The Ship Beneath the Ice

The Ship Beneath the Ice: The Discovery of Shackleton's Endurance by Mensun Bound
2/28/23; 416 pages
Mariner Books; HarperCollins

The Ship Beneath the Ice: The Discovery of Shackleton's Endurance by Mensun Bound is a very highly recommended account of the two expeditions undertaken in 2019 and 2022 to successfully find the Endurance.

Briefly, on November 21, 1914, Ernest Shackleton and his crew sailed the Endurance to Antarctica to become the first to cross the continent, but early season pack ice trapped them in place and the Endurance sank. Since this the Endurance was one of the most legendary lost ships and the most unreachable due to the hostile environment. The Ship Beneath the Ice is the account of marine archeologist Mensun Bound and an elite team of explorers set out to find the lost shipwreck.

This real life adventure story is told through diary entries of Bound and extracts of diary entries of Shackleton and his men. The first recovery operation in 2019 was proceeded by years of preparation and then they had many technical challenges with the AUV. Finally they had to stop the first expedition once the weather deteriorated and the ship got stuck in the ice. The team launched their second attempt in 2022 with new equipment, a Sabertooth diving vessel with a tilt camera, and had success.

For those who enjoy maritime history, the story of the Endurance, or following searches for lost parts of history will likely appreciate this story of successfully uncovering a part of history while also presenting the historical facts of the original expedition. The book is well written and descriptive, although the diary entries require some getting used to at first. The presentation of the history and current situation are expertly written and the tension involved is clearly shown in both timelines.

Disclosure: My review copy was courtesy of HarperCollins and Mariner Books via Edelweiss.

Are You a Miserable Old Bastard?

Are You a Miserable Old Bastard? by Andrew John, Stephen Blake
3/1/23; 176 pages
Rowman & Littlefield
new edition; rerelease

Are You a Miserable Old Bastard?: Quips, Quotes, And Tales From The Eternally Pessimistic by Andrew John, Stephen Blake is a highly recommended collection of quotes from a wide variety of well known personalities. The quotes are organized by very general topics and the quips, putdowns, grumps, and complaints are widely diverse. You can read quotes from P. J. O'Rourke, Dorothy Parker, Michael Moore, H. L. Mencken, Fran Lebowitz, Winston Churchill, Groucho Marx, and W. C. Fields and even quotes from literary and fictional characters, like A. A. Milne's character Eeyore.

All of the quotes are wonderfully grumpy and suitably irritable for the most cantankerous among us, as well as for those who just appreciate a good testy quote about a variety of topics that can annoy the best of us in everyday life. This is a perfect book to read in short snatches or to look through for a suitably petulant quote to fit any situation. First published in 2006, a new edition is being released in 2023 by Rowman & Littlefield and my review copy was courtesy of the publisher.

Storm Watch

Storm Watch by C. J. Box
2/28/23; 368 pages
Penguin, G.P. Putnam's Sons
Joe Pickett Series #23

Storm Watch by C. J. Box is a very highly recommended crime thriller that is unputdownable. Wow! I have only read a couple C. J. Box novels, but have immediately became a life-long fan. Storm Watch is an excellent novel in every way!

As a snowstorm is rolling in, Wyoming Game Warden Joe Pickett is hunting down a wounded elk when he comes across a vehicle park on a remote mountainside. Upon further investigation he finds a professor's body sticking halfway out of a metal building. After putting the elk down, Joe manages to take pictures of the scene and finds the man's wallet before someone fires two shots at him. Joe hikes back to his truck and heads home, trying to beat the worst part of the snow.

He calls the crime in, which only results in little action. The county Sheriff Scott Tibbs later reports that there was no body, thus no crime scene. The governor Colter Allen orders Joe off the case. He later finds out the building is a remote high-tech facility. After this, Joe's friend Nate Romanowski is approached with an invitation to join a movement called Sovereign Nation. It seems there is more going on than Joe can easily avoid, especially when every crime he investigates seems to be tied to a bigger problem.

The characters were portrayed as realistic individuals with depth and unique characteristics. They are written as unique characters with individual personalities and reactions to events. Joe and Marybeth's daughter Sheridan plays a role in this novel and is very intelligent and likable. There are numerous characters in the narrative, but they are distinctive and easy to keep track of.

The narrative is detailed, complicated, intelligent, and interesting as Box keeps the tension high while adding more and more complications and new developments to the plot lines. The numerous complications include: murders, liars, poachers, falconry, politicians, bitcoin mining, extremists, bad weather, family, and more. The detailed setting places the action firmly in a specific place and time. There may be some suspension of disbelief required, but it was something I very willingly did when it occurred.

Disclosure: My review copy was courtesy of G.P. Putnam's Sons via NetGalley.

A Cry in the Dark

A Cry in the Dark by Jessica R. Patch
2/28/23; 368 pages
Harlequin

A Cry in the Dark by Jessica R. Patch is a very highly recommended mystery/thriller. This is an excellent novel!

FBI special agent Violet Rainwater is a forensic psychologist and an agent with the Strange Crimes Unit, Southern Division. She is called to the Appalachian Mountain town of Night Holler in Kentucky to investigate the murder of three young women whose bodies were found in a cave. Their deaths are obviously due to a serial killer, especially considering the gruesome detail that they are all missing their eyes and their eyelids were sown shut. Detective John Orlando joins the team to assist because he thinks the case might be related to the murder of his wife several years earlier.

Violet is a sympathetic and fully realized character. She had a tragic childhood due to the appalling circumstances that led to her mother giving birth to her. Her mother has never allowed her to forget why she was born and has treated her terribly her whole life. Once Violet was in a position to find her contemptible father, who abducted her mother when she was fifteen, she started trying to find him along with half-siblings. She has suffered her whole life, never feeling loved or wanted.

The writing is absolutely excellent in the plot, execution, and development. The case is completely compelling and the narrative will hold your attention throughout. As the investigation unfolds and new clues are uncovered, there are several suspects that will come to the forefront. Follow the clues and expect plenty of twists along with new information. There is an ominous, creepy atmosphere throughout the novel, but there is also a wonderful corresponding spiritual message of personal redemption, surrender, healing, and love.

The first book in this series following the Strange Crimes Unit is Her Darkest Secret that follows agents Fiona Kelly and Asa Kodiak. You don't have to read it first, but you will absolutely want to read it after reading A Cry in the Dark.

Disclosure: My review copy was courtesy of Harlequin via Edelweiss.

Device Free Weekend

Device Free Weekend by Sean Doolittle
2/28/23; 288 pages
Grand Central Publishing

Device Free Weekend by Sean Doolittle is a highly recommended new take on a locked room thriller.

Seven friends who met three decades earlier in college are offered a Labor day get away on a private island near Puget Sound owned by one of them. Ryan Cloverhill, incredibly wealthy founder and CEO of a popular social media platform, has invited Stephen, Emma, Perry, Will, Beau, and Lainie for this special reunion, all expenses paid. The one stipulation is that they must surrender all their devices upon arrival. The first day is an enjoyable time of reminiscing and reconnecting. The second day is perplexing. Ryan is gone, as are their devices. Where their phones were left is a touchscreen tablet with its on-screen challenge: Unlock Me! The six friends must figure out what how to open it and Ryan wants them to do.

Locked room thrillers are always entertaining and that holds true for Device Free Weekend, once you set disbelief aside and go with the premise set forth. What Ryan planned is thwarted almost from the start, when two of the friends get locked out of the house and all six are needed fro any decision to be made. The decision Ryan wants his old friends to make has no good outcome. Stephan is the only fully realized character, but enough traits and information is presented on the others that they do present themselves as individuals. Basically, they have very different traits and you can tell them all apart.

The pages fly by as the action keeps the pace of the plot moving along. Even in the slower-paced sections, readers will know that the pace is going to pick up again soon. A case could be made that the motive for Ryan's actions could have been better developed, but as the narrative moves forward enough information is uncovered to handle this qualm. I enjoyed Device Free Weekend. It's not a perfect novel, but it is engaging and held my attention throughout.

Disclosure: My review copy was courtesy of Grand Central Publishing via NetGalley.

It's One of Us

It's One of Us by J. T. Ellison
2/21/23; 400 pages
MIRA

It's One of Us by J. T. Ellison is a highly recommended psychological thriller.

Olivia Bender desperately wants to be a mother so when she miscarriages again, after the latest fertility treatments and IVF, she doesn't want to tell her husband, Park, that she has failed again. (Trigger warning.) Before she can talk to him, however, the police show up at their home. DNA from the crime scene at a recent murder investigation show that the perpetrator is Park's son. But Park doesn't have any children, or does he? It then comes out that years ago Park donated sperm to a clinic. He has no idea how many times his sperm was used. Additionally, the scene of the murder seemingly mirrors that of Park’s ex-girlfriend in college, where he was briefly a suspect.

Chapters in the narrative are told through the point-of-view of multiple characters and each viewpoint makes the dialogue more rich and complex along with furthering the character development. The multiple viewpoints work well in this novel and adds realism and complexity to the plot. The chapter openings note who is talking/thinking during that particular section of the story.

Secrets play a huge role in the plot and add to the twisty layers of the narrative. Suspects are plentiful as well as secrets. Some secrets characters hold, such as participating in a group of women or offspring of a specific sperm donor, seem obvious. Others seem more nefarious. The characters are portrayed as complex, realistic individuals and are interesting.

The writing in excellent, as one would expect from J. T. Ellison. The story will totally engage you and keep you reading to the end. Some of the twists and ending are predictable, but the journey is still worth the read. There are plenty of revelations, betrayals, connections, and secrets exposed to keep you totally engrossed in the narrative. There is a very personal author's note at the end that many readers will appreciate.

Disclosure: My review copy was courtesy of MIRA.

Vanished in Vermillion

Vanished in Vermillion by Lou Raguse
2/21/23; 384 pages
Post Hill Press

Vanished in Vermillion: The Real Story of South Dakota's Most Infamous Cold Case by Lou Raguse is a very highly recommended account of a cold case being solved after over forty years but only after a series of unbelievable investigative deficiencies.

In May 1971, Pam Jackson and Sherri Miller were two seventeen-year-olds who disappeared when driving to an end-of-the-school-year kegger being held at a gravel pit out in rural, south eastern South Dakota. The girls, who were in Sherri's grandfather's rundown Studebaker Lark, didn't know exactly where the party was but they ran into some boys they knew from school and were following them down a dirt road when they disappeared. The boys assumed they went back to Vermillion to another party by the Missouri River.

It is at this point, right at the start, that the investigative failures began with a sheriff who treated the search very lightly, assuming, with no evidence, that the girls just ran away so he didn't bother to seriously look into their disappearance. The families all suffered, the girls were never heard from, and the case went cold. Thirty years later it was reopened by the cold case unit took and the twists, turns, and incredible incompetence that followed was unbelievable and went on for over a decade.

Raguse, an investigative journalist, does an excellent job thoroughly presenting the many details of this case from the start to the conclusion. The entire narrative follows the timeline of the events as they occurred so it reads like a procedural while it also clearly reveals the facts, failures, and foibles swirling around all of the official investigative attempts from start to finish. The actual closure of the case is found in such a careful, logical way it will dumbfound readers that no one thought to undertake that particular search.

The descriptions were true to life. Knowing the area well due to the presence of the University of South Dakota in Vermillion, it was easy for me visualize and place the local small towns and distances between them. It also gave me a clear understanding of the layout of the land while following the revelations in the cold case. 

Disclosure: My review copy was courtesy of Post Hill Press via Edelweiss.