Opening Sentences: A Fatal Stain by Elise Hyatt

Opening sentences can give readers a taste of a writer's style and content. Here are the beginning sentences from the cozy mystery, A Fatal Stain :

The first time I tried to run away from home, I was three. I'd packed all my comic books and a bag of cookies in a book bag emblazoned with Remembered Murder, the name of my parents' bookstore in Goldport Colorado, and I had made it all the way down to the bus station, where I realized I didn't have the money for a ticket. I'd sat quietly in a corner bench and eaten my cookies and read my comics until my grandmother noticed I was missing and came to find me.

Title: A Fatal Stain : A Daring Finds Mystery by Elise Hyatt
Published October 2, 2012; Berkley paperback

Book description: Candyce "Dyce" Dare, owner of the furniture refinishing business Daring Finds, finds a disturbing stain on a table that she suspects is blood. Dyce discovers that the table’s previous owner has gone missing—and once more is drawn into a solve-it-yourself mystery project.

Book Review: The Man in the Empty Boat by Mark Salzman

Title: The Man in the Empty Boat by Mark Salzman
Published February 14, 2012; paperback by Open Road
Genre: memoir

Easy reading, smooth writing. This memoir shows the writer reaching his philosophy of life - man  as an empty boat rocked, nudged, and moved by cosmic forces that are outside of his control.

Mark Salzman records and comments on the events in his life that lead him to the conclusion that we are not really in control of our lives, since our genes, the environment, social conditioning, events that happen to us, and so on, dictate who we are, what we become, and what we can or cannot do.

Mark inherits his family's tendency to depression and anxiety. A recurring back injury forces him to abandon the martial arts that he studied. A successful book (which I have read and liked), Iron and Silk, resulted from his experience teaching English and learning martial arts in China.  Since then, however, he has had trouble producing a book that his publisher will accept, until now.

A breakthrough came, a revelation that helps him explain his life and the tragedy of his family dynamics that includes a death in the family. The one stability in his life is his wife, Jessica Yu, a film director, and his two young daughters. Mark concludes that cosmic forces and nature control life and that he is just a Man in an Empty Boat, being moved around by the tides, with no input from him on a change of course or direction. A fatalistic point of view that somehow helps relieve the anxieties of life.

I found this "philosophical"view particularly Asian or Buddhist, as Buddhism sees life as predetermined or predestined. However, Mark professes to no religion. For an enlightening memoir, thoughts on life and how he coped with anxieties, do read The Man in the Empty Boat. I gave it a 4 out of 5 stars.

A complimentary copy of this book was sent to me for review.

Sunday Salon: Iced Chiffon by Duffy Brown

Welcome to the Sunday Salon!

Iced Chiffon

I saw Iced Chiffon (Berkley paperback; October 2, 2012) featured so many times on blogs that I thought I was missing out on a good cozy by not reading it right away.  I like the main character, Reagan, who is a young woman turned sleuth, down on her luck, recently divorced, and trying to renovate her home, a Victorian house that she has turned into a consignment shop, the Prissy Fox.

Reagan's ex-husband Hollis has been charged with the murder of his girlfriend and employee, Cupcake, and Reagan may lose her Victorian home if Hollis decides to take it back and  use the money to pay his lawyer to get him off the hook. Reagan wants to keep the house and decides to solve the murder herself.

So far, so good. Lots of humor and Savannah atmosphere, Southern style food, dress, and manners. I'm enjoying this cozy. Of course, there is romance simmering beneath the icy exchanges with Hollis's handsome lawyer, Walker Boone.

Also on the agenda, a wholesome breakfast and a matinee, Argo. I've heard good things about Ben Affleck's movie and hope to see it this afternoon.

What are your reading plans for the day, the week?

New Women's Fiction: Things Remembered; Forgotten

Things Remembered

Things Remembered

Returning to her childhood home in the hills of Northern California, Karla Esterbrook can't refuse her ailing grandmother, Anna, who asks for help to settle her affairs.

Anna raised Karla and her younger sisters after their parents' death twenty years before. But from the beginning a clash of wills separated Karla and her grandmother, leaving them both bitter and angry. (book description)

Forgotten

Forgotten

If your old life vanished completely, should you try to get it back or create a whole new one? 

Forgotten is the story of a woman who returns home after being stranded for months in Africa by an earthquake only to find that everyone in her life believed she was dead and have moved on.  (book description)

I'm eager to read these two paperback novels from William Morrow,  released this month. 

Guest Post: Lucinda Riley, author of The Girl on the Cliff

Title: The Girl on the Cliff by Lucinda Riley
To be released October 30 by Atria Books
Genre: Irish fiction


The Girl on the Cliff – The Inspiration by Lucinda Riley

It’s always a location, or a house and the atmosphere surrounding it, that inspires inside me those first seeds which eventually germinate into a book. This was very much the case with ‘The Girl on the Cliff’.

I was born and lived in Ireland on the West Cork coast and I loved its wildness and isolation. ‘Extreme’ locations are always exciting to me because they are dramatic and of course, romantic. The thought of a vulnerable child, barefoot and alone during the Atlantic storms that used to break with such fury when I lived there with my own small children, gave me the character of ‘Aurora’, the narrator of the book. I wanted to make her ‘other-wordly’ and ephemeral, almost part of the intense, dramatic scenery which surrounded her when she was born.

I will confess that Aurora is the first character I’ve ever written who is basically ‘me’. I poured my soul into her – something I’ve never done before in one of my books. All my beliefs, hopes and fears; a lot of my life - I’m an ex-ballerina who got so sick I was bedridden and had to ‘use my mind, not my body, to express myself’ – is in there . Yes, like her, I’ve seen ghosts and angels and believe in the ‘afterlife’. I’ve suffered terrible loss , as most of us have at some point in our lives, but still believe, as Aurora says, that ‘love and faith and goodness and hope’ will win the day. And that human nature, for the most part, is intrinsically ‘good’. Otherwise, we wouldn’t still be here on the planet – we’d all have murdered each other thousands of years ago! This book is so personal, it’s painful. Basically, if readers reject Aurora, they are rejecting me!

Some readers may find Aurora’s spiritualism and endless positivity in the face of adversity irritating. But, the US dollar bill itself has ‘In God We Trust’ written on it … yet, to my knowledge, no-one has ever managed to take a photograph or interview him! As Aurora says, ‘just remember, there’s no proof either way. So I choose to believe. It’s much the best option.’ I’m not into any particular organised religion, by the way, I just believe in a power higher than us humans, and am humble enough to realise there is so much we can never understand. Who/what energy created the Big Bang in the first place …? No-one knows. So, it’s pretty obvious this book is not for ‘cynics’ who don’t believe in a ‘higher level’, or that the world is fundamentally a bad place. Redemption and some level of forgiveness is always a possibility, if not an actuality in some cases. And that is the rock-bed from which all my stories and characters come. And besides Aurora, there is a huge, intricate family story, spanning over 100 years. There are characters, good and bad, that pepper the plot.

Also, in ‘The Girl on the Cliff’, I’ve explored the fact that, as one grows older, the seesaw of pain and joy of the human condition become more stark. During the writing of the novel, I became fascinated by ‘the fairytale’, which all modern romantic novels are a derivative of. In particular, the ‘happy ending’, which every fairytale contains and is in fact, an integral part of their beauty. Yet, what happens after the ‘Happy Ever After’? And how to write an ending, given the depth of the characters involved in ‘The Girl on the Cliff’, in which the conclusion is both satisfying and moving?

In conclusion, ‘The Girl on the Cliff’ has all the ingredients of ‘The Orchid House’: the ‘big story’, a dual narrative and locations which fire my imagination, yet I hope I have added a new dimension, a depth and realism in the storyline which isn’t trite or contrived. In this book, more than any other story I’ve written, the characters demanded to be heard and I gave them their voice.


The Girl on the Cliff book description: From New York, Grania Ryan returns to her family home on the rugged, wind-swept coast of Ireland. Here, on the cliff edge in the middle of a storm, she meets a young girl, Aurora Lisle, who will profoundly change her life.

Despite warnings Grania receives to be wary of the Lisle family, Aurora and Grania forge a close friendship. Through old family letters dating from 1914, Grania learns their families’ histories are entwined. The horrors of World War I, the fate of a beautiful foundling child, and the irresistible lure of the ballet leave its imprint on each new generation. Ultimately, it will be Aurora who may be able to unlock the chains of the past.

Lucinda Riley is the bestselling author of The Orchid House. Born in Ireland, she lives in the English countryside and in France with her family.

The Incense Game by Laura Joh Rowland

"The incense game begins," Usugumo said. The sisters sat up straighter, like warriors preparing for battle. "Listen to the incense. Let its voice tell you who it is."  

She set the celadon bowl on the floor between her and the elder sister and bowed.

Title: The Incense Game: A Novel of Feudal Japan
Author: Laura Joh Rowland
Published September 18, 2012; Minotaur Books hardcover
Genre: historical mystery

Book description: "In the wake of a terrifying earthquake, Sano Ichiro races to solve a crime that could bring down the shogun's regime.

When a massive earthquake devastates Japan in 1703, even the shogun's carefully regulated court is left teetering on the brink of chaos. This is no time for a murder investigation—except when a nobleman's daughters are found dead from incense poisoning and their father threatens to topple the regime unless Sano Ichiro tracks down the killer.

With the help of his wife, Reiko, and his chief retainer, Hirata, Sano begins a secret investigation that jeopardizes his whole family."

I enjoyed this historical mystery set in 18th century Japan and rated 4 stars!

Book Review: What the Zhang Boys Know by Clifford Garstang

Title: What the Zhang Boys Know: A Novel in Stories
Author: Clifford Garstang
Paperback published October 1, 2012; Press 53
Objective rating: 5/5

There are twelve short stories making up this novel, featuring the residents of the Nanking Mansion condominium at the edge of Washington D.C.'s Chinatown.

Comments: These are moving stories of lives accidentally touching through close proximity in the condominium of a busy cosmopolitan city. I found it excellent writing and story telling, realistic, with a framework that is perfect for these stories of urban life.

Linking the residents together are the Zhang boys, the two children of Zhang and his deceased American wife, Maddie. The children see and hear and observe a lot about the condominium residents, even though they might not fully understand everything, being quite young, one just starting kindergarten and the other not yet old enough for preschool. Simon and Wesley are often playing in the corridors or on the stairs, or might wander down into the basement, and so are in contact with the condo residents. Many befriend the boys, who may get a piece of chocolate or even dollar bills to be quiet and not tell anyone about some of the little things they come across, see, and may know.

At the beginning of the book, Mr. Zhang takes the boys to bring back their grandfather from China, to help take care of them. His friend Jessica comes over to help too, and is expected to one day fill the gap left by the boys' mother. But the boys, too young to understand death, expect their mother to come home any day. At one point, they leave home together, to try to find her in the streets of the busy city.

Book synopsis: The stories spotlight Zhang’s neighbors as they seek to fill gaps in their own lives: the young bookseller diagnosed with a life-threatening illness; the young lawyer trying to cope with a failed marriage; the obsessive painter haunted by the image of a face; the middle-aged woman forced to sell her possessions in order to survive; the sculptor, overwhelmed by longing for the son he didn’t know he had. And then there are the Zhang boys, who firmly believe that their mother is coming back. What is it that they know? (book description)


Clifford Garstang is the author of the story collection In an Uncharted Country and co-founder and editor of Prime Number Magazine. He is also author of the literary blog Perpetual Folly. Garstang served as a Peace Corps Volunteer in South Korea and practiced international law in Chicago, Los Angeles, and Singapore. Subsequently, he worked as a legal reform consultant in Almaty, Kazakhstan and was Senior Counsel for East Asia at the World Bank in Washington, D.C. Garstang teaches creative writing at Writers.com and elsewhere.

He currently lives in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia.

For other book reviews, visit TLC Book Tour for What the Zhang Boys Know.
Submitted to Immigrant Stories Challenge 2012