A Book Review |
A Book Review |
Before She Disappeared introduces us to Frankie Elkin, an ordinary woman and recovering alcoholic who has more regrets than belongings, more sad stories than happy ones. To cope with them, she has devoted her life to finding missing people the rest of the world has given up on. This seems too often to happen to minorities.
When the police have given up, when the public no longer remembers, when the media has never bothered to care, Frankie starts looking. For no money, no recognition, and most of the time, no help. Why does she do it?
Maybe the question shouldn't be why am I doing this, but why isn't everyone looking?
~Frankie Elkin
Frankie gets her new cases from online research; from national chat rooms where family members and concerned neighbors compare notes on various missing persons cases. There are too many such cases for local resources to handle, so Frankie, and others like her, step into the vacuum.
Available now on Amazon |
As Frankie begins to ask questions, she discovers that someone doesn't want them answered. As she takes risks to discover the truth, Frankie might become the next person to go missing.
Lisa Gardner has written 23 suspense novels to date, including this one just published in 2021. Her novels are well written and enjoyable to read.
*Reviewer's Note: Lisa Gardner, best-selling author of suspense novels in both her FBI Profiler Series and her D.D. Warren Series, appears to have begun a new series with this Frankie Elkin thriller. Before She Disappeared is listed as a Frankie Elkin Novel Book 1. One Step Too Far (a Frankie Elkin Novel Book 2) will be released on January 18, 2022. It is available for 'Pre-Order' here.
*More Reviews of Lisa Gardner Books on ReviewThisReviews.com
Book Review of "Before She Disappeared" written by
~Wednesday Elf
In this tale we meet a variety of people who are living the best they are able after the Second Conflict. The Second Conflict which was also called "The Fall", "The Reformation", and most commonly, "The Big Stupid". Nana said that some called it the Rapture. Her grandchild is only seven years old and doesn't remember a time before it. Regardless of the name, it was an event that set everyone back to zero in relation to technology, created massive weather events, and left people living hard lives trying to survive.
Nana
"My house, girl" she said "you just a guest here till your parents come back. Pray that it be soon"
Nana was caring for her 7 year old grandchild because her daughter had run off with a man. They had run off to look for gold in the north. Nana lived in a shack that she had built and rebuilt with Grandpa. He was killed in the Second Conflict and left Nana to fend for herself during these hard times. Now she also had to care for a child. A sassy, disrespectful child.
Our introduction to Nana is brief as a thunderhead roared into their small town which was situation in the valley between the hills.
Seven-year-old Girl a.k.a Elka
A seven year old child was arguing with Nana after being told to go collect pine resin. During their argument it was clear that conflict between the two was not a one-time thing. The child continued to refuse and Nana left the house with the final words "Don't you follow me. I don't even want to look at you no more."
While Nana was gone, the thunderhead rolled into town; terrifying the little girl who shouted for her grandmother to return. She hid under the table and before she knew it, both she and the table were in the air, being carried off in the storm. When she landed, she had no clue where she was or how to return to Nana's shack. But terrified, tired, and hungry she set off to find her way back.
Trapper a.k.a Kreagar
The man found a little girl eating his meat that was hanging on drying racks outside of his hut. She ran and hid but he tracked her (probably very easily given his skill living off the land). When she woke, with her head wrapped in a bandage from being knocked unconscious with the butt of his gun she noted
He sat on a chair by the door, staing at me with eyes like the devil. Shotgun rested against his leg, his hat on his knee. He must a' fallen asleep, his face was all covered in streaks of black dirt. "Where'd you come from?" he said. His voice had a breath of kindness to it.
The little girl referred to him as Trapper. He was "the strangest I'd met" and after he couldn't locate Nana (did he really try?), he named the girl Elka (she could not remember her real name) and trained her how to hunt and trap. It was not until much later that she learned his name was Kreagar and the grotesque things he was accused of doing.
Magistrate Lyon
Magistrate Lyon is after Kreagar. She is the law, such as it is during those times. And she rides with a posse. They ride horseback from town to town and posted black and white printed wanted flyers everywhere. Magistrate Lyon wants justice. She wants revenge.
Penelope
During and after an apocalypse, it is not safe for a young lady. Elka figures it is especially unsafe for a pretty, feminine, delicate girl who doesn't know her way around the woods. Who has absolutely no outdoors skills. A girl like Penelope. However, Elka learns that Penelope has other life-saving skills such as reading and quick-thinking in situations that involve people.
The two very young ladies have a love-hate relationship and take care of each other (mostly) while both are fleeing danger and while Elka is on the road north to find her parents. Based on the one letter she had received from them, and the letter she had Nana read to her over and over, she pictured her parents living a happy life on their gold claim and her singularly focused plan was to join them.
Wolf Road
This story kept me interested with it's blend of apocalyptic fiction with hints of old western. I wasn't sure if I were reading about future events or events that occurred in the past. Even though I was unsure, it worked for me. The characters were unique and easy to imagine. Each one both villain and hero. So much so that it was hard to know who to root for at times.
Due to the pollution and weather related to whatever occurred during the Damn Stupid, there was a slight element of fantasy. Or was it? It is hard to say what would happen when the environment is polluted following bombings.
This was Elka's coming of age story. Where she survives childhood and begins making adult decisions for her life. During a time that she struggles with understanding whether or not she was Trapper's adopted daughter or Kreager's evil accomplice. She has great difficulty understanding those two as the same man. And difficulty deciding how to manage the situation.
This story is about nature versus nurture. Are children born with their instincts and desires, or do we train those things into them? Are evil people inherently evil? Or taught to be evil? Are those who are taught to be evil able to overcome it?
Elka struggles with these things until the very last pages.
Set in Ireland in 1918, it tells a fictional story based on the very real world of a midwife working in a Dublin hospital who is assigned to the maternity fever ward. Not much bigger than a closet, this ward is where they quarantine pregnant women who are stricken with influenza.
We meet a young midwife named Julia Powers who finds herself alone on her shift with the responsibility for all of the care of these sick, pregnant women. She is at times aided by one of two women. Firstly, Doctor Kathleen Lynn, who is based on a real historical figure and who is wanted by the Dublin police because she was involved in the 1916 Irish Uprising. Secondly, she is assisted by a young volunteer from an orphanage named Bridie Sweeney who has absolutely no training or education but is quick on her feet and ready to do whatever is required of her.
Included within the story is a peek at the science of the time with regard to the flu and midwifery. It is a visit to the Dublin of the times where they were struggling with not just the flu but the devastation caused by World War I and the 1916 Uprising. Along the way, it also shares a look at some of the Irish societal injustices that existed at the time.
The book is eerily similar to the current world situation even though we have the advantage of modern day science. Amongst other similarities are the facts that some still managed to question the value of wearing masks and others recommended taking weird remedies.
The Pull of the Stars is a page turner, a non-stop story that happens mostly during one long shift in the hospital during which Powers, sometimes aided by Doctor Lynn and/or Bridie, go from crisis to crisis to crisis.
The timing of the writing of this book may have been a bit unfortunate though it was written before the current pandemic. After all, who wants to read a story based on a pandemic when they are living through one? However, the timing was not deliberate. Donoghue started writing the story in 2018 and the manuscript was sent to the publishers in March of 2020.
After possibly a brief moment of hesitation because of the subject matter, the book drew me in and it became interesting to see, as the author says, "the way it mirrors our current situation." The Guardian says, it is "a beautifully modulated historical novel." I agree.
Reading this book now is different than it might have been before, for sure. NPR says, "The fourth wall of fiction is broken here. The pandemic spreads out beyond the pages into whatever rooms we are quarantined in."
Do I recommend The Pull of the Stars? Yes, I do. I highly recommend it. It is a fast moving account of life in a maternity fever ward with parallels to the current world situation. Anyone who enjoys historical fiction, has an interest in Ireland and/or midwifery will enjoy this book.
I think NPR gives another good reason to pick up this book when they say that that Donoghue has "given us our first pandemic caregiver novel - an engrossing and inadvertently topical story about health care workers inside small rooms fighting to preserve life."
I say, don't miss it. Order your copy from Amazon now by clicking right here.
Fredrik Backman is an absolutely delightful writer from Sweden. He writes about people in a special way that portrays who they are, what they are and who and what they appear to be, yet often are not. He describes their hurts and grievances, secrets and passions in a way the reader can relate. Oh, yes, the reader thinks, I recognize this character in my brother, father, best friend, maybe even myself.
Backman's stories take place in Sweden, but it could be anywhere, as people are the same all over.
Available on Amazon |
Add in the authorities trying to negotiate the hostages release. The main ones are a father and son who both work for the local police department. They fluster each other and take care of each other.
As the book progresses, we learn who the bank robber is (who failed to rob the bank because it is a cashless bank) and why an attempt was made. We are given some backgrounds on the people who became hostages. We hear about the police involvement. The story goes back and forth between what is happening during the hostage situation in the apartment to the individual people and what brought them to this open house on New Year's Eve (a strange day to have an Open House, for sure) to the interviews the police try to conduct with the witnesses after their release. All through this they try to figure out what happened to the bank robber who was no where to be found after releasing the hostages.
A bank robbery, a hostage drama, a stairwell full of police officers on their way to storm an apartment. It was easy to get to this point, Much easier than you might think. All it took was one single really bad idea.
This story is about a lot of things, but mostly about idiots. So it needs saying from the outset that it's always very easy to declare that other people are idiots, but only if you forget how idiotically difficult being human is. Especially if you have other people you are trying to be a reasonably good human being for.
One single really bad idea. That's all it takes.
There is also the part about how ten years ago a man was standing on a bridge. This seems to be a non sequitur, because this is a story about a bank robber and a hostage situation and the people involved. So why does the author keep bringing up the bridge throughout the story?
So, to summarize, we have a charming novel about a crime that never took place, a would-be bank robber who disappears into thin air and eight extremely anxious strangers who find they have more in common then they ever imaged. Oh, and don't forget the bridge!
If you have read any of Fredrik Backman's previous books, two of which have been reviewed here on ReviewThisReviews, you will be drawn to Anxious People immediately because they were such delightful reads. This one is the same – a very enjoyable read; a book you can't put down to the final page; a book whose ending is as delightful (and surprising) as the rest.
Backman's books are so good that when I finish the last paragraph on the last page, I feel a strong pull to return to page one and begin the book all over again. It's that hard to leave this world of words that is so humorous, compassionate and wise.
For your future reading after you finish Anxious People, check out these other Backman book reviews on ReviewThisReviews.
Anxious People, a book review written by
~Wednesday Elf
The Joanna Brady series are filled with beloved characters, small-town charm, vivid history, intriguing mystery, all with the scenic Arizona desert as a backdrop.
~ Quote from the book jacket of Book #18 'Field of Bones'
Desert Heat - Book 1 in the Joanna Brady Series |
Cochise County in SE Arizona is 80 x 80 miles square with the southernmost county line the international border with Mexico and the eastern country line the state line with New Mexico. The stories in this series of books take place in and around the town of Bisbee, AZ and throughout the 6400 square miles of the sheriff's office domain. As you can imagine, this large of a territory to police produces a wide variety of crimes which often have to be investigated under extreme conditions of difficult 4-wheel drive locations and desert weather.
Each book begins with a Prologue which sets the scene for the storyline and introduces you to one or more of the characters. Sometimes the character is a victim; sometimes it's the protagonist whose identity we learn as the story progresses.
Another interesting thing about this continuing series is quite often when a new character is introduced in one book, we find that character appearing in subsequent books. We meet the character in one book and when they appear in later books, the author gives a brief summary of who they are as a reminder to the reader. It is a great way to keep track of who they are and what parts they played. From book to book, the characters all become very familiar to the reader. It also becomes a good way to know what happened to that character we first met, and what they are doing now.
*Note: It's rather like your new neighbors who just moved to town. They are strangers at first, but after awhile they become familiar friends.
The storylines in the Joanna Brady series may have murder and mayhem, but they are also filled with family life, interactions with friends and neighbors, introductions to new babies and the latest dog or cat or horse. After all, the sheriff, the deputies and detectives and support staff of the Cochise County Sheriff's Department are also people with family lives that exist outside of work. The stories also give fascinating descriptions to the countryside of southeastern Arizona filled with both desert and mountain areas complete with the sizzling heat of desert summers and the cold of mountain winters.
If you enjoy novels of suspense with a good story-line which also gives you the back-story of the interesting characters, you will enjoy this Joanna Brady book series.
Book #19 in the Joanna Brady Novels of Suspense |
Joanna Brady, a deputy sheriff's widow, daughter of a former town sheriff, and now elected sheriff in Cochise County, Arizona.
*Reviewer's Note: Author J.A. (Judith) Jance grew up in Bisbee, Arizona, a small copper mining town in SE Arizona. I find it interesting that she bases her stories in a real town. one she is so familiar with, and includes real location descriptions. It makes the fiction stories appear very real as if they are happening right now, along with giving you a bit of history of the town and the area. It's a history lesson, a murder mystery, and a suspenseful story, all with interesting characters who, although fictional, seem like people you have always known.
I highly recommend the 'Brady Novels of Suspense' series by J.A. Jance.
Related Links:
Book Review of the Ali Reynolds Series by J. A. Jance
(c) The Joanna Brady Mystery Series book review written by Wednesday Elf
The Widow and the Highlander by Martha Keyes is the first book in the Tales from the Highlands series. After I finished the first book, I immediately wished to move to the second book in the series. It isn't that Keyes didn't wrap up the first novel. She did. It was simply that I wasn't ready to move on from the story.
You know you have found a wonderful series of books when you hate the idea of starting a different book by another author. Unfortunately for me, the second book in Tales from the Highlands has not yet been released.
It is doubtful the I will forget the MacKinnon clan and I have added the The Enemy and Miss Innes (Tales from the Highlands Book 2) to my wishlist so I will know as soon as it is released. I am certain, no matter what else I have started reading, I will move back to this series to continue reading about Catherine and her sister, Elizabeth.
I highly recommend this historical fiction and I am certain I will enjoy the entire series once it is published.
The Widow and the Highlander (Tales from the Highlands Book 1)Check Price
Image by falco from Pixabay, modified |
The book, Timeless Treasure by MaryLu Tyndall, took me by surprise!
I have read several books by Tyndall and always loved them. She is one of my favorite authors because I know I can depend on her for a great story with clean content. However, Timeless Treasure is more than a great story. It is an exceptional historical fiction that I would highly recommend.
When I read historical fiction, I want historical accuracy. Tyndall certainly did her "homework" for Timeless Treasure. The story is based on a real pirate, Stede Bonnet, who was executed in 1718. The author built a romantic story around Bonnet's real life with a fictitious tale of why he turned to pirating even though he was a well educated, wealthy landowner, married and with children.
So many things in Bonnet's real life story seem unexpected, contradictory, perhaps even unbelievable, but they were true. He was factually known as "The Gentleman Pirate" because of his own behavior, yet his association with Blackbeard, who was certainly no gentleman, is well documented. It should also be noted that he knew nothing about sailing prior to becoming a pirate.
The fictional suggestion that he was in love with someone other than his wife and wished to secure a separate fortune to support their life together, would be a plausible explanation for why a wealthy gentleman would turn pirate. Thus the reason this book is exceptional!
Chapter One takes place present day and introduces us to a decedent of Stede Bonnet. Lexie Cain has just returned from her mother's funeral to a home where she is no longer welcome since it belongs to her step-father. She is there only to retrieve an ancestral chest containing photos, school papers, a scrapbook, and some old letters. Flipping through the letters she discovers they were written by Bonnet. Those letters change the course of her life.
The opening paragraphs of chapter two introduce us to Stede Bonnet and the woman he loves, Melody, at the burial site of his firstborn son. We discover just how bereaved, miserable and unhappy Stede is with his life. When Melody informs him that her father is moving her family away from Barbados to Charles Town, a city in the colony of Carolina, Stede's desperation intensifies. He must do something to change the course of his life.
Current day Lexie Cain moves to Charleston in the hopes of finding buried pirate treasure. She gets a job in the local museum, takes the first "Bonnet" letter to a college history professor for authentication, and then finds herself the target of criminals.
As Lexie reads through the letters with the professor, Barret Johnson, we are all hearing Bonnet's tales of piracy, his longing for a life with Melody, and his plans for a happy future together. In spite of the fact that we know from the beginning that Bonnet is hung, we hold on to the hope that it was somehow not him that was executed. That he somehow managed to find the happiness he so desperately sought.
_______________________
There is no way I will tell you more of the story, yet there is so much more than this brief introduction of the book, including the romance that develops between Lexie & Barrett.
I would never wish to ruin this marvelous book for anyone else. You deserve to be able to "walk" through this adventure for yourself. It would be dastardly indeed for me to rob you of this experience and I refuse to do that. After all, I am no pirate!
Have you ever read a book that makes it hard to start another book because you have a hard time moving on from the characters that you just finished reading about? Or a book that was so good that you read it at least one more time? The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek: A Novel is one of those books for me. I have started reading it for a second time. This novel, inspired by historical programs and people, includes issues of remote Appalachian living in the 1930s, literacy, poverty, spinsterhood, and the impact of having a different skin color. This is the personal story of one woman's life. A woman who is both astonishingly brave and who is as uncertain as most of the rest of us.
Historical Fiction Review on ReviewThisReviews.com |
I was hooked from the opening paragraph:
"The librarian and her mule spotted it at the same time. The creature's ears shot up, and it came to a stop so sudden its front hooves skidded out, the pannier slipping off, spilling out the librarian's books. An eddy of dirt and debris lifted, stinging the woman's eyes. The mule struggled to look upward, backward, anywhere other than at the thing in front of it." -- The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek
Cussy Mary Carter lived with her father in their one-room log house in Troublesome Creek, Kentucky. Her mother had passed away and her father was desperate to find a husband for his grown daughter. While his goal of her being a respectful woman and safe as someone's wife, it did not fit with her chosen career of librarian. A pack horse librarian to be exact.
From 1935 to 1943, The Pack Horse Library Project ran through the Works Progress Administration (WPA) (part of President Roosevelt's New Deal programs. The WPA focused on work relief programs). Librarians were hired to circulate books to families on their routes. The routes were up to 18 - 20 miles per day and the librarians rode these routes on horseback. The routes were often rugged and dangerous but the librarians were determined.
Cussy Mary was devoted to the families along her route. All of her families. Those who were avid readers as well as hesitant readers. She was often the only outside contact families would have for long periods of time. She was a hero to these families.
She was also a pariah. Cussy Mary was one of Kentucky's Blue People. I had never heard of this family group who (partly due to geographical region and partly genetic) had noticeably blue skin. Superstitious people in the region blamed the blue people for bad things that happened. These people were shunned, ignored, or abused. The opening of this story includes a victim of a hanging.
When testing and a possible "cure" for Cussy Mary's colored skin is offered she finds that fitting in may or may not be as easy as the doctor would lead her to believe. She has some difficult decisions to make.
From the Author:
After the end of the novel, Kim Michele Richardson includes very interesting information in her Author's Notes. She writes:
"I've modified one historical date in the story so I could include relevant information about medical aspects and discoveries"
In other words, The Pack Horse Project was not ongoing when the "cure" for Cussy Mary's blue skin was discovered.
At times, when I notice that an author adjusted factual information in order to create a more interesting story I am a bit disappointed. But in this case, I was not bothered. In fact, I was very interested by the information about the causes and cure of the congenital disease. I am still amazed that prior to this book, I had never heard of either the Pack Horse Project librarians or the Blue Fugates of Kentucky and the things they experienced in their daily lives.
Other Recommendations:
The ReviewThis! contributors clearly love to read. Click our Book Reviews tab at the top of this page to see all our collective book reviews.
A few other historic fiction reviews I have written are: Galway Bay (a must-read that begins in Ireland during the potato famine), Chesapeake (a James Michener tale that is set on the Chesapeake Bay and spans 400 years), and Nickel's Luck (a cast of fictional characters living in the real town of Indianola, Texas in the 1800s. Indianola is no more and I bawled learning the history of that town and it's people).
The Last Mrs Parrish by Liv Constantine is a book about Amber, Daphne & Jackson. It's a book where entitlement leads to manipulation and manipulation has its consequences.
I love that I've discovered a new author in Liv Constantine she (or I should say they) captures Amber's character really well and as you're reading it you so want Daphne to find out. As the twist comes you almost want to read it again to see how one of the characters (with your fresh information) isn't actually the person you thought.
This kept me up reading late into the night even though I knew I had work the next day there was just no way I could put it up! Amber reminded me a little of Tom Ripley and I found the duplicity of the novel absolutely delicious, I would never have known that this was a debut novel.
After reading the book I discovered that Liv Constantine was actually two sisters writing as a partnership, luckily they have written a few more books which will definitely be added to my long, must-read list.
I'll leave you with this, Amber's father really should have warned her to beware of the green-eyed monster that calls itself envy.
I read this as part of my Kindle Unlimited membership and I thoroughly recommend this if you're a voracious reader, I think of it as a library card for Amazon!
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