Buried Prey by John Sandford

Lucas Davenport #21. I read the first 20 books in this series a long time ago! I have decided to catch up on some of the series I started years ago. Lucas Davenport has popped in my head often while reading Michael Connelly's series about Harry Bosch. I remember really loving how much Lucas changed - basically matured - over the years, and Harry is doing the same thing. This book was an interesting re-introduction into Lucas Davenport. First of all, the abduction/murder happened back in 1985 when Davenport was a new cop. The first 180 pages told the story of the original crime and Lucas' involvement in the investigation. I have to say, I'm not a big fan of Lucas from 1985! He was a womanizer and full of himself. It was hard to go back to that, and for awhile I wondered if I had changed my mind about liking him so much in the later books. Fortunately, the story switches to "present day" Lucas on page 181. I was able to confirm that I like the matured Lucas. Ha!

Two young sisters, blond-haired and blue-eyed, go missing in 1985. A homeless man named Scrape, with diagnosed schizophrenia, who everyone recognizes because he bounces a basketball around town, is accused of their abduction and murder. There is plenty of evidence. Lucas, a new cop who is asked to help out in this investigation in plain clothes (his introduction into being a detective) believes that it's a little too neat. The police get anonymous 911 tips about each and every piece of evidence, which seems suspicious. Lucas wants to go a different direction in the investigation. No one else wants to work that hard when they have such an "easy suspect" in Scrape. Lucas kept up his private investigation on another suspect (which he was unable to locate) for a year. Then he dropped it and moved on.

Now flash ahead to 2011 (I believe) and the bodies of the two girls are discovered. They had been buried in cement. The building was torn down and contractors were at the site digging up the old cement. Lucas knows who they are immediately. This time he will not stop until he finds the real killer. He feels incredible guilt for dropping the case all those years ago, especially since it's acknowledged that several other young girls were abducted and killed after the two sisters in 1985.

Lucas is a hot-head and people have to keep him in line. But he is the detective that I remembered. I am happy to be catching up on this series.

Wendy's Rating: ****

Wild and Distant Seas by Tara Karr Roberts

This book is separated into four different parts. Each part has a different narrator. The first part, narrated by Evangeline, begins in Nantucket in 1849. I got sucked into the story immediately because it reminded me of one of my all-time favorite books, Ahab's Wife by Sena Jeter Naslund. It brought me back to Ahab and his ship Pequod and his fevered hunt for the big white whale. (Yes, I have read Moby Dick too, but didn't like it nearly as much!)

Evangeline is the matriarch of the family that follows. Evangeline ends up on Nantucket as a young woman and marries a tavern owner, Hosea Hussey. Unfortunately, Hosea dies early in their marriage. Lost at sea. She takes over running the tavern, pretending that Hosea isn't dead. Even when she gets pregnant by a sailor, Ishmael, who stops briefly in Nantucket before joining the fated Pequod and its mission, she continues to allow the townspeople to act like her daughter is Hosea's child. Her daughter, Rachel, is devastated when she realizes that Hosea cannot be her father.

Part two is Rachel's voice. She takes over the story in 1856. When she discovers that Hosea could not be her father, she becomes obsessed with Ishmael. She does whatever it takes to find out information about him. She suspects that he is still alive because she sees a story written in a paper out of Boston that tells familiar stories related to Nantucket, Ahab's ship, and her mother, simply with different names. She eventually uses her special power (a tad different than the special power that Evangeline has of being able to "track" people and command them to do her bidding). Rachel forces her mother to forget that she has a daughter and then escapes to Boston to find the newspaper that publishes Ishmael's stories.

Rachel ends up marrying the publisher of the newspaper and they have a daughter, who they name Mara. Mara narrates part three. She is only two years old when her mother decides to leave her husband to chase after Ishmael. At the last minute, she brings Mara with her. The ship is torn apart in a storm, which causes Rachel's death. Mara is taken to an old, dilapidated nunnery, and is raised by a couple of nuns. She falls in love at 16 with a young man training to be a priest. When the young man is forced to reject her upon the arrival of the Bishop, she flees with her fellow orphan, Otavia.

Part four begins in 1900 and is the voice of Mara's daughter, Antonia, aka Annie. The obsession of finding Ishmael continues, even though none of them, except Evangeline, even really knows who he is. Annie does her own research and thinks that Ishmael is in London. She makes secret plans to go to London. Her mother stops her and moves her to Moscow, Idaho. Annie is angry at her mother for years. She saves money until she is 17 years old and resumes her plan to escape to London.

The book's final chapter is set in Nantucket in 1905, with Evangeline once again the narrator. We finally find out what happened to her after Rachel put the "forgetting curse" on her. There are a lot of layers of emotion throughout the stories of these four women. They are all four determined and persistent. They each make some poor choices, but did the best they could, knowing what they knew at the time, I guess. I really enjoyed the journey.

Wendy's Rating: *****

Verity by Colleen Hoover

I heard so many things about this book, I figured I should read it and see what the hoopla was about. The main character, Lowen Ashleigh, is a writer who isn't great with promoting herself - or her books. So, her books are not great sellers. She is chosen, however, to finish a best selling series written by a very successful author, Verity Crawford. Apparently, Verity was involved in a serious car accident and needed someone to write the last three novels of her series. She writes from the viewpoint of the antagonist, so her novels are darker in nature.

Pretty much the opening scene is Lowen witnessing a violent death on the street. A pedestrian steps off the curb in front of a truck and gets run over. His brain matter splashes on Lowen, which is obviously traumatic. How exactly does this tie in to the book? Well it doesn't really, except it's how she first meets Verity's husband, Jeremy.

With some persuasion, Lowen agrees to write the three remaining books of this series. (Basically, her mother just died and she is deep in debt, so that alone should have persuaded her that this is a good and necessary opportunity. She was getting kicked out of her apartment too, because she couldn't pay the rent.) Anyway, Jeremy is the one who convinces her.

Lowen travels to the Crawford house to look through Verity's office to try to find her notes or outlines about Verity's plans for the remaining novels. She doesn't find any, but she does find an autobiographical book (in draft form) written by Verity. So, while she reads the first few books in the series and writes her own notes/outlines about the upcoming novels, she also reads Verity's autobiography "to get inside her head". What she reads is deeply disturbing. Lowen is also uncomfortable staying at the Crawford home because of Verity's presence, who is bed-bound unless her nurse transports her to the kitchen table for family dinners. But Lowen suspects something else is going on with Verity. Jeremy & Verity's twin daughters had both previously died tragically, within a year of each other. Their son, Crew, who is only 5 years old, is their only child left.

The book is definitely a page-turner and spooky in parts. There are a couple of twists in the story, one I was expecting, the other I wasn't. The ending is open to interpretation. I can see how this would be a good discussion for a book club. I did find myself thinking about the ending, and each character's motives, for days after I finished the book.

Wendy's Rating: ****

Beartown by Fredrik Backman

I heard this was a story about hockey, and that is certainly true. But it's about a lot of other things as well: relationships, friendships, team building, loyalty, honesty, community, grief, betrayal, abuse. Living in a "hockey family" myself, the messages really hit home.

There are many different philosophies when coaching a sports team. I have experienced various philosophies about the best way to "run a team" over the years since all three of my sons were/are athletes. In this book, there are two main coaches. David is the coach of the junior team. He is a younger coach and well-loved. He focuses on the strength of the boys. He writes positive messages on hockey pucks and gives them to key players when he sees they need a "boost". The problem is, he dislikes the General Manager of the team, Peter. Peter was an extremely talented hockey player who moved to Canada to play with the NHL. When he was injured, not once, but three significant times, his hockey career was over. Eventually he is asked to come back to Beartown (a small hockey town in Sweden where he grew up) to be the General Manager. I never really understood why David doesn't like him. The second coach, Sune, is the coach of the A team (the upper team). He has been around a long, long time. He used to coach Peter when Peter was the star of the town. Sune is set in his ways, old, and "old school". The hockey board wants Peter to ask him to resign. Since it's a small town, there really aren't any secrets, so Sune knows what's coming and makes his peace with it before Peter even talks to him.

The star of the junior team is Kevin. His best friend, Benji, isn't the best hockey player, but he plays first line with Kevin because he makes plays that allows Kevin to shine - and score. The entire town of Beartown has their hopes set on Kevin. He is elevated to hero status. He will bring their team - and town - back into the limelight, which is where they were when Peter was the star. They have made it to the Nationals semi-final. All they have to do it win the semi-final game and then play in the final. Winning in the final would bring prosperity to the town once again since the win would guarantee a new hockey school being built there.

Now that I have explained, very briefly, the "hockey stuff", I can tell you that there are many, many layers in this story. Each and every character is multi-faceted. Many of them have a history of trauma of one sort or another. Some come from loving homes. Some have been severely neglected. Some are bullied because of their nationality or life of poverty. Some have suffered loss that has deeply affected them. The key mantra of this town however is "Hockey will save us. Just stay silent". When a girl is raped by a hockey player, everyone takes sides. Most of the townspeople side with the hockey player. Because. He. Is. A. Hockey. Player. I had to put the book down a couple of times just to take a break from the brutalness of this. Basically, she gets raped again - by the town.

This is a very well-written book. I found myself getting out my small post-its to mark certain passages. It's a deep dive into this small town and all the people who live there and their inner characters. At one point, Sune comments, "For me, culture is as much about what we encourage as what we actually permit." A very significant insight considering all this is happening in this town. I really loved the depth of this book.

Wendy's Rating: *****