Tag Archives: fiction

The Ballad of Jacquotte Delahaye**-***

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The Ballad of Jacquotte Delahaye marks Briony Cameron’s authorial debut. She is a talented wordsmith, and my thanks go to Atria Books and NetGalley for the invitation to read and review. While I enjoyed several exciting passages—I do adore a good pirate tale—in the end there were issues with credibility that got in my way.

 This story of a pirate woman’s derring do is for sale now.

When I read that Jacquotte Delahaye was a real person and that the book is based on true events, I was all in. However, there are passages that made me raise an eyebrow, and since there didn’t seem to be any notes that would indicate what is true and what is the author’s invention, I took to Google to find out more. This is where I learned that actually, she may have been a real person, or she may be only legend. The stories surrounding her life and exploits are also legend. There’s virtually no verified historical information on this character.

I love good historical fiction, which is where actual, documented facts are given warmth and life by an author that adds dialogue and perhaps fleshes out a few areas where the record is sketchy. Then, if the author is sharp and professional, there will be end notes that explain what is a matter of historical record, and what has been invented. That’s my happy place. Even better is when sources are provided for interested readers. Of course, a writer of any kind of fiction isn’t required to provide footnotes or other documentation, but when they do, it’s the cherry on the sundae, and it makes me love them all the more.

Because this story is not nearly as closely aligned to historical record as the promotional materials would have me believe, I nearly dropped my rating to two stars. I felt, and still feel, that the synopsis provided is misleading. I don’t like feeling as if I’ve been played. However, I realize that the author probably is not in charge of her own promotional blurb, and I can’t see penalizing her for what the publicist has chosen to do.

Do I recommend this story? Not so much. Had it been written in such a skillful way that I felt no need to do research of my own, I might not know that this is pure fiction based on little more than speculation. That’s not the case, though. It doesn’t ring true in a number of places, and that’s partly because it isn’t. However, should the reader decide to pursue it, I would advise that you get this book free or cheap, unless your resources are endless ones. Don’t pay full cover price.

The Maid’s Secret, by Nita Prose****-******

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Molly the Maid is back for the third installment of Nita Prose’s excellent and wildly successful series. My thanks go to NetGalley and Random House Ballantine for the review copy. This book will be available to the public April 8, 2025.

As in the first two books, we find Molly employed at The Regency Grand Hotel; she’s been promoted to Head Maid as well as Special Events Manager. She is engaged to chef Juan Manuel, a lovely fellow that helped fill the void in her life when her beloved Gran died. But everything changes when Brown and Beagle, art appraisers famed for their reality television program, come to do a show at The Regency Grand. Along with all of the “polishing to perfection” that is necessary for such a massive event, Molly decides to bring a few of her late grandmother’s trinkets along; you never know, maybe one of them will be worth something.

Oh, it most certainly is!

Once her rare and valuable object becomes public knowledge, Molly’s life changes completely. She no longer has privacy, which she holds dear; strangers are constantly in her face seeking autographs, and the press won’t leave her alone. Meanwhile, we are apprised of the circumstances leading up to this startling discovery. Gran comes to us from beyond the grave—so to speak—in the form of a diary that Molly didn’t know she kept. Chapters in this book alternate between the present day in Molly’s life, and the past, as told in epistolary fashion by Gran.

I wasn’t a big fan of this method, and I’m still a bit ambivalent, which is where the half star off the rating went. It seems like a lazy way to go about telling a story. However, if an author must use this method, it’s hard to imagine it being done better.

Of course things don’t go smoothly following the discovery of the heirloom; if they did, then there would be no novel. But I will leave the conflicts and resolution to the reader to discover.  As for me, I found the series of events, and the ending, believable enough for our purposes, and I enjoyed the story greatly, despite my misgivings about Gran’s storytelling method.

Recommended to those that enjoy the series; this book may be read as a stand-alone, but will be better enjoyed if you can read the first, second, or both earlier books first.

Only Big Bumbum Matters Tomorrow, by Damilare Kuku

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When a novel written and set in Nigeria is so successful that it’s translated into English and sold in the U.S., you know it’s probably one hell of a good book, and Only Big Bumbum Matters Tomorrow is clear evidence that this is true. My thanks go to HarperCollins and NetGalley for the review copy; this book is for sale now.

Our protagonist is Teme (TEE-mee), a young woman fresh out of college who is sure of her next course of action: she must develop a perfect body, starting with her backside. She works and saves her money so that she can have her buttocks enhanced surgically. Everybody loves a woman with a big butt, and once hers is augmented, she can marry anybody she wants. It will be a great investment!

This choice, not surprisingly, blows the roof off her family home. All of the women, her mother, auntie, sister, and others are adamant, and they scheme together, and bicker together, about how to prevent her from carrying out what they perceive to be a dangerous and foolish task. In the process, they reveal their own long held secrets, and also? They are hysterically funny!

The reader should know that the best material isn’t dropped in at the beginning, as is the unfortunate trend. Instead, it starts out fairly serious, and then I find myself snickering a little, and then a little more, and by the end, I am howling! There are quite a number of characters, and not recalling all of them won’t interfere with your enjoyment; however, it’s easier to catch up and also identify certain Nigerian terms that are peppered in, most of which are self-explanatory anyway, if you read digitally. However, because I had fallen behind, I checked out the audio version from the library and followed along as I did my morning exercises, and the audio version is brilliant as well. The lilting Nigerian dialect is mesmerizing!

Although it doesn’t seem like it at first, this novel packs a satisfying feminist punch. I highly recommend it to any reader that has eyes, ears, or both. Don’t miss it!

Hang on St. Christopher, by Adrian McKinty*****

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Fans of Adrian McKinty’s Sean Duffy mystery series, celebrate! The eighth installment, Hang on St. Christopher, is out, and it’s well worth the wait. My endless thanks go to NetGalley and Blackstone Publishing for the review copy. This book will be available to the American public tomorrow, March 4, 2025.

When we rejoin Duffy, he’s a part-timer with the Royal Ulster Constabulary, driving a desk:

Until a year ago, doing boring paperwork had only been my cover, because I’d really been a case officer in charge of handling an IRA double agent in the police, who we’d turned into a triple agent working for us: feeding the IRA false intelligence and trying to pick up tips. But the stress of playing for us and them had finally taken its toll on Assistant Chief Constable John Strong, who had a coronary event in his back garden, where he’d been pruning his pear tree with a chainsaw. The chainsaw had avoided killing him, but it had laid waste to several of his prized garden gnomes before the cutoff switch kicked in. It had taken him an hour to die out there, gasping for breath in the summer heat among the severed heads of his gnome army, and those of us who knew about his crimes and betrayals had considered that justice.

For the uninitiated, this is typical of McKinty’s writing style, providing essential information in a tightly worded space, but also including, now and then, some unexpectedly hilarious tidbits. It prevents his prose from becoming too dark to be a fun read.

And dark it does become. You see, Detective Sergeant Lawson, who was once Duffy’s underling and whom Duffy still outranks, is on vacation—sorry, holiday—on the Continent, and wouldn’t you know that a particularly interesting and urgent sort of murder takes place while he’s gone? Duffy is on his way out the door, ready to retire to his suburban home in Scotland where his girlfriend and daughter await, when he’s tapped to go to the scene. Of course, he can turn the whole thing over to Lawson once he’s home; it’s only for a couple of days.

As if.

There are two things that as a reader, I rarely do anymore, and one of them is to stay up late to finish a book. Why should I? I’m retired. I can finish it in the morning if I choose, when I’m rested. The other is to feel sorrow when a good book has ended. I always have dozens sitting in my queue, so even a good book that’s finished is a title I can check off my list, right? But just like Duffy’s tranquil—okay, boring—suburban idyll, all that goes out the window for this one. I stayed up long after my light is usually extinguished, and I mourned when I realized there was no more of it to read.

Once the adrenaline had faded, I wondered where my usual cynicism had gone. I’m a tough customer when it comes to mysteries, and in this one, Duffy does about a million things that cops never do in real life, taking all sorts of crazy risks, doing things at his own expense and on his own time. Why do I believe this story? Because I do. I believe every stinking word of it. And then I realize that it’s the character. McKinty has developed Sean Duffy so well that I know that while cops in general don’t do these things, Duffy absolutely does. Part of it is his thirst for justice; part of it is his inner darkness, a slight, or not so slight, death wish.

If I could change one thing, it would be to have the 9th Sean Duffy mystery available now. Right this minute. I have some excellent books in my queue, but there’s not a single one that I wouldn’t drop like a hot coal if I were given another Duffy book.

Can you read it as a stand-alone? You can, but it would be silly, because when you finish, you’ll be online searching for ways to get the first seven in the series. Do what you gotta do, but read this book.

Finlay Donovan Digs Her Own Grave*****

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Finlay Donovan is a full time mom who finds herself short on resources after her attorney husband leaves her for someone else. In the first episode, she finds herself with a corpse that she may or may not have killed; fearing the worst, she disposes of it, and the next thing she knows, her name is on some sort of dark web list of killers for hire. By the time she realizes she’s innocent, it’s too late to put the toothpaste back in the tube.

Other things have happened since then, of course, as we find ourselves now on the fifth installment. Present and accounted for is her nanny and close friend, Vero Ruiz, a woman with the kind of street smarts that can come in handy when the chips are down. In this episode there are several recurring characters, and the reader is strongly advised to go back and read the first Finlay before diving in. It’s not as if you can’t just start with this one, but you’ll be missing half of the jokes and jibes if you do.

My great thanks go to St. Martin’s Press Early Readers program and NetGalley for the review copy. This book will be available March 4, 2025.

Finlay’s nosy neighbor, Mrs. Haggerty, assumes a central role this time around when a body is exhumed from her backyard. Her home is declared a crime scene, and before Finlay even has time to react, the woman has installed herself in Finn’s guest room. A beat or two later, Stephen, Finlay’s ex, husband of her two children, is arrested for murdering the corpse that’s been found!

One of my favorite parts of this series is watching the dynamics between Finlay and her ex. On the one hand, the guy is philanderer, and he’s kind of a weasel. Yet, though Vero urges Fin to let justice take its course and stay out of it, Finlay has to defend him. Stephen is the father of her children, and they don’t need to grow up being told their daddy is a murderer. Also? The child support will dry up quick as a whistle if Stephen no longer makes money. And part of what I love about this, is that, in broad strokes, it outlines a dilemma that any number of women with children face. Life is full of nuance, and although this is not literary fiction, not intended to be known for its depth, it does honor the shades of gray faced by so many women. It makes the whole story more relatable.

Mrs. Haggerty also proves to be far more interesting than we previously believed, and that’s all I’m going to say about that. However, I do admire Cosimano’s capacity to juggle a million tiny, moving parts without creating inconsistencies. Once or twice I have seen what looks like an inconsistency, but then it turns out to have been written that way for a reason, usually to expose someone or something.

As the series progresses, I see more critics howling that the series isn’t what it was. Of course they’re right, in a way; when the series grows, the author has to make changes to prevent becoming a one trick pony. But I admire the way Cosimano handles the growth.

One small moan: yes, yes, yes. We can see that Finlay is hot for Nick, her cop boyfriend (the only trite element so far.) And yes, yes, yes, we can see that Vero is madly in love with her sweetheart, a fellow who she’s adored since her teens. We get it. Finlay and Vero are not a couple. We don’t need it hammered in any further, or at least, I don’t. For that matter, I wouldn’t be all that disturbed if they were. But the increased emphasis on their two romances bears just the tiniest whiff if hysteria. It’s not necessary. Finn’s love for Vero and vice versa, is not a lesbian love, but about the family we choose. So, let it rest already. Relax! The lesbian role is fulfilled by Finlay’s cop sister, Georgia, who stays firmly in the background where, apparently, some in the industry believe lesbian characters belong.

Sheesh!

That wee rant aside, I enjoyed this book very much. I heartily recommend it to you, and I cannot wait to read the next in the series.

The Answer is No, by Fredrik Backman****

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Who can resist a story by Fredrik Backman? His soothing tone and positive message about the nature of humanity is balm for the soul. So although I seldom read stand alone short stories, I leapt on this one right away. My thanks go to NetGalley and Amazon for the review copy. This book is for sale now.

This is one of those stories where you can see what’s about to happen, in broad strokes, right out of the gate. The blurb gives us the contours, telling us that our protagonist, Lucas, is about to have his life ruined by a frying pan; his life is perfect, single with no entanglements. He has no friends that he owes favors; no girlfriend; his life is simple and uncomplicated. He has a nice little apartment that’s his alone; after work, he can eat his Thai food and play his videogames without harassment. He doesn’t bother anybody, and nobody bothers him.

Then there’s a knock at the door, an insistent one; it’s a small klatch of people that introduce themselves as “the board.” Someone has disposed of a frying pan in an unauthorized spot, and they are determined to root out the culprit and penalize them. Everyone is considered guilty until proven innocent! Lucas protests his innocence and makes a few hapless suggestions in hopes of mollifying them, but instead, they draft him to head a committee, and they won’t let him out of it.

This is a pleasant enough story, consistent with Backman’s usual style, but at the same time, because it is a short story, it lacks some of the most agreeable aspects of a Backman novel. In his full length books, Backman creates and develops a massive collection of characters, and he always juggles them brilliantly, developing several and keeping each of them so distinct that the reader can’t forget who is who. Here he is forced, due to the limited length of the thing, to keep it down to a small handful of characters, and while some will likely appreciate this, I miss the complex stories with infinite character back stories and interrelationships. So, as short stories go, this perfectly fine, but for those of us that are fond of Backman’s epic tales, it feels just a trifle anticlimactic.

Recommended to those that read everything Backman writes, and to those that prefer a more streamlined story.

American Spirits, by Russell Banks*****

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American Spirits is a collection of three short stories that take place in the fictional New England town of Sam Dent. My thanks go to NetGalley and Alfred A. Knopf for the review copy. This book is for sale now.

I wasn’t sure this book would be up to Banks’s usual standard, as it was published posthumously, more than a year following his death. Sometimes a successful author will have a book that isn’t their best, and they’ll toss it in a drawer in hopes of improving and publishing it later. When they die, their heirs find the book and seeing dollar signs, send it off to a publisher. Still, though, Russell Banks’s sloppy seconds are still going to be vastly better than your average successful author’s best effort, so I decided to take a look. And holy crap, it’s actually one of his finest!

One thing any uninitiated reader must know is the Banks is brutal. If the story seems to be leading up to something pretty bad happening, the unwary might anticipate that the author will pull it out of the water at the last minute in order to send the readers away with smiles on their faces. Banks doesn’t do that. With stories by Banks, the main question is whether all of the important characters are going to die, or only some of them. He is unflinchingly brutal, but oh honey, he does it so well that I wish I could thank him for it!

One of the things that underlies everything Banks writes is his deep knowledge of, and appreciation for, the working class. His own hardscrabble background most likely plays a role, but one way or the other, the struggles of the ordinary man or woman, usually living in rural parts or small towns in New England are depicted with such care, distilling vast amounts of tiny details into the briefest of spaces that I believe the character and I believe the setting. Banks is also, to the best of my knowledge, the first to set a story in a manufactured home or mobile home court.

The first story, “Nowhere Man”, is about a man that sells off part of his land to a newcomer, partially because of a private agreement that the two make, but that isn’t ever codified. The new owner eventually goes back on his word; the original owner is having none of it; and then all hell breaks loose.

The second, “Homeschooling,” is about an average family whose life is changed when newcomers with a somewhat bizarre parenting style move in next door; when the emaciated children sneak over at night to beg for food, they become involved.

The final story, “Kidnapped,” is about a couple of senior citizens that are kidnapped and held until the drugs that their grandson’s addicted mother has filched are returned.

When I read Banks, I tell myself not to get attached to the characters, but he’s smarter than I am, so I can’t help myself.

There is something deeply satisfying in reading an author that has the confidence to buck literary trends. I wish that Banks, who was twice nominated for the Pulitzer Prize, could have lived and written fiction forever, but the legacy he has left us is the next best thing. Highly recommended.

The Great Hippopotamus Hotel, by Alexander McCall Smith*****

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The 25th book in the #1 Ladies Detective Agency series is not to be missed. My thanks go to NetGalley and Knopf/Doubleday for the review copy; this book is available to the public now.

When life becomes stressful, what do you do? Some swear by yoga, herbal tea, walking or running, therapy, mindfulness, journaling, or a number of other remedies. Some of us dive into the chocolate; the short-term benefit is mitigated by the long term weight gain, but when we’re upset enough, we don’t care. And for some of us, this series is just what the doctor ordered.

Precious Ramotswe is our detective protagonist, assisted, and occasionally encumbered, by her headstrong but goodhearted colleague, Grace Makutsi, part time apprentice detective, Charlie, and occasionally, by her bestie, Mma Potokwane, who runs the local orphan home.

Our mystery revolves, as the title suggests, around a case of possible sabotage at The Great Hippopotamus Hotel. There’s another thread, too—as there usually is—involving Precious’s husband, Mr. J.L.B Matekoni, owner of the garage and technically, Precious’s landlord.

Those looking for an action packed thriller will always be disappointed here, because that’s not what this series is. Instead, it’s closer to being a Miss Marple-ish cozy mystery. The problem is nearly always solved, not by DNA or murder weapons or questioning baddies until they break, but by an examination of the circumstances and characters of those involved. It is here that Precious is at her finest. In addition, she must tread carefully around the feelings of her staff, primarily that of Grace Makutsi, whose insecurities tend to make her prickly. Grace is a bit threatened by Mma Potokwane, and when Precious explains gently that they will be accompanied by the orphan farm matron on an investigation, Grace says, in a serious case of look-who’s-talking:

“Mma Potokwane—yes, she is observant, but…But Mma, if Mma Potokwane has any faults—and we all have faults Mma, myself included—if she has any faults, one of them is taking over. I am not saying that she is bossy—that is not a word that I would use for Mma Potokwane—I would not say that, Mma, and I am not saying it now. No. But there are some people, I think, who might say that.”

And so, in addition to her detective work, Mma Ramotswe must navigate the small minefields that exist between these two women, both of whom are dear to her.

In some ways, the mystery aspect of these stories is almost superfluous. Every story has to have a problem and a resolution, and so it’s convenient, perhaps, to use a mystery as scaffolding for whatever problem Precious must confront. It’s certainly served Smith well. But the real benefit I see in these series is that the solutions to these problems are always dealt with as gently and as kindly as is possible. Nobody is getting thrown face down on the ground and handcuffed in these stories; every effort is made to turn the problem around while allowing the perpetrator to retain as much dignity as possible. The lyrical prose is so soothing that I love reading these stories at bedtime.

And one more word, for regular readers: the recurring character of Violet, who is the closest we have to a villain, pops up here right away, and I rolled my eyes and said, “Not this again. Smith needs new material.” But the way the character is used this time is different, and if I had a hat, I would tip it in appreciation of the author’s cleverness. He always seems to know when it’s time to break a pattern.

Highly recommended.

Open Season, by Jonathan Kellerman***

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3.5 stars, rounded downward.

Open Season is the fortieth (!) in the Alex Delaware series, one that I have read since the very first book. Newbies can read it as a stand alone novel, however. My thanks go to NetGalley and Random House/Ballantine Books for the review copy. It will be available to the public February 4, 2025.

One of the joys of reading a long running series is its familiarity. If the writer is good—and nobody will say Kellerman isn’t—the characters begin to feel like old friends. In addition to our protagonist, kiddy shrink and cop consultant Alex Delaware, we have his wife, Robin, who is mostly a background character; Alex’s best friend, Detective Milo Sturgis; and some lesser recurring characters such as cops Sean and Petra. I could include Milo’s husband Rick, but Rick almost never puts in a personal appearance. In fact, we see a good deal more of Blanche, Alex and Robin’s French bulldog, who, like the other characters, never grows old. When Milo lumbers into the Delaware kitchen and raids practically everything in the fridge, I smile. Ah, there he is, the big guy.

When the series began, Alex, a child psychologist (like Kellerman himself,) worked with seriously troubled children and teens, but when the LAPD had a case involving a child, he would consult on it also. Now he works on the private cases of his choosing, primarily custody cases and the like, and is a de facto cop. This has developed in the context of Milo, a gay cop, being ostracized by the rest of the department, and so once a friendship and working relationship develops between Milo and Alex, Alex rides along and they say he’s a consultant, even when there are no funds in the budget and he is merely a volunteer.

All this may seem improbable today, but please remember that the series began in 1985, when gay men were treated brutally by most of American society, and that is exponential when it’s a cop being hazed by his own department. And even today, gay cops don’t always have an easy road.

Is this realistic, then? Let’s look at it this way. To be completely realistic, Alex would never get into that cop car, and he would work only from his office. To consult with the department, he would be sent information to analyze, and if appropriate, the child or children in question would meet with him in an office to be interviewed. Milo would either be on his own, or with whatever newbie was stuck being his partner for now.

And it would be dull as hell.

So, for me to enjoy this series, I just need the most improbable aspects to be scaled back, and I’m happy. Several books ago, Alex was donning a Kevlar vest and rocketing into action with Milo, and that was straight-up ridiculous. But Alex doesn’t do that anymore. The story is just believable enough for me to buy into it, and so I’m happy.

This particular episode involves a sniper, and although I enjoyed it and found little to object to, it didn’t have quite as much sparkle as most of his other books. On the other hand, it also didn’t have a theme involving kinky sex—ew!—as in multiple past novels, and it didn’t have any of my pet peeves that I dislike wherever they turn up. No kidnapping Alex or his loved ones; no struggle with alcohol. So I was happy for the most part and would have rounded the rating up to four stars, which is what I usually rate Delaware novels, but the multiple snarky remarks about abortion rocked me back. Not all women’s health facilities that feature abortion as an option are “abortion mills.” If a grandmother suggests that a pregnant granddaughter consider abortion, it doesn’t make her a bad grandmother. Am I rounding the score on a novel downward because I don’t like the author’s politics? Yes. Yes I am. But, can I do that? Sure I can. I just did.

I’ve loved this series for a long time, and I look forward to reading the forty-first. I do recommend this book to the series faithful, but if possible, get it at a discount or free, rather than paying full price, unless your pockets are deep ones. If you are new to the series, if possible, read either the most recent one before this—number thirty-nine was excellent—or read the very first, When the Bough Breaks, which ties the subject much more closely to Alex’s original profession.

Good Dirt, by Charmaine Wilkerson*****

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Charmaine Wilkerson is the author of the massively successful Black Cake. Her sophomore effort, Good Dirt, carries some of the same components—an impending marriage, a family heirloom, secrets and betrayals—but is nevertheless a very different story, and it’s an even better one. My thanks go to Random House Ballantine and NetGalley for the invitation to read and review. This book will be available to the public on January 28, 2025.

Our protagonist is Ebby Freeman, which is short for Ebony. She lives with her parents in an affluent neighborhood in New England, but there was a fourth family member, her brother Baz, who was murdered during a home invasion; Ebby witnessed all of it, and has long carried the guilt of survivors. Could her ten year old self have done something to save Baz?

Now Ebby is grown, and plans to be married, but things don’t go as anticipated.

As in her previous novel, Wilkerson packs so many points of view into the story that I eventually stop counting, and although I am skeptical about this choice through much of the book, by the end I have to admit that she has carried it off nicely. Some points of view are urgently necessary to carry the plot forward; others, like that of the intended groom, Henry, are straight-up hilarious in places. Once again, we move not only between points of view, but time periods as well, reaching back into an earlier century, when some of her ancestors were enslaved. These passages aren’t entertaining, but they are necessary to provide clarity and urgency.

Ordinarily, I don’t read stories with wealthy protagonists, and make no mistake, Ebby’s family has a great deal of money; but having the family be African-American, and self-made rather than heirs to massive, often ill gained fortunes helped a great deal. Ultimately it was easy to bond with Ebby. When she experienced pain and rejection, I felt it, too. I carried her around in my head in a way that I usually don’t; over 1,000 reviews are in my rearview mirror, and only the truly special ones take hold of me as this one has.

Highly recommended.