The Fervor

Finished March 10

The Fervor by Alma Katsu

This novel combines historical fiction with horror. 

The story begin in 1944, and Meiko Briggs and her daughter Aiko are in Minidoka, a Japanese internment camp in Idaho. Meiko's husband Jamie is a pilot, currently serving in the Pacific. Through the novel we learn how they came to be where they are now after his deployment. 

We also see Archie, one of Jamie's friends, as he and his wife Elsie take a group of children to a fishing area in the mountains near them. When an explosion happens and people are hurt, Archie begins questioning why. 

We also see Fran, a journalist in Nebraska, as she witnesses an explosion and discovers something interesting in the aftermath when she is in a remote area on a tryst with her lover. 

Along with these three stories, that gradually converge, are excerpts from a Japanese diary from seventeen years earlier, when a scientist studying winds comes across another discovery. 

This historical narrative becomes horror when people at the camp, in Nebraska, and in other places start to die from a strange disease. With a group of men in suits and expensive cars recently arrived at the camp, Meiko catches one of them in the kitchen at night and begins to suspect that they are using the Japanese there to conduct some kind of experiment. 

This novel is gripping and scary as you follow the clues to figure out who is doing what and whether anyone can be trusted. 

Unholy Dying

Finished October 6

Unholy Dying by Robert Barnard

This is the seventh novel in a series featuring an English police officer, Charlie Peace, but the first that I've read. There are several characters whose viewpoint we can see things from. One is a journalist, Cosmo Horrocks. Horrocks is a journalist with an eye out for a story wherever he goes, who uses any situation for gain, and has no respect for anyone else. It is the last characteristic that has been limiting in his career, and we can see that no one around him likes him, not his coworkers or his family. He is married, with two daughters. On a train he overhears a conversation between two men, Con and Derek, that piques his interest, about an investigation into the actions of a priest regarding one of his parishioners, a young single mother. 

Another is Julie Norris, the mother in question. She was pregnant at sixteen, kicked out of the house by her parents, and soon after living in a small home on a council estate in Shipley. She aims to be a good mother to both her toddler and the second child she is expecting. She found the priest, Father Pardoe, a good listener and a good adviser. He had been able to help her get some basic items for her home, such as used furniture and appliances. 

We also see Father Pardoe. He has been sent away, boarding with a middle-aged woman in a nearby town, awaiting the investigation, but is growing impatient as the bishop hasn't answered any of his inquiries about the status. 

We also see Mrs. Knowsley, the woman Pardoe is boarding with, and she provides an ear for him, and a source of unexpected comfort. 

Another set of voices are several female parishioners of Father Pardoe, including Miss Preece-Dembleby; Mary, the wife of Con; and Janette, the wife of Derek. These women are also wondering about the inquiry, and want to provide support for the priest, who they believe is innocent of the things he has been accused of. 

I really enjoyed how the story unfolded, moving through different characters multiple times, so that I could see the nuances of the situation and the lives affected. 

There are a couple of themes present as well. One is the role of the Catholic Church both in the lives of these people, and in its secrets. Another is the role of women, in society and in domestic life. Some women have breakthroughs in their lives, while others continue in their expected roles. 

A very interesting read that has me interested in others in the series. 

Snow

Finished February 4

Snow by John Banville

This is the first book in a series, that is also related to another series by the author that he published under the pseudonym Benjamin Black. Here, the main character is a detective inspector with the Garda, the Irish police, and the time is late in 1957. The book begins just a few days before Christmas.

At the manor house Ballyglass, near the village of , in the county of Wexford, a priest is murdered one night. His is discovered by the woman of the house who often wanders in the night, and with the local officer under the weather, DI John Strafford is called in. Like the house owners, Strafford is Protestant, but the priest is Catholic as are most of the people who live in the area. 

The woman of the house, the second wife of the owner, Mr. Osborne is unreliable and often medicated. Osborne and his two teenage children all claim to be sound sleepers who heard nothing. The staff in the house live out, and there seems to be no forced entry. As Strafford delves in the lives of these people, and into the past of the priest, he must also look at his own life and his lack of direction, as well as deal with the power of the church, which is strong in this country. The church, it's history of coverups and abuse have a major role in this story, as they do in reality in many stories. 

The weather plays a role in the book as well, as one can guess from the title. Strafford is woefully unprepared, having only shoes and a thin coat, and he is often borrowing pieces of clothing, offered or not to venture out into the snowy landscape. The weather also affects the actions of others, from the priest staying over at the Osborne's due to the weather, to the delay in assistance arriving.

There are interesting elements of sexuality that also come up several times in the book. 

As always Banville's writing is wonderful, and this story develops slowly, with a few red herrings thrown in for the reader to consider, and a few clues that seem to lie dormant before being followed.

Strafford is an interesting character, who seems to have trouble focusing, and doesn't seem to take notes during his interviews and so loses track of what he knows. It will be interesting to see how he develops in future books.

The Western Wind

Finished September 5
The Western Wind by Samantha Harvey

This historical novel is not your typical mystery. It takes place over four days in February 1491, in a small English village. The narrator is the local priest, and the main subject of the book is the supposed death by drowning of the village's wealthiest man. I say supposed because there is no body, only the tale of a witness, or maybe more than one witness.
The story is told in a backwards fashion with the most recent day appearing first, and the earlier days coming in reverse order. As the story begins, the dean is present, living in the dead man's house and looking into his death, looking for a reason, for a murderer even. He has told the priest to announce a system of long pardons given for all who make their confession in these four days before lent, a pardon of forty days. Another thing that is important to know is that just before the events of this book, the village had a wedding celebration for one of the women who married a man from a nearby village. She was the priest's younger sister, and his only family, and he genuinely misses her.
As we work backwards over these four days, we see the background of some of the village people: The victim, Thomas Newman; the priest and how he came to be where he is in life; Oliver Townshend and his wife, the couple that had sold off most of their land to Newman over the last few years; the dean's reasons for being in the village so soon after the death. Each of the things we learn adds to the information about Newman's death, the people in the village that he interacted with and who depended on him for their livelihoods, his relationship with the priest, and the priest's relationship with the various village people and the dean. All of these things help the reader to understand what happened, and why it happened and what has happened to bring us to the final day included here.
The information about the confessions is quite interesting, the priest implementing a degree of privacy for this purpose that was unusual for England at the time, based on information that Newman provided from his wider experience. I also found it highly unusual how much of this the priest shared with the dean, and what he withheld.
The writing is excellent and one gets a real sense of the village and the life lived there by the inhabitants, and the precariousness of it all. I found it engrossing.