The Boy in the Red Dress

Lambert, Kristin. The Boy in the Red Dress. 2020. 362p. ISBN 9780593113684.

On New Year's Eve, 1929, Millie and everyone else at New Orleans' Cloak and Dagger club is preparing to usher in a new decade. The Cloak and Dagger is a swinging speakeasy located in the French Quarter and frequented by the rich and famous, and they all come to the club to watch its star performer, Marion, the boy in the red dress. Millie's aunt had to absent herself at the last moment, leaving Millie in charge. And Millie plans on ensuring that everything runs smoothly.

Marion has legions of fans, and some are more persistent than others. That night, when a beautiful young woman comes in the Cloak and Dagger with a photo of Marion and starts asking questions, Millie is concerned she might be one of those fans who doesn't leave Marion alone. Unfortunately, the woman is soon found dead in the club's courtyard, and Marion is the prime suspect. Millie knows Marion would not hurt a fly, but local law enforcement agents believe he's guilty. 

With Marion on the run (but not too far away, hiding in the Cloak and Dagger), Millie begins her own investigation of who the young woman was, what it is she was after, and who had a reason to kill her. But dangers abound, and time is running out to prove Marion innocent. Can Millie discover who is behind the murder and save her friend, her family, and the club she loves before it is too late?

The Boy in the Red Dress is a great mystery, with realistic characters in an historical period that is often not well known by readers. Fans of whodunit will enjoy this read, and will cheer for Marion to be found innocent.

Copyboy

Vawter, Vince. Copyboy. 2018. 233p. ISBN 978-1-63079-105-6. Available at FIC VAW on the library shelves.

In 1965, Victor Vollmer, from Paper Boy, has graduated from high school and is readying for college. Ever since he started delivering newspapers, he has looked up to Mr. Spiro, who was a mentor. Mr. Spiro guided him with questions designed for him to learn about himself. Now Mr. Spiro has died, and he had a last request that Vic takes seriously. Mr. Spiro wanted Victor to drop his ashes at the mouth of the Mississippi River, and Vic wants to do that right away. His parents are opposed, however, so Vic decides to head down to Louisiana by himself.

Vic stutters, and he has to work very hard to shape his sentences so he can communicate as best he can. When he is offered the job of continuing working at the local Memphis newspaper, Vic takes it but knows it will be a disappointment to his parents, who want him to focus on college and play baseball. First, he must drop the ashes. The copy editor has a friend in New Orleans who has a friend down near the coast, and Vic plans on connecting with them to accomplish his goal.

Heading south in his little sport car, Vic begins the journey of a lifetime, inspired by Mr. Spiro's words and actions. During his trip, meets Philomene, a vigorous teenager who loves being on the river. With Phil's help, Vic learns that the voice he has is his own, stuttering or not, and that there are many people out there who will lie him and love him, regardless of his disability.

Fans of historical and realistic fiction will appreciate this sequel to Paper Boy, which takes place 5 years later, and will enjoy seeing how much Victor has grown in this time, but will really appreciate how much more he has to learn while looking for the mouth of the Mississippi.

If I Run

Blackstock, Terry. If I Run. Book 1 of the If I Run series. 2016. 305p. 402 mins. ISBN 978-0-310-33246-6. Available as an audiobook and as an ebook from Overdrive.

When Casey Cox discovers to her horror that her friend Brent has been stabbed and killed, she runs off with the minimum of things: money, a change of clothes, a cell phone. She didn't kill Brent, but she knows the evidence will point to her. Her fingerprints are all over Brent's apartment. Her shoes stepped in his blood, and this blood is now in her car and on her clothes. The police will not believe her, especially since she knows for a fact corrupt police officers were behind her father's own supposed suicide ten years earlier.

Brent had been investigating her father's death. A former cop, his death by hanging showed signs of struggle, but detectives had ruled it a suicide. Now Casey is on the run, and needs to figure a way to prove both her innocence in Brent's death and her father's own murder while remaining safely hidden from the corrupt police officers chasing her. She needs to stay one step ahead of them and hide where they will not look for her.

Dylan Roberts has returned from Iraq with PTSD, but he wants to continue his work serving the public. A former criminal investigator in the Army, Dylan hopes to join the local police force but must overcome his diagnosis. A friend of Brent, he is hired by his parents to investigate Brent's murder and track down Casey, something the local police, with stretched resources, will not be able to do. If he can bring her back to face justice, he will secure a place on the force.

As he follows Casey from Louisiana to Georgia, Dylan notices that Casey is not doing what a criminal with a guilty conscience would do. She helps people and puts herself in harm's way, instead of going to ground and disappearing. The more Dylan digs, the darker the mystery surrounding Casey and the double murders of her friend Brent and her father, and the more convinced he becomes that the police is involved in both. How can he get Casey to come in knowing she's at risk of dying in an "accident?"

Casey, meanwhile, starts a new life, only to discover that the kidnapped daughter of the new friends she made may be closer than everyone thinks. She may be in her new neighborhood. But investigating may blow her cover identity and alert Dylan and the police tracking her to her whereabouts. Faced with her own safety or the hope of rescuing an innocent victim, Casey makes a decision that will change the rest of her life....

The Awakening

Chopin, Kate. The Awakening. 2008. 282p. 283 mins. 978-1-51817167-3. Available as an audiobook on Overdrive.

Edna Pontellier and her husband Léonce are spending the summer months with their children at  a resort at Grand Isle, not far from New Orleans where they reside. Léonce is here for the weekend, and returns to the city for business during the week. As a woman, her roles are seen by society as caring for her children and supporting her husband. Edna chafes under these strictures, however, and does not feel fulfilled by the two traditional roles of mother and wife. On Grand Isle, she meets Mrs. Ratignolle, a woman with many children who enjoys motherhood very much. She also meets Mademoiselle Reisz, a gifted pianist who doesn’t care what society expects of her and instead marches to her own tune. She’s comfortable in her own skin and likes her single lifestyle.

More importantly, Edna meets Robert LeBrun, son of the resort’s owner, and, quite by accident, falls in love with him. Unfortunately, respectable life the 1890s New Orleans precludes divorce and frowns upon an extra-marital affair, especially for a woman. Scared that their relationship might grow, Robert takes off for Mexico, leaving Edna behind. Returning to New Orleans, Edna realizes that she’s tired of being someone she’s not, and she slowly emanciates herself from society’s demands. Léonce is concerned enough to contact a doctor, who tells him his wife is not mentally ill.

Needing to travel to New York for business, Léonce sends the children to his mother outside of New Orleans to give them a country holiday. Suddenly Edna finds herself alone for the first time, able to enjoy herself. She decides to move out of the house, and rents a small residence nearby. Still in contact with Mademoiselle Reisz, she reads the letters Robert sends to the piano player, and longs for him. The letters make it clear that Robert still has feelings for Edna. When Robert moves back to New Orleans, the two are reunited, but as love can be ephemeral, so too can it be fatal …

Over a hundred years old, The Awakening represents one of the first novels ever written to support a woman’s choice of seeking self-fulfilment, and presents an honest view of female sexuality. An early feminist novel, The Awakening continues to foster discussions about what it means to accept or refuse the roles society assign to women in general, and mothers in particular.