A Wicked Design: A Belinda Lawrence Mystery - Book Five by Brian Kavanagh

A Wicked Design: A Belinda Lawrence Mystery (Book Five). Brian Kavanagh. Fontaine Press. September 2013. 192 pp. pbk. ISBN #: 9781925086065.

Belinda Lawrence receives a shocking telephone call from her mother. A former lover and successful architect, Brad Delaney, he had a meeting with Belinda’s fiancé Mark Sallinger the night before Brad was murdered.  Belinda, however, has no idea of this meeting.  All she knows is Brad was found in a local river, with his hands tied behind his back, and stones on his body to weigh him down.  While she clearly had moved on past Brad, she was determined to find out who killed him.   Her mother had secret designs that she would eventually marry Brad and thereby stay in Australia where her Mom could eventually share life with grandchildren.

At the funeral Belinda is convinced something is odd about this death.  Brad’s brother, a Socialist fanatic, says he’s sad about his death but at the same time says there wasn’t much love lost between them, citing “materialism” as the reason for his dislike of his brother.  Then there are other guests who are obviously important politicians.  It turns out that Brad was working on a special project for the city’s Parliament House and had found something worth a fortune that was to be part of the new Dome on the building.  Now, he’s gone, however, there are many, many people interested in finding out what he found in order to profit from it in various ways.

The treasure Brad found has not only monetary value beyond belief but also is highly symbolic of the party holding power at the time.  Belinda’s best friend, Hazel Whitby, is her usual sexy self and uses those romantic ploys to distract doormen and the like while Belinda goes sleuthing.  There’s a talkative Major, some antique dealers, a professor and more who all seem innocent with their words but whose body language belies their supposed disinterest in finding this treasure and historical artifact.

Brad is not the only one who will die and even Mark Sallinger comes under the radar as a suspicious “person of interest,” who was determined that Brad would never enter Belinda’s life again beyond that of an acquaintance. No, you can’t figure out “who done it” no matter how you try as Brian Kavanagh knows how to throw wrenches into the plot exactly when one thinks the mystery is about to be solved.  It also seems there’s a historical party war going on that is pitting democracy against a more socialist leaning reminiscent of fascist governments ruling before, during and after WWII.  Belinda’s life will be seriously threatened before the mystery is solved and the ending is quite shocking and not even close to what the reader thinks will solve the political and criminal mystery!

Each novel by Brian Kavanagh gets better and better, but A Wicked Design… is certainly the best of all his works.  Intense, complex plots with unpredictable characters interact so that the reader will have to read this novel in one or two sittings, as it’s very, very hard to put down once it’s started.  There’s also a nice touch of history and its symbolic value in government that’s informative and intriguing as well!

All in all - very nicely done, Brian Kavanagh!  

The Entertainer: Movies, Magic and My Father's Twentieth Century by Margaret Talbot

The Entertainer: Movies, Magic and My Father’s Twentieth Century.  Margaret Talbot. Penguin Group USA.  November 2013. 432 pp. pbk. ISBN #: 9781594631887.

The Entertainer… covers a large swatch of twentieth century entertainment as history and also a biography of the author’s father, Lyle Talbot.  It’s quite obvious that Margaret was deeply fond of her father, although her grandmother didn’t quite like the influence he had on his daughter.  But the tales she heard from her Dad clearly fascinated her and made her realize that the history of entertaining was one to share with the world because of its unique evolution over time and with the additional development of new technologies so rapidly  occurring during the 20^th Century.

To begin with the reader is introduced to the world of the “story” as her father shared events and characters galore in his long career; he was already sixty when his daughter was born.  This is the world we learn began with side shows, circuses, traveling stage shows, hypnotists with real and criminal skills, silent screen movies, “talkies,” big screen movies, and so much more until one gets the full picture that just also includes America’s development.  An interesting part that is sometimes unrecognized is how much small rural towns contributed to the spread of entertainment, whether it was good or bad.  The monotony of life led to a demand for such entertainment which also served as morality plays, stories in which common people could identify with similar characters, and just downright plain silliness to lighten the financial and work burdens of most Americans. At times the entertainment was quite bawdy and probably should have been banned but wasn’t as there was little preoccupation with ratings in the 1920s and 1930s and even later.

Then we read about Lyle Talbot’s career which spanned every type of possible acting from gangsters and romance stories to cowboy tales and more.  Lyle Talbot never really made it big in the sense of his own performance but certainly worked with the “big” names in the industry, from Mae West to Clark Gable and more.  He also acted in well-known TV serials and actually performed in Hollywood and New York great shows, including Lincoln Center. A multitude of famous and not so well-known films are listed with leading and minor actors and actresses.

Margaret Talbot prefers to focus more on the varying talents of her father and other actors and actresses.  While she glosses over the difficulties of such a lifestyle, including her father’s weakness for less than savory women and absence because of constant traveling that goes with the job, she does create in the reader the sense that acting skills had to change as well as the means by which entertainment was offered.  She tells some funny stories about how her father flubbed certain performances such as when he was supposed to feign a punch on another character but wound up knocking him out and more like this account.

This is a book for any person with even the faintest interest in entertainment, whether that be in pre-movie entertainment, movies, TV movies and serial shows, and the theater.  All in all, Margaret Talbot has offered a panoramic history and depiction that should be required reading for everyone in the industry and those who love the same for all the reasons so obvious in Margaret Talbot’s tribute to one of the greatest industries in the world!

Shadows of the Pomegranate Tree: Book One of the Islam Quartet by Tariq Ali

Shadows of the Pomegranate Tree: Book One of the Islam Quartet.  Tariq Ali. Open Road Media. Reissue October 2013. 288 pp. e-book, 955 KB, ASIN #: B00FEZ2432.

The Banu Hudayl family has a momentous choice to make, convert to Christianity or die.  A Moslem family proud of their heritage, they are proud of the ancient stories displaying wisdom and at the same time warning of what leads to the demise of great Arab cities.  They lust as avidly as they brag about their Arab military history.  But the family has been divided in many ways by the hidden relationships begun and ending in disaster. 

Now in 15^th Century Spain a new danger looms.  The story begins with a huge book burning scene, the destruction of religious, scientific and artistic works worth a fortune but seen as nothing but heresy by the fanatical Ximenes de Cisneros, who is also the private Roman Catholic confessor of Queen Isabella.  Up to now the Church’s policy has been that reason would eventually compel the Moslem population to convert.  But Ximenes knows that only force and an ultimatum of life or death will bring about this change and at the same time cleanse the country of its impure residents.  He’s determined that his plan to guarantee this end is carried out to completion! Granada has fallen and now the outlying town where the Banu Hudayl family lives is next to fall!

A chess set serves as the appropriate metaphor for this historically devastating time, the pieces representing Queen Isabella and the great grandfather of Yazid, one of the Banu Hudayl sons, who was once a very famous Muslim knight.  Yazid’s father doesn’t initially believe he and his family and peers are on the brink of annihilation, not until his brother Miguel, a convert and the Bishop of Cordova, begs and threatens him to convert or die.  For Miguel, survival is better than being dead but his family does not see it that way at all, at least not all of them. 

While there are innumerable names mentioned, at times providing annoying confusion, it is clear who the protagonists are herein.  There is Yazid’s brother, Zuhayr, who’s been visiting a wise old man, Ibn Zaydun, whose past love story involved a family member supposedly gone “mad” because she could not marry her lover.  But Ibn Zaydun has used the years wisely, studying the ancient writings of Muslim philosophy and culture, and these are what he shares with Zuhayr.  The latter seems too interested in the story quality of what he hears, but later all these things will come to his mind’s foremost thoughts when he chooses to fight rather than surrender to the surrounding Christians. But this is no chivalric tale as Zuhayr comes to learn discernment between the time to strike, the time to do what needs to be done outside of a direct attack, and the time to withdraw to fight again at a better time. 

There is also a feisty female character, Hind, a passionate woman who dreams of romanticized olden days that are rapidly dissipating, “Remember the shadows of the pomegranate tree during the full moon, Amira?  Remember what we used to say?  If the moon is with us, what need do we have for the stars?”

In between the constant debates about the Christian threat, there are lovely descriptions of the luscious Arab meals shared, palaces and homes with beautiful tapestries and artifacts within, snippets of quotes from famous Arab writers and scholars, and descriptions of clothing typical of the time and place of this notable Arab family.

Many more intriguing tales and family interactions fill these intriguing pages.  This is the first of a planned quartet.  One often hears about the Crusades of earlier times, but this is the first work of fiction this reviewer has read that is a powerful account of what it was like to be a Muslim family and community threatened with extinction, all because of the rise of Christianity.  In one way, it’s a sad story but this family’s pride, humor, passion and pragmatic outlook are the noble characteristics that make this novel a wonderful read!  Definitely highly recommended and definitely looking forward to the next addition to this talented writer’s opus of well-established historical fiction!

The Sister Season: A Novel by Jennifer Scott

The Sister Season: A Novel.  Jennifer Scott. NAL Trade: Penguin Group USA.  November 2013. 368 pp. pbk. ISBN #: 9780451418814.

Clare, Julia and Maya Yancy have come home, home to celebrate Christmas and bury their father.  Their mother, Elise, is trying so desperately hard to make it a festive time but she seems most of the time to be thinking how she wants it to be and really not surprised that every day seems a more intensified form of dysfunctional disasters a la bickering, sarcastic comments, and threats.  These are the dysfunctional children of an abusive father whom no one is really mourning at all.  If anything, they all seem rather relieved!

Maya believes one of her sisters had something going with her husband, never bothered to truly listen to what had happened and is dealing with a serious illness as well.  One of their children is suicidal and the mother spends a heck of a lot of time beating herself up figuratively speaking for her neglect of this once happy and delightful son.

Elise knows something more about her husband’s death and she’s not about to share that with anyone, even though not one of them would have a problem with her secret.  The reader wonders whether Elise is really grieving as she seems to be caught up in memories at the oddest moments and oblivious to whatever is being discussed right in front of her.  Perhaps age is taking its toll more than she realizes?

How did such a romantic man turn into such a verbal and physical abuser who never had a kind word for anyone and who was feared by everyone in the house. One could hardly call this a home under such a constant threatening atmosphere!  How could one be other than grossly dysfunctional.  It has made one daughter terrified of committing herself to any romantic bond, even though one has recently appeared that would be sheer delight for anyone.

The Secret Season is a very intense read, heavy and at times as oppressive as the atmosphere depicted.  For this alone Jennifer Scott deserves accolades, although it’s not a pleasant experience.  But more than that is the fact that these sisters have to learn to face each other with care, stop navel gazing, forgive (although one could never forget what they have endured) and be there for each other as well as their Mom.  The book is carefully crafted with pivotal moments carefully placed in a solid plot that moves after a slow beginning.  Nice writing and very appropriate themes as the holidays approach for families of all! 

The Vintage Teacup Club by Vanessa Greene

The Vintage Teacup Club: A Novel.  Vanessa Greene. Penguin Group USA.  November 2013. 400 pp. pbk. ISBN #: 9780425265581.

Three women are standing together but apart as they stare at a set of vintage teacups.  One can feel the tension as each wants to buy the whole set but knows the others want that sale just as much. Before the reader realizes it, they come to a perfect compromise.  Each will share the set for a certain period of time before the last purchaser gets to own the whole set.  In the process a wonderful friendship is established and this novel is about the lives of these apparently unimportant women who live such typical and yet unique lives.  Their past is as much vintage living as the cups they share, with a history and consequences worth sharing!

Jennie’s engaged to Dan and seems very content with their love.  She enjoys sharing with her new found friends but is about to receive the shock of her life when she hears from someone unexpected.  And it’s not someone she wants in her life again at all!

Alison is a happily married woman with two daughters, one of who is feeling every one of her teenage oats and doesn’t mind letting her mother know it.  Alison worries that her previously close relationship is falling apart but something will occur that shows Alison hasn’t lost her daughter at all.  It’s a fairly common tale here but the way Alison and her friends deal with it all is what makes the friendship so valuable.

Maggie has tossed the past away along with a relationship which practically devastated her after she was rejected by the man she thought she would be living with forever.  However, she’s started a new florist business which has prospered and now includes a wedding she’s planning that’s probably the largest job she’s ever had. It’s got unique challenges since it’s to be geared to an Alice in Wonderland theme, complete with mushrooms and tea party to be held in a gorgeously planned garden.  The man in charge of the garden, however, Owen, is an ornery creature who seems to find a problem with Maggie’s every plan or suggestion and could definitely thwart her plans for the future as well since success with this endeavor would bode well for future business for sure.

The Vintage Teacup Club has a fairly simple plot but is no less endearing for that fact.  Sometimes there can be a loveliness to a simple story that is well-told with dynamic characters and unique plot. This is just such a story and very nicely done as Vanessa Greene’s first novel.

Flash and Dazzle by Lou Aronica

Flash and Dazzle.  Lou Aronica. The Story Plant.  November 2013. 288 pp. e-book. ISBN #: 9781611880694.

Flash and Dazzle are two guys lucky enough to find each other not only as great colleagues but who also become best friends or soul mates who supposedly know each other’s thoughts before they are thought and who bring out the best in each other.  Their friendship is uniquely remarkable, but their future is about to become even more so in the most unexpected way possible.  Flash is a copywriter and Dazzle is an art director in a small but well-known ad agency.  Reading about how they bounce ideas off each other until they come up with brilliant ad campaigns is fascinating stuff and even humorous because of their antics and light style with it all.  They are no lightweights in the industry, however; and Flash is very, very surprised when another opportunity arises for him to work elsewhere, without Daz, his best buddy. 

Flash will be wined and dined, interviewed, cosseted with a perky weekend trip set to woo him but with one unexpected caveat that stuns him.  That won’t be the ultimate stunner, however, as he doesn’t realize that the recent brief illnesses of Daz are much more serious, in fact devastating.

It’s after discovering Daz’s problem that the real sharing about life and life’s changes suddenly become devastatingly real and poignant beyond words.  In the process he meets Daz’s sister and the three discuss numerous serious and hilarious memories that forged their personalities into the capable and admirable people they have become.

Secrets and fantasies fill the mix as the three friends work their way through exotic meals, movies and music while awaiting the ultimate challenge of change.  There are potent moments that are depicted in a very real way without being maudlin or exaggerated.  A deep respect for the vivaciousness of life fills every page and the prospect of change heightens each moment’s precious value.

Flash and Dazzle, like so many of Lou Aronica’s other novels, is a dynamic contemporary novel that readers will for sure find fully engaging and worthwhile reading.  Lou Aronica is a talented writer who uses subtlety rather than explicit description to depict the normalcy, quirkiness and fluctuations of honest characters.  Terrific writing and reading!

Dollface: A Novel of the Roaring Twenties by Renee Rosen

Dollface: A Novel of the Roaring Twenties.  Renee Rosen. Penguin Group USA.  November 2013. 416 pp. pbk. ISBN #: 9780451419200.

“Dollface” was the name frequently given to girlfriends of mobsters during the “Flapper” years of the Roaring Twenties.  To be so labeled was an honor, indicating the woman was highly protected and fawned on, but at a very great cost. Vera Abramowitz appears initially as a girl who thought she was escaping a world of drudgery by fleeing to Chicago.  Her father had been killed by the Black Hand Gang and she wanted nothing of that life or of the meat packing plant her mother was now running, an amazing feat in itself in this era when women were only just starting to work in offices and factories but certainly not in management.   Vera doesn’t quite see it that way and is barely making her meager bills with her typist’s salary. But two men are about to change Vera’s entire world and introduce her to the world of flashy living, guns, mobster hits, illegal booze running, and more toughness than any sane woman would ever want!

Tony, an Al Capone hood, first dazzles Vera with his fancy lifestyle to which he introduces her.  Their world is filled with unbelievable passion but without commitment and the latter is the only part that leaves Vera feeling somewhat unsure of the future. Still she hangs on as her life has become somewhat easier since Tony treats her well with occasional gifts and even money.  All of this changes when she meets a man named Shep Green, who owns a nightclub and is deeply involved with Capone’s rival gang, the North Side Gang.  Tony knows Vera is attracted to Shep, but Shep knows nothing of his serious rival.  It is Shep to whom Vera pivots because he actually shows that he really cares about her, a novelty for this love-starved gal who is so dazzled with the luxurious lifestyle around her new friends.  Questions arise, though, that are extremely disquieting at times but which Vera shoves away in denial, literally questions of life and death!

Hints are dropped by Shep’s friends that seem to indicate shady business deals and rivalries that wind up in “hits.”  These increase in frequency throughout the novel as vengeance and fury rule the day with the grief of losing each member.  Vera is lost in her new home and eventually a gorgeous baby girl after a very quick wedding to Shep, but her denial phase is about to end with a bang when more murders occur and Shep seems slated to go to jail.  Her fortunes, it seems, are as fickle as fate since they rely on something that is totally falling apart at the seams.

There is enough partying, gaiety, intimate sharings with guys and gals, dancing, drinking, shopping for the latest flapper styles and hairdos, tension, unexplained dangers, and so much more that keep the reader riveted to every page and flipping them rapidly to find out more.  It’s an attractive and glamorous lifestyle these characters lived, a post-WWI revel that couldn’t possibly last but which was relished by participants and observers (readers as well) while it reigned supreme in the streets of major cities around America in the 1920’s. The end is stunning and can be visualized as a fierce and heart-rending mobster movie scene! Renee Rosen has captured not only the essence of it all but the fierce passion in which mobsters and their gals moved with elegance and gusto! This is a terrific read about a volatile and exciting time and is highly recommended to all!