Another wonderful love story, that transcends the pages of this book. Author Elizabeth J. Church has created a novel that explores relationships and personal dreams. She had this reader thinking about her personal relationships and life expectations even before she reached the end of the book.
This is the story of Meridian Wallace, who comes of age during the war years. She is turning 17 in 1941, and going off to college as a naive young woman from a sheltered childhood. As she pursues her degree in ornithology, she is also learning about friendship, men and relationships. She dates two men, one young and brash, one older and more mature. She is a very bright young student with a chance to go onto graduate school. She gives it all up for marriage. Would things have turned out differently if the Unites States had not entered World War Two at that particular time? Meridian will never really know. But what she does know is that along the way she has made many personal sacrifices in the name of love. As we follow Meridian and her husband Alden Whetstone through their relationship, Meridian follows Alden out to Los Alamos, New Mexico has he advances his career working on the secretive atomic bomb project.
As Meridian enters her 40s she becomes a woman of the 1960s and she explores the world of women's liberation. She becomes an advocate for women's rights and equality. Meridian had given up her dreams of post graduate work studying birds. As she grows she finds ways to feel stronger as the woman she has become. She returns to studying the birds and she draws parallels between the way different species interact with each other. " Actually, I thought, the small birds' behavior made perfect sense - they were so low in the pecking order, so vulnerable. Their predators were bountiful, between the roadrunners, crows, raptors, dogs and cats. The entirety of a sparrow's world was peopled with threats. Of course women are flighty, I thought. We have more predators than men; we have to operate constantly with greater wariness. Women alone in parking lots can be singled out, mugged, or worse. Our own mates can beat us, kill us."
She goes as a person finds strength within herself. Though Meridian does not think this is a story about Los Alamos or the development of the atomic bomb or the war; this reader thinks that is also an important topic touched on in this novel. We hear the viewpoint of Alden who has helped create the bomb that killed thousands of people and ended a war. We also meet Clay Griffin, a young man who has returned from fighting in Vietnam. He puts forth the viewpoint of a pacifist, who felt that he was fighting a war that was unjustifiable. The reader has a chance to also reflect on her feelings about the dichotomy of these two wars. This is another great topic to think about in this book.
Lastly there is the great discussion topic of relationships between men and women. The give and take between a husband and wife. The equality or inequality of those relationships. The book gives a discussion group some great jumping off points both about those interactions and how they may have changed from one generation to the next.
Not to be overlooked there is also the wonderful small details in the book. Each chapter heading is a type of bird. With a definition that relates to the birds relationships. One of the chapters, "A Murder of Crows 1. Among the smartest animals on earth, the American Crow is highly adaptable."
What a beautiful descriptive story.
Monday, August 29, 2016
Monday, August 15, 2016
Moonglow
Moonglow, is the newest novel written by Michael Chabon. This book takes us on a ficticious journey that follows Chabon's family story starting with his Grandfather's life as a young man.
Moonglow is written in quite an unusal style. The narrator writes in the first person and only refers to his grandfather as grandfather, not really naming him until quite far into the book. He refers to his mother also by just her title, mother, and not her name. It is not until near the end of the book where he talks about an uncle named Sam Chabon, and a family company called, Chabon Scientific So as a reader you keep wondering how biographical this book really is.
The story takes place at the end of his grandfather's life and uses the style of flashbacks and rememberences to fill in the plot. His grandfather is living out the last days of his life in the author's mother's home. The author and narrator has come home for a last visit with his grandfather. As his grandfather reminisces he tells stories about parts of his life he has never revealed before.
In his storytelling he also uncovers secrets about his wife that were never discussed in the family before. The narrator's grandmother had been a victim and survivor of the Second World War. The grandfather had been an American soldier who helped fight at the end of the war and liberate some of the concentration camps in Europe. The grandfather has always been very interested and involved with the United States space program. He has built model rockets and watched every space launch. He talks about the involvement of German scientists who were able to escape Germany after the war and become apart of the US space program.
"I’m disappointed in myself. In my life. All my life, everything I tried, I only got halfway there. You try to take advantage of the time you have. That’s what they tell you to do. But when you’re old, you look back and you see all you did with all that time is waste it. All you have is a story of things you never started or couldn’t finish. Things you fought with all your heart to build that didn’t last or fought with all your heart to get rid of and they’re all still around. I’m ashamed of myself.” These are the words of the narrator's grandfather, as he lies on his death bed talking to his grandson. He is telling stories of his life and revealing the family secrets that have been kept during his lifetime.
This was an interesting family story. Maybe writing your family history as fiction is a good way to take a family story give it the ending you the way you would really want it to turn out. You can listen to the stories you relatives tell and recreate the facts to make it all end positively.
Moonglow is written in quite an unusal style. The narrator writes in the first person and only refers to his grandfather as grandfather, not really naming him until quite far into the book. He refers to his mother also by just her title, mother, and not her name. It is not until near the end of the book where he talks about an uncle named Sam Chabon, and a family company called, Chabon Scientific So as a reader you keep wondering how biographical this book really is.
The story takes place at the end of his grandfather's life and uses the style of flashbacks and rememberences to fill in the plot. His grandfather is living out the last days of his life in the author's mother's home. The author and narrator has come home for a last visit with his grandfather. As his grandfather reminisces he tells stories about parts of his life he has never revealed before.
In his storytelling he also uncovers secrets about his wife that were never discussed in the family before. The narrator's grandmother had been a victim and survivor of the Second World War. The grandfather had been an American soldier who helped fight at the end of the war and liberate some of the concentration camps in Europe. The grandfather has always been very interested and involved with the United States space program. He has built model rockets and watched every space launch. He talks about the involvement of German scientists who were able to escape Germany after the war and become apart of the US space program.
"I’m disappointed in myself. In my life. All my life, everything I tried, I only got halfway there. You try to take advantage of the time you have. That’s what they tell you to do. But when you’re old, you look back and you see all you did with all that time is waste it. All you have is a story of things you never started or couldn’t finish. Things you fought with all your heart to build that didn’t last or fought with all your heart to get rid of and they’re all still around. I’m ashamed of myself.” These are the words of the narrator's grandfather, as he lies on his death bed talking to his grandson. He is telling stories of his life and revealing the family secrets that have been kept during his lifetime.
This was an interesting family story. Maybe writing your family history as fiction is a good way to take a family story give it the ending you the way you would really want it to turn out. You can listen to the stories you relatives tell and recreate the facts to make it all end positively.
Sunday, July 31, 2016
They May Not Mean To, But They Do
Here is a novel that explores a topic very much at the forefront of every baby boomer's social conversations. We are not of the age yet to talk about our own aches and pains. But if we are lucky enough to have parents who are still alive, we are discussing our guilt and the troubles taking care of them as they decline in health and mental acuity. Being apart of the sandwich generation is filled with both happiness that we still have family to get together with for holidays and other celebrations, but frustration that there are demands on us as our parents age and guilt about how we are handling it. Do we take them into our lives and fit them in between our work and social life? Do we put them in assisted living or let them age in place at home? Though you may not think this is a topic for an enjoyable novel, Cathleen Schine has written this story so well that you do not want to put it down. She has made the characters so believable that there is someone in the book every reader can relate to.
Joy is the matriarch who is going through the loss of her husband, Aaron, as he slowly declines with alzheimer's complicated by cancer and a colostomy bag. Joy is determined to take care of him in their apartment until the end which takes a great toll on her health also.
Molly is the daughter who has moved the furthest away. Having divorced her husband, she has found a new relationship and career in California. She has left her parents in their New York City apartment and her brother close enough to be the one who can stop by for a short visit. She feels guilty that she lives so far away, but relieved also when she can get away and go back to her separate world. Molly has a grown son, Ben, by her first marriage, who comes to stay with Grandma, for awhile, after she is alone.
Daniel, the son, lives in New York with his wife and two young daughters. Daniel's wife and children give us the perspective from the point of view of the in-law and grandchildren. They also are struggling with their Judaism. So as the novel progresses Ruby, the oldest granddaughter, is exploring her Judaism and preparing for Bat Mitzvah. The daughter in law, Coco, thinks at one point about how this life experience can be used a teaching moment for her children, "Coco said nothing. She was thinking about her own old age. Would Cora and Ruby want her to come and live with them when the time came? She would set a good example." So Coco tries to be understanding of her mother-in-law and even suggests they invite her to move in with them.
To round out the plot Molly is now married to Freddie, a woman who also has a parent living in assisted living near them in Los Angeles. Freddie and her siblings, of which there are many, have very different family dynamics with their father. Their family thread, though not the main storyline, presents a different view of family and aging parents.
Molly and Daniel talk to their parents on the phone constantly and try to help Joy as she is taking care of Aaron. They try to offer advice and suggest caretakers coming into the apartment. Joy resists as long as she can until her health is also compromised. From her point of view the children are trying to take away her autonomy. She is still working as a conservation consultant at a small museum on the Lower East Side. But, as the computer and technology get more advanced, Joy was being left behind there also. Her new boss is changing the department and squeezing her out. "...Joy had begun to identify with her artifacts, out of date, obsolete, left behind." Joy is struggling with her own identity, still wanting to feel important and needed.
Cathleen Schine captures that adult child guilt so wonderfully in They May Not Mean To, But They Do. When I read the title on the bookshelf I thought the meaning would be that parents do something to their children, like making them feel guilty to drive them crazy. I thought it would be a book that would justify my feelings that my parents have always been the crazy ones, not me. The title is taken from a favorite poem of the author by Philip Larkin called This Be The Verse which starts out, "They f**k you up, your mum and dad. They may not mean to, but they do. They fill you with the faults they had. And add some extra, just for you." But Schine turns the verse on its head in the novel and has Joy the mother in this story deliver the line from the parent's point of view. Her son, Daniel suggests she get a dog when she mentions she is lonely and her daughter Molly suggests she go out more.
"When Joy said her head was muddled and she sometimes was so tired she could not breathe, but so worried about the cost of the caretakers that she could not sleep. Molly suggested she go to the 92nd Street Y's poetry readings. Poetry.
They meant well, they did. But they f**k you up your son and daughter, Joy thought, pleased with her clever Philip Larkin allusion, 92nd Street Y or no 92nd Street Y. They many not mean to but they do."
There were a few times as I was reading this novel that I asked myself why I would continue to read a book that hit so close to home on a subject that when you are living it may not seem funny, but Schine does try to point out some of the humor in the everyday life that you may not be able to see when you are involved but if you stand back seems just crazy enough to laugh at. Maybe after reading this novel each of us living with a similar experience will be able to step back and see some humor in our own situations. It can also be a comfort that our stories are not that unusual. That maybe we also have material in our everyday lives that could be written down as a story someday.
Sunday, July 24, 2016
The Swans of Fifth Avenue
Historically accurate, socially compelling and emotionally intriguing, The Swans of Fifth Avenue written by Melanie Benjamin does not disappoint. Benjamin has written another fabulous plot based on the real lives of Truman Capote and the women he called his swans. Benjamin has captured the glorified society and the lifestyles dripping with wealth that Truman Capote was desperate to be apart of.
Truman Capote came from nothing. He was a sad, bitter man raised by a mother who did not love him. He comes to New York with so much emotional baggage to find the fame and love denied him through out his life. It was never enough. Though he is in a relationship with a someone who loves him it is not enough. He writes Breakfast at Tiffany's and then In Cold Blood and develops some success and a following from that success. It is not enough. He creates a persona that is surrounded by and socializing with the beautiful people of New York society, it is all never enough to fill the hole left by his mother's lack of love for him.
We are also introduced to all the "Swans". Gloria Guinness, who came to New York from Mexico, Nancy Gross whose married name is Keith and answers to the nickname "Slim" from California. Barbara Cushing Paley nicknamed, "Babe", Marella Agnelli and C.Z. Guest.
Babe Paley was an icon for American fashion and style. She was a major player in the New York society scene attending important charity social functions and socializing at exclusive clubs. Her unconventional fashion style was inspirational many women who copied her clothing and makeup.
Benjamin uses her knowledge of the facts surrounding the characters in this story to create the dialog and emotions fleshing out the story of how Truman infiltrated New York society and then was shunned by the same company that had so recently included him. It happens after he writes the beginning of his newest novel, Answered Prayers, which appears in the "The New Yorker" magazine. When his friends start to recognize themselves int he story they feel Truman has gone too far. That is the end of his relationship with the "Swans".
These are women who work hard to cover up the the person they really are with all their flaws with clothing and make-up. To project the ideal woman they want to portray to the world of the wealthy class, perfectly made -up, with the latest fashion eating at the best restaurants drinking champagne.
One of the women describes how they feel and think so well when she says, "All those men, those Hollywood men, those legends - how they'd all fallen for her, every one, and she'd pretended to be embarrassed or shy or confused or surprised. But she wasn't; she had made them all fall in love with her by being her truest self to the point that it became a costume she put on in the morning, mask she slipped over her head."
A beautifully painted picture of the times and the characters who lived this fairy tale lifestyle. The money that made their lives so easy, exciting and glamorous. A way of life that has disappeared.
Truman Capote came from nothing. He was a sad, bitter man raised by a mother who did not love him. He comes to New York with so much emotional baggage to find the fame and love denied him through out his life. It was never enough. Though he is in a relationship with a someone who loves him it is not enough. He writes Breakfast at Tiffany's and then In Cold Blood and develops some success and a following from that success. It is not enough. He creates a persona that is surrounded by and socializing with the beautiful people of New York society, it is all never enough to fill the hole left by his mother's lack of love for him.
We are also introduced to all the "Swans". Gloria Guinness, who came to New York from Mexico, Nancy Gross whose married name is Keith and answers to the nickname "Slim" from California. Barbara Cushing Paley nicknamed, "Babe", Marella Agnelli and C.Z. Guest.
Babe Paley was an icon for American fashion and style. She was a major player in the New York society scene attending important charity social functions and socializing at exclusive clubs. Her unconventional fashion style was inspirational many women who copied her clothing and makeup.
Benjamin uses her knowledge of the facts surrounding the characters in this story to create the dialog and emotions fleshing out the story of how Truman infiltrated New York society and then was shunned by the same company that had so recently included him. It happens after he writes the beginning of his newest novel, Answered Prayers, which appears in the "The New Yorker" magazine. When his friends start to recognize themselves int he story they feel Truman has gone too far. That is the end of his relationship with the "Swans".
These are women who work hard to cover up the the person they really are with all their flaws with clothing and make-up. To project the ideal woman they want to portray to the world of the wealthy class, perfectly made -up, with the latest fashion eating at the best restaurants drinking champagne.
One of the women describes how they feel and think so well when she says, "All those men, those Hollywood men, those legends - how they'd all fallen for her, every one, and she'd pretended to be embarrassed or shy or confused or surprised. But she wasn't; she had made them all fall in love with her by being her truest self to the point that it became a costume she put on in the morning, mask she slipped over her head."
A beautifully painted picture of the times and the characters who lived this fairy tale lifestyle. The money that made their lives so easy, exciting and glamorous. A way of life that has disappeared.
Thursday, July 14, 2016
Under the Egg
I picked up Laura Marx Fitzgerald's novel for middle schoolers because it was about art. I read it before giving it away as a gift to one of my young friends. What a wonderful surprise it turned out to be. Fitzgerald has written an intriguing suspenseful novel about Holocaust stolen artwork that will appeal to a young reader and teach them some history at the same time. The history is told in a careful non -threatening style, that includes the facts simply and subtly as part of the storyline.
Theodora Tenpenny, Theo for short, is happily living with her grandfather and her mother in a two hundred year old brownstone in New York City. When her grandfather passes away unexpectedly Theo is left to manage the house, the chickens, the vegetable garden and her mother, who has her head in the clouds still writing her PhD thesis on solving theorems, after fifteen years.
Theo makes a rare find in the paintings Grandfather Jack left in his studio. In her search to find out the truth about the painting and Jack's past, Theo makes friends and leaves the cloistered world she has been living in.
Bodhi is the new girl down the street. Her parents are both movie actors, who don't spend much time or attention on Bodhi. Left to her own devices, she finds Theo and her simple lifestyle exciting and they are off and running to uncover the mystery behind the painting. Their research takes them both to the New York City Library, where they meet Eddie and to the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Along the way the reader learns about some of the "Old Masters". We learn about Raphael and the Renaissance period of art. We also learn about paintings and forgery detection. Then of course, there is the history lesson about stolen artwork from World War II. The reader is introduced to the Monument Men and others who tried to save some of the artwork and return it to its rightful owners after the war.
As Theo's world is turned upside down, she learns many important lessons, makes friends, saves herself, her mother and their house. It is a very eventful summer and though she will miss her grandfather, he has left her wealthy in so many ways. A wonderful story of love, loyalty and how sharing an adventure can really cement a friendship even when you come very different backgrounds.
Theodora Tenpenny, Theo for short, is happily living with her grandfather and her mother in a two hundred year old brownstone in New York City. When her grandfather passes away unexpectedly Theo is left to manage the house, the chickens, the vegetable garden and her mother, who has her head in the clouds still writing her PhD thesis on solving theorems, after fifteen years.
Theo makes a rare find in the paintings Grandfather Jack left in his studio. In her search to find out the truth about the painting and Jack's past, Theo makes friends and leaves the cloistered world she has been living in.
Bodhi is the new girl down the street. Her parents are both movie actors, who don't spend much time or attention on Bodhi. Left to her own devices, she finds Theo and her simple lifestyle exciting and they are off and running to uncover the mystery behind the painting. Their research takes them both to the New York City Library, where they meet Eddie and to the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Along the way the reader learns about some of the "Old Masters". We learn about Raphael and the Renaissance period of art. We also learn about paintings and forgery detection. Then of course, there is the history lesson about stolen artwork from World War II. The reader is introduced to the Monument Men and others who tried to save some of the artwork and return it to its rightful owners after the war.
As Theo's world is turned upside down, she learns many important lessons, makes friends, saves herself, her mother and their house. It is a very eventful summer and though she will miss her grandfather, he has left her wealthy in so many ways. A wonderful story of love, loyalty and how sharing an adventure can really cement a friendship even when you come very different backgrounds.
Tuesday, July 12, 2016
The Extra
A.B. Yehoshua has written a novel that through the story of Noga, a woman who has returned to Israel from abroad illustrates the conflict between religious and secular Jews and with Arabs living in Jerusalem. Yehoshua is one of the Israeli writers who is thinks Judaism cannot survive without Israel. He sees Israel's future impossible as it is. Jews are the uninvited guests who cannot leave because they are also among the hosts of the party.
Noga, a harpist, who grew up in the Jerusalem apartment she has come back to watch over, left when as a professional musician she could not find work in an Israeli orchestra. She has come back to help her brother Honi with an experiment with their mother. After a long very close marriage, her father has passed away. Honi wants to move his mother out of the family apartment in a neighborhood section of Jerusalem to Tel Aviv, where he now lives with his wife and children. His mother is not sure she is ready for assisted living. She proposes an experiment that will bring Noga back from the Netherlands to live in the rent controlled apartment while she tries out assisted living.
Noga agrees to the experiment for three months. Leaving her position in the orchestra, they promise to wait to play Mozart's Concerto for Flute and Harp until she returns. She leaves behind her harp and does not arrange for a substitute which means she will not practice her instrument for three months. Her brother arranges for her to be an extra in some television projects that are in production while she is in Israel. This is to keep her busy and earn some money. Now that she is back in Israel she is open to conversations about the experiment and also her personal life. She is divorced and has no children. Why people want to know doesn't she have any children? Is it because she cannot? No she tells people she is divorced because she did not want children. Her music is her life.
Slowly the plot advances. More and more information is released helping the reader understand Noga and her feelings. Also we see her interactions with her mother and brother as they try to understand the woman who did not want children of her own. At one point her mother, who thinks that having a child is the answer to everything, says, “Listen to what a wise woman has to say to a beloved daughter, hear me out and don’t interrupt. Give him that child, give it to him, and that way something real from you will stay in the world, not just musical notes that vanish into thin air. Make an effort, then go back to your music. Give birth to a child, and I will help him raise it.”
Noga has many interactions that bring her touch with children. In her apartment building two Haredi children from downstairs break into her apartment to watch TV forbidden to them in their own home. An encounter with her ex-husband, who has remarried and has two children. In her work as an extra she is apart of a greater story but not really a lead character in the moving the plot of those programs forward. Always on the side or in the background. Noga is trying to redefine her life and figure out who she really wants to be.
This is a story of every woman's dilemma, balancing children and work, family and career. Also it is a story of balancing elderly parents and how much the children should be involved as caregivers and how long the parents can remain independent. The reader and the family are all watching and wondering how the experiment will resolve itself. it is quite a puzzling story, that the reader must follow closely as it develops to a slow crescendo.
Noga, a harpist, who grew up in the Jerusalem apartment she has come back to watch over, left when as a professional musician she could not find work in an Israeli orchestra. She has come back to help her brother Honi with an experiment with their mother. After a long very close marriage, her father has passed away. Honi wants to move his mother out of the family apartment in a neighborhood section of Jerusalem to Tel Aviv, where he now lives with his wife and children. His mother is not sure she is ready for assisted living. She proposes an experiment that will bring Noga back from the Netherlands to live in the rent controlled apartment while she tries out assisted living.
Noga agrees to the experiment for three months. Leaving her position in the orchestra, they promise to wait to play Mozart's Concerto for Flute and Harp until she returns. She leaves behind her harp and does not arrange for a substitute which means she will not practice her instrument for three months. Her brother arranges for her to be an extra in some television projects that are in production while she is in Israel. This is to keep her busy and earn some money. Now that she is back in Israel she is open to conversations about the experiment and also her personal life. She is divorced and has no children. Why people want to know doesn't she have any children? Is it because she cannot? No she tells people she is divorced because she did not want children. Her music is her life.
Slowly the plot advances. More and more information is released helping the reader understand Noga and her feelings. Also we see her interactions with her mother and brother as they try to understand the woman who did not want children of her own. At one point her mother, who thinks that having a child is the answer to everything, says, “Listen to what a wise woman has to say to a beloved daughter, hear me out and don’t interrupt. Give him that child, give it to him, and that way something real from you will stay in the world, not just musical notes that vanish into thin air. Make an effort, then go back to your music. Give birth to a child, and I will help him raise it.”
Noga has many interactions that bring her touch with children. In her apartment building two Haredi children from downstairs break into her apartment to watch TV forbidden to them in their own home. An encounter with her ex-husband, who has remarried and has two children. In her work as an extra she is apart of a greater story but not really a lead character in the moving the plot of those programs forward. Always on the side or in the background. Noga is trying to redefine her life and figure out who she really wants to be.
This is a story of every woman's dilemma, balancing children and work, family and career. Also it is a story of balancing elderly parents and how much the children should be involved as caregivers and how long the parents can remain independent. The reader and the family are all watching and wondering how the experiment will resolve itself. it is quite a puzzling story, that the reader must follow closely as it develops to a slow crescendo.
Monday, July 4, 2016
Murder at the 42nd Street Library
A new mystery series has been launched by Con Lehane. Ray Ambler, amateur detective and the curator for the mystery and crime fiction collection of the New York Public Library joins forces with NYPD homicide detective Peter Cosgrove to solve the murder of a fellow employee at the iconic library.
Con Lehane, who has written a series of mysteries that features Brian McNutley, an Irish bartender, who is along with mixing great drinks and telling Irish stories is a good listener. He solves crimes in his own series and now appears in the neighborhood where Ray Ambler goes for his after work drinks. Ambler calls on McNutley for his listening skills and assistance.
In this first mystery novel we are introduced to Ambler and some of the colleagues at the Library. The story begins when Harry Larkin, library supervisor who is sitting at the entrance to the second floor of the library narrowly escapes being shot as a murder is taking place right at the door. Word spreads through the Library employees and Ambler who enjoys reading crime fiction decides to help investigate. There is also Adele who works at the library and seems to be a romantic interest for Ambler. She also is someone who gets involved with solving the mysteries presented in this book.
A new acquisition recently donated to the library of a famous writer's papers has many characters who are necessary to this particular plot line coming to the library to do research. There is a controversy over who should be allowed to write the author's biography and the candidates for this position are arguing and using different methods to get access to the materials donated to the library. Could this be a incentive for murder? The plot is further complicated by the disappearance of the famous writer's daughter many years ago and a search by these biographers to reach her first for added material for their books. In the meantime, Adele has moved to a new apartment and is getting involved with a young boy and his mother and asks Ray for assistance helping out this young family.
This is a complicated set of events to follow, with many characters who are intertwined and a bit hard to keep straight. Who is married to whom and who knew who in college? There were a few times where as the reader I thought I had the mystery all figured out, my killer was murdered. Though I did realize one piece of the puzzle before it was explained the book itself and the main characters are interesting enough to make me want to see where things will develop in the next book of the series. So I am looking forward to meeting up with Ray Ambler, Adele, McNulty and Mike Cosgrove again.
Con Lehane, who has written a series of mysteries that features Brian McNutley, an Irish bartender, who is along with mixing great drinks and telling Irish stories is a good listener. He solves crimes in his own series and now appears in the neighborhood where Ray Ambler goes for his after work drinks. Ambler calls on McNutley for his listening skills and assistance.
In this first mystery novel we are introduced to Ambler and some of the colleagues at the Library. The story begins when Harry Larkin, library supervisor who is sitting at the entrance to the second floor of the library narrowly escapes being shot as a murder is taking place right at the door. Word spreads through the Library employees and Ambler who enjoys reading crime fiction decides to help investigate. There is also Adele who works at the library and seems to be a romantic interest for Ambler. She also is someone who gets involved with solving the mysteries presented in this book.
A new acquisition recently donated to the library of a famous writer's papers has many characters who are necessary to this particular plot line coming to the library to do research. There is a controversy over who should be allowed to write the author's biography and the candidates for this position are arguing and using different methods to get access to the materials donated to the library. Could this be a incentive for murder? The plot is further complicated by the disappearance of the famous writer's daughter many years ago and a search by these biographers to reach her first for added material for their books. In the meantime, Adele has moved to a new apartment and is getting involved with a young boy and his mother and asks Ray for assistance helping out this young family.
This is a complicated set of events to follow, with many characters who are intertwined and a bit hard to keep straight. Who is married to whom and who knew who in college? There were a few times where as the reader I thought I had the mystery all figured out, my killer was murdered. Though I did realize one piece of the puzzle before it was explained the book itself and the main characters are interesting enough to make me want to see where things will develop in the next book of the series. So I am looking forward to meeting up with Ray Ambler, Adele, McNulty and Mike Cosgrove again.
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