This Is The Water by Yannick Murphy

Annie is caught up in the life of the mother of a dedicated youth athlete.  Her children's sport is swimming but parents of children in competitive soccer or football or dance or any other sport will relate.  There are daily practices for several hours.  There are tons of meets, often involving travel and hotel stays.  Your friends are the other team parents since you are spending the majority of your time with them and you all have the children and their progress in common.

But Annie has other issues to consider.  She has been dealing with the death of her only brother and trying to work through her grief.  She has been dealing with the fact that Thomas, her husband, seems to have retreated from her and feels like a stranger these days.  She starts what is supposed to be an innocent flirtation with one of the swim dads but it rapidly spirals into something Annie isn't sure she wants or knows how to handle.

Then there are outside pressures.  There have been a series of serial murders in the area.  They are all women who have been attacked and taken at rest stops.  When one of the girls on the swim team becomes a victim, all the parents are forced to realize the dangers their girls face in their innocent lives.  Who is this killer and how does he manage to continue in the midst of their area's daily life?  Why hasn't he been caught yet?

Yannick Murphy has captured the life of a sport team parent's and made it recognizable to anyone who has lived this life with their own children.  The time and commitment it takes, the minutiae that overwhelms everything else, and the overpowering urge to protect and promote one's child are very well done.  The cadence of the words is short and compelling, pulling the reader along.  This book is recommended for readers of literary fiction.

The Hummingbird by Stephen Kiernan

Deborah Birch is a hospice nurse.  Not many people are suited for such a grueling profession, but Deborah knows that helping someone end their life is a gift given to few.  Her latest case, Barclay Reed, is a former professor.  He is ending his life alone without family or friends, his career a victim of an academic scandal.  He is bitter and combative but Deborah is determined to make his passing as easy and meaningful as it can be.

Reed isn't the only person Deborah is providing succor to.  Her husband Michael has recently returned from his third tour in Iraq and while he is back physically, he is definitely not the same man who went to war.  He is distant with Deborah and barely managing to control the massive anger that his actions left him with.  Although he went to war as a mechanic, his skill with a rifle is noted and he returns as a former sniper with thirty-one kills.  Those lives haunt him. 

As Deborah tries to help Michael and Barclay, Barclay starts to open up a bit to her.  He shares a story from World War II that few know.  It is about the only Japanese pilot to ever fly over and drop a bomb in the United States.  The existence of this story is at the root of the scandal that ended Reed's career.  As he and Deborah discuss it, Reed shares what he's learned about how to end war and find peace, lessons that Deborah wants to share with Michael.

Stephen Kiernan has written a hauntingly beautiful novel that explores the meaning of war and what it does to the men and women who go to fight.  The ability to turn away from the violence afterwards and live a life without it is at the root of those who are healed as opposed to those who mentally and emotionally never make it home.  The reader is left with questions about the best way to help a loved one's struggles and how to truly give what another person needs in their life.  This book is recommended for readers of literary fiction.

Booksie's Shelves, September 13, 2015

It feels like the back of the summer heat and humidity has been broken.  While it's still hotter than I'd like, it isn't overpowering.  Fall is on its way and football is back. In the fall, football takes a lot of my reading time, but I've still managed to read some great books.  Here's what's come through the door:

1.  Shotgun Lovesongs, Nicholas Butler, literary fiction, purchased
2.  A Line Of Blood, Ben McPherson, mystery, sent for book tour
3.  San Miguel, T.C. Boyle, literary fiction, purchased
4.  Everything She Forgot, Lisa Ballantyne, mystery, sent for book tour
5.  Kings Of The Earth, Jon Clinch, literary fiction, purchased
6.  Slade House, David Mitchell, literary fiction, contest win
7.  Big Magic, Elizabeth Gilbert, nonfiction, contest win
8.  The Shining Girls, Lauren Beukes, mystery, purchased
9.  The Lake House, Kate Morton, literary fiction, contest win
10.  The Last September, Nina de Lamont, literary fiction, sent by publisher
11.  The Hummingbird, Stephen Kiernan, literary fiction, sent for book tour
12.  The Unyielding Future, Brian O'Grady, medical thriller, sent by publisher

Here's what I'm reading:

1.  The Path Of The Storm, James Maxwell, Kindle Fire
2.  When The Game Was Ours, Larry Bird/Magic Johnson, audio
3.  A Brave Man Seven Stories Tall, Will Chancellor, Kindle
4.  Dragon Heart, Cecelia Holland, hardback
5.  The Devil In The Marshalsea, Antonia Hodgson, paperback
6.  Meet Me In Atlantis, Mark Adams, paperback
7.  The Moral Lives Of Animals, Dale Peterson, hardback
8.  Mystery Walk, Robert McCammon, Kindle Fire
9.  This Is The Water, Yannick Murphy, paperback
10.  The Hummingbird, Stephen Kiernan, hardback
11.  Thorn Jack, Katherine Harbour, audio

 Happy Reading!

Dragon Heart by Cecelia Holland

Things are in flux at Castle Ocean.  The ruling family is devastated by the death of the king in battle.  The ruler of the Empire he was in war with is determined to rule the kingdom and sends one of his brothers to marry the grieving widow.  She manages to put off the wedding until all of her five children are there to attend the ceremony.  The eldest son, Luka, is considered the new King by the inhabitants of the kingdom but the ruler of the Empire plans to put an end to that.

The other son, Jeon, goes to escort his twin sister, Tirza, from a convent where she has been staying to Castle Ocean.  Tirza is a problem to her mother.  Small in size, she cannot talk and her squeaks and shrill noises can be offputting.  As Jeon and Tirza sail home, the ships capsize and the two are separated.  Tirza is stranded in a pool with the cause of the destruction, a massive red dragon.  Amazingly, the dragon can understand Tirza and she spends her time with it telling stories.

Soon enough, she flees the dragon and Jeon, who also managed to survive, finds her and brings her home.  The family is reunited but there is a big obstacle in the way of their happiness.  The Empire must be defeated in its plans to take over.  Can they find a way to defeat the invaders?

Cecelia Holland is known for her historical fiction.  This book takes her into the realm of fantasy and readers will be interested to see what she does with this genre.  The castle itself seems to be alive and doing what it can to overthrow the interlopers.  The siblings work together and each does what they can to further the family's fortunes.  In the background looms the spectre of the dragon and what it plans to do.  This book is recommended for fantasy readers.

Another Life by Andrew Vachss

The two year old son of a Saudi prince has been kidnapped.  The average citizen knows nothing about it.  The prince and his government have made sure that the story doesn't hit any press.  There hasn't been a ransom demand and the investigation into the crime is going nowhere.  The Saudis use their influence to pull in the CIA.

The CIA knows the only man who might have a chance at finding the boy.  Burke lives in the murky underground where anything is possible and nothing surprises him.  Burke is a criminal but one thing is certain: no child will ever be harmed by him.  But Burke has no interest in working with any government agency.

But everyone has his price.  Burke's is simple; his love for his chosen family.  His father has been wounded in a caper and the government offers top notch secret care for him.  In addition, all of Burke's collection of criminals he has cultivated over the years will have their records wiped clean.  A chance at another life; a new life for all of his family. 

Burke cannot resist the lure of doing this for the ones he loves.  But he will have to go to places he's never been in order to secure the child's life.  He will have to touch his own emotions and lay them bare for anyone to see.  Burke has spent his life covering up but now he will have to reveal his own story. 

Anyone who has read one of the Burke novels knows the lure of this construct.  Burke is unrepentant about his criminality but also has a loyalty rarely seen for those he considers his family.  Each member has their own fascinating backstory and most readers will have read many of their adventures over the years.  This book is recommended for suspense and thriller readers.

The Hidden Relic by James Maxwell

Things continue to get worse for the heroes in the Everman series.  The Emperor's armies are now under the control of the Primate, the leader of the territory that produces essence.  Essence fuels all the magic in the various areas and so the Primate has historically been neutral.  But this Primate is power-mad, determined to unite all the lands under his rule.  He has learned a new way to use essence to control men and bend them to his rule.  He is willing to use any strategy or man to further his goals.

Milo and Ella stand against him.  Milo is the military head of the resistance and Ella is an enchantress.  As the primate cuts off the flow of essence, the war must be fought without the magic that has always enhanced the military. Things don't look good, but Milo is a master strategist and the resistance starts to make headway.

Meanwhile, Ella has returned to the desert and Prince Ilathor who also hopes to conquer the Primate and put an end to his evil.  She helps him march towards the Primate's stronghold from one direction while Milo moves from the other.  Each also finds love, Ella with the Prince and Milo rediscovers a former love he let slip away.  There is also countermagic occurring. A mysterious figure is determined to put an end to the Primate and his power before he can discover the most ancient and powerful relic in existence, and use it to further his conquests.  Ella's former love interest, Killian, helps this mysterious man in his attempts to neutralize the ancient magic that could end them all.

This is the second book in the Everman series.  Readers who enjoyed the first volume will find the same ingredients and enjoyment in this one.  The story moves at the right pace with much military battle strategy and love interests that aren't yet resolved.  This book is recommended for fantasy readers. 

The Secret Wisdom Of The Earth by Christopher Scotton

Kevin is fourteen when he and his mother go to visit his grandfather in Medgar, Kentucky.  They are reeling from a family tragedy.  His three year old brother has been horribly killed in an accident in front of them.  His father lashes out at Kevin, blaming him for the tragedy.  His mother is just gone, lost somewhere in the mists of her mind.  That leaves Kevin to handle his heartbreak and rejection himself. 

But Medgar is a place where healing can happen.  His grandfather is one of the town's leading citizens, a veterinarian who grew up and raised his family there.  Kevin meets a friend, Buzzy Fink, and his acceptance and that of his grandfather starts to raise the gloom and guilt that has entrapped him.  Soon Kevin is doing the things a teenager in Medgar does, fishing, camping out, accompanying his grandfather on his work trips. 

Medgar is a poor place and mining has been the main economic engine.  As the mines play out, the town dwindles and poverty is a very real thing there.  Families all know each other and each other's families as most have lived there for decades.  Now, a new kind of mining has come; one that rips the tops off of mountains to allow for mining from above.  The fact that it destroys the mountains and forests and ruins the streams doesn't seem to count for much to the mine owners.

As the summer progresses, Kevin sees good and evil.  A man is killed in town and the secret of who the murderer is affects he and Buzzy.  In the story's climax, Kevin, Buzzy and his grandfather go on a camping trip miles back in the forest that will test every bit of grit they possess.

I've had this book for quite a while.  It got wonderful buzz and I was hesitant to read it, fearing it wouldn't live up to its promise.  I even got to meet and talk with the author at an event, finding him intelligent and charming.  I was so pleased to read this and find that it was as wonderful as everyone had talked about.   It had the same feel as To Kill A Mockingbird and it took the reader on a journey that explored both the physical landscape of rural Kentucky and the emotional landscape of a teenage boy finding his way to maturity after a horrific event.  This will be one of my top books for 2015.  This book is recommended for readers of literary fiction, those interested in environmental science and anyone interested in a wonderful read.

The Sparrow Sisters by Ellen Herrick

Granite Point is an old New England town, its roots stretching back to the earliest settlers.  It's the kind of small town where if you weren't born there you will forever be an outsider.  Family and tradition are valued above all else and there is no family more ancient or honored than the Sparrow Sisters.  Their ancestors were founding fathers of the town but the three Sparrow sisters who live there now are the last of the family.

Sorrell is the eldest, a brunette.  She and Nettie, a blonde, were old enough to be aware when their mother died in childbirth.  They raised the baby, Patience, who had fiery red hair.  The sisters are closer than most siblings having never lived apart from each other.  None has ever married as they have not been lucky in love.

What they are lucky at is growing things.  The sisters run a nursery and roadside stand as well as doing floral arrangements.  Their gardens are fabled for their abundance and the vitality of their plants.  Patience goes even further.  She has inherited the skills of an early ancestor who was a healer and the town comes to her for potions and ointments to soothe aches and pains.

That kind of unregulated medicine strikes the new doctor in town, Henry Carlyle.  Henry has come to Granite Point to recuperate from a war injury that left him unable to handle the stress and frantic pace of a city emergency room.  He is not pleased to see that many of the townspeople regard him as a last resort instead of a first stop when something goes wrong with their health.  He decides to meet this unlicensed healer and set her straight as to the law and her place.  Unfortunately for him, he is immediately struck by Patience's beauty and wild nature and soon the two are involved in a tumultuous affair.  Instead of resenting her, Henry finds himself happier than he could ever imagine.

That happiness is put in jeopardy when one of Patience's clients is found dead and the autopsy reveals an overdose of a poison that is grown in her garden.  The whispers start to circulate and the rumors of her ancestor, the first healer who was tried as a witch, are revived.  Soon Patience finds herself arrested for manslaughter.  How will things turn out?  Will the town rally behind her or unite to bring her down?

Ellen Herrick has written a fascinating novel that explores several interesting themes.  There is the theme of belonging to a place and the inbred societies that tend to be established in small towns where everyone knows everyone else and their business.  There is the theme of family and what one will do to support those in their hearts.  Alternative medicine and natural remedies are discussed and their efficiency explored.  This book seems to be the start of a series as it focuses on Patience.  Sorrel and Nettie's stories remain to be told.  This book is recommended for readers of modern women's fiction.

Cartwheel by Jennifer duBois

Life is opening up for Lily Hayes.   She is twenty-one and headed to Buenos Aires for a college study abroad program.  Lily is instantly entranced by the city; it's food, it's history and people, it's culture.  She's not fond of her roommate, Katy, who Lily finds boring and a stick-in-the-mud.  But Lily soon has a boyfriend, Sebastian, and things are great.

Great until the night it all happens.  Katy is found dead in their room, stabbed repeatedly.  Lily says she was next door with Sebastian when it happened and he agrees but as the police investigate, her story doesn't seem likely.  Then it happens.  While waiting at the police station between interrogations, Lily, who has been left in a room alone, does a cartwheel.  An everyday, routine cartwheel.  A cartwheel that is taped and released to a worldwide audience who instantly condemns Lily in the court of public opinion for doing such a lighthearted stunt in such a serious situation.

Lily is arrested and jailed.  Her parents, professors in the United States, take turns coming to Buenos Aires and visiting her.  They don't believe Lily did such a brutal murder but as the weeks go by, doubt begins to creep in.  What really happened that night?  Did they unwittingly raise a monster?

The novel clearly takes the Amanda Knox murder trial in Italy as its starting point but duBois delves deep into all players lives.  Was Lily the superficial, self-absorbed young adult she appears to be?  What is Sebastian's role in the case?   There are rumors he had romantic ties to both the girls. How is the investigating prosecutor's view of the crime affected by his own struggling marriage?   How is a parent to come to terms with the possibility that they may have raised a monster?  As the book progresses, the reader is forced to confront the moral dilemmas outlined and come to a personal decision about each of them.  This book is recommended for readers of literary fiction.

Booksie's Shelves, August 28, 2015

School has started, and I have a senior this year.  It's hard to believe that this child who was our twenty-fifth wedding anniversary surprise is now getting ready to apply to colleges.  It's also the start of our family's annual birthday round.  In the next month, we have my husband, my son, my daughter-in-law and two grandchildren's birthdays.  In addition, my son and his wife have their anniversary.  It's a busy time of year for sure, but there's always time for reading.

Here's what's come through the door:

1.  The Invisibles, Cecilia Galante, literary fiction, sent by publisher
2.  The Girl From The Garden, Parnaz Foroutan, literary fiction, sent by publisher
3.  Sometimes The Wolf, Urban Waite, mystery, sent by publisher
4.  The Sparrow Sisters, Ellen Herrick, literary fiction, sent for book tour
5.  Live To Air, Jeffrey Diamond, mystery, sent by publisher
6.  Harrington's Valley, Darrel Rachel, historical fiction, sent by author
7.  Never Look Down, Warren Easley, mystery, sent by publisher
8.  Dragon Heart, Cecelia Holland, fantasy, sent for book tour

Here's what I'm reading:

1.  The Hidden Relic, James Maxwell, Kindle Fire
2.  When The Game Was Ours, Larry Bird/Magic Johnson, audio
3.  A Brave Man Seven Stories Tall, Will Chancellor, Kindle
4.  The Secret Wisdom Of The Earth, Christopher Scotton, hardback
5.  The Devil In The Marshalsea, Antonia Hodgson, paperback
6.  Meet Me In Atlantis, Mark Adams, paperback
7.  The Moral Lives Of Animals, Dale Peterson, hardback
8.  Mystery Walk, Robert McCammon, Kindle Fire

Happy Reading!

Mr. Fox by Helen Oyeyemi

In many ways, an author has complete control over his characters.  The character is given life by the author, given whatever traits the author desires and every move and action is controlled by the author's whims.  Helen Oyeyemi explores this relationship in her novel Mr. Fox.

Mr. Fox is a novelist who specializes in creating female characters who he then plots horrible deaths for.  Each woman lives for a brief spell on the pages, then her existence is quashed by his whims.  His wife, Daphne, has concerns about this but reconciles herself to it, as she has to his many other whims. 

All changes when he creates Mary Foxe.  This character refuses to be controlled by Mr. Fox's creative genius.  She comes to life and interacts with him and even with his wife.  Mr. Fox is enthralled with her although he still intends the same end. 

In a series of stories, Oyeyemi explores this Bluebeard relationship between an author and his characters.  It is an interesting twist and a fascinating exploration of the writing process and how real the author's creations can come to be.  The reader will be entranced, appalled, excited and intrigued as the novelist, his wife and his literary creation intertwine in various ways.  This book is recommended for readers of literary fiction and gets at the crux of why individuals write and why others read their creations. 

Vanished by Kendra Elliot

It's shaping up to be a bad day for Mason Callahan of the Oregon Police Major Crimes Unit.  One of his confidential informants has been found murdered.  Callahan had worked with her for years and had gotten closer than he usually did.  Then his phone lights up with calls from his ex-wife.  Her second husband's daughter, 11 year old Henley, has disappeared on the way to school, only a few days before Christmas.

Callahan goes to their house and things look bad.  Henley left for the bus stop a few doors down but never got that far.  The FBI has already been called in along with squads of local police.  Callahan calls his boss and takes some personal time in order to help the family.  He agrees to be their conduit to law enforcement and their press contact.  He moves into his ex-wive's home along with an FBI agent, Ava McLane, who is the FBI's family contact and support.  Callahan's son is there, home for Christmas from college.  The family also has two smaller children, who are sent to their grandparents house.

The hours go by and Henley is not found.  Then strange things start to happen to Callahan.  Evidence is found in the murdered informant's house that ties him to the crime scene.  His dog is missing.  It becomes clear that his son, Jake, was also targeted for kidnapping earlier but the attempt had failed.  Is someone after Mason?  Is it personal or just another way to torment the family?

Elliot has created a tense novel with several mysteries going on, all of which are satisfactorily tied together by the end of the book.  The two embedded detectives, McLane and Callahan, are attracted to each other and their growing desires add another dimension to the mystery.  Each has personal issues to work out and are leary of trusting others.  This book is part of a series and the first McLane/Callahan book.  It is recommended for mystery readers.

A Tree Born Crooked by Steph Post

James Hart has come home to Florida.  Not the ritzy tourist areas of Florida, but rural Florida where nothing much goes on and farming is still the best way to make a living.  It can't be said he is welcomed home with open arms.  His mother didn't bother to call when his father died and he is arriving two weeks after the death.  They didn't wait for him to have the funeral.

His little brother Rabbit has gotten mixed up with their good for nothing cousin Delmore.  Delmore is finally out of the penitentiary and he has big plans for a big score.  Rabbit, who was a high school athletic hero but has done nothing since is all for the big score.  James tries to talk them out of the plan but he realizes he can do nothing.

He isn't surprised when Rabbit calls in a panic when things go wrong.  Should he leave the two to their fate or try to save Rabbit from his stupidity?  The local bartender has also gotten caught up in the problem, and James has an eye for the bartender's daughter.  Together, James, Marlena and Rabbit take off on a road trip to try to salvage the situation.  It's a quest with no heroic goal or plans, just an attempt to stay alive.

Steph Post has written a gritty noir novel that explores the Florida most people never see.  She gets the frustration and resignation of those who scratch out a living and don't have much to dream about.  The reader isn't sure whether they should be cheering for James and his family or turning away in disgust.  Post focuses on the obligations family create, even when you know your family isn't that much to brag about and may even be actively sorry.  This book is recommended for mystery/thriller readers. 

The Orchid Affair by Lauren Willig

Being orphaned at sixteen in the early 1800's was no picnic for a young lady.  That's exactly the predicament Laura Grey finds herself in.  Sixteen years later, she has crushed down any hope of love and marriage and instead goes from wealthy house to house, serving as a children's governess.  Unnoticed by those she serves yet a step above the other household help, she lives a lonely life.  That must be why she agrees when drafted by the infamous Pink Carnation to become a spy for England.

After training, she is placed in the household of French government worker Andre Jauoen.  Jauoen serves as the assistant Minister Of Police.  Grey is to find out what goes on in the police department having to do with government affairs.  The group she works for is plotting a return to the French throne of one of the royal family displaced by the French Revolution and Napoleon Bonaparte.  Laura trends lightly but finds her job increasingly difficult when she starts to have feelings for her employer and the two children she is entrusted with. 

When Jauoen is surprisingly revealed to be working on the same side but exposed, the pair along with the two children, nursery maid and a portrait artist who Jauoen saves are forced to flee.   Can they make it back to England before being captured and executed as enemies of the government?  Can the love that springs up between the two have a chance at success?

Willig has written an engaging, frothy romance that is perfect for a few hours of escape into a more exciting world.  The romance between the governess and her employee is a well-known plot device but Willig does it proud.  The reader learns some French history along with their love story.  This book is recommended for readers of historical fiction and for romance readers.

The Woman Upstairs by Claire Messud

Everyone knows a woman upstairs.  She has an apartment on the second or third floor and is a quiet respectable neighbor.  She has a job, perhaps a nurse or teacher or working in an office.  There don't seem to be many friends around or a love interest.  She is the woman who is easy to ignore, the one who may be included in social outings but is not the first one to be invited.  She is pleasant but unremarkable.

Nora Eldridge is that woman.  She wanted to be an artist and showed talent, but ended up getting a teaching degree and has taught third grade for a decade.  There were lovers but marriage just never seemed to happen.  She is the dutiful daughter, the easy-going teacher, the woman who is unnoticed. 

But under her pleasant façade, Nora is consumed with anger.  She did want things in her life and is not content with how things have turned out.  When she gets a charming child in her classroom and then meets his sophisticated parents, she begins to believe her life can still change.  Sirena is an artist and she and Nora rent a studio together.  Nora helps Sirena with her art and soon is a family friend.  She babysits the child from her class.  Sirena's husband is a visiting professor who is well-known in academic circles.  They have what seems to be a charmed life and Nora is entranced with each member of the family.  Can this be the turnaround point of her own life?

Claire Messud has given a voice to the overlooked women we all know.  She understands the rage that lives under the pleasant surface, the rage that women feel when they subsume their dreams to take care of others.  She explores the subjects of alienation, friendship, what one will sacrifice to achieve a dream and how life will go on with or without one making their mark.  This book is recommended for readers of literary fiction.

Booksie's Shelves, August 17, 2015

Summer is winding down and the heat and humidity will be leaving at last.  School is starting with its hopes of new beginnings. There are always lots of new books on the market.   My daughter will be a senior this year with all that brings, college applications and senior trips. My son's birthday is soon and like me, he loves to get new books for birthday presents, along with a special dinner of Mom's chicken casserole.  I've got the new Neal Stevenson, Seveneves, on the way to him along with a sci-fi surprise book.   This past week, I got an anthology of stories by William Vollmann, one of my favorite authors along with lots of new books.  Here's what's come through the door:

1.  Last Stories And Other Stories, William Vollmann, anthology, purchased
2.  This Is The Water, Yannick Murphy, literary fiction, Vine review book
3.  Mrs. Queen Takes The Train, William Kuhn, literary fiction, purchased
4.  Zeroes, Chuck Wendig, thriller, sent by publisher
5.  The Guilty One, Sophie Littlefield, mystery, sent by publisher
6.  The Gap Of Time, Jeanette Winterson, literary fiction, sent by publisher
7.  A Window Opens, Elisabeth Egan, literary fiction, sent by publisher
8.  The Hanging Girl, Jussi Adler-Olsen, mystery, sent by publisher
9.  Vanished, Elizabeth Heiter, mystery, Vine review book

Here's what I'm reading:

1.  The Hidden Relic, James Maxwell, Kindle Fire
2.  Cartwheel, Jennifer duBois, Kindle
3.  Vanished, Kendra Elliot, audio
4.  The Orchid Affair, Lauren Willig, hardback
5.  Mystery Walk, Robert McCammon, Kindle Fire
6.  Meet Me In Atlantis, Mark Adams, paperback
7.  The Devil In The Marshalsea, Antonia Hodgson, paperback
8.  The Woman Upstairs, Claire Messud, paperback
9.  A Tree Born Crooked, Steph Post, paperback
10.  The Moral Lives Of Animals, Dale Peterson, hardback

Happy Reading!

Not In The Flesh by Ruth Rendell

When the dog's owner sees his dog digging furiously he is excited.  Perhaps it is a truffle for which he can get money.  He is not excited when he investigates further and realizes what the dog has actually dug up--a human hand.

The local Kingsmarkham, Sussex police, led by Chief Inspector Wexford, first have to identify the body.  The medical examiner finds it is a male who has been dead for at least a decade.  Further investigation determines that the field in which the corpse has been found had a trench dug in it eleven years ago.  Who went missing in the area during that time period?

The local residents aren't much help.  Many are elderly and insist they have no memory of that time period.  Some have moved away to retirement homes elsewhere.  Those who are left are suspicious of strangers and not inclined to help the police.  When a second male body turns up in an abandoned house of the same lot, Wexford is determine to find out who these men were and who is responsible for leaving them where they were found.  Will he be successful?

Ruth Rendell has written an entire series of Chief Inspector Wexford police procedurals.  This is the twenty-first book in the series and fans will delight in another visit with the Sussex police team.  The mystery is complex and the unraveling will delight fans of police procedural mysteries.  This book is recommended for mystery readers.

Author Feature: Evette Davis

Evette Davis leads a busy life in San Francisco.  She serves on the board of Litquake, the city's annual literary festival.  She raises her daughter while serving as the CEO of her own PR firm and of course, writing novels.  In 2014, she even started her own publishing imprint, Flesh and Bone.  I was lucky enough to have Evette muse about her writing process:

They say, “write what you know,” and maybe because I’m one of the few women working in public affairs and politics in San Francisco and the Bay Area, I’m naturally drawn to the idea of what it means to be a female leader.  

As leaders, women face all kinds of challenges related to expressing their emotions, physical appearance, confidence and mental endurance. I’m not sure I ever want or intend to come to some set of final conclusions, but I enjoy taking the characters in my novels through their paces to examine these ideas more fully.  Fiction is a wonderful place to bend the rules (and time) to manipulate social themes.   

I‘m working on a novel now, for example, set in a mildly dystopian future that features a character named River who’s a veteran from a series of wars in the Middle East against ISIS and a widow. Her husband committed suicide, leaving her financially strapped and working as a truck driver in the far reaches of North Dakota to pay off her debts.   

The book takes place several years after River’s father has died, forcing her to join the Army in order to save her home from foreclosure. His death forces her to abruptly abandon her hopes and wishes. She’s forced to kill off the girl she once was to survive being in combat and emerges as a very tough, guarded woman. By the time 48 States opens, River is living in a cheap motel and sleeping with a loaded Glock by her bedside. She’s resigned herself to being the fixer, the one that always takes care of things and has given up hope of finding happiness.  And so she would have remained, were it not for a chance encounter one night with fugitive in desperate need of her help.  

Their meeting disrupts her existence and puts her life in danger, but it also demolishes this hard shell she’s had around her emotions. I’m still working on the resolution of the story, but the book is about how she finds the courage to be vulnerable and still be in control of her life.  There are other women in the book too, including a president of the Unites States and a terrorist who is central to the book’s conclusion. In their own way, each of these women has to deal with their longings, their responsibilities and the reality of the situation and find their right path.  It’s exciting as a writer to see how it unfolds.  

The opportunity to work with an agent on 48 States prompted me to delay finishing a trilogy I began a few years ago and self-published on an imprint I founded called Flesh & Bone Publishing. The Dark Horse series is an experiment in urban political science fiction (ok, I made up that genre) - with a female protagonist named Olivia as the central character.  Olivia is the unknowing heir of a powerful witch and leader of a secret supernatural society that controls the fate of mankind. She’s unknowingly drawn into this shadowy world of politics and witchcraft and has to decide whether to follow her destiny as others dictate it, or to make it herself.  The inaugural title Woman King is a direct commentary on how women derive their power, since as a queen she would have married into it versus simply being appointed or chosen.  The third installment, which I hope to complete in the next two years, will see Olivia help elect a woman president of the United States and decide what she wants to do with her life.  

I can’t wait to see how it all turns out.

 

If you're interested in seeing how it turns out, here are the two current books in the trilogy:

 

   

The Star Side Of Bird Hill by Naomi Jackson

Barbados is nothing like Brooklyn, New York.  Sisters Dionne and Phaedra, sixteen and ten, are not thrilled when they are sent for the summer to live with their maternal grandmother, Hyacinth.  Yet even they realize that things are not going well for their mother, Avila, who spends her time lying in bed staring into space or disappearing for days. 

The girls slowly start to explore Barbados, and the Bird Hill neighborhood where their family has lived for decades.  Fashion and styles are different here, and Dionne has some cachet as the representative of New York fashion.  The girls must make new friends.  Outsiders here because of growing up elsewhere, they are familiar with outsider status as their mother's difficulties never allowed them to be on the inside in New York either.  Slowly, the girls start to form relationships with the people around them.  They grow to appreciate their thorny grandmother and follow her rules which are much more strict in some ways and incredibly lenient in others.  Hyacinth feels she is too old to try to make the girls hew to some line and she also knows it never worked with their mother, who left Barbados with the girls' father as soon as she was old enough to do so. 

Naomi Jackson has written a lyrical family novel that explores the tentacles that family relationships stake out in our lives.  The reader is transported to Barbados. Poverty is rampant so that the stigma is lessened. A strong religious base makes up the main social network, while medicine is still that of  women who know herbs and superstition and past lore makes up the daily life and baseline knowledge.  There are colorful festivals, sexual escapades and always, the taint of slavery which tore families apart and made the people appreciate family above all else.  This book is recommended for readers of literary fiction. 

The Toy Taker by Luke Delaney

Every parent can relate to this nightmare.  You put your child to bed, perhaps watching as they fall asleep.  You might check on them several times before you go to bed yourself as the lure of their innocent sleep draws you.  Then you wake up the next morning and find your child gone.  No clues, no way to know who has your baby.  The police come but it is obvious that they are stumped and have no real clues to track down your child and their kidnapper.

This is the nightmare that is taking over London's poshest neighborhoods.  The child is put to bed and then just not there in the morning.  No sound awoke the parents and nothing else is missing.  Just an empty bed and then empty dreams of promised happiness.  First it is George, whose parents are locked in an unhappy marriage. Then it is Bailey, the daughter of parent whose success has surprised even them.  As the days go by, more children are taken with no clue and no apparent way to track the kidnapper. 

Detective Sean Corrigan is back at work after he and his team have successfully tracked down a serial killer.  His work has been noticed and he and the team are now designated as the Special Investigations team and have been moved to Scotland Yard.  Most people would be thrilled, but Corrigan is less than entranced.  His success comes from his gift to meld his mind with that of the criminals he tracks.  Now with the added bustle of headquarters, a troubled marriage, internal office politics and being his superiors' stepping stone to further success, the noise around him has him blocked from his own abilities to track killers.  Can he find a way to stop the bustle and noise around him long enough to discover who is taking children?

Luke Delaney is a policeman himself and worked with the English police for many years.  His intimate knowledge of police procedure and how cases are handled and managed is evident in this novel.  His character Sean Corrigan is a high flyer who isn't interested in the administrative roles the top brass seems determined to promote him too.  Instead, he needs to be close to the crime in order to make the intuitive leaps that keep him as the most successful detective in the department.  The reader is fascinated as the case unfolds and Corrigan does what he is born to do.  This book is recommended for mystery readers.