Plum Island by Nelson DeMille – #AudiobookReview – #TBT

“If your only tool is a hammer, then every problem looks like a nail.”

Book Blurb:

Wounded in the line of duty, NYPD homicide detective John Corey convalesces in the Long Island township of Southold, home to farmers, fishermen — and at least one killer. Tom and Judy Gordon, a young, attractive couple Corey knows, have been found on their patio, each with a bullet in the head. The local police chief, Sylvester Maxwell, wants Corey’s big-city expertise, but Maxwell gets more than he bargained for.

John Corey doesn’t like mysteries, which is why he likes to solve them. His investigations lead him into the lore, legends, and ancient secrets of northern Long Island — more deadly and more dangerous than he could ever have imagined. During his journey of discovery, he meets two remarkable women, Detective Beth Penrose and Mayflower descendant Emma Whitestone, both of whom change his life irrevocably. Ultimately, through his understanding of the murders, John Corey comes to understand himself.

Fast-paced and atmospheric, marked by entrancing characters, incandescent storytelling, and brilliant comic touches, Plum Island is Nelson DeMille at his thrill-inducing best.

My Review:

How have I not found this author before? And the book so right down my favorite genre alley. A protagonist that has the smarts, expertise of Connelly’s serious Harry Bosch and the wise-cracking but intelligent David Rosenfelt’s Andy Carpenter. John Corey is a seasoned homicide detective convalescing on Long Island who transcends both with additional snarky, often sexual, acerbic comments.

“Do you know why Daughters of the American Revolution don’t have group sex?….

“Daughters of the American Revolution don’t have group sex because they don’t want to have to write all those thank you notes.”

It’s his delivery. Most of the time funny, though as a woman, can be offensive as well. Corey has seen it all, done it all, just doesn’t give a flying fig anymore. Whether another detective or supervisor, he’ll casually pull an unaffected Bosch. The thing is—he’s good at what he does.

In this case, he is asked by Southold Police to look into the double homicide of friends of his. As employees of Plum Island, they come under a heavily shielded rumor mill regarding the island said to study deadly animal diseases. Is it biological warfare? Perhaps something more on the opposite side of the microscopic bugs—a vaccine that could have made them billions. If so, did the deal go bad?

Corey doesn’t come off subtle as he pursues clues, posing and dismissing various scenarios—drugs maybe? He goes to Plum Island for a detailed canned lecture tour of the facility. Definitely an eye-opening tour into a major federal virus and bacterial research facility!

After confronting and eliminating most theories, he accidentally stumbles over another reason for the legal archeological digs on the island. Okay—it could happen. There are SOOO many entertaining stories, folklore, out there of treasures (including the one my grandfather wrote of on Cocos Island).

With all the theories, the interviews, and the characters, it is a fast-paced well-plotted storyline that entertains as well as informs. Twists and turns shine in the multi-faceted texture of the narrative, never a dull moment. Except for the side trip into the (rather ridiculous) romance, I enjoyed the police procedural aspect, the suspense, and the non-stop action.

My first experience with this author won’t be my last. Also, I’ve already found another audiobook narrated by Scott Brick who does an excellent job with this kind of novel. I downloaded a copy of this audiobook from my local well-stocked library. These are my honest thoughts.

Book Details:

Genre: Suspense Action Fiction, Mystery Action Fiction, Mystery Action & Adventure
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing
ASIN: B000FA5SMK
Listening Length: 19 hrs 43 mins
Narrator: Scott Brick
Publication Date: June 11, 2021
Source: Local Library (Audiobook Selections)
Title Link: Plum Island [Amazon]

Rosepoint Publishing: Four point Five Stars

The Author: Nelson Richard DeMille was born in New York City on August 23, 1943 to Huron and Antonia (Panzera) DeMille, then moved with his parents to Long Island. He graduated from Elmont Memorial High School, where he played football and ran track.

DeMille spent three years at Hofstra University, then joined the Army where he attended Officer Candidate School and was commissioned a Lieutenant in the United States Army (1966-69). He saw action in Vietnam as an infantry platoon leader with the First Cavalry Division and was decorated with the Air Medal, Bronze Star, and the Vietnamese Cross of Gallantry.

After his discharge, DeMille returned to Hofstra University where he received his bachelor’s degree in Political Science and History. He has three children, Lauren, Alexander, and James, and resides on Long Island.

DeMille’s first major novel was By the Rivers of Babylon, published in 1978, and is still in print as are all his succeeding novels. He is a member of American Mensa, The Authors Guild, and is past president of the Mystery Writers of America. He is also a member of International Thriller Writers and was chosen as ThrillerMaster of the Year 2015. He holds three honorary doctorates: Doctor of Humane Letters from Hofstra University, Doctor of Literature from Long Island University, and Doctor of Humane Letters from Dowling College.

Nelson DeMille is the author of: By the Rivers of Babylon, Cathedral, The Talbot Odyssey, Word of Honor, The Charm School, The Gold Coast, The General’s Daughter, Spencerville, Plum Island, The Lion’s Game, Up Country, Night Fall, Wild Fire, The Gate House, The Lion, The Panther, The Quest, Radiant Angel, The Cuban Affair and The Deserter. He also co-authored Mayday with Thomas Block and has contributed short stories to anthologies, and book reviews and articles to magazines and newspapers.

The Narrator: Scott Brick is an American actor, writer and award-winning narrator of over 800 audiobooks. Audiobook narrator Scott Brick (2012). Born, (1966-01-30) January 30, 1966 (age 57). Santa Barbara, California, US. Occupation(s), Actor, Writer, Narrator. [Wikipedia]

#ThrowbackThursday

The Book of Lost Things by John Connolly – #Audiobook Review – #TBT

Book Blurb:

High in his attic bedroom, 12-year-old David mourns the loss of his mother. He is angry and he is alone, with only the books on his shelf for company.But those books have begun to whisper to him in the darkness, and as he takes refuge in the myths and fairytales so beloved of his dead mother, he finds that the real world and the fantasy world have begun to meld. The Crooked Man has come, with his mocking smile and his enigmatic words: “Welcome, your majesty. All hail the new king.”

With echoes of Gregory Maguire’s and C.S. Lewis’ Chronicles of Narnia, author John Connolly introduces us to a cast of not-quite-familiar characters – like the seven socialist dwarfs who poison an uninvited (and unpleasant) princess and try to peg the crime on her stepmother. Or the Loups, the evil human-canine hybrids spawned long ago by the union of a wolf and a seductive girl in a red cloak.

As war rages across Europe, David is violently propelled into a land that is both a construct of his imagination, yet frighteningly real – a strange reflection of his own world composed of myths and stories, populated by wolves and worse-than-wolves, and ruled over by a faded king who keeps his secrets in a legendary book…The Book of Lost Things.

My Review:

Fairy tale turned fantasy turned horror. Yikes! I’ve read Charlie Parker, his signature detective/mystery series, and those narratives could turn dark, paranormal, deadly. But this one?

The storyline starts with twelve-year-old David and his newly minted step-mother (Rose) and half-brother. In an effort to avoid those two as much as possible, he pretty much sequesters himself in his room, burying himself in his books. His dad, a professional, is seldom around.

In an effort to improve the situation, Rose moves him to another room, vacated by an old uncle that is filled with books and baubles. But as time wears on, the fables, fantasies, and childhood tales begin to fuse with reality. Indeed, he loses himself more into the dream lately, which is becoming darker—there is, after all, a war on.

Definitely not a tale for children—and possibly not queasy-stomached adults either. Beginning with “The Crooked Man,” the characters grow into malevolent beings, many of which are not human.

Locked into a noir fairy tale, he must travel (as Dorothy did) to find the king who has the Book of Lost Things. Only then can he be returned home—to reality—and out of his marathon nightmare.

Fortunately, there is a kind and wise woodsman, but he must fight his own battles and is not keen on taking on the care of a young one. At each encounter, David must learn to conquer or out-think the creepy folk horror confronting him—most with the aid of the experienced woodsman.

Ewww, some of the descriptions were almost vomit-inducing encounters. Talk about a learning experience—enough to grow hair on the chest of a child. And he does gradually mature, begins to evaluate with a new reality or philosophy, and challenges appearances. My favorite quote:

“…listen closely to his words for he will say less than he means and conceal more than he reveals.”

Beautiful! And that’s the lesson is it? The story is as shocking as revealing, pushes tension, attitude, with awakening. Extremely imaginative, creative in prose, subtle in nuance—but oh, so, powerful (I’m sure enhanced by the narrator).

I downloaded a copy of this audiobook from my local well-stocked library. Perhaps periodic issues of too bloody violence for me. These are my honest thoughts.

Book Details:

Genre: Coming of Age Fiction, Suspense
Publisher: Recorded Books
ASIN: B001J6XF2E
Listening Length: 10 hrs 56 mins
Narrator: Steven Crossley
Publication Date: October 23, 2008
Source: Local Library (Audiobook Selections)
Title Link: The Book of Lost Things [Amazon]

Rosepoint Publishing: Four Stars

John Connolly - author — John Connolly – author

The Author: I was born in Dublin, Ireland in 1968 and have, at various points in his life, worked as a journalist, a barman, a local government official, a waiter and a “gofer” at Harrods department store in London. I studied English in Trinity College, Dublin and journalism at Dublin City University, subsequently spending five years working as a freelance journalist for The Irish Times newspaper, to which I continue to contribute, although not as often as I would like. I still try to interview a few authors every year, mainly writers whose work I like, although I’ve occasionally interviewed people for the paper simply because I thought they might be quirky or interesting. All of those interviews have been posted to my website, http://www.johnconnollybooks.com.

I was working as a journalist when I began work on my first novel. Like a lot of journalists, I think I entered the trade because I loved to write, and it was one of the few ways I thought I could be paid to do what I loved. But there is a difference between being a writer and a journalist, and I was certainly a poorer journalist than I am a writer (and I make no great claims for myself in either field.) I got quite frustrated with journalism, which probably gave me the impetus to start work on the novel. That book, Every Dead Thing, took about five years to write and was eventually published in 1999. It introduced the character of Charlie Parker, a former policeman hunting the killer of his wife and daughter. Dark Hollow, the second Parker novel, followed in 2000. The third Parker novel, The Killing Kind, was published in 2001, with The White Road following in 2002. In 2003, I published my fifth novel – and first stand-alone book – Bad Men. In 2004, Nocturnes, a collection of novellas and short stories, was added to the list, and 2005 marked the publication of the fifth Charlie Parker novel, The Black Angel. In 2006, The Book of Lost Things, my first non-mystery novel, was published.

[truncated]

I am based in Dublin but divide my time between my native city and the United States, where each of my novels has been set.

Reading Ireland Month 2023

The Life We Bury by Allen Eskens – #Audiobook Review – #TBT – @TantorAudio

Book Blurb:

College student Joe Talbert has the modest goal of completing a writing assignment for an English class. His task is to interview a stranger and write a brief biography of the person. With deadlines looming, Joe heads to a nearby nursing home to find a willing subject. There he meets Carl Iverson, and soon nothing in Joe’s life is ever the same. Carl is a dying Vietnam veteran-and a convicted murderer. With only a few months to live, he has been medically paroled to a nursing home after spending thirty years in prison for the crimes of rape and murder.

As Joe writes about Carl’s life, especially Carl’s valor in Vietnam, he cannot reconcile the heroism of the soldier with the despicable acts of the convict. Aided by his skeptical neighbor, Lila, Joe throws himself into uncovering the truth. Thread by thread, he begins to unravel the tapestry of Carl’s conviction. But as he and Lila dig deeper into the circumstances of the crime, the stakes grow higher. Will Joe discover the truth before it’s too late to escape the fallout?

My Review:

It is with a lot of trepidation that Joe Talbert makes his way into the hospital room where Carl Iverson is located. He has been released from prison because he is dying of cancer.

Joe is the hapless twenty-year-old trying to go to college while working as a bar bouncer. He left town where his mother and eighteen-year-old brother live to escape the daily drama with his vitriolic, alcoholic mother. He is tightly connected to his autistic brother, Jeremy, who remains no older than a child and has limited verbal skills.

Joe finds himself coming up on due date for a biographical assignment for one of his classes and having no one close he can interview tries a nursing home thinking the residents would have lots of stories. He is eventually steered to Carl Iverson.

There are several layers in this well-plotted narrative. The story of Carl, a Vietnam veteran who lived next door to the young girl raped and murdered, and Joe, the young man who took on the responsibility of his brother. The loving care he provides his brother with such patience tears at the heart. The story of Jeremy’s autism and the struggle with both his mother and his mother’s offensive boyfriend is gripping.

Being torn in several directions, Joe’s school and the job he must keep to pay for it, the care of his brother a constant distraction, and the growing backstory of Carl is painful and beautiful at the same time. Your heart aches for Joe. Then there comes a light in his life—a new neighbor—who becomes a friend and then more. Lila has her own horrific backstory, is tender with Jeremy, patient, and understanding.

Joe discovers quickly that there may be much more to Carl’s story than initially received. The murder took place thirty years ago, the political climate so different; there are holes in the story, and then Virgil provides another view of Carl altogether. And Joe begins to suspect a wrongful conviction.

The author is an amazing storyteller. The complex plot is well-paced, the characters immensely empathetic, damaged, doing the best they can. And in the face of the odds, the best they can do is remarkable.

The narrator had an incredible novel to relate and he did so in spades—providing voices of the young man, the dying man, and the other characters—providing the anguish or the loathing where appropriate, ramping up the blood pressure or wheedling sympathy.

An engaging and soul-satisfying narrative read beautifully with just the right emotional level. Totally recommended.

I downloaded a copy of this audiobook from my local well-stocked library. These are my honest thoughts.

Book Details:

Genre: Amateur Sleuth Mysteries, Amateur Sleuths, Psychological Thrillers
Publisher: Tantor Audio
ASIN: B00Z96QRFM
Listening Length: 8 hrs 23 mins
Narrator: Zach Villa
Publication Date: June 9, 2015
Source: Local Library (Audiobook Selections)
Title Link: The Life We Bury [Amazon]

Rosepoint Publishing: Four point Five Stars

The Author: Allen Eskens grew up in the wooded hills of Missouri and, after high school, migrated north to pursue his education. He acquired a Bachelor of Arts in journalism from the University of Minnesota, and a Juris Doctorate from Hamline University School of Law. He honed his creative writing skills in the M.F.A. program at Minnesota State University and took classes at the Iowa Summer Writing Festival and the Loft Literary Center in Minneapolis.

The Narrator: Zach Villa is a bicoastal stage, film, and television performer. Classically trained in acting at Interlochen Arts Academy and the Juilliard School, Zach’s audiobook work includes multiple fantasy series, The World Without You by Joshua Henkin, and Butterfly Winter by W. P. Kinsella. When he isn’t voicing a goblin or knight, Zach is writing and recording music. [Tantor Audio]

Zach Villa is an American actor, singer, songwriter, dancer, and musician. Villa was born in Clinton, Iowa in 1987. Wikipedia

#ThrowbackThursday

The Dutch House: A Novel by Ann Patchett – #Audiobook Review – narrated by Tom Hanks – #ThrowbackThursday

Rosepoint Publishing: Five Stars

Best Literature & Fiction

Book Blurb:

Ann Patchett, the number-one New York Times best-selling author of Commonwealth, delivers her most powerful novel to date: a richly moving story that explores the indelible bond between two siblings, the house of their childhood, and a past that will not let them go. The Dutch House is the story of a paradise lost, a tour de force that digs deeply into questions of inheritance, love, and forgiveness, of how we want to see ourselves, and of who we really are.

At the end of the Second World War, Cyril Conroy combines luck and a single canny investment to begin an enormous real estate empire, propelling his family from poverty to enormous wealth. His first order of business is to buy the Dutch House, a lavish estate in the suburbs outside of Philadelphia. Meant as a surprise for his wife, the house sets in motion the undoing of everyone he loves.

The story is told by Cyril’s son Danny, as he and his older sister, the brilliantly acerbic and self-assured Maeve, are exiled from the house where they grew up by their stepmother. The two wealthy siblings are thrown back into the poverty their parents had escaped from and find that all they have to count on is one another. It is this unshakable bond between them that both saves their lives and thwarts their futures.

Set over the course of five decades, The Dutch House is a dark fairy tale about two smart people who cannot overcome their past. Despite every outward sign of success, Danny and Maeve are only truly comfortable when they’re together. Throughout their lives, they return to the well-worn story of what they’ve lost with humor and rage. But when at last they’re forced to confront the people who left them behind, the relationship between an indulged brother and his ever-protective sister is finally tested.

My Review:

Okay, yes you got me! I enjoyed this book in no small part because the audiobook is narrated by Tom Hanks. Hanks literally becomes Danny, the main character but still never veers too far from that Academy-winning rad-da-tat animated delivery. I had to check the speed as there was more than once I thought I might have set it to 125% of normal. Gees, he’s good, and thank heaven or this could have become a rather slow burn at times.

As revealed by the blurb, Danny and his sister Maeve (7 years older) are kicked out of their very wealthy and lavish estate by their wicked step-mom after his father passes suddenly intestate. I may have been washing dishes at that point and missed how old the kids were at that point, but it was literally a case of rags to riches back to rags. They’d enjoyed the good life and then it ended.

So, Danny, always looked after by his big sister, may be the typical clueless male. I thought there were times he swerved into narcissism, while his stoic sister Maeve never takes her eyes off the ball. There were also times I wanted to slap him upside his head! Maeve has settled into a comfortable living but will not settle unless Danny does the same and using the one loophole their step-mother failed to see, she pushes him to higher learning. GO! Be a doctor! Dutifully, he does, all the while declaring he will never practice. (Thank heavens as his bedside manner would suck.)

What he does practice, wisely, is real estate. Hey, he had gleaned some knowledge from his father. Yes, and then because that was expected, a wife. But Danny, perhaps again mirroring his dad with his step-mother, marries a woman he really does not love. I doubt there would ever have been a woman who could take Maeve’s place. That is a sibling bond born of desperation and survival.

Through the decades this narrative covers, each, together and separately, go back to The Dutch House to see how it is faring. Amazingly well, as it turns out, although the same cannot be said of Andrea, the step-mom. It’s a great, hulking enormous estate, still oozing the original (Dutch) owners’ vibrations—a reason their mother fled after they moved in to go serve the poor where she felt she really belonged.

Heavy family dynamics, feelings of abandonment, sibling loyalty, loss, the characters well developed and, typically, 180 degrees in dreams and thought processes. Times I ached for Maeve, angry with Danny. The step-mom painted with all the warts of the stereotypical step-parent.

As always with an extremely successful novel, there are detractors, but this is a Pulitzer Prize finalist. And performed by Tom Hanks, I’d also bestow an honorary Audie. He is awesome.

I received a complimentary audiobook copy from my local well-stocked library. These are my honest thoughts.

Rosepoint Recommended-5 Stars

Book Details:

Genre: Coming of Age Fiction, Family Life Fiction, Literary Fiction
Publisher: HarperAudio
ASIN: B07NSJZWY5
Listening Length: 9 hrs 53 mins
Narrator: Tom Hanks
Publication Date: September 24, 2019
Source: Local Library (Audiobook Selections)
Title Link: The Dutch House [Amazon]
Barnes & Noble
Kobo

The Author:

Ann Patchett is the author of six novels, including Bel Canto, which won the Orange Prize for Fiction. She writes for the New York Times Magazine, Elle, GQ, the Financial Times, the Paris Review and Vogue. She lives in Nashville, Tennessee.

New York Times best seller | A Read with Jenna Today Show Book Club Pick | A New York Times Book Review Notable Book | Time Magazine’s 100 Must-Read Books of 2019 | 2020 Audie finalist – audiobook of the year and best male narrator

Named one of the Best Books of the Year by NPR, The Washington Post; O: The Oprah Magazine, Real Simple, Good Housekeeping, Vogue, Refinery29, and Buzzfeed

The Narrator:

Tom Hanks – Narrating this heartbreaking and compelling story is not the first connection between Patchett and Hanks. Patchett, the New York Times bestselling author of Commonwealth and State of Wonder, told the Associated Press that she and Hanks have become friends in recent years. Hanks and his wife, Rita Wilson, have spent time with Patchett at Parnassus Books, the renowned bookstore she owns in Nashville, Tennessee. And in 2017, Patchett joined Hanks at a sold-out event sponsored by the Washington, D.C., bookstore Politics and Prose to interview him in conjunction with his promotion of Uncommon Type, his own collection of short stories.

[Info and photo attribute: BookBub]

#ThrowbackThursday

Lies She Told by Cate Holahan – #Audiobook Review – #TBT

Lies She Told by Cate Holahan

Book Blurb:

Sometimes the truth is darker than fiction.

Liza Cole has 30 days to write the thriller that could put her back on the best-seller list. In the meantime, she’s struggling to start a family with her husband, who is distracted by the disappearance of his best friend, Nick. With stresses weighing her down in both her professional and her personal lives, Liza escapes into writing her latest heroine, Beth.

Beth is a new mother who suspects her husband is cheating on her while she’s home alone caring for their newborn. Angry and betrayed, she sets out to catch him in the act and to make him pay for shattering the illusion of their perfect life. But before she realizes it, she’s tossing the body of her husband’s mistress into the East River.

Then the lines between fiction and reality begin to blur. Nick’s body is dragged from the same river, and Liza’s husband is arrested for his murder. Before her deadline is up, Liza will have to face up to the truths about the people around her, including herself. If she doesn’t, the end of her heroine’s story could be the end of her own.

My Review:

EEK! Not one unreliable narrator but two? Wait a minute…A book within a book?

Maybe my fault, as I normally listen to my audiobooks while performing another task; gardening, cooking, cleaning, shopping. Big mistake here as the story begins at a rather slow pace, easy to fade in and out, and the narration by two similar voices wasn’t wholly easy to separate out which character was speaking.

First, Liza. She’s an author in a slump, on deadline, and sweating it. Beth is the main character of the book she is struggling with and it doesn’t help both are experiencing somewhat parallel stories. So each chapter alternates between the author and the MC in the book she’s writing and pretty soon it gets tougher to keep up with whose story we are currently following. Confusing.

Perhaps it’s just me, but I thought Beth was over-the-top whiney and got tired of her fighting tears all the time. Okay, she’s a new mom—there is such a thing as post-partum depression. But she’s just psychotic. This lady was in full-on post-partum separation and there were times when I feared for her infant.

Liza was still trying to get pregnant and scheming on how to get hubby in the sack for the next go-round with fertile timing. Enter unresponsive (cheating) husbands, the bast…ds. As I didn’t care all that much for either MC though, I couldn’t whip up sufficient empathy.

Lots of twists and turns took me half the chapter to sort out whose voice I was currently listening to when suddenly I became quite alarmed at what was happening. GEES, what had I missed??! I couldn’t believe it! Well, that got my attention and was also the point at which the lazy rhythm began to speed up.

I paid close attention then through the conclusion, but still my head was swirling, trying to separate the two storylines—make sense of it. And I wasn’t satisfied. Were all threads closed? I don’t think so.

It was a weird, often bewildering ride and I must admit to being hooked, entertained, and engaged. An unusual thriller for me—perhaps for you as well.

I received a copy of this audiobook from my local lovely library. These are my honest thoughts.

Book Details:

Genre: Psychological Thrillers, Suspense
Publisher: Blackstone Audio, Inc.
ASIN: B073WHSPC4
Listening Length: 9 hrs 54 mins
Narrator: Amy McFadden, Lisa Larsen
Publication Date: September 12, 2017
Source: Local Library (Audiobook Selections)
Title Link: Lies She Told [Amazon]

Rosepoint Publishing: Four stars

The Author: Catherine “Cate” Holahan is the USA Today bestselling author of The Widower’s Wife (August 2016), Lies She Told (Sept. 2017), Dark Turns (November 2015), and One Little Secret (July 9, 2019). An award-winning journalist and former television producer, her articles have appeared in BusinessWeek, The Boston Globe, The Record newspaper, and on many web sites. She is a graduate of Princeton University and lives in New Jersey with her husband, two young daughters, and sometimes-good dog.

Bad Axe County (A Bad Axe County Novel Book 1) by John Galligan – #Audiobook Review – #TBT

Bad Axe County by John Galligan

Book Blurb:

Dennis Lehane meets Megan Miranda in this “dark beauty of a novel” (William Kent Krueger, New York Times bestselling author) about the first female sheriff in rural Bad Axe County, Wisconsin, as she searches for a missing girl, battles local drug dealers, and seeks the truth about the death of her parents twenty years ago—all as a winter storm rages in her embattled community.

Fifteen years ago, Heidi White’s parents were shot to death on their Bad Axe County farm. The police declared it a murder-suicide and closed the case. But that night, Heidi found the one clue she knew could lead to the truth—if only the investigators would listen.

Now Heidi White is Heidi Kick, wife of local baseball legend Harley Kick and mother of three small children. She’s also the interim sheriff in Bad Axe. Half the county wants Heidi elected but the other half will do anything to keep her out of law enforcement. And as a deadly ice storm makes it way to Bad Axe, tensions rise and long-buried secrets climb to the surface.

As freezing rain washes out roads and rivers flood their banks, Heidi finds herself on the trail of a missing teenaged girl. Clues lead her down twisted paths to backwoods stag parties, derelict dairy farms, and the local salvage yard—where the body of a different teenage girl has been carefully hidden for a decade.

As the storm rages on, Heidi realizes that someone is planting clues for her to find, leading her to some unpleasant truths that point to the local baseball team and a legendary game her husband pitched years ago. With a murder to solve, a missing girl to save, and a monster to bring to justice, Heidi is on the cusp of shaking her community to its core—and finding out what really happened the night her parents died.

With “striking prose, engaging characters, and a searing story of crimes rooted in the heartland,” Bad Axe County is a “darkly irresistible thriller” (Kirkus Reviews, starred review) that you won’t be able to put down.

My Review:

I didn’t realize that the CE read and reviewed Book 3, Bad Moon Rising last year, and wasn’t wholly thrilled with it.

That is essentially my reaction to Book 1. From the beginning, it’s heavily atmospheric, describing Wisconsin very well. This is a small town with all the idiosyncrasies that comes with a small town: everybody knows everybody’s business. Most have been born, raised, and never strayed beyond the county city limits. Usually, that also means narrow thinking, biased attitudes, ole boy enclaves well entrenched. The haves; the have nots.

The protagonist, Heidi Kick is a former beauty queen turned law enforcement who suddenly discovers herself sheriff upon the death of the former officer. She has a history, of course, the apparent murder/suicide of her parents—something she never accepted and a case that is never far below the one currently being investigated.

And what’s being currently investigated is plenty. The storyline veers into missing girls, discovery of bodies, drugs, and human trafficking.
Lots of characters. Heidi is married with little ones. She is battling those who don’t want a “Dairy Queen” in the position—but she does have a base support.

The plot line turns decidedly dark, the dialogue raw, profane, denigrating, and demeaning. It is suspenseful, violent, and fast-paced. Better keep up!
The conclusion manages to work out all the threads, leaving Heidi snarking with her buddy, Denise—that part is fun—and I like the character of Denise.
It is well-plotted, loaded with atmosphere, and for the most part dark. I like strong female protagonists, but will have to give this one more thought.

Rosepoint Publishing: Three point Five Stars

Book Details:

Genre: Police Procedurals, Women Sleuths, Suspense
Publisher: Simon & Schuster Audio
ASIN: B07NDYSZLJ
Listening Length: 10 hrs 24 mins
Narrator: Samantha Desz
Publication Date: July 9, 2019
Source: Local Library (Audiobook Selections)
Title Link: Bad Axe County [Amazon]

The Author: [Goodreads] John Galligan, in addition to being a novelist and teacher, John has worked as a newspaper journalist, feature-film screenwriter, house painter, au pair, ESL teacher, cab driver, and freezer boy in a salmon cannery. He currently teaches writing at Madison Area Technical College, where his experience is enriched by students from every corner of the local and world community.

2022 V Williams

#ThrowbackThursday

The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah- #Audiobook Review – #TBT

The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah

Best Literature & Fiction

Book Blurb:

Audie Award, Fiction, 2016

In love we find out who we want to be. In war we find out who we are.

France, 1939

In the quiet village of Carriveau, Vianne Mauriac says goodbye to her husband, Antoine, as he heads for the Front. She doesn’t believe that the Nazis will invade France…but invade they do, in droves of marching soldiers, in caravans of trucks and tanks, in planes that fill the skies and drop bombs upon the innocent. When a German captain requisitions Vianne’s home, she and her daughter must live with the enemy or lose everything. Without food or money or hope, as danger escalates all around them, she is forced to make one impossible choice after another to keep her family alive.

Vianne’s sister, Isabelle, is a rebellious eighteen-year-old girl, searching for purpose with all the reckless passion of youth. While thousands of Parisians march into the unknown terrors of war, she meets Gäetan, a partisan who believes the French can fight the Nazis from within France, and she falls in love as only the young can…completely. But when he betrays her, Isabelle joins the Resistance and never looks back, risking her life time and again to save others.

With courage, grace and powerful insight, bestselling author Kristin Hannah captures the epic panorama of WWII and illuminates an intimate part of history seldom seen: the women’s war. The Nightingale tells the stories of two sisters, separated by years and experience, by ideals, passion and circumstance, each embarking on her own dangerous path toward survival, love, and freedom in German-occupied, war-torn France–a heartbreakingly beautiful novel that celebrates the resilience of the human spirit and the durability of women. It is a novel for everyone, a novel for a lifetime.

My Review:

Well, mercy, I do pick up some major tear-jerkers. Tear-jerkers for some, DNF for others. It’s another where the divide between the perceived outstanding literary fiction and bad chick-lit sparks an arc between one and five stars. As usual, I manage to come in when the dust has settled.

Okay, yes, I had a few of the same arguments I’ve seen voiced in reviews as I’ve long believed the old adage, “when poverty comes in the door, love flies out the window.” So during war with so many atrocities happening as well as rampant starvation, can you really believe a spark of anything much past the drive to survive? There was more. But I’m not going to hold her feet to the fire for using a modicum of artistic license to spin a riveting tale.

Hannah may have taken just a few liberties with certain WWII factoids. Still, overall she paints the devastating horrific picture of carnage we’ve been given through survivers and she paints that scene behind the story of two French sisters, Viann and Isabelle.

Polar opposites with some years between, the younger Isabelle is passionate about doing whatever she can to aid her country in the fight against the Germans. And she finds a niche she exploits far beyond what anyone could have expected of either man or woman. I know in my heart there was probably more than one unsung female hero whose sacrifices we’ll never know except through fictionalized stories such as these.

The characters are well drawn: Viann, older and a mother who has kissed her husband goodbye and waiting for his return finally realizes she has been left to survive on her own. Isabelle, alienated from her sister and her father has no compunction in joining the resistance as her youthful confidence would drive her passionate activities safely. Eventually, her service is curtailed and there are retributions to be paid.

It’s a narrative that yanks the emotions one way and then another.

Both the main characters and the support characters create a realistic scene—often coming easily to mind providing numerous cringe-worthy moments. Certainly, there were times when I thought the feat beyond the ability of a woman, much less in wartime, or inclement weather.

You can’t fault the storyline for lagging anywhere; it’s driving, driving, and difficult to stop at any chapter endings. The conclusion in the 1995 wrap-up was satisfying with one little twist left to mull over and it’s one of those books that haunts for some time. My favorite quote:

“Men tell stories. Women get on with it. For us it was a shadow war. There were no parades for us when it was over, no medals or mentions in history books. We did what we had to during the war, and when it was over, we picked up the pieces and started our lives over.”

I’ve read several Kristin Hannah books, including most recently The Four Winds*, and enjoyed them all for the human stories they offer; the hope in times of loss, and the amazing resilience of the human spirit.

I downloaded a copy of this audiobook from my local well-stocked library. These are my honest thoughts.

Book Details:

Genre: Historical Fiction, Women’s Fiction
Publisher: Macmillan Audio
ASIN: B00NY8OTR0
Listening Length: 17 hrs 19 mins
Narrator: Polly Stone
Publication Date: February 3, 2015
Source: Local Library (Audiobook Selections)
Title Link: The Nightingale [Amazon]

Rosepoint Publishing: Four point Five Stars

The Author: Kristin Hannah is the award-winning and bestselling author of more than 20 novels including the international blockbuster, The Nightingale, which was named Goodreads Best Historical fiction novel for 2015 and won the coveted People’s Choice award for best fiction in the same year. It was also named a Best Book of the Year by Amazon, iTunes, Buzzfeed, the Wall Street Journal, Paste, and The Week. In 2018, The Great Alone became an instant New York Times #1 bestseller and was named the Best Historical Novel of the Year by Goodreads.

The Four Winds was published in February of 2021 and immediately hit #1 on the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, USA Today, and Indie bookstore’s bestseller lists. Additionally, it was selected as a book club pick by both Today Show and The Book Of the Month club.

The Nightingale is currently in production at Tri Star, with Dakota and Elle Fanning set to star. Tri Star has also optioned The Great Alone and it is in development. Firefly Lane, her novel about two best friends, was the #1 Netflix show around the world, in the week it came out. The popular tv show stars Katherine Heigl and Sarah Chalke and Season Two is currently being filmed.

http://www.kristinhannah.com

*In April 2021, Netflix and The Walt Disney Company signed a deal with Sony for the right to exclusively stream and broadcast on Disney’s linear television networks for upcoming films, including this film after their theatrical and home media windows.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Nightingale_(upcoming_film)

Rosepoint recommended