Unsheltered

Unsheltered

Barbara Kingsolver

Harper Collins Publishers

New York, New York

ISBN: 978-0-06-268456-1

Hardcover

2018

$ 29.99

465 pages

A single run-down home is what combines two families about one-hundred years apart.    Unfortunately, the house is in poor condition for both families.   Part of the house with water for the kitchen and bathroom appears to be leaning in mid-air no foundation under this addition.    Fortunately, the other part seems somewhat more substantial.  

Willa Knox finds that her plans for this stage in her life as she planned.   By now, she had expected herself to be a successfully published author and her husband, Iano being comfortably tenured at a college or university.   Instead,  Willa finds herself jobless with no prospects and her husband as an adjunct professor at a college with the two barely able to make ends meet.   She believes her son is successful in life with career and family and her daughter, Tig, is just hopeless.

One-hundred years ago,  Thatcher Greenwood moved into the house along with his wife and of course, his mother-in-law.   Both are disappointed in Thatcher.   They both expect to lead a high-class and wealthy lifestyle which could be difficult on a science teacher's salary.   Thatcher chooses to teach evolution in his classroom based on Darwin's recent discoveries.  Along with his neighbor, the two continue 

It does seem strange with both families suffer from the uncertainty of the future, both with worry about the house, feeling of the insecurity of becoming unsheltered is a fear.

Could there be something good about feeling unsheltered?

Barbara Kingsolver has written a beautiful story about two very different families each marching to an uncertain future.   Unshelved requires each one of us to think and reflect on our own choices, luck, achievements, in determining our personal and unique destiny.   

The characterization is outstanding.   You see a little of yourself in each character, whether good and evil or perhaps both.

Barbara Kingsolver is the author of many bestselling novels, including The Poisonwood Bible.  She has won numerous awards for her writing throughout the years.   She resides on her family farm in southern Appalachia.    

Unsheltered is unquestionably one of Kingsolver's woven and intricate stories.  The story takes a little time to read since you need to reflect along with the characters as the plot develops along two-time lines.  

Unsheltered is one of Kingsolver’s best novels.   This is as good as her novel The Poisonwood Bible.   This is for all readers, young and old, with a preference for those who are grandparents, especially women.

Unsheltered is one book that I personally will always feel as a precious memory.

Splinter in the Blood

Splinter in the Blood
Ashley Dyer
William Morrow Publisher
Harper Collins Publisher
New York, New York
ISBN: 978-0-06-279767-4
2018
$ 26.99
400 pages

Have you ever noticed that murderers who have a touch of creativity in their killings seem to be remembered by a particular nickname making them more infamous?   The Son of Sam, The Zodiac Killer, and Jack the Ripper are only a few with this notorious distinction.     Add to this list now is The Thorn Killer who slowly poisons his victims from a poisonous ink tattooed to their bodies with thorns, instead of needles.   This unusual technique creates the Splinter in the Blood.

Imagine a murder where the hunter becomes the hunted.    That is Splinter in the Blood.

Detective Greg Carver is in the sitting room of his home.  He has blood on him, obviously from being shot in the chest. His partner, Detective Sergeant Ruth Lake is holding a 1911 Colt pistol.  She quickly places the gun, files, posters about The Thorn Killer grabbing anything connected with the case and carrying it to the trunk of her car.  All evidence is always left at the police station, not at the lead detective’s home.    As she wipes the house of fingerprints, she notices that there seems to be some movement from Greg’s eyes.     Could he be alive?

Yes, Greg Carver is alive, but for how long?   What does he remember about the shooting?  Ruth is off the case of The Thorn Killer.   A new team is taking over the entire Thorn Killer investigation.   Ruth quickly realizes that she and Greg were close to solving the case and that the replacing detectives will be new to learning all the information already discovered. Deciding that she needs to be at the hospital with Greg, she decides to take the evidence from Greg's home and continue on her own without the knowledge of the new team.  As Ruth begins to wonder if  The Thorn Killer is watching either Greg, herself, or both, she wonders if she can save  Greg, future victims and possibly herself from this t psychotic killer?

Ashley Dyer is the name created by two authors collaboratively writing this debut novel.   Margaret Murphy is a published novelist of nine police procedural and psychological suspense novels as well as a Writing Fellow and Reading Round Lector for the Royal Literary Fund as well as a past-chair of the Crime Writers’ Association and founder of Murder Squad.
Helen Pepper previously worked as an analyst, forensic scientist, scene of crime officer, CSI, and crime scene manager.  She is also a consultant on both Shetland and Vera television series as well as co-authoring professional policing texts.

Splinter in the Blood is a superb collaboration to create the new author Ashley Dyer.   The characterization is phenomenal allowing realistic people, not characters.   The plot is one of the most intriguing and intricate while being entirely addicting for any reader. 
Splinter in the blood is for the adult reader who can sleep comfortably without nightmares from what they read.  There is violence, gore, and explicit torture.   Unquestionably the book is one of the most intense thrillers of all time.