Game On: Tempting Twenty-Eight

Yes, another largely predictable and nevertheless entertaining entry in the Stephanie Plum series by Janet Evanovich. Stephanie as usual has highly uncooperative FTA's to apprehend with friend Lula's help. She is juggling men who want to sleep with her; although Joe Morelli has the inside track, Diesel makes an appearance and takes up residence in Stephanie's apartment. Ranger has to keep rescuing Stephanie from car explosions. The main plot line this time involves one of Stephanie's FTA's, Oswald Wednesday, who has also ruffled feathers of some international heavy hitters and sent Diesel to capture (or kill) him. The guy is a world class hacker threatening to do really bad things, and when a local group of white hats breach his security in order to try and impress him, they inadvertently put targets on their backs. So Stephanie is trying to keep these naifs safe while still finding her FTA and claiming her bounty before Diesel gets to him.  All the usual additional characters we have come to know and love are here: Stephanie's parents and Grandma Mazur, Connie, Vinnie, and, of course, Lula. Fast paced, fun, and sure to please fans of the series. Publishers Weekly offers a lively and positive review.

Double Shot

I have read many of Diane Mott Davidson's tasty mysteries featuring Coloradosmall town caterer Goldy Schulz. The only one I have posted about previously is Dark Tort; this is the 12th book in the series.  Goldy has a teenage son, a truly despicable ex-husband she calls The Jerk, a loving current husband who is a detective with the Sheriff's department, a good friend who is another ex of The Jerk's, and helpers in her catering business, notably Julian. 

In this installment, John Richard Korman (aka JRK or The Jerk) has had his jail sentence (for physical assault) commuted by the governor and has returned to Aspen Meadows and to making Goldy's life as miserable as he can. When Goldy gets to her new event center to start prepping for a lunch, she is attacked, and then finds that someone has shut off all her refrigeration and the food is all ruined. She scrambles to recover but wants to find out who hated her so much that they would physically harm her and try to damage her business. As usual, JRK precipitates an argument in front of the lunch group--first with a former physician colleague and then with Goldy. Later, when Goldy takes her son Arch to meet his father, ostensibly for golf lessons, she finds JRK shot dead in his garage. Now, because the police find a gun registered to Goldy outside the garage and because of the very public argument with JRK, Goldy is the primary suspect. As usual, she can't wait for the authorities to find the murderer, especially since her husband, Tom, has been removed from the investigation--for obvious reasons. So Goldy and fellow ex-wife and best friend Marla decide to investigate on their own. There is a wealth of clues and suspects, another murder follows, and eventually Goldy solves the mystery--in between catering events. 

While she often describes food prep in the text of the story, the recipes have all been moved to back of the book. There is, of course, an actual cookbook available with all "Goldy's" recipes. I read Davidson's books as a break from darker fare because they are fun, create a sense of small town life, and sound delicious. 

A brief review is available from Kirkus, and a highly entertaining one from Publishers Weekly.

The Paris Library

The author, Janet Skeslien Charles,  uses the American Library in Paris (ALP) as the centerpiece of this historical novel, where Charles actually worked as a programs manager for a time. Based largely on actual people and events, the book introduces us to the dedicated staff and loyal subscribers (patrons) of the ALP during the Nazi occupation of Paris. Told mainly from the POV of Odile, a young woman who has to fight her father to take a job at the ALP in 1939, and of Lily, a teenager in rural Froid, Montana in the 1980's. The book is about friendship, human failings, and the role that libraries and books played in sustaining the morale of war prisoners and hospital patients as well as those living under German occupation. When Odile gets the job at the ALP, it is a dream come true for her. Her aunt had been bringing her to the library since she was a child and that was where she learned to speak English. Her twin, Remy, is a law student who falls in love with one of Odile's colleagues, the children's libarian, Bitsi. When the Germans draw closer to Paris, Remy enlists, with Bitsi's support, which, for a time, strains the relationship between Odile and Bitsi. Eventually they come to be like sisters, bonded by their mutual love for Remy, who is wounded and imprisoned by the Germans. Odile also befriends the American wife of a British diplomat, who feels lost in a country where she has no friends and does not speak the language. Margaret becomes an indispensable volunteer at the ALP.  Odile is in love with, and eventually engaged to, a police officer, Paul;  one of the main secrets that is not revealed until the very end is why Odile is now living in Montana, the widow of American husband. Odile has kept to herself since her husband's death, but befriends Lily, whose mother has died, and tries to help Lily not make some of the same mistakes that Odile feels she has made. "The answers unspool in this well-plotted and richly populated novel" according to the New York Journal of Books.

Kirkus calls the book "an intelligent and sensuously rich novel of a young woman's coming-of-age." Publishers Weekly says it's "a delightful chronicle of a woman’s life in WWII-era Paris and rural 1980s Montana."

An absolutely must-read is the Author's Note which details what happened to several of the main characters after the war. The author's website also provides some wonderful archival materials to learn more about the actual people who staffed and supported the ALP.

The Witch Hunter

This is the first in a series by Finnish author Max Seeck; this is his first publication to appear in the U.S. I would characterize it as Scandinavian (in this case, Finland) noir--which I love in small doses--with a touch of the supernatural. Or so it seems. When a famous author's beautiful wife is found dead in her home, she is dressed in a black evening gown, seated at the dining room table, and wears a rictus of a smile a la The Joker. There is no readily apparent cause of death. Her husband was 4 hours away, giving a book talk about his "Witch Hunt" trilogy, which have become internationally popular and made him very rich. Then the author is apparently killed, along with his police chief escort, on his way home. Or not. Investigator Jessica Niemi feels like she is always a step behind the killer, who appears to be re-enacting the murder's from the "Witch Hunt" books. Perhaps the problem is that there is more than one killer.

The characters are well developed, the setting is chilling, and the story line well paced. Publishers Weekly calls the book "deliciously creepy." Booklist calls it "intensely suspenseful...dark and intricate." Kirkus says, it's "a disturbing tale of murder and madness."

The Bellamy Trial

Published in 1927 by author Frances Noyes Hart (1890 - 1943), the book is ostensibly based on a notorious murder trial in the 1920's, although I have been unable to locate information on that. There is general agreement that Hart's book was a pioneer in this genre of a book based on a courtroom trial, which has now become quite common (e.g., Perry Mason, John Grisham). Hart worked as a translator for the Navy during WWI and was a "canteen worker" in France, which she documented in her book My AEF: A Hail and Farewell. She wrote short stories which were published in popular magazines of the day (Saturday Evening Post, Scribner's, Ladies' Home Journal) and then collected in Contact and Other Stories (1923). She won a Pulitzer for this book, which is considered a classic murder mystery and was later (1929) made into a silent film (cinematography by Arthur C. Miller).

A young woman, Mimi Bellamy, is found stabbed to death in an empty gardener's cottage on an old estate that's no longer occupied.  Her husband, Stephen Bellamy, and a wealthy socialite, Sue Ives, are charged with the murder because they were seen near the cottage and both have motives. We read about the 8 days of the trial and hear from various witnesses--staff, friends, family members--some of whom are reliable and others with their own agendas. With each testimony, the story gets more complicated. Were Mimi and Sue's husband, Pat Ives, having an affair? Or was there something more sinister going on in this small Long Island town where everyone knows everyone else, for better or worse? Each day of the trial is a separate chapter and the story is carried by a novice red-haired female reporter from Philadelphia and a more experienced local reporter, who function, as one reviewer suggested, like a sort of Greek chorus. It is somewhat dated--not surprising given that it was written almost 100 years ago. For example, the jury is all men; all women are "girls" until they are grandmothers. Nevertheless, the story revealed through testimony will keep most readers guessing until the mystery is solved--AFTER the verdict has been delivered.

The Cold Millions

 Author Jess Walter dives into the fight for labor union rights in Spokane, Washington that took place in 1909. A long-time resident of Spokane, Walter has written 7 novels, one collections of short stories, and one non-fiction book, many of which have garnered awards and positive acclaim (see his website for more about him). Spokane had grown rapidly in the late 1800's and early 1900's and become a major commercial and transportation hub fueled by sitting at the crossroads of 4 transcontinental railroads; the discovery of gold, silver and lead in the area; and abundant timber and, later, agriculture. This rapid development was often accomplished with migrant labor, especially from China, but also from Europe and the eastern U.S. In Spokane there was a layer of brokers between the employers and potential employees called "job sharks," who often cheated the workers and even bribed employers to fire entire work crews so they would have to go through the sharks to get re-hired. The IWW sought to stop this practice and the big employers in the area pressured law enforcement to hinder the union's recruitment efforts in any way possible; this resulted in outlawing public speaking or "soapboxing."

Two itinerant brothers, Gregory or "Gig" the older and Ryan or "Rye"  the much younger one,  get caught up in the free speech fight that resulted in hundreds of men being arrested and jailed in one day. Because of his young age, Rye is released within a few days, but Gregory is sentenced to 6 months for being an agitator. Rye strikes a devil's bargain with a wealthy businessman to get Gig out of jail in exchange for Rye traveling with and reporting back on the activities of the feminist labor leader Elizabeth Gurley Flynn (she wrote a book about her own experiences in the Spokane jail). Gregory had felt responsible for looking after Rye after their parents died, but then it is Ryan who is trying to take care of his brother. There is a colorful cast of  other characters that adds dimension to the story. 

The Washington Post calls the story "captivating" and the characters "outrageous" and "irresistible." The New York Times notes the relevance of the books themes to those of today as it tackles "injustice, poverty, bigotry, ecological disaster. Turns out this tramp’s tale is a timely book...Walter asks us to connect the dots in his schema to the present day, during another eruption in history’s cycle." Walter's writing is often lyrical and even "breathtaking" (Kirkus). The story is told from multiple points of view and is occasionally a little hard to follow, but worth the effort if you have the stomach for the human cruelty described.

The Citadel

This book was published in Great Britain in 1937 and also received the National Book Award (U.S.) for 1937. Written by A.J. (Archibald Joseph) Cronin, who was himself trained and practiced as a physician, the main character is a newly graduated Scottish doctor, Andrew Manson. He takes a paying job in a mining town in south Wales in order to pay back monies he was given to  complete his education. When he turns up to serve as physician's assistant to Dr. Page, he discovers that Page has been incapacitated by a stroke and is no longer able to practice. But in order to preserve the income that comes from his roster of patients with the local mining company, his wife makes Andrew carry the full case load at a meager salary and pockets the rest. Manson is zealous in wanting to provide medical care to the miners and to improve their living conditions and, at one point, in order to have new infrastructure built, helps another physician's assistant, Philip Denny, blow up the sewers, which are so defective that they are causing water-borne diseases to spread. Eventually resigning his position, he is hired to work in a large and somewhat more prosperous mining town, which allows him to marry Christine. His budding interest in miners' lung diseases propels him to do research on the effects of the working environment and, with his wife's support, he writes a paper on his findings and is awarded an MRCP. This qualification, in turn, leads him to London where he takes up the position of the Medical Officer of the Mines Fatigue Board. Thwarted in his pursuit of further research on lung diseases, he buys a private practice and begins a slide down a slippery slope of treating wealthy hypochondriacs in order to get more income. This change in focus estranges him from his wife. When  patient dies due to an inept surgical procedure by a colleague, Andrew is shocked back to his focus on patient care and reconciles with his wife. Andrew offers to help an old friend's daughter who has contracted TB. But the outdated methods of the London hospital where she is admitted fail to help her and Andrew takes the radical step of spiriting her away to a private clinic established by an American researcher, Richard Stillman, where she is treated with his new methods and gets better. Manson's soured relationships with his money grubbingy physician colleagues and his work with Stillman, who was unlicensed as a doctor in Britain, result in Andrew being brought before the General Medical Council. Against the advice of his lawyer, Manson offers an impassioned defense of his actions and is exonerated.

This book, along with many others of Cronin's, was made into a movie. Cronin's criticism of the corruption in private medical practice is also widely credited for setting an expectation among the public for a change, paving the way for the NHS.