Fear Is Just a Word: A Missing Daughter, a Violent Cartel, and a Mother’s Quest for Vengeance by Azam Ahmed
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This true life story of a woman who fought the Zeta gang in San Fernando, Mexico is both inspiring and disheartening at times. It’s heartbreaking to see how criminals prey successfully on ordinary citizens with rarely any consequences. It must be a terrible place to live. The heroine of the story, Miriam Rodriguez, lost a daughter to the gang violence. The daughter was kidnapped, then ransomed, then beaten and killed despite the fact the ransom was paid. Miriam went on a vengeance rampage and was successful in getting many of the gang incarcerated and some killed by the Mexican army. I read this only because it was chosen by my book club, and I can’t recommend it. The writing is terribly repetitive and disorganized. The many Zetas and police and how or what they did were identified and explained over and over again. The storyline jumped back and forth as new details about past events emerged. It was almost impossible to keep track of who was dead or incarcerated at any point in the narrative. The beginning was mostly history of the area and backstory on some of the people involved, but was rather boring. Part two is where the action begins, and it becomes action-filled quickly. To avoid spoilers, I won’t say more.

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Exit Strategy by Martha Wells
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

In a future space opera world, Murderbot is a robotic part human security unit (SecUnit) who is an efficient, emotionless hired guard/killer. He’s also, despite disavowing any emotion, loyal to Dr. Mensah and other human “clients,” who are equally loyal and affectionate to him(it?). In short he is more like a loving pet, say a pit bull/doberman mix who can hack computer systems and pass for a human. This is the fourth installment in the Murderbot Diaries. Like with the first one, which I reviewed here: All Systems Red I enjoyed the plausible technobabble and the cute denial Murderbot displays about his love for Dr. Mensah and her crew of humans. There’s not much substance, but it’s a short, fun read with plenty of action. I listened to the audiobook, which has a good reader.

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The Last Slave Ship: The True Story of How Clotilda Was Found, Her Descendants, and an Extraordinary Reckoning by Ben Raines
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This outstanding narrative begins describing how just before the Civil War a wealthy southern landowner bet he could bring a load of African slaves into Alabama through the blockade the federal government had set up to enforce the ban on such slave importation. He had a boat, the Clotilda, outfitted specifically for this task and set out to Ouida, Dahomey, then the slave trading capital of Africa. He partially succeeded in his task, although there were setbacks. The first chapters introduce the three main locales: Mobile, Ouida, and Africatown, the community later established by the slaves who were on the ship, the very last one to import slaves to the United States.

The book then goes on to describe how the ship returned with its load, was hidden and burned to conceal the crime, one punishable by death. The author, an investigative journalist and Alabama tour boat guide, is the one who eventually found the ship 160 years later. He tells how information he gleaned from descendants of those slaves and his own knowledge of the rivers and the local history led to this find despite earlier failed attempts by others. The discovery confirmed many of the accounts of the slave descendants and debunked others from many sources. The subsequent history of many descendants, those of slave traders, slaves, and the Africans who sold their fellow Africans to the whites, are all explored. It brings exposure to the reprehensible treatment Africatown received at the hands of the whites in power over the years. It’s fascinating as both a detective story and a social and political exposé.

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The Last Days of Night by Graham Moore
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This novel, one I read only because it was a choice of my book club, is a historical fiction depicting the interplay between Thomas Edison, George Westinghouse, and Nikola Tesla over the “war” between direct current (DC) and alternating current (AC). The central character is Paul Cravath, the original founder of what became the famous law firm Cravath, Swaine, and Moore. The female lead is Agnes Huntington, a renowned singer of the day and later the real Paul Cravath’s wife. There are many more characters and keeping them all straight is rather difficult. That may be one reason I didn’t much enjoy the book. I found the historical part interesting, although much of it highly implausible. The author’s notes declare it to be mostly true or at least plausible, but I find that hard to believe. The way the author describes it, everyone, including governments, police, and common citizens lived in fear of Edison, J.P. Morgan, or Westinghouse sending Pinkerton agents to kill them or ruin their lives. Many supposed events that were critical to the plot, like Tesla’s mental breakdown and amnesia, are not even mentioned in the lengthy Wikipedia entry on Tesla. The Tesla in the book is a near lunatic with no sense of business and no social graces, yet other public sources indicate that he founded and ran profitable companies and socialized with many famous people. I realize that the book is a novel, but I find it disturbing when historic events and people are presented in what seems to me to be an inaccurate way. Use fictional characters if you want to tell a fictional story. The writing style is florid and the love story is perhaps the most implausible part of the plot. Still, the story of the science and technology breakthroughs and rivalries kept the book interesting enough.

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