Southern Arizona authors' tales of mystery, history and COVID on a cruise ship

“Age Is Just a Number: 101 Tales of Humor & Wisdom for Life After 60”

By Amy Newmark. Chicken Soup for the Soul. $14.95 paperback.

Tucsonan D. Lincoln Jones has one of the 101 tales in this new “Chicken Soup for the Soul” collection, assembled by Amy Newmark. The collection features new starts, adventures, misadventures, love, new careers, downsizing and other exploits of folks in their 60s, 70s, 80s and even 90s. Jones’ story, “The Popsicle Kids,” relates the sweet tale of Jones and his wife, empty-nesters in an apartment complex, who gradually assumed pseudo-grand parenting roles for single-parent kids in the neighborhood. They taught basic courtesies and fostered friendships by passing out Popsicles.

— Christine Wald-Hopkins

“Dead Prey: The New Order”

By R.L. Clayton. R. Clayton International Enterprise, Inc. $15.99

Sniper par-excellence KiKi Russell and her husband, interrogator par-excellence, Dr. Nick Sabino, return with a vengeance in this fifth R.L. Clayton “Dead” series. In his prologue, Clayton decries the high level of violence and corruption in our neighbor Mexico, which he attributes to cartels’ competing to feed the United States’ appetite for illegal drugs. It’s time for a change, he writes, and he plays the situation out in his narrative.

The world he creates in “Dead Prey” is a complicated one of rival cartels and American black ops activity in Mexico. KiKi and Nick have joined a high-tech team in northern Sonora known as the Fantasmas, which was contracted to reduce cartel violence by eliminating bad guys. These “eliminations” don’t go unnoticed, however. When the brother of an assassin KiKi had killed recognizes her signature work, he sets out to assassinate her.

Meanwhile, the Fantasmas attack cartel operations that have U.S. government affiliations, and they find themselves under attack on two fronts. High tech, stealth, strategic military-like operations and shootouts, as we’ve come to expect of this couple, ensue, but the book has an unexpectedly nonmilitary conclusion.

— Christine Wald-Hopkins

“Into This Sea of Green: Poems from the Prairie”

By Janet McMillan Rives. Vanishing Line Press. $14.99.

Economy of language and clarity of vision mark the work of retired economics professor Janet McMillan Rives. Rives, who lives in Oro Valley, taught at the University of Northern Iowa, where she spent most of her adult life. These poems demonstrate a clear love, but also respect, for the Plains. After a tornado, for example: “…Then the storm blows over / and you’re left alone like these trees / torn and twisted in such a way / you can never get quite straight again.” The subjects in this slim volume include landscapes, chance encounters with a farm boy, the local Amish. They concern the passage of time, the colors of seasons, remnants of lives gone. And they can becalm beautifully: “Fat flakes falling quietly / at the pace of a poem / …. Snow, soft as a pillow, / fresh as an unrumpled / coverlet of white cotton” (“First Snow”).

— Christine Wald-Hopkins

“On Tràigh Lar Beach”

By Dianne Ebertt Beeaff. She Writes Press. $16.95 paperback.

“A cigarette lighter, jar of pickled onions, the handle of a child’s bucket, an empty ketchup holder, rock concert badge.” When a despairing, writing-blocked young novelist stumbles upon this collection of detritus on a beach in the Western Hebrides, her writer’s block clears: Each of these items represents a story, she realizes. So she writes them.

After a first chapter laying out the novelist’s dilemma, “On Tràigh Lar Beach” presents 12 short tales and a novella. Its characters and situations are unrelated: an aging theater actress struggles with a comeback; a privileged private-school alum who married beneath him can’t succeed in severing Mummy’s purse strings; meditation-retreat participant thinks about everything but the breathing that her mind is meant to be focused on (“That neo-hippie’s … learning to embrace opportunity,” she thinks. “It’s a struggle. She’s wrestling it to the ground right now. A big sucker, opportunity is. A sumo wrestler … wearing those little white diapers”). This character might not attain enlightenment, but she takes us on an entertaining trip.

So that the detritus can make its way to the Outer Hebrides, the stories’ settings all have North American access to the Atlantic Ocean. Starting with her description of the harsh and beautiful landscape of the Scottish islands, Beeaff takes us from New Orleans, up to the tip of Newfoundland via such spots as North Carolina, Maine and Quebec City. The stories themselves are satisfying tales about human relations, interconnections; and the novella follows four young women fans of a Scottish rock band. The settings, though — highly detailed, visual, and atmospheric — are themselves worth the price of admission. They become a travel adventure in their own right.

— Christine Wald-Hopkins

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“Broken”

By Lonni Lees. Wildside Press. $11.99

The Arizona desert town of Agua Verde has more than its share of conflicted, even contemptible, citizens. Bad habits, bad attitudes and bad behavior — from child abuse and racism to homophobia and petty theft — abound in this berg where “washed up cops come to die.” So, in a way, it’s not surprising when dead bodies start to pile up, murders seemingly unrelated but for the fact that each corpse met its end courtesy of a broken neck. Author Lonni Lees delivers a visceral punch; she seeds a few rays of humanity among her characters, but can redemption really be possible in the midst of so much evil?

Lees, who lives in Tucson, is an award-winning writer of fiction, nonfiction, and poetry; she has authored four novels, and has twice been writer-in-residence at Hedgebrook, a writer’s retreat on Whidbey Island, Washington.

— Helene Woodhams

“Historic Tales of Territorial Tucson: 1854-1912”

By David Devine. The History Press. $21.99

David Devine has been writing about Tucson and Southern Arizona history for more than 25 years. With this latest offering, he focuses on the period from the Gadsden Purchase to statehood, examining some of the lesser known, but no less intriguing, aspects of the Old Pueblo’s past. Divine has the inside scoop on the topics that mattered in Tucson back in the day, from popular sports to presidential visits (William McKinley’s 1901 whistle-stop lasted 35 minutes, during which he assiduously avoided the hot topic of statehood) and from racial antagonisms to snake bite remedies (application of a sliced onion and smoking a cigar were both recommended, although not necessarily simultaneously). Much of the source material employed by the author for interpreting the political and social climate came from reporting found in a variety of local newspapers, which allowed him to cast a net wide enough to capture issues that were pertinent to Tucsonans of both genders and many ethnicities. To accomplish this, he relied on the Jim Ayres Newspaper Index, a compilation of early Southern Arizona English-language newspapers. The Jim Ayres Index was his inspiration for writing this book, says Divine, and local history buffs will find it a treasure trove.

— Helene Woodhams

“Smoke Screen (Murder at the Dog Show Book 19)”

By Karen Harbert. Published by the author. $11.99; $9.98 Kindle

It’s a pity that Jennifer MacLeod’s extended family isn’t as well-behaved as her prize-winning corgi show dogs. When her shady brother-in-law, newly elected to Congress, bullies his way into her Tanque Verde home with a posse of unsavory political cronies, alarm bells go off for Jennifer: she’s come close to disaster before courtesy of her pushy relations. When a judge at the Tucson dog show turns up dead, she begins to connect the dots between corrupt politicians, greedy developers, arson and murder. Harbert’s “ripped from the headlines” plotting will ring a bell for Southern Arizona readers familiar with the controversial housing development proposed for Benson — but the through line of the 19-volume “Murder at the Dog Show” series is the author’s professional interest in breeding and exhibiting Cardigan Welsh corgis: her passion for these show dogs is the hallmark of her work. Harbert has 100 championships to her credit, and is on the board of directors of the Dog Writers Association of America. – Helene Woodhams

“Three Worlds, One Voyage: Cruising to Antarctica (and trying to get home) during the coronavirus pandemic”

By Don Jorgensen. Human Factor Consulting, LLC. $11.95; $2.99 Kindle

When his suitcase went missing en route to his Antarctic expedition a little more than a year ago, veteran world traveler Don Jorgensen was philosophical about the inconvenience: after all, travelers need to anticipate the unexpected. What he couldn’t have anticipated was the global wave of the coronavirus pandemic that would create heavy weather for cruise ships like his, even at the ends of the Earth.

At first, ignorance was bliss. Jorgensen is an enthusiastic traveler and his day-to-day narrative is filled with wildlife sightings, adventure excursions, star-gazing, science, and even a dip into the frigid waters of Whaler’s Bay. He peppers the narrative with personal anecdotes and recollections in a lively and conversational way. But his delight disappears when news of the outside world begins to break through the bubble of the cruise ship, and the convivial on-board atmosphere devolves into a nightmare of uncertainty. As ports in South America turn them away and flights are canceled, the possibility looms that his ship will be diverted to its home port in the far-off Netherlands. It wasn’t the kind of adventure travel the author had in mind, but his account of what it was like to be stranded at sea when the pandemic took hold makes for page-turning reading, and gives new meaning to the concept of a once-in-a-lifetime trip.

Jorgensen, who lives in Tucson, is a consultant in change leadership.

— Helene Woodhams