Her Daughter by Fran Hawthorne

 

Alice Wilson hasn't seen her daughter, Esme, for six long years.  She and Dan had had a vicious divorce and Dan remarried and had two more children with his new wife.  Alice and Dan had shared custody but as Esme got into high school, the mother and daughter started to clash about rules and expectations.  Soon Esme was asking for more time with Dan and then after a big blowup, she moved in with him permanently.  Alice didn't see her for her last year of high school or during college and isn't sure where Esme is living now.  She has even hired private investigators but if they find Esme, she moves on as soon as Alice tries to make contact.

Then Dan calls her out of the blue and tells her that Esme has been arrested with a man, Robert for breaking and entering.  Alice is heartbroken and starts looking for Esme again, knowing that the two will have to stay put until the court case is done.  Alice manages to make contact with Robert, who is Esme's partner and she likes him and thinks he could be good for Esme.  But can he convince Esme to see Alice?

Fran Hawthorne started her author career as a journalist who specialized in nonfiction, winning several awards.  This is her third novel and she writes movingly about the pain of separation from a loved child.  This is a widespread issue with the divorce rate being as high as it is.  Children, especially teenagers, often gravitate towards the household where they think there will be no rules and they can do what they want.  I can relate to this as it is happening in my own family and the agony of losing contact and watching holidays and special occasions occur without contact and just the everyday pain of not being able to see your child and know that they are well and happy is brutal.  Hawthorne is sensitive to the parents' pain and gives hope that one day things may change.  This book is recommended for readers of women's fiction and anyone facing this situation.  

10:04 by Ben Lerner

 

This novel is written as a look into the author's life in New York City in his early thirties.  Is it autobiographical or totally imagined?  The protagonist is also an author whose early work was praised and who has a huge advance to write another novel, something he doesn't know if he is ready to do.  

He has issues.  He has been diagnosed with a weak aorta which could burst at any point.  His best friend, a woman, wants his help to get pregnant and if he does, he can choose if he wants to be involved after the birth.  He is sleeping with another woman and it's unclear if he shares his attempt to get his friend pregnant with IVF with her.  He has to get a tooth extracted and he's not sure if he should go for the drugs that put him out entirely or if he should try to go it with regular numbing.  

This was an interesting take on life in New York as an artist.  Lerner started his work life as a poet and was quite successful in that field.  His move to novels has also been greeted with success.  I found this life of a young professional in the city fascinating.  Everyone seems to have multiple appointments every day, meeting with friends, having an assignation with a lover then taking off to hang out with other people.  There are hints of the big money fueling the city with descriptions of luxurious meals and amazing apartments lived in by other people.  The author in the book is so generous with his friends, planning to pay dental costs for his friend and if she becomes pregnant (by IVF treatments he is paying for) to support her and the child.  But at the same time, he puts off work, he is a hypochondriac and can't seem to make decisions about his own love life.  Lerner has won both a MacArthur and a Guggenheim Fellowship and his books have been nominated for literary prizes such as the National Book Critics Circle Award and the Pulitzer Prize.  This book is recommended for literary fiction readers.   

All The Living And The Dead by Hayley Campbell

 

In this nonfiction book, author Kayley Campbell set out to interview individuals in the death industry to better understand death and its place in society.  She did an exhaustive job.  She interviewed those who prepare the body, those who retrieve bodies or parts of them from natural disasters, embalmers, those who perform autopsies, those who dig the graves and those whose work is cremating bodies. She explored the activity of donating one's body and interviewed those who receive such bodies and prepare them to train medical students.   She interviewed those who clean after death leaves a horrid scene as in after murders, suicides or just bodies undiscovered for a while.  A man who is the only person in England making death masks is here.  She also interviews those who work with women who will be delivering stillborn babies and she even interviewed the man who performed most of the executions in Virginia for quite a while, performing that job for over sixty deaths.  

Hayley Campbell is a British author and journalist and she was also the narrator of this book.  I can't remember when I was as entranced with a nonfiction book.  Campbell writes that she, at the end of her work, both understood death better and lost most of the fear associated with it.  She found herself more patient in her everyday life and kinder.  Death in its reality is hidden from those grieving mostly and she feels that most people are stronger then one might think and that seeing their dead helps in the acceptance of it.  I listened to this book and Campbell was an excellent narrator, her English accent somehow adding to the words she was reading.  This book is highly recommended for nonfiction readers and those facing the reality of death.

The Dead Lie Down by Sophie Hannah

 

Ruth Bussey and Aidan See are a new couple, maybe six months into their relationship.  But they are both keeping secrets and those secrets may do them in.  Ruth came to work for Aidan in his frame shop and they are both still there.  She left her first framing job when an artist, Mary Trelease, attacked her and made it impossible for her to remain.

Now Aidan has told her something that is unbelievable.  He says that he killed a woman years ago and that woman was Mary Trelease.  Of course he doesn't know Ruth's history with the woman who she knows is very much alive.  But once she insists to him that he is wrong, Aidan clams up and won't discuss it any more.

What can Ruth do?  She decides that she will go to the police, specifically Charlie Zeiler whose own scandal and reputation killer had been publicized everywhere a year ago.  She meets with Charlie and Aidan also comes to the police separately and talks with Simon Waterhouse.  Now both police are drawn into the mystery of how a man could kill a woman who is very much alive.  Can they solve the mystery?

This is the fourth Zailer/Waterhouse mystery.  The two have finally admitted that they are in love and are actually engaged although no one believes that they will actually get married or if they do, that the marriage will last.  Charlie has transferred out of the major crimes division after her exposure a year ago and now does community policing.  But she is drawn into the mystery and the chance to work with Simon again.  This book is recommended for mystery readers.  

This Beautiful Life by Helen Schulman

 

Jake Bergamont is a good kid.  He is a teenager, attending a private school in New York City where his father works at a university.  He has managed to make friends with a group of guys quickly and his social life depends on what the group decides to do.

One night they go to a party at the home of a younger girl (thirteen to their fifteen) whose parents are out of town.  This girl is from an extremely wealthy family but the parents spend their time traveling and on the social circuit so their daughter is raised by servants and mostly she is unsupervised.  She comes on to Jake at the party but he is not interested.

When he gets home, he finds a text on his phone from the girl.  She has made a nude video of herself performing sexual acts in her bedroom.  Jake is shocked and not sure what to do, while of course, being a teenage boy, somewhat excited.  His own father works long hours and isn't there much to guide Jake and he can't imagine discussing this with his mother  He sends the video to his best friend to ask what to do.

But by the time Jake goes to school Monday, the video has gone viral.  One friend sent to another, then another, then a group, then a website.  Now the girl is known throughout the school and her parents are threatening to sue.  Jake and his best friend are suspended from school, although all these acts happened outside school hours and territory.  Now his family has to decide what their next steps will be.

Helen Schulman is an American author and lives and works in New York.  This book received mention as a Notable Book by the New York Review in 2011.  It does seem a bit dated now as teenagers and even those younger know more about how photographs and movies can go viral and that they need to be careful what they post and send people they consider friends.  The family dynamic is first that Jake needs consequences but as time goes by and the parents start to realize the far-reaching implications and all the effects Jake may suffer, they start to stand behind him by hiring a lawyer and protecting their own child at the expense of the girl.  Parents will emphasize as they have probably been fighting the battle of the Web with their own children and will question how far they would go to protect their own child.  This book is recommended for readers of women's and literary fiction.

The Last Karankawas by Kimberly Garza

 

Galveston, Texas, is an island and port city of around fifty thousand.  While many of those there are tourists, the residents tend to be Filipino and Mexican.  There is a community where these residents tend to live called Fish Village.  Many of the residents work fishing or nursing or service jobs.  Some believe they are descended from the Karankawas, the Native American tribe that settled the area and lived there.

This novel is a set of interlaced stories about the residents of Fish Village at the time that Hurricane Ike was approaching.  Set on the Gulf Coast, Galveston is a prime target.  Each resident has to decide if they will stay and try to ride out the storm or evacuate. 

Not all the residents are Filipino or Mexican.  One character is a man who came there after he returns from an overseas tour in the military.  He is not ready to take up his life before war again and finds work on the fishing boats.  Carly is perhaps the main character, a girl in her teens who wants to get out of Galveston but also feels the pull of the only home she knows.  Her grandmother insists that they are descended from the Karankawa tribe.  Carly's boyfriend is Jess, who is a star shortstop and may get a college scholarship to play at that level but in the meantime he fishes.  There are two Filipino cousins who are both nurses.  One gets a work visa and comes to Galveston.  When he disappears, his Filipino cousin comes undocumented to search for him. 

Kimberly Garza is a native Texan who was born and raised in Galveston and her familiarity with the locale is evident.  This is her debut novel and I really enjoyed reading about the region and thought her method of mixing the stories of various residents of Fish Village was an effective one.  I listened to this novel and the narrator did an excellent job.  The Karankawa Native Americans were a tribe that was new to me and I enjoyed the bits of their history that were given in the novel.  Carly was probably my favorite character as I can relate to the thought of growing up somewhere you want to leave for the bigger world yet the ties to that place want to keep you there.  This book is recommended for multicultural and literary fiction readers. 

Savage Lands by Clare Clark

 

In 1704, Elisabeth Savaret is one of the original twenty-three French girls sent to the Louisiana colony to provide wives for the around two hundred settlers there, the large majority of them men.  These women were known as casket girls for the one small trunk of belongings each woman was allowed to bring.  Elisabeth was the luckiest for she met and married a man, Jean-Claude, who she fell madly in love with.

But Jean-Claude who was a soldier was often away.  He was known for his ability to negotiate with the various Native American tribes surrounding the Louisiana settlement where the colonists huddled and could spend an entire winter with a tribe.  There he encountered a young French boy named Auguste  Auguste had been a cabin boy but was deserted with a tribe as a young boy so that he could learn the language and culture and report back any information he picks up about potential uprisings.

These three individuals formed a tight friendship with both Elisabeth and Auguste idolizing Jean-Claude.  But Jean-Claude is mainly interested in making money and gaining influence which often puts him in danger.  

Clare Clark is an English author who writes in the historical fiction genre.  Both this novel and her novel about London in Victorian times named The Great Stink, were nominated for the Orange Prize, now named The Woman's Prize in Fiction.  Readers will learn about the beginnings of the state of Louisiana, the indigo plantations created there, the early relations in Louisiana with the Native American tribes and about how families were created by the casket girls.  There is tension and love in this novel and one will admire the strength of Elisabeth.  This book is recommended for historical fiction readers.  

What Happened That Night by Nicci French

 

It's the dinner party that no one wants to come to but all accepted the invitation.  The last time this group was together was at the end of university when their group all went to a house party.  At the end of that party, Leo, the group bully, was dead and Tyler Green, the group leader, was led away in the back of a police car.  He has been in prison for that murder for thirty years although he denied doing it.  Now he is out and he wants to get the group back together.

Beatrice hosts.  She is married to a man high up in the government and she is a barrister.  They have a large house and tons of money.  Rudi had been her secret lover back then and tonight will be the first time they have seen each other since.  Will was Tyler's best friend and everyone's buddy but that didn't stop him from marrying Ali, who had been madly in love with Tyler.  Marco had been the musician.  His career never took off and he comes dressed scruffily and bringing an uninvited guest, his girlfriend who is decades younger.  Clara and Jay were a couple but soon afterwards Clara came out as gay and Jay had a breakdown.  They are both there.  Finally, Ellen was a lovely blonde earth mother who slept with all the men.  She is married now with five children and a couples counselor.  

At the end of the night, another body lies still, stabbed and killed in the same way Leo was.  Who did it? DI Maud O'Connor and her assistant Carrie Kessler are a great team and they are under additional pressure due to the notoriety of the first crime and the positions in society of the old friends.  

Nicci French is the pen name of a wildly successful husband and wife writing team.  I've read many of their novels and every one is good but this one was even better than I had anticipated.  The tension slowly mounts as the dinner progresses.  It becomes clear that Tyler has a reason to blame everyone there for his false imprisonment while everyone else went on with their lives.  This is the third Maud O'Connor mystery and my favorite so far.  This book is recommended for mystery readers.  

Prima Facie by Suzi Miller

 

Tessa Ensler never thought while growing up that she would be where she is today.  Brought up in council housing outside London with her single mother who is a cleaner and her brother who has served time, Tessa managed to use the advantage of a superior brain to win a scholarship and get out.  These days she is a defense barrister in a prestigious firm and is considered one of the best of the up and coming class.  Tessa has fought hard for her position but she can't help but still feel sometimes that she doesn't belong with the mostly rich, upper class men and women she spends her days with.

When one of the other men in her firm asks her out, Tessa isn't sure.  It would not be good for her reputation if others found out and she has been careful who she dated.  But there is attraction and she does go out with the man and takes him back to her apartment after dinner.   There she becomes part of the one in three women who is raped in her lifetime.

What should she do?  If she reports the man, can she stay in her beloved job?  He is from a family of barristers and high prestige men with lots of influence.  Who will be believed?  If she doesn't report him, will he do the same to someone else?

Suzi Miller is an Australian author who started as a lawyer but since has written over forty plays.  Her most successful was Prima Facie which won the Olivier Award for Best New Play and a Tony Award for Jodie Comer who starred in it for Best Actress In A Play.  Comer is also the narrator of the book which adds quite a lot with her English accent and cool narration which matches the character of Tessa who I also imagined as cool and reserved.  The focus on the legal aspects of reporting a rape is always relevant and especially in the 'Me-Too' environment currently in place.  Readers will learn more about the English justice service and about the statistics and outcomes of rapes.  This book is recommended for readers interested in justice and how close every woman is to uninvited attack.  

HHhH by Laurent Binet

 

Reinhard Heydrich was one of the top men in the Nazi organization.  The HHhH stood for 'Himmlers Hirn heisst Heydrich' which means 'Himmlers brain is called Heydrich'.  He was high up in the SS organization and one of the main architects of the Final Solution.  He ruled occupied Czechoslovakia and sent out Death Squads.  

This is the story of how two men, Jozef Gabcik and Jan Kubis as they escape Czechoslavakia to England where they were trained as assassins.  They parachuted into the country and eventually attacked Heydrich as he was riding to work one day.  He survived the attack but died later in the hospital.  It also covers what happened after the assassination and the brutal standoff that ended in both men's deaths.

Laurent Binet is a French author and this was his debut novel.  His work focuses on history, mostly current and political.  This novel alternates between the facts of the event and the process of Binet writing it.  It was a New York Times Book Review Editors Choice as well as a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award.  I was not familiar with Heydrich's role but this book was written in such a way, alternating between the evil he was committing and the preparations for his death, that I'll never forget him and the courage of men who volunteered for a mission they knew would result in their own deaths.  This book is recommended for historical fiction readers.  

The Dollhouse by Fiona Davis

 

Rose Lewin is a journalist, her joy researching and writing long articles.  She was pushed out of a network job and has landed at a startup online magazine.  Rose is living in the Barbizon Hotel, a New York landmark where seventy years ago models and secretaries lived while working and looking for Mr. Right. Rose's latest project is telling the story of those women, some of whom are still living at the Barbizon in rent-controlled apartments while the rest of the building has gone to high priced condos.

There was a scandal with these women back in 1952.  Something happened on the rooftop and at the end of the incident, one woman had fallen to her death while the other, Darby, has lived in seclusion ever since, her face veiled whenever she has to go out.  Rose wants to tell Darby's story but Darby isn't interested in talking.  When Darby leaves on a trip, Rose and a photographer at the startup start to research the story.  They learn that the woman who fell was a Puerto Rican maid at the Barbizon named Esme.  But as they research they learn that the two women were friends and that Esme was also a singer and perhaps mixed up with gangsters.  What's the real story of that night?

Fiona Davis is an American author who specializes in historical fiction.  This novel was her debut and it transports the reader back to the 1950's New York City.  Readers will learn about expectations of women, cooking with spices, gangs running heroin and jazz clubs.  Darby had a love story to be discovered and Rose also has one that adds interest.  This book is recommended for readers of historical fiction.  

Florence Adler Swims Forever by Rachel Beanland

 

This is the story of the Jewish Adler family living in Atlantic City in the 1930's.  Esther and Joseph rent out their house every summer to tourists and move into the small apartment above their bakery.  This summer, the apartment is full.  Their daughter Fannie is pregnant with a high-risk baby and has been hospitalized for the end of her term.  Gussie, the Adler granddaughter is living with her parents so her father Issac can work in the plant and rest at night.  Florence, who is college aged, is home for the summer and plans to spend it training to swim the English Channel, coached by her boyfriend Stuart.  Then there is Anna, who has managed to escape Hitler's Germany to attend school in the United States.  She and Joseph, who knew the parents before he immigrated, are trying to get visas to bring Anna's parents over as well.

But tragedy awaits.  Early in the summer, Florence goes swimming alone in the ocean and drowns.  The family is devastated but also fearful that if Fanny hears about it, she will go into premature labor and lose another baby.  They get everyone including the press to not report the name of the woman who drowned and swears Gussie to silence.  In the meantime, Issac is getting more remote from his family while Anna is becoming attracted to Stuart.  What will the summer bring?

Rachel Beanland is an American author who grew up in Connecticut but has lived in the South as an adult.  This is her debut novel and I really enjoyed it.  I enjoyed learning about the history of Atlantic City and about the foreshadowing of World War II and the influence Hitler had before the war started  The glimpse into a Jewish family's traditions and family life was interesting.  Gussie is a delightful ten year old, not always sure what is going on and just wanting someone to love her as her mother does.  This book is recommended for historical fiction readers.  

What's The Matter With Kansas? by Thomas Frank

 

Covering the early 2000's, this book purports to explain how Kansas and the majority of the Midwest, went from voting liberal to becoming a conservative haven.   His premise is that there is what he calls a thirty-year backlash against the ruling liberal class, which never existed.  He follows this premise into topics such as religion, social mores, farming, the loss of factory jobs, etc.  He believes that these converted voters are voting against their own best interest.

Thomas Frank is a political analyst and columnist.  He is a liberal and writes from that perspective.  I had interest in this topic but found the book more like a screed than fact-based.  Rather than statistics and analysis, the mantra seemed to be, 'Conservative bad, liberal good'.  There is nothing the liberals have wrong which makes one wonder why they lost followers.  There is nothing the conservatives have right from his perspective.  I ended up disappointed in this book.  I listened to it and the author was the narrator.  He did do a good job with the narration which is often not the case with authors reading their own works.  This book is recommended for die-hard liberals.

When You Are Mine by Michael Robotham

 

Philomena McCarthy is a female police in London but she has baggage.  Besides the normal fight against her peers' misogyny, Phil comes from one of the biggest crime families in the city.  The McCarthy brothers are known for their organization, although these days they are into more stable and legal businesses.  Phil hasn't spoken with her family in years, not since her father walked out on her mother when Philomena was a teenager.  These days she lives with her boyfriend Henry, who is a fireman and weekends with his son.  

One night Phil and her partner get a domestic violence call.  They rescue a woman named Tempe but her boyfriend tries to intimidate them and ends up in a physical encounter with Phil.  She arrests him although he tells her that he is a DI in the police.  When they get to the station, he wins the encounter and Phil is sent home on suspension

But Tempe is still around.  Phil helps her find a safe place to stay and soon Tempe has wormed herself into Philomena's life.  She helps plan Phil and Henry's wedding, shows up on Phil's girls night out and meets her friends, does household chores.  Phil is uneasy at how dependent Tempe seems to be and the stories she tells about her background don't seem true.  

Phil finally reconciles with her family at her father's sixtieth birthday.  The timing is good as the DI she has issues with is found murdered and Philomena is the main suspect.  She will need all her wits and the help of her unique family to solve the murder and get out of trouble.  

Michael Robotham is an Australian author who spends time there and in London.  He was a ghostwriter for years with twelve of those books ending up on the bestseller lists.  I'm glad he moved on to mysteries and suspense as he is one of my favorites and the reader always knows they will be entertained with a riveting story when they open one of his books.  I'd love it if he created an entire series about Philomena and the McCarthy family.  There is a second one but I could read about her for an entire series.  This book is recommended for mystery readers.  

Black Mouth by Ronald Malfi

 

They were the outcast group, the ones with issues and poverty-stricken houses.  Jamie and Dennis were brothers but Dennis has mental issues.  Clay is a black guy with vitiligo, the disease where his skin had huge white splotches.  Mia is a goth girl who won't change for anything and could care less what anyone thinks. They  all can't wait until they can grow up and leave Black Mouth, a dying town that offers nothing good.   One summer when they are about thirteen, they meet The Magician.

He seems to be homeless and living near the old mine shafts.  Middle-aged, he wears an eye patch to cover the eye he lost somehow.  He is scary looking, but seems to have plenty of time for the four and is willing to teach them magic tricks.  Soon, they are spending all their spare time with him.  They don't realize when things start to change and he asks them to do more dangerous things.  Then finally, when The Magician thinks he has them under control, he tries to make them kill Dennis.  But he is wrong and as the teens run from him, they set off a disaster that ends in tragedy regardless.

Now grown, Jamie has never been back.  His life has been guilt and alcoholism and attempts to forget that summer.  He lives from job to job.  But when he gets the call, he has to go.  His mother has died after all these years and arrangements have to be made for Dennis who has stayed in Black Mouth.  He thinks he will be there only a week, but when he arrives, he hears the news about a young girl who has stabbed her best friend to death and who says a man living in the woods made her do it.  Mia coincidentally is also there and calls Clay who is now a social worker.  They believe that The Magician is back and they must band together one more time in order to defeat him.

Ronald Malfi always delivers a great horror novel but this one may be my favorite.  The mystery and the contrast between that summer when they are teenagers and now that this one when they are adults and supposedly more able to fight evil.  The affection between these four who found affection in short supply growing up is admirable and a great offset to all that is happening.  Dennis is a loveable character who shows unimagined knowledge and strength in the battle.  Jamie's love for him is touching and the interplay between the characters who meet up again for the first time since that summer is great.  I listened to this novel and the narrator did a marvelous job.  This book is recommended for horror readers.  

The Bee Sting by Paul Murray

 

This is the story of the Barnes family.  Dickie grew up in the shadow of his younger brother, Frank, whom everyone loved and admired for his outgoing personality and athletic prowess.  The family business is selling cars and the family has two dealerships.  Dickie was always slated to take over once his father decided to retire although he has little interest in it while Frank would love to have the business.  

Dickie married Imelda who was Frank's girlfriend first.  They had two children.  Cass is about to go off to university while PJ just wants to get along with everyone.  

Things aren't going well.  The dealerships are failing and Dickie just can't bring himself to care.  He spends his days in the woods behind their house, building a survivalist refuge with PJ and a scurry handyman who Imelda despises.  Imelda spends her days worrying about where the money will come from if the business fails and wondering how she ended up in a loveless marriage.  She is still beautiful and men are still attracted to her.  Should she find love elsewhere?

Things come to a head when the accountant finds a large sum of money missing from the business accounts.  Dickie knows where it went but he's not talking.  Now he needs to find more money for the same reason.  

Paul Murray is an Irish author who often writes about family relationships.  This novel was shortlisted for the Booker Prize and it was Murray's second nomination for that award.  What I noticed most in this book was the pacing.  It starts out with long, luxurious sections about each main character so that the reader gets to know each of them.  Then the chapters start to be shorter as the ending approaches and the pace becomes faster and faster building suspense.  I really liked this novel and can't wait to read more of Murray's work.  This book is recommended for literary fiction readers.  

Wolves Of The Calla by Stephen King

 

In this fifth book in the Dark Tower series, Roland, Eddie, Jake and Susannah come upon the town of Calla Bryn Sturgis.  It seems prosperous compared to many places they have encountered; food seems plentiful, there is a store and the outlying farms and ranches seem to be doing well.  One thing seems strange though.  There are children everywhere.  Most are twins.

Then they find out the horror that periodically visits the town.  About once a generation, the Wolves come on gray horses.  They take one of each pair of twins from about four to fifteen.  When those taken are returned after a few months, they come back Roont as the town calls them.  They have been taken back to the brain level of a two year old and they grow into giants.  They also die much earlier than one might expect  The worst is about to occur.  Andy, the robot who travels the roads and picks up news, tells the townspeople that the Wolves will be coming in about a month.

The Tet discusses it and decides to stay and help.  They meet Father Callahan, an alcoholic priest who understands the travel between worlds as he used to be the priest of Salem's Lot.  He has the most powerful ball which can take someone wherever they want to go.  Eddie makes several trips back to New York where there is a fight about who will own the lot where the rose that makes beauty and peace is harbored.  But all is not good.  Susannah is pregnant, but not with Eddie's baby.  She has also developed another personality named Mia who has no interest in being part of the Tet.

This series just keeps getting better and better as it progresses.  This is truly King's masterwork and has depth and interest for readers.  I have to take a break between volumes as the tale gets ever more intense leading up to the final battle that is coming.  This book is recommended for fantasy and horror readers.  

The Executor by Jesse Kellerman

 

Joseph Geist is at loose ends when he sees the ad.  He has been kicked out of his graduate program after years of not producing his dissertation.  His girlfriend has broken up with him and since they live in her apartment, he no longer has anywhere to stay.  The ad asks for someone who can provide discussion on various topics on a regular basis.  Desperate, he answers the ad and meets Alma Spielman.  Alma is an elderly woman who is wealthy.  She is lonely and wants someone intelligent to talk to a couple of days a week.  After meeting Joseph, she hires him.  After a few afternoons of conversation, Joseph ends up moving in and starts taking care of Alma, at least as much as she will allow.

But there's always a fly in the ointment.  With Alma, it's her nephew, Eric.  Eric was raised by Alma and he is a drifter, a con man, someone who lives waiting for his rich relative to die and leave him the money he thinks he is due.  Eric strikes up a relationship with Joseph and soon is suggesting that if they killed Alma, he would get his money and would give Joseph the house.  Joseph is appalled and tries to warn Alma but she brushes him off.  Where will it end?

Jesse Kellerman started as a playwright.  He is the son of Jonathan and Faye Kellerman and has written several books with his father.  In this book, the tension mounts slowly.  Joseph knows what is about to happen but can't find anyone to take him seriously.  He starts to unwind himself as he tries to save Alma yet lured by the thought of riches for himself.  This book is recommended for suspense readers. 

The Suitcase Clone by Robin Sloan

 

James Bascule has always lived in Northern California except for one trip to Europe where he fell in love and got his heart broken.  Now he is adrift.  It's time for college but he's not sure that's what he wants to do.  He knows the military isn't for him but what is?

Then James meets a man who would love to hire him.  The man is starting a vineyard and wants to hire a suitcase clone.  That's someone who goes to a famous vineyard, snips a vine from there and brings it home to be propagated elsewhere.  James doesn't have any other plans so he says yes.

But can he pull it off?  There is a partner, a woman who plays techno music and he can go into the vineyard as her technician.  He has the suitcase and a place to hide the cutting.  Now the only thing that's left is to find a way to steal a cutting and get home without being detected.  Is he up to the task?

Robin Sloan is an American author and his interests lie in the fields of technology and AI.  He also is part owner of a company that makes olive oil and lives in Northern California.  This novella fits between two of his other books, Mr. Penumbra's Twenty-Four Hour Bookstore and Sourdough.  James is a loveable villain who the reader is sure will eventually be caught but probably get by with not much punishment.  It is comedic without being overwhelming, just enough to make reading about James enjoyable.  This book is recommended for literary fiction readers.  

One Hundred Years Of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez

 

This is the story of the Buendia family who settled and founded the mythical city of Macondo.  It follows the lives and loves of the men and women who made up the family.  Some of the men were inventors and magicians, some were warriors, all had lovers and sometimes their love was sustaining and sometimes their downfall.  The exact location of Macondo is never specified so it becomes the archtype for South American culture.  It is a blend of love, lore, politics, mystery, decades-long feuds and resentments and history that continually circles around again.  The novel follows the birth, life and eventual death of the city and those within it.

Although Marquez did not invent magic realism, this novel soon became known as the masterpiece of this technique.  This technique is known for weaving magical or supernatural elements into a story as if they were just commonplace occurrences.  In this novel, some examples include the entire town having insomnia for an extended time, a four-year rain of yellow flowers, the extreme old age of the founding characters, a female character ascending to heaven while folding clothes, the wizard's workshop and many other things.  

Gabriel Garcia Marquez was a Colombian author whose work brought Latin American literature to the world's notice.  It won awards as the best foreign book in both Italy and France and was a founding brick in the body of work that brought Marquez the Nobel Prize in Literature.  The book was written in 1967 and released in the United States in 1970.  I read it first in 1971, a college freshman.  It was probably the most significant book I read during those years of college and my first experience of magic realism as a literary technique.  As I downsize my library, I read it again and was delighted to find that I loved it as much now as all those years ago. Some readers may find the similar names confusing as new babies are named after ancestors and it is easy to confuse characters at times.    This book is recommended for literary fiction and multicultural readers.   

The Visitors by Miranda Rijks

 

Most would say that Hannah has it all.  She lives in a large house in the English countryside with her husband, Daniel, and her two children.  Prior to her marriage she was a music teacher and she still has a few students she teaches on her grand piano.  But it's not enough.

She wants a project and Daniel agrees to let her turn the barn into a guest cottage, one that she plans to rent out.  She creates a lovely space and the first guests love it.  Everything is going well when her second guests arrive.

Nadia and Mike are very different from her first guests.  They arrive in a beat up car with their daughter.  They are loud and as Hannah soon finds out, messy and demanding.  They expect Hannah to keep their daughter whenever they leave.  When they take Hannah's daughter on a quick outing with them, they don't return or answer calls for hours.  When Hannah looks inside, her beautiful renovation is trashed; garbage everywhere, cushions in the floor.  Mike demands new bedding even though what is there is new.  Then he trips and breaks his ankle and they insist they need to stay another week so he can be treated.  Since they are hinting at a lawsuit, Hannah and Daniel agree.

But things don't improve.  Soon Nadia and Mike have changed the locks on the doors and don't give Hannah a key.  They invite themselves on Hannah and Daniel's family outings and are loud and rude in public.  Surely something has to give....and it does.

Miranda Rijks is an English author.  I listened to this novel and the narrator did an excellent job, helping to build the tension that Rijks increases bit by bit.  Although the tenants are unreasonable, she makes Hannah's actions seem logical although she needs a bit more backbone as she is way too polite as she hopes to build a successful business.  There are also hints that all is not well with Hannah and Daniel and those hints continue to accumulate throughout the book.  Rijks has written scores of psychological thrillers and this one is a great beach book or one to read while staying in an AirBnB.  This book is recommended for mystery readers.  

Sons Of Cain by Peter Vronsky

 

Peter Vronsky is a filmmaker and historian.  He became interested in serial killers when he actually encountered two of them.  The first was in New York and the man had a duffle bag when they brushed in a hotel corridor.  In the bag was a decapitated head from the woman the killer had just murdered.  Vronsky also encountered a serial killer in Moscow.  He spent years documenting Russian history as well as Canadian and various counter-terrorism and espionage topics.

In this books he gives an overview of serial killers over the ages.  In early years, most were not known with the location often rural and the lack of communication.  The first well-known serial was, of course, Jack the Ripper, and he covers that case as well as the French ripper who came after him. 

He also covers in detail the American period from 1950 to 2000 when 83% of the serial killers in the United States were active.  I've read several books that question why serial killers were so active at that time.  Vronsky believes that it had to do with the aftermath of World War II and all the men who fought in that war yet came home and never talked about what they saw and were forced to do yet raised sons while damaged.  

This is an interesting book for readers of true crime.  It is a great survey of serial killing throughout the ages.  Vronsky is not a psychologist so there is not as much as an in-depth analysis of the causes of serial killing although he is familiar and talks about the topic.  He has also spent time talking with the killer he encountered in New York who is now imprisoned.  His partner in that endeavor is the daughter of the woman killed that day.  Their interest is to find all the victims of that killer and where the undiscovered bodies of some of his victims still lie undiscovered.  This book is recommended for true crime readers.  

The Sideways Life Of Denny Voss by Holly Kennedy

 

Denny has a good life.  He lives with his Nana-Jo, his elderly mother with his cousin, Angus, next door in the duplex.  He has George, his rescued Saint Bernard.  Denny is intellectually challenged, the result of a birth accident that kept oxygen from getting to his brain but he is quick to tell everyone his number is 72, and you're not retarded unless your number is seventy or less. He has a big sister named Lydia who he seldom saw and with whom he wasn't on good terms He works with Angus, the two of them riding the roads for the city, scooping up roadkill and various other tasks.

Their is one person Denny doesn't like.  Henry Tesky employed Nana-Jo for years as the housekeeper.  But when his first wife died and he quickly remarried, Nana-Jo was fired.  Denny asked Mr. Tesky to give Nana-Jo her job back, but Tesky yelled at him and called him an idiot.  Mr. Tesky is also running for town mayor and Denny hopes he doesn't win.

When Tesky is found killed, Denny ends up being arrested.  He had been found near Tesky's house, on a sled full of guns.  With the animosity between the two, Denny seems like the perfect suspect.  He is put in jail where his lawyer and a doctor try to get the story of what happened from Denny.  Denny, who never uses one sentence when twenty come to him, tells stories and hides from the truth of what happened that night and what he has found out about his life.  

Holly Kennedy is a Canadian author.  Her novel about Denny is delightful with plot twists and secrets that are slowly revealed.  Denny is a lovely man, making the best of a life that has challenges and taking joy in the everyday events that we all have but most ignore.  This book is recommended for literary fiction readers who also enjoy comedy.

The Book Of Doors by Gareth Brown

 

Cassie Andrews is living in New York City with her friend, Izzy.  She works in a bookstore and she's not sure if that's what she wants to do but it's great for now as she loves to read and has customers who come often enough that they are familiar.  One of those, an elderly man she always talks with, unfortunately dies in the bookshop, his heart giving out.  He leaves a book behind for Cassie.

Cassie loves the book which is full of pictures and strange writing.  But soon she notices that another man seems to be wherever she and Izzy go.  He finally introduces himself as Drummond Fox, a Scotsman who tells her that her book is special, one of a set of special books.  Hers is the Book Of Doors and with it, she can be transported to anywhere that has a door, even back or forward in time.  Cassie doesn't believe him until she uses it to do just that, go somewhere else without trying.

But Fox warns her there are people who will want her book.  Some buy the books they are able to locate but there are others who will kill for them.  There is a woman who has killed all of Fox's friends and another evil man who will do whatever it takes to get books.  Soon Cassie and Izzy are being chased all over the world by these evil people.  What will it take to be safe?

I can hardly believe this is a debut novel as it is one of the best standalone fantasy novels I've read in a long time.  Gareth Brown is a Scottish author and I really hope he is working on another book.  Cassie grows from a young woman who is pretty aimless to a strong character willing to do whatever it takes to protect those around her and keep her book.  The other characters are imaginably drawn and I wonder if a romance could happen between Cassie and Drummond.  I can highly recommend this book to fantasy readers.  

My Phantoms by Gwendoline Riley

 

This is the story of Bridget and Helen Grant, daughter and mother.  Bridget's parents divorced when she was young and she and her sister saw her father less and less often so they were mainly raised by Helen.  Helen is narcissistic, finding ways to make every situation about her.  The wants and needs of the girls are far down on her scale and she only wants their adoration.

As adults, both the girls have moved away and have little to do with their mother.  Bridget, who lives in London with her partner, sees Helen about once a year.  Helen does what she can to make friends.  She goes to anything free; galley openings, lectures, club gatherings.  As social as she is, she has few if only friends, others sensing the vast cavern within Helen that she expects others to fill.

As Helen gets older, she wants more from her girls and they reluctantly do what they can as Helen's health falters and then crashes.  Yet even as they face losing their mother forever, the women know that they must protect their own core and the lives they have built without her.

Gwendoline Riley is an English author whose books have won acclaim.  They tend to be short and to the point, outlining lives in an unsparing fashion.  This novel in particular may be helpful to those struggling to separate from overpowering parents when they are adults.  Bridget manages to move away and build a satisfactory life without her mother but her interactions with her are sharp and some readers will be uncomfortable with them.  This book is recommended for literary and women's fiction readers.   

When We Were Real by Daryl Gregory

 

No one was the same after the Great Reveal.  That's when the Creators told everyone that they were just a simulation, a computer program that could be crashed or deleted whenever they chose.  Suddenly, marriages fell apart.  People quit jobs.  Suicide rates increased at first but have settled out as time went by.  It's kind of hard to just go along with your life when you find out something like that.

Dulin is worried about his friend, JP.  JP had a brain tumor and went through the surgery and radiation and chemo.  He got a clean bill of health but now it's back and JP isn't doing another round of treatment.  Dulin sees that JP is depressed and thinks what could cheer him up.  Maybe a cross-country bus trip to see some of the computer created miracles?

JP agrees and Dulin signs them up.  They have a busload of other folks riding.  There are four older folks who move and talk to each other and consider themselves a group.  There is the bus driver who's seen it all and the tour guide who just started working and doesn't know much about what she is doing.  There's an older woman in a wheelchair who spends her time complaining and her daughter, a middle-aged nurse.  There's a very pregnant influencer who thinks she can spin the birth of her baby into more clicks and likes.  There's the skeptic who is determined to show that the Great Reveal was false and his son who is college aged. There is a woman on the run, a scientist who is working against the government and who is being hunted by both government agents and a right-wing group stirred up on the Internet against her.   Finally there are the nuns; an older one who is having doubts and writing a book about them and a young one sent by those higher up to keep an eye on the older one.  Finally, there is a rabbi who is the older nun's friend.  

Together they ride the bus, view the sights which are manipulations of the world as they know it, such as a tunnel where they can spend five minutes or weeks but it will seem like the same time on the other side, or the site where things put in a vortex disappear.  They make friends and try to make sense of lives turned upside down.  Where will this tour end up?

Daryl Gregory is an author who focuses on science fiction and who writes with humor and a genuine liking of his characters.  His work has garnered awards such as the World Fantasy Award, the Shirley Jackson Award and notice by various publications.  He has also been nominated for the Nebula award.  His comic take on the situations he writes about is one of the main reasons Gregory is a must-read for me.  His books can never be called boring as he pulls the reader along on his newest adventure and his characters are everyday folks who encounter extraordinary events.  This book is recommended for science fiction and fantasy readers.  

The In-Between Bookstore by Edward Underhill

 

Darby hasn't been home to Oak Falls for a decade.  Not since that disastrous senior year in high school when suddenly his best friend, Matt, iced him out and found a new best friend.  Not since he realized why he felt so different from everyone else and found a way to transition from a woman to a man.  Not since he found a new life and a family of friends in New York

But when Darby loses his job, realizes that he can't make his rent and his mother lets him know that she is selling the house he grew up in for a condo, he decides to go back and help her pack up.  Who knows?  Maybe the next chapter of his life is in small town America.

One of the few places Darby has fond memories of is the bookstore where he worked throughout high school.  When he gets into town he stops by there even though he knows it is closed by now.  When he looks through the window, he is surprised to see that it looks the same, exactly the same.  He is shocked when he sees the salesperson who is closing up.  It is his teenage self doing the same routine he is familiar with.  As he turns away, he runs into Matt, an encounter he is definitely not ready for.  But Matt seems friendly if surprised.

As the days go by, Darby haunts the bookstore.  If he is alone, it's the bookstore of his high school days and he strikes up an acquaintance with his old self, trying to steer her towards realization of why she feels different and what to do about it.  If he is with his mother or anyone else, it's a modern bookstore, much fancier and modern.  There seems to be a breakthrough with Matt as well and Darby wonders if he stays if Matt will be a part of his new life.  

Edward Underhill grew up in a similar small town.  He started writing young adult novels and this book is his first in the adult market.  It is a great book about finding your place and how everyone feels like an outsider sometimes.  It is also a book that is accepting of all lifestyles and one that someone thinking about transitioning would appreciate.  The physical side of things is handled nicely, steamy without being too much.  This book is recommended for readers of fantasy and those wondering about their next stage in life.  

Trouble In The Brasses by Alisa Craig

 

Detective Inspector Madoc Rhys of the Canadian Mounties is visiting his parents.  His father is the conductor of an orchestra and the rest of his family is musical as well with the exception of Madoc.  While watching one of his father's performances, Madoc notices that one of the players in the brass section seems to be having issues.  The man finishes the performance then collapses and dies.

It appears to be a health issue and the orchestra needs to leave for their next performance in another town so they leave and board a plane.  However, it definitely isn't their night and the plane develops engine problems and has to make an emergency landing in remote country near a deserted resort.  The orchestra is able to stay in the resort and there is some food left in the hotel kitchen but there is no phone or radio to summon help.  Soon more deaths occur and it is clear that someone is targeting orchestra members.  Can Madoc solve the case before more tragedy occurs?

Alisa Craig is a pen name for the well known mystery author, Charlotte MacLeod.  She was born in Canada but spent most of her life in New England.  She wrote more than forty novels under both her birth name and as Alisa Craig, most of which were in four different series.  This book was published in 1989 and does show its age somewhat, specifically in gender roles.  Still, the mystery has twists and turns and is successfully solved.  This book is recommended for mystery readers.

The Impossible Fortune by Richard Osman

 

The Thursday Murder Club is worried about Elizabeth.  She is still grieving the loss of her husband and they aren't sure what to do for her.  Joyce is ecstatic as her daughter is getting married to Paul.  Ron and Ibrahim are going about their lives.  They all attend the wedding including Elizabeth.

When things get too much for her, she goes outside for some air.  There she is approached by the groom's best friend, who tells her that someone is trying to kill him and that he heard she might be able to help him.  The man, Nick, tells Elizabeth that he and his friend, a woman he and Paul both knew from their university days, had been in business together for years.  They have something that is very valuable and only they can retrieve it.  When the woman is killed and Nick goes missing, the Thursday Murder Club goes into action.

But of course, there's always more to the story.  Ron is involved in family matters and worried that he may be getting too old to be the protector that is so much a part of his identity.   Ibrahim is treating a non-reformed criminal and just when he thinks he's making progress with her, she brings a naive young girl into her criminal world.  Can all these issues be solved?

This is the fifth Thursday Murder Club mystery and it is just as much a joy as the others were.  The supporting cast of Donna and Chris from the police, Bogdan the handyman who can do anything, and Ron's family are there.  The way these individuals all work together and put each other first is an amazing testament to the human spirit and it's all funny on top of that!  This book is recommended for mystery readers.  

Black Woods, Blue Sky by Eowyn Ivey

 

Birdie isn't living the life she envisioned for herself as a child.  She's stuck in a cabin next to the diner where she works and caring for her daughter, Emaleen.  She hadn't planned on being a single parent but loves her daughter more than anything.  But she wants to be free; free to wander, free to do whatever she wants whenever it strikes her fancy.

She sees another life when Arthur starts to come to the diner.  He is about her age but rarely comes to town, preferring to live miles away in his family's summer cabin deep in the forest.  He seldom speaks and when he does, it's like speaking is a task for him.  There are scars on his face and head and rumors about how he got them.  But Birdie sees more in Arthur and they strike up a relationship.  When he suggests that she and Emaleen move in with him, Birdie is ready to go, even when her boss and Arthur's father both recommend against it.

Because Arthur has a secret.  His father found him deep in the woods as a toddler, unable to speak English and apparently raised by a mother bear sow and her cub.  His father takes him home and he and his wife spend the next years trying to help Arthur settle into human society.  Only they know his secret but now Emaleen knows it as well as she watches Arthur near the forest where they now live.

Cut forward fifteen years.  Emaleen is now grown and has returned to Alaska to try to remember her early life which just seems like a dream to her now.  Will she learn the truth finally?

Eowyn Ivey was born and raised in Alaska and still lives there with her family.  In this book, there is a mythic quality about the writing.  What is the truth about Arthur?  Is he really different or does he have mental issues that can endanger Birdie and Emaleen?  The author leaves the issue open so that the reader can make up their own minds what really happened in the forests of Alaska in Emaleen's childhood.  I'm still thinking about it and can't decide what the author believes herself.  I find myself pondering questions about the book days after I finished it.  Emaleen is a real heroine and the reader will cheer for her.  This book is recommended for literary fiction readers.