Bad weather swirls around the coldest of cases

Heart of Ice, by P. J. Parrish. Pocket Books. 432 pages. $7.99.

By now, mystery readers are well aware of the many awards won by the writing sisters who publish their jointly written Louis Kincaid novels under the name of P. J. Parrish. One of the sisters, Kristy Montee, lives in Fort Lauderdale. The other, Kelly Nichols, lives in Michigan. Both states are used as settings for the adventures of Louis Kincaid, a black Florida private detective who hopes to resume his career as a policeman. Heart of Ice, as one might guess, brings Kincaid to northern Michigan – specifically to Mackinac Island.

In the fall of 1990, two personal issues bring Kincaid to Michigan. First, he discovers that he is the father of a ten year old girl, Lily, who lives there. Secondly, he needs to reunite with girlfriend Joe Frye, who is working in Michigan as a law enforcement officer.  Exploring Mackinac Island with young Lily leads to an accident in an abandoned old lodge when Lily falls through rotting floorboards and onto a pile of bones.

Soon, Kincaid is assisting the local police chief, Jack Flowers, with the case. Flowers is a good man, but it seems as if he’s out of his depth with this case. Because of an initialed ring found at the site, a ring from a private school in the area, the remains are tentatively identified as those of a missing teenage girl from a prominent family who had disappeared some twenty-one years earlier. Julie Chapman never returned from Christmas break during her senior year. It looks like a murder case. Among the young woman’s bones are the bones of an unborn child.

The complications are many. The secrecy of the Chapman family makes the investigation difficult. The bad feeling between Kincaid and a higher-up police officer named Rasky as well as between Flowers and Rasky, causes additional tension. The background information about Julie Chapman’s boyfriend, the sexual abuse she suffered from her brother Ross, and the creepy skull collection of an autistic recluse (Julie’s skull was not found among the bones) who lives nearby pull the investigation in several directions.

The Sisters aka P. J. Parrish

Thinking at first that his contribution to the case will be extremely short-term, Kincaid soon needs to begin adjusting the time of his reunion with Joe Frye. Eventually, she travels to be with him and joins the investigation team. Author Parrish is extremely successful in giving a rounded picture of the pushes and pulls between these two characters. Kincaid’s need to find a deeper understanding about the future of their relationship is one more complication in the novel.

Then there is the weather. . . .

To read the entire review, as it appears in the May 15, 2013 issue of the Fort Myers Florida Weekly and the May 16 Naples edition, click here:  Florida Weekly – Parrish

Burdette tosses a hearty, humorous dish at reality television

Topped Chef, by Lucy Burdette. Obsidian. 320 pages. $7.99.

 This is the third in Ms. Burdette’s light and lovely Key West Food Critic Mysteries, following An Appetite for Murder and Death in Four Courses. The author has discovered and mastered the structural benefits of the classic space and time unities. These give the energy of compression to her plots. What better way to confine the spatial scope than to set a story on an island? What better island than the simultaneously familiar and remote Key West – a place where real history and legend combine? What better way to set temporal limits than to focus on an exciting, short-term event? 

In Death in Four Courses, Ms. Burdette explored laughs and deaths at a literary seminar given over to food writers. Now, in Topped Chef, it’s the short-term and on-the-cheap filming of a realty television cooking show. It’s a competition, of course. Not only are the contestants competing, but it seems as if the judges are as well. Though we’ll find out later how she was chosen for the task, intrepid foodie and amateur sleuth Hayley Snow, restaurant critic for “Key Zest” lifestyle magazine, is on the judging panel.  

After Hayley meets her fellow judges and the contestants, the somewhat irritable producer-director, Peter Shapiro, sets things in motion with assistance of Hayley’s acquaintance, the impeccable Deena Smith. A significant number of applicants had already been winnowed to six serious contestants. Now those six, with the judges on hand, would be chopped down to three finalists. The tension builds.

The four judges and three finalists are comprised of strongly individualized characters. Lucy Burdette draws them in broad strokes, allowing readers to sort them out. The judges include Sam Rizzoli, big shot local restaurateur who newest place has been given a negative review by Haley, causing serious friction. The other judges are the thoroughly conceited Chef Adam Boyd; the reserved and hesitant food-writer/memoirist Toby Davidson; and the overly curious motormouth, Hayley herself.

Lucy Burdette

Even more sharply etched are the remaining contestants: flamboyant drag queen Randy Thompson; Buddy Higgs, creator of ingenious dishes based on “molecular gastronomy;” and ethnic combo expert Henrietta Stentzel, with whom Hayley once had a run-in.What’s most fun with this loony crew is Ms. Burdette’s perfect pitch parody of food talk as made familiar on “Chopped” and other popular food programs where judges and competitors try to top each in their descriptions of preparations, styles, successes, and failures.

But wait – this is a murder mystery. . . .

To see this review in its entirety, as it appears in the May 1, 2013 Fort Myers Florida Weekly, the May 2 Bonita Beach and Charlotte County editions, and the May 9 Naples edition, click here: Florida Weekly – Topped Chef

Cold case catches fire in latest Harry Bosch mystery

The Black Box, by Michael Connelly.  Little, Brown / Grand Central. 432 pages. Hardcover $27.99 / Paperback $14.99.

If you missed the November hardcover release of this latest title by the master of procedural detective fiction, the paperback is just now available. Mr. Connelly, who splits his time between California and Florida, challenges well-worn L. A. homicide Detective Harry Bosch with an intriguing cold case that had been abandoned some twenty years ago.  

During the 1992 Los Angeles riots that followed the police beatings of Rodney King, a younger version of Harry Bosch was assigned to that war zone. He came across the body of an attractive young Caucasian woman who had been shot close-up through the eye. Was she an intended victim or just someone in the wrong place as the wrong time? The immediate circumstances of the riots led the overworked LAPD to shelve the case. Now, in 2012, Harry and his partner, David Chu, have been assigned to look into it.

There isn’t much in the files or evidence locker to go by, not much more than a lone bullet casing from the scene. Yet something about the victim fires Harry’s sense of responsibility and his imagination. Progress is slow, and Harry’s superior – already on Harry’s case – urges him to wrap it up or reshelve it and pursue another cold case that has a better chance of being closed. A by-the-book, careerist bean-counter, Lt. O’Toole, is just the kind of guy Harry can’t stand – one who is more office manager than agent of justice. Naturally, Harry can’t hide his feelings.

Never could.

And though Harry makes some effort to hide his persistence with the “Snow White” investigation, O’Toole is watching him closely. Before long, Harry is facing charges regarding his professional behavior. An internal affairs detective begins checking accusations that Harry has misused his badge by making a personal visit to a prison inmate instead of carrying on official business.

The victim dubbed “Snow White” is Danish freelance newspaper reporter Anneke Jespersen. What was she doing in California in 1992 that brought her to the site of the L. A. riots? Contacting Anneke’s brother and drawing upon Chu’s computer search skills and database savvy, Harry hopes that the reporter’s trip to the First Gulf War theater shortly before her fateful visit to the U. S. might hold some clues.

And it does. Slowly, methodically, but also pushing the envelope of proper procedure, Harry connects her visits. He discovers how the first, which includes joining American servicemen for R & R on a Saudi ship, leads to the second. Then he discovers why the second leads to her Los Angeles death. . . .

To see the entire review, as it appears in the April 24, 2013 Fort Myers Florida Weekly and the May 2 Naples edition, click here Florida Weekly – Black Box 1 and here Florida Weekly – Black Box 2

“March with Me,” by Rosalie T. Turner

This novel portrays the outer and inner worlds of two young women growing up in Birmingham, Alabama when it became the flashpoint of the Civil Rights Movement. The chapters contain subsections that alternate the consciousnesses of Letitia and Martha Ann, one black, one white, as they process the momentous changes that are going on in their city. Of course, Birmingham is two cities: one black, one white, with minimal interaction until the spring of 1963. 

Part One, titled “The Civil Rights Years,” is by far the longest section, spanning the period of the girls’ high school years and their first two years of college. The first couple of years are the most action-packed, as they follow the major historical events. Ms. Turner artfully combines the growing up of her fictional characters with the Birmingham-centered actions of the important movement leaders: Dr. Martin Luther King, Rev. Abernathy, Rev. Shuttlesworth, and the firebrand Rev. Bevel.

Letitia, who participates in the Children’s March, at first only learns how to be angry. Her experience of being assaulted by the harsh streams from fire hoses used for crowd control leads her to back off from active participation while struggling with her growing anger. Typically, she had been protected from the realities of racial injustice by her parents and grandmother. Embraced inside of her black community, until the movement shook up Birmingham she had little awareness about how bad things were.

While her friend Mae is committed to attending the superficially integrated University of Alabama, Letitia sees herself as helping the black community by attending Miles, the local black college and then teaching in the black schools. Her counterpart, Martha Ann, also becomes a teacher.

Rosalie T. Turner

Ironically, a year after college graduation this child of a racist father is assigned to a black school. She is the only white teacher there, and she quickly learns what it’s like to be a minority non-person. The black woman who does housekeeping chores for Martha Ann’s mother is Letitia’s mother, but the families have had no meaningful connection – or even recognition.

The author does a fine job of setting Letitia and Martha Ann into richly described families and exploring the dynamics within each family. Letitia’s father is a fine man, but he doesn’t want to make waves. He knows his paycheck depends on keeping a low profile and excepting the status quo. Through his outlook, and in many other ways, Ms. Turner examines the enormous power of sheer inertia. How can small numbers of people counteract that inertia?

To read the entire review, click here: April Read of the Month: “March with Me,” by Rosalie T. Turner

Telling details build suspense in forensic investigation

Blunt Impact, by Lisa Black. Severn House. 224 pages. $28.95.

This is the fifth title in Ms. Black’s Theresa MacLean series, and they keep getting better and better. The main character grows more interesting, the forensic detail more intriguing, and the suspense more intense. When an attractive young woman, a cement “finisher” on a massive downtown Cleveland construction project, is found to have fallen to her death from the 23^rd floor, the first question is whether her fall was accidental or was she pushed. Theresa’s forensic detective work makes a case for murder, and now the questions are by whom and why.

What’s most curious is that this was not a workday incident, but something that happened in the middle of the night when the site was closed and secured. What was she doing up there in the first place?

The deceased, Samantha Zebrowski, seems to have been well-liked by her co-workers, but co-workers and supervisors are the most likely to have access to the site after working hours.

Because “Sam” was well-known for frequenting neighborhood bars and often leaving in male company, one could conjecture that such a late night encounter led to violence. However, other possible motives come up as the investigation continues and further evidence is processed.

Perhaps her death was orchestrated as a symbolic act by a crazed member of the protest group whose members didn’t want what they considered to be an inhumane penitentiary in the heart of the city.

There are a lot of perhapses. And there is another center of narrative interest that connects to the primary one. Sam’s eleven year old daughter Anna witnessed the crime. In fact, Anna witnesses a lot of things. This sensitive, perceptive, and lonely child is a wanderer. She regularly sneaks out of her bedroom window, climbs down a tree, and explores the city. Though warned not to, “Ghost,” as she is nicknamed, puts herself in the way of danger. Readers get to know her well, as many of the novel’s chapters are presented through her point of view.

Lisa Black

Ghost’s description of the man who struggled with her mother partly shapes the investigation. What drives Ghost to participate in the investigation – in fact, to conduct her own – is a sense of responsibility and, now that she has no mother, to discover her father. The stories she has been told about her father have only confused her; they’ve been lies meant to protect her. Obviously, the reader is also hooked on these questions: who is Ghost’s father? Did he have reason to murder Sam?

The investigation is pursued by Theresa with the assistance of her cousin Frank, who is a police detective, and Frank’s partner, Angela. The interaction among these three along with the larger workings of a major city police department and legal system brings in a great deal of procedural detail. Still, it is the details of the forensics work that is so strongly appealing. . . .

To read the entire review, as it appears in the April 10, 2013 issue of Fort Myers Florida Weekly, the April 11 Bonita Springs edition, and the April 18 Naples edition,click here Florida Weekly – Blunt Impact 1 and here Florida Weekly – Blunt Impact 2

Temptation, betrayal, and wished-for redemption power splendid sequel

Keep No Secrets, by Julie Compton. Fresh Fork Publishing. 344 pages. $15.95.

This powerhouse legal thriller focuses its attention somewhat less on the legal dimensions than on the tormented relationships of the main characters. Ms. Compton probes the slow disintegration of a loving relationship once questions of trust and forgiveness corrode its core. Growing out of the situations developed in the author’s debut novel, “Tell No Lies,” this new effort reintroduces St. Louis district attorney Jack Hilliard several years after his personal and professional disgrace. 

Jack has gone a long way toward redeeming himself. His betrayed wife, Claire, has allowed him back into the family. His past missteps have been largely forgiven by the community he strives to serve with diligence. But can he truly be trusted? Will there always be a shadow of doubt about his integrity? Can he ever totally free himself from a tainted image?

These questions become white hot when Jenny Dodson, the beautiful lawyer who had tempted him before and to whom Claire believes he has an addiction, returns to town fearing for her life and needing Jack’s help. The one night Jenny and Jack spent together provided her alibi when she was tried for murder. Jack, to his disgrace and lingering shame, saved her by honestly admitting to the indiscretion. Already losing the fight with himself by being in touch with Jenny without fully considering his obligations to Claire, Jack is caught in the emotional crossfire of divided personal and professional loyalties.

A second, but related plot line develops when Jack is accused of sexual assault by his son’s girlfriend. His relationship with his son, Michael, has been frosty ever since Jack betrayed Claire. Can Michael – can Claire – believe Jack’s innocence given his past indiscretion? Did that addiction overwhelm his good sense and self-control when he confronted a young woman bearing a striking resemblance to Jenny?

Julie Compton

Can Jack sit back and trust that the legal system he knows so well will take its proper course, or must he take action that further jeopardizes his most important relationships and his sense of himself as an honorable man?

As Julie Compton skillfully advances her plot, the possible answers to such questions turn over and over. The novel becomes at once a morality play, psychological drama, and legal puzzle. Difficult to classify, Keep No Secrets is very easy to like. It’s a true page-turner in which the stakes are high on several levels. . . .

To read the entire review, as it appears in the April 17, 2013 issue of the Fort Myers Florida Weekly and the April 25 Naples edition, click here: Florida Weekly – Compton 1 and Florida Weekly – Compton 2

White’s 20th Doc Ford adventure is one of the best

Night Moves, by Randy Wayne White. Putnam. 368 pages. $26.95.

In 1945, five Navy torpedo bombers called Avengers took off from Fort Lauderdale and disappeared on a mission named Flight 19. The planes and fourteen men vanished, to become transformed into legend and into the search objective of many treasure hunters and other adventurers who’d want credit, fame, and who knows what else by solving the mystery.

Now, almost seventy years later, Doc Ford, his drug-enhanced ethereal buddy Tomlinson, and veteran pilot Dan Futch are flying over the Everglades to test Dan’s theory of where the planes went down. A mechanical failure leads do an emergency landing, after which Dan discovers that the seaplane was sabotaged to fail. 

Who would want to do such a thing? Is someone simply after Dan Futch? Or are there people who would like to see this particular quest fail? Why? Are there competitors who hope to claim discovery rights for the long-gone aircraft? Or is the saboteur actually after Tomlinson, who has been tempting fate by romancing the gorgeous, semi-crazed Cressa Arturo, a wealthy married woman on the edge of divorce?

But wait, Tomlinson has also made an enemy of Kondo Ogbay, a Haitian narcotics overlord. Could Ogbay have arranged the mechanical breakdown to injure or kill Tomlinson? Or just to threaten him?

Whatever is going on in Doc Ford’s world, a lot of it is being surreptitiously photographed.

As the pursuit of evidence about the missing Avengers moves forward, the plot population grows. We meet a jet-set assassin with at least two names who alternately snubs, threatens, and befriends Doc Ford. This handsome, dashing fellow, at once Brazilian and Germanic, is a history buff who would greatly enjoy being in on the Flight 19 search action. Mr. White skillfully builds the grudging respect that Doc and this elite killer (a kind of alter ego for Doc) have for one another.

Night Moves has a wide range of integrated details that enrich the readers’ sense of context and culture without being ultimately necessary to the plot. Information about a Native American Bone Field in the Everglades, concerns about illegal fishing techniques, and even a narrative thread that exploits the increase in the region’s population of large exotic snakes all show Randy Wayne White’s skills in weaving a hugely interesting tapestry of environmental and atmospheric complexity. . . .

To read the entire review, as it appears in the March 27, 2013 Fort Myers Florida Weekly, the March 28 Naples edition, the April 11 Charlotte County edition, and the May 2 Palm Beach County/Jupiter edition, click here Florida Weekly – Night Moves 1 and here Florida Weekly – Night Moves 2

Novelistic non-fiction reveals Depression-era Jewish immigrant life

 My Mother’s Wars, by Lillian Faderman. Beacon Press. 264 pages. $25.95.

 This strikingly intelligent and emotionally wrenching narrative traces almost a decade in the life of its main character. Mary Lifton. Set in New York beginning in 1932, the story explores Mary’s life as a Jewish immigrant from Europe. Her good fortune is that her family got her out of Latvia long before Nazi power and U. S. quotas severely limited chances for such relocations. Mary’s life as an uneducated, Depression-era foreigner, a woman without influence or meaningful support system, represents the life of many such desperate individuals. And yet Mary is remarkably well profiled by the author. This shouldn’t be surprising, as the author is Mary’s daughter. 

 I haven’t yet used the word biography to label this work because given the liberties that Ms. Faderman admits to taking, the book could have quite easily been published as fiction. The main sources for building character and situation are conversations between mother and daughter over the years.  Many of these conversations (as well as conversations between Faderman and her mother’s younger sister) belong to a wholly different era than the events, beginning perhaps in the 1960s.  Given the richness of the source material, this reader finds an unexpected remoteness between author-daughter and mother-character. In spite of this sense of distance, and due no doubt to the author’s skill and inventiveness, a luxuriantly imagined Mary Lifton explodes from the pages.

 Whether viewed as fiction, biography, or creative nonfiction, My Mother’s Wars is a powerful achievement. One of its many glories is Prof. Faderman’s portrait of the New York Depression-Era garment industry. Her descriptions of work spaces and conditions, interactions among employees, and operations of union and nonunion shops, are totally engrossing and ring with authenticity. In these descriptions, the author demonstrates her ability to turn voluminous research into flowing action and imagery.

 Faderman underscores not only that this industry depended largely on Jewish and other immigrant laborers, but also that Jewish ownership was prominent – even dominant.

 The author creates additional context by beginning each chapter with carefully constructed “Time on the March” introductions. Having the feel of movie-house newsreels, these nuggets of historical fact are drawn largely from contemporary reports in Time magazine and the New York Times. They outline the different stages of two processes: the horrific rise of Nazi Germany and the disastrous slide of the U. S. economy.

Lillian Faderman

 The story proper begins in 1932 with Mary already in her mid-thirties. She had already lived more than half of her life in the United States. Anti-Semitism, which Latvia had in abundance, did not seem to have influenced her relocation at the age of seventeen. Rather, her marketable skills in clothing manufacture and her determination to become a professional entertainer led her to accept her step-sister’s invitation to immigrate.  But the sponsorship of the step-sister and her step-sister’s husband created an awkward sense of obligation, and the clash of personalities was extreme.  After only a few months, young Mary was out on her own. At first, she loved the freedom. However, over time, loneliness engulfed her. . . .

The full review is available at the Washington Independent Review of Books. See: My Mother’s Wars | Washington Independent Review of Books

The future of climate change drives environmental thriller

The Year of the Bad Decision, by Charles Sobczak. Indigo Press.  352 pages. $16.95.

The premise of this frightening novel is that man’s activities do impact climate change – particularly global warming – on an enormous scale. Over time, the carbon dioxide in the atmosphere will raise the earth’s temperature beyond a level that will support human and most other life forms. CO2 will also deaden the seas. Tracing the accelerating changes out thirty years from today, Mr. Sobczak imagines the stages leading to inevitable doom and the bright idea that is meant to reverse the deadly process. 

Scientist Warren Randolf has carefully studied the plan to save the planet. It involves dotting the atmosphere with tiny mirrors to reflect light (and thus heat) back toward its source, cooling the earth to an inhabitable level. Meanwhile, CO2 scrubbers will cleanse the atmosphere. These mirrors are designed to self-destruct before the cooling goes too far. Warren discovers that there is a flaw in the system’s design: the self-destruction of the mirrors will not occur.

It’s Robert Frost’s “Fire and Ice” revisited.

Man’s recklessness since the dawn of the industrial revolution has created one disaster; his proud determination to correct the situation has created another. No one heeds Warren’s warning. They can’t believe his maverick viewpoint is correct.

Sanibel author Charles Sobczak mixes narrative, dialogue, and action to help readers understand a future of severe crop failures that can result either from the increase in CO2 or from the shrunken growing seasons resulting from blocking the sun’s rays. Worldwide hunger is the consequence of either petroleum industry greed or Green regulation miscalculation. Chaos and depravity seem assured.

Acting on his understanding of what’s coming, Warren Randolph moves from Chicago to Bozeman, Montana and sets up a survivalist compound on the outskirts of the town. He employs a “runner” to bring invitations to a handful of friends and accumulates a large hoard of foodstuffs and other supplies to last through the several years until the normal seasonal cycles are expected to return.

The day to day, season to season, and year to year lives of those in the Bozeman compound and those in other situations (government scientists and officials in particular)are given credible detail. The greatest capital is food, and the greatest future capital is seed. Though seeds stored by Warren are stolen when his compound’s larder is raided, there is a chance they can be replaced by seeds surreptitiously brought from a regional seed bank. . . .

To read this review in its entirety, as it appears in the March 20, 2013 Fort Myers Florida Weekly and the March 21 Naples and Bonita Springs editions, click here Florida Weekly – Sobczak 1 and here Florida Weekly – Sobczak 2

Love is the hero of novel partly set in 1950s Naples

Seagrape Sands, by Jessie Allen Chesser. CreateSpace [Amazon]. 184 pages. $16.00.

This romantic, uplifting tale brings into view the charms of two attractive settings. One of these is Naples, Florida in the 1950s when it was not much more than a fishing village. The other, which we get to a bit later and visit through the 1960s and well into the 1970s, is St. John, the smallest of the U. S. Virgin Islands.  Along with the fictional characters who reside in these places before the intrusion of large-scale development, we enjoy the largely unspoiled beauty and the easy-going lifestyles of these communities. 

And what better surroundings within which to follow the paths of two lovers who fall for one another at first glance and live together with the most ideal blend of passion and consideration? 

A masonry contractor for a big project in Naples sends a crew down from Venice. When Sam Johnson and his friends on the crew look for after-hours entertainment in the sleepy town, recent high school graduate Lillie and her friends help them get acquainted. Before long, Sam and Lillie are mutually smitten. Ms. Chesser portrays their blossoming romance with flair, getting into the emotions and concerns of each and conveying the tension of eagerness and caution as they move toward becoming a devoted couple.

Lillie decides to move in with Sam. Marriage isn’t even under discussion until cohabitation makes them more and more certain of a shared destiny. The couple moves out of Florida and then out of mainland U.S.A., as Sam sees business opportunities and a new lifestyle on St. John. Though Lillie’s parents and sisters first question her decisions, they come to accept and admire Sam. No one is enamored with the separation that Lillie’s adventurous life entails, but they make the best of it, visiting when they can – particularly on special occasions.

Sam builds the homestead of Seagrape Sands: it is a lovely place, part residence and part resort investment. Sam’s enterprises (dive shop, etc.) make Lillie and him integral parts of their new home territory. Author Chesser underscores how this couple can create powerful bonds with others. Friendships old and new run deep. In fact, friends quickly and permanently become extended family.

“Seagrape Sands” is filled with larger and smaller adventures, most often uplifting ones, that dot the courtship and married life of Sam and Lillie. Many of these take place in the wilder natural settings of Southwest Florida or on St. John. However, not all of the episodes in this book are so uplifting. When pregnant Lillie loses her first child after a bad fall, she is thoroughly despondent and the healing process – physical and spiritual – is difficult and extended. . . .

To read this review in its entirety, as it appears in the March 7, 2013 issue of the Naples Florida Weekly and the March 14 Bonitia Springs edition, click here: