Ensorcelled

 Ensorcelled by Eliot Peper is the 13^th Peper book that I’ve read and reviewed. Considering that I’ve read so many of his books, you might get the hint that I really like his writing. The title is a word I’ve not seen before, so I looked it up. In the past tense ensorcelled means enchanted, fascinated, or captivated. The reader was forewarned that magic was a part of the story.

The protagonist of this short novel, only 90 pages, is about a teenage boy who has been captivated by the gaming world. Games are what he thinks about, dreams about, and lives for. As a new game was about to be released by his favorite gaming company, he planned to be first in line to acquire the game, and then to spend all of his upcoming hours engaged in the play. Her expected to be ensorcelled once again in the game world. Then, he was stunned to learn that his parents had planned a family camping trip on the very day of the game’s release, and he could not talk his parents out of having to go along with them.

 

In total disbelief, this boy who was somewhat handicapped with regard to his social skills (whose name we never learn), went along to a remote camping site where two other families, friends of his parents, had already arrived. There were two other teenagers there too, Theo and Lenny. Lenny was a teenage girl who loved an adventure, apparently a trait that had gotten her into some troubles in the past. Theo was a high school kid to whom everything came easily, socially, academically, athletically. He was remarkably modest about his skills and he seemed to give everyone the benefit of the doubt. He was loved by all for his authentic personality, except for our protagonist who is horribly jealous of him. Theo was everything he was not. Theo and Lenny were great friends and obviously enjoyed each other’s company.

 

The book is told in the first person, and our main subject was also an artist, and he could avoid social engagement by disappearing to do some sketching. On the trip, he was fascinated by one particularly beautiful tree that was a ways from the camp. When Lenny decided she should help him actually visit the tree, without revealing her plan, she got him to go with her. The adventure involved a hike, a canoe ride, a swim in a cold mountain pool, and a treacherous rock climb, all done in the dark while parents were left bar behind, asleep in their tents. They got to the tree, and it was a beautiful experience, but on the way back down, tragedy struck. Lenny was badly injured in a fall. It was left to him to get them out of this mess, a task that he was sorely unprepared for. That’s when the magic happened for Lenny and our narrator. 

 

To tell the end of this beautiful story would be a spoiler I just can’t give away. My advice, buy the book and spend just a short time absorbing this great story. Peper strikes again. If you’ve not already read his work, then you are in for a treat.

 

Zafara, A giraffe's True Storny, from Deep in Africa to the Heart of Paris

 

Odyssey

 

Odyssey is my favorite book of all times, and I’m surprised that I haven’t reviewed it in this blog which we began writing in 2009. I know that I’ve reread it at least a couple times during the last 16 years. Of course, it was Homer’s book to which I’m referring, not this new version by Stephen Fry. I read Homer’s Odyssey for the first time in junior high school, then again in high school, then again several more times as a college undergraduate. I’ve returned to it many times thereafter simply because the author captures so many human struggles that continue to be applicable to current day life. Issues like money, greed, power, sex, drugs, faith, and adversity are present throughout this epic novel. The vicissitudes of life in 700 BCE was not so much different than life in 2025.

 

I’ve recently reviewed the first two of Stephen Fry’s four-book into the ancient Greek Myths. The first was Mythos, The Greek Myths Retold, and the second was Heroes, The Greek Myths Reimagined. I raved about the qualities of those books which I listened to in audiobook format. The multitalented Fry was the narrator for the entire series, and his skill in that regard was simply remarkable. Because Odyssey, the fourth book, became available on Libby before Troy, I just couldn’t wait to get to Odyssey. Fry had perhaps the most famous author of adventure books in the history of mankind to compete with, to be compared to while relating these well-known stories, and it’s my opinion that Fry succeeds in doing so. This is not like trying to read Homer. It’s a more modern and readable novel, and I could not possible give it anything but a 5/5 or A+ rating. As an adventure book reader, it’s hard for me to imagine that you won’t be entranced by the quality of Fry’s writing and narration. I think Troy is going to be available any day – can’t wait.tt

Serves You Right

 Serves You Right by Orion Gregory is the second novel by this author, the first that has been reviewed in this blog. The protagonist is Sydney Livingstone, a female rookie police detective in Walsh County, Ohio. She had been struggling with her tennis career and chose to leave that to join the police force, then at the age of 24. She walked into a situation in which it seemed that a number of bad guys were getting off too easy, or were hiring good attorneys who were able to get them declared not guilty. However, someone else was finding it unthinkable that such characters were not being sufficiently punished and took it upon themselves to bring their justice to the picture. A vigilante who called himself “The Enforcer” was at work, and the police department had to go after whoever that was. Suddenly, it looked like the vigilante might just be a cop, but who could it be?

 

Gregory created an excellent cast of very different characters. Livingstone seemed to keep making poor decisions and was close to being terminated from a job she desperately wanted to continue. Meanwhile, she continued in a relationship with a man who remained on the tennis tour, but her dedication to the job was threatening their relationship. The Police Commissioner Ed Lasek, Police Chief Delvin Pratt, Captain Wilma Griffin, Sergeant Stuart Montenegro, Detective Kevin Fosterno, Detective Tom Mitsoff, and others all had some obvious faults who could have been The Enforcer. It was near the end of the book that Livingstone made a Perry Mason like speech in a meeting of all the principal police people, addressing each of her fellows from the Commissioner, the Police Chief, and each of her fellow detectives about why it could be them, but then why she eliminated them one by one from being The Enforcer, until her choice was revealed. That was the point at which disbelief struck this reader. A bumbling rookie was supposed to have unraveled a case that none of the more senior officers could figure out.  I just found this suddenly astute rookie detective to not be a believable character. In the middle of her definitive speech I found myself wondering where this had come from.

 

I think this story has the possibility of being a good book, starting with an interesting protagonist. But, since when do rookie officers attain the rank of detective? On the one hand, her stumbling and bumbling attempts are good for misdirection to the reader, but for me, it was just too many signs of incompetence to go with the ending of the novel.

10-22-63

Stephen King published 11/22/63 in January 2012. Admittedly, I’ve never been a Stephen King fan as the result of his frequent departure to supernatural story lines. However, I’ve also been a lifelong fan of time travel stories, and my daughter recommended the book as one of her all-time favorites. I found it on Libby and listened to it’s beautiful narration by Craig Wasson. It’s a date that I clearly remember. I was 13 years old and in an eighth grade world history class with Mr. Williams who was interrupted for a brief private discussion with the school’s Vice-Principal, Mr. Bragg. Mr. Williams came back to the classroom to announce the news that President Kennedy had been shot. It was also my sister’s 16^th birthday. Hopefully, you know something of that day and the days that followed.

In King’s novel, an English teacher in a small town in Maine, Jake Epping, stumbled into a time warp that allowed him to go back to 1958, and then return to his private life inn 2011. Unlike other time travel stories, like H.G. Wells’ The Time Machine or the movie Back to the Future, Epping could not dial in any date he wanted, so it was 1958 or nothing. He was so disturbed by the Kennedy murder that it was his ambition to go back in time in order to stop Lee Harvey Oswald from this horrible act. Epping had to go back to this time five years before the assassination and figure out how to go about doing the deed, and then escaping back to 2011. In 1958, he created an identify for himself, and found a job teaching English on a substitute basis. He quickly became accepted in his small community, but he had to keep his actual reason for being there a secret. Epping did not expect to fall in love which added a significant wrinkle to his plans.

 

King did a beautiful job describing life in the US during the 1958 to 1963 period. He wrote about the awkwardness of Epping meeting Oswald and his family. Meanwhile, there were a number of unexpected roadblocks to interfering with Oswald, as if the past was working to defend itself and keep anyone for making any profound changes. I won’t be a spoiler and write if Epping was successful, but King did skillfully introduce the notion that changing history, even from the most grotesque of acts, might not always lead to a better outcome for mankind.

 

Like my daughter, I was entranced by the story that King spun, and this novel gets my strongest recommendation.

The Last Hit Man by Robin Yocum

 Remember the opening story from Goodfellas? When teenager Henry Hill says that all he ever wanted to do was be a gangster? In this book, Angelo Cipriani wanted to be a criminal dating back to his high school years. 

 

Angelo grew up in a Steubenville, OH (NE Ohio for you geographically challenged) neighborhood known as Spaghetto, home to Italian immigrants.  But Angelo wasn't a pure breed Italian. His mom was Ukranian and the 'real' Italians in town never let him forget it. As such, Angelo grew up tough, because he had to. 

Angelo dropped out of high school and took a job cleaning floors and spittoons in a local pool hall. His willingness to do what was necessary caught the eye of a capo within the Fortunato family eventually getting to meet Alphonso - the boss. This family controlled gambling, numbers, sports book, and prostitution up and down the upper Ohio River valley (from Youngstown down the borders of OH, PA, WV) to Wheeling. The Fortunato's were frequently at odds with other families controlling other regions of the upper Midwest, but in the interest of business, a tense peace prevailed. Big Al kinda liked the kid and brought him into the family and the organization. So Angelo was brought up slowly by doing collections and helping with record keeping on the book making operation.

The family business was run top down with Big Al pulling the strings, paying bribes and tributes, playing criminal and cops against each other, and making all decisions regarding the family business. His son, Big Tommy, a business graduate from Bowling Green St Univ, would take over upon Al's death. Big Tommy had a son, Little Tommy, who was Big Tommy's heir apparent. Big Tommy liked  Angelo and elevated his importance by making him the understudy of Carlo Della Russo, the family executioner who taught Angelo the ways and practices of ethical execution. When Angelo finally gets his chance, he shows Carlo just how much he'd learned. Little Tommy has no use for Angelo and he also learns that because he isn't 100% Italiano, he'd wasn't in line to become a made man. Just the way it is. He'd be treated as such, but he wasn't and never would get that honor.

The book traces the fortunes of the Fortunato family over 40 years and three generations of leadership. Of the changing face of organized crime from book making, loan sharking, and prostitution in the old days to running hard drugs. All businesses evolve, even crime. Angelo also has to evolve. He has a growing reputation amongst the neighboring mobs and police, but he's so good at his job, the cops are left with suspicions, but never any evidence. Besides, the police don't much care if one family's hit man offs some leadership of another mob. 

In the 70s, Angelo gets married, his wife is pregnant, and they go out to celebrate. That doesn't go well and it leaves Angelo with a vendetta that must be reconciled with, no matter how long it takes.  Angelo has a long memory, but also has a girlfriend, a waitress at a local diner he frequents daily. 

Once Big Tommy passes, Little Tommy, ruthless thug and spoiled rotten piece of . . . you know,  has no real use for a late 60s yo hitter when he's got his own favs in their 20s. Little Tommy effectively rejects all the income streams that have kept the family going for nearly 40 years in favor of trafficking in hard drugs. Money is coming in so fast, he hardly knows where to stash it all. 

Now the Fortunatos had a 'you scratch my back' relationship with the cops and if the local cops were happy, the Feds sort of let things go the way things were. For two generations of Fortunatos, this was SOP. Little Tommy? Not so much. 

The Feds want Little Tommy and to get him, they approach Angelo. Rat out Little Tommy in exchange for witness protection. After plenty of back and forth, Angelo agrees only if he can take one of the few remaining mobsters still around as well as his girlfriend. 

And while that sounds like the perfect solution to Angelo's problems. Oh so wrong, grasshopper. The FBI still has a few tricks up its sleeves. And I'll leave it at that. 

Robin Yocum has six novels to his credit, most all of which were either nominated for various national awards or won a few. I hope people will pick this up and give it a go. It's told in flashbacks from current day (Angelo is 69yo) and back to the pool hall and forward through 40ish years. The prose flows smoothly (it's told like the reader is listening to Angelo recite his life story), the dialogue sounds pretty authentic (but who am I to say whether it is or isn't. Maybe friend of the blog, Charlie Stella, might have more to say about that). The setting (Steubenville) is almost a character in and of itself. This really is an engaging read. You are rooting for Angelo to find whatever it is he is looking for. To avenge what was taken from him. To get away scott free. Reach that turning point in his journey that gets him safely out of the life. In short, I think readers will grow to like Angelo as the story unfolds.  

This is Yocum's latest and, unless I read the ending of the book all wrong, it's not the last we've heard from Angelo Cipriani. 

Set a reminder on your calendar for 2 DEC 2025 for its release date.

Thanks to NetGalley for the advance reviewer copy in exchange for an unbiased review. 

ECD 

Killer Tracks

 

I’m sorry that I’m only getting to this review when it’s been a full month since I actually read it. I’ve been on a long and very busy vacation in places where my internet connection was weak, if it even existed at all. I remember thinking that the plot of Killer Tracks by Mary Keliikoa had potential. It’s a story about a married couple who lost their 3-year-old daughter to leukemia. The loss was so painful that the marriage didn’t survive. Some years later, Sheriff Jax Turner and his ex-wife Abby Kanekoa were trying to see if their relationship had a chance of survival and if it was worth it to try again. Both were involved in law enforcement. Jax was the sheriff in a small summer tourist town, Misty Pines, and Abby was an FBI agent in a big city. In the book, we quickly meet the whole cast of characters in the Misty Pines Sheriff Office. Jax and Abby are trying to have a weekend away despite their nearly 24/7 responsibilities.

 

My criticism has to do with the flow of the plot, which was uneven. The author spent too much time on the worries of the main characters that the relationship was really gone and there was no hope for them, as well as their fear that their respective other had already moved on. It was the introduction of Hannah that turned the experience of this book to a negative one for me. She was a psychopath, apparently in league with a very bad man, Backstrom, who was released from prison on a technicality. It was not believable that despite both Jax and Abby having been experienced and successful law enforcement officers that they repeatedly got sucked in to Hannah’s manipulations. Her statements were contradictory, but supposedly Jax and Abby were distracted from seeing clearly because of their own relationship issues. I just don’t buy that.

 

Bottomline, I can’t recommend this book. I think it could be rewritten into a much better story.