David Downie

This is not a travel guide and it's not a history book and it's not really a memoir. So what is it?

It's a pleasant stroll along the Seine with a friend pointing out things you would not have noticed by yourself. It's an American ex-pat familiar with the city taking you to the hidden places and giving you the background on who built it, who lived there, and why. It's a morning in the park or cafe watching people and smelling the flowers. It's a rambly collection of essays about Paris, its history, its people and its personality.

I quite enjoyed most of the essays. I'd recommend it to someone planning a trip to the City of Light.… (altro)

dry-wit, mysteries, thriller, conspiracy, corruption, ex-spy, law-enforcement, duplicity, friendship, frustration, international-crime-and-mystery, interpersonal-problems, intimidation, intrigue, multicultural, murder, murder-investigation, politics, rome, unputdownable

Brilliant wordplay! Obviously written by one who enjoys the interplay of words and diverse meanings. That tells you something about the intricacies of the way that the English language is used to enhance the story. Then there is the conflict/rivalry between two who really ought to have the same goal (justice) as well as the abiding trust in a friendly relationship between real colleagues. Above all there is the investigation into a suicide (don't believe it) involving former OSS/CIA who are well placed in an institution of learning. Who can Daria trust? The laboratory and her own co-conspirator. Fast paced with diabolical twists and inventive red herrings.
I requested and received a free e-book from Rosemarie Solari, Alan Squire Press via NetGalley. Thank you!… (altro)

Entire towns that have turned as evil as any of the people who live in them is a familiar theme in fiction, and David Downie resurrects it in good style with “The Gardener of Eden” (2019).

Downie's previous books, both fiction and nonfiction, have mostly been centered in Paris and Rome, but here he turns to Carverville, a fictional town along the northern California coast. Following the death of his wife, James returns to Carverville, where he grew up and where he experienced his first love with a girl named Maggie. Forty years have passed since Maggie ran off with a college professor, and James, now a broken man covered in facial hair, comes home after a successful career as a lawyer and judge. He wants to roam along the beach and the trails to try to rekindle the magic of his younger years and perhaps find the will to live again.

Beverly, a talkative older woman who thinks like Sherlock Holmes, runs Eden Seaside Resort and Cottages, and puts James to work fixing up the landscape, thus the novel's title. Taz, a strange-looking teenager with a flair for the latest technology, also helps her, and he and James soon form a bond. Beverly hints that Carverville is an evil place, despite its total lack of crime. This lack of crime, as well as its lack of racial minorities and anyone else considered undesirable by the town leaders, may have something to do with the helicopter that patrols the beach and a feral hog trap containing human bones that James finds.

Where the novel fails the smell test is that virtually everyone in Carverville that James meets is someone he knew in high school. These include Harvey, the school bully who has become the sheriff, and Clem, who is both the mayor and the editor of the town's newspaper. Even in a small town, this dominance by one high school class seems extremely unlikely. And then Taz's grandmother turns out to be, as readers will have already guessed, Maggie herself.

So the novel often fails to reflect reality — Downie even portrays the FBI as a sinister right-wing agency instead of the sinister left-wing agency it has become — yet much of the prose is quite stunning and the ending quite exciting.… (altro)