Threats by Amelia Gray

Review by Maggie:

Threats by Amelia Gray is weird but compelling. The first page is ominous and one wants to read on to see what is up…. The title comes from threats that David keeps finding in curious places like the sugar bowl, silverware draw and in his dirty laundry.  He has no idea of the origin of these threats.  Nor do we.

 It is a simple story with few characters albeit all total loons. Chico an odd detective, Shelly  a character that spends her time in the laundromat folding clothes, Marie a pseudo psychiatrist that has an office in David ‘s garage of which he was not aware, it seems  before Frannie’s departure  arrangements were made with Marie for the “office space.”  Aileen who was a wacky coworker of the presumed dead wife Frannie.  A few other strangers drift in and out of the narrative.  None of them very involved with the story but they appear mostly to make us aware of what a screwball David is-----however, he is nutty enough without being surrounded by loons. 

David lost his wife under suspicious circumstances.  Chico, the detective assigned to his case, seems to have been involved with the family many years ago before the death of Frannie.   It would seem that David’s mother had killed his sister and was in an asylum but David only says that his mother left the family and moved to a home for women.  It is speculative since nothing is made clear in Threats.

David was once a dentist and lost his license it is implied by filling a tiny baby’s tooth buds.  He has kept all his old dental xrays and finds comfort in sleeping on them.  We never know what happened to Frannie or much about her except she was tall and gangly.

Did I mention this is  a bizarre story I wanted to finish the book to see how she wrapped it up---well she does not wrap things up and I am just as confused as to what happened as I was when I started reading.  She is an engrossing writer with an active imagination.

Fell the Angels by John Kerr

Fell the Angels by John Kerr is a  murder mystery based on a true story, the Charles Bravo murders in the mid 19^th century.  It is a novel involving deception and greed and a bit of passion.  Cecelia was from a well to do family but she had made a bad marriage to a brutal alcoholic.  The only way she could separate from him and still appear respectable was to go to a type of spa.   Once there, she found she liked the atmosphere and promptly started an affair with the married director.  While this sounds scandalous she was separated from her husband and the doctor’s wife had been institutionalized for many years.  However, once Cecelia’s  affair became public her reputation was ruined.  It was thought the only way to save her from complete social oblivion was for her to marry well.   Her second husband was willing to deal with her sullied reputation since he himself had an affair that resulted in a child.  Plus her attractiveness to him was enhanced by her fortune.  Cecilia was forward thinking and canny, she took advantage of a recently enacted law where she could go to keep her fortune if the marriage did not work.  Charles was presented with a pre-nup to sign.   Charles was not pleased but he was a shady character and perhaps had a plan to get her fortune in another manner.  Spoiler alert—The marriage was only 4 months old when Charles became very ill with a mysterious illness and after lingering for three day he dies.  The original murder on which the story is based is never solved but author Kerr neatly wraps this one up.  This is an enjoyable and fast paced novel.

Maggie

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Firmin by Sam Savage

Review by Maggie:

If you like the sound of an anthropomorphic rat and who does’nt ???? Read Firmin by Sam Savage.  It is subtitled the story of a metropolitan low life.  Firmin was born in a Scollay Square bookstore in a nest made from a shredded Finnegan’s wake .. who knows what the author is saying about Joyce.  His mother, Flo was a promiscuous tosspot —his twelve siblings would turnout to have similar tendencies.  Firmin was saved from that fate by being number 13 of her twelve teats.  His sibs learned to love the taste of liquor…  that was mostly what they got when they tried to take nourishment from  mum.  By the time Firmin, the runt of the litter,  got his chance for a snack the others were  passed out from the liquor and milk was available. While his siblings were foraging for food at the nearby adult theater, slurping up spilled beer and dropped popcorn, Firmin was exploring his bookstore.  He learned a love of literature by at first ingesting it and then realizing he liked reading lit better than eating it...

Firmin has charm and is funny and sad.  This little novella is delightful and a tale for anyone who loves literature.

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Mister Pip by Lloyd Jones

Review by Maggie:

This is a book about people that live on a tropical island.  The island is engaged in a civil war so all the men and the teachers have left the island.  Mr Watts is a white man who has chosen to stay on the island.  Mr. Watts is considered eccentric by everyone that encounters him.  He walks about hauling his wife in a cart and wearing a red clown nose.  One day he announces he will take over educating the children.  He begins his teaching by reading to the children every day and the book he uses is Great Expectations by Dickens.

The children have very unpleasant lives and spend each day with the sounds of guns in the distance. They love learning about this Pip character.  Mr. Pip, as Mr. Watts  is now called, has a unique teaching style.  Besides reading from the island’s only book he has the older ladies come in and tell the children stories about what they have learned in life.  It is a way for the ladies to get to know Mr Watts/Pip as some of the islanders are very suspicious of him.

War soon comes much closer than just the sound of gunfire and soon soldiers are swarming the area and killing villagers .  The soldiers believe there is a conspiracy afoot on the island led by Mr. Pip.  The villagers cannot convince the soldiers that he is just a fictional character from a book since they cannot provide the soldiers with the book.  It had been stolen from the schoolhouse and inadvertently destroyed.  Daily survival in this place is the objective. 

This does not sound enticing and when I picked up the book to read I thought I am not going to read this.  However, it was a great read and I used it for a book discussion and it was enjoyed by all and provoked good discussion.
~Maggie

Defending Jacob by William Landay

I seldom  read courtroom dramas, they seem rather boring and full of legalese.  I like books with few but well developed characters.  I do not know why I read Defending Jacob but am glad I did.  Character development was basic and while we know little about anyone in the book and what we do know does not make the people likeable.   

A teenager is stabbed and killed in an affluent suburb and the only evidence is a thumb print.  Soon the print is traced to the local DA’s son Jacob and he is arrested and put on trial for murder.  The trial proceeds and the author keeps us guessing if the teenager is guilty of murdering his classmate.  While Jacob is socially dysfunctional that does not make him a murderer.  After his arrest the police are convinced they have the right suspect so they do no more investigating.  A bizzare happening and a written confession helps Jacob beat the rap and the family decides to take a celebratory vacation to get away from the town where the whole family has achieved pariah status—They go off to the Caribbean where it would seem all are having a great vacation when a young woman that has befriended Jacob disappears.  No more.  This book has a surprise ending----Good read.
~Maggie

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Lifeboat by Charlotte Rogan

Grace Winter is a newlywed and probably a widow.  Grace thought she was going to live a life of privilege; that was her plan and instead she is fighting for a place in a lifeboat.   She was on an ocean liner in 1914 when an explosion blows her world to hell.  Survivors in the boat have to make alliances,  they are crucial and might determine who lives and dies.  Hardie, the only crew member on the lifeboat is at first seen as a savior and the one capable of saving them.  He is able to grab fish from the sea and he puts himself in charge of water rations. The boat is overloaded and people must be sacrificed for the greater good.    As days go on and people are more desperate Hardie is seen as evil and the decision is made to let him go overboard---hard choices must be made.  This is a story that makes one wonder what one would do to survive.  The story is all told from Grace’s perspective and any action takes place in the boat as people fight for their right to live. 

This is an engrossing debut.
~Maggie

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To Be Sung Underwater by Tom McNeal

Judith Blunt is from a broken home.  She decided as a teen to live with her father, a college professor and she moves from Vermont to Nebraska where she meets Willy Blunt.  He is a carpenter in his mid twenties.  When her father thinks maybe she is maybe going to settle with Willy rather than pursue an education he pulls strings and gets her admitted to Stanford. After some violence connected with Willy’s work she decides maybe getting out of town is wise.  She goes off to California abandoning her great love and does not look back until she is a middle aged woman.

She seems to have a good life and a happy marriage but when her daughter rejects the bedroom set that Judith had as a child she decides to rent a storage unit to keep it.    At any rate,  she goes off the rails and decorates the storage unit like her teenage bedroom bringing back teen memories of her lost love Willy.  She also has suspicions that her husband might be having an affair.  Judith hires a detective to find her old beau and buys a throw away cell phone to receive private messages and spends time in her storage unit/bedroom.  Once Willy is found, Judith decides what she needs is to reconnect with Willy.  She makes some arrangements for someone to cover her work and makes excuses to her husband and off she goes to Nebraska to see Willy Blunt and find what he is up to---  obviously not a good idea. She reconnects with Willy and they revert to their teenage selves.   I  will say no more as I am getting into spoiler territory.  The story is told in alternating chapters Judith as a teenager and Judith as an adult.  The characters are well developed and while I enjoyed the read I did not like the people at all.
~Maggie

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