Book of the Month: May

I absolutely loved this archeological thriller.  Here we have Cleopatra's burial place and treasures sought by two opposing groups. One is from academia and the other is from a crime syndicate called the Daughters of Cleopatra. Both groups are present at a Languages and Antiquity Conference in Rome. Sebastian Rossi has given a lecture on the various languages of Ptolemac Egypt. While always a popular lecture, the recent finding of Cleopatra's treasures one week prior to the conference made his lecture a must to hear. Sebastian's friend Adrian West is also in attendance at the conference and soon after Sebastian's lecture has ended, she receives a call from her former FBI partner Nick Harper. Nick tells her that Sebastian has been abducted. The hunt is on to not only locate him but to find out why he was abducted. The novel was highly entertaining.

The Thorn

The Thorn is the first book in The Rose Trilogy by Beverly Lewis. The trilogy is about two sisters who are on the fringes of the Amish church. Rose Kaufman and her married sister Hannah, called Hen, are struggling with their relationship with their church. Hen left the church when she married an Englisher, but wants to come back. Rose, on the other hand, is considering leaving. It was published in 2010.

The publisher's summary:  

Lancaster County, with its rolling meadows and secret byways, may seem idyllic, but it is not without its thorns. Rose Kauffman, a spirited young woman, has a close friendship with the bishop's foster son. Nick dresses Plain and works hard but stirs up plenty of trouble too. Rose's sister cautions her against becoming too involved, but Rose is being courted by a good Amish fellow, so dismisses the warnings. Meanwhile Rose keeps house for an English widower but is startled when he forbids her to ever go upstairs. What is the man hiding?

Rose's older sister, Hen, knows more than she should about falling for the wrong man. Unable to abandon her Amish ways, Hen is soon separated from her very modern husband. Mattie, their young daughter, must visit her father regularly, but Hen demands that she wear Amish attire and speak Pennsylvania Dutch, despite her husband's wishes. Will Hen be able to reestablish her place among the People she abandoned? And will she be able to convince Rose to steer clear of rogue neighbor Nick? 

The Thorn was an enjoyable novel but it did not engage me as as much as other novels by Beverly Lewis. The plot was simple and the writing did not give much mystery. At times I felt bored. That said, the characters were interesting. Both Rose and Hen were strong women that did not fit the Amish mold. Rose tried her best to fit into that mold because she knew it was expected of her. Hen, on the other hand, tried to fit into the English lifestyle that she chose for herself a few years back. While they were on different paths, Rose and Hen still retained their strong bond as sisters, unusual in the Amish community. In the other Amish fiction books that I have read there is always a broken relationship between family members who stayed in the Amish community and those who left. It was odd that these sisters resumed their relationship when Hen returned without any questions asked.

Thorn was an OK read. 3 out of 5 stars.

Mother's Day Murder

Mother's Day Murder is the 10th Lucy Stone cozy mystery by Leslie Meier. She has currently published 34 books in the series. In the past when I have reviewed the Meier books that I liked, I said that it was a fluke for me because the first few books of her's that I read did not appeal to me.  I must reevaluate those statements. I have thoroughly enjoyed the past 3 books that I have read and it isn't a fluke.  I guess I just did not like those first few books.

In this installment of the series, Lucy Stone knows that the victim of a shooting murder, Tina Now, was feuding with Bar Hume over the popularity of their respective 16-year-old daughters Heather and Ashley. Tinker's Cove is still reeling from the disappearance 10 months earlier of a teen youth counselor, and Bar's arrest is almost as shocking. In digging for answers regarding the alleged killer mom, Lucy uncovers some awful revelations about Bart Hume, Bar's philandering cardiac surgeon husband. However, his mistress is killed in a suspicious car accident. Lucy and her teenage daughter Sara become caught in a deadly game of cat and mouse.

The story delves into a few social issues, such as controlling parents, gun control and bullying. The author is not preaching here but allows the use of current affairs in her writing. It worked well for this book. The first clue to the identity of the perpetrator of the crime was introduced at the midway point. My guess concerning whodunnit turned out to be correct. However, I still enjoyed the read. 

4 out of 5 stars. 

The Cleopatra Cipher

The Cleopatra Cipher is book number 1 in the Adrian West Thriller series by L. D. Goffigan.  It is an archeological thriller/treasure hunt mystery set in Rome and Egypt. The next book in the series, The Excalibur Deception, will be published in July 2022.

I LOVED this book!  From the first pages I was captivated by this story. Cleopatra's burial place and her treasures are sought by two opposing groups. One is from academia and the other is from a crime syndicate called the Daughters of Cleopatra. Both groups are present at a Languages and Antiquity Conference in Rome. Sebastian Rossi has given a lecture on the various languages of Ptolemac Egypt. While always a popular lecture, the recent finding of Cleopatra's treasures one week prior to the conference made his lecture a must to hear. Sebastian's friend Adrian West is also in attendance at the conference and soon after Sebastian's lecture has ended, she receives a call from her former FBI partner Nick Harper. Nick tells her that Sebastian has been abducted. The hunt is on to not only locate him but to find out why he was abducted.

The writing was tight and suspenseful and the characters were fully developed. The protagonist of the series is Adrian West. She is a great character but I believe that without Sebastian as a counterpart, I am not sure how well she can carry the series. I definitely liked Sebastian better. I was not able to tell if he will be an ongoing character in the series. Nonetheless, we will find out in 2 months when the second book in the series is published.

I preferred the Rome setting. Fortunately the setting didn't move to Egypt until the midway point in the story. We read more about the Italian landscape and food than the same in Egypt. The Egyptian part of the plot centered on action more than setting description. 

This is a hugely entertaining novel!  5 out of 5 stars.

Policing the City

Policing the City is an ethnographic written by Didier Fassin. Originally published in French in 2020, it has now been translated into English. The novel is dedicated "to all those who undergo daily the harassment, the humiliations, the baiting, and sometimes the violence and racism of the police, and who are finally succeeding in making their voices heard." 

The publisher's summary:

Adapted from the landmark essay Enforcing Order, this striking graphic novel offers an accessible inside look at policing and how it leads to discrimination and violence. What we know about the forces of law and order often comes from tragic episodes that make the headlines, or from sensationalized versions for film and television. These gripping accounts obscure two crucial aspects of police work: the tedium of everyday patrols under constant pressure to meet quotas, and the banality of racial discrimination and ordinary violence. Around the time of the 2005 French riots, anthropologist and sociologist Didier Fassin spent fifteen months observing up close the daily life of an anticrime squad in one of the largest precincts in the Paris region. His unprecedented study, which sparked intense discussion about policing in the largely working-class, immigrant suburbs, remains acutely relevant in light of all-too-common incidents of police brutality against minorities. This new, powerfully illustrated adaptation clearly presents the insights of Fassin’s investigation, and draws connections to the challenges we face today in the United States as in France.

While described as a graphic novel, it is not a novel but rather a graphic memoir. Everything in the book actually happened. I dispute some of the author's conclusions, such as that French police officers copied bullying tactics from American law enforcement.  I also do not believe that the anti-crime efforts of the French police are as black and white as they author shows us. Fassin says that almost all of the police rely on their political beliefs when dealing with so-called crime. He also says that the victims of police brutality are 100% innocent. Nothing is really this black and white and I think that Fassin has done a disservice to the problem of police brutality. I believe that he has a prejudice against the police because, as he stated early in the book, his own son had a run-in with the law.

3 out of 5 stars.

Bootblack

Bootblack is a historical graphic novel of 1930s New York City. It takes place during the construction of the Rockefeller Center.  Originally published in French in 2020, it has now been translated in English. The story is about Altenberg Ferguson who hates his German name and family. Leaving home still a child, he lives on the streets working as a shoe shiner also referred to as a blackboot. After changing his name to Al Chrysler, he soon tires of being hungry and sleeping outside in the cold. Al returns home only to see the building his parents were living in on fire. They perished. Returning to the streets he teams up with 2 friends to shine shoes. New friend Frankie talks the trio into running money for the mob but after deciding to steal some of the mob's cash, Al is caught by the police and sentenced to 10 years in an adult prison. By the time he is released WWII is ongoing. Al joins the army and is sent overseas to Germany, where he finds himself in the town of Altenberg, the town he was named after.

I enjoyed Bootblack. There was alot of mystery concerning where life would take Al. The story alternates between Al's childhood and his soldiering during WWII. I initially had a hard time figuring out where the story was going but after realizing that the story was alternating time periods, it was easy to accept and continue reading. In fact, I believe it enhanced the story. I certainly did not expect the ending but it was most appropriate given Al's identity issues.

4 out of 5 stars.

Django

Django is a graphic biography of renowned twentieth century guitarist Django Reinhardt. Born in 1910 in a Roma community in Belgium, Django's childhood friends were taking him in a bad direction. He began stealing and gambling. After a run-in with the police, Django's mother finally buys him what he always wanted-a banjo. Django learns how to play quickly and he develops an expertise by his teen years. He plays in several bands in Paris, earning alot of money. However, after a fire started in his caravan, Django's left hand is seriously burned. He is told that he will never play again but Django overcomes all the odds by switching to playing an easier instrument-the guitar. His fame continued to spread and he is considered one of the best musicians of his time.

The comic had a slow start for me. I had never heard of Django before reading the book. This child prodigy was leading a fantastic life. There wasn't much excitement until the halfway point in the story when he was injured in the fire. Then there was the wondering whether he would recover.  He had to use his hand differently after it was injured but the author did not go into any detail about how he made the transition.  Django had two loves, Naguine and Bella. These storylines were OK but there wasn't much mystery here.

This was an OK book. 3 out of 5 stars.

Book of the Month: April

It seemed impossible to select just one book as my favorite read for last month. I read 7 books and all of them were fantastic. 4 of these books were part of a series and the authors did their best writing to date.  

Leslie Meier's The Easter Bonnet Murder is the 35th installment of her Lucy Stone mystery series. In the past I found her books to be merely OK, mainly because I am not a huge fan of a traditional cozy. I read her latest book for a reading challenge as I couldn't find other books that fit the challenge requirements. I am so glad that I did. The Easter Bonnet Murder was a complex whodunnit and her best book to date. Alison Stuart's Evil in Emerald is the third book in her Harriet Gordon mystery series and I think it might be better even than the first, Singapore Sapphire. Ellen Crosby's Bitter Roots is her 11th wine country series entrant and, again, her best writing to date. Olympia is a sequel to graphic novel The Grand Odalisque. As with the others, it was fabulous. Peter Swanson's Nine Lives and Peng Sheperd's The Cartographers were written by new to me authors and these books were highly entertaining for me.

One author, Melissa Fu, wrote her debut novel about a Chinese family saga. Not many of the book blogs that I read like Asian fiction as much as I do. The fact that Peach Blossom Spring is a favorite of all the bloggers I read is a testament to the superb writing that Fu has executed. For this reason, Peach Blossom Spring is my best book for April 2022.

Life Update

I kind of fell off the wagon with my reading last month. Life has been difficult to say the least. A friend and co-worker went missing in early March. She was found 2 weeks later when her body washed up on the Lake Michigan shoreline. A cause of death has never been disclosed by the police. Her funeral is at the end of this week, 2 months after the supposed date of her death. The police seem to be keeping the details of their investigation close to the vest and not knowing is hard to bear. With the disclosure of information being piecemeal, there is never a sense of closure. Is there a so-called person of interest? I think so but I don't know much else nor how "interesting" this person might look to the police. Perhaps he isn't all that interesting. Perhaps there are other persons of interest.

My office returned to working in person the first week of April and at least 30 people have approached me to whisper their belief of who was responsible for her death. It's always the same person. If he didn't do this, it's his own fault for looking suspicious. Is it possible that she killed herself? Yes. She certainly had alot of drama to deal with. However, the facts given out by the police don't add up and every co-worker that approached me said so. All these whispers are adding to my stress level.

As I am writing this post, I realize it looks like a prologue for a mysyery novel that I might review. It's not. The death of Elise Malary has been reported in the news locally, nationally and internationally. What's funny is that it was reported in Britain before it was reported in the American national media. The whole affair has been devastating and I cannot concentrate on reading anymore. I don't know when I will get back to it. There were plans in the next 3 months for reviewing certain newly published books but, as the saying goes, I have fallen off the wagon.

I feel that I probably shouldn't publish this post. Writing it has released some of the tension that I feel and as I write, I am thinking about deleting the post either before or after publication. I do not know what to do. Part of me wants to shout from the rooftops and another part of me says to keep quiet. I question myself why I feel I should be quiet. There are no answers, just grief.

Nine Lives

Nine strangers receive a list with their names on it in the mail. Nothing else, just a list of names on a single sheet of paper. None of the nine people know or have ever met the others on the list. They dismiss it as junk mail, a fluke, until very, nad things begin happening to people on the list. First, a well-liked old man is drowned on a beach in the small town of Kennewick, Maine. Then, a father is shot in the back while running through his quiet neighborhood in suburban Massachusetts. A frightening pattern is emerging, but what do these nine people have in common? Their professions range from oncology nurse to aspiring actor, and they’re located all over the country. So why are they all on the list, and who sent it? FBI agent Jessica Winslow, who is on the list herself, is determined to find out. Could there be some dark secret that binds them all together? Or is this the work of a murderous madman? As the mysterious sender stalks these nine strangers, they find themselves constantly looking over their shoulders, wondering who will be crossed off next.

Nine lives is a suspense thriller set in the modern era. Each chapter covers one of the nine characters on consecutive days. It's a clever whodunnit with a surprise ending. I was bewildered by the high body count though. Usually in a mystery I see, at the most, two people killed but here there are more. In the end it all makes sense. Don't be surprised if the plot sounds familiar. Nine Lives is based on Agatha Christie's And Then There Were None, her most well known mystery. The author used alot of narrative for Nine Lives but it was cut back as the story unfolded and for a good reason. The pacing automatically picked up after each character died because less narrative was needed.  The investigation of the deaths was not a big part of the novel. It more or less was character driven.

I enjoyed this mystery and am rating it 5 out of 5 stars.

The Cartographers

I did not know what to expect when I started reading this novel. Peng Shepherd is a new author for me but I was impressed with this story from the first chapter. It is a suspense thriller about art, science and history, a combination that I enjoy reading. 

The publisher's summary:

Nell Young’s whole life and greatest passion is cartography. Her father, Dr. Daniel Young, is a legend in the field and Nell’s personal hero. But she hasn’t seen or spoken to him ever since he cruelly fired her and destroyed her reputation after an argument over an old, cheap gas station highway map.

But when Dr. Young is found dead in his office at the New York Public Library, with the very same seemingly worthless map hidden in his desk, Nell can’t resist investigating. To her surprise, she soon discovers that the map is incredibly valuable and exceedingly rare. In fact, she may now have the only copy left in existence . . . because a mysterious collector has been hunting down and destroying every last one—along with anyone who gets in the way.

But why?

To answer that question, Nell embarks on a dangerous journey to reveal a dark family secret and discovers the true power that lies in maps. The Cartographers is an ode to art and science, history and magic—a spectacularly imaginative, modern story about an ancient craft and places still undiscovered.

Reading this book was an amazing experience. I had that warm feeling you get when you finish a satisfying novel. Author Peng Shepherd dreamed up a creative plot and executed the writing skillfully. There is also plenty of of character development as well as information on creating maps. 

Seven college buddies travel to New York State after obtaining their Ph.D's in cartography. Their plans are something only the young can dream up: to create the most perfect atlas composed of maps of fantasy lands, such as you would find for the Chronicles of Narnia. The work begins well but as time passes the group dynamics fall apart. Two couples cheat on each other while an odd man out is doing research that he keeps secret from the group. Trust begins to dissipate and the group separates after a tragedy, with most of them staying in New York. All but one has their dream job. Daniel Young heads the map room at the New York Public Library. He and his daughter Nell carry the story. His classmates found similarly fantastic jobs but to summarize the rest of the story would give out spoilers. 

These seven characters communicated with each other as only childhood friends can. Their dialogue was realistic and the author primarily used it to advance the story. There was very little narrative. The exuberance the characters had for their studies made me remember my own college days and, frankly, I haven't been that idealistic since then. Real life always interrupts those feelings. These characters experienced highs and lows on a scale most of us have never experienced. While the story refers to the lows, it is the highs that caught my interest. They were working on a huge discovery for cartography and this is what excited me about the book.

The Cartographers is simply magnificent. 5 out of 5 stars.

Olympia

Olympia is the sequel to The Grand Odalisque. Characters Carole and Alex are childhood friends who are partners in art theft crimes. They have been working together for nine years. With just a few days having past after their theft of the famous painting The Grand Odalisque at the Louvre, they are hired by a mobster to steal an ancient mask. With that theft completed they are then given their next assignment: to steal three paintings. Edouard Manet's Olympia is one of them. It is located in the Petit Palace in Paris. With the help of their mutual friend Sam the ladies begin planning the heist. Of course, they encounter several complications including the fact the Carole is nine months pregnant. They use modern technology and common theft how-tos to carry off the assignment. The English version of this graphic novel was published on March 1, 2022 by Fantagraphics.

It was easy to get back into the story from February 2021's The Grand Odalisque. The reader doesn't really need to know anything special from the earlier novel in order to follow the story.  The ladies were shadowed by the mobster's hit man, Antonio, as they planned and executed the theft. It was amusing to see them sexually harass Antonio and get no response from him. They used the same phrases that men use when they harass women. The howdunit of the theft was enjoyable. There were enough twists and turns to satisfy the mystery reader but the artwork is what made the Parisian setting extraordinary. The architectural line drawings let you know where the setting was located. 

All in all, Olympia was a fun read. I am rating it 5 out of 5 stars.

Peach Blossom Spring

Peach Blossom Spring is a poignant family saga that begins in China in the 1930s. It is Melissa Fu's debut novel and I am impressed with her ability to write such a beautiful story. The novel is about Dao Meilin and her son Dao Renshu. Meilin's husband Xiaowen is killed during a battle with the invading Japanese army but she remains with her in-law's family for support. She relies heavily on her husband's brother Longwei and his wife Wenling, who resents Meilin's presence. As the Japanese continue their advance through China the Dao family is displaced over and over again in their effort to survive. It is always hard to summarize these sagas so let's go with the publisher's summary:

It is 1938 in China and, as a young wife, Meilin’s future is bright. But with the Japanese army approaching, Meilin and her four year old son, Renshu, are forced to flee their home. Relying on little but their wits and a beautifully illustrated hand scroll, filled with ancient fables that offer solace and wisdom, they must travel through a ravaged country, seeking refuge. Years later, Renshu has settled in America as Henry Dao. Though his daughter is desperate to understand her heritage, he refuses to talk about his childhood. How can he keep his family safe in this new land when the weight of his history threatens to drag them down? Yet how can Lily learn who she is if she can never know her family’s story? Spanning continents and generations, Peach Blossom Spring is a bold and moving look at the history of modern China, told through the story of one family. It’s about the power of our past, the hope for a better future, and the haunting question: What would it mean to finally be home?

When I finished this novel I went back in the story searching for each reference to Peach Blossom Spring. Henry first learned of this fable from his mother while he was a youth. After Henry moves to America he hears the story again, but with a different ending. He wonders why his mother changed the ending. In the last chapter of the book he figures it out. Without being a spoiler I can say it refers to wherever your home is located. The location can be a specific place or state of mind. The way the author ended the story gives us a much bigger idea of what a Peach Blossom Spring is but I won't elaborate here. However, please note that I wanted to immediately re-read the novel after I finished reading it. There has never been a novel that has had this effect on me. Perhaps I am searching for my own Peach Blossom Spring.

The Chinese setting descriptions were spot on. The reader definitely feels the effects of war on all the Chinese cities and villages that Meilin and Renshu walked through on their way to safety. Whenever they found sanctuary, they soon had to move on because of the bombs that the Japanese planes dropped. No place was safe. Eventually Meilin and Renshu moved to Taiwan with their Dao relatives to escape the Japanese and the fledgling Chinese Communist Party. We get a glimpse that Longwei is working with Taiwan's KMT Party but this fact is never specifically stated. Longwei's actions show how the KMT spies operated in mainland China. The problems of emigrating to other countries is also shown. Many Chinese had to lie about their family background in order to get access to boats that would take them to a new place. The lies would always be a problem for the countries in which they relocated.

All the characters seemed flawed. However, each character had to make a decision on how to best handle the circumstances of war. Is this a flaw? Maybe not. When you are in a lose-lose situation, whatever you decide to do looks suspicious. The Dao family did not have positive options available and they used whatever power their family had in order to survive. Instead of saying that they were flawed it may be best to state that the characters were realistic for the era in which they lived, including Henry in America. The current Chinese government does threaten Chinese Americans with harming their relatives who are still in China in order to get concessions. Henry was afraid that he would hurt his mother if he associated with other Chinese in the U. S. 

I LOVED this novel! I am rating it 5 out of 5 stars.