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 Lantern Boats

The Lantern Boats takes place in post WWII Japan. The story follows the life of Elly Ruskin who is struggling with getting settled in Tokyo. Elly is half Japanese and she was repatriated to Japan from an internment camp in Australia even though she doesn't know the country well. 

The publisher's summary:  

Elly Ruskin is trapped between worlds.  Half-Japanese, Half- Scottish, she is deported from Australia to Japan after the war, but Tokyo is a city Elly barely knows.  In a whirlwind romance, she falls in love with a Scottish journalist and they marry.  Kamiya Jun is a teenage war orphan from the lost Japanese colony of Karafuto.  He is smuggled to the mainland on a fishing boat.  Captured by the police, he is handed over to the occupation forces, and finds himself unwillingly recruited to work in an underground intelligence unit run by a maverick American officer.   Now Elly thinks her husband is having an affair, and her suspicions will her down a treacherous path that will put everyone in danger.  Jun might be the only person who can help her.

The setting descriptions are what make this novel shine.  The realities of the post-war occupation of Japan are prominent.  You see that individuals who had jobs or lived in China or other countries before the war were viewed with suspicion, even though many of them were loyal Japanese citizens. The American troops occupying Japan were afraid of the anti-communist stance going on in their nation, promulgated by Senator Joe McCarthy, and possibly being accused of associating with one. The proximity of communist China and North Korea to Japan heightened the fear that there were spies everywhere. When Jun is captured by the Americans he tells the truth of how he came to be a spy for an underground organization.  No one believed his story though because nations did not select uneducated, homeless people to spy on their behalf.  A mysterious character named Vida Vidanto was being watched by several groups because she lived in China during the war where she wrote poetry.  No one actually believed that Vida was her real name either which resulted in some serious research into her background to determine who she was and whether she was a threat.

The realities of what mixed race people faced were also shown well.  Our Elly is always having to explain her heritage to police officers and military officials as well as the average citizen, who is just trying to avoid trouble be avoiding Elly.  Elly tries her best to put forward the fact that her mother was Japanese before she arouses any suspicion from others. The author knows her subject matter well.  She as an Emeritus Professor of Japanese History at the Australian National University. 

I enjoyed reading The Lantern Boats. Having never read anything before about the occupation of Japan, I learned alot. The average Japanese citizen was just trying to survive the occupation and were acutely aware when it would end. The hope was always "when the occupation is over we can do X."   The ending was sad and I liked that the author used this approach.  It was realistic. Besides, do you really want to read books where you always know that all turns out well for the characters? 

I highly recommend this historical novel. 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.

My Sister's Grave

You've heard the writing advice "show don't tell."  In My Sister's Grave there is alot of telling. The first 20 pages were awkward to read and this telling continued throughout the book.  Once the plot got started though, it became much more interesting.

The publisher's summary:  

"Tracy Crosswhite has spent twenty years questioning the facts surrounding her sister's disappearance and the murder trial that followed.  She doesn't believe that Edmund House - a convicted rapist and the man condemned for Sarah's murder -is the guilty party. Motivated by the opportunity to obtain real justice, Tracy became a homicide detective with the Seattle PD and dedicated her life to tracking down killers. hen Sarah's remains are finally discovered near their hometown in the northern Cascade mountains of Washington State, Tracy is determined to get the answers she's been seeking.  As she searches for the real killer, she unearths dark, long kept secrets that will forever change her relationship to her past - and open the door to deadly danger."

I had a hard time maintaining interest in this novel because of how the author wrote his narrative throughout it. Perhaps it would have read better if background information was revealed with dialogue. There is a definite fabulous plot here but this was just a big miss for me.  The setting should have helped me to stay interested as I love the Cascade Mountains.  However, the setting wasn't used to its maximum impact. Many book reviewers loved this novel and the author is a critically acclaimed writer. This is the first book of his that I have read and I am sorry to say that I just didn't like it.

2 out of 5 stars.

The Code Breaker

All of my friends raved about this book and we talked about it for over a month. I knew I had to read it. The Code Breaker is a biography of sorts. Scientist Jennifer Doudna's professional life is featured as well as the rush among the scientific field to develop the CRISPR technology.  CRISPR is the acronym for Clustered Relatively Interspersed Short Palindrome Repeats.  It can be used as a gene editing tool to cure diseases. When COVID-19 broke out, researchers had a head up on developing the COVID-19 vaccine because of the CRISPR technology.

The book opens with several chapters on Doudna's childhood. Her experiences as a white person in Hawaii formed her tenacious personality. She was regularly harassed by the Polynesian kids in her Hilo community because of her race. She was the rare Caucasian in Hilo. However, it taught her to focus on what was important, a trait that helped her in her work life.  

Several other scientists worked with Doudna on and off. Emmanuelle Charpentier is the first one I will mention as she and Doydna won the Nobel Prize for chemistry together in 2020. This award was given despite an ongoing court case over the CRISPR patents in the U. S. Supreme Court. Another scientist, Feng Zhang, fast tracked his patent application so that he would be the first person to obtain the CRISPR patent. His application was filed 3 weeks after Doudna filed hers.  His application contained false statements over who did what work. Zhang narrowed his patent application to push out other scientists who he worked with at the Broad Institute, George Church.and Luciano Marraffini. Normally 3 people are together awarded the Nobel Prize. Zhang would have been the 3rd person but that would have left out Marraffini who did most of the Zhang's work at the Broad Institute. 

Most of the scientists who did research on DNA and RNA as well as the developing CRISPR technology were doing it out of a passion for science, not financial gain. Zhang is the exception here. The other scientists were Blake Wiedenheft, Francisco Mojica, James Watson, Krzysztof Chilinski, Rodolphe Barrangou, and Le Cong. There are chapters in the book on their work as well. All worked on and off with Doudna. 

Code Breaker is a fascinating look at the search for new biotechnologies in the 21st century. 5 out of 5 stars.

Can't Wait Wednesday #5

I have just ordered a few comics from Amazon. Two limited series by acclaimed author Ed Brubaker sound fascinating and I don't know why I have not read him before. Here is what I am expecting in the mail:

Criminal is a seven part crime anthology that begins with Coward. Here, we see Leo planning a diamond heist. While each installment of the series follows a different character, some of the characters are connected to each other.  Also, they are all living in the same universe. Because of the world building in the series, I have heard that it would be best to read the books in order of publication.

Kill or Be Killed is a 20 part comic series. It was published monthly between August 2016 and June 2018. I ordered the deluxe edition which contains all volumes of the series.  The story follows depressed college student Dylan who survives a suicide attempt.  He is soon visited by a demon who explains why he allowed Dylan to live. Dylan must kill one person each month in order to continue living.

Post office, please don't take forever to deliver my books.

Book of the Month: April

Ruth Heald's book The Wedding is my best book for April. It is a tight psychological thriller with more twists and turns than any other book I have ever read in my lifetime. That's a long, long time.  The plot concerns the events of the last week before Lauren and Adam's wedding. After dating for 18 years they plan on getting married in the same church Lauren's late parents married in. Lauren's parents died in a freak rafting accident 18 years ago. Both Lauren and Adam's families were vacationing together when the accident happened. What happened then matters to the plot as Lauren puts the final touches on her wedding.