Month: August 2025

Five Found Dead by Sulari Gentill (Mystery)

Crime Fiction writer Joe Penvale and his sister Meredith board the famed Orient Express as both a celebration of Joe’s (barely) surviving cancer and a hope that the luxury train would stimulate his writing follicles. A whole host of diverting characters board with them — a retired French policeman, a Jamaica born Detective Inspector, a Duchess, a travel writer, a pair of octogenarian bounty hunters, a Welshman with a background in international terrorism, and a member of Scotland Yard. A pair of young podcasters — focused on the mystery genre with a strong dose of social indignance thrown in — complete the dramatis personae. Things are off to a great start but then … a mysterious illness leads to a partial quarantine and the stranger in the next cabin disappears, leaving a great quantity of blood behind. Now things get exciting.

Very good writing with lots of sentences to highlight while laughing or having my thoughts provoked. Unpredictable plot twists, including plenty of clever metafictional commentary and provocative ruminations on ones own mortality. I liked the multi-layer literary references to the Golden Age of Detective fiction, including to the notable Agatha Christie’s “Murder on the Orient Express.” Very entertaining, difficult to put down, and brilliantly executed in every respect.

Thank you to Poisoned Pen Press and NetGalley for providing an advance copy of this book in exchange for my honest review. The book will be published on August 19th, 2025.

The Hired Man by Sandra Dallas (Historical Literary Fiction)

A coming-of-age story for Martha Helen, a young woman growing up in Colorado in the 1930s amid the drought, dust bowl, and an ever increasing supply of vagrants. One day, in the middle of a huge dust storm, a vagrant (Otis Hobbs) stumbles to her family’s door with a half conscious boy he found buried in the dust. He becomes a room and board only “hired man” for the family, despite the ill will of many in the town. When a young girl is found murdered much later, the town is sure Otis is the perpetrator while Martha Helen’s family staunchly defends him.

Things don’t go the way you might expect — I won’t give anything away but I was happy that there was more to this story than the obvious. It’s a true coming-of-age, so we watch Martha Helen grow as more and more of the (not always pleasant or ethical) real world makes it into her awareness and eventually the composition of her adult self. In the process she reflects on loyalties, biases, good and evil, and understanding people as individuals. The town people really fell into “good” and “bad” categories, which normally feels shallow and manipulative to me. But in this case, you could see that those in the “good” category adhered to strongly held principles, while those in the “bad” category did not, either not having principles or literally not understanding when the crossed the line. It was particularly interesting to me to watch Martha Helen shift her understanding of individuals by watching what they actually did. Martha Helen put it well:

“For better or for worse, the drought and ill winds showed what we were made of. Some folks stole and cheated and hoarded. Others rose above the hardships and displayed strength and courage, even though it threatened to destroy them. The dust bowl changed us. Mr. Hobbs did too . During the time he lived with us, I grew up. I was barely more than a girl when he joined our family. By the time everything was over I was a woman.”

Good story, great characters, a real sense of place and time, all supported by writing that is so good and unobtrusive, you forget that you’re reading at all.

Thank you to St. Martin’s Press and NetGalley for providing an advance copy of this book in exchange for my honest review. The book will be published on March 31st, 2026.

The Unsinkable Greta James by Jennifer E Smith (Literary Fiction / Audio Book)

A rock star (Greta James) reluctantly takes her recently deceased (and greatly beloved) mother’s place on an Alaskan Cruise — accompanying her father and two other senior couples. On board she meets nerdy author and Jack London fanatic Ben, who recently published a surprise best seller. You might expect a cute love story or even humorous rom-com wit hin a scenic setting, but I was happily surprised to find myself engrossed in a simultaneously moving and humorous story full of evolving insight. I found it beautiful and — I never thought I would say this — it actually put me in the mood to take an Alaskan Cruise.

All aspects of the story had the kind of depth that makes me pay attention — the story a mixture of processing unexpected depths of grief, healing relationships, and evolving self-knowledge including all the messy bits of life — hopes, dreams, doubts, longings, contentment, curiosity, and confusion. I loved the dialog — both the external and the internal kind. I liked all of the individual characters — each of whom played a role — and how badly they adhered to the traditional tropes of fiction. I found the ending (just before the epilog) to be one of the most perfect I have read, and while it did not tie everything off in a happily-ever-after bow, I found it uplifting in a more genuine way. Also, none of the characters was adorably stupid and / or airheady, nor were they mean spirited or down right bad guys. This is the kind of fiction I enjoy — people who feel real to me making their way through the joys and vicissitudes of life.

The Shattering Peace by John Scalzi (Sci Fi)

Another fun Scalzi book — they don’t come any other way! Starts off fast and keeps up the pace. Plenty of humorous snark coupled with characters of strong principles who don’t shy away from getting into the tangle and making (good) things happen. Some pretty cool aliens with thought-provoking characteristics and some explorations of the kind of physics that might be uncovered when a superior race has had millenia to develop really advanced technology. I liked the fact that a lot of the story focussed on getting different species with wildly different characteristics and values to get along with each other. Humans were not the easiest. This is book seven in the Old Man’s War universe and I had to look up a few character and plot points that I didn’t remember (it’s been over a decade and how many brain cells can I keep devoted to the plot of every book I’ve read??). However, you can easily enjoy this book without having read the others.

Thank you to Tor Books and NetGalley for providing an advance copy of this book in exchange for my honest review. The book will be published on September 16th, 2025.

That Last Carolina Summer by Karen White (Literary Fiction)

Phoebe Manigault is called home to the South Carolina Low Country when her none-too-stable sister says she can’t handle their aging mother on her own. Phoebe has moved as far away as she can (Bend, Oregon) and is none too thrilled to be drawn back to a place that holds quite a few bad memories for her, including the fact that she barely survived being struck by lightning 20 years earlier, and has “enjoyed” strange premonitions ever since. What follows is a story of finding love, dealing with your demons, charting the narrows of dementia, and the Power of Place. And discovering the dark secret that underlies most of the pain of the last decades.

What could have been a simple (and pleasant) piece of women’s fiction quickly reveals itself to be a wonderfully insightful piece of literary fiction. The characters are deeply drawn with realistic confusions, longings, protections and vulnerabilities. They make mistakes, lose their way (and sometimes their cool), and general act like people, but they also push through bad habits, fears, and habitual suspicions and make their way forward — which is critical for me. The story was dramatic without going overboard into melodrama — I was gripped from page one yet never felt manipulated, never cringed from ridiculous coincidences, and could find myself relating to situations that were alien to me. The writing was so good that I even enjoyed the descriptions of the place (which I usually skip over, not being a great visualizer). She brought it to life for me by describing the place through the narrator’s eyes (and other senses and emotions). I should add that while the book dives deep into topics that can be very painful, I found it uplifting overall as intentional resolution led to closure. Lastly, lots of fascinating bits about birds — I’m no twitcher (love the word!), but I loved the bird facts peppered about and the ornithological epigraphs at the beginning of each chapter that often related bird behavior to aspects of people — all spot on.

I’m a big fan of Karen White’s Charleston-based Tradd Street series (and her newer New Orleans-based Royal Street series), but for me this book is in a class of its own.

Thank you to Park Row and NetGalley for providing an advance copy of this book in exchange for my honest review. The book was published on July 22nd, 2025.