Review of THE NIGHT IN QUESTION by Susan Fletcher

 4 Stars

This book emphasizes that it is never too late to embark on a journey of self-discovery.

The setting is Babbington Hall, a British assisted living facility. Renata Green, the manager, falls from her window, a fall that most deem a suicide attempt. However, Florrie Butterfield, an 87-year-old resident who witnessed the fall and had recently interacted with Renata, believes she was pushed. Though wheelchair-bound, Florrie sets out to investigate, aided by Stanhope Jones, a fellow resident.

As they play amateur sleuths, Florrie reflects on her life which has certainly been unconventional. There’s a dark secret in her past she has difficulty even thinking about, much less speaking of to anyone. The nature of the secret is not revealed until the end, but it obviously influenced the choices she made throughout her life, especially with regard to relationships.

It is impossible not to like Florrie. She is intelligent, curious, and empathetic. She is unfailingly kind to others. Though a dark secret has shadowed her life from the age of seventeen, she tries to remain positive and cheerful. She finds beauty and wonder in the simplest of things. Florrie is able to uncover what happened to Renata because she sees similarities between them. She surmises correctly that they are both hiding from traumatic events in their pasts: Florrie married Victor, and Renata chose a job and quiet life in the Oxfordshire countryside.

Florrie is a dynamic character. For seventy years she has carried a secret. Despite her best friend urging her to speak of it, she has not been able to bring herself to do so. Only as an octogenarian does she learn to forgive herself and to embrace the chance to be loved and happy. In many ways, this is a late-in-life coming-of-age story. 

The mystery is slow-paced, as befits the two elderly detectives. It can be described as a type of locked-room mystery since the suspect must be someone with access to the retired residence. My only objection to the solution is that it relies on hidden identities. There are three characters whose names have been changed!

Though a cozy, charming, and heart-warming story, there is some substance to it. It emphasizes the importance of friendship, gratitude, and maintaining a sense of wonder. It also shows that love can exist in many forms and that one should accept that love and live life to its fullest.

I listened to the audiobook version and it would be remiss of me not to mention the narrator, Jenny Funnell. She has the perfect voice for this book; even her Polish accent for Magda is perfect. I’m sure I’m not the only one who thought the narrator was Judy Dench.

I really enjoyed listening to this book on my morning walks. It is funny, sad, wise, tender, and uplifting with endearing and memorable characters.

Review of INVISIBLE HELIX by Keigo Higashino (New Release)

 3 Stars

This is the fifth in the Detective Galileo series. I’ve read several of Higashino’s crime fiction books, but I was disappointed in this one.

The body of Ryota Uetsuji is found in Tokyo Bay but a bullet wound clearly suggests a murder rather than an accident. His girlfriend, Sonoka Shimauchi, had reported him missing but then took time off work and has disappeared. Chief Inspector Kusanagi and Detective Inspector Kaoru Utsumi lead the investigation and call upon Professor Manabu Yukawa, a.k.a. Detective Galileo, to assist. It is he who makes connections and discovers that Nae Matsunaga, a longtime friend of Sonoka’s mother, and Nidemi Negishi, the owner of a hostess bar, may be involved.

The title clearly suggests the physical structure of DNA, and DNA does indeed play a role. However, it is the reference to DNA testing that leaves me totally confused. What are the chances that samples from a specific person and a random woman would result in a 99.5 percent probability of these two people being related? Sonoka thinks, “He’d taken samples from some completely different woman and her grandmother and sent them to the testing company” and the result “was a ‘99.5 percent or over’ probability of [their] being related.” Am I missing something?

There are so many coincidences in the book and these definitely weaken the plot. Even the description of the book states, “It's up to Galileo to find the nearly hidden threads of history and coincidence.” The revelations about Yukawa’s family at the end rely on a series on coincidences. Everyone has a lost family and secret background. There are three women who gave up children because they were unable to look after them.

Like previous Higashino mysteries, there are secret relationships among characters and connections between past and present events. The problem is that the books have become almost formulaic.

Review of THE CLUES IN THE FJORD by Satu Rämö

 3 Stars

I picked up this book because it’s the first of a new series set in Iceland and because it has had glowing reviews. Unfortunately, I was disappointed.

Hildur Rúnarsdóttir, working out of Ísafjörður, is the only detective in the Westfjords. She is joined by Jakob Johanson, a police trainee from Finland who chose Iceland’s most sparsely populated region for his internship. Both Hildur and Jakob have difficult backstories. Hildur’s two sisters disappeared 25 years ago and she self-medicates by exercising strenuously. Jakob is the midst of a custody battle for his son; he has taken up knitting as a way of helping himself keep calm.

The pair’s first case begins when a man’s body is found after an avalanche destroys his home but evidence clearly shows that he was murdered. Then two other murders occur and it becomes clear that the three victims must be somehow connected and that the motive for the killings lies in that connection.

Both Hildur and Jakob are appealing characters. They are intelligent, sensitive, kind, and empathetic. Though hampered by his not understanding the Icelandic language, Jakob helps as he can and he and Hildur quickly become good partners and friends. Because both are familiar with loss, they earn the reader’s sympathy.

One problem with the book is its slow pace. Since this is the first of a series, I understand the need to develop character but often there seems to be more focus on the characters’ personal lives than on the investigation. Sometimes elements seem to serve little purpose. For instance, Jónas and his story are entirely superfluous. On the other hand, there are unanswered questions regarding the case.

Then there are the over-explanations about Iceland and its culture and customs. There are passages like, “As is customary in Iceland, the door opened inward. The amount of snow that packed in front of doors would make them impossible to open outward. An inward-opening door guaranteed a quick exit, even in winter.” We are given information about Ístex, “Iceland’s largest and oldest woollen mill. Ístex was owned by sheep farmers, and most wool from the autumn and spring shearings was sold to the mill and turned into yarn of various qualities. Wool from Icelandic sheep had made a name for itself among knitting communities around the world, and the most popular colours were hard to find outside Iceland.” We learn that Icelandic police don’t carry firearms, but the author feels the need to explain “Police firearms were a regular topic of debate, but no changes had been made to the legislation yet. And Icelanders were in no way anti-gun. There were actually quite a few guns in the country because a lot of people liked to hunt.”

The author moved to Iceland from Finland and the book gives the impression that she wants to expound on what she has learned about her adopted country. What is the relevance of the information about the Centre Party? Is it necessary to preach about the importance of runners warming up the upper parts of their bodies? I might enjoy learning about the expensive, expressionist landscapes of Jóhannes Kjarval, “Iceland’s most famous twentieth-century painter” but is that information relevant to the plot?

The book was not carefully edited. For instance, Hildur drives to the police station and waits in the vehicle for her boss Beta. Beta opens the driver’s door and climbs in and Hildur drives away. Both women are sitting in the driver’s seat? We learn early in the novel that Hildur has an aunt named Tinna living in Ísafjörður and another aunt in the Faroe Islands but then later there’s a statement that “Tinna was Hildur’s sole remaining relative”? Hildur contacts an excavator operator and “made him promise to wait for her. She would stop by that evening to show him the exact spot [to dig]” but by the time she gets to the location, the man had already “opened that mound”? Why would a passer-by ask to take a photo using someone else’s camera if the photo would remain with the camera owner?

For those interested, the second book in the series, The Grave in the Ice, will be released in the spring of 2025, and the third, The Shadow of the Northern Lights, will be available in the fall. I’m not certain I will continue following Hildur and Jakob because the weak plot and slow pace do not make for a gripping page-turner.

Review of ALL THE COLOURS OF THE DARK by Chris Whitaker

 4 Stars

At just over 600 pages and 261 chapters, this is for readers who enjoy a big book that blends genres: literary thriller plus crime fiction plus love story plus coming-of-age tale.

The book spans a quarter of a century. It opens in 1975 in Monta Clare in the Ozark mountains of Missouri. Saint Brown and Joseph Macauley are young teenagers. Saint is a talented pianist and aspiring beekeeper living with her grandmother; Joseph (nicknamed Patch because of the patch he wears over his missing eye) is bullied and lonely and has become a petty thief. The two become inseparable best friends. One day, after coming to the aid of a young girl, Patch goes missing. After a time, people fear he is dead, but Saint never gives up searching for him. When Patch does return, he is irrevocably changed. Saint wants to pick up their friendship, but Patch is fixated on Grace, a girl who shared his trauma and helped him survive. But is she even real?  As years pass, Patch does not give up searching for Grace, and Saint does not give up trying to help her friend.

The plot is complex with the stories of various characters added, all of which come together in the end. There are certainly unexpected twists and turns, though looking back, there are subtle clues. Why, for instance, does Saint take note of the book a mother buys her son? Some coincidences irked me, especially in the later chapters. And the reader has to suspend some disbelief: a totally untrained artist dazzles the art world so much that his paintings sell for phenomenal prices and a bank robber escapes so easily so many times.

The book also offers detailed character studies. Saint and Patch are layered; both have strong principles as well as vulnerabilities and flaws. They feel like real people whom I will remember like friends I have made over time. Despite the dark tone, there are moments of levity, many of them provided by Sammy.

I loved the writing style. The author excels at interesting turns of phrase and imagery: “the sun dipped and cannoned color across the ocean” and “a great oak held bronze sky in its trusses” and “Right then mammatus clouds sagged like pockets of rainfall, the framing sky detonated like it could no longer hold blue” and “The window was tall and narrow like a letterbox flipped on its side” and “The road sliced [the everglades] without mercy, a blight on natural wonder.”

Several themes are developed: childhood trauma inevitably shapes adult lives, influencing decisions, choices and relationships; kindness and loyalty will be rewarded; and “sometimes things survive despite the harshest of odds” and “sometimes, against the longest of odds, hope wins out.”

In many ways, this is an unconventional book which may not appeal to everyone. Though not perfect, it provided me with a reading experience that will stay with me for some time.

Review of BRIGHT I BURN by Molly Aitken

 3.5 Stars

I was interested in this novel when I read a description of it which mentioned that it is set in Kilkenny, a city my husband and I visited during our tour of Ireland. I was further intrigued by the fact that the book is based on a real woman, Alice Kyteler, the first recorded person condemned for witchcraft in Ireland.

The novel, set between 1279 and 1331, is a retelling of Alice’s life as seen through her own eyes; in a final note, the author mentions that her book is intended to “give her a voice again” because “like many women, her perspective has been lost.” As a child, Alice sees her mother wither under the constraints of family responsibilities and vows not to follow her path. Learning from her father, she proves to have a skill as a money lender. When her father dies and she wants to take over his business, she decides to marry because “’Few would choose a woman banker if she were unwed.’”

This becomes the first of four marriages. All her husbands are notable, wealthy men whose deaths leave her with more riches. The speed with which she remarries each time motivates people to suspect she may have hastened their deaths. Because she is not meek and subservient as women were expected to be and because she is rich and powerful, she becomes a target of jealousy and resentment and rumours are spread about her.

The writing style is ambiguous at times in that much is not explicitly stated so the reader has to infer. One example is Alice’s relationship with Petronilla. The novel sometimes feels disjointed as it skips years. Interspersed with the narrative are memories, dreams, and villagers’ gossip. It is the latter which adds most to the story. At other times, I was left confused. What, for example, is the purpose of “The Tale of the Coin”?

It is the character of Alice that is most interesting. She is independent, strong-willed, fearless, shrewd, manipulative, proud, ambitious, passionate, and ruthless. She is not someone that most readers will like, though one cannot but understand her frustration with the restrictions placed on her because she is a woman. She describes herself as “a girl turned bitter against men yet always in need of their devotion.” It’s clear that she is both victim and villain. The focus seems to be on her greed for money and the power it bestows and on her physical desires. She wants two things from her husbands: wealth and sexual pleasure. She is straightforward in her judgment of herself: “Everything good must die. That’s why I keep living.” In the end, she summarizes her life: “Once brightly I burned, I drew them all to me and consumed them all, unwittingly and wittingly, in my fire.”

I enjoyed Alice’s comments about society. She dismisses men “who worship at the altars of themselves” and weak women who “never learned the art of persuading men to believe they are in charge.” She does not have a high opinion of churchmen: “Half the churchmen I know have sold their souls to the Devil and bought back their right to purgatory with coin. Any rich man can save himself.” She doesn’t believe in the sermons delivered in church because “the God we hear about from the pulpit was created to line the purses of greedy men.”

Kilkenny has “the castle at one end, up on the hill, at the other end the cathedral.” What I did not know when we visited the city is that the Kyteler’s Inn along the Medieval Mile between the castle and the cathedral actually dates back to the time of Alice Kyteler. I would have enjoyed my Smithwicks there and raised it in honour of an unconventional woman who challenged societal standards. Though uneven in quality, this book does realistically develop Alice’s outer and inner life.

NOVEL SUGGESTIONS FOR GIFT GIVING AND WINTER READING

This article was written for The Madawaska Valley Current:  https://madvalleycurrent.com/2024/12/05/novel-suggestions-for-gift-giving-and-winter-reading/

NOVEL SUGGESTIONS FOR GIFT GIVING AND WINTER READING

It’s that time of year again. Snow and colder temperatures have arrived and the festive season is drawing near. If you’re looking for books for the readers on your Christmas list or searching for titles for winter reading, here are some suggestions from amongst the best books I’ve read this past year.

The Axeman’s Carnival by Catherine Chidgey

This novel has an unusual narrator, a magpie named Tama who falls out of his nest and is rescued by Marnie, a farmer’s wife on New Zealand’s South Island. Her husband Rob does not approve, but Marnie enjoys the bird’s companionship. And though he misses his magpie family, Marnie becomes the centre of Tama’s world. When Tama learns to mimic human speech, his talent may be a way to alleviate the couple’s financial woes. All is not well in the home, however, as Tama witnesses Rob’s short temper, coercive control, and violent outbursts. This unique book explores serious issues and is emotionally engaging.

The Guests by Agnes Ravatn

This psychological drama reminds us “Oh, what a tangled web we weave, when first we practice to deceive.” Karin and her husband Kai spend a week in a friend’s luxurious holiday home in the Norwegian fjords.  While there, Karin meets a neighbour and, believing she has been treated disparagingly, she implies that the holiday home actually belongs to her and Kai.  Then Kai joins in the charade and the lies are compounded, thereby creating further problems and a domino structure of complications. This dense and powerful book shows that the author has an insightful understanding of human psychology.

The Hazelbourne Ladies Motorcycle and Flying Club by Helen Simonson

This quiet book, set in the first summer after the end of World War I, will appeal to those who enjoy historical fiction. Constance Haverhill is sent as a lady’s companion to an old family friend who is convalescing at a hotel in Hazelbourne-on-Sea.  Constance finds herself mixing with the elites who live in the hotel.  In particular, she meets Poppy Wirrall, an unconventional young woman, the leader of a group of independent-minded motorcycle-riding women, and her brother Harris, a fighter pilot trying to adjust to life as an amputee. The book, with its social commentary, captures the mood of the world after the war.

The Heart in Winter by Kevin Barry

This is a western adventure with romance and humour. It begins in October of 1891 in Butte, Montana. Tom Rourke, addicted to a life of alcohol, opium, and debauchery, meets Polly Gillespie who has just arrived and been married to a mine captain. It’s love at first sight for Tom, and Polly quickly succumbs to his roguish charm. Soon the two head west with stolen money and a stolen horse, their escape resulting in a pursuit by hired hit men. The book’s memorable characters, humour, vivid imagery, and poetic language make for an engrossing, entertaining read.

All the Colours of the Dark by Chris Whitaker 

 For readers who enjoy big books, this one, at 600+ pages and 261 chapters spanning 25 years, is a good choice. Saint Brown and Patch Macauley, young teenagers, become inseparable best friends. One day, after coming to the aid of a young girl, Patch goes missing. After a time, people fear he is dead, but Saint never gives up searching for him. When Patch does return, he is irrevocably changed. Saint wants to pick up their friendship, but Patch is fixated on Grace, a girl who shared his trauma and helped him survive. But is she even real?  As years pass, Patch does not give up searching for Grace, and Saint does not give up trying to help her friend. This book is a literary thriller plus crime fiction plus love story plus coming-of-age tale.

Yule Island by Johana Gustawsson

If you enjoy dark and disturbing books with genuinely shocking twists, this one is for you. Emma Lindahl, an art appraiser, is sent to Storholmen, an island in the Stockholm Archipelago, to the manor house of the Gussman family to catalogue their art collection.  Nine years earlier the body of a teenaged girl was found hanging from a tree on the property.  Inspector Karl Rosén investigated but the case remains unsolved. Then the body of another teenager is found. Emma makes some discoveries at the house and ends up assisting Karl in his investigation. Only the most astute readers will see all of the author’s sleights of hand.

Brotherless Night by V. V. Ganeshananthan

This award-winning novel is set in Sri Lanka. It focuses on 1981 to 1989, the earlier years of the Sri Lankan civil war between the Sinhalese-dominated government and Tamil separatist groups. The narrator is Sashi Kulenthiren, a Tamil, and the only daughter in a family with four sons. When the novel opens, she is sixteen and an aspiring doctor. One brother is killed in anti-Tamil riots and then two others join the militant Tamil Tigers. Once in medical school, Sashi’s friendship with K, a high-ranking member of the Tigers, leads her to become a medic in a Tigers’ field hospital, but she starts to question her role in the war. This is a coming-of-age tale but the reader also learns a great deal.

The above recommendations are by writers from New Zealand, Norway, England, Ireland, France, and the United States, but Canada has no shortage of talent. Here are five titles from Canadian authors.

In Winter I Get Up at Night by Jane Urquhart

This historical novel is set in the 1950s. Emer McConnell, a middle-aged teacher in rural Saskatchewan, thinks back on her life. When she was eleven, she spent a year in a hospital. There she became acquainted with a child performer in a travelling theatre company, a Jewish boy from a farm collective, and a girl from a Doukhobor community. Emer also reflects on her mother’s relationship with a man not her husband, her brother’s spirituality, and her own long-term love affair with a brilliant scientist. The book touches on colonial expansion in Canada, attitudes towards immigrants, and the role of women.

Death and Other Inconveniences by Lesley Crewe 

 Despite its title, this book is a fun, cozy, heart-warming read. Margo Sterling is left a widow when her second husband Dick dies suddenly and leaves her homeless and virtually penniless. The appearance of Dick’s ex-wife Carole and daughter Velma, who both hate Margo, adds to Margo’s problems. Fortunately, she has a supportive family. This, a late-in-life coming-of-age story, touches on relatable events happening to relatable people.

Real Ones by Katherena Vermette 

This book, which examines the dehumanizing effects of pretendianism, focuses on two Métis sisters and what happens when their estranged white mother Renee is called out as a pretendian. An artist, going by the name Raven Bearclaw, Renee has enjoyed considerable success copying the Indigenous Woodland Art style. When the story is made public, the sisters read enraged online commentary. As they consider what effects Renee’s false representation will have on them and what to do about her lies, painful memories of their relationships with their mother resurface. This novel is very timely because there have been a number of instances of pretendianism in the news.

Bad Land by Corinna Chong 

 The setting is 2016 in Drumheller, Alberta. Regina Bergmann lives a solitary, mundane existence in her run-down childhood home. Her life is upended with the arrival of her brother Ricky with whom she has had no contact for seven years. He is accompanied by his daughter, six-year-old Jez, but is reluctant to reveal why they left Arizona and Jez’s mother. When Regina learns what happened, she decides that her niece needs protection so she takes Jez away on a trip that becomes a journey of discovery. The novel touches on some heavy subject matter: parental abandonment, mental illness, violence, and generational trauma.

Songs for the Broken-Hearted by Ayelet Tsabari 

 With its dual timeline, this book is both entertaining and informative. In 1950, Saida, one of many Yemeni Jews who immigrated to Israel after the establishment of the country, is in an immigrant camp where she meets a young man named Yaqub. They fall in love, but it’s a forbidden relationship because Saida is married and has a young son. In 1995, Zohara, a grad student in New York City, receives a call notifying her that her mother Saida has died. Zohara decides to return to Israel. While cleaning out her mother’s house, she uncovers Saida’s secrets and learns more about her heritage. Given current events in Israel and Gaza, this is a timely book which sheds light on the complex history of Israel.  

Complete reviews of all these books – and over a thousand more – can be found on my blog: https://schatjesshelves.blogspot.com.

HAPPY HOLIDAYS! HAPPY READING!

Review of BAD LAND by Corinna Chong

 4 Stars

This novel appeared on the longlist for the 2024 Giller Prize for Fiction.

The setting is 2016 in Drumheller, Alberta. Thirty-something Regina Bergmann lives a solitary, mundane existence in her run-down childhood home. Her life is upended with the arrival of her brother Ricky with whom she has had no contact for seven years. He is accompanied by his daughter, six-year-old Jez. He is reluctant to reveal why they left Arizona and Jez’s mother Carla. When Regina learns what happened, she decides that her niece needs protection so she takes Jez away on a trip that becomes a journey of discovery.

There are numerous flashbacks. Ricky’s unexpected arrival inspires Regina to think back to their childhood with Mutti, the mother who left them 15 years earlier. It’s obvious that Regina’s relationship with Mutti, a stern and unpredictable woman, was often strained.

What stands out in the novel is the relationship between Regina and Jez. Regina sees herself in her niece, the odd child. Because she is obese, Regina is a misfit shunned by society: “so large and out of place and always on display, a curiosity, even when she just wanted to be . . . herself.” Jez, because her behaviour is often aggressive and manipulative, is also perceived as different. Just as Regina prefers her own company, Jez lives in her own imagined world. Both lash out in anger. Regina has a conversation about Jez, but she’s also talking about herself: “’She feels more deeply than anyone. It’s more than they could ever comprehend, it’s so much it can’t even fit inside her. . . . [They think] she doesn’t have a brain, a heart, like anyone else. . . . She deserves to be loved. Real love.’”

I also enjoyed Regina’s journey of discovery. She learns things about her brother and mother, but she also learns about herself. Most significantly, she realizes how blind she has been, with “’an amazing ability to delude’” herself. Just as Jez lives in her imagination, Regina shapes the past in a way that makes the past tolerable. Throughout the novel, I kept hoping that Regina would have a meaningful conversation with her brother but that happens only towards the end.

The novel touches on some heavy subject matter: parental abandonment, mental illness, social disconnection, and violence. The book also examines generational trauma. Ricky talks about his “messed up” life but Regina has difficulty understanding that her isolation and obesity are probably reactions to trauma. Even her refusal to leave her childhood home is significant. At the end, Regina realizes the past cannot be erased. She also comes to understand the corrosive nature of guilt which is described as an “incurable infection” leaving its victims with “tortured souls.”

A thesis could be written about the symbolism in the novel: the title, the setting with its layers of dinosaur fossils, Wuppertal’s suspension railway, Regina’s job, and Mutti’s jobs in which she is surrounded by the past. And the photograph on the book’s cover is perfect!

I understand why this book was nominated for the Giller Prize. With so many layers to unravel, this is a book worth re-reading.