Drawing on the little-known true story of one tragic night at an Ozarks dance hall in the author’s Missouri hometown, this beautifully written, endearingly nostalgic novel picks up 50 years later for a folksy, character-driven portrayal of small-town life, split second decisions, and the ways family secrets reverberate through generations.

Daisy Flowers is fifteen in 1978 when her free-spirited mother dumps her in Possum Flats, Missouri. It’s a town that sounds like roadkill and, in Daisy’s eyes, is every bit as dead. Sentenced to spend the summer living with her grandmother, the wry and irreverent town mortician, Daisy draws the line at working for the family business, Flowers Funeral Home. Instead, she maneuvers her way into an internship at the local newspaper where, sorting through the basement archives, she learns of a mysterious tragedy from fifty years earlier…

On a sweltering, terrible night in 1928, an explosion at the local dance hall left dozens of young people dead, shocking and scarring a town that still doesn’t know how or why it happened. Listed among the victims is a name that’s surprisingly familiar to Daisy, revealing an irresistible family connection to this long-ago accident.

Obsessed with investigating the horrors and heroes of that night, Daisy soon discovers Possum Flats holds a multitude of secrets for a small town. And hardly anyone who remembers the tragedy is happy to have some teenaged hippie asking questions about it – not the fire-and-brimstone preacher who found his calling that tragic night; not the fed-up police chief; not the mayor’s widow or his mistress; not even Daisy’s own grandmother, a woman who’s never been afraid to raise eyebrows in the past, whether it’s for something she’s worn, sworn, or done for a living.

Some secrets are guarded by the living, while others are kept by the dead, but as buried truths gradually come into the light, they’ll force a reckoning at last.

CW – Violent death depicted on page, the aftermath of identifying remains is discussed – both these sections get graphic. Death of an infant. 

Dear Michelle Collins Anderson,

Lately I’ve been in the mood for historical fiction and when I saw this cover I fell in love with it. That plus a story set in 1978 (which I remember quite well, thank you very much) closed the deal. 

In 1928 most of the young people in the small town of Possum Flats, Missouri are at the upstairs dance hall late in the evening when suddenly it explodes in heat and flame. By reason and chance of where they are some are spared while others die horrible deaths. Stunned, the town rushes in to try to save the living then gather the dead. 

Almost fifty years later, young fifteen year old Daisy Flowers is dropped off at her grandmother’s house in some podunk town in Missouri after which her peripatetic mother leaves for California along with her latest lover. Daisy and Rose awkwardly work out how they’re going to live together until Lettie sends for her daughter. As Rose now runs the town’s funeral home and lives above it, Daisy is desperate to get out. When Rose takes Daisy along with her to the local paper to hand in an obituary (for the beloved town mayor who died in flagrante delicto with a woman who was not his wife), Daisy is fascinated by journalism and determined to get a job there. 

Some fast talking gets the interest of the editor who offers her a summer internship but writing obits (though she’s good at it) bores Daisy who jumps at Fence McMillan’s offer to dig through old newspapers and write a history piece. She latches onto the idea of revisiting the 1928 explosion and telling the story via interviews with survivors. Stunned at the negative reception she gets from various townspeople, Daisy nonetheless forges ahead. But when the last of her four part series has been published, old and well hidden secrets will be unearthed and lives will be changed forever. 

I loved these characters. None of them are perfect. Rather they are flawed in great and small ways that make them come alive. Daisy is intelligent and stubborn, things that Rose immediately remembers in her daughter Lettie who fought against the restrictions on females in the 1940s and finally fled town to escape. Rose is meticulous about her job and proud of the service she supplies but lived a painful life with her husband and in-laws who disliked her. Rose also still mourns her twin sister who died in 1928. 

One of the local pastors was a party boy until that night after which he devoted his life to God, something he never thought or planned to do after a horrible childhood. The stubborn sheriff has devoted his life to the town and its people. He might take an afternoon nap in the office every day but he’ll never leave a job undone. The other reporters take Daisy under their wing and try to give her good advice and photography lessons but warn her to tread lightly as despite the passage of fifty years, the town is still sensitive about its losses. Meanwhile Daisy keeps sending letters to her mother even though she’s yet to hear back from Lettie. 

I did guess a few of the secrets and who was responsible for them. Clues are given and if readers pay attention, not much will be a surprise. But the enjoyment is in watching the various characters interacting, remembering, and coming to terms with events past and present. There is an “epilogue” of sorts which shows what will happen to some characters and allows forgiveness for others which I liked but might be too sappy for some. I’m still debating some of the outcomes. This is not a light and fluffy book though parts are truly funny. I enjoyed watching Rose and Daisy, who are both strong women, as well as revisiting the late 1970s but be warned that there are graphic scenes in the book. B

~Jayne 

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When the war is lost, what else is worth winning?

Lt. Francis Ransome is newly promoted and completely miserable. After a year and a half of fighting in Russia’s revolutionary fallout, his regiment is retreating across the bitter Siberian wilderness, the war lost. Home has never been so close and yet so far, and any breath could be their last. When they stumble upon the remains of a Czech evacuation, they offer what help they can, but out here, it’s every man for himself.

Francis is instantly drawn to Sasha Jandácek, a handsome but withdrawn young soldier. The attraction is mutual—and enthralling—but it could spell the end for them both. Despite their best efforts, hesitance grows into friendship, and friendship blossoms into something else. Together, they struggle to conceal both feelings and fear in a world that won’t accept either.

As war stalks their footsteps and relentless winter gnaws on their morale, the journey home becomes a fight for survival. Francis and Sasha face the threat of discovery, death, and one burning question: even if they make it home, what future can they possibly have together?

Review:

Dear Ravella Ives,

This was a surprise recommendation by Amazon and it was a very good one. It is a historical with strong romantic elements rather than a full blown romance and it is a pretty well researched historical. Please heed the warning though, it is taking place during the Civil War in Russia, at the time when troops from many countries were trying to exit it or more specifically to run away from it. It is a painful read, a realistic one as well as far as I am aware and horrors of war were shown as part of the story, not to dial up the angst of the story to eleven.

The story shows the soldiers who are trying to leave the hell of revolutionary Russia and all they had to endure on the way out. Does the war show the worst or the best in people living through it? I always thought that the war can show both and it really depends on the people, so we see people doing things to survive, but also something like bringing an almost dead soldier to die in a relative comfort and safety (relative is the key word here) just because they could not bear the thought of him dying alone for example.

And there is that building romance between Sasha and Francis. It would have been so easy for me to roll my eyes if the author overdid romance in the midst of war, not because people cannot have romance and love in the middle of war, but because war comes first, before anything else. Somehow though I thought author managed very well to mix the romantic storyline in between everything that was happening and did not overdone it at all.

I was so rooting for Sasha and Francis to make it against all odds after the war with all their traumas and I was grateful for the ending we got.

I have to say that I cannot judge whether the English in the story sounded exactly how people spoke in 1919-1920s, however I can definitely say that it did not sound quite modern to me and I do hope that it fit the time well.

A-

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Maybe women can have it all, as long as they’re willing to steal it.

1925. London. When Alice Diamond, AKA “Diamond Annie,” is elected the Queen of the Forty Elephants, she’s determined to take the all-girl gang to new heights. She’s ambitious, tough as nails, and a brilliant mastermind, with a plan to create a dynasty the likes of which no one has ever seen. Alice demands absolute loyalty from her “family”—it’s how she’s always kept the cops in line. Too bad she’s now the target for one of Britain’s first female policewomen.

Officer Lilian Wyles isn’t merely one of the first female detectives at Scotland Yard, she’s one of the best detectives on the force. Even so, she’ll have to win a big score to prove herself, to break free from the “women’s work” she’s been assigned. When she hears about the large-scale heist in the works to fund Alice’s new dynasty, she realizes she has the chance she’s been looking for—and the added bonus of putting Diamond Annie out of business permanently.

TW/CW – Extreme domestic/gender violence 

Review

First let me say that as of right now, based on reviews I’ve read, my viewpoint is very much in the minority regarding this book. The cover and the blurb promised me a great book set among female thieves in 1920s London being chased by a wonderful female detective. That isn’t what I got. Not by a long shot. 

Things start very slowly but then there are four main characters whose backgrounds have to be sketched in plus we have to be given information about the Forty Elephants – the all female criminal gang of (mainly) hoisters (shoplifters) that Alice Diamond runs. Female police inspector Lilian Wyles is one of the few women still on the police force after the men came home from war and she’s raring to prove herself in this man’s world by taking down Alice and the Elephants. Hira is an eleven year old biracial girl sent back to England by her British father and Indian mother. When news of their death reaches London, Hira flees from her Uncle’s house rather than be shipped off to a ghastly girl’s school (little better than Lowood School) in Northumberland. Dorothy is a shop assistant looking to improve her life and thinks she’s on her way when her boss singles her out and they begin an affair. 

The pace of the book is agonizingly slow, things are repeated to the point I was groaning out loud for the plot to get moving, and I quickly realized that few of these characters were people I wanted or could root for. Alice is supposed to be such a hard-as-nails leader of this gang but all she does is set them up for small time heists that don’t seem to bring in enough money to give the women more than a good night out at pubs. She’s also supposed to be keeping the gang in line and looking out for them but is incompetent at doing either. Her best ideas come from either eleven year old Hira or the male crime boss in the area. She keeps thinking she needs to check on one particular gang member but when she discovers that woman is being beaten up by her boyfriend, Alice lets things go for a week before checking on Ruth again. Alice also knows she ought to save money for the Big Reason in the plot but — nah, screw it, she wants a night out. Case a potential heist? She’ll have someone do it later. Put pressure on someone to get what she wants? She’ll threaten the guy by telling him that the men from the male gang will rough him up. Alice did not impress me at all. 

Hira at least has the gumption to leave a bad situation. She’s eleven so I don’t expect her to think much ahead and she soon sees that the East End of London is nothing like Mayfair. Yet before too long, Hira is smoothly pickpocketing as if she’s done it all her life including lifting the wallet of one of Alice’s fences. That was absurd and no, I don’t believe this at all. Hira also appeals to almost everyone and soon has all three MC women looking out for her despite not knowing her for long. 

Lilian has worked hard to establish her credentials as a competent policewoman. She’s studied, worked hard, and won’t let any man treat her first as a woman and second as a policewoman. She thinks that collaring Alice and the Elephants will be her big break and lead to her fellow police officers finally respecting her. After reading everything she can about gangs, she knows that they usually have hideouts and headquarters but after following known Elephants to a run down building, it takes her about 30 minutes to clue into what she’s found. “Oh, wait! This could be the headquarters!” Yeah, Lilian, you figured it out. 

Dorothy is sadly the silliest of them. Dorothy has been told all her life by her mother and others that she’s not that smart. She is pretty and talented with dress design but gullible is a kind word to use for her. From the moment she lets herself start being taken advantage of by her sleeze of a boss, I was counting down to when she’d finally realize what was happening. When the penny drops, Dorothy is filled with self righteous rage and plans to confront someone who has done her wrong but then … doesn’t. She finally (!) does let rip but, as she marches out, now she’s just unemployed and publicly humiliated. Yay, Dorothy. 

The pace needed to be faster. The writing was serviceable but not dazzling. There is a huge degree of grimness in the lives of these characters but mainly I wanted some competence from these women. It is almost painful for Alice to be described as ruthless and “a brilliant mastermind” only to repeatedly see that she isn’t. Lilian seems to spend all her time basically doing nothing useful despite being “one of the best detectives on the force.” Dorothy is sweet but the people in her life really haven’t been lying to her. Hira just wants to survive so I’ll accept this eleven year old doing whatever it takes despite most of that going against her moral code. I made it to the 82% mark and thought, no, I don’t care to continue any further. So I’m DNFing it this close to the finish line. It does have a beautiful cover though …    

~Jayne
       

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In 1920s Edinburgh, Scotland, Evelyn Hazard is a young, middle-class housewife living the life she’s always expected—until her husband, Robert, upends everything with a startling announcement: he can communicate with the dead.

The couple is pulled into the spiritualist movement—a religious society of mediums and psychics that emerged following the mass deaths of the Spanish flu and First World War—and Evelyn’s carefully composed world begins to unravel. And when long-held secrets from her past threaten to come to the surface, presenting her with the prospect of losing all she holds dear, Evelyn finds herself unable to avoid the question: is the man she loves a fraud, a madman, or—most frighteningly—is he telling the truth?

Cloaked in the moody, beguiling backdrop of twentieth-century Scotland, Anbara Salam’s Hazardous Spirits brings a sparkling sense of period detail and dry humor to the life of a young woman whose world is unsettled by mediums and spirits, revealing the devastating secrets that ghosts from the past can tell when given the voice to do so.

Dear Ms. Salam,

There is so much that I enjoyed about “Hazardous Spirits.” The characters are interesting, the setting and period details are wonderfully done. It’s got subtle humor. There’s a great slowly growing gothicky goodness to it. Watching Evie and Robert’s marriage strain and risk cracking due to the plot raises the tension. But then came the end. I’m not quite sure what to do with the end.

Evie is a middle class married woman in 1920s Edinburgh. Her family used to be wealthy but bad financial decisions on her father’s part lost the family estate and their way of life. Then came the war, the flu, the death of a daughter, and oh, yes that event of Evie’s that no one knows about. Now she’s married to Robert, an orphan, who is an accountant and who, up until when the book starts, was a bit staid. He’s just told Evie that he can talk to spirits and Evie – she’s stunned at the revelation. A family doctor who is called away from a formal dinner to examine Robert informs Evie that her husband is either sick, faking, or telling the truth. It will take Evie the entire book to decide which. But even with what she’s learned, does she really know?

I usually don’t care for books that drop me into dark and swirling plot waters that I don’t have a clue as to how deep they are and if “here be monsters” in them. For this story, I was willing to go along for the ride to find out more. The setting is nicely laid out with enough period detail to set me in this time and place. There’s enough but not a pile on just to show how much research was done. Well done. But there’s also the feel of the time from the prewar years through to now when the country is grappling with the loss of a generation of young men and the grief that goes along with that. As one former soldier tells Evie, “It’s a land of ghosts, now. For the rest of us.”

At first Evie is embarrassed by Robert’s claims. What will the neighbors think? What will her family think? Her father might have torpedoed the family finances but they still have some social standing and he’s not thrilled with the thought of a son-in-law who talks to spirits. No, that just won’t do as the family has also had (gasp) a divorce and mother couldn’t stand any more scandal. Until Robert comes to his senses, they won’t be associating with Evie and her husband. Evie’s younger sister Kitty stings Evie with what Evie sees as (milder) disapproval. Well, at least Evie won’t have to feign interest in her niece now as Evie is not maternal at all.

As Robert delves into the world of spiritualism, Evie is at first worried about what people will think – her apple hasn’t fallen quite as far from the family tree as she might wish. Then as she sees him in action, she begins to wonder if Robert really can contact the dead. Robert is working with a child medium genius who knows things that Evie can’t fathom how Clarence would know in any other way. When Robert also manifests similar talents, Evie is on the edge of being convinced and also worried about her past coming to light from a spirit who knows what happened.

The story is more women’s fiction and self discovery. Evie’s is the only POV shown and there were times I felt for her and times I felt like shaking her. She can be self centered, glass-(more-than)-half-empty, ready to believe the worst, irritating, and delighted to latch onto the social world of Bright Young Things who are following the fad for spiritual mediums. She acutely feels the loss of the status her family once had and suffers agonies of embarrassment when she thinks Robert is going to do or say the wrong thing. Watching the idle rich be idle and silly also got up my nose a time or two.

I wasn’t sure what the final verdict would be on Robert’s “gift.” Robert seems guileless and genuine but then, wouldn’t fake spiritualists act that way? His child mentor gives Evie creepy vibes at times but he’s a child and Evie isn’t thrilled with those. I also got tired with the references to how Evie’s gastrointestinal system (53 references to her stomach and 4 to her bowels, yes I counted) behaves when she’s stressed and the pace of the middle section dragged a bit. Then came the end which left me with that feeling you get when you’re going downstairs and accidentally miss a step. Is there a sequel planned? Or are we to guess what will happen after the last sentence is spoken? I’m honestly not sure. B/C+

~Jayne

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2023, The Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History: A costume conservator is preparing an exhibition featuring movie costumes from the 1920s to present day. As she gingerly places a gown once worn by Greta Garbo on a mannequin, she discovers another name hidden beneath the designer’s label, leaving her to wonder—who is Zora Lily?

1924, Seattle: Poverty-stricken Zora Hough spends her days looking after her younger siblings while sewing up holes and fixing hems for clients to bring in extra money, working her fingers to the bone just to survive. But at night, as she lies in the bed she shares with one of her three sisters, she secretly dreams of becoming a designer like Coco Chanel and Jeanne Lanvin.

When her best friend gets a job dancing in a club downtown, Zora is lured in by her stories of music, glittering dresses and boys. She follows her friend to the underground speakeasies that are at once exciting and frightening—with smoke hanging in the air, alcohol flowing despite Prohibition, couples dancing in a way that makes Zora blush and a handsome businessman named Harley. It’s a world she has only ever imagined, and one with connections that could lead her to the life she’s always dreamed of. But as Zora’s ambition is challenged by tragedy and duty to her family, she’ll learn that dreams come with a cost.

Dear Ms. Salazar,

I perked up when I saw the blurb for this book – women’s historical fiction 1920s fashion designer/modern clothing conservator plus a bit of a mystery. Now I’ve mentioned in other reviews that I’m getting tired of the dual-timeline plot but as this book progressed, I found to my astonishment that I actually would have enjoyed getting more of that instead of what was there.

Zora Lily Hough and her 1920s family live hand-to-mouth in Seattle after her father’s injury at the logging camp led him to alcohol. Zora and her mother spend their days repairing clothes for others as well as turning their own family clothes into hand-me-downs of hand-me-downs. Zora shrank from the shame and scorn she got in school, hating that her younger siblings must endure the taunts as well. Zora has dreams though, of one day owning her own boutique and selling her daring designs.

Fast forward to 2023 when a clothing conservator at the Smithsonian is mounting a show of glamourous Hollywood fashions and discovers a mystery. Under the sewn in label of a dress worn by Greta Garbo is a hand sewn name that is not the same. Who is or was Zora Lily?

I’d thought that the book would flip between the two timelines but actually the 2023 era only bookends the majority of the story. I started out enthused and soaking up the story of hardscrabble Zora as she is forced to take a job away from her family in order to earn more money. In the evenings and weekends, Zora enjoys herself at speakeasies downtown where she meets handsome (all the girls want him) Englishman Harley (who sadly is more like a wish fulfillment boyfriend than a real character) who immediately falls head over heels for her. Zora’s job as a daytime nanny is demanding but most of the rest of the staff love her and her charges adore her. The parents don’t seem to have any qualms about their nanny dancing away each night nor later with her dating one of their friends and the only sand in Zora’s Vaseline is a bitchy maid who has it out for Zora.

Then of course something that was telegraphed for ages happens and Zora finds herself leaving Seattle for the glitz of Hollywood where her dreams come crashing down. Back home she can’t bring herself to explain to anyone why she came home – including the man who loves her but was forced to leave the country. No, Zora ignores his letters for about six months then cries a little tear when she thinks he’s moved on. Shrugging that off, she finally (!) begins to fight for her dream after continually putting that off. Finally (!) I thought.

Of course Zora works hard – she’s nothing if not a very hard worker. The family pitches in, a local businesswoman helps a bit and the dream comes true. But what about Harley whom Zora ignored and didn’t contact for months? Yeah, that works out, too. But I found myself flipping pages and not really being engaged with the story anymore. The brief bit about one of her friends being an immigrant went nowhere. The interracial relationship another friend had was given one dramatic turn before also being abandoned. Frankly the middle third of the book felt more like it would be a “montage” scene if this was a movie. Instead of quick images though, it was described in entirely too much detail for what it was. Even the wrap-it-up end piece dragged. I found myself plodding through Ho-hum Days and Months rather than much Roaring. C

~Jayne

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