When you start the year with the longest book ever to grace your TBR, you will not finish quite as many books as you usually do. With an audiobook lasting over 62 hours at regular speed, Wind and Truth, took several days to finish, even at my 3x audiobook listening speed. (Technically, as I write, I have not quite finished but I have 4 and a half hours at 3x speed left. So close!) Since I will likely finish the book right before I schedule this post to go live and I do not want to rush my review, I will start next week’s recent reads with my review of Wind and Truth.
On to all the other things that I read this week.
While I learned a lot reading this book, I do not think it was organized and structured as well as it could have been. Robertson introduces the topic with his personal history, including his family history with a Black town, Promise Land, in a southern state – Tennessee, I think but do not remember specifically – as well as his complicated relationship with his father, a man who spent a decade in prison for a
violent crime (again, I do not remember the specific crime and do not want to misspeak). Letters from his father also alternate with the historical text describing men and institutions who attempted to carve out a place in a country that for centuries has hated them. This bouncing between different types of text (the letters and the historical narrative) forms my main issue with the text. It’s nearly impossible to determine whether this book is a memoir or if it is historical nonfiction, especially since the more personal portions have little to no connection with most of the historical portion. By the end of the narrative, the threads nearly come together and I understand Robertson’s overall goal with this narrative. However, he did not quite bring everything together. Thus, this is a fascinating aspect of history with stories that need to be told, I just wish it had been done better.
Structural issues seem to be the theme of both nonfiction books I have read so far this year. This book purports to tell the story of 4 young Alaska native men unjustly convicted in 1997 of the murder of a 15 year old White boy. The author played a pivotal role in the ultimately successful vacation of these convictions. He first learned of the case while working as a reporter at the local paper. When he becomes a journalism professor at
the University of Alaska Fairbanks teaching Investigative Journalism, he chose this case to have his students investigate. This makes for a fascinating set up. Unfortunately, the author plays a little fast and loose not only with the timeline but also with the introduction and brief appearances of so many people from students to relatives of the Fairbanks Four to potential other suspects in the crime. I wish that someone else had told these men’s stories.
This book, although labeled as book 4 in the Truly Devious series, does not focus at all on that series. Johnson wrapped up that mystery in book 3 of the original trilogy. This book, along with Nine Liars, continues with Stevie Bell as the main character solving crimes, crimes contained to a single book rather than stretching out over three and combined with another more modern case. I appreciated this approach and think that it works better
this way. In this book, Stevie starts the narrative back home for the summer working a mundane grocery store job wondering what her senior year at Ellingham Academy would be like now that she solved the crime that gave her admission to the prestigious school. She does not have long to ponder this before a wealthy entrepreneur with a penchant for true crime contacts her and offers her a job as a summer camp he just purchased that also happened to be the site of an unsolved quadruple murder in 1978. Of course, Stevie jumps at the chance and brings her school friends along with her. As to the mystery itself, I found the ultimate solve a bit deus ex machina, a bit like those mysteries that have the ultimate reveal come out of seemingly nowhere yet, surprisingly, I did not mind. I enjoyed my reading experience.
Now for the final book, for the time being, in Stevie Bell’s story. This one takes place primarily in London where Stevie, with the help of her boyfriend David, has managed to secure a week-long (not nearly long enough in my view) study abroad trip so that she can spend time with him as he studies at a British university. Of course, one of his study partners just happens to be related to a woman who was present when two friends
who were murdered with the case going unsolved until the present day. I wish I had enjoyed this one as much as I did the previous one. The idea of an American author writing a book so British manor house mystery coded, just did not work. Even though Johnson did not write anything that came off as overtly wrong about the Britishisms included in the novel, nothing about it felt right either, especially the past sections where all of the characters are supposed to be British through and through. Then that ending. Sheesh. I will not be holding onto this one but I will probably check out the next one from the library just to see how Johnson deals with the relationship between Stevie and David.
Leave a Reply