25. A Drink Before the War by Dennis Lehane

#1 Kenzie & Gennaro, Boston Private Detectives

listened on Libby 

282 pgs.

1994
Adult Murder Mystery
Finished 6/7/2026
Goodreads rating: 3.93
My rating: 3.75
Setting: 1994 Dorchester/Boston

My comments: Have always heard about these "gritty" Boston mystery thrillers, so I decided it was about time to read a Dennis Lehane. And that I'd better start with the first in the series. This one definitely showed its age (written in 1994) and included the "N" word dozens of times, which was really disconcerting - such a horrible slur - but the book WAS written 32 years ago. Grrr.  I won't say any more about that, but it quite unsettled me, to tell you the truth.  As much as I've heard and read about gang violence in our urban areas, to read about it so up-close-and-personal was not fun.

Goodreads synopsis: Kenzie and Gennaro are private investigators in the blue-collar neighborhoods and ghettos of South Boston-they know it as only natives can. Working out of an old church belfry, Kenzie and Gennaro take on a seemingly simple assignment for a prominent politician: to uncover the whereabouts of Jenna Angeline, a black cleaning woman who has allegedly stolen confidential state documents. Finding Jenna, however, is easy compared to staying alive once they've got her. The investigation escalates, implicating members of Jenna's family and rival gang leaders while uncovering extortion, assassination, and child prostitution extending from bombed-out ghetto streets to the highest levels of government. A Drink Before the War , the first in Lehane's acclaimed series with Boston detectives Patrick Kenzie and Angie Gennaro, is a remarkable debut that is at once a pulsating crime thriller and a mirror of our world, one in which the worst human horrors are found closest to home, and the most vicious obscenities are committed in the name of love.

28. Conviction by Julia Dahl

#3 Rebekah Roberts, NYC investigative reporter
Listened to Audio on Audible
narrated by Andi Arndt
Unabridged audio (8:17)
2017 Minotaur Books
312 pgs.
Adult Mystery
Finished 2/10/20
Goodreads rating:  3.83 - 812 ratings
My rating: 3.5
Setting: Contemporary Brooklyn with lots of flashing back to the late 90s

First line/s:  "The little boy walked to the storefront church alone, with blood on his hands and face."

My comments:  Another story told though descriptions of different times related to the major incident of the story.  The summer of 1992 in Brooklyn, New York, and the present, what took place from different points of view - and how Rebekah is following up on all the information she is able to compile. I was really uncomfortable whenever it flipped back to 1992 because I felt so horribly sad the the 16-year old who was falsely convicted and then imprisoned for over twenty years.  And so, so so pissed a the cops!  It almost got to the point I didn't finish the book because I was so darned uncomfortable and pissed at the whole situation.  And Rebekahs's mother...geez!  Poor Rebekah, working so hard in the first two books to find and figure out her mother and now we discover one of the most unlikable people ever.  I've seen nothing about a book number four, and it's been a few years, so I wonder if one will be coming at all....

Goodreads synopsis:  New York City 1992: a year after riots exploded between black and Jewish neighbors in Brooklyn, a black family is brutally murdered in their Crown Heights home. A teenager is quickly convicted, and the justice system moves on.
          Twenty-two years later, journalist Rebekah Roberts gets a letter: I didn't do it. Frustrated with her work at the city’s sleaziest tabloid, Rebekah starts to dig. But witnesses are missing, memories faded, and almost no one wants to talk about that grim, violent time in New York City—not even Saul Katz, a former NYPD cop and her source in Brooklyn’s insular Hasidic community.
          So she goes it alone. And as she gets closer to the truth of that night, Rebekah finds herself in the path of a killer with two decades of secrets to protect.
          From the author of the Edgar-nominated Invisible City comes another timely thriller that illuminates society’s darkest corners. Told in part through the eyes of a jittery eyewitness and the massacre’s sole survivor, Julia Dahl's Conviction examines the power—and cost—of community, loyalty, and denial.

27. We Hope for Better Things by Erin Bartels

listened to eAudio - RBDigital/TPPL
narrated by Stina Nielsen
Unabridged audio (12:03)
2019, Fleming H. Revell Co.
393 pgs.
Adult Hidtorical Fiction told in 3 time periods
Finished 2/10/2020
Goodreads rating:  4.22 - 2440 ratings
My rating:  5
Setting:Detroit and rural Michigan:  1861-1871, 1963-1967, and present time

First line/s:  Detroit: July  "The Lafayette Coney Island was not a comfortable place to be early."

My comments:  This was one of those books I didn't want to put don't and I couldn't wait to get back to.  I love historical fiction that goes back and forth between points-of-view, and this one didn't disappoint. Told from the viewpoints of three strong women, all related, and dealing with the racism of the Civil War, 1960's Detroit, and present day, and how history can follow a family - and just how important a family's history can be.  Beautifully read, great characters, and a setting that is a hugely strong part of the story, a great story.

Goodreads synopsis:  When Detroit Free Press reporter Elizabeth Balsam meets James Rich, his strange request--that she look up a relative she didn't know she had in order to deliver an old camera and a box of photos--seems like it isn't worth her time. But when she loses her job after a botched investigation, she suddenly finds herself with nothing but time.
          At her great-aunt's 150-year-old farmhouse, Elizabeth uncovers a series of mysterious items, locked doors, and hidden graves. As she searches for answers to the riddles around her, the remarkable stories of two women who lived in this very house emerge as testaments to love, resilience, and courage in the face of war, racism, and misunderstanding. And as Elizabeth soon discovers, the past is never as past as we might like to think.
          Debut novelist Erin Bartels takes readers on an emotional journey through time--from the volatile streets of 1960s Detroit to the Underground Railroad during the Civil War--to uncover the past, confront the seeds of hatred, and discover where love goes to hide.

25. Big Lies in a Small Town by Diane Chamberlain

listened to the eAudio borrowed from Bosler
narrated by Susan Bennett
Unabridged audio (13:19)
2020 St. Martin's Press
400 pgs.
Adult Historical Fiction/Present time Back & Forth
Finished 2/6/2020
Goodreads rating: 4.25 - 4671 ratings
My rating: 5
Setting: 1940 & 2019 Rural North Carolina

First line/s:  "The children knew it was finally spring, so although the air still held the nip of winter and the grass and weeds crunched beneath their feet, they ran through the field  and woods, yipping with the anticipation of warmer weather."

My comments:  I very much enjoyed this enthralling narrative, weaving the dialogue of two women almost 80 years apart in the same small town of Edenton, NC.  short chapters switched back and forth effortlessly, spending just enough time in each time period.  Art, mystery, racism, prison life, alcoholism, prejudice, and long-kept secrets wind together to  create a believable story that I couldn't put down and didn't want to end.

Goodreads synopsis:  North Carolina, 2018: Morgan Christopher's life has been derailed. Taking the fall for a crime she did not commit, she finds herself serving a three-year stint in the North Carolina Women's Correctional Center. Her dream of a career in art is put on hold—until a mysterious visitor makes her an offer that will see her released immediately. Her assignment: restore an old post office mural in a sleepy southern town. Morgan knows nothing about art restoration, but desperate to leave prison, she accepts. What she finds under the layers of grime is a painting that tells the story of madness, violence, and a conspiracy of small town secrets.
          North Carolina, 1940: Anna Dale, an artist from New Jersey, wins a national contest to paint a mural for the post office in Edenton, North Carolina. Alone in the world and desperate for work, she accepts. But what she doesn't expect is to find herself immersed in a town where prejudices run deep, where people are hiding secrets behind closed doors, and where the price of being different might just end in murder.
          What happened to Anna Dale? Are the clues hidden in the decrepit mural? Can Morgan overcome her own demons to discover what exists beneath the layers of lies?

14. The Jacket - Andrew Clements

Illustrated by McDavid Henderson
Scholastic, 2002
92 pgs, 6 chapters
4.1/640L/Q
Rating: 4
Short

Phil, a white boy, sees Daniel, an African American boy, wearing what he thinks is his brother's jacket. This starts a chain of events that gets Phil thinking about prejudice - convincing himself, to his dismay, that he himself is prejudice. He discusses it with his mother, thinks about it a lot, discovers that his dad is a bigot, and finally puts things right with Daniel - almost becoming friends.

There's a list of discussion questions at the end, and my fourth grade lit. circle group had a very healthy discussion around the story.

There are 19 full-page black and white pencil-drawn illustrations that could also be used as discussion starters - a nice addition to the story, which is a very quick read, but meaty.

Ron's Big Mission - Rose Blue & Corinne J. Naden

Illustrator: Don Tate
2009
Rating: 4
Endpapers: Azure
$16.99

This is the fictionalized account of something that happened to Ron McNair in 1959 in his hometown in South Carolina. However, since it's based on a true story, I'm going to consider it biography. Destined to be one of the Challenger astronauts (that blew up with Christa McAuliffe), Ron loved to read and spent hours and hours in the library reading. Everyone there knew him, but he never took home any books to read. He sat there all those hours reading - because he wasn't allowed to borrow books from the library because of the color of his skin.

One day he decided he'd had enough. He was going to borrow books. He was stubborn. He was polite. The police (who knew and liked him) were called. And the head librarian decided that she would do what was only right - she went into the back room and created a library card for him.

I never even thought about this aspect of racism. It blows me away. I hope we've come a long way since then......

A Taste of Colored Water - Matt Faulkner

Perfect for: Kids, Particularly Older Ones
Pub: 2008
Rating: Loved it
Read: Sept. 13, 2008
Endpapers: Both different - the front is an illustration of entering Eden and the back is an illustration of leaving Eden (quite impressive) A+

"Daddy, what color does a person have to be to get a taste of colored water?" Jelly questions at the end of this book.

Welcome to the "Heart of Dixie" in the early 60s. Jelly and LuLu have never been to the "big city" before, but after they hear from Abbey Finch that there's a fountain there with "colored" water, they know they have to go see for themselves. They do. They find it, up on the hill by City Hall with a big sign over it proclaiming COLORED WATER. Meanwhile, as we can see from the illustrations, there's lots goin' on in town. Protesters are marching and singing "We Shall Overcome." Policemen and firemen face off with the marchers as newsmen take photos. Lulu and Jelly watch from the bubbler, where they get nothing but clear water. No lovely fruity-tasting greens or pinks or yellows. And then the fire hoses are turned on and people are knocked over by its force!

Whenever I open a picture book and see illustrated endpapers I already know I'm going to like the book. This was a good one. There are no explanations in the text, just the story. Wonderful vocabulary, a southerny drawl that helps establish the setting, and illustrations that complete enhance the storytelling, becoming part of the story itself. I really want to read this to my middle-schoolers to get their reaction.

I also personally enjoyed Matt Faulkner's AFTERWORD which ends: "It's my wish that we take strength from the courageous ones who came before us and learn to question oppression, racism, segregation - all forms of intolerance - and begin to promote compassion for all."