The Beautiful and the Wild

This thriller by Peggy Townsend gets off to a slow start and I had to push myself to keep reading. It has become so commonplace to constantly flip back and forth between "then" and "now" in novels that I have gotten bored and slightly annoyed with that sort of structure. Nevertheless, I persisted and was satisfied with the ending. I can't say I ever really identified or empathized with any of the characters in the story. However, reviewers clearly felt otherwise. Here is the plot summary from Publishers Weekly:

" For months, Liv Russo has believed her husband, Mark, died after jumping off the Golden Gate Bridge. But when a series of cryptic texts and emails lure her and her developmentally disabled seven-year-old son, Xander, from California to a compound in southeastern Alaska, Liv finds Mark alive, cohabitating with another woman and a 10-year-old boy who calls him “Dad.” Stunned, Liv threatens to leave with Xander and return to California. Mark responds by locking her in a shipping container for weeks until she convinces him that she’s accepted their new polyamorous, off-the-grid lifestyle. Once she’s freed, Liv begins to plot her and Xander’s escape, but Mark becomes increasingly violent and unhinged. Townsend elevates the proceedings above standard-issue genre fare by zeroing in on Liv and Xander’s relationship, which she renders with aching sensitivity. The mother-son bond at the heart of this tense melding of domestic suspense and survival thriller makes it tough to shake."

Unlike me, Booklist finds the protagonist admirable: "Facing starvation and the harsh winter will push Liv past her own physical and mental limits. Townsend...constructs a lush and dangerous Alaskan landscape, using it to build tension and suspense. Liv is a strong and flawed protagonist whom readers will admire for her determination and feral need to protect her son. The shifting perspectives and fast-paced plot will keep even the most avid suspense readers on the edge of their seats. Recommended for fans of scrappy female leads facing the most dire circumstances..." Similarly, Library Journal offers, "One woman's quest to survive the harsh Alaskan wilderness and the even harsher people is a riveting read of determination and perseverance from Townsend."

Kirkus is a bit cooler in their view of Liz and the storyline: "Even after Liv toes the party line far enough to earn release from her confinement, her subordination to the man she once loved renders her status not only dangerously marginal but grindingly creepy. The finale is stuffed with so many surprises that it feels like a long-deferred Christmas morning."

Starter Villain

Okay, I admit it. I was hooked by the title...and the cover. Villain is such a melodramatic and somewhat antiquated term and why on earth was a cat wearing a collar and? This thoroughly entertaining novel  by John Scalzi, something of a mystery and something of a fantasy,  kept me engaged and rooting for the good guys (the good villains?). Made me look at our pet cats a bit differently, too. Kirkus opens their review by saying, "Some people are born supervillains, and others have supervillainy thrust upon them. Charlie Fitzer, a former business journalist–turned–substitute teacher, is broke and somewhat desperate. His circumstances take an unexpected and dangerous turn when his estranged uncle Jake dies, leaving his business—i.e., his trillion-dollar supervillain empire—to Charlie. Charlie doesn’t really have the skills or experience to manage the staff of the volcano lair, and matters don’t improve when he’s pressured to attend a high-level meeting with other supervillains, none of whom got along with his uncle." They did end the review on a bit of a sour note--"Fun while it lasts but not one of Scalzi’s stronger books."

Publishers Weekly apparently did like it: "After the funeral, to which goons show up just to make sure Jake is really dead, a bomb destroys Charlie’s house, leading him to move into his uncle’s secret island volcano lair, complete with a satellite-destroying death ray and genetically modified superintelligent cats. Danger comes in the form of the Lombardy Convocation, a coalition of fellow evil billionaires who secretly rule the world and want Charlie to join them or die. Scalzi balances all the double-crosses and assassination attempts with ethical quandaries, explorations of economic inequality, and humor, including some foul-mouthed unionizing dolphins. The result is a breezy and highly entertaining genre send-up."

Booklist also applauds Scalzi's wit and style: "Scalzi ... again examines tropes in a tale of an ordinary individual being cast into an extraordinary situation with his trademark quick pacing, clever banter, and ability to find humor in desperate situations." Library Journal offers: "Combining the sarcastic humor of Scalzi... with an origin story for James Bond...this story of snark with a heart reminds readers that the logical conclusion of "dogs have owners, cats have staff" is that cats are management and never let anyone forget it. VERDICT Readers of humorous fantasy are sure to love Scalzi's latest ... as much as those cats; it's also for those who enjoy seeing superhero stories folded, twisted, and mutilated and anyone wishing for a righteous villain lair surrounded by intelligent sharks [actually they're dolphins]." I, too, recommend it for a fun read.

Whalefall

The title for this science fiction novel by Daniel Kraus is an actual term used to describe when a whale dies and sinks to great depths. "...their carcasses--known as whale falls--provide a bounty of nutrients for deep water creatures (NOAA)." I would almost call this book speculative fiction rather than science fiction as other reviewers have, since all the descriptions and even--except one which the author calls out in his Notes--are based on experts' and his own research.

The book opens with our protagonist:

"That diver is Jay Gardiner, and you won’t meet a more tortured, resourceful fictional character this summer. At 17, he is reeling from the death of his father, Mitt, a legendary diver and mean drunk who had terminal cancer and drowned himself, his pockets full of diving weights, rather than waiting for death to come to him. Jay is racked by guilt — he was estranged from Mitt when he died — and so he decides to atone by recovering Mitt’s remains from the bottom of Monastery Beach, a dangerous spot off the coast of Monterey, Calif. What is meant to be a quick redemptive dive turns into an epic struggle for survival when a massive whale, swallowing a meal of giant squid, fails to notice the surprise side dish: human teenager. The New York Times  goes on to describe the plot as follows: "The book runs along two tracks. One is a moment-by-moment account of Jay’s battle to escape. As in the survival film “127 Hours,” the clock is ticking; each chapter ominously notes how much oxygen remains in Jay’s tank, an hour’s worth in all. For every positive development (Jay avoids death-by-squid in the whale’s mouth) a new disaster arises (Jay gushes blood from his neck, blows out his eardrums, loses his fins, snaps off one of his teeth, burns his hands on acid and faces possible death from methane poisoning) ... In the second track, interspersed with the first, Jay revisits his past and tries to work through his messy relationship with his father. A revered éminence grise in the Monterey Bay diving community, Mitt was also a disappointed old man who couldn’t hold down a job and spent much of his time lecturing his son and railing against humans’ careless disregard of the ocean and its inhabitants."

I found the formatting very distracting as NPR's Ayesha Rascoe notes in her interview with author Kraus: "I have to ask you about the pace because what I found was some chapters are super short. They're just, like, a sentence. They flash back and forth in time. How did you go about planning the writing for this and the structure of this?" Kraus' reply is "My idea was that I wanted the chapter breaks to feel like gasps for air. And I wanted the reader to constantly be aware of how much air he's losing, you know? The chapter headings are all essentially telling you how much oxygen he has left. So with the short chapters, you're constantly gasping and constantly having to sink, then, back down to the drama. And it alternates between what's going on inside the whale and these flashbacks."

Publishers Weekly calls it a "...gripping sci-fi thriller..." and concludes, "Kraus provides solid nautical science alongside the stretchy coincidences that fuel Jay’s survival. Just on the brink of horror fiction, especially for the claustrophobic, this deep-sea thrill ride will have readers on the edges of their seats."Library Journal's review is  also favorable. " Jay's plight is viscerally intense and claustrophobic, even as he grapples with real and raw emotions that stem from remorse and a need for reconciliation. ...This hard sci-fi thriller is full of cinematic and wild suspense and would be great for fans of Andy Weir, although the tone is far more austere." While Booklist calls it "...a moving character study disguised as a riveting, cinematic survival thriller...it is Jay's constant growth throughout the story that makes this novel shine, allowing its beauty to emerge and leave its mark on all who encounter it."

I, on the other hand found Jay to be an unappealing character who does nothing but whine about his horrible father in the first part of the book and then, struggling to escape his living prison, becomes so philosophical that I found it unbelievable. But clearly I am in the minority so judge for yourself. 

 

Blood Sisters

Vanessa Lillie's protagonist, Syd Walker, is several things. She is a successful archaeologist working for the BIA's Rhode Island district. She is a wife to a successful doctor, Mal, who has just become pregnant and Syd is still unsure if she wants to be a parent. She is a "two-spirit" Cherokee (according to her beloved Aunt Mercy) who has escaped her small life in the even smaller, polluted town in northeastern Oklahoma, Picher. She is a survivor of a traumatic home invasion when she was a teenager; she managed to shoot one of the two men in devil's masks and escape with her sister, Emma Lou, but her best friend Luna and Luna's parents were murdered and both the killers and the Myers family burned up in their trailer.  Syd hasn't been home in three years, since she went with her then new wife, to celebrate with her extended family, only to have to track down and rescue sister Emma Lou from a nearly fatal drug overdose.

Syd is called in by her supervisor and told to go to Oklahoma to identify a woman's skull that was found next to her family's property, with Syd's old BIA internship badge stuffed in its mouth. There she learns that sister Emma Lou has been missing for a week. She is determined to find her in spite of local BIA authorities' apparent stalling tactics. Her hot-headed nosiness quickly makes her a target of the huge and powerful Daweson family, two of whom were responsible for the murders of Luna and her family 15 years ago and who are now trying to build a new and improved drug trafficking operation. What Syd discovers will turn her world upside down.

This is a compelling thriller (and a bit of a ghost story) that kept me up into the wee hours of the morning. It is also a heartfelt exegesis of the centuries of mistreatment and broken promises by the U.S. government to the tribes of Native Americans who shepherded this continent for thousands of years prior to contact. The betrayals continue to this day as the the federal government largely ignores the disappearances and murders of Native American women. It is only recently that the numbers of Native American or Alaska Native women and girls have been tracked. Violence against women is under-reported. The rate of violence on Indian reservations is ten times that of the national aveerage. As recently as 2016, according to the National Crime Information Center, 5,712 missing indigenous women were reported, whereas, only116 made it into the National Missing and Unidentified Persons System.

Reviews are uniformly positive. Library Journal concludes their review by saying, "The author ...combines Cherokee history and legend with contemporary drug and land problems in a gripping story of missing Indigenous women." Publishers Weekly notes, "Lillie does an excellent job of balancing a riveting plot with a moving portrait of her troubled lead." Booklist praises, "Lillie paints the beautiful yet bleak landscape with a fine brush. Readers who enjoy strong voices will be pulled in by the characters, while those who are drawn to setting will feel as if they are in Picher." The book is also recommended by The Washington Post;  the Star Tribune, which raves ,"Just a few pages in and this novel is roaring with mystery, danger, anguish and regret. Lillie fuels her Native characters with hope, resentment, anger and despair... Blood Sisters lead[s] us on a path toward knowledge and discovery;" and the Los Angeles Book Review, "Blood Sisters is a book about family bonds and the lengths we will go to protect our own."

Even though this is fiction, I was reminded of Killers of the Flower Moon in terms of the dishonest and cruel treatment of Native Americans. Although the main character is flawed in ways that she and those close to her recognize, I did occasionally want to grab her by the shirt collar and quit going into dangerous situations on her own and usually unarmed. In many ways the book, storyline and protagonist all reminded me of the V.I. Warshawski books by Sara Paretsky, who hot headed and idealistic P.I. often ends up tackling much larger social issues in her efforts to solve a crime.

West Heart Kill

I have very mixed reactions about this mystery of Dann McDorman. On the one hand, I feel like he was being just way too clever with his admittedly unique approach to story telling. On the other, I was impressed with all the knowledge/ reseach that must have gone into the numerous references to the genre and its creators. The ending was not satisfying to me and I won't spoil it by telling you why. On the other hand, reviews are positive--although I sometimes think reviewer praise follows on novelty--so decide for yourself. 

Publishers Weekly's review begins, "McDorman’s wily debut breaks the fourth wall immediately, in a sign of the authorial shenanigans to come: 'This murder mystery, like all murder mysteries, begins with the evocation of what the reader understands to be its atmosphere,' goes the opening line." And it concludes, "As the story unfolds, the omniscient narrator intrudes to offer up tangents on subjects including murder mystery genre rules ('The key is a sense of fair play—a reader must not feel cheated') and Agatha Christie’s famous 1926 disappearance. While these peregrinations may not appeal to mystery fans who prefer a more direct route from crime to solution, McDorman ensures they never come at the expense of satisfying twists or shocks. For readers willing to try something a little different, this is quite the diversion."

Similarly, Booklist's review is also laudatory: "McDorman enters the crime fiction arena as a former newspaper reporter and an Emmy-nominated TV news producer steeped in the traditions and history of the mystery genre. He presents a classic closed circle mystery set at a private hunt club with a "manicured killing ground" in upstate New York, an enclave owned by a complexly entangled coterie of wealthy and dysfunctional families. Adam McAnnis fits the bill for a just-scraping-by private eye, circa 1976; he's a philosophical, weed-smoking, PTSD-harried Vietnam vet skeptical about everyone and everything. McDorman simultaneously revels in and comments on the many-faceted plot as the narrator directly addresses the reader with the assumption that she is equally knowledgeable and ardent about mysteries, decanting intriguing insights into the genre and its luminaries, including Agatha Christie, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Dashiell Hammett, and Jorge Luis Borges. Readers will encounter a quiz, Q & As with the suspects, and a play. McDorman is funny, canny, and nimble in this clever, unusual, and enormously entertaining mix of criticism and suspense, this mystery propelled by witty banter, hidden trauma, messy affairs, and vicious schemes."

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."

The Spellman Files

Lisa Lutz has written several stand-alone novels as well as six books in the "Spellman Files." She has won an Alex Award for this book (best adult novel with appeal for young adults), awarded by a division of the American Library Association, and has been nominated for an Edgar. This is the debut novel (2006) in the "Spellman Files" series; I read a review of a later installment but wanted to start at the beginning to get a flavor for the characters.  I think the author herself offers a wonderful overview:

"In THE SPELLMAN FILES you first meet Isabel Spellman, private investigator. This twenty-eight-year-old may have a checkered past littered with romantic mistakes, excessive drinking, and creative vandalism; she may be addicted to Get Smart reruns and prefer entering homes through windows rather than doors—but the upshot is she's good at her job as a licensed private investigator with her family's firm, Spellman Investigations. Invading people's privacy comes naturally to Isabel. In fact, it comes naturally to all the Spellmans. If only they could leave their work at the office. To be a Spellman is to snoop on a Spellman, tail a Spellman, dig up dirt on, blackmail, and wiretap a Spellman."

Kirkus calls this book a "spirited, funny debut from screenwriter Lutz that mixes chick-lit, mystery and a dose of TV nostalgia." The protagonist is addicted to Get Smart re-runs.They continue, "It’s all casual, swift and hip. But an underpinning of reality, the complex emotions of growing up and letting go, shows through occasionally, warming up this hilarious debut." Publishers Weekly offers, ""Cracking the case can get complicated and outrageously wacky when a family of detectives is involved, but Lutz has a blast doing it in her delicious debut...Can the family that snoops together stay together? Stay tuned as a dynamic new series unfolds."

West with Giraffes

This charming, if somewhat bittersweet story is a fictionalized account of true events that occurred in 1938--the Dust Bowl was driving destitute farmers west to California in droves and Hitler's power and aggression was on the rise in Europe. Woodrow Wilson Nickel, has watched the rest of his family die from dust pneumonia or suicide (in the case of his abusive father) so he makes his way to New York City to work for a distant cousin on the docks. When a hurricane hits, his cousin is killed and Woody is once again left to his own devices. When a freighter that somehow survived the hurricane comes limping into port, Woody is amazed to see that 2 of the crates on board carry giraffes who have suffered only one broken leg between them. He follows then to quarantine, observes the people around the giraffes--including a young woman photographer who claims to work for Life magazine, and eventually talks himself into the position of driver for the giraffes' cross country trip to the San Diego zoo. The appearance of the customized truck with the two giraffes--named by Woody as Boy and Girl--excites awe, greed and violence along the way. But more importantly, Woody learns about himself and the amazing connection to be had with these two animals. Based on true events, weaving real life characters in with the fictional ones--all of which is clarified in the Author's Notes. I thought the last part of the book blurb on the cover summed it up well: "Part adventure, part historical saga, and part coming-of-age love story, West with Giraffes explores what it means to be changed by the grace of animals, the kindness of strangers, the passing of time, and a story told before it's too late"

The Detective Up Late

Adrian McKinty is a new author to me. He grew up in a Belfast housing project (Northern Ireland) during the worst years of the Troubles. With the aid of a full scholarship, he attended Oxford and studied philosophy. He began writing full time when he emigrated to Australia in the early 2000's and has published both gritty crime novels and young adult fantasy. His Detective "Sean Duffy" series has received numerous "best of" and award mentions and this is the 7th in that series. Crunching through his final days as head of the Carrickfergus CID, now Detective Inspector Duffy gets a case of a missing 15-year-old girl who no one seems to care about. She is a Traveler (gypsy) and even her mother can't be bothered. But the further Duffy investigates, the more complicated her back story becomes and the more potential killers come to light. As a Catholic cop in a Protestant community, Duffy has always had a target on his back and now that he and his girlfriend have a child, he wants to get them away from all the violence. The ending was a surprise to me. I did like the protagonist, a complicated fellow, and McKinty does a great job creating a dark and atmospheric setting.

Kirkus says in a review of his previous book that "McKinty’s hero is irreverent, charming, and mordantly, laugh-out-loud funny, and his eclectic personal soundtrack and bitter, pragmatic politics make for vivid period detail."

Sunburn

Although I have not read any other of Laura Lippman's books, she is a prolific writer, notably of the "Tess Monaghan" series, as well as several stand-alone thrillers. She routinely gets positive reviews for everything she writes and this book is certainly worth the read. It is a modern-day take on the noir genre, with a "bad girl"--maybe-- meets "good boy" plot line. Polly has recently abandoned her second husband and their daughter while on a beach vacation, with plans to head to Reno and get a quickie divorce. She gets as far as a small town called Belleville, Delaware. At the High-Ho diner, a handsome man sits a couple of stools away from her at the bar and initiates a conversaation, but this is not a chance encounter. They both play it cool, claiming that each is just passing through. But Adam is attracted to beautiful sunburned shoulders and red hair, so when she gets a waitressing job at the bar/diner, he applies for the vacant cook's position. Over the course of that miserably hot summer, after a lot of calculated dancing around on both their parts, they realize that the passionate affair they began is turning into real love--something neither of them wanted to happen. Polly and Adam can't seem to walk away from one another, even though Polly wants to settle down and Adam want to continue exploring the world. Throughout, Polly and Adam lie to each other, and throughout they each know that. Adam is actually a PI hired to investigate Polly and she is running a long game, the extent of which the reader will not know until the last chapter. Lippman parcels out the secrets and the solutions a piece at a time, keeping the suspense level high.

Library Journal says of Lippman's characters that "Lippman's complicated femme fatale heroine and conflicted hero are more layered than one would expect from noir protagonists, and her nuanced characterizations extend beyond the couple at the center of the story. With an economy of words, she creates three--dimensional characters... Lippman's minute observations about modern life, human foibles, and the many faces of love are lagniappes to this tasty feast of a novel." Publishers Weekly effuses, "Lippman ratchets up the suspense the way the mercury in a thermometer creeps up on a hot August day, until everything-Polly's carefully laid plans of revenge and redemption, Adam's part in her potential downfall-comes to a boiling point. This is Lippman at her observant, fiercest best, a force to be reckoned with in crime fiction." I also love this review from Kirkus which begins, "A redheaded waitress, a good-looking private eye, insurance fraud, arson, rough sex, and a long hot summer: some like it noir." And their conclusion, "Plotty, page-turning pleasure plus instructions on how to make a perfect grilled cheese sandwich and how to stab a man in the heart."

Night Will Find You

This novel by Julia Heaberlin has an unusual female protagonist. Her regular job is as a research scientist in astrophysics, but occasionally, the police call on her for her abilities to see and hear things that other cannot. 

Publishers Weekly presents a solid summary of the story line as part of their glowing review: "This gripping page-turner from Heaberlin ... conceals its secrets from even the cleverest readers. Twenty-eight-year-old astrophysicist Vivian Bouchet takes leave from her research in the Chihuahuan desert to return home to Fort Worth, Tex., after her mother dies. She is approached by her childhood friend Mike Romano, now a cop, who believes Vivian has psychic abilities like the ones her fortune-telling mother claimed to possess. He asks her to look into the cold case of three-year-old Lizzie Solomon, who disappeared from her home a decade earlier. The girl’s mother, Nicolette, is serving time for her murder, even though no body was ever found. Before her death, Vivian’s mother made calls to the city claiming one of her clients—not Nicolette—was involved with the abduction... Vivian agrees to investigate, which makes her a target for the rabid fans of an influential podcast that peddles conspiracy theories,.... Vivian is an intelligent, perceptive character who’s a pleasure to spend time with, and when the plot kicks into gear, it’s nearly impossible to stop reading."

Kirkus fills us in on another detective interested in Lizzie's case, "Jesse Sharp, a skeptical, magnetic detective [who] is soon following her [Vivvy] all over town..." and it's not clear whether he seeks to expose her as a fake or  ... "to protect her from the fallout when a local conspiracy theorist gets her in his sights. Vivvy’s not sure, but she can’t deny the attraction between them even as she knows Jesse has secrets related to another case. Heaberlin’s evocation of the dusty, insular Texas town is the perfect backdrop, and both Jesse and Vivvy are appealingly prickly characters... Vivvy’s role as a scientist sets her apart from many fictional psychics and makes her a formidable heroine—there are rational layers to this supernatural thriller. Mysterious, sexy, and smart."

Killers of a Certain Age

My sister sent me this book written by Deanna Raybourn and I really liked it. Booklist says "Imagine if the Golden Girls were trained as elite assassins and you'll have some idea of the delights and thrills filling the pages of Raybourn's latest...a fun, exciting romp that celebrates the everlasting bonds of sisterhood." Billie, Mary Alice, Helen, and Natalie were all recruited in their early 20's to train at the Museum, an elite network of assassins originally created to hunt down Nazis. They were the first women recruits and they worked effectively--sometimes with others, but often alone--for forty years, ridding the world of bad people. They are ready to retire and their employers have graciously offered them an all-expenses-paid cruise to honor them. Or, as they soon figure out, to get them permanently out of the way. But apparently the powers that be have significantly under estimated just what effective assassins they are as they begin to hunt down the members of the Board that issued the termination orders.

Publishers Weekly calls it an "uproarious contemporary thriller...Colorful regional details and vividly portrayed secondary characters flesh out this rollicking tale. Fans of Helen Tursten and Richard Osman will relish watching these badass women in their 60s (“no one notices you unless you want them to,” Billie observes) swing into action. Raybourn has outdone herself." I have been a fan of Richard Osman's "Thursday Murder Club" series set in an English retirement community, and I just finished reading Helen Tursten's two books featuring 88-year old Maud, a very appealing anti-heroine. Being of a certain age myself, I enjoy seeing all these elderly characters taking charge of things, when those around them are prone to dismiss them. The introductory "Author's Note" sets the tone of what is to follow. "Some of the dates are misleading; some of the names are lies. I'm not trying to protect the innocent. I'm trying to protect the guilty. You'll understand soon enough." Many reviewers found the book to be "smart," "witty," "original," and "delightful" with "sophisticated story lines," high-flying action," and "sharp dialogue." Kirkus concludes it is "a compelling, complex mystery."

Since We Fell

I have been a fan of Dennis Lehane for some years, reading several of his books (e.g., World Gone By), but barely scratching the surface of his body of work, many of which have become movies (e.g., Mystic River, Shutter Island, Gone Baby Gone).

There are many positive reviews of this book: Library Journal ("Readers will enjoy going along for the ride in this engrossing story about love, deception, and marital commitment"), Booklist ("...this narrative vehicle never veers out of control, and when Lehane hits the afterburners in the last 50 pages, he produces one of crime fiction's most exciting and well-orchestrated finales rife with dramatic tension and buttressed by rich psychological interplay between the characters), and Publishers Weekly ("Set in contemporary Boston, this expertly wrought character study masquerading as a thriller from Edgar-winner Lehane ...features his first-ever female protagonist.)

But the review that came closest to my reaction was the review from the New York Times. They write "The novel begins with a string of joltingly different episodes from an author whose usual style is much more propulsively linear. The sequences are all parts of Rachel’s life, but that doesn’t initially glue them together; she is struggling to figure out who she is, and so are we. Only over time does the larger trajectory of “Since We Fell” become clear.It all makes much more sense in retrospect than it does as the book’s first chapters unfold. Here are some of its early developments: Rachel devotes herself to solving the mystery of her father. It’s complicated, and it leads the book into such unlikely areas as Luminism, the 19th-century style of American landscape painting....The father question is answered, and not in ways likely to improve Rachel’s mental state. Strong and smart as she is, Rachel needs a man in her life. She marries a producer named Sebastian, who works at the Boston TV station where she is a rising star. He’s irritable when Rachel endangers her career, since he cares mostly about her status....One on-air meltdown later, Rachel has been fired and is a public pariah.

Already subject to panic attacks, which are exacerbated by the horrors she saw in Haiti, Rachel stays in her apartment for 18 months. Sebastian drops out of her life. And it leads to Rachel becoming reacquainted with Mr. Right, Brian Delacroix, who she’d known casually and now looks at with new interest...Rachel falls gratefully into his arms, and they are married.Their marriage ushers in a string of wall-to-wall spoiler alerts. Suffice it to say that this second part of “Since We Fell” is sharply different from the first. Suddenly, he begins delivering nonstop suspense only loosely rooted in Rachel’s story and its foundations."

This very long and torturous journey left me largely unmoved, although the last part of the book does speed up and become more engaging. Kirkus, like many other reviewers had only positive things to say. "Don’t zoom through this latest entry in Lehane’s illustrious body of work. You’ll miss plenty of intrigue, intricacies, and emotional subtleties....What seems at the start to be an edgy psychological mystery seamlessly transforms into a crafty, ingenious tale of murder and deception—and a deeply resonant account of one woman’s effort to heal deep wounds that don’t easily show."

A Snicker of Magic

This book by Natalie Lloyd is actually an award winning children's book, all the more remarkably given that this is Lloyd's first book. Here are some of the honors awarded:

• An ALA Notable Book
• An Odyssey Honor Award
• An E.B. White Read Aloud Honor Book
• A SIBA Children’s Book Award Finalist
• A Nerdy Book Club Award Winner
• NCTE Charlotte Huck Award for Outstanding Fiction for Children, Recommended Book
• A Junior Library Guild Selection
• A Siba Okra Pick
• 2015 Mythopoeic Fantasy Award Winner for Children’s Literature 

Twelve-year-old Felicity Juniper Pickle, along with younger sister Frannie Jo and their dog Biscuit, have come to live in the town where her mother grew up, Midnight Gulch, TN. The town has a magical history which came to an end when two musician/magical brothers had a duel that ended with a curse, leaving the town without magic--maybe. Felicity has her own magic; she is able to see words that others can't--words that reveal people's secret hopes and sorrows. Felicity is befriended by wheelchair traveler Jonah who fills her in on the town's history and has a magical secret of his own. Felicity has a magical vocabulary as well that floats through the text and "spins a web around the story that touches on helping others, budding friendships, and strength of family. (Booklist)" With Jonah's help, Felicity hopes to break the curse and solve the riddle of her mother's sadness that keeps the family moving from town to town. 

Publishers Weekly effuses, "spins a web around the story that touches on helping others, budding friendships, and strength of family..." and concludes "Lloyd offers a reassuring, homespun story about self-expression and the magic that resides in one's mind and heart." And the New York Times is equally enthralled, claiming the book "covers wholesome, warm-fuzzy territory in a quirky, cheerful way. It should be read aloud for maximum enjoyment, with a pen handy to jot down new words, preferably not on your sneakers. Young spelling enthusiasts, Scrabble lovers, Boggle big leaguers and word people of the world — hang on for the ride! Felicity Pickle will take you places, and that, fellow logophiles, is spindiddly, indeed."

 

Glory Be: A Glory Broussard Mystery

This debut novel by Danielle Arceneaux is intended to be the first in her "Glory Broussard" series. Set in contemporary Layfayette, Louisiana, Glory is not a typical detective story protagonist. Not that other detectives aren't outspoken and out for justice--just as Glory is--, or that we haven't encountered black detectives, or women sleuths, or investigators "of a certain age," but Glory is all of these. She has not had an easy life, growing up in the racially segregated South, and it has recently been made even harder because her husband left her for a younger woman. Then she learns that her closest friend from childhood, Sister Amity Gay, is dead. Glory will NOT be kept away from the crime scene and is shocked to see Amity with a rope around her neck and to hear that the police are calling it suicide and will not be pursuing further investigation. Glory knows Amity would never have killed herself and she aims to find the murderer. Glory's daughter, Delphine, a successful lawyer in New York City, has come home to help her mother sort out the divorce, and for reasons of her own that she's not sharing. She is shocked to find her mother has become a hoarder and that Glory has taken over the bookie business of her unfaithful husband.

The Washington Post offers: "Danielle Arceneaux offers a remarkable debut novel that blends a character study with a tightly woven mystery that delves into dark corners of racism and corruption." Publishers Weekly also likes this book: "Arceneaux successfully avoids a mountain of cozy clichés—no bookshops, baked goods, or love interest for Glory—and works potent critiques of Southern racism into her well-oiled plot."

The setting is richly drawn, the characters are well developed and the plot is complex and tricky enough to keep you guessing. I will watch for the future adventures of Glory Broussard.

Past Tense

In this 23rd novel of Lee Child's "Jack Reacher" series, Reacher has just begun his corner-to-corner travels across the United States (Maine to San Diego) when his ride gets an emergency phone call and has to turn around, leaving Reacher on a small highway in the woods of Maine. When he sees a small sign for the town of Laconia, NH, ostensibly his father's birthplace. He decides to stop over and see if he can find out more about his father's past. "Not far from Reacher, Canadian travelers Shorty and Patty pull into a remote motel, their car on its last legs. They're the only guests and the proprietors seem a little odd. Of course things get worse for them and for Reacher, who pummels a local, well-connected bully when he's not poring over census records and playing matchmaker for two government workers" (Library Journal). Publishers Weekly continues, "Reacher uncovers few traces of his father's existence, other than a 75-year-old assault case in which Stan Reacher is named. ...While Reacher is dealing with a revenge posse, the Canadian couple discover just how strange their motel is. Child neatly interweaves multiple narratives, ratchets up the suspense (the reveal of the motel plot is delicious), and delivers a powerful, satisfying denouement." Booklist praises "As always, the prose is lean and efficient, the action scenes are well designed, and Reacher is as formidable an opponent as one could imagine..."

Small Pleasures

This bittersweet novel by Clare Chambers was sent to me by a friend in England for my birthday; it was longlisted for the Womens Prize for Fiction (1921). For this book, I chose Publishers Weekly summary of the storyline:

"In Chambers’ affecting latest ... the year is 1957 and Jean Swinney is a single Englishwoman approaching 40 who cares for her demanding mother and lives for the small pleasures in life—like pottering in her vegetable patch or loosening her girdle at the end of the day. Jean works as features editor for the North Kent Echo. Her new assignment is to interview Gretchen Tilbury, who claims to have delivered a child through virgin birth. Wanting to keep an open mind, Jean meets with the no-nonsense Gretchen, who was confined to an all-female nursing home, St. Cecilia’s, with rheumatoid arthritis at the time of conception. Jean also meets Gretchen’s charming 10-year-old daughter, Margaret, and her dedicated husband, Howard. Jean arranges for Gretchen and Margaret to undergo medical tests at Charing Cross Hospital to prove if parthenogenesis actually took place. As the months pass, Jean becomes more and more enmeshed in the lives of the Tilbury family even as her friendship with Howard threatens to turn into something more. Chambers does an excellent job of recreating the austere texture of post-WWII England. In Jean, the author creates a character who strives admirably to escape her cloistered existence. Chambers plays fair with Gretchen’s mystery, tenderly illuminating the hidden yearnings of small lives."

Reviews are positive from both the English and American press. Booklist offers, "...Chambers penetrates the secret hopes and passionate inner lives of ordinary working people throughout her gripping novel..." According to the New York Times' excellent review, "All the characters in “Small Pleasures” seem to be struggling...Again and again, however, characters choose duty ... over happiness, as Chambers examines, sympathetically and incisively, how much self-sacrifice people should bear at the expense of their personal freedom...Chambers reproduces the everyday minutiae of postwar British suburbia, from a dust-colored wool skirt to a pudding made of tinned pears and evaporated milk. Her language is beautiful, achieving what only the most skilled writers can: big pleasure wrought from small details." Kirkus says that "An awareness of the high cost of that potential happiness weighs heavily on Jean, and a bittersweet aura pervades Chambers’ gentle sketch of an unassuming, highly intelligent woman daring to contravene convention. ... Chambers acknowledges a broad range of human experience. Jean’s foibles, along with those of her irksome mother and other characters, are presented with sympathy, but readers in search of comfortable solutions will have to reassess their need to tie everything up with a vintage-style bow." The Evening Standard calls it "quietly perfect;" The Sunday Telegraph says it is a "quietly compelling novel of duty and desire;" and The Times (London) concludes the book is "remarkable."

A Line to Kill

As well as being a fan of  his "Foyle's War" and "Midsomer Murders" TV series, I have read 5 other stand-alone mysteries from Anthony Horowitz. In several, we get to see the author himself as a character in the story; this book is the 3rd entry in the "Hawthorne and Horowitz" series, following The Word is Murder and The Sentence is Death. In other books, we get a complete story within a story, e.g., Magpie Murders and Moonflower Murders. Beyond that, he has been a prolific writer with over a dozen books in his teen-targeted "Alex Rider" series alone.

Since I have tired of writing book summaries for now, I chose that offered by Booklist as a reasonable alternative:

"Great Agatha Christie's ghost! PI Hawthorne and novelist Horowitz (the fictional version) are trapped on an island with an eccentric group of writers. The oddly dynamic duo return for their third adventure (after The Sentence Is Death, 2019), and this time they travel together to Alderney, in the Channel Islands, for what is billed as an exclusive literary festival. Turns out, not all that exclusive. A popular blind psychic, a TV chef, an aging children's author, a somewhat tedious historian, and a suspiciously behaved (and plagiaristic) poet round out the talent, along with Horowitz and PI Hawthorne, about whom Horowitz is writing a true-crime book. They find a grim welcome from a place riddled with reminders of its WWII occupation by the Nazis, and also in turmoil over a hotly contested power line that will boost the island's economy but ruin the landscape. The man behind the development is the "uniquely offensive" Charles le Mesurier. When he turns up dead, no one is surprised. Or sorry. Horowitz is a master of misdirection, and his brilliant self-portrayal, wittily self-deprecating, carries the reader through a jolly satire on the publishing world." 

Publishers Weekly called this 3rd installment a "superior" mystery and concludes, "The often prickly relationship between the Watson-like Horowitz and the Holmes-like Hawthorne complements the intricate detective work worthy of a classic golden age whodunit. The author's fans will hope this series has a long run." And Kirkus says the book "reads like a golden-age whodunit on steroids."

A Fever in the Heartland: The Ku Klux Klan's Plot to Take Over America and the Woman Who Stopped Them

I have read and enjoyed other books by Timothy Egan (The Worst Hard Time; Breaking Blue), who is one of my favorite non-fiction writers ( along with Erik Larson and Candice Millard). Among the several very competent plot summaries I read, I chose that from Library Journal:

"National Book Award and Pulitzer Prize winner Egan ... exposes a 1920s American political scene filled with characters and themes that resonate today. He unmasks anti-Black, anti-immigrant, antisemitic, fearful, evangelical, hate-filled, resentful, and xenophobic white supremacists desperate to "save" the country. He focuses on David Curtis "D.C." Stephenson (1891--1966), a magnetic charlatan with Napoleonic visions that included becoming a U.S. senator and more. Twenty-seven chapters document Stephenson's rise from a Ku Klux Klan recruiter in Evansville, IN (then the country's most racially segregated city), to Grand Dragon of Indiana, the largest KKK realm ever, with a reputed 400,000 members. Nationally, the KKK included congresspeople, governors, state legislators, county and local officials, police, and more. The book details KKK insider personalities, locally and nationally, along with their corruption, scheming, and squabbling for control, money, and power. The book also chronicles Stephenson's fall as he approached the apex of power when, in a sensational and noteworthy trial, he was convicted of abducting, raping, and murdering Indiana Department of Public Instruction lending library manager Madge Oberholtzer (1896--1925). VERDICT Egan's riveting page-turner offers profound insights to readers willing to peer into layers of American hypocrisy, intolerance, malignant indifference, and public culpability.-"

Publishers Weekly adds this information about significance of Madge Oberholtzer's ordeal:  "During the incident, Oberholtzer dosed herself with bichloride of mercury; she died an agonizingly slow death 29 days later, but not before she dictated a full account of Stephenson's crimes. Convicted of second-degree murder and sentenced to life in prison, Stephenson became a symbol of the Klan's cruelty, hypocrisy, and corruption, and the organization's grip on Midwestern politics crumbled."

I have only lately become aware of the KKK's resurgence during the 1920's after they went underground following their reign of terror during Reconstruction. For example, I just read The Paragon Hotel, which shows how strong they became in the state where I now live, Oregon, during that time.

An Elderly Lady is Up to No Good AND An Elderly Lady Must Not Be Crossed

These two story collections by Helene Tursten are translated from Swedish by Marlaine DeLargy. Tursten had previously written two mystery series, also set in Gothenburg, and first created Maud when a publisher asked her to contribute to an anthology of Christmas stories. In desperation, she jumped the line between those trying to catch criminals to a criminal as protagonist in "An Elderly Lady Seeks Peace at Christmastime." Here is a sampling of reviews for the first collection, An Elderly Lady is Up to No Good.

Eightly-eight-year-old Maud....freely dispatches greedy neighbors, selfish lovers, and potential thieves in four linked stories that push elderly empowerment to grimly funny heights in this Swedish cult favorite (The Boston Globe)

Darkly engaging...The murders Maud pulls off are meticulously plotted and executed, and one of the pleasures of the stories lies in watching Maud in action (The Toronto Star).

Witty...All pay the ultimate price for outraging this dangerous octogenarian. Will the police ever realize that sweet, frail, confused old Maud is in fact sharp as a tack and just as ruthless? (The Wall Street Journal).

A deliciously noir short story collection...Tursten takes readers deep inside Maud's head as she plots the demise of anyone who crosses her (The New York Times).

The second collection of short stories, An Elderly Lady Must Not be Crossed, concludes with two recipes for gingerbread cookies-- a "nice version" and a "naughty version." 

Booklist says of this short story collection, "Tursten brings back Swedish octogenarian Maud ... in this second title in her Elderly Lady series. After being interviewed by two hostile police detectives about the burglar's body found in her Gothenburg apartment, Maud decides she needs a change of scene and embarks on a luxury tour of South Africa. As she travels, Maud recalls her past life as a problem solver, beginning ...when she forthrightly dealt with bullies who were tormenting her mentally ill sister....This absorbing dive into the mind of a ruthless pragmatist posing as a Swedish Miss Marple will please psychological-thriller fans, once they realize that Maud isn't nearly as cozy as she looks."

Publishers Weekly calls it a "delightful sequel" and concludes, "Assured prose matches an irresistible heroine."

If you, like me, have ever wished that some really annoying or obnoxious person would disappear, you may also find these stories are deeply, darkly, satisfying. And fun to read.

The Paragon Hotel

I really liked this historical novel by Lyndsay Faye. Set in the early 1920's, it illuminates the dark past of Oregon with regard to racism. Here is a plot summary from Library Journal:

"In 1921, Alice "Nobody" James, who is white, escapes her life as a New York Mafia gun moll with a bullet-shaped souvenir in her side. Hopping a train to anywhere, she meets African American train porter Max, who notes her condition and guides her to the Paragon Hotel, the only all-black hotel in Portland, OR. The owner, Dr. Pendleton, treats Alice even though it's dangerous for black men to associate with white women. So begins Alice's stay at the Paragon, where the residents have their own problems, with the Ku Klux Klan gaining popularity and dead animals left at their door. Alice uses her former skills to aid in the most heart-wrenching problem of all: finding the missing mixed-race boy Davy Lee before the Klan does. Faye ... has meticulously researched the racial tensions and social culture of 1920s Portland, basing the Paragon Hotel on the real Golden West Hotel. Her prose is lush with details, from rich descriptions of the hotel rooms and a diva's Paris gown to citing interesting colloquialisms. VERDICT A treat for ... fans of historical crime/thrillers."

What I loved about this book were the characters and the fabulous dialogue, which occasionally made me laugh out loud because it was so clever. The characters had depth and spirit and I hope they will appear in future books of Faye's. 

Publishers Weekly was also positive in their review which concluded: "What starts as a bit of a Prohibition-era crime romp becomes increasingly relevant as issues of mental illness, race, and gender identity take on greater significance. In addition to illuminating Portland's unsavory history of racism, Faye's novel vividly illustrates how high the stakes could-and can still-be for those claiming and defending their own identities."

Kirkus adds its praise:"A young white woman named Alice James flees Prohibition-era Harlem by rail with an oozing bullet wound and a satchel containing $50,000 in cash. She makes it cross-country to Portland, Oregon, where Max, a kindly, strapping black Pullman porter and World War I veteran, whisks her away to the novel’s eponymous hotel, populated mostly with African-Americans besieged by threats from the local Ku Klux Klan. ... Faye  more than delivers on this auspicious premise with a ravishing novel that rings with nervy elegance and simmers with gnawing tension...A riveting multilevel thriller of race, sex, and mob violence that throbs with menace as it hums with wit."

 

Molten Mud Murder

This book by Sara E. Johnson is set in Rotorura, New Zealand (south end of the north island) where my husband and I visited several years back, so I was predisposed to like it for that reason alone. The protagonist, Alexa Glock, is a forensic odontologist. I'll let Library Journal's plot summary and recommendations stand in for mine.

"American Alexa Glock is a forensics expert who finished a job in Auckland, New Zealand, and hopes to find a temporary job to extend her work permit. When she learns about an unidentified man whose body was found in the mud pits in Rotorua, she offers to help the local police force. Alexa is trained in odontology, the study of teeth, which might help since the man's head was boiled in the mud. As the police investigate the victim, it's clear he violated the sacred lands of the Maori, a large population on the island. Many think he deserved to die for stepping on a sacred island without permission. Forewarned, Alexa is sent to the island to investigate. When her lab assistant is attacked and a Maori man is murdered, she and the investigating team try to determine whether the Maori are responsible or someone is trying to frame them...There's a strong sense of place, history, and Maori culture in this compelling debut novel. The mystery combines forensic investigation with the rich details of a fascinating culture."

Publishers Weekly was somewhat less positive about character development but still concluded, "Johnson provides a fascinating view of New Zealand and insights into the Maori culture, ... [and] armchair travelers will have fun."

Kirkus was even less favorable: "Johnson’s debut heroine is as hard as the bones she investigates to get a sense of. Her unsatisfying backstory, coupled with a potential romance that fades in and out, makes her hard to root for." While I understand and somewhat concur with their criticism, I nevertheless really enjoyed the book.

The Four Winds

Kristin Hannah's relatively new book (2021) centers on one family experiencing the Dust Bowl in Texas. The years of relentless drought and wind destroy not only the land, but also the lives attached to it. "In 1921, Elsa Wolcott is a tall, bookish woman of 25 whose soul is stifled by her superficial parents. By 1934, after marrying Rafe Martinelli, a young Italian Catholic who was the first man to show her affection, Elsa is a mother of two who has found a home on her beloved in-laws' farm (Booklist)." "...the Martinelli farm is no longer thriving, but Elsa is attached to the land and her in-laws, and she works tirelessly and cares for her children, 12-year-old Loreda and seven-year-old Anthony. Her husband, Rafe, has become distant and something of a hard drinker, and ...he abandons them (Publishers Weekly). When Anthony develeops silicosis (dust pneumonia), Elsa is forced to leave her beloved inlaws and save her children by migrating to California. What awaits them is almost worse. Migrants have flooded west and resentful residents call them Okies, no matter where they came from. Employers are quick to cheat and exploit them. They are treated with condescension and scorn, forced to live in squalor, and paid pennies an hour for back-breaking work. Harper "convincingly portrays Elsa's coming of age from sheltered recluse to workers' rights champion (Library Journal). So many of the issues still resonate today. Hannah is an accomplished writer who lets you feel all the pain and sadness. I loved her first book, The Nightingale, and this book also features an incredibly strong, resilient woman; Kirkus says of her, "Elsa displays an iron core of character and courage..." But they also accurately note that this is "a saga of almost unrelieved woe."

The Lost Man

As with Jane Harper's previous 2 books, The Dry and Force of Nature, I found myself drawn in to this book, both intrigued and repelled by the setting in the Australian outback, which plays an enormous role in this story. I'm so far behind on posting my reading, that I will shamelessly allow one of the book's reviewers, Publishers Weekly, to do the plot legwork for me.

"Australia's outback, with its brutal climate and equally bruising isolation, looms as large as any character in this stark standalone ... For years, the three Bright brothers-divorced dad Nathan, the eldest; family man and everybody's favorite, middle child Cameron; and the mentally challenged youngest, Bub-have maintained an uneasy equilibrium on adjacent cattle ranches. That flies out the window the week before Christmas when Cameron goes missing; his desiccated corpse is subsequently discovered a few miles from his perfectly operational truck in the shadow of the eerie headstone known as the stockman's grave. Absent any clear indications of foul play, the local authorities undertake a perfunctory investigation, leaving a troubled Nathan to start asking questions that no one wants to answer. In the grim journey that follows, the surviving members of the Bright family must confront some devastating secrets. Harper's sinewy prose and flinty characters compel, but the dreary story line may cause some readers to give up before the jaw-dropping denouement."

Kirkus calls the book "A twisty slow burner by an author at the top of her game." The Guardian says of her characters that they provide a "small but fully realised cast." Booklist concludes their review: "The atmosphere is so thick you can taste the red-clay dust, and the folklore surrounding the mysterious stockman adds an additional edge to an already dark and intense narrative... a surprising ending that reveals how far someone will go to preserve a life worth living in a place at once loathed and loved." Library Journal favorably notes, "the Australian landscape looms large, and it's difficult to imagine the events in this novel playing out the same way anywhere else. Even if readers guess why Cam died, they're likely to be kept guessing the how and the who until the end."

A Closed and Common Orbit

This is the 2nd installment in Becky Chambers' "Wayfarer" series, which began with The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet.  This book continues the world building and species building that Chambers seems to excel at. This time, we look into the back story of Pepper, a somewhat minor character in the first book, and the origin story of the successor to Lovey, the sentient AI who ran the Wayfarer in the previous book.When an attack on the Wayfarer ends in the destruction of Lovey, a new AI in the same series is installed but causes so much grief among the crew that she is uninstalled and another model takes her place. The new Lovey is transferred into a human body kit, which is totally illegal, and accompanies Pepper back to the port city of Coriol, where Pepper runs a technology and space gear repair shop. In alternating chapters, we learn of Pepper's childhood as a cloned child slave in a salvage factory, her escape from the factory, her rescue by another AI on a wrecked ship in the salvage yard, and her escape from the planet a decade later. Back in the present, the new Lovelace model AI has chosen the name Sidra and is trying to figure out how to fit in and not get identified as an AI. Both of the story lines present issues to think about and characters who touch the reader. 

Reviewers praised this sequel with Publishers Weekly praising "Chambers's clean, careful prose and beautiful pacing and structure [that] keep the narrative engrossing from beginning to end." Library Journal asserts that, "the power of Chamber's second space opera is in her appealing characters. ...Her protagonists might not all be human, but they possess more humanity than most." The Guardian offers this assessment: "Chambers is particularly deft when it comes to getting the reader inside Sidra’s new consciousness: from initial panicky claustrophobia through a convincing and moving process of self-discovery and awareness. The novel is compelling in its portrait of Pepper coming to terms with her past, but the real star of the show is Lovelace."

Grandma Gatewood's Walk

The subtitle of this book by Ben Montgomery is "The Inspiring Story of the Woman Who Saved the Trail."  I'm not sure I would characterize it as "saving" the trail, but the extraordinary story of her hiking the trail when it was still more an idea than a fully realized trail did bring a lot of nationwide attention to the trail and what it needed to improve. She was 67 years old when she decided to do this, having read about it in a National Geographic article. The year was 1955 and Mrs Gatewood had had anything but an easy life, married for years to a physically abusive man and with many children to care for with almost no money. But the husband is out of her life and the children are grown and she wants to do something for herself. She sews herself a denim sack to carry her belongings and wearing her Keds shoes, she hitchhikes, flies, buses and takes a taxi  to the start of the trail near Mt. Oglethorpe, Georgia, 500 miles from her home in Ohio. 

No backpack, no hiking shoes (she went through 5 pairs of Keds shoes), no tent, no hiking sticks. When she ran out of food she would forage in the woods, or stop at people's houses to ask for food or walk several miles into the nearest town and buy a meal. People were not uniformly kind to her--some were discouraging or even threatening--but enough were for her to get where she was going and make a lot of friends and create a real stir of interest along the way. She encountered bears and snakes and missing trail markers and dilapadated shelters and a group of young men from Harlem. Her children, when they found out through the occasional postcard from her or even from an article in the newspaper, were not surprised at what she had undertaken. She became the first woman to walk the trail from one end to the other. While this is a remarkable feat for a a grandma with a bad knee, it was even more remarkable that she did it twice more (once as a through hike and the third time completing the trail in sections). She also helped establish trails for hiking in her home state in Ohio. In 1959, at age 71, she completed walking the original Oregon Trail, another trek of 2,000 miles, adding only an umbrella to her meager baggage to keep the sun off. It was the year following the state's centennial and she was wildly celebrated and given a key to the city of Portland. So, while I am not sure she saved the Appalachian Trail, I would certainly agree that this is an inspiring story.

Kirkus called the tale "a quiet delight of a book."

Camp Zero

This is another science fiction book by an author I have not previously encountered, Michelle Min Sterling. Kirkus offers this summary:

"It’s 2049, and 25-year-old Rose accepts a dangerous assignment from Damien, her master-of-the-universe boss, who promises that she and her mother will be set with income and housing for life in a precarious, ever warming world if she succeeds. On her mission, she’ll continue as a sex worker alongside five other women while keeping an eye on Damien’s interests in a new, secretive project. Meanwhile, Grant Grimley just wants to escape the reach of his family’s vast wealth, a legacy created from centuries of extraction. He accepts a teaching job that guarantees to get him off the grid. Rose and Grant, both Americans, arrive at a camp in the Canadian wilderness, a frigid frontier of sorts, where a renowned architect seeks to build a refuge from climate catastrophe. Not too far off, a group of women—American soldiers and scientists—is creating a sanctuary of their own to survive an imperiled planet. It's a smart setup. The author has imagined an array of futuristic ideas stemming from our present, including a next-generation smartphone that’s implanted as a chip behind people's ears at birth and a Floating City off Boston’s shores where the elite live in bliss while the rest of the population deals with worsening hurricanes and wildfires." They are not ringingly positive about the book but do conclude by saying, "the book has a soul that generates momentum. It’s committed to the bonds of family, the ones we are born into and the ones we choose, as a way forward in an increasingly chaotic world. A love letter to what communities of women can accomplish when they work in concert."

There are several plot lines and hidden motives of the characters that are revealed as the narrative moves forward. The Toronto Star concludes their review by praising the author's "powerful storytelling, the vividness of her vision, and her creation of a world which will likely haunt your dreams."

The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet

This book by Becky Chambers was recommended by my friend Joan Starr Ward and is the first in the "Wayfarer" series which has 3 sequels. Chambers was turned down by every publisher she tried and so self-funded the publication of this book through a Kickstarter campaign. The book became widely popular, winning numerous awards including the Arthur C. Clarke Award in 2016. Several of her subsequent books have won writing awards including a Hugo Award for the "Wayfarer" series.

It's set in the future, after humans have made the earth uninhabitable and fled the planet to Mars and beyond. In their desperation, humans appeal to sentient beings from other planets to help and protect them. The interplanetary council agrees but with some loudly dissenting voices noting that humans cannot contribute much to the common good. 

Rosemary Harper is trying to escape the associative scandal attached to her father who was a very wealthy man on Mars. He has been tried and found guilty of selling arms to hostile species and is now in jail. She joins the crew of a somewhat ratty ship called Wayfarer which takes assignments to punch wormhole shortcuts of one area of space to another. The crew is diverse and, welcomes Rosemary--with a couple of exceptions. She is charged with all the business aspects of the ship's activities: lining up orders, keeping track of the accounts, etc. Rosemary is quickly adjusting to life in space until the captain presents them with a new job possibility. It is highly risky but will make then enough money to make the ship able to take more lucrative jobs in the future or they could choose never to work again. The vote is put to the crew and they agree. Rosemary is not so sure as danger is not what she signed up for.

Chambers is noted by reviewers as a great world builder and comprehensive character and species developer. The Guardian says, "A quietly profound, humane tour de force that tackles politics and gender issues with refreshing optimism." Other reviewers have called it "wonderfully imaginative and quirky," "brilliantly realized," "joyously written," and "perfect."

Murder Your Employer: McMasters Guide to Homicide, Vol. 1

The sub-sub-title is "From the Chronicles of Dean Harbinger Harrow, The McMasters Conservatory for the Applied Arts, Dean of Admissions and Confessions, Professor Emeritus, Department of Arts and Blackmail Letters, Senior Fellow, International Guild of Murderists."

As you might have guessed from the lengthy title, Rupert Holmes' book is a send up of an elite private academy that seeks to turn out the "well-rounded" as well as successful "deletist."  They only accept people who have a righteous reason for wanting someone dead. I am copying the Library Journal's review because I think it well captures the flavor and plot of the book.

"Holmes ... is a gifted wordsmith whose latest is a top-notch read that both entertains and amuses. Many have fantasized about killing their boss, but few feel adequate to do the job. The sole purpose of the McMasters Conservatory for the Applied Arts is training students to dispose of odious employers and get away scot-free. The school stresses that the task must only be committed after you have given your intended victim every chance at redemption, This delightfully wicked tale chronicles the adventures of three students: Cliff blames his former boss for the death of a woman he loved; nurse Gemma is being blackmailed by her superior; and film star Doria has been put on the back burner by a vengeful studio executive. The three are schooled in everything from poisons to disguises ... As the story line deliciously unfolds, the three aspiring killers study hard and reenter the world with their "deletion plans" ready. Told in alternating chapters among the three students, as well as narration by the school's charming dean, the book's satisfying conclusion is just as delightful as its premise. VERDICT An amusing and cheeky tale with excellent pacing replete with droll observations." 

Publishers Weekly says of this book, "his farcical plotting, idiosyncratic characters, and witty, stylish prose combine for a fun, frothy read." Booklist characterizes it as  s"somewhat dense thriller [which] is delightfully dark and compelling...Perfect for readers looking for something very different." Kirkus offers a more nuanced review: "There are a lot of genres happening at once in this novel. The debt to British boarding school stories is obvious, although the vibe is very different when the students aren’t adolescents ... but, rather, full-grown adults playing water polo and enjoying sumptuous meals as they learn best practices for taking lives without getting caught. The journeys of Cliff, Dulcie, and Gemma unfold like mysteries in reverse. And, while the story is set in the 1950s, the plot and dialogue are much indebted to the screwball comedies of the 1930s."

Going Zero

Award-winning screenwriter (as in The Theory of Everything, Darkest Hour, Bohemian Rhapsody, The Two Popes) Anthony McCarten's novel grabs onto current technology issues to create an engaging thriller. In a potentially unholy alliance, the software company run by the erratic genius Cy Baxter has offered to sell the U.S. government--for a tidy $90 billion-- a surveillance software, Fusion, that can find anyone anywhere in the world. As a beta test, 10 civilians are chosen to become contestants in a cat and mouse game where they must remain at large without capture for 30 days in order to win the $3 million prize. Once the contest begins, they will have 2 hours to disappear. When contestant Zero 10, librarian Kaitlyn Day, is caught on a ATM camera on the first day, Baxter is annoyed that she didn't provide a greater challenge. But the capture team fails to find her and after 3 weeks, she is the only one of the 10 who has not been found. But Kaitlyn, we later learn, has an agenda that has nothing to do with money. She wants  Fusion to find her husband who went missing, supposedly in Iran, over three years ago. In exchange, she won't tell the government any of Fusion's less laudatory plans for for the partnership. The plot is full of surprises and contextualizes the action within current concerns about privacy, surveillance, and artificial intelligence. 

Kirkus praises "This is a curious type of thriller, with sparse violence and no outright villains. The excitement is in the chase, which builds steadily. Is Zero 10 going to screw up their proof-of-concept software? The complications build, and the reader had better pay attention....This well-written yarn proves that you don't have to have a blood bath to have an engaging thriller." Publishers Weekly calls it "... an edgy, compulsively readable thriller."

The Measure

This book by Nikki Erlick was another recommendation from the B & N sales person. It's an indictment of human behavior and very relevant to the present time even though it is based on a fantastical event. One morning in March, "every adult on earth suddenly seemed to be sharing the same surreal experience, the ubiquity of the boxes both a terror and a relief." They woke to find a small box with their name on it and the inscription "The measure of your life lies within." Eventually, it is verified that the piece of string in each box indicates when a person will die and, as data accumulates, the scientists are able to determine exactly which month and in which year the person will die. Some people choose never open their box. Many are traumatized to find their piece of string is much shorter than they would wish. But most fascinating and provocative are the reactions of society to people who have the short strings. Would you open the box? When interviewed on the Today show, Erlick said the book "was inspired by the Greek myth about three old women spinning threads of human destiny." Holding a masters degree in global thought from Columbia University, and after visiting a dozen countries in 3 years, Erlick said in another interview "The emphasis on the interconnectedness of the world is something I took with me and put into this book...I had all these different characters and I knew I wanted to create a sense that even in our loneliest, most isolated moments — like when I was writing in quarantine — we’re still connected as humans. Our lives touch other lives even if we don’t actively see it happening.”

There are eight characters, each of whom have their own chapters interspersed throughout. This is a bit hard to track at first, but, as we get to know them and watch how Erlick begins to weave their lives together, we can walk in their shoes for a bit. Several reviewers call the book "life-affirming" and "utterly original." Jenna Bush, the host of the Today Show's book club says about her July pick, "I know it sounds like a book about death but really it’s a book about how we choose to live.”

Spoiler alert: the origin of the boxes is never explained.