As the Crow Flies by Craig Johnson: A review

Needing a bridge, something that wouldn't tax my brain too much, to take me between more serious readings, I turned to Craig Johnson's Walt Longmire series.

I don't mean to denigrate Johnson's writing. He's very entertaining and he writes with a light touch and a lot of sardonic Western humor. Sometimes that is exactly what a reader needs and this was one of those times.

As the Crow Flies is the eighth book in the series. Having read the first seven in order, I was ready to see where Walt's and Henry Standing Bear's adventures would take them this time. I was amused to learn that their latest caper was as wedding planners.

Walt's daughter, Cady, is getting married in two weeks at the time that the novel begins, and Walt and Henry have been tasked with securing a venue and making the plans. Things are not going swimmingly.

Cady wants to get married on the Reservation and Henry believed he had reserved the site for the occasion, but then the person in charge of the place informed him that she had okayed the site for another purpose on the date in question. Now Henry and Walt must find a new site or find a way to change her mind.

They opt to look for a new venue and head out to an area of scenic cliffs. While looking around, they observe a woman on top of one of the cliffs. And then they see her fall onto the rocks below. They manage to reach her just at the moment of her death.

Walt's dog (unimaginatively named Dog) was with them and he finds a bundle that had rolled away from the woman's body. It is a blanket wrapped around a baby. It's evident that the baby was in the woman's arms when she fell and he is alive and not seriously hurt.

Since they are on Reservation land, they contact the new Chief of Police there, a young woman named Lolo Long. She has a prickly relationship with the two and with almost everyone else with whom she comes in contact, but, of course, she and Walt wind up working together to investigate the death.

Things become more complicated a few days later when the dead woman's abusive alcoholic husband is found dead also. He had been shot. There's no question that this was murder, but was the woman's death murder, suicide, or accident? Is someone trying to get rid of the family? What motive could possibly exist?

Walt and Lolo, along with Henry, negotiate the convoluted Reservation relationships and attempt to piece together what has happened and who is responsible. Meanwhile, Cady and her soon-to-be mother-in-law arrive in town and begin making the arrangements for the wedding themselves.

This was a very quick and highly entertaining read. There were none of the things in this narrative that I've sometimes found annoying in the earlier books. In fact, I would say this is my favorite Walt Longmire novel so far. The plot moves quickly and most of the characters are old friends and the new ones, like Lolo, are nicely fleshed out with interesting back stories. I think Johnson is on a roll with this series.

My rating: 4 of 5 stars 

The Witch Elm by Tana French: A review

Wow! Just...wow. That woman can write!

Not that this was a new discovery. After all, I had read all of Tana French's six previous books, each of them a part of the "Dublin Murder Squad" series. There's not a bad book among them and I had been looking forward to number seven. I was disappointed when I read a few months ago that her next book would be a stand-alone mystery, not part of the series. I needn't have worried. 

In The Witch Elm, Tana French has surpassed herself, in my opinion. I think this is her best book yet. And although it doesn't have the members of the Dublin Murder Squad as characters and narrators, it does feature some Dublin police detectives as integral parts of the plot.

Our narrator here is one Toby Hennessy. He is the public relations handler for a small Dublin art gallery. He is a young man who has built his life on his ability to charm his way into and out of situations. The first sentence of his narrative is, "I've always considered myself to be, basically, a lucky person." 

Luck is a recurring theme throughout the book, both its presence and the lack of it. It could, in fact, be seen as a meditation upon the source of luck: Is it something that is bred in the bone, or is it something that is bestowed by some outside force?

As we meet Toby, the art gallery's current show features some street artists, some of them homeless, "skangers," as the Irish slang would call them. One of the skanger-artists is called Gouger and seems to show some particular talent, but maybe not quite enough. A gallery employee, Tiernan, decides to help things along by touching up the artist's work to make it more interesting and salable. Toby catches him at it but keeps quiet. Then the gallery owner discovers the fraud and fires Tiernan but keeps Toby on. There's that luck again.

Soon after, Toby goes home to his apartment and sometime during the night his home is burgled, and when he wakes up and discovers the two invaders ransacking his living room, they beat him within an inch of his life.

Sometime later, he wakes up in the hospital with gaps in his memory, a drooping eyelid, a limp, aphasia, and PTSD. As he regains consciousness, a doctor comes to check on him and tells him, "You were very lucky."

Recovery is a very halting process, but he is attended throughout by his saint of a girlfriend, Melissa. He is visited repeatedly by two detectives who are investigating the case. They search for clues in his relationships. Who had he offended? Who had reason to hate him? They don't seem to be making any progress, but one of the detectives tells him that he always gets his man in the end.

But all of this is merely prelude. It is not even the main story of The Witch Elm.  

Toby has a beloved uncle named Hugo who has never married and still lives in the family home called Ivy House, a place where Toby and his cousins spent idyllic summers when they were growing up. It transpires that Hugo has been diagnosed with brain cancer. He only has a few months to live and he needs someone with him at all times. Since Toby is the member of the family not presently working and who has plenty of time on his hands, he and Melissa take up residence in Ivy House, living with and caring for Hugo.

Every Sunday, the entire family descends on Ivy House for family luncheon. The children of the family play in the enclosed back garden and in that back garden is a 200-year-old elm tree, a wych elm. While playing on the tree, as luck would have it, one of the children finds a human skull tucked into a hole in the tree. The police are called in and soon an entire skeleton is unearthed and, at length, is identified as that of a young man, an acquaintance of Toby and his cousins, who had been thought to have committed suicide by drowning ten years before, although his body had never been recovered. How his skeleton came to be in the tree and his relationships with the cousins in the last summer before his death make up the main story of the book.

The two cousins who play important roles in this story are Susanna, who was a nerdy teenager who grew into a bit of a wild-child and then chucked it all to become a suburban wife and mother; and Leon, a gay teenager dealing with the prejudices and taunts of his peers who grew into an "I'm-gay-so-deal-with-it" young adult. Their teenage experiences are central to the story French tells us.

That story is one of literary mystery/suspense. The most compelling parts of it for me were the relating of the casual sexual harassment that was a part of these teenagers' lives and how it affected the course of their lives; it was so integral to their experiences in that fateful summer that it wasn't even noticed. It wasn't remarked upon. It was just an accepted part of the landscape of being a vulnerable teenager. (Perhaps the current political situation in our country has made me extra sensitive to such storylines, but it seems that every book that I read these days speaks to the subject of sexism and misogyny.)

The two detectives assigned to the skeleton in the tree case doggedly pursue their investigation, returning again and again to interview Toby about his relationship with the victim. The problem is that Toby can't remember much. He seems to have been a pretty oblivious teenager and since the attack his memory is shot anyway. He struggles to recall anything from that summer.

French builds her case and the tension with slow but inexorable force. The denouement when it comes is both unexpected and, upon reflection, perfectly inevitable. And it is brilliant. What will she ever do to top this one?

My rating: 5 of 5 stars 

Poetry Sunday: Sonnet 73 by William Shakespeare

Was there any subject that William Shakespeare never addressed poetically? Well, there probably is, but his appetite for topics was pretty omnivorous. That is certainly true when it came to anything in Nature.

And here he addresses the season of autumn and the seasons of his own life. Who but Shakespeare would think to describe the naked or almost naked boughs of trees in autumn as "bare ruin'd choirs, where late the sweet birds sang" and compare the season to "That time of year thou mayst in me behold"? There's a reason why he was the one and only Shakespeare!

Sonnet 73: That time of year thou mayst in me behold

by William Shakespeare

That time of year thou mayst in me behold
When yellow leaves, or none, or few, do hang
Upon those boughs which shake against the cold,
Bare ruin'd choirs, where late the sweet birds sang.
In me thou see'st the twilight of such day
As after sunset fadeth in the west,
Which by and by black night doth take away,
Death's second self, that seals up all in rest.
In me thou see'st the glowing of such fire
That on the ashes of his youth doth lie,
As the death-bed whereon it must expire,
Consum'd with that which it was nourish'd by.
This thou perceiv'st, which makes thy love more strong,
To love that well which thou must leave ere long.

This week in birds - #325

A roundup of the week's news of birds and the environment:

Savannah Sparrow photographed at Anahuac National Wildlife Refuge on the Gulf Coast of southeast Texas. 

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The devastating red tide that continues to affect Florida's coast is now having an impact on the fall migration of birds. Shorebirds like Ruddy Turnstones, Sanderlings, and Red Knots are turning up sick because of it.

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The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) has issued its outlook for the winter. Because of a likely El Niño, which is the episodic warming of the eastern and central tropical Pacific Ocean, NOAA is predicting above average amounts of precipitation along the southern tier of the United States, creeping up the East Coast through the Mid-Atlantic. This could mean heavier snowfalls, depending on the strength of the El Niño system.

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How do scientists know that human activity is affecting the global climate? Here's a short review of some of the information that makes them so certain.

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And here's a bit of irony for you: It seems that Hurricane Florence has finally convinced at least some Republicans in North Carolina that global warming and its effects on the climate and weather events is actually a thing!

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The quaking aspen forest that covers 106 acres of Fishlake National Forest in Richfield, Utah, is made up of a single clone and is the most massive organism on Earth. It has existed for thousands of years and even has a unique name: Pando from the Latin word for "I spread." But now the continuing existence of this unique forest is being threatened by overgrazing by herds of hungry animals and human encroachment.

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Climate change affects many systems in Nature and one of those is the balance between winter ticks and their hosts, the moose. Climate change has been delaying snow's arrival, allowing the ticks to multiply to unheard of numbers. One dead moose calf was found with around 100,000 of the creatures on it. The calf died of anemia caused by the parasites. The ticks may cause deaths directly or may make the animals so unhealthy that they are unable to fight off disease or survive difficult weather conditions.

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And although these ticks may be thriving at the moment, a number of long-term studies have documented dramatic declines in invertebrate populations around the world. Insect populations are in crisis and this has a domino effect on the birds, amphibians, and reptiles that feed upon them.

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Vandalism in the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument has increased since the current administration has reduced the size of it.

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Tahane, a 16-year-old wolf that was a resident at Seacrest Wolf Preserve in Florida, escaped from his enclosure when the fence was damaged during Hurricane Michael last week. The Preserve has issued an urgent plea for residents in the area to be aware of the animal and to please not shoot it. They are hoping to recover him.

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How do you solve a problem like a giant lagoon of pig feces? This is a major problem in places like North Carolina where large pig farms exist, especially when a hurricane dumps a lot of water and spreads the toxic feces all over the landscape.

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Architects of high rise buildings with a lot of glass are becoming more aware of the problem of bird collisions with their buildings that result in massive numbers of deaths each year. Although advances have been made, almost a billion birds are killed in these collisions in the United States every year.

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The deadly fungus called white nose syndrome has killed millions of bats in the eastern U.S. and Canada. Now the plague appears to be moving farther west and scientists are trying to get ahead of it to prevent further spread. 

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The current administration is moving to restrict the release of information about its decisions on endangered species. The move comes as wildlife advocates and scientists accuse the government of attempting to weaken protections for wildlife, including wolves, grizzly bears and sage grouse, while boosting domestic energy production and mining in crucial animal habitat.

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Strict managing of hunting of rare species of birds can help those species become more common once again. 

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Many species in the satyrine group of butterflies - which includes such well-known species as Monarchs, Emperors, and Admirals - have swollen veins at the base of their wings that serve as a kind of "ear" that is sensitive to low frequency sounds.

Wordless Wednesday: Black Swallowtail on lantana

IQ by Joe Ide: A review

I recently read a review of Joe Ide's (pronounced ee-day) just published new entry in this series and was intrigued by it. I wanted to read it, but the reviewer cautioned me that I really needed to start with the first book and read them in the order published. Rats!

Well, the good news is that I don't have to go back to 1984 and read thirty books in order to get to the one I actually wanted to read. No, the first book, IQ, was published just two years ago and the latest one is the third in the series. It seemed doable. And that's how I came to be introduced to Isaiah Quintabe - IQ.

Isaiah is an African-American man from one of Los Angeles' toughest neighborhoods. He lost both of his parents when he was quite young and he was raised by an older brother, Marcus, whom he idolized. 

Marcus was a jack-of-all-trades and a young man of great integrity and a high moral standard and he set about teaching all of that to his younger brother. Isaiah was a prodigy, possessed of a remarkable intelligence and reasoning ability, and Marcus devoted himself to making sure that his brother had a chance to get the best education and a chance to succeed in life.

The future was full of promise for both brothers. Then, when Isaiah was sixteen, they were out walking and Marcus started to cross a street when he was mowed down by a hit and run driver. He died on the pavement in front of Isaiah's shocked eyes.

So, at sixteen, Isaiah had to figure out how to make it on his own. It took some time but he arrived at a strategy which involved quitting school, taking multiple low-paying jobs, and taking in a roommate to help pay the rent.

That roommate is Dobson, who makes his living dealing drugs, but at least he keeps the drugs far separate from his living space and he turns out to be a neat housekeeper and a pretty good cook! Things are looking up.

When money gets tight for Isaiah, he and Dobson turn to a career in burglary which eventually goes all wrong and entails long term consequences and obligations for both their lives.

The part of the novel I've just described takes place in 2005. The action of the novel switches back and forth between 2005 and 2013. By the later date, Isaiah has recognized his calling in life which is to be a sort of latter-day Sherlock Holmes, helping people by solving their mysteries for them. In payment, he receives whatever his client can afford, often payment in kind with services or goods.

But finally he needs a good paying job because he needs some money to meet one of those obligations I mentioned. Dobson introduces him to a rapper who is being threatened and believes his estranged wife is behind it. He wants an investigator to prove it and he's willing to pay big bucks for the work.

Isaiah agrees to take the job which leads him into conflict with some real lowlifes, not to mention a giant and vicious pit bull and a lunatic professional hit man. The case gets more and more complicated the further he gets into it and he wonders if he'll ever be able to solve it. More urgently, will he come out of it alive?

Joe Ide has created an appealing character in Isaiah and has given him an interesting and complicated backstory. Moreover, he's a character who seems to have room for growth and, even more importantly, an ability to grow. I think he may be able spin a lengthy and successful series from those ingredients.

As for the plot of this one, well, it kept my interest, although I felt it drag a bit at times. But not a bad first effort. I think it's worth three-and-a-half stars but, generous soul that I am, I'll give it four.

My rating: 4 of 5 stars    

Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day - October 2018

Happy Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day and welcome to my zone 9a garden here in Southeast Texas. Maybe you'll already visited our host blog, May Dreams Gardens, and seen some of the wonderful gardens that are participating this month.

Bloom Day here brought us temperatures in the high 50 degrees Fahrenheit for the first time since spring. Maybe our long, hot summer is truly over. Or perhaps it will return tomorrow for such is our changeable weather.

But what's blooming, you say? Well, here are some of my October flowers. 

 Duranta erecta, aka golden dewdrop.

 October means chrysanthemums, of course.

 And more chrysanthemums.

Hamelia patens, aka Mexican firebush or hummingbird bush, is at its best in October.

 And so is the coral vine.

'Pinball' gomphrena hasn't paused in its blooming since early summer.

Porterweed, the weird little flowers of which are greatly loved by butterflies and bees.

 Yellow cestrum.

Crossvine blooms profusely in the spring but it sends out a few blossoms in fall just to remind us it's there.

 'Julia Child' rose.

Mexican sunflower, Tithonia 'Torch', is at its best at this time of year. This type does not attain the gigantic size of the older varieties.

 The daisy-like blossoms of wedelia.

 Autumn sage living up to its name.

The pentas are almost finished for the year but still send out a few flowers for the butterflies.

 Pink Knockout rose.

The milkweed blooms on but there have been few Monarchs and no Queens that I have seen visiting and none of their caterpillars found.

 Sweet-smelling butterfly ginger.

The blooms of blue plumbago seem to get bluer as the season advances.

Lantana is seldom without its butterfly accompaniment. Here it is a Long-tailed Skipper.

No blooms on the rue but here's a butterfly in the making - a Black Swallowtail caterpillar.

And speaking of metamorphosis, several weeks ago, my goldfish pond was teeming with tadpoles. Now the backyard teems with small frogs and toads. These little frogs have not moved far from their nursery. They sit on lilypads in the pond.

The new salvia 'Wendy's Wish' has been a real winner for me in the garden this year.

 And the old cannas never fail me.

 'Belinda's Dream' rose.

My purple coneflowers have been a major disappointment this year but some of the plants still send out a few flowers.

 Marigold.

 Jatropha - just beginning a new cycle of bloom.

The limbs of my little Satsuma orange tree are dragging the ground in places as the fruits get heavier and heavier. A few of the fruits are just beginning to show the slightest hint of orange. 

 Angelonia.

And last but hardly least, if it is October, it must be Cape honeysuckle bloom time. My plant is just beginning to show these flame-colored flowers. The migrating hummingbirds are very grateful.

Thank you for visiting. I look forward to visiting your garden to see what's in bloom for you this month.