It Is Wood, It Is Stone by Gabriella Burnham

 

Linda and Dennis have moved to San Paulo, Brazil, so that Dennis can take a year long professorship and advance his career.  The university supplies an apartment and also a maid, Marta, who cooks and cleans.  Since Linda isn't working, that leaves her at loose ends.  She is an adult in age but really hasn't matured as an adult.  She drifts through life, never sure about anything.  Does she love Dennis?  Should she try to make a friend of Marta?  What should she do with herself?

Linda makes two friends or acquaintances.  One is the wife of Dennis's mentor and she is definitely one of the wealthy elite, interested in shopping and clothes and not much else.  She has disdain for those not as wealthy for herself and Linda doesn't really care for her.  The other woman who is much more of a friend is Claudia, a woman she meets on the street one day while walking.  Claudia is warm, extravagant, and creative.  She is involved with artists, sculptors and actors and Linda is entranced with her.  The two form a close relationship and even leave for a few days at the coast together.  Is Linda in love with her?

This is Gabriella Burnham's debut novel.  She is a citizen of both the United States and Brazil, the daughter of a Brazilian mother who immigrated here.  Gabriella worked both as a journalist and in immigration rights before becoming an author.  Her work explores the themes of friendship, class differences, sexuality and one's purpose in life.  Linda comes to Brazil as an unformed character but makes enormous strides towards growing up during her year there.  This book is recommended for multicultural and literary fiction readers.   

The Discomfort Of Evening by Marieke Lucas Rijneveld

 Jas lives on a small farm in The Netherlands with her parents and two older brothers and a younger sister.  The family focus is on the farm and on their religion.  We join the family right after the oldest brother goes out on a skating competition from which he doesn't return.  He falls through the ice, gets trapped and drowns. 

Jas is now faced with death in a very real way.  She has seen animals die but never a person, especially one she loved.  Her parents retreat into themselves, her mother barely eating and her father becoming even more remote than he was.  Jas tries to protect herself and control what she can.  She stops having bowel movements and she refuses to take off her red coat that holds her securely.  Both her remaining siblings have their own methods.  Obbe, her older brother, becomes fascinated with death and starts to sadistically kill the family animals.  Hanna, her younger sister, becomes fascinated with her own emerging body and her sexuality.  

Throughout all these behaviors, the parents are consumed by their own grief and the business of keeping the farm and household running.  They don't realize that they need to be there for their children and help them survive this massive blow to the family.  As things go ever more wrongly on the farm, the parents retreat more and more, leaving their children to try to figure everything out by themselves.

This novel was the International Booker winner of 2020, the first Dutch novel to win and the debut novel of the author.  The author is also a poet and has won awards for that as well.  Along with his writing career, he grew up in the same kind of farming/religious household and still works on a dairy farm.  The reader is swept along from disaster to disaster as the children attempt to make sense of what has occurred and to find ways to survive it.  It is a bleak yet important book and those who read it will remember it long afterwards.  This book is recommended for literary fiction readers.  

The River by Peter Heller

 

Jack and Wynn are good friends, forged by their interest in nature and outdoor adventure.  They met at college orientation and have been friends since, even working together in the summer in a wilderness camp.  They plan on a canoe trip to end the summer, traveling the length of the Maskwa River in Canada.  It has enough whitewater to challenge them but also long stretches of placid water where they can fish and relax.

But things don't work out as planned.  Their first week is perfect, exactly what they had wanted when they planned the trip.  But things change rapidly in nature and one morning they wake up to notice a change.  A forest fire has started and is headed their way, a fire bigger than any they have ever seen.  They change their plans to get to their end destination as quickly as possible.

As they go, they encounter two groups of people.  One is a pair of middle-aged men, who are obviously on the river to drink and who are showing the effects of doing so.  They tell the men who opt to stay where they are.  Then Jack and Wynn pass a couple who they can hear are arguing.  They don't stop for them as they don't want to get involved.  But when the man in the couple shows up alone at their campsite, they decide to go back for her.

They find the woman bloody and barely conscious.  They load her up in the canoe and return to their campsite only to find that their gear has been tossed over a ravine.  All their protective gear, their emergency supplies and most importantly their food.  Why would the man do that?  Does he have even more plans to stop them?  What about the drunken couple?  Could this have been them?  The huge fire creeps closer and closer as they attempt to flee, burdened by a woman who could die and no supplies.  Can they survive?

Peter Heller is an American author whose work often includes his main interest, the outdoors.   In his personal life, he spends time surfing and whitewater rafting.  He also writes articles about the outdoors for various magazines.  I've read several of his novels and what I like about his writing is that each book is different from those before it.  This book explores nature and man's place in it, friendship and facing danger.  Wynn and Jack are very different although they share a love of nature.  Watching their friendship and their knowledge of nature and what to do in various scenarios is fascinating.  There is plenty of suspense and they encounter new dangers around each curve, both natural and man made.  This book is recommended for literary fiction readers.  

Tess Of The D'Urbervilles by Thomas Hardy

 Tess Durbeyfield is a young woman growing up in rural England in the 1800's.  Her family is poor as her father is an alcoholic.  One day the local pastor meets her father on the path and tells him that his family is probably descended from the D'Urbervilles, a local wealthy family that came upon hard times and lost everything.  After that, the father is determined that he shouldn't have to work at all, being descended from nobility.  Tess goes out to work trying to bring some money in for her mother and seven siblings.

Her first job is as a poultry keeper at an estate several hours away.  The woman who owns the farm is blind with one son.  That son, Alex, is a rogue who is determined to bed Tess from the moment he sees her.   It takes weeks but he eventually succeeds and leaves Tess to return home, ruined and with a baby which dies.  

Tess then goes to be a dairy maid.  There she makes several friends and is happy with her work.  She meets Angel Clare who is the youngest son of a prominent pastor.  He falls in love with Tess and eventually marries her only to be appalled when she confesses her affair with Alex.  Angel deserts her to go to Brazil and Tess must once again find a way to support herself and her family.  There is nothing more than pain ahead for Tess despite her beauty.

Thomas Hardy is considered one of the classic authors of Romanticism.  In addition to this novel he wrote such masterpieces as Far From The Maddening Crowd, Jude The Obscure and The Return Of The Native.  While the strictures of society Tess encountered seem strange these days, they were very real and many women faced them.  More happens to Tess in the novel but the reader can find that out by reading this compelling work.  This novel is recommended for readers of literary fiction.

Engines Of Chaos by R.S Ford

 

The battle rages on in Torwyn.  Sanctan, son of the former Emperor, still reigns as the head of the Dragon cult and is determined to end artifice and engines.  The Guilds are still trying to fight back with Rosomon, the Emperor's sister, heading up the opposing forces, although she has never had any military training.  She has gained some new allies while others the Guilds were counting on have caved in to the Dragons.  Rosomon's children could be her allies if they were still here.  Fulren was lost a he returned from captivity.  Conall Hawkspur was serving in a far-flung military base and has not returned.  Her daughter, Tyreta, has returned from the jungle but is sent out again to try to gain allies for the battles ahead.

There are also new characters.  Keara is the daughter of another one of the Guilds.  She is desperate for her guild to have power and influence but they are small and relatively weak.  She and Tyreta, who goes on a mission for her mother to find and bring back more artificers with more power, are locked in a battle for supremacy.  Ansel is the Sanctan's bodyguard and executioner.  He starts to question Sanctan's decisions as he sees that Sanctan doesn't follow the rules he sets for others and rather than being a spiritual leader, spends his days in debauchery.  He disobeys Sanctan and saves a young girl named Grace who is Sanctan's illegitimate daughter.

This is the second book in the trilogy.  I can't wait to read the next and see what happens to all these characters and how the alliances work out.  Ford's action is fast and furious and he will sacrifice a main character in a heartbeat.  Brutal but compelling read.  I listened to this novel. There are several narrators voicing various characters and listening adds another dimension to the story.  This book is recommended for fantasy readers.  

My Name Is Joe Lavoie

 

The Lavoie family is one of those families.  Lots of kids and every one of them cut out for trouble.  A father who drinks and a mother who has given up and spends her days in a daze.  There are four brothers, Jack, Bernard, Joe and Eugene.  Everyone is afraid of Jack, even his family.  The two girls are gorgeous and available to anyone.  

After Joe finishes his Army stint, he and his brothers look around for work but there isn't any for a Lavoie.  So they decide that robbing stores would do nicely.  Jack decides that they should dress up in suits and natty hats so that those they rob will remember the clothes and not them.  All the brothers participate except for Eugene who is trying to go straight.  The jobs go well and the brothers decide that there is another little job they want to take care of.  A married policeman living down the street has been having an affair with their young teenage sister and they hate him for that.  Jack decides they should kill him.

This novel is told looking back on that decision.  Joe is emerging from decades in jail after the brothers kill a policeman and evade capture for several weeks.  He was wounded in the takedown and has been in a wheelchair since that day.  As he lays in the bedroom of his sister Ronnie he looks back at his life and wonders what might have been if he had been born into a different family.   

W.A. Winter is the pen name of a journalist who also writes novels based on true crimes.  He is from Minnesota and that's where most of his novels are set.  The reader gets a sense that these men's lives would have been much different if they had been born into a different family.  The love the children have for each other extends into their adult years, no matter what each one had done.  I listened to this book and the narrator did a great job, a clear voice that didn't take over from the story.  This book is recommended for true crime readers.  

Stranger Things Happen by Kelly Link

 

This is an anthology of eleven stories by Kelly Link.  My favorite was The Specialist's Hat which won a World Fantasy award.  In it, twin sisters are guided to the specialist's hat in their attic by a babysitter.  It can mimic any sound and can capture ghosts.  The twins think it's just a game but the terror is real and soon they must find a way to hide from the hat to save themselves.

Kelly Link is an American author who specializes in the fantasy/horror genre and publishes mostly stories.  Her work is full of magic realism and has won many awards.  This was her debut anthology and the eleven stories have sixteen illustrations as well.  This book is recommended for fantasy readers.  

Last One Out by Jane Harper

 

Five years can be a lifetime.  Five years ago, Rowena Crowley had been working in the town's clinic as a doctor, her husband Griff watching as a fireman to keep the town safe.  The Crowley's had two children, Sam who was in university and Della a high schooler.  Five years ago, Carralon Ridge was still viable although the mining company on the edge of town was buying more and more properties and more families were leaving.  Five years ago, Ro's life had not exploded.

Now she returns to Carralon Ridge.  Five years ago, Sam had come home on a school break to work on his oral history of the town.  His rental car was found near three abandoned houses with all his belongings inside but Sam had disappeared and was never found despite the extensive searches that were done.  What could have happened?  Ro and Griff were both blindsided and their marriage, like many others of parents who lose a child, did not survive.  Ro left when the clinic closed and returns only once a year on the anniversary of Sam's disappearance.

Jane Harper exploded on the mystery scene a decade ago as one of the most familiar Australian authors.  This is her sixth novel and I thought one of the better ones.   I've read each of her novels as they have come out as I really enjoy her intricate plots and the views one gets of another country and it's lifestyles.  I listened to this one and the female author did a great job, not too much accent but just enough to let you know you are in another land.  The mystery is solved satisfactorily and the book is recommended for mystery readers.  

Rough Crossings: The Slaves, The British And The American Revolution by Simon Schama

 

This nonfiction history tells the story of the slaves during and after the American Revolution and how the British interacted with them.  England abolished slavery several decades before the United States, although for both it was in the 1800s.  During the American Revolution, slaves were a strategy for the English.  They promised freedom to any slaves who ran away and joined them and around twenty thousand did.  This had the effect of weakening the American economy and creating food shortages.  

After the war, the British then needed to deal with those people they had made promises to.  At first the former slaves were moved to Nova Scotia where they were promised land and the ability to rule themselves.  But the unfairness continued with white British administrators who took the best land for themselves and created the rules under which all would live.  Due to this failure, a plan was created to take the slaves back to Africa and give them land there.  A colony was started in Sierra Leone with indifferent success, depending on who the governor was and his attitude towards the former slaves.  Some were sympathetic while others were the same as those in Nova Scotia.

Simon Schama is a British author whose work is in historical fiction.   He has been knighted for his service to history and is also a television presenter.  He specializes in Jewish history, Dutch history and that of England.  His research is impeccable and he has also worked in various universities such as Harvard, Cambridge and Oxford.  His writing style is somewhat storylike and such that one need not be a historian to enjoy.  He brings the dry facts to society with a storytelling twist.  This book won the 2006 National Book Award for nonfiction and I learned quite a lot from it.  This book is recommended for those readers who enjoy nonfiction of a historical topic.

Heart-Shaped Box by Joe Hill

 

Judas Coyne was one of the great of the metal era in rock.  But he hasn't toured or released anything in years.  The rest of his band has died and he just doesn't have the enthusiasm for it anymore.  He lives in his mansion with the latest groupie.  There have been so many that he just calls them by their birth state and this one is called Georgia although her name is Marybeth.

One day his assistant Danny shows him an online ad where someone is selling a ghost.  Judas is intrigued and tells Danny to buy it.  Soon an old man's suit arrives in a black heart-shaped box.  Judas assumes he's been rooked but soon he starts to see an old man in the hallways or wherever he is.

After investigating, he learns that this is the ghost of his last girlfriend's stepfather.  He put Florida on the bus one morning when her bipolar disorder needed treatment.  After getting home, Florida killed herself and her stepfather and sister blame Coyne, not the years of abuse she suffered as a child.  Now the stepfather is in Coyne's house and determined to make him pay.

This is Joe Hill's debut novel and it was praised from the beginning.  Of course, he is the son of Stephen King and King's wife Tabitha who are both authors so it's hardly surprising that he should be an author.  But the praise from media outlets for a debut novel are surprising and the book is definitely a great start for his career.  One of his talents is making everyday situations seem horrific and he does that in this novel, turning an unsympathetic Coyne into a hero.  This book is recommended for horror fans.

Counterplay by Robert Tanenbaum

 

Butch Karp is running for another term as New York District Attorney but things aren't going as smoothly as one might expect.  His arch-nemesis, Andrew Kane, has escaped from the maximum security prison where Butch put him.  Kane escapes during a prisoner transfer and a busload of schoolchildren are killed in the escape.  One of Kane's closest associates at work is getting ready to close his career due to illness.  All he wants before he goes is to prosecute a murderer who has avoided trail for fifteen years for the murder of his wife.  

Karp knows that Kane will try to target him through his family.  His wife, Marlene, works in counter-terrorism and is in constant danger from that.  She has gotten close with some of Butch's relatives who are involved with Russian terrorism.  Marlene and Butch's daughter is out West, with a cowboy boyfriend and living in a remote location.  Their twin sons are about twelve and not as willing to be protected as they once were.  

As the stakes get higher with the visit of the Pope to New York, can Butch protect those he loves?

Robert Tanenbaum is the author of twenty-nine books in the Butch Karp and Marlene Ciampi series.  This one is the eighteenth.  I've been reading these since the first one came out in 2010.  While the books follow intricate crimes, they are full of frantic action as Butch and his cohorts continue to fight evil and bring criminals to justice.  This book is recommended for thriller readers.   

Measuring The World by Daniel Kehlmann

 

In the early 1800's, two German scientists find ways to measure the world they inhabit and bring knowledge and clarity to areas that were undefined.  One is Alexander von Humboldt who is known for his travels and all of his scientific discoveries.  He visited South and Central America, parts of Europe, the United States, and Siberia and Central Asia.  He discovered many previously unknown plants and animals and made maps more accurate instead of just guesses.  He is well-known.

The other man, Carl Fredrich Gauss is a brilliant mathematician and astrologer.  He doesn't need to leave his home to visualize and prove the truths he discovers.  He formulated the golden theorem of number theory and the fundamental theorem of algebra.  He created the bell curve of statistics and discovered methods to accurately predict and find astrological bodies.  

The two men were very different.  Humboldt was in constant motion and was pretty much a loner.  He had one companion who accompanied him on his South American travels but left him behind when he returned to Europe.  Most these days consider him gay.  Gauss was interested in women early on and married young and had children.  When his first wife died, he remarried.  The two men met at the ends of their lives but prior to that had carried on correspondence and worked together on some projects.

I've been on a Daniel Kehlmann kick this year and this is his third novel that I've read.  This one is his debut novel and the mastery he will later develop is seen here in glimpses.  What I like most about him is that every novel is completely different.  This one outlines the lonely lives of those that explore our world and better define it and the sacrifices they make to do so.  The writing is clear which is another of his defining characteristics as an author.  This book is recommended for those interested in the discoveries of science and the development of an author who is increasingly important for his body of work.

How Beautiful We Were by Imbolo Mbue

 

The villagers of Kosawa in Africa have inhabited the land and the village from time immemorial.  But things are not good these days in the village.  An American oil company has come to extract the oil from the land and with no one to enforce standards, has created an environmental crisis.  The water has been turned into poison, killing the fish and making the people sick, especially the children who are dying.  The jungles are being destroyed, taking away the wild game the people depend on.  The head of the government cares only for the money he receives from the company and uses his soldiers to enforce their work.  

The villagers come together to try to decide what to do.  They decide to send a delegation to talk to the company but the men never return.  When another group tries, the company talks a good game but nothing changes until more serious action is taken.  That results in more tragedy for the village.

From despair, a new leader emerges.  Thula is a young girl who everyone knows is smart.  She is picked out to go to America for an education but her exposure there instead turns her into a revolutionary.  When she returns to Africa, can she effect meaningful change?

Imbolo Mbue is an African author from Cameroon.  This is her second novel and it was chosen as one of the Ten Best Books of The Year by such publications as the Kirkus Review, The New York Times Book Review, The Washington Post and Esquire.  It is an eye-opening telling of how environmental disasters can be perpetuated on native populations, destroying their way of life.  The balance between those who wish to fight and those who are willing to take whatever is offered by the company provides an interesting dynamic.  Thula is a fascinating character as she evolves in her views as she receives education and is exposed to those who have fought for various causes.  This book is recommended for multicultural and literary fiction readers.  

Dandelion by Jamie Chai Yun Liew

 

Lily grew up in British Columbia, Canada, the child of Southeast Asian immigrants.  Her father was determined to fit in but her mother desperately missed the land of her birth and youth and the relatives she had left behind there.  When Lily was eleven, her mother disappeared.  She and her sister thought her mother would return but her mother never did.  Her mother never wrote them, called them or sent them messages.  She just disappeared.

Now Lily is grown and has just had her own baby.  But something is wrong and Lily knows she will never be able to be a good mother until she solves the mystery of what happened to her own mother.  How had she just left them?  Did she not love them?  Was the same makeup in Lily and would she let down her own child?  Lily, her husband and the baby decide to visit her parent's home territory and see if she can find the answers she has wanted her whole life.

Jamie Chai Yun Liew is a Canadian author and lawyer.  Her legal work centers around immigration and she also hosts a podcast on this topic.  This is her debut novel and it won the Emerging Writers Award.  I listened to this novel and the narrator sounded exactly as I imagined Lily sounded.  Lily is a hurt soul and she fears she will never be whole until she solves the mystery that has defined her life.  Her husband is a great character who is very supportive of his wife's quest and her fears that she can never be a good mother.  Readers will relate to Lily as she unpeels layer and layer of secrets and clues.  This book is recommended for multicultural readers and those interested in family relationships.

The Land In Winter by Andrew Miller

 

This novel is set in the remote English countryside in 1962 and focuses on two different couples.  The Parrys are considered gentry, he one of the village doctors while she is a housewife who grew up in a typical middle-class family.  The Simmons are their neighbors across a large field and are farmers.  He comes from money but disapproves of his father and takes nothing from him while his wife grew up poor and a party girl.  He has a university education but decided that farming might be the life for him and Rita.

Both marriages are full of remoteness.  The doctor, Eric, is having an affair with one of the practice's patients, a rich lonely woman whose husband goes to London each day on business leaving her alone.  Bill Simmons is very introverted and spends his days doing farm chores and dreaming of big plans, leaving his extroverted wife Rita on her own.  Bored, one day Rita goes across the field, taking eggs to her neighbors.  Both Rita and Irene are pregnant and they bond over that.

When the greatest blizzard in history comes, the entire village is snowed in.  The trains can't run and the roads are impassable.  The village stores soon have empty shelves and relationships soon show strains.  Irene finds a note from her husband's mistress and vows to leave.  Rita is left on her own while Bill goes to London to ask his father for money to fund his plans for the farm.  Will everything have changed when the weather passes?

Andrew Miller is an English author whose work has gained much acclaim.  This novel was shortlisted for the Booker Prize and won both the Walter Scott and the Winston Graham Prize for Historical Fiction.  The writing draws the reader along and they become more and more deeply entrenched in these lives that have entangled due to proximity during both internal and external crisises.  Miller explores marriages, friendships, the impact of early childhood on adult lives as well as documenting what is known as The Big Freeze in English history.  This book is recommended for literary fiction readers.  

Death On Demand by Carolyn Hart

 

Annie Laurance has inherited her uncle's bookstore on the exclusive island of Broward's Rock.  It specializes in mysteries and there are several famous mystery authors also living there.  They make a point of getting together on Sunday evenings when the store is closed to other patrons and call themselves the Sunday Night Regulars.

But one Sunday things go awry.  Elliot Morgan, who owns the building, threatens to raise Annie's rent and run her out of business.  At the gathering he stands up and says he has secrets about everyone there and is writing a book that will expose everyone.  Then the lights to out and when they are restored, Morgan is dead.  

The next day Max Darling arrives.  He is a handsome, wealthy man who is determined to win Annie but she doesn't think he takes life seriously and resists his advances.  He agrees to help Annie find out who murdered Morgan as the police chief has Annie in his sights and believes she murdered her uncle as well.  As more and more victims start to accumulate, things aren't looking good for Annie.  Can she and Max solve the murders?

Carolyn Hart is a well-known author in the mystery genre.  This is the first Death On Demand entry but there are currently twenty-six novels in the series.  Annie is an interesting character but it's Max Darling that steals the show.  He is so determined to win Annie that the reader will fall in love with him, even if Annie won't admit she has as well.  There are plenty of suspects and the ending is satisfactory.  This book is recommended for mystery readers.  

Leviathan Wakes by James S.A. Corey

 

Man has pretty much conquered the solar system with colonies on Earth, Mars and the in-between Belt.  But though all three colonies are thriving, that doesn't mean they get along.  There is constant tension between Mars and Earth and both regard the Betweeners as they are called, as very different.

Jim Holden captains a ship that hauls ice from Jupiter to those places needing water.  While on a routine trip, they come across a salvage ship but when they go to explore, they find a secret they never expected.  A secret that could change everything.  

Detective Miller is a policeman, handling things like break-ins and other mundane police items.  He is pulled aside by his boss and given a secret job.  One of the wealthiest men on Earth wants someone to find his daughter and bring her home.  She had left years before and is associated with a radical group.   With tensions rising between Earth and Mars, he wants her home safe.

But as these two men handle their missions, they are brought together, sometimes as enemies, sometimes viewing each other with respect.  Holden releases information to the universe that precipitates a war between Earth and Mars with the rebel groups seeing a chance to get what they want as well.  Along with the war, they discover that a group of aliens from an immeasurable distance are also in the mix and that they have plans that are millenniums old.  

James S.A. Corey is the pen name of two science fiction authors, Daniel Abraham and Ty Franck.  This long book (over 700 pages) is only the beginning of the nine book series, The Expanse.  The series was also optioned and made into a Prime Video series.  The plotting is intricate and the characters are interesting.  I'm looking forward to the next adventure!  This book is recommended for science fiction readers.  

London Falling by Patrick Radden Keefe

 

On November 29th, 2019, a nineteen year old young man leaped from a fifth floor balcony to the Thames.  He did not survive the fall.  The police assumed it was suicide but his parents, well-to-do Londoners, weren't sure.  Zac Brettler, their son, had changed so much in his teenage years.  What they were to find out would shock them.  

Zac had been running a scam on everyone in his life.  He told people he was the son of a Russian oligarch and soon was running with the wealthy set that were billionaires.  He schemed his way into business deals and told his parents he didn't need university as he was making his own money.  The people he was associating with had lives of their own and some were scammers themselves or criminals.  Was Zac about to be found out and held to account for his lies?  He had been living with a wealthy man who it turned out, was one of the heads of criminal activity in London, strongarming money from others.  Did Zac jump because he was scared of what would happen next as his lies were being discovered or did he think he could survive the fall and just wanted to escape?

Patrick Radden Keefe is an American author who is known for his investigative reporting.  His previous books were about the IRA and about the opioid industry and epidemic.  In this book, he follows the years long battle of the Brettler family to find out what really happened to Zac.  He lays bare the criminal history of the middle-aged men who were associating with Zac and what might have happened as they discovered that they had been taken in by a mere teenager.  The reporting is intricate and so well researched and the reader will be fascinated with the story while wondering why the parents had let things get so out of control with their son.  This book is recommended for nonfiction readers. 

Home Before Dark by Riley Sager

 

Maggie Holt is determined to get answers.  Growing up, she barely remembers the couple of weeks her family lived in Baneberry Hall, a rambling mansion set back in the woods.  But she remembers the rest.  The book her father wrote after they fled the place outlining the horrors they encountered there.  The fame and money that book brought.  The way neither her father or mother would tell her what happened there and if the book was true.  And the avoidance the other kids gave her as they decided she was strange and not to be believed about anything.

Now Maggie's father has died and she is shocked to learn that he never sold the house and that she has inherited it.  Maggie and her partner renovate houses as a business so she decides to do the same with the Hall and sell it afterwards.  What will she remember?  She has lost the ability to get answers from her father and her mother is still refusing to talk.  Maggie was only five so she can't trust what she remembers.  

When she arrives, she discovers that there is still staff.  There is a handyman and the housekeeper, who is too old to work anymore, has a daughter who has taken her job.  Both live in cottages right outside the gate.  When Maggie tours the house, she starts to remember bits and pieces, especially when she goes into what was her bedroom, with a huge armoire that she remembers was where Mr. Whisper used to emerge from to scare her.  Things start to happen again.  There is a record player in the attic that her father used as a study that comes on randomly.  The bells connecting the rooms with the servant's quarters peal out at odd hours.  And is she seeing flashes of ghosts?  

Riley Sager is an American author who writes psychological thrillers.  In this novel, Maggie is determined to rectify the ignorance that her parents kept her in and discover the truth once and for all.  She realizes that through the decades, the daughters of the various owners had died of various things and that they seem to be the focus of whatever was happening in that house.  The mystery is revealed slowly and Maggie ends up knowing the truth and wondering if she really wanted it.  This book is recommended for mystery fans. 

Desert Places by Blake Crouch

 

Andrew Thomas has a successful life.  He's an author of thrillers and each has been more successful than the previous ones.  He lives in his native state of North Carolina on a lake and within an hour of his mother.  He's just about to release his latest book and start the round of book tours and signings when he gets a message.

The message tells him that a missing woman who is all over the news has been murdered and buried on his land.  If he doesn't do exactly as he is told, the police will be notified and the killer has planted Thomas' DNA on the body.  Andrew checks and sure enough, the body is where he was told.

He agrees to do as told and is soon knocked out and transported out to the mountains and deserts of Wyoming.  There he meets his captor and is shocked to see that it is his twin brother, Orson.  He hasn't seen Orson in decades, ever since the day Orson left their college dorm room and disappeared.   Now he is Orson's prisoner and Orson soon reveals what he has been doing all these years.  He is a serial killer and determined to bring Andrew into his life and make him do the same killings he has been pursuing for years.  Andrew is determined not to cave to Orson's demands, but little by little he is broken until he is doing things he never imagined.  Andrew realizes that the only way to free himself from Orson is to kill him and the hunt is on between the two.  Who will win?

Blake Crouch is an American author who writes in the thriller genre and has had both his Wayward Pines and his Dark Matter series adapted to tv series.  I love that he is a North Carolina author and that he writes about the places I recognize in my state.  This book will be too graphic for some readers and if sensitive this is probably not the book for you.  But it is an intriguing take and very suspenseful as the brothers are locked in a battle for supremacy.  This book is recommended for thriller readers.  

The Murder Book by Mark Billingham

 

Things are going well at work for DI Tom Thorne.  Nicola Tanner, who he worked with before after the death of her partner, has transferred in to the homicide squad and is partnered with Thorne.  He and Helen have broken up but he is dating another woman, a psychiatrist who in addition to her private practice consults with the squad when they need a profiler.  When a set of grisly murders pop up, Thorne and Tanner are able to find the murderer and stop her spree after three murders.

But things are afoot.  It turns out that the woman is only a catspaw for a man in Thorne's past who has the most evil man Thorne has encountered.  He and Thorne have a long relationship as Thorne was the man who caught him and imprisoned him and also the man who years later, let him escape from an island where he had been sent to find the man's original victims.  Now he has popped up again, determined to ruin Thorne's life by taking away everything and everyone that Thorne loves.  Can he be stopped in time?

This is the eighteenth Tom Thorne mystery and I really will be sad to see the series come to an end with the next book.   I was disappointed to see he and Helen were no longer together but Fiona seems a good replacement for Tom.  In addition to his long-time friendship with Phil Hendricks, the pathologist, Tom and Nicola have also developed a good relationship as partners and friends.  The man they are chasing is Tom's Moby Dick and it's unclear who will eventually win.  This book is recommended for mystery readers.  

The True True Story Of Raja The Gullible by Rabih Alameddine

 

Raja is sixty-three and lives in a tiny Beirut apartment.  He has always lived in Beirut and is a philosophy teacher.  He values his privacy not the least because he was kidnapped as a teenager and talked about all over the neighborhood when he was released because he broke free wearing a dress.  His despicable brother has scammed Raja's octogenarian mother out of all her savings, including selling her apartment, so Raja moves her in with him.   She is the ultimate extrovert and knows everyone in the neighborhood and their stories.  She insists on knowing everything about Raja which she then shares with all her friends.

Then things get even worse.  The relatives Raja despised the most are his elderly aunt who started the wildest rumors about Raja as a gay man after the kidnapping and his cousin who spent her childhood beating him up.  But when they lose their apartment, Raja's mother moves them in as well.  Soon Raja has no privacy but he gains something more; love of his family.

Rabih Alameddine is a Lebanese author who is also an artist.  This novel won the National Book Award in 2025.  The journey Raja takes from a curmudgeonly introvert to a man who learns to value family and friends is one the reader will enjoy taking with him.  The interplay between the characters who have to endure wars and rumors of wars is interesting and overall, the book is entertaining.  This book is recommended for literary fiction readers. 

Tyll by Daniel Kehlmann

 

In a small Austrian village, one boy is not content to grow up and live a routine life.  He teaches himself to walk a tightrope and to juggle.  When his father who is the miller is singled out by witchhunters for his interest in books, Tyll and the baker's daughter, Nela, run away.  They find a mentor and become traveling folk, singing, dancing and entertaining as they move from village to village.

Over the years, Tyll and Nela are there for many of the biggest events of the time.  They spend time in a monastery, a circus, on the road, and at the court of the King and Queen of Winter, a foolish pair whose ambitions start the Thirty Year War.  Tyll remains an elusive figure, skilled not only in acrobatics and entertainment but in manipulation of those around him.

Daniel Kehlmann is a German writer and is rapidly becoming one of my favorite authors.  Each one of his books is very different from the next and that is a characteristic that I look for in an author.  Tyll was shortlisted for the International Booker as was Kehlmann's latest novel, The Director.  The character in this novel was based on the medieval trickster, Tyll Ulenspiegel.  This book is recommended for readers of historical and literary fiction.

The Collector by Fiona Cummins

 

Brian Howley is known as the Butcher of Browley for his serial killings.  His niche is collecting victims with deformities and then saving their skeletons in his museum.  He even captured DS Etta Fitzroy a few months back but she managed to escape and Howley disappeared.

Now he is back with a new identity and a determination to settle the score with Fitzroy.  He has kidnapped a young girl with pincher hands and is holding her until he is ready to 'collect' her.  He also has his eye on a young boy with myriad disabilities that restrict him to a wheelchair.  Crowley is also grooming a young teenager from a dysfunctional home to become his mentee and eventual partner.  

But Etta is determined to catch Howley and put an end to his crimes.  Her police superiors don't believe her theories and attempt to reign her in but she knows she has to do this even if it ends her career.  Can she stop Howley in time?

Fiona Cummins is a British author who is a former journalist.  This book is the second in a series with the first telling the story of when Howley captured Fitzroy and how she escaped.  It is a chilling read as this killer targets children who have already been born with more challenges than most people ever encountered.  The ease with which Howley moves around the country and manages to evade the police net in place to catch him is amazing and disspiriting.  I found the ending quite dramatic and satisfying.  This book is recommended for mystery readers.

Murder Takes A Vacation by Laura Lippman

 

Muriel Blossom had a mid-life surprise.  Walking along the street, she found a lottery ticket and it turned out to be for a huge amount of money.  Retired from her job as a private investigator, she has to decide what she will do with the rest of her life as her husband has passed and her daughter and family are moving to Japan.  Muriel buys a condo back in Baltimore, her hometown, and books a cruise, paying for her best friend to go with her.

Before the cruise, Muriel decides to treat herself to a week in Paris.  When she misses her connection to Paris in London, she is consoled by a man on the plane who spends the day with her touring London.  She wonders if this could be something for the future.  Landing in Paris, she starts sightseeing but soon realizes that someone is following her.  Why her?  She meets a younger man who tells her he is a designer and takes her shopping to do over her wardrobe.  But it turns out he is an FBI agent and the man she met in London died the next day in a fall from a balcony and is suspected of being a thief.  

Muriel and her friend start the cruise but soon her friend is eyeing a man for her fourth husband and Muriel is left on her own quite a bit.  She makes a few friends and realizes that the FBI agent (or is he?) is also on the cruise.  What has she gotten herself into?

Laura Lippman is known as one of the genre's best and most prolific authors.  Muriel is a character from her Tess Monaghan detective series as she works for Tess as a private investigator.  Lippman gets the feel of being middle-aged to elderly perfect as Muriel is able to go unnoticed when she wants to be as women become invisible as they age.  She also captures the reality of so many women having to reinvent their lives as their husbands are no longer with them, either through divorce or death.  The mystery is intriguing and the resolution is satisfying.  This book is recommended for mystery fans.  

The Boyfriend by Daniel Hurst

 

Adele's life is finally working out.  She is engaged to Tom and they love their house.  They both have good careers and she also has a good set of friends.  Then one day she hears that her high school boyfriend is dead, a suicide.  Adele hadn't seen or talked with him since high school but she wonders what could possibly have made him so unhappy that he would end his life?

Then when attending her university reunion, she discovers that her university boyfriend has also recently died, the result of an accident.  She starts to wonder and is sure when her next boyfriend, a man she traveled the world with, is found dead.  She goes to the police but they laugh her off.  She doesn't talk about it with Tom and that causes tension between them.  

As her past boyfriends continue to drop like flies, Adele is sure someone is killing them all and will come for Tom.  What can she do?

Daniel Hurst is a British author of psychological thrillers.  The pace is rapid and the reader will wonder whether to sympathize with Adele or write her off as a drama queen.  I listened to this book and there were multiple narrators, all of whom did an excellent job.  The twist at the end is amazing and will make the reader want to find more of Hurst's work to read.  This book is recommended for mystery readers.  

The Debtor's Game by Isabelle Mongeau

 

In Myrmia, you are either a fae, a fairie or a halfling.  The Far rule everything and own the fairies.  Halflings are employed as administrators to administer what runs the country.  Debt.  Fairies are born into debt as they inherit the debts of their parents and incur more debt to bury them.  There is weekly debt for food, for clothes, for anything they receive and they can be given debt at any moment by any Fae they offend or who just feels like giving out debt that day.  The debt is perennially visible as it is shown as tattooed rings on the limbs.  The 'wages' the fairies are given are used to pay off the debts and tattoos.  If a fairie ends up with tattoos everywhere, they are considered an Unluckie and is not even allowed to eat the food given to the fairies.

Avery is a fairie without a family as her mother died recently and her father long ago.  She has made a family of Jeramie and Benji who she grew up with and is very protective of them.  Avery has magic of her own which she has to hide from the Fae.  She is a personal assistant to Lady Kassandra, who is a High Fae and with her brother the ruler of one of the Fae houses.  Her brother hopes to marry her to Maxian the soon to be King who they grew up with and who has absolute power.  

But Avery catches Maxian's eye and soon her time is split between serving Kassandra and Maxian.  She is caught up in the politics of the castle and the never-ending battle between the houses of Myrmia who jostle for position.  She must be ever vigilant as one false move could end her life or make her an Unluckie.  With the help of friends, Avery discovers the secrets that fuel the Fae world and maybe finds a way to balance the power.

Sometimes you read a debut novel and you just wonder how in the world have I not heard of this author and where has she been?  This is such a marvelous start to a series, full of suspense and secrets and attractions that are dangerous.  The world-building is supreme with the system of debts and forgiveness of them and one class totally ruled by the cruel whims of the other.  I cannot wait to read the next novel in this series.  This book is recommended for fantasy readers.  Write quickly, Isabelle! 

The Memory Game by Nicci French

 

Two families, the Martellos and the Cranes are best of friends, almost one big family.  The men have been friends since their university days.  They spend summers and holidays together at the Martellos large country estate, bought by the wealth Alan Martello made as an author.  The Cranes have a son, Nick, and a daughter, Jane while the Martellos have four sons and a daughter, Natalie.  

Now, the children are all middle-aged with children of their own and the men are elderly.  Jane has been hired to draw up a guest house for the estate as she is an architect.  Over the years, she has remained close to the Martellos.  One of the sons, Theo, was her first love and she married the eldest son, Claud.  When the girls were sixteen, Natalie had disappeared.  The police thought she had run away as she was dating several men but she never returned.  Now, when the laborers break ground for Jane's construction, they find Natalie's bones.

Jane has recently left Claud as she feels that her life is missing something now that her sons have grown and gone.  She enters therapy to see if she can find out what is wrong and how to move forward with the rest of her life.  As she delves into her past with the therapist, she starts to realize that she knows something about Natalie's disappearance, something she has repressed for twenty-five years.  Does she have the solution?

Nicci French is one of my favorite psychological thriller authors and cannot write a bad book.  This one moves back and forth between the present and the past and delves into the relationships between the two families.  The suspense slowly mounts until there is a startling revelation at the end.  This book is recommended for mystery readers.  

Anima Rising by Christopher Moore

 

Vienna in 1911 is full of characters.  It is a time of discovery and blooming in the art world.  Gustav Klimt led the way to a new type of art and he is still going full bloom with a studio full of beautiful young models.  He has mentored other artists such as Egon Schiele and Oskar Kokoschka.  Medicine is testing new boundaries in psychology with Freud living there and Jung visiting.  Walburga Nezil is the most famous model as she was Klimt's early model and then became Schiele's model and mistress.  But Schiele's sister Gussie is also a model as are an ever changing parade of Klimt's mistresses who model until they become pregnant with his children and then they are supported by him.  Even Hitler makes a cameo appearance back when he was trying to become an artist.

But there's another set of characters going around Vienna.  Klimt finds a drowned woman in the canal one early morning while coming home from a night of opera and partying.  At first he thinks she is dead but she sputters back to life and he takes her home with him and names her Judith.  At first she remembers nothing but then slowly recalls that she has died four times and has come back to life and that she is stalked by the monster Frankenstein.  A husky dog named Geoff or G, tracks Judith down and makes her his mission to protect.  Klimt takes her to Freud who sends her to Jung when he can't make any progress helping her.  What will happen next?

I'm so glad I read this novel.  I used to read Christopher Moore but it got too whimsical for me to enjoy.  I've now found with this title that he also has a set of novels that intertwine historical fact with his comedy and I loved the mix.  I had heard of Klimt but didn't know much about him or his art and this gave me exposure to that world.  I learned what the difference was in Freud's and Jung's theories which was interesting as I'm not interested in plowing through lots of psychology books.  Sadly, I learned that Klimt and Schiele both died in the 1918 Spanish flu and it really brought home to me what a tragedy pandemics are, taking both common folk and geniuses indiscriminately.  This novel is recommended for those looking for an entertaining book along with a history lesson.

The Cold Hard Light by Christopher Amenta

 

Andrew Harrison is an archetypical Boston guy.  Now twenty-four, he was an ice hockey star in high school and college.  But those star days are gone.  He's now playing in a farm league and holding on by the skin of his teeth as every year brings more guys now faster and bigger as Andrew, or H as he's called, is nicked by past injuries.  His baby daughter, Jo, is one of the best things in his life but he's driving Uber to bring in money for the flexibility to travel with the team and go to practices.  He and Jo's mother live together but haven't married and she doesn't seem to be into the baby at all.  Or is it that she's not into H any more?

Then there's Uncle Billy.  When H was growing up, Uncle Billy was the guy who showed up for every one of his games and taught him all he knew about the game.  But now he's the family alcoholic and he thinks H should redeem the family honor.  A decade ago, H's sister was assaulted at a rich kid's party and spiraled into drugs.  The guy who led the assault has been in prison but has now been released after serving his time.  Billy thinks H should rain down more retribution and he brings him a gun to do it with.  

This is a debut novel for Christopher Amenta who is also a Boston guy.  I really liked the character of H who keeps up getting up when life keeps knocking him down.  His love for his girlfriend and his baby are endearing and he just keeps moving on as best he can.  The sense of place was spot on and Amenta captured perfectly the life of a man who has passed his glory days of athletic strength but who just can't let it go.  I'll definitely be looking out for Amenta's next novel.  This book is recommended for literary fiction readers.