Post # 97 June 24, 2024

 Quote for the Day: "There are few places in the contiguous United States more remote and less hospitable or, to the lover of wild places, more starkly and supremely beautiful." William Ashworth describing the Keweenaw Peninsula in The Late Lake Great Lakes. 1987.

Reviews

The Last Huck by J.D. Austin

This slim novel is remarkable for several reasons. It's a first novel of great maturity, written with immense confidence, and portrays family dynamics with touching honesty. The author first set foot in the U.P. in 2019 but writes of the peninsula as if his family has spent generations within the land washed by Lake Superior. The Keweenaw Peninsula is engrained in the characters lives, memories, and seemingly their DNA. 

Brothers Jakob and Niklas Kinnunen and nephew Peter, who is treated like a third brother, grew up together on their family's berry farm on the Keweenaw Peninsula. They idealized their childhood and the rugged but beautiful Keweenaw area. When their uncle died, he willed the three boys his 40-acre fruit farm. Niklas and Peter settled in Milwaukee and Jacob is serving an eight-year stretch in the Northern Michigan Penitentiary. Peter and Niklas don't head to the Keweenaw often, but they take great pride and comfort that it's there and theirs. Peter is married, laid off and is shattered when he learns his son has Leukemia. Peter calls Niklas and suggests they sell the old farm so he can pay medical bills with his share of the sale.

Niklas is adamantly against selling the land but agrees to go north with Peter in hopes of talking him out of selling. The heart of the novel is the long weekend Niklas and Peter spend in the Keweenaw where they recall their childhood amid a land that continues to call them back, and if you are a Yooper, you are never a stranger. They continue to argue over the sale even as they long for the past and a return to it. The argument over the sale makes each of them re-evaluate their friendship and themselves. Even the minor characters spring whole from the page with lines like, "You know my whole damn life I been waiting for tomorrow. But den I wake up and its always today!"

Memorable whether in setting, character, theme, plot, or simply the magic that pours forth from Austin's keyboard.

The Last Huck by J.D. Austen. Modern History Press, 2024, 189p., $21.95.

Soldiers Untold: Biographies of Civil War Soldiers from Wyandotte, Michigan by Martin N. Bertera & Mary-Johna M. Wein

This unique book, which was never meant to be a book, presents Civil War buffs a fascinating mosaic comprised of the lives and service of over 140 Civil War veterans. They have one other commonality besides taking up arms to preserve the Union. They lived in Wyandotte, Michigan either before or after the war. Each soldier's birth, death, place of birth, marriage, unit in which he served, and their final resting place. The brief biography records wounds, death by combat or illness during the war. Many of the short biographies contain photographic portraits.  The most interesting contain short contemporary accounts describing his unit's action in a specific battle or a brief account of a unit in camp, on the march, or receiving medical care. William Wells was wounded at Gettysburg and the typical medical procedure for amputating a leg is told in detail. He died from his wound.

Flipping through the book surprised me by the number of soldiers who were born in Europe and the many pre-war occupations ranging from day laborers, to blacksmiths, farmers, boatmen, clerks, musicians, and a variety of other jobs. Taken as a whole the 140-plus Civil War veterans here probably make a fair cross section of the Union men-at-arms. Except, of course, the many Black soldiers who also served the Union cause.

Previous to this book the city of Wyandotte did not have a list of its Union soldiers. The authors original goal was to create a master list and be done with it. But they became drawn to collecting more information on the veterans, started a bibliography, and researched the men's ancestry. What began as maybe a few articles, grew into a pamphlet, and swelled to book length. They ended up contacting some 700 relatives of the 140+ men in the book and the authors were repeatedly asked about a book they never meant to publish.  Ultimately they decided to publish the book and donate all proceeds to the Wyandotte Historical Society. Because the authors never intended any eyes but theirs to view their work accounts for some obvious amateur publishing mistakes. These include no title page, a few historical mistakes, and typos. But that takes nothing away from the authors' dedication to research or the result of their accomplishment. 

 

Soldiers Untold: Biographies of Civil War Soldiers from Wyandotte, Michigan by Martin N. Bertera & Mary-Johna M. Wein. Independently Published, 2024, 275p., $15.

We Live Here: Detroit Eviction Defense and the Battle for Housing Justice by Jeffrey Wilson and Bambi Kramer

This powerful graphic book is the story of the other Detroit. Not the glamourous, highly touted creation of a new downtown by millionaires and billionaires into a tourist attraction, the home of pricey corporate headquarters, and multi professional sports venues. This book is about the Detroit in which Black homeowners are saddled with subprime inflated mortgage rates and preyed upon by lending institutions who would rather evict them than restructure a loan. Or, the homeowner falls behind in city property taxes. Wayne County buys the delinquent taxes and makes millions in profit by charging an extra fee for collecting them. In either case if eviction is initiated the homeowner becomes a victim of a process aided and abetted by the legal system.

Eight families tell their stories of being threatened with imminent eviction when they couldn't pay their mortgages because of illness, loss of a job, a reduction in government assistance, or other legitimate reasons. They explored every legal and reasonable method to stop the eviction and found they were powerless. Banks  and/or mortgage companies, courts, and speculators simply refused to work with them. A bank told one family a loan modification was reasonable. When the family paid their next payment the bank sent it back and told them not to make more payments while a a loan modification was in the process. The next thing they heard from the bank was an eviction notice for non payment of their mortgage. 

The eight families felt powerless to save their homes but stubbornly failed to give up and contacted the Detroit Eviction Defense group (DED). The group simply doesn't know how to quit. They picket banks, flood court hearings, court publicity, pack yards so foreclosures can't be served, and park so many cars on a street dumpsters can't be dropped off. The last is usually the point at which an eviction can't be halted. The DED has stopped close to a hundred evictions. An afterword tells how speculators buy tax foreclosure houses at an auction for an average of $1,300 and in one typical case a speculator tried to sell the house back to the former owners for $40,000.  When the former owners turn the outrageous offer, the speculator then tried to rent their home to them at above market prices. The latter is a major factor for why in a city where Black homeowners used to vastly outnumber Black renters those numbers have been have been turned upside down. This is a powerful, moving, and blistering account of the  gross unfairness suffered by Black homeowners in Detroit. 

The book was drawn (literally) from a doctoral dissertation. The author didn't want his work buried in a university library. He wanted to inform the public why Black ownership of homes is literally under attack in Detroit and its effect on a city that once lead the nation in Black homeownership.

We Live Here: Detroit Eviction Defense and the Battle for Housing Justice by Jeffrey Wilson and Bambi Kramer. Seven Stories Press, 2024, 238p., $16.95. 

U.P. Reader : Bringing Upper Michigan Literature to the World Vol. 8 Editors Deborah  K . Frontiera and Mikal B. Classen

Every year it's the same. The U.P. Reader arrives in the mail. I unwrap it, crack the cover, and wait for literary lightning to strike. Thumbing back to front it is the last poem on the last page entitled "River Gypsy" by Edd Tury describing the St. Mary's Rapids that literally leaps off the page like a clap of thunder:

The morning fog lingers calmly over the boil,

serene mists blanket holy chaos,

muffles the ten-thousand-year roar that argues its way to the sky.

It's not only the heart-stopping image that moves me. It's that the poet has let the reader share the same awe and breathtaking experience the First People, Father Marquette and countless more down through history experienced when encountering the rapids. 

Nina L. Craig's essay entitled "Rootedness" recalls the unique little diners that used to be found in nearly every small town strung along U.S. 2. All of which seemed to feature "hot roasted turkey sandwiches...and real mashed potatoes." She captures the smells, ambience, and how strangers and tourists were given the once over by the regulars. And of course: "The coffee has to be good or nothing else will work." I'm old enough to remember those diners and lament their passing only to be replaced by identically cloned fast-foot drive thru franchises. 

Not to be missed is "All Customers Great and Small" by Nancy Besonen a retired postal clerk who delivered mail to two U.P. towns I had to find on a map. She reflects on her 20 years delivering mail and describes the characters she met daily. She calls them, "a bunch of woofers." They were dogs who obviously didn't get mail, resented it and, "went for me, instead." She says even doggy treats didn't modify their disappointment. When an old toothless chihuahua that, "had the jaws of a bear trap," went for her ankle it took a snow shovel to save her from being a "mail lady who was accessorizing with an aged chihuahua." 

I was delighted to find a short story by award-winning author Hilton Moore. Moore has created his own fictional town in a remote corner of the U.P. called Nelson where his stories are set. The characters are quirky but very real, they are always emotionally involving, and the stories often spin off in unusual directions. Nelson frequently proves to be the downfall of clergy. Moore's stories are always singularly entertaining. The same can be said for the story of the first profession hockey team and hockey league, both of which were born in the U.P. Among my many other favorites was the loving remembrance of a grandmother's cooking and her hand-written recipe for made-from-scratch apple pie on a worn index card dating to 1951.

These annual collections of poems, essays, and stories are great guides to the U.P. A travel guide will tell you how to get to Grand Marais or Crystal Falls and what to see but this and earlier U.P Readers will take you where no road map can -- into its culture, social history, and character. And there isn't a page in this book that won't make you smile, inspire, laugh, cry, or ponder. When you pick up this book you're holding a guide to the soul of a unique place and people. 

U.P. Reader: Bringing Upper Michigan Literature to the World V0l. 8 edited by Debora K. Frontiera and Mikel B. Classen. Upper Peninsula Publishers and Authors Association, 2024, 181p., $19.95.

 

 

Post # 96 May 27, 2024

Quote for the Day: "In these days when patriotic chambers of commerce label every whistle-stop the gateway to something or other, St. Ignace is with daring originality hailed as the 'Gateway to the North.' " John Voelker. The Troubler-shooter. 1943.

Reviews

The Unsolved Mysteries of Father Marquette's Many Graves by Jennifer S. McGraw 

The last time I was in St. Ignace I stood in front of a monument marking Father Marquette's final resting place. After reading this book it seems doubtful the remains of the famous Jesuit explorer and missionary were under the monument. 

It is pretty much an indisputable fact that Father Marquette, on returning from exploring the Mississippi River with Louis Joliet, died near present day Ludington on May 18, 1675, and was buried there with a wooden cross marking his grave. Two years later a group of Native Americans dug up his bones and carried them to St. Ignace where they were laid to rest under the St. Ignace de Michilimackinac mission church. In 1877 a wealthy St. Ignace landowner while clearing a piece of his property of brush and trees exposed what turned out to be the foundation of an ancient building as well as evidence of early French occupation including Jesuit rings. More digging unearthed birch bark pieces and bone fragments. It was assumed Father Marquette's tomb had been discovered. News spread and it became open season for anyone to dig in the area. One man came across 39 bone fragments and turned them over to the Catholic priest who was charged with determining if Father Marquette's burial site had been discovered. Ultimately it was decided it was Marquette's grave. Some of the bones were buried once again, others were sent to Marquette University and some were even given away to individuals. 

A hundred years later archeologists studying St. Ignace's early French period and digging near the Jesuit mission church area concluded the bones under the monument site were not Marquette's they weren't even human. They were animal bones. The author has done a fine job of describing the the efforts in 1877 to determine if indeed Father Marquette's burial site had been discovered, and the scientific tools and methods used by archeologists a century later to conclude his grave had yet to be discovered. This slim book presents a concise and absorbing account of Father Marquette's extraordinary life and travels in the Great Lakes and the current confusion and debate over his final resting place. The book also contains a brief but fascinating history of the Jesuit missionaries in the Midwest. This is a great little book on early Michigan history and was picked as a U. P. Notable Book.

The Unsolved Mysteries of Father Marquette's Many Graves by Jennifer S. McGraw. Pine Stump Publications, 2022, 137p., $16.95.

Victorian Southwest Michigan True Crime by Michael Delaware

This collection of true stories of murder and mayhem from the southwestern corner of the state during the Victorian Era reveals an entirely different side of what is generally considered a genteel and refined society. But maybe I've been brainwashed by two seasons of the Gilded Age on HBO. The often astonishing murders recounted in this book and the obvious absence of morality are chilling. 

There is the mother of three who poisoned her children because the man she wanted to marry didn't want the burden of caring for children. Then there's the twice divorced man who who went to a state home for orphans and adopted a ten-year-old girl who he planned to marry when she was old enough. On the way home with his newly adopted daughter he realized the impossibility of marry a young woman the public would come to know as his daughter so he killed and raped her before  reaching home. The author thoroughly but concisely covers the main and most interesting aspects of the murder from introducing the major characters, the police investigation, the trial and imprisonment. The book provides an interesting glimpse into the darker side of Victorian life and the customs and living conditions of the ordinary Michigan citizen during the era. Arsenic proved to be a popular mode of  dispatching victims. Fathering a illegitimate child was known as Bastardy and living with a lover and not being married was call "improper intimacy." The condition, treatment, and protection in which orphans were treated was shocking.

Photographs and maps enhance the well-written narrative. Aficionados of true crime books or those interested in the darker side of Michigan history will devour this book.

Victorian Southwest Michigan True Crime by Michael Delaware. History Press, 2024, 188p., $24.95.

yooper poetry: On Experiencing Michigan's Upper Peninsula edited by Raymond Luczak

When creating this blog it never crossed my mind I would have to read and review poetry. A high school English class taught me to avoid poetry. This sixteen-year-old was presented with and graded on poems so far over my head they could have been commercial airlines at cruising altitude. They left a contrail as they passed overhead but I could only guess at their destinations. It is through this blog and books of poetry like this wonderful collection of poems by Yoopers that has created an appreciation for poetry. 

First, kudos to the editor for selecting strikingly unique poems from nineteen talented poets that together capture all aspects of living in the U.P. The poems describe the cultural uniqueness of the area as well as celebrating the remarkable landscape that help shape the culture. There are poems on copper and iron mining, towns and villages, crossing the Straits before Big Mac was built, education, and a bus ride through the U.P. with the driver singing an Iggy Pop song. Turning to the natural world poems describe the landscape, the changing of seasons, wildlife and all things U.P. including Rutabagas.  

On my first thumbing through the book, I found it addictive. Who can resist reading poems entitled "Bigfoot and Jim Harrison Skinny Dip in Morgan Pond on Father's Day," or "Olson Bros. Waste Management," and "A Union Soldier Drifts in His Canoe Toward Lake Superior Shore," or its last sentence which reads, "He knows his prayer is only whiskey once drunk in a tin cup at Sharpsburg." And the title to end all titles, "Portrait of Virgin Mary as Skunk." As a collector of great sentences, I'm adding "She was pressed into a private school teaching Grammar, the sticky stuff of sentences," to my list. I could wear a trail on the pages as I read and reread these memorable poems about Michigan's peninsula north of the bridge.

 

yooper poetry: On Experiencing Michigan's Upper Peninsula edited by Raymond Luczak. Modern History Press, 2024, 155p., $19.95.

Lumberjack: Inside an Era in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan by William S. Crowe

Seventeen-year-old William Crowe stepped ashore in Manistique on May 29, 1893 at the height of lumbering in the U.P. He quickly found a job with a lumber company and lived the rest of his life in Manistique. In 1952 he published a book about his life in Manistique and described in colorful detail his eyewitness account of the white pine era of the late 1890s through the early 1900s in Manistique and the U.P. Two of his grand daughters have reprinted a 70th Anniversary edition of the book with the addition of many historic photographs, a short biography of their grandfather, and a glossary. 

The book is a significant primary source of early Manistique history and captures in great detail the lumber industry and the life of lumberjacks at the height of lumbering in the U.P. The book is filled with simply staggering numbers. For instance, the mills in Manistique worked 24-hours a day and cut 100 million board feet of lumber a year. Or, logs cut in Seney, 125 miles by river from Manistique, could take as long as 3 - 5 years to reach the mills. In a year the mills produced $40 million worth of of lumber and $4 million worth of sawdust. The young man who stepped off the boat in 1893 landed an office job in a lumber company. The five workers in the office kept track of 1,500 employees on the payroll, kept the company's books, in addition to the books of the telephone and railroad company. And did it without carbon paper, card indexes, vertical files, or calculators. The author also wrote of the skills and dangerous work of the lumberjacks both out in the tall timber and driving the logs down river.

The book also offers an authentic portrait of life in Marquette in the Gay 90s. Crowe gives a virtual tour of 1893 Manistique as he remembers it. It is hard to believe that as late as the 1890s the town was cut off from the world for four months each winter, except for weekly mail that arrived by snowshoe from Escanaba. The author stresses it was the age of strong family life, a multitude of fraternal orders that were well attended, bicycling was highly popular, and cows were allowed to wander Manistique's streets. In the winter sleight rides and barn dances were popular.

This memoir is a significant contribution to the history of both Manistique and lumbering industry in the U.P

Lumberjack: Inside an Era in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan by William S. Crowe. Modern History Press, 2024, 131p., $21.95.

Post # 95 April 25, 2024

 Quote for the day: "The misunderstanding runs very deep, as deep as the name itself: Great Lakes. In no conventional sense are these lakes, ... they are something else, something separate and unique and wonderful." William Ashworth. The Late Great Lakes. 1987.

News and Views has a complete list of the 2024 Michigan Notable Books

Reviews

Sailing the Sweetwater Seas: Wooden Boats and the Ships on the Great Lakes 1817 - 1940 by George D. Jepson.

First of all I must tip my hat to the publisher. From page layout and design including the prolific use and presentation of old photographs, maps, the reproduction of countless paintings and draftsmen's outboard profiles and deck plans of various Great Lake vessels this book is a gorgeous piece of work. And the lively narrative chronicling the history and development of wooden vessels that turned the Great Lakes into a vast and important commercial highway compliments if not inspired this superb example of book production.

The author credits the opening of the Erie Canal in 1825 for the boom in schooner production throughout the Great Lakes which in turn spurred lakeside villages to become port towns. Before railroads reached the Midwest schooners literally peopled the Great Lakes territories and states with immigrants then shipped all manner of goods and products to and from the new or growing communities. The author describes schooners as"... the eighteen-wheelers of their day." The author vividly describes both what makes a schooner a schooner and life abroad a commercial Great Lakes schooner.  Subsequent chapters recount the development of steam-powered commercial carriers and the introduction late in the 1800s of wooden bulk carriers that reached the extraordinary length of 300 feet. There is a lengthy chapter on the Truscott Boat Manufacturing Company of Grand Rapids and later St Joseph.  It was the first major manufacturer of wooden pleasure boats. It sold a wide variety of pleasure craft from 16' to more than 50' throughout the country. The book closes with a surprising chapter on Dan Seavey a Great Lakes pirate and a last chapter covers the memorable life and exploits of  a Great Lakes sailor who died in in 2018 at the age 103.

There is not a boring page in the book. The author brings sailing on the Great Lakes alive with countess human interest stories that compliment his historical narrative. And scattered throughout the book are stand alone essays and historical excerpts such as the account by Charles Dicken's sailing on Lake Erie 1842, or the detailed loss of a schooner and the archeological diver who dove its remains, There is a historical account of the remarkable voyage of the first recreational powerboat on Lake Superior, and many more arresting stories. Any reader fascinated by the Great Lakes or even mildly interested in its maritime history will lose themselves in this wonderful book. 

Sailing the Sweetwater Seas: Wooden Boats and Ships on the Great Lakes, 1817 - 1940 by George D. Jepson. Sheridan House, 2023,178p., $45.

The Great Lakes: Fact or Fake? by Dave Dempsey

This simple idea for a book on the Great Lakes is fun to read, filled with surprising information, and debunks often widely held beliefs about the lakes that simply aren't true. The book's simple format begins with a statement such as on page one that reads, "The Great Lakes have tides" The author researches the statement then labels it Fact or Fake. But it is the author's summation of the research that makes the book so interesting.

 

In the above statement about tides the author reveals the lakes rise and fall to the gravitational pull of the Moon and Sun a measly 2 inches. But of special interest is that high water levels occasionally occur when high winds pile up water on one side of the lake as high as 22 feet and then the wave surges back across the lake. They can cause fatalities and are are called seiches. There is also an event called meteotsunamis in which storms cause atmospheric pressure changes that can cause waves up to 20 feet high. In 1929 a meteotsunamis killed ten in Grand Haven and  in 2003 seven  were killed in Berrien County. Who would have guessed Michigan could be hit by a tsunamis? Then there is the absolutely stunning facts such as a drop of water in Lake Superior takes 202.7 years to reach the Atlantic Ocean. On the other hand my favorite bit of nonsense concerning the Great Lakes are the websites with pictures of whales in Lakes Superior and Michigan. Supposedly there is even a Whale Watching station on Beaver Island. Every now and then I go to the websites just for a laugh and am surprised anyone would have taken whale watching on the Great Lakes as a fact. 

If you want to know if the Great Lakes shelter a fish that is bigger than the average man or woman, whether some Great Lakes fish are on Prozac, or if the Great Lakes contain the loneliest place in North America you will have to pick up this entertaining and painlessly readable book. 

The Great Lakes: Fact or Fake? by Dave Dempsey. Mission Point Press, 2023, 133p., $16.95.

The Big Water: A History of Michigan's Lower Au Sable River by Thomas A. Buhr.

Jumping to conclusions has landed me in hot water more than once. This time it was a first, the cold waters of the Au Sable. I was sure this book was a history of fishing the world famous trophy waters of the Au Sable stretching roughly from Mio to Lake Huron. Nope. There's a lot about fishing here, but the essence of this fine book is an in-depth local history of the Au Sable Valley area from prehistoric times to the present. The book covers a lot of ground and is full of arresting historical detail, and a great example of local history at its best.

The narrative begins with the first people to arrive in the area who hunted the large game there, including wooly mammoths, as the last ice age receded. It concludes in the present century and the concerted environmental efforts to improve the health of the river and creation of new trout fly-fishing lures to land the wily 20+ inch lunkers of the Big Water. In between the first and last chapter the history of the area unfolds highlighted by the excellent use of primary source material to help bring historical events fully alive and tell great stories that reaffirm the uniqueness of the area. Such as the story of the first survey team to penetrate the area in which trees were so thick they had difficulty finding their way and ran up against an half-a-mile-wide wind wall of downed white pine that defied crossing. A rescue party was dispatched to find the group. Or, the story of the CCC camps in the 1920s that reforested the lumbered our area and included young Joe Lewis. Known as a promising fighter the camp organized a fight that drew hundreds. Joe was knocked out. There is the famous fly fisherman who tied his own flies with Model T coil wire.  There's the case of conspicuous consumption in an 1874 account of a fishing trip to the Au Sable in which 120 pounds of Grayling where killed and salted one day and 120 addition pounds the next.  Grayling were gone from the river in a decade. Lastly, in 1927 a 75-car KKK caravan toured the Au Sable Valley and national forest. And these are only a sampling.

The mix of a fine narrative that consistently holds your attention and is filled with attention grabbing facts and stories is a great formula for telling the generally unknown local history of  one of Michigan's famous natural attracts. This book is a prefect example that good history is good storytelling. 

The Big Water: A History of Michigan's Lower Au Sable River by Thomas A. Buhr. Mission Point Press, 2023, 291p., $16.95.

Killer Women of Michigan by Tobin T. Buhk

With the exception of the first chapter the author proves to have an extraordinary eye for sifting through countless cases of women who were convicted of murder from the post-Civil War years to the 1990s and unearthing singularly interesting killers and cases. Throughout the book the author focuses on why the women committed or was an accomplice to murder. The victims usually were husbands, lovers, children or step children. The first chapter covers the 34 women who served life sentences from 1866 to 1925 which corresponds to the period when women serving life imprisonment did so in the Detroit House of Correction. Each of their stories is covered in a paragraph or two. The following chapters focus on in-depth descriptions of the killer or killers and why the murder and convictions was of special interest.

The accounts that really grabbed my attention were the ones that bordered on the weird. Like the woman who was convicted of killing her three children and was sent to Jackson State Prison where she became a housekeeper for the wardens and cared for their children. Then there was the cop who put a sheet over his head and played the ghost of the murdered husband. When the "ghost" accused the wife of his murder she confessed. And finally there was the woman who strangled her husband, dragged the body to a bed and went for a walk. When she returned she worked a crossword puzzle and fell asleep. Awaking she cut up her late husband, and loaded him piece by piece into the back seat of her car. She wanted to bury him in Kentucky but the car broke down in Toledo and the mechanic couldn't fix what he found in the back seat. Back in Michigan she observed that killing her man proved to be "the best medicine for her recurring migraines."

Each reader will surely find their own favorites among the weird, tragic, surprising, sad, and unusual but always interesting accounts of Michigan's real femme fatales.

Killer Women of Michigan by Tobin T. Buhk. History Press, 2024, 173p., $24.95.

Post # 94 March 25, 2024

 Quote for the day: "The story of how the Upper Peninsula finally became a part of Michigan must have made the angels weep. And doubtless also giggle.  John Voelker in a "Forward" to They Left their Mark by John Burt. 1985.

Reviews

Grim Paradise: The Cold Case Search for the Mackinac Island Killer by Rod Sadler.

On July 23, 1960, the widow Francis Lacey accompanied by her daughter, her son-in-law Wesley, and his sister arrived for a weekend on Mackinac Island. Wesley's mother had rented a cabin on the west end of the island and invited everyone to stay with her. Francis decided to rent a room in a hotel in the village and said she would walk to the cabin the next morning. On Saturday the 24th she never reached the cabin. As the day wore on her family became worried and finally notified the police she was missing. The village on Mackinac Island had a three-man police force and the Michigan State Police assigned three officers to the island every summer.  The local officers combed the village looking for anyone who had seen Mrs. Lacey the morning of the 24th while the State Police organized large search parties that combed the island. It was four days before her body was discovered. She had been raped and strangled. Francis Lacey's killer was never found. 

Rod Sadler is a retired law enforcement officer who turned to writing and is an award-winning author of an earlier true-crime book. This exhaustive history of the search for Mrs. Lacey's killer could be his second award-winning book. Over twenty State Police officers were sent to the island in search of the killer. Their task was daunting. Thousands had been on the island on that weekend and most of them had headed home before the body was discovered. The killer also had four days to leave the island. The author recounts the work of the police in meticulous detail.  They followed hundreds of tips and interviewed and investigated numerous persons of interest without results. The author explains in detail the scientific methods employed in the mid 1960s in solving murders and the dramatic advancements made since then. A reader can't but be impressed by the dedication and dogged pursuit of the killer by police as the months and years go by. When tips came in twenty years after the murder they were tracked down and thoroughly investigated.  

In a conclusion the author does suggest a suspect that escaped attention but is beyond reach because he died in jail several years ago. And although DNA has been employed to nail killers in cold case murders it can't be used to try and find Francis Lacey's killer. In 1976 all the evidence collected in the case was moved to long-term storage and presently can't be found.  In short this is a relentlessly readable book.

Grim Paradise: The Cold Case Search for the Mackinac Island Killer by Rod Sadler. Wild Blue Press, 2023, 332p., $13.99 pb.

Michigan Scoundrels: Rogues, Rascals and Rapscallions by Norma Lewis.

I would love to know how the author went about selecting her subjects for inclusion in this book. And furthermore, how she decided to include Dr. John Harvey Kellogg, of Kellogg cereal fame, in the book alongside the likes of the bomber of the Bath school, the Black Legion and James Jesse Strang. Well, I suppose any man who underwent a circumcision by Dr. Kellogg who performed them without anesthesia as a way of punishing his patient for presumed self-abuse as a child might agree to his inclusion. Jim Bakker was convicted of mail and wire fraud for bilking his worshipful TV audience out of their hard-earned money and was sentenced to 45 years in prison. He was paroled after 5 years and was soon back on the boob tube selling a cure for Covid 19 to viewers. Which should make his parole board worthy of inclusion in the book. Whatever the author used as a benchmark for inclusion, the result is a captivating collection of miscreants ranging from TV evangelists to heartless murderers.

The author is an accomplished writer with a sly sense of humor that is much appreciated. She devotes an average of six pages to each subject and crams those pages full of provocative information. A fine example is the chapter on the Black Legion that rose to power in Michigan in the 1930s and was more vicious than the KKK. The Legion hated Blacks, Jews, Unions, immigrants, and fraternal organizations.  It was estimated they were 300,000 strong in Michigan in the mid 1930s and members included elected officials, and even police. In a large part, they grew their organization by taking unsuspecting men to a Legion meeting then holding a gun to their heads and threatening death if they didn't swear an oath to the group and then were told they would be killed if they broke the oath. This was not an idle threat. One member was killed for not divorcing his Catholic wife. Another member chased an unlucky Black man, who happened to be at the wrong place at the wrong time and gunned him down because he wanted to know how it felt to kill a Black man. The Legion is credited with murdering at least 50 men but the number is probably much higher because they staged many murders to look like suicides.  

I have two complaints. The brief chapters made for great reading, but the characters were so fascinating I wished for more pages on each and every one. Secondly, based on who the author collected between the covers of this slim volume it could have easily been twice as long. Ms. Lewis owes readers a second volume filled with more characters based on her criteria.  In short, the author leaves you wanting more and that is the mark of a very good book.

  

Michigan Scoundrels: Rogues, Rascals and Rapscallions by Norma Lewis. History Press, 2023, 123p., $23.99.

Roadkill Justice by Terri Martin

This is the author's third book of short stories featuring a cast of engaging, strikingly unique, and amusing characters living on the ragged edge of normality in a remote corner of the U.P. Once again, the stories are stitched together by a main character's you-are-there narration of her trials and tribulations, many of which are the result of her own foibles.

Nettie Bramble lives with her mom in a primitive cabin. No electricity, no running water and that's the way Nettie's mom likes it. There is a running battle throughout the book over the issue of modernization, as if they could afford it. Nettie's brother-in-law owns and operates a sewage pump truck and fancies himself a skilled jack of all trades. He offers to do much of the plumping and electrical work when in reality he couldn't screw in a light bulb.  The other running storyline is based on Nettie's refusal to buy hunting and fishing licenses which results in constantly running afoul of Wildlife Officer Ketchum. 

Poor Nettie can't help outwitting herself and when she can't pay a fine, she is sentenced to public service at the Gnarly Woods Senior Complex. She finds herself teamed with Miss Bea Righteous (the lead character in the author's previous book) in running the annual Prom Bomb Dance which went fairly well until the band played the Hokey Pokey with disastrous results. The best piece in the book covers the running of the Road Rage Rally in which Nettie drives her brother-in-law's sewage truck. Bea and friends compete in an electric car, and Tami and Evi who own the Wikiup Wine & Fudge Shop, who also appeared in an earlier book, drive a truck their husbands put together from spare parts. 

When you need a break from politics, famine, wars, and climate change pick up this silly, funny, amusing, absurd, and delightful antidote to the afore mentioned.

Roadkill Justice by Terri Martin. Modern History Press, 2023, 146p., $19.95.

Chagon and the Vision Quest: A Native American Novel by Larry Buege

This captivating YA novel immerses the reader in Ojibway life and culture through a twelve-year-old boy's life and adventures. The novel is set in the Upper Peninsula near the shore of Lake Superior nearly 1,500 years before Europeans set foot on North America. The narrator is  Chogan and through him we learn of the long ago, everyday life in an Ojibway village and a serious threat to its very existence.

His village depends on wild rice to survive winters when it is much harder to hunt or snare animals and summer's edible plants are gone. The village faces a winter food shortage and possible starvation when a storm wipes out the year's wild rice crop. Chogan's grandfather hopes a long journey to the Winnebago and trading for corn can replace the wild rice. Chagon and his sister accompany the traders because it is hoped that seeing children in their party the Winnebago will know they come in peace. The trip involves crossing the U.P., building canoes, and then a long voyage down another long and dangerous huge body of water. It is all a great adventure to Chagon. But the Ojibway find the Winnebago had a poor corn crop and the traders don't return with enough to feed their village through the winter. Back home Chagon is of the age to leave the village and go days without food in a vision quest as his entry into adulthood. When winter comes villagers slowly weaken and start to suffer from scurvy. It is up to Chagon to attempt a two-day slog in the depths of winter to a village where a medicine woman may have a cure for his villagers' illness.

What makes this such a fine book is as readers helplessly fall under the spell of Chagon's adventures and come to know him they vicariously experience life as it was lived in the U.P. in 100 A.D. It is also a major reason why the Chagon novels (this is the fifth in the series) are probably as popular with adults as YAs. As an added plus the author has inserted six websites in the novel where readers can go to learn more about the Winnebago, scurvy and other subjects pertinent to the novel. Clearly the author's commitment to the amount of research necessary to write with such authenticity marks this book and the series as a labor of love. 

Chogan and the Vision Quest: A Native American Novel by Larry Buege. Gastropod Publishing, 2024, 148p., $14.95pb.

 

 

 Post # 93 February 26, 2024

Quote for the Day: "In this uncertain climate the hopes of the eager watcher for spring are doomed to many and many a disappointment." Bela Hubbard. Memorials of a Half-Century in Michigan and the Lakes Region. 1888.

Reviews

His Sword A Scalpel: General Charles Stuart Tripler MD, USA. Jack Dempsey, ed.

The Civil War ended more than a 150 years ago and an estimated 60,000 books have been written about it. Even with that many books on the subject the Michigan Civil War Association shows it is still a fertile ground to plow by writers and researchers. This is the first biography of an army doctor who was instrumental in organizing and building the medical wing of the Army of the Potomac. 

Charles Stuart Tripler was born in 1806 in New York, graduated medical school in 1827, went to West Point and was commissioned an assistant surgeon in 1830. He served in various posts including Detroit where he met his wife and made Michigan his home. He was a distinguished battlefield surgeon in the Mexican-American War and just prior to the Civil War wrote A Manual of the Medical Officer of the Army of the United States and Hand-Book of the Military Surgeon. Both books proved to be indispensable to the influx of doctors with no experience as battlefield surgeons or the general campground duties of a regimental doctor. The Battle of Bull Run proved the medical service incapable of caring for the wounded. Days after McLellan was handed the reins to the Army of the Potomac Tripler was ordered to Washington and appointed Medical Director of the Army of the Potomac.

I found this well-written book endlessly interesting because it describes an aspect of the war I have read little about. I was especially fascinated by the description of Triplet's gargantuan task of reorganizing the Army of Potomac's medical forces. This ranged from redesigning ambulances, to accrediting regimental surgeons, determining all the equipment needed for frontline hospitals, how to requisition materials, sanitary campground duties, advice on how to treat certain wounds and dozens of other duties. I was also absorbed by the description of how the wounded were cared for on the peninsula campaign because the army was frequently on the move battle after battle. I have read almost nothing on that part of the campaign. The book paints General Triplet as a man of sterling character and devoted to providing the best care for the wounded. It is a shame he wasn't treated better for his service to his country and the thousands of wounded who received better medical care due to his leadership.

This book is a major contribution to the history of Michigan in the Civil War and a fine testament to an all but forgotten Michigan Civil War hero. And here's hoping the Michigan Civil War Association finds more overlooked subjects and events in the War Between the States worthy of publication.

His Sword A Scalpel: General Charles Stuart Tripler, MD, USA. Jack Dempsey ed. Mission Point Press, 2023, 289p., $24.95.

Church Lady Chronicles: Devilish Encounters by Terri Martin

No writer in the Upper Peninsula has a better formula for mixing satire with slapstick comedy and producing grins, chuckles and laughter than Terri Martin. Much of her success is due to inventing  a uniquely oddball Yooper characters strong enough to feature in and become the narrator of a book of short stories. In this specific case we are talking about Bea Righteous a loyal member of the Budworm United Methodist Church (BUMC) who has voluntarily appointed herself a keen-eyed watchdog dedicated to keeping a cunning Satan from slipping into her congregation. 

Bea Righteous sees Satan's influence everywhere and her attempts to rid him from the church and her fellow worshipers is often disastrous and always humorous. The good lady is the equivalent of a tack on a pew for all her fellow church goers and even the minister who she endlessly pesters. This includes telling him he must stop working on a eulogy and go find the person who took up two parking places. The Devil made him do it and it must be stopped. The author could have easily turned Bea into one an irritating and unlikeable holier than thou characters. Instead she's a wonderfully comic character totally unaware of her helplessly funny self righteousness.  

One of my favorites stories is the account of the consequences resulting from Miss Righteous bringing a tray of deviled eggs (what was she thinking) to a church buffet. Bea carried the Devil in the door and the result was two injured, all the food abruptly parting company with the tables, and an attempted theft squished (it seems the appropriate word) by Bea. Who by the way has an almost ironclad excuse that relieves her of even an iota of responsibility for the Deviled Egg Affair. This is a comic gem.

 

  

Church Lady Chronicles: Devilish Encounters by Terri Martin. Gnarly Woods Publications, 2020, 136p., 

Murder for Treasure: Booty is in the Eye of the Beholder by Dave Vizard

This is the seventh novel featuring Bay City journalist Nick Steele and it is both a compelling mystery

and a realistic portrayal of how journalists research and build a story. This story begins when a widow  askes Steele to look into the death of her husband. It was ruled an accidental death but the widow is sure her husband was murdered. Nick Steele is moved by the widow's certainty and his journalistic curiosity leads Steele into a tale of five friends who decades earlier recovered a treasure from a ship that went down just north of Saginaw Bay in 1871. Two of the five friends have recently died. Both deaths were ruled accidental but Steele and his journalist partner find the rulings very questionable. 

The author is a retired journalist and writes authoritatively on how a paper's newsroom operates and makes Steele's dogged pursuit of the story seem very realistic. The ship that went down with the treasure, the R. G. Coburn, was an actual 193-foot steamer that sank on October 15, 1871 just north of Saginaw Bay in a storm with a loss of 32 passengers and all but one of her crew. The wreckage has never been found. It is  unknown if the Coburn carried a fortune in gold but I like the fact that the author tied his story to a dramatic piece of local history. The reporter's dedication to their story gets them in trouble in the newsroom and local agencies when their investigation uncovers shoddy work by city and county employees. There are surprising revelations and plot twists every few pages and the closer Steele and his partner get to the truth the more danger they face.

The author has a knack for making even minor characters believable and interesting. It was also a  pleasure to read a well-written novel set against the beautifully painted backdrop of Saginaw Bay and the Thumb area. It will leave readers with an itch to explore the southeast coast of the Saginaw Bay area. And this reviewer is left impatiently waiting for the 9th novel in the Nick Steele series.

Murder for Treasure: Booty is in the Eye of the Beholder by Dave Vizard. Independently published, 2023, 259p., $15.95.

Classic Restaurants of Michiana by Jane Simon Ammeson

This odd but interesting book is filled with the unexpected and contains almost none of the expected. First off, for readers unfamiliar with or never heard of Michiana it is an area in southwestern Michigan and northern Indiana most frequently used by radio and TV stations who broadcast within that area and businesses trying to draw customers over state lines. The heart of the area is comprised of seven counties of which only Berrien and Cass are in Michigan. Secondly, this is not a guide to great eating in Michiana but a history of restaurants within the area beginning with stage coach stops.

The book is filled with a stew of interesting historical and gastronomical tidbits from how codfish were shipped fresh from the east coast to a stage stop in Michigan and were still edible. The cod were made into codfish balls when the stage stop was established in 1836 and it's the oldest business in Michigan still doing business in its original building. Today you can't get a codfish ball at the Old Tavern Inn  cheeseburgers are recommended. The author does a good job of describing early stage coach stops and all manner of eateries up to roughly to the turn of the 21st century. I was impressed by the number of swank motels and resorts that sprung up along Lake Michigan and inland lakes during the 1930s and found it surprising they did so well in the Depression. The book even includes long gone soda fountains, food carts, and drive-ins. I find it somewhat amusing this is a guide, by and large, to restaurants you can't eat in because they no longer exist. 

Ah, but there are fascinating chapters on the religious group the House of David and their various restaurants, including a vegetarian one, their fine gardens and theme parks, and a famous barnstorming baseball team. Not sure how his got into classic restaurants but there's a chapter on Al Capone getaways here and I must admit it makes good reading. But back to food. There is a nice chapter on the influence of immigrants on area eateries from Chinese and German restaurants to Greek diners.

Obviously this was not the book I expected when cracking the cover. But it proved to be interesting, informative, and full of photographs, historical menus, and surprising pleasures. In an imperfect tally there seems to be more Michigan sites than those from Indiana.

Classic Restaurants of Michiana by Jane Simon Ammeson. American Palate, 2023,157p., $24.99.

 Post # 92  January 22, 2024

Quote for the Day: The Keweenaw Peninsula is, "... a mere thumb of land poked like a testing finger into the cold, blue waters of Lake Superior. ...it is as scenically -- and historically -- exciting as any spot in the United States. Angus Murdock. Boom Copper. 1943.

Reviews

Mysterious Michigan: The Lonely Ghost of Minnie Quay, The Marvelous Manifestations of Farmer Riley, The Devil in Detroit and more by Amberrose Hammond

The word mysterious in the title of this consistently fascinating book covers a lot of ground. Peculiar, haunting, paranormal, unexplainable, incomprehensible, and just plain weird all fit nicely. Many of the stories deal with ghosts and the fascination of communicating with the dead, which the author explains grew in popularity with the birth of the Spiritual movement in the 1840s. Grand Rapids was an early hot bed of spiritualism and crackpot mediums. One of which talked a widow into giving  much of her wealth to her medium because she would soon be meeting her husband. The medium failed to explain it would be by way of poisoning. Not to be outdone a Detroit medium talked a sucker out of most his money then murdered him. My favorite is the story of Michigan's richest man. He died in 1875 leaving behind a divorced wife and a current one. Of course they went to trial contesting the will and one of the parties called a witness who took the stand and promptly went into a trance.

The author presents some memorable hauntings and ghost stories. One of the best concerns the ghost of Minnie Quay. Minnie was 15 and lived in a small village in the Thumb bordering the west coast of Lake Huron. One day she caught the eye of a sailor and whenever he was in town they could be seen walking together. Vicious rumors started circulating including that she was pregnant. When the rumors reached her parents they didn't believed their daughter's denials. Embarrassed, heartbroken, and ridiculed by the town she drowned herself. They say her lonely ghost can be seen walking the shoreline looking for her sailor. An autopsy proved she was a virgin. It was a local legend until a lumberjack composed a song about Minnie that spread her sad story across the state. And because of the song her story became part of Michigan's folklore. It is surprising how many of the ghostly accounts in this book have become Michigan folklore including the Devil in Detroit.

Hammond also presents several mind boggling, unexplainable paranormal stories. A home in Jackson had a poltergeist. Anything not nailed down could coming flying across the room. University professors came to witness and stayed to study it. Then there is the female dentist from Bay City who let spirits use her hands to paint stunning surrealistic paintings. She usually never even looked at the canvas while hand and brush moved across it. Critics raved about the paintings and they were hung in some of New York's finest galleries. Spirits answered questions through her and accurately predicted the future.  She defied explanation.

From haunted roads, mysterious lights, monsters, a witch killer, to 1920 when Ouija Boards out sold bibles in Ann Arbor this is a great ghostly read. 

Mysterious Michigan: The Lonely Ghost of Minnie Quay, The Marvelous Manifestations of Farmer Riley, The Devil in Detroit and more by Amberrose Hammond. History Press, 2022, 158p., $21.99. 

Brockway Mountain Stories: The History of Brockway Mountain Drive and Keweenaw Mountain Lodge by Paul LaVanway

Originally this book was two separate publications and their titles make up this book's subtitle. They first appeared as a series of stories in the Keweenaw County Historical Society's publication "The Superior Signal" before being published as booklets. Long out of print, the booklets have been reprinted and updated. They tell the stories of two Keweenaw County's most striking and memorable tourist attractions. Both have become state treasures, were work relief projects of  the Great Depression, and  significant in proving that the tourist industry could replace the playout and closed copper mines of the Keweenaw Peninsula and county.

The Brockway Mountain Drive is the highest above-sea-level road between the Alleghenies and the Rockies. To call it scenic is a gross under statement. The road climbs the spine of Keweenaw's West Bluff for one of the most beautiful and spectacular views in the Midwest. In one direction the bluff slopes down in a green carpet of trees to Lake Superior that spreads to the horizon. The immensity, and the shifting hues of the Great Lake is jaw dropping. On the other side of the road the West Bluff drops way in a near vertical wall of rock. Wherever you look the view is stunning and unforgettable. The scenic road was first suggested in the 1920s. But planning and construction didn't begin until the Great Depression work relief programs made them possible. The book is a detailed history of the planning and creation of the road. It was built by hand except for two work horses, "Nick & Dickie." 

The Great Depression proved disastrous for Keweenaw County with 75.2 percent of the population on relief. It was the highest in the country. In 1933 the Civil Workers Administration (CWA) asked states for submissions for public projects of lasting value. The Keweenaw County Road Commission was awarded funding for a Keweenaw Park and Golf Course. Thirty years later it was renamed the Keweenaw Mountain Lodge. The site selected was 1 mile southeast of Copper Harbor on a heavily wooded plateau overlooking Lake Superior. The site set the tone for the lodge. The lodge reflected the Arts and Craft Movement and camp architecture. Over 18,000 trees were cut for the fairways with pine and spruce logs debarked and set aside for the clubhouse. The hardwoods were given to the workers as firewood. The book covers the history of the Mountain Lodge in detail from public ownership to private and back to public, its expansion, discovery by the middle class after WWII, and its effect on area tourism.

This is an important addition to Michigan history and should garner readership from the thousands who have visited these two remarkable sites.

Brockway Mountain Stories: The History of Brockway Mountain and Keweenaw Mountain Lodge by Pail LaVanway. Mudminnow Press, 2023, 90p., $25.95.

A Father's Arms: A Diary by Captain Robert A. Maynard

The author spend nearly a year in constant combat either on or near the front lines during WWII. He survived Anzio, the invasion of the southern France, and the hard fought battles when the Allies finally set foot on German soil. When he returned home and for many years thereafter he avoided talking about his war times experiences. In 1980 when he retired from Cadillac and moved to Suttons Bay, partly from memory and partly from a diary he kept for a year in combat, Capt. Maynard wrote his wartime diary. He says he wrote it for his family and hopped it would be handed down to future generations. It will be and not just because his daughter had it published. This book is a living testament to the men who served our country and sharply illustrates that those who survived WWII carried it with them for the rest of their lives. It is also a testament to the remarkable character and devotion to duty of the author.

This slim book is filled with great stories, plenty of photographs, and concludes with a profound question. After Pearl Harbor he tried to enlist in both the Navy and Marines but failed to pass their physicals. So he tried the Army. He was told to strip naked and sit in a small room and await the doctor. The doctor opened the door, didn't enter the room, and told to Maynard to stand up then bend and touch his toes. That was the physical and he passed it. He quickly learned Army rules. One of which was, "Do as the Army does, not what you think is best." Then there is the memorable experience of taking communion at Anzio while being the target of German artillery. He was trained as a field artillery officer but when he reached Europe he was transferred to tank destroyers. Why, because they found tank destroyers were often used as supplementary artillery and it was easier to train field artillery officers to be tank destroyer officers than the other way around. 

In the final piece of the book he graphically describes seven times during combat his life hung by a  single thread of a spider's web. Like the time he and two others heard an incoming artillery round and all three dove for the same small depression. The round exploded and knocked Maynard senseless. He somehow was the first into the slim dip in the earth. The other two who landed on top of him were dead. How had he survived seven separate occasions during the war when death seemed certain? It is a profound question that seems unanswerable. He must have lived with it for the rest of his life. 

Robert Maynard's children have stipulated that all proceeds from the sale of this book will be donated to to the Veterans of Foreign Wars of Michigan. 

A Father's Arms: A Diary by Captain Robert A. Maynard. Mission Point Press, 2023, 125p., $29.95.

Detroit Style Pizza: A Doughtown History by Karen Dybis

A Detroit style pizza, who knew? I sure didn't, even when I'd eaten one. But I knew what I'd just ate was different and awfully good. This book is nothing less than a culinary history of the Detroit style pizza from its originator to chefs who have taken the humble pizza to the level of high cuisine.

Gus Guerra the owner of Buddy's Pizzeria is given credit for serving the first Detroit style pizza in 1946. His mother-in-law is said to have brought the recipe from Sicily where it was a traditional Sicilian street pizza. They tinkered with the recipe endlessly before putting it on the menu where it quickly became a hit. The steps in making a Detroit style pizza differ significantly from making the traditional pie. First comes the dough which has a higher water-to-flour content than the average pizza dough. Next Pepperoni is pressed into the dough. Cheese is the next layer. It is a blend of shredded or cubed brick cheese spread to the very edges of the pan. Finally a light tomato sauce is  carefully ladled over the cheese or applied by flicking it off the end of a spoon. Some pizzerias apply the sauce before baking the pie while others add it after the pie is baked. Either before or after the pie is baked in a square pan, with high sides that are slightly angled outward.

The book does a nice job of covering the chefs who have refined and added their own touches to the Detroit style pizza since it was introduced in the 1940s. It also clearly explains why it is a recognizable  style the equal of either the Chicago or New York styles. The book presents a short history of Russo's chain of take out Detroit style pizzas. That's where I got my first taste of one and probably I'm just one of thousands. The Detroit style became known world wide when it won first prize in the 2012 World Pizza Expo. In a fitting conclusion an appendix contains recipes for a Detroit style pizza sauce and The "Loui Loui" Detroit Style Pizza with "Assembly, Baking and Finishing Procedures."

Detroit Style Pizza: A Doughtown History by Karen Dybis. American Palate, 2023, 145p., $23.99.

 

 Post #91  December 26, 2023

Quote for the Day: "...there's a fine line between Michigan and misery-- winter." Sonny Eliot. Michigan Living. September 1988.

Review

Deus X by Stephen Mack Jones

A new novel featuring August Snow is always welcome because previous readers know from page one they will simply be swallowed up by Jones' narrative drive, great characters, intimate portrait of Detroit, and a plot that usually falls outside the norm for a private eye mystery. For the  uninitiated August Snow is an ex Detroit cop who was wrongly fired and and won a multimillion dollar law suit from the city. He is dedicated to restoring his old Mexicantown neighborhood, one house at a time, with the money won from his suit and only gets involved in a case at a friend's request.  

It's sadly a given that in any of the world's major religions violence is always committed both historically and currently in the name of God. And that appears to be the case when an aging, retired priest who Snow served as an altar boy and has been a life-long friend since appears to be on a Catholic fanatic's hit list. Snow becomes the priest's bodyguard while he figures out why a papal detective pries into the priest's life and tells Snow a group of Catholic fanatics are determined to eliminate priests whose moral corruption has hurt the image of Catholicism. The sinister papal rep tells Snow his friend may be on their list. The Bishop of the Detroit Archdiocese is not interested in helping the retired priest because all his attention is focused on an expected promotion to the Vatican. So Snow has to count on his wonderfully eccentric friends to keep Father Grabowski safe and help him discover why his friend's life is endangered. Snow's efforts to save his friend brings his own faith into question and his relationship with a church that may have lost touch with its people.

As per usual Snow has written a strikingly original and totally immersive novel. His effortlessly readable prose is as smooth as 30-year-old scotch and marked by memorable humor, razor sharp dialogue, great characters, an equally great portrait of Detroit, and slick attention-grabbing turn of phrases. This is so good on so many levels you simply don't want to miss it.

Deus X by Stephen Mack Jones. Soho Crime, 2023, 352p., $27.95.

Off the Hook: Off-Beat Reporter's Tales from Michigan's U.P. by Nancy Besonen

It takes a special person to write a weekly humor column year after year and decade after decade. There has to be times when life is not funny, you're just not in the mood to be humorous, or you simply can't think of a damn thing to satirize, or poke fun at. So hats off to Nancy Besonen because judging by this collection of her weekly columns in the L'Anse Sentinel she has a genuine talent for finding humor in everyday life. But then she does live in the U.P. where a well honed sense of humor is a necessity. 

The author is a keen observer, has a fine sense of the absurd, a talent for satire, and is just plain funny. In the "Mrs. U. P. Pageant" she is dismayed that there is no talent or swimsuit components. Meaning she can't impress the judges by field dressing a deer on stage, and was sure her three-year-old swimsuit purchased at Fleet Farm, "would have wowed the judges." She believes if Alfred, Lord Tennyson lived in the U.P. his famous poem's first line would have read, "It's spring, when a young man's fancy lightly turns to thoughts of getting stuck in mud." My favorite is a column about area school districts inviting parents to take a MEAP test. She explains MEAP stands for Michigan Educational Assessment Program and writes: "The MEAP tests covers variations of the three Rs, and is administered to unsuspecting children whose parents callously decided to settle in Michigan."

Besonen's collection of weekly columns is a perceptive, wise, and an unfailingly funny reality check on the Yooper world. Her columns alone make it worth subscribing to the L'Anse Sentinel.

Off the Hook: Off-Beat Reporter's Tales  from Michigan's U.P. by Nancy Besonen. Modern History Press, 2023, 165p., $21.95.

Murder, So Sweet by Dave Vizard

Other than set in the Thumb area of Michigan I expected a mystery that followed the standards of the genre. The author delivers anything but in this thoughtful, questioning, and controversial novel that simply refuses to let you put it down after turning just a few pages. 

When a farmer near Bad Axe begins to till his fields the first furrow turned attracts hundreds of seagulls. They have come to feed on human tissue uncovered by the tilling. A Huron County deputy sheriff calls Bay City Blade reporter Nick Steele with a tip on the discovery. Within minutes of the call a box is dropped off at the newspaper for Steele. The box contains two severed tips of men's anatomy. Blade drops his feature report on efforts to bring Madonna back to her hometown to investigate the breaking story in Bad Axe. Meanwhile at a locale Bay City Catholic church a woman has come to the Monday evening confession to tell a priest she has killed two men who repeatedly raped and beat her one night. She does not want to repent or forgive the two. She just wants the priest to understand and condone her actions. He won't and she becomes angry and raises her voice. An old lady waiting to confess overhears it all. She reports what she heard to the newspaper and the police but her story is initially dismisedd.

As the case develops Steele, the police, the raped woman, and the old lady who heard the confession are drawn into an ever tightening circle. Steele's research reveals there are 5,000 cases of rape reported in Michigan annually with many more that go unreported. The main character who was raped and beaten didn't report it because it would destroy her career. As a real-estate agent she was showing a house and was raped in a young girl's bedroom. How would you like to tell that to the family of the house you were showing? 

The last half of the book is breathlessly gripping. New revelations, totally unexpected character reactions, and a tension filled conclusion will keep the reader compulsively turning the pages. And then when the reader thinks they have seen and heard it all the last short two paragraphs are absolutely stunning. Page for page one of the most original and entirely involving books I read this year. 

Murder So Sweet by Dave Vizard. Privately Printed, 2023, $14.95.

Relative Sanity by Ellen Lord

I'm the last person who should be allowed to review poems. Many poems simply go over my head at the altitude of a jet liner. I don't even understand some of the glowing remarks by the authors on the back of this book. But if a Supreme Court Justice can fail to recuse him- or herself from a case who am I to recuse myself from poetry.

Then I discovered the first three words of the first poem hiding behind the front cover describe both succinctly and accurately my desperation whenever I sit down to write this blog. They are, "Searching for words." Yup, she got me with the first three words in the book. "Relative Sanity" the next poem is, I think, a stream of conscious narrative about the poet's mother's temporarily successful escape from the Newberry State Hospital. It is an entire book reduced to one marvelous page. The Therapist's Dilemma maybe my favorite simply because it is so unexpectedly funny. As a reader and an envious writer I love to run across sentences and phrases that are perfect, or clever, or profound, or simply tickle me like, "I worry about mental decline, like that helps...   ." That one is going to be stuck on wall above my desk.  And here is one out of many perfect sentences found throughout a mere 44 pages. "He tells me the cancer is back, creeping through him like Kudzu."

Lord's poems are all quite personal, and her work abounds with the wonder she experiences in the Upper Peninsula. She  can write of a simple trout stream or in her last poem entitled "North Country Elegy" she tells of how much she loves U.P's. "raw winter nights' and in the face of all the evidence wonders how "she learned to be alone." Unquestionably this is the launching pad for a very promising talent.

Relative Sanity by Ellen Ford. Modern History Press, 2023, 43p., $14.95.