Review of "The Golden Gate: A Novel" by Amy Chua

This review was first posted on Mystery & Suspense Magazine. Check it out for features, interviews, and reviews. https://www.mysteryandsuspense.com/th...

The San Francisco area is a turbulent place in 1944. World War II is raging; Japanese-Americans are interned in detention camps; labor strikes cause clashes between workers and police; Mexicans, Asians, and Blacks are the target of severe discrimination; hatred of communists is widespread; fear of Japanese spies is rampant; food is rationed; and more. In this atmosphere, the murder of presidential candidate Walter Wilkinson in the high-end Claremont Hotel in Berkeley, California causes quite a stir.


San Francisco circa 1944

Wealthy business mogul Wilkinson is found shot in his hotel room, with his pants pulled down and his mouth stuffed with a Chinese jade seal, chocolates, flowers, and other miscellanea.



Berkeley homicide detective Al Sullivan leads the murder investigation.......



........and is pressured to solve the case quickly by District Attorney Dugan, who aspires to be governor.



Detective Sullivan and his team interview everyone in the Claremont Hotel, and a Mexican cleaning lady named Juanita says she saw a blonde girl with the candidate around midnight, shortly before a shot was heard.



Juanita is certain the blonde is one of the Bainbridge girls, who sometimes visit the hotel with their grandmother, but the maid can't say which Bainbridge girl it is.



The affluent Bainbridge family is part of Berkeley high society, and the Bainbridge girls are Isabella and her twin cousins, Cassie and Nicole - all of whom are twenty years old. In an effort to discover which blonde was with Wilkinson, District Attorney Dugan pressures the girls' grandmother, grande dame Genevieve Bainbridge, to identify the culprit. Dugan goes so far as to threaten to hang all three granddaughters if Genevieve doesn't turn in the perpetrator.



Genevieve insists her granddaughters are innocent, and provides a lengthy written deposition about the history of the Bainbridge family. Excerpts from Genevieve's testimony alternate with Detective Sullivan's narration of events.

The Bainbridges experienced a tragedy in 1930, when Genevieve's granddaughters, Isabella and her sister Iris, were playing hide-and-seek in the Claremont Hotel. Iris was killed when she fell down a laundry chute, and Isabella, who was six at the time, didn't speak for months. The Claremont Hotel is now said to be haunted by Iris's ghost, who is supposedly heard crying.



As Detective Sullivan's inquiries go forward, one Bainbridge girl after another comes to the attention of the authorities. Nicole, a college student and avowed communist, is suspected of killing Wilkinson because he was a capitalist who exploited workers;



Cassie, a sport hunter who has Japanese friends, is thought to have killed Wilkinson for his anti-Japanese rhetoric;



and Isabella, a fashionista and coquette, shamelessly flirts with Detective Sullivan to divert suspicion from her family.



The Wilkinson murder inquiry gets even more complicated when a Chinese call girl, who was also seen with the candidate, is found dead with a hatchet in her throat.



This is thought to be a Chinese Tong killing, and Detective Sullivan interviews people in the Chinese community, including China's first lady, Madame Chiang Kai-Shek, who's living in Berkeley at the moment.



The murder investigation goes forward with many zig and zags until the killer(s) of Wilkinson and the Chinese prostitute are revealed.

One of the most interesting characters in the book is Detective Al Sullivan, who was born Alejo Gutiérrez, the son of a half-Jewish Mexican father and a White mother. In 1931, when Alejo was seventeen, his father and two half-brothers were deported to Mexico during the Mexican Repatriation.



Alejo went on to serve in the Army and attend college, then changed his name to Al Sullivan (his mother's maiden name) when he joined the Berkeley police department. Al feels guilty about sending Japanese-Americans to detention camps; is helping raise his eleven-year-old niece Miriam; and is easily swayed by beautiful Isabella's womanly wiles.



In addition to the murder mystery, author Amy Chua infuses the story with historical snippets. These include descriptions of the building and dedication of the Golden Gate Bridge;


Golden Gate Bridge

information about the California gold rush;


California Gold Rush

references to the Lincoln Highway, which extended from New York City to San Francisco;


Lincoln Highway

descriptions of California's Kaiser Shipyards, where the United States rebuilt its naval fleet after the bombing of Pearl Harbor;


Kaiser Shipyards

mentions of the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, which forbid immigration of Chinese laborers to America;


Chinese Exclusion Act

references to building the magnificent 115-room Hearst Castle in San Simeon, which was designed by female architect Julia Morgan; and more.


Hearst Castle

Chua, a law professor at Yale University, clearly did extensive research for the book.

The plot, which gets a bit complicated, requires careful attention, but this is a fine historical mystery in a picturesque setting.

I listened to the audiobook, narrated by Robb Moreira, Suzanne Toren, and Tim Campbell, who do an excellent job.

Thanks to Netgalley, Amy Chua, and Macmillan Audio for a copy of the book.

Rating: 3.5 stars

Review of "The Night House: A Horror Story" by Jo Nesbø

I'm a big fan of Jo Nesbø's 'Harry Hole' books, about a Norwegian police detective, and I enjoyed Nesbø's update of 'Macbeth' for the Hogarth Shakespeare series. In 'The Night House', Nesbø dips a toe into the horror genre, and the novel is appropriate for both young adult and adult fans of creepy crawly stories.

*****

After losing his parents in a tragedy, fourteen-year-old Richard Elauved goes to live with his Uncle Frank and Aunt Jenny in the town of Ballantyne, which Richard considers 'a little shithole with shitty little kids.'



Richard is always looking for trouble, and when a classmate named Tom, who has a stutter, mentions, "Now, in the sp-sp-spring, the river is scary and dangerous", Richard convinces Tom to come to the river with him.



At the river, Richard tosses in a Luke Skywalker action figure he stole.....



.....and then, wanting to cause more mischief, Richard convinces Tom to make a prank call from a phone booth near the main road.



The phone booth contains a phone book, and Richard randomly picks the number for someone called Imu Jonasson.



Richard then dials and orders Tom to say "Hi Imu. I'm the devil and I'm inviting you to hell. Because that's where you belong."



The phone then proceeds to consume Tom, 'as if the receiver does what some insects do with their prey: they inject something that turns the flesh to jelly, which they can then slurp up.'

Richard reports the disaster to Sheriff McClelland, who doesn't believe him, and thinks Richard must have pushed Tom into the river.



The police search for Tom to no avail, after which Agent Dale from the Federal Police shows up to investigate.



The only person who seems to believe Richard is a pretty schoolmate named Karen, who has a rebellious streak of her own.



Richard and Karen learn that Imu Jonasson, who lived in a big mansion called 'The Night House', was institutionalized, and hasn't been seen in Ballantyne for years.

Richard convinces another classmate, nicknamed Fatso, to check out 'The Night House' with him, and the boys discover that the mansion is an abandoned, creepy, mysterious place.



Afterwards, Fatso has dinner at Richard's house, after which Fatso turns into an insect and flies away.



Fatso's vanishing convinces the authorities that Richard needs serious help. Since the boy is a minor, he's sent to the Rorrim Correctional Facility for Young People, and more strange things happen.



To say more would be a spoiler, but I will say this is an entertaining story with surprises galore. I'd recommend the book to readers who enjoy light-ish horror stories.

Thanks to Netgalley, Jo Nesbø, and Knopf, Pantheon, Vintage, and Anchor for a copy of the book.

Rating: 3 stars

Review of "Bright Young Women: A Novel" by Jessica Knoll

This review was first posted on Mystery & Suspense Magazine. Check it out for features, interviews, and reviews. https://www.mysteryandsuspense.com/br...

Horrific serial killer Ted Bundy - who murdered at least 30 women in seven states between 1974 and 1978 - has been portrayed as intelligent, sharp, cunning, clever, wily, charming and so on. In the opinion of author Jessica Knoll, this erroneous portrayal is (at least partly) a 'cover up' by incompetent law enforcement officials who - after Bundy was arrested for multiple murders - allowed the killer to escape again and again. On the loose, Bundy continued his killing spree. Rather than take the blame, the authorities depicted Bundy as some kind of manipulative genius, which Knoll believes is patently untrue.


Ted Bundy

This novel, inspired by Bundy, depicts the unnamed character Knoll calls 'the defendant' as arrogant and academically challenged. In the book, the defendant attended a third-rate law school, because "despite hundreds of hours of preparation, his Law School Aptitude Test results were mediocre and his performance on the grammar part of the exam below high school level." Moreover, the defendant failed out of even this sub-par law school.

Rather than aggrandize the serial killer - as newspapers, books, documentaries, movies, television shows, podcasts, etc. - tend to do, Knoll focuses on the lives of several women impacted by the murderer.

As the story opens, it's a Saturday night in January 1978, and Pamela Schumacher, president of the smartest sorority at Florida State University in Tallahassee, is organizing the group's annual blood drive. Meanwhile, Pamela's sorority sisters, including her best friend Denise Andora, are leaving the sorority house to party with their fraternity brethren.


Sorority House at Florida State University

Later that night, at 3:00 AM, Pamela is awoken by hunger pangs and goes downstairs to make herself a peanut butter sandwich. Hearing a noise, Pamela sees a man with what looks like a child's baseball bat dart down the stairs and out the front door. Luckily, the shadow of the stairwell made it so Pamela could see the intruder, but he could not see her.

That night the defendant kills two of Pamela's sorority sisters, Denise Andora and Robbie Shepherd; maims two others, Jill Hoffman and Eileen Neilson; and beats up a young woman down the street.




Ted Bundy's murder victims at Florida State University

During the media brouhaha that follows the terrible incident, Pamela Schumacher meets a woman named Tina Cannon, from Seattle, Washington. Tina is certain the defendant killed her friend, Ruth Wachowsky, four years ago. In July 1974, Ruth and another woman went missing from Seattle's Lake Sammamish State Park, and Ruth's body was never found.


Lake Sammamish State Park in Seattle, Washington




Ted Bundy's murder victims at Lake Sammammish in Seattle

Pamela and Tina pair up with a journalist called Carl Wallace to look into the defendant's criminal history. They learn that the defendant entered law school in Utah in 1974, and that's when women in the Salt Lake City area began to disappear. When one victim managed to escape and identify the defendant, he was arrested and extradited to Colorado, to stand trial for killing a woman there. That was when "law enforcement shit the bed." In Colorado the defendant engineered two escapes, one from a law library and one from a jail cell. He then went on to kill more women.


Building from which Ted Bundy escaped the first time


Prison Cell from which Ted Bundy escaped the second time

When Pamela, Tina, and newsman Carl go to Colorado to get information about the defendant's escapes, the police and prison officials are uncooperative, and - to explain away their ineptitude - opine that the defendant was "a force beyond anyone's control." This infuriates Pamela and Tina, who want it made clear that incompetent law enforcement contributed to the later murders at Florida State University.

Once the defendant is arrested for his crimes in Florida, Pamela must prepare herself to testify against him. This is a difficult and grueling experience, especially because the cocky defendant acts as his own attorney.


Ted Bundy acts as his own attorney in court

As trial preparations go on, flashbacks to the past flesh out the lives of Pamela, Tina, and Ruth, all of whom were victims, directly or indirectly, of the serial killer.

Since much of the story is set in the latter part of the 20th century, when the women's movement and LGBTQ+ rights were less established than now, Pamela, Tina, and Ruth are variously impacted by homophobia, sexism, misogyny, male chauvinism, etc. In addition, the women experience personal difficulties such as family dysfunction, bad parents, selfish boyfriends, sad losses, and so on. Thus, in addition to deflating the mystique surrounding the serial killer, author Jessica Knoll tackles issues pertinent to the women's private lives.

Knoll's approach is an effective way to deglamorize the serial killer and focus instead on women impacted by his terrible crimes. Still, it's important to understand the psychology of serial killers, most of whom seem to have troubled histories, in an effort to prevent such atrocities in the future.

Thanks to Netgalley, Jessica Knoll, and S&S/ Marysue Rucci Books for a copy of the book.

Rating: 4 stars

Review of "Like A Sister: A Mystery Novel" by Kellye Garrett

Twenty-eight-year-old Lena Scott is a graduate student at Columbia University, studying nonprofit management. Lena's mother died from cancer, and Lena hopes to run an organization that helps Black families affected by the illness.

Lena is something of an outlier in her family. Her father, Mel Pierce, is a multimillionaire hip-hop mogul.....



.....and her half-sister Desiree Pierce, who once starred on a reality television show, is a spoiled beauty addicted to spending money, getting drunk, and using drugs. Lena describes herself and her half-sister as looking alike, with their brown freckled faces and similar eyes.



Lena is distant from both her dad and her half-sister. Mel Pierce left Lena and her mom when Lena was a child, and hardly saw Lena while she was growing up. Thus Lena was largely raised by her mother, a strong Black woman who taught Lena to be the same.



When Mel skipped Lena's high school graduation, Lena was very hurt. As a result, Lena took her mother's last name and has hardly said a word to her father since. To be fair, Mel tries in his own way, since he gives Lena a Visa white card with no limit, and a Harlem townhouse worth $2,575,000.....though she wanted neither.



As for Desiree, Lena was close to her half-sister until two years ago, when Desiree's drinking and cocaine use led to her crashing her car. Lena was frantic with worry, but Desiree's only concern was fixing her make-up so she could take selfies for Instagram.



Disgusted with Desiree's substance abuse and shallow behavior, Lena blocked Desiree on her phone, though she continued to stalk her half-sister on social media.



As the story opens, Lena is devastated because - on the day after Desiree's twenty-fifth birthday party - Desiree is found dead from a drug overdose. Lena realizes she would have made up with her half-sister eventually, and now she'll never get the chance. The police say Desiree died from an accidental heroin overdose, because there are track marks on Desiree's body. However, Lena insists Desiree was deathly afraid of needles and never used heroin. Thus Lena is certain her half-sister was murdered, and she sets out to find the killer herself.



To find the murderer, Lena tracks down the people at Desiree's birthday celebration, which took place at Manhattan's ritzy Omni Hotel. The birthday guests included Desiree's sometimes boyfriend, a DJ called Neil Marks; Desiree's fellow reality TV star, Zarah Turner; Desiree's best friend Erin Ambrose; and more.



Lena also speaks with other people who knew Desiree, including Desiree's (and Lena's) father Mel; Desiree's mother Veronica; Aunt E - with whom Lena shares a house in the Bronx; Tam - Mel's personal assistant; Free - a hip-hop bigwig who was once Mel's business partner; and more.

Additional people interested in Lena's investigation include Police Detective Green, who provides a bit of help (even though he called Desiree's death an accidental overdose);



and journalist Stuart Jones, who wants to write a newspaper article and a book about Desiree.



As Lena conducts her inquiries, which includes doing a deep dive into all kinds of social media, there are plenty of twists and surprises.

Author Kellye Garrett's previous mysteries included humorous cozies in the 'Detective by Day' series, which are very fun and entertaining. This book is more of a thriller, and I was a little disappointed by the dearth of humor. My major quibble, though, is Lena obsessively looking at text messages, phone messages, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and so on. This seems to take up a large part of the book, and it became a little wearisome (to me).

Still, I enjoyed the story and recommend it to mystery fans.

Rating: 3 stars