Sweet Revenge

Every once in a while, when I need a break from heavy duty or very dark books, I will pick up something like this book from Diane Mott Davidson--predictable yet fun mysteries featuring Goldy Schultz, caterer extraordinaire who lives in the mythical Denver bedroom community of Aspen Meadow. We jump into Goldy's life in the middle of the holiday season when her schedule is jam packed with the usual assortment of wealthy, demanding, and irascible customers. As usual, murder intervenes when former district attorney Drew Wellington is murdered at the public library while Goldy is setting up a staff holiday party.   

Kirkus gives this one a lukewarm review but notes that the recipes are worth investigating. Publishers Weekly, on the other hand, says that Davidson is "at the top of her form" in this 14th entry in the book series, concluding that "Readers will happily sink their teeth into Goldy's latest case and come away hungry for more."

Every Cloak Rolled in Blood

I have long been a fan of James Lee Burke, but haven't read anything in a while. This book is technically part of his "Holland Family" series. Burke conveniently offers a family tree so you can figure out where the protagonist of this book, 85-year-old Aaron Holland Broussard, fits into the scheme of things. Aaron is a successful author who has recently lost his daughter, Fannie Mae, and lives alone on his ranch in Montana. He is so bereft that he beckons his daughter back from the other side--and that's just the beginning of this ghost story. While his daughter is trying to protect him from both the living and dead, there are malevolent spirits that are committing horrendous crimes in the present day. Broussard teams up with a much younger Native American woman, Ruby Spotted Horse, who is also a state trooper and the keeper of a gate that is supposed to contain the evil spirits (the Old People). Much of the story revolves around the atrocities committed by certain cavalry commanders against Native Americans on the very land where Broussard's ranch now stands. But there is also corruption aplenty among the living. Kirkus concludes that the book is "Less mystery than history, less history than prophecy, and all the stronger for it." Publishers Weekly also recommends the book, saying "this is one of those extraordinary crime novels that feels more like real life, with incidents and people that aren’t obviously connected piling up in the protagonist’s life, rather than a neat set of clues pointing to a culprit. Once again, Burke uses genre fiction to plumb weighty issues, both social and emotional." Specifically, Booklist notes that "Burke rolls together the driving themes that have dominated his work--the inescapable presence of evil, the restorative power of love, the desecration of the planet, humanity's long slouch toward Armageddon--into an intensely, heartrendingly personal exploration of grief."

The Love of My Life

This book by Rosie Walsh will keep you guessing until the end. I felt like it dragged out the big reveal far too long. However, reviewers were much more complimentary. The Washington Post's Maureen Corrigan calls this a "masterful domestic thriller with a doozy of a plot,"  and I totally respect Ms. Corrigan's reviews. Corrigan goes on to say, "a classic example of the “I married a stranger” domestic suspense plot — with a twist. Usually, the partner with a secret triggers suspicion in us canny readers early on. ...But, Emma Merry Bigelow, the enigmatic heroine of Rosie Walsh’s “The Love of My Life,” seems so funny, warm, compassionate and kind that we readers root for her — even though we learn fairly quickly that she’s living under an assumed name and harbors a host of other secrets, something her adoring husband, Leo, doesn’t know about. Walsh just may have written the first domestic suspense novel in which the deceitful spouse is also a genuinely nice person. Maybe." Emma is an "intertidal biologist" and husband Leo is an obituary writer, which is how he discovers that the woman he is still madly in love with after 7 years of marriage isn't who he thought she was--at least not entirely.  He begins digging and fears he has uncovered infidelity and a criminal background. But it's not what he thinks.

Similarly, Kirkus calls the book "a propulsive thriller with heart that will keep readers guessing." Publishers Weekly calls it a "heartbreaking thriller" and agrees that it gets off to a slow start, but concludes  that it " builds to an emotionally raw yet satisfying conclusion."

Plunder

This book by Mary Anna Evans is the 7th installment in the Faye Longchamps series and, as such, there's a lot of background on the characters that I don't know. Faye is an archaeologist who, in this book, has been married for some time to Joe Wolf Mantooth (Native American) and has a toddler named Michael. They have come along with her, from their home on Joyeaux Island off the coast of Florida, to the Mississippi delta to provide a survey of archaeological sites that are in the line of fire from the recently exploded Deepwater Horizon oil platform. While there, she meets precocious 16-year-old amateur treasure hunter Amande Landreneau, who lives on a decrepit houseboat with her voodoo mambo grandmother. Amande is equally fascinated with ancient artifacts and shows Faye some of the ones she has found in the area. But within days, both an uncle who Amande has never met and her grandmother are murdered, throwing Amande's future into question. Her mother disappeared when Amande was a baby, and the father has never been in the picture, but the vultures quickly descend trying to take the houseboat and what little income might come to Amande through some oil shares her mother had. Faye and Joe want to protect Amande but must also get this enormous survey done before the oil covers everything and may even begin to threaten their home in Florida. I would gladly read more in this series and agree with Publishers Weekly that I "hope to see more of Amande in the sequel." Great characters (Booklist calls then "strong" and "sympathetic"), tight plotting, and colorful settings.

As the New York Journal of Books notes, the threat of the impending oil pollution provides as much tension in the story as do the murders. The reviewer goes on to say that "Strong heroines are always a pleasure to read about and both Faye and Amande fit that bill," and go on to say "highly recommended."