Spell the Month in Books is hosted by Reviews From the Stacks and occurs on or near the second Saturday of each month:
D - Dead Scared by Sharon Bolton. This is the second in the Detective Constable Lacey Flint series and was truly unnerving. Lacey is sent undercover to Cambridge University to investigate a series of student suicides that police suspect are linked to a predator manipulating vulnerable young women online.
E - Enemy of the Good by Matthew Palmer (2017). This is a political thriller about a U.S. Foreign Service officer, Kate Hollister, who is sent to Kyrgyzstan to infiltrate an underground democracy movement, forcing her to choose between her country's strategic goals and her own ethics in a high-stakes diplomatic crisis. I chose it because my brother was in the Foreign Service and it sounded intriguing but I only gave it three stars.
C - Capital Kaleidoscope by Frances Parkinson Keyes (1937). I am fond of Keyes’ (mostly) historical novels although they are very dated; however, this book is quite different. It is a description of her life as the wife of a New England senator when she entertained and was entertained by the likes of FDR, the Larz Andersons, and Sam Rayburn, then Speaker of the House (and worthy of having a building named for him, unlike the present guy). My review.
E - Evil Things by Katja Ivar (2009). I tracked down this book because I didn’t think I had ever read a book set in Finland. Hella Mauzer was the first female police inspector in Helsinki but she is in disgrace, so has been sent to a remote post in Lapland near the Soviet border where a missing person case turns into a murder investigation. The bleakness of this book was depressing and did not motivate me to read more in the series.
M - Ms. Demeanor by Elinor Lipman (2022). When someone reports Jane for consensual outdoor sex, she is sentenced to house arrest in her NYC apartment and is bored to death. She tries to find new interests and finds an unexpected romance with another tenant under confinement. This was kind of weird but as funny as other Lipman novels.
B - Blue Willow by Doris Gates (1940). This is a classic children’s book about a migrant worker desperate for a steady job and the daughter who yearns for a permanent home where she can finally unpack the Blue Willow plate handed down from her great-great grandmother. It was a Newbery Honor Book. My review.
E – Alias Emma by Ava Glass (2022). I’m running out of E books! This is the first book in a fun series about a young British intelligence agent, whose Russian father was killed by his own people. Her big assignment is to protect an asset for 24 hours while Russian assassins try to find them. My review.
R - The Rise of the Black Quarterback by Jason Reid (2022). This was an interesting book about the history of Black players in the NFL as well as the breakout careers of recent Black quarterbacks, including Colin Kaepernick, Patrick Mahomes, Lamar Jackson, and Kyler Murray. My review.
Merry Christmas to those who celebrate and Happy Holidays to all!
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