A Light in the Wilderness
by Jane Kirkpatrick (Revell)
Going west in the mid-19th century wasn’t easy for a woman. It was even harder for a black woman. That’s true in Jane Kirkpatrick’s “A Light in the Wilderness,” her novel based on the true story of Letitia Carson, a freewoman of color who journeyed from Missouri to Oregon in 1845.
Letitia travels west as the “wife” of a white man, David Carson. Because mixed marriages are illegal in Missouri where the two live, they have an arrangement, not a legal union. The black woman worries that if something happens to David, she and their children would be left destitute, and begs him to sign a paper saying she works for him and he owes her wages. After all, much of what the two own comes from Letitia’s thrift and hard work.
The marriage is one of convenience as Davy wants companionship and Letitia desires protection and a better life. But the relationship grows into a sometimes troubled love match.
Fitzpatrick, whose series of popular novels are based on the lives of real women, writes a moving story of the discrimination against even free black women. Whites on the Overland Trail shun Letitia. Oregon passes laws forbidding African-Americans from settling there. And courts forbid blacks from testifying against whites. Not all are against her, and “A Light in the Wilderness” is a story of friendship and support among women despite the color of their skin.
Crude Carrier
by Rex Burns (Open Road/Mysterious Press)
In his first Touchstone Agency mystery last year, Boulder author Rex Burns wrote about the world of boxing. Now the Edgar-winning author takes on the complex crude-oil industry.
The parents of a young man killed in an accident on a crude-oil carrier, the Aurora Victorious, ask PI James Raiford and his daughter Julie to investigate their son’s death. They’ve been told the man fell down a staircase, but the shipping company refuses details.
Raiford hires onto Aurora Victorious — a ship so huge the crew uses bicycles to get from one end of the deck to the other — as an electronics officer.
Working undercover, Raiford finds himself caught up in a world of greed, racism and just plain evil. Rather than fitting in with the crew and not making waves, Raiford makes himself conspicuous by saving the life of an Asian crew member, then later duking it out with an officer who attacks a defenseless underling. The acts earn him the loyalty of the lower echelon crew but the enmity of the officers, whom Raiford suspects of double-dealing.
Meanwhile, Julie Raiford goes off to London to interview insurance company and maritime executives. And, of course, she finds herself in as much danger as her father.
“Crude Carrier” is a solid mystery. And like Burns’ previous mystery, “Body Slam,” he gives readers something more. In this case, it’s the world of international oil shipping. This is Burns at his best.
The Ploughmen
by Kim Zupan (Henry Holt)
Val Millimaki is a young Montana deputy, lowest on the totem pole in the sheriff’s office. So he draws the night shift, baby-sitting a psychopathic killer, John Gload. Arrested in the killing of a gay antiques dealer — the latest in a series of slayings going back 50 years — Gload is drawn to the deputy.
Millimaki is a decent man, not yet jaundiced by the lawless misfits he encounters, and during the long nights, the two men talk. Gload, wise in the ways of depraved human beings, warns about others in the department who are out to get the deputy. At the same time, he reveals details of long-ago killings.
The deputy has his own problems. His wife hates the time she spends alone in their remote cabin, and bolts. And he is haunted by his mother’s suicide when he was a teenager.
“The Ploughmen,” a first novel by Montana writer Kim Zupan, is a tightly wound, haunting story of the two men who sense depths in each other that each is not aware of in himself. The writing is sparse and exact with unexpected snatches of humor that mark Zupan as a Western writer to watch.
Hacienda
by Marj Charlier (Sunacumen)
Marj Charlier made a name for herself as the Wall Street Journal’s Denver bureau chief sometime back. She’s turned to fiction, and “Hacienda” is her first mainstream novel.
It’s a good one. Three middle-aged Iowa women buy a hacienda in Bolivia, which they’ll turn it into a destination inn but discover on arrival that the place is falling apart.
That’s not their only problem. There has been a series of murders in the neighborhood, and locals blame a werewolf — or werecat. Moreover, the mysterious son of a tin baron claims ownership of the estate and threatens to sue for its return.
Of course, it’s not all bad news. Monica, the narrator, falls for a local man, Adrian, who once worked for the International Monetary Fund. There is a suspicion in the back of her mind, however, that he just might be the killer.
“Hacienda” is a good romp, combining a mystery, romance and friendship.
