A Review of "Reese's Leap" [63]

Reeses's Leap by Darcy Scott
Published by: Maine Authors Publishing
Publication Date: March 23, 2013
Number of Pages: 216
ISBN: 978-1938883347

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You want to help a friend out, be a buddy, right?
Darren's son died a short time ago in a drug fueled accident and he has been having a very hard time dealing with it. So against his best judgement, Gil accompanies his friend out to Mistake Island, where Darren's girlfriend and several other woman are meeting for their annual girls week on the private island. No phones, no electrics, no bathrooms....just a lodge and some rustic out buildings, Adria Jackman's family summer retreat.

Gil and Darren planned to head back to the mainland that evening, until the dense fogged rolled in. Then one of the woman brings a man she met wandering the island to dinner, an ex-con named Pete, who started going on about how his brother was killed on the island two years ago, and he is out to figure out what happen.
Throw in some tales of dead sailors and mysterious treasure, a dead body that soon turns up, and the realization that they are all trapped, seemingly the prisoner of a madman, and a great story is underway on the rocky Maine coast!

This the second book in Scott's Island Mystery series, and it is a good follow up to the first, Matinicus.
I must say I totally enjoyed the first and this is a worthy, if less complicated, follow up. But worry not, this one can totally be read as a stand alone. I think if you do, you will want to go back and read the first because out hero, Gil Hodges, is a fabulous character. He is a botanist, a half-hearted professor, a hard drinker, a baseball lover and a man who has the absolutely worse luck in woman in the entire world. Not that he does not keep trying whenever he can. Soon, he is going to have to learn this lesson.

The setting on this deserted Maine island is also a winner for me. Yes, I love all things Maine coast, but add in the fascinating history some of these places have, going back centuries, and the hard working, hard living people that live among them and you have a great place for a rather violent thriller. No, these are not cozies, between the drinking and a splash of sex and any number of violent deaths, these books have a bit of an edge. Happily, we have good-hearted Gil as our guide. He is a smart guy, good to have around in an emergency, but maybe he needs to be a little more suspicious of people, especially beautiful women and start thinking with his Big Brain and not with his...well, I will leave that for you to fill in, since this is not an R-rated review.
And as a botanist, specializing on the flora of these coastal islands, rich and sometimes surprising diversity due largely to migrating birds and the seeds they leave behind, he lets us explore a side of these islands I was not really aware of a pleasant addition to the murder and mayhem.

It seems there is to be one more book in this trilogy...yes, since it will be a trilogy....Gil back in an adventure that will take him back to Matinicus and I must say, I can not wait!

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 DARCY SCOTT is a live-aboard sailor and experienced ocean cruiser who’s sailed to Grenada and back on a whim, island-hopped through the Caribbean, and been struck by lightning in the middle of the Gulf Stream. Her favorite cruising ground remains the coast of Maine, however, and her appreciation of the history and rugged beauty of its sparsely populated out-islands serves as inspiration for her Maine Island Mystery Series, which includes 2012’s award-winning "Matinicus" and the newly released "Reese’s Leap." Book three, "Ragged Island," is currently in the works. Her debut novel, "Hunter Huntress," was published in June, 2010 by Snowbooks, Ltd., UK.


Be sure to check out the other virtual tour stops
from the Partners in Crime Virtual Tour for other
reviews and a chance to check out a great excerpt!

Review of "The Ghost Trap" [56]

The Ghost Trap by K. Stephens 
Leapfrog Press, ISBN 978-0981514871
September 1, 2009, 327 pages

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Many of us have slightly romantic ideas of Maine..and no, you are not going to take mine away from me.
But we know the reality, like the reality of every place, is a little different.


Lobstering is a hard life, a hard way to make a living. There is the weather, often harsh, the work, back breaking and dangerous. The prices may fall, or the lobsters disappear, but the bills are still due. The boat needs repairs, your friend gets arrested, the lifelong fights with your father go on and on. And there are the trap wars, going back generations, agreements about who can put their traps where, with those that try to push the limits ending up with their gear at the bottom of the ocean..or worse.

But this is Jamie Eugley's life, like his father and his father before him. He is a lobsterman and things are hard.
I will warn you, from the beginning you know this story can not have a happy ending.
Jamie has not only the daily grind of the work and the sometimes careful dance of dealing with his friends and family and his neighbors, but he also has taken on himself the burden of caring for his brain injured girlfriend Anja.

He feels responsible for the accident that caused her injury...it will be well into the book when we find out what happened and you can decide yourself how much guilt he should bear...and has taken care of her though the last three years of her painstakingly slow recovery. Perhaps a tiny part of him hopes that someday the beautiful young school teacher, the talented artist he was about to propose to will return, hidden now in the almost child-like Anja he cares for. Maybe the saddest part of the books are our views into Anja thoughts, her own glimpses of clarity, the relentless return of the fog that clouds her days.
Jamie is a loyal man, but as the pressures of work build, as he meets Happy Klein, a mate on a tourist schooner up from Key West for the summer, he dares to glimpse another future, away from his history, away from his responsibilities. But to grasp at it he will have to abandon who he believes he is...and who we come to believe he is.

But hold on, I don't want to paint too grim a picture here. At times the book is very funny, some of Jamie's friends quite amusing. It is a gritty life, with ways too many DUIs, maybe because the local bar is their one refuge but one and all, they are a great cast of characters. I particularly enjoyed the description of a trip up the coast a bit that Jamie takes with one of his friends to a party in Camden. It brilliantly shows us the differences in the worlds of the natives vs. the privileged summer folk, quite entertaining.
Stephens, for whom this is her debut novel, has a excellent ear and the dialogue, as in all of the book, is spot on.

These characters will be so real to you, the story so authentic, you will be on the edge of your seat hoping against hope that somehow it will all work our happily for everyone, yet knowing it can not.
Personally, I could not put it down, reading it straight through in one day. The ending is just a little heartbreaking, yes. But you will just have to know how it will all play out, so you will happily read on..and maybe shed a few tears at the ending.

Excellent book, highly recommended.

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My thanks to the author for providing a copy in hope of a review.

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Wordless Wednesday....Green

I am running out of colors...but fear not, this week we have GREEN!

 

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Isola di San Michele, the cemetery island

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...as always, for more Wordless Wednesday, 
check these out.

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Wordless Wednesday...Red

Last week yellow...this week RED.

 

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...as always, for more Wordless Wednesday, 
check these out.

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Wordless Wednesday...Bar Harbor, Maine

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Bar Harbor

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From top of Cadillac Mountain

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Bass Harbor Head Lighthouse

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Egg Rock Light

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...as always, for more Wordless Wednesday, check these out.

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Hopper's Light

From the Metropolitan Museum of Art's description...

In "The Lighthouse at Two Lights" Hopper isolated the dramatic silhouette of the 120-foot-high lighthouse tower and adjoining Coast Guard station against the open expanse of blue sky. Set on a rocky promontory in Cape Elizabeth, Maine — though no water is visible in the painting — the architecture is bathed in bright sunlight offset by dark shadows. Since 1914 Hopper had regularly summered in Maine, and this picture is one of three oils and several watercolors that he did of this site during summer 1929. To Hopper, the lighthouse at Two Lights symbolized the solitary individual stoically facing the onslaught of change in an industrial society. The integrity and clarity of his work made Hopper a quiet force in American art for forty years and one of America's most popular artists.

Well, it is not quite the isolated place it was when Hopper painted it, but it is still a beautiful place. Sadly, the light and house are privately owned and not open to the public, so our views are limited.
But I did my best to get a photo or two.

Wordless Wednesday...Always In My Mind..

Always in my mind...yes, Maine again.

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Bug Light, Portland, Maine

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Fort Point Light

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Bernard, Maine

 

 

 

 

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Rockland, Maine

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...as always, for more Wordless Wednesday, check these out.

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Wordless Wednesday...Maine Maritime Museum

A short trip..if only in my mind and many photos..back to Maine.

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...a model I am making. because I do love ships.

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...the nearby Doubling Point Light

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...as always, for more Wordless Wednesday, check these out.

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Wordless Wednesday...Lighthouses

...near and far, from NJ and New York, to Maine and Turkey.

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Cape May, NJ

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Fire Island, NY

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Pemaquid Point Lighthouse, Maine

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Squirrel Point Light, Maine

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Owl Head Light, Maine

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Maiden's Tower, Istanbul Harbor

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...as always, for more Wordless Wednesday, check these out.

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Wordless Wednesday...The Other Side of Maine

As much as I love the ocean, 

there are other things in Maine. 

Like...

Beautiful fields..

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...and mountains...

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...and lakes.

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..farms with barns...

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..and more lakes!

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...as always, for more Wordless Wednesday, check these out.

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Weekend Cooking..Beer!

Hey, did you know I went to Maine recently?
I may have mentioned it, maybe posted a couple of pictures. ;-)

Well yes, I did go to Maine and when I was planning my trip..about 3 days before I left...I decided that I would stay a couple of days in Portland, because while I had passed through the city several times and had lunch there and checked out Commercial Street that runs right along the harbor, I never spent much time there. So, knowing I would be there a couple of days, I went on one of my favorite travel websites, TripAdvisor, to check out the sites I should be checking out.
You know what was voted the #1 site?
A brewery.

Allagash Brewery.

"Allagash brews a unique variety of traditional and experimental Belgian-style beers made with a dedication to craftsmanship and quality. All of the bottled beers at Allagash are bottle conditioned. This means that just prior to bottling; a fresh dose of yeast is added, along with a measured amount of candi sugar. After bottling, the beers are moved into a temperature controlled cellar, where the yeast will actually begin a new fermentation in the bottle. This new fermentation naturally carbonates the beer, and greatly enhances the traditional Belgian character. It is a long, expensive and traditional process... but we think it is worth it."

Now I have been to several breweries and distilleries in my travels and I always enjoy them. It is an ancient process, beer making, with a history that does back thousand of years, as far as the early Neolithic age or 9500 BC. Also, beer is the third most popular beverage in the world, after water and tea, two others I am very fond of.
So off I set for Allagash, just a short drive from downtown Portland in an industrial park. It was a nice tour of a nice facility, small enough to easily see and understand the whole process and yet big enough to be really interesting, with lots of workers (actually about 40, all of whom you can meet on their their website ) and lots of activity and lots of stainless steel.
And did I mention they had free tastings!

Allagash, which started as a small one man operation in 1995, brews beer in the Belgian style,

"The first release from Allagash was Allagash White, modeled after the traditional "White" beers of Belgium. Also referred to as "wit" beers, they get their unique flavor from the use of wheat in place of barley, and the use of Curacao orange peel, coriander and other spices. Allagash combined these ingredients with their very own proprietary Belgian yeast strain to create the remarkably unique and refreshing beer that is today their flagship brand."

And after tasting a number of their beers...no where near the 40 or so they now make...I must say that the original 'White' is my favorite.  Not too heavy, crisp, yet very flavorful, although I would be hard pressed to pick out the orange and coriander..which is fine.

While it is still their best seller it is not, in my opinion, their most interesting beer and that is sort of the point of this post. No, the distinction of the most interesting beers in my book goes to their barrel aged beers. Barrel aging is something I can not say I have ever seen done with beer before. They use that barrels that were previously used to age bourbon and for another beer they use new oak barrels. The first one they did this with was their Curieux, which was one of the beers we were given to taste. When you see their storeroom, not only does it look like they are aging wine, but they even talk about it like it was wine and in it's corked bottles it even looks a bit 'wineish'.

"Allagash Curieux was the first foray into barrel aging. Curieux is made by aging our Tripel Ale in Jim Beam bourbon barrels for eight weeks in our cold cellars. The aged beer is then blended back with a portion of fresh Tripel. The resulting beer is soft with coconut and vanilla notes, with hints of bourbon."

While I think Curieux is their biggest barrel aged beer, they have a number of others, including some 'experimental' ones that they are aging for much longer periods of time. Now I would be curious whose job it is to finally open one of those and taste them. That might be a fun job.

Sadly, while we can't do that, we can all stop in at Allagash if we find ourselves in the Portland, Maine area. Tours are free and their schedule and directions are on their website.
Did I mention the tasting was free too?
Yes, I think I may have.

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This is my contribution this to this week's Weekend Cooking.
"Weekend Cooking is open to anyone who has any kind of food-related post to share: Book (novel, nonfiction) reviews, cookbook reviews, movie reviews, recipes, random thoughts, gadgets, fabulous quotations, photographs. If your post is even vaguely foodie, feel free to grab the button and link up anytime over the weekend."
Be sure to check out the other entries this week. As always, hosted by Beth Fish Reads.

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