Hotel Pastis

 by Peter Mayle

This book is about a recently divorced ad executive in England who is making lots of money but who is dissatisfied with his life.  He take a vacation for the first time in years and falls in love with a little town in province and a woman he meets there.  He decides to ditch his corporate life and pour money into turning an old gendarmerie building in the Provence village into a boutique hotel.

The story involves intrigues within his company, the man seems to be approached/threatened by a Marseilles "mafia type".

As the hotel is being built and successfully launched there is a robbery being planned by some local criminals.  They plan to rob the local bank on Bastille Day while all the celebrations are distracting people.  The mastermind of the theft gets a team of thieves and has them training to ride bicycles for over a year to get in shape so they can leave the robbery dressed as bike riders.  I can't believe a bunch of criminals would be willing to do this.  The robbery is successful but they are shocked to find that as they leave town an additional rider has joined them on their ride.  He is a young American who has come to France for a year.  He is the son of a client of the main character.  When the rider's find out who he is they add to their "winnings" by kidnapping him and getting $2 million more francs for him.  The thieves buy fake passports and leave the country on a coach bus.

The main character helps to get the young man released.  As this is all going on he realizes he isn't all that busy as a hotel owner and isn't really feeling fulfilled in the role.  The son of the kidnapped boy offers him a consulting job with his company and the man accepts.

As I read reviews of this book I found some people loved it but many were lukewarm or even "dissatisfied".  One person wrote they were disappointed with the ending... no resolution of the lives of most of the characters.  I agree.  Another complained they didn't enjoy the excesses of the rich.  I also agree. 

It was a light read but not a book I would necessarily recommend. I was expecting better. Off to the building library the book will go

The Historians

 by Cecilia Ekback

The book takes place in 1943 in Sweden as the three countries, Denmark, Finland and Sweden are trying to figure out how to deal with/challenge the Germans.  The main character, Laura, is working for the Swedish government in the office of the Chief Negotiator with Germany.  Sweden had supposedly been neutral but is selling coal to German for its factories.

While in university Laura had been part of a small clique of history students who had a special relationship with a professor, they were considered wunderkids.  The prof challenged their ideas.  At one point he assigned them the task of designing a new religion.  This project causes the group to disintegrate.  Laura had kept in touch with one of the group, Britta.

One day Laura sees Britta in a restaurant with a Nazi official.  Around the same time Britta asks to meet with her.  They meet and Laura thinks Britta seems troubled but she doesn't tell her what is bothering her.  Shortly after a friend of Britta's contacts Laura to tell her that Britta has disappeared.  They search for her and eventually find her in a historical society building murdered, after having been tortured. 

Laura decides to recruit her former fellow students to try to figure out why Britta was murdered.  Soon after her apartment is destroyed by a explosion.

In another part of the story a government official receives a copy of Britta's thesis.  Not understanding what it is for he throws it out but notes the table of contents.

Meanwhile in a mining town in Sweden a young Sami girl, a trapper, has disappeared.  Her brother is trying to find her.  People seem to think she died in the woods but he is convinced she is still alive.  Then a local man wanders up the mountain near an area that is supposedly out of bounds and is found dead.  Later the mine Manager is shot.  The book has quite a bit of tension as the various people in the story are not sure who they can trust or what to believe.

It turns out that there is some secretive research on the Sami taking place on the mountain.  Like the Germans it seems some elements of Swedish society are interested in pursuing a pure Nordic race.

Laura is told by her father to leave things to the police after one of her fellow students is murdered but she doesn't take his advice and heads up the mine area.  Eventually the Sami in the mine area work together with the other miners to save the mine Manager and save the Sami being imprisoned on the mountain.  Laura is devastated to learn that her father had involvement in what was going on .

This was a well written book.  I enjoyed it and the twists at the end.

 

Agatha

by Anne Cathrine Bomann

This book is written by a Danish author.  It is about a 70 year old psychiatrist who is counting the days/patient visits until he can retire.  He is totally not interested in his work anymore and doodles in his notebook while his patients drone on.  He just lets them talk and makes no effort to direct or assist them.

He has a receptionist who runs his office very efficiently.  He is very formal with his interactions with her.  Then one day a new patient, supposedly with violent tendencies and insists she wants to become a patient.  He doesn't agree as he is shortly to retire.  She keeps coming back and one day his receptionist slips her in for an appointment.  The psychiatrist is not happy with this but agrees to see the woman.

As the new patient comes for her appointments she seems to challenge and intrigue the doctor.  He becomes very curious about her.  She seems very disillusioned/bored with her life.

One day the doctor's receptionist tells him she has to take time off as her husband is terminally ill.  The doctor feels inconvenienced by this.  The receptionist asks him to come and speak to her husband to perhaps provide his some relief.  He is reluctant to do this but eventually does go to meet the man.  He is very unsure of himself, his job is to deal with people about living not dying.

As time goes on the doctor had been counting down the days/patient visits until he can retire.  The office is getting stale smelling as the receptionist has not been coming to work nor is the office being cleaned.

Then one day the doctor is no longer counting the days til he retires.  He is starting to interact more with his patients during their visits The receptionist's husband has died.  She returns to work and realizes that he has changed his mind about retiring.

This was a short book but it was interesting how the new patient was able to re-energize the doctor.  We need some positive stories in these dreary times.

Molly of the Mall

 by Heidi L.M. Jacobs

This is a book about a U of A student, and English student, whose parents are profs at the U of A, one in literature and one in art.

She takes a summer job at a shoe store in WEM.  She is enamoured with Jane Austen and her characters and keeps analyzing things in her life based on what some of the characters would do or think.

It is a quirky, somewhat silly book as she explores the office politics at the mall and the not always honest efforts of her fellow students

For a person who likes Jane Austen, literature, or is an academic or librarian, the book would be appealing, for others not so much I think.

One of the things I really enjoyed were here references to Edmonton, particularly near the end when she stands on the High Level Bridge and seems to get something of an Epiphany.

A light read that helped to take my mind off the pandemic for a little while.

Son of a Trickster

I enjoyed Monkey Beach by this author but I could not finish this book it was too violent and depressing.  I know the main character tries to redeem himself at the end but I couldn't stand what was going on in the book, so much violence and anger.

The Widows of Malabar Hill

 by Sujata Massey

This is the first in a mystery series about a woman lawyer in India in the early 1900's.

The young woman Perveen Mistry, is assisting her father at his Bombay law office.  She can do administrative work but women are not allowed to do trial work.

We learn that earlier Perveen had fallen for a young man who convinced her to marry him.  Her parents were a bit shocked that the two young people had not proceeded with an arranged marriage but agree to the marriage.  Perveen moves to Calcutta with her new husband.  She is shocked at how she is treated by her inlaws, locked away in a little room when she has her period, treated with little regard the rest of the time.  She finds out she has acquired a veneral disease and finds out her husband has affairs with prostitutes.  When she confronts her husband he hits her.  She manages to make her way back to her parents and is with difficulty able to get a separation from her husband.  Her husband's family is furious at the information that her father (who was serving as her lawyer) brings out in court.  Her estranged husband threatens to hurt her.  So she is worried about him coming after her.

The main part of the story is about an estate her father is working on.  Perveen is helping him with the documentation and research of the Parsi marriage laws.  The man who has died had three wives, and several children.  The wives have been living, by choice, in isolation in the house, not having contact with any men and only the servants.  A man who had been working for the family has been appointed as executor comes to Perveen's family law office with letters that seem to indicate all the wives are willing to give up their inheritance for the building of a madrassa.  Both Parveen and her father are suspicious when two of the letters appear to be signed by the same hand.  

They decide that Parveen should take this on as she, as a woman, will be able to speak directly to the women.  Parveen goes to meet them and finds that the women are not aware of what this executor was proposing.  Parveen is confronted by the Executor who had overheard her conversation with one of the women.  He is furious with her and tries to hurt her.  She manages to get away.  

However, when she gets home she realizes she has left her briefcase with paperwork pertaining to the estate at the house.  She returns back to the house in time to find that the executor has been brutally murdered.

As the house is so isolated it is difficult to determine how someone from outside could have gotten into the house.  Parveen works hard to try to act in the best interests of the women, she is very worried when the daughter of one of the women disappears.  She herself is attacked and hauled into a storeroom on the dock. She is able to get herself untied and call for help.  Her parents are very concerned about the danger to her.  Is it her estranged husband who has done this?

With the help of a British friend, whom Parveen was friends with while studying in England, they figure out that there is a secret hallway in the house.  When the two friends visit the house Parveen is able to find the young daughter, drugged in the hallway, by one of the wives.  The wife has attacked Parveen.  Parveen's friend's father is a high British official in India.  When she calls the police because she cannot locate Parveen they arrive promptly, in time to save Parveen and the young girl.

As the story ends the murderess wife is only sentenced to one year of prison for murder and attempted murder... seems light a very light sentence.  The other two wives seem to be well set-up after the estate is settled.  They have decided to no longer live a life in seclusion.

This was a light but interesting read, the period and setting made for an intriguing story.  The young lawyer is portrayed as an early feminist.  I enjoyed it.

Crow

 by Amy Spurway

This is NOT a book to read during a pandemic.  It was a downer.

This is the story about a Cape Breton girl who has escaped her life and nutty family in Cape Breton and got a job with a multilevel marketing company in Toronto.  She gets engaged and thinks her life is great until she discovers her fiance cheating on her. She breaks of the engagement and shortly after learns that she has terminal brain tumours.

She sells her condo in Toronto and all her big city clothes and returns to CB to live with her mother in a trailer.  She is understandably feeling very sorry for herself.  Her mother who is working hard as a cleaner at a hotel gives her some tough love.  We meet many of her zany relatives and friends including one friends who ill mother (who she had been caregiving for) has died, she later tries to commit suicide. Another girlfriend with mental issues has just has a baby.  Crow hooks up with a local guy she liked in high school and shares some weed with him and they have sex.

Her crazy girlfriend convinces her to cut off all her hair.  She regrets this immediately.  The girl, Crow, is getting medical tests but the prognosis is not good and her symptoms and pain are increasing.  She sees crazy lights around people amongst her symptoms.

Then crow finds out she is pregnant, she stops drinking and doing weed but has to think about if she wants to abort the pregnancy.  She decides not to abort, tells the father of the baby who is delighted.  Crow never really new her father, he disappeared before she was born. It is assumed he drowned on his fishing boat. Her father's family have let her mother live on a trailer on the family land but not the evil sister of Crow's father plans to sell the land and boot Crow and her mother out.

As if thinks aren't bad enough, Crows mother is killed in a car accident.  It is then she learns that her family members aren't necessarily crazy, they have gifts, for example her mother was a bit of a healer, perhaps Crow's colours are a gift too, seeing people's emotions.

Crow convinces her boyfriend to marry her.  The wedding celebration will put a temporary halt to planned development work on the property.  They do get married and she has a baby girl.  We think.... maybe... her mother might have healed her...  The man she thought was her father shows up for her mother's memorial service and she finds out that her real father is her father's father and her father actually fathered a child with her aunt (parents of the crazy friend).

But the last chapter is her obituary!  Not what I wanted or needed.

This book did a great job of portraying the quirkiness of people in a small village in the Maritimes, their gossiping, but also their coming together when times are tough.  However, it was a bit of a downer at times like these.  Their was lots of maritime dark humour.