The Echoes by Jess Montgomery

 

First Line: Esmé nearly escapes.

 

As July 4, 1928 approaches, everyone in the Kinship, Ohio area is looking forward to the opening of an amusement park created by veteran and lumber mill owner Chalmer Fitzpatrick. When Sheriff Lily Ross is alerted to the possible drowning of a girl on Fitzpatrick's property, she goes to investigate and winds up discovering old animosities that go back generations. There's long been a dispute concerning land that the amusement park is built on.

While Lily is involved with events surrounding the amusement park, her entire family is rocked by the news that before Lily's brother died, he had a daughter, Esmé, with a woman in France. Arrangements have been made for Esmé to immigrate to the U.S. to live with them, but the little girl never arrives, and Lily soon learns that she's been kidnapped. 

To further complicate matters, a young woman is indeed found murdered in the pond on Fitzpatrick's land, and a baby is left on the mill owner's doorstep. As the two crimes begin to interweave, Lily must confront some tough questions about what makes family. Can we really trust the people we love? What do we share? What do we keep secret?

~

Jess Montgomery's Kinship historical mystery series is one that all lovers of the genre should read. These books-- and The Echoes is no exception-- are filled with evocative storytelling, intricate plotting, and compelling characters. Small, telling details put readers right into the time period. Who would have believed that there'd be such a thing as a parking lot for automobiles? And that "cardboard fan with a flat wooden handle from the funeral home" made me look for the one that's been in our family since 1909. (Yes, I did find it.) Then there are also aggravating details such as the fact that married women weren't allowed to be schoolteachers, and the derogatory way some folks there in Kinship call Lily Ross "She-riff." 

But it's the people, not the historical details, that are the flesh and bone and blood of The Echoes. Esmé, a little girl kidnapped in a strange land. Lily's mother, Beulah, who keeps too many secrets. Other people "so proud of their hate" that they carry it "like a torch." (Have you ever been able to understand people like that? Neither have I.) And Lily Ross herself. Strong. Indomitable. So sure of herself and her convictions that she tends to scare the people who know her best. 

Montgomery shows us-- and shows us in lyrical, heart-bruising style-- that hurt only needs to find people once for it to echo through the rest of their lives. This is a marvelous series and one that should not be missed.

The Echoes by Jess Montgomery

eISBN: 9781250623430

Minotaur Books © 2022

eBook, 320 pages

 

Historical Mystery, #4 Kinship mystery

Rating: A

Source: Net Galley

The Stills by Jess Montgomery

First Line: Week before last, cold shooed warmth into a wish and a memory, then rattled tree limbs to leaflessness with one gnarly hand, while gripping the earth with the other.

 

In the rural Ohio of 1927, moonshining is a way of life, and Sheriff Lily Ross has been known to turn a blind eye... until thirteen-year-old Jebediah Ranklin almost dies from drinking tainted moonshine. Someone has gone too far, and Lily is determined to find out just who it is.

 

When Lil's nemesis, George Vogel arrives in town with his wife Fiona and Lily's former brother-in-law Luther Ross (now an agent for the Bureau of Prohibition), the sheriff of Kinship knows that it is too much of a coincidence.

As fall turns to winter, Lily works to pull back layer after layer of secrets and deceptions... and she begins to realize that newly married Fiona Vogel may have an agenda of her own.

~

Author Jess Montgomery continues her marvelous Kinship series with a look at Prohibition in The Stills. There are two main voices in the book: that of uncompromising Sheriff Lily Ross, a woman who refuses to have a photo of her family hanging in her office because she "doesn't need to remind some folks that they think [she] should be at home," and Fiona Vogel, a woman who's gone along with the accepted ole of women in society but who has decided that "she wants to be in control of her life. To thrive." 

The Stills is a nuanced portrait of an era with strong characters who show readers how people dealt, not only with Prohibition, but also with diseases like diabetes and asthma. The role of women in society looms large with the differing approaches of Lily and Fiona. Lily is a straight shooter. She pulls no punches, and her friends know that she will uphold the law regardless the identity of the law breaker. Buffeted by smaller stones and other debris, Lily is a boulder in the river that the water is forced to go around. Fiona is a bird feathering her nest with every little advantage and trick she can gather in the hopes that she can construct a safe place to live. While Fiona hasn't had much luck with men and wants a life where she can ignore them completely if she should choose to do so, Benjamin is a man in Lily's life who seems to like her just as she is. This is a relationship that should prove interesting in future books.

 

I always learn something when reading one of Montgomery's Kinship mysteries. In the case of The Stills, it was Prohibition and disease as well as a fascinating historical personage of whom I'd never heard: U.S. Assistant Attorney General Mabel Walker Willebrandt, who was known as "the First Lady of Law." People who believe that they can't learn anything from reading mere fiction are sadly misinformed.

 

The Stills-- as well as the other two Kinship mysteries The Widows and The Hollows-- is a splendid portrait of a time, a place, and the strong women who forged lives for themselves in it. If you haven't read these books, I urge you to do so. Begin at the beginning with The Widows. You can thank me later.

 

  

The Stills by Jess Montgomery

eISBN: 9781250623416

Minotaur Books © 2021

eBook, 320 pages

 

Historical Mystery, #3 Kinship mystery

Rating: A

Source: Net Galley

The Hollows by Jess Montgomery

First Line: For near on ten miles, the old woman walks without ceasing.

The Moonvale Tunnel is the sort of place that lends itself to mysterious goings-on. When an elderly woman is killed along the railroad tracks by the tunnel and the brakeman tells everyone he saw a ghostly female figure dressed all in white, Sheriff Lily Ross is called in to set things straight. With the help of her friends Marvena Whitcombe and Hildy Cooper, Lily follows the dead woman's trail all the way back to a notorious asylum known as The Hollows. As Lily works to learn the truth of what happened, secrets long buried by time and the mountains begin to come to light.

The Widows, the first book in Jess Montgomery's Kinship historical mystery series, was one of my stand-out books in 2019, and it gives me so much pleasure to say that this second book, The Hollows, is now a stand-out book of 2020. I find the combination of Montgomery's evocative setting, her descriptive language, her story, and her marvelous characters to be well-nigh perfect.

Perhaps the setting speaks to me so strongly because I was raised in a small farm town that had a coal mine until the mine blew up on December 24, 1932, killing over fifty men. In reading the mine's history, I see many parallels to the mines around Montgomery's fictional Kinship, Ohio. The language used, the bred-in-the-bone lifestyle of "make do and mend" all add to the verisimilitude of The Hollows as well. As I read this slow-moving, rich story, I savored its Appalachian flavor and learned more about the attempts to unionize mine workers as well as something I'd never heard of before. Just what that is, I'll leave for you to discover.

The word "hollows" has many meanings in Montgomery's book. It's used in various terms locals use in relating to the landscape, but it also has a physical and emotional meaning-- especially to Hildy Cooper who feels like a failure when compared to her best friend, Sheriff Lily Ross. Hildy has found it impossible to break away from her domineering mother.

Lily Ross-- as well as her friends Marvena and Hildy-- show readers what was expected of women in the rather isolated mining communities of the 1920s, and these women also illustrate what can happen when women insist on breaking the molds others have forced them into. All three women can be mule stubborn, but when it comes to upholding the rule of the law for everyone, Lily joins the camp of Harry Bosch. Everybody counts, or nobody counts, and it's useless to threaten her.

And, oh, the secrets these three women uncover! Never, ever think that small towns and isolated areas are dull. Wherever humans are to be found, there are secrets, and secrets abound in Kinship and the surrounding area.

I loved this book. If you read and loved The Widows, rejoice, because The Hollows is, in many ways, even better. If you've read neither book, rejoice, because you have some excellent stories and characters ahead of you. Don't wait to get your hands on either of these books!

The Hollows by Jess Montgomery

eISBN: 9781250184559

Minotaur Books © 2020

eBook, 330 pages

Historical Mystery, #2 Kinship mystery

Rating: A+

Source: Net Galley