Blue Nude by Elizabeth Rosner

     The daughter of Holocaust survivors, Elizabeth Rosner of Berkeley wrote her first novel about the secrets such trauma engenders in a family, particularly the temptation to bury the past. The two principal characters in Rosner's novel Blue Nude are descended from Nazi and Jew, and both have been trying without success to forget their pasts when fate brings them together.

     Merav grew up on a kibbutz in Israel with a mother who had narrowly escaped death at the hands of the Germans. After Merav's lover was killed in a bus bombing, she emigrated to America, trying to escape the violence. She has found herself in San Francisco, working as an artist's model, a trade for which she has a real talent. Merav has had boyfriends and a brief marriage but has been unable to build a lasting relationship with anyone.

REVIEW BY SIMON AND SCHUSTER, CANADA

Dry. A memoir. by Augusten Burroughs



What a poweful memoir!  As Augusten must come to terms with his alcholism, and concurrently his abusive childhood, his ex-lover's deeath from AIDS, the job he dislikes, and rehab and AA meetings, he uses humour and sharp description to allow the reader an inside view of his struggle. I recommend this.

The Virgin Blue by Tracy Chevalier

Ella Turner (Tournier) and her husband, Rick, travel to France for a work assignment of Rick's. Peculiar dreams connect Ella to ancestors from the 1500's. This sets her on a journey of self-discovery which takes the reader to the story of the Tourniers at the time of the Catholic persecution of the Calvinists and Huguenots. Ella meets 'family' in Switzerland, giving her a respite from her problems with her husband.  She is falling in love with a local librarian, at the same time as she has become pregnant.  A variety of characters in the present and the past generate the colour of their lives. Ella must make serious decisions and put to rest the Virgin blue that invades her mind.

This Body of Death by Elizabeth George

While DI Thomas Lynley is still on compassionate leave after the murder of his wife, Isabelle Ardery is brought into the Met as his temporary replacement. The discovery of a body in a Stoke Newington cemetery offers Isabelle the chance to make her mark with a high profile murder investigation. Persuading Lynley back to work seems the best way to guarantee a result: Lynley's team is fiercely loyal to him and Isabelle needs them - and especially Barbara Havers - on side. The Met is twitchy: a series of PR disasters has undermined its confidence. Isabelle knows that she'll be operating under the unforgiving scrutiny of the media, so is quick -- perhaps too quick - to pin the murder on a convenient suspect. The murder trail leads Lynley and Havers to the New Forest, and the eventual resolution of the case. Its roots are in a long-ago act of violence that has poisoned subsequent generations and its outcome is both tragic and shocking. Review by GoodReads.

The Dovekeepers by Alice Hoffman

This novel does not disappoint.  I've always enjoyed the history of the 'Biblical' times.  Whether I'm reading The Red Tent or Testament, I remained glued to the pages.  The Dovekeepers is a complicated story of four women who each tell their story of how they came to be at the Jerusalem fortress, trying to withstand the Roman assault.  There are potions, spells, prayers, incantations, hard work, hunger,  and doomed love affairs.  Alice Hoffman does an excellent job of revealing the day-to-day life of the times.  Weaving, cooking, childbirth, and love all reveal a world of honour, harness, homelessness, This is not a story of action.  The lives of the women are chronicled with patience, as are the lives of women.  The women in the novel learn to share, support, and love one another as the shared adversity of women is recognized in a way that binds them and their children together.

Don't Cry Now by Joy Fielding

The prolific Joy Fieding has added another mystery to her credit.  A young mother and local school teacher has been accused of the murder of her husband's ex-wife.  At the same time, she is trying to care for his two teenage children, as well as her own daughter. Twists and turns keep the reader guessing until the end.  A real who-dunit!

State of Wonder by Ann Patchett

Somehow the heroine, Marina Singh (with an "h") lacked emotional depth for me. In spite of all the childhood memories and dedication to her pharmaceutical company, 'Vogel', the author did not make her seem real.  Marina did whatever she was told.  When her boss and lover, Mr. Fox, dispatched her to the Amazon she went willingly, telling herself she was doing it for the Alders.  She needed to have closure on Annick Alder's death.Yet, it was Fox who should have gone.

       There are too many unanswered questions in this novel.  Why did Dr. Swenson not reveal her knowledge of Marina as a former student and the botched C-section?  How was it that Alders was still alive?  Why did Swenson write that he was dead?  Swenson seemed to be a law unto herself. Who was the father of Dr. Swenson's unborn child? Why did Marina allow herself to be drawn into the tribe's lifestyle - wearing their clothes, having her hair braided, and participating in the women's fertility rituals? Though the novel was interesting in its description of the jungle and events medical, my opinion is less enthusiastic than many of the reviews I have read to try and understand the story.  And what was with the deaf child and the young couple who occupied Dr. Swenson's house in the city? 

The Abstinence Teacher by Tom Perrotta

     
  By the author of Little Children, this novel is a story which shows the divide between the Christian evangelical movement and the liberal middle class.  A teacher, Ruth, was assigned a sex ed course in her local high school which would not present birth control other than abstinence.  Her views and opinions for a more open and realistic curriculum put her in conflict with her school and community. She became romantically involved with her daughter's soccer coach who belonged to a fundamental Christian 'tabranacle', causing another divide for Ruth.  

Insatiable by Meg Cabot

What a fun sequel! Meena just can't seem to get her love life and her work life in line. It's not every day that someone employed by the Vatican to roust vampires falls in love with the prince of darkness. Her ability to predict death, an unemployed brother, and well-meaning colleagues all figure into this plot which has twists and turns unexpected. Will Meena ever find true love?  Will Lucien become human? Will Alaric get his girl?  Will a diabolical Vatican plot be exposed? Meg Cabot takes you on a romp through the underworld - no, I mean the waters which flow beneath New York City.  The author of the Princess Diaries again stakes her claim as an author of novels for young women (and old ones like me).

The Paid Companion by Amanda Quick

Lots of fun.  Another romp by a Victorian heroine who is independent, determined, and adventurous. Quite the exception to the standards of the time.  Very authentic settings, costuming, and values. As good as The River Knows. Love the pseudonym, Jayne.

Blink by Malcolm Gladwell

Blink disappointed me.  Having read The Outliers and also The Tipping Point, I  found this text to be tedious and overdone.  The first chapter said it all.  People make first impressions and they are most often right. How the brain does it depends on many things.  But, I do likle the author's hair. The End.

The Pull of the Moon by Diane Janes

    Ghosts, cement, and murder - This novel surprised me by its cleverly constructed plot and development of the characters. It is the most intelligent mystery that I've read recently.  Katy was 19 years old when she decided to spend the summer with her boyfriend, Danny, and his friend, Simon.  A runaway teenage girl, Trudie, changes the dynamic of the group.  The author takes us to the present as Katy prepares to meet Danny's mother who is dying in a nursing home.  Before she dies she wants answers to the questions she has surrounding that summer of '72.  Only Katy knows the truth. She has held many secrets over her lifetime.  Good read!

The Glass Castle by Jeanette Walls

This book is excellent! 

Jeannette Walls grew up with parents whose ideals and stubborn nonconformity were both their curse and their salvation. Rex and Rose Mary Walls had four children. In the beginning, they lived like nomads, moving among Southwest desert towns, camping in the mountains. Rex was a charismatic, brilliant man who, when sober, captured his children's imagination, teaching them physics, geology, and above all, how to embrace life fearlessly. Rose Mary, who painted and wrote and couldn't stand the responsibility of providing for her family, called herself an "excitement addict." Cooking a meal that would be consumed in fifteen minutes had no appeal when she could make a painting that might last forever.

Later, when the money ran out, or the romance of the wandering life faded, the Walls retreated to the dismal West Virginia mining town—and the family—Rex Walls had done everything he could to escape. He drank. He stole the grocery money and disappeared for days. As the dysfunction of the family escalated, Jeannette and her brother and sisters had to fend for themselves, supporting one another as they weathered their parents' betrayals and, finally, found the resources and will to leave home.

What is so astonishing about Jeannette Walls is not just that she had the guts and tenacity and intelligence to get out, but that she describes her parents with such deep affection and generosity. Hers is a story of triumph against all odds, but also a tender, moving tale of unconditional love in a family that despite its profound flaws gave her the fiery determination to carve out a successful life on her own terms. --Simon and Schuster, Canada

The Swimming Pool by Holly LeCraw (2010)

"I’m a Southerner born and bred, and I grew up going to the beach for a couple of weeks every year in South Carolina, where the water is as warm as your bath, the pace is slow, and the fake-bamboo furniture is comfortable. Then, after a move to Boston that still baffles even me, I met my husband, who summered. (In all fairness, his family would be loath to use that word; nevertheless, when you decamp to the coast for the entire summer, every summer, that’s summering.) Moreover, they summered on Cape Cod, in a very old house built to withstand howling winter winds (small windows, fireplaces, and low ceilings), and where the decor was not, um, tropical. The water was often freezing. The air was often freezing. In August.

As I’ve begun talking to people about my debut novel, The Swimming Pool, I’ve noticed that one of the most popular questions people ask is “Where did you get the idea for your book?” and that, often, what they are really asking is, “Is it autobiographical?” It’s hard to believe that writers make up stories out of thin air, and for good reason: they don’t. Somewhere, in every book, there are elements hidden of the writer, of the writer’s family, the writer’s history and experience. The best description I have heard is “refracted autobiography”--emphasis on refracted. For instance, The Swimming Pool is the story of a young man, Jed McClatchey, who is mired in grief for his parents, who died seven years previously--his mother in a still-unsolved break-in/murder. Jed falls in love and begins an affair with an older woman, Marcella Atkinson, who he then learns was his late father’s mistress; as one might imagine, complications and revelations ensue.


Now. I am happily married. My parents are both alive. I don’t know anyone who was murdered. I am not Italian (Marcella is). I don’t know any cougars personally. It is all made up.


Except for the fact that this book is set on Cape Cod, and Marcella, an expatriate from a warm and sunny clime, is mystified by it. And except that Jed, who just happens to be a Southerner, has grown up summering there. Which is not usual for a boy from Atlanta. One might say that I have split myself between my two protagonists: I have the woman who feels like a constant outsider; I have the man who loves being somewhere different, who knows how different it is from his birthplace and yet who gets it. Because I think I finally get the Cape, after twenty-something years. Or maybe I just get it enough to fake it. I can still stand a bit outside. I can see it clearly, in a way that it is sometimes hard for me to see the places where I grew up.


It is the quintessential stance of the writer: you’ve got to blend in. You’ve got to pass. You’ve got to get people to forget that you’re watching, hard. And, really, they shouldn’t be nervous; the things writers notice, or that I notice, anyway, are not the things one might expect. In this case, there was a story I heard long ago about a family I barely knew, where the middle--aged husband left his high-school-sweetheart wife--a sad, but garden-variety, occurrence. For some reason, it stuck in my head. And then it combined with the feel of the sun beating down on a clay tennis court in the woods (a court I decidedly watched from the outside; I couldn’t hit the broad side of a barn with a tennis ball), with the cast-in-amber interior of a beloved old Yankee house, and with the sort of crime one might read about in the newspaper and then promptly forget. My own experience with postpartum depression was given to a secondary character, and intensified. My one trip ever to the Connecticut coast yielded a place for Marcella’s escape. And on and on.


Where did I get the idea for the book? I have no idea. Is it autobiographical? Of course not. Of course.


As it happens, I still get to go to South Carolina occasionally, often in August, when I can sweat to my heart’s content. As it also happens, I wrote much of the book on the Cape. I belong to both places, and to neither. As a writer, it’s better that way." --Holly LeCraw--

Ines of my Soul by Isabel Allende

The Pursuit of Alice Thrift by Elinor Lipman

 Alice Thrift, M.D. has a great I.Q. and good itentions, however, her social life is non-existent and her ability to read social skills is highly impaired.  When 'Don Juan' enters her life, intent on winning her affections, one wonders if he is sincere or simply a gigilo.  This novel is filled with humour and restrained sympathy for Alice. I lookmforwrd to reading other books by this author.

Read but Not Reviewed

Upcoming Reviews

 Silent Mercy by Linda Fairstein  (Women's bodies left dismembered on the steps of a cathedral and old synagogue lead Alexandra Cooper to a circus train and remote vacation island.)

Life on the Refrigerator Door by Alice Kuipers (mother with cancer and her teenage daughter communicate often with notes on the rrefrigerator)

Fly Away Home by Jennifer Weiner

The Weed that Strings the Hangman's Bay by Alan Bradley  (The third book of this delightful trilogy which features the youngest of three sisters and their eccentric household. 11 year old, playing the naive child, is always one step ahead of the local constabulary. A modern day Harriet the Spy.
Infidel by Ayaan Hirsi Ali

Blackbird House by Alice Hoffman

The Deadhouse by Linda Farstein

Signora da Vinci by Robin Maxwell

Cutting for Stone by Abraham Verghese


The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie by Alan Bradley

Red Herring and Mustard by Alan Bradley


Beach Reads: Sullivan's Island by Dorthea Benton Frank


The Beach House by Jane Green


The Deep Blue Sea For Beginners by Luanne Rice


Mystery/Detective: Edge of Midnight, Murder Take Two, Up in Smoke  by Charlene Weir


Night Tales : Nightshade and Night Smoke by Norah Roberts


The Lake of Dreams by Kim Edwards


Sullivan's Evidence by Nancy Taylor Rosenberg


Fired Up by Jayne Ann Krentz


Still Summer by Jacquelyn Mitchaud (3 women + 1 daughter on a sailboat)


The Late, Lamented Molly Marx by Sally Koslow


The School of Night by Louis Bayard


Eats, Shoots & and; Leaves:  The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation by Lynne Truss


Hurting Distance by Sophie Hannah


Mr and Mrs Anonymous by Fern Michaels (thumbs down)


The Cure by Athold Dickson (interesting look at the homeless)


Now You See Her by Joy Fielding (mother in search of her dead daughter)                                                                                                                                                     


Charley's Web by Joy Fielding (journalist interviewing female 'baby' killer on Death Row)


The Wild Zone by Joy Fielding (surprising twist to a story of brothers and domestic
 violence)


Still Life (in a coma, but able to hear, a woman learns her husband tried to kill her)


The Saturday Big Tent Wedding Party by Alexander McCall Smith (delightful!)


The Arraignment by Steve Martini (a Paul Madriani novel)


The Jury by Steve Martini


The Reversal by Steve Martini


A Change in Altitude by Anita Shrieve (a serious look at the first year of marriage, set in Kenya)


Friday Nights by Joanna Trollope (a collection of misplaced people become a community)


Best Friends Forever by Jennifer Wiener (two women rekindle a childhood friendship, comedic)


Cold Moon Home:  An Abby Silvernale Mystery by Julia Pomeroy (aging scuptor's daughters
childhood secrets revealed 


Portuguese Irregular Verbs  by Alexander McCall Smith (bizarre and funny)


The Finer Points of Sausage Dogs  by above


At the Villa of Reduced Circumstances by above





Just purchased: The Postmistress

On Chesil Beach

Lost moments, lost opportunities. Tender and sad.

The Birth House

Posted by Jules in 2011 Challenges, 2011 Reviews, canadian authors & can lit, Fiction, Women Write

 The Birth House is the story of Dora Rare, the first daughter to be born in five generations of Rares. As a child in an isolated village in Nova Scotia, she is drawn to Miss Babinau, an outspoken Acadian midwife with a gift for healing and in a kitchen filled with herbs and folk remedies. During the turbulent first years of World War I, Dora becomes the midwife's apprentice. Together they help the women of the Scots Bay through infertility, difficult labours, and even unfulfilling sex lives.
When Gilbert Thomas, a brash medical doctor, comes to Scots Bay, with promises of fast, painless childbirth, many in the community begin to question Miss Babineau's methods. After Miss Babineau disappears, Dora is left to carry on alone. In the face of fierce strength and fight to protect the birthing traditions and women's wisdom that have been passed down to her.
Filled with details that are as compelling as they are surprising - childbirth in the aftermath of the Halifax Explosion, the prescribing of vibratory treatments to cure hysteria and mysterious exlir called the Beaver Brew - The Birth House is an unforgettable tale of the struggles women have to face to maintain control over their own bodies and to keep the best parts of tradition alive in the world of modern medicine.







Remember When



An interesting strategy is used by the author in writing this book in that Nora Roberts uses her pseudonym J.D. Robb to write the second half of the novel a novel.  The story is of a diamond heist committed by Laine Tavish's father, Jack O'hara, and his two partners in crime.  Laine has left the life of her childhood and settled in Maryland where she runs an antique store. Proper, but sexy, she is determined to shed the life of her childhood.One of her father's partner dies outside her shoo[p as he tries to tell her about the diamonds.  Another ruthless partner attempts to find the diamonds and frightens Laine, as well as the insurance investigator, Max Gannon, who is looking for the diamonds. Max and Laine become romantically involved, so there is good that comes out of their strange tale. Samantha Gannon is the granddaughter of Laine and Max.  A successful and independent reader, she is reminiscent of her grandmother.  However murder is committed and Eve (heroine of J.D. Robb's futuristic novels) must solve the crime which is connected to the diamond theft of 50 years prior.

Margaret Trudeau: Changing My Mind

The title of this novel suggests a double entrendre, Margaret Trudeau attempts to understand the changes in her life and the role of mental illness in those changes.  She never blames anyone for her decisions, but always takes responsibility for them.  There are events in her life which are shared with the former Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau, and then further events with her second husband, Fred Kempler. Her biography begins with her first marriage and the political stir that caused and the expectations levied on Margaret. Feeling a failure, Margaret left Pierre.  She did not have full custody of the three children, Justin, Michael and Sasha, but did continue to have a positive relationship with them.  Two more children followed in her second marriage.

Her emotional state became more and more fragile, to the point where she was hospitalized more than once.

The death of her son Michael caused her depression to lessen.  She was diagnosed as manic-depressive, which explained her many impulses and emotional lows. The book is illustrated with many pictures from her life, which are stories in themselves.  Most Canadians will not learn much about the political affairs of the nation, but may come to better understand a beautiful woman whose life has been filled with both joy and sorrow. It is my observation that considerable bravery is involved in showing the world your mistakes and your complete helplessness.  Margaret Trudeau in a strait-jacket is not a pretty picture.



The Help

 

Excellent read about race relations in American South in the 60's.

Ice Cold

What a suspenseful mystery novel!  It could be a great screen play as there was so much action throughout. The heroine, Dr. Isles, had to cross country ski to find help, and then had to climb mountainous terrain to escape death.  However, the book had a disconnect. Once Maura had left the compound on her skis, there was no reporting on the three characters left behind.  They disappeared from the novel, and the reader was introduced to new characters, some good and some evil.  Yet Father Daniel, who should be the one representing morality, forces Maura to make a life-altering decision. A fast read.

Buried Evidence

I'm reading murder mysteries again - gotta stop and go for more cerebral writings. Oh well, a little murder never hurt anyone! This book reads like a carriature of the genre.

The talented DA and her university aged daughter were brutally raped years ago, and now the perp is back on the streets looking to kill the woman responsible for his incarceration, afore mentioned lawyer.

Throw in an alcoholic, no-good, unemployed husband and a dashing prosecution lawyer, and it's no contest for the missus.

In the end, well, why don't I just let you read it for yourself?

The Other Family

Chrissie loved her husband for 23 years.  They had three daughters and a good life. But Ritchie would never marry her, in spite of her buying a wedding ring.  When Ritchie dies expectantly his will provides for a son and wife whom he walked away from years earlier.  He was terrible father to his son Scott and in death wanted him remembered.  Chrissie and her two older girls wanted nothing to do with Scott and his mother, yet the youngest daughter wants a relationship with her half-brother.  She defies her mother and goes to spend time with Scott, being very well treated by Margaret, Ritchie's abandoned wife.  Amy paves the way for a connection that her father had been too weak or negligent to create.


This novel is a good read, leaving many questions unanswered.  How could a father and husband be so cold as to ignore his first family?  How could this same father be so loving to the children of his second family? How could Chrissie be so spiteful when she is the one who invaded Ritchie's first life, and how could Margaret be so understanding?

Dead Like You

Detective Superintendent Roy Grace has a serial raptist stealing shoes as a trophy of his conquests.  The case is very similar to a cold case file from the 1990's, so investigation becomes murky. Meandering throughout the sleuthing are flashbacks to the 10 year disappearance of Grace's wife, Sandy.  Grace is now in love and about to become a father with a woman who has made him whole again. (What a cliche I just wrote!) As the fifth victim is saved is appears that the Shoe Man has been caught. But is this the perp of both cases? Maybe not.

Peter James writes with intelligence, giving you just enough info about his characters to not let them overtake the plot of the crime.

Secret Daughter

In India, Kavita gives birth to her second daughter, the first having been taken from her, never to be seen again. Killed?  Her husband, insists that the second daughter also be removed from their lives.  Kavita and her sister walk a great distance to bring the baby girl to an orphanage.  An orphanage from which she is adopted by a couple of married doctors. He is native to India and she is a white American. Asha has a good life but is missing her Indian connection, which she experiences on a visit to her Indian grandmother.


The third child Kavita has is the beloved son, Vijay, who does not prove to be the son that offers them their earthly and spiritual salvation.  Asha searches out the identity of her birth parents and learns to let go and love the family she has. Her birth parents also learn of her identity through a magazine article.  They never meet this daughter, after years of quilt has burdened them.  But learning of her good fate gives them some relief.


Though a bestseller, I found the characters to be superficial and cold - and the story read like a melodrama. I found the son, Vijay, believable and also like the Indian grandmother.

A Secret Kept

Antoine and Melanie, brother and sister, return to the beach in France where they vacationed as children as a celebration of her birthday.  Their holidays had involved their grandparents and parents. Many memories stired, one so vital that once shared it caused Antoine to question his childhood, parent's relationship, and his role as a single parent of teenagers.

With inquiry and confrontation, Antoine discovers the truth about his mother and her death, and begins to understand his father's demise as an aloof and bitter parent.  Antoine's own relationship with his children is uneasy, as he learns to separate himself from his ex-wife.  Angele comes into his life at a time when he is struggling with his relationships, helping him learn to feel good about himself again.

The Full Cupboard of Life

Alexander McCall Smith
The Full Cupboard of Life
The No.1 Ladies Detective Agency
198 pp.
Toronto: Alfred A. Knopf , 2003


No one delights the literary senses more than Alexander McCall Smith in his novels of life in Botswana. Mma Precious Ramotswe's intuition and kindness shines through her detective work as the number one lady detective in her country. Her secretary (pardon me, the administrative assistant), Mma Ramotswe's wedding plans are limping forward while the case of a wealthy woman occupies the agency. This novel is one of a series. All books require a cup of tea and the ability to enjoy simple acts of humanity.

Her Fearful Symmetry

Twin sisters are bound to one another by the past. Elspeth is dying of cancer and so has bequeathed her London flat to her two nieces, who live with Elspeths sister, Edie, in the United States.  Elspeth has a young lover who lives in the flat beneath hers.  He works at the cemetery adjacent the house. Robert gives tours and is an academic who fails to make headway with his thesis.  He is emotionally paralyzed by Elspeth's death. However, emotional paralysis is a theme shared by other characters in the novel.

Edie allows her daughters, who are also twins, to travel to London and reside in the flat, as the condition of ownership is that the girls occupy the flat for one year.  The novel explores the relationship which the girls have with one another, and with their neighbours. Martin lives on the third floor and has such extreme OCD that he never leaves the flat.  His wife has recently left him due to the many barriers he has constructed around his world.

Julia and Valentina, the twins, begin to respond to peculiar happenings in their aunt's flat.  Elspeth's ghost is haunting the space and communicating with them through her ability to move objects. They inform Robert, who responds with compete belief. As the suspense mounts and the story unfold, the characters take on more definition.  We learn more about Edie and why she left England, vowing never to return.  Julia who is timid like a mouse and Valentina who seems so selfish, like her aunt, begin to test themselves as independent women.

No all characters are likable, but the surprise ending explains much, as peculiar as it is.  This book held my interest, especially the ghost story and Martin's life upstairs.  An exciting read!  You may want to read, The Time Traveller's Wife, also by Audrey Niffenegger.

Secrets to the Grave

This novel continues where Deeper Than The Dead  ends. Tami Hoag writes a very suspenceful story.  Her plot and subplots are clever and imaginative.  However, her characters lack depth, but in a series she may be able to develop them more fully.  When I read one of her books, I do n ot want to put it down.  Some of her descriptions are not for the faint of heart.  She is truly one of the best murder mystery writers.

Ladies No.1 Detective Agency

I cannot say enough good about Alexander McCall Smith's series featuring Precious Ramotswe,  as the fearless and intelligent detective .  With the assistance of her secretary, Mma Grace Makutsi (administrative asssistant) who has the higest mark in typing ever received at the Secretarial School for Girls, she brings resolution and comfort to her clients while misadventure swirls around her.  Reading one of the novels in this series is like laying in the warm spring sunshine, or receiving a letter from a long-lost friend. The characters are born of the African soil, with kindness for their kinsmen guiding their way.

With her white truck kept in repair by Mr. J.L. B. Matekoni and his crew of somewhat irresponsible mechanics, Mma Ramotswe is able to travel the dusty roads which take her to locations where she finds  theives, adulterers, and murderers.  All in a day's work for the traditionally built woman.

Read the following:
The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency (1998) · Tears Of The Giraffe (2000) · Morality for Beautiful Girls (2001) · The Kalahari Typing School for Men (2002) · The Full Cupboard of Life (2003) · In the Company of Cheerful Ladies (2004) · Blue Shoes and Happiness (2006) · The Good Husband of Zebra Drive (2007) · The Miracle at Speedy Motors (2008) · Tea Time for the Traditionally Built (2009) · The Double Comfort Safari Club (2010) · TV series (2008)

The Boleyn Wife

Lady Jane Parker marries Anne Boleyn's dashing brother, George.  It was an arranged marriage by their fathers.  George has no use for Jane, who feels unloved.  Jane is the narrator as she chronicles her life from Henry V111's first wife, Catherine of Aragon to Katherine Howard, who was beheaded for adultery.  Jane had a front row seat to the drama of Henry's Court, as well as a participating role.


However, I would suggest reading the novels by Phillipa Gregory (The Other Boleyn Girl, The Red Queen, The Constant Princess, etc. ) which chronicle this era in more detail and with sophistication.

The Shape of Snakes; Fox Evil

In classic British style Minette Walters weaves a story that keeps you in suspence throughout the novel.  There is the clash of classes, with the police often bumbling the investigation.  Strong female protagonists keep the interest high and even the 'good' characters have their flaws.  In The Shape of Snakes, Tourette's Syndrome is explored, while in Fox Evil, the plight of the poor who travel from town to town in their trailers is exposed. Minette Walters is an intelligent author. 

Harvest AND The Bone Garden AND Sinner

Tess Gerritsen is an intelligent author who contributes admirably to the genre of the mystery.  Her strong female characters and well developed plots make her novels a good read.

 



These three novels are penned by Tess Gerritsen, who is a physician turned author. Both rely heavily on her medical knowledge for character development and plot.

In Harvest, a ring of doctors are involved in illegal organ procurement in order to meet the needs of those who pay. The system for organ donation is by-passed (sorry, no pun intended) through a lack of ethics and financial gain. Informative and suspenseful, as the true colours of the players are not revealed until the very end.

The Bone Garden is two stories in one, however the tales merge by the conclusion of the novel. The details of medical life in the 1830's is fascinating, as is the exposure of life for the poor and women, both terms being mutually inclusive. The conditions of childbirth led to many deaths and peculiar actions of certain characters interested in hiding paternity. The heroine's discovery of unidentified bones in the garden she is creating for her new home leads to a remarkable connection from the former inhabitants of their house to the bones of a long lost woman.

The Sinner - can a nun be pregnant? Can she then be brutally murdered? Is the parish priest responsible? A fast paced mystery that has the reader wondering until the conclusion.

Wolf Hall

Hilary Mantel
Wolf Hall
650 pp.

Toronto:  Harper Collins, 2009                 


Winner of the 2009 Man Booker P and the National Book Critics Circle Award. This book is simply excellent.  It is a personal look at Tudor times (1500-1535)  through the eyes of Thomas Cromwell. Wolf Hall is a fictionalized biography documenting the rapid rise to power of Thomas Cromwell, 1st Earl of Essex in the court of Henry VIII of England.  Cromwell's rise to power from a working class family was incredible.  The Tudor break from the Church of Rome, the divorces and the deaths of Henry VIII's wives, and Cardinal Wolsey demise were only some of the events to which Cromwell was an advisor.  The novel ends with another death ordered by Henry, securing Cromwell as one of the most poweful men at Court.  Though political in nature, the stories of many individuals are told, making this era come alive and seem relevant today.

Trace

Patricia Cornwall
Trace:  A Scarpetta Novel
435 pp.
New York:  Putnam, 2004

Thumbs down for this mystery!  Cornwall did not develop her characters, leaving the reader wondering why and what would be their motivations.  The parents of the murdered 14 year old girl are totally unbelievable in their peculiar relationship and their feelings toward other people.  Scarpetta is yet another forensic medical examiner performing stellar autopsies under bureaucratic pressure. Her side-kick, a former rough cop, never leaves her side, even when she attends professional meetings. It's just not done in the real world.  This particular novel is also disjointed, jumping from story to story, with the secondary story not being understood or developed in conjunction to the main narrative. Because I enjoy mystery novels I may read another of her many published novels.  Perhaps she has done better work.

A Cold Christmas

A Cold Christmas                                                                                              

Susan Wren Mysteries

by Charlene Weir

244 pp.

New York, NY:  Thomas Dunne Books, 2001

  
It's Christmas and Caley James has no money, no working furnace, and she's sick with the flu.  Her three children are left to their devices and her no-good, no-account, low-life ex husband and his mother. Dragging herself from her bed to play at the organ at the local church, she has to earn money to pay for Christmas. That is, until the furnace man turns up dead in her basement.  This starts a police investigation which Police Chief Susan Wren must undertake alone as most of her staff have been stricken with influenza.  Through in a few nosey neighbours to complicate matters and the pathos runs to comedy.

   The author has developed a cast of characters are who believable and sympathetic.  Her settings are every day homes, which demonstrate that murder can happen anywhere - even in your basement. Some characters have criminal pasts, whereas others are simply nasty individuals. A precocious child who must protect his adoptive mother and his dad pulls at the heartstrings. Who among us has not had a Christmas go awry?

Also by this author:  Murder Takes Two, Family Practice, Consider the Crows, The Winter Widow