Christmas at the Women’s Hotel: A Biedermeier Story by Daniel M. Lavery

 

Reviewed by Jeanne

Manhattan, the early 1960s:  the Biedermeier Hotel is home to a number of women of various ages, from the young and eager to the elderly and infirm.  All are just scraping by, so for some the Christmas season offers an opportunity to earn much needed extra money. Most are content to pick up extra jobs as window dressers or sales clerks. 

Lucianne has a better idea:  she’ll start a service providing male escorts for young women who want to attend various functions but who don’t want to go alone.  She knows several young men who can be trusted to behave like gentlemen and who will cut a respectable figure. Of course, Lucianne will get a cut of the fee. . . .

Katherine, the first floor manager, has been estranged from her family for years but is cautiously hopeful when she receives a letter from a younger sister.  It’s the first time anyone from the family has reached out.

And then there’s Josephine, a retiree whose methods of picking up some extra cash are definitely not legal.

Author Daniel Lavery uses his characters from The Women’s Hotel to good effect in this holiday novella.  While it can be read as a standalone, Christmas at the Women’s Hotel would be better appreciated if one had read the first novel.  I had not, so I admit I was a bit overwhelmed with all the characters.  What kept me reading was the writing: I love the author’s sense of humor and way that he phrases things.  Of Lucianne, who is from a socially prominent family, he writes, “She was not self-conscious about her age, but she was certainly aware that it could no longer benefit her socially, though it had not as yet begun to count against her.” Of another character he writes that she was “thought of as something better than a nuisance but less than a friend.”

He also makes the 1964 time period come alive, which I really enjoyed.  I liked that not all the problems were solved or that some resolutions were not what I would have hoped.  Perhaps those endings are for another book. It felt realistically festive instead of  saccharine.

If you’re looking for some nostalgia reading set in the Big Apple, this can be an entertaining choice.

What Does It Feel Like? By Sophie Kinsella

 

Reviewed by Jeanne

Evie Monroe is a best-selling novelist who has it all, including a case of writer’s block. She’s bored with the book she’s writing when all at once she decides to take her own advice to would-be authors:  write what you know, and write the book you want to read. Immediately she knows what she wants to write and the words just burst forth into her biggest selling novel yet, one optioned for a movie.  It’s a dream.

And then Eve wakes up in a hospital, not sure why she’s there or how long she’s been there.  Her devoted husband Nick is there and says he has been all along. Her children are being taken care of by their grandparents. There was an operation for a brain tumor.  Eve is going to have to relearn a lot of things, and Nick will be by her side.

The advice Eve gives is also the advice Sophie Kinsella takes in this short novel. In 2022, Kinsella was diagnosed with a stage four glioblastoma. She underwent surgery to remove the tumor and has since been undergoing treatment. As she explains in the afterward, this is not her memoir but it is her story. And what a story it is:  courageous, tender, loving, and against the odds, hopeful.  I found it to be both moving and uplifting; treating the story as fictional allows a distance for author and reader to connect in a way that’s personal but not intrusive. It’s very much a love story, but not really a tearjerker. It’s gently amusing, and gently thoughtful, dealing with questions we tend to avoid. 

This was a lovely book and deserves the accolades it has received. I know I will be recommending it to others.

The Dispatcher: Murder by Other Means by John Scalzi

Reviewed by Jeanne

Somewhere in the not too distant future, death becomes a bit less certain.  For whatever reason, people who are murdered may not die, but reappear in another place, sans clothing but unharmed.  This has given rise to a new job:  dispatcher.  These are trained and licensed professionals who work with the police and hospitals to officially “murder” people on the brink of death in hopes of having them reappear in better condition. It’s not infallible: 999 times out of 1000, the person returns, but that one time the victim will remain dead.

It’s not a profession for the faint of heart.

Tony Valdez is a dispatcher but he’s currently unemployed and struggling, so when a job comes up that isn’t exactly legal he is inclined to bend the rules just a little to pay the rent.  Shortly thereafter, Tony is present when a robbery goes wrong and soon it seems that someone is trying to set him up for something.  He’s going to have to find out who and why before someone else dies—and dies for good.

John Scalzi writes intriguing speculative fiction with a sense of humor and off-beat situations that still manage to be serious.  This novella is the second in the series, and although I hadn’t read the first book, I still had no problem keeping up.  I like that his main characters are usually decent people who follow a moral code and try to do the right thing no matter the circumstances.  His books are very creative as well as entertaining, and he plays off other genres, such as hard-boiled detective for this one, or fandoms, such as Star Trek for Redshirts. One of his more recent books, Starter Villain, gives me a sort of James Bond feel except that maybe sometimes the villains can be—well, maybe not exactly the good guys, but the not-so-bad guys.

Though short, I thoroughly enjoyed this entry in the series and recommend Scalzi to folks who think they don’t like fantasy or science fiction.

The Christmas Guest by Peter Swanson

 

Reviewed by Jeanne

There’s a long tradition of mystery stories set at Christmas; in addition to Christmas mysteries, the British also have a tradition of ghost stories set at that festive time, and Peter Swanson quotes from arguably the most famous of these stories just before the start of this novella.  The story opens with a woman preparing to spend her usual solitary Christmas with a bit of housecleaning. She finds an old familiar diary and soon finds herself immersed in a Christmas time some thirty years earlier when she was a student.

Californian Ashley Smith is studying art in London and planning on spending Christmas alone when she is asked to be a guest at a country house in the Cotswolds. Fellow student Emma Chapman issued the invitation, knowing that Ashley wouldn’t be returning to America for the holidays.  It’s something out of a fairy tale, a wonderful English village with the manor house, Emma’s handsome brother Adam, and evenings by the fireplace.  But Ashley confides to her diary that she’s a little uneasy. Maybe instead of a fairy tale, she’s in a dark gothic tale.  After all, a girl was found murdered nearby just a few months earlier and the killer is still at large—and Emma’s brother Adam is considered a suspect.

This is a shivery tale, told from the points of view of a somewhat naïve student and then from a mature woman.  Some of the surprises come early, but there’s a twist at the end that made it memorable for me.  If you like Christmas mysteries, this is a good choice: the English setting, the dark undercurrents, and the secrets. At just over 90 pages, it makes for a relatively quick read, which is what I’m looking for at this very busy time of year.  Swanson is the winner of numerous mystery awards, and from this book I would say there are well deserved.

The Hangman by Louise Penny

 

Reviewed by Jeanne

I am a fan of Louise Penny: I love the way she delves into character and into the human heart while spinning engrossing mysteries.  I love her sense of place, and how I wish there was a real Three Pines to visit!  I confess I am running a few books behind because her books are meant to be savored and, despite what others have said, I find this a series best read in order.

Since I tend to keep up with what Penny is writing, I was surprised to come across a reference to The Hangman.  It’s a novella written in 2010 which had somehow slipped my notice, so of course I had to rectify that.  The date puts it between Bury Your Dead and A Trick of the Light.

The story opens in Three Pines where a man out for an early morning jog finds a body hanging from a tree.  Chief Inspector Armand Gamache and his team arrive to determine if the man committed suicide or if they have a murder to investigate.

At only 87 pages, the story has a lot of ground to cover.  Even so, Penny makes sure to give the reader some of Gamache’s musings and insights which for me underpin all the books.  Is it a good story?  Yes, and I would recommend that fans read it.  However, the short form left me wanting more.  This could have been a full novel. Some things felt rushed, and I was sorry that we didn’t get to see more characterization, which is the hallmark of Penny’s writing as far as I am concerned.

Still, any Penny is better than none!

Cleaning the Gold: A Jack Reacher and Will Trent Short Story by Karin Slaughter and Lee Child

Reviewed by Kristin

As I may have mentioned once or twice, I do enjoy Karin Slaughter’s series based around Georgia Bureau of Investigation agent Will Trent and medical examiner Sara Linton. I can just imagine the tall buildings of the Atlanta skyline and the dusty red dirt of a Georgia small town when Will and Sara fall into yet another case. (At least their adventures are related to their jobs, as opposed to the small town cupcake bakery/knitting shop/antique store proprietors who seem to have dead bodies turning up every time they open the door. Sorry-not-sorry, cozy authors.)

Jack Reacher is a tough ex-military cop who achieves his goals by any means possible. I have to admit that I’ve never read any Lee Child, although I will have to give him a try one of these days. As soon as my to-be-read pile is done, I promise.

In Cleaning the Gold, Slaughter and Child come together to explore what might happen if their protagonists, Will Trent and Jack Reacher, met each other. The men manage to finagle their way into Fort Knox, both with individual motives. Reacher has his eye on a potential governmental conspiracy, and Trent has his eye on Reacher. Twenty-two years ago in a small Georgia town, a large blond man killed a sheriff’s deputy right in the public library. Could Reacher have been that man?

The United States Treasury governing acts require that the Fort Knox vaults be inspected annually, but every ten years a more extensive measurement and accounting is undertaken. Those gold bars are heavy, and Trent and Reacher are hired for their muscles. But with that much gold, greed and dishonesty rear their ugly heads.

While a very short story at seventy-nine pages, I found this to be a quick and enjoyable read. This may be enough to move Lee Child upwards in my reading queue. Slaughter’s new novel The Last Widow (recently reviewed here) is previewed as well, taking up at least a third of the slim volume. Can one story have more than one hero? If this has interested you at all, pick it up and see how these two big guys interact.

A Kiss for Midwinter by Courtney Milan

Reviewed by Christy

            In this Victorian Christmas novella, Dr. Jonas Grantham is in love with Lydia Charingford and her near-constant cheery disposition. Lydia, however, believes Jonas to be judgmental of her scandalous past and has no interest in his friendship, let alone anything more. In an effort to spend more time with her, Jonas wagers Lydia that his work can damper even her good spirits. He invites her to come along with him on a few of his house calls before Christmas. If he wins, he gets a kiss. If he loses, she never has to speak to him again.

            I thought this was an absolutely delightful story. The characters have a realistic obstacle to get over in their relationship and good chemistry to see them through. Jonas not only is not the stereotypical macho man pervasive in much of romance fiction, but he also doesn’t subscribe to Victorian ideals and primness. Even Lydia’s father is quite progressive for the time. In Victorian society, it would’ve been perfectly acceptable for him to lock her away for her teenage indiscretion but he doesn’t. Instead, he treats her with the love and respect he always has. His love as a father took precedence over what was expected of him. It was quite refreshing.

            I also really enjoyed the winter setting with little bits of the characters’ Christmases past sprinkled throughout. I probably could’ve done with even more Christmas but that usually seems to be the case. This was a fun, cozy read and the perfect length (long enough to get to know the characters but short enough so it didn’t feel like there were miscommunications just for the sake of it). Though I don’t normally read novellas, I will definitely be hunting down more Christmas ones this holiday season.

The Christmas Letters by Lee Smith

Reviewed by Jeanne

People tend to be divided about “the Christmas letter” often included in a card this time of the year.  Some see such letters as a chance for others to brag about their kids, their house, their vacations, etc., but I’m glad to get one.  There are a number of folks I only hear from once a year and it’s nice to know what is going on with their lives.   It also saves me from making embarrassing comments a la Ralph Emery.  (Emery was notorious for not prepping before an interview, which led him to ask a singer how a bandmate was doing.  There was a pause, and the singer replied, “He’s still dead, Ralph.”)

So I do appreciate getting news of those I don’t see often—or at all—so that at least I have some idea of what’s going on in their lives.

Lee Smith took this idea and ran with it in her novella, The Christmas Letters:   the story is told through letters written over decades, detailing family events.  The book starts with the 1944 letter, in which homesick young bride and new mother Birdie writes to her family in back in West Virginia.  She’s living with her husband’s family while he’s in service, serving the Pacific.  There are a lot of adjustments to be made and even more when her husband comes home from the war. The letters follow the expanding family until 1967 when daughter Mary—herself a new mother-- begins writing letters of her own. 

While the story is presented through the prism of a cheery holiday missive, Lee wisely allows doubts and sorrows to seep through.  The writer(s) have a bit of perspective:  there’s been time for situations and events to be evaluated, and yet often the emotions remain vivid. The personalities of the writers come through as well, and while they share common traits, they are individuals.  I particularly enjoyed seeing Birdie through her daughter’s eyes, just as I had watched Mary grow through her mother’s descriptions.

This is a sweet, but not saccharine little book with a surprising amount of depth to it.  Sure, there are recipes included in most letters, the kids are all above average, but there’s a dose of introspection at times.   I don’t want to say more, because this is a book to discover on your own.  At a mere 126 pages, it doesn’t take long to read but it’s memorable. Like Birdie, I’ll remember that catfish for some time.

Smith is a wonderful storyteller, and she uses the letters not only to illustrate the family but the changing world in which they live.  The cover conveys the idea beautifully as well, with a wreath constructed of photos, letters, recipes, addresses, all tied together with a ribbon. 

If you have an extra hour or two this year, treat yourself to The Christmas Letters.