The Hawaiian Discovery

This is the second book in a three part series. I have already read books 1 and 3. I was not aware that these 3 novels were connected and read them out of order. It was easy to follow the story though.

On this installment of the series Ellen Lambright, an Amish girl living in Middlebury, IN, receives permission from her church to fly to Kaui in order to help a friend deal with her husband's accident. Ken Williams was attacked by a shark while surfing and might not survive. His wife Mandy, also from Middlebury, is Ellen's best friend so after the accident happened Ellen knew Mandy would need support.  When she arrives Ellen meets Rob Smith, a farm hand working on the organic farm owned by the Williams family. Sparks fly between them and both try to ignore their mutual attraction. With Ellen having joined the Amish Church she cannot marry an Englisher and it is best not to become involved with one. Both of them know this and try to resist the temptation.

I love Amish fiction and I also love Hawaii. Put the two together and you have a winning novel. I love reading about these characters and hope Brunstetter continues their story in another book. However, it is the setting that grabs my attention most. With every description of the scenery I feel as though I have been transported there.  Yes, I feel that warm sun even though I am living in a cold climate. While these characters are hard workers, I have some problems relating to their fatigue after a day's work. They have the sunshine when the day is over which gives me a disconnect. I cannot imagine feeling tired in such a glorious setting. My personal issues do not affect my enjoyment of the story. It was well written and I read it this morning before I went to work.

5 our of 5 stars.

The Night Away

The Night Away is an unputdownable book. The story opens with Amber struggling to care for her newborn daughter Mabel. Her husband George thinks that they need a short vacation with just themselves in order to rekindle their relationship. Amber finally agrees to one night away in a resort hotel and her sister Ruby will be babysitting Mabel. Just as she is about to leave, Amber worries about Ruby being alone with her daughter. Ruby is known to be a little scatterbrained and forgetful. Still, Amber leaves with her husband. What she doesn't know is that someone has been following her and noting her habits. Someone who desperately wants a baby of their own and who believes that Mabel is supposed to be their's. 

When Amber's sister Ruby reports that Mabel's cot is empty, Amber's world implodes. She knows that if her baby is not found, she will never forgive her sister. However, Amber also has a secret.  She wonders whether the person who knows the truth will try and make her pay for her actions. Amber will do anything to get Mabel back but in the back of her mind she wonders if her lies have put Mabel at risk.  

I think that the point of view that the story was written from provided much of the suspense. The reader does not know who the person is until the end. What is known from the beginning is that this person does not like Amber.  Amber isn't a likable character. Before she gave birth to Mabel, she took advantage of her co-workers and ignored any one who could not help her advance in her career. She stopped being lovey-dovey with her husband George as soon as the baby was born, causing a rift in her marriage. Amber was always berating him while George was excessively "understanding." This made me suspicious of George but there will be no spoilers here.  

Lilac Park is the setting of the story. It's name evokes wealth and beauty. George and Amber are well off and seeing well dressed neighbors in the park where mothers stroll with their babies contributes to this feeling.  Everyone knows everyone else here. In the park there are tennis courts, kid's play area,  rose garden, ornamental pond, and a cafe. Mothers gather there, clustering around large tables discussing baby issues on weekday mornings. Amber was there every day too but she did not always meet the other ladies,preferring to be alone.  

The solving of the crime, namely the kidnapping of Mabel, begins with the week before Mabel is taken. The reader gets information here that will give clues to whodunit. Then it is told 7 days before the kidnapping, the day of the kidnapping and then one, two, three, etc. . . days after it occurs. I think this was written well. I could not put the book down and read into the early hours of the morning to finish reading it. I highly recommend it to fans of psychological thrillers.

5 out of 5 stars. 

The Girl From Silent Lake

Wow!  What an exciting, pulse throbbing book.  This crime thriller is the first in a new series featuring former FBI detective Kay Sharp. The second book in the series, Beneath Black Water River, was published last week and I will definitely be buying it. Although she was written 19 novels, Leslie Wolfe is a new author for me. It always feels good when you find an author you love.

The publisher's summary:  

When single mother Alison Nolan sets off with her six-year-old daughter Hazel, she can't wait to spend precious time with her girl.  A vacation in Silent Lake, where snow-topped mountains are surrounded by the colors of fall, is just what they need.  Hours later, though, Alison and Hazel disappear.  Detective Kay Sharp rushes to the scene.  The only evidence that they were ever there is an abandoned rental car with a suitcase in the back, gummy bears in the open glove compartment and a teddy bear on the floor.  Kay's mind spins.  A week before, the body of another woman from out of town was found in a wrapped blanket, her hair braided and tied with feathers. Instinct tells her that the cases are connected - and it won't be long until more innocent lives are lost.  

As Kay leads a frenzied search, time is against her, but she vows that Alison and little Hazel will be found alive.  She works around the clock, even though the small town is up in arms, saying she's asking too many questions. Then she uncovers a vital clue - a photograph of the blanket that the first victim was buried in.  Just when Kay thinks she's found the missing piece, she realizess she's being watched. Is she getting too close, or is her own past catching up with her?  With a little girl's life on the line, Kay will stop at nothing.  But will it be enough to get inside the mind of the most twisted killer she has ever encountered, or will another blameless child be taken?  

I loved this novel!  The main character, Kay, is a superb detective. Her background in profiling the personalities of serial killers is a great asset and the author revealed her expertise gradually as the plot developed.  I thought this was written well. Normally you see a detective's entire skillset revealed in the beginning of a novel. This added to the excitement while I was reading.  Her partner in the investigation was a good foil for her personality. Elliot is a Texas good old boy who thinks he knows more than Kay because he is a man. However, Elliot was continually impressed by Kay's analysis of the case they were working on. 

The setting includes the Native American tribes in the Mount Chester locale where the story takes place. Several tribes were known to be in the area but their burial traditions were slightly different from each other.  Knowledge of this was essential to solving the crime.  I enjoyed learning about the differences between them. 

The Girl From Silent Lake is a fabulous story. I highly recommend it to mystery lovers. 5 out of 5 stars.

The Queen's Marriage

I don't usually read biographies let alone salacious ones at that. However, I have been watching Lady Colin Campbell's You Tube channel and she certainly knows alot about the royal and aristocratic families. I decided to take this book out of the library and see what new information there is inside it.  Most of the information is well known but there are a few shockers. Yes, this is a spoiler alert!  

So what's the shocking story?  When the Queen's sister Margaret was told that she could not marry her divorced love, Margaret let her sister know that her husband had been sleeping around.  The Queen not only lost her closest friend, Margaret, but felt estranged from her husband Phillip.  She fell into a deep depression and had electric shock treatments administered to her.  The Queen's advisors all said that she couldn't do her job if she was on psychiatric meds and in the 1950s shock treatment was well regarded and a fast treatment.  I find this shocking ( pun intended).  How could anyone believe that electric shock therapy was a good thing?  The Queen could have been permanently physically damaged.  What were they thinking?

The other astonishing tidbit was both the Queen and Princess Margaret were conceived via artificial insemination. Their mother, Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother, did not like sex and cut her husband off while on their honeymoon.  A reliable physician inserted King's George VI 's semen into her.  This all sounds pretty gross to me but the author said this was not unusual for aristocratic couples who could not conceive.  Sometimes a surrogate was used too.

The biography is a quick read and I enjoyed it despite having to reread the sections that seemed unbelievable. I had to make sure my eyes weren't deceiving me.  5 out of 5 stars.

The Blended Quilt

The Blended Quilt is Wanda Brunstetter's 56th novel.  She created the Amish fiction genre in 1997 with the publication of her first book A Merry Heart.  She was 60 years old when that book was published! Although her ancestors were of the Anabaptist faith, her fascination with the Amish began when she married her husband, who had been raised as a Mennonite.  She is so well thought of in the Amish community that they read her books.  In addition to her Amish fiction series, Ms. Brunstetter has published 8 novellas, 7 cookbooks, 3 devotionals, 4 gift books and 14 middle grade children's novels, all set among the Amish.  She publishes between 3 and 8 books per year and began writing with her daughter-in-law Jean Brunstetter in 2016.  The Robin's Greeting was published earlier this month and next month An Amish Barn Raising will be published.

The Blended Quilt follows the life of Sadie Kuhns.  A year after returning to Indiana from a trip to Hawaii (see The Hawaiian Quilt) Sadie wants to create a quilt that blends the traditional Amish quilt with a Hawaiian quilt.  When she finishes it, a friend suggests that she write a book on the quilt. While she is writing her book, her boyfriend Wyman Kauffman becomes distant as she spends more time writing and talking about it than in paying attention to him.  He is jealous of the time that she spends with her personal pursuits and wonders if she is marriage material.  However, Sadie had concerns about their relationship before she even thought about making the quilt.  Wyman does not seem to be able to a job or profession.  Without a secure profession, Sadie doubts that he can support a wife and family.  Both wonder if there is any reason to continue their courtship.  

I have only read 4 other books by Wanda Brunstetter.  I am not sure why since her books are so well written.  At one time I was only interested in political mysteries but I believe I have let myself down by not reading her entire bibliography of books.  I loved The Blended Quilt and must make a determination to read through her book list.  As a feminist I was put off by Wyman's insistence on being center stage in Sadie's life.  Perhaps that is impractical given Sadie's Amish life but he annoyed me. Sadie, however, is a woman after my own heart.  Wanting to create a new type of quilt is impressive.  Writing a book about it is even better (in my view). Being a strong woman was not looked upon well in her community. Neither was travel, something Sadie has done while single.  She would like to return to Hawaii but never expects to be able to afford it.  While I realize that this is Amish fiction, I cannot wrap my head around the fact that being strong and proactive is considered a negative trait in a woman. 

5 our of 5 stars.

The Lost Daughter

History tells us that every member of the Russian royal family, the Romanovs, were killed in 1918.  When I spotted this book at the library I thought that it might be interesting, but not great given that the premise for the plot was not believable.  However, it is so well written that I enjoyed spending an entire afternoon reading it.  In this novel Grand Duchess Maria, the third child of Tsar Nicholas, survives the assassination and is carried away from the scene by an admiring guard.  Below is the plot summary from the publisher:

1918:  Pretty, vivacious Grand Duchess Maria Romanov, the nineteen-year-old daughter of the fallen Tsar Nicholas II, lives with her family in suffocating isolation, a far cry from their once-glittering royal household.  Her days are a combination of endless boredom and paralyzing fear; her only respite is clandestine flirtations with a few of the guards imprisoning the family - never realizing her innocent actions could mean the difference between life and death.

1973:  When Val Doyle hears her father's end-of-life confession, "I didn't want to kill her," she's stunned.  So, she begins a search for the truth - about his words and her past.  The clues she discovers are baffling - a jewel encrusted box that won't open and a camera with its film intact.  What she finds out pulls Val into one of the world's greatest mysteries - what truly happened to the Grand Duchess Maria?  

The setting of Ipatiev House where the family lived and were murdered, showed alot of insight into the family's final days.  It was fascinating to read the descriptions of the rooms and the layout of the building.  It was a decrepit old building that had a sense of foreboding.  The family must have known they were coming to a bad end.  If they were really waiting for European relatives to save them, they had to be nuts.  Royalty is not sent to a building that is practically falling down to wait for repatriation.  

The daily lives of the residents of Leningrad during the Siege of Lenigrad was shown in all its horror. Most people only had 2 pieces of bread to eat per day at its end.  They were all skeletons at its ending and had endured standing in line here, there and everywhere to find food on a daily basis and that was only after a full work day.  While I have read history books on this issue, it only came to life for me from reading this book.  The shear drudgery of trying to survive was clearly apparent as the characters dealt with the war.  

There are many good reasons to recommend this book.  These are only two of them.  I highly recommend The Lost Daughter.  5 out of 5 stars.

In a Dark, Dark Wood

Mystery novelist Leonora  Shaw lives a solitary but comfortable life in London.  One day while checking her email she finds an invitation to a hen weekend for Clare Cavendish, a friend from childhood whom she hasn't spoken to or seen for ten years.  After some urging by a mutual friend, Nora reluctantly agrees to go and finds herself at a mysterious house with a group of near-strangers, deep in the forest far from the city.  Quickly, old rivalries and new relationships bubble to the surface and the weekend turns violent, leaving Nora battered and bruised in a hospital bed.  As she struggles to reconstruct the sequence of events that brought her there, secrets emerge about her past and her present that force her to question everything she knows about herself and everyone she has ever loved.

While I was aware of what a hendo, or hen weekend, is before reading the book, it probably would have been helpful to American readers to have this British term defined in the beginning of the story.  You basically know from the start that inviting your fiancé's ex-girlfriend to your hendo will not have a good outcome.  However, the advertisement of this book as a psychological thriller falls short. It just wasn't suspenseful and during the first half of the book there were a few boring sequences.  I was not engaged until the latter third of the plot.  

The assumed wooded setting, taken from the title, is not the true setting.  Most of the events take place in a house owned by a relative of one of the characters.  While the house is located in the woods, all of the action takes place inside.  The plot is revealed through dialogue, both inner and spoken, from the characters.  Speaking of the characters, only one was interesting to me and she was a foil for the main characters.  All in all, this was an OK book, nothing to write home about.

3 out of 5 stars.

The Binding

The Binding is set in a fantasy world where binders have the power to erase bad memories from clients who want to forget.  It took me awhile before I figured this out as our protagonist began his apprenticeship working on actual book binding covers. For some, being able to forget a traumatic event is a godsend. For our protagonist Emmett Farmer, his binding caused tremendous confusion and illness.  The story is written in three parts. The first part shows Emmet's current situation. The second delves into the past and shows how he ended up being sent away by his family.  The third part takes the story forward into his future and the resolution of the plot.

The book begins with teenager Emmett Farmer working in the fields of his family's farm.  A letter arrives that summons him to an apprenticeship as a bookbinder. This vocation arouses fear and superstition in his small community.  However, his parents feel that he cannot afford to refuse the offer.  He has been ill in the past year and the illness has caused the family to be embarrassed by his symptoms.  His father has difficulty understanding how this happened to Emmett because he had kept a pure home.  

Emmett has always been attracted to books, even though they are strictly forbidden.  His bookbinding master, Seredith, tells him that bookbinding is a sacred calling and that he was born to be a binder.  Under this old woman's watchful eye, Emmett learns how to hand-craft elegant leatherbound volumes. Each volume will capture a memory.  If you want to forget something, a binder can help you erase it.  The binders then place the memory inside a book, which the binders always store in a vault owned by the binder.  After Emmett has settled in his new occupation he discovers that one of the books in the vault has his name on it.  He has no idea that he was ever bound or what memory could have been erased from his mind.

This book was amazing.  It has parts of magic and gay coming-of-age that I normally don't like reading about but I could not stop reading this book.  The imaginary past of an alternate England in the 1700s was somewhat difficult for me to grasp.  Fantasy is not a genre that I read and it took some getting used to.  The idea that you can have someone erase a traumatic memory is appealing to me.  If binders were real, I might visit one.  To be technical, The Binding seemed sort of the "don't ask, don't tell" scenario currently playing out in the U. S.  When parents have their kid's memories erased, they leave their children with a sense that they have done something wrong but cannot be absolved of their wrong-doing. This cannot be comfortable for those who have been bound.

4 out of 5 stars.

One by One

 

One by One is a modern locked room mystery, offering technology with old-fashioned suspense.  Locked room mysteries consist of a key set of ingredients: a fixed location, a fixed set of characters and a murder or two.  There is a striking aspect to this novel which I doubt the author intended as it must have been written before its 2020 publication date.  The characters, as well as the readers, are confined in isolation.  Sound like a pandemic? 

The publisher's summary of the plot:

"When the co-founder of Snoop, a trendy London based tech startup, organizes a weeklong trip for the team in the French Alps, it starts out as a corporate retreat like any other:  PowerPoint presentations and strategy sessions broken up by mandatory bonding on the slopes.  But as soon as one shareholder sends the agenda by pushing a lucrative but contentious buyout offer, tensions simmer and loyalties are tested. The storm brewing inside the chalet is no match for the one outside, however, and a devastating avalanche leaves the group cut off from all access to the outside world. Even worse, one Snooper hasn't made it back from the slopes when the avalanche hit.  As each hour cases without any sign of rescue, panic mounts, the chalet grows colder, and the group dwindles further . . . one by one."

I loved this book! There were a few hiccups, though. There are nine major characters in the novel.  Initially, it was hard to remember who was who. Once I got them all firmly set in my mind, I could not put the book down. The suspense was riveting. Another hiccup is that the story is told from the point of view of two characters. I could not tell the difference between them because their personalities were similar. I am not sure why the author wrote the story in this way but these points of view didn't make a difference in how the plot unfolded. However, the suspense was ratcheted up high and it carried the novel. 

I will definitely be reading more of Ware.  4 out of 5 stars.

Djinn Patrol on the Purple Line

Djinn Patrol on the Purple Line is Deepak Anappara's debut novel.  It concerns three friends who are searching for a missing classmate and is based on a real-life story.  The novel tells of children living in a slum in a fictional Indian city who are disappearing.

Nine-year-old Jai is upset that his best friend Bahadur has gone missing.  No one knew that Bahadur had gone missing until three weeks after he was last seen at home with his parents. His mother then contacted the police to find him.  Believing that Bahadur has run away from home, Jai gathers two other friends to help him find Bahadur. Pari and Faiz work with Jai and together they decide that a criminal called Quarter is their first suspect.  The threesome walk down market lanes, passing people, dogs, food stalls and tin-roofed houses all the way to the local train station, which is the end of the purple metro line where Jai's father works.  When the three kids are unable to find Quarter at his usual hangout, the Bhoot (ghost) Bazaar, they decide the next step is to interview the press-wallah's son Omvir.  However, Omvir is not home because he also is out searching for Bahadur.  The owner of Hakim's TV Repair Shop suggests that a djinn kidnapped Bahadur even though djinns rarely abduct children.  The trio go to the purple line train station and show passersby Bahadur's photo.  Jai uses the sleuthing skills he obtained from watching reality police shows on TV to conduct his investigation.  When other children start disappearing from their neighborhood, Jai, Pari and Faiz talk to the terrified parents and a couple of indifferent police officers all while discussing rumors of soul-snatching djinns. 

I had a hard time classifying this book in a genre. When I began reading it I thought it was a historical mystery. Later I realized it was not historical. What confused me was the level of impoverishment in Jai's basti (slum).  I couldn't imagine that type of poverty existed today. However, it does exist. In slums all over India 187 children disappear each day. This fact is what prompted the author to choose this subject for her novel. The next difficulty I had in determining the genre was that the book didn't read like a mystery. While Jai, Pari and Faiz were investigating the disappearance of their neighbors, they are kids and kids don't "investigate" the same way as amateur sleuths or detectives investigate. The point of view from which everything occurs is from nine year old Jai's eyes. In some respects it  seems like a children's book. How do I classify the book? As a novel. 

The slum setting is integral to the story. Part of this setting includes the names and faces of many characters, most of whom have nothing to do with the plot and some who are only mentioned once. The author is creating a scene for the reader to help us understand what a slum looks like; people living upon each other.  It is grim.  With the point of view being from a child, it was a little difficult to figure out who all the characters were because the kids gave everyone a nickname. Towards the end of the story we learn most of their real names but after 300 pages of identifying characters by a nickname this didn't make sense.

As the historical mystery that I expected, the book fell short. Knowing now what the genre actually is, I would say that this is a great book.  4 our of 5 stars.

The Glass Ocean

The Glass Ocean has a dual plot that takes place in 1915 and the present day. It concerns the sinking of the Lusitania and the British Langford family.  The story opens in May 2013 with author Sarah Blake struggling to come up with an idea for a new book. In desperation, she broke a promise to her Alzheimer stricken mother and opened an old chest that belonged to her great-grandfather who died when the RMS Lusitania was sunk by the Germans. What she discovered could change history. Sarah then traveled to England to  enlist the help of John Langford, a disgraced member of Parliament, whose family archives might contain the key to the catastrophe.

This plot alternates with one set in April 1915. Caroline Hochstetter believes that her marriage to Gilbert Hochstetter is on the rocks as Gilbert is no longer attentive to her. He is preoccupied with work. When Gilbert suggests that they travel to England in the best suite on the Lusitania, Caroline hopes that they can become closer. However, her attraction to old friend Robert Langford  becomes a problem when he also books passage on the ship.  Another character is part of this plot. Tessa Fairweather is also traveling on the Lusitania, but in second class. Tessa has been supporting herself for years by stealing and forging artworks. Tessa's sister plans a robbery on the ship that will financially set both of them up for life.

As a cruise fan, I loved the ship setting. It reminded me of the cruises that I have had and makes me dream of booking another trip even though we are living in a pandemic. The descriptions of the dinner menus and dining room made me drool. If only I could cook as well as the onboard chefs.  Also, the action that took place on the promenades had me remembering my own walks on those public places. 

The characters were fully developed and engaging. I loved the twosome thieves Tessa and her sister Ginny. They are experienced thieves who have never gotten caught in their decades of crime.  While we learn about Tessa's inner thoughts, Ginny is a mystery to the reader. She appears on pages where action is occurring and the plot is advanced as we learn bit by bit what their robbery plan is all about.  Gilbert Hochstetter is the stereotypical neglectful husband. We don't learn much about his psyche. What type of business he in is only revealed at the end. The reader knows alot more about Robert Langford. He is a suave, womanizing gentleman that all women are attracted to even though they all know he gets around.  His life also is revealed in action scenes as well as in the present day plot with Sarah Blake. I didn't like the Sarah or John Langford characters as much as I liked those in the 1915 plot. However, that probably can be expected in a novel with a dual plot. One of the plots is always more appealing.

I absolutely loved this novel. It has me dreaming of a Balticc Sea or South American cruise. 5 out of 5 stars.

Piece of my Heart

 

Piece Of My Heart is the 65th book that Mary Higgins Clark has written and the 6th with co-author Alafair Burke.  Since Clark died one year ago I assume that this is her last novel.  I haven't heard about any unpublished manuscripts from her.  The last novel that she wrote on her own was Kiss the Girls and Make Them Cry which was published in 2019.  I am going to miss her but all good things must come to an end.  She lived a great life and lived to a ripe 92 years of age.  

In Piece of My Heart TV producer Laurie Moran and her fiance Alex Buckley, criminal defense attorney and the former host of her investigative television show, are just days away from their August wedding when events take a dark turn.  While vacationing in the Hamptons with their family and friends, Alex's seven-year-old nephew Johnny vanishes from the beach while playing with Laurie's 10-year-old son Timmy.  The boys had been supervised by Laurie's babysitter and her girlfriend but an attractive lifeguard had caught their attention.  A search party begins and witnesses recall Johnny playing in the water and collecting sea shells behind a beach shack.  However, no one remembers seeing him after the morning.  As the sun sets, Johnny's skim board washes up to shore and everyone realizes that he could be dead.  When it appears that he was kidnapped, the question arises whether he was the actual target or was another boy the target. Laurie's father, a former NYPD officer, believes that the abduction could be related to a murder case that he handled eighteen years ago.  Laurie decides to do a show on that eighteen year old case and possibly connect it to Johnny's disappearance.

As you would expect from Mary Higgins Clark, this novel is suspense at its best.  Not only does each chapter end with suspense but so do the pages and paragraphs. I don't know anyone who can write suspense this well and it's a cliche to say that in her books there are lots of twists, turns and suspects to keep you reading. The characters were all compelling, even the villains.  The secondary characters had just as much prominence as the main characters, Laurie and Alex. Alex's brother and sister-in-law, Marcy and Andrew Buckley, were the parents of the missing child.  Laurie's father Leo Farley was also prominent as he was able to use his work in law enforcement to help Laurie investigate the crime. There were five additional characters who were possible villains and their backgrounds were fully developed by the authors.  On top of that there were three characters affiliated with the villains whose lives were interwoven into the story.  How all of these characters are connected is a mystery for the reader.

I am sad that this is my final review of Clark's novels.  Perhaps I should begin rereading them in the order of publication.  That would be fun and I know that I have only reviewed the last 10 of them so the reviews would be new.  5 out of 5 stars!

A Yellow House

It took me quite awhile to become interested in A Yellow House.  I did not know what the book was about before I began reading and could not see any plot.  All I saw was a whiny child protagonist with no friends who hated her life. After realizing that the book was about migrant domestic workers I became more interested in the story.  I believe, however, that the first third of the book could have been paced more quickly.

The publisher's summary:

"Ten-year-old Singaporean Maya is lonely:  her grandmother is dead, her mother is focused on her career and her best friend has become a bully.  When Aunty M, a domestic worker from Indonesia, joins the family to take care of Maya and her baby sister, Maya is ready to hate her. Aunty M smiles a lot, but says little.  However, after Aunty M rescues a fellow maid living in the same building and beaten by her employer, Maya discovers a side of Singapore hitherto unknown to her.  She and Aunty M grow closer as they meet more and more women in need. What will happen when Mama finds out about Maya and Aunty M's growing involvement with the aunties?  Will Maya lose Aunty M too?  After all, Mama did say she hates busybodies. This poignant coming-of-age story, told in the voice of the inquisitive Maya, explores the plight of migrant domestic workers in Singapore and the relationships they form with the families they work for."

Women will enjoy reading this sisterhood novel.  Almost all of the characters are female. Maya's father is the only man in the book and his role is limited. Maya's interest in the domestic workers was a hard sell for me. At first, I thought she was only interested in their stories because she was bored and had nothing else to do. Later it becomes clear that she is beginning to form opinions about the world. 

I am unsure what to think about the writing. In the beginning of the story many characters are being introduced with no serious connection with Maya. There wasn't much plot movement but this is a character driven novel. Unfortunately, that was not evident to me until the midway point and it affected my view of the book.  I did, however, expect a mystery of some sort to be solved. There is no mystery here. The author's intention in writing this novel was to highlight the lives of the workers.  Her bio states that she grew up as an expat child in Asia with migrant domestic workers hired to take care of her.  She did not realize at the time that these women left their home countries to work for her family.  Later in life she asked why and in 2012 she joined a charity that supports these workers in Singapore.  The stories that she heard were the inspiration for this book.  

3 out of 5 stars.

Death and the Maiden

Ariana Franklin's daughter Samantha Norman wrote this book. Franklin had no input in the writing. The book that Franklin was writing when she died in 2011 was The Siege Winter, which her daughter finished. Norman is a chip off the old block. Her writing is superb and as a lover of medieval mysteries I am glad that she wrote this final installment in Franklin's Mistress of the Art of Death series.  This historical mystery is set in Norman England during the year 1911.

With this installment of the series, Adelia Aguilar has just lost her friend and patron, King Henry II.  Adelia is living comfortably in retirement and training her 19 year old daughter Allie to carry on her healing craft.  Allie is already a skilled healer and has a particular gift for treating animals. Being of marriageable age, Allie's father, Rowley, the Bishop of St. Albans, and his patron, Queen Eleanor of Aquitaine, have plans to marry  Allie to an influential husband. 

When Adelia's lifelong friend in Cambridge, Gyltha, falls ill, Allie is sent to Ely to help her.  There she crosses paths with Lord Peveril, a young aristocrat who would make a most suitable match for Allie. However, when Allie arrives in Ely, all is chaos.  A village girl has disappeared and she is not the first.  Over the past few months, several girls from the villages surrounding Ely have vanished.  When the body of one is discovered, Allie manages to examine the remains before burial. The results lead her to suspect that a murderer is on the loose. The question remains, will Allie be able to help find the killer before becoming the next victim?

The period details of the era were beautifully described. One detail that I have never read about before was the level of power a bishop had over the communities he oversaw. In this case, an interdiction was issued that prevented a priest from performing mass, funerals and burials. Bodies that could not be buried were piling up outdoors with no where to be interred. The effect this had on individual people was aptly described; they were horrified.

The writing was good but there was one thing that bothered me. The murder to be investigated happened late in the story. While I was reading I was captivated by the background information but I kept expecting a crime to occur. It finally happened at the halfway point but, for me, the crime should occur early in the story. I prefer for it to be in the first two chapters but this doesn't always happen in a historical mystery.

4 out of 5 stars.

A Rising Man

Abir Mukherjee's first novel is a masterpiece. Taking place in the early 1900s Calcutta, a newly arrived Scotland Yard detective, Captain Sam Wyndham, is confronted with the murder of a British official. Desperately seeking a fresh start after his experiences during the Great War, Wyndham has been recruited to head up a new post in the police force. He is immediately overwhelmed by the heady vibrancy of the tropical city, but with barely a moment to acclimatize or to deal with the ghosts that still haunt him, Wyndham is caught up in a murder investigation that threatens to destabilize a city already teetering on the brink of political insurgency.

The body of a senior official has been found in a filthy sewer, and a note left in his mouth warns the British to quit India, or else. Under tremendous pressure to solve the case before it erupts into increased violence on the streets, Wyndham and his two new colleagues—arrogant Inspector Digby and Sergeant Banerjee, one of the few Indians to be recruited into the new CID—embark on an investigation that will take them from the opulent mansions of wealthy British traders to the seedy opium dens of the city.

I always love historical fiction set in India. This particular book focuses more on the local police department and its investigative methods than the usual partying done by the British. While I like those books too it was refreshing to read about a new aspect of life in India 100 years ago. The weather is a big issue for our detective. He has difficulty moving from a cold, rainy England to 110+ degrees India. It affects his ability to do his job and the author did a great job writing this setting into the story.

The men featured in the story were prominent characters. The women were important but the comeraderie, or lack thereof, among the men moved the plot forward.  Captain Wyndham cannot break through the tight group of male characters. He is considered persona non grata. Usually when a person lands themselves in India the British society welcomes that person with open arms. Wyndham's experience was atypical for the time period.

There is plenty of historical detail written into the story.  The characters need to navigate through a minefield of political pitfalls in order to do their jobs well. Wyndham and his Indian sidekick Surrender-Not Banerjee make a great crime fighting duo who can carry this fantastic new detective series forward. I am looking forward to reading the next book in the series.

5 out of 5 stars.

2021 Library Love Reading Challenge Sign-Up

I did well with the Library Love challenge this year even though my public library was closed for a few months due to the pandemic shutdown. The Chicago Public Library plans on staying open throughout 2021 so I will rejoin this reading challenge at the Library Card on Fire Level which requires that I read 60+ library books.  I know that this will be easy for me to complete and cannot wait to get started. The rules for the challenge are:

1.  The challenge runs from January 1, 2021 through December 31, 2021.

2.  Crossovers from other challenges are accepted.

3.  There is a 12 book minimum for the challenge.

4.  Any genre is accepted.

5.  All book formats are accepted.  This includes audio and ebooks.

6.  There is a Goodreads group for the challenge.

Join me in the Library Love Reading Challenge!