Plutopia; There Was An Old Woman

"Plutopia" by Kate Brown was an interesting look at two towns built in the 1940s to produce plutonium for making bombs--one was in Richland, Washington, the other in Ozersk, Russia. The accidents, spills, design flaws, cover-ups, health issues, etc., were all devastating and residents are still suffering from health issues to this day and fighting for answers. No one seems to want to take responsibility for the messes they created.

"There Was an Old Woman" by Hallie Ephron was a quick read, a pretty good suspense story that I actually had figured out pretty quickly, a real rarity for me. When Evie's mom falls and is taken to the hospital, Evie goes out to Higg's Point to take care of her house and is stunned when she sees the filthy condition it's in. Evie figures her mother's drinking must have escalated to a dangerous point. She goes to the hospital to visit her and the doctor tells her her mom has suffered from an acetaminophen overdose and she's dying. Evie talks to her mother's elderly but still sharp next door neighbor, Mina Yetner, and more and more things aren't adding up. Why are the houses on their street slowly being emptied of residents dying off and then the houses bulldozed over? Where was all the money coming from that Evie found in her mother's house? Evie searches for answers, hoping she's in time to save Mina Yetner from the same sad fate her mother suffered.