Martyr! by Kaveh Akbar

 

Cyrus Shams is an Iranian immigrant, although he came to the United States as a baby so identifies with both his Middle Eastern and his American backgrounds.  His mother was shot down in a plane by the American military on a commercial flight when Cyrus was four months old so he has no memory of her.  His father decided to come to the United States to make a new life for he and Cyrus but could only find factory work, killing chickens in a processing plant.  Cyrus has one uncle left in Iran, his mother's brother.  He suffers from PSTD from his role in the war with Iraq where he rode the battlefield dressed in black, offering comfort to those left dying there.  

Now as an adult, Cyrus isn't sure what he will do.  He went off the deep end for quite a while, drinking and doing drugs.  He has been sober for about a year now and considering writing a book about martyrs as he feels he has extensive knowledge of them.  Cyrus is a poet and unsure if his book will be in prose or verse.  He also plays with the idea of doing away with himself as another example of a martyr.

Cyrus hears of an art installation in New York.  An Iranian female artist is dying, a victim of cancer.  She is choosing to live out her life at the museum, sitting and willing to talk with any of the museum patrons.  Cyrus is fascinated with this and along with his best friend and sometime lover, goes to New York to see what the woman has to say about martyrship.  Will she change his mind?

Kaveh Akbar is an Iranian immigrant himself, born in Iran but now in the United States where he teaches in Iowa.  He has two books of published poetry and his work has appeared in many magazines.  He is the poet editor of The Review.  This is his debut novel and it is shortlisted for the National Book Award, a Times Best 10 Book and a New York Time's Book Review 10 Best Books of the Year.  Cyrus will pluck the heartstrings of the reader as they cheer him on, hoping that he can find peace and a reason to live.  Poetry, the immigrant experience and the high rate of addiction among those whose lives start in chaos are discussed.  This book is recommended for readers of literary fiction and those interested in the lives of those from other cultures.

Listen For The Lie by Amy Tintera

 

When Lucy's best friend, Savannah, is killed after a party they attended, she is demolished.  Lucy was attacked as well and she has a concussion.  She can't really remember anything about the attack or why she and Savvy were wandering in the woods.  But there is more fallout.  When rumors start to circulate that Lucy must be involved and that she surely remembers what happened, Lucy can't believe it.  When she realizes that even her husband and her parents think she is involved, that's the last straw.  She files for a divorce and leaves the town.

Lucy builds another life in another city  But now years later, everything comes back to life when the case is chosen by the host of the popular true crime podcast, Listen For The Lie.  The host, Ben Owens, made his name when he solved a cold case in his first season.  Now he is in Lucy's hometown, sure that he can also solve Savvy's murder.  Lucy is appalled and reluctantly goes back home to her grandmother's birthday party and to scope out what's going on.  

But things are still confusing.  Her husband is still in town, remarried although the rumors say this marriage is also on the rocks.  Her male best friend from high school is there and he's dating a girl Lucy was friends with once upon a time.  It's the same small town with gossip and everyone sure they know everything about everybody.  Ben is the new thing, a wild card and terribly attractive.  Does he romance Lucy because he finds her attractive or to try to get the real story out of her?

This is Amy Tintera's first adult novel and it has gotten lots of praise and notice for awards.  Lucy is an interesting character who needs to solve the mystery that has taken way too much of her life.  There is a strong attraction between Lucy and Ben, and between Lucy and her ex-husband.  The sex is enticing but tastefully done, just enough to demonstrate the attraction without overwhelming the book.  I listened to this book and the narrator did an excellent job.  This book is recommended for mystery readers.  

Blue Lonesome by Bill Pronzini

 

Jim Messenger is an accountant in a big city.  He doesn't like his job which has no possibility of advancement and he hasn't dated much since his marriage broke up years ago.  Basically, he is existing and he figures no one would really notice if he wasn't there tomorrow.  He sees one woman one night in a diner he eats at often.  She seems even more lonely than him and he attempts to talk to her only to be rebuffed.

When Jim finds out the woman has committed suicide, he feels like he let her down.  He resolves to find her nearest relatives and notify them about the money she left behind.  Jim takes vacation from his job and heads out into the desert where the woman came from.  It's a little town, ruled pretty much by one family which owns almost everything.  Jim discovers the woman was a pariah in the town where she was suspected of murder.  Jim doesn't believe it and is determined to stay there until he manages to prove her innocence.  But can he do that when he has a target on his own back?

Bill Pronzini is known for his mysteries, many set in the Western part of the country.  This novel was a New York Times Notable Book and he is considered one of the masters of the genre.  His protagonists are usually men who are going through life alone and he gets that subset of humanity perfectly.  The mystery is satisfying and there is plenty of action as Jim attempts to discover the truth.  This book is recommended for mystery readers.

The Song Of The Cell by Siddharta Mukherjee

 

In this nonfiction work, Mukherjee, a scientist and oncologist, takes the reader from the discovery of cells in the 1600s to the present.  He explains the parts of the cell, how it works in the body, what can go awry and the ethical issues that now face scientists as they push the envelope in cell knowledge.  Along the way, he also tells his own personal story and what drew him to the field.

The reader will learn about the first blood transfusions, how cells play a part in disease and how they can be manipulated to cure them.  The first IVF baby, Louise Brown, in England, is discussed and what big news her birth was along with the issues that were raised by manipulating cells in a lab to fertilize them and reinsert them into a woman to produce a baby.  He discusses the rise of the AIDS epidemic and how physicians were nonplussed by the first cases which were unlike anything they had seen before.  He also discusses the recent advances that allow changes by humans in the DNA of a cell which then replicates, hopefully providing relief for various illnesses such as sickle cell anemia.  

Siddharta Mukherjee was born and raised in India, coming to the United States for his university education.  He is a Rhodes Scholar and attended Stanford, Oxford and Harvard Medical School.  His prior books, one on cancer and the other on the gene, received awards and popular acclaim.  One of his strengths is writing on advanced scientific topics in a way that they are understandable to those who do not have his background and knowledge.  This book is recommended for nonfiction readers.  

Booksie's 2025 Wrapup

 

The end of another year and a new year to celebrate.  We had a great Christmas this year and got to see both kids, grandkids, in-laws and partners.  I managed to pull the tendon behind my right knee and was off my feet for most of December so I missed a lot of the holiday but really enjoyed the time with family.   It's time to look at 2025 and make reading goals for 2026.  I managed to read 285 books this year, so the elusive 300 is still to be gained.  Here's the books I loved most in 2025, across several genres:

1. The Home Child by Liz Berry.  Written in poem format, detailing the scandal of Canadian child immigration
2. The Good Lord Bird by James McBride
3. NOS482 by Joe Hill
4. Bringer Of Dust by J.M. Miro
5. The Maker Of Swans by Padriac O'Donnell
6. The Death Of Us by Abigail Dean
7. Less by Andrew Sean Grear
8. The Extraordinary Life Of Sam Hell by Robert Dugoni
9. The Wastelands by Stephen King
10. The Emperor Of Gladness by Ocean Vuong
11. The Outside Boy by Jeanne Cummins
12. Audition by Katie Kitamura
13. The Devils by Joe Abercrombie
14. The Lighthouse At The End Of The World by J.R. Dawson
15. The Ministry Of Time by Kaliane Bradley
16. Endling by Maria Reva
17. The Running Grave by Robert Galbraith
18. Alchemised by SenLiYu
19. The Secret Scripture by Sebastian Barry
20. King Sorrow by Joe Hill
21. Broken Country by Clare Leslie Hall

How did I do on my goals for this year:

1. Read 300 books.  Almost but no banana.  I was fifteen books off from this goal
2. Read from my own shelves and give away what I've read.  Big yes!
3. Read all books from my four book clubs.  Yes
4. Finish the 52 Book Challenge and 4 challenges with the Book Girls.  Yes
5. Read two classics.  Yes, I read The Temple Of The Golden Pavilion and A Moveable Feast
6. Read the Tom Thorne series.  I'm reading book nine now but haven't finished
7. Finish the Gideon The Ninth series.  Yes
8. Finish the Covenant Of Steel series.  No
9. Finish the Dark Tower series.  On book four but haven't finished
10. Read a series by Adrian Tschaikovsky.  Reading the series Shadows Of The Apt now

Goals for 2026:

1.  Read 300 books.
2. Read from my own shelves and give away what I've read.
3. Finish the 52 Book Challenge and four Book Girl challenges
4. Read two classics.
5. Read twelve nonfiction books.
6. Read a mystery series.  I'm going to do the Rebus series by Ian Rankin
7. Read a fantasy series.  I'm going to finish Shadows Of The Apt
8. Finish the Dark Tower series.
9. Read the 2024 Booker longlist.
10. Read the Women's Prize 2021 longlist
11. Read three International Booker nominees

Happy Reading as always.  Have a great 2026!

Girls Without Tears by T. L. Finlay

 

Noa is living her best life in Miami.  She fled her small hometown after high school, tired of an environment where everyone knew everyone and all their business.  That meant everyone knew Noa had CIP, Congenital Insensitivity to Pain, and didn't feel pain.  They also knew that after years of being together, Noa's boyfriend, Zack, had dumped her in their senior year for Taylor.  Noa is now a project manager and has just met a new man who seems promising.

Then she gets the call from back home.  Skye, Zack and Taylor's daughter, has been kidnapped.  Everyone in town is turning out to help with the search which included the Everglades and Noa's parents ask if she can come back also.  Noa is hesitant but the thought of a six year old facing Florida's harsh environment convinces her to go home to help.

Once there, she reunites with her best friend from school, Jamie, who is also Zack's best friend.  She and Jamie form a pair to go search in the Everglades.  They face danger there and soon Noa isn't sure if the kidnapper was an outsider or someone in the town.  There are rumors that Zack and Taylor's marriage is having issues so was this a custody matter?  Why hasn't anyone heard from Zack's father since he and Zack's mother broke up and he left town?  Why does Taylor have bruises all over her? 

T.L. Finlay is an American author who specializes in psychological thrillers.  This one is interesting not only for the mystery but for the discussion of CIP and I learned quite a lot about this syndrome.  Those affected not only don't feel pain which means they are at danger of injuring themselves quite seriously but also can't feel things like overheating or the urge to go to the bathroom and need to set reminders to pay attention to these things.  The interplay between Noa and the three main men in the story, Zack, Jamie and her new relationship, Hector, is interesting and it is unclear who Noa may end up with.  Skye is only six but plays an active role in her own rescue.  This book is recommended for mystery readers. 

Spinsters by Pagan Kennedy

 

Frannie and Doris are sisters.  They have spent years of their adult life taking care of their father and now that he is gone, they need to decide what the rest of their lives with look like.  Frannie is introverted and just wants things to stay the same.  She had a steady boyfriend at one point but things didn't work out.  Doris is much more extroverted and she wants a big change in her life.  She wants to go out and love men and she's not sure where she wants to live.

The two sisters head out to visit another relative but never make it there.  They end up at a man's house who Doris picks up and then they decide to go on a vacation.  They end up taking a teenage relative and her boyfriend along with them as they drive cross country taking in the sights.  How will their lives work out?

Pagan Kennedy is an American author and columnist.  She has worked in the fields of writing columns about who invented what breakthrough and one of the her first books related the story of the woman who invented the rape kit.  In this book, she has Frannie and Doris drive by the big tourist attractions of the country but also by things that were happening at that time like a civil rights demonstration or the assassination of Robert Kennedy.  Readers will feel like they are driving along with the sisters and those who are older will remember many of the events discussed.  This book was shortlisted for the Orange Prize, now named the Woman's Prize for Literature and is recommended for readers of literary and women's fiction.

Buckeye by Patrick Ryan

 Patrick Ryan's novel follows two families in Ohio from World War II for several decades.  The Salts are Margaret and Felix.  He is serving on a supply transport ship while Margaret waits at home for her.  Margaret grew up in an orphanage and thought her marriage would mean a family for her.  Felix is handsome and has a professional job and she can hardly believe it when he proposes.  But there is something wrong with the marriage.  Sex is rare and doesn't satisfy her while Felix is one of the strong but silent types.  What Margaret feels mostly in her marriage is lonely.

The Jenkins family is Cal, Becky and their young son.  Cal can't serve as he was born with one leg shorter than the other.  Becky is a spiritualist who gets messages from those who have passed on, much to Cal's embarrassment.  They were each other's first love and their marriage is supported by her parents with Cal working in her father's hardware store as a manager.

The two families are intertwined forever when Cal and Margaret have an affair shortly before the end of the war.  Margaret becomes pregnant the week Felix is coming home and while she isn't sure who is her son's father, as the years go by she more sure that it's Cal rather than Felix.  

This novel has received a lot of buzz.  It is a Read With Jenna pick and was an immediate bestseller.  The story of these two families over the decades draws the reader in and the two families end up being close despite the awkwardness of their shared son and the effect it has on the marriages.  Margaret is the least well defined and we hear little from her as the years go by.  This book is recommended for readers of literary fiction and those who enjoy epic sagas that cover lifetimes.  

Shadow Ticket by Thomas Pynchon

 

Hicks McTaggert changes himself to fit the prevailing environment.  In this case, that means Milwaukee, Wisconsin, in 1932.  McTaggert made his name by being a strike-breaker and all around hired muscle.  With Capone in prison and no strikes around, he changes his motif to become a private eye, although he is not happy that the boss gets most of his fees.  Now McTaggert is investigating marital issues and with the repeal of Prohibition right around the corner, there's plenty of partying and adultery to be investigated.

Hicks is given what should be a routine investigation.  A rich man, ruler of a cheese empire, has a wayward daughter and he wants her found and brought home.  McTaggert is ambivalent about the assignment as he has a past history of his own with the woman but his boss is determined.  But before McTaggert can get going on the case, he is shanghied and put down in Hungary, last known location of he cheese heiress.

Hungary is not like anywhere Hicks has seen.  There is plenty of architecture and pastry and music.  Unfortunately, there are also Nazis, working to become the majority and spewing their hatred.  Can Hicks find the heiress?  Avoid the Nazis?  Find the submarine that he sights from time to time and suspects holds one of his old buddies?

Thomas Pynchon is an American author known for his difficult titles that explore American culture with interesting characters.  Prize-winning books include The Crying of Lot 49, V, Gravity's Rainbow, Mason and Dixon and Vineland.  This is his first novel in a decade and even at age eighty-eight, a new Pynchon novel is a literary signpost.  Hicks McTaggert is a likeable character who seems to be bumbling around but always ends up where he should be.  The surrounding characters are all defined enough to be interesting to read about without taking over the story.  This book is recommended for literary fiction readers. 

Mother Mary Comes To Me by Arundhati Roy

 Most people know Arundhati Roy as a novelist and she has written beautiful books such as The God Of Small Things which won the Booker Prize in 1997.  But she is also known for her essays and her political writing.  She has also worked on several movies as a scriptwriter.  This is her memoir, the story of her life.

Roy grew up in poverty, her father never in the picture and her single mother not supported by the family.  She had one brother.  But her mother, who is tornadic in personality force, wasn't content for that to be her life.  She started a school and made it one of the best in that area of India.   She was honored for her work in education.

But her skills as a mother were definitely lacking.  She seemed to hate her children, abusing them physically and emotionally.  She had impossibly high expectations of them and was ruthless in her scorn and blame when they didn't meet those expectations.  Roy left home for good at eighteen.  She said that it wasn't because she didn't love her mother but that she left so that she could continue to love her mother.  She put herself through university and has a degree as an architect.

Readers will learn of her life in the university, the friends and contacts she made there and her love for architecture.  They will learn of the love of her life, who was married to someone Roy worked with but the marriage dissolved and Roy lived with him the majority of their lives.  They will also learn about her jobs over the years, her political work and her determination to live the life that she had dreamed about.  This book is recommended for memoir readers for a fascinating life and for literary fiction readers to see what Roy's influences were and how they played out in her novels.  

Autumn In Oxford by Alex Rosenberg

 

Tom Wrought, an American teaching for a semester at Oxford falls in love with Liz Spencer, one of his neighbors.  The problem is that both are married.  They start an affair anyhow.  Tom pretty easily sheds his marriage but Liz has children and supports her husband so it is more complicated for her.  Before she can get herself free, her husband is pushed in front of a train and Tom, who was on his way to meet her, is arrested for the murder.

Tom has had a varied career.  He is teaching history but has worked in the United States with the civil rights movement, has a military stint behind him and worked for the CIA for a short time.  In addition to teaching, Tom reviews books and writes articles for the newspapers.  

Liz finds a barrister that is as determined as she is to find the real killer and set Tom free.  The two women soon determine that the plot against Tom goes back to his young student days when he was a member of the Communist party for a short while and some of his articles that hint at secrets the government wants kept hidden, both in England and in the United States.  Can the three find a way to set Tom free?

Alex Rosenberg is a professor of philosophy at Duke University but he also makes contributions to economic and the philosophy of biology.  He has written multiple novels that use history as a starting point.  In this book, I thought too much time was spent at the beginning establishing Liz and Tom's affair but outside of that one quibble, I enjoyed learning more about the time after World War II and the various government agencies that were set up to protect us but often take actions that question that mandate.  This book is recommended for historical fiction readers.  

November Road by Lou Berney

 

In this novel, the reader meets Frank Guidry who works for the Mob, doing whatever he's asked to do.  When the Kennedy assassination bursts into the news, Frank is back in New York and shocked like everyone else.  Except that he remembers flying into the city two weeks before and stashing a car in a parking garage.  Except that now he is asked to go back and get the car that's in its place and get rid of it.

Frank realizes that there is more going on than the newspapers realize and that Lee Oswald isn't the whole story.  He flies in and does his job but when he reports in, he realizes himself that he is now a loose end and the Mob is ready to tidy up all the loose ends.  He manages to get out of town and now is on the run.  

Along the way, Frank meets Charlotte Roy.  She has just left her husband and taken her two daughters with her as she drives to Los Angeles to stay with an aunt.  She is determined to make a new life for herself and her girls but when her car breaks down, she agrees to let Frank take her as far as Las Vegas where he has a friend who will loan her another car to make it to California.  Along the way, Frank comes to think that a wife and children are exactly what he needed in his life and Charlotte wonders if Frank is the answer to all her problems.  Will they make it to California with the Mob on their trail?

Lou Berney is an American thriller writer.  His novels have won the Edgar, Anthony, Macavity, Steel Dagger and other awards.  In this book, he draws the reader into the lives of both Frank and Charlotte and make them care if the pair manage to find that normal life they are looking for.  There are twists and turns along the way and bursts of violence that are breathtaking.  One thing I particularly liked in this novel is the epilogue that looks back from twenty or so years out and lets the reader know how everything ended up.  This book is recommended for thriller readers.  

A Dictator Calls by Ismail Kadare

 

This is the story of a call make in 1934 in Russia.  Joseph Stalin was in power and cracking down on authors and poets due to their creativity and writing critical of the government.  One famous author caught up in this was Boris Pasternak.  His Dr. Zhivago novel was banned in Russia and he lived under constant fear of being arrested as his friend, the poet Osip Mandelstam had been.  Mandelstam was arrested, some say tortured, then sent into exile.  Upon his return, he had a small window of time, then was arrested again and died in a transit camp.

The repression and fear of arrest made a call from Stalin an unwanted one as one never knew what could offend him and make one a target themself.  Kadare tells thirteen versions of the call.  He uses Pasternak friends, wife, mistress and then government agents to give their versions.  In each what stands out is the fear of making a mistake that could lead to imprisonment or death.  Stalin asks Pasternak what he thinks about Mandelstam's arrest and then chides him for not reacting in a stronger fashion. Playing on the game of telephone where a message is passed around a circle and emerges almost unrecognizable by the end, each version is a bit different depending on the viewpoint of the person relating it.  But each version throws into stark relief the tyranny of the government and the fear of those in the creative community.

Ismail Kadare was an Albanian author and poet.  He was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature fifteen times and two of his books were nominated for the International Book Prize, this being one of them.  Writing under tyranny, he used fables and myths in his writing to portray the conditions under which his people were kept.  This short novel is a searing indictment of authoritarian governments and those who head them up.  This book is recommended for literary fiction readers and those interested in writers from other countries. 

 

Broken Country by Clare Leslie Hall

 

Beth is a country girl.  When she was a teenager, she met Gabriel, son of a lord and from a very wealthy family whose land was adjacent to her family's.  Gabriel is about to attend university while Beth still has a year before she can go.  But the two fall in love, and give their virginity to each other.  But when Gabriel goes away, the strain of a long distance relationship tears them apart.

Beth ends up marrying Frank who has had a crush on her since his boyhood days.  The two live on Frank's family farm and have a son together.  But life isn't always fair.  Their son is killed in a farming accident and as the novel opens, the couple is in a strained relationship.

The setting of the beginning of the novel is a courtroom.  Someone has died and someone else is being tried for causing their death.  We don't know who either of these people are until it is revealed later in the book.  What we do know is that Gabriel has returned to the area with his own son and the spark between he and Beth flares again and they have an affair.  Did it cause the death?

Clare Leslie Hall is an English author who lives in the same kind of farm setting as Beth does in the novel.  This book will draw you in and then rip your heart in two.  It is the tale of love in all its myriad fashions and what happens when love is destructive rather than positive.  I think it is probably one of the best books I've read in 2025 and I'll definitely be looking for the next novel by Hall.  This book is recommended for readers of women's and literary fiction.

The Book Of Evidence by John Banville

 

Freddie Montgomery is a cad.  He has been traveling the world with his wife and child for years, living the life of a wealthy man although he isn't one.  He has expectations; when his mother passes he will inherit the house and more importantly, his father's art collection.  When he runs afoul of those who loaned him money he cannot pay back, he leaves for Ireland to see if he can round up some money there.  He leaves his wife and child behind

But there's a surprise waiting for him at home.  His mother has sold the art collection for much less than it was worth to a neighbor so she can open a pony farm.  Freddie is furious and decides that he will visit the neighbor and at least steal back the most valuable.  But even that goes wrong and in the process, someone is killed.

Now Montgomery is on trial that's the biggest thing going.   Will he be found guilty?

John Banville is an Irish author whose work has been regarded as some of the best in literature.  This book was shortlisted for the Booker Prize and Banville won the Booker with his novel The Sea.  He also writes mysteries under the pen name of Benjamin Black.  His forte is writing shocking events as if they were commonplace and it is up to the reader to realize the horror of what they are reading.  Freddie is almost unimageable in his criminality but he manages to rationalize everything he does as the inevitable next step in events.  This book is recommended for readers of literary fiction.

The Puppeteer's Daughters by Heather Newton

 

Walter Gray has made his career from being a puppeteer.  He never used hand puppets; all of his work has been with puppets manipulated and given life through strings and the puppeteer's artistry.  Walter is turning eighty, now retired, and wants to protect his legacy.  He is also teetering on the edge of dementia and his three daughters are never sure when he tells them something if it is real or a fantasy of Walter's mind.

And he has something big to share.  At his eighth birthday party, Walter tells his three daughters that there is a fourth daughter and he wants them to find her.  He tells them about his will and the conditions that are placed on each one of them separately in order to gain their inheritance.

Jane is the oldest daughter and is a very strait-laced and organized person.  She has never liked puppets and resents the money that came to the family after she was grown as her childhood had been one of poverty.  Her inheritance requirement is to make a puppet herself.

Rose is the middle sister and she was born out of wedlock.  She has always felt like she wasn't really part of the family because of that and because of her weight problem.  Rosie basically lets anyone walk all over her due to her insecurities.  Her inheritance requirement is to lose weight, around one hundred pounds.

Cora is the youngest and was raised with money.   She always loved the puppets and went to work with Walter as she as she was old enough.  She has never married or even had a serious relationship, devoting herself to her career.  Now she must decide if she wants to continue running Walter's organization.  Her inheritance requirement is to get an outside life.  Can the three find the fourth daughter?

Heather Newton is an American author who writes in the women's fiction and Southern life genres.  In this book, she has created four unique personalities and the way that they interact and get along is interesting and involved.  The reader will get caught up in the various lives and want to read more to see how everything turns out.  I listened to this novel and the narrator did a great job.  This book is recommended for women's fiction readers.  

The Cyclist by Tim Sullivan

 When a construction crew starts to demolish a row of garages, a body is discovered.  DS George Cross and his partner, DS Josie Ottey are assigned the case.  It takes a while to identify the body but it turns out to be Alexander Paphides, son of Greek immigrants.  He and his brother run the family Greek restaurant and Alex is an avid cyclist.  He had not been reported missing because his family thought he was on a cycling trip abroad.

Cross is autistic so although he in actuality leads the investigation, DS Ottey is the officer in charge.  She knows how to work with Cross better than anyone and is working on his social skills as well.  There are several possibilities for who might be the killer.  Alex was caught up in the world of doping to improve his cycling performance.  Could he have gone astray of local drug dealers?  In his thirties, he is dating a sixteen year old waitress from the restaurant and now she is pregnant.  Could that be the motive?  Then there is business.  Alex wants to expand from their Bristol location and have a second restaurant in London.  His brother and partner is adamantly opposed.  Could that have sparked murder?

This is the second novel in the George Cross series.  Readers will be fascinated to see how he has made a life that works for him and how his mind works to unravel the mystery.  Those around him, like the new police intern Alice, learn to work in the ways that George can process.  His strength is looking at the little details that tend to slip through the cracks and that often can provide clues that can change the whole focus of the investigation.  This book is recommended for mystery readers.  

King Sorrow by Joe Hill

 

They met at the university and were soon a group of six.  There was Colin who lived in a mansion and came from a fantastically wealthy family; Donna and Van who were twins, Allison who they both loved.  Arthur was the intellectual and Gwen the daughter of Colin's family housekeeper.  They found that they loved the same things and everyone got along.

Then Arthur got into trouble.  He was cornered by a group of criminals, junkies, who got him in a financial corner and insisted that he start stealing rare books from the library.  It killed him to see the books disappear but he couldn't lose his dreams.  Together the group came up with a solution one night when they were all intoxicated.

They used some relics Colin's grandfather had collected and called forth a spirit from the other world.  What they got was King Sorrow, a massive dragon.  He made a deal with them.  Every year they could pick someone to be killed.  If that person managed to escape, King Sorrow would kill one of them.  They really didn't believe anything had happened, that it was just a drunken dream so they agreed and named the junkies threatening Arthur.  The person or persons to be killed were picked at the New Year and death day was Easter.  They laughed among themselves but were worried as Easter approached.  When the junkies were killed that day, they realised they had started something they never wanted but now it was too late.

The book follows the group as they mature into adults and make adult lives for themselves.  But each year someone else has to be chosen.  They usually pick people like terrorist leaders or demagogues that had taken over countries.  They could tell themselves that these people deserved to die, but weren't they themselves murderers?  

Joe Hill is one of the best thriller writers to be found.  I've loved each and every one of his books, although they come out rarely.  This one may be his masterpiece.  The reader will emphasize with the group, especially Arthur and Gwen, and hope the group can discover a way to defeat what they have called forth.  Over the years, the group starts to splinter and turn on each other as the weight of what they have done sinks in.  This book is recommended for thriller and horror readers.  

America For Beginners by Leah Franqui

 

They are a strange traveling group.  Mrs. Sengupta is a recent widow from a wealthy Indian family.  She is leaving her pampered life to try to find the son her husband rejected when he told them he was gay.  Rebecca is a failed actress who is hired to be Mrs. Sengupta's traveling companion as it wouldn't be proper for her to travel alone with just a male guide.  Satya is the male guide and he is a recent immigrant to the United States; in fact, this is his first tour and he is quite nervous about it.

They travel to various sites throughout the United States, heading always towards Los Angeles which is the last place the son was known to have been.  As they travel, Rebecca starts to question her life and whether she really wants to be an actress.  Mrs. Sengupta starts to loosen up, throwing aside some of the strictures that she grew up with and had to observe in India.  Satya starts out determined to be the expert, lying when he doesn't know something but gradually learns to relax and sometimes let others take the lead.  

Leah Franqui is an American author with a Yale degree in screenwriting.  She has written both novels and plays.  She lived in India for six years so she has the background to correctly portray the customs and rituals of the Indian characters.  But this book is about relationships.  Relationships with our children, with our lovers and with the people we meet along the way and call friends.  Each of the characters is changed by their travel, some gaining new life goals while others give up unhealthy ways of living.  This book is recommended for literary and multicultural readers.  

The Last Trial by Robert Bailey

 

Tom McMurtrie is known for his prowess in the courtroom.  In his long career, he's been involved in some of the most challenging cases in Alabama and won.  He had a distinguished career in the classroom but when politics pushed him out, he went back to his law practice with a partner, Tom Drake.

Now one of his longtime nemeses, Jack Willistone, has been found dead on the banks of the river.  He had just gotten out of prison that morning and Tom had been the one who put him in prison.  Who killed Jack?  Was it his father-in-law, who controls the drug trade in the area and who Jack had worked for?  Was it his ex-wife, who after his imprisonment, fell on hard times that she blames on him?  Was it an old rival who had been biding their time?  

When a young girl comes and begs Tom to help her mother who has been arrested, Tom is hesitant but agrees.  With the help of an old friend who is working as a private investigator and all the friends and colleagues he has built up over the years, Tom may be able to win.  But he knows his health isn't the best and he suspects that this might be his last trial.  He is going to have to face one of his best students who is now the district attorney and that pains him but he is determined to help.

Robert Bailey knows the areas he is writing about.  He lives in Alabama and is a civil defense attorney.  This is the third book in this series.  Bailey gets the Southern feel and lives exactly right, the way a man can use his upbringing and longtime associates throughout his life there.  He also gets the respect that a man who has used his influence to do the right thing his whole life is regarded with.  Readers will enjoy untangling the mystery along with Tom.  This book is recommended for literary thriller readers.  

Lost Light by Michael Connelly

 

Harry Bosch has retired from the LAPD.  He's not sure what he wants to do but then he realizes that he now has the time and attention to devote to a case that has haunted him and was never solved.  Four years ago, there was a bank robbery.  During the robbery a woman who worked at the bank was shot and killed.  The police who caught the case had walked into another situation a few weeks later at a bar and it left one of them dead, the other paralyzed for life and the case went cold.  

Harry starts to nibble around the edges of the case and he soon realizes how different it is to work a case without his badge.  An FBI agent had vanished a few months after the robbery and some believe that her disappearance was also connected.  Whether or not that is true, the FBI and the LAPD top brass all want Bosch shut down and are willing to do whatever it takes to accomplish that.  Can Harry solve the case?

This mystery is the ninth in the twenty Harry Bosch series.  He is as determined as ever, singly focused on this one case and the woman who lost her life.  He is divorced from his former FBI agent wife, Eleanor, but gets help from her when the case shifts to Las Vegas where she now lives.  He still loves her and wonders if they could make things work now that he is retired.  The case has lots of twists and readers will enjoy seeing how it all plays out.  This book is recommended for mystery readers.   

Fire On The Fens by Joy Ellis

 

The Fens has a serial arsonist.  At first it is small businesses, then a body is found in the rubble of one fire.  It's considered an accident but then another body is found.  The victims are both what might be considered 'good guys', people who spent a lot of times helping others.  It's hard to imagine who might want to help them.

Things are different at the Fenland Constabulary.  While Nikki Galena is still leading the detectives, her boss has changed.  It's a temporary assignment but Nikki will take it.  The new boss is a friend of hers and the man who was supposed to take over had been anything but.  The fires keep occurring and it's soon obvious that murder is the arsonist's true aim.  A retired fire inspector comes to help the team but what ties the victims together?

This is the ninth novel in the Fenlands mysteries.  Joy Ellis is an English author who lives on the Fens herself.  Readers have followed Nikki Galena from a new detective to her current position where she is in charge of the investigation.  They also know about her life and her romance with another member of the detective team.  In this mystery, even Nikki's mother and her mother's roommate get involved in the mystery and contribute to the solution.  This book is recommended for mystery readers.  

A Guardian And A Thief by Megha Majumdar

 

Kolkata, India, is in crisis.  The neverending heat means that crops have failed.  People can barely stand to be outdoors and the markets are empty pretty much anyway.  Ma's family has done better than others.  She runs a nonprofit agency that distributes food and has managed to bring enough home to insure that her father and daughter can eat.  

Things should improve though.  Ma's husband has been in the United States for six months, working as a scientist.  He has finally managed to get visas for the three of them and they are to leave in a week.  

Boomba has no such luck.  He came to the city to find work to send money back to his family whose house has been destroyed and who have nothing.  He wants to bring them to the city but doesn't have anywhere for them to stay.  He has been staying at the refugee center Ma runs and he saw her stealing food.  Now he goes to her house during the night, gets in, and steals food and her purse which holds the passports and visas. 

It is now a fight to see which family will survive.  Ma finds Boomba but he has blackmail power over her.  Can she manage to get her family to the airport to fly out?  Can Boomba bring his family to the city and take over Ma's house when she leaves?

Megha Majumdar is an Indian novelist who now lives in the United States where she teaches at Hunter College.  This is her second novel and it is a finalist for the National Book Award and has been named a Notable Book by multiple media outlets.  The relationship between Ma and her family and Boomba and his family illustrate the love and protectiveness one has for loved ones.  As it becomes a fight for suvival, the reader sees how both main characters are willing to do things they never thought they would be capable of, and how they justify the evil they are willing to perpetrate.  This book is recommended for literary fiction readers.  

Booked On A Feeling by Jayci Lee

 

Lizzy has always been an overachiever but she never feels like she lives up to her Korean mother's expectations.  Lizzy is a lawyer and just won her first court case, but she is exhausted and needs to take a break.  Her mother is appalled, telling her that breaks are not how you make partner but Lizzy insists and returns to the town where she spent her childhood summers.

One of the draws of that town is that her best friend, Jack, lives there.  They have been friends since they were ten.  Lizzy and Jack's parents are best friends and they basically grew up together.  What Lizzy doesn't know is that Jack has been in love with her for years.  But this time, when they hang out together, she has a different feeling for him and wonders if she has been blind and if she might love him also.

Lizzy finds another friend, a single mom who is trying to make a living with an independent bookstore.  It's not going well, and Lizzy agrees to help the owner spruce up the store and make it more appealing.  She also helps with marketing.  Jack helps the two women when he can but he also works at his family's winery.  Will the attraction between the two flame into love?

Jayci Lee is a Korean American author who writes in the romance genre.  Her characters also tend to be Korean American and it's refreshing to see other demographics represented.  I listened to this novel and the narrator was wonderful, moving the story along with a light touch.  If I had a criticism, it would be that the two main characters act as if they are teenagers with a high school crush rather than thirty year old professionals.  I don't think most adults do as much to'ing and fro'ing when they are interested in a romance.  But the book is charming and I'd like to read another by her.  This book is recommended for romance readers.  

Beyond Black by Hilary Mantel

 

Alison is a medium but one of the few real ones.  She is the daughter of a prostitute whose only use for her was how she could make money from her.   She rented Alison out to whomever would be interested and that was mostly men.  The horrors of Alison's childhood are hinted at but never spelled out.  She connects at will with the black, where the souls of the dead bring her messages.  Alison's spirit guide is a lowlife named Morris, a dwarf from the circus and one of the men whose existence haunted her childhood.

Colette has no spirit talent at all.  But she meets Alison at a medium fair where she has gone to decide what to do next with her life.  Newly divorced and out of a job, Colette is efficient and she and Alison are drawn to each other immediately.  Alison suggests that Colette join her as an assistant and companion and Colette agrees.

At first the partnership works well.  Colette takes care of all the mundane parts of Alison's life such as driving, hotel reservations and paying the bills.  She finds new ways to market Alison's talent and the money pours in.  The two even go together and buy a house.  But soon there is trouble in paradise.  Colette starts to boss Alison around and with Alison's childhood, she is not prepared to fight back and allows it.  Colette starts to feel the malignant presence of Morris and his friends and becomes afraid.  How will it end?

Dame Hilary Mantel was a celebrated English author.  She is best known for her trilogy on Thomas Cromwell, two of which won Booker Prizes.  This novel was also nominated for a Booker Prize in 2005.  Mantel wrote in the genres of memoirs, historical fiction and literary fiction.  In this book, there is a slow horror revealed as Alison's life of being terrorized by her talent is at first hinted at then gradually revealed.  Alison wants to help others but it often results in being victimized by those she attempts to help.  Readers will feel an uneasiness as they read this novel and finish wondering if some can really reach beyond black.  This book is recommended for readers of literary fiction. 

City Of The Dead by Jonathan Kellerman

 

It's been a long day of moving furniture and the two movers are glad when they finally reach their destination.  While maneuvering their oversize van down the narrow street, they feel a bump and know they have hit something.  They are appalled when they get out to check and find a nude young man laying in the street.  When the police arrive, they are able to console the men; there is a blood trail leading back from the man.  When  they follow it, they find a woman brutally murdered in her home.

The case if given to homicide detective Milo Sturgis and he calls in his friend, psychologist Alex Delaware who often consults with the police.  Alex looks once, then more closely.  He has met the woman before.  Alex does child evaluations for the county and city in custody divorce cases.  He had given his opinion in one case and then was opposed by the woman lying dead on the floor.  It turned out that she had no credentials as a psychologist and she narrowly escaped prosecution.  Now she is dead.

The two men take up the case.  She had been involved with various men, some of them dangerous.  Her relationship with her family was marginal and she was closer with her stepfather than her mother.  What had she been up to lately that could have caused someone to kill her?

This is the thirty-seventh novel in the Alex Delaware series.  Jonathan Kellerman has managed to keep his main characters interesting throughout the series and each novel is a different case for the reader to try to figure out.  Family relationships are explored as well as various forms of crimes by those willing to do whatever it takes to get what they want.  This book is recommended for mystery readers.   

The Secret Scripture by Sebastian Barry

 

Readers first visited County Slingo, Ireland and met the McNulty family in The Whereabouts Of Eneas McNulty where they met the three McNulty brothers, Eneas, Tom and Jack.  In this novel, Sebastian Barry returns there to tell the story of Roseanne McNulty.  Rose grew up poor, the daughter of the town's gravedigger and later town ratcatcher.  She is exposed early to the violence and turmoil of the Irish Troubles where neighbor fought neighbor and the penalty for a traitor is death.  

Rose was the most beautiful woman in the area and many men wanted her.  She married Tom but his family always disapproved and the marriage fell apart.  She comforted Eneas on the night before he left his native land for years.  She spent years along and destitute and then was put into a mental hospital where she has spent decades.  The hospital is about to be closed and it falls to the head doctor to establish which patients should be transferred to the new one and which should be set free.

He is fascinated by Rose and there is little in the records to go on.  He has to research her story through other hospitals and those who may have known her.  Some tell the truth, some repeat the lies they have always told about Rose.  This latter group includes the man who was the town priest and who later rose in the Catholic hierarchy.  Slowly, Rose's story is teased out and what a story it is!

Sebastian Barry is an Irish writer who is one of my absolute favorites.  His work has been nominated for the Booker Prize five times which is amazing.  His novels document Irish history and troubles as few other authors have with the details being slowly revealed and often ending in a surprise revelation.  The language is amazing and his understanding of human nature is what makes the works so interesting to read.  This is the second novel in the McNulty family trilogy and very rewarding.  It is recommended for literary fiction readers.  

The Truth-Teller's Lie by Sophie Hannah

 

DS Charlie Zailer is about to go on vacation with her sister when Naomi Jenkins comes in to make a missing person report.  The missing person is her lover, Robert Haworth, and she is sure that something has happened to him.  Once Zailer and her assistant, DC Simon Waterhouse, hear that the lover is married they start to doubt Naomi.  After all, her only evidence is that Haworth missed their weekly tryst and Jenkins insistence that he loves her so much that he would never do that.

Charlie goes off on vacation, first to Spain then when that doesn't work out, on to Wales to a set of luxury chalets.  She is there when she hears that Naomi now insists that Robert had kidnapped her three years ago and attacked her in front of an audience of men eating dinner.  It seems like the wildest of stories but then, after searching files, the police realize that there have been other women who tell the same story.  Sure that there is a serial rapist on the loose, Charlie cuts short her vacation and comes back to work the case  Can they find the truth?

Sophie Hannah is an English author who has written more than thirty mysteries.  She has a series where she continues Agatha Christie's series about Hercule Poirot along with the Zailer-Waterhouse series and other standalone novels.  She teaches a master's program at Cambridge on mystery writing and is also a poet.  This is the second novel of the Zailer-Waterhouse series.  Charlie is in love with Simon but he doesn't return the sentiment and there are many embarrassing moments between the two.  It definitely affects the everyday working of the murder team and it's surprising that it is allowed to continue.  Zailer seems very emotional but has a good grasp of the case and how to run one.  I will be reading more in this series to see what happens to Charlie and if her love for Simon is ever returned.  This is one of the most diabolical mysteries I've read and the coldness of the perpetrators and the constant twists and turns make this one a definite win for me.  This book is recommended for mystery readers.  

The Best American Mystery Stories 2010 edited by Lee Child

 

The twenty stories in this anthology are by a mix of authors.  Some are well known names in the mystery genre, others are less well known.  Authors most mystery readers will recognize include Matt Bell, Lyndsay Faye, Jon Land, Dennis Lehane, Phillip Margolin and Kurt Vonnegut.  

One of my favorite stories in this collection was Animal Rescue by Dennis Lehane.  It's the story of a guy who works in a bar, a neighborhood figure nobody really notices.  He finds a dog thrown into the garbage and he and a woman he meets save the dog.  When the original owner shows back up a few months later and demands the dog back, it starts a series of events that won't be soon forgotten.  This book is recommended for mystery and anthology readers.  

Bloodline by Mark Billingham

 

Raymond Garvey was a terrifying serial killer who was active and caught around the time DI Tom Thorne was starting his career.  He didn't do much on that case but he was involved peripherally and he hasn't forgotten Garvey who ended up dying in prison from a brain tumor.  Now, someone is determined that Thorne won't forget; they are killing the children of the original victims.

The killer is a man who believes that he is the son of Garvey and wants Thorne to create buzz to vindicate Garvey's name, believing that he killed due to the brain tumor.   That isn't true as he killed long before the tumor was found but it is one of the killer's delusions.  He is steadily working his way through the original victims' children as Thorne and his crew try to find him.  Who will win this grisly game?

This is the eighth Tom Thorne novel in the series.  In this one, Thorne and Louisa reach a new level of closeness in their relationship and it is changing Tom.  But one thing will never change.  Thorne cannot let a murder go; his total focus and concentration is on the case until it is over.  Can that work with a long term relationship?  This book is recommended for mystery readers.  

The Great Man Theory by Teddy Wayne

 

Paul's life isn't what he thought it would be here in his early forties.  His marriage dissolved and his daughter is starting her teenage years so he sees her less and less.  His career as an author is stalled although he is working on a book where he sets everyone straight on how life should be.  He also teaches writing at the college level but that isn't going that well either.  Budget cuts mean that he has been demoted from an assistant professor to an adjunct which means no benefits such as insurance.  In fact, money is so tight that he has to move back home with his widowed mother who is in her eighties and a devotee of right wing news, which drives Paul crazy.

The funniest/saddest part of the book is when Paul insists on having his daughter's birthday party at mother's place as it falls on one of his weekends.  Of course, living in a different New York borough, he has to drive and get the girls.  One doesn't fit with a seatbelt, so he has to make two trips spending two hours doing that alone.  The cable goes out and the girls can't watch their favorite shows or movies.  The worst is that Paul didn't listen that closely to one mother's warnings about her daughter's dietary restrictions and the pizza he bought has her sick for the entire party, holed up in the bathroom.  

Teddy Wayne has written six novels and won an NEA creative writing fellowship.  In this novel, he skewers the middle-aged man who is sure he knows the best way to do everything, from how much television one should watch in a day to what one should read or eat or enjoy.  Like many men as they age, he lectures those around him incessantly, unaware how irritating his actions are.  While Paul has everyone's best interests at heart, his sanctimony loses him friends and work.  I listened to this novel and the narrator did an excellent job.  He didn't fall into the trap of using his voice to point out Paul's errors.  Rather he tells the story in an everyday voice allowing the reader to draw their own conclusions on when Paul has stepped over the line.  This novel is recommended for literary fiction readers.