January 2023

by Margaret Verble

Review

In STEALING, Pulitzer Prize finalist Margaret Verble turns her skewering gaze on the life of a Cherokee child who is removed from her family in the 1950s.

Karen “Kit” Crockett has lived alone with her father for almost as long as she can remember, the dying days of her tuberculosis-ridden mother buried under the naivety of youth. Although Kit's aunts and uncles pester her father to give her to them in exchange for a lighter load, a well-rounded family and an education for her, he has held strong, letting her run the house while he tends to the fields and works. But Kit is not like every other child in town: her mother was Cherokee, while her father is white. Although she can pass for white, she bears the high cheekbones, intuition and prejudices of her community.

"Though short in length, STEALING packs a major punch with its voice-driven narrator, its dual-meaning play on the title, and its long-overdue unpacking of the Christian missionary attempts on Indigenous cultures in the United States."

In the years following her mother’s death, Kit befriends beautiful Bella, who inhabits the former home of her Uncle Joe. Bella is young, brown and lithe. She runs her own house, but her every expense is funded by her two white boyfriends, who use and abuse her at their whims. As Kit starts to find companionship in Bella, a dangerous dance between white men — and their prejudices, fears and hatreds — and the Indigenous citizens who first owned their farmlands comes to a head.

When we meet Kit, she is attending Ashley Lordard, a religious boarding school for both poor white kids and every variety of Indigenous child. What should be considered a salvation has become a strange, dark prison. She witnesses girls’ hair being shorn, their identifying names stripped and replaced with white placeholders like “Linda” and “Susan,” and entire families are forgotten for not stepping in line with the lord.

Kit has been raised to find, if not the lord, religion in the world around her — the women who provide natural remedies for illnesses, the men who rescue their brethren from unwarranted policing, or even the friendships formed over shared food. In Ashley Lordard, however, all she finds is sexual abuse, unrealistic and inconsistent indoctrination, and an isolation that stops her breath.

The power of Kit’s story comes not from the horrors to which she is now exposed, but in her reminiscences of her home before — how her growing mind identifies the differences between the real, true love and community she found there and the forced ideas of love that she is shown at Ashley Lordard. In these dissonances, the real theme of the novel comes to life as Kit reveals how she ended up at this school and plots her escape.

Though short in length, STEALING packs a major punch with its voice-driven narrator, its dual-meaning play on the title, and its long-overdue unpacking of the Christian missionary attempts on Indigenous cultures in the United States. What’s most shocking about Verble’s narrative is the sickening realization of how very easy it is to convince people of the “otherness” of their neighbors and the need for their conformity.

Kit’s voice is singular and pure, as strong as that of THE GIRL WITH THE LOUDING VOICE and WHERE THE CRAWDADS SING. But while these books unfold in real time, STEALING is told in past tense, with Kit reflecting on her most childish moments while still a child herself. Although she somehow retains hope through it all, readers are truly put through the ringer as the realizations of what she is enduring become frighteningly real and horrifying.

Vivid and immediate, passionate and meticulously researched, STEALING is magnetic and unforgettable, unflinching and searing. Readers of WINTER COUNTS, ALL GIRLS and THE NICKEL BOYS will be stunned and stupefied by this courageous, thoughtful account.

Reviewed by Rebecca Munro on February 11, 2023

• Publication Date: February 7, 2023
• Genre: Historical Fiction
• Hardcover: 256 pages
• Publisher: Mariner Books
• ISBN-10: 0063267055
• ISBN-13: 9780063267053

by Max Allan Collins and James L. Traylor

Review

Mickey Spillane is the most popular and influential pulp writer of all time. His first novel, I, THE JURY, and six subsequent titles were read by enough people to make him the best-selling novelist in the history of American publishing. Critics hated his books probably because they were uncomfortable with his depiction of sex and violence. But his tough-guy style of writing, epitomized by private detective Mike Hammer, resulted in book sales surpassing 200 million.

"There is so much here to sink your teeth into and enjoy. Great biographies must capture the individual portrayed — his spirit, his accomplishments, and the times in which he lived and worked. SPILLANE does all of this so expertly that it reads almost as well as a Spillane novel."

Spillane’s success sometimes led to feuds. He and Ernest Hemingway were two of America’s top writers post-World War II. But they did not get along. A Florida Keys restaurant that Hemingway frequented proudly displayed his picture. Spillane went into the establishment one evening, and a picture was requested, taken and placed on the wall. On his next visit, an angry Hemingway told the owner, “Take him down or take me down!” Hemingway’s photo was soon gone.

After Spillane’s death, Max Allan Collins continued the Mike Hammer series. He also teamed up with James L. Traylor to pen MICKEY SPILLANE ON SCREEN. Their knowledge and respect for their subject are clearly displayed in SPILLANE: King of Pulp Fiction, a superbly written and exhaustive portrayal of the life of a writer who changed the mystery genre in the last half of the 20th century.

One of the more interesting details of Spillane’s career surrounds the publishing history of I, THE JURY. Spillane wanted it released immediately as a paperback. During WWII, books were provided to the military in this format. Obviously, they were smaller and lighter than hardcovers and could be transported more easily. I, THE JURY initially came out with a small hardback printing of 5,000, but it was the paperback version that experienced exploding sales. Spillane correctly predicted and shaped what eventually would be a new market for American publishers and readers. Until the advent of e-books, paperbacks fueled the publishing industry.

There is so much here to sink your teeth into and enjoy. Great biographies must capture the individual portrayed — his spirit, his accomplishments, and the times in which he lived and worked. SPILLANE does all of this so expertly that it reads almost as well as a Spillane novel. While it’s still very early in the year, this massive achievement is a leading candidate for inclusion on my list of best biographies of 2023.

Reviewed by Stuart Shiffman on February 11, 2023

• Publication Date: February 7, 2023
• Genre: Biography
• Hardcover: 400 pages
• Publisher: Mysterious Press
• ISBN-10: 1613163797
• ISBN-13: 9781613163795

by Katrine Engberg

Review

THE SANCTUARY opens with a murder so brutal and horrific that I daresay it is one of the worst I have ever come across. It drives the entire novel and is referred to constantly throughout the narrative, hanging over the proceedings like a gloomy specter.

A man wakes up from a drugged stupor and surmises shortly thereafter that he is strapped to a board with a buzz saw heading towards his body. Whatever the worst fate is that you can imagine for him will come to pass as he is viciously sawed in half. Assigned to the case is Detective Anette Werner of Copenhagen’s Violent Crimes Department.

"THE SANCTUARY is indeed nightmare-inducing, and it will be nearly impossible for readers to shake it from their psyches."

Jeppe Kørner, Anette’s colleague, is on an indefinite leave of absence as he is nursing a broken heart, among other personal issues. He has taken refuge on the island of Bornholm to hunker down for the long winter. While there, he has befriended Esther de Laurenti, a writer who is working on the biography of Margrethe Dybris, a female anthropologist with a mysterious past. The research Esther is conducting surprisingly will come full circle and tie in to the discovery of the severed corpse.

A suitcase is found in a nearby park and turned into the police. To their horror, Anette and her team find what looks to be half of a human male, but where the other half is remains a mystery for the moment. It is nearly impossible to get a positive identification on the body, though it is believed that the poor soul could be Bo Tjørnelund, a bookkeeper who has been missing from his job.

The investigation leads to Bornholm, and Anette reaches out to Jeppe for assistance. It appears that this is not the small sanctuary that Jeppe had first imagined as connections to a sawmill on the island may play a major part in the murder case. Additionally, there are reproductions of old lettered correspondence from Margrethe that start innocently enough and then get increasingly creepy and eye-opening.

Katrine Enberg first came to international prominence with THE BUTTERFLY HOUSE, and she continues to show that she is a force to be reckoned with when it comes to Nordic noir thrillers. THE SANCTUARY is indeed nightmare-inducing, and it will be nearly impossible for readers to shake it from their psyches.

Reviewed by Ray Palen on February 11, 2023

• Publication Date: February 7, 2023
• Genre: Literary Thriller/Noir Mystery
• Hardcover: 336 pages
• Publisher: Gallery/Scout Press
• ISBN-10: 1668002272
• ISBN-13: 9781668002278