The Girl In Between

Title:  The Girl In Between

Author:  Sarah Carroll

Publication Information:  Kathy Dawson Books. 2017. 256 pages.

ISBN:  0735228604 / 978-0735228603

Book Source:  I received this book through the Penguin First to Read program free of cost in exchange for an honest review.

Opening Sentence:  "I'm invisible."

Favorite Quote:  "Ghosts can't exist without people. Without people and their pasts and their memories."

The word homeless has a very short definition in the dictionary. As an adjective, the word means "without a home." As a noun, it means "person or persons who lack permanent housing." Some dictionaries expand this a little further to state that the implication is that the person or persons typically live on the street.

Such a short definition for such a complex, thought provoking, emotional subject. The Girl In Between presents a view of the tragedy of homeless life through the eyes of a young girl. She and her mother live in the Castle, at least that is what Ma tells the girl. To stay safe, the girl must not leave the Castle and must certainly stay out of sight of the Authorities for they may take her away from Ma. In the eyes of child, this seems to make sense, and, after all, the Castle is big and all their own.

Translated through an adult readers eyes, this mother and child live in an abandoned building. The mother creates a story to allay the little one's fears and to perhaps provide some semblance of stability.

Ma herself is an intriguing character and, at times, an infuriating one. Alcohol and drugs are involved. Unsavory characters who may wish them harm are involved. A caring grandmother and a home exist, but Ma has left them far behind. On the other hand, the young girl gives the impression of being cared for and being loved. Ma's story is never told in the book. How and why did she end up on the streets with her little girl?

The story is told from the perspective of this young girl. The writing style captures well the innocence of her age and the lack of understanding that is appropriate for her age. As an adult reader, I can see so much of what she does not, and I can understand why she does not. As a parent, I want to reach out and protect this defenseless child from a life on the streets, from the unsavory men in her mother's life, and sometimes from her mother herself. Again, the writing of the book does a beautiful job of eliciting that emotion and that protective instinct.

I do guess the twist in the book relatively early in the book but think that because all the clues that seem clear to me point that way, the book will surprise me and go in a different direction. It does not. However, the emotion of the ending still gets to me, and the lack of surprise does not matter.

This book is the kind of story that stays with you. The young main character and the protective emotions the writing elicits make it memorable. The fact that it takes on the very serious issues of addiction and homelessness in a unique way makes the book memorable. The fact that the book stresses the universality of this story by not naming its characters beyond an identifier such as Ma and the Caretaker makes it memorable. The fact of a seemingly abrupt ending pushes further the message of a harsh truth. The reminder that this fiction represents the reality of so many makes the book memorable. Read it and then think how each one of us can be part of the solution.

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Grief Cottage

Title:  Grief Cottage

Author:  Gail Godwin

Publication Information:  Bloomsbury USA. 2017. 336 pages.

ISBN:  1632867044 / 978-1632867049

Book Source:  I received this book as a publisher's galley through NetGalley free of cost in exchange for an honest review.

Opening Sentence:  "Once there was a boy who lost his mother."

Favorite Quote:  "Funny how the same person can be an entirely different entity to various people."

A single mother goes out to get a pizza dinner and is killed in a car accident. Eleven year old Marcus is left orphaned. Charlotte, his eccentric older aunt, is left as the boy's guardian. The young boy finds himself grief stricken and removed from the only life he has ever known. A self-proclaimed loner finds herself having to take charge of a child. All of this takes place on the lovely coast of South Carolina.

Add to the mix a decrepit old beach cottage with a ghost story attached to it. A family - parents and a child who were on holiday - was lost to a hurricane. No bodies were ever discovered. Due to the tragedy, the cottage became known as Grief Cottage. Now, it sits abandoned and gradually crumbling into the sand.

In Marcus's life, the cottage becomes a focal point out of his own loss and grief. The idea of the cottage and and the mystery of the family's disappearance provides an an anchor as he drifts into his new life and his new home. The possibility of the boy's ghost still being in the cottage captures his imagination. The liberty to explore and this interest provides an outlet for his emotions. A ghost story to think about is much preferable to dwelling on the loss of home and even worse, the loss of his mother and the traumas of his childhood.

Charlotte has own baggage of loss and grief from the past. Marcus's arrival alters the seclusion she encases herself in. She is forced to face things she has long buried.

In this way, this book becomes a family story as, damaged and scarred, Marcus and Charlotte create their own family story line. The book also becomes a reflection on death, grief, and growing up.  An actual ghost story gives added dimension to this reflection.

The premise and build of the story works. Somewhere along the way, it loses me. The pace, especially the first two-thirds of the book, is very slow. For a while, it works. Then, it seems repetitive. Charlotte likes being alone. Marcus leaves her alone, disappearing to inspect the cottage and approach the ghost boy ever closer. Repeat the next day. And the next. And the next.

Then, towards the end, the fast forwards and tries to bring a closure to all the components of the story. The mystery of the cottage and the vanished child develops into an actual story rather than remaining a means to Marcus's healing. The book rushes to find a conclusion.

For some reason, the characters and the book doesn't quite ring true and does not quite connect. I find myself reading a little and then putting it away to read something else. I did finish but without any real connection or conviction about how it should end. That is surprising considering the story is about such a sympathetic main character - an eleven year old orphaned child who has had thing pretty tough in life.

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The Twelve Lives of Samuel Hawley

Title:  The Twelve Lives of Samuel  Hawley

Author:  Hannah Tinti

Publication Information:  The Dial Press. 2017. 400 pages.

ISBN:  0812989880 / 978-0812989885

Book Source:  I received this book as a publisher's galley through NetGalley free of cost in exchange for an honest review.

Opening Sentence:  "When Loo was twelve years old her father taught her to shoot a gun."

Favorite Quote:  "Their hearts were all cycling through the same madness - the discovery, the bliss, the loss, the despair - like planets taking turns in orbit around the sun. Each containing their own unique gravity. Their own force of attractions. Drawing near and holding fast to whatever entered their own atmosphere ... they would find love and lost love and recover from love and love again."

Samuel Hawley is a criminal. Loo Hawley is his twelve year old daughter. Despite everything, Samuel Hawley has good in him, and he loves his daughter. Loo's mother is only a memory kept alive by the box of mementos that Samuel Hawley carries from home to home. For Loo, life has always been her father and her. For Samuel Hawley, life is a string of scars on his body, each of which signify a place, a set of people, and a memory.

The beginning of the book finds Samuel returning with Loo to Olympus, Massachusetts. This was the home town of Loo's mothers. He hopes to stop watching his back and to allow Loo some chance at a normal life. Samuel struggles to outrun his past and his memories. Loo struggles to grow up and to fit in.

In alternating chapter, the book tells the story of Samuel's past and of Loo's coming of age. The book traverses many years of Samuel's life, with each chapter talking about one scar. Each represents a turning point in Samuel's life until it ultimately culminates in his return to Olympus. For Loo, the book works its way through her teenage years, with all the angst and heartache and joy that entails. Each chapter alludes to a lesson Lou learns as part of growing up. Of course, the past and the present meet with Loo attempting to untangle the mystery of her father's past and her mother.

For several reasons, I am not the right reader for this book. First, the violence and the guns. I except it in the story of Samuel's life for he bears the scars. However, I do not expect the violence in and from Loo's story. Guns are a part of every day life. A response to bullying turns into breaking someone's finger. After a while, it is just too much, too much violence and too much of a cavalier attitude towards violence.

Second, the characters remain hidden behind the violence, particularly Samuel. He remains somewhat of an enigma almost all the way through the book. Unfortunately, instead of being intrigued, I lose interest. Each of the chapters of his life seem like they begin with the idea of a crime and end with a wound. It doesn't feel like it gets beyond that until far into the book, and by then, it is too late. On the other hand, Loo is a young women who has lost her mother early in life and who is muddling her way through her teenage years. Her character would be more sympathetic except again for the violence.

Third, until well into the book, Samuel's story and Loo's story seem to travel separate paths. Loo does not appear in Samuel's story until far into the book, and Loo's chapters are more about her teenage life rather than her father's past. They interrelate, of course, but I could read Samuel's chapters sequentially or Loo's chapters sequentially and get a sense of their story. The merging of past and present comes too far in to the book.

All that being said, the writing and phrasing of the book is beautiful at times. However, overall, I am still not the reader for this book.

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Killers of the Flower Moon

Title:  Killers of the Flower Moon:  The Osage Murder and the Birth of the FBI

Author:  David Grann

Publication Information:  Doubleday. 2017. 352 pages.

ISBN:  0385534248 / 978-0385534246

Book Source:  I received this book as a publisher's galley through NetGalley free of cost in exchange for an honest review.

Opening Sentence:  "In April, millions of tiny flowers spread over the blackjack hills and vast prairies in the Osage territory of Oklahoma."

Favorite Quote:  "An Indian Affairs agent said, 'The question will suggest itself, which of these people are the savages?'"

The history is disturbing and chilling, made even more so because it is an actual history not fiction. The theme is ages old, forever present in this world. People kill for money. The extent to which such greed can reach is scary in the history of the Osage murders. The book is intense and compelling.

Let's set the stage. The Osage nation lives and prospers. The settlers come and want the land. Gradually, the Osage are pushed in land allotments with the settlers getting the pick of the fertile farm land. Even worse, the Osage are deemed incapable of managing their own financial affairs; the finances of many are placed in the hands of guardians who are not of the tribe. Many guardians use this as a opportunity to line their own pockets.

The Osage own their land under the Allotment Act, and they own the rights to deposits of oil, gas, coal, or other minerals found in the land. Land could be bought or sold; mineral rights had to be inherited through the tribal rolls.

In the early twentieth century, the tribe leases out its land for exploration. Oil is discovered and discovered in such abundance that the Osage are wealthy beyond anyone's imagination. As the book jacket describes, "In the 1920s, the richest people per capita in the world were members of the Osage Indian Nation in Oklahoma."

"Then, one by one, the Osage began to be killed off." Some were outright shot. Some disappered. Some appeared to have died of no cause; it was later clear they were poisoned. Some of those who came to investigate also met a similar end. Then, the newly created FBI under the leadership of J. Edgar Hoover got involved and exposed the diabolical plan underlying these deaths.

This book recounts this history in three main sections. Chronicle One:  The Marked Woman anchors the story and makes these murders about individuals and a family. Mollie Burkhart survived this systematic extermination but lost most of her family. This section of the book walks through the lives of specific individuals who were killed and the impact of the deaths on their families and communities. It depicts those who came to help, those who appeared to help, and lays the groundwork for the shock of discovery as to who is actually the mastermind of this plot. This section is also the emotional anchor of the book because it takes the history and makes it intensely personal. This is not reading about a case; it is the story of Mollie and her family.

Chronicle Two:  The Evidence Man is about the involvement of the newly created FBI, the investigation, and the prosecution of those deemed to be guilty. This section appears to bring to closure the story of Mollie Burkhart family as those responsible are brought to justice. This is the story of an investigation and a court trial. Sadly still relevant today are the discussions that the level of prosecution, accountability, and punishment depended both on the race of the victim and the race of the perpetrator. Justice was sadly not, and still is sadly not, color blind.

Chronicle Three:  The Reporter is the surprise in the book. The case of the murders of Mollie Burkhart's family was resolved. What more was going to occupy a third of this book? That is when the history becomes even more disturbing and chilling. This reporter delves into the fact that the scope of the murders did not end with the case of Mollie Burkhart's family. Many more cases went unsuspected, unreported, and unresolved. Justice was not done. The book leaves the reader with a reference to the story of Cain and Abel in the Bible. "The blood cries out from the ground."

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The Child

Title:  The Child

Author:  Fiona Barton

Publication Information:  Berkley. 2017. 384 pages.

ISBN:  1101990481 / 978-1101990483

Book Source:  I received this book through the Penguin First to Read program free of cost in exchange for an honest review.

Opening Sentence:  "My computer is winking at me knowingly when I sit down at my desk."

Favorite Quote:  "People say what doesn't kill you makes you stronger. They say that when you been through something terrible ... But it doesn't. It breaks your bones, leaving everything splintered and held together with grubby bandages and yellowing sticky tape. Creaking along the fault lines, Fragile and exhausting to hold together. Sometimes  you wish it had killed you."

A gruesome discovery opens this story. On a construction site, a body is discovered. a skeleton of an infant lies buried in the foundations of a house being torn down. Who is the building site baby? Who would commit such an act?

Like Fiona Barton's first book The Widow, this book tells its story through different perspectives.

Angela is a distraught mother. Years ago, her newborn daughter Alice disappeared from her hospital room. Angela's life has ranged from being accused of harming her daughter to following up on false leads on Alice's whereabouts. The underpinning of a her life is a never ending grief and the void of not knowing. Is Alice dead? Is she living a life Angela knows nothing about? What happened to Alice?

Jude is a mother to now-adult Emma. She has been and continues to be self-centered to the point that her life seems to have no room for Emma. A big marking point of their relationship is the fact that at one point, Jude threw Emma out of the house. Tough love and understandable or something else and completely selfish?

Emma is a young woman with secrets and fears of her own. She is now married with a spouse who clearly cares for her. Yet, the point is made that something is amiss in that relationship because she married a father figure. Her relationship with her mother is fraught with pain and regret; yet, she is drawn back to her. Emma has love, caring, and stability; yet, her life is overridden by anxiety. The reason why slowly emerges through the book.

Of the three, Angela is the most sympathetic character - a mother who loses a child. Her highs and lows of hope and despair bring the reader along with her feelings. Jude is unlikable one because of her self-centered, boyfriend focused outlook. Emma is the enigma for her story is the unknown that slowly comes to light. Be warned, some of the backstories delve into rather sordid circumstances.

Surrounding these main characters are supporting characters that repeat from The Widow. Detective Sparkes is on the investigation, both of Alice's disappearance and now of this mystery building site baby. Kate is a reporter, who catches the glimmer of a story when she hears of the found skeleton. Gradually following her leads, she is pulled further and further into the story of these women. Kate becomes the thread through which the stories of Angela, Jude, and Emma are stitched together. Kate provides the commentary, evaluates the facts, and draws the conclusions for the reader.

Alternating chapters depict the perspective of each woman with their charged emotions and anxieties. Those feelings permeate the book and create a tension that keeps me reading. Mind you, this structure and the emotions make this book a psychological mystery much more so than a thriller. Action is not the heart of this book; thoughts and feelings are. Given the number of characters and the relationships, the ending is not really a surprise, but getting there is an entertaining reading journey.

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The Girl Who Knew Too Much

Title:  The Girl Who Knew Too Much

Author:  Amanda Quick

Publication Information:  Berkley. 2017. 368 pages.

ISBN:  0399174478 / 978-0399174476

Book Source:  I received this book through the Penguin First to Read program free of cost in exchange for an honest review.

Opening Sentence:  "The abstract painting on the bedroom wall was new."

Favorite Quote:  "Both of them had been damaged when they arrived ... Each of them had made a fresh start in a town that encouraged reinvention. Each had done a good job of concealing the damage, but neither of them tried to pretend to the other that the damage didn't exist. Maybe that was the real reason for their friendship."

What a fun book, perfect for a summer beach read. A gusty independent heroine on the run. An handsome, injured, brooding hero. A mysterious book that many people are after. A glitzy 1930s Hollywood setting. Three women, all dead by accidental drowning. A mob connection. Some magic. A little romance. This book has so many fun elements, perfect for a summer read.

Anna Harris aka Irene Glasson is the girl who knows too much. The book begins on a bloody murder scene as Anna discovers the body of her boss and a message written in blood. Run. Anna heeds the warning and runs, going from the east coast to the place where so many reinvent themselves - Hollywood. Anna becomes Irene, a novice reporter for a small Hollywood scandal sheet.

This job brings her to the small town of Burning Cove, home to an exclusive resort where the rich and the famous come to play and to hide in privacy. The same job and the same resort unfortunately land Irene into the middle of another mystery. The woman Irene is supposed to meet ends up dead in the resort pool. Now, Irene has a mystery to solve and a story to scoop.

This predicament brings Irene to Oliver Ward, mysterious ex-magician of the Oliver Ward Show and now owner and operator of the exclusive Burning Cove Hotel. Oliver has an investment to protect; a murder at the hotel with other guests as suspects is not a good combination for business.

Irene and Oliver meet, and sparks fly.

Of course, Irene's aka Anna's past is not done with her yet either. Two mysteries intermingle, and her past comes back to haunt her.

Both mysteries of course come together in a dramatic conclusion. Along the way, the book throws out a lot of red herrings to keep you guessing as to the identity of the murderer. The murderer is in plain sight throughout the book, but I did not guess that ending, making it all the more fun. When I finally connect the dots, my reaction is, "Of course!" That is the best kind of mystery - one in which the ending is a surprise but at the same time not so far out of reach that there was no way a reader could have seen it coming. Too easy to guess leads to the reaction what's the point. Too hard to guess makes it frustrating. This book finds that perfect balance.

The book does end in a neat package with all the mysteries solved, all the "bad guys" in a bad state, and all the "good guys" with a happy ending. However, the ending in its own way is a beginning. Perhaps, another book with these characters is to come?

This is my first book by Amanda Quick who was born Jayne Castle and also writes under the name Jayne Ann Krentz. So, I cannot compare it to other books. I just know I am adding this author under all her names to my list for when I need a quick, light escape into a fictional world.

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There Your Heart Lies

Title:  Their Your Heart Lies

Author:  Mary Gordon

Publication Information:  Pantheon. 2017. 336 pages.

ISBN:  0307907945 / 978-0307907943

Book Source:  I received this book through the Penguin First to Read program free of cost in exchange for an honest review.

Opening Sentence:  "He offers her a coat."

Favorite Quote:  "I learned a very long time ago that if you wait for the perfect action, you'll never act. In a situation like this, all you can do is the least bad thing. And be truthful about the cost of what you've done, of what's been brought about, or allowed to come about, for which, you must also understand, you are responsible."

Here is another book that takes what is by now a very familiar approach - two time periods, two women, a granddaughter trying to uncover all that she does not know about her grandmother's life. The broader context of the past is a history of Spanish civil war. It is a history about which I know very little, hence my interest in the book. This is one of the things I love about historical fiction; it introduces me to history I might not otherwise read. Fiction prompts me to research and learn the actual history that underlies the book.

The Spanish Civil War took place between 1936 and 1939, right before the start of World War II. This is the war that brought the conservative General Francisco Franco to power. Franco then ruled Spain for over thirty-five years until his death in 1975. The idealism of this war drew volunteers from around the world; the international brigades came with the idealistic notion of joining a fight against fascism to protect the world. Sadly, what they found was that the atrocities of war were perpetrated on all sides, and that war became about self-interest not idealism.

The fictional story of this book is of one such volunteer from the United States. Marian is born into a wealthy, privileged, conservative American family. This life of privilege has embedded in it all kinds of prejudice - race, religion, gender, sexual orientation - that Marian wants no part of. Her beliefs and ideal lead far away from most of her family except for her brother Johnny. Johnny's untimely and tragic death pushes Marian further away and on a path that leads to the war in Spain. Her life in Spain shatters her idealism and leads in directions she could never have imagined.

Fast forward many decades later, Marian leads a quiet life in Rhode Island. Her granddaughter Amelia is a source of joy, and finally, Marian decides to talk about the past and tell Amelia the story of her life, from her brother's death to her life in Spain and then back in the United States.

The two time period structure is not quite successful in this book for a couple of reasons. First, Amelia is not really developed as a character and does not really have a story of her own. This book is Marion's story and only hers. The book starts off strongly as it begins with Marian in the 1930s, and the reader lives Marian's life with her. Once the present day story kicks in, the book switches to Marian now telling the story of her life. The history of the war is fascinating, and everything Marian endures is dramatic. However, the story seems removed because at this point the reader is being told a story rather than living that story. Later in the book, the book switches to Amelia's perspective, removing the story even further from Marian's story.

I wish the book had stayed with Marian's story from the 1930s such that as a reader, I lived it through her. That would make for a much more compelling book set against this turbulent history.

Please share your thoughts and leave a comment. I would love to "talk" to you.