The Divide

By Nicholas Evans

Ben decided his wife, Sarah, was frigid. So when he met beautiful, young Eve, he was ready. Ready for a new love, a new life and a new family. Never mind that his request for a divorce tore his family apart. Never mind that his wife loved him very much. Never mind that it especially threw his daughter, Abbie, into a tailspin that took her down a dark path that ended in her death on a remote mountain in Montana.
It all started at the dude ranch, The Divide. Ben and Sarah and their two kids Josh and Abbie had been vacationing there for years. They loved it. But that is where Ben first saw Eve. He was smitten. He couldn't stop thinking about her. He even visited her at her home in Santa Fe. When she said she wouldn't date a married man, Ben took it as encouragement to end his marriage.
Sarah was devastated. Perhaps her obvious distress affected her teenage daughter too. Anyway, Abbie was very angry at her father and seemed to channel that rage into environmental activism. She was at a protest where the protesters were teargassed when she was rescued by another activist, Rolf. He tended her wounds and bathed her eyes and he seemed so caring and committed to the cause of environmental activism. Abbie was completely won over and became his lover and co-conspirator. They set fires and spray painted slogans and Rolf led her deeper and deeper down the path to destruction.  Then they accidentally killed a young man when they tried to set fire to his father's house and he caught them. In the confrontation and struggle, the man was killed. Abbie and Rolf went into hiding and Abbie cut off almost all communication with her family, per Rolf's instructions.
And then her body was found, frozen in ice on that remote mountainside by two back country skiers.

This was an OK story. It starts out as a mystery. But it is mostly about the end of the marriage of Ben and Sarah. And about Abbie's conversion from college student to eco-terrorist.
The thing is, I thought I was reading a mystery story. I kept waiting for the investigation but was wading through chapter after chapter of the family's back story. Frankly, I skipped a lot of that, thinking the investigation was sure to start soon. But it never did.
So this is not a murder mystery. It is the story of a family that went off the rails, primarily because of one selfish man, Ben. Beyond the death of his daughter, Ben never really pays much of a price either. He is pleased with his new life in Santa Fe, his new love, Eve and is a second father to her young son. He has a successful new career, his girl friend is young and beautiful and his teenage son has forgiven him and likes his new family. Meanwhile the ex-wife is still reeling from the abrupt and unexpected end of their over twenty years of marriage. She is still carrying a torch for her faithless husband. She is depressed, alone and lonely. The author finally throws her a bone and gets her a new boy friend at the very end of the story. Easy to see where his sympathies lie: with the cheating husband.

A review by Kirkus Reviews.

Goodnight Nobody

By Jennifer Weiner

Raising kids in the city can be difficult. Kate and her husband Ben were trying to do so when Kate was robbed while taking her young children out for a stroll. The thief even stole the stroller.  So that was that. Goodbye, NYC. Hello, Upchurch.
Now a suburban mom, Kate is feeling alienated from the other women of her new community. They seem so much more put together, more organized, more in control. Kate has casual acquaintances among the Upchurch moms but no real friends. So when one of the moms calls and asks Kate to stop by, it's unusual and unexpected. Even more unexpected is the woman's dead body laying on the floor with a knife in her back.
Since she is the one who found the victim, Kitty Cavanaugh, Kate feels more than a little involved. The cops seem to have given up on the investigation and so Kate dives into the perfect life of perfect mom, perfect wife, perfect hostess, perfect everything, Kitty Cavanaugh. Doesn't take her long to understand that no one in Upchurch has the perfect lives they all work so hard to present to the world.

This was an OK read. Much of the story is about Kate's relationship with her husband and an old crush from before her marriage who broke her heart. As Kate's investigation proceeds, her relationship with Ben becomes rockier and rockier and the old crush showing up doesn't make it any easier. Kate doesn't make a real decision about Ben vs the crush, Evan:

I waved, then flipped onto my back and floated in the pale green ocean water, looking up at the sky. Come home to me, said Ben. Come back to me, said Evan. I closed my eyes, listening for my answer. My hair trembled in the water. My body rose and fell. The waves rolled in and out, saying nothing at all.

The Kate and Ben story feels unfinished and the murder motive is more than a little weak and disappointing.

Review by Publishers Weekly.

The Moon-Spinners

By Mary Stewart

Nicola is on spring vacation to Crete. Arriving at her destination a day early, she decides to take a hike up into the hills. It's warm out and after awhile, she takes a break beside a mountain stream. But she is not alone, a strange man is spying upon her from the bushes. Alarmed, she tries to leave only to be set upon by the man and dragged off to a dingy shepherds hut.
Things are not as they seem, though, as soon as they enter the hut. For laying on a rough bed of hay is a young Englishman who quickly instructs the other man to release Nicola. She discovers the Englishman is suffering from a gunshot wound and the other man hid him in the hut to conceal him from the murderous locals.
The two men, Lambis & Mark were out for a harmless ocean cruise and came ashore for a break from being on the water. They were accompanied by Mark's younger brother Colin who is only thirteen. Lambis, who owns the boat, stayed at the boat to make some minor repairs and Colin and Mark went for a hike. But they unfortunately witnessed some locals get into an argument which ended up in murder. And when the locals discovered the two witnesses, they shot Mark and left him for dead and carried off young Colin.
When the two tourists didn't return to the boat, Lambis went looking for them and found Mark, still alive but not in good condition. And now Nicola has stumbled upon the two and she becomes tangled up in whatever bad business is going on in the hills of Crete.

I first read this book back in the 1960s and I found it quite exciting and the descriptions of Crete enchanting. I have since read at least three or four more times and enjoyed it very much, though not as much as the first time. And I still find the writer's descriptions of Crete captivating and enticing.  Although the Crete of the early 1960s probably bears little resemblance to the Crete of 2019. It still makes me wish to visit there even though it is likely overrun with tourists these days.
As for the mystery story, it is thrilling and enjoyable even after several re-readings and fifty years later.

Review by Dear Author.

Mrs. Pollifax and the Hong Kong Buddha

By Dorothy Gilman

Book 7 in the Mrs. Pollifax series finds the matronly spy off on another adventure, this time in Hong Kong.
A young man she befriended on a previous trip to China, Sheng Ti, works for an importer, Feng Imports. Tom Detwiler also works for Feng Imports but he has a side job: he provides information to the CIA. But lately it has become apparent that Detwiler is compromised. The CIA wants Mrs. Pollifax to use her friendship with Sheng Ti to get inside Feng Imports and figure out what is going on with Detwiler.
Nothing is ever that simple in a Pollifax story and complications soon arise once she is in Hong Kong. But with the help of a new friend and of an old friend and at the risk of her neck, Mrs. Pollifax will come shining through.

This was a good story. Mrs. Pollifax is a little less active than she usually is in one of these stories, which I thought was way more believable than some of the stunts she pulls in so many of the stories. She travels around Hong Kong and views the many sights and spends much of her time at her hotel, acting like a normal woman in her fifties or sixties.

Lady

By Thomas Tryon

Lady and her husband were one of the best families of the small town where she lived. Lady was beautiful, kind and gracious and lived the good life. Widowed after just a few years of marriage, she lived the rest of her life alone except for her two faithful servants.
Everyone in town knew the story of Lady and Edward. Wealthy, handsome, young Edward was looking for a wife and Lady, so young, lovely and innocent, daughter of an impoverished seamstress, was just the girl he was looking for. So they quickly married and soon a baby was on the way. Then the luck turned against them. Lady fell and lost the baby. She became quite ill and spent months in the hospital. Her mind was affected by her illness and she was afterward subject to periods of depression.
World War I started and Edward went off to serve. He was wounded and came home to recuperate but his health was severely affected and he died of the influenza. Lady was left alone and never seemed interested in finding a new love.
Across the street was another young woman who lost her husband too soon. She is raising her large family all alone, working full time and leaving much of the care of the kids to her oldest daughter.
The middle boy, Woody, becomes fast friends with Lady and he spends as much time as possible with her. He basks in the love and attention she gives him and he suffers when she shuts herself away in the grip of one of her black moods, which can last for weeks and weeks. He would love to help but, a mere child, he doesn't understand her suffering.
Everyone in the small town knows about Lady's bouts of depression where she shuts herself away from the outside world. They all attribute it to her grief over the loss of her husband, Edward. She even keeps a shrine dedicated to Edward in the front room of her house, with photos of him and other mementos. She keeps his clothes locked away in their bedroom and refuses to get rid of them.  To all appearances, she never got over losing Edward.
Then Woody stumbles upon Lady's long hidden secret and he is shocked to his core. So shocked that he cuts off all contact with her. However, Woody isn't the only one who has discovered Lady's secret. Before much longer the whole town in privy to the secret and all but her closest friends turn their backs on her.
Eventually Woody and Lady reconcile and, in her old age, Lady finally reveals the details of her marriage to Edward and the truth of what she sacrificed to continue to live in the house across the street.

This was a pretty good story. It sort of bogged down in the middle of the book and didn't really pick up until Lady's big secret is revealed. All throughout the first part, we are given hints that Lady has some huge secret and it takes way too long to get to the big reveal. I admit I got impatient and wanted the author to stop dragging it out and dragging it out. But other than that, it was an enjoyable novel.

The Genocidal Healer

By James White

Lioren was a capable young surgeon in the Monitor Corps when he and the space ship he served on were called to attend an emergency situation on a newly discovered and civilized planet. The population of this planet are in crisis, being decimated by a planet-wide plague. If something isn't done, and quickly, there will be no one left alive.
Seized by a sense of urgency, Lioren makes a tragic mistake that results in the deaths of nearly all the inhabitants of the planet. As punishment, Lioren is stripped of his rank and kicked out of the Corps. He is then assigned to the position of trainee in the psychology department of Sector General Hospital, a hospital that specializes in treating beings from all over the galaxy, manned by beings from all over the galaxy.
But this is not what Lioren wants. His overwhelming feelings of guilt causes him to crave a much harsher penalty: a death sentence. Working at Sector General in the psychiatric department is the last thing he wants. But it just might be exactly what he needs.

This was an okay story. But towards the last third, a lot of the book is discussions about religion and guilt and god and the meaning of existence.  So not anything I care about. That part was boring, just boring.

Back When We Were Grownups

By Anne Tyler

Rebecca was pretty sure she was going to marry Will Allenby. He was a nice, solid young man and they had been dating for quite a while. But then she met Joe Davitch, a much older man with three little girls he was raising on his own. Something about Joe just captured her heart and she dumped Will with hardly a word of explanation beyond just goodbye:

'Will set an index finger on his page and raised his head. "Goodbye, Will," she told him.
"Huh?" he asked. "You're leaving? So soon? I still have work to do!"
"That's all right; stay where you are."
"Oh. Well. Okay. So, um . . . au revoir, I guess."
"No," she said. "Goodbye."
And then she walked out the door and into Joe Davitch's arms.' 

After a few years of marriage, Joe died in a crash. And Rebecca was alone and responsible for now four young girls (she and Joe had a little girl) and the family business. Joe's ex-wife was no help and lived overseas.
Now all the girls are adults and one of them is getting married and Rebecca is looking back on her life and thinking that she missed out. Thinking that she kind of got trapped in a life and marriage she never envisioned. And her thoughts turn to her old beau, Will. She constructs a what-might-have-been fantasy, complete with a fantasy son. The fantasy becomes so compelling that Rebecca tracks down Will and reignites a relationship with him.
But her fantasy family of Will and son turns to ashes in the face of reality. Even though her fantasy was way off base, maybe she and Will can have a second chance together. Or will she suddenly remember how easy it was to walk away from him the first time?

This was an OK read. What I didn't like about the story is the main character, Rebecca. She just didn't appeal to me. I thought her fantasy about Will was stupid and I thought her image of herself was deluded and I frankly hated the messed up way she treated poor Will.
It's hard to like a story when you can't stand the main character.

Review by Publishers Weekly.

Double Contact

By James White

Sector General Hospital serves any living being that needs medical care. It is not based on a planet but is a massive space-based hospital. It has doctors and nurses, human and nonhuman, all working together to treat any intelligent being that needs it, no matter how bizarre or different they may be.
As a hospital, they naturally provide ambulance and rescue vehicles, designed to respond quickly to whatever emergency comes their way. Sometimes those distress calls come from creatures never before encountered and of totally unfamiliar biology.
In this story, Dr. Prilicla, the Cinrusskin, is sent out with a crew to locate and attend the unknown beings who have launched distress beacons. Dr. Prilicla possesses a highly developed empathic ability. He is able to read the emotions of those around him. Plus he is a skilled surgeon. On the other hand, he is not a courageous being, like other Cinrusskins, who are known for their timidity and fragility.
Upon arrival at the location of the distress beacon, the doctor and his team find an alien vessel and a Monitor Corps vessel, both vessels disabled and in distress. The Monitor Corps vessel was in the area doing surveys and responded to the beacon, only to be attacked by the alien vessel. The Monitor Corps crew has to be rescued first, as they are in the most danger and several crew members are seriously wounded.
Once their are dealt with, Dr. Prilicla turns his attention to the beings on board the alien ship. The ship contains only two beings, both of which are surgically attached to the ship and both of which are suffering from injuries acquired during what turned out to be an accident or malfunction.
But why did they attack the first ship to respond to the distress beacon? And how can they be successfully treated for their injuries when the mere sight of a human being put them into hysterical panic? Because of this unreasoning fear of the human medical personnel, almost all the weight of their treatment will thus fall upon Dr. Prilicla's puny "shoulders." (Does Prilicla even have shoulders?)

This was an okay story. A little boring. Towards the end of the story, another new alien race is introduced, a spider people who kidnaps one of the human medical personnel with plans to eat her. But even the introduction of this new element does little to liven up the story.
It probably helps if the reader is familiar with the Sector General stories before reading this one.

Here is a link to a Wikipedia article about Sector General.

And here is Wikipedia's description of Dr. Prilicla:

A large but fragile winged insect-like being from the very low-gravity planet Cinruss. In addition to being highly skilled in the more delicate types of surgery, Prilicla is an empath and therefore can sense the emotions of most other lifeforms including many non-intelligent animals. Its tact and the desire of colleagues to avoid distressing it by displaying negative emotions generally makes others willing to follow its advice – a pattern that one reviewer described as "a pleasant Machiavellian streak." Despite its natural timidity and the distress that other beings' anger, fear and pain cause it, Prilicla uses its empathic ability in prolonged searches for survivors of space combat and accidents.