Thursday, August 18, 2016

Book Beginning: Froelich's Ladder by Jamie Duclos Yourdon



THANKS FOR JOINING ME ON FRIDAYS FOR BOOK BEGINNING FUN!

Please join me every Friday to share the first sentence (or so) of the book you are reading, along with your initial thoughts about the sentence, impressions of the book, or anything else the opener inspires. Please remember to include the title of the book and the author’s name.

EARLY BIRDS & SLOWPOKES: This weekly post goes up Thursday evening for those who like to get their posts up and linked early on. But feel free to add a link all week.

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TIE IN: The Friday 56 hosted by Freda's Voice is a natural tie in with this event and there is a lot of cross over, so many people combine the two. The idea is to post a teaser from page 56 of the book you are reading and share a link to your post. Find details and the Linky for your Friday 56 post on Freda’s Voice.

YOUR BOOK BEGINNING



MY BOOK BEGINNING



It was November 1851 when Harold and Froelich arrived in Oregon Country. Disembarking at Fort Astoria, they journeyed inland by foot, hiking over the Cascades in a gale that swept off the ocean like a push broom.

Froelich's Ladder by Jamie Duclos Yourdon, published by Forest Avenue Press. I included the first two sentences for a change because I love the push broom image of the gale driving the brothers inland.

Froelich's Ladder is a "nineteenth century madcap adventure novel" with a fairytale feel.

PUBLISHER'S DESCRIPTION:
Froelich nurses a decades-old family grudge from his permanent perch atop a giant ladder in this nineteenth century madcap adventure novel. When he disappears suddenly, his nephew embarks on a rain-soaked adventure across the Pacific Northwest landscape to find him, accompanied by an ornery girl with a most unfortunate name. In their encounters with Confederate assassins, European expatriates, and a general store magnate, this fairytale twist on the American dream explores the conflicts between loyalty and ambition and our need for human connection, even at the highest rungs.

Favorite Authors: Maj Sjöwall and Per Wahlöö



Maj Sjöwall and Per Wahlöö are Swedish authors who collaborated on a series of crime novels featuring homicide detective Martin Beck. They wrote the books in the 1960s and '70s, until Wahlöö's death in 1975.

So far, I haven't read any of the Martin Beck books. But it has lured me in because I'm working my way through the Edgar Award winners and The Laughing Policeman won the award in 1971; the books count for my European Reading Challenge; the Vintage Mystery Challenge has me hooked on "Silver Age" vintage mysteries; and all the Nordic Noir I'm watching on Netflix puts me in the mood for Swedish mysteries.

I can't wait to start!

Roseanna (1965)
The Man Who Went Up in Smoke (1966)
The Man on the Balcony (1967)
The Laughing Policeman (1968) (Edgar Award, Best Novel, 1971)
The Fire Engine That Disappeared (1969)
Murder at the Savoy (1970)
The Abominable Man (1971)
The Locked Room (1972)
Cop Killer (1974)
The Terrorists (1975)