Southernmost by Silas House

Reviewed by Ashley

Set shortly after the Supreme Court legalized gay marriage, when some counties were still refusing to issue marriage licenses for same sex couples, Southernmost introduces us to Asher Sharp, an evangelical pastor.

The book opens with a flood, and we are quickly introduced to Asher as his priorities are laid out. First, save his mother-in-law, who has always been more like a mother to him than his own. Up next, he goes looking for his dog, likely separated from home by the river that rose so suddenly. When his son goes looking for their dog and disappears, Asher’s anxiety reaches a peak, and we know what his ultimate love in life is: his son. He finds his son, helping and being helped by two men who have recently moved into their small town in middle Tennessee, whose house he watched wash away just hours earlier. The men assist Asher when another house sweeps by, two members of his congregation hanging out of a window and calling for help.

Asher takes in the devastation around him and knows that his view of the world is expanding beyond the narrow views he has preached for years.

When he watches his wife turn away the two men who helped his son because she doesn’t agree with their lifestyle, he knows his faith has changed. When he listens to his congregation turn away the two men who risked their own lives to pull some of them from that raging river, solely because the men love each other, he knows his faith has changed. When he faces the guilt he has lived with for years over how he and his mother treated his brother for that same sort of love, he knows his faith has changed.

The divorce is ugly, the custody battle is bitter, and the aftermath leaves him reaching for a new life altogether. He abandons everything he knows, the world he grew up in, and uses the upheaval to take his son and see what else is out there. Following the postcards his brother has sent him over the years- never with a written message, but leading him to writings that have helped him expand his views on the world, they land in Key West.

What follows is a story about a man struggling to understand how to adjust to a world that has moved on without him, learning what it means to grow faster than those you love but slower than society has grown. With a dash of found family and a considerable amount of character growth, Southernmost explores what it means to watch our beliefs change. It examines the things we hold dear and believe in, the things we would do absolutely anything for, and the mistakes we make in trying to stand firm in our faiths. Southernmost asks us to examine our actions and live with the consequences, no matter the outcome.

While I would have loved it if the book had spent more time in Key West or delving into the found family aspect of the story, I absolutely understood that these things weren’t the focus of the book. I did feel the ending was almost rushed, compared to the rest of the book, but honestly, I’m glad that the ending seemed to move as quickly as the flood that opened the book, reflecting the speed at which our lives can change not just from natural disasters, but also through our own decisions and actions.

I checked this book out on a whim, thinking I’d try a few chapters and move on, but instead found myself devouring it in mere hours. I highly recommend this book to anyone who has ever questioned their beliefs or felt like they’ve outgrown the things they once held true, to anyone who has ever looked at their decisions and been tempted to run away from their problems rather than face them.

Hemingway’s Cats: A Novel about Cats and Other Forces of Nature by Lindsey Hooper

 

Reviewed by Jeanne

 

Laura Lange really needed a change of scene. She’s just ended a relationship and needs a job, so she decides to pull up stakes from New York and head to Key West to work at the Hemingway Home and Museum.  Laura was an English major in school and even did her thesis on Hemingway; plus, she loves cats, so this seems like a match made in heaven.

Only she didn’t realize heaven was so humid.

Laura begins to adjust to her surroundings and to make friends with her new roommates and work colleagues. She’s also attracted the attention of a pair of cousins who are hoping she’ll pick one of them to be more than a friend.

While Key West is living up to its reputation as a freewheeling, laid-back, colorful place, there are storm clouds gathering—literally.  There’s a tropical storm bearing down on the Keys and it may do some real damage.

I picked this up because the jacket copy talked about the impossibility of moving the Hemingway cats out of the storm, making me think of Hurricane Irma. The staff at the Hemingway Home made the decision not to evacuate, which could have had fatal consequences.  Even one of Hemingway’s granddaughters publically asked them to leave, but they stayed put:  there was no way to evacuate the cats safely.

While I was disappointed that the story ended up not being about that particular storm, I still enjoyed the book.  Laura and the cousins are fairly stock characters, but there were enough colorful folks to round out the tale. There was a good bit of romance, too—not usually my thing, but again, some of the romances were unexpected.  I liked the good natured tone, the Key West setting, and most of all, the cats who are characters in their own rights.  In fact, parts of the story are told from their points of view.

In short, this was a pleasant tale that kept me happily occupied. 

Shadows at the Fair & Key Lime Crime: Quick Reviews

Reviews by Jeanne

Shadows at the Fair by Lea Wait

Maggie Summer, owner of Shadow Antiques, is looking forward to the Spring Antiques Fair.  She sells antique prints and has enjoyed this particular festival for the last several years.  Not only has it been a good money maker, but she knows many of the participants from years past.

This year security is tighter than usual, because a dealer was poisoned at another recent event, but Maggie isn’t worried.  Not until another dealer turns up dead. . .

This is the first in the Antique Print Mystery series, and the first mystery for Lea Wait.  I have enjoyed her other books so I decided to give this series a try. I was not disappointed.  I like Wait’s strong and complex lead character Maggie, the well-developed supporting cast, and the fascinating bits of information I pick up along the way. Wait was an antiques dealer from a family of dealers, so she knows all the ins and outs of collecting, evaluation, and selling. 

Even more importantly, she knows the value of pacing and plotting to keep the story moving along.  I especially liked the way she portrayed one character who, although having intellectual challenges, is shown to be independent and capable.   It’s no wonder that this was nominated for an Agatha Award for Best Debut Mystery.

I’ll definitely be reading more in this series.

 

 

The Key Lime Crime by Lucy Burdette is the tenth in the Key West Food Critic Mystery series.  Newly married Hayley Snow has her hands full with reporting on a major foodie event, one which will crown the best Key Lime Pie in Key West.  Naturally, all the local eateries are trying to win the title and wealthy show sponsor David Sloan is egging everyone on to create a major event when Key West is already in full swing with holiday celebrants clogging the streets and creating more chaos than usual.  Hayley’s husband, police detective Nathan Bransford, is having to pull extra shifts to try to keep things calm.

So of course Hayley’s new mother-in-law decides to pay a visit. Already intimidated by Mrs. Bransford, who apparently adored Nathan’s ex-wife, Hayley tries to go all out to show her a good time.  It does not go well.  Mrs. Bransford doesn’t seem to enjoy any of the things Key West has to offer, especially not Key Lime Pie.

And then they find a dead body. . . .

The mystery is well done, but I am one of those “fair play” readers and for me too much information is withheld until near the end-- which is also the case with some of the other titles.  That said, I love the setting and atmosphere which makes up for the lack of real clues.  Key West is a quirky place, and I really enjoy getting what seems like an “insider’s view” of the people, problems, and most especially the places to eat.  Burdette likes to use real people as characters in her books—there is indeed a David Sloan!—and gives some interesting insights into the locals versus tourist situation.  Her love for the place shines through the pages.  Definitely read if you like Key West or if you plan a trip there.

Evil in the 1st House; Topped Chef

Reviews by Jeanne 

Evil in the 1st House by Mitchell Scott Lewis

David Lowell is a number of things: former musician, shrewd investor, detective, and astrologer.  The latter has made him independently wealthy and helps him solve his cases as well. This time he has an interesting one indeed:  a man has given him a case containing one million dollars.  He wants Lowell to find his son, no strings attached.

There’s an odd feel to the case, but Lowell isn’t quite sure what it is.  Meanwhile, he’s also trying to identify the employee who embezzled from the employee pension fund of a marshmallow company.  Throughout it all, Lowell uses both technology (he has a computer hacker on payroll), good old fashioned detective work, and astrology to find out the truth.  This particular entry has an emphasis on medical astrology, i.e. using a chart to predict possibly areas of physical disease.  

This is the third in the Starlight Detective Agency series and to my mind the best so far. Lewis has a surprising twist or two in the plot which made the pages turn a bit faster.  Lowell is becoming more fully developed as a character. His wealth allows him to take only those cases which intrigue him, regardless of payment. This installment delves a bit more into his past, giving us some insight into his failed marriage and his relationship with his daughter. The astrology aspect is the draw for me, as Lowell uses it in unexpected ways:  to figure out where someone might be hiding, to decide when to buy or sell various stocks, or who might be tempted to steal.  I’m almost tempted to drag out the old astrology books, but one look at the math required and I let them sleep quietly on the shelf instead.

You don’t need to read the books in order.

"I find a catnip garnish adds a bit of zip to any dish!" Flora, gourmet

Topped Chef by Lucy Burdette

Food critic Hayley Snow loves most aspects of her job, but she doesn’t enjoy giving bad reviews.  Still, when a particular eatery has failed multiple times to give satisfaction, she has to write an honest review.  That’s uncomfortable when you’re living in a relatively small community like Key West, when you’re likely to run into the unhappy owner of the restaurant in question.   Then Hayley is volunteered to be one of the judges on a new cooking show, along with Sam Rizzoli, the aforementioned owner.  It soon becomes obvious that it’s not just the contestants who are at each other’s throats—there’s no love lost between the judges as well. When Sam Rizzoli turns up dead, the list of suspects is long. . . and some might count Hayley as one of them.

I was underwhelmed by the first book in the series, An Appetite for Murder, but as I noted at the time first books in series usually have to spend a lot of time setting up characters and situations.  Topped Chef is the third book and is a much more enjoyable read as far as I'm concerned .  The Key West setting was used to better advantage and I found the food descriptions and analysis to be more interesting.  Also, there was not so much whining/obsessing over the ex-boyfriend—granted, he was more of an integral part of the first book, but he was such a sleazy character I found it difficult to understand why Hayley fell for him in the first place.  It made me really question her judgment and dragged the book down for me. I had doubts about continuing with the series, but I’m glad I gave it another try. The next book in the series is Murder with Ganache. I hope ol' whazzisname won't even be a passing memory by then.

Death, Lies and Apple Pies by Valerie Malmont & Appetite for Murder by Lucy Burdette

  

 Reviewed by Jeanne

Death, Lies, and Apple Pies by Valerie Malmont is the second in the Tori Miracle series. Horror author Tori packs up her cats, Fred and Noel, and leaves New York for Lickin Creek, PA and a visit with her new fiancé Garnet.  Unfortunately, it turns out that the week of vacation Garnet had planned has gone awry, but Tori doesn’t have a chance to get bored: right off the bat, she’s named Celebrity Judge of the Apple Butter Festival, succeeding the extension agent who served last year.  Other complications ensue when she discovers Garnet’s widowed sister has moved in with him and said sister is deeply involved with a group trying to stop a nuclear waste dump being placed near the town.  The site hinges on whether or not elderly landowner Percy Montrose will sell the land for the dump.  When Percy dies suddenly, the doctor says it was death from natural causes, but Tori isn’t so sure.  It may just be the journalist in her, but Percy’s death is just too convenient for too many people. . . and that includes Garnet’s sister Greta.

I thoroughly enjoyed Death, Snow, and Mistletoe (fourth book in the series) and found myself easily caught up in this one as well.  The names can be a bit off-putting at times (Bathsheba Butterbaugh or Greta Gochenauer) but that didn’t last long.  Malmont does a good job of balancing the fun and mystery, and while there were times I wish Tori would pause before rushing in where angels fear to tread, I didn’t get annoyed with her as I usually do with heroines who are too impetuous.  I also want to give Malmont credit for handling a difficult subject with some even-handedness: it would be easy to immediately side with one or the other group in the nuclear waste controversy, but she does a reasonably good job of presenting both sides of the argument. 

The only bad thing is that there are just five books in the series.  Apparently, the publisher didn’t think they were selling well enough and declined any more.  The last book came out in 2003.  It occurred to me that since publishing has changed so much, it might be that Ms. Malmont might consider self-publishing so I did a search. Sadly, it turned out that she had died earlier this year so unless she left a manuscript there will be no more.  

Moving from apple pie to Key Lime pie, we have An Appetite for Murder by Lucy Burdette, the first book  in a new cozy mystery series.  Hayley Snow was stocking shelves in New Jersey when she fell head over heels for a guy, even pulling up stakes and following Chad home to Florida.  The relationship lasted about as long as one would expect, which is how she ended up on a houseboat in Key West.  Always a foodie, Hayley finds out about a job opening at Key Zest magazine as a food critic—could anything be more perfect?  Complications arise when it turns out the co-owner of the magazine is Kristen Faulkner, the “other woman” who replaced Hayley in Chad’s affections, not to mention his bed.  Hayley sets out to taste and write a column, only to discover she’s under suspicion for murder. . . Kristen’s murder.

I try not to judge a mystery series by its first book.  Such books usually have to spend a good bit of time introducing the cast of characters, developing a setting, and working up the premise.  Appetite is pretty standard in that regard.  The Key West setting is nicely done, the descriptions of food are good, and Hayley seems to know what to do in regard to writing.  Hayley herself is bit ditzy for my taste, no pun intended, but I hope she’ll mature a bit as the series progresses.  Yes, there was a cat.  His name is Evinrude, and that's all I can remember.

The other problem is that I can’t stop thinking about Key Lime Pie.