Book Review: Undercurrents by Pamela Beason

Welcome to the Sunday Salon!

Scary picture, isn't it? Scary for divers but more so for the sharks, targeted by illegal poachers for its fins and then thrown back into the ocean to be prey for other sharks and sea creatures. That's the premise for the mystery novel, Undercurrents by Pamela Beason, third in the Summer Westin mystery series.

Summer or "Sam" is a wildlife biologist and freelance writer, hired to write reports for an online publication, Out There, during a week-long trip to the Galapagos Islands, a World Heritage Center off the coast of Ecuador.

Sam is to do her reporting as two different personas, an underwater diver to trail Dr. Daniel Kazaki, the biologist doing a marine life survey, and as hiker Wildlife Westin, a reporter giving readers a view of the islands themselves.

"So, a post every day about the islands by Wilderness Westin, expert hiker and kayaker," Wyatt prompted.
"No problem...."
"And another by a new character that we'll create for the underwater adventures. You are a diver, right?" (p. 5)

Daniel hires a senior park naturalist, an Ecuadorian named Eduardo Duarte, to take them out on a small boat or panga every day.  And they are guests on a small cruise ship that will be their home base in between dives.

But things start to go wrong from day one. Daniel almost dies underwater as his oxygen tanks were contaminated with carbon monoxide. The native fishermen are hostile to the idea that Daniel's marine research will mean that they won't be able to fish as much as they like. Daniel and Sam find the bodies of finless sharks underwater, sharks whose fins had been removed and their blooded bodies thrown back into the deep. The count of sea cucumbers was way down. All this was evidence that local fishermen were supplying the Asian market with delicacies taken from these waters.

Sam and Daniel's lives are in danger. The mystery is intense as we follow Sam underwater and on land. The ending and wrap up was a little bit too neat for me, but I wholeheartedly recommend this book for those mystery readers who would also like a great setting - the Galapagos Islands, both underwater and on land. I learned a lot about scuba diving, its delights and its dangers.

Title: Undercurrents: A Sam Westin Mystery by Pamela Beason
Release date: April 2, 2013; Berkley
Source: review copy from publisher
Objective rating: 4.5/5

Deadly Stakes: A Novel by J.A. Jance

Friday 56 Rules:

*Grab a book, any book.
*Turn to page 56 or 56% in your eReader  *Find any sentence, (or few, just don't spoil it) that grabs you. *Post it. *Add your (url) post in Linky at Freda's Voice.

"That's the problem," Detective Cutter said. "We don't know who the victim is. No identification was found on the body, and so far, no one matching the victim's description has been reported missing anywhere in the Phoenix metropolitan area. We initially thought that finding the owner of the phone would lead us to the victim."

"But I'm not dead," Lynn objected.

Title: Deadly Stakes: A Novel by J.A. Jance
Published February 5, 2013; Touchstone
Description: Ali Reynolds finds herself working against the police to clear two innocent names…with deadly stakes. Police academy-trained former reporter Ali Reynolds investigates the murder of a gold-digging divorcee on behalf of a woman accused of the crime. Lynn Martinson is dating the dead woman’s ex-husband, and she and her boyfriend Chip Ralston have been charged.

White Shanghai by Elvira Baryakina

"Would you teach me to drink tea," Nina asked.
"Without a doubt."
Daniel knew so much about Chinese and Japanese art. He could talk for hours about special ways of manufacturing bone china, arranging gardens,ancient poetry and ink drawing. He was a person of such rate talents that Nina wanted to pinch herself to make sure she wasn't dreaming. (ch. 18)

Comments: This period in Shanghai's history fascinates me. The city was overrun with refugees from all over the world, during the time when the Chinese themselves were undergoing similar hardships and political turmoil.

Book description:  A melting pot of different nations, fused by war and commerce, this was the Shanghai of the 1920s. The Great Powers are greedily exploiting China for its cheap labor and reaping the cruel rewards of the opium trade. However, as ships carrying the remnants of the defeated Russian White Army enter Shanghai, the uneasy balance of this frenetic international marketplace comes under threat.

Among the refugees is Klim Rogov, a journalist whose life and marriage have been destroyed by the Russian revolution - all he has left are his quick wits and a keen worldliness that will serve him well in the lawless jungle of Shanghai. He finds work as a reporter in a British-run newspaper, rubbing shoulders with international gangsters while defying the intrigues of sinister communist agents, clinging to the hope that someday he'll be reunited with his wife, Nina.

This complete English translation of Elvira Baryakina's White Shanghai reflects the greatest traditions of the Russian classics. The official website of the book is http://whiteshanghai.com. There you can find beautiful illustrations, maps, vintage photographs and much more."

Title: White Shanghai: A Novel of the Roaring Twenties in China by Elvira Baryahina
Published January 10, 2013; Glasoslav
Genre: historical novel set in Shanghai, Russia, and Bejing
Source: review copy from publisher/publicist

Other books to read about wartime Shanghai include China to Me, a partial autobiography by American journalist, Emily Hahn.

Book Review: The Prisoner of Heaven by Carlos Ruis Zafon

It helps to know a little about the volatile political situation in Spain in the 1930s and 40s in order to really understand The Prisoner of Heaven, as well as the two previous books in the series, The Shadow of the Wind and The Angel's Game. The novel to me is almost an allegory of what the country Spain went through during its brutal Civil War from 1936-1939 and the subsequent years under the Franco military dictatorship. It seems the life of the character Fermin Romero de Torres during those early years mirrors what much of the country suffered.

The book begins in a relatively peaceful and prosperous time in 1957 and flashes back for at least half of the book to 1939 and 1940 when Fermin was jailed under horrifying conditions in a castle prison in Barcelona, because of his political activities. In prison, he promises the Prisoner of Heaven, David Martin, incarcerated only for his literary talents, to watch over Isabel Sempere, her husband, and their son Daniel, a family who owns a bookstore in the city.

The inmate called the Prisoner of Heaven, David, was in jail because of prison governor Mauricio Valls, who had David jailed for purely self-interested reasons. Fermin is declared dead after trying to escape from the prison with David's help, but brought back to life, as it were, to reappear in the 1950s as a worker in the bookstore run by Sempere and his son Daniel, now a grown man.

When he discovers secrets about his mother Isabel, Daniel starts on a mission of revenge for the past, a mission that leads him to hunt for Mauricio Valls, and this quest I think will continue into the next book in the series.

I read The Shadow of the Wind but missed The Angel's Game, both books of high literary value that are referred to in The Prisoner of Heaven.  These books in the Cemetery of Forgotten Books cycle don't have to be read in sequence, but first, bone up just a bit on the Spanish Civil War in order to get a background of the excellent novel you are about to read.

Title: The Prisoner of Heaven by Carlos Ruz Zafon
Harper Perennial: March 12, 2013
Objective rating: 5/5
Review copy from publisher
For more reviews, visit the TLC Book Tour schedule

Carlos Ruiz Zafón, author of bestselling novels, The Shadow of the Wind and The Angel’s Game, is one of the world’s most read writers. His work has been translated into more than fifty languages, garnering numerous international prizes. He divides his time between Barcelona and Los Angeles.
Find out more about Zafón at his website, connect with him on Facebook, and follow him on Twitter.

Mailbox Monday: Here's Mine; What's Yours?

Visit Mailbox Monday at host Chaotic Compendiums this week.

The books that recently arrived:

Undercurrents by Pamela Beason

Book description: "Scuba diving off the Galápagos Islands, wildlife biologist and freelance writer Summer “Sam” Westin is not only out of her element—she’s plunged right into a dangerous conflict between fishermen and environmentalists…"

The Homicide Hustle by Ella Barrick

Book description:  "The traveling TV dance show, Ballroom with the B-Listers, is coming to Washington, D.C., and ballroom dancer Stacy Graysin is  in line to participate. But when the show’s coproducer, Tessa King, is found dead in the Potomac River, the suspects are the contestants and crew of B-Listers. Stacy will need to win the competition and catch a killer."

Going, Going, Ganache  by Jenn McKinlay
Cupcake Baking Mystery #5

Book description: "After a cupcake-flinging fiasco at a photo shoot for a local magazine, Melanie Cooper and Angie DeLaura agree to make amends by hosting a corporate boot camp at Fairy Tale Cupcakes.  But when the magazine’s creative director is found murdered outside the bakery, Mel and Angie have to find the killer before their business goes AWOL."

When Can You Start: How to ACE the Interview and WIN the Job by Paul Freiberger

Book description: Be ready for The Only Question You Must Be Able to Answer: (not) tell the interviewer about your weaknesses, answer any trick question or oddball question, ask the right questions, be confident in any interview situation, avoid interview mistakes, negotiate the salary you deserve."

When She Was Gone by Gwendolen Gross

Book description: "The story of a seventeen-year-old girl who vanishes on the eve of her departure for college, as told through the alternating perspectives of her neighbors."


Thanks to the publishers for these books for review. What arrived in your mailbox recently? 

Sunday Salon: A Few Good Books

Welcome to the Sunday Salon!

Winter is hanging on with cold and icy rain. Winter officially ends this week but....only a few birds are out tweeting about spring in the backyard. Luckily, good books are still around in all weather, and I have started to read more on Kindle Cloud Reader.  Right click on a strange word and the dictionary meaning pops up!

Review books close by for when I get a few minutes more:

The Mermaid of Brooklyn

The Mermaid of Brooklyn by Amy Shearn:
Jenny Lipkin is a stretched-too-thin Brooklyn mom, tackling the challenges of raising two children in a cramped Park Slope walk-up in New York. But when her husband, Harry, vanishes one evening, Jenny reaches her breaking point. And in a moment of despair, a split-second decision changes her life forever. (goodreads)

The Abundance

The Abundance by Amit Majmudar:  "A luminous, bittersweet novel of India and the American Midwest, immigrants and their first-generation children, and the power of cooking to bridge the gulfs between them."

A Woman of Angkor

A Woman of Angkor by John Burgess:
"An historically accurate history of World Heritage site Angkor - 12th Century Cambodia, birthplace of the lost Angkor civilisation. In a village behind a towering stone temple lives a young woman named Sray, called to a life of prominence in the royal court. She is tested by attentions from the great king Suryavarman II though her husband Nol is palace confidante and master of the silk parasols that were symbols of the monarch's rank.

This novel revives the rites and rhythms of the ancient culture that built the temples of Angkor, then abandoned them to the jungle. Sray witnesses the construction of the largest of the temples, Angkor Wat, and offers an explanation for its greatest mystery - why it broke with centuries of tradition to face west instead of east." (from goodreads)

What's on your plate this Sunday?

Bowled Over by Victoria Hamilton

Title: Bowled Over (A Vintage Kitchen Mystery) by Victoria Hamilton
Published: March 5, 2013; Berkley
Genre: cozy mystery

"I made potato salad!" Jaymie added. She pointed to her bowl, the square-based vintage Depression glass bowl she had just bought and couldn't resist using. "I can tell you exactly what's in it, if you need to know."

Publisher's description: "Vintage kitchenware and cookbook collector Jaymie Leighton has been estranged from her high school best friend Kathy Cooper since they were teenagers, but she never knew what turned Kathy against her. After fireworks at a Fourth of July picnic, Jaymie discovers the body of her former friend in the park.

On the ground nearby is Jaymie’s own Depression-era glass bowl, broken in two. With her fingerprints all over the bowl and a troubled history with the victim, Jaymie suddenly finds herself at the top of the list of suspects. Did the killer intend to frame her for the murder? If so, she is ready to mix it up, because solving crimes is vintage Jaymie Leighton."

Friday 56 Rules:
*Grab a book, any book.
*Turn to page 56 or 56% in your eReader  *Find any sentence, (or few, just don't spoil it) that grabs you. *Post it. *Add your (url) post in Linky at Freda's Voice.