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