Big lies in a small town – Diane Chamberlain

Well written, gripping mystery that takes the reader back and forth from 1940 to 2018, a large mural linking two women, to reveal their connection. Unexpected twists elevate the story beyond the expected and keep one turning the pages.

The only complaint I have is that parts of the book, particularly in the 2018 section were repetitive and too “romance novelly” for my liking, but that did not deter me from thoroughly enjoying this novel.

North Carolina, 2018:
Morgan Christopher’s life has been derailed. Taking the fall for a crime she did not commit, her dream of a career in art is put on hold―until a mysterious visitor makes her an offer that will get her released from prison immediately. Her assignment: restore an old post office mural in a sleepy southern town. Morgan knows nothing about art restoration, but desperate to be free, she accepts. What she finds under the layers of grime is a painting that tells the story of madness, violence, and a conspiracy of small town secrets.

North Carolina, 1940:
Anna Dale, an artist from New Jersey, wins a national contest to paint a mural for the post office in Edenton, North Carolina. Alone in the world and in great need of work, she accepts. But what she doesn’t expect is to find herself immersed in a town where prejudices run deep, where people are hiding secrets behind closed doors, and where the price of being different might just end in murder.

What happened to Anna Dale? Are the clues hidden in the decrepit mural? Can Morgan overcome her own demons to discover what exists beneath the layers of lies?

The Bittlemores – Jann Arden

Some truly terrible people, a few wise farm animals with murderess intent, a missing new-born baby, an assortment of peripheral characters—sounds wacky and it is—but Arden has given us a delightful page turner.

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On mean Harp Bittlemore’s blighted farm, hidden away in the Backhills, nothing has gone right for a very long time. Crops don’t grow, the pigs and chickens stay skinny and the three aged dairy cows, Berle, Crilla and Dally, are so desperate they are plotting an escape. The one thing holding them back is the thought of abandoning young Willa, the single bright point in their life since her older sister, Margaret, ran away.
But Willa Bittlemore, just turning 14, is planning her own rebellion. Something doesn’t add up in the story she’s been told about her missing sister, and she’s beginning to question if her horrible parents are even her parents at all. Just as things are really coming to a head, a bright young police officer starts investigating a cold case involving a baby stolen from a little rural hospital 28 years earlier, and Willa and the cows find out exactly how far the Bittlemores will go to protect a festering secret.
Written with Jann’s trademark outrageous humour and full of her down-to-earth wisdom, The Bittlemores is a rural fairytale, a coming-of-age story and a prairie mystery all-in-one, saturated with her observations of the world she grew up in and her deep connection to the animals we exploit. This marvel of a first novel digs into how people come to be so cruel, but it also glories in the miracle of human kindness.

The perfect horse – Elizabth Letts

Meticulously researched to
present the complex history of the people and the animals involved in the
rescue of hundreds of Lipizzaner and Arabian horses at the end of WWII. Enemies
ignored their uniforms and battled together to keep the horses from being
slaughtered for food or be commandeered by opposing forces.

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In the chaotic last days of the
war, a small troop of battle-weary American soldiers captures a German spy and
makes an astonishing find—his briefcase is empty but for photos of beautiful
white horses that have been stolen and kept on a secret farm behind enemy
lines. Hitler has stockpiled the world’s finest purebreds in order to breed the
perfect military machine—an equine master race. But with the starving Russian
army closing in, the animals are in imminent danger of being slaughtered for
food.

With only hours to spare, one of the U.S. Army’s last great cavalrymen, Colonel
Hank Reed, makes a bold decision—with General George Patton’s blessing—to mount
a covert rescue operation. Racing against time, Reed’s small but determined
force of soldiers, aided by several turncoat Germans, steals across enemy lines
in a last-ditch effort to save the horses.

Pulling together this multistranded story, Elizabeth Letts introduces us to an
unforgettable cast of characters: Alois Podhajsky, director of the famed
Spanish Riding School of Vienna, a former Olympic medalist who is forced to
flee the bomb-ravaged Austrian capital with his entire stable in tow; Gustav
Rau, Hitler’s imperious chief of horse breeding, a proponent of eugenics who
dreams of genetically engineering the perfect warhorse for Germany; and Tom
Stewart, a senator’s son who makes a daring moonlight ride on a white stallion
to secure the farm’s surrender.

A compelling account for animal lovers and World War II buffs alike, The
Perfect Horse tells for the first time the full story of these events.
Elizabeth Letts’s exhilarating tale of behind-enemy-lines adventure, courage,
and sacrifice brings to life one of the most inspiring chapters in the annals
of human valor.

 

Hang the Moon – Jeanetter Walls

A vivid look at prohibition and bootlegging complicated by family secrets that cause havoc for the members of the Kincaid family. At the center of this drama, Sallie Kincaid fights for independence and struggles to do the right thing to support her family and help the poor in their constant fight to survive.

Walls, once again gives us a great read.

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Sallie Kincaid is the daughter of the biggest man in a small town, the charismatic Duke Kincaid. Born at the turn of the 20th century into a life of comfort and privilege, Sallie remembers little about her mother who died in a violent argument with the Duke. By the time she is just eight years old, the Duke has remarried and had a son, Eddie. While Sallie is her father’s daughter, sharp-witted and resourceful, Eddie is his mother’s son, timid and cerebral. When Sallie tries to teach young Eddie to be more like their father, her daredevil coaching leads to an accident, and Sallie is cast out.

Nine years later, she returns, determined to reclaim her place in the family. That’s a lot more complicated than Sallie expected, and she enters a world of conflict and lawlessness. Sallie confronts the secrets and scandals that hide in the shadows of the Big House, navigates the factions in the family and town, and finally comes into her own as a bold, sometimes reckless bootlegger.

“You’ll fall in love with Sallie on the very first page and keep rooting for her all the way through to the last”(Good Housekeeping) in this thrilling read that “goes down easy…like the forbidden whisky that defines the life of Sallie Kincaid” (Associated Press).

The Mostly True Story of Tanner & Louise – Colleen Oakley

Old Mrs. Wilt and young Tanner, thrown together unexpectedly—something neither wants—manage to effectively ignore each other, until the night Mrs. Wilt insists they leave immediately.

Believing they are wanted by the FBI, Tanner drives as the  two embark on a road trip that will take a few twists and turns along the way.

Oakley has woven a delightful story as the women reveal their secrets while struggling to stay ahead of the cop. A fun read.  

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Twenty-one-year-old Tanner Quimby needs a place to live. Preferably one where she can continue sitting around in sweatpants and playing video games nineteen hours a day. Since she has no credit or money to speak of, her options are limited, so when an opportunity to work as a live-in caregiver for an elderly woman falls into her lap, she takes it.
 
One slip on the rug. That’s all it took for Louise Wilt’s daughter to demand that Louise have a full-time nanny living with her. Never mind that she can still walk fine, finish her daily crossword puzzle, and pour the two fingers of vodka she drinks every afternoon. Bottom line: Louise wants a caretaker even less than Tanner wants to be one.
 
The two start off their living arrangement happily ignoring each other until Tanner starts to notice things—weird things. Like, why does Louise keep her garden shed locked up tighter than a prison? And why is the local news fixated on the suspect of one of the biggest jewelry heists in American history who looks eerily like Louise? And why does Louise suddenly appear in her room, with a packed bag at 1 a.m.  insisting that they leave town immediately?
 
Thus begins the story of a not-to-be-underestimated elderly woman and an aimless young woman who—if they can outrun the mistakes of their past—might just have the greatest adventure of their lives.

The Last Animal – Ramona Ausubel

I liked some aspects of this book. Others had me teetering on the edge of DNF (did not finish).

I learned a lot about prehistoric animals and on-site scientific research, but the whole mammoth baby bit was too hard to swallow. While the teen angst and insecurities were well portrayed, that part of the story became somewhat tedious and I got to the point where I just wanted it to be done.

As for “the woman in a field dominated by men,” Lessons in Chemistry nailed it. The Last Animal barely scratched the surface rendering the subject trivial.  

Despite my ambivalence, I do recommend the book, as many readers may not find fault as I did.  

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Teenage sisters Eve and Vera never imagined their summer vacation would be spent in the Arctic, tagging along on their mother’s scientific expedition. But there’s a lot about their lives lately that hasn’t been going as planned, and truth be told, their single mother might not be so happy either.

Now in Siberia with a bunch of serious biologists, Eve and Vera are just bored enough to cause trouble. Fooling around in the permafrost, they accidentally discover a perfectly preserved, four-thousand-year-old baby mammoth, and things finally start to get interesting. The discovery sets off a surprising chain of events, leading mother and daughters to go rogue, pinging from the slopes of Siberia to the shores of Iceland to an exotic animal farm in Italy, and resulting in the birth of a creature that could change the world—or at least this family.

The Last Animal takes readers on a wild, entertaining, and refreshingly different kind of journey, one that explores the possibilities and perils of the human imagination on a changing planet, what it’s like to be a woman in a field dominated by men, and how a wondrous discovery can best be enjoyed with family. Even teenagers.

The Nigerwife – Vanessa Walters

For me, a “beach read” is a light, fluffy story. One reviewer stated that “The Nigerwife” is a beach read. I’m here to tell you it’s much more than that. Vanessa Walters has written a stunning novel. While it is fiction based on truth, the fact that she herself was a Niger Wife makes the story mesmerizing.

“We come from all over the world,” says Walters. “It’s sort of irrespective of where you are from or your background. As soon as you are the foreign wife of a Nigerian man living in Nigeria, you are a Niger wife.”

The characterization is strong, but perhaps most surprising is the fact that the city itself (Lagos) is its own character in the story. And the portrayal of the haves vs the have-nots is palpable.

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Nicole Oruwari has the perfect life: a hand­some husband, a palatial house in the heart of glittering Lagos, and a glamorous group of friends. She left gloomy London and a troubled family past behind for sunny, moneyed Lagos, becoming part of the Nigerwives—a com­munity of foreign women married to Nigerian men.

But when Nicole disappears without a trace after a boat trip, the cracks in her so-called perfect life start to show. As the investigation turns up nothing but dead ends, her auntie Claudine decides to take matters into her own hands. Armed with only a cell phone and a plane ticket to Nigeria, she digs into her niece’s life and uncov­ers a hidden side filled with dark secrets, isolation, and even violence. But the more she discovers about Nicole, the more Claudine’s own buried history threatens to come to light.

An inventively told and keenly observant debut novel, The Nigerwife offers a razor-sharp look at the bonds of family, the echoing consequences of secrets, and whether we can ever truly outrun our past.

The Booksellers Wife – Jane Davis

I’ve been a fan of Jane Davis since I read Smash all the Windows, which remains my favorite.

Davis meticulously portrays the era of her novels’ settings, her writing is consistently high quality and her characterizations bring the reader into the worlds she creates.

In The Booksellers Wife, based on a true story, Davis presents Dorcas, who manages to keep her head above water after her mother’s death and despite her father’s gambling, by teaching young ladies in her home. She focuses on imbuing a love of books in her students, for aren’t books what have sustained her.

Taking in boarders, James and Nancy Lackington, Dorcas, a woman too old to be marriageable, but young enough to envy Nancy’s married state, becomes enamored of James sharing his love of books.

Davis is adept at bringing history to life and this skill of hers shines again in The Booksellers Wife.  

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Turton should have been heiress to a powerful family name. But after her mother’s untimely death, she is stunned by the discovery that her father’s compulsive gambling has brought them close to ruin. With the threat of debtor’s prison looming large, she must employ all her ingenuity to keep their creditors at bay.

Fortunately, ingenuity is something Dorcas is not short of. An avid reader, novels have taught her the lessons her governess failed to. Forsaking hopes of marriage and children, she opens a day-school for girls. But unbeknown to Dorcas, her father has not given up his extravagant ways. When bailiffs come pounding on the door, their only option is to take in lodgers.

The arrival of larger-than-life James Lackington and his wife Nancy breathes new life into the diminished household. Mr Lackington aspires to be a bookseller, and what James Lackington sets out to do, he tends to achieve. Soon Dorcas discovers she is not only guilty of envying Mrs Lackington her strong simple faith and adaptable nature. Loath though she is to admit it, she begins to envy her Mr Lackington…

Based on a true story, Jane Davis’s latest historical novel is for book-lovers everywhere, delivering unforgettable characters, a portrait of Georgian London on the brink of change, and a love song to the life-changing power of the written word. 

The Wizard of the Kremlin – Giuliano da Empoli (author) and Willard Wood (translator)

Giuliano da Empoli ensnares you from the first page and holds you captive throughout with this glimpse of into the psyche of Putin. A book, I could not put down and actually turned back to page one to reread it immediately. The second read was worthwhile, because da Empoli’s rendering is complex as well as captivating. Best non-fiction book I have ever read.

A Hit French Novel Tries to Explain Putin. Too Well, Some Critics Say. –https://shorturl.at/qzDY6

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Known as the “Wizard of the Kremlin,” the enigmatic Vadim Baranov was a TV producer before becoming a political advisor to Putin, aka “The Czar.” After his resignation from this position, legends about him multiply, with no one able to distinguish truth from fiction. Until one night, when he tells his story to the narrator of this book…

He immerses us in the heart of the Russian state, where sycophants and oligarchs have been engaging in open warfare, and where Vadim, now the regime’s main spin doctor, turns an entire country into an avant-garde political stage. Yet Vadim is not as ambitious as the others. Entangled in the increasingly dark secrets of the regime he has helped create, he will do anything to get out, guided by the memory of his grandfather, an eccentric aristocrat who survived the Revolution, and the mesmerizing, merciless Ksenia, whom he has fallen in love with.

Giuliano da Empoli, once a senior advisor to Italian prime minister Matteo Renzi, draws on his experience behind the scenes to create an authentic, compelling portrait of power and how it corrupts.

West With Giraffes – Lynda Rutledge

A novel all the more stunning because it’s based on true events. Rutledge paints a picture of an astounding occurrence—the transportation of two giraffes by truck from New York to San Diego—in 1938. Told from Woody Nickel’s point of view, we see the ramifications of the journey and the depression on a young orphan as his 18^th birthday approaches. Lies, thefts, hunger, multiple dangers, the first stirrings of love, and, most importantly, the gentle giraffes themselves, hold the reader spellbound.

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Woodrow Wilson Nickel, age 105, feels his life ebbing away. But when he learns giraffes are going extinct, he finds himself recalling the unforgettable experience he cannot take to his grave.

It’s 1938. The Great Depression lingers. Hitler is threatening Europe, and world-weary Americans long for wonder. They find it in two giraffes who miraculously survive a hurricane while crossing the Atlantic. What follows is a twelve-day road trip in a custom truck to deliver Southern California’s first giraffes to the San Diego Zoo. Behind the wheel is the young Dust Bowl rowdy Woodrow. Inspired by true events, the tale weaves real-life figures with fictional ones, including the world’s first female zoo director, a crusty old man with a past, a young female photographer with a secret, and assorted reprobates as spotty as the giraffes.

Part adventure, part historical saga, and part coming-of-age love story, West with Giraffes explores what it means to be changed by the grace of animals, the kindness of strangers, the passing of time, and a story told before it’s too late.