Review of "The Last House on the Street: A Novel" by Diane Chamberlain

This dual timeline story takes place in Round Hill, North Carolina, and alternates between 1965 - when the civil rights movement rocked the south; and 2010 - when ghosts of the past come home to roost.

*****

In 2010, Shadow Ridge Estates is a new housing development on a picturesque block in Round Hill, North Carolina. The biggest and most beautiful home on the street, designed by architects Kayla and Jackson Carter......



nestles among a copse of trees at the end of the road.



The Carters built the house for themselves, their 4-year-old daughter Rainie, and any future children they might have.

The house was almost complete when Jackson Carter fell down a set of steps and sustained a fatal injury. Jackson's wife Kayla was grief-stricken, but decided she and little Rainie would take up residence in the house anyway, to honor Jackson's memory.



Kayla is almost completely moved in when she gets a visit from an obviously disguised woman who tells Kayla it's bad luck to live in the house.



Kayla and little Rainie move in anyway, and sinister things start to happen - like bogus phone calls and trash being strewn across the lawn.



The only OLD house that remains on Kayla's street is a deteriorating southern home owned by disabled, seventyish Buddy Hockley, who refuses to sell.



Right now Buddy lives in the house with his elderly mother and his sister Ellie Hockley - who returned from San Franciso after 45 years to care for her family.



The story skips back and forth between 2010 and 1965, when then 20-year-old Ellie Hockley was a pharmacology major at the University of North Carolina.



Ellie was home for summer break when she became aware that the SCOPE project was sending college students to the South to help Negroes (the polite term for black people in 1965) register to vote.



Having been influenced by her liberal Aunt Carol (who married into the family), Ellie decides to join SCOPE. Ellie's mother, father, brother, and godfather are APPALLED and try every which way to stop her, saying things like: Negro people are happy with the way things are; there will be strong backlash from white people; she might get hurt; and so on. Ellie's mother even tells her the Ku Klux Klan is really just a social club, because people like to belong to something.



Ellie feels compelled to join SCOPE anyway, and the program - which involves singing freedom songs; staging demonstrations; and going door to door in Negro neighborhoods to convince people to register to vote - exhilarates her.







Ellie makes new friends, including young black college students. Any co-mingling between blacks and whites - especially black males and white females - horrifies racist southerners, and SCOPE workers are taught to run and hide from vehicles driven by white men, who might shoot them.

After a a month, there's a terrible tragedy in the SCOPE program, and Ellie is so upset she moves to San Francisco.



Now that Ellie is back in North Carolina, she aims to learn the whole truth about what happened in 1965. However there are people in Round Hill who want to hide the facts, and this has consequences for both Ellie and Kayla.

The book provides a visceral picture of white resistance to civil rights, and the behavior of Klan members is stomach-churning at times. Sadly, some of the activities depicted are similar to what's happening in the country today, showing we still have a ways to go.

This is an excellent dual historic/contemporary novel, highly recommended.

Thanks to Netgalley, Diane Chamberlain, and St. Martin's Press for a copy of the book.

Rating: 4 stars

Review of "State of Terror: A Thriller" by Hillary Rodham Clinton and Louise Penny

 

Authors Hillary Rodham Clinton (left) and Louise Penny

For this thriller, Hillary Rodham Clinton drew on her experience as U.S. Secretary of State and Louise Penny on her talent as a mystery writer to craft a tale about a Secretary of State trying to stop nuclear terrorists from exploding bombs in American cities. The twist - a traitor in the upper echelons of the U.S. government is helping the terrorists.

*****

Newly elected President Douglas Williams isn't Ellen Adams' favorite person.



When Williams was a powerful senator and Ellen was in charge of a global media empire....





.....Ellen's journalist son Gil Bahar was kidnapped by Middle Eastern terrorists.



Senator Williams wouldn't allow the government to negotiate for Gil's release and Ellen expected her son to be beheaded momentarily.....but Gil miraculously escaped. Gil has now converted to Islam and has friends and contacts in the Middle East.

After Williams failed to help Gil, Ellen used her media conglomerate to lobby HARD against the senator being nominated for president, but Williams got the nomination and won. Now - to everyone's shock - Williams has made Ellen Secretary of State, but he plans to sabotage and disgrace her.



The new administration has to repair the damage done by the previous president, Eric Dunn - called Eric the Dunce by his critics - who cozied up to dictators, allowed Iran to pursue nuclear weapons, damaged America's relations with its allies, and more.



As if that's not bad enough, three bus bombs explode in a single day - first in London, then in Paris, and finally in Frankfurt.



Just before the last bomb explodes a Pakistani-American foreign service officer called Anahita Dahir realizes a gibberish email she received, which her boss thought was spam, was a warning about the bombs.



Secretary of State Adams gets the news just moments before the last bomb explodes, and is able to warn her son Gil, who's on the Frankfurt bus following a Pakistani nuclear physicist. Gil escapes the bus in time, but is injured and taken to the hospital.

It turns out the bombs were detonated for the express purpose of killing three Pakistani scientists on their way to build nuclear weapons for other Middle Eastern factions.



The theory is that Iran planted the bombs to stop its enemies in the region from acquiring weapons of mass destruction.

The situation in the Middle East is always complicated, but the U.S. suspects the Russian Mafia - under the supervision of Russian President Ivanov - is selling nuclear components to Middle Eastern terrorists, and a Pakistani nuclear physicist called Dr. Bashir Shah is providing scientists to those same terrorists, all to help the zealots build nuclear bombs.

Ellen and her trusted counselor Betsy Jameson.....



....along with foreign service officer Anahita Dahir and members of Ellen's staff - rush to the Middle East.



Ellen plans to consult with the leaders of Iran, Pakistan, and Afghanistan, hoping to get information about the terrorists' identity and location.







Along the way Ellen learns that three nuclear weapons have been placed in American cities, and are set to be detonated at any moment.

Meanwhile Ellen's son Gil leaves the hospital and makes his way to his secret source in Afghanistan, who tells him a 'High Level Informant' in America is in league with Russia and the terrorists.

When Ellen learns about the traitor she sends Betsy back to America to investigate the miscreant's identity. Betsy gets assistance from a disgruntled member of former President Dunn's administration, and their prying leads to murder.



Meanwhile Ellen - with the blessings of President Williams (who's come to appreciate her intelligence and capabilities) - is in a race against time to stop the explosions on American soil. Ellen even confronts Russian President Ivanov, and gives him a taste of his own medicine.



As with all thrillers, the plot requires some suspension of disbelief, but it mirrors several real world worries, like the Russian mafia arming the world, and Americans trying to undermine their own government.

Fans of Louise Penny's Detective Inspector Armand Gamache series, set in the Canadian village of Three Pines, will be happy to see some favorite characters. Moreover, Secretary of State Ellen Adams' favorite poet is Ruth Zardo. 🙂

I enjoyed this fast-paced thriller, and got a kick out of Ellen Adams and her ally Betsy Jameson going face to face with some tough guys.



Thriller fans (except for supporters of former President Trump) would probably enjoy this book.

 Rating: 3.5 stars

Review of "The Perfect Girl: A Novel of Suspense" by Gilly Macmillan

 

Zoe Guerin is a piano prodigy who got into a posh high school in Devon, England on a music scholarship.



The snobby rich students had little use for Zoe......



.....and to fit in, 14-year-old Zoe did things she shouldn't - like get behind the wheel of a car and drive drunk classmates around. The car crashed, three students died, and Zoe was sentenced to 18 months in a juvenile secure unit.



The incident devastated Zoe's parents and ruptured their marriage. When Zoe was released, her mother Maria moved Zoe and herself to Bristol, changed their last name to Maisey, and told no one about Zoe's accident. Maria met and married a rich widower called Chris.....



.....whose teenage son Lucas is also a talented pianist.



A baby girl named Grace came along soon afterwards, and the knit-together family now seems to be doing well in what Zoe calls her 'second chance life.'



Maria and Chris want to assist the careers of their gifted children and arrange for Zoe and Lucas, both now 17-years-old, to give a piano recital in a Bristol church.



As the teens start playing a disturbance leads to the exposure of the tragic incident in Zoe's past, which was largely a secret until now. The revelation has unexpected repercussions, and before the next morning, Maria is dead. The rest of the novel explores how and why this happened.



The story alternates back and forth between the past and present, and is told from the rotating points of view of Zoe;



Aunt Tessa (Maria's sister) - who was assigned the task of filming the recital;



and Sam - the lawyer who represented Zoe after the car accident.



We read about Zoe's version of the car crash and Zoe's time in the secure unit, where she learned the past will follow her forever. We also see what happens at Zoe's home after the piano concert, where everyone is anxious and on edge.

There's a small, but rich array of characters in the book, who have issues like infidelity; alcoholism; irresponsiblilty; dishonesty; health worries; violent tendencies; and more. Secrets are revealed as the story unfolds, leading to a dramatic denouement.

The book is a page-turner that held my attention from the beginning to the end, which I found quite satisfying.

Rating: 3.5 stars

Review of "The Harder They Come: A Literary Novel" by T.C. Boyle

What do you do when your delusional twenty-five-year-old son - who's paranoid about 'hostiles' (Mexicans, other foreigners, and especially 'the Chinese') - becomes destructive and violent? That's the problem faced by Sten Stensen, a retired high school principal and Vietnam vet, and Sten's wife Carolee.

Sten, a 70-year-old former Marine, is no shrinking violet himself. As the book opens, Sten, Carolee, and a group of golden age vacationers are about to embark on a nature hike in Costa Rica - an activity organized by their luxury cruise ship.



The tourists are mugged by three young thugs, armed with a gun and knives, who demand their valuables. Sten gets the jump on one of miscreants, puts him in a choke hold, and kills him.....while the other two punks flee.



Sten fears repercussions from the Costa Rican authorities, but instead is praised for dispensing with a trouble-maker. Moreover, when Sten gets home to Mendocino, California, he's hailed as a hero, and pursued by print journalists and television talk show hosts.



All this hoopla irks the Stensen's son Adam - a seriously troubled, mentally ill young man.

Adam reveres John Colter, the historical 'mountain man' from the Lewis and Clark expedition who - legend has it - ran hundreds of miles, naked, to escape from the Blackfoot Indians.


John Colter



In fact Adam has renamed himself 'Colter' and tries to emulate his hero, who lived off the land and battled hostiles (Indians in Colter's case).

Adam resides in his deceased grandmother's isolated house in a woodsy area of northern California, around which he's built a wall with no opening. Adam scales the wall, parkour-fashion, to get in and out. He also has a concealed hideout nearby, and a field where he grows poppies for opium.....his main source of income. Adam shaves his head, dresses in camouflage clothing, wears a backpack containing survival gear, and carries a rifle wherever he goes.



Adam doesn't get along with his parents, who've repeatedly tried to get the disturbed youth help over the years. The young man especially resents his father, who shows up one day to knock an opening into Adam's wall, in preparation for selling the house.

A few days after the wall incident, while thumbing a ride, Adam meets Sara Jennings, a forty-year-old divorcée with troubles of her own. Sara, who works as a farrier, doesn't acknowledge the authority of the government, which she calls the "U.S. Illegitimate Government of America."



To show her independence, in accordance with the 14th amendment (as she interprets it), Sara refuses to wear a seat belt, and - when she's pulled over by a police officer - won't present her licence, registration, and insurance.....as required by California law.

As a result, Sara is arrested, her car is impounded, and her beloved dog - who nipped the cop - is quarantined.....since (of course) the canine had no rabies shot. By the time Sara retrieves her vehicle and picks up a hitchhiking Adam, she's desperate to get her dog back.....and the two stage a rescue (illegal dognapping).



Afterwards, hiding from the police with her pooch, Sara temporarily moves in with Adam. The farrier becomes a mother figure/lover to the young man, who she finds irresistibly sexy. Adam is peculiar from the get-go, disappearing from morning til evening, then coming home for beer, food and sex. Later, when Sara invites her best friend for dinner, Adam sits at the table naked.



Eventually, Adam's behavior becomes completely unhinged, he commits serious crimes, and goes on the run.

Adam and Sara are a complementary pair in their disdain for authority. Nonetheless, Sara is sane, and - despite believing she can flout the law - fears the consequences of abetting a wanted felon.

Adam's parents are very concerned about their son's downward spiral, and Sten quietly considers cutting his son loose, since Adam won't cooperate with any form of treatment. When the police ask Sten to help capture the boy, though, he's torn.

To round out the action, Mexican gangbangers are using the Mendocino National Forest for a marijuana growing operation, and they're cutting down trees and poisoning wildlife to accomodate their needs.



Local citizens are furious, and Sten gets pulled into a vigilante scheme to stop the lowlifes, which adds danger and excitement to the novel.



The book is essentially a character study of Sten, Adam, and Sara, with Carolee in a supporting role. The writing is excellent, the landscape and environment are vivdly brought to life, and the characters are interesting and three-dimensional.

Sara is an especially intriguing character. Though the farrier's extreme 'libertarian' views are self-defeating - since there's red tape and a hefty fee to get her car out of impound, and the dog being 'in prison' leaves her overwhelmingly anxious - Sara sticks to her guns. You gotta admire that!

And Sara's weird opinions are interesting and a bit funny. I wonder if REAL people who reject taxes, government, vaccinations, and so on realize they would have no infrastructure, no roads, no emergency services, rampant disease, and so on. In short, chaos!

Carolee is also an amusing character (at times), as she mini-stalks Adam in an effort to find out what's going on with her son and Sara....the nefarious 'older woman.'



Though the book addresses serious subjects - dysfunctional individuals, drugs, violence, etc. - the story is lightened by a thread of humor that runs through the narrative. This is a good book that sheds light on important issues. I highly recommend it to fans of literary novels.

Rating: 4 stars