A Quickie Sunday Update

I finished my 2nd book of 2023 this morning, by Canadian author Michelle Good. I'll provide my review of it and also the synopsis of my next book. I'll also provide the synopsis of a book by a new author for me, that arrived in the mail last week. Then if there's time, I'll continue with my ongoing look at Women Authors whose Work I've been enjoying.

Just Finished

1. Five Little Indians by Michelle Good (2020).

"Five Little Indians by Michelle Good tells the story of 5 survivors of Canada's residential school program, basically a form of state-sponsored child abuse. Indian children were taken from their parents by the Church (I believe the whole school system was run by the Christian Churches) and with assistance of the RCMP, and spent their childhoods in schools run by these churches. It was discovered years later the extent of the abuse through which these children were put. In recent years, many of the schools were discovered to have bodies of children buried on their grounds. This story is a devastatingly sad story of the impact of the schools on 5 such children as they are released from their school in British Columbia and how they try to survive as adults.

The story follows Kenny, Lucy, Carla, Howie and Maisie, reflecting somewhat on their pre-school childhoods, intimates what life was like at their particular school and then their efforts to adjust to adult life; with mixed results. 

The story follows each individual, how their lives are inter-related; their work, their personal relationships, their nightmares... It's a terrifying story in its way; how can humans be so evil, how can they treat children so awfully? The Canadian government has been trying to rectify what happened, tried to bring the evil of the residential school system into the open, but the effect on Indian children and their parents and families was still devastating.

It's one of those books that should be read, even if just to make the public aware of the treatment of these children. It saddened me terribly and I am sorry for what happened to these children. But it is well-written, emotional, with beautiful characters, very spiritual and ends with a positive hope for the future... (5.0 stars)"

Currently Reading

(continuing my Jan CanCon theme)

1. Ducks (Two Years in the Oil Sands) by Kate Beaton (2022).

"Before there was Kate Beaton, New York Times bestselling cartoonist of Hark A Vagrant fame, there was Katie Beaton of the Cape Breton Beatons, specifically Mabou, a tight-knit seaside community where the lobster is as abundant as beaches, fiddles, and Gaelic folk songs. After university, Beaton heads out west to take advantage of Alberta’s oil rush, part of the long tradition of East Coasters who seek gainful employment elsewhere when they can't find it in the homeland they love so much. With the singular goal of paying off her student loans, what the journey will actually cost Beaton will be far more than she anticipates.

Arriving in Fort McMurray, Beaton finds work in the lucrative camps owned and operated by the world’s largest oil companies. Being one of the few women among thousands of men, the culture shock is palpable. It does not hit home until she moves to a spartan, isolated worksite for higher pay. She encounters the harsh reality of life in the oil sands where trauma is an everyday occurrence yet never discussed. Her wounds may never heal.

Beaton’s natural cartooning prowess is on full display as she draws colossal machinery and mammoth vehicles set against a sublime Albertan backdrop of wildlife, Northern Lights, and Rocky Mountains. Her first full-length graphic narrative, Ducks: Two Years in the Oil Sands is an untold story of Canada: a country that prides itself on its egalitarian ethos and natural beauty while simultaneously exploiting both the riches of its land and the humanity of its people."

New Books

1. The Enemy by Charlie Higson (Enemy #1 / 2009).

"Charlie Higson's The Enemy is the first in a jaw-dropping zombie horror series for teens. Everyone over the age of fourteen has succumbed to a deadly zombie virus and now the kids must keep themselves alive.

When the sickness came, every parent, police officer, politician - every adult fell ill. The lucky ones died. The others are crazed, confused and hungry.

Only children under fourteen remain, and they're fighting to survive.

Now there are rumors of a safe place to hide. And so a gang of children begin their quest across London, where all through the city - down alleyways, in deserted houses, underground - the grown-ups lie in wait.

But can they make it there - alive?"

Women Authors Whose Work I've Been Enjoying - Ngaio Marsh

Ngaio Marsh

Dame Ngaio Marsh was a New Zealand mystery author known for her Inspector Alleyn series of  32 books. Marsh was one of the 'Queens of Crime' during the Golden Age of Detective Fiction; along with Agatha Christie, Dorothy Sayers, and Margery Allingham. Marsh lived from 1895 - 1982. Her Inspector Alleyn series is one of my comfort mystery series. Since I started reading it in early 2000s, I've read 18 books in the series. I still have 10 of the series awaiting my attention. Let's take a look at them to give you a perspective of the series.

1. A Grave Mistake (1978 / #30).

"There will always be an England, and in the world of traditional crime fiction, there will always be an Upper Quintern, the sort of Little English Village that is home mostly to the very rich and the servants who make their lives delightful. But Sybil Foster s life is not delightful, even if she does have an extremely talented gardener. Exhausted from her various family stresses a daughter, for instance, who wants to marry a man without a title! Sybil takes herself off to a local hotel that specializes in soothing shattered nerves. When she s killed, Inspector Alleyn has a real puzzler on his hands: Yes, she was silly, snobbish, and irritating. But if that were enough motive for murder, half of England would be six feet under."

2. Singing in the Shrouds (1958 / #20).

"The Cape Farewell steams out to sea, carrying a serial strangler who says it with flowers and a little song. Behind, on a fogbound London dock, lies his latest lovely victim; and on board, working undercover to identify him before he strikes again, is Inspector Roderick Alleyn. But-with a collection of neurotic, bombastic, shifty, and passionate passengers at one another's throats-how long can he keep the investigation on course?"

3. Photo Finish (#31 / 1980).

"A persistent paparazzi has hounded operatic soprano Isabella Sommita until her nerves are at the breaking point. Now her millionaire boyfriend has whisked her to a New Zealand island to recover. There she plans a performance of an aria written just for her-- by her secret young lover, who, along with a bevy of envious celebrities, is also on the island. It's the perfect set-up for grand opera-- wild passions...and bloody murder. And when the great singer is found dead, a photo on her bosom, Superintendent Roderick Alleyn must find out who did the diva in..."

4. Color Scheme (#12 / 1943).

"Often regarded as her most interesting book and set on New Zealand’s North Island, Ngaio Marsh herself considered this to be her best-written novel.

It was a horrible death – Maurice Questing was lured into a pool of boiling mud and left there to die.

Chief Inspector Roderick Alleyn, far from home on a wartime quest for German agents, knew that any number of people could have killed him: the English exiles he’d hated, the New Zealanders he’d despised or the Maoris he’d insulted. Even the spies he’d thwarted – if he wasn’t a spy himself…"

5. Hand in Glove (#22 / 1962).

"Who had a hand in the murder of a country gent?

All manner of friction fills the English country house shared by genteel retiree Percival Pyke Period and fuddy-duddy lawyer Harry Cartell. Until one of them, after a flamboyant dowager's treasure hunt party, is found murdered-face down in the mire of an open drain. Which of Superintendent Roderick Alleyn's suspects-linked by a tangled set of relationships-wore a crucial, missing pair of gloves to commit this dirty deed?"

6. Death and the Dancing Footman (#11 / 1941).

"The party's over when murder makes an entrance...

With the notion of bringing together the most bitter of enemies for his own amusement, a bored, mischievous millionaire throws a house party. As a brutal snowstorm strands the unhappy guests, the party receives a most unwelcome visitor: death. Now the brilliant inspector Roderick Alleyn must step in to decipher who at the party is capable of cold-blooded murder..."

7. Light Thickens (#32 / 1982).

"The bad news: This is the last in Ngaio Marsh s marvelous Inspector Alleyn series. The good: It s one of her very best. The secret to Light Thickens success may lie in its combination of some of Marsh s greatest passions, including her native New Zealand in the person of, unusually, a Maori character and the theater. Indeed, the plot centers on a production of well, let s skirt disaster by calling it the Scottish play, a play that Dame Ngaio produced and directed several times. Among theater folk, the Scottish play is considered unlucky, so much so that tradition requires anyone who utters its proper name backstage to leave the building, spin around, spit, curse, and then request permission to re-enter."

8. Dead Water (#23 / 1963).

"A week of death threats at a faith-healing resort ends in murder. Inspector Roderick Alleyn is then faced with the most challenging case of his career. What makes matters worse is the fact that one of the suspects is his oldest friend. In classic Marsh fashion, the other suspect turns out to be none other than the victim herself."

9. Surfeit of Lampreys (#10 / 1941).

"Ngaio Marsh’s most popular novel begins when a young New Zealander’s first contact with the English gentry is the body of Lord Wutherford - with a meat skewer through the eye....

The Lampreys had plenty of charm - but no cash. They all knew they were peculiar - and rather gloried in it. The double and triple charades, for instance, with which they would entertain their guests - like rich but awful Uncle Gabriel, who was always such a bore. The Lampreys thought if they jollied him up he would bail them out - yet again.

Instead Uncle Gabriel met a violent end. And Chief Inspector Alleyn had to work out which of them killed him...."

10. Off With His Head (#19 / 1956).

"A ritual dance becomes a murderous mambo...

At the winter solstice, South Mardian's swordsmen weave their blades in an ancient ritual dance. But for one of them, the excitement proves too heady, and his decapitation turns the fertility rite into a pageant of death. Now Inspector Roderick Alleyn must penetrate not only the mysteries of folklore, but the secrets and sins of an eccentric group who include a surly blacksmith, a domineering dowager, and a not-so-simple village idiot."

The complete listing of Ngaio Marsh's work can be found at this link.

Have a great week!