Fire Watch

 

By Connie Willis

A collection of short stories by Connie Willis

"Fire Watch" A young time traveler/historian travels back to Saint Paul's Cathedral during the time of the London blitz of World War II to join the Saint Paul's Watch, a group of volunteers who worked to protect the building from burning due to incendiary bombs.

"Service for the Burial of the Dead" A young woman mistakes her lover's ghost for her lover.

"Lost and Found" Based on a scripture, John 6:39, that declares, "I should lose nothing but should raise it up again at the last day." It the End of Days and the clue is that lost items are suddenly reappearing.

"All My Darling Daughters" Life at a boarding school where chastity is suddenly being enforced by the presence of strange new pets that are all the rage among the male students.

"The Father of the Bride" Sleeping Beauty's dad is finding life after the curse was lifted to be a bit of an adjustment.

"A Letter From the Clearys" A small group trying to survive after nuclear war. 

"And Come From Miles Around" Some of the scientific observers of an eclipse have come from very far indeed.

"The Sidon in the Mirror" On a mining site of a dead star, the miners are serviced by a group of prostitutes who have a hired new piano player to provide entertainment.

"Daisy, In the Sun" The Sun has gone nova.

"Mail-Order Clone" A man gets fooled by an ad in a magazine. He's a slow learner.

"Samaritan" An orangutan who works as a custodian at a church wants to be baptized. 

"Blued Moon" A new waste emissions system has unexpected consequences.

This was an OK collection of short stories.  The "Fire Watch" story was quite touching. "Lost and Found" was weird. "All My Darling Daughters" turned out to be rather gross and creepy. "A Letter From the Clearys" was depressing. As was "Daisy, in the Sun" which was also quite odd. "Mail-Order Clone" and "Blued Moon" were humorous.

Hearts of Sand

 

By Jane Haddam

A Gregor Demarkian novel

A murder occurs in a small resort town in Connecticut. The victim is a woman wanted in connection with several bank robberies thirty years previous. During the last robbery she was pulled, two bank employees were killed. 

At the time, a young woman named Chapin, from a wealthy local family, was soon identified as one of the robbers. But by the time the identification was made, she had vanished. The other bank robber, Marty, her partner, died in a car crash. Several other young people were in the car, but only Marty died. 

Along with Chapin's disappearance went the money accumulated from the robberies, $250,000. Over the years no sign of the money has ever appeared. 

Thirty years pass, and Chapin's body is found stabbed to death in her parents' home, a home that has stood empty for the thirty years since Chapin ran away. The family moved out of the house after she vanished but didn't sell it because they didn't need to. Chapin's younger sister made sure the house was maintained and kept in repair even though it was decades empty.

The local opinion and that of the police is that Chapin coming back and ending up dead must have something to do with the bank robberies. What they no one can figure out is where she had been living for thirty years. And what happened to the money.

The local police force is not really up to solving either the old bank robberies or the new murder of Chapin. So it is decided to bring in outside help in the form of Gregor Demarkian, a retired FBI agent and consultant. He is mainly there to solve her murder, but if he tracks down the money, that would be great too.

But as is the usual case in these murder mystery stories, someone else must die before the crime is solved. And in this case, it's someone who figured out who stuck a kitchen knife into Chapin Waring's back.

This was a fairly interesting story. The only thing I was disappointed by was when Demarkian returned home after solving the crimes, the author doesn't tell us if Demarkian's house was still in a unfinished state of repair, the same as when he left to go to Connecticut. I wanted to find out how it looked after his wife finished her home improvement projects.

Here is a review by Kirkus Reviews.

The Dead Fathers Club

 

By Matt Haig

Philip was eleven when his father died in an vehicle crash. His parents owned a small pub and lived in an flat over the pub. His father's brother, Alan, helps out at the pub but also works at a garage.

After the funeral, Alan starts to make some moves on the widow, who seems willing. Philip is not cool with this new development and allows his hostility to show. 

Then the ghost of Philip's dad appears to him and declares that his brother caused his accident. And he demands Philip kill Alan, otherwise, the dad will exist in eternal torment. 

As Alan becomes more involved in the pub and in his pursuit of Philip's mom, Carol, Philip tries to think of ways to kill his uncle and please his dead father. Meanwhile, due to Alan's increased presence in the pub, Philip becomes acquainted while Alan's partner's children, Dane and Leah, especially Leah. It's a friendship that is very much a boon for Philip, as the school bullies are fearful of Dane, Leah's older brother.

Leah and Philip become a lot closer and eventually become boyfriend and girlfriend. Meanwhile, Philip is still trying to satisfy the demands of his dead father. Although its hard to see how the ghost expects a scrawny eleven-year-old wimpy boy to kill a large, adult man. 

Eventually Philip starts to perceive holes in his ghost dad's claims. The ghost makes some mistakes which Philip spots. It becomes clear to the reader that the ghost is all in Philip's mind and can only know what Philip knows.

So this story is the author's retelling of Shakespeare's play, Hamlet. In Hamlet,  the ghost is seen by several people. In this story, only Philip sees the ghost. I take this as meaning the ghost is just in Philip's imagination. Philip is a boy with mental problems and no one to confide in, apparently, choosing to keep his troubles to himself. 

The story was OK. Unfortunately, the blurbs about it described it as "humorous" (Daily Mail UK) and "such sad fun" (The Guardian UK) and "dark comedy" (Eve Magazine UK). I did not find it funny which was disappointing.

Here is a review by Veronique de Turenne for NPR.

The Nine Lives of Catseye Gomez

 

By Simon Hawke

A Wizard of 4th Street novel

So in a world where magic is real and after a world wide apocalypse, anything is possible. Including strange animal magical cross-combinations like snake with dog aka snog. But also magical animals who have humanlike attributes such as speech and intelligence. One such animal is Catseye Gomez, a very smart alley cat with the ability to talk and a magic eye.

After the events of The Wizard of Santa Fe, Catseye Gomez leaves New Mexico and lands in Denver, Colorado. Before he even really gets settled into his new location, Gomez finds himself embroiled in politics when a proponent of equal rights for intelligent animals (ERA)gets assassinated by a bomb attached to her car. 

He joins a police detective investigating the murder. Blame is first assigned to a religious group who see magic and magical animals as abominations sent to lure the world into defiance of god's law. So not only a political group but also religious fanatics! The perfect scapegoats! But doubt does exist because, as Christians, they are also opposed to murder. The plot deepens!

I was not familiar with this series. This was my first time coming to it and I landed six books in. Probably not the best way to start. Thrown into the middle and new to Hawke's style of writing, I actually found myself hating the book. Not the plot, not the story, not the minor characters, but the pontificating of the main character, the cat. I skipped the many pages of its lectures as too boring to bother with. 

I also found the animal combinations disturbing and a form of abuse, very much like the breeding of characteristics in animals that are harmful to them that humans have been doing for a very long time. Ewww!

The Crow Trap

 

By Ann Cleeves

The first novel in the Vera Stanhope mystery series.

Three women will be spending several weeks living together in a small rural cottage next to Black Law Farm. They have been hired to do some environmental studies on land that is being proposed as the site of a new quarry. If their surveys show any endangered or sensitive plants or animals, the quarry project will not be allowed to continue. 

Naturally, there are proponents on both sides: business people looking to make money and locals hoping to find work at the quarry. And those who want the charm and beauty of the local countryside protected and those who are worried about the noise, dust and traffic they worry the quarry operation will create.

The first to arrive is Rachael, a woman who used to be involved with her boss Peter Kemp but he suddenly broke it off and got married to another woman. She is hoping her time with the study will give her some distance from her former lover and still current boss.

Unfortunately, soon after arriving at the cottage, she finds that a friend of hers, Bella, who lived at Black Law Farm, has committed suicide by hanging herself in a shed on the farm. Bella actually left a note addressed to Rachael, first of all saying she regretted Rachael would be the one to find her body. But beyond a few instructions, the only thing the note said about why was that Bella couldn't take it any more, without saying what it was she couldn't take.

The other two women arrive, Anne and Grace. Anne is a married woman who lives in a nearby town but apparently is not bothered by being several weeks away from her spouse. Grace is a smart but very aloof young woman who also has connections to the local area. What her roommates don't know is Grace has a reason beyond the survey work that brings her to the cottage.

While out doing her survey work, Grace doesn't come back to the cottage one evening. The area where the survey work is being done is not particularly dangerous but a search is begun to locate Grace but they don't find her until morning. She had been murdered, strangled.

But the police can't find any reason why Grace was killed. It didn't seem like the usual circumstances associated with the death of a person in an isolated location. She wasn't well known in the community even though she has tenuous connections to a local family, the Fulwells. Her early life was unsettled as she spent most of her childhood in foster care, going from foster family to foster family. Her mother died when she was a youngster and her alcoholic father abandoned her.

Nor did Grace's death benefit either the mining interests or the anti-mining interests. The main investigator, Detective Inspector Vera Stanhope, is stymied. She just can't nail down a reason for Grace to have been killed. 

And then Grace's father, who had moved back to his hometown, also is found murdered. Vera, the detective, begins to wonder if these murders have nothing to do with the quarry project and everything to do with Grace and Edmund's past lives.

This was an OK murder mystery. I didn't like that the author chose such sad, lonely outsiders as Grace and Edmund as the victims. That's so mean, to turn two people who have always been losers into the targets. 

Also the book was too damn long. It was over 500 pages long. That's way too long for a murder mystery. Took me over a week to read it. Annoying!

Kirkus Reviews has a review of the story.

Cool, Calm, and Contentious

 

By Merrill Markoe

A collection of twenty-one semi-autobiographical and mildly humorous short stories ranging through a wide variety of the author's life experiences.

Stories about dealing with a mother who was demanding and hyper-critical of her daughter, Merrill. Ones about the dogs Merrill has had in her life. Stories about her school days, stretching into her years in college. Stories about the men in her life, including the most famous one, David Letterman, who is very thinly disguised as Bobby. Stories about her early sexual experiences, including rape. A rafting trip, attending a Fetish Ball, drinking sixteen ounces of vodka like it was a refreshing glass of water. Advice on life, for instance, drawing on years of experience with her mother, how to spot and avoid narcissists and assholes. 

For the most part, I enjoyed all the stories. Some were real slices of life and some were actually quite funny. Really, the only one I kept nodding off to was "Celebrity Criminals and Criminal Celebrities: Celebrity 2.0." Probably because I am not much interested in celebrities.

I characterized the stories as semi-autobiographical because she includes stories where she and her dogs have involved conversations. I'm guessing that is just fantasy or she is bonkers. I personally think if dogs could talk, they would only talk about walks, food, critters, food, intruders, food, naps, food, going outside, food, coming back in, food and bedtime.

For another review, see Publishers Weekly.

"My Teenage Son's Goal in Life Is to Make Me Feel 3,500 Year Old"

 

By Dave Barry

A small collection of short, humorous observations from Barry on parenting based on personal experience. A fun, light, read for those times when you are in the mood for something amusing and easy.

A few excerpts:

"My son is going to parties where the boys dance with actual girls. This was unheard of when I was eleven, during the Eisenhower administration. Oh, sure, our parents sent us to ballroom-dancing class, but it would have been equally cost-effective for them to simply set fire to their money."

"The computer is a great teaching tool for young people. For example, my home computer has an educational program that enables you to control an entire simulated planet—its ecology, its technology, its weather, etc. My ten-year-old son and his friends use this program a lot, and we've all learned some important ecological lessons, the main one being never, ever put ten-year-old boys in charge of a planet ("Let's see what happens when you have volcanoes and nuclear war!")

"Parents: School is almost out, which means it's time to make those summer vacation plans, load up the family car, and take off, quickly, before the kids get home.

I am of course joshing. You should take the kids; there's nothing quite like putting the whole family into the car and hitting the open road, leaving your worries behind, driving mile after carefree mile, sometimes as many as three carefree miles before everybody hates everybody else and gunfire breaks out in the back seat."

Personal Demons

 

By Stacia Kane

Dr Megan Chase is a psychologist who has just started a new job as a radio personality of a call-in show who promises to slay her listeners personal demons. 

What she doesn't know is that her promise has upset the personal demons and she is on their hit list. Now she is seeing these little demons everywhere she goes and it is clear they are serious about making her pay for her promise to slay them. The thing is, these demons don't seem to be the smartest monsters, unable to understand that her threat is not an actual promise to kill anything.

But little personal demons is not the only demon suddenly appearing in her life. For she comes home one evening to find a handsome stranger waiting on her doorstep, anxious to speak to her. Grayson Dante has something he needs to tell her. That her life is in danger from the personal demons and that he, also a demon, is there to protect her.

Naturally she has her doubts. But he soon makes it clear that he is what he says he is. And events soon transpire that convince Megan that everything he has been saying is the truth and that the personal demons are coming for her.

This was an OK read. Although the idea that a demon is good-hearted didn't sit well with me. This modern tendency to remake the old monsters into the opposite of what they traditionally are is not one I agree with. Anyways, like I said, it was an OK read. 

The Last Thing He Said

 

By Laura Dave

Hannah had only been married to Owen for a year when he vanished, leaving behind a cryptic note that only said, "Protect her." Namely his teenage daughter, Bailey.

Bailey and her dad had been just the two of them for years. So it's not surprising that Bailey regarded Hannah as an unnecessary intruder in their life. But despite Bailey's gentle displeasure, Hannah keeps trying to build rapport with her husband's daughter.

But now he has disappeared. And Bailey has come home with a bag of money her father left in her school locker along with a note asking Bailey to help Hannah and do what she asks her to do. Not only that, but there is some kind of trouble at Owen's place of work. His boss was claiming advancement in new software that did not actually exist. A fraud that that will cost investors millions in losses and now the police are at Hannah's door, wanting to know where Owen is and suspecting her of being in the thick of it.

Hannah can't help but wonder if Owen is part of the funny business at his job. And she thinks she might be able to figure out where he has gone into hiding if she gets in touch with his family and friends. But as she and Bailey dig deeper into Owen's  past, she eventually figures out that Owen Michaels is not a real person. But why did he change his name and walk away from his past with only his daughter to tie him to it? Since Bailey only knows her dad as Owen Michaels, she can't shed any light on it. Except maybe somewhere is her childhood memories is the key to uncovering whatever happened in the past that led Owen Michaels to run away from his former life.

I really enjoyed this mystery story. Of course, as the reader, you have to expect that Owen is a bad dude and that he is involved in something really bad. At first it seemed like it has to do with his boss's shady business practices but as Hannah digs deeper it begins to look like Owen was hiding from something terrible in his past. The question is, was it something Owen did? Or was it something he witnessed? And will Hannah ever be reunited with her vanished husband?

Check out the review of the book by Kirkus.

The Collapsing Empire

 

By John Scalzi

First novel of the Interdependency trilogy. 

In the distant future, and cut off from our home planet of Earth, humans have scattered throughout space, mostly living in manmade habitats, but a few on actual planets. Why in habitats instead of on worlds? Because of the Flow. Because faster-than-light travel does not exist:

"The speed of light is not only a good idea, it's the law. You can't get to it; the closer you accelerate toward it, the more energy you need to keep going forward, and it's a horrible idea to go that fast anyway, since space is only mostly empty, and anything you collide with at an appreciable percentage of the speed of light is going to turn you fragile spaceship into explody chunks of metal. And it would still takes years, or decades, or centuries, for the wreckage of your spaceship to zoom past wherever it was you originally planned to go."

So instead there is the Flow, which is:

"...generally described to laypeople as the river of alternate space-time that makes faster-than-light travel across the Holy Empire of the Interdependent States and Mercantile Guilds . . . The Flow, accessible by 'shoals' created when the gravity of stars and planets interacts just right with the Flow, to allow ships to slip in and ride the current to another star.

[However] The Flow is not anything close to a river—it is a multi- dimensional brane-like metacosmological structure that intersects with local time-space in a topographically complex manner, influenced partially and chaotically but not primarily by gravity, in which the ships accessing it don't move in any traditional sense but merely take advantage of its vectoral nature, relative to local space-time, which, unbounded by our universe's laws regarding speed, velocity, and energy, give the appearance of faster-than-light travel to local observers.

 And even that  is a crap way of describing it..."

So that's the author's way of having reasonable travel times so he can tell a story about an empire of city states run by the great houses based on trade which makes for interdependency without which they cannot survive on their own. 

So it's a system that has worked for a very long time. But all good things must come to an end, I guess. And that time has come for the Interdependency. 

Some smart people have figured it out. As have some not quite so smart people. Unfortunately, the not quite so smart ones based their conclusions on faulty math. They think they have figured out where the new center of government is going to be and they are doing everything they can to make sure they are the one running things. 

Meanwhile, the actual governmental hub, a bit slower to get it than the other group, figure out that the other group is working under wrong conclusions. But the governmental group, being in a phase of transition and being a bit slow to act, is being attacked by the other guys, who are using chaos and terrorism to gain the upper hand.

So that's the story. It pretty much ends with the government people telling the ambitious people that they are operating under mistaken conclusions. And that humankind still has to cooperate in order to survive the coming catastrophe of changing of the Flow.

This was a pretty good story, not as boring as a lot of these, what I would call political novels, as many of them are (to me). I found I wasn't skipping a lot of pages, I only did that a couple of times. Which says a lot as I have a habit of just glancing through text that is too descriptive, too gross, too talky or has depictions of battles. Battles, I only care about the outcome, not the action. So a pretty good story. Not good enough for me to follow up with the rest of the trilogy though. The second book is The Consuming Fire followed by The Last Emperox.

Here a review by Kirkus Reviews.