The Evening and the Morning

 I just finished reading Ken Follett's The Evening and the Morning (#944), the prequel to one of my all time favorite books, The Pillars of the Earth.  It lived up to and even exceeded my expectations.  In the large print edition, it clocks in at almost a thousand pages (and don't drop this weighty tome on your foot!), but time just sped by while I was absorbed in its pages.  I hated to see this book come to an end.  Of course, the good thing is that I know this story does go on.

Set in the ten years between 997 CE and 1007 CE, the story centers around three main characters; Edgar, son of a boatbuilder in the coastal city of Combe, England, destroyed in a Viking raid; Ragna, the daughter of Count Hubert of Cherbourg; and Aldred, a monk exiled from his chosen priory of Glastonbury to the lesser priory of Shiring.  All three of them have in common a relationship to a trio of powerful brothers who run Southwestern England for their own gain, ignoring the wishes of King Ethelred.  Wilwulf is the ealdorman who holds the political power and marries the beautiful Ragna; Wigelm is his brutal half-brother and reeve of Combe; and Wynstan, the evil genius of the family, is the Bishop of Shiring, so both secular and ecclesiastical power rest in their hands.

Watching these six as their lives intersect, and as they maneuver for power is like following the pattern of an intricate dance, forwards and backwards.  Here are strong characters to root for, and villains to root against.  There's plenty of action and emotion here, too.  It's utterly enthralling and not to be missed.

Florence Adler Swims Forever

 I spent a long time waiting for Rachel Beanland's debut novel Florence Adler Swims Forever (#943) to show up in my library's Holds queue, but it was definitely worth the wait.  It's a family drama with a relatively small cast of characters, but how Ms. Beanland makes them come alive!  Except for the title character, Florence Adler, that is.  

Florence Adler is training for swim across the English Channel in 1937.  Her ticket to France is booked and a coach engaged there for the attempt.  Everyone is convinced that Florence will conquer the Channel, just as she has conquered everything else in her life so far.  Her drowning during a routine swim off the Atlantic City beach comes as a complete shock.  Her mother decides that the news would be too much for Florence's sister Fannie to bear in the midst of a difficult pregnancy, and persuades the rest of the family, including Fannie's shiftless husband, to keep the secret of Florence's death until after she gives birth.  Esther Adler enlists the help of the hospital staff where Fannie is confined to bedrest, the local newspaper editor, and Anna Epstein who is living with them temporarily after escaping Nazi Germany on a student visa.

Florence's swim coach Stuart has to be part of the conspiracy, as well as the Rabbi and the ladies who prepared her body for burial.  But the hardest person to control is Fannie's seven year old daughter Gussie who has a hard time keeping her mouth closed about anything, let alone such an important secret.

The view point shifts from person to person revealing the impact of secret keeping on them all as they try to sort out for themselves what truly matters most in life as they come to terms with Florence's death.  Beautifully told, and emotionally gripping, it's a rewarding read.

There was one thing that surprised me about this book, though.  I don't remember any of the laudatory reviews mentioning that a key component of the book was its Jewishness.  Florence's story wouldn't be the same without it.  It just struck me as odd to leave it out, though.  Maybe that's just me...

The Philosopher's War

 I thought Tom Miller's debut novel, The Philosopher's Flight (See my post of 7/30/20.) was a great read, but the sequel, The Philosopher's War (#942) might be even better!  The action picks up right where Philosopher's Flight left off, with Robert Canderelli finishing his basic training with the Rescue & Evacuation branch of  the all female U.S. Sigilry Corps.

Ordered to France with his unit even before their scheduled graduation ceremony, Robert hits the ground flying, rather than running.  The British and the Americans are not faring so well in WWI's trench warfare, as the number of rescue flights flown by his understaffed division mount astronomically.  The constant danger and deprivation weld the fliers together as a unit, where Robert is accepted as one of the "ladies" by his unhesitating response to help during crises.  In fact, things are going so poorly that there is a mutiny afoot, and Robert is inexorably drawn into it.  When the Germans up the ante, only the mutineers may stand between world-wide devastation and a possibility for a peaceful future.

Lots of action, plotting, flying, wing-and-a-prayer rescues, comradery and romance make for a page-turning read.  There are some hints in War that the next book in the series may jump to pre-WWII China, with its famous Flying Tigers.  I can't wait for the further thrilling adventures of Robert Canderelli Weekes.

Midnight in Peking; How the Murder of a Young Englishwoman Haunted the Last Days of Old China

 I don't remember where I read about Paul French's true crime book Midnight in Peking: How the Murder of a Young Englishwoman Haunted the Last Days of Old China (#941), but it's been on my "To Read" list for a while.  What a fascinating read!

Pamela Werner was only nineteen when she was brutally murdered on a cold January night in 1937.  Brought up by her eccentric widower father, a noted Chinese scholar  and former diplomat who was  more at home with his books than with people, Pamela was independent and equally comfortable with Chinese languages and culture.  She did have problems with school and had already been asked to leave several in Peking before being sent to a boarding school at Tientsin.  She was home in Peking for Christmas on school holiday meeting with friends both male and female.  Her days were a whirl of tiffins, dances, skating and exploring an uneasy city with the Japanese already present, but not yet in control.  Chinese and foreigners alike were living it up while they still could, or preparing to leave Peking permanently before the worst happened.

When Pamela's body was discovered by the iconic Fox Tower not far from the Werner's home, the entire city was on edge.  Despite efforts by both the Chinese and British authorities, her murder was never officially solved.  Her father , E.T. C. Werner, however, was not content to leave matters there...

What Paul French turned up in various newspaper accounts of the time and available reports and interviews with the few people who still remembered Pamela's murder allows the author to lay out a plausible series of events about what actually happened to Pamela that cold winter night.  It's a maddening tale of obstruction, lies and face-saving by the authorities at the expense of Pamela and her grieving father.  If you like true crime books, add Midnight in Peking to your list!

Squeeze Me

Carl Hiaasen has never made a secret of his disdain for politics or the continued destruction of Florida's wild lands enabled by those same politicians.  In Squeeze Me (#940) he skewers the part time rich society crowd of Palm Beach in an especially skin-crawling and funny way.

Kiki Pew Fitzsimmons, all eighty-eight pounds of her, has disappeared from a charity affair in a closely-monitored mansion-for-rent.  No one saw her leave, but there is no trace of the ultra-wealthy widow, except for her purse by the koi pond in the gardens.  The next morning the cleaning crew assigned to ready Lipid House for that night's charity ball come across an eighteen foot Burmese python perched in a tree in the gardens with a suspiciously large lump in its middle.  Enter Angie Armstrong of Discreet Creatures, called in to wrangle the huge snake before it can terrify the guests due to attend the event that night.  It's after she announces that she will, per protocol, be taking the python to a state lab for an autopsy that things begin to go wrong...

Clueless thieves, demanding socialites with a a yen for the President currently in residence at his resort property, Casa Bellicosa, illegal immigrants, a mysterious hermit and the Secret Service all play a role in this rollicking novel.  Except there are those pythons that keep showing up in Palm Beach.  Have they already eaten everything else in South Florida?  And where is the missing Kiki?  A really fun read (which you might not appreciate if you're a dyed-in-the-wool Trump fan with no sense of humor).  Enjoy!

The Meat and Potatoes of Life

 I read a review of The Meat and Potatoes of Life (#939) in my local paper.  It's a series of columns written by military wife Lisa Smith Molinari about her twenty plus years of moving and raising a family of three kids and a dog as her naval intelligence officer husband was deployed around the world.

Ms. Molinari started writing as means of saving her sanity as she tells her readers.  It seems to have worked pretty well for her, culminating in a weekly syndicated column and a book.  If you're not in military circles, you may never have heard of her, but her columns are enjoyable, and the essays relatable to anyone who is married and/or has children.

It's an easy book to pick up and put down with each piece running only a couple of pages - perfect for those moments waiting at the doctor's office, or when you know you're so tired at night you won't be able  to manage more than a few pages.  I'm sure Ms. Molinari would be the first to sympathize with that!

In fact, the only thing I didn't like about this book was the cover illustration.  I have to admit, if I had come across this book in a book store, I never would have bothered to pick it up.  Glad I found out about it elsewhere.

Silent Bite

I don't need Christmas as an excuse to read a new David Rosenfelt Andy Carpenter mystery.  That's just the icing on the cake for Silent Bite (#938).

Andy Carpenter is a semiretired lawyer, and he'd like to keep it that way.  But how can he refuse a request from his friend and co-partner in the Tara Foundation, Willie, to defend his old cellmate Tony Birch?  He's been arrested for a brutal murder and the murder weapon was found in Tony's yard.  It sure seems like a slam dunk to the police.  Tony had already been in prison for gang-related violence, and he doesn't quite come clean with Andy at their first interview.  Is Tony really as innocent as he claims?

When Andy finds out that he's going to need a new law partner for the case, he's really not sure he wants to continue, but there are two mitigating factors: he won't have to listen to Laurie playing non-stop Christmas music at home, and Tony is concerned about how well his dog Zoey is going to fare without him.  Bodies keep piling up, but Andy better find the connection he's convinced is there in time for his closing statement at Tony's trial.

With his trademark humor, Silent Bite is a welcome addition to the Andy Carpenter series with his snarky Christmas riffs.  It keeps you guessing right up until the end when it's touch and go that Andy might wind up being the final victim in the case.  Cleverly plotted and entertaining.