Shining Through

 

By Susan Isaacs

Story of a secretary in the 1940s who becomes a spy for the Allies in World War II. 

Linda Voss was not as lovely as her beautiful mother. But she was still quite attractive with her fluffy blonde hair and sparkling brown eyes. And unlike her rather dim mother, she was intelligent and had an inquiring mind. Due to the untimely death of her father, Linda had to get a job right out of high school to help support her mother who never got over her husband's death and turned to alcohol to ease her pain.

Because Linda's grandmother on her father's side was originally from Berlin, Germany, Linda grew up to be fluent in ordinary German, which helped her land a job at a law firm as a bilingual secretary. Her boss, lawyer John Berringer, was also fluent in German and dealt with the firm's overseas customers in Germany and Austria. 

John was the subject of many broken hearts among the female members of the staff. He was devastatingly handsome and had his pick of the ladies. But he was completely, deeply in love with his wife, Nan, who was the daughter of his boss, Edward Leland. Linda was one of the smitten ladies of the law firm.

Then Nan runs off to Las Vegas for a divorce, having decided she was in love with someone else, leaving John heartbroken. Linda saw her chance to be closer to John and did her best to comfort him. Eventually, they became lovers and she became pregnant and he married her. But she always knew Nan would be the one he held dearest. 

After she has a miscarriage, Linda came home early one day and caught John and Nan snuggled up together on the couch. And John declared he was thinking of getting back together with Nan. Linda finally admitted to herself that her marriage was over and she volunteered to be a spy in Berlin, where she was employed as a cook in a German official's villa. The official was known to bring home important papers and Linda was supposed to get hold of those papers and send any information that might be helpful to the Allies. 

In some ways I really liked this story. But in another way, it was disappointing. Because I thought it was an espionage story about a woman spy. But the spy part doesn't appear until the last quarter of the novel. Most of the book is about Linda and John and their relationship. The spying part is practically an afterthought to the rest of the story. 

But on the other hand, the love story of John and Linda is sad and complicated and interesting. As Linda explains to John's boss, Edward:

       "I was carrying on with Mr. Berringer—" 

"This really isn't necessary."

"I know, but please listen, anyway. I got pregnant, Mr. Leland." His black eyes widened, not because he was surprised; I'm sure he wasn't. He was surprised I was talking about it. "I know it's something people don't discuss in polite company—but I'm not polite company. Anyway, I'm sure you've already figured out Mr. . . .that John didn't marry me for my money or my great mind. He married me because he had to."

 

So even though this story is not really a spy story at all, I still enjoyed it a lot. 

On a side note, Linda's father has an interesting opinion on American Republicans. This book dates from the 1980s, but his opinion of Republicans applies to them today:

"Pal, there's only one group in the world richer and rottener than the Yankees—Republicans. They don't care about anything but holding on to everything they got. They don't give a damn about the little guy, and don't let anyone con you into believing different."

Here is a review by Publishers Weekly. 

Where'd You Go, Bernadette

 

By Maria Semple

Bernadette was an architect who gained a modest amount of fame early in her career. But when her daughter Bee was born with a life-threatening heart problem, Bernadette centered her life on caring for her gravely ill child.

Fortunately, Bee, after many surgeries, grew up to be an intelligent and enthusiastic student, earning an invitation to attend a exclusive East Coast boarding school in her early teenage years. Unfortunately, at the same time, Bernadette's life was falling apart and her marriage to a successful Microsoft executive was in serious trouble.

After rather sad and ridiculous clashes with a neighbor woman and rather vague threats of suicide, Bernadette's spouse decided she should be committed to a mental care facility. And that is when Bernadette vanished.

Bee refused to believe her beloved mother would just disappear and leave Bee behind. After she went off to her boarding school, she received a packet of letters and other correspondence from her mother and about her mother. After reading everything in the packet, Bee became convinced that Bernadette had taken a trip to Antarctica, a trip the whole family was planning to take as a reward for Bee for her scholastic achievements. But the trip was cancelled due to Bernadette's disappearance. 

Bee was so distracted by her search for her missing mother, that the boarding school sent her home to her father. After the father read the packet of information, he was also convinced Bernadette had traveled to Antarctica without them. Further digging revealed that although she did travel to Antarctica, she vanished somewhere off the ship on its return voyage. The cruise line assumed she was swept overboard during the rough crossing. But Bee absolutely refused to believe that was the case. So her father, in order to give her closure, booked them passage on another cruise to Antarctica.

This was a fairly good story. Tad disappointing, though. As per usual, the blurbs gushed about what a funny story it was: "Divinely funny" "Delightful" "Uproarious" "Fresh and funny" "Comic caper". But it wasn't funny. At most it was mildly amusing. I also don't care for stories told in bits and pieces. I skipped a some of the more boring items. 

We are told over and over what a genius Bernadette is. But she acts like a total airhead, getting into pointless disagreements with the neighbors and giving her private information to some stranger online. Really, all the characters are pretty annoying, with the exception of Bee, who never loses faith in her mother. 

Here is a review by Kirkus.

Wicked Intentions

 

By Elizabeth Hoyt

Temperance Dews works in her family's orphanage, situated in one of the worst, most dangerous areas of London in the mid 1700s. A young, beautiful widow, she carries massive guilt surrounding the death of her husband. 

Lord Caire is a nobleman of sleasy repute who has come to Mrs. Dews seeking a guide to the area, offering to pay her for her help, money that the orphanage dearly needs since it lost its major patron, who died. Lord Caire is looking to find out who murdered his mistress who lived in the area. 

But the woman's murder was just one of a several murders of young women, mostly prostitutes, in the area. This is a bad neighborhood, but not to the degree that locals will accept a serial killer. So Lord Caire and Temperance canvas the neighborhood, trying to get a bead on the mad killer behind these brutal murders. And since this is a romance novel, of course they fall in love in the process. 

The idea that Lord Caire would choose a young chaste woman as his guide to a dangerous part of town is silly plot device, a lazy way to bring the two main characters together.

 I was pretty sure the story would have lots of scenes of passionate sex between Caire and Dews and it did, but most of that was in the last quarter of the book. Which suited me because I skip the sex scenes because I find them boring and rather ridiculous. As far as the plot goes, it was pretty interesting if a tad unbelievable, especially the identity of the killer. 

Here is a review of the novel by Publishers Weekly.

Discount Armageddon

 

By Seanan McGuire

Cryptid:  an animal (such as Sasquatch or the Loch Ness Monster) that has been claimed to exist but never proven to exist. 

Cryptozoologist: a person who studies cryptids.

Like Verity Price. Who lives in New York City and works as a waitress but whose true profession is studying and discovering and helping all the cryptids (and there are a lot) who make the city their home. Indeed, most of the girls who work are her job at Dave's Fish and Strips are cryptids. There's Carol, the gorgon. Candy the dragon princess. Marcy the oread, some kind of mineral-based stony girl. And Istas the waheela, a sort of werebear. All of these girls disguise themselves to pass as human. And some, like Istas, are shapeshifters. 

Cryptozoology is Verity's family's vocation, one she was raised to become from childhood. But she would much rather be a professional ballroom dancer and she dances under the name of Valerie Pryor and she moved to New York to be closer to the ballroom dancing scene. But she still works in the family business as a cryptozoologist, tracking and studying all the cryptids in the city. 

Her family has a long history as cryptozoologists, going back generations. At one point they were part of an organization, the Covenant, whose main goal is locating and exterminating cryptids they view as dangerous. Like dragons, which they managed to wipe out. But Verity's ancestors realized that many cryptids are intelligent beings that, if left alone, are harmless. And so they left the Covenant, which put them on the Covenant's hit list as traitors to the grand cause. 

Between waitressing, dancing and training to keep her fighting skills topnotch, Verity has come to realize that someone is causing many cryptid people to disappear. She soon stumbles upon who she thinks is the cause, a Covenant agent newly arrived in New York, Dominic De Luca. But as he explains, he has only killed a few non-sapient cryptid animals. Further inquires reveal that the cryptids who have gone missing are all young, female virgin-type creatures. And further investigation seems to point to a snake cult sacrificing these girls to a dragon who is living under New York City. 

So Verity has her work cut out for her: she has to protect and warn the local cryptid girls, stop the snake cult from killing people, locate the dragon without turning it lose on the city, as in Godzilla time, and keep the Covenant agent from killing all her cryptid friends and coworkers and from killing the last surviving dragon left in the world. 

This was a fun read, exciting and a bit silly with lots of whacky characters, the whackiest being Verity herself. She hurls herself into danger like a daredevil and shares her apartment with a tribe of sentient mice who have formed a religion around the mundane aspects of her life.  And she works with a group of cryptids who know about her family's past association with the Covenant, which causes them to view her as a possible danger to their very lives, which makes for some tension at her job. 

Oh, and of course, she falls for the Covenant agent and they end up in bed together. Naturally.

Here is a review of the novel by Publishers Weekly.

Caveman's Valentine

 

By George Dawes Green

Romulus Ledbetter lives in a cave in a park in New York City. He could have had a career as a talented pianist but instead mental illness rules his life. His daughter Lulu and his wife Sheila know where he is but he resists their efforts to bring him in out of the cold, preferring to remain in his cave where his delusions keep him well entertained. He is an independent and stubborn person. 

But then someone dumps a dead body near his cave. When he learns a fellow homeless man was distraught over the death of the dead man, Romulus fantasies begin to center on solving the dead man's murder. Which leads him on a journey to the estate of a wealthy and famous photographer that Romulus believes was responsible for the man's death. 

This was an okay read. The idea of a mentally ill amateur detective is different, true. But I found Romulus to be a sad character and his delusions rather boring. I skipped most of his insane rants against his big bugbear, Stuyvesant, a creature he blames for pretty much all the ills of the modern world. Which he thinks are being caused by Y-rays Stuyvesant broadcasts from the Chrysler Building. Yeah.

Here is a review by Kirkus Reviews.

The Manual of Detection

 

By Jedediah Berry

Charles Unwin is a clerk at the Agency, a detective agency. He writes up the case files for one detective, Travis Sivart. He prides himself on the work he does but lately he has been entertaining a fantasy of just getting on the train and leaving his job and the city behind. 

We are never told the name of the city, but it is large gloomy place where the rain never seems to end.  In addition to his fantasy of walking away from the city and his job at the Agency, Unwin has become obsessed with a young woman he has noticed at the train station. She is there every day, seemingly waiting for someone to arrive who never does. 

Unwin has also had a dream in which he comes home to find Travis Sivart taking a bath in Unwin's bathtub. Sivart tells Unwin to remember two things, Chapter Eighteen and that Sivart was wrong about the girl. He doesn't say what girl, just that he was wrong about her.

Unwin arrives at work to find he has been promoted from clerk to detective. But he doesn't want to be a detective and believes the promotion to be a mistake. So he goes to see the man in charge of the detectives to inform him about the error but finds the man is dead in the man's office. And Unwin is now in charge of discovering the killer while being suspected of being the killer and of finding where Sivart has gone. He also has to figure out who all these mysterious women are who have suddenly entered his life, including the woman at the train station; his new assistant, Emily Doppel; and infamous criminal Cleopatra Greenwood; and one Hilda Palsgrave. Palsgrave used be one of the main attractions at Caligari's Carnival until Caligari's disappearance left the carnival in the hands of organized crime gang led by Enoch Hoffman, a biloquist, and twin brothers Jasper and Josiah Rook. 

As Unwin's unwanted investigation continues, he finds that Sivart wasn't just wrong about the "girl." He was wrong about almost all the crimes he solved. And that someone at the top knows that and wants it to stay that way. And the rain continues to fall, making everything and everyone wet and cold. 

This was a fairly good read. I think I am not the right audience for this book though. I found it rather slow and I found the constant rain, which is like one of the main characters in the story, depressing. Just too cold, wet and gloomy for my taste. But I think a lot of readers would enjoy this mysterious, damp story.

Check out the review by Michael Moorcock in The Guardian.

Three Men in a Boat (To Say Nothing of the Dog)

 

By Jerome K. Jerome

Published in 1889, this is story of three friends taking a boat trip on the Thames River in Britain. 

One evening, while sitting around, three friends decided they needed a break from everyday life in the big city (London). And a relaxing trip on the river with outdoor life and camping and visiting historic places seemed like the very thing required. So George, Harry and the author, who is only referred to as J, gather all the essentials (mostly food) vital for three healthy young fellows on holiday and they rent a boat and set off for a carefree river trip. Of course, it is never quite as carefree as one might wish, due to their own ineptitude, the weather, and the vagaries of the big river. And the dog, Montmorency. The author includes various humorous stories and some history of the locales they pass through and mentions particular inns and taverns that can be visited today, over one hundred years later.

Quite a charming and amusing story with a bit of British history thrown in, I very much enjoyed this account of Jerome's trip on the river with his two friends and the dog, a fox terrier of typical terrier temperament.

Here is a review in The Guardian by Robert McCrum.

Mr. Mercedes

 

By Stephen King

Bill Hodges is a retired police detective. But he can't forget about the biggest crime he was unable to solve. A person drove a Mercedes Benz into a crowd of people gathered at a job fair, killing several. The police found the car and its owner but the woman who owned the car was not the person who committed the crime. She was pretty much hounded by the police and eventually killed herself. 

Then Bill gets a letter in the mail from someone claiming to be the killer. Instead of turning the matter over to the police, Bill starts an online correspondence with this person, hoping it will lead him to the one who got away.

This was an OK read. I sort of felt a bit sorry for the killer who had not had a happy life. Just a young person, but a lot of misfortune has left them twisted inside, full of anger at the world. 

There were parts of the story I didn't care for like the gruesome scene where the killer's mom accidentally ingests poison meant for someone else. And the death of Bill's new found love interest. That seemed unnecessarily cruel to me. 

I also felt the story was way too long. Over four hundred pages is too long. I swear writers these days all have word diarrhea. Or else editors have given up trying to rein in authors, especially successful authors like King.

For another opinion, check out this review by Publishers Weekly.

One to Watch

 

By Kate Stayman-London

Bea is a plus-size fashion blogger who enjoys watching a reality show, Main Squeeze, where a person looking for love is given a line-up of attractive possible matches from which to choose. But one evening Bea is rather struck by how similar all the candidates are, slim, attractive and hard to distinguish from one another. So she writes a blog about it causing a backlash against the show and a serious drop in its ratings. 

The show undergoes a change of management and the new producer comes to Bea and proposes she should be the next candidate looking for love. Bea only agrees if they provide a range of men who are more representative of average folks, not the perfect paragons the show usually features. They promise and Bea goes into seclusion as the show starts filming, which is the usual procedure for those kind of game/reality shows. 

But filming the first show, where Bea is introduced to the group of young men she is supposed to date and get to know over several weeks, she is displeased to see that all the men are the typical gorgeous hunks that Main Squeeze is known for, except for one pudgy fellow. The men were not told that they would be wooing a plus-size woman and the show producer failed to tell Bea that the men wouldn't know she wasn't the typical model-thin female the men would be expecting. But all of the men stay, except one man who quits in disgust. It later turns out that he instructed to do so by the producer, for the shock value and for ratings.

Bea suffers through it all, going on group dates where she overhears some of the men laughing at the idea of them dating a fat woman. Eventually, though, the candidates are whittled down to five men who seem really fond of and interested in having a relationship with Bea. What no one knows though is that Bea is still madly in love with a man she has known and loved for a very long time, a man who bedded her once then left her to marry someone else. How can Bea find a new love when she can't stop thinking about the old love?

This was an OK read. It's in the modern style where the story includes website chats, blog excerpts, podcasts and emails inserted into it. This is something I've encountered in the past and I've decided I don't much care for it. It adds very little to the flow of the story, I think. And I also found Bea's final choice to be kind of a jerk and a cold fish. 

Here is a review by Publishers Weekly.

Skeleton Man

 

By Tony Hillerman

Back in the 1950s, two airplanes collided over the Grand Canyon of Arizona. Over a hundred people died in the crash and debris and human remains cascaded over the northern stretch of the Grand Canyon near the confluence of the Colorado River and the Little Colorado River. This story is based on that real disaster.

So in the story, a man aboard the plane had a briefcase full of cut diamonds handcuffed to his wrist. His remains were never found, but tales of a detached arm with a handcuffed case attached circulated throughout the local area. The man had a fiancée and one of the diamonds had been cut to his specifications and he intended to give it to his fiancée for an engagement ring. His fiancée was pregnant and they were looking forward to a happy life together. However, his wealthy parents were opposed to the marriage and when the baby was born after his death, his family refused to acknowledge the baby and cut her out of his will.

Fifty years later, the daughter has come to the Grand Canyon area, determined to locate either the diamonds or her father's arm & its attached case. Because tales of diamonds have reached her ears, raising her hopes that she can finally prove she is her father's legitimate heir and exact her revenge on the people who treated her mother so meanly.

Cowboy Dashee's relative tried to pawn a large diamond for $20.00 that the police believe he got in a robbery of a trading post.  Cowboy's relative, Billy Tuve, has a story of having been given the diamond by an old man down in the canyon in exchange for an army surplus trenching tool. In order to clear his name, Cowboy wants Tuve to take himself and also officer Jim Chee down into the canyon where he encountered the old man. Billy doesn't want to because it is a sacred site for his people but he finally agrees and the three of them are joined by Chee's fiancée, Bernadette.

But the dead man's daughter is also on the rim of the Grand Canyon. She had hoped to get Tuve to guide her into the canyon but she ran afoul of the man hired to stop her from reaching her goal. So now five people are all in the canyon looking for the old man, the diamonds, the briefcase and the arm, but without Tuve, who managed to slip away and disappear.

This was an OK story. Not a lot of action for most of the story, but it picks up quite a bit in the last third, with the two groups of people in the canyon hunting for the same treasure. At the end, Chee and Bernie get married and go to live in his shabby old trailer down by the river. Hillerman giving Jim Chee a long delayed happy ending.

Here is a review by Publishers Weekly.

The Grand Sophy

 

By Georgette Heyer

Charles Rivenhall inherited a large fortune when his great uncle died.  Which was fortunate for his parents because his father, Lord Ombersley was a gambler and a spendthrift and his careless ways had put the family into serious debt. Charles took over the family finances from his father and pretty much became the boss of them all, including his mother, his father and his several siblings. 

Charles is engaged to a worthy but rather cold and very proper woman, Eugenia. Their wedding had been delayed due to a death in Eugenia's family. 

Lady Ombersley's brother arrives unexpectedly at the Rivenhall home in London. He has been in France and now he has to travel to Brazil and he wants his daughter, Sophy, to stay with his sister while he is gone. He describes Sophy as a dear little soul who won't cause any trouble. He also wants his sister to find an eligible suitor for Sophy as he feels it is time for her to be married. 

Turns out Sophy is not quite the demure little miss her father seems to see her as. She is twenty years old and has been without a female companion ever since her governess died a few years ago. And at five foot nine, she is also not a little miss. She has a strong character and is a bit of a force of nature, sweeping all before her. She loves managing things and people and when she gets a good look at the Rivenhall family, she moves to set everything she sees as wrong to right, willy nilly. Good luck to anyone who gets in her way! 

This is probably one of Heyer's most funny and enjoyable stories. I must admit that I don't think I would like Sophy in real life, as she seems a bit mental. I mean, at one point she shoots a friend in order to further her plans for the Rivenhall daughter, Cecelia, who has fallen in love with the wrong man. Sophy certainly is one of Heyer's most unforgettable characters, that is for sure. I wonder if Heyer ever knew anyone like that in real life.

Here is a review by Laurel Ann Nattress on Austenprose.

The Empty Chair

 

By Jeffery Deaver

Book 3 in the Lincoln Rhymes series.

Lincoln, who is quadraplegic, is in North Carolina for a surgical procedure he hopes will restore some of his lost function to his hands. But the local sheriff comes asking his help to find a murderer and the two young women he grabbed. 

Mary Beth McConnell is a college student studying archaeology and doing a little digging down by the river when she was taken by Garrett Hanlon, a sixteen-year-old kid with a reputation as a peeping tom and he is known for having an obsessive interest in insects. In the process of grabbing Mary Beth, Garrett killed Billy Stail, local high school boy, and is also being blamed for the death of a deputy who was injured investigating the murder site. Shortly after taking Mary Beth, Garrett grabbed another, young woman, Lydia Johansson, who had stopped by the murder site to place a sympathy bouquet of flowers.

Lincoln and his team agree to look into the matter and it turns out to be a real rat's nest of complications and betrayal and double dealing where almost no one can be trusted and everyone lies. 

I enjoyed this story a lot. But there is a trend in modern stories where no one is telling the truth and no one can be trusted and everyone is double-dealing. It's a trend I really don't like. It's really annoying to find out the good guys are actually the bad guys. Most of the good guys in this story turn out to be the bad guys, and the bad guys are the good guys. I guess the message we are being given these days is that you can't trust anyone, the age of paranoia. 

But even though I thoroughly dislike that trend, this was still a gripping and exciting story. However, I wasn't familiar with the Lincoln Rhyme character and even though I enjoyed the story, I doubt I will be reading another in this series.

Here is a review by Publishers Weekly.

Hidden Pictures

 

By Jason Rekulak

Mallory Quinn became addicted to prescription pain relievers after being injured in a car crash. She hit rock bottom and overdosed in the back of an Uber and ended up in rehab. Now she's been clean for about a year and a half and is starting her first job in a long time as a full time babysitter for an upper middle class family living in a small, rural town. 

Caroline and Ted Maxwell and their child, Teddy, seem to be a lovely family. Their large house features a full-size swimming pool and a pool house that had been remodeled into an tiny home for the new babysitter. It will be the first time Mallory has lived alone in a long time. It will be a test of her commitment to staying off drugs. 

Of course, things are never quite as good as they appear. Teddy has been drawing pictures, pictures that become more and more skilled and more and more strange over time. In one picture, a man appears to be dragging a woman's body through the woods. In another it looks like the woman is at the bottom of a hole as the man stands above looking down. Teddy claims his invisible friend, Anya, tells him what to draw.

After listening to the local gossip, Mallory becomes convinced that Teddy is channeling the spirit of a woman who vanished back in 1948 who used to live at the house where the Maxwells now live. And the woman, Annie, was an artist who used the pool house as a studio. So Mallory begins looking into Annie's past, helped by her new friend, a local man, Adrian, because she is worried that Teddy is being damaged by Anya. And Teddy's parents just keep dismissing her concerns. But her and Adrian's investigations lead them in a totally unexpected direction. 

This was an interesting mystery/thriller/ghost story. At some point, Adrian and Mallory figure out that the spirit hanging around Teddy communicates by drawing because the spirit doesn't speak English and that Anya means mommy in her language. Which then leads them to a better understanding of the communication they received from her via a spirit board which they had first dismissed as gibberish.

I was totally not expecting the direction the story takes in last part. Frankly, I missed some clues the author gives that reveal the Maxwell family is not what they appear to be. It's always a pleasure to be surprised by the ending of a novel. For quite a while, I was beginning to think the evil doer in the story was actually Mallory, who lies to her new friend Adrian about her past. Which was a pretty good red herring. 

The novel includes Teddy's/Anya's drawings and it really adds a wonderful dimension to the story. They start out as typical little kid drawings but change into skilled artistic images that are just a pleasure to experience. Well done to the artists, Will Staehle and Doogie Horner.

Here is a review by Kirkus.

The Quiet Gentleman

 

By Georgette Heyer

Napoleon is locked up and it is time for the British fighting men to come home. One such is Captain Viscount Desborough, Viscount no longer upon the death of his father, the Sixth Earl of St. Erth. 

Desborough, aka Gervase, was not liked by his father who favored Gervase's younger half-brother, Martin. Martin has grown up to be a spoiled brat who always thought Gervase would not survive the war and that he, Martin, would be the Earl when their father died. So when that didn't happen, Martin had a hard time adjusting to the reality and deeply resented his elder brother's ascension to the title. 

So Gervase has returned home to the family estate to take up his position as the Seventh Earl. But it soon becomes clear that someone is trying to remove Gervase from this position and all the clues seem to point to young Martin. 

This was an OK read. It's not one of my favorite Heyer romances, as the culprit is pretty clear from the get-go. The real villain is oddly portrayed as a really decent guy and it seems so completely out of character for this man to be capable of so callous a murder. 

Heyer did write a lot of murder mysteries and I have read some of them. But I have not enjoyed them as much as I liked her Regency romances. Too much of her murder style leaks into this story which taints it, in my opinion.

Here is a review by Deb Barnum from Austenprose.

Lore of the Witch World

 

By Andre Norton

A collection of seven Witch World short stories.

• "Spider Silk" Dairine was a refugee from hard times who survived a shipwreck as a young child and found a home among the folk of Rannock in Estcarp. The war is now over but the terrors of that time left their mark upon Dairine. What horrors she may have seen she does not recall. But her mind has closed her vision to the world around her and she is blind. Despite her handicap, over the years she became a talented weaver of cloth. Her skill came to the notice of a captain of Sulcar, an ocean-traveling nation of traders. The captain showed her a scrap of very finely made silk fabric and wondered if Dairine had the skill to attempt to weave something similar. But even though she was skilled, she was not that skilled, nor was any human weaver. Because this beautiful piece of silk was not woven by human hands but by the spider women of Usturt. But the spider women are hostile to humankind and will not willingly share their knowledge of weaving their beautiful silk fabric. Yet to Usturt Dairine must go, will she or nil she.
• "Sand Sister" Born to the Tor people of the Tormarsh, Tursla was not like the other children. But to a people declining in population, even one unlike the others is vital to the community's continuance. When a girl reaches a certain age, she is expected to take part in a fertility rite where she is impregnated by one of the village men. Tursla did not take part in the ritual but still claimed to have been impregnated even though she knew she had lain with no man. But she was filled, filled with knowledge after a visit to a holy site deep in the marsh. And this knowledge will enable her to step in to save the life of an outsider that the desperate villagers have marked for human sacrifice in the belief that it will restore fertility to their people and prevent their slow slide into extinction.
• "Falcon Blood" Tanree is a sailor, born and bred. But her home, the ship, the Kast-Boar, was caught in a storm and broken on a reef on an unknown shore. The only survivors are Tanree and the Falconer, a mercenary from a tribe where the men view women as untrustworthy creatures fit only for the bearing of children. But the Falconer has a broken arm and if he and Tanree are going to survive, they are going to have to work together despite his distaste for her gender.
• "Legacy From Sorn Fen" After the war was over, opportunities were abundant for an ambitious man to improve his lot in life, given the sad state of affairs in the land. One such was Higbold. And when a certain magical item came to his notice, Higbold saw no reason not to claim the item for himself. What he didn't know was the item was given as a reward for a kind and gallant service performed to ease the passing of a damsel in distress. Higbold is going to pay a price for his thievery.
• "Sword of Unbelief" Jervon and Elys from earlier stories not in this collection are featured in this story of a battle between Elys and an ancient and evil god who has captured Jervon and is slowing draining him of his life force. 
• "The Toads of Grimmerdale" After the war was over, a time of chaos overtook the lands and crimes and lawlessness where everywhere. Hertha, a well-born young woman, became a victim of this chaos when her camp was overrun and she was assaulted. But when her family discovered she was pregnant, she was told she must submit to an abortion or be cast out. She chose to be cast out. She just wants two things, a healthy baby and revenge on the man who raped her. She doesn't know who he was and never saw his face. But she did see a distinctive piece of equipment he wore, a find gold and jewel-encrusted bowguard. So when Hertha sees a man wearing that same bowguard at the inn where she is working, she is certain he is the one who assaulted her. The inn lies near a place of the Old Ones, the magical denizens who used to dominate the land but who have mostly gone away. The Toads of Grimmerdale are of such magical stock and Hertha goes to them, asking for their help against her enemy. Of course, there will be a deadly price to pay for such questionable help.
• "Changeling" The follow-up to "The Toads of Grimmerdale" finds Hertha on the road once again, traveling to confront the Toads, who as punishment for her forfeit, have cursed her newborn baby with bulgy toad eyes and blotchy, discolored skin. 

I really enjoyed the stories in this collection. I think my favorites are the last two, but I liked them all. The only one I liked the least was "Sword of Unbelief" which was rather slow compared to the other stories. 

The Pilgrim of Hate

 

By Ellis Peters

A festival is being put together to celebrate the transfer of the remains of a saint to her new home four years previously. It's an occasion that is drawing many pilgrims to the Shropshire area. Five of them draw Cadfael's interest. There is Matthew and Ciaran. Matthew attends on Ciaran and Ciaran has taken a vow to walk with a heavy cross around his neck and with bare feet. Ciaran comes to Cadfael to have his sore feet attended to. 

Another group that captures Cadfael's interest are Alice, Melangell and Rhun. While traveling to Shropshire, they joined up with Ciaran and Matthew and Melangell has become enamored of Matthew. Matthew returns her regard but will not leave Ciaran. Rhun has a bad leg and has come to Shropshire to pray at the coffin of the saint. But he comes to Cadfael for some help sleeping, as their long journey on foot has aggravated his bad leg. 

Meanwhile, politics sticks its ugly face into their lives of the monks of the Abbey of St. Peter and St. Paul, as two factions struggle for control of England. And emissaries are sent to ask for loyalty, requiring leaders  to switch sides or remain loyal. And of course there is a murder.

This was an OK story. Cadfael doesn't actively investigate the murder, even though he does solve the mystery. I also didn't understand why one of the characters had to travel under an alias. 

In God We Trust : All Others Pay Cash

 

By Jean Shepherd

A collection of humorous stories about a kid's life in a Midwestern industrial city in the 1930s, written in the 1960s. The stories are supposed to be fiction but are loosely based on the author's childhood in Hammond, Indiana. 

The main character, Ralph Parker, returns to his hometown of Hohman, Indiana and pays a visit to a local bar where an old friend of his now works as bartender. Together they chat and recall the good old days as kids roaming the streets of a very grimy city where the main industry is steel production. Pollution often figures prominently in his descriptions of his Hohman. 

The first story tells of a young boy's desire for an air rifle and how he finally gets one, only to nearly shoot his own eye out.

Next, Ralph desperately wants a Little Orphan Annie secret decoder pin. Little Orphan Annie was one of Ralph's favorite radio programs and it was sponsored by Ovaltine, a malt beverage mix. To get the decoder pin, you had to send in a proof of purchase from several containers of Ovaltine. But Ralph's mom never buys Ovaltine. 

The next story is the tale of a blind date when Ralph is fourteen years old. It doesn't go quite as he thought and he finds out something rather devastating about himself.

The next story is a fish story. It's a bit strange, more odd than amusing.

Next is maybe one of the most famous stories in the book, the Leg Lamp Story. Although he never names the soft drink, it's Nehi. And at one point it did feature a woman's stocking-clad leg on its label. I don't know if the Leg Lamp really was a prize offered by Nehi in a contest, but I wouldn't be surprised if it was. 

All in all, the stories are interesting and mildly amusing and a look back at time nearly a hundred years ago.

Life Among the Savages

 

By Shirley Jackson

Shirley Jackson is a famous author, know mainly for her horror stories and novels, such as the short story The Lottery and the novels The Haunting of Hill House and We Have Always Lived In the Castle. But she also wrote in a lighter vein about being a mom to a large family, Life Among the Savages in 1953 and Raising Demons in 1957.

Life Among the Savages begins with the family moving from New York City to a small rural town in the northeastern United States. Jackson tells the story of adapting to a more restricted life and also bringing two more kids into the world. Actually, the story ends with the arrival of the fourth child, Barry. 

Reading these stories, one senses that life was not quite as jolly as Shirley Jackson paints it to be. In fact, there are clear hints that this setting was the seed that grew to be her famous horror novels and stories. Still, I did find the family stories to be interesting if not the laugh fest I was rather hoping for. 

Here is a review by The Guardian.

Real Ponies Don't Go Oink!

 

By Patrick F. McManus

A collection of McManus' humorous short stories about his life as a sportsman, spouse and stories from his childhood. 

McManus is at his best when he recounts stories of his childhood. This book does have a few of these but mostly the settings are those of his adult life. They are also amusing but just not as funny as his tales of life as a youngster. 

Publishers Weekly has a review of Real Ponies Don't Go Oink! 

My Old Kentucky Home

 

By Elliot Paul

In about 1908, Elliot Paul, fresh out of college, moved from the northeast to Louisville, Kentucky to take on an engineering job. He lived in a boarding house while there and became quite close to some of the other boarders and to the family that ran the boarding house. He may have actually become a little too involved in their lives, but he was young and inexperienced and he got caught up in their drama. He also experienced the thrill of jazz music and became a lifelong fan of jazz and of jazz musicians. And he fell in love with a beautiful Spanish woman who was a bit older than he was. She kept him at arms length, romantically, but was quite happy to use him to help keep her slightly loony mother entertained. And the son of the boarding house owner happily introduced him to the various whore houses in town. 

This was actually an enjoyable read. Though it certainly has its racist moments. Not just about blacks but also a Jewish man. But the author does address the unfairness of discrimination later in the book: 

I tried to understand how a man like Bud, one of the advance guard of an advancing people, and one who wished everyone well, could enter so thoroughly into his small foster-son's experience and not worry himself sick about the boy's future. At that time, I was sure that if I were a Negro I would kill myself, and miss a wonderfully good time rather than face the hourly indignities to which a black man was subjected. It is one thing to acknowledge that another kind of man can throw a boomerang farther than one could hope to do, or add figures faster, or find more small talk for women's entertainment. But how would it feel, I asked myself, again and again, to have another race assume superiority, and impose their assumptions on me, denying my fundamental equality as a man, however young?

 

Kirkus has uploaded a review of the book dating from when it was first published in 1949. It does cast some doubt on the truthfulness of Eliott's narrative. Find it here: Kirkus Reviews.

 

Powder and Patch

 

By Georgette Heyer

Poor Philip Jettan. Both the girl he loves, Cleone,  and his own father view him as a country bumpkin. He doesn't dress right, he doesn't fight right, he doesn't dance right, he just doesn't measure up. Goaded by their criticisms and by an ignoble defeat in a duel by a man he dismissed as a painted puppy, Philip leaves England and goes to Paris in order to learn the airs and graces his father and Cleone claim they want him to acquire.

So off to 1740s France to study the ways of the French nobility. In the process, however, Philip discovers he has knack for it. He becomes the darling of French high society and learns to dress well and dance well and fight a duel well. After some adventures in France, he soon comes back to Cleone and his father, the painted puppy they thought they wanted. But somehow, Cleone views the changes with disfavor, thinking that Philip is no longer a manly man, but has been transformed into a vain, shallow and weak dandy! Little does she know that underneath that beautiful, dainty exterior beats the heart of the country bumpkin she used to know. And then some.

This was an OK read, if a tad unbelievable. Here is a fellow who is more interested in cows than in society manners who transforms himself in the space of less than a year into an expert at everything high society values, including learning to speak French like a native and becoming expert at fencing. I actually felt kind of sad for Philip who becomes the darling of French society by putting aside the country life he loved for the superficial trappings that really mean very little in the long run. All for the love of a girl who didn't value his true worth because he wasn't polished enough. 

Another thing that I really didn't like was the constant appearance of French throughout the book. I don't comprehend French. Maybe English people of Heyer's generation were familiar enough with French to understand what Philip is saying every time he spouts French. But that's not me and probably not most people who read her books over fifty years later. At one point she includes a poem by Philip that is twelve lines long and entirely in French with no English translation except for the title, "To the Pearl that Trembles in her Ear." Seems a tad pretentious to me. Or maybe just snooty.

Here is a review by Lucy Bertoldi on Austenprose.

The Nonesuch

 

By Georgette Heyer

Sir Waldo Hawkridge is known as the Nonesuch. In his time, the early 1800s, this was a man who was an accomplished and talented and admired all-around sportsman, good at everything the upper classes considered a worthy pursuit. Like boxing, hunting, fencing, horsemanship. It also helped that Waldo was tall, good looking, personable and extremely wealthy. The whole package, as the saying goes.

Ancilla Trent, a humble governess, did not approve of men who spent their time pursuing sports. So when she got to meet Waldo and found out what a good-hearted and genuine person he was, it was a bit confusing for her. He was totally not what she pictured a sportsman to be. And bit by bit, she lost her heart to Waldo, even though, as a mere governess, she was not on the same social level as he. 

But Waldo didn't care who society thought was the appropriate mate for a man of his wealth and standing. He thought Ancilla was the only woman for him. But when he began to pursue her in earnest, she spurned him. But why? Then he discovered that she knew about what his friends called "Waldo's brats." Oh, dear!

This was an OK read. Not as engaging as some of Heyer's romances. At over 240 pages, it a bit on the long side and really doesn't cover much ground other than two adults meeting and falling for each other. And clearing up a slight misunderstanding before true love triumphs. And the bad behavior of Ancilla's teenage student, Tiffany Wield, beautiful, selfish, wealthy and very spoiled.  Really not much of a plot there at all. But it is still quite a pleasure to read and enjoy, even if not as dynamic as some of her stories. 

Here is a review by Marie Burton on Austenprose.

False Colours

 

By Georgette Heyer

Christopher "Kit" Fancot come home to London unexpectedly from his diplomatic service on the continent only to find his poor mother very upset about the disappearance of his twin brother, Evelyn. Adding to her distress is the knowledge that her debts may be part of the reason Evelyn has vanished. 

After their father, the Earl of Denville, died, his wife's debts should have been paid out of his estate. But Lady Denville failed to disclose just how much money she owed. For try as she might, she never learned how to be prudent with money. So her debts fell upon the Earl's heir, the older twin, Evelyn. 

Unfortunately, the estate is in trust until Evelyn turns 25 because his father thought his son was too flighty and careless to be in charge of the fortune he would inherit. However, if he showed he has settled down by marrying a suitable young woman, the trust would be ended and he would have access to the funds needed to pay off his mother's debts. Toward that end, Evelyn proposed and was accepted by Cressy Stavely.

Neither Evelyn nor Cressy is in love with each other. We know why Evelyn has proposed. We find out that Cressy is very unhappy in her father's house since he remarried. Her stepmother doesn't like Cressy and life has become uncomfortable for Cressy. Anxious to break away from a bad situation, Cressy is willing to get married if that is what it takes.

Kit is informed by their mother that Evelyn is supposed to attend a dinner at Cressy's house in order to meet her family and gain the approval of the Dowager Lady Stavely, her grandmother. So if Evelyn is a no-show, it will mean the end of the engagement and Lady Denville's financial problems will continue to mount. Kit jokes that he could step in for Evelyn as they are identical twins and Lady Denville loves the idea. She talks Kit into it, when she explains how important it is to both her and to Evelyn, who is finding the lack of control of his inheritance dispiriting and humiliating.

Kit makes it through the dinner and the plan is for him to travel to the ancestral home in the country and thus remain in seclusion until Evelyn turns up or can be located. But events conspire to thrust Kit and Cressy together and Kit finds he is falling in love with Cressy and she with him. Meanwhile, no trace of Evelyn is found, until he shows up one night. He informs Kit and Lady Denville that he can't marry Cressy because he has fallen in love with another woman! 

This was a fun read, watching Kit and Lady Denville trying to succeed in hiding his true identity from everyone. I did enjoy the book but of Heyer's romances, it is not one of my favorites. But it is still a good read.

Here is a review by Laurel Ann Nattress on Austenprose.

The Dirty Dozen

 

By E. M. Nathanson

It's World War II and the US military has come up with a plan: Select twelve military prisoners, some slated to be executed, and train them in behind-the-lines operations and sneak them into Europe to wreak havoc on the Nazi war machine. The man in charge of training these prisoners is Captain John Reisman, a man with an extensive military and mercenary experience. His job is to turn these thugs, murderers, rapists and thieves into the reliable and trustworthy soldiers they never were. His method involves rigorous physical training and gradually gaining their trust. He helped in this task by a young lieutenant whose specialty is psychological warfare. 

What a disappointment this book was! I was expecting a story of a group of  reformed villains, working together to sabotage the German war effort. Instead, 97% of the book is about Reisman's training of these criminals. Their secret mission only takes up about 15 pages at the end of the book. I kept reading and kept reading and I was getting puzzled as to when the story of the mission would appear. True, it was interesting reading about the prisoners being trained. But 500 pages of it? Too much! The story I wanted was just a footnote to the rest of it.

Here is a review by Kirkus Reviews from 1965.

Riders of the Storm

 

By Julie E. Czerneda

Book Two of Stratification 

Aryl Sarc and the other outcasts of the Yena Clan set off to find a new home. They stumble across the remains of an old village and find it is well stocked with provisions that will help them survive the winter. They also discover the original inhabitants were slaughtered, as their bones litter the ground. Still, with winter coming on, they have little choice but to stay in the abandoned village known as Sona. 

This was a much better read than the first book, Reap the Wild Wind.  I found that first book a bit confusing. This one just held together better and didn't have as big a story to tell as the first, although it is just as long, over 400 pages in the paperback version. I was so discouraged by the first book that I let the second sit for years before tackling it. But it was much easier to read and more enjoyable. I might even go so far as to get the third book in the series, Rift in the Sky. 

The Invisible MAD

 

Edited by Albert B. Feldstein

Excerpts from MAD Magazine dating from the 1960s and 1970s. Includes:

• Will Success Spoil Charlie Brown?
• The MAD Library of Extremely Thin Books
• Spy vs Spy
• Advantages of the Suburbs for Kids
• Don Martin cartooons
• Dave Berg's The Lighter Side of Friendship
• Mission: Ridiculous
• MAD's Medical Mother Goose
• More Announcements for Everything
• MAD's Snappy Answers to Stupid Questions
• Air Pollution Problems of the Future
• You Know You're Really Getting Old When

A fun read, with lots of content, a trip to the humorous past for the young and the old.

Dead Man's Ransom

 

By Ellis Peters

Once again, murder visits the quiet abbey that Cadfael calls home. Times are uncertain and small skirmishes are breaking out as King Stephen and Queen Maud vie for control of England. In one of the skirmishes, the local sheriff, Gilbert Prestcote has been wounded and captured by the Welsh and a young Welshman has been captured while taking part in a raid into the English territory. A prisoner exchange is arranged, with Gilbert to exchanged for the boy, Elis ap Cynan. But the exchange is called off when the sheriff is smothered to death in his sleep.

It seems there are three main suspects in the sheriff's death. Elis has fallen in love at first sight with the sheriff's lovely young daughter, Melicent. But the sheriff hates the Welsh and will probably not allow Elis and Melicent to be together. Another is Maurice, a crazy old man who holds a grudge against the sheriff because of something that happened before Gilbert was even born. And there is also Anion, who blames Gilbert for hanging his half-brother for killing a man in a drunken brawl a couple of years ago. But actually, there is a fourth person who may have wanted the sheriff dead. It will be up to Cadfael to straighten out the tangled threads of this mystery.

It's odd, but this story has a lot in common with the other Cadfael story I read not long ago, The Leper of Saint Giles. A young man who wants to marry a girl he can't have. A young woman promised in marriage to a man she doesn't want. A man accused of murder who is completely innocent. A missing piece of jewelry that may point the finger at the real killer. And, of course, Cadfael's keen powers of observation to discover the clues to the truth. 

But I didn't enjoy this story quite as much as the Leper of Saint Giles. Mainly because politics and battles are an important part of the story, two subjects that don't appeal very much to me. Still, it was a pretty good read. 

Here is a review by Publishers Weekly.

Victory on Janus

 

By Andre Norton

Sequel to Judgment on Janus.

Ayyar (the former human Niall Renfro) and his Iftin companions awake from their winter hibernation to the unwelcome knowledge that the forest they call home is under attack. They hurriedly pack up what they can and flee. Trying to figure what is going on, they are surprised to discover that not only are the settlers attacking the forest, but they have been joined by the men from the spaceport who have brought in heavy equipment and blasters to destroy all the possible hiding places of the Iftins. Investigating further, the Iftins discover that robots disguised as Iftins have been attacking and murdering humans, obviously the work of their old enemy, THAT WHICH ABIDES.  Which is devastating news because they believed THAT had been nullified when the flood poured over its lands. 

But THAT is active once again, sending its Iftin-looking robots against the humans settlers. And also once again against the native people of Ift, the green-skinned forest dwelling Iftins. Once again Ayyar and his Iftin companions must take on THAT to save the forests they need to live and to save the humans from being used as pawns against the Iftins by THAT WHICH ABIDES.

This story is pretty much a repeat of the first book, Judgment on Janus. The Iftins, mainly Ayyar, sneak into THAT's desert and face various enemies and finally discover how to defeat their enemy.  I did like that the enemy turns out not to be some implacable ancient evil, but simply a machine whose programming has gotten a bit messed up.

The Abominable Snow MAD

 

Edited by Albert B. Feldstein

Excerpts from MAD Magazine from the 1970s.

Featuring

• The Milking of the Planet that Went Ape by Arnie Kogen, art by Mort Drucker
• Cartoons by Don Martin
• The Shadow Knows by Sergio Aragones
• The Lighter Side of Weekends by Dave Berg
• Howard at the Mike by Frank Jacobs, art by Jack Davis
• MAD Interviews a Typical Liberal Family by Lou Silverstone, art by Paul Coker Jr.
• Distinctive Wedding Announcements by Frank Jacobs
• Spy vs Spy
• The MAD Christmas Hate Book by Al Jaffee
• A MAD Look at Tarzan by Don Edwing, art by Jack Davis
• and more

This was a fun book to read, especially for an old fogey who was an adult in the 1970s. I think MAD was at its best in the 1960s and 1970s. 

Here are some excerpts from the book --

From The Shadow Knows

From Dave Berg

From Dave Berg

From Distinctive Wedding Announcements

The Toll Gate

 

By Georgette Heyer

Captain John Staple is finding life a bit flat after years spent fighting Napoleon on the continent. But the wars are over and the weather is miserable and John has become a little lost when he took the wrong road on his way to visit a friend in the country. And its gotten quite dark and the rain is unrelenting and he comes across a toll gate attended by only a young and frightened boy. John decides to spend the night at the toll station. 

So he stashes his horse in the station's chicken coop and makes himself at home in the station's living quarters. The boy, Ben, explains his dad left him in charge, saying he would be back in a couple hours. But he never came back. And the boy is very nervous, being alone at night and being in charge of the station. John feels sorry for Ben but that isn't why he decided to stay and help Ben. No, not at all. He decides to stay when he meets a young woman in the morning, Nell, and he is completely smitten. 

Nell is the granddaughter of the local squire and things are not going well for them. The squire, Sir Peter, is in very poor health and money is very tight. Staying with them is Sir Peter's heir Henry and Henry's friend Nate. Neither Nell nor anyone else in the household can figure out why Henry has showed up and what he and Nate are up to. And Nate has take a fancy to Nell and is constantly making up to her, despite her repeated expressions of dislike. Clearly things are not good at Sir Peter's home.

Meanwhile, after meeting Nell, John decides to stay at the toll station, and keep an eye on Ben and get to know Nell a bit more. As he learns more about Nell's and Ben's troubles, it becomes clear to him that something very fishy is going on involving Henry, Nate and Ben's missing father. And John is just the kind of person who enjoys a challenge like solving the mystery of the missing gate keeper and the mystery of the unwanted guests at Sir Peter's. Somehow the two are connected and the mystery becomes even more intriguing when a government man, a Bow Street Runner, shows up with lots of questions for the new gate keeper, John Staple.

I enjoyed this story quite a bit. It's more of a mystery story than a romance, although the romance between John and Nell provides the reason for John to stay at the toll station. It does take a bit of a grim turn with the discovery of the missing man's dead body. And the story is told from the point of view of John and not from that of his love interest, Nell. Still I did enjoy the story quite a bit, especially John's overseeing of young Ben's life and improving it in many ways, including better food and a cleaner home and just being there to keep Ben from being frightened at night. 

Here is a review by Laura A. Wallace on Austenprose.

Big Trouble

 

By Dave Barry

Arthur Herk finds out his employer is trying to have him killed the night the bullet misses and takes out his new TV. It happened the same night that Matt Arnold was trying to "kill" with a water gun his classmate, Jenny, who is Arthur's step-daughter. But when Matt squirted Jenny, her mom tackled him and started beating him up because the water gun looked like a real gun.

The police are called and the bullet hole is discovered and Arthur realizes he is in Big Trouble. So he comes up with a plan that involves buying a missile from a couple of shady Russians. But the buy is interrupted by two inept robbers who mistake Arthur for a drug kingpin and the missile for a hiding place full of drugs. Actually, the missile isn't a missile and if the two FBI agents tracking it can't get possession of it, everybody in the whole metro area is also in Big Trouble.

This was a fun read, full of silliness and suspense. Of course, Dave Barry isn't going to explode Miami, he's not that kind of author. Spreading death and misery is not his thing. Even so, it was really engaging to see how he manages to rescue the hero and bring the bad guys to justice. Except for the two hired killers who botched taking out Arthur in the first place. They get to go back to New Jersey and they have no intention of every coming back to Florida in the future.

Check out the review by Publishers Weekly.

The After Wife

 

By Gigi Levangie Grazer

Hannah was living her best life. When everything changed. The love of her life, John, was suddenly gone. Killed by a hit-and-run driver. Now she is all alone, except for their young daughter, Ellie. Well, not quite all alone. Because now her life is filled with ghosts that only she and Ellie can perceive. 

So here's Hannah trying to cope with widowhood and single parentage and unpaid bills and the mortgage and the fact that John failed to pay the premium on his life insurance. And here's an endless stream of ghosts with unfinished business who have urgent messages for the people they left behind.

This was a really good read. The beginning was sad and heartbreaking. And Hannah's struggle to stay strong for her little girl and try to keep hearth and home together was very touching. But things soon perk up when the ghosts start to appear and Hannah begins to pass on the messages the ghosts are so anxious for their friends and families receive. Really enjoyed this story.

Check out the review by Kirkus.