Wildwood by Amy Pease

 Welcome to rural northern Wisconsin. Small summer resort town. Main lakeside hotel is a pricey retreat for the 1% who value their privacy. The only real connection with the town is with the locals who quietly clean rooms, cook, landscape, etc. The law is maintained by sheriff Marge North and her PTSD afflicted (Afghanistan) son Eli.  

Also in the community are what seem to be a large number of group homes for recovering addicts, an in-patient recovery facility, and what appears to be a pharmaceutical distribution business. 

Trinity is a stunning 20-something artist wannabe recovering addict struggling with her addiction while trying to regain custody of her 4yo son from her prepper parents in Illinois. One of the hotel guests, Charles  Dawson, is a suave, handsome 'businessman' of note; he owns most of those group homes. And the FBI (Alyssa) and the DEA (Adam) are convinced he is part of a drug scheme that has made him rich from fraud and drug distribution. The investigation has been going on for a few years and getting no where.

After crossing paths with Trinity, Adam convinces her to be his CI. He cleans her up, dresses her, and sends her to the hotel to catch Charles' eye, get close to him, and try to find some evidence that will drive the investigation. 

And she does. 

But along the way, people are dying. A recovering addict is just the start. As the bodies pile up, the evidence against Dawson becomes convincing, but it also points to someone above Dawson who drives an international industry of drugs, trafficking, weapons, money laundering, and murder.

This is Amy Pease's 2nd book set in rural northern Wisconsin featuring Sheriff North. But in this book, Pease focuses mostly on her son's slowly resolving PTSD, a possible relationship between son Eli and Special Agent Alyssa (that appears to have begun in 'Northwoods', book #1), what appears to be real feelings between Trinity and Dawson. Not a whole lot about Sheriff North (maybe that was the subject of book #1). Lots of balls in the air that Sheriff North juggles right down to the last chapter. Have to say that I liked how Pease presents the primary actors here: Eli, Alyssa, and Trinity. Each seems real, with their own issues that sometimes both interfere and aid in the entirely entertaining resolution. I'm interested enough to try and dig up her first book, Northwoods. I like William Kent Krueger's books set in northern Wisconsin/Minnesota so I'm not surprised that I like this one, too. And having live in Wisconsin for 2 winters (they don't tell time by 'years', they use 'winters'), I guess I come by that honestly.

And don't forget northern Wisconsin and its flaky fall/winter weather, is also a critical character. Gotta love Wisconsin weather, its 2-week summer/mosquito season and the endless frigid winter. 

Publication date Jan 6, 2026 (in the winter, naturally). And thanks for NetGalley for the advance reviewer copy in exchange for an unbiased review. 

ECD 

The Girl Who Was Taken

The Girl Who Was Taken is Charlie Donlea’s second novel of the 11 that are currently listed in my Google search, and it is his first novel reviewed in this blog, but I’ll guarantee it won’t be the last one. I continue to find it exciting to find a good mystery novelist and find that the author already has created a significant volume of work. The author was suggested to me by one of my daughters who said Donlea was quickly becoming her favorite author in this genre. She had read several of his books already, but none of those were available in audiobook format on Libby, so I “settled” on this one. It was fantastic, and after reading one book, I plan to look for more.

Megan McDonald had just graduated from high school when she was kidnapped. She was also a star athlete and was on her way to a scholarship ride at Duke. But, she disappeared from a high school celebration party, and her story hit the headlines nationwide. Missing the same night, was a lifelong friend of Megan’s, Nicole Cutty. Hardly the student-athlete that Megan had been, Nicole had only scratched her way through high school while she looked for good times, not her own future. Nicole had a very dark side to her character. It was Megan’s story that stayed in the press, especially after she escaped from her captivity after 13 days. A year later, with the help of a ghost writer and pressure from her mom to complete the task, Megan published a book of her ordeal which immediately became a best seller. She was seen as a hero, was in demand on the talk show circuit, was known to be a woman who escaped her captor (who had never been caught), one who had emotionally healed from the ordeal – facts which Megan eventually revealed were untrue. But other girls had also gone missing and it seemed a serial killer was at work.

 

Meanwhile, Nicole’s older sister Livia had graduated from medical school and was completing a fellowship program in pathology. She was guilt ridden because she had not taken a call from the always troubled Nicole on the night of her disappearance. Livia contacted Megan to pick her brain about the details of what had happened to her, details which never appeared in her book.

 

Donlea’s characters were quite believable, and it sounded as if the characters in his book were sincerely emotionally traumatized by their ordeals. The plot kept me riveted to the book. Donlea skillfully jumped back and forth between prior times when Megan was a little girl, when she was in school, when she was an athlete, and the present as success in the unraveling of the killer’s identity came closer to being discovered. This was an excellent suspense and murder mystery, cleverly written, and it gets my very strong recommendation. There will be more Donlea in my life.

Troy, The Greek Myths Reimagined

 

Troy, The Greek Myths Reimagined, by Stephen Fry is the third of four books that cover the entire ancient Greek mythology from Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey, as well as events that occurred both before and after those books by Homer.  I’ve already reviewed the other three books, and I basically raved about the quality of Fry’s efforts as both a writer and narrator of this material. The story of Troy, is certainly the equal of the other three books. Although I’m very familiar with the old Greek myths and other ancient Greek literature, I found this retelling of the stories to be refreshing and wonderous. Fry’s appendix in Troy put all the issues about the timing of these events and his thoughts about myths versus reality into a very acceptable perspective. It’s my opinion that all modern story telling about human drama starts with these Homeric works. He lived, perhaps, in 750 BCE, and the Trojan War occurred several hundred years before then, and it is remarkable that his stories have survived nearly three millennia. He writes about life, death, illness, all sorts of life’s challenges, fidelity/infidelity, love, hate, self-aggrandizing, humility, religion, atheism, war, peace, and so much more. If you’re a fanatic about adventure stories, you owe it to yourself to read Stephen Fry.

Gideon Redemption

 

Gideon Redemption is the third novel by Grant Rosenberg that I’ve reviewed, the third in a series about his protagonist Kelly Harper. It was Kelly’s father, Dr. David Harper, who was the main figure in the first book, Gideon. He was a physician who took over responsibility for a clinic in the Mission District of San Francisco, but in a highly unusual situation, in order to adequately fund the medical care that he was doing at a considerable financial loss, he accepted a roll as an assassin of the worst of society’s dregs. The assassin was known as Gideon. When he was killed in the second book, Gideon Resurrection, Kelly, who had followed her father into a medical career and who placed her father on top of a tall pedestal for his humanitarian acts, knew nothing about his dark activities until she read his diary. Although aghast at what she learned about her father and then when she gained responsibility for the clinic’s survival, she eventually agreed to become the next Gideon. The contrast in roles of being a literal savior of the downtrodden on the streets of the Mission District, and a woman was also a killer who used the money she earned to pay the clinic’s bill, caused Kelly great emotional distress. In the third novel, Gideon Redemption, it becomes clear that stress of her two identities was tearing her emotionally apart.

 

If you check out my prior reviews of Mr. Rosenberg’s books, you’ll find that I literally raved about his writing and the characters that he skillfully developed. The third book is equally well written with regard to the evolution of Kelly and the associated characters. The three books together get my ultimate 5/5+ rating. He does a remarkable job tying together the plots and subplots in a most satisfying manner.

 

I think this book was originally intended to be the last in the series, but I hope Mr. Rosenberg changes his mind about this. Kelly is such a compelling and intriguing character, I would be disappointed not to see where she might go from this point forward. Whatever he decides, if you’re a fan of murder mysteries, this three-book series should be on your bookshelves.

Ensorcelled

 Ensorcelled by Eliot Peper is the 13^th Peper book that I’ve read and reviewed. Considering that I’ve read so many of his books, you might get the hint that I really like his writing. The title is a word I’ve not seen before, so I looked it up. In the past tense ensorcelled means enchanted, fascinated, or captivated. The reader was forewarned that magic was a part of the story.

The protagonist of this short novel, only 90 pages, is about a teenage boy who has been captivated by the gaming world. Games are what he thinks about, dreams about, and lives for. As a new game was about to be released by his favorite gaming company, he planned to be first in line to acquire the game, and then to spend all of his upcoming hours engaged in the play. Her expected to be ensorcelled once again in the game world. Then, he was stunned to learn that his parents had planned a family camping trip on the very day of the game’s release, and he could not talk his parents out of having to go along with them.

 

In total disbelief, this boy who was somewhat handicapped with regard to his social skills (whose name we never learn), went along to a remote camping site where two other families, friends of his parents, had already arrived. There were two other teenagers there too, Theo and Lenny. Lenny was a teenage girl who loved an adventure, apparently a trait that had gotten her into some troubles in the past. Theo was a high school kid to whom everything came easily, socially, academically, athletically. He was remarkably modest about his skills and he seemed to give everyone the benefit of the doubt. He was loved by all for his authentic personality, except for our protagonist who is horribly jealous of him. Theo was everything he was not. Theo and Lenny were great friends and obviously enjoyed each other’s company.

 

The book is told in the first person, and our main subject was also an artist, and he could avoid social engagement by disappearing to do some sketching. On the trip, he was fascinated by one particularly beautiful tree that was a ways from the camp. When Lenny decided she should help him actually visit the tree, without revealing her plan, she got him to go with her. The adventure involved a hike, a canoe ride, a swim in a cold mountain pool, and a treacherous rock climb, all done in the dark while parents were left bar behind, asleep in their tents. They got to the tree, and it was a beautiful experience, but on the way back down, tragedy struck. Lenny was badly injured in a fall. It was left to him to get them out of this mess, a task that he was sorely unprepared for. That’s when the magic happened for Lenny and our narrator. 

 

To tell the end of this beautiful story would be a spoiler I just can’t give away. My advice, buy the book and spend just a short time absorbing this great story. Peper strikes again. If you’ve not already read his work, then you are in for a treat.

 

Zafara, A giraffe's True Storny, from Deep in Africa to the Heart of Paris

 

Odyssey

 

Odyssey is my favorite book of all times, and I’m surprised that I haven’t reviewed it in this blog which we began writing in 2009. I know that I’ve reread it at least a couple times during the last 16 years. Of course, it was Homer’s book to which I’m referring, not this new version by Stephen Fry. I read Homer’s Odyssey for the first time in junior high school, then again in high school, then again several more times as a college undergraduate. I’ve returned to it many times thereafter simply because the author captures so many human struggles that continue to be applicable to current day life. Issues like money, greed, power, sex, drugs, faith, and adversity are present throughout this epic novel. The vicissitudes of life in 700 BCE was not so much different than life in 2025.

 

I’ve recently reviewed the first two of Stephen Fry’s four-book into the ancient Greek Myths. The first was Mythos, The Greek Myths Retold, and the second was Heroes, The Greek Myths Reimagined. I raved about the qualities of those books which I listened to in audiobook format. The multitalented Fry was the narrator for the entire series, and his skill in that regard was simply remarkable. Because Odyssey, the fourth book, became available on Libby before Troy, I just couldn’t wait to get to Odyssey. Fry had perhaps the most famous author of adventure books in the history of mankind to compete with, to be compared to while relating these well-known stories, and it’s my opinion that Fry succeeds in doing so. This is not like trying to read Homer. It’s a more modern and readable novel, and I could not possible give it anything but a 5/5 or A+ rating. As an adventure book reader, it’s hard for me to imagine that you won’t be entranced by the quality of Fry’s writing and narration. I think Troy is going to be available any day – can’t wait.tt