Miss Wolcott's Ghost

 by Louise Penny

In this book Penny leaves the world of international intrigue behind and returns to something more local.

In this story Gamache gets a phone call in the middle of the night saying there is a body at Lost Nation.  He has no idea where this is but eventually they find it is an abandoned town,  When they arrive after crawling through heavy forest they find a small cemetery where there is a body, lying on a grave, with plants going through it.  The victim is dressed in a vintage suit.  They can't figure out why they would there or how long they have been there, and who reported the body.  The writing on the tombstone is not legible.

As they do more investigating they find the call supposedly came from Gamache's neighbour Clara Morrow. How this phone hack was orchestrated is never explained!!

As the investigation goes on they discover that the only thing on the headstone is a date.  The date a passenger ship, the Empress of Ireland sank in the St Lawrence killing over 1000 people.  As the story proceeds they learn that the owner of a Quebec genealogy company had been obsessessed with this tragedy and had been trying to track down relatives of the person in charge of the mailroom on the ship and the company that recovers sunken ships.  It turns out only the mail was recovered from the ship.  No passengers.  Rumours are that there may have been important papers related to the war on the ship.

A botanist is called in and identifies the plant on the corpse as a plant that had been thought extinct, it is called Miss Wolcott's Ghost after a British woman, an amateur botanist, who brought the plant to England and cultivated it.  It is an ugly plant with spider like seeds

As the story proceeds Gamache discovers that a young officer who Gamache fired, because he showed cowardice at two police incidents, is a janitor at the genealogy company.  He provide Gamache some limited information.  It is discovered that a young woman, an employee of the company has gone missing in France  and the dead man is her boss.

At the end of the story we find that the treasure was indeed Miss Wolcott's notes and her plant.  She entrusted her records to an agricultural institute in Canada because no one in Europe respected her work.  But rather than caring for her information, one of the scientists of the agency was on the Empress, taking her research to Europe to claim it as his own.  The hunt is on for records of the mail clerk and recovery company who were known to sell off things recovered for profit.  They eventually find one of the records in the concrete tombstone with only a date.

The major surprise in the story is that the botanist Gamache consulted was actually the murderer.  She had been consulted by the genealogist and realized the potential value of Miss Wolcott's research.  The young woman dies while searching in one of Miss Wolcott's European houses which had fallen into disrepair.  She falls through the floor.  Second surprise of sorts is that Miss Wolcott seemed to know the health efficacy of some herbs long before the scientific community and her Ghost plant may be helpful in treating dementia.

The story had many red herrings.  The appearance of the disgraced officer brought back trauma in Gamache and especially Jean-Guy.  But as always Penny shows the close ties of Three Pines community and Gamache's team of officers.  It is interesting how the arrival of a tray of lemonade or hot chocolate, or a plate of sandwiches is comforting.... even to the reader.

Van Gogh's Lover

 by Michael Hetzer

The story begins with a girl, who works in a library with her mother, learning that a painting of a nude woman that was owned by her grandmother, might be valuable.  The painting was given to her grandmother's husband by a woman he loved, prior to his marriage.  The woman left him the painting and said she was returning to Europe. The young woman, Jane, flies to Europe with the painting to try to get it authenticated.  However, she is drugged by the people she met and the painting is stolen.  This then sends her on a hunt around Switzerland to try to recover the painting and also find out why it was taken.  The other part of the story is of a relationship between Vincent Van Gogh and another psych patient named Sophie.  Vincent helps Sophie sell some jewels and arranges for her to escape the asylum and make her way to the US.  Her dream had been to see the western US.

Eventually Jane is hired to do some research on a family and finds some family paintings in which one person, a young woman, has been systematically painted out of all the paintings.

Eventually we find that a minister and a shady art dealer family have been routinely selling paintings by an artist they call Firth.  As the book ends Jane and her new love find a stash of paintings under the house she is living in, she has found "proof" in letters written between Sophie and Van Gogh that seem to indicate that Van Gogh did not die when it is said he did but rather he moved to Switzerland to live with Sophie.  He supposedly served as the local minister and painted on the side.The art that is being sold is his.  The crooks are caught by the police.

In the end Sophie is bequeathed the house to be its guardian, she marries the man she met in Switzerland.

I found the book a bit slow going and the whole premise a bit hard to believe, Van Gogh's work is so distinctive I can't believe it could be passed off as another artist.  I feel the author was just trying to sell books because of the popularity of Van Gogh,  Very disappointing.  Reviewers and other readers don't agree with me, giving the book 4 of 5 stars... 

Behind Five Willows

 by June Hur

The author who is south Korean and has lived in several countries including the US.  She is currently living in Canada and to write mostly YA novels.

The book resembles a Jane Austen story.

This book is about ancient South Korea when the ruler is banning fiction books and punishing those who write or distribute them. The main character, Haewon is the second of three daughters in a relatively poor, lower class family.  To make some money for the family Haewon makes copies of forbidden fiction books for a local bookseller,  Both she and the bookseller could get in trouble if caught.

She has had some communication in writing with one of the authors who calls himself Black Lotus.  She has a young sister who does some things that might bring shame on the family and they have difficulty controlling her.

Haewon ends up chaperoning her sister and the sisters beau.  While doing this she meets a friend of the beau who seems to look down on her and her family.  We find out that this young man is actually the author Black Lotus but she doesn't know this yet.  He is distraught because the draft of his next book has been stolen from his room and also his correspondence with Haewon.

As the story develops we find out that the young sister had fallen for a corrupt palace official.  She gives him her sisters diary.  This ends up getting the book store raided and could also get the young author in trouble.

Of course the young man and Haewon find themselves attracted to each other.  It turns out it was Black Lotus's father who found his writing.  The father, a palace official, is furious with his son but uses his influence to get his son off by just apologizing to the emperor.  We assume the oldest sister marries well.  As the book ends Black Lotus is writing to his wife, Haewon, that he will be home soon.  So it appears he must have gotten some perhaps lesser government appointment.

It was a cute story, very much reflecting Pride and Prejudice, the author admits this in the afterward.

There was an interesting sentence in the book: "If there is one person in this entire world who understands me, I can live this life without bitterness".

Son of Nobody

 by Yann Martel

This is by the author of the book Life of Pi.

It is a brilliant book. Both Harv and I enjoyed it.

The story is about a Canadian academic who leaves his wife and daughter in Canada to go and study an ancient text at Oxford University.  The man's marriage is on the rocks.

He is studying some ancient papyrus scraps that seem to tell a "poor man's" version of the siege of Troy.  Martel has written it in the same format as the Odyssey.  It is amazingly creative, brutal and eloquent.  It tells of Son of Nobody's experience on the battlefield and how only the rich benefit from war.

Alongside the main characters research we get some of his "analysis" of the text and supplemental comments on history and literature including comparison of the Odyssey tale and the stories about Jesus.  Both are myth and we don't really know what is true.

We also get the story of his fractious relationship with is wife.  His wife tries to contact him about their daughter being ill but I think he ignores the first few calls and when she does reach him she is at the hospital and is able to observe remotely the doctors failed attempt to save his daughter.

His wife wants him to come back for the funeral. He stalls her until his work is finished.  In the end his supervisor doesn't like the work he did and if I remember correctly he is out of work.

While the Troy part is very interesting I am not sure about the present day story.  I suppose the main character is supposed to be a modern day Odysseus who delayed coming home but his daughter was not alive when he got home, unlike Odysseus's son and his wife was not waiting for him....

It was an amazing feat of writing.

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Whistler

 by Ann Patchett

I really enjoyed Patchett's book Bel Canto.  I have read other books by her and none grabbed me like that one. 

This book Whistler is a complicated book primarily about one woman and her family.

Daphne, the main character, is at an art gallery in New York when her husband observes and older man "stalking" them.  Her husband approaches the man and the woman is delighted to find out that the man is her mother's second husband, whom she liked very much.  She is glad to see him.

We then learned that the woman's mother had two girls by her first husband, a fisherman.  She divorced him.  The girls remember this man as not being much in their loves.

Their mother marries Eddie Triplett and the girls like him very much but while the mother is at the hospital while the younger girl is having an appendix attack, Eddie takes Daphne for a rid in the car into the country and they drive off the road.  While they are in the car Eddie tells Daphne about a book he is editing about a woman who falls off a horse and is injured.  While she is alone she has dead relatives "visit" her and eventually her horse, who had gotten spooked returns and she is able to get home.

The girl climbs out of the car because her father is trapped.  She is able to get hope.

As a result of the accident her mother kicks Eddie out of the house and they divorce.  Later the mother marries a third man, an author of positivity books, and has two sons with them.  The girls don't have much contact with their mother and her new family,

As the story progresses we learn that Daphne blames herself for the accident because she wanted to go see the stars.  Later she learns that Eddie was gay and having an ongoing relationship with a family friend.  Her mother had thought he had given up his gay life but when he is in hospital after his accident she finds him being comforted by his gay lover.  It was not her "fault" after all.

As the book ends Daphne and her sister renew their life with Eddie.  Daphne is shattered to learn that Eddie has leukemia.  She insists on taking him to his chemo treatments.  Daphne also comes to realize that her father was a kind man who had to live his life. Their mother's third husband dies and at the end of the book the mother gets reacquainted with Eddie and all the family members seem to be getting along fine.

The story was gentle and interesting and in these terrible times with Trump, wild fires, wars and global warming impact it was nice to have a "happy" ending.

Why the horse story?? The man used it to calm the girl while they were in the car but I think the fact that she is there for him as he declines reflects the Whistler story.  In the book we see various lives, from new perspectives, sort of like the dead visited the horse woman.  The book included a lot about what we think we know about people, but what we don't really know.  It was about life, memories and who we love and why.  Just after Daphne is reacquainted with Eddie her husband has to return to his family home to clean out the house with his sister, following the death of his mother.  Again, the theme of working through memories, feelings and "stuff".

Patchett writes very beautifully and insightfully about people and does a good job portraying life and its complexities and challenges

The Murder at World's End

 by Ross Montgomery

This story takes place at the time of the Halley's Comet appearance in 1910.  The elderly owner of a huge estate in Cornwall is convinced the comet will wipe out the earth.  He boards up all the windows and instructs all the inhabitants, guests and staff, to lock themselves in their rooms and seal the door lock with wax and put batting at the base of their doors.  He thinks if they survive they will build a new society.

Just before the comet's appearance a young ex-con is offered a job at the estate. He arrives and is assigned to be the caregiver to a grumpy old aunt who lives on the main floor of one wing.  He learns that she yells and throws things as part of her tantrums

However, when he meets the woman she seems to like him and while she is gruff they seem to get along.  He is told he is to seal her room and stay with her.  However at the height of the comet flyby, the old woman, who is confined to a wheelchair, insists they go outside and document the comet movement.  The boy is afraid to disobey his orders but more afraid of the old woman so he goes out with her and writes notes for her.

The earth survives the comet and as the house comes alive again they find the owner of the estate has been murdered.  He has had a crossbow spear shot into his head.  How could the man be killed in a sealed room.

When the police arrive they find out about the boys history and immediately suspect him.  The boy, one of the maids and the old woman start to work together to prove the boy's innocence and find out who did the murder.

A short time later the head butler is killed, the police inspector and later a young servant boy.

Eventually the boy and old woman discover that the young maid and the butler were responsible for the murders.  The young girl was the illegitimate daughter of the owner.  Her mother was a maid and got dismissed when it was discovered she was pregnant.

In the end the estate has been left to the old woman, she decides to turn the house into a foundation for scientific study, as she is an amateur scientist.  She takes the young man to live with her as her aide in London.

It was an interesting read, kept you guessing.  A nice summer read.

The Things We Never Say

by Elizabeth Strout

I read at least one, maybe more, books by this author and really enjoyed her writing and her insights into people.

However, I did not like this book at all.  I found it very depressing, even upsetting.

The story is about Artie Dam, a high school history teacher.  Artie seems to enjoy teaching and most of his students really like him.  He is very supportive and encouraging to his students.

 As the book opens Artie seems to be depressed and is considering suicide.  We are not sure what has prompted this.  But when he accidentally falls into the water trying to move from a dinghy into his sailboat and almost drowns, his attitude changes.  He wants to live.

Archie is married to a woman who is a psychologist/counsellor.  This is one of my biggest problems with this book, his wife should be sensitive to people and she seems totally unaware that Artie is suffering .  She asks him how school is doing but it doesn't seem that she is really listening.

Archie has a son, Rob, who years before killed his girlfriend in a car accident.  This tragedy has affected all the family.  Archie wishes he was closer to his son.

As the book moves on Archie provides some encouragement to several students which ultimately change their lives positively.  However, times are changing.  He is told he has to assign kids Confederate soldiers as well as Union soldiers in their research projects.  One of his students is rude to him and Archie blows up and kicks him out of class.  He is then summoned to the principal's office and told he has to apologize to the kid.  He does and the kid gives a non-apology.

While this is all happening Trump has been re-elected.  Most people Archie know are dismayed but not the kid he kicked out of class.  That is probably why Archie over-reacted with him.

As time goes by Archie and his son are in contact more and then one day his son meets with him to show him a letter he got from a man Archie thought was a family friend.  The man insists he is Robs father and provides DNA evidence.  Archie and Rob are shocked that Archies' wife/Rob's mother never told them the truth.  They can't decide if they should confront her but never do.

Near the end of the book Archie has an episode in class, he is frozen and unresponsive.  He retires and is not really interested in anything, even sailing.  Still his wife doens't seem to be of any help.  One day she finds him dead in bed, having had a heart attack.  

At his funeral some of his students approach Rob and say how much his father meant to them.  One of the kids asked if Archie committed suicide.  Rob is able to assure him that he didn't.

As Archie's wife is cleaning out his papers she finds the letter that her lover sent to her son claiming to be the boys father.

More happens with the son and his wife and their separation and later reconciliation.  That is about the only good news in the book.

I found this book a downer, with the sad fate of Archie, the fear of trump infusing the book and his useless wife.  The only one Archie was truly open with and truthful to was his son, and vice versa.