The Lioness of Boston by Emily Franklin

 

 The Lioness of Boston: A Novel by Emily Franklin. Godine, 2023.

The fascinating life of Isabella Stewart Gardner is presented from the time of her marriage. As a new bride, she is unique and outspoken. She is basically shut out from society in the rigid Boston upper class. She makes friends with the local gardener and other workers who help her learn about plants, architecture, and art. "Mrs. Jack" loses several family members and has setbacks that would stun the best of us. But, she perseveres and learns to respect her own ideas and opinions. The novel is divided into four basic parts: early marriage, life as a wife, searching for identity and travelling the world, and the woman as important in the city and the world itself. 

The details of 1861-1924 Boston and the art world in general provide background for how ISG bought, arranged, and loved the items she curated. In fact, the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston is the only museum in the world where a person (and a woman at that!) collected and purchased, arranged and showed, and then gave it all to the public. 

Emily Franklin grew up going there and it shows as she writes about individual paintings. Her language flows and provides excellent commentary and the letters in the narrative show the depth of her research into the life and business dealings of Mrs. Gardner. Author's notes tell which situations have been manipulated to make a better flow, but nothing is major. 

Interesting details include that nothing can be changed from ISG's original arrangements. For example, after the 1990 thefts of several masterpieces, the empty frames are hauntingly still on the walls. Anyone named Isabella even gets free admission to the museum!  

Bluebird by Sharon Cameron

 

 Bluebird by Sharon Cameron. Scholastic Press, 2021. YA and Adult fiction.

Looking for a WWII thriller? This fast paced novel flashes back and forth from the late 1940's to early war days. Who is Eva? Who is Inge? Who is Anna? After leaving Berlin for New York City in 1946, two young women arrive to find new lives in America. Secrets, power, justice and the horrors of the Nazi regime all figure into their daily routines. While some of the chapters are long, readers will want to find out the truth. Cameron does an excellent job of portraying what it must have been like to be young and vulnerable in WWII and crafts a unique story.

Hanged! Mary Surratt and the Plot to Assassinate Abraham Lincoln by Sarah Miller

 

 Hanged! Mary Surratt and the Plot to Assassinate Abraham Lincoln by Sarah Miller. Random House Studio, 2022. Nonfiction.

Among those hanged for the murder of President Abraham Lincoln was a Catholic widow who ran a boarding house. Was she guilty of harboring and inciting others involved in the plot? Or was she innocent of naively trusting her own sons and others who believed in John Wilkes Booth's plan to help the South rise again? Liberally utilizing quotes from documents, trial transcripts, and other historical records, Sarah Miller recreates the life and times of Mary Surratt. The hysteria following the assassination of the President and the manhunt for his killers are recreated here.

Miller, author of the excellent The Borden Murders as well as the fascinating The Miracle and Tragedy of the  Dionne Quintuplets adds this one to her nonfiction writings. While the first two make great reading, this one, while steeped in research, may not make the best addition to a summer beach bag. One of the most interesting tidbits is that Wok and Roll, a long time Chinese restaurant in Washington, D.C. is on the site of the former Surratt boarding house. The address changed from 541 to 604 H Street after renumbering was done in the area. Excellent resource listings are included in the back of the book. Photographs from the times add to the narrative.

Three Can Keep a Secret by M.E. Hilliard

 

 Three Can Keep a Secret: A Greer Hogan Mystery by M.E. Hilliard Crooked Lane Books, 2023. Adult mystery. (Third in series)

Librarian and widow Greer Hogan is hard at work in Raven's Hill as the annual book sale approaches. When the library board chair is run off the road and killed, Greer puts her amateur detective skills back to use to find answers. Between the library archives and the local cemetery, Greer has plenty of clues. Friends Ben and Beau from the city come for a visit and join the sleuthing, too.  Greer has settled into the community nicely in this third novel in the series. 

Shadow in the Glass by M.E. Hilliard.

 

Shadow in the Glass: a Greer Hogan Mystery by M.E. Hilliard. Crooked Lane Books, 2022. Adult mystery. 2nd in series.

Librarian and widow Greer Hogan has taken time off to attend the Mirror Lake wedding of her friend Sarah Whitaker to Jack Peterson. The Lake Placid setting is gorgeous, but murder strikes when a guest is found in the lake. Her former suitor, Ian, helps avid detective Greer put together enough clues to solve some of the mystery. But, can they work fast enough to prevent another killing? Characters abound as almost everyone is a suspect!

The Unkindness of Ravens by M.E. Hilliard

 

 The Unkindness of Ravens by M.E. Hilliard. (A Greer Hogan Mystery). Crooked Lane Books, 2021. Adult mystery.

After her husband's murder in New York City, Greer Hogan leaves corporate life, goes to library school, and becomes the librarian in a small town called Raven's Hill. All seems to be going well after several months on the job until Greer finds a friend, Joanna Goodhue, dead in the library. Readers will love the descriptions of the Raven Hill Public Library, a Gothic building full of nooks and crannies, and the daily roles the librarians perform even as they look for suspects in the killing and aim to stop more deaths. Greer is a likeable heroine in this, the first of at least three novels starring her. 

We Begin at the End by Chris Whitaker

 

 We Begin at the End by Chris Whitaker. Henry Holt and Company, 2020. Adult contemporary fiction.

There are two kinds of families: the kind you are born into and the kind you create. Walker, Vincent, and Star have grown up in a small town in California. Walker is now the police chief, Vincent is in prison and may soon be released after thirty years, and Star, well, Star has two children, Duchess, 13, and Robin, 6. Therein starts the tale of family, friendship, loyalty, betrayal, and coming of age. Duchess is fiercely protective of her little brother who may have seen a crime. The twisty novel is realistic and pulls the reader into their lives. Not characters with whom readers are familiar, perhaps, but ones that readers will long remember. So very well written, this one reveals its secrets gradually.