Tricks of Fortune by Lina Chern

TRICKS OF FORTUNE by Lina Chern (Play the Fool) is the second murder mystery to feature tarot card reader Katie True. This time, her good friend, Gina, is a prime suspect in the murder of a local cop, Officer Pete. Chern is an Edgar Award-winning author, and I find her stories to be filled with suspense and humor. I had a sixth sense while reading and was gratified to see the author’s note which refers to the real-life case involving Illinois resident Lt. Joe Gliniewicz. Chern adds her own twists and character secrets. She also flashes back to the time when Katie’s eccentric Aunt Rosie, stressing the need to move forward and accept change, first explained how to read the cards. Those chapters are guaranteed to make readers smile and laugh. TRICKS OF FORTUNE works as a stand-alone mystery, but readers will enjoy reading Play the Fool first. As Katie says, “Our brains are wired to look for patterns. You get a bunch of random images, your brain is automatically going to make a story out of it. It's why the cards work. It's not magic, but it's real.” For more on Chern's  perspective on the cards and writing mysteries, see her interview with Chicago Review of Books. 

Guide Me Home by Attica Locke

GUIDE ME HOME by Attica Locke is the third book in the Highway 59 series which began with award-winning Bluebird, Bluebird. No doubt it would have been better to have read the entire series in order, but this one (a selection for one of my book groups) was an engaging, quick read and worked fairly well as a stand-alone. The main character is Darren Mathews, a Black man in East Texas who has just resigned his role as a Texas Ranger. Locke fills in some of the backstory regarding Darren’s dysfunctional relationship with his mother and estrangement with the uncle who raised him. When a young Black girl, Sera Fuller, goes missing from a local college campus, Darren tries to find answers, leading to his harassment by the police force at a company town called Thornhill. As readers try to piece together the events surrounding her disappearance, they are also drawn into the shifting relationship between Darren and his mother. Darren also provides frequent commentary on the current political situation, for example: “He wondered what those kids marching for civil rights, marching against Vietnam, would have made of the country today. Wondered which wounded the soul more, living in a country that had never kept any of its promises or seeing America's capacity for good catch wind and fly for a while, only to come crashing back down.” GUIDE ME HOME is a story full of principle, heartache, and forgiveness. It received a starred review from Booklist (“exceptional writing, pivotal character evolution, and a baffling mystery”). 

Savvy Summers and the Sweet Potato Crimes

SAVVY SUMMERS AND THE SWEET POTATO CRIMES by Sandra Jackson-Opoku is a brand-new culinary mystery. I listened to the audiobook narrated by Karen Chilton – she did an excellent job. I liked the voice, the cozy story, and the clever use of language (e.g., “looking back from the intersection of hindsight and regret…”). This mystery debut is set in Southside Chicago so hearing about familiar locales was fun for me (despite the disparaging remarks about the beloved Cubbies baseball team). The title character is a woman trying to be strong and to give back to her community. She runs her own business, a soul food café based on her great Aunt Essie's recipes. But when a patron dies suddenly, Savvy’s livelihood is threatened, and she (along with her nosy assistant and policemen ex-husband) tries to figure out what happened. Savvy persists, often reflecting on Aunt Essie’s truisms like there are three sides to every story: “her side, his side and the dad-gone truth.” Library Journal gave SAVVY SUMMERS AND THE SWEET POTATO CRIMES a starred review, praising its “engaging community of characters.” 

The Satisfaction Cafe by Kathy Wang

THE SATISFACTION CAFÉ by Kathy Wang is a LibraryReads selection for July and was recently recommended by Ann Patchett on a PBS NewsHour feature (see video below). However, I found the story evoked feelings of loneliness and sadness. The main character is named Joan and although she is from Taiwan, she eventually moves to California and becomes the fourth wife to an older, wealthy white man. It feels as though she is constantly denying herself and suppressing her feelings in order to “fit in.” No one is very welcoming; why does she bother? The book moves slowly, although it covers several decades, with her own grown children eventually confronting many of the same issues about belonging and following rules. The title reflects her dream: “Joan wished there was a place she could visit to feel less alone: a restaurant with very friendly servers, perhaps, where she might order a bowl of spaghetti and casually surrender her insecurities. When she was little, she used to daydream of a place she named in her head the Satisfaction Café, which had friendly employees and nice food and pretty toys; even as a child, Joan’s imagination had not stretched to fantastic outcomes but, rather, a reasonable amount of happiness.” That feeling proved elusive and instead of peaceful contentment, a melancholy atmosphere pervades the story. Those who prefer a feel good story will be disappointed.  

Mailman by Stephen Starring Grant

MAILMAN by Stephen Starring Grant is a non-fiction work subtitled “My Wild Ride Delivering the Mail in Appalachia and Finally Finding Home.” After twenty years as a consumer strategist, Grant became a rural letter carrier during the pandemic. A graduate of the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, he lives in Blacksburg, Virginia. And he can tell a good story … whether it is delivering a small refrigerator (USPS has a 70 pound weight limit on packages), a Lord of the Rings sword, a special rifle, or finding the magic of Christmas lights in a hollow … He writes gratefully about the other letter carriers who supported him as a rookie and about the citizens/residents along his route. In a recent Wall Street Journal excerpt, he notes, “And yet, somewhere in those early months, change did come. Letter by letter I was learning. I got tougher. I became capable of delivering everything that I loaded into my truck in the morning. The economics of delivering the mail were unsentimental -- paying for my mortgage and groceries cost more than I was bringing in. But out there on Route 3 the job became more than just a financial delaying tactic. I was inhabiting something real, feeling what it was like to be there for people. I had become a mailman.” MAILMAN received starred reviews from both Booklist and Kirkus who described MAILMAN as “A charming book that’s guaranteed to make you think differently about the USPS.” I am so happy that I could share this title with my mailman and tell him how I have a whole new respect for the work he does every day. 

Port Anna by Libby Buck

PORT ANNA by Libby Buck is a gentle story about starting over and second chances. Set in small-town coastal Maine (Port Anna is named for Anna Vale, a long-ago lighthouse keeper), this debut features Gwen Gilmore whose younger sister Molly drowned several years ago. Having lost a teaching position, Gwen decides to move back to Maine and encounters friends from her childhood and youth; later musing that “the defining moments of our lives happen before we turn 18.” She struggles to make peace with past events and to overcome hardship, including housing challenges, while gradually amassing the start of a new life with elements of romance, friendship, protectiveness towards a runaway teen, and developing a shared community at the local high school, her new employer. Throughout the story, Gwen reflects on love and grief and how “You cannot have one without the other. … In the middle of grief, there were also gifts: a smushed loaf of banana bread from a friend who knew she forgot to eat, the caress of a man covered in blue paint, and the skinny girl’s indomitable spirit.” When reviewing this novel, Publishers Weekly said, “Readers looking for a sweet, summery outing … will want to check this out." Overall, PORT ANNA is an engaging, feel-good read enlivened by Buck’s strong affection for Maine, as she says, “I am deeply grateful for its many gifts -- the bounty and diversity of the land and seascape as well as the fascinating, complicated people who call it home.” 

The View from Lake Como by Adriana Trigiani

THE VIEW FROM LAKE COMO by Adriana Trigiani is a coming-of-age story from a favorite author about Italian American families, culture, and expectations. Trigiani introduces readers to Giuseppina Capodimonte Baratta (called Jess), a recently divorced thirty-something who has moved back in with her parents in Lake Como, New Jersey and handles household chores (e.g., the big Sunday dinner) somewhat resentfully. Jess was not able to go away to college and has worked for her childless Uncle Louie as a designer at his marble and stone importing company. She is finally allowing herself to dream a bit, especially about the trip to Italy that Louie has promised. A premature death thwarts those plans, but Jess perseveres and challenges herself to find independence and forgiveness. Amongst the advice for her: “When adapting to a new environment, be kind to yourself. Making friends and acclimating is a process. Seek comfort and familiarity but set a goal to talk to someone you don't know every day. You will be empowered to form bonds and make friends.” Romance, family history, and a visit to the original Lake Como await. THE VIEW FROM LAKE COMO received starred reviews from Booklist (“this may be her best yet”) and Library Journal (“a captivating and memorable read”). Be sure to also look for Trigiani’s debut novel Big Stone Gap (published 25 years ago), Big Cherry Holler, Milk Glass Moon or one of over a dozen other titles she has written.