Hominid by John C. Boland

Reviewed by Jeanne

Archaeologist David Isaacs is more than a little surprised to get a call from his one-time mentor Noel Sprague. They had parted on somewhat less than cordial terms, especially since Sprague had married the woman Isaacs loved.  He finds Sprague hasn’t changed: he’s still a bit of a bully, behaving as if the others are at best marginally competent.  However, Isaacs needs the job.  He ran into some trouble on a previous dig and is in need of a bit of redemption and Sprague needs someone with experience in underwater archaeology. 

Isaacs arrives on the Chesapeake Bay Island and learns that they’ve uncovered three Colonial era lead coffins which were buried on the far end of the island, away from the settlement.  The reasons seem vague, some talk of witchcraft or curses but there are no records to explain.  Burials of that type are definitely an anomaly for the time period, making this an exceedingly rare find.  Before the coffins can even be exhumed, one of the archaeologists dies in what seems at first to be an accident but soon is revealed to be murder. Someone seems bent on keeping the contents of the coffins a secret, but a shadowy organization is equally determined to unlock the mystery, though perhaps not for public consumption.

I saw this book reviewed in Mystery Scene Magazine and was intrigued enough to read it myself.  As I recall, the reviewer there compared Hominid to books by Preston and Child but the author I thought of was Michael Crichton. Both write thrillers grounded in science and make the science fascinating in the bargain. Boland even appends a good list of references at the end to back up some of the plot elements. In fact, I’d argue that they use the thriller format to promote an interest in science; in the case of Hominid, it’s genetics and human evolution.  Both writers have a common weakness as well, and that is that their characters tend to be more cardboard than humanoid.  But flat characters never stopped me from zipping through a Crichton book, and certainly didn’t impede progress on Hominid. These aren’t authors we read for scintillating insights into the human condition but for ideas, science and action.  Boland has all that down pat.  Just when you think he’s going for one thing, the plot twists and you find yourself contemplating something else entirely.  There is a bit of repetition—characters refer to a study with mice several times—but it’s not overly annoying and doesn’t slow the pace of the book.

Catching up with Nevermore: Fiction

The Postmistress by Sarah Blake is a novel set during WWII.  The title character is Iris James, postmistress in Cape Cod, but the story winds back and forth between the US and England in 1940 and delves into the lives of three very different women.  The book had mixed reviews from club members.  Some praised it highly for the wonderful story, fine characters, and strong plot, but others felt that errors in geography and history detracted so much that the book was unreadable.  This didn’t seem to be a disagreement that was going to resolve itself, and it’s a testimony to the book that both sides felt so passionately about it.

Along with the previously discussed Child Who by Simon Lelic and Defending Jacob by William Landay, another book about murder and juveniles was tossed into the mix:  We Need to Talk About Kevin by Lionel Shriver.  In a series of letters to her estranged husband, Eva tries to come to grips with what their teenage son has done and struggles to understand how he became the person he is.  The book was made into a movie of the same title. Our reviewers pointed out that one particularly interesting aspect is the different ways the situation was handled by Lelic (British) and the two American authors.

Fifty Shades of Grey, the highly popular novel by E.L. James was mentioned, along with the comment that it wasn’t that  The consensus seemed to be that the marketing plan was genius. racy.

Hominid by John Boland is a thriller with a scientific bent.  Archaeologists are excavating an unusual lead casket dating from colonial times when one of them is murdered.  Apparently some secrets are indeed meant to be kept buried. Our readers enjoyed it.

While Dodie Smith may be better known worldwide for her book 101 Dalmatians, another of her novels has an avid following.  I Capture the Castle is the story of Cassandra and her family who are living in a ruin of a castle.  Her father is a famous author, but after writing a single book has been unable to produce another.  They’re behind in their rent, food is running low and their prospects seem quite dim. Then the new landlord arrives, a young American and his brother and Cassandra’s sister Rose thinks she sees a way out of their troubles.  Our reviewer found it charming.

The Bonesetter’s Daughter by Amy Tan revisits some of the themes she introduced in The Joy Luck Club. The story shifts back and forth from modern San Francisco to rural China several decades earlier.  Ruth is a ghostwriter by trade, telling other peoples’ stories; the trouble is, she can’t tell her own. Ruth’s mother, LuLing, is suffering from Alzheimer ’s disease but has a diary in which she has written about her childhood in China and in it Ruth discovers secrets that span three generations.  Our reviewer thought it was very well-written and evocative, with complex mother-daughter relationships.