Sanctuary

I thought this book by V.V. James was really well-done, keeping me up late into the morning hours to finish. The small Connecticut town of Sanctuary got it's name when the local populace successfully drove all the witches out at the height of the mass hysteria about witches in the late 17th and early 18th century. But in this book, in more modern times, witches are licensed and more or less accepted and many in the town's population have taken advantage of Sarah Fenn's magic--their resident witch. Sarah's daughter, Harper, is 17 and graduating from high school. Sarah was devastated when she learned, on Harper's 13th birthday, that she did not have the "gift."

At the high school graduation party in a rented house, Daniel Whitman, the school's promising quarter back, falls from the 2nd floor landing and the house catches fire. Student flee the burning building and Daniel is left behind. His mother goes mad with grief and then rage. A detective from the state polic, Maggie Knight, who was assigned to this town once before in years past, is brought in for the investigation and, initially, everyone thinks this is a tragic accident. But then Jake, Dan's sycophantic friend and also the son of Sanctuary's chief of police, shows his father a video clip and swears that ex-girlfriend Harper killed Dan with magic. Everyone swears Harper has no magic abilities, but Harper has made herself scarce in town--understandably--so Maggie tries to keep the lid on emotions in town until more evidence is obtained. She brings in a witch investigator who verifies that magic was used. Sarah is the only registered witch in town and she swears her daughter has no power and, she was at a dinner party with her three closest friends, who include Dan's mother, at the time the fall and fire happened. But the witch hunt is on and people who have relied on Sarah begin to turn on her and she is no longer safe in Sanctuary.

The ending was not at all what I expected. Publishers Weekly gave the book a glowing review, calling it a "riveting mystery," and concluding that author James' "Assured prose and a tight plot lift this tale ...[and]  is off to a fine start."

Here is an interview with author Vic James about the writing of Sanctuary and the TV series that was made from it.

 

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."