In this 18th book in the 'V.I. Warshawski' series, the Chicago private detective heads for Kansas to look for two missing persons. The book can be read as a standalone.
*****
When young black filmmaker/personal trainer August Veriden goes missing from Chicago.....
.....private detective V.I. Warshawski (Vic) is hired to look for him.
Vic learns that August was commissioned by black actress Emerald Ferring, who's making a movie about her life.
August and Emerald were supposedly headed for Lawrence, Kansas, where the actress grew up, but no one has heard from either of them for weeks. The situation is exacerbated by the fact that the gym where August works has been ransacked, as was his apartment.
Vic packs her bag and her golden retriever Peppy, and heads for Kansas, to see what she can find.
Vic seems to be persona non grata the moment she sets foot in Lawrence, both to law enforcement - who she contacts as a professional courtesy; and to Emerald's acquaintances - who don't like a white woman poking around a black neighborhood. Thus everyone is very close-mouthed, and Vic can't get a line on August and Emerald.
Still, Vic manages to learn a few things, including the fact the Lawrence was the site of a missile silo during the cold war, when Emerald was young.....
.....and that Emerald's neighbor was forced to sell some of her land to the Air Force when the silo was dismantled, about 30 years ago.
As Vic is poking into things, she finds two women who've been roofied, a corpse in a house, and a corpse in a river - and additional victims add to the death toll. The sheriff shows up wherever Vic goes, and the detective realizes she's being bugged, tracked and followed.
It's clear something VERY suspicious is going on in Lawrence, something that may be connected to the disappearance of August and Emerald.
As Vic is going about her business, she stays in a motel and Peppy goes to doggie day care.
During Vic's investigation, she interacts with a librarian; an archivist; a retired college professor; a shrewish wife; a mentally ill woman; Air Force personnel; law enforcement officers; people who knew Emerald as a child; and more. Vic's harassed, accused of being a big city snob, and lured into some tricky situations.
Eventually, Vic finds out that current problems in Lawrence are connected to things that happened there thirty years ago, and it's all quite shocking. That's all I'll say because of spoilers.
I enjoyed the book, but it has a couple of flaws. First, the story is overly complicated and has too many characters. It was hard to keep all the people straight. Second, Vic is VERY aggressive and nasty with cops and other authorities, and is practically asking for trouble. This seems unrealistic.
That said, I'm a fan of V.I. Warshawski and I enjoy visiting with the detective, her friends, and her dogs.
Rating: 3 stars
In the mid-1700s Effia was the town beauty in the British-run Gold Coast village of west Africa.
Though Effia hoped to marry the local chief her mother - who regularly beat and abused Effia - managed to marry her off to James Collins, an English officer who lived in the Gold Coast Castle and ran the local slave trade.
As it turns out Effia's real mother was a housegirl who'd been impregnated by Effia's father.
The housegirl ran off to a different village and had another daughter named Esi.
Esi was captured by slave traders and imprisoned in the Gold Coast Castle's dungeon.
The half-sisters, unknown to each other, temporarily lived in the same house. Effia had a luxurious life on the upper floors of the Gold Coast Castle while Esi squatted in feces and squalor in the windowless basement, subject to beatings and rape by white officers. After a few months Esi was shipped to America on a slave boat.
Effia had children with James Collins and her descendants, some of whom were educated in the west, lived in Africa. One string of the story follows Effia's family tree in the region that would eventually become Ghana.
Esi was sold into slavery in America, and the other string of the story follows her descendants in the United States.
Effia's African family line remained involved with the slave trade. To ensure economic success slavers sowed discord between the local Fante and Asante tribes, who invaded each other's villages and captured people to sell.
Eventually, the psychological burden of being a slaver led one of Effia's descendants to fake his death so he could run away and marry the girl he loved rather than the girl chosen for him. Living in a distant village without relatives - in a culture rooted in family - was very difficult.
This is just one memorable tale of many as the story weaves through the decline of slavery and Ghana's struggle to obtain independence.
Esi, meanwhile had a terrible life as a slave in the American south, as did her descendants.
One son, though, was taken north on the underground railroad and lived free. After a law was passed that required runaway slaves to be returned to the south Esi's grandson, a 'free man', was arrested and sent to work in an Alabama coal mine. Apparently, when coal mines needed more workers the arrest rate shot up.
Esi's thread goes through the Civil War, the migration of southern blacks to the north, and the struggle for black power. In one memorable story a dark-skinned woman and light-skinned man got married in the south and moved to Harlem. To the public they looked like a mixed raced couple, which was unacceptable at the time.
Eventually the husband, passing as white, left home and wed a white woman.
Both the Ghana and U.S. stories are compelling, and many are heart-rending. For example: In Ghana, a youthful homosexual attraction between two lonely boys was nipped in the bud.
Crops failed year after year, causing privation and hunger. A troubled woman haunted by nightmares burned down her hut and killed two of her children, leaving a burned son alive. An unmarried woman waited for years to become the second or third wife of a childhood friend/lover...
......until he ultimately betrayed her completely. And more.
In America, slaves were whipped mercilessly and worked to death. A black single mother with a wonderful voice cleaned homes while auditioning for Harlem night clubs. But she was 'too black'; clubs would only hire light skinned black singers. In a Huntsville high school a black girl and white boy became close friends. However he couldn't take her to the prom because his family and the school forbid it. And so on.
Eventually, the family sagas come full circle as distant relatives of Effia and Esi, educated and successful, meet in the modern United States.
This is a good book that tells important stories about African history, American history, human nature, the good and evil that reside in people's hearts, and some slow advances of civilization. Highly recommended.
Rating: 4 stars
'The Palace of the Stars' by Australian author Karina McRoberts is the first book in a planned trilogy best characterized as historical fiction mixed with character studies. As advertised, the story has elements of "love, magic, and mystery."
*****
Mari Linden is the seventy-something owner of the 'BookNook' bookstore in York, a town in western Australia.
At the behest of Dr. Sakhálin, Mari has agreed to take in Michael Harker, a former policeman who was severely injured and fell into a prolonged coma. Now that Mike has awoken, he's an amnesiac sleepwalker with dark nightmares, and Mari settles him into her home to rest and recuperate.
Mari and Mike's relationship gets off to a rocky start, but they eventually become friends who like one another.
An earthquake in western Australia opens a portal in the 'BookNook' bookstore - a gateway that leads to 1904 York. Through this 'window', Mari and Mike can see snippets of things happening in historical York. Mari can't pass through the portal because of her pacemaker but Mike can....and does.
As Mike is wandering around conservative 1904 York - looking completely out of place in torn jeans, a t-shirt, and thongs (flipflops) - he attracts the attention of an entrepreneur named J.T. Gordon.
Gordon is bemused by Mike, who uses strange expressions like OK, DIY, and TV, and carries things Gordon has never seen, like a library card and a cell phone.
Gordon offers Mike a job in his lavish home/entertainment venue, called 'The Palace of the Stars.'
Productions at The Palace of the Stars feature singers, dancers, magic acts, animal acts, and so on. Before long Mike is like a member of the family among the residents of the Palace, including Gordon and his wife Dierdre;
household staff; Palace performers; children of the residents; etc.
Mike falls in love at first sight with a beautiful dancer/magician named Mae Belle, but she's unavailable, and Mike suffers from jealousy and dejection.
As the characters go about their lives and converse with each other, they reveal details about themselves and Australia. This provides the book's historical elements and character studies.
For example:
⦿ A visit from a pipeline inspector inspires Gordon to relate the story of the construction of the Goldsfield pipeline, which carries water to the dry interior of Australia, especially the gold fields.
Construction of Goldsfield pipeline
The man who designed the pipeline, C.Y. O'Connor shoots himself, for reasons that are unclear.
C.Y. O'Connor
⦿ A discussion of the Australian gold rush includes a discourse on the plight of Chinese immigrants, who are forced to do grunt work and forbidden by law to search for gold.
Chinese Immigrants
⦿ Gordon's wife Dierdre tells a story about the horrific conditions in the gold fields before the pipeline was built, saying: "People were KILLING each other for water. There were so many people; TOO many! There was no sanitation, no food. It was madness. It was Hell." Dierdre goes on to talk about the typhoid, vomiting, blood, excrement, sores, rot, scurvy, and other horrors of the gold fields, endured for the hope of striking it rich.
Australian Gold Rush
⦿ J.T. Gordon tells Mike the story of his life, explaining that he grew up on a farm in Canada;
lived in New York and California, where he made thuggish friends;
and finally made his way to Australia. Gordon's tale is filled with misery, hardship, gangs, and misdeeds, followed by redemption and success.
The mystery part of the story revolves around the unexplained deaths of Chinese travelers, who seem to drop dead on the road for no known reason. To add misery to misfortune, it's impossible to provide the dead Chinese with decent burials because pastors won't allow them in church graveyards. Mike - being a former policeman - makes it his business to investigate the deaths, with the help of other Palace personnel.
As all this is going on in old York, Mari and her two dogs - Tahshi and Leela - are in present day York, waiting for Mike to return.
This is easier said and done because the building that contains the portal hasn't been completed yet in old York, and Mike has to wait for that to happen.
Though this is a fictional story it addresses aspects of Australian history and other non-fiction subjects. In fact, McRoberts even includes a postscript with additional information about topics in the book, including: music; fashions of 1904; O'Connor's pipeline; social welfare in old Australia; Chinese immigrants in colonial Australia; Arthur Conan Doyle and Sherlock Holmes; health care in old Australia; typhoid fever and other illnesses; botulism; coma; camels and horses; tracks to the goldfields; York Road Poison (a deadly plant); and more.
York Road Poison
The story is more a series of vignettes than a tale with a linear plot, but I enjoyed the book, which contains amusement, adventure, danger, and intrigue.... as well as a taste of love and romance.
Thanks to Netgalley, the author (Karina McRoberts) and the publisher (Rocanadon Press) for a copy of the book.
Rating: 3.5 stars
In this 6th book in the 'Cajun Country' cozy mystery series, amateur sleuth Maggie Crozat is suspected of murder. The book can be read as a standalone.
*****
Artist Maggie Crozat helps her parents, Ninette and Tug, run Crozat Plantation Bed and Breakfast in Pelican, Louisiana.
The Crozats are concerned because their inn - like other local hotels - has been losing business to a new app called 'Rent My Digs.' To increase business, Maggie and four other B&B owners create a package called 'Pelican's Spooky Past', to run every weekend in October. The inns are appropriately decorated for the month, which adds to the fun.
Each Pelican B&B offers a Halloween themed entertainment, such as serving meals that mourners ate in antebellum days;
holding a workshop that teaches guests to make cemetery decorations called immortelles;
staging a a play called Resurrection of a Spirit, performed in a spooky cemetery; and so on.
Guests at the Pelican B&B hotels rotate through the activities, providing more business for everyone.
To make Crozat Plantation B&B even more appealing, Maggie opens a spa on the property, which offers massages and facials. In the spirit of helping family members, Maggie invites a distant Canadian relative called Susannah Crozat MacDowell to be the masseuse for October.
Susannah brings her husband and grown stepson and stepdaughter, all of whom stay in a renovated schoolhouse Maggie is fixing up as a combination art studio/apartment.....
......for herself and her fiancé, Crozat police detective Bo Durand.
Unfortunately, no good deed goes unpunished, and Susannah soon announces that she's taking over the property of her ancestral relatives, right beside the Crozat Plantation B&B. Moreover, Susannah says the schoolhouse is on her property, and she's keeping it.
To sour Maggie's mood even more, legendary werewolf-like creatures called rougarous start jumping out of the woods scaring weekend B&B guests - some of whom leave early.
Worse yet, a rougarou stumbles into the cemetery during a production of Resurrection of a Spirit and promptly drops dead. As it turns out the rougarou is a murder victim wearing a werewolf costume.
Detectives from the nearby Ville Blanc Police Department get the murder case, and promptly finger Maggie as the prime suspect.
More murders follow, and Maggie is in the crosshairs for those as well.
Being an accomplished amateur sleuth with excellent connections in the Pelican Police Department, Maggie sets out to uncover the killer herself.
The accusations against Maggie and the ingratitude of the Canadian relatives is hard on the whole Crozat family. So Maggies's mom Ninette - who cooks to calm her nerves - fills the B&B with Cajun savories and desserts. In fact, when the house is burgled, the Pelican cops vie for the chance to investigate....knowing they'll get tasty bowls of gumbo or some other treat. (Note: recipes are included at the end of the book.)
While all this is going on Maggie and her Grand-mère are preparing for their joint wedding on New Year's Eve. Gran is doing most of the planning, and she's having a fabulous time - collecting swag from bridal expos and doing cake tastings at every bakery in town.
The book has a large array of additional characters, including townspeople of Pelican and B&B guests. My favorite visitors are a woman called DruCilla and her talking parrot Lovie - a clever bird who repeats whatever he hears and belts out tunes on command.
The story's southern Louisiana ambiance is authentic and charming, as is the affectionate appellation 'cher' (dear), which Cajuns use all the time (right back at ya, cher; thanks, cher; you look exhausted, cher; it's not about that, cher; etc.)
I enjoyed this delightful cozy mystery, and recommend it to fans of the genre.
Recipes in the book include:
Crawtatoes
Cajun Pecan Cookie Fingers
Ghoulish Cajun Goulash
Sugar High Pie
Holy Trinity Chicken
Thanks to Netgalley, the author (Ellen Byron) and the publisher (Crooked Lane Books) for a copy of the book.
Rating: 4 stars
