I am always delighted to spend time with the characters in Anne Perry’s series of historical novels,. This time, the book features Daniel Pitt who is newly married to Miriam fford Croft. Regular readers of the series will enjoy watching the two in this new phase in their relationship, while those who are just meeting Daniel and Miriam for the first time will quickly catch on.
A bit of background…Thomas and Charlotte Pitt are Daniel’s parents; they have a series of their own. Sir Thomas is involved at the highest levels of government as head of Special Branch. In this entry, his work and Daniel’s will intersect.
Malcolm Vayne has an apt surname. As is often the case in my opinion, Perry creates characters in her historical fiction that resonate in our presents. Here, I would say that Vayne has some of the qualities of a Madoff or Trump. Vayne is unscrupulous yet somewhat charismatic and he supports causes such as women’s suffrage. At the same time, he is involved in complex financial schemes.
There is not a dead body until 3/5ths into the novel. This is undoubtedly deliberate on Perry’s part as she unwinds her plot slowly. Will justice be done? What does the title, The Fourth Enemy, mean? Find out in this book.
I like that Perry believes in strong women who perhaps were unusual for their time. For instance, Miriam is a forensic pathologist in the story which takes place in the early 1900s. Earlier, Charlotte was less “ladylike” than her peers. I also enjoy how characters from other series make appearances. Here there are Thomas and also a character from the Elena Standish series. Others from the Daniel Pitt stories are also here including Miriam’s father who recently gave up his law practice and Ian Frobisher, a school friend of Daniel’s who is in the police force. There is also a new law practitioner in the chambers. He has a most difficult case to prosecute.
I have read Anne Perry’s books from the very beginning and always look forward to her newest titles. No surprise that i am recommending this one.
Publishers Weekly states: Four decades after her debut, Perry shows no sign of losing steam.
I concur.
Many thanks to NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group for this book. All opinions are my own.
Ann Napolitano toiled in obscurity for years. Novels went unpublished; agents turned her down. She found recognition with “Dear Edward.” Then came the call: “Hello Beautiful” was the 100th pick for what is arguably the most influential book club in the world.
— Read on www.nytimes.com/2023/03/14/books/hello-beautiful-ann-napolitano.html
Virginia Woolf’s novel, Mrs. Dalloway, is a genuine favorite of mine. I have read it twice and will be rereading it for a class this semester. I am excited about that. So, given my admiration for that novel, I was very curious to read Daughter Dalloway. I admire the audaciousness on the author’s part in taking on a modern classic but was not sure how I would feel about the book. So, I will just say upfront, that I enjoyed this title.
Many people and scenes from Mrs. Dalloway are in this book’s pages. Readers will undoubtedly remember Mrs. Dalloway going out to buy flowers, as she does here and may also recall her relationship with her husband, with Peter, and with others who are found here as well.
The story is told in differing time frames and perspectives. One focus is on Elizabeth who is the Daughter Dalloway. Readers get to know her in her contemporary time period and also as she was when younger. She is a complex character who has quite a mother with whom to contend. Elizabeth also wants to be her own person, not just a daughter.
Readers of Mrs. Dalloway also will remember Septimus. His sister is the other focus of the story. She bravely goes to London to try and find her brother and to understand the course that his life has taken. Will she find him and, if so, what will she find?
The lives of these two women intersect over the course of the novel. Each learns a lot about herself and those around her as a result.
I think that historical novel will be enjoyed by those with some connection to Mrs.Dalloway although there may be others who feel that they do not want anything to interfere with their love of the original titie. Those who have not read Mrs. Dalloway may find that they want to after spending time with Elizabeth and Octavia.
Many thanks to NetGalley and Blackstone Publishing for this title. All opinions are my own.
Recipes, Rituals, and Crafts to Embrace the Magic of the Year
by Emma Frisch and Jana Blankenship
#SeasonalFamilyAlmanac #NetGalley
This book will be a wonderful resource for its intended audience. It is filled with information, reflections, projects, photos, illustrations and more from the contributors.
This title is organized by “micro”seasons. Start anytime that you like or look forward or backward in the book just for the fun of it. To focus on our current time of early spring, here is some of what will be found. There are recipes for No Fuss Crispy Roast Chicken with Winter Roots; Calendula & Coconut Castile Shampoo and Body Was; a section on Dorodango Mud Balls and more. By late winter, make Heart Beet Hummus or Creamy Squash and Lentil Soup. There are also Rainbow Prisms for the window instructions, to name just some of what is here.
One of the nice touches in this title is that the difficulty of the projects is included. This is a book for those who like to be hands on and to work together with others, at least sometimes.
Many thanks to NetGalley and Chronicle Books for this title. All opinions are my own.
Graham Norton was well known in Britain but for his TV presence until he also became an autho . This was his first novel and he has gone on to write several more. Norton was off to an excellent start with this story set in Ireland.
PJ (Peej) is the Garda in a small Irish village. He is overweight and, at times, seemingly overwhelmed. He was certainly not prepared for a murder investigation but this is what he gets when a body is found on a building site.
Many in the community think that they know who the victim was. Are they right?
This novel offers a mystery and a portrait of a community with an eccentric group of characters. Among them are two women who were involved with a man who disappeared.
This book was recently made into a TV show that is being shown on Acorn in the U.S. Read the book first, then watch the show for the full experience.
Many thanks to NetGalley and Atria Books for this title. All opinions are my own.
Kristen Bird lives outside of Houston, Texas with her husband and three daughters. She earned her bachelor’s degree in music and mass media before completing a master’s in literature. She teaches high school English and writes with a cup of coffee in hand. In her free time, she likes to visit parks with her three daughters, watch quirky films with her husband and attempt to keep pace with her rescue lab-mixes.
Book Summary:
The Williams women don’t just keep secrets…
They bury them.
The three Williams girls are as close as sisters can be, and they also share one special trait in common: each of them has a man in her life that she could do without.
Tara, the pastor’s wife, has been stealing money from the church and would prefer that her husband stay out of it. Then there’s June, who would do anything to have a baby of her own, even if her husband is dead set against it. Clementine, the youngest, is entangled in an affair with her professor, a man whose behavior she’s starting to seriously question. Their sister-in-law Stephanie, an outsider, knows all the family dirt and is watching the three of them—and the men in their lives—closely.
When the woman who raised them, their beloved Gran, dies on the eve of her eightieth birthday, the Williams sisters return home to the Appalachian foothills to bury her. But their grandmother won’t be the only one they’ll put in a grave this weekend…because now someone has gone missing in the dark Appalachian woods.
And if Gran has taught them anything, it’s how to get rid of a good-for-nothin’ man.
“Exceptional…. This tale of sisterhood is un-put-downable.” —Publishers Weekly, starred review
“A wicked blend of family secrets, sibling resentment and small-town ways. Wondering how to get away with murder? The Williams sisters know.” —Lisa Gardner, #1 New York Times bestselling author “Irresistible and compulsive, this book is packed full of surprises.” —Samantha Downing, internationally bestselling author of My Lovely Wife
The cover:
A sample:
The Sheriff’s Office in Willow Gap, AlabamaOne Week After
STEPHANIE
It would’ve been a touching moment except for the reality of the grave at their feet. Gran’s grave. I shiver just thinking about the three Williams sisters standing in the family cemetery, their arms entwined, gazing up at the sunrise, all that cool Alabama clay piled beside them, their fingernails packed with the red earth, the stench of what they’d done in their nostrils. It was Decoration Sunday, the one day of the year when the entire family descended on Gran’s property to pay respect to the dead and gossip about those still living.
Tara, June, and Clementine Williams are my sisters-in-law. For so long, I’ve waited for the day that their little coven would topple some man’s ivory tower. Now that the time has come, I realize that each of us has a man that we might be better off without, but only one of us is lucky enough to have actually rid ourselves of him.
Four men: a preacher, a doctor, a professor, and a mayor. One goes missing. It’s like our own little Willow Gap edition of Clue. How charming.
Sheriff Brady Dean, his badge shining in the interrogation lights, brings me back to the moment at hand, the moment of reckoning. The aged sheriff wants to know what I know, wants me to spill all the whys, whens, wheres, and hows of the Williams sisters over the past forty-eight hours.
“I’m sure you know why you’re here, Mrs. Williams.” The words emerge like a sigh. He’s been after this family for more than thirty years, ever since he was first elected. Poor guy. Must be exhausted.
I meet the sheriff eye to eye, tapping my recently painted nails—Los Angeles Latte, the dark bottle of polish had read—against the metal table in the claustrophobic office where he’s brought me for questioning. Not that I’m the one in trouble here.
My husband, Walker Williams, knew Sheriff Dean before Walker and I ever met and married a decade ago. Some say ours was a Yankee seduction, but I don’t care. Walker has been the mayor now for eight years, and they have to put up with me, the damn Yank in their midst.
I think of my three children—Walker Jr. and Auggie and Bella—their features too much like my husband’s. They’re fine, I remind myself. They’re with the nanny while I’m here tying up all of the loose ends. I shake my head to dislodge their faces from my mind. It’s important that I focus. I must get this right.
“Call me Ms. Chadrick. Or Stephanie. I’ll be using my maiden name soon enough,” I tell the sheriff.
Sheriff Dean clears his throat, and I follow his eyes to my hand. I’m still wearing my massive diamond, the one Walker bought for our last anniversary. To ten years, baby, and a lifetime more, he’d said as he slipped it on my finger in our Nashville hotel room. I’m not planning to part with my jewelry just because my husband can’t keep his dick in his pants.
I blink innocently at the sheriff and twist my ring around, pressing the stone into my palm until it bites. “I’m here to tell you what I saw after Gran Williams’s funeral. Isn’t that right?”
“Yes’m.” The sheriff lets out a heavy breath that reaches all the way down to the gut hanging over his belt. “I know these women are your husband’s sisters, but we’re hoping…”
“Soon to be ex-husband,” I fire back, reminding him once again.
“Fine. As I was saying, we’re hoping you’ll be willing to give us an account of the movement of your sisters-in-law these past few days. With a missing person, time is of the essence.”
He gives me one of those indulgent smiles saved only for a wronged woman. He knows about my cheating bastard of a spouse, and I breathe, reminding myself again that I’m in good company. Jackie O., Eleanor Roosevelt, Hillary—all of these fine ladies were cheated on by their infamous yet politically savvy husbands. Remembering them makes it easier for me to deal with the fact that everyone knows about Walker and his lying ways.
When I first moved here from DC, I thought my new husband and his town were adorable, quaint even. As I prepared for Walker’s bid for mayor, I even got a kick out of researching its history at the local library, trying to understand the place where generations of Walker’s family had lived for so long.
Alabama. Some historians say the word is from a Native American language and means “tribal town” or “vegetation gatherers.” My favorite definition of the word, though, was penned by one Alexander Beauford Meek, a highly unreliable
source, but isn’t that what history is made of? Mr. Meek said that the word means “here we rest.” Alabama: here we rest. It’s deliciously spooky, isn’t it? Like something from one of those Faulkner stories I couldn’t get enough of in college.
To be fair though, my problem isn’t actually with the great state of Alabama. It’s with these people, this town, this family. They forget so easily that I’m a part of them now, for better or worse. They forget that I know where all the bodies are buried, and I’m not just talking about their kinfolk in the family cemetery a couple hundred yards down the hill from Gran’s house.
The sheriff clears his throat and tries again. “As I was sayin’, we’re hopin’ you can give us a clearer account of who all was there and what exactly went on, so we can understand what led to our missing person. He’s an important man, a good man, and the last time anyone laid eyes on him was Saturday evening a few hours after the funeral at Gran Williams’s cabin.”
Our missing person. There’s something so possessive in the phrase. I almost giggle, realizing that this man is handing me my chance on a silver platter, an opportunity to expose every inch of the Williams family drama.
“Sheriff, ask me any question, and I’ll tell you exactly what you want to hear.” I cross my legs and study my cuticles. “Although, if you want to know the whole truth, you need to go a lot further back than the past few days.”
I take a sip of the coffee he brought me earlier and stretch my arms in front of me as if preparing for a catnap. I wonder if the sheriff realizes just how far back he needs to reach, how far down he needs to dig until he hits something like the truth.
The sheriff nods at me to continue, and I notice again the plump circles hanging under his eyes. He sneezes into the crook of his arm and settles in for the real reason why people involved with the Williams family might just disappear.
I sit up straighter. “All right, then. Let’s start with the dead one.”
Coming Home to the Highlands is another easy read from this author and Boldwood Books. BB publishes the sorts of novels that readers want to relax with while sipping tea. An added plus is the very reasonable prices for the e book editions.
In Coming Home to the Highlands, Liv has in fact left, hence her return as per the title. Interested in the world of fashion, she had left the family castle and moved to New York. When her brother calls her with news, she has no choice but to return home. How will this go for her? Will brother and sister make peace? Will Liv keep her career? Find romance? Help her family? Read this one to find out.
Many thanks to Boldwood Books and NetGalley for this title. All opinions are my own.
There are many parenting books out there but they are generally geared to the early years through adolescence. Job done? Not really and certainly not for everyone. Especially in our current age, parenting does not seem to end with the completion of school. Instead, parents seem to be ever more involved with and concerned about their children.
Worried about their job prospects? Relationships? Mental health issues? Are you estranged? Not sure what to say as you become a grandparent and watch your child parenting? These are the sorts of issues that keep parents on edge but not sure what to do. Should one parent their adult child (how is that for an oxymoron though the author explains why he chose it.) and intervene and, if so, how? For those who want some thoughtful assistance, here is one highly regarded author who wants to help.
As one example, someone I know found the advice on what to do if you are not so sure of your child’s romantic partner to be spot on and very helpful. Suddenly there was something to contemplate and/or do about a situation rather than spinning mentally.
The advice and vignettes in this book will be welcomed by readers. Those who are parents of twenty and thirty year olds will leave these pages feeling a bit more certain about how they want to proceed and when.
Many thanks to NetGalley and Simon & Schuster for this title. All opinions are my own.
Readers probably know that there is something to be said for finding the right read for the right time or mood. When in Rome was that kind of book for me. It offered a slower, somewhat more contemplative stroll through the life of its protagonist, Claire and was just the kind of book that I was seeking.
As the story opens, Claire is fifty-two years old. Her daughter, Dorothy, is in her late twenties and was raised by Claire as an only child. Claire’s own mother died when she was young leaving her to be raised by her father as a single parent. She also became well known to her Milwaukee community of nuns.
Claire goes to Yale where she makes a very good female friend and also falls for Marcus. Her nascent desire to become a nun remains even as Claire takes a post graduation real estate job where her specialty is the sale of ecclesiastical buildings.
This career sends Claire to Rome, a city that is lovely to visit in Claire’s company. There she meets a group of idiosyncratic sisters who engage with her. Will they lose their unique convent to a real estate developer?
The crux of the story is about what decisions Claire will make and what she wants in her life. Is it to be a nun or is it to remain in the world, possibly with Marcus? Read this gentle novel to find out.
Publishers Weekly calls this one “a delight.” I heartily agree.
Many thanks to Penguin Group Dutton for this title. All opinions are my own.
From the Publisher
Editorial Reviews
Review
“If Eat, Pray, Love was organized in a different order, it might feel a bit like Callanan’s introspective and genuine exploration of the sacrifices and opportunities that come with a new outlook on life. Taking a wide view of love of all types—platonic, spiritual, romantic, geographic—When in Rome should appeal to fans of Kate Atkinson, Kate Weinberg, and Emma Straub.” —Booklist (starred)
“Callanan writes a richly drawn story about a woman feeling lost in her own life and finding unexpected connections, with a lively cast of supporting characters. . . . A quiet and ultimately joyous depiction of self-discovery against a vibrant Roman setting.” —Kirkus
“Callanan (Paris by the Book) builds a charming story from a woman’s midlife crisis…Callanan keeps things moving with the question of the convent’s fate hanging over the characters, and carefully outlines Claire’s complicated feelings about her relationships and vocation. This is a delight.” —Publishers Weekly
Joyce's mystery and fiction book reviews with some non-fiction too! 