Total Books: 4 Total Pages: 1375 Longest: 387 Shortest: 257
Genres: 4 (Biography – 1, Mystery – 1, Thriller – 2)
The Last Devil to Die by Richard Osman
This is the fourth in Osman’s Thursday Murder Club series which revolves around a group of intrepid senior citizens researching cold cases who keep getting involved in current murders.
The original book is currently being made into a movie directed by Chris Columbus and starring Helen Mirren, Ben Kingsley, Celia Imrie, and Pierce Brosnan. When I read the original book, I envisioned Mirren, Kingsley, Dame Judi Dench, and Donald Sutherland – but given that Dench now has macular degeneration in addition to being 90 years old, and Sutherland passed away last year – I’m thrilled with the final casting and can’t wait to see the movie.
Anyway, in this installment, an old friend apparently got himself inadvertently into trouble and consequently killed. The quartet of loyal septuagenarians/octogenarians obviously can’t leave the case totally up to the police to solve, but what dangers will they encounter in their investigation? Add in the stress of dealing with a loved one’s failing health and the Thursday Murder Club has a lot to deal with in The Last Devil to Die. It appears, however, this will not be the final book in the series, so I’m looking forward to more adventures by this group of friends who don’t let age stop them from living life to the fullest.
The Waiting by Michael Connelly
The Waiting is the sixth Renee Ballard and Harry Bosch novel by Connelly. Ballard now runs the LAPD open-unsolved unit, although she is the only paid officer, all others are volunteers.
The “waiting” refers to both Ballard’s surfing hobby where you have to wait patiently for a good wave and to her profession where you often must wait patiently during a stake-out. If you are a fan of Connelly, this one won’t disappoint. Some interesting twists and turns along the way, plus a speculative take on what is perhaps LA’s most notorious real-life cold case. Now, I’m patiently waiting for Connelly’s next novel…
The Search for Haley by Tim Ernst
My non-fiction selection this month is a first-hand account of the 2001 search in the Buffalo River wilderness in the Ozark Mountains of Arkansas for six-year-old Haley Zega who got lost while hiking with her grandparents and some friends.
Spoiler alert: They found her alive after almost 51 hours on her own.
My husband had downloaded this one several years ago, but I just now got around to it. The reason my husband got the book was two-fold: 1) one of the two men who finally found her was his niece’s husband’s uncle; 2) the location where she got lost is only 12 miles from my husband’s family homestead. However, when I say it was 12 miles – you’d have to be a bird. In a car per Google, it is 32.7 miles going one direction or 41.8 miles going the other and either direction will take you well over an hour. This is extremely, rugged wilderness. In fact, the recent population in Newton County at 823 square miles is only around 7,000. That’s approximately 2/3 the size of Rhode Island which has a population around 1.1 million in contrast.
Tim Ernst is a well-known Arkansas wilderness photographer (we have one of his waterfall photo books) and blogger who has a cabin near where Haley disappeared, and his cabin became one of the hubs during the search. Tim compiled his experience and observations over the 3-day search and collected information and writings from many of the other searchers, friends, and family members for a thorough account. The number of people, both volunteer and professional, organizations and companies who came together so quickly in this remote area to find a little girl almost none of them knew is amazing. Even with all those people searching, it was a miracle that Haley was found alive.
One of the things that stood out to me, was how a search like this should be conducted and organized. It started out that way (organized), but the sheer number of volunteers who showed up created additional problems (especially in a wilderness area without adequate facilities). In the debriefing between organizations afterwards, many of the logistical issues were discussed and the learning processed and hopefully the lessons learned made searches better from that point.
Glamorous Notions by Megan Chance
Short synopsis from Amazon: A costume designer’s past casts a long shadow over her well-constructed lies in this intriguing story about stolen identities, friendship, and betrayal.
Set primarily in Hollywood in the mid-fifties amid the Cold War, McCarthyism, and other post-WW2 societal changes, secrets aren’t a good thing to have, and the protagonist Elsie/Lena has plenty! Is anyone who they say they are and who can you really trust?
An unexpected thriller (even though that’s how it was described), I enjoyed Chance’s writing, so I may try to read some more of her works. I also realized that I really haven’t read a whole lot about this period of history, so I will be looking into it in the future (see what I did there?).
Until next time, read what pleases you!
Notes By Nancy 
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