The Ghostly Grounds: Murder and Breakfast

Finished January 11

The Ghostly Grounds: Murder and Breakfast by Sophie Love

This is the first book in a paranormal cosy mystery series called Canine Casper Cosy Mystery. Marie Fortune, a woman in her late thirties, has been working in an upscale dog grooming salon in Boston and as the book opens, she finally loses her cool at the attitude of the clients and her boss, and quits. She reflects on the life she is living and her long-harboured dream of running a bed and breakfast on the coast of Maine. This was a dream inspired and encouraged by her Great Aunt June, whom she spent summer childhoods with in Maine. She worries over what she will do next and when she invites her boyfriend Chris over to tell him, she finds evidence that he's been involved with someone other than her and finds herself ending that relationship as well. As soon as he leaves, she gets a call from a police officer telling her that her Great Aunt June has died.

Naturally she goes to the small Maine town June lived in for the funeral, and finds that June has left her the large house she lived in there and the property it was on, which includes beachfront. Marie can't help but see this as an opportunity to live her dream. She also finds another surprise waiting for her there, as was promised in the note June left for her. It turns out to be a dog, and Marie is happy to take it on as well. 

As she uses the last of her savings to do needed renovations to the house to make it work as a bed and breakfast she leaves in place the gothic touches that June decorated the house with as they seem to fit the place, and despite the fact that the house has a reputation for being haunted Marie doesn't really notice anything like that. But one of her first visitors seems to see something and before she knows it, she finds believers and nonbelievers making bookings hoping to either see something or disprove that there is anything haunting about the house. 

When one of those visitors dies soon after leaving the house, she finds herself under suspicion for the death, and questioning the activities that have been occurring at the house. 

A fun read, with touches of humour and romance. 

A Talent for Murder

Finished August 5

A Talent for Murder by Peter Swanson

This is the third book in the Henry Kimball series, but they can be read as standalones. Here, one of the main characters is Martha Ratliff. Martha works as a librarian in Maine and recently met and married a salesman who she connected with, Alan. Alan travels a lot for work, which means that Martha still gets time alone, which she also enjoys. When she sees a blood streak on the back of one of his shirts just after a conference, she begins to question how well she knows her husband. She does some research into the last few cities he visited and sees a disturbing pattern of unsolved cases of murdered women. 

Not wanting to directly accuse him in case she is wrong and this accusation creates a rift in their marriage if it isn't true, she reaches out to a college friend who once helped her get out of a controlling relationship. Her friend is Lily Kintner, who is also a key figure in this series. 

Lily can see why Martha is concerned and offers to meet Alan and get some insight into him, and what he might be up to. But when Lily goes to the town his current conference is in, she finds something much more concerning and with ties to the past. When more deaths begin to happen, Lily reaches out to Henry for assistance. 

This is a twisty and disturbing tale of a psychopath and criminal urges that tie in with revenge. It was hard to put down and has many plotpoints that I didn't foresee. A great read. 

Sex, Lies and Sensibility

Finished July 17

Sex, Lies and Sensibility by Nikki Payne

I ordered this book because I loved her earlier book Pride and Protest so much. This one didn't flow as well as that did and there were some minor editing issues. Payne is a good writer, and I will definitely read more from her. 

Nora was an excellent track and field athlete, competing and winning at the college level, until she did a very stupid thing and allowed her boyfriend to make a sex tape of them. Her father was angry at her after that, and she'd got a job to support herself. She'd lost her track scholarship, and didn't finish college. She also took refuge in watching HGTV endlessly to avoid fixing her own life. 

Now her father has died and she has arrived at his funeral. As she is ushered to a private room, she discovers that her mother was her father's mistress, and that he had a wife and stepdaughter. She, Shenora, and her sister Mary-Anne (Yanne) and their mother Diane don't have ownership to their home or any of her father's other assets. What they have been left in the will is a unmaintained house and property in Maine called Barton Cove. The property is in foreclosure and the full outstanding loan is required to be repaid by Labor Day of the next year. If they can pay off the amount due in time, they get access to an Estate Improvement fund in the seven figure range. 

Yanne and Nora decide to take on the estate and find unexpected partners in a native run tour group who is headed up by Ennis Freeman (Bear). As Nora puts her HGTV learned skills to work with the help of Bear's local contacts and Yanne expands her baking repertoire, the two find themselves becoming part of the community, and learning about local environmental issues and other politics. 

I liked the bringing together of two racial groups here, the black women and the indigenous community. I also enjoyed that Bear knows of Nora for her athletic prowess, not the embarrassing video and values her in ways she hadn't expected. 

This is a loose retelling of Sense and Sensibility, but brings in modern day issues and realistic plotlines. A fun read. 

Burn

Finished April 4

Burn by Peter Heller

This novel absolutely gripped me. It is set in a near future time, where political tensions in the United States are high. Maine has talked about secession, as have some other states. 

Every year Jess and his friend Storey have gone away for a few weeks to hunt, going to different areas of the country. Both men grew up in small town Vermont, and Storey still lives there with his wife and two daughters. Jess now lives in Colorado and split up with his long-term partner a few months ago. 

Jess is the narrator of the novel. 

As the story begins, the hunting time is nearing its end, and the two men hike back to their truck and head south, but they find the bridge on the road is out. When Storey looks at it, he says that it was a deliberate act, but he doesn't know why, maybe they need to rebuilt it. So they try a different route, but they discover another destroyed bridge. They also note that they've met no one else on the road. 

As they head towards a small service centre, they run out of fuel and decide to walk up to get some. But the buildings are burned to the ground and there are bombed out vehicles on the road. 

When they find a small town in a similar condition, and no internet service, they know something big has happened, but don't know what. Is there a civil war? Is something bad happening locally? Storey also has his family to worry about. They are in a nearby state, must be worried about him, and he has no way of reaching them. 

They note that while land transportation options seem destroyed, there are still boats at the docks on the lake, and they might have supplies they can use. As they are now on foot, they look for options and hide when they see others, not sure who to trust. They aren't even sure what direction they should go in. Home is south and west, but south seems difficult. The ocean is east, and maybe others who have fled from this area might go there and they might find a way out. There is also Canada to the north, and that might be an option, except the border might be well-guarded.

As they move as quietly as they can, look for clues as to what their new reality is, and then find another complication that makes their situation both more difficult and more risky, they are in nature, camping and moving through the beautiful inland Maine landscape. 

Jess finds himself spending time in memories as well, of his childhood growing up with Storey and spending time with his family. We learn about how they became close and the experiences they've shared, and the occasional secret they've held apart from each other. This really enriches the story and shows the depth of the friendship and gives us a sense of how their characters formed, and what issues they might have. 

Because of the current American political situation, this novel felt so possible and so scary. Being cut of from everything but each other and the skills they have, these two men search for the truth and a way to stay alive and, for Storey, to return to the family he loves. 

A story that moved me, and that will stay with me. 

Happy Place

Finished March 26

Happy Place by Emily Henry

One of the best contemporary romance writers around doesn't disappoint with this one. The narrator here is Harriet a doctor currently working her residency in San Francisco. Her fiancé Wyn had lived there with her until he needed to move back home to Montana to help with the family business. Over the last year, when this stretched into a more permanent situation, they agreed to break up, but neither of them have shared this information with friends or family. 

They are part of a friend group that all met in college. Sabrina comes from Manhattan, part of a well-off family, with her divorced parents distanced from her emotionally. Her dad cycles through relationships and is currently on his sixth wife. Cleo is from New Orleans and the daughter of a music producer and an essayist, who was studying painting. Harriet is from Indiana, second daughter of a teacher and a dental receptionist, and is always trying to please them since her sister is a rebel. 

Sabrina's father has a oceanside cottage in Maine that the group has been going to for a couple weeks every summer since their college days. One of the things that keeps Harriet going on her long hospital shifts is thinking of her 'happy place' this cottage. 

As the book opens, she's on her way, expecting Sabrina and her boyfriend Parth, Cleo and her girlfriend Kimmy, and not expecting Wyn. When Wyn is there, she is shocked and when he acts like nothing has changed between them, even more so. Then she learns two things, one that the cottage is for sale and this is the last year they will be able to go; and two, one of the other couple's has a special event planned. Harriet and Wyn agree that they can't break the news at this time, and make a pact to fake it for the two weeks. There are other tense relationship encounters during this time as well, as personalities and secrets come into play. 

I enjoyed the underlying messaging here about life choices, and how Henry shows the different mental stresses that each of the characters carries. There is lots of fun banter between the characters, and found the book a page-turner as expected. 

The Golden Hour

Finished January 24

The Golden Hour by T. Greenwood

This is a book I plucked off my shelves to meet a reading challenge, and it was so much more than I expected. The central character here is Wyn Davies. She is an artist who has started selling custom art featuring birch trees to match clients' decor. She doesn't love this work, but it pays some of her bills. Wyn is unhappy about a lot of things in her life, and she recently asked her husband Gus for a separation. She now lives in the other half of their New York duplex and their four-year-old daughter Avery moves back and forth.

When Wyn was thirteen, she took a shortcut home from school through the woods and was violently attacked. The police found the boy involved, Robby Rousseau, walking home with blood on him and he soon confessed. He has spent the last twenty years in prison, but now his supporters are fighting for DNA testing on the evidence and a new trial. Wyn can't face that, and when she receives a threatening phone call, she decides to take her friend Pilar up on her offer to stay with her for a few months in an old house she bought on an island in Maine. 

As Wyn struggles to identify all her feelings, her fears, and her hopes, she must face the truth about her past, one that is gradually revealed over the course of the novel, and figure out what she wants for her future. In the house she discovers another woman's story, and gets caught up in that .

This is a very intriguing book, one that had me reading into the wee hours. I liked the way that art was so important here, and how Wyn worked through her fears. A great read. 

Twisted Threads

Finished January 24

Twisted Threads by Lea Wait

This is the first book in a series set in a coastal town in Maine. This is a small town cozy mystery, set around a small needlework business called Mainely Needlepoint. The main character, Angie, left the town of Haven Harbor years ago after high school. Now her grandmother Charlotte has let her know that her mother's body has been found. Angie's mother Jenny disappeared one day, shortly before Angie turned ten. A search was done and an investigation, but the case went cold. Jenny was a woman who dated a lot of men, and not everyone in town thought well of her. Charlotte raised Angie after that, but Angie knew what they said about her mother, and how they wondered as she grew up whether she would be as flirtatious. That's partly why she left. 

Angie has been in Arizona, working for a private detective. She was good at both the office work, and the research. So when Charlotte tells her that she has a problem with the small needlework business she started, Angie offers to help find the man who owes her and her workers money. We get to know the other stitchers that Charlotte hired to do the work, many of them in dire need of the money they are owed.

As the police continue their investigation into how Jenny's body got to the place it was found, Angie continues her search. But when the man she's been looking for dies, Charlotte and Angie are some of the suspects in that death. Angie decides to continue her detective work, this time to find the killer.

I liked the main character, and the other characters are starting to take shape. I expect that will continue as the series moves forward. 

If We Had Known

Finished January 22

If We Had Known by Elise Juska

This novel is set around a shooting in a small college town in Maine. The shooting occurs in a mall and the shooter is a recent graduate of the college. Maggie Daley recognizes the name of the shooter, Nathan Dugan, as a former student. She teaches English composition a required course that many of her fellow teachers resented because of the challenge of teaching students who didn't want to take English. But Maggie is an enthusiastic teacher who loved the challenge. The students wrote papers, shared them in class, and talked about them with each other. In many cases the topics were deeply personal and the experience was a meaningful one in their lives. Maggie loves her job and really enjoys getting the students enthused about writing about something important to them. After Maggie's marriage ended she begin seeing Richard, another teacher at the college, but he still lives with his wife even though he says their marriage is over. Because he is worried about his wife's mental health, he and Maggie have kept their relationship secret. 

While Maggie is at the center of the story, she is not the only voice here. Another is the voice of her daughter Anna, who is just about to leave for college herself. Maggie and her husband Tom divorced and Anna hasn't been taking it well. Anna has a history of anxiety issues that began a few years ago and that this event is somewhat triggering for. As Anna leaves home, and adjusts to college life, she finds a good friend in her roommate, but soon is triggered in another way by someone new in her life and finds herself struggling again.

A third voice in the story is Suzanne, Richard's wife, who can see that Richard is pulling away from her and suspects that he is having an affair. She had a brief contact with one of the shooting victims and finds herself reacting to the news with a lot of emotion. We see as she discovers who Richard is seeing and takes some action against Maggie. 

Another voice in this book is Luke Finch, who was in Maggie's class at the same time as Nathan. For some reason he doesn't fully understand himself, Luke posts on Facebook about his memories of Nathan and then is taken aback when the post goes viral. People start responding to it from all over, and Luke has a variety of reactions to it. Luke is living at home, working in a donut shop and dreaming of a different life. His sudden fame has him reacting, but not always in a way that is helpful for him.

As these four people try to move on with their lives, but find themselves connected in a variety of ways, we see how this terrible event has changed their circumstance so their lives won't be the same. 

Maggie struggles to figure out whether she should have or could have noticed that this young man would do something so awful and tried to help him. She isn't sure of her ability to connect with the students anymore and we see her become more and more isolated. With Anna at college, she is alone, and she cuts off most of the world. 

This is a book that looks at our connectedness to others and what our responsibility to each other is in a larger way. These four people react in different ways, some of them harmful to others, some harmful to themselves, as they try to figure out how to move forward from in their own lives. 

A gripping story. 

Summer with a Star

Finished September 1

Summer with a Star by Merry Farmer

This is a feel good summer read. Elementary school teacher Tasha Pike spent many summers in the seaside town of Summerbury, Maine. One year, she and her best friend Jenny took shelter from a sudden rainstorm in the grand Victorian home called Sand Dollar Point. She's always dreamed of staying a whole summer in that house and she's saved for years to make the dream come true. 

Granted, she thought she'd be doing it with her fiance and childhood friend, but after recently catching him cheating and dumping him, she's relishing the time to get her head together and think about her future. 

Tasha is an excellent teacher, as we see her relating to children in the book, and she really enjoys her work.

When she arrives at Sand Dollar Point, she finds someone else already staying there, a famous actor, and soon learns that his agent paid a lot to steal the booking out from under her. 

Spencer Ellis is a Hollywood superstar, having appeared in many action adventure films, but he's reevaluating his image, looking for a different type of role, and thinking about his future. He asked his agent to find a quiet location for him to read over scripts and determine his forward path. 

When he discovers that his agent has stolen his summer spot from someone else, he offers to share the place with her for the summer. The house is large and they both intend to be pretty solitary over these months, so it shouldn't be an issue.

As they get to know each other, he discovers Tasha's history and she finds out the annoyances that come with being a star. They also discover commonalities and a definite attraction to each other. 

From time on the beach, exploring nearby nature sites, and reading, the summer passes quickly, but will the two characters see each other beyond this summer idyll.

A fun, fast read, that left me with a pleasant feeling. 

There was also a teaser for the second book in the series, which has me intrigued. 

Cat Nap

Finished October 9

Cat Nap by Claire Donally

This cozy mystery is set in the small Maine town of Kittery Harbor and its near neighbour and larger town Portsmouth, New Hampshire. Sunny Coolidge was a journalist in New York City when she returned to her hometown to help after her father suffered a serious health incident. Unable to get a job in her field, she is working for a local travel company, helping tourists book tours and stays in the area. She has recently adopted a cat, Shadow, who has had a life that hasn't been easy, with numerous homes that have led to a lack of trust in humans. Sunny and Shadow have been making headway with their relationship and have had the help of Jane Rigsdale, a local veterinarian who also grew up in Kittery Harbor, left and returned. 

The two are friends, but also rivals for the interest of local police officer Will Price. When Sunny and her father see Jane have a public altercation with a man, and later find out that it was Jane's ex-husband Martin, they don't realize that things will soon escalate. Martin has been asking Jane for money, and he soon approaches Sunny as well, so when Jane asks her to go with her as moral support when meeting Martin, Sunny agrees. But the two stumble into a crime scene, and Jane soon becomes the prime suspect. Sunny must do her own digging to find evidence to show that there are other people who might have more motive in the murder of Martin.

There are a few chapters that give the story from Shadow's viewpoint as he tries to overcome his trust issues to be closer to Sunny, but occasionally finds himself on the outs, literally, in the cold Maine winter. These sections felt very believable in terms of motivation and actions. 

As the possible perpetrator list grows, Sunny and Jane find themselves facing jealous women, upset pet owners, and even criminals. 

This is my first foray into this series, and I liked it.

Tell Me Everything

Finished February 17 

Tell Me Everything by Cambria Brockman

This novel has three timelines. One of them is the narrator, Malin's freshman year at college. Another is her senior year at college. The third one is several years earlier, when she's a child at home in Texas with her family. 

Malin is going to college far from home, at Hawthorne College in small town Maine. She's requested a single room, and she doesn't have a friend network back home. In a way, she is looking to remake herself. On her first day, at an orientation session, she is befriended by an English girl Gemma, a theatre major, and brought into a group of friends that includes Gemma's roommate, Ruby, an art history major and soccer player. Gemma is extremely outgoing, but needing a lot of validation. Ruby also seems to have something in her past that she's hiding. 

The group also includes three guys: John, the son of an investment banker, but estranged from his father, who seems calculating and manipulative; Max, John's cousin, a pre-med student, close to his family and a guy who is watchful and caring; and Khalid, a prince from Abu Dhabi who is a bit of a playboy, but friendly and approachable. 

In freshman year, they're all finding their feet, tentatively choosing friends and setting themselves up for the next few years at college. By senior year, the six are living in a house owned by Khalid's family, and although they are all in different disciplines (Malin is in pre-law), they are also getting ready for life beyond college. Malin is also a watchful person, and she has concerns about both Gemma and John, and knows things about other people that they either don't realize that she knows, or that they've told her in confidence. 

Back in the earliest timeline in Texas, we see how Malin's parents are concerned about her older brother Levi, who seems to be exhibiting some dangerous behaviours. This timeline only emerges occasionally, and often with jumps of years, so we only see a few specific, yet important moments. 

It is only toward the end of the book that we see the full extent of Malin's story and what brought her to leave Texas and look for a fresh start. 

This is a book that has disturbing moments, and others that are quite prosaic as the plot slowly gets revealed. You know some crisis is coming, but it approaches very slowly. 

The Remedy for Love

Finished August 27
The Remedy for Love by Bill Roorbach

This story starts off very low key and intensifies quickly. Eric is a lawyer in a small town in western Maine, with his own small practice. His interest is in environmental law, but there isn't a lot of work in that area available to him, so he does what work more common. As the book opens he is in a grocery store picking up some things for a dinner he has planned for his wife from whom he is separated. When they separated, they agreed to meet monthly to reexamine things and see if their situation changed. He wants to make it special and has bought things that he knows she likes. Ahead of him in line is a young woman who seems to be struggling. She doesn't have enough money to pay for what she has chosen, and she seems unkempt and needing a wash.
After some time, he pays for what she can't afford, and after purchasing his own items and returning to his car, sees her walking down the road with her heavy bags. A storm is predicted, and it is already starting to snow, so he slows beside her and offers her a lift. She accepts readily. He tries to start conversations with her, but she isn't very forthcoming, and wants to be dropped off along the highway in a remote area. She says she is living in a cabin by the river, but that is quite the walk. He drops her, but then finds himself coming back and following her, helping to carry her purchases to her destination, more than a mile through the woods. Once there, he sees that she isn't set up for the coming storm and insists on getting more wood for her small stove, the only source of heat she has. He gets a few things for her, and then leaves. Once back at his car, his concern and guilt, and other emotions return and he impulsively returns to the cabin with all of his purchases as well, offering them to her for no discernible reason, and surprising her in a vulnerable position.
He truly is a well meaning man with no ulterior motives, but he knows that she has legitimate concerns about his interest. So when he gets back to the road and his car is gone and he too is not dressed for the storm, he ends up back at her cabin.
As we watch the two people in the cabin grow more comfortable with each other and reveal more about themselves, we also see the loss that each has gone through and how it has affected them, making them put up false fronts for the sake of privacy and ego. The storm is a real force here, almost a character itself as it comes in and continues to affect them for more than a day. These two people are both vulnerable and sad, and they respond to each other in meaningful ways.
A very good read.

Evvie Drake Starts Again

Finished August 29
Evvie Drake Starts Again by Linda Holmes

The book begins with a flashback. Evvie is sitting in her car, preparing to leave her husband. This is something she's been thinking about doing for a while. She's packed a couple of things into the car when her phone rights. It's the hospital her husband works at. She thinks it is him, but it is instead someone calling to tell her to come to the hospital as he is badly hurt. She goes.
The book then jumps forward more than a year to Evvie still dealing with a lot of conflicting feelings about her situation. She's played the grieving widow that everyone else, including her best friend, Andy, thinks that she is. But in her own head, she thinks of herself as a monster, while also thinking about how no one ever knew how her husband treated her. They all think he was wonderful. She's living a lie, and doesn't know how to move forward.
Enter Dean Tenney, Andy's high school friend, who played professional baseball until a few months back when suddenly he couldn't anymore. He's spent the last few months getting professional help, trying to figure out why he couldn't do it anymore, but now he needs to leave that world and figure out what to do next. Andy figured that since Evvie's house had a basement apartment, and she would respect Dean's privacy, it was a good solution.
Evvie had been with her husband since she was sixteen, and planned to leave him on the day she'd been with him exactly half her life. Andy is divorced with two young girls, now five and seven, who Evvie is very close with. Evvie helped Andy a lot after his divorce, but she's never shared her own marital woes. Her husband Tim tolerated the friendship as long as she didn't share anything about their relationship, so she complied. Now, she hasn't been able to break down that barrier.
There's a lot of small town life here, both good and bad, a little romance, a little humour. I liked the attention to detail too.
At one point Evvie describes the nearby LL Bean store as being "full of men who want to find themselves but will settle for getting poison ivy on their balls instead." Evvie is a person who wants to help others, but doesn't know how to help herself. I liked to see how she changed over the course of the novel.

Smashed

Finished March 28
Smashed by Lisa Luedeke

This teen novel follows Katie Martin in her senior year of high school. She's a star on her field hockey team and hoping for a scholarship to be able to attend university. She's also dealing with a recently broken family.
After an argument between her parents, her father drives off, and never returns. Her mom is a nurse in nearby Portland, Maine, and working as many shifts as she can to make ends meet. The novel starts in the summer, and Katie is working as a swim instructor at the nearby lake in the mornings, and at the local ice cream place later in the day. Her best friend Cassie is away in Europe for the summer, and her other friend Matt is also busy working.
When the football star, Alec, from school shows up to work nearby and starts to show an interest in Katie, she isn't sure what to think. He seems a lot nicer than he was in school, and interested in what she has to say, but what is his real motive in doing her favours?
Katie resents that her mother is never home, often staying at her boyfriend's place in town rather than drive home late at night after work. Katie's little brother Will is a good kid, and he and Katie get along well, but her commitments mean that he spends a lot of time at his best friend's place.
In trying to escape her problems, Katie makes a few bad decisions and finds herself owing Alec and bigger favour than she is comfortable with, especially when the costs of that favour start coming due.
When school starts up, Katie throws herself into her practices, working hard to do well enough to get the attention of university coaches. But her struggles continue, as do her bad choices, and this time she may not be able to avoid the costs.
A novel that deals with a lot of teen issues, and a great first novel.

Boar Island

Finished March 1
Boar Island by Nevada Barr, read by Barbara Rosenblat

This is the latest in the Anna Pigeon mystery series, and is set in and around Acadia National Park in Maine. As the book begins, Anna's goddaughter Elizabeth, adopted daughter of her friend Heath Jarrod, is having a crisis. She is being attacked both directly and indirectly through social media, emails, and texts, in a very disturbing way.
As Elizabeth begins to disclose what has been happening in her life, Heath and Anna try to find out who is behind the attacks, but their efforts don't go far, and the local police don't seem to treat it as seriously as they think it warrants.
Anna has just been asked to take over the chief ranger role at Acadia on a temporary basis, and the women decide that Heath, Elizabeth, and Heath's aunt Gwen will also go to Maine, and stay with a friend of Heath's aunt who has a home in a partially restored lighthouse on an island.
Unfortunately, they discover fairly quickly that Elizabeth's stalker knows where they are and may have followed them to Maine.
This novel also has another story embedded in it, one of a ranger who feels wronged and resentful of the difficulties life has brought her and looks to not only find a new, better future, but also wants to take revenge on others as she moves on. Anna gets in the middle of this action without even realizing it, and finds herself in a very dangerous situation.
This is a story of families, of those who choose to direct the lives of others by taking matters into their own hands, and of those hiding from reality.

The Wolf in Winter

Finished January 25
The Wolf in Winter by John Connolly, read by Jeff Harding

This is the 12th book in the series featuring private investigator Charlie Parker, but the first one I've read. Charlie lives in Maine, and his work sometimes takes him away from there, but this book is focused on that state. Charlie learns that a homeless man was looking to hire him to look into the disappearance of his daughter. As he begins to trace the girl and her father's search for her, he finds himself led to the small town of Prosperous. Prosperous takes pride in its history, tracing its founding families back to England. Those founders brought their church with them, yet the town strictly limits access to this church and its grounds. The selectmen of the town consider their role as protectors of the town, but what they get in return is more nebulous.
This is a story of dark forces, people that believe in the end justifying the means, and closely guarded secrets. Charlie is no stranger to any of this and he does his research and chooses his moves carefully, but perhaps not always carefully enough. Two of the men that work closely with him, Angel and Louis, also have roles to play, as does a man Charlie has been hunting. This is a book with both a strong detective mystery plot, and a horror plot entwined together. It also has many interesting characters, touches of humour, and has interested me in reading more in this series.

Red Ruby Heart in a Cold Blue Sea

Finished January 21
Red Ruby Heart in a Cold Blue Sea by Morgan Callan Rogers

This novel begins in the summer of 1963 when 12-year-old Florine Gilham has her activities limited after an incident involving several friends: Dottie, Glen and Bud. Florine spends the days with her mother Carlie. Carlie is young and impetuous and the two spend their time on the beach, walking to the nearby state park, hanging around their small Maine town and nearby towns, and dancing to records. Lee, Florine's father is twelve years older than her mother, a local fisherman, and happy to stay where he is. The two parents care about each other deeply, and their one point of argument is Carlie's wanting to travel to other places. When she goes on her annual trip further along the coast with her friend Patty and goes missing, the Florine's life changes rapidly.
She spends her days with her grandmother who lives across the road, Grand, learning how to back bread and knit, and pining for her mother. Lee first begins to disappear into a bottle, and then finds solace in another, something Florine has difficulty accepting.
The story continues over the years as Florine grows into a woman, still missing her mother, and trying to figure out her own path in life.
This is a story of loss, but because of the uncertainty of Carlie's disappearance, the grief is mixed with hope and denial. Florine is a strong character, and we see her change over the years. The historical period is part of the story as well, as is the setting. A great story that will draw you in to this girl's world.

Calls Across the Pacific

Finished November 30
Calls Across the Pacific by Zoë S. Roy

This novel follows a young woman, Nina Huang, as she flees the collective she has been forced to live on in China. It follows her out of China to Hong Kong, on to the United States, and eventually to Canada. Nina's father was in the military, and she was at one point a Red Guard herself. But her father's education, at West Point, soon counted against her, and sealed her fate within China under the cultural revolution. Nina's experiences read like a memoir, with her voice reflecting her origins.
The story begins in 1969 and continues to 1978. We see Nina's life in North America and how she adjusts and finds a place for herself. We also see her longing for news of her family and friends back in China and how, as the borders relax, she is able to make her way back on more than one occasion to reconnect, learn their stories, and perhaps find a voice for those stories in the larger world.

The Poacher's Son

Finished November 10
The Poacher's Son by Paul Doiron

This debut novel is the first in a series featuring Maine game warden Mike Bowditch, and was a finalist for the Edgar Award. Mike had a rough upbringing, beginning with poverty and arguing parents. His father Jack is a backwoods man, eking out a living hunting, not always legally, working at camps, and comfortable with little in the way of material possessions. He also drinks too much, is quick to anger, not afraid of a fight, and has an eye for a good-looking woman.
After leaving with his mother when he was young, Mike tried to reconnect with his dad both as a teen and as a young adult, but never was able to manage it. He did gain a love for nature and wild things though and became a game warden. He still has a lot of issues and some of them have affected his relationships and his attitude towards difficulties that arise.
When his father leaves a cryptic message on his answering machine and Mike finds out that his father has become the prime suspect in the murder of two men, one of them a police officer he knew in school, he can't believe his father capable of such an act. He knows his father can be violent, but in a bar brawl kind of way, and he can't believe in the motives that the authorities are ascribing to Jack. As Mike becomes obsessed with finding Jack and getting him to trust in the justice system, he finds new friends and discovers how many people have come to care about him along the way.
This is the story of a young man, still aching to be a man his father can be proud of, a man who must sort through his own myths about his father to find the truth. It is a coming of age novel that will having you thoroughly engaged in the story and characters.

The Cottage at Glass Beach

Finished December 25
The Cottage at Glass Beach by Heather Barbieri

This novel is set on an island, Burke's Island, off the coast of Maine one summer. Nora Keane was born on the island, but left when she was a young child after her mother disappeared. Now the wife of the youngest attorney general in Massachusetts history, she is back to the island for the summer with her two daughters, taking refuge from the media onslaught back home after her husband's infidelity is uncovered.
Annie is seven, full of imagination and daring. Ella is twelve, sassy and already showing signs of coming teen rebellion. Nora finds herself full of grief, for her marriage, for her renewed sense of loss of her mother, and for all the time she missed with her aunt, who wrote the letter that brought her back home.
Nora's aunt Maire is the island midwife, a family tradition, and while living alone, tied tightly into island life. This is a life with a sense of the unknown, a life where generations have been tied to the sea for their livelihood. A community where legends aren't dismissed out of hand.
So, when a quiet fisherman washes ashore in an apparent shipwreck and Nora finds him, her aunt's suggestion that he is a selkie summoned by her tears doesn't seem that farfetched a possibility. And what did really happen to Nora's mother, did she leave of her own accord, or did something happen to her. As Nora gradually begins to figure out her own future, her daughters go on a dangerous adventure that will draw Nora's courage beyond what she imagined.
The selkie legend surfaces several times in this book, but never really releases its mystery. An interesting novel, but it didn't capture me entirely.