A Fatal Glow by Valerie Wilson Wesley

 

Reviewed by Jeanne

Odessa Jones, recently widowed, works in a real estate office, hoping to earn commissions but to supplement her income, she has returned to catering.  It was a lot easier when her husband was alive and she could count on him to take some of the chores; but Dessa is a determined lady. When she lands a lucrative job catering a party at a wealthy businessman’s home, it looks as if her luck might be turning—except for that bit of glimmer she sees, a sign that something unfortunate is about to happen.  Dessa has been blessed or cursed with the ability to see glimmers around people that give her some indication of what they are feeling, and if they are lying. Hoping that the glimmer means something else, Dessa takes the job, only to have her employer die at the gathering.  The death seems suspicious, so the police want to question Dessa and the co-workers she enlisted to help out—and they seem to be looking for a motive.

This is the second in the series but you needn’t have read the first to enjoy this one.  I liked the first one well enough to want to read the second, and this one is even better.  Wesley does a very good job with her characters.  I like that Odessa is an adult, unlike so many cozy mystery heroines who are chronologically grown-ups but whose behavior signals immaturity.  She is level-headed, kind, and willing to deal with her problems. She cares about other people, including her co-workers and the now fatherless businessman’s young son, but she isn’t intrusive. She doesn’t try to pry into everyone’s lives any more than she would want someone to pry into hers. She is perceptive but for the most part non-judgmental.

Dessa has a maturity and understanding of human nature that I find appealing. The hint of supernatural abilities are interesting but don’t operate as a deus ex machina—Dessa figures things out on her own.  There’s a realistic feel to this story that is lacking in some other cozy series I read.  It makes for a pleasant change.

And why, yes, there is a cat! His name is Juniper.

 The mystery was a good one and, even if some aspects were left as speculation, I was well satisfied.

The first book in the series is A Glimmer of Death. The third book, A Shimmer of Red, is due out summer 2023.

New in January!

Winter may bring on the blues, but things are starting to look up. Not only are we starting to gain about a minute of daylight per day, but there are new books to start the new year.  Here are some of the titles people are looking forward to with anticipation:

The Mitford Affair by Marie Benedict

Benedict is known for her fiction about women who may not have gotten their due, including chemist Rosalind Franklin (Her Hidden Genius), physicist Mileva Einstein, wife of Albert, (The Other Einstein), and Hedy Lamar, the beautiful actress who was also a scientist (The Only Woman in the Room). In January she takes on the Mitford sisters in The Mitford Affair. Stylish, charming, and well-connected, the sisters became entangled in the politics of the 1930s with sometimes devastating consequences. The Mitfords have continued to fascinate for decades. They’ve even been used as fictional detectives. 

The Mitford Secret by Jessica Fellowes

This is the sixth and final book in the mystery series that uses the six Mitford sisters as characters. The series starts in the 1920s with The Mitford Murders, set in the Golden Age of mysteries.  Fellowes is the niece of Julian Fellowes, creator of Downton Abbey, and knows the time period well.

Code 6 by James Grippando

Well known for his page turning thrillers, Grippando’s newest book features Kate Gamble, daughter of the owner of Buck Technologies. Her father’s work includes data integration that is used by the CIA and other counter-terrorism agencies. When someone Kate cares about is kidnapped, the ransom demand is for some of her father’s most secret technology.

How to Sell a Haunted House by Grady Hendrix

Hendrix is one of the hot names in horror, with best-selling books like The Southern Book Club’s Guide to Slaying Vampires and The Final Girl Support Group. The advance reviews on this one indicate that he breathes new life (pun intended, alas!) into the haunted house trope.

 

The Villa by Rachel Hawkins

Lifelong friends Emily and Chess decide a girls vacation in Italy is just the thing for them to relax and reconnect.  They’re staying at a luxury villa with a somewhat checkered past: it was where a great horror novel was written, a best-selling record album created, and the site of a brutal murder—all in the same year. Hawkins is also the author of The Wife Upstairs and Reckless Girls.

Other books coming out in January:

Hunter, Stephen  The Bullet Garden (Earl Swagger)

Koontz, Dean The House at the End of the World

Krentz, Jayne Ann Sleep No More

Kubica, Mary  Just the Nicest Couple

Patterson, James  Countdown

Patterson, James House of Wolves

Perry, Thomas  Murder Book

Preston & Child, The Cabinet of Dr. Leng

Prince Harry, the Duke of Sussex  Spare

Steel, Danielle  Without a Trace

Taylor, Brad  The Devil’s Ransom (Pike Logan)

Nevermore: Black Like Me, An Elderly Lady Is Up to No Good, Oona Out of Order

 Reported by Garry

Black Like Me by John Howard Griffin is a groundbreaking 1961 non-fiction book recounting the author’s journey through the Deep South of America during segregation.  Griffin, who was a white Texan, underwent medical treatment to darken his skin so he could pass as Black.  He then travelled through Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Arkansas and Georgia, documenting his experiences.  According to our reader, Griffin was treated better in New Orleans than elsewhere in the South, but event that is a relative term, as he was still routinely at the receiving end of “hate stares” from white people, and was not able to use restrooms, public transportation or be seated at restaurants.  Our reader was saddened and shocked by the lack of progress that our society has made since Griffin undertook his journey in 1959, but very highly recommends this book for its historical perspective.  CD

An Elderly Lady is Up To No Good by Helene Tursten is the first in her Elderly Lady series.  Maud is an 88 year old grump with no family, few friends, and even fewer qualms about offing those she deems need it.  Maud lives by herself (which is the way she likes it) in her family’s apartment in Gothenburg, spending her time traveling the world and surfing the net, and dabbling in murder, which she not only easily justifies, but gets away with – after all, who would suspect a little old lady of being a cold-blooded murderer?  Our reader loves this book for its quirky irascible leading lady, and her darkly humorous, matter-of-fact ways of deciding who should live and who should be disposed of.  SC

Oona Out of Order by Margarita Montimore.  New Year’s Eve, 1982 - Oona Lockhart will turn 19 at the stroke of midnight, and embark on her adult life.  As the clock counts down, Oona faints and wakes up 32 years in the future, in a now 51 year old body, in a house she is told that she owns, and to the news that every year on the strike of New Year she will jump at random to another time in her body.  Where in her life will she jump to next and who will she be?  Our reader really loved this book and noted that even though Oona may be “old” on the outside, she is still 19 in her mind, a state that many of the Nevermores echoed is the case for them right now.  MH

Other books mentioned:

Southwest Saga:  The Way It Really Was by William C. McGaw

The Lake Wobegon Virus by Garrison Keillor

Emily’s House by Amy Belding Brown

The Four Winds by Kristin Hannah

Marmee by Sarah Miller

Mad at the World: A Life of John Steinbeck by William Souder

Three Visitors to Early Plymouth by Emmanuel Altham

They Knew: How a Culture of Conspiracy Keeps America Complacent by Sarah Kendzior

Plain Truth by Jodi Picoult

Theft of an Idol by Dana Stabenow

How it Went by Wendell Berry

Deliberate Cruelty:  Truman Capote, the Millionaire’s Wife, and the Murder of the Century by Roseanne Montillo

Defending Alice:  A Novel of Love and Race in the Roaring Twenties by Richard Stratton

War by Sebastian Junger

War by Sebastian Junger

 

Reviewed by Ben

 

War by Sebastian Junger is a true story of an American journalist who embeds himself in Battle Company, a US Army infantry division that fought for control of the Korengal Valley in Afghanistan. Published in 2010, the events described in the book take place during the early years of President Obama's first term. While collecting notes for the book, Junger and cameraman Tim Hetherington captured video footage that would be used to make the documentary "Restrepo." War was written with plain-yet artful-language describing the company's tour in the Afghan mountains. Junger is never pretentious. He levels with the reader regarding what happens during war and how it changes people. The narrative hits the reader with a thud.

 

The overriding themes of the book are how combat forges bonds and--sometimes--sucks people in. Some of the fiercest fighting of the war in Afghanistan took place in the Korengal Valley, a short, narrow strip of land in the mountains. If you search for this location in Google, you will see a lot of sources calling this one of the most dangerous places on Earth during the war and the US occupation. The valley presented a harsh environment that conferred an advantage to local insurgents who were accustomed to climbing the steep, rocky hillsides and less laden with heavy loads of equipment. Battle Company could come under fire anywhere, at any time. The Americans thus depended on each other for protection and became very close to each other. Deaths and casualties hit the group hard.

 

Even though combat presented the dangers of potential death, dismemberment, and psychological trauma, some of the members of Battle Company enjoyed combat. When winter brought a lull in insurgent activity, the men openly wished for firefights. One member of Battle Company who featured the most prominently in the book, O'Byrne, had a hard time conceiving of life back home as his tour drew to a close. He weighed signing a new contract with the Army and returning to the remote Korengal outpost, where mysterious men would resume trying to kill him.

 

War is a book I highly recommend. The narrative of the true events is exciting. The author's reflection on combat and what it does to men is compelling. Hearing the stories of enlisted men who long for gunfights is fascinating. All of this comes in a package that eschews the partisan political takes that we all heard years ago. Do yourself a favor and read this book.

Revenge of the Librarians by Tom Gauld

Reviewed by Jeanne

Okay, with a title like that, how could I resist this fabulous collection of cartoons?  I was already familiar with some of Gaud’s work from social media.  He has a very distinctive style of drawing, so I always paused my scrolling when I caught sight of it.  Even better, most of the ones I had seen had a connection to books or literature.

I had high hopes for this collection and I most certainly was not disappointed.  Cartoons poke intelligent fun at authors, books, librarians, etc. but it’s obvious that Gauld loves his subjects.  From authors trying to write to librarians who want to organize the world according to Dewey to raving beasts in possession of fine libraries, Gauld makes us laugh or smile in recognition.  I especially love the ones in which he differentiates between types of writers: a fall day has a poet thinking about writing a poem on the melancholy of autumn, while a mystery author ponders the same day as having a body buried under leaves. He even comes up with words to describe various book situations:  buchendschmerz, the sadness at nearing the end of a very good book or (my favorite) buchverlusterleichterung—relief at losing a copy of a book you weren’t really enjoying.

Gauld plays with the classics, has fun with genres, and pokes a bit of fun at editors.  It’s obvious that book people are the target audience here in all our glory. It’s wonderful.  There are so many cartoons that I want to visit again and again.  The humor is never spiteful or nasty; it’s gently funny and makes the reader feel as if we are all in on the joke.

The book itself is beautifully done, complete with a date due card in the front.  (At the bottom of the date due card it says, "Late returns will incur fines and, more importantly, the displeasure of the librarian.  Believe me: you do NOT want to make an enemy of the librarian.") The endpapers are festooned with books, and the pages have a lovely thick feel.  I am so very tempted to buy a copy to give as a gift to a fellow bibliophile.  I only hesitate because I know the guilt I’ll feel when I give her a box of notecards and keep this book for myself.

Very highly recommended!

Nevermore: Where the Red Fern Grows, Galatea, Plain Truth

 

Reported by Garry

Get out the tissues for Where the Red Fern Grows by Wilson Rawls. Set during the Great Depression in the Ozarks and based on the author’s own childhood, this multi-award winning classic story of a boy and his dogs has wrenched hearts since it was first published in 1961.  Billy Coleman is a 10 year old boy who dreams of owning a pair of hounds for coon hunting, and works for two years to save up enough to buy a pair.  He and the dogs become Ozarks famous for coon hunting, but tragedy seems to stalk them through forested hollows of the mountains.  Nearly everyone in the Nevermore group had read this book and all praised its powerful, evocative writing and compelling storyline.  CD

 

Galatea:  A Short Story by Madeline Miller is a re-telling of the Pygmalion myth, set in ancient Greece.  Pygmalion is a talented sculptor who creates a statue of the most beautiful woman possible.  He falls in love with the statue, and in response to his prayers, the goddess Aphrodite brings Galatea to life.  Pygmalion wants (and expects) his devotion to be returned by Galatea, but she has her own mind and ideas.  This short story (62 pages long) is told from Galatea’s perspective, and explores themes such as patriarchy, misogyny, feminine desire and autonomy, and much more.  Our reader was very taken with this brief story and highly recommends it.  MS

 

Plain Truth by Jodi Picoult is a murder mystery set in an Amish community.  A dead baby is discovered in a barn, and Katie Fisher, an 18 year old Amish girl is the presumed mother and murderer– but she claims she was never pregnant.  Ellie Hathaway is a Philadelphia defense lawyer who impulsively takes on Katie’s case, only to discover that her modern life-style is at odds with the Plain life lived by the Amish – no electricity, work is valued over leisure, church rules override legal rules, etc.  As with other Picoult books, the research that went into this book shows on every page as it delves deeply into the lifestyle and belief system of the Amish people.  Our reader says that this book is extremely well-written with not only a great murder mystery, but an insightful examination of the social issues that arise from a society that is at odds with the “typical” society.  NH

 Other titles mentioned:

John Vance Journal by John Vance

Southwest Saga:  The Way It Really Was by William C. McGaw

Mad Honey by Jodi Picoult

The Need to Be Whole by Wendell Berry

Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver

Nights of Plague by Orhan Pamuk

The Amber Spyglass by Philip Pullman

JD Vance is A Fake Hillbilly by Frank Kilgore

The Curious Charms of Arthur Pepper by Phaedra Patrick

The Messy Lives of Book People by Phaedra Patrick

On the Rooftop by Margaret Wilkerson Sexton

Rise and Shine Benedict Stone by Phaedra Patrick

Letters from Home by Kristina McMorris

Midnight at the Blackbird Café by Heather Webber

The Dead Romantics by Ashley Poston

The 12 Hour Art Expert:  Everything You Need to Know about Art in a Dozen Masterpieces by Noah Charney

The Beauty in Breaking: A Memoir by Michele Harper

Visual Thinking by Temple Grandin

Ted Kennedy – A Life by John Farrell

Sissy:  A Coming of Gender Story by Jacob Tobia

The Guncle by Steven Rowley

Behold the Dreamers by Imbolo Mbue

Dog on it by Spencer Quinn

 

Reviewed by Jeanne

Chet and Bernie are partners in a detective agency.  Okay, Bernie really owns the agency, but in many ways Chet is the heart and soul of the operation. He’s loyal, dedicated, and he would work for Slim Jims. He also narrates these stories as only Chet can. He has a unique point of view, both worldly and innocent, and he can be very opinionated, especially on the subject of Bernie, who is the greatest guy in the world.

At this point I should probably make sure that you know Chet is a dog.

You should also know that he’s a very smart dog who knows enough to worry about “cash flow problems” even though he’s not quite sure what they are but they make Bernie wake up at night and pace and even start smoking again.

This time around Bernie is hired to look for a lost girl, which is a lot better than divorce work because in divorce work you sit in the car in front of motels a lot. The trouble is, this case turns out to be a lot more complicated than it seemed at first.  First of all, the girl turns up and everything’s okay except that Bernie doesn’t seem to think it’s okay. Then the girl disappears AGAIN, and Bernie is definitely sure it’s not okay.

That’s okay with Chet, though, because he knows Bernie will figure it out.  He’s the smartest guy in the world, as well as the greatest guy.  And Chet will be right by his side the whole time.

I’d heard a lot about this series and decided to try it for myself.  My tastes tend to run to classic or cozy mysteries, which this is definitely not.  It’s a bit more hard-boiled, for one thing; there’s danger and people get hurt; and it’s not a “solve the puzzle based on clues” sort of mystery.  It’s more of a crime novel, and the reader finds things out along with the protagonist, even if Chet may not quite grasp all of the situation. 

Which is more than fine, because it’s Chet’s narration that makes the story for me.  Chet repeats what he hears even if he doesn’t understand it and goes off on very canine-like tangents based on what he smells at the moment.  Humans are a puzzle to him, but he is perfectly willing to go with the flow.

This book was a lot of fun, mostly because of the unique perspective Chet offers.  I’m not sure we would get along because Chet hates cats, but I will admire from afar.