Gateways

 

By F. Paul Wilson

A Repairman Jack novel

Jack hasn't been as close to his dad as he probably should be. He knows his dad was disappointed that Jack didn't come home for his sister's funeral. Even so, when he gets word that his dad was in a vehicle crash, he wants his brother Tom Jr to be the one to go down to Florida to check on their father. But Tom Jr says he's tied up with business and it's up to Jack to step in.

Tom Sr has been in a coma since the crash, which happened on an unfrequented rural road. The circumstances of the crash are mysterious and will remain so until Tom Sr comes out of his coma.

Jack flies down to Florida and visits his dad in the hospital. The dad is not conscious but still has a visitor, his next door neighbor, an elderly lady named Anya. She and Tom Sr live in a community for retirees called Gateways.

After stopping by the hospital, Jack goes to his dad's house to stay while his dad is in the hospital. He notices that his dad's neighbor Anya's house is surrounded by lush green vegetation even though everyone's lawn in the community is brown and dead because of an extended drought. When he asks Anya about it, she has no explanation but assures him she is not watering her plants on the sly, against the water conservation orders.

Anya is not the only odd duck in this story. A group of strange, deformed people live in the swamp, led by a young woman with a mob of pure white hair who goes by the name of Semelee. She and her gang of thugs are somehow involved with the dad's accident. She also has weird, uncanny powers that enable her to control animals and insects. She is aware of Jack's arrival to Gateways and she has decided he is the man she fated to be with. Which is going to come as a surprise to Jack, who doesn't even know of her existence. And he already has a wife and child waiting for him back home.

I really enjoyed this story up to almost the end. It's part of a series but this was my first read of a book from the series. I found that, even though I hadn't read the previous novels, knowledge of the previous books was not needed to enjoy this story.

However, the ending was disappointing as it ends in a big battle with the bad guys. Bullets are flying, people are getting hurt. I just skimmed through the battle stuff to get to the results. 

I guess we're supposed to hate little Semelee but I just felt sorry for her. I wish the author had come up with a better fate for her than what he did. The same for Devil, the alligator, who was given a cruel and painful fate simply because he was a big, dangerous gator. His crimes weren't even of his own creation, he was simply a tool used by a pathetic, confused child. 

You Shouldn't Have Come Here

 

 By Jeneva Rose

Grace Evans has come to Dubois, Wyoming for some rest and relaxation and to enjoy the country scenery and breathe some fresh country air. She has a reservation at a ranch where she will be staying in a bedroom of the ranch house.

Her host is Calvin Wells who also lives in the ranch house. He is a handsome and strapping young man and is thrilled to have someone as beautiful as Grace staying with him for a few weeks.

But there's problems. His friends and family are a bit less welcoming as one could hope for. And one of his friends is frankly hostile to Grace's presence in Calvin's home. Charlotte is clearly giving off ex-girlfriend-hoping-to-get-back-together vibes. Calvin, however, is just as clearly indifferent to whatever Charlotte's hopes might be, calling her a just part-time ranch hand.

Another problematic person is Calvin's brother, Joe, who comes off as a bit nutty. His relationship with his brother seems a little mysterious to Grace and he also seems a little too interested in his brother's houseguest. 

Grace doesn't feel quite comfortable with Calvin and his brother. But that doesn't stop her from having an intimate moment with Calvin. Which Calvin misconstrues as more than just a one night stand. He thinks it is the beginning of a whole new relationship and is already making plans for Grace to stay on the ranch permanently. But Grace is not enamored with Calvin and refuses his further advances, something that Calvin is unwilling to accept. 

Trouble is brewing on this Wyoming ranch.

This book is not a winner. I found myself skipping about half of the book, just wanting to finish it. I bought it new and didn't want to feel like I wasted my money by not finishing it. But it was boring and predictable and the two main characters are completely unlikeable. The book, almost from the beginning, gives hints that Grace is a phony. The only thing that actually surprised me a little was that she was not motivated by any honorable reason.

Also check out this review by Kirkus Reviews.

Twice

 

By Mitch Albom

Alfie Logan's mom died when he was just a youngster. The trauma of losing his mom turned on a strange power in him. Alfie woke up the next morning and discovered his mom hadn't actually died. She noticed his confusion and knew what had happened because she had the same ability, an ability that gave the possessor the power to travel back in time and get a redo. As she explained it, "This is something you're going to be able to do the rest of your life. Get second chances...It's a gift. A power. Some people in our family get it...But it won't fix everything, Alfie. The second time won't always be better than the first. Don't try to change everything, OK? Don't correct every mistake. Don't take advantage of people. Don't use your power for money. Be careful." 

So do something stupid? Jump back before the stupid action and just not do that. But you only do that for each event once. So if you went back and changed something and it didn't work out you couldn't go back again. 

Alfie's grandmother also had this time travel ability. And she warned Alfie that if he cheats on a lover and then tries to time jump to set things right, the person he cheated on would never love him again, no matter what. 

Given that Alfie inherited this ability at a very young age, he naturally used it for silly things. But he also found out that he could not prevent someone from dying. No matter how he changed the circumstances, the person will still die. Of a different cause, but they would still die. He learned this when he tried to save a friend who enlisted in the military. The man was up for two positions, one on a ship and the other at a training center. He chose the ship duty because it sounded more exciting. But that ship was attacked and he died. So Alfie went back in time and talked his friend in signing up for the training position instead.  But friend died anyway, in an accident, on the same day and at the same time. 

Back when Alfie was a kid, he had a friend who was a girl that he really liked but her family moved away. But they reconnected as teens and Alfie fell in love with her and used his power to get closer to her, but not particularly successfully. Eventually though, it all worked out and they moved in together. Marriage followed and then the girl, Gianna started talking about wanting to have kids. Alfie was not keen on the idea, though. They cooled off toward each other. 

Alfie got involved with another woman and when that affair ended, he did his usual time jump to reset everything but discovered his grandmother was right. Gianna no longer cared about him and had reconnected with an old boyfriend. The marriage was over. 

Forward a few years and Alfie is in trouble with the police because he used his time travel ability to win big at a casino to the tune of two million dollars and he had wired the two million dollars to his ex-wife, Gianna, implicating her what the police viewed as cheating trick pulled on the casino. Now they are both being questioned by the police, even though Alfie assures them she is not involved. Gianna denies all knowledge of Alfie's casino shenanigans but also says she and Alfie were never lovers, were never married and she has no idea why he would wire all that money to her.

The whole story is framed inside a notebook written by Alfie, the story of his life. The times he used his magic power to reset time, to improve his life, to correct mistakes but mainly to pursue and win the love of Gianna that he stupidly threw away for a faithless other woman. He presents this notebook to the investigator who is interviewing him after the casino incident. As he is led away in handcuffs he tells the detective to finish reading the notebook and it will answer all his questions about the money and the casino and why it all happened.

This was a fascinating story about how even second chances are not enough to make things right. I think the author gave this story a lot of thought. He made his hero a person of good character because, in the hands of an evil person, a power like Alfie's could cause a lot of chaos in the world. Alfie uses his power in fairly harmless ways. For instance to impress a girl who is likes a certain song, he time jumps back to learn the song and how to play the piano so that when he encounters this girl later, he can impress her by playing and singing it for her.

I really enjoyed this story even though the premise is so wacky. 

The author is a very successful writer and several of his books have been made into movies. It is in the works for Twice to also be made into a movie.

Here is a review of the book by Kirkus Reviews.

B .C. On the Rocks

 

 By Johnny Hart

Daily newspaper strips dating from about 1966 & 1967.

The gang is still the core group and Grog is still being his weird little self. Thor is having trouble figuring out what more to do with his main invention, the wheel. One of the cavemen is skulking around at night as the Midnight Stalker. Peter has more new businesses, including a hardware store, a gift shop, a weather bureau. B.C. discovers clams have a secret.

Less

 

By Andrew Sean Greer

Pulitzer Prize winning novel of 2018.

Arthur Less is minor author who is soon to turn fifty and who feels like a failure at everything but especially at life and work. He has a lot of baggage from two of the most important relationships in his life. First was Robert, who was a married man but who fell deeply for young, handsome Arthur. Robert was a famous and successful poet and a Pulitzer Prize winner. That relationship lasted for many years but eventually Arthur felt bored and eventually moved on to Freddy. That relationship also ended and Freddy has invited Arthur to attend his wedding to another person. Arthur needs a good excuse not to attend so he accepts several invitations to lectures overseas that will take him from his home in California to Mexico, Italy, Germany, France, India, Morocco and Japan. 

Even though Arthur views himself as a failure, his travels introduce him to lots of new people and he learns that he is not quite the loser he has been picturing himself to be, despite some of the mistakes and misadventures he has on his travels.

The book started out slow and when I started reading it, I didn't know the main character was a gay man. I can't say I find the romantic intrigues of homosexuals particularly interesting, whether male or female. I set the book aside for several weeks after starting it. I did finally pick it back up and, as I got further into it, I started to enjoy it more and more. It is mildly funny and Arthur's dim view of himself doesn't improve until he reaches the end of his travels and realizes what he actually accomplished. Upon hearing that his old lover Robert has had a stroke, Arthur heads back to California with a better sense of himself and of his past relationships. To quote from the novel, it turns out that, "happiness is not bullshit."

According to Google's AI, Less won the Pulitzer because 'it offered a witty, tender and deeply humane exploration of aging, middle-class heartbreak and queer identity. The [Pulitzer] board praised the novel as a "scintillating satire" that expertly balances broad comedy with poignant reflections on the human heart.'

Here is a review of the novel by Kirkus Reviews.

The Virgin of Small Plains

 

By Nancy Pickard

During a bad snowstorm, a rancher (who is also the sheriff) and his sons are out in the weather dealing with their cattle when they find the nude body of a young woman laying in the snow in their cow pasture. There's blood on the snow and it appears she has been sexually assaulted. The sheriff doesn't know who she is but his two teenage sons do but they say nothing.

The younger boy stays home, per his father's orders, but the older teen goes with his father when they take her body to the doctor's office into nearby small town. 

Meanwhile, the doctor's teenage daughter has a visitor in her bedroom, Mitch, the handsome son of the local judge. Abby and Mitch have been making out and Abby has decided she is ready to go all the way. Problem is neither teen has any condoms. Abby knows her dad has condoms in a closet off the exam room. So Mitch sneaks downstairs, looking for the condoms. As he is poking around downstairs, the sheriff drives up to the doctor's house and Mitch ducks into the supply office to hide. He was able to peer through a crack at the edge of the door and saw the dead girl being carried into the exam room. And then Mitch sees something so shocking and unexpected that he actually gasps in horror. But fortunately he isn't heard and he is able to sneak away later. He was so shocked but what he had seen, he didn't go back upstairs to Abby's room and he ran out into the snowy night without his coat or shoes. And he never saw Abby again or returned back his home town until about seventeen years later. 

The girl is a stranger to the area and is never identified. Her body is buried and a tombstone placed on her grave. Oddly, a legend sprung up about the girl, that a visit to her tomb could heal the sick and the trouble. She became known at the Virgin of Small Plains.

Abby never got over Mitch leaving town without talking to her or telling her what happened that night. She didn't know his parents had quickly hustled him out of the town when he told them what he had seen happen in the doctor's office. The judge informed his son that the doctor and the sheriff were denying what Mitch claimed he had seen. Further, they threatened to throw the blame for the girl's death on Mitch. So to keep their son safe, they were sending Mitch to school far away.

The story moves from the teenage days of Abby, Mitch and the sheriff's two teenage sons to seventeen years later. In all that time, the girl's death has never been solved. Abby has remained single as have the sheriff's sons, Patrick and Rex. Mitch has never returned home, not even for his own mother's funeral.

One day at the cemetery, Abby happens to encounter the now former sheriff's wife who is visiting the grave of the unknown girl. She knows about the stories of healings and her husband has been suffering greatly from the pain of arthiritis. So she is asking the Virgin to help her husband feel better. She and Abby begin casually chatting and the night the Virgin was found dead comes up and some of the things the sheriff's wife says stirs something in Abby. After the other woman leaves, Abby makes a promise to the Virgin to find out who she was.

But sometimes it's better to let sleeping dogs lie. Or in this case sleeping Virgins.

This was a very interesting mystery story. There are several suspects and several secrets surrounding the dead girl's time in the town. The main suspects are the three teenage boys, Mitch, Pat and Rex. It turns out that all three boys were involved with girl in the months before she died. And all three boys knew who she was and where she came from. But they never spoke up about it. Seventeen years later though, times are changing in Small Plains. The Virgin has gained some internet fame and people are coming to town to visit her grave and ask for her blessing and healing. Interest is rising and questions are being asked. And Mitch has finally come home and locals can't figure out what he is up to, including Abby, whose heart was broken when he left without a word so long ago.

Here is a review of the novel by Publishers Clearing House.

B.C. "Life is a dollar twenty-five cent paperback"

 

By Johnny Hart

From the B.C. comic strip, copyright 1970. It comes with a note that it has two former titles: B.C./"LIFE IS A SEVENTY-FIVE CENT PAPERBACK" and B.C./"LIFE IS A NINETY-FIVE CENT PAPERBACK."

This is one of Johnny Hart's funniest collections of daily comic strips of his I have read so far. I had a hard time limiting the number of examples to put one here.

Nothing to Fear but Ferrets

 By Linda O. Johnston

A Kendra Ballantyne, Pet-Sitter Mystery

Kendra is studying in preparation for a bid to regain her license to practice law which she lost when she was wrongly accused of being a murderer. 

After losing her lawyer job, Kendra moved into the garage apartment of her home and rented the actual house to a young couple, Charlotte and Yul.

Charlotte is a former contestant on a reality TV dating show. As the winner, she was awarded one million dollars but lost a lover when she was informed that the rule was the winner could take the money or take the lover but couldn't take both. So Charlotte chose the money, which is how she affords the rent on Kendra's large and luxurious home. However, the catch to the money was a rule that she had to give up her love match, Chad, and never seem him again or she would forfeit the money. She picked the money, later claiming that Chad was a phony whose only reason for being on the show was for the exposure which he hoped would help his career in show business.

Charlotte and Yul enjoyed holding parties and one night Chad showed up at one of their parties uninvited. When Charlotte discovered he was there, they got into an argument and she sent him packing. But then Chad turned up dead, laying on the floor of the house, with Charlotte's and Yul's pet ferrets released from their pen and nibbling on his dead body.

Charlotte talks Kendra into investigating the murder even though Kendra is not certain that about Charlotte's or Yul's innocence. She does it anyway because if it is determined that the ferrets caused Chad's death, then the ferrets will be euthanized. Which is not what either Charlotte, Yul or Kendra want.

This was a pretty good mystery even if the murderer improbably tried to affix blame to the ferrets. The story is also mildly humorous which I felt added to the story.                                                                                                                                                                                                                   

Wednesday : A Novelization of Season One

 

Adapted by Tehlor Kay Mejia

After teenage oddball Wednesday Addams was kicked out of school for releasing piranha fish into the school's swimming pool to punish some boys who had been bullying her younger brother Pugsley, Wednesday was been enrolled in Nevermore Academy by her parents, Morticia and Gomez, who also attended Nevermore when they were teenagers.

Wednesday is not happy to be placed in this school intended for kids who are not ordinary. This school has students who include vampires, werewolves, witches, shapeshifters, psychics and more. 

It soon becomes apparent that something is amiss at Nevermore and in the local village of Jericho. It doesn't take Wednesday long to ferret out the rumors of a monstrous creature haunting the countryside and killing people. So she takes it upon herself to discover the truth about this supposed monster. 

Which she does when she witnesses the monster murder a fellow student. However, the school officials insist that the student, Rowan,was not killed and he is subsequently seen packing up his things and going into town to board a train home. Wednesday knows what she saw and finding Rowan's bloody spectacles on the ground where the attack occurred proves it was not just something she imagined.

Finding the truth is going to be difficult since some of the teachers and the principal are part of the cover-up. As Wednesday digs deeper into the secrets of Nevermore, not only is she gathering the evidence she needs to track down tbe monster, whom she suspects is a fellow student, but she also finds herself gaining friends and becoming part of a community, something she never really expected or wanted.

This was an OK mystery story. Wednesday, unfortunately, keeps accusing the wrong people of being the monster and it makes her look like a fool, in my opinion. 

Another thing that I found rather sad is the serious nature of the story, with very little of the fun of the original Addams cartoons nor the silliness of the original TV series. True there are some lighter moments that hark back to the roots of the Addams family, but they are scarce. I just found the story to be too serious for me. 

The Lotus Palace

 

By Jeannie Lin

Yue-ying is servant to her beautiful sister, Mingyu, who is a courtesan in a brothel in China, The Lotus Palace. Yue-ying used to be a prostitute until her sister bought her and brought her to live with her in the Lotus Palace. 

Mingyu is the star of the Lotus Palace, being very popular with the men who visit the house. Yue-ying looks a lot like her sister but has a large birthmark on her face that most customers find upsetting. So she serves as her sister's personal servant.

Bai Huang is a man of noble birth who visits the Lotus Palace to spend his time and money on Mingyu. He is really there for Yue-ying but she keeps him at arm's distance, choosing to disbelieve his interest in her is sincere and not some kind of joke or setup. Mingyu knows of his interest in her sister and it bothers her and creates some distance in her relationship with Yue-ying.

The Lotus Palace is not the only brothel in the area. Huilan was the famous courtesan and main attraction at the House of a Hundred Songs. Huilan and Mingyu knew of each other and sometimes spent time together at parties and other social events. When Huilan was found murdered in her bed, it was only to be expected that the authorities would have questions for both Mingyu and Yue-ying, hoping they might know of Huilan's activities before her death. Both women have nothing of consequence to tell the investigators. 

Yue-ying decides to do a little investigating on her own and discovers that Bai Huang is also investigating Huilan's death and also the death of an unknown man on the nearby waterfront. Pirates are not unknown in the area and the man's death could have some connection to piracy and human trafficking.

This was an OK read. The romance between a humble servant/former prostitute was a tad unbelievable. Housefuls of beautiful, willing women and the rich guy chooses the woman with the huge birthmark on her face.

Another problem I had with the story is the killer turns out to be a very minor character in the story that we never hear very much at all about. 

Overall, I'd say I liked the story. Apparently it is one of the first books in a series of mystery stories set in the Pingkang li area.