Jill Hedgecock

Fiction Writer

bookish

Book Review: The Dog Master: A Novel of the First Dog by W. Bruce Cameron

The Dog Master: A Novel of the First Dog (2016, Forge Books, paperback, 416 pages, $21.83) by W. Bruce Cameron is as much about early human survival as it is the evolution of the dog species. Cameron summarizes his book as follows: “At the dawn of the last Ice Age, our species was in danger of extinction, threatened by starvation, by vicious predators, and competing for scarce resources with another humanoid—the Neanderthal, who were stronger and faster and had bigger brains. Yet it is mankind that prevailed—and I believe it was all because we made partners of our former mortal enemies, the wolves.”

The focus of the novel is on the Kindred and Wolfen clans, but the fierce Cohorts who paint their faces black, the timid Frightened loners, and the placid Blanc people contribute to the storyline. Within the Kindred tribe, Mal, a young man with a malformed leg, and his brother, Dog, the inspiration for the tamed wolf’s name, and their mother, Calli, are key to the story. The tapestry of supporting Kindred characters include the beautiful Bellu, Urs, the Kindred Hunt Master, Grat, a young bully, Albi, the power-hungry and punitive council mother, and her hapless son, Palloc. Within the Wolfen, the romance between the clan leader, Silex, and Fia sizzles. But after unfortunate events, Silex is forced to marry his lackluster sister, Ovi.

Cameron creates a world where the quest for food forms the basis for social structure. As might be expected, men are meat hunters, while women and children tend the fire and gather nuts and berries. The Kindred tribes survival strategy is to establish a summer and winter base camp, while the Wolfen are nomadic but settle into gathering sites, following game and modeling their behavior after wolves.

Fans of Jean M. Auel’s Clan of the Cave Bear series will enjoy this book. From a tense lion-hunting scene and violent encounters with the Cohort, to the myriad of romantic relationships, to the mystery as to how a man ends up living in a cave with an injured wolf and her pups, this novel is a page-turner. It is bound to resonate with readers beyond the typical lover of dog books.

W. Bruce Cameron’s most well-known dog-related book is the New York Times and USA Today bestseller: A Dog’s Purpose. His NYT bestseller, 8 Simple Rules for Dating My Teenage Daughter, was turned into an ABC series in 2002.

Click here to purchase the novel:

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Book Review: At the Edge of the Orchard by Tracy Chevalier


Book Review by Jill Hedgecock


In At the Edge of the Orchard by Tracy Chevalier (2017, paperback, Penguin, 304 pages, $14.22), James and Sadie Goodenough live a destitute farming life in the harsh, black swampland of Ohio with their five surviving children. Consistent with the 1800s era when sons and daughters rarely lived to see to adolescence; swamp fever claimed five of their ten children.

In a world with few pleasures, James covets one thing above all else: the sweet taste of golden pippin apples. His wife Sadie, however, craves the hard cider made from the sour apples called “spitters.” John Chapman (best known as Johnny Appleseed) is more than happy to encourage Sadie’s thirst for the alcoholic applejack. This turns out to be unfortunate for the Goodenoughs given Sadie’s embittered and vengeful personality. All-out war breaks out in the Goodenough family when it comes time to decide whether to plant more “eaters” or spitters. When James’s wife loses all restraint and decides to take an axe to her husband’s “eater” trees, and everything goes wrong, the youngest Goodenough, Robert, escapes the swampland, leaving two sisters and two brothers behind, including frail Martha.

Robert heads West taking odd jobs and never lingering longer than a few years at any one place. In Texas, he meets Molly, who fancies Robert a lot more than he likes her. When Robert lands in California, Molly tracks him down and their tenuous romance resumes. Here too, Robert meets real-life character, William Lobb, a Cornish plant collector who is employed by Veitch Nurseries. Mr. Lobb gives Robert a job supporting the collection of evergreen trees and seeds to ship back to England and Wales. His occupation becomes an important part of Robert’s life journey as he learns how to be a “tree man.”

Tracy Chevalier has written over twenty books, including the international bestseller Girl with a Pearl Earring, which was made into an Oscar®-nominated film. Her skill in capturing the days of old serves this book well. Chevalier does a tremendous job of describing the haphazard birth of San Francisco as a city in the gold rush days, the wonderment of first views of the majestic redwoods, the challenges of ship travel, and the development of the tourist industry surrounding the sequoias of California at Calaveras Big Trees.

The book is revealed through multiple perspectives, including James, Sadie, Robert and Martha Goodenough. Told partially as epistolary (in the form of letters) fiction, the novel describes the difficult circumstances the men and women had to overcome, and the lack of communication available between families in those days, while trying to survive on the American frontier. The novel is a stark reminder of the rigors American pioneers faced in the mid-1800s.

Click here to buy the book:

https://amzn.to/4cKsGai


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Book Review: Those Girls by Chevy Stevens


Review by Jill Hedgecock

Those Girls (St. Martins Griffin, 2016, paperback, 400 pages, $17.10) by Chevy Stevens is a novel about three teen Canadian sisters, Jess, Dani, and Courtney, who make a life-altering mistake that leaves them fleeing from the law. The three orphaned sisters head for the Vancouver but run into trouble when their truck breaks down in a rural town named Cash Creek. With no money and on the run, they make the unfortunate decision to put their trust in two boys who promise to help them. The girls become imprisoned in an abandoned building.

Told initially from the perspective of the youngest girl, Jess, some passages are hard to take. The suspense is sometimes almost unbearable, but what carries the book is the bond between the sisters.

The girls eventually escape their imprisonment, and with the assistance of a caring bystander, they change their names and start a new life. However, Courtney (now going by the name of Crystal), who suffered the most egregious abuse from the boys, never fully recovers. Jess winds up pregnant and decides to keep the child, which sets up the second half of the book, which takes place eighteen years later and is told from the perspective of Jess’ teen daughter, Skylar. Skylar doesn’t know the truth about her father or the abuse her mother and two aunts endured as teens. Skylar is aware of Crystal’s self-destructive behavior but is very fond of her aunt. When Crystal decides to return to Cash Creek and take revenge, Skylar follows her into a dangerous situation, leaving the reader wondering if history will repeat itself.

This book is not for everyone. The abuse scenes are often written in graphic detail. But those who love a gripping, page-turning thriller will not be disappointed. I found myself drawn into the plight of these girls and charmed by their commitment to each other, even into adulthood. Theirs is a story of survival and the strength. Fans of Frieda McFadden, Lisa Jewell and Karin Slaughter will likely enjoy Chevy Steven’s latest edge-of-your-seat novel.

Chevy Stevens is the New York Times Bestselling Author of That Night. Still Missing also won the International Thriller Writers Award for Best First Novel. Her books, including Those Girls, which Stephen King called “incredibly scary,” have been published in more than thirty countries and optioned for film. Her seventh novel, Dark Roads, was released in 2021. Her new release, The Hitchhikers, is scheduled to be released in October 2025. She lives on Vancouver Island with her husband, daughter, and two dogs. Learn more through her website at chevystevens.com.

Click here to buy the book:

https://amzn.to/43L9iaG
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Book Review: Remarkably Bright Creatures

Review by Jill Hedgecock

Remarkably Bright Creatures (Ecco/Harper Collins, May 2022, hardcover, 368 pages, $13.79) by Shelby Van Pelt is a feel-good story about Marcellus, a giant Pacific octopus living at Sowell Bay Aquarium in Washington State, Tova, the aquarium’s custodian, and Cameron, a 30-year-old man who can’t seem to hold down a job. The three main character’s lives all intersect at the aquarium and each holds a clue as to how Tova’s son, Erik, died over 30 years ago.

Marcellus, who provides his own narrative in the novel, counts down his passing days based on his time living in captivity. He is painfully aware he’s reached the end of his life span. The octopus has taken a special interest in Tova and plots a way to help the older woman understand something important about her son’s death before he passes. Marcellus is incredibly intuitive and smart, is a crafty escape artist, and often provides comedic relief.

Tova, a seventy-something widow, is only making the motions of living. She has never recovered from the unsolved mystery surrounding her only child’s death. She “found something to do” as a night shift cleaning lady at the aquarium after her husband passed. When she’s not working, Tova spends time with the “Knit-Wits, her long-term woman’s group, but she feels left out as the women discuss their children and grandchildren. She has a special platonic friendship with the local grocer, Ethan, who is definitely interested in pursuing her.

Cameron is struggling to find his way. His deadbeat mother pawned him off on her sister and he has never known his father’s name. When he discovers an old photo of his mother with a real estate mogul living in Washington State, he jumps to the conclusion that the man is his father. His money woes lead him to travel across the country as he concocts a plan to extract back child support. Things don’t quite pan out and Cameron must get a job to pay back a loan from his aunt. When he lands a job at the aquarium, he sets a new trajectory for his life that he couldn’t possibly have predicted.

Remarkably Bright Creatures is part mystery, part love story, and one-hundred percent enjoyable. It instantly became one of my favorite reads of 2023. Fans of A Hundred-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out the Window and Disappeared by Jonas Jonasson, A Man Called Ove by Fredrik Backman and The Art of Racing in the Rain by Garth Stein should put this novel on their “must read” pile.

Remarkably Bright Creatures was an instant New York Times bestseller, a Read with Jenna Today Show Book Club Pick, and an Amazon Best Book of 2022. It was named a Best Book of the 2022 Summer by the “Chicago Tribune” and “USA Today.”


When Shelby Van Pelt isn’t indulging in her flash-fiction addiction, she’s wrangling her cats and children. Remarkably Bright Creatures is her debut novel. She was born and raised in the Pacific Northwest, but now calls the suburbs of Chicago home. Find out more at www.shelbyvanpelt.com

Click here to buy the book:

https://amzn.to/4c3HErz

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Book Review: The Lake House by Kate Morton

Review by Jill Hedgecock

What happened to little Theo? Was the toddler kidnapped? Murdered? This is the major premise of The Lake House by Kate Morton (2016, Atria Books; Reprint edition, paperback, 512 pages $11.88.) Theo had disappeared from the Edevane estate in Cornwall, England, during the Edavane’s annual Midsummer party in June 1933. The case has remained unsolved for 70 years.


Fast forward to 2003 in London when Sarah, a former policewoman who has been put on leave and has returned to Cornwall to stay with her grandfather, stumbles upon the abandoned Edevane property while out running. The derelict house intrigues Sarah because it appears that the former occupants up and left without packing a single possession. When Sarah learns about the tragedy of Theo’s disappearance, her detective skills kick in. She contacts one of Theo’s sisters, Alice. Theo’s sister wants to bury the past, but through Sarah’s prodding, Alice learns that one of her assumptions about what happened on that fateful evening in 1933 has been wrong.


The story unfolds in pieces between Alice’s childhood and the Edevane family saga in 1933 and Sarah and Alice’s current lives. Red herrings tucked into the novel keep the reader guessing about Theo’s fate. Several nannies, a retired medical doctor, and a handsome young groundskeeper could have played a role in Theo’s disappearance. Then there’s the backstory of Theo and Alice’s parents: Eleanor, a fiercely devoted wife, and Anthony, a nature lover, war veteran, and loving father.


The Lake House received a Woman & Home Reader’s Choice Award for Best Historical Thriller (2016) and a Goodreads Choice Award Nominee for Historical Fiction (2015). Readers who enjoy a compelling mystery, learning about the effects of World War I on servicemen, and poetic prose will love this book.

The mystery of what happened to Theo launches this otherwise quiet book into a page-turning frenzy.
Kate Morton is an award-winning, New York Times bestselling author. Her five novels are published in over 40 countries, in 34 languages, and have all been number one bestsellers around the world. Kate grew up in Queensland and now splits her time between London and Australia. She has degrees in dramatic art and English literature with a focus in nineteenth-century tragedy and contemporary Gothic novels. Morton says of her experiences as a reader and novelist, “I fell deeply in love with books as a child and believe that reading is freedom; that to read is to live a thousand lives in one; that fiction is a magical conversation between two people – you and me – in which our minds meet across time and space.”

Click here to buy The Lake House:

https://amzn.to/4bnh64k

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Book Review: H is for Hawk by Helen MacDonald

Review by Jill Hedgecock

H is for Hawk by Helen MacDonald (2016, Grove Press, paperback, 320 pages, $10.06) weaves the author’s grief-stricken journey as she grapples with the death of her father while training a goshawk. In the book, Helen says, “…walking the forest you come across all sorts of things you don’t expect.” But it can easily be said that while reading this book you will similarly encounter the unexpected. Along Helen’s emotional journey, she learns from the mistakes of T.H. White, who also engaged in falconry, but best known as the author of the King Author series, most notably The Sword in the Stone. H is for Hawk is somewhat a literary biography of White and his story is told on a parallel track with Helen’s self discovery.

Riddled throughout the narrative are fascinating details about the sport of falconry. Readers will seamlessly discover what mutes, creances, swivels and jesses are as they learn the dedication needed to train a wild bird of prey. The details of hawk, and specifically goshawk behavior, is fascinating. For instance, instead of attaching bells to hawks’ legs on tiny leather straps called bewits, a tail-mounted bell is much better for a goshawk, which has a habit of shaking their tails. But even more interesting is the bond that develops between, Mabel, our narrator’s goshawk, and her human handler. Throughout the book, the savage, yet somehow endearing, personality of Mabel shines through the pages. This writing is brutally honest, poetic, gut-wrenching, historical, and informative all at the same time.

Helen’s descriptions of frustration at not being able to flush prey to give Mabel an opportunity to “do what she was born to do” are intense. The brutality of a hawk kill is described both vividly and with a kind of stark forgiveness. Mabel’s antics during the hunting flights often put Helen in impossible situations. Yet, the book somehow drifts in nostalgia as our narrator reveals her father’s obsession with warplanes that dotted the skies of his youth. This is a book like no other. I highly recommended it not only to bird and nature lovers, but also for those that have experienced the grief of a loved one.

H is for Hawk landed on more than 25 Best Books of the Year lists, including TIME (#1 Nonfiction Book), NPR, O, The Oprah Magazine (10 Favorite Books), Vogue (Top 10), Vanity Fair, Washington Post, Boston Globe, Chicago Tribune, Seattle Times, San Francisco Chronicle (Top 10), Publishers Weekly, Kirkus Reviews and Amazon (Top 20). Given the poetical style of H is for Hawk, it is not surprising that her first book, Shaler’s Fish, is a collection of poems. She has plans to tackle the subject of how humans perceive the natural worlds as separate from themselves in her next book. Helen Macdonald is an English writer, naturalist, and an Affiliated Research Scholar at the University of Cambridge. She lives in Suffolk, UK.

Click here to buy the book:

https://amzn.to/3EMISLf

Note: I receive a small commission if you purchase the book from this link.