How Not to Die Alone by Richard Roper

How Not to Die Alone. Richard Roper. Penguin Publishing Group. Copyright May 28,  2019, pb, 336 pp.; ISBN: 9780525539889.

Andrew is a 42-year-old man who is a bachelor.  He works for the Death Administration Council.  What that basically means is that when a person dies without anyone, Andrew must check out if there are any family, any cash or bank accounts to pay for the funeral, and stay until the body is sent to the morgue.  But Andrew is a good soul, albeit pathetic, who even goes to the funeral of the deceased.  The intriguing part is that as this story begins, he lies through his teeth to his coworkers, saying that he is married, has two children and works in a posh home in an upper-class neighborhood.  One could understand that but he makes it worse by adding to the story frequently to the point where his peers are dying to meet his family and visit his phenomenal home.  The saving grace for a very difficult first few chapters is that Andrew has a ripping, great sense of humor in spite of his pathetic lies.

Two occasions mark the turning point for Andrew.  One is a new co-worker, Peggy, who is married with two daughters.  At first, he is intent on helping her to adjust to her new job which is the same as his job.  Little by little, with some innocent but increasingly revealing conversations, he finds himself realizing he’s falling in love with her.  She has a bad marriage that’s little by little falling apart and he discovers he really cares what happens to her. 

At the same time, he has a strange relationship with his own family, especially his sister who wants him to face his past.  Sally and Andrew had a close but fraught relationship and she blames him for the fact they have grown apart.  A tragedy happens and Sally’s ex-boyfriend is convinced Andrew is responsible because Sally worried so much about him.  What the boyfriend wants is a wake-up call for Andrew.

The plot evolves and doesn’t quite go where everyone expects, but it can be said that Andrew is a new person as a result of the experiences he has with Peggy and Sally.

Hang in reader because this is a story that can’t be quickly forgotten and therein lies its redemptive qualities for both the characters in the story and the reader who is made to question and think about relationships and people.  Interesting, annoying but redeemable contemporary fiction!

Deep Water Blues by Fred Waitzkin

Deep Water Blues. Fred Waitzkin. Illustrated by John Mitchell. Open Road Media. Copyright May 2019. $7.99; pb, 160 pp.; ISBN: 9781504057738.

This is a story about creating beauty and prosperity in the already gorgeous Bahama Island.  On the Island of Rum Cay, Bobby Little uses his popularity to create businesses that offer superb hospitality and atmosphere to welcome rich tourists.  He’s very good at it but unconsciously elicits jealousy from those less successful.  Fisherman are more than welcome here and Bobby often dreams of catching a huge marlin, yes like something out of the book or movie The Old Man and the Sea.

Tragedy strikes when numerous Haitian refugees around found dead after their boat fails and Bobby and his friends have to find and bury more bodies than anyone could imagine.  It changes everything, casting gloom and horror over the whole area.  It certainly changes Bobby who takes off for his annual European visit and returns to find someone else has begun to develop the marina at Rum Cay and elsewhere.  Bobby at first is friendly about it but when the challenge becomes less than friendly, Bobby meets it head-on.  And his nemesis Dennis will come to an untimely demise! 

Fred Waitzkin is a highly skilled writer who knows how to depict beautiful scenery, love of water life, marinas and beach life as well as outstanding character development.  Bobby is a charismatic individual whose magnanimous nature is what attracts people to his marina.  He is never demanding or demeaning and is without grandiose dreams although he could be if financial developer if he chose such a goal.  One reads and picks up the peaceful nature of Bobby’s world but then feels the tension when Dennis enters the scene with his grand plans.  Islands are places of peace, not meant for violence and competition.  Run Cay’s integrity is maintained through the natural development of change and conflict.  Finely crafted, Fred Waitzkin!

The Lovely and the Lost by Jennifer Lynn Barnes

The Lovely and the Lost.  Jennifer Lynn Barnes. Freeform.  May 2019; pb, 336 pp.; ISBN #: 9781484776209.

Search and rescue work is not for the faint of heart.  But what if one of the searchers has been herself lost and found from the wilderness with no memories of the past except those of fear and loneliness?  Kira Bennett was found by her foster mother, Cady Bennett, who continues carrying on search and rescue missions. Kira’s relationship to her foster parents and siblings is another aspect of this mystery since Kira was found unable to speak and petrified of human beings. Kira participates in their family searches because what else can she do, knowing the terrors of having to live in forests and surviving with skills learned for survival.

One of the delights of this story is getting to know the animals who are part of the search and rescue team, Silver, Saskia, NATO and Dutchess, lovely canines who are dedicated, relentless in finding their quarry, and loving friendliness.  They become part of Kira’s survival in their present search, when glimmers of her own memories threaten her ability to continue with the desperate search for a missing girl.  Their intuition matches her own, having lived in a feral state that bonds them into a natural unit pursing their mission.

Tracking is a careful skill that can be thrown by natural events, accidents and more.  While they continue their search, she meets Gabriel, the son of an abusive Sheriff. Gabriel’s brother is also one of the missing, which adds another twist to the story that keeps the river riveted to the mystery of this family.

Kira will discover aspects of her own past as the search for the mission is accomplished but with more problems than answers.  The Lovely and the Lost is a fine read, albeit sometimes confusing with a too large cast of characters.  Kira’s world seems realistic and mysterious which adds to the mysterious drama of each aspect of this account.  Nicely done, Jennifer Lynn Barnes!

Park Avenue Summer - A Novel by Renee Rosen

Park Avenue Summer.  Renee Rosen. Penguin Publishing Group.  April 2019; pb, 368 pp.; ISBN #: 9781101991145.

Alice Weiss fulfills her dream by leaving the Midwest to live in New York City.  She has few skills and only one connection, a friend of her mother, who connects Alice to become the secretary of the now legendary Helen Gurley Brown.  At the time of this novel’s account, the magazine Cosmopolitan is massively failing and Helen Gurley Brown is hired to revive it before it dies.  Connected to the Hearst family, Helen gets the job but is expected to fail.  However, no one realizes how vastly talented is this new Editor-in-Chief, no matter how crazy her ideas sound!

Gurley envisions a new post-WWII woman, a woman who can work, have ideas and has unspoken thoughts about sex and fashion that are shocking and elicit rejection from all men and quite a few women as well.  Imagine wondering, at that time in the 1960s, how one could improve one’s sex life, look sexier, stand out as powerful and capable women, and so much more.

Staff on the magazine are quitting by droves and there are those who leak to the public Gurley’s ideas which in one sense gets attention, both negative and positive.  Alice meanwhile learns the hard way not to trust fellow employees, both male and female.  Sex seems to be a tool but Alice is too much of a strong woman, although horrified and intimidated at first, to become part of the manipulative betrayals happening throughout the office.  She herself has apprentice-like skills as a photographer and meets Christopher, who mentors her and never goes beyond a professional and friendly stance, with a hint of something more looming in the future.

When the July issue finally emerges, it has rave sales but Gurley still has to fight to have her ideas for the future emerge unscathed by the Hearst family.

Park Avenue Summer is a delightful read, both for depicting the historical changes happening in a society wanting “more” in the personal and professional worlds.  Nice job, Renee Rosen! 

The Great Pretenders by Laura Kalpakian

The Great Pretenders.  Laura Kalpakian. Tirgearr Publishing.  March 2019; Kindle mobi, 283 pp.; ASIN: B07N974NW5.

Roxanne Granville is a spoiled, rich granddaughter of a theatre and movie powerhouse.  Her mother dies in the very beginning of the story and her resentment of her grandfather’s lover is beyond words.  She can’t understand how Denise could replace Julia because Roxanne really has no idea what a love affair with commitment is and how it could change.  Therefore, she announces she will have nothing to do with him until he drops Denise.  His response is laughable, a fairy tale in the land of the rich!

So what does a woman with fame to her name do when not living in a beach home in Malibu?  She has no real skills but isn’t shy on ideas.  She decides to be a book agent, supporting and selling the types of books that are turned into shows and movies.  Roxanne proceeds to do something daring, something that carries the chances for amazing success as well as the chances of looming disaster.

Hundreds of former writers and actors were fired when Joe McCarthy’s Committee for Unamerican Activities was conducting its investigations and congressional testimonials, rooting out anyone and everyone even slightly associated with the Communist Party.  Those who refused to admit involvement with Communism or who refused to name other people involved pleaded the Fifth Amendment.  The results were tragic and devastating!

Now Roxanne, who deeply feels for these talented but now unemployable writers, begins to sponsor their written works under the names of anonymous, unknown writers.  Anyone with half a brain knows this but stays silent; Roxanne is admired for her guts and/or stupidity in proceeding with this plan.  Will it work out for all involved?

Then Roxanne goes one step ahead with trouble and falls in love with an African-American guy, Terrence Dexter during a time when Martin Luther King and Rosa Parks are protesting openly about the Jim Crow laws in vogue.  Roxanne grows up fast when she sees in Terrence how black people live with daily prejudice, laws and abuse based on racial discrimination. 

In the end of this fictional account, one may say that differences between characters reach a semi-satisfactory resolution but definitely not the solution all are hoping to attain.  Roxanne comes across as a spunky, daring woman but her cleverness remains hidden below the surface.  Only when life’s circumstances become beyond her control does the reader begin to appreciate Roxanne’s true life-changing stamina in many notable ways.

The Great Pretenders is a remarkable story describing turbulent historical times and how these difficulties were met by Hollywood and feisty, challenging characters!  Good read!!!

Law and Addiction: A Legal Thriller by Mike Papantonio

Law and Addiction: A Legal Thriller. Mike Papantonio. Waterside Productions.  April 2019. pb, 312 hp.; ISBN: 9781939116468.

Opioid addiction has become a national crisis!  More cases of overdose fill the news on a weekly basis.  Police regularly carry and administer Narcan for overdosing addicts.  Meanwhile, as Mike Papantonio has so carefully and deftly delineated in this fictional account of reality, attempts to deal with the problem on a local and national basis continue, attempts to stem a raging flood of addiction and death.

Jake Rutledge is a new lawyer who lost his twin brother to this horrifying disease.  Jake and Blake had a favorite term they used with each other about having each other’s back.  Now Jake is determined to carry out his promise because of his grievous loss.  Having no money and no connections isn’t exactly a wild card in legally pursuing the sources and markets that are part of the mass distribution system of selling opioids.  However, Jake’s got guts and high-caliber intelligence to get his search going. So he begins by suing two companies that sell massive amounts of drugs to little known small towns in and around what is known as “Zombieland.” 

He then connects to a highly successful lawyer with a dynamic record of experience in suing Fortune 500 companies.  They begin by suing companies who have made a killing (literally and figuratively) in West Virginia and Ohio.  Readers will be riveted to the course of each court phase and the wiliness of Jake and Deke, his attorney second chair, in challenging big shot attorneys.

Readers, however, won’t be ready for the methods used to suppress and then shut Jake up.  No spoilers here.  Suffice to say, Jake meets Blake’s former girlfriend who is now addicted to Oxycontin and helps her through her gritty efforts to withdraw from her addiction.  He himself is about to undergo empathic thoughts and feelings after hoodlum attempts to bribe his efforts fail.

The reader also meets several characters who deal and distribute drugs, individuals who are caught innocently in the dragon net of illegality and can’t get out to survive!  

All in all, the reader can anticipate the ending but that’s only after brutality and other machinations have all failed to stymie Jake’s efforts.  Mike Papantonio has penned a necessary legal thriller that everyone should read.  The question readers are left with is “Where do we go from here?”  Highly recommended contemporary fiction!

The Editor by Steven Rowley

The Editor. Steven Rowley. G. P. Putnam Sons.  April 2019; hb and eBook, 320 pp.; ISBN: 9780525537960 and ASIN: B07FC2J8ZW

Francis is an insecure stereotypical new writer who has written and just sold his first novel.  He has been assigned an editor at Doubleday, the publishing firm that just bought his novel.  What he does with that editor will determine whether his novel is published or lays dormant.  What follows is an oh so normal but poignant story, a gift in James’s life. 

Imagine the surprise when James meets Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis or “Mrs. Onassis” as she invites him to call her.  Down-to-earth, practical and inspiring, she leads James to rewrite the end of his novel which both know is incomplete.  This involves James having to explore the depths of his relationship with his mother and father.  The family is known for skirting around important issues, replacing truth with sarcasm and edgy humor.

While this is occurring, Mrs. Onassis invites James to her summer home where they explore the title Ithaca, its meaning and the journey that is yet to be finished.  They share meals, drinks and funny moments.  Jacquie treasures her privacy and never goes beyond snippets about her past, all of which are poignant reminders of what she has endured.  The reader picks up her implications that she just wanted to be normal and not a continuous fixture of American fascination.  However, since that is a fantasy, she does what she can to maintain a regular life as an editor (of fourteen years).  Her fascination and admiration for his novel lies in the recognition “as familiar truth, but also as wisdom you’re hearing voiced in a new and articulate way.” 

Francis’s lover, Daniel, seems oddly less supportive of Francis’ efforts but does the best he can.  Mark, an assistant of Mrs. Onassis, is helpful but also one step short of coming onto Francis.  Who is Francis?  A man aching to be seen in truth by his family and lover.

There are poignant secrets that gradually are revealed which dramatically change the writer’s life with his mother and help him to recognize and admire her truth as a person.  It’s described as an erupting volcano, a healing end to his finally finished story.

The ending of this novel, in which readers fall in love with James, his family and Jacquie, is so sad as he honors the marvelous journey he has made with the loving support of his friend and editor. 

Remarkable, powerful, endearing historical fiction that readers will remember forever!  Lovely, simple yet profound writing that makes this reviewer want to read more from this skilled writer! Highly recommended!