July 2024 Reads

This month was heavy on the crime writing--I have two books of essays going, but they're both going slowly, and I'm not done with them yet. So with one exception, it's been all mystery all the time (and isn't that how summer reading is supposed to be--light and fun?).

The Exception
Outer Order, Inner Calm by Gretchen Ruben. I like to have a small book with very short sections handy for when I have only a minute or two to read, and this month's selection was a reread, intended to help my through to the finish line on the whole-house cleaning and decluttering program I've got going this summer. There's some very helpful advice in this book (although, honestly, nothing that's not common sense, but it helps to have it stated clearly), and also a few things that don't really appeal to me. But since each suggestion is a page or less in length, each one is easy to digest and either adopt or disregard.

Crime Fiction
First, two more books that I picked up at the Crime Wave conference: Muddled Through by Barbara Ross and Death in a Blackout by Jessica Ellicott, both authors whose books I've read and enjoyed in the past. Muddled is part of the Clam Bake series, which take place in a Boothbay-Harbor-esque coastal Maine town and are culinary cozies, and Blackout is the debut of a new series by Ellicott, about a young woman who becomes a police constable in England during World War II. Both fun and engaging reads with classic whodunit structures and great twists at the end.

After the conference, I decided I needed to familiarize myself with more Maine crime writers, and picked up two more books at the local book shop: Body Double by Tess Gerritsen and The Poacher's Son by Paul Doiron. Both authors I have known about for many years, but I've avoided Gerritsen's books because I figured they'd be more gruesome than I what I normally care to read (one of her protagonists is a medical examiner). And I figured Doiron's books would be all about huntin' and fishin', since his protagonist is a game warden. Body Double, while excellent, did verge on too gruesome, although the details of the autopsies and bodies didn't necessarily bother me; it was more the psychopathic killers, their choices of victims, and their motivations that turned my stomach. I prefer a nice, tidy poisoning or strangulation for a good, solid reason (inheritance, revenge, jealousy, etc.), and a bit of humor or the ridiculous to lighten the mood. Doiron's book did have just enough humor in it to leaven the heavy story, and while there was plenty of huntin' and fishin', the protagonist proved to be a nuanced and sensitive character. And I love me a protracted, multi-peak climax in a story, and this one had a small mountain range. So I'll be reading more.

From the used bookshop, I picked up The Tuscan Child, by Rhys Bowen, which was in the mystery section (and her other books appear to be mysteries), and it was set up like a thriller, but there wasn't much of a twist with regard to whodunit, the suspense wasn't super intense, and the climax was brief. Still, it was an interesting story, with a double timeline of late-WWII and 1973, in a setting of Tuscany (though I would have preferred more details about the countryside and fewer about the food). From the $2 bookshelf at said bookshop, I grabbed Larkspur by Sheila Simonsen, a classic whodunit published in the early 1990s. I'd never heard of this author before, but I liked her main character, her voice, and her style. (Humor, people! It's the perfect complement to murder!) And from the 50 cent shelf I picked up The Piper on the Mountain by Ellis Peters. I've read a number of Peters's Brother Cadfael murder mysteries, but I think only one of her contemporary (1960s) books. This one was a combo spy thriller/murder mystery and it is a masterclass in the buildup of suspense and in the protracted climax. Really stellar. It is interesting, though, to note how much outside of the characters the narration often was at that time, while now we want to be right in there with the protagonist. (It takes over half the book to realize who the protagonist is going to be!).

That's it for July--a summer of murder and mayhem. Now I will be toning it down as I read in anticipation of a trip we'll be taking next month. More on that in August's post!