Review: Just One Evil Act

Title: Just One Evil Act

Author: Elizabeth George
Genre: Mystery/British Detectives
Price: $29.95 (Hardcover)

Barbara Havers, nothing gets in the way of her loyalty to a friend

Detective Sergeant Barbara Havers, second banana to Inspector Thomas Lynley of Scotland Yard in most novels in the series, takes the lead in “Just One Evil Act,” a story of betrayal, lies, and loyalty.

Barbara does not let anything get in the way of her quest to help her neighbor Taymullah Azhar, whose daughter has been taken by her mother Angelina. Hadiyyah’s parents never married. Consequently Azhar’s name isn’t on Hadiyyah’s birth certificate. He has no legal claim, which makes getting the
police involved problematic.

As the story progresses Angelina returns and demands to know what Azhar has done with their daughter. It turns out the child has disappeared, this time from in a marketplace in Tuscany where Angelina now lives with her lover.

The story heats up and so does Barbara’s efforts to find the child. Barbara figuratively climbs into bed with a tabloid journalist whose prime directive is to get the story, spin it with rapier disregard for consequences and sell papers. The best that can be said for Mitchell Corsico is his determination to get the facts. What he does with them is another matter entirely. Barbara hopes to manipulate him and his newspaper to achieve her own ends, but her plans backfire on her time and again, causing Lynley’s high regard for her to take a tumble, and their boss to threaten to sack her.

She can hardly get past one crisis before another rises. The private investigator Azhar hires hits a dead end and Barbara is left with nothing but frustration.

But there is much more going on than Barbara knows. As she learns about Azhar and his actions, she must decide between loyalty and facts. She will do anything to protect him. In her determination to find Hadiyyah and keep Azhar safe from legal action, she is blind to what is going on around her. An enemy within the ranks of Scotland Yard is doing everything he can to undermine her and tarnish her reputation. Not even Lynley can protect her, especially since she insists on going her own way. The private investigator she has hired, who had previously worked for Azhar, is lying and covering his tracks.

The one thing Barbara refuses to believe or even consider is that she cares more deeply for Azhar than she’s willing to admit. These feelings color every decision and effect every choice on her road to discovery.

Be prepared to curl up for a long siege of reading. Every one of the 725-plus pages draws you into the story. You want to keep going until you reach the climax.

In “Just One Evil Act,” we see Barbara in a different light and come to understand more about her as a woman. She is clever, determined and loyal. She may not be conventionally attractive but everything about her speaks of a woman at peace with who she is.

Elizabeth George is a master at complex story lines. Her characters are rich and colorful, distinctive and compelling. Her plot development is flawless and her use of language memorable.

George is a graduate of University of California in Riverside. She also attended California State University at Fullerton, where she was awarded a master’s degree in Counseling/Psychology and an honorary doctorate of humane letters.

She is American born and educated but writes with a sharp understanding of British culture, use of language, and police procedure.

According to her website she started out as a teacher, and much like Barbara, not inclined to go along to get along. She was fired from her first job along with ten other teachers for union activity.

George has won the Anthony Award, the Agatha Award, and France’s Le Grand Prix de Literature Policiere for her novel “A Great Deliverance,” for which she was also nominated for the Edgar and the Macavity Awards. She has also been awarded Germany’s MIMI for her novel “Well-Schooled in Murder.”

Book Review: A Serpent's Tooth

Title: A Serpent’s Tooth
Author: Craig Johnson
Publisher: Viking
Price: $26.95 (Hardcover)

I’ve read every single Walt Longmire mystery in the series. That tells you how much I like the characters, the storyline and the writing. A Serpent’s Tooth doesn’t disappoint. From the moment Walt jails a “lost boy” with no apparent connections, to the arrival of the ghost of Orrin Porter Rockwell – a legendary enforcer for the founders of the Mormon religion, right down to the confrontation with greedy thieves hauling oil out of a camouflaged canyon by the truckloads, the action moves with lightening speed.

Henry Standing Bear, Vic Morretti and the rest of the sheriff’s crew do their part to keep the action lively. The dialogue is crisp, the mystery compelling, the characters well defined and the premise timely.

Author Craig Johnson has a way of engaging the reader by weaving current events, history, literary references, spirituality and a touch of romance into his novels. 

Walt Longmire is clearly a man to be reckoned with, unwilling to vary from his personal true north, which is to protect those who need protection and go after the bad guys with relentless determination.
In A Serpent’s Tooth the difficulty lies in who to go after. The boy, Cord, is from a compound posing as a religious community, but Walt has his doubts. There’s something odd about Cord, the place he comes from and the disappearance of the boy’s mother.

Walt must look beyond the obvious, tread carefully through a morass of unrelated clues, and determine what crime has been committed and by whom.

It’s further complicated by suspicions that a couple of Walt’s deputies may have known more about what’s going on than they let on. And then there’s the guy claiming to be with the CIA on behalf of Homeland Security. Who is he? Is he telling the truth? Walt is on the hunt, and he won’t quit until he has the answers, all the answers.

Johnson, a proud resident of U-Cross, Wyo., is a New York Times best selling author with eight published novels, several of which have won awards and critical acclaim.
In a radio interview I did with Johnson a year ago, he talked about how important it is for his

characters – particularly Sheriff Longmire – to be realistic. In the development of Longmire he spent hours with working sheriffs and other law enforcement personnel learning how it’s done. Detail is important to him as is understanding and conveying the complexity of his characters.

In a Publisher’s Weekly interview, Johnson was asked if his books are “westerns.”

“They are in the sense that they’re novels set in the American West, but I try to deal with the universal imperative of the human condition. I love and live in the West, but I also try to be honest about it. I’d be a fool to not realize that there’s a certain amount of baggage that goes along with writing contemporary western fiction, but instead of falling into the ruts, I try and take it down the road less traveled.”

Johnson is good at taking his readers down that road, and he’s good at telling stories, which is the best thing you can say about a writer no matter what genre they’re writing in.

A Serpent’s Tooth is available at booksellers nationwide, and through online retailers. For more information about the author and his books go to www.craigallenjohnson.com.

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This article also appears in Happenstance Magazine, published by Happenstance Publishing. For more information go to www.vandermeerbooks.com. 

Featured Author: Frances Bonney Jenner

A life-changing journey across America

 Title: Prairie Journey
Author: Frances Bonney Jenner
Publisher: Irie Books
Genre: Historical
Price: $14.99

I’ve been on a journey. It hasn’t always been pleasant, nor has it been particularly fun, but it has been life changing for the Clarke family, sometimes tragic, often heroic, and every day a challenge. Frances Bonney Jenner has captured the story of young Savannah who is wrenched from her familiar surroundings and lifelong friends to embark on a harrowing trip across the continent in a wagon train.

Facing unknown obstacles 12-year-old Savannah and her family set out in search of better prospects, leaving their Missouri farm and the life she loves. It is a coming of age story set in a historical setting. Savannah considers herself less-than her smart and pretty sister, Faye. She is a sensitive child and as many children do, internalizes much of what happens and finds fault with herself, taking on worry and uncertainty like ill-fitting coats. Despite her misgivings, she proves to be self-reliant, courageous and daring.

Jenner’s careful research brings to life the perils of traveling across the country by wagon train, an endless line of lurching prairie schooners pulled by oxen, barely able to hold the essentials of life – food and water – and little room for carrying passengers, and then only when absolutely necessary.
The rhythm of wearisome days and nights of restless sleep are the heartbeat of trail life it seems, punctuated by conflicts and fears, obstacles to go over or around, and Savannah’s certainty that it will end in disaster for her family.

Through it all there is an underlying song that brings harmony and hope to the story. Savannah’s poetry peppers the narrative, which is told in her voice. Each milestone on the journey reveals her fears and her transformation.

At Ragtown in the Carson River Valley, Savannah and her mother rest by the river following the trip across a brutal and unforgiving desert. Her mother reads from a familiar book. Savannah’s mind wanders and she thinks…

I listened.
Saw herds of buffalo, the Kentucky salt
springs long ago,
the singsong rhythm
of Mother’s voice, the comfort
of words I knew so well, soothing the pain
of the desert crossing.

These bits of Savannah’s heart and mind shared throughout the narrative bring light to a story of pain and suffering, healing and hope.

Prairie Journey is told from the perspective of a young girl, but its appeal is in a story well told about a time in American history that is perhaps romanticized in movies, or at the least glossed over. Jenner’s research for the book was extensive. She learned that despite starvation, illness and death the pioneers also had exciting times and times of pure drudgery. The story conveys life on the trail with insightful attention to detail, and characters you hope will find their way safely to their new home.

The author lives in Evergreen, Colo., with her husband Doug. The couple traveled all 2000 miles of the California Trail and walked alongside a covered wagon and rattlesnakes to reach Chimney Rock, which is featured in the storyline of the book. “We slept there overnight, just like Savannah, my star character,” she writes on her blog. For more information about Frances and Prairie Journey go to http://www.prairiejourney.com

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This article also appears in Happenstance Magazine, published by Happenstance Publishing. For more information go to www.vandermeerbooks.com. 

Book Review

Anonymous Sources
Author: Mary Louise Kelly
Publisher: Gallery Books
$26.00
ISBN: 978-1476715544

Women who are flawed but focused make for intriguing characters. Alexandra James is fighting personal demons, and on some days barely keeping it together when a story falls into her lap that alerts her reporter’s instincts. In “Anonymous Sources,” James becomes convinced the death of Harvard graduate Thomas Abbot Carlyle, a gifted student who has just returned from a year abroad, is neither an accident nor a suicide, despite evidence – or the lack thereof – to the contrary.

She manages to get past police lines and other barriers through sheer guts to further her investigation. Her tenacity and ability to sort through clues keeps her moving forward to the story of a lifetime, or perhaps to no story at all.

In this fast-paced book about international intrigue and an ever-changing newspaper world where online instant headlines vie with above-the-fold breaking news that sells papers, James finagles her way to Cambridge believing Thom’s last year holds the key to his death.

She learns a lot about Thom, his liaison with a glamorous woman, and other facts about his life in England, most of it innocuous, hardly cause to commit suicide or reason enough be a murder victim. Nor does everything she’s learned about him indicate he is careless. He was well liked, had no controversial friends and seemed to have it all. With a charmed life ahead of him, how and why did he end up with a broken body in the cobbled courtyard at Harvard?

In her pursuit of the truth the New England Chronicle reporter triggers events that put her life in danger and make her even more determined to continue asking questions. What she learns exposes a conspiracy bigger than anything she could have imagined and puts her in the crosshairs of an assassin.

Author Mary Louise Kelly spent two decades traveling the world as a reporter for NPR and the BBC. Her assignments have taken her from Belfast bars to the glittering ports of the Persian Gulf, and from mosques in Hamburg to the ruined deserts of Iraq. As an NPR correspondent covering the spy beat and the Pentagon, she reported on wars, terrorism, and rising nuclear powers. A Georgia native, her first job was working as a staff writer at The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Kelly was educated at Harvard University and at Cambridge University in England. She lives in Washington, D.C., with her husband and their two children.

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This article also appears in Happenstance Magazine, published by Happenstance Publishing. For more information go to www.vandermeerbooks.com.

Book Review: Amity and Sorrow

Amity and Sorrow
By Peggy Riley
Little, Brown and Company
Price: $25.99

The fire that sets this story in motion flames through “Amity and Sorrow” in every cleverly crafted scene. It is a dark story about sisters who grew up in what might be considered by some a cult atmosphere. In desperation, their mother Amaranth, snatches them away terrified by escalating threats from outside and unsettling changes from within.

Their flight is interrupted when in utter exhaustion she crashes her car into a tree. Miraculously none of the three are seriously injured, and are rescued by a farmer who reluctantly and with bad grace, befriends them. The story travels back and forth from the uncertain present into a disturbing past. Amity and Sorrow are bound together by more than the strap that links them and keeps Sorrow from running back to the only home she has ever known, despite threats that await her.

“Amity and Sorrow” follows Amaranth, whose trust has been betrayed by the man she believes loves only her, and looks at the “perfect” world created by this man who through polygamy takes advantage of the broken and shattered lives of women with no place to go. His two daughters are caught in the middle with no understanding of what life outside the community is like.

There is a touch of mysticism, harsh lessons in how religion can corrupt and be corrupted, and a wrenching coming-of-age story.

The strict and structured world as Amity and Sorrow knew it is nothing like the farm where their mother insists they take refuge. There is more at work in the lives of these girls than their mother knows. Her only hope of saving them is to keep them away from the man who is their father. Their multiple layers of conservative clothing, prim aprons and cap-covered hair cannot protect them from what lies ahead.

This is a fascinating tale of a mother’s love, renewal, and the power of the mind to create what it will. Amity and Sorrow are at the mercy of a dangerous past they can relate to and a future they fear.

Riley’s scenes are gripping and visual, and her character development is powerful.

Author Peggy Riley is a writer and playwright who lives on the North Kent Coast. “Amity and Sorrow” is her first novel.

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This review appears in Happenstance Literary, a digital magazine available by subscription. For details go to vandermeerbooks.com.

Writing and Writers: Amanda Farmer

Writer’s Block airs every Tuesday, at 9 a.m. MST on KFUN/KLVF, streaming live at www.kfunonline.com

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Pastor or Predator: Parents Protect Your Children

Amanda Farmer has experienced something you only hope your child will never experience. She was the victim of a sexual predator who took advantage of his position to manipulate her. From the time she was 13 until after her marriage, she was subjected to overt emotional and physical abuse by the minister of her church.

Ironically at some point she understood that what was happening to her was wrong yet she could not seem to break the hold her minister had on her. In Preacher's Pet Amanda recounts how her trust in and love for this grandfatherly figure twisted into a “love” relationship she felt compelled to maintain and keep secret. She agreed to never tell because she feared the consequences to the preacher and his wife. He said he would go to prison and his wife would be so distraught she might kill herself.

Amanda at 13 couldn’t separate fact from fiction and increasingly became dependent on the “special love” he had for her.

On her website Amanda writes in a personal letter to her readers: “…this is my story of childhood sexual abuse. This is a story that I thought I would never tell; never in a million years, but one day it occurred to me that I had a story that people (especially parents) needed to hear.

“I long for this message to get to all parents and grandparents of young children and teens. Parents need to know and always be aware that those who abuse children are not just the creepy men that give us a bad feeling in our gut. They are preachers, teachers, and mentors. The very people our children and we ourselves may love and trust…

Parents protect your children and never let your guard down with anyone.”

The book includes disturbing details. Amanda said she thought it was important to be open about what happened to her so people would understand how innocent beginnings can become twisted into something emotionally damaging to the victim.

The story does not have a happy ending as her abuser never went to court for his crimes. In her view he has, however, received his punishment having suffered many debilitating illnesses.
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 Tune in next week when my guests will be Lucas Cor Vatta, a comic performer who writes his own material and is a magazine contributor, and Karen Lenfestey, who will be talking about her novel, “A Sister’s Promise.”

Share this blog with others. Thanks!

Writing and Writers: Tracie McMillan

Writer’s Block airs every Tuesday, at 9 a.m. MST on KFUN/KLVF, streaming live at www.kfunonline.com

The American Way of Eating: A Writer Becomes An Insider

From Tracie's Website

Tracie McMillan, author of The American Way of Eating, is an investigative reporter. That comes across loud and clear in her well-documented tale of the journey food takes from the field to your table. She is a talented writer who makes her experiences come to life with engaging detail mixed in with cold hard facts.

Kirkus Review wrote, “(The American Way of Eating is) “Full of personal stories of the daily struggle to put food of any kind on the table in today’s economy, McMillan’s book will force readers to question their own methods of purchasing and preparing food. Attentive foodies may already know much of the information, but on the whole, McMillan provides an eye-opening account of the route much of American food takes from the field to the table.”

I was by turns disturbed by conditions and incidents described in the book, learned from the data cited, and entertained by Tracie’s writing style. Her dedication to living within the means of whatever job she was in, a facet of her prep work for writing that was part of her research, says a lot about her dedication to getting the story. Tracie is a hard worker, everyone who worked with her over the course of her undercover investigation said so, and nothing informs understanding like living on the limited means of a farm worker, a Wal Mart employee or a kitchen worker at a restaurant. None of these are high paying jobs and managing a budget with limited resources was as much a part of the story Tracie followed in The American Way of Eating as the day-to-day challenges.

She lived for two months at each location, working with people, sharing their meals, learning about their lives and gaining an understanding of what it means to be part of the sometimes flawed machine that delivers food to supermarkets and restaurants and ultimately to our tables.

She dealt with on-the-job injuries, worked with incompetent managers, and learned that in most "super stores" food is treated with the same marketing mentality as toy trucks and batteries. She wrote about the food deserts that exist in large cities, which results in the inner city poor ending up eating whatever can be found in convenience stores (largely high in fat, sugar and salt, and low on nutrition). She became intimately acquainted with the reality of budgeting close to the bone. Through it all she recorded incidents that made dry facts wrenchingly real.

But there is the human side, revealed in the people who made her feel accepted despite being “the only white girl” in fields being harvested by immigrants and undocumented workers; landlords who extended hospitality when the budget was tight and the food pantry was light; co-workers who showed her the ropes and got her out of binds when she stubbornly insisted on powering through.

The American Way of Eating is less about food and more about life and the way most people live it. It is a wake-up call to those of us who assume all is well, when in truth many live in poverty, many work at menial and meaningless jobs and many rely on the generosity of others – inside and outside the system – to survive. The tenacity and empathy of many people Tracie encountered is a touching testament to the human spirit.

I enjoyed the interview with Tracie immensely. She is articulate, engaging and well-informed. Her award-winning articles about food, welfare and poverty have been widely published. For more information about Tracie and to read some of her work, go to www.traciemcmillan.com.

As a writer, I recommend reading this book. It’s good instruction for anyone who wants to learn what it takes to be an investigative journalist. Aside from that, it’s a darned good read. If you want to skip over the footnotes, the reading will go faster, but you will miss a lot of information that expands understanding about the subject matter and its human toll.

Excerpt from Tracie’s website: My name is Tracie McMillan. I live in Brooklyn, but I'm proud to say that I grew up in Michigan, about an hour from one of my favorite cities—Detroit. My dad was a lawnmower salesman and my mom had an English degree, and they moved us to Holly, a rural town outside of Flint, for good schools and open space. I was the oldest of three girls, and helped out at home when my mom fell ill around the time I was 7. The insurance company didn't want to pay for her care, so when she got too ill to live at home, she bounced between institutions that would hold off on charging us until the insurance company settled. She left our home when I was 12; we lost the case with the health insurance company when I was 14; and she died when I was 16.

Take time to read Tracie's bio. It helps to understand the road she has taken in life and the reason she is so good at what she does.

The American Way of Eating is available at Tome on the Range in Las Vegas, NM, in bookstores across the country and at online retailers. 
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Review: The Kiva and the Mosque

The Kiva and the Mosque by Kayt C. Peck is part fantasy, part spiritual journey, part romance and part political statement. All of the parts come together in an enjoyable reading experience that is fast-paced, entertaining and satisfying. The author celebrates life and hope in an interesting tale that calls for imagination, an open mind and respect for the unknown and unknowable.

Her main characters are ordinary people with an extraordinary capacity to act when called upon. They feel like old friends, people you want to root for and whom you want to win. The ideals expressed in the narrative are familiar themes much talked about but little lived by: world peace, respect for all, care and protection for those least able to take care of themselves.

Kidwell Brown’s visions inspire her to valor, Aisha’s to depicting a world of possibilities. The story recognizes the existence of evil and the power of good to overcome all obstacles.  

Kayt’s story encourages enlightenment, compassion and understanding, age-old precepts that belong to no one religion but to all. The Kiva and the Mosque is unashamedly idealistic in tone and message. It encourages a belief that even in this flawed world peace, understanding and respect are possible.

Kayt Peck is a poet and writer whose career has included being a journalist, a U.S. Naval Reserve public affairs officer, and grant writer. She lives on a ranch near Las Vegas, N.M.

The Kiva and the Mosque is available in Las Vegas at Tome on the Range Bookstore, and at online retailers.

Review: Footlights in the Foothills

 

It has been my experience that writing can be both liberating and limiting. When you add research as an element of the process it can almost become drudgery… unless you enjoy research and can convert that enviable talent into intelligent, entertaining and engaging prose. Edwina Portelle Romero has done just that in Footlight in the Foothills, Amateur Theatre of Las Vegas and Fort Union New Mexico, 1871-1899.

Do not, under any circumstances, be deceived by the academic sound of the title. Yes, it is educational but it is also down right fun to read. Edwina, Pat to those who know her, has taken an historic era and painted wonderful pictures of the culture and creativity of the times. Brevity, as Shakespeare so eloquently said, is the soul of wit. This little book of fact-based anecdotes is packed with priceless prose, engaging wit and interesting lore.

The clarification of what constituted a theatrical venue — from the music halls to the opera houses to the boards of the Fort Union stages — is illuminating and fun. Was it the Duncan Opera House or the Ward-Tamme Opera House? Where was it? How did these establishments survive and thrive? Perhaps it had to do with filling time with creative pursuits. Perhaps it had to do with talented folks who wanted to make the most of their talents. Perhaps it was a consequence of wanting to entertain and be entertained. Whatever the reasons, Edwina has pulled 28 years of amateur theater into a concise rendering that is informative and charmingly delivered using direct quotes from printed reviews and critiques.

Footlights in the Foothills identifies Spanish and English language companies and performances, all well and enthusiastically attended, sometimes too enthusiastically. At one performance it was reported that a director ejected several “young men” of ‘the best families’” from the theater because of their rowdy behavior.

“One of the significant features of amateur theatre,” the author writes, “is its involvement in and reflection of community. When rail service arrived in Las Vegas, it brought many new people of diverse ethnicities and races and thus strengthened ‘ethnic consciousness’ among the Neuvo Mexicanos. As a result, Spanish-language newspapers, featuring sections on literature, poetry, and popular fiction, flourished…”

Las Vegas performances were only a part of the big picture when it came to live amateur performances. The antics on stage at Fort Union and the competitiveness among the theatrical companies at the fort reflect a somewhat farcical real life tension that played itself out in the pages of the Las Vegas Optic in the form of reviews, which sometimes took on a rather acerbic and personal tone.

A good writer of historical fact takes many elements and puts them together in entertaining ways. In Footlights in the Foothills, Edwina has done that and more. Her attention to detail and informed understanding of the period leads to a book worth having on your bookshelf so you can go back to it time and again.

Footlights in the Foothills, Amateur Theatre of Las Vegas and Fort Union New Mexico, 1871-1899, ($16.95), by Edwina Portelle Romero is published by Sunstone Press and is available at Tome on the Range in Las Vegas, N.M. and at other fine bookstores.

Blessings in Disguise

Joseph Baca’s memoir, “Blessings in Disguise,” is equal parts history, family dynamics under stressful and sometimes violent circumstances, humor, spiritual awakening and inspiration. It is the story of one man’s life and how it was shaped by circumstances, but not defined by circumstances.

Baca is brutally honest about himself, his father’s brutality, his own mistakes, triumphs and joys. Despite times of darkness in his life Baca could always see the light ahead. In the book he credits his wife Loretta, with helping him see himself in a new way.

His dreams were more than dreams they were affirmations: “Good morning KFUN and KLVF hill, I love you and one day I am going to own you and you will be mine.” He started repeating that affirmation more than 20 years ago and eventually made it happen.

He also told his wife his Wednesday and Saturday lottery ticket purchases would someday bring in a million dollars. Apparently Joseph was the only one who wasn’t surprised when it happened.

“Blessings in Disguise,” begins with vignettes of Joseph Baca as a child. It details the verbal and physical abuse he received at the hands of a troubled father who turned his own demons on those closest to him. Joseph felt the brunt of that alcohol driven anger many times. It created an angry youngster who ended up finding trouble even when he wasn’t looking for it.

The memoir is touching, funny, heartbreaking and triumphant. It tells of Baca’s own struggle against the power of his past, which threatened to invade and take over his present and his future. He writes about the spirit that seemed to guide him past these dark times when anger and a feeling that his father was right when he said, “You’ll never be worth a damn and you’ll never accomplish anything in life.”

With grit and determination Baca has proven El Wille (his father) wrong, although that wasn’t his intent. His success is a blessing he counts with thanksgiving in his heart, not with revenge in his mind.

Baca said writing the book has been cathartic, allowing him to perhaps shine a light on his past and blow away the shadows that have haunted him for years.

“Blessings in Disguise,” is available at Tome on the Range in Las Vegas, N.M., and from the author. Baca will be the guest author at a reading and book-signing event at Tome on Saturday, Sept. 17 beginning at 3 p.m.