Limestone Legacy of a Curse by Tess Kincaid

 

Published 2024, this is a prequel to the author's first novel Pechewah which I read and reviewed here in May.    purchased this  on Amazon in July and read it shortly after first of August over days.  .  It is almost a horror mystery at times,  yet the intrigue kept me reading, wondering what next, how will it end.  The author weaves a magnificent tapestry uniting the years and the family sagas and tragedies. 

We learn toward the end  187-195) the identity of the woman whose car plunges into the riverbed in Pechewa while she is returning home to Ohio from visiting her grandfather in Indiana.  It is Tree Kingston who lived at Limestone with her husband Ramsey.  It is Tree who will continue haunting we learn in the closing pages. 

In  200 pages this novel twista the mystery of this home through it's history beginning in 1810 with the Wyandot Indians who come for their chief known as Leatherlips to the settlers.  They abduct him, accuse him of witchcraft, kill him beginning the Limestone curse.  (Pgs  3-5)  There is a long list of inhabitants of the  home that will be built  along the limestone on   the riverbanks of the Scioto .  At times I set this aside and read something else, because it was agonizing to read of  the constant tragedies.  Yet I kept coming back to it in a day or so because I wanted to know what would happen next.  A good read,  better than not being able to  put it down.  Taking longer allowed me to savor the writing.  Definitely well written, poetic at times.  a 5 *****

Limestone  Back cover

Below are two photos the author shared on Facebook of her former home in Dublin Ohio that was the inspiration for Limestone..  One of the house and one of the living room.  

The Granddaughters by Margaret Belle

    Published 2021 by the Author.  I purchased thru Amazon and read this end of July 2024.  Margaret Belle was a new author to me. 

 This is a light mystery with comical parts and a nicely written story about three cousins, Franny, Ellie and Sandy  who get together to reminisce and enjoy themselves near the lake cottage where they spent summers years ago, Orange Lake  Newburg, New York. They are all of vintage years   After their grandmother died an Aunt by marriage into the family inherits the cottage though it had been promised to all the surviving aunts as a family legacy.  The prologue in 1971  describes the plotting of Verna Ferguson and how she did achieve sole possession of the cottage denying access to the rest of the family.  These women were younger girls then and knew little of what had happened other than what their families had shared.    Sandy is now 60 years old and has just finally gotten the courage to leave her abusive husband Robert after a long marriage.  No one knew about the abuse she tolerated all those years.  Franny has a farm she has worked hard to keep and now with the help of a farmhand , who is an excon to whom she gave a chance . and who has been very helpful and devoted, she  can get a way with the others.  Ellie is a writer who has decided to go the  Orange Lake to research information for her next book and decides to invite the  cousins for a mini reunion.    

Backcover

The author shares the inspiration for the book  at the back, a 1953 newspaper story 

Their not so idyllic haven provides intrigue as they begin to research what might have happened to change their grandmother's mind and will. Along this investigation they learn about missing bank funds.   Not expecting the turn of events they will uncover nor the danger they can face through the innocence of the local realtor who rented the cottage to Ellie.  Robert has tracked Sandy down and is dangerous.  The local law enforcement is contacted and is watching but things get out of hand.,  It is an all's well that ends well finale with dear disaster. 

Page 296, copied below reflects the  feelings of local Detective Sam Summers who gets involved watching out for the women at the request of a friend.  "Had three over-the-hill women ever caused this much chaos anywhere?  Ever?"  This is at the news conference and ceremony feting the  women who solve a long closed col case about missing bank funds.  

This is a very easy read, enjoyable and wistful in parts.  a **** 4 star

The Tall Pine Polka by Lorna Landvik

Cover

 Published  in 1999, 410 pages and a Readers Guide at the end for thoughts and discussions.  I acquired it at a book sale and read it March 2024.  Just catching up on postings.  .  A very charming fiction tale set in a fictitious small town of Tall Pine in northernmost MN.  Many different personalities in the characters ranging  from comical to stoic to hysterical to the pitiful, etc.  Reminds me a bit of Virgil Wander by Leif Enger which I likely have not reviewed here but read last year or so and enjoyed.  

An aspiring film maker from Hollywood finds in the unsuspecting Fenny Ness the perfect personification of Inge, a main character in a film, to be made " Ike and Inga "

The brief prologue opens wit h 4 words Fenny wished she had never spoken, "One burrito supreme please."   The Cup O'Delight Cafe, run by Lee O'Leary,  is where all the locals gather daily to eat and stay in touch.  Lee O'Leary  has a mysterious ingredient she keeps secret that makes her coffee legendary.  Tall Pine is on the Rainy River in the farthest northern part of MN bordering on Ontario Canada.  

Prologue 

 The story opens with Fenny ice skating on Tall Pine Lake with Craig Asper who falls more than he skates.  She is barely tolerating him but he finally gives up and returns to the lodge.  She continues skating.  Her parents Sig and Wally had both passed leaving their Wally's Bait and Camp shop which Fenny their only daughter now runs.  

This review from Amazon:"In the small town of Tall Pine, Minnesota, at the Cup O’Delight Cafe, the townsfolk gather for what they call the Tall Pine Polka, an event in which heavenly coffee, good food, and that feeling of being alive among friends inspires both body and soul to dance. There’s the cafe owner, the robust and beautiful Lee O’Leary, who escaped to the northwoods from an abusive husband; Miss Penk and Frau Katt, the town’s only lesbian couple (“Well, we’re za only ones who admit it.”); Pete, proprietor of the Shoe Shack, who spends nights crafting beautiful shoes to present to Lee, along with his declarations of love; Mary, whose bad poetry can clear out the cafe in seconds flat; and, most important of all, Lee’s best friend, Fenny Ness, a smart and sassy twenty-two-year-old going on eighty.  When Hollywood rolls into Tall Pine to shoot a movie, and a handsome musician known as Big Bill appears on the scene, Lee and Fenny find their friendship put to the test, as events push their hearts in unexplored directions—where endings can turn into new beginnings."

Lee and Fenny are close friends and many try to encourage Fenny  to spread her wings beyond Tall Pine but she is just not interested.  Other characters, the pastor's wife, Gloria Murch; Mayor Lambordeaux,  Slim Knutson a Vietnam war veteran who barks and howls when emotions get to him or when he feels like it is employed at the cafe by Lee. All the simplicity is challenged when the Hollywood crew arrives looking to film.  And right about the same time a stranger Big Bill rolls into town.  He is the nephew of the recluse Indian .woman who sells vests through Fenny's shop but who wants her nephew to become more Indian than he seems.    He begins to play the piano at Tall Pine and Lee has her eyes on him but the twist is he falls for Fenny and there goes the longtime friendship.  Lee will ultimately leave for unknown parts without anyone knowing where she is.  Bill's aunt watches unhappily as he is with Fenny and when she has the chance she tries to ensure they will not be together.  

Pages 262--263   Slim tells Bill about lying and how it leads to trouble.  

A delightful tale that twists and all comes happily together at the end though not without some sorrow and twists.  We never do learn the secret of Lee's coffee.    A nice pleasant read, 4 ****