Terns of endearment

This book is number 25 in the Meg Langslow series of books by Donna Andrews. Meg's grandfather has been hired to give a series of natural history talks on the Pastime cruise ship, Wanderer. As family and friends can travel at a reduced rate, a contingent of Meg's family decide to go on the cruise from Baltimore to Bermuda and return. However it does not take long for Meg and her father to realise that this cruise will not be smooth sailing.

Meg meets and becomes friends with a group of writers who each year get together to discuss their work and encourage each other in their endeavours. There is also another author, Desiree St Christophe, aboard the ship who appears to have a grudge with Meg's new friends. During the first night of the trip the ship stops and next morning it appears that Desiree has fallen / or jumped from the ship leaving behind her shoes, a shawl and a suicide note. The chief officers on the ship are reluctant to investigate.

The passengers are not told why the ship has stopped except that it should be fixed soon. In the meantime there is no power, no water, little food and no way to contact the shore for assistance. Most of the crew have disappeared. Meg and her family, with the aid of other passengers, take over the running of the ship to try to make conditions bearable until help arrives. Meanwhile Meg and her father discover a body in a cupboard. What is going on aboard this ship?

Another Donna Andrews cosy crime mystery with a cast of slightly eccentric characters who work together to relieve the discomfort of their fellow passengers and also solve the mystery of why they have been stranded at sea.

The Ravenmaster

This book has the subtitle My life with the ravens at the Tower of London and it is written by Christopher Skaife, Yeoman Warder of Her Majesty's Royal Palace and Fortress, the Tower of London.

The author has been the Ravenmaster at the Tower of London since 2011, in charge of a team responsible for the welfare of the seven ravens currently in residence. He has been a Yeoman at the Tower of London since 2005. Christopher Skaife obviously loves the ravens in his charge though he treats each individual bird with great respect.

Christopher Skaife outlines the personalities of the current raven population at the Tower of London. He also describes what is involved in looking after the ravens each day as well as the other duties involved in being a Yeoman Warder at the Tower of London plus the prerequisites for such a job. As well as learning about the lives of the ravens and their role at the Tower of London we learn about the life of Christopher Skaife including his twenty-four years in the the army as well as some of his adventures with the ravens.He also discusses the legend of the ravens and the Tower.

At the end of the book there is a list of resources on ravens and another list on books relating to the Tower of London for those who want to do additional reading.

Big sky

This is the fifth Jackson Brodie novel written by Kate Atkinson and the first that I have read. I found it took time to become used to the way the story is presented. In the first one hundred pages we are introduced to most of the elements and characters before the story starts to come together in the latter two thirds of the book. It can also be a little confusing in that the author describes what is happening in one time frame and we then are presented with the back story. However once I became used to the way the plot was written I became involved in the story and with the characters.

Jackson Brodie, a former police detective and member of the army, is now trying to earn a living as a private detective in a small North Yorkshire coastal town. One day when out with his son and his dog he thinks he witnesses the abduction of a young girl but when he reports his concerns to the police they are not interested. As the novel unfolds it is obvious that all is not well in this community which has a history of men procuring young girls for the entertainment of their friends. But this is in the past or is it?

There are a number of overlapping stories in the novel including the attempts of two female detectives to investigate recent information about the original sex crimes in the area - their investigations running parallel the unraveling of a current sex trafficking scheme.

This novel is very much character driven and the reader becomes involved with the lives of members of a number of families including Jackson's teenage son, Nathan, and Harry, another teenager caught up in the situation created by his parents. Dogs also feature throughout the book.

The maddest place on earth

The 1850s in Victoria and Melbourne had grown to a large city with people travelling to the state to search for gold and for adventure. The sudden influx of additional people put a strain on the infrastructure of the new city, especially when the mental health of a number of the newcomers was considered to be unstable and they required housing.

In The maddest place on earth Jill Giese examines documents and newspapers from the second half of the nineteenth century to learn about the conditions in which inmates lived in asylums, especially the asylum at Yarra Bend and a second asylum across the river at Kew. These were large establishments but they soon became overcrowded and additional  accommodation, usually in the form of cottages, was built.

Jill Giese looks at the treatment of the patients primarily through the eyes of three people - the artist, George Foley, who spent his life in and out of asylums; Dr Edward Paley who for twenty years was in charge of the lunatic asylums in Victoria, especially Yarra Bend and Kew; and 'the Vagabond', a journalist who went undercover and wrote about social issues in the State.

This book provides an informative look at a little known part of Melbourne's history. It is listed as the book to be discussed at the RHSV Book Club in May 2020.

Lanny

Lanny, a short novel by Max Porter, is a book that I read in one sitting. It is divided into three distinct sections. The first half of the book is devoted to providing information about the small village and its occupants, sixty miles from London, where Lanny's family now live. Lanny is a young sensitive, certainly different, boy who lives with his mother, Jolie, an actress and aspiring writer, and his father, Robert, who commutes to London on the train to work. The family, newly settled in the village, is not readily accepted by the other villagers but Lanny becomes friends with the local artist, Pete, who in many ways is also an outcast as far as the villagers are concerned. The village dates back hundreds of years and has a presence, Dead Papa Toothwork, whose spirit observes and inhabits the village from time to time. Dead Papa Toothwork reawakens as the the story begins. The second section of the novel is an account of the villagers' reactions to the disappearance of Lanny, written as a stream of consciousness, while the third section is concerned with locating the child, alive or dead.

The writing, sometimes dark, looks at the prejudices of people who are unable to accept that some people may be different, but still human. It also involves the mystical world of past legends still influencing the present.

Sixty summers

Sixty Summers by Amanda Hampson is about three Australian women, Fran, Rose and Maggie, who have been friends for forty years since they had the adventure of travelling around Europe together in a kombi van. Fran and Rose met at school while they met Maggie in London. In the intervening years the women have remained firm friends though they have each encountered many challenges in their lives, especially in regard to relationships.

Fran stayed in London while the other two returned to Sydney, married and settled down to new lives. Each year they had a get together, including an online hook-up, to celebrate another year of friendship. But this time it is obvious that all is not well, particularly with Maggie who appears close to having a breakdown. The decision is eventually made that they all need a break from their present lives, particularly family commitments, and should meet again in London to try and recapture some of their lost youth and once again experience the joy of of life.

Consequently, Rose creates an itinerary for the new adventure and the new challenge begins. Initially all does not go well with the women carrying too many worries and responsibilities of life at home and several times it looks as if the trip will be a failure. There are also many secrets that they have not shared before the trip. However the women eventually begin to relax especially when things begin to go wrong and they have to react to new situations.

When Rose and Maggie return home they are determined to make changes in their lives and relationships ensuring that they have more time to be themselves and lead more independent lives. Back in London Fran also makes a decision that will dramtically change her lifestyle.

This book is a most enjoyable study of how life and the needs of others can dramatically impact on the freedom of individuals to be themselves and how difficult it can be to take back some control of ones life.