Exit Strategy

 Exit Strategy (#1,060) is the fourth and supposedly final book in Martha Wells' entertaining sci-fi Murderbot Series.  But Huzzah!  We know from checking on Fantastic Fiction that there are more books out there!

The protagonist is a SecUnit - a combination robot designed to protect whoever has contracted for its services from harm.  It does have some human features, but its mission is so focused on security that SecUnits cannot travel or act or their own: their responses are programmed into them.  Unless, of course, you happen to be the SecUnit who has managed to hack its own governor and christened itself Murderbot.  It isn't easy, but Murderbot does manage to save the day and expose the bad guys in some nail-biting action.  And perhaps Murderbot has been more influenced by its human components than it originally realized (or likes!).

Exit Strategy closes the story arc in the previous three novellas, so don't try to read Exit Strategy without reading the books first.  Trust me, it won't take long!  What a great read!

Help for the Haunted

I knew I had to read a John Searles novel as soon as I heard him speak at BookMania! this year. The first title to come up on my Holds List at the library was Help for the Haunted (#1,059).  It will definitely keep you guessing.

Sylvie Mason is the young daughter of a couple with an unusual occupation: they try to help the haunted souls who come to them after hearing them lecture, or who are referred by spiritual advisors.  So why would someone murder them the Masons in a deserted church one snowy night?  Sylvie was there, but she can't quite remember what exactly happened...  Her domineering older sister Rose isn't much help.  She has plenty of secrets of her own to hide.  Are they tied to what happened to their parents?

The story goes back and forth in time as Searles feeds the reader little tidbits of information.  Does Sylvie believe that there's a supernatural explanation for these events or not?  The truth is out there, and when it's finally revealed, I did not see it coming.  If you're looking for a book that will grip you right up until the end, Help for the Haunted should be on your "To Read" List.

The Second Mrs. Astor

I was just in the right mood for reading Shana Abe's romantic The Second Mrs. Astor (#1,058).  It's subtitled A Novel of the Titanic, and of course, everything leads up to that climactic ending.  She survives, he doesn't.

The meat of the story, however, is the mismatched romance between the ultra-wealthy and divorced much older John Jacob Astor IV and seventeen-year-old Madeleine Force.  Although her family is respectable, they do not move in the same heady social circles as the Knickbocker 400 in New York City which the Astors inhabit.  Madeleine, when his interest in her becomes apparent with the press swarming her every move, is roundly snubbed by just about everyone who does constitute society.  If you've watched the social maneuverings of The Gilded Age on TV, you'll have a pretty good idea of what she was up against.  Add in a hostile stepson almost her own age, and a beautiful ex-wife whose influence surrounds her daily to compound her misery.  No wonder she was so eager to pounce on the idea of a winter in the sunny climes of Egypt!  

Colonel Astor is determined to return home from their honeymoon and to his business dealings on board the brand-new luxury liner, the Titanic.  The latter half of the novel deals with that voyage.  When things are obviously taking a deadly turn, the nurse Colonel Astor has engaged to look after Madeleine in her pregnancy insists that they take to the lifeboats.  It's women and children only, so the devoted couple are parted.  Madeleine does make it home safely to New York and gives birth to a son, but that's where the story ends - no follow-ups, or whatever happened to? to round out the picture.  Whatever happened to the second Mrs. Astor herself, for instance?  Her story isn't generally well known, so that was a bit of a disappointment, I think.  I wish we could have simply left them in France before they boarded the doomed ship.

Speaking of pictures, though, I did have to Google the main characters.  Colonel John Jacob Astor looked as he was presented in the novel (the portrait of him mentioned in the book is available online), but I found it terribly confusing that the identical photos were identified as both Ava Willig Astor (the first wife) AND Madeleine Force Astor!  There certainly seemed to have been enough photos of both women to make positive identification clear!  Other than those quibbles, I did enjoy spending time in the Gilded Age myself.

All That She Carried - The Journey of Ashley's Sack, a Black Family Keepsake

I'm sorry that I read Tiya Miles' non-fiction book All That She Carried - The Journey of Ashley's Sack, a Black Family's Keepsake (#1,057) after I returned from Washington, D.C., where Ashley's sack is currently on display at the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture.

One cloth sack, handed down from an enslaved mother to her nine year old daughter being sold away from her in the 1850s, the circumstances embroidered on the same sack by Ashley's granddaughter in 1921, forms the basis for this moving social history aimed at a non-academic audience.

The materials that comprised the sack and its contents, the events which can be teased out around the bare bones narrative, and the implications for us, the readers, make for an enlightening and moving whole.  You owe it to yourself to read this book and ponder its lessons.

She Who Became the Sun

I've been looking forward to reading She Who Became the Sun (#1,056) by Shelley Parker-Chan since I first read about it on GoodReads.  It concerns a Chinese girl in fourteenth century China who refuses to submit to the fate predicted for her by a seer in their peasant village.  For her brother, greatness is his fate; for her, as a girl, the usual fate for a female: nothingness.

When her father is beaten to death by bandits, and her brother gives up on life, Zhu decides to seize his fate and become Zhu Chongba.  Disguising herself, she makes her perilous way to the monastery where he was promised as a novice.  She Who Becomes the Sun is the story of what she makes of her opportunities.

It's not always an easy read.  When the book ends, she seems to be on the brink of achieving everything she always wanted, but it's sad how her overweening ambitions have changed her.  Well worth the time spent with this character-driven plot.  If this story appeals to you, be sure to read Guy Gavriel Kay's Chinese fantasy River of Stars.  He is a superior story-teller.

The Maid

What an interesting read Nita Prose's mystery The Maid (#1,055) is!  The main character is just that: a maid in a fancy city hotel.  One day when cleaning the suite of regular patrons, Molly finds the husband dead on the bed.  She calls down to the desk, requesting emergency assistance.  Much to her surprise, though, she is soon arrested as the chief suspect in the murder.  She knows she didn't do it, but the rest of the staff finds her peculiar.  She's somewhere on the autism spectrum, and although Molly's a marvel at cleaning rooms, she can't read other people the same way.  The race is on to prove that Molly couldn't have done it, but who can she turn to for help?

This book is interesting on several levels, and empathetic to people who are "different".  It won't take long to have you rooting for Molly, as you can see those who have it in for her maneuvering things to make her look guilty.

If you're looking for a good mystery, add The Maid to your "To Read" list.

State of Terror

I was really enjoying Hilary Rodham Clinton and Louise Penny's political thriller State of Terror (#1,054) based on Ms. Clinton's time as Secretary of State.  That is until the plot arrived in Three Pines, Canada, home of Ms. Penny's iconic detective, Inspector Gamache.  It plonked the plot firmly back in the realm of fiction, and I didn't really buy anything else that happened in the book after that.  I know that's heresy to her legion of fans, but I'm not someone who lives for Ms. Penny's latest publication.

I did appreciate the many jabs taken at the chaos of the previous administration that could potentially have led to the circumstances of the plot.  But I also enjoyed several seasons of the TV drama Madame Secretary in the same way.  I suppose that's why I actually preferred Bill Clinton's thriller co-written with James Patterson, The President's Daughter.

I was disappointed the book fell so flat for me, but you'll need to judge for youself.