Non-Fiction Review: Rebel Cinderella

 

Title: Rebel Cinderella: From Rags to Riches to Radical, the Epic Journey of Rose Pastor Stokes

Author: Adam Hochschild. Read by Lisa Flanagan

Publishing Info: HMH Audio, 2020. Original, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2020. 320 pages.

Publisher's Blurb: 

Rose Pastor arrived in New York City in 1903, a Jewish refugee from Russia who had worked in cigar factories since the age of eleven. Two years later, she captured headlines across the globe when she married James Graham Phelps Stokes, scion of one of the legendary 400 families of New York high society. Together, this unusual couple joined the burgeoning Socialist Party and, over the next dozen years, moved among the liveliest group of activists and dreamers this country has ever seen. Their friends and houseguests included Emma Goldman, Big Bill Haywood, Eugene V. Debs, John Reed, Margaret Sanger, Jack London, and W.E.B. Du Bois. Rose stirred audiences to tears and led strikes of restaurant waiters and garment workers. She campaigned alongside the country’s earliest feminists to publicly defy laws against distributing information about birth control, earning her notoriety as “one of the dangerous influences of the country” from President Woodrow Wilson. But in a way no one foresaw, her too-short life would end in the same abject poverty with which it began.

By a master of narrative nonfiction, Rebel Cinderella unearths the rich, overlooked life of a social justice campaigner who was truly ahead of her time. 

My Review:

I found this a fascinating look into a bit of American history that doesn't get talked about much in your school classes. The story of Rose Pastor Stokes' life is pretty amazing, but for me the real value of the book lies in the context, which is pretty well presented. In essence, the story becomes the history of socialism in America, with the pluses and negatives of both sides--socialism and the fierce anti-socialist--clearly expressed.

Actually, I would say that the author is fairly sympathetic to the cause of socialism, while reporting the ways in which the movement went off track. The Russian Revolution clearly presented a special challenge to the movement, though it was WWI that truly derailed the socialist cause.

The character of Rose Pastor Stokes is interesting, and it is clear that her work with the union movement, rights for workers, and the need for safe working conditions was significant (and, as usual, overlooked in the history we studied in school). The narration by Lisa Flanagan was professional and transparent--it doesn't make the book, but nor does it mar it. 

My Recommendation:

This is well worth a read to understand more fully the history of socialism, and the goals of same. It's worth knowing the extremes our nation went to to suppress socialist views, which were considered inimical to the war effort, during and after WWI.

FTC Disclosure: I checked Rebel Cinderella out of my library, and received nothing from the writer or publisher for my honest review.  The opinions expressed are my own and those of no one else.  I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission's 16 CFR, Part 255: "Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising."  

Book Review: Women Heroes of World War I

 

Title: Women Heroes of World War I: 16 Remarkable Resisters, Soldiers, Spies, and Medics

Author: Katheryn J. Atwood

Publication Info: Chicago Review Press, 2014. 256 pages (hardcover)

Source: Library digital resources

Publisher’s Blurb:

In time for the 2014 centennial of the start of the Great War, this book brings to life the brave and often surprising exploits of 16 fascinating women from around the world who served their countries at a time when most of them didn’t even have the right to vote.

Readers meet 17-year-old Frenchwoman Emilienne Moreau, who assisted the Allies as a guide and set up a first-aid post in her home to attend to the wounded; Russian peasant Maria Bochkareva, who joined the Imperial Russian Army by securing the personal permission of Tsar Nicholas II, was twice wounded in battle and decorated for bravery, and created and led the all-women combat unit the “Women’s Battalion of Death” on the Eastern Front; and American journalist Madeleine Zabriskie Doty, who risked her life to travel twice to Germany during the war in order to report back the truth, whatever the cost. These and other suspense-filled stories of brave girls and women are told through the use of engaging narrative, dialogue, direct quotes, and document and diary excerpts to lend authenticity and immediacy.

Introductory material opens each section to provide solid historical context, and each profile includes informative sidebars and “Learn More” lists of relevant books and websites, making this a fabulous resource for students, teachers, parents, libraries, and homeschoolers.

 

My Review:

When I picked this book out on the library web site, I didn't see anything to indicate it is a kids' book (though if I'd looked at the reviews I could have figured it out,  since the only review there is from the School Library Journal). As a result, I was frustrated by the lack of depth in the biographical sketches. After the first two or three I looked harder, realized it wasn't meant for adults, and began to consider the information in a more realistic light.

The sidebars and explanations included in the text (some of which had a kind of "duh" feeling for an adult reader) give a lot of good information and background for students, providing the context they need to understand the really remarkable accomplishments of some of the women. In a few cases, it felt like a bit of a stretch to make heroes out of the women, but the majority of them did, in fact, act with courage under fire.

In all, despite the thin information in some areas, I found the book a nice supplement to my other reading on the war as well as on women's history. Further, it offered information about the war in a number of eastern European countries, which I haven't heard much about.

My Recommendation:

In the fine print the book is listed as for grades 6 and up (that's age 11 up, roughly). I would agree with that. The writing is only slightly noticeably simplified for younger readers, and the subject matter is, after all war, so I wouldn't recommend it for younger readers than that.

Full Disclosure: I borrowed an electronic copy of Women Heroes of World War I from my library, and received nothing from the author or the publisher in exchange for my honest review. The opinions expressed are my own and those of no one else. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission's 16 CFR, Part 255: "Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising."  

Mystery Monday: An Impartial Witness

 

Title: An Impartial Witness  (Bess Crawford Mysteries #2)
Author: Charles Todd. Read by Rosalyn Landor

Publisher: BBC Audiobooks America, 2010. Hardback published by William Morrow, 2010, 352 pages.

Source: Library digital resources


Publisher's Blurb:
It is early summer 1917. Bess Crawford has returned to England from the trenches of France with a convoy of severely wounded men. One of her patients is a young pilot who has been burned beyond recognition, and who clings to life and the photo of his wife pinned to his tunic.

While passing through a London train station, Bess notices a woman bidding an emotional farewell to an officer, her grief heart-wrenching. And then Bess realizes that she seems familiar. In fact, she's the woman in the pilot's photo, but the man she is seeing off is not her husband.

Back on duty in France, Bess discovers a newspaper with a drawing of the woman's face on the front page. Accompanying the drawing is a plea from Scotland Yard seeking information from anyone who has seen her. For it appears that the woman was murdered on the very day Bess encountered her at the station.

Granted leave to speak with Scotland Yard, Bess becomes entangled in the case. Though an arrest is made, she must delve into the depths of her very soul to decide if the police will hang an innocent man or a vicious killer. Exposing the truth is dangerous—and will put her own life on the line.
 
My Review:  
This is a good series I discovered last year and meant to get back to sooner. The WWI setting is one that particularly interests me, and the author does a good job of evoking it realistically. That realism includes striking a delicate balance between Bess's independence of thought and action and the realities of her life as a woman and nurse in that era. The writing is strong and characters well-drawn.

The mystery is well-plotted. I ran through several perps before lighting on the correct one about the same time Bess did. I thought it was particularly good that although she is determined to find the "real killer," she never lets go of the recognition that the man arrested might, in fact, be a killer. She just isn't quite sure enough to let matters rest. I appreciated that she is neither blindly believing nor feeling psychic. She's mostly being rational, and determined to see justice done, and not blind to the influence of her own feelings in that determination. I think Bess is a strong sleuth, with a good supporting cast who may have a tendency to step in a little too often. I kind of want her to do it all herself, but the author has been more realistic.

My Recommendation:
A series and a writer well worth checking out (I'm currently reading the first book in Charles Todd's other series from roughly the same era, the Inspector Ian Rutledge books. I'll report out on that when I finish). This isn't exactly a cozy mystery, but it's not hard-boiled, either. If you like Jacqueline Winspear's Maisie Dobbs, this is almost sure to be a hit.

FTC Disclosure: I checked An Impartial Witness out of my library, and received nothing from the writer or publisher for my honest review. The opinions expressed are my own and those of no one else. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission's 16 CFR, Part 255: "Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising."  

Review: Goodbye Piccadilly

 

Title: Goodbye Piccadilly
Author: Cynthia Harrod-Eagles
Publisher: Sphere, 2014. 392 pages
Source: Library

Publisher's Summary:
In 1914, Britain faces a new kind of war. For Edward and Beatrice Hunter, their children, servants and neighbours, life will never be the same again. For David, the eldest, war means a chance to do something noble; but enlisting will break his mother's heart. His sister Diana, nineteen and beautiful, longs for marriage. She has her heart set on Charles Wroughton, son of Earl Wroughton, but Charles will never be allowed to marry a banker's daughter. Below stairs, Cook and Ada, the head housemaid, grow more terrified of German invasion with every newspaper atrocity story. Ethel, under housemaid, can't help herself when it comes to men and now soldiers add to the temptation; yet there's more to this flighty girl than meets the eye.

The once-tranquil village of Northcote reels under an influx of khaki volunteers, wounded soldiers and Belgian refugees. The war is becoming more dangerous and everyone must find a way to adapt to this rapidly changing world. Goodbye Piccadilly is the first book in the War at Home series by Cynthia Harrod-Eagles, author of the much-loved Morland Dynasty novels.

Set against the real events of 1914, Goodbye Piccadilly is extraordinary in scope and imagination and is a compelling introduction to the Hunter family. 


My Review:  
A later book in the series caught my eye on the New Book shelf at the library, and I'm a sucker for WWI stories, so I decided to take a chance and start the series. Certainly lots of the reviews raved about it, though a few gave me pause.

I should have paid more attention to the negative reviews, because they were right. It's not that this is an awful book. I didn't struggle to finish it. But I never fully engaged with it, either, for several reasons.

The biggest flaw in the book, in my opinion, is that it is trying too hard to do too much. This is the opening salvo of an epic saga, doing its best to do what Downton Abbey does. We are going to track the movements and moods of the extended Hunter family plus a number of their neighbors, their servants...and we do. Unfortunately, not only are there so many characters that it is hard to keep track, but we spend so little time with each in many, many short scenes, that I never developed a lot of feeling for any of them (with the possible exception of Laura, the spinster sister, and Sadie, the 16-year-old who doesn't want to grow up and stop playing with horses).

Those quick glimpses into each person's life may work in Downton Abbey, but in my opinion, they don't here. I would probably have been much more engaged, and still able to get a feeling for the whole community, if the author had kept the focus on two or three characters, and let us see the rest through their eyes. As it is, no one is developed enough to be interesting, and the omniscient narrator tells us too much--no one is going to surprise us. At the same time, I have no real sense of anyone's interior. How does Diana know she's in love, not just fortune-hunting? Nothing that happens or that we see of her makes me believe that she loves her suitor, yet Diana insists she does, and the narrator seems to go along with that. I need to be convinced.

Further, much of the historical setting is trying too hard. We get summaries of the causes and progress of the war that read more like a textbook than part of a novel, and while I recognize that some of that is needed for a generation that doesn't know anything about WWI, from a narrative perspective it doesn't work.

In a strange way, I think I've been spoiled by reading children's historical fiction. Those tend to stick to a tight story and a tight view of the main character, whose youth allows the reader to see things she/he can't.  Or maybe I just don't have the patience for a sweeping saga.

My Recommendation:
If you like the period and the style, you may be one of the vast majority of readers who seem to like the books. If you really want to see into the period, though, I think there are better options, though I did learn a thing or two from the historical bits. If you like to see into and understand a few characters well, rather than a sweeping view of a whole village, you may react as I did, with a resounding "meh." (Note: It's not awful. I'll give it 2 stars ["it was ok"] on Goodreads, or even 2.5).

FTC Disclosure: I checked Goodbye Piccadilly out of my library, and received nothing from the writer or publisher for my honest review.  The opinions expressed are my own and those of no one else.  I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission's 16 CFR, Part 255: "Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising."  

Audio-book review: The Last of the Doughboys

 

Title: The Last of the Doughboys: The Forgotten Generation and their Forgotten World War
Author: Richard Rubin; read by Grover Gardner
Publisher: Blackstone Audio, 2013. Hardcover by Houghton Mifflen, 2013. 528 pages.
Source: Library digital resources

Publisher's Summary:

In 2003, 85 years after the armistice, it took Richard Rubin months to find just one living American veteran of World War I. But then, he found another. And another. Eventually he managed to find dozens, aged 101 to 113, and interview them. All are gone now.

A decade-long odyssey to recover the story of a forgotten generation and their Great War led Rubin across the United States and France, through archives, private collections, and battlefields, literature, propaganda, and even music. But at the center of it all were the last of the last, the men and women he met: a new immigrant, drafted and sent to France, whose life was saved by a horse; a Connecticut Yankee who volunteered and fought in every major American battle; a Cajun artilleryman nearly killed by a German aeroplane; an 18-year-old Bronx girl “drafted” to work for the War Department; a machine-gunner from Montana; a Marine wounded at Belleau Wood; the 16-year-old who became America’s last WWI veteran; and many, many more.

They were the final survivors of the millions who made up the American Expeditionary Forces, nineteenth-century men and women living in the twenty-first century. Self-reliant, humble, and stoic, they kept their stories to themselves for a lifetime, then shared them at the last possible moment, so that they, and the World War they won – the trauma that created our modern world – might at last be remembered. You will never forget them.

My Review:  

I have read and listened to a lot of books about WWI, or fiction set during that war. This is arguably the best. The publisher's blurb gives some idea of why. I will go further to say that Rubin skillfully interweaves the historical events before, during, and after the war into the accounts of the 30+ veterans he interviewed. The result is a book that not only gives a deep personal insight into what it was to be there (though most of the men Rubin interviewed downplayed the death and danger), but also helps clarify what the US did in the war--and why. For me, there was another side-effect: since much of my knowledge of the war comes from fiction written in Canada or the UK, I had a different set of battles in mind as the important ones. The book gave me a new set of names to remember. (By the way, I would dearly love to read any similar book in which someone interviewed British or Canadian veterans of that war).

The book is not a comprehensive history of the war, for all that. It does not try to understand the political mess that dragged the world into the war, nor even to lay out all the battles in an orderly fashion. What it does, and I would say does well, is personalize the war. And the fact that Rubin could find veterans of that war in 2003 helped to bring back to me that this was my grandparents' war. Both of my grandfathers were involved in the war; I have to regret that I lost them before I was old enough to know how much I wanted to ask them about it. Listening to the accounts of the men (and woman) Rubin interviewed helps bring their lives into focus for me.

My only regret with this book is that it needs visuals--maps and photos. It occurs to me that the print edition very likely has these things, and that this is a drawback of listening to history rather than reading it. I may pick up a print copy, in part also because there were things I learned that I'm already having trouble remembering.


My Recommendation:
A must-read for anyone interested in WWI, or anyone who hardly knows we fought in the First World War. I'll go out on a limb and recommend the print edition, unless it turns out not to have any images, in which case, Grover Gardner does an impressive job of reading, especially voicing the men Rubin interviewed.

FTC Disclosure: I checked The Last of the Doughboys out of my library, and received nothing from the writer or publisher for my honest review.  The opinions expressed are my own and those of no one else.  I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission's 16 CFR, Part 255: "Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising."  

Fiction audio book review: The Summer Before the War

Title: The Summer Before the War
 Author: Helen Simonson; read by Fiona Hardingham
Publisher: Random House Audio, 2016 (original hardback by Random House, 2016, 496 pages).
Source: Library digital services

Publisher's Blurb:
East Sussex, 1914. It is the end of England’s brief Edwardian summer, and everyone agrees that the weather has never been so beautiful. Hugh Grange, down from his medical studies, is visiting his Aunt Agatha, who lives with her husband in the small, idyllic coastal town of Rye. Agatha’s husband works in the Foreign Office, and she is certain he will ensure that the recent saber rattling over the Balkans won’t come to anything. And Agatha has more immediate concerns; she has just risked her carefully built reputation by pushing for the appointment of a woman to replace the Latin master.

When Beatrice Nash arrives with one trunk and several large crates of books, it is clear she is significantly more freethinking—and attractive—than anyone believes a Latin teacher should be. For her part, mourning the death of her beloved father, who has left her penniless, Beatrice simply wants to be left alone to pursue her teaching and writing.

But just as Beatrice comes alive to the beauty of the Sussex landscape and the colorful characters who populate Rye, the perfect summer is about to end. For despite Agatha’s reassurances, the unimaginable is coming. Soon the limits of progress, and the old ways, will be tested as this small Sussex town and its inhabitants go to war.

My Review:
I enjoyed this story heartily. I admit that I thought for some reason that it was a humorous book, and indeed some parts, especially early on, do seem to be poking gentle fun at all the Downton Abbey fans. But ultimately, it's a well-written bit of historical fiction, with the story coming first and the romance growing organically if somewhat predictably from events (I have to say right here that I knew by the end of the first chapter who was going to marry whom. It was the rest of the story that was interesting).

There are a number of good subtexts in the book, regarding feminism (fairly obvious) as well as issues of homosexuality, racism, and serious class divides. Helen Simonson doesn't seem to be afraid to tackle any of those, while writing a good story at the same time. Beatrice, for example, wouldn't have the problems she does if her father hadn't written a rather Victorian will, which gave his daughter (his only child) the inheritance, but didn't give her control of it--her money is controlled by a trust until she marries, and there's damn-all she can do about it. I felt her frustration, maybe even more than she did--I really wanted her to break the will and get her hands on the money. :)

Other issues, especially the class issue, are even grimmer. The children to whom Beatrice is teaching Latin aren't actually expected to go anywhere with their educations, and various people make that clear to any child who gets "above himself." The effects of that are, in one instance, far-reaching and devastating. In the end, the book I began as a light-hearted romp, proved to be solid and a bit sobering. I give the author full credit for a well-crafted piece of historical fiction.

The narration is well-done, and had no technical glitches or anything else to distract from the story.

My Recommendation:
Despite what I said, I'll definitely recommend this for fans of Downton Abbey, and anyone else with an interest in the WWI era and the social complexities of that period. It's also not bad as a romance, not in the least of the steamy sort, just a story of lives that converge, and a bit of a coming-of-age novel, albeit the characters who are coming of age are already what we would think of as adults. They just have some growing up to do.


FTC Disclosure: I checked The Summer Before the War out of my library, and received nothing from the writer or publisher for my honest review.  The opinions expressed are my own and those of no one else.  I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission's 16 CFR, Part 255: "Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising." 

Mystery Review: A Pinch of Poison, by Alyssa Maxwell

 

Title: A Pinch of Poison (A Lady & Lady's Maid Mystery, #2)

Author: Alyssa Maxwell

Publisher: Kensington, expected release Jan. 2017. 304 pages

Source: Electronic ARC from publisher in exchange for my honest review 

Publisher's Blurb:

In post–World War I England, Lady Phoebe Renshaw and her lady’s maid, Eva Huntford, encounter an uncharitable killer at a charity luncheon sponsored by a posh school for girls . . .

Good deeds build good character, and good character is what the Haverleigh School for Young Ladies is all about. Lady Phoebe—with the tireless assistance of Eva—has organized a luncheon at the school to benefit wounded veterans of the Great War, encouraging the students to participate in the cooking and the baking. But too many cooks do more than spoil the broth—they add up to a recipe for disaster when the school’s headmistress, Miss Finch, is poisoned.

The girls at Haverleigh all come from highly respected families, none of whom will countenance their darling daughters being harassed like common criminals by the local police. So Lady Phoebe steps in to handle the wealthy young debutantes with tact and discretion, while Eva cozies up to the staff. Did one of the girls resent the headmistress enough to do her in? Did a teacher bear a grudge? What about the school nurse, clearly shell shocked from her service in the war? No one is above suspicion, not even members of the school’s governing body, some of whom objected to Miss Finch’s “modern” methods.

But Lady Phoebe and Eva will have to sleuth with great stealth—or the cornered killer may try to teach someone else a lethal lesson.

My Review:

First the business: I was approached by the publisher with the offer to recieve an advance review copy of this book because I reviewed the first in the series, Murder Most Malicious last December, through a Great Escapes Free Tour. In neither case did I receive any payment beyond the electronic ARC. I'm scheduling this for Jan. 2, as the release date is supposed to be Jan. 1.

Okay, on to the good stuff. I enjoyed the first in this series, though I had some issues with it (see review). This second book is, I think, an even stronger work. The author is working in one of my favorite times and places (England between the wars), and has done her research well. Fans of the first couple of seasons of Downton Abbey will probably enjoy this, and will be able to bring the visuals from that series to mind to add color to the setting. Ms. Maxwell has done her research, and presents the period well, and I was not struck by any anomalies or anachronisms.

I noted in my review of the first book that I had some trouble with sorting out characters in the beginning and with the POV switches between Lady Phoebe and her maid, Eva. Both of those problems were gone this time (and might have been more my problem than the writer's in the first book). I had forgotten most of the details of Murder Most Malicious, but the author provides enough context that it would work to start with this one, though I always advocate reading a series in order if possible. The author focused well on a few characters, and that I think is a strength, as anyone who really matters is well-drawn, to the extent of the understanding of Phoebe and Eva (so the male leads, as it were, are a little opaque, because the girls are still trying to figure them out). The suspects are nicely developed, and get more so as Phoebe and Eva come to understand them better.

It's worth a comment on the narration, which is third person limited throughout, but alternates point of view chapter by chapter between Phoebe and Eva, with occasional shifts between scenes in the same chapter. The author has handled this well, and there are cues given each time the shift takes place, to keep it clear. I enjoy seeing the different ways the two young women view other people--they are very much influenced by their stations in life, even as each tries hard to see beyond those limits. There is a very nice thread of early feminism as well.

And what of the mystery? It is solid, with a number of convincing suspects and lots of secrets, lies and motives. I saw my way to a very small part of the truth early on, but missed the perp and a lot of the complexity of motives. Most of the lies and secrets tied in to the murder one way or another, but just enough didn't to keep it believable--not every lie comes from a fear of being implicated in murder.

My Recommendation:

This is shaping into a strong cozy series, and anyone who enjoys the classic British country house mystery will enjoy it. Also recommended to fans of Downton Abbey, the 1920s in general, and mysteries that showcase developing relations of all sorts, not just romance (so far, the romance is pretty secondary, with signs that it will ramp up in future).

About The Author

Alyssa Maxwell has worked in publishing as an assistant editor and a ghost writer, but knew from an early age that being a novelist was what she wanted most. Growing up in New England and traveling to Great Britain fueled a passion for history, while a love of puzzles of all kinds drew her to the mystery genre. She lives in South Florida in the current year, but confesses to spending most of her time in the Victorian, Edwardian, and post WWI eras. In addition to fantasizing about wearing Worth gowns while strolling manor house gardens, she loves to watch BBC and other period productions and sip tea in the afternoons.

 

 

 

 

 

 

FTC Disclosure: I received an ARC of A Pinch of Poison from the publisher, and received nothing further from the writer or publisher in exchange for my honest review.  The opinions expressed are my own and those of no one else.  I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission's 16 CFR, Part 255: "Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising." 

Audio Mystery Review: A Duty to the Dead, by Charles Todd

Title: A Duty to the Dead (Bess Crawford Mysteries #1)
Author: Charles Todd. Read by Rosalyn Landor
Publisher: BBC Audiobooks America, 2009. Original publisher, William Morrow, 2009. 336 pages.
Source: Library digital collection.

Publisher's Summary:
Charles Todd, author of the resoundingly acclaimed Ian Rutledge crime novels (“One of the best historical series being written today” —Washington Post Book World) debuts an exceptional new protagonist, World War I nurse Bess Crawford, in A Duty to the Dead. A gripping tale of perilous obligations and dark family secrets in the shadows of a nightmarish time of global conflict, A Duty to the Dead is rich in suspense, surprise, and the impeccable period atmosphere that has become a Charles Todd trademark.  

My Review:
Note: I recently reviewed The Shattered Tree, the 8th book in the series. In that case, I was given an ARC in order to write my review. I enjoyed it enough to go back and start the series at the beginning, and found this one on my own initiative at my library.

Good stuff first: this is a smooth read, and I didn't want to quit listening and do anything more productive with my time. The authors did their research very well; I felt the period (WWI) was accurately and vividly portrayed. The story was gripping and largely satisfying, and Bess's character is well developed. It was interesting watching her come to grips with a hard lesson.

That said, I had a few caveats. I wondered at Bess's slowness to see some things that I guessed very early on. I was left wondering how much of her slowness to see the truth was realistic (after all, as the reader of a mystery I *expect* everyone to be lying, but she would not), and how much was stretching the bounds of credulity that she wouldn't question the coincidences. To some degree, the story became not so much a "whodunnit" as an observation of the way in which the truth revealed itself to Bess. That's not a bad story, but I was a little disappointed to see so much more clearly than she did. At times, too, I felt like I was jumping into the middle of Bess's story, so that I checked more than once to be sure it really was Book 1. That's just proof of how difficult it is to balance presenting the backstory with keeping the main story moving.

One thing I found a little odd was that there is a very similar incident at the heart of this as at the heart of The Shattered Tree: a murky case of a barely-adolescent boy having committed a gruesome murder. I probably wouldn't have noticed if I'd read the series in order over a couple of years or more (my usual style), but as it was, it seemed weird.

The narration was good, but not great. I felt the narrator tried too hard with male voices, so they all ended up sounding rather like gruff old men. After a while that got a bit irritating, as well as making it harder to tell the male characters apart.

Bottom line: not a perfect book, but it certainly didn't put me off the series. I'll be reading on.

My Recommendation:
Anyone who is a fan of the period (WWI) will enjoy this, and I think it doesn't hurt to start the series at the beginning (I always prefer that approach). I recall that I didn't think The Shattered Tree was strictly adhering to "whodunnit" form either, so that may be something to consider. If you must have a book that follows the rules, the series may not be for you. But if you want good character development and an interesting story, I suspect it's a good choice.

FTC Disclosure: I checked A Duty to the Dead out of my library, and received nothing from the writer or publisher for my honest review.  The opinions expressed are my own and those of no one else.  I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission's 16 CFR, Part 255: "Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising."  

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Join the Ninja Librarian in celebrating the release of The Problem With Peggy on Nov. 28! Preorders are now available from Amazon and Smashwords for the ebook. Preorder the paperback directly from this site and we'll pick up the shipping costs!

Mystery Review: The Shattered Tree

Today we have another Great Escapes Blog tour, a mystery set among the violence and chaos of WWI.

Title: The Shattered Tree
Author: Charles Todd
Publisher: William Morrow, 2016. 290 pages.
Source: Publisher's ARC through Great Escapes Tours

 Publisher's Summary: 

At the foot of a tree shattered by shelling and gunfire, stretcher-bearers find an exhausted officer, shivering with cold and a loss of blood from several wounds. The soldier is brought to battlefield nurse Bess Crawford’s aid station, where she stabilizes him and treats his injuries before he is sent to a rear hospital. The odd thing is, the officer isn’t British—he’s French. But in a moment of anger and stress, he shouts at Bess in German.

When Bess reports the incident to Matron, her superior offers a ready explanation. The soldier is from Alsace-Lorraine, a province in the west where the tenuous border between France and Germany has continually shifted through history, most recently in the Franco-Prussian War of 1870, won by the Germans. But is the wounded man Alsatian? And if he is, on which side of the war do his sympathies really lie?

Of course, Matron could be right, but Bess remains uneasy—and unconvinced. If he was a French soldier, what was he doing so far from his own lines...and so close to where the Germans are putting up a fierce, last-ditch fight?

When the French officer disappears in Paris, it’s up to Bess—a soldier’s daughter as well as a nurse—to find out why, even at the risk of her own life.

My Review: 
I had to sign on to this tour because as my long-time readers may know, WWI is one of "my" periods (by which I mean that I'm very interested in the history of the time and read a lot of non-fiction about the war, especially personal accounts in an attempt to understand what it was like). I didn't regret signing up for this one at all.

The book is the 8th in the Bess Crawford series, but I had no trouble picking this up and reading it. I was at times aware that there was a history between characters that I didn't know, but the author gives just the right amount of information--so that I didn't feel "left out," but the story wasn't bogged down with explanations. I may have to go back and start from the beginning on the series, but that's mostly because it's good.

The book doesn't have a conventional "whodunnit" plot; although murder comes into it, the chief mystery is the identity of the mysterious officer. That mystery is gradually untangled, and solutions found for awkward problems, all within the time constraints of Bess's Paris leave. I was rapidly drawn into the story, and Bess's uneasiness about the mysterious officer, and none of her actions seemed unreasonable, as at times amateur detectives can be. There were a few moments early on when I wasn't not sure why she should be so obsessed, but the hint that he might be a German spy--and the lack of anyone to take that concern seriously--provides a sufficient motive to get her started, and soon the pursuit provides its own impetus.

The writing in the book is tight and the period clearly well-researched, and setting (time and place) are central to the book in a way that I appreciate.

Recommendation: 
It sounds strange to call a book a "cozy" mystery when it's set in the grim realities of WWI, but it does in fact fall into that category: there is just enough peril, and the characters and their relationships are the center of the story (and the mystery). I recommend The Shattered Tree to fans of the historical period and of well-written mysteries without excessive violence or gore.

About The Authors

Charles and Caroline Todd are a mother-and-son writing team who live on the east coast of the United States. Caroline has a BA in English Literature and History, and a Masters in International Relations. Charles has a BA in Communication Studies with an emphasis on Business Management, and a culinary arts degree that means he can boil more than water. Caroline has been married (to the same man) for umpteen years, and Charles is divorced.

Charles and Caroline have a rich storytelling heritage. Both spent many evenings on the porch listening to their fathers and grandfathers reminisce. And a maternal grandmother told marvelous ghost stories. This tradition allows them to write with passion about events before their own time. And an uncle/great-uncle who served as a flyer in WWI aroused an early interest in the Great War.

Charles learned the rich history of Britain, including the legends of King Arthur, William Wallace, and other heroes, as a child. Books on Nelson and by Winston Churchill were always at hand. Their many trips to England gave them the opportunity to spend time in villages and the countryside, where there’s different viewpoint from that of the large cities. Their travels are at the heart of the series they began ten years ago.

Charles’s love of history led him to a study of some of the wars that shape it: the American Civil War, WWI and WWII. He enjoys all things nautical, has an international collection of seashells, and has sailed most of his life. Golf is still a hobby that can be both friend and foe. And sports in general are enthusiasms. Charles had a career as a business consultant. This experience gave him an understanding of going to troubled places where no one was glad to see him arrive. This was excellent training for Rutledge’s reception as he tries to find a killer in spite of local resistance. [The Ninja Librarian notes: the Todds are also authors of the Inspector Ian Rutledge mysteries.]

Caroline has always been a great reader and enjoyed reading aloud, especially poetry that told a story. The Highwayman was one of her early favorites. Her wars are WWI, the Boer War, and the English Civil War, with a sneaking appreciation of the Wars of the Roses as well. When she’s not writing, she’s traveling the world, gardening, or painting in oils. Her background in international affairs backs up her interest in world events, and she’s also a sports fan, an enthusiastic follower of her favorite teams in baseball and pro football. She loves the sea, but is a poor sailor. (Charles inherited his iron stomach from his father.) Still, she has never met a beach she didn’t like.

Both Caroline and Charles share a love of animals, and family pets have always been rescues. There was once a lizard named Schnickelfritz. Don’t ask.

Writing together is a challenge, and both enjoy giving the other a hard time. The famous quote is that in revenge, Charles crashes Caroline’s computer, and Caroline crashes his parties. Will they survive to write more novels together? Stay tuned! Their father/husband is holding the bets.

Author Links
http://www.charlestodd.com/ https://www.facebook.com/CharlesToddNovels/
https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/131.Charles_Todd?from_search=true

Purchase Links
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FTC Disclosure: I received an advance review copy of The Shattered Tree from the publisher, and was given nothing further from the writer or publisher in exchange for my honest review.  The opinions expressed are my own and those of no one else.  I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission's 16 CFR, Part 255: "Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising." 

Non-fiction review: As I Saw it in the Trenches

I apologize for the lack of a cover photo--I'm on the road and my antique laptop wouldn't cooperate!

Title: As I Saw it in the Trenches: Memoir of a Doughboy in World War I
Author: Dae Hinson
Publisher: McFarland & Company, 2015. 177 pages.
Source: Library

Summary: 
This is the memoir of a WWI soldier, written down by him sometime in the years after the war, and discovered and transcribed by his nephew decades later. Hinson's goal seems simply to have been the accurate description of his WWI experiences. It is full of details about the war as he lived it.

Review:
This book reads very much as what it is: the account of a person who was not a professional writer, but a good observer and who obviously put a lot of effort into his narration. The editors have had the sense to leave it alone and not try to polish it up, and there are some places where errors slipped in or bits are missing, but the whole makes sense and it maintains the author's voice. The result is a very personal narrative and one that takes the reader right into the chaos of the First World War.

Hinson was just an ordinary young man, not particularly excited to be going to war, but also not willing to be slow to step up to do it (he enlisted as soon as the US entered the war). Because of how late the US was to the party (as it were) and the length of his training, Hinson in fact only spent a short time--a period of weeks as far as I could tell--on the front lines. The carnage he witnessed and the number of times he was nearly killed in those few weeks makes one wonder how any soldier came through that war alive and in his right mind. We will remember that while the US was in the war for less than a year, the whole thing went on for four years, and French, British, and Commonwealth soldiers were in France for that whole time. Some soldiers were there the whole time, on and off the front lines.

One of the things that most struck me about Hinson's account was not only the futility of their desperate and deadly efforts to capture some minor hill or single bunker, but the constant chaos. That chaos included a lack of any "bigger picture," and the sense you get from reading his account was that not only did the rank and file not know what they were doing or why, but most of the officers were in much the same state, just trying to carry out orders as they came through. Some of this confusion extended to the question of why they were there at all. Many Americans inevitably questioned the reasons why they had become involved in a war that seemed to most to be an issue for people far from their homes, and Hinson doesn't hesitate to share that doubt with the reader.

Recommendation:
This is an unpolished, at times rough, narrative of one man's war-time experiences. If, like me, you are fascinated by this war that is so nearly forgotten 100 years later, it's an invaluable resource and I recommend reading it. I hope that I can find other similar documents from the men who were on the lines longer and perhaps had a greater stake in the outcome, because this book gives a sense of what it was like that no third-person account can provide.

FTC Disclosure: I checked As I Saw it in the Trenches out of my  library, and received nothing from the writer or publisher in exchange for my honest review.  The opinions expressed are my own and those of no one else.  I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission's 16 CFR, Part 255: "Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising."  

###

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Note: the author is aware of the irony of selling a book about a boy who wants to go fight at the end of a review about a boy who did go fight.

Friday Flash: The Intelligence of Pegasus

Well, here it is again--another week, another rush to finish my story in time to revise it for you! Chuck Wendig gave us two lists of words or phrases this week, to be randomly selected and turned into a title. Being a bit lazy, instead of opening my random number generator, I asked my son for two numbers between one and 20. His choices gave me "Pegasus" and "Intelligence." As is often the case when starting from the title, it gives the idea and then the story moves on so the fit is no longer perfect. But a tale's a tale for all that. I hearby give you, in 1001 words...

The Intelligence of Pegasus 

“We’re operating blind, that’s the hell of it!” The captain glanced at the hills that prevented his scouts from watching the enemy.

“So you’ll let me go up?” The young lieutenant was practically panting with eagerness to show what he could do with his new-fangled machine.

Captain Carmichael-Jones caressed horse that looked over his shoulder, and scowled at the mess of wood and fabric that so excited Lieutenant Marsten. “This war is insane.”

“All war is insane, Sir,” Marsten replied.

The captain eyed his subordinate. “You say that?”

“I am eager to fly, Sir. But I’m not crazy. War is insane, but flying,” he gazed at the aeroplane as one contemplating a miracle. “Flying is sublime. Like childhood dreams of riding Pegasus.”

If Captain Carmichael-Jones thought his lieutenant wasn’t entirely done with childhood, he refrained from saying so. “You can go.” And may the gods bring you back alive, or your mother will have my guts for garters. He watched the younger man swarm over his beloved flying machine. The boy touched that blasted thing like a lover. Or, the captain admitted as he turned back to his horse, like a man grooming his favorite horse.

Carmichael-Jones mounted. What kind of a war had one man leading a bayonet charge on horse-back, while another took to the air like a bird?

He smiled, recalling the lieutenant’s words. Not a bird. A winged horse. “Rocinante, I’m sending Pegasus to spy out the enemy’s guns. Am I crazy?” The mare flicked her ears at the sound of the captain’s voice, but offered no advice.

If Captain Carmichael-Jones was dissatisfied with his decision, Lt. Marsten was not. He hummed as he went over his craft from stem to stern, checking every joint and lever, preparing to fly.

Marsten had learned to fly before joining up, and had brought the machine over at his own—or more accurately his father’s—expense, but in this obscure corner of a war being fought in two centuries, he’d been given no chance to fly, though all over France men were jousting on air.

“The Captain’s a good chap, Esmerelda,” he addressed his craft, “but he really doesn’t understand modern warfare.” The machine didn’t even have ears to flick in response to his voice.

While a ground patrol did best reconnoitering at dawn or dusk, Marsten had learned from other flyers, before his posting here at the end of the earth, that an aeroplane did best when the sun was high. Approach the target out of the sun, and they couldn’t look at you, so they couldn’t shoot you down before you’d swooped down and strafed the trenches, or dropped your bombs.

Marsten sighed. Esmerelda had neither guns nor bombs. She was a private aircraft and wouldn’t be doing anything but surveillance. He’d wanted to join the air corps, but his mother had put her foot down. She didn’t know that he’d shipped the plane out here. Not, at least, in time to stop him.

Marsten frowned as he took his seat in the open cockpit a half hour later. He hadn’t been up since arriving here. Captain Carmichael-Jones was afraid he’d be shot down.

“I’m going to do a test run over our own lines, Smithy,” he told the head of his hastily-assembled ground crew. “Just a little practice.”

“Right you are, sir. Captain warned the gunners you might.”

“Spin the prop, then, and stand back!”

Smithy had been drilled on this in hopes that one day Marsten would be allowed up. He gave the blade a deft yank, dodged back and aside, and watched while the lieutenant warmed up the motor and checked his controls.

The camp had no runway. Marsten turned the aeroplane onto the hard-packed dirt road that connected them to the rest of the Allies, and let off the brake. Esmerelda bounced some as she picked up speed, but at last he felt her leave the earth, with the rush of pure joy that moment always gave him.

A loop over his own lines told Marsten that he’d not forgotten how to fly, and proved to him that he could see plenty that would never be visible to a ground observer. He crossed the hills, considered the position of the sun, and swooped in on his approach. A smattering of bullets whistling past did nothing to diminish his joy.

#

“So that’s the whole layout,” he finished his report. Captain Carmichael-Jones studied the diagram Lt. Marsten had drawn, and nodded.

“Very good.”

#

After that, Marsten went up often. On the day of their big offensive, Marsten was in the air with a lapful of grenades—pathetic armament, compared with the bombers others flew over the enemy’s cities. Captain Carmichael-Jones led the troops on the ground. No more superior officer had ever bothered with their branch of the war.

Weeks of flying over the enemy lines had taught Marsten to dodge and weave, never presenting an easy target. Lucky for him the enemy here had no anti-aircraft guns. His fragile Esmerelda was vulnerable enough to rifle fire. He’d patched her a few times when shots had gotten too close.

While the two armies charged toward each other, each side led by mounted officers, Marsten circled overhead, dropped his charges, and signaled flanking movements. At first he seemed immune to gunfire, but eventually it started to take a toll. By the time the captain’s troops overran the enemy camp, Marsten was coasting in for a rough landing, wings tattered and engine dead.

It wasn’t a great landing. He would heal, but Esmerelda would not. There were tears on Marsten’s face as he limped off to report to the captain.

He found Carmichael-Jones by the body of Rocinante, his own face wet with tears.

Smithy had his own comment on the scene. “Reckon,” he told Muggs, “this war’s moved beyond horses.” He glanced at the smoldering wreck that had been Marsten’s love. “But maybe it ain’t ready for them flying machines either.”

©Rebecca M. Douglass, 2016

Nonfiction Audio Review: Lusitania: Triumph, Tragedy, and the End of the Edwardian Age

Title:  Lusitania: Triumph Tragedy, and the End of the Edwardian Age
Author: Greg King and Penny Wilson. Read by Johnny Heller
Publisher: Tantor Audio, 2015. Original hardcover by St. Martins, 2015, 400 pages.
Source: Library digital collection

Publisher's Summary: 
On the 100th Anniversary of its sinking, King and Wilson tell the story of the Lusitania's glamorous passengers and the torpedo that ended an era and prompted the US entry into World War I.
Lusitania: She was a ship of dreams, carrying millionaires and aristocrats, actresses and impresarios, writers and suffragettes – a microcosm of the last years of the waning Edwardian Era and the coming influences of the Twentieth Century. When she left New York on her final voyage, she sailed from the New World to the Old; yet an encounter with the machinery of the New World, in the form of a primitive German U-Boat, sent her – and her gilded passengers – to their tragic deaths and opened up a new era of indiscriminate warfare.

A hundred years after her sinking, Lusitania remains an evocative ship of mystery. Was she carrying munitions that exploded? Did Winston Churchill engineer a conspiracy that doomed the liner? Lost amid these tangled skeins is the romantic, vibrant, and finally heartrending tale of the passengers who sailed aboard her. Lives, relationships, and marriages ended in the icy waters off the Irish Sea; those who survived were left haunted and plagued with guilt. Now, authors Greg King and Penny Wilson resurrect this lost, glittering world to show the golden age of travel and illuminate the most prominent of Lusitania's passengers. Rarely was an era so glamorous; rarely was a ship so magnificent; and rarely was the human element of tragedy so quickly lost to diplomatic maneuvers and militaristic threats. 

My Review:
I used the publisher's summary above to illustrate a point. Despite the blurb's opening lines (italicized by me), King and Wilson make a point in the opening chapter of the book of debunking the idea that the sinking of the Lusitania brought the US into the war. A quick look at the timeline (sunk in 1915; US entered the war in 1917) should make that point, and that's about all they gave it.

In any case:  this book isn't as much concerned with the war and the political significance of things as it is with the culture and society. It's not what the sinking started that concerns King and Wilson, but what it ended: the Edwardian Age. Of course, that era of mannered society, strict class lines, and opulent elegance (for the rich) wasn't just ended by the sinking of one ship. It was ended by the war, but the ship makes a lovely metaphor.

It isn't a metaphor that King and Wilson explore very deeply, in my opinion. To me, this book was largely a joyous dive into the elegance of the ship and the era, and an exploration into a selection of lives (largely of survivors, no doubt in part because of a greater access to information). That the authors chose to focus on first class passengers, and a few from second class whom they found interesting, sent me a clear message. The book is not a very deep look at the age or the event, but it *is* a fascinating look at a number of lives and a nice illustration of the times (including, perhaps, the way in which the war was not taken quite seriously by the US at that point). That said, the look is never deep enough and the switches from one to another were far too rapid for my taste.

The audiobook: 
My last comment above brings me to the main problem of the audio book, which is not entirely the fault of the narrator. With the story switching rapidly from one story-line to another, the listener (this listener, anyway) is always a step behind, without any of the visual cues a printed book gives for such changes of direction. The narrator might have done more to create hesitations, but the book switches so often and so rapidly that I think that would have created its own listening problems. In general, the narrator did a good job, but it was still sometimes hard to follow.

Summary:
This book was interesting to listen to, and I learned a fair amount about the event and the era, but I found it in many ways shallow and, as mentioned, very hard to follow as an audio book. I think there may be better books out there about the sinking of the Lusitania, and I may well hunt them down.

Full Disclosure: I checked  Lusitania: Triumph, Tragedy, and the End of the Edwardian Age out of my library, and received nothing from the writer or publisher in exchange for my honest review.  The opinions expressed are my own and those of no one else.  I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission's 16 CFR, Part 255: "Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising."

Nonfiction Review: The War that Ended Peace

 

 Title: The War that Ended Peace: The Road to 1914

Author: Margaret MacMillan

Publisher: Random House, 2013, Kindle Edition, 784 pages.

Source: Library

Summary:

The War that Ended Peace follows Europe through the final decades of the 19th Century and into the years leading up to World War I. It is a detailed study of the mystifying and multifarious causes of that war, introducing all the key players and offering some insight into how and why they let--or made--such an awful war happen.

Review:

MacMillan tackled an immense and difficult subject here, and the resultant tome--nearly 800 pages, though mercifully I couldn't see that while reading on my Kindle--reflects that. In some ways, all my review needs to do is note that it took me six months to get through this. But get through it I did, and not solely because I'm too stubborn to give up. The subject is dense, and the writing not, in my opinion, sterling. But the topic is also one which fascinates me, and in the end I did come away with a better understanding of the origins of the Great War, a war that put an end to one of the longest periods of peace (in a general way) that Europe has ever known.

The book's strength is also it's greatest weakness: the amount of detail the author provides on everything from the political situation in Turkey to the life of the Russian Ambassador to Germany. Only by considering all those details can one begin to really understand what happened in 1914, but at the same time, that detail makes it almost impossible to keep it all straight.

I do feel that a defter pen might have made this a bit more accessible and rendered me more likely to read larger chunks at a time, which would have improved my understanding. I found myself at times mentally rewriting to produce a simpler sort of prose, something I would argue is a good thing to bring to a complex topic, and at times a lack of commas (or full-stops) forced me to read twice to sort out the meaning of a sentence.

Recommendation:

I can only recommend this book for die-hard students of the Great War. For those truly wanting or needed to know what made that happen, it is invaluable, and well worth the effort of reading it. For the casual history buff, I don't know if there are better books on the same subject, but I know that the drive to finish it may not match up to the task at hand.

###

Full Disclosure: I checked  The War that Ended Peace out of my (digital) library, and received nothing from the writer or publisher in exchange for my honest review.  The opinions expressed are my own and those of no one else.  I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission's 16 CFR, Part 255: "Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising." 

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Friday Flash Fiction: Crow Egg

First, and most important: Jemima Pett has unraveled all the dastardly deeds in our serial mystery, "Half a Clue." If you haven't been following along, the rest of the story is collected here.


Now, for my story. This week's Chuck Wendig Terribleminds.com challenge was pretty simple. We were supposed to pick three names of types of apples from a list, and use them in some way in our story, as apples or just as weird word combos. Naturally, I read it in a tearing hurry and didn't get it right. Instead, I selected just one and used it as the title of my story. Close enough, since no one is grading us. Are they? Hope I'm not going to get sent to the principal's office again!

Crow Egg

Claire sat under a tree in the middle of the orchard, throwing hard, tiny apples at the tree trunks. The apples were the extras, the ones the trees shed because they couldn’t grow so many on one branch. The small missiles thwapped against the tree-trunks like little bullets.

Claire could throw, as she could do so many things, because of her brother Jim. Jim had mostly taught her to throw by mocking her attempts until she mastered the art. It had taken a lot of watching him play baseball to figure out what she was doing wrong, and still longer to learn to do it the right way, but she’d done it so she could finally hear Jim say, “Good pitch, Sis. You’ve sure gotten over throwing like a girl.” Claire refused to say she was learning to throw “like a boy.” Throwing with power and accuracy was just throwing well, not like a boy.

Ping! She nailed another tree. Splat! That one had been half rotten, and spattered satisfyingly when it hit the gnarled trunk. Claire didn’t feel satisfied.

Claire was sitting in the orchard because Jim was gone. For all her 12 years, he had been there, teasing her, fighting with her, and teaching her how to live. Now he had gone off to fight in the War, and everyone said what a wonderful thing that was. Everyone but Claire.

Well, everyone but Claire and her Dad. He had refused to say a word against Jim’s going, but she knew when he was unhappy by the tight look on his face. That look had come onto his face when Jim announced he was enlisting, and it never left anymore.

To make matters worse, Claire and her father were both realizing that it had been Jim who had raised her, in his own boyish way. Their mother had died of the ’flu when Claire was a baby, but thanks to her brother she’d never missed having a mother. Until now. Now she not only had no one to teach her to be a girl, at an age when she was beginning to realize it might be a good thing to learn, but she had no one to teach her to be a tomboy, either. No one to admire her for hitting every tree she aimed at, and no one to scold her for getting grass stains on her Sunday dress from climbing trees after church. Dad never noticed.

Claire heard her father call from the house, and climbed to her feet. She took her time brushing the dirt and grass from the overalls she wore everywhere but school and church, knowing that the dinner he called her to would be poor, their time together strained. Without Jim, neither of them new how to talk about missing Jim.

She paused beneath the tallest tree in the orchard—the only one that wasn’t an apple tree—and peered up through the branches. Father had never been willing to cut down the huge old pine, and at the very top there was always a crow’s nest. Every year Claire vowed she would climb up and look into it, as Jim had done. She never had done it. Not yet.

#
When the telegram arrived, only weeks after Jim had gone into the trenches, Claire knew the world had ended. Everyone knew what it meant when you got a telegram, if you had a boy at the Front. She didn’t even stay to see Dad open it, and she didn’t stop to hear the delivery boy’s sympathy. He’d known Jim at school, so he meant it. But he’d said the same words to so many families.

Claire fled to the orchard, to the trees. She stopped beneath the old pine, and began to climb.

Claire didn’t stop until she reached the top, and could see into the crow’s nest. The bird was away, stealing apples or eating worms. She looked at the nest, a mix of old weaving and new, and far larger than seemed necessary for the single egg that lay there. The egg was smaller than she’d expected, to hold all that potential life. Life like the one Jim wouldn’t get to have now.

Suddenly she hated the crow, hated the egg, hated those lives that went on while Jim’s—and hers—ended. She reached out with one hand, clinging to her perch with the other, and snatched up the egg. It was warm, and smooth, and harder than she’d expected to crush. She shifted her fingers and squeezed again, and felt the sharp shards of shell cut her hand, the warm liquid pour through her grip. She dropped it, and saw the tiny, unformed crow she had killed, and began to cry, even as she heard her father’s voice calling her name.

He didn’t sound right. He didn’t sound heartbroken. He sounded elated. Her head spun. “Claire! He’s coming home! He’s wounded, but he’s alive and he’s coming home!”

Uncomprehending, she stared at the bird she had killed, at the agitated crow now circling her head.

“I’m sorry,” she whispered to both, and began the long climb down.

###

©Rebecca M. Douglass

Historical Fiction: The Care and Management of Lies

 

Title: The Care and Management of Lies

Author:  Jacqueline Winspear

Publisher: Harper Collins, 2014. 319 pages.

Summary:

This book is subtitled "A novel of the Great War," and Ms. Winspear has made a study of WWI in England. In this novel she tells the story of one family, and how the war affected them. Kezia Marchant and Dorrit Brissenden have been friends since their schoolgirl days, and as the novel opens, Kezia is about to marry Dorrit's brother Tom. Much is changing between the two young women, who have chosen different paths, and their struggle is represented by Dorrit--Dorothy--changing her name to a different diminutive, Thea. That change represents her dive into the world of women's suffrage and, while Kezia shifts from parson's daughter and self-supporting teacher to farmer's wife. When war breaks out only months after the marriage, everything shifts again, and the heart of the story is how they all cope.

Review:

Ms. Winspear couldn't write a bad book, but this is a bit unexpected for fans of her Maisie Dobbs mysteries. It took me a bit to engage with the characters, and to find the rhythm and direction of the story. Once the war begins, and (this is no spoiler, really--it's the inevitable plot development) Tom goes to fight, the book began to fall into place for me. The "lies" of the title are the letters each writes to the other, making light of their struggles and creating a comforting fiction for the other. In particular, Kezia keeps up Tom's spirits by describing the meals she is cooking for him--completely imaginary meals, as shortages leave her with little food. What Winspear does with those "lies" is imaginative and powerful.

Ms. Winspear depicts the war from both sides--the trenches and the "home front"--very well, and this may be the strongest aspect of the book. The story is about the three-way relationship between the two girls and the man they both love, but I admit those relationships felt a bit thin to me. I didn't quite believe in them, but I completely believed the world and the lives Winspear painted. That's almost enough.

Recommendation:

Though I felt that something was a bit off in the book, and I was discontented with the ending (not necessarily because it was bad, but because it wasn't the one I wanted), The Care and Management of Lies is a moving look at the Great War, and well worth the reading. Just don't look for Maisie Dobbs here. This is a different kind of book, meant for those who like more serious fiction and for those who (like me) are fascinated by that period of history.

Full Disclosure: I checked The Care and Management of Lies out of my library, and received nothing from the writer or publisher in exchange for my honest review.  The opinions expressed are my own and those of no one else.  I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission's 16 CFR, Part 255: "Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising."