BOOK REVIEW: Seeds of the Pomegranate by Suzanne Uttaro Samuels

 I received this e-galley for free from Edelweiss. That did not influence this review.

Seeds of the Pomegranate by Suzanne Uttaro Samuels (releasing on September 2) is a propulsive historical novel set in early 20th century Sicily and New York. (I could not put this one down!)

Mimi Inglese is an extraordinarily talented young artist whose rise is cut short by tuberculosis infection. At least, that is what she believes and what her family wants to believe. Her father is struggling and failing to keep the estate he inherited profitable. He decides, with the “help” of a wealthy friend, Vito Cascioferro, to move his family to New York and start over by opening a store. What he doesn’t admit, to himself or to Mimi, is that Vito has little interest in the store. Or in him. Vito has been following Mimi’s artistic education and plans to make use of her skills as an engraver in his counterfeiting business.

Readers will sympathize with Mimi’s plight as she is dragged deeper and deeper into the mob’s increasingly competitive and violent dealings in New York. Although presented with opportunities to escape, family obligations keep holding her back. 

The beautiful prose and complex family dynamics combine with an omnipresent sense of menace that kept me turning pages, anxious to see what would come next. Highly recommended!

BOOK REVIEW: Word of the Wicked by Mary Lancaster

 I received this book for free from Netgalley. That did not influence this review.

I love Mary Lancaster’s latest mystery series, Silver and Grey, so I’m trying not to fall behind. The latest (book 5) is Word of the Wicked.

Solomon Grey and Constance Silver are now engaged to be married, but they are prioritizing the private investigator business that brought them together. The business has grown so successful that the two have taken to divvying up the jobs, which is professionally satisfying but personally miserable. They miss each other, but are left wondering if the missing is mutual.

Fortunately, a case comes along that they both jump into in order to work together again. A physician from a small country town hires them to look into an anonymous letter sent to his wife. It is mildly insulting and lightly threatening. He can’t imagine who could have sent it or why. His wife is upset. And although he doesn’t truly think there is any danger, he wants to know who was behind it.

His wife is not the only one to have received a letter. In each case, it’s the same. A small chastisement followed by a vague threat.

Constance and Solomon go off to the countryside to investigate, but soon find themselves as baffled as the doctor. Questioning the townspeople, they uncover small-town secrets, but the identity of the letter writer continues to elude them.

At the same time, Solomon is caught up in the investigation of a murder at a London tavern that may or may not have been committed by his long-lost (and newly found) twin brother. 

The letter mystery is well-plotted and kept me guessing along with the detective pair. The relationships (Constance and Solomon; Solomon and his brother) continue to grow. I’ll have to wait for the next installment to see where they go next!

BOOK REVIEW: Asylum Piece by Anna Kavan

I’m on a mission to read more “forgotten” women authors of the 1920s through 50s. (Like Nancy Hale and Maude Hutchins.) I just finished a short story collection by Anna Kavan called Asylum Piece. 

Anna Kavan (a pen name) was a British writer whose works were “nouveau roman”, semi-autobiographical, and difficult to categorize. She suffered from a difficult family life, depression, and heroin addiction. After a number of hospitalizations and suicide attempts, she eventually died from a heroin overdose. It’s a tragic life for a woman of enormous talent.

Asylum Piece is a dark, surreal collection of stories written from a first person viewpoint, a voice tinged with paranoia, delusions, and a painful loneliness. The stories are captivating, beautiful, and terrifying. The viewpoint characters (who generally seem to be the same woman, progressing in her madness) all imbue their tales with a sense of impending doom that is all the more frightening for being vague. Some are set within the asylum, and the desperation of the woman (and in one case, a man) abandoned there is gut-wrenching. What makes the work so powerful is the realism of the surrealism. In the character’s head, the goings-on are very real. 

Originally published in 1940, the book was re-released in 1972 and in 2001, so used copies are not hard to find. (I found it in my public library.) It’s well worth reading!

BOOK REVIEW: Raising Hel by Cynthia J. Bogard

Raising Hel by Cynthia J. Bogard is the powerful story of a young woman coming of age in the tumultuous 1970s in Madison, Wisconsin. The site of the University of Wisconsin, Madison was a hotbed of student activism, with particular focus on anti-war demonstrations and the feminist movement.

Hel has escaped from her small farming town and her family’s expectations that a woman’s role is to settle into a life of wifehood and child-raising. But, confused, naive, and with no real vision for her own future, she becomes involved in the anti-war protests and enamored of an older man, a Vietnam veteran, who is addicted to heroin. In short order, they are married, and Hel finds herself just as trapped as she would have been had she stayed in her small town.

It is with the help of two women that she begins to break free. Thorpe is a smart, focused, botany student who seems to have it all together. Iris is a charismatic beauty with a gift for organization who wants to start a feminist magazine. With their friendship and example, Hel begins to find herself. When her husband abandons her, she is free to start over again. Working on the magazine brings her into contact with more strong-minded women eager to grab opportunities that are beginning to open up to them. Hel meets a man who is, in every way, the opposite of her absent husband, who makes her believe in love again. But her road to personal achievement and happiness is threatened when her husband returns.

This is an inspiring story of the hard-won achievements of the women’s movement that can serve as a reminder of how far we have come, and bolster our determination not to go backwards.

BOOK REVIEW: Bigger Than Us by Debbie Burns

Bigger Than Us by Debbie Burns is a heartwarming story of second chances. 

Maddie Trudeau has just lost her husband, Landon, to a motorcycling accident. Her first priority  is seeing her five-year-old twins through the tragedy. But Maddie’s heartbreak is not limited to widowhood. Before his death, Maddie had been on the verge of divorcing him for the chaos he made of their lives.

Unfortunately, the chaos does not end with his death. Maddie still has to deal with her controlling, narcissistic mother-in-law, her own mother’s flower-child behavior, and Noel, her husband’s best friend, a man with whom she’d once been in love, a man who knows all her husband’s secrets and is conflicted about spilling them.

And then, there is Jordan, a younger woman, fighting depression as a single mother with no support network and a baby whose resemblance to Landon is unmistakable.

This is a beautiful novel of grief, compassion, and abiding love.