CAMBRIDGE, COLLEEN ~ MASTERING THE ART OF FRENCH MURDER

 

This review is my own opinion and NOT affiliated with any other literary entity

I will forever be grateful to author Colleen Cambridge for writing Faygo pop - the soda brand of my Hoosier youth - into a Paris set murder mystery involving Julia Child. Tabitha Knight, a Michigan born Rosie the Riveter lives in post WW II Paris with her oncle and Grand Pere.  Julia Child, in her Cordon Bleu school days, is their neighbor. The two ladies share shopping time and an easy friendship. But when a guest at a theater party thrown by Julia's sister Dort is found dead, Tabitha dons her detective beret and investigates. Julia Child makes mayonnaise. Repeatedly.  (a la chopping les oignons in Julie and Julia.)

Colleen Cambridge sprinkles in salty and sweet tidbits about Julia with an easy hand the way a good chef seasons a dish. Tabitha is intelligent and believable as a young woman trying to find herself post war. How hard it must have been for young women to do vital work contributing to the war effort, only to be sent packing at Wars end. Julia Child faced the same roadblocks after the OSS no longer needed her. She became one of the best chefs of all time. Will Tabitha become a great detective? Only time, and more books will tell.

DAVIS, FIONA ~ SPECTACULAR, THE

This review is my own opinion and NOT affiliated with any other literary entity

Fiona Davis improves with every novel.  The Spectacular is no exception.  Davis' M O is to take a New York City landmark, match it to something political or historical in a particular era, and then tell the story of a woman in the past and a woman in the present/future (for example - The Magnolia Palace is set in the 1920s for the past story, and the 1960s for the future story.)  In only two of her novels, both set in the 50s, Davis tells the story of one main protagonist - in The Spectacular it's Marion Brooks, a dancer who defies her father and becomes a Rockette.  Marion comes face to face with a dangerous man intent on blowing up Radio City Music Hall, and stops a 16-year crime spree.

While Marion Brooks is fictional, George Metesky is real enough.  Known as the Mad Bomber, for 16 years in the 40s and 50s Metesky planted bombs in well trafficked New York City buildings. He planted 33 bombs, 22 of them exploded, and 15 people sustained injuries. Early criminal profiling aided in catching Metesky.  Metesky lost his job with a power company after inhaling a blast of hot gasses and being denied workman's comp. His hatred for the company caused him to lash out with threatening phone calls, letters, and pipe bombs. Metesky was not caught in as dramatic a way as the novel - although when arrested, he was wearing a buttoned double breasted suit (as predicted by Peter in the novel.)

Marion Brooks is a dutiful daughter, living at home in her twenties, teaching dance classes, and waiting for her boyfriend to propose. She isn't close with her fastidious and shy sister Judy, who works as their father's secretary.  Their father is an executive at the power company. He expects perfection from both his daughters. But Marion, compelled by the unfulfilled dreams of her deceased mother, feels suffocated. On a whim she auditions for The Rockettes and is chosen. Her father kicks her out of the house, so Marion flees to New York City, takes up residence all girl's boarding house The Rehearsal Club (once home to Carol Burnett), and trains every day to become a Rockette.  On a double date she means psychology student Peter Griggs, who thinks that coming up with psychological "profiles" of criminals will aid in solving crime.  He and Marion spark to one another, but keep each other at arm's length until the Big Apple Bomber makes his heinous acts personal for Marion.

I enjoy Davis' novels immensely because while she uses big places and well documented historical facts, she throws in smaller details - like The Rehearsal Club - to layer in specific authenticity. I'm hoping her next novel is set at the Guggenheim, just so readers can see the impressive list of Peggy Guggenheim's lovers. With yet to be explored locations like Rockefeller Center, Horn & Hardart, The Cloisters, Tiffany's, Sak's Fifth Avenue, Studio 54... Davis will be writing many more novels and I will be reading each one.

KASS, LINDA ~ BESSIE

(Book for review courtesy of NetGalley)

HEEEERE SHE IIIIISSSS!! MIIISSS AMEEEEERICAAAA!!!! If you belong to the Boomers or Gen X you have crooned that refrain (Usually ironically.)

It is auspicious that I completed Bessie this week, as Miss America will crown a new winner on Saturday, in the pageant's 103rd year. Started as a publicity stunt to extend Atlantic City's summer tourist season, Miss America became a scholarship pageant giving young women a chance for education, personal growth and travel.  From 1954 on the Miss America Pageant was a televised event, held every year, to crown a young woman who best represented the poise, talent, and intelligence American young womanhood had to offer.  But beyond the pageant, Miss America really didn't do much. An occasional TV appearance, an ad for a product whose company sponsored the pageant, but not much else. 

Miss Americas never became famous beyond the crown - save Lee Meriwether (one of Batman's many cat women), Marianne Mobley and Phyllis George.  Arguably the most famous Miss America is Vanessa Williams, the first black woman to wear the crown. But before Vanessa, in 1945, there was Bess Meyerson, the first Jewish woman to win. Bess faced anti-Semitism in the first post World War II competition but held firm to the idea that she represented ALL of America. Bess Meyerson spoke out in favor of integrating the pageant 25 years before the first black contestant competed in 1970. Bess Meyerson faced discrimination and backlash for winning a contest she never actually entered, but represented the dream than in America everyone has an equal chance of success.

Bess Meyerson was the middle daughter of a Russian Jewish father who survived a progrom and fled to America. The Meyersons lived a safe, comfortable existence in a Jewish enclave in the Bronx. Bess' only real dream was to study piano. She attended tuition free Hunter College and graduated with no concrete idea of what her future would be.   A tall, beautiful raven-haired girl Bess began modeling. Her older sister entered her in the Miss New York City Pageant. With a borrowed bathing suit Bess won the title and a slot in the Miss America Pageant. Scholarship available, Bess could live her dream of entering a Music Conservatory to study piano full-time.  When the pageant coordinator warns Bess that as a Jew, she will face anti-Semitism and tells her to change her last name to increase her chance of winning Bess holds firm and refuses to change. After winning the pageant, Bess realizes she has a platform that allows her to be heard. She joins the Anti-Defamation League and does not hesitate to let her views be known, much to the pageant's consternation.

In Bessie, author Linda Kass gives readers a peek under the crown, into the insecurities and shyness of a real young woman. Bess Meyerson constantly felt the lack of her mother's affection, felt awkward and gawky at her full 5 ft 10 in height, felt more comfortable at a piano than speaking to crowds. But forced to find her voice she stayed firm to her identity and her beliefs. Bess Meyerson was a trailblazer, her success lost to history. But Bess Meyerson's inner beauty, her commitment to equality makes her crown shine brighter and should make any young woman stand taller, be braver, and always speak her truth.

ROONEY, KATHLEEN ~ FROM DUST TO STARDUST

 (Book for review courtesy of NetGalley)

Hollywood is sort of a fairyland. People flit around unseen, ensuring dreams come true.  Offer the fairies what they like, and they look out for you, make sure you have everything your heart desires. But, cross them and they become vengeful and set out to ruin your life.  Author Kathleen Rooney uses the myth of fairies as a metaphor for the life and career of actress Doreen O'Dare, a fictionalized version of real life silent film star Colleen Moore.

The most apt way to descibe Colleen Moore's stardom is to evoke Jennifer Aniston at the height of Friends fame.  When Colleen Moore bobbed her hair, thousands of young girls across the country followed suit (remember begging your stylist for The Rachael?)

Colleen Moore represented the perfect flapper - a modern woman, free to do what she liked, unencumbered by society's expectations. But Colleen Moore soon grew weary of the roles that pigeonholed her, unable to show off that she could be as dramatic as she was comedic. Colleen Moore ended her film career to become - of all things - a financial advisor. Her hobby was collecting miniature items and she decided to build a fairy castle, made of real gold silver and gemstones to house all of her miniatures.

Rooney's heroine, Doreen O'Dare begins life as Eileen Sullivan, daughter of Irish immigrant parents. She is close with her grandmother who tells her stories of their homeland of Ireland and the fairies within. Eileen Sullivan is a dreamy girl.  Taken to see Peter Pan as a young lass, she decides that the only future for her is on the stage. An uncle, owed a favor by film impresario DW Griffith offers her a screen test and at just 14 years old Eileen becomes Doreen O'Dare, nascent Hollywood icon.  She cultivates a career that fosters friendships with Mary Pickford, Lillian Gish, Marion Davies, and early female screenwriting legend Frances Marion.  Doreen survives a tumultuous marriage to an alcoholic producer and after a lengthy career and the advent of talkies she retires to focus on the fairy castle she compiled bit by bit over the years of her career.  From Dust to Stardust is an honest and heartfelt look at what life is like in the fairy tale realm of stardom, and how harsh reality is when the fairy dust rubs off.