Here One Moment a Haunting Novel

 

 

 

 

Here One Moment (2024)

By Liane Moriarty

Crown, 495 pages.

★★★★★

 

Which of these would creep you out more, someone jumping out to scare you or someone who walked down an aisle telling you and everyone else the age at which they will die and how it will happen? I’m solidly in the second camp; I don’t want  to know! I’m also here to tell you that if you are not already familiar with novelist Liane Moriarty, you should fix that.

 

Moriarty really knows how to spin a yarn. Plus, if you’re sick of novels about rich people, know that Moriarty generally favors prosaic folks. Speaking for myself, I’m really bored with novels about privileged 30s-something Manhattanites whining about their First World problems. If you’re with me, no worries, mate; Moriarty is an Aussie. But let’s return to my opening.

 

Passengers are in the air for a short flight from Hobart, Tasmania to Sydney. Flight attendant Allegra loves her job, but she isn’t having a great day. One member of the crew is arrogant, another is a lazy slacker, and Allegra has just rushed to the loo to clean the vomit a passenger has deposited on her uniform. She doesn’t have a spare and no one is taking up the slack. In other words, there’s no one readily available to keep order when a woman so nondescript that few can remember what she looks like when they reach Sydney stands up from her aisle seat as if she’s frozen in place.

 

Passengers ask her if she’s okay but she says nothing until she begins to walk around the plane delivering a message. She looks at each passenger and says, “I expect” and proclaims the age at which they will shuffle off this mortal coil and their cause of death. You’d probably feel okay about things if she tells you that you will die at age 95 from a cardiac arrest. But what if you’re Leo and she tells you that you will pass at 43 from a workplace accident and you’re just about to turn 43? What if you’re a young mom like Paula who is told she will die at 84? You might be fine with that and perhaps delirious to consider that your daughter Willow will live to 103. But when told that four-year-old Timothy will drown at age seven, Paula goes ballistic and screams, “How can you say that to a mother?”

 

Okay, that’s seriously creepy isn’t it? When the zoned out soothsayer is challenged she calmly replies, “Fate won’t be fought.” So here are a few questions? Do you believe in clairvoyance? Most people reflexively say no. But if you were Leo or Paula, how much consolation would you take from those who tell you that the prognosticator is nuts and that clairvoyance is fake? Could you walk off the plane and live your life as if you never heard the forecast? How about the newlyweds told that the wife’s death will come in four years via domestic violence? Such is the setup for a more serious look at free will versus determinism, though Moriarty doesn’t expect us to enroll in a philosophy class and makes no statement more complicated than. “If free will doesn’t exist… all your decisions and actions are inevitable….”

 

Here One Moment would be a heck of a book if Moriarty ended the book at the Sydney airport, but Moriarty ups the ante. Imagine the potential panic when several of the more immediate predictions come true. Coincidence or an oracle? Moriarty follows how those on the plane adjust their lives or don’t based upon where they come down on the free will versus determinism question. For most, it’s in the back of their minds even if they profess not to believe in predictions. Moriarty also reveals the identity of the erstwhile Sibyl, her backstory, how she feels about what she did, and how she handles notoriety.

 

Don’t be put off by the book’s 495-page length. Many of those pages are just a few lines. It’s a proverbial page turner that you will zip through. And, yes, I will take responsibility if you go on a Liane Moriarty kick after reading Here One Moment.

 

Rob Weir 

Baseball on the East Coast

 

Most of my readers are on the East Coast, so I thought I’d do a 2025 baseball preview by regions this year.

 

Let me start with this: The days of the American League fearing the Best of the East are questionable these days. If you are an overall sports fan, I suspect that the women’s NCAA championship and the NBA (in that order) will be more exciting than spring baseball. I don’t see a dominant team racing ahead of the pack. Here are my picks, with the codicil that that, on paper, three teams have a decent chance in the AL East.

 

1.  Boston Red Sox. They can win because of starting pitching headed by Crochet,  Buehler, and Bello. Duran looks to be a budding star, they stole a nice catcher (Narvaez) from the Yankees, and Bregman is likely to lead them in all offensive categories. They are young, speedy, and hungry.

 

            They could lose because Bello might be a fluke, Hendriks flunks as closer, Giolito is damaged goods, and neither Houck nor Crawford are legit. They could also lose because Casas is a lazy waste and it was a bad idea to make Devers angry. They could lose if the kids are not alright and if the bullpen explodes like the bovines busting out of Pamplona.

 

2. Baltimore Orioles. Normally they’d be the top pick but losing Corbin for 41 year-old Morton is a bad exchange, Henderson is on the IL, and heaven help them if the un-coachable Gary Sanchez catches more than a handful of games. Plucking O’Neill from the Red Sox was a good move. They have a good lineup, but not necessarily a fearful one. They could win with a good tailwind.

 

3. Toronto Blue Jays. I’m almost embarrassed to rank them this high as few teams in baseball disappoint as badly as the Jays. How can a team with Gausman, Berios, and Manoah rank 22^nd in ERA? At age 41, Scherzer should shut it down and wait for the Hall of Fame to call. Will Bichette, Varsho, or Springer produce? If not, the fabulous Guerrero will be wearing a different uniform next year.

 

4. New York Yankees. Any team that starts the year by losing MLB’s best pitcher (Cole) for the season and has Stroman as their #3 starter, the maddeningly inconsistent Rodon as # 1 is clearly in trouble. This core is old, slow, and poorly conditioned. Fried was a good signing but in short, the Yankees are a mess.

 

5. Tampa Bay Rays. They are a bigger mess still, though it’s not inconceivable that their solid pitching (9^th in ERA) could vault them over the Yankees. Except they were 27^th in batting and 29^th in runs scored. Other than (Brandon) Lowe I can’t think of any hitter you’d want from the Rays. To add insult to injury, they are homeless after a hurricane blew the top off of the Trop. They will play home games in the Yankees 11,000-seat minor league park and probably won’t fill it. Every year I say this: Move the Jays to Montreal; summer baseball in Florida is a flop.

 

 

National League East

 

 

 

Based on signing Juan Soto, the Mets are the sexy pick. I say the Mets might have trouble grabbing a Wild Card.

 

1. Philadelphia Phillies. They are clearly the strongest team in the East and are seeking redemption for being dumped in the first round of the playoffs. They have Harper, (Trea) Turner, Schwarber, Realmuto, Bohm, and Marsh to mash, and Wheeler, Nola, and Saurez to head the staff.

 

            They could lose if they don’t find a top closer or if Nola pulls another disappearing act, or if the…

 

2. Atlanta Braves knock them off. If Acuna has put his injuries and problems behind him, that’s a huge plus to go with Olson, Albies, Ozuna, and Profar. Other than Sale you might not be familiar with Braves pitching and losing Fried to the Yankees will hurt, but every year they seem to come up with great arms. That’s why they are #1 in MLB in ERA. Iglesias might be the most underrated closer in the game. Superior pitching is what takes you deep in the offseason. That’s why I’m not sold on the…

 

3. New York Mets. Soto, Alonso, Lindor, Nimmo, and company will produce lots of runs, but Holmes as a starter? No!  Montas? His initials should be IL. Diaz is a heart attack closer. This leaves the very serviceable Peterson and Manea to carry the pitching staff. Each is good, but do you fear them? If the Mets have any catching, it hasn’t announced itself yet.

 

4-5. Miami Marlins and Washington Nationals. Flip the order anyway you wish. The Nats were 23^rd in ERA last year and the Fish were 29^th. Miami was 14^th in average but 27^th in runs scored. Washington was 15^th in average and 25^th in runs. You probably only know 2-3 players from either roster. I tossed a coin and it came up with the Nationals finishing 4^th. I’m going with that  out of fear a second toss would come up Miami. But if Alcantara comes back from injury it could go that way. And who cares?

 

 

March 2025: Laura Stewart, Claire Keegan, Archer Mayor, Rick Lenz, Jamie Harrison

 

Time for some more book clean outs. I’m beginning to think of these as a regular thing.

 

 

 

Laura Stewart is a self-proclaimed fan of Agatha Christie. Her novel Deer Lodge: Death at the Hunting Lodge (Bloodhound Books, 2024, 319 pages) deliberately echoes both a Christie title and falls into the cozy mystery category that Christie practically invented. Stewart’s tale is set in a Scottish village around the holiday of Beltane (May Day) and involves subplots of archaeology, Tarot cards, Celtic mythology, a hillside mansion, numerous eccentrics, several murders, and enough red herrings to hold a fish fry. This is # 3 in Stewart’s Amelia Adams series, each a standalone not in need of previous reading. A group of younger diggers wants to excavate near an old abbey on a farm owned by a very odd man in hope of unearthing a Pictish site. Adams is our amateur sleuth who inherits Stone Manor, but local murders aren’t very good for the Beltane tourist trade. Moira, a white witch, isn’t dissuaded but she and everyone else is a suspect, except maybe Gideon a whiny young man milking a minor injury as if his head were cut off. Stewart deftly balances history, prehistory, the occult, creepy atmosphere, and fine pacing. ★★★★

 

 

 

Irish writer Claire Keegan excels at novellas filled with small details that define place and time. In Small Things Like These  (Grove Press, 2021, 116 pages), Bill Furlong grew up in a wee village somewhere near Waterford in the Republic of Ireland. His mother was a widow pregnant with him, and a servant in the home of Mrs. Wilson a relatively well-to-do widow in her own right. The Furlongs are Catholic, but Mrs. Wilson is a Protestant. Furlough was literally spat upon as a lad because his father was unknown and he lived with a Protestant. He is now married to Eileen, has five daughters, and owns a coal business. Bill is liked by most, is considered kind, and couldn’t care less that his offspring are all girls. He is restless, though, works too hard, and would like to know who is da’ is. This book take place during the Christmas season and is often evocative of the spirit of A Christmas Carol. One of Furlough’s clients is the local abbey, where he accidentally meets Sarah, who is locked in the coal shed after giving birth 14 weeks earlier. She would like to get out to throw herself into the River Barrow. Furlong’s life is altered by two revelations, one about his ancestry and the second the Catholic Church’s squalid and inhumane Magdalene Laundries, the last of which closed in 1996. If you don’t know about them, educate yourself. ★★★★

 

 

 

If you live in Vermont and don’t know the writer Archer Mayor, rectify this immediately. There is no such thing as the Vermont Bureau of Investigation (VBI), but detective Joe Gunther is as Vermont as it gets. How could I possibly resist a free copy of Mayor’s Paradise City (Minotaur Books, 2012, 306 pages), which is set in southern Vermont ski territory, Boston, and my town of Northampton, Massachusetts, whose nickname is the same as the book title? A torched McMansion in ski country owned by a rich out-of-stater, an old woman on Beacon Hill killed by thieves, a jewelry chop shop, arrogance, a family feud, a human smuggling operation, a depressed VBI agent, a meddlesome granddaughter, bad guys eliminated by worse thugs, a body left in Holyoke, and Governor Gail Zigman who was once Joe’s lover–who needs more? Plus, if you’ve lived in Northampton for more than a decade there are enough clues to keep you busy guessing who Mayor’s role models were. Likewise, if you know Vermont, there’s plenty to unravel. Gunther sees things others overlook, but can he crack his personal mysteries?  ★★★★★

 

 

 

Mit Out Sound (Chromodroid Press, 2024, 346 pages). The German word mit  means “with.” As a movie term it references parts of a movie recorded with-out-sound. In the novel from Rick Lenz it makes an appearance as a possible way to salvage a film project. Like too much of Mit Out Sound it’s also Lenz showing off his Hollywood insider knowledge. Emily Bennett is so obsessed with movies that it’s unclear if her face blindness is legit or a reflection of her fixation on celebrities. Though still young, she has been an assistant for Richard Boone. He accidentally mentions the existence of a partial reel for Showdown, an abandoned project that would have co-starred John Wayne (1907-79) and James Dean (1931-55). Emily is sworn to secrecy but proceeds to recruit two impersonators–Tom Manfredo (Wayne) and Jimmy Riley (Dean)­–a director/script writer, film editor, and backers to finish the film. Even her troubled brother gets a role. Emily  worships Wayne and discovers that he called off the film because he distrusted Dean. The novel’s best moments reveal how hard it is to make a movie. It does that so well that it’s difficult to believe that Lenz’s characters got anything off the ground. For what it’s worth, Wayne and Dean were in one film, Trouble Along the Way, though Donna Reed was Wayne’s costar, and Dean had a tiny role. An unconfirmed rumor held that a Wayne/Dean film really was underway. You can reuse movie titles, but neither of the two Showdown IMDB titles (1963/19773) have either Wayne or Dean in them. ★★★

 

 

If you poke around in the American West you’ll discover that “ghost” towns are quite real. There are entire settlements that simply outlive their purpose and disappear from maps. In a way, that’s the centerpiece of The River View (Counterpoint, 2024, 335 pages), a new mystery from Montana writer Jamie Harrison. This is part of Harrison’s Jules Clement series, but The River View is a standalone work. Clement is an interesting central character, an ex-sheriff who is an archaeologist/private investigator/new father. Like many in the Big Sky country, Clement lives close to the margin, but he and his wife Caroline, who works in the county sheriff’s office, are about to build their dream house (with considerable sweat equity). That is if they can ever get Divvy to dig the foundation. In the interim Jules is hired to make sure a new road doesn’t disturb a lost-to-time paupers’ graveyard allegedly just outside the hamlet of Blue Deer. The River View is an unusual book in that it’s part farce and part serious. As the first, it’s quite funny, as in a flasher with an odd penis; a soon-to-be-neighbor who’d like to buy out the Clements who are too close, all manner of building nightmares, and Russians floating about as muscle for unknown outsiders. They could be straight out of The Russians Are Coming, were it not for their serious guns. Of course, it’s never funny when people get killed and your neighbor might be either ridiculous, psycho, or both. And where in the heck is Doris, MT? The book suffers from too many characters and too many mysteries crammed into one book, including Jules’ search for his father’s murderer, which happened many years earlier. But I’ll take too much over too little. ★★★ ½