1560. Oh My Mother by Connie Wang

 Oh, my, two nonfiction books in a row, this one entitled “Oh My Mother, A Memoir in Nine Adventures” by Connie Wang. Ms. Wang has appeared recently on The Today Show to pitch this book, and she has written about it in the New York Times. Her work has been favorably reviewed by Connie Chung and Oprah. She is best known for her writing in the fashion world for Refinery 29. This book is both a biography about her mother and an autobiography about her own most interesting life. Ms. Wang was born in China and was fortunate enough to immigrate to the U.S. with her parents and younger sister.

 

Ms. Wang vulnerably and honestly depicts her evolving relationship with her mother as the family meets the challenges of immigration. She and her mother perceive the world about them in very different ways. Not surprisingly, Ms. Wang did not feel as if she fit in socially during middle and high school in Minnesota, and then she landed at UC Berkeley which was, according to her, the least desirable of the schools where she was accepted. Upon graduation, she moved to New York where she pursued her interest in fashion. She was able to take her mother on trips to Fashion Week in Paris, Milan, and New York, which certainly provided some funny cultural-clash stories. There was an underlying tension between mother and daughter, but there was also love and security that was obvious to the reader. Ms. Wang described her own growing understanding of that love, while at the same time, writing ably about the differences in Chinese and American lifestyles.

 

Although well outside the genre in which I typically read, I thought this was a book worth reading.

1559. An Immense World: How Animal Senses Reveal the Hidden Realms Around Us by Ed Yong (#1559)

 

A well-read friend, Eric, an artist and landscape visionary, suggested I read a non-fiction work called An Immense World: How Animal Senses Reveal the Hidden Realms Around Us by Ed Yong. Yong is Pulitzer Prize winner for I Contain Multitudes written in 2016. This book was published in June 2022, and without question, it’s the most important book I’ve read this year. Yong started by explaining the word Umwelt, and according to Wikipedia, “The umwelt theory states that the mind and the world are inseparable because it is the mind that interprets the world for the organism. Because of the individuality and uniqueness of the history of every single organism, the umwelten of different organisms differ.” He explained that all creatures have different unwelten (which is pronounced with a “v” sound, as in unvelt) whether it is your pet, a tick, or any other living creature that you can name, and yet we share the same space with all of them. It’s quite clear to me that even people from the same species may have widely different unwelten, which helps explain how some of my friends and patients perceive the world so differently.

 

Yong’s introduction to this book is fascinating as he portrays a small space that is shared by a human, a spider, a dog, a bat, and other creatures and how their different perceptive capacities impact their sense of that space. Perhaps the introduction is the most important part of the book because as I finished reading it, I felt I had been propelled into a new dimension of thinking about the world around me.

 

Chapter 1 mainly helped me understand my dog’s use of olfaction and how it differed from mine, as well how other species rely on their olfactory sense. The research that Yong refers to is incredibly extensive, and he really gets into the weeds to depict the various umwelten that he discusses as he compares the abilities of perception of so many different species. His review of all senses and research takes up Chapters 1 through 12. Chapter 13, the final chapter is about his conclusions regarding the impact that we humans have had on the world and how various species have adapted to and/or been wiped out because of such impact. The effects he discusses is not only about pollution of water and air, but about the impact of human sound and light on birds and insects, and others. If you’re not used to scientific writing/thinking, you could still get a good sense of this material if you limited your reading to the intro, and Chapters 1 and 13.

 

I’m not sure what I’m going to do with all of this new information, but at least I already see the result on my relationship with my dog. I’ve found myself understanding more about what goes on for her as she stops to smell on our walks, and I’m more patient with her than I’ve been before. Since An Immense World is the most important book that I’ve read this year, I cannot recommend it highly enough. I’m sure it will have an impact on whoever bothers to read it or to listen to the wonderfully produced audiobook.

1558. Come Twilight by Tyler Dilts (#1558)

 

Come Twilight is the fourth book in the four book series by Tyler Dilts about a Long Beach Police Department homicide detective, Danny Beckett and his partner Jennifer Tanaka. I’ve reviewed all of these books very favorably. Sadly, this is the last book in the series, which was published in 2016. There’s no indication in the story that this is the last Danny Beckett novel, and in fact, the author seems to provide information that this character would be the centerpiece in an ongoing saga.

 

I opine that the end of the series is sad because Tyler has been successful in creating a most compelling character in Beckett, a hard working homicide cop who has a long list of problems, including the death of his wife in an auto accident, his own on-the-job injuries which have left him in chronic pain and suffering from insomnia, a substance use disorder as the result of that injury, an unwillingness to investigate according to the book, and a reluctance to get involved in another relationship although years have passed since his wife’s death. Danny’s partner, Detective Tanaka, provides a critical balance to Beckett’s character.

 

Just as Danny is getting his life in reasonable order and risk a new relationship, someone planted a bomb in his car as he was in the process of investigating another death case. Then his life and those around him, including his girlfriend and partner, were also at risk due to their proximity to him. Faced with ethical and unethical options when another’s life was at risk, what would you do?

 

Just maybe Dilts will continue this story with a new book. I hope so. Meanwhile, he does have a fifth book, written in 2018. It’s about a different person on the Long Beach Police Department. Given my very favorable reaction to Dilts storytelling, I’ll read that one, Mercy Dogs, in the near future.

1557. The Traitor by Ava Glass

 The Traitor is Ava Glass’ second thriller about her protagonist, Emma Makepeace. It was just a year ago that East Coast Don very favorably reviewed the first novel, Alias Emma. Glass writes that “Emma Makepeace was born to be a spy.” The author explains the heroine’s background which leads her to make such an audacious statement. In fact, Emma has found her way to MI6, Britain’s CIA equivalent. Her real name was Alexandra, but she chose a new identity with MI6.

 

In this story, Emma, using the name Jessica Anne Marshall, is placed on an oligarch’s super yacht even though she is immediately suspected of being a spy by the oligarch, Sergei Krupin. The circumstances of Emma being hired to replace another employee were just too convenient. Her life was immediately in danger, but she answered Krupin’s questions sufficiently well to maintain her employment. Otherwise, she would probably have been thrown into the water to feed sharks. Krupin was surrounded by his well-trained henchmen, and Emma played her role well while looking for clues about Krupin’s involvement in arms shipments and other oligarch activities, as well as interviewing the other employee for whatever scraps of information that they had.

 

Having not read the first novel, I was a bit surprised by Emma’s fighting skills as she was able to successfully take on men who were bigger and stronger than her. It’s a good story as Emma’s life was constantly in danger, and she kept asserting herself into dangerous situations when her bosses were ready to bring her home.

 

Thanks to Random House Publishing and NetGalley for the chance for this pre-publication review. It gets my strong recommendation.

1556.The Moonshine Messiah by Russell W. Johnson

 A book with a title like that's got promise, right?

The further south one goes in West Virginia, the poorer and less coal one finds. In fact, McCray county is so poor, the  neighboring Jasper county is having to annex its neighbor. The Sheriff, Mary Beth (Thompson) Cain is an oddity is a state full of oddities. A female Sheriff in a patriarchal state known for being intolerant of anything not white and male. She’s known her chief deputy, Izzy (all five foot nothing of him) since high school. Mary Beth got her job when her husband, the ‘real’ sheriff was gunned down.

She’s far from some damsel in the wrong job. She has a take-no-prisoners reputation for putting down most any lawbreaker, successfully driving the meth cookers out of the county. She must be related to Raylan Givens (Justified). 

Her biggest problems are closer to home. Her brother Sawyer Thompson is pure redneck mountain trash. Has a radio talk show/podcast that he does from the Old Wingo Mine property where he shouts racist hate and revolution to an ever-growing group of followers who call him the Moonshine Messiah. A real piece of work.

For the most part, Sawyer is just an annoyance to Mary Beth. The real thorn in her backside is her very own mother. The matriarch of most all the criminal goings on in the county. Rumor has it that 200 votes for Mary Beth’s run for sheriff came from local cemeteries courtesy of Mamie Thompson. That’s gotten the state attorney general sniffing around with an indictment of Mary Beth just waiting to be served.

The death of a local football legend has the townships on edge. Then the McCray County Courthouse is blown up complete with some deaths and a bunch of injuries. That brings the FBI to town all set to drag Sawyer and his followers to jail, if they surrender, or start filling body bags with the drooling press comparing the Old Wingo Mine to Waco. And everybody is looking to Mary Beth to intervene with Sawyer and bring the standoff to a peaceful end.

Peaceful end? Yeah, right. This is Jasper County, WV. Patriot Central. The arsenal they are sitting on own rivals what the feds have brought. They have the high ground and know the territory.The first exchange of gunfire favors the locals, not the feds.

Now while the standoff continues, the real issue is why the hell started all this and who has the most to gain?

Regular readers of the blog should know that perhaps my favorite corner of the mystery genre is loosely termed redneck noir, country noir, swamp noir, and maybe a half dozen other labels. Some of the noteworthy practitioners reviewed on this blog include JD Rhoades, Brian Panowich, SA Cosby, Joe R. Lansdale, Chris Offutt, among others. The Moonshine Messiah is Johnson’s first novel and it packs a wallop. One of two more like this will get Johnson’s name added to that list.

Consider this an indie book. Published by Shotgun Honey Books (huh, what?), that has quite the list of authors in its stables including Dana King, Chris Offutt, and Erik Pruitt (all reviewed here on MRB). Judging by the author photos on the website, I’m betting a company-wide party would be a hoot. Lots of full beards, hats, piercings, and shit-eating grins.

ECD

1555. Fearless by MW Craven

It’s been six years for Ben Koenig.

Six years in hiding. Six years running. Six years staying one step ahead of the bounty hunters.

Six years.

Success means solitude. Unnoticed. Unrecognizable. Until he’s spotted in a no-name diner in some no-name town. Ben has been elevated to the Most Wanted list and the TV station has Ben’s picture for all to see. The owner calls the cops and a whole squad of heavily armed cops arrive all focused-on Ben. He is taken to jail where the local sheriff puts him in lockup, but not under arrest, according to specific directions on his ‘to be detained’ directive:

1.     He is extremely dangerous but only if he feels threatened.

2.     He is not to be arrested. Only detained.

3.     Ignore any credentials he may have. Confirm identity with a one-inch scar above his right eye in color of a fish bone.

4.     Call a specific phone #.

5.     Keep him secure, give him reading material from the provided list. He’s a Stanley Kubrick fan.

6.     Feed him his choice of items on the attached menu. With a chocolate milkshake.

Six years ago, Deputy US Marshall Ben Koenig led a raid on a truly disgusting operation. In the process of the raid, Ben kills a 17yo boy – the son of one of Russia’s organized crime syndicates in the US. Ben goes to meet with the father. Dad knew the kid was a sick and demented. Wont’ be missed. But in his line of work, to ignore Ben’s actions would be akin to professional suicide so he would have to put a bounty on his head. Ben and the Russian work out a ‘deal’ of sorts. Give Ben a day or two to tie up some loose ends before putting the bounty on the dark web.

Six years he’s been avoiding the bounty hunters. But his past is calling.

The daughter of Mitchell Burridge, the Director of the US Marshall’s Service, has been kidnapped. Burridge needs Ben’s help. He’d never find Ben on his own so he put Ben on the Most Wanted list and let the public and law enforcement community find him.

Martha Burridge is a student at Georgetown Univ in DC studying forensic accounting. She was working on a paper about the death of a Hoya student maybe eight years ago. He and his best friend at Georgetown went rock climbing in far southern Texas. A rope anchor became dislodged, and the boy fell to his death. The distraught friend eventually went back to school. When he left, he started a green energy business naming it in honor of his dead friend. The business is a solar energy farm in the midst of fossil fuel loving Texans while bringing tons of jobs and money to Gauntlet, TX.

Ben heads for Texas to learn what he could about the solar energy business, the student’s death, the surviving friend, and most importantly, Martha Burridge.

Ain’t long before the first body shows up. Then another. Then another. Not all Ben’s doing. It’s when the company CEO and overall town savior gets kidnapped that the story heats up.

And does it ever heat up.

This is my first MW Craven book. Have to say that the writing style is quite reminiscent of Lee Child’s Jack Reacher. Much of Koenig’s thought processes and reasoning are downright Reacher-esque. And for me, that's fun. Koenig is indeed fearless. Nothing that gets in his way escapes the encounter unscathed. Resourceful and Resentful. That’s Koenig.

MW Craven is a Brit mystery writer of some note. He’s won or been nominated for most all the top mystery awards in England. The award I like is the Peculiar Crime Novel of the Year (aka: “the ‘most wanted’ prize in crime fiction”). He is the author of two other crime series: the Washington Poe series (6 books) and the Avison Fluke series (2 books). This is the first Ben Koenig book.

I liked this. A lot. Now to find some of his earlier works (Looks like The Botanist, in the Poe series, has achieved significant notoriety in the UK). Of course, the selection committee at the local library hasn’t seen the wisdom of getting any of Craven’s books. How downright rude.

ECD

1554. Jolie Blon's Bounce by James Lee Burke

Jolie Blon’s Bounce is James Lee Burke’s 12^th novel, this one being part of the Dave Robicheaux series. The title is a reference to a song which Burke explains is sometimes thought of as the Creole national anthem. Robicheaux is a police detective in rural southern Louisiana, and he’ a sober alcoholic who has yet to successfully deal with his own inner demeans. This book is coarse, highly sexual, misogynistic, depictive of ugly racism, brutal, and widely abusive, sexually, verbally, and physically.  It’s Burke’s beautiful use of language that so well captures the dark side of life that he writes about. His descriptions of the countryside of southern Louisiana is wonderful, and he uses those same skills in his character development of such highly troubled humans. I listened to this in audiobook format and the book was enriched by the variety of Louisiana accents that were read by Will Patton. Also, an original version of the title song was used to close Burke’s own opening comments. Despite the dark material, this book gets my very favorable recommendation.

1553. Count Down cowritten by James Patterson and Brendon DuBois

I haven't been a big fan of James Patterson, but I decided to give him another try, only to end up being quite disappointed. 

However, if you're a fan of fast-paced paramilitary drama and two-dimensional characters, then this book is for you. I suggest the characters are two dimensional based on the super macho dialogue, and the protagonist, Amy Cornwall, being even more macho than the paramilitary guys that she leads into battle. Perhaps you're not tired of plots about another 9/11-like catastrophe that is being planned, only to be prevented at the last moment by heroic characters who are struggling against superior officers who are not happy with the choices being made in the field. However, I am tired of such plots. Cornwall is the mother of two who is supported by an understanding husband. She suddenly disappears from her family in order to carry out rescue interventions that are essentially too dangerous to imagine. I gave it up at the 30% mark of the book. I had enough.

1552. Still Life

I had read a couple of Louise Penny novels before this blog debuted in 2009, so this is my second review of this book by an author that I love. Still Life is the first in Penny’s Armand Gamache series, and now there are 18 of them, all gems. In this book, she introduces Gamache, the chief of homicide for Quebec. For police officers, being posted to the homicide department is the ultimate appointment for any police person in Canada. Gamache is the most famous of any of the detectives in the country, and his reputation is incredible. This is the book in which Penny introduces all of the recurring characters in these novels which take place in a small mythical village, Three Pines, which is located just outside of Montreal.

 

Please have a look at the review I wrote in 2013 of Still Life. Her character development is superior to all other writers that I’ve read in this murder mystery genre. Her plot development is equal to that of Michael Connelly and Daniel Silva. This is very high praise. This time, I listened to this novel in audiobook format, and I felt as if I was diving back in time to revisit long lost friends. Perhaps it’s like rewatching your favorite old movies. At any rate, if you’re not familiar with this author, start with this first novel and get to know the people of Three Pines. If you’re already familiar with her novels, you just might enjoy having another look or listen.