The Midnight Show by Lee Kelly & Jennifer Thorne

 

After seeing a college group do improv comedy, a television producer in the 1980's decides that this might be the idea he is looking for.  What if he created a show, airing late in case the material got risque, and gave a bunch of comedians their heads to write and perform what they wanted?  The original four are Lillian Martin and her friends Sam, Stevie and Kent.  Add in Gina whose career seemed bright before she froze on a late night talk show, a Broadway star to add pizazz and a male heartthrob and the formula seems unstoppable.

At first it is.  Showrunner Sally Schumacher keeps things in balance while the show finds its place.  Soon it is all anyone is talking about and the stars are becoming famous.  Lillian dates Bobby Everett who is the heartthrob and their romance is feted everywhere.  The stars party after every show and other nights as well and soon rumors of drugs and addiction start to grow.  Can the show continue to exist?

In its third year, after a summer break, the stars return.  Several of them spent the summer trying out their careers in movies while others just drank and drugged the time away.  Lillian in particular seems out of things, barely balancing her life and career.  When she disappears after a show, the rumors start to fly.  Did she and Bobby break up?  Was it a suicide as she was last seen near the Brooklyn bridge?  Where is she?

Lee Kelly and Jennifer Thorne have written a novel that is attention grabbing for anyone who ever watched Saturday Night Live.  The authors are both American although Thorne now lives in England.  Both are authors separately and this novel is the fourth one that they have written together.  Readers will enjoy the nostalgia of the book looking back at the 1980's while they guess which character is a stand-in for the original cast of Saturday Night Live.  This book is recommended for those who love entertainment novels and mysterious happenings.  

Nomad Century by Gaia Vince

 

The main tenet of this book is that climate change will necessitate the migration of up to three billion people in the coming decades.  The entire earth's geography will be redrawn and those areas which are tropical or warm such as the Caribbean, Africa and Central and South America will not longer be able to sustain life.  This will have their inhabitants moving to areas that can be lived in.  But how would this work?

The author believes that the only way for humanity to survive is for those currently living in areas that will be sustainable will have to completely change their ideas about immigration.  They must welcome those seeking new homes, whether it is former farmers from their own country or people from other countries who are totally different in their culture, language and appearance.  Governments must support the immigrants with food, child care, shelter, health care and job training.  

Food will be totally different.  Humans will move to a plant-based diet and entire industries such as cattle and chicken production and fishing will disappear.  This will free up more land for farming plant crops. Humans will get their protein from eating such things as insects or lab grown food.  Many current occupations will disappear while new ones will be developed.  

Gaia Vince is a science writer and broadcaster.  While she provides many novel ideas, I find it difficult to believe that humanity will change their attitudes, occupations, diets and energy production as quickly as she sees it happening.  She believes that all energy production must be green energy by the 2030's.  I can't imagine humanity being happy with a insect-based diet.  Most importantly, I find it difficult to believe that attitudes towards immigrants will change as rapidly or thoroughly as the author believes is necessary.  Countries around the world are becoming less welcoming of immigration rather than more welcoming as more and more countries are moving towards the far right in terms of immigration.  Still, these are interesting and provocative ideas.  I listened to this book and the author was the narrator.  Her voice added to the mix as it was calm yet definitive in her suggestions.  This book is recommended for nonfiction and science readers.   

The Other Woman's House by Sophie Hannah

 Charlie Zailer and Simon Waterhouse have finally gotten married, something Charlie thought would never happen.  They are on their honeymoon overseas in a gorgeous villa far from police troubles. But crimes are still occurring and some are the strange kind that Simon specializes in.

Connie and Kit Bowskill have been married for years and Connie thought it was a great marriage, except for the fact that they are stuck in a small village where her family lives and feels comfortable poking their noses into every smidgen of Connie's life.  The two run a successful business and have a beautiful house they have spent years renovating.  But if their marriage is so good, why does Kit have a house in Cambridge as his home address in his GPS in his car?

Kit swears he didn't enter that address so now Connie also suspects him of lying.  Is he having an affair?  Connie starts to spend entire days traveling to Cambridge and watching outside the address, trying to catch Simon visiting there but never does.  Their marriage becomes a series of recriminations.  One night, while Connie in online looking at a house tour of the property, which has recently hit the market, she sees a woman's body lying in a pool of blood.  Shocked, she runs to get Kit but when he comes and looks at the tour there is nothing there.  Has Connie gone mad or is someone dead at the address?  The mystery is more than the local policemen can handle and Simon and Charlie end up returning early from their honeymoon to investigate.

This is the sixth book in the Zailer/Waterhouse series.  As always, Hannah's imagination takes the reader far further than their own mind would.  I was completely at sea and very surprised at the ending.  Simon is the strange case specialist and although he isn't really liked at work, everyone realizes that he can solve cases that no one else can.  The relationship between Simon and Charlie is still offbeat even with the marriage.  This book is recommended for mystery readers.  

The Mad Wife by Megan Church

 

Lulu Mayfield counts herself lucky.  She has her son, a husband she loves and who works to support them and friends in her neighborhood.  She is known as The Queen Of The Mold for her jello salads.  She has tons of friends as none of the wives work, here in the 1950's.  They stay home, clean, cook and raise the children while supporting their working husbands emotionally.  Then Megan becomes pregnant again and soon her family will be complete.

But something isn't right.  A new couple has moved into the neighborhood and the wife doesn't seem to be the same as the rest.  Her speech is strangely disconnected at times and she seems to be keeping secrets.  Lulu is slipping as well.  Her pregnancy is a difficult one and the housekeeping starts to slip a bit.  When the husband of the new couple goes after the same job as Lulu's husband, the strain starts to mount.  

After the birth of her baby, Lulu doesn't recover quickly.  She has a terrible case of insomnia and rarely sleeps.  She forgets things, including getting dressed or cooking for the family.  She and her husband become estranged as Lulu starts to accuse him of various things.  What has gone wrong?

Megan Church is an American author who writes in the woman's fiction genre.  Her stories focus on the emotional lives of women faced with extraordinary events in their lives.  Lulu is the perfect 1950's wife until she isn't and the reader is taken along on her journey as she strays from the perfect housewife to a woman unsure of everything she knows.  This was my mother's generation and much of what I read in Lulu's story I could recognize as things my mother was living as I grew up.  This book is recommended for women's fiction readers.

The Decagon House Murders by Yukito Ayatsuji

 

A group of Japanese university students have created a mystery club, where they meet to discuss mystery books and authors.  They call each other by famous detective's names such as Agatha, Poe and Ellery.  The club decides to go on an outing over their school break.  One of the students has an uncle who has just bought an island where six months ago, four grisly murders occurred over a week, then the house of the perpetrator burned down with the bodies of all the victims.  There is still a guest house on the property and it is built in the shape of a decagon.  There are seven club members who want to go so there is plenty of room for everyone as the house has ten rooms like its name.

The week comes and the students are taken to the island.  There will be no way off for a week until the boat comes back and no telephone service or electricity.  The group will be totally on their own.  Their first night is fine but they awake to find tiles that have been labeled The First Victim, The Second Victim, etc.  and a note saying that each of them will be murdered.  Surely someone is playing a joke.  But slowly the prediction starts to come true and one by one the group is murdered.  

The group attempts to solve the murders as they happen as they attempted to solve the prior murders.  Back on land, there are also people interested in the first murders and when they realize the students are on the location, fear for their safety.  But when they get to the island to persuade them to leave, all the students are dead.  Who was the murderer?

This book is famous in Japan for launching the new traditional or classic detective novel in the genre there.  Yukito Ayatsuji writes in the genres of horror and mystery and was one of the founders of the Japanese Mystery Writers Club.  I've seen this book in various lists of the best of various genres over the years and so I jumped at the chance to read it.  The mystery was fascinating as it used the example of Christie's And Then There Were None to slowly take away character after character.  The prior murders on the island added even more mystery and chances to play the detective.  This book is recommended for mystery fans.  

The Night Of Many Endings by Melissa Payne

 

When a blizzard sweeps through Silver Ridge, Colorado, a group of people are trapped there.  Nora Martinez is the librarian, a young woman whose life has been defined by trying to help her brother who is caught in the throes of drug addiction.  Jasmine is a teenager who spends most of her spare time in the library, reading and grateful for a sanctuary.  There's Marlene who has been a customer of the library for many years and who tends to push people away verbally as she mourns the death of her husband.  Vlado is the security guard who has immigrated to the United States and is working on creating a new life for himself.  Finally, there is Lewis.  He is a homeless man who had planned on riding out the storm outside but had been brought in by the group as the storm worsened.  

As the hours go by and the group tries to survive the cold, lack of power and hunger, they start to coalesce as a group.  Secrets are shared and tactics for getting through the challenges life throws at one are discussed.  The group starts to grow closer as they give attention at various times to different members as they need help and survival tactics.  Will this closeness survive after the storm?

Melissa Payne is an American author who lives in the same type of small Colorado town she writes about.  Her books tend to focus on those in need of second chances and the realization that those chances are available for those who need them.  My favorite character was Vlado who doesn't complain about his need to immigrate and start all over again in his professional life but who just gets on with it while helping those around him whenever he can.  He loves Nora but has always been too shy to take his feelings forward.  I loved the small town feeling where everyone pretty much knows everyone else and chips in to help when necessary as that's the kind of town I grew up in.  This book is recommended for women's fiction readers.   

The Investigator by John Sandford

 

Letty Davenport, adopted daughter of Lucas Davenport is bored with her job.  She has been working in research for a Senator with her master's in economics but she is used to action as she helped her father work his cases as a lead investigator for the state of Minnesota.  About to quit, she agrees to stay when the Senator offers her a different job.  She will an active investigator aligned with Homeland Security.

Her first job is in Texas.  Someone has been stealing oil from the pipelines.  That's bad enough but Homeland Security suspects it might be a criminal gang who need the money to finance their plans.  Letty is joined by John Kaiser, an ex-military man who now works for Homeland Security.

They discover that what was suspected is true.  A right-wing militia group headed by a woman is behind the thefts.  They want to stop illegal immigration from across the border and plan a big demonstration of their power when the latest caravan of immigrants heads for Texas.  Can Letty and Kaiser stop their plans?

Fans of John Sandford have watched Letty grow up from her time as a poor girl from a dysfunctional family to a whip-smart young woman with lots of investigative experience once she is adopted by Davenport and his wife when she is orphaned.  Letty is whip-smart, a sharpshooter and unafraid to use her gun in a crisis, as she had to save her adopted family from certain death when a pair of men broke into the home to get revenge on Lucas when Letty was still in high school.  Now she is able to think clearly on the ground, is unafraid of action and ready to put an end to the group willing to kill to get their idea of immigration across.  I can't wait to read more about Letty and her adventures.  This book is recommended for mystery readers.  

Exit by Belinda Bauer

 

The advice for retired folks is to develop a hobby.  Felix's is to be an Exiteer.  The Exiteer is there to assist terminally ill patients choose their own death.  He supplies the materials, stays there with the patient until they pass, then removes all evidence.  Felix hopes one day someone will be there for him if he makes the decision to go sooner than life wants him to.

This should be a routine case except that Felix will be working with a new partner.  She is introduced to him as John and gives her name as Amanda.  No one knows an Exiteer's real name except the man who runs the entire operation.  The man they have come to assist is upstairs in bed, not able to speak but able to perform the tasks he needs to.  As John and Amanda are about to leave after the death, they hear someone down the hall.  They check and find an even older, sicker man in that bedroom.  They have assisted the wrong man!  Is this murder?

The police are brought in but they aren't sure at first what they are seeing.  They soon find Felix, however, as he and Amanda are captured on cameras entering and leaving the house.  It turns out that three generations were living in the house, grandfather, father and son.  The Exiteers had contracted with the grandfather but had mistakenly assisted the father.  Was it a set up?  Did the son use them to kill his father so he could inherit everything when his sick grandfather died?  Felix is horrified and even more so when he sees Amanda of all people meeting and having tea with the son.  Was she part of the set-up?

Belinda Bauer is one of my favorite mystery authors.  She is English and now lives in Wales.  Bauer worked as a journalist until she wrote a book, Badlands, to appease her mother.  To everyone's amazement, it won the CWA Gold Dagger for Crime Novel Of The Year.  Another of her novels, Snap, was longlisted for the Booker Prize.  She writes complex mysteries that feature an everyday person caught up in something they never expected but that their goodness and humanity help them negotiate.  In this novel, the reader watches Felix emerge from his cocoon as he tries to determine what really happened and what responsibility he and Amanda bear.  This book is recommended for mystery readers.  

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.