So Far Gone

Finished May 1

So Far Gone by Jess Walter

The main character Rhys Kinnick has been living off-grid for the last seven years. Just before making the decision to move to his grandfather's cabin in the woods, he had punched his son-in-law Shane in the face at a Thanksgiving family gathering. He had agreed with his daughterBethany not to talk religion or politics, but Shane was talking both and goading him and with the recent 2016 election, he just snapped. 

While Rhys loves Bethany, he has never liked her taste in men. Doug, the father of her daughter Leah, was a musician who did drugs and was only too happy to sign away his rights as a father. Shane, a man she met at rehab, seemed a little too serious about religion, and in the years since he's spent time with the family, has gone even more right-wing, now belonging to a Christian church with a militia, with a headquarters in the mountains named The Rampart. 

When Rhys opens his door to a woman and two kids, he doesn't even recognize his grandchildren at first.  The woman, Anna, is a neighbour of Bethany and Shane's and Leah has come to her with a note explaining that Bethany has gone away for a while and Leah was told to take the note to Anna if Shane decided to go look for her. Rhys takes the kids in, and his grandson Asher explains that he has a chess tournament he really wants to go to.

When Rhys left the Thanksgiving get-together years ago, he threw away his phone, realizing that its constant stream of news had a lot to do with his anger. He had also recently lost his job as environmental reporter at the newspaper, and his girlfriend Lucy, who told him she never wanted to see him again.

At the location of the tournament, friends of Shane show up and forcibly take Leah and Asher with them, telling Rhys Shane told them to get them. As Rhys deals with his injuries from this encounter and vows to get his grandchildren, he resorts to asking Lucy for help and finds himself with another ex-boyfriend of hers, a retired cop with a bipolar condition that leads them both into a dangerous situation. 

As Rhys deals with his grandchildren, he also follows the trail to Bethany and finds that the distance between him and his daughter dates back much earlier, and he has to mend fences and rejoin the world to even start at making things right again. 

This is a story that is timely in the American landscape, and deals with technology's reach, the huge rift in America in terms of politics and radical evangelical Christianity, as well as family relations. Shane is a gentle man that has been led through misinformation into a radical environment that he's not as ready for as he thought. Bethany loves her husband, but also remembers her earlier life with fondness. She's also not a fan of this church which seems to hold women as lesser people. This is a story that will leave you thinking. 

Hidden

Finished February 27

Hidden by Rebecca Zanetti

This romantic suspense novel is the first book in a series that is centered around a small unorthodox group of government agents. There are two main characters. Pippa is a woman with a past that she fears will one day catch up with her. Malcolm was an undercover cop who is drafted into the small government team early in this novel. When Malcolm moves into the house that shares a yard with Pippa's it doesn't take long for them to notice each other, but they are both wary for their own reasons. 

The team Malcolm is drafted onto is made up of misfits, people who have traumas, and many have interesting quirks. 

Pippa has a job where she can work from home and interacts with others rarely. She has one woman that she meets from time to time and we learn gradually just how they know each other. Just as we learn the life that Pippa has fled, and what she has left behind.

We also learn about Malcolm's past and why he ended up where he is now. 

There are some formulaic elements to this story, and a few things that seem unlikely as plot devices, but the story is a fast-moving one, with elements of violence and sex in small doses. 

I picked up the book to meet a reading challenge, trying out an author that was new to me. 

Under the Cold Bright Lights

Finished May 12
Under the Cold Bright Lights by Garry Disher

This Australian mystery features the Melbourne detective Alan Auhl. Alan had retired from the police, but recently rejoined to work cold cases. Alan also has an unusual living arrangement. He lives in the large old house that he inherited from his parents. He rents out rooms to university students, and his university attending daughter also lives there. His ex-wife has a room in the house that she sometimes uses and the two get on well. There is a small suite at the back of the house that has been used from time to time by people who need time to get themselves together, and is currently being used by a young mother and daughter fleeing from a domestic abuse situation with a powerful man.
As the book begins, a body is found in a former agricultural area hidden under a concrete pad. Alan and his team are assigned the case, looking to find both the identity of the man and who might have killed him. Another case that Alan brings to the job himself, is one that he worked on before he retired. The two daughters of a murder victim call him every year to see if anything has turned up. He decides to look into the case again and see what he can find. Alan is also brought into another case from his past when a man that Alan had investigated for murder when both of his first two young wives died under suspicious circumstances. Alan could never prove it, but he believed the man was guilty. Now, though the man is accusing his third wife of trying to kill him, a twist that Alan doesn't believe for a minute.
On the home front, Alan is finding himself drawn into the situation with his vulnerable tenant as well. As Alan starts to make more of a productive relationship with one of his new colleagues, he also gets drawn into her personal life. There is lots going on here, and Alan is a very interesting man, who strongly believes in justice, even if it isn't always formal.

Promise Not to Tell

Finished May 29
Promise Not to Tell by Jayne Ann Krentz, narrated by Susan Bennett

This thriller takes place in and around Seattle, with two main characters who have a shared traumatic past. Virginia Troy was only a young child when she survived a deliberate fire at a rural cult compound. Her mother died in the fire, and Virginia still has nightmares about that night, despite being raised by a loving grandmother. Cabot Sutter was a bit older than Virginia when he survived that fire, and he also lost his mother. His mother's family wanted nothing to do with him, and he was raised along with two other young male survivors by a man who had his own terrors from that night, Anson Salinas, the police detective that saved them. Anson and all three of the young men have now joined together in a detective agency, and they have reason to believe the cult leader Quinton Zane is still alive despite the boat fire that was supposed to have killed him.
Virginia has made a good life running her own art gallery, and recently made contact with a couple of older women who also survived that night. They were friends of her mothers, and one of them found her truth through painting. The pictures she painted of that night are dark and haunting, even disturbing, but also very good. Virginia has taken the paintings, but it is the last painting, sent to her just as the artist died in a very suspicious manner, that has made Virginia seek out Anson and his agency as people who won't dismiss her suspicions that Zane is still alive. She is correct, and as Cabot returned to the office as she was describing the situation, he is the one that works with her on the case. It doesn't hurt that there is a spark between them, and that they both understand the other's PTSD symptoms.
At the same time this is all happening, Xavier, a younger cousin in Cabot's estranged family approaches him out of curiousity and rebellion wanting to know more about this cousin his father and grandfather hated so much. At first Cabot doesn't want to deal with him, but Virginia and Anson convince him to give the young man a chance without blaming him for his family's actions.
The cult element is very interesting, showing the tactics and personal characteristics of a sociopath intent on his own interests. This is the second book in a series, and I haven't read the first, but had no issues with that.

The Blacksmith

Finished August 6
The Blacksmith by Jenny Maxwell

This was a reread of a book I read a couple decades ago. It really stuck in my mind then, and I decided to do an interlibrary loan of it to refresh my memory. It's the first in a series, and features a girl turning into a woman. Ann is the younger of two sisters, raised by a single mom. She is constantly being made to feel a disappointment to her mother for not being feminine, graceful, and pretty, all things her older sister, Glory, definitely is. Despite this, the sisters are close and supportive of each other.
Luckily her absent father's brother Henry and his wife have taken an interest in Ann, and she spends a lot of time at their home in the country, especially with his uncle at his blacksmith shop. As a teen, her mother limited her time there, but she is elated to find that her uncle has left her the property including the house and the shop in his will, ensuring that she will not be coerced into selling it.
Ann is able to get a base education in metalwork and an apprenticeship in blacksmithing, renting out the property until she is able to take on the job of a smith herself. She is a tall, strong woman, ideal physically for this job.
One of the inclusions in her property is an old right of way through the neighbouring estate, allowing her to ride a horse through whenever she wants, and her father's other brother, John, a lawyer, makes sure she uses this right from the beginning of her use of the property, so as not to lose it. With the property vacant, this is no issue, but soon the property is sold and a group called the Children of God moves in. They try to limit her access, but Ann keeps insisting on her rights, and gaining them back. Their attitude and secrecy however mean that they do not give up easily, and Ann is soon questioning just how far they will go to keep her off their land.
This is a book of a woman who lacks confidence in many areas of her life, but has one thing, her profession, that she knows she is good at. She works on her own terms and this gives her the strength to do what she needs to do to stand her ground. It has suspense, great characters, and a good plot line. I enjoyed this read just as much as my first.