Northwoods by Amy Pease

October 7, 2023

Northwoods by Amy Pease

After serving in Afghanistan, Eli Woods suffers from PTSD and self-medicates with large amounts of alcohol. He has a job as a sheriff's deputy only because his mother is the town sheriff. When a teenaged boy is found dead and his friend is missing, Eli partners with an FBI agent and joins the search. But the more answers he gets, the more tangled the mystery becomes.

The whole story here swirls around addiction. Although this is a decent mystery, the author tried to cover too many big topics: PTSD, alcoholism, addiction, the opioid crisis, big pharma, white collar crime, family relationships. The narrative would have benefited from less description involving extraneous characters (is it really important that the wife of the guy who owns the fishing camp wears a ton of make-up and has her boobs practically hanging out of her top?). 

Set in the North Woods of Wisconsin, this really could have been set in any small vacation town. I know this area - we vacationed there several times when I was a kid, and later with my husband. "Resort" is something of a misnomer - the term resort makes me think of luxury linens, spa facilities, golf, and fine dining. The resorts in the North Woods are more like fishing camps. Nothing bad about that, we loved them as kids. I've never seen a country club in this area like the one described in the book, but I do know the gangster John Dillinger had a hideaway in Wisconsin called the Little Bohemia Lodge (it's still there today).

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

North Woods fishing camp

The Big Finish by Brooke Fossey

March 7, 2020

The Big Finish by Brooke Fossey

Duffy Sinclair lives at Centennial, a small assisted living facility.  Although he has a natural rebellious streak, he tries to keep it in check, since he lives in fear of being sent to live at “Simmons,” the local nursing home.  This could happen because he has run out of money, or because his health has deteriorated to the point that the staff at Centennial can no longer care for him, or because he's too much trouble.  But Duffy’s plans to stay under the radar run aground when his roommate’s granddaughter Josie climbs through their bedroom window one night, barefoot, bruised, and drunk.  Duffy decides that providence has given him one last shot at redemption, so he sets out to save Josie from herself.

Ah, curmudgeons.  They seem to be everywhere ever since Fredrik Backman’s A Man Called Ove, especially in the old-person-meets-young-person-and-they-change-each-other’s-lives format.  I really wanted to like this book more than I did, since the cover art made it look like it was going to be a warm, funny read.  And a lot of early readers HAVE found it funny and endearing, and talked about how it made them laugh and cry.  I got to the end and thought, “that’s it?”

Part of my problem was that I didn’t care that much for the characters, especially Josie.  I would have liked fewer descriptions of walkers and shaky hands, and more backstory for Duffy.  And I was really irritated with how simple it was to get Josie off the booze:  just give her some Valium and Antabuse, and all of a sudden, she’s cured.

It. Does. Not. Work. That. Way.

I was married to an alcoholic, and if an alcoholic had trouble dealing with their problems during their drinking days, just because they are no longer abusing alcohol doesn’t mean that they are suddenly going to turn into fully functioning human beings capable of making good decisions.  If getting sober was as simple as giving the addict a few drugs to get them over the worst of withdrawal, addiction would no longer be a problem.

Disappointing overall.

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

The Last Place You Look by Kristen Lepionka

January 8, 2020

The Last Place You Look by Kristen Lepionka

Fifteen years ago, Sarah Cook disappeared on the same night that her parents were brutally murdered.  Her boyfriend at the time was quickly arrested and convicted of the crime, and has been on Death Row ever since.  Now a date has been set for his execution.  His sister, convinced of his innocence, wants to make one last attempt to find Sarah, believing that she holds the answers to what happened on that long ago night.  Believing she has seen Sarah in the area, she hires private investigator Roxane Weary to try to locate the woman that she is sure is the missing Sarah.  Roxane takes on the case, needing the money, but already pretty convinced that the police got the right guy, although she soon realizes that there is more to the story.  But Roxane has troubles of her own, dealing with her father’s death in the only way she knows how, by looking at the world through the bottom of a whiskey bottle.

This is quite a decent thriller with a number of plot turns and a flawed detective who lives a messy life.  Roxane herself fits the mold of the noir detective nicely:  she’s always broke, so she takes on cases that she knows she shouldn’t; she has a cool old car; she is attracted to lovers that she knows she should stay the hell away from; she drinks way too much; she hides from her feelings, refusing to deal with the emotional issues looming in her life; she doesn’t take care of herself; she gets stopped by the police frequently since she skitters on the edge of the law in her work.  It’s fast-paced, a quick read, and will keep you turning the pages.  

Ask Again, Yes by Mary Beth Keane

July 27, 2019

Ask Again, Yes by Mary Beth Keane

Francis Gleeson and Brian Stanhope met at the police academy and were rookie cops together.  They weren’t particularly close friends, but end up being neighbors in the New York suburb of Gillam.  Their children grow up together and the youngest two, Kate and Peter, become best friends.  But Brian’s wife Anne is mentally unstable, and when she commits a violent act, the two families are bound together forever.

In hindsight (which is always 20/20), several of the characters realize that they should have seen a tragedy approaching.  There is also a hint of Romeo-and-Juliet, when forbidden lovers Kate and Peter find each other again years later.  As the years pass, several of the characters come to realize that the people they demonized, are just regular people with their good and bad points, and that mental illness is just that, an illness.

Uncle George is somewhat overlooked in all the drama between the two families, but he is actually a wonderful character, the guy who always manages to show up when you need him, no matter what is going on in his life.  He is a hard-working man who takes on his brother’s responsibilities and makes major changes to his life without complaining (Peter realizes that his uncle was only around 30 when he took him in and raised him).  

Overall, I enjoyed the novel but there were a few things I would have changed.  I would have liked to hear from Lena (Francis’s long-suffering wife) about how she felt over the years.  Some episodes are over-explained and got a little long (yeah, the Stanhopes are genetically prone to alcoholism, we got it, no need to explain more).  Less teen-aged angst would have been okay, too.  The ending was a little unsatisfying.  I’m not sure what I was expecting but like a lot of literary fiction, the book sort of just stops when one of the characters realizes that they are all just fine.