Last Known Port: A Southern Mystery

Last Known Port: A Southern Mystery by Sue Anger 276 pages

 

It’s May 1923. Jake Parson and his Labrador retriever, Pilot, have pulled into the port of Beaufort, North Carolina. He is only a week late, and he is eager to see his brother, Wade, who is waiting for him. Upon his arrival, he learns that Wade left a week ago aboard his boat, but never made it to his next port. There are no signs of him in Beaufort except that his dog, Yawg, is there. Jake knows something is wrong; Wade would never leave Yawg behind. Jake begins to do some investigating around town, talking to anyone who knew him.

 

Beneath the surface of Beaufort, things are not what they seem. The idyllic coastal town harbors some big secrets. Jake, a World War I veteran suffering from shellshock, discovers rum-running and smuggling are the biggest trades in the area.

 

As he meets the town’s inhabitants, Jake is drawn to jazz musician Nell Guthrie. Unfortunately, Nell is already engaged, but the two do become good friends. Bottom line is that Jake learns that “local rum runners are piloting small boats in the open ocean to collect illegal booze from ships traveling the “Whiskey Road,” that stretches from Nassau to New York City’s Rum Row.”

 

This novel was more about the booze than it was about finding Wade. He was a secondary plot point. Last Known Port: A Southern Mystery gets 3 out of 5 stars in Julie’s world.

 

 

 

A Fine Imitation

A Fine Imitation by Amber Bock    304 pages

One of the first things that captured my attention for A Fine Imitation is the cover. Whoever said you can’t judge a book by its cover was only half-wrong. The cover model invokes the novel’s main protagonist, Vera Longacre Bellington: glamorous, chic, period, and lonely.

Deep down, Vera has always been lonely. During her college years at Vassar College in 1913 and ten years later when she lives in New York City. I had the feeling that even as a child, an only child at that, that she was lonely. The novel alternates between 1913 and 1923.

Vera loves art and is studying it at Vassar. She befriends Bea Stillman from Atlanta. Bea is everything Vera is not. The two become fast friends as Bea pulls Vera into one adventure aft another. Only when the two get caught on one such adventure, Vera is pulled from the college (with only a semester until graduation) by her very formidable mother. Bea has secrets she is desperately trying to hide. Vera and Bea glimpse each other occasionally, but never speak or acknowledge each other’s presence.

Fast forward to 1923. Vera lives in the penthouse of the most luxurious apartment building in New York…and one that her husband, Arthur Bellington, built. Vera has everything money can buy: accept love. The couple is close with many of other wealthy couples living in the building.

I’m not sure really how it came to be, but the residents of the building decide they want a mural painted on the tiles in the basement’s Pool Room. A search is conducted, and soon Emil Hallern, a French painter, arrives. As an artist, he has several demands, like not allowing anyone in the room until the painting is complete.

Hallern never talks about himself, which leaves Vera suspicious. The harder she pushes the less he will disclose. Soon, the two are embroiled in a passionate affair, where secrets are revealed, secrets I never saw coming.

Bock’s debut novel, on the surface, reminds me of Melanie Benjamin’s latest title, The Swans of Fifth Avenue. It appears to be almost about nothing…about everyday life among the wealthy, but readers will find themselves knee-deep in human interactions and all that those involve. The title evokes the two parallel stories that run throughout the novel.

I received A Fine Imitation from Blogging for Books in exchange for this review.

I give A Fine Imitation 5 out of 5 stars.