A novel with a company town atmosphere of the haves and the have-nots that holds tragic memories
938781
Set in a Pennsylvania coal town, Tawni ODells latest novel transports the reader into the closed, company town atmosphere of the haves and the have-nots.  Our protagonist Sheridan Doyle escaped the confines of his upbringing and went to college.  Now a renowned forensic psychologist in Philadelphia, his only tie to his home town is his elderly grandfather Tommy.  When he learns that Tommy has taken ill, he returns to Lost Creek to care for him.

Lost Creek has not been good to Sheridan.  Tragic memories abound.  As a result, Sheridan is plagued with nightmares and suffers from panic attacks.  When his baby sister Molly was just a week old his mother was accused of killing her and burying her in the backyard.  She always denied it, but with a history of mental illness, she was not believed.  After she was imprisoned Sheridan was left with his physically abusive, drunken father.  When things got bad at home he would escape to his grandfathers house for some safety and comfort.  Another man in Sheridans life is Rafe.  A surrogate father figure, Rafe was a police officer in Sheridans youth.  Now he is the towns only detective.

The town itself has a tragic history.  A century ago some Irish immigrant miners (known as as the Nellie ONeills) protested their despicable working conditions.  In their angry protest they killed two people.  To teach them a lesson they were all hanged at a public gallows.  The gallows still stands as a reminder and as a macabre tourist attraction.  The towns history was interesting, but I felt it was somewhat overplayed in the novel.

The story is told in two voices.  That of Sheridan, whose blue-collar roots tie him to the town ; and that of Scarlet, the daughter of the wealthy and powerful mine owner.  As the novel begins, shortly after Sheridans arrival back in Lost Creek, a body is found near the gallows.  The superstitious townsfolk believe it may be the work of the ghostly Nellie ONeills, but the more pragmatic Rafe is certain that there is a human out there with a motive.

Then,  Rafe and Sheridan have another murder to solve.  A middle-aged woman is found dead in her home.  She is a victim of the traditional death by blunt object.  Little evidence leaves them temporarily stymied.

Meanwhile, the reader comes to realize that Scarlet is a psychopath.  Throughout her life she has murdered anyone who upsets her.  Her latest victim is the cousin of her old Nanny

This is the first novel I have read by the esteemed author, Tawni ODell and I enjoyed her writing for the most part.  The setting was an integral part of the story and she portrayed it well.  Her constant descriptions of what the protagonists were wearing got on my nerves more than a bit.  I like nice clothes as much as the next person, but thought the name-dropping couture unnecessary.  I think I know why she incorporated these descriptions in the narrative, but I still feel the novel would have been better off without them.

The title is very clever.  The obvious of course, is that Sheridan is now an outsider and no longer considered to be One of Us by the townspeople.  I cant go into other explanations however without incorporating some spoilers.

This review was originally posted on my blog: Fictionophile
2345420
A vast cast of characters in an English town and its surrounding countryside cope with the challenges of love and marriage, as well as politics, propriety, and money. Past misdeeds come back to haunt the characters and illusions are shattered.
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4727257
It is difficult to describe this novel, so I will begin with a short summary of the story. Fiona is a free-lance writer who is living a quiet life in a small town on the very end of the Door County peninsula. (For those who don't know, the peninsula juts into Lake Michigan with the main access roads leading east onto the peninsula from approximately Green Bay, Wisconsin. It is a picturesque area of small towns, lake front, farms, and cafes that is very popular as a summer destination for Chicagoans.) Like most summer resorts, the fulltime residents are set a bit apart from the tourists that they need to provide cash. Fiona has been one of those full-time residents. She has a small circle of friends in this area that would already seem remote and isolated to many of us. Her closest friend is another 30 something single woman (Elisabeth) who runs an art gallery. It is the very end of the summer season and the two friends go by ferry to Washington Island, an even more remote resort area off the farthest point of the peninsula where there is a very small town and very small year-round population. Access is only by ferry and her descriptions of the ferries and their operation as a lifeline are some of the best parts of the book. Most of the novel is set on Washington Island where on a dare and a whim, Fiona buys an old home and settles in for the winter. The descriptions of the social life on the island are engaging and insightful. After spending time on the upper peninsula of Michigan scrubbing mouse droppings out of a kitchen and encouraging bats to vacate a rustic cabin, much of the book rang true to me. Most of the conflict centers around the relatively undeveloped character of the mean spinster bully who lives next door; survival of the harsh winter conditions; and Robert, the strong-minded goat. The tone of the book sometimes light and sometimes thoughtful. There is one place (at an island concert) that made me laugh aloud and it made me wish that there had been more humor in the book. There are things in the book that are dissatisfying, but I cannot describe them here without spoiling the story. Most of my problem is with the Deus Ex Machina aspects which the author expressly discusses and embraces. Coincidence, contrivance, fate, romance, or just plain incredible is up to you. There are some mentions of ghosts that seem out of place, some deceptions and back door coercion that also bothered me. It is a romance of sorts without much romance. At its best, it a picture of small town living in a very remote part of Wisconsin with a challenging climate with some good pictures of friendship.
2815227
From the gorgeous cover, the couple on the front, take you with them into the book and through the stories of their lives. Its a tale touched with sadness and poignancy, tragedy and loss but also one of self discovery and second chances. It made me feel sad and wistful but the language was so beautiful, I was carried along and got to care about the two lead characters and their friends.

Its a simple tale of boy meets girl at first sight, but pull back those layers and its so much more  Puglia plays its role in being a mix of old and new, white architecture and old town  mixing two worlds which seem separate but which on closer inspection are very similar. The writing was very lyrical   like an ode to a time gone but, a memory and of course this story is told by the one person who can tell it all as it happened, or at least how he thinks it all took place.

Th e writing  flows like a river and it was comforting despite the sad events. It soothed me as I read and engulfed me as I immersed myself in the young love of a couple in Puglia and the events which follow.

The descriptions of food, flowers, the old town and the seaside town of Vilanova were particularly enchanting and really gave this novel a keen sense of place. One character even compares the tomatoes from Tesco and the Ostuni open air markets  life now and memories of a time gone by. Such simple images which conjure so much.

Calm and quiet, this novel will linger with you.
4920463
What is grief? It has no physical properties, but it fills a room, a life, many lives, and creates pain. It's bigger than a boulder, but is amorphous. You can't domesticate or quarantine grief, but it can isolate, alienate, afflict. The sun rises and sets, our shadows shorten and lengthen, but grief reaches into darkness and obscures the light. Its stride is long and its span is spacious, but it has no measure. Grief is timeless, but time heals, according to the maxim.

This novel is about a family whose grief is palpable in every room, in every sigh, but they aren't discussing their shared mourning. Its presence is living proof, and it is kindling the death of love and connection.  Paradoxically, this loss of connection is so perceptible that they are all hung together in an imperceptible noose, connected in sorrow. Hope is a tenuous flame fluttering in a precarious wind.

The Ryries of upper state NY each have a story that funnels into the larger story of their family life. John entertained the gypsy life of theatric design, and when his wife, Ricky, the financial engineer, put her foot down, he got a steady job at a local community college.  Ricky earns a corporate paycheck, but is resentful of John's more laid back and essentially fun job. Truly, the resentments build both ways, and when tragedy strikes, they fail to lean on each other in a healing manner.  Damaging secrets come out later, and lead to sequestered grieving.  On top of all that, a visitor comes--a blast from the past, someone who is part of the presence of everything.

John and Ricky's daughter, Biscuit (Elizabeth), is a sixth-grader, hoarding a book from the library on the ritual burying and funereal practices of worldwide cultures. Her brother, Paul, is thirteen and in a very awkward phase, subject to relentless school bullying.  Enter Gordie and his dog, Ebie, who meet Biscuit down by the river.  Biscuit is doing who-knows-what with ashes and bone and an egg, and gets pushed in the water by Ebie. The drying off process leads to Gordie and Ebie meeting the whole Ryrie family and their visitor. The multivalent chorus of the theme and story whorls around all these characters, and their private anguishes and public displays of untidy and unresolved grief keep the reader engaged until the suspenseful resolve.

Cohen has a knack for the "mot juste," Flaubert's term for the exact right word. She is a magician with words, metaphors, and imagery. The sentences and passages are delicate and edgy, muscular and creamy. Every felicitous line is meaningful and enchanting. Moreover, her tone and mood is suggestive and tender without sentimentality; you feel with the characters and move with the story.

The drawback is within the primary thread of the set-up. Ricky makes a decision, setting up the initial complexity of her tragedy, that is impossibly difficult to swallow, and it becomes a thorn in the story's authenticity.  Although the author braids it into a beautiful circle, and creates a provocative sense of discovery of human nature--a discovery that is genuine and believable--the logistics of penning this structure in order to lead to this enlightenment requires a quantum leap of disbelief suspension.

However, this is a book I would recommend to literature lovers who enjoy ripe, eloquent domestic dramas. Cohen's impressive curvature of prose and fluent, credible understanding of grief and all its counterintuitive responses and follicular journey, carry the reader into places beyond the bend. THE GRIEF OF OTHERS ultimately illuminates the grace of self and unity with being and beings.
1653349
REMEMBER ME LIKE THIS resembles the story of a St. Louis boy who was kidnapped and rescued several years later.
The focus of this tale is the victim's family--how they cope, how they keep up the search when it seems futile, and how they slowly come back to life after the rescue. The author presents a compelling psychological view of the dynamics of grief, duty, depression and coping, with the details of ordinary life proceeding in the background. The story has excellent character development. I read this book as part of a book club and, quite honestly, some members did not like it. For much of the story, the characters seem lost and going through life in a daze of depression. But I think that's the point, and the author mixes the story lines so that the story remains interesting and, in the end, uplifting.
1269225
Having left his hometown of Dublin for Los Angeles twenty years ago, P.I. Edward Loy has returned for his mother's funeral. The trip's brought back painful memories, including his father's disappearance before Ed left Dublin. It's also brought back a former schoolmate who wants Ed to find her missing husband, and an old friend who wants Ed to hide a gun for him. As Ed peels back layer after layer of lies and deception, he battles gangsters, lots of people with secrets, and his own past.

With a strong theme about things and people gone lost, in a variety of ways, THE WRONG KIND OF BLOOD is a compelling, somewhat melancholy story about coming to terms with what can't be changed. Entwined with Ed's story are the changes Dublin has undergone over two decades. Author, Declan Hughes, does a wonderful job of describing the Dublin that Ed remembers and the sanitized mall-fest he sees now. I almost felt as sorry for Dublin sites as I did for Ed.

For a while, the increasing body count seemed a little far-fetched. But the more I learned about the area Ed grew up in, the more believable it was to read about folks solving problems through bloodshed. The gangsters are fairly run-of-the-mill thugs, yet other characters are well-rounded. Hughes takes his time tying up the novel's many threads to create a satisfying ending. THE WRONG KIND OF BLOOD is one heck of an absorbing read. Enjoy.
4186533
Flatiron Books sent this lovely novel to me. Initially, it was a little hard for me to get into this story. I am a fan of Moriarty's and couldn't wait to read the book, so that was a bit of a surprise. When I hit the middle of the book, I couldn't put it down. Although the event in the story was not a huge surprise to me, it brought out a number of issues the characters were struggling with. I think that the author's idea of perspective is interesting: the characters each see the event through their own eyes because of their past experiences. Our past truly does dictate the present, and some of the characters turn to each other, and some of them turn on each other. Overall, while the reader will be anxious to discover what happens the night of the barbeque, the most interesting part of the story is what occurs as a result of it.
3028401
UNPAVED SURFACES is a well-crafted whodunit that examines the destructive effect of tragedy and guilt on a diverse Maine family. The disappearance of Auggie Battle, a sweet, autistic kid, takes the deepest toll on his father, Keith, whose life is disrupted by his mystical attachment to the boy. The mother, Claire, buries herself in community politics. Frances loses interest in college. Shippen becomes an outcast at school. The youngest, "Beanie," copes by finding joy in nature.
It's a sad story fortified by the empathy the reader naturally feels for a family reeling into a decline that seems irrevocable. Grief weighs them all down in one form or another.
Souza saves the reader from similar depression by providing amusing moments, wry observations, and a rational plot that belies all its spiraling characters. The reader feels empathy with the family and, to some extent, common ground.
Keith Battle's visions are real. That is clear from the outset. The family needs closure. It is the only salvation. They need to know what happened to little Auggie. Without this knowledge, they are doomed.
Souza provides many hints and many characters who may have committed the diabolical act. In an affluent, waterfront community, to borrow the clich, things are not as they seem.
From the outset, the reader harbors his or her own suspicions. He forms no obvious conclusions. The resolution makes sense, but it isn't obvious.
270838
For those of us who grew up in those small town rural places, this novel explains why it still calls to us even as we know ,for some of us ,that we could not stay there. The characters will get under your skin and you care about them. Their memories of the past as they deal with the present make this a book you will stay up late reading.  It hurtles to the finish .  Well done ,Gastineau.
480084
Nestled in some perfect green world is a castle called Wellington. Well, it's not really a castle, but it looks like one. Inside, the chosen few --- an amalgamation of kids from all across the privileged sides of the world --- come together to learn and grow. Here is the place where unlikely friends are made.

When Nikki Olivetti from Long Island, New York, and Laine Hunt from Greenwich, Connecticut, are pushed together as roommates, they wonder how long they can last without ripping each other's hair out. Without their usual safety nets (mom and dad, loads of cash, familiar places), the girls find themselves castaways on an island of discovery. And when Laine sees Nikki's Facebook picture in a senior's "Who Won't Make It" betting book, she realizes how tough this place is really going to be.

THE UPPER CLASS, the first in what surely will be a successful series of teen reads about upper crusty boarding-school types and their misadventures, is written by three friends who graduated from the prestigious Hotchkiss School and know all too well the pitfalls and exciting propositions that come from being handed an opportunity like Laine and Nikki receive at the fictional Wellington. Hobson Brown, Taylor Materne and Caroline Says have found somehow to meld their three voices into one distinctive literary roar.

The characters muse about life with astonishing depth perception; they know what their parents' money has brought them, both at the mall and by way of intense social and economic expectations. Nikki, being the new money girl, is the person whose perspective is like that of most of the readers of this book. Laine, on the other hand, reflects on the implications of following a dysfunctional yet highly prized socially-connected family's path while still striving to make one of her own.

I'm amazed that three individuals were able to pull off this feat. Like a film with too many credited screenwriters, a novel with more than one author often feels like a committee creation rather than a single purposeful work of art. But THE UPPER CLASS is just that --- art masquerading as "The Real World." Nicely done, folks. Hotchkiss would be proud.

  --- Reviewed by Jana Siciliano
2155514
Irene and Matt have tried desperately to shove away reminders of their sons. Jesse died in a car accident, and Daniel--wracked with guilt--committed suicide. Due to the tragedies and platitudes of well-meaning but clueless friends who try to make spiritual sense of inexplicable loss, they drop God and church. Hoping to escape the painful memories, they go so far as to sell almost all of their belongings and move to Breakers, a small town full of problems.

Casey, the couple's 14-year-old daughter, doesn't have the same grieving process as her parents. Her grief is more on display. She saved items that belonged to Jesse and Daniel, and wears her brothers' old clothes, has her hair dyed black, and keeps a shrine of sorts in honor of her brothers. Her parents' well-meaning changes backfire, since her new school is small and she doesn't care for any of the other girls in the eighth grade. Instead, she studies with a girl from a free-spirited family, and is immediately drawn to Billy, a 20-something drifter.

To Casey, Billy is someone who might love her, the way her father doesn't seem to. To Irene, Billy is someone who might give her a second chance, in a way, with saving her son Daniel. To heart-hardened Matt and most of the town, however, Billy is "someone to blame" for just about anything, including a fire, break-ins, and even a possible murder, resulting in plans for vigilante justice.

There's an unique style of sentence structure throughout, with non-dialog liberal use of incomplete sentences and lists of verbs that omit the word "and." While possibly lending a contemporary feel to the storyline, the writing style hampered my reading and enjoyment of what is otherwise a gripping story. The story is rivetingly authentic, especially in how the three different members of the family cope with loss. I couldn't help but feel their pain and hope for their family to begin what is really a lifelong road of healing from tragic loss.
247711
In Edwardian England, twenty-something Maggie Lounsbury works with her grandmother in a millinery shop. After her parents and older sister were killed in a tragic boating accident in the 1800s, Maggie has lived with Grandmother over the shop. Shes never been able to forgive the Harcourt family, whom her father worked for, after they turned their backs on the Lounsburys amidst their grief. Now several years later, after the elder Mr. Harcourt has passed, his son Nate comes back to take over the estate. Before Mr. Harcourt passed, he gave Nate instructions to pay the Lounsburys a large sum owed to them that he never paid. Yet when Nate brings up the subject to his old friend, Maggie turns down the money, unwilling to accept anything from the family whom treated hers so terribly. When tragedy strikes the millinery shop, Maggie and her family are forced to accept Nate Harcourts charity. As she visits Morningside, a large manor home she used to spend so much of her time at, she learns secrets that could give her answers about the accident that claimed the lives of her loved ones. She enlists the help of her old friend Lily, whom works at Morningside. Yet Lily can only help so much without endangering her job. Can Maggie put her anger behind her in order to work with Nate to shine a light on the mysteries of her familys deaths?

I really enjoyed this book. The Edwardian era is one of my favorite periods to read about and this book displays many of the reasons why. I love reading about how things were changing during this era; women were becoming more bold, the gap between the rich and the poor was beginning to close, and people were beginning to drive automobiles while some still clung to the horse drawn carriages that they were used to. But it still feels like the Victorian era that I also love. Thats the feeling I got when I read Shine Like The Dawn; a mix of old and (at the time this story takes place) new. And the characters were endearing, too. Maggie was understandably hurt and angry in the years after the accident. While Nate knew that his family had treated the Lounsburys poorly, he was unaware of many details that surrounded the accident and simply wanted to make amends with the family.

In the beginning, I wondered why sections were written from Lilys point of view, yet as the story progressed and issues at the factory owned by the Harcourts unfurled, it all tied together. It really gives it that upstairs, downstairs air that a lot of people love about this time period.

Overall, Shine Like The Dawn is a good read. Fans of Christian historical fiction who love Downton Abbey will want to read this book.

I give this book 4 out of 5 stars.
3414238
I was really impressed by Mary Lawson's novel ROAD ENDS.  Set in a small town in remote Northern Ontario and London in the late 1960's it is an incredibly well portrayed novel of a family that is falling apart through depression and lack of structure.  The major characters are:

EDWARD - A bank manager and the father of nine children. He is unhappily the husband of a woman who seems to want to do nothing but bear and dote on babies.  Scarred by his World War II experiences and the abuses of his drunken father when he was a child  Edward, when not at work, retreats to his study and reading  books about faraway places and times.

MEG - Is the only daughter in the family and the second oldest.  Because of her mother's detachment from all responsibilities but caring for babies she has had great responsibility forced on her from an early age.  When she turns twenty-one she leaves Canada for London, England where her energy and organization skills help her forge a successful career but alas she also falls in love with the wrong man.

TOM - Once a promising aeronautical engineering student the tragic death of his best friend has emotionally paralyzed him as he returns to live at his parent's home, driving a snow plow and seemingly so crippled by depression and guilt he is unable to do anything about the neglect of his several younger brothers.

ROBERT - His tragic death forms the prologue of the book and its aftereffects reverberate throughout the storyline.

The characters and circumstances of the novel are portrayed in a genuine manner that make the reader feel they really know these fictional people.  Apparently a previous novel by Mary Lawson CROW LAKE has some of the same physical settings and personalities but I have not as yet read that novel and had no difficulty at all in following ROAD ENDS.  Time and place changes are labeled with location and date at the beginning of each chapter so the book is readable and easy to access.  I really enjoyed ROAD ENDS that despite sad circumstances is not without hope and will add the two previous novels Mary Lawson has published to my to be read list as well as looking forward eagerly to what she publishes in the future.
1602455
A social commentary, a trip down the memory lane, an ode to old (however imperfect) friendships, and more. This is a noteworthy debut of an author that clearly thinks deeply about the rigid social structures that are keeping rural communities down, and who loves her hometown with an aching love, the way you love your children while wishing they can reach their full potential. It is also a fun read, and the author draws you in with all the elements of storytelling: suspense, romance, jealousy, revenge. Cat fight! Perhaps too many fireworks for my taste, but that too is part and parcel of the place and time: a small town with not so small problems. The book left me wishing for solutions, and that is not a bad outcome for a work of fiction.
3308204
Two middle class British families, the Waterhouses and the Colemans, heretofore unknown to one another, have  just erected monuments on their adjacent cemetery plots in London.  One has chosen a stately urn; the other, a sentimental angel, described by the Coleman's daughter Maude in this way:  "It hung above us, one foot forward, a hand pointing toward heaven.  It was wearing a long robe with a square neck, and it had loose hair that flowed onto its wings.  It was looking down, but no matter how hard I stared it did not seem to see me".  (Page 4).  The Colemans and the Waterhouses meet by chance, in the cemetery, on the day of Queen Victoria's death.  Having daughters of the same age, they begin an uneasy acquaintance founded on their daughter's fond friendship.  Their social differences are such that they might not have known one another otherwise.

Their life stories are told through the voices and vantage points of various members of both families, and others, including the maid.  Each very short chapter has a different narrator, which can keep the reader's interest but at times is like riding on an unpaved road without shock absorbers.  The reader is jostled about quite a bit.  The constant thread in the narrative remains the cemetery, to which they repair from time to time at significant moments in their lives.  As they do, the characters interact with one another and with the cemetery workers and manager, thus bringing into the mix people from entirely different walks of life.

The Colemans and Waterhouses change or resist change over the course of the book.  One of the two families remains solidly Edwardian in spite of the vicissitudes that befall them.  They cling to their comfortable world view, even though it becomes less and less relevant.  All the while, the other undergoes a shift concurrent with the changes wrought by the emerging modern era.  The cemetery theme can at times feel depressing and the subject matter, which includes dysfunction, neglect, and infidelity, is decidedly challenging.

Chevalier draws upon the suffragette movement in Britain to help bring new meaning to the life of one of the protagonists, with eventful results.  That movement's colorful leader, Mrs. Emmeline Pankhurst, makes a cameo appearance for verisimilitude's sake.

Chevalier is the author of the immensely popular and justly-acclaimed "Girl with a Pearl Earring".  Just as that novel was based on a painting by Dutch painter Johannes Vermeer, one suspects that this novel was written with some ancient cemetery photographs in hand.
388661
A Punctual Paymaster is an interesting, ambitious novel following a racially divided Arkansan town from segregation through to contemporary times. The town is split in two by a river; the Northside belongs to the more affluential white community, while the Southside is the purview of the black community, which centers around a community minded, grocery store and tavern owner.  Held in high esteem by his own people, he is the target of racial insanity by young white men from the other side of town, which eventually turns into murder. As the book moves forward, we see the next generation and the next working through the consequences and realities of the inequities of the town, and the lack of justice (and safety) for the Southsiders. The book twists and turns as it moves generationally, and that is great in some ways, but at other times the novel began to feel convoluted, necessitating a bit too much exposition to make pieces fit together, while other times the scenes and writing was raw and emotional. I know other reviewers have also commented on the lack of resolution of the central mystery of the novel, and in some ways, I think Groat is making an interesting point with this construction, but it does feel unsatisfying at the same time.  All in all, a very worthwhile book with insight into a more shameful feature of American history and its continuing affects, and worth the read.