February 15, 2017 Booklist 35 www.booklistonline.com
caught up in an all-consuming passion that
threatens to engulf them both. The affair
is seen from the perspective of Johanne, the
young lady’s housemaid and an admirer of
the artists who come to paint in her town of
Åsgårdstrand, Norway. Munch is widely regarded by the townsfolk as a madman, but,
despite the danger, Johanne is drawn to him,
and he even assists her in her burgeoning attempts at painting. While Strømme capably
unfurls the narrative, Johanne’s involvement
in the lovers’ lives—the subject of a painting as
a girl, a budding artist herself, and the sudden
bosom companion of her employer—stretches
credulity. Nonetheless, the story offers a window into the atmosphere surrounding Munch
as he created his art, and Johanne’s observations of her mistress capture the beguiling
fierceness that so entices Munch. With careful, loving attention, Strømme transforms
Munch’s sketches and paintings into messages
of longing. —Bridget Thoreson
The Kingdom.
By Emmanuel Carrère. Tr. by John
Lambert.
Mar. 2017. 400p. Farrar, $27 (9780374716745).
To open the pages of this book is to fall into
a world of speculation, memoir, history, and
belief and disbelief in untidy measures. Carrère, called by the Guardian
“the most important French
writer you’ve never heard of,”
presents a masterwork that
takes readers into the heart
of Christianity’s first days,
as well as into the depths of
the author’s psyche. It begins
with Carrère’s revelations
of his days as a believing Christian, though
his enthusiasm fades over time. Yet, the story of Christianity’s beginning, particularly
the machinations of Paul and his chronicler,
Luke, grips him. With curiosity, intensity,
and imagination, Carrère plunges into a biblical world in turmoil, with competing interests
out to claim Jesus’ sacrifice as their own. He
uses familiar sources—the New Testament,
Josephus, Seneca—but finds, or imagines,
startling conclusions. He’s not afraid of controversy. Yes, he believes the Jews killed Jesus,
but he also offers a rebuttal about why that
might not be true. Because much of the book
is a reworking of Acts, it has been identified
by its publisher as historical fiction. But placing such a demanding yet exhilarating work
into any single genre is nearly impossible. The
only category it really belongs in is tour de
force. —Ilene Cooper
Music of the Ghosts.
By Vaddey Ratner.
Apr. 2017. 336p. Touchstone, $26 (9781476795782).
Ratner’s second novel, following her critically
acclaimed debut, In the Shadow of the Banyan
(2012), begins in 1979 as 13-year-old Teera and
her aunt flee the Khmer Rouge soldiers who
decimated their village, trying to make their
way into Thailand. Ratner then jumps to 2003,
when Teera makes the journey back to Cam-
bodia from Minnesota, where she and her aunt
settled 25 years earlier. Teera
has received a letter from an
old man who claims to have
known her father in a Khmer
Rouge prison. Desperate to
learn any information about
her father’s disappearance
and ultimate demise, Teera
makes the journey back to
her homeland “where her home no longer ex-
ists,” a land as “scarred and ravaged as herself.”
Ratner’s descriptions of Teera’s confrontation
with her past, even as she experiences, once
again, the beauty of her homeland, alternate
with the old man’s memories of his life in cap-
tivity with his old friend, Teera’s father. The
juxtaposition is unnerving and powerful as the
reader is transported from scenes of unbear-
able torture to glimpses of monks arriving at a
temple, their saffron robes “like a row of candle
flames moving across the land.” Ratner, herself a
Cambodian refugee, has penned another haunt-
ing, unforgettable novel. —Deborah Donovan
The Night She Won Miss America.
By Michael Callahan.
Apr. 2017. 320p. Harcourt, $23 (9780544809970).
Betty Jane Welch has led an insulated life in
a small town in Delaware. An enthusiastic student, Betty is far from happy when her mother
cajoles her into entering the Miss Delaware
pageant—and even less so when she wins. Held
in Atlantic City, the subsequent Miss America
pageant exposes Betty to a larger world, and to
the moody but handsome Griff McAlister, her
escort for the week. Betty soon falls for Griff and
finds herself unexpectedly winning the pageant
as well. When Griff makes it clear he doesn’t
want to date Miss America, Welch impulsively
throws away the title to run away with him.
Hiding from pageant officials, the press, and
the police, as well as Griff’s own family, their escape is anything but romantic, and Griff seems
to be unraveling before Betty’s eyes as his deep-est secret becomes impossible to keep. Callahan
(Vanity Fair contributing editor and author of
Searching for Grace Kelly, 2015) has crafted an
intriguing suspense story marrying the frothy,
fashion-fueled pageant world with the secrets
people have to live with. —Stacy Shaw
To Hell on a Fast Horse: A Western Duo.
By Peter Brandvold.
Mar. 2017. 386p. Five Star, $25.95 (9781432833015).
This volume contains two novels featuring
bounty hunter Lou Prophet and his sidekick,
Louisa Bonaventure, the “Vengeance Queen.”
In The Devil’s Ambush, treachery, deception,
and a nighttime raid by strangers leave Louisa
seriously wounded and Lou wondering how to
get her safely out of the bleak, southeast corner
of Colorado. Lou’s search for a doctor and the
raiders who ambushed them leads him to Box
Elder Ford, a small settlement on the Arkan-
sas River. A beautiful woman who lives alone
on the edge of town and who welcomes eve-
ning visitors complicates Lou’s life. Treachery
from an unexpected direction provides some
understanding for the man-hunting duo, but
it requires daring and gun smoke to bring real
clarity. In Bring Me the Head of Chaz Savidge,
the two are back at work cleansing the fron-
tier of rapists, robbers, and killers. The Chaz
Savidge gang fits the description of the worst
of these, and the $2,000 bounty on the gang
has drawn bounty hunters and poachers from
all over the West. When Lou and Louisa take
Chaz prisoner, they find themselves hunted
by others eager for the bounty. It’s a long ride
from Dakota to Denver, where the law has a
cell waiting for Chaz, and getting their captive
delivered presents Lou and Louisa with chal-
lenges they haven’t faced before. The melting
winter’s snow in Dakota will wash the blood
from the grass, but the graves, ravaged bod-
ies, and shell casings will still be there to give
startling testimony to any who happen to pass
that way. This double-feature western is a fast-
moving, high-action read for those who like
their stories a bit raw. —Reg Quist
Romance
Darkness.
By Kate Sherwood.
Mar. 2017. 149p. Riptide, paper, $16.99
(9781626495326); e-book (9781626495319).
“Opposites attract” as ex-inmate Wade
Granger becomes a criminal informant in
undersheriff Jericho Crewe’s murder investigation. Fifteen years ago, the two had been
romantically involved, so Crewe tries to avoid
him, but that is not easy in a small Montana town. He also doubts that the obvious
suspect, Will, a developmentally challenged
man, is guilty, and he is glad that Wade, who
has “helped before,” can learn about what
lies below the surface evidence. Sherwood’s
brooding, noiresque crime fighter distrusts
Wade’s advances despite their chemistry;
worries his boss, Kayla, could be implicated
when her retired sheriff father’s “irregularities”
emerge; and hates that Will remains incarcerated while a suspected serial killer is at large.
“Jericho didn’t want to be a whiner. He wasn’t
the one in jail.” He also wasn’t in danger if
the suspected killer wasn’t brought to justice. So why complain? Sherwood presents
an engrossing whodunit character study and
same-sex romance. —Whitney Scott
Devil in Spring.
By Lisa Kleypas.
Mar. 2017. 384p. Avon, paper, $7.99 (9780062371874).
Blast the stupid settee for ruining her
future! Pandora Ravenel was this close to retrieving her friend’s sapphire earring when she
found her gown had become tangled up in the
sofa’s scrollwork. Upon hearing her exclamations of distress, Gabriel, Lord St. Vincent,
immediately proceeds to the summerhouse
to do what he can to free Pandora. Unfortunately, before Gabriel can completely extract
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