If we are lucky, we will all eventually grow old. At some point on that journey we may begin to think about the process, and about who we wish to become as we age. Will we "rage against the dying of the light" or "go gentle into that good night?"
Since I started thinking about it a few years back, I have changed from raging to accepting aging as a normal part of life, no more to be dreaded than puberty or adolescence. There are physical things that I can no longer comfortably do, but then, my appetite for digging a trench for my garden's irrigation system is not as strong as it may have been earlier in my life. Nor does the thought of riding a mountain bike on the dirt roads of the desert hold the same charm that it did a few years ago.
But the curiosity that propelled my education in my youth is as strong as it ever was, and I now find more time to indulge it. That curiosity, that compulsion to know why, has always made up a large part of who I am and why I do what I do. Why I read, why I travel, why my interests are so varied. The thought of losing that curiosity, and where it has led me and what it has taught me, is the only thing that truly frightens me about aging.
I have known victims of Alzheimer's and have seen the fear in the eyes of an elderly relative when she realized that she should know who I was, but didn't. And I have wondered at the apparent peace of one who was so happy in her memories of yesterday. And have chuckled with the neighbor who left his truck running in the driveway with the lights on because he forgot that he needed to shut it off and take the keys into the house at night. And chuckling helped him deal with the loss of his short term memory and his sense of self.
Characters in both of tonight's novels deal with apparent memory loss. And those memories may hold the key to solving both of the mysteries. But that is the only thing they share in common. One is a cozy set in a New York City borough, the other is a tough Tartan noir placed in the windswept Outer Hebrides Isle of Lewis.
There Was an Old Woman
by Hallie Ephron
Published by William Morrow
April 2, 2013
304 pages
I first encountered Hallie Ephron, novelist and book reviewer for the Boston Globe, at the Mystery Writers of America workshop a couple of years ago. When I discovered that this book was available in an audio format I jumped on it and am very glad that I did. The narrator, Nan McNamara, did a good job of reflecting the suspense in this cosy mystery set in a neighborhood of the Bronx that feels like a small town.
“Higgs Point” is an old neighborhood surrounded by salt marsh and populated with shotgun houses that share a stunning view across the East River and Long Island Sound, to the Manhattan skyline. Evie Ferrante grew up there before moving to Manhattan where she became a curator for an Historical Society. Currently hard at work on an exhibit about historical fires, she receives a call from her sister, advising her that it is her turn to return to the family home and care for their alcoholic mother who has been rushed to the hospital.
The house in Higgs Point has become unrecognizable as the home in which Evie and Ginger grew up. Littered with empty cat food cans (their mother hates cats) and liquor bottles, the house is a mess. The yard is unkept and the car in her mother's garage won't start. Puzzled at the sudden change, Evie is further unsettled by the unctuous neighbor across the street. And then she finds the envelopes filled with cash.
It is Mina Yetner, her mother's neighbor, that Evie turns to as an ally. Mina, at ninety is still sharp as a tack, and her house, which she shares with her cat Ivory, is immaculate. Together, the two women begin to puzzle out some of the other mysterious changes that have taken place in the old neighborhood.
The best suspense novels are based in the ordinary and Hallie Ephron very skillfully uses everyday activities to create that suspense. Mina fears that her memory may be fading, as she has no memories of the things that her nephew assures her that she has said and done. Little things, like losing the whistle top of her tea kettle, or misplacing her purse. It is his suggestion that she explore assisted living facilities, and sign papers for a reverse mortgage that would help pay for one.
Step by step, the suspense builds, and even though the reader knows what is coming, the participants don't, and watching them work their way through the mystery is compelling. This is not a complex or dark work, but an engaging cozy that deals with family, aging, neighborhoods in transition, history and friendship and is very hard to put down.
The Lewis Man
by Peter May
Published by Quercus
September 2, 2014
368 pages
I am in love with the work of Peter May. I suspected this may have been the case when I read the first book in his Hebrides trilogy, The Blackhouse. This novel has confirmed it. Rarely have I found the second novel to be better than the first, but this one seems much stronger than The Blackhouse.
Our protagonist, Fin Macleod, has left Edinburgh behind. Newly divorced, he has resigned his position as a Detective Inspector and is hard at work restoring his parents whitehouse on the Isle of Lewis. Meanwhile, a body has been discovered in the peat bog on the island's north side and his help is requested in identifying the young man whose skin carries an unmistakable tattoo of the words "Elvis Presley."
DNA from the body suggests that it was closely related to Tormond Macdonald, father of Finn's childhood sweetheart, Marsaili. As far as anyone knows however, Tormond was an only child when he arrived on Lewis so many years in the past. Sadly in the grip of demetia, Tormond is unable to provide the answers that Finn needs to find the identity of the young man in the bog.
Peter May alternates the voices of Finn and Tormond, as we explore the reality of today on the Isle of Lewis and the memories of Tormond's childhood and his arrival there. May handles the the issue of dementia as sensitively as he does the Outer Hebrides themselves, neither ignoring the pain or glorifying the pleasure. And there is pleasure in memories, just as there is confusion and fear in the failure to recognize the present.
As Finn befriends Tormond and searches for answers to the murder of the young man, he finds that some memories that refuse to stay buried can endanger the present and the future, as well.
Peter May is a fascinating author of many talents as I wrote about last September. His final book of the trilogy, The Chessman, was released in the States on February 3, 2015, but is not yet out in audiobook format.
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