Brush Back: A V. I. Warshawski Novel #17 by Sarah Paretsky.

Brush Back: A V. I. Warshawski Novel #17.  Sarah Paretsky. Penguin Group (USA). July 2015. 480 pp.  ISBN#: 9780399160578.

V. I. Warshawski is surprised when an old boyfriend, Frank Guzzo, approaches, literally begs, her for help with his mother, Stella.  Stella recently finished serving twenty-five years in jail for murdering her daughter, Frank’s sister, Annie.  Stella is a very tough lady who feeds, indeed seems to live, off her hate of V.I Warshawski and her family.  It’s hard to see what made her as she is, but one thing for sure is her hate is venomous and she is capable of killing.  The trouble Frank is asking help for now is that Stella is claiming she is totally innocent of killing Annie.  At first Warshawski thinks that now Stella has returned from prison, she is trying to reinvent herself in the eyes of South Chicago.  She reluctantly promises Frank she’ll give him a consultation gift of one hour of investigation and makes him sign a retainer that states he’s got to pay for anything beyond that.  Little does she realize just how much more time will be involved in this investigation that is much larger than just Stella’s guilt or innocence.

Warshawski’s late cousin, Boom-Boom, used to be a huge hockey star but was killed and now Stella is saying he was responsible for Annie’s death. Warshawski, a private investigator sets about to prove this was wrong and finds herself enmeshed in a world where politics and sports run hand in hand.  To say more would be to spoil a minute, step-by-step into the dregs of political corruption where the job will be done no matter how much money is required or violence must be carried out.  In the process our private investigator will place her own life at risk.

The end of this story is surprising not only for a solution as to who committed several crimes a/k/a murders but in how Stella reacts to the end of this story. 

Sarah Paretsky is masterful in crafting a tight tale where the grim setting of scenes parallels the grim reality of past and present criminals and their nefarious deeds.  Readers who love a page-turning, riveting mystery and thriller will be very, very pleased with this latest installment of P.I. Warshawski’s sleuthing life!

Losing Me by Sue Margolis

Losing Me.  Sue Margolis. Penguin Group (USA). July 2015. 384 pp.  ISBN#: 9780451471840.

Barbara Stirling is almost sixty years old and is now being ousted from her job as a special education teacher due to budget cuts. It’s a huge loss to the school as she is very good at what she does and really cares about these kids who come from homes rife with poverty, abuse, violence, starvation and just plain neglect.  Some parents don’t care and others are quite realistically doing the best they can which means their children suffer from a number of physical and emotional problems that affect any, if not all, learning. Barbara clearly cares and goes above and beyond the call of duty to help wherever and however she can. Harder still, she takes her job home and worries about her “kids,” but she gets very little feedback from her husband, another story in itself.

Barbara is also worried who went to college but has been unable to get a job.  Her daughter is an ecology fanatic who is about to begin using cloth toilet rags in place of toilet roll, quite a gross idea although it is certainly admirable in purpose. Add to that she has a friend who admits she’s got a lousy sex life with her husband but uses sex gigolos to satisfy her avid desires. Money is tight at home and hubby Frank is only caught up in his film job which doesn’t pay so well.  The real issue is his semi-concerned feedback to Barbara about her job and needs. Not even when she begins to suffer panic attacks does he really respond in the way she needs. Mom is the queen of criticism, hardly an asset in Barbara’s decomposing world.

Before her job concludes, Barbara becomes involved in the life of Troy, one of her students who is clearly being abused but who won’t answer questions. This then is the story of her intervention and how Troy’s world gives her purpose and direction, and it also enables her to learn to speak up and call things as she sees them.  Transformation comes about with determination and challenging those who prefer to complain but not much beyond that.

There are several issues of importance in this novel which Margolis treats with both seriousness  and levity, where appropriate.   The characters are so very real in far too many families, and the author handles each issue honestly and clearly, including the apathy of co-existence which is symptomatic of so much emotional distress in the world.

Very nicely crafted, Sue Margolis and recommended for all readers! Hope lies eternal!

A Lady of Good Family: A Novel by Jeanne Mackin

A Lady of Good Family: A Novel.  Jeanne Mackin. Penguin Group (USA). June 2015. 368 pp.  ISBN#: 9780451465832.

In The Gilded Age of the 1920s in New England, a woman was fated to marry, raise children, socialize and talk of mundane matters and travel to Europe to tour, rest and socialize some more. This then is the story of the passionate and famous gardener and landscape designer, Beatrix Farrand, who conforms at a minimum level but truly follows the dictates of her heart and soul.

The story is narrated by Daisy Winters, a close friend of Beatrix, and the story opens with Beatrix’s relationships with her Aunt, Edith Wharton, the author Henry James and Minnie, Beatrix’s mother who is currently in the process of divorcing her husband, also a huge break from acceptable tradition of staying married no matter what troubles prevail. Indeed most of the couples in this novel are either always irritated or unhappy about their spouses. What really comes across in the narrative is the lazy boredom of all these rich couples.

While touring in the Borghese Gardens in Italy, Beatrix meets Italian Amerigo Massimo and her word dramatically changes. It is truly “love at first sight.” While his views about women are more conservative than her perspective, it doesn’t stop the magic and they soon become the talk of society. However, nothing stops her from pursuing her study of gardens and art throughout Europe.  It is just as well as the reader receives a shock later on in the story regarding priorities in love.

As an aside, it’s fascinating how Wharton and James are portrayed herein.  Edith appears less stiff than how she writes and James seems to be the arbiter of decisions that accords with his writings; it’s all about what society accepts or rejects. Beatrix and Minnie are refreshing rebels herein, indeed!

This reviewer absolutely loved the vivid, energizing descriptions of gardens Beatrix visits and the way she slowly articulates how a garden is meant to refresh, rest and inspire viewers.  At the same time, the dialogue is plodding among the rich but miserable other characters. A bit of social satire herein?

A Lady of Good Family… is a fascinating, rich story of love, gardens, society and the woman who would break tradition enough to become one of America’s foremost landscape gardeners, presenting her visions throughout America and even at the White House. Recommended reading for sure!

Somebody I Used to Know by David Bell

Somebody I Used to Know.  David Bell. Penguin Group (USA). July 2015. 432 pp.  ISBN#: 9780451474209.

Nick Hansen has a satisfying job as a housing authority caseworker. He’s happiest when the system is just and angry when it fails.  Then one day when he’s in a supermarket to pick up some items for home cooking, he sees a young woman who looks just like his dead girlfriend, that is the one who died twenty years ago!  Stunned, he waits but then confronts the girl and asks her if she’s related to someone he knows.  She drops everything she was holding and runs away as fast as she can.  From that moment until the very last page the reader is gripped with a phenomenal story that slowly evolves with revelations coming from several women initially involved in the unbelievably complex story.

What would you do if your child committed a crime that would mean a future composed of a jail sentence and a reputable job that would never happen?  And what would you do if someone was responsible for the death of your child?  How long would your anger and desire for revenge continue?  Would you pass on that rage until your family had the same determination for vigilante justice?  These questions arise and force the reader to consider his or her own answers.  Yet the reality is so much worse than what one can imagine and what Nick has been thinking and feeling for years is so far from the truth that he will be increasingly blindsided with the truth!

Somebody I Used to Know is fine criminal fiction that is all too credible to any reader who watches or listens to the news on a daily basis.  It’s a novel about the terrible consequences made with quickly made choices and decisions that change the lives of those intimately involved but also those who knew snippets of each part of the story.  Wonderful novel, David Bell – stunning story that will keep reader’s up at night until the end of the story. Highly recommended!

Lady Maybe: A Novel by Julie Klassen.

Lady Maybe: A Novel.  Julie Klassen. Penguin Group (USA). July 2015. 400 pp.  ISBN#: 9780425282076.

Marianna and her husband, Sir John, are moving because of Marianna’s infidelity.  So he is a very, very angry man but is determined to save his marriage by removing her from temptation.  Marianna’s only comfort is that her former companion or servant agrees to travel with them.  Chaos erupts, however, when they are in a terrible accident where their carriage turns over and over off a road. 

The next thing we know is that Hannah awakens in a strange bed, learns that Sir John has been seriously injured and is lying unconscious in the same house and Marianna is assumed to have drowned in the water near where they fell.  At first Hannah doesn’t remember much and is uncomfortable with the delicate and caring attention she is getting from the doctor and other servants in what is obviously Sir John’s home.

This then is the story of a woman who at first allows everyone to think she is Marianna and that Hannah died.  But Hannah’s vague memories of a baby compel her to escape from this false identity she has assumed through her silence.  How this novel evolves is stunning! 

A solicitor (lawyer) is highly suspicious of Hannah and even challenges Sir John multiple times, in literal and legal ways.  Another woman, a former lover, someone who abducts children for financial gain, and so many other characters appear and turn the basic story upside down in a delightful way.  It’s a mystery as well as a romance story that keeps the reader wanting to know more about these so-called members of the aristocracy and those beneath them.

Julie Klassen knows her time period as well and has given a Gothic and historic romance to readers who will be more than pleased at this story that reads like a true classic Regency novel.  Finely written, Julie Klassen!

A Week at the Lake: A Novel by Wendy Wax

A Week at the Lake: A Novel.  Wendy Wax. Penguin Group (USA). June 2015. 432 pp.  ISBN#: 9780425274477.

Wendy Wax is back and better than before!  The story takes place amid the frenetic lifestyle of New York City and then moves to the gorgeous, summer vacation site of Lake George in the Adirondack Mountains of New York State.  But before we get to the blissful vacation, we learn a little bit about each of the three women who were once best friends and who spent many, many summers enjoying each other’s company at the Lake George home of Emma Michaels.  Mackenzie Hayes and Serena Stockton are wondering why they have not been invited to Emma’s home for five years. All of their families are into acting in one way or another, but the plot that is about to unfold will take more stamina and guts than has ever been performed on stage.

A terrible accident is about to happen and Mackenzie and Serena are determined to be there for Zoe, Emma’s daughter, for as long as she needs their support.  Emma’s family appears as well, which jettisons these friends into delightful, comic, bittersweet scenes as the reality of the situation brings out the best and worst in everyone.  Meanwhile, Mackenzie whose husband is off in California for a possible work-related job, feels alone and second fiddle to Adam’s goals.  Serena, a famous actress in a very well-known animated TV show, has a reputation for dating married men but faces her own challenge in the midst of the prevailing chaos.  Off they all go to Lake George – eventually!

Secrets and truthful feelings emerge as they spend more and more time with each other.  The rest is a shocker that could make or break the best of friendships.  Amid the beauty, unexpected revelations and attempts at healing arrive certain characters who have the opportunity to make the threesome bond more deeply. The question is how to adjust to all these changes that are happening at rapid-fire moments and how to truly enjoy each other and the surrounding, tranquil environment around them.  Add a feisty foreign aide to the comedy of it all!

Wendy Wax gets better and better at plotting great summer reads!  The plot has just enough reality to bring credibility to the story and adds some unique scenes that keep the reader fascinated. Fans will be very pleased and more with this latest novel about changing relationships and new readers will have a fine read of a very talented author!  Lovely, delightful and heartily recommended contemporary fiction!!!

Touched With Fire: Based on the True Story of Ellen Craft by Christopher Datta

Touched With Fire: Based on the True Story of Ellen Craft.  Christopher Datta. CreateSpace Publishing. June 2015. 398 pp.  ISBN#: 9781490498836.

Ellie is a white woman of African-American and white descent.  But all that matters in her Georgia home is that she remember her place as a slave.  Her white father never admits her forced himself on her mother and never feels he has any duty to acknowledge his daughter, let alone treat her decently as any father should. She is constantly threatened by the leering looks of her half-sister’s husband, a minister and more men without any morals.

This is the world of Southern slavery.  One may decry the dozens of conversations Ellie is forced to listen to while serving dinner or some other visitor, dialogue that is repetitive with the notion of keeping slaves in their place and either beating them violently or selling them if they get out of line. What is so despicable to read was the accepted way of life in the pre-Civil War lives of the South.  Revisionist history has no place in this story that is actually based on a real slave.  This is the story of Ellie and Will, William Craft, Ellie’s husband.

Ellie and Will dared to do what few slaves would ever do and I can’t recall ever reading a story like this one.  For Ellie with her very white appearance disguises herself as a man, the owner of Will, and their goal is to find freedom in Philadelphia.  To tell more would ruin an amazingly bold and courageous story!

Suffice to say that they travel but soon realize they cannot make it for a legal reason they had not anticipated.  So when war breaks out between the North and South, Will must return to the South and Ellie joins the Union Army, determined to fight her way back to Will and hopefully to freedom for both of them. 

Christopher Datta crafts a fine story in which Ellie shows not only grit and perseverance but also reveals her terrible fears.  Her skill and her insistence of thinking like a man defy our expectations and enable her to survive so many tension-ridden challenges that one can’t stop turning the pages to find out what happens next. The love she and Will share is lovely to read, a love in which both treat each other respectfully and passionately as equals. This is fine, fine historical fiction and is highly recommended for all ages.  It would make one amazing movie as well!