The Things We Never Day by Elizabeth Strout

 

This is the story of Artie Dam.  To most people, Artie is an average man.  He is a high school history teacher.  He's been married to his wife, Evie, for decades.  They have a grown son, Rob, who lives away.  Artie loves to sail and he loves his family.

But Artie is depressed.  He's not sure what life is about even after all these years and he thinks about ending it all.  Even though he's known for supporting his students and saying things that they will take with them for life, he can't do the same for himself.  But when he has a boating accident and almost dies, he realizes that he doesn't want to die after all.

Then life hands him another crushing blow, one that he's not sure if he will ever get over and that rearranges his whole life.  It redefines his relationship with his wife and son and his wife and makes Artie rethink everything he thought he knew.

Elizabeth Strout is a major American author who writes about family relationships and what is important in our lives.  It will be a long time before I forget Artie Dam, who has blows handed to him by life as we all do but manages to remember what is important is the love we share.  Artie doesn't hesitate to share his love with those around him.  The book is a bit political and I'm rarely fond of that as I think it really dates a book as politics change so quickly and hopefully books last for a long time.  But readers will take away hope from this book, especially those who are middle-aged and beyond and looking back at their lives to find meaning.  This book is recommended for literary fiction readers.  

A Red Dotted Line by Simon Gervais

 

Mike Watson and his wife Lisa are both operatives of the IMSI, International Market Stabilization Institute, which is a private organization developed to protect financial stability of the West.  The pair is sent to Russia for several reasons.  The first is that a scientist there is developing a weaponized chemical warfare virus to unleash on the West and that needs to be stopped.  Mike's father was the Canadian diplomat to the Middle East who was kidnapped two years ago and there have been recent sightings of him in Russia.  Finally, both of the first two reasons are there because of a shadowy underground figure called the Sheik.  He was the one who kidnapped Mike's father and he is helping the scientist developing the virus with money and security as she was his first wife.

The IMSI manages to turn the number two scientist and needs to get him out of Russia  That is Mike's mission and as he fights off various people who want to stop him from helping the man get to the West safely, Lisa is sent to another part of Russia to retrieve his wife.  Along the way, the Russian President's nephew, who works for their security organization, changes sides and starts to work with Mike when he realizes the Sheik has been lying to his uncle all along.  Can Mike, Lisa and the Institute save the world?

Simon Gervais knows about secret missions.  He was a Federal agent for several decades, specializing in counterterrorism.  The action in this novel is fast and furious and readers need to read carefully as individuals can change sides in an instant.  This is the second novel in The Thin Black Line series which features Mike Watson and his wife.  This novel is recommended for readers who like spy novels and thrillers.  

A Deadly Episode by Anthony Horowitz

 

One of Horowitz's books about a case he worked on with Hawthorne has been optioned to be made into a film.  Horowitz is less than excited.  He doesn't get to write the screenplay; Hawthorne is being paid more than him by a good amount and actors are lining up to play Hawthorne while casting his character is much more difficult.  Still, it's good exposure.  He meets with the woman who will be doing the screenplay and realizes that her focus is the environment and she doesn't want any suggestions from him as she turns his murder mystery into a screed for her favorite cause.  The casting has brought her and the two actors playing Hawthorne and Horowitz together from an earlier movie they did.

Then the actor playing Hawthorne is murdered; stabbed in his trailer between scenes.  Who could it be?  His co-star who still harbors resentment from their first film?  The screenwriter who lived with him for two years and had a child with him?  Those he treated horribly on the set and away from it?  His agent whom he just fired?  Suspects abound.

This is the sixth book in the Hawthorne and Horowitz series.  I love the satire and the fourth wall mentions of Horowitz's real life as a famous author whose works have successfully been made into television series and who is one of my favorite mystery writers.  Horowitz works with Hawthorne on the murder and is constantly surprised by Hawthorne's insights into events as always and the ending is satisfactory.  This book is recommended for mystery readers.  

Amy Among The Serial Killers by Jincy Willett

 

Amy was a creative writing teacher and one of her favorite students over the years had been Carla Karolak.  Carla had been a child star with a pushy, horrible mother who tried to take all of Carla's money and bought a mansion near the ocean.  Now that Carla is on her own, she has turned half the house into a business.  She rents out rooms to hopeful writers where they can work in peace.  Carla is happy enough although she has few people in her life.  Her assistant is one, there's Amy and she interacts with other former students from Amy's classes.

Then a horrible event happens.  One of Carla's renters is found killed and dismembered in her writing cubicle, found by Carla.  The police tie the murder to some others which have occurred lately.  Who could be the serial killer?  There is the obnoxious former student who wants to be a true crime writers and who tries to take over Carla's business.  He is dating Carla's assistant along with a woman who works for the police and who feeds him inside information.  There is the homeless man who seems to be around and shows up in police searches.  How much does Carla really know about the other former students she has let into her life?  Is she a target as well?

Jincy Willett is an American author and writing teacher just like Amy.  This novel is the third in the series about Amy and I really enjoyed it.  Carla is an interesting character who only in her thirties is growing up and demanding her fair share of life and the relationship between her and Amy rings true.  The focus is more on the relationships the characters have than on the gruesome details of the murders and the mystery of the killer's identity is quite well hidden until the final reveal.  I listened to this novel and the narrator was wonderful.  This book is recommended for mystery readers.  

Universality by Natasha Brown

 

A gold bar is missing from a remote English farm.  The man who owns the farm doesn't live there as he prefers his London apartment.  But he left the bar there and when a group of back to the land commune members decide to squat there, the bar is found.  Before it is taken, it is used to hit a man in the head in a fight among commune members.

An ambitious woman journalist is told about the story and sees it as a real opportunity for her next story.  She interviews the man who owns the bar who is a venture capitalist, the head of the commune and several of his followers and even tracks down the man who did the assault and interviews him.  She tells a story of greed, both by the original owner and all those who interacted with the gold bar.

But that's not the end of the story.  The author gets a real career boost.  The capitalist is exposed as a venal opportunist.  The commune breaks up.  And there are more machinations behind the scenes.

I'm rapidly becoming a major Natasha Brown fan.  She is a British author and this novel was longlisted for the Booker Prize in 2025.  I've also read her first book, Assembly, and was blown away by it.  Her writing is spare and every word is important.  This book has so many layers and secrets abound on each layer as it is revealed.  The entire article is full of machinations and hidden motivations and the author is amazing as she does this with what seems to be such a sparse tale.  This book is recommended for literary fiction readers. 

The Chelsea Girls by Fiona Davis

 

During the last days of World War II, two women meet while entertaining the troops in a USO troupe.  Hazel Riley is known as the girl who never made the Broadway stage although constantly being hired as a backup to the star.  Maxine Mead is a gorgeous actress.  When the two women come home after the war, they both end up in New York and living in the Bohemian Chelsea Hotel.  Hazel decides there is more than acting in the world and starts writing a play while Maxine is soon cast as the star of Hazel's play.

But there are is an unannounced war heading for Broadway.  After having success ruining careers in Hollywood, McCarthy seems to be setting his bullseye on Broadway.  Years before the War when socialist and progressive groups were in vogue, Maxine had attended a protest.  Hazel, whose brother believed in the cause, had signed petitions he had given her almost without reading them.  But both of them are now in the crosshairs of the government's attempt to bring down Broadway.

Fiona Davis has written extensively in the historical fiction genre, focusing on the women of various times.  Both women characters are fascinating but Hazel will win hearts as she attempts to make a career for herself.  Those not familiar with the witch-hunts of the time will be taken by the unfairness of the McCarthy targets and how he ruined careers and got people blacklisted from their work rather than name their friends.  This book is recommended for historical and women's fiction readers.

The Disappearance Of Adele Bedeau by Graeme McCrae Burnet

 

In a small town in France, a waitress in the local bistro has gone missing.  The police, led by Inspector Gorski, investigate.  They talk to everyone but one man seems suspicious.  Manfred Baumann is the local banker and a creature of habit.  He takes his lunch and his dinner in the bistro although he rarely talks to anyone.  People looking back think he seemed interested in Adele.  He has lived in the same apartment for years and after dinner he goes to his apartment and does whatever.  Once a week he visits a brothel. 

Several people saw Adele leaving town on the back of a motorbike.  Manfred had walked from the bistro that night with Adele and had seen that also.  But when the police interviewed the bistro customers, he lied about seeing her for no real reason except that he constantly analyzed every conversation and its affect on the other person and believed if he told the truth he would be arrested.  

Inspector Gorski is determined to solve the disappearance.  His first case, years ago, had gone unsolved and he is adamant that this one will be solved.  He is suspicious of Baumann because he can tell he is lying and because he knows how Adele left town.  Why would Baumann lie?  He doesn't know but can sense that Baumann has secrets he is hiding.

Graeme McCrae Burnet is a Scottish writer who writes in the historical true crime genre.  His work has been both longlisted and shortlisted in various years for the Booker Prize and has won various awards around the world.  The reader will come to know Manfred as the book is mostly written from his point of view.  Manfred has dark secrets going back decades that still influence his everyday life and his belief that people are constantly talking about him.  This book is recommended for readers of historical literary fiction. 

The Hounding by Xenobe Purvis

 

There are five Mansfield girls and they have come to live with their grandfather in Little Nettlebed now that their parents have died.  Mr. Mansfield is the wealthiest man in the village but there is talk that he made his fortune on the backs of others, selling flour dearly during a time of little food.  The girls all look exactly alike, tall and slim, dark hair and piercing blue eyes.  They stick to themselves and ignore the villagers.  

There are also men in Little Nettlebed.  Robin is a gentle soul from another farm who has come to the Mansfield house to help with the harvest  Thomas is also a hired hand and he lives in the house as his home is too far to go back and forth.  Pete is the man who poles the ferry back and forth and is about to be married.  Each of the men have a different opinion of the girls.

Then a rumor starts, who knows where.  It's said that the girls turn themselves into hounds.  There are reports of hens killed and other animals.  Should the girls be forced out?

This is a debut novel for Xenobe Purvis.  It was chosen as a Notable Book by the New York Times and a Best Book Of The Year by NPR and Kirkus Reviews.  It has a haunting tone as the villagers and the girls interact and it is unclear exactly what will happen as the rumors multiply about the girls.  There is a lot of discussion about the proper relationship between men and women and who should be the most influential.  There is also a hint of horror that threads throughout the book.  This book is recommended for literary fiction readers.  

It Could Have Been Her by Lisa Jewell

 

Jane Trevally is at loose ends at this point in her life.  She is living in the country in the massive pile of her family's old house which is falling down around her.  Jane has been married several times to rich men and never developed a career.  She knows she needs to sell the estate and find a job but it seems overwhelming.

Then while out walking her dogs one day, they come across a small lost dog.  Jane takes it to the vet and finds out it belongs to a girl who was renting a local VRB0 but the girl has disappeared.  There is a London address attached to the dog's chip so Jane offers to take the dog home.  Her favorite ex-husband invites her to stay in his house while he is overseas and her favorite stepson offers to go with her.  The two go to the address and find a locked gate.  When a man comes to answer them, he takes the dog but insists that he knows nothing about the missing girl who had the dog in the country.

Jane is shocked as she looks at the house.  Once, back in her twenties, she had been picked up in a bar by a charming man.  He offered her a job and insisted that she come with him that night to check it out and meet the family.  When Jane arrives with him, she sees a wife who seems scared and starts to get a bad feeling.  When the man makes her a drink, she finds a way to knock it over and runs out of the house and away.  She has always thought she avoided a disaster that night.

Now here is an unfriendly man and a missing girl.  Jane and her stepson decide to investigate the mystery and discover that the house also contains an elderly woman who would be the wife Jane met that night, the unfriendly man, the missing girl and her brother who ran away to join the circus when he was sixteen.  Surely there is a mystery here to be solved.

Lisa Jewell is one of my favorite thriller authors.  Her characters are always finely drawn and there is lots of psychological background for each.  Jane is a delightful character and I hope Jewell writes more books that feature Jane and her stepson and have them create a detective agency for this next stage of Jane's life.  This book is recommended for mystery readers.  

Love In The New Milennium by Can Xue

 

In this novel of China, women seem to have limited choices.  Work is either in a factory or a brothel run from the community baths.  Men and women seem to fall in love at a glance but the relationships never work.  The men don't do much better.  Either they don't have any love or friendship in their lives or if they have a relationship, they end up in prison so that they can work on their attitudes towards the woman they love.  

Along with love, there is much talk of ancient ancestral villages and caves, and the gathering and use of traditional plant-based medicines.  There is a doctor who uses this type of medicine and he and the only woman with a traditional job fall in love but it doesn't work out any more than any of the other relationships.

Can Xue comes from a family that was severely persecuted during the Cultural Revolution of the 1950's and she was only allowed to attend school through the elementary years.  She taught herself English and is now regarded as China's most prominent author of experimental fiction.  This novel is my first of her works and it takes quite a lot for those unused to this type of writing to read and appreciate it.  I feel like I, and maybe most readers, will need several reads of this work to gain all of her meaning.  She seems to be saying that love is temporary and that men and women are rarely able to make it work in the long term.  This book is recommended for literary and multicultural readers  

Boxer Handsome by Anna Whitwham

 

Bobby was raised to box.  His grandfather on his mother's side and his father were both boxers and Bobby has been in the gym since he was a small boy.  Now he is about to have the match that will make or break his career.

Connor was a friend in those boyhood days but now he's going to be Bobby's rival in the big fight.  Both representing the same gym, one will go on and one's career will be done.  Days before the fight, the two have a street fight over the girl Connor loves but who is having a fling with Bobby.  Now the fight in the ring will be between enemies.

Bobby meets a girl who brings her brother to the gym to learn some self-defense.  Chloe is nothing like the usual girls that Bobby meets, she is more refined and she makes Bobby want to be better.  She will be coming to the big fight and gives Bobby one more reason to win.

This is a debut novel from Anna Whitwham who is an English author who was singled out as one of the Best New Novelists in the Guardian's annual listing.  The boxing scenes ring true and it turns out that Anna herself took up boxing in the months after her mother died a slow death from cancer.  Growing up she had been like the girl that Bobby and Connor fought over but after she had a child herself she finally began to grow up.  Readers will be transported to a world most have no idea of.  The action is brutal and the characters don't seem to be fully developed but caught in a world that defines them as one thing and refuses to let them break away.  I will be looking for more work by this author and I'm glad to have seen the boxing world from the inside.  This book is recommended for literary fiction readers.  

The Briar Club by Kate Quinn

 

Briarwood House is an all female boarding house in Washington D.C. in the 1950's.  It's pretty run down as the landlady doesn't believe in spending any money she absolutely doesn't have to, it's bad enough having to raise two kids on her own.  An interesting collection of women live there.

Nora works for the government in the documents division, preserving important documents such as the Constitution.  Fliss is an English woman whose doctor husband is still in Japan after the war working for the military after the war as Japan is rebuilt.  She has a baby and is overwhelmed with single motherhood while she waits for his return.  Reka is older, an artist in her seventies who fled to the United States from Hitler and his men.

Bea is a high school physical education teacher while she recuperates from the knee injury that ended her career in women's baseball.  Arlene is a secretary for the government as well and she dreams of catching a Communist spy and becoming famous.  Claire is a woman who grew up in poverty and will do any job to make money, saving for her own home one day.  

The women all lead separate lives, only speaking when they greet each other or when they argue about the shared bathroom.  Then Grace moves in.  Grace is a widow and she is friendlier than the rest.  She invites everyone to her room every Thursday for a shared dinner and slowly the group becomes friends.  They start to help each other and to help the two children raised by the landlady who only sees them as workers to make her money.  As the women become friends, they start to work together to make the house a home.

Kate Quinn is an American author who writes historical fiction.  This novel is based in Washington D.C. during the time of McCarthy and his witch-hunts in which he said he was discovering Communist spies but in reality he browbeat those who might have been liberal before WW II and joined progressive groups.  He delighted in making one person turn against others in their circle and those named were blacklisted in their professions.  The growing friendships among the women and their individual secrets are the basis of the novel.  Each woman gets her own chapter where the reader learns her backstory and her love life.  This novel is recommended for historical fiction readers.  

The Undertaking Of Hart And Mercy by Megan Bannen

 

Two lonely people unfortunately can't stand each other.  Mercy is the person holding up Birdsall & Son Undertakers as her father ages out.  She thought it would be temporary but soon realizes that she loves the work.  Hart is a marshal assigned to the bordering land of Tanria where he kills monsters.  He has to go to Birdsall & Son periodically when he kills a person who was taken over by a monster to insure the person finally gets a decent burial.  He and Mercy hit it off wrong from the start and now they can't stand each other.

Or can they?  Lonely beyond belief, Hart writes an anonymous letter to 'A Friend'.  He is shocked to find that he gets a reply and a friendship starts.  When his friend suggests they meet in person, he is shocked to see Mercy sitting at the table in the restaurant they picked.  Could he like Mercy?  Even worse, could he love her?

This is a charming novel that introduced me to a new author I'll definitely be reading more of in the future.  Megan Bannen was a librarian before she starting writing in the fantasy genre.  I listened to this book and both the narrators did an excellent job.  The romance is slow starting but really heats up and I fell in love with all the Birdsall family along with Mercy and Hart.  There is intrigue and double-dealing and a satisfactory ending.  This book is recommended for fantasy readers.  

To Kill And Kill Again by John Coston

 From 1974 to 1986, Missoula, Montana, had a serial killer.  The victims were divergent.  One was a preacher's wife, another a teenage runaway.  There was a married couple and a female woman slightly known by the murderer.  The police had suspicions but couldn't get any proof.

Wayne Nance had been a bit strange since childhood.   At times he was very friendly and at his work he remembered everyone's birthday and brought all the women Valentine's Day.  Need someone to help you move?  Wayne was your guy.  But some saw his other side.  Wayne had a strict routine and he got very upset when it was changed at all.  He delivered furniture and felt like he was the boss of the warehouse.  He didn't like the customers' husbands at all.  He was finally stopped when he broke into the house of his latest crush and she and her husband fought back.  

John Coston worked as a journalist and a news editor at the Wall Street Journal.  He also wrote two true crime books and this was one of them.  While it took years to bring Nance to justice, he was suspected by the police and considered strange by most who knew him.  Like with other serial killers like Ted Bundy who are often written up as normal and charming, those who knew them best tended to shy away as the more you knew them the more their 'otherness' stood out.  This book is recommended for true crime readers.  

Love Like Blood by Mark Billingham

 

DI Tom Thorne is approached by someone he never expected.  DI Nicola Tanner is known in the force as a perfectionist rule performer.  A freewheeling detective like Thorne is the antithesis of how she works.   But Tanner needs his help.  Her partner had been murdered in their home, knifed down as she returned for the evening.  Tanner has been put on compassionate leave and warned off trying to investigate the murder herself.

While Thorne is the opposite of her methods, he is also known as the man who can crack a case that no one else can.  Tanner tells Thorne she believes that her partner was killed because the assassin got the wrong person and that she was the intended target.  Her unit has been targeting honor killings and were getting close.  She believes that the death of her partner was a warning to her to back off.

Thorne reluctantly agrees to help as he has an unsolved case from a few years ago that he always thought might have been an honor killing but he could never prove it.  Then a young couple goes missing and they also might have been honor victims  Thorne and Tanner pair up although their investigation has to be under the radar.  

This is the fourteenth novel in the Tom Thorne series.  He is still with his partner and her son and things are even more serious between them.  Tom and the young son are closely involved and he can't imagine life without his lover and her son.  But work is the same, having to fight both murder and the higher ups that just want to close cases no matter if the right solution has been found or not.  This book is recommended for mystery readers.  

Seascraper by Benjamin Wood

 

In the small coastal town of Longferry, Thomas Flett is a shanker, a gatherer of shrimp at low tide in nets.  He has a cart and horse and throws his nets over and over until he has enough and then goes to the wholeseller who pays him on the spot.  Thomas is only twenty and learned the trade from his grandfather who has died.  Thomas lives with his mother and it is a hand-to-mouth existence.  He has dreams of becoming a singer and guitar player but will it ever happen?

Then something exciting happens.  Thomas comes home to find his mother entertaining a stranger.  The man says he is a director and thinks that Longferry might be the perfect location for his next movie.  He wants to pay Thomas to take him out on a shanker run so that he can see everything at low tide and make a decision.  Thomas is hesitant but is soon convinced by the large amount the man offers to pay.  Could this be the break Thomas has been awaiting?

Benjamin Wood is an English author who grew up in North West England.  He has written five novels with this one being his most recent.  He has received various awards and this novel was longlisted last year for the Booker Prize.  He has managed to capture the life of Thomas and the hope that lives in even the most impoverished lives.  There is a shocking turn at the end of the novel that I didn't see coming and I loved this novel.  It is recommended for readers of literary fiction.  

Hotel Lucky Seven by Kotaro Isaka

 

Assassin Ladybug can't catch a break.  In his last outing, he only had to retrieve a suitcase from a bullet train and it definitely went sideways.  At the end, the train was littered with bodies.  You'd think that would put off his handler but she has another assignment for him.  All he has to do is deliver a painting to a man in a hotel room.  But Ladybug finds the wrong man in the room, a man who attacks him.  Before you know it, the man is dead and the game is on.

Also in the hotel is a woman who is in danger.  She has a photogenic memory and knows the details of a crime boss's business.   He has decided that she must go and he wants her killed in the hotel.  Soon assassins are everywhere.  There are the two hotel chambermaids who specialize in killing with bedsheets, an older woman who is there to protect the intended victim and a set of six assassins who work as a team and use blowguns and poison darts.  Can Ladybug get out safely and save the woman?

Kotaro Isaka is a Japanese author who writes in the mystery/thriller genre.  He started his career as a systems engineer and then switched to writing where he has been very successful.  This book is the fourth in his series Assassins.  The pace is fast and furious and I could visualize it as a movie, having seen the successful Bullet Train which was adapted from an earlier book of his.  There is so much killing and it is treating so normally that after a while the affect is comedy.  This book is recommended for thriller readers.  

Angel Down by Daniel Krauss

 

World War I is known for it's brutal trench warfare.  Men from either side hunkered down in rat-infested trenches, firing at each other from yards away, fighting for feet of territory.  It was a bleak environment with little food, mud, torn clothes and tempers flaring.  One day a piercing scream was heard.  A commanding officer sends five men who he thought of as losers and very expendable to check out what was going on.

Private Cyril Bagger is the main character.  He has survived by being the con artist he was before the war and avoiding as much battle as he can.  Bagger knows how to make the best of every skirmish as he is skilled at sizing up and taking advantage.  He has one weakness.  Private Louis Arno is a fourteen year old kid who lied about his age to join the army and now is unlikely to see fifteen.  Bagger looks out for him as much as he can and reads him books, especially Tarzan.

Private Hugh Popkin is a huge man, extremely strong but not smart.  He is the most gung-ho of the men and wants to kill, not for his country necessarily but for the thrill.  Private Vincent Goodspeed is a scavenger.  He grabs up artifacts like bits of German uniforms to sell on the black market along with any other goods he can scarf up.  Finally, Private Ben Veck has just joined this group of soldiers.  He is the only black soldier and his job is as a flamethrower.

When the five reach the scream, they stop in amazement.  What they find is not a soldier caught up on barbed wire or suffering from a gut shot, but a woman who emits a piercing light.  As they get closer they discover that it is an angel.  All five want to save her but for very different reasons.  Some want to use her to make money, some want to help her because they haven't seen a woman in weeks, some for religious reasons.  Regardless, they rescue her and start to carry her back to their ranks.

As they make their way back, the five start to fight about the angel and who she belongs to.  Soon there are battles among the men as each believes he should be the angel's owner and that she can grant wishes and save them from the war-torn territory in which every minute can be a man's last.

Daniel Krauss was born in Germany but now lives in the United States.  He has been best known for his work in the fantasy and horror genres and his collaboration with other authors such as Guillermo del Toro and George Romano.  This novel won the Pultizer Prize this year and was also a New York Times Best 10 Books Of The Year.  The interplay between the soldiers and between their visions of the angel and what she means make up the majority of the book.  Perhaps she has been sent to stop wars forever but only if men can change their natures.  The format itself builds the tension as the entire book is one long sentence  It is one of the most stunning books I've read lately and will definitely be in my top reads of 2026.  This book is recommended for readers of literary fiction.  

John Of John by Douglas Stuart

 

John-Calum Macleod has finished his university degree in art design but doesn't find work right away.  He stays in Glasgow where he can look for work and be openly gay but is running out of money and options.  When his father calls and says his grandmother needs him back home, he reluctantly goes back to the small island in the Outer Hebrides he grew up in.  

Nothing has changed there since he escaped.  His parents moved into a house when they were married with his grandmother.  His mother left when Cal was young and he stayed.  His father and grandmother don't get along, his father often talking in the native language so his grandmother can't understand.  Cal has siblings as his mother moved on and married his uncle and had more children.  He loves his siblings but has a strained relationship with his mother.  Above all, he hides his sexual orientation from his father.  But his father has sexual secrets also that have shaped his life and Cal's in turn.

Douglas Stuart is a Scottish author whose first book, Shuggie Bain, won the Booker Prize.  I loved that book and the following one, Young Mungo, but this one is definitely my favorite.  Cal is torn by his love for his family and what he owes them but at the end there is hope for everyone and I absolutely think this novel is a masterpiece.  I'll be shocked if it doesn't get a Booker nomination and I could easily see it as the winner this year.  This book is recommended for readers of literary fiction. 

When We Were Brilliant by Lynn Cullen

 

In 1952, a momentous meeting occurred.  Woman photographer Eve Arnold met Norma Jean Baker, better known as Marilyn Monroe, in the bathroom of the event both were attending.  Marilyn proposed a deal.  The two could collaborate to make each other's careers better.  Marilyn was being pushed as nothing more than a sex machine and Eve could take photographs of her that pushed the envelope and showed the side of Marilyn that few were privileged enough to ever see.  

Over the years, each woman enjoyed the friendship as they fought against the prejudice against women in their careers.  Marilyn became one of the most recognizable woman in the world while Eve managed to hold out and carve out a career that showed stories, not just the latest Hollywood or Broadway star.  Each helped the other as they could and both were bonded together not only by their careers but by the difficulty they both had with love and trying to become a mother.

Lynn Cullen is an American author who writes in the historical fiction genre.  Some of her past books have looked at Poe's wife, Twain's secretary, Dorothy Horstmann whose discovery made the polio vaccine possible and Sofonisba Anguissola who was the first recognized woman author in the Renaissance era.  In this novel, she delves beneath the publicity facade of Marilyn's career to show the orphaned girl who grew up in foster homes.  I especially enjoyed reading Eve's story as I had not previously heard of her and it was interesting to see her carve out a successful career in a time when women had to compete with men just to get a career started, much less to thrive in it.  This book is recommended for readers of historical and women's fiction.

A Rock And A Hard Place by JD Kirk

 

Scottish detective Jack Logan is taking a break from police work.  His last case had left him with injuries, both physical and psychological.  The physical healed quickly but he's not sure about returning.  His bosses are running out of patience and want him back to head up his team.  In the meantime, an annoying, by the book inspector has been brought in.  Temporary or is he?

When news comes of a body found in a remote cave, Logan is tempted but at the same time, caves are what he wants to avoid.  Still, it is one of his childhood heroes, a musician named Johnny Freestone who is the victim.  Reluctantly, Logan agrees to head north and 'consult' with the DCI in charge.  

Johnny Freestone was one of the big ones, a rock star who filled stadiums.  But his star had dimmed over the years and his attempts at comebacks had all failed.  Now he has been found dead deep in a cave in his hometown.  Who would have killed him?  It turns out lots of people.  Freestone was obnoxious, rude to everyone, known for delighting in breaking up marriages, deep in debt he never paid back.  Logan starts to give his opinions but is squashed by the SIO in charge who makes it clear that Logan is not officially back and needs to do as he is told, not a position Logan is used to.  

This is the twenty-first Jack Logan mystery.  Logan is bold and assertive but in this book, he appears mild as he tiptoes his way around the murder as he decides if he will return to the work he has loved for years.  His team is still eccentric but effective and the clash between him and the SIO in charge is amusing.  This book is recommended for mystery readers.  

The End Of Drum-Time by Hanna Pylvainen

 

The time is 1851, the location a remote Scandinavian village.  Only two types of people live here.  The Sami tribes have lived here forever, their reindeer herds everything to them.  They live on reindeer meat and milk, trade the reindeer for the few things they cannot make themselves and travel with the reindeer so that the herd always has grazing.  The lands outside the village are their winter grazing grounds. 

The other inhabitants are those who have come to 'civilize' the tribes, but really to fence in their land and try to make the tribe people more like them.  The village they live in has a few houses, a church and a store.  Mad Lasse is a Lutheran minister who has come to save the Sammi people.  He has two marriage-aged daughters, a son and then a clutch of younger people.  

Willa is one of those daughters.  She despises her life and wants something more.  That something more turns out to be Ivvar, one of the Sami herdsmen.  The two fall in love and when the Sami make their annual pilgrimage in the summer to the coastal grazing grounds, Willa runs away from home and becomes a couple with Ivvar 

The Lutheran church decides that Lasse has gotten out of church bounds and transfers him to another parish.  The uncle of the storekeeper comes to replace Lasse in the church and he is a brutal minister, striking the congregation if they are not attentive and fining those who don't attend.  Something must come to a head with the opposing groups of people and it does in a violence-filled night.  

Hanna Pylvainen is an American author.  This novel was a a finalist for the National Book Award.  The research Pylvainen did for the novel shines through on every page as she transports the reader to the remote Swedish tundra.  The reader will learn about the tribal life of the Sami people and the damage that drinking alcohol did to their lives.  The clash of cultures will inevitably bring an end to the life the Sami people have known, as their opposition has the money and government with which to fence in the land and change the way of life of those who went before.  This book is recommended for readers of historical fiction.  

The Last Great Road Bum by Hector Tobar

 

Joe Sanderson seemed like he would live an ordinary life.  He was born and raised in Illinois in a middle class family.  As he was finishing high school, he had a revelation.  The family went on a vacation to Mexico City and when they left, they agreed to leave Joe behind to make his own way home.  He traveled around Mexico before returning and an itch was born.  Joe was not longer content with the idea of going to college, getting married and raising a family.  He wanted to see the world.

And see it he did.  He traveled to Jamaica, then through Europe and Asia.  He met the love of his life on the road but she wanted stability and Joe wanted adventure.  He was in Vietnam during the war and managed to get to the front lines by pretending to be a journalist.  He went to Africa, specifically Biafra and Nigeria during the famines and civil wars that became genocides and worked as a volunteer, handing out food and medicine.  But Central and South America always called to him.

When he returned to those countries that make up Central and South America, Joe was radicalized by the war and turmoil he had seen around the world.  He eventually fell in with the guerilla fighters of El Salvador and died fighting with them in the jungles.  Wherever he traveled, he kept a diary and wrote home letters to his mother, brother and father.  

Hector Tobar is the son of Guatemalan immigrants.  He worked for twenty years as a journalist for the Los Angeles Times where he was on a team that won the Pulitzer Prize for coverage of the LA Riots.  He has also written six novels.  He came into possession of the papers that Joe Sanderson left behind after his death in El Salvador and then contacted the family and was able to find out more about Sanderson through their recollections and Joe's letters home over the years.  The book is a mix of fiction and nonfiction and the reader will accompany Joe as he travels the world and ends up fighting against tyranny.  This book is recommended for both fiction and nonfiction readers.  

The First Time I Saw Him by Laura Dave

 

Five years ago, Hannah Hall's world fell apart.  Her husband, Owen, had to disappear when he ran afoul of a criminal organization, one his father had been legal counsel for.  Owen had testified against the organization and they will never stop looking for him.  Hannah was left with a teenage stepdaughter, Bailey, who hasn't forgiven her for marrying her father and a knowledge that she and Bailey will never see Owen again.  

The grandfather, Nicholas, had brokered an agreement that Hannah and Bailey would be left alone but when Nicholas's death is reported, that agreement ends.  Nicholas had been friends with the head of the organization but he has turned the reins over to his children and the new head hates Daniel for testifying against her husband and putting him in prison.  She will do anything to get back at Daniel, including going after Hannah and Bailey.

Laura Dave has created another tense, pulse-pounding thriller that continues the story of Owen and Hannah.  The action is fast and furious and the plotting is intricate.  Readers who enjoyed the first book, The Last Thing He Told Me, will also enjoy this one which is recommended for thriller readers.  

Taiwan Travelogue by Shuang-Zi Yang

 

The year is 1938 and a young Japanese writer, Aoyama Chizuko, has been approached by the government to go to Taiwan, which the Japanese have occupied since 1895.  They want her to give lectures about her novels and meet with government officials.  They will provide her lodging, food, travel expenses and a translator.  Chizuko jumps at the chance.

But she isn't that interested in giving the lectures or meeting with officials.  She wants to experience Taiwan and especially, Taiwanese food.  Chizuko is a major foodie and there is never a moment she doesn't want to eat.  She is assigned another young woman as a translator, Chizuru.  Chizuru is more than willing to travel with Chizuko and show her the Taiwanese sights. Even better, she is willing to arrange for Chizuko to dine on all the varieties of Taiwanese food from street food to government dinners.  Chizuru is also a talented chef herself and cooks for Chizuko often.

As the two women travel to the various locales in Taiwan, Chizuko and Chizuru become better acquainted.  They tease each other and confide secrets.  Chizuko begins to feel that Chizuru is the best friend she has ever had but there is a reserve she cannot break through.  What keeps them from being soulmates?

This is a delightful novel and that shows in its awards.  It won the National Book Award for Translated Literature, the International Booker and the Golden Tripod Award in Taiwan.  Readers will learn about the Japanese occupation of Taiwan, Taiwan sights and memorials and so much about Taiwanese food.  But underneath lies the secret that prevents the two women from ever getting as close as the novelist wishes for and it is slowly revealed to the reader.  This book is recommended for multicultural and literary fiction readers.

Broken Ground by Val McDermid

 

Alice Sommerville and her husband can't believe they are finally here.  Alice was raised with the story of the Indian motorcycles her grandfather and his buddy had buried at the end of World War II on a remote farm in Scotland where they had been posted.  They always intended to go back and get them but somehow they never found the time.  But Alice is here and she has the map and she's sure they will find the treasure this time.

They find the spot and they find the motorcycles still in pristine shape.  But they also find something else.  Or someone.  That brings in DCI Karen Pirie.  The first task is to find out who is buried there. There is no identification except for a huge weight-bearing belt.  Who could have killed the man and why leave him there?

As the case unravels, it turns out that not only were the motorcycles valuable, but another man had stowed a fortune in diamonds in one of the saddlebags of one of the motorcycles.  Was the man killed over the diamonds?  The motorcycles?  Pirie is attracted to the man who owns the land where all of this occurs but doesn't trust his interest thinking he might be involved.  

Val McDermid is known as one of Scotland's best mystery writers.  This is the fifth in the Karen Pirie series, which has been made into a television series as well.  The way Pirie unravels the mystery while also handling a domestic abuse case back home and fighting off the stratagems of her overbearing boss is fascinating and fans of the DCI will be happy with another stellar mystery.  This book is recommended for mystery fans. 

The Wild Hunt by Emma Seckel

 

When the call comes, Leigh Welles has not been home to the island since she left it.  Now her father, the last of the family on the island, has had an accident and died and she must go home to bury him.  Leigh's brother, Sam has been a big success but Leigh's experience off the island has been a series of dead-end jobs and shoddy flats.  She is not sorry to be returning.

But things seem different.  The island has always been inhabited by a population of crows that the islanders call the slaugh.  They believe that the birds are otherworldly and carry the souls of the dead.  But lately the birds have flocked together and attacked island residents.  What does that mean?

Iain MacTavish lives on the island, his father having left him enough money that he doesn't need to work.  He was a pilot during the recent world war and that war took both his best childhood friend and his wife from him.  He wanders the island spending time with himself thinking about the war and what it meant.  

Leigh and Iain come together when Hugo, a young teenager whose big brother was Iain's best friend, disappears.  Where could he have gone?  What took him away?  

This is a debut novel for Emma Seckel and I'm looking forward to reading more from her.  She is a Canadian author and photographer and spent four years of university in a small Scottish town which gave her the ability to portray the island where Leigh and Iain live.  The writing has a misty feel where nothing is quite as it seems but almost everything has changed dramatically over the years.  The characters are all still dealing with the aftermath of World War II and the deaths and tragedies it left behind.  The supernatural elements add to the book without overwhelming it.  I listened to this novel and the narrator added to the atmosphere of cloudy understanding as the characters grope towards the truth.  This book is recommended for historical and literary fiction readers.  

Kunstlers In Paradise by Cathleen Schine

 

Julian is lost, aimless in his twenties and unsure what his next step in life will be.  His roommate has just moved out, his girlfriend has broken up with him and his liberal parents have not been enthusiastic when he he had suggested moving back home.  But they have a suggestion.  His grandmother, in her nineties, is living in Los Angles with a friend and a giant St. Bernard dog.  She has fallen and broken her arm.  Why doesn't he go visit her and help her during her recuperation?

Julian grudgingly agrees.  He gets to LA and settles in with the two ancient women and then disaster strikes.  Covid closes down the country and he is now stuck in LA for the foreseeable future until the closedown lifts.  Mamie had come to LA when she was eleven with her Jewish parents as they escaped the Nazis before they attacked Vienna.  Her father was a composer and they easily fit in with the refuge population who had come to the United States.  Mamie was taught tennis by composer Arnold Schoenberg, she knew Christopher Isherwood and Thomas Mann.  She had a relationship with Greta Garbo who was the most beautiful woman in the world.  She has plenty of stories to last through the shutdown.

Cathleen Schine is an American author who has written several novels that explore family relationships.  In this one, she has created interesting characters in Mamie and her live-in help and in Julian as he navigates early adulthood and finding his purpose in life.  Grandparents and their grandchildren have a special relationship that is different than that of parents and children and often grandchildren are willing to take advice from grandparents that they ignore from parents.  Readers will learn about Los Angles during World War II and the refuge population that came there to work.   This book is recommended for readers of literary fiction.

Perspectives by Laurent Binet

 

The year is 1557, the place Florence.  The artist Jacopo de Pontormo has been found dead near the mural he has been working on for seven years for the Duke Of Florence.  No one had been allowed to see the painting as it was hidden behind scaffolding.  When Pontormo's residence was searched, a scandal ensued.  He had painted the face of the Duke's young daughter, just reaching marriageable age, onto a nude woman's figure painted in a promiscuous pose.  Why would he do that to his patron?  Who could have killed him?

Duke Cosimo de' Medici reaches out to Giorgi Vasari, one of his most trusted advisors, to lead the investigations.  Vasari suspects that it must have been someone in the art world, as a piece of the mural was painted over that night in a slightly different color.  Was it Pontormo's assistants?  A jealous rival?  The artist chosen to finish the mural?

Laurent Binet, a French author is quickly becoming one of my favorite authors.  I recently read his first novel, HHhH about the assassination of a Nazi leader and which won awards. This novel is told entirely in letters between the various characters.  There is also political intrigue going on involving Catherine de' Medici, the Queen of France, who is involved in an attempt to militarily take over parts of Italy.  A interesting character in the novel is Benvenuto Cellini, the goldsmith who is also an adventurer, a braggard and always willing to take a chance for money.  This book is recommended for literary and historical fiction readers.  

Mrs. S by K. Patrick

 

The setting is rural England at the kind of English boarding school that worships the past and 'girls' who have come through it.  Tradition and rules are everything.  Into this structure comes a young Australian girl, only twenty-two, who has been hired as the matron, a title that has little defined roles but seems to boil down to watching the girls and making sure they are where they are supposed to be.  The matron is openly gay and at first has no friends among the staff.  But she finds that the housemistress is also gay and they form a friendship. The girls seem to know and sometimes make comments but overall she is accepted by them and the rest of the staff.

Then there is Mrs. S, the wife of the headmaster.  As opposed to the protagonist, Mrs. S. is the epitome of femininity. She dresses in lovely dresses daily, even in the sweltering heat of an English heat wave.  All the girls love her and want her attention.  But the Australian has an immediate attraction to Mrs. S. and it is difficult to tell if Mrs. S. is also attracted to her or if she is merely being friendly.  As the weeks go by, the attraction grows on both sides and soon the two are having a torrid affair.  Surely this is a state of affairs that is doomed to disaster.

K. Patrick is one of Granta's annual Best Young Novelists.  She is Scottish and both a poet and a novelist.  The author identifies as trans-masculine.  The sex scenes in the book are quite graphic which could be an issue for some readers.  Patrick is able to portray the slow, building attraction between the matron and the headmaster's wife, one young and openly gay, one middle-aged and the epitome of what is considered 'normal' in a compelling way that makes it seem normal when the two actually get together.  Patrick herself attended a rural English school with famous former students who were authors as this environment is portrayed.  I found this book and author fascinating and a good indication of what literature can do for us, showing a world many of us will never know.  This book is recommended for literary fiction readers.