"I wasn't sure if I wanted to hear such a big secret. It might not fit in my head and then it would spill out everywhere."
A Head Full of Ghosts begins as many horror stories do. The Barrett family is a pretty normal group. Mom, Dad, and sisters Marjorie and Merry live a peaceful life in their suburban home. Things change when older sister Marjorie begins to exhibit odd behavior. The doctors and specialists can't seem to find a medical explanation for her condition. Dad turns to the church and becomes convinced that Marjorie is possessed by a demon.
Given their unusual circumstance, the Barrett family does what any American family would do. They cash in on their troubles by allowing a television crew to film their life and attempts at exorcism for a reality show. What ensues is the tragic erosion of a once happy family. The parents don't agree on how to approach treatment for Marjorie, Merry is ignored by the rest of her family, and Marjorie is pushed to physical and emotional limits. Is the girl truly possessed, or is the Barrett family merely enacting a hoax for financial gain?
A Head Full of Ghosts is a refreshing addition to the horror genre. Paul Tremblay writes with a self-awareness that gives an original perspective to an otherwise familiar story. Tremblay clearly has an extensive knowledge and appreciation for all things horror. There is nothing overtly shocking or gory about this book. Rather, the story unfolds with a slow build that gives just enough suspense to keep us hanging onto every word. I like my horror stories to make me think and fill with dread. By that mark, A Head Full of Ghosts is an excellent novel that will leave you with an anxious paranoia of every little bump in the night.
For more information, visit the author's website, Amazon, and Goodreads.
(2017, 13)
Archive for March 2017
A Head Full of Ghosts by Paul Tremblay
Lola by Melissa Scrivner Love
"All people everywhere, rich or poor, skinny or fat, are animals. Looking for a fight. Looking to turn everyone against the weakest.
Who is Lola? Dad was never in the picture and Mom was a drug addict who exchanged young Lola's body for her latest fix. Lola quickly grew a thick skin and acclimated to life in the underbelly of Los Angeles. Now she is the girlfriend of Garcia, the apparent leader of the drug running gang the Crenshaw Six. Trouble arises when cartel leaders task the gang with infiltrating a drop from a local competitor. Success will give the gang a higher status within the cartel. As further motivation, the cartel leader gives Garcia an ultimatum. Complete the interception or they will take away the one thing that matters most to Garcia. . . Lola's life.
Unbeknownst to the cartel, Garcia is not the one calling the shots. It is actually Lola, the woman they dismissed as mere collateral, who covertly oversees the Crenshaw Six. When Carlos, a former lover and the leader of the gang, began to selfishly keep money for himself instead of sharing with the other gang members, Lola murdered him and took the reigns of the group. Clearly, Lola is no traditional damsel in distress! Relying on her intellect and cold-blooded instincts, Lola goes head to head with some of the most ruthless men in the drug circle to advance the mission of the Crenshaw Six and save her own life.
As the main story of besting the cartel unfolds, Lola also finds herself in a situation that is even more personal than saving her life. Lola harbors five-year-old Lucy whose early life mirrors her own. Lucy's mother is an addict who pimps the young girl to her boyfriend. Her parents are good people who try to give their granddaughter some kind of reprieve, but their landlord happens to be the father of their daughter's boyfriend. Their fear of eviction renders them silent against the horrors young Lucy faces. Determined to save Lucy from the life that Lola was forced to live, she takes on the young girl as her own. Even as Lola's entire world seems to be crashing in around her, she refuses to allow Lucy to return to the mistreatment of her home.
In Lola, author Melissa Scrivner Love writes a thriller that contains the suspense, character development, and creativity of a seasoned veteran. The title says it all. This book is completely devoted to Lola and the people she surrounds herself with. Lola precariously balances on the edge of what is right and wrong. On the one hand, she conducts her business with a strict moral code. Lola cares deeply about her community and her gang members. At the same time, she is not afraid to get her hands dirty when the situation requires it, even if that means sacrificing personal loyalties. By having a woman be the leader of a gang in a predominately male industry, the author gives a unique perspective to what could easily have been a straight-forward drug thriller. Melissa Scrivner Love writes with an assured sense of place and voice that makes her a definite author to watch in the future. Lola is a solidly competent debut that I thoroughly enjoyed.
For more information, visit Amazon and Goodreads.
(2017, 12)
Cross Justice by James Patterson
The Alex Cross series by prolific author James Patterson has remained a consistent favorite of mine over the years. It has become a kind of tradition that I get the copy of the latest installment as a Christmas gift. As expected, I was gifted a copy of the latest novel Cross the Line this past holiday. I opened the pages of the book and was faced with a shocking realization. Somehow, I had missed the previous novel, Cross Justice! I raced to my bookshelf, and there it sat. I definitely remember opening it as a gift the year before, but for some reason I never got around to reading it. And so before reading and reviewing the latest novel, I present my review of Cross Justice a year later than expected.
Cross Justice finds Alex and his family heading to Starksville, North Carolina. Alex and his elderly grandmother Nana Mama are particularly anxious about returning to the town they once called home. Violence and drug addiction were motivating factors in the pair moving to Washington D.C. many years ago. They haven't returned to the town since that move, but now the family needs help.
Alex's cousin Stefan is in prison awaiting trial for the brutal murder of one of his students. Despite the damning amount of evidence to the contrary, Stefan maintains his innocence. At the urging of his niece Naomi Cross, a lawyer who fans of the series may remember from her part in the novel Kiss the Girls, Alex has come to lend his investigative prowess and clout. As he digs deeper into the odd circumstances of the murder, he finds more than he ever imagined . . . secrets of his own disturbing past.
Cross Justice, the twenty-third novel in the Alex Cross series, has all the trademarks of a James Patterson thriller. Short chapters and non-stop action make the book a quick and easy read. I've always noted the focus on family life and character development as one of the reasons I enjoy the Alex Cross series. In this case, I'm afraid we have too much of a good thing. The novel spends so much time focussing on the drama of the Cross family, that it distracts from the main mystery. There is even a subplot about a male killer who dresses as a woman to commit his crimes that seems to only exist to pad the book. We gain a much deeper insight into Cross's backstory, but a rushed resolution and hokey emotional ending make Cross Justice into one of the weaker installments in the series. That being said, I'll always be a fan of the series and look forward to as many Alex Cross novels as James Patterson can produce.
For more information, visit the author's website, Amazon, and Goodreads.
(2017, 11)
Ill Will by Dan Chaon
"What do you call it when someone can't tell the difference between what's real and what's not real?"
Dustin Tillman's life is in a crisis. The sudden death of his wife to cancer has left him with little control of his actions and emotions. This is particularly troubling because Dustin's work as a psychologist sees him guiding patients through their own difficult situations. Without the support and better judgement of his wife, Dustin has taken a particular interest in his patient Aqil.
Aqil is a former police officer who is obsessed with a series of drownings. In each instance, a young college-aged man disappears after a night of binge drinking. They turn up days later, drowned in local waterways. All of the investigative authorities have concluded that these deaths are accidental and unrelated, but Aqil has other theories. Blinded by his grief, Dustin willfully encourages Aqil to explore the case and even joins in the investigation. Is Dustin on the heels of a serial killer who has evaded any notice by the authorities, or is he simply supporting the delusions of a madman?
To add to Dustin's emotional stress, we learn that his childhood was no walk in the park. Along with his twin cousins, Dustin stumbled onto the bodies of his murdered parents, aunt, and uncle. We learn that his older adopted brother, Rusty, was convicted of the crime and sentenced to life in prison. Dustin's descriptive testimony of both Rusty's abuse toward him and participation in satanic rituals played the largest role in the conviction. Now, 30 years later, Dustin receives word that Rusty has been released and exonerated of all crimes. Dustin is sure that Rusty is guilty, but he can't recall specific details of that horrific night. Has he repressed these gruesome memories from his mind? Did all of the things he testified even happen?
"In the end it is the mystery that lasts and not the explanation."
- Sacheverell Sitwell, For Want of the Golden City
Ill Will is told from the shifting perspectives of various characters in the novel. While the central focus surrounds Dustin and his ironic descent into the kind of madness his profession fights against, the supporting characters are also allotted time to develop. By moving to different characters and times within the story, author Dan Chaon disorients the reader and creates a murkiness to his consistently suspenseful narrative. In a device that is as equally unique as it is satisfying, Chaon presents portions of the novel in columns. This allows different pieces of the story to unfold concurrently across perspective and time.
The subject matter is extremely grim. If you are looking for a "light" read, this may not be your cup of tea. Chaon writes of sexual and emotional abuse, drug addiction, and mental breakdown with a clarity that brings the characters to vivid realization. Despite the difficult subject matter, I was immediately sucked into the story and wasn't released until the very end. Ill Will works as both thriller and character study, shedding light upon dark situations. Chaon's dexterity with the material and inventive methods of presentation make Ill Will a disturbingly riveting read.
For more information, visit the author's website, Amazon, and Goodreads.
(2017, 10)
Book Blast/Giveaway: Pistols and Petticoats by Erika Janik
A lively exploration of the struggles faced by women in law enforcement and mystery fiction for the past 175 years
Police work from its very beginning was considered a male domain, far too dangerous and rough for a respectable woman to even contemplate doing, much less take on as a profession. A policewoman worked outside the home, walking dangerous city streets late at night to confront burglars, drunks, scam artists, and prostitutes. To solve crimes, she observed, collected evidence, and used reason and logic—traits typically associated with men. And most controversially of all, she had a purpose separate from her husband, children, and home. Women who donned the badge faced harassment and discrimination. It would take more than seventy years for women to enter the force as full-fledged officers.
Yet within the covers of popular fiction, women not only wrote mysteries but also created female characters that handily solved crimes. Smart, independent, and courageous, these nineteenth- and early twentieth-century female sleuths (including a healthy number created by male writers) set the stage for Agatha Christie’s Miss Marple, Sara Paretsky’s V. I. Warshawski, Patricia Cornwell’s Kay Scarpetta, and Sue Grafton’s Kinsey Millhone, as well as TV detectives such as Prime Suspect’s Jane Tennison and Law and Order’s Olivia Benson. The authors were not amateurs dabbling in detection but professional writers who helped define the genre and competed with men, often to greater success.
Pistols and Petticoats tells the story of women’s very early place in crime fiction and their public crusade to transform policing. Whether real or fictional, investigating women were nearly always at odds with society. Most women refused to let that stop them, paving the way to a modern professional life for women on the force and in popular culture.
Book Details:
Genre: Mystery, NonFiction, History
Published by: Beacon Press
Publication Date: February 28th 2017 (1st Published April 26th 2016)
Number of Pages: 248
ISBN: 0807039381 (ISBN13: 9780807039380)
Purchase Links: Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Goodreads
Read an excerpt:
But Alice Clement was no ordinary woman.
Unaware of—or simply not caring about—the commotion her presence caused, Clement walked straight into the office of Commissioner Carleton Simon and announced, “I’ve come to take Stella Myers back to Chicago.”
The commissioner gasped, “She’s desperate!”
Stella Myers was no ordinary crook. The dark-haired thief had outwitted policemen and eluded capture in several states.
Unfazed by Simon’s shocked expression, the well-dressed woman withdrew a set of handcuffs, ankle bracelets, and a “wicked looking gun” from her handbag.
“I’ve come prepared.”
Holding up her handcuffs, Clement stated calmly, “These go on her and we don’t sleep until I’ve locked her up in Chicago.” True to her word, Clement delivered Myers to her Chicago cell.
Alice Clement was hailed as Chicago’s “female Sherlock Holmes,” known for her skills in detection as well as for clearing the city of fortune-tellers, capturing shoplifters, foiling pickpockets, and rescuing girls from the clutches of prostitution. Her uncanny ability to remember faces and her flair for masquerade—“a different disguise every day”—allowed her to rack up one thousand arrests in a single year. She was bold and sassy, unafraid to take on any masher, con artist, or scalawag from the city’s underworld.
Her headline-grabbing arrests and head-turning wardrobe made Clement seem like a character straight from Central Casting. But Alice Clement was not only real; she was also a detective sergeant first grade of the Chicago Police Department.
Clement entered the police force in 1913, riding the wave of media sensation that greeted the hiring of ten policewomen in Chicago. Born in Milwaukee to German immigrant parents in 1878, Clement was unafraid to stand up for herself. She advocated for women’s rights and the repeal of Prohibition. She sued her first husband, Leonard Clement, for divorce on the grounds of desertion and intemperance at a time when women rarely initiated—or won—such dissolutions. Four years later, she married barber Albert L. Faubel in a secret ceremony performed by a female pastor.
It’s not clear why the then thirty-five-year-old, five-foot-three Clement decided to join the force, but she relished the job. She made dramatic arrests—made all the more so by her flamboyant dress— and became the darling of reporters seeking sensational tales of corruption and vice for the morning papers. Dark-haired and attractive, Clement seemed to confound reporters, who couldn’t believe she was old enough to have a daughter much less, a few years later, a granddaughter. “Grandmother Good Detective” read one headline.
She burnished her reputation in a high-profile crusade to root out fortune-tellers preying on the naive. Donning a different disguise every day, Clement had her fortune told more than five hundred times as she gathered evidence to shut down the trade. “Hats are the most important,” she explained, describing her method. “Large and small, light and dark and of vivid hue, floppy brimmed and tailored, there is nothing that alters a woman’s appearance more than a change in headgear.”
Clement also had no truck with flirts. When a man attempted to seduce her at a movie theater, she threatened to arrest him. He thought she was joking and continued his flirtations, but hers was no idle threat. Clement pulled out her blackjack and clubbed him over the head before yanking him out of the theater and dragging him down the street to the station house. When he appeared in court a few days later, the man confessed that he had been cured of flirting. Not every case went Clement’s way, though. The jury acquitted the man, winning the applause of the judge who was no great fan of Clement or her theatrics.
One person who did manage to outwit Clement was her own daughter, Ruth. Preventing hasty marriages fell under Clement’s duties, and she tracked down lovelorn young couples before they could reach the minister. The Chicago Daily Tribune called her the “Nemesis of elopers” for her success and familiarity with everyone involved in the business of matrimony in Chicago. None of this deterred twenty-year-old Ruth Clement, however, who hoped to marry Navy man Charles C. Marrow, even though her mother insisted they couldn’t be married until Marrow finished his time in service in Florida. Ruth did not want to wait, and when Marrow came to visit, the two tied the knot at a minister’s home without telling Clement. When Clement discovered a Mr. and Mrs. Charles C. Marrow registered at the Chicago hotel supposedly housing Marrow alone, she was furious and threatened to arrest her new son-in-law for flouting her wishes. Her anger cooled, however, and Clement soon welcomed the newlyweds into her home.
Between arrests and undercover operations, Clement wrote, produced, and starred in a movie called Dregs of the City, in 1920. She hoped her movie would “deliver a moral message to the world” and “warn young girls of the pitfalls of a great city.” In the film, Clement portrayed herself as a master detective charged with finding a young rural girl who, at the urging of a Chicago huckster, had fled the farm for the city lights and gotten lost in “one of the more unhallowed of the south side cabarets.” The girl’s father came to Clement anegged her to rescue his innocent daughter from the “dregs” of the film’s title. Clement wasn’t the only officer-turned-actor in the film. Chicago police chiefs James L. Mooney and John J. Garrity also had starring roles. Together, the threesome battered “down doors with axes and interrupt[ed] the cogitations of countless devotees of hashish, bhang and opium.” The Chicago Daily Tribune praised Garrity’s acting and his onscreen uniform for its “faultless cut.”
The film created a sensation, particularly after Chicago’s movie censor board, which fell under the oversight of the police department, condemned the movie as immoral. “The picture shall never be shown in Chicago. It’s not even interesting,” read the ruling. “Many of the actors are hams and it doesn’t get anywhere.” Despite several appeals, Clement was unable to convince the censors to allow Dregs of the City to be shown within city limits. She remained undeterred by the decision. “They think they’ve given me a black eye, but they haven’t. I’ll show it anyway,” she declared as she left the hearing, tossing the bouquet of roses she’d been given against the window.
When the cruise ship Eastland rolled over in the Chicago River on July 24, 1915, Clement splashed into the water to assist in the rescue of the pleasure boaters, presumably, given her record, wearing heels and a designer gown. More than eight hundred people would die that day, the greatest maritime disaster in Great Lakes history. For her services in the Eastland disaster, Clement received a gold “coroner’s star” from the Cook County coroner in a quiet ceremony in January of 1916.
Clement’s exploits and personality certainly drew attention, but any woman would: a female crime fighter made for good copy and eye-catching photos. Unaccustomed to seeing women wielding any kind of authority, the public found female officers an entertaining—and sometimes ridiculous—curiosity.
Excerpt from Pistols and Petticoats: 175 Years of Lady Detectives in Fact and Fiction by Erika Janik. Copyright © 2016 & 2017 by Beacon Press. Reproduced with permission from Beacon Press. All rights reserved.
Readers Are Loving Pistols and Petticoats!
Check out this awesome article in Time Magazine!“Erika Janik does a fine job tracing the history of women in police work while at the same time describing the role of females in crime fiction. The outcome, with a memorable gallery of characters, is a rich look at the ways in which fact and fiction overlap, reflecting the society surrounding them. A treat for fans of the mystery—and who isn’t?” ~ Katherine Hall Page, Agatha Award–winning author of The Body in the Belfry and The Body in the Snowdrift
“A fascinating mix of the history of early policewomen and their role in crime fiction—positions that were then, and, to some extent even now, in conflict with societal expectations.” ~ Library Journal
“An entertaining history of women’s daring, defiant life choices.” ~ Kirkus Reviews
Author Bio:
Erika Janik is an award-winning writer, historian, and the executive producer of Wisconsin Life on Wisconsin Public Radio. She’s the author of five previous books, including Marketplace of the Marvelous: The Strange Origins of Modern Medicine. She lives in Madison, Wisconsin.Catch Up With Our Ms. Janik On: Website, Goodreads, Wisconsin Public Radio, & Twitter!
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