Current Non-Genre Reading III

[JoshShaine]

I'm about to read Worth: A St Raphael’s College Story by Judith B King. It was recommended by SF author Katherine Benfante. It's only 90 pages and is a coming of age story, first of a series (the second of which is not out quite yet).

When I know what I think of it, I will share.

 

[JoshShaine]

When I know what I think of it, I will share.

It was very sweet. I suspect it may be too sweet for some readers, but at only 90 pages it was all right for me, While the second book is planned for this summer, it looks as if it will follow a different couple.

 

[Randy M.]

About to start 1929 by Andrew Ross Sorkin, a narrative history focusing on the people involved in the decisions and events leading to the stock market crash and the repercussions of the crash.

 

[Randy M.]

Actually read this awhile ago, but I've been slow to review:

Fallen Deer (A Cadence Mystery, #6) by Dianne L. Hagan

A disclaimer: The author and her husband have been friends for nearly 50 years and I am an early reader of her manuscripts. In short, my view may be biased.

Fallen Deer begins with … well, a fallen deer bouncing off the hood of Marian Greene’s car and staggering away. Followed almost immediately by a fallen man. He doesn’t stagger; he just lies on the hood, quite dead.

The search for where the body came from by Police Chief George Powless (possibly my favorite character across the series) and his deputies eventually finds more bodies, as well as a group of immigrants shipped from out of state to Hagan’s fictional (unfortunately) town of Cadence, N.Y., a multi-cultural utopian community that would be more utopian if outsiders didn’t abhor and try to sabotage a diverse body of inhabitants working together successfully.

With every novel I am impressed with how so many characters can be so well delineated, each with their own cultural background, approach to trouble and individual quirks. Again, as usual in the Cadence novels, much food is involved, providing the characters not just with sustenance but with moments of peace and quiet to regroup, exchange impressions and knowledge, focus on their immediate troubles, reaffirm their commitment to the community and each other, and recommit to face those troubles. As in real life, there are growing pains when confronting fear and conflict and the irrationality of those trying to destroy the community, and not everyone acts as their best selves. Along the way to resolution, deer herd people, truth about the founding of Cadence is unveiled, and one of Police Chief Powless’ deputies comes-of-age whether he likes it or not.

This may be my favorite of the Cadence books to date. The conflicts feel real, the situation is drawn from recent events, and the sense of Cadence as a solid, welcoming community grows a little more, as it has with each book.

 

[Randy M.]

Another by Dianne L. Hagan I've been slow to review:


Creature of Secret Sorrow (A Cadence Mystery, #7) by Dianne L. Hagan

A disclaimer: The author and her husband have been friends for nearly 50 years and I am an early reader of her manuscripts. In short, my view may be biased.

Marian Greene is Cadence’s canary-in-the-coal-mine: When Randy Nichols, the community’s resident geologist, goes missing, Marian joins the search for him and in doing so stumbles on a Black man hanging from a tree limb. Once again, the residents of Cadence find themselves unburying secrets and defending themselves from those outsiders who revile and attack a community based on respect for diversity and inclusiveness.

Recurring characters like Marian’s husband, Lester, their friend, Enoch, Henrietta (married to Enoch), Phil and his husband Joshua, Police Chief George Powless, and Madison Hayward, who continues to try and make reparations for her family’s sins against Cadence, are all present and accounted for, as are many others who populate the community and the series. They witness the arrival of the parents of a missing son who may be the man Marian found, the near destruction of two people by the hatred their mothers hold for them, a cursed object which appears to affect several Cadence residents, doppelgangers, a kidnapping, and the appearance of a mythic being as Hagan’s mystery careens toward horror. Even so, she maintains her focus on the humanity of her characters and the ways in which the residents of Cadence cohere to defend themselves, as once again not everything is as it first appears and the monsters we should be most wary of may pass by us every day unrecognized.

Darker than her earlier novels in the series – which is saying something – Creature is still filled with the friendships, loyalty and courage her earlier books demonstrated and that make Cadence a community her readers look forward to revisiting. I’m not sure I’d say this was a good place to start if you haven’t been reading the series – though the previous novel, The Fallen Deer, might be – because the tone is different from previous books, but it’s a good, solid addition to what has become a fine series of thoughtful mysteries that reflect our troubled times.