Kismet by Amina Akhtar

October 26, 2023

Kismet by Amina Akhtar

Ronnie Khan moves from Queens, NY, to Sedona, AZ, to follow her friend, wellness fanatic and wannabe guru Marley Dewhurst. Ronnie wants to escape her family and pursue her own wellness journey. But Ronnie hates every minute of the wellness regime and almost everything about the desert, except the birds. Early one morning while the two women are out on a hike, they find human remains out in the desert. It turns out to be a well-known wellness coach, and Marley sees it as an opportunity for her to grow her following and get free publicity. But that's not the only body that turns up, and Ronnie starts to wonder if there is a serial killer on the loose.

This was an Amazon First Reads freebie, and fairly typical of the monthly offerings. I rarely download any of the free books, but this one sounded like a decent thriller and something that I would enjoy reading. I hesitate to call this a thriller or suspense, since there wasn't any. Overall it was disappointing, since none of the characters are likeable and appear to be caricatures, and they are all shallower than a puddle. I really didn't care what happened to any of them. Not recommended.

Scenic Sedona

The River We Remember by William Kent Krueger

August 26, 2023

The River We Remember by William Kent Krueger

Memorial Day 1958. The citizens of Jewel, Minnesota, gather to remember those killed in the country's wars. But the festivities are interrupted when the body of a wealthy but unpopular resident is found floating in the river. Suicide, accident or murder? If it's murder, Sheriff Brody Dern has no shortage of suspected, since many locals had a reason to hate the victim.

This is a stand-alone novel, not part of the author's mystery series. The plot is complicated, and there are a lot of characters, so many that I started keeping a list of their relation to the dead man. The river is a character on its own, since so many scenes are enacted on its banks. Ultimately the story is about the human condition that we all share - almost all of the characters experience some kind of loneliness or alone-ness, and many are still traumatized by the wars of the the 20th century. While I didn't enjoy it as much as This Tender Land, it is still a remarkable novel, highly recommended to readers of literary fiction.

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

Minnesota river

Mistress of Bhatia House by Sujata Massey

July 17, 2023

Mistress of Bhatia House by Sujata Massey

Perveen Mistry, the only female solicitor in 1920s Bombay, returns for her fourth adventure, this one involving a young ayah (nanny) in a wealthy Bombay household. The young woman is accused of inducing a miscarriage by drinking an herbal concoction. When the patriarch of the household dies under mysterious circumstances, Perveen knows there is more going on than meets the eye. 

One of the attractions of this series is the atmosphere and descriptions of early 20th century India. There is a murder, but it takes a backseat to social issues that include the prescribed roles of women and the lack of legal recourse when someone commits a crime against them, status/social class, and prejudice. While the plots of this series tend to be complicated, I found the various threads of this story to be particularly complex and difficult to connect. There are also a number of side plots, including Perveen's on-going relationship with a young Englishman, issues within her family, and larger subjects such as the re-districting of princely India lands. While I recommend this series, I like this volume the least so far.

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

1920s Bombay

A Rising Man by Abir Mukherjee

November 27, 2020

A Rising Man by Abir Mukherjee

Desperate for a fresh start after World War I and the death of his wife in the 1918 flu pandemic, Captain Sam Wyndham accepts a job in Calcutta, India, to head up a new criminal investigation division.  He barely arrives before he is assigned his first investigation:  the murder of a senior British official (a rising man) whose body was found behind a Calcutta brothel.

The descriptions of India at the time of the British Raj are wonderful and the history of the time is very well-researched.  Set near the end of the British Empire in India, the British are desperately trying to hang on and maintain their standard of living, while the Indian populace are pushing for home rule.  These conflicts are reflected in the interplay between Captain Wyndham and his two detectives who represent these differing points of view.  Captain Wyndham is a damaged character who unfortunately is not very good at being a detective - this is one of the main flaws in the story.  This is the first book in a series so hopefully the main character will get better at his job

We Cast a Shadow by Maurice Carlos Ruffin

July 28, 2020

We Cast a Shadow by Maurice Carlos Ruffin

In an unspecified City in a racist American South, set in a slightly futuristic time, the unnamed narrator works as a lawyer at a prestigious law firm.  As an African American man, he has been hired mainly to help the firm improve their multi-cultural image.  The narrator and his Caucasian wife Penny have a son, Nigel, who is born with light skin that gradually begins to darken.  Neither Nigel nor his mother are bothered by this, but the father see the darkening (which he refers to as “birthmarks”) as a racial defect.  He becomes convinced that Nigel must have a new extremely expensive (and painful) demelanization procedure which will turn his skin white permanently.  To increase his income, the father agrees to become the new multi-cultural face of the law firm, forcing him into increasingly hypocritical behavior and increasing his need for illegal drugs.

Although classified as a satire, there is nothing amusing about the book.  At what point does trying to protect your child through extreme measures cross over into doing harm?  There are some interesting plot twists, but overall, the story felt disjointed to me.  There were definitely aspects of the absurd and a number of surreal episodes.  The library nominated this title for the 2020 IMPAC awards, which was why I read it, but I’m not sure I would have picked it up otherwise.  It does have a rather cool cover.