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A Long Way Down

Ryan DeMarco #3

A beautifully written complex and intricately layered story

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

SUMMARY

In the third book of the Ryan Demarco mystery series Demarco returns to Erie, Pennsylvania after his estranged wife attempted suicide. While there Demarco runs into an old high school buddy, Ben Brinker who is a county sheriff. Brinker asks for Demarco’s help investigating three recent homicides in their hometown of Youngstown, Ohio. These murders might be related to a cold case from thirty years ago, where the victims were dismembered. All but one of the recent victims fit the profile.

Jayme Matson, a Pennsylvania state trooper has taken time away from her job to spend some quality time with Demarco figuring out their new relationship. Demarco is still struggling with his past and doesn’t really want to go back to his hometown. Jayme, however, is anxious to see Demarco’s childhood home and perhaps learn more about him, it’s not easy for Demarco to walk the streets of his troubled past. The more Jayme and Demarco dig into the grisly murders, the less likely it is that they will escape unharmed.

“It’s exactly 10:29pm and dark in only the way a city can be dark. With a sky so black and low that the only thing visible in it is a pair of red blinking wing lights. No stars here, and down on the street there are only pools of light from the street lamps so that the darkness pooled around those lights looks oily and slick.”

REVIEW

A LONG WAY DOWN is part emotional character study; and part suspenseful and action-packed crime thriller. The story is complex and intricately layered. It’s not just about the gruesome murders, but is also about Demarco and his troubled past, his wife’s suicide attempt, the loss of his son, his insomnia and his relationship with Jayme, The writing is beautifully descriptive and richly textured. My absolute favorite part was the use of the lyrical writings from Thomas Huston, a professor friend of Ryan’s and a character we met earlier in the series. The use of Huston’s writings was creative, emotive and added even more depth to a novel that is bursting with intrigue.

The characters were delightfully well-developed. Demarco’s brooding character as a man trying to overcome past hardships is totally relatable. He knows he needs to pull himself out of the dark moodiness that threaten to envelope him at times. His willingness to try is admirable. Jayme is smart and feisty, and is quite capable of taking care of herself. She has no problem putting people in their place, particularly Demarco. I loved the clever repartee between the two of them. I loved watching their minds work as they attempt to resolve the case. Even the secondary characters are very well-developed.

I’m hooked, and can’t wait for the next book in this series!

Publisher Recorded Books

Published June 4, 2019

Narrated Graham Winton

Review www.bluestockingreviews.com

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The Next Person You Meet in Heaven

A touching story of how a complete stranger can have as much impact on our life as our closest family member.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

SUMMARY

THE NEXT PERSON YOU MEET IN HEAVEN is a sequel to The Five People You Meet in Heaven. When Annie was only eight-years-old she lost her left hand in a horrific accident at the Ruby Pier amusement park. The hand was surgically reattached but it left an indelible mark on Annie’s life. She doesn’t remember the tragic accident that killed Eddie, the amusement park mechanic but it left her scarred and the subject of ridicule. Annie struggles to find acceptance throughout her life, but feels as if everything she does is a mistake. When she reunites with Paulo, a childhood friend, she knows she has finally found happiness. They marry and this is where Annie’s story begins. A romantic hot-air balloon ride the morning after the wedding ends in tragedy when Annie falls from the sky. She is whisked into her own heavenly journey, where she reunites with Eddie and learns how her life on earth affected others.

“Had he taken the truck, this story would be different. Had Annie and Paulo not stopped for a final round of photographs, this story would be different. Had the limousine driver remembered to bring a bag that was sitting by his apartment door, this story would be different. The tale of your life is written second by second, as shifting as the flip of a pencil to an eraser.”

REVIEW

THE NEXT PERSON YOU MEET IN HEAVEN is a touching and thought-provoking chronicle of the impact of daily interactions on the lives of others. This short and simple story is written in the same easy style as all of Mitch Alboms books. He wrote the book as a sequel because for years after the first books came out readers continued ask him, “What happened to Annie and Eddie next?” Fifteen years later, Albom’s first sequel is born.

Annie is also Albom’s first female protagonist. The insecurity of Annie’s character is very relatable and moving. Albom’s inspiration for Annie’s character came from Chika, a five-year old orphan from Haiti with a brain tumor who Albom had brought home and had hoped to save. The book’s theme is about the rediscovery of our contributions and our connections, and the realization that life doesn’t go on forever. It’s about how a stranger or beloved pet can have as much impact on our lives as that of our closest family member.

The book is a quick and easy read and is written in the same light style as his original The Five People You Meet in Heaven. Readers who have enjoyed Albom in the past, will not be disappointed. It’s worth a read.

Mitch Albom is an author of several New York Times bestseller‘s books of fiction and nonfiction including Tuesdays with Morrie. He founded and oversees S. A. Y. Detroit, a consortium of nine different charitable operations in his hometown, and created a nonprofit dessert shop and food product line to fund programs for Detroit’s neediest citizens. He also operates an orphanage in Port-au-Prince, Haiti and lives with his wife, Janine, in Michigan.

“Why didn’t I feel this before?” she whispered. “Because we embrace our scars more than our healing,” Lorraine said. “We can recall the exact day we got hurt, but who remembers the day the wound was gone?”

Publisher Harper Collins

Published October 9, 2018

Review www.bluestockingreviews.com

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Cemetery Road

A first rate journey into a small town’s corrupt power brokers and the links they will go to protect their pockets.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

SUMMARY

Marshall McEwan vowed never to return to his hometown, Beinville Mississippi when he left at age eighteen. He moved to Washington D.C. and became an extremely successful and award-winning journalist. But now his father is now dying and his mother needs Marshall to help with the debt-ridden family newspaper, The Watchman.

Soon after Marshall’s return to Beinville, his boyhood mentor, Buck Ferris is found murdered at a soon-to-be construction site. The site is that of a new paper mill, a billion dollar economic investment by a group of Chinese investors, in a town on the brink of economic death. Buck had been looking for some 4,000 year old artifacts he believed to be at the site. Bienville is thrown into chaos with the threat of historic artifacts on the site, which would kill the deal. Marshall will stop at nothing to find Buck’s killer. His investigation brings him into conflict with the Poker Club, a corrupt group of Beinville’s power brokers, who will not let anyone stand in their way of lining their pockets.

Marshall’s high school sweetheart from over twenty years ago, Jet, still lives in Beinville and has married into the family of Max Matheson, patriarch of one of the families that rule the Poker Club. Paul Matheson, Max’s son, and Marshall’s best friend growing up, is now married to Jet. Paul, a Special Forces veteran, had saved Marshall’s life in Iraq and is now suffering from PTSD. Marshall and Paul’s relationship is complicated. Marshall adds to the complication when he renews a passionate affair with Jet that is bound to have major consequences.

Marshall is also suffering from several of his own issues. When they were teenagers, Marshall’s older brother Adam, a Bienville’s star athlete drowned while trying to swim across the Mississippi River on a night of reckless teenage cockiness, for which Marshall has always blamed himself. It is the reason he left Beinville immediately after high school. His father has always blamed Marshall for Adam’s death as well. Marshall’s return to Beinville was an opportunity for redemption and forgiveness.

REVIEW

Murder, corruption, secrets and complicated personal relationships form the elements of this epic tale of a town and it’s people struggling with economic viability. The story is suspenseful and intense and the bad guys are beyond bad. The writing is descriptive and evocative. I found myself totally caught up in the deceptions, greed, infidelities and grief of this small town drama, as well as Marshall’s efforts to do the right thing. The characters are well-drawn and richly flawed. CEMETERY ROAD is a first rate journey into a small town’s powerfully rich and greedy who will do and say anything necessary to protect their pockets. GREG Iles has created a perfect blend of characters, setting and story.

This was my first Greg Iles novel, and I am so glad I had the opportunity to read it. He had me with the first lyrical paragraph of the book. “I never meant to kill my brother. I never set out hate my father. I never dreamed I would bury my own son. Nor could I have imagined that I would betray the childhood friend who save my life, or win a Pulitzer Prize for telling a lie.” And it just gets better from there. My favorite part was exploring Marshall’s emotionally wrenching relationship with his father. While the book was lengthy, I thoroughly enjoyed every single one of the 590 pages. Greg Iles lives in Natchez Mississippi and has written twelve bestselling novels, several of which have been made into films.

Thanks to LibraryThing, William Morrow and Greg Iles for an advance reading copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Publisher William Morrow

Published March 5, 2019

Review www.bluestockingreviews.com

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TWENTY-SIX SECONDS A Personal History of the Zapruder Film ALEXANDRA ZAPRUDER

MY RATING ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️▫️ PUBLISHER Twelve/Hachette Audio PUBLISHED November 16, 2016

SUMMARY “They killed him. They killed him.” Abraham Zapruder, cried. He was the first to know of John F. Kennedy’s death. He saw it through the zoom lens of his double 8mm video camera on that bright, sunny day at Dealey Plaza. The motorcade passed right in front of him, then he heard the gunfire. It was the most horrific thing he had ever seen. Everyone around him was stunned. The news reports said that Kennedy was taken to Parkland Hospital. But Abe knew he was already dead.

Abe immediately determined that he had to get a copy of his film to the Secret Service. News reporters were hounding him for a copy. The afternoon of the assassination, Zapruder along with the Secret Service went to the Eastman Kodak processing facility near Love Field to develop the double 8mm color film. Later that day he and others took the developed film and had three copies made at the Jamieson Film Company. He delivered two of the three duplicate copies to the Secret Service that night. Abe kept the original film and the third copy of the duplicate. And the long story of the film begins.

Alexandra Zapruder, Abe’s grandaughter, tells us her grandfather’s story of that horrendous day that he filmed President Kennedy’s motorcade in Dallas, Texas on November 22, 1963. This book is the untold family story behind what happened to the twenty-six seconds of original film footage of Kennedy’s assassination. Alexandra uses personal family records, records from Life magazine who possessed the film for twelve years, other previously sealed archival sources, and interviews with family members and others who had contact with the film. She traces the films complex journey through history and most importantly, details the many controversies the family had to endure, with the media, the Federal government and the arts community.

This book is part biography, part family history, and part historical record. It shows how this historic film changed a family and raised some of the most important social, cultural, and moral questions of our time. The film was notably the most graphically violent of it’s time. Add to that, it was the death of a beloved president. It fueled debates about privacy, copyrights, access, and ownership.

REVIEW Sometimes you read a book that makes your heart pound in your chest. A book that you can’t stop thinking about or talking about. This is one of those books. Of course it’s encompasses an monumental event in US history. But the book is not about the assassination. It’s only about the twenty-six second film of the assassination. The book was very educational, enlightening, and informative. I thought I knew all I needed to know about the Kennedy assassination. But I didn’t know this story.

I am ever so thankful to Alexandra Zapruder for meticulously pouring over pages and pages of documentation, conducting interviews and bringing the history of the film to light. The result is a comprehensive narrative that has shaped much of today’s thinking about access to such things in the future. The family faced a tremendous amount of controversy over the film. Owning such a thing, as shown in this book carries a tremendous amount of responsibility. Alexandra Zupruder clearly testifies to how her grandfather and her father carried out this responsibility.

Alexandra portrays her grandfather as an honorable man, whose only hope, in this horrific situation was to not cause any additional emotional harm to the Kennedy family by the exploitation of this film.

It is a well-written and thought-provoking book. But the book is long. Twenty-six Seconds is 480 pages and the audio is over 14 hours. So it’s quite a commitment. I would have enjoyed it more had it been somewhat more concise, but cannot imagine what she could have possibly cut.

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Truly Madly Guilty Liane Moriarty

My Rating ⭐️⭐️⭐️▫️▫️ Publisher Flatiron Books Publish Date July 26, 2016

SUMMARY

This is a story of six friends and events that occur at a backyard barbecue on a pleasant Sunday afternoon. The book starts with Clementine, a well-known cellist, at a library event, talking to a small audience about what happened that day at the barbecue. Her best friend, Erika is in the audience. As Clementine proceeds with the story, Erika who can’t seem to remember everything that happened the afternoon of the barbecue, has a panic attack and leaves the library before Clementine finishes her speech.

REVIEW

What actually happened at the barbecue is not revealed until well over halfway through the book. As a result, the first half is frustratingly slow, waiting for the big event to be revealed.

What Moriarty does well in the first half of Truly Madly Guilty is character development. Each chapter is from the perspective of one of the six characters either before, during or after the barbecue. It reveals much depth to the characters– their flaws, their feelings and their secrets.

We learn early that Clementine is only friends with Erika because Clementine’s social worker mother made her befriend the poor little waif sitting on the playground all by herself when they were very young. Erika became a fixture in Clementine’s family. However although resentful, Clementine remains friends with Erika through the years.

Erika’s chosen career is accounting, she likes to have things in order. This trait emanates from a reaction to her mother’s extreme hoarding. Erika spends thousands of dollars in therapy dealing with her mother’s issue and the impact it had on her childhood and her current life. Moriarty does a great job of developing Erika and Clementines complex relationship and that of their husbands, Oliver and Sam. The hosts of the impromptu barbecue are Erika and Oliver’s wealthy neighbors Vid and Tiffany. Vid and Tiffany added some much needed levity and interest to the book.

It’s not all wine and roses in these three homes. The book paints a realistic picture of lives full of issues and everyday problems: job stress, out of control kids, problems with the neighbors, overbearing parents, and fights with the spouse. And what happened at the barbecue.

Liane Moriarty shows how guilt controls our lives. Guilt over things we have done, things we haven’t done or things we should have done.

“Everyone had another sort of life up their sleeve that might have made them happy.”

Truly Madly Guilty was a Goodreads Choice Award for Fiction in 2016. Liane Moriarty is the author of Big Little Lies ( 2014) (⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️▫️) and The Husband Secret (2013) (⭐️⭐️⭐️▫️▫️)

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Long Way Gone Charles Martin

My Rating ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Publisher Thomas Nelson on Brilliance Audio (Audio Edition) Publish Date October 4, 2016 SUMMARY Long Way Gone is first and foremost a story about love and forgiveness. A father’s unyielding and immeasurable love for his son. It’s the modern day story of the prodigal son. Cooper O'Connor is eighteen and angry when he runs away to Nashville stealing his dad’s most important possessions. His truck, his life savings, and his prized guitar-named Jimmy.

All taken by a kid who has hopes and dreams of making it big in the country music capital of the world. But instead he loses everything, first the money is stolen from his hotel room, then the truck is stolen from a parking lot, and finally he is assaulted and even Jimmy is taken from him. Cooper vows not to go home again until he can pay his dad back for everything he took, and everything he lost.

Cooper eventually finds a job working in a guitar repair shop in Printer’s Alley with Riggs Graves, a kind man who took a chance on him. Riggs’s shop overlooks the Ryman Auditorium. But Cooper had lost all desire to play. Cooper got a second job working on the stage crew in the Ryman Auditorium and he meets the rising star Daly Cross, a singer trying to figure out just who she is. Cooper instantly falls in love with this girl and her voice. He make a quick decision to give her the one remaining thing he has left…a song. This song hits gold for both Daley and Cooper. 

But tragedy start strikes once again for Cooper and he is seriously injured in a fire. With nowhere else to go, Cooper returns to his father’s home in the Colorado mountains to ask forgiveness and to make a new start. Years later Cooper sees Daly Cross on a street corner in his hometown of Leadville, Colorado. Is it too late to tell her the truth about what really happened the night of the fire in Nashville?

REVIEW Charles Martin’s writing is as lyrical as the music that Cooper O'Connor writes in his little black notebook. Long Way Gone captivates you from page one with a multifaceted heartwarming story intricately woven into a beautiful tapestry.

Cooper’s childhood is spent traveling everywhere with his tent-preaching father. Music was as big a part of his father’s tent-revivals as the sermons. Cooper loves music and was soon playing the piano at the revivals and eventually people came from all around to hear him play. But Cooper thinks he has enough talent to make it big. Cooper’s defining moment is in Nashville where he loses everything but learned so much about people, life and love. Seeing Daly Cross in Leadville, again after rebuilding his life brings the hurt, pain and suffering he caused back again. The feelings evoked from the Long Way Gone story is palpable. 

The characters in Long Way Gone are expertly developed and you can’t help falling in love with just about all of them. Cooper’s formidable dad imparts enough wisdom and sage advice to wish he had been our dad. He only wanted what was best for his son. From Cooper’s dad to the ever watchful and protective Big Big, and Daly Cross, the girl with the voice, each character is robust and real with each playing a significant role in the life of Cooper O'Connor. One of the most interesting, fascinating and mysterious characters is Blondie, a greasy blond long-haired guy who hangs out while Cooper is playing the piano. 

The settings for this book in The Falls, Leadville and Nashville are so real I felt like I was there. The setting could not be placed anywhere else, the book just wouldn’t be the same. Having visited the Ryman Auditorium a few years ago, I felt like I was there again. I could see, feel and smell it all over again. Charles Martin captured the essence of that great building perfectly.

I loved this book all the way from the beautiful cover artwork to the thought-provoking pay it forward epilogue. Long Way Gone is perfect. I laughed and I cried and I cried some more. A beautiful and powerful story about love, forgiveness and redemption, will do that to you! Cooper’s dad said that “Great music, the kind that moves people is an offering. Anything less is a counterfeit and anyone who hears it, knows it.” I think this book is an offering too!

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A Sister's Place Savannah Page My Rating ⭐️⭐️⭐️▫️▫️ Publisher Lake Union Publishing Publish Date February 14, 2017 SUMMARY How would you feel if you are in your mid 20's had to live in the same house with your sister for a year? That's what happened to sisters Gracie and Juliette Bennett. They would inherit their grandmother's, Mimi's house in Santa Barbara, California if they lived in it together for one year. This house, at 1402 Laguna Lane was been in their family for sixty-seven years. The girls loved this house because of all their fabulous childhood memories of sleepovers and holiday visits. But Gracie and Juliette were as different as night and day. One lives in New York City and and the other lives in Santa Barbara, California. One had a responsible career as a paralegal, and one was happy doing odd jobs like tutoring or assisting a caterer. They are different in everything from temperament to their choice of their favorite ice cream flavor. This challenge will test their will, their character, their abilities and their preconceptions. The sisters have been out of touch ever since going off to college years before. With the girls separated by thousands of miles there has been no sense of camaraderie, no shared secrets and no late night calls. Mimi's so much wanted her beautiful granddaughters to renew and re-establish their bond. She wrote them five heart-felt and encouraging letters-like only a grandmother can do-for the girls to open over the course of the next five seasons. The girls opened their first letter in Spring 2015. It encouraged to Gracie and Juliette to appreciate one of life's greatest experiences-sisterhood. REVIEW If you have a sister you would enjoy this sweet book. It's a heart-warming story about what it really means to be a sister. It's about maintaining and cultivating that sister bond, and always being there for each other. The characters Gracie and Juliette are well-developed and though different, both are very likable characters. The setting in Santa Barbara and particularly, Mimi's house on Laguna Lane sounds perfect, almost to perfect. Each chapter in A Sister's Place is alternately narrated by Gracie and Juliette. Within each chapter, the girls often flashbacks to childhood memories or past experiences. I had some trouble keeping track of all the transitions. I often found myself having to flip back to determine which sister was narrating, particularly in the first half of the book. Overall, I found A Sister's Place a very sweet book, but a little slow. Thanks to Netgalley and Lake Union Publishing for an advance reading copy of this book in exchange for a honest review.

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The Girl Before JP Delaney

My Rating ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️▫️

Publisher Ballantine Books Publication Date January 24, 2017

SUMMARY Two women, three years apart, both traumatized by recent events in their lives, need to make a new start and find a new place to live. Then they are told about an architecturally unique house that’s available for just the right person. The catch is they have to be approved by the architect and they have to agree to a list of over 200 restrictive covenants.

Both women believe this house and all of its rules are just what is needed in their torn lives. Emma covets the the safety of the house after her previous flat was burglarized. She sees the rules as a way to totally change her life, a way to become a new person. Jane also seeks a new start after the loss of a baby. After Jane moves in she learns about the unresolved death of a previous tenant. She wants to know what happened. She has to know. Her investigation leads her down a dangerous path where the lies and the truth are tangled.

REVIEW THE GIRL BEFORE is two stories masterfully wound together like a rope. The story of then and now. Two women, strikingly similar in appearance, both in need a new start, and both fall for the demanding architect. Their stories are full of twists and turns.

Pleasantly surprising, the unique house at One Folgate Street is the perfect setting for THE GIRL BEFORE. Everything, from the pale stone walls, to the cream sofa, to the towels, and wine glasses, are of the finest quality And the house, although austere, has such advanced technical innovations, it just might be the most perfect living environment. Who wouldn’t want a house that knows everything we like and even strives to makes us a better person?

THE GIRL BEFORE expertly intertwines the stories of Emma and Jane. And this was the perfect way to tell this particular story. JP Delaney’s writing is clear and bright. It’s a challenging and enjoyable psychological thriller that kept me turning the pages late into the night.

Thanks to Random House, Ballantine Books and Netgalley for an advance copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

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THE EMPTY CHAIR: Murder in the Caribbean Penny Goetjen

My Rating ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️▫️

Publisher: Secret Harbor Press Publication Date November 15, 2016

SUMMARY Olivia Benning travels to the Virgin Islands to settle affairs after receiving news that her mother has died in a boating an accident. Upon arrival she meets a handsome guy who comes to the rescue when her ride fails to show. Olivia soon discovers that the police have no record of her mother’s death or even an accident. Olivia desperately needs the truth even if she has to find it herself.

A bar brawl, a break-in, and her mother’s Caribbean bungalow ransacked. Can things get any worse at picturesque Magen’s Bay? Olivia search takes a sinister turn when a charming man claiming to be her mother’s lover is shot and she’s the prime suspect.

Entangled in the same dark web of crime that may have ensnared her mother, Olivia is low on cash, high on mistrust, yet must rely on the ruggedly handsome stranger who seems to surface when she’s most in need of saving, but is he her rescuer turned lover or her deadly foe?

REVIEW THE EMPTY CHAIR is like riding on a roller coaster. The story has up and downs, and twists and turns, it’s fast and then it’s over, way to soon. An adrenaline pumping, heart pounding ride. Once you start it, it’s hard to put down. And you really don’t want it to be over.

The descriptive setting in the St Thomas, Virgin Islands was picturesque and idylic. Who wouldn’t want to go there! I felt as if I was riding in the blue jeep right next to Olivia, so afraid of going over the side of those narrow mountain roads. I would love to be able to sit in Olivia mom’s turquoise adirondack chair at Serenity Villa and absorb the stunning views of the bay and the ocean and feel the sultry heat from the August sun.

Olivia, a five foot two, blond dynamo has a knack for finding trouble. Or rather trouble seems to follow her from the minute she leaves the Cyril E. King airport. In the first forty-eight hours there’s a bar fight, a missing car, a strange fax and a visit to the police department that knows nothing about her mom’s disappearance and she is rescued by the handsome Colton not once, but twice!. The blue-eyed Colton seems to be everywhere just when Olivia needs him. He might be some kind of knight in shining armor, and don’t we all need one of those!

Thanks to Secret Harbor Press and Net Galley for providing a copy of THE EMPTY CHAIR in exchange for an honest review.

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"Even a book read by only a dozen people can have a massive effect if one of those readers goes on to write a book read by millions." Will Schwalbe from Books for Living

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Starting a book review blog in 2017! Stay tuned for my first review of Books for Living by Will Schwalbe!