Mark Four More as Read

 

Here I go again, trying catch up on reviews of the books I've read. I am determined to get current, although this post isn't going to be the one to do it.

These are shorter reviews, mainly just my thoughts. If you'd like a synopsis or more information about a book, just click on the link in the book title to be taken to Amazon US.

It's time to get this show on the road!

The Lions of Fifth Avenue by Fiona Davis

Historical Fiction, 365 pages

eBook purchased from Amazon

Rating: A+

My Thoughts: I loved this dual timeline novel about the Lyons family. The 1913 timeline features the Lyons family, living in an apartment in the New York Public Library since Mr. Lyons is superintendent there. His wife, Laura, wants to be more than the traditional wife and mother, and while this creates tension, even more appears when valuable books are stolen from the library.

In 1993, Sadie Donovan is curator at the New York Public Library and the granddaughter of Laura Lyons, the famous essayist. Rare books, notes, and manuscripts for the exhibit she's running begin disappearing, causing her to team up with a private security expert. The investigation soon becomes personal. 

The inner workings of the library, the characters of Laura and Sadie, the mystery of the disappearing books and manuscripts, the dual timelines all combined to create a read that kept a stranglehold on my attention. A Best Read of 2025.

Artemis by Andy Weir

Science Fiction, 335 pages

eBook purchased from Amazon

Rating: A

My Thoughts: I absolutely loved Weir's previous novels, The Martian and Project Hail Mary, so I had to pick up this book about Earth's first and only lunar colony. We learn all about the ins and outs of the colony through the eyes of young Jazz Bashara, who's not above trying to commit the perfect crime in order to improve the quality of her life.

I liked the local cop's solution to a domestic violence case, and his use of a spray bottle made me laugh. I also enjoyed Jazz's voice. She drew me right into the story and kept me there. 

I do love the way Andy Weir's mind works, but he is a passionate technophile, and sometimes his descriptions of how things work in space can be a bit much. Fortunately, those parts are easy to skim through. I am definitely looking forward to what that mind of his cooks up next.

Carved in Blood by Michael Bennett

#3 Hana Westerman police procedural, 306 pages

eBook purchased from Amazon

Rating: A

My Thoughts: I continue to enjoy this series set in New Zealand. I'm learning a lot about the Maori culture through the strong plots and even stronger character of Hana Westerman. 

In this third book, Hana has been working with her father to help young locals to earn their driver's licenses-- those licenses being passports to their futures. When Hana's ex-husband is murdered, she's brought in to solve the case. 

This is an excellent series that I hope goes on for a good long time.

An Enemy in the Village by Martin Walker

#18 Bruno Chief of Police, 305 pages

Digital galley from Net Galley

Rating: B

My Thoughts: It's always a pleasure to visit with Bruno, the police chief of the small French town of St. Denis. (I always read these books with a French accent!) As Bruno works to solve the murder of a successful businesswoman, readers are treated to good food and good friends. And sparks fly between Bruno and Jilly, a woman who happens to have a basset hound just like he does. 

Will Bruno, who never has good luck in the romance department, finally find love? I'm looking forward to finding out.

There you go-- four more reviews that get me a bit closer to catching up. Have you read any of these? Which ones? What did you think? Of course, inquiring minds want to know!

Return to Blood by Michael Bennett

 

First Line: I'll start with that night.

 

After a case that had Hana Westerman turn in her badge and abandon her career in the Auckland CIB, she's in her hometown of Tātā Bay. Here, she works with her beloved father, Eru, teaching local teenagers how to pass their driving tests.

When Hana's daughter, Addison, finds a young woman's skeletal remains in the sand dunes overlooking the sea, Hana is reminded of a high school classmate who was murdered over twenty years ago and hidden in the very same dunes. In the earlier case, a Māori man was convicted of the crime although Hana's father Eru never believed he was guilty.

Hana also believes the convicted man was innocent, and she and Addison find this newest case compelling. Hana's determination that justice should always be served will be a bit tricky this time because she doesn't have official sanction from the police force to investigate. But this is a woman who refuses to back down, and she'll just have to be inventive... and careful.

~

As in the first book, Better the Blood, Michael Bennett continues to immerse readers in Māori culture through his strong mysteries and compelling characters. In Return to Blood, Hana Westerman proves that, although she may have left the Auckland Police Force, she certainly hasn't stopped being a detective dedicated to the pursuit of true justice.

Helping her father teach local youth how to pass their driving tests is an important step to a brighter future for these young people, but it's not enough to keep Hana focused when a body is found on the beach. When the recent discovery is added to an old crime in which a man was unjustly convicted, there's no stopping her. Hana is one of those characters I can't resist cheering for even though her single-mindedness often puts herself and others in dangerous situations.

The occasional chapter in the voice of a young Māori woman named Kiri adds poignancy to the story as she tells us of her life gone wrong. Another thing that I admire about the hardcover edition of Return to Blood is the fact that the Māori words Bennett uses are explained right on the same page. I appreciated not having to flip back and forth to the back of the book to learn what the words meant.

There are many things to learn in Return to Blood. Hana's relationships with her father, daughter, and cousin. Her daughter's relationship with her best friend. Hana's true calling as a police officer. Then there's the mouth-watering mention of Samoan coconut cream doughnuts and Bennett's often lyrical language: "A kilometre further north along the coast the big trees start, their early morning silhouettes like a line of old men marching along in arthritic pain, vertebrae twisted and hunched by the centuries of wind." Story, setting, culture, character... I can't wait for the next book in this series. Whatever you do, don't deny yourself the pleasure of meeting Hana Westerman.

Return to Blood by Michael Bennett

ISBN: 9780802163059

Atlantic Monthly Press © 2024

Hardcover, 336 pages

 

Police Procedural, #2 Hana Westerman

Rating: A

Source: Purchased at The Poisoned Pen Bookstore.

Better the Blood by Michael Bennett

 

First Line: His hands move quickly as he polishes the sheet of silver-plated copper to a perfect mirror finish.

 

Māori artist, gardener, and detective Hana Westerman is a single mother who's fought endemic prejudice throughout her career in the Auckland Criminal Investigation Bureau. After receiving a mysterious video, Hana is led to a crime scene in a secret room where a man is found ritualistically hanging and a puzzling inscription has been left behind. After a second, apparently unrelated, death, Hana uncovers a connection to a 160-year-old crime when a troop of colonial soldiers unjustly executed a Māori chief.

Hana realizes that the murders are utu-- the Māori tradition of rebalancing for the crime committed over a century ago. There were six men in that British troop, which means there are four more potential murders.

Hana's pursuit of this serial killer becomes chillingly personal, forcing her to confront a painful event twenty years before when she was new to the police force-- an event that called into question her loyalty to her Māori heritage and changed her relationship with her family and friends forever. 

 

Unfortunately, she's going to learn that there is even worse to come.

~

If you're a reader, like me, who loves to solve mysteries in far-flung corners of the world, you're going to want to pick up a copy of Michael Bennett's Better the Blood. (Once you learn the origin of the title, you might feel a chill running down your spine, too.) The opening scene in which a photographer tells his subjects to hold still, that if they move, they "...will be but a smudge on the page of history" is prophetic and compelling. That scene let me know that I was about to read something special. I wasn't disappointed.

Better the Blood is steeped in Māori history and culture and makes Bennett's story incredibly powerful. In the hardcover edition, when the Māori language is used, the translations are right on the same page which I greatly appreciated because their proximity kept me rooted in the story.

There are some passionate, vivid characters in this book. Hana's daughter, Addison, a singer who's fierce in her insistence on the rights of the Indigenous peoples of New Zealand, is one. The serial killer is menacing, frightening, and... surprisingly sympathetic. I do like a bad guy who doesn't always do what you expect him to do.

But the fiercest, most vivid and passionate character is Hana Westerman herself. She's a Māori woman who's been cut off from her family and her people for twenty years. A woman who-- when she knows she's right-- will stand up to her superiors even if it costs her her job. A woman who doesn't know when to quit. Hana is the type of character who's fully capable of joining the ranks of my all-time favorites: Ann Cleeves' Vera Stanhope, Elly Griffiths' Ruth Galloway, Nevada Barr's Anna Pigeon... need I go on?

I want more.

Better the Blood by Michael Bennett

ISBN: 9780802160607

Grove Atlantic © 2023

Hardcover, 336 pages

 

Police Procedural, #1 Hana Westerman mystery

Rating: A+

Source: Purchased from The Poisoned Pen Bookstore.