Genre: Mystery

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Grace Cassidy is not having a good week.  Finding out that her husband is having an affair with his secretary, she packs a bag and drives away.  She finds a bed and breakfast in the town of Port Ortega and checks in.  After taking a long walk on the beach she returns to her room and finds a naked, dead man in her bed. His clothes are no where to be found, and the police think that she has a lot of explaining to do.  Things get even worse when she realizes that her husband transferred all of their money to an account in Grand Cayman Island and then disappeared.  The story goes on with more dead bodies and Grace needing to prove her innocence.

The Inconvenient Corpse is a light mystery populated with some very eccentric people. There is an odd author in the basement and several odd ladies staying at the Inn.  The police seem odd at times, and the fact that they allow some obviously illegal things to go on makes me wonder about their ability to protect a town.  Grace is not a particularly intuitive amateur detective, and although I enjoyed the characters, I sometimes had trouble with the believability factor.

Jackie King wrote a fairly good cozy mystery story, and people who enjoy the genre might want to give it a try.

- Beverly


Publisher - St. Martin's Press
Date of Publication - August 21, 2007

Genre: Legal Thriller

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I have been reading Rosenfelt's Andy Carpenter series for many years now, and he never disappoints me.  Carpenter, a wealthy lawyer who has no desire to practice his profession, is constantly faced with cases he can't turn away.  Somehow they always involve dogs, and that is no surprise to anyone who knows a bit about the author's background.  Rosenfelt loves dogs, especially golden retrievers, and like his protagonist, surrounds himself with dogs at all times.   The author and Andy also share the same snarky sense of humor that makes these books especially fun to read.

In Outfoxed, Andy is defending Brian Atkins, who breaks out of prison with only a few months left on his five-year sentence for fraud. Brian has been helping to train Boomer, a fox terrier who is part of a program sponsored by the Tara Foundation, a charity that rescues dogs.  Since Andy co-owns the foundation, he takes it quite personally when Brian uses Boomer to facilitate his escape.  

Brian is quickly re-arrested and accused of murdering his wife and ex-partner who were allegedly having an affair.   Not only does Andy believe that Brian is innocent of murder, he believes that Brian is also innocent of the original fraud charges.  Of course the involvement of gangsters and mob bosses adds to the excitement, and watching  Andy and his cohorts try to solve this mystery is great fun.  His wife Laurie, on leave from her job as a police detective, helps us see another side of Andy, and each of his other friends and coworkers contribute to a group of people that I would love to meet.    Alas, I must settle for seeing them once a year in a series that I hope continues for many years to come.

- Beverly


​Publisher - Minotaur Books
Date of Publication - July 19, 2016

Come gather 'round people
Wherever you roam
And admit that the waters
Around you have grown
And accept it that soon
You'll be drenched to the bone.
If your time to you
Is worth savin'
Then you better start swimmin'
Or you'll sink like a stone
For the times they are a-changin'
                             ---Bob Dylan


Dylan clearly saw the changing tides in the early sixties when he wrote the song, "The Times They Are A-Changin'", and he tried to use his music to make a difference.  He begged people to take action or watch their world sink around them.  People heeded his call, and a war was ended, civil rights came into focus and the economy grew.  
Unfortunately, our educational system lagged behind during those years of change, and the youth of today are fighting a battle that many are ill-equipped to win.

Through all of the turmoil of the sixties, one belief remained consistent. When young people got a good education and worked hard, they could generally have a life that was as least as good, or generally better, than the one their parents led.  When the economy was weak, it was weak for everyone, and even the children of less successful parents were often able to climb out of the economic hole that they were being raised in.

Today, it is much more difficult to dig out of that hole.  First of all, the fading of the middle class makes the climb that much more steep.  While parents of the sixties, seventies and even eighties supported their children's reach for a better life, today's families are so busy trying to put food on the table, there is little time left for offering an emotional push.  The upper class today lives lives so far removed from the lower, that upward mobility seems more like a fairy tale than a lifestyle.

The classroom should be the great equalizer, offering a superior education to all who enter, but it is not.  Money makes the difference here as well.  Parents from wealthier neighborhoods pick up the financial slack in their children's schools, while in poorer neighborhoods students make do with less materials and fewer opportunities.  It has been proven that extra curricular activities, such as band, debate, art, etc. enhance all areas of a student's learning, yet less advantaged parents can't pay for the uniforms, trips and supplies that are necessary for their children to be participants.

I could could go on, but instead I will strongly suggest that you read the book, Our Kids: The American Dream in Crisis, by Robert D. Putnam.  Putnam uses the town he grew up in as an example of "every town, USA," and he shows the differences in class and education through interviews with people who grew up in that town.  While he does use some charts and statistics, the interviews help the reader to see the class divide in a very real manner.  

Inside the George, by Beth Tyner is another book about a small town that captured my interest this week.  This book is fiction, though it reads like a memoir, and tells the story of a family-run hardware store that is the heart of a small southern town.  The book is heartwarming, charming and comical, and I am glad I had the opportunity to read it and share it with you.

As always, full reviews of both books will follow this blog.

Happy reading, 

- Beverly

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Genre: Fiction

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I always thought that living in a small town would be great...sort of enveloping everyone in a security blanket of neighbors and friends.  Beth Tyner's book, Inside the George, gave me an opportunity to see what small time life is all about.  I don't think I could last a week, yet the charm of the town was obvious from page one.  

The George is a family run hardware store that serves many purposes in its small town.   The store is run by Gus and Jane, and their story is told by their son, Gordie.  We meet all the players, like Alex who runs the newspaper and Ralph, who drives his car into the bar because his dog told him to.  Everyone meets and greets in this wonderful place, and Gus is always there to lend a hand.  When poor Marge, an elderly member of town, calls  Gus in tears because her dog died,  he agrees to build the pet a coffin that very day.  The dog's name was Baby, and much like the old game, Whispering Down The Lane, AKA Telephone, the story immediately gets out...and muddled.  Soon a customer comes in to share the news that someone is burying a baby in her back yard.  "Isn't that illegal?" the customer asks.

This is a humorous story about wonderfully eccentric people in a warm southern town.  It is a fictional account that reads more like a memoir and brings the reader right into the lives of these entertaining people.  It read a little bit like Garrison Keillor's Lake Wobegon Days, and it is bound to make you smile.  I realize that small town life is not for me, but I would love to spend an afternoon sitting on the bench at The George and discussing life with Gus and the gang.

- Beverly


Publisher - Beth Tyner
Date of Publication - ​June 19, 2012

Genre: Non-Fiction

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There are many issues plaguing The United States in the 21st century, and Robert Putnam did an excellent job highlighting one that is dear to my heart in his book, Our Kids: The American Dream in Crisis.  In 1965, Jay and the American's sang a song that embodied the beliefs of the youth at the time.  A line from the song, "Only in America" said it all:  

Only in America
Can a kid without a cent
Get a break and maybe
Grow up to be President

That however, was the 1960's, and things have changed.  Putnam's book explains the "opportunity gap" that has developed in a clear and readable fashion.  He uses his town of Port Clinton, Ohio as a microcosm of our country.  He explains how in 1959, the young people strove to live lives better than their parents and grandparents before them.  There was not as large a gap between the rich, middle class and the poor as we see today, and the young didn't feel imprisoned by their "class."

He explains how today the classes don't mix, and the poor have a difficult time climbing out of that life.  Putnam interviews people who were raised in Port Clinton and went to high school with him in the late fifties.  We hear their stories first hand and get a feel for their lives.  His interviews comparing then and now, bring our problems into focus in a way charts and graphs (which are also included) never could.  The statistics took my breath away. "Only 23% of lower class children start school already knowing the alphabet, vs 77% of the better educated classes."  The poor and working class don't have the time to teach their toddlers or the money to send them to the schools that work with them on an individual basis.

I could write a three page review on this book, but instead I implore you to take the time to read it yourselves.  See why it is important to level the playing field for our youth by somehow closing the gap that separates class in our country.

- Beverly


Publisher - Simon and Schuster
Date of Publication - March 10, 2015