If You Knew Her

If You Knew Her by Emily Elgar.
Paperback: 400 pages
Publisher: Harper Paperbacks (January 23, 2018)
ISBN-10: 006269460X


Amazon Review:

A woman in a coma.
The man who could save her life—if only he could speak.
 
When young, beautiful Cassie Jensen arrives unconscious to the intensive care ward at St. Catherine’s hospital after being struck in a hit-and-run while out walking her dog, chief nurse Alice Marlowe thinks she looks familiar. She starts digging deeper into Cassie’s relationships, only to discover something about her patient that she’d been keeping secret from everyone, including her devoted husband and family. Soon Alice finds herself obsessed with her patient’s past and future, even willing to put her own career on the line in her single-minded search for answers. 

Frank, a patient on the same ward who has locked-in syndrome, can hear and see everything around him but cannot speak. Soon he comes to understand that Cassie’s life is still in danger. While the police continue to look for clues, only Frank holds the truth, but he’s unable to communicate it. 

As the novel flashes between points of view, the reader will get closer and closer to the truth of who Cassie Jensen was, and why she was out on the road that fateful night . . .

I can't remember where I picked this book up but it turned out to  be  and enjoyable read....for most of it.  One sad part.  Anyway.  Each chapter was one about one of the characters in the story, and how, slowly, it all started to come together.  But,  you still weren't sure until the very end.

I liked that it was different in that two characters were in comas.  Both were thought not to recover. But one's brain was fully functional and heard everything that went on in the hospital and especially the room he was in...   I like it when a character is different and interesting!

So if you like something a touch different this might be a good one for you.

The Christmas Thief

The Christmas Thief by Mary Higgins Clark.
Print Length: 336 pages
Page Numbers Source ISBN: 1439173079
Publisher: Simon & Schuster;(November 9, 2004)



This time they get in the middle of a case involving a beautiful eighty-foot blue spruce that has been chosen to spend the holidays as Rockefeller Center's famous Christmas tree. The folks who picked the tree don't have a clue that attached to one of its branches is a flask chock-full of priceless diamonds that Packy Noonan, a scam artist just released from prison, had hidden there over twelve years ago. 

An excited Packy breaks his parole and heads to Stowe, Vermont, to reclaim his loot. Once there, he is horrified to discover that his special tree will be heading to New York City the next morning. With a bumbling crew consisting of Jo-Jo, Benny, and an unsuccessful poet, Milo, he knows he has to act fast. 

What Packy does not know is that Alvirah and Regan are on a weekend trip to Stowe with Alvirah's husband, Willy; Regan's fiancé, Jack; Regan's parents, Luke and Nora; and Alvirah's friend Opal, a lottery winner who lost all her winnings in Packy's scam. On Monday morning when they're supposed to head home, they learn that the tree is missing, Packy Noonan may be in the vicinity, and Opal has disappeared. 

From two of America's beloved storytellers, The Christmas Thief is filled with suspense, comic characters, and holiday cheer, and is sure to delight its readers.


 Well, this was different..in a nice way!  The use of "comic characters" gave smiles while reading a "mystery about a tree".

This is the first time I've read Christmas mysteries that I can remember. They were small and short and enjoyable!  I may try it again next year!

A Christmas Journey

A Christmas Journey by Anne Perry.

Hardcover: 192 pages
Publisher: Ballantine Books;(November 18, 2003)
ISBN-10: 034546673X


Amazon Review:

It’s Christmas and the Berkshire countryside lies wrapped in winter chill. But the well-born guests who have gathered at Applecross for a delicious weekend of innocent intrigue and passionate romance are warmed by roaring fires and candlelight, holly and mistletoe, good wine and gorgeously wrapped gifts. It’s scarcely the setting for misfortune, and no one–not even that clever young aristocrat and budding sleuth Vespasia Cumming-Gould–anticipates the tragedy that is to darken this light-hearted holiday house party. But soon one young woman lies dead, a suicide, and another is ostracized, held partly responsible for the shocking turn of events.

To expiate her guilt, Gwendolen Kilmuir sets out for the Scottish Highlands, hoping to explain to the dead girl’s mother the circumstances surrounding the sorrowful act–and to bring her back to England for the funeral. Gwendolen’s sole companion on this nightmarish journey is Vespasia. As Vespasia learns more about the victim and the ugly forces that shaped her desperate deed, she understands the heartbreaking truth of the tragedy.

A nice little book, and fast reading.

I especially liked the trip they took to bring the letter to the dead girl's mother. The descriptions of where they were made you feel as if you were on the trip with them.  From bad weather, to horseback riding, to boats, they went through much of England and even more of Scotland.  

Sometimes one must go thru many things to realize why they are how they are. 

Killers of the Flower Moon

Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI by David Grann.

Hardcover: 352 pages
Publisher: Doubleday;(April 18, 2017)
ISBN-10: 9780385534246



Amazon Review:
monstrous crimes in American history
In the 1920s, the richest people per capita in the world were members of the Osage Indian nation in Oklahoma. After oil was discovered beneath their land, they rode in chauffeured automobiles, built mansions, and sent their children to study in Europe.

      Then, one by one, the Osage began to be killed off. The family of an Osage woman, Mollie Burkhart, became a prime target. Her relatives were shot and poisoned. And it was just the beginning, as more and more members of the tribe began to die under mysterious circumstances.

      In this last remnant of the Wild West—where oilmen like J. P. Getty made their fortunes and where desperadoes like Al Spencer, the “Phantom Terror,” roamed—many of those who dared to investigate the killings were themselves murdered. As the death toll climbed to more than twenty-four, the FBI took up the case. It was one of the organization’s first major homicide investigations and the bureau badly bungled the case. In desperation, the young director, J. Edgar Hoover, turned to a former Texas Ranger named Tom White to unravel the mystery. White put together an undercover team, including one of the only American Indian agents in the bureau. The agents infiltrated the region, struggling to adopt the latest techniques of detection.  Together with the Osage they began to expose one of the most chilling conspiracies in American history.

      In Killers of the Flower Moon, David Grann revisits a shocking series of crimes in which dozens of people were murdered in cold blood. Based on years of research and startling new evidence, the book is a masterpiece of narrative nonfiction, as each step in the investigation reveals a series of sinister secrets and reversals. But more than that, it is a searing indictment of the callousness and prejudice toward American Indians that allowed the murderers to operate with impunity for so long. Killers of the Flower Moon is utterly compelling, but also emotionally devastating.

 Sadly, I have to admit that I never heard about the Osage Murders.  

It seems to me that from the day "immigrants" (like Columbus) stepped foot in America, instead of trying to learn and become all the people of America, all that was done was to try to kill all the Native Americans and/ or take everything possible from them.  The fact that any of them managed to survive to 2018 is nothing short of a miracle.  

In my heart I will never forgive what was (and still is) being done to all of them.