In Books, Maine Is A Dangerous Place

Reprinted from auburnpub.com

Maine Is A Dangerous Place- In Books

After reading two mystery series set in Maine, I’m beginning think that Maine is not quite the bucolic, serene place we have all been led to believe. (Although I guess the fact that Angela Lansbury’s TV series “Murder, She Wrote” was set in Maine should have been a hint.)

Tess Gerritsen’s 'The Martini Club' series is set in the small coastal town of Purity, Maine. In the first novel in the series The Spy Coast, Maggie Bird is a retired CIA agent who has moved to the quiet town of Purity to raise chickens. 

All is well until a dead body is dropped on Maggie Bird’s driveway, and it is up to Maggie and her friends (who are also retired CIA operatives) to find out who the body is and how it is related to Maggie’s former career.

The acting police chief of Purity, Jo Thibodeau, is used to dealing with crimes like DUI, expired driver’s licenses, and teenage mischief. She is suspicious of who these retirees actually are.

The characters in this novel are so interesting and the Martini Club is an apt name for the group- they drink a lot of martinis as they put their minds together to solve the murder. There are some humorous lines, and the novel is action-packed enough to keep the pace moving.

The second novel in the series, The Summer Guests, revolves around the disappearance of a teenage girl visiting Purity with her family. The host family is one of the wealthy summer residents of the area, and they believe that Maggie’s neighbor is responsible for the girl’s disappearance.

The discovery of another body from years ago in the pond near the residence complicates the investigation, and Maggie and the Martini Club are on the job again to clear her neighbor’s name and find out who is behind the dead body in the pond. This is another solid entry in 'The Martini Club' series, filled with red herrings as to the true culprit.

The third book in the series is the recently published The Shadow Friends. In this novel, Maggie’s fellow Martini Club member and retired spy Ingrid is hosting a global affairs conference when a Russian disease expert (and defector) is discovered dead in his hotel room at the conference.

When Ingrid disappears following the discovery of the body of a dead waitress from the hotel in the trunk of a car, Maggie, the rest of the Martini Club, and Chief Jo Thibodeau, along with other federal agencies, are looking for answers- and Ingrid.

This novel takes the readers out of Purity for a bit as we follow Ingrid and learn more of her back story. This one has a lot of action in it, and I like how Jo has become almost a member of the Martini Club. I highly recommend all three books in the series. 

Ron Currie’s novel The Savage, Noble Death of Babs Dionne gives away the ending of his story but how he gets there is fascinating. Babs Dionne may look like a sweet grandmother but she also runs the drug trade in Waterville, Maine, a town filled with Americans of French Canadian descent.

With her group of loyal friends and daughter, Babs has control over all of Waterville, including having the chief of police in her pocket. When her younger daughter disappears, and another drug kingpin sets his sights on Babs, things become dangerous.

Babs will stop at nothing to find out who killed her daughter, and to hold onto control of the impoverished town she grew up in. The novel has been compared to Elmore Leonard (by Stephen King) and The Godfather and I read it in one sitting. It is incredible.

Currie tells Babs' origin story in his newest novel, We Will See You Bleed. In this one we see what led Babs to her life as a drug trafficker, beginning with a brutal rape at the age of fourteen by a police officer. 

Babs and everyone in the town works at the paper mill that has been the lifeblood of Waterville for decades. When the company wants to get rid of the union workers, union head Babs organizes a strike that has lifelong repercussions for everyone in the town, and leads Babs to a life of crime. I liked the perspective of a town that has depended on one industry forever and the insular French-Candian community.

Both of these novels are just brilliant, I give them my highest recommendation, and this is coming from someone who is not a big crime novel reader.

The Martini Club series by Tess Gerritsen- A

Published by Thomas & Mercer

The Savage, Noble Death of Babs Dionne by Ron Currie- A+

Published by Putnam

Trade paperback, $20, 378 pages

We Will See You Bleed by Ron Currie-A+

Published by Putnam

Hardcover, $30, 370 pages

End of Summer Reads

Reprinted from auburnpub.com

Summer is winding down and there’s still time to get in some last minute summer reads.

There are two books with unique storytelling. In both Patmeena Sabit’s Good People and Bobby Palmer’s Main Characters, the stories are narrated not by the main characters but by people in their orbit, family and friends, as well as strangers.

Good People is told in the format of interviews done by police departments in Fairfax County, Virginia and Fulton County, New York. 

The Sharaf family are refugees from Afghanistan who move to Virginia.The family came to America in 1998 and became part of a bigger Afghan community. Through hard work they became successful business owners, and were able to give their children, Omer and Zorah, everything that American teenagers wanted.

When Zorah became romantically involved with a young man who was not Afghan, she and her parents fought bitterly. Zorah went from a loving daughter and popular A student to a dropout.

On the way back from a family trip to Niagara Falls, a tragedy happens that changes the lives of the Sharaf family forever. What exactly happened is the subject of the police investigations.

Seeing the Sharaf family through the eyes of people who knew them well, and who only interacted with the briefly, makes the reader think more deeply about how well we know people in our own orbit. 

Even though we don’t hear directly from the Sharaf family, their story is vividly told and left to the reader to decide what happened. I highly recommend it, and readers of Megha Majumdar’ A Burning will want to read Good People.

Bobby Palmer’s Main Characters tells the story of Clara and Seb as they meet and fall in love. Clara is an artist who wants to be a filmmaker. Seb has modeled, acted a bit, and plays in a band with his childhood friends. 

While Clara has clear ambitions, Seb’s life goals are less defined. Clara becomes part of Seb’s close-knit friend group as well as his family. Watching them fall in love as seen by the people around them but not by Clara and Seb is a unique way to tell a love story. 

Their story is told by friends, family, strangers sitting next to them at a restaurant. After reading this, you may think twice about conversations you have in public.

Like all love stories between two people who are different from each other and want different things in life, the road is rocky. Clara works hard to become a film director and it can consume her. Seb desires to start a family. Can they make a compromise that works for them or does one have to give up their dream?

Main Characters is romantic, honest, and heartbreaking at times. It took me awhile to get into the story but once I did, I was all in. I highly recommend it.

In Chris Bohjalian’s new novel The Amateur, eighteen year-old Mira is a golf phenom, ready to head off to college on a golf scholarship in 1978. She golfs at the country club near her home in Westchester and can frequently beat the older male golfers. 

One day she is hitting golf balls into a practice net when her ball shoots through a hole in the net and strikes a young caddy in the head killing him instantly. 

Mira is devastated, and from that day forward refuses to pick up a golf club. She declines her college scholarship, much to the consternation of her parents. It was  accident, surely not her fault and she needs to move on with her life.

Soon is it revealed that Mira has been having an affair with a married man from the club since she was fifteen years old. Is it really an affair when a older married father pursues a teenage girl? The thoughts on consent in the late 1970s are markedly different than today.

Mira is decried as a homewrecker and becomes a pariah in her hometown and at the college she attends. To make matters worse, the caddy’s parents are suing the golf club and the net manufacturers, and Mira has to testify. Some people cast blame on Mira, accusing her of creating the hole in the net.

The story is told through Mira’s memoir (she has become a famous author), and fans of Chris Bohjalian will recognize that Mira’s novels hew closely to Bohjalian’s own previous novels-  little “Easter eggs” for his faithful readers.

The Amateur shows how one moment in your life, one single act, can change everything. Fans of Bohjalian’s The Flight Attendant will enjoy this one as well. I recommend it.

Good People by Patmeena Samit- A+

Published by Crown

Hardcover, $29, 386 pages

Main Characters by Bobby Palmer-A+

Published by Little, Brown

Hardcover, $29, 410 pages

The Amateur by Chris Bohjalian- A

Published by Doubleday

Hardcover,  $33, 319 pages

Travel the world in three novels

Reprinted from auburnpub.com

Travel the World in Fiction

One of the more interesting things about reading fiction is that it can take to places all over the world without ever leaving your home. This month’s Book Report shares some novels set in places we may never get to see in person.

We start closer to home on a cruise ship going from Miami to the Bahamas in Emma Straub’s novel American Fantasy. Annie is a 50 years old newly divorced empty nester who agreed to go on a cruise with her sister Katherine. 

Katherine is a super fan of Boy Talk, a popular 90’s boy band who do a fan cruise every year. Annie liked the band but wasn’t really excited about going on a cruise with middle-aged women like herself who are obsessed with a boy band whose members are also fifty years old.

When Katherine breaks her leg and can’t go on the cruise, Annie ends up with a new roommate who shows her ropes. One problem is that everyone on the ship warns her about her roommate.

Slowly, Annie begins to enjoy herself and even makes a connection with one of the members of the band. The story is told through the eyes of Annie, Sarah, one of the cruise employees, and Kevin, one of the band members.

Anyone who was a fan of 90’s groups like New Kids on the Block and NSYNC will enjoy this charming story. Annie is very relatable and the relationship among the members of the band is fascinating. Grab a fruity drink as you read American Fantasy and you’ll feel like you are on the ship.

Andrew Sean Greer’s new novel Villa Coco has an autobiographical tint to it. A young archivist travels to Tuscany in Italy to take on the task of organizing and archiving an elderly woman’s art and home collection.

The job is a little more than archiving- he is expected to be an all-around assistant to the Baronessa, including caring for her garden and dogs, shopping, taking dictation, and chasing away wild animals. 

The Baronessa is an intriguing character who renames everyone in her orbit, including our protagonist whom she calls Giovedi (Thursday) in a nod to ‘Gal Friday’. She is demanding and feisty, and clearly has some sort of agenda for hiring this young American man. She disapproves of his clothes so she takes him to a thrift shop and purchases a friend’s donated  wardrobe.

Giovedi is lonely and gets involved romantically with a married man, which complicates matters for all. He meets many of the Baronessa’s friends and compatriots, and works to try and figure out exactly why he was hired for this job as he is drawn further and further into the Baronessa’s world.

Greer does a marvelous job putting the reader right in the middle of Tuscany at this village and in Venice as he travels with the Baronessa and finally discovers what is going on and where his future lies. Villa Coco is humorous and beautiful, and the writing draws you into this intriguing world.

Jenny Colgan writes a series of novels set in on the island of Mure in Scotland, and her latest is Meet Me at the Seaside Cottages. The novels opens as thirty year old Essie is let go from her job through downsizing. She is devastated because it means that she will have to leave bustling Edinburgh and her boyfriend (who has a great job in finance) and move back home with her mom Janey.

Janey lives in a lovely seaside cottage and loves her job and her daughter, although she and Essie have rarely seen eye to eye. It seems to Janey that in Essie’s eyes, she can’t do anything right.

Like many beautiful areas, older properties are being bought by large companies and turned into Airbnb rentals and vacation homes for wealthy people, changing the fabric of the communities. 

The cottage next Janey’s has been bought by a local man, and Essie sees an opportunity to use her organizational and marketing skills to help him renovate and prepare to flip the cottage and make some needed money for herself.

Recently divorced, Janey has been disappointed with her foray into the online dating scene. When she meets a local architect, her love life just may take a turn for the better. 

Jenny Colgan’s books are always delightful and she excels at creating small communities filled with people you’d want to meet in real life. It’s a joy to get lost in Meet Me at the Seaside Cottages.

American Fantasy by Emma Straub- A-

Published by Riverhead Books

Hardcover, $30, 286 pages

Villa Coco by Andrew Less Greer- A-

Published by Doubleday

Hardcover, $30, 288 pages

Meet Me at the Seaside Cottages by Jenny Colgan- A-

Published by Avon

Trade paperback, $18,99, 352 pages

More Summer Fun Reads

Reprinted from auburnpub.com

More Fun Summer Reads

Summer is a great time to pick up a fun book, and continuing in the vein of last month’s Book Report, I have more summer reads for you.

John Searles usually writes atmospheric psychological thrillers (Her Last Affair and Strange But True), and this summer he switches gears with Single Girls a delightful fictionalized book about Helen Gurley Brown and the origins of Cosmopolitan magazine in the 1960s.

Helen’s book 1965 Sex and the Single Girl encouraging women to hold off on marriage until they were ready and to enjoy a healthy sex life scandalized many people. It also was a clarion call for single women everywhere. 

The success of the book encouraged Helen to start a magazine for women. Most of the male publishers turned her away immediately but one publisher (whose wife encouraged him to give Helen a chance) offered her three issues to prove that she could sell magazines and advertising revenue in the magazine.

In the novel we meet the women Helen hired as writers and editors, and they are each unique and interesting. I was particularly drawn to Helen’s friendship with Liz Smith, who went on to become a mainstay of New York City tabloids writing columns about the rich, famous, and infamous. The larger-than-life Liz and the self-professed “mouseburger” Helen had a wonderful work relationship.

I so enjoyed reading about all the hard work that went into making Cosmopolitan one of the most successful magazines in the country.  Cosmopolitan’s ad revenue was always among the highest grossing in the publisher’s portfolio. Anyone who was around in the 1970s-1990s will remember the ubiquitous “Cosmo” covers and enjoy reading how it all started. 

John Searles was the editor of Cosmopolitan’s book review page for some years and his love for the magazine business, and Helen Gurley Brown and Cosmopolitan in particular, adds such joy and insight.

You know it’s summer when a Mary Kay Andrews book has arrived. This year it’s Road Trip about two sisters- Maeve, a school administrator who spent the past months caring for their dying mother, and Therese, a struggling actress who left home years ago and hasn’t been successful. 

When their mother passes away they discover that she mortgaged her home to give her money to a shady televangelist. The only thing she left them was a painting of a supposed wealthy Irish ancestor and money to travel to Ireland together.

Therese does some digging and discovers that their exact same painting had recently sold for millions, and so she convinces Maeve to travel with her to Ireland to see if their painting is also worth money.

The two sisters are different as night and day but they manage to work together as they discover the true story behind their painting, although there are people in the little town who would prefer they go home rather than uncover long hidden secrets.

The mystery, a blossoming romance, and the Ireland setting all combine to make for a charming story. It just may be Mary Kay Andrews’ best book yet.

Annabel Monaghan is another author who writes novels perfect for summer reading (It’s a Love Story, Nora Goes Off Script). This summer it’s Dolly All The Time about a single mom of teenage son who makes her annual summer return to her hometown near Newport, Rhode Island to help her father in his seafood store.

Times are stressed for Dolly and when she learns that her father’s home needs a new roof, she doesn’t know how they will pay for it. Enter the town’s wealthiest resident’s scion son, Stewart Whitfield, whose fiancee was just caught canoodling with a New York Yankee player.

Stewart believes his broken engagement takes him out of the running for the CEO position at his family’s company, something he earnestly desires. When he gets a flat tire and Dolly helps him change it, a photo of them ends up in the tabloids. 

Stewart asks Dolly to go along with the dating charade and offers to pay her. Dolly reluctantly agrees, knowing that the money will pay for a new roof. Dolly accompanies Stewart to family and business functions, and soon the fake dating scenario becomes real.

As with any romance novel, there comes a time when things go off course, but there is always a happily ever after. The joy is seeing how the author gets there, and Annabel Monaghan writes with humor and heart, and her characters are always people with whom you want to spend time.

Single Girls by John Searles- A

Published by Mariner Books

Hardcover, $30, 384 pages

Road Trip by Mary Kay Andrews- A

Published by St. Martin’s Press

Hardcover, $30, 448 pages

Dolly All The Time by Annabel Monaghan- A

Published by G.P. Putnam’s Sons

Trade paperback, $20, 400 pages