Mercy Falls by William Kent Krueger

 

"He's done it again, Rose. It's that damned cowboy mentality of his. That's the part of him I hate."      

   -Jo, speaking of her husband, Cork O'Connor

"If you were to ask me, I'd say it's also part of what you love about him."   

   -Jo's sister Rose's response

Number five in the Cork O'Connor series but not my favorite. A page-turner, as they all have been, but I didn't love the ending. I will rate it a 3.

Early in the novel Deputy, Marsha Dross, is critically wounded by a gunshot and after some investigation, it seems the bullet was meant for Cork, the sheriff of Tamarack County, Minnesota. Soon after that shooting, a shady businessman, Eddie Jacoby, is found brutally murdered, and it takes a great deal of time for Cork and his team to figure out if the 2 crimes are related. In the meantime, the Jacoby father and brother, hire a special investigator, Dina Willner, who happens to be very attractive. It turns out Cork's wife Jo and Ben Jacoby were an item in law school. One might figure there would be some sexual tension in these last two situations. 

I can't say too much more without revealing some of the mystery. Suffice it to say, Cork's "cowboy mentality" helps to save the day! (See quote)

Toward the end of this novel, Cork tells his sister-in-law Rose he is going back to Aurora to resign. I don't see how that would be possible with at least 13 more books in the series! I guess I will find out when I read Copper River, #6.

The Girl with Seven Names Escape from North Korea by Hyeonseo Lee with David John

 

" I wanted to belong, like everyone else around me did, but there was no country I could say was mine. I had no one to tell me that many other people in the world have a fragmented identity; that it doesn't matter. That who we are as a person is what's important."

     -Hyeonseo Lee, from her memoir

This memoir was recommended by one of our Page Turners. It is an amazing survival story! And what an eye-opener! I knew North Korea was no friend of the U.S. and is seen as an international threat to many other countries, but I had no idea of the extreme propaganda and horrible conditions in which the common people live. Hyeonseo Lee describes her experience as a child and youth in North Korea quite vividly. She tells of how the people are watched by secret police and can be arrested for something as ridiculous as naming the rulers in the wrong way. Kim Il-sung, "the Great Leader," his son Kim Jong-il, "Dear Leader" are to be revered as God figures. People are encouraged to turn in neighbors for anything that might be anti-government. Even though Hyesonseo's stepfather served in the military for years he was arrested on a trumped-up charge and died before his release.

Hyeonseo decided to defect as a 17-year-old and when she gets to China, she discovers she can never go back without putting her mother and brother, as well as herself, in grave danger. The obstacles she faces as she tries to find safety, freedom and a place to belong (see quote) are incredibly difficult.  As she pursues her dreams, her name changes 7 times, thus the title. Sadly, she does not see her family for some 11 years.

The memoir is a page-turner with short chapters and frequent foreshadowing. Several pages of photos, both black and white and in color, make Hyesonseo's story even more personal. I have great admiration for this young woman---her determination, resilience and her courage to speak out against an evil regime in her home country---are exceptional! I will rate The Girl with Seven Names a 4. 

More after our group meets....

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Fifteen Page Turners met today to discuss the book. The group average rating was 4.1, heavily 4's and 5's. Some knew more about Asian cultures than others, but I believe we all felt we learned a great deal about what the citizens of North Korea must live through. We felt that Hyeonseo's intelligence and stubbornness served her well in surviving defection from her home country. Because of our own fond memories of the homes of our youths, we could understand a lasting affection for "home."  

I am attaching a video of a Ted Talk the author presented in 2015. Very compelling.

The Forest of Vanishing Stars by Kristin Harmel

 

"Why was man created alone? Is it not true that the creator could have created the whole of humanity? But man was created alone to teach you that whoever kills one life kills the world entire, and whoever saves one life saves the world entire."

             -paraphrased from the Talmud and quoted in the novel

I chose to read this novel because I have read others by this author and because I will attend an event soon where she will be the speaker. Kristin Harmel wrote The Winemaker's Wife and The Book of Lost Names, both of which I rated 5. I am rating this one a 4---very good, but not quite measuring up to the other two. At the beginning I wondered if I would like it at all when a witch-like character, Jerusza, kidnapped a German child, whom she renamed Yona, from her crib and took her to raise in the forest. It just seemed weird to me. 

The plot became more compelling when Jerusza died some 20 years later and Yona meets Polish Jews in the forest. These people are frightened, running from the Nazis and something in Yona urges her to help them by teaching survival skills she knows so well. As she teaches these endangered people what they must know to stay alive, she learns many lessons from them about living with other people and even about love.

The author has much to say in her Author's Note about her research and the writing of this novel. She cites shocking statistics of how many Polish Jews were exterminated by the Nazis and how some survived by taking refuge in the Nalibocka Forest as do the characters that Yona meets. This was a part of the Holocaust I knew less about.

There were a few secondary characters I really liked, especially Sister Maria Andrzeja who had great wisdom to pass on to Yona, and Zus, who would become her soul-mate. 

There were many profound passages I could have quoted but I was touched by the one from the Talmud. I was reminded also of tikkum olam, a Hebrew phrase that means "repair the world." This is what heroes like Yona tried to do.