Lucie Whitehouse: Keep you close, Bloomsbury, 9781408867327, paperback

I previously read “Before we met” by Lucie Whitehouse  which was a Richard & Judy summer pick for those familiar with the British book world.  I enjoyed the suspense, a book for one of these more lighthearted reading moods and although I hate comparisons as they never do justice, Lucie Whitehouse’s psychological  thrillers are for those readers who enjoy “Gone girl”, “Girl on the train” as they always hold a twist. But she does not quite reach the level of mastery of these aforementioned novels.  I picked up “Keep you close” from my book pile the other day looking forward to a suspenseful read.  Lucie Whitehouse did not disappoint me; she knows how to keep you guessing, always on the verge of discovery.

When Rowan Winter’s best friend, the brilliant young painter Marianne Glass falls to her death from the roof of her childhood home where she lives and has her studio, Rowan knows something is terribly wrong as her friend suffered badly from vertigo.  She must have not set foot outside her studio onto the roof without a very good reason, as in the dead of winter the roof was slippery and she was literally scared to death of heights.  Marianne’s warm hearted artistic family had always been a surrogate family to Rowan who lost her mother early and had a very absent cool father. During her studies in Oxford she and Marianne became as close as sisters and her family adopted her readily. But something happened; they had not spoken a word to another for years and then days before falling to her death Marianne sends Rowan a written message only saying “I need to talk to you”.  After the funeral, Rowan offers to stay in Marianne’s house, particularly when Jacqueline, Marianne’s mother  starts worrying that her daughters valuable art work stashed in the house might get stolen.  For Rowan it is a chance to dig into the past and the lost years, trying to unravel what might have led to Marianne climbing onto the roof leading to her tragic end.  What importance did James Greenwood, Marianne’s boyfriend and gallerist, his daughter, Rowan’s and Marianne’s old friend Turk, Marianne’s brother Adam and especially the famous painter Michael Cory have in Marianne’s life?  While Rowan meets them all,  Whitehouse masterfully drags out the reason for Marianne’s and Rowan’s fall out for about 2/3^rd of the book , the real cliffhanger,  and this is when the book starts to turn into a very different direction which I will keep to myself.  “Keep you close” is an excellent psychological thriller for autumn weekends. 

Michael Harvey: The Governor’s Wife, Bloomsbury paperback, 9781408863978,

As most of you might have guessed by now, I love mysteries, suspense and thriller novels, always on the lookout for new authors. When studying Bloomsbury’s list of new publications, I discovered they had picked up Michael Harvey from Vintage in the US.  Never having read one of the Michael Kelly Investigation series, I chose “The Governor’s Wife” as my next entertainment. 

Michael Harvey’s clipped, short, descriptive sentences remind me a little of Raymond Chandler.  The other comparison coming to mind, particularly since it is set in Chicago, is that this is the male version of VI Warshawski, Sara Paretsky’s female investigator at large. Michael Kelly has a similar attitude; he gets his nose smashed up and his hands dirty because he cannot walk out of an open investigation even if it would be much better for his physical and psychological well- being.

When Michael Kelly receives an anonymous email offering him a 100.000 $ retainer into a set up account to find Raymond Perry, the former Chicago governor, with a follow up payment of  100.000 $ once he discovers his whereabouts, he only hesitates for a moment before he hits the reply button accepting the contract. Two years before Raymond Perry disappeared into thin air from a high security federal courthouse, leaving no trace after having been sentenced to thirty-eight years in prison of wire fraud and racketeering.

The last person to see him was his wife Marie, everyone is sure she knows how her husband disappeared and where he currently is. It makes perfect sense for Michael to pay the former governor’s wife a visit.  He is ill prepared for the charismatic person he encounters.  Secrets and surprises surface once he starts digging and his friend Vince Rodriguez from the Chicago PD and Andrew Wallace, an architecture student at the courthouse, ends up bailing him out of some very unpleasant developments.  

The plot is excellent, the characters are well crafted and I kept happily turning the pages of this very satisfying new discovery for me.  I look forward to reading the next Michael Kelly mystery. 

Edithsbookpicks: Daniel Silva: The Black Widow, Harper Collins,9780...

Edithsbookpicks: Daniel Silva: The Black Widow, Harper Collins,9780...: Daniel Silva: The Black Widow, Harper Collins, 9780007552368, 12, 99, C format Trade Paperback, German edition not yet published (probably ...

Daniel Silva: The Black Widow, Harper Collins, 9780007552368, 12, 99, C format Trade Paperback, German edition not yet published (probably 2017, they normally run one year behind)

Daniel Silva’s mastery of writing extremely well researched spy novels has been well documented with his former novels such as his latest, “The English Spy”, “The English Girl” or “Fallen Angel”. But what really gave me the chills is the precision with which he predicted the ISIS attacks in Europe in his newest book “The Black Widow”.  His story differs only slightly as his settings are in Paris, Amsterdam and Washington DC. He completed the work on this novel before ISIS struck with their atrocious attacks on Paris and Brussels.  Daniel Silva writes in his “Foreword” that he almost set aside the typescript for the novel when the attacks actually happened but then decided against it. His author’s notes and acknowledgements always provide terrific insight into facts gathered for his novels. Do read them!

"The Black Widow" must be backed by some incredible research; a 528 page strong book which I feel could have been edited to make it more compact, there are some lenghty parts that repeat  but all in all, a chilling page turner one is unable to put down. I cannot help wishing that secret service agents of the likes of Gabriel Allon hopefully exist fighting and infiltrating ISIS evil network far from our public knowledge.  Silva is one of the very best spy novel writers in the market without a doubt. 

As to the story, I will not reveal too much as it would spill the beans. Gabriel Allon is about to become the chief of Israel’s secret intelligence service when ISIS detonate massive bombs in the Marais district of Paris.  The terrorist mastermind behind this attack is soon identified by the French and Israel intelligence services as an Iraqi intelligence officer from one of Saddam Hussein’s infamous nightmare prisons, his prophetic nom de guerre is Saladin, the man who conquered Jerusalem back from the Christians in the 12th Century.  The French request Israel’s help as one of the places struck was the Weinberg Centre.  Hannah Weinberg, a close friend of Gabriel’s  and founder of the Center for  Anti-Semitism,  was one of many killed during the terrorist attack, Gabriel feels obliged to eliminate the man responsible for their death and to stop ISIS before

more atrocious attacks are executed.  

If this operation is to be successful, Israel’s, French, British and American intelligence have to forgo what is usually not their strongest suit, sharing secret service information and working hand in hand.  Gabriel has no doubt that key to the success of avoiding future attacks can only be achieved by infiltrating ISIS’s network. As Saladin seems to have employed the help of so-called “Black Widows”, the wives of ISIS martyrs, Gabriel recruits a young female multi-linguistic Jerusalem doctor called Natalie Mizrahi. Her task is to gain Saladin’s trust and to become part of a future mission. The next 350 pages keep you very uncomfortably on edge.  I really do not even want to think about the realistic possibility behind this fictive plot, particularly when it comes to ISIS attacks on American soil. 

Alan Serota: The Wonderful Adventures of Hearthorse and Heartman, children’s book, self-published, to be ordered via Alan Serota:   Alan@spicewoodpottery.com, www.spicewoodpotteryfineart.com

It is rare for me to review a book without even an ISBN but I have to make an exception with his delightful picture book combining abstract art, a fairytale and a spiritual, moral lesson for children.   Alan Serota who wrote and illustrated the book,  is the husband of a dear friend back in Texas,  his wife Barbara is one of the best yoga teachers I have ever met  and they both are very gifted potters and artists,  living and working  in one of the most spiritual, beautiful spots in the Hill Country near Austin/Texas.  This little gem was given to me as a present, it is not only for children but also for adults who enjoy a mystical story.

“The wonderful adventures of Hearthorse and Heartman” tells the story of Kentucky farmer Elwood Collins who raises crickets for a living, much to the dismay of his neighbor Mr. Snelds, a tobacco farmer. He wants the crickets to disappear as they love to eat his crop. Little does he care that his tobacco is making people sick. In great need of advice Elwood prays to all the divine beings and consults his friend HeartMan.  HeartMan promises to ride out into the universe with his friend HeartHorse trying to find an answer to this dilemma.  The divine being interrupts his busy work creating universes and tells HeartMan to visit the sea creatures for their wisdom. And it is the blue whales that come up with the answer for a crop everyone loves – Sea Kelp. And this is how Kentucky went from farming tobacco to cultivating sea kelp.

The book is spiral bound, on firm paper, illustrated with Alan’s bright, vivid and expressive abstract art. Go check it out and visit their website: 

www.spicewoodpotteryfineart.com

Sue Roe: The private lives of the impressionists, 

Harper Perennial, now out of print, only the hardback edition is available,  

German Edition:  Sue Roe: Das private Leben der Impressionisten,  Parthas Berlin

“The private lives of the Impressionists” has been sitting on my book pile for quite some time.  I bought it at the Chicago Art Institute’s bookshop during one my  visits a few years ago; the paperback was issued in 2007. My work then demanded reading many other manuscripts and books and therefore this copy sat unread until this summer. Meanwhile this paperback edition I purchased can only be found in second hand bookstores but the bound edition seems to be still available.  A German edition is also available.

Everyone who knows me is aware of my passion for Art; the Impressionists without a doubt have produced some of the most breathtaking paintings and sketches the world has ever seen.  Their biographies vividly described reads like fiction.  Sue Roe’s incredibly detailed research into the lives of Manet, Monet, Pisaaro, Cezanne, Caillebotte, Renoir, Degas, Sisley, Berthe Morisot and Mary Cassatt makes this book an entertaining,  fascinating read, digging deeply into  their personal history and that as a group.

The artistic struggles and poverty most of them had to endure in order to pursue their vision of painting sits in stark contrast to the prices their work fetches in auctions today. Their mistresses and wives hardly knew how to feed their families most of the time,  making moving outside of Paris a necessity because rent could no longer be paid for Parisian apartments and studios, a bizarre situation considering the riches people accumulate today with their paintings. 

Some came from more wealthy backgrounds like Mary Cassatt (the only US artist in the group) , Manet or Caillebotte who often supported their more poverty stricken fellow painters such as Cezanne or Monet in buying their work or lending money unconditionally. The artistic ridicule they had to face when presenting their paintings before the French public is inconceivable today. Cezanne in particular was considered talentless!  Had it not been for the art dealer Durand-Ruel who was later responsible for arranging the first impressionist show in the US and succeeding in securing higher prices in Europe for their work, many would have had to abandon painting or starved to death. Durand-Ruel narrowly escaped his own financial ruin several times but continued to believe in the artists and extend loans for work that had yet to be sold guaranteeing painters like Monet that they could feed their families and carry on painting.

I knew already quite a bit about the Impressionists but I feel so much more informed now about the private backgrounds of these fascinating individuals and also about French history of the 19^th century that I had simply forgotten. 

Ray Celestin: Dead Man Blues, 9781447258919, 12, 99, Mantle / Pan Macmillan

Last year I stumble across this new crime writer and reviewed “The Axeman’ Jazz” which ended up winning the CWA New Blood Dagger Award, much deservedly to my delight.  I was overjoyed to discover that Ray Celestine’s   second book which he is planning to turn into a four part series was out already. 

When one likes the first books so very much, you always wonder whether the author can pull it off again but I can tell you:  “Dead Man Blues” is just as good as “Axeman’s Jazz”.  Instead of New Orleans, the second book  is set in Chicago,  charting the history of Jazz and the Mob in the Twenties making it not only a great mystery but providing plenty of information about the days of Bronzeville, the speak easies, Al Capone and his gang and the music scene in this vibrant time of the city.  I just gobbled it all up.

The same protagonists from “Axeman’s Jazz”,   Ida Davis and Michael Tabot, now Pinkerton detectives are the main characters in “Dead Man Blues” but the book has three storylines running parallel which all come together in the end.  The plot turns so many corners that it is a good idea to stay with the book in order not to lose the strings and names running parallel. I would be a great spoil sport if I started to review exact details but fear not, I will not spoil your reading fun.

It is the summer of 1926 in Chicago and a group of corrupt politicians are poisoned with toxic champagne at a party in a famous Chicago hotel in the Black Belt.   At the same time as this event shakes up the city, Michael and Ida are hired by the mother of a missing heiress, Gwendolyn Van Haren ,  the young women seems to have vanished from the face of the earth as has her finance. Starting to dig around, they soon come across evidence suggesting  her fiancé was homosexual,  had a dark streak and was involved in some revolting activities which  Gwendolyn must have uncovered as she was about to break off the engagement.  His father , trying to marry his son off into one of Chicago’s  old society families now lacking the funds to live the lifestyle they are used to,  did not  acquire  his new riches  through ethical activities either ……

Gangster Dante Sanfelippo, a rum runner and heroin addict having fled to New York a few years ago, is called back by Al Capone with the order to unearth who might be behind the poisoning of the politicians, seriously threatening Capone’s bootlegging operations. Dante himself has a very personal interest to find the killers.

 A young crime scene photographer, Jacob Russo, is called in by the Chicago police to take shots of a gruesome murder. Jacob has taken many photographs of victims but he is unable to shake the image of the black man’s smashed in face and decides to embark on an investigation of his own.

As a back drop in the mystery, Ida’s friend Louis Armstrong is supplying her with crucial information snapped up during his gigs, playing in speak easies for gangsters and a growing chic, wealthy Chicago crowd discovering the thrill of Jazz, as Louis fame is beginning to rise.

Ray Celestin is a fantastic storyteller, he comes up with the greatest plots, all set around the Jazz scenes in the various cities.  I cannot wait to read the third book which he is thinking of setting in New York during the Forties.