Viral

Viral is Robin Cook's 38th medical thriller and it is my favorite from among all of his books. The ending was unexpected and extremely satisfying that I am tempted to begin rereading it ASAP.  

The main character, Brian Murphy, and his wife and child travel to Cape Cod for a two week vacation. When wife Emma begins to get flu-like symptoms, they cut their vacation short and return to New York City after one week. On the drive home, Emma begins to convulse. When the family reaches their local hospital Emma is given a room in the ICU area. She is diagnosed with eastern equine encephalitis, a/k/a EEE. It is a rare and highly lethal mosquito-borne viral disease that she probably caught during one of their barbeques on the coast. To make matters worse, Brian and Emma's daughter Juliette begins to exhibit alarming physical and behavioral symptoms too.  Emma's hospital stay is rather expensive. When Brian receives a $221,000 bill that his insurer refuses to pay, citing dubious clauses in their health insurance policy, he decides to get to the bottom of the hospital's predatory billing practices.  

My love of the story is based on my own experience with encephalitis when I was 8 years old and my 35 year history dealing with insurance companies after a catastrophic injury in a car accident. The author gives us the basics on encephalitis, the treatment and etiology of which has changed drastically since I had it 55 years ago. I ended up googling it and discovered even more information that was geared to my experiences over all these years.  Cook is known for writing the etiology of whatever disease he writes about in his books. It becomes part of the plot action. Naturally, I was drawn to this particular story.  

The writing was superb. The pace was super fast because Brian needed to save the lives of his wife and child. The reader doesn't know how things will turn out, just that there is a sense of urgency. Brian had to fight this battle on three fronts:  the disease, the insurer and the hospital. I believe this alone will connect with every reader. All Americans have been put through the ringer with medical matters. The ending was quite different from what we have seen from Cook in the past. I won't elaborate, but I loved it!

Another aspect to the plot is how asian mosquitos came to be located on the U. S. eastern coast. This mosquito has a distinct look: 2 white dots on its wings. Climate change is the reason that this type of mosquito traveled from the tropics, where it is normally located, to the eastern coast of the United States. Later on in the story, the reader sees that this particular mosquito is somewhere else on the planet. I don't want to be a spoiler so I will leave it at that.

The hospital setting was where much of the action took place. Cook shows us what we are all familiar with: hours long waits in the emergency room, seemingly uncaring staff, and, of course, the nasty billing department who call you nonstop trying to collect. The plot goes into hospital billing practices that I was not aware of. It has made me determined to check my bills in the future now that I know how this system works.

I thought the characters were sympathetic.  We don't know much about Emma because she becomes ill early in the story. Daughter Juliette is four-years-old and cries constantly. She is catered to quite a bit. I can certainly feel for Brian. Having been through his circumstances more than once in my life, I felt his pain. His emotions ran high throughout the entire story. Although Brian is a problem solver by nature, he just cannot penetrate the medical system to resolve his issues. His line of thinking is insightful for anyone new to this experience. There are 4 other characters of note. His mother, mother-in-law, business assistant and a new friend named Jeanne all help him steer through the mess that healthcare is today. Jeanne, in particular, becomes a major part of the story. She is a child psychologist who lost her husband a year ago via the same situation that Brian now finds himself in.

Viral will make you read your insurance policy and search for medical billing advocates.  I loved it and rate it 5 out of 5 stars.

The Secret Keeper of Jaipur

The Secret Keeper of Jaipur is book two in the Jaipur trilogy by Alka Joshi. The trilogy began with The Henna Artist. The action in this story begins in Spring 1969 with heroine Lakshmi, now married to Dr.Jay Kumar, directing the Healing Garden of Shimla. Her protege Malik has just finished his private school education and at age 20 he has also just met a young mother named Nimmi and has fallen in love with her. When Malik travels to Jaipur to be an apprentice at the Facilities Office of the Jaipur Royal Palace in order to work on a state of the art cinema, he must separate from Nimmi. Malik soon finds that not much has changed in Jaipur since his last visit during his childhood. Power and money still hold sway and favors flow from the Palace, but only if certain secrets remain buried. When the cinema's balcony collapses on opening night, blame is placed where it is convenient. Malik, however, suspects something far darker is hovering over the city and sets out to uncover the truth. 

I LOVED this book!  In my mind, you can't get a better book than an Indian fiction novel. Malik is featured more prominently than Lakshmi in this installment of the trilogy. It's not that Lakshmi doesn't get a good amount of pages, it's just that Malik is the person solving the crime in the story. Of course, I loved everything about the Shimla and Jaipur settings. These two cities are complete opposites. Shimla is in the mountains and the weather is cool most of the time. Jaipur instead is excruciatingly hot. Wherever the characters are located, the reader is treated to the Indian culture. While I am sure that poor Indians who had labor intensive jobs were not as thrilled with their lot as the wealthy folks, I have romanticized this servant/master relationship. It seems dreamy to have someone always available to get you a cool drink or cook a meal when you come home. Most writers of Indian fiction show the servants as happy and agreeable but I know this must be a fallacy. 

We learn alot about the Nimma character. When she is introduced to Lakshmi she is described as having dark skin with rough hands and wearing cheap clothing. Nimma hails from a tribe that roams the mountains shepherding sheep. The women in the tribe had other duties and Nimma's was to gather flowers and herbs for healing. While her personality is quite different from Lakshmi, both women look for flowers and shrubs that can be used in healing. Lakshmi knows more about the flowers that she can find in the Jaipur area and Nimma knows more about those that can be found in the mountains. They make an ideal pair for Lakshmi's healing garden. 

Much is written about family here. Malik has no idea who his parents are or even when he was born. He was a street child who did odd jobs for Lakshmi before she brought him in to her home and raised him. He has no biological family to speak of. Lakshmi only has one sister whom she also raised but Radha has moved to Paris. Nimma is a widow with two kids. Emphasis is placed in the story on finding friends who become a substitute for family. These ties are bound just as tight as to those whom you are biologically related.

The Secret Keeper of Jaipur is a fantastic read. Historical fiction fans are going to want to read it. 5 out of 5 stars.

Dear Abigail

Dear Abigail is a biography of Abigail Adams and her two sisters. The author reviewed correspondence between them to paint a picture of their lives.  Given that they lived during the American Revolution their stories are important to our American history. Their letters are a snapshot of what life was like in colonial times.

The sisters were the daughters of a poor Congregational minister and his wealthy wife. Their correspondence began when the oldest, Mary, married and left the family home. Abigail was the next to marry but Betsy was much younger than them and didn't leave the house until her parents had passed. By that time Mary and Abigail had been married approximately 17 years already. Their letters to each other were frequent. The discussed their pregnancies, children, husbands, social lives as well as their political ideas. All supported freedom from England and were advocates for educational equality of the sexes. 

Much has been written over the years about Abigail's suggestion that her husband "remember the ladies" when he was involved with the writing of the Constitution. Current thought is that she was a feminist seeking complete equality of the sexes. Nothing could be further from the truth. During this era, women were so subjected to men that they would not have even been able to think about becoming equal to men. However, they desired to be educated in the same manner as the men were educated. They were successful in this endeavor. Educational equality was granted at the end of the Revolutionary War. The men agreed to this because they believed that their children would be educated well if their mothers were educated well.

The book covers the lives of the sisters from 1766 until 1801. Abigail's letters were, naturally, more prominent as she was the wife of our second president John Adams. All three of the sisters, though, led lives that were progressive for the era. Mary was basically in charge of running her village and Betsey co-founded a school that taught both girls and boys. 

Two interesting facts emerged from Abigail's letters. During Washington's presidency he left Philadelphia where the new nation was based to stay in Haverhill where Elizabeth lived. People came out in one of our coldest winters to hear him speak. They all got sick and their ailment was commonly known as the "Washington Cold." Also, when the new Executive Mansion was built there was an oval room constructed on the second floor. It was built in reverence for George Washington. When Washington lived in Philadelphia during his term in office he had an oval room in his home. It was his favorite room. We now call this oval room the "yellow oval room" in the White House. I am presuming that the Oval Office in the West Wing where modern presidents work was also constructed out of reverence for our first president.

When I picked up this book I knew I would relish the history within its pages. I read slowly to savor the words and I was not disappointed. I highly recommend it. 5 out of 5 stars!

The Night Gate

The Night Gate is the final installment of Peter May's The Enzo Files series.  I have loved this series since it began and hate to see it end but I understand that authors need variety in their writing to keep it crisp. 

The publisher's summary:

"In a sleepy French village, the body of a man shot through the head is disinterred by the roots of a fallen tree.  A week later a famous art critic is viciously murdered in a nearby house.  The deaths occurred more than seventy years apart.  Asked by a colleague to inspect the site of the former, forensics expert Enzo MacLeod quickly finds himself embroiled in the investigation of the latter.  Two extraordinary narratives are set in train - one historical, unfolding in the treacherous wartime years of Occupied France; the other contemporary, set in the autumn of 2020 as France re-enters Covid lockdown. 

Tasked by the exiled General Charles de Gaulle to keep the world's most famous painting out of Nazi hands after the fall of France in 1940, 28-year-old Georgette Signal finds herself swept along by the tide of history.  Following in the wake of DaVinci's Mona Lisa as it is moved from chateau to chateau by the Louvre, she finds herself just one step ahead of two German art experts sent to steal it for rival patrons - Hitler and Goring. What none of them know is that the Louvre itself has taken exceptional measures to keep the painting safe, unwittingly setting in train a fatal sequence of events extending over seven decades.

The Night Gate spans three generations, taking us from war-torn London, the Outer Hebrides of Scotland, Berlin and Vichy France, to the deadly enemy facing the world in 2020."

I was disappointed in this novel.  There were many passages of writing that were not central to the solving of the crime.  For instance, there was a 40 page section on the military training of women who were going to be dropped into Nazi held France. In addition, the relationship of the characters who were mentioned in the beginning of the book was not explained.  I knew from past books in the series that they were related but could not remember exactly how.  I think the author should have explained who the characters were and what made them tick. There was no development of the characters during the story either so I expected a tighter plot.  I got neither.  As far as the settings descriptions are concerned, I did not feel that I was in Scotland, London, France or Berlin. In the earlier books in the series you could see the Scottish Enzo's semi-assimilation in France where he lived.

What a disappointing end to a great series.  2 out of 5 stars.

The Bombay Prince

The Bombay Prince is the third Perveen Mistry historical fiction novel by Sujata Massey. Perveen is the first female solicitor in India and works in her father's law firm in Bombay. This installment of the series takes place in November 1921. Edward VIII, the Prince of Wales and future ruler of India, has just arrived in Bombay for a four month tour of India.

There is local unrest over the royal's visit which quickly spirals into rioting. Perveen Mistry, though, is angered by the death of Freny Cuttingmaster, an eighteen-year-old female college student who has fallen from a second story gallery just as the prince's procession was passing by her college. Freny had visited Perveen two days before asking for legal advice on whether to steer clear of the prince's procession. Every student and teacher at the college were required to attend the procession. To avoid the celebration meant risking expulsion from the school. Freny was a member of the Student Union Club which advocated for eschewing the prince's visit. Independence was the divisive issue here. Some people wanted independence and others didn't. Perveen felt guilty for failing to assist Freny and decides to assist her parents in their dealings with the coroner. When her death is ruled a homicide at the coroner's inquest, Perveen and her father work to see justice done. However, Bombay seems to be erupting as armed British soldiers march in the streets, rioters attack anyone perceived to have British connections and desperate shopkeepers destroy their own wares so they will not be targets of racial violence.

What a wonderful story! I read this novel in one sitting while in the park on a sunny summer day. It was a sweet experience. The plot is intricate yet fast paced. I would say that this installment of the series is a historical thriller, not just a historical mystery, and it is the best novel in the series to date. The writing was tight for a historical novel with the author weaving in historical details and background information without the use of narrative. 

The Bombay setting was described in detail. The reader can feel the tension among the Indians to the Prince's visit as well as their fear of being arrested by the British. With insightful dialogue we read what it felt like to live through the riots and how the city residents dealt with their conflicted feelings concerning independence. Bombay had residents who were Indians, British, Anglo Indians and also Hindus, Muslims, Buddhists, Sikhs, Parsi and Christians. Their ability to coexist is a prominent feature although the thin veneer of silence among the groups is sometimes interrupted. 

This is a must read.  10 out of 5 stars!

The Perfect Daughter

The Perfect Daughter is the perfect thriller.  It is a murder, medical and legal mystery with a psychiatric twist. It begins with sixteen-year-old Penny Francone being arrested for the murder of her biological mother. She was found by the police at the crime scene covered in the victim's blood and holding the murder weapon, a knife. To the police, this is an open and shut case and a jury only has to decide whether Penny will spend the rest of her life in prison or in a mental hospital. As Penny awaits trial in the Massachusetts state mental hospital, she is being treated by Dr. Mitchell McHugh, a psychiatrist battling demons of his own concerning his son's drug addiction. McHugh is not sure that Penny really has dissociative identity disorder, a/k/a multiple personality disorder. His testimony concerning her illness will either make or break Penny's defense. Her attorney plans on defending her with a not guilty by reason of insanity defense. Penny's adoptive mother, Grace Francone, believes her daughter is innocent. One of Penny's identities is Eve, a cold woman who she believes is capable of murder.  Penny is a quiet, polite teen. Her other identities include Ruby, a British girl, and Chloe.

We learn alot about dissociative identity disorder (DID). It was quite interesting to read how Penny's doctor planned on figuring out whether Penny had DID or was fooling everyone. His approach was revealing. Before reading the book I did not know how psychiatrists made this diagnosis. Another big part of the novel was Penny's legal defense. The reader learns the requirements of the law in an insanity defense, particularly with a defendant with DID. Penny's lawyer knows what he has to prove and much of the evidence he needs will come from Dr. McHugh. Penny, herself, is not sure whether she committed the crime. The novel is also a classic murder mystery. When Penny's adoptive mother, physician and attorney delve into her past before she was adopted, the reader is treated to an intricate plot that assumes, falsely, Penny had a good reason to kill her biological mother. Without reading the book, you won't know why or how this could have happened. I don't want to be a spoiler so I won't go any further here. However, I will say that there is a surprising ending.

I highly recommend The Perfect Daughter to mystery lovers.  5 out of 5 stars. 

Credo

Credo is a graphic biography of Rose Wilder Lane. I thought it would be about a suffragette but Rose Wilder Lane is the daughter of Laura Ingalls Wilder. Wilder wrote the Little House on the Prairie books. I was not aware that she wrote these books with her daughter making huge edits. The books were written mainly by Lane but the ideas for the stories came from Wilder. 

Lane was an accomplished 20th century writer, feminist, war correspondent, and one of the  founders of the Libertarian Party in the U. S.  She was anti-government and anti-marriage and did not believe that gender should hold anyone back from experiencing all that the world has to offer.  Lane was one of the highest paid female writers in America, traveling all over the world in search of a story.  She even traveled to Korea and Vietnam to cover those wars for the newspapers that she wrote for.  However, she is mainly known as being the daughter of Laura Ingalls Wilder.  There are several different opinions on how much Lane contributed to the Little House books but the original manuscripts have survived and there is no doubt that Wilder did not know how to write.  Lane rewrote the stories so that they were readable.  What most people do not know is that she wrote biographies and fiction on her own. 

I thoroughly enjoyed the book and read it twice in succession.  It is amazing to me that she was friends with President Herbert Hoover, writer Dorothy Johnson and Johnson's husband Sinclair Lewis.  With these people as friends, I would expect that Lane's name would be easily recognizable.  Unfortunately, it isn't.  She was lucky in her career, raising the glass ceiling for women in succeeding generations.  Her credo was an article she wrote concerning her political opinions.  It was marketed as her credo, hence the name of the book.

Credo was a great history lesson for me and I highly recommend the book.  5 out of 5 stars.

Midnight Fire

Midnight Fire is the second book in the Jagiellon Mystery Series by P. K. Adams. I love that it takes place in Poland and Lithuania. It seems that most historical fiction novels are set in England and France so this series is a breath of fresh air. The story begins in the summer of 1545 with Caterina Sanseverino Konarska traveling with her ailing son Guilio from their home in Bari, Italy to Krakow. Guilio suffers from mysterious fevers that have stunted his growth. Caterina hopes to see Queen Bona again so that she can ask her if Guilio can see a court physician. Caterina had initially traveled with Bona Sforza to Poland when she was engaged to marry King Zigmunt. That story is told in book one of the series Silent Water. Now the king lies on his deathbed and the court no longer seems the lively, cultured place that she remembered 25 years ago. After meeting Queen Bona, Caterina is allowed to travel to Vilnius where the best court physician is on hand in case crown prince Zigmunt August needs him. However, Bona asks Caterina a favor. Can she dissuade the crown prince from marrying a scandal ridden mistress, Barbara Radziwill? For the sake of her son, Caterina agrees but she soon discovers that Zigmunt August will listen to no one, especially when it comes to his mistress. When a murder shakes the Vilnius court, the crown prince immediately suspects his mother's agents. Caterina is thrust again into another investigation. However, she realizes that in trying to clear the queen's name, she has placed herself and her son in danger.

I LOVED this book! It was a perfect read, with great characters, a fast pace, and a great plot. Caterina's sleuthing skills are solid and she is able to use her position at court to advance her investigation. There were two settings here, the Krakow court and the Vilnius court. Both were  built with extravagant furnishings and I loved reading about the palaces and the clothing that the ladies wore. I learned about the Turkish baths that women, as well as men, visited.  I was not aware that women frequented these establishments nor that there were even co-ed baths. The novel is also a well crafted murder mystery that follows the mystery formula flawlessly. If there is anything negative to say about Midnight Fire it is that the first murder does not happen until after I had read a third of the book. This is not really a bad thing as I was captivated by the story up until that point and the story continued to be smooth reading. However, learning that the plot was more than Caterina helping her son and Queen Bona was a little jarring.

If you would like to be transported to a 16th century royal court, Midnight Fire will not disappoint.  The culture of a country not written about before in historical fiction will be enlightening as well.  5 out of 5 stars.

Portrait of Peril

Portrait of Peril is the fifth book in Laura Joh Rowland's Victorian Mysteries.  She previously wrote the Sano Ichero series set in 17th century Japan.  This is the first book in the new series that I have read and I had a little trouble understanding the relationships between the characters.  It probably would have been best if I read the books in order.

The publisher's summary:

"Victorian London is a city gripped by belief in the supernatural - but a grisly murder becomes a matter of flesh and blood for intrepid photographer Sarah Bain.

London, October 1890.  Crime scene photographer Sarah Bain is overjoyed to marry her beloved Detective Sergeant Barrett - but the wedding takes a sinister turn when the body of a stabbing victim is discovered in the crypt of the church.  Not every newlywed couple begins their marriage with a murder investigation, but Sarah and Barrett, along with their friends Lord Hugh Staunton and Mick O'Reilly, take the case.  

The dead man is Charles Firth, whose profession is "spirit photography" - photographing the ghosts of the deceased.  When Sarah develops the photographs he took in the church, she discovers one with a pale, blurred figure attacking the victim.  The city's spiritualist community believes the church is haunted and the figure is a ghost. But Sarah is a skeptic, and she and her friends soon learn that the victim had plenty of enemies in the human world - including a scientist who studies supernatural phenomena, his psychic daughter, and an heiress on a campaign to debunk spiritualism and expose fraudulent mediums.

In the tunnels beneath a demolished jail, a ghost-hunting expedition ends with a new murder, and new suspects. While Sarah searches for the truth about both crimes, she travels a dark, twisted path into her own family's sordid history.  Her long lost father is he prime suspect in a cold case murder, and her reunion with him proves that even the most determined skeptic can be haunted by ghosts from the past."

I had some difficulties with the book. While it is plausible for a husband and wife detective/photographer team to investigate crimes, wife Sarah is doing most of the sleuthing.  Thomas Barrett's role is secondary. Since Sarah is a crime scene photographer for a newspaper, I would expect that her role would either be complementary or equal to her husband's role. Her role did not seem natural to me. Also, I could not believe that both Sarah and Thomas left their wedding ceremony to look into the discovery of a dead body. I can see Thomas doing some investigating since his job is a police detective but I cannot see him giving up attending his wedding breakfast and falling asleep before the marriage could be consummated. It was also hard to believe that Sarah did any investigating at all on her wedding day. She is just a newspaper photographer and has no real purpose in investigating the crime at this early stage. In addition, it was not believable that the married couple would live apart, especially Sarah's living arrangements with another man.  

The solving of the crime was interesting. The reader learns about spirit photographers, something I had never heard of before. The supernatural was not a part of the book, just the history about this common career in Victorian times. There were societies both in favor of this medium as well as opposed to it. The reader learns how these groups operated and the reasons for their beliefs. The subplot concerning Sarah's father seemed a little too farfetched given everything else that was happening. I think the author should have focused on one or two aspects of spirit photography for the plot and left the rest out or wrote it as narrative. However, the whodunnit was shocking as well as the reason for the killings.

3 out of 5 stars.

America's First Daughter

America's First Daughter is a well researched historical novel on the life of Thomas Jefferson's daughter Martha "Patsy" Jefferson Randolph. Patsy has to deal with the knowledge that her father loves his country more than he loves his family.  When her mother dies, she rises to the challenge and becomes Jefferson's constant companion and helper.  She even travels with him to France when he is appointed as America's minister to France.  While they are in Paris, Patsy first learns about her father's affair with a slave named Sally Hemings who is the same age as Patsy. Both are fifteen-years-old. She loves appearing at French royal court functions where the dresses, food and atmosphere captivate her.  Here, Patsy falls in love with one of her father's assistants, William Short. Short is an ardent abolitionist and has high ambitions for his political career. Patsy has a dilemma to resolve. Should she follow her heart and marry Short or continue as a devoted assistant to her father? Patsy chooses her father in this impressive historical biography and marries an American instead.

A french royal court setting is always going to be alluring for me. I just love reading descriptions of the food and dresses that the ladies wore. Post-revolution America is not as enticing but the author has written into the plot several controversial topics of the time, some of which I never heard of before and they were quite interesting. The women in the novel had to exert their power indirectly as the men had the real power in the nation and in their homes.  While I know that this just reflected the times, I hate reading about women having to live this way. 

I knew nothing about Jefferson's daughter before reading this book.  She certainly was a plucky character. Patsy's life story included running from the British during the Revolutionary War, handling many of her father's business affairs, helping him run the White House while he was president and, of course, giving birth to eleven kids after her marriage to her American cousin. I imagine that many women of this era had similar life stories to tell and I wish that I could find these stories.  Alas, they were not written down unless they were members of famous families.

The authors also wrote a historical biography of Alexander Hamilton's wife Eliza.  I loved that novel too and hope that this writing duo continues to write about the ladies of our American revolution.  5 out of 5 stars.

Botany For The Artist

Botany for the Artist is a guide to drawing plants. I found this book at my local public library and thought that it would help me in my botanical colored pencil drawings.  It definitely has helped me, mainly to see and observe the structures of the plants that I am drawing.

The book is divided into sections based on the parts of plants. There are chapters on drawing roots, stems, leaves, flowers and fruit.  As is usual with these types of guide books the author has three introductory chapters on materials an artist can use, color theory, drawing from life and from photographs and the basic forms from which plants can be drawn. While there are color plates of completed drawings, there are more black and white drawings and they show the structures in more detail. Much seems to be lost when an artist uses color. Each chapter has a drawing class and a master class that the reader can follow to help them create more authentic drawings. 

I had never given much thought before to the roots of plants. Seeing how they work, develop and spread only enhances the rest of the plants look in a drawing. How the root spreads changes what the rest of the plant looks like.  At the end of the roots chapter there is a drawing class section that shows the artist how to use the negative space and create volume.

I have always thought that the stems and leaves in my drawings were pretty good. However, seeing microscopic photos of them shows that there are underlying colors present in them.  I never noticed this before and I should probably be doing more layering of color to produce an accurate rendition of the plants. There are many forms of leaves shown in black and white drawings that I was not aware of and adding these to my drawings will enhance the diversity of my plant subjects.  Seeing these drawings brings out my creativity and I want to get out my pencils and start drawing. 

Botany For The Artist is a fantastic guide for the botanical artist. 5 out of 5 stars.

Beneath an Indian Sky

Beneath an Indian Sky is a historical fiction novel about a grandmother and her granddaughter.  The plots alternate between 1928 India, when Sita marries a crown prince and 2000, when her granddaughter Priya gets divorced from her husband of 11 years. 

The publisher's summary:

1928:  In British-ruled India, headstrong Sita longs to choose her own path, but her only destiny is a good marriage. After a chance meeting with a Crown Prince leads to a match, her family's status seems secured and she moves into the palace, where peacocks fill the gardens and tapestries adorn the walls.  But royal life is far from simple, and her failure to provide an heir makes her position fragile. Soon Sita is on the brink of losing everything, and the only way to save herself could mean betraying her oldest friend.

2000:  When Priya's marriage ends in heartbreak, she flees home to India and the palace where her grandmother, Sita, once reigned as Queen.  But as grandmother and granddaughter grow closer, Priya has questions.  Why is Sita so reluctant to accept her royal status ended with independence?  And who is the mysterious woman who waits patiently at the palace gates day after day?  Soon Priya uncovers a secret Sita has kept for years - and will change the shape of her life forever.

I have always loved India as a setting for books. It's tea scented air seems enchanting to me and the landscaping is beautiful. The nice hot weather is appealing to someone, such as myself, who has to deal with -20 degree weather every winter. In this novel much of the setting is the royal palace with its opulent rooms and furniture. Each room that Sita moves through is more exotic than the first. The palace even has its own zoo and Sita particularly loves the cheetahs. 

The characters are captivating and the reader gets to see Sita living the good life and her old friend Mary has to deal with many adversities.  While this is technically a book with alternating plots from Sita and Priya's point of view, it really has 3 alternating plots. The third plot is Mary's story, however, most of this book is about Sita and she is the most interesting character of the three.  Sita is unusual as she is both the main character and the villain. Mary is a supporting character but is also a foil for Sita's character.  In the end, Mary turns out to be the heroine of the novel. How the two of them change over the years and why is the basis for this sensational plot. Also, there is a shocking twist toward the end that genuinely surprised me. 

Beneath an Indian Sky is a must read for historical fiction fans.  I rate it 5 out of 5 stars!

My Dear Hamilton

My Dear Hamilton is the story of Alexander Hamilton's wife Eliza Hamilton, from her coming of age to the end of her life.  Eliza, known as Betsy by her family, grew up in Revolutionary New York as the daughter of an army general, Philip Schuyler.  She is a champion of independence and when she meets George Washington's aide, Alexander Hamilton, she is captivated by his charisma and brilliant intellect. They soon fall in love and marry, despite Hamilton's bastard birth and the uncertainties of the war.  Their marriage and the new American nation are far from perfect. The Hamiltons are at the center of the glittery inaugural balls and the bloody street riots as well as the nation's first sex scandal, which forces Eliza to struggle through heartbreak and betrayal to find forgiveness. When her husband dies in a duel, Eliza fights her husband's enemies in order to preserve his legacy. However, long buried secrets threaten everything that Eliza believes about her marriage and her own legacy.  She tries to understand the flawed man that she married and the imperfect union he never could have created without her.

I loved this novel. I did not know much about Alexander Hamilton before reading this book and learned a substantial amount of information about him.  While I always thought myself to be an expert on the founding of the U. S., I also learned a considerable number of facts about the founding of it's government.  Hamilton and how the emerging nation was formed go hand in hand.  We simply could not have done it without him.

The writing here is fluid, making this a fast read. The "characters" were all people in real-life and I don't think that any author could have created such characters on their own.  The strengths and flaws of each person probably would not have been combined in a made up character as they do not seem to go well together.  However, in this novel the author did not have to worry about that.  In addition, we don't usually see how our first 5 presidents interacted with one another during both the Revolutionary War and its aftermath.  This was fascinating to me.  I have never read anything like this before.  Another interesting fact was that Mrs. Hamilton kew Congressman Abe Lincoln.  I never considered Lincoln to be a contemporary of our founding fathers and mothers but as their careers were ending, Lincoln's was beginning.

My Dear Hamilton is a fantastic historical novel and I cannot recommend it more highly.  5 out of 5 stars.

Idle Days

Idle Days is the story of Jerome Beauvais, a deserter from the Canadian Forces during WWII. After his defection his mother sends him to live with his grandfather in a remote house in the woods. Jerome is helping his grandfather renovate the house. After learning that the prior owner killed herself and set fire to the place, Jerome sets out to learn all that he can about the history of the home.  While Jerome works on the house, he feels more and more isolated. He has to remain hidden from the neighbors lest he be discovered. There are posters around town offering a cash reward for turning in deserters. Listening to the radio daily with his grandfather, Jerome's ghosts from combat appear and haunt his thoughts. 

Idle Days is an engaging story.  The reader can feel Jerome's pain but I could not help but dislike him. Because he was serving in WWII, a war much more important than Vietnam, Korea and some others, I did not like that he deserted his post. WWII was a war over the continuation of life as we knew it. No one should have declined to serve. Including women. That said, this is a well told story. Many of the comic book panels did not have dialogue and it was easy to "read" what was the meaning contained in them. The dialogue itself presented Jerome's inner thoughts ably. Although Jerome's conversation with his grandfather was stilted, I thought that the combination of their dialogue with the illustrations was executed skillfully.

The artwork was drawn in comic book panels and colored in deep dark oranges, reds and browns. I presume that  illustrator Simon Leclerc used this pallette to enhance the sense of isolation that Jerome was feeling. Even when Jerome was walking in the open forest, he felt the confinement of the darkness in the forest during the rare evenings when he left the cabin.  

  

Idle Days is a fantastic graphic novel.  I highly recommend it to comic book fans. 5 out of 5 stars.

The Guest List

The Guest List is a novel about the wedding of Jules and Will on a remote Irish island. The festivities are taking place at The Folly, a restored fifteenth century building. All of the characters are in the bridal party. None of the actual guests are part of the plot. We have Aoife, the wedding planner, Johnno, the best man, Olivia, sister of the bride, Charlie, the man of honor for the bride, Charlie's wife Hannah, and ushers Duncan, Pete, Femi, and Angus.  The ushers met the groom whe they were in school at Treveyllen's. The story takes place on the day before the wedding, the day of the wedding and the night of the wedding. 

The story is told from several points of view. We hear from Jules, Will, Johnny, Aoife, Olivia and Hannah, who is Charlie's wife. All of these characters have secrets with another character. No one knows all of the secrets. How they are related becomes aware as each character tells their story. 

I tend to like novels with alternate stories but this one had too many. Usually there are only two alternate storylines. We have six here. It was difficult to follow but, more importantly, it was a little dull. The last thirty pages show how all of the character's lives intersect and there is  a shocking conclusion. However,getting there did not make much sense. There were so many main characters that none of them seemed appealing to me. I think the author had a difficult time with the plot because she showcased six people at the same level. 

Not my best read. 2 out of 5 stars.

The Marriage Clock

The Marriage Clock is a delightful modern day story about a South Indian American Muslim woman living in Los Angeles. Leila Abid is a 26 year old single woman who teaches high school English. Her parents are mortified that she has not gotten married yet and begin to search for a husband for her. Leila, though, wants to find a husband on her own.  She does not want an arranged marriage.

Leila discusses her predicament with close friends Tania, Annie, Liv and Hannah. Tania, a divorced Muslim, is the only friend who agrees with Leila that she should not accept an arranged marriage.  Tania had a bad experience with hers. Leila's other friends offer suggestions on how to find a man such as online and speed dating. With her parents setting up family dinners with prospects from her mother's portfolio, Leila agrees to an arranged marriage but only after she has had three months to do her own search. The marriage clock is ticking for Leila.

This story showcases Leila's internal musings over her self worth as a female.  Indian women are taught from birth their only value is from marrying well. A doctor or engineer is the preferred career for a prospective husband. Leila, though, grew up in Los Angeles and has American ideals concerning marriage. While she is a Muslim, her parents had a semi-traditional home. These two factors contribute to Leila's predicament.

I loved this novel and highly recommend it. 5 out of 5 stars.

The Henna Artist

The Henna Artist is a captivating story about a businesswoman in 1950s India. Our heroine, Lakshmi Shastra, is a thirty-year-old henna artist who lives in the pink city of Jaipur. She has left her husband because he frequently beat her and she has since built up a nice business drawing her original henna designs on the wealthy women of Jaipur. She has become the confidante of many of the ladies and must tread carefully in order to hide her own secret that she left her husband. One day her husband Hari shows up with a dirty young girl wearing rags. Hari wants money from Lakshmi for bringing her younger sister to her. Lakshmi did not know that her mother had another child after Lakshmi married and left her parent's home. However, she gives Hari some money and takes the girl in. 

I read several reviews of the book before writing mine and was surprised that many focused on abortion. Some of them gave a poor review because abortion was part of the story. I didn't even remember this part of the book as I began to compose my summary of the book. It was not central to the plot. Lakshmi uses herbs to heal people from whatever ails them. It is a skill she learned from her mother. Part of her herbal remedies includes a herbal drink that will cause a spontaneous abortion.  She also had a concoction that aided conception but other reviewers focused on abortion. In 1955 India when the story takes place it would not have been unusual for a pregnant woman to seek out someone with these skills. I think it is realistic to have a character perform this service for her community. It does not offend me that it happened. It is history.

That said, the novel has plenty of historical detail. The author lavishly describes the clothing, food, and atmosphere of India.  The reader learns what it feels like to ride in a rickshaw, visit the noisy street markets, have an arranged marriage, as well as seeing how the division of the upper castes and lower castes affects the daily lives of the characters. I particularly loved reading about the bright colors of the saris that the women wore. The artistry of Lakshmi's henna designs was vividly illustrated, another aspect of the novel I relished.

I loved this novel. I can highly recommend it but if you do not want to read about an abortion provider, you will want to skip this one. 5 out of 5 stars.

The Moonlight Child

The Moonlight Child is a riveting suspense novel. It is intense and will keep you up all night reading. The story begins with Sharon Lemke heading outside her home to see a lunar eclipse on a cold January night. While outside, she notices something odd at the house behind her backyard. Through her neighbor's window, she sees a little girl washing dishes late at night. However, the Fleming family does not have a child that age, and even if they did, why would she be doing dishes at such a late hour? Sharon could not let go of her concerns over the child. When eighteen-year-old Niki, a former foster child, comes to live with Sharon, she too notices suspicious activity at the Fleming house.  When they call child protective services, a short interview is conducted at the Fleming home.  Because nothing more was going to be done with the Flemings, Sharon and Niki decide to investigate on their own.

This book takes spying on the neighbors to the ultimate degree. The back and forth nastiness between neighbors Sharon Lemke and Suzette Fleming provides much of the suspense in the novel.  Every bad deed deserves another.  Right?  The book begins with Sharon googling her neighbors after she took that photo of the child washing dishes at 11 pm.  She finds out their names, the name of their son, what they paid for their home, what the husband does for a living and their prior addresses.  All of the characters have dramatic life stories and secrets that enhance the suspense and I would have to say that this book has one of the best suspense plots that I have ever read. 

The characters reside in a small town. Usually everyone in a small town knows everyone else's business.  When you grow up in a small town you know that someone is always watching you and talking about you.  While you may have only a nodding acquaintance with someone, if you have a car accident everyone will know in a matter of hours.  As a contrast, when the Flemings moved in six months ago, they were secretive and did not associate with their neighbors.  Suzette only became friends with those who could help her maintain a philanthropic reputation. She is a great villain!

The Moonlight Child is one of my favorite books of the year. I highly recommend it. 5 out of 5 stars.

Murder in Venice

Murder in Venice is a historical mystery that takes place in Venice in 1752.  High magistrate Marco Pisani is tasked with investigating the grisly murder of a man found strangled in a dark alley. When two more bodies are discovered, it is clear there is a serial killer on the loose.  Helped in his investigation by lawyer Zen, daring gondolier Nani and the cunning Chiara Renier, Pisani is determined to uncover the truth before the murderer strikes again.  In order to find answers, he must move among the city's criminal underworld of spies, shady taverns and gambling halls.  When the innocence of the victims is called into question, the case is turned on its head.  For the first time in his career, the principled Pisani has to ask himself what is more important: following the letter of the law or pursuing justice?

I am so glad that this story is going to be a series. The Pisani, Nani and Chiara characters work well together and I would hate not to read about them in the future.  They are a marvelous team of investigators. The secondary characters were interesting as well.  The first person to be arrested for the murder is Tommaso Grassino, a/k/a Maso, and he is Chiara's apprentice.  He is quickly let go after the other murders occur. The first person to be killed, Marino Barbaro, is an impoverished noble who cannot stop gambling his money away.  His business dealings are suspicious and are subject to Pisani's investigation as well. Several other noble families were prominent in the story and it was interesting to read about their power, businesses and foibles.  The lives of their servants were also chronicled and the lack of influence of these characters revealed even more about the Venetian power structure.

The Venetian setting is charming.  If you have ever been to Venice you will recognize the street and place names.  You will also know how far it is for the characters to go from point A to point B.  The descriptions of the markets and foods served at parties always captivates me and I cannot get enough of novels set in Venice.  The grand palaces that the nobles lived in contrasted with the tenements that their servants resided in.  I was surprised to read that there were slum areas of this great city. It as always seemed golden to me.

Marco Pisani was methodical in his solving of the murders.  As an avogadro (magistrate) he was in charge of the investigation.  His gondolier Nani was meticulous in garnering information for Pisani.  Since he was not a noble, people felt more free to talk with him concerning what they knew about the suspects and their businesses.  Chiara did not become a part of this team until the latter third of the novel.  What she was able to reveal about the murders through clairvoyance was confirmed by Pisani as he carried on with his investigation. 

I loved this novel and cannot wait for installment #2 to be published.  Since the author is Italian, her books need to be translated into English and that takes time.  5 out of 5 stars.

Honolulu

I cannot wait to retire to Hawaii. It has been my dream for over thirty years and since I can't be there for another year, reading about my favorite state is the next best thing. This book  follows an earlier book published by the author called Moloka'i. I don't know why I decided to read Honolulu first. It just happened. Honolulu is about a young bride who emigrates from Korea to Honolulu in 1914 and lives through the city's rise from a ramshackle town to a great modern city.

The publisher's summary:

"In Korea in those days, newborn girls were not deemed important enough to be graced with formal names, but were instead given nicknames, which often reflected the parents' feelings on the birth of a daughter. 'I knew a girl names Anger, and another called Pity. As for me, my parents named me Regret.'  Instead of the affluent young husband and chance at an education that she has been promised, she is quickly married off to a poor, embittered laborer who takes his frustrations out on his new wife.  Renaming herself Jin, she makes her own way in this strange land, finding both opportunity and prejudice.  With the help of three of her fellow picture brides Jin prospers along with her adopted city, now growing from a small territorial capital into the great multicultural city it is today.  But paradise has its dark side, whether it's the daily struggle for survival in Honolulu's tenements, or a crime that will become the most infamous in the islands' history.  With it's passionate knowledge of people and places in Hawaii far off the tourist track, Honolulu is most of all the spellbinding tale of four women in a new world, united by dreams, disappointment, sacrifices, and friendship."

Honolulu is more than a history of a city. It is the story of picture brides who emigrated from Korea to Hawaii. The husbands who bought them selected them from photographs and sent money for their transportation and other expenses. The brides did not meet their husbands until they disembarked the ship and saw them standing on the shore.  Some were married right there on the beach after disembarkation as was our heroine Jin.  The book is also the story of five other picture brides that Jin met on the ship.  The lives of Jade Moon, Wise Pearl, Sunny, Beauty and Tamiko and two other women central to Jin's life, Evening Rose and Blossom are prominently featured. Sunny took one look at her soon-to-be husband and went back to board the ship to sail home.  Blossom was engaged to marry Jin's youngest brother at the age of 5 and was left by her parents in Jin's family home until she was old enough to marry.  Evening Rose was a prostitute who befriended Jin during a dark period in her marriage to Mr. Noh.  There were other picture brides who came from China and Japan.

The history of the city of Honolulu is covered from the 1914 to 1957.  This time period began with the abdication of Queen Liliuokalani to the post-WWII boom in population from the U. S. Mainland. When Jin arrived in the city, she did not recognize it as a city.  The Korean city of Taegon, near Jin's ancestral home, was bigger and had more infrastructure.  The beautiful Waikiki Beach wasn't created until the Ala Wei Canal was built, revealing the sandy shoreline.  The homes of the immigrants and natives were nothing more than poorly built wooden structures. Only the wealthy white residents had opulent houses.  Jin remarked upon her arrival that the home she grew up in was sturdier with lovely decor inside.  Her Hawaiian homes were unstable and bare of decoration. 

The lives of workers on the pineapple and sugar plantations are covered in great detail.  The author did not sugarcoat his story to match today's idealism of the Islands.  The work was backbreaking and everyone worked 12 hours per day in the fields under the hot sun.  Not everyone could handle it and some people decided to leave even though they had no means of getting food once they left.  The quality of the food that the workers received from their bosses was poor.  Jin ate better food at home in Korea.  

Prejudice among the white elites is also shown.  A famous murder committed by the white family members of a rape victim against a native, Joseph Kahahawai, has a central place in the story.  The white family, U. S. Navy officers and their mother, kidnapped and beat Joseph to death.  The jury convicted them but the judge sentenced them to one hour in jail.  It caused a huge uproar in the community and became the basis for the emergence of local culture in Hawaiian society.  It stirred pent up anger over the local's oppression from wealthy whites.  History books have been written about this case, known as the Massie case.  The natives referred to the whites as haoles, (pronounces howlies) which they still do today.  Given that Hawaiian Natives cannot afford housing in today's climate and have to leave their home state, not much has changed in their feelings toward haoles.  

I thought it was interesting that Jin had better food and housing at home in her poor Korean village than in Honolulu.  She expected something better which is why she agreed to become a picture bride.  What she did gain from emigration, were legal rights concerning education and divorce.  Freedom.

5 out of 5 stars.