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Desperate Measures, by Jo Bannister

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Published 2015

Characters Gabriel Ash, the father, intelligence officer
Cathy Ash, his wife, who’s been kidnapped and held captive with their two sons, Guy and Gilbert for four years in Somalia

Hazel Best, the constable on leave who befriends Gabriel after his wife and children’s abduction

At the beginning of this tale, Gabriel Ash is meeting with his psychiatrist, Laura Fry in the presence of Hazel Best, a friend and police officer, after just discovering that his wife, whom he believed to have been kidnapped and murdered by Somali pirates, is alive. He has just talked to her via computer and is convinced that she is alive and well. It turns out that his two sons are also alive, but what he has to do to get them back safely to England is ghastly. He has been instructed by the pirates that he must kill himself live on the internet before they can be sent home. The two women advise him to call the police but he refuses to do so, saying that leaving the police out of it is part of the deal. However, Hazel is still a member of the police force, although persona-non-grata at the moment, so some collaboration is done. There is another female present at the meeting in the form of Gabriel’s dog, a lurcher named Patience. Lurchers are apparently a cross-breed dog found in Britain between a sight hound, usually a greyhound, and some type of terrier or collie. Patience is taken in by Hazel after Gabriel carries out the demands of the kidnappers but she isn’t your average dog. As Hazel puts it, Patience can say more with the angle of her nose than can be expressed in an essay. But the plot in this story has lots of twists and turns as Hazel is determined to find the pirates responsible for her friend’s death even after his wife and boys are safely home in Norbold. Gabriel’s wife won’t have a dog in her house so Hazel keeps her even though it means she will have to move out of her rented flat and into a small house. Now that she has the extra room, Hazel also takes in a young homeless man called Saturday, a nickname given to him while in care by the other kids, because being Jewish, he was ‘excused on Saturdays’. As Saturday tries to clean up his act Hazel keeps puzzling out the threads of what actually happened to Cathy Ash and the two boys and why her story doesn’t quite add up.
An interesting and readable book and even thought the plot takes some fairly wild turns I found it completely believable due to the skill of the writer’s story telling.

All the Governor’s Men, by Katherine Clark

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Published 2016

Characters: Daniel Dobbs, the Harvard graduate from rural Alabama, whose ambition is to enter Alabama politics on the coat tails of George Wallace’s opponent
Caroline Elmore, a Harvard student from Mountain Brook, his fiance’
Aaron Osgood, a democratic challenger to George Wallace in the 1982 governor’s primary
Bobby and Shaye Dobbs, Daniel’s long-suffering parents

Daniel Dobbs has just received a new (used) car as a present from his parents for his graduation from Harvard. The choice had been between a Honda and a Chevette, and while Daniel had made it clear that he highly favored the Honda, his parents, ever aware of the financial strains of their ambitious lives, opted for the less expensive model. He arrived at his fiance’s house in Mountain Brook in a Chevette, probably the least expensive car in the whole neighborhood; even the help had better wheels. But Daniel is filled with the fire of youth and has other things to think about. He believes as only the young can in a Democratic challenger, Aaron Osgood, to George Wallace’s hold on his home state. Daniel has taken a summer job with the campaign and hopes to play a leading role which will launch his own political career with gusto.
This novel creates a contrast of worlds, that of the elite Mountain Brook neighborhood where Catherine grew up and that of Daniel’s parents, and everyone else. While Daniel’s parents struggled to get off the farm and into the middle class, Catherine’s father is hauling in manure by the bag full for his roses. Daniel is getting no support in his venture from his folks, or from anyone else except Caroline, who is dutifully encouraging but not a true believer. Oddly enough, although the two are both from the same state, they could never have met there. It took both getting away to Harvard for their paths to cross. There simply isn’t a social mechanism for them to get to know each other back home in Alabama, those from Mountain Brook don’t mix with other classes. Daniel’s choice of careers puts a strain on the relationship and old love affairs resurface to challenge these young lovers. The politics is dirty as usual, and there’s a lot of sex in the novel, but not inappropriate for the age of the main characters.
The second novel about Mountain Brook by Katherine Clark, following The Headmaster’s Darlings.

Martin Luther, by Eric Metaxas

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Published 2017

It took me several weeks to read this book; it is not one to pick up lightly. At times I wondered if I would finish it, but the story is so engaging, even if about a topic that you might not consider worthy of the time invested. The author’s take on this historical man is compelling even if it places him front and center as a leading cause of the reformation. I’ll let you be the judge of how much influence he has had. A couple of things that stand out in the story are the importance of the role which the newly invented printing press played in the battle between the Catholic church and the newly formed ‘Protestants’, and the way in which the combatants took years, literally, years, to debate back and forth these ideas that Luther posted on the church door. A comprehensive look at a man who has made a tremendous impact on the modern world, well worth the read.



Faith Bass Darling’s Last Garage Sale, by Lynda Rutledge

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Published 2012

Characters: Faith Bass Darling, matriarch of Bass, Texas
Claudia Jean Darling, her daughter
Bobbie Ann Blankenship, Claudia’s childhood friend who is now an antique dealer
John Jasper Johnson, the black deputy, Mike Darling’s best friend and fellow football superstar
Claude Angus Darling, Faith’s deceased husband
Mike Darling, Faith’s son who was killed in an accident as a teenager.

‘On the last day of the millennium, after a midnight revelation from God, Faith Bass Darling had a garage sale.’
But not just any yard sale. Hauled out onto the lawn of her mansion were priceless antiques, a Tiffany lamp collection, an heirloom ring and a 10,000 bill. Faith Bass Darling is in the advanced stages of Alzheimer’s disease. Her daughter Claudia Jean has not spoken to her mother in over a decade. So when Faith decides to sell all of her possessions on the day before January 1 in the year 2000, there is no one to stand in her way. Bobbie Jean, as owner of the local antique store, hurries over to the sale and tries to keep Faith from letting her beautiful things go for almost nothing, a few dollars for each item, or twenty dollars for an antique worth thousands. The local deputy, John Jasper also tries to dissuade Faith. But Faith is having trouble remembering who she is, let alone who anyone else is. Memories mix in with reality in her brain and she can’t tell which is which. Bobbie does get in touch with Claudia Jean and tells her she must come home, which she does, for the first time since she ran away as a teenager, after the death of her older brother Mike.
This is a story about a broken family, the Darlings, whose ancestors founded the small town in Texas. Faith’s father owned the town bank which she inherited after his death, along with her husband, Claude Angus, whose true colors began to show after her father is gone. The accidental death of Mike, everyone’s ‘darling’ tears the family apart, a tragedy which affects each member in its own way. Claudia’s homecoming means having to face her anger and sense of betrayal by her mother, and maybe a chance to mend the relationship. But with Faith’s mental state slipping into and out of the here and now, it’s hard to get through to her or even know what she is saying.



I will comment here on how unnerving I found it that Faith Bass Darling would set all of her beautiful belongings out on the front lawn and almost give them away to perfect strangers. Every time the story told of another yard sale minivan hauling off a priceless antique it almost turned my stomach. I have a few antiques myself, though nothing on the order of what Faith is almost giving away, and the thought that she no longer cared for these objects to the point that she sold them to people who had no idea of their value, who very well could have used them as trinkets struck me as wrong. But maybe that’s just me.
This is much more than a tale about an older lady struggling with Alzheimer’s selling off her belongings. Friendship, lost love, broken dreams as well as new ones, and what really matters in a family are all here.

The Chickenshit Club, by Jesse Eisinger

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Published 2017

The title sort of grabbed me and since I thought I knew why corporate executives have not been prosecuted for the financial crisis of 2008 I decided to see what Mr. Eisinger had to say. It turns out I was at least partially wrong and that the problem is much more complex and more troubling than I had thought.
The title comes from a speech given by James Comey before he became the (now fired) FBI director, to an elite group of prosecutors. These were the best and brightest the finest institutions in the country had to offer, and Comey asked the question, how many of you have never had an acquittal or a hung jury? Those who raised their hands, he explained were members of the club. The dubious distinction meant that they had never taken on a case where there was any likelihood they would lose.
As I read the book I realized just how much the Chickenshit Club mentality has pervaded not just the Justice department, which Eisinger does an excellent job of detailing, but a lot of American business and even the culture. I can’t count the times that people who should’ve done something or tried to do something have sat on their hands for fear of losing or pissing off people who could pretty much ruin their financial lives. I have done it myself to some extent. But the results of my membership in the club reach only as far as my immediate family. For the Justice Department, the consequences affect the vast majority, if not everyone, in the nation, and sometimes beyond. As is pointed out in the book , many of the prosecutors who had won convictions against executives prior to the 2008 crisis (think Enron) had ended their careers in small, out of the way places. What becomes apparent is that the people who are supposed to be prosecuting executives either came from firms who represent the very companies they have to go up against, or plan on working there after their stint in government is over. People who do anything to cause harm to individuals of high-profile companies can consider their careers on the decline or quickly over.
The book is a fascinating read and you will surely recognize a lot of names; Kenneth Lay, Skilling, Comey, Goldman Sachs, AIG, they’re all here. A lot of research went into the writing and it’s very well done. I rarely read non-fiction but this one is well worth the time.

The Outlander, by Gil Adamson

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Published 2007

A truly enjoyable book, the Outlander, by Gillian Adamson tells the story of a young widow’s flight from the avengers of her husband’s murderer. From the very beginning of the book the widow is declared to be the murderer, but just what happened is not clear. The widow doesn’t flee immediately but waits until the murder of her husband is discovered and she is blamed. At the beginning of the novel she is being pursued by her husband’s brothers, two red headed twins who become almost evil itself throughout the chapters of the book. Against all odds the widow manages to escape, leaving the reader hopeful at the close of each terrifying, breathless effort that she will find civilization and someone to help her. This appears to be the case when she is taken in by an elderly, wealthy mad woman she meets in a church, who is willing to harbor her, but who cannot withstand the might of the brothers who track her to the woman’s house. As the widow flees again and again, more of her past is revealed. In flashbacks we are told about her innocent upbringing by her widowed lawyer father and her paternal grandmother, a wealthy life which does not prepare her for the one she endures after her ill-thought-out marriage to her husband. Right away she is taken to a floorless hut without even a window, in a wilderness which had been described to her family as a fine house. Here she struggles to scrub and cook for a man who takes no more thought for her than if she were another mule added to his list of assets. After their baby dies within a few weeks of being born in the same bed he was conceived in, the widow is afflicted with madness. But while the widow is undeniably mentally disturbed in some respects, in others the craziness of her thoughts may lead to her salvation.
Adamson’s poetry is very evident in the writing of the book and although some of the words were lost on me, the writing is compelling. The style of beginning in the middle, during the flight of the widow, and then telling the beginning as the book proceeds along to its end is thoughtful and intriguing. One doesn’t know what actually happened regarding the murder until near the end of the book, lending it the air of a mystery as well as drama.
I can highly recommend this book, you will enjoy it.