The Only Suspect by Jonnie Jacobs

"J" Author

I didn't have a whole lot of "J" author's on my shelf and I have no idea when or where I picked up this book, but the book jacket's suspenseful summary was certainly the why.  And this was just what I needed after reading some pretty intense books in the past few months.

A book I read in a day in part to having a rainy Saturday to do so, but also due to the unraveling mystery that I wanted to get to the bottom of and the short chapters which kept me reading "just one more".

Overall the book was good, the suspense, the red herrings, BUT the ending, the who-dun-it was.....a little bit of a let down.  I certainly didn't see it coming, but mainly because it wasn't realistic in what had been a fairly realistic story line.

Yet, the author does write well for a quick mystery/suspense, so I may be willing to give her another chance.

Beloved by Toni Morrison

2017 Reading Challenge - Read a Book in Which a Character of Color goes on a Spiritual Journey.

Well, this was a "spiritual journey" alright and a good read in October with Halloween looming.  A glance into the "journey" (the word almost sounds too joyous) of a the slaves of "Sweet Home" Plantation.  The novel was based in part on a true story of a slave named Margaret Garner and no doubt some of the punishments, escapes, etc. depicted were also based on true stories of what so many suffered.

No matter how often I read books about slavery I still cannot wrap my head around the fact that these people were treated like property, like chattel, that their souls and their humanness were ignored, disregarded and more often than not beaten out of them.

Beloved focused on the story of Sethe who obtained freedom from slavery in Ohio, but was never free.  "Haunted" by a spirit that becomes more than an upset soul.  Beloved was written a bit like a mystery novel that kept you guessing, even till the end leaving some of it up to the reader's interpretation.  With volleying back and forth between the past and present, you learned more about each of the characters and their struggles as you tried to understand the choices primarily that Sethe made and how it affected her and those around her.

Quotes:  "In Ohio seasons are theatrical"  Each one enters like a prima donna, convinced its performance is the reason the world has people in it....summer had been hooted offstage and autumn with its bottles of blood and gold had everybody's attention."

"It was lovely.  Not to be stared at, not seen, but being pulled into view by the interested, uncritical eyes of another."

The Unquiet Grave by Sharyn McCrumb

Page Habit Subscription - September Historical Fiction

I had noted this author's name many years ago and her Ballad series, specifically The Ballad of Tom Dooley (#9), but like the numerous authors and books I want to pick up, I hadn't yet.  So, I was particularly pleased that this month's selection was by Ms. McCrumb!!

And I was not disappointed!  What a unique story to research and expound on - a West Virginia murder in the late 1800's prosecuted on the "testimony" of a ghost.  There were a couple times that I felt the story was a little more drawn out than necessary and a couple repetitions, but not so much that it took away from the enjoyment of the story itself.

Living near WV and being in the legal field I may have felt a bit more connected than most, but I think anyone who likes a bit of a legal thriller and well-researched and fascinating historical fiction will thoroughly enjoy this.

Quotes:  " His own particular form of insanity was to see the world exactly as it was, and to despair in silence."

"It was generally the lower-class whites you had to watch out for - those who were afraid of you because the accident of their white skin was the only thing that allowed them to think they outranked anybody."

"Ordinary white people suddenly developed their own form of madness, although it was so universal that it passed for normality:  they became unaccountably afraid of their dark-skinned neighbors."

"Maybe its easier for a father to turn away from a child than it is for the mother who gave birth to it."

"In the law, it isn't so much the truth that matters; it's the consensus."

"What professions doesn't make mistakes?  Cooks cover their errors with sauces; architects with ivy; and doctors cover theirs with sod."

"Life is mostly contrary to expectations.."

"People never seemed to realize that the more they praised Dr. Rucker's supposed generosity, the less they seemed to value James Gardner's ability and worth."

"At times a trial came very close to being a game of chance...hoped he would never have to bet his life on the whims of a dozen random citizens."

Watch Me Disappear - Janelle Brown

Page Habit Subscription - July - Mystery

Billed as a book that "You won't be able to put down".  I didn't find this to be the case.  It was an okay book.  Certainly kept you guessing about what actually happened with red herrings and twists, until the very-last-page.  Yet, it felt at times to be more drawn out than necessary.

I felt the daughter, Olive was well-developed and I suppose mother, Billie was as well because I found myself really not liking Billie at all.  Time and time again she proved to be a coward.

I doubt I'll read another by this author as I have read much more captivating mystery novels by other authors.

Quotes:  "You don't realize how much you'll miss the asphyxiating intimacy of early parenthood until you can finally breath again."

"'Science cannot solve the ultimate mystery of nature.  And that is because, in the last analysis, we ourselves are a part of the mystery that we are trying to solve.'"

"...how the collective pain of the world sometimes made it hard to breathe."