February 2014 - Nightstand Book Reviews

“A Skeleton in the Family” by Leigh Perry

The cover of Leigh Perry’s “A Skeleton in the Family” intrigued me, so I had to take a peek inside the sample that Barnes and Noble happily provides for would-be buyers. I was hooked as soon as Sid came clattering down the hall.

Dr. Georgia Thackery is an intelligent adjunct English professor at a Massachusetts college, who moves into her parents’ house with her daughter, Madison. A skeleton named Sid lives in the attic, as he has since he saved Georgia when she was six.

Sid is not just any ordinary skeleton. He walks, talks, reads, can use the phone and a computer, spells better than Dr. Thackery, and can be easily collapsed into a suitcase for traveling purposes. There’s just one problem. He doesn’t know who he really is – or was, in his live past.

While on an outing to a manga/anime conference (with Sid in full cosplay – basically looking like himself) Sid sees someone whose face jogs his long lost memory. Sid soon agrees to an examination that reveals his own murder thirty years before. He seems like a nice enough skeleton, so who did it and why?

That exam leads to break-ins, suspicious behavior, assaults and more murder, with multiple oddball suspects. The supporting characters are as interesting as they are varied, including a hunky reporter boyfriend, a locksmith sister, a normal teenager, a nasty colleague, a talented grad student and other academic types. In “A Skeleton in the Family,” that mix blends perfectly with the clever interaction between Georgia Thackery and Sid. With occasional nods to bones falling off and dogs taking nips at tasty ulnas, the conversation between these two best friends is as normal as any sleuthing duo could have.

One of the nicely drawn subplots addresses the issue of adjunct faculty realities. We tend to think of adjunct college professors as part-timers who are basically working a second job, but not really interested in doing anything more. That may have been true in the past, but Perry makes the point that times have changed. In a cost-cutting move, universities across the country now hire part-timers so that they don’t have to pay the benefits and regular salaries given to full-time staffers (who might only teach one more course than their counterparts). Many adjuncts struggle to make ends meet as they move from school to school in search of that ever-elusive tenure track.

Sid the Skeleton, as crime solver? The clattering on the wooden floors might take some getting used to, but I could use an office assistant/puzzle solver that types faster than I do, has a logical mind, and can get from one side of a door to the other without ever opening it. 😉

“A Skeleton in the Family” is a very clever, engaging book with several LOL moments. I’m eagerly waiting publication of “The Skeleton Takes a Bow.”

Please visit www.leighperryauthor.com to read about Sid, Dr. Thackery and Perry’s upcoming work.

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“Is This Tomorrow” by Caroline Leavitt

Bestselling Author, Women's Fiction

A sixth grader disappears in broad daylight from a 1950s Boston suburb in “Is This Tomorrow” and everyone is brought to a standstill by shock, grief and suspicion. The police investigate, but not thoroughly enough for anyone’s expectations. Even divorcee, Ava Lark, comes under scrutiny, just because she is single, Jewish, working, and the missing boy (her son’s best friend) spent time at her house.

Everybody that knew the missing boy, Jimmy, even in passing, is questioned without success. He seems to have vanished off the face of the earth. Neighborhood watches are organized, the woods are searched, parents walk the children back and forth to school, ‘stranger’ warnings are issued. Everyone is in denial; nobody wants to think the worst. His sister and best friend even choose to believe that Jimmy just left – that he went to a wonderful place on their ‘travel map’ – the route they had promised to take together when they got older.

Time passes and people adjust to the idea that Jimmy is gone. The friends and neighbors promise never to forget, to keep looking, but to most of the world, Jimmy becomes ‘the boy who went missing.’ But, not to his sister Rose, and his best friend, Lewis. Not even to Ava. Their world has been changed forever by Jimmy’s disappearance. We observe that changed world through Ava’s eyes, and then Lewis and Rose’s, in painful and insightful ways for years after the terrible day.

Leavitt explores the attitudes of society toward divorcees and the limited options available to all women in the 1950s and 1960s, truths still echoing today. In “Is This Tomorrow,” Ava struggles to make ends meet and feels adrift, loving her son, but not knowing how to help him or herself in a culture that perceives her as damaged goods. Lewis blames her for his father’s absence; Rose blames her own mother for not doing more to help herself after Jimmy goes missing. The ache is palpable.

The story unfolds as the children and the adults deal with paralyzing guilt and surprising revelations, both about Jimmy and themselves. As moments in that long ago day are relived through several character’s eyes and what-if scenarios are rehashed, we see how one person’s clueless stupidity can send a ripple of destruction in every direction. Even worse, the selfish reactions to that stupidity can cause even more harm, when kept secret for so long.

The children in “Is This Tomorrow” are drawn so well – their interactions, their need to belong, their missteps in social situations, their craving for an intact family. I knew kids like this in my teaching days, listened to their stories.

While the topics discussed are challenging and serious, there is growth and change in circumstances, as well as triumph along the way in this memorable novel.

Well done, Ms. Leavitt.

Read the review of an earlier novel, "Pictures of You," here.

Please visit www.carolineleavitt.com for the latest news about NYT Bestseller Caroline Leavitt’s work.

*Note from Patti Phillips:

As sometimes happens, Nightstand Book Reviews and my other website, www.kerriansnotebook.com have overlapped in this review of Leavitt’s perceptive examination of how families deal with the devastating case of a missing child.

The fact-based post “How long has your daughter been missing?” can be read at http://bit.ly/1enFF0k

Go to http://www.namus.gov/ for more information about the U.S. Department of Justice program, a source of information regarding missing persons.

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“The Book of Lost Fragrances” by M.J. Rose

2 Comments / Bestselling Author, Historical, Romance, Suspense

MJ Rose delivers another suspenseful tale with The Book of Lost Fragrances.

A brother and sister have inherited the House of L'Etoile, and then discover the perfume company is in serious financial difficulty. They need a hit fragrance to save the corporation or else parts of it will have to be sold off, something Robbie does not want to do. Robbie feels that delving into the 250 year old family business history will uncover an ancient perfume formula that will save the day. He has the professional talent, but not the nose to sort through formulas that he knows the family possesses, somewhere hidden. His sister, Jac, has the nose, but not the interest in investigating something that she considers a fantasy. She is more pragmatic and wants to sell off bits to save the whole. Neither of them suspects at first that the lost fragrance could save more than just the business.

During the years since her mother’s death, Jac has suffered with unsettling dreams she does not understand. For a long time she (and others) thought she was mentally unbalanced and she never believed that she might be reliving the distant past. Her struggle with her own past, her trust issues, and her conversations with family ghosts – create a multi-layered, vulnerable lead character. We want her to make the right decisions, to be happy, trust, and find love again.

M.J. Rose believes that who we were influences who we are today, and her four books in the Reincarnation series apply that concept across the centuries. The Book of Lost Fragrances deals with the power of a love that endures from the time of Cleopatra. Fragrance is employed in the book as a memory tool to not only attempt to bring reincarnated lovers back together, but also as an aid in returning to a difficult time when one can undo mistakes and therefore ease the pain of the future. If it’s true that a memory tool exists and has that kind of influence, it would change the world as we know it. In The Book of Lost Fragrances, governments and religious institutions race to find this tool before it falls into the wrong hands.

The brother and sister have an interesting dynamic and as we learn the business and history of perfumery from the inside out, their desperate interaction rings true on every level, even after a murder is committed and Robbie is suspected. A former lover, who knows them both, adds tension and intrigue to the mystery. Dr. Malachi Samuels, a scientist working to prove that reincarnation exists, is a recurring character in the four books, continuing his search for ancient memory tools, sometimes involving others in dangerous schemes to achieve his own goals, always under scrutiny by the FBI.

Supporting characters are well written in this enthralling tale that addresses issues in Tibet and China, the Dali Lama, the French Revolution, lost and found again lovers, Cleopatra’s priceless perfume formula book, and more. Students of archeology will be drawn to the importance of ancient Egyptian pottery shards in the storyline.

Rose is a master at writing sensual descriptions and I found myself emotionally enveloped in the aromas of the flowers and herbs described. I was transported to memories of my own experiences with these same blossoms. The peonies in my own yard beckoned me, even though blooming season had long been over.

Rose always does impeccable research in order to build the historical foundation for the ‘Reincarnation’ books. Each title spans several centuries and countries and she has openly admitted loving this part of her process. While working on The Book of Lost Fragrances, Rose sent the manuscript to a perfumer in France, who designed a fragrance (Ames Soeurs) inspired by the book. She subsequently showed the fragrance in NYC when the book was being launched.

The Book of Lost Fragrances was on the ‘Indie Next List’ in 2012 and was named one of the Top Ten Mystery/Thrillers for 2012 by Publishers Weekly. While it is part of a series, it is a solid stand-alone title. Just don’t let it be.

For more information about M.J.Rose, the Reincarnation series, her other books, as well as her AuthorBuzz work, please visit www.mjrose.com

To read my review of "The Reincarnationist," go here.

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