The Black Wolf

 Ok the long awaited second novel installment of Louise Penny,  The Black Wolf finishes the storyline started in The Gray Wolf.  

In true Penny fashion this is a beautifully written novel with a mystery to solve, tension building and some incredible prose. She writes these mystery novels so incredibly you want to underline or copy out so many of the quotes about life and relationships.  

Amazingly in this novel she has come up with an unusual premise that I do not think could really happen but it mirrors so closely some of the outrageous things that are happening now in the United States.  The plot of this book is that there are people at the top of both the United States and Canada who are corrupt and are plotting to take control of the governments and companies for personal gain.

Using social media to pit the US andCanada against each other, to create chaos and throw both countries into war with each other. Killing people who are trying to stop them or sound the alarm.  It is a little scary to read as it is so close to reality and yet it is so well written that you cannot put it down.

In the best way possible the reader will enjoy the suspense and the closure when all the pieces fall into place and the guilty parties are stopped and good guys win.  It is always nice to know that even if real life is unsettled and we do not know the outcome yet, a book will have a satisfying ending.

The Lost Story of Eva Fuentes

 I love books written in multiple voices from different time periods, where the stories all connect in the end.  The Lost Story of Eva Fuentes, written by Chanel Cleeton is that style of novel.  

Taking the reader back to 1900 Cuba we meet Eva Fuentes, a young school teacher living through the revolution in Cuba as the country frees itself from Spain's rule.  As Cuba becomes involved with the United States a group a school teachers are sent to Harvard for a summer of learning and community building. A showing of goodwill between the two countries.  Eva is among the group spending her first summer away from Havana.  She meets a young man and the reader follows her experiences that summer.  When she returns to Cuba she writes and publishes a book.

Next we are introduced to Pilar Castillo, a librarian living in Havana in the 1960s as Fidel Castro is coming to power. She is a newly married woman whose husband has recently been imprisoned for subversive activity by the regime.  She finds a way to fill her days and make a difference by reading and saving books.  Pilar is asked by her neighbor ,who is fleeing the country, to hold onto and return a book to her friend.

Finally in 2024, in London, the reader meets Margo Reynolds, a young woman who has started her own company finding lost and rare items for people.  Mostly art and artifacts, it gives her a good feeling to see people reunited with their possessions or family heirlooms.  Her most current client has asked her to find a very rare and long lost book. Reconnecting with her ex husband to work on this case of finding the book, Margo and Luke also can reexamine their relationship.

A quick entertaining interesting plot and some interesting history of Cuba and the rise of Fidel Castro.