THE 'PEYTON PLACE' MURDER by Renee Mallett

When I read Peyton Place in 2015--decades after it stopped being a taboo sensation and somehow worked its way into being an American classic--I had no idea the murder was based on a real case.

I won't spoil anything here (unlike the introduction to the copy of Peyton Place I read) but suffice it to say there is a scandalous family secret in Peyton Place that leads to murder...or was it more like self defense?

Does one crime excuse another one?  What goes on behind closed doors?  Does a community have a responsibility to protect its most vulnerable members or should each family deal with its own problems, no matter how heinous?

These are all questions raised in Peyton Place by Grace Metalious but which were first raised by “The Sheep Pen Murder,” in Gilmanton, New Hampshire.  If you've read Metalious' book, the mention of the sheep pen will be familiar.

Mallett's research into the actual event and subsequent trial is thorough and intensely interesting, even if you haven't read Peyton Place.  Truth is always stranger than fiction and in some cases, like Metalious', artists are forced to tone down the truth in order to even get their work accepted.

Metalious claimed the local scandal had very little influence on her book but after reading Renee Mallett's work it's hard to imagine that is the case.  Metalious plucked the crime from the headlines and used nearly every detail in what would become one of the most popular and controversial books of the 20th century.

I highly recommend it for those interested in Peyton Place, female authors of the past, true crime, and dark Americana.

I received by free advance review copy from BookSirens.

This Is How You Vagina: All About Your Vajayjay and Why You Probably Shouldn't Call It That

This Is How You Vagina: All About Your Vajayjay and Why You Probably Shouldn't Call It That

By Nicole E. Williams

The good things: packed with information but easy to read. Pretty much everything you'd want to know about why your vagina does what it does. 

--There are diagrams and lists.  Dr. Williams (no relation) answers questions ranging from silly to very serious.  You'll learn about the historic origins of some ideas we still have.  Turns out Gwyneth Paltrow and her vagina steaming would have been a big hit in ancient Egypt.  The blending of clinical and popular information is great.

--The author gives easy tips for a happy, healthy vagina.  These include ditching thongs and any cleansers other than gentle soap and water.  Did you know Lysol used to be recommended for women to freshen up their vaginas?  Yep.  Eww.

The bad things: it bothers me when people anthropomorphize vaginas ad nauseum.  Throughout the entire book we are told about what "she" likes and doesn't like.  Who is "she"?  Why, your vagina, of course.  Weird.

--Dr. Williams misuses a few words but nothing outrageous and it's probably not even something most people would notice.

--The one thing that made me stop and question my sanity was her statement that Uncle Tom's Cabin is "a book on the defense of slavery."  And she doesn't mean it contains characters who defend slavery, which is certainly true because the book presents the full spectrum of human feeling on slavery.  She apparently means that Uncle Tom's Cabin--you know, the book many people credit with showing thousands of white Americans the evils of slavery and catalyzing abolition--defends slavery.

So read this book to learn about vaginas but maybe not to learn about literature.  You'll have to read TIHYV to find out why it even came up in the first place.

I got my ebook free from Netgalley.

Baby Teeth by Zoje Stage

Have you ever thought, "I'm just too comfortable around children.  I want to feel a healthy dose of fear when a six-year-old grabs my hand or a toddler smiles at me.  What if my instinct was instead to lock them outside and call the police?"  Buddy, have I got a book for you.

If the effect of the twins in The Shining is just starting to wear off, you need to read Baby Teeth by Zoje Stage.  Hanna is of great concern to her mother, Suzette.  Hanna does not talk.  She occasionally growls...or barks...or causes problems so major she gets expelled from school.  But actual conversation, not so much.  Don't worry, Hanna has no problem getting her point across.

Suzette, who has suffered with health problems all her life, wants nothing more than for her daughter to grow up healthy and happy.  But as Hanna's frightening and uncontrollable behavior escalates, Suzette realizes she wants those things less for Hanna's good than for her own sanity.  The gulf between mother and daughter widens as Hanna displays a new facet to her personality--possibly a new personality altogether.

And where is daddy dearest during all this distress?  He's often at work and only sees Hanna at her cheeriest, which is clearly intentional on her part.  She's a daddy's girl and as we find out during Hanna's chapters, her fondest wish is for it to be just the two of them with no pesky mommy to get in the way.  But how can she achieve this end?

I had absolutely no idea where this story would take me as Suzette's life spiraled out of control and Hanna's wicked little plans took shape but it was quite a ride.  The ending?  Simultaneously satisfying and anxiety-inducing.

I got a free advance ebook of Baby Teeth from NetGalley for review purposes.

The Nesting by C. J. Cooke

 You had me at *nanny in a remote, creepy house with a mysterious employer*

3/5 stars

The Nesting has some weaknesses of logic and plot, but it thoroughly makes up for it in atmosphere. There are multiple red herrings and I'm not sure how I feel about them.  They might also just be sidelines that fizzled out a bit.

This book is a solid 3 stars for sheer creepiness and entertainment value.  The Norwegian setting is a huge bonus for me because Scandinavia ups the atmospheric score quite a bit.  If I can know without the book even telling me that it is already dark outside at 3pm, I'm all about it.

We get an unreliable narrator, but for most of the book we can't be quite sure if she's imagining some or all of what is happening.  Other characters certainly seem to be having odd experiences too.  Do we have unreliable secondary characters as well?  Or do we have an ancient Norwegian spirit haunting the premises?  Or the ghost of a dead wife?  Lexi finds herself surrounded by people who teem with secrets, some well hidden and others poorly so.  Is a human being responsible for those bumps in the night?  Better read it and find out.

I got my ebook for free from NetGalley for review purposes.

Beachcombing at Miramar or The Narcissist's Lament

2/5 stars simply because there is the occasional sentence that doesn't make me want to tear my hair out.

Maudlin, self-involved whining disguised as wisdom.  Richard Bode apparently spent his time passing judgment on other people's marriages, jobs, beliefs, and hobbies.  Bode comes across as an insufferable man-child who believed anything that cramps his style is evil and he is justified in everything hurtful he does to other people because the only thing that matters is pursuing your own happiness, regardless of the consequences.  Everyone should do whatever they want, no matter the effect on others.  #noragretsnomesayin

UNLESS you're the guy with the surfboard on his car who passed Bode on the road way too aggressively.  Upon that man he quietly wishes death and destruction.  And by quietly, I mean devotes multiple paragraphs to him in a published book.  But surfboard jerk is just living his truth, man!  He's just living out what Bode preaches.  It's all about ME.  I don't want to have to work but I'm so worried about paying my bills.  I'm so lonely, but I gave up my marriage and moved away from my family.  Why am I so unhappy?  I want a woman, but not one who is human in any way.  I just want one who fishes and adores me and doesn't speak until spoken to.  Like Gauguin's girlfriend.

Yes, as if I hadn't already figured out how empty Bode's enlightened philosophies were, I found an astounding passage in chapter 14 about Tehamana*, Gauguin's Tahitian mistress.  Bode praised her to the skies because she was so quiet and asked absolutely nothing of the artist other than to wait upon him.  This is in sharp contrast to Gauguin's wife and the mother of his children, whom he left on another continent.  She was inexplicably bitter towards him.  Gag me with a seashell.

So Bode during the course of the book, goes about passing judgment on all he sees or has seen and pretending this was how he would find himself.  Funny place to look.  He never seemed to realize that criticizing others is perhaps not the way to finding inner peace.  Actual quotation: " I can indulge in endless prattle about my friends and neighbors, dissipating my life's energy a little at a time."  And boy, can he!  Oh wait, he included this in a list of things he doesn't do.  Did this dude even read his own book?

*If Wikipedia is to be believed, Tehamana was 13 when Gauguin "married" her and was one of three temporary wives he had during his idyll, but that's a whole different issue.  Bode's my problem today.

 

The Case of the Ghost of Christmas Morning

The Case of the Ghost of Christmas Morning by PJ Fitzsimmons is stuffed with Holiday goodness and British charm.  From the drunk lolling about in the pub to the local policeman, each character is full of hidden depth and the occasional dark secret, each of which contributes to this festive murder mystery set in snowy dairy country.

Whose footprints are those?  Who is hiding what?  And why did Major Flaps Fleming appear to his friends hours after his murder?  Even more shockingly, why did he pay off his bar tab?

Prepare to be stumped as you watch the ever witty Anty Boisjoly and a couple of familiar faces from The Case of the Canterfell Codicil try to solve the case.  Will our favorite gadabout find the real killer before Anty's dear Aunt Azalea Boisjoly winds up behind bars for a murder she (probably) didn't commit?

Grab a mug of mulled wine, prop your feet up in front of the fire, and sit back for a good time with Anty and his Aunty, a very mysterious murder, and a surprisingly poignant ending.  What more could you ask for?

Long live Hildy.

I received an advance copy for free from BookSirens and I am reviewing it voluntarily.

A Good Neighborhood by Therese Anne Fowler

As a native of Raleigh, North Carolina, I am a sucker for things set here.  Most of us are.  We hoot and shout during Wagon Wheel, we at least attempt to tackle Outlander because in like season 37 they come to North Carolina or some bizarre representation thereof, we are flattered (if confused) by Where the Crawdads Sing and its use of our state's geography (who knew quick shopping trips from the beach to Asheville were so common?!), we will fight you over Charles Frazier.

So it's no surprise that when I found out (directly from the author herself) that Therese Anne Fowler was coming out with a book set in a fictionalized version of a local neighborhood, I was very interested.  Therese is always excessively kind in coming to our book club meetings and so we've snagged her again for a Zoom meeting later this year where we'll discuss A Good Neighborhood, the third of her books that we've read.  And we don't just keep reading them because we can have a brush with celebrity afterwards.  We read them because they're freaking good.

Her writing is believable, even when addressing strange topics.  And the characters are complete people with realistic motives and feelings.  It's hard for me to not relate to a book where a character says, "I might could."

A Good Neighborhood does not disappoint.  It hurts and bewilders, and at times frustrates.  But it's a good book with a lot to say and a unique way of saying it.  Like a Greek chorus, a third-person semi-omniscient narrator representing the residents of the neighborhood guides us through this story.  We enter the minds of all the relevant characters and find the sources of misunderstandings and resentments.

This story could easily take place in many different places in this country, but I recognized so many of the things that form our character here.  There is the tension of a neighborhood changing from a modest, quiet place to one now sprouting mini-mansions filled with the nouveau riche while still housing the long-established residents.  There is also the tension between races in a world quickly changing but not always keeping up with itself.

~~~

There is one typo I noticed in the ebook.