Silent Came the Monster by Amy Hill Hearth

 

Reviewed by Jeanne 

The summer of 1916 was hot—very hot.  Those who could afford it left the cities and headed for the mountains or the beach to escape the heat.  Charles Vansant, the only son of a prosperous family and a promising young stockbroker, had just arrived in Beach Haven, New Jersey to join his family.  Too eager to wait, he sets out an evening swim, accompanied by a dog.  Suddenly the dog turned back.  As onlookers shouted warnings, something in the water struck Charles. As lifeguards and bystanders rushed to help, they noticed the water was turning red.

Dr. Edwin Halsey already thought that 1916 was shaping up to be a very odd year, what with German U-boats plaguing the Atlantic as part of the European war, not to mention an outbreak of polio, so to hear that a man had been bitten by a fish and needed medical attention was just another in a long list of strange things. Concerned that his potential patient might not survive the trip from Beach Haven, Halsey and his new nurse set out by automobile.

They are too late.

Halsey looks at the victim’s wounds and announces that he has been bitten by a shark, which causes consternation among those gathered around, most of whom scoff at the idea.  It must have a mackerel or a sea turtle or perhaps a school of fish but not a shark. There are no sharks around New Jersey and besides, sharks don’t bite humans. Talk of sharks will just stir people up and cause a panic.  Despite Halsey’s pleas, the beaches are going to stay open.

After all, it’s not likely to ever happen again. 

Hearth is a resident of the Jersey Shore and was inspired by the true events of 1916 when for the first time a death was recorded as being from a shark bite.  Even more frightening was that more attacks occurred in a relatively short time period in the same area—and not just in the ocean, but in a river at a local swimming hole. Peter Benchley was inspired in part by these attacks when he wrote Jaws, but used a contemporary setting.  Hearth wanted to portray the  social and political forces of the time, and creates characters to help voice those themes.

But for me, some of the characters never quite came to life.  They were more mouthpieces for various points of view while the valiant Dr. Halsey struggles to get the truth out there.  He’s also contending with his daughter, a willful young woman who is entranced with an unsuitable young man and also enticed by modern notions—like wearing short hair. The reader is told about the characters, not shown. The most effective character is Margaret, a young woman who is a witness to some of the events.  Even if the characters fall flat, the story itself still has power.

The library owns both  Close to Shore: A True Story of Terror in the Age of Innocence by Michael Capuzzo and Twelve Days of Terror: A Definitive Investigation of the 1916 New Jersey Shark Attacks by Richard G. Fernicola which provide factual information, if the novel piques your curiosity. 

Nevermore: Good Cop, Mobituaries, On the Plain of Snakes, Ellen Foster, Last Three Miles

Reported by Jeanne

 

Nevermore opened with The Good Cop by Peter Steiner, a mystery set in 1920s Munich.  The book depicts a post World War I Germany which is struggling with the aftermath, including rampant inflation, unemployment, and corruption. Things look very bleak; but there is a new politician whose star is on the rise:  Adolf Hitler.  This is the backdrop against which policeman Willi Geismeier is called to investigate the bombing of a newspaper office and soon finds that asking questions may cost him his job— and maybe his life.   Our reader said that this was one of those books that she just couldn’t put down and recommended it highly.

Mobituaries by Mo Rocca continues to make the rounds and remains a favorite.  Rocca profiles  both the famous and unknown, but choosing those who have made a difference in the world.  It’s a wonderful mix, and very well written.  It was quickly picked up by another Nevermore member.





Paul Theroux drove the length of the U.S./Mexican border and then produced the book On the Plain of Snakes, Our reader said this was a hard book, but very interesting.  Theroux examines the lives of the people to the south, learning about their culture, way of life, their hopes, their dreams.  He provides a historical context and presents the views of those most affected, including the changes as some American manufacturing has moved to Mexico.  It’s a fascinating book, and one which gives much food for thought and helps to clarify some of the conflicts at the border.




The next book was actually a re-read for our club member.  Ellen Foster by Kaye Gibbons is the story of an eleven year old girl growing up in an abusive home. The story is told through the child’s point of view as she struggles to beat the odds.  It’s a “sad little book” but Ellen is a wonderful character, a sweet child faced with terrible conditions, and well worth the second reading in preparation for reading the sequel. The Life All Around Me by Ellen Foster picks up when Ellen is fifteen and living in a foster home. She struggles with adolescence and writes poetry to earn money.  Our reviewer didn’t think this second book was quite as good as the first and struggled with some of the stylistic choices— the absence of quotation marks, for example, and some interesting syntax.  She highly recommends the first and while she was glad she read the second, she doesn’t think it is a “must read.”


 
Finally, The Last Three Miles:  Politics, Murder, and the Construction of America’s First Superhighway by Steven Hart is the true story of the construction of New Jersey’s Pulaski Skyway in the early 1930s.  It proved to be a contentious project, with politics and labor going head to head in a power struggle that eventually turned violent.  It’s local politics, money, power, and greed, and it is a great book, according to our reporter.

One for the Money by Janet Evanovich

Reviewed by Kristin

Going back to the classics—well, the  Janet Evanovich classics anyway—is quite entertaining.  I rarely buy books to keep (libraries, libraries, libraries!) but for several years I was buying Evanovich’s books, so that I could go back and laugh at the hijinks whenever the urge struck me.  For the past several Stephanie Plum books, I have been wondering what in the world happened to the best-selling author that I had enjoyed for years.  To explore this point, I decided to re-read One for the Money to see if my mind was clouded with nostalgia, or if the books truly were better at the beginning of the Plum series.  What I have found is that many of the writing passages are more descriptive and more enjoyable to read than the staccato jokes and repeated crazy situations of the latest books.  For example, a spoiler-free passage from One for the Money:

“I awoke to the steady drumming of rain on my fire escape.  Wonderful.  Just what I needed to complicate my life further.  I crawled out of bed and pulled the curtain aside, not pleased at the sight of an all-day soaker.  The parking lot had slicked up, reflecting light from mysterious sources.  The rest of the world was gunmetal gray, the cloud cover low and unending, the buildings robbed of color behind the rain.”

Great literature?  No.  But I find it much more enjoyable when the author shows me what is happening, instead of telling me in words of one syllable.  Evanovich doesn’t go on for pages with these descriptions, but they make a nice backdrop to laugh-out-loud moments such as when Grandma Mazur is playing with her new .38 Special at the dinner table.  Let’s just say that particular roast chicken carcass will never be the same.  Mrs. Plum may as well go ahead and start her secret drinking in the kitchen now.

In addition to Grandma Mazur providing great comic relief in this outing, the series’ stage is set with Stephanie beginning her career as a bounty hunter.  Here we first learn about Joe Morelli and how he took Stephanie into her garage and played “choo choo” while still in elementary school.  After Stephanie blackmails her cousin Vinnie into giving her a try as a bounty hunter, her first bond is for local cop Morelli. When Stephanie explains that she knows Morelli and sold him a cannoli in high school, office manager Connie replies, “Honey, half of all the women in New Jersey have sold him their cannoli.”

Morelli may or may not be the bad guy in this book, and I won’t say too much so that it’s not spoiled for readers new to the series.  There is another character who is definitely a bad guy, and is the type who will make your skin crawl.  The early books in this series have characters with much more depth than some of the throwaway characters in later books.

Ranger is also introduced in One for the Money:  an ultra-capable guy working in security and wearing all black.  With mysterious sources of income and a never ending stream of black high-end vehicles, Ranger is the one Stephanie goes to when she needs a little help in apprehending a fugitive.  He makes Stephanie shivery in a very positive way, but she is never sure whether or not she wants to be involved with him.  Actually, twenty books later Stephanie’s still not sure whether Morelli or Ranger is the man for her.

My conclusion regarding this re-reading of One for the Money is this:  Yes, it was better written than some of the later books in the series.  I’m not quite sure when the series jumped the shark, but it has.  But for some “before the shark” action, check out One for the Money.  It may hook you and take you on a wild ride.