Hey! I'm in Pittsburgh!
Nicola Griffith's Always
I think this was part of a series I've never read, b/c there were lots of references to people that never actually showed up in the story. Anyway, it's about some rich ex-cop woman who goes to Seattle to investigate some weirdness with real estate holdings and has to deal with the weird goings-on at a movie set. It's categorized as a mystery but the tension level was really low. Meanwhile, the protagonist is flashing back to a self-defense course she taught (the author used to teach self-defense--thoguh I think the method I learned for eye-gouging is more efficient than hers) and the problems it caused. The protagonist was likable enough but this may have been a little too formulaic for me (lots of falling in love at the drop of a hat with a local caterer). B.
Michael Loewenthal's Charity Girl
A really fascinating historical novel set during WWI, when women with STDs were imprisoned so they wouldn't infect soldiers. Young Frieda, a Jewish runaway, falls for such a soldier, who of course gives her the clap, and she's rounded up and locked up with a group of women. This part of the novel was stellar, but things start to fall apart towards the end and the book ends pretty abruptly with some serious deus ex machina. I wonder if the author was fascinated by his setting but didn't know where to take the story--that's how it felt. Anyway, another B.
Alix Ohlin's The Missing Person
When a grad student struggling to write her art history dissertation is beckoned home from NYC to New Mexico to deal with her brother, an eco-activist, wacky adventures ensue. OK, not exactly: she falls for one of her brother's cohort, becomes fascinated by two paintings bought by her late father, and has to deal with her mother's affair with a married man. The story was ok, but there was absolutely no closure and things got pretty unbelievable toward the end anyway. OK, I guess I'll give this one a B/B-.
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