Where the Rivers Merge

Where the Rivers Merge by Mary Alice Monroe
5/13/25; 352 pages
HarperCollins

Where the Rivers Merge by Mary Alice Monroe is a very highly recommended historical family drama. This is the first book in a planned two book series about a families home in the ACE Basin, an area named for the Ashepoo, Combahee, and Edisto Rivers in the southeastern corner of South Carolina. The second book will be The River's End.

In 1988, 88 year-old Eliza Rivers Chalmers DeLancey has reach a level of success as the CEO of the family business, the DeLancey Group and in charge of the family's traditional plantation home and surrounding land, Mayfield. She has already put conservation easement on four thousand acres of the land and plans to put the last thousand acres, where Mayfield is located, into a conservation plan to protect it from development. Her son, Arthur opposes this and is scheming against her, but Eliza is prepared for his machinations.

After a tense and dramatic board meeting, Eliza sets off to Mayfield, accompanied by her college-age granddaughter, Savannah, and also the granddaughter of her closest childhood friend and grandniece Norah. Once at Mayfield, Eliza shares their family's history with the young women. The novel jumps back in time to 1908, when Eliza is 8 years old and tells her story of growing up at Mayfield and her friendship with Covey, Norah's grandmother.

This well-written historical fiction family saga opens each chapter with an interesting note about the various flora, and fauna found in the area of the ACE Basin. As Eliza grows up with a love for the land, the narrative follows the different expectations and societal norms of those days. This first novel tells Eliza's story and follows historical events up to her first wedding in 1926.

Eliza is a fully realized character full of self confidence and determination which is displayed even when she is young. Her family isn't portrayed as perfect. All the characters have flaws as well as strengths. What the story of her childhood does an excellent job of is showing her love of the land, her deep ties to Mayfield, and her unstoppable spirit to persevere. It establishes the foundation behind why she is determined to protect the land and her heritage as an adult.

Where the Rivers Merge will be relished by those who enjoy historical fiction and family dramas. Thanks to HarperCollins for providing me with an advance reader's copy via NetGalley. My review is voluntary and expresses my honest opinion.

Smoke and Embers

Smoke and Embers by John Lawton
5/13/25; 416 pages
Grove/Atlantic
Inspector Troy Novel #9

Smoke and Embers by John Lawton is a highly recommended detective/spy fiction set in 1950 and the ninth in the Inspector Troy series. This novel is more about events in the aftermath of WWII and the Holocaust than one that prominently features Scotland Yard inspector Frederick Troy.

Opening in London, Inspector Troy learns that his sergeant has been conducting an affair with the known mistress, Bryce Betancourt, of infamous London racketeer Otto Ohnherz, a German refugee. His associate Jay Fabian is said to be an Auschwitz survivor but there are doubts about his identity and he is suspected to be a spy. The two men also donated to the campaign of Troy’s brother, Rod, who was reelected as an MP for the Labour Party. After the opening intrigue, the novel jumps back in time to 1945 Poland during the end of the war. From here the action proceeds to cover changing identities across several countries and years.

This is an even paced novel that will hold your attention as it increases in complexity, deception, and intrigue with each chapter. The short chapters keep the steady pace moving as the cunning subterfuge continues across several countries and the layers of deception build as they try to survive. The historical details, descriptions of events and areas combined with the dialogue between characters help keep narrative interesting.

As mentioned, Inspector Troy actually plays a minor role in the novel. The focus is more on several other characters, the flood of refugees, and how they do what they need to do to ensure their survival following the end of WWII. The characters are portrayed as fully realized interesting individuals. No spoilers here, but the ending is great. There is an Afterword section which adds further details and information.

Smoke and Embers will best be appreciated by those who enjoy espionage fiction and post WWII novels. Thanks to Grove/Atlantic for providing me with an advance reader's copy via NetGalley. My review is voluntary and expresses my honest opinion.

The Language of the Birds

The Language of the Birds by K.A. Merson
5/13/25; 368 pages
Random House/Ballantine

The Language of the Birds by K.A. Merson is a highly recommended mystery featuring an intelligent neurodivergent teen who excels at solving codes and ciphers.

After her father's death, seventeen-year-old Arizona, her mother, and her dog Mojo are traveling in their Airstream trailer to scatter his ashes in some of his favorite places. In California’s Bodie State Historic Park she and her mother go their separate ways and agree to meet at 4:00. When her mother doesn't show up, after giving her more time, she talks to Stephen Gordon, a park ranger, to report her mother is missing. 

Later, back at the Airstream she finds it has been searched and a note “Your father should have provided us with the information that we seek. His death could have been avoided. Now we have your mother.” Included is a lengthy list of random letters that she is told to decode. She discovers Stephen Gordon is not a park ranger. He has kidnapped her mom and now he wants her to search for the clues to uncover a secret her dad, a cartographer for the U.S. Geological Survey, was guarding.

Arizona is not your average teenager. She loves cryptography, solving puzzles and cracking codes. Once the task placed before her is solved, the kidnappers give her more codes to solve and clues to find. With Mojo at her side, Arizona tackles each mystery and task placed before her. She also makes a friend, Lily, which is a huge accomplishment.

It reads like a YA novel, but adult readers can also appreciate the clues Arizona must solve while trying to save her mom. Adult readers will have to set disbelief aside several times as the plot develops, but it is entertaining and well-written. Along with solving the codes, the plot involves literature, alchemy, history, and geography.

It surprised me how much I enjoyed many aspects of this novel, especially the history and literature incorporated into the plot. The solution to solving the codes is explained in the book (Those who aren't interested can skim.) There are illustrations included in the story to assist readers in following the mystery and the solution/answer Arizona finds along the way. The ending was great. I could see this becoming a series with Arizona breaking codes and solving mysteries.

The Language of the Birds will be best appreciated by those who love solving codes and ciphers as part of a greater mystery. Thanks to Random House/Ballantine for providing me with an advance reader's copy via NetGalley. My review is voluntary and expresses my honest opinion.

My Friends

My Friends by Fredrik Backman
5/6/25; 448 pages
Atria Books 

My Friends by Fredrik Backman is an exceptional, heartbreaking, humorous, very highly recommended story of friendship, art, trust, and finding your people. This is a masterpiece and certainly will be the best book I've read this year, perhaps even over several years. Admittedly, I am a long time admirer of Backman's work but My Friends is a life-list book.

An artist's first painting, “The One of the Sea,” is being sold and eighteen-year-old Louisa needs to see the painting for her own reasons. Her best friend Fish recently died and Louisa knows that the painting isn't about the sea, it's about the small group of friends on a dock in the corner of the painting. Circumstances result into her running from a security guard and crashing into a homeless man in the alley. Only he isn't homeless, he is the artist of “The One of the Sea” who calls himself C. Jat, and he is dying.

In the hospital later the artist tells Ted about Louisa and proclaims "She's one of us!" The us is the group of four friends, the friends in the painting from twenty-five years earlier and the ones he knew at fourteen and fifteen, when he painted “The One of the Sea.” These friends are Joar, Ted, Ali, and the artist. The artist, who had Ted buy his painting back, tells Ted to give the painting to Louisa and this leads to the two embarking on a cross country trip where she learns about the friends and how they saved each other from their bruising home lives and in school.

The dual timeline works perfectly in My Friends. The present day is Louisa and Ted on their trip while Ted tells the story of when they were teens in a working class neighborhood and how they helped each other survive. Louisa talks about how Fish helped her survive. The story is emotional and I was tearing up and openly crying throughout. Their interactions can also be humorous. These young characters went through so much. He points out that the world has spent thousands of years practicing how to puncture the lungs of children who are different.

The characters come to life under his careful, compassionate, and insightful portrayal. They are all fully realized individuals with vulnerabilities, strengths and weaknesses. These teens know that they can love and trust each other, which is a combination that can be difficult to find in life. They took care of their friendship and helped the artist survive being different while encouraging his artistic pursuits.

As Backman notes several times in the well-written narrative that, the most dangerous place on earth is inside us. He writes: No one can explain why some fourteen-year-olds want to die. Nature gains nothing from unhappy children, yet they are still walking around everywhere, without the words to describe their anxiety. Also that a "Lack of self confidence is a devastating virus. There is no cure."

There is a plethora of observations about what art is and there were so many quotes I saved. A few examples: Art teaches us to mourn for strangers, isn't chronological, is what we leave of ourselves in other people, and art doesn't need critics, art has enough enemies already. Art needs friends.

My Friends is a must read book that is sure to become a classic, on many lists of one of the best books ever, and a top book club choice. Thanks to Atria Books for providing me with an advance reader's copy via NetGalley. My review is voluntary and expresses my honest opinion.

 

The Kingdom of Cain

The Kingdom of Cain: Finding God in the Literature of Darkness by Andrew Klavan
5/6/25; 272 pages
Zondervan

The Kingdom of Cain: Finding God in the Literature of Darkness by Andrew Klavan is a very highly recommended, excellent examination of how we can still find joy and beauty in this broken world and have faith in God's ability to redeem even while understanding that there is dark side of human nature, tragedy, and evil.

First Klavan examines evil in the world an why murder is the ultimate act of hubris. In part 1, Klavan writes about three murders and how they influenced works of art, literature and film. The first murderer discuss is French thief Pierre Francois Larcenaire whose 1834 crime inspired Dostoevsky’s Crime and Punishment, which inspired Friedrich Nietzsche. Nietzsche inspired 1920's American killers Nathan Leopold and Richard Loeb, who became the subjects of many movies and books.

The second murderer is the 1950's psychopath Ed Gein. His horrific actions would inspire numerous books and movies, including Psycho, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, the Halloween series, and The Silence of the Lambs. The final murder is the first, Cain killing his brother Abel and how the fault in his offering was his lack of faith. The battle we are fighting with others is really with our desires, ourselves.

Part 2 is Klavan's reflections on creative practices of truth and beauty that allow him to confront the evil around us through love with joy and deepened his relationship with Jesus Christ. The joy is present, still acknowledging grief, evil, and pain in the world, but retaining a zeal for living. He reflects on three practices that have deepened his relationship with Christ. These include communion, psychotherapy ( which allowed him to accept the grace of God), and the presence of art and beauty.

The writing is exceptional in The Kingdom of Cain. Klavan writes about murder and the imagination in literature and film. While acknowledging evil exists, he makes a clear point that God's omnipotence, love and goodness is a source of joy.

Thanks to Zondervan for providing me with an advance reader's copy via Edelweiss. My review is voluntary and expresses my honest opinion.

The Names

The Names by Florence Knapp
5/6/25; 336 pages
Penguin Publishing

The Names by Florence Knapp is a very highly recommended literary domestic drama following three alternate scenarios with the same characters. Take note that domestic abuse is a major part of the narrative in this debut novel.

Cora sets off with her nine-year-old daughter, Maia, to register her son's birth. Her husband, Gordon, a local doctor and abusive spouse, demands that she names their son Gordon. Cora likes the name Julian. Maia wants to name her brother Bear. Opening in 1987 and covering a span of thirty-five years, what follows are three different versions of their lives based on the choice of the three different names for her son.

The chapters are all divided by name choice, Bear, Julian, and Gordon, into three parallel timelines and follow the very different scenarios based on the three name choices. There is a seven year jump between chapters until the boy is a 35-year-old man. Each of the timelines is a very different version of the boy's life. 

Honestly, if the quality of the writing wasn't so exceptional the rating might have been lower. Opening illustrations based on name choice for each new chapter helps you focus on which boy/name you are reading about, making it easy to keep everything sorted out. All the characters are portrayed as fully realized individuals with strengths and weaknesses, which differ between the name choices and the life lived with that name.

I wasn't entirely sure about how I felt about the three alternate timelines based on a name choice until I had read a good portion of the novel. Initially, I felt two would have been better, but by the time I reached the end I had fully accepted the three different scenarios based on the consequences and implications of a name choice. The domestic violence is a major drawback but does not play a major role is all three timelines.

The Names is a creative, well-written novel that explores how a single decision can influence identity and fate in a family. 4.5 rounded up. Thanks to Penguin Publishing for providing me with an advance reader's copy via NetGalley. My review is voluntary and expresses my honest opinion.

South of Nowhere

South of Nowhere by Jeffery Deaver
5/6/25; 416 pages
Penguin Group
Colter Shaw #5 

South of Nowhere by Jeffery Deaver is a highly recommended thriller and the fifth novel in the Colter Shaw series. Colter makes a living as a reward hunter and tracker usually searching for missing persons or fugitives. This series was was adapted for CBS's TV show Tracker.

Colter Shaw is called in to help by his sister, Dorion, a disaster response specialist, after a levee collapses in Hinowah, a small town in Northern California. A vehicle with a family of four inside was swept into the water and Colter has the ability and skills to try and track where it went. Plenty of complications arise along the way. 

It seems the whole levee may be collapsing soon, which would wipe out the whole town. Then some nefarious player seems to be up to no good and attacks Colter while he is searching for the family. Further questions arise over what is really happening when Colter detects explosive residue near the site of the collapse, bringing into question whether it was really an accident. There is a minor storyline about someone named Margaret, who may be Colter's half sister and things happening to their mother, Mary Dove, a MD.

The pace moves fast while the pages will fly by and the twist keep coming in this well plotted thriller. The time that has passed is tracked as the narrative unfolds. There are several plot points and threads to follow while the truth is sought and uncovered. The novel starts out as a disaster novel and morphs into something else entirely. Personally, I felt like you needed to set some disbelief aside while reading, but this was easily done as the story immediately grabs your attention and keeps it without flagging.

Colter and Dorion, along with their brother Russell, grew up with a survivalist father, Ashton, and some of the many lessons he taught them are included along the way.  Since this is the fifth book in the series those new to the series may not have all the background information others have, although there is probably enough shared to keep you up to speed enough to enjoy the action. All the characters are fully realized individuals.

South of Nowhere is a great choice for those who enjoy thrillers. Thanks to the Penguin Group for providing me with an advance reader's copy via NetGalley. My review is voluntary and expresses my honest opinion.