Don't Cry Tai Lake

Don't Cry Tai Lake: an Inspector Chen Novel by Qiu Xiaolong is both an absorbing detective story and an environmental expose of the dark side of industrial growth in China. Chief Inspector Chen of the Shanghai Police Department finds himself on an unscheduled vacation, as a senior party official insists that Chen take his place at a luxury resort on the shores of Tai Lake. It isn't long before Chen becomes involved in a murder investigation. The director of one of the major chemical factories that dumps pollutants into the lake is murdered. A local environmental activist is being held for the crime, but Chen, attracted to a beautiful environmental engineer named Shanshan, who is also fighting the factory's deceptive polluting practices, decides to do his own private investigation. The more he learns about the destruction of the once beautiful lake, the more determined Chen is to find the murderer and to expose the corruption that is destroying Tai Lake. Chen has no authority in Wuxi, but Sergeant Huang of the local police and a big fan of Chen's agrees to "play Dr. Watson to Chen's Sherlock Holmes." Don't Cry Tai Lake is the most recent of a series of Inspector Chen mysteries. The author has also written two books of translations of traditional Chinese poetry as well as one book of his own poems. Poetry appears throughout the book, adding beautiful interludes as Chan both woos Shanshan and describes the struggle over the lake's future through verse. Recommended.

The Diviners

The Diviners by Libba Bray is both an entertaining and annoying book. It is entertaining because it is suspenseful; an assorted cast of characters, many with special psychic gifts, become involved in the imminent appearance of the Beast. There are only a few weeks, then days, then hours before the depraved actions of [presumably long dead] Naughty John lead to his transformation into something far worse than a serial killer. Bray sets the story in New York in 1926. Transportation, clothing, parties and the theater are all depicted with realistic historical detail. Sometimes Bray tries too hard to recapture the era. Her main character, youthful teen flapper Evie, fresh from Ohio and now staying with her Uncle Will, talks constantly in cliches. "She is the elephant's eyebrows," "Must be the duck's quack to be famous," and so on. Over 500 pages of such dialog is definitely tiresome. Each character also has a back story that relates somehow to the psychic world. Evie desperately misses her older brother, killed in Europe in WWI, and dreams about him constantly. Streetwise Sam, who flirts with Evie and picks pockets, has a more serious side--he is trying to trace his mother who disappeared when he was a child. Uncle Will has own secrets, as do numbers runner Memphis and his true love, Theta. The narration jumps around from one character to another and threatens at times to leave the reader behind. That said, The Diviners a very compelling story and worth the effort. Paramount has purchased the movie rights, so get ready for a thriller.

Code Name Verity

Code Name Verity by Elizabeth Wein is a suspenseful story of two young women involved in British spying during World War II. One of the women, Queenie, is captured by the Gestapo after parachuting into occupied France. In order to avoid further torture by her captors, she must write up an account of her experiences in special operations, identifying airfields, airplanes, secret codes and anything else that SS Hauptsturmfuhrer von Linden might find useful. If she hesitates, she is burned and threatened with even more grisly tortures. As she writes, Queenie agonizes over the decision she has made to betray her country. She compares her own cowardice with the screams of a young Frenchwoman, also held at Gestapo Headquarters, who will not break and inform on her co-conspirators in the French underground. She also grieves for her dearest friend, Maddie, who was piloting the plane that ferried Queenie into France and who [she believes] died when the plane crashed. The suspense builds as Queenie eventually reveals to von Linden that she is an interrogator herself. We also learn that Maddie is still alive and hiding with French commandos. Can Queenie stay alive long enough to be rescued? Will Maddie find her friend before she is either executed or sent to a concentration camp? How can either bear the loss of the other? This is a compelling tale of courage and friendship set in the larger story of the power and evil of the Nazi war machine and of the largely unheralded but critical efforts of female civilian pilots, commandos and spies to fight back.

The Peculiars

The Peculiars by Maureen Doyle McQuerry. Upon receiving on her eighteenth birthday two envelopes from the mysterious father who long ago abandoned her and her mother, Lena Mattacascar determines to use the money left in one of the envelopes to track him down and learn why he left and what he truly is. If he is part goblin as she suspects, what does this mean about her? She already has goblin-like, oversized hands and feet; has she also inherited her father's temperament and character? In an alternative world that resembles the 19th-century American West, goblins and other "peculiars" are scorned as uncivilized and soulless. There is a movement afoot to find peculiars and exile them to the northern territory of Scree, where they can be monitored and put to work for the government. Lena's efforts to get to Scree are fraught with complications: most of her money is stolen; she starts to work for Dr. Beasely, a rich and eccentric inventor who may be involved in illegal and inhumane trafficking with peculiars; she is torn between her attraction to Marshall Thomas Saltre, who needs her help to investigate Beasely, and Jimson Quiggley, a student of evolution who doesn't believe in goblins. She is also constantly aware of her own hands and feet and worries about being identified and persecuted as a peculiar herself. McQuerry has written a coming-of-age story filled with adventure and romance, with a strong central character. Recommended.

Art of Fielding

The Art of Fielding by Chad Harbach takes the prize as the most satisfying, entertaining novel of the summer [so far]. The setting is a small, Wisconsin school, Westish College, whose baseball team, the Harpooners, has suffered for years from mediocrity. That is, until phenomenally gifted shortstop Henry Skrimshander joins the team. Henry is first recruited and then mentored by team catcher Mike Schwartz. The Harpooners start winning, and the team looks like it will go all the way to a national championship. Then Henry inexplicably sends an errant throw into the Harpooner dugout, where it hits his friend and roommate Owen in the face. As a horrified Henry's life starts to unravel so do the lives of Westish College's president, Guert Affenlight, who falls in love with Owen, Mike, who can't figure out how to fix Henry's problems or his own, and Guert's daughter Pella, who finds herself caught between Henry and Mike while struggling to rebuild her life following a failed marriage. Harbach pokes fun at academia and college sports, but also shows great affection for his many flawed and complex characters. Highly recommended.

The Fault in Our Stars

The Fault in Our Stars by John Green has provided one of the most satisfying reads so far this summer. Teen Hazel Grace, diagnosed with Stage IV thyroid cancer, confronts issues of life, death and love. Hazel meets cancer survivor Augustus Waters at a group therapy session which her mother forces her to attend. Attraction is mutual and immediate. Hazel's narration of their developing relationship is loaded with witty dialog and dark humor as well as explorations of what it means to die unremarked or forgotten. The plot turns around Hazel's need to contact the reclusive author of her favorite book, An Imperial Affliction, which is about a young girl who dies of cancer. The books ends abruptly, leaving exasperating questions about what happened to Anna's mother, her friends and her hamster. Hazel, with Gus's help, is determined to discover the answers, even though the author now lives in Amsterdam and has never acknowledged her many letters. Although Green emphasizes that the book is fiction, it nonetheless thoughtfully explores what life for a teenager dealing with cancer can be like. It is both serious and light-hearted: "Hazel GRACE!" he[Gus] shouted. "You did not use your one dying Wish to go to Disney World with your parents. . . . I can't believe I have a crush on a girl with such cliche wishes."

Seraphina by Rachel Hartman is a complex tale of political intrigue, struggle with identity, and of tests of love and loyalty. It is set in a world, the kingdom of Goredd, which is populated by both dragons and humans who are divided by suspicion, bigotry and a history of armed conflict. Seraphina Dombegh is the musically gifted daughter of an esteemed lawyer, tutored by a saarantras, a dragon in human form. When barely into adolescence, she begins to experience changes in her body and mind that reveal a terrible secret--her mother, whom she never knew, was a dragon and Seraphina is a half-breed. For her this means leading a life of deception and self-loathing, for there are people in Goredd who would gladly destroy such "misshapen, miscengenated abominations." Although her father commands her to stay silent and hidden, Seraphina loves music and accepts a position with the royal court as assistant to the music director. She becomes increasingly involved with the affairs at court following the assassination of popular Prince Rufus and the impending visit of the dragon Ardmagar to renew the tenuous peace between dragons and humans. She uses her special insights into dragon history and behavior to help compelling, attractive Prince Lucian, Captain of the Guard, solve the mystery of Prince Rufus's death and to help protect the Ardmagar. This is an entertaining tale of adventure seasoned with Seraphina's personal challenges of self-acceptance.