The Last Time I Lied by Riley Sager ****

The Last Time I Lied by Riley Sager. Thirteen-year-old Emma Davis goes to Camp Nightingale and gets assigned to Dogwood Cabin with three 16-year-old girls. They vanish. The girls are not found, and the camp is shut down. Emma feels guilty, PTSD-guilty, rehab-guilty. When the camp reopens 15 years later, she ends up in Dogwood again with three different teenage girls. These girls also disappear, and she is the prime suspect. There are so many suspects that until the end, you can never be sure. A well-written and fast-moving mystery.

Camp Nightingale is on the shore of a man-made lake, Lake Midnight. It was created by a dam, and it inundated Pleasant Valley Asylum. The lake and surrounding forests, boulders, and caves are vividly described and can be considered another character. The descriptions of summer camp reminded me of my childhood.

I loved this book until the end. The resolution introduced too much new information for my taste and raised as many questions as it answered.

The camp belongs to the old-money White-Harris family. Franny is the matriarch. Her adopted sons are Theo (older than Emma) and Chet (younger than Emma). Mindy (Chet’s fiancée) only appears during Emma’s second summer. Lottie is Franny’s assistant and has been with the family forever. Ben Schumacher is the gardener and was hired just before Emma’s first summer.

Trivia: Riley Sager is the pen name of Todd Ritter. He chose a pen name because his earlier Todd Ritter novels didn’t sell, and he had to distance himself to get a fresh start in the publishing world. This is not uncommon. The same is true for Kate Elliott who began life as Alis A. Rasmussen.

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Spoilers:

The first three girls: Vivian murdered Natalie and Allison in revenge for them letting her sister Catherine drown. Natalie and Allison were best friends with Catherine when she died. Vivian drowned them in Lake Midnight by the submerged asylum before assuming a new identity.

The entire property is just 4,000 acres. I couldn’t believe that the submerged asylum wasn’t located after two exhaustive (volunteers, boats, helicopters) searches. Also, how was 16-year-old Vivian able to construct a new identity and maintain it for 15 years?

The second three girls: Chet, now 25, invited Emma Davis, now 28, to Camp Nightingale to punish her for her perceived transgressions against his old bother Theo 15 years ago. The punishment started with harassment and ended with framing her for the disappearance of Sasha, Krystal, and Miranda.

Red herrings:

Peaceful Valley Asylum sold the patients’ hair to keep the place open as a haven for these girls.

Ben Schumacher, the groundskeeper, had sex once with Vivian but was otherwise innocent. He was 19 and she was 16.

Everyone in My Family Has Killed Someone by Benjamin Stevenson **

 Everyone in My Family Has Killed Someone by Benjamin Stevenson. Matriarch Audrey Cunningham had three sons (Ernest, Michael, Jeremy) with her first husband before the police shot him in a botched burglary. Michael later shot a police officer and was brilliantly defended by Marcelo Garcia (three-year sentence), who subsequently married Audrey. Audrey has organized a family reunion to mark Michael’s release. Michael attends with Erin, Ernest’s wife. Lucy, Michael’s ex-wife, also attends. That’s just some of the setup.

The author, through narrator Ernest, regularly interrupts the story to brag about how clever he is and how ingeniously the story is written. In my opinion, the story is overly complex, as indicated by the several long chapters required to unravel the mystery. I didn’t believe or care about the ultimate resolution.

Another indication of the complexity is when the author reviews the clues for the reader. “Here are the clues I used to put it together: Mary Westmacott; fifty-thousand dollars; my jaw; my hand; Sky Lodge’s snow cams; Sofia’s malpractice suit; a Brisbane PO box; Lucy cocking an imaginary gun against her head; a double-occupancy coffin; vomit; a speeding fine; a handbrake; a loupe; physiotherapy; an unsolved assault; a chivalrous and shivering husband; “the boss”; a jacket; footprints; Lucy’s nervous wait; a pyramid scheme; sore toes; my chalet’s phone; my dreams of choking; Michael’s newfound pacifism; and F-287: a dead pigeon with a medal for bravery.” This must be a record for the number of mystery clues.

The author regularly breaks into the narrative to make clever comments.

“So I’ll strive to do the opposite. Call me a reliable narrator. Everything I tell you will be the truth, or, at least, the truth as I knew it to be at the time that I thought I knew it. Hold me to that.”

“It’s pretty much the whole How-To-Write-A-Mystery checklist at this point. If it’s any consolation, no one’s phone runs out of battery until Chapter 33. So the reception and the battery thing is a cliché. I don’t know what to tell you—we’re in the mountains. What do you expect?”

“Crime novels always look at the motives of a list of suspects, but only from the perspective of the inspired inquirer. Am I really the detective just because it’s my voice you have to listen to? I guess this whole story would be different if someone else wrote it. Maybe I’m only the Watson after all.”

The mysteries included multiple murders over the previous thirty-five years, kidnappings, $267,000 in cash, missing evidence, and so many family secrets. Certainly another record for complexity.

While the author deserves credit for putting this all together (or was the plot constructed by an AI?), it is not a satisfying book to read.

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Maniac Magee by Jerry Spinelli ****

Maniac Magee by Jerry Spinelli. “Maniac Magee was born in a dump. They say his stomach was a cereal box and his heart a sofa spring.” Jeffrey Lionel Magee was an orphan at three and ran away from Aunt Dot and Uncle Dan at eleven. [Did I mention: Newberry Award Winner?]  He settled as the only white kid in the East End. “He couldn’t figure why these East Enders called themselves black. He kept looking and looking, and the colors he found were gingersnap and light fudge and dark fudge and acorn and butter rum and cinnamon and burnt orange. But never licorice, which, to him, was real black.” He became a legend, but more importantly, he found a home. A fun and heart-warming read.

As the only white child in the East End, “Maniac loved almost everything about his new life. But everything did not love him back.” Despite his legendary feats, both athletic and otherwise, [He untied Cobble’s Knot], he was taunted, “Fishbelly go home.” He didn’t fare much better in the (white) West End. After living on both sides of the track, Maniac ultimately finds a place that accepts him as he is.

Like Matilda by Roald Dahl, Maniac Magee, features books and literacy. This book has the trifecta of pre-teen fantasies: racism, poverty, and literacy. Read it.

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Wrong Place Wrong Time by Gillian McAllister *****

 Most importantly: This is a must-read book. If the following makes it look like the book is too weird, blame that on the reviewer, not the author. The book is easy to read and has a wonderful surprise ending. Wrong Place Wrong Time by Gillian McAllister opens with Jen Brotherhood watching her son Todd murder Joseph Jones. After this, she lives her life in reverse. Each day she wakes up before she went to sleep. It might be a day earlier or years earlier. This inexorable journey into her past continues until she understands why Todd murdered Jones and corrects the cause. A mystery full of love and joy.

Time travel. Science Fiction. Whatever.

Andy Vettese is a physics professor at Liverpool John Moores University. He meets with Jen at various times to explain to her about this time loop she is caught in. “To enter into a time loop, they say you would need to create a closed timelike curve. They provide a physics formula. But, helpfully, they break it down underneath. It seems to happen when a huge force is exerted on the body. Ward and Johnson think the force would have to be stronger than gravity to create a time loop. She scrolls down. The force would need to be one thousand times her body weight. She sinks her head into her hands. She doesn’t understand a single word of this.” Fortunately, the reader need not understand any more than Jen does, that is, nothing.

This book has one of the most satisfying endings ever.

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A Deadly Divide by Ausma Zahanat Khan *****

 A Deadly Divide by Ausma Zehanat Khan is the fifth (and final?) in the Esa Khattak and Rachel Getty series. He is the Director of the Community Policing Section, and she is his sergeant. When there is a mass shooting in a Saint-Isidore Mosque, they are called in. The Francophone Québécois are a minority in Canada and the Arabic-speaking Muslims are a minority in Quebec. This is a story of the big minority’s fear of and animus towards the smaller minority. A fast-moving mystery with engaging characters and plenty of twists and turns. Highly recommended.

The author holds a PhD in international human rights law. A Deadly Divide is a catalog of anti-Islamic behaviors from placing bacon on doorknobs to mass murder with an AR-15 of people at prayer in the mosque. Other examples include the Wolf Allegiance (a white supremacy group), Pascal Richrd’s radio show to stir anti-Muslim prejudice and fear, public protests, passing laws to outlaw Islamic practices such as wearing a veil, threats and harassment, attacks on property, infiltrating law enforcement, uneven enforcement of the law, and so on.

In keeping with the emotional subject matter, relationships are central to the story. Esa Khattak and Rachel Getty are intertwined in multiple emotionally charged relationships.

 In the end, this is a murder mystery with plenty of innocent suspects, red herrings, and plot twists. The mystery is about both prejudice and relationships.

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The Reformatory by Tananarive Due *****

 The Reformatory by Tananarive Due is set in 1950, Jim Crow Florida. Twelve-year-old Robert Stephens, Jr. defends his older sister Gloria from the unwanted advance of white Lyle McCormack. For kicking Lyle, he is sentenced to Gracetown School for Boys—a brutal place run by the psychopath Fenton Haddock. The brutality of the Jim Crow South is balanced by the nice people that Robert meets and the haints (ghosts) that befriend him. A novel about the United States in the 1950s, and well worth reading.

[Magic Realism] Like The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead, The Reformatory mixes elements of fantasy with realistic ones. Colson imagines the underground railroad as an actual subway system from the south to the north. Tananarive personifies Fenton Haddock’s past and guilt as haints—ghosts of the people murdered by Haddock. The haints have the power to change the mortal world. They can appear, move, steal, and even start fires.

The nice people included: David Loehmann (white) from Children’s Services in Tallahassee (A Jewish man from NYC); Miss Anne Powell (white), daughter of the late Councilman Powell; Lottie Mae Powell (black), Robert’s godmother; Mrs. Hamilton (black), music teacher at the Reformatory, John Dorsey, NAACP lawyer (“modeled loosely after my father”);

The Reformatory aka Gracetown School for Boys is a juvenile detention home inspired by the real-life Arthur G. Dozier School for Boys in Marianna, Fla.

Historical person (Wikipedia): Harry Tyson Moore (November 16, 1905 – December 25, 1951) was an African-American educator, a pioneer leader of the civil rights movement, founder of the first branch of the NAACP in Brevard County, Florida, and president of the state chapter of the NAACP.

Historical person (Wikipedia): Ruby McCollum, born Ruby Jackson (August 31, 1909 – May 23, 1992), was a wealthy married African-American woman in Live Oak, Florida, who is known for being arrested and convicted in 1952 for killing Dr. C. Leroy Adams, a prominent white doctor and state senator–elect. She testified as to their sexual relationship and his paternity of her child. The judge prohibited her from recounting her allegations of abuse by Adams. She was sentenced to death for his murder by an all-white jury. The sensational case was covered widely in the United States press (including a press report written by Zora Neale Hurston, as well as by international papers). McCollum was subjected to a gag order. Her case was appealed and overturned by the State Supreme Court.

Historical person (Wikipedia): Zora Neale Hurston (January 7, 1891  – January 28, 1960) was an American author, anthropologist, and filmmaker. She portrayed racial struggles in the early-20th-century American South and published research on hoodoo. The most popular of her four novels is Their Eyes Were Watching God, published in 1937. She also wrote over 50 short stories, plays, and essays.

Historical person (Wikipedia): Thoroughgood "Thurgood" Marshall (July 2, 1908 – January 24, 1993) was an American civil rights lawyer and jurist who served as an associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States from 1967 until 1991. He was the Supreme Court's first African-American justice. Prior to his judicial service, he was an attorney who fought for civil rights, leading the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund. Marshall was a prominent figure in the movement to end racial segregation in American public schools. He won 29 of the 32 civil rights cases he argued before the Supreme Court, culminating in the Court's landmark 1954 decision in Brown v. Board of Education, which rejected the separate but equal doctrine and held segregation in public education to be unconstitutional. President Lyndon B. Johnson appointed Marshall to the Supreme Court in 1967. A staunch liberal, he frequently dissented as the Court became increasingly conservative.

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Killers of the Flower Moon by David Grann ****

 Killers of the Flower Moon by David Grann. Early in the 20^th century, the people of the Osage nation were “the world’s richest people per capita.” Unscrupulous whites stole this money by becoming guardians when the Osage were legally declared incompetent, and through inheritance…as in, marrying someone and then murdering them. The Osage became “the world’s most murdered.” The book is in three parts: the larceny, the FBI tracking down the culprits, and the victims and the crooks that the FBI missed. A story of corruption and victimization of minorities.

How did the Osage become so wealthy? Like all other native American groups, the government conspired to make their land available for white settlers. The Osage managed to reserve the mineral rights for the tribe. “That the oil, gas, coal, or other minerals covered by the lands…are hereby reserved to the Osage Tribe.” When the oil was discovered, they were all rich, very rich.

How was this massive larceny accomplished? Virtually every white person was part of the conspiracy. This included the courts, the banks, law enforcement, the politicians, the doctors, the merchants, and the ministers. Everyone.

The second part of the book shows how difficult it was to track down, arrest, and convict, one of the key players. Lest this seems like a feel-good story, part three shows that the FBI only uncovered and brought to justice the tip of the iceberg. The remaining victims and conspirators were not identified nor brought to justice. The FBI numbered the victims in the dozens, while the author's research uncovered hundreds. Similarly, the author’s research shows the Reign of Terror to have lasted more than twice as long as the FBI suggested.

A thoroughly embarrassing book.

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The Beekeeper’s Apprentice by Laurie R. King ****

The Beekeeper’s Apprentice by LaurieR. King is a book of the “Sherlock Holmes” genre. It opens in 1915 (early in WWI) when 15-year-old Mary Russell has a chance meeting with retired Sherlock Holmes. Her farm is two miles from his where is studying the behavior of bees. Her “father thought all young ladies should be able to throw and to run.” Russell (as Homes addressed her) was the ideal apprentice as she matched him in intellect and physicality. What follows are some new adventures of Sherlock Holmes (and Mary Russell). A pleasure for any Sherlock Holmes fan looking for more.

Their first adventure is the kidnapping of an American Senator’s 6-year-old daughter Jessie. The beauty of this case was that Jessie was an active participant in her rescue, both by leaving clues for her rescuers and to her best to escape.

The final case pits Sherlock and Mary against a worthy adversary, one who matches them in intellect and resources.

While the book makes many references to the canon (Dr. Watson, Mycroft Holmes, Mrs. Hudson, and the deceased master criminal Professor Moriarty), the reader does not need to be a Holmes aficionado to enjoy the book. The book stays true to the mystery technology of the period (i.e. lots of disguises and bombs). Telephones play a role more by their rarity than by their use.

The book includes a sojourn to Palestine (Israel, Zion, the Holy Land) and Mary Russell is Jewish.

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The Winter Soldier by Daniel Mason *****

The Winter Soldier by Daniel Mason is set during World War I. Lucius Krzelewski’s family was rich and well-connected. When the war started, he was in medical school, so he enlisted as a medical officer. Back at home, his mother was thrilled by his enlistment but felt that medical duties, out of the line of fire, would seem like cowardice. So she bought him a horse and called upon a friend in the War Ministry to cancel his commission and speed his entry into the lancers, like his father. As fate would have it, he ended up at a field hospital run by a nurse, Margarete, who was a nun and carried a rifle. Lucius was embarrassed by his family’s privilege and his shortcomings as a doctor. Margarete was his opposite. She had a modest background and was confident running the hospital. This is World War I view through the eyes of someone overflowing with humility and empathy.

Lucius was lost at the field hospital. Margarete organized the hospital (an abandoned church with a hole in the roof and a crater in the floor), operated on the wounded soldiers (mostly amputations), foraged for food when needed, and disciplined the men. For example, when they returned with desperately needed food: They brought back sheep’s cheese and hen’s eggs. Margarete interrogated them as to how they had obtained them, and when it became apparent that a lamb had been spirited away from its owner, she marched the soldiers back like guilty schoolchildren, threatening to report any man caught stealing, if she didn’t shoot him herself.

Lucius cared about the people working in the hospital and the wounded soldiers equally. He learned about their families and their hobbies. There was no emotional distance between him and the people he encountered. His downfall was Horváth, the winter soldier--a soldier with nervous shock. Rather than releasing Horváth, he kept him in the hospital to try to cure him. But nothing worked. There was no sense to the disease, he thought, no pattern in the damage to their nerves. Now he began to doubt everything. Had he even helped Horváth at all? Had the man’s recovery all been Margarete’s doing? Or did most wounds, whether of the mind or body, just heal up on their own? While Europe suffered through the war, Lucius lived with his feelings of privilege, inadequacy, and guilt.

The war changed Europe and Lucius in unexpected ways.

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Murder and Mamon by Mia P. Manansala ****

 In Murder and Mamon by Mia P. Manansala, Ninang April’s niece Divina de los Santos has just arrived in Shady Palms, having graduated from a top art school in the Philippines. The main character and amateur detective Lila Macapagal finds Divina’s sudden arrival suspicious. godmothers, Ninang April, Ninang Mae, and Ninang June (or the Calendar Crew, as Lila refers to them), had recently gone into business together, opening a laundromat in competition with Ultima Bolisay. Ultima is not happy about this. Others are also unhappy with the Calendar Crew for malicious gossip that led to a divorce and a business being shut down. When Divina is found murdered in the new laundromat, there is no shortage of suspects. Ninang April is attacked and left in a coma. Lila investigates the murder and the assault. As with the first three novels in this cozy mystery series, Lila finds plenty of time to bake a wide variety and large quantity of Philippine specialties.

For example: As for me, I was leaning into “spring means green” and had prepared pandan-pistachio shortbread and brownies with a pandan cheesecake swirl. I also came up with a red bean brownie recipe, which wasn’t particularly spring-like, but hey, I was in a brownie mood. And for a quick no-bake option, I developed buko pandan mochi Rice Krispie treats, which would be sure to delight our younger customers.

Pandan is a tropical plant whose fragrant leaves are commonly used as a flavoring in Southeast Asia. Often described as a grassy vanilla flavor with a hint of coconut. Buko is the flesh of an unripe (green) coconut. Mamon are individual Filipino chiffon cakes that are light and fluffy, simple yet delicious.

Ninang means godmother.

Lila’s dachshund is named Longganisa, after a Philippine sausage.

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Algorithms to Live By: by Brian Christian and Tom Griffiths **

Algorithms to Live By begins with a clever premise. Here is a Self-Help book based on Computer Science. The first half of the book offers advice on: • what to do when faced with many alternatives, • how to divide your time between familiar and novel pursuits, • how to organize your stuff, and • how to organize your time. For example, if you need to deal with many documents, a stack is more efficient than sorting or filing them. However, after chapter 5 the book becomes a Computer Science history book with more math and less accessible advice. If you are not familiar with Lagrange and Laplace, you might want to stop reading at that point. An interesting addition to the Self-Help genre that unfortunately loses its way.

The authors explore the problem of what to do when faced with many alternatives. They represent this problem by considering someone with a long list of job applicants (too many to interview them all) and how they might decide that they’ve seen enough people, and it is time to hire someone. The problem is called the “secretary problem,” with the notion that the interviewer is male, and the applicants are female. The authors acknowledge this label is sexist, but with the excuse, “The first explicit mention of it by name as the “secretary problem” appears to be in a 1964 paper, and somewhere along the way the name stuck.” With the word “somewhere,” the authors continue this sexist language (“Secretary problem” is used 63 times).

Often while reading the book, I admired the brilliance of the analysis contrasted with the uselessness of the result in everyday life. Once the problem was modeled and solved, the real world was left behind and the solution, clever as it was, was not practical. As an example, after a long analysis of parking in a busy city, we have this: We asked Shoup if his research allows him to optimize his own commute, through the Los Angeles traffic to his office at UCLA. Does arguably the world’s top expert on parking have some kind of secret weapon? He does: “I ride my bike.”

Some of the classical problems discussed in the second half of the book are: the traveling salesman problem, the halting problem, the prisoner’s dilemma, packet switching, and the tragedy of the commons. Though they have little to do with computers, the book also takes time to debunk the marshmallow test and to analyze professional poker.

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CIRCE by Madeline Miller*****

 Circe by Madeline Miller is the ultimate coming-of-age story. Circe, an immortal, first steps out on her own when she defies her father Helios and god Zeus to give comfort to Prometheus. Later, she offended Zeus by transforming Scylla (of Scylla and Charybdis fame) into a six-headed monster. For these forays into independence, she was exiled, where she became the witch of Aiaia. She did not learn her lesson and continued to defy the gods. She experienced the other side of coming of age when she became mother to Telegonus (her son with Odysseus). Thus, the author explores coming of age with the intertwined stories of mother and child. Caveat: It helps to be familiar with Greek mythology, Minoans, and Homer to follow this book.

In addition to coming of age, the author explores mortality. Circe is immortal, but with her exile, she is isolated from the others. Her immortal contacts include Athena (whom Circe defies over and over), Hermes (who has brief visits to deliver messages from the gods--most of which Circe ignores), and nymphs. Circe uses her witchcraft to prevent Athena from visiting Aiaia.

Her contacts with mortals are more numerous. When the captain of a ship rapes her, transforms him and his crew into pigs and butchers them all. This becomes her way of dealing with visiting sailors. She makes an exception for Odysseus, sleeps with him, and sends him home to Ithaca, his wife Penelope, and their son Telemachus. After she is gone, she discovers she is pregnant with Telegonus. She is alone for the birth and performs her own Cesarean delivery (not called that because this is before the times of the Romans).

Her son teaches Circe about the messy details of life as a mortal. She cannot sleep with a baby in the house. Telegonus needs to be cleaned, dressed, fed, and calmed-she spends so much time walking with Telegonus to calm him, often unsuccessfully. Circe feels frustration and love. Later as part of her son’s coming of age, she releases him to visit Ithaca to see his father, Odysseus. He returns with news of his father’s death and his father’s surviving family, Penelope and Telemachus. Circe spends much of her solitary time contemplating the differences between mortality and immortality.

The first half of the book narrates Circe’s independence, offenses against her parents and the gods, and ultimately her exile to Aiaia. I felt the book came to life when Odysseus visited Circe, their courtship, and her motherhood.

Most of the characters are static (Odysseus, Helios, Zeus, Athena), but Circe’s son Telegonus, Odysseus’s wife Penelope, and her son Telemachus, all join Circe with their coming-of-age journeys making this the ultimate coming of age story. 

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Evanly Choirs by Rhys Bowen *****

Evanly Choirs by Rhys Bowen is the third in a series of 10 books about Constable Evans in the North Wales village of Llanfair. In this installment (Austin) Mostyn Phillips wants to enter the village Côr Meibion (men’s choir) in the eisteddfod (Welsh cultural festival/competition) even though they have no chance of winning. The situation changes when the famous tenor Ifor Llewellyn returns to Llanfair (his childhood home). Ifor is an arrogant bully and a womanizer, so when he is murdered, there is no shortage of suspects. As Ifor is an international star, police from Caernarfon are sent, but they would never have unraveled this mystery without the help of Evan Evans.

Most people in Llanfair are named Evans. Our constable (Evan Evans) is called Evan bach (little Evan, even though he was “a six-footer who climbed mountains and played rugby”) or Evans-the-Law. Other Evans were called Evans-the-Meat, Evans-the-Milk, and Evans-the-Post.

This book was published in 1999, but it foreshadowed Brexit (UK referendum to leave the European Union on 23 June 2016).

“We’ve only got her word that she’s going to Manchester airport, haven’t we? I don’t know what I’d say to the D.I. if she did a bunk on us. Realizing that you can cross the Channel without showing a passport has made me nervous.”

“It’s easy enough to pop across to Europe and back these days. They don’t even check your passport most of the time, do they? In fact you don’t even need a passport between here and Italy.”

Evan keeps getting into trouble with his girlfriend, teacher Bronwen Price (aka Bronwen-the-Book) when he rescues a damsel-in-distress and Bronwen misunderstands his intentions.

“I’ll lend you the fare. You can send it back to me.” “I don’t know why you’re being so nice,” she said suddenly. “It’s my job,” Evan said.

He offers to date the woman behind the bar to keep her from Lothario Ifar.

“Well, Evan Evans,” Betsy said. “Do you want to ask me out yourself or not? Are you going to take me out on Saturday night or shall I see if Mr. Llewellyn is free to drive me to Cardiff?” Evan took a deep breath. “Okay, Betsy,” he said. “We’ll go out on Saturday night.”

Bronwen admires Evan.

“He’s a police officer,” Bronwen said. “Very reliable. Never been known to take advantage of a girl yet.” She gave Evan a little sideways glance, then picked up his jacket. “Here, put your jacket on. “

But not always.

Bronwen snorted. “And what sort of husband do you think you’re going to make someday if you don’t know how to wash your own shirts?” “Isn’t that what wives are supposed to do?” Evan asked. “If that’s what you think, I can tell you’re going to have a hard time finding a wife,”

Even though the book is filled with obvious clues missed by the investigators, the twists and turns make it difficult to identify the killer.

A fun cozy mystery.

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How We Got to Now by Steven Johnson *****

 How We Got to Now: by Steven Johnson a history of technology and innovations The author’s twist on this well-trodden topic is to identify unexpected connections. For example, the Gutenberg printing press led to Galileo’s telescope. How? The printing press increased the interest in glass lenses because the newly literate Europeans discovered they were farsighted. The improved lens technology cleared the way for telescopes and microscopes. The author’s topics are glass, cold, sound, clean, time, and light. A well-written history of inventions and inventors.

Some of the people sketched:

The glassmakers of Murano, Venice, Italy.

Gutenberg and the printing press.

Galileo twice. The telescope and the pendulum for timekeeping.

Fredric Tudor and the international ice trade.

Carrier and air conditioning.

Semmelweis and hand washing.

John Snow and epidemiology.

John L. Leal and chlorinated water.

Aaron Dennison and the mass-market pocket watch.

William F. Allen and time zones.

Edison.

Ada Lovelace and computers.

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Vaster Wilds by Lauren Groff ****

 The Vaster Wilds by Lauren Groff is set in a 17^th-century English colony where everyone is dying from famine. Girl is a young servant who chooses the wilds beyond the palisades instead of starving with her minister’s family. The remainder of the book is about her brutal struggle to survive--against weather, terrain, humans, animals, and disease. The book asks hard questions about the individual and the future American nation. Don’t read this looking for a “happily ever after” ending.

The colony is not explicitly identified as Jamestown, but the mentions of the River James, the starving time, and the Powhatan clearly suggest Jamestown.

This book is not for people of gentle dispositions. In her quest to survive, Girl roasts baby squirrels, steals their nesting material, and what nuts were stored for the winter. She raids the nest of a pair of ducks, stealing the eggs and wringing the mother’s neck. However, she isn’t just an aggressor. She spends days and nights wet, cold, and starving, infested with insects, wounded, and suffering from Smallpox. This is accompanied by graphic descriptions of her excretions. Not for those with weak stomachs.

Once Girl escapes Jamestown, she only speaks with spirits—God, nature, and her memories. Given how much she gives up by leaving the colony and how much she suffers, the reader might wonder why she left and whether it was a good decision. Her history is doled out in flashbacks, but it is not until the end of the book that the reader learns the awful truth.

This book is a testimony to Girl’s endurance and ingenuity. While celebrating human strengths, it also condemns hubris and ambition.

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Master Slave Husband Wife by Ilyon Woo *****

Master Slave Husband Wife by Ilyon Woo starts in 1848 when Ellen and William Craft self-emancipate themselves from Macon, Georgia. To escape from Macon, Ellen disguises herself as a “sick, rich, White young man—a most respectable-looking gentleman,” and William accompanies her as her slave. In Boston, they run into northern racism and the Fugitive Slave Act. “This work is not fictionalized.” “The absence of a happy ending may partly explain why the Crafts are not better known.” Why no happy ending? The book opens with the Fugitive Slave Act and closes with Jim Crow.

In between the Fugitive Slave Act and Jim Crow the Crafts overcame many obstacles and had many happy successes. Their story is the opposite of the story of the American South. While the Civil War and Reconstruction represented a high point for the Crafts and other enslaved people, the white supremacists and racists recovered their pre-Civil War power before the death of the Crafts.

The Crafts needed to escape three times. First, disguised as master and slave, they traveled from Macon, Georgia to Philadelphia. Once in Philadelphia, they learned they were not home-free and continued to Boston. They were okay in Boston until the Compromise of 1850 and the new Fugitive Slave Act. They tried to stay in Boston protected by many powerful friends, but they finally gave up and moved on the England.

Their time in England might have been their best years. They gave lectures, visited The Great Exhibition of 1851 with its Crystal Palace, and received an education and literacy.

This is an enlightening view the 19^th-century America. Highly recommended.“As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.”

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Yellowface by R.F. Kuang ****

 In Yellowface by R.F. Kuang, best-selling author Athena Liu dies and author Juniper Song Hayward steals the notes for Athena’s next novel. Midlist author June Hayward reinvents herself as Juniper Song, and, using those purloined notes writes “her own” best seller, The Last Front. The Last Front is about the Chinese Labour Corps in WWI. Juniper Song is white. Athena Liu is Asian. Juniper Song stirs up controversy like The Help and American Dirt (actual books about people of color written by white authors). Yellowface explores appropriation, plagiarism, and publishing in general.

While Yellowface explores the appropriation issues raised by The Help and American Dirt, these issues are complicated because Juniper Song stole the idea and notes for The Last Front from Anthena Liu. Junie uses the appropriation arguments to deflect her detractors from her plagiarism. In addition to plagiarism and appropriation, Junie accuses Athena of stealing because she includes real incidents with real people in her writing, raising the general question of where writers get their inspiration.

The book includes so many details about the world of publishing, including advances, royalties, editors, book tours, publicity, contracts, agents, blogs, Barnes and Noble, independent bookstores, signed copies, Kirkus, New York Times, and a range of different reviewers. I wonder what non-writers think about all this.

While the issues of appropriation, plagiarism, and inspiration are important, Junie complicates them with her self-serving rationalization and increasing mental instability. In the end, I felt the book was an exciting roller coaster ride, but like a roller coaster, it didn’t go anywhere.

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Zero Days by Ruth Ware *****

 In Zero Days by Ruth Ware, Jacintha (Jack) Cross is a penetration tester. She and her husband, Gabriel (Gabe) Medway, conduct physical and digital penetration tests of corporate security systems. She is the on-site physical tester and Gabe provides “hacker” digital testing. On Saturday, February 4, Minus Eight Day, she is apprehended and taken to the police station. This is the least of her problems because Gabe is soon discovered with his throat slit and Jack is the prime suspect. She goes on the run. Can she discover Gabe’s murderer before the police arrest her? Ware maintains the tension as Jack struggles to dodge the police long enough to find Gabe’s killer.

Jack’s problems immediately escalate when one of the cops interrogating her is Jeff Leadbetter, her abusive and vindictive ex-boyfriend. In addition, when she sneaks home to retrieve her go-bag, she injures her side, and this wound continues to get worse throughout the book.

Throughout her adventures, she is befriended by good Samaritans from a food vendor who gives her a free veggie burger to a couple of truck drivers who go out of their way to see that she gets where she needs to go.

The book includes a lot of tech, including cloning cell phones and monitoring cell phone activity. Jack also uses her “pen tester” skills (social engineering and lock picking).

Despite all Jack's difficulties, the tension is never high as it is always clear that the good guys will prevail. The world of Zero Days is a benign place populated by good people.

This 2023 book was easier to follow than the 2016 The Woman in Cabin 10 and I liked it better.

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