Book Review: The Story Hour by Thrity Umrigar

The Story Hour

Title: The Story Hour by Thrity Umrigar
Published August 19, 2014; Harper
Genre: fiction, women's fiction
Objective rating: 4.5/5

The power of stories to heal and connect. That seems to be part of the message of this novel by Umrigar, with its intriguing characters and storyline.

Two very different women are brought together by fate and circumstance - the unhappily married immigrant to the U.S., Lakshmi, who is healed by and in turn helps to heal her psychologist and friend, African-American Maggie, by telling Maggie stories of her life growing up in India. Both women are married to Indian men, have sad memories of mothers who died when they were younger, and both women harbor secrets from their past that hamper their lives in the present.

These two are fully developed characters and their interaction, not always a smooth one, brings the novel to life in a vivid and affecting way. Don't miss reading this book if you get the chance.

Book description: An experienced psychologist, Maggie carefully maintains emotional distance from her patients. But when she meets a young Indian woman who tried to kill herself, her professional detachment disintegrates. Cut off from her family in India, Lakshmi is desperately lonely and trapped in a loveless marriage to a domineering man...  

Moved by her plight, Maggie treats Lakshmi in her home office for free, quickly realizing that the despondent woman doesn't need a shrink; she needs a friend....When Maggie and Lakshmi share long-buried secrets, the revelations jeopardize their close bond and force them to confront painful choices. (publisher)

I received a proof/galley of this book for review. 

Book Review: Tahoe Ghost Boat by Todd Borg

Tahoe Ghost Boat

Title: Tahoe Ghost Boat (Owen McKenna #12) by Todd Borg
Published August 2014; Thriller Press

This new release came out this month, one of a series of Owen McKenna thrillers set in and around Lake Tahoe, many of which I have read and thoroughly enjoyed. I think Tahoe Ghost Boat is one of Todd Borg's best!

My synopsis: A woman calls private detective Owen McKenna desperately asking for help as she is being chased in her car. McKenna comes to the rescue and finds out that his new client, Nadia, is being blackmailed to hand over the $2 million in insurance money that she is due after the death of her husband, Ian Lassitor. Lassitor was recently found drowned in Lake Tahoe when his boat was cut in two by an unknown boat in the middle of the night. 

So begins the suspense surrounding the mysterious "ghost" boat, the people who threaten Nadia, and McKenna's attempts to protect Nadia's 15-year-old estranged daughter Gertie, who is a target for kidnappers. But the plot is even more involved than it seems.

The action: The thrill of reading this novel lies in the multiple times McKenna risks his life while protecting Gertie from criminals that seem to come straight out of a James Bond movie - seemingly indestructible bad guys that have unusually and imaginatively cruel tendencies.

I loved every roller coaster ride as McKenna escapes and eludes his pursuers(we know he has to escape, as he is the main character, after all) many times.  But rest assured, you will get multiple thrills reading Tahoe Ghost Boat, as well as an intimate knowledge of the lake itself - the beauty and uniqueness of it as well as its possible dangers, in all seasons. A tremendous setting for a mystery series!

Objective rating: 5+ out of 5.  I didn't want it to end, and now I can't wait for Borg's next in the series.

Thanks to the author for a review copy of this book.

Book Review: CLAM WAKE by Mary Daheim

First Chapter, First Paragraph is a weekly meme hosted by Bibliophile by the Sea.

Clam Wake

First chapter:

Judith McMonigle Flynn stared at the mail on the credenza, glared at the thick packet's return address, and squared her broad shoulders before marching out of the front hall to confront her husband in the kitchen. 

"It's here, Joe," she announced. "Come and get it."

Book description:
Innkeeper Judith and cousin Renie face a cold-blooded killer in a beach community in this Bed-and-Breakfast mystery from author Mary Daheim. With the holidays gone and Hillside Manor almost empty, Judith has a housesitting stint at her aunt and uncle’s retirement home on Whoopee Island with cousin Renie. Surrounded by retirees in the off-season sounds peaceful and pleasant but it isn’t long before a dead body pops up. With suspicion over her and Renie, Judith begins sleuthing—if only to prove they didn’t commit the crime.

Digging for clams and answers, the cousins discover that retirement can be deadly—at least among the eclectic, eccentric residents of Obsession Shores.

My comments: A good plot in this newest in the series, with interesting and likeable main characters. Much of the book rests on the relationship between Judith and her cousin Renie; their amusing banter and commentary makes for interesting reading and a good chuckle, though their interchanges do not always hit the high mark for comedy.

Recommended for an easy and entertaining summer read.

Author Bio: Seattle native Mary Richardson Daheim lives three miles from the house where she was raised. Upon getting her journalism degree from the University of Washington, she went to work for a newspaper in Anacortes WA. Then, after her marriage to David Daheim, his first college teaching post was in Port Angeles where she became a reporter for the local daily. Both tours of small-town duty gave her the background for the Alpine/Emma Lord series.

Mary spent much of her non-fiction career in public relations (some would say PR is fiction, too).
She began her publishing career with the first of seven historical romances before switching to mysteries in 1991. At the time of her husband and mentor’s death in February 2010, David and Mary had been married for over 43 years. They have three daughters, Barbara, Katherine and Magdalen, and two granddaughters, Maisy and Clara. They all live in Seattle, too. 

See other reviews on the Partners in Crime Book Tour, which provided a review copy of this book.

GIVEAWAY: The publisher is giving away a copy of this book to a reader. Please leave a comment with your email address, U.S. residents only, or email me at harvee44@yahoo.com with your entry titled "Clam Wake Contest."  The contest will end August 26 and a winner announced August 27. 

UPDATE: The winner, chosen by random.com, is Patricia T. Congrats! 

Sunday Salon: Mid-August Books

Welcome to the Sunday Salon where bloggers share their reading each week.Visit The Sunday Post hosted by The Caffeinated Bookreviewer; Also visit It's Monday: What Are You Reading hosted by Book Journey, and Mailbox Monday each week.

My granddaughter has shifted her focus from all things My Little Pony to all things Frozen. Just sent off lots of Disney picture books, coloring books, and stickers, with the story and theme. Hope that will make her birthday a lot of fun. Am on the lookout for the t-shirts.

Goodreads is down right now, so here are some amazon links to books, mostly thrillers or mysteries,  recently added to my TBR:

Last Winter We Parted

Dog Beach

Blood Lake

Deadly Bonds

Lola Montez Starts a Revolution

Click on the covers and/or titles beneath the pictures to see the book descriptions.








Currently reading:

Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage by Haruki Murakami

What books have you added to your desk and what are you reading this week?

Giveaway Winner of Blade of the Samurai

I cannot tell a lie. This is the number Random.com chose as the winner of a print copy of
 Blade of the Samurai: A Shinobi Mystery by Susan Spann.

My hubby had to copy this for me as a "screen shot"(whatever that means) as it would not copy as a picture  to put on this post.

Congratulations Barbara Zarrella on the win as the number 1 entry.  I know how much you wanted this book! Good Karma! Will send you an email and then forward your snail mail to TLC Book Tours.

Blade of the Samurai

The Art Whisperer by Charlotte and Aaron Elkins

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 Also Book Beginnings by Rose City Reader.

The Art Whisperer

What would you do if your book got these kinds of one-star ratings?

Book beginning:

The Conservation of Art: Methods and Aims, A Brief Guide
By Alix London...

 Reader's Forum Reviews. Newest First 

Worse Than Useless
Don't Waste Your Money
Clueless
Shameful and Pathetic
Look Elsewhere

That was as much as Alix could take in one sitting, and not for the first time her fingers itched - literally truly itched - to send in a response of her own, a fiery rejoinder that would blow these captious faultfinders out of the water, but deep down she knew it wasn't worth the bitterness of getting into a fight with them. 

page 56:

"But I thought as lead detective on this character's cases you'd want to know and maybe -"
"Maybe get my ass over there too?"

Book description:
When art conservator Alix London spots a forgery, she knows trouble will follow. So she's understandably apprehensive when her connoisseur's eye spots something off about a multimillion-dollar Jackson Pollock painting at Palm Springs's Brethwaite Museum, her current employer. In her third mystery, Alix London must see through mirages in the desert to uncover the knotted history of the painting, and save herself in the process.

Book Review: Maxwell Street Blues by Marc Krulewitch

Maxwell Street Blues by Marc Krulewitch, published August 5, 2014; Alibi
Genre: crime fiction

Book description:
Who: Jules Landau, a college man turned private eye on the Windy City of Chicago's mean streets.

Chicago runs in Jules Landau’s veins. So does the blood of crooks. Now Jules is going legit as a private eye, stalking bail jumpers and cheating spouses—until he gets his first big case. Unfortunately, the client is his ex-con father, and the job is finding the killer of a man whom Jules loved like family.

What: Why did someone put two bullets in the head of gentle bookkeeper Charles Snook? Jules is determined to find out, even if the search takes him to perilous places he never wanted to go. Snooky, as he was affectionately known, had a knack for turning dirty dollars clean, with clients ranging from humble shop owners to sharp-dressed mobsters.

How: As Jules retraces Snooky’s last days, he crosses paths with a way-too-eager detective, a gorgeous and perplexing tattoo artist, a silver-haired university administrator with a kinky side, and a crusading journalist. Exposing one dirty secret after another, the PI is on a dangerous learning curve. And, at the top of that curve, a killer readies to strike again.

My comments: 
This is a hard-boiled detective/PI novel of the old school style. A new PI Jules tries to find out who killed his father's old friend Snooky, the bookkeeper for the mob, so to speak, and hides Snooky's sought after notebook while he investigates. The notebook would reveal names and corruption in all the usual places - in politics, on the streets, in the police force, and even among the university elite whose reputations should have been clean.

If you like hardboiled crime fiction and the mean streets of Chicago, this is a book to pick up. Not extraordinary in any sense, the author does however seems to be following in the footsteps of the classic writers of the genre and is a writer to keep an eye on.

Visit TLC Book Tours for more reviews.

About the author: Marc Krulewitch’s Jules Landau mysteries take place in Chicago, where he was born and where his family has lived for generations. He now resides in Colorado.

Thanks to TLC Book Tours and the publisher for a review e-copy of this book.