What We're Reading Now

Margaret S. Hamilton

Paper Son by S. J. Rozan

If you drive an hour south of Memphis to the Batesville exit and turn west, toward the Mississippi River, you’ll find the small town of Clarksdale. Oxford, home of Ole Miss and William Faulkner, is an hour due east of Clarksdale.

S.J. Rozan sets her latest private investigator Lydia Chin/Bill Smith book in Clarksdale and the Mississippi Delta, an area with a long-established Chinese-American population. After the transcontinental railroad was complete, the Chinese workers went to Mississippi to do field work, and then opened grocery stores in the predominately African-American communities of the Delta (in this part of Mississippi, the Delta is the floodplain to the east of the river,extending from Memphis to Jackson). The Chinese-Americans founded their own schools and became established members of the Delta community.

Lydia Chin’s mother is worried that her Clarksdale cousin, Jefferson Tam, has been arrested for the murder of his father, Leland. Lydia and Bill are assisted by Jefferson’s uncle, Peter Tam. Chinese families are complicated: another cousin, Reynold Tam, whose father married a white woman, is running for governor. “Paper sons” were late nineteenth and early twentieth century immigrants who asked naturalized Chinese Americans to file papers identifying them as their sons. In Mississippi, money helped the filing process. They’re considered family, though in many cases were not related.

Rozan establishes an intricate plot with compelling characters to portray the morass of bigotry, drug addiction, and prejudice in the Mississippi Delta. For Lydia and Bill’s first foray outside the New York City area, Rozan succeeds with her accurate portrayal of her private detectives operating in an area completely foreign to them.


Kathleen  Rockwood 

As usual, I have three reads going. One on my Kindle, which I take on public transportation and to doctors’ waiting rooms and anywhere else I think I may have to cool my heels for a while.

One in my car. Since my husband no longer drives but remaining socially active is important, I spend an inordinate amount of time waiting in the car for him. Poker games, bridge games, breakfast with his fellow retirees from work, etc.

The other is my leisure read, which I keep in the house. If it’s compelling enough, it replaces the usual short story anthology on my bedside table.

The Thief of All Light by Bernard Schaffer is a fascinating read. Sometimes I do want to reach into the book and strangle the protagonist, a female cop who wants to be a detective. How could she not know that an officer interrogating a suspect will try to appear to be sympathetic, even in the case of a pedophile who has done dreadful things to children? This is the way to get confessions. She isn’t well self-disciplined, and sometime she skirts with the “too dumb to live” borders. But the story is carrying me right along, and I will continue to read it when I’m depending on my Kindle.

My in-the-car read.

I’ve just started The Devil’s Half Mile by Paddy Hirsch. It’s historic fiction, set in New York City 1n 1799. It’s interesting, and I like the historic details (I’m not familiar enough with those times to know how accurate it is, but it seems good to me) and the characterizations. I haven’t yet really gotten into the plot, and so far it’s not compelling enough to make me want to bring it into the house with me, where I’d have more time to read it.

On my bedside table

Racing the Devil, by the Charles Todd duo, has supplanted the short story anthology I normally have by my bed. Charles Todd is one of my reliable go-to novelists, and Rutledge, despite his somewhat disconcerting paranormal contact with Hamish, is a favorite. It is also a historic novel, set in 1920 in England. I just finished re-reading The Mysterious Affair at Styles by Agatha Christie, set in the same era, and it was a natural next choice.

Susan Van Kirk

I just finished Connie Berry's A Legacy of Murder, and it's a wonderful read for people who like British mysteries about crumbling mansions. [Right down my alley!] Kate Hamilton, an American antiques dealer, is visiting her daughter Christine who is working as an intern at the stately home of Lady Barbara in Long Barston. That home is widely known in the area as Finchley Hall. No sooner does Kate arrive than the body of a murder victim--also an intern--is found in a lake on the Finchley grounds. The murdered intern was working on the Finchley Hoard, a legendary collection of treasures owned by the family through generations. Soon, Lady Barbara persuades Kate to take over the work for a huge celebration when the family opens its house to the public and displays its treasures. This is where the twists, turns, and surprises begin!

I really enjoyed Berry's mystery, the second in her Kate Hamilton series after her debut, A Dream of Death. Her romantic subplot is perfect but not too overwhelming. The main characters are likable and believable, and the minor characters are intriguing, especially an elderly antiques collector who helps Kate with the history of the manor and its earlier murders. Put this book on your "to read" pile when it comes out October 8 from Crooked Lane Books. I read a copy in advance from NetGalley. 

Kaye George

White Heat by Paul D. Marks

I can’t recommend this Shamus Award winning novel (and the sequel) enough. The writing is tough where it needs to be, tender at just the right spots. The love Marks has for Los Angeles shines through on every page. The time is 1992. The backdrop is the aftermath of the Rodney King riots. The story delves into crime, race, families, and more as hard-hitting little PI Duke Rogers and his pal Jack push their way through the story. After you’ve read White Heat, you’ll have to read Broken Windows, of course.  

Annette Dashofy

Because I seem to be at least a book behind on all my favorite authors, I just finished reading R. G. Belsky's Yesterday's News (last year's release).

When eleven-year-old Lucy Devlin disappeared on her way to school more than a decade ago, it became one of the most famous missing child cases in history. The story turned Clare Carlson into a media superstar overnight. Clare broke exclusive after exclusive. She had unprecedented access to the Devlin family as she wrote about the heartbreaking search for their young daughter. She later won a Pulitzer Prize for her extraordinary coverage of the case.

Now Clare once again plunges back into this sensational story. With new evidence, new victims, and new suspects--too many suspects. Everyone from members of a motorcycle gang to a prominent politician running for a US Senate seat seem to have secrets they're hiding about what might have happened to Lucy Devlin. But Clare has her own secrets. And, in order to untangle the truth about Lucy Devlin, she must finally confront her own torturous past.

I've always enjoyed Belsky's voice in his previous series, but admit I was worried about his attempt to create a realistic female protagonist. I needn't have been concerned. Clare sounded exactly like Murphy Brown in my head! And his past experience in both print and TV news brings authenticity to the story. There are twists and turns galore with just enough humor to lighten what could otherwise be a very dark subject.

Connie Berry

These days I’m listening to books on Audible more than reading them. With publicity and blogging and working on Book 3, finding time to actually sit and read is difficult. But I can listen while doing boring things like getting ready in the morning, driving, cooking, and doing laundry. Right now I’m listening to an absolutely amazing debut novel—Dear Mrs. Bird by the British author A. J. Pearce.

The story is set in London during the blitz. The protagonist, Emmeline Lake, dreams of being a war correspondent. Through a comedy of errors, she takes a typing job at a women’s magazine under the redoubtable “agony aunt” Henrietta Bird, whose moral standards preclude any mention of Unpleasantness—like dating, kissing, falling in love, or *gasp* going too far and getting oneself in the family way. At the same time, Emmy volunteers with the London Fire Brigade and may or may not be falling in love with a soldier on the front lines. I must say, I’m in love with this writer’s voice and the skillful way she uses language. Pearce is a rising star, and I can’t wait for her next book.

Marilyn Levinson

I just finished reading The Stationery Shop by Marjan Kamali. In the early 1950's, a young couple fall in love during their visits to a stationery shop in Tehran. They become engaged, but are    cruelly separated by the young man's deranged mother. We learn of the mother's unhappy love affair when she was young. A wonderful story of love that lasts through decades.







 Linda Rodriguez

I am currently reading two books, The Dreamblood Duology by N.K. Jemisin and An Elderly Lady Is Up to No Good by Helene Tursten (translated by Marlaine Delargy). The first one is the omnibus collection of the two novels in N.K. Jemisin’s Dreamblood fantasy series. Jemison has won all the major awards in fantasy and science fiction, and I've read all of her other books, so I was excited to see a deal on the e-book omnibus version of this series that has been out of print. I've just started this one, but I can recommend Jemison for anyone who's interested in superb worldbuilding, really marvelous character development, and lots of thought-provoking questions about society and our world.

An Elderly Lady Is Up to No Good by Helene Tursten, a Swedish author, is a delightful book about an elderly Swedish woman who decides to start doing away with everyone who irritates her or gets in her way. She gets to be quite successful at the murder of convenience. This book was a truly thoughtful gift from a dear friend to thank me for some small favor I had done for her. I have had so much fun reading it bit by bit and savoring the characterization and the subtle wit.





Shari Randall 

Right now I'm reading - and savoring - Kate Atkinson's newest Jackson Brodie mystery, Big Sky. Atkinson, who is well known for her more literary standalones, packs so much into each book - allusion, humor, turns of phrase and characterization of absolute perfection - that I never want them to end. Jackson is a private investigator in Edinburgh, a former soldier and cop who struggles to understand his teenage son, Nathan, and brilliant TV actress wife, Julia. When he relocates to a quiet seaside town, Jackson takes what looks like a hum drum adultery case which turns into so much more.

The books were turned into the Case Histories TV series and Jackson Brodie was played by Jason Isaacs, famous for his turn as Lucius Malfoy in the Harry Potter movies, which adds another layer to be savored reading this book.