And Justice There is None

 

And Justice There is None by Deborah Crombie

Duncan Kincaid/Gemma James Series #8

Mystery

2003 Bantam (first published in 2002)

Finished on October 26, 2021

Rating: 4/5 (Very Good)

Publisher's Blurb:

Gemma James is adjusting to professional and personal changes that include her eagerly sought promotion to the rank of inspector--and a future now intricately entwined with Duncan Kincaid. But her new responsibilities are put to the test when she is placed in charge of a particularly brutal homicide: The lovely young wife of a wealthy antiques dealer has been found murdered on fashionable Notting Hill.

Dawn Arrowood was six weeks pregnant. Her lover, Alex Dunn, a porcelain dealer in London’s bustling Portobello Market, appears absolutely devastated by her death, but Gemma’s the main focus of investigation is soon Karl Arrowood, who had the most powerful motive for killing his unfaithful wife. But this case sets off warning bells for Duncan: it’s far too similar to an unsolved murder in which an antiques dealer was killed in precisely the same way and when the escalating violence claims yet another victim, he and Gemma find themselves at increasing odds with each other--as two separate investigations become linked in the most startling of ways. Their hunt for a killer will traverse the teeming stalls of the city’s antiques markets to a decades-in-the-making vendetta of history and hatred that has been honed to a flawless, deadly point. To solve this case, Gemma and Duncan must walk a merciless razor’s edge through a place where true justice will be a long time coming.

After reading a disappointing installment in this series in September, I am so pleased that I didn't choose to stop reading any more books by Crombie as I thoroughly enjoyed And Justice There is None. As with most of her mysteries, Deborah Crombie has a fairly large cast of characters in this book, but I never felt overwhelmed and managed to keep track of everyone quite easily. I was also happy that Gemma and Duncan played front and center in the story and that readers are offered more information about the developments of their relationship. I also enjoyed the setting, which takes place at Portobello Market and Notting Hill. I spent two weeks in London back in the 1990s, wandering all of the city by Tube and on foot, so it was fun to picture the various locations in the narrative. The mysteries were not at all convoluted and yet I was unable to guess the murderer's identity before it was revealed. All in all a very good read. I do hope the next will be just as entertaining!

Looking Back - Amy & Isabelle

Looking Back... In an effort to transfer my book journal entries over to this blog, I'm going to attempt to post (in chronological order) an entry every Friday. I may or may not add extra commentary to what I jotted down in these journals.

Amy & Isabelle by Elizabeth Strout

Fiction

1998 Random House

Read in October 2000

Rating: 3/5 (Good)

Publisher's Blurb:

Pulitzer Prize winning author Elizabeth Strout’s bestselling and award winning debut, Amy and Isabelle—adapted for television by Oprah Winfrey— evokes a teenager's alienation from her distant mother—and a parent's rage at the discovery of her daughter's sexual secrets.

In most ways, Isabelle and Amy are like any mother and her 16-year-old daughter, a fierce mix of love and loathing exchanged in their every glance. That they eat, sleep, and work side by side in the gossip-ridden mill town of Shirley Falls—a location fans of Strout will recognize from her critically acclaimed novel, The Burgess Boys—only increases the tension. And just when it appears things can't get any worse, Amy's sexuality begins to unfold, causing a vast and icy rift between mother and daughter that will remain unbridgeable unless Isabelle examines her own secretive and shameful past.

My Original Thoughts (2000):

Not bad, but not great. Mother-daughter story. Daughter gets involved with one of her teachers and her mother finds out. Somewhat depressing. Fairly predictable, too, yet it held my attention.

My Current Thoughts:

I remember a little bit about this novel, but no longer own a copy and probably wouldn't read it a second time, based on my average rating. I've read two other books by Strout (Olive Kitteridge and My Name is Lucy Barton ) and tried to read The Burgess Boys, but couldn't get interested. Strout has quite a following, but other than Olive Kitteridge (which I loved), I haven't been too impressed. With that said, I am looking forward to reading Olive, Again and I'll give Oh William! a try.

Nonfiction November 2021

 

It's that time of year for one of my favorite reading challenges! I enjoy nonfiction, but don't read enough of it throughout the year, so it's especially nice to spend an entire month focusing on memoirs, biographies, travel essays and history. My involvement is pretty low key, as I don't usually participate in the weekly events, but for those interested, you can find all the details on Katie's blog (Doing Dewey).

My stack of books is overly optimistic since I rarely read more than 4-6 books a month (and one of those is usually a book group selection), not to mention that Thanksgiving will be a bit more hectic than it was last year. But it will be fun to see how many of these books I finish before December. Wish me luck!

Have you read any of these? I should probably start with the ones that have been on my shelves for the longest time, right? 

Looking Back - Animal Farm

Looking Back... In an effort to transfer my book journal entries over to this blog, I'm going to attempt to post (in chronological order) an entry every Friday. I may or may not add extra commentary to what I jotted down in these journals.

Animal Farm by George Orwell

Classic Fiction

1946 Harcourt Brace Jovanovich

Finished in November 2000

Rating: 2/5 (Fair)

Publisher's Blurb:

“All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others.” A farm is taken over by its overworked, mistreated animals. With flaming idealism and stirring slogans, they set out to create a paradise of progress, justice, and equality. Thus the stage is set for one of the most telling satiric fables ever penned—a razor-edged fairy tale for grown-ups that records the evolution from revolution against tyranny to a totalitarianism just as terrible.

When Animal Farm was first published, Stalinist Russia was seen as its target. Today it is devastatingly clear that wherever and whenever freedom is attacked, under whatever banner, the cutting clarity and savage comedy of George Orwell’s masterpiece have a meaning and message still ferociously fresh.

My Original Thoughts (2000):

Boring! Took forever to work my way through it.

My Current Thoughts:

I read this over the course of two months, after deciding to read some of the classics that I read in high school. I didn't care for this one at all.

The Twelve Lives of Samuel Hawley

 

The Twelve Lives of Samuel Hawley by Hannah Tinti

Fiction

2017 The Dial Press (Random House)

Finished on October 13, 2021

Rating: 5/5 (Outstanding!)

Publisher's Blurb:

A father protects his daughter from the legacy of his past and the truth about her mother's death in this thrilling new novel from the prize-winning author of The Good Thief.

After years spent living on the run, Samuel Hawley moves with his teenage daughter, Loo, to Olympus, Massachusetts. There, in his late wife's hometown, Hawley finds work as a fisherman, while Loo struggles to fit in at school and grows curious about her mother's mysterious death. Haunting them both are twelve scars Hawley carries on his body, from twelve bullets in his criminal past; a past that eventually spills over into his daughter's present, until together they must face a reckoning yet to come. This father-daughter epic weaves back and forth through time and across America, from Alaska to the Adirondacks.

Both a coming-of-age novel and a literary thriller, The Twelve Lives of Samuel Hawley explores what it means to be a hero, and the cost we pay to protect the people we love most.

I was not at all familiar with Hannah Tinti's debut novel (The Good Thief), but something caught my attention when I saw an ARC of The Twelve Lives of Samuel Hawley on the promo shelf in my Barnes & Noble employee breakroom in late 2016. I took it home only to pack it up, move it across country, unpack it and place it on my TBR shelf where it has lingered for the past five years. While searching for books to read for this year's RIP challenge, I spotted "thriller" on the back cover blurb and decided to add it to my stack. Hooray for reading challenges to nudge me to pick up long-forgotten books! 

Classified as a literary thriller, it wasn't until the final chapters that I felt that breathless, edge-of-your-seat tension that is so common with other thrillers. This beautifully written story is peopled with characters you initially dislike, but whom you grow to love and care about long before the last page. 

The Twelve Lives of Samuel Hawley is one part Quentin Tarantino, one part Scheherazade, and twelve parts wild innovation. Hannah Tinti proves herself to be an old-fashioned storyteller of the highest order. (Ann Patchett)

After reading Patchett's blurb, I couldn't help but imagine Tinti's novel on the big screen. With twelve bullet wounds, it's obviously a violent tale and yet it's a tender love story--a love between father and daughter, husband and wife, and two life-long friends. 

I've grown tired of dual timelines, but the structure of this novel flowed seamlessly and I'm glad I resisted the temptation to read Hawley's chapters first. I remained patient and let the details unfold as the author intended.

I could have easily finished the book much more quickly than the two weeks it took to complete, but I wanted to savor the writing and didn't want to rush to the unpredictable finale. I spent all two weeks gushing about the novel to my husband, hoping he would not only read it but love it as much as I did. It's one that I can't wait to discuss, especially after reading the exclusive conversation between Hannah Tinti and Karen Russell, which is included at the end of the book. In some ways, I wish I had read that extra material first, as it reveals some insight to certain themes and connections, many of which I did not notice until they were pointed out! For instance, 

I took the structure of Hercules's myth and used it as a framework for Hawley. The number twelve also became important, not only because of its connection to clocks and the recording of time, but also because it set a challenge for me as a writer. How could I make a man get shot twelve times, and the reader know that he is going to get shot, and still make each episode feel unique and surprising, even though the reader knows what is coming? I spent six years working that out. And over those years I fell for Samuel Hawley, who, despite all of his flaws and violent tendencies, is driven by the need to cure his own loneliness. He is on a desperate search for love. (Hannah Tinti)

This literary work is not one I've heard much about in the blogosphere, which is a shame because I think it's one of the best books I've read in years. I'm very stingy with my 5-star ratings, but I didn't hesitate when it came time to make that determination. I know this is one I will read a second time, but I'm also excited to order a copy of The Good Thief. If it's half as good as The Twelve Lives of Samuel Hawley, it's sure to be winner. 

Highly recommend! I only regret that I didn't read it while I was still working at B&N. This is one I could have easily hand-sold over a hundred copies!

Looking Back - The Man Who Ate the 747

Looking Back... In an effort to transfer my book journal entries over to this blog, I'm going to attempt to post (in chronological order) an entry every Friday. I may or may not add extra commentary to what I jotted down in these journals.

The Man Who Ate the 747 by Ben Sherwood

Fiction

2000 Bantam

Reading in September 2000

Rating: 3/5 (Good)

Publisher's Blurb:

Piece by piece, a farmer is eating a Boeing 747 to prove his love for a woman... Written with tenderness, originality, and insight, filled with old-fashioned warmth and newfangled humor, it is an extraordinary novel, a found treasure that marks the emergence of a major storytelling talent.

This is a story of the greatest love, ever. An outlandish claim, outrageous perhaps, but trust me--

And so begin the enchanting, unforgettable tale of J. J. Smith, Keeper of the Records for The Book of Records, an ordinary man searching for the extraordinary. J.J. has clocked the world's longest continuous kiss, 30 hours and 45 minutes. He has verified the lengthiest single unbroken apple peel, 172 feet and 4 inches. He has measured the farthest flight of a champagne cork from an untreated, unheated bottle 177 feet 9 inches. He has tasted the world's largest menu item, whole-roasted Bedouin camel.

But in all his adventure from Australia to Zanzibar, J.J. has never witnessed great love until he comes upon a tiny windswept town in the heartland of America, where folks still talk about family, faith, and crops. Here, where he last expects it, J.J. discovers a world record attempt like no other: Piece by piece, a farmer is eating a Boeing 747 to prove his love for a woman.

In this vast landscape of cornfields and lightning storms, J.J. is doubly astounded to be struck by love from the same woman, Willa Wyatt of the honey eyes and wild blond hair. It is a feeling beyond measure, throwing J.J.'s carefully ordered world upside down, proving that hearts, like world records, can be broken, and the greatest wonders in life can not be qualified.

Richly romantic, whimsical, and uplifting, The Man Who Ate the 747 is a flight of fancy from start to finish. It stretches imagination, bends physics and biology, but believe it just a little and you may find yourself reaching for your own records, the kind that really count. Written with tenderness, originality, and insight, filled with old-fashioned warmth and newfangled humor, it is an extraordinary novel, a found treasure that marks the emergence of a major storytelling tale.

My Original Thoughts (2000):

Pretty good, but not great. I met the author at a book signing. Very personable and funny. I don't know if I would have read the book if I hadn't gotten one signed. 

Quirky characters.

My Current Thoughts:

I remember that this was a very odd, quirky novel. I was working in an independent bookstore in Lincoln and Sherwood gave a reading and signed copies of his book. I doubt I would have bought the book, had I not met the author, but I wound up reading his second book (Charlie St. Cloud), which was very good.

Looking Back - Rumors of Peace

Looking Back... In an effort to transfer my book journal entries over to this blog, I'm going to attempt to post (in chronological order) an entry every Friday. I may or may not add extra commentary to what I jotted down in these journals.

Rumors of Peace by Ella Leffland

Fiction

1979 Harper & Row

Read in September 2000

Rating: 3/5 (Good)

Publisher's Blurb:

Though radio broadcasts grow more harrowing every day, and soon, swastika-marked envelopes begin to arrive from cousins overseas, but the fighting in Europe still seems far away from the idyllic California home of ten-year-old tomboy Suse Hansen. But after Pearl Harbor, everything changes. In Ella Leffland’s beautifully wrought story of a young girl’s coming of age during WWII, the fighting in Europe looms behind the tranquility of family, friends, and neighbors—until the darkness of the war becomes suddenly, irrevocably real.

My Original Thoughts (2000):

Read this for an online book group. I enjoyed it, but didn't think it was great. Didn't captivate me. Coming of age story. Young girl growing up in Mendoza, California during WWII. Great description - reminded me of Steinbeck. Probably longer than necessary.

My Current Thoughts:

I vaguely remember reading this for one of my online book groups, but the details are pretty much lost after over 20 years. 

Falling

Falling by T.J. Newman

Fiction/Thriller

2021 Simon & Schuster Audio

Narrated by Steven Weber

Finished on October 2, 2021

Rating: 4/5 (Very Good)

Publisher's Blurb:

You just boarded a flight to New York.

There are one hundred and forty-three other passengers onboard.

What you don’t know is that thirty minutes before the flight your pilot’s family was kidnapped.

For his family to live, everyone on your plane must die.

The only way the family will survive is if the pilot follows his orders and crashes the plane.

Enjoy the flight.

To be honest, I really wasn't expecting much from this popular thriller, in spite of several rave reviews by fellow bloggers. I listened to another airline drama (Before the Fall by Noah Hawley) in 2017, which was anticlimactic and disappointing. So, going into this new release, I was prepared for another mediocre story about a possible plane crash. I was wrong. Newman is a former flight attendant (and indie bookseller) and her experience shines through as she gives her readers a glimpse into the professional side of air travel. She does have a problem with stereotypes and the outcome is predictable, but I was fully engaged and enjoyed this exciting ride, nonetheless. 

Steven Weber's audio performance is well done and I've added him to my list of favorite narrators. His smooth voice and accurate pacing reminds me of Scott Brick (the excellent narrator of Justin Cronin's The Passage trilogy). I was surprised and pleased to discover that Weber is one of three readers in my current audiobook, If It Bleeds by Stephen King.

A Month in Summary - September 2021

 

Blue Heron Cheese French Cheese Company

September 2021

Tillamook, Oregon

Is anyone as surprised as I am that it's already October?? In last month's summary, I mentioned that I was still waiting for the arrival of summer. We finally got a few days of very warm weather while camping at Nehalem State Park, just up the coast from us, but once we got home, the rain and cooler temps returned. We're on the road again, heading south, so maybe I won't have to put away my shorts and flip flops just yet. 

I had a decent month with regard to my reading, finishing five books for the RIP challenge and one extra that I had started listening to in August. Three of the books were very good, but the others were somewhat mediocre. 

Books Read (click on the title for my review): 

The Most Fun We Ever Had by Claire Lombardo (4.5/5)

A Finer End by Deborah Crombie (2/5)

In the Market for Murder by T.E. Kinsey (3/5)

The One I Left Behind by Jennifer McMahon (4/5)

The Survivors by Jane Harper (2/5)

The Madness of Crowds by Louise Penny (4/5)

Movies & TV Series:

Wild Bill - We finished the series and thought it was pretty goofy. Fans of Death in Paradise will probably enjoy it more than I did.

Whitstable Pearl - Entertaining, but not as good as I'd hoped.

Worth - Very good. We watched it right around the 20th anniversary of 9/11, which made it even more moving.

McDonald & Dodds - Much better than I'd anticipated! I hope a third season is in the works.

Supernova - Great cast & acting, but somehow this fell short for me. 

Guilt -Very good. Loved the way it kept me guessing.  Definitely need to turn on the subtitles for this one!

Puzzlemania:

Road Trip:

As I mentioned, we took a short trip up the coast to one of our favorite state parks in Oregon. We've been seven times in the past three years! There were very few empty campsites (thanks to Covid, everyone wants to own an RV!) and we typically prefer to go in the off-season, but it was still nice to have some time to do nothing but read, walk on the beach and make new friends. We even discovered a new-to-us Mexican restaurant in Manzanita that has great margaritas, in addition to pretty good food. We went twice in three days. ;) 

Only 85 days until Christmas. Have you started shopping for gifts?

Looking Back - Miss Julia Speaks Her Mind

Looking Back... In an effort to transfer my book journal entries over to this blog, I'm going to attempt to post (in chronological order) an entry every Friday. I may or may not add extra commentary to what I jotted down in these journals.

Miss Julia Speaks Her Mind by Ann B. Ross

Fiction

1990 Perennial

Read in September 2000

Rating: 4/5 (Very Good)

Publisher's Blurb:

Miss Julia, a recently bereaved and newly wealthy widow, is only slightly bemused when one Hazel Marie Puckett appears at her door with a youngster in tow and unceremoniously announces that the child is the bastard son of Miss Julia's late husband. Suddenly, this longtime church member and pillar of her small Southern community finds herself in the center of an unseemly scandal--and the guardian of a wan nine-year-old whose mere presence turns her life upside down.

With razor-sharp wit and perfect "Steel Magnolia" poise, Miss Julia speaks her mind indeed--about a robbery, a kidnapping, and the other disgraceful events precipitated by her husband's death. Fast-paced and charming, with a sure sense of comic drama, a cast of crazy characters, and a strong Southern cadence, Miss Julia Speaks Her Mind will delight listeners from start to end.

My Original Thoughts (2000):

What a charming book! Simply delightful. I couldn't put it down. A Southern tale about a widow, a fortune, an illegitimate child, a kidnapping, a nymphomaniac and a televangelical minister. Laugh out loud humor. Engrossing. A cast of crazy characters you'll fall in love with!

My Current Thoughts:

What a shame that I don't still own my copy of this book. It would be nice to read something light and humorous. I'll add it to my reread list and either get a copy from the library or listen to it on audio. 

The Madness of Crowds

The Madness of Crowds by Louise Penny

Chief Inspector Armand Gamache #17

Mystery

2021 Minotaur Books

Finished on September 27, 2021

Rating: 4/5 (Very Good)

Publisher's Blurb:

You're a coward.

Time and again, as the New Year approaches, that charge is leveled against Armand Gamache.

It starts innocently enough.

While the residents of the Québec village of Three Pines take advantage of the deep snow to ski and toboggan, to drink hot chocolate in the bistro and share meals together, the Chief Inspector finds his holiday with his family interrupted by a simple request.

He's asked to provide security for what promises to be a non-event. A visiting professor of statistics will be giving a lecture at the nearby university.

While he is perplexed as to why the head of homicide for the Sûreté du Québec would be assigned this task, it sounds easy enough. That is, until Gamache starts looking into Professor Abigail Robinson and discovers an agenda so repulsive he begs the university to cancel the lecture.

They refuse, citing academic freedom, and accuse Gamache of censorship and intellectual cowardice. Before long, Professor Robinson's views start seeping into conversations. Spreading and infecting. So that truth and fact, reality and delusion, are so confused it's near impossible to tell them apart.

Discussions become debates, debates become arguments, which turn into fights. As sides are declared, a madness takes hold.

Abigail Robinson promises that if they follow her, ça va bien aller. All will be well. But not, Gamache and his team know, for everyone.

When a murder is committed, it falls to Armand Gamache, his second-in-command Jean-Guy Beauvoir, and their team to investigate the crime as well as this extraordinary popular delusion.

And the madness of crowds.

Another enjoyable mystery by Louise Penny, although I do have some issues with this latest installment in the Three Pines series. As I noted in my review of A Better Man, there are a few annoying details that are also mentioned more than once in this book. Do we really need to hear about random bits of food stuck in Clara's hair again? Or the repetitious asides about Ruth's duck Rosa or the odd ferret/rat creature that now resides with the Gamaches? (And yet, I don't mind reading about the bistro food, which is also a bit repetitious.) These are minor grievances, but they have become tiresome and I wish Penny's editor would urge her to find something fresh and new to say about her familiar cast of characters. 

The Madness of Crowds is definitely a mystery and not a thriller, which is fine, but it lacks the tension and suspense that I loved in All the Devils Are Here. I also feel that the ending was extremely convoluted and I had to go back and reread the final chapters in order to sort through the details to understand whodunnit. With two murders, it was quite a mess. 

And yet, this is not to say that I didn't enjoy The Madness of Crowds. I took my time, savoring the the book, trying not to rush to the end in order to learn the identity of the killer(s). I enjoyed the winter setting and the return to the close knit community of friends, family and neighbors. I didn't mind the backdrop of the post-pandemic world, about which some have voiced their complaints. I even fell in love with the beautiful cover art (by David Baldeosingh Rotstein) and endpapers (by MaryAnna Coleman), which are works of art in and of themselves. I think this 17th book in the series would be a great mystery to discuss with a book club, warts and all. In addition to the literary aspects of the author's writing, the timely and controversial themes are sure to spur debate on certain moral issues.

The Survivors

 

The Survivors by Jane Harper

Mystery

2021 Macmillan Audio

Narrated by Stephen Shanahan

Finished on September 25, 2021

Rating: 2/5 (Fair)

Publisher's Blurb:

Coming home dredges up deeply buried secrets...

Kieran Elliott's life changed forever on the day a reckless mistake led to devastating consequences.

The guilt that still haunts him resurfaces during a visit with his young family to the small coastal community he once called home.

Kieran's parents are struggling in a town where fortunes are forged by the sea. Between them all is his absent brother, Finn.

When a body is discovered on the beach, long-held secrets threaten to emerge. A sunken wreck, a missing girl, and questions that have never washed away...

Boring! I listened to this audiobook for almost two weeks, hoping it would improve the further along I got, but it continued to bore me to tears. I should have called it quits early on, but I enjoyed Jane Harper's previous mysteries and thought this one would be worth persevering. I read the print editions of The Dry and Force of Nature (click on titles for my reviews), so maybe I should have gone that route with this book. Stephen Shanahan's narration wasn't bad, but it did feel somewhat slow. I increased the playback speed, but even that didn't enhance the narrative. I will definitely get the print edition when I decide to read The Lost Man. 

I received a complimentary copy from Libro.fm. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Looking Back - How Reading Changed My Life

Looking Back... In an effort to transfer my book journal entries over to this blog, I'm going to attempt to post (in chronological order) an entry every Friday. I may or may not add extra commentary to what I jotted down in these journals.

How Reading Changed My Life by Anna Quindlen

Nonfiction - Essays

1998 Library of Contemporary Thought

Read in September 2000

Rating: 3/5 (Good)

Publisher's Blurb:

A recurring theme throughout Anna Quindlen's How Reading Changed My Life is the comforting premise that readers are never alone. "There was waking, and there was sleeping. And then there were books," she writes, "a kind of parallel universe in which anything might happen and frequently did, a universe in which I might be a newcomer but never really a stranger. My real, true world." Later, she quotes editor Hazel Rochman: "Reading makes immigrants of us all. It takes us away from home, but, most important, it finds homes for us everywhere." Indeed, Quindlen's essays are full of the names of "friends," real or fictional—Anne of Green Gables and Heidi; Anthony Trollope and Jane Austen, to name just a few—who have comforted, inspired, educated, and delighted her throughout her life. In four short essays Quindlen shares her thoughts on the act of reading itself ("It is like the rubbing of two sticks together to make a fire, the act of reading, an improbable pedestrian task that leads to heat and light"); analyzes the difference between how men and women read ("there are very few books in which male characters, much less boys, are portrayed as devoted readers"); and cheerfully defends middlebrow literature: Most of those so-called middlebrow readers would have readily admitted that the Iliad set a standard that could not be matched by What Makes Sammy Run? or Exodus. But any reader with common sense would also understand intuitively, immediately, that such comparisons are false, that the uses of reading are vast and variegated and that some of them are not addressed by Homer.

My Original Thoughts (2000):

Pretty good, but not as good as Ex Libris (Fadiman). A little dry and boring in spots. A few good quotes and passages. 11 great reading lists.

My Current Thoughts:

I own seven books (fiction and nonfiction) by Anna Quindlen, which I've read and loved, but this fell short of my expectations. I wish I had written down some of those good quotes and passages. Ah, well. I can probably borrow a copy from the library and see if my opinion has changed over the years.

The One I Left Behind

 

The One I Left Behind by Jennifer McMahon

Mystery/Thriller

2013 William Morrow

Finished on September 18, 2021

Rating: 4/5 (Very Good)

Publisher's Blurb:

Bestselling author Jennifer McMahon is back with a gut-wrenching mystery about an architect whose troubled mother has been found 25 years after being kidnapped-by a killer who is still on the loose.

The summer of 1985 changed Reggie's life. Thirteen, awkward, and without a father, she finds herself mixed up with her school's outcasts-Charlie, the local detective's son, and Tara, a goth kid who has a mental hold over Reggie and harbors a dark secret. That same summer a serial killer called Neptune begins kidnapping women. He leaves their severed hands on the police department steps and, five days later, displays their bodies around town. Just when Reggie needs her mother Vera--an ex-model with many "boyfriends" and a thirst for gin--the most, Vera's hand is found on the steps. But after five days, there's no body and Neptune disappears.

Now a successful architect who left her hometown behind after that horrific summer, Reggie doesn't trust anyone and lives with few attachments. But when she gets a call from a homeless shelter saying that her mother has been found alive, Reggie must confront the ghosts of her past and find Neptune before he kills again.

With her signature style, Jennifer McMahon portrays the dark side of adolescent friendship and introduces characters who haunt the imagination, along with a disturbing web of secrets, betrayals, and murder.

The One I Left Behind turned out to be a great read for this year's R.I.P. challenge, but I wasn't sure about it when I first started reading the book. I didn't like any of the characters that were introduced in the opening chapters and the alternating timeline jolted me out of the story until I got further along and could anticipate each switch. And then there's Tara. Her manipulative hold over Reggie reminded me of the mean girls in junior high school. Ugh. 

I almost abandoned the book, but decided to read a few more chapters. I'm glad I did, as it didn't take long to get engrossed in the mystery. I wound up reading late into the night, following each new lead, trying to figure out Neptune's true identity. There are several red herrings and with each new chapter, I changed my mind, sure that this time I knew who was responsible for the murders. The final chapters are so suspenseful and at one point, I found that I was holding my breath; I couldn't turn the pages fast enough!

I have to confess that I've owned an advance reader's copy of this book for close to a decade. I'm sure the publisher and author aren't exactly happy that they sent a reader an ARC only to have it languish on a shelf for so many years, but maybe my late-to-the-party review will create new interest in the book and the author's backlist. I know I can't wait to dive into some more of McMahon's suspense novels. Any recommendations?

In the Market for Murder

 

In the Market for Murder by T.E. Kinsey

Lady Hardcastle Mysteries #2

Mystery

2016 Brilliance Audio

Read by Elizabeth Knowelden

Finished on September 11, 2021

Rating: 3/5 (Good)

Publisher's Blurb:

Spring, 1909, and Lady Hardcastle, amateur sleuth and all-round eccentric, is enjoying a well-deserved rest. But a week after a trip to the cattle market, Spencer Caradine, a local farmer, turns up dead in the pub, face-down in his beef and mushroom pie. Once again, it is up to Lady Hardcastle and her maid, Florence, to solve the case.

Armed with wit and whimsy, not to mention Florence’s mean right hook, the pair set out to discover what really happened and why. Was it poison or just ill luck?

As they delve further into their investigation, they encounter a theft where nothing is stolen, a séance with a troubled ghost and an ever-increasing number of Spencer’s family and friends who might just have motive for murder. One thing’s for sure: Lady Hardcastle has a mystery on her hands.

I didn't care for this second installment in the Lady Hardcastle series nearly as much as A Quiet Life in the Country. The mystery (there are actually three mysteries) wasn't terribly interesting and I missed the humorous bantering between Lady Hardcastle and Flo that I so enjoyed in Kinsey's debut. There are five more books in this series and I'm not sure if I'll continue, although Elizabeth Knowelden is a delightful narrator of the audiobooks. Cozy mysteries may just not be for me.

Big Stone Gap

Looking Back... In an effort to transfer my book journal entries over to this blog, I'm going to attempt to post (in chronological order) an entry every Friday. I may or may not add extra commentary to what I jotted down in these journals.

Big Stone Gap by Adriana Trigiani

Fiction

2000 Random House

Read in September 2000

Rating: 3/5 (Good)

Publisher's Blurb:

It's 1978, and Ave Maria Mulligan is the thirty-five-year-old self-proclaimed spinster of Big Stone Gap, a sleepy hamlet in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia. She's also the local pharmacist, the co-captain of the Rescue Squad, and the director of The Trail of the Lonesome Pine, the town's long-running Outdoor Drama.

Ave Maria is content with her life of doing errands and negotiating small details--until she discovers a skeleton in her family's formerly tidy closet that completely unravels her quiet, conventional life. Suddenly, she finds herself juggling two marriage proposals, conducting a no-holds-barred family feud, planning a life-changing journey to the Old Country, and helping her best friend, the high-school band director, design a halftime show to dazzle Elizabeth Taylor, the violet-eyed Hollywood movie star who's coming through town on a campaign stump with her husband, senatorial candidate John Warner.

Filled with big-time eccentrics and small-town shenanigans, Big Stone Gap is a jewel box of original characters, including sexpot Bookmobile librarian Iva Lou Wade; Fleeta Mullins, the chain-smoking pharmacy cashier with a penchant for professional wrestling; the dashing visionary Theodore Tipton; Elmo Gaspar, the snake-handling preacher; Jack MacChesney, a coal-mining bachelor looking for true love; and Pearl Grimes, a shy mountain girl on the verge of a miraculous transformation.

Comic and compassionate, Big Stone Gap is is the story of a woman who thinks life has passed her by, only to learn that the best is yet to come.

My Original Thoughts (2000):

Pretty good. I had a tough time getting interested, but after a few chapters I was hooked. Lots of characters to keep track of. Some beautiful passages.

My Current Thoughts:

I vaguely remember this book and know I went on to read one or two of the sequels, but I no longer own a copy and I doubt I'd read it again. I wish I had written down some of those beautiful passages that I mentioned in my original notes.