The Woman in the White Kimono

Title: The Woman in the White Kimono
Author: Ana Johns
Published: May 28th 2019 by Park Row
Format: Hardcover, 352 pages
Genre: Historical Fiction

There was truth within the magical stories Tori’s father had told. Stories which never grew old and took on a life of their own yet always included a blue pebbled street, a tea merchant and his beautiful daughter, a pathway of lanterns, a tree, and of heartache and hope. It was not until, as he lies dying, a letter is shared and secrets revealed. What Tori did not know was there had always been hidden truths in his tales which has now led a grieving daughter on a journey to a life-before-a-life.

Told in an alternating style encompassing the harsh realities of 1957 Japan and current day where Tori Kovac, an investigative journalist, travels to Japan to find Naoko, a woman who was her father’s first love. A love not allowed between an American serviceman and the daughter of a tea merchant determined to rebuild his business by arranging a marriage between his daughter and the son of a wealthy and powerful family.

The letter revealed an unknown daughter. A sister Tori never knew, and in response to the deep loss of her father, she is determined to find this woman. A woman that is half her father, someone who could help her to fill in the blanks and can share her stories. What she did not expect was a harsher reality of what Naoko had to endure. Of a time and place which was cruel to pregnant seventeen-year-old girls who carry a half American babies.

Carved out of true stories, there is a heart-wrenching authenticity to this book. A never wanting to let go of Tori or Naoko, or the countless other women who had to suffer, yet there is a knowing they are at peace after this dark piece of history has been told.

A Grave End

Title: A Grave End
Author: Wendy Roberts
Published: July 15th 2019 by Carina Press
Format: eBook, 219 pages
Genre: Paranormal Mystery
Source: My thanks to Netgalley and the Publisher for an opportunity to read an advanced copy of this book.
Series: Bodies of Evidence #4

Another one of those series I cannot explain why I continue to ready, yet I do in hopes they will get better or the main character will become less whiney and damaged.

As families reach out to Julie Hall, in desperate need to find missing loved ones, she must keep her walls up or become overwhelmed by the sheer number of emails and requests she receives. From time to time there are those cases which spark her interest but when they take place in her old home town, a town which holds brutal memories, her first reaction is to delete the request, lock her doors, and hide from the outside world.

There is something about the case of Alice which piques her curiosity and a chance meeting outside of a prison with a psychic, she tentatively combines skills to see if they can come up with a breakthrough for the family. Dead ends after dead ends lead Julie frustrated and exasperated. Her dowsing rods are not picking up on Alice’s remains, until she goes to the one place she swore she would never return to.

Though I had begun to wonder about a specific character in the book, I figured it could not be that easy, why would an author ask so little from her readers, but that is exactly what Wendy Roberts did. Maybe next time she will add in more twists or additional plots to throw us off.

I’ll never understand why this series took off in the way it did when her previous – Ghost Duster Mysteries, and Grounds to Kill just disappeared from the radar.

The 18th Abduction

Title: The 18th Abduction
Author: James Patterson, Maxine Paetro
Published: April 29th 2019 by Little, Brown and Company
Format: Hardcover, 368 Pages
Genre: Suspense
Series: Women's Murder Club #18

First off, don’t let the 381 pages shock you, the font used is larger than most hardcovers so it will be a quick read. Second, don’t be thrown by the authors use of the name Karin Slaughter as a character in the book, it was an interesting way to introduce the term “Googleganger”.

A long thought dead war criminal “the butcher of Djoba”, and three missing teachers from a prestigious high school have Lindsay and Joe running all over San Francisco. What no one knew at the time was one of these seemingly innocent teachers has a secret, actually more than one, but as the story unfolds their background unfold with it. Add in a woman sitting beside Joe’s car hoping for help when no one else will listen. Quickly two seemingly unrelated stories will be tied together if they can get the butcher to commit a crime. Not just any crime, a crime that will give entry to his past and give Lindsay, Joe, and the rest of the Women’s Murder Club an entrance into a brutal piece of history.

What James Patterson and Maxine Paetro unfold will not be for the squeamish. This is a brutal book that visibly lays bare war crimes. You cannot help but have a visceral reaction to the pictures that are drawn with words that leave a lasting impression. So be warned, this book goes a little deeper than their usual fluff, a book that contains composites of real events and individuals, a book that barely conceals the true criminals that they are talking about.

Shamed

Title: Shamed
Author: Linda Castillo
Published: July 16th 2019 by Minotaur Books
Format: eBook, Hardcover, 304 pages
Genre: Police Procedural
Source: My thanks to Netgalley and the Publisher for an opportunity to read an advanced copy of this book.
Series: Kate Burkholder #11

Linda Castillo does not disappoint in this eleventh installment to the Kate Burkholder series. A bit heavier and more disturbing than her previous books, the author takes Kate and the police force of Painters Mill down a dark and disturbing road with the murder of a grandmother and the abduction of a special needs child.

“Da Deivel has hurt Grossmammi” are the first words Kate can get out of terrified Anne Helmuth. Mary Yoder is dead and 7-year-old Elsie is missing. With little to go on and only a basic description, the police are left with very few leads. The locals have no idea who could be responsible, but when an innocent comment is made about Elsie being a gift, new ideas are forming and when you kick over the right rock, family secrets are revealed. Secrets lead up to the highest echelons of the tight-knit Amish community. With the pieces coming together, Kate does not like the picture which is forming and why Elsie, of all children, would be kidnapped. In a desperate need to have her child returned, Miriam Helmuth reveals the truth behind Elsie’s birth and what part both a mid-wife and Bishop Troyer had in a late-night visit to a remote farm.

As notes are being left with those who know more than they should, and bodies piling up, Kate is in a battle with time to have a child returned before any more damage can be done to the families involved and the community that protects them.

This book will grab you from the beginning. You may have the intention of reading a bit here and there, to savor what is being said, but you will not be able to let go until you reach the end and know the pain some have suffered and the dishonesty others will go to when they think they are doing what is best for a child.