Former cop Jack Constantine is in prison for killing one of the men who murdered his pregnant wife in “Break Out” by Paul Herron. A superstorm bears down on the prison, the guards flee, and the cell doors are unlocked. Constantine now has the opportunity to get the two other men responsible for his wife’s death, both of whom are in the same prison. But he also has to avoid the many prisoners who would gladly see an ex-cop die. These especially include Malcolm Kincaid, whom Constantine framed out of frustration that Kincaid had twice escaped justice.
Both funny and poignant, “Lorna Mott Comes Home” by Diane Johnson features the title character leaving France and her French husband to return to San Francisco. There she hopes to reconnect with her grown children from an earlier marriage, and develops a close relationship with her pregnant, diabetic teenage granddaughter. But a mudslide in the French village where she lived entangles her once again with French affairs.
In “The Last Exiles” by Ann Shin, the young North Korean woman Suja finds that Jin, the young man she loves, has disappeared after he stole cornmeal for his starving family. She puts her own life at risk to try to find Jin. The book offers a glimpse of the corruption, black market in human trafficking and other horrible conditions in North Korea.
“The Invisible Husband of Frick Island” by Colleen Oakley is a charming and tender story of coping with loss. Frick Island is a remote island in Chesapeake Bay where Piper Parrish lives. Piper’s husband died when his boat capsized, and Piper copes by carrying on as if Tom’s still there. She cooks for him, walks him to the dock each day, and so on. What’s more, the townspeople support her by playing along with her delusion. Anders Caldwell, a frustrated journalist there to cover a cake walk, stumbles upon Piper and decides her story will make his career.
Those who like a good horror story should try “Smithy” by Amanda Desiree. In 1974, a group of students and their professor spent the summer in an old mansion. They are there for a project which involves seeing if a chimpanzee, named Smithy, can be made to communicate in sign language. As time goes on, Smithy begins signing what seems to make no sense, and sometimes signs to someone they can’t see at all. The suspense builds as the tale is told through diaries and letters of the characters involved.
At the age of 18, Charles Person was the youngest person aboard the first two Freedom Rider buses in 1961. Their purpose was to see if the South would comply with desegregation rulings affecting bus stations, restrooms and restaurants. Both buses were attacked. One was burned, its riders only narrowly escaping. Riders on the second bus (Person’s bus) were beaten, some nearly to death. Person tells his story in “Buses Are a Comin’.”
