The Good Killer

Harry Dolan

February 2020

Nothing better during these quiet days at home during the pandemic than a Harry Dolan mystery novel.  This is his latest release.  Reading his mysteries is like settling down in a quiet room and not agreeing to get up from your book until the end.   His sentence structure is so smooth, that the story just slides along with your eyes and you cannot stop "stream-reading".   

No spoilers in this review, but I cannot deny that there are some rough action events in the mystery storyline.  Just sign it off to the fact that rough and tough men read Dolan novels, too.    After the yoga chapter, its fair balance! 

The protagonists are Sean, the good killer and Molly, his significant other girlfriend, and they are running away from antagonists: Jimmy, Nick, Kelly, Tom and Lincoln.   Molly takes a little time off to attend yoga week in Montana as mentioned.  The antagonists find her.  OOPS!! 

Then just to make the story really fun to read, there are some characters to keep track of because they round out the plot.  They are:

•      Adam, (Molly's old rich guy boyfriend)
•      Howard Frazier and his wife
•      Henry Keen
•      Steve Z
•      Carla Whyte
•      Dalton Webber
•      Noura Ibrahim
•      Ray and Rapheal..a little love story between two detectives-- don't miss that.  It's cute but not cozy.          
•      Rose Dillon   She plays a significant role as this story begins.  But as the mystery builds, you almost forget about her. She shows up to close the story and turns out your reading light as this mystery is solved, resolved and sadly for the reader, it ends.   But Rose insists having her own ending.
•      Cole, the friend with the black boots.  Some friends are hard to forget

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Favorite quotes: 

"We look ahead.  We prepare. That's our advantage.  Because we know the battle's coming."  (Sean Tennant)

                             

"Today a new sun rises and we start again".  (Molly Winter)

Just perfect for encouragement during the pandemic. 

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I love these mysteries and hope you will soon join me in that love as well!!  (I did read the first three Dolan mysteries in order and I advise that, but the last two have been wonderful stand-alones.)

Pick up this mystery--and stay safe. 

Let me know what you think and certainly what you are reading!

Inspector Oldfield and the Black Hand Society: America's Original Gangsters and the U.S. Postal Detective Who Brought Them to Justice (Hardcover)

I am in the midst of the 2019 reading challenge.  This is my second challenge year and I am 4 books behind schedule.  Yikes!  To make a framework for the books I would read, I established a reading protocol early in the year to make book selection easy and organized.  Each book chosen for this challenge must fall into one of the following categories:

     1. Authors recommended by other readers (author must be new to me)
     2. Any recommendations by my fellow readers of our online mystery reading group established in 1993 on Prodigy
    3. The next book in a series I have been reading
    4. The next book in a series I have abandoned (in an attempt to revive my interest)
    5. A book that references a historic event or period that is not in my lifetime  
    6. A book that references any historic event or a biography of a famous person who lived in my lifetime.  
    7. New mystery author with setting in USA.
    8. New mystery author with setting in western Europe.  

This novel satisfies Protocol #5

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So--here is my review of a true crime, turn of the century story about life in America in the early days of the postal service.  I chose this book as my grandparents were young adults at the same time as the characters in this book .  I was curious to read about my grandparents' young adulthood and  American life.  

Also, I am not Italian so  I never  knew how the Mafia made their money.  But now I know.  And if you ever wondered how the postal routes were laid out as the country grew and took on new states and new migrations of Americans moving west, it is all in this book. 

This book is written by William Oldfield, (great grandson of Frank Oldfield) and Victoria Bruce, a journalist and historian.  Together they have delivered a cohesive story about Mafia's use of the postal service to execute their criminal activity.  The Mafia was using the Postal Service to extort money by mailing "pay up or die" letters to Italian immigrants.   William's great grandfather, Postal Service Investigator Frank Oldfield led the investigation and the take down of this Mafia ring.  It took years to bust this Mafia ring, but the effort resulted in the first international organized crime conviction in America.  The story flows smoothly from Investigator Oldfield's suspicions to discovery, to indictment, conviction and punishment of the Mafia's Black Hand Society, surprisingly to me, based in Columbus, Ohio.    I live in the NYC area and was sure it would be Brooklyn.  The investigative methods that Frank Oldfield used to break this case were fascinating.  Not so sure that any of them would work today.

This is not a spoiler:  The good guys always win, but this time, it was not so easy!!

So what happened to Frank Oldfield after the resolution of this investigation?  You will be surprised.  At minimum, he should have been awarded the "Stamp of Excellence".   But not so.  For years the story of Frank Oldfield's investigative work was kept hidden, unmentioned in  the postal service history and unknown to the Smithsonian National Postal Museum.   It seems that for a century, Frank Oldfield's story was only known in the family stories shared during family events and holidays.  

When William Oldfield became the heir apparent to the investigation records and collateral preserved by his great grandfather...he authored this Frank Oldfield story and it came to life again. 

This book was a pleasure to read and obviously an effort devoted to family pride.

Florida Roadkill by Tim Dorsey. Outrageous fun chasing criminals and money.

This is book #30 of my 2018 Reading Challenge sponsored by Goodreads.com.  I pledged to read 40 books.  To make a framework for the books I would read, I established a reading protocol early in the year to make book selection easy and organized.  Each book chosen for this challenge must fall into one of the following categories:

     1. Authors recommended by other readers (author must be new to me)
     2. Any recommendations by my fellow readers of our online mystery reading group established in 1993 on Prodigy
    3. The next book in a series I have been reading
    4. The next book in a series I have abandoned (in an attempt to revive my interest)
    5. A book that references a historic event or period that is not in my lifetime
    6. A book that references any historic event or biographs a famous person who lived in my lifetime.
    7. New mystery author with setting in USA.
    8. New mystery author with setting in western Europe.  

This novel satisfies Protocol #3.

This is the second book I have read in the Florida series written by Tim Dorsey.  Tim is a great ambassador for Florida and reading his books is like a non-stop vacation from the Atlantic Ocean to the Gulf of Mexico.     Florida Roadkill is the first book in this Florida criminal chaos series.

In case you have never been to Florida lets get acquainted:
--Nickname:  Sunshine State
--Capital:  Tallahassee
--Statehood:  27th state added to the union (1845)
--Famous for the Florida Keys—a few are well known but there are actually 1,700 islands making up the Florida Keys and the  Keys are geographically the southernmost part of the United States
--Florida has the most toll roads and the most bridges of any other state
--Florida is the 8th most populated state in the union
--Top tourist attraction:  Disney World
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The story of Florida Roadkill involves three main characters: 
--Serge—who is expert on the history of Florida and an expert criminal
--Sharon—who showers attention on wealthy, old men, but they end up dead
--Coleman—a goofy guy, a slow thinking but lovable cartoon freak

What is a good criminal chase novel without big insurance money fraudulently acquired
--Insurance money
--Missing valise full of insurance money
--Uncertainty about just who has the valise
--Several dead people associated with the big money chase

No mention in this novel:
--Disney World—because chasing criminals and big insurance money is not a “happy place” to be
--Use of toll roads and only slight reference to the bridges—because that would slow down the action and no one in the story gets an “easy pass”.

Dorsey jumps into action from page one.  He sets the pace as fast and furious.  There is comedic happenings, non-stop chaos and downright violent murder, totally unlikable characters in search of the money.  The main characters as a team are likable and  good at wooing victims, making lucrative deals and then come the violent murders.

Here is what is interesting about this book and Dorsey’s style of storytelling.  It is exhausting in a captivating way that forces the reader to keep going.  There are so many characters introduced in the early chapters, it is a little hard to know what is really happening without continuing to read. In addition there are so many different modes of violent murders—imaginative and bizarre.  And the persuasive style of deal making leads to endless chase and folly until the very last page.

I read through this book, moving from each crazy, wild action scene to the next.  From the group of characters introduced in the beginning of the story, every wild action eliminated at least one. . .and then after moving the action through the busy cities the remaining characters end up in the Florida Keys. Whew, what a ride!

Then, suddenly, the story relaxes and the action slows and there was time spent at admiring the scenery.  It’s almost like a little reading relaxation break in the warm sun and sand.  The author shares some interesting facts about the Florida Keys:
--The Dry Tortugas—the middle of nowhere and half way to nowhere else
--Eyebrow houses
--Stock Island
--A little presidential history—Harry Truman’s presidential winter home
--The Bait House
--The Seven Mile Bridge
--Fort Jefferson—largest brick masonry structure in the Americas

But don't get too comfortable and cozy, this lovely tour through the Keys does not last long.  Back to action the denouement begins and the story comes to a crashing end.  Two innocent bystanders end up being the good guys that bring this story to an end but not without that final twist. 

So, what about the main characters introduced in the beginning of the novel:  Serge, Coleman and Sharon. . .
--Are they still a team at the end of the caper?
--What happened to the money?
--Who are the innocent bystander good guys?  And will we ever see them again?

You have to read all the way to the end to find out-and that won’t take long.  Remember, it’s all about the money.  If I had to put the money on it, I would bet that this is not the last Dorsey novel you will read.

The Last Kind Words Saloon by Larry McMurtry (2014) 30/40

This is book #30 of my 2018 Reading Challenge sponsored by Goodreads.com.  I pledged to read 40 books.  To make a framework for the books I would read, I established a reading protocol early in the year to make book selection easy and organized.  Each book chosen for this challenge must fall into one of the following categories:

     1. Authors recommended by other readers (author must be new to me)
     2. Any recommendations by my fellow readers of our online mystery reading group established in 1993 on Prodigy
    3. The next book in a series I have been reading
    4. The next book in a series I have abandoned (in an attempt to revive my interest)
    5. A book that references a historic event or period that is not in my lifetime
    6. A book that references any historic event or biographs a famous person who lived in my lifetime.
    7. New mystery author with setting in USA.
    8. New mystery author with setting in western Europe.  

This novel satisfies Protocol #5.

The Last Kind Words Saloon by Larry McMurtry. (2014) 

I started off not liking this book at all.  I was unsure if I could really finish it.  Yes, I was ready to let this book just fade into the sunset on the Texas plains.  Then, I did two things:

·      I vowed to read it without comparing it to Lonesome Dove (Pulitzer Prize winner, Larry McMurtry, 1985 and my favorite novel of all time)

·      I started over with a change of heart and just read the book.

This McMurtry novel could almost be considered a sequel to Telegraph Days.(2007)  It has cowboys, historic cattle ranchers, gunfire and Nellie Courtwright who seems to show up everywhere.  She is now in this novel in Tombstone along with the popular characters  of the Wild West.  McMurtry actually uses Nellie to move the novel’s intent along and surprises us with the ending.  Thinking about the ending still gives me bittersweet angst. No Spoiler—you have to read it for yourself.

Despite the lukewarm reviews that the novel received from newspapers across the country (including The New York Times) McMurtry is quite transparent in the very beginning of the novel and describes the novel for what it is—a story or stories of “characters floating in time”.    The reviewers complaints of no clear story line or cohesiveness is not the intent of this novel.  In fact, the reader may just find him or herself floating through those last days of open frontier, predictable boom towns and a country growing. 

Here is what McMurtry says in his introduction:

The Last Kind Words Saloon is a ballad in prose whose characters are floating in time.  Their legends and their lives in history rarely match.  I had the great Director John Ford* in mind when I wrote this book.  He famously said that when you had to choose between history and legend, print the legend.  And so I have done.

Here are some of the characters that appear in this novel, some are connected, some are not:

Connected characters

Charles Goodnight, (born March 5, 1836, Macoupin County, Ill., U.S.—died Dec. 12, 1929), American cattleman, who helped bring law and order to the Texas panhandle.  He is known as “the father of the Texas Panhandle,  however, what might be more familiar is his invention of the food wagon—now fondly known as “Chuck Wagons”.  Lonesome Dove is loosely based on Charles Goodnight and Oliver Loving. 

Joseph “Ike” Clanton:   (1847-June 1, 1867)  One of the loose association of outlaws known as The Cowboys who clashed with Wyatt, Virgil and Morgan Earp and Doc Holliday.   When Wyatt and Jesse Earp and Doc Holliday arrive in Arizona, Wyatt felt that Ike Clanton was the only one in town (Tombstone) who would have any interest in shooting him.  Present at the gunfight at the OK Corral but survives.

Billy Clanton:  (1862-October 26, 1881)   William Harrison Clanton was an outlaw Cowboy in Chochise County, Arizona Territory.  He along with his father Newman Clanton and brother Ike Clanton worked a ranch near the boomtown of Tombstone, Arizona Territory and stole livestock from Mexico and later from US ranchers. Killed during the gunfight at the OK Corral.

Johnny Ringo:  (1850 – 1882) An American Old West outlaw loosely associated with the Cochise County Cowboys in frontier Tombstone, Cochise County, Arizona Territory, United States.   Main interest was “cards”.  He was involved in some business deals with Joseph “Ike” Clanton listed above.  He was not involved with the gunfight at the OK Corral.  He died at age 32, following bullet wound to right temple, possibly self-inflicted.  Wyatt Earp and Doc Holliday are investigated about Ringo’s death, but not charged.

 

Warren Baxter Earp:  (March 9, 1855 – July 6, 1900) Youngest brother of Wyatt Earp He set up the saloon in whatever town the Earps chose to occupy.  He carried the sign “The Last Kind Words Saloon”  from town to town. He was not present at the OK Corral when the famous gunfight occurred.  He was killed in a bar fight in Willcox, Arizona in 1900. 

Non-connected characters

Wild Bill Hickok

Buffalo Bill

General Sherman

Brief reference to Billy the Kid.

So in summary:

·      I finished the book.

·      It reads as a floating ballad of characters as promised. 

·      Short vignettes seem to be the pervasive style throughout the novel. 

Was there a symbolic message in the repetitive mention of HATS--maybe!

Hats described as driven by the wind in Long Grass and in Tombstone.  Was the cowboys' era being blown away? Or was it floating?  As this book ends, Nellie Courtwright shows up again, this time she goes to visit Jesse (Josephine) and Wyatt Earp in retirement in San Pedro, California. She decides to make the trip from LA in her new convertible.  She was not wearing a hat.  Should she have been wearing a hat it would certainly have been swirling with the wind.  McMurtry closes the novel with this trip symbolizing the end of the cowboys’ wild west era.   No hats allowed.

Favorite quote of the book:  

                 “Last time I rode into this town, it was full of Earps."

Check it out.

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*John Ford was an American film director.  He is renowned both for Westerns such as Stagecoach, The Searchers, and The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, as well as adaptations of classic 20th-century American novels such as the film The Grapes of Wrath. His four Academy Awards for Best Director remain a record. 

Thanks to Wikipedia for assisting me in lassoing all these cowboys and their place in wild west history.

Uncertain Voyage by Dorothy Gilman Book 31/40 of the 2018 Goodreads.com challenge

Uncertain Voyage  by Dorothy Gilman 1966.

An author’s therapy novel

Introduction:

This is book #31 of my 2018 Reading Challenge sponsored by Goodreads.com.  I pledged to read 40 books.  To make a framework for the books I would read, I established a reading protocol early in the year to make book selection easy and organized.  Each book chosen for this challenge must fall into one of the following categories:

     1. Authors recommended by other readers (author must be new to me)
     2. Any recommendations by my fellow readers of our online mystery reading group established in 1993 on Prodigy
    3. The next book in a series I have been reading
    4. The next book in a series I have abandoned (in an attempt to revive my interest)
    5. A book that references a historic event or period that is not in my lifetime
    6. A book that references any historic event or biographs a famous person who lived in my lifetime.
    7. New mystery author with setting in USA.
    8. New mystery author with setting in western Europe.  

This novel satisfies Protocol #4.

I became familiar with Dorothy Gilman by reading her Mrs Pollifax mystery/espionage series.  The series features a bored widow/grandmother who takes a part time job as a CIA operative, travels around the world and somehow avoids getting killed by the obvious state’s enemy

‘bad guys”.  She also raises geraniums and belongs to a garden club.  There is adventure, suspense and humor all rolled into one Mrs. Pollifax. 

Dorothy Gilman also wrote some stand-alone novels that included mystery, strong women facing all odds and surviving, but not as much humor as the Pollifax series.  Uncertain Voyage, published in 1966 and re-released in 1988. while presenting a good espionage story, in this review, I present the reasons I categorize this novel as the author’s “therapy novel”. 

Story Line—no spoilers

A newly divorced female (Melissa Aubrey), who married at age 16, leaves Massachusetts and takes an "around the western world" trip in attempt to find a new lease on life. She starts off on a cruise to Denmark, then her first plane flight to Paris and then onto Majorca.  She meets several men on this trip and she fantasizes each one as the new man in her life. Her trip begins with a cruise to Denmark.  She meets an interesting man but he merely asks her to deliver a book to someone in Majorca (her last stop) because he feels that someone is out to kill him. He is right; he dies on the ship.  She packs up the book and continues on her trip, paying more attention to finding some new man who will give her some feeling of usefulness, romance and bliss. In short, she is eager to fill the "emptiness"; a common feeling post-divorce.   In reality, she discovers that there are older men, boring men, married men and CIA agents who are interested in her.  The “man hunt” is not working out so well, and it becomes obvious to her that possessing that book is dangerous. And she is right.

Why do I call this a “therapy novel”?

In addition to the rather complex espionage spy story, Gilman spends a great deal of time focused around Melissa’s post-divorce depression.  Gilman intertwines this espionage story with Melissa’s understandable feelings of loss, and confusion particularly around the return to single life. This part of the novel goes around in a circle with no resolution or decisive action, and actually becomes burdensome.  This part of the novel mirrored a very personal experience and it was hard not to suspect that Dorothy was writing about her own reaction during her transitional year.  She divorced in 1965, one year before this book was published.

Common elements and behaviors during the post-divorce depression and healing transitional year present in this novel:

·       Melissa:

o   began to pay attention to the conversation she was having in her head.

o   sought out more human touch—she felt deserving of recognition and romance

o   demonstrated that strength is defined in many ways

o   faced her fears and began the fight to establish her new life

o   discovered that she is the only person she can control

o   accepted that there was no sure path to her new life

o   realized that dating is invigorating but being alone is also useful

o   resolved her anger and the impossible became possible--she learned to love herself

o   fantasized male attention as attraction and learned it was not that at all

The Ending

There are a few reviews that discussed the ending as weak.  I found the ending of this novel to be incredibly interesting.  Without a spoiler it is impossible to discuss here.  I will continue to search for more reviews of this novel especially discussions about the ending. At this point, I do not know what really happened at the end.  Would love to hear how other readers interpreted the end.

Without spoiling—I will offer that this novel reads like a Hitchcock movie.   I can easily see Audrey Hepburn as Melissa and Cary Grant as Adam.  It has a very “Charade” feel to it.  Overall, it has a nice blend of romance and espionage.  Both of these best known for being impossible to win.  

The Goodreads.com 2018 Reading Challenge Continues. . .

Standing in the Rainbow by Fannie Flagg (2002)  Book #28/40 in the Goodreads.com 2018 Reading Challenge.  Will I make it to Book 40/40 before December 31st???
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 As I have mentioned in earlier blogs, I signed up for the 2018 Reading Challenge promoted by Goodreads.com.  I have recently finished  another Fannie Flagg novel titled Standing in the Rainbow.  This is Book #28.  I am still 2 books behind schedule as determined by Goodreads.com, but the good news is that Goodreads has stopped sending me emails reminding me that I am behind.  I guess they gave up.  That was driving me crazy.

I made some limiting rules for this challenge making my book selection easier and more balanced.  Each book chosen for this challenge must fall into one of the following categories:

     1. Authors recommended by other readers (author must be new to me)
     2. Any recommendations by my fellow readers of our online mystery reading group established in 1993 on Prodigy
    3. The next book in a series I have been reading
    4. The next book in a series I have abandoned (in an attempt to revive my interest)
    5. A book that references a historic event or period that is not in my lifetime
    6. A book that references any historic event or biographs a famous person who lived in my lifetime.
    7. New mystery author with setting in USA.
    8. New mystery author with setting in western Europe.  

Standing in the Rainbow follows category #3.

This book was either a fast read, or maybe I just love reading Fannie Flagg books.  This is the second book in her Elmwood Springs series about growing up in a small Missouri town and the relationship between big and small towns in the Midwest.  It is also the story of big and small relationships, big and small issues and big and small characters. Magically, there is a section of this novel that pertains to every age group and life cycle. Depending on the age of the reader, each will find themselves in this novel.  As I am in the retirement age group, I particularly found the description of the transition away from family life (kids at home) and work responsibilities (daily grind) interesting, insightful and true.

I read this book this past weekend while in Hot Springs, Virginia.  Not the Midwest but a small town where I lived for two years in the early 80's.   I was there this week to attend the funeral of one of my favorite people on this planet.  I met her the first day I lived in Hot Springs, and over the past 35 years, she has remained one of the most wonderful friends I could have ever had.  We kept in touch, visited at reasonable intervals and I will miss her.  As this novel proves, we "never get that time back". 

Standing in the Rainbow by Fannie Flagg (2002)

There is no doubt that I am a first class Fannie Flagg fan.  Thinking I had read all of her books with the exception of the Christmas novel, I was pleasantly surprised that I had not read  "Standing in the Rainbow".   Once I got into this book, I wished I had read this book before her most recent novel, "The Whole Town's Talking".  Standing in the Rainbow is about the living cycle of a lifetime in the small Missouri town of Elmwood Springs. Every age group is standing in its own rainbow--has its own colorful characters, its own events, its own adventures and at some point, its own fade.   "The Whole Town's Talking" focuses on how towns change and are affected as generations die.

There were a lot of action, a lot of adventures going on and a lot of characters included in this novel.  Most critical issues good and bad, encountered in a lifetime are demonstrated in this novel.  Once again, as a Fannie Flagg guarantees that the action never ends.   At times its a bit difficult to keep everyone straight and who likes who and who is at odds, when and why.  But all the characters are engaging and it is hard to resist reading to the end even if it is just to know how they all turn out.  This novel clearly illustrates the wins and losses of life, the passing of the years that seem so long at the time, and then in retrospect, went so fast, the softening of differences and the realization that no one ever gets the time back.  That is the way life is and the way this story is told.  It is hard to put this book down.

Fannie Flagg's usual humor is found less often in this novel than the others.  But as a Missourian myself, I have to praise Fannie Flagg for so perfectly  portraying life in the Midwest.  We are generous and kind.  We are accustomed to and really good at creating our own drama.  As kids, we grow up dreaming of getting out of the Midwest and living in places that we imagine are more exciting. but then we get there and find out its just different.   And like people everywhere, we intend to "get together" or "visit" our friends after moving on.  But so rarely is there follow-through,  and many times the outcome is "that it is too late".

Several years ago I left Missouri and moved to the East Coast.  It has been brought to my attention many times that I "am so Midwestern".  I am guilty, and I would never have it any other way.  Maybe that is my Rainbow.  I loved this book.

Goodreads.com 2018 Reading Challenge Book 24/40 Looking for Salvation at the Dairy Queen.

I lived the Southwestern part of Virginia for 10 years of my adult life.  I absolutely love what American literature categorizes as “local color” that is still exhibited among Southern people, towns, and communities.  Upon leaving the South I took up reading the Fannie Flagg fiction novels just to remind me of those Southern days.  After reviewing a Fannie Flagg novel, Goodreads.com sent me an email suggestion that I take a look at author--Susan Gregg Gilmore.  By such good luck, I found Looking for Salvation at the Dairy Queen, Susan Gregg Gilmore's first novel.  Just the title that hinted a possibility of salvation at a Dairy Queen sparked my interest.  However, this novel demonstrated the comfortable joy of reading fiction novels set in the South that is more addictive than a Blizzard. There is no doubt that this novel fit that "comfortable joy" category for me. 

Plot synopsis but no spoilers:

So without spoilers (and there are a couple of shockers in this novel that you do not see coming) here is a quick synopsis:

The story is set in small town Georgia.  The narrator, Catherine Grace, is the older of two daughters of the town preacher.  Their mother died in a drowning accident when the girls were 6 and 2.  They have lived their entire childhood under the scrutiny that comes with being a preacher's child, but they cast their dreams far and away while eating Dilly Bars at the town Dairy Queen every Saturday afternoon.  The novel follows these two girls through school with the charmingly typical things that girls do included.  Catherine Grace graduates from high school and pursues her one dream of escaping a small town and making her mark in a big city.  She chooses to stay in the South and off she goes in a Greyhound bus to make that dream come true in a Big Southern City.  Her sister, Martha Ann, chooses to stay close to home and although she voiced an interest in dreaming like her older sister, once Catherine Grace leaves, Martha Ann pulls back and sticks where she feels much safer, and that is in the embrace of family and community in their town of Ringgold, Georgia.

A few Southern lessons:

Any non-Southern readers may benefit by a few lessons I learned while living in Virginia (and these lessons are all included throughout this novel.) 

1.  People in the South talk gently--so they have many wonderful sayings that communicate exactly what they are fixin' to tell you.  You will find some of those sayings in this novel--and you will love them.  

2.  There are two powerful forces in Southern towns and intrinsically in Southern people:  Family first and Community second.  No matter how far one travels from Southern roots, the roots will pull back and that pull never stops.  The "pull" is a strong element throughout Catherine Grace's dream, her move after high school and how she lives out her dream.

3.  Southern communities do not particularly like secrets.  If a member of the community tries to keep a secret, shame or no shame, he or she runs the risk of being villified as Southerners are story-tellers and they will fill in the blanks. But instead of secrecy there is transparency, the member is accepted, assisted and embraced in the community without a single objection.  Yes, Southerners prefer to be in the know and part of the action. 

4.  Once is never enough for Southerners.  The answer to every problem is to visit, and bring a casserole.  Not just once, but three or four times or until the next problem occurs and the casseroles move on to someone else.  These casseroles are a little high in calories, but they are so, so good.  There are several casserole events in this novel.  Don't miss them.

5.  Religion is very important to the Southern communities--it is how they come together and stay together.  One look at the Blue Ridge Mountains, I was sold.  It is truly God's Country.

Susan Gregg Gilmore writes with humor, strong story plot, lots of surprises, includes characters found in every Southern town and an obvious effort to extend the local color of the Southern life to a new generation of readers.  I recommend this book to any reader who wants to get comfortable and relax with a good book, not just at the beach but in any season. 

Favorite quote in the book: 

Chapter 2 when Catherine Grace and Martha Ann are talking about their memories of their mother, (which are few, since they were so young when their mother drowned):

     "It's funny how you can take just one memory of someone and create a lifetime of feelings and attachments."

Not a complaint--just distraction:

If I had one thing that distracted me while reading this book it is the name of the narrator--Catherine Grace.  I actually went to school with a Catherine Grace through high school at which time she took off to follow her dream of living in another part of the country.  The girl in this novel had an eerie likeness in character to my classmate. After many years, my classmate did feel the pull and she did come back to a class reunion, and then again to see the total solar eclipse last summer, but did not come back to stay. 

I learned to “can” while living in the south.  Yes, Southerners are experts at “putting up” tomatoes, green beans, strawberry jam, peach preserves, etc.  I would have loved to have seen the strawberry jam recipe that Catherine Grace and Martha Ann used included in this novel. I lost mine when I moved--it substituted red wine for some of the sugar.   Sound familiar, anyone???? 

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