty that he valued..."
One of Ifemelu's comments about race was this: "The only reason you say that race was not an issue is because you wish it was not. We all wish it was not. But it's a lie. I came from a country where race was not an issue; I did not think of myself as black and I only became black when I came to America."
And this lovely observation about writing to Ifemelu from Obinze: "He began to write to her about his time in England, hoping she would reply and then later looking forward to the writing itself...Writing her also became a way of writing himself."
The book has received widespread praise. I would agree with The Guardian that this is a book that changes the way you look at the world and with their assertion that "Adichie is particularly good at exposing the contradictory ebb and flow of America's painful attempts to reconcile itself with its recent past, when segregation still persisted in the south." There are many more reviews, e.g., from NPR, Kirkus, The Telegraph, The Boston Globe,  The Independent.

Murder in the Mystery Suite

Hoo boy I am way behind on book reports after my vacation, which involved 2 long days of plane travel and, therefore, a lot of reading. Hard to believe I have lived all these years as a mystery reader and book lover and never previously known about a whole slew of cozy mysteries centered around books (see also my posts on books by Kate Carlisle, Miranda James, and Elaine Viets).
This book by Ellery Adams is the first in her "Book Retreat" mystery series; I posted about the 3rd installment, Murder in the Secret Garden, about a month ago and decided to start at the beginning. These are cozy mysteries, so nothing mind-bending here, but the premise of an old mansion, moved stone by stone from England to Virginia and turned into a hotel for book lovers is appealing. The main character, Jane Steward, is officially the resort manager, but in this first book, we find out a bit of the history of Storyton Hall, its precious secret library of rare manuscripts, and Jane's unexpected new role as one of the stewards who protect and preserve it.
We also meet the other stewards of Storyton Hall who have day jobs as butler, head librarian, head chauffeur, and head of recreation, but in their past were heavy hitters with special forces or other jobs that gave them  unique investigative and/or defense skills. We meet other members of the small town, several of whom are in Jane's book group, including Jane's best friend, Eloise, who runs the local book store. Jane also has 2 rambunctious 6-year-old twins, named--appropriately enough--Fitzgerald and Hemingway, or Fitz and Hem for short.
In this series opener, Jane is struggling to find ways to pay for much needed repairs at Storyton Hall and decides to use a themed "Murder and Mayhem" week to promote bookings. Guests are invited to come in character as their favorite detective. There will be trivia games, a costume ball and--unexpectedly--two very real deaths. When Jane's elderly resident aunt has a stroke, it comes out that she had mistakenly given Jane the wrong copy of a book that was awarded to a guest as a game prize. It is a rare first edition with a letter from the author. But when Jane goes to retrieve the book and exchange it for the correct edition, she finds the man dead, apparently poisoned. The stewards put their heads together to try and solve the murder before the investigation scares away the hotel's clientele, but soon afterward their prime suspect is also found dead.
The plotting is complex, the characters and settings well drawn and this is an altogether enjoyable read.