Book Reviews by vicki rock

Young Flavia de Luce is passionate about poisons. She works In the fully-equipped chemistry laboratory of her late Uncle Tarquin. Flavia has reluctantly taken on the mentorship of her cousin, Undine, who has come to live at Buckshaw following the death of her mother.

Flavian’s mother died when she was young and her father died recently, so both Flavia and Undine are now orphans. Buckshaw is the old family home of the de Luce family. The town is Bishop’s Lacey.

One morning, Major Thomas Greyleigh, a local recluse and former hangman, is found dead after a breakfast of poisonous mushrooms. Inspector Hewitt suspects the de Luce family’s longtime cook, Mrs. Margaret Mullet. She also cooks for the Greyleighs and she prepared the omelet.

Mrs. Mullet has been picking and preparing wild mushrooms for many years. She knows which are poisonous. But Flavia knows the beloved Mrs. Mullet is innocent. Together with Arthur Dogger, estate gardener and partner-in-crime, and Undine, Flavia sets out to find the real killer. What she finds will forever change her life.

This is the 11th in the cozy mystery series. While the precocious Flavia is a little over the top with what she says, her attention to her extended family is admirable. She is maturing: she was 11 when the series started and her current age isn’t stated, but her oldest sister recently married. Overall it is a fun, quick read, with a twist for fans.

I rate it four out of five stars.

People sign up for a murder mystery weekend at a country house in England. The play’s characters include Major Liversedge, Sir Lancelot Hardwick, the Rev. St. John Smallbones, Guy Burrows, Countess Irina Voranskaya and Detective Rene Armand.

What the others don’t know is that among them are private detective Jackson Brodie and Detective Constable Reggie Chase. Two weeks earlier, Brodie got two new clients, twins Ian Padgett and Hazel Sanderson. They hired Brodie because a painting is missing from their late mother’s home. Their mother, Dorothy, had a caregiver, Melanie Hope. Melanie was to return to help with funeral arrangements and getting the house ready for sale, but didn’t come back.

The murder mystery weekend is being held at Burton Makepiece House, headed by Lady Milton. Two years ago, a valuable painting by Joseph Mallord William Turner was stolen. The housekeeper, Sophie Greenway, who disappeared the same night, is suspected of stealing it.

Chase is one of the officers who responded after the theft. She and Brodie are stranded at Makepiece because of a snowstorm. The Rev. Simon Cate also ends up stranded there. Chase has a constant nagging voice in her head, that of know-it-all Brodie, who himself has “A Chorus of Women” in his head.

This is like Agatha Christie meets a game of Clue. It is humorous as Kate Atkinson pokes fun at the cozy mystery genre. It does have a lot of characters, but several are wonderful, especially Lady Milton and Ben Jennings, a neighbor who is an amputee from his service in Afghanistan. This is book six in the Jackson Brodie series.

I rate it four out of five stars.

Grace Winters, 72, is a retired math teacher. Her husband, Karl, died recently. Their son, Daniel, died years earlier, shortly before his 12th birthday. Grace says she lives the most boring life in the universe. The story is told as if Grace is writing a letter to a former student.

One morning, she receives a letter from a solicitor telling her that Christina van der Berg left her a property in Ibiza, Spain. She thinks the letter is a hoax. Yes, she knew Christina, who was a music teacher. Grace befriended Christina when she was alone one Christmas. But they hadn’t stayed in touch after Christina moved. She didn’t know that Christina had died.

Grace decides to go to Ibiza to see the property. After her flight, she gets into a taxi and shows the driver the address. And inside the house, Grace finds a letter from Christina, suggesting various places to visit. A clerk at the market tells Grace that Christina was a psychic.

Grace meets Alberto Ribas, who takes her night diving to understand what Christina experienced. Grace wakes up in a hospital. Alberto says she underwent La Presencia,
The Presence. Grace says it is frightening how quickly a belief system can change.

This is an amazing novel of grief and of adventure. It is also about ecology and friendship. The characters are wonderful as the reader is transported to a magical place. “The Life Impossible” is one of the best novels of the year.

I rate it five out of five stars

Texas Ranger Darren Mathews has just taken early retirement because he may be indicted for interfering in a homicide investigation.

When Darren believed that Rutherford McMillan killed Ronnie Malvo, an active member of the Aryan Brotherhood of Texas and hid the gun on Darren’s property, Darren didn’t turn McMillan, an elderly Black man, in. But it turned out that McMillan wasn’t the killer. By then, the gun had gotten into Darren’s mother Bell Callis’ possession.

Meanwhile, Rey and his family recently moved to Thornhill in East Texas. His friend, Sera Fuller, got into Stephen F. Austin State University. She is one of the few Black students in a white sorority. They are both 19. Since she left for college, their communication has decreased. He is still at home. Now Sera is missing. Rey found her bloodied sweatshirt in the woods.

When Darren arrives home, expecting to find only his girlfriend, Randie, he sees two cars in the driveway. Bell is there, uninvited. He last saw his mother three years ago. Randie is a freelance photographer who travels a lot. Darren solved her husband’s murder.

Before she leaves, Bell tells Darren about Sera being missing from Nacogdoches. Bell works for a maid service agency that cleans the sorority house. Darren says you can’t believe a word his mother says. He never knew his father, who died in Vietnam. Then Darren decides to look into Sera’s disappearance.

This is the final novel in the Highway 59 trilogy. The characters are interesting, but I didn’t think the plotting is as good as it the first two of the trilogy. But people who read “Bluebird, Bluebird” and “Heaven, My Home” will want to read how the series ends.

I rate it four out of five stars.

Carmen Sanchez is an agent of the National Security Division, a subsection of Homeland Security. She is based in Southern California. One day her sister Selina is attacked by a man with a knife. A bystander who runs to help her is critically injured. Selina is able to grab the attacker’s cellphone which he drops when he runs off.

With police unable to crack encrypted files on the burner cell phone, Sanchez turns to Professor Jacoby Heron. He teaches at Hewlett College in Berkley and is also a private security expert. He also owes Carmen a favor. They team up to catch the assailant, who, has no discernible motive and fits no classic criminal profile.

While the reader knows who the killer is from the beginning, and that he is driven by a compulsion he calls the Push, the story is about tracking him down.

This is the first in a new series. It is a high-action crime drama with good characters. The details of the technological analysis and investigatory processes are fascinating. Readers of either Jeffery Deaver or Isabella Maldonado will enjoy it.

I rate it four out of five stars.

Chloe Spence, 14, lives in Rosebank, a home for troubled teens in the coastal village of Longwater, England. Her parents, John and Rebecca, divorced and her father moved away. Her mother is hospitalized after a psychotic episode.

Chloe has a crush on Josh Woodburn, a staff member. Then Josh doesn’t show up for work one night. The next morning, a dog walker finds Josh’s body in the park. And Chloe is missing.

Detective Inspector Vera Stanhope is called out to investigate. Vera can’t bring herself to believe that a teenager is responsible for the murder, but even she can’t dismiss the possibility.

Vera, Joe Ashworth and new team member Rosie Bell are soon embroiled in the case. Then Vera finds a second body near the Three Dark Wives monument in Gillstead, in the wilds of the Northumberland countryside. And it’s the Gillstead Witch Hunt weekend, which draws a lot of tourists.

Vera knows she has to find Chloe to get to the truth, and the dark secrets in their community that may be far more dangerous than she could have ever believed possible.

This is the 11th in the series. Ann Cleeves’ writing is compelling and tight. The characters are multilayered and the plot is intense. The murderer will come as a surprise but the overall motive is basic. If you haven’t read Ann Cleeves books, you’re missing one of the top mystery writers there is.

I rate it five out of five stars.

Bard College student Melina Green writes a play for a college competition that is heavily criticized, especially by reviewer Jasper Tolle. She is devastated when she gets a C minus in the class. She doesn’t write for another two years.

Her father, who is doing their family genealogy, found that an ancestor on her late mother’s side was Emilia Bassano. She was the first published female poet in England in 1611.

Melina researches Emilia and writes a new work inspired by Emilia’s life. The play is called “By Any Other Name.” But seeing it performed is unlikely, in a theater world where the playing field isn’t level for women.

She considers submitting it for a playwriting festival. As Melina wonders if she dares risk failure again, Andre, her best friend, takes the decision out of her hands and submits the play to the Village Fringe Festival under a male pseudonym. They continue with the deception to the play’s production.

The other timeline begins in 1581, when a young Emilia Bassano is a ward of English aristocrats. Susan Bertie, the Countess of Kent, is her guardian. Queen Elizabeth has called Susan to court. She is being ordered to remarry. She must move to Denmark.

Emilia’s lessons on languages, history, and writing have endowed her with a sharp wit and a gift for storytelling, but like most women of her day, she is allowed no voice of her own. When she is 13, she is forced to become a mistress to the Lord Chamberlain, who oversees all theatre productions in England. He is 43 years older than Emilia.

Emilia sees firsthand how the words of playwrights can move an audience. She begins to form a plan to secretly bring a play of her own to the stage—by paying an actor named William Shakespeare to front her work.

The research behind this book is amazing. Emilia Bassano was a real person. While I knew there are questions if Shakespeare wrote all the works attributed to him, I didn’t know the reasons underlying those doubts. I went back and forth between which of the two timelines is my favorite. Another outstanding novel by Jodi Picoult.

I rate it five out of five stars.

For Georgia Bureau of Investigations investigator Will Trent and medical examiner Sara Linton, McAlpine Lodge seems like the ideal getaway to celebrate their honeymoon. Set on a gorgeous, off-the-grid mountaintop property, it’s the perfect place to unplug and reconnect.

They are in a lake when someone screams. They run back to the lodge and see one of the cabins is on fire. Mercy McAlpine, the manager of the lodge, was stabbed and is dying. She is able to briefly speak to Will before her death.

The story then goes back in time to reveal problems in the McAlpine family. And Will knows one of them from when he was a foster child. Then another person dies.

The characters are great and the plot is a variation of a locked room mystery. The only drawback is the identity of the murderer was too easy to figure out, despite several misdirections. Warning, there is domestic violence and sexual abuse. This is the 12th in the series. The television show “Will Trent” is based on the books.

I rate it four out of five stars.

Cork O’Connor, his son Stephen, son-in-law Daniel English and grandson, Waaboo, are picking wild blueberries in Taramack County, Minnesota when seven-year-old Waaboo stumbles across a shallow grave. He is able to hear the spirit of the deceased woman.

Cork calls Sheriff Marsha Dross. Two weeks earlier, Olivia Hamilton, whose father is a state senator, ran off from a youth camp. Her disappearance is major news in Minnesota. Nobody seems that interested in the Ojibwe woman. Nobody, except Cork and the newly formed Iron Lake Ojibwe Tribal Police. Daniel is an officer with the tribal police.

The body isn’t Olivia nor is it Crystal Two Knives, a young Ojibwe woman who has been missing for six months. As Cork and the tribal officers dig into the circumstances of this grim discovery, they uncover a connection to the missing teenager. And soon, it’s clear that Cork’s grandson is in danger of being the killer’s next victim. Elder Henry Meloux helps keep Waboo and others safe.

At the same time, the O’Connors are also preparing for Stephen’s wedding to Belle Morriseau, which is six weeks away. Cork’s daughter, Annie, has arrived earlier than expected. She is keeping secrets. Her friend, Maria Lopez, is with her. Maria and Cork’s wife, Rainy, are both nurses.

The plot is engaging and the characters are wonderful. The ending is sad. I enjoy the insights into Native American culture. This is the 20th in the series, but it can be read as a stand alone. William Kent Krueger is a storyteller in the classic sense of the word.

I rate it four out of five stars.

When a pilot suffers a heart attack at 35,000 feet, and the copilot is barricaded in the restroom, a commercial airliner filled with 295 people crashes into a nuclear power plant in the small town of Waketa, Minnesota.

Ethan Rosen is the manager of the Clover Hill Nuclear Power facility. Since Sept. 11, 2001, he’s known that a plane crash into the plant would be catastrophic.

The International Nuclear Event Scale tracks nuclear disasters. It has seven levels. Level 7 is a Major Accident, with only two on record: Fukushima and Chernobyl. There has never been a Level 8. This incident has the potential of being the first ever Level 8: an extinction level event.
 
When the plane crashes, the Rev. Michaels, pastor of United Grace Church in Waketa, is conducting a Good Friday service. Steve Tostig, who is in the church, is fire chief of the plant’s on site fire department. He rushes to the plant. Dr. Joselyn Vance, the regional nuclear emergency support team contact person, is on her way.

Power plant employees, firefighters, teachers, families, neighbors and friends are thrust into an extraordinary situation. With roads closed by vehicle crashes caused by the plane crash, the people of the town must come together.

This is a very intense, stressful, fast-moving disaster scenario with multiple storylines. Yes, it is about a plane crash, but it is more about the community coming together after the plane crash. The unforgettable characters are like people you know in your hometown. Have a box of tissues nearby: The ending is very emotional.

I rate it five out of five stars.

Gia and Abby have been friends since childhood. Gia is a wealthy heiress. Abby’s mother was the family’s cook. Gia’s brother, Benny, writes screenplays.

When they were 18, Abby was attacked by Gia’s stalker. Gia killed the man and later wrote a memoir about the attack. Abby said that her memory is substantially different than Gia's book, but Abby kept quiet.

Gia and Abby are now 30. Abby is an attorney. Gia is newly married to Garrett. When Gia invites Abby on an all-expenses-paid trip to Sweden to celebrate her birthday, Abby accepts.

But on the day of her flight, Abby receives an ominous email. When Abby and Benny arrive in Sweden, Gia isn’t there. Worried, Abby and Benny fly to Greece, where they find Gia’s beachfront estate deserted, the sole clue to her whereabouts a manuscript she wrote. Pages from Gia’s journal details the trouble in her marriage and her finances.

The novel starts out strong, but fizzles out. The characters are unlikeable, especially Gia who is an egotistical clueless rich person. The plot is convoluted and the ending is vague.

I rate it three out of five stars.

When Morgan Hensley and Benjamin Weil surprise their families with a wedding invitation to Maine, they’re aware the news of their relationship will come as a shock. Twelve years have passed since Alice, 16, jumped off a bridge. Alice was Benji’s sister and Morgan’s best friend.

The wedding will be the first time their families will reunite since Alice’s funeral. Benji’s parents, Nicholas and Linnie, have since divorced. Peter, Morgan’s father, thinks the wedding is too hasty. Nick’s new wife, Caro, doesn’t know he is having financial trouble. Linnie is dating Ezra.

The characters here are all haunted by Alice and the question of why she jumped and could they have done something to prevent it. Linnie and Nick get the most coverage in the book. There are a lot of flashbacks. Most of the characters are unlikeable. The family is dysfunctional.