Review of "Love By The Book: A Novel" by Jessica George

   

Jessica George's debut novel Maame (2023) is about a family with Ghanaian heritage living in London. George plumbs those waters again in part, in Love by the Book, which focuses on two women from Ghanaian families.

*****

As the story opens, Londoner Remy Baidoo's debut novel 'These Four Friends' is a bestseller, now coming out in paperback.



During an interview, Remy explains 'These Four Friends' is about the journey of friendship....It's about the ups and downs in a decade-long friendship, and the women involved have to make a choice...in the the face of issues relating to careers, family, relocation, and other loved ones." Remy goes on to explain, "I also have three amazing, irreplaceable friends who helped inspire the characters, but it's important to remember that I write fiction."



Life sometimes imitates novels, and Remington Baidoo (Remy), an unmarried writer with Ghanaian heritage, is about to experience changes in her own friend group. In addition to herself, Remy's 'bestie family' consists of:

Linisha Dhillon (Lin) - an unattached criminal lawyer born of Indian parents.



Melissa Ortega, née Abraham (Mel) - a devout Christian interior designer, married to a wonderful man named Felix.



November Aura Knight (Nova) - a hairdresser with her own studio and a cheating boyfriend called David.



The friends meet for dinner regularly, and Remy foresees that continuing for a long time. The shift occurs after a meal at the Indian restaurant Dishoon, where the women meet to celebrate Nova breaking up with her two-timing beau. After a shared meal of keema pau, steamed rice, lamb chops, masala prawns, and samosas, Remy senses secrets in the air.



Remy is correct, because shortly afterward Mel announces she's pregnant and moving out of London with her husband; Lin reveals she got a promotion and is relocating to New York; and Nova goes back to her loser boyfriend David. With her besties busy elsewhere, and no inspiration for a second book, Remy becomes morose and moves back in with her mother Ada - a loving free spirit.



Remy tries to make new friends, but when you're 30-years-old and work at home, that's difficult. Then a Ghanaian woman named Simone Beduah accidentally spills wine on Remy at a book event, and the women discover they went to the same secondary school.



Remy sees an opportunity and suggests dinner, but Simone politely declines. The next day Remy and Simone happen to meet again, and dinner at a Turkish restaurant ensues.



Remy would like to be gal pals, but Simone holds off because she has a secret. In addition to being a Year One Teacher at Linwood Primary School....



.....Simone is a sex worker. Simone has a few regular clients that pay her well, and the extra income allows Simone to have a beautiful apartment and a luxurious lifestyle.



Unfortunately for Simone, her conservative Ghanaian family learned her secret, and Simone is now estranged from her father Frederick - a preacher; her mother Afua - a nurse; and her sister Jenni - who was her best friend.



Remy stays in touch with her close friends Lin, Mel, and Nova via texts, phone calls, and occasional visits, but she needs a more immediate female chum. So Remy keeps trying, and she eventually becomes good mates with Simone.



Remy senses diffidence in her new friend, which fades after Simone confides her secret and Remy doesn't judge her. Remy does, however, use her friendship with Simone to get her creative juices flowing, and she makes tentative notes about a second book that features 'R' and 'S'.



As the story moves forward, Remy must make some personal decisions, and Simone's sex work leads to foreseeable problems.

'Love by the Book' is about a platonic friendship that has the arc of a romantic comedy: meet cute; become friends; a misunderstanding throws a spanner in the works; things are resolved. The novel also addresses Simone's strained family relations, which seem difficult to resolve in the circumstances.

For me, the book drags and the subject matter, female friendship, lacks excitement. I don't want to say 'throw in a murder' but the story needs more oomph. Still, it's interesting to get a peek at Ghanaian culture.....



.....and Remy's mother Ada, a bohemian who reads palms, is a wonderful character.



Thanks to Netgalley, Jessica George, and St. Martin's Press for an ARC of the book.

Rating 3 stars 

Review of "Storm Tide: A Thriller" by Paul Doiron

  

In this 16th book in the 'Mike Bowditch' series, the Maine game warden is in the sights of a vengeful killer. The book can be read as a standalone.

*****

Mike Bowditch has been a Maine game warden for ten years, and he's been in trouble for breaking the rules many times.



You'd think Mike would learn from his mistakes, but he's too determined to get the perpetrator.



As 'Storm Tide' opens, Mike has been busted from warden investigator back to patrol for chasing a fugitive across the border into Canada. Mike is on routine night patrol when he sees a house fire, and hurries over to help.



A woman named Karen Kershaw is outside the burning house holding a baby, and she says the father gave her the child and ran back to rescue his wife. The home's residents, Brian and Angela Malloy, perish in the blaze, and Mike learns the couple is notorious for (allegedly) kidnapping and killing a child Brian had with a drug addict.



Mike suspects the Malloy fire was arson, and though it isn't his purview, Mike goes to interview Karen Kershaw. Karen is clearly uneasy and runs away, then makes a false report about Mike threatening her with his wolf-dog Shadow.



This gets Mike into into hot water with Detective Sergeant Delphine Cruz from the Major Crimes Unit of the Maine State Police. Delphine doesn't believe Karen's story, but she tells Mike IN NO UNCERTAIN TERMS to leave the homicide investigating to her. Of course, Mike pays no attention, but he and Delphine form a kind of under the radar partnership as the story moves forward.



The next day, Mike gets an anonymous phone call from a man who says: "Mike Bowditch, after all these years! It really is a small world....You were such an infamous presence around Machias. I couldn't help but take an interest in you....You've been in the news so much - so many shootings....One of the things I remember is that, when you weren't on duty, you used to drive that cool Jeep Wrangler with the expedition roof rack and Mammoth wheels." The caller then reports seeing lights near the site of the Malloy house fire, and hangs up. When Mike hits redial, he gets 'Pleasure Chest Adult Superstore' and knows the caller spoofed the number.



This is the beginning of a nightmare period for Mike and his wife Stacey Stevens, an emergency medical technician who's expecting their first child. While Mike keeps poking into the Malloys' deaths, Stacey leaves work one day and is followed home by a white van.



A couple of months later, Mike and his father-in-law Charley Stevens, a legendary retired game warden, are in Mike's truck when the police scanner calls all units to a fatality on the train tracks near Vanceboro.



Mike and Charley hurry over and see a crushed body on the tracks, who turns out to be Axl Deming. Axl and his brother Shayn were suspected of raping and murdering a teenage girl, but their mother gave them an alibi. The police deem Axl's death a homicide, and Mike suspects vigilantes killed the Malloys and Axl to get 'justice' for their crimes.



As the weeks pass, Mike gets additional spoofed phone calls and is lured into life-threatening situations. Mike determines the vigilantes are after him as well, and it's a cat and mouse game as Mike and the perps try to outsmart one another.

Mike is especially reckless in this novel since Stacey is pregnant, then gives birth. You'd think Mike would avoid danger, so he'd be around for his wife and baby, but Mike can't seem to avoid murderous people. (You just know a man wrote this book. LOL)



Recurring characters that appear in the novel include:

Billy Cronk - a registered Maine guide and outdoorsman who looks like a viking; Billy goes along when Mike tries to catch a vigilante.



Kathy Frost - Mike's former supervisor, who's a skilled woodswoman and tracker; Kathy helps in a pinch.



Ora Stevens - Stacey's mother (Mike's mother-in-law) who's on hand to help with Stacey and Mike's baby.



The Mike Bowditch novels are action-adventure all the way, and there are plenty of edge of your seat moments in the story. I enjoyed the book, but wish Mike would be more careful in perilous situations.



I had the digital book and the audiobook, narrated by Henry Leyva. Leyva is a good narrator, but some of his female voices are hinky.

Thanks to Netgalley, Paul Doiron, Macmillan Audio and Minotaur for ARCs of the book.

Rating: 3.5 stars

Review of "The Calamity Club: A Novel" by Kathryn Stockett

 

This book is set in 1933 Mississippi, when the Great Depression is devastating the country. The hardship caused by the economic collapse - as well as sexism, racism, homophobia, and eugenics - is seen through the eyes of the novel's two narrators: 24-year-old Birdie Calhoun and 11-year-old Meg Lafleur.

Birdie Calhoun, her Mama, and her Meemaw live on a farm in Footely, in the Mississippi Delta. The Calhoun women are struggling after a run of bad luck. Papa died from a heart attack; Meemaw broke her hip; the water pipes broke; and the truck gave up the ghost.



Birdie works as a bookkeeper at Footely Farm & Mercantile, but she's paid much less than the men working there, and the Calhoun women can't pay their property taxes. In danger of losing their home and farm, Birdie is sent to Oxford, Mississippi to ask her younger sister Frances for a loan.



Frances left the Footely farm in her late teens, went to finishing school in Memphis, and married WAY UP.



When Birdie gets to Oxford, she finds Frances and her husband Rory Tartt living with Rory's widowed mother, Mrs. Tartt.



The Tartts reside in an elegant mansion called Idlewilde, and Frances brags to Birdie, "The Tartts are upper-class people with stature. And they’ve been places, to Europe and Africa. Rory’s daddy was a very well-known businessman. He started one of the biggest banks in Oxford.”



Rory works for the bank his father founded, and travels around the south to visit clients;



and Frances volunteers at the Lafayette County Orphan Asylum for Girls, nicknamed the Orphan, which is run by Chairlady Garnett Pittman.



Frances isn't being altruistic, she's social-climbing. By kissing up to Garnett Pittman, Frances hopes to make inroads into Oxford high society. To gain brownie points with Garnett, Frances even volunteers Birdie's temporary services as a bookkeeper/accountant, to straighten out the orphanage’s financial records before an upcoming inspection.



Unfortunately for the orphans, Chairlady Garnett Pittman is a self-righteous, mean-spirited shrew. Rather than viewing the orphans as unlucky youngsters who need love and protection, Garnett considers them burdens and moral failures who need to be indoctrinated. Garnett views most things as sinful, and is running for President of the Anti-Vice League.



In any event, Garnett accepts Birdie's bookkeeping services, and shows her to the Orphan's shabby accounting office, which has moldy walls, stale air, and boarded-up windows. There Birdie meets 11-year-old Meg Lafleur. Garnett expelled Meg from the orphanage school, and makes the girl sit in the stuffy accounting office all day every day.



Meg is even obliged to eat her sparse meals in the office, away from the other girls. If Meg isn't adopted by age 12, she'll be sent to work at a canning factory, and the Orphan will get remuneration for Meg's labor.



Meg's story goes as follows: She was raised by a single mother called Charlie who cleaned houses. They were poor, but got by, and Charlie sang to Meg; told her stories; took her to the grocery store; let her browse in the five-and-ten; checked out books from the library; and did everything a loving mom does.



Then, when Meg was nine, Charlie went shopping right before Christmas, and didn't come back. Meg waited anxiously, had a few HORRIBLE days, and ended up in the orphanage under the 'care' of Garnett Pittman, who hates her. Meg keeps wishing and daydreaming her mother will come back.

While Birdie works on the Orphan's books, she and Meg spend time together in the accounting office. Birdie becomes fond of the girl, who's bright, artistic, well-read, and well-spoken. Birdie also notes Garnett's animosity toward the child.



Birdie takes it upon herself to pull the boards off the windows of the accounting office, clean the room, and paint the walls - and Meg helps. Going forward, Birdie maintains an interest in Meg, and vows to help her as best she can.



Back at the Tartts' Idlewilde mansion, Birdie is diffident, but finally tells Frances about the dire circumstances at Footely. Birdie reminds Frances that the Calhouns are her family as well, and asks for a loan of $250. Frances hems and haws and finally says, “I’ll figure out how to ask Rory. He’s just—he’s real sensitive about money right now.”



Frances is unaware that the Tartts will soon be bankrupt themselves, and in danger of having their mansion confiscated. The Tartts' lives are about to change drastically.

*****

I'll have to be circumspect now, to avoid spoilers. Here are a few highlights:

ᯓ➤ After being gone for two years, Meg's mother Charlie - shabby and distraught - comes to the orphanage, desperate to see her daughter. Luckily, Charlie encounters Birdie instead of Garnett, and tells her sad story. Charlie was arrested on the night she disappeared, sent to prison, deemed feebleminded, and sterilized. All this was engineered by Garnett Pittman, who's an awful woman. In any case, Charlie wants Meg back, but the situation is VERY complicated.



ᯓ➤ Frances's husband Rory Tartt has been keeping secrets, and big trouble ensues.

ᯓ➤ For romance fans, there are sparks for Birdie.

ᯓ➤ A gay character is described as having 'caught the homosexuality disease' and is sent away to 'get cured.'

ᯓ➤ A character who's 'passing for white' is violating Mississippi's miscegenation laws, which are strictly enforced in towns like Oxford.

*****

Midway through the novel, it's clear everyone needs money. Birdie needs funds to pay the property taxes on the family farm in the Mississippi Delta; the Tartts need cash to save their estate; and Charlie needs money to try to get Meg back.

So while the Tartts are absent from Oxford, and WITHOUT THEIR KNOWLEDGE, Birdie and Charlie cook up a scheme to use the Tartt property to run a temporary dancing school (wink wink) with female 'dancing teachers' (escorts) who take the 'dancing students' inside after a swing dance or two.



This enterprise takes up a large portion of the novel, and is the reason people say the story is too long (it is). There's a secondary plotline about a millionaire family that has troubles of it own and a tragic occurrence, but nuff said about that.



The book bogs down in places, but I rooted for Birdie, Charlie, and their friends as they schemed to solve their financial problems. I found the 'dance school' enterprise clever and ambitious, but it's unlikely to work in real life. In towns like Oxford, Mississippi, where everyone gossips - especially about people like the Tartts - the 'dance school' could NEVER be kept under the radar.



I enjoyed getting to know Birdie, Meg, Charlie and the other characters - even the ones you love to hate. Meg is an especially intriguing protagonist. She's courageous about her 'imprisonment' in the accounting office; draws clever portraits; lies like a politician (for a good cause); reads people like a psychologist; is kind and caring; and loves books, buttery biscuits, and chocolate desserts (as do I).



Overall, the novel seems to be a faithful representation of Mississippi in the 1930s and beyond, and it's a good story. Recommended.

I had the digital book and the audiobook, narrated by Jenna Lamia and January LaVoy, who do a great job with the voices of Birdie and Meg.

Rating: 4 stars