On This Week in 2005: From Mountains to Monet

I'm still having fun going through my old book journal, so I thought I would share with you the books that I read during this same week in 2005. Ready... set... GO!

First up is one of Earlene Fowler's excellent Benni Harper series set in the ranching country of central California. Benni Harper is an ex-rancher who now curates a folk art museum. Early on when she met the man that she would eventually marry, I disliked him so much that I almost stopped reading the series. What a macho jerk! But I've had similar reactions to friends' boyfriends/husbands, and just because I couldn't stomach their partners... well, that didn't mean that I threw away the friendships. I handled Benni's husband the same way, and I certainly didn't regret it. I even got to like her abrasive grandmother, Dove. To have not one but two characters in a book or series that rub my fur the wrong way normally means that I stop reading the book. It says something about Earlene Fowler's writing that I kept right on through to the end of the series. (And I still wish she'd write more.)

Although the series starts out well (each book being named after a well-known quilt pattern), it really hits its stride in book six, Mariner's Compass. Fowler's plots took on more complexity, her characters grew more and more nuanced, and she even started writing serious action scenes that put my heart in my throat and tears in my eyes.

Earlene Fowler has been "on sabbatical" as she calls it for about five years now. I've had the privilege of meeting her twice, and she's smart and funny and such a pleasure. I do wish she'd start writing again, but if she doesn't, at least she's given us fifteen Benni Harper mysteries.


 

Kirk Mitchell may be better known for his time travel, alternate history, and historical fiction, but this former law enforcement officer also wrote five books in one of my favorite mystery series. This series features two main characters: Emmett Quanah Parker, a part-Comanche, part-white agent for the Bureau of Indian Affairs; and Anna Turnipseed, a part-Modoc, part-Japanese special agent for the FBI. The series started out in the Southwest but soon began to move around the country.

Emmett and Anna had quite a dynamic between them. Their relationship is the type that makes you keep looking for the next book. The mysteries are strong as are the settings, and I appreciated being able to learn more about the lifestyles and customs of various Native American tribes. Do I wish Mitchell were still writing his Parker/Turnipseed mysteries? Yes, I do! Five are definitely not enough.

Skye Kathleen Moody's Venus Diamond mysteries are books that make me wish I'd taken better notes back in 2005. (Funny how blogging changes your note-taking habits!)

Venus Diamond is a US Fish and Wildlife agent in Washington state, and I'm remembering that she was pretty, quirky, smart, and kick-ass before kick-ass females were really acceptable. Venus has an almost James Bond-like quality to her, which is one reason why photojournalist Moody's mysteries were so interesting to read. 

Another reason why I enjoyed them a great deal (besides the wonderful settings) is because each book centered around a strong environmental theme, so they were a matter of strong central character, intriguing mysteries, and plenty to learn about the natural world. Win-win-win as far as I'm concerned!

I think Tamar Myers' Den of Antiquity series set in Charlotte, North Carolina (and then Charleston, South Carolina), was the first cozy series I read with titles that were plays on words. Now titles like this are almost de rigueur.

Main character Abigail Timberlake is a little bitty thing, but she's got more Southern sass than women who are head and shoulders taller than she. I really liked learning a bit about antiques-- and the cities of Charlotte and Charleston-- and Myers has a very well-developed funny bone, which is one of the main reasons why I read the series.

I didn't finish reading the Den of Antiquity books though. I came to the series late, got my hands on all the books that had been written to that point, and read them... almost one right after the other. I don't do that anymore. Haven't done for years. If I read series books too close together, humor can fall flat, characters can start annoying me, and plots can start feeling too formulaic. It has to be an unusual circumstance for me to read series books close together.

Myers has two other series, one that I enjoyed, and one that I didn't. The one that I didn't continue reading was her Pennsylvania Dutch mysteries. Why? For the simple reason that the main character was so nasty and abrasive I decided she could take her ill-temper out on some other reader.

The third series that Myers wrote is a four-book one featuring Amanda Brown, a young American missionary in the Belgian Congo in the 1950s. These books are based on the author's own childhood. I not only liked the plots of the books, I also enjoyed the humor, the setting, and the customs of the natives that the young Amanda was learning to live among.


Back in 2005, I read quilt-titled mysteries that were solved by Benni Harper. Now I read mysteries that are solved by members of the St. Rose Quilting Bee. Back in 2005, I read Kirk Mitchell's mysteries that have strong Native American characters and themes. Today I read M.J. McGrath, C.M. Wendelboe, and Margaret Coel. Back in 2005, I read mysteries with an environmental aspect. Today I still do, reading Nevada Barr, Pamela Beason, and Paul Doiron. Back in 2005, I was reading cozies with catchy titles set in North Carolina. Today, I still am-- with authors like Lucy Arlington, Ellery Adams, and Brynn Bonner.

It's always good to see that some things just never seem to go out of fashion.

How about you? Have you read any of these series? Which ones? Did you like them? Any recommendations for me for future reading? This inquiring mind would love to know!


 

The Boy Who Stole the Leopard's Spots by Tamar Myers

First Line: It was much cooler in the canyon that lay in front of, and below, the village.

Legends surround the birth of twins to a king in the Belgian Congo of the 1920s. This was the time when headhunters and cannibals still followed the old ways, a time when the birth of twins was a bad omen that must be dealt with swiftly. Due to his cunning, the king's twins both survived and grew to manhood.

Fast forward to the late 1950s. As independence for the Congo grows nearer, even the remote town of Belle Vue becomes acquainted with the stirrings of upheaval. Self-professed spiritual leaders travel through almost daily, speaking to large groups of natives, telling them of the delights to come-- to when they will inherit all the goods of the whites and all their knowledge of how to operate the technology. Some whites are nervous, others-- like Madame Cabochon-- who were born in the Congo and have lived there all their lives, seem willing to fight for their rights to remain in their homeland.

Into this unsettled time for Belle Vue arrive some strangers, a huge snake, and a horrendous storm that literally divides the town in half. As one person, then another, dies, it becomes obvious to readers that someone is willing to kill as many times as it takes for a secret to remain buried.

Tamar Myers' parents were missionaries; she grew up in the Belgian Congo. Her young American missionary, Amanda Brown, shows readers how difficult it could be to get used to the climate, the people, and the customs. In this book, Amanda has definitely become romantically involved with the police chief, Captain Pierre Jardin, and the natives who work for her-- Cripple and Protruding Navel-- are up to their usual tricks. Amanda is learning the language, she's learning the customs, and she feels as though she's becoming friends with Cripple, although there's still a lot she must learn from the wise little woman with the twisted back.

If you're looking for a traditional whodunit where the characters are actively out and about searching for clues, you're not going to find it here. The mystery, the clues, the resolution, all unfold gradually, naturally. Everything has been woven into this colorful fabric of story, and if one thread is pulled loose from the rest, the entire book suffers. Myers is skillful at her honest portrayal of the Congo during that era without becoming overly graphic, but it's the character of Cripple who shines brightest over this entire series of books.

If you've read all of Alexander McCall Smith's No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency books, and are looking for something in the same vein, try Tamar Myers' books set in the Congo (The Witch Doctor's Wife, The Headhunter's Daughter, The Boy Who Stole the Leopard's Spots). I wouldn't be at all surprised if-- like me-- you prefer reading about Amanda Brown and Cripple!

The Boy Who Stole the Leopard's Spots by Tamar Myers

ISBN: 9780061997730

William Morrow and Company  ©2012

Paperback, 304 pages

Genre: Historical Mystery, #3 Amanda Brown mystery set in the Belgian Congo of the late 1950s

Rating: B+

Source: LibraryThing Early Reviewer's Program

May 2012 New Mystery Releases!

I love this time of year. Everything seems to be blooming, I get to sit in my back garden and watch baby birds learn the ropes, the pool water's warming up.... Bliss!

The only trouble I have is in trying to figure out where the time went. Any of you have that problem?

I also have a problem narrowing down my list of new mystery releases to twelve. It hurts to cut any out, yet I don't want a post that's five miles long. (2¾ miles will do nicely, thank you!)

Here is my May list of the books that I can't wait to get my hands on. As usual, the books are grouped by release dates, and I've included the information you'll need to find them at all your favorite book spots. Hopefully I've chosen a title or two that you just can't do without. (I don't want to be alone....) Happy reading!

=== May 1 ===

Title: Getaway

Author: Lisa Brackmann

Standalone

ISBN: 9781616952402

Publisher: Soho Press

Hardcover, 320 pages

*Upcoming review on Kittling: Books!

From the back cover: "Michelle Mason tells herself she’s on vacation. A brief stay in the Mexican resort town of Puerto Vallarta. It’s a chance to figure out her next move after the unexpected death of her banker husband, who’s left behind a scandal and a pile of debt. The trip was already paid for, and it beats crashing in her sister’s spare room. When a good-looking man named Daniel approaches her on the beach, the margaritas have kicked in and she decides: why not?

But the date doesn’t go as either of them planned. An assault on Daniel in her hotel room, switched cell phones and an encounter with a “friend” of Daniel’s named Gary gets Michelle enmeshed in a covert operation involving drug runners, goons, and venture capitalists. Michelle already knows she’s caught in a dangerous trap. But she quickly finds that running is not an option. If she’s not careful, she’ll end up buried in the town dump, with the rest of the trash. Now she needs to fight smart if she wants to survive her vacation."

Title: A Deadly Grind

Author: Victoria Hamilton

Series:#1 in the Vintage Kitchen mysteries set in Michigan

ISBN: 9780425248010

Publisher: Berkley Prime Crime

Mass Market Paperback, 304 pages

From the back cover: "When vintage cookware and cookbook collector Jaymie Leighton spies an original 1920s Hoosier brand kitchen cabinet at an estate auction, it’s love at first sight. Despite the protests of her sister that the 19th-century yellow-brick house they share in Michigan is already too cluttered with Jaymie’s “junk,” she successfully outbids the other buyers and triumphantly takes home her Hoosier.

But that night on the summer porch where they’ve left the Hoosier to be cleaned up, a man is murdered, struck on the head with  the steel meat grinder that is part of the cabinet. Who is this stranger—and what was he doing on their porch? Does his death have anything to do with the Hoosier?

As the police struggle to determine the man’s identity, Jaymie can’t help doing a little digging on her own, accompanied by her three-legged Yorkie Poo, Hopalong. But in her bid to uncover the truth about the hidden secrets of the Hoosier, Jaymie may be the one who ends up going, going…gone."

Title: Fatal Induction

Author: Bernadette Pajer

Series: #2 in the Professor Bradshaw mysteries set in Seattle in the early 1900s

ISBN: 9781590586143

Publisher: Poisoned Pen Press

Paperback, 250 pages

*Upcoming review of the first in the series, A Spark of Death, on Kittling: Books!

From the back cover: "Seattle, 1901. The race to win an electrical competition incites Professor of Electrical Engineering Benjamin Bradshaw's obsession for invention in the second entry this exciting historical series. The contest winner's telephonic system will deliver music from the Seattle Grand Theater to homes throughout the city, and Bradshaw is confident he can win.

The contest is in full swing when President McKinley is assassinated, casting Bradshaw and the entire nation into shock. Then Bradshaw uncovers a crime closer to home: a gypsy peddler's cart is suddenly abandoned behind his house. What happened to the father and child who lived in this cart? When Bradshaw discovers the peddler's child may have witnessed a murder, he follows the girl's trail, plunging into a seedy underworld of bars and brothels.

Frustrated by the police department's apathy and caught between power struggles, he doesn't know whom to trust. Each step of his investigation entangles him deeper in crime and corruption until he realizes that to save the child, he must transform his contest entry into a trap to catch a killer and to protect his own household.

Bradshaw's electrical forensic and investigative skills, combined with a keen understanding of human nature, bring the Seattle police—and murder—to his doorstep during the social and scientific turmoil of the early twentieth century."

Title: Don't Die Under the Apple Tree

Author: Amy Patricia Meade

Series: #1 in the Rosie the Riveter mysteries set in 1942 New York City

ISBN: 9780758267580

Publisher: Kensington

Mass Market Paperback, 288 pages

From the back cover: "Life is definitely not easy for 32-year-old Rosie O'Doyle Keefe, but she can handle working in New York City's World War II shipyards - until her foreman winds up dead - right after she rebuffed his 'requirements' for a promotion. Never one to sit back and hope for the best, Rosie discovers that everyone who knew the foreman had good reasons to kill him off. She also finds that she has a surprise ally in the darkly handsome police lieutenant Jack Riordan. But Jack also has to produce a viable suspect for his captain in five days - even if it has to be Rosie. Before long, the mystery spirals onto the streets of wartime New York. With the clock ticking and her freedom on the line, Rosie and Lieutenant Riordan will need to join forces to find the truth and catch the now very desperate killer ...who may be much closer then they think."

Title: Fun House

Author: Chris Grabenstein

Series: #7 in the Ceepak and Boyle series set in New Jersey

ISBN: 9781605983363

Publisher: Pegasus

Hardcover, 336 pages

From the back cover: "What if a reality TV show like Jersey Shore set up production in the fictional seaside resort Sea Haven? What if hitting the gym, tanning, and doing a little laundry aren't the only things the contestants get into?

By-the-book officer John Ceepak and his wisecracking young partner, Danny Boyle, have to babysit the buff and boozy kids partying it up in a Jersey shore rental house for TV’s summertime hit Fun House while simultaneously trying to stop the rowdy kids from breaking the law up and down the beach.

But even Ceepak and Danny can’t stop one young cast member from being murdered—and others from being threatened with the same fate."

=== May 8 ===

Title: A Simple Murder

Author: Eleanor Kuhns 

Standalone
ISBN:  9781250005533
Publisher: Minotaur Books
Hardcover, 336 pages

From the back cover: "Five years ago, while William Rees was still recovering from his stint as a Revolutionary War soldier, his beloved wife died. Devastated, Rees left his son, David, in his sister’s care, fled his Maine farm, and struck out for a tough but emotionally empty life as a traveling weaver. Now, upon returning unexpectedly to his farm, Rees discovers that David has been treated like a serf for years and finally ran away to join a secluded religious sect—the Shakers.

Overwhelmed by guilt and hoping to reconcile with his son, Rees immediately follows David to the Shaker community. But when a young Shaker woman is brutally murdered shortly after Rees’s arrival, Rees finds himself launched into a complicated investigation where the bodies keep multiplying, a tangled web of family connections casts suspicion on everyone, and the beautiful woman on the edge of the Shaker community might be hiding troubling ties to the victims. It quickly becomes clear that in solving Sister Chastity’s murder, Rees may well expose some of the Shaker community’s darkest secrets, not to mention endanger his own life."

Title: The Boy Who Stole the Leopard's Spots
Author: Tamar Myers
Series: #3 in the Amanda Brown series set in the 1950s Belgian Congo
ISBN:  9780061997730
Publisher: William Morrow Paperbacks
Paperback, 304 pages

*Upcoming review on Kittling: Books!

From the back cover: "A decades-old murder, a strange superstition, an enormous snake, and one giant secret are about to rock the beautiful Belle Vue to its core.

It is a time of great upheaval for the Belgian Congo and Belle Vue is not safe from the changes. But there are more pressing problems as an unsolved disappearance brings up issues for some of the denizens of the village. Add to that a sudden influx of strangers and a horrible storm that literally divides the village in half, and suddenly danger seems to be everywhere.

The lovely young American missionary Amanda, the police chief Captain Pierre Jardin, and the local witch doctor and his wise-woman wife, Cripple, all become embroiled in the mystery as evil omens and strange happenings at every turn suggest that more lives will be lost before the true killer is unmasked."

=== May 15 ===

Title: As the Crow Flies

Author: Craig Johnson

Series: #8 in the Sheriff Walt Longmire series set in Absaroka County, Wyoming 

ISBN:  9780670023516

Publisher: Viking Adult

Hardcover, 320 pages

*Upcoming review on Kittling: Books!

From the back cover: "Embarking on his eighth adventure, Wyoming Sheriff Walt Longmire has a more important matter on his mind than cowboys and criminals. His daughter, Cady, is getting married to the brother of his undersheriff, Victoria Moretti. Walt and old friend Henry Standing Bear are the de facto wedding planners and fear Cady’s wrath when the wedding locale arrangements go up in smoke two weeks before the big event.

The pair set out to find a new site for the nuptials on the Cheyenne Reservation, but their scouting expedition ends in horror as they witness a young Crow woman plummeting from Painted Warrior’s majestic cliffs. It’s not Walt’s turf, but the newly appointed tribal police chief and Iraqi war veteran, the beautiful Lolo Long, shanghais him into helping with the investigation. Walt is stretched thin as he mentors Lolo, attempts to catch the bad guys, and performs the role of father of the bride."

=== May 22 ===

Title: The Murder Notebooks: Dead Time

Author: Anne Cassidy

Series: #1 in the Murder Notebooks series set in the UK

ISBN:  9780802723512

Publisher: Walker Childrens

Hardcover, 352 pages

From the back cover: [Ages 12 and up] "When Rose was twelve, her mother and stepfather went out for dinner and never came back. Now seventeen, she lives with her grandmother and goes to school in London. She’s always wondered about her stepbrother, Joshua, whom she only lived with briefly and who was also relocated after their parents’ disappearance. When Rose and Joshua meet again, they find they have much in common, including a desire to uncover the mystery surrounding their parents’ disappearance . . . and a mutual attraction to each other. But when Rose witnesses the murders of not one but two of her classmates, she must uncover who is behind these violent crimes. And when she and Joshua discover that a much larger conspiracy is underway, both of their lives will be in danger."

=== May 29 ===

Title: The Watchers

Author: Jon Steele

Standalone

ISBN:  9780399158742

Publisher: Blue Rider Press

Hardcover, 592 pages

*Upcoming review on Kittling: Books!

From the back cover: "Lausanne, Switzerland. In the cathedral tower lives a strange boy with a limp who talks to the bells. In a luxury penthouse lives a high-class prostitute who's in mortal danger. And in a low-rent hotel lives a private investigator who has no idea how he got there. Jay Harper finds himself in Switzerland on the trail of a missing Olympic athlete. A hard drinker, he can barely remember how he got home last night, let alone why he accepted this job. When he meets the stunning but aloof Katherine in a hotel bar, he quickly realises that he's not the only one in town who's for hire. She's a high-class hooker who can't believe her luck. Which is about to change. For the worse.In the meantime, Marc Rochat spends his time in the belfry talking to the statues, his cat and the occasional ghost. His job is to watch over Lausanne at night and to wait for the angel his mother told him he'd one day have to save. When he sees Katherine, he thinks his moment has come. Which indeed it has. But not in a good way…."

Title: The Yard

Author: Alex Grecian

Series: #1 in the Murder Squad series set in Victorian England

ISBN: 9780399149542

Publisher: Putnam Adult

Hardcover, 432 pages

From the back cover: "Victorian London is a cesspool of crime, and Scotland Yard has only twelve detectives—known as 'The Murder Squad'—to investigate countless murders every month. Created after the Metropolitan Police’s spectacular failure to capture Jack the Ripper, The Murder Squad suffers rampant public contempt. They have failed their citizens. But no one can anticipate the brutal murder of one of their own . . . one of the twelve . . .

When Walter Day, the squad’s newest hire, is assigned the case of the murdered detective, he finds a strange ally in the Yard’s first forensic pathologist, Dr. Bernard Kingsley. Together they track the killer, who clearly is not finished with The Murder Squad . . . but why?

Filled with fascinating period detail, and real historical figures, this spectacular debut in a new series showcases the depravity of late Victorian London, the advent of criminology, and introduces a stunning new cast of characters sure to appeal to fans of The Sherlockian and The Alienist."

=== May 31 ===

Title: Kissing the Demons
Author: Kate Ellis
Series: #3 in the DI Joe Plantagenet series set in North Yorkshire, England
ISBN: 9780727879844
Publisher: Severn House
Hardcover, 336 pages

From the back cover: "Thirteen Torland Place is a house with a disturbing past. When a student living there is found murdered, DI Joe Plantagenet wonders whether her death has anything to do with its grim history. Then other, similar deaths come to light and he fears that a ruthless serial killer is at work. Could the deaths be connected to Obediah Shrowton, an executed murderer whose presence still seems to linger in the house? Or is there a yet more sinister and dangerous explanation?"


Whew, that was quite a list! Which books tickled your fancy? 'fess up!

Scene of the Crime with Author Tamar Myers!

Several years ago, I picked up a book called Larceny and Old Lace and made the acquaintance of a vertically-challenged (and very feisty) owner of an antique shop in Charlotte, North Carolina, named Abigail Timberlake. Many hours spent reading the Den of Antiquity mystery series followed.

Now I have author Tamar Myers to thank for a new series featuring Amanda Brown, a young American missionary in the Belgian Congo in the 1950s and a marvelous cast of secondary characters who would be very offended if they knew I called them "secondary."

Tamar Myers and her transportation

If The Witch Doctor's Wife and The Headhunter's Daughter have a feeling of verisimilitude it's because Tamar's parents were missionaries in the Congo, and that's where she grew up.

If you'd like to know more about Tamar and her books, here are a couple of websites for you to check out:

Tamar's website

Tamar's series

You know how I like to get to the fun part-- here's the interview!

What was the very first book you remember reading and loving? What makes that book so special?

I think it was called LADDIE.  There was a lakeside missionary retreat in the Belgian Congo where we spent every July.  The retreat had three cottages in a jungle setting, and they all shared a kerosene-powered refrigerator that was housed in a small building where the missionaries would also drop off books to share.  I picked up LADDIE when I was about eight years old.  As I remember, it was a love story set in Scotland, and it was the romance in the novel that appealed to me.


Outside of your writing and all associated commitments, what do you like to do in your free time?

I love to garden, travel, and I am an unrepentant television addict.  I especially enjoy reality shows--the narkier the better!


If I were to visit your hometown, where would you recommend that I go? (I like seeing and doing things that aren't in all the guide books.)

Crowder's Mountain

You should climb Crowder's Mountain, which is just west of Charlotte.  From the top you can not only see downtown, but if you turn the other direction, you can see all the way to the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains.  You should also visit Plaza Fiesta Mall next to Carrowinds Theme Park.  The interior of the mall has been made over to look like a South American village.  Too cool, and definitely not in any guide books!


You have total control over casting a movie based on your life. Which actor would you cast as you?

Meryl Streep

First choice would be myself as my present day me (I am a good actress).  Second choice would be Meryl Streep as the 63-year-old me.  The younger me....oh, maybe one of the Fanning girls.


Who is your favorite recurring character in crime fiction?

Cripple, from my current series set in Africa. [She is a wonderful character!]


Name one book that you've read that you wish you had written. What is it about that book that made it come to mind?

Okay, now you have unmasked me!  I read perhaps 200 books a year--but all of them non-fiction.  When folks remark that I must do a lot of research, I just nod.  I don't, because I have a head full of knowledge.  Fiction doesn't interest me anymore.  Why should I read stuff that's just made up?  (Gulppppppppppppppppppppppppppp)


What did you do the first time you saw one of your books on a shelf in a bookstore? How did you celebrate when you first heard you were to be published?

Second question first.  It took me 23 years of non-stop submitting before I finally got the life-changing call from New York.  It was a surreal moment.  After calling my husband at work, and we both screamed, I jumped in the car, drove to the grocery store and bought a poster board and some balloons.  I tied the balloons to my mailbox.  On the poster I wrote IT'S A BOOK! and taped it to our picture window.  About 20 minutes later a grumpy old man knocked on the door and said, "Don't you know how to spell 'boy?'"


I don't know if you've seen it, but I love Parnell Hall's video about book signings. What is the most unusual experience you've had at a book signing or author event?

The most unusual thing was when a very sweaty woman kept getting in line to invite me--nay, to insist--that I come and spend the night at her house with her and two kitties. I would be ever so much more comfortable there than at my hotel (or so she said).  I finally had to just turn away and pretend that I couldn't see or hear her.


The way some people talk, the only way to read now or in the future is with some sort of electronic device, like my husband's Nook. What is your opinion of eBooks, and how will they affect you as a published author? 

Well, at first I feared for my career, and I am still wary.  I certainly don't use one, because I cherish the feel and scent of a real paper book.  A paper book has many dimensions--heft (weight), the feel of the paper, the scent, the ability to be mutilated (corners folded down, etc), the ability to be thumbed through, you can press flowers in it, stick clippings in it--it is much MORE than just an electronic gizmo.  We will lose so much if we lose paper books.  Amen, end of my sermon!



Thank you so much for spending this time with us, Tamar! May your book sales do nothing but increase!

Please remember to stop by next Monday, when I'll be interviewing another of my favorite crime fiction authors!

The Headhunter's Daughter by Tamar Myers

Title: The Headhunter's Daughter
Author: Tamar Myers
ISBN: 9780061997648
Publisher: William Morrow, 2011
Paperback, 256 pages
Genre: Historical Mystery, #2 Amanda Brown mystery
Rating: B+
Source: Publicist

First Line: The gravel pits had been haunted for the past six years, ever since the first white woman drowned.

In 1945 an infant was left out by the gravel pits as a result of a botched kidnapping plot. The baby girl is found by a young Bashilele tribesman on his quest to claim the head of an enemy. The young boy takes the baby back to his tribe where she is raised as a member of his family-- even though her pale skin, straw-like hair and strange blue eyes mark her as being very different from the rest.

Thirteen years later, young missionary Amanda Brown hears the stories of a white girl living among the Bashilele headhunters. She enlists the help of the local police chief, Captain Pierre Jardin, and brings along the witch doctor's wife, Cripple, to act as translator. They find the young girl (now called "Ugly Eyes") and bring her back to the Missionary Rest House and "civilization". But the young white girl no longer belongs in Amanda Brown's world, and the secrets surrounding her birth and disappearance prove to be very deadly indeed.

Author Tamar Myers was born and raised in the Congo, so this is very familiar territory to her. (When reading the book, don't skip The Author Answers Some of Your Questions section at the end of the book where Myers talks about her life in Africa.)

The plot is well-paced and the mystery very intriguing. I didn't figure out the mastermind behind everything and did an "of course!" eye roll at the reveal.

Amanda is a good blend of strength and naivete. She truly wants to do the right thing even if that right thing doesn't coincide with what her judgmental elders believe-- and she has the delightful habit of speaking her mind before she can stop herself.

The book really shines in the setting and the clashing cultures. Myers delves a bit deeper into the Congo's tortured past as a colony under the rule of King Leopold II of Belgium and what the whites believe will happen when the Congo becomes independent in a couple of years.

The clashing cultures show to best advantage when Amanda's servants at the guest house try to decipher white behavior and dress. The scene where Cripple and Protruding Navel try to figure out how to put a bra on the young white girl is hilarious.

Returning to "civilization" after so many years, the young white girl probably has the best sense of the difference between the cultures:

The laughter of women as they set about doing their daily chores. Next to her mother, that is what Ugly Eyes had missed the most about village life. White people were so serious, their mouths perpetually pulled down at the corners, their foreheads so quick to pucker. Ugly Eyes did not know of a single village woman who bore vertical creases between her eyes, yet almost every woman at the party the night before had at least the beginnings of one.

I enjoy this series for its truthfulness, gentleness, humor and unpredictability. There is more than meets the eye between their covers. The lasting image of the books for me is the resident gargantuan crocodile who lives at the bottom of the ravine next to the Missionary Rest House. Seldom ever seen, the crocodile is well fed, since the rest house throws its garbage down there. In addition, there have been times that the unwary human has stumbled at the edge and fallen... never to be seen again.

Buy from Amazon.

Buy from The Book Depository.

Buy from an Indie Bookseller.

The Witch Doctor's Wife by Tamar Myers

Title: The Witch Doctor's Wife
Author: Tamar Myers
ISBN: 978-0-06-172783-2, Avon, 2009
Genre: Cosy Mystery
Rating: B+

First Line: The dominant female danced along the edge of the manioc field, impatiently waiting the arrival of her pack.

The plane young missionary Amanda Brown is traveling on crash lands outside the village of Belle Vue in the Belgian Congo, which is too forceful a way of telling her that she is no longer in South Carolina. Amanda's housekeeper, an evil-tempered man named Protruding Navel, is highly incensed when she hires a village woman named Cripple to take his place. Profits at the mine are not as high as stockholders would like. Love affairs are being conducted. People relive old tragedies with each new dawn. When one of the villagers stumbles upon a huge uncut diamond, events are put into place that could lead to nothing less than murder.

When I began my long and willing descent into mystery reading, Tamar Myers' cosy "Den of Antiquity" series set in South Carolina was one of the first that I devoured. I enjoyed Myers' sense of humor and way with words. The author has a second long-running "Pennsylvania-Dutch" series as well. In deciding to use her own background as child of missionaries in the Congo of the late 1950s, Tamar Myers has broken new ground in what I hope will be a very fertile field.

Myers' knowledge of the land and people of the 1950s Congo permeates every page, even when it's a small detail such as villagers knowing they had to get home before they heard the first sounds of the hyenas. The customs of the native peoples, how the whites lived and behaved, the landscape, the weather, the architecture... all of these things brought such verisimilitude to the book that I would rank The Witch Doctor's Wife right up there with Alexander McCall Smith and Michael Stanley.

I did have one problem with the book however: there were too many characters, and several of them didn't seem to have anything to do. I didn't get any of them confused; I just read and wondered why they were there. Myers is possibly setting up future books in a series, but I did find the character bounty awkward.

Normally I tell people not to believe blurbs that say, "If you like McCall Smith's #1 Ladies Detective Agency" because most of the time that merely means that the book is set somewhere on the African continent. This time, I would say a blurb like that would be true. There's a gentleness, a humor, and a wisdom to The Witch Doctor's Wife that does remind me of Precious Ramotswe. If Myers does continue to write about Amanda Brown, I'll continue to read the books. They're that good.

[Source: LibraryThing's Early Reviewer program.]