Musings of a Bookish Kitty

Bob Avey’s mystery novel, Beneath a Buried House, was the perfect choice for a lazy Sunday--murder, blackmail, a touch of romance and enough twists and turns to keep this reader on her toes. This is the second book in the author’s series featuring Tulsa, Oklahoma Homicide Detective Kenny Elliot.

Detective Elliot lands a case after the body of an unidentified man is discovered in an apartment. If appearances are to be believed, the death is most likely a drug overdose; however, Detective Elliot believes otherwise. The scene is a little too perfect and the victim seems out of place with his surroundings. The carvings in the wooden table, an observant neighbor, and a mysterious man leaving the building when the police arrive offer promising leads.

The stakes are raised, however, when the body of a prostitute is discovered that looks like the woman last seen with the murder victim. A search of her home provides a possible motive for her murder, but how does it tie in to the other murder or is it completely unconnected? With only days left to solve the crimes before his captain puts him on another case, Detective Elliot must work quickly.

To complicate matters, Detective Elliot finds himself distracted during his investigation by a rather beautiful and mesmerizing woman. The intensity of their attraction to each other from the first moment is a bit too strong to be believable. Perhaps such a powerful reaction had more to do with the fact that it reminded him of a painful part of his past, involving lost love and regret.

Kenny Elliot is both intelligent and a gentleman, but he is not without his own vulnerabilities. He knows how to hold his ground when he or someone he loves is threatened. He is a man with good instincts when it comes to the job. He listens to his hunches, which at times almost seem to be like premonitions, and is often right on the mark. This earns him a bit of hazing from his superior and colleagues who repeatedly remind him that evidence and facts are needed to solve an investigation. That does not stop the detective from tracking down leads and collecting the evidence to back up his gut feelings.

Bob Avey takes on the subject of faith, touching on aspects of paganism as well as its relationship to Christianity in this novel. He does not fall into the trap of stigmatizing paganism, but rather makes a point of suggesting that it is the individual’s interpretation and twisting of the beliefs that can take faith, regardless of type, into a dark place.

I was immediately drawn into the story, finding it well written and compelling. The author takes the reader into some rather dark places without being overly graphic. Beneath a Buried House is one of those novels that keeps the reader turning the pages right up to the very end. If his first novel is as suspenseful and intriguing as this one, I definitely will be seeking it out. Originally published at Front Street Reviews.

Rating: (Good)

Visit the author's website for more information him and his books.

The Spanish Inquisition was a dark time in Spain’s history. Religious persecution for those who were not Catholic was common practice during that time and the monarchy and Church leadership were intolerant of any deviation from their strictures. Originally written in 1983 under the title, The Godforsaken, Chelsea Quinn Yarbro’s tale of the Lost Prince is completely fictional, however, there are threads of truth that run through the novel that are more horrific than the horror story she sets out to tell.

Don Rolon carries the burden of his father’s curse, a curse that was laid upon El Rey Alonzo, the king of Espana, by a woman burned at the stake for being a heretic. The king ostracized his son, fearing the curse and feeling repulsed by it. Don Rolon spent his life living in the shadow of his bastard half brother, Gil, who was highly favored by the king. It is no wonder then that Don Rolon has a sadness about him. He wants nothing more than to please his father and earn his love and approval, and yet his father wants little to do with him.

Realizing, however, that his son is the only rightful heir to the throne, El Rey arranges for Don Rolon’s marriage to a noble woman from Venezia. The marriage will create a welcome alliance and strengthen both countries’ positions in the world. It is with great reluctance that Don Rolon agrees to his fate, knowing he has little choice in the matter.

His reluctance to marry comes from the weight of the curse. He worries about fate of any children he might father as well as a certain madness that seems to befall him each time the moon is full. Although he does not fully understand what is happening to him at first, he does know that a change overcomes him on those nights, one that transforms him into a beast that wrecks destruction and creates fear in its wake.

Don Rolon is limited in who he can trust and so his friends are few. The friends he does have are devoted to him and will do what they can to protect and keep their prince safe from those who wish him harm. Those who are greedy and power hungry are the greatest external threat to Don Rolon and they will stop at nothing to bring him down.

Don Rolon is a sympathetic character; a lost soul who has taken many licks throughout his brief lifetime. There is a wary intelligence about him. He is resigned to his life and his fate, struggling to come to terms with what is going on around him. It is his friends who truly move the story forward as they do what they can to protect their friend and future king. The court jester, Lugantes, is one such friend, a dwarf who knows what it is like not to be taken seriously. He is both clever and tough.

The religious tenor in Spain at the time was oppressive and strict. The church leadership in the novel used their position to gain power, claiming righteousness where there really was only ambition and greed. The real horrors were in the actions of the Church and the abuse of that power. Lest it be thought that this book disparages the Catholic Church in general, that is not so. There were Catholic monks and priests in the novel who were not caught up in the power struggle and who did not abuse their power.

Chelsea Quinn Yarbro is careful to keep most of the violence and destruction off of the page, while at the same time alluding to it in such a way that it cannot be overlooked. Perhaps though the greatest horrors in the novel are not what may happen when Don Rolon is no longer himself, but the ease in which accusations and condemnations of those in power are used against those without it and in what becomes of those accused.

It is a shame this book was so wrought with typographical errors and the like. The story itself is quite intriguing. The author is formal in her writing, but it serves the tone and setting of the book well. Lost Prince is a haunting and dark tale, one that kept me entranced even beyond the last page. Originally published at Front Street Reviews.

First Sentence: The Almost Home, the bar and grill at 2nd and Middleton, was not an old building or a new building, it was somewhere in between—built quick and sturdy, gray brick, steel trim, the type of place you’d overlook if it wasn’t smack-dab in the middle of Cherry Creek, Denver’s affluent shopping district.


After Hours at the Almost Home by Tara Yellen
Unbridled, 2008 (ARE)
Fiction; 272 pgs

Tara Yellen’s After Hours at the Almost Home is a day in the life type novel, set in the Almost Home Bar and Grill in Denver, Colorado. It is a cold and snowy day in January, Super Bowl Sunday as a matter of fact, and the Almost Home is jam-packed with customers from all walks of life, including the down and out regulars like India, a storyteller who can tell your fortune. Business is hopping when young JJ begins her first shift. She is immediately caught up in the whirlwind of the bustling restaurant, trying to keep everything straight, at times failing miserably. This is a fresh start for the young woman, however, and she is determined to make it work and to fit in.

Understaffed and dealing with the hole the bartender created when she walked out unannounced and an inexperienced trainee on the floor, the wait staff at the Almost Home are struggling as best they can on one of the busiest days of the year. Amidst the hustle and bustle, the loud voices, the game in the background, the orders coming in and being delivered to the tables, Tara Yellen transports the reader into the middle of that bar and grill where it all comes to life. When the customers are gone and the last of the closing chores are done, the wait staff are able to relax and unwind after a hard day and night of work.

Bit by bit, the author introduces the reader to the characters, peeling back the layers of their lives as they work, interact with each other and recall snatches of their past. The characters are ordinary people with every day hopes and fears, always wishing and dreaming for something more. The staff seem in their element while working, at the same time trying to forget their realities for a short while but never quite succeeding. A cloud of loneliness and heartache hangs over each of them. They hurt each other, love each other and are almost always drawn to each other.

There is Colleen, a widow struggling to come to terms with the death of her husband two years ago, and Colleen’s fourteen year old daughter, Lily, the most vulnerable of all and yet also one of the strongest, who is much too grown up and yet still very naive, wanting only to get out and away. There is Lena who likes to take charge and puts on airs of a confidence she does not really possess; Keith, who longs for something different and wears his heart on his sleeve; Denny who is down and out on love, always the cool one; and Marna, a free spirit, who is ever present in the Almost Home, even when she is not really there at all. Tara Yellen breathes life into her characters, capturing their doubts, fears and hopes. At some point in our lives, haven’t most of us felt exhausted of life, surviving as best we can, wanting and wishing for more?

The Almost Home is almost home for many of the characters. Their coworkers are their family. I could not help but feel a part of the family too as I reached the last page of the novel. Tara Yellen is a talented writer. After Hours at the Almost Home is not without its disturbing moments nor is it a happy story. It is a day in the life story about ordinary people struggling to get by, disappointed with life and yet hoping for more. Originally published at Front Street Reviews.

Rating: 4 Stars (Very Good)