Break No Bones by Kathy Reichs

I'd heard of the TV series Bones but have never seen it nor was I aware it was based on Kathy Reichs' character, Dr. Temperance Brennan. Dr. Brennan is an archaeologist/accidental sleuth in a series. This is book #9, the first one I've read. I'm usually not a fan of serial mysteries because they follow a formula. I enjoyed much of this one though.

First of all, Dr. Brennan is a woman. I didn't have to put up with the terse, wise cracking, hard drinking male sleuth lead type character. Unfortunately, the story did follow the usual formula in a couple of different ways. There's the terse lines and attempts at wit. For some reason, there's always some talk about what the characters are eating. There's always an estranged loved one and a new romantic interest already going on or in the wings. There's always some obligatory conflict going on there. Yawn.

The first two thirds of the book held my interest. I was surprised when they made their arrest about fifty pages before the end of the story. Still, there had to be a danger scene or two thrown in there and a curve ball about that arrest. Was it the right guy or not?

In the end, as usual, all's well that ends well.

It was better than 90% of serial mysteries I've read.

Break No Bones falls into these challenges:

Cane River by Lalita Tademy

Thursday Thirteen

I just finished Cane River by Lalita Tademy this morning, just in time for Thursday Thirteen. I didn't have a theme idea for today so this really comes in handy!

Thirteen Thoughts about Cane River

1. Based on her family history, Lalita Tademy wrote the book as fiction.

2. Writing the book that way was a great idea so that she could fill in details and conversations without spoiling the integrity of real-to-life history.

3. Cane River spans a period of over 100 years, beginning in 1834 and ending around 1936.

4. The book focuses on four incredibly strong women in the family: Elisabeth, Suzette, Philomene and Emily.

5. Each of the women was born into slavery.

6. The lives of slaves were pretty harsh and brutal--especially the fact that they were human beings and had no say over their lives. A white master could take a female slave and she would not be able to stop it.

7. Set in and around the Cane River in Louisiana, I learned that there were gens de coleur libre. They were well-to-do people of color who owned small farms, plantations and ... yes, slaves! They looked down their noses at the slaves. It boggles my mind that not only white people did this but so did this group!

8. There was a "bleaching" of the family line that went on almost during the entire span of the book. That meant the women bore children by white men.

9. Each mother hoped her children would be better off but it didn't work out that way.

10. The Jim Crow laws are/were sickening. Children could be robbed of their inheritance and birth rights and they could do nothing about it.

11. I learned people in the area spoke Creole French almost all the time, not English.

12. Night Riders (the Klan) could be brutal to other white people as well as black people.

13. This was an engrossing book. You learn a lot without being stifled with dry facts.

Cane River is in these challenges:

1916 by Morgan Llewellyn

Morgan Llewellyn wrote a series about members of the Halloran family, focusing on key events in modern Irish history. This book is the first of the series. Although it's called 1916, it begins in 1912. Young Ned Halloran is travelling to the U.S. with his parents to attend his sister's wedding. They're booked on ... the Titanic! This part of the book was very moving as are other passages that describe events such as Bloody Sunday. If you read and enjoyed the Kent Family Chronicles, you'll enjoy this book and perhaps want to go on and read the others in the series: 1921, 1949, 1972 and 1999.

I love historical fiction and so I really wanted to enjoy the book. I didn't for a couple of reasons:

Llewellyn tried to tell too many stories at once. Instead of focusing on just the one who was supposed to be the main character (Ned Halloran), the story moved back and forth between Ned and his sister in America, Kathleen. I really didn't care about Kathleen, her controlling husband or the Catholic priest, Father Paul. I often wondered why we were "going there". That story could have made its own little book and made Ned's story more interesting.

I mentioned the Kent Family Chronicles. Members of that family interacted with real historical people too but not on an intimate level (or so it seemed to me). Ned becomes too involved too quickly with historical characters for me to believe. I don't want to give away too many of the details except to say this--if you're plotting a coup or a revolution, leaders have to be absolutely sure the people they talk to are totally trust worthy. I was surprised at how much information Ned was given so quickly.

Other than those things (which bothered me greatly unfortunately), it was a good book.

1916 was in these challenges:

Everything She Ever Wanted by Ann Rule

Ann Rule is one of the best true crime writers I've ever read. She adds such feeling to the events surrounding the crimes that I get goose bumps. There were times when I was reading Everything She Ever Wanted that I just wanted to be able to grab people, shake them and yell, "Are you blind? Don't you know what's happening here?"

Patricia Radcliffe Taylor has since been nicknamed "The Deadly Magnolia". Loved and protected by her parents her entire life (probably until their deaths), Taylor has lied to and manipulated people to get what she wanted. Along the way, one of her husbands, Tom Allanson, was convicted of murdering his own parents ... but did he? I vaguely remember that story from the newspapers and the dry facts reported were pretty wild and unbelievable. It didn't end there. The road is strewn with the bodies of people Taylor drove over to get what she wanted out of life--and it was never enough.

I won't go any further into what happened in the book. It's pretty incredible and although it's disturbing and I wanted to put the book down several times, I'd say it's because Ann Rule did such a good job with her writing style and reporting. If I ever had to be in the same room as Taylor, I wouldn't be able to stay. I'd have to get as far away from that woman as I could.

Everything She Ever Wanted crosses another one off these challenges:

The Widow's War by Sally Gunning

I wasn't sure if I'd like The Widow's War by Sally Gunning so I was pleasantly surprised to find myself hooked on it so quickly. I'd never written anything by Gunning before. She's done an awesome amount of research and it shows in setting, background information and even in the way the characters speak to each other.

Lyddie Berry is a whaler's wife in 1761 Cape Cod. Life has never been easy for her. She's left alone for months at a time while her husband goes to sea. Still, she's very happy with her life and with her husband. They loved each other very much.

One risk all whaler's wives face, of course, is losing their husbands to the sea and that's exactly what happens one January day. Life goes from being hard to nearly unbearable. Women in those times had little to no rights. For widows, it's even worse. In Lyddie's case, she goes from having some control of her life to none. According to law, she inherits only 1/3 of her husband's estate. The bulk of it goes to the next living male adult--in this case, it's Lyddie's controlling and thoroughly dislikeable son-in-law.

At first Lyddie tries to adjust to her new life but she is miserable. When she's encouraged to think and to make a few decisions on her own, though, she begins to break free of the repressive household she lives in. Her life becomes even more harsh and bitter but ... it's her life and circumstances now.

I was completely hooked early on as I mentioned and carried forward on a page-turning momentum to find out what happens to Lyddie. About halfway into the book, though, there were some circumstances that made me wonder if the whole point of the story had become blurred. I wasn't sure I liked the newest complications but I kept on going with the story to the end. Frankly, I think the story was much better without them but what are you going to do? Nothing's perfect.

All in all, it was a very satisfying read and I liked the ending very much. I learned a great deal in the best way possible--by enjoying a mostly well written story!

The Widow's War fit these challenges:

Nightmare House by Douglas Clegg

Do you remember an old Gothic TV soap opera called Dark Shadows? I loved the show and am still a fan, even after all these years. One of the main settings of the series was the very haunted Collinwood.

Harrow House of Nightmare House by Douglas Clegg makes me think of Collinwood. It's haunted and can be evil, has very interesting and "different" characters inhabiting it, and has rooms within rooms, secret passageways and rooms and everything you'd want to have in a terrifying old house. Yet, Harrow House is not centuries old. It was built by Justin Gravesend and added on with parts of buildings he'd admired. The additions prompted the villagers to nickname it "The Mad House".

If the house doesn't have the age factor, of having had many people die there and so on, why is it haunted by evil spirits? There's a reason and it's revealed more than half way through the book. By then, of course, I was completely hooked.

I wasn't so sure at first. The story is told, in one form or another, by Justin Gravesend's grandson, Ethan. Ethan is 29 when he inherits Harrow House from his grandfather and moves there in 1926. Almost immediately, "strange things are happening"! Ethan encounters some eccentric persons, living and ... not? He uncovers that evil secret that's been kept for years.

The house --or is it someone or something else? -- moves to control Ethan.

There's definitely a gothic feel to all of it. As I said, I was very hooked after a tentative start. The book switches from first-person diary form to third person and I wasn't sure how I felt about that shift. It doesn't matter. It's a fine ghost story.

The book falls into these book challeges:

I wanted to say a very grateful thank you to Imperfect Stepford Wife for giving me a "Beautiful Blogger" award. I feel honored!