Sycamore Row

Sycamore Row by John Grisham

Sycamore Row is John Grisham's newest courtroom thriller and it is a sequel to his twenty odd years ago hit A TIME TO KILL.

We return three years after the Hailey trial to find Jake, Carla and Hannah Brigance struggling to make ends meet as they deal with an insurance company unwilling to pay up for their KKK arson burned home. But their world is about, once again, to be turned upside down.

Seth Hubbard was the richest man in their part of Mississippi, but no one knew it because he kept his life so secret.  Now everyone knows because he has hung himself from a tree and left his millions not to any family member, but almost all of it to his part time maid.

Why?

That's the million dollar, literally, question.

Grisham weaves a great tale and goes back effectively into the mid eighties to show what prejudice among blacks and whites in rural Mississippi was like.

30 years later, has much changed?  We were just in northern MS a couple of months ago and found some open and trusting persons of all colors in and around the town of Corinth.  Maybe we'll learn more when we head back through Mississippi on our way west the end of this year or early next.

In any case, this read was one I could not easily put down, and I feel more enlightened about the people and places we'll be seeing soon.

I encourage a read by you, and a Hollywood producer to consider giving Jake Brigance another shot at the silver screen.  Yes, a digital movie screen is STILL silver!

***** 5 stars.
-Ken

Rutland Place

Rutland Place by Anne Perry

'A curious and most disturbing thing has happened...' When Charlotte Pitt learned of her mother's distress at losing a locket with a compromising picture, she could not know that it was the beginning of a chain of bizarre events that would end in sudden death. For hidden behind the sumptuous elegance of Rutland Place were terrible secrets. Secrets so horrifying that only murder could conceal them. But the dangerous persistence of Charlotte and the quiet patience of Inspector Thomas Pitt made it possible to unwind this most macabre and chilling mystery...

-FantasticFiction

This fifth book in Anne Perry's Thomas and Charlotte Pitt series, with it's surprise ending, is well deserving of the four stars that I give it****.

-Mona

A Death in Vienna

A Death in Vienna by Frank Tallis

It is Vienna at the beginning of the last century, and Dr Max Liebermann is a young psycho analyst - and disciple of Freud. Psychoanalysis is only just developing and viewed with a mixture of excitement and suspicion. The world of 1900s Vienna is one where philosophy, science and art are at their most exciting and flourishing, with the coffee shops full of men and women debating the latest cultural and political theories. Liebermann's good friend Oskar Rheinhardt is a Detective Inspector - hard working, but lacking Liebermann's insights and forensic eye and so it is through Rheinhardt that Libermann is called upon to help with police investigations surrounding the death of a beautiful young medium, in what seems at first to be supernatural circumstances. While Liebermann attempts to get to the bottom of the mystery, he also must decide whether he is to follow his father's advice and marry the beautiful but reserved Clara.

-FantasticFiction

Interesting....but a bit slow at times.  I would rate this one with three stars***.

-MONA

The Prince of Tides

The Prince of Tides by Pat Conroy

I began reading this classic South Carolina Low Country novel well before we arrived in the low country and have just finished it as we are in the middle of our time here.

Conroy is one of this regions finest but also deepest authors.  Fine, in that you live the stories as he tells them, deep, as you feel the pain and heartache of living those stories as well.  And there is much heartache in his tales.

Born of his own tough childhood he weaves a families life over 40 years of weird, strange, awful and wonderful times. As they say, the worst of us each had a mother.  In this case, what a mother!

Who is the Prince of Tides?  That is the ever present question which remains at the bottom of the Colleten River till almost the last page when the answer rises up like the moon at sunset.

*****Five stars, of course.  Can I give less than the finest reviewers of the age?
-Ken

Focus

Focus by Arthur Miller

Written in 1945, Focus was Arthur Miller's first novel and one of the first books to directly confront American anti-Semitism. It remains as chilling and incisive today as it was at the time of its controversial debut. As World War II draws to a close, anti-Semitism is alive and well in Brooklyn, New York. Here, Newman, an American of English descent, floats through a world of multiethnic neighborhoods indifferent to the racism around him. That is, until he begins wearing glasses that render him "Jewish" in the eyes of others, making him the target of anti-Semitic persecution. As he and his wife find friendship and support from a Jewish immigrant, Newman slowly begins to understand the racial hatreds that surround him.

-FantasticFiction

A very thought provoking book well worth the five stars I feel it deserves*****.

-MONA

The Girl on Legare Street

The Girl on Legare Street by Karen White

In this sequel to The House On Tradd Street, when Melanie Middleton was seven years old her mother, Ginnette, left home, abandoning her husband and her daughter. Now, nearly thirty-three years later, Ginnette has returned to Charleston, South Carolina, to confront her past and make amends with the daughter she left behind. Melanie is less than thrilled when her mother reappears in her life and asks for her help in buying back the family home. But before she can slam the door in her mother s face, Ginnette tells her it was a premonition that brought her back a premonition involving old family secrets and a malevolent presence. It has come for Melanie, and to fight it, they will have to stand together.

-FantasticFiction

I did not enjoy this second book in Karen White's Tradd Street series quite as much as the first.  She seemed to have a hard time determining what she wanted this to be...mystery, romance, paranormal, comedy, historical family saga.....The story got quite confusing at times between dead characters as well as a seemingly constant flip-flop of relationships and feelings between the main characters in the book (one minute enemies, the next minute friends working together to solve the mystery, then back to being enemies again working against each other).  White also seemed to leave a number of issues unresolved by the end of the book....possibly in the next one????  Not sure I want to go on to the next one someday.  I can only give this book three stars***.

-MONA

The House on Tradd Street

The House on Tradd Street by Karen White

A brilliant, chilling series debut, featuring a Charleston real estate agent who loves old houses - and the secret histories inside them.

Practical Melanie Middleton hates to admit she can see ghosts. But she's going to have to accept it. An old man she recently met has died, leaving her his historic Tradd Street home, complete with housekeeper, dog - and a family of ghosts anxious to tell her their secrets.

Enter Jack Trenholm, a gorgeous writer obsessed with unsolved mysteries. He has reason to believe that diamonds from the Confederate Treasury are hidden in the house. So he turns the charm on with Melanie, only to discover he's the smitten one...

It turns out Jack's search has caught the attention of a malevolent ghost. Now, Jack and Melanie must unravel a mystery of passion, heartbreak - and even murder.

-FantasticFiction

Part romance, part ghost story, part mystery. I read this while we were in Charleston so that I could feel closer to the story itself...minus the ghosts, of course!  It made walking the streets South of Broad come alive with even more beauty, if that's possible.  Interesting enough to rate four stars****.

-MONA

The House Next Door

The House Next Door by Anne Rivers Siddons

 

Their love would never be the same.

Colquitt and Walter Kennedy enjoyed a life of lazy weekends, gathering with the neighbors on their quiet, manicured street and sipping drinks on their patios. But when construction of a beautiful new home begins in the empty lot next door, their easy friendship and relaxed get-togethers are marred by strange accidents and inexplicable happenings.

Though Colquitt's rational mind balks at the idea of a "haunted" house, she cannot ignore the tragedies associated with it. It is as if the house preys on its inhabitants' weaknesses and slowly destroys the goodness in them -- ultimately driving them to disgrace, madness and even death.

Anne Rivers Siddons transports you deep into the heart of a neighborhood torn apart by a mysterious force that threatens their friendship, their happiness and, for some, their very existence.
-FantasticFiction

 

A haunting page-turner!  Anne Rivers Siddons does it again....another five star rating*****

-Mona

The Road

The Road by Jack London

It took me a couple of tries to get the correct pic for this post from the internet.  Google Search, after all, is built to go after the hottest connection to the key words given to it.  The words ‘Road’ and ‘Jack’ kept finding ‘On the Road by Jack Kerouac’, the 1950’s best selling book that turned the world on to not just beatniks but James Dean and antiauthority-disestablishmentarianism that would soon rock the sixties.

Kerouac’s book has got cars roaring through the night carrying wild youth across America. London’s has decidedly wilder and more determined youth of all ages riding the couplers on railroad freight cars at 40 miles an hour and up, in all weathers.

Yes, the same author who gave us poems, plays, nonfiction, ‘Call of the Wild’ and ‘Sea Wolf’ also gave us this auto-biography of a… well, let a Wikipedia author tell it better than I can:

The Road is an autobiographical memoir by Jack London, first published in 1907. It is London's account of his experiences as a hobo in the 1890s, during the worst economic depression the United States had experienced up to that time.^[1] He describes his experiences hopping freight trains, "holding down" a train when the crew is trying to throw him off, begging for food and money, and making up extraordinary stories to fool the police. He also tells of the thirty days that he spent in the Erie County Penitentiary, which he described as a place of "unprintable horrors," after being "pinched" (arrested) for vagrancy. In addition, he recounts his time with Kelly's Army, which he joined up with in Wyoming and remained with until its dissolution at the Mississippi River.^[2]

I couldn’t wait to read each next chapter, though at times I had to. This is one of the several books that stirred my heart to ever live on the road myself.  Though living the way Jack London did, on the road he chose?  Not for me!

But the book is!  *****

-Ken

Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil

Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil by John Berendt

Shots rang out in Savannah's grandest mansion in the misty,early morning hours of May 2, 1981.  Was it murder or self-defense?  For nearly a decade, the shooting and its aftermath reverberated throughout this hauntingly beautiful city of moss-hung oaks and shaded squares.  John Berendt's sharply observed, suspenseful, and witty narrative reads like a thoroughly engrossing novel, and yet it is a work of nonfiction.  Berendt skillfully interweaves a hugely entertaining first-person account of life in this isolated remnant of the Old South with the unpredictable twists and turns of a landmark murder case.

It is a spellbinding story peopled by a gallery of remarkable characters: the well-bred society ladies of the Married Woman's Card Club; the turbulent young redneck gigolo; the hapless recluse who owns a bottle of poison so powerful it could kill every man, woman, and child in Savannah; the aging and profane Southern belle who is the "soul of pampered self-absorption"; the uproariously funny black drag queen; the acerbic and arrogant antiques dealer; the sweet-talking, piano-playing con artist; young blacks dancing the minuet at the black debutante ball; and Minerva, the voodoo priestess who works her magic in the graveyard atmidnight.  These and other Savannahians act as a Greek chorus, with Berendt revealing the alliances, hostilities, and intrigues that thrive in a town where everyone knows everyone else.

Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil is a sublime and seductive reading experience.  Brilliantly conceived and masterfully written, this enormously engaging portrait of a most beguiling Southern city has become a modern classic.

-Amazon

Even though I had read this book shortly after it was first published in 1999, I decided to re-read it before visiting Savannah in two weeks.  It was a reminder of the beauty and the seamier side of life in Savannah at that time, as well as being filled with interesting observations on a number of the famous people who have lived there.  Although I may not condone the lifestyles of the "rich and famous"  I would rate this with four stars****.

-Mona

Bulls Island

Bulls Island by Dorothea Benton Frank

 After twenty years, Elizabeth "Betts" McGee has finally managed to put her past behind her. She hasn't been home to beautiful South Carolina and untouched Bulls Island since the tragic night that ended her engagement to Charleston's golden boy, J. D. Langley.

And why is that? Really, this is the story of two old Southern families. The Langley family has more money than the Morgan Stanley Bank. And they think they have more class. The Barrett family made their nineteenth-century fortune in a less distinguished manner—corner grocery stores and liquor stores. It's no surprise that when J.D.  and Betts fall in love and decide to marry their parents are none too pleased. And when the love affair comes to an end, everyone is ready to place blame.

Now twenty years have gone by and Betts, a top investment bank executive, must leave her comfortable life in New York City to return to the home she thought she'd left behind forever. But spearheading the most important project of her career puts her back in contact with everything she's tried so hard to forget: her estranged sister, her father, J.D., and her past.

Once she's home, can Betts keep the secret that threatens all she holds dear? Or will her fear of the past wreck her future happiness? And what about that crazy gator? All will be revealed on Bulls Island.

-FantasticFiction

Although Bull's Island  is good, I didn't find it quite up to Dorothea Benton Frank's usual charm.  Therefore only four stars instead of five****.

-Mona

The English Monster

The English Monster by Lloyd Shepherd

London, 1811. The twisting streets of riverside Wapping hold many an untold sin. Bounded by the Ratcliffe Highway to the north and the modern wonders of the Dock to the south, shameful secrets are largely hidden by the noise and glory of Trade. But two families have fallen victim to foul murder, and a terrified populace calls for justice. John Harriott, magistrate of the new Thames River Police Office, must deliver revenge up to them and his only hope of doing so is Charles Horton, Harriot's senior officer. Harriott only recently came up with a word to describe what it is that Horton does. It is detection. Plymouth, 1564. Young Billy Ablass arrives from Oxford armed only with a Letter of Introduction to Captain John Hawkyns, and the burning desire of all young men; the getting and keeping of money. For Hawkyns is about to set sail in a ship owned by Queen Elizabeth herself, and Billy sees the promise of a better life with a crew intent on gain and glory. The kidnap and sale of hundreds of human beings is not the only cursed event to occur on England's first officially-sanctioned slaving voyage. On a sun-blasted islet in the Florida Cays, Billy too is to be enslaved for the rest of his accursed days. Based on the real-life story of the gruesome Ratcliffe Highway murders, The English Monster takes us on a voyage across centuries, through the Age of Discovery, and throws us up, part of the human jetsam, onto the streets of Regency Wapping, policed only by Officer Horton.

-FantasticFiction

Two very different stories running side by side kept me reading to find out how and when they would connect, but at times they got somewhat confusing and slow. I kept waiting for it to get better, but alas....  I ended up being disappointed that I didn't enjoy it more.  Sorry, but I can only give this one two stars**.

-Mona

The Monkey Wrench Gang

The Monkey Wrench Gang by Edward Abbey

Funny; Wild; Wise; Tragic; Beautiful are the words the Houston Chronicle used to describe this book when it came out in 1975.  If you’ve never read Edward Abbey before, don’t let these words guide you to read this one first.  I recommend you read his truly beautiful, and still subversively written, Desert Solitaire which I reviewed some books ago as we journeyed east through the Colorado and Kansas plains in 100 degree heat. I must add a few descriptive words of my own to explain.

Viet Nam; Rough Intimacy (sex); Violent destruction and words; Scandalous behavior, and a phrase written by more than one reviewer, and the FBI, ‘Keep Abbey on the watch list.  His writing teaches terrorists how to commit mayhem and murder’.  Yes, it could, and maybe has.

But the GANG is not an organized group of foreign or even eco-terrorists.  Its not a religiously zealous bunch of super-fundamental Christians or Muslims. And there is no political agenda except, perhaps, anarchy and defiant ‘keep it as its been’ mentality about America’s dwindling wilderness.

If you are a fan of the National Park Service or the Bureau of Land Management you may not like this book.  But if you enjoy a rollicking, all too believable, ride through amazingly beautiful, clearly described desert vistas, and accurately visualized destructive actions for supposedly positive results, you will NOT be able to put this one down.

As we journey in our 18 ton behemoth from one rock lined gorge walled in between dams for electric power, valley hemmed in by mountains whose sides are being excavated to build more roads, or overlooks looking over more smog than city we see the reasons for Abbey’s radical take on giving nature back to nature.

The 2014 very non-biblical movie NOAH starring Russell Crowe in the lead brought up a possible plan of God’s beyond a re-boot of the universe.  Perhaps God did not intend that Noah’s family should do more than save the beasts. Perhaps, at the departure of those beasts from the Ark somewhere on the mountains of Ararat, after all had gone and Noah had blessed the Lord with offerings, he wonders if he wasn’t supposed to turn with his blade toward his family and kill them all, and himself last.  Russell Crowe wonders if God really wanted the chance to start the universe over again, without humans to muck it up.

This, I think, would be a concept Edward Abbey might have appreciated.

-*****  KEN