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Barbara Clark

Mystery & SuspenseFictionCozy Mystery

Perry’s latest Pitt mystery is a winner

Review by Barbara Clark

There’s treason in Lisson Grove! That’s where you find London Special Branch, by the way, where Thomas Pitt works with his friend and mentor, Victor Narraway, who holds—or should we say held—the head position there. There’s a conspiracy afoot, and we see the handwriting on the wall: both men have cleverly been removed from their usual posts, and find themselves geographically separated and out of touch.

Anne Perry is best known in mystery circles for her William Monk series and her Charlotte and Thomas Pitt novels, both set in Victorian England, and readers of these fine books will welcome this new Charlotte/Thomas entry—the first in three years.

Narraway, accused of treasonous activities and temporarily relieved of his position, must travel to Ireland to seek the real instigator, while Thomas is in France, shadowing what he at first thinks is an anarchist group planning an overthrow of England’s government.

Charlotte has learned from Narraway that both he and Thomas are at high risk for losing their positions as well as their reputations in what may be a well-planned demise. But who has done the planning? It appears as if the true mastermind may work right in Lisson Grove, and in a desperate effort to save her husband’s career, Charlotte accompanies Narraway to Ireland to try and gather information that will help the pair survive. Add to this the open secret that Narraway’s in love—from a distance, of course, this is Victorian England—with Charlotte.

The narrative slips easily from Charlotte to Thomas in alternating chapters, and colorful characters emerge to deepen our interest in what goes on beneath the surface, as we learn more about the deep, longstanding Irish/English “troubles.” Author Perry’s strength lies in her seamless meshing of historical facts and fictional characters, with each polished detail, from décor to politics, unerringly faithful to the era.

One mark of a good writer is consistency—the ability to show us, in each book, more facets of the recurring characters we love, while giving just enough bits of background to allow new readers to jump in without a lot of confusion. Perry wins this one, too; we never feel bored when she touches on the family’s former maid, or revisits the Pitts’ early courtship days; and there’s always Great-aunt Vespasia, a great staple of this series, to enliven as well as anchor the goings-on. Treason at Lisson Grove is a winner on all counts.

There’s treason in Lisson Grove! That’s where you find London Special Branch, by the way, where Thomas Pitt works with his friend and mentor, Victor Narraway, who holds—or should we say held—the head position there. There’s a conspiracy afoot, and we see the handwriting on the wall: both men have cleverly been removed from their […]
Mystery & SuspenseFictionMystery

New series promises thrills and chills

Review by Barbara Clark

Open the cover of the first book in Amanda Stevens’ Graveyard Queen Series, and meet a haunted but lovely young lady. Amelia Gray has a stellar professional reputation as a cemetery restorer, gained from her travels about the South where she works in old graveyards, researching half-forgotten information, repairing broken headstones, and re-mapping the paths of the sometimes uneasy resting places of the dead.

Right from page one of The Restorer, Stevens ladles on the atmosphere, creating an eerie, make-you-look-over-your-shoulder page-turner. Amelia and her father, a cemetery caretaker, have both inherited the unfortunate ability to see ghosts, who appear repeatedly to any who recognize their presence, seeking their hosts’ life-giving qualities and slowly draining them of their energy and vitality. Without giving anything away here, suffice it to say Amelia’s dad has given her four unshakeable rules to live by, to keep those spirits at bay.

Now she has a commission from an elite Southern college to restore an old cemetery on the college grounds. But a very contemporary dead body—or two—have just been discovered there, and right away the insistent world of the present collides with some very old, very hidden secrets, as Amelia tries to keep her grip on the present and ward off the past. Amelia runs right into Devlin, an enigmatic police detective (a perfect stand-in for all those brooding heroes of past Gothic novels), and suddenly all the rules fall to dust. He’s human, all right, but he’s haunted by ghosts of his own, and these suddenly threaten Amelia, who cannot seem to keep her distance, either from Devlin or from the trailing ghosts of his dead wife, Mariama, and their child.

In spooky page after spooky page, we visit the site of Mariama’s demise and the place where she was raised learning the southern Gullah traditions; accompany Amelia to moss-laden graves and tree-hidden mausoleums; witness the twilight appearance of an insidious dark entity; and try to puzzle out the motives of the real-life people whose connections to crimes past and present have engulfed her. Amelia needs to save her own life by uncovering their secrets. But don’t expect a real “end” to this story. As with any good mystery series, the romantic and mysterious web that’s woven here points straight on to a second book, already slated for the fall.

 

Open the cover of the first book in Amanda Stevens’ Graveyard Queen Series, and meet a haunted but lovely young lady. Amelia Gray has a stellar professional reputation as a cemetery restorer, gained from her travels about the South where she works in old graveyards, researching half-forgotten information, repairing broken headstones, and re-mapping the paths […]
Mystery & SuspenseCozy Mystery

Another flavor-filled adventure

Review by Barbara Clark

Goldy Schulz, the cannonball Colorado caterer, returns for an eventful performance, as she barrels through the 16th—we could almost call it edible—adventure in this witty series by Diane Mott Davidson.

Goldy’s long-suffering husband, Tom, a sheriff’s department investigator, has his hands full keeping his wife, whom he affectionately calls “Miss G,” from overloading the menu as she switches back and forth from chef to sleuth, trying to help her friend Yolanda, and Yolanda’s aunt Ferdinanda, who were burned out of the home where they’ve been staying. The home’s owner, ex-cop turned PI Ernest McCloud, has also been found murdered in a field nearby. Everyone loves Ernest, but he may have stuck a finger in one too many pies. To complicate matters, the arson thing has happened to Yolanda and her aunt before, and recently, too—their previous residence was also burned to the ground. The pair have come to stay with Goldy and Tom and their teenage son, Arch, as complications escalate.

Thus begins another flavor-filled episode in the Goldy Schulz mystery series, and although Crunch Time is overlong at more than 450 pages, it is full of satisfying real-life dialogue along with an alarming array of suspects. Goldy manages to skirt, if not break, the law several times in pursuit of some answers for her friends . . . and to keep herself safe as well.

This page-turner includes an elusive puppy breeder; long-missing jewels; upscale parties with assorted low-life guests; an electric skillet with lethal tendencies; plenty of local gossip; a lively bunch of beagle puppies; a wickedly funny refugee from Castro’s army who wields a wheelchair with finesse; and an assortment of tasty-sounding recipes sandwiched among the pages to offer culinary relief (the comic relief goes before and after). These ultimately serve up a delicious stew that will please Goldy’s many fans. At one point, that lady, who seems to be upstaging hubby Tom in the search for clues, realizes that “I had to keep my mouth shut.” Uh-uh, ain’t gonna happen in this book.

Hint for readers: look for the romantic twist that Tom adds late in the book when he asks his wife a mind-boggling question. Author Davidson writes with an assured hand, keeping her wild cast of characters just barely under control. Loose ends are neatly tied up, and there’s a mini-epilogue to whet readers’ appetites for the next go-around.

 

Goldy Schulz, the cannonball Colorado caterer, returns for an eventful performance, as she barrels through the 16th—we could almost call it edible—adventure in this witty series by Diane Mott Davidson. Goldy’s long-suffering husband, Tom, a sheriff’s department investigator, has his hands full keeping his wife, whom he affectionately calls “Miss G,” from overloading the menu […]
Mystery & SuspenseWomen's FictionCozy Mystery

Babies for Miss Julia

Review by Barbara Clark

In Ann B. Ross’s Miss Julia Rocks the Cradle, the 12th in her “Miss Julia” series, suspense takes a backseat, while the amusing soap opera conditions prevailing in Miss Julia’s home weigh in more heavily. Hazel Marie is mightily pregnant with twins and about to give birth. She and her husband, Mr. Pickens, are now sharing Miss Julia’s house, along with Hazel Marie’s son, Lloyd, who has special ties with Miss Julia, as followers of the series know and newcomers will soon learn. Housekeeper Lillian and her great-granddaughter, Latisha, round out the bustling household, not to mention Miss Julia’s second husband, Sam, who understandably spends a deal of time writing a book over at his former home.

The “mystery” element involves a dead body discovered in a neighbor’s toolshed, identified as one Richard Stroud, who did time for conning Miss Julia and a number of other townsfolk out of their hard-earned cash through phony investments. What was Richard doing back in town, and why was he found in Miss Petty’s shed?  Miss Julia steps out into the night (literally) to find out, and this storyline weaves slowly but surely throughout the book.

The more engrossing part of the story focuses on the new twins, who are unhelpful enough to be born at night during a major blizzard, with Lillian, helper Etta Mae, and Miss Julia in attendance. Truth to tell, Miss J trembles throughout the ordeal (she’d be better off stalking a murder suspect on a dark night), and is not good for much besides warming the baby blankets in front of the fire (power’s gone out, too). The scene is terrifically well set and the dialogue perfect, becoming the most absorbing chapter in the book. The scene in the household during the following days is funny and charmingly described, effectively evoking the chaos of two colicky babies who make it impossible for assorted adults to find any escape from the all-day, all-night infant activity.

While Rocks the Cradle is not the most exciting or mystery-centered entry of the series, followers of the Southern sleuth will find that their heroine has lost none of her passion for uncovering clues, nor has she watered down her decidedly passionate opinions about all matters concerning small-town Abbotsville and its inhabitants. She endures some shaky ground when unexpected events leave her separated from Sam, but loyal readers will surely know that she prevails in the end.

 

In Ann B. Ross’s Miss Julia Rocks the Cradle, the 12th in her “Miss Julia” series, suspense takes a backseat, while the amusing soap opera conditions prevailing in Miss Julia’s home weigh in more heavily. Hazel Marie is mightily pregnant with twins and about to give birth. She and her husband, Mr. Pickens, are now […]
Mystery & SuspenseMystery

Suspense runs deep in archeological mystery

Review by Barbara Clark

Can a book be dark and delightful at the same time? Author Elly Griffiths has just published her second Ruth Galloway mystery, The Janus Stone, set once again amid the grey seas and ever-changing tides of North Norfolk, England, where Ruth makes her home. With her perceptive, witty writing style, Griffiths has again brought her characters to the forefront, and readers will relish their return in a story that scores equally high on the scare and smile charts.

Ruth, who’s a forensic archaeologist, is investigating the remains of a child’s bones, discovered beneath the front doorstep of a turreted Victorian mansion, being demolished by developer Edward Spens to become an improbable “seventy-five luxury apartments” with “spacious landscaped gardens.” Among other tenants, the Gothic structure once housed the former Sacred Heart Children’s Home, but who and what else did it shelter? The original entrance arch, slated to remain standing, reads: Omnia Mutantur, Nihil Interit—“Everything changes, nothing perishes.”

In case you missed the first book (don’t!), Ruth is now three months pregnant, and the father, Detective Chief Inspector Harry Nelson of the Norwich police force, is very much present in this engrossing story that manages to be scary and romantic at the same time. Trouble is, Harry is happily married with two teenage daughters, so the identity of the baby’s father is a secret. But this is not a relationship that Harry, or indeed Ruth, is passing off as just a one-night stand. Instead, deeply drawn to one another, the twosome struggle with how to find a way through a seemingly impossible scenario.

Threading through the storyline are a series of inviting characters, both familiar and new: Ruth’s friend, chemistry lab assistant and sometime druid Cathbad, with his fine sixth sense and flowing purple cape, is front and center here; and there’s the enigmatic and attractive Dr. Max Grey; blue-eyed Father Hennessey; frail Sister Immaculata; friend Shona, with her love affair woes; and a host of ancillaries who add adrenaline, depth and mystery to this remarkable story.

The history surrounding this Victorian property makes for an engrossing archaeological dig, as we uncover layer after layer of intrigue surrounding the old estate’s former occupants. And little by little, too, we’re getting to know more about Ruth and Harry, who are beginning to seem like friends.

Can a book be dark and delightful at the same time? Author Elly Griffiths has just published her second Ruth Galloway mystery, The Janus Stone, set once again amid the grey seas and ever-changing tides of North Norfolk, England, where Ruth makes her home. With her perceptive, witty writing style, Griffiths has again brought her […]
Mystery & SuspenseMystery

A mystery, from the wounds of wartime

Review by Barbara Clark

Readers unfamiliar with Charles Todd’s superlative Ian Rutledge mystery series, set in Britain in the aftermath of World War I, will soon learn that the Scotland Yard detective carries scars from his own service in the Great War. He’s haunted by the voice of Corporal Hamish MacLeod, whose refusal to follow a direct military order to lead his battle-weary men into yet another deadly skirmish ended in his execution by military firing squad—on Rutledge’s orders. Rutledge, himself a victim of shell shock, or what we’d now surely call post-traumatic stress disorder, finds the voice of Hamish echoing in his mind, throughout his waking hours and in his nightmares.

In A Lonely Death, Rutledge is faced with the deaths of four young men from the town of Eastfield in Sussex, all of whom served in the war, and who are murdered in separate incidents, each garroted and with the military identity disc of another, unknown, soldier in their mouths. With little to go on, Rutledge, alternately helped and hampered by Hamish’s warning voice, sets out to find the killer, someone who must be closely connected with the town and with the backgrounds of these returning soldiers.

In Eastfield, Rutledge deals with a slew of red herrings as he meets the townspeople, including a stiff-necked brewery owner; a teacher at the Misses Tate Latin School who has ties to the victims as schoolboys; a housewife caring for her war-injured husband; and police constables, inspectors, and sergeants galore. The plot leads the reader up many garden paths before yielding up clues that shed light on the tragic events. Rutledge searches for the elusive Daniel Pierce, brother of one of the victims, and seeks to uncover the identity of another shadowy figure: a long-forgotten fellow student from the boys’ childhood days and a victim of their schoolboy pranks.

As much an ongoing character study of a haunted man and war survivor as it is a mystery story, this complex and dark entry in a fine series will yield treasures to the patient reader, with its many threads of romance cut off by war’s tragedy and separation, including Rutledge’s encounter with the woman he loves, herself searching for a husband missing in action. These are among the harrowing legacies, sympathetically told, of a war that still rages within many of its survivors, and whose scars will take many a year to heal.

Readers unfamiliar with Charles Todd’s superlative Ian Rutledge mystery series, set in Britain in the aftermath of World War I, will soon learn that the Scotland Yard detective carries scars from his own service in the Great War. He’s haunted by the voice of Corporal Hamish MacLeod, whose refusal to follow a direct military order […]
Mystery & SuspenseCozy Mystery

Solving a crafty crime

Review by Barbara Clark
Assault With a Deadly Glue Gun? Please! But once you read the first few pages of Lois Winston’s first-in-series whodunit, you’re hooked for the duration, weird M.O. or not.
 

Anastasia Pollock, recently widowed (hubby dropped dead at a roulette table in Vegas) and with two teenage boys and a bizarre mother-in-law living under her roof, may be a smart crafts editor at American Woman magazine, but she’s out of her depth when it comes to What Went Wrong In My Marriage. Do we believe that a man could be a gambling addict, stripping the family coffers of all savings, investments and college funds, and incurring a mountain of debt—including $50,000 owed to the mob—without his wife having one little clue that something was wrong? Author Lois Winston takes a page from the Stephanie Plum school of wise-cracking heroines in crafting Anastasia’s character, but adds in a tad more innocence and willingness to forgive.

 

The titular glue gun victim is the magazine’s fashion editor, Marlys Vandenburg, found in Anastasia’s office. The craftslady becomes suspect numero uno after detectives find a photo of Marlys apparently entwined with Anastasia’s recently deceased Karl. Enter detectives Batswin and Robbins, along with a slew of amazing characters, some human, some not-so, who inhabit Anastasia’s home. Manifesto (canine) and Catherine the Great (feline) are frequently upstaged by Ralph (parrot), whose repertoire consists entirely of Shakespearean quotes, wittily timed to the plot action. All these coexist with Anastasia’s assorted relatives, in one now-impoverished household.

 

Despite the distractions (and the addition of a hunky tenant who’s moving in over the garage), Anastasia gets to work finding the murderer (what else will get her off the hook?!), who must surely be one of her co-workers. Nobody didn’t hate the supercilious Marlys—from her beleaguered assistant, Erica; to the editor-in-chief, Naomi; to the magazine’s former owner, Hugo, who got dumped by the now-dead fashionista; to Vittorio, a designer recently trashed in Marlys’s column. Anastasia must also outwit an unknown character named Ricardo who calls daily, seeking 50 grand apparently owed him by the now-disgraced Karl.

 

Anastasia spends a bit too much time playing the victim in this otherwise witty and wacky merry-go-round, but readers who enjoy clever repartee and the clamor of a household on the verge of craziness, mixed with a down-home bit of sleuthing, will enjoy getting in on the ground floor of this new series.

  

Assault With a Deadly Glue Gun? Please! But once you read the first few pages of Lois Winston’s first-in-series whodunit, you’re hooked for the duration, weird M.O. or not.   Anastasia Pollock, recently widowed (hubby dropped dead at a roulette table in Vegas) and with two teenage boys and a bizarre mother-in-law living under her […]
Mystery & SuspenseCozy Mystery

Unraveling a crime

Review by Barbara Clark

Seems there’s a Black Sheep Knitting Shop just around the corner near the seaside in Cape Ann, Massachusetts. Shop owner Maggie Messina has played the role of amateur sleuth before, a couple of times to be exact, and in author Anne Canadeo’s third knitting conundrum, A Stitch Before Dying, Maggie sets out to lead a knitting class during a “Creative Spirit Weekend” at a pricey New Age spa in Western Massachusetts, where positive thinking and good karma rule the day.

Maggie and the Black Sheep Knitters—her close friends Lucy, Dana, Suzanne, and Phoebe—get to share that weekend at the Crystal Lake Spa, courtesy of Maggie’s friend Nadine, who works there and needs a fill-in teacher. Intrigued by the promised participation of the spa’s new owner, Dr. Max Flemming, whose star has been burnished after an appearance on “Oprah,” the group sets out to experience a weekend of yoga, tai chi and enlightenment in a luxury setting. Instead, they encounter a deadly moonlight meditation, along with some decidedly unholistic activities and assignations.

Also making appearances are spa business manager Anne; her angry son, Brian; Joy, a yoga teacher who has a history with Dr. Max; assorted weekend New Agers, including former model Shannon; Curtis, a writer whose iPhone is busy taking surreptitious photos; and Rita and Walter, an elderly couple with attitude. Some participants seem to be on a possible investors’ list for Dr. Max’s planned spa expansion.

Maggie’s workshop combines “mindful knitting” with yoga, asking that guests “slow down and focus,” while encouraging “relaxation and contemplation” and “a kinder, gentler attitude.” Instead, suspiciously unkind intentions begin to surface, after one of the guests is found dead in a mountain hut. As the weekend wears on, the venal appears to overtake the cosmic, and tensions escalate. The Black Sheepers sometimes resemble eight-year-olds rather than adults, afraid of every twig, tree and unfamiliar corridor, but they share helpful ideas and clues in their close-knit group. A second death casts any remaining serenity to the winds, as guests vie to be the first ones out the door and safely home.

Maggie counts her stitches and casts on all the clues that are accumulating, and it’s not surprising to discover that the final, deciding clue has been hiding in her possession all along. It’s only a matter of time before she unravels the skein of problems and works out a pattern that solves the crime.

Seems there’s a Black Sheep Knitting Shop just around the corner near the seaside in Cape Ann, Massachusetts. Shop owner Maggie Messina has played the role of amateur sleuth before, a couple of times to be exact, and in author Anne Canadeo’s third knitting conundrum, A Stitch Before Dying, Maggie sets out to lead a […]
Mystery & SuspenseCozy Mystery

Restaurateur takes a bite out of crime

Review by Barbara Clark

Upscale restaurateur Jane, who’s gay, has an ex-husband she thought was gay but isn’t, really. If you think that’s a good premise for a mystery novel, just wait til you read The Cruel Ever After, which has all these twists and turns and many more besides.

Cruel is Ellen Hart’s 18th Jane Lawless mystery, and those familiar with her work will respond to the returning characters: best friend and cohort Cordelia, she of the flamboyant opinions and equally flamboyant outfits; Julia, Jane’s ex-girlfriend, a doctor of oncology who’d dearly like to reignite her relationship with Jane; Jane’s brother, Peter and his family. But newcomers to the series can jump right in and quickly get familiar with the territory. The author has conveniently provided a cast of characters at the front of the book, and has a knack for catching you up on past history without becoming dull or repetitive.

Chess, Jane’s ex-husband (or is he?) is on the scene with a dead body, plus he’s trying to finagle the sale of the Winged Bull of Nimrud, a priceless golden statue stolen from the Baghdad Museum in Iraq during the invasion by U.S. forces, and which is now in his hands—or is it? Chess arrives on Jane’s doorstep, needing a temporary place to stay while simultaneously fending off and staying in the good graces of Irina, a curator of antiquities who is complicit in the pending sale of the stolen artifact. After the gallery owner (Irina’s mother) becomes the second dead body to surface, the plot escalates into a tangled and intriguing web of layered lies and subterfuge. To say that the right hand doesn’t know what the left hand is doing, page by page, is to put it mildly.

Jane, suddenly beset by a street attack and some shady-looking followers, consults her friend, private investigator A.J. Nolan, who appears to be one of the few cool heads to get a handle on the emerging mayhem. Also keeping an eye on the proceedings is an eccentric preacher named Lee, who unaccountably joins in the action.

When someone near and dear to Jane is kidnapped, we’re close to reaching the final outcome of this complex and exciting story. Hart is skilled at giving us characters of interest and spark, and she deftly tidies up the loose ends into a satisfying pattern in this accomplished and expertly crafted page-turner.

Upscale restaurateur Jane, who’s gay, has an ex-husband she thought was gay but isn’t, really. If you think that’s a good premise for a mystery novel, just wait til you read The Cruel Ever After, which has all these twists and turns and many more besides. Cruel is Ellen Hart’s 18th Jane Lawless mystery, and […]
Mystery & SuspenseCozy Mystery

Tension between old and new charges Amish mystery series

Review by Barbara Clark

When the word “Amish” comes up, it brings a slew of quick impressions: quiet, innocent, simple, non-violent. In Clouds Without Rain, the third in P.L. Gaus’s Amish-Country mystery series (originally published by Ohio State University Press) the author has added a slightly different shading to one particular Amish community, one that is sure to remain in readers’ minds for a long time.

Michael Branden, professor of Civil War history in a local college and newly deputized in the Holmes County, Ohio, sheriff’s office, is clopping about in a borrowed horse and buggy in Amish garb, seeking to apprehend a couple of teenagers in Amish dress who are robbing “the Peaceful Ones” as they travel in their slow-moving vehicles. His part-time undercover work is interrupted by a deadly crash between a semitrailer rig and a horse-drawn vehicle. Branden begins to work with sheriff’s deputies on the incident, one that comes to look more like a homicide than an accident, and his two assignments begin to intersect.

Branden gets better acquainted with a newly appointed Amish bishop, whose intellect and intentions are anything but simple, as well as members of the religious community he leads. Their deep roots in the land are matched against a powerful money-making land scheme certain to test the group’s ethical and religious underpinnings. Branden’s role as an “outsider” gives him a curious advantage, as he goes beneath a placid-seeming exterior of the Amish community to understand the effect that disaffected youth, warring religious factions and the siren call of big money have on the group, increasingly enmeshed in the modern world they try to avoid.

Gaus himself has lived in Ohio and written about Amish Country for more than 30 years. In his own online “Ohio Amish Journal,” the author explains that his aim is “to illuminate Amish culture as much as possible in the context of a mystery story.” His remarkable prose reflects the deceptively simple, sometimes stark lifestyle of these religious folk, with its affecting descriptions of clothes drying on a line, crops wilting in the heat of a flat summer sun, and the beauty of an Amish table, where “the polished lazy Susan held a pitcher of water, two glasses, a bowl of chipped ice, slices of a fruit-nut bread, and apple butter in a canning jar.”

This series is all about surfaces and the deep waters that may lie beneath, in a culture of contrasts where old and new share a sometimes uneasy co-existence.

When the word “Amish” comes up, it brings a slew of quick impressions: quiet, innocent, simple, non-violent. In Clouds Without Rain, the third in P.L. Gaus’s Amish-Country mystery series (originally published by Ohio State University Press) the author has added a slightly different shading to one particular Amish community, one that is sure to remain in […]
Fiction

Settle in for a charming tale from the Old West

Review by Barbara Clark

Ivan Doig, born and bred in Montana, has written many popular works of fiction about the American West. In Work Song, he returns to his best-selling 2008 novel The Whistling Season [BookPage review] and its central character, Morrie Morgan. The place: Butte, Montana, of 1919, a bustling post-World War I copper mining capital, where “The Richest Hill on Earth” has enticed Morrie to try his luck at siphoning off a few of the riches said to be waiting in its famed copper veins under the earth.

Work Song is entertaining for its rich historical take on the town of Butte, then in its mining heyday, and for its evocative descriptions of the Anaconda Company’s copper mines. Their warren of shafts and tunnels spews forth thousands of miners, who create a human army as they leave at the end of the day’s shift. It’s a dramatic backdrop to the burgeoning labor disputes brewing between the beleaguered miners and Anaconda’s tycoons, who are sitting pretty in the town’s grand Hennessy Building.

Within this sprawling canvas, the engaging yet elusive Morrie seems a bit of a contradiction, with his charming and mild-seeming exterior and a mind crammed full of literary and historical tidbits of knowledge, while another side of his character resides in his pockets—a handy pair of brass knuckles. Morrie’s boarding house companions, attractive landlady Grace and two retired miners, Griff and Hoop, lead Morrie ever deeper into the explosive labor conflict, as it bubbles under the surface waiting to erupt. Question: Will the villains be conquered by—a song?

Morrie craftily matches wits with two hilarious company goons, Eel Eyes and Typhoon Tolliver. There’s also a fleet-footed urchin straight out of Dickens, so skinny he’s given the name Russian Famine. And, looming large, the mysterious librarian Sam Sandison, who hires Morrie to work amidst his stunning gold and leather book collection. Add a stoic and wily labor organizer and his sparkly fiancé, an old friend to Morrie, and the book comes to life in Doig’s engaging and magical prose.

Rather than blowing you off the page, Doig’s writing has a settling effect; as in, you settle comfortably into your chair, confident you’ll be enjoying every bit of his breathtaking storytelling prowess. 

Ivan Doig, born and bred in Montana, has written many popular works of fiction about the American West. In Work Song, he returns to his best-selling 2008 novel The Whistling Season [BookPage review] and its central character, Morrie Morgan. The place: Butte, Montana, of 1919, a bustling post-World War I copper mining capital, where “The Richest Hill on […]
FictionShort Stories

Bright stories from a lost talent

Review by Barbara Clark

The second half of the word “hardscrabble” comes from the Dutch schrabbelen, "to scratch," as in “to scratch out a living” and other familiar phrases. This is just what Idella and Avis, the titular sisters in Beverly Jensen’s beautiful work The Sisters from Hardscrabble Bay, accomplish: they work, scratch, laugh and scramble their way through the pages of this amazing book.

Jensen didn’t live to see her work in print. She died of cancer in 2003 at the age of 49, before any of her writings could be published. After her death, her husband's efforts at publicity brought attention to her work, and a number of well-known authors, including Howard Frank Mosher and Joyce Carol Oates, went on to champion her writing. Many of her short stories were anthologized, and one, “Wake,” was selected by author Stephen King for inclusion in Best American Short Stories of 2007.

This novel-in-stories focuses on sisters Idella and Avis, characters based on Jensen’s own mother and aunt. Their life in New Brunswick, Canada, near the end of World War I, is hardscrabble indeed: In the first story they are barely eight and six years old when their mother dies after giving birth to a baby girl.

No big epiphanies attend the lives of these two sisters as they make their way into the United States in their late teens. There Idella, the elder, marries and settle in Maine. Idella’s thin but sturdy frame echoes her approach to life, as she endures and somehow survives an unhinged mother-in-law and a wandering husband, while Avis lives a more peripatetic existence, dotted with a high turnover of boyfriends. But the book is not about plot turns. Its beauty and strength are in the small exchanges and heart-tugging vignettes that jump from nearly every page.

Here a few words can transform a tragic circumstance into a wry and humorous scene, or turn the gift of a fancy dress from a moment of joy to one of jealousy and pathos. Whether sharing their own pratfalls or their incisive takes on human nature, when Idella and Avis are together they are unstoppable. From a night on the town in “The Opera” to a hilarious ride in the country in “Cherry Cider” to the flinty sadness of “Wake,” we’re in thrall to these remarkable stories. This duo will steal readers’ hearts, while leaving a sense of sadness that there will be no more to come from this talented writer.

Barbara Clark writes from South Yarmouth, Massachusetts.

The second half of the word “hardscrabble” comes from the Dutch schrabbelen, "to scratch," as in “to scratch out a living” and other familiar phrases. This is just what Idella and Avis, the titular sisters in Beverly Jensen’s beautiful work The Sisters from Hardscrabble Bay, accomplish: they work, scratch, laugh and scramble their way through […]
Fiction

A mystical, magical adventure

Review by Barbara Clark

The Frozen Rabbi tells the whimsical story of Polish rabbi Eliezer ben Zephyr, who, in 1890 and while in a meditative state, is unaccountably frozen alive in a block of ice during a freak storm. Lost and presumed dead by his rabbinical colleagues, he’s later discovered by a Polish laborer, still encased in ice, buried in a nearby pond. The old rabbi is preserved as a kind of holy talisman by the worker’s family and carted about, still frozen, to various locations for the better part of a century—until he accidentally thaws out and wakes from his long hiatus in a freezer in Memphis, Tennessee, in 1999. The unlikely and sometimes hilarious adventures of the ancient rabbi, as well as those of his “discoverer,” 15-year-old Bernie Karp, make up the contemporary half of this entertaining adventure.

 
The narrative follows the newly awakened Rabbi Eliezer as he treats the old Jewish concepts and teachings to a new spin. The secular Bernie unaccountably begins to take the holy teachings to heart, donning one spiritual mantle that the rabbi has seemingly cast off: an ability to leave his body behind to find himself suspended above the earthly sphere.
 

Another slice of the book describes the rabbi’s icy travels, from Poland and the Old World to the shores of Manhattan, introducing readers to a passel of colorful characters who, in one way or another, see him on his way. The New York part of the rabbi’s long journey provides a fascinating look at the busy, frenetic immigrant concoction that was the Lower East Side at the turn of the century.

 

Despite its crazy premise, readers will be caught up in the old man’s marvelous journey, which is accompanied by a liberal and magical sprinkling of Yiddish phrases that add depth and humor to a story that sometimes skirts the edges of both pathos and slapstick, while readily surviving both.

 

In 2000, author Steve Stern won the National Jewish Book Award for The Wedding Jester. With his newest work’s blend of earthiness and more fanciful trips into the astral realm, this gifted writer has allowed readers to share in the long tradition of mythology and mysticism that informs one spectrum of Jewish literature—brought to light in The Frozen Rabbi by way of dazzling prose and a deceptively comic plot.

 

The Frozen Rabbi tells the whimsical story of Polish rabbi Eliezer ben Zephyr, who, in 1890 and while in a meditative state, is unaccountably frozen alive in a block of ice during a freak storm. Lost and presumed dead by his rabbinical colleagues, he’s later discovered by a Polish laborer, still encased in ice, buried […]

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