The Edge of Nowhere

Elizabeth George is one of my absolute favorite authors. I began reading her novels after watching the first episodes of BBC's Inspector Lynley series. They were so good I wanted to read the books upon which they were based. When I read last spring that George is now writing a series for Young Adults, I knew I would at least read the first one. What is it they say about potato chips, "You can't eat just one"? Well, now in addition to waiting for the next Inspector Lynley mystery, I'm also waiting for the next YA novel. She left Becca King in a very precarious position in this one.
George sets this series on Whidbey Island, WA, which happens to be where she currently lives. She remarks: "There's a real enchantment to the island, and the variety of settings it affords me seems to cry out to have teenagers placed in them....It asks to be 'someone' in a story." Of course, now, I want to experience Whidbey Island for myself! Another quote: "Blending strands of mystery and romance and a hint of the paranormal in a haunting setting, The Edge of Nowhere is the first in a cycle of books that will take Becca and her friends through their teenage years on the island." That tells me I'm going to have some good reading ahead. And even though the target audience is young adult, I didn't think this book was in any way too juvenile.

After catching up with Sandra Dallas by reading two of her latest novels in August, I knew I still had one to go. I was a bit ambivalent about reading a novel about the Mormons, but I like Dallas's writing and I like historical fiction based on true happenings.
In August I wrote: "Her books could be depressing for some readers because she writes honestly about the trying times her characters go through - especially women. But those are offset by themes of friendship, forgiveness and love." I found true sisters, which is based on what the emigrants of The Martin Handcart Company experienced on the 1,300 mile trek from Iowa City, Iowa to Salt Lake City, Utah in 1856, totally depressing. Even though Dallas tries to lighten things somewhat with "portraits of women surviving the unimaginable through the ties of female friendship," it seemed to me to be one death, one tragedy, one amputation of frozen digits and limbs after another. Too much. I was also angry at the men who treated their wives, daughters, sisters, as chattel - even though I know that is exactly how women were considered up to and including my generation. This book just didn't have enough "friendship, forgiveness and love" for me.

Brian Freeman's latest taut thriller, Spilled Blood, is set in this Minnesota author's native state. Only in this one he has moved the location from the eastern side of the state, locale for his Jonathan Stride series, to the western. It is a tale of two cities - the affluent Barron, where a powerful and secretive scientific research corporation, Mondamin, enriches its residents, and the downriver blue collar St. Croix, whose residents are victims of that same company's carcinogenic waste.
The bad blood between the two communities escalates into open warfare when the daughter of the Mondamin Corporation's president is found shot dead and a St. Croix girl is accused of the crime.
I think Brian Freeman is one of the best mystery writers I've read. I like that his books are set in the Midwest  in areas I have already visited or could visit. It makes it easy for me to visualize the people and the locale. Freeman excels at characterization and with plenty of believable possible suspects, it is very hard to spot the actual 'murderous psychopath' before the end of the novel. Freeman's mysteries do keep me on edge without pushing the horror element.
Now, here's what I found really interesting about this book which has little to do with it. Less than forty pages into it, I made the connection between the fictitious Mondamin Corp. and the very real Monsanto Co. It was like, "I've heard this story line before." Three years ago at the annual Women's Spirituality Conference in Mankato, MN, the main speaker talked about the controversial role gigantic Monsanto plays in world food production. I just recently recycled my materials from that conference or I could tell you who the speaker was.
I did meet some women farmers from the same part of the state where this novel is set who are trying to make a living producing wholesome food without the chemicals the majority of crop producers find necessary. I could not help but think about them as characters straight out of this book. Apparently writer Freeman is quite aware of the world around him - especially in his own state.