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jhscolloquium's reviews
904 reviews
Village in the Dark by Iris Yamashita
adventurous
dark
emotional
funny
hopeful
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
The Children We Lost: A totally heartbreaking and page-turning World War 2 novel by Catherine Hokin
dark
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.0
Author Catherine Hokin published her first novel in 2016, and has since penned eight more, including the four-volume Hanni Winter series. The stories she tells are mostly set in Berlin, Germany, from 1933 to the fall of the Berlin Wall, “dealing with the long shadows left by war.” That time period is “endlessly fascinating” and permits her to spend time in one of her favorite cities. A self-professed “history geek,” as was her father, she holds a degree in history. Originally from the North of England, she resides in Glasgow, Scotland.
Hokin says The German Child is a book she has long wanted to write, The story was inspired when, while researching a prior novel, she happened upon a photograph of the Brown Sisters – Nazi child catchers. They were a group of women who were specially trained by the Third Reich and then dispatched to Poland and other parts of Europe, rounding up the children in each city or town and subjecting them to a selection process. Those who possessed the sixty-two Aryan traits specified in a physical characteristics test were forcibly removed from their families and underwent Aryanization; those who did not were either murdered or transported to camps where they were forced to perform grueling physical labor and, eventually, many also died. Some 200,000 children were kidnapped in Poland alone. Following the war, less than twenty per cent of the surviving children were reunited with their families.
The Lebensborn initiative was part of a “racially-based program of social engineering designed to redraw the face of Europe,” the architect of which was Reichsführer SS Heinrich Himmler. It was his “personal project” and “an integral part of the Third Reich’s ‘racial purity crusade’ to rid the world of anyone who was not deemed “pure,” designed to repopulate it with “good” families. Pregnant young women, most of whom were unmarried and socially stigmatized, were recruited with promises of financial support and medical care. They resided in one of twenty-six facilities within which at least 17,000 children were born for the purpose of furthering Germany’s goal of “securing the ‘right’ genetic future for the Reich” and handed off to be raised by Germans deemed worthy.
As The German Child opens in December 1979, Evie Ritter, a seasoned thirty-five-year-old divorced attorney, has landed her dream job with the U.S. Department of Justice’s Office of Special Investigations. In operation for a mere six weeks, the OSI’s mission is investigating suspected war crimes and prosecuting the perpetrators. Her workload is already overwhelming, as the OSI is inundated with requests for assistance, including from parents whose children were lost during the war and adults who suspect that the family histories they have heard their whole lives are works of fiction. Were they really born in America? Did their parents or other relatives commit or participate in wartime atrocities? Evie calls those seeking such assistance “the lost.”
Evie quickly becomes enmeshed in the case of Sebastian Taylor, a curator for the Smithsonian, when he appears in her office and announces, “I am a Lebensborn child. . . . I was born to be a soldier for Hitler, a leader of the Reich.” Sebastian produces a silver christening cup on which his birthday is engraved, along with “Vom Patenonkel, H. Himmler,” meaning “godfather.” In other words, he is Himmler’s godson. He explains that he has always known he was born in Germany, but believed that his father, with whom he had a loving relationship, “was one of the good ones.” On the very day his died, when Sebastian was just twelve years old, he learned that the cold, unkind woman he grew up believing was his mother was actually his stepmother and “I was my father’s Lebensborn bastard.” On that day, Sebastian became lost, with no understanding of his real identity. And he wants the OSI to help him find his birth mother because the “scale of the Lebensborn program, and what it really intended, is just starting to leak out.’ So, he argues, even though his quest is a decidedly personal one, the OSI’s resources can be devoted to finding the thousands of others “whose lives have been built on a lie.” Sebastian also believes that at least one of the Nazi women involved in the program may be living and working in the United States, based on a comment his stepmother made about a women’s health clinic: “So Himmler’s little pet talked herself in here too. . . . God help any of those mothers she gets near; she won’t let the wrong ones survive.”
A separate narrative relates the story of Helene Tellman, a beautiful and powerful child catcher who, with the Brown Sisters’ assistance, has achieved great success and earned the favor of the highest leaders in the Nazi party. She is a true believer, committed to “ridding Poland of the children who are no use to the Reich in order to make space for the German babies who will require its land and resources,” and proud of her ability to “ferret out a hidden Jewish child in a heartbeat” when terrified parents attempt to conceal their children from her. Most of the children she selects ultimately pass the physical characteristics test. And for the few who don’t, there is “plenty of space in the ovens for small bodies.” In fact, Helene brings two of Himmler’s mobile gas vans with her so that the children she targets can be “dead and buried before their mothers have time to miss them.” Helene’s duties also include supervising the birth and placement of the thousands of children born in the Lebensborn facilities.
Helene is a thirty-one-year-old physician and her 1943 wedding to Ulrich Reitter, a handsome rocket scientist working on the weapon the Nazis believe will enable them to win the war, is a public spectacle held at the stately and elegant Edel Hotel. Himmler, rather than her “too ordinary” father, walks her down the aisle and the union of the “ideal couple” is an important element of a propaganda campaign intended to convince Germans that the war effort is not floundering. For Helene, her marriage accomplishes two specific goals. It pleases her boss, who has pressured her to marry, and ensures her continued work. Although she has no desire to have children, it is expected. She and Ulrich are deeply in love and committed to each other, as well as their roles in the Third Reich. He agrees that they will have one child, rather than the four Himmler expects, and then get on with their lives, with Helene resolving to “pay other people to be what I won’t be to it.” But she gives birth “to a useless girl in a world which only values men,” and feels she has failed. She planned to produce a son, “a soldier for the Fuhrer. . . . She could have loved a boy,” but has no interest in her daughter and resumes her work immediately. But there is now a bounty on her head. She is a target of the resistance that calls her “Aniol Šmierci. The Angel of Death.” Which makes it more challenging to carry out her operations.
Worse, as the war drags on, it becomes increasingly clear that Germany is nearing defeat, and Ulrich and his fellow scientists have displeased Himmler with their failure to perfect the V2 rocket that the Nazis are banking on to secure victory. Ulrich is assigned to work at the Mittelbau-Dora concentration camp where thousands of prisoners of war descend deep into the mines every day . . . but many of them never emerge. They are simply replaced with arriving trainloads of slaves. Inside the mountain, missiles are being constructed amid fourteen miles of tunnels. But Helene and Ulrich know that the end of the Third Reich is inevitable, and they are determined to evade prison cells or, worse, death sentences for having committed war crimes. Luckily for them, the United States is willing to offer deals to scientists with valuable knowledge and skills that will help defeat Russia in the race to space. Operation Paperclip is admitting elite rocket and atomic specialists into America, providing them new identities and jobs – and obliterating their criminal histories.
Evie, the child of Helen and Alex Ritter, the director of a women’s health clinic and a rocket scientist, grew up in a wealthy area of Birmingham, Alabama, a city known for its segregation policies. Helen is admired for her work in a clinic situated in a less affluent and diverse part of town that provides services to needy women and their children. Evie has always been led to believe that her parents “fled” Switzerland, a claim that never made sense to her because that country took no active part in the war and was spared from attacks. In their home, there are no family photographs, and Evie’s parents have consistently refused to discuss family history. Evie’s innocent inquiries exasperate her mother, who insists, “Everything’s been lost. Everyone who mattered is long gone. Can that please be an end to it?” Her whole life, her parents have been cold, detached, uninterested in her and, as a child, Evie longed to be admitted into their “two-person world” and showered with the love they displayed for each other. Instead, she was cared for by others. Her contact with her parents since leaving home seventeen years ago has been sporadic, and largely a function of duty and responsibility rather than affection.
When Evie’s boss authorizes her to pursue the search for Sebastian’s mother, she travels with him to East Berlin. It is a frightening, intimidating place and they are warned that the first official visit to the American Embassy by a representative of the OSI will be monitored carefully by the Stasi, the German Democratic Republic’s secret police who do, in fact, follow and observe them. Despite complications, the trip yields important – and shocking – evidence. Perusing documents in search of information about the Lebensborn program, Evie finds a newspaper dated February 20, 1943. A front page photograph bears the images of the top leaders of the Third Reich — Hitler, Goebbels, Himmler, and Güring gaze proudly at a uniformed groom and his stunning bride. Even having grown up without seeing old photographs of her parents, Evie knows she is staring at a picture not of Helene Tillman and Ulrich Reitter, as they are identified in the caption, but of Helen and Alex Ritter.
When they meet, Evie and Sebastian are immediately drawn to each other. Both wounded not just from their respective upbringings, but also their painful divorces, they are cautious and tentative with each other. Sebastian is navigating an existential crisis, searching for his birth mother, and attempting to come to terms with the truth about the circumstances surrounding his conception and birth. He is striving to reconcile his discovery of his father’s true identity and affiliation with the Nazi party with his own self-concept. Is he worthy of love? Will he be accepted when others learn he is a Lebensborn child?
Unexpectedly, Evie finds herself in a comparable situation. Evie’s sense that her parents lied to her about their identities and backgrounds is validated, but that brings no satisfaction. The photograph confirms that they had to be highly placed within the leadership of the Third Reich, raising questions about their activities during the war. Did they commit war crimes? If so, the irony is both remarkable and deeply unsettling. Their own daughter is a member of a team of government officials charged with finding and bringing war criminals to justice. Was she really born in America? If she was born in Germany, she is not a United States citizen. What will that mean for the life she has created for herself — her career and, more particularly, her position at OSI?
Evie and Sebastian’s struggles are compelling fictional representations of the real experiences of Lebensborn victims. “For too many of the thousands of children born in the homes, life has been a constant battle to find answers and overcome prejudice,” according to Hokin. “In Norway in particular, where there were ten Lebensborn homes, the ‘children of shame’ have faced a long struggle for respect and rehabilitation.” Hokin believably demonstrates that Evie’s commitment to her beliefs, ideals, and profession are as solid and unshakable – integral to her core identity — as are Helene’s. They are both indomitable women . . . but opposite sides of the same coin. One is intent on carrying out a morally abhorrent and despicable agenda, and the other is determined to stop her.
The German Child is thoroughly researched, grounded in horrifying actual events and their aftermath. Hokin’s characters are credible, fully developed and, in the case of Evie and Sebastian, appropriately sympathetic. Helene, conversely, is the repulsive embodiment of evil. Through Evie and Sebastian, Hokin examines the far-reaching “long shadows left by war” that she, like other lovers of historical fiction, finds “endlessly fascinating.” The story is fast-paced and Hokin increases the dramatic tension as Evie, undaunted by the danger in which she places herself, pursues the whole unvarnished truth and seeks justice.
The German Child is a riveting, emotional tale through which Hokin challenges readers to ponder what they would do should they suddenly discover that everything they thought they knew about their family members’ history proved to be not just false, but shrouded in appalling crimes against humanity. Like Evie and Sebastian, Hokin invites readers to explore the extent to which one’s identity is derived from family and how much of one’s self-concept is independently formed by acquired beliefs and values.
Hokin writes that the myriad ways the Third Reich’s unspeakable policies “resulted in a Europe-wide and ongoing well of suffering, continues to take my breath away.” Her compassion for the characters she creates, and dedication to evoking a strong emotional response from her readers is evident on every page and completely successful. Absorbing and memorable, The German Child is a must-read volume for fans of World War II-era historical fiction.
Thanks to NetGalley for an Advance Reader's Copy of the book.
Hokin says The German Child is a book she has long wanted to write, The story was inspired when, while researching a prior novel, she happened upon a photograph of the Brown Sisters – Nazi child catchers. They were a group of women who were specially trained by the Third Reich and then dispatched to Poland and other parts of Europe, rounding up the children in each city or town and subjecting them to a selection process. Those who possessed the sixty-two Aryan traits specified in a physical characteristics test were forcibly removed from their families and underwent Aryanization; those who did not were either murdered or transported to camps where they were forced to perform grueling physical labor and, eventually, many also died. Some 200,000 children were kidnapped in Poland alone. Following the war, less than twenty per cent of the surviving children were reunited with their families.
The Lebensborn initiative was part of a “racially-based program of social engineering designed to redraw the face of Europe,” the architect of which was Reichsführer SS Heinrich Himmler. It was his “personal project” and “an integral part of the Third Reich’s ‘racial purity crusade’ to rid the world of anyone who was not deemed “pure,” designed to repopulate it with “good” families. Pregnant young women, most of whom were unmarried and socially stigmatized, were recruited with promises of financial support and medical care. They resided in one of twenty-six facilities within which at least 17,000 children were born for the purpose of furthering Germany’s goal of “securing the ‘right’ genetic future for the Reich” and handed off to be raised by Germans deemed worthy.
As The German Child opens in December 1979, Evie Ritter, a seasoned thirty-five-year-old divorced attorney, has landed her dream job with the U.S. Department of Justice’s Office of Special Investigations. In operation for a mere six weeks, the OSI’s mission is investigating suspected war crimes and prosecuting the perpetrators. Her workload is already overwhelming, as the OSI is inundated with requests for assistance, including from parents whose children were lost during the war and adults who suspect that the family histories they have heard their whole lives are works of fiction. Were they really born in America? Did their parents or other relatives commit or participate in wartime atrocities? Evie calls those seeking such assistance “the lost.”
Evie quickly becomes enmeshed in the case of Sebastian Taylor, a curator for the Smithsonian, when he appears in her office and announces, “I am a Lebensborn child. . . . I was born to be a soldier for Hitler, a leader of the Reich.” Sebastian produces a silver christening cup on which his birthday is engraved, along with “Vom Patenonkel, H. Himmler,” meaning “godfather.” In other words, he is Himmler’s godson. He explains that he has always known he was born in Germany, but believed that his father, with whom he had a loving relationship, “was one of the good ones.” On the very day his died, when Sebastian was just twelve years old, he learned that the cold, unkind woman he grew up believing was his mother was actually his stepmother and “I was my father’s Lebensborn bastard.” On that day, Sebastian became lost, with no understanding of his real identity. And he wants the OSI to help him find his birth mother because the “scale of the Lebensborn program, and what it really intended, is just starting to leak out.’ So, he argues, even though his quest is a decidedly personal one, the OSI’s resources can be devoted to finding the thousands of others “whose lives have been built on a lie.” Sebastian also believes that at least one of the Nazi women involved in the program may be living and working in the United States, based on a comment his stepmother made about a women’s health clinic: “So Himmler’s little pet talked herself in here too. . . . God help any of those mothers she gets near; she won’t let the wrong ones survive.”
A separate narrative relates the story of Helene Tellman, a beautiful and powerful child catcher who, with the Brown Sisters’ assistance, has achieved great success and earned the favor of the highest leaders in the Nazi party. She is a true believer, committed to “ridding Poland of the children who are no use to the Reich in order to make space for the German babies who will require its land and resources,” and proud of her ability to “ferret out a hidden Jewish child in a heartbeat” when terrified parents attempt to conceal their children from her. Most of the children she selects ultimately pass the physical characteristics test. And for the few who don’t, there is “plenty of space in the ovens for small bodies.” In fact, Helene brings two of Himmler’s mobile gas vans with her so that the children she targets can be “dead and buried before their mothers have time to miss them.” Helene’s duties also include supervising the birth and placement of the thousands of children born in the Lebensborn facilities.
Helene is a thirty-one-year-old physician and her 1943 wedding to Ulrich Reitter, a handsome rocket scientist working on the weapon the Nazis believe will enable them to win the war, is a public spectacle held at the stately and elegant Edel Hotel. Himmler, rather than her “too ordinary” father, walks her down the aisle and the union of the “ideal couple” is an important element of a propaganda campaign intended to convince Germans that the war effort is not floundering. For Helene, her marriage accomplishes two specific goals. It pleases her boss, who has pressured her to marry, and ensures her continued work. Although she has no desire to have children, it is expected. She and Ulrich are deeply in love and committed to each other, as well as their roles in the Third Reich. He agrees that they will have one child, rather than the four Himmler expects, and then get on with their lives, with Helene resolving to “pay other people to be what I won’t be to it.” But she gives birth “to a useless girl in a world which only values men,” and feels she has failed. She planned to produce a son, “a soldier for the Fuhrer. . . . She could have loved a boy,” but has no interest in her daughter and resumes her work immediately. But there is now a bounty on her head. She is a target of the resistance that calls her “Aniol Šmierci. The Angel of Death.” Which makes it more challenging to carry out her operations.
Worse, as the war drags on, it becomes increasingly clear that Germany is nearing defeat, and Ulrich and his fellow scientists have displeased Himmler with their failure to perfect the V2 rocket that the Nazis are banking on to secure victory. Ulrich is assigned to work at the Mittelbau-Dora concentration camp where thousands of prisoners of war descend deep into the mines every day . . . but many of them never emerge. They are simply replaced with arriving trainloads of slaves. Inside the mountain, missiles are being constructed amid fourteen miles of tunnels. But Helene and Ulrich know that the end of the Third Reich is inevitable, and they are determined to evade prison cells or, worse, death sentences for having committed war crimes. Luckily for them, the United States is willing to offer deals to scientists with valuable knowledge and skills that will help defeat Russia in the race to space. Operation Paperclip is admitting elite rocket and atomic specialists into America, providing them new identities and jobs – and obliterating their criminal histories.
Evie, the child of Helen and Alex Ritter, the director of a women’s health clinic and a rocket scientist, grew up in a wealthy area of Birmingham, Alabama, a city known for its segregation policies. Helen is admired for her work in a clinic situated in a less affluent and diverse part of town that provides services to needy women and their children. Evie has always been led to believe that her parents “fled” Switzerland, a claim that never made sense to her because that country took no active part in the war and was spared from attacks. In their home, there are no family photographs, and Evie’s parents have consistently refused to discuss family history. Evie’s innocent inquiries exasperate her mother, who insists, “Everything’s been lost. Everyone who mattered is long gone. Can that please be an end to it?” Her whole life, her parents have been cold, detached, uninterested in her and, as a child, Evie longed to be admitted into their “two-person world” and showered with the love they displayed for each other. Instead, she was cared for by others. Her contact with her parents since leaving home seventeen years ago has been sporadic, and largely a function of duty and responsibility rather than affection.
When Evie’s boss authorizes her to pursue the search for Sebastian’s mother, she travels with him to East Berlin. It is a frightening, intimidating place and they are warned that the first official visit to the American Embassy by a representative of the OSI will be monitored carefully by the Stasi, the German Democratic Republic’s secret police who do, in fact, follow and observe them. Despite complications, the trip yields important – and shocking – evidence. Perusing documents in search of information about the Lebensborn program, Evie finds a newspaper dated February 20, 1943. A front page photograph bears the images of the top leaders of the Third Reich — Hitler, Goebbels, Himmler, and Güring gaze proudly at a uniformed groom and his stunning bride. Even having grown up without seeing old photographs of her parents, Evie knows she is staring at a picture not of Helene Tillman and Ulrich Reitter, as they are identified in the caption, but of Helen and Alex Ritter.
When they meet, Evie and Sebastian are immediately drawn to each other. Both wounded not just from their respective upbringings, but also their painful divorces, they are cautious and tentative with each other. Sebastian is navigating an existential crisis, searching for his birth mother, and attempting to come to terms with the truth about the circumstances surrounding his conception and birth. He is striving to reconcile his discovery of his father’s true identity and affiliation with the Nazi party with his own self-concept. Is he worthy of love? Will he be accepted when others learn he is a Lebensborn child?
Unexpectedly, Evie finds herself in a comparable situation. Evie’s sense that her parents lied to her about their identities and backgrounds is validated, but that brings no satisfaction. The photograph confirms that they had to be highly placed within the leadership of the Third Reich, raising questions about their activities during the war. Did they commit war crimes? If so, the irony is both remarkable and deeply unsettling. Their own daughter is a member of a team of government officials charged with finding and bringing war criminals to justice. Was she really born in America? If she was born in Germany, she is not a United States citizen. What will that mean for the life she has created for herself — her career and, more particularly, her position at OSI?
Evie and Sebastian’s struggles are compelling fictional representations of the real experiences of Lebensborn victims. “For too many of the thousands of children born in the homes, life has been a constant battle to find answers and overcome prejudice,” according to Hokin. “In Norway in particular, where there were ten Lebensborn homes, the ‘children of shame’ have faced a long struggle for respect and rehabilitation.” Hokin believably demonstrates that Evie’s commitment to her beliefs, ideals, and profession are as solid and unshakable – integral to her core identity — as are Helene’s. They are both indomitable women . . . but opposite sides of the same coin. One is intent on carrying out a morally abhorrent and despicable agenda, and the other is determined to stop her.
The German Child is thoroughly researched, grounded in horrifying actual events and their aftermath. Hokin’s characters are credible, fully developed and, in the case of Evie and Sebastian, appropriately sympathetic. Helene, conversely, is the repulsive embodiment of evil. Through Evie and Sebastian, Hokin examines the far-reaching “long shadows left by war” that she, like other lovers of historical fiction, finds “endlessly fascinating.” The story is fast-paced and Hokin increases the dramatic tension as Evie, undaunted by the danger in which she places herself, pursues the whole unvarnished truth and seeks justice.
The German Child is a riveting, emotional tale through which Hokin challenges readers to ponder what they would do should they suddenly discover that everything they thought they knew about their family members’ history proved to be not just false, but shrouded in appalling crimes against humanity. Like Evie and Sebastian, Hokin invites readers to explore the extent to which one’s identity is derived from family and how much of one’s self-concept is independently formed by acquired beliefs and values.
Hokin writes that the myriad ways the Third Reich’s unspeakable policies “resulted in a Europe-wide and ongoing well of suffering, continues to take my breath away.” Her compassion for the characters she creates, and dedication to evoking a strong emotional response from her readers is evident on every page and completely successful. Absorbing and memorable, The German Child is a must-read volume for fans of World War II-era historical fiction.
Thanks to NetGalley for an Advance Reader's Copy of the book.
Broadcast Blues by R.G. Belsky
mysterious
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Author R.G. Belsky knows the news business and his fictional protagonist, Clare Carlson, is a news director for a New York City television station. Broadcast Blues is the sixth installment in the popular and award-winning series that debuted in 2018 with Yesterday’s News. Belsky has published subsequent volumes annually, all of which can be enjoyed as stand-alone mysteries. In total, Belsky has penned twenty novels set in New York City and centered around the media world (he also writes thrillers as Dana Perry). He enjoyed a long career in news, serving as the editor of the New York Post, New York Daily News, Star Magazine, and the managing editor of news for NBCNews.com. He is a contributing writer for The Big Thrill magazine.
But Belsky is quick to point out that writing with too much authenticity and making fictional mysteries too realistic and believable “can sometimes be . . . well, boring.” His career “was never anything like Clare’s,” he relates. “Clare’s story is a lot more interesting than mine. Or any other real-life journalist who goes through the day-to-day drudgery without all the excitement in Clare’s world.”
As Broadcast Blues opens, Clare is about to celebrate her fiftieth birthday and having a bit of an existential crisis about that. She is a thrice-divorced mother of one daughter, Lucy (aka Linda), with whom she only developed a relationship when Lucy was twenty-five years old. She also has a granddaughter, Emily. She has enjoyed a lengthy, successful career in television news. She currently serves as both the news director and an on-air reporter. But the news industry is changing and the station where she works, Channel 10, is being sold. All of the employees, including Clare, are worried about their futures under new ownership. And for Clare, the newsroom is not just her place of employment. It is her “true home. My sanctuary.” She is convinced that what she really needs to prevent being a casualty of the station’s new management taking the newsroom in a new direction is a really big story. To say that she is not on good terms with Susan Endicott, the executive producer of Channel 10 news (whose own job might well be on the chopping block once the sale is finalized), is an understatement. Belsky aptly describes Susan as a “loathsome woman,” “egotistical and ambitious,” and her treatment of Clare is inexcusably despicable. But they form an uneasy alliance in the interest of mutual self-preservation. Because if Clare can demonstrate her continuing value to the station, the job she loves deeply may be secure. And Susan may still be employed, as well, so Clare figures it is in her best interests to maintain a collegial, if not friendly, relationship with her. Outwardly, at least.
Sure enough, “the news gods” plunk a big story right in Clare’s proverbial lap. Wendy Kyle, a thirty-two-year-old former police officer whose two marriages both ended in divorce, operated Heartbreak Investigations, specializing in high-profile divorce cases, primarily scandalous ones. She often testified in court about her findings. She ran ads proclaiming, “We Catch Cheats for You,” promising to secure evidence that a husband or lover was unfaithful with a technique she called The Honey Trap. Wendy was killed instantly when she got into her car, which was parked in front of her Times Square office – right in the heart of Manhattan – and it exploded. The police naturally suspect that her murder is related to one of the cases she was handling.
Clare immediately reports Wendy’s death. Fortunately, she has a source within the NYPD – her third ex-husband, Sam Markham, just happens to be a homicide sergeant and they have remained on good terms. But it’s a dead end. Curiously, Sam is not involved in the investigation. “It’s being handled by people at the top – way above my paygrade,” he tells her. But Sam did hear some scuttlebutt. Wendy kept a diary, and one page was recovered from her office in which she referenced Ronald Bannister, a billionaire whose wife may have retained Wendy. Clare’s investigation is underway.
Clare is a savvy and tenacious journalist who has developed many connections and sources over the years, along with techniques and maneuvers that are highly effective and at times border on unethical. But she knows how to push the boundaries without eradicating them. She is also self-assured, competent, and frequently sarcastic and a bit caustic. Her first-person narrative reveals her thought processes, frustrations, and machinations. It is candid, sometimes self-deprecating and, at times, hilarious. She is self-aware and not proud of the fact that all of her marriages failed. She discovers details about Wendy’s law enforcement career, including the fact that Wendy’s ouster was preceded by her filing complaints of sexual harassment and police corruption, and finds herself empathizing with Wendy, who was both a heroic officer who volunteered at and supported a women’s homeless shelter, and a hot-head who was disciplined for defying authority and engaging in a physical altercation with the man she accused of harassing her in the workplace. Clare observes that Wendy was “a paradox. A talented woman who couldn’t keep her mouth shut and walk away from trouble when she should. I suppose I identified with her a bit because I knew I had some of those same qualities, good and bad.” The more Clare learns about Wendy’s history, business, and what may have motivated her murder, the more intent Clare becomes on finding her killer, reporting on salient developments in the case as her inquiry proceeds.
Belsky surrounds Clare with a colorful and intriguing cast of supporting characters. Janet Wood is her best friend. A successful lawyer, happily married with two daughters, is “very sane and logical . . . like my exact opposite,” Clare explains. But their friendship is unconditional, and Janet offers Clare wise counsel, as well as support and honesty. Clare also respects and turns to Jack Faron, her former boss, from whom she seeks advice “about tricky situations.” She admits to Janet that she is still attracted to and thinking a lot about Scott Manning, an FBI agent with whom she had an off-and-on-again extramarital affair. Reaching out to him for information is risky because she is not currently involved with a man and rather lonely. She is tempted to rekindle her relationship with him, but he is still married, and Clare is not without a conscience. Skirting the edges of journalistic integrity, she enlists the help of enigmatic computer hacker Todd, who has appeared in previous installments.
Belsky has crafted a clever, multi-layered, and action-packed mystery, introducing additional characters and surprising revelations about their potential connections to Wendy’s murder at an unrelenting pace. As Clare moves closer to uncovering the motive for Wendy’s killing, she encounters others who are frantically attempting to destroy the evidence of those links. Wealthy, powerful, and influential characters will do whatever is required to conceal the truth in order to preserve their lifestyles and see their plans come to fruition. That includes terminating Clare’s investigation by any means necessary. Belsky deftly ramps up the dramatic tension as Clare finds herself in danger.
Broadcast Blues is suspenseful, absorbing, and entertaining. Clare is endearingly flawed and, in many respects, relatable and empathetic. She loves her career but is fully cognizant of how youth-oriented television news is. And she is facing an upcoming milestone birthday just when her future with Channel 10 hangs in the balance and Lucy is navigating a crisis of her own. Clare demonstrates a willingness to take potentially lethal chances in order to not only ensure that Wendy’s killer is held to account for the crime but ensure her own continued relevance in the process. But at Clare’s age, what does it mean to be relevant in television news? And what is the cost of relevance and an unremitting devotion to chasing news stories? Clare seeks answers to those and other important questions as she ponders the next phase of her life and assesses her priorities. Belsky provides a thoroughly satisfying conclusion that will leave readers anxious to read the next volume to see how Clare’s choices work out.
Thanks to NetGalley for an Advance Reader's Copy of the book.
But Belsky is quick to point out that writing with too much authenticity and making fictional mysteries too realistic and believable “can sometimes be . . . well, boring.” His career “was never anything like Clare’s,” he relates. “Clare’s story is a lot more interesting than mine. Or any other real-life journalist who goes through the day-to-day drudgery without all the excitement in Clare’s world.”
As Broadcast Blues opens, Clare is about to celebrate her fiftieth birthday and having a bit of an existential crisis about that. She is a thrice-divorced mother of one daughter, Lucy (aka Linda), with whom she only developed a relationship when Lucy was twenty-five years old. She also has a granddaughter, Emily. She has enjoyed a lengthy, successful career in television news. She currently serves as both the news director and an on-air reporter. But the news industry is changing and the station where she works, Channel 10, is being sold. All of the employees, including Clare, are worried about their futures under new ownership. And for Clare, the newsroom is not just her place of employment. It is her “true home. My sanctuary.” She is convinced that what she really needs to prevent being a casualty of the station’s new management taking the newsroom in a new direction is a really big story. To say that she is not on good terms with Susan Endicott, the executive producer of Channel 10 news (whose own job might well be on the chopping block once the sale is finalized), is an understatement. Belsky aptly describes Susan as a “loathsome woman,” “egotistical and ambitious,” and her treatment of Clare is inexcusably despicable. But they form an uneasy alliance in the interest of mutual self-preservation. Because if Clare can demonstrate her continuing value to the station, the job she loves deeply may be secure. And Susan may still be employed, as well, so Clare figures it is in her best interests to maintain a collegial, if not friendly, relationship with her. Outwardly, at least.
Sure enough, “the news gods” plunk a big story right in Clare’s proverbial lap. Wendy Kyle, a thirty-two-year-old former police officer whose two marriages both ended in divorce, operated Heartbreak Investigations, specializing in high-profile divorce cases, primarily scandalous ones. She often testified in court about her findings. She ran ads proclaiming, “We Catch Cheats for You,” promising to secure evidence that a husband or lover was unfaithful with a technique she called The Honey Trap. Wendy was killed instantly when she got into her car, which was parked in front of her Times Square office – right in the heart of Manhattan – and it exploded. The police naturally suspect that her murder is related to one of the cases she was handling.
Clare immediately reports Wendy’s death. Fortunately, she has a source within the NYPD – her third ex-husband, Sam Markham, just happens to be a homicide sergeant and they have remained on good terms. But it’s a dead end. Curiously, Sam is not involved in the investigation. “It’s being handled by people at the top – way above my paygrade,” he tells her. But Sam did hear some scuttlebutt. Wendy kept a diary, and one page was recovered from her office in which she referenced Ronald Bannister, a billionaire whose wife may have retained Wendy. Clare’s investigation is underway.
Clare is a savvy and tenacious journalist who has developed many connections and sources over the years, along with techniques and maneuvers that are highly effective and at times border on unethical. But she knows how to push the boundaries without eradicating them. She is also self-assured, competent, and frequently sarcastic and a bit caustic. Her first-person narrative reveals her thought processes, frustrations, and machinations. It is candid, sometimes self-deprecating and, at times, hilarious. She is self-aware and not proud of the fact that all of her marriages failed. She discovers details about Wendy’s law enforcement career, including the fact that Wendy’s ouster was preceded by her filing complaints of sexual harassment and police corruption, and finds herself empathizing with Wendy, who was both a heroic officer who volunteered at and supported a women’s homeless shelter, and a hot-head who was disciplined for defying authority and engaging in a physical altercation with the man she accused of harassing her in the workplace. Clare observes that Wendy was “a paradox. A talented woman who couldn’t keep her mouth shut and walk away from trouble when she should. I suppose I identified with her a bit because I knew I had some of those same qualities, good and bad.” The more Clare learns about Wendy’s history, business, and what may have motivated her murder, the more intent Clare becomes on finding her killer, reporting on salient developments in the case as her inquiry proceeds.
Belsky surrounds Clare with a colorful and intriguing cast of supporting characters. Janet Wood is her best friend. A successful lawyer, happily married with two daughters, is “very sane and logical . . . like my exact opposite,” Clare explains. But their friendship is unconditional, and Janet offers Clare wise counsel, as well as support and honesty. Clare also respects and turns to Jack Faron, her former boss, from whom she seeks advice “about tricky situations.” She admits to Janet that she is still attracted to and thinking a lot about Scott Manning, an FBI agent with whom she had an off-and-on-again extramarital affair. Reaching out to him for information is risky because she is not currently involved with a man and rather lonely. She is tempted to rekindle her relationship with him, but he is still married, and Clare is not without a conscience. Skirting the edges of journalistic integrity, she enlists the help of enigmatic computer hacker Todd, who has appeared in previous installments.
Belsky has crafted a clever, multi-layered, and action-packed mystery, introducing additional characters and surprising revelations about their potential connections to Wendy’s murder at an unrelenting pace. As Clare moves closer to uncovering the motive for Wendy’s killing, she encounters others who are frantically attempting to destroy the evidence of those links. Wealthy, powerful, and influential characters will do whatever is required to conceal the truth in order to preserve their lifestyles and see their plans come to fruition. That includes terminating Clare’s investigation by any means necessary. Belsky deftly ramps up the dramatic tension as Clare finds herself in danger.
Broadcast Blues is suspenseful, absorbing, and entertaining. Clare is endearingly flawed and, in many respects, relatable and empathetic. She loves her career but is fully cognizant of how youth-oriented television news is. And she is facing an upcoming milestone birthday just when her future with Channel 10 hangs in the balance and Lucy is navigating a crisis of her own. Clare demonstrates a willingness to take potentially lethal chances in order to not only ensure that Wendy’s killer is held to account for the crime but ensure her own continued relevance in the process. But at Clare’s age, what does it mean to be relevant in television news? And what is the cost of relevance and an unremitting devotion to chasing news stories? Clare seeks answers to those and other important questions as she ponders the next phase of her life and assesses her priorities. Belsky provides a thoroughly satisfying conclusion that will leave readers anxious to read the next volume to see how Clare’s choices work out.
Thanks to NetGalley for an Advance Reader's Copy of the book.
We Must Not Think of Ourselves by Lauren Grodstein
dark
emotional
hopeful
informative
inspiring
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
5.0
Author Lauren Grodstein believes that had her great-grandparents not left Warsaw twenty years before World War II, she likely would not have been born. She first learned about the Oneg Shabbat Archive in 2019 when she traveled to Poland with her family and they “stumbled into” the Archive, one wall of which bears the words “What we’ve unable to shout out to the world.” Displayed there are notebooks, paintings and drawings, and one of the large milk cans in which those documents were buried so that they, fortunately, withstood the destruction of the Warsaw Ghetto in 1943. Grodstein recalls that as they were leaving, she observed, “There are a thousand novels in that room,” to which her sister replied, “Maybe you should write one.” She then spent a full year researching and pondering the story because she wanted to be sure she could “do justice to those people and their stories, and honor them.”
“It is up to us to write our own history. Deny the Germans the last word.” We Must Not Think of Ourselves opens with that December 1940 entreaty to fictional Adam Paskow. He is enlisted to record “all the details, even if they seem insignificant,” as part of an archival project so that after World War II, the world will know “the truth about what happened.” Adam agrees, accepting the risk that if his activities are discovered, he will likely be executed. The archive group is called Oneg Shabbat, meaning “the joy of the Sabbath.”
Adam begins with his own history. In a first-person narrative, he explains that he is a Jewish English teacher living in a cramped apartment with two other families, teaching about four to six students in the basement of a bombed-out movie theater. He met his wife, Kasia, when they were both studying English literature in college. She was the Catholic daughter of a wealthy and influential official with the Polish government. They married in 1930 and were happy, even though they were never able to have children, until she died tragically. Even after her death, her father, Henryk, who at least ostensibly accepted his daughter’s marriage to a Jewish man, continued serving as Adam’s benefactor, enabling him to continue residing in their stylish apartment on his public teacher’s salary. After being forced to relocate to the Ghetto, Adam resolved to continue teaching, despite having no novels, short stories, or textbooks, and committed to assigning to his pupils only uplifting and joyous poems that he memorized over the years. His students attend class sporadically, largely because they are often engaging in forbidden bartering or stealing in an effort to gather enough food for their families to survive.
A year after Germany invaded Poland, Adam still struggles to understand world events and the purported logic behind them. He remains understandably baffled by the bombardment and decimation of his homeland, and the unbridled atrocities he has already witnessed. He cannot fathom what the Polish people may have done to provoke the “terrorizing of children, the stabbing of old men on the streets, the rape of our young women, and the public hanging of our soldiers.” He could have fled to Palestine to reside with his brother and mother, but like so many others, he stayed. “We had our lives and our livelihoods, and couldn’t envision starting over somewhere” else. “I’ll wait for the Allies, I suppose,” Adam told his father-in-law, when Henryk offered to secure a Polish kennkarte (passport) for him. (Henryk suspiciously sought to retrieve jewelry he gifted Kasia -- items Adam viewed as a potential safety net) Adam could not foresee, of course, that the Germans would rob him and his fellow Jews of much more than their money, prohibiting them from practicing their professions, forcing them out of their homes and synagogues, denying them basic civil rights, and, finally, taking their freedom, insisting they had to be relocated because they “carried disease.” Only when Adam arrives at his new apartment does he realize that he has been double-crossed by Henryk and the apartment he believed he would solely occupy will, in fact, also be home to the Lescovec and Wiskoff families and their total of five rambunctious sons. With no options, they all agree “to try to live our lives peaceably . . . until a better situation presents itself.” The gates to the new district in which they are forced to reside were locked on November 16, 1940.
To relate the stories of those he interviews for the project, Grodstein includes Adam’s notes. Their histories are fascinating, absorbing, and largely heartbreaking. As the days pass, their living conditions worsen and they do not have enough food. But there is a black market and Adam saved some valuable items to trade, a dangerous endeavor, in order to help feed the children who are part of his household. Adam’s narrative is straightforward and candid, his descriptions of the horrors of life in the Ghetto and the brutalities he witnesses unsparing, but essential to an understanding of his experiences and emotions.
Adam is principled, dedicated to his students, and likable. His story is completely gripping and sympathetic. His naivete is evident, as Grodstein illustrates, in part, through his interactions with other characters. He grows close to his housemates, especially Sala Wiskoff, who is focused on keeping her two sons alive. They are actively smuggling food, while her husband, Emil, has been leveled by grief over the death of his mother. Sala ponders whether they are “really are just waiting here to die.” Adam rationalizes that “they can’t kill all of us. What would be the gain in that? It’s illogical. And the Nazis pride themselves on being logical.” Isolated and cut off from the rest of the world, Adam and his fellow prisoners in the Ghetto have no idea what is actually taking place beyond the locked gates. But their musings and struggle to find reason in a world gone mad is fascinating, thought-provoking, and enlightening, especially when considered through the lens of history.
Grodstein has deftly created a cast of vibrant characters whose stories are mesmerizing. Szifra Joseph, a beautiful and intelligent fifteen-year-old who was Adam’s student before the war, is one of the most memorable. Her family was wealthy – her father owned a clothing factory which was commandeered by the Germans – but now her mother, on the verge of complete mental collapse, toils in a brush factory and her younger brothers risk their lives foraging for food. Her family has connections to the Warner Brothers in Hollywood, and she plans to use those connections to make her way to California once the Ghetto is liberated. Because of all she has been through, she is angry, outspoken, cynical, and jaded. She believes she can secure her family’s safety through manipulation and persuasion, relying on her charms to gain favor with their captors. She is certain she can obtain kennkartes that will enable them to escape. “It is my choice to take charge of my life and my goals and protect my family and rely on the good graces of whomever can help me,” she tells Afam.
We Must Not Think of Ourselves is moving and emotionally impactful because, remarkably, Grodstein manages, seemingly effortlessly, to craft an engrossing story that is both uplifting and life-affirming. Despite everything he must ensure, Adam finds love and it helps sustain him as, with each passing day, matters grow more dire. The relationship is undeniably born from the circumstances in which Adam and the woman find themselves, but the ways in which they cling to and comfort each other are believable, understandable, and deeply affecting. Grodstein says it was “very important to me to shine a light in the darkness. Even with material as serious as this, to provide some sense that life could get better at the end.” Indeed, as the late Harvey Milk wisely observed, “You cannot live on hope alone, but without it, life is not worth living.” Despite his experiences, Adam – in part because he is too naïve and inherently decent to imagine the extent and types of evil the Nazis will eventually unleash – is able to maintain hope that the Allies will in fact rescue him and the others. His commitment to the archive is evidence of his optimism and belief that the world will someday know the truth about exactly what transpired in the Ghetto. Which is not to say that his confidence is unfailing. He fights not to fall into permanent dispair, at one point convinced that "we are creating a portrait of Polish Jews at the end of our history.” However, Grodstein credibly shows that holding on to optimism and hope leads to triumph, even if not without sacrifice.
We Must Not Think of Ourselves is one of the best books of 2023, a stand-out tale on bookshelves crowded with volumes of World War II historical fiction. Grodstein elevates the genre because of the compassionate, measured, and seamless way she relates the various ways in which Adam and the other characters refuse to give up, give in, or relinquish their identities and histories . . . or abandon their commitment to the truth. In addition to being an absorbing and deeply moving exploration of events that occurred in a particular time and place to a specific group of people, it is also both contemporary and timely, a warning against complacency and a conviction that history is incapable of repeating itself. She says her motivation for penning the book was a “desire to honor those who remained, who died, and who left us their words. . . . I did my best to hear, and to share, what they could not shout out to the world.” We Must Not Think of Ourselves is inarguably the loving and riveting homage she envisioned.
Thanks to NetGalley for an Advance Reader's Copy and BookBrowse for a physical copy of the book in conjunction with its First Impressions program.
“It is up to us to write our own history. Deny the Germans the last word.” We Must Not Think of Ourselves opens with that December 1940 entreaty to fictional Adam Paskow. He is enlisted to record “all the details, even if they seem insignificant,” as part of an archival project so that after World War II, the world will know “the truth about what happened.” Adam agrees, accepting the risk that if his activities are discovered, he will likely be executed. The archive group is called Oneg Shabbat, meaning “the joy of the Sabbath.”
Adam begins with his own history. In a first-person narrative, he explains that he is a Jewish English teacher living in a cramped apartment with two other families, teaching about four to six students in the basement of a bombed-out movie theater. He met his wife, Kasia, when they were both studying English literature in college. She was the Catholic daughter of a wealthy and influential official with the Polish government. They married in 1930 and were happy, even though they were never able to have children, until she died tragically. Even after her death, her father, Henryk, who at least ostensibly accepted his daughter’s marriage to a Jewish man, continued serving as Adam’s benefactor, enabling him to continue residing in their stylish apartment on his public teacher’s salary. After being forced to relocate to the Ghetto, Adam resolved to continue teaching, despite having no novels, short stories, or textbooks, and committed to assigning to his pupils only uplifting and joyous poems that he memorized over the years. His students attend class sporadically, largely because they are often engaging in forbidden bartering or stealing in an effort to gather enough food for their families to survive.
A year after Germany invaded Poland, Adam still struggles to understand world events and the purported logic behind them. He remains understandably baffled by the bombardment and decimation of his homeland, and the unbridled atrocities he has already witnessed. He cannot fathom what the Polish people may have done to provoke the “terrorizing of children, the stabbing of old men on the streets, the rape of our young women, and the public hanging of our soldiers.” He could have fled to Palestine to reside with his brother and mother, but like so many others, he stayed. “We had our lives and our livelihoods, and couldn’t envision starting over somewhere” else. “I’ll wait for the Allies, I suppose,” Adam told his father-in-law, when Henryk offered to secure a Polish kennkarte (passport) for him. (Henryk suspiciously sought to retrieve jewelry he gifted Kasia -- items Adam viewed as a potential safety net) Adam could not foresee, of course, that the Germans would rob him and his fellow Jews of much more than their money, prohibiting them from practicing their professions, forcing them out of their homes and synagogues, denying them basic civil rights, and, finally, taking their freedom, insisting they had to be relocated because they “carried disease.” Only when Adam arrives at his new apartment does he realize that he has been double-crossed by Henryk and the apartment he believed he would solely occupy will, in fact, also be home to the Lescovec and Wiskoff families and their total of five rambunctious sons. With no options, they all agree “to try to live our lives peaceably . . . until a better situation presents itself.” The gates to the new district in which they are forced to reside were locked on November 16, 1940.
To relate the stories of those he interviews for the project, Grodstein includes Adam’s notes. Their histories are fascinating, absorbing, and largely heartbreaking. As the days pass, their living conditions worsen and they do not have enough food. But there is a black market and Adam saved some valuable items to trade, a dangerous endeavor, in order to help feed the children who are part of his household. Adam’s narrative is straightforward and candid, his descriptions of the horrors of life in the Ghetto and the brutalities he witnesses unsparing, but essential to an understanding of his experiences and emotions.
Adam is principled, dedicated to his students, and likable. His story is completely gripping and sympathetic. His naivete is evident, as Grodstein illustrates, in part, through his interactions with other characters. He grows close to his housemates, especially Sala Wiskoff, who is focused on keeping her two sons alive. They are actively smuggling food, while her husband, Emil, has been leveled by grief over the death of his mother. Sala ponders whether they are “really are just waiting here to die.” Adam rationalizes that “they can’t kill all of us. What would be the gain in that? It’s illogical. And the Nazis pride themselves on being logical.” Isolated and cut off from the rest of the world, Adam and his fellow prisoners in the Ghetto have no idea what is actually taking place beyond the locked gates. But their musings and struggle to find reason in a world gone mad is fascinating, thought-provoking, and enlightening, especially when considered through the lens of history.
Grodstein has deftly created a cast of vibrant characters whose stories are mesmerizing. Szifra Joseph, a beautiful and intelligent fifteen-year-old who was Adam’s student before the war, is one of the most memorable. Her family was wealthy – her father owned a clothing factory which was commandeered by the Germans – but now her mother, on the verge of complete mental collapse, toils in a brush factory and her younger brothers risk their lives foraging for food. Her family has connections to the Warner Brothers in Hollywood, and she plans to use those connections to make her way to California once the Ghetto is liberated. Because of all she has been through, she is angry, outspoken, cynical, and jaded. She believes she can secure her family’s safety through manipulation and persuasion, relying on her charms to gain favor with their captors. She is certain she can obtain kennkartes that will enable them to escape. “It is my choice to take charge of my life and my goals and protect my family and rely on the good graces of whomever can help me,” she tells Afam.
We Must Not Think of Ourselves is moving and emotionally impactful because, remarkably, Grodstein manages, seemingly effortlessly, to craft an engrossing story that is both uplifting and life-affirming. Despite everything he must ensure, Adam finds love and it helps sustain him as, with each passing day, matters grow more dire. The relationship is undeniably born from the circumstances in which Adam and the woman find themselves, but the ways in which they cling to and comfort each other are believable, understandable, and deeply affecting. Grodstein says it was “very important to me to shine a light in the darkness. Even with material as serious as this, to provide some sense that life could get better at the end.” Indeed, as the late Harvey Milk wisely observed, “You cannot live on hope alone, but without it, life is not worth living.” Despite his experiences, Adam – in part because he is too naïve and inherently decent to imagine the extent and types of evil the Nazis will eventually unleash – is able to maintain hope that the Allies will in fact rescue him and the others. His commitment to the archive is evidence of his optimism and belief that the world will someday know the truth about exactly what transpired in the Ghetto. Which is not to say that his confidence is unfailing. He fights not to fall into permanent dispair, at one point convinced that "we are creating a portrait of Polish Jews at the end of our history.” However, Grodstein credibly shows that holding on to optimism and hope leads to triumph, even if not without sacrifice.
We Must Not Think of Ourselves is one of the best books of 2023, a stand-out tale on bookshelves crowded with volumes of World War II historical fiction. Grodstein elevates the genre because of the compassionate, measured, and seamless way she relates the various ways in which Adam and the other characters refuse to give up, give in, or relinquish their identities and histories . . . or abandon their commitment to the truth. In addition to being an absorbing and deeply moving exploration of events that occurred in a particular time and place to a specific group of people, it is also both contemporary and timely, a warning against complacency and a conviction that history is incapable of repeating itself. She says her motivation for penning the book was a “desire to honor those who remained, who died, and who left us their words. . . . I did my best to hear, and to share, what they could not shout out to the world.” We Must Not Think of Ourselves is inarguably the loving and riveting homage she envisioned.
Thanks to NetGalley for an Advance Reader's Copy and BookBrowse for a physical copy of the book in conjunction with its First Impressions program.
The Madstone by Elizabeth Crook
adventurous
dark
emotional
funny
hopeful
informative
inspiring
reflective
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.0
Author Elizabeth Crook was inspired to pen The Madstone by a desire to write about Benjamin Shreve again. He first appeared in The Which Way Tree at the age of seventeen. Crook says she wanted to "age him up a little bit and give him a chance to have a first love and [let readers] see the world through his eyes for a longer period of time." She finds him an "endearing character" – as will readers of The Madstone -- and "missed him" after she finished writing that prior novel.
The Reconstruction era began with the end of the Civil War in May 1865, and continued until the Compromise of 1877. Americans were rebuilding infrastructure, struggling to unify a fractured republic and reintegrate the states that seceded, and move past the destructive social, political, and economic impacts of slavery. The 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments were passed, granting equal civil rights to all persons, but it was a turbulent time characterized by denial of rights to and ongoing violent attacks against Blacks, particularly in the South. While researching the period, Crooks learned about the Swamp Fox (depicted in The Madstone) and other gangs that preyed on Freed men and women, and government representatives from the Freedman's Bureau (part of the U.S. Army, established by President Abraham Lincoln but later disbanded due to corruption). The gangs hid in the swamps, emerging to commit atrocities.
The story opens in Comfort, Texas, in November 1868, and is presented in the form of a letter written by Benjamin to Tot, Nell’s son. Benjamin explains that he wants to tell Tot about the days they spent together but the letter will not be delivered to Tot until he is nineteen – Benjamin’s current age. Benjamin recognizes that Tot is not likely to remember all that occurred, and certainly not from the same perspective as Benjamin, who is “bound to remember these days I write about until the reaper should come fetch me.” After a brief introduction, Benjamin relates what happened earlier that year in what Crook calls a "linear" manner as her characters travel from one place to another and "many, many things happen along the way."
Benjamin describes his work as a carpenter, crafting household furniture, and renting a room in a German widow’s home. Working in the yard, he observed a stagecoach stopped across the street with Tot and his mother, Nell, inside. He also witnessed a dispute between the sheriff and a male passenger that culminated in the traveler’s arrest. Not long after, a rider recklessly charged into town from the same direction the coach had arrived on a horse that “was badly lathered and winded.” He seemed desperate to find a new horse to continue his journey, but the livery had none to offer nor did Benjamin. In frustration, he “mounted his spent roan, set spurs to it and rode off” just as the first passenger appeared and began yelling at the stable boy that one of his bags was not left behind when the coach departed without him. He, too, was looking for a horse and Benjamin decided there was something trustworthy about him. Although Benjamin had no intention of letting the man take off riding Benjamin’s only horse, an old mare, he agreed to take the man as far as Boerne, where he might find another horse, for a fair price. The man was carrying a pouch that appeared to be full of gold pesos like the one he showed Benjamin.
So the two of them set out to catch up with the coach, “at the usual pace for my mare, which is not a fast one.” Unbeknownst to Benjamin at the time, he was embarking on an adventure that would last longer than anticipated, take him further from home than planned, and forever change him. Along the way, Benjamin and his new companion, Richard Dean Bell, aka “Dickie,” a treasure hunter on his way to Indianola to board a ship to New Orleans, find themselves in a variety of unexpected and dangerous predicaments.
First, they encounter the rider, now barefoot and shirtless, walking along the road. He had been robbed and beaten, and Benjamin agreed to take him to Boerne, as well. Following an argument, the man tried to strike Dickie with a hammer he pulled from Benjamin’s toolbox, but missed and struck Benjamin’s mare instead before toppling out of the wagon and hitting his head. Hauling the injured man back into the wagon, Benjamin proceeded while Dickie talked incessantly, relating tales of his travels and treasure hunts.
Eventually, they come upon the coach being held up by the same robbers who attacked the rider. And Dickie spies his missing bag. Shots are fired, and the rider is killed. Soon, Benjamin and Dickie continue their journey with Nell, Tot, and the stagecoach driver joining them, and the rider’s body secured in the back of the wagon to be delivered to the undertaker in Boerne after questioning by the marshal. Nell insisted that her husband “had gone broke from the war and run off and left her to raise their son and the baby yet to be born” any minute. Tot told Benjamin that his father no longer lived with him and mother, and was instead living with a big swamp fox.
At last, their trip proceeds and the identity of the dead rider is revealed. Benjamin learns that Nell is running not just from her husband, but his family, as well. She is determined to reach Indianola and also board a ship to New Orleans where she and her children will be safe with one of her relatives. The matriarch of her husband’s family is a vile, conniving woman who controls and directs their violent gang activity. Nell could no longer remain silent in the face of their criminality and informed law enforcement of their activities and whereabouts. Now she and her children are in danger because her husband’s brothers are in hot pursuit, ordered by their mother to kill Nell and kidnap Tot so he can grow up to join their gang.
Crook says when she learned about the gangs, she pondered what it would be like to be in Nell’s shoes. She knew terrible crimes were being committed, but women had few rights, especially when it came to raising their children. Crook wanted to explore the point at which a woman in Nell’s situation would be able to muster the courage to turn in not just her own husband, but his whole family, with the certainty that she would be subjected to retribution. Nell provides information to the sheriff, in part, because “her own sense of guilt catches up with her" concerning one particularly heinous incident. She has no choice but to run because she cannot permit Tot or her unborn child to be raised amid or by such monstrous criminals. That, being the “most threatening thing to a mother,” provides Nell’s motivation and she will do anything to protect her children. She could not have foreseen that she would encounter and be aided by Benjamin, and their relationship deepens quickly during the few, fraught days they spend together. Crook, writing in Benjamin’s voice, describes his growing feelings for Nell in a believable and tender manner. Benjamin is hardly more than a boy himself, but he realizes he is forming a strong bond with Nell, and he is capable of being and wants be a loving father to both Tot and Nell’s yet-to-be-born child. As the fast-paced story proceeds, Benjamin matures and reveals himself to be principled, quite bright, and loyal, especially to the sister he has sworn to wait for at home and still believes might return.
Despite the precarious situations in which her characters find themselves – and there are many tense moments when Benjamin and the other characters must quickly devise strategies to outwit their pursuers, as well as the elements, to survive -- Crook has deftly crafted a narrative that is filled with humor. Benjamin’s descriptions of his adventure, and reactions to the people he encounters and challenges he withstands, are frequently hilarious which, from Crook’s perspective, is because he has no idea he is being funny. He merely offers his observations (phonetic spellings included), recounting the complications and setbacks along the way, recalling his fears as the gang chases them across Texas, in a straight-forward, unembellished, and often naïve and awestruck manner. Crook aptly describes him as very "earnest, sincere, and dutiful," noting that he is just trying "in an honest way to relate the story." Crook’s understanding of her character, and skillful demonstration of his indomitable spirit and determination to keep himself and his companions safe, makes the story riveting and readers will find themselves taking Benjamin into their heart, and cheering for his mission to succeed.
The book’s title? In American folklore, a madstone was a rock or other object believed to have the power to draw poison out of a bite from an animal when pressed into the bite after being soaked in milk. Madstones were treasured because they represented and offered hope at a time when there were no medical cures for rabies, venomous snake bites, etc. The title was selected because one such magical object comes into play at a turning point in the story, according to Crook.
The Madstone is delightfully entertaining and evocative of classic, beloved Western novels, films, and television programs, replete with perilous situations, shocking revelations, an eclectic cast of fascinating and memorable supporting characters, and even secret treasure and a legendary curse.
But it is also an emotionally rich and thought-provoking story of bravery, the power of a courageous mother’s devotion to her children’s futures, and multiple literal and figurative journeys, including Benjamin’s journey to manhood and what he learns about the world beyond Comfort, Texas, and the people who inhabit it. Benjamin gains a deeper understanding of honor and the importance of keeping promises, and finds the first love Crook wanted him to experience . . . as well as so much more. It's understandable that Crook missed Benjamin and describes him as her favorite out of all the characters she has created during her career. Hopefully, Crook will reunite readers with him and, perhaps, Tot, when both are a bit older and certainly wiser, in a future novel.
Thanks to NetGalley for an Advance Reader's Copy of the book.
The Reconstruction era began with the end of the Civil War in May 1865, and continued until the Compromise of 1877. Americans were rebuilding infrastructure, struggling to unify a fractured republic and reintegrate the states that seceded, and move past the destructive social, political, and economic impacts of slavery. The 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments were passed, granting equal civil rights to all persons, but it was a turbulent time characterized by denial of rights to and ongoing violent attacks against Blacks, particularly in the South. While researching the period, Crooks learned about the Swamp Fox (depicted in The Madstone) and other gangs that preyed on Freed men and women, and government representatives from the Freedman's Bureau (part of the U.S. Army, established by President Abraham Lincoln but later disbanded due to corruption). The gangs hid in the swamps, emerging to commit atrocities.
The story opens in Comfort, Texas, in November 1868, and is presented in the form of a letter written by Benjamin to Tot, Nell’s son. Benjamin explains that he wants to tell Tot about the days they spent together but the letter will not be delivered to Tot until he is nineteen – Benjamin’s current age. Benjamin recognizes that Tot is not likely to remember all that occurred, and certainly not from the same perspective as Benjamin, who is “bound to remember these days I write about until the reaper should come fetch me.” After a brief introduction, Benjamin relates what happened earlier that year in what Crook calls a "linear" manner as her characters travel from one place to another and "many, many things happen along the way."
Benjamin describes his work as a carpenter, crafting household furniture, and renting a room in a German widow’s home. Working in the yard, he observed a stagecoach stopped across the street with Tot and his mother, Nell, inside. He also witnessed a dispute between the sheriff and a male passenger that culminated in the traveler’s arrest. Not long after, a rider recklessly charged into town from the same direction the coach had arrived on a horse that “was badly lathered and winded.” He seemed desperate to find a new horse to continue his journey, but the livery had none to offer nor did Benjamin. In frustration, he “mounted his spent roan, set spurs to it and rode off” just as the first passenger appeared and began yelling at the stable boy that one of his bags was not left behind when the coach departed without him. He, too, was looking for a horse and Benjamin decided there was something trustworthy about him. Although Benjamin had no intention of letting the man take off riding Benjamin’s only horse, an old mare, he agreed to take the man as far as Boerne, where he might find another horse, for a fair price. The man was carrying a pouch that appeared to be full of gold pesos like the one he showed Benjamin.
So the two of them set out to catch up with the coach, “at the usual pace for my mare, which is not a fast one.” Unbeknownst to Benjamin at the time, he was embarking on an adventure that would last longer than anticipated, take him further from home than planned, and forever change him. Along the way, Benjamin and his new companion, Richard Dean Bell, aka “Dickie,” a treasure hunter on his way to Indianola to board a ship to New Orleans, find themselves in a variety of unexpected and dangerous predicaments.
First, they encounter the rider, now barefoot and shirtless, walking along the road. He had been robbed and beaten, and Benjamin agreed to take him to Boerne, as well. Following an argument, the man tried to strike Dickie with a hammer he pulled from Benjamin’s toolbox, but missed and struck Benjamin’s mare instead before toppling out of the wagon and hitting his head. Hauling the injured man back into the wagon, Benjamin proceeded while Dickie talked incessantly, relating tales of his travels and treasure hunts.
Eventually, they come upon the coach being held up by the same robbers who attacked the rider. And Dickie spies his missing bag. Shots are fired, and the rider is killed. Soon, Benjamin and Dickie continue their journey with Nell, Tot, and the stagecoach driver joining them, and the rider’s body secured in the back of the wagon to be delivered to the undertaker in Boerne after questioning by the marshal. Nell insisted that her husband “had gone broke from the war and run off and left her to raise their son and the baby yet to be born” any minute. Tot told Benjamin that his father no longer lived with him and mother, and was instead living with a big swamp fox.
At last, their trip proceeds and the identity of the dead rider is revealed. Benjamin learns that Nell is running not just from her husband, but his family, as well. She is determined to reach Indianola and also board a ship to New Orleans where she and her children will be safe with one of her relatives. The matriarch of her husband’s family is a vile, conniving woman who controls and directs their violent gang activity. Nell could no longer remain silent in the face of their criminality and informed law enforcement of their activities and whereabouts. Now she and her children are in danger because her husband’s brothers are in hot pursuit, ordered by their mother to kill Nell and kidnap Tot so he can grow up to join their gang.
Crook says when she learned about the gangs, she pondered what it would be like to be in Nell’s shoes. She knew terrible crimes were being committed, but women had few rights, especially when it came to raising their children. Crook wanted to explore the point at which a woman in Nell’s situation would be able to muster the courage to turn in not just her own husband, but his whole family, with the certainty that she would be subjected to retribution. Nell provides information to the sheriff, in part, because “her own sense of guilt catches up with her" concerning one particularly heinous incident. She has no choice but to run because she cannot permit Tot or her unborn child to be raised amid or by such monstrous criminals. That, being the “most threatening thing to a mother,” provides Nell’s motivation and she will do anything to protect her children. She could not have foreseen that she would encounter and be aided by Benjamin, and their relationship deepens quickly during the few, fraught days they spend together. Crook, writing in Benjamin’s voice, describes his growing feelings for Nell in a believable and tender manner. Benjamin is hardly more than a boy himself, but he realizes he is forming a strong bond with Nell, and he is capable of being and wants be a loving father to both Tot and Nell’s yet-to-be-born child. As the fast-paced story proceeds, Benjamin matures and reveals himself to be principled, quite bright, and loyal, especially to the sister he has sworn to wait for at home and still believes might return.
Despite the precarious situations in which her characters find themselves – and there are many tense moments when Benjamin and the other characters must quickly devise strategies to outwit their pursuers, as well as the elements, to survive -- Crook has deftly crafted a narrative that is filled with humor. Benjamin’s descriptions of his adventure, and reactions to the people he encounters and challenges he withstands, are frequently hilarious which, from Crook’s perspective, is because he has no idea he is being funny. He merely offers his observations (phonetic spellings included), recounting the complications and setbacks along the way, recalling his fears as the gang chases them across Texas, in a straight-forward, unembellished, and often naïve and awestruck manner. Crook aptly describes him as very "earnest, sincere, and dutiful," noting that he is just trying "in an honest way to relate the story." Crook’s understanding of her character, and skillful demonstration of his indomitable spirit and determination to keep himself and his companions safe, makes the story riveting and readers will find themselves taking Benjamin into their heart, and cheering for his mission to succeed.
The book’s title? In American folklore, a madstone was a rock or other object believed to have the power to draw poison out of a bite from an animal when pressed into the bite after being soaked in milk. Madstones were treasured because they represented and offered hope at a time when there were no medical cures for rabies, venomous snake bites, etc. The title was selected because one such magical object comes into play at a turning point in the story, according to Crook.
The Madstone is delightfully entertaining and evocative of classic, beloved Western novels, films, and television programs, replete with perilous situations, shocking revelations, an eclectic cast of fascinating and memorable supporting characters, and even secret treasure and a legendary curse.
But it is also an emotionally rich and thought-provoking story of bravery, the power of a courageous mother’s devotion to her children’s futures, and multiple literal and figurative journeys, including Benjamin’s journey to manhood and what he learns about the world beyond Comfort, Texas, and the people who inhabit it. Benjamin gains a deeper understanding of honor and the importance of keeping promises, and finds the first love Crook wanted him to experience . . . as well as so much more. It's understandable that Crook missed Benjamin and describes him as her favorite out of all the characters she has created during her career. Hopefully, Crook will reunite readers with him and, perhaps, Tot, when both are a bit older and certainly wiser, in a future novel.
Thanks to NetGalley for an Advance Reader's Copy of the book.
A Different Kind of Gone by Catherine Ryan Hyde
emotional
hopeful
informative
inspiring
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
In A Different Kind of Gone, best-selling author Catherin Ryan Hyde’s characters wrestle with the question of whether and when the ends justify the means. And whether the price of protecting an individual is too high when compared with the impact and hardships imposed upon others. She thoughtfully and compassionately tackles the issue within the context of domestic abuse.
Norma Gallagher is a fifty-eight-year-old divorced woman living in the tiny town of Sploot which straddles the Utah-Arizona border. She works as a bartender with her good friend, Betty, and is a member of the volunteer search and rescue team. With her beloved horse, Fred -- Saint Fred to the locals who believe he is perfect – and two hound dogs, Gracie and Lonny, she helps find lost hikers and campers. After several years of uninterrupted good luck, within the past six months she has found two lost souls for whom rescuers arrived too late. And is a bit haunted by those experiences, even though both perished from natural causes – injuries sustained in a fall and dehydration.
As the story opens, she is pressed into service again. Jill Moss, just nineteen years old, has gone missing from the nearby Rocky Ridge Campground. She was reported missing by her boyfriend, Jake, with whom she was spending spring break. Jill is not “an outdoor person,” and lacks hiking experience and skills. More disconcerting is the fact that the prior evening, other campers observed Jill heading for the campground exit when Jake grabbed her and twisted her arm behind her back, physically forcing her to return to their tent. That afternoon, she had texted her parents, “Leaving Jake for good. Wish me luck. If you don’t hear from me in 24 hours, call the cops.” Foul play is suspected immediately.
Norma finds Jill huddling in a cave. She set out from the campground intent on hiking to the highway and hitchhiking from there, but became lost. “I’m running away from my boyfriend,” she tells Norma. Jill is convinced that if Jake finds her, he will kill her. “There is no place where he won’t hurt me. That place doesn’t exist.” She begs Norma not to report that she has found Jill. From Jill’s perspective, she is literally asking Norma to save her life.
But that request leads Norma into an ethical and legal quagmire. She knows that the search for Jill will continue for quite some time, wasting precious and scarce resources, tangible and intangible. She will be required to ride the hills for days alongside her colleagues, pretending to search with them for a young woman only she knows isn’t missing at all. She is also aware that she, Jill, and anyone else they involve in the scheme could find themselves in serious legal jeopardy when the truth is eventually discovered. The sheriff will keep the case open, and there will be multiple lies told to law enforcement, false reports filed. Importantly, that is what troubles Norma most. Acceding to Jill’s wishes will require Norma to lie, something she never does. Doing so will change the way she lives her life, requiring her to “keep her stories straight.” Norma is also wise and experienced enough to comprehend that there will undoubtedly be “more unintended consequences” that she is unable to foresee or predict.
Against her better judgment, Norma agrees to call Jill’s parents, hoping a conversation with them will give her some perspective. Ensuring that Jill is safe, with food and water, she promises to return under cover of darkness after speaking with her parents to let her know whether she can grant Jill’s wish.
Owen and Teresa Moss, Jill’s worried and protective mother and father, are archetypical characters. Norma does not reveal her identity, explaining only that she is a member of the search and rescue team, and she located Jill, who is healthy and well. But Jill begged her not to reveal her whereabouts and condition, which is “really messing with me.” From personal experience, Norma appreciates the traumatic and destructive impact of both physical abuse and dishonesty. And she knows that in many instances, legal maneuvers prove futile. Abusers often disregard restraining orders and relentlessly search for partners who leave them. Predictably, Owen and Teresa are willing to risk anything to keep their daughter, who is not prone to exaggeration, safe. They implore Norma to bring Jill to their home, assuring her that if the truth comes to light, they will swear that Jill simply appeared on their doorstep without implicating Norma. Reluctantly, Norma agrees.
The search for Jill continues and Wanda, a tiny young woman in her twenties, comes into the bar. Norma is flabbergasted to learn she has hitchhiked from Connecticut because of her fascination with the case, which has drawn extensive media attention and speculation. Jill’s old social media posts have surfaced. Norma simply can’t fathom why Wanda wants to meet Jake, who is still staying at the campground. Through Norma, Hyde makes a cautionary point about the influence of news outlets and social media interactions upon gullible and impressionable young people. Six nights late, Jake himself appears in the bar and has an altercation with another male customer. None other than Wanda helps Jake to his feet and leaves the bar with him, assuring Norma that she intends to help him get back to the campground. Nine days later, Wanda stops in to say good-bye, cagily explaining that she is headed to Southern California with a guy she met in Sploot who is not her boyfriend because "he’s still hung up on his old girlfriend.” Sadly, Wanda believes Jake’s lies about what really happened at the campground the night Jill disappeared and will not be dissuaded.
Five years elapse during which Norma, now sixty-three years old, and twenty-two-year-old Fred have continued to ride the hills with the search and rescue team. The fifth anniversary of Jill’s disappearance means that she will be declared legally dead. A month later, Wanda reappears in the bar. And the law is bearing down on Jake Willis, who is facing not just attempted murder charges for strangling his pregnant wife, but also a murder charge for killing Jill, even though her body was never recovered.
Hyde’s characters navigate all the unintended consequences of Jill’s entreaty and Norma’s decision to remain silent. Which are numerous and seemingly unending. In Hyde’s capable hands, the story unfolds in a straight-forward and unembellished manner. It is a riveting tale about the myriad repercussions that flow from decisions. The most pressing issue is the District Attorney’s determination to prosecute Jake for a murder he did not commit. But the evidence supporting the attempted murder charge is unassailable. Had a passerby not intervened, Jake’s wife and unborn child would almost undoubtedly be dead. But for Norma, that’s the problem. There is no way to know for sure that Jake would have brought further harm to Jill, no matter how likely it seems. Norma voices many feelings that Hyde shares, pointing out that Jake is not an ”animal” but is, rather, a man who has done some terrible things. But he was not born an abuser. Rather, children learn to hate and mistreat others. “I think people need to be reminded that there is good in us. Yes, there is bad in us, too. But I continue to feel that we are basically good. Why do I think this? Because babies are not born violent and evil and gradually steered toward good by a series of altruistic experiences. It’s the other way around.”
Norma is a strong, principled woman who has survived her own tumultuous marriage, lies told about her, and years of estrangement from her two grown sons. She doesn’t much like people, preferring to live a solitary life with her animals in a modest home outside of the little town of Sloot. She fundamentally resents that her carefully constructed, peaceful life was disrupted and altered when her fate became inextricably intertwined with Jill’s. And she is deeply troubled and burdened by the weight of her guilt about the secret she agreed to keep and the deception in which she has participated for five years. As she once again considers all available options, there is far more at stake than the fallout that will impact her well-ordered life if she belatedly speaks up. Norma cares deeply about Jill’s well-being, as well as Wanda’s, and is a loyal friend to Betty. She weighs her moral obligation to Jake, who has indeed committed more than one crime but not the one that a corrupt District Attorney intends to level against him.
Hyde never fails to deliver a gripping, thought-provoking story about seemingly unremarkable people who find themselves faced with impossible choices that require them to consider and anticipate how their actions will help or hurt others. Hyde is renowned for expertly creating dramatic tension that inspires readers to ponder what they would do if they were in a similar situation, and A Different Kind of Gone is one her best efforts, in part because the stakes in this tale are incredibly high. Many people, including Jill’s parents, believe that Jake is capable of murder and his wife is a living – fortunately – testament to what might have been the tragic result of his unbridled rage. They would be happy to see Jake imprisoned for the rest of his life, irrespective of the specific legal charges that put him behind bars where he can never hurt Jill, his wife, or his child. For them, the charges are simply the means to a much-desired end.
But the American legal system, despite all its flaws, does not incorporate penalties for potential criminality and Norma, who serves as the story's moral center and conscience, believably wrestles with what might happen if she takes a principled stand. What if there is no one around to intervene next time and Jake does commit murder? What if Norma’s honesty provides Jake the opportunity to inflict harm again? Could she live with the consequences? Or would it be worse to live with the guilt of knowing that a man is imprisoned for a crime he never committed, even though he is guilty of other crimes?
Hyde includes a couple of shocking plot twists and revelations as she keeps the narrative moving forward at a steady, measured pace. And yet again illustrates through her characters that families are often comprised not just of those to whom we are genetically related, but also those we inadvertently happen upon and take into our hearts.
Hyde is a masterful storyteller and A Different Kind of Gone is a riveting, emotional resonant story through which Hyde makes a strong statement about domestic violence, women coming together to help and protect each other, as well as a child who is at risk. And she convincingly illustrates the value of female empowerment through positive role models and reinforcement.
Thanks to NetGalley for an Advance Reader's Copy of the book.
Norma Gallagher is a fifty-eight-year-old divorced woman living in the tiny town of Sploot which straddles the Utah-Arizona border. She works as a bartender with her good friend, Betty, and is a member of the volunteer search and rescue team. With her beloved horse, Fred -- Saint Fred to the locals who believe he is perfect – and two hound dogs, Gracie and Lonny, she helps find lost hikers and campers. After several years of uninterrupted good luck, within the past six months she has found two lost souls for whom rescuers arrived too late. And is a bit haunted by those experiences, even though both perished from natural causes – injuries sustained in a fall and dehydration.
As the story opens, she is pressed into service again. Jill Moss, just nineteen years old, has gone missing from the nearby Rocky Ridge Campground. She was reported missing by her boyfriend, Jake, with whom she was spending spring break. Jill is not “an outdoor person,” and lacks hiking experience and skills. More disconcerting is the fact that the prior evening, other campers observed Jill heading for the campground exit when Jake grabbed her and twisted her arm behind her back, physically forcing her to return to their tent. That afternoon, she had texted her parents, “Leaving Jake for good. Wish me luck. If you don’t hear from me in 24 hours, call the cops.” Foul play is suspected immediately.
Norma finds Jill huddling in a cave. She set out from the campground intent on hiking to the highway and hitchhiking from there, but became lost. “I’m running away from my boyfriend,” she tells Norma. Jill is convinced that if Jake finds her, he will kill her. “There is no place where he won’t hurt me. That place doesn’t exist.” She begs Norma not to report that she has found Jill. From Jill’s perspective, she is literally asking Norma to save her life.
But that request leads Norma into an ethical and legal quagmire. She knows that the search for Jill will continue for quite some time, wasting precious and scarce resources, tangible and intangible. She will be required to ride the hills for days alongside her colleagues, pretending to search with them for a young woman only she knows isn’t missing at all. She is also aware that she, Jill, and anyone else they involve in the scheme could find themselves in serious legal jeopardy when the truth is eventually discovered. The sheriff will keep the case open, and there will be multiple lies told to law enforcement, false reports filed. Importantly, that is what troubles Norma most. Acceding to Jill’s wishes will require Norma to lie, something she never does. Doing so will change the way she lives her life, requiring her to “keep her stories straight.” Norma is also wise and experienced enough to comprehend that there will undoubtedly be “more unintended consequences” that she is unable to foresee or predict.
Against her better judgment, Norma agrees to call Jill’s parents, hoping a conversation with them will give her some perspective. Ensuring that Jill is safe, with food and water, she promises to return under cover of darkness after speaking with her parents to let her know whether she can grant Jill’s wish.
Owen and Teresa Moss, Jill’s worried and protective mother and father, are archetypical characters. Norma does not reveal her identity, explaining only that she is a member of the search and rescue team, and she located Jill, who is healthy and well. But Jill begged her not to reveal her whereabouts and condition, which is “really messing with me.” From personal experience, Norma appreciates the traumatic and destructive impact of both physical abuse and dishonesty. And she knows that in many instances, legal maneuvers prove futile. Abusers often disregard restraining orders and relentlessly search for partners who leave them. Predictably, Owen and Teresa are willing to risk anything to keep their daughter, who is not prone to exaggeration, safe. They implore Norma to bring Jill to their home, assuring her that if the truth comes to light, they will swear that Jill simply appeared on their doorstep without implicating Norma. Reluctantly, Norma agrees.
The search for Jill continues and Wanda, a tiny young woman in her twenties, comes into the bar. Norma is flabbergasted to learn she has hitchhiked from Connecticut because of her fascination with the case, which has drawn extensive media attention and speculation. Jill’s old social media posts have surfaced. Norma simply can’t fathom why Wanda wants to meet Jake, who is still staying at the campground. Through Norma, Hyde makes a cautionary point about the influence of news outlets and social media interactions upon gullible and impressionable young people. Six nights late, Jake himself appears in the bar and has an altercation with another male customer. None other than Wanda helps Jake to his feet and leaves the bar with him, assuring Norma that she intends to help him get back to the campground. Nine days later, Wanda stops in to say good-bye, cagily explaining that she is headed to Southern California with a guy she met in Sploot who is not her boyfriend because "he’s still hung up on his old girlfriend.” Sadly, Wanda believes Jake’s lies about what really happened at the campground the night Jill disappeared and will not be dissuaded.
Five years elapse during which Norma, now sixty-three years old, and twenty-two-year-old Fred have continued to ride the hills with the search and rescue team. The fifth anniversary of Jill’s disappearance means that she will be declared legally dead. A month later, Wanda reappears in the bar. And the law is bearing down on Jake Willis, who is facing not just attempted murder charges for strangling his pregnant wife, but also a murder charge for killing Jill, even though her body was never recovered.
Hyde’s characters navigate all the unintended consequences of Jill’s entreaty and Norma’s decision to remain silent. Which are numerous and seemingly unending. In Hyde’s capable hands, the story unfolds in a straight-forward and unembellished manner. It is a riveting tale about the myriad repercussions that flow from decisions. The most pressing issue is the District Attorney’s determination to prosecute Jake for a murder he did not commit. But the evidence supporting the attempted murder charge is unassailable. Had a passerby not intervened, Jake’s wife and unborn child would almost undoubtedly be dead. But for Norma, that’s the problem. There is no way to know for sure that Jake would have brought further harm to Jill, no matter how likely it seems. Norma voices many feelings that Hyde shares, pointing out that Jake is not an ”animal” but is, rather, a man who has done some terrible things. But he was not born an abuser. Rather, children learn to hate and mistreat others. “I think people need to be reminded that there is good in us. Yes, there is bad in us, too. But I continue to feel that we are basically good. Why do I think this? Because babies are not born violent and evil and gradually steered toward good by a series of altruistic experiences. It’s the other way around.”
Norma is a strong, principled woman who has survived her own tumultuous marriage, lies told about her, and years of estrangement from her two grown sons. She doesn’t much like people, preferring to live a solitary life with her animals in a modest home outside of the little town of Sloot. She fundamentally resents that her carefully constructed, peaceful life was disrupted and altered when her fate became inextricably intertwined with Jill’s. And she is deeply troubled and burdened by the weight of her guilt about the secret she agreed to keep and the deception in which she has participated for five years. As she once again considers all available options, there is far more at stake than the fallout that will impact her well-ordered life if she belatedly speaks up. Norma cares deeply about Jill’s well-being, as well as Wanda’s, and is a loyal friend to Betty. She weighs her moral obligation to Jake, who has indeed committed more than one crime but not the one that a corrupt District Attorney intends to level against him.
Hyde never fails to deliver a gripping, thought-provoking story about seemingly unremarkable people who find themselves faced with impossible choices that require them to consider and anticipate how their actions will help or hurt others. Hyde is renowned for expertly creating dramatic tension that inspires readers to ponder what they would do if they were in a similar situation, and A Different Kind of Gone is one her best efforts, in part because the stakes in this tale are incredibly high. Many people, including Jill’s parents, believe that Jake is capable of murder and his wife is a living – fortunately – testament to what might have been the tragic result of his unbridled rage. They would be happy to see Jake imprisoned for the rest of his life, irrespective of the specific legal charges that put him behind bars where he can never hurt Jill, his wife, or his child. For them, the charges are simply the means to a much-desired end.
But the American legal system, despite all its flaws, does not incorporate penalties for potential criminality and Norma, who serves as the story's moral center and conscience, believably wrestles with what might happen if she takes a principled stand. What if there is no one around to intervene next time and Jake does commit murder? What if Norma’s honesty provides Jake the opportunity to inflict harm again? Could she live with the consequences? Or would it be worse to live with the guilt of knowing that a man is imprisoned for a crime he never committed, even though he is guilty of other crimes?
Hyde includes a couple of shocking plot twists and revelations as she keeps the narrative moving forward at a steady, measured pace. And yet again illustrates through her characters that families are often comprised not just of those to whom we are genetically related, but also those we inadvertently happen upon and take into our hearts.
Hyde is a masterful storyteller and A Different Kind of Gone is a riveting, emotional resonant story through which Hyde makes a strong statement about domestic violence, women coming together to help and protect each other, as well as a child who is at risk. And she convincingly illustrates the value of female empowerment through positive role models and reinforcement.
Thanks to NetGalley for an Advance Reader's Copy of the book.
Deadly Tides by Mary Keliikoa
dark
emotional
hopeful
informative
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Deadly Tides is the second volume of the Misty Pines series. Author Mary Keliikoa immediately pulls readers into the atmospheric and suspenseful story. F.B.I. Agent Abby Kanekoa is in search of her mother, Dora, again. Abby was supposed to be enjoying a much-needed day off, but Dora, afflicted with early onset Alzheimer’s disease at only sixty-four years of age, has wandered away from the assisted living center where she resides, and Abby is worried. It’s a damp, cold January day on the rugged Oregon coast and Abby knows she has to face the fact that her mother needs better supervision and care than Stonebridge Assisted Living Center can provide. But she is loath to transfer Dora to a facility in Portland, two hours away. Her colleagues at the Bureau have been accommodating and supportive not only about Abby’s need to take time away from work to attend to Dora, but also as she has grieved the death of her only child, Lulu, from leukemia five years ago. And dealt with her divorce from Lulu’s father, Jax Turner, the local sheriff.
When Abby finally locates Dora, she is miles from Stonebridge on a sandy ridge near the beach, wearing only a bloody nightgown . . . and clutching a tennis shoe containing a severed foot! And Dora does not want to surrender it, insisting, “It’s mine.” She is unable to provide details that would aid in the investigation that is now commencing.
Meanwhile, Jax, working with only his trusted assistant, Trudy, and a small force of volunteer reserve deputies, is dispatched to conduct a health and safety check at the home of Terry Chesney on Bull Mountain outside the little town of Misty Pines. Terry, a former surfing champion and “aging beach bum,” operates the Surfrider Shop on the edge of town. But his brother, Gerard, has been unable to reach him since their telephone conversation the prior evening was interrupted when Terry went to the garage of his home to investigate unsettling noises. Jax arrives at the residence to find the garage door open, the lights on, tools scattered about the floor, and a toolbox on its side. Inside the house, an open package of steak is on the counter, along with Terry’s wallet, cell phone, a home baked pie, and groceries that should have been put away hours ago. A steak knife is missing from the wood block containing the rest of the matching set. There is no sign of Terry, but an expanded search leads to the discovery of congealed blood on a pile of leaves not far from an abandoned campsite in the forest near Terry’s house. On a ledge below the tent, Jax recognizes the body of Walter, a homeless man known to wander the Misty Pines area. There is no sign of Walter’s companion, Lois. Soon the missing steak knife is also located near a pool of blood.
Jax and Abby have been attending counseling together but making little progress on repairing their relationship. Both have sought solace in their respective careers as they continue mourning Lulu. Jax is clear about what he wants. He longs to reconcile with Abby and resume their life together. He has sought counseling separately — urged by Abby — and started implementing the counselor’s suggestions, including running to “work out the demons,” and is trying to bring himself to repaint Lulu’s bedroom. It has taken Jax five years to box up Lulu’s belongings, but he still is not able to part with them. Jax worries that he is “unfixable. Unlovable.” He was, after all, abandoned by his own mother. But Abby is not ready and actively evades talking with Jax about their counseling sessions. She’s weary of analyzing her feelings and, although she alerts Jax to Dora’s discovery, recognizing that his department has jurisdiction, she worries that working side-by-side on the case will complicate her efforts to decide whether she wants to get back together with Jax. Thus far, counseling has only heightened her confusion. Jax and Abby are both broken and lost, trying desperately to navigate their grief and, at least in Jax’s case, find their way back to each other. From Abby’s perspective, following Lulu's death, Jax was unable to “understand her struggle, he was so lost in his own. And she had no energy to make him understand, because he was so quick to have an opinion about her.”
Complicating matters for Jax is Commissioner Troy Marks’ insistence that he hire a full-time, salaried deputy. Misty Pines is a small town that is beginning to experience big city-like crime. Twenty-seven-year-old Rachel Killian has applied for the job and is scheduled for an interview. She has adopted her mother’s birth surname which is why Jax does not immediately realize that he is about to interview the daughter of his former partner, Jameson. She is seasoned, having spent two years working for the Vancouver Police Department before joining the Portland force. Her experience in search and rescue with her trained dog, Koa, could be a real asset in the Misty Pines area. Jax decides to make it an on-the-job interview, inviting Rachel and Koa to join him as he proceeds to Terry’s Surfrider Shop when Terry’s employee, Brandon, reports that he arrived that morning to find it ransacked. As Jax’s investigation proceeds, he learns more about Rachel’s history, relationship with her family, and the reasons she wants to relocate to Misty Pines to work for her Uncle Jax. Jax finds himself at odds with Jameson, with whom he has only recently revived his friendship, and recognizes that doing what he feels is morally and ethically honorable, as well as the right thing for his department, may again fracture their relationship.
Jax and Abby are likable and sympathetic from the outset. Both are quickly established as competent, earnest professionals who immediately commit to their new, intriguing case. Jax follows clues related to Terry’s relationship with his brother, Gerard, as well as his business acumen, practices, and prospects. Meanwhile, Abby looks into the disappearance of Jonathan Lilly, a consultant for a federal power company who went for a run a month ago and was never seen again. His sister and niece, Angel, a survivor of non-Hodgkins lymphoma who was treated at the same hospital as Lulu, are anxious to find him.
Keliikoa reveals that while a foot washing ashore in the Pacific Northwest is not an isolated phenomenon, it rarely occurs due to foul play. More often it is a result of detachment from the body of a drowning, accident, or suicide victim. But when another severed foot is discovered, the odds that harm was deliberately inflicted on the victims increase exponentially. “I was fascinated when I learned of the phenomenon happening right along the Pacific Northwest coastline and knew right then I had to find a way to weave it into a story,” Keliikoa recalls. She wanted to explore “what drives someone to such a gruesome act.” Which led her to create not just a compelling mystery, but an absorbing meditation on grief.
At the center of Deadly Tides is a clever and intricately constructed puzzle, and riveting story about empathetic characters. Keliikoa deftly reveals details about Jax and Abby's concurrent investigations, introducing a colorful cast of supporting characters as the list of potential suspects grows. But readers are kept guessing as to whether the two cases are related and, if so, what or who links them. Terry and Jonathan “lived in different cities, had unrelated professions, ran in different circles.” There is no indication that Jonathan was a surfer. Initially, there isn’t even any “evidence that the two men knew each other.” Jax and Abby work cooperatively, sharing information, but neither unfailingly recognizes how salient details may be relevant to the other’s investigation.
As the story progresses, and Jax and Abby inch toward unraveling their complex and perplexing cases, Keliikoa places several of her characters in peril, expertly increasing the dramatic tension. Abby is convinced that Dora inadvertently discovered information that might prove helpful to solving the mystery, but her ability to recall and accurately communicate waxes and wanes, making her statements inherently unreliable. Could her knowledge put her in danger? Would someone be motivated to harm a vulnerable woman suffering from Alzheiner’s disease to prevent their wrongdoing from being discovered? Keliikoa says she enjoys examining “what emotional wound was triggered to drive the person to commit such extreme acts” and with Dealy Tides, she effectively digs “into the emotional makeup of the killer" whose identity, when revealed, is shocking.
Deadly Tides is a suspenseful and engrossing thriller, as well as a moving and poignant depiction of the far-ranging and potentially destructive impact of loss, mourning a beloved child, and loneliness and isolation. Through Jax and Abby, she illustrates the myriad emotions, including guilt about continuing to live (particularly for Jax) and regret, that parents face in the wake of losing a child, individually and as a couple, and how the strain can derail a marriage. Abby is also shouldering responsibility to care for her mother, whose cognitive abilities are deteriorating, and striving to balance keeping her mother safe and her professional obligations. Keliikoa says she works “to create characters that are relatable and struggling on some level with the goal of overcoming those emotional obstacles” and hopes that her readers “connect with that or are helped in any way to move through their own process.” With Deadly Tides, Keliikoa attains her goals masterfully, leaving readers anxious to read the next installment in the gripping Misty Pines series.
Thanks to NetGalley for an electronic and Level Best Books for a paperback Advance Readers Copy of the book.
When Abby finally locates Dora, she is miles from Stonebridge on a sandy ridge near the beach, wearing only a bloody nightgown . . . and clutching a tennis shoe containing a severed foot! And Dora does not want to surrender it, insisting, “It’s mine.” She is unable to provide details that would aid in the investigation that is now commencing.
Meanwhile, Jax, working with only his trusted assistant, Trudy, and a small force of volunteer reserve deputies, is dispatched to conduct a health and safety check at the home of Terry Chesney on Bull Mountain outside the little town of Misty Pines. Terry, a former surfing champion and “aging beach bum,” operates the Surfrider Shop on the edge of town. But his brother, Gerard, has been unable to reach him since their telephone conversation the prior evening was interrupted when Terry went to the garage of his home to investigate unsettling noises. Jax arrives at the residence to find the garage door open, the lights on, tools scattered about the floor, and a toolbox on its side. Inside the house, an open package of steak is on the counter, along with Terry’s wallet, cell phone, a home baked pie, and groceries that should have been put away hours ago. A steak knife is missing from the wood block containing the rest of the matching set. There is no sign of Terry, but an expanded search leads to the discovery of congealed blood on a pile of leaves not far from an abandoned campsite in the forest near Terry’s house. On a ledge below the tent, Jax recognizes the body of Walter, a homeless man known to wander the Misty Pines area. There is no sign of Walter’s companion, Lois. Soon the missing steak knife is also located near a pool of blood.
Jax and Abby have been attending counseling together but making little progress on repairing their relationship. Both have sought solace in their respective careers as they continue mourning Lulu. Jax is clear about what he wants. He longs to reconcile with Abby and resume their life together. He has sought counseling separately — urged by Abby — and started implementing the counselor’s suggestions, including running to “work out the demons,” and is trying to bring himself to repaint Lulu’s bedroom. It has taken Jax five years to box up Lulu’s belongings, but he still is not able to part with them. Jax worries that he is “unfixable. Unlovable.” He was, after all, abandoned by his own mother. But Abby is not ready and actively evades talking with Jax about their counseling sessions. She’s weary of analyzing her feelings and, although she alerts Jax to Dora’s discovery, recognizing that his department has jurisdiction, she worries that working side-by-side on the case will complicate her efforts to decide whether she wants to get back together with Jax. Thus far, counseling has only heightened her confusion. Jax and Abby are both broken and lost, trying desperately to navigate their grief and, at least in Jax’s case, find their way back to each other. From Abby’s perspective, following Lulu's death, Jax was unable to “understand her struggle, he was so lost in his own. And she had no energy to make him understand, because he was so quick to have an opinion about her.”
Complicating matters for Jax is Commissioner Troy Marks’ insistence that he hire a full-time, salaried deputy. Misty Pines is a small town that is beginning to experience big city-like crime. Twenty-seven-year-old Rachel Killian has applied for the job and is scheduled for an interview. She has adopted her mother’s birth surname which is why Jax does not immediately realize that he is about to interview the daughter of his former partner, Jameson. She is seasoned, having spent two years working for the Vancouver Police Department before joining the Portland force. Her experience in search and rescue with her trained dog, Koa, could be a real asset in the Misty Pines area. Jax decides to make it an on-the-job interview, inviting Rachel and Koa to join him as he proceeds to Terry’s Surfrider Shop when Terry’s employee, Brandon, reports that he arrived that morning to find it ransacked. As Jax’s investigation proceeds, he learns more about Rachel’s history, relationship with her family, and the reasons she wants to relocate to Misty Pines to work for her Uncle Jax. Jax finds himself at odds with Jameson, with whom he has only recently revived his friendship, and recognizes that doing what he feels is morally and ethically honorable, as well as the right thing for his department, may again fracture their relationship.
Jax and Abby are likable and sympathetic from the outset. Both are quickly established as competent, earnest professionals who immediately commit to their new, intriguing case. Jax follows clues related to Terry’s relationship with his brother, Gerard, as well as his business acumen, practices, and prospects. Meanwhile, Abby looks into the disappearance of Jonathan Lilly, a consultant for a federal power company who went for a run a month ago and was never seen again. His sister and niece, Angel, a survivor of non-Hodgkins lymphoma who was treated at the same hospital as Lulu, are anxious to find him.
Keliikoa reveals that while a foot washing ashore in the Pacific Northwest is not an isolated phenomenon, it rarely occurs due to foul play. More often it is a result of detachment from the body of a drowning, accident, or suicide victim. But when another severed foot is discovered, the odds that harm was deliberately inflicted on the victims increase exponentially. “I was fascinated when I learned of the phenomenon happening right along the Pacific Northwest coastline and knew right then I had to find a way to weave it into a story,” Keliikoa recalls. She wanted to explore “what drives someone to such a gruesome act.” Which led her to create not just a compelling mystery, but an absorbing meditation on grief.
At the center of Deadly Tides is a clever and intricately constructed puzzle, and riveting story about empathetic characters. Keliikoa deftly reveals details about Jax and Abby's concurrent investigations, introducing a colorful cast of supporting characters as the list of potential suspects grows. But readers are kept guessing as to whether the two cases are related and, if so, what or who links them. Terry and Jonathan “lived in different cities, had unrelated professions, ran in different circles.” There is no indication that Jonathan was a surfer. Initially, there isn’t even any “evidence that the two men knew each other.” Jax and Abby work cooperatively, sharing information, but neither unfailingly recognizes how salient details may be relevant to the other’s investigation.
As the story progresses, and Jax and Abby inch toward unraveling their complex and perplexing cases, Keliikoa places several of her characters in peril, expertly increasing the dramatic tension. Abby is convinced that Dora inadvertently discovered information that might prove helpful to solving the mystery, but her ability to recall and accurately communicate waxes and wanes, making her statements inherently unreliable. Could her knowledge put her in danger? Would someone be motivated to harm a vulnerable woman suffering from Alzheiner’s disease to prevent their wrongdoing from being discovered? Keliikoa says she enjoys examining “what emotional wound was triggered to drive the person to commit such extreme acts” and with Dealy Tides, she effectively digs “into the emotional makeup of the killer" whose identity, when revealed, is shocking.
Deadly Tides is a suspenseful and engrossing thriller, as well as a moving and poignant depiction of the far-ranging and potentially destructive impact of loss, mourning a beloved child, and loneliness and isolation. Through Jax and Abby, she illustrates the myriad emotions, including guilt about continuing to live (particularly for Jax) and regret, that parents face in the wake of losing a child, individually and as a couple, and how the strain can derail a marriage. Abby is also shouldering responsibility to care for her mother, whose cognitive abilities are deteriorating, and striving to balance keeping her mother safe and her professional obligations. Keliikoa says she works “to create characters that are relatable and struggling on some level with the goal of overcoming those emotional obstacles” and hopes that her readers “connect with that or are helped in any way to move through their own process.” With Deadly Tides, Keliikoa attains her goals masterfully, leaving readers anxious to read the next installment in the gripping Misty Pines series.
Thanks to NetGalley for an electronic and Level Best Books for a paperback Advance Readers Copy of the book.
Lucy by the Sea by Elizabeth Strout
dark
emotional
hopeful
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
New York Times bestselling and Pulitzer Prize-winning author Elizabeth Strout brings back Lucy Barton, the enduring character she introduced in My Name is Lucy Barton. She appeared again in Anything Is Possible and Oh William!, the book she had barely completed when the COVID-19 pandemic began. “Lucy and William were just so much in my head. I thought: OK, let’s have him take her up to the coast of Maine, and stick them on this cliff and see what happens,” Strout says. She emphasizes that making the setting different than that of Oh William! was a specific choice. In Oh William!, they are in a more northern, inland part of Maine. In Lucy by the Sea, they are “literally by the sea which is a very different sort of vibe. . . . I pictured them at the end of a point high up on a cliff in a house. And there they are.” The two novels “work together,” she adds. “I see them as a continuation of each other,” even though Strout never intended to write a series of books featuring the same characters. “But these people are so real to me that I keep wanting to write about them in their new situations or where they might be now, so I just keep going back to them.”
Strout and her fictional heroine have a great deal in common. They are the same age, Lucy is also a novelist, and they have both been married twice. Strout has an adult daughter (while Lucy has two, Chrissy and Becka). It’s a case of art imitating life as Strout and her husband permanently relocated from Manhattan to Brunswick, Maine, during the pandemic. “We share many traits, but I’m not her,” Strout stresses, adding that she really doesn’t care about what people think, “so if people think that, that’s fine. But it is not true.”
Once again, the story is related in Lucy’s distinctive voice. In typical Lucy style, the narrative is somewhat disjointed, repetitive, stuttering, and awkward. But it is also honest, raw, and deeply insightful. The novel is crafted much like a series of diary entries, with Lucy, now sixty-six years old, relating what happens to her and her seventy-two-year-old ex-husband, William Gerhardt. He is a parasitologist to whom she was married for twenty years, but they have been divorced for nearly as long. In the interim, Lucy was happily married to David, a cellist, who died, and William has been married and divorced twice, most recently from his much younger third wife, Estelle, with whom he has a daughter, Bridget. In Oh William!, they journeyed together to Maine after William discovered via an ancestry website that he had a half-sister, Lois Bubar, residing there. William also learned that his mother’s life had actually been much different than he had been led to believe. Although Lucy met Lois, William’s half-sister had no desire to meet or interact with him. Two months after they returned from Maine, Lucy agreed to travel to Grand Cayman with William, believing that he “must have been plunged into some sort of midlife crisis, or older man crisis,” considering all that he had recently been through — divorce, Estelle taking ten-year-old Bridget to live with her, and being rejected by Lois. After their three-day vacation, they returned to New York and Lucy embarked on a book tour to promote her new novel.
But she disappointed her publisher by canceling a trip to Italy and Germany that was scheduled in early March 2020. Which is when William begs their daughters, Chrissy and Becka, to leave their Brooklyn homes, and convinces Lucy to return with him to the little town of Crosby on the coast of Maine where he has rented a house from Bob Burgess, the ex-husband of the woman with whom William had an on-again, off-again affair for years while married to Lucy. Lucy relates that she, unlike her scientist ex-husband, was unable to predict what the world was on the precipice of experiencing and reluctant to leave the city. She packed only a few things, thinking she would be spending just a couple of weeks in Maine, returning to New York City when things improved. At the outset, readers will identify with Lucy’s bewilderment, confusion, and naivete about the potential severity and length of the pandemic that was just beginning. “I did not know that I would never see my apartment again. I did not know that one of my friends and a family member would die of this virus. I did not know that my relationship with my daughters would change in ways I could never have anticipated. I did not know that my entire life would become something new.”
The book details the events that unfold as the world goes into lockdown, the virus claims lives, teleworking becomes the norm for millions, and isolation takes a heavy toll on relationships. Chrissy and her husband, Michael, an asthmatic, escape to his parents’ Connecticut home (they are staying in Florida), but Becka, a social worker, and her husband, Trey, an adjunct professor of poetry at New York University, opt to remain in Brooklyn. Both end up working at home.
Lucy shares her innermost thoughts and feelings as she and William settle into a house she does not like in a place that she deems far too cold. She is restless and has trouble concentrating, so finds herself unable to read books or write. She naps every afternoon and feels disoriented when she awakens. She and William spend a lot of time taking walks — separately and together – because there is little else for them to do in that remote location while completely isolated. They also become addicted to watching the news to hear about the latest developments. But like so many people, Lucy is unable to fully comprehend what is happening, even as the Surgeon General issues dire warnings and Broadway goes dark. Not all locals welcome New Yorkers, which frightens Lucy.
Lucy describes having always felt invisible in the world and the ways in which living in isolation with William exacerbates her anxiety, especially her worry that her daughters might catch the virus and not survive. But she develops a close friendship with Bob Burgess, who is now married to Margaret, a minister. They take frequent walks together and have meaningful conversations. Lucy is flattered to learn that he has read her book and heartened to realize that he truly understood it. She feels seen which is so important to her. His company eases the loneliness she feels, particularly since William often seems distant, not really listening to her. She especially misses David who seems “even more gone to me somehow.” She does not speak of mourning David because William likes to fix things, but “grief is a private thing.” Lucy understands that grieving is a solitary experience that must be endured alone.
Gradually, Lucy comes to see that “William had been right to bring me up here,” and they fall into a comfortable routine that includes enjoying meals that William prepares, taking drives, and hours-long conversations. And hear about the challenges Chrissy and Becka face from afar, unable to be with them in person to lend support. Lucy misses her daughters viscerally, sometimes feeling abandoned and convinced that Becka, in particular, is avoiding her. But she’s grateful for William’s ingenuity and resourcefulness as he finds ways to assist their daughters remotely.
William reveals life events that he has not previously shared with Lucy or their daughters. They grow closer, referring to each other by the nicknames they used when married — she is “Button” and he is “Pillie” — but William still gets on Lucy’s nerves from time to time. She is genuinely touched when he tells her, with great emotion, “Lucy, yours is the life I wanted to save. My own life I care very little about these days, except I know the girls still depend on me, especially Bridget; she is still just a kid. But, Lucy, if you should die from this, it would . . . I only wanted to save your life.” And Lucy rejoices with William when a disappointing situation happily resolves and is pleased that he finds new work to do in conjunction with the local university.
Still, as the days and months drag on, Lucy does not know exactly how she feels about William, even though she observes that, at times, “I am not unhappy.” For her, it is “weird to be with William — except that it wasn’t always weird” as they live together in a sort of limbo, wondering when they might be able to return to New York and how long it will be until things get better. In the summer, they watch news accounts of George Floyd’s murder and worry about the protests taking place around the country. People they love get the virus and some survive, while others do not. Lucy suffers physical symptoms of stress, but eventually begins venturing out a bit more, which helps her state of mind. The Presidential election takes place in November 2020, they watch in horror as the U.S. Capitol comes under attack on January 6, 2021. (“There was deep, deep unrest in the country and the whisperings of a civil war seemed to move around me like a breeze I could not quite feel but could sense.”) At last, the COVID vaccine becomes available in early 2021. Strout effectively demonstrates the various ways in which external happenings penetrate the metaphorical cocoon to which Lucy and William have retreated, and the ways world events intrude upon and impact Lucy’s already fragile psyche.
As the world slowly begins returning to some semblance of normalcy, Lucy makes momentous decisions and is surprised by the choices William makes. Lucy continues engaging in introspection about their lives and everything that led to their being in isolation together in that quaint house on the Maine coast.
Lucy by the Sea is another rich meditation on relationships, family, the impact of isolation, and importance of connectedness. Strout again brings Lucy and William to life with seemingly effortlessness, imbuing everyday occurrences with symbolism and meaning. Her writing is deceptively simple and sneakily impactful. She examines the ways in which their relationship endures over time, despite the pain they have inflicted on each other through the years. Strout also illustrates their daughters’ reactions to their parents spending time together and the evolution of their long relationship, as Chrissy and Becka endure their own life-altering traumas. In Lucy by the Sea, both daughters are now fully grown young women living their own lives, and Strout deftly shows both the ways in which the pandemic effects their lives and Lucy’s coming to understand fully that her children are now adults who “want to be heard” and design their lives on their own terms.
Strout says she sought to illustrate that during the pandemic lockdowns, “there was no time, all the days just melded into one. I was trying to get that sense of disorientation on to the page.” Although she maintains that was the hardest part of writing the book, she succeeds beautifully. Lucy by the Sea proceeds at a steady pace yet feels a bit untethered and meandering, just as life felt during that surreal era because of both the pandemic and the growing divisions among U.S. citizens. When Lucy finally finds inspiration for a new book and resumes writing, she worries that her story cannot be published because of the subject matter and the ideology of her main character. For Strout, that was “a real commentary on the times that we’re living in.”
Strout observes that Lucy is now, like her daughters, fully grown up. And she at last realizes that she is, like her daughters, being fully heard. She asks herself questions and contemplates issues that she would not have had the maturity to address previously. Strout says that was not a conscious choice on her part. “I am trying every second that I’m writing to be inside Lucy’s head. . . . I concentrate as deeply as I can to think, ‘What is it like to be Lucy right now?’” And Lucy continuously surprised her as she was penning the novel.
Once again, Strout has crafted a straight-forward, but deeply affecting, contemplative story featuring beloved characters whose decisions and choices will be as surprising to readers as they were to Strout as they appeared on the pages. Lucy by the Sea is poignant, thought-provoking, and relatable on numerous levels. It is another masterfully crafted novel from one of America’s best storytellers.
Thanks to NetGalley for an Advance Reader's Copy of the book.
Strout and her fictional heroine have a great deal in common. They are the same age, Lucy is also a novelist, and they have both been married twice. Strout has an adult daughter (while Lucy has two, Chrissy and Becka). It’s a case of art imitating life as Strout and her husband permanently relocated from Manhattan to Brunswick, Maine, during the pandemic. “We share many traits, but I’m not her,” Strout stresses, adding that she really doesn’t care about what people think, “so if people think that, that’s fine. But it is not true.”
Once again, the story is related in Lucy’s distinctive voice. In typical Lucy style, the narrative is somewhat disjointed, repetitive, stuttering, and awkward. But it is also honest, raw, and deeply insightful. The novel is crafted much like a series of diary entries, with Lucy, now sixty-six years old, relating what happens to her and her seventy-two-year-old ex-husband, William Gerhardt. He is a parasitologist to whom she was married for twenty years, but they have been divorced for nearly as long. In the interim, Lucy was happily married to David, a cellist, who died, and William has been married and divorced twice, most recently from his much younger third wife, Estelle, with whom he has a daughter, Bridget. In Oh William!, they journeyed together to Maine after William discovered via an ancestry website that he had a half-sister, Lois Bubar, residing there. William also learned that his mother’s life had actually been much different than he had been led to believe. Although Lucy met Lois, William’s half-sister had no desire to meet or interact with him. Two months after they returned from Maine, Lucy agreed to travel to Grand Cayman with William, believing that he “must have been plunged into some sort of midlife crisis, or older man crisis,” considering all that he had recently been through — divorce, Estelle taking ten-year-old Bridget to live with her, and being rejected by Lois. After their three-day vacation, they returned to New York and Lucy embarked on a book tour to promote her new novel.
But she disappointed her publisher by canceling a trip to Italy and Germany that was scheduled in early March 2020. Which is when William begs their daughters, Chrissy and Becka, to leave their Brooklyn homes, and convinces Lucy to return with him to the little town of Crosby on the coast of Maine where he has rented a house from Bob Burgess, the ex-husband of the woman with whom William had an on-again, off-again affair for years while married to Lucy. Lucy relates that she, unlike her scientist ex-husband, was unable to predict what the world was on the precipice of experiencing and reluctant to leave the city. She packed only a few things, thinking she would be spending just a couple of weeks in Maine, returning to New York City when things improved. At the outset, readers will identify with Lucy’s bewilderment, confusion, and naivete about the potential severity and length of the pandemic that was just beginning. “I did not know that I would never see my apartment again. I did not know that one of my friends and a family member would die of this virus. I did not know that my relationship with my daughters would change in ways I could never have anticipated. I did not know that my entire life would become something new.”
The book details the events that unfold as the world goes into lockdown, the virus claims lives, teleworking becomes the norm for millions, and isolation takes a heavy toll on relationships. Chrissy and her husband, Michael, an asthmatic, escape to his parents’ Connecticut home (they are staying in Florida), but Becka, a social worker, and her husband, Trey, an adjunct professor of poetry at New York University, opt to remain in Brooklyn. Both end up working at home.
Lucy shares her innermost thoughts and feelings as she and William settle into a house she does not like in a place that she deems far too cold. She is restless and has trouble concentrating, so finds herself unable to read books or write. She naps every afternoon and feels disoriented when she awakens. She and William spend a lot of time taking walks — separately and together – because there is little else for them to do in that remote location while completely isolated. They also become addicted to watching the news to hear about the latest developments. But like so many people, Lucy is unable to fully comprehend what is happening, even as the Surgeon General issues dire warnings and Broadway goes dark. Not all locals welcome New Yorkers, which frightens Lucy.
Lucy describes having always felt invisible in the world and the ways in which living in isolation with William exacerbates her anxiety, especially her worry that her daughters might catch the virus and not survive. But she develops a close friendship with Bob Burgess, who is now married to Margaret, a minister. They take frequent walks together and have meaningful conversations. Lucy is flattered to learn that he has read her book and heartened to realize that he truly understood it. She feels seen which is so important to her. His company eases the loneliness she feels, particularly since William often seems distant, not really listening to her. She especially misses David who seems “even more gone to me somehow.” She does not speak of mourning David because William likes to fix things, but “grief is a private thing.” Lucy understands that grieving is a solitary experience that must be endured alone.
Gradually, Lucy comes to see that “William had been right to bring me up here,” and they fall into a comfortable routine that includes enjoying meals that William prepares, taking drives, and hours-long conversations. And hear about the challenges Chrissy and Becka face from afar, unable to be with them in person to lend support. Lucy misses her daughters viscerally, sometimes feeling abandoned and convinced that Becka, in particular, is avoiding her. But she’s grateful for William’s ingenuity and resourcefulness as he finds ways to assist their daughters remotely.
William reveals life events that he has not previously shared with Lucy or their daughters. They grow closer, referring to each other by the nicknames they used when married — she is “Button” and he is “Pillie” — but William still gets on Lucy’s nerves from time to time. She is genuinely touched when he tells her, with great emotion, “Lucy, yours is the life I wanted to save. My own life I care very little about these days, except I know the girls still depend on me, especially Bridget; she is still just a kid. But, Lucy, if you should die from this, it would . . . I only wanted to save your life.” And Lucy rejoices with William when a disappointing situation happily resolves and is pleased that he finds new work to do in conjunction with the local university.
Still, as the days and months drag on, Lucy does not know exactly how she feels about William, even though she observes that, at times, “I am not unhappy.” For her, it is “weird to be with William — except that it wasn’t always weird” as they live together in a sort of limbo, wondering when they might be able to return to New York and how long it will be until things get better. In the summer, they watch news accounts of George Floyd’s murder and worry about the protests taking place around the country. People they love get the virus and some survive, while others do not. Lucy suffers physical symptoms of stress, but eventually begins venturing out a bit more, which helps her state of mind. The Presidential election takes place in November 2020, they watch in horror as the U.S. Capitol comes under attack on January 6, 2021. (“There was deep, deep unrest in the country and the whisperings of a civil war seemed to move around me like a breeze I could not quite feel but could sense.”) At last, the COVID vaccine becomes available in early 2021. Strout effectively demonstrates the various ways in which external happenings penetrate the metaphorical cocoon to which Lucy and William have retreated, and the ways world events intrude upon and impact Lucy’s already fragile psyche.
As the world slowly begins returning to some semblance of normalcy, Lucy makes momentous decisions and is surprised by the choices William makes. Lucy continues engaging in introspection about their lives and everything that led to their being in isolation together in that quaint house on the Maine coast.
Lucy by the Sea is another rich meditation on relationships, family, the impact of isolation, and importance of connectedness. Strout again brings Lucy and William to life with seemingly effortlessness, imbuing everyday occurrences with symbolism and meaning. Her writing is deceptively simple and sneakily impactful. She examines the ways in which their relationship endures over time, despite the pain they have inflicted on each other through the years. Strout also illustrates their daughters’ reactions to their parents spending time together and the evolution of their long relationship, as Chrissy and Becka endure their own life-altering traumas. In Lucy by the Sea, both daughters are now fully grown young women living their own lives, and Strout deftly shows both the ways in which the pandemic effects their lives and Lucy’s coming to understand fully that her children are now adults who “want to be heard” and design their lives on their own terms.
Strout says she sought to illustrate that during the pandemic lockdowns, “there was no time, all the days just melded into one. I was trying to get that sense of disorientation on to the page.” Although she maintains that was the hardest part of writing the book, she succeeds beautifully. Lucy by the Sea proceeds at a steady pace yet feels a bit untethered and meandering, just as life felt during that surreal era because of both the pandemic and the growing divisions among U.S. citizens. When Lucy finally finds inspiration for a new book and resumes writing, she worries that her story cannot be published because of the subject matter and the ideology of her main character. For Strout, that was “a real commentary on the times that we’re living in.”
Strout observes that Lucy is now, like her daughters, fully grown up. And she at last realizes that she is, like her daughters, being fully heard. She asks herself questions and contemplates issues that she would not have had the maturity to address previously. Strout says that was not a conscious choice on her part. “I am trying every second that I’m writing to be inside Lucy’s head. . . . I concentrate as deeply as I can to think, ‘What is it like to be Lucy right now?’” And Lucy continuously surprised her as she was penning the novel.
Once again, Strout has crafted a straight-forward, but deeply affecting, contemplative story featuring beloved characters whose decisions and choices will be as surprising to readers as they were to Strout as they appeared on the pages. Lucy by the Sea is poignant, thought-provoking, and relatable on numerous levels. It is another masterfully crafted novel from one of America’s best storytellers.
Thanks to NetGalley for an Advance Reader's Copy of the book.
Face of Greed by James L'Etoile
dark
emotional
funny
mysterious
sad
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
5.0
Author James L’Etoile began his long tenure in corrections as a probation officer in a juvenile facility. He subsequently became a correctional counselor and was promoted to the position of associate warden of a maximum-security prison. His career culminated with a stint as the director of the Division of Adult Parole Operations with the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation.
His duties included drafting release reports for judges. One day, after retiring, it occurred to him that he wrote crime stories throughout his career. Drawing on his experience and knowledge, he decided to pursue a new career writing fiction. Black Label, his first published novel is a stand-alone psychological thriller dealing with big pharma and featuring a female protagonist. He next launched his Detective Nathan Parker series with Dead Drop, set in the Southwest and dealing with the immigration crisis and those caught in the middle of it. Devil Within is the second installment in the series.
Face of Greed is the first offering in a new series. Inspiration for the story came from one of the first murder investigations in which L’Etoile participated. Three gang members broke into a home and forced the homeowner to open a safe before executing him. The perpetrators claimed the homeowner “was a drug dealer and was rumored to keep large quantities of product and cash in his safe” and owed them money, L’Etoile recalls. The jury rejected their proffered defense. The shooter was sentenced to death and the other two criminals received long prison sentences. L’Etoile says that case “always stuck with me” and prompted him to pen a story in which he “asks what if there was more going on in that home invasion?”
Face of Greed introduces readers to Emily Hunter. She has been a Detective with the Sacramento Police Department for five years. When asked why he opted to craft the series around another female protagonist, L’Etoile reveals that it puts him “on edge” and prevents him from making assumptions, permitting him to “get into [the story] a little more.” Crafting a believable female law enforcement professional also makes him work harder. “You can’t just put the character in a dress,” he notes. L’Etoile, whose own daughter is in law enforcement in addition to being one of his beta readers, believes that women in what is still a male-dominated profession don’t yet receive the recognition they deserve. “They still have to work harder than men to be recognized” and are often expected, like their male peers, to conceal their feelings while performing duties that frequently invoke strong emotional reactions. L’Etoile acknowledges that law enforcement is evolving and more resources are being offered to employees to help them cope with job stressors.
Emily is single and committed to her job. She is also a loving daughter, devoted to ensuring that her seventy-year-old mother, Connie, is safe and well cared for. Connie, a retired teacher, is afflicted with early onset Alzheimer’s disease and no longer able to live independently so four months ago, Emily insisted that Connie move in with her. She has enlisted a caregiver, Sheila, to watch over Connie while she works, but her schedule is anything but predictable and she often works long hours, so the logistics have thus far proven challenging. Indeed, as the book opens, she arrives at home to find that Connie has wandered off again, prompting Sheila to suggest that Emily consider relocating Connie to a secure facility where she can receive a higher level of care. But Emily has no time to debate the subject with Sheila because she is immediately called back to work by the Watch Commander. It’s a high-profile case in which the Chief of Police and Mayor are taking a personal interest and the unusual step of responding to the scene.
Emily and her partner of six months, Detective Javier Medina, arrive at a stylish home on 46th Street in the heart of one of Sacramento’s most prestigious neighborhoods, known as the “Fabulous Forties.” Roger Townsend, a fifty-year-old power player in California political circles, has been murdered in his home, “his throat slit from ear to ear.” His glamorous wife, Lori, interrupted what appears to have been a home invasion robbery and suffered minor injuries. The floor safe in Townsend’s home office is open but there is no evidence suggesting that it was forced open. Lori insists that only her husband knew the combination to the safe and he kept only a modest amount of cash and some papers in it. A small amount of light-colored powder is visible on the bottom of the now empty safe. Lori quickly retreats to the Townsend estate in Granite Bay, and the coroner’s examination soon reveals that Townsend was also shot in the back . . . and was terminally ill.
As Emily and Javier begin investigating, their efforts are thwarted by Lori’s close friendship with the Mayor. Their interview with the Managing Partner and In-House Counsel of Townsend and Associates leads to more questions about the nature of Townsend’s business dealings and holdings, as well as why a sleazy criminal attorney operating out of a J Street storefront was Townsend’s personal lawyer. They follow clues that will hopefully provide insight into the motivation for Townsend’s killing, but more crimes, including another murder, yield more suspects and complicate their efforts. The Chief is anxious to wrap up the investigation, claiming that the case has been solved and the killer taken into custody. Emily risks an insubordination charge as she seeks to avoid a confrontation with him and the Mayor because “[o]nce politics infects a case, common sense disappears.” But it becomes increasingly apparent that politics are impeding Emily and Javier’s efforts to unravel a mystery that grows increasingly complex and convoluted, involving another detective, ex-convicts who served time in Pelican Bay (one of California’s most dangerous and notorious prisons), members of the Aryan Brotherhood, and even an Assistant United States Attorney.
Emily is a compelling character. She is a competent and determined detective, savvy and respected by colleagues who are willing to aid her efforts with leads and tips. She is willing to take risks to uncover the truth, and skates dangerously close to derailing her career when she refuses to capitulate to the political machinations of her superiors and the interference of the Mayor in her investigation. Her partnership with Javier is both collegial and affectionate, characterized by often hilarious and believable bickering and teasing. It is evident that Javier, the junior member of the team, is not threatened by Emily or in any way uncomfortable being subordinate to a female detective. On the contrary, they have a great deal in common, not the least of which is their love for and appreciation of their mothers.
L’Etoile’s riveting story is both fast-paced and cleverly plotted. As the investigation proceeds, each piece of evidence uncovered seems to inspire more questions rather than provide answers, and lead Emily and Javier in unexpected directions. L’Etoile deftly keeps readers guessing about whether and in what configuration all the various threads of the mystery will eventually pull together, but Lori repeatedly emerges as the common denominator. She is demonstrably connected to and involved with a vast group of intriguing supporting characters, some of whom are quite dastardly and mercenary. Is she innocent? Or did she play a role in her husband’s demise? If so, what would motivate her to harm the man who, by all outward appearances, afforded her a lifestyle and access to power she could not have achieved on her own?
The procedural and political aspects of the story are both credible and plausible, the latter providing dramatic tension and frustrations that inspire Emily to forge ahead despite the obstacles erected by her powerful superiors and potential adverse consequences for her career. L’Etoile expertly utilizes the setting — the city of Sacramento and surrounding areas — to maximum effect. His familiarity with the region is evident as his characters visit landmarks like the famed Renaissance Tower. Housing the fictional Townsend and Associates, the downtown behemoth is known as the “Darth Vader” building because of its modernistic design that is at odds with the structures surrounding it, including California’s beloved domed Capitol. They also proceed to the William Jefferson Clinton Federal Building, another architectural oddity; the county jail; and the aforementioned “Fabulous Forties” and J Street. L’Etoile provides descriptions and wry commentary that transform the city into an integral character in the tale, illustrating its incohesive and contradictory nature for readers who are unacquainted with it. “Such was Sacramento, a city in search of an identity” with a fictional mayor intent on transforming it into a cultural center and travel destination.
Face of Greed is an absorbing, entertaining, and uniquely creative mystery, at the heart of which is the empathetic and relatable Emily. She is determined to simultaneously be the best detective, daughter, and partner she can be. Thus, she is both comfortably familiar and endearing. Readers will find themselves quickly invested in her success and moved by her relationship with her mother. She is keenly aware that their time together is limited, as Connie’s memories and cognitive abilities fade. And there is a black cat who is not hers, but keeps showing up expecting to be fed so Emily accedes to its demands. Hopefully, L’Etoile will further explore the various challenges that make Emily such a fascinating protagonist in subsequent volumes, while providing her with more mystifying cases to solve in California’s River City.
Thanks to NetGalley for an electronic Advance Readers Copy of the book and to Oceanview Publishing for a paperback Advance Readers Copy.
His duties included drafting release reports for judges. One day, after retiring, it occurred to him that he wrote crime stories throughout his career. Drawing on his experience and knowledge, he decided to pursue a new career writing fiction. Black Label, his first published novel is a stand-alone psychological thriller dealing with big pharma and featuring a female protagonist. He next launched his Detective Nathan Parker series with Dead Drop, set in the Southwest and dealing with the immigration crisis and those caught in the middle of it. Devil Within is the second installment in the series.
Face of Greed is the first offering in a new series. Inspiration for the story came from one of the first murder investigations in which L’Etoile participated. Three gang members broke into a home and forced the homeowner to open a safe before executing him. The perpetrators claimed the homeowner “was a drug dealer and was rumored to keep large quantities of product and cash in his safe” and owed them money, L’Etoile recalls. The jury rejected their proffered defense. The shooter was sentenced to death and the other two criminals received long prison sentences. L’Etoile says that case “always stuck with me” and prompted him to pen a story in which he “asks what if there was more going on in that home invasion?”
Face of Greed introduces readers to Emily Hunter. She has been a Detective with the Sacramento Police Department for five years. When asked why he opted to craft the series around another female protagonist, L’Etoile reveals that it puts him “on edge” and prevents him from making assumptions, permitting him to “get into [the story] a little more.” Crafting a believable female law enforcement professional also makes him work harder. “You can’t just put the character in a dress,” he notes. L’Etoile, whose own daughter is in law enforcement in addition to being one of his beta readers, believes that women in what is still a male-dominated profession don’t yet receive the recognition they deserve. “They still have to work harder than men to be recognized” and are often expected, like their male peers, to conceal their feelings while performing duties that frequently invoke strong emotional reactions. L’Etoile acknowledges that law enforcement is evolving and more resources are being offered to employees to help them cope with job stressors.
Emily is single and committed to her job. She is also a loving daughter, devoted to ensuring that her seventy-year-old mother, Connie, is safe and well cared for. Connie, a retired teacher, is afflicted with early onset Alzheimer’s disease and no longer able to live independently so four months ago, Emily insisted that Connie move in with her. She has enlisted a caregiver, Sheila, to watch over Connie while she works, but her schedule is anything but predictable and she often works long hours, so the logistics have thus far proven challenging. Indeed, as the book opens, she arrives at home to find that Connie has wandered off again, prompting Sheila to suggest that Emily consider relocating Connie to a secure facility where she can receive a higher level of care. But Emily has no time to debate the subject with Sheila because she is immediately called back to work by the Watch Commander. It’s a high-profile case in which the Chief of Police and Mayor are taking a personal interest and the unusual step of responding to the scene.
Emily and her partner of six months, Detective Javier Medina, arrive at a stylish home on 46th Street in the heart of one of Sacramento’s most prestigious neighborhoods, known as the “Fabulous Forties.” Roger Townsend, a fifty-year-old power player in California political circles, has been murdered in his home, “his throat slit from ear to ear.” His glamorous wife, Lori, interrupted what appears to have been a home invasion robbery and suffered minor injuries. The floor safe in Townsend’s home office is open but there is no evidence suggesting that it was forced open. Lori insists that only her husband knew the combination to the safe and he kept only a modest amount of cash and some papers in it. A small amount of light-colored powder is visible on the bottom of the now empty safe. Lori quickly retreats to the Townsend estate in Granite Bay, and the coroner’s examination soon reveals that Townsend was also shot in the back . . . and was terminally ill.
As Emily and Javier begin investigating, their efforts are thwarted by Lori’s close friendship with the Mayor. Their interview with the Managing Partner and In-House Counsel of Townsend and Associates leads to more questions about the nature of Townsend’s business dealings and holdings, as well as why a sleazy criminal attorney operating out of a J Street storefront was Townsend’s personal lawyer. They follow clues that will hopefully provide insight into the motivation for Townsend’s killing, but more crimes, including another murder, yield more suspects and complicate their efforts. The Chief is anxious to wrap up the investigation, claiming that the case has been solved and the killer taken into custody. Emily risks an insubordination charge as she seeks to avoid a confrontation with him and the Mayor because “[o]nce politics infects a case, common sense disappears.” But it becomes increasingly apparent that politics are impeding Emily and Javier’s efforts to unravel a mystery that grows increasingly complex and convoluted, involving another detective, ex-convicts who served time in Pelican Bay (one of California’s most dangerous and notorious prisons), members of the Aryan Brotherhood, and even an Assistant United States Attorney.
Emily is a compelling character. She is a competent and determined detective, savvy and respected by colleagues who are willing to aid her efforts with leads and tips. She is willing to take risks to uncover the truth, and skates dangerously close to derailing her career when she refuses to capitulate to the political machinations of her superiors and the interference of the Mayor in her investigation. Her partnership with Javier is both collegial and affectionate, characterized by often hilarious and believable bickering and teasing. It is evident that Javier, the junior member of the team, is not threatened by Emily or in any way uncomfortable being subordinate to a female detective. On the contrary, they have a great deal in common, not the least of which is their love for and appreciation of their mothers.
L’Etoile’s riveting story is both fast-paced and cleverly plotted. As the investigation proceeds, each piece of evidence uncovered seems to inspire more questions rather than provide answers, and lead Emily and Javier in unexpected directions. L’Etoile deftly keeps readers guessing about whether and in what configuration all the various threads of the mystery will eventually pull together, but Lori repeatedly emerges as the common denominator. She is demonstrably connected to and involved with a vast group of intriguing supporting characters, some of whom are quite dastardly and mercenary. Is she innocent? Or did she play a role in her husband’s demise? If so, what would motivate her to harm the man who, by all outward appearances, afforded her a lifestyle and access to power she could not have achieved on her own?
The procedural and political aspects of the story are both credible and plausible, the latter providing dramatic tension and frustrations that inspire Emily to forge ahead despite the obstacles erected by her powerful superiors and potential adverse consequences for her career. L’Etoile expertly utilizes the setting — the city of Sacramento and surrounding areas — to maximum effect. His familiarity with the region is evident as his characters visit landmarks like the famed Renaissance Tower. Housing the fictional Townsend and Associates, the downtown behemoth is known as the “Darth Vader” building because of its modernistic design that is at odds with the structures surrounding it, including California’s beloved domed Capitol. They also proceed to the William Jefferson Clinton Federal Building, another architectural oddity; the county jail; and the aforementioned “Fabulous Forties” and J Street. L’Etoile provides descriptions and wry commentary that transform the city into an integral character in the tale, illustrating its incohesive and contradictory nature for readers who are unacquainted with it. “Such was Sacramento, a city in search of an identity” with a fictional mayor intent on transforming it into a cultural center and travel destination.
Face of Greed is an absorbing, entertaining, and uniquely creative mystery, at the heart of which is the empathetic and relatable Emily. She is determined to simultaneously be the best detective, daughter, and partner she can be. Thus, she is both comfortably familiar and endearing. Readers will find themselves quickly invested in her success and moved by her relationship with her mother. She is keenly aware that their time together is limited, as Connie’s memories and cognitive abilities fade. And there is a black cat who is not hers, but keeps showing up expecting to be fed so Emily accedes to its demands. Hopefully, L’Etoile will further explore the various challenges that make Emily such a fascinating protagonist in subsequent volumes, while providing her with more mystifying cases to solve in California’s River City.
Thanks to NetGalley for an electronic Advance Readers Copy of the book and to Oceanview Publishing for a paperback Advance Readers Copy.
Dreaming of Water by A. J. Banner
dark
emotional
hopeful
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Author A.J. Banner describes Dreaming of Water as “lyrical, atmospheric, redemptive.” A resident of the Pacific Northwest, Banner set the story there. Specifically, in Heron Bay, Washington, a small town adjacent to that region’s majestic and mystical forests. The setting immediately establishes an ominous, uncertain, and almost dream-like atmosphere against which the action unfolds.
Astrid was just fourteen years old the summer that her three-year-old sister, Nina, drowned in the reflecting pool on the Michaels estate, situated near her Aunt Maude’s home. Her parents, Rose and Bjorn, were attending a party at the Michaels home and Astrid was responsible for taking care of Nina, who they all knew had a tendency to wander off. Astrid believed that Nina was asleep in her bed, but she had instead made her way through the woods to the reflecting pool. When Astrid realized Nina was not in Aunt Maude’s house and went looking for her, she discovered Nina’s lifeless body. In the aftermath of the tragedy, Astrid’s parents divorced two years later, and the family never again visited Heron Bay.
Now Astrid is a thirty-one-year-old, recently divorced documents examiner living in Vallejo, California. Astrid’s father, a professor of conservation biology at Portland University, is remarried and lives in the Oregon woods. Rose, Astrid’s mother, spends her time traveling to escape the past and her grief. She and Astrid rarely speak and haven’t seen each other in years. In addition to the guilt and remorse that have burdened her since the night Nina died, Astrid also blames herself for the demise of her marriage. Her lies and omissions led her husband, Trent, into a serious relationship with Astrid’s best friend, Leona.
Astrid has always been very fond of her Aunt Maude, twelve years older than Astrid’s mother, Rose. A retired librarian, her Victorian home on the edge of the woods at the end of a road that winds toward the sea, is filled with books and surrounded by gardens visible from the large wraparound porch. As the story opens, Astrid arrives in Heron Bay for the first time since that horrible summer. Aunt Maude called and implored her to come for a visit after she discovered a typewritten letter. “The signature is handwritten. The letter will change everything we believe about the past,” Maude tells Astrid, swearing her to secrecy and refusing to reveal the contents of the letter over the telephone. Rather, Aunt Maude insists they must meet in person. “The typewriter is here. The letter is in a safe place.”
But when Astrid arrives at Maude’s home, she finds her aunt unconscious on the floor of her home library with a gaping gash on her forehead. Did she fall? Could she have been pushed? Summoning help reunites Astrid with Conor Burke, her friend from childhood who is now the local sheriff. He had a memorable crush on Astrid, but as a young teenager, she was infatuated with the older Julian Michaels, a twenty-two-year-old student home for the summer who called Astrid “Austen Girl” after he happened upon her reading Persuasion by Jane Austen. She enjoyed discussing books with him, but her fantasies about a relationship with him faded when her family left Heron Bay for good. Now, Julian is a bestselling author residing on nearby San Juan Island as his sixteen-year-old son, Thomas, spends time with his grandparents, the glamorous Beatrice and her wealthy husband, Verne, at their Heron Bay estate where Nina drowned. In addition to assisting his grandmother, Thomas spends a lot of time with Livie Dwight, a snoopy nineteen-year-old gossip who claims she assisted Aunt Maude with various tasks.
Banner effectively incorporates her love of vintage typewriters into the tale. She wrote the first draft of the novel on one of the more than one hundred manual typewriters in her collection, and injects details about their characteristics, required maintenance, and repairs into the mystery. Specifically, with Aunt Maude in a coma and unable to provide answers, Astrid’s investigation into the veracity of the letter encompasses analysis of the typewriter in Aunt Maude’s home office. For instance, once she concludes that the typewriter’s font style and size match those displayed in the letter, she compares the letters on the page with the typewriter’s keys, noting anomalies that could indicate the letter was typed on a different machine, given that every typewriter is unique. To ensure that she described Astrid’s work accurately, Banner consulted with typewriter repair experts. Likewise, her research included educating herself about how forensic examinations of documents are conducted. Since Astrid only traveled to Heron Bay for a short visit, most of the equipment needed to perform a complete analysis and ascertain the authenticity of the letter is back in her California office. She can draw only preliminary conclusions. But are they accurate? Or is Astrid unaware of pertinent facts that would cause her to change her assessment?
And what exactly does the letter mean? The ambiguous message makes several characters potential suspects if Nina was indeed murdered. But who would kill an innocent three-year-old girl? And why? And what secrets is the murderer desperate to keep hidden?
Astrid’s quest to finally learn what really happened to Nina drives the story at a steady pace, as she follows clues and tests out theories, some of which are at odds with her memories of that night. Banner simultaneously depicts the profound impact of the tragedy on Astrid’s life, a fully formed and richly sympathetic character. Her family disintegrated and Astrid was without a support system, but she has accomplished much. She finished her education, established herself in her chosen profession and, for a time, her marriage to Trent was a happy one, even though relationships have always proven problematic for her. But she has never come to terms with Nina’s death, in part because of her mother’s recriminations and rejection. Rose flits from place to place, always running from the past and never willing to have a focused conversation about Nina’s death. Her father is also distant. And Astrid has always second-guessed herself, pondering whether she could have prevented the tragedy. Intellectually, she understands that she was just a fourteen-year-old girl upon whom responsibility for her little sister was too often thrust. But that knowledge does not alleviate her sense that she should have predicted that Nina would wander off and stopped her from doing so. There was some understandable sibling rivalry, especially considering their age difference, but Astrid would never have allowed harm to come to her sister. Over the years, she has felt “as if she herself has been drowning in guilt” and tried to understand “why she often dreamed of wading into the reflecting pool, water rising around her legs. She often woke gasping for air, drenched in sweat. Sometimes, she sensed Nina nearby in the shadows, as if the little girl wanted to speak but could not find the words.” Astrid recalls someone being in the house in addition to the two of them. She heard her mother’s voice, and understood that she had returned home from the party at the Michaels’ estate she attended with Bjorn, but who was she speaking to? What really happened at the party that caused her father to leave abruptly and drive all the way back to Seattle that night? Was it really Julian she saw that evening, crossing through the side garden toward the forest trail?
As Astrid’s inquiry proceeds, it becomes apparent that she is in danger from someone intent on preventing her from uncovering the truth. But who is behind the threats? Did that person kill Nina?
The pace of Dreaming of Water is steady and the story replete with surprising, perfectly timed revelations. Banner surrounds Astrid with an eclectic cast of supporting characters and builds a convincing case that several of them have secrets they want to keep hidden. But killing a little girl? Were any of them capable of such a monstrous act? Or was Nina’s death truly an accident brought about through a convergence of events and various characters’ motivations? Banner keeps readers guessing as she gradually demonstrates the duplicity and secrets of several characters and it becomes increasingly evident that Conor still has feelings for Astrid. She cares for him but is still emotionally reeling not just from the details she is learning about that night, but also the recent demise of her marriage. Numerous plot twists and turns advance the compelling and emotionally rich story, and when the truth finally comes to light, most readers will find it quite shocking.
Dreaming of Water is an expertly constructed and clever mystery, but much more. It is also a meditation on the myriad ways in which the overwhelming power of a tragic loss tore apart Astrid’s family, and continued to impact her life throughout her formative years and well into adulthood. Banner compassionately and credibly depicts a woman who is at last ready to confront the truth – whatever it may be – and come to terms with it. It’s a powerful story about the unbreakable bond of siblings, the need for families to grieve together in the wake of loss in order to avoid splintering, and the need to forgive not just others, but also oneself in order to find peace and thrive. The story is not just captivating. It is also both heartbreaking and, ultimately, hopeful. Banner says she strives “to create sympathetic characters, an interesting story, interesting scenes, and a twist or two. Readers will interpret the story based on their own experiences, viewpoints, and expectations. My job is to create the best story I can, to entertain rather than to instruct.” Once again, she has achieved her goals spectacularly.
Thanks to NetGalley for an Advance Reader's Copy of the book and to the author for a paperback copy.
Astrid was just fourteen years old the summer that her three-year-old sister, Nina, drowned in the reflecting pool on the Michaels estate, situated near her Aunt Maude’s home. Her parents, Rose and Bjorn, were attending a party at the Michaels home and Astrid was responsible for taking care of Nina, who they all knew had a tendency to wander off. Astrid believed that Nina was asleep in her bed, but she had instead made her way through the woods to the reflecting pool. When Astrid realized Nina was not in Aunt Maude’s house and went looking for her, she discovered Nina’s lifeless body. In the aftermath of the tragedy, Astrid’s parents divorced two years later, and the family never again visited Heron Bay.
Now Astrid is a thirty-one-year-old, recently divorced documents examiner living in Vallejo, California. Astrid’s father, a professor of conservation biology at Portland University, is remarried and lives in the Oregon woods. Rose, Astrid’s mother, spends her time traveling to escape the past and her grief. She and Astrid rarely speak and haven’t seen each other in years. In addition to the guilt and remorse that have burdened her since the night Nina died, Astrid also blames herself for the demise of her marriage. Her lies and omissions led her husband, Trent, into a serious relationship with Astrid’s best friend, Leona.
Astrid has always been very fond of her Aunt Maude, twelve years older than Astrid’s mother, Rose. A retired librarian, her Victorian home on the edge of the woods at the end of a road that winds toward the sea, is filled with books and surrounded by gardens visible from the large wraparound porch. As the story opens, Astrid arrives in Heron Bay for the first time since that horrible summer. Aunt Maude called and implored her to come for a visit after she discovered a typewritten letter. “The signature is handwritten. The letter will change everything we believe about the past,” Maude tells Astrid, swearing her to secrecy and refusing to reveal the contents of the letter over the telephone. Rather, Aunt Maude insists they must meet in person. “The typewriter is here. The letter is in a safe place.”
But when Astrid arrives at Maude’s home, she finds her aunt unconscious on the floor of her home library with a gaping gash on her forehead. Did she fall? Could she have been pushed? Summoning help reunites Astrid with Conor Burke, her friend from childhood who is now the local sheriff. He had a memorable crush on Astrid, but as a young teenager, she was infatuated with the older Julian Michaels, a twenty-two-year-old student home for the summer who called Astrid “Austen Girl” after he happened upon her reading Persuasion by Jane Austen. She enjoyed discussing books with him, but her fantasies about a relationship with him faded when her family left Heron Bay for good. Now, Julian is a bestselling author residing on nearby San Juan Island as his sixteen-year-old son, Thomas, spends time with his grandparents, the glamorous Beatrice and her wealthy husband, Verne, at their Heron Bay estate where Nina drowned. In addition to assisting his grandmother, Thomas spends a lot of time with Livie Dwight, a snoopy nineteen-year-old gossip who claims she assisted Aunt Maude with various tasks.
Banner effectively incorporates her love of vintage typewriters into the tale. She wrote the first draft of the novel on one of the more than one hundred manual typewriters in her collection, and injects details about their characteristics, required maintenance, and repairs into the mystery. Specifically, with Aunt Maude in a coma and unable to provide answers, Astrid’s investigation into the veracity of the letter encompasses analysis of the typewriter in Aunt Maude’s home office. For instance, once she concludes that the typewriter’s font style and size match those displayed in the letter, she compares the letters on the page with the typewriter’s keys, noting anomalies that could indicate the letter was typed on a different machine, given that every typewriter is unique. To ensure that she described Astrid’s work accurately, Banner consulted with typewriter repair experts. Likewise, her research included educating herself about how forensic examinations of documents are conducted. Since Astrid only traveled to Heron Bay for a short visit, most of the equipment needed to perform a complete analysis and ascertain the authenticity of the letter is back in her California office. She can draw only preliminary conclusions. But are they accurate? Or is Astrid unaware of pertinent facts that would cause her to change her assessment?
And what exactly does the letter mean? The ambiguous message makes several characters potential suspects if Nina was indeed murdered. But who would kill an innocent three-year-old girl? And why? And what secrets is the murderer desperate to keep hidden?
Astrid’s quest to finally learn what really happened to Nina drives the story at a steady pace, as she follows clues and tests out theories, some of which are at odds with her memories of that night. Banner simultaneously depicts the profound impact of the tragedy on Astrid’s life, a fully formed and richly sympathetic character. Her family disintegrated and Astrid was without a support system, but she has accomplished much. She finished her education, established herself in her chosen profession and, for a time, her marriage to Trent was a happy one, even though relationships have always proven problematic for her. But she has never come to terms with Nina’s death, in part because of her mother’s recriminations and rejection. Rose flits from place to place, always running from the past and never willing to have a focused conversation about Nina’s death. Her father is also distant. And Astrid has always second-guessed herself, pondering whether she could have prevented the tragedy. Intellectually, she understands that she was just a fourteen-year-old girl upon whom responsibility for her little sister was too often thrust. But that knowledge does not alleviate her sense that she should have predicted that Nina would wander off and stopped her from doing so. There was some understandable sibling rivalry, especially considering their age difference, but Astrid would never have allowed harm to come to her sister. Over the years, she has felt “as if she herself has been drowning in guilt” and tried to understand “why she often dreamed of wading into the reflecting pool, water rising around her legs. She often woke gasping for air, drenched in sweat. Sometimes, she sensed Nina nearby in the shadows, as if the little girl wanted to speak but could not find the words.” Astrid recalls someone being in the house in addition to the two of them. She heard her mother’s voice, and understood that she had returned home from the party at the Michaels’ estate she attended with Bjorn, but who was she speaking to? What really happened at the party that caused her father to leave abruptly and drive all the way back to Seattle that night? Was it really Julian she saw that evening, crossing through the side garden toward the forest trail?
As Astrid’s inquiry proceeds, it becomes apparent that she is in danger from someone intent on preventing her from uncovering the truth. But who is behind the threats? Did that person kill Nina?
The pace of Dreaming of Water is steady and the story replete with surprising, perfectly timed revelations. Banner surrounds Astrid with an eclectic cast of supporting characters and builds a convincing case that several of them have secrets they want to keep hidden. But killing a little girl? Were any of them capable of such a monstrous act? Or was Nina’s death truly an accident brought about through a convergence of events and various characters’ motivations? Banner keeps readers guessing as she gradually demonstrates the duplicity and secrets of several characters and it becomes increasingly evident that Conor still has feelings for Astrid. She cares for him but is still emotionally reeling not just from the details she is learning about that night, but also the recent demise of her marriage. Numerous plot twists and turns advance the compelling and emotionally rich story, and when the truth finally comes to light, most readers will find it quite shocking.
Dreaming of Water is an expertly constructed and clever mystery, but much more. It is also a meditation on the myriad ways in which the overwhelming power of a tragic loss tore apart Astrid’s family, and continued to impact her life throughout her formative years and well into adulthood. Banner compassionately and credibly depicts a woman who is at last ready to confront the truth – whatever it may be – and come to terms with it. It’s a powerful story about the unbreakable bond of siblings, the need for families to grieve together in the wake of loss in order to avoid splintering, and the need to forgive not just others, but also oneself in order to find peace and thrive. The story is not just captivating. It is also both heartbreaking and, ultimately, hopeful. Banner says she strives “to create sympathetic characters, an interesting story, interesting scenes, and a twist or two. Readers will interpret the story based on their own experiences, viewpoints, and expectations. My job is to create the best story I can, to entertain rather than to instruct.” Once again, she has achieved her goals spectacularly.
Thanks to NetGalley for an Advance Reader's Copy of the book and to the author for a paperback copy.