Trouble Island by Sharon Short

 

First Line from Prologue: Loons and gulls arc in the vast, blue-gray sky over the island below.

 

Trouble Island is a stop-off for gangsters as they travel between Canada and the United States on Lake Erie. It's also home to two women: Aurelia Escalante, maid to Rosita, who is the lady of the manor and wife of gangster Eddie McGee.  

In the freezing winter of 1932, Eddie is scheduled to arrive on the island with his right-hand man, a doctor, a cousin, a famous actor, and a rival gangster whom Rosita believes murdered her son. Aurelia, who's been hiding on the island with her own secrets, has been planning her escape and is just about to put her plan into action when Rosita disappears. Deciding to go ahead anyway, Aurelia goes to retrieve her stash of supplies and finds Rosita's body instead. 

Someone went to a great deal of trouble to ensure that Aurelia was the person who found the body. Now more than ever, Aurelia wants to escape, but an ice storm sweeps in, keeping her on the island with more than one murderer.

~

Having loved this author's Kinship historical mysteries written under the name of Jess Montgomery, I really looked forward to Trouble Island, but the book fell flat for me. The setting and the historical detail were excellent, and the winter weather on that remote island kept me frozen to the bone-- especially since Aurelia would actually go swimming in the lake almost daily. 

Where did the book fall flat? I think it was a personal reaction more than anything else. I never warmed to any of the characters. Aurelia seemed a bit too naive and unobservant, and Rosita the high-handed diva was the sort of person I'd walk ten miles out of my way to avoid. Also, I wasn't in the mood to guess the true identities of each person on the island. If I'd read Trouble Island while in a different mood, it's altogether possible I would have liked it more-- which means your mileage will probably vary from mine.

Trouble Island by Sharon Short

eISBN: 9781250292834

Minotaur Books © 2024

eBook, 336 pages

 

Historical Thriller

Rating: B

Source: Net Galley

Perfect Storm by Paige Shelton

 

First Line: "Beth Rivers, you are under arrest for the murder of Travis Walker."

 

Convicted kidnapper Travis Walker, the man whom Beth Rivers barely got away from, has escaped and is on the way to Benedict, Alaska, to exact his revenge. All of Beth's friends in Benedict agree: she needs to disappear.

She and her boyfriend Tex make their way to a camp out in the woods, but when they get close to a small community known as Blue Mine, their plans are upended. When Beth and Tex start to take the widow of a recently murdered man back to Benedict to talk with the police chief, the woman disappears.

Beth and her friends have their hands full. Who else is going to suddenly appear... or disappear... in this remote area?

~

This is a series that I've enjoyed from the very first book. I've enjoyed learning about life in a remote area of Alaska, the customs that have come about due to the land and the weather, and the way the people band together in difficult times.

In Perfect Storm, Beth Rivers learns just how many friends she's made in tiny Benedict. When they learn that the man who kidnapped and almost killed her has escaped and is on his way there, they form a united front to keep her safe. However, when Tex and Beth come across a woman walking to Benedict to bring in the body of her murdered husband, all their planning runs right off the rails. Between trying to find the woman when she vanishes, trying to keep Beth safe, trying to locate a missing man, and trying to figure out what's going on at a tiny place called Blue Mine, all the characters scatter in different directions. Here Beth is, trying to keep out of the hands of the man who kidnapped her, and she can't keep track of anyone there in town. She's trying to herd cats.

But the book truly begins to shine when things get darkest. Beth has had so much trauma in her life. She's felt so frightened and helpless for so long. When all her friends seem to run off and desert her, does she fall apart? 

You're just going to have to read Perfect Storm to find out. What a character Beth Rivers is!

Perfect Storm by Paige Shelton

eISBN: 9781250910479

Minotaur Books © 2024

eBook, 256 pages

Amateur Sleuth/Thriller, #6 Alaska Wild

Rating: B+

Source: Net Galley

The Cure for Women by Lydia Reeder

 

First Line from Prologue: One afternoon in the summer of 1985, my grandmother and her four sisters, ages seventy-two to eighty-nine, gathered to celebrate their mother, Ellen Babb, who had passed away in 1953.

 

Before the 1850s, abortion was an accepted practice and midwives held valued positions in their communities. Women had to fight to pursue medical professions. Places like Harvard refused to admit women into their medical schools, so women built their own first-rate medical schools and hospitals. 

 

There was bound to be a backlash.

 

Distorting Darwin's theory of evolution, the top male physicians of the day wrote bestselling books which stated women should never be allowed to attend college or enter any profession because their menstrual cycles made them perpetually sick.

 

Through exhaustive research, Lydia Reeder's The Cure for Women shows how gifted women like Mary Putnam Jacobi fought back. Her arsenal of weapons included things that the male physicians' did not: the first-ever data-backed, scientific research on women's reproductive biology. Jacobi fought back with the facts, and the medical profession has never been the same. 

I learned so much from reading The Cure for Women, unfortunately, a great deal of it with my teeth clenched. Men writing "learned" treatises on women's reproductive organs when they wouldn't know an ovary or a uterus if one came up and punched them in the nose. Why? Because they'd never seen any of these organs and had no idea how they worked. You would think that we would have all the misinformation squared away here in the twenty-first century, but we don't. The fight for control over women's bodies is still happening, proving that we need more people like Mary Putnam Jacobi-- and more people to read this marvelously researched book.

The Cure for Women: Dr. Mary Putnam Jacobi and the Challenge to Victorian Medicine that Changed Women's Lives Forever

by Lydia Reeder

eISBN: 9781250284464

St. Martin's Press © 2024

eBook, 336 pages

 

Non-Fiction

Rating: B+

Source: Net Galley

A Thanksgiving Catch-Up

 

I hope everyone who celebrates is having just the kind of Thanksgiving they hoped they'd have. And even if you don't celebrate Thanksgiving, I want you to know that I am thankful for you all being a part of my life. You do make a difference.

I want to thank everyone for the emails and cards they've sent. I did have the venous ablation on my leg last week, and the follow-up ultrasound showed that the procedure is doing what it's supposed to. The leg is slowly healing (finally-- after more than a year!), and the pain has lessened quite a bit. All good signs that I hope continue.

Denis and I have been taking it easy in between medical appointments, and I've continued to keep my leg up and my nose stuck in a book. In fact, it's a good thing that I've been stretching out on the bed to read (in a patch of sunshine no less) because when I started reading a book a couple of days ago, I saw that it was dedicated to me. Wow! What an unexpected gift!

You'll be seeing more of me next week because I'll be posting reviews of some new releases. I'm not ready to go back to my old blogging schedule, but I do think I see a glimmer of light at the end of the tunnel.

Virtual hugs to you all!

A Reading Round-Up

 

 

This is a busy week here at Casa Kittling. The usual-- groceries, laundry, nurse visits, bill paying, blah blah blah-- as well as the procedure on my leg and two followups. (I guess they want to make sure my leg doesn't fall off.) Since it is so busy, I don't have time to sit here and compile lists of links. You'll just have to make do with my thoughts on what I've been reading lately.

If you want to know more about each book, click on the link to Amazon US in the title. I have read more books than this, but some of them aren't available until next month. Here we go!

 

 

Still Life by Val McDermid

413 pages

Rating: A

 

My Thoughts: This is the sixth book in McDermid's Karen Pirie series set in Scotland, and I love it. Karen runs Police Scotland's cold case squad, and she simply will not give up until she finds the truth-- even if it costs her her job. 

McDermid had me worried about one of the main characters-- and when you're worrying about a fictional character while you're taking out the trash, you know that's a good thing. There's also a new face in the group, and I'm looking forward to learning more about Daisy Mortimer. Karen's even got some thinking to do about her relationship with the handsome Hamish.

 

There's a nice twisty mystery in this one that ends with the country going into lockdown due to the pandemic... and this really puts Karen's future in doubt.

Weyward by Emilia Hart

336 pages

Rating: A 

My Thoughts: After reading Dorothy's review on her blog, The Nature of Things, I had to get this book. 

 

Three separate timelines (1619, 1942, 2019), three separate women linked by blood and by the common sanctuary that each of them found in an English cottage called Weyward. Each timeline, each character kept me turning the pages. I wanted to know more about them. I wanted to know more about the cottage. 

This was a very enjoyable reading experience, and an amazing debut novel. I'll be looking for more of Hart's writing.

Devil's Garden by Aline Templeton

329 pages

Rating: A

 

My Thoughts: I've found myself wanting to spend quite a bit of time in Scotland, and Aline Templeton is one of the best writers to dive right into when I'm in this sort of mood. 

 

This is the third DI Kelso Strang mystery, and it's set in the Scottish Borders. Strang is the head of the Serious Rural Crime Squad, and I really like following him around from place to place (many of which I've at least driven through).  

This installment had Strang and his impulsive partner Livvy Murray trying to solve crimes surrounding a world famous author-- an author who has so many secrets she wants kept hidden that it makes the investigation that much harder.  

I did have to smile at the name of the weather phenomenon this time: the Beast from the East. It reminded me of a day spent in Cambridge when the lashing winds were straight out of Russia. (*laughing* I just just goosebumps remembering it!)

Shotgun Saturday Night by Bill Crider

185 pages

Rating: B+ 

My Thoughts: This is the second in the long-running Sheriff Dan Rhodes series set in Texas. Originally published in 1987, it mentions Ed McBain's 87th Precinct novels a few times-- usually to mention that Rhodes' small bailiwick doesn't have near the amount of "high tech" that the 87th has. (And just imagine how the tech has changed since 1987!)

Rhodes has to sort out his feelings for his girlfriend while he tries to unravel all the knots in this mystery, and I enjoyed following along. Sometimes it's just plain relaxing to have a mystery with no cell phones or forensics, you know?

All the resting I've been forcing myself to do has been paying off, so I'm hopeful that the procedure will go ahead. In the meantime, I'll share a goody from my virtual closet and then head off to my book. Enjoy the weekend, y'all!

A Nose Above the Parapet Weekly Link Round-Up

 

I haven't been on the computer at all since Monday, which is when I put these links together, and I can't say that I've missed it. Next week is the procedure on my leg, if the vascular surgeon decides to go through with it. (My leg is in a bit of a mess now.)

In the meantime, I've been enjoying some gorgeous weather, some good books, care letters and packages from friends, and the slightly twisted sense of humor Denis and I share.

I hope all is well with you and yours. I'll leave you with a t-shirt from my virtual closet...

 

Enjoy the links!

►Books & Other Interesting Tidbits◄

• The history-- and surprisingly dark theories-- behind "Peter, Peter, Pumpkin Eater."
• Decorating houses with Edith Wharton: on interior design as art and literary practice.
• School vouchers were supposed to save taxpayer money. Instead they blew a massive hole in Arizona's budget.
• The secrets of a long-overlooked cipher linked to Catherine of Aragon.
• Penguin Random House underscores copyright protection in an AI rebuff.
• A Carrie TV series from Mike Flanagan is in the works at Amazon.
• This Harry Potter series will explore the books "more in-depth" than the films did, says Warner Bros. TV boss Channing Dungey.
• Have you purchased a weirdly low-quality paperback book lately? This may be why.

►Channeling My Inner Indiana Jones◄

• A junk dealer discovered a "horrible" painting in a cellar sixty years ago. It might be a $6.6 million Picasso.
• The discovery of a 5,000-year-old society in Morocco reveals an ancient farming culture.
• A study has found that medieval walrus ivory may reveal trade between Norse and Indigenous Americans hundreds of years before Columbus.
• Metal detectorists unearthed 1,000-year-old Viking coins on a small island in the Irish Sea.
• Archaeologists discovered intricately decorated coffins belonging to the only daughter of an ancient Egyptian governor.
• Basement renovations in a home near Paris unearthed a cemetery spanning 700 years, with Roman-era graves.
• A treasure hunt for an ornate golden owl buried in France has ended after 31 years.
• A 5,000-year-old cemetery in Spain has twice as many females as males, and nobody knows why.

►Channeling My Inner Elly May Clampett ◄

• This green-flashing firefly could become the first ever listed as endangered in the U.S.
• This compassionate teacher adopts deaf puppies who he trains to become caring therapy dogs.
• How did two bowhead whales that were 60 miles apart sync their diving?
• Coyotes might make "puppy dog eyes," suggesting the facial expression evolved for more than just cuteness
• Watch remarkably rare footage of a bigfin magnapinna squid walking the ocean floor upon their 13-foot tentacles.
• The chonky superstar of Fat Bear Week is missing, and the competition won't be the same without him.
• Why there is a court battle over this beaver being released into the wild.
• The northern bald ibis is back from the brink.

►The Wanderer◄

• How recovering the history of a little-known Lakota massacre could heal generational pain.
• Ashville's Biltmore Estate will reopen for the holidays after sustaining damage from Hurricane Helene.
• How setting has come to define great crime fiction-- in Scandinavia, Britain, and the desert of the American Southwest.
• Go chasing waterfalls.
• The making of the American West's last great outlaw hideouts.
• Outback Noir: Darwin and the Northern Territory.
• More than one in three tree species around the globe are at risk of disappearing.
• Japan's Mount Fuji has now remained snowless for the longest time in its 130-year record.

►Fascinating Folk◄

• He escaped slavery and became a Civil War hero. Now, Robert Smalls is getting a statue in South Carolina.
• Freida McFadden didn't mean to become a bestselling novelist.
• Bookstore historian Evan Friss sees bookselling as activism.
• Meet Montana's Teacher of the Year: Kevin KickingWoman.
• America's oldest living person, Elizabeth Francis, has died at the age of 115. She was a supercentenarian and "Houstonian icon."
• Alan Bennett at 90: "What will people think? I don't care any more."
• These Black Americans were killed for exercising their political right to vote.
• Quincy Jones was a "musician's musician" who was uniquely beloved in he cutthroat music industry.

►I ♥ Lists◄

• Never mind whodunit: read these whydunit and howdunit mysteries.
• Bookish gifts for audiobook lovers.
• Celebrate Indigenous Peoples' Day with these excellent books.
• Six great suspense novels featuring mysterious mansions.
• Five essential books for understanding Native American history.
• Laugh out loud with these 18 funny books.
• Sci-Fi reads featuring archaeology.
• Six chilly "And then there were none" inspired thrillers perfect for winter.

That's all for this week! Don't forget to stop by next Friday when I'll probably be sharing a freshly selected batch of links for your surfing pleasure.

No matter how busy you may be, don't forget that quality Me Time curled up with a good book!

An In Dire Need of Distraction Weeky Link Round-Up

 

I feel like a cow in a slaughterhouse that's just had a shot from a bolt gun right between the eyes. Denis and I are muddling along. I can't say we're fine, but we're okay. There's been no change to my leg, and the best place for me is still in bed... and I think that's where I shall go as soon as I finish this post. I want to shut out the world with a good book, and I am reading one (Sharon Short's Trouble Island).

Nope, news from the outside world has put me in dire need of distraction, and that made me think of three television series that I've really been enjoying recently.

I just watched the first episode of Inspector Ellis on Acorn TV. Not only did I enjoy the story, but I am definitely intrigued by the main character. I want more!

Denis and I are enjoying High Potential, an American remake of a French series on ABC/Hulu. I like the stories, the interplay between the characters, and Denis also loves the main character's legs. (Even I have to admit that they are very fine.)

The third series is my favorite: Kathy Bates in Matlock. What a gem! (On CBS/Paramount+)

Now I'll give you some links. If you're looking for the book banning/censorship section, you'll find it missing. I'm already too far down in the dumps to bog down in that mire!

Have a good weekend, and enjoy the links!

►Books & Other Interesting Tidbits◄

• See 200 new words and phrases added to Merriam-Webster.
• The Guardian wonders "how did bookshops suddenly become cool?" (Erm. Haven't they always been cool?)
• Can you match the last line to the famous novel?
• Can you identify these last lines of classic mystery and crime novels?
• Bookselling: How the market transformed American bookstores.
• The secret to Pride and Prejudice's enduring appeal? Lizzy Bennet has game.

►Channeling My Inner Indiana Jones◄

• Students stumble upon a message in a bottle written by a French archaeologist 200 years ago.
• A mysterious white substance smeared on 3,600-year-old mummies is the world's oldest cheese.
• Excavations have revealed that a razed city that rebelled against Rome "remained uninhabited for over 170 years."
• This shipwreck's location was a mystery for 129 years. Then two men found it just minutes into a three-day search.
• Fifty Viking Age burials have been discovered in Denmark, including a woman in a rare "Viking wagon."
• Se a newly uncovered throne room in Peru that may have belonged to an ancient queen.

►Channeling My Inner Elly May Clampett ◄

• Fifteen astonishing facts about bats.
• These fish have legs, and they can use them to taste prey.
• Fifteen photos that capture the exotic undersea lives of jellyfish.
• Is wildfire smoke causing birds to tend to empty nests?
• Amid rising temperatures, sloths' slowness may put their survival at risk.
• Alex the golden retriever has been promoted to "chief happiness officer" at a Glendale, Arizona hospital.
• This family accidentally ended up with 50 baby octopuses after their pet-- thought to be male-- laid dozens of eggs.

►The Wanderer◄

• What it's like to experience polar night in the world's northernmost town.
• Five historic places to experience Charleston, South Carolina's captivating past.
• Crime and Cacti: the David Mapstone mysteries by Jon Talton.
• The new Chumash Heritage National Marine Sanctuary will be co-managed by Indigenous peoples.
• The ten rudest (and most polite) cities in the U.S.
• The global origins of town names in every U.S. state (with maps).

►Fascinating Folk◄

• Victoria Claflin Woodhull, the first woman to run for president, was a spiritualist, Wall Street broker, and a free-love advocate.
• The birth of Miss Marple, the perpetual spinster detective at the heart of Agatha Christie's works.
• Belle da Costa Greene, the savvy librarian who was the true force behind New York's iconic Morgan Library.
• Art dealer Berthe Weill paved the way for Picasso, Matisse, and Modigliani. So why haven't you heard of her?
• Belinda Mulrooney, the enterprising woman who built-- and lost, and rebuilt-- a booming empire during the Klondike Gold Rush.
• Lee Child on writing short stories.

►I ♥ Lists◄

• Thirteen dining-related taboos from around the world.
• The best medieval crime novels.
• Eight Native and Indigenous mysteries and thrillers.
• A murder of Ladies MacBeth.
• Eleven amazing historical coincidences.
• 22 books to read while curled up by a fireplace.

That's all for this week! Don't forget to stop by next Friday when I'll probably be sharing a freshly selected batch of links for your surfing pleasure.

No matter how busy you may be, don't forget that quality Me Time curled up with a good book!

The Gardener's Plot by Deborah J. Benoit

 

First Line: Of all the people I didn't want to run into, the person at the top of that list just happened to be in line in front of me at the Grocery Mart.

 

Heading home to the Berkshires in western Massachusetts spells a fresh start for Maggie Walker. She loves gardening and has become an enthusiastic partner with local Violet Bloom in a community garden project.  

When Maggie shows up for opening day, the gardeners who signed up are pacing outside the gate and very restless. Violet never showed up. Things go from bad to worse when Maggie finds a boot buried in one of the plots... and the boot has a foot attached to it.

Suddenly, Maggie's missing friend is the prime suspect in a murder, and she has her work cut out for her to find her friend and prove Violet's innocence.

~

The Gardener's Plot may be crippled somewhat by a few tired cozy mystery cliches (the high school enemy, the hunky detective, the cheating ex-husband, and an amateur sleuth who thinks she's ten feet tall and bulletproof). Still, I'm smart enough to realize that what may make my eyes roll back in my head can be exactly what other readers are looking for.

Although I did start this review with a grumble, Benoit's book is an enjoyable read. I like Maggie Walker's attachment to her friends, her persistence, and her love of gardening. There's also a good, solid cast of locals who should provide plenty of fodder for future stories. There may be plenty of formula in The Gardener's Plot, but it's a good formula that should make for a long, healthy growing season.

 

The Gardener's Plot by Deborah J. Benoit

eISBN: 9781250334985

Minotaur Books © 2024

eBook, 336 pages

 

Cozy Mystery

Rating: B

Source: Net Galley