Anne Hillerman: Stargazer, 9780062908346, Harper Collins US, paperback

As a huge fan of Tony Hillerman’s crime novels, set in the Southwest three corner states of the Navajo nation, I was very happy when his daughter,  journalist Anne Hillerman,  picked up the pen from her father after his death and rose to the challenge of continuing writing about three of her father’s characters:  Joe Leaphorn, Jim Chee and Bernie Manuelito  

“Stargazer” is her sixth novel in the series but mostly plot and writing do not match her father’s brilliance, although some titles stand out. I usually go for the Navajo mythology, description of nature and landscape but plot wise it is often more cozy crime, so I think I stick to re-reading my old
Tony Hillerman collection in the future which are in a league of their own.

 Jocelyn Nicole Johnson: My Monticello, 9781787303027, Harvill Secker (Penguin Random House UK), hard copy
 

It is rare that I am so completely blown away by a book uttering “Wow” several times when I finished “My Monticello” by Jocelyn Nicole Johnson.  This debut will stay in my head for some time.  What a powerful, electrifying story, what an incredibly beautiful use of language, a chilling account put into narration what  has been a nightmare of mine ever since the rise of Trump and his administration.  Picture the US in a civil war like state with black neighborhoods burning, brown skinned people driven out and turned away at clinics hunted down by white supremacists, a world in chaos set on fire.  

Da’Naisha, a young black woman manages to escape these violent attacks with some neighbors, her white boyfriend Knox, her frail grandmother MaViolet and her former lover Devin high jacking a bus and driving it through chaos to Monticello, the ancient home of Thomas Jefferson, a museum now  outside  Charlottesville / Virginia.  Naisha worked there as a guide during her semester breaks and subconsciously ended up on this route.  Ironically she is also an acknowledged descendant of Sally Hemings, a black slave with whom Jefferson had several children.  What follows is Naisha’s  moving 19 day  account  of life with a group of people randomly thrown together in survival mode,  escaping with nothing but the shirts on their backs trying to hold out on Monticello  as long as possible in a collapsing state.  5 stars from me! 

 

Donna Leon: Give unto Others, 978152915119, Heinemann UK (Penguin Random House) trade paperback, publication date: March 3, 2022

As is often the case when I start a new Donna Leon novel, I find myself almost slightly bored by the seemingly insignificant story line during the first 20 % of the book but am amazed  at the same time  at her precise  observations and  careful description of human  psyche and behavior. 

“Give onto Others”  is no exception, the favor  Commissario Brunetti  does for his former neighbor Elisabetta in looking into something seemingly private and unimportant around her daughter’s life  branches out into all directions leading nowhere.  Only in the middle of the book, when her daughter’s veterinarian office is vandalized, does Brunetti step into action and the book gathers speed when he decides to look into his neighbor’s family background and motive.

I like Donna Leon’s subtle way of developing an often non bloody but psychologically astute plot. And of course there are always scenes of Venice, food, drink, Brunetti’s family and colleagues and reflections on Italy’s or Venice’s shortcomings which   always makes for a fine, escapist  reading time. It is a bit like visiting friends.

 

 

Sophie Haydock: The Flames, 9780857527639, Transworld (Penguin Random House UK) pub date: March 22, 2022

 

My first read of the year, journalist Sophie Haydock’s debut novel “The Flames” was a true hit. Thank you Transworld for the early galley. 

“The Flames” is based on four women in Egon Schiele’s life; he was one of the most controversial Austrian painters  in early 20^th century Vienna, a close friend of Gustav Klimt and known for his unusually explicit erotic paintings and sketches.  I saw them at the Albertina in Vienna and even today they are provoking. 

Schiele painted them all:  his headstrong sister Gertrude, his very first model with whom he shared an unusually close bond.  Vally: his muse, lover and model during his early year as an artists, an exceptionally free spirited, proud woman who stood by him when he was thrown into prison for his pornographic paintings and then the bourgeois, wealthy Harms sisters who both had a crush on him: Adele the older, more eccentric, possessive troublemaker of the two and Edith, the gentler, more conventional of the sisters who eventually became Egon’s wife.  

Haydock does an excellent job in painting the hard, often turbulent lives of each of them, overshadowed by WWI, taking fictional liberties with her narration but staying close to what actually happened.  She adds their biographies as an appendix and shares with the reader  what spurred her to write this excellent  novel  which I found so captivating. Egon Schiele, around whose life all four rotate, ends up being a side character. This is a book about four unusually strong women during a time when the world held very different values and female lives were very restricted, a wonderful read , sometimes heartbreakingly tragic .