WODEHOUSE MEETS STEAMPUNK meets country-house murder mysteries in a delightful mix of fantasy and fun. B PLUS

THE UNPLEASANTNESS AT BASKERVILLE HALL
Book View Cafe
2016

WILD, ACTION-PACKED ADVENTURE set in a “Steamfunk” universe where Harriet Tubman is a superhero. Fun SF/F! SOLID B

MOSES: THE CHRONICLES OF HARRIET TUBMAN: FREEDONIA
Roaring Lions Productions
2015

WITTY, THOUGHT-PROVOKING science fiction! A UFO researcher/stripper on the run from Men In Black; smart fun. B PLUS

THOUGHTFUL, ELOQUENT MEMOIR of a writer’s day jobs in sex work and in human services work. Stunning, raw! B PLUS

A well-crafted urban fantasy is like a gorgeous souffle of magic and romance and mystery and suspense. All the elements have to be mixed with a deft hand, or the concoction collapses into a sticky, indigestible puddle. Leah Cutter’s Siren’s Call is a complete delight from star to finish, and her evocation of the fierce love and pride New Orleanians have for their city is a welcome added touch.

Kai DuPrie is always on the threshold of two worlds. Half African American, half Chinese, she’s also half human and half magic. And like all the best insider/outsider characters, she’s become a private detective, using her special gifts to solve problems and find lost things.

And lost people. Or beings. Kai’s search begins when a Siren in human form comes seeking help to find her missing sister. This clever twist on a noir trope blossoms into a taut, complex plot that reveals a hidden world of magic below the surface of New Orleans. Cutter masterfully weaves her creations into the city’s legends and mystique. It’s an elegantly wrought book as well as a great page turner, and I’m hoping for more Kai DuPrie adventures.

It might not be surprising that a third-generation farmer can make an eloquent case about getting back to his own roots, but Gary Romano’s Why I Farm: Risking It All for a Life on the Land goes far beyond that, creating a persuasive argument that small family farms are a crucial element in American society—and one that’s currently at risk.

Romano’s book is that rare thing, a successful hybrid of memoir and manifesto. He grounds his ideas in his own experience of family farming, and in the changes he’s had to make to adapt to a different economy, and environment, than the ones in which his parents and grandparents farmed for decades.

Romano draws on his family traditions in creating a new model of farming; he says “growing organically was just the way the old Italians farmed anyway,” but in today’s market, organic certification can give smaller farms a competitive edge. Similarly, he looks back to a youth spent at the old-school farmers’ markets when reinventing a local distribution culture.

One of the most convincing arguments Romano puts forward in his enlightening and entertaining book is about the serious impact that regulations and subsidies favorable to big agribusiness, and unfavorable to small farms, have had on America’s food culture. This is the piece that’s too often missing from public discourse about food production, and Romano has some important insights to add to the debate.

A FARMER’S MEMOIR AND MANIFESTO: a nice mix of common sense, family history, and heritage farming techniques.

A good cozy mystery can be hard to find, despite the enduring popularity of the genre. The most critical element of a successful cozy is creating a likable amateur sleuth; in A Secondhand Murder, Lesley A. Diehl more than succeeds with her protagonist, Eve Appel.

Eve’s found a new home in rural Florida, and a new career as co-owner of a secondhand store located far away enough from the glitter of moneyed coastal communities for broke socialites to resell their glitz on the down low. She’s tough and direct, but has a soft heart for her disaster-prone business partner, and for her beloved grandmother. Eve’s appealing right from the start, and her courage and humor are a winning combination.

The book’s setting, “cowboy country” Florida, is distinctive and engaging, and Diehl’s deft in catching details of local color. The mystery’s plot is clever without being convoluted, and the pacing is admirably brisk. This book is the first in a promising series, and I’m looking forward to more of Eve Appel’s adventures!

WITTY, SASSY COZY mystery with a funky rural Florida setting, high society shenanigans. Lots of fun!

Paige Daniels’s NON-COMPLIANCE: THE SECTOR starts with a great premise. In her imagined dystopian future, governments mandate high-tech neural implants as a way to make social processes, from economics to national defense, move more smoothly. Those who reject the technology are exiled to a Non-Compliance Sector, a combination ghetto, refugee camp, and frontier settlement.

Set against this intriguing backdrop, Daniels creates a complex outlaw heroine. Shea Kelly is a tough lady, a skilled computer and electronics hacker, and a fiercely loyal friend. She’s ready to fight when she needs to, which in the rough world of the Non-Compliance Sector is often, but she’s also capable of love, trust, and even yearning. It says a lot for Daniels’s skill that she’s found new twists to put on the noir hero(ine)’s outsider code, and the nuances of Shea’s rebellion and resistance are compelling.

NON-COMPLIANCE: THE SECTOR is a fast-paced read that delivers plenty of action along with its intriguingly imagined world. And it has a sequel, NON-COMPLIANCE: THE TRANSITION, for those wanting further Shea Kelly adventure!