Miracle Creek

 Miracle Creek by Angie Kim is a great legal thriller that I saw recommended by the New York Times. The legal aspects have to do with hyperbaric oxygen therapy, referred to as HBOT, for various medical conditions. It is an approved treatment and is offered in classic medical settings, but as happens with so many medical discoveries, it is also used for off-label conditions and is available in non-medical settings. The author writes about the controversy surrounding that treatment. Because of the use of oxygen, it is a highly flammable situation, and in the course of the novel, an arsonist lit a fire when there were six people in the “submarine”, two of whom died and the rest were injured. The plot had to do with who lit the fire. The patients/clients who were in the machine were of very different ancestries. 

Mixed in with the HBOT controversy and tragedy were very meaningful stories about Korean immigrants. The owners of the HBOT device, the “Miracle Submarine, were Korean immigrants, and the author who was also a Korean immigrant, wrote about all aspects of the difficulties that were inherent in that migration effort.

 

This book grabbed me from the beginning and it gets my strong recommendation.

Tracking Ariana by Larry Terhaar

 Guess you could say that this book is very topical. First off, the story begins around Ramadan that just started as this is being prepared. Second, it's about what happens when ICE runs amok, sweeping people off the streets for no reason, due process or legality, or feeling. 

Ariana Wilkinson is a young Afghan immigrant and mother of two. She worked as an interpreter in Afghanistan where she met Joe, an Air Force officer. He went through all the legal hoops to get her out of Afghanistan to the USA where they were married. During an Eid celebration, ICE descends on a park full of other Muslim families. Despite Ariana having all the necessary documentation with her, ICE still grabbed her and her children and put them into 'the system' to be deported; a system without much in the way of checks and balances.

Just as all this was happening, Joe returns from his most recent (and last) deployment. The newly retired full bird Colonel starts a full court press searching for where his family has gone and where they are destined. Meanwhile, all the ICE screwups have spawned a cottage industry of lawyers desperate to help those wrongly detained. Seth Bodner and private investigator Dan Burnett step up to the plate and  begin uncovering the good and the bad about what ICE is doing. The story shifts back and forth between the angst of Col. Joe, attorney Seth, and PI Dan as well and the rising fear of a dark future facing Ariana’s terror.

There are many characters to cheer for. First and foremost is Ariana and her terror about what's happening. Then there is Col. Joe's feeling of in adequacy in being unable to yank his family back out of 'the system;' this is a guy used to giving orders that are carried out immediately. Seth and Dan work the streets and gutters moving three steps forward and two steps back through various levels of government interference. 

Some might say that this is just some left wing drivel written to heap mounds of criticism over the government's deportation policies. That's a bit unfair. The overarching confusion about what's being done and what should be done on both sides of the deportation debate litters the story. Both sides are presented almost coldly with minimal passion. For me, I'm torn between this being a legal thriller or a family drama played out in men in masks vs. innocents in hajibs.

That'll be for the reader to decide. You decide. Our lines are open. 

Just published and on the shelf of your favorite bookstore. 

Thanks to Netgalley for the advance reader copy.  

ECD 

The Camino by Anya Niewierra

Emil and Lotte are a 40something couple living on the border of the Netherlands with Germany/Belgium. She is a chocolatier working out of her home. Emil is a bit of a stay at home dad to their two sons. She is a Dutch national. He was born in Bosnia in the early 1980s. After a stint in a Bosnian militia during the breakup of Yugoslavia, he emigrated to Germany with his lifelong friend Paul. Together, Emil and Paul meet Carol (? can't recall her name) and Lotte. It's love at first sight for Paul and Carol, producing a daughter. Not so much for Emil and Lotte, but when Lotte gets pregnant, they decide to get married. The two families are best friends and live a mostly uncomplicated life outside of South Limburg in the Netherlands. 

More backstory is needed to set up the book: Carol dies of cancer leaving Paul to raise his daughter.  Emil is diagnosed with stomach cancer that he manages to beat. As part of Emil's recovery, he decides to solo hike a portion of the infamous Camino de Santiago, a legendary trek across the border of Spain and France. He begins his trek a year before the book open. Emil expects to be gone for 10-14 days. He begins his trek a year before the book opens. On day 9 or 10,  Lotte is notified by the local police that Emil has committed suicide. After Emil's death, Paul and daughter move in with Lotte and her boys. 

And here is where the book begins. 

As part of her grieving process, Lotte decides to duplicate Emil's trek. Same schedule and same housing plans eventually arriving at the location where Emil took his own life. She's trying to come to some better understanding of what led to Emil's fatal decision. In her preparations, she also wants to learn more about Emil's Bosnian past that he has been reluctant to divulge. She learns about a lawyer (Bosnian? Serb? Croatian? can't recall) who specializes in finding people lost or missing after that war. 

As you can imagine, a story like this is going to be a day by day (and in some instances, hour by hour) recounting of the hike, the people she meets, the B and B's where she stays, the food, the wine, the flowers, the smells, the people she meets, etc. Lots of descriptive prose to go along with her own internal dialogue. The major issue is that most every other day on her hike, there is either a fatality or a near miss. A woman falls, a dog is poisoned, a runaway car narrowly missed Lotte, someone dies in their sleep, is someone following her. And there is this former war correspondent on the trail that is a willing ear and shoulder for Lotte's recovery.

This book is the 2025 English translation from the original 2022 Dutch novel. Couldn't find much online, but apparently the author is quite a big deal in Europe. Multiple best sellers and awards. The Camino is being made into a TV series. Looks like her latest book was a #1 best seller the day it was released. Guessing she's got a devoted following. 

Can't say I'm listed amongst those so devoted. Long drawn out descriptions of what she sees are not my cup of tea. Guess I need stories that move along a little more briskly. I will admit that once the dominoes that make up Emil's past begin to tumble, the pace of the story picked up and held my interest, but I had to get through 75% of the book first, and for me that was a chore. 

ECD 

The Stolen Hours

 The Stolen Hours is the first novel by Allen Eskens that is reviewed in Men Reading Books, but it is likely we will see him again. The author’s protagonist is Lila Nash, a recent law school graduate who is trying to land her dream job as a prosecutor for Hennepin County, Minneapolis. She wants to put away the bad guys, and as the story moves along, we learn about her personal secrets which led to her dream. She does have a remarkably successful time as a law student when she participated in a famed trial that as second chair, she helped win the case over an established attorney who is now also working in the same prosecutor’s office. While waiting for the results of her bar exam, she was working as an assistant to senior partners. There was a murder which involved a woman whose body was dumped in the Mississippi River, and the details of the case reminded Lila of some previous murders she knew about. However, in pursuing the matter, no physical evidence could be found. The reader quickly learns that the murderer is Gavin Spencer who has been choosing women to rape and kill once every two years. Gavin was quite good at covering his tracks. The story was then one about linking the necessary evidence to put Gavin away. Meanwhile, office politics were causing Lila great problems until she found a new mentor who saw her potential. 

This is a good murder mystery with great characters. The plot is very nicely developed. You won’s be disappointed. I’d rate this book at 4+.

In the Bleak Midwinter

 

 

Last month, I reviewed what turns out to be the 10^th book in the Fergusson/Van Alstyne mystery series by Julia Spencer-Fleming, At Midnight Comes the Cry. It was an excellent story with strong characters and a good plot, so I chose to go back to the beginning of the series and see if my enthusiasm for the author would hold up and allow me to read the entire series. Good news, the first book, In the Bleak of Midwinter, did not let me down. 

We are introduced to the two protagonists, Clare Fergusson and Russ Van Alstyne. Fergusson is a newly minted Episcopal priest who has landed at a parish in Miller’s Kill, a small town in upstate New York. She is an unmarried woman who retired from the Army where she was a Blackhawk helicopter pilot. Van Alstyne is the police chief of the small police force in Miller’s Kill. The author, for her first book, she used the name of a poem and Christmas carol for the title of this story that took place during the midwinter in upstate New York, much of the action occurring during a blizzard for which Fergusson was very poorly prepared. A newborn baby had been left on the doorstep of her church where there just happened to be a couple that had been desperately searching for a baby to adopt. But then, the mother was found murdered, and so the mystery evolved with a great cast of supporting characters.

 

So, my excitement about this author and the series will at least get me to the third book, A Fountain filled with Blood, which I hope to acquire very shortly.

The Burning Grounds

 Abir Mukherjee is hardly a new author, just new to me. I ran across a review of this book, The Burning Grounds, and chose to take it on. This story turns out to be the sixth mystery novel in the Wyndham & Banerjee series. This is a story about former partners who have been estranged for several years as the result of the outcome of a prior case. It takes place in Calcutta in the 1920’s when India was a colony of England. Both men have left India and have only recently returned to the country. The murder of a prominent man, a wealthy philanthropist with a hidden dark side, was assigned to Wyndam, and then a relative of Banerjee, a female photographer went missing. The cases are intertwined which essentially forced the two men to work together again. The body of the philanthropist was found with his neck sliced open in the grounds where corpses were taken to be burned. It turned out that man had financed a movie with a rising female star who seemed to be attracted to Wyndam. 

As much as this story was a murder mystery, it was also a dive into the social struggles of the time, India with its cast system, and the palpable race and economic divisions of the populace which had to be taken into constant account. This is a great book, a good plot, with excellent characters. Now I have a new author to explore. There are five novels that precede this one in the mystery series, and three other books already published by this author. When I can get to it, I’ll read the first one, A Rising Man, which was published in 2016.

Apostle's Cove by William Kent Krueger

Krueger has a long history with Cork O'Connor - this is his 21st O'Connor outing.

O'Connor is the retired sheriff in Aurora, MN. From there, left for a few years to be a Chicago cop, then came back. Joined the force for a few years, won an election, make that a lot of elections. Now retired, he lives with his immediate and extended family way the hell up nort' near the legendary Boundary Waters. He took over a local hamburger stand but still does some PI work when the need arises.

His son, Steven, is in law school and moonlights a bit for a non-profit dedicated to freeing the wrongly convicted from prison. When shuffling through the stacks of potential cases, he finds one from Aurora. Axel Boshey is serving a life term in the Stillwater, MN prison. He confessed to the brutal murder of his wife.  The first capital case for the newly elected Sheriff O'Connor.

At the time, it seemed an open and shut case. Blacked-out drunk Indian (who already beat a manslaughter charge years earlier), a philandering wife. While all the evidence pointed to Boshey, some seemingly trivial details were left hanging. At the time, the evidence and confession pointed only at Boshey. 

In the light of 25 years, those details don't seem so trivial, at least to Steven so he asks his dad if he might review the case to see what might've been missed or overlooked or lost in the shuffle of a quick closing of the case.  Cork agrees. The thought that the wrong man was incarcerated and that the real killer might still be free drive him to make things right. 

That's the premise. The narrative breaks into two parts: Then and Now. 'Then' is told in first person as it happened. The killing, investigation, confession, incarceration; takes upwards of 60-65% of the book. A significant backstory. 'Now' is told similarly. First person, as it's happening.

The main characters are Cork and family, a hippie flake (Aphrodite) who moved into area and formed a bit of a commune (replete with hipsters, alcohol, drugs, and free love), the cops of the time (one of whom Cork defeated in the first election, other is a racist pig against the native population), and various colorful locals, their kids and grandchildren. In particular, Chastity (Aphrodite's child) and Boshey (her husband) and two of Chastity's kids (neither by Axel; Moonbeam and Sunny).

Axel gets sentenced to life and turns his life around from being an unreliable drunk to becoming a bit of a healer for inmates. Comes to realize this calling may be why was really locked away. When Cork sees Axel 25 years later, Axel tells him he doesn't want to be released, that he's needed in the prison more than Cork needs to set him free. 

That the real killer may still be around, Cork goes off on his own trying to piece together a complex interaction of what turns out to be a series of seriously demented people Cork thought he knew.

As stated above, this is Krueger's 21st book featuring Cork O'Connor. That means he's got a following and must be pretty successful to boot (lots of NY Times bestsellers).  He also have four other unrelated novels, three of which I've read and reviewed here. One of which, Ordinary Grace, is one of the best books I've ever read and won the 2014 Edgar Award for best fiction (the book version of the Oscar for Best Picture. If you've not read Ordinary Grace, you really owe it to yourself). Not really sure how many Cork O'Connor books I've read and reviewed here. Whatever that is, there are more. 

While reading this book, I had a feeling that this is a book he'd started way back when, put it aside and never got back to it. But after a while, he resurrected the manuscript, and reorganized it to be a cold case book. Regardless, Krueger has presented loyal readers (and newbies, too) with another memorable outing filled with concrete characters, the emotional edge needed for such a story, a comfortable rural setting, native characters and the mysticism that permeates their soul. 

Can't go wrong with Krueger. Betting your local library has a shelf full of his work. It's about time you get to it.  

ECD