Grannies, Guns and Ghosts by Madison Johns

Madison Johns has done it again, capturing the human side of elders by writing of their reactions, intuitions and observations at crime scenes that seem to pop up wherever they might be.

In Grannies, Guns and Ghosts, Aggie and Eleanor have been enlisted by a frightened local who witnessed a death ... was it a murder? Or a suicide? Or the gentle push of a ghostly apparition?

Coinciding with this death is the appearance of a ghostly ship seen by some on Lake Huron. The ancestral home of the deceased is also the site of family burials ... and wives and husbands appear to have died in tandem, generation by generation. Curiouser and curiouser, the two fearless detectives work around the local law enforcement personnel to discover more clues and avoid their own vulnerability and arrest.

Gypsies, Ghosts, Old Flames, Pink Guns, Snarky Adolescence, Threatened Curses, Locked Gates and Slippery Cemetery Lawns all pose challenges for our heroines; they stumble and bend their way through them all, to an ending that ties in the paranormal events in such a way as to leave the reader questioning ... and of course, wanting more of Aggie and El's adventures.

Five stars for the sequel that doesn't fall short of expectations. If you haven't read the first tale, Armed and Outrageous, you've missed out on some sizzling relationships!

Deal Killer, by Neal Sanders

Neal Sanders is an author whose mystery books not only pose a puzzle, but offer an insider's view of ordinary worlds not always known to all ordinary people. His earlier murder mysteries enticed readers to reflect on the many facets of running a gardening club, involving social/economic changes in small towns, and personal interactions between generations.

Deal Killer invites us into the executive boardrooms of competing industrial plants, introducing us to a host of characters ranging from 'woodchucks' (or 'go-fers' in other arenas) to CEOs (chief executive officers)and bank accountants, project managers, Boston Irish Mobsters to, to New Hampshire state troopers (in a different light than in his Hardington stories.) His settings range from the woods of New Hampshire to large chain hotels in the small city of Nashua, to the famous Boston Fanueil Hall Marketplace and to the back rooms of a bar in South Boston.

What is not different from his earlier works is his ability to build strong characters with deceptive ease, allowing his readers to understand each player's individual motivations and values. By using interactions and conversations between his people to show the power plays behind the scenes, the complexity of what may be seen by the uninvolved public as a simple transfer of ownership, and the stakes involved in personal investment of loyalty, commitment and dedication to an employer's goals and dreams, Sanders educates us and entertains us without distracting us from the hanging question of 'who dun-it' as the chapters unfold.

With a strong female protagonist cast in a mousy persona and secondary seat at the table, to the deceptively benign posture of the head of a corporation ... and in a beautiful blonde's predictable guile balanced by her focused intelligence and resourcefulness, Sanders quietly establishes the truth about not judging people by their outward appearances, their occupational identities, or their public facades.

After reading this story, it's unlikely that one would ever look again at a corporate buy-out story in a newspaper as "just business." The threads of this story are as seamlessly, purposely woven as the most obscure pattern in a story of old... a story that concludes with the right thing being accomplished by just the right person, for the right people.

Related articles

• Murder for a Worthy Cause, by Neal Sanders (terrysthoughtsandthreads.blogspot.com)
• A Murder in the Garden Club by Neil Sanders (terrysthoughtsandthreads.blogspot.com)

A Peaceful Walk Along the Beach

Shore Lines: Life Lessons from the Sea is written by a man who has spent many fruitful days experiencing the ocean shore. Both on the sand and on a sailboat with a friend, Reverend Edwin Lynn has opened his heart and his mind to the sea, and feels a sense of home each time he visits. He and his wife have lived in many parts of the United States, but they feel most at home when they are near the shore of their ocean, the Atlantic.

And when Lynn visits the ocean, he studies its lines ... the wave patterns left on the firm wet sand at the water's edge, and the flora and fauna left behind the receding waters. He is often able to equate these parallels to life, and could then share his insights and thoughts with others as talks with members of his Universal Unitarian church in a large town in Massachusetts.

Once trained as an architect before becoming a minister, Reverend Lynn looks carefully at the structures of life, and the repeating patterns of mathematics in nature ... and takes and shares the knowledge and balance that comes with such understanding. His book chapters, stories and anecdotes all deliver lessons gently. And as he was once also a teacher in a school of spiritual learning, he has divided his book into three equal sections: Attitude, Adversity, and Gratitude.  Those who have read his chapters recognize within his own style that of Anne Morrow Lindberg's similar appreciation and understanding of what the sea has to offer us.

One publisher who enjoyed his writing referred to this as "A quiet book," one that made a stronger impression on those who also knew and valued the lessons available to us at the ocean's shore. But whether you live along the coast or have only read of it's powerful setting, this book has something to offer every reader, of every age, in every setting. It offers you a moment of contemplation in a hurried and noisy world. Five stars for Edwin Lynn's Shore Lines. I continue to enjoy it in small sections, lingering and savoring each morsel of life shared in each moment that I sit with his stories.

Related articles

• 100 Quotes About the Ocean (coastalandcoralculture.wordpress.com)
• Anne Morrow Lindberg's Gifts from the Sea quotes (goodreads.com)

Murder for a Worthy Cause, by Neal Sanders

Neal Sanders' Murder for a Worthy Cause is the sequel to A Murder in the Garden Club, and his characters are welcomed back by readers who have recognized this author's talent in telling the tale of a small town murder. Detective John Flynn, his recently-humbled and amiable Chief Harding, and Flynn's new friend and resident of Hardington, Liz, are again faced with an unexpected murder, the second in two months in this small town that prides itself with its tranquil reputation and setting.

That suburban setting is presently drastically altered by the arrival of a film crew determined to fulfill the promise of building a beautiful new home for a family displaced by a fire. "The Ultimate House  Makeover" host and  crew arrives with trailers and trucks and tents and supplies, and hundreds of locals have volunteered to help in this worthy cause ... and optimistically to be filmed while doing so. Drawn to the charisma of the televised program's handsome host, Whit, even the members of the Garden Club are enlisted to plant the landscape once the pre-ordered plants arrive. But to the chagrin of the Garden Club President, Liz, they have been ordered by Californians from a landscaper in Texas and are not fit for the Zone 5 climate of Massachusetts.

In this way, the author, Neal Sanders, displays his careful research and consultation with the experts who advise him toward writing knowledgeably the back stories of his novels. Coordinating investigation resources of local manpower, State Police, and his friends in the Boston Police Department and other Suffolk County offices, Sanders' Detective Flynn does manage to solve this mysterious murder within the allotted time of five days ... the same days in which the former home of the Cordoza family will be replaced.

Unfortunately for the one-week intensely-scheduled and volunteer-labor-dependent crew, it is the coordinator of the local volunteers who has been murdered, and the build must go on. Liz,  having seen the planting disaster ahead and coming to the site to argue with the staffer responsible, is the first person with organizational and leadership skills to arrive on the scene. She is hastily recruited to replace the deceased selectman, and she takes on his role of fitting volunteers and their recorded skills to the many jobs waiting to be done. Liz new 'job' involves meeting the daily requests of the site managers by reading through the pages of names and matching the volunteers' skills to the chores, sending teenage "runners" out with the lists to the groups of workers and their managers.

One of these 'runners' reminds Liz of her own daughter as a teenager, and the two build a hasty relationship and mutual admiration. This established rapport enables the teen to eventually entrust Liz with a secret, and that secret leads to the discovery of another secret, and that to a possible clue to the murder's solution.

Other characters from A Murder in the Garden Club reappear in this story: the Patriot's football star and his wife, who emerges as more than just a pretty face, and the lawyer-turned-friend who can advise Liz on staying within the bounds of Massachusetts Laws. The young police officer, Frankel, again measures up to Detective Flynn's trust and out-does the State Police in crime scene observation, while Liz's old friend Roland reappears to comfort Liz as she confesses  her unhappiness in living alone with her daughter married and living more independently while Liz's husband continues to live apart during the work week, coming home only for brief weekends.

All of these characters continue to grow in their relationships and their common dedication to the town of Hardington. Neal Sanders has a viable cast of characters and a realistic setting in which to pose mysteries worth solving, and gentle lessons of humanity worth sharing.

This is the second book for which Neal Sanders has chosen the artwork of a local Georgetown, Massachusetts Artist, Lynne Schulte, for the cover of his book. Her artwork can be scene at her website, www.lynneschulte.com, and her beautiful detail and style add a local flavor and comfortable dimension to Sanders' stories.

Five Stars again for this second mystery set in the fictional town of Hardington, Massachusetts! Scroll down a few entries here to read my review of Sanders earlier book, Murder in the Garden Club

The Accidental President Returns

The Accidental President Returns
~ book three of the fable trilogy by Dixie Swanson

I have enjoyed each of the three books in the Accidental President trilogy. This one, The Accidental President Returns, culminates the story of Abigail Adams' unexpected political career, and finds her returning to the call of "Honor. Duty. Country." But this time, she's blending motherhood, family and presidential responsibilities in a wholesome, inspiring way.

The story now spans the ocean on two continents; Abby's husband, movie star and director Michael, owns a villa in Italy that is staffed year round, and Abby envisions herself living out her life between Italy and his California home and her Texas ranch. Her children are her pride and joy, and she wishes nothing more than to live with them and place them in good public schools. But life has other plans, and her sense of duty re-emerges when the president calls and asks her to consider running for another term as president.

But this time, instead of a four year term, the presidency will be for six years ... one of the changes she enacted during her first, accidental presidency. And it will be in a Washington DC no longer populated by lobbyists buying expensive lunches in posh restaurants. More changes have taken place during her six year absence from politics, and her children have become school aged, as have her friends' children. Her careful plans for parenting would be undone, but more opportunities would be open to them all. And so, after careful deliberation, and looking at those who are already campaigning for the presidency, she decides to throw her hat into the ring, turn her ranch into campaign headquarters, hire a teacher for the children and run for president. Will she take this on successfully? And what of her other projects?

After helping Muslim women all over the world by diminishing the Taliban's direct influence on women, she is still connected with her Jewish and Muslim co-coordinators of the Peace project for the middle east. And her efforts at moving the environmental correction plans forward for "the little blue ball" are just beginning to have an effect on American consumers. Can she juggle all of her family connections and parenthood and still have enough energy and cognitive skills to be an effective president? Will the people, now able to elect a president via popular vote rather than through the flawed electoral college process be willing to take her back as their president? All of these changes are the direct result of her accidental presidency in book two. Can she keep it all in hand and moving forward?

You won't be very far into the book when you have the answer to that question, and more. You'll be re-acquainted with Mikey Malloy, Michael's gregarious uncle. You'll hear more about how Duke is doing after law school, and how Poppy is enjoying motherhood. You'll find out what Regina and O.T. have been up to. And you'll get to know Abby and Mike's children, their personalities, their charms and their flaws. And the Five Constitutional Amendments that Abby put forward when she was the accidental president ... have they had time, in six years, to change the demeanor and tone of the American Public?

If wishes and dreams came true, we would have a president like Abby in mind for our next election. I suspect that North Korea would be gentled into a peaceful co-existence with South Korea. And peace in the middle east would be... well, you must read this book. There are so many potential lessons provided. But what you'll get from it depends on what you bring to it as a reader.

Read my reviews of Dixie Swanson's Book 1 and 2 of the political fable trilogy

Book 1: The Accidental Senator
Book 2: The Accidental President