Readers and writers: Two mysteries and something a little lighter
Here are two crime/mysteries and a light-hearted novel about art and wealth for your TBR list.
“Ashes, Ashes”: by Fredrick Soukup (Vine Leaves Press, $17.99)
I was a boy who left Miss Bonnie’s place to revisit the house of my childhood torture. And before that I was a boy who didn’t know I needed to revisit the house of my childhood torture, because I didn’t know quite that it was torture. And before that I was a boy who didn’t know how much I’d someday love and hate Miss Bonnie, because I didn’t know her from any pack-a-day in the county. And before that I was a boy up in that cold grey garage loft, one of many probably, being tortured and not knowing it. These things happen. — from “Ashes, Ashes”
Foster mother Miss Bonnie’s body is found in her home and the story is that she hanged herself. Dorian, one of her “boys,” is grown up and scratching out a living in northern Minnesota. He hasn’t been back to Miss Bonnie’s home in the town of Sibley, near Brainerd, since he left years earlier. But he wants to pay his respects to the woman who loved him and her other foster kids. Returning to the now-dilapidated house he finds Heath, one of his foster “brothers,” living there alone. Darian looks at the tin ceiling and knows there was no way Miss Bonnie would have been able to kill herself with a rope. The cops in this town where everybody knows everybody are hiding something.
But who killed Miss Bonnie and why? That’s the heart of this richly layered and complicated psychological novel, which holds mysteries within mysteries and lies in lies. It’s the story of trauma experienced by kids in the foster system, even those with caring substitute mothers, as well as the pains of social class.
The story moves back and forth in time, covering about 20 years in the lives of a big cast of characters, especially in the voices of Dorian and Heath, Emma and Monica. Emma has known Dorian for years and although she is married with children, she emails him almost day, discussing her life to the extent her messages become a sort-of journal. Dorian never responds but he reads every word and she knows it. Monica is the girl young Heath wants to run away with. When she is expecting his baby, she breaks the fragile and angry boy’s heart.
This is a novel that needs to be read slowly and carefully because it’s easy to lose track of the characters’ relationships. And although there is violence and abuse in the story, the conclusion is so perfect it could break your heart.
Soukup, who lives in St. Paul, is a graduate of St. John’s University. His debut novel, “Bliss,” was a finalist for a 2021 Minnesota Book Award and received an independent publishers bronze medal in the Great Lakes Fiction category. His second novel, “Blood Up North,” won the NYC Big Book Award for Literary Fiction.
“Ashes, Ashes” was inspired by the years when the author’s parents took care of more than 60 foster children at their home in northern Minnesota. Soukup will introduce his novel at 6 pm. Friday, April 19, at Next Chapter Booksellers, 38 S. Snelling Ave., St. Paul.
“Doorman Wanted”: by Glenn R. Miller (Koehler Books, $28.95 hardcover, $19.19 paperback)
I do mean it in a positive way. You’re not like the other doormen I’ve encountered. I can’t put my finger on it. It’s the way you carry yourself. It’s different, certainly, from the current collection at L’Hermitage.” — from “Doorman Wanted”
What could be more fun than a peek into the lives of wealthy folks who live in an Upper East Side apartment building? We meet the residents through the eyes of Franklin Hanratty, the polite, helpful doorman who talks like a P.J. Wodehouse character. But Franklin isn’t who he’s pretending to be. He’s Henry Franken, heir to a fortune, whose secret is that he owns the building where he works.
Henry knows everything that goes on in the building, including the room number of sweet Wendy. All the tenants love him but his boss, Charlotte, does not. Even when Henry sorts out a crazy traffic jam in front of the building involving two stuck delivery trucks, ditzy, self-promoting Charlotte takes credit for his work.
Nobody knows that when Henry goes home for the evening he walks down an alley and re-enters the building through a back door into a private elevator that takes him to his home — the luxurious owner’s penthouse. Meanwhile, Charlotte and the residents are becoming increasingly agitated because this mysterious owner never seems to be around.
When Henry goes against the rules and gives free morning coffee to homeless street artists Terry and Tomata he finds himself in the world of talented men and women who just haven’t made it as artists. Terry and Tomata are beguiling characters, almost a comedy act as they philosophize about art and their place in society. Every Saturday Henry meets with his lawyer/godmother, who’d been his father’s best friend. She urges him to stop pretending, reveal his status as building owner, and get on with his life. But Henry has always been ambivalent about having so much money and he doesn’t know what to do with it. So he remains a doorman.
In a hilarious chapter Harry and his artist friends are recruited by Wendy to give advice on packaging of a high-priced protein bar. The artists show their skills and explain why the proposed packaging is the wrong color and the picture on it is not accurate. Unfortunately, Wendy’s boss is appalled by these rag-tag artists and fires Wendy
Eventually Henry’s involvement with the artists, whose living space is in Central Park, helps him discover what he can do with his wealth with the help of Wendy.
The author, who lives in Minneapolis, began his career by working on television soap operas and game shows at NBC in Burbank, Calif. He has served as a CBS-affiliate news producer as well as executive speechwriter and creative director at production agencies in the Twin Cities. A teacher at the Loft Literary Center in Minneapolis, he is married to former Loft director Jocelyn Hale. Miller has also served on the boards of independent publishers Graywolf Press and Coffee House House Press and is former president of Friends of the Minneapolis Public Library.
“Murder in the Tea Leaves”: by Laura Childs (Berkley Prime Crime, $28.99)
Theodosia shouted at the top of her lungs, pounded on the door, and finally resorted to kicking it with all her might. The door didn’t shatter, budge, or break. She was locked in the attic with nothing but the remains of a mystery — the bizarre tale of a woman’s strange imprisonment. — from “Murder in the Tea Leaves”
Theodosia Browning, owner of the Indigo Tea Shop in Charleston, S.C., takes on Hollywood in Laura Childs’ 27th tea shop cozy. Theo is providing snacks for the crew of a horror film being produced in an abandoned old mansion when the lights go out and the director’s body is lifted off his metal chair, sparks flying all around him. So begins Theo’s investigation into who would kill the director by wiring electricity to a chair. There is no shortage of suspects, as usual. Among them are the new director who seemed to step into the role a little too smoothly, the head script writer, the film’s female star and the head electrician. When one of Theo’s friends is shot in her antique shop, Theo risks her life and that of Drayton, her tea sommelier, during a late-night confrontation with the bad guys in the city’s harbor.
As with all tea shop mysteries by Childs (pen name for Minnesotan Gerry Schmitt), Theo’s charming shop is a main character as she, Drayton and chef Haley orchestrate meals and themed events such as Vintage and Poetry teas. What goes on at the tea shop is as interesting as the mystery, showing Theo’s smarts as a small-business owner. Childs does a terrific job of evoking the sounds and smells of old Charleston, its stately mansions and its long history.
And we can count on her being protected by Earl Grey, her big dog. Now if only Theo could spend some quality time with her boyfriend Riley, a detective who keeps telling her to stop investigating or she’ll get hurt. But an intrepid and brave sleuth never listens to that kind of advice. (The book includes 12 of Haley’s recipes, from Ham and Sweet Potato Casserole to Double-Chocolate Scones and Waldorf Tea Sandwiches.)
