The Heaven and Earth Grocery Store (#1591)

 

The Heaven and Earth Grocery Store by James McBride does have a murder, but that’s not a mystery since it is very clear who died and who committed the murder, but that is not actually what the book is about. Rather, it’s about life, mostly in the 1920’s and 1930’s of life in Pottstown, Pennsylvania. It’s about the Blacks and Eastern immigrant Jews that have migrated there, as well as their interactions with the families of the first white settlers and even the Irish immigrants. It’s also about the backward times for laws and psychiatric care of disadvantaged and disabled persons, and it's about deep-seated prejudice. This is an articulate and touching novel that made me laugh and cry as I fell under the spell of the characters. This book will touch your heart. The epilogue brought the various subplots together in a most meaningful way. McBride has seven other novels so I hope to get back to more of his work.

Saving Myles (#1590)

Saving Myles by Carl Vonderau is an important book about a story that is happening too frequently. The first part of the book is about 16 year-old Myles Bosworth’s incorrigible behavior, including his significant use of alcohol and other illegal substances. Wade and Fiona Bosworth, Myles’ parents, had already spent a lot of money in an attempt to hook him into a rehabilitation program, and he had resisted all attempts at providing him with such care. After finding his stash of OxyContin, the Bosworth’s made the heartbreaking decision to send their son to a wilderness-type camp in Utah, and he was then kidnapped in the middle of the night by two employees from Hidden Road Academy.

 

I should interject that in real life as a psychiatrist/psychoanalyst, I’ve been involved in and provided treatment for people at various stages in their efforts to deal with substance abuse. Regarding substance abusers who are still under the influence of their substances of choice, its nearly impossible to form a favorable therapeutic relationship. Teenagers are often even more difficult. Also, there are few teenage one-substance addictions. Rather, its normal to see people with polysubstance addictions. Whether it has been my own patients or the children of my friends or the children of my patients, this is a dangerous scenario and one that often has a bad outcome. On one hand, I’ve known too many people who have died from their disease, but on the other hand, I’ve have known some people as young as 15 years old, who have found their way to long-term clean and sober lives and very successful lives. However, I’ve also seen more of heartbreaking treatment resistance. There are some legitimate and helpful programs in the United States, but there are also scam operations who are expert at draining people of their savings. Furthermore, considering the emotional dynamics of the sobriety process, it’s often very difficult to tell the good programs from the bad ones. Considering that I live in Northern San Diego County, the substance troubles sometimes do include unwise trips into Mexico where things can get even more out of control.

 

Myles lasted in the program for some seven to nine months before he was sent back home, and so begins the second part of this drama. He had learned how to say all the right things to his parents, but his statements were not sincere. Within days of his release from the Hidden Road Academy, he was back in Tijuana where he was drinking alcohol and buying and using drugs. He also met and fell in love with the daughter of big figure in a crime cartel. The cartel is quite sophisticated, kidnapped him, and then used Myles addiction problems as a way to entrap his parents into various cartel activities. U.S. Federal forces become engaged in this story. A central theme has to do whether it’s reasonable for the parents, who are desperate to save their son who has repeatedly lied to them about his substance abuse, to believe anything that he says to them.

 

So the story is about a well-meaning U.S. family trying to understand how to deal with the Mexican mobsters. Who can they trust? Danger and death are in the air. This feels like real life stuff, and the book gets my strong recommendation.

Trust (#1589)

 

As the result of a conversation with friends about the meaning of the word “trust,” I stumbled onto the 2023 Pulitzer Prize winning fiction novel Trust, by Hernan Diaz. It’s a complicated book which is told in four parts. The book begins with the depiction of a novel, Bonds, which describes the enigmatic characters of Benjamin Rask and his wife Helen. Rasks were fictional characters who were thought to modeled on the real lives of Andrew Bevel and his late wife Mildred. The plot had to do with the fabulous wealth that Rasks (Bevels) had accumulated during the 1920’s, and how Benjamin multiplied his own wealth many times over during the same time that nearly everyone else was losing their shirts. Andrew Bevel was angry at the author’s depictions of him and Mildred in Bonds, and he set out to destroy that author’s credibility. Rather than seeing himself as the cause of the failure of the entire financial system, Bevel saw himself as the savior of the American financial world.

 

Although he was a savant regarding his financial dealings, Bevel lacked empathy to understand others around him, and he did not have the writing skills to pen his own autobiography. He hired a new secretary Ida Partenza to do that job for him. The question that was confronted by the reader was whose version of Rask/Bevel was to be believed. She reported that Rask often edited out specific material in the draft of her book about him and Mildred, and added material that she knew to be untrue.  

 

Finally, some decades later, the fourth version of the story was penned by Bevel’s wife Mildred, a version which was much different that had been described by Rask, Bevel, and Partenza. It was Mildred’s writing which brought all the plots together and laid out the truth regarding the primary characters. One comes away from this reading with some questions about which friends one should trust, and how one should make such evaluations.

 

This is a great book, and I’m in agreement with the wide acclaim that Trust has received. Over the course of my own life, I find myself to be quite fortunate to have gathered together a group of friends with whom I could trust my life. And they know they can trust me with theirs. In regard to the depth of my friendships, I am a wealthy man.

Deadly Tides (#1588)

Deadly Tides is the second of two books in a series (hopefully more to follow), subtitled "A Misty Pines Mystery" by Mary Keliikoa. For the last couple months, I've been on a delightful walkabout in fiction and non-fiction books which are beyond this blog's usual murder mystery genre, and it's nice to be back to the format I know so well. The fictional venue of Misty Pines is along the relatively uninhabited Oregon Coast. Abby Kanekoa, an FBI agent, was once married to Sheriff Jax Turner, but the death of their daughter due to leukemia, turned their lives upside down and their marriage did not survive their grief. Meanwhile, both Abby and Jax continued to work in their law enforcement roles although Abby moved to be in a nearby town in order to escape the constant memories of their daughter which were evoked in Misty Pines. So, Abby and Jax did not typically have direct interactions with one another.

Meanwhile, Abby's troubles continued when her mother, Dora Michaels, developed early onset Alzheimer's and had to be put in a nursing home. As her disease progressed, so did the frequency of her wondering away from the nursing home where her supervision was loose. She was found wondering on a remote beach, having found a severed foot and a belt buckle that she was intent on keeping. Then other missing persons were uncovered and there was another body whose foot had been removed. Although the case originated in Misty Pines, so Jax was involved, because of the suspicion of a serial killer, the FBI was called in. Jax and Abby had to work together, and it turned out that it had been Abby who had stopped attending their ongoing marital therapy sessions.  One of the missing persons was a legendary surfer who was known to be great at shaping and creating new surfboards, and he had his own surf shop. He was thought to have designed a new board that was bound to be a big hit among surfers. However, the blueprints for the new board were missing. A second legendary surfer who had been bested by the first in their biggest contests, became the leading suspect in the missing person case. His own surf shop was struggling financially and needed a new product, like the design of other man's new board.

Keliikoa was successful in creating a great cast of characters, and the main plot as well as the fate of Abby's mother and her relationship with Jax were tightly woven into a strong and engaging story. This book gets my strong recommendation. So, I'll be off to read the first book in the series, Hidden Pieces, as well as waiting for the author's third installment.

Bomber #1587

 

“Bomber” by Len Deighton, a British writer, was published in 1970, but was apparently reissued recently with a forward by Malcolm Gladwell who wrote, ‘Bomber’ is one of the greatest British antiwar novels ever written’. That was enough to get me to read the book. Although it’s a novel, it is written in the style of a documentary about a 24-hour period during WWII. There is no glory in this book, just facts of who lived, who was wounded, and who died. The author introduces us to both British and German forces, both civilian and military, both on the ground and in the air. The research that Deighton completed for this novel was remarkable. He’s probably better known for his spy novels, but this novel was gripping about what was a brutal time in the history of humanity. If you’re a fan of WWII novels, this one is a must.

1586. The Secret by Lee Child and Andrew Child

Reacher #28.

1992. An earlier case that didn’t go welland got Reacher busted back to Captain and assigned to the minor leagues. He’s investigating the sale of M16 firing mechanisms that can turn a civilian version into a fully automatic weapon that only the military should have. Small operation. A couple of clerks at an Illinois arsenal processing Desert Storm surplus for demolition remove the devices and sell them on the black market. Reacher and a female FBI agent take down this little operation barely breaking a sweat.

That’s just the preamble. It may be 1992, but his next assignment has its origin in 1969 at a chemical plant in India. The Russians were concentrating efforts on the development of chemical weapons. The response by the US was to double their efforts at finding defensive antidotes. Thus, this plant in India.

Morgan Sanson was a mid-level administrator at the plant whose assignment was safety. He unearthed some cost-cutting to swindle money and was preparing to send his findings up the chain of command. When his findings are ignored, he decides to go public. Apparently filled with guilt or remorse at the lack of action, he takes his own life leaving behind his wife and four children to be shipped back to Germany to fend for themselves.

While the India plant was doing what was advertised, there was another lab doing its own weapons development. Seven scientists worked in secrecy, but it was their work that was what Sanson uncovered. An accident at the plant happens and about a half dozen people died. Sanson is a convenient patsy now that he’s not around.

Back to 1992. Four respected and mostly retired scientists have died. Mostly by accident or suicide. The next one to die was in a hospital and found below his window from a long fall. That one doesn’t sound like the others.

The deaths were those scientists who worked secretly at the India plant. The Defense Dept is now interested. A task force is assembled with a rep from the Army (Reacher), FBI, CIA, and Treasury with the purpose of developing a list of names of whomever might be behind these deaths/murders. One of the first, and most interesting questions, is why were these four selected for this task force? Because of they are investigative terriers or because each has some black marks on their record. If anything goes wrong . . . the chances for further demotions loom large.

This isn’t the rambunctious street fights we are used to with Reacher. More of a research procedural. Doesn’t take long to figure out who is behind the deaths or their motivations. Think of this as the Child’s version of a Lt. Columbo story. Everyone knows who’s guilty and the story is not the ‘who’. Rather the story is the search and just how will this task force. 

The addition of Andrew (Lee’s son) to the mix (this is maybe the 3^rd or 4^th collaboration) indicates that the dad (Lee) is moving closer to full retirement. While Andrew is a publish author, he is still learning how to present a Jack Reacher story. I see improvement, but it’s still not there yet, but I’m hopeful. 

Two things I liked about this outing. First is that the story investigates Reacher’s history. I seem to remember one earlier book (with Reacher in the former Yugoslavia, can’t recall the title) and would like to see more. Second is purely coincidental. This is the first Reacher book to come out since the casting of Alan Richson as Reacher by Amazon Prime. Was always kind of hard to picture Reacher as Tom Cruise. Not so now. Each page turned brought a new image of Richson in my mind’s eyes. That works so much better. 

ECD

1585. Blood Lines by Nelson DeMille & Alex DeMille

Five months ago (book time, not real time), Army CID detectives Scott Brodie and Maggie Taylor were sent separate ways following their mishaps in the search for an Army deserter in Venezuela. But they’ve been recalled. Harry Vance, a fellow CID officer stationed in Germany was found dead late late one night, killed by a sniper’s bullet in a dingy park in Berlin. And one of Vance’s eyes had been carved out of his head. Trophy? Warning? Message?

The park was adjacent to a middle east neighborhood. Terrorism is one theory. Collateral damage from a local gang war is another theory. Vance was amid a divorce and in Berlin unbeknownst by his senior CID agents or even his partner. Maybe his death was connected to that. Another theory. Vance could’ve been working another case on his own time.

It’s a jurisdictional nightmare. The Army, CIA, State Department, Berlin police and German federal police are expected to play nice with each other to find the killer. The Germans withhold information from the other investigators. The CIA is listening in on cell phone calls. The State Dept is more interested in following protocol and not offend their German hosts. And Scott and Maggie have been told, in no uncertain terms, that they must remember they have to jurisdiction, no weapons, no mandates, no permission to interview anyone, no specific task. Just keep their eyes and ears open and report back to their Army bosses.

None of that sits well with the two Army detectives who barely survived Venezuela and all the non-disclosures they had to sign that followed that debacle. They both want to find justice for Vance, capture the perps, and get back to the big cases they used to work.

The Germans have concluded that the hit was by a small cell of terrorists. Too simplistic considering this cell died in an explosion supposedly from an IED they were constructing. Amongst the debris are clues that (conveniently) point to these terrorists were responsible.

For Brodie and Taylor, it’s all too neat. Despite being told to pack up and return to the US, they push on, coming across odd clues dating back to the old East Germany, its war plans vs. NATO, the Stasi, weapons manufacturing that boggles the imagination, and Vance’s Berlin girlfriend.

Hard to go wrong with DeMille (or should I say the DeMilles). The dad (Nelson) has a fistful of literary awards and honorary degrees to his credit (should have more of his work made into movies beyond The General’s Daughter). And if you’ve not read any of his books featuring NYPD detective John Corey, then just shame on you; those are the ones I look for. The son works behind the scenes in Hollywood. Nelson penned what I think is one of the very best spy novels I’ve ever read (The Charm School. Haven’t read it? Find it. Read it.). Guessing this won’t be the last we see of Brodie and Taylor. Compelling characters with their own flaws and demons that play/fight well with each other. Neither is all that willing to follow the chain of command when justice is the goal. 

NetFlix? Prime? Hulu? Are you paying attention?

ECD

The Buried Giant #1584

 

Imagine trying to write a love story about a married and aging couple from the Middle Ages. Ishigura’s couple is Axl and Beatrice. There is somewhat of a supernatural element as the result of the dragon Querig whose breath permeates the land and causes people to forget their past. At several points, Beatrice asks what would we be without our memories, what meaning could we apply to ourselves if we did not know what we had thought and done over the course of our lives. At first, I thought this theme might be related to the ongoing Alzheimer’s crisis in the current day world, but it seems really to be about suppressing and recovering painful memories in our present lifetimes.

 

Axl and Beatrice were going on a trip in an attempt to find their son who has long been gone from home, and memories of him have only begun to resurface. It is quite dangerous to leave their home village, but they are not happy there, and they wanted to connect with their son, forgetting that they had learned that after leaving the village, he had died from the plague. While traveling, we encounter the hatefulness of the Britons and the Saxons for each other, as well as the son’s hate for his mother as the result of an affair she had. However, it is Axl’s and Beatrice’s love which seems to win out in the end. The language of Ishiguro is beautiful, so if you’re just looking for our usual review of murder mysteries, this is not a story for you. However, I do find it refreshing to stray off the usual path of my reading, at least occasionally. This story gets my recommendation.

From Yao to Mao: 5000 Years of Chinese History #1583

 I’ve continued to wander away from the blog’s usual genre of thrillers, espionage novels, and murder mysteries. Obviously, my taste in literature has deteriorated, but I’ll give you a short synopsis of what has been catching my interest. A friend who retired from teaching high school English and chose to follow his dream of moving to China where he stayed for 10 years, recommended I listen to From Yao to Mao: 5000 Years of Chinese History by Kennth J. Hammond. This was actually from The Great Courses of which I’ve listened to numerous topics and lectures, but I didn’t realize it wasn’t a book until after I downloaded it. While not nearly as long as American Prometheus, which I recently reviewed, it was still and 18 hour listen.

 

There’s some good news, but also some bad news about this work. The lectures were intended to present a survey course of Chinese history up until the current time. The good news was that this work accomplished what it was supposed to do. The bad news was that Professor Hammond’s voice was awful. There is a passive quality to his speaking that lacked the authoritative voice that I expected. Additionally, there were many pauses in his speech pattern and he seemed to have intermittent word-finding difficulty. Just because of the vocal presentation, I nearly abandoned this effort on many occasions. However, I wanted the data, so I soldiered on through the entire course, but there is probably a better way to get the information. So, it’s a +/- recommendation, at best.