87. A Borrowing of Bones by Paula Munier

(#1 Mercy Carr & Elvis/ Vermont)/
listened to audio / Chirp
read by Kathleen McInerney
Unabridged audio (11:58)
2018 Minotaur Books
342 pgs.
Contemporary Adult Mystery/Murder Mystery
Finished 9/10/2019
Goodreads rating: 3.96 - 908 ratings
My rating:3.5
Setting: Contemporary southern Verment

First line/s:   "Grief and guilt are the ghosts that haunt you when you survive what others do not."

My comments:   Greatly enjoyed the setting, contemporary small town southern Vermont.  The two protagonists, a fresh-out-of-the-service in Afghanistan army vet female and a male Vermont game warden both own K-9 dogs and much of the story revolves around their partnerships.   Another central character, Mercy's grandmother, is the local vet.  It's just all a little to doggy for me.  It was an interesting mystery, though a little unbelievable in places.  I enjoyed listening to it.  It's the same narrator that reads the Kate Burkholder Amish mystery series, a wonderful reader.

Goodreads synopsis:  First in a gripping new mystery series about a retired MP and her bomb-sniffing dog who become embroiled in an investigation in the beautiful Vermont wilderness
It may be the Fourth of July weekend, but for retired soldiers Mercy Carr and Belgian Malinois Elvis, it’s just another walk in the remote Lye Brook Wilderness—until the former bomb-sniffing dog alerts to explosives and they find a squalling baby abandoned near a shallow grave filled with what appear to be human bones. U.S. Game Warden Troy Warner and his search-and rescue Newfoundland Susie Bear respond to Mercy’s 911 call, and the four must work together to track down a missing mother, solve a cold-case murder, and keep the citizens of Vermont safe on potentially the most incendiary Independence Day since the American Revolution.
          A Borrowing of Bones is full of complex twists and real details about search-and-rescue dog training that Paula learned through the training of her own dog. With its canine sidekicks and rich, dramatic story, this debut will be a must-have for mystery fans.

73. The Bone Orchard by Paul Doiron

#5 Mike Bowditch, Maine Game Warden
listened to Audio/Overdrive  borrowed through Pima Country Library
2014 Minotaur Books
306 pgs.
Adult Mystery
Finished August 4, 2018
Goodreads rating: 4.06 - 1923 ratings
My rating: 5 - Doiron keeps getting better and better
Setting:  Contemporary Maine - back and forth between Portland, Rockland, and Aroostook County

First line/s: "When I think of Jimmy Gammon now, I remember the way he was before the war: a redheaded, freckle-faced kid with a body like a greyhound, all arms and legs, with a jutting rib cage he'd gotten running up and down the hills of midcoast Maine."

My comments:  Paul Doiron keeps on getting better and better.  This installment was wonderfully written, and traveled up and down Route 1 - and Interstate 95 - from as far south as Portland and as far north as Presque Isle.  His Maine descriptions were terrific, as were his knowledge of the flora and fauna of Maine's springtime.  The story was believable and interesting, the mystery unfolding at just the right pace.  Can't get enough!  And it ends with him finally taking his future into his own, more mature, hands.  Yippee!

Goodreads synopsis:  In the aftermath of a family tragedy, Mike Bowditch has left the Maine Warden Service and is working as a fishing guide in the North Woods. But when his mentor Sgt. Kathy Frost is forced to kill a troubled war veteran in an apparent case of "suicide by cop," he begins having second thoughts about his decision. 
          Now Kathy finds herself the target of a government inquiry and outrage from the dead soldier's platoon mates. Soon she finds herself in the sights of a sniper, as well. When the sergeant is shot outside her farmhouse, Mike joins the hunt to find the mysterious man responsible. To do so, the ex-warden must plunge into his friend's secret past—even as a beautiful woman from Mike's own past returns, throwing into jeopardy his tentative romance with wildlife biologist Stacey Stevens. 
          As Kathy Frost lies on the brink of death and a dangerous shooter stalks the blueberry barrens of central Maine, Bowditch is forced to confront the choices he has made and determine, once and for all, the kind of man he truly is, in The Bone Orchard by Paul Doiron.

35. Dogtag Summer - Elizabeth Partridge

Bloomsbury, 2011
215 pgs. plus 11-page q & a appendix
$16.99
For: middle grades
Genre:  historical fiction
Rating:  4.5

Setting:  Northern California coastline between Ukiah and Santa Rosa,: 1980, with flashbacks to 1975 Vietnam.

One-Sentence Summary:  Tracy, an adopted Vietnam War baby with an "unknown" American father, spends the summer before entering junior high remembering the events leading up to her emigration to northern California.

This story begins on the first day of summer vacation for two best friends, Tracy and Stargazer.  Tracy is the adopted, half-Vietnamese orphan of a Vietnam vet and his wife.  Stargazer is the son of a pair of hippie parents who were very anti-war, who happily live off the land in a tiny cramped trailer with their two kids (with another on the way).  So we get two very clear points-of-view about the Vietnam War.

Tracy was adopted as a 6-year-old, five years before.  She has suppressed memories of her life in Vietnam.  When she and Stargazer find an ammo box in her dad's workshop and break into it, her memories, her feelings, her life itself, gets tilted and questioned.
    
The beginning of each new chapter is a page or so continuing the newfound memories of her life in Vietnam.  Two point-s-of-view about the Vietnam War, painful memories of those who were forced to fight, and some really beautiful writing, all work together to create a lovely, much-needed, well-researched story.

(Note:  The one weakness for me is that there was no mention of Tracy's English language development in the five years since arriving in America.  That would have been so interesting - she is a fluent English speaker in the story, and I wondered greatly about that.)

I literally grabbed this book off the shelf at the library when I saw that Elizabeth Partridge had written a piece of fiction.  I'm familiar with her nonfiction, which is award-winning.  I also have a fond memory of her and her close friend, Anna Grossnickle Hines, who befriended me at a CLNE conference in Cambridge, England, when I was lonely and homesick.  I spent the evening in Elizabeth's dorm room, chatting and discussing kid's books.  This was just before her first book, the one on Dorothea Lange, was published, and she told me the background surrounding it.  These two close friends greatly impressed me, meeting each year at CNLE no matter where the conference took place.  Since then they have BOTH become celebrated writers.  Two gracious, lovely women.