What She Left Behind

What She Left Behind by Ellen Marie Wiseman 368 pages

 

For fans of Ellen Marie Wiseman’s “The Lost Girls of Willowbrook.”

 

After reading “The Lost Girls of Willowbrook.” I knew I wanted to read all of Wiseman’s novels. This was the first one of the five that preceded Lost Girls. It also centers upon do mental illness and insane asylums.

 

There are two points so view that tell the story. First is Clara Cartwright’s story from the late 1920s through the early 1930s. The other, Isabelle (Izzy) Stone’s story, is from the mid-to-late 1990s.

 

Clara is caught between two men. First, the man, James, her parents (Henry and Ruth) have chosen for her, and whom she finds dull and distasteful. They insist that she marry him, not for love, but because he is mind-boggling wealthy. The second man is an Italian immigrant with whom Clara falls madly in love, and he with her. When she becomes pregnant with Bruno’s baby, she completely rejects James, but her father sends her to a nervous asylum for girls. After the Crash, and Henry and Ruth lose everything, Clara is admitted to a public asylum that is as bad, if not worse, than the private institution.

 

Image what the living conditions were like in an overcrowded, short-staffed institution. Wiseman’s descriptions were enough to make me gag beside Clara.

 

Fast-forward to the 1990s. Izzy Stone is sent to foster care after her mother brutally murders her father with no apparent motive. Her foster parents work for a local museum and have been assigned to catalog the items that had been left behind in the now-shuttered asylum.

 

Izzy is fascinated by the things they find, but what really intrigues her is a stack of unopened letters and a journal. These items send her on a quest to determine her mother’s act of violence.

 

To me, this novel is almost as wonderful as “The Lost Girls of Willowbrook.” Comparing the two novels, “What She Left Behind” seems a little predictable. But given that “What She Left Behind,” is only Wiseman’s second novel, I will overlook that part. There were parts that me cringe, and parts where I was cheering on both young women.

 

Therefore, “What She Left Behind,” receives 5 out of 5 stars in Julie’s world.

 

The Mystery Guest

 The Mystery Guest by Nita Prose

230 pages

Molly the maid and the Regency Grand are back with a whole new murder.  Molly is stepping out of her comfort zone for the Grand Opening of the Regency Grand tearoom.  She made sure the room is just so for the special event—a special announcement by mystery author J. D. Grimthorpe to his biggest fans.  Unfortunately before he makes his announcement he falls to the floor dead. Barmaid Angela is a true crime expert so she enlists Molly in interviewing some of those fans which include the Ladies Auxiliary Mystery Book Society (known as the LAMBS). Molly’s definitely not his biggest fan since her Gran worked at Mr. Grimthorpe’s house and Molly met him when she was young. Inspector Stark is back as is doorman Mr. Preston.  Of course Molly’s attention to detail solves the crime.

I loved the back and forth between time periods to get the true background of the author and her relationship with her maid in training Lily.  I also enjoyed that a mystery book group was part of the story since I run one myself. My only quibble is that Molly has lost so much of the social awkwardness she once had. I thought this was an excellent follow up to The Maid and a great sophomore effort.  Four out of five stars.

Broadway Butterfly

Broadway Butterfly by Sara Divello 432 pages

 

And here’s yet another book that I picked up because of its cover. It is set in Manhattan from 1923-29 and is based on a true cold case that still lingers in the NYC police’s files. Author Divello does not solve the crime, but she brings its sordidness to the page.

 

Divello wastes no time in getting to the murder; it’s the first thing we learn in this juicy tale. Twenty-three-year-old Dot King enjoys life. Although it was never clear if she was a Broadway star, it was clear that she did enjoy the attention of several, shall we say, gentlemen (in the voice of the book.). She also made the papers so often that she became known throughout the city as “The Broadway Butterfly.” One morning when her housekeeper reported for duty, she found Dot dead on her bed with an exceptionally large bottle of chloroform next to her rapidly stiffening body.

 

The cops were called in and the list of possible suspects is rather large but is quickly whittled down to four:  A “volatile a politically connected Philadelphia socialite, Atlantic City bootlegger, Dot’s dicey gigolo lover, a sultry Broadway dancer, and a cagey sugar daddy guarding secrets of his own.” Sometimes it was hard to keep them all straight.

 

In an interesting use of character and structure, Divello uses a girl reporter, Julia Harpman of the Daily News, to cover the case and help keep the reader on what’s happening with the investigation. Julia is the lone woman in an otherwise male-dominated industry, but she is ambitious, strong, and follows the trail…and her suspicions…in the search for justice for Dot King.

 

As I mentioned sometimes it was hard to keep the cast of suspects and Dot’s friends straight, but it makes an interesting read. Also, Divello takes readers behind the scenes of the murder investigation and the world of news reporting that keeps readers glued to the story.

Broadway Butterfly gets 4 out of 5 stars in Julie’s world.

Who Killed Jerusalem?

Who Killed Jerusalem? by George Albert Brown  576 pages

 

How could I resist a novel whose main characters are Ickey Jerusalem and Ded Smith? Especially with this elevator pitch: “A rollicking murder mystery based on William Blake’s characters & ideas updated to 1970s San Francisco.” You’re right; I couldn’t. But what made me think that I would, all of a sudden, understand and adore Blake since I could do neither of those things when I was in college twenty-five years ago? What I was thinking! Unless it was the characters’ names, the setting is one of my favorite cities and I won the book from Bookishfirst.com.

 

Here's what synopsis from Amazon:

 

In 1977, Ickey Jerusalem, San Francisco's golden-boy poet laureate, is found dead in a locked, first-class toilet on an arriving red-eye flight.

Ded Smith, a desperately unhappy, intelligent philistine with a highly developed philosophy to match, is called in to investigate the poet's death. Thus begins a series of hilarious encounters with the members of Jerusalem's coterie.

Ded soon realizes that to find out what happened, he must not only collect his usual detective's clues but also, despite his own poetically challenged outlook, get into the dead poet's mind. Fighting his way through blasphemous funerals, drug-induced dreams, poetry-charged love-making, offbeat philosophical discussions, and much, much more, he begins to piece together Jerusalem's seductive, all-encompassing metaphysics.

But by then, the attempts to kill Ded and the others have begun.

Before Ded's death-dodging luck runs out, will he be able to solve the case, and perhaps in the process, develop a new way of looking at the world that might allow him to replace his unhappiness with joy?

 

I loved Chapter One, in which author Brown drops us right into the middle of the action. Ickey died a gruesome death there in the plane’s bathroom.  But by Page 5, I was so lost I found myself reading words and wondering WTH?

 

And I will admit to reading every blast word of this 576-page tome and only understanding about a fifth of it. Afterwards, I jumped on Amazon and perused the review section. This is what I wanted the book to be, from a review by Maddogish:

 

The book is loosely based on William Blake's poetry, characters and ideas... fortunately you do not have to be familiar with any of Blake's work to love this book. If anything it opens the world of poetry in an accessible manner so that maybe more people will learn to love epic poetry and romantic era classics. The book centers on the mysterious death of San Francisco Poet Ickey Jerusalem and his wild and crazy group of cohorts. An insurance adjuster, Ded Smith who is known as Dr. Death for his uncanny ability to determine cause of death and solve murders, is on board the flight when Jerusalem is found dead. He is initially asked to help the police with interviewing the suspects as a friendly courtesy, but when it is discovered that Ickey took out a life insurance policy a month before his death, Ded is called in to rule if the case a suicide or murder in an official capacity. While he investigates each of the suspects and the crime itself, he finds himself caught up in a web of philosophy, intrigue and murder. The poet not only collected delightfully weird friends the stand out on the page; he had seemed to develop strange ideas on life and existence in general. I can honestly say the author had me guessing until the end who the killer was, while at the same time weaving so much philosophical information and poetry that I found my self in awe of how he tied all of it together. This is a truly magical and unique book that will take readers on an epic journey.

 

But all I got was a series of headaches, a lot of re-rereading, so much that it took almost a month for me to get through this novel. I'm going to put it back on the shelf and tackle it again in a few years. Best of luck to anyone who tries to decipher this novel. Who Killed Jerusalem? receives 2 out of 5 stars in Julie’s world.

 

Anne Perry and the Murder of the Century

Anne Perry and the Murder of the Century by Peter Graham, 325 pages

On a sunny winter day in 1954, Honorah Rieper went for a walk in a park in her hometown of Christchurch, New Zealand, with her teenage daughter, Pauline, and her daughter's close friend, Juliet Hulme.  A short distance down the path, the two girls began taking turns bludgeoning the older woman with a brick wrapped in a stocking.  When the stocking broke, they used the bare brick to finish her off.  They then ran up the path and sought help, claiming Honorah had fallen and struck her head on a stone.  Even the first person to reach the body knew this was a lie, but the truth took longer to ascertain, and may never be fully known.  What could possibly have motivated two girls, particularly intelligent girls of seemingly good families and decent upbringing, to have committed such a bloody and unnatural crime?

The question remains open to this day.  The simple answer is that Juliet was being sent by her family to South Africa, and the Hulmes had allowed the girls to believe that the only obstacle to Pauline joining her was her mother's permission, which she refused to give (as the Hulmes knew she would).  The girls therefore decided to remove this obstacle to their happiness.  How the girls were able to coldly plot matricide, and why they believed that they would get away with it, is the complicated part, involving matters of sin and madness.  Anne Perry and the Murder of the Century is Peter Graham's attempt to unravel some of the threads of the case, following its consequences even fifty years later, including the Peter Jackson film Heavenly Creatures and the career of Juliet Hulme as a world famous mystery novelist.  Graham does a remarkably solid job, drawing upon a wide array of sources while generally refraining from unwarranted speculation and avoiding sympathizing too much with his subjects. 

Twenty Years Later

Twenty Years Later by Charlie Donlea 368 pages 

Welcome to another novel that was nothing like I expected…sort of. It was the cryptic postcard that serves as the book’s synopsis that made me want to read this one. Only one aspect, 9/11, was what I expected but not in the way I expected it.

A little over twenty years ago, 9/11 happened. Victoria Ford was visiting her lawyer, prepping for her murder trial when the Towers fell. Victoria, like so many others, was gone without a trace. But a trace did remain.

Fast forward to 2021. The New York Medical Examiner’s Office* has made a discovery. For the first time in many years, the OFFICE has made a successful identification. Using advanced DNA technology, a tooth recovered from the wreckage has led to the identity of one of the victims: Victoria Ford.

Avery Mason is a national television celebrity who hosts “American Events.” She flies to New York to learn more. With the 20^th anniversary looming, Avery knows looking into how Victoria was identified will be ratings gold.

But then Avery learns that Victoria was the primary suspect in a grisly, yet abandoned, murder investigation and heck, what kind of reporter would she be if ignored that? Victoria did leave one piece of information behind: In a last phone call to her sister, Emily Kind, she begs her to prove Victoria’s innocence. Emily has tried, but no one will take the case. It seems pretty cut and dry, but there wouldn’t be a thrilling novel if that was the case.

As Avery discovers, “Victoria had been having an affair with a successful novelist, found hanging from the balcony of his Catskills mansion. The rope, the bedroom, and the entire crime scene was covered in Victoria’s DNA.”  But as she pushes deeper into the past, Avery’s own past begins to surface; a past that the network and her fans would find very troubling.

This was quite the thriller until the climax. Events and people appear without any foreshadowing that makes the final fourth of the book implausible.

 Still, up to that point it was a great read, but “Twenty Years Later” receives 4 out of 5 stars in Julie’s world.

 

 

*To date, The New York Medical Examiner’s Office has successfully identified 1,646 9/11 victims. There are still 1,106 remains that have not yet been identified.

 

The Nurse's Secret

The Nurse’s Secret by Amanda Skenandore 368 pages

I was attracted to this novel due to the cover and the setting---New York, 1883. I always enjoy medical stories from the 19^th and early 20^th centuries; they make me appreciate modern medicine. (An aside, for a fabulous historical medical fiction read, pick up a copy of Robin Oliveira’s “My Name is Mary Sutter.”)

Una Kelly is a grifter who is about to become homeless. Her mother died in a fire and her father died of a drug overdose. Una is about to pull a scam and cheat her fence out of deal when the new fence she plans to meet with is found murdered. She does have a run-in with the coppers but manages to elude them.

On the run and nowhere to go, Una spots an article in the newspaper that Bellevue Hospital is recruiting nurses. Bellevue is a training hospital and is renowned for following Florence Nightingale’s nursing principles. Bellevue is the first hospital to do this in the country.

Una defrauds her way into the training program. It’s not like anything she expected, but she finds she has a knack for it. Following the restrictive role, she must play as a nurse is tough on the young woman who is used to doing things her way. She also finds things she has never had before: friends and romance. When murders begin to happen at the hospital, Una sets out to discover who is the guilty party.

This novel is a little light in depth and tension, but it was interesting. While I didn’t find it a page-turner, other reader might. “The Nurse’s Secret” receives 3 out of 5 stars in Julie’s world.

 

White Mischief

White Mischief by James Fox, 288 pages

January 1941.  While German bombs fell on England, a very different act of violence took place in the British colony of Kenya.  Josslyn Hay, the Earl of Erroll, was found murdered in his car on the road leading away from the home shared by his lover and her husband.  Said husband was swiftly arrested, but eventually acquitted of the crime, which came symbolically to mark the end of a wild, hedonistic era in the colony's history.  The question of who had actually killed Erroll, and why, remained unanswered for decades despite widespread curiosity and an in-depth investigation by the journalist and critic Cyril Connolly.

James Fox worked closely with Connolly during that investigation.  His account of the goings on amongst the British colonists may not have much in the way of literary merit, but it is fine journalism.

The Unveiling of Polly Forrest

 “The Unveiling of Polly Forrest” by Charlotte Whitney 310 pages  

Readers get ready to block off some to when you start reading this historical mystery! Definitely a page-turner. 

Polly Wolcott is only twenty years old when she marries the much older Sam Forrest. She marries him because she doesn’t want move from rural Michigan to Connecticut to help her mother take care of her grandmother.  And, it doesn’t hurt that Sam appears to be wealthy. He has his own thriving farm. 

But it is 1934; the Great Depression has gripped America. Even Sam is affected. Crops and farm animal’s prices are at the lowest anyone has even seen. Then Sam is killed in a freak farm accident that is brutal. Polly isn’t mature enough to, nor does she want to, take over the farm by herself. So what will happen? 

Author Whitney’s novel is narrated by three individuals: Polly, Polly’s sister Sarah, and Sarah’s husband, the local preacher Reverend Wesley Johnson.  Three distinct voices in short chapters that tell the story from all three points of view. 

In the beginning, Polly is not accused of murdering Sam. After all it does appear to be an accident. However, the Sheriff’s Office is looking into his death. He and his deputy question Polly, Sarah and Wesley for what seems like an eternity. The novel is set from February 7 to December 25, 1934. The questions last through the summer. 

The two strangers claiming to be White House Police show up at Polly’s door, demanding answers to their questions and thoroughly search the house and all the outbuildings. Seems like Sam was involved in some pretty shady dealings that left me reading the pages as fast as I could.  

During the course of the story, Polly’s unveiling comes in many ways---from her views and days as a flighty young woman to a more wizened, experienced woman. I thoroughly enjoyed this who-dun-it set in the glories of rural Michigan and the hardships of farm life. “The Unveiling of Polly Forrest” is a thrilling read and receives 6 out of 5 stars in Julie’s world.

 

The Good Son

“The Good Son” by Jacquelyn Mitchard 352 pages

When Stefan Demetriou was seventeen years old, he got hooked on drugs. For each new drug he tried, he became addicted to it. One night, the drugs fueled a deeply hidden rage in Stefan that caused him to brutally murder his girlfriend, Belinda. However, Stefan has no memory of his actions. 

Sentenced to prison as an adult, the novel opens, three years later, when Stefan is released. To quote the back cover, “he’s released to a world that refuses to let him move on” and a world he does not recognize. Life on the outside is hard for Stefan. He wants to make amends for what he’s done, but the community doesn’t seem to want to help him. 

I have never read a novel that focused on the hardships convicted felons endure after their release. Stefan fails at first in his new venture, but I thought he succeeded too quickly. It was almost too easy. I don’t think it would be easy to do what he wanted to, even if he hadn’t been an ex-con. 

His mother, Thea, is also struggling. For the last three years, Belinda’s mother continues to lead a group who protests in front of Thea’s home who won’t let Belinda’s death be forgotten. It’s a daily reminder of what happened to her son. Thea isn’t so sure that what happened the night Belinda died is the truth. She teams up with the detective who initially investigated the murder in order to learn the facts.

 “The Good Son” receives 4 out of 5 stars in Julie’s world. 

 

Crime and Punishment

 Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky, translated by Constance Garnett, 484 pages

"...a fantastic, gloomy business, a modern case, an incident of to-day when the heart of man is troubled, when the phrase is quoted that 'blood renews,' when comfort is preached as the aim of life.  Here we have bookish dreams, a heart unhinged by theories.  Here we see resolution in the first stage, but resolution of a special kind: he resolved to do it like jumping over a precipice or from a bell tower and his legs shook as he went to the crime."

It is difficult to imagine a better description of Crime and Punishment than that which Dostoevsky offers through the voice of one of his own characters, especially as the form - a prolonged monologue - is how much of the novel's action unfolds.  Raskolnikov is a failed student languishing in late nineteenth century St Petersburg, possessed by the notion that he can, by a single decisive act, break totally with the past and enter a realm of absolute freedom.  What he slowly and painfully discovers is that that realm is found in an entirely different direction, at the end of a radically different path, than he imagined.

It is difficult to say anything new about Crime and Punishment.  Obviously, it is not for everyone.  It is dreary and disorienting and merciless towards the reader.  Just as obviously, it is a work of genius, an incredible artistic achievement as well as an antidote to much of the existentialist sophistry that followed in its wake.

A Sparrow Alone

A Sparrow Alone by Mim Eichmann  311 pages

When the story opens, thirteen-year-old Hannah Owens sits quietly staring at her mother’s face with her two younger siblings. Their dead mother’s face. I was never sure exactly what killed Mother, but it seemed a sort of wasting disease; I’m thinking cancer of some type. Their father is a psalm-singer (very strict Puritan), constantly spewing psalms and working on occasion. He also seemed insane to me.

Author Eichmann sets readers down in 1890s Colorado, where the Owens family lives in horrible, horrible poverty. The family hasn’t eaten much in several days. The doctor’s wife, Mrs. Hughes, arrives, demanding to know what has happened. She rolls up her sleeves and takes charge, making sure Mother is promptly buried.

Mrs. Hughes convinces Pa that he cannot take care of the three children. She takes Hannah with the intention of training her as a house maid. While that seems like a generous thing to do, Mrs. Hughes isn’t the person she appears to be. Soon, she is whipping Hannah, leaving scars that resemble slaves’ backs after beatings.

When Dr. Hughes decides to abandon his wife, Mrs. Hughes throws Hannah and Zuma, the cook, out. The women follow Dr. Hughes to Cripple Creek, Colorado. The doctor is investing heavily in his mistress’s new venture, one that becomes the most famous brothel in Cripple Creek.

Hannah’s life is one of such hardship that it seems that the young woman would not be able to overcome. But Hannah is a fighter, always picking herself up and going on. That is until multi-millionaire Winfield Scott takes a shine to her.

The story is well-researched and gives a truly extraordinary look into just how difficult life was in those days. Much of the story is written in dialect, which always threw me out of the story. One or two times are all a story needs of dialect, and most readers associate that with the character through the rest of the book.

The biggest issue for me, however, is the last chapter. It seemed to come out of left field. It seemed, to me, that Eichmann was tired of writing and wrapped it up neatly. But that can’t be the case because there is a sequel that I want to read. Surely poor Hannah’s life has to get better.

For the two reasons above, “A Sparrow Alone” receives 3 out of 5 stars in Julie’s world. 

 

Big Summer

Shirley J.                Adult Fiction                   Plus Sized Women; FrienemiesMurder                         

Big Summer by Jennifer Weiner  357 pages

It is sometimes hard to know when a person is being sincere and when they are playing you for what they can use you for.    When big girl, (plus sized) Daphne Berg meets up with Drue Cavanaugh, who happens to be insanely rich, Drue seems to be sincere in offering friendship, but over the years while they have their fun moments together, Drue also gets Daphne to lend her money, do her homework, even write papers all through college for her.   There are trade-offs so Daphne is good with it even though other people tell her how Drue is using her and how she uses people up then drops them, boyfriends included.   There are even rumors that Drue or her family paid someone else to take her SATs.  The story was the girl who impersonated Drue to take the test was chastised but Drue got off scott-free and was allowed into Harvard no less!   Due to a falling out between Daphne and Drue over hurt feelings due to Drue's fixing Daphne up with a "pity" chance in counter at a bar when the guy's true feelings come out about Daphne being fat etc the incident ends up going viral and for several years the  two don't speak.   All of a sudden one day, Drue shows up begging Daphne to be in her wedding.  She even offers to pay her to do it because she has no friends.   THat is only the beginning of the story there is waaaaay more going on than that.   Good story that deals with people's motives, and body shaming,, deception, jealousy, greed, and more.   So many people in this story turn out not to be what they seem.   Well written, good plot and so are the side stories.   I recommend this to middle schoolers on up.  Deals with many school issues teens go through..

Wild Women and the Blues

 Wild Women and the Blues by Denny S. Bryce 384 pages

I knew from the minute I saw the cover of the book that I wanted to read it. I find the 1920s period fascinating. I was hooked from the first page and didn’t want to put it down.

The books starts in 2015. Sawyer Hayes goes to visit 110-year-old Honoree Dalcour in her Chicago nursing home. She is the last living link to famed African-American movie director Oscar Micheaux. The fact that Oscar is a real forgotten Hollywood legend endeared me more to this story, and I spent an afternoon researching him (thank heavens for the internet!).

Sawyer thinks he has found a bit of lost film history---a snippet of a film from the 1920s that stars Honoree---in his grandmother’s long-ago box. Mostly, Sawyer is working in Paris with his dad, waiting for the film snippet to be restored and trying to finish his doctorate in media studies.

Honoree is guarded by one of the nurses, Lula. He smooth talks his way into see Honoree, and it doesn’t hurt that his grandmother has been paying the bills at Chicago’s Bronzeville Senior Living Facility since 1985. Honoree is a rather ornery old woman. She may be ancient, but she is still mentally alert and feisty. She loves to give Sawyer a hard time, questioning and accusing him at every opportunity.

The novels moves back and forth between 2015 and 1925, also in Chicago, and shifts from Sawyer’s point of view to Honoree’s. There readers are immersed in Honoree’s life and her ambitions, along with seedy bars, dancing girls and yes, gangsters. To start, she is a dancer at Miss Hattie’s…a seedy joint with its share of fascinating characters. Her dream, though, is to dance at the Dreamland Café…and that dream may be in reach.

But a lot happens to try to stop Honoree. The man she has always loved and disappeared from her life three years ago, Ezekiel, reappears. She has also become the quasi-guardian to the most innocent young woman she has ever met, Bessie Palmer.

Things really heat up when Honoree witnesses a murder at Miss Hattie’s. Now she not only has all those other things to worry about, but she has to keep a low profile to stay a step ahead of the Capone gang.

Author Bryce’s debut novel is a quick read. I look forward to more novels by her. I wish there had been more about Oscar Micheaux...something at the end. That would have deepened the story a lot...for me. Therefore, “Wild Women and the Blues” receives 4 out of 5 stars in Julie’s world.

Fearless Fourteen

 Shirley J.        Adult Fiction      Murder, Money, Video Gamers

Fearless Fourteen by Janet Evanovich   310 pages

Morelli's cousin, Dom Rizzi just got out of the joint having served time for a heist of 9 million dollars that was never found.  All of a sudden people are breaking in to Morelli's house and dead guys are turning up in his basement.   In the meantime Morelli and Stephanie are babysitting Morelli's nephew "Zook,"   Toes arrive in the mail, Mooner invents a potato gun and Ranger hires Stephanie to help him play body guard to a randy female country singer known as Brenda.  Murder and chaos abound as always when Stephanie is involved.   Another great story from Janet Evanovich.   I recommend this one to grade schoolers on up.   

The Cradle Will Fall

 The Cradle Will Fall by Mary Higgins Clark    336 pages

Start out with a cheating husband and his pregnant wife who turns up dead from a cyanide poisoning, or did she?   Did her cheating husband do it?    Then at the autopsy another clue comes in to play, wait did the husband do it or were both the husband and the wife cheating ?   What????   A head scratcher, sometimes just disgustingly gross when you think about it.  Where does this gal come up with this stuff?   Did she set up the premise for the film, "Centipede?"  Oooh!  The writing is good, the premise is gross.   Not a book I want to long think about but if you like murder mysteries with twiests you will like this one.

 - Shirley J.

All Around the Town by Mary Higgins Clark

 All Around the Town by Mary Higgins Clark   341 pages

Whew!  If you are going to commit a crime it is helpful to have a sister who is a lawyer.  Well, even if you aren't going to commit a crime having a sister who is a lawyer would still be a good thing - you never know when you will need legal assistance.   And when you were abducted as a child, have multiple

personalities that enabled you to cope with the memories of the horrendous experience and in your 20s go all obsessive over your very married college English profesor so much to the point one of your personalities is writing him extreme love letters, oh yeah, and he turns up dead - then you are really going to need that sister who just happens to be a lawyer.   Another good plot line.   I would recommend this book to middle-schoolers on up.   Learn early to be mindful of strangers - STRANGER DANGER!!!    And this one takes a lot of twists and turns too.   Lots of baddies to choose from and that old adage about a woman scorned?  Yeah.  .

 - Shirley J.

Blood Alley

Blood Alley by Tom Coffey   280 pages

New York – Middle of November 1946…Cub reporter and rewrite man Patrick Grimes works the graveyard shift at “The New York Examiner,” one of those sleazy tabloids that sensationalism. Tonight Grimes is sent to help cover the finding of a dead woman’s body down by the East River.  That area is a hell-hole of breweries and tenements. 

He arrives as Finkel the photographer does what he does best: manipulate the body to get the most sensational photograph. Nearby stands the man who called in the tip, William Anderson.  Just as Finkel is wrapping up, the police arrive with lights and sirens blasting. 

Anderson is arrested because he is in possession of a twenty dollar bill and he’s African-American. When police learn the woman is socialite Amanda Price, Anderson is charged and beaten until he signs a confession.

Grimes doesn’t believe that Anderson is guilty and launches his own investigation that takes him from the beautiful homes and  society to the underbelly of the city. Along the way, he learns that there is more to Amanda Price and the Price family than meets the eye.

This book has been sitting on my bookshelf for more than a decade, and I could just kick myself that hadn’t read it before now. What a shame Humphrey Bogart is no longer with us to play Grimes in the movie that should be made; it’s noir at its finest.

The language is real, with the “N” word being used as much as I suspect it was back then. The stereotypes of the newsroom and the boozy city editor are dead on and give the story an authentic feel…or at least as authentic as I have been conditioned to believe.

“Bloody Alley” receives 6 out of 5 stars in Julie’s world.

I Dreamt I Was in Heaven: The Rampage of the Rufus Buck Gang

I Dreamt I Was in Heaven: The Rampage of the Rufus Buck Gang by Leonce Gaiter   288 pages

 One of the things I love about historical fiction is that it uncovers forgotten stories, and this is one of them.  I have never heard of  the “Hanging Judge,” Isaac Parker nor the notorious Rufus Buck Gang. I thought the “Hanging Judge” was Roy Bean. That could have been the movies’ fault, especially the one with Paul Newman.  I’m not saying that that movie had it all wrong, I haven’t seen it in decades, I’m saying I probably got confused.

The Rufus Buck Gang was “an outlaw multi-racial gang whose members were part African American and part Creek Indian. They operated in the Indian Territory of the Arkansas-Oklahoma area from 1895 to 1896. Formed by Rufus Buck, the gang consisted also of Lewis Davis, Sam Sampson, Maoma July, and Lucky Davis.” (Wikipedia) It’s refreshing not have the usual band of white dudes trying to evict the American Indians from their land or the Indians killing white dudes, trying to send them back to where they came from. What fascinated me most about this story was that Rufus and his “gang” were all teenagers. These kids brought with them years of oppression and abuse they have suffered.

That and Rufus thought he was on a mission from God, who talked to him through a white girl, 13-year-old Theodosia Swain. That’s where the novel’s title originates.

Set in the Indian Territory story focuses on a shocking 13-day, violent rampage where Rufus and the gang embark on a mission to reclaim the Indian territories from the United States. Rufus believes that their actions will cause the Indians to rise up and reclaim their land. Rufus even purposely gets sent to the same prison that houses Cherokee Bill. He makes plans to bust out Cherokee Bill, who will then aid him on his mission. 

I wish I could say it better, but this blurb from the back cover is the best way to describe this hard-to-read (due to the violence) and eye-opening novel: “…famous, historical figures dance with fictional characters to create a turn-of-the-century tapestry of violence and innocence, love and betrayal, butchery and grace--mirroring and chafing against the backdrop of a burgeoning United States, and a disappearing American West.

One important item to note is Gaiter's prose.  I would never have thought that a western could be literary, and that's the classification I would give this: Literary Western

Warning:  Contains scenes of graphic sexual violence.

“I Dreamt I Was in Heaven: The Rampage of the Rufus Buck Gang” receives 5 out of 5 stars in Julie’s world.

Storm Front (Book

Storm Front (Book 1 in the Dresden Files Series) by Jim Butcher   372 pages

Finally!   I started with book number 1 in a series.   Actually I had gotten the second book first but when I realized it was part of the Dresden Files I looked the series up and began with the first title to keep things nice and flowing.   The Dresden Files do not disappoint.    If you like murder mysteries with a little paranormal flair thrown in this is your series.   Jim Butcher is a good writer both in his descriptions to his dialogues.  A fun read.   I flew through the first title.   It is a mix of Buffy the Vampire Slayer with a little, True Blood and just a hint of Harry Potter.    Magic is afoot and when Harry Blackstone Copperfield Dresden, a wizard and private detective is around you honestly will never know what otherworldly thing might show up and how Harry might choose to deal with it.  He is a wizard by birth, both his parents have magic in their lineage.    The story is set in Chicago and      Harry works with the Chicago Police Department on cases as well as doing private detective work for the odd client.   Odd being few and far between the real odd creatures are the demons, etc. he comes up against.   Excellent book.    I will continue reading this series.   I highly recommend this book/series to paranormal mystery lovers, and pretty much everyone as the tale is an intriguing one.   Good book, good series.