A Most Extraordinary Pursuit by Juliana Gray

A Most Extraordinary Pursuit. Juliana Gray. Penguin Publishing Group. Kindle Book. October 2016. 400 pp.  ISBN#: 9780425277072.

Emmeline Truelove has been the secretary/personal assistant to the Duke of Olympia.  Upon his untimely death, Truelove is assigned to travel with Lord Silverton to find the missing son, Max Haywood, the new heir to the former Duke’s title, lands and monies.  Emmeline is staggered that she would be asked to complete such a task since her previous duties didn’t encompass sleuthing in the slightest way.  But she’s intelligent enough to do it.  Truelove as a character is enigmatic.  One minute she’s fully invested in her “proper” behavior and thinking and at other times she displays a wit and intuitive intelligence to provide meaningful clues and spunkiness of character. 

Lord Silverton, on the other hand, is well-known as a promiscuous rake, vacillating between being a caring, sensitive man and a teaser who seems to be looking for more than Truelove is willing to even hint at giving.  Indeed, it turns out that Lord Silverton is a genuine sleuth and that’s a very good thing as he and Truelove will experience danger many times during the course of their travel to Knossos in Cyprus and beyond. 

Interwoven in the story lies a part of the myth of the Minotaur and the Labyrinth with a romantic spin only gradually revealed, scenes which enhance the very, very slowly evolving romance between Truelove and Silverton.

Add to the story that Queen Victoria and Emmeline’s father, who are both deceased, keep appearing to Emmeline, the former warning her she should never have accepted this job and the latter giving her sharp looks that could mean a million different things. Emmeline believes the appearances of both characters are delusions that she should ignore, or should she really pretend they are not real?

The archeological artifacts that have been discovered by Max and other peers seem to have a mystery about them as well.  Are they real or fake?  Why does one in particular seem to depict a character holding what any modern person would call a camera?  What are the secrets about why Max shipped his discoveries back home through someone being paid a great deal?  Are these shipments legal?  Honestly acquired for “The Institute” back home?

A Most Extraordinary Pursuit is an interesting novel replete with many twists and turns, sometimes presented with an annoying complexity and confusion and at other times with a natural style of mystery that enhances the reader’s interest and engagement.  The reader must decide whether the characters are truly credible.  Mythology is said to be a rational explanation for behavior and events that are totally inexplicable.  The same could be said for the plot of this challenging novel.  Interestingly crafted historical fiction, Juliana Gray!

The Flower Arrangement: A Novel by Ella Griffin

The Flower Arrangement: A Novel. Ella Griffin. Penguin Publishing Group. October 2016. 352 pp.  ISBN#: 9781101989739.

Blossom and Grow is the name of the lovely Dublin flower shop Lara Gray opens after losing her baby six months into her pregnancy.  In one sense it enables her to bury her grief in work she loves, but in the true essence of this story it connects her to emotions in the customers who come into her shop to buy a single or multiple flowers for each special occasion.  That might be love, sorrow, forgiveness, joy, celebration of a landmark day, etc.  But Lara is so good at it that no one will buy unless she is in attendance as she seems to possess the perfect word, phrase or comment for the moment’s need.

Lara’s Dad was mother and father to her and now he has one concern as he lies in hospital dying.  He wants Lara to have another baby.  After experiencing a healing moment while delivering flowers to a new mother, she is able to promise him she will try.  However, after he dies, Lara’s conversation with her husband, Michael, leads to a shocking revelation that sends Lara whirling with grief on several levels. 

Her brother Phil, who has always been her biggest supporter, fills in and speaks truth at just the right time. He has his own story intertwined with his sister’s chronicle which at first seems unrelated but is actually part of this novel’s essence of being true to one’s self.

The Flower Arrangement… is a relaxing, satisfying read.  It doesn’t matter whether the reader loves, hates, or couldn’t care either way about the numerous varieties of flowers.  It’s about the rightness of certain flowers expressing the mood of the past, present and future for each person entering Lara’s world of beauty and peace. Honesty, loneliness, grief, bereavement, truth and wisdom fill these pages with wisdom transcending the simplest of plots or characterization.  Nicely crafted and recommended reading!

Folly Cove by Holly Robinson

Folly Cove.  Holly Robinson.  Penguin Publishing. October 2016. 400 pp. ISBN#: 978110199534.  

Folly Cove Inn, its owner Sarah Bradford, and her daughters, Laura, Anne and Elly, are famous in the Rockport, Massachusetts area and throughout the country.  The singular jazz singing, elegant meals, pristinely beautiful grounds, and the hosts’ friendliness to guests make the Inn a favorite vacation spot as well as a site for weddings and celebrations galore.  At one time, the three sisters were as close as possible, a support for each other against the persistent demands for perfection from their mother.  But now through a series of unexpected events, secrets galore are about to come out, facts and dreams that will shatter or unite their relationships forever!

Anne is the first to come home from her idyllic love and beach life far from Rockport.  Her perfect life has come undone, her love has left and she arrives home to shock Sarah with a baby girl.  She soon moves into a nearby cottage on the grounds as her mother doesn’t want a child’s noise to disturb the guests; she never realizes her coldness to her granddaughter just adds more hurt to Anne’s already dispirited mood.  But Anne’s feisty enough to fight for her daughter and agrees to help out at the inn to make money to support her daughter.

Laura is the daughter who stayed at home, married and had a child.  But something is unraveling in her marriage and she has no idea what it is.  She and Anne hate each other over a supposed betrayal that happened years earlier.  The truth of that terrible time will be clarified in time but not before words and even a physical attack brings all the venom to the surface. 

Elly is a talented singer who just couldn’t make in the music business but developed other skills.  Her return home is guided by her need to recoup and see if she should move in a different direction.  She’s the beauty of the family which causes some resentment but her genial mood makes everyone around her laugh, smile and speak honestly about whatever is needed at the moment.

All of these ladies will gradually meet men secretly and in the open that will force them to face who they are individually and as a family. Those talks that follow are stunning. Even Sarah is about to undergo a transformation, albeit forced in one sense.

This is a family story that is so very, very real.  It has so many moments of different emotional ranges concerning dreams, betrayal and loyalty, sympathy, truth-telling, and a bond that is stronger than any one or series of events can destroy. 

This reviewer loved this novel and highly recommends it as a careful, talented work of engaging contemporary fiction! Great story and characters every reader can identify with in some way or ways!

The Candidate: A Newsmakers Novel by Lisa Wiehl

The Candidate: A Newsmakers Novel.  Lis Wiehl with Sebastian Stuart. Thomas Nelson, Inc. October 2016. 352 pp.  ISBN#: 9780718037680.

News anchorwoman Erica Sparks is at the top of her game with her snappy reporting that engages the public.  That is, she thought she was at the top but her boss calls her in to tell her that ratings for her show on GNN are slipping, a fact that restores her fears from the past and a life she wishes would never appear in memory.  Add to that she knows she’s neglecting her daughter Jennie for the job and they are beginning to drift apart.  The first problem will change and the second demands some immediate action but certainly not what Erica envisioned for their family.

Erica is covering the appearance of the candidates, Senator Mike Ortiz and Fred Buchanan, when a bomb rips through the crowd outside the venue for the appearance.  Fred and Judy Buchanan, among numerous others, are instantly killed.  But Erica is not only struck by the horrendous tragedy.  She notices that before Senator Mike Ortiz makes any comment, he seems to look at his wife, Celeste Pierce Ortiz, for approval before continuing.  Worse yet, he seems to smile at inappropriate times and otherwise has no affect regarding the circumstance that is tragic to say the least. As times goes by, including a personal interview with Ortiz, Erica begins to delve further into his background, believing something is very wrong with this man.

This then is the story of Erica’s tendency to be in the right place at the right (or wrong depending on one’s point of view) time and a powerful intuitive skill in being able to sniff out a potentially explosive story.

Add to that the too perfect image of Celeste Pierce Ortiz and her association with Lily Lau.  But readers will never be able to figure out what’s going on behind the scenes that has pathologically dangerous elements that Erica is investigating, actions that will put her own life at risk. 

Add to that a choice Erika makes for her daughter will turn out to be very dangerous for Erika and Jenny.  Even the savviest of journalists can’t always be sharp about all looming dangers.

The Candidate: A Newsmakers Novel is a sharp novel about outside efforts to control the democratic process of elections in America.  Those plans are designed to change the American government and are all more frightening for the viable possibility that comes too close for comfort!  Fast, exciting, nerve wracking plot that provides a great read!  Superbly done, Lisa Wiehl and Sebastian Stuart!

The Heavens May Fall by Allen Eskens

The Heavens May Fall.  Allen Eskens. Prometheus Books. October 2016. 270 pp.  ISBN#: 9781633882058.

Two seasoned lawyers, Max Rupert and Boady Sanden, who are also friends face each other, one a prosecuting attorney accusing Ben Pruitt of murdering his wife, Jennavieve and the other one defending the accused.  Max lost his wife to a hit and run accident one year ago and his emotions are in full throttle on the one year anniversary of that devastating loss. Could this cloud his thinking about Ben’s guilt or innocence?  He thinks not but Boady is out for the objective truth.  Boady, on the other hand, carries the burden of a lost case, a loss he finds to be an unforgivable failure.  He has managed to move beyond that moment but it still looms large in the background and he’s determined it won’t mar the way he handles this case, as Ben is also a colleague and friend.  Boady enlists the support of a student, Lila Nash, who both learns from Boady and offers critically objective perspective when it is most needed.

Ben supposedly has a perfect alibi and yet a woman who lived across the street from his home claims she saw him in a red car outside his house on the night of the murder.  Max believes this is all the evidence he needs but Boady is not so sure.  Ben and Jennavieve supposedly had a perfect marriage, with its normal ups and downs, but could both of them have secrets that no one else has recognized until now?   Max is accused of ignoring other potential suspects and also receives a reprimand for taking home a file about his wife’s murder.  Since all other investigators consider that a closed case, Max sees no harm in reviewing the available evidence.

The gradual evolution of this murder investigation and trial will shock all readers as no one even hints at a clever manipulation of alibis that will affect both this case and connect to Max’s wife’s death as well.  Stunning, clever plot with a splendid depiction of how legal minds can manipulate cases to both protect and incriminate potential defendants.  Highly recommended, indeed!

The Embroiderer by Kathryn Gauci

The Embroiderer. Kathryn Gauci. Silverwood Books Ltd. November 2014. 372 pp. ISBN#: 9781781322963.  

For those who love a grand family saga, The Embroiderer will more than satisfy your love of the genre.  To begin with, we meet Dimitra, a strong, old-fashioned woman who raises strong daughters.  Dimitra’s past remains a secret until the very end of this novel but what is depicted before that astonishing finale is more than worth the wait!

Dimitra is the talented embroiderer, weaving together Turkish and Greek textile materials into designs that elicit awe in the beholder, all marked with a small, beautifully colored and crafted trademark flower.  While she encourages her daughters to be educated in languages and other subjects, she also allows them space to develop their own incredible talents.  One particular prophecy troubles her on and off until it become reality years later.

Dimitra’s daughter, Sophia, becomes a talented designer of high couture women’s clothing that is popular with both Greeks and Turks, a surprise given the deep animosity between those two peoples.  Indeed, this novel spans the historical time period of the Greek War for Independence against the Turks in in 1822 to the Balkan Wars and eventually World War II in Asia Minor, Europe, and elsewhere.

The men and women of this family and their supportive, loyal friends become friends forever, through the celebratory moments of joy as each woman succeeds all the way through the brutal scenes of each war.  In times of starvation and illness, the family saves so many in the Greek community who would otherwise have died but for the charity they received, given humbly but deliberately. To whom much is given, much is required, and this family never loses sight of that necessity.  It makes the victories seem that much sweeter!

Sophia’s daughter, Marie becomes first a famous opera and then cabaret singer and Nina becomes a scholarly quiet woman dedicated to her own love of art and history.  It is Nina’s daughter, Eleni, who is the narrator of this historical saga which sweeps the reader into its tapestry and holds it to the very last page.

Each woman will have true, passionate lovers and others unworthy of any loyalty and attention.  The reader through these scenes reads about such poignant scenes of suffering, endurance, unbelievable strength, and quiet but deadly resistance.  Even the servants are so totally engaged with this family that they literally are considered family.

There are betrayals as well, one in particular too horrendous to conceive but which will remain etched forever in readers’ minds and hearts.  But so too will be the sensational descriptions of luscious food, gorgeous jewelry and exciting clothing that are simply delightful to follow, both the familiar and the exotically strange.

All in all, The Embroiderer is a stunningly wonderful work of historical fiction and as the first novel of this new author a tribute to her immense skills of description and expression.  Highly recommended indeed!  Wonderful story and writing, Kathryn Gauci!

Belonging by Umi Sinha

Belonging. Umi Sinha. Myriad Editions. December 2015. 320 pp. ISBN#: 9781908434746.  

Belonging is a multi-generation saga narrated by Grandmother Cecil, her son Henry and his daughter Lila.  It’s the story whose Indian history parallels the love, cruelty and madness in its all too human characters.  For this family are all British outsiders, accepted as masters of their Indian subjects while in reality constantly waiting for the shoe to drop with revolution and rebellion.  Despite their position, the English narrators come to love this country with its lush vegetation, spicy and colorful food and dress, and the wisdom and care manifested through those who are soldiers, servants and nannies. 

It takes a while to distinguish the different voices but we discover careful details of Cicely and Henry’s life in India while Lila is sent home to Sussex, England to live with her stern Aunt Mina.  All of these people have lost spouses or relatives to the occasionally erupting violence in India and the reader is intrigued by the fact that with so much surrounding hostility, the main characters deny the heightened volatility of the region and choose to believe they are well-loved.

The famous siege of Cawnpore took place in 1857 when the British subjects were promised safe passage and sanctuary but instead were all brutally raped, stabbed and murdered.  Cecily will intensely suffer during this horrendous event, but she leaves behind a series of letters describing their hopes and gradual realization of how they were maliciously betrayed.  All those years of politeness and acting like family and loyal soldiers in reality erupted into the fight for rebels and others who wanted freedom and independence, ironic to say the least since that wish would not be fulfilled for another fifty or so years.

The above sounds like a very simple plot, but this reviewer must emphasize the beautiful and skilled manner in which this story is crafted is beyond words.  Even the confusion over who is who and what events are being depicted may be seen to reflect the always confusing relationship between Indian soldiers and servants and their English masters and mistresses.  The descriptions are so artfully presented that one feels one is right there in the middle of it all and the same may be said for the thoughts and feelings swirling through each event and each character’s mind and heart.  For a first novel, Umi Simha has definitely displayed gifted skills in writing historical fiction.  Highly recommended, great reading!