Kings of Coweetsee by Dale Neal

August 20, 2024

Kings of Coweetsee by Dale Neal

Former schoolteacher and recent widow Birdie Barker Price is the docent of the rarely visited Coweetsee County Historical Society. One day, Birdie arrives home from work to find a ballot box from the contested 1982 sheriff's election on her front porch. Not only is the box on her front porch, it is full of uncounted ballots. When Birdie opens the box, she releases a flood of corruption, crime, and passion, all hidden under the guise of a quiet country town.

Dark times in small town America, with all the small-mindedness that expression conjures. The themes remind me of John Hart or Greg Iles: corruption, politics, revenge, old crimes, crimes against women, prejudice. While this was all right, you should read John Hart's Down River if you haven't already - he is a far superior writer. I'm not a big fan of politics, so this one didn't tick the boxes for me. The title comes from the idea that each town or county is a sovereign kingdom with individual rulers, that is encouraged by the isolation of small towns in Appalachia. 

Many thanks to Edelweiss and the publisher for providing an eARC for review.

Appalachia

The Neon Rain by James Lee Burke

March 10, 2024

The Neon Rain by James Lee Burke

Lt. Dave Robicheaux has a lot of demons chasing him: his wife Nicole left him for a wealthy oilman, he is a recovering alcoholic, his memories of Vietnam, his troubles with the police brass, his Catholic upbringing, his partner Clete who has his own marital and alcohol troubles plus a hair trigger temper and involvement in some not quite legal dealings. When Robicheaux becomes involved with the murder case of a young prostitute, he unexpectedly finds himself involved with drugs, South American drug lords, and arms smugglers, yet he persists according to his own code of honor. At the same time, he realizes that he has reached a crossroads in his life.

After reading Burke's outstanding historical novel Flags on the Bayou, I realized that I had never read any of his Dave Robicheaux series. Robicheaux is a flawed yet honorable hero. The writing is gritty and violent, with lush descriptions of New Orleans (especially the food). There are some disturbing racial epithets that were unfortunately common during the 1980s. The plot is somewhat dated but the character study of Dave is outstanding and sets up the rest of the series. The audio version is really good. Recommended for fans of hard-boiled mysteries or noir fiction.

New Orleans' French Quarter

Bull Mountain by Brian Panowich

February 12, 2020

Bull Mountain by Brian Panowich

Clayton Burroughs has spent his whole life trying to be different from the rest of his family.  His father and brothers ran the biggest moonshine operation on Bull Mountain, and when prohibition was overturned, they moved on to marijuana, crystal meth, and guns.  To prove that he is not like his family, Clayton runs for and is elected county sheriff, which doesn’t sit well with his closest relatives.  His brother Halford has run his illegal businesses like a mafia don and depends on personal loyalty from those who live on the mountain, but various agencies of the federal government are closing in.  For good measure, throw in an ATF agent with a serious drug addiction and his own agenda.

The Godfather meets Winter’s Bone.  This is a quick suspenseful read with well-developed characters that kept me turning the pages, with good concise writing that doesn’t wander into a lot of unnecessary detail.  The story moves back and forth from the 1940’s to the present day with various stops in between, so if you don’t care for a nonlinear story, this may not be for you.  Be warned:  there is also a pretty high violence level.  Panowich has written two sequels set in the same area (Like Lions and Hard Cash Valley).

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.

Heaven, My Home by Attica Locke

September 6, 2019

Heaven, My Home by Attica Locke

Texas Ranger Darren Mathews has gotten himself into a whole lot of trouble:  by protecting an old family friend, he may have committed a felony and implicated himself in a murder.  Worse, his shifty mama has something on him and is engaging in some low-level blackmail, while Darren's wife and uncle are getting up in his business.  Darren is assigned to the task force investigating the Aryan Brotherhood of Texas (ABT), reviewing telephone records and correspondence from incarcerated ABT members.  When the son of an ABT leader goes missing, he is assigned to assist local police in the search for the child.

A very enjoyable mystery, fast-paced and complex.  If you haven't read the first book in the series (Bluebird, Bluebird), you should read that one first, since there are frequent references to characters and events in the first book.  This was really the only negative for me, since it's been a while since I read the other story.  While Heaven, My Home could be read as a stand-alone, it was complicated even having read Bluebird, Bluebird.

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

The Gone Dead by Chanelle Benz

July 11, 2019

The Gone Dead by Chanelle Benz

Billie James is a biracial woman, about 35 years old, who inherited a house in the town of Greendale on the Mississippi Delta.  Her mother, Pia, was a medieval scholar, recently deceased.  She returns to the house with her dog (Rufus, who used to belong to her recently deceased grandmother) because she wants to find out what happened to her father, Clifton James, a well-known local poet who fell and hit his head and died.  Billie was missing for several hours on the day her father died.  Billie and her mother have been estranged for several years from her father’s family, because inter-racial marriage was a felony in Mississippi.  After hearing snippets of information, Billie decides to investigate the events surrounding what happened the day her father died, but her family and the locals don’t want her digging around.

This was a little heavy for reading during the summer, but you take your new library books when your hold comes in.  Very slow moving, like the Mississippi Delta where it is set; the overall themes are the importance of family, place, and the truth.  Many of the characters are well-drawn, even Rufus the dog.  The ending was flat:  one of the things I didn't care for was getting to the end and having one of the characters (Billie's uncle) say, "Okay, this is what happened," after letting the other people in the town lie to her, terrorize her, beat her up, and shoot her dog (the dog is okay at the end).  It turns out Clifton dies as a result of being beat up; he refused to get medical help at the time of the beating and later when De tries to get him to go to the hospital; and when he is found later that night collapsed in his yard, the sheriff doesn't take him to the hospital.

Even though it's described as a mystery, I wouldn't give it that label.  I only finished it because I did want to find out what had happened to the father.  I did not really enjoy this one and don't recommend it.

The Last List of Miss Judith Kratt by Andrea Bobotis

July 4, 2019

The Last List of Miss Judith Kratt by Andrea Bobotis

I was looking forward to reading this title since it ticks a lot of the boxes for me (family secrets, small towns, narrators looking back at their lives from an advanced age).  Judith Kratt is a 75 year old woman who has lived her whole life in the same house in a small town in Alabama.  The Kratt family was once the leading family in town, owning the local cotton gins as well as the only department store in the area.  But a series of misfortunes sent the family into a downward spiral and the youngest daughter fleeing from the town, and now Judith lives in her old house surrounded by family possessions, with only her old friend Olva as a companion.

Judith isn't happy to learn that her prodigal sister Rosemarie is returning to town after an absence of 60 years, and Rosemarie's return triggers changes and upheavals in Judith's orderly life.  She decides to create an inventory of the family's possessions, telling her story in the process.

This is a debut novel and it was interesting enough to keep me reading, although I guessed at some of the family secrets well before the end.  It contains many themes of Southern fiction such as small towns, old houses, siblings, and secrets.  I found it to be an enjoyable read, great for the summer, and look forward to more from this author.

Happy Independence Day!