Review of "The Madness of Crowds: A Chief Inspector Armand Gamache Mystery" by Louise Penny

In this 17th book in the 'Chief Inspector Armand Gamache' series, the homicide detective investigates a New Year's Eve murder.

*****

Chief Inspector Armand Gamache, head of the homicide department at Montreal's Sûreté du Québec, was visiting Paris for his last adventure. Gamache is now back in his home town of Three Pines, where he sheltered during the Covid-19 pandemic.



The pandemic is now over, and Gamache is asked to provide security for a visiting academic. Professor Abigail Robinson is a statistician who wrote a report on the effects of the Coronavirus pandemic in Canada, with a view to mitigating future crises. Robinson's conclusions are VERY controversial, and as such things go, are passionately embraced by some and soundly excoriated by others.



Robinson has been invited to give a lecture at the Université de l’Estrie, and the school officials want to avoid trouble. So Gamache and his team will be on hand to control the crowd and protect the speaker.



There's an incident at the lecture, and Robinson - who's staying at the home of a friend - is told to stay put while Gamache looks for the conspirators. But it's the holiday season, and Robinson decides to attend a festive New Year's party at the Auberge Hotel in Three Pines. When the fireworks go off at midnight.....



.....someone is murdered, and Gamache and his colleagues, Inspector Jean-Guy Beauvoir (who's also Gamache's son-in-law) and Inspector Isabelle Lacoste, investigate.



The detectives soon learn that Abigail Robinson had an ulterior motive for visiting Three Pines, which expands the murder inquiries to an administrator at the Universite de l’Estrie and a retired doctor.

In the meantime, Three Pines has another distinguished visitor, a 23-year-old Sudanese woman named Haniya Daoud, who's a candidate for the Nobel Peace Prize. During Sudan's civil war Daoud saved many people, and ugly scars are proof of her bravery. Daoud has a grudge against the outside world, however, for turning their backs on Sudan during the crisis, and the result is rude and crusty behavior.



As all this is going on Gamache's wife Reine-Marie, who's retired from her job as a library curator, is doing free-lance curatorial work.



A family whose deceased matriarch left a smaller than expected estate asks Reine-Marie to examine their mother's things, to see if they're worth anything. Reine-Marie discovers that the dead woman was obsessed with monkeys - drawing them everywhere - and Reine-Marie tries to determine why.



In the end all these threads (more or less) come together, and the big picture is truly tragic.

I'm in the minority here, but for me this is one of the weakest books in the series, for the following reasons:

◙ It takes FOREVER for the author to reveal the divisive conclusions in Abigail Robinson's statistical report. The delay is annoying and unnecessary and the revelation is predictable.

◙ The murder occurs later in the novel than it should, for a murder mystery.

◙ The murder investigation is 90% talk. The detectives ENDLESSLY speculate about who did what and why, envisioning innumerable scenarios involving the same group of people. The book could easily have been cut by a third.

◙ There's a lot of blather about people doing this and that for love, and the power of love, and love being the most important thing in the world. It gets cringey and - in the end - doesn't provide a good rational for the crimes.

I admire Penny's efforts to incorporate the Covid-19 pandemic into a novel - and the story has some high points - but the book isn't wholly successful (in my opinion).

That said, I always like to visit with the residents of Three Pines, especially the eccentric trash-talking poet Ruth and her beloved duck Rosa. It's a hoot that potty-mouth Rosa (inadvertently) teaches children bad words.

I've read many of Penny's Armand Gamache novels, and they're always up and down for me.....so I'll keep reading them. 😃

Rating: 3 stars

Review of "Bad Blood: A Kate Shugak Novel of Suspense" by Dana Stabenow

In this 20th book in the 'Kate Shugak' series, the Alaskan private investigator helps her State Trooper boyfriend investigate two murders. The book can be read as a standalone but familiarity with the characters is a bonus.

*****

Aleut private detective Kate Shugak, a former investigator with the district attorney's office, lives on an isolated homestead in Alaska with her boyfriend, Alaska State Trooper Jim Chopin.






Because of the vast distances in Alaska Jim patrols in a small plane, but he isn't welcome everywhere.



This is especially true in the two hamlets of Kushtaka and Kuskulana, which lie on either side of a river, and have been feuding for over a century.



When the U.S. government offered financial incentives long ago, Kuskulana signed on while Kustaka - which wanted to adhere to the traditional old ways - refused. Kuskulana is now a prosperous town with jobs, stores, and a good school while Kustaka is a dying village with fewer than 10 students.

The bad feelings between Kushtaka and Kuskulana may now have escalated to murder. The body of teenager Tyler Mack is found in his family's fish wheel in Kushtaka.....



.....and the body of Kuskulana carpenter Mitch Halvorsen is found in the crawl space of a house he was building.



Trooper Chopin suspects some kind of tit for tat killing, but no one in either Kushtaka or Kuskulana will tell him anything. Residents of both regions insist they saw nothing, heard nothing, and know nothing.....and they'd just as soon Jim didn't come around at all.



Meanwhile, there's a kind of Romeo and Juliet romance between a Kushtaka girl called Jennifer and a Kuskulana boy named Ryan, which - if it comes to light - could set off a war between the two regions.



Kate Shugak, who's between cases of her own, helps her boyfriend Jim investigate the murders with the assistance of her smart half dog/half wolf Mutt, who accompanies her everywhere.



It turns out there's a lot going on beneath the surface in Kushtaka and Kuskulana, with a gold mine nearby whose workers like whiskey and fun. There's plenty of incentive for bad behavior, and trouble inevitably follows.

Much of the charm of this series lies in the depiction of Alaska, where people fish, hunt, and get around on snowmobiles.....and even the pastor flies her own plane to minister to her flock. When Kate sets off on a multi-day snowmobile jaunt, her preparations are impressive!

This is an enjoyable atmospheric mystery with clever twists.

Rating: 3 stars

Review of "The Light Streamed Beneath It: A Memoir of Grief and Celebration" by Shawn Hitchins

 

Shawn Hitchins


Shawn Hitchins is a Canadian comedian, author and actor. Shawn grew up gay in a tiny rural enclave during the 1980s and 90s - between the time of the AIDS epidemic and the expansion of gay rights. Thus Shawn's life has had ups and downs, but he was able to channel his feelings into his entertainment career and his writing.


Shawn Hitchins on stage

Shawn's first book, A Brief History of Oversharing: One Ginger's Anthology of Humiliation, is mostly light-hearted and humorous. This memoir is much different, being a journal of profound grief. Shawn lost two people he loved - his former common law husband Matt and his ex-boyfriend David - in a short period of time, and was devastated by the losses. Shawn struggled on, though, and writes, "This story is my path back to aliveness. This story is.....a ballad for two dynamic men who changed my life."

Shawn and his ex-common law husband, Matthew James Hines, were together for six years. During that time Shawn and Matt hosted game nights, dinners, drunken kitchen parties, and holiday celebrations for their different groups of friends. Shawn writes, "[Matt] became my co-captain, by wingman as we traveled from world to world (both his and mine). Life was easier with an ally at these events, someone who also understood the intricacies and backstories of our chosen family trees."


Shawn and Matt also attended weekly dinners at the home of Matt's city mom Louisa, where "champagne flutes bubbled over and four-finger shots of bourbon poured between courses of prime cuts of meat roasted to perfection and decadent buttercream topped cakes."





Shawn and Matt's relationship had its problems though, and they eventually had a 'conscious uncoupling' even though they still cared about each other. Matt got custody of the cat Stevie.

A couple of years after Shawn's common law marriage broke up, he met Californian David Francisco 

Shawn writes about their sexy meeting; the dynamics of a long-distance romance that included frequent messaging and visits back and forth; David's rental room in the home of Princess Jasmine - who had tickle parties; climbing San Francisco's Bernal Hill with Ziggy the cat tagging along; dinners with David's city mom Rachael and her husband John; intellectual discussions; butter tarts from Ontario; California lemons; and more.


Canadian butter tarts

Sadly, David was deeply troubled and the relationship ended within a year. This wounded Shawn, but Shawn and David stayed in touch and tried to be supportive of each other.

In October, 2018 Shawn's ex-common law husband Matt died from a tragic accident, a terrible incident that made Matt's passing even harder for his family and friends. Afterwards, Shawn helped clear Matt's apartment, which brought back memories of Matt's interests, idiosyncrasies, and their time together.

Matt had an anthology of Meryl Streep movies that made him cry (his 'cry-tear-ion collection'); kept a box filled with cards, concert tickets, lanyards, and programs; loved whimsy and miniatures; and was drawn to rickety old spaces with uneven floors and cracked plaster. Shawn recalls, "[Matt] created a warm sense of home with objects he found rummaging through church basements or pulled from curbside trash."


Matt had a collection of Meryl Streep movies

Shawn was crushed by Matt's death, and a second tragedy soon afterwards compounded the trauma.

Six months after Matt's death, in April, 2019, Shawn's former boyfriend David took his own life. This act seemed almost inexplicable to Shawn though he long suspected David was bipolar. Shawn mourned with David's loved ones, who cleared David's apartment and listened to a Spotify playlist of David's music as they recalled his life.

David's loved ones also did an elaborate ritual for the deceased, to send him extra energy on his journey. Later on they had a memorial service where Shawn said, "This is shit. You have to excuse my language. I know it's not right to swear at a memorial, but his is just shit. For those of you experiencing suicide for the first time, welcome to the LGBTQ experience."

Shawn's bereavement process was long and painful, involving therapy, introspection, extensive reading, Gaga movement (a kind of dancing), and more. Getting the cat Stevie back helped as well.


Gaga movement

For remembrance, Shawn also made ofrendas for the Day of the Dead, one for Matt and one for David, each covered with their personal effects. Shawn observes, "As I have come to understand it, Dia De Los Muertos celebrates a belief that our beloveds do not die, though they change physical form; they become ancestors who remain alive as part of the social conversation.


Example of an ofrenda

Writing this book was part of Shawn's grief and recovery process. The narrative is sad and moving, but also has some light moments and laughs.

Grief is a personal experience for everyone, but this book might help light the way for people who've experienced a loss.

Thanks to Netgalley, Shawn Hitchins, and ECW Press for a copy of the book.

Rating: 4 stars

Review of "Last Seen Alive: An Ellery Hathaway Mystery" by Joanna Schaffhausen

 

In this 5th book in the 'Ellery Hathaway' series, the police detective confronts the serial killer she escaped from years before. The book works fine as a standalone.

*****

At the age of fourteen, Ellery Hathaway was abducted by a sadistic serial killer who raped her, carved her up with a knife, and shut her up in a dank, putrid closet.



Ellery was on the point of death when she was rescued by FBI Agent Reed Markham.



Hathaway and Markham's names have been linked ever since in articles, books, and movies about the perpetrator, Francis Michael Coben, who murdered at least 17 girls.

The publicity adds to Ellery's distress, because people are constantly approaching her to ask questions and stare at her scars. Nevertheless, Ellery goes on to become a Boston police detective.....



.....and sometimes works on cases with her rescuer, Virginia-based Agent Reed Markham.



Years after the rescue, Ellery and Reed begin a personal relationship, but their 'hero and victim' status - and the constant pointing, staring and gossip - poison their romance. So with Ellery working in Boston and Reed working in Virginia/Washington, the investigators maintain a distance unless work brings them together.

Coben, who's been on death row for almost two decades, has always been suspected of having more victims than were found, and the missing girls' families are in limbo and suffering.



Prompted by a reality TV producer, Coben now offers to provide information about a missing girl named Tracy Trajan on the condition that Reed and Ellery visit him in prison.



The encounter would be filmed for a true crime television show and give Coben the attention he so badly craves. Reed is willing to do the interview but Ellery refuses until the aggressive smarmy TV people and Tracy's parents pressure her into agreeing.





During the prison visit Coben makes it clear he has unfinished business with Ellery, and she's glad he's sequestered from the world. Or is he?

A killing near Boston has all the earmarks of a Coben murder, and Ellery and Reed suspect Coben is the puppeteer for a copycat. The detectives make it their business to determine who the copycat is and how he/she communicates with Coben. Once the investigators figure it out, things take a dramatic and dangerous turn.

All this is very hard on Ellery, who's been trying to get out of the limelight and get on with her life.



It's tough on Reed also, who feels guilty for not having caught Coben sooner. Reed doesn't feel like a hero and shies away from the public adulation.



We get a peek into the detectives' personal lives when Ellery visits her mother in Chicago, plays with her basset hound Speed Bump, and liaises with her Boston Police Department partner Dorie.



For Reed's part, he visits with his daughter Tula and cooks delicious meals.

There's plenty of suspense and surprises in this page turner as well as blood and gore....so not for the faint-hearted. Recommended to readers who like thrillers, especially Ellery Hathaway fans.

Thanks to Netgalley, Joanna Schaffhausen, and Minotaur Books for a copy of the book.

Rating: 3.5 stars

Review of "Best in Snow: An Andy Carpenter Mystery" by David Rosenfelt

 

In this 24th book in the 'Andy Carpenter' series, set during the holiday season, the defense attorney represents a man accused of killing the mayor of Paterson, New Jersey. The book can be read as a standalone.

*****

Ever since he inherited a large fortune, New Jersey defense lawyer Andy Carpenter takes very few cases.



Instead, Andy hangs out with his wife Laurie - who's in Christmas mode; son Ricky - who likes to play sports; and three dogs - golden retriever Tara; basset hound Sebastian; and pug Hunter.









Andy also schmoozes with his friends at a local sports bar; helps run a canine rescue operation called 'The Tara Foundation'; watches football on television; etc.

Every evening before bed, Andy takes the dogs for a walk in the park. One snowy night before Thanksgiving Tara digs a hole in the ground and unearths a hand. The hand is attached to Alex Oliva, the mayor of Paterson, New Jersey, who's been shot in the back.



Within eight hours the police arrest a disgraced reporter named Bobby Nash, who had written an article saying the mayor took bribes to steer business to a local contractor. Bobby's 'proof' didn't hold up, he was accused of libel, and he lost his job. Bobby is arrested in the hospital because he was in a car crash on the night of the murder and is seriously injured.



Newspaper editor Vince Sanders - who's Bobby's mentor and Andy's friend - prevails on Andy to represent Bobby, and Andy reluctantly agrees. When Andy interviews Bobby in the hospital, the journalist confides he can't remember much about the night of the mayor's murder. Bobby also tells Andy that the woman who gave him 'proof' of Mayor Oliva's corruption later denied everything, and he thinks she purposely set him up. This woman comes to a bad end as well.



Bobby is eventually accused of two murders.

As Andy prepares for trial, he puts all his resources to work to prove Bobby's innocence. This includes Andy's law partner Eddie Dowd - a former football player who speaks in sports clichés;



the bubbeleh brigade - a cadre of elderly Jewish computer hackers;



and the K-Team - a detective agency composed of Andy's ex-cop wife Laurie; tough guy Marcus; ex-cop Corey Douglas; and Corey's K-9 partner Simon Garfunkel.







The bubbeleh brigade always brings homemade rugelach, which is a nice treat.



Andy and his team uncover a complicated conspiracy, and the conspirators want to make Andy and his client go away.



Luckily Marcus is equivalent to Spiderman, Superman, and Batman rolled into one, and Marcus always has Andy's back.

Andy is his usual sarcastic jokey self, and the narrative provides plenty of laughs. Moreover, newspaper editor Vince - who's NOT a dog person - get's temporary custody of Bobby's golden retriever Duchess....and it's fun to see Vince warm up to the pooch.



The story is set during the Thanksgiving/Christmas season, so the narrative is interspersed with delicious meals; Christmas trees; Christmas decorations; Christmas music; gift-wrapping; televised football games; and so on - all of which provides a nice holiday vibe.



The conspiracy that drives the plot is a little over-complicated, but the book is fun and entertaining. Recommended to Andy Carpenter fans and readers who enjoy light mysteries.

Thanks to Netgalley, David Rosenfelt, and Minotaur Books for a copy of the book.

Rating: 3.5 stars