Review of "Westport: A Crime Novel" by James Comey

This book is the sequel to Central Park West but it works fine as a standalone.

*****

As an Assistant U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, Nora Carleton worked hard to prosecute criminals.



Two years ago Nora left the U.S. Attorney's Office to become the general counsel for a huge hedge fund called Saugatuck Associates, located in Westport, Connecticut.



The high-paying job allowed Nora to buy a large house in Westport, where she lives with her 8-year-old daughter Sophie and her mother Teresa. Sophie's father Nick lives nearby with his wife Vicki, and the situation is convenient all around.



Prosecuting criminals is a far cry from being a hedge fund attorney, but Nora was hired for that very reason. Nora's boss, CEO Helen Carmichael, uncovered chicanery at Saugatuck, and she needs a talented prosecutor to find out who's 'front running' the company: selling or buying just before Saugatuck does to take advantage of the way Saugatuck's trades will move the price.



Finding out who's front running and how - corrupt broker, systems breach, or bad Saugatuck employee - is a difficult task, but Nora knows how to chase down criminals.



Nora settles in at Saugatuck, where a culture of 'total honesty' is demanded by the company's 70-year-old founder, David Jepson. Jepson insists that Saugatuck employees be truthful at all times - no lying or gossiping or backstabbing allowed. In practical terms, the lower echelon employees abide by these rules, but the Management Committee (MC) - the senior leaders of the company - not so much.



Nora is making progress with the 'front running' investigation when her boss, Helen Carmichael, is brutally murdered. Helen's body is found in an overturned red canoe belonging to Nora.....



.....and when Detective Demi Kofatos comes to Saugatuck to interview Nora, the cop spots blood on Nora's car.



Nora soon becomes the prime suspect for Helen's murder, and one cop in particular, Captain Tom Dunham, is CLEARLY out for Nora's blood.



Nora knows someone is framing her for Helen's murder, and she calls her long time friend Benny Dugan, a legendary Mafia investigator at the U.S. Attorney's Office in Manhattan.



Benny hustles to Westport with Assistant U.S. Attorney Carmen Garcia, and they quickly set out to prove Nora's innocence.



Meanwhile, Nora discovers that the victim Helen had secret files on all the members of the MC, with damaging information on each person. So Benny gets together with Saugatuck's chief security officer, Laslo Reiner, and together they interview the senior people at Saugatuck, to try to identify Helen's killer.



The MC seems loaded with churlish men, like Chip and Jeffey Jepson, the founder's sons, who think they can get away with anything;



Louis Lambert, who believes he should have Nora's job and angles to get it;



Arty Falcone - who has a reputation for groping women; and more.



There's some drama before the killer is unmasked, and this is the most exciting part of the book

I enjoyed James Comey's previous suspense novel, Central Park West, but this one was a little disappointing. The 'honesty' culture at Saugatuck Associates struck me as phony; I don't love modern suspense plots composed largely of questioning one suspect after another (though I'll admit it worked okay for Agatha Christie); and I thought the story lacked excitement.

I still consider Comey a talented mystery writer, and I'd read more of his books

Thanks to Netgalley, James Comey, and Mysterious Press for a copy of the book.

Rating: 3 stars

Review of "Eleven Huskies: A Dr. Bannerman Vet Mystery" by Philipp Schott

Dr. Peter Bannerman, a veterinarian in the lakeside town of New Selfoss, Manitoba, is an amateur sleuth who can't help getting involved in criminal investigations.



In this third 'Dr. Bannerman Vet Mystery' - which works fine as a standalone - Peter is called into action when his acquaintance, John Reynolds - owner of the Dragonfly Lodge in Northern Manitoba - calls with an emergency. Reynolds team of eleven huskies, the fastest team in Manitoba the last three years in a row, have become terribly ill.



Peter hops on a plane to Northern Manitoba, where he finds the huskies suffering from liver damage. Peter ships the four sickest dogs to New Selfoss for treatment, the rest of the team being left to recover in Northern Manitoba. It turns out the unfortunate canines were poisoned, and amateur sleuth Peter immediately wonders whodunit.



While Peter is at Dragonfly Lodge, he learns that a private plane crashed nearby that morning, and three people were killed: Ned Fromm - the pilot; Brendan O'Daly - a bitcoin entrepreneur; and Monique Gagnon - the lead singer of The Queenston Heights band.



The police determine the pilot, Ned Fromm, had been shot with a rifle, by someone on the ground.



As it happens, Peter is already planning to return to Dragonfly Lodge in a few days, for a vacation with his family and friends. These include:

Peter's wife Laura - who knits and sells items inspired by TV shows and movies, like Game of Thrones and Harry Potter;



Laura's brother Kevin - a detective with the Royal Canadian Mounties;



Kevin's Nigerian partner Stuart - an accountant and excellent cook;



and Peter's dog Pippin - a renowned sniffer canine.



Peter and his companions are planning an extended canoe trip, and Dragonfly Lodge will be their home base.



Peter's mind is always making connections, and he suspects the dog poisonings at Dragonfly Lodge and the plane crash near Dragonfly Lodge are linked somehow. To Peter's satisfaction, he even gets to participate in the investigation when the police recruit sniffer dog Pippin to look for the rifle used to shoot the pilot.

Everyone at Dragonfly Lodge is a suspect for the pilot shooting/plane crash, including the guests, the staff, and the owner - and Peter can't help but search for clues to unmask the killer. One of my favorite characters is a guest named Pyotr, who's with a group of Belarussians who say they're in Manitoba to hunt mushrooms. When Peter thanks the Belarussians for some of their morels, Pyotr says: "Is nothing! We are pleasured!" And later, when the lodge is endangered, Pyotr says, "What is plan? We are sitting goose up here." 🙂



In the midst of the police investigation, Peter and his party embark on their canoe trip, which involves paddling down waterways and carrying the canoes overland (portages).



Unfortunately, a massive wildfire spreads through Northern Manitoba during the canoe trip, and much of the book is an adventure tale as Peter and his companions try to stay ahead of the flames and get back to the lodge.



The crimes are solved in a satisfying finale, and I look forward to the next book in the series, 'Three Bengal Kittens.'

Thanks to Netgalley, Philipp Schott, and ECW Press for a copy of the book.

Rating: 3.5 stars

Review of "Astor: The Rise and Fall of an American Fortune" by Anderson Cooper and Katherine Howe

Journalist Anderson Cooper, scion of the (once) fabulously wealthy Vanderbilt family partnered with historian Katherine Howe to write about his ancestors. The book, Vanderbilt: The Rise and Fall of an American Dynasty, was an excellent overview of the legendary clan.

Cooper partnered with Howe once again to tell the story of another (once) fabulously wealthy family, the Astors. For the Vanderbilts, Commodore Cornelius Vanderbilt (1794 - 1877) made the family's initial fortune in the 1800s, from transportation. For the Astors, John Jacob Astor (1763 - 1848) accumulated the family's original wealth in the 1700s and 1800s, from the fur trade and from being a slumlord.


The fur trade

John Jacob Astor was born in Waldorf, Germany in 1763 and arrived in America in 1783. On the voyage over, John Jacob learned he could get rich by buying and selling animal pelts, and all he needed was the fortitude to travel into the wilderness. Astor was enthusiastic, though working with pelts has been described as "repulsive to anyone not used to bad smells, blood, and mess."

"
John Jacob Astor


Processing furs is a smelly bloody business

In 1785 Astor married Sarah Todd, and "together they forged an alliance that would become nothing less than a juggernaut." Sarah had a knack for business, and she supported her husband's fur trading trips while she took care of the household and bore eight children.


Sarah Todd Astor

Astor was a shrewd and opportunistic entrepreneur, and he eventually outsourced collecting and trading pelts to become a merchant and real estate mogul. Thus Astor stayed in in New York City while others carried his furs across oceans.

Cooper and Howe include daunting tales of fur trading voyages, like one in which the ship Tonquin put four men into a whaleboat to find a path through breakers, and "within minutes....the ocean swallowed them whole, never to be seen again." Three additional sailors lost their lives before a safe path was finally found.


The ship Tonquin in the breakers

By 1834 Astor was worth $2,000,000, the equivalent of about $72+ million today. John Jacob got out of the fur business and entered the real estate market, buying up properties in New York City. In time Astor would (essentially) become the proxy landlord of crowded slums across Manhattan. These slums housed myriad poor immigrants in unsanitary, crowded, squalid conditions while a river of cash flowed into the Astor family's coffers."


Slums in 19th century New York City


Slum Living in 19th century New York City

Among other things, Astor used some of his fortune to build hotels like the Astor House, which became a cultural touchstone in 19th century America, hosting guests like Edgar Allan Poe, Abraham Lincoln, and Davy Crockett


Astor House Hotel

John Jacob Astor's most civic-minded act was probably his endowment of what is now the New York Public Library: "An institution....where any city resident can obtain a library card, and thus, access to an honest-to-God Gutenberg Bible".....as well as 50 million items (books, music, artworks. movies, etc.)


New York Public Library

When John Jacob Astor died in 1848 he was the richest man in America, worth about $25 million, the equivalent of about $650 million today. Astor left his fortune to his son (and business partner) William Backhouse Astor (1792 - 1875), a rather dull, nondescript fellow, described as "the richest and least attractive young man of his time."


William Backhouse Astor

Nevertheless, William was a shrewd businessman who expanded his father's slumlord enterprises and increased the family's wealth. In 1833, William and his wife, Margaret Armstrong Astor, moved their family to their new house on Lafayette Place in lower Manhattan, where many of the Astor relatives built mansions. A historian notes, "New Yorkers used to drive down Lafayette Place to stare at the mansions and wait for the Astors to come out."


Margaret Armstrong Astor


The home of William and Margaret Astor on Lafayette Place

Though the Astors had vast wealth, they couldn't escape the less savory aspects of New York City. "New York was a crowded, congested, cough-filled, filthy, stinking cesspit of gaping inequality." The city also experienced the Astor Place Riot in 1849 - over rival Shakespearean actors, and the Draft Riots in 1863 - over conscription of soldiers for the Civil War.


New York City Draft Riot in 1863

The Astors had big families, and because money and prestige were involved, there was envy, jealousy, back-biting, rivalry, undermining, etc. among the relatives - who might tussle to have the most elegant hotel; the best home; the highest-ranking position; the finest gala; and so on. Cooper and Howe document some of these occurrences, and it's entertaining to get a peep at the Astors' personal lives.

One of the Astors, William Waldorf (Will) Astor (1848 - 1919), the grandson of William Backhouse Astor, got so dissatisfied with his life in America that he moved to England.


William Waldorf (Will) Astor

Will had an impressive resume: he could speak French, German, and Italian; went to Columbia Law School; and had a job in an Astor enterprise. Will wanted to branch out, so he entered politics and became a state senator. Will's wife was Mary (Mamie) Dahlgren Paul, a pretty socialite from Philadelphia, and the couple had five children.


Mary (Mamie) Dahlgren Paul Astor

Will made two 'mistakes.' First, he urged his wife Mamie to compete with his aunt Caroline for the title of THE Mrs. Astor. Caroline Webster Schermerhorn Astor (1830 - 1908) defined and dominated New York society during the Gilded Age (1870s - 1890s). In Caroline's view, "Someone had to decide what constituted American taste. Someone had to stand ready to demonstrate that the United States need not be overshadowed by the old societies of Europe." Mamie's attempted coup wasn't successful.


Caroline Webster Schermerhorn Astor (THE Mrs. Astor)

Will's second mistake was to run for the U.S. House of Representatives. Will was too fastidious to campaign in the slum tenements, and he wore gloves when he deigned to 'press the flesh.' After Will lost the election the newspapers turned on him, one of them writing "The moral is that the possessor of an honored name, of great wealth, of sound ability, and of unexceptionable private character may throw away all these advantages when at a critical moment in his political career he forgets what is due to his constituents as well as to his own independence and self-respect."

Will became bitter and he and Mamie eventually moved to England, where Will desperately sought a title. Will was SUCH a snob that he was an outlier. even in British society. The authors write, "In general, the British aristocracy held its nose and overlooked Will's behavior, which they considered boorish, including his disparaging remarks about Edward's mistress ("royal strumpet"), South Africans, and Jewish people." In any case, Will received a title, and in time became a viscount.

Cooper and Howe write much more about the famous Astor family, whose fabulous wealth ended when socialite Brooke Astor gave most of the family fortune away in 1996, for philanthropic purposes.


Brooke Astor

Sadly, the Astor name was sullied in 2009, when Brooke Astor's son Anthony (Tony) Marshall, was "convicted of tricking his late mother out of millions, and changing her will while the New York City socialite was incompetent and suffering from Alzheimer's in her final years."


Anthony Marshall and his wife Charlene

In addition to the main stories about the Astor family, Cooper and Howe include sketches tangentially related to the narrative, such as the story of a cat burglar called José Hermidez, who targeted the Waldorf Astoria hotel;


Waldorf Astoria Hotel

an anecdote about actress Mary Astor (1906 -1987), who was born Lucile Vasconcellos Langhanke and wasn't related to the Astors at all;


Actress Mary Astor

the fact that the Astor Hotel bar was a 'liferaft' for gay men for at least two generations;


Astor Hotel Bar

a discussion of the 1997 movie Titanic, because John Jacob Astor IV (1864 – 1912) was a passenger on the doomed ship; and more.


John Jacob Astor IV

Cooper and Howe provide a fascinating picture of the fabulously wealthy Astors, who - like many such dynasties - got their 'start up' money through less than stellar means. I enjoyed the book, including the side stories, and look forward to more collaborations between the authors.

Rating: 4 stars