by Jojo Moyes
This book is supposedly based on real events.
It takes place in Kentucky in the depression area. The story starts with a young English woman who longs to escape her family. She marries a handsome young American who has come to England. Everyone thinks it will be an ideal marriage.
The young man is travelling with his father. On the voyage back to America the newlyweds share a cabin with the man's father. Why?? The young man is shy about doing anything amourous with his father nearby.
The young woman had imagined she would be going to a city in America but she is actually going into the Kentucky mountains. The father-in-law runs a coal mine. He treats his employees as slaves and safety measures are lacking.
When they arrive in Kentucky the couple live with the husband's father. As the father sleeps in the next room the young man again declines intimacy. The young woman is puzzled.
One day some woman announce that the President's wife has started a mobile library program to help promote literacy in America. They are looking for women to ride into the mountains to take books to people. The young bride feels she has nothing to do and despite the objection of her father-in-law she volunteers to be one of the Librarians.
She then gets involved with a group of women who will become her close friends:Margery, the daughter of a moonshiner, member of one family in a decades long feud with another local family.
She is a very independent woman and teaches the other women the routes through the mountains. Other members of the group include Izzy a young crippled girl and a black girl who trained in a black library and is the administrator of the collection.
The women ride through all weather to deliver their books and their service is much appreciated. Alice, the main character, initially feels an outsider but through her work is welcomed by the people she visits. She sees how tough life is for the mountain people and befriends them, for e.g. reading to a dying man. Alice starts working longer and longer hours as she cannot bear to go home. One day she gives some dolls that belonged to her deceased mother-in-law to some poor local girls. When the father-in-law discovers what she has done he beats her up. Bruised and battered she leave the family home and goes to live with Margery.
Margery is carrying on an anonymous campaign warning locals that Alice's father wants to buy they out of their property to expand his mining operations. When there is a flood one of the mine's holding ponds burst and it is Margery who tells people about this. This activity and the fact that she is housing his daughter-in-law infuriates the father-in-law and he is doing everything he can to discredit Margery and shut down the library service. Most of the books and magazines they deliver are classics, comic books, cookbooks etc. There is one "facutal" book about sex information . It turns out to be a popular read in the community. Alice's father-in-law accuses the librarians of corrupting the community by distributing this book. Alice is so naive she doesn't even know what it means to have sex and that it is unusual that her marriage has never been consummated.
Then, one day a man, from the family Margery's family had the feud with, is found dead with a library book on his chest. She is arrested for murder even though she is pregnant (out of wedlock).
The trial starts and it appears she will be found guilty.
However, Alice's husband suggests to her that the dead man's daughters, who are reclusive, should be interviewed. One of the girls, who is heavily pregnant, comes to the trial and tells the judge that her father had a library book and was anxious to return it to town. She speculates he must have slipped on the ice and died from injuries from the fall.
When asked why she didn't report her father missing it is obvious she did not like him (is it he who got her pregnant)? Ironically the book the father was found with was Little Women. Based on this testimony Margery is released and reunited with her baby and her lover.
The book starts with Margery encountering the girls father. He tries to attack Margery. In defence she hits him with a book and rides off as fast as she can. She doesn't check to see if he got up....
The book has a happily ever after ending.... Alice's marriage is annulled. Her husband marries another woman, Alice marries a local man she has fallen in love with and Margery marries her lover. The black Librarian moves back to the city where she worked as a librarian with her brother who was injured in the mine (and abandoned by the mine owner).
The puzzling part of the book is why Alice's first husband, who seemed to marry her willingly, then seemed to have no interest in her sexually. I thought he might be gay but he married another woman. Perhaps his second wife would initially not have been acceptable to his father, but after all that happened the old man was happy to have a compliant daughter-in-law.
The story was action packed. The author did a great job of describing the hardships of travelling through the mountains in all seasons and the lives of the locals. A very interesting read.
The Giver of Stars by Amy Lowell
Hold your soul open for my welcoming.
Let the quiet of your spirit bathe me
With is clean and rippled coolness.,
That, loose-limbed and weary, I find rest,
Outstretched upon your peace, as on a bed of ivory.
Tuesday, 22 October 2019
The Testaments
by Margaret Atwood
This is the sequel to The Handmaid's Tale, it was just announced as a joint winner of the Mann Booker Prize this year.
I recently re-read The Handmaid's Tale. I found it interesting, and disturbing yet again. The ideas Atwood presents in this book in terms of the rituals, sex scenes with the commanders, the handmaids and the wives are absolutely chilling.
I was wondering how she would follow up the first book and I have to say The Testaments was different, perhaps even better in some ways. It is the story of three women, whose lives are intertwined. It is a story and a bit of a mystery novel. We find that a child was secreted away from Gilead and taken to Canada. The baby's picture is plastered around Gilead and the baby is being vigourously sought as it would be a coup if Gilead could recapture her. There are women called angels who go into Canada, supposedly to preach about Gilead but they are actually spies seeking information about the baby and about people who help women and children escape from Gilead.
One of the characters is a young woman who is shocked at the death of the people she thought were her parents. She is shocked to learn that she is that baby. We also meet a young girl who is basically ignored by her father and his new wife, especially when they have a child by a handmaid. She is being groomed to be married but convinces the officials, including Aunt Lydia that she is committed to life as an Aunt. She does not want to get married. Another friend of hers also becomes an aunt (she was traumatized by being sexually abused by her father, a highly regarded dentist). We meet Aunt Lydia who is probably the most powerful of the aunts and learn that Gilead has records of all women, children born, etc. Aunt Lydia is secretly writing a journal about what has happened in Gilead. If she was found out she would be hung.
As the book progresses we learn that the main character in Handmaid's Tale (Offred), was able to escape to Canada. The daughter she had with her husband also survived. At the end of the novel Offred and her two children are re-united. Eventually the notes written by Aunt Lydia are found but no one knows that she is the one who wrote them.
I enjoyed the way Atwood developed the story and how the various people's lives intertwined. I am not sure why Aunt Lydia did what she did.
The books starts with the person who is Aunt Lydia and other professional women being rounded up. In life she was a respected judge. Rather than fighting she decides to commit to becoming part of the Gilead administration. This was the most disturbing and intriguing part of the story to me, that someone who was a defender of the law and should be committed to human rights would abandon all that to survive and in fact become an architect and perpetrator of the vile Gilead empire. And, in the end why did she write these notes? To apologize for what she was part of? As a lesson for the future?
This is the sequel to The Handmaid's Tale, it was just announced as a joint winner of the Mann Booker Prize this year.
I recently re-read The Handmaid's Tale. I found it interesting, and disturbing yet again. The ideas Atwood presents in this book in terms of the rituals, sex scenes with the commanders, the handmaids and the wives are absolutely chilling.
I was wondering how she would follow up the first book and I have to say The Testaments was different, perhaps even better in some ways. It is the story of three women, whose lives are intertwined. It is a story and a bit of a mystery novel. We find that a child was secreted away from Gilead and taken to Canada. The baby's picture is plastered around Gilead and the baby is being vigourously sought as it would be a coup if Gilead could recapture her. There are women called angels who go into Canada, supposedly to preach about Gilead but they are actually spies seeking information about the baby and about people who help women and children escape from Gilead.
One of the characters is a young woman who is shocked at the death of the people she thought were her parents. She is shocked to learn that she is that baby. We also meet a young girl who is basically ignored by her father and his new wife, especially when they have a child by a handmaid. She is being groomed to be married but convinces the officials, including Aunt Lydia that she is committed to life as an Aunt. She does not want to get married. Another friend of hers also becomes an aunt (she was traumatized by being sexually abused by her father, a highly regarded dentist). We meet Aunt Lydia who is probably the most powerful of the aunts and learn that Gilead has records of all women, children born, etc. Aunt Lydia is secretly writing a journal about what has happened in Gilead. If she was found out she would be hung.
As the book progresses we learn that the main character in Handmaid's Tale (Offred), was able to escape to Canada. The daughter she had with her husband also survived. At the end of the novel Offred and her two children are re-united. Eventually the notes written by Aunt Lydia are found but no one knows that she is the one who wrote them.
I enjoyed the way Atwood developed the story and how the various people's lives intertwined. I am not sure why Aunt Lydia did what she did.
The books starts with the person who is Aunt Lydia and other professional women being rounded up. In life she was a respected judge. Rather than fighting she decides to commit to becoming part of the Gilead administration. This was the most disturbing and intriguing part of the story to me, that someone who was a defender of the law and should be committed to human rights would abandon all that to survive and in fact become an architect and perpetrator of the vile Gilead empire. And, in the end why did she write these notes? To apologize for what she was part of? As a lesson for the future?
Monday, 23 September 2019
The Reckless Oath We Made
by Bryn Greenwood
I saw some good review of this book and thought it sounded interesting and it was. It is a strange story but well told
The story is about a young woman Zee, who is struggling physically and financially. She was injured in a motorcycle crash and is still in pain and paying for her medical bills. At the time of her accident she had just told her boyfriend she was pregnant. He is unhappy about it and dumps her. She storms off on a motorcycle and ends up getting in an accident. She is on pain killers and THC for her pain.
Zee is burdened with trying to support her 600 pound hoarder mother who likes her other sister better and doesn't appreciate anything she does for her. She is living with and trying to support her sister and the sister's young son. To make some extra money she transports and sells drugs. She feels her life is a total ongoing disaster and she isn't far from wrong.
Zee's father was a criminal who went to prison for some bank robberies and died while in prison. Her mother never recovered from the loss of her husband. This started her on the hoarding behaviour. Zee's sister volunteers at a local prison.
One day the sister doesn't come home, Zee looks after the nephew, whom she loves dearly, as best she can. Then the news comes that there has been a riot at the prison, two very dangerous prisoners escaped and have taken two volunteers hostage, one of who is Zee's sister.
The police arrive at Zee's mother's place with a search warrant. They suspect the sister may not be a hostage but a willing participant. They search the house dumping a lot of stuff outside and leaving it there. I cannot imagine that police would actually do that. Zee tried to calm her mother who ends up going to the hospital.
While these things are happening we find out that there is a young man who has been stalking Zee. Gentry is a young autistic man who is fascinated with knights and chivalry and sees himself as Zee's protector and guardian. Zee evenutally meets him and gets his help with some things. She also meets is natural and adopted family. The natural family use and abuse him, the adopted family seem to love him but perhaps overprotect him. Gentry takes her into the country where he is actually working on building a castle and where he and some other friends gather to joust.
Zee with the help of an uncle who was a partner in crime with her father, manage to locate where the escaped prisoners and her sister are hiding out. She, Gentry, some of Gentry's friends and her cousin work on a plan to go and rescue the sister. They get to the remote location but things go badly. The sister, as was suspected, actually loves one of the escapees and won't leave him even after he is killed.
Gentry is injured and one of his friends is killed. Gentry ends up going to jail for being part of the melee. Zee denies being at the fracus. Gentry's family are furious with her for getting Gentry and her friend involved with the disaster.
Zee feels bad but she feels she has to look after her mother and fight to have some access to her nephew (his paternal grandparents get custody as both their son and now daughter-in-law are now in jail).
It seems very sad that poor innocent Gentry and his friend have to pay the price for this misadventure but it seems he is prepared to accept this punishment as part of his knightly loyalty to Zee.
Zee's uncle has given her some money he had from the bank robberies he did with her father. Zee uses this money to help her mother, set up a trust fund for her nephew, and pay the mortgage on the land Gentry was buying and building his castle on.
It was a strange story but interesting and well written.
I saw some good review of this book and thought it sounded interesting and it was. It is a strange story but well told
The story is about a young woman Zee, who is struggling physically and financially. She was injured in a motorcycle crash and is still in pain and paying for her medical bills. At the time of her accident she had just told her boyfriend she was pregnant. He is unhappy about it and dumps her. She storms off on a motorcycle and ends up getting in an accident. She is on pain killers and THC for her pain.
Zee is burdened with trying to support her 600 pound hoarder mother who likes her other sister better and doesn't appreciate anything she does for her. She is living with and trying to support her sister and the sister's young son. To make some extra money she transports and sells drugs. She feels her life is a total ongoing disaster and she isn't far from wrong.
Zee's father was a criminal who went to prison for some bank robberies and died while in prison. Her mother never recovered from the loss of her husband. This started her on the hoarding behaviour. Zee's sister volunteers at a local prison.
One day the sister doesn't come home, Zee looks after the nephew, whom she loves dearly, as best she can. Then the news comes that there has been a riot at the prison, two very dangerous prisoners escaped and have taken two volunteers hostage, one of who is Zee's sister.
The police arrive at Zee's mother's place with a search warrant. They suspect the sister may not be a hostage but a willing participant. They search the house dumping a lot of stuff outside and leaving it there. I cannot imagine that police would actually do that. Zee tried to calm her mother who ends up going to the hospital.
While these things are happening we find out that there is a young man who has been stalking Zee. Gentry is a young autistic man who is fascinated with knights and chivalry and sees himself as Zee's protector and guardian. Zee evenutally meets him and gets his help with some things. She also meets is natural and adopted family. The natural family use and abuse him, the adopted family seem to love him but perhaps overprotect him. Gentry takes her into the country where he is actually working on building a castle and where he and some other friends gather to joust.
Zee with the help of an uncle who was a partner in crime with her father, manage to locate where the escaped prisoners and her sister are hiding out. She, Gentry, some of Gentry's friends and her cousin work on a plan to go and rescue the sister. They get to the remote location but things go badly. The sister, as was suspected, actually loves one of the escapees and won't leave him even after he is killed.
Gentry is injured and one of his friends is killed. Gentry ends up going to jail for being part of the melee. Zee denies being at the fracus. Gentry's family are furious with her for getting Gentry and her friend involved with the disaster.
Zee feels bad but she feels she has to look after her mother and fight to have some access to her nephew (his paternal grandparents get custody as both their son and now daughter-in-law are now in jail).
It seems very sad that poor innocent Gentry and his friend have to pay the price for this misadventure but it seems he is prepared to accept this punishment as part of his knightly loyalty to Zee.
Zee's uncle has given her some money he had from the bank robberies he did with her father. Zee uses this money to help her mother, set up a trust fund for her nephew, and pay the mortgage on the land Gentry was buying and building his castle on.
It was a strange story but interesting and well written.
A Better Man
by Louise Penny
I was eagerly awaiting this new book by Louise Penny. However, I have to say I was quite disappointed by the story.
As the story starts Armand Gamache has been investigated for a police investigation and gun battle in the last book. He is being pilloried by his superiors and the Premiere. They are trying to get him to resign by removing him from his position and offering him the demotion job of Head of Homicide (which he held years before). This is is a big comedown from his position of Head of the Surete. To their surprise and frustration he accepts. He will take over from his son-in-law who is leaving for France for a non-police position.
A major rainfall and potential flooding event is about to fall on Quebec. Gamache makes some suggestions about how to mitigate the flood by cutting channels in fields. His superiors and government officials do not appreciate his input.
So this is the main reason why I did not enjoy this story, the whole pick on Gamache theme. In addition do his dealings with his superiors and the provincial officials someone is posting on Facebook/Instagram that he is a failure and botched the previous job. There is a lot of chatter against him as a result of this.
One of the police officers that Gamache had previously wooed to homicide announces that her goddaughter is missing and asks for her disappearance to be investigated. Even though it is not homicide's role and she has only been gone for a short time Gamache and the officer start investigating. The woman was married to a pottery and was the victim of domestic abuse. They meet a policeman who had responded to calls to the property. He seems more than casually interested in the woman. The woman's husband is suspected as he is an abuser and an alcoholic with a quick temper but so far they cannot pin anything on him. The young officer tries to get some information by posing as an art gallery interested in his work. Her sleuthing turns up the fact that the husband and the woman who is doing his social media might be more than just work colleagues.
While they are investigating Quebec is flooding, including at 3 Pines.
While all this is going on there is a side story about the 3 Pines artist Clare. She had received some substantial acclaim previously but recently produced some miniatures which have received a lot of criticism. She is having trouble dealing with the criticism. Then a young internet 'influencer" about art comes to 3 pines, meets her and sees her work. This person also pans her miniatures. People who have bought her art now wish to get their money back. She is devastated.
That is all there is to this story. I don't know what point it had in the book other than to parallel Gamache's being trashed on the Internet.
While they are investigating the damage caused by the flooding the missing woman's body is discovered in the river near 3 pines. Her car is found on a bridge nearby.
Things get worse for Gamache as footage of other firefights he was in are shown and the parts that are shown online are not complimentary to him (but they do not show the entire story).
It seems that the poet Ruth might have put up this footage to try to salvage his reputation but she denies doing it. It eventually turns out it was one of Gamache's superiors who did it. I am not clear as to why she did it, Gamache had helped her get her job.
In the end they find out that the police officer who originally brought up the missing woman actually was the one who killed her accidentally. The officer was angry at the woman for taking advantage of her father, asking for money. The officer is in love with the woman's father but he seems to have rebuffed her for his daughter.
I usually really enjoy the characters, the quirkiness, the not quite up to police procedure behaviour of Gamache but this time I found all the conspiracy stuff against him hard to take and hard to understand. This was probably my least or second least favourite of all her books.
I will be interested in seeing how Gamache fares without his side-kick son-in-law. As all of Gamache's children and their families are now in France it makes you wonder why he and his wife bother to stay in Quebec. It seem he cannot let go of his passion to right wrongs.
I was eagerly awaiting this new book by Louise Penny. However, I have to say I was quite disappointed by the story.
As the story starts Armand Gamache has been investigated for a police investigation and gun battle in the last book. He is being pilloried by his superiors and the Premiere. They are trying to get him to resign by removing him from his position and offering him the demotion job of Head of Homicide (which he held years before). This is is a big comedown from his position of Head of the Surete. To their surprise and frustration he accepts. He will take over from his son-in-law who is leaving for France for a non-police position.
A major rainfall and potential flooding event is about to fall on Quebec. Gamache makes some suggestions about how to mitigate the flood by cutting channels in fields. His superiors and government officials do not appreciate his input.
So this is the main reason why I did not enjoy this story, the whole pick on Gamache theme. In addition do his dealings with his superiors and the provincial officials someone is posting on Facebook/Instagram that he is a failure and botched the previous job. There is a lot of chatter against him as a result of this.
One of the police officers that Gamache had previously wooed to homicide announces that her goddaughter is missing and asks for her disappearance to be investigated. Even though it is not homicide's role and she has only been gone for a short time Gamache and the officer start investigating. The woman was married to a pottery and was the victim of domestic abuse. They meet a policeman who had responded to calls to the property. He seems more than casually interested in the woman. The woman's husband is suspected as he is an abuser and an alcoholic with a quick temper but so far they cannot pin anything on him. The young officer tries to get some information by posing as an art gallery interested in his work. Her sleuthing turns up the fact that the husband and the woman who is doing his social media might be more than just work colleagues.
While they are investigating Quebec is flooding, including at 3 Pines.
While all this is going on there is a side story about the 3 Pines artist Clare. She had received some substantial acclaim previously but recently produced some miniatures which have received a lot of criticism. She is having trouble dealing with the criticism. Then a young internet 'influencer" about art comes to 3 pines, meets her and sees her work. This person also pans her miniatures. People who have bought her art now wish to get their money back. She is devastated.
That is all there is to this story. I don't know what point it had in the book other than to parallel Gamache's being trashed on the Internet.
While they are investigating the damage caused by the flooding the missing woman's body is discovered in the river near 3 pines. Her car is found on a bridge nearby.
Things get worse for Gamache as footage of other firefights he was in are shown and the parts that are shown online are not complimentary to him (but they do not show the entire story).
It seems that the poet Ruth might have put up this footage to try to salvage his reputation but she denies doing it. It eventually turns out it was one of Gamache's superiors who did it. I am not clear as to why she did it, Gamache had helped her get her job.
In the end they find out that the police officer who originally brought up the missing woman actually was the one who killed her accidentally. The officer was angry at the woman for taking advantage of her father, asking for money. The officer is in love with the woman's father but he seems to have rebuffed her for his daughter.
I usually really enjoy the characters, the quirkiness, the not quite up to police procedure behaviour of Gamache but this time I found all the conspiracy stuff against him hard to take and hard to understand. This was probably my least or second least favourite of all her books.
I will be interested in seeing how Gamache fares without his side-kick son-in-law. As all of Gamache's children and their families are now in France it makes you wonder why he and his wife bother to stay in Quebec. It seem he cannot let go of his passion to right wrongs.
Lampedusa
by Steven Price
This story is set in Sicily. It is set in approximately 1950. It is about Guiseppe Lampedusa, the last Prince of Lampedusa.
I didn't realize that Sicily had a nobility class.
Guiseppe is nearing death, he has emphysema. He has some respect in society by virtue of this hereditary title but most of the family lands have been sold or were destroyed in the war. He and his wife are struggling financially. He and his wife have no children and he feels the family story and his legacy will die with him. He and his wife adopted the adult son of another family to pass on the family title but there will be little estate to pass on to him Guiseppe decides to write a novel loosely based on family history.
As part of the family estate the family own the island of Lampedusa but it appears to be abandoned and in the past was rumoured to house monsters. Guiseppe has some young men around him who come to visit him so he can lecture them about world literature. He enjoys doing this.
One day he and some of the young men head off to one of the family's properties, an estate that became a monastery when two of his relatives became devout and became a priest and nun. One or both of these people were sainted. When they visit the monastery they find it is all in ruins. Guiseppe had hoped it might be in decent shape so he could sell it to someone to run as a B and B.
When Guiseppe discovers how serious his illness is he is hesitant to tell his wife because he doesn't want to worry her. When he does tell her several months later she is furious at him for not telling her sooner. She stops talking to him. They really seemed to love each other so I found this reaction of hers puzzling.
Once Guiseppe's book is written he elicits the help of a cousin who is a poet to help convince a publisher to publish it. His book is rejected. It is not clear but I suspect the cousin did nothing to champion his cause, perhaps being jealous of him having success.
After he dies Guiseppe's adopted son gets the book published and it becomes a best-seller. Guiseppe will not know it but he has indeed secured his place in history, at least literary history, with the book.
From my description this may not have seemed to interesting but I really enjoyed the book. I loved the authors language and the characters.
This story is set in Sicily. It is set in approximately 1950. It is about Guiseppe Lampedusa, the last Prince of Lampedusa.
I didn't realize that Sicily had a nobility class.
Guiseppe is nearing death, he has emphysema. He has some respect in society by virtue of this hereditary title but most of the family lands have been sold or were destroyed in the war. He and his wife are struggling financially. He and his wife have no children and he feels the family story and his legacy will die with him. He and his wife adopted the adult son of another family to pass on the family title but there will be little estate to pass on to him Guiseppe decides to write a novel loosely based on family history.
As part of the family estate the family own the island of Lampedusa but it appears to be abandoned and in the past was rumoured to house monsters. Guiseppe has some young men around him who come to visit him so he can lecture them about world literature. He enjoys doing this.
One day he and some of the young men head off to one of the family's properties, an estate that became a monastery when two of his relatives became devout and became a priest and nun. One or both of these people were sainted. When they visit the monastery they find it is all in ruins. Guiseppe had hoped it might be in decent shape so he could sell it to someone to run as a B and B.
When Guiseppe discovers how serious his illness is he is hesitant to tell his wife because he doesn't want to worry her. When he does tell her several months later she is furious at him for not telling her sooner. She stops talking to him. They really seemed to love each other so I found this reaction of hers puzzling.
Once Guiseppe's book is written he elicits the help of a cousin who is a poet to help convince a publisher to publish it. His book is rejected. It is not clear but I suspect the cousin did nothing to champion his cause, perhaps being jealous of him having success.
After he dies Guiseppe's adopted son gets the book published and it becomes a best-seller. Guiseppe will not know it but he has indeed secured his place in history, at least literary history, with the book.
From my description this may not have seemed to interesting but I really enjoyed the book. I loved the authors language and the characters.
Sunday, 25 August 2019
In a House of Lies
by Ian Rankin
This is one of my favourite mystery writers and he did not disappoint with this one.
A body is discovered, with handcuffs around its ankles, in an area that has long been searched.
It turns out the dead person disappeared several years ago. As soon as John Rebus hears the news he is quite sure he knows who the person is. It was a case he worked on years ago. He is retired but keeps trying to insert himself into the investigation along with Siobhan Clarke and Malcom Fox (who is working on the edge of the case, reviewing what was done in the original investigation). Fox is finding out that the police were not necessarily doing everything by the book, they were covering for officers with drinking problems and others having affairs on work time. Some dirt could come out about Rebus.
Siobhan is having her own problems, she recently came under review and is still stinging from that.
And Siobhan is getting harassing phone calls.
As the story develops it turns out that two crooked cops who are trying to tarnish Rebus, Shioban and Fox, had some involvement with the circumstances leading up to this murder. Rebus makes it his mission to reveal their deeds and success
While he is trying to keep involved with this case Rebus is also trying to investigate the case of a young man who is in prison for murdering his girlfriend. The boy does not wish to admit the truth to protect his sister.
These books always have interesting characters, lots of tension and great plots.
Very interesting read.
This is one of my favourite mystery writers and he did not disappoint with this one.
A body is discovered, with handcuffs around its ankles, in an area that has long been searched.
It turns out the dead person disappeared several years ago. As soon as John Rebus hears the news he is quite sure he knows who the person is. It was a case he worked on years ago. He is retired but keeps trying to insert himself into the investigation along with Siobhan Clarke and Malcom Fox (who is working on the edge of the case, reviewing what was done in the original investigation). Fox is finding out that the police were not necessarily doing everything by the book, they were covering for officers with drinking problems and others having affairs on work time. Some dirt could come out about Rebus.
Siobhan is having her own problems, she recently came under review and is still stinging from that.
And Siobhan is getting harassing phone calls.
As the story develops it turns out that two crooked cops who are trying to tarnish Rebus, Shioban and Fox, had some involvement with the circumstances leading up to this murder. Rebus makes it his mission to reveal their deeds and success
While he is trying to keep involved with this case Rebus is also trying to investigate the case of a young man who is in prison for murdering his girlfriend. The boy does not wish to admit the truth to protect his sister.
These books always have interesting characters, lots of tension and great plots.
Very interesting read.
Monday, 19 August 2019
Big Sky
by Kate Atkinson
This book is part of her mystery series with Jackson Brodie, a former cop. I read another book of hers, Started Early, Took my Dog. I enjoyed it.
This is the fourth book in the series and I enjoyed it. She has a great knack for writing interesting characters and very creative plots. In this book Jackson Brodie has left the police force, under unsettling circumstances?? He is now working as a private investigator. In his current case he is tailing an adulterer. He is bored with the assignment but the wife of the man wants him to keep tracking her husband.
While Brodie is doing this job another story develops about four golf buddies, three of whom are human traffickers and one who is despondent because he has lost his job and his wife is divorcing him taking everything.
There is another minor part of the story in which Brodie witnesses what he thinks is a child luring.
There are numerous quirky characters in the book, a "trophy" wife who was herself a victim of trafficking. She does not know til the end that her husband is doing this. She has a stepson and a daughter who has a wardrobe of Disney heroine costumes. There is a drag queen, a washed up comedian and much more.
There are also two junior detectives who are trying to track information on an old case to do with a pair of criminals that were involved in a number of criminal activities.
One of the wives of the golfers is murdered. The two cops arrive on the scene when they are seeking the woman's husband. They are excited to be involved with a murder but are soon shuttled off to routine paperwork and questioning regarding the old case. They arrive at the home of the woman's husband (the one who is getting divorced) to question him as part of their investigation and are there when officers arrive to tell him his wife is dead... the detectives did not know he was the victims husband.
Brodie gets "involved" when he is walking his dog and stops the dead woman's husband from jumping off a cliff.
In the end the trafficking ring starts to fall apart because one girl commits suicide and one runs away and is found by the detectives as they are seeking another of the golfers.... they don't find the boy and girl (children of the trophy wife) who are also being held captive in the trailers they visit.
In the end one of the trafficked women shots one of the traffickers but Brodie convinces the women detectives... who have again bumbled into the action, to say that one of the traffickers shot one of his partners.
Brodie is willing to bend the truth in the interests of common sense justice. He also finds that the girl that he thought he was lured has indeed been held captive and her kidnapper is arrested.
A complicated but very interesting story. It seems strange to say it was funny but parts of it were quite comic or tragi-comic.
This book is part of her mystery series with Jackson Brodie, a former cop. I read another book of hers, Started Early, Took my Dog. I enjoyed it.
This is the fourth book in the series and I enjoyed it. She has a great knack for writing interesting characters and very creative plots. In this book Jackson Brodie has left the police force, under unsettling circumstances?? He is now working as a private investigator. In his current case he is tailing an adulterer. He is bored with the assignment but the wife of the man wants him to keep tracking her husband.
While Brodie is doing this job another story develops about four golf buddies, three of whom are human traffickers and one who is despondent because he has lost his job and his wife is divorcing him taking everything.
There is another minor part of the story in which Brodie witnesses what he thinks is a child luring.
There are numerous quirky characters in the book, a "trophy" wife who was herself a victim of trafficking. She does not know til the end that her husband is doing this. She has a stepson and a daughter who has a wardrobe of Disney heroine costumes. There is a drag queen, a washed up comedian and much more.
There are also two junior detectives who are trying to track information on an old case to do with a pair of criminals that were involved in a number of criminal activities.
One of the wives of the golfers is murdered. The two cops arrive on the scene when they are seeking the woman's husband. They are excited to be involved with a murder but are soon shuttled off to routine paperwork and questioning regarding the old case. They arrive at the home of the woman's husband (the one who is getting divorced) to question him as part of their investigation and are there when officers arrive to tell him his wife is dead... the detectives did not know he was the victims husband.
Brodie gets "involved" when he is walking his dog and stops the dead woman's husband from jumping off a cliff.
In the end the trafficking ring starts to fall apart because one girl commits suicide and one runs away and is found by the detectives as they are seeking another of the golfers.... they don't find the boy and girl (children of the trophy wife) who are also being held captive in the trailers they visit.
In the end one of the trafficked women shots one of the traffickers but Brodie convinces the women detectives... who have again bumbled into the action, to say that one of the traffickers shot one of his partners.
Brodie is willing to bend the truth in the interests of common sense justice. He also finds that the girl that he thought he was lured has indeed been held captive and her kidnapper is arrested.
A complicated but very interesting story. It seems strange to say it was funny but parts of it were quite comic or tragi-comic.
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