Book Report for July, August, and September 2024

While the idea is fresh in my brain, I thought I'd let you know what I read and how I felt about it over the past three months. Here you go!

By Way of Sorrow, by Robyn Gigl. What an interesting book!

Erin McCabe and her partner Duane Swisher are contacted by a friend of Duane's, asking them to take on the defense of someone accused of murdering the son of an extremely powerful political figure in New Jersey. It turns out that the individual is transgender,  and had been working as a prostitute, claiming that she was acting in self defense,  once the customer realized the truth. 

They take the case. Erin in particular understands the defendant's situation, as she had spent most of her life as Ian McCabe.

This is a book about power, dirty tricks, and how people treat one another.  It's about how sometimes family will do whatever is necessary to protect themselves, and also about the difficulties people can experience accepting change of any kind.

Erin and Duane are interesting characters, and the case is complex for so many reasons, it can sometimes get hard to keep up. But I liked thus book, and will definitely read another in the series.

Peg and Rose Solve a Murder, by Laurien Berenson. Peg and Rose are sisters-in-law who have never really gotten along. But when Rose asks Peg to join a bridge club with her, they decide to give it a try. Things go well enough, until one of the club members is murdered. Not happy with how the police seem to be handling the case, the two ladies decide to do some of their own investigating. 

This was an enjoyable palate cleanser. If you have read any of the Melanie Travis canine mysteries by this author, you'll be familiar with Aunt Peg in particular.  This book is good entertainment when you just want to read something without a lot of extra crap.

A Cast of Falcons, by Sarah Yarwood-Lovett.  Dr. Nell Ward has offered to host her very best friend's wedding at the manor of her family home. It's a somewhat rushed affair - the friend's family is opposed to the whole thing, and Nell isn't completely certain that she approves of the groom.

But when there are three murders, it's clear someone took drastic action, and there are just so many suspects! As Nell, James, her boyfriend (is he though?) who is also a detective, and Rav, one of Nell's colleagues, try to figure it out, family secrets are exposed, and relationships shift. 

Oh and owls solve it. Well, kinda.

Sin in the Second City: Madams, Ministers, Playboys, and the Battle for America's Soul, by Karen Abbott.  This was quite a book! Karen Abbott has done a deep dive into Chicago history at the turn of the 19th to 20th century, focusing on the "evil" side of things and the reformer who attempted to shut things down. 

The main focus is prostitution, and within that, the Everleigh Club, run by the sisters Ada and Minna Everleigh. They set out to create a "resort" on a much higher level than other brothels, and they succeeded. The author does an excellent job of evoking time and place. And though this is a work of non-fiction, it is extremely readable for anyone intersection in the stories.

My mother was a child shortly after this time period.  She spent every summer in Chicago with her aunt, uncle,  and cousin, and many of her stories seemed fantastical. Reading this book made me see that though shecwas shortly after the time, a lot of the places and characters were still around. I lived in Chicago until the end of first grade, but also shortly after getting married as an adult, and so many of these people and stories remain part of the lore.

There are a very few places in the book that dragged for me, but otherwise I found it well written and just plain fascinating. 

One other thing I'll mention - I love a good nickname, and boy did this book have some real zingers!

First Degree, by David Rosenfelt. I read the first book in this series a few years back and liked it, but had forgotten about it until someone I follow on social media recommended the newest book.

Andy Carpenter is adjusting to life as a wealthy person, having received a huge inheritance from his late father. He is still practicing law, having some notoriety after winning a big case a little while back. He and his girlfriend - who also works as a private investigator for him - are at a happy place in their relationship.

When Laurie (girlfriend) learns that her former partner as a cop has been brutally murdered, she is actually relieved. She had turned him in to Internal Affairs due to corruption. And us often the case, he stayed on the police force and she left.

Things get scary when Laurie is arrested for the murder. Andy knows she is innocent,  and now has to prove it. Thus begins a complex story of being set up to take the rap that soon involves even the FBI.

This was a good read. Rosenfelt makes Andy an ordinary guy who you want to come out on top. There's humor and sincerity in him and his observations.  The supporting characters are pretty believable as well.

How to Age Disgracefully, by Clare Pooley. As this book begins,  a woman named Daphne is experiencing her 70th birthday. She decides that she has lived an isolated life for too long, and makes herself a goal to make some friends. Her first step is joining the seniors group being formed at the community center. 

And so we are introduced to the others in the group, as well as people who utilize other services at the center. Daphne, who seems to have a mysterious past, is at first disgusted with everyone and everything, but before she knows it, she is involved and participating. 

The book is very entertaining, often poignant,  andmakes you want the best for the main characters. Some if them seem like stereotypes at first, but as you get to know them, that changes and you get the sense of how frustrating it can be to seem invisible to society at large.

This book has a lot of heart, and gives the reader a chance to consider their own assumptions.

The Hazelbourne Ladies Motorcycle and Flying Club, by Helen Simonson. I enjoyed this book. Constance Haverhill, a young woman with no real social standing, accompanies and elderly womwn recovering from influenza to a seaside resort shortly after World War I has ended. There she meets Poppy Wirrall, a wealthy young woman who has started a taxi service where the passengers ridding the sidebars of motorcycles.

The story is actually about the way that society viewed women and their roles at the time. Many women had done their but during the war but were expected to go back to being wives and mothers afterwards. And in England, there was also expectations regarding one's social class. For Constance, life is both confusing and uncertain since once the summer ends,she will need to find other gainful employment "suitable" for a woman. 

In the meantime, her life in Hazelbourne (the seaside town) provides her with a set of friends and adventures that she could never have expected.  It's an interesting look at a specific period of time where people longed for modernity, but hesitated to let go of the old ways.  

As usual, it made me realize that for however restrictive things might be now for women,  things gave improved tremendously.  Now if we can only keep going forward instead of backward.

Torn Asunder, by Barbara Ross. This is apparently the last in this series (I've read the first 5 only). 

Julia Snowden is busy preparing Morrow Island and the Snowden Family Clambake to host the wedding of two of her best friends. Things are going well until someone shows up at the Rehearsal Dinner that she doesn't know. But the man is talking to several people, so she assumes he is just a guest's plus-one.

But the man collapses and dies during dinner.  And though at first no one admits to knowing who he is, it turns out that a lot of people knew him and had a motive to do him harm. 

The main story was readable enough. But it appears that the author decided to end the series and thought all-encompassing wrap up of everyone's story should be crammed into two short chapters. It just didn't feel cohesive to the rest of the stories leading up to it.

You Are Here, by David Nicholls.  This book takes place shortly after the lockdown of the Covid-19 pandemic has ended.

Michael is a geography teacher, living alone since he separated from his wife and she moved out. He has inadvertently become a recluse, other than for school-related activities. 

Marnie's a divorced young woman who has been working as a freelance copy editor. She lives alone in her London apartment, relatively content. 

A mutual friend, Cleo, devises a plan for a group hike from one vast of England to another. She convinces Michael, an avid walker, to lead the group and map out the route. True, Michael does enjoy walking, but mostly to enjoy tye solitude of it. Nonetheless, he agrees.

Marnie isn't really a big fan of walking or of nature, but she has made a plan to interact with the world more, so she signs on. 

When the group starts, it's already down a person due to cancellation, and Cleo is dismayed because it's the woman she was hoping Michael would end up dating. In any case, they start out on the journey.

During the walk, which has its ups and downs (haha), both Michael and Marnie start thinking through their lives and their futures. Others in the group begin to drop out, and soon it's just the two of them walking towards the end. 

I liked that this book ended as it did - giving each character time and space to see how they really felt and how they wanted to go forward in their lives. The walk itself sounded both interesting and exhausting,  and the lodgings in some of the places where they stopped were questionable at best. But it was a good read.

Holly, by Stephen King. Please note that I am not really a Stephen King fan - I don't really like scary things. But after being introduced to Holly Gibney in one of the dramatizations of oneof his books, I decided to give this a try, and it was creepy, yes, and disturbing, yes, but really good!

Holly has just finished attending her mother's Zoom funeral,after her death from Covid. Her mother believed it was no big deal. Meanwhije, Holly's partner Pete is currently sick with Covid,  even though he has been vaccinated.

So their investigation agency is currently closed, but when Holly listens to a phone message from a woman whose daughter has disappeared, she really can't help herself, and calls her back.

Thus starts a bizarre and disturbing story about secret being kept by an elderly academic couple, Holly learning of an unexpected inheritance, and the circuitous path to an ending. 

Very readable, and really creepily crazy.

Crafting for Murder, by Barbara  Emodi. OK this is not great literature, but here's what it has:

Canada- specifically Nova Scotia 

Crafting - all kinds, including knitting

Dog - a Golden Retriever named Toby

Cat - a gray cat named Shadow

Tea - the main character prefers tea to coffee

If you have ever spent even 2 minutes with me, you would know that the above list contains 5 of the things I most love in life. Having said that, if the story containing them was crap, I'd be more than willing to to say so.

This is a really good cozy mystery.  The main character, Valerie Rankin, is an empty nester who returns to Gasper's Cove, Nova Scotia, hoping to open a crafts co-op on the second floor of the family's grocery store, a local landmark. But between the likely murder of a local radio personality, and things she finds out while trying to get a heritage designation for the building, you have to wonder if her plans will ever work.

One of the things I liked about this book is that Valerie is wrong about some of her suspects in a big way. She's not someone who automatically seems to hone in on things, so her character is not smooth and always right. 

I will definitely look for another in this series. Because it was so much more than I had expected, it gets 4 stars.

The Summer Book, by Tove Jansson. This is the story of a young girl whose mother has recently died, and the summer after, which she spends with her grandmother and father on a small island off the coast of Finland. 

It's not really a book where anything happens, except the things that happen over a quiet, island summer. The little girl, Sophia, has adventures with her grandmother, involving animals and plants on the island, the occasional visitor, and some trips off the island. They all spend the bulk of their time together in a quiet life that takes its time to move into fall.

Nothing to See Here, by Kevin Wilson. I liked this odd book a lot. 

Madison and Lillian were roommates and friends in high school, though something happened that caused Lillian to leave before graduating.  They've kept in touch, Madison marrying a U.S. senator, Lillian living with her uninterested mother and working dead-end jobs.

When Madison asks Lillian to come to Tennessee and care for her stepchildren - who occasionally catch on fire - Lillian decides to give it a go.

And there are sad things and funny things in this book, but it made me think about how so many people think of children as a social commodity - trotting them out in the good times, doing anything to hide their existence when it might be problematic. 

Worth a read.

Mrs. Quinn's Rise to Fame, by Olivia Ford. Jenny Quinn has been married for nearly sixty years, happily to her husband Bernard. Asmuch as she adores him, and their life together,  she just feels like she wants to do something that is just hers. So she sends in a application to a reality show called Britain Bakes, and to her shock and surprise, she's chosen as a contestant. 

Known to friends and family as an amazing baker,  Jenny plans to use old family recipes, or adaptations of them, for her bakes. The people and the memories, good and bad, are there with her as she competes.

One memory in particular becomes more and more to the front of her mind as the show continues. And there is a brief time she she thinks she will just quit. 

This is a lovely book about growing older and growing as a person. It shows how sometimes people are surprising, even when you expect that you've hurt them terribly. And Jenny and Bernard are just lovely people.

The Maid, by Nita Prose. I know everyone has raved about this book. I thought it was an interesting enough read, but don't think it's all that amazing. I nearly gave up at one point, but decided it was at least worth finishing.

Little Monsters, by Adrienne Brodeur. Ken is a successful real estate developer, having just inked a deal to create top of the line, luxury senior housing. His younger sister Abby is an artist coming in to her own. They were raised by their father Adam, a mercurial and brilliant scientist who studies whales. All of  them still live on Cape Cod.

Adam is a a difficult type.  After his wife died - shortly after Abby's birth - he had two young children to raise, but was still involved in his research, sontye kids didn't get a lot of his time. He also suffers from  manic episodes,  so things were difficult for them growing up. They were very close growing up, until something caused a rift. 

So here they are, planning a 70th birthday party for Adam, each convinced that their gifts will finally bring them some of his love. But as the reader, we can tell it's all heading for disaster. 

The supporting characters in this story were in some ways more interesting than the main characters. But the book shows a family with a lot of secrets,  still trying to function as normal. Adam is a pedantic blowhard, Ken has a lot of anger, and Abby needs to grow up.

The book is very readable,  much like the proverbial train wreck is watchable. I didn't love it, but I didn't hate it either.

Triple Witch, by Sarah Graves. Jacobia "Jake" Tiptree is still busy trying to fix up her accent house in Eastport, Maine. Not just because it needs it, but also because a representative is visiting soon to determine if Eastport is a good candidate for grant money provide by an historical association.  

ven she and her friend Ellie discover the body of Kenny Mumford, a local that Ellie dated for a while, she and Jake start trying to figure out who killed him. He was one of those people known to always be looking for "the next big thing," but was otherwise harmless.

Things get out of hand pretty quickly, and soon there are more murders, something involving  former trader moved into the area that Jake helped the SEC take down, and why is Jake's ex-hus b snd Victor staying at her house?

This was an entertaining and good read, with a lot of moving parts, so to speak.

The Truth About the Devlins, by Lisa Scottoline. The thing is, Lisa Scottoline's books are always so readable for me. Not just because they are generally set in the Philadelphia area, so things seem familiar,  but somehow you just get sucked in.

The Devlins of the title are a close-knit family, most of whom work in the family law firm. Except for TJ, the family "screw-up" who is a recovering alcoholic and working for the first as an investigator.

At the beginning of the book, his older brother John calls him in a panic, after a client meeting goes south. John not only needs his help, but swears him to secrecy about it all. As the book continues, John keeps throwing TJ under the bus,  telling the family that he's relapsed into drinking. So TJ decides to figure things out for himself,  to redeem himself in the eyes of his family.

Things get pretty weird and crazy, and the whole thing turns into an episode of who do you trust - until TJ really bears down and is able to start figuring it all out.

The Devlins may be well-to-do with a lot of the trimmings, but they are not immune to problems and secrets. And just because TJ has made a mess of things in the past, it doesn't mean he is incapable of changing things.

What Happened to Nina?, by Dervla McTiernan. This book reminded me a lot of what I read about the Gabby Pettito case - maybe that was the inspiration,  who knows?

Nina and Simon have known each other their whole lives, and were high school sweethearts.  Now both in college - Simon at Northwestern, and Nina at home in Vermont - Nina has started to realize she should break up - Simon has become more manipulative than ever.

Nina's parents are middle class, whereas Simon was raised in privilege, and his parents have a lot of important political and social connections. 

When Simon and Nina are on a school break, they decide to go to his parents' new vacation home in Stowe and do some climbing,  something they both excel at. But the trip is cut short when Simon returns alone. He says that they broke up, and Nina left to visit  friends in Boston. Except no one has heard from Nina, not even her friends.

Simon's story raises more questions than it answers,  and his parents move into crisis control mode with some pretty awful things. They will do anything to protect their son. Nina's family will do anything to find their daughter.

This was a good read, if a somewhat upsetting one. No one comes out of the story looking good.

Trouble Is Brewing, by Vicki Delany. A weekend of wedding activities starts off poorly when the bride-to-be opens a gruesome gift at her wedding shower, held at Lily Roberts' Cape Cod tea house, Tea By The Sea. 

But things get worse when the groom's father is found dead in Lily's grandmother's B&B on the same property. He was known to have a heart problem,  but an autopsy shows he was poisoned. 

So even though she didn't want to become involved, Lily and her friends start poking around for clues and suspects.  And there are plenty of suspects - mostly in the man's own family.

This one had me puzzled until nearly the end, when I thought I knew who di it, but not necessarily why.

Warning though: do not read this when you are hungry.  Because unlike the people in the book, Lily isn't providing food and drink to the readers!

A Deadly Cliche, by Ellery Adams. Olivia Limoges is busy along with everyone else in town getting ready for an approaching hurricane. She receives a letter telling her that her father is dying and asking for money towards his care. But the thing is, her father died when she was a little girl, when he took his fishing boat out in a storm. Or did he?

So Olivia is dealing with that, a hurricane, and trying to figure out her feelings about another member of her writers group.

Oh yeah - a series of robberies have been happening around town that are similar but different.  When one of them becomes deadly, Olivia wants to figure out what is going on.

I kind of like this series,  though this is just the second book. Olivia is an unusual character, especially for a city mystery.  You're not sure that you actually like her, but you kind of do.

Sandwich, by Catherine Newman. This is a book I was waiting to read. The bulk of it takes place over one week during the summer when a family visits a house they have always rented on Cape Cod. The narrator is a menopausal women who isxa wife and mother to two grown children, and daughter to elderly parents.

I felt like it was reading the random stories and musings of the woman from that week. It was sometimes very funny, often poignant, and sometimes just annoying because she is truly obsessed with her children. I felt like she was a person you'd really want to like, but you'd just get tired of hearing about her kids all the time if you knew her. 

I didn't dislike the book, but I'm not sad that it's finished.

The Last Word, by Elly Griffiths. I really liked this book. I felt like it started slow,but then pulled you in to the story. This is part of Griffiths' Harbinder Kaur series, though Harbinder herself is a minor character here. 

Natalka, Edwin, and Benedict - characters from a previous installment  - become involved in a series of mysterious deaths which at first seem unrelated, but then are tied together through a writing retreat. Edwin and Benedict sign up for one of the weekends and attend undercover.  Even during that weekend, one of the other attendees dies in mysterious circumstances. 

I think this story was well-crafted - there were several people and places involved, but it wasn't really hard to keep track. And it was mysterious but not gruesome,  so the mystery kept you wondering.

Murder, She Barked, by Krista Davis. I enjoy this author's other series, so I thought I'd give this one a try.

Holly Miller lost her job in Washington DC, and got a call telling her to come right back to the Sugar Maple Inn in Wagtail, Virginia, where she spent her childhood summer, because her grandmother who owns the inn is in trouble. On her way, she gains a stray dog, and sees a car go over a mountain and catch on fire right as she is getting close to Wagtail.

The Inn has been renovated now and Wagtail has become a vacation destination for people and their pets. Oma (Holly's grandmother) seems fine, other than an injured ankle. But one of her employees has been killed, and soon after Holly arrives, there's another murder. 

As Holly tries to figure out what is going on with Oma, who is killing people, and why her boyfriend and his former girlfriend are in town, she begins to feel at home again in Wagtail. 

The mystery was pretty complex with a lot of suspects and people involved in different ways. The characters were all interesting enough, but seemed a bit expected. 

It was fine, but I doubt I'll read any more in this particular series.

Long Island, by Colm Toibin. This is a long-in-coming sequel to Toibin's book, Brooklyn. The heroine of that story, Eilis Lacey, has been married to Tony for a while, and they have two children. They live in a cul-de-sac with Tony's Italian-American family, who all spend a lot of time together. 

When a man shows up and informs Eilis that Tony has impregnated his wife, things start to happen. Learning that Tony's mother plans to raise the baby, Eilis decides that it's well past time that she returned to Ireland for a visit,  and uses her mother's 80th birthday as the perfect reason. She will go first, and then her children  - who have never met their grandmother - will join her.

Once in Ireland,  she reconnects with her close friend Nancy, now a widow. And Jim Farrell, who Eilis was expected to marry, is now running his late father's pub, and has never gotten married. 

What Eilis doesn't know right away is that Nancy and Jim have been seeing each other on the quiet and plan to marry - well, at least until she returns and Jim not only revisits his feelings, but is willing to change everything, if only asked.

This is a story of the consequences of decisions made when we are young, and how even if they aren't perfect, it can be hard to untangle all of the connections later in life.  It really seemed to me a story proving that you can't go home again, in so many different ways of expression.

Grounds for Murder, by Sandra Balzo. Maggy Thorsen let's herself get talked into being the emcee for a batista competition at Java Ho, an annual convention about all things coffee, being held in Milwaukee.  She realizes that if nothing else, it will be good PR for Uncommon Grounds, her independent coffee shop.

But when she discovers the body of Marvin LaRoche, organizer of the event and owner of a local chain of coffee shops after the first day of competition,  things get complicated.  Especially since the night before everything got underway, Marvin's wife's coffee shop was burned to the ground. It had been a popular mainstay in the area. 

This was an interesting read, because there were so many different elements and possibilities related to what happened and if things were related. Some characters have secrets revealed that could make them a suspect - but do they have to be revealed? 

It was also interesting to learn tidbits about the coffee business.

The Marlow Murder Club, by Robert Thorogood. What an enjoyable book!

When Judith Potts, a pensioner who creates crossword puzzles is having her nightly swim in the river behind her house, she hears a neighbor yell out, followed by a gunshot. 

Shortly after, she reads in the village paper that another resident has been killed. Curious, she walk over to the deceased's neighborhood,  where she meets Suzie, a dogwalker who cared for the victim's dog. They agree that two murders in their village is suspicious, and decide to investigate. At the beginning of their task, they meet Becks,the vicar's wife who is much younger, but knows a lot about everyone.

As they try to figure things out, another person is killed. They *know* there's somehow a connection among all three deaths, but what is it? Each step forward ends quickly. 

For a small village, Marlow has a lot of secrets ... and some are pretty surprising! 

Black Sheep, by Rachel Harrison. Vesper Wright is estranged from her family, particularly her mother, a well-known star of some classic horror movies. She lives a decidedly unglamorous life, working as a waitress until a mistake involving a customer gets her fired, citing (as usual) her "bad attitude."

At the same time, out-of-the blue, comes a wedding invitation from an anonymous source. But it turns out that her childhood best friend and her boyfriend from back home are the ones getting married.

Eventually she decides to go to the wedding, wondering if the members of the religious cult she grew up in will even let her return for the wedding once she's there.

They do. But everything that happens after that is a surprise to her and the reader. Vesper is not at all prepared for this family reunion - but she also learns about her true self, and eventually learns to determine her own future.

This was a good read, and once the surprise about Vesper's family's religious cult was revealed, you did have to wonder what was going to happen when she went back home.

This was a fun read, and the search got the killer keeps you reading.

No Strangers Here, by Carlene O'Connor. A really well written and thought out mystery. And it takes place in Dingle, one of my fave places in Ireland.

Dimpna Wilde is a veterinarian in Dublin, who has recently had to deal with some serious and tragic life events. When she learns that a prominent citizen in her hometown of Dingle has been murdered, and her family is thought to be involved,  she is shocked; when her practice is closed down for financial, she packs up and heads home, against her best instincts. 

Upon arrival, she also learns that her father, also a vet, is suffering from the early stages of dementia; her mother is rumored havebeen having an affair with Johnny O'Reilly, the victim; and, her brother may be suffering from addiction issues again. As she tries to find out what is going on, an inspector from Killarney is assigned the case. 

Between trying to organize her life, trying to help her parents, and keeping track of her grown son, she realizes that who murdered O'Reilly is not the only secret that will be revealed.

The Women, by Kristin Hannah. This book received so many accolades,  and so many people thought it excellent,  and I ... didn't really like it at all.

I was an early teenager to young adult during the Vietnam War. So many friends and people in our town lost someone during that time  - brothers, sons, next door neighbors. It was horrific, even before people even knew much about it. 

I thought this book would be stories of several of the women who served in the hospitals there. It was, but in too small of a way. It focused on one young woman, and I really didn't like her. Yes, you got the feel of the experience, and her friends were part of the story too, but not enough of it. Even at the end, I just didn't care about the main character at all, and still felt cheated of better characters and more interesting and thoughtful stories. 

I know I am an outlier here, so don't necessarily take my review as your only consideration.

The Diva Sweetens the Pie, by Krista Davis. Another good entry in this series. These are perfect when you just want to enjoy a read.

This time around, Sophie & co. have to figure out a few things. When a celebrity chef who is in town to judge a pie contest collapses, and it turns out she was poisoned, things get messy. Soon after, Sophie's boyfriend Alex is beat nearly to death, and his law office is set on fire. And a man and his young daughter in town ask Sophie and her friend Nina to help their wife and mother get released from jail, claiming she was unjustly imprisoned. 

Things keep changing, and so do the suspects,  but in the end it works out - but not before Sophie herself is a suspect!

*****

What about you? Have you read anything you really enjoyed - or were disappointed by - recently? Any recommendations are welcome in the comments!