A Book A Week

I know what you're thinking. What is a Christmas story doing here in the middle of spooky season? While October typically revolves around tales of ghouls, ghosts, and chilling narratives, it also marks the beginning of the holiday season in the publishing world. Many authors release their festive stories early, hoping to capture readers' attention before the holiday rush.  When my friends at Atria Books presented me with the chance to read Janice Hallett's holiday-themed follow-up to her book The Appeal, I couldn't help but get swept up by the holiday spirit. It provides a gentle introduction to the season, one tinged with a touch of mystery that I couldn't resist. 

Lower Lockwood is embracing the Christmas season, with the Fairway Players fervently rehearsing their holiday production of "Jack and the Beanstalk" to raise funds for a new church roof. However, goodwill is in short supply among amateur theater enthusiasts, with petty rivalries, concerns about asbestos in the beanstalk, and persistent absenteeism among the cast.

On the night of their production, a dead body is discovered onstage. Who could have harbored ill intentions toward the victim during this festive season? Lawyers Femi and Charlotte embark on an investigation that involves analyzing Christmas letters, scrutinizing emails, and delving into police transcripts to unmask both the victim and the killer before the final curtain falls on the holiday production. 

The Christmas Appeal provided a much-needed respite from my spooky reading. Hallett presents the story through firsthand correspondence, offering insights into the lives and motivations of the Fairway Players members. I couldn't help but become engrossed in the petty drama that permeates this community theater organization, reminiscent of my own experiences with church music groups. Everyone is a volunteer, and everyone believes they're in charge. While the murder mystery itself may be somewhat ordinary, the vividly portrayed characters and their interpersonal conflicts make the narrative incredibly engaging. The added stress of the holiday season heightens the tension. The Christmas Appeal is a delightful and brisk read, offering an escape into the holiday spirit ahead of the bustling season.

For more information, visit the author's website, Amazon, and Goodreads. 

(2023, 70)

 “They can break, but they can't erase. They can build but they can't bury us.”

When you think of home, what comes to mind? For me, home is the place where I grew up. It is the house that I shared with my parents and brothers for the majority of my life. It is the neighbors who watched me grow up. Home is the community that I was a part of, the schools,  the church, that corner gas station that everyone stopped at on their way to and from work, the restaurant where you'd always run into someone you knew. Over the years, my home changed. I moved away and started a life of my own, and the place from my memory kept evolving without me. What I remember as empty fields by my house have turned into sprawling subdivisions. There are stoplights where a humble stop sign once sat. And of course, the people have changed too. The home of my memory is just that, a memory of a time and place that I once knew. In her novel When No One is Watching, author Alyssa Cole explores the evolution of home in a thriller that is as thoughtful as it is suspenseful. 

The only home Sydney Green has ever known is Brooklyn. She's taken an active role in her community, especially as her mother became unable to do so. Sydney visits with her neighbors, most of whom she's grown up around, and even oversees the community garden. But the home she's known and loves is facing unprecedented change. The gentrification of her community is unfolding before Sydney's very eyes. High-rise condos are filling vacant lots, and many of her longtime neighbors have sold out and moved away without even a goodbye. Try as she might, it seems like Sydney can do little to save her home. 

Theo is struggling to settle into his new home. The Brooklyn neighborhood that he recently moved to with his girlfriend has potential, but there's still a long way to go before it will really feel like home. The neighborhood is split between the well-off white families who are buying up property in droves and the black families who are just trying to hang onto what little piece of the neighborhood that they have left. People like Theo's girlfriend certainly don't help matters. She seems to think that the world and everyone in it revolve around her, the living embodiment of privilege. Theo, on the other hand, is bound and determined to actually get to know his neighbors. He makes his way to a neighborhood meeting and is surprised to find that he's the only white person there. Despite their differences though, Theo and his neighbors (Sydney included) have something in common. They're each harboring nefarious secrets, and these secrets are all about to come to light. 

Alyssa Cole strikes the perfect balance between social commentary and paranoid thriller with When No One is Watching. The novel begins as a fairly straightforward story of two people coming to terms with their role in the gentrification of a community. Both of the main characters read as genuine portrayals of how people would react to their situations. Sydney is clinging to her past and her history while Theo is trying to make the place his own. By bringing the two together, Cole allows her readers to discover contrasting perspectives in a way that is both timely and thoughtful. It seems that Americans are finally getting more comfortable talking about race and privilege, and fiction like this helps us to continue that conversation in the real world. 

Intermixed with these more serious subjects is a thriller aspect that sees quiet coincidences bloom into shocking revelations. In the hands of a lesser author, the juxtaposition between these drastically different elements could be jarring, but Cole writes them with an ease that allowed even this seasoned thriller reader to suspend disbelief and fall under the spell of her words. I've found myself thinking less about the conclusion of this story than the ideas presented before it, but I can't deny that Cole has packaged a nuanced commentary about race relations in America into a story that is compulsively readable. When No One is Watching is a thought-provoking page-turner, the kind of book that simply demands to be read. The themes in Cole's book continue a conversation that is vital to bringing empathy, understanding, and ultimately unity, all things that remind me of what it takes to turn a community into a home. 

For more information visit the author's website, Amazon, and Goodreads. 

(2021, 9)