Lucky Red

Finished June 29

Lucky Red by Claudia Cravens

This western focuses on a young woman, Bridget, as she deals with the realities of the American West. The year is 1877, and sixteen-year-old Bridget lives with her father, who often disappears for long periods and tends to go through what money they get quickly. She's learned to handle his moods, and when he announces that he's sold their place and they are going west, she adjusts quickly. But soon after leaving their rustic home, her father is bit by a snake while sleeping and Bridget is unable to save him. She takes their few possessions and continues on, on her own, finding herself in Dodge City. Bridget soon goes through her money there and finds herself, a pretty redhead, invited to join a female-run brothel, the Buffalo Queen. 

Not bothered by the sexual expectations of the job, she appreciates the food and shelter and the personal earnings she can accumulate. 

Bridget learns from the other women there, and begins to make friends of a sort, particularly with one woman who is more educated that most. As Bridget learns her place in the society of the town, and how to manage the men she services, she also finds herself unable to see herself in a more domestic role. She enjoys the environment she works in, until things change with her naive actions, the feelings of one man who wants more from her than she feels able to give, and her decidedly unprofessional interest in Spartan Lee, a female gunslinger who comes to town. 

This is a coming of age tale in an unusual manner, where Bridget learns about trust and betrayal, and the harsh reality of the world. 

A great read that builds slowly to faster action near the end. 

Beautiful Bad

Finished August 5
Beautiful Bad by Annie Ward

This psychological suspense novel has three timelines. One takes place on an evening when an emergency call is received at a suburb in Kansas starting with the call. One begins decades before when Maddie worked overseas teaching and writing and first met her now-husband Ian. The other is recent events taking place in Maddie's life, particularly her time with a therapist, leading up to the call she makes.
Maddie always wanted to escape her boring life growing up in small town Kansas. She studied languages, and began working at various jobs overseas. She met her best friend Jo at school where the two connected instantly. Jo became an aid worker, and as their story develops from a time where Jo was working in Macedonia and Maddie in nearby Bulgaria, we see how their estrangement began. It was there they met a number of young men in the British military, one of whom Ian developed a relationship with both women, eventually marrying Maddie as we know from the more recent timeline.
This is another story with unreliable narrators, where we aren't sure who to trust. Why is Jo angry with Maddie, and what happened between them to create the later rift. Do Ian's military and para-military experiences lead him to have violent tendencies? How does his PTSD affect him? What is Maddie's life like with her husband and young son? What happened the night they were camping?
There's a lot going on here, and a lot of uncertainty. All you really know is that something bad has happened, and it isn't over yet.

The Wolf Wants In

Finished June 27
The Wolf Wants In by Laura McHugh

This suspense novel is set in rural Kansas, in and around a town called Blackwater. The main character here is Sadie Keller, the youngest of three children. Sadie's life didn't turned out as she imagined. She got married young and moved back to the area she grew up in when she got pregnant wanting her family near her for support. The marriage didn't last and Sadie now lives alone, with her daughter Lily spending the weekdays with her ex-husband Greg for school.
Her sister Becca and her mom live close by as did her brother Shane before he died recently. Shane's death was unexpected, and unexplained, and Shane's wife Crystle doesn't seem as upset by it as Sadie and her sister would expect, and isn't sharing information with them.
When Shane died, Becca and Lily had to go in and find the family things that they wanted as Crystle was selling or burning everything.
Sadie knew the car that Shane restored was deeded to her mother and she arranged for towing of it, and she took the pie safe that was their grandmother's. The two women also took a bunch of boxes of papers that were out near the bonfire that was going. Sadie is trying to get access to Shane's medical records, but she needs Crystle's permission and that doesn't seem likely.
As the story begins, Becca lets Sadie know that she heard on the news that human remains were found in the woods near them, and there is speculation that they belong to the a young girl who went missing a while back. The girl, Macey, was friends with Lily at one point, as Sadie was friends with her mother Hannah. Sadie hasn't been in touch with Hannah in a while, but this makes her reach out to her.
Another voice in the story is Henley, a young women who recently finished school and is saving to move away and start her life anew. Henley lives with her mom, Missy, a recovering drug addict, youngest in a large family that generally lives on the wrong side of the law. One of Henley's cousins is Crystle and Henley may know something about what happened to Shane. Missy worked as a housekeeper for the wealthy local business owner, and she has been getting Henley to help her lately. When Missy disappears, Henley keeps up with the housekeeping, but also gets on the radar of the houseowner Earl and his delinquent son Jason. She is debating whether she should leave sooner despite not having all her plans in place, but her waiting may put her in harm's way.
This is a story of families, of the scourge of drug addiction in America, and of the value of community. I liked it.

Dodge City

Finished September 21
Dodge City: Wyatt Earp, Bat Masterson, and the Wickedest Town in the American West by Tom Clavin, read by John Bedford Lloyd

This history looks at more than just Dodge City, Kansas. It looks at the general wild west, including Kansas, Arizona, Texas, and Colorado, among others. It mostly covers the period following the U.S. Civil War through the 1890s, but occasionally takes us further back or forward in time.
It tells us of Wyatt Earp, but also of all his brothers and their lives, and similarly with Bat Masterson, telling us of his brothers escapades as well. We see many other figures of the west including Doc Holliday and his on again, off again woman Big Nose Kate. We see Buffalo Bill, the McLaury brothers, the Clanton Brothers, Mysterious Dave, Belle Starr, Billy the Kid, and many more.
I didn't realize the way many of these people moved back and forth from one side of the law to the other, some breaking the law openly even while enforcing it.
Many of the men who spent time as lawmen also operated brothels, married prostitutes, and ignored the law when it was inconvenient to them. Some spent time for minor crimes, and got no jail time for bigger actions.
Sometimes, killing a man in self defense got them in trouble and other times it got them accolades. This was a time when things were wild indeed, where the men who didn't fit in found a way to live without boundaries. Men would shoot guns off just for fun, and as "western civilization" expanded to the west, wildlife grew scarcer and the relationship with the natives grew worse.
I learned a lot I didn't know.

Love Overdue

Finished December 17
Love Overdue by Pamela Morsi

Picked up this light romance for the library theme and thoroughly enjoyed it. Set in a small town in Kansas, DJ (Dorothy Jarrow) arrives to be the new librarian in charge at the local library. She has 4 employees, one of whom has been in charge up until now and won't give up her leadership position without a fight.
Eight years ago, on her twenty-first birthday, DJ did something reckless and had an incredible experience with a man that she has never forgotten. What are the odds that he turns out to be her landlady's divorced son? Thank goodness he doesn't seem to recognize her.
Nice characters, nice plot, and some good lines. One of my favorites is "...and a teen book collection so woefully out of date that the only vampire novel available was by Bram Stoker." Several co-workers liked the line too. The chapters are not consecutively numbered as is normal, but instead have gradually increasing Dewey Decimal Classification numbers each related to the chapter's content, which was a neat touch.
And everyone needs a good romance now and then.

Wide Open

Finished October 14
Wide Open by Larry Bjornson

Set in the 1870s in Abilene, Kansas, this story is based on real events of the Midwest. The story begins in May 1871 and our storyteller here is Will Merritt, a boy. His father JT joined the United States 12 New York Cavalry during the Civil War, leaving his wife and son with his brother's family. When he returned for them in 1865 he found that he had a young daughter and that they had not been given the caring shelter he had hoped and the family moved on for other adventures. JT is always looking for what the future might bring and by 1871, he believes Abilene will provide the future he envisions.
Abilene is still a rough town, with one side of the tracks dubbed Texastown, a magnet for trouble and temporary visitors bringing cattle up from Texas to the train line. The mayor, Joe McCoy, hires Wild Bill Hickock to control this wildness. Will has a group of friends: Jasper, Gordon, Billy and Booth who are excited by this side of town and whose families are dependent on this activity for their livelihood. But there is a growing movement towards settlers and farming, providing a stable growth for the area, and Will's dad has decided to put his efforts behind that as he looks to the future once again. One particular family figures here, the Dunhams, with father Caleb and daughter Anna connecting to the Merritt family. Will's mother Eleanor is not a subservient wife, and works with JT towards their family's and community's future. This book shows the cruelty and compassion in this community and the inexorable move towards civilizing this region. Very entertaining.

Kansas Mystery

Finished August 30
Deadly Descent by Charlotte Hinger
The main character, Lottie Albright, is a historian living in Western Kansas. She is working on a project collecting family histories for the county as well as supporting a local candidate running for the Senate. When a letter arrives for her archives accusing the candidate of racist attitudes, she finds herself caught in the middle of a family upset between two sisters. When the letter writer, Zelda, is found murdered, the family is even more split and Lottie finds herself delving into the past to try and find out what is really behind the rift.
She applies for the job of deputy to help gain access to information, but also digs into a cold case in order to gain points with the sheriff. Lottie's twin sister Josie is a psychologist and Lottie finds herself consulting with her to try to figure out the motives behind the terrible events that are taking place. Lottie is able to use her research skills to reopen the cold case and find information that helps her understand the current crimes.
An interesting combination of the present and past, this first novel combines history with interesting facts to make a story.