Bright lights, summer noises, the heat of the day and the cicadas at night must mean full-on summer. Now is the time to park yourself in front of or beside something cool with a new book full of great characters and built around a romping plot.
Ivan Doig reintroduces us again to Butte, Montana in 1919 and Morrie Morris (The Whistling Season). Work Song throws Morrie into the mix of characters as varied as the lovely landlady, Grace Faraday, and the potentially evil mining company along with a few Chicago gangsters. When bookish Morrie finds what seems to be the perfect job at the public library, Doig takes the story in a different direction, but as always, he gives us a beautiful story, well written and never a disappointment.
The Exile of Sara Stevenson by Darci Hannah is a first novel, but it has ingredients to work up a good historical gothic brew. The main character, Sara Stevenson is the fictional daughter of real-life engineer and lighthouse designer, Robert Stevenson. Having disgraced her family, Sara is sent to wait out her pregnancy in one of her father’s lighthouses. The mysterious lighthouse keeper, Willy Campbell, plus an Oxford correspondent, keep Sara hoping and waiting for the love of her life to return and rescue her. Everything in this book, the gothic storyline, the weather, the setting on the northern coast of Scotland may have you shivering and reaching for your favorite throw. For those who aren't aware, Robert Stevenson, a lighthouse designer, was the father of author Robert Louis Stevenson.
With Joshilyn Jackson newest title, Backseat Saints, she introduces us again to Rose Mae Lolley. Rose Mae is buried under the illusion of love and the reality of abuse. As ‘Ro’, she’s the perkiest and perfect wife for Thom, but as Rose Mae, she is strong enough to take no guff. A gypsy predicts Rose Mae will kill her husband, so Rose packs her dog Gretel in the car and takes off for home. Driving East from Amarillo, Texas, back to Alabama, Rose Mae can’t get the image of the prophetic Tarot card out of her mind and she’s not sure she’s running to the right person, her mother. Backseat Saints brings charming, strong and unique characters to tell the story of a woman who deserves the best.
If you are looking for a thriller with the setting as star of the show, you’ll find it in Lee Child’s latest Jack Reacher novel, 61 Hours. Reacher hitches a ride on a tour bus crossing the state of South Dakota during a full blown blizzard. Just outside the small town of Bolton, South Dakota, the bus skids and crashes forcing the senior citizen passengers to ride out the storm in this dot on the map which just happens to be home to a large prison facility housing federal, state and local inmates. Add a Mexican drug cartel and their industrial meth lab and the crime statistics are spiking. Reacher uses his abundant knowledge, acumen and sense of what is right to bear and you’ll be with him as he arrives at a killer ending. Child’s never produces a disappointing read.
Reading for fun makes the heat bearable.
Janet
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