A Place of Forgetting

This novel could be classified as Young Adult in that the protagonist is just nineteen, I certainly remember the 1960’s as a teenager, but it’s meaty enough to  also be classified as literary women’s fiction.

Nothing seems to be going right for Elizabeth as disappointments pile up one on top of the other; her dog dies, the young man she’s loved all her life boards his flight to Vietnam where he becomes one of many MIA’s,  and then she’s presented a note that she should help take care of the flighty young woman who claims to be his fiancé. All of it is too much and she flees in her rusty old car, “Buggy” for a better life in Chicago. But, nothing goes as anticipated. For one thing, the so-called fiancé decides she’ll go along for the ride. Detours abound, until they reach a new and life-changing destination that will make all the difference to Elizabeth.

As a reader and a writer, I thought I knew how it was going to go, only to be surprised at the originality of the plot. I don’t want to do a run down on the events—the turns along the way for any reader are too sweet to spoil, but let me say that this is one of the best fiction books I’ve read all year. It was delightful in its intensity, the development of the characters,  and mostly in how Elizabeth finally comes into her own as a young woman.

I can see this novel as a really good subject for a college class. And, best of all, I believe that it’s going to become a much loved favorite for many young women.

Reviewed by guest reviewer RP Dahlke, January 2012.

A Question of Fire

Cathy Bennett gets stuck with what she considered an assignment from hell when she gets stuck filling in for the society page editor at her paper. A self-described social klutz, and much happier with her usual local government column, attending the party was bad enough; ending up with a dead guy in her lap was way past her job description.

Not only did she witness a murder, the unseen murderer now thinks Cathy knows a lot more than she does. The victim died before giving the full location of evidence he said he had that would clear his brother, Danny, of arson. She feels obligated to Bobby, who died in her arms while trying to give her the information, but doesn’t really know where to start.

Teaming up with Danny’s lawyer, they set out to find the evidence and clear Danny of arson, but find themselves the targets of some genuinely bad dudes.

This story has good plot twists, a little romance, a lot of action, and is a book I enjoyed. I have to admit, I figured out where the evidence was in the first third of the book, but I’m not giving you a clue; buy the book and challenge yourself!

Reviewed by guest reviewer Jinx Schwartz, December 2011.

Mercury’s Rise

I love a good historical, and if it’s an American historical—all the better.

I am very pleased to say that this is the best historical I’ve read all year. The fourth in the Silver Rush Series set in and around Leadville, Colorado, Mercury’s Rise sets the reader between Leadville, and Manitou, Colorado, two important  historical settings for totally different reasons.

Inez is a complicated woman.  Born in the East and from a family of privilege, she may not have chosen wisely when she allowed herself to be wooed into a hasty marriage with charming gambler, Mark Stannert. With a rocky ten years of marriage, a partnership in a successful Leadville saloon, and a baby boy whose asthmatic conditions deems it necessary for them to sell the saloon, her husband, Mark, disappears and she fears him dead. (Read the first three books.)

In this book, Mark has been gone a year, and Inez sees a lawyer and posts a newspaper advertisement for dissolution of marriage. But, then Mark reappears, kicking her dreams of a new life with the reverend Sanders off the tracks.

Inez, suspicious and deeply hurt by what she considers her husband’s abandonment, doesn’t want to hear his excuses. After all, because of his disappearance, she had to remain with the saloon and send their son to her sister back east.

So begins this deeply atmospheric story that weaves mystery, history and romance. The author nails it with her descriptions of this time of American history, the characters, each in their levels in society, speak and act as I would imagine them to do so. And eventually it’s these societal standards of 19^th century America that drives one of them to do murder.

I really appreciated how the author has created an intelligent and tough protagonist in Inez Stannert. Inez is flawed as both a woman who does what she can to survive and as a mother who is torn in her decision to let her son be raised by her sister and family.

An excellent, intelligent read that I happily lived in until it was finished. I look forward to reading more Silver Rush Mysteries to see what happens with Inez.

Reviewed by guest reviewer, RP Dahlke, November 2011.

Just Deserts

Needing some ready cash to get her beloved boat bottom fixed, Hetta takes a new job at a copper mine close to the Arizona border in Cananea,Mexico.  In Hetta’s words, “And, presto change, I was off on another adventure, and this time with a regular old, probably boring job where I couldn’t get into any trouble. I heard wings flapping and a pig flew by.”

If you’ve read her other Hetta Coffey books you too can laugh at the pig as he flies by because you know Hetta will soon be neck deep in trouble.  Sure enough, Mexican bad guys, international smugglers, a semi-domesticated coyote, a not so domesticated bad-boy who goes by the name of Nacho, some home-grown American terrorists, a love life that threatens, and friends and family who begin to show up, threatening her sanity. It’s enough to drive a girl to drink.

There’s enough humor to keep you laughing through the book and enough mystery to keep you turning the pages. Regardless, I guarantee, you won’t be bored. Just Deserts is the fourth in the Hetta Coffey series and the author likes to say these are Baja adventures—they certainly are every bit of that.

Reviewed by guest reviewer RP Dahlke, November 2011.

The Winter Sea

Being a big fan of historical fiction I was excited to dive right into this book. First of all, I want to say that this is a beautifully written book and I loved the atmospheric scenes of Scotland, the great job the author did with the local dialect, no easy feat there, and the witty banter between Carrie and her agent, Jane, Carrie and Jimmy, Carrie and Graham, and Carrie and Stewart.

I also loved the premise–the idea of genetic memory–and have read postulations on the idea that memories could be passed down to our descendants as well as eye and hair color. It certainly makes sense to me as I have come to understand that even our hands have a memory of their own. Yes! That hand-eye coordination that gunslingers have? It isn’t all connected to the brain, you know, it’s kept as memory in the limb. Okay, off topic here.

Genetic memory aside, I found the frequent juxtaposition between the first person POV in the present time and the 3^rd person POV as Carrie plunges into the memories of her 16^th century ancestor somewhat jarring. I’d get all cozy into one story and in the next chapter I’d be dumped into another story and another time.

I also felt that the author used her present day character to give the reader historical lessons as a way to set the stage for her ancestral story, but I would rather she had allowed her readers to have the intelligence to know their history, or go look it up. And as a writer, I’d always been taught to show not tell, so these passages felt like instruction from a school teacher.

I thought both stories could have quite frankly have stood alone and I would have happily read both, I just didn’t enjoy reading them in one book.

Last, but not least, I felt cheated to hear Carrie discussing the ending with her agent. If the author needs to rewrite the ending to suit her readers, please let her do it off-stage. As a reader this is sure not what I paid for! What next? Will the author ask the readers how the story should end? BTW: I knew how it was going to end the minute she mentioned the stranger in town.

Okay, I’m sure this author felt a strong need to try something new, and obviously her editor and publisher thought it terrific or it wouldn’t have sold and after all, this is only one person’s opinion and it’s still a darn good sight better than many historical fiction.

Reviewed by guest reviewer RP Dahlke, November 2011.

Uneasy Spirits

This is Ms. Locke’s delightful sequel to Maids of Misfortune, and the second in the Annie Fuller historical mystery series.  Set in the late 1800’s in one of my favorite cities, San Francisco, California, I felt like I was there, walking these streets as they were a hundred years ago.

By day, Annie Fuller makes her living as the proprietor of a respectable and well established boarding house, but at night, she becomes Madame Sybil, fortune teller. Annie may have been brought up studying finance at her father’s knee, but this is the only way any grown man in the 1800’s will accept the financial advice from a twenty-six year old woman, much less pay for the privilege.  And, Annie, has finally found someone who isn’t like her dead husband in the attractive young lawyer, Nate Dawson whose awkwardness around Annie, is both touching and charming.

The story opens with the scene in which we witness the murder of an elderly woman, and in a totally separate venue, we’re introduced to a very strange young girl. The two incidents, we later learn, are intricately woven together and the result will culminate in a surprise ending.

Annie gets involved when one of her boarders, Miss Pinehurst, fearing for her sister’s sanity, begs Annie to help her prove that the clairvoyants her sister insists upon paying, are fake. Stepping into the world of Simon and Arabella Frampton, Annie is sure that Miss Pinehurst is right and determines to expose them… until she meets with Evie May, the odd child we saw in the beginning.

Evie May is a chameleon, a child whose different personas are used by the unscrupulous Simon and Arabella Frampton as a way of making lots of money.

But, there’s a more sinister plot underway here between the Framptons and a shadowy figure who is actually directing the whole show from the sidelines.

Nate and Annie become pawns of this person’s nefarious plans, and though we don’t find out who this person is until almost the end, there’s every reason to believe that one or both of these young people may become the next victim.

This is a skillfully crafted mystery with wonderful recurring characters who are the kind of people that live with the reader long after the book is finished.  And of course, the bad and really bad characters get what’s coming to them… perfect!

Last, but not least, when I read this book I was reminded of one of my favorite historical mystery authors, Anne Perry. I’ve read almost all of her books, and I can honestly say that Ms. Locke’s work is right up there with Anne Perry’s.

Reviewed by RP Dahlke, Guest Reviwer, October, 2011.

The Little Women Letters

In this cleverly written novel, the author weaves letters from a fictional Louisa May Alcott character, Jo March, between the pages of a contemporary story that involves her great-great granddaughters, Emma, Sophie and Lulu. The entire family is blissfully happy, being born from a union of their American mother Fee, and their British father David.

Now, I know this book has received rave reviews from quarters all around the globe, and I’m happy to agree with them to a point, but I have bones to pick with the story; because when nothing happens, it starts to rub like sandpaper on the skin. Yes, the dialogue is twerriby, twerriby British and witty, but this is not Louisa May Alcott’s 19^th century America, it’s 2010, England, London to be exact.

My hopes were raised, when Sophie, the youngest, might be pounced upon by a theatrical producer. Didn’t happen.  And then, she might die from food poisoning!  Sophie’s virtue stays intact and she doesn’t die. Damn and double damn.  Unlike Lousia May Alcott, the author simply can’t imagine that her readers might enjoy a good snot-sob at the loss of one of the characters.

There is a momentary consideration that the father, David may be unfaithful, unseen by his wife, who is everyone elses emotional counselor, but can’t see when her husband may be wandering off to enjoy a little hanky-panky on the side. Of course, no lusty roll in the hay on the side for David and Fee doesn’t clout him on the ear. Oh, well. It was only wishful thinking on my part anyway.

Then there’s Lulu, the middle sister, who has an expensive, and heretofore, unused bio-chemistry degree. But, does she toil at a dull, but well-paying job? No, not cuckoo Lulu. She flits from one dead-end job to the next, all the while cooking up incredible gourmet meals for her family, friends and wealthy flat-mate, Charlie, whose family just happens to own a complete set of swanky hotels.

Now, gentle reader, I ask you, what kind of family, flat-mate, sisters, friends, all ignore the fact that the girl is a born chef, and yet, not one of them mentions that she should go to cooking school? That is, until Charlie’s brother shows up. A hunky guy who cooks. Imagine that? They meet, they cook, and being the thoroughly modern girl that she is, promptly falls in love with the guy (and promptly makes  plans to go to chef school).

Okay, granted, I’m a mystery writer, a speed freak, an action junky—call me what you will, but if I want to read Victorian novels, I’ll stick with Louisa May Alcott, whose writing still gives us pathos, yearning, separation, death and hope, humor, and more hope during a terrible time of our American history, the American Civil War.

Agree? Disagree? Do your worst… I gotta go plot a murder scene.

Reviewed by R.P. Dahlke, guest reviewer, September 2011.

Dumpster Dying

Emily Rhodes is, as Detective Stanton Lewis likes to think, “Not much bigger than one of Santa’s Elves.” She’s petite and blond, cute as a button, on the young side of fifty and on the wrong side of luck when her love of ten years keels over from a heart attack.

Bartending at the Big Lake Country Club in the heart of Florida cowboy country seems like a fit, she gets paid, likes her boss Carla, and there’s always golf with some girlfriends when she can work it in.

Unfortunately, life gets complicated after a late night shift and the garbage that won’t fit into the dumpster soon shows why: there’s the body of a nasty customer in it. She has every intention of calling the police, but the door is locked behind her, leaving her stranded without keys or cell phone. Fortunately, the local deputies show up because someone anonymously called it in, and doesn’t she look sweet for the crime?

But, as they say, wait…. It gets better.  The good news is that her boss, Carla, used to be a practicing attorney, and with the chutzpa of Godzilla, manages to spring Emily  from the local police station. The bad news is that Carla soon becomes a suspect because, like most people in town, she hated the guy. And, to add to Emily’s stress, it looks like she’s going to have to fight her lover’s ex  in court for his modest home and meager estate, and where’s she going to get the money for an attorney?  Carla’s dad, despite living in a rest home so he’ll have women to chase, is still a practicing attorney, or at least he is when he’s interested, or likes the client.  He likes Emily, so as a favor he decides to represent her against the ex-wife and the possible arraignment for murder.

I was charmed by the family dynamics in this book; Emily and her newly found biological daughter, and Carla, her dad and her son. There was enough humor to keep me giggling at the author’s asides about the men in the story and I was also pleased to see that Emily, who generally greets a frightful situation with hiccups, grows into a resourceful and competent amateur sleuth.Ultimately, it’s Emily’s boss, Carla, and her troubled teenaged son’s past that will become the focus of a complicated history that sweeps all of them up into a maelstrom of murder.

The plotting is tight and I loved the author’s quick wit, so I’m adding this book as one of my few highly recommended reviews.

Reviewed by RP Dahlke, August 2011.
Author of the Lalla Bains mystery series.

An Uncertain Refuge

I downloaded An Uncertain Refuge, by Carolyn J. Rose for an afternoon read on the couch, chips and ice-tea at hand. I managed to move from couch to dinner table, then back to couch, then to bed and by 11:30pm I finished this very satisfying Indy author’s book in record time because I simply had to read it all without stopping.

This is suspense at its finest.

Kate Dalton runs a women’s shelter in Arkansas, but when an abusive ex-con husband takes a knife to his wife, Kate steps out of her comfort zone and in the altercation, he dies. Pushed by her superiors to capitalize on the incident with a sleazy movie company, Kate, without anything to keep her in this town, leaves her job for the open road, intent on starting over.

Then she gets a request from the battered woman whose husband Katy killed—take her son. Kate has no husband, no children and she intends to keep it that way. But, the woman is adamant, take him, or she’ll put him in foster care.

In spite of her better judgment, Kate’s heart softens and she agrees to take the shattered woman’s nine-year old son, nick-named WayRay for two weeks while the woman recuperates—that is until they get to Oregon and the boy has a medical emergency and Kate must get the mother’s permission for an appendectomy. The message machine for the mother refers all questions to a lawyer. She’s gone, leaving behind a sick and agitated child, and Kate, who tries not to panic. The lawyer fixes the problem with the hospital and Kate’s guardianship, but not the final question of where WayRay’s mom has gone or why she ran.

Seeing an opportunity to get a cheap place for the boy to recover and some additional money, Kate takes a temporary job in a local motel as manager, and in doing so, acquires a ready-made circle of friends in Rhea, the wise cracking, chain-smoking and big hearted motel manager, and Evie who runs a wildlife refuge on the coast; and eventually, a man of steadfast character who sees something special in Kate and comes to love her.

The question of why the boy’s mother is gone is soon resolved when Kate hires a PI to look for her.

This book reads like women’s fiction, thick with beautifully written atmosphere. The protagonist is a deeply introspective woman and the story has incredibly well developed secondary characters. The ending is perfect and remarkable in that there was not the over-the-top violence done in so many suspense novels.

I’m going back for more Carolyn J. Rose books—they’re terrific at any price and this one is just $.99 on Kindle.

Reviewed by R.P. Dahlke, guest reviewer, June 2011.