It's a lovely Sunday morning, cool and fresh. Yesterday I did a bit more yard work. It won't look too bad when the sprinkler guy comes tomorrow. We're watching a very depressing Grey's Anatomy from Thursday. America, what a scary place right now. On the good news front, I finally have my appointment for my Covid shot. It's not for a couple of weeks but maybe the light at the end of the tunnel. Now Jo can register for hers this week. It'll be great when we both have our first shot. 😌
So I've finished two books the past couple of days. I'll provide my reviews and the synopses of the next two books in line. I'll also continue with my look at women authors I'm enjoying.
Just Finished
"My focus author for April has been Georges Simenon. I've read one of his Maigret books and one standalone. Act of Passion is another of his standalones. I thought the story concept was interesting but it's still my least favorite so far.
The basic concept is that Charles Alavoine is a prisoner, I presume convicted of a crime, is now writing to the magistrate who interviewed him, telling him his story. The whole book is in the form a confessional letter to the Magistrate. It goes through Charles' life, his marriages, his affairs and his final relationship with Martine.
It's very much a psychological presentation of his life and in some ways it's a very coarse story. I don't have a lot to say about it. It didn't strike a chord with me in any particular way. Charles isn't very likable, mind you he is a criminal awaiting punishment / sentence. An ok Simenon story. (3 stars)"
"I've previously read and enjoyed two of the novels of Carson McCullers; The Heart is a Lonely Hunter (one of my all-time favorite novels) and The Member of the Wedding (which was also quite good.) The Ballad Of The Sad Cafe is a collection of her short stories, originally published in 1951. It contains 7 stories including the titled one; The Ballad of the Sad Café, Wunderkind, The Jockey, Madame Zilensky and the King of Finland, The Sojourner, A Domestic Dilemma, and A Tree, a Rock, A Cloud.
There is no denying that McCullers creates fascinating scenarios and settings but for the most part, I'm afraid I didn't get the point of the stories. The best one was the first, a powerfully depressing story of 3 individuals in a small town; Miss Amelia, owner of the local store and a powerful woman of the community, the hunchback who shows up (turns out he's a distant relation) and causes such a change in her life, and Marvin Macy, her ex-husband of just a few days, who turns up from prison. The resulting chaos will drastically change Amelia's life. As I said, a powerful, but depressing story.
The remaining stories are much shorter and while they do create fascinating pictures, I found the endings unsatisfying. Each seemed to leave you hanging. It's very possible I'm not perceptive enough to discern her point, that her point escaped me, but they just didn't ultimately satisfy me.
Wunderkind, for example, is about a young girl struggling with her music lessons. Her hands aren't responding to instruction, her body aches, her teacher keeps encouraging her, but ultimately, she rushes off. Why! The Jockey features a, yes you guessed it, a jockey who confronts a table of 3 men, a trainer, an owner and a bookie. The story refers to a previous incident in which his friend, another jockey, is hurt. There is a confrontation..... OK.. but why! Each story is similar to me. I seem to miss the punchline, the result.
But don't let that dissuade you. At the very least, you should explore The Ballad of the Sad Cafe. The remaining stories are short and quick and easy to read. I'd suggest you try them all and see what they mean for you. Carson McCullers is worthy of trying. (3 stars)"
Currently Reading
"A rich American widow
and her maid have been stabbed to death in a brutal attack. All the
evidence points to Joseph, a young drifter, and he is soon arrested. But
what is his motive? Or is he just a pawn in a wider conspiracy?
Inspector
Maigret believes the police have the wrong man and lets him escape from
prison to prove his innocence. perhaps, with Joseph on the loose, the
real murderer will surface.
A deadly game of cross and double-cross has begun..."
"As the Luftwaffe makes its last, desperate assaults on the battered city in 1944, Londoners take to the underground shelters amidst the black out. Detective-Sergeant Troy starts with the clue of a neatly dismembered corpse leading him into a world of stateless refugees, military intelligence, and corruption all the way to the top of Allied High Command."
Women Authors I Enjoy - Cara Black
Cara Black is an American author born in Chicago in 1951. She is known for her Aimée Leduc mystery series. Aimée is a PI working in Paris, France. Since 1998, she has written 19 books in the series. I will admit that I thought the 1st book tried a bit too hard. Constant action and jumping back and forth. But it was still an interesting introduction to the series. I'm currently enjoying the 2nd book in the series very much. I have 3 more on my book shelf. I'll highlight all 5 books.
Cara Black
"An interesting first story by Cara Black, but at times I felt she was trying too hard to grab our attention with this first effort. Aimee Leduc is almost too good for words, athletic, a computer whiz, full of action. The story starts off with a bang, a murder, and continues at the same high pace, with Aimee racing down streets, over rooftops, hacking into all sorts of computer systems. But at the same time, the story was interesting and a page turner. It won't stop me trying others in this series; I just hope that the next story takes a slower pace to develop its plot and ideas. :) (3 stars)"
"Parisian P.I. Aimée
Leduc finds herself involved with a secretive North African radical
group the French government would rather she didn’t investigate
When
Anaїs de Froissart calls private investigator Aimée begging for help,
Aimée assumes her best friend's sister wants to hire her to do
surveillance on her philandering husband again. Aimée's too busy right
now to indulge her. But AnaÑ—s, a politician's wife with an unhappy
marriage and a young daughter, insists Aimée must come, that she is in
trouble and scared. Aimée tracks Anaїs down just in time to see a car
bomb explode, injuring AnaÑ—s and killing the woman she was with.
Aimée,
who saw her father die in a car bomb five years earlier, is shaken by
the attack, but manages to escort AnaÑ—s to safety. But AnaÑ—s can't
explain what Aimée just witnessed. The dead woman, Anaїs says, is Sylvie
Coudray, her cheating husband's long-time mistress, but she has no idea
who wanted her dead, and Anaїs officially hires Aimée to investigate.
As
she digs into Sylvie Coudray's murky past, Aimée finds that the dead
woman may not be who AnaÑ—s thought she was. Her Belleville neighborhood,
full of North African immigrants, may be hiding clues to who Sylvie
really was. As a prominent Algerian rights activist stages a hunger
protest against new immigration laws, Aimée begins to wonder whether
Sylvie's death was an act of terrorism, and who else may be at risk. To
make matters worse, Yves, Aimée's ex-boyfriend, a journalist who seems
to appear in and disappear from Aimée's life without any regard for her
feelings, is back in town. Just the kind of distraction she doesn't need
right now."
"When a mysterious visitor promises contact with her long-lost mother, Aimée Leduc finds herself hot on the trail of the Seventies radicals with whom her mother was evidently associated. The result is not just good suspense but an affecting and realistic psychological study of a daughter's coming to terms with an absent parent."
"When a Haitian woman
arrives at the Paris office of Leduc Detective and announces that she
is P.I. Aimée Leduc’s sister, Aimée must dig into her father’s past to
solve a murder.
A virtual orphan since her mother’s desertion and her father’s death, Aimée has always wanted a sister. She is thrilled.
Her
partner, René, however, is wary of this stranger. Under French law,
even an illegitimate child would be entitled to a portion of her
father's estate: the detective agency and apartment that Aimée has
inherited. He suspects a scam. But Aimée embraces her newfound sibling
and soon finds herself involved in murky Haitian politics and
international financial scandals leading to murder in the Latin Quarter
on the Left Bank of the Seine, the old university district of Paris."
"Paris, April 1999:
Aimée Leduc has her work cut out for her—running her detective agency
and fighting off sleep deprivation as she tries to be a good single
mother to her new bébé. The last thing she has time for now is to take on a personal investigation for a poor manouche
(Gypsy) boy. But he insists his dying mother has an important secret
she needs to tell Aimée, something to do with Aimée’s father’s unsolved
murder a decade ago. How can she say no?
The dying woman’s secret
is even more dangerous than her son realized. When Aimée arrives at the
hospital, the boy’s mother has disappeared. She was far too sick to
leave on her own—she must have been abducted. What does she know that’s
so important it’s worth killing for? And will Aimée be able to find her
before it’s too late and the medication keeping her alive runs out?"
The complete listing of Cara Black's books can be found at this link. Enjoy your upcoming week. Stay safe. 😷
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