The Ninth Man

If you've read Steve Berry's popular Cotton Malone thriller series, you'll be familiar with Luke Daniels, a spin-off character from those books in The Ninth Man (#1,211).  Berry has co-authored this book with Grant Blackwood, but they've done a seamless job blending their writing into an interesting plot with several unexpected twists.

Luke Daniels, former Army Ranger and nephew of a former US president, is relaxing in London after completing his latest assignment for the Magellan Billet when he receives an urgent text from a former colleague.  When Luke arrives at the Belgian home of Jillian Stein's grandfather, he finds himself in the middle of a fire storm.  Her grandfather has been murdered, and those responsible will not stop until they retrieve a rifle hidden away by Benji Stein.  Who is after it, and now them, and for what purpose?  The stakes are life and death in this cat and mouse game involving a controversial day in American history.

Okay, I did not see the end of this one coming!  Tense thriller, with a promise of at least two more to come from this writing team.  Can't wait.

The Reading List

The Reading List (#1,210) by Sara Nisha Adams is a wonderful book.  It contains not one, but two reading lists within its pages.  

In the neighborhood around Wembley Stadium in London, a number of isolated people come across neat, hand-written lists of book titles, with the heading "In Case You Need It". Although they don't know it yet, they do have a common connection: the local library, perennially in danger of being closed down by the Civic Council.  As each person embarks on their own journey by reading through the list, we meet them in their struggles and heartaches and see how the act of reading lifts them out of themselves and into a greater community.  But the question remains: who wrote this particular reading list, and why?  We do find out in the end in a thoroughly satisfying conclusion.

Maybe I related to this book because I've read all but one of the novels on the "In Case You Need It" list.  I plan to remedy that omission in the near future.  This is a debut novel from Ms. Adams.  I hope we hear more from this talented writer.

Act Like A Lady, Think Like A Lord

Hmm.  Not sure how I feel about Celeste Connally's Regency mystery Act Like a Lady, Think Like a Lord (#1,209).  The cover blurb promises "Bridgerton meets Agatha Christie".  I can't tell whether or not the comparison to Bridgerton is fair or not, since I've neither read nor seen either series.  As for Agatha Christie - not exactly in her league.  It's easy to spot the ending well in advance.

The premise is that the lords in Lady Petra Forsythe's social circle are sharing the name of a gentleman who will, for a price, arrange for the troublesome women in the peer's life to be taken to an estate in the country "for her health".  Most are never seen again, and some are rumored to have died.  One of Lady Petra's friends has been removed thusly from London society when she succumbs to her depression.  Based on overheard snippets at a ball, Lady Petra doubts very much that the story of her death is true, so she investigates, putting her directly in the crosshairs of the villain of the piece.

And of course she falls right into the trap set for her in her very own house, no less!  And of course the handsome hunk comes to her rescue.  But wait!  The dangling thread about the cause of Lady Petra's fiance's death in a fall down stairs shortly before their wedding is used to cast doubt three years later on Lady Petra's childhood friend and new main squeeze.  I guess there will be more, but I won't be reading any sequels.  Sorry, Ms. Connally.  I much prefer Georgette Heyer.

The Year of the Locust

I had to keep lugging the 800 page copy of The Year of the Locust (#1,208) around with me because it was so hard to put down.  It may have been a long wait for Terry Hayes' next thriller after I Am Pilgrim, but I think it was definitely worthwhile.

Kane, his latest protagonist, is a Denied Area Access Agent working for the CIA - the most stealthy of spies sent in country against all odds to carry out their missions.  In this book, he is up against the faceless Abu Muslim al-Tundra, determined to destroy anyone not part of his fundamentalist Islamic sect by any means possible.  His methods are extreme and frighteningly plausible and his reach is global.

This time Kane has a bigger stake in the game when he's sent in - he's seen Abu Muslim al-Tundra's face, and he is leaving his partner behind on this mission.  He's also seen what the future can be if al-Tundra succeeds.

The plot does take a distinct turn towards sci-fi towards the end, but bear with it; the conclusion is oh-so-satisfying!

Horse

After reading Horse (#1,207), I am reminded of why Geraldine Brooks is one of my favorite authors.  In it she interweaves several stories: a painting of a thoroughbred horse discarded in a curbside pile; Theo, the art student who discovers it and is determined to track down its provenance; Jess, the manager of a lab at the Smithsonian Museum who helps him and is tasked with helping a British researcher with a skeleton in the Smithsonian attic; and Jarrett, the enslaved boy who grows up with the horse and bonds with him indelibly.

The horse, it turns out, is real.  Lexington was one of the finest thoroughbreds ever raised and raced in the United States in the mid-nineteenth century.  He sired many prize-winning horses, including Preakness, for whom one of the Triple Crown Races is named.

It's also the story of racism, both before, during and after the Civil War, as well is in the contemporary love story.

The story does jump back and forth in time, and the plot is presented from many points of view.  I found it absolutely fascinating.  I've always had an interest in horse racing, but I learned so much in reading this book that it made me realize just how little I did know.  It's a piece of American history not many know about.

Since I had to read it for my book club, I couldn't wait for the hard copy book to become available to me, so this is the first novel I've read on my Kindle.  Was I ever grateful for the dictionary function built into it as I encountered lots of unfamiliar vocabulary!  

This was a great book on so many different levels.  It provided plenty of fodder (pardon the horsey pun) for book club discussion and was a universal hit with my group.  

The Frozen River

In her latest historical fiction, Ariel Lawhon has taken the diaries of real-life Maine midwife Martha Ballard and used her entries as the basis for an intriguing murder mystery set in the small town of Hallowell, Maine during one brutal winter when the Kennebec River froze solid from November to April in the late 1780s.  

The Frozen River (#1,206) is an engaging read as the fictional Martha stands by a victim of a rape by two men while her husband was away.  When one of the men's body is found frozen in the river, Martha is called in to observe the body.  In her role as midwife, she has standing with the court to testify on certain matters. But when she testifies the death was the result of murder, she creates a furor in the town.  It soon becomes clear that the other powerful man in town accused of the rape is determined to get his revenge on anyone who dares to speak out against him.  That includes the Ballard family and their lumber mill.

It is told in such a way that you want to read just one more chapter...

A minor nit about some of the anachronisms that creep into the book, but most people probably won't even notice them.  It certainly doesn't prevent it from being a well-told story about a remarkable woman who managed to leave her mark on history.  Recommended.

Chesapeake Requiem - A Year With the Watermen of Vanishing Tangier Island

In Chesapeake Requiem - A year With the Watermen of Vanishing Tangier Island (#1,205) journalist Earl Swift spent a year living on Tangier Island, set in the Virginia area of Chesapeake Bay.  Tangier has been in the news recently because it is vanishing into the Bay, large chunks of it washing off its shoreline as the island simultaneously sinks.  What will the islanders who have lived there for many generations do as their land shrinks and the crabs and oysters that provide their livelihood become scarcer and scarcer? And there are fewer and fewer opportunities for their young folks.

Mr. Swift tells their stories in a sympathetic way only possible by becoming one of their community.  He crabbed with them, sat in their "Situation Room" where the men gathered to discuss everything, attended their church services and ate with them.

The islanders have appealed for help to the Army Corps of Engineers, hoping that they would build a breakwater to stem the corrosion, but the wheels of government grind so slowly that likely if the Corps do decide to reinforce part of the island, it will only benefit a potential wildlife preserve, not the people.

Mr. Swift puts the reader right in the middle of island life, and by the time you have finished reading this compelling book, you will feel that you know many of these folks.  Right now, the only thing you can do is stayed tuned to the news to see what will happen to them.

If you live in a coastal area anywhere in America, this book should be mandatory reading.