Wesley Britton Review Maria Elena Alonso-Sierra's New Nick Larson Novel

 

 

Hanging Softly in the Night

Subtitle:   A Detective Nick Larson Novel

Maria Elena Alonso-Sierra 

Thrills & Kills Press (November 8, 2020)

ASIN ‏ : ‎ B08LQXGCFN

ISBN-13: 978-0-9982574-3-3 

ISBN-10: 0-9982574-3-5 

Available at Amazon

Reviewed by Wesley Britton originally for Book Pleasures

        In this latest edition of Maria Elena Alonso-Sierra’s Lt. Detective Nick Larson series,  readers familiar with such stories will find themselves in comfortable territory encountering many typical mystery story tropes.

For one thing, our main hero, New York police detective Nick Larson is an experienced investigator with a big personal problem.   After his ex-wife committed suicide, he’s on restricted duty while he works out his pain. At first glance, he might not have been the best choice to lead an investigation of an apparent suicide by hanging.   Naturally, this death is followed by other suspicious hangings that might be related murders. Larson, along with his trusty partner, Detective Vic Sacco, along with other tried and true NYPD associates like Tish Ramos, Steve Pensig,  and  Josh Carpenter, spend most of the book trying to connect the ever-increasing accumulation of dots that should reveal, sooner or later,  the motives for the crime spree. 

The second plot is a carry-over from a previous Nick Larson story (“Mirror, Mirror”)  in which two twins are locked in a  psychopathic sibling rivalry. Creative baker Laura Howard is the good twin trying to protect herself, and ignite a relationship with Larson, while brilliant and manipulative evil twin Sandra Ward does everything she can to destroy her sister, even while incarcerated.

Distinguishing attributes of Alonso-Sierra’s story telling include a very descriptive eye,   especially for the ever-widening cast of supporting characters and vivid city settings during a cold and harsh winter. On every page, the reader feels like we’ve been taken into city dwellings, shops, office buildings, everywhere Larson has to go to investigate leads, dead-ends and witnesses from every strata of New York life. The author demonstrates a deep well of research into police procedures and medical analysis, as demonstrated by the list of acronyms at the beginning of the book. Adding to the verisimilitude, a fast, energetic pace keeps the reader engaged from beginning to end.

If you’re like me, you’ll not only get involved with the developing relationships between the leads,  you’ll want to continue the ride in the next volume of the Nick Larson saga. Without providing spoilers, not everything is resolved in Hanging Softly. We got more surprises coming and I can’t wait for the next chapters.

More About the Reviewer

Wesley Britton writes Sci-Fi. He is also a frequent reviewer for this blog, #TheNewBookReview, and BookPleasures.com. 

 

How Authors, Publishers, Professional Reviewers, and Readers Can Benefit from The New Book Review

 The New Book Review is blogged by Carolyn Howard-Johnson, author of the multi award-winning HowToDoItFrugally series of books for writers. Authors, readers, publishers, and reviewers may republish their favorite reviews of books they want to share with others. That includes authors who want to share their favorite reviews, reviewers who'd like to see their reviews get more exposure, and readers who want to shout out praise of books they've read and love. Please see submission guidelines in a tab at the top of this blog's home page or go directly to the submission guidelines at http://bit.ly/ThePlacetoRecycleBookReviews or to the guideline tab at the top of the home page of this blog. Authors and publishers who do not yet have reviews or want more may use Lois W. Stern's "Authors Helping Authors" service for requesting reviews. Find her guidelines in a tab at the top of the home page, too. Carolyn Wilhelm is our IT expert, an award-winning author, a veteran educator and also contributes reviews and posts on other topics related to books. Reviews, interviews, and articles on this blog are indexed by genre, reviewers' names, and review sites so #TheNewBookReview may be used as a resource for most anyone in the publishing industry. As an example, writers will find this blog's search engine handy for gleaning the names of small publishers. Find other writer-related blogs at Sharing with Writers and The Frugal, Smart and Tuned-In Editor. #TheFrugalbookPromoter, #CarolynHowardJohnson, #TheNewBookReview, #TheFrugalEditor, #SharingwithWriters, #reading #BookReviews #GreatBkReviews #BookMarketing

Linnea Gradin Reviews Japanese Novel (in Translation!)

 

TITLE: Heaven

AUTHOR: Mieko Kawakami (Translated from Japanese by Sam Bett and David Boyd)

GENRE: Literary Fiction

AGE / INTEREST LEVEL: Adult 

ISBN: 1609456211 (ISBN13: 9781609456214)

PAGE #: 192

PUBLISHER: Europa Editions

A LINK TO WHERE THE BOOK MAY BE PURCHASED: https://www.amazon.com/dp/1609456211?tag=reedwebs-20&linkCode=ogi&th=1&psc=1 

Reviewed by Linnea Gradin originally for Goodreads

Mieko Kawakami’s Heaven is a short novel with a deceptively simple set-up. Following an unnamed 14-year-old narrator maliciously nicknamed Eyes because of his lazy eye, Kawakami’s second novel (or third including the novella Ms Ice Sandwich) to be translated into English is an account of cruel and senseless bullying. It’s a complete shift in both theme and scene from her hugely successful Breast and Eggs, but just as thought-provoking and unflinching in its execution.

 

Heaven opens with the narrator receiving an anonymous note in school. Upon reading “we should be friends” he is suspicious, yet hopeful — instantly introducing the reader to the narrator’s inner world and the psychological effects of abuse. It turns out that the note is from Kojima, his female classmate who, like him, is a victim of bullying. Leaving each other notes and eventually working up the courage to meet in person, the two form a bond based on their shared struggles and a mutual longing for human connection. Throughout, I desperately wished for this to be the start of a beautiful friendship, but was left uncomfortably waiting for the other shoe to drop.

 

The narrator is shackled by a profound and frustrating sense of powerlessness but Kojima, in an attempt to rationalize their experiences, has devised a philosophy of her own: “I bet we could make them stop. But we're not just playing by their rules. This is our will. We let them do this. It's almost like we chose this.” She desperately clings to the idea of agency and their victimhood as a “sign” of a higher understanding of pain. This notion sets her on a path of self-destructive martyrdom. As both the narrator and Kojima search for answers where there are no satisfying ones to be found, your heart breaks for them. 

 

Through the narrator’s interaction with Kojima and, later in the novel, one of his bullies, Kawakami manages to make these discussions feel true to the characters’ age, while deftly exploring several perspectives on bullying and cruelty. Their exchanges range from the trivial and banal, to the deeply meaningful. At times, I found that Kawakami has sacrificed believability in order to fully explore these contrasting philosophies and ideas, delivered in ladened dialogue. Despite this, the bullying and its effects never feel anything but horrifyingly real and true to life. Leaving sentimentality behind, Heaven is a perfect example of how creative writing can make suffering intelligible to others, expertly capturing the savage cruelty children are capable of. The use of the lazy eye as a metaphor is also quite apt, as the narrator observes his surroundings but lacks some necessary depth of perception. As he contemplates the opposing notions that Kojima and his bully represent, he asks himself whether his lazy eye is central to who he is, or whether it ultimately makes little difference to his bullies in a world which favors the strong.

 

In the end, it is Eyes who must decide which philosophy speaks to him more — whether to follow the self-destructive path that Kojima is walking or whether he can find solace in the utter meaningless of it all. Excavating the many layers of bullying, Kawakami lets him make his choice in the last few pages of the novel and boldly suggests that liberation might perhaps be best found in the absence of meaning and fate. It is, in many ways, a perfectly imperfect ending.

 

Despite the age of the protagonists, this novel is not published for children. It offers very little hope for goodness in the face of everyday evil, and the descriptions of both physical and emotional violence are disturbing. While ruminating on the meaning of the pain of adolescence, Kawakami doesn’t offer any easy or comfortable answers, making this far from a pleasure to read. There’s no empowering message about how the brutal antagonism the characters face will ultimately make them stronger, nor does it harp on the virtues of empathy. Instead, Kawakami excels at presenting countering arguments without picking sides, staying faithful to the voice of the narrator and simply but powerfully depicting his despair.  Like most great authors, she knows how to make something small and invisible shift inside you without you even noticing. The writing is confrontational and bleak, and though Kawakami’s voice is not as defined as in Breasts and Eggs, Heaven is sure to leave just as lasting an impression on its readers.

 

⭐⭐⭐⭐

More About the Reviewer

 

NAME OF REVIEWER: Linnea Gradin

ORIGINAL PLACE THE REVIEW WAS PUBLISHED:

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/3958173318 

 

Linnea Gradin is a writer for Reedsy, a UK-based company in the self-publishing sector connecting authors with freelancing publishing professionals. She has a Masters of Philosophy in Sociology from the University of Cambridge, and is working towards a second degree in Publishing Studies at Lund University. Needless to say, she has a passion for everything reading but is especially interested in translated literature.

 

Twitter: @_linneagradin

 

EMAIL: linnea@reedsy.com

More About #TheNewBookReview 

Blog The New Book Review is blogged by Carolyn Howard-Johnson, author of the multi award-winning HowToDoItFrugally series of books for writers. Authors, readers, publishers, and reviewers may republish their favorite reviews of books they want to share with others. That includes authors who want to share their favorite reviews, reviewers who'd like to see their reviews get more exposure, and readers who want to shout out praise of books they've read and love. Please see submission guidelines in a tab at the top of this blog's home page or go directly to the submission guidelines at http://bit.ly/ThePlacetoRecycleBookReviews or to the guideline tab at the top of the home page of this blog. Authors and publishers who do not yet have reviews or want more may use Lois W. Stern's "Authors Helping Authors" service for requesting reviews. Find her guidelines in a tab at the top of the home page, too. Carolyn Wilhelm is our IT expert, an award-winning author, a veteran educator and also contributes reviews and posts on other topics related to books. Reviews, interviews, and articles on this blog are indexed by genre, reviewers' names, and review sites so #TheNewBookReview may be used as a resource for most anyone in the publishing industry. As an example, writers will find this blog's search engine handy for gleaning the names of small publishers. Find other writer-related blogs at Sharing with Writers and The Frugal, Smart and Tuned-In Editor. #TheFrugalbookPromoter, #CarolynHowardJohnson, #TheNewBookReview, #TheFrugalEditor, #SharingwithWriters, #reading #BookReviews #GreatBkReviews #BookMarketing

Elise Cooper Shares Newest in J.A. Jance's Mystery/Thriller Series

Title: Unfinished Business 

Subtitle: An Ali Reynolds Book 16

Author: J. A. Jance

Published: Gallery Books Pub.

Release: June 1^st, 2021

Genre: Mystery/Thriller

ISBN: 9781982131111

Reviewed by Elise Cooper

Unfinished Business by J. A. Jance brings back the Ali Reynolds character. As with all her books Jance knows how to build tension and is a fabulous storyteller.  This series, more than her other series, focuses and highlights the characters. In this installment there are three sub-plots: A new character, Mateo, has just been released from prison after sixteen years; a tenant who has anger management problems and sees everything as a humiliation; and Ali’s father who has dementia. 

 

Mateo Vega will hopefully be added to the High Noon Enterprises team and readers can see his character grow in future books. Ali Reynolds and her husband B. Simpson own High Noon Enterprises, a computer security service based in Cottonwood, Arizona. Mateo was accused of killing his girlfriend, and though he was innocent, took a plea to avoid a life sentence. When the board finally paroles him, the only job available is working at a thrift store. Because he was a computer expert, while in prison he kept up his skills and decides to ask his former boss, Stuart Ramey, for a letter of recommendation. Stuart happens to work for High Noon Enterprises and is impressed with Mateo’s skills.  Since there is an opening at the firm, Mateo is quickly hired. Just as he begins his new job, another employee goes missing.

 

“Mateo Vega has a case that strands both Arizona and Washington.  I thought, who better to help solve the case than my perfectly good cold case guy, Beaumont. I wrote his scenes in the first person, so the readers understand his point of view, where he is coming from and what he is thinking.  The Ali books are written in the third person.  I tried to write him in the third person for this story, but he said, ‘no way Jose.’ After a few days of absolute frustration, I gave up.  My new editor at Simon & Schuster never read a Beaumont book and tried to change his voice to third person. The moment I read that part I realized he was no longer this living, breathing character but was suddenly a cardboard cut-out.  I hope readers will give it a chance and see that it ties into the story.”  

 

The High Noon business complex contains extra offices, which are rented out to tenants for additional income. One renter is Harvey McCluskey, a crooked home inspector who's two months behind on his rent. Ali and her employee, Cami Lee, go to McClusky's office to serve an eviction notice, which Cami films on her IPAD. McClusky is embarrassed and infuriated, and vows revenge against the ladies. He kidnaps Cami and plans on torturing her.  Needing all hands-on deck, they turn to the artificial intelligence Frigg who can hack into anything. This AI handles everything from background checks to strategic planning and can apply cyber-magic to tracking down Cami’s kidnapper.

 

“I wrote the protagonist as disturbing from the beginning.  The reader knew the High Noon folks were in jeopardy long before those working there knew.  He turned out that way because of his environment.  His mother was mean; I based her on my parental grandmother.  All three had anger issues, were easily humiliated, never took responsibility, and held grudges.  I came to realize now how my grandmother influenced the writing of these characters.  I did not see the resemblance between Broomy, his mother, and my grandma Busk until you asked the question.”

 

While all this is going on Ali must also handle family concerns.  Her father, Bob, has dementia, and her mother, Edie, is having a hard time continuing to be his caregiver. They tried hiding the fact that he's losing his memory and acting out. Edie is exhausted, Bob is depressed, and the couple have been isolating themselves.  As the situation goes downhill fast Ali insists that her parents get help.

 

“I put in this book quote, ‘Lucid and rational one minute to off the charts the next.’  I spent several months the last year corresponding with a woman who had to put her husband into a memory care facility due to dementia.  She cared for him at home until she could no longer do it.  She died six months after he did.  The cost on the caretakers’ health is insufferable. I was thinking of her in the back of my mind as I was writing these scenes.  Seeing what happened to Ali’s mom was sad yet realistic.”  

 

Serious real-life issues are addressed in this story.  The characters make the story come to life and Jance does a wonderful job telling their story.  Making a cameo appearance, speaking in the first person instead of the book’s normal third person, is J. P. Beaumont, the retired detective who is now solving cold cases. Fans of Beaumont will understand how his presence is only enhanced with first person narratives.  This does not affect the flow of the story which is very fast paced.

More About the Reviewer

Elise Cooper has written book reviews and interviewed best selling authors since 2009. Her reviews cover several different genres, including thrillers, mysteries, women's fiction, romance and cozy mysteries. An avid reader, she engages authors to discuss their works, and to focus on the descriptions of their characters and the plot. While not writing reviews, Elise loves to watch baseball and visit the ocean in Southern California, with her dog and husband. She is a frequent reviewer for #TheNewBookReview. Use this blog's search engine (in the right column of the home page) to find more of her reviews.  

More About #TheNewBookReview Blog 

 The New Book Review is blogged by Carolyn Howard-Johnson, author of the multi award-winning HowToDoItFrugally series of books for writers. Authors, readers, publishers, and reviewers may republish their favorite reviews of books they want to share with others. That includes authors who want to share their favorite reviews, reviewers who'd like to see their reviews get more exposure, and readers who want to shout out praise of books they've read and love. Please see submission guidelines in a tab at the top of this blog's home page or go directly to the submission guidelines at http://bit.ly/ThePlacetoRecycleBookReviews or to the guideline tab at the top of the home page of this blog. Authors and publishers who do not yet have reviews or want more may use Lois W. Stern's "Authors Helping Authors" service for requesting reviews. Find her guidelines in a tab at the top of the home page, too. Carolyn Wilhelm is our IT expert, an award-winning author, a veteran educator and also contributes reviews and posts on other topics related to books. Reviews, interviews, and articles on this blog are indexed by genre, reviewers' names, and review sites so #TheNewBookReview may be used as a resource for most anyone in the publishing industry. As an example, writers will find this blog's search engine handy for gleaning the names of small publishers. Find other writer-related blogs at Sharing with Writers and The Frugal, Smart and Tuned-In Editor. #TheFrugalbookPromoter, #CarolynHowardJohnson, #TheNewBookReview, #TheFrugalEditor, #SharingwithWriters, #reading #BookReviews #GreatBkReviews #BookMarketing

Margaret Ferry by Mary Flynn Book Review

Title: Margaret Ferry

Author: Mary Flynn
Publisher: Barlemarry Press

ISBN-10: 069293720X

ISBN-13: 978-0692937204

ASIN: B07D1F2HBP

Price: $14.68 paperback, $2.99 Kindle
Page Count: 290 pages
Formats (PB, Kindle)

Carolyn Wilhelm

Reviewer

About the Author

Mary Flynn is a gold-medal author of fiction, a poet, an international conference speaker for Disney (retired), and a former full-time writer for Hallmark Cards. Her stories are an eclectic and imaginative mix of humor, pathos, and irony that explore the human experience, often with a surprising twist. She loves meeting readers, other writers, and, of course, people from her beloved native Brooklyn.

Mary's powerful debut novel, "Margaret Ferry," which takes place in 1950s Brooklyn, is enjoying five-star reviews on Amazon and won the gold medal in fiction in the Florida Authors and Publishers Association's 2018 President's Award. Her observational humor has appeared in the Sunday New York Times, Newsday, and other publications.

About the Book

This is a charming as well as a heartfelt novel. Margaret Ferry is an eleven-year-old in Brooklyn in the 1950s. However, most of the characters are adults and this is not a children's book. I thought this would be interesting because I have had a near-death experience myself. Somehow now I'm more drawn to stories such as this one. Margaret has enhanced intuition after her accident. Through the events, she quietly solves several relationship issues in the lives of the people around her, some quite serious. When she asks for a few more minutes, the reader knows another possible solution is next. Reading this will inspire people to be more positive, intuitive, and careful in their communications. 

Margaret attends a Catholic school which some readers will find pleasing. If you are not Catholic (I am not) it is still an engaging read. As each problem is untangled, the story becomes more compelling. I did not want to put the book down as it is a happy story overall. 

More About #TheNewBookReview Blog The New Book Review is blogged by Carolyn Howard-Johnson, author of the multi award-winning HowToDoItFrugally series of books for writers. Authors, readers, publishers, and reviewers may republish their favorite reviews of books they want to share with others. That includes authors who want to share their favorite reviews, reviewers who'd like to see their reviews get more exposure, and readers who want to shout out praise of books they've read and love. Please see submission guidelines in a tab at the top of this blog's home page or go directly to the submission guidelines at http://bit.ly/ThePlacetoRecycleBookReviews or to the guideline tab at the top of the home page of this blog. Authors and publishers who do not yet have reviews or want more may use Lois W. Stern's "Authors Helping Authors" service for requesting reviews. Find her guidelines in a tab at the top of the home page, too. Carolyn Wilhelm is our IT expert, an award-winning author, a veteran educator and also contributes reviews and posts on other topics related to books. Reviews, interviews, and articles on this blog are indexed by genre, reviewers' names, and review sites so #TheNewBookReview may be used as a resource for most anyone in the publishing industry. As an example, writers will find this blog's search engine handy for gleaning the names of small publishers. Find other writer-related blogs at Sharing with Writers and The Frugal, Smart and Tuned-In Editor. #TheFrugalbookPromoter, #CarolynHowardJohnson, #TheNewBookReview, #TheFrugalEditor, #SharingwithWriters, #reading #BookReviews #GreatBkReviews #BookMarketing