Library Limelights 292

 

Catherine McKenzie. Please Join Us. Ebook download from TPL. Canada: Simon & Schuster, 2022.

Here’s a topnotch mystery difficult to describe without spoilers. Nicole Mueller is a good litigator in a high-pressure law firm. Despite years of excellent and very hard work as a rising star, lately she’s been getting overt signs that she’s not quite good enough to make partner. Into her inbox comes an email from co-founders Karma and Michelle of Panthera Leo, to join their network in a retreat that empowers women; membership is by invitation only, for skilled, productive women in their particular fields. Curious, and needing a break, Nicole agrees, not without some doubts on husband Dan’s side. Besides the founders, her new companions are Athena, a Congress-woman; Samantha, a rising actress; Connie, whose many business interests include real estate; and Heather, expert lawyer in company takeovers.

The retreat turns into physical challenges that reinforce a commitment to acting as a pride of lions. All for one and one for all: always. Never refuse a request or favour from another member of your pride. The five women are inspired and agreeable, proudly wearing their Panthera pins. Once at home, Nicole finds she is receiving more favours than requests. She is asked to hire Julia, a newbie lawyer, which is not easy but she manages. Connie finds her and Dan a wonderful new apartment just in time as Dan’s malicious mother takes over the family home where they’ve been living. Connie also comes through with a high-profile law case that vastly improves Nicole’s shaky standing in the firm. The case is for a large company being sued for damages by its former CEO, right up Nicole’s alley.

Could something possibly go wrong now in Nicole’s life? Oh yes, a murder for one thing. So many rapidly twisting surprises follow, prompting my admiration for a mind that could construct – then deconstruct – such an intricate plot. Don’t miss this novel if you love complicated puzzles. Kudos, Canadian author McKenzie! It’s not her first novel; I’m looking for the others.

Bits

▪ A year away from forty and I felt like my body was breaking down piece by piece. (26)

▪ Trust others, she was saying; let them help you. It made sense to me. (67)

▪ “What does jumping into freezing water have to do with getting ahead in the workplace?” (68)

▪ “But it happens to women all the time. The same things we value in men are seen as a deficit.” (90)

▪ “We worked together and we made it. That’s what they were testing, right?” (111)

▪ “Rely on each other, call on each other, trust in each other.” (115)

▪ I swirled my wine around. “Dan wants a baby.” (183)

▪ ... Gary’s being here makes it a conspiracy to obstruct justice and makes us accessories to whatever Athena did to Jack. (188)

▪ “They’ve been two steps ahead of me all this time. More.” (252)

Anne Tyler. Redhead by the Side of the Road. 2020. Anchor Canada edition 2021.

Trigger word: redhead. The laugh was on me, but never having read Anne Tyler, the detour was worth it. Meet Micah Mortimer, a man to whom things occasionally happen; he does not ordinarily make things happen. Micah lives modestly, rent-free in a small apartment building, as the superintendent. Certain duties for that fall clearly on different days, which suits him so well, he regiments his own life similarly. He’s not exactly anti-social, but enjoys a quiet, mainly solitary existence. Yet that odd feeling he experiences is loneliness. His girlfriend Cass breaks up with him through a misunderstanding.

On his morning runs when he leaves his glasses behind, Micah’s fuzzy vision personalizes some of the landmarks along his way. A red fire hydrant becomes a small hunched person of ruddy colour. The man is also a computer whiz, which morphed into a freelance fix-it service called Tech Hermit, providing many a humorous moment with his clients. His sisters – and he has far too many of them, ebullient and as messy as he is neat – do their best to encourage him to date. Deus ex machina—a young man called Brink appears on his doorstep believing Micah is his long-lost father. Eventually they get that straightened out in a valuable life lesson for Micah—perhaps more than his vision was skewed. Pleasing, light, and funny, a novel to devour in a few hours.

One-liners

▪ “You weren’t very hard to track down,” Brink told him. (32)

▪ “Surely your mom isn’t saying I had anything to do with that,” Micah said. (33)

▪ If Micah had learned anything from all those previous girlfriends, it was that living with someone full-time was just too messy. (38)

▪ “Could you not try to get her back?” Ada asked. (74)

▪ The houses on their block were small and plain but extremely well cared for, because most of the inhabitants were carpenters or plumbers or such and they had their standards. (70)

▪ “Did he mention that his family had no notion where he was?” (101)

▪ He had liked how she never took her own good looks too seriously. (117)

▪ “Well,” Lorna said steadily, “I am the bicycle you lost in the park the summer you turned twelve.” (162)

Multi-liners

▪ Her face was broad and calm, and her eyes were a deep gray-green, and her wheat-coloured hair hung straight almost to her shoulders, casually parted and indifferently styled. He considered her restful to look at. (18)

▪ Micah had about given up on this country, to tell the truth. It seemed to be going to hell these days, and he didn’t have the sense he could do anything about it. But Cass was very conscientious, and she insisted on absorbing every depressing detail. (21-2)

▪ Oh, Micah had not had a very good history with women. It just seemed they kept losing interest in him; he couldn’t say exactly why. (38)

▪ “Have you ever thought of telling Brink who his real father is? I mean, his biological father?” (105)

▪ What if he had told her, “Please don’t give up on me. Please think twice about it.” (119)

Teenage angst

“What do you know about it?” Brink said. The sudden flash of anger in his voice took Micah by surprise. “I’m sick of being in the wrong all the time! I’ve had it! I thought you, at least, would see my side of it, but oh, no—right off the bat you’re on their side, just like everyone else.”

“I don’t even know what your side is,” Micah said. “You haven’t told me a damn thing.”

“Well, did you ask?”

“Okay, I’m asking now. Okay?”

Brink didn’t answer. He had his fists clenched at either side of his plate.

“All right,” Micah said finally. “I can’t force you to talk. And I can’t force you to call your mom. But I am sure as hell not going to be your accomplice in this. Either you tell her right now where you are, while I am standing here listening, or you leave.”

“Fine; I’ll leave,” Brink said.

But he stayed seated. (59)

Family teasing

“What day is it today, Micah?” Suze’s husband called from the foyer doorway. He had a small child on his shoulders; her flounced skirt encircled his neck like an Elizabethan ruff.

“What do you mean, what day? It’s Thursday.”

“Is it vacuuming day? Is it dusting day? Is it scrub-the-baseboards-with-a-Q-tip day?”

“Oh, Dave, leave him alone,” Suze said.

“He doesn’t mind! Is it window-washing day?”

“Well,” Micah said grudgingly, “it’s kitchen day, as it happens.”

“Kitchen day! Ha! Your kitchen has a day all its own?”

“Yes.”

“And what does that involve, exactly?”

“For God’s sake, Dave,” Ada said. She set an arm protectively around Micah’s waist.

“What?” Dave said. “I’m only trying to understand, is all. What on earth needs doing in his kitchen? Any time I’ve seen it, we could eat off the floor.”

“It’s not floor-mopping day,” Micah said. “It’s kitchen day. On kitchen day I clean the counters and the appliances and such. And one complete cabinet.”

“One cabinet?”

“In rotation.” (74-5)