Bewitched, Bothered and Dead

Bewitched, Bothered and Dead (Book 13 in the Rat Pack Mystery series) by Robert J. Randisi 281 pages

I was so excited when I learned a new Rat Pack Mystery was coming out. I ordered it, waited impatiently for it to arrive, devoured it, and LOVED it!

I’m gonna tell y’all upfront that if y’all haven’t read any of these mysteries and if you loved the Rat Pack, y’all will love these books as much as I do.

In this outing, it’s 1966. Things are starting to change in Sin City. Gazillionaire Howard Hughes is back in Vegas, looking to make some hefty purchases. Hughes was thwarted once before, but now he is on a mission. Of course, readers never see him; he is that elusive loner who has others do his bidding.

The Sands pit boss Eddie Gianelli, known as Eddie G. around town, was instrumental in stopping Hughes earlier and now Vegas is counting on him to stop him again. The Sands manager, Jack Entratter, assign Eddie G the job of convincing the other casinos not to sell. Hughes already has the Desert Inn in his pocket. When Frank Sinatra and Dean Martin hear of what’s happening, the fly to the Strip to help.

Eddie G. is grateful for the help, as he has another big problem. Danny Thomas has confided to him that the three people whom he had trusted to run St. Jude’s Hospital in Memphis has stolen a hefty sum of money. One of them is in Vegas. Eddie G. knows he needs help so he brings his backup in from Brooklyn, Jerry, and his good friend Danny, a local PI.

These characters have stayed with me over the years, which is highly unusual. Reading these books is like visiting old friends; I look forward to visiting with them and tagging along on each  new adventure. Sit back, relax, have a drink, and tag along for the ride. And, as Frank would say, ring-a-ding ding.

The only problem with these books is that they are over to fast, and I have to wait a year or more for the next visit. “Bewitched, Bothered and Dead” received 5 out of 5 stars in Julie’s world.

 

Carolina Moonset

Carolina Moonset by Matt Goldman 272 pages 

Divorced dad, Joey Green, returns home to the small town of Beaufort, South Carolina, to help his mother look after his father for a while. Marshall Green is suffering from Lewy Body dementia*. His short-term memory has almost disappeared, but his long-term memory is strong. 

Marshall is not violent, except when it comes to the Hammond family. He has unexpected outbursts when the name is mentioned. Marshall has some old unresolved issues that come out when he talks with his old friend, Trip Patterson, who died decades ago, who appears in a hallucination. 

As Marshall’s long-term memories rise, so does the memory of his first love, Delphi, who was murdered because back then, in South Carolina, mixed-race couples were not tolerated. But even those memories are not exactly correct as readers discover. There is another murder and a probable murder after Delphi’s that sets the town on edge. 

In current time, Roy’s brother is murdered, down the street from the Green home. At first, the police are interested in Marshall as he cannot account for his whereabouts that evening.  

Joey, interested in clearing his father, wants to learn what happened to Trip, Delphi and Roy. At the same time, Joey’s mother, Carol, and the next-door neighbors are trying to set Joey up with their also-divorced daughter, Leela. Sparks flair, Joey and Leela turn investigators together. 

This book got off to a slow start for me, but I am glad I hung in there. It turned out to be a true page-turner. Once the new murder happens, the plotline sets off on a can't-put-down thrill ride full of secrets, scandals, lies, memories, romance and racism. “Carolina Moonset” received 4 stars in Julie’s world. 

 

*Lewy Body Dementia is “a progressive dementia that results from protein deposits in nerve cells of brain. It affects movement, thinking skills, mood, memory, and behavior” with frequent bouts of hallucinations. 

 

The Lioness

The Lioness by Chris Bohjalian 336 pages 

When I first started hearing about Bohjalian’s 2022 book, I heard it was about Old Hollywood. I adore stories about Old Hollywood. However, the novel’s timeframe, 1964, isn’t Old Hollywood. I was disappointed but dug in anyway. Bohjalian always comes through with a great read, and this one is no different. 

At first, the unique structure was off-putting, but by the end, I thought it was brilliant. Each chapter would start with current time (1964), but then switch to each character’s backstory. As the novel progressed, in each chapter, narrated by one of the ten top characters, the structure shifted, dealing more with what was happening than backstories.  

In 1964, one of the most glamorous and A-list actresses in Hollywood, Katie Barstow, marries gallerist David Hill. Instead of a traditional honeymoon, they take seven others with whom they are close with, along on a photo safari to Tanzania, Africa. They hire a famous guide, Charlie Patton, who puts together a “civilized adventure.” However, it’s hot on the Serengeti, and there is nothing Charlie can do about that. 

Not long after they arrive, the group is attacked by Russian mercenaries. They shoot most of the porters and guides, leaving Katie, David and their entourage defenseless. The Russians round them up, divide them up and shove them into the Land Rovers, “guns to their heads,” and head out into the desert. What follows brims with dread; this reader had her heart in her stomach for the rest of the book. 

All are terrified, but the Russians show no mercy. As thy group travels across the plains, each takes chances they would never take back in Hollywood, chances that will haunt them for the rest of their lives. 

Even given the dismays I pointed out earlier. “The Lioness” still receives 6 out of 5 stars in Julie’s world. That sense of dread and several shocking events kept this reader up long past her bedtime.  

 

The Lost Girls of Willowbrook

 The Lost Girls of Willowbrook by Ellen Marie Wiseman 304 Pages 

Author Ellen Marie Wiseman’s new novel opens with one of the best first sentences I have come across in a long time: “People still search the woods for the remains of lost children.” WOW! That sentence grabbed me by the throat and didn’t let go until I got to the end. And as I read, Wiseman’s story became more and more horrifying. Stephen King doesn’t write stories as scary as this one. 

The novel is set in the real-life Willowbrook State School, a state-supported institution for children with intellectual disabilities located in the Willowbrook neighborhood on Staten Island in New York City from 1947 until 1987. The school was designed for 4,000, but by 1965 it had a population of 6,000. When the novel takes place, it is 1971 with a population of 8,000. Many New York parents threatened to send their misbehaving children there.

“State School” is a misnomer. There was no teaching going on in the forty-building campus; It was a dumping ground for mental, physical, and emotionally disabled children. Every scary story you have ever heard about these places comes out in this novel: beatings drugs, sexual abuses, starvations.  

The novel opens with sixteen-year-old Sage Winters on her way to Willowbrook. She has recently learned that not only her twin sister, Rosemary, whom she thought was dead, is still alive, but she has spent the last six years there, plus she is now missing. Sage doesn’t know much about Willowbrook, but she knows she cannot rest until her sister is found. 

Sage is headed there to form a search party, or whatever needs to be done to find Rosemary. But when she arrives, the staff believe that she is her sister and treat her as such. She is sedated and thrown into Rosemary’s routine. It was an easy way to get inside, true, but the place is a nightmare.  The book’s publisher, Kensington Books, says that is “conjures “Girl, Interrupted” meets “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest.”  

There is, however, one bright spot: Eddie, one of the janitors, can tell the girls apart. He vows to help her get out of there. The trip to the tunnels that beneath the building is as terrifying as what goes on above them. 

This is not a beach read. It's a hard read, but one that I could not put down. Some of the descriptions of the conditions there made me gag.  “The Lost Girls of Willowbrook” receives 6 out of 5 stars in Julie’s world. 

 

 

Never Saw Me Coming

Never Saw Me Coming by Vera Kurian 400 pages

The new school year is just beginning for incoming freshman Chloe Sevre. She has more on her mind than frat parties and studying at Washington D. C.’s John Adams University. An honor student, Chloe has also been selected to participate in an exclusive study led by a prestigious psychologist. Only six other students are in the program. You see, Chloe Sevre is a psychopath, as is the other six, and she has plans to kill Will Bachman. She won’t rest until he’s dead.

As the novel opens, Will Bachman has 60 days to live.

On the outside Chloe is an ordinary college student. As she interacts with those around her, readers get to see exactly how she thinks and feels---or rather doesn’t feel. As Will’s days dwindle down, other murders begin to occur on campus. The murders aren’t random, however.

Beneath the surface of what is happening on campus, there is high tension in DC. Marches and protests seem to occurred daily, but the city is preparing for its biggest rally since MLK’s March on Washington.

I wanted to love this book so much, but I just didn't care. I didn’t care how it ended or what happened to Chole and her friends. It was hard sometimes to just turn the page, but I did and every time, my high hopes kept getting dashed. I think this book is more aimed at young adults as opposed to middle-aged women. Strange feelings for a book about psychopaths? I hate it when I read and read and read, only to be disappointed at the end.

“Never Saw Me Coming ” received 1 out of 5 stars in Julie’s world.

 

The Weight of Blood

The Weight of Blood by Laura McHugh  336 pages

I usually don’t make New Year’s resolutions, but in 2018 I picked one that I thought I could actually complete.  I decided that I would pick one book that has been languishing on my library shelves. For the March selection, I picked Laura McHugh’s The Weight of Blood. Others I’ve known have told me how much they enjoyed this novel, and I was ready to pull an all-nighter, it was supposed to be that good.

McHugh uses one of my favorite writing mechanics, dualing timelines. In her debut novel, McHugh’s plot line was two disappearances a generation apart.

In current time, sixteen-year-old Lucy Dane has recently arrived from Iowa.  Although her family has deep, deep roots in this Ozark Mountain town of Henbane, she feels like an outsider.

When one of her friends, Cheri, is found murdered, hacked up and put in an abandoned tree log, Lucy vows that she will find her killer. Lucy now has two reasons to go snooping around town. First to learn who killed Cheri and whatever became of the mother who abandoned her.

The other timeline is Lucy’s mother Lila. Many in the town believed she was a witch and never knew what happened to her.

The timelines were confusing at first, as I didn’t get that Lila was Lucy’s mother. Heck I didn’t even realize that it was a competing timeline at first. Ninety percent of all the other characters were in both set of timelines, and since both sections were told in first person, I was a little lost through the first two-thirds of the novel. 

In the second half of the novel, readers get to hear other characters’ point of view. They were told in third person, which I found much easier to figure out exactly where they were in Lucy and Lila’s story.

Although this wasn’t the couldn’t-put-it down read I had anticipated, I enjoyed the story and trying to figure it out.  For me, there were still unanswered questions, which is the reason that

The Weight of Blood receives 4 out of 5 stars in Julie’s world.

Gone on Sunday

Gone On Sunday by Tower Lowe   294  pages

Everyone has some kind of secret. When you live in a small town, secrets are even harder to keep. Secrets, a cold murder case and a new murder are the essences behind Tower Lowe’s first book in the Cotton Lee Penn Historical Mystery series.

Set in Virginia in the years 1932 and 1972, Lowe provides readers with a taste of Southern Gothic—both from the Old South and the New South. It is sad that those tastes hadn’t changed in those forty years.

The book opens with lawyer Max Mayfield hiring the novel’s protagonist, Cotton Lee Penn, to help him investigate the beating death of Little Mary in 1972. The case is quite disturbing in that it bears many, many similarities to the unsolved 1932 beating death of Bead Baker (I found it both odd an interesting that each time Bead is mentioned, it’s always with her full name: Bead Baker.). Even more fascinating is that Little Mary is Bead Baker’s granddaughter.

Many in the town wonder why Max turned to Cotton Lee. After all, she is a cripple thanks to polio and walks with a limp. But as far as Max is concerned, Cotton Lee is the “smartest white person Sussex County.” (That was uttered in 1972!)

The novel jumps back and forth between 1932 and 1972, as Cotton Lee is certain that the two murders are connected. The hard part about this novel is that the possible suspects all have ties to Bead Baker’s murder. Keeping the character straight was often difficult at times. It would have been nice to have a character list in the front or back. Still, that doesn’t hinder the fast pace of the novel, or this reader’s inability to put it down.

But, quickly, here are the suspects: Did Sharp Dorn, the local, philandering and abusing minister kill Bead Baker for putting ideas in his wife Verdie’s head? Did Dorn’s son, Ron, kill Little Mary? Or was it the hired help Zed Omen in 1932 and his grandson, Doug, in 1972? I’m not sure how Lowe kept them all straight.

Another thing that bothered me, is the way that flashbacks are told in italics. It’s jarring and as I first began to read, it took me out to of the story. However, once I got into the book’s rhythm, well, it was fascinating.  

When Cotton Lee discovers some of the town’s (current and past) secrets, readers are led to the shocking conclusion.

Although I have the two problem areas, Gone on Sunday, receives 6 out of 5 stars in Julie’s world. I highly recommend it.