5 stars out of 5
Easy to read, attention-holding and a wonderful way to take a break from my usual shoot-'em-up, gore-filled action books: That's my take on this fun book that I thoroughly enjoyed from start to finish. If there's a downside, it appears to be the last in a five-book series that I wish I'd started from the beginning (although this one stands on its own just fine).
Admittedly, I'm not a huge fan of cozy mysteries - but for one primary reason: It seems to be the rule that the heroine be downright obnoxious. She goes off on her own, never paying any attention to anyone - as well as the kind of woman who, when chased by a bad guy with a knife, turns left into the dark alley instead of heading toward the well-lit, people-filled street to the right.
Not so here. In fact, I quite liked Juliet Langley, a sometime musician and self-appointed private detective who manages Java Jive, a coffeehouse in Nashville. She's intelligent, assertive but not pushy, and actually listens to the counsel of friends (and yes, even police officers) before going off the deep end. That's not to say she doesn't have emotions, though; in fact, she's got plenty. For starters, she still hasn't come totally to grips with losing her romance with town police detective, Ryder Hamilton, who switched to her best friend and PI-business partner, Maya. She's also got mixed feelings about her current, much younger go-to guy, and conjures up visions of getting together with long-time friend and coffeehouse owner Pete. Mostly,though, she's furious with her former fiance, Scott O'Malley, who ran off with another woman, cleaning out their bank accounts and causing the downfall of the coffeehouse in Juliet's home town of Liberty, Indiana, that she and Scott co-owned (yes, it does seem she's run through an excess of male companions over a very short period of time, but then that's not necessarily a bad thing).
Needless to say, Scott's totally unexpected appearance at the Nashville shop took both her and Pete by surprise - so much so that she punches him in the nose - and when he begs Juliet to use her PI skills to find his missing wife Mandi (the one he dumped Juliet to be with), she's dumbfounded. She's flat-out gobsmacked, though, when he drops dead right in the middle of the shop. When it's determined that he may have been poisoned, the local police become aware of the hostility Juliet's harboring toward the victim and consider her a person of interest at the very least.
With her reputation at stake, Juliet is intent on clearing her name and sees no alternative except to take the investigation into her own hands; somewhat reluctantly, Ryder agrees to help. The place to start, they agree, is in Liberty - just a couple of hours from Nashville - where they quickly learn that Scott and his wife are "drug dealers" (a.k.a. pharmaceutical reps). Despite the potential for better-than-decent income, though, it's pretty clear they're living lives of luxury well beyond their means.
Are the drugs in any way connected to Scott's untimely death or his wife's sudden disappearance? If she's been kidnapped, is she still alive - and can they find her in time to prevent a worst-case scenario? Of course, I can't reveal the answers - but I will say it was a real treat finding them for myself. I thank the publisher, via NetGalley, for allowing me to read an advance copy in exchange for an honest review.
Oh yes - a personal note that gave this book extra-special interest to me: Like Juliet and the author, I'm Hoosier born (but Buckeye bred). Even more coincidentally is that I grew up in Union City - less than an hour northeast of Liberty. My favorite shopping excursions were to nearby Richmond, where for a time my late father - "Buckeye Poet" Harold Pickett (a.k.a. "Slim Acres") taught Business Law at the Ivy Tech Community College campus.
Small world!
Murder Over Mochas by Caroline Fardig (Alibi, October 2017); 235 pp.
4 stars out of 5
Ever heard of Metamora, Indiana? Well, join the club. But because I was born and lived in the Hoosier State for the first eight years of my life, I've always been proud of my Bobby Knight country roots, so the setting for this book is what first got my attention. Turns out, according to Google Maps, that it's a tiny but historic canal town about a 66-minute southwesterly drive from my home town of Union City. That, and the fact that it's a cozy mystery - the kind of thing I enjoy reading in between those mess-with-your-head whodunits - prompted me to ask for (and was granted, thank you) this book in exchange for an honest review.
On the subject of location, I got more than my money's worth. Turns out that lead character Cameron Cripps-Hayman is new to Metamora, coming from Columbus (Ohio); reminiscing over her past life, she mentions several places I know well and love there, like the Short North district. The jackpot, however, came when she sat in on a class at Ivy Tech in Richmond, Indiana - the community college at which my late father taught business law for several years.
Of more import to the rest of the reading world is that this is a very good story. Cameron, recently separated from her husband Ben (Metamora's only police officer), finds a body floating in that aforementioned canal. When it's discovered that the dead woman has ties to both Cam and Ben, they become suspects - and Cam vows to do whatever it takes to find out who really did the deed. Along the way, she takes in the now-ownerless dogs that belonged to the victim (leading to the possibility of a business venture). She's also been providing telemarketing jobs for a group of people who have been ordered by the court to do community service, so she switches gears, dubs them the Metamora Action Agency and puts them to work on solving the case (much to Ben's dismay).
In between, she must deal with Ben's teenage daughter Mia, who could use an attitude adjustment (or better yet, a couple of slaps upside the head) and his snobby mother, Irene (ditto). As might be expected, Cam's relationship with Ben is on again, off again; also predictably, Cam goes off on her own despite warnings from Ben and a neighboring police chief to keep her nose out of the investigation. Is she successful? Will she and Ben patch things up or go their separate ways? Will the domineering mom-in-law and stepdaughter get their comeuppance? My lips are sealed, of course, but keep in mind that this is a cozy mystery, where, in the end, God's in his heaven and all's right with the world.
Good job!
Deadly Dog Days by Jamie M. Blair (Midnight Ink, November 2016); 240 pp.
3 stars out of 5
Based on the description and rave reviews, I picked this book with some degree of excitement when it was offered free through Kindle Unlimited. The term "psychological thriller" always gets my attention (my undergrad degree is in psychology, and while I didn't pursue that as a profession, human behavior remains a huge interest). Beyond that, it's based in my birth state of Indiana, where the author spent 20 years as a counselor in the Department of Corrections. Within the first couple of paragraphs, mention of sycamore trees and U.S. Route 40 (the former found all around me as a kid and the latter less than 30 miles from home), had me hooked.
Unfortunately, the hook never went any deeper. At least twice, I told myself to give it up, something I absolutely hate to do. Then, I convinced myself that if I could make it past the halfway point, I'd be able to stick with it. That I did - but all in all it wasn't a very pleasant experience.
On Nov. 23, 2000, 100 inmates captured 12 prison guards in the laundry dorm of the Indiana Penal Farm, and dorm counselor Tom Hemmings has been tapped to handle "negotiations" and get the situation under control before the worst happens. But he's not just dealing with the inmates' protest over lousy services; they're also members of rival gangs, and the guards are in labor unions that are at loggerheads as well.
Truth is, that bodes well for a terrific story, so just why it failed to hold my interest is hard to pin down. The writing is impeccable - it reads more like prose than a typical thriller novel (which I admit for me was more of a curse than a blessing). The many characters got a bit confusing, and somehow I just couldn't envision a prison counselor - much less guards and least of all prisoners - speaking in such a profound, esoteric manner that it was tough to wade through and didn't sound realistic coming from most of the characters. Until near the end, the story jumped around from place to place, usually forcing me to back up a few pages to determine whether the situation was present or past. And finally, although this alone had little bearing on my like or dislike, this is perhaps one of the most thoroughly depressing books I've read in a while.
All that said, at the time of this writing, 28 of the reviewers at Amazon.com had given it 5 or 4 stars. All I can say, then, is it simply wasn't my cup of tea. If it sounds like it's yours, I urge you to read what others have to say before you decide.
The Siege: A Psychological Thriller by James Hanna (Sand Hill Review Press; 1st Ed., February 2014); 276 pp.
Author, nature photographer and conservationist Gene Stratton-Porter was a favorite author of my late mother, also an Indiana native, who grew up perhaps an hour from what is now the Limberlost State Historic Site in Geneva. Stratton-Porter and her husband, Charles Porter, built a rustic 14-room log cabin home now far from the roughly 13,000-acre Limberlost Swamp in the early 1900s - and it was here that she wrote and five of her seven nature books and six of her 12 novels, including this one, Freckles and the one with which I'm more familiar, the follow-up A Girl of the Limberlost. I well remember my mother talking about that book, and the author - I'm pretty sure she even read it to me at one time.
So when I was offered an opportunity to get Freckles free at Amazon (through FreebookSifter.com), the memories came flooding back and I immediately downloaded it. Written in 1904 - well before my time and my mother's - I expected it to be a bit stilted in language and with, because of Stratton-Porter's conservationist leanings, a bit of Rachel Carson thrown in.
That it was, and more; it certainly is reflective of a time when the "upper-crust" ruled and anyone without a well-documented family pedigree virtually was a non-person. That theme, almost above all else, came through loud and clear in this book, which follows the adventures of Freckles, a young man who was orphaned as an infant (missing a hand that had been cut off). Now grown, he's earned the favor of a man who owns a lumber company and is charged with protecting the valuable trees in the Limberlost - a stretch of swamp now owned by the company. Soon, a beautiful young woman enters - dubbed the "Angel" because of her love and acceptance of every living thing regardless of "station" in life. The story then follows their adventures in trying to protect the trees, the swamp and all the creatures living within it as well as development of Angel's relationship with Freckles, who sees himself as (in modern-day terms) a total loser because he's missing both a hand and the aforesaid pedigree.
The dialogue is, in fact, a bit difficult, especially given the language of the day and Freckles' rather thick Irish brogue. Presumably, Stratton-Porter borrowed the latter from her Irish husband, but we have no idea where Freckles picked it up, since he was deposited in an English orphanage as a baby and had no interaction with anyone Irish until he was grown up (a mystery that bothers me and not a few other reviewers).
As I read along, I also kept waiting for something truly awful to happen (a box of tissues was at my elbow throughout). But this really isn't a tear-jerker; and I was more inclined, given the times in which I live, to want to smack the characters upside the head than feel sorry about their belief that circumstances dictated their destinies. But that was then, and this is now - something readers must keep in mind throughout. If you view the book as a love story between two young people and an environment they both love, it's well written and poignant.
Freckles by Gene Stratton-Porter (sold by Amazon Digital Services Inc.); 244 pp.
5 stars out of 5
