June's Books

How to be an Indian in the Twenty-first Century by Louis V. Clark III (Two Shoes)

Clark grew up on the Oneida Reservation, just outside of Green Bay, Wisconsin. His book combines poetry with autobiographical commentary on each of the poems. He reaches through pain with humor, and the poems touch many subjects—fatherhood, love, baseball, discrimination, and his Oneida heritage.

 


Decades of Dirt: murder, mayhem, and mystery edited by MB Dubray and Barbara S. Miller
Archie in the Crosshairs by Robert Goldsborough
Mrs. Pargeter's Public Relations by Simon Brett
Legend of the Christmas Ship by Carl Behrend
Funhome: a family tragicomic by Alison Bechdel
Murder in Exile by Vincent O'Neil
Must Love Dogs: new leash on life by Claire Cook
How to be an Indian in the Twenty-first Century by Louis V. Clark III (Two Shoes)
Murder at the Rocks by Jill Paterson
Underwater Dogs by Seth Casteel
A Little Class in Murder by Carolyn Hart
Shirley, I Jest: a storied life by Cindy Williams
Rose Gold by Walter Mosley
Gwendy's Button Box by Stephen King
A Man's Head by Georges Simenon
Christmas Cookies: beautiful and easy by Better Homes & Gardens
20,000 Leagues Under the Sea by Jules Verne
Journey to the Center of the Earth by Jules Verne
Around the World in Eighty Days by Jules Verne
Devil's Breath by G.M. Malliet
The Day I Died by Lori Rader-Day
Heirs and Graces by Rhys Bowen
Aviatrix: first woman pilot for Hughes Airwest by Mary Bush
Heaven is Paved with Oreos by Catherine Gilbert Murdock
March: Book one by John Lewis

Deadly Proof

Deadly Proof by M. Louisa Locke

Nate Dawson, an attorney, is engaged to a widow, Annie Fuller, who owns a boarding house and moonlights part-time as a psychic, Madam Sybil. The Madam dispenses financial advice, which she gleans from reading the financial papers, and she is also a skilled bookkeeper. 

When Joshua Rashers, owner of a printing company, is found dead in his office, his body is discovered by his employee, Mrs. Florence Sullivan. Rashers’  widow, Catherine, accuses Mrs. Sullivan of having designs on her husband, and killing him in a rage of passion because she was going to be fired . Nate Dawson is hired to defend her, but Mrs. Sullivan will not say a word in her defense. She even refuses to see her husband or her ailing mother.

Dawson’s sister Laura is a typesetter, and helps him to investigate the crime. Police aren’t looking beyond Mrs. Sullivan for a culprit. Franklin Griggs, the print shop foreman, says that Florence was a valued employee and would never have been fired. The victim, who had an eye for the ladies and exploited his young female apprentices, also undercut competitors, and was complicit in driving other printing companies out of business.  Orrie Childers, an attractive young employee, is spreading gossip about the suspects.

During the investigation, Laura crosses paths with Seth Timmons, a man she had met before. They had both been teachers, but had taken jobs in the printing business to help make ends meet. They both hoped to attend the University of California, but will the investigation interfere with their plans to study for the entrance exams?

Annie is finding it impossible to plan a wedding amid Nate’s long hours on the case, and not knowing whether their families can travel to attend.

An absolutely enjoyable mystery. The details of life in 1880 San Francisco are woven into the story so that the reader is transported into another time and place. Women struggling to gain entrance to the printing trades, and battling with the shop owners and the unions, lend a rich background to this tale of murder.