ST. MICHAELS AND TWIN CITY SISTERS IN CRIME EVENT

Today, Saturday, April 20, The Library staff of St. Michaels and members of Twin Cities Sisters In Crime, joined in happy collaboration of an excellent book event. City Hall in St. Michael was the venue today for a bright panel discussion and then circulation among 30+ authors prepared to comment and sell their best books. A good day in a fine venue.

BLESSED ARE THE DEAD

Author: Kristi Belcamino ISBN: 9780062338914 2014 releases by William Morrow Gabriella Giovanni is a young reporter on the West Coast. She's assigned to the Crime Beat on her medium-sized daily newspaper in the California Bay area. Her time is is mostly spent chasing down law enforement calls and tryung to get background and context from distraught citizens who are crime victims. What her editor and others around her don't know is she is driven by a horrible crime, like those she reports. Moreover, its an unsolved crime. Her professional life is complicated by others at the newspaper who want her removed from the crime beat. It's apparent that author Belcamino knows the landscape in which she writes. In this story, Giovanni becomes entangled with a man incarcerated for a lengthy series of murders. She is focused on his background for reasons that gradually becom clear, but the reporter's concentration on the murderer's history interferes with current events. Ultimtely, family elements, job pressures and the emotional power of the killer come together in an overlong but powerful and satisfying climax. I look forward to reading the next in her continuing series of crime novels.

BRASSY CONCERT FROM MINNESOTA ORCHESTRA

As a former brass player, it was delightful for me to experience the recent Thursday and Friday concerts by a fine orchestra. Guest conductor Domingo Hindoyan brought out the Latin focus of the music selections, from the Sienna Fandango to Dvorak's Eighth. An enthusiastic audience clearly appreciated the offerings of the orchestra and those of guest trumpeter, Pacho Flores. He offered an array of virtuoso pieces on four separate instruments including a four-valve trumpet and two cornets. Mr. Flores demonstrated excellent control, double and triple tonguing, and wide-ranging tonal control. The music selections were lively, rhythmic and called forth substantial appreciation from both audience and members of the Minnesota Orchestra. A fine, up-tempo program.

STATE OF THE UNION

 President Biden's State of The Union speech Thursday evening was (IMO) more campaign than report to the nation. I suppose that's where we are going. Instead of a respectful fact-filled presentation, accepted quietly by friends and opponents alike, as used to be the atmosphere, there were Britt-like cat-calls and loud objections from conservative members, a few of whom dressed for a day raking the yard. Well, so be it; you elect rabble, you get rabble-rousing. I think it was primarily a campaign speech. "Here's what I have done (actually a lot of people, both right and left politically) " and "here's where I intend to take our nation." As a small aside, note that the President talks in personal terms--we, us our-- whereas GOP speech-makers talk mostly about "the American people," as if we are some group out there somewhere and the GOP is separate.

In any case it was interesting, hopeful and sure lays out the prameters for the coming election campaign. 

Y'all be well.

MODERN TECHNOLOGY? improvememnt?

When I was forced, recently, to change Internet providers, I notified over 3,000 contacts of my new email and other contact changes. It appears most , businesses, organizations and individuals, have no procedure for making such changes. They seem to require canceling of the "account" and re-connecting.  So now the number of people and organizations I am connected to has fallen by more than 50%. The time I have spent explaining and reminding those who ignored my message of change, has been enormous. Now I understand the problems of privacy and need for protection from the scammers. However, my loss is large.

Today, I completed a change with a small financial institution that was so clean, neat and quick, it was 1990 again. How did we do it, you ask? We mailed a form back and forth and talked once on the telephone. Just like we used to do in the twentieth century! Clean, efficient  easy. The Internet is not yet the new communications revolution.

CLASSY CRIME NOVEL-A COLD WHITE SUN

 

A Cold White Sun   

By Vicki Delany

ISBN: 9781464201585

A 20013 hardcover release

From Poisoned Pen Press

A fine, judicious blend of action, mystery, thoughtful introspection and exploration of human conditions and motivations marks this novel. The story is a part of the author’s continuing series about the development of a young constable in the police force of a small community, Trafalgar. The town is located in a prime tourist region of British Columbia. That’s a province of Canada. The mountains offer prime skiing, the streams fishing and the forests hunting of various animals. Tourism is big business but that brings troubles as well.

Moonlight Smith, born of a hippie activist American couple, a near-champion downhill skier, much to her mother’s initial consternation has settled, at least temporarily, for a career as a cop. She’s bright, good-looking and not entirely sure of her life direction. Delaney has set this interesting character up with two bosses. She’s basically a patrol officer in the small department, but because the head of murder investigations, John Winters, recognizes her intelligence, Moonlight—Molly—Smith is frequently tasked to participate in his investigations.

This time the crime is murder. Out for her daily walk, high school English teacher Cathy Lindsay is slain, shot in the back. Subsequent investigation can find no plausible reason. Why was she a target? Was it a mistake?

As the investigation winds through Trafalgar, the author takes the opportunity to examine relationships between her principal characters, their family members, and members of the constabulary. Some of the scenes are loving, some are rife with anger and tension. The pace is good and if the threads occasionally fray and lose a little direction, that’s inevitable. This novel has a lot of thoughtful observations and this reviewer felt enriched. I’d award 4.75 stars if that was possible.

 

SECRETS OF WILLOW LANE REVEALED

Minneapolis native J. L. Anderson wrote an entertaining crime novel about the death of a resident of Willow Lane. In the process of solving the crime, the author has revealed a whole host of interesting facts about the sometimes more that ordinary lives of the residents of this neighborhood.

Add to that a conflicted squad of Minneapolis homicide detectives who seem to spend almost as much energy fighting each other as they do trying to figure out who killed the bee in the neighbor's bonnet. The story moves along, builds clue after clue pointing at different suspects and is resolved in eminently satisfying ways. 

This is not a highly unusual neighborhood--it could be yours--or mine. From all appearances the residents of Willow Lane are nice, well-educated, intelligent people, with an exception or two. But somehow the web of deceit has entangled more than is obvious. The author does a fine job of setting up the reader and then precisely and logically solving the puzzle and revealing  many Secrets of Willow Lane, a 2019 publication by J.L.Anderson from Fuzion Press.