Avenue of prostitutes
Jode Millman
Best Level Books, 2022, $16.99
Jode Millman’s second book in the Queen City Crime series is an intriguing and suspenseful police procedural. It is inspired by the crimes of serial killer Kendall Francois, chrheard the ‘Poughkeepsie Killer’ from the press, who murdered eight sex workers before being arrested in 1998. Blending genres of thriller, romance and mystery with suspense, relationship, crime, office politics, courtroom drama and high stakes, this book will keep you engaged and entertained while giving you fascinating insight into how these complicated investigations unfold.
Millman, a lifelong resident of Poughkeepsie, draws on her experiences as a lawyer and her appreciation for the once majestic historic town to expertly capture both the beauty and decadence of her beloved hometown. , as well as the tensions that arise when a gruesome crime rocks a small community. The use of alternating point-of-view chapters between the main characters paces the book perfectly and although some of the story is taken from the first book in the series, The Midnight Call, it does not distract from the novel. current (but, it will make you want to go back and read it).
The book opens with Jessica Martin, lawyer and single mother, returning home in a torrential downpour, an already stressful trip interrupted by a phone call from Terrence Butterfield, her father’s best friend and former mentor, a psychotic butcher in the cold blood who is currently stalking Martin from a state-run mental institution where he is currently being held on criminal insanity charges for the gruesome murder of a teenager he lured into his home.
While waiting for the storm to pass and pondering what to do about these disturbing calls, Martin notices a “glittering object lying in a shallow puddle” in the dim lights of his car’s headlights and discovers a body bent in a fetal position in a storm drain. When Detective Ebony Jones arrives on the scene with her partner and fellow detective, Zander Pulaski, Jones is surprised to find that the person is still alive and that her former best friend Martin, who she says has “fucked it up.” ‘looks Poughkeepsie’s biggest PD deal in 50 years’. ” by inadvertently helping Butterfield to be acquitted of murder – is the person who called 911.
Once again, Martin and Jones, with their opposing views on the law, come together to investigate a series of missing women cases. When Lissie – the prostitute who was badly beaten and left in the storm drains – is questioned at the hospital by Jones, she claims to have escaped the clutches of a murderer. The shrewd Jones can tell there are many more layers to her story, but Lissie disappears, with the help of Jessie’s new boss and former nemesis, lawyer Jeremy Kaplan, who fears for her life and the hid. Lissie’s long track record listed him as her attorney. “It pays to have a shark like Kaplan by your side,” remarks Pulaski upon finding out that Lissie is a “serial arrest for fender benders and misdemeanors.”
When Jones, investigating a series of cold cases, realizes that the missing women’s profiles bear a striking resemblance to Lissie’s, she’s desperate to find her and prove there’s a serial killer in the house. the Hudson Valley.
Intertwined throughout this gripping and suspenseful crime thriller, glimpses are also given of the two women’s personal relationships. Hal, Jessica’s partner, is the relatively new Dutchess County District Attorney and the person leading the task force to find the missing women. Jones has a torrid relationship with a young firefighter named Drew, but it seems his partner has gotten his attention and heart.
Millman is a wonderful writer. The passage where Lissie describes her attack at the hands of the serial killer will make your heart race. The ending sets us up perfectly for the next book in the Queen City Crimes series and it will be interesting to see how these two strong women grow in themselves, in their lives, and in their work in the criminal justice system.
—Jane Kinney Denning
The doorman
Peter Wheelwright
Fomite Press, $16.95, 2022
In 1917, paleontologist Winifred Goldring discovered the fossils of an ancient forest in the upstate town of Gilboa. That same year, construction of a dam began along Schoharie Creek to supply water to a reservoir in New York. Despite protests from locals, the fossils and town were flooded and families were forced to move. The Door-Man is told by Winifred’s grandson, a doorman working in the city in 1993, when the resersee Gilboa was flooded for was decommissioned. Wheelwright blurs the lines between fact and fiction, past and present, to illustrate the reservoir’s effects on generations of families.
What are the rich doing tonight?
Denis Rush
Madres Back Press, $18, 2022
Rush, a poet featured in past issues of Chronogram, named this collection after a question the working class might ask when doing something nasty. Rush’s poems find beauty in these moments. A narrator notices leaves rustling in the breeze as he empties his septic tank. Another uses his telescope to watch television with his neighbors from his window. Children search for Easter eggs in a cemetery on a rainy day. A writer notices two beetles mating in his notebook and leads them somewhere more private. Rush’s poems evoke a mixture of melancholy and admiration for the mundane.
How to adapt to the dark
Rebecca VanLaer
Long Day Press, $16, 2022
This short story begins with a verse found inside a fortune cookie: “All men should try to learn before they die / what they’re running from and to what and why.” Through his narrator Charlotte, Hudson Valley author Van Laer explores what it means to be a writer. Is it a noble pursuit, or is a writer running from something? Charlotte takes us with her through romances, drug trips and therapy sessions. The prose of her recollections is interspersed with poems she wrote during this time, reflecting on herself and the people in her life through the safety of metaphors and fictional characters.
The Music Therapy Studio: Empowering the Truth of the Soul
Rick Soshensky
Rowman and Littlefield, $40, 2021
Soshensky is the founder of the Hudson Valley Creative Arts Therapy Studio. Early in his career, he wanted to make her a rock star. When he discovered music therapy, he saw it as his way of having an impact in the present instead of waiting for success. Soshensky writes of his faith in the mysterious ways music helps people: “I guess music is a higher intelligence than me.” He draws stories from his career to illustrate the concrete changes brought about by music, such as when a man with advanced dementia remembered all the words to Nat King Cole’s “Unforgettable.”
The Chocolate Pot and Other Stories
Roselee Bloston
Apprentice House Press, $14.99, 2022
Hudson Valley writing coach Blooston examines everyday power struggles and how relationships fail or thrive in these eight stories. In the title track, a workplace war breaks out over a jar of candy on someone’s desk. Another story follows a couple who stay together not for the kids, but for a houseplant. A woman is tasked with erasing her neighbor’s incriminating Internet history, and the high school rivals find themselves in a professional setting, just as at odds as before. A single mother struggles to accept that her son is growing up and wants to reconnect with his father.
—Emma Cariello