The Two Mrs. Grenvilles by Dominick Dunne

This novel by Dominick Dunne is everything the backcover blurbs promise – compelling, steamy, engrossing, fast-paced, and diverting. Dunne has a reputation for being on the inside when it comes to information about the rich and famous, and this novel is no departure from that. His tale takes a sexually promiscuous showgirl and turns her into a society stunner after she marries the only son and heir to the New York Grenville fortune.

While not an original plot, Dunne’s treatment of Urse Mertens, a little nobody from Pittsburg, Kansas who turns into Ann Arden Grenville, arbiter of style and member of the jet-set and ultimately murderess, is fascinating. Dunne writes well, and only a few glitches (like saying that someone is a direct relation to Katherine Howard, Henry VIII’s 5^th wife, who got her head cut off before she could produce any children for him) shows him to be fallible with the facts. His other details about the right place to buy one’s flowers, linens and clothes in New York, I’m hoping, are more en pointe.

Mostly, Dunne has a good sense for what makes people tick. His portraits not only of gold digger Ann, but of her stuffy mother-in-law Alice, and her hapless husband, Junior “Billy” Grenville, are rich and layered. He is not content to make them caricatures of themselves, but allows them to grow as people who make decisions and choices for very understandable human reasons, even if those decisions are not the right ones to make. Dunne shows Ann’s cleverness, which of course must face off against that of her wealthy boyfriend’s snobbish family. He shows their snobbishness, and that of their friends, but in the end it is only Ann’s crime that brings her back to being a person of little consequence.

It is not a short book, being over 300 pages, but it is an interesting one from beginning to end, as Ann is pursued by a writer who wants to know the truth behind the night her husband died, and to get a little revenge of his own for being marginalized by her years earlier. I sense hints of Truman Capote’s story here, a story Dunne would also know well, but he could be talking about his own experience of getting to the heart of high–profile, high-class crime.

I strongly recommend this book for adults, because some of the sexual escapades would probably be a bit much for young teens. I think you need to be a bit cynical to enjoy the story, which is a story of luck and ambition, both of which eventually run out for the younger Mrs. G. This would make a great book to take along to a spa or resort, because it will take you some hours of leisure living to get through, but you won’t want to put it down until you do.  

Visions of Sugar Plums by Janet Evanovich

Reviewed by Gerti

Janet Evanovich has the ultimate recipe for writing success. She takes a fabulously interesting protagonist, bail bondswoman Stephanie Plum, and puts her in the craziest situations imaginable. In this book, it’s a few days before Christmas, and Stephanie wakes up to find a man in her apartment. Not just any man, but a sexy sort of superman/alien named Diesel, who has the ability to open locks and seems to know things about the universe the rest of us don’t, like why a fugitive named Sandy Claws is having a hard time making toys this season.

While she is initially shocked and scared to find Diesel has gotten into her place, he is not a serial killer, but becomes instead Stephanie’s sidekick as she visits her funny family, led by her hot-to-trot Grandma Mazur, and her unexpectedly pregnant sister, Valerie. Diesel also accompanies Stephanie to the little shop in Jersey where Claws supposedly sells toys, and to other locales, like where little people/elves are hired as toymakers. No problem if large humans can’t enter. Stephanie has a friend named Briggs who is vertically challenged and owes her a favor. She convinces him to apply for a job, and together they infiltrate the organization, only to find that some other alien/super creature named Ring is after Claws and determined to shut down his toy operation. Diesel explains how it’s an old rivalry, but I don’t really care. What it is, is funny. I especially love where Stephanie gets attacked by elves. LOL funny.

I’ve read a number of books by Evanovich now, and you don’t read them to increase your IQ, improve your manners or increase your vocabulary. But they are great fun to read because her characters are vastly entertaining and appallingly unique. Her books are easy to digest and if there is very little mystery, or at least very little mystery that can be solved using normal human logic, well, that’s part of the fun. “Visions of Sugar Plums” is escapist literature at its best, but Evanovich keeps the comedy coming, and that’s what keeps me picking up her books.

Old Friends and New Fancies by Sybil Brinton

Reviewed by Gerti

What an odd duck this book is! According to the cover blurb, “Old friends and New Fancies” is the first ever Jane Austen sequel, and perhaps among the earliest fan fiction ever! Little is known of author Sybil Brinton except that she penned this love letter to Austen’s fiction back in 1913. It’s a wonderful read, because the language she uses is more similar to that of Austen’s day than what fan fiction writers put out today, so it’s almost like finding another, final Austen novel that ties all her plots together! The only thing Brinton fails at, is that she doesn’t have Austen’s sharp wit, but it is a small failing indeed when there is so much other fun to be had! It’s like riding in a literary time machine!

Brinton is gifted at finding connections between the various characters in Austen’s novels (excluding juvenilia, “Lady Susan” and “Sanditon”.) She starts with JA’s most popular work, “Pride and Prejudice”, and does the usual thing, with Georgiana Darcy engaged to Colonel Fitzwilliam. She then breaks that couple up and allows them to find new fancies, much as the title says. Fitzwilliam finds himself falling in love with Mary Crawford, one of the pair of sophisticated siblings who appear in “Mansfield Park” to play with the hearts of the Bertram family. Georgiana also forms a connection to Mansfield, when she finds herself proposed to by a sailor named William Price, the brother of goody-two-shoes Fanny Price, the heroine of that novel. Trouble occurs when Sir Walter Eliot of “Persuasion” fame also sets his cap at Mary Crawford, and a younger Bennet sister likewise expects an offer of marriage from handsome Mr. Price.

Do you feel your heart beating faster already? Yes, for true Austen fans, this novel is a delightful mashup of Austen’s best and worst characters, with trouble-making Mrs. Jennings (from “Sense and Sensibility”) killing Kitty’s chances at romance, and Lucy Ferrars (once Steele, from the same novel) poisoning Lady Catherine de Bourgh’s mind against poor Mary Crawford. Heroes, villians and classic characters all dance around for the enjoyment of Austen fans, and I couldn’t get enough of it, even though Brinton’s book weighs in at 377 pages.

Sad notes for me: Colonel Brandon is dead by the start of the book, so we don’t get to hear from him (and I always found his character so appealing!) Mary Bennet is also excluded (although she’d be the perfect bride for a curate) as is Mrs. Bennet, whose “spasms and flutterings” add so much humor to “P & P”. But Emma Woodhouse is here, now Mrs. Knightley of course, and she’s still matchmaking despite learning her lesson in the book that shares her name. And while little is seen of Catherine Morland from “Northanger Abbey”, her brother and greedy friend Isabella Thorpe play a role here, too. And I’ll just give you this spoiler – Isabella gets the groom she deserves in the end! In short, this book is a must read for all Austen fans. I’ve just finished and can’t wait to read it again!

Bleachers by John Grisham

Review by Gerti

Although John Grisham is best known for his legal dramas, I recently picked up a copy of his football-centric novel “Bleachers”. And just like those other books of his that I’ve enjoyed most, this one is personality driven story. The reader has to like former high school quarterback Neely Chenshaw in order to like the novel. The good news is, thanks to the lovingly human descriptions of Neely penned by Grisham, I do.

The story is ostensibly about the dying days of former Messina high school football coach Eddie Rake. The vigil in those final days has brought many former Spartan players back home, and they meet on the bleachers at the MHS football field to remember their Coach, and their own glory days. This is where the story is strongest, as these boys sit around and tell tales, revealing some secrets and keeping others hidden, all while drinking beer under those Friday night lights.

Not only do members of Neely’s ’87 state championship team show up, but guys who played the game for the Coach decades before and after make an appearance. Rake was an institution in the town for years and had a winning streak of about 80 games. But he was fired after a practice session in the hot sun caused one young boy to die of heatstroke, and the town was never the same.

“Bleachers” is a fascinating story of football and the men who play it, the fans who love it, and what really goes on behind the scenes at a high school and college level. I’m not normally given over to reading about sports, but Grisham made this a novel I did not want to put down. First there is the drama about when the Coach will die that drives the action, but mostly it’s discovering these men – the football players themselves – that is most fascinating. It is something that women don’t generally get to see, or understand, this comradery that comes to men in war and sports, and I loved this look behind the testosterone curtain.

Grisham gets a lot of credit for writing stories about lawyers and what happens in courtrooms, but this book shows that his true gift is writing characters, and it doesn’t matter what they do with their time. In a novel without much of plot and taking place within a short time frame, Grisham has built a real small town with his words and peopled it with girls, boys, boosters, business owners, criminals and cops. He’s shown us harsh realities and Friday night fantasies, and in such clear, lively language that I wasn’t even bored while he was practically doing play-by-plays of the big Messina ball games. A good writer can make you interested in any topic, and John Grisham certainly proves that here, with a protagonist who is every bit as real to me as literary icons like Rhett Butler and Mr. Darcy. This book is a must read for Grisham and football fans!

Lincoln Lawyer by Michael Connelly

Review by Gerti

I have read more Michael Connelly books than I can count now, but always love it when they “star” one of my favorite protagonists. This book is one of those, since it’s hero is Mickey Haller, the infamous “Lincoln Lawyer,” so named because he is a criminal defense attorney who does his business in the back of a Lincoln Town Car. In this book, he is estranged from his former wife, who works as an LA County prosecuting attorney, and their child together. He is constantly trying to re-establish contact with daughter Hayley, but she resents her dad for working as a defense attorney because the girl believes that the State is always on the side of justice, and that he only defends the guilty.

In this book, Haller is asked to defend a “Cadillac client”, one who has the money to pay, and whose case is going to trial. This case is going to make Haller rich, and he is initially happy with it since he believes his client, Louis Roulet, is innocent. But his investigator soon learns that this case is tied to that of one of Haller’s previous clients, Jesus Menendez, who is serving a life sentence in San Quentin for raping and murdering a woman after beating her up. Haller had asked the man to plead guilty, despite his protests of innocence, because there was DNA evidence that proved he was in the woman’s apartment. However, the similarities to the rich playboy case are just too strong to pass up. Soon Haller suspects that the man serving life in prison is innocent, and the rich, successful Roulet he is currently defending may have committed both crimes. Haller knows he can win the case, but should he?

The book twists and turns around Haller, and the moral questions of law and justice. Haller is handling other cases at the same time, including those of a friendly prostitute who calls herself Glory Days, who appears in another “Lincoln Lawyer” book, and the case of some drug dealer bikers, who occasionally work as Haller’s muscle, but ALWAYS pay in cash. But it is the rich playboy realtor who is the creepiest of them all. Turns out, Roulet had the keys to Haller’s home from when the property was last sold, and although he discovers the kid there, Haller doesn’t realize that his one-of-a-kind gun has been stolen from his house until the gun is used to kill his investigator. The man had been getting too close to solving the Roulet case, but the gun is Roulet’s trump card. If it’s linked to Haller, the lawyer will go to jail for the murder of his investigator, so Roulet holds on to it to make sure Haller defends him successfully. It has all been a set-up, and Haller has fallen deep into Roulet’s trap before he figures it out. Will he still save the guilty man from jail? The moral/ethical dilemma is not resolved to the reader’s satisfaction until the final chapter.  

Killing Cupid a Jaine Austen mystery by Laura Levine

Review by Gerti

“Killing Cupid” is another funny mystery from the author of the Jaine Austen mysteries, Laura Levine. Unlike other authors who have gotten their literary inspiration from famed British novelist Jane Austen, Laura Levine’s only connection with the original author is the heroine’s name. This is not even a running joke in this book, as it was in Levine’s first novel, “This Pen for Hire.” Perhaps author Levine realized that not that many people who read mysteries know who Jane Austen is, or perhaps she feels the joke is no longer funny. It never was, but I forgive her because so many of her other jokes hit the mark.

Levine’s has been writing comedy for a long time. She wrote for such classic TV shows as “The Bob Newhart Show” and “Laverne and Shirley” and her skills are one display here, as heroine Jaine solves yet another murder, after being a suspect first. Her comic antics are laugh-out-loudable, but also plausible, which is what makes them so fun! These comic turns are what I really love about the book, and the series.

In “Killing Cupid”, Jaine is a freelance writer who gets the call of a lifetime. Famed matchmaker Joy Amoroso wants her to do some writing for “Dates of Joy,” Beverly Hill’s premier matchmaking firm. When she gets there, Jaine finds the place filled with employees who are malcontents and freaks, as Joy is a monster to work for. Not only that, but she cheats her clients, by getting models (male and female) to come in and leave their headshots, and then presenting them as clients so that other less endowed humans will sign up to date them, for big bucks. Jaine is supposed to be writing the bios for these beautiful people, and even though she finds the work less than ethical, she has a stack of bills to pay.

Some of the usual cast of characters makes an appearance in this novel, like Jaine’s nosey neighbor Lance Venable. Unlike in Levine’s first book where he is a nebbish with super hearing, he is presented as homosexual here, a trait which gets more pronounced in her book “Death of a Neighborhood Witch.”

I’m also tired of the frequent references to Jaine’s cat, Prozac, but I understand that is part of Levine’s schtick, just as Joanne Fluke‘s cat is an important character in all her Hannah Swensen food-related mysteries. Jaine’s parents also make frequent appearances through a series of e-mails from their retirement home in Tampa Vistas. This is like a Seinfeld episode, where Jerry’s crazy parents always have some antics going on. While a comic diversion, it seems to be filler for a book without enough action by the main characters.

In short, Levine’s comic talents and easy writing style make it a pleasure to go along for this kill ride. The twist ending will leave even savvy readers surprised.

Where Are the Children? by Mary Higgins Clark

Review by Gerti

“Where Are the Children?” is the first book ever written by Mary Higgins Clark, and as such, you might expect it to be a clumsy, adolescent effort, but it is not. “Where Are the Children?” is a glorious start to Clark’s magnificent career writing suspense novels, the perfect jumping off point for a future #1 New York Times bestselling author and “Queen of Suspense.” It tells the story of a woman named Nancy Harmon, who many years ago changed her name and fled the West Coast after her two young children turned up missing, and then dead. The upheaval of their loss caused her first husband, a controlling college professor, to commit suicide. So as the novel opens, Nancy has moved to Cape Cod, remarried, and given birth to another two children. The crisis - a major anniversary of her previous family’s misfortune is one day away.

If it sounds like the train of her life is about to jump the tracks, it is, and the story is told by Clark at a breath-taking pace. The reader is transported on that runaway train, with the action happening fast and furious, and a surprise around every bend. Anyone used to Clark’s novels will know her style, but this book is even better than many she has penned since. The writing is clear, crisp, and with almost Hemingway-style precision, Clark tells the story of what happens the day Nancy’s second set of children goes missing.

The town turns out to help, and while there are those who are quick to condemn her, like local law enforcement, there are also those folks who go out of their way to help her, like her mother’s psychologist boyfriend. Her husband is a picture of support, and it is awe inspiring how Clark knits together the tiniest details to provide the clues to where the children are, and who has taken them. Like some of her darker short stories, Clark deals here with frequently visited topics of hers like repressed memories, pedophilia, intuition, and of course, the wrongly accused. Like a three-ring circus, Clark presents several scenes taking place simultaneously which all come together in an unexpected conclusion, and it’s a delight to be in the audience for the show.

“Where Are the Children?” is a wonderful book which fully explains why Clark was paid a fortune (a million dollars!) for writing her next novel. While it’s not life-changing, and therefore can’t be called important literature, it will nonetheless thrill any reader who picks it up and gets on this high-octane rollercoaster ride as the mystery gets solved and the guilty are punished. Awesome!