Eagle and Crane: A Novel by Suzanne Rindell

Eagle and Crane: A Novel. Suzanne Rindell. Penguin Publishing Group. July 2018. 448 pp. ISBN#: 9780399184291.

Haruto (Harry) Yamada and Louis Thorn grew up side by side on California farmlands.  At one time their lands had been joined and owned by the Thorn family.  But to Louis’ father and brothers’ lifelong chagrin, the father had gambled too much in a drunken stupor one night and lost the most valuable west side of his property to the Yamada family.  Not a good loser, he bore a grudge against the Yamadas that grew with the telling into fantastic hate and determination to get back at them for “tricking” the Thorn family out of their property.

When we meet Harry and Louis, they have spent years apart and are now barely on speaking terms, sad because they had been childhood companions and friends for a long time, until Louis heard enough of the conflict to turn him against the “Jap” Harry.  Now they are to slowly become united as they are snagged into flying “barnstorming” and daredevil deed exhibitions planned by Earl, a con man who originally sold a “cure all tonic.”  Ava and her mother Chloe work for Earl and Ava becomes a new source of contention between Harry and Louis.  Later on, that romantic triangle becomes the focus of a mystery.

WWII arrives with the bombing of Pearl Harbor, and the flight business (which is vividly described quite enjoyably) collapses as all Japanese and Japanese-Americans are interned in camps for the duration of the war.  The mystery begins when Harry and someone else in his family escape the camp and supposedly take up one of the bi-planes and crash it spectacularly with no seeming effort to save themselves.  Murder? Suicide?  It’s up to the local sheriff and FBI Agent Bonner to figure that one out! 

The plot and character presentations are intriguing and keep a perfect pace and pitch for any reader to follow.  Uncertainty is the prevalent motif of this romance/mystery novel so that the reader feels like he or she is the investigator and/or chronicler of this work of historical fiction.  This is a unique perspective of the way WWII changed the lives and attitudes of Americans toward foreigners forever!  Something to reflect on in these trying days of similar conflicts!

The Other Typist: A Novel by Suzanne Rindell

The Other Typist: A Novel.  Suzanne Rindell. Penguin Group (USA). April 2013. 368 pp. hbk. ISBN #: 9780425268421.

Rose Baker is a staid, ultraconservative typist/stenographer for the New York City Police Department.  She types reports and confessions of criminals, a responsibility which calls for quite a staunch stamina indeed!  The Sergeant and the Lieutenant Detective seem to vie for her attention, but her respect definitely seems to be for the former, an attitude that perhaps foreshadows some trouble in the future.  A significant change when the department hires a new typist, Odalie, who saunters into her interview and later daily appearance as if she were the most famous movie star in the world!

Initially Odalie ignores Rose and befriends the other typists who are even blander than the perfect and proper lady, Rose.  That changes, however, after Odalie drops a bejeweled brooch which Rose picks up and conveniently forgets to return to Odalie the next day.  Rindell’s depiction of Odalie is perfect as narrated through the observations of Rose.  For Odalie reads people’s personality quickly and reacts accordingly; but she also seems adept at sensing their weakness which she exploits covertly.  She then introduces Rose to a world of speakeasy rooms and parties where there’s no shortage of liquor despite Prohibition laws.  It isn’t long before Rose is totally sucked into excessive drinking and dancing the latest jazz numbers.  While there’s always a tinge of guilt and questioning in Rose’s acquiescence to every invitation by Odalie, it doesn’t stop Rose from eventually agreeing to be Odalie’s roommate in a very posh hotel in Manhattan.  Then the trouble begins!

The possibility of raids on the places where the two friends party, the many questions that arise out of Odalie’s stories about her background and the appearance of a man named Teddy carry the rest of the novel into a tense, riveting mystery that ends in a calamitous act.  The reader is stymied about who did what and actually who is the actual perpetrator of several heinous crimes.

The Other Typist is an excellent mystery that illuminates Rindell’s formidable talent at pacing a story with just the right amount of increasing intensity and dread.  The characterization of both women is superb, one a foil for the other’s sociopathic personality – or perhaps it’s the reverse?  Highly recommended novel about obsession and the unique facets of the criminal mind!