Elisabeth Ring

‘Boomtown’ Juggles Loads of Stories

The cover of Joe Pappalardo's Boomtown, featuring an illustrated flame over a sepia-toned photo of crashed 1920s-era cars on a dirt city street.

Pappalardo took on quite a project in trying to tell the story of Borger’s hectic year, particularly his dedication to weaving together so many threads rather than focusing on a single character or sector.

‘Japanese Gothic’ Bloody and Tender

The cover of Japanese Gothic, featuring a Japanese-style watercolor of a house surrounded by foliage, all in dripping black and red.

Baker’s pacing is quick enough, and the story compelling enough to keep the violence and characters’ hopelessness from bleeding too heavily into the reader.

‘Yesteryear’ Delves into Tradwife Life

The cover of Yesteryear by Caro Claire Burke, featuring a collection of farm buildings with a foreground of rolling golden hills. A golden and blue sky stretches overhead.

In delving into her main character’s psyche, Caro Claire Burke walks a fine line between psychological exploration and parody, but manages that balance well.

‘Forest’ a Rallying Cry for Conservation

When the Forest Breathes is an important book detailing important work. It just also happened to be a very depressing book. But then, that seems less the fault of the trees than the state of the world we’re inflicted with.

‘Only One’ a Swift and Sharp Thriller

The cover for The Only One Who Knows by Lisa M. Matlin. A stylized illustration of a pink house and lighthouse upon a thin beach of yellow sand and before a teal ocean make up the bulk of the cover. In the water is a dark triangular shark fin. On the beach is the silhouette of a woman. The title and author are superimposed over the image in sans-serif font.

It can be daunting to let characters be messy, especially those whose eyes we borrow to experience the story, but Matlin does so with confidence.

‘Blood Relay’ a Thriller Built Around Dark Truths

The cover of Blood Relay by Devon Mihesuah, featuring illustrations of galloping horses and riders at the bottom against a long arc of red cut through with a line of white. Upon looking at the cover as a whole, the white becomes a long braid going down the back of a red dress or cloak worn by what appears to be an Indigenous woman. The title is superimposed in black sans-serif font.

None of the issues that Mihesuah incorporates into the story are done so subtly. Then again, none of these issues is exactly cutting edge; they’ve been ignored, dismissed, shrugged off for years, decades, over a century. Maybe what they need isn’t subtlety, but to be shouted from the rooftops.

The Past Feels Too Familiar in ‘Fear’

The cover of Fear and Fury, the center of which has what appears to be a black and white photo of protesters and counter protesters at a court hearing about the case; the photo has been shaded blue. The title and subtitle are in white text at the top against blocks of red and blue.

The ideas that led to the shooting and Goetz’s subsequent exoneration are still alive and well, and while it may not be easy, it’s crucial to understand and confront them.

Sherlock More Than a Role in ‘Final Problem’

The cover of The Final Problem, featuring a bold blue background reminiscent of the 1960s, with an illustration in white and red of a striped lounge chair on a balcony with a fedora, towel, and puddle of dripping blood on the railing.

In glamorous 1960 Europe, a chance encounter between those on both sides of the second world war, and Hollywood’s golden-age camera, makes for a deadly combination. That’s the setup in The Final Problem, the latest from Spanish writer Arturo Perez-Reverte, now translated into English by Frances Riddle. Ormond Basil, a one-time movie star now flirting withContinue reading “Sherlock More Than a Role in ‘Final Problem’”

Emotion and Mystery Threaded Through ‘Mothering’

The cover to Mass Mothering, featuring two circles, one blue and the other dark gray, stacked vertically against a tan background. The blue circle has a faint image of city buildings, while stylized hills are in the gray circle. Black birds and white birds fly across the blue and gray circles, respectively. The title and author name, respectively are on top of these images, as well.

In any book that’s made up of multiple parts, there’s always a risk of one being more compelling than the other, or for the relationship between the two to be confusing before the intended connection is clear. Those questions are central to the tension in Mass Mothering, the latest novel from Sarah Bruni.

In ‘Infamous,’ Minutiae Gives Meaning to Family Life

Painted portraits of five children peek out from torn antique-looking wallpaper with the title and author of the book in yellow cursive in the foreground.

The Gilberts and Thornwalk are fictional, but the equivalents in our own homes and families and lives aren’t. These bits and bobbles, these trinkets and signs of wear that mean nothing to anyone else and might not even mean a thing to ourselves but nevertheless bear aching witness to, well, life.