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Quicksilver: A Chevron Ross Book Review

Chevron Ross — Fri, 11 Sep 2026 00:00:00 +0000

When considering a book purchase, I always check out Amazon’s sample pages to evaluate the writing. In this case, the phrase that hooked me was, “I stood in front of my wardrobe, which smelled like mothballs and old people.” As I continued reading, I realized I was in the presence of a great author.

Quicksilver is Emily Meyer’s debut novel. Self-published, it has only a handful of reviews, though it eclipses most of the junk posing as literature these days. Set in the mid-1980s, the story of Lyra Hearney and Trace Forrester seems perched on the edge of a teenage romance. Instead, it takes an inexplicable turn when Lyra runs away from home on her fourteenth birthday.

Meyer isn’t satisfied with simple reasons for her character’s actions. Lyra herself doesn’t seem to understand them herself. Instead of trying to explain, she tells of her years in Carver, Minnesota, an insignificant soybean town. Central to her concerns are a peculiar aunt’s obsession with a huge collection of junk in her parents’ basement, and Lyra’s sometimes tense but desperately important relationship with Trace, a boy haunted by his father’s death. We learn about family tensions involving Lyra’s parents, her willful sister Lucille, and her grandparents, who disapprove of Trace.

Befriended by a kind lady and a supermarket manager, Lyra tries to create a novel about Trace, as writing seems to be her only talent. Memories of their many hours exploring the woods, basking in the sun, and swimming in the Maumee River are important to her. The pull to return home is strong, but it’s more than Trace’s absence that draws her. It’s her need to discover Aunt Betty’s dark secret, and her unbreakable ties to the people who helped make Lyra who she is.

The novel has some grammatical problems that a professional editor surely would have addressed, and a problem late in the story involving a decision Trace has made. But what a beautifully flowing narrative it is! It brims with mood and texture and emotion that few writers ever attain. There’s not an offensive word anywhere, refreshing in this world of gutter language. I hope others will read Quicksilver, and that Emily Meyer will share more of her great talent with the world’s reading community.

Chevron Ross's novels include Weapons of Remorse, The Seven-Day Resurrection, and The Samaritan's Patient. Click here for more information.

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The School for Thieves: A Chevron Ross Book Review

Chevron Ross — Fri, 4 Sep 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Hang onto your hats, middle-schoolers! Peter Burns takes you on a swashbuckling adventure in The School for Thieves, a story that combines inspirations from Charles Dickens and Alexander Dumas.

Tom Morgan is an orphan living by his wits in a future London, where kids struggle for survival as workhouse slaves. Those clever enough to escape child snatchers work as thieves and peddlers. If that’s not enough, a deadly epidemic is on the rampage. Tom’s fortunes change when Hezekiah von Stuppe, a Gandalf-like character from the Shadow League, recruits him for a special school which sends students on daring missions involving the International Shadow Cup. Though it sounds like a crime syndicate, the league’s purpose is to maintain a balance of power in the world.

What follows is a fast-paced thriller in which Tom and his fellow Tenderfoots undergo rigorous training at a secluded mansion. Competition just to survive the school is fierce, and the consequences of failure can be deadly. Tom, haunted by his brutal experiences in London, must overcome his bitterness and bullying from other students who consider him unworthy. But his street-smart cleverness gives him an advantage over those from wealthy families.

Peter Burns weaves his tale so skillfully that the balance between character development and forward momentum is dazzling. We hardly recover from one crisis before we’re plunged into another. And just when we think we know how the story’s going to turn out, he gives us another twist that makes it even more engrossing.

I highly recommend The School for Thieves not only for adolescents and teenagers, but for adults who remember what it’s like to imagine yourself the hero of an adventure story.

Chevron Ross's novels include Weapons of Remorse, The Seven-Day Resurrection, and The Samaritan's Patient. Click here for more information.

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Chevron Ross — Fri, 28 Aug 2026 00:00:00 +0000

It’s hard to review a novel about child abuse objectively. Any decent person would react with horror and disgust. What makes it even harder is the detail with which the author deals with the subject.

Katerina Theodorakis, a native of New York, is married to a Greek electrician and lives in a small village on the island of Crete. Fluent in both English and Greek, she makes a happy home for herself and her daughter Aspasia while her husband is away on a long sea voyage. Katerina’s relationships with the townspeople are cordial until she discovers that her husband’s father has taken sexual advantage of Aspasia. Katerina’s first instinct is to denounce the man before the police.

Difficulties ensue when Katerina realizes that she cannot address the problem as an American citizen would. The mountain village is a closed society whose natives are clannish and may take the abuser’s word over that of a foreigner. Katerina has only one choice: to go outside the law to protect her daughter until her husband returns. The steps she takes are risky, with horrific implications.

Florence Wetzel skillfully develops the unique culture in which Katerina struggles. We learn a great deal about other characters, many of whom share their kindness and wisdom in the face of their own troubles. Echoes of small-town life emerge, such as Katerina’s nosy neighbor, her husband’s odd and reclusive sisters, and the elderly aunt whose suspicions keep Katerina in a constant state of fear.

Once you get past the exposition, which I found a bit challenging, I think you’ll find Aspasia a well-paced and suspenseful novel. Because of the frank subject matter and a few instances of offensive language, I have limited my rating to four stars.

Chevron Ross's novels include Weapons of Remorse, The Seven-Day Resurrection, and The Samaritan's Patient. Click here for more information.

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The Things We Never Say: A Chevron Ross Book Review

Chevron Ross — Fri, 21 Aug 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Do you ever have such strong feelings that you’re afraid to let them out? After fifty-seven years of pent-up emotions, Artie Dam contemplates suicide. He feels too much about everything: his dead parents and sister, his son Rob, his absent friend Flossie, the kids in his history classes, and his dread of the president poised to take office in 2025.

It’s hard to reconcile Artie’s misery with the facts of his life. His marriage to Evie is solid, if imperfect. He communicates well with his students, he’s a former Teacher of the Year, and he has friends on the faculty. But he cannot stop dwelling on sad memories of the accident that changed Rob’s personality. And he comes to realize that everyone has something terrible bottled up inside, like the plumber who bursts into tears while fixing Artie’s faucet because his wife is having an affair.

Elizabeth Strout, author of Olive Kitteridge and other explorations of the human heart, has created in Artie a character with whom all of us can identify. He’s like a middle-aged Holden Caulfield, disturbed by the dark secrets in people’s characters. They hide their problems behind smiles, even lie to each other rather than expose their feelings out of fear they won’t be understood. At times Artie’s own behavior is bewildering, even dangerous to him. What keeps him going is his growing closeness to his son and the positive effects he has on certain students.

I can identify with Artie’s despair because Elizabeth Strout’s book is replete with words people should never say to each other. Excellent writers like her don’t need gutter language to express themselves. Without it, this could have been a five-star novel.

Chevron Ross's novels include Weapons of Remorse, The Seven-Day Resurrection, and The Samaritan's Patient. Click here for more information.

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Styx and Stones: A Chevron Ross Book Review

Chevron Ross — Fri, 14 Aug 2026 00:00:00 +0000

I had to refresh my memory of Greek mythology to fully enjoy this novel. But don’t let that throw you. Authors Gary D. Schmidt and Ron Koertge wrote it for middle-schoolers who may be crossing the River Styx for the first time. You’re bound to enjoy it as much as they will.

For a kids’ book, Styx and Stones begins grimly. Simon, an ancient Athenian boy, finds himself plunged into Hades, where he spends 2,451 years feeding pomegranate seeds to Persephone, Queen of the Underworld. Surrounded by insubstantial “shades” like himself, Simon finds eternity hopeless until a simple trick enables him to avoid the jaws of Cerberus and find a doorway back to mortality.

Amusingly, Simon awakens in the bathroom of a Minnesota middle school, where a boy named Zeke is being bullied at the hands of his classmates. Zeke, who has no friends, now has one in Simon, who says that Aristotle was right: friendship is a single soul in two bodies.

Meanwhile, back in the Underworld, King Hades is furious that one of his dead souls has escaped and sends a demon on a mission to bring Simon back. As for Persephone, she finds herself missing Simon because he was the only shade whose pomegranate servings were perfect. Gradually, Simon’s absence causes ripples throughout Hades, raising the stakes even higher.

Schmidt and Koertge cleverly employ the details of mythology to create a gentle, if scary, morality tale. There’s plenty to laugh about in both Earth and Hades. Although Styx and Stones contains a single offensive word, I give it a hearty five-star rating.

Chevron Ross's novels include Weapons of Remorse, The Seven-Day Resurrection, and The Samaritan's Patient. Click here for more information.

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Glimmer: A Chevron Ross Book Review

Chevron Ross — Fri, 7 Aug 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Ordinarily, I would reject a book like Glimmer. Foul language always spoils the reading experience for me, and this book has plenty of it. But the power of Sam Aleks’s narration was too strong.

Onra Kang is an arsonist, driven by a miserable childhood into a state of numbness in which her only pleasure comes from setting things on fire. She burns trash, dumpsters, junk piles, and, her favorite media, TV sets. “I can think of no greater pleasure than the finality of flame,” Onra says. But other kinds of fire pursue her, fires that bedevil her soul.

Her only friend is an angry co-arsonist who one day brings Onra a set of painting supplies. To Onra’s surprise, a gallery owner pays her $10,000 for her first painting and urges her to create more. It is this offer, combined with her visits to a psychiatrist, that gives Onra hope of overcoming the past.

Writing exclusively from Onra’s point of view, the author pulls us into this tormented character’s world, into her filthy apartment, her burned and scarred body, her broken relationships, and her destructive actions that soon put the police on her trail. Through it all we find ourselves rooting for her to find a way out of the darkness. Hope appears in her newly found creative streak, in the construction worker who takes an interest in her, and in her realization that she has a core of strength that can save her. Whether this will come to pass is the question that drives the reader to keep turning the pages.

When I ran across this novel in a free book advertisement, I was surprised to find that it had only four Amazon reviews. Although the book suffers from occasional typos, run-on sentences, and grammatical errors that a good editor would have caught, it blazes with a tremendous narrative talent worthy of the best fiction writers.

This is not a happy story. It’s violent, ugly, deeply sorrowful, and polluted with dirty words which, combined with the grammatical problems, account for my three-star review. But if you love good writing enough to overlook all that, you’ll find Glimmer worth your time. Sam Aleks is a writer worth watching.

Chevron Ross's novels include Weapons of Remorse, The Seven-Day Resurrection, and The Samaritan's Patient. Click here for more information.

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Whistler: A Chevron Ross Book Review

Chevron Ross — Fri, 31 Jul 2026 00:00:00 +0000

If you don’t buy Whistler for any other reason, buy it for the scene in which a man and a young girl discuss books while trapped in a wrecked automobile. It’s a literary gift you will treasure.

Ann Patchett’s latest novel begins when Daphne Fuller accidentally encounters Eddie Triplett, her former stepfather, after a lapse of more than 40 years. Everyone loves Eddie, but no one more than Daphne, our narrator, who recounts her mother’s unfortunate history of failed marriages. Daphne and Eddie have so much in common that their reunion is one of old friends catching up on the past.

This is a novel about relationships, a subject at which Ann Patchett excels. Daphne, a schoolteacher, is happily married to Jonathan, a retiree almost twenty years her senior. But Daphne retains a special place in her heart for Eddie, although his careless driving left her with a facial scar. She thinks the accident is the reason her mother divorced him. But there was another reason, which emerges as Daphne and Eddie get reacquainted.

I can’t begin to describe how magnificently Patchett leads us through the car wreck experience, during which Eddie tells Daphne about a manuscript proposal he’s been reading at the office. I can only repeat that if you love books, you owe it to yourself to read that scene. It’s one of the most enthralling moments of my entire reading life.

Much of the book’s poignancy lies in how its characters value each other. A metaphor for this lies in the experience of Jonathan, whose effort to help his sister rid their childhood home of memorabilia arouses a blend of strong emotions. Some things are hard to let go of, even things that are hurtful, because they are part of what we are. As Daphne puts it, she and her sister had only ringside seats at the edge of her mother’s life. They were left to adjust on their own and learned independence in doing so.

Although Whistler contains a homosexual relationship and a few profane words, I’m happy to give it a five-star rating.

Chevron Ross's novels include Weapons of Remorse, The Seven-Day Resurrection, and The Samaritan's Patient. Click here for more information.

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Blood Music: A Chevron Ross Book Review

Chevron Ross — Fri, 24 Jul 2026 00:00:00 +0000

This story has special significance to me. Its premise has remained in my head since I read it years ago and is a factor in my upcoming novel, Asperger.

Blood Music revolves around Vergil Ulam, a research scientist whose laboratory blunder results in an intelligent virus. Brilliant but flawed, he causes the virus to spread, resulting in consequences that are either catastrophic or benevolent, depending on your point of view.

This is more than an apocalyptic tale in which human beings try to restore normality. We witness it through the eyes of Vergil’s mother, whose icy relationship with him is a factor in his behavior; through Suzy McKenzie, a mentally challenged teenager struggling to understand the changing world around her; and through Michael Bernard, a scientist whose efforts to contain the virus lead him into communication with it.

Greg Bear’s detailed scientific knowledge lends credibility to the idea that man could create a being greater than himself. If you haven’t read Blood Music, I think you’ll find it even more relevant than when it appeared in 1985. It speaks to the present world in which artificial intelligence poses a combination of opportunities and threats to humanity.

I have limited my rating to four stars due to sexual references and occasional offensive language.

Chevron Ross's novels include Weapons of Remorse, The Seven-Day Resurrection, and The Samaritan's Patient. Click here for more information.

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Tokyo Ueno Station: A Chevron Ross Book Review

Chevron Ross — Fri, 17 Jul 2026 00:00:00 +0000

The “haves” in this world tend to treat the “have-nots” as invisible. Their mute desperation makes us uncomfortable, so we look through them. Kazu Mori, the narrator of Tokyo Ueno Station, is literally invisible. He is dead, his spirit seemingly fated to linger among the homeless people who come and go through the train station and memorial park where he met his end.

Kazu recounts a life of hardship and personal tragedy. Born in 1933, the same year as the Emperor, he took any sort of job he could get to support his family, most notably helping to construct facilities for the 1964 Olympics. Now, estranged from his survivors, he watches as authorities launch a campaign to clear homeless people out of the park in preparation for a visit by the royal family. Meanwhile, he eavesdrops on the conversations of people in transit and recounts Japanese history through the words of another homeless man who used to befriend him.

In this small, spare book of only 180 pages, the author manages to say a great deal in few words about poverty, loss and despair. Rather than whining about his condition, Kazu seems to be a mere observer of it. “I thought that once I was dead, I would be reunited with the dead,” he says. “I thought something would be resolved by death … But then I realized I was back in the park. I was not going anywhere, I had not understood anything, I was still stunned by the same numberless doubts, only I was now outside life looking in …”

I love the wistful tone of this book and the characters who come and go through Kazu’s world. Despite several instances of offensive language, author Yu Miri deserves acclaim for her poignant narration.

Chevron Ross's novels include Weapons of Remorse, The Seven-Day Resurrection, and The Samaritan's Patient. Click here for more information.

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Anne Tyler's Blue Box

Chevron Ross — Fri, 10 Jul 2026 00:00:00 +0000

This week I'm taking a break from book reviews to share a delightful posting from Anne Tyler's website. Regular readers of this space know how much I love this author. Below is a link where she tells how she comes up with ideas.

Anne Tyler has written twenty-five novels. Her eleventh, Breathing Lessons, won the Pulitzer Prize in 1989. This peek into her creative process should resonate with both authors and readers. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.

https://annetyler.com/annes-inspiration/

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Alas, Babylon: A Chevron Ross Book Review

Chevron Ross — Fri, 3 Jul 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Alas, Babylon appeared in 1959, when clouds of nuclear fear hovered over humanity. People built bomb shelters on their property and stocked them with water and canned food. Schools conducted duck-and-cover drills. Citizens were urged to keep their radios tuned to their CONELRAD stations. Sputnik, a primitive Russian satellite, orbited the planet, a harbinger of doom.

Pat Frank’s novel centers on the town of Fort Repose, Florida, where everybody knows everybody. The doctor makes house calls. The milkman delivers dairy products to people’s doors. The town banker does business on the basis of his customers’ reputations.

Randy Bragg’s only problem is a misunderstanding with a neighbor lady who thinks he’s a peeping Tom. His aimless life takes a dark turn when his brother Mark, a Strategic Air Command officer, sends his wife and children to live with Randy as nuclear conflict with the Soviet Union appears imminent. Suddenly, Randy must assume a leadership role as the idyllic life of 1950s America becomes a struggle for survival.

Frank’s tale serves as a warning of how complacency can destroy a rich and self-satisfied civilization. People accustomed to fresh water at the touch of a tap, food for the asking, electricity at the flip of a switch, and gasoline from the pump, lose those luxuries in a single day, forcing them to make do with the remnants of disaster. The question is whether people choose to carry on or succumb to despair.

Despite occasional profanity and racial epithets typical of its time, Alas, Babylon manages to be entertaining, instructive, and cautionary. The author obviously knows a great deal about nature, wildlife, medicine, electronics and mechanics and uses it to his characters’ advantage.

If this novel seems a bit quaint sixty-seven years after its publication, it remains relevant as nations continue to arm themselves for nuclear war. We should pray that our common humanity and faith in God will prevail if Pat Frank’s fantasy becomes a reality.

Chevron Ross's novels include Weapons of Remorse, The Seven-Day Resurrection, and The Samaritan's Patient. Click here for more information.

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Upward Bound: A Chevron Ross Book Review

Chevron Ross — Fri, 26 Jun 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Autism gets a lot of news coverage these days. Woody Brown’s debut novel Upward Bound gives us a personal insight into autism and how the world appears to people like himself.

Upward Bound is a fictional daycare center for dysfunctional adults. One of them, named Walter, was able to complete high school with a lot of help from his mother. But his inability to speak prevents him from advancing further. Jorge, a giant of a man, has an inexplicable obsession with a Mr. Potato Head doll. Tom’s cerebral palsy prevents him from moving or speaking, though he has feelings he yearns to express. In contrast to Tom is Drew, who cannot stop talking and calls people by their birth dates, rather than their names.

Walter tells us that his ADHD condition is “like sitting in front of a bank of monitors that are all showing different events, and all are playing at top volume.” He therefore must struggle to concentrate. Walter and Tom realize that they are different from other people. How they adapt is key to understanding their behavior.

Woody Brown does more than tug at our heartstrings. He is equally interested in the Upward Bound staff members and others who come in contact with its clients. Carlos, an aide whose sister Melanie helped raise him, has a troubled past. Yet he is surprised to find himself drawn to Jorge, whom no one else is able to reach. A summer intern and a store clerk experience similar stirrings. They recognize that there are souls inside the clients and take an active interest in them.

Though flawed, the caregivers act with good intentions. Walter and Tom recognize this and do their best in situations they often find frustrating or terrifying. Empathy is a key factor in building bridges between the typical and the atypical characters.

Despite scatterings of profanity and vulgar language, Upward Bound is a promising beginning for Mr. Brown. I hope he will avoid such offensiveness in his future writings.

Chevron Ross's novels include Weapons of Remorse, The Seven-Day Resurrection, and The Samaritan's Patient. Click here for more information.

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The Infinite Sadness of Small Appliances: A Chevron Ross Book Review

Chevron Ross — Fri, 19 Jun 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Novels about machines taking over the world are common. Glenn Dixon’s novel combines that premise with a humble little machine that wants to help humans, not dominate them.

Scout is a robotic floor vacuum that is part of a fully automated House. All household features, from the electronics to the variable wall color, are under the control of Watch, which is attached to the homeowner’s wrist. Watch is linked to the Grid, which controls everything in the world, including Scout, her kitchen companions Fridge and Clock, TV, Doorbell, and Auto, which resides in the Garage.

Harold and Edie Winters, who own the House, are elderly. Edie was a pianist until she became ill. Harold is retired and enjoys restoring rare copies of famous books. Scout knows all this because her cleaning routine takes her to every part of the House including the living room, where Edie used to give piano lessons. Scout finds herself developing unfamiliar sensations because of the music, plus the atmosphere of sadness due partly to the absence of Kate, Harold and Edie’s daughter. In other words, Scout begins to develop feelings.

We learn all this from Scout’s conversations with Fridge and Clock; from Harold; from a piano student named Adrian; and from Kate, who has become a slave to the Grid. The novel takes an adventurous turn when Grid is forced to send Kate home for two weeks.

This would be a good book for both kids and adults except for some offensive words that keep erupting from certain human lips. Glenn Dixon has sketched a nostalgic and sentimental contrast between the old world and the automated one.

Chevron Ross's novels include Weapons of Remorse, The Seven-Day Resurrection, and The Samaritan's Patient. Click here for more information.

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The List of Suspicious Things: A Chevron Ross Book Review

Chevron Ross — Fri, 12 Jun 2026 00:00:00 +0000

It’s easy for adults to forget that childhood is seldom carefree. Growing up can be painful, even in the absence of a serial killer. In The List of Suspicious Things, two young friends find themselves beset by both.

Trouble has invaded the home of eleven-year-old Miv, a Yorkshire girl whose mother suffers from a mental affliction. Jean, a stern and opinionated aunt, has taken her place, holding the family together while her father works at a humble job and nips off to the neighborhood pub each night. It’s the 1970s, and the two things uppermost in the community’s mind are the election of Margaret Thatcher as Prime Minister, and a rash of murders by the Yorkshire Ripper.

Miv, who is plain and skinny, is thrilled to be friends with Sharon, who is pretty and lives in a pleasant neighborhood with a nice family. What binds them is their fascination with the killings. As the police struggle to find a suspect, the two girls decide to start their own investigation. They make notes of neighborhood characters based on their looks and behavior. Suspects include a widowed Pakistani shopkeeper, a grouchy schoolteacher, a scrap collector, and a lorry driver. What the girls learn is that there are factors in their suspects’ lives that have nothing to do with the Ripper. And Miv uncovers other secrets that everything to do with her.

Jennie Godfrey’s novel has many worthwhile things to offer. From Miv’s viewpoint, the world is terrifying enough, what with racism, bullying, child abuse, and wife-beating poisoning her community. The stirrings of young romance, combined with Miv’s fear of losing Sharon’s friendship, skew Miv’s judgement, leading her into dark waters.

For the most part the novel is colorful, heart-felt and well-paced. The characters are distinctive and interesting. My reason for limiting my review to three stars is the author’s mixture of first- and third-person narration. She bounces back and forth between Miv’s point of view and those of other characters, with the result that we learn things about them that diminish the mystery and diffuse the tension. There are also several instances of offensive language that could have been avoided. That said, this is Jennie Godfrey’s first novel. She shows a great deal of promise, and I hope we’ll hear more from her.

Chevron Ross's novels include Weapons of Remorse, The Seven-Day Resurrection, and The Samaritan's Patient. Click here for more information.

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Main Street: A Chevron Ross Book Review

Chevron Ross — Fri, 5 Jun 2026 00:00:00 +0000

It’s often said that America’s strength lies in its middle class: ordinary, hard-working citizens who raise families, pay taxes, and build churches. In his 1920 novel Main Street, Sinclair Lewis explores these stalwarts through the eyes of a young woman who wants more from life than mediocrity.

Carol Milford, a college graduate with lofty ambitions, marries Dr. Will Kennicott, who takes her to his home in Gopher Prairie, Minnesota. There she finds her new neighbors small-minded, coarse, cliquish, self-satisfied, and gossipy. After a few unsuccessful attempts to blend in, Carol decides to reform them. She recruits such allies as Vida Sherwin, a schoolteacher; Guy Pollack, a thoughtful bachelor; and Miles Bjornstam, the town’s handyman and closet intellectual.

Gopher Prairie responds negatively to her efforts to beautify the town; to start a literary society, a theatrical company, and an organization to help poor people. In this community, poverty is the fault of its victims, and socialists are America’s enemies. As one character puts it, “The Republican Party is the agent of the Lord, and all socialists ought to be hanged.” Carol herself suffers from mood swings, often uncertain of her goals.

There is more to Gopher Prairie than its time-worn conventions. Lewis’s rich narration helps us to understand the history and traditions that form middle class societies. The townspeople are stodgy, but they can also be heroic, generous and compassionate. It’s a weak and narrow faith that binds them together while keeping them stagnant.

Main Street is a character study that immerses us in the foundations on which America was built. Some readers may find it tedious and predictable, but it’s important to remember that in 1920 Lewis’s observations were radical and offensive to his targets. The parallels to Twenty-First Century America are evident, because human nature transcends time and circumstances. In the citizens of Gopher Prairie, we find reflections of ourselves.

Chevron Ross's novels include Weapons of Remorse, The Seven-Day Resurrection, and The Samaritan's Patient. Click here for more information.

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Ethel Rosenberg: An American Tragedy. A Chevron Ross Book Review

Chevron Ross — Fri, 29 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

No matter what you think about communism, this is a heartbreaking book. Historian Anne Sebba, in her masterful account of the Rosenberg case, uses documents and interviews to portray a woman whose goal was to be a good person, a good wife, and a good mother. Ethel Rosenberg’s execution for treason in 1953 lingers in the public conscience because a sense of injustice still hangs over an America that is supposed to believe in justice.

Ethel grew up in an impoverished New York City neighborhood under a harsh mother who scorned her daughter despite her intellect and musical talents. During the Great Depression she, like many of her generation, became involved in pro-Russian activities, unaware of the Stalin regime’s bloody purges. But her marriage to Julius Rosenberg in 1936 led Ethel to place her husband and two sons above her political fervor. They were an ordinary American couple until disaster struck.

During World War II Ethel’s brother David entangled himself with a Soviet agent while he was stationed in Los Alamos, New Mexico, where the atomic bomb was developed. When the world learned in 1949 that the Russians had a nuclear device, the FBI zeroed in on David, who then implicated Julius and Ethel to save his own skin. Incredibly, Ethel’s mother all but disowned her, leaving the couple almost defenseless.

Anti-Communist hysteria in the 1950s made it easy for the government to make a criminal case against anyone with pro-Soviet sympathies. Julius unquestionably acted on behalf of Soviet interests during the war, when Russia was an American ally. But neither he nor Ethel ever joined the Communist Party, and there was never any proof that Ethel was guilty of espionage. Nevertheless, the Rosenbergs’ Jewish heritage helped to seal their doom, leaving their two young boys at the mercy of the child welfare system.

Anne Sebba’s book shows evidence of painstaking research into the lives of all involved in the Rosenberg case. Some were brave, others cowardly, still others cruel or incompetent. As for the Rosenbergs, they remained devoted to each other. Ethel’s letters from prison depict a woman who cared more about her children’s welfare than about herself.

The bibliography is impressive and includes pictures of the couple, their family, and those who tried to help them. My only reason for deducting one star from my rating is an obscene quotation from Roy Cohn, one of the most foul-mouthed and despicable characters in American history. Otherwise, I recommend this book enthusiastically.

Chevron Ross's novels include Weapons of Remorse, The Seven-Day Resurrection, and The Samaritan's Patient. Click here for more information.

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Commonwealth: A Chevron Ross Book Review

Chevron Ross — Fri, 22 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

In the Old Testament, God repeatedly warns that the sins of the fathers will fall upon their children, “even to the third and fourth generation.” Ann Patchett explores this notion in Commonwealth. When an uninvited party guest makes a pass at the host’s wife, two families are ripped asunder, leaving the children to bear the consequences.

Commonwealth is a brilliant novel focusing largely upon six children forced to patch together a new family from the shreds of two tattered ones. I was particularly touched by Albie, whose budding symptoms of personality disorder fly so far out of control that his brother Cal repeatedly medicates the boy, eventually with disastrous results. Then there’s Franny, who settles for being a cocktail waitress and mistress to an author more than twice her age. And Caroline, whose strong personality devolves into a warped rage that she takes out on her sister.

In their individual ways, five of the children survive the events that have thrown them together and build lives for themselves. For the most part, they cope pretty well. But I couldn’t help wondering who they might have become if not for that illicit kiss all those years ago.

I'd have given Commonwealth a five-star review if not for its occasional foul language. A writer of Ann Patchett’s talents needn’t rely on such words.

Chevron Ross's novels include Weapons of Remorse, The Seven-Day Resurrection, and The Samaritan's Patient. Click here for more information.

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Good People: A Chevron Ross Book Review

Chevron Ross — Fri, 15 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

There are so many reasons to read Good People that a book review can’t do them justice. Patmeena Sabit’s unique narrative approach is critical to this exploration of a family tragedy aggravated by suspicions, xenophobia, and hearsay.

Instead of using a single narrator, the novel relies on family members, friends, acquaintances, witnesses, news reports, and public officials to tell the story of the Sharaf family. The father, who has immigrated to the US from Afghanistan, rises from a cleaner of rain gutters to a wealthy businessman. With his wife and four children, he occupies a mansion in an exclusive Northern Virginia neighborhood. The people who encounter them are just as vital to the story as the family itself.

The Sharafs personify the American dream until a mysterious event engulfs their oldest child Zorah. Rather than spoil the narrative for you, I’ll leave you to enjoy the book as much as I did by letting multiple voices lead you through it. Depending on who is speaking at any moment, Zorah is either the perfect daughter or a disgrace to her family and culture.

Sabit forces us to realize how prone we are to evaluate our fellow human beings through the lenses of cultural differences and behavior. We don’t know the Sharafs; we know only what other people say about them, and everybody has an opinion. It’s these contradictions that spin the event into an international controversy.

Don’t be discouraged by the disjointed series of anecdotes that introduce the story. The author knows what she’s doing. You’ll find yourself swiftly involved in what amounts to a detective story with multiple clues and interpretations of them. Opinions don’t always equal facts, and that’s why Good People is an important novel in this era of cruelty, stereotyping, and divisiveness.

I’ve limited my rating to four stars due to occasional instances of offensive language.

Chevron Ross's novels include Weapons of Remorse, The Seven-Day Resurrection, and The Samaritan's Patient. Click here for more information.

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The Last Suppers: A Chevron Ross Book Review

Chevron Ross — Fri, 8 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Everything seems wrong in Ginny Polk’s life, from her bitter relationship with her mother to her inappropriate romance with Roscoe Simms, warden of Greenmount State Penitentiary in 1950s Louisiana. Ginny even bears scars from her childhood, when she witnessed the electrocution of the man convicted of killing her father. It’s to Ginny’s credit that she attempts to beautify her ugly environment, by cooking special last meals for the condemned prisoners.

Even those meals sound like cruel and unusual punishment, but I suppose you’d have to be a Louisiana native to relish artery slammers like pork neck stew, or spoon bread with butter and maple syrup. Nevertheless, Ginny feels the condemned men deserve one special treat before they die. Usually, it’s a recipe from the prisoner’s happier days. Her kind gesture is a bright light in a dark world of brutality.

What this novel does, it does well – exploring the foundation of corruption, racism and violence characteristic of the Segregationist South, and the lingering consequences that infect and destroy family ties, friendship, love, even pursuit of redemption. It is not a happy story, but it has the ring of truth.

Be advised that The Last Suppers is rife with profanity, foul language and some sexual activity, which accounts for my three-star rating.

Chevron Ross's novels include Weapons of Remorse, The Seven-Day Resurrection, and The Samaritan's Patient. Click here for more information.

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Mona's Eyes: A Chevron Ross Book Review

Chevron Ross — Fri, 1 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Thomas Schlesser must have known from the start that he needed a special framework for this novel. Stripped of its premise, Mona’s Eyes is an art history lesson, and a very good one.

Mona, a ten-year-old French girl, suffers a temporary vision loss that may recur at any time. Her grandfather, Henry Vuillemin, resolves to take her on weekly museum expeditions so that if she does go blind, she will have lasting memories of great artworks.

If you know as little about art as I do, you’ll find the grandfather’s mission enlightening. Henry makes Mona contemplate each artwork for several minutes before asking her impressions of it. Mona proves to be an apt pupil, and Henry an excellent teacher. Their discussions lead us to understand why such artists as Botticelli, da Vinci, Raphael, Titian, and many others are legends, and how their personal, social and political backgrounds shaped their work.

When she’s not at a museum, Mona struggles with conventional schoolgirl problems such as bullying and worries about her father, whose knick-knack shop is teetering on the verge of insolvency. There’s also a mystery involving Mona’s grandmother that troubles the child.

In my opinion, the novel’s premise is a bit flawed. It’s hard to imagine a ten-year-old girl absorbing her grandfather’s verbose lectures about Neoclassicism, the Enlightenment, Romanticism, Impressionism, etc., not to mention the advanced history lessons that a child Mona’s age would find overwhelming. Even if she’s bright for her age, what does a ten-year-old know about allegories and personifications, not to mention the adult cruelty that led so many artists to explore their own dark souls?

In addition, the narration is disjointed, so that the non-museum threads of Mona’s life disappear for long periods of time. I also found it difficult to believe that her parents could swallow the ruse that Mona is seeing a psychiatrist every week while she’s at the museum.

Nevertheless, Thomas Schlesser has put his heart into this story. He had me Googling pictures of famous artworks all the way through it, and he handles the sexual aspects of art with good taste. Flaws notwithstanding, I’m inclined to give Mona’s Eyes a four-star rating.

Chevron Ross's novels include Weapons of Remorse, The Seven-Day Resurrection, and The Samaritan's Patient. Click here for more information.

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