A Question of Honor

by Charles Todd, William Morrow, August 2013

...strongest story in this series

The fifth in the Bess Crawford series is the best one in my opinion.  Bess is a WWI battlefield nurse who continually runs into murder mysteries (like a lot of these series you must keep your incredibility in check).  This mystery is 10 years old and starts in India where Bess was raised.  Her father was the colonel in command of a British Army unit stationed there.  One of his officers is charged with five murders and to the dishonor of Bess’s father and the entire regiment he escapes.  Fast forward to the front lines in France in the waning days of WWI where Beth receives information from a dying man that the officer in question is still alive and serving in the British army as an enlisted man.  Things take off from there, Beth, ever relentless in her investigation tracks down leads in France and back in England.  She must have crossed the English channel at least 20 times in two months to further the investigation.  No more spoilers on this story but the plot is more complex than earlier novels in this series although the denouement is fairly weak.

This series is good but not great.  Beth as the central character is always being rescued by Simon her father’s aide, so not exactly your feminist role model.   Because Beth is neither a detective nor a police official the plotting takes some leaps to keep Beth’s actions credible.  This story is stronger because Beth and her mother solve the case without depending on her father’s army connections to elicit information.  So if you’ve enjoyed earlier books in this series you’ll find this one entertaining.  If you are looking for a good WWI female detective try the Maisie Dobbs series.

I read a copy of this novel provided by the publisher.

The Supremes at Earl's All-You-Can -Eat

by Edward Kelsey Moore, Knopf March 2012

...a great beach read

Covering a 50 year span from the late 60s through the new century, this story covers the friendship of three African American women, Clarice, Odette and Barbara Jean.  The girls meet and bond in high school.  They hang out at the local eatery, Earl’s  All You Can Eat where they are quickly dubbed the Supremes.  We meet their spouses, Richmond, Clarice’s philandering husband, Lester, Barbara Jean’s much older husband and James, Odette’s rock solid partner. Still friends after all these years they continue to meet at Earl’s now with their husbands.

The story is told in two voices, Odette speaks in the first person and the rest of the story is told in the third person.  Oh by the way Odette sees and speaks to dead people including her mother and Eleanor Roosevelt.  Sounds kind of crazy but it works in this story.  The tale is really not plot driven but character driven.  The friendship among these women is the story.  They are now in their fifties and are all dealing with life changing events.  Clarice has decided that she will no longer accept Richmond’s infidelities.  Barbara Jean is haunted by an earlier relationship and the death of her son Adam and Odette has a significant health challenge.  How these women deal with these issues and help one another is the core of the story.  I forgot to mention how much humor is in this story, while not the  laugh out loud type it is surely fun.

I am sure that some people will criticize this novel as being made up of stereotypes but I don't agree, I think these women are warm, real, intelligent characters that show the best parts of female friendships.  A surprise for me was that the author was a man.  I liked this book a lot and was sorry when it ended.  A great beach read!

I read a copy of this novel provided by the publisher.

Ordinary Grace

by William Kent Krueger, Atria Books, March 2013

...a coming of age story that is engrossing and memorable

The story is set in a small town in Minnesota in the summer of 1961. Folks are going to the soda fountain and drinking ice cold root beers and the Twins are a brand new team in Minnesota.   Our narrator is Frank Drum, the 13 year old son of the local minister.  His father Nathan is a vet haunted by memories of his WWII experiences, his mother Ruth struggles in her role as a minister’s wife.  Frank has a younger brother Jake, wise beyond his years who stutters in public and an older sister Ariel who is an accomplished musician headed for Julliard at the end of this fateful summer.

Frank narrates the story from a perspective 40 years later.  It is a technique that works well.  The first death in the book, a train accident that kills a mentally challenged young boy, sets the stage for the events that will follow.  Frank and Jake are an adventurous duo, walking the edge between serious trouble and normal boyhood adventures.  They spend a lot of time eavesdropping on adults and learning information that alters their take on events.  The author does a nice job in writing about the relationships among the three siblings, it is a family dynamic that rings true.

Frank grows into an adult maturity as he considers and responds to the action in the story.  I particularly enjoyed the writing when he describes his thought process on events.  It seemed so realistic.  The events of the summer are life changing for all involved.  The town will witness multiple deaths at least one of which is a murder.  While this story is described as a murder mystery,  it is not a page turner  and the murderer is apparent well  before it is revealed.  It is more of a coming of age story that examines the role of faith in response to horrific events.  

I liked this book and will search out more by this author.   I think he tells an engrossing  story of how good people struggle with loss, deal with guilt, participate in a community, support each other, weigh whether forgiveness is possible and find comfort in a religious faith.

I read a copy of this novel that I bought.

Reconstructing Amelia: A Novel

by Kimberly McCreight, narrated by Khristine Hvam, Harper Audio, 12 hrs, 15 min., April 2013

...chilling depiction of life in a rich kids' prep school

This book has been touted as the next Gone Girl.  It really isn't that type of a taut thriller with unexpected twists it is more of a Mean Girl  prep school story.  Kate, a successful attorney, is a single mother. her daughter Amelia is suspended from school for plagiarism and commits suicide the same day (not really a spoiler as it happens in the first chapter.)  Amelia had been a bright, confident student at an exclusive prep school.  Kate begins to doubt that Amelia’s death was a suicide and plunges into an examination of Amelia’s life.

The author uses  both Kate and Amelia’s voices in the narrative.  She employs text messages, blog posts and facebook statuses to tell the story  Amelia has been selected to join a secret club and begins a hazing process.  The dialogue with the teenagers is very good and gives you the feeling of just how menacing a group of teenage girls bent on harassment can be.  I don’t want to give away any of the plot here but I did think the author had a number of people acting out of character, specifically would a hard nosed NYPD detective let a dead girl’s mother practically run the murder investigation? I don’t think so.  Would a teacher at a prep school really undertake the activity that she is finally exposed for?  I don’t think so.  Would a successful attorney do what this guy did?  I don’t think so.  Get ready to suspend disbelief as this one wraps up.

The character development is quite good.  Both Amelia and Kate are vividly brought to life in the story.  There is a sense of sadness to the narrative due to the finality of Amelia’s death in the first chapter that I found hard to overcome.

Read it for the chilling depiction of life in a rich kids’ prep school, not as a thriller.

I listened to an excellent performance on the part of Khristine Hvam as she read this novel.  Her talented presentation enhanced the story.

I listened to a copy of this novel provided by Harper Audio

Maya's Notebook

by Isabel Allende, Harper, Tra edition, April 2013

... a very good emotional coming of age story

This is a coming of age story beautifully told.  A nineteen year old girl from Berkeley, CA  through a series of events comes to a remote Chilean island to hideout for a period of time until things calm down back in the States.  Maya Vidal has been raised by her Chilean grandmother mother Nidia and African American stepfather Popo in California.  

Maya  is bright, likable and  headstrong.  Her life comes unglued when there is a loss in the family.  The story is told from Maya’s diary and the author doesn’t stint in dealing with difficult issues such as homelessness, prostitution and drug abuse.  An undercurrent in this story is modern day Chilean history including the events around the Pinochet regime and the “disappeared”, those people who were killed by that rightist government.  

On the island in Chile, Maya lives with a friend of her grandmothers Manuel Arias.  He and other residents of this remote island slowly nurture Maya back to emotional health.  While she is there she uncovers secrets about her own family and their involvement in the politics of the time.

This is another wonderful story from Isabel Allende.  She is great at creating characters that come to life in stories that are rich with history, culture  and everyday detail.  Maya has a superb voice in this story so like a nineteen year old.  A very good emotional coming of age novel!

I read a copy of this novel provided by the publisher.

Palisades Park

by Alan Brennert, St. Martins Press, April 2012

...a bit of a disappointment

The author has written a homage to Palisades Amusement Park.  We meet the central character Eddie Stopka at Palisades at the age of eleven in 1922.  The story is primarily built around Eddie and his family.  They are a goofy bunch.  His wife Adele is a frustrated stage actress, his daughter Toni is a fledgling high diver and his son Jack is a dreamer.  Eddie and Adele run a french fry stand at the park.  The narrative introduces all kinds of carnival performers - fat ladies, magicians, acrobats and high divers.  There is a wealth of detail about carnivals and their entertainers.

The action (and there is not much of it) includes scenes from the Great Depression, World War II, Korea and  the civil rights movement.  All of this with the amusement park as the continuing backdrop.  The story concludes with the park’s closing in 1971.

While I enjoyed this story it was far from riveting.  I found the characters oddly one dimensional.  No matter what was happening to them, they seemed to have no emotion that was discernible and the dialogue was at times painful.   I am sure those who grew up going to this amusement park will love this book, the detail sure to trigger many memories.  

Following the author’s last book Molokai, which was excellent, this was a bit of a disappointment for me.

I read a copy of this book provided by the publisher.