Category: Fiction Page 144 of 348

I’ve got a Q&A with Gray Basnight coming up later this morning—come back to check it out. I haven’t read it yet (didn’t want it to impact what I wrote), but trust that it’ll be interesting in light of what I say below.

Madness of the Q

by Gray Basnight
Series: Sam Teagarden, #2

eARC, 368 pg.
Down & Out Books, 2020

Read: November 23-30, 2020
Grab a copy from your local indie bookstore!

What’s Madness of the Q About?

Simply put, it’s the further adventures of professor Sam Teagarden following his uncovering of a large conspiracy within the FBI in 2018’s Flight of the Fox. In the six years since then, a slight mythology has built up around him—he’s got a reputation as one who’ll bring the truth to the world—when all he wants to do is teach math and spend time with his wife.

But it’s his reputation that brings him into the middle of this particular situation. One group wants someone like him to bring information to the forefront of the world, no matter the cost. Another group is afraid of people like him and targets him for assassination before he even knows that there’s something to be exposed to the world. But the FBI catches wind about this before the assassin makes an attempt and saves his life. They also would like him to be involved in a current case, his reputation alone should make things calmer.

What’s the case? Well, the previously theoretical “Q” document (a theoretical source—along with the Gospel of Mark—for the Gospels of Matthew and Luke) has possibly been discovered. Not only that, but there’s a lot of speculation that something big has been discovered in the text itself that wasn’t used by Matthew or Luke and may shake the foundation of religious groups around the world.

It’s been some time since the document was discovered, but now it’s been translated and decoded. The contents are set to be revealed to the world, and on the verge of that, there’s been a rash of mass suicides throughout the world by Christian-ish groups.

Teagarden’s barely gotten involved when his group in Israel are attacked and he goes on the run, trying to get safely to Germany in time for the conference that will feature the unveiling of this document that may be Q.

Will he make it? Will he be able to bring the truths hidden for millennia to light? Are there truths contained at all? These questions and more are dealt with alongside the thrill-ride.

Yeah, that’s a little longer than I usually spend on these sections, but it’s that kind of plot.

What Parts Really Worked for Me?

There’s a lot about this book to commend—for starters, the way that it talks about the “legend” around Teagarden following the events of Flight of the Fox. It felt very real, very authentic—he’s a folk hero to some and a folk villain to others.

Also, there’s the tech from 2025—there’s just a lot of little touches to make the world feel slightly advanced—and slightly annoying. Authentically so, I should add. There are some cool moves forward in technology, and they come with costs to things like privacy. There’s a great temptation to ignore everything else about the book and do a deep dive on this stuff—missing the forest for a few trees, but Basnight did a good enough job with these trees that it’d be fun.

The best part of this book is watching Teagarden at work—instead of making his way down the Eastern seaboard in the States, he’s making his way north from Israel through Italy to Germany. An older math professor, not in the best of health, is just fun to watch in this kind of role. There are a handful of times when it’s not him running, it’s Teagarden going toe-to-toe with someone set on doing him harm, too. I loved them all, his approach (and the way Basnight depicts this approach) are some of the most entertaining passages I’ve read in thrillers this year.

What Didn’t Work For Me?

Everything to do with the Q document and the reactions of various Christian groups, cults, and others to it. I’d have to get into details that are both spoilerific and too detailed for a post like this to adequately describe my problems. But I don’t see a cult caring about the results of textual examination from something found in an archeological dig from Israel. I’m not that sure that a Pentecostal Snake Handling group is going to care that much, either. Nor do I see other Christian groups being driven to suicide because of the initial results of a translation from a very disputed text.

I know people who engage in Biblical textual criticism, and I’ve read a little bit on the serious end of popular works on the subject, and I’m sorry, it just doesn’t work this way. It’s not the kind of field where a bombshell discovery is going to come to light and the entire discipline is instantly changed. It’s going to be debated, dissected, wrangled with, and then maybe, things will shift*. I get that it’s fiction, but I just couldn’t swallow any of this as hard as I tried.

* This assumes that something like Basnight’s Q Document actually exists (or that the actual Q exists and says something like his)

The Big Theme

The one part of the religious aspect of the book that appealed to me was the discussion of faith, of devotion, of commitment on the part of both the religious and the anti-religious (the non-religious among humanity didn’t really factor into things, this was a pro vs. con kind of thing). There’s a group at work in this novel with the aim of eliminating all religion, all theism, throughout the world—and they are devout. Seriously devout. Contrasting these “true believers” with ardent religious people is striking, and deserves some thought. It reminded me of the article “Atheists Are Sometimes More Religious Than Christians” from The Atlantic a couple of years ago, but coming at it from a different angle.

So, what did I think about Madness of the Q as a Whole?

I’m really not sure what to say here. I thought about this a lot while I read it, and have thought about it a lot since I finished—both the details and the themes. And I’m still not sure. I dug the thriller aspects of it, the tech, the character of Sam Teagarden and when the book leaned into those aspects, I was happy. When the foundation—Q and the groups wanting to use the document for their own ends (or those despairing what they thought it might way)—was the focus, I had a hard time pushing on.

I liked (and gave 4 Stars to) the previous Sam Teagarden book. I would absolutely read a third novel featuring him (but I might hesitate if it seems to be in a Robert Langdon-ish vein again). But I just don’t know what to say about this one. It’s going to stay with me longer than books I’ve been very positive about this year—it’s definitely stayed with me longer than books I didn’t like this year. But I’m not sure I can give it a recommendation or a pan. I don’t like just giving a shrug when trying to say what I think about a book, but I think that’s where I am.

Disclaimer: I received a copy of this novel from the author in exchange for my honest opinion and this post.

This post contains an affiliate link. If you purchase from it, I will get a small commission at no additional cost to you. As always, opinions are my own.

The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling by Henry Fielding: BOOK XIII., ix. – xii.

By HCNewton

On December 4, 2020

In Fiction, Fridays with The Foundling, General Fiction/Literature

Well, thanks to that unexpected nine-week break, I’m abandoning the whole “read through this in 2020” goal. This bothers me a little bit, but I’ll get over it.

So, when we left Tom, he was in London. He’d made some decent friends (or at least allies), was being his usual generous and helpful self with them. He’d also found a way to hopefully gain an audience with Sophia, but it looks like it’s going to take some work. Let’s dive back in, shall we?

Oh, my hardcopy with the funky capitalization, etc. is in a different box than I believed. So, Project Gutenberg to the rescue today.
Fridays with the Foundling
I just love the titles of the first two chapters we’re looking at this week: “Which treats of matters of a very different kind from those in the preceding chapter,” and “A chapter which, though short, may draw tears from some eyes.”

So Tom’s getting nowhere with his connections to Sophia—in fact, it’s getting to the point that he’s about to lose his connection if he keeps bringing her up. But, he’s a clever guy. If Lady Bellaston won’t help him who will? Well, what she knows, the servants likely know (he figures), so Partridge is deployed to get that information from the servants.

While we wait for results on that front, we learn that Lady Bellaston is what we would call a cougar (or we would’ve a few years ago, anyway), and she has her sights set on Tom, and showers him with attention (and gifts). Tom isn’t interested in her, he’s devoted to Sophia. But, it’d be rude to not return a little of the affection she’s showering on him.

One night, he’s compelled to ditch his pal Nightengale—they were supposed to go see a play together, but Bellaston wanted Tom to come meet her in her home. To make this appointment possible, Bellaston sends away some servants and even arranges for her houseguest, Sophia, to attend that same play (with a chaperone, of course).

But before Tom can leave, Mrs. Miller asks him to join her to meet someone. The cousin that Tom’s been so recently generous to is downstairs and wants to thank him. Now remember a few chapters back, when someone tried to steal from Tom, tells him a sob story about a sick family member, and so Tom gives him some money? Well, guess who Mrs. Miller’s cousin happens to be. It’s practically a Dickensian coincidence (if Dickens had been born yet, anyway). Mr. Miller had already planned on spilling his heart in gratitude, but this just compounded his thanks. Tom’s gratified to hear how much he’s helped. (this is the chapter we might have got teary about).

So then Tom heads to Ballston’s, and gets there early, so is hanging out in the drawing room to wait. The play turned into some sort of a to-do. it was a new play, and apparently controversial. One group had shown up to protest, another to cheer it on (Nightengale had been counting on Tom to help him encourage the production). It was all too much for Sophia, who came home between accts. She discovers Tom, and almost faints.

To paint the looks or thoughts of either of these lovers, is beyond my power. As their sensations, from their mutual silence, may be judged to have been too big for their own utterance, it cannot be supposed that I should be able to express them: and the misfortune is, that few of my readers have been enough in love to feel by their own hearts what past at this time in theirs.

In what follows, Tom gives her the pocketbook and money, they clear up some misconceptions and misunderstandings, basically clear the air and are getting all sentimental with each other, when Tom remembers he has to ask her to forget about him (the last thing she wants to hear), and starts to say something along those lines, but botches it and says something

that sounded like a proposal of marriage. To which she replied, “That, did not her duty to her father forbid her to follow her own inclinations, ruin with him would be more welcome to her than the most affluent fortune with another man.”

The use of the word “ruin,” brings everything back to Tom and he starts to do what he’s supposed to do, but she interrupts to ask what he was doing in that room. Naturally, in walks Lady Bellaston—shocked to find the two of them together, and she demands to know what Sophia is doing there.

Sophia tells what happened at the play (Bellaston doubts it), says that Tom came to return her pocketbook (Bellaston knew it was missing, doesn’t believe that Tom returned it), after tracking her down by the name inside it. Bellaston and Tom don’t let on that they know each other either. Tom’s willing to play along, as it keeps both women from being upset with him.

Tom leaves, and the two women spend some time lying to each other about what they think about Tom, what they know about him, and so on. It’s a giant mess that’s sure to come toppling down soon.

And there we go, back to the book and at the end of Book Thirteen. Both of which are fun. We’re in the final third here, so things are going to start happening more quickly (I expect). Will Tom come clean to Sophia about Bellaston? Will Bellaston tell Sophia that she knew she was lying about Tom? Is Tom still destined for a hanging? All this and more to come in the next few chapters.

The Friday 56 for 12/4/20

By HCNewton

On December 4, 2020

In Currently Reading, Fantasy, Fiction, News/Misc., Quotations, The Friday 56, YA/MG/Children's Books

This is a weekly bloghop hosted by Freda’s Voice

RULES:
Grab a book, any book.
Turn to Page 56 or 56% on your ereader. If you have to improvise, that is okay.
Find a snippet, short and sweet.
Post it

from page 56 of:

The Silver Arrow by Lev Grossman

“Kate. Tom. Good to see you. You made it this far.”

“Uncle Herbert!”

“Uncle Herbert!” Tom said. “We went through the woods and didn’t crash and then we saw a station and it was full of animals and they talked and then the train talked!”

Tom said this as one long continuous word. Uncle Herbert didn’t look particularly surprised at any of it.

Mostly Human 2 by D. I. Jolly: The Further Adventures of the Rock Star Werewolf

By HCNewton

On December 3, 2020

In Urban Fantasy

Mostly Human 2

by D. I. Jolly
Series: Mostly Human, #2

Kindle Edition, 343 pg.
Tinpot Publishing, 2020

Read: September 28-October 25, 2020

What’s Mostly Human 2 About?

On the heels of the dramatic events at the end of Mostly Human, the werewolf rock star, Alex Harris has to leave town for a while. He needs to stay out of the limelight before people figure out how his nephew was rescued and start asking too many questions about the “dog” that freed him. He also needs to get his head on straight after it. So he takes off incognito, eventually winding up in a wolf sanctuary in Norway, where he finds work (and where he can take off every few weeks and fit in).

He settles in and establishes a home there, at some point, he strikes up a friendship/borderline romance with an intern, and things really come to life for him.

Eventually, circumstances force him to leave and he answers an inner call to go to Russia to find out more about his lycanthropy. From there, he’ll return home and try to re-establish his life with family and bandmates. If only the mysterious (magical?) voice in his head and a fellow werewolf with an agenda will let him.

To Re-cap or Not?

So, Mostly Human was the first book I read in 2017, I started this at the end of September of 2020. There’s a lot of months and a lot of books between those two (sure, most readers won’t have as many books between these two, but they might share the time gap), and I’ve gotta say, I had a lot of trouble remembering details/names/plot points from the first one. Jolly didn’t do a lot to help.

It’s a tricky thing (it seems) to decide how much of a recap to work into the early chapters of a follow-up book. Generally, I’m in favor of a minimalistic approach—unless it’s a situation of “remember that character who showed up for 3 chapters in Book 2? Well, they’ll be a major player here in Book 9.” But when there’s this much time between the publication of the two books,* you’ve got to toss readers a bone.

* December 2016-November 2020, officially.

Yes, eventually, he gave enough bread crumbs that I could piece together enough of what happened—especially once I read my original post—and, yes, between this release and the re-packaging of the first book, hopefully he picks up new readers that won’t have to reach back 35 months for their memories. It’s not a deal-breaker, by any means, but detracted from the experience.

A Very Talky Urban Fantasy

While there are some good scenes of werewolf action, some nefarious goings-on, and a respectable amount of violence. But man, there was a lot of talking. A lot of banter. A lot of emotional naval-gazing.

Which is a very pleasant change of pace compared to your typical Urban Fantasy. Jolly focuses on the relationship (in various stages) between Alex and Cassandra, Alex and his sister, his sister and her boyfriend, and so on. There’s more space devoted to developing and evolving the relationship between Alex and Cassandra than anything about Alex and his wolf nature.

The book is notionally about Alex, his curse/lycanthropy, and his growth in knowledge about other lycanthropes, but I’m not convinced that’s the case. It seems to be more about Alex understanding and accepting himself, how that will the relationships around him and his future. His lycanthropy plays a huge part in that, and its shadow looms over everything, but that doesn’t seem to be where the heart of the book is. He may have set out to write an Urban Fantasy, but I don’t think he fully succeeded and ended up writing a Lad Lit-kind of book with Urban Fantasy flavoring.

I’d pay money right now to see a straightforward Lad Lit novel from Jolly, I think he’d do great with it. Or something like Mike Chen does with SF, using that setting to tell family stories. Jolly purposefully doing that with UF (rather than accidentally as he seems to have done here), would be something to get excited about.

So, what did I think about Mostly Human 2?

I enjoyed this, I like the story he told and the story he set out to tell. The best part of a werewolf character is seeing how the wolf affects the human and the human’s life.

This is a great world, full of interesting characters. I don’t know if this is the end of Alex’s story or not. It could easily be that. Or it could be the launching to a new phase of Alex’s story with a greater understanding of his condition and a new path for life. I think it could go either way, and I’d be fine with either outcome.

It’s a fine tale, a solid (and different) take on lycanthropy, with a lot of things to grab a reader in addition to the protagonist growing extra hair on occasion. You should check it (and its predecessor) out.

3.5 Stars

Disclaimer: I received a copy of this novel from the author in exchange for my honest opinion and this post.

Last Stand in Lychford by Paul Cornell: A Tense, Taut Conclusion to this Series (that I really don’t want to see conclude)

By HCNewton

On December 1, 2020

In Fiction, Paul Cornell, Urban Fantasy

Last Stand in Lychford

by Paul Cornell
Series: Witches of Lychford, #5

Kindle Edition, 192 pg.
Tor, 2020

Read: November 24, 2020
Grab a copy from your local indie bookstore!

What’s Last Stand in Lychford About?

When I talked about the last book, The Lights Go Out in Lychford, I said:

The conclusion was simply fantastic and heart-wrenching—with a last line that will drive you to the online bookstore of your choice to try to order the conclusion immediately.

And it picks up right from that point—Lychford has seen plenty of trouble and conflict the last few years, but this time, it’s for all the marbles.

It’s not supposed to be a final showdown between other-worldly forces and the defenders of the town. It’s supposed to be some of the other-worldly forces just rolling into town, wiping out humanity in Lychford before moving out to the rest of the planet. But the crafty, wily, and stubborn trio that we’ve been following for the past few years have a thing or two to say about that. They may not be fully ready for what’s coming their way, but that’s not going to stop them—and as usual, we see that they’re pretty good at adapting to whatever circumstances they find themselves in.

The New Characters

What better time than the last volume of a series to introduce three major characters? (well, maybe 2 major and one minor—no pun intended). We meet both a new fairy and a new mortal (and her daughter) who both play significant roles in the final confrontation.

The fairy’s quite possibly the most helpful representative of the species we’ve encountered, as far as Autumn and Lizzie are concerned. He’s pretty entertaining as far as the reader is concerned. So that’s a win all around.

The human, Zoya, is a newish resident of Lychford—struggling to keep her and her young daughter afloat. She’s fully aware that strange things happened in town a few weeks before we meet her, but she doesn’t understand it—and is in no rush to understand. All she cares about is finding rent money so she and Jas aren’t evicted. I can’t get into her role in things but Zoya’s background, her personality, and circumstances make her a pleasant and important addition to this world and I’m glad we got to see her.

I don’t have much to say about Jas, but I enjoyed her. She was a fun burst of innocence in grim circumstances.

Autumn and Lizzie

Naturally, the most important characters to the book are our returning protagonists. Lizzie’s always been my favorite character, the one I could relate to most in this series. But…there’s a lot of what she does in this installment that just annoyed me, it didn’t feel like the same character to me (it’s likely just my mood at the time). At the same time, I connected more with Autumn here than I’m used to.

Overall, though, I appreciated their character arcs (contained in this book and over the series, both). These two women—rebuilding a friendship, learning about a whole new (to them) world of magic and strangeness and fantastical beings—are not really de rigueur in Urban Fantasy. I enjoyed them for their novelty, but more than that, I thought they were solid, well-rounded, believable characters that were just a lot of fun to spend time with.

You Might Want to Read this Next to an Open Window

There’s a claustrophobic feel to a lot of this book as Lychford is cut off from the rest of the world, and it gets worse as the book goes on. But there’s one scene in particular where Autumn is micrometers (maybe nanometers) away from probable doom. Cornell nailed that scene in a visceral way.

So, what did I think about Last Stand in Lychford?

This was exactly the conclusion this series needed. Cornell nailed the landing—teaching us a lot about the world (much of which we’d guessed, but now we know) and surprising readers the way things wrap up, while making it all feel inevitable and right. All along, this has felt like the most real, the most possible Urban Fantasy series—and even as cataclysmic events unfold, Cornell somehow makes it feel a whole lot more believable than any UF I can think of.*

* I think I said something similar about Amber Benson’s Witches Echo Park series—and the two series have a similar feel, but I think Cornell does a slightly better job of it.

This series about a tiny English town standing between two worlds, as humanity’s (unwitting) defense against beings from other worlds, other realities has really been a blast. I heartily encourage you to go back to Witches of Lychford and dive into this series.

4 Stars

This post contains an affiliate link. If you purchase from it, I will get a small commission at no additional cost to you. As always, opinions are my own.

Criminal Collective by Russell Day: Great stories about People at Their Worst

By HCNewton

On November 27, 2020

In Fiction, Mystery/Detective Fiction/Crime Fiction/Thriller, Russell Day

Criminal Collective

by Russell Day

Paperback, 268 pg.
2020

Read: November 16-20, 2000

Murder is just another service the nation’s capital has to offer. Like any service industry, you get what you pay for. Less than a grand, in some quarters, will buy you a thug with a baseball bat and a good swing. And at no extra cost they’ll usually tell all their friends about it then spill their guts to the police, once they’re hauled into an interview room.

Creating a dead body is the easy bit. Making it vanish, without questions, now, that’s skilled work. If you pay the extra, someone like me will make the body, the evidence and any troublesome connections melt away, like snow in a heatwave.

What’s Criminal Collective About?

This is a collection of shorter stories from Russell Day, one of my favorites in Crime Fiction. There’s really not much more that I can say, but it seems to brief to move on at this point, so let me just steal from the back of the book:

Do you struggle to know the best place to bury a dead gambler?

Do health care professionals laugh at your attempts to fake a slipped disc?

Do your weapons choices leave you embarrassed at punishment beatings?

If the answer is yes, then Criminal Collective is the book for you! Nineteen stories, each one written to help navigate the tricky etiquette of being a scumbag in the 21st century.

Never again be left nonplussed by the rules of Roadkill Roulette!

Never again mistake your German Virgins for your Automatic Nuns!

Never again leave your fingerprints on a golok!

Criminal Collective! Permanent solutions in an uncertain world.

Doc Slidesmith and Yakky

All the troubles I’ve had over the years have been handed to me by the living not the dead.

There are three Doc Slidesmith stories (one might be novella-length, I’m bad at judging that). For me, these are the highlight of the collection—one of my highlights of the year (have I mentioned how much I love Slidesmith?).

There’s “The Tattooist, The Tarot, and Bang-Bang the Clown,” in which someone ducks into the wrong shop while running from the cops. That was plenty of fun. Then there’s “Not Talking Italics,” which I wrote about two years ago, and loved just as much this time around. Seriously, a short story should not be this good.

The novella (or so) piece is called “Coming Up with a Because (A Game for Three Payers). The three players are A Tattooist, A Nurse and A Solider and we focus on each of these in rotation as the novella tells what happens when a figure from Doc’s past comes looking for a favor. I spent more than a few pages convinced I was a step or two ahead of Doc. That was a mistake. I’m tempted to go on and on here, but it’d just be the ravings of a fanboy…

Doc Slidesmith—you won’t find an amateur sleuth smarter or more enjoyable to read about.

SF Stories

There are two stories that are a SF/Crime Fiction hybrid. Neither of them did much for me. Not that either were bad, I just didn’t connect with them. I’m betting if I tried them again in a couple of months, they’d click with me.

However, both made a reference to the “protein wars.” I’d love to read a story/novel/series about them, the idea intrigues me.

So, what did I think about Criminal Collective?

“I never wanted a different life, Dad,” Liam said. “I was trying to change who I was. I wanted to be someone who wanted the life I had.”

I’ve read that line a few times since I read that story. I think I’m going to have to read it a few more to fully digest it.

There was one other story besides the SF ones that didn’t wow me. All three were okay, though. Not a bad one in the bunch. And the highs more than made up for the not-very lows.

Some of these elicited chuckles, some were disturbing (I mean, put the book down and think about something else for a bit disturbing*), there were a few that had an emotional punch that seemed out of balance compared to the brevity of the story—which speaks to how quickly Day can pull the reader in, and get you invested in some pretty unsavory characters.

* That’s not an exaggeration.

I’d love to talk about some of the stories in detail, but to do so would involve spoiling them—but if you get this book as you should, you’re in for a real treat when it comes to “Click. Size Zero. Delete”, “Reduced to Clear”, and “Colon: Full Stop” in addition to the Doc Slidesmith stories.

As always, Day’s ability with voice and style is at the forefront here—it’d be easy to believe that nineteen authors contributed to this anthology rather than one author creating nineteen distinct voices.

Basically this was a treat from beginning to end, and as always when it comes to Russell Day, I strongly recommend this and encourage you to pick it up.

5 Stars

BOOK SPOTLIGHT: What the World Needs Now – Trees! by Cheryl Rosebush, Zuzana Svobodová

By HCNewton

On November 23, 2020

In Book Tour, Fiction, YA/MG/Children's Books

Today I’m pleased to welcome the Book tour for the children’s book, What the World Needs Now – Trees! by Cheryl Rosebush. After this post, I’ll be giving my take on the book here in a little bit.

Book Details:

Book Title: What the World Needs Now – Trees! by Cheryl Rosebush, Zuzana Svobodová (Illustrator)
Publisher: YPD Books
Format: Ebook/Paperback

Book Blurb:

In the tropical rainforests of Indonesia lives an orangutan named Jefri. There are lots of reasons Jefri needs trees. And it turns out, people need trees just as much as Jefri for many of the same reasons. What the World Needs Now: Trees! explores the universal connection people, plants, insects and animals share with life-giving trees.

About the Series:

What the World Needs Now is an environmental children’s book series for ages 4-8 that aims to connect the world’s youngest book lovers to the importance of nature, and our place in it.

Each book in the series follows a friendly animal through its habitat, helping kids learn about one thing the world needs now, be it more trees or bees or less plastic, to maintain a healthy planet.

The series is designed to help parents and educators lay the foundation for future learning on the world’s most pressing environmental challenges. But for our littlest kids, the connection starts at a much simpler point: their first job is to fall in love with nature – because you don’t protect what you don’t love.

The books support engaging with our kids on how we can better respect and care for the only planet we have.

About the Author:

I was born and raised in Southern Ontario, Canada in the cities of Burlington and St. Catharines. Long before the internet and mobile phones (now I’m aging myself!), my childhood was spent in forests and parks, on bike rides, and playing hide and seek until the streetlights came on. My family did comical Griswold-style road trips in wood-paneled station wagons. We spent summers swimming in friends’ backyards. These are my very fortunate roots.

I knew from an early age that my destiny would take me far from Southern Ontario. I graduated high school and moved to Montreal to study international politics at McGill University. The subject fascinated me, but as graduation approached, I realized I didn’t know what I wanted to do with a degree in international politics. I didn’t want to become a lawyer. I didn’t want to become a politician or civil servant. The media industry, on the other hand, intrigued me.

The West Coast of Canada also intrigued me. So, after graduating McGill, I packed up again, moved to Vancouver and took the first media job I could get at a local Top 40 radio station (Z.95.3) in Vancouver. Best job. Great bosses. I learned so much. But after a couple of years there, the winds of change came calling again.

September 11, 2001. In a heartbeat, Z95.3 went from playing Britney Spears to reporting up-to-the-minute information on the local, national and international fallout of the terrorist attacks in New York and Washington. In that moment, I knew I had found my calling. I wanted to do something that was needed on a good day, and needed even more on a bad day. I wanted to become a full-time journalist.

So, I packed my bags again (a running theme in my life), and moved to Ottawa, Ontario to do my Masters of Journalism. Another incredible two years culminated in me getting a research internship with the Canadian Broadcast Corporation (CBC) in London, England. That position helped me land back in Montreal for a second chapter there as local news reporter for the CBC. While I was there, I wore just about every hat you could in CBC’s radio and TV newsrooms. Depending on the day, I was a researcher, producer, reporter, or online writer. I even filled in for the weather reports every once in a while.

https://www.cherylrosebush.com/

Purchase Links

YPD Books

My thanks to Love Books Group for the invitation to participate in this tour and the materials (including the book) they provided.

What the World Needs Now – Trees! By Cheryl Rosebush, Zuzana Svobodová: Orangutans and Rainforests for Kids

By HCNewton

On November 22, 2020

In Book Tour, Fiction, Non-Fiction, YA/MG/Children's Books

What the World Needs Now – Trees!

by Cheryl Rosebush, Zuzana Svobodová (Illustrator)
Series: What the World Needs Now

PDF, 34 pg.
2020

Read: November 21, 2020

What’s What the World Needs Now – Trees! About?

This is a cute little book about an orangutan named Jefri, his home in the Sumatran rainforest, deforestation; and what can and should be done about to prevent it.

Okay, so only some of it is cute—it’s hard to make deforestation (in general) and the elimination of rainforests (in particular) adorable.

In addition to the main information, there are little boxes with additional/supplemental information, ideal for whatever adult is reading to/with the child to give more information or to launch a discussion.

How were the Illustrations?

The art is wonderful. Svobodová balances accuracy with an attractive, cartoonish style. The illustrations are full of small little touches to keep the attention of the youngest readers as they come back again and again.

So, what did I think about What the World Needs Now – Trees!?

I wanted a little more from the text—either something to hook the reader a bit more, or another detail or two. It’s hard to put my finger exactly on it—but I thought something was missing. That aside, I thought it was a good introduction to the issue without being alarmist and suggests common-sense solutions.

It’s good, important information delivered in an attractive package. A great way to kick-off this series for young readers.

3 Stars

My thanks to Love Books Group for the invitation to participate in this tour and the materials (including the book) they provided.

EXCERPT from The Man in Milan by Vito Racanelli

By HCNewton

On November 20, 2020

In Fiction, Mystery/Detective Fiction/Crime Fiction/Thriller, Quotations

Earlier this morning, I talked about the book, and now I get to give you a little taste—the opening paragraphs, I hope it hooks you the way it did me.

from Chapter 1 of The Man in Milan by Vito Racanelli (available from Polis Books)

Friday

In the gutter lay a man, face up, between two parked SUVs on Sutton Street. He wore a pale gray suit with impossibly thin pinstripes. It was Zegna, because I’d seen one on my partner, Detective Hamilton P. Turner. The suit was still in good shape, a testament to its workmanship, but the man was not.

I squatted and looked at him in the evening of an April day. I put on my latex and turned him gently. Our fashionable boy wore no tie and his pink shirt had a large red-brown blotch right where his heart used to beat. His suit was ruined in the back, an exit hole right through the trapezius. That’s what the coroner’s report would probably say.

He was about six feet, one inch. Skinny, with fine brown hair, blue- gray eyes. glauco, they say in Italian, which is what the body turned out to be. My grandfather was called Glauco for his eyes. This guy was good looking. Once. No sign of a struggle. Two wounds: a dime-sized hole punched through the back of the head and one more straight into the chest—probably the second shot as he lay prone—to make sure he stayed all the way dead. Below, burrowed halfway into the asphalt, was a slug.

The blues who’d found him already radioed for the NYPD photogs and CSU.

I walked back to my car to call my partner, who’d hadn’t told me why he couldn’t come along to the party. “I’m good,” I said to Turner. “You’re missing a beautiful spring evening in New York City, marred only by one dead body.”

His voice crackled over the radio: “Just the one? Gonna rain later. Meet you back at the precinct, Paolino,” Turner said.

I tossed the receiver back into our Crown Vic’s front seat and walked back to the body. Turner liked to call me little Paul because I was taller than him.

The photogs showed up and cordoned off the area around the body.

“Any other bodies, Detective Rossi?” the photographer asked me.

“I told you, one. Why does everyone think there’s more than one?” I said.

“Yeah, but you know, sometimes you think there’s one and then other bodies just start showing up when you look around. They’re like rabbits.”

I smiled at our photographer, Joe Rinn. He had a nice sideline doing weddings. “You never tell those brides what you do, do you? That you flash dead bodies all day. That your work graces medical school books about fatal wounds?”

“Nah,” he said, smiling back at me, then turning to the job at hand. “I tell ’em I’m an artist.”

I stood back and let the artist work. I tugged my right ear, tilted my head to get another look at this guy, and wondered what this poor fucker had done to deserve a dog’s death.

Rinn circled the body like a vulture. “The geeks’ll be here in a minute. And hey, a Post guy is comin’, too. He asked me to keep the bodies fresh.”

“A body. One body. We’ll try to oblige, but if the fourth estate doesn’t show in time, tough,” I said.

After they took the first set of photos, the CSU geeks began. Hair, blood, and nail samples. They scraped his jacket, pants, and shirts with tape to pick up foreign elements, like someone else’s hair or blood.

I looked around to figure some possible MOs. There was a small service alcove down a few steps and a few feet away. Our hunter knew his rabbit’s habits. Maybe tailed him for a few days. He waited in the alcove and calmly skipped up to the victim as he walked between a Range Rover and an Escalade. That gave the shooter some tall cover, and then he did him. Bang. Bang. Or rather Ping, Ping, with a silencer. The killer had probably taken care after the first shot to lay the body down, so that they were partially obscured, on Sutton near 51st. And that’s when he—or they—popped him a second time. His head, inches from the curb, was near enough that his blood had drained into the sewer nearby. Just when you think you’ve seen it all.

The body came conveniently with docs, a small black address book and an Italian identity card wrapped in a soft, dark brown leather case— Gaitano Muro, forty-six years old and a Milan address, so immediately I thought Mafia. Even the stupidest perp knows not to leave docs in a fixit job. The killer must have been spooked immediately and had to run. This was a botched execution. Two kill shots to rob someone? Not likely.

The address book had names and phone numbers but little else. No addresses. The ID was diplomatic, Capo Servizio something or other, Consolato Generale della Repubblica Italiana, it said, with an embossed little star inside an olive branch and a mechanical gear wheel. My Italian wasn’t bad thanks to my grandfather. Muro was a diplo and Signore Muro from Milan came all the way to New York City and found unexpectedly that this late April evening would be the least lucky night he was ever to have, and he was dropped in the gutter on Sutton St. I suppose there are worse streets to die on.

I’d bet it wasn’t the way he thought it would go. Nobody ever does.

Read the rest in The Man in Milan by Vito Racanelli to see what happens from here.

Thanks to Polis Books, Vito Racanelli and Saichek Publicity for this excerpt!

The Man in Milan by Vito Racanelli: A Hunt for the Truth on the Streets of New York and Milan

By HCNewton

On November 20, 2020

In Fiction, Mystery/Detective Fiction/Crime Fiction/Thriller

The Man in Milan

by Vito Racanelli

eARC, 336pg.
Polis Books, 2020

Read: November 9-14, 2020
Grab a copy from your local indie bookstore!

What’s The Man in Milan About?

NYPD detective Rossi is called to the scene of a homicide. It looks like a mugging gone bad, but there’s something wrong with the scene that Rossi can’t accept the first impression. Soon, he and his partner discover that this man is attached to the Italian embassy (although it’s initially denied). The deeper they get into the investigation, the murkier things get and the deadlier things get, too.

While they try to deny it, try to avoid the conclusion, the detectives have to admit that the evidence is pointing to a solution in Italy. They’re able to follow the evidence to the victim’s homeland, leading to an explosive conclusion.

The Police

Probably the strongest part of this book—and it’s key to the success of a police procedural are the characters—particularly the police characters*. From practically the instant we meet Detectives Paul Rossi and Hamilton P. Turner, I felt I knew them. Racanelli nailed these characters. They’re at once characters we’ve seen before, and know well—but made them feel fresh.

* There are a few other strong characters that I don’t have the space to talk about, for example: a newspaper journalist who’s almost as strong and developed as Rossi and Turner, that we don’t get quite enough of; and Rossi’s ex-wife and daughter, who I’d like to see again, too.

Rossi is divorced, in AA, more than a little jaded, but driven by the work that’s the only thing he has left in the world aside from the daughter he doesn’t get to see as often as he wants. He has strong ties to his Italian heritage—can speak and read it fluently (which comes in handy)—without being a stereotype. He has a medical condition that crops up to make life inconvenient, if there’s a sequel or two in the future, I’d like to learn more about this.

Turner is a solid cop, but he has ambitions beyond the NYPD, he wants to get into city politics—ultimately that mayor-ship. And he’s open about it. But more, he’s a poet, who regularly presents at events throughout the city, he can’t seem to go anywhere without finding a woman to seduce, dresses better than most detectives (shades of Connelly’s Jerry Edgar?), and has been described as a “black beatnik.” Some authors would take these traits and give us a character that’s just a collection of quirks, but Racanelli uses them to turn Turner into a well-rounded character.

The deceased’s sister, Tenente Laura Muro, is a policewoman from Italy. She arrives to claim the body and return it to be buried. But she’s also interested in helping the investigation and brings a knowledge of both Muro as a person, his past and his home that prove invaluable to Rossi and Turner. That she’s attractive and intelligent just makes her presence all the more welcome to the partners.

Rossi and Turner have a Lieutenant who has no interest in the case until it becomes something the mayor is taking an interest in, and actually wants them to drop it almost immediately. He’s the kind of petty bureaucrat that you hope doesn’t exist outside fictional police departments (but sure seem to show up in all sorts of police procedurals). He’s a solid character, but not one you’ll enjoy (and aren’t supposed to).

What Really Worked

The initial chapters following Rossi and Turner as they look into Muro’s death, talking to the Italian ambassador, Muro’s estranged wife and so on. Once others associated with Muro are killed, there’s a lot of political pressure put on them to make an arrest. Once it becomes clear that someone wants to add their deaths to the list, the external pressures to make an arrest outweigh all the politics.

When the evidence begins to point to an Italian group that seems more Urban Legend than reality, things take off plot-wise and the stakes get higher. Racanelli handles this skillfully, both the reticence of the detectives to follow the evidence and the way they come around when they have to.

What Wasn’t as Strong

Once it became clear to me that the case was going to take the detectives to Italy*, I worried a little about things. And sadly, those worries were valid. But maybe it’s just me.

* It’d been a few weeks since I read the pitch for the book, so I’d forgotten all of it.

Whether it’s Michael Connelly (Nine Dragons) or Neil Lancaster (Tom Novak series)—and probably other examples I can’t think of at the moment, anytime when you take police detectives and put them into a foreign context (especially when it becomes less police procedural and more international thriller), I think the book loses something. This one didn’t lose a lot, but I think it stumbled a little bit—Racanelli handled the switch in flavors as well as anyone, though, I want to stress that this is a me-thing, not a Racanelli-thing.

The Setting

There are plenty of reasons for this to be set in 2002 for the plot to work—beyond that, it’s a great setting for this kind of book. The characters can use cell phones and the internet, but smart phones aren’t ubiquitous and what characters can do with phones/internet is still limited enough that the detectives have to work for their information, not everything is captured on phones, and so on. It may have been a practical choice to set the book when he did, but the benefits make it a great choice.

So, what did I think about The Man in Milan?

From the voice, the style, the characters and the nature of the story—this is a solid, entertaining story. The persons responsible for the murder are dark and mysterious, but it’s not overplayed. The motive behind the (initial) killing, and its method make sense and are just chilling. The escalation in terms of violence and scale feels natural, it felt like this could be based on real events.

Racanelli’s take on Italian culture isn’t one that I think I’ve seen before and it’s one I’d like to learn more about, too.

The more action-thriller parts of the novel are as tense and compelling as you’d want, the procedural material is as good as you’ll find anywhere. The Man in Milan is a great way for Vito Racanelli to introduce himself to Crime Fiction readers, and I look forward to seeing what he produces next.

Disclaimer: I received this book from the author via Saichek Publicity in exchange for this post and my honest opinion—thanks to both for this.

4 Stars

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