A Bitter Feast

 by Deborah Crombie

This mystery takes place in a small village in England.  A married couple, who are police officers, are invited to come and bring their three children to the family home of a colleague.  The colleague's mother is holding a fund raising luncheon.  The mother of the family drives to the family estate with the female officer.  Her husband plans to drive up on his own later in the day.

The colleague's parents are wealthy, owner's of a newspaper publishing empire.  The colleague is always reluctant to tell people who here parents are.

There is a small pub restaurant in the nearby village.  One evening a local woman is sitting having dinner and notices a distinguished looking man also alone.  Shortly after the man goes into the kitchen and there is a lot of shouting.  The chef tells him to get out.  The man storms out of the pub leaving his coat behind. 

The woman leaves shortly after.  As she is driving home she sees the man from the pub staggering on the road.  She is a former nurse and sees the man is in distress.  She offers him a ride and then quickly sets off to the nearest hospital.  But they don't make it to the hospital.  She crashes into the car of the police officer who had been driving up to join his family.  The woman and the man in her car both die, but the woman mumbles something to the police officer who is injured but not seriously.  

The plot thickens when the police find out the man in the car was dead before the accident and as he has no id on him they don't know who he is.  After interviewing locals no one can explain why the woman would have had the man in her car.  People don't think that she knew him.

It then turns out that the dead man was a formerly famous chef who has fallen on hard times. He had come to try to woe the local chef to join him in a new restaurant endeavour in London.  The chef had wanted nothing to do with him.  We later find out that the chef was the father of her child and has threatened for joint custody if she doesn't agree.

Later the bartender is found dead on the side of the road.  It is clear he was hit on purpose and then bludgeoned.

Throughout the book the police that are visiting are working along with the local police to try to figure out what is going on.  Eventually it comes out that the partner of the local chef has killed the London chef because she doesn't want to lose her partner.  She killed the bartender because he had seen her talking to the London chef on the night he died.

This was the first book I have read by this author.  I enjoyed. it. was a interesting story but there were a lot of characters and an additional plot about the police officer from the wealthy family having a musician boyfriend she ends up breaking up with. There was another plot with two employees of the wealthy family skimming funds from the family.  These were extraneous as far as I am concerned.

Talking Animals

 by Joni Murphy

This book is about an animal society as the inhabitants of New York City. The Mayor is a horse, other city hall staff include a pig.  Alfonzo is a moody Alpaca  He works in the bowels of City Hall in the archives dept.  The basement is mouldy.  Alfonzo even wonders if anyone knows he is there.  In addition to sorting paperwork he also cleans the area. He is the sole employee.  

 Alfonso is working at City Hall in what he thinks is a temporary situation.  He is writing a dissertation, hoping to become a professor. He is devastated when his dissertation is rejected as disjointed by his advisor.  Alfonso has a friend at city hall, a llama.  This llama tries to get him to be less serious and not devastated by his academic results. Eventually Alfonso learns that the basement is being renovated and is invited to a meeting at which he assumes his job will be declared redundant.

Alfonso is also plagued by his father who is very critical of him.  Alfonso meets with his father occasionally and these occasions are always very traumatic for him.  He is terrified to tell his father about the rejection of his dissertation.

As part of the story there is friction between land animals and ocean life.  The land animals believe that the ocean animals plan to flood and take over the world.  This part of the book is the most satirical, possibly reflecting the racial/religious tension in the U.S.

In another plot line, Alfonso is introduced to a radical element in the city by his llama friend. They are trying to prove that the Mayor is using his position to reduce the value of some property and then buy it to make money.  He is awarding a lot of contracts to one country.  Alfonzo had printed his dissertation on used paper his friend  the llama. The used paper contains details on the corruption in City Hall.  This information gets to the media and the Mayor is exposed.

I can appreciate the attempt the author made to use animals as part of her satire but I kept getting fixated on the fact that animals would not be able to type, dress themselves, make coffee, etc.  This distracted me a bit from the story.  I am not sure that this story couldn't have been told as well without the animal characters.  It has been decades since I read Animal Farm but I think Orwell tried to incorporate animal stereotypes into his characterizations.  This wasn't done much in this book.

Fall Down Dead

 by Stephen Booth

This book was recommended for its strong sense of scenery and it certainly did that.  The main setting is Kinder Scout in the Peak District.  The area is a rugged but popular hiking area with many challenges including peat bogs that will suck you in to the knees and steep cliffs.

The book opens with what appears to be and open and shut murder case, a husband has stabbed his wife and admits to doing it.  At the end of the book this isn't really settled, it could possibly be the couple's son.

However, the majority of the book is about the death of a woman, who falls, or has been pushed over the cliff during a fog.  The woman was part of a group that annually hiked the area in tribute to the relatives of the hike organizer's ancestors who did the hike in protest years before.  The group should have turned back when the fog came in but they kept going until they were disorientated.  Then one of the group hurts his ankle, the woman who ends up dead agrees to stay with him while the others split up and go seeking a cell signal or assistance,

The police then have a dozed potential suspects, the members of the hiking group, one of which is the woman's brother.

While this is going on a former colleague of the local police, a woman from another detachment is being investigated by professional standards.  The case seems very weak and you have to wonder why they would bother.  Her sister used to be a drug addict and associated with some very bad people but eventually became a police informant.  It almost seems that they are trying to set this officer up but not sure why... perhaps they thinks she knows something about other crooked cops.  The police officer confides in the policeman who is investigating the death on the cliff.  He goes in to see the investigators and vouches for her and that seems to get her off the hook.

Eventually we find out that a woman the police least suspect killed the woman because she thought there was a romantic relationship between the woman and the group leader (the murderer is in love with the group leader).  The group leader is murdered and his wife is shocked to learn his company is on the verge of bankruptcy.

I enjoyed the descriptions of the scenery but the police intrigue was a bit weak.  The rest of the story was okay.

Whose Body

by  Dorothy Sayers

This is the first book by this author about her amateur sleuth Lord Peter Wimsey.  Peter is a man of means who likes to try his hand at solving crimes.  The book was originally published in 1923, there is a great deal of class snobbery and anti semitism in it.

Wamsey has an acquaintance in the police force that he enjoys working with.  There is another police official who does not appreciate him getting involved in cases.

There are two cases that pop up about the same time, one a wealthy financier apparently vanishes from his bedroom.  In the other case a naked corpse, wearing only a monical is found in the bathtub of a London architect.

The police arrest the architect who denies all knowledge of the yet to be identified man.

It is Peter Wimsey who eventually figures out that the culprit in both crimes is a local doctor.  The doctor had a grudge against the financier, and killed him, dressing up as the man and pretending to come home, only to be discovered absent the next day.

The dead man in the tub is a corpse donated to the hospital for medical teaching purposes.  The doctor put the financier in the coffin intended for the donated corpse and crawled along the roofs of buildings to dispose of the donated corpse.  He took advantage of an open window in the architect's house to dispose of the building. However he shaved the corpse and fixed him up so he would appear to be a gentleman and not a worker.  Wimsey had noticed that the man's hands made it appear that he was a labourer.

It was an interesting story but I prefer mysteries where there is a bit more description of setting and character development.  As early mysteries go I think Agatha Christie's are much better written.

Miss Benson's Beetle

 by Rachel Joyce

This was an entertaining tale.  It is about a spinster school teacher.  One day when she is trying to teach she finds the students circulating an unflattering drawing of her.  She has had enough.  She leaves the classroom and goes into the staff room.  She then steals her Principal's hiking boots and leaves the building.

As a child she had had a book about animals and was intrigued by one particular gold beetle that is supposed to exist in Madagascar.  When she got older she was befriended by an older man at at museum who showed her various animals, showed her how to collect insects and mount them.

She decides that she has to do something useful in her life, something which will show people that she is not a waste.  She decides to head to New Caledonia, an island off Australa, to search for the gold beetle.  She applies for funding from a scientific society but is turned down.  She puts and ad in the paper for a companion for her trip.  One man comes, a war vet, she feels he is damaged mentally and physically and is not suitable.  A young woman seems suitable but she backs out at the last minute.  The third applicant was rejected because she was basically illiterate.  But finally Miss Benson is desperate for a companion and invites the second woman to meet her at the train.

The young woman does make it to the train but she does not impress Miss Benson.  She is dressed in a pink suit and does not have suitable attire for the adventure.  However the young woman Enid Pretty proves indispensable in getting them and their luggage on the train and then onto the ship.  Enid also nurses Miss Benson who is very seasick at the start of the voyage.  Miss Benson does not approve of Enid cavorting with men on the ship.  Enid has used her femininity to get around not having a passport. 

Enid tells Miss Benson that she is pregnant but her husband has died.  On the ship she fears she has lost the baby.  She really wants to be a mother. When they finally reach Australia Enid tells Miss Benson that she is going to stay with a man she met on the ship.  Enid and her man friend end up in an immigration camp.

While Miss Benson is trying to get approval and visas for her, she meets the British consul and his wife.  They are not able to help her with her approvals.  She is dismayed that all her scientific equipment has gone missing on the trip from Australia.  She goes to the camp and tries to convince Edid to join her again.  Enid is hesitant/afraid to the leave the man.

Eventually Enid does join her.  She manages to get scientific equipment needed and a jeep (she has stolen these) and they set off for a house in the forest to conduct their research.

While all this is going on two other things are happening.  British police are seeking a young woman who supposedly murdered her husband.  This woman was spotted at the rail station along with an unknown woman.  Police around the world are looking for these women.

Also, the ex-soldier that Miss Benson rejected is outraged that she did not select him and he sneaks aboard ships to get to join her.

Once the ladies are set up they work very hard to fix up their basecamp and fight off mosquitos and heat to climb the mountain looking for the orchids which they hope will lead them to the beetles.  Eventually they both come to realize that they are best friends.

Enid eventually tells Miss Benson that she is being sought by the police.  The soldier catches up with them.  Enid has her baby.  The soldier kills Enid and he himself dies.  Enid is left to raise Enid's daughter.  The British official's wife figures out who the two women are and tries to tell the police and media about them but by then interest in the story has waned.

As the years go by a museum in England periodically receives journals and samples of various bugs.  One young woman after seeing one of the these packages decides she is going to go out and be a naturalist.

This was a cute story.  Obviously there was some criminal behaviour but the development of the friendship between the two women was developed in an interesting way.  The ending was a fitting denoument to the book.

Sharks in the Time of Saviors

 by Kawai Strong Washburn

This is the story of a very poor Hawaiian Family with children. One of the children is conceived in the back of a vehicle on a beach, while spirits are walking up in the hills.

When the boy is about five the family go on a tour boat outing.  Somehow the little boy Noa falls into the water and is soon surrounded by sharks.  Everyone fears the worst but instead of killing him the sharks surround him and bring him to the boat.  After that it seems that the boy has special healing powers and people flock to his home to get healed.  This healing takes a physical and mental toll on the boy but his parents make some extra income from it so he gets special treatment from them.  Then one day a man with Parkinson returns to the house complaining he was not cured.  The boy stops treating people.

The boys sister and brother are jealous that he is their parent's favourite.  The boy is an ace at school and seems to be destined for Stanford.  His brother is very good at basketball and resents that he doesn't get any attention.  He feels if he gets a successful career in basketball he will bring more money to his parents than his brother has ever done.  The sister too feels neglected.

The story jumps forward in time, the young boy is now a paramedic in Seattle.  What happened, why didn't he become a doctor if he was so smart?  This is never explained.  He does practice his healing ways as a paramedic. His partner wants to know what he is doing....  Then one day a pregnant woman is injured in a car crash and Noa is not able to save her.  He is devastated by this and ends up leaving his job and returning to Hawaii to find himself.

At the same time, his brother got a basketball scholarship and became famous, his parents were finally paying attention to him now that the media and locals were praising him.  The brother's grades decline and he is eventually kicked out of school and starts a delivery job.

The daughter is in San Diego studying engineering and getting good grades but she is also doing drugs and doing dangerous climbing activities every chance she gets.  She is part of a group of 4 people that are very close but her relationship with the other girl in the group deteriorates when the daughter makes lesbian overtures to the girl.

When Noa is back in Hawaii he leaves to go into the wilderness to find himself.  When he doesn't return people start searching for him but cannot locate him.  His brother eventually returns to Hawaii to search for his brother.  He is the one who finds evidence that Noa was killed in a landslide.  The death of Noa puts the father into a catatonic state.  The mother struggles to look after her husband and make enough money to survive.

The brother returns to the states with the sister to clear out Noa's rental accommodation.  They have a confrontation with police and a removal company.  The sister ends up stealing a car to get away from the police but the brother ejects her from the car and tells the police he did it to protect his sister.  He goes to jail where he develops a prosperous business supplying things to other prisoners, with the cooperation of one of the guards.  He starts sending money to his family from his profits.   Even after he is out of jail he keeps working at an illegal business.   The parents don't like to think about where the money has come from but are glad to have it.

The daughter eventually returns to Hawaii, abandoning her university studies.  She starts working for free for a man that is developing an ecologically progressive farm.  She is using some of her engineering knowledge to help him develop his farm hoping eventually to get some money out of her work.

The family go to visit her at the farm, the father seems to come out of his stupor at least temporarily.

The book implies that Noa might be challenging the old gods of Hawaii and might have the power to help heal the islands, but instead of doing this he is killed.  At the end of the book it looks like the sister and father might also somehow have a connection to the islands and maybe they will do alright.

The novel was very powerfully written, the struggles of the characters, the tension between the parents and the siblings was honest and powerful.  The impact of expectations, or lack thereof, of people was brilliantly portrayed.  I just feel a couple things were not explained.... why didn't Noa become a doctor and why did he have to die?

Overall, I was really impressed with the book and engaged with the story.

 New York Times Review:

In this novel, the only way out is back. After Noa’s overconfidence in his gifts leads to a disaster at his job, he returns to Hawaii and goes on a quest to understand both himself and the ancestral land that is a part of him. His expedition will come at a hefty price for him and his loved ones — incarceration, mental illness, unemployment — but isn’t that the point of a journey to our roots? So we may walk through fire, and so be purified?

Perhaps a day will come when humans will no longer need to make exorbitant sacrifices in order to see the light of their true selves. Until then, Washburn has given us a meditation on the tragedies of living too long in the darkness.

 

Mexican Gothic

 by Silvia Moreno-Garcia

This book has been on many recommended lists but it was listed as a horror book so I was a bit leery as I don't like gore.  Fortunately it was what I would call a gothic horror, light on violence.  I was surprised when I saw it is written by a BC author.

The story takes place in Mexico.  A girl's father receives a strange letter from a niece who recently married.  She sounds distraught and a bit weird.  The man sends his daughter up to a remote mine site in northern Mexico where the woman is living with her husband and his family.  The mine is out of business.  The house is in disrepair and the young woman is told many rules about being quiet, not talking, not opening windows.  

She is shocked when she sees how weak and confused her cousin is, the cousin still implies she is in danger.  The family daughter tells the girl her cousin has consumption. The cousin asks the girl to go into town and get a bottle of something special from a herbalist.  The girl does that but when she give the medicine to her cousin she drinks more than the prescribed amount and goes into seizures.  The family are furious when they found out that the young girl did this.

While all this is happening the young girl has strange dreams, she seems to see mould moving around n the wall paper.  She is befriended by a young man of the family.  The young woman hopes to escape the house, with her cousin, with the assistance of the young man, but eventually he tells her that she and her cousin will never be able to leave.  The house has them entrapped.

The girl later finds out that a strange fungus lives under the house and seems to have invaded the house. The mine failed because many workers died from it.  She also learns that the patriarch of the family has actually lived several lives by transporting his consciousness into other members of the family.  He has fathered children with several of his female relatives to keep creating bodies into which he can transmigrate.  He plans to use the young girl as breeding stock.  We find out that the family doctor is in on the strange things that have been going on.

However, with the help of the young man she and her cousin are able to escape and the house gets set on fire and is destroyed.

It was an interesting read, scary but not terrifying.