Quote for the Day: "Professional seamen treated (the upper Great Lakes) with the respect a lion tamer pays an excitable cat." William Ratigan. Straits of Mackinac. 1957.
Check out the News and Views page for my favorites of the past year. Hopefully they will be both surprising and entertaining.
Reviews
Isabel Puddles Investigates by M. V. Byrne
Finding a review copy of the second in what I hope is a long running mystery series featuring Isabel Puddles in the mailbox made my day. The first book garnered universally rave reviews and the same is expected of this second offering from a very talented author. In the first of the series the widowed and well-like resident of the small Lake Michigan resort town of Gull Harbor became the village's most celebrated inhabitant when she uncovered a murder and risked her life solving it. Isabel found the experience was so invigorating and satisfying she has become a licensed private investigator.
The first person to hire the new P.I. is Gulf Harbor's wealthiest recluse, Abigail Bachmeier. She may well be the last remaining heir to a Milwaukee beer dynasty when her great-nephew boarded the historic ferry the S.S. Badger in Manitowoc, Wisconsin and was not aboard when it docked in Michigan. He had either fallen, jumped. or been tossed overboard in the middle of Lake Michigan. Abigail hires P. I. Puddles to locate a possible remaining heir to the Bachmeier fortune. The case leads to an unexpected friendship with Abigail, finds Puddles exploring the deep and twisted family history of the beer dynasty, and the possibility of an earlier disappearance that may have been murder. Puddles becomes so emotionally involved in the case she considers quitting the P. I. business.
An entirely amusing and charming 300 plus pages of grand entertainment featuring a private detective who brilliantly breaks the mold of classic private eyes created by Chandler and Hammett. Isabel and her deep attraction to her village and friends shares center stage with her first case as a licensed private detective.
Isabel Puddles Investigates by M.V. Byrne. Kensington Publishing Corp., 2021, $15.95.
Mark of the White Rabbit by Lincoln Cooper
The following rave review comes with a warning. If you pick up this immersive thriller you're not going to be able to put it down. Within the first few pages the narrative will shred your daily routine which won't return to normal until the book is finished and sets you free.
I don't want to give much of the plot away and spoil the adrenalin rush and the totally unexpected twists and turns in this deviously plotted thriller featuring white rabbits, no less. I will reveal the plot revolves around the murder of a court stenographer and the sketchy, even strange evidence that points to one of the state's top trial lawyers, known for his wandering eye, as the killer. The murder and case being built against the lawyer is sensationalized because the accused was planning on running for governor. The investigation is headed by the sheriff of a west Michigan county who was a cracker jack criminal investigator in the army. The plot is full of shocking revelations, a fascinating backstory, and is propelled by a relentless narrative. I'd bet money most readers will read the last hundred pages in one huge gulp.
The author's name is a pseudonym and the writer describes himself as a "recovering trial lawyer" and a law professor. But the real culprit responsible for holding you hostage for 350 pages is the writer's wife who encouraged her husband to give in to his years of temptation and write a book. A final warning. This is the first in a series of thrillers revolving around white rabbits, or more bluntly the first step in your addiction to a writer known as Lincoln Cooper.
Mark of the White Rabbit by Lincoln Cooper. Mission Point Press, 2021, $16.95
The Accidental Reef and Other Ecological Odysseys in the Great Lakes by Lynne Heasley
Almost to a person Michiganders appreciate the Great Lakes and fully realize this grand inland sea makes our state special. We marvel at its beauty, uniqueness, and recognize both its commercial and recreational importance. This amazing book folds history, science, art, commerce, literature, research and human impact on the lakes into a new portrait of the freshwater seas and life below the surface that most of us seldom see or fully appreciate.
The book's brilliant inter-connected essays begin with the importance of a little-known reef in the St. Clair River that was created by coal burning boats who dumped their clinkers overboard near Algonac. The accidental manmade reef proved to be an excellent spawning grounds for Great Lake sturgeons. Much of the book focuses on the waterway connecting Lake Erie and Lake Huron in fascinating detail while other essays present new perspectives on a variety of Great Lake issues. To name only a few they range from a new look at fish consumption advisories, the dangers of Enbright oil pipelines, encouraging news about invasive species, the near extinction of Great Lake sturgeon, to a hairbrained scheme devised to refill the depleted Ogallala Aquifer in the Great Plains by diverting Lake Superior water.
All of this is delivered in almost magical prose filled with humor, spellbinding descriptions, great observations, and stunning facts. Like 2.5 million walleye spawn in Lake Erie then swim north to Lake Huron for the summer. Or, a female sturgeon carries a half million eggs and deposits them every four years, the word walleye is eight centuries old, and Dow Canada has released 33 hundred tons of mercury into the St. Clair River. And finally, the Great Lakes are so little known in the rest of America author Dennis discovered an online hoax about whale watching in Lake Michigan that was reported as fact in a children's science magazine. Adding to the charm of the book are Glenn Wolff's exquisite illustrations. At heart, Heasley's book will reinforce a reader's sense of wonder to be found in the Great Lakes.
The Accidental Reef and Other Ecological Odysseys in the Great Lakes by Lynne Heasley. Michigan State University Press, 2021, $27.95.
The Copper Divide by Beth Kirschner
As the title suggests the subject of this novel is the long, violent, and bitter miners' strike against all Copper mines in the Keweenaw peninsula that lasted from July 1913 to April 1914. The miners demanded better pay and safer working conditions and the strike literally turned friends and neighbors into enemies in Calumet and other Keweenaw communities. Striking miners' parades were attacked by deputized goons, and companies brought in scab labor who met with violence from strikers and whose inexperience caused accidents in the mines.
The main thread of this novel follows two women who are very close friends and whether or not the strike will destroy their friendship. One is the daughter of a store owner whose business is failing as the strike stretches into months. The other woman is the wife of a striking miner and the mother of two small children. She faces the daily uncertainty of feeding her family, dealing with an abusive husband, and what the future holds for her and her family. A third view of the strike is seen through the eyes of a scab brought north to cross the picket lines. He experiences the back-breaking labor and dangers of working nearly a mile underground and finds the Keweenaw holds no future for him. The novel ends with the 1913 Italian Hall Disaster in which a second-floor hall was packed with the children of strikers attending a Christmas party. When someone shouted fire 73 men, women and children were trampled to death or suffocated as the crowd stampeded down one staircase.
The novel rings with authenticity in every detail from the living conditions of striking miners' families, the danger and hardship of working 10 hours in a mine, and the cruelty and power of the mine owners. The characters are well drawn and believable. Beth Kirschner proves to be a very accomplished writer in her first novel.
The Copper Divide by Beth Kirschner. TouchPoint Press, 2021, $16.99.
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