Nothing to See Here by Kevin Wilson

October 30, 2019

Nothing to See Here by Kevin Wilson

Okay, so, how often do you find a book that deals with spontaneous human combustion?  With humor, compassion, and love?  I’d say just about never, until now.

Lillian Breaker is working a dead-end job in her home town, when she gets a frantic letter from her former roommate pleading for her help.  Lillian’s dreams of a better life for herself were cut short when her roomie Madison got caught with drugs at their exclusive high school, and Madison’s father paid off Lillian’s mother to get Lillian to take the rap for Madison.  Lillian was expelled and her mother spent the money on cigarettes, booze, and partying.

Fifteen years later, Madison Billings Roberts is married to a much older man, a U.S. senator, and they live on a palatial estate with their son Timothy.  But Senator Roberts has two children from his first marriage, Roland and Bessie, who (to say the least) have special needs:  if they get upset, they spontaneously burst into flames.  And these are two angry kids.  Madison and the senator need a nanny to look after the children in a special guest house on the estate, away from the main house since there is no predicting when these incidents might occur.  What if there were witnesses!  Imagine the negative publicity!  What if they burn the house down!  Think of what would happen to the Roberts’ perfect image!  The senator’s career would be down the tubes!

Lillian is the only person that Madison trusts enough with her secret.  The salary that Madison is offering is really good, too, so Lillian takes on the job of looking after the two near-feral children.  Their mother was paranoid, so the twins were home-schooled and rarely left the house.  Since the mother’s death, they’ve been living with their maternal grandparents who are being paid to “look after” the kids (and they have a really loose interpretation of “look after”).  The first time she meets the twins, despite coming away bleeding and half-drowned, Lillian unexpectedly connects with them and she resolves to try to make their lives better and help them learn to deal with and control their affliction. 

Lillian herself is damaged, since she had a neglected childhood without a father, and a mother who brought home boyfriend after boyfriend; after the drug incident, Lillian’s life spontaneously combusted.  She appears to be the first person who ever really takes an interest in the twins, even if she is being paid to look after them.

There are themes of friendship, forgiveness, disability, family, loss, and unexpected love.  And yet it is an uplifting feel-good book.  You can substitute any disability for “spontaneous human combustion” and the reaction of adults would be the same:  embarrassment, shame, “what will people think,” “this didn’t come from my side of the family,” focusing on the disability rather than the kids’ happiness.  The children’s propensity to burst into flames is a metaphor for all of the havoc of raising children:  the teenager who has a tantrum in public, the pre-schooler who gets mad at his parents and knocks all the booze bottles off the sideboard at a party, the adolescent who wants to be a super-hero and decides to jump off the school roof.  Spontaneous human combustion in the novel is just an exaggerated form of acting-out.

This is a very enjoyable read and is sure to appeal to anyone who likes quirky characters and unusual situations, and it has great cover art.  

Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for providing an e-ARC in return for a review.

The House of Brides by Jane Cockram

October 27, 2019

House of Brides by Jane Cockram

When she gets caught lying about the products she was selling, wannabe influencer Miranda Courtenay is broke, jobless, and publicly shamed.  After her wealthy father pays her bills, gets an Internet fixer to repair her reputation, and finds her a decent job, Miranda repays him by stealing his American Express number and booking a flight from her home in Australia to England where her mother grew up.  Ostensibly seeking answers about the mother who passed away when she was a child, Miranda decides to masquerade as an applicant for a nanny position with the family.

So disappointing.  I thought I was going to love this book since it has so many great themes that I enjoy:  creepy old house, creepy characters, family secrets, scandals, unreliable narrator, hidden identities, isolation, missing person, gothic vibe.  It was none of those things.  I ended up almost not finishing it, but since I received an e-ARC in return for a review, I felt like I had to finish it and started skimming about 1/3 of the way in.  I was really hoping that there would be some twists and reveals that would redeem the poor writing.  No such luck.  Unfortunately, ALL of the characters are unlikable, and the main character Miranda is also downright stupid and unbelievably impulsive and immature.  If Miranda would have just told them who she was and asked about her mother, her relatives (and everyone in the town) would have told her what she wanted to know, since several characters were only too happy to spill everything they knew at the end.

It seems like the writer was trying to emulate Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier, since the names of some of the characters are the same or very similar.  But there is no comparison - just go read Rebecca or watch the movie instead of this.  There was so much pointless description and dialogue, and a lot of other characters telling Miranda what had happened before she arrived.  The plot was unbelievable and just kind of fizzles out.  Since this was an ARC, I’m hoping that an editor at the publishing house will go through this with a big red pen and fix this very rough draft.

Many thanks to NetGalley for an e-ARC in return for a review (and I’m sorry I couldn’t give it a better review).

Atomic Lobster by Tim Dorsey

Atomic Lobster by Tim Dorsey

More Florida mayhem with Serge A. Storms, Florida-phile and looney knight errant, and his druggie pal Coleman, who never met an addictive substance he didn’t like.  The boys are short on cash as usual, and need to drum up some fast money.  And what's faster and cheaper than printing your own money?  They have new friend, a stripper named Rachel who literally stumbled into their apartment (she sounds like a reincarnation of Sharon from Florida Roadkill).  Meanwhile, the G-Unit (the four grannies who hit it big in investing) have discovered that it’s cheaper to live on a cruise ship than in senior citizen housing, so they start booking back-to-back cruises – and a lot of other retirees have figured this out, too (free food available 24 hours/day including room service, daily maid service, onboard activities like mini golf and movies, pool and exercise room, nightly live entertainment – all included in the cruise price).  Jim Davenport and his wife are just trying to find a house in a nice quiet neighborhood, Tex McGraw is still trying to kill them, and the Diaz brothers want to get into smuggling big-time.  And Johnny Vegas (the Accidental Virgin) is still trying to get laid.

Another reason I like Serge is that he has a thing for librarians – reference and information is such a turn-on, and what’s better than having sex with a librarian in a storage unit on a door from Jim Morrison’s house?  The audiobook is narrated by Oliver Wyman who does a great job with all the voices.

What Darkness Brings by C. S. Harris

October 24, 2019

What Darkness Brings by C. S. Harris

When a well-known and much-despised gem dealer/loan shark is found murdered, there aren’t a lot of people mourning his passing.  The police quickly arrest a man who was found standing over the body and then fled the scene.  But the man, Russell Yates, insists that he is innocent and his wife asks for Sebastian’s help to find the real killer.  The only problem is that Yates’ wife is none other than the actress Kat Boleyn, Sebastian’s ex-lover.  Although Sebastian agrees to help them, he fears that unresolved feelings for Kat will again be stirred up.  Complicating his attempts to discover the true killer and his worry over his wife's Hero’s safety is his grief over the mysterious death of an old army friend.

The Sebastian St. Cyr mysteries are a wonderful mix of historical fiction, political intrigue, mystery, social justice, and gossip.  A constant round of parties, balls, and receptions, lots of eating and drinking, a fat spoiled prince, and even the men changed their clothes at least six times a day – wasn’t Regency England fabulous (at least, it was if you were rich and connected)!  Plus, Sebastian’s family is back in all its messy glory – I suggest reading the series in order to really get a picture of the complicated St. Cyr family.  Although the author does a good job of summarizing important information from previous titles, the books are just too much fun to miss.  This is one of the best entries in the series so far, and even though it is described as historical fiction, anyone who enjoys Regency romances should also enjoy the St. Cyr mysteries.  A very enjoyable read.

The Stranger Diaries by Elly Griffiths

October 21, 2019

The Stranger Diaries by Elly Griffiths

Clare Cassidy is a secondary English school teacher in an English town in West Sussex, specializing in the works of literary works of Victorian author R. M. Holland.  Part of the school where she teaches was Holland’s house, where a number of rooms have been preserved exactly as they were when the writer lived there.  Clare is devastated to learn that a fellow teacher and close friend has been found murdered, with a quote from Holland’s most famous story next to her body.  But things go from bad to worse when Clare’s life begins to echo some of her favorite pieces of literature.  She turns to her diary to record her feelings, only to find that some unknown person has been reading her diary and writing in it.

This is a modern gothic with a classic whodunit feeling, perfect for October reading.  Many of the themes that occur in classic gothic and supernatural fiction are included:  a creepy old school with a resident ghost, an abandoned factory, isolated houses, unreliable narrators, heavy fog and darkness, screams in the night, mysterious lights that flicker on and off.  I liked the story-within-a-story structure, as well as the plot twists that keep the reader guessing.  The three narrators all have distinct voices and are each likable in their own way – I especially liked the fact that Clare adores her rescue dog (Herbert) and doesn’t care who knows it.  Herbert is a little guy but has the heart of a lion and doesn’t hesitate to defend his humans.

Another thing I liked about The Stranger Diaries was that the lead detective is a smart woman – she doesn’t miss obvious and not-so-obvious clues and have to have some bystander point them out or figure out the solution for her.

Except for the fact that the killer's motive is a little weak, this is an excellent read.

And yes, Herbert is alive and well at the end of the book.

The Best of Edgar Allan Poe by Edgar Allan Poe

October 15, 2019

The Best of Edgar Allan Poe by Edgar Allan Poe

‘Tis the season for scary stories.  When you say the name “Edgar Allan Poe,” it immediately conjures thoughts of horror, darkness, and death.  Most people are familiar with a few of his works from middle or high school (The Raven, Annabel Lee, The Pit and the Pendulum, The Cask of Amontillado).  This collection includes some of his best known tales and also some lesser known stories.  Poe’s characters are motivated by the same passions and emotions that have moved people throughout history:  jealousy, revenge, unrequited love, greed, hate, fear, obsession, guilt.  I wouldn't classify these stories as horror compared with the horror fiction being written today (look up splatterpunk in your library's catalog for the really gory stuff).  Poe’s terrors tend to be psychological fears and phobias:  buried alive, darkness, rats, imprisonment or being trapped, madness.  Eleven of Poe’s short stories are included in this collection – like any collection, some are better than others.

The Tattooist of Auschwitz by Heather Morris

October 14, 2019

The Tattooist of Auschwitz by Heather Morris

In 1942, Lale (Ludwig) Eisenberg is deported from Slovakia to the Auschwitz-Birgenau concentration camp.  He begins as a laborer, but when the camp authorities learn that he speaks several language, he is put to work as assistant tattooist, tattooing numbers on newly arrived prisoners.  Mostly he keeps his head down but it becomes more difficult when he is required to starting tattooing numbers on young women, especially when he meets a girl named Gita, also from Slovakia.  One day, his friend the tattooist Pepan disappears and Lale finds himself “promoted” to head tattooist, a position that comes with better living quarters and extra food rations.  Despite his resolution to keep his head down and survive, after observing the guards’ brutality to the prisoners, Lale resolves to do all he can to help and protect Gita, his assistant Leon, and other friends in the camp.

It took me a while to get around to reading this one.  There have been so many books recently about World War II, with a lot of them focusing on the concentration camps (Mischling by Affinity Konar and Lilac Girls by Martha Hall Kelly, to name just two), and let's be honest, it's a depressing topic.  But it is an important topic.  Like so many novels about World War II, this novel is painful to read, but it is also full of hope.  Lale is determined to survive and doggedly plans a future for himself, inspiring others along the way to believe that they too will endure and come out of the camp alive.  I would have liked to know what happened to Leon, Cilka, Jakub, and others, but it fits with the story that there are loose ends.  So many were displaced in the war and lost in the camps that people just disappeared and their loved ones never found out what happened to them.  (Morris recently published a sequel, Cilka's Journey, which is almost pure fiction according to the real Cilka's family.)

There has been a certain amount of controversy about the historical basis of the story, including an error in the number assigned to Gita, the unavailability of penicillin in 1943, and the nature of the experiments that Mengele performed on prisoners.  As some of the Holocaust organizations and museums have pointed out, it is a novel based on one person's memories and recollections, and shouldn't be taken as historical fact.  That doesn't make it any less compelling to read.

The Weed That Strings the Hangman's Bag by Alan Bradley

October 13, 2019

The Weed That Strings the Hangman’s Bag by Alan Bradley

After solving her first case, 11 year old Flavia de Luce is sure that her career as an amateur sleuth is over.  Then a well-known puppeteer is electrocuted in the middle of a performance at the church hall, and Flavia finds herself once again in the thick of it.  The death of a local child five years earlier and a patch of marijuana plants are also somehow involved in the investigation.  Meanwhile, Flavia’s widowed stamp-collecting father continues to have financial problems threatening the family home, and his sister Felicity comes from Hampstead to try to sort them out.

I wasn’t sure I liked Flavia in the first book in the series, The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie, but she grew on me.  As a kid, Flavia can go snoop in all kinds of places and ask questions that adults are too polite to ask.  Her knowledge of chemistry comes into play more than once in the story.

One of the things I dislike about the series is that it takes at least 1/3 of the book to get to the mystery - there is a lot of time spent on setting up the scene.  However, I do enjoy Flavia’s eccentric family and quirky neighbors.  Aunt Felicity in particular surprises Flavia in this book by telling her that she looks and acts exactly like her late mother Harriet, and to pursue her dreams (Flavia always thought Felicity was an old stick in the mud).

Tuesday Mooney Talks to Ghosts by Kate Racculia

October 11, 2019

Tuesday Mooney Talks to Ghosts by Kate Racculia

With her morbid interest in death and horror, Tuesday Mooney has always had a problem fitting in and making friends (except her home town is Salem, MA, so it's pretty hard to believe that she couldn't find a place there).  Her introverted nature makes her an excellent researcher for a philanthropic foundation.  When an extremely wealthy Bostonian named Vincent Pryce dies unexpectedly at a fundraiser, he leaves behind the clues for a treasure hunt that will reward the winner with a portion of Pryce’s vast fortune.  Another fabulously wealthy Bostonian named Archie approaches Tuesday and wants to team up to try to solve the riddle, promising her several million dollars for her help.  Tuesday isn’t sure about his true motives since he certainly doesn’t need the money, but there appears to be something that Archie wants from Pryce’s vast collections.  When her 13 year old neighbor Dorry figures out the first clue, the three of them decide to join forces.  But the clock is ticking and other teams have almost certainly figured out the clue as well, so time is of the essence.

I had a number of issues with this book – after a good beginning and plot set-up, it just sort of fizzled out.  The author became more concerned with having the main characters hook up with their love interests (which added nothing to the plot - note to authors:  unless you're writing a romance, there does not have to be a love interest for the main character(s)).  Part of the problem is that the author seemed to want to write something that was both The Westing Game and Ready Player One, and ended up with something that was neither.  The treasure hunt isn’t really a treasure hunt, since there are precious few clues and not much game playing.  Early in the game, Tuesday’s team has what could be a huge advantage, but they decide not to use it because “Vincent would have wanted us to play fair.”  Gag me.

(N.B., if you enjoy books about games, Ready Player One by Ernest Cline is a fabulous book about a treasure hunt set in a future time - read that instead.)

Also, the title is incorrect.  Tuesday does not talk to ghosts – she wants to talk to one particular ghost, her best friend Amy, and may actually have succeeded once, but even Tuesday admits that Amy’s voice in her head isn’t telling her anything she doesn’t already know – it’s just responding in the snarky way Amy would have when they were teens.   A better title would have been The Pryce Inheritance or Games with Friends or Girl Seeks Ghost.  Just a suggestion.  

(Amy went missing one night when they were 16.  Amy wanted to go hang out at the local lighthouse and Tuesday stayed home because it was a cold, rainy night.  Amy vanished without a trace, and Tuesday has spent her life wondering if Amy would still be around if she had gone with her, or if she would have disappeared, too.)

The text reads like it is intended for a young adult or juvenile audience rather than for adult readers - you could give this to a 14 year old or your grandma and not worry about offending their delicate sensibilities (wait a minute - I'm old enough to be a grandma - scratch that). There are a lot of implied morals like "play fair," "help others," "work together," "follow your dreams," etc.  There are also loads of stereotypes that are easy for a YA audience to recognize:  the brilliant goth girl who is too cool for words but secretly fears no one likes her, the gay guy who wants to be a singer, the rich guy who hates his family's money and wants to live a simple life, the evil brother who will stop at nothing to get what he wants, the schoolteacher who marries a very wealthy man and can't handle being rich, the super-quirky rich man, etc.  Nothing new here.

Many thanks to Edelweiss and the publisher for providing an e-ARC in return for a review. 

This House is Haunted by John Boyne

October 8, 2019

This House is Haunted by John Boyne

It’s October, so the time has come for scary things, like ghost stories.  After the death of her father, Eliza Caine applies for a position as a governess for two children at a country house, Gaudlin Hall in Norfolk.  But when she arrives, there are no adults present and the children are alone with no explanation for the missing adults.  Eliza soon learns that there is some creepy stuff going on in the house, and when she enquires about the family, the villagers give her strange looks.  Eliza eventually learns that she is the sixth governess to hold that position in a year.  The children refer to their mother frequently, how she expects them to dress and act, and Eliza begins to suspect that her ghost is haunting Gaudlin Hall.

Written in the style of Dickens, some readers have complained that the story isn’t scary enough (or at all scary), but this is a ghost story for those who enjoy literary fiction and pays homage to the classic ghost story The Turn of the Screw by Henry James, as well as Jane Eyre and the ghost stories of Edith Wharton.  Disquieting and atmospheric rather than horrifying, this is gothic fiction in the style of the Victorian era.  With none of the gore or violence that characterizes many modern ghost stories, this is a perfect book to curl up with on a chilly October night, with a fluffy throw, a cup of tea or a glass of wine, and a plate of shortbread cookies (and the dog or cat, of course).  I love just about anything that John Boyne writes, and while this novel isn’t quite as good as most of his other books (such as The Heart’s Invisible Furies), the writing is elegant and it’s still worth reading.

N.B., if you are interested in gory, violent, unlimited horror, search “splatterpunk” in your library’s online catalog. 

The Lager Queen of Minnestoa by J. Ryan Stradal

October 7, 2019

The Lager Queen of Minnesota by J. Ryan Stradal

Three women from the Calder family (Edith, her sister Helen, and Edith’s granddaughter Diana) find unexpected satisfaction in brewing beer.  Edith Magnusson and her sister Helen Blotz haven’t spoken to each other in forty years, after Helen convinced their father to cut Edith out of his will and leave everything to her.  Helen never gave Edith a satisfactory explanation of why, and worse yet, convinced herself that it was up to Edith to reach out to her and offer forgiveness.  Edith’s granddaughter Diana is planning a life of crime, until she gets caught and is offered what turns out to be the chance of a lifetime.  It is also the story of how four grandmas end up running a brewery, making brews like Grandma Edith’s Rhubarb-Pie-in-a-Bottle, and having wonderful and unexpected adventures in their golden years.

This is a pleasant read, but I have to admit, I almost gave up during the first Diana section – I was so BORED with Diana’s life as a teenager and an amateur criminal.  I ended up skimming most of that section and then the story turned back to Helen, the least likable but most interesting narrator.  There is also a lot about the brewing process that could have been omitted without hindering the reader’s grasp of the story.  A good editor should have knocked out about 50 pages and made this a better book.  Like many writers, this second book didn't live up to the author's first book, Kitchens of the Great Midwest.

Tabula Rasa by Ruth Downie

October 4, 2019

Tabula Rasa by Ruth Downie

Army medicus Gaius Petreius Ruso and his British wife Tilla are back in the borderlands of Britannia with the 20^th Legion, where the army is protecting the men building the Roman wall.  Many of the local residents have been forcibly moved from their lands to make way for the wall, causing tension between the Britons and the army.  Three days after reporting for duty, Ruso’s new clerk Candidus has gone missing without a trace, and Ruso feels obligated to search for him since Candidus is his old friend Albanus’ nephew.  There is a persistent rumor that one of the locals saw someone hiding a body in the wall.  To make matters worse, the youngest son of a local chieftain also vanishes, ratcheting the tension even higher.

Wonderful characters, attention to detail, historical accuracy, flashes of humor, and excellent pacing all make this another great adventure in the Medicus series.  One of the things that I really like about this series is that the author introduces the crime almost immediately, without having to go hunting for the mystery somewhere in the middle of the book.  Also, Ruso and Tilla's contrasting world views show just how extremely different their cultures were.  Simon Vance does a bang-up job with the narration on the audiobook, getting the voices just right.  I look forward to meeting up again with Ruso and Tilla to see what they get up to in their next outing.

Sarah Jane by James Sallis

October 3, 2019

Sarah Jane by James Sallis

Sarah Jane Pullman (which may or may not be her name) was born in the area where Tennessee meets Alabama.  Her mother flitted in and out of her children’s lives, and although her father was hardworking, he couldn’t make a success of anything.  From an early age, Sarah roams from place to place, stopping when she runs out of money or meets someone interesting or just gets worn out, always hiding her secret history.  The chaos of her early life teaches her to travel light with regard to possessions and people.  Along the way, she serves in the army in a combat unit, earns a college degree, and becomes first a fry cook, then a baker, then a chef.  After her police officer boyfriend is killed in the line of duty, Sarah finds herself drawn to police work and becomes a deputy sheriff.  She is doing a good job, too, until the sheriff goes missing and she finds herself promoted to acting sheriff to investigate his disappearance.  But the deeper Sarah gets into the investigation, the more she realizes that the sheriff had secrets of his own that caught up with him, just as her own secrets find her.

Although we are aware that Sarah is telling her story selectively, deliberately omitting certain details, the reader is well into the novel before realizing exactly how unreliable a narrator Sarah is.  She chooses not to define many of her relationships and misadventures, even her relationship with Sid, one of the men who stays in her life longer than most men do.  Sarah is a true noir character, always short of money, taking whatever job comes along, choosing the wrong kind of man, and living according to her own code of ethics.

James Sallis writes wonderful, spare prose and does not waste words, the kind of writing that makes you stop and go back to re-read a loaded sentence.  Many thanks to the publisher, Soho Crime, and editor Juliet Graemes for providing me with a pre-publication ARC.

The Suspicions of Mr. Whicher by Kate Summerscale

October 1, 2019

The Suspicions of Mr. Whicher by Kate Summerscale

Jonathan (Jack) Whicher was one of the first and most famous Victorian detectives.  His work influenced the fiction of Wilkie Collins and Charles Dickens, among others.  Summerscale's book explores the original English country house mystery, a true crime case that caused a sensation throughout England and inspired country house mystery fiction.

The crime:  June 1860 - at Road Hill House in the English village of Rode in Wiltshire, three year old Saville Kent was found in an outhouse with his throat cut.  There were 12 people in the house at the time of the murder, including Saville (his father and mother, six siblings and half-siblings, and three servants).  Their home was a large fine house with a number of outbuildings and multiple bedrooms on the 2nd and 3rd floor.

Whicher was not assigned to the crime until almost two weeks after the murder, by which time, the scene of the crime had been contaminated, the evidence had been tampered with, and everyone had rehearsed their stories.  Whicher was convinced that someone living in the house had killed the child rather than an intruder, based on the state of the boy's bed, access to the outhouse from the rear door of the house, and his feeling that the crime would have required two people.  Although unable to prove it, Whicher came away believing that Saville's half-siblings Constance and William had committed the crime together, and that Constance had planned it.

But as Whicher began to uncover secrets and unsavory facts of Victorian family life, the English public began to lose interest in the solution to the crime, since they didn't want to hear what could be hiding behind a facade of Victorian respectability (sexual misconduct, child neglect, insanity, and literally digging through the family's dirty laundry).  The Victorian public came to view his investigation as prying into the sanctity of family life, and condemned him for arresting a young middle class girl (who later confessed to the crime and served 20 years in prison).  The failure to bring the case to an acceptable resolution ultimately destroyed his career.

The crime and ensuing investigation destroyed the family's life.  Samuel was unable to return to his job as a factory inspector, and had to sell the house and move his family to Wales.  While writing her book, Summerscale came to believe that Constance confessed to clear the cloud of suspicion that continued to hang over William, so that he could pursue his career unimpeded.  Ironically, all of the Kent children remained close to each other and eventually emigrated to Australia to be together.

The book is painstakingly researched, which some readers have felt takes away from a smooth narrative, but the case was covered extensively in the English press.  Some of the background information is necessary for the modern reader to understand the nuances of Victorian family life and the Victorian mindset to appreciate what Whicher was up against.  It was also interesting to find out what happened to the Kent family after the investigation was over.  But the back stories on all of the detectives and other outsiders could have been omitted.