Review: "Last One Out," Jane Harper

The town of Carralon, about five hours west of Sydney, Australia, has been dying ever since the Lentzer mining company moved in. The coal operation bought out homes, and brought noise and dust, while keeping workers on-site with their own housing and services. Only a few residents remain; the pub only opens once in a while. The medical center has been shuttered.

Sam Crowley, home from college, is interviewing his neighbors for a school project, asking about their experiences before and after the mine’s arrival. It’s his 21st birthday. His mother, Rowena, has made a lasagna for a special family dinner. Sam never shows up.

Thus begins a gripping story of the ties that bind us, for better and for worse.

Ro has returned to Carralon to mark the fifth anniversary of Sam’s disappearance. She had left her husband, Griff, and started a new life in Sydney. 

Ro is still consumed by Sam’s disappearance. She pores over the notebook he left behind. Ro visits the site where her son was last seen. It’s a cluster of three houses on the outskirts of town. They have stood empty since the mine's management bought them and are falling into disrepair.

One is a sandstone bungalow once owned by Bernie, the father-in-law of Ro’s best friend.  A second is an ivy-covered cottage where Ann-Marie, a former co-worker, lived. The third, a farmhouse, was home to Warren, Griff’s cousin. Warren had committed suicide several years before Sam disappeared.

What was Sam looking for in this desolate neighborhood? Did his questions uncover old secrets? Did he come too close to finding something that somebody wants hidden? Ro asks questions herself, but gets nowhere—until she and Griff find bloody boards on Warren’s deck, along with a mysterious key. Then she realizes she might have a chance of finding out what happened to her son.

An air of desolation, of impending doom, imbues the pages of this book. Ro’s pain is palpable. Everyone left in town is stuck, in one way or another. Their lives are deeply intertwined. Once, their closeness brought them joy. Now, it seems like entrapment.

Jane Harper is one of my favorite authors, but as I reached the three-quarter mark of the novel, I worried that maybe Ro would have to drive away from Carralon forever, without getting the answers she desperately needed—and deserved. Maybe this was just a book about dealing with inexplicable loss.

But I was not disappointed. Ro finally turns that long lost key and uncovers the harsh and painful truth of what happened to Sam. In doing so, she opens a door that lets the light in at last.

Review: "The Ending Writes Itself," Evelyn Clarke

Arthur Fletch, the famed, prolific writer (think James Patterson) has died. He’s left an unfinished manuscript behind,

The only people who know this are his agent, his editor and the six authors they have summonsed to Fletch’s magnificent home on the island of Skelbrae, off the coast of Scotland.

There, Fletch’s agent throws down a gauntlet. Who among them can finish the great author’s last novel and claim a $2 million prize—$1 million for the completion and $1 million to relaunch his or her career?

They’re all midlist writers. Their careers are in the doldrums, or worse. This is a life-changing opportunity.

And they don’t know each other. No one in the group has much name recognition. Remember that. It’s important.

Do Sienna and Malcolm have the best chance? They’re thriller writers, but their marriage is about to break up. So maybe not.

Jaxon is a self-assured sci-fi scribe, but he seems to spend most of his time staying ripped. Millie, who pens YA, is cute and bouncy, yet shrewd. Perhaps not shrewd enough. Cate, the youngest and most “literary” of the bunch, portrays a “poor me” persona. But what’s the real story underneath that baggy cardigan?

Priscilla, the romance writer, is pretty in pink—but has a curiously flat affect. Finally there’s Kenzo, an acerbic author of horror novels who might be the most level-headed of them all.

At first, the writers spend more time bickering and snooping on each other (and boozing) than they do writing. But as the 72-hour deadline bears down on them, they get to work. Unfortunately, so does a murderer.

The Ending Writes Itself has received glowing reviews and a blurb from Stephen King. It’s cleverly plotted and a witty, sarcastic take on both writers and the publishing world they inhabit. It evokes Agatha Christie’s And Then There Were None. The killer, once revealed, is ripped from the headlines, as we used to say. The resolution is wryly satisfying, especially for those readers who are also writers.

I enjoyed the book, but was annoyed by the excessive use of italics. As in “She knew she shouldn’t be surprised,” when a character, in a flashback, remembers an experience of mild sexual harassment. Why is this helpful? Plus, it was just one in a long line of useless italics. Authors should be limited to no more than five italicized words or phrases per book.

I realize that the technique was probably meant to be part of the satirical style, but I have to say out of dozens of italicized words I only found one that was truly worthwhile, and that was when the murderer appears “holding what looks like a mother-f#$%^ crossbow.”

Overall, It was a book that I could appreciate for its construction and humor and insightful take on the publishing world, but one that I couldn’t sink into it emotionally. Shall I call it a page-turner without much heart?

From Here: Observing the Natural World

Scruffy No More

I said I wasn’t going to name squirrels anymore. But the squirrel with the moth-eaten middle kept coming back.

I called her Scruffy. I couldn’t help myself. Scruffy was so cute, and I’d see her several times a week. Plus she was recognizable, because of her regrettable tummy.

One of the problems with naming squirrels is that it’s impossible to tell them apart. Sure, it’s the rare squirrel who comes right up to me for a peanut. But how do I know it’s the same one who was friendly last week?

The other problem is that, being squirrels, they may show up regularly for weeks and then disappear. They are wild animals.

But I wrote about Scruffy in late March and she’s still on the scene. Well, I think it’s her. Her fur has grown in, but her demeanor is the same. Of all the squirrels who have become friendly with me, she is the only one who will wait for me directly outside the garage, where the peanuts are stored.

In fact, when I tell her, holding up my index finger, that I will be right back with the goods, she will sit up on her haunches and cock her head. Once when I came out of the garage she was in front of the door. That was a first.

So now her name is Sophy, because she is Scruffy No More.

I have a couple of other squirrels who dance around me as I distribute peanuts, but they don’t come too close. There is no mistaking them for Sophy. I suspect they are twins. I call them Frick and Frack.

So much for good intentions. Squirrels don’t care about them anyway. Or whether I call them by silly names. They want the concrete. They want reality. They want the peanut. 

Update! 5.18.2026

Today Sophy took a peanut from my hand for the first time. First she raced across the big back yard, where I was taking a bird feeder down to refill it. I told her I needed to get the peanuts from the garage. When I came out of the garage, she came running up again. I held out a peanut and she delicately took the very end into her mouth. I put a second one on the ground for her—squirrels can fit two into their mouth. Sophy then ran off to enjoy her snack.

A day to celebrate!

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 I welcome email at lizzie621@icloud.com

Review: "Missing," E. A. Jackson

It’s a hot summer in London in 1990 when Baby Bella goes missing. Detective Inspector Martha Allen has misgivings about taking the case. She’s never handled anything like it. Allen could reveal she’s pregnant as an excuse; then again, she’s ambitious. So she strides headfirst into a case that will ultimately haunt her for nearly 30 years.

Thomas and Vivien Carpenter have come to the city for a getaway from their home in Wells, in the southwest of England. They’re staying at the Bellevue Hotel in Pimlico. Their daughter, Bella, slumbered in a Moses basket by an open window, while her parents slept in bed. Thomas awoke in the early hours of the day to find the baby gone.

Officers are called in from across the city; this is a big case. Allen enlists the help of Detective Constable Manley Desbury. She doesn’t know him, but they develop a solid working relationship.

Promising leads are followed but turn out to be dead ends. A scrap of fabric, a smear of blood are all the detectives have as clues. No one has seen anything. Allen is desperate. She wants to find the baby, of course, but she also envisions her career going down the tubes if the case is not solved.

Then, a beautiful young woman shows up with Baby Bella. Nell Beatty says she found the tot on a park bench. Allen starts to question her, but she disappears. She’d given the police false information, and they are unable to find her again.

Allen wants to keep the case open; she doesn’t think the whole story has been told. But when even Desbury lets her know he thinks she’s pushing too hard, she backs off.

Then, in 2020, just before the pandemic causes shutdowns and a massive disruption to everyday life, DI Desbury calls Allen, now in admin at Scotland Yard. A body has been found on his turf in Bristol. It’s Nell Beatty.

Allen can’t help herself. The wound of what to her was an unfinished case is reopened. She has to find out what really happened to Baby Bella.

Desbury is willing to help her, to a degree. He also needs to find Nell Beatty’s murderer. The trail is thin, and Allen has to remind herself “this is why they call us the plod.” Eventually, Allen does learn enough to close the case in her own mind, and to move on with her life.

For the reader, though, there’s one final twist.

This was a deeply satisfying, page-turning read, as much about the cost of not solving a crime as it is about solving it.

I knew from the first page I was going to enjoy it. Allen is a likable, relatable character and her tenacity is admirable. The suspense is intense; kernels of of the truth emerge, but it is truly not until the final page that all is revealed.

I enjoy police procedurals in general, but Missing is something more. The detective work is there, but this is also Allen’s story. And, of course, Baby Bella’s.