March ended with Jo and I visiting Qualicum Beach for a nice afternoon out; lunch at Gary's Bistro and then a wander around the shops. (I only bought one book) We managed to avoid the rain drops pretty well but by the time we left, it was raining a bit. (The puppies were happy when we got home.) We treated ourselves to another dinner out (sort of), a Big Box of chicken strips from the local Chicken Shack on Dyke road. Just big enough for Jo and I to share satisfactorily.
Didn't do much over the weekend because the weather was kind of crappy. But we did have a nice video chat with my daughter Jenn and her boyfriend. That was nice.
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| Bonnie in the garden |
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| Clyde after his dental surgery.... |
Anyway, so things have been a mite topsy - turvy this week.
So, now on to books. I have finished one book so far in April. I'll provide my review of it as well as those of the last two I completed in March. I'll also provide the synopses of those books I've started since my last reading update and then finish with a look at the newest books gracing my book shelves. Ready? Go!
Just Finished
"What a breath of fresh air Rhode Island Red by Charlotte Carter was. This is the first book in her Nanette Hayes mystery series. There are currently 4 books in the series and I have the 2nd one on my bookshelf. :0)
Nanette Hayes is a jazz-loving, saxophone playing, beautiful, intelligent woman making her living playing on the street in New York and sometimes translating works between French and English. Her best friend, Aubrey, is a stripper and successful businesswoman. She has an on-again, off-again relationship with Walter. At the moment it's off.
Nanette meets Sig, another street musician, looking for a place to crash and she lets him sleep on her floor of her flat. The next morning she finds him dead, stabbed in the throat. It turns out that Sig is an undercover cop. (Is he also a corrupt cop?) Well, Nanette finds $50,000 stuffed in her saxophone....
This begins a fascinating, entertaining, great story as Nanette gets involved with a Greek fella who wants her to teach him everything about Charlie (Bird) Parker... oh and also romances her like she's never been romanced before. The bodies begin to multiply, dead bodies that is... Nanette is harassed by Sig's partner, Det Leman Sweet, angry that his partner is dead and maybe because he might have been corrupt. Nanette begins to conduct her own investigation. What about this money? What is Rhode Island Red? Who is Wild Bill? Who is Henry for that matter?
It's all excellent. Nanette is such a wonderfully sexy character, full of passion, jazzy, a full-figured, wonderful African-American woman, who you just want to meet and talk about jazz or anything. The story is peopled with wonderful characters; Aubrey, her boss, the gay strip club owner and Mob guy, Thom, even Nanette's mom who makes just a couple of appearances. I enjoyed this so very much. It flowed smoothly, had sufficient action to satisfy me and like I said a couple of times, there is an underlying sexiness to the whole thing. If you are also trying to explore African - American fiction as well, you might like to try this. Being an old white male, I can't attest to its authenticity, but either way, I loved it and will be enjoying more of Carter's writing. (4.5 stars)"
"Girl Waits with Gun by Amy Stewart is the first book in the Kopp sisters series. There are currently 8 books in this series and I'm looking forward to getting the 2nd book. The first was a pleasant, entertaining surprise.
As I understand it, the book is based on true events and true people, a story that is fictionalized. The Kopp sisters, Constance, Norma and Fleurette live on a farm outside Wyckoff New Jersey. Their mother has recently died and they are trying to make ends meet. On a buggy trip into town to get supplies, a car driven by one Henry Kaufmann, a local mill owner, and his cronies, crashes into the buggy, overturning it and destroying it.
Constance sends a letter asking for money to repair the damage caused by Kaufmann. This starts a chain of events that will cause the Kopp sisters to be under threat by Kaufmann and his drunken friends. The local Sheriff, Mr. Heath, will get involved and spend the next year, investigating and trying to protect the sisters. They have windows broken, their house trashed. Heath teaches them to shoot and provides them with handguns for protection.
As well, Constance begins her own investigation into another situation. It seems Mr. Kaufmann has had a child with one of his employees and the child was taken from her. Constance wants to help the lady, for reasons that will come out over the course of the story, and she finds herself drawn into this situation.
It's an interesting story. The Kopp sisters are well-drawn, each has their own personalities; Norma, the logical, down-to-earth sister, who tries to keep the family out of the spotlight; youngest Fleurette, who is artistic, creative and keeps the other two on their toes, and Constance, who is the core of the story and grows during the course of the book. The Sheriff, Mr. Heath, is so helpful and an interesting, supportive individual. The Kopp's brother Francis, who lives in town with wife Bessie and two children, tries to help his sisters and feels an obligation to them remains on the periphery, but he's interesting.
The story is well-crafted, written in a somewhat formal style (reminds me of Laurie King's Mary Russel historical mystery series in that way) and moves along nicely. I liked the story, the characters and the ultimate resolution. It left me with the desire to see what the next stage in the Kopp sisters' lives will involve. Worth trying. (4 stars)"
"Landed Gently by Alan Hunter is the 4th book in his Chief Inspector George Gently mystery series. I always find it amazing that the books (so far, anyway) is so different from the TV series based on the books. But who knows, maybe at some point in the books Gently does go to Newcastle to work that. In the interim, he is a Chief Inspector in Scotland Yard.
This story is set during Christmas and find the good Inspector heading north to spend Christmas with the Chief Constable of North Northshire, Sir Daynes Broke. On the train journey he meets an American Air Force Lt, William Earle, also heading to the same area. Earle is the guest of Lord Somerhayes. His estate borders that of Sir Broke. Gently is hoping to get in some pike fishing with his host during his visit.
Unfortunately, the young American is found dead on Christmas morning, lying at the bottom of a stairway in the Great Hall of Merely Hall. While Sir Broke feels the death is simply an accident (Earle broke his neck falling down the staircase), his Inspector Dyson, along with the medical officer, believe a murder may have been committed. Gently tends to agree and is reluctantly brought into the investigation at the instigation of Lord Somerhayes.
Thus begins a criminal investigation at the manor. While Earle seems to have been a popular individual, there are also those who had reason to dislike the young man. The manor has become a commercial enterprise, a group of individuals working in one of the wings creating tapestries. Earle seems to have had designs on Lord Somerhayes' cousin, young widow Mrs. Page, and the murder may have been as a result of jealousy due to Earle's actions.
Like the other Gently mysteries, this is an entertaining story. Gently is a great character tending to rely on instincts when investigating. He feels he's being led in a certain direction as he wanders about, trying to stay out of the way of Sir Broke and Inspector Dyson, but he has to also try to temper the Chief Constable who jumps to conclusions and tries to keep the Lord out of police sights.
It's all very fascinating and very cold (there is a scene on the roof between Gently and Lord Somerhayes that left me shivering). There is relatively no action and it's a closed door type mystery but well-crafted and interesting to work through. The resulting conclusion is satisfying on the whole. I look forward to continuing my journey with George Gently, to see where his future lies. (4 stars)
Currently Reading
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"Forensic psychiatrist Jo Beckett's specialty is the psychological autopsy- an investigation into a person's life to determine whether a death was natural, accidental, suicide, or homicide. She calls herself a dead=shrinker instead of a head-shrinker: The silence of her "patients" is a key part of the job's attraction. When Jo is asked to do a psychological autopsy on a living person-one with a suspect memory who can't be trusted to participate in his own medical care-she knows all her skills will be put to the test.
Jo is called to the scene of an aircraft inbound from London to help deal with a passenger who is behaving erratically. She figures out that he's got anterograde amnesia, and can't form new memories. Jo finds herself racing to save a patient who can walk and talk and yet can't help Jo figure out just what happened to him. For every cryptic clue he is able to drag up from his memory, Jo has to sift through a dozen nonsensical statements.Suddenly a string of clues arises, something to do with a super deadly biological agent code-named "Slick," a missing wife and son, and a secret partnership gone horribly wrong. Jo realizes her patient's addled mind may hold the key to preventing something terrible from happening in her beloved San Francisco.
In order to prevent it, she will have to get deeper into the life of a patient than she ever has before, hoping the truth emerges from the fog of his mind in time to save her city-and herself."
But first, he'll have to locate—and steal—the all-important artifact. And there are certain people who would do anything in their power to see him fail..."
Why do people everywhere, in all cultures, tell stories?
How much of yourself can you give away without evaporating?
How can we live on our planet?
Is it true? And is it fair?
What do zombies have to do with authoritarianism?
In over fifty pieces Atwood aims her prodigious intellect and impish humour at the world, and reports back to us on what she finds. This roller-coaster period brought the end of history, a financial crash, the rise of Trump, and a pandemic. From debt to tech, the climate crisis to freedom; from when to dispense advice to the young (answer: only when asked) to how to define granola, we have no better guide to the many and varied mysteries of our universe."
Wycliffe suspects the involvement of six people, now well-established figures in the community, who at the time had been spending an illicit weekend at a chalet near where Wilder's body was found. All are disturbed by Wycliffe's interest and by a series of threatening anonymous communications. But then a second murder is committed and the investigation takes on a new urgency."
An up-and-coming expert in the burgeoning field of mental illness is engaged by a group of reformers and spiritualists who seek a pardon for Grace. He listens to her story while bringing her closer and closer to the day she cannot remember. What will he find in attempting to unlock her memories?"
The war has come home.
For over forty years, Art Keller has been on the front lines of America’s longest conflict: The War on Drugs. His obsession to defeat the world’s most powerful, wealthy, and lethal kingpin? the godfather of the Sinaloa Cartel, Adán Barrera? has left him bloody and scarred, cost him the people he loves, even taken a piece of his soul.
Now Keller is elevated to the highest ranks of the DEA, only to find that in destroying one monster he has created thirty more that are wreaking even more chaos and suffering in his beloved Mexico. But not just there.
Barrera’s final legacy is the heroin epidemic scourging America. Throwing himself into the gap to stem the deadly flow, Keller finds himself surrounded by enemies? men who want to kill him, politicians who want to destroy him, and worse, the unimaginable, an incoming administration that’s in bed with the very drug traffickers that Keller is trying to bring down.
Art Keller is at war with not only the cartels, but with his own government. And the long fight has taught him more than he ever imagined. Now, he learns the final lesson? there are no borders.
In a story that moves from deserts of Mexico to Wall Street, from the slums of Guatemala to the marbled corridors of Washington, DC, Winslow follows a new generation of narcos, the cops who fight them, street traffickers, addicts, politicians, money-launderers, real-estate moguls, and mere children fleeing the violence for the chance of a life in a new country."
A child of parents who survived Soviet and Nazi terror, Yovanovitch’s life and work have taught her the preciousness of democracy as well as the dangers of corruption. Lessons from the Edge follows the arc of her career as she develops into the person we came to know during the impeachment proceedings."
In these interviews—including her final interview given in October 1973, in the midst of Watergate and the Yom Kippur War—Hannah Arendt discusses politics, war, protest movements, the Eichmann trial, Jewish identity, and language with the incisiveness and courage that always set her apart."
Can anyone fool Heaven indefinitely, escaping what’s written in the stars? Or can Zhu claim her own future, burn all the rules and rise as high as she can dream?"
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