Review of "Thunder Bay: A Cork O'Connor Mystery" by William Kent Krueger

 

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In this 7th book in the Cork O'Connor series, the former sheriff travels to Canada to fulfill a promise to his friend Henry Meloux, whose story forms the core of this novel. The book can be read as a standalone, but familiarity with the characters is a bonus.



*****

Corcoran (Cork) O'Connor, whose ancestry is Irish and Anishinaabe (Ojibwe) Indian, was the sheriff of Aurora, Minnesota for nearly a decade. Cork now runs a hamburger shack, and recently got his private investigator license, to keep busy and generate extra income for his college-bound children.



Cork lost his parents young, but nonagenarian Henry Meloux, an Ojibwe Medicine Man (healer and spiritualist), has been a friend/father figure to Cork for decades. So when Henry is hospitalized, and possibly dying, Cork can't deny the old man's request.



Henry tells Cork he has 'a sadness, too heavy for his heart', and reveals he fathered a son 73 years ago - a child he's only seen in visions. Henry wants to meet his offspring , and asks Cork to find the man and bring him to Minnesota. Henry gives Cork all the information he has: the boy's mother was named Maria Luna; she came from Canada; and her photo is in a pocketwatch in Henry's cabin.



Cork does some internet research and learns that Maria Luna is deceased, but her septuagenarian son, Henry Wellington, lives in Thunder Bay, Canada. Henry Wellington is the scion of a VERY WEALTHY gold-mining family, but he's an eccentric recluse (along the lines of Howard Hughes) who's hidden himself away from society.



Cork travels to Thunder Bay and manages to meet Henry Wellington, who refuses to believe his father is an 'Indian buck', and has no interest in meeting Meloux. Cork's visit seems to alarm someone, however, because an assassin subsequently tries to shoot Meloux - who's out of the hospital and back in his cabin.



Meloux now feels compelled to go to Canada to 'heal' his reclusive son, and he wants Cork to take him to Thunder Bay. Before they go, Meloux tells Cork the story of his early years, which takes up a large portion of the novel.

In a nutshell, adolescent Henry Meloux was ripped away from his family in Aurora and sent to a boarding school that functioned to inculcate 'white culture' into Indian children.



Henry ran away from the school and returned to Aurora, where he lived with his Uncle Woodrow, who taught Henry to hunt, fish, track, and live off the land.



At that time, white adventurers would hire Indian guides to take them into the wilderness. At one point young Henry was hired by two gold hunters named Luna and Wellington, who wanted to explore southern Canada. Luna brought his beautiful daughter Maria and nature took its course. Henry and Maria's romance - added to the hunters' ambition and greed - engendered tragedy, and Henry never saw Maria again. Still, Henry's visions informed him about his son. (Henry's entire tale is compelling, so you should read the book.)







Even though Henry Meloux is now in his late nineties, he's determined to go to Thunder Bay to help his son. So Meloux, Cork, and Cork's friend Wally Schanno (a former sheriff) head for Canada to make the meeting happen. This results in danger, action, and adventure......all hallmarks of Cork O'Connor books.



In a side plot, Cork is involved in a personal family drama. Cork and his wife Jo are concerned about their daughter Jenny, a recent high school graduate who's been dating a boy named Sean for years. Jenny and Sean, both aspiring writers, must make some decisions about their future, and Cork and Jo fear Jenny will make a wrong choice.



For me, this is an especially good Cork O'Connor book. Highly recommended to fans of the series and readers who like action/suspense stories.

Rating: 4 stars

Review of "Have You Seen Me?" A Novel of Suspense by Kate White

One morning personal finance journalist Ally Linden arrives at Greenbacks, the company she works for, to get a big surprise.

Damien Howe, Greenbacks' owner (and Ally's one-time flame) is bewildered, and tells Ally she hasn't worked at Greenbacks for the past five years.



Ally is taken to the hospital, where she's seen by a psychiatrist. Ally slowly recalls that she now works as a freelance personal finance expert - writing a monthly column, giving talks, and hosting a weekly podcast.



Ally also recalls she's married to a successful lawyer called Hugh;



she lives in a luxury apartment on Manhattan's Upper West Side;



she has a best friend named Gabby; and more.



However, Ally CAN'T REMEMBER what she did for the past few days.

The hospital psychiatrist determines that Abby experienced a dissociative fugue state that caused her to lose her recent memories. The doctor also says Ally might experience more such dissociative states in the future.



When Ally's husband Hugh takes her home from the hospital, he admits Ally hasn't been home for the past couple of days. Hugh says he wasn't alarmed because he and Ally had been arguing about having children, and he thought Ally was taking time to cool off. Hugh suggests the argument about kids might have caused Ally's dissociative state, and it does seem like a possible trigger.



To try to avoid future episodes of memory loss, Ally delves into her past with the therapist she's been seeing for some time.



Ally recalls a traumatic episode at the age of nine, when she took a shortcut home from school and found the body of a dead child. Over the following days, Ally remembers more and more about this incident, which she's been suppressing for most of her life.



Besides wanting to figure out what caused the fugue state, Ally wants to know what she did for the past 48 hours or so. The presence of blood-stained tissues in Ally's pocket lead her to think someone may have been hurt (or worse), and she wants to know where she's been sleeping and eating and things like that.

So Ally hires a private detective to look into her recent whereabouts. The PI turns up some interesting information, and Ally slowly starts to put things together.



Then things then take an unexpected turn, and that's all I can say without spoilers.

For a (supposedly) savvy woman, Ally is a bit naive about some of the people around her. Ally eventually wises up, though, and the novel's denouement is surprising in some ways, and predictable in others.

This is an engaging story, not too deep, but a decent read for suspense fans.



I listened to the audiobook, narrated by Cynthia Farrell, who does a fine job.

Rating: 3 stars

Review of "Busybodies: There’s a Mystery Around Every Corner" by Elle Cosimano, Jesse Q. Sutanto, Emma Rosenblum, Nita Prose, Kellye Garrett, and Alicia Thomson

 

This compilation of six novellas by six mystery writers highlights the 'amateur sleuth.' The introduction to the collection reads: "Every nosy neighbor, gossipy friend, and meddling relative is just one good mystery away from becoming a detective. From behind locked doors or out in broad daylight, driven by chance or curiosity, amateur sleuths get in over their heads in these six hair-raising hilarious stories."

I"ll give a brief description of each novella.

*****



Staged by Elle Cosimano

Struggling real estate agent Lyda and her friend Dani are staging a neglected Victorian house that Lyda's desperate to sell. The century old disaster has a sagging front porch, crooked walls, and dusty foul-smelling carpets.



To spruce the property up, Lyda has hired handsome gardener Sawyer Mackenzie, who's outside showing off his sun-kissed hair, tight jeans, and toned chest. Sawyer, a lothario known for 'loving and leaving 'em', has broken a few hearts around town.



Lyda and Dani go off to purchase some things for the staging and return to find Sawyer dead in the house. The gardener is sprawled on the bedroom floor, with his clothes scattered around, and a giant purple hickey on the side of his neck.

When the authorities can't nab the the killer Lyda steps up to save the day.

*****



The Reunion Dinner by Jesse Q. Sutanto

Josephine Ying is very excited to be hosting her extended family's Chinese New Year dinner for the very first time.



Josephine's husband suggests she's gone overboard with the roasted whole pig, but Josephine retorts, "Everyone traveling from all over the country to come to dinner." This includes the couple's son Keith, who works on Wall Street and says he's bringing a 'fabulous surprise.'

Josephine pictures a necklace or bracelet from Tiffany's, or perhaps an expensive handbag. But when Keith arrives....VERY LATE....he says "Ma, Ba, remember how I said I had a surprise? Well, I'd like you to meet Lacey, my fiancée." Josephine is gobsmacked, as are other family members, some of whom already know and hate Lacey.



During the dinner Lacey drops dead: "Her eyes were open, staring glassily at nothing. There was foam at the corners of her mouth." Josephine is fearful her son Keith will be accused of murder, so she uncovers the killer herself.

*****



Crime of Fashion by Emma Rosenblum

Meticulous Nellie Otis is an assistant at the fashion magazine 'Elle', for which she "maintained, with precision, a systematically structured fashion closet that housed designer clothing and accessories." Nothing in Nellie's purview has ever gone missing.....until now!



A three-million dollar Bulgari necklace has disappeared from a fashion shoot. The necklace was on a designated jewelry table, with Nellie and an armed security guard beside it. When Nellie went to fetch a soda for the cover model, the guard apparently fell asleep, and the necklace vanished.



If the Bulgari isn't found, heads will roll, specifically Nellie's head - ESPECIALLY because editor-in-chief Charlotte is blaming Nellie for the theft.

To save her job Nellie makes it her business to catch the culprit.

*****



The Nosy Neighbor by Nita Prose

Septuagenarian Marge has known her across-the-street neighbor Doris for fifty years. According to Marge, Doris is a busybody with her nose up in everyone else's business. Marge isn't the one to talk, however, because she stares out the window at Doris and her husband Bob all day.



According to Marge, Doris is a jumped up floozy, but Bob is "slowing down, sicker than usual, wheezy and unsteady on his feet."

Marge is surprised when Doris comes over one day and announces, "I've booked Bob and me a special long weekend in Spain. We'll be studying flamenco.....[and] you never know, one of us might like it so much, we may never come back!" Doris asks Marge to look after the house while she and Bob are gone, and to be sure to water the newly planted hydrangeas in the backyard.



Marge can't resist the opportunity to snoop around Doris's house, and for various reasons, Marge suspects Doris killed Bob. Marge tries to prove Doris is a murderer....which leads to a surprising finale.

*****



One Lucky Subscriber by Kellye Garrett

Internet sensation Kidd - who does outsize stunts - is staging an event at the American Dream Mall, which has three million square feet, one-hundred-plus stores, five floors, two mini-golf courses, and one indoor theme park.



Ten contestants, flown in from all over the United States, are vying to win $50,000. The idea is that the players are given a head start to hide in the mall, each one carrying a case with fifty grand. Kidd announces, "I'll be spending the next eight hours playing the world's largest game of hide-and-seek. The [contestants] can hide anywhere they want. I find them. The money's mine." On the other hand, anyone who isn't found within the eight hours gets to keep the money.



Kidd's team will film him during the search, and Kidd expects the video to make a big splash online.

Contestant #4 teams up with contestant #2, and they find (what they think is) an excellent hiding place. The game proceeds, and after some hours Kidd has located several players and is approaching the hiding place of players 4 and 2.

Around this time there's a big kerfuffle and Kidd is injured. Kidd insists, "Someone tried to kill me. We're trying to figure out who...." and he begins accusing everyone in sight.

This leads to surprising revelations, and a light bulb moment helps contestant #4 resolve the case.

*****



A Classic Case by Alicia Thompson

Audrey is a rather shy young woman who looks forward to Wednesdays.



Wednesday is the day Audrey goes to the 'Keep It Classic' video store to rent an old-timey film. It's also the day Audrey meets up with Mr. Hoffman, "the sweet eightysomething-year-old-man who came in at precisely two o'clock to renew his rental on his favorite movie, 'She Who Laughs Last', starring notoriously reclusive 1960s ingenue Katia Kelly."

There's another reason Audrey patronizes the video store. She has a HUGE crush on the owner, Grant, a nice-looking fellow who always wears jeans, a heather-gray T-shirt, and a soft plaid flannel. Grant is polite, but other than that, seems to take no notice of Audrey.



One Wednesday, Mr. Hoffman doesn't show up at 'Keep It Classic', much to Audrey's chagrin. Audrey tries to get Grant to 'investigate', but he shrugs off Mr. Hoffman's absence. Audrey decides to go to the elderly gent's house herself....and when Grant shows up as well, things take an unexpected turn.

This little mystery has fun elements and a not-so-surprising ending.

****

All the suspense stories are fun, but my two favorites, for their 'twists', are The Reunion Dinner and The Nosy Neighbor.

Thanks to Netgalley, the authors, and Amazon Original Stories for a copy of the book.

Rating: 4 stars 

Review of "The Night Before Christmas at Dunder Mifflin" by Brian Baumgartner and Ben Silverman

This riff on 'The Night Before Christmas' is a fun little book for fans of 'The Office' (2005 - 2013). The book opens with the line:

"Twas the night before Christmas, and all through Dunder Mifflin
Not an accountant was stirring, not a mouse was a'clickin."

The poem later goes on:

"The holiday party was over and Scranton's best employees
Were nestled all snug, asleep at their PCs."

Then Kevin - who's dreaming of a full chili pot - is awakened by a clatter, after which Santa Claus (Michael Scott) and an elf tiptoe into Dunder Mifflin to distribute presents.





As Kevin secretly watches, Santa leaves a uniquely appropriate gift for each employee. I'll give some examples:

"Next to Pam, he placed a brand-new paint set
By Stanley, a retirement countdown, as if he'd ever forget!"



*****

To Erin, Santa's old George Foreman Grill was bestowed
While Toby was given garbage from the side of the road."



*****

"Santa then came toward Kevin, who kept his eyes shut tight,
And left brand-new drumsticks, to the accountant's delight."



.......and so on.

*****

The book concludes:

"Merry Christmas to all - and to all a good night....
.....except Toby."

The book is enhanced by cute and clever illustrations, and would a great stocking stuffer for folks who love 'The Office'.

Thanks to Netgalley, Brian Baumgartner and Ben Silverman, and Mariner Books for a copy of the book.

 Rating: 4 stars