In His Sights: A True Story of Love and Obsession by Kate Brennan, Harper Collins, non-fiction, 279 pp., $24.95

Kate Brennan (a pseudonym) is a successful freelance writer and scholar living in an undisclosed location in the Midwest. When she was in her early forties she met Paul, a charismatic, independently wealthy man with whom she entered into a relationship. Brennan moved into Paul’s home, but chose to terminate the arrangement about three years later. Paul has stalked Brennan ever since, and that was almost 15 years ago. Brennan has moved many times since, but her stalker always finds her. She did everything right, contacting the police and receiving their support, and even flying to California to consult with an expert on stalking, but her tormentor is clever. Meanwhile, Paul earned a medical degree of all things.

Brennan’s honest introspection and dispassionate writing style is reminiscent of Kathryn Harrison’s (While They Slept, The Kiss), and interestingly, both are victims of sexual predators. If they seem cool and detached, it may be that they cannot give in to the fear. They are brave women indeed. Brennan’s case, however, is worse because she is unable to live a normal life and seek a new, more stable and fulfilling relationship. If this can happen to an educated, savvy, sophisticated, successful woman, it can happen to anyone, and how horrifying that thought is.

In His Sights is a compelling read, a tragic story with no foreseeable conclusion.

The Necklace: thirteen women and the experiment that transformed their lives by Cheryl Jarvis, Ballantine Books, non-fiction, 240 pp., $24The Necklace: thirteen women and the experiment that transformed their lives by Cheryl Jarvis, Ballantine Books, non-fiction, 240 pp., $24

This unique story of thirteen women living in California who joined together to buy a fabulous 15 carat diamond necklace is the ultimate experiment in democracy. Imagine thirteen strong, independent women who manage to share a glorious thing among themselves and with others with a minimum of disagreement and rancor. There is, however, a hero among them. He is Tom Van Gundy, owner of the family run jewelry store who agreed to dramatically slash the cost of the necklace with the proviso that his workaholic, introverted wife Priscilla be included in the group. Priscilla wanted no part of it, missed the first meeting, and ultimately benefited the most from the collaboration of these charming, gifted, and enthusiastic women.

They called the necklace “Jewelia”, and with it, they raised funds for worthy causes, loaned it to brides, and made interesting personal use of it within the context of their marriages.

It’s impossible not to smile and fully enjoy this grand adventure with this diverse group of women whose politics, jobs, attitudes, and talents set each as much apart as the exquisite diamonds they share.

Jarvis is just the kind of writer I like. She says much in few words, and in this book she has done justice to a bunch of nice women and one uncommonly sensitive man.

The Tenth Muse: My Life in Food     by Judith Jones, Anchor Books, memoir, paperback, 290 pp., $14.95

Judith Jones, an executive at Knopf, has led an exciting and adventurous life with a focus on food. This memoir is a sophisticated and mercifully restrained accounting of Jones’s life in publishing.

When she was Judy Bailey growing up in New York in a privileged home, her mother forbid the use of garlic and onions in cooking because they were the smelly ingredients that common people used. No doubt she could never have imagined how much of an influence her daughter would have on the use of garlic in American homes.

Jones attended Bennington College and became an editor at Doubleday before leaving for a life-changing time in Paris. It was during this period that Jones encouraged Doubleday to publish Anne Frank: Diary of a Young Girl in the U.S. Jones also brought Julia Child and Mastering the Art of French Cooking to an American audience.

Firsthand, I witnessed the American food revolution that Jones fomented right in my Polish grandmother’s kitchen. My grandmother loved Julia Child and watched her program faithfully. Soon our green beans were served with toasted almonds, and other changes were afoot in the soup pot. We began having vichyssoise, a potato leek soup which my grandmother refused to serve cold, so we ate it hot and do to this day. But the best part was when I’d climb the stairs to go to bed and my grandmother would call out, “Bon Appetit!” Finally I asked my mother why she did this, and my mother said, “That’s what Julia Child says. She thinks it means ‘goodnight’. We have laughed over that for decades.

Jones includes some of her favorite recipes some of which, frankly, are too esoteric for me like rabbit in a sweet-sour chocolate-accented sauce. Truth be told, I’ve had rabbit, and I wouldn’t eat it again unless every other animal on earth were dead, but there are other happier recipes like leek pancakes, hermits, and various lamb and duck dishes, 50 recipes in all.  

Jones has made publishing history in her lifetime with an unerring sense for the unique. She writes with style, grace, wit, and pardon the pun, taste.

Dewey: The Small-Town Library Cat Who Touched the World by Vicki Myron with Bret Witter, Grand Central Publishing, non-fiction, 277 pp., $19.99

Here we have parallel tales of the tragedies and triumphs of a stout-hearted, determined woman and a cat.

On a very cold day in January of 1988, Vicki Myron, library director for the small town of Spencer, Iowa, found an eight week-old kitten in the book depository. Crushed beneath a pile of books and suffering from frostbite on his paws, the kitten was so dirty that he appeared to be gray. Myron’s tender ministrations uncovered the gloriously golden and white fur of this orphan. Myron sought and received permission from the local town council to allow the cat, named Dewey for the standard library catalogue system, to reside at the library where he came to be a loving and funny presence for all kinds of people, but especially for the children. According to Myron, Dewey had an instinct for seeking out those who were hurting like one special needs child who had never lifted her head until Dewey came along.

Myron began her adult life in a bad marriage characterized by abuse and alcoholism. There came a time when she demanded better for her young daughter and herself. She left her husband and applied for welfare, but told her case worker she would accept public assistance only if she could attend college. Myron earned her bachelor’s degree and then a master’s. She became a force in the Iowa library system. Problems, however, dogged her. There were family tragedies and the mercurial ups and downs of raising a teenage daughter. Myron worked long hours, fought painful and serious illness, and just kept getting up every time she was knocked down. Hers is an amazing story of courage.

Dewey, who became an international phenom having been featured in documentaries about library cats, lived and loved in Spencer’s library for 19 years until he passed, with Myron, as always, nearby.

Brett Witter has done a terrific job of bringing this poignant story to readers. Together Myron and Dewey exemplify the shining best in man and beast. Keep your tissues handy.

The Night Stalker by James Swain, Ballantine Books, fiction, 348 pp., $25

Jack Carpenter used to be a Broward County cop who beat up a suspect and got tossed out. His specialty is missing children. He has a genius for locating them, and cop or not, he takes on cases when he’s asked to find an abducted child. He is separated from his wife though they remain in love, and he maintains a close relationship with his college age daughter. He has a dog, an Australian something or other,that is fierce and loyal.He is spiritual in the ways that matter most.

Jack is asked to find the missing grandson of Abb Grimes, a convicted serial killer on death row. Suspicion has fallen on the child’s father, or at least that’s what Jack’s nemesis, Det. Cheeks thinks. Jack and Cheeks loathe one another, so it’s tough for Jack to convince the cop on the job to take another look. Cheeks, however, is forced to reconsider when Jack uncovers evidence in an orange grove, that indeed both child and abductor knew each other, but were not necessarily related. The case becomes much larger as more women die in exactly the same way that Grimes’s victims did. The abducted child’s father goes missing.

Swain takes the reader through the minds of child abductors, how they operate, what lures they use, and the information is terrifying and diabolical. The reader travels to dark places, sure of Carpenter’s ability to lead them into the light. I love this series. Last year’s Midnight Rambler was another edge-of-your-seat thriller. Swain is a terrific writer.

Bones by Jonathan Kellerman, Ballantine Books, mystery, 353 pp., $27

This is the 23rd book in this perennially popular series featuring Dr. Alex Delaware, a child psychologist, and his best friend, Lt. Milo Sturgis, an ostracized gay cop with a brilliant solve rate in the LAPD.

The body of a young woman, a talented musician who lives alone, is found in an environmentally protected marsh. Upon investigation, more bodies surface, but these are prostitutes, left like garbage with one hand excised. How did they get there and what kind of monster put them there.

Selena Bass, the musician, was private instructor to a prodigy, the young son of a wealthy family. The caretaker, an odd character with some neurological defects keeps emerging as the prime suspect, but all is not what it seems to be.

The plot is the usual fare, but as always it is the characters who drive the action forward and foremost is Milo Sturgis. He’s big, unconcerned with things like wardrobe and other personal amenities. He tips too much in restaurants and he would take a bullet for just about anybody because he’s hard-wired for extraordinary acts of generosity. Dr. Delaware is so fully integrated that he seldom, if ever now that I think about it, gets angry or displays anything but this relentlessly quiet equanimity and competence. They’re great friends.

Kellerman’s fans don’t need a review. This is a solidly good series.

Hell Bent by William G. Tapply, St. Martin’s Minotaur, mystery, 304 pp., $24.95

Reading a book in this long-running series is like slipping on warm, fuzzy slippers that are broken in just right.

This is the 24th novel in the Brady Coyne series, but feel free to jump in right here. Brady is a Boston attorney who goes above and beyond for his clients. He’s what a lawyer should be. This time out an old lover comes calling while his former lover has abandoned him ostensibly to care for her dying father in California. She asks Brady to represent her brother , a gifted photojournalist who came back from Iraq missing a hand and who is involved in a divorce. Gus is hostile and only reluctantly accepts Brady’s assistance. Sadly, however, Gus is found dead, an apparent suicide, but his sister isn’t buying that theory and eventually Brady, too, is convinced that someone wanted Gus Shaw dead. The question is why.

There are some dynamite twists in this story about terrorism, old and new, and the horrors of war.

The Boston setting is delightful, and Coyne’s handling of a simultaneous case he’s taken on involving two unhappy scrappy seniors with a consumer problem is deliciously satisfying.

A Spoonful of Poison by M.C. Beaton, St. Martin’s Minotaur, cozy mystery, 276 pp., $24.95

M.C. Beaton’s Hamish Macbeth series is my all time favorite cozy series, but I have to admit a growing fondness for the perils of Agatha Raisin, the obsessive heroine of this series which is set in the English countryside. Agatha is middle-aged and hating it especially when in close contact with her gorgeous, young, and talented new assistant. She requires a man to obsess over like she needs air, and she finds one when she’s asked to do public relations work for a country church that is hosting a fair.

Agatha once ran a public relations firm that was fabulously successful. She gave that up to run a private investigation business which is also terrifically effective, but when Agatha summons the press to the remote village of Comfrey Magna to cover the fundraising festivities where someone has put LSD in the jam offerings, the villagers want to kill Agatha and that includes George, the new object of her ardent desire.

There are all manner of suspects who include the vicar’s femme fatale of a wife who seems, as it happens, to have quite a cozy relationship with Agatha’s George.

Agatha is truly an irresistible character, all at once brash and insecure, fearful and extraordinarily generous. You can’t help but love her.

The Catch by Archer Mayor, St. Martin’s Minotaur, mystery, 274 pp., $24.95

Normally I can’t say enough about this wonderfully atmospheric series featuring Joe Gunther, Vermont’s super cop, but this is not his best by a long shot.

An ambitious cop is shot while conducting a routine traffic stop, and it’s on film. Gunther’s crew of experienced investigators jump into the investigation which takes them to Maine where a local drug kingpin has been shot and there is to be a turnover of the operation to the next alpha male in line, but no one seems to have a bead on who that may be.

As always, Mayor describes his settings brilliantly, but there are just too many coincidences, particularly involving his newest paramour and her family, which are just too tidy. Because I’m such a fan, I read to the end and enjoyed spending time with the usual suspects, but I confess to being disappointed. Don’t, however, miss Chat, last year’s offering which is riveting and now in paperback.