Category Archives: 1960s

Review: The Familiar Dark by Amy Engel

Title: The Familiar Dark by Amy Engel
Publisher: Dutton
Genre: Contemporary, Mystery, Suspense
Length: 245 pages
Book Rating: B+

Complimentary Review Copy Provided by Publisher Through NetGalley

Summary:

A spellbinding story of a mother with nothing left to lose who sets out on an all-consuming quest for justice after her daughter is murdered on the town playground.

Sometimes the answers are worse than the questions. Sometimes it’s better not to know.

Set in the poorest part of the Missouri Ozarks, in a small town with big secrets, The Familiar Dark opens with a murder. Eve Taggert, desperate with grief over losing her daughter, takes it upon herself to find out the truth about what happened. Eve is no stranger to the dark side of life, having been raised by a hard-edged mother whose lessons Eve tried not to pass on to her own daughter. But Eve may need her mother’s cruel brand of strength if she’s going to face the reality about her daughter’s death and about her own true nature. Her quest for justice takes her from the seedy underbelly of town to the quiet woods and, most frighteningly, back to her mother’s trailer for a final lesson.

The Familiar Dark is a story about the bonds of family—women doing the best they can for their daughters in dire circumstances—as well as a story about how even the darkest and most terrifying of places can provide the comfort of home.

Review:

The Familiar Dark by Amy Engel is a gritty and completely enthralling mystery set in a poverty-stricken town in the Missouri  Ozarks.

In hopes of making a better life for her daughter, Junie, single mother Eve Taggert and her brother Cal have managed to escape their dysfunctional and abusive childhood.  Eve works as a waitress at a local diner and Cal is a deputy in the Sheriff’s office. They helped one another survive their horrific childhood and Eve has completely cut their meth-addicted, hard as nails mother out of both her and Junie’s lives. Eve has worked hard to give Junie a good life and she has successfully suppressed the darker aspects of her personality. But after  twelve year old Junie and her best friend Izzie Logan are brutally murdered, Eve’s grief turns to rage as she begins searching for their killer.

After Junie’s death, Eve’s more civilized veneer is stripped away as she begins her hunt for her killer.  Despite her hope the murderer comes from Izzy’s life, she begins her investigation into her own past. After reluctantly asking her estranged mother for help,  Eve seeks answers from her former boyfriend, Jimmy Ray Fulton, who runs the local drug business and owns a strip club.  Cautiously approaching the man who abused her throughout their relationship years earlier, Eve is surprised and slightly puzzled by the advice he offers her.

Eve also relies on Cal to provide her with answers since the sheriff’s office is in charge of the investigation. Cal has long been the rock she relies on and he has taken his niece’s death extremely hard. Cal’s attempts to rein in her investigation are futile as Eve plows headlong into danger in order to find justice for Junie.

The Familiar Dark is an intense, atmospheric mystery that is somewhat dark and disturbing.  The storyline is engrossing and touches on many sensitive issues such as drug addiction, domestic abuse, child neglect and abuse of power by men in authoritative roles. The poverty, small town setting and surrounding hollers are vividly brought to life and add to the story’s overall feeling of bleakness and despair.  Amy Engel brings this mesmerizing mystery to a twist-filled conclusion that is shocking yet astonishingly satisfying.

I thoroughly enjoyed and HIGHLY recommend this tension-filled mystery.

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Filed under 1960s, Amy Engel, Contemporary, Dutton, Mystery, Rated B+, Review, Suspense, The Familiar Dark

Red Ruby Heart in a Cold Blue Sea by Morgan Callan Rogers

Title: Red Ruby Heart in a Cold Blue Sea by Morgan Callan Rogers
Florine Series Book One
Publisher: Penguin Group USA
Imprint: Viking
Genre: Fiction, Coming of Age, 1960s
Length: 320 pages
Book Rating: A

Complimentary Review Copy Provided by Publisher Through NetGalley

Summary:

A captivating debut, introducing a spirited young heroine coming of age in coastal Maine during the early 1960s.

When her mother disappears during a weekend trip, Florine Gilham’s idyllic childhood is turned upside down. Until then she’d been blissfully insulated by the rhythms of family life in small town Maine: watching from the granite cliffs above the sea for her father’s lobster boat to come into port, making bread with her grandmother, and infiltrating the summer tourist camps with her friends. But with her mother gone, the heart falls out of Florine’s life and she and her father are isolated as they struggle to manage their loss.

Both sustained and challenged by the advice and expectations of her family and neighbors, Florine grows up with her spirit intact. And when her father’s past comes to call, she must accept that life won’t ever be the same while keeping her mother vivid in her memories. With Fannie Flagg’s humor and Elizabeth Strout’s sense of place, this debut is an extraordinary snapshot of a bygone America through the eyes of an inspiring girl blazing her own path to womanhood.

Review:

Morgan Callan Rogers’ debut novel Red Ruby Heart in a Cold Blue Sea is a beautifully written coming of age story that is poignant and moving. Florine Gilham’s carefree and sheltered childhood comes to an abrupt end with her mother’s disappearance while on her annual getaway with a girlfriend.

Until her mother’s disappearance, Florine lives a charmed life in a small fishing community on the coast of Maine. With her father falling apart and desperately trying to cope with her own grief, Florine depends on her small circle of friends and her paternal grandmother, Grand, as she enters into her tumultuous teen years. Grand is a practical, no nonsense, down to earth woman and Florine moves in with her when her dad turns to another woman for comfort.

The other constants in Florine’s life are her friends Dottie, Bud and Glen. Dottie is a close confidant who is always there for her yet she does not let Florine become mired down by her grief. While she is not as close to Bud and Glen as she is to Dottie, the two young men are always on the periphery of her life and when Florine experiences other losses, they provide unwavering support for her.

Forced to grow up too fast, Florine is sometimes rebellious and she does not always make the best decisions. Her relationship with her father is often contentious but they do eventually come to terms with one another. Carlie’s presence is felt throughout the novel and while we come to know bits and pieces of her character, she remains elusively out of reach both literally and figuratively.

Red Ruby Heart in a Cold Blue Sea is a compelling character driven novel told in first person from Florine’s perspective. The characters are well-drawn and appealing and the plot is engaging and realistic. Never bleak or depressing, there is a strong undercurrent of love and Morgan Callan Rogers deftly balances this sometimes heartbreaking story with wry and unexpected humor. The ending of novel is surprisingly hopeful as Florine finally begins to find her way.

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Filed under 1960s, Coming of Age, Florine Series, Morgan Callan Rogers, Penguin Group, Red Ruby Heart in a Cold Blue Sea, Viking