Author: hudsonarealibrary

This is book number two in the “Helen” trilogy.

FBI special agent Pendergast has learned that his wife Helen had been murdered. He’s continuing to seek information about her death and about her killer. His quest takes him to the wild moors of Scotland, the bayous of Louisiana, and back to New York City. It seems unlikely but, the more he learns, the less he knows, or understands, as he finds a conspiracy that gets deeper and wider than he could ever have imagined.

Even Pendergast’s ward, Constance Green, who has now been involuntarily committed to a mental hospital, becomes a pawn in his life-or-death quest for answers… And as Pendergast digs ever deeper into the multiple layers of the conspiracy, he begins to wonder, could Helen still be alive?

YOWZA! This book leaves the reader immediately wanting more!

This book is also the first in the “Helen” trilogy.

In this story we learned that FBI special agent Pendergast was once married to the lovely Helen Esterhazy.  Sadly, we also learned that she’d been killed not long after their marriage in a tragic lion attack while in Africa.

Now some time has passed, but not enough to dispel Pendergast’s sorrow for her death. When he learns that Helen was murdered, his quest for her killer takes him to New Orleans, following the history of noted artist John James Audubon, and into the heart of the dark alligator infested swamps of Louisiana. His quest also places those he cares about like NYPD detective. Vincent D’agosta, in mortal danger.

This was a thrilling and engrossing story with many twisty elements making the reader wonder just where in the world this story will end up.

The premise of this book is intriguing. Four strangers who just happen to sit at the same table in the reading room of the Boston Public Library are kept there while the police search for the source of a woman’s terrifying screams. They passed the time in conversation and based on that common element continue their acquaintance beyond the library.  But one of them is actually a murderer.

It was captivating to see the relationships among these four people develop, watching feelings ebb and flow, along with suspicion, as one of the four is attacked, and one (or more) of the group is hiding secrets from their past. A side story involving correspondence between a fan and the author of this story just adds to the overall suspense of the book.

My only complaint is that everything seemed to wrap up in the last five pages and I thought that it left a couple of loose threads. But overall, this was enjoyable to read as I kept wondering where in the world the story was going to go.

At first, this appears to be a fairly straightforward story. Near bankrupt author Lowen Ashleigh is hired to complete a series of novels begun by best-selling author Verity Crawford. Crawford is unable to finish the series due to a car accident that has left her bed-ridden and nearly comatose.  But of course, Verity’s publisher wants to keep that on the down-low, hence their search for an author to complete the series.

So Lowen moves – temporarily – into the Crawford home to sort through Verity’s outlines and notes to find material that will allow her to complete her job assignment. But she also finds a manuscript that Verity wrote and never given to her publisher. As she reads it, Lowen is horrified at its contents.  But is it a tool Verity, the author, used to get into character for her own books that were written from the point of view of the villain? Or is it a twisted biography detailing her unhealthy sexual obsession with her husband, Jeremy, a man Lowen is beginning to care for.

This is a twisted tail for sure and difficult to put down, but with lots of explicit romance.

Both Stephen O’Connor and ancient Ojibwe healer, Henry Meloux, have seen visions of Henry’s death. The vision disturbs Stephen, but Meloux is less concerned about it, trusting in the Great Spirits to take him to the next world at the appropriate time.  At the moment, he is most concerned with trying to help two women escape from the mercenaries looking for one of them. The women include his great niece, Rainy and Dolores Morrisseau, a woman who has come to the north woods seeking Henry’s guidance and wisdom with a personal problem in her marriage.

As Dolores, Rainy and Henry seek to elude the violent men tracking them by hiking ever deeper into the vast expanse of the land of the boundary waters, Rainy’s husband, Cork O’Connor, is trying to identify both the hunters and the reason for their pursuit.

Filled with foreboding and menace, the story is told from multiple viewpoints and builds to a dramatic conclusion.  This was a very satisfying story from one of my very favorite authors.

At the Barbizon Residential Hotel, young women new to New York City, but with ambitions far beyond the small towns they came from, are able to stay in a safe retreat. Beautiful models and secretarial students from the nearby Katherine Gibbs Secretarial School mingle in the hallways and common areas.

When Darby McLaughlin arrives in 1952 to study at the secretarial school, she feels like a plain Jane country hick compared to the sophisticated models. Her only friend, Esme, a maid at the hotel, introduces her to life beyond the shelter of the Barbizon- a life of nightclubs ambition and maybe some romance.

By 2016 the Barbizon has been converted to luxury condominiums. And Rose Lewin, a disgraced journalist, has just been kicked out of her married lover’s condo because he wants to get back with his wife “for the sake of the children.” By this time though, Rose has met a few of “the women,” as they are known- longtime residents from the glory days when the building was still a residential hotel.  Conversations with some of the women has given her an idea for a story. She’s heard rumors of the death of a hotel made back in the 1950s that involves one of the women, Darby, with whom she’s had some minimal conversation.

Rose’s investigation becomes a distraction from her own disintegrating life, her breakup, her current job that she hates, and the failing health of her beloved dad.  But since some of the clues Rose has found while investigating the story may have been found in ethically questionable ways, Rose may be risking everything in pursuit of the story.

This was an interesting book about an iconic New York City landmark.

Margery and Clementine are lunch ladies, though Clementine prefers their actual title which is Education Center Nourishment Consultants.  Their job is to prepare and serve lunch to the students at Summerview Secondary School.

Their peaceful existence is shattered when their manager is found dead in a walk-in freezer.  While the police are convinced that the manager’s death was an accident, Marjorie and Clementine are less sure- especially after the freezer door mysteriously locks behind them after they’ve decided to take a peek at the scene. They managed to escape the freezer, but as they continue to investigate the matter of their manager’s death, it begins to seem that now someone is out to kill them!

This is a fun British cozy mystery and apparently the first of a series.

This non-fiction book came in at just over 500 pages, but I am glad to have read it. This book was a selection by the McLean County Museum of History and Bloomington Public Library for the history book club.

This book focused on the history of the newspaper founded by Robert Abbott in the late 19th century, and the African American history Abbott sought to enlighten and uplift. But one could not escape learning about the history of Chicago, and notable African Americans who impacted both their community and the nation.  I know I didn’t say much about this book, but it is well worth reading. 

Even though it’s spring in the ordinarily tranquil village of Three Pines, there is a strong element of tension and fear present throughout this story.

The book takes us from the present to the past and reveals details about how Inspector Gamache first met Jean Guy Beauvoir, now his second in command and son-in-law. That case involved murder, and two orphaned children who had already witnessed true horror in their young lives.

Now in the present day, those two children are now grown up, and have come to Three Pines.  Fiona is there at Inspector Gamache’s invitation, and her brother, Sam, has come to help her celebrate an achievement of hers.  Meanwhile, in the village a hidden room has been found in one of the local buildings, as well as a letter from many years ago describing the fear felt by the stonemason who had built the barricade to that room. When the room was opened, many curious things were found in that hidden room, some old, and surprisingly, some new.  But was something truly evil freed as well?

This author expertly brings together elements from actual history as well as imagined events into a gripping story that was truly difficult to put down.