How do we tell a story of human isolation? Jeff Talarigo’s The Pearl Diver provides a precise and balanced and beautiful example. Mr. Talarigo collapses long decades of a woman’s life spent in a Japanese leprosarium into a spare, moving tale. Its light, almost delicate, touch with major human issues provides a gratifying payoff. At the outset of the novel, our nineteen-year-old unnamed heroine belongs to an exclusive group: she is one of a handful of pearl divers, women of all ages who plumb...
April 06, 2012
"Death in a Wine Dark Sea" by Lisa King
Welcome, Lisa King! Welcome, Jean Applequist! The shark-infested waters of mystery writing can never be too crowded, and certainly not for newcomers like you. New author Ms. King introduces us to new sleuth Ms. Applequist in this hectic, rewarding, and vivid mystery. Its excellences include a larger-than-usual pool of suspects, all men, by the way, in less or more minatory mien, the heroine-sleuth’s unabashed libido, her geeky partner in detection, called Zeppo, and the cadre of support and...
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