Hidden Depths

Another very good Vera Stanhope British mystery by Ann Cleeves, this book kept me puzzled to the very end.

We have four male friends who would do "anything" for one another!   We have two very similar murders!  Vera finds herself a bit lost when faced with the two murders.  Both victims are strangled, then placed in water and covered with flowers.   Both victims are young and beautiful, one male/one female.

While investigating the murders, Vera's team discovers some startling secrets among the four close friends, revealing human weakness and compulsions that result in tragic consequences.  

Vera can solve any crime but this one kept her on an uneasy edge. 

Well developed plot.   I'm a big Vera fan!

A Head Full of Ghosts by Paul Tremblay

If you’re a fan of horror, you can’t afford to miss out on Paul Tremblay’s A Head Full of Ghosts. I have been reading horror novels for almost thirty years, and this title stands out as being one of the creepiest books I have ever read.  Using the voice of eight year-old Merry, the novel introduces us to the Barretts, a seemingly all-American family, stretched thin since John Barrett’s (father) lay-off nearly a year and a half before the events in the book take place. Barely subsisting on Sarah Barrett’s (mother) income as a bank teller, stress is high, but not unusually so, and the happiness of the family, while a bit frayed around the edges, is apparent. The family’s well-being is put under even more strain when Merry’s sister, fourteen year-old Marjorie, begins behaving oddly. Merry is the first to notice something isn’t quite right with her sister, when the girls’ storytelling game takes a decidedly darker turn. As Marjorie’s behavior becomes even more erratic and downright horrifying, the family is torn.  John Barrett seeks the help of a supportive priest, father Wanderly, while Sarah prefers to place her hopes for Marjorie’s recovery in the hands of a psychiatrist.  After a terrifying incident, to which Merry is the sole witness, John ignores his wife’s wishes and petitions the priest for an exorcism. Father Wanderly invites the attention of a television network, whose coffers finally fill the Barrett pantry for the first time in over a year, and a film crew is brought in to witness Marjorie’s supposed possession and her inevitable, ratings-catching exorcism.  Family and film crew alike will get more than they bargain for by the end of the season.  All through the tale the reader questions whether Marjorie is indeed possessed, putting on a show, or simply suffering from a terrible mental illness.  At a slim 284 pages, with not a wasted word, A Head Full of Ghosts will keep you on the edge of your seat right to the very end.

Jennifer Wilson

The Outcasts of Time by Ian Mortimer

 It is December 1348, and Devon, England, has been over-run with the plague. Brothers William of Wray and John Beard were walking home to Moreton, trying to stay away from the pestilence by avoiding contact with anything that might carry the disease. Unfortunately, during their travels, William's act of compassion infects both himself and his brother. William insists that he needed to go to Scorhill because he heard a voice, just the day before, that told him in order to save his soul, he needed to go. His brother thought he went mad but knew he had no choice but to go. When the brothers stumbled into a stone circle they were given a choice; they could either go home and spend the last of their days with family, or become healed entirely and live their remaining days in the future. William knew that if he went home to his wife and children they too would get infected--if they hadn't already.  Both decide to take the journey into the future.


    There is a delicious twist to this tale. Each day takes them ninety-nine years into the future. These time-traveling brothers see the year 1447, 1546, 1645, 1744, and 1843. With each time lapse, they are losing traces of everything they once knew and dearly loved. The author, Ian Mortimer, has done a brilliant job depicting humanity at its worst and at its best. An exceptionally written book, I couldn't put it down and was very sad to say goodbye.

"My lady, I have lived many long years and I can tell you that fairness is to society as water is to a duck's back. Society does not change because of fairness: it changes because it sees an advantage."  ~William of Wray

~Dani Green

Lucky Boy

It is no surprise that Shanthi Sekaron's novel is about a boy. Ignacio El Viento Castro Valdez is indeed a lucky boy, because he is deeply loved. His birth mother is Solimar, a young woman who discovered her pregnancy after she traveled--illegally--across the border into the U.S. from Mexico. Her trip was not without its horrors, those dangers and traumas that unaccompanied young women are often forced to face. But she makes a life for herself and her son, living with her cousin Silvia and serving as a housekeeper and nanny to a well-to-do family in Berkeley, CA. She fiercely loves her baby, whom she calls Nacho, and he accompanies her everywhere.

Several blocks away from the street where Soli works, Rishi and Kavya, a young couple whose both sets of parents emigrated from India, struggle to have a child of their own. Having tried everything they can emotionally and financially afford, to no avail, they decide to turn to adoption. They enroll in foster parent training, and then are given the opportunity to foster a child, which could perhaps lead to adoption.

Even though readers can easily anticipate the juncture at which Soli's and Kavya's paths will cross, it is still painful and heart-breaking to see it happen. A simple traffic stop turns Soli's life upside down, as she is sentenced to a detention center and prepared for deportation. Nacho, whom Kavya and Rishi come to call Iggy, meets a second Mama who loves him nearly as deeply as Soli does.

This is a wonderful story that explores complicated issues of love and belonging in the framework of the current state of immigration policies in the U.S. Highly recommended!

--review by Kelly Currie