The Outcast by Sadie Jones

 

Lewis has a happy childhood in a small town a little outside London.  In his earliest years, his father is still away, fighting in World War II and it's just Lewis and his unconventional, loving mother.  When his father returns, he believes that Lewis is spoiled and indulged and their relationship is strained.  Lewis and his mother go on a picnic near the river near their house when Lewis is ten but only Lewis returns.  His mother has gotten caught up on refuse in the river and drowns.

Lewis retreats into himself; his loss so great that he cannot verbalize it.  His father thinks he needs to snap out of things and gets him no help.  Within a year, the father remarries a young woman who has no idea how to be a mother figure.  Lewis becomes more remote, pulling away from his family and friends who being children have no idea how to help him either.  

The Carmichael family lives nearby and Mr. Carmichael is Lewis' father's boss.  There are two daughters.  Tasmin is the older daughter, the town beauty who lives for admiration.  Kit is the younger sister and is drawn to Lewis who is always kind to her.  The Carmichael family hides a secret; Dicky Carmichael is an abusive husband and father.  

The book begins when Lewis is returning to the town at nineteen, having spent the last two years in prison.  He began drinking in his teen years and when the pressure got too great, he acted out in a way that led to charges against him.  Now he is back and is hoping to make amends but his father's opinion of him and that of the town has been set in concrete.  Dicky Carmichael in particular despises Lewis and is quick to tell him and everyone else.  But both the Carmichael daughters are attracted to Lewis and can't leave him alone.  Tension builds but what will be the resolution?

Sadie Jones is an English author and this was her debut novel.  It is hard to believe that as I was stunned by this novel.  It demonstrates how children need love and attention and how easily they can fall off the path when those things are not in their lives.  The reader is drawn to Lewis and develops hope for him, only to see him crushed over and over, yet there is some hope at the end.  This book is recommended for literary fiction readers.  

The Darkness by Ragnar Jonasson

 

Detective Inspector Hulda Hermannsdottir arrives at work in Reykjavik to discover that her supervisor is pushing her into early retirement so he can transfer in a younger man.  She is not ready to retire but is given no choice.  He gives her one week to try to solve one last case but his decision is final.

Hulda picks the case of a Russian immigrant who was found dead on the coast.  Her death was quickly ruled a suicide but after reading the file, Hulda sees that the investigation was shoddy and quick and believes it could have been a homicide instead.  After investigating further, she discovers that another Russian woman had disappeared as well and she was the friend of the other one.  Can Hulda solve the case and more importantly, can she face retirement?

Ragnar Jonasson is an Icelandic author who writes crime novels.  This is the first in his Hulda Hermannsdottir series.  Along with solving the crime, he talks with feeling about how it feels to age and realize that your time on Earth is getting shorter.  Hulda definitely doesn't want to retire but starts to see that it will give her more time to pursue her outside interests and even maybe find romance.  The mystery is satisfactory and Hulda is a tenacious character who readers will enjoy getting to know.  This book is recommended for mystery readers.  

The White Crow by Michael Robotham

 

Philomena McCarthy is a part of the Metropolitan Police and has a new marriage with Henry, a city firefighter.  Being a policewoman is not something Philomena had ever thought she would be.  Her father is head of an organized crime group and the McCarthy Brothers are known widely as criminals.   But she was estranged from her family when she took the job and only recently has become reconciled to them.

On patrol one night, she finds a young girl, dressed in pajamas, on the street in the middle of the night.  The girl tells Philomena that she can't wake up her mother and sure enough, when Philomena checks, her mother is dead, tied to a kitchen chair and battered.  Her father, manager of a high end jewelry store, has been taken to the store by the gang that broke into their house and forced to open the safe there.

Philomena would do anything to be on the task force solving the crime, but a higher up supervisor is determined that he can use this crime to bring down her father's organization.  Philomena is scrutinized and suspended because of her family ties.  But she can't stop investigating the crime.  Can she solve it?

Michael Robotham is an Australian author.  He works mainly in the thriller/detective genre although he was also a ghostwriter for a while on famous people's autobiographies.  I've been a fan for years and this one didn't disappoint.  I loved Philomena's character and especially her husband Henry.  Her father is what he is, a man who has done terrible things but who always and forever puts family first.  There are lots of twists and turns in this novel and it is the second Philomena novel, the first being before she is married.  I immediately started that one when I realized I had missed it.  This series is a big hit for me and I can only hope that Robotham will give readers another chance to follow Philomena in her career.  This book is recommended for mystery readers.   

Stone Yard Devotional by Charlotte Wood

 

One weekend a woman comes to a convent in the rural Australia outback.  She is middle-aged and her marriage is dissolving.  A wildlife conservationist, her despair includes the hopelessness of a world with climate change.  She comes to the convent for a place to contemplate her life, to be alone with herself for a weekend to see what the rest of her life will be like.  She doesn't really believe in God and it's strange to be around women whose main focus in life is serving him.

Fast forward a few years and the narrator has returned to the convent, now a full time resident.  She doesn't know that her beliefs have changed but she values the quiet and the slowness of the life there.  But in a place where little occurs, any visitor looms large.  The first is very unwelcome.  An infestation of mice comes to plague the sisters.  Not a few but a tidal wave of mice who eat everything, get in shoes and beds and soil everything they touch.  Then the bones of a former Sister arrive and are kept in the parlour until the convent can get local permission to bury her on the site.  She had gone missing and was presumed murdered.  Instead, she had left and emigrated to the United States.  Accompanying the body is a Sister who the narrator had attended school with.  The woman had been the butt of everyone's jokes and bullying and the narrator still feels guilty that she didn't help her.  

Charlotte Wood is an Australian novelist and this novel is probably her most successful.  It was shortlisted for the Booker Prize in 2024 and also got awards from such publications as the Washington Post, the New York Times and the Los Angeles Times.  While reading, one contemplates these lives of service and what one is doing oneself to help others.  In a time when organized religion is losing membership, it also emphasizes that there are many ways to be of service in this world.  It also explores the value of examining one's past life and finding ways to atone for times of hurting others.  This book is recommended for readers of literary fiction.

The Other Side Of Silence by Bill Pronzini

 

Rick Fallon is taking his two week vacation in the desert.  Every so often he just has to get away from everything and listen to the silence.  After camping for a few days, he comes upon a deserted car along a road.  He uses his binoculars and sees a woman lying near some rocks.  When he gets to her, she is almost dead from sun exposure and dehydration.  Fallon rescues her and when she is recovered hears her story.

Carol Dunbar is desperate.  Four months ago her ex-husband had kidnapped their eight year old son and disappeared with him.  Carol has tried everything to find them and now her money is gone.  The last detective she hired was able to track them to Las Vegas but when Carol got close, all she found was a man hired by her ex to beat her up and tell her to forget her search.  

Fall works security and was an MP in the military.  He understands the pain of losing a child as his own son was killed in an accident.  He decides to use the rest of his vacation to help Carol find her son and retrieve him.  Was it a good decision?

Bill Pronzini writes in the mystery genre, typically stories of hard men facing harder choices.  Fallon is an interesting character and I'd love to see a whole series focusing on him.  The mystery has lots of twists and turns and ends in a way that is unexpected.  This book is recommended for mystery readers.   

The Spy Coast by Tess Gerritsen

 

Maggie Bird is a former spy as strange as that may seem.  She left the Agency almost two decades ago after her marriage collapsed.  For years she roamed the world, wondering where she might find a new life.  When she heard from other Agency friends about the small Maine town where they had all decided to retire, she visited and then bought an old farm.  Now she raises chickens and fills her days with farm tasks.  Her social life is her neighbor and his granddaughter and her friends from Agency days, Declan, Ben and married couple Ingrid and Lloyd.

All that changes when an Agency employee shows up at Maggie's farm asking her help to find another employee, Diana. Maggie hasn't seen Diana since that failed mission and has no information or interest in finding her.  The next day the woman's body is left in Maggie's driveway, bringing the interest of Jo Thibodeau, the local police chief.  When Maggie realizes that the last mission is now back in play and that everyone involved is in danger, she calls on her friends to help her find whoever is gunning for her.

Tess Gerritson is a mystery writer best known for her Rizzoli and Isles series.  This is the first entry in a new series and will receive a wide readership as younger readers will be drawn by the action and plots while older readers will resonate with the theme of older, wiser protagonists.  Maggie has been a lone wolf for many years but seems to be ready to perhaps find something more than friendship.  This book is recommended for mystery readers.  

Women And Other Animals by Bonnie Jo Campbell

 

In this anthology of sixteen stories, Bonnie Jo Campbell explores the lives of those in poverty.  Some work jobs that grind them down or put them in danger, others do anything they can, including injuring themselves, to save what they have.  My favorite story was probably The Smallest Man In The World.  A circus has come through town and those who work there have come to a bar afterwards to drink.  Already there is a beautiful woman, a woman who realizes that her beauty is just a twist of fate and that in many ways she is another freak of nature just as the smallest man is.  

Bonnie Jo Campbell is an American author.  This was her debut work of short stories and my favorite from this collection won the AWP prize.  I always think of her as a Southern author as she writes about people close to the land and farming but she isn't.  Another theme she uses quite a bit are rivers and how they impact the lives of people who live along them.  She was a Guggenheim Fellow and her ability to get into the lives of those who are often ignored by society and the media is her true talent.  This book is recommended for anthology readers.  

Question 7 by Richard Flanagan

 

Richard Flanagan is one of my favorite authors and this latest novel is one I'll think about for a long time.  It is a mix of memoir, biography, historical novel and philosophy.  He covers topics such as the development of the atomic bomb and the men who conceived it, an affair between H.G. Wells and Rebecca West, Japanese labor camps during World War II and whitewater rafting.  

Flanagan's father was a laborer in a Japanese labor camp at the end of World War II, skeletal and sure he wouldn't survive another winter.  He was saved when Japan surrendered after the dropping of the atomic bomb on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.  Flanagan ponders the ethics of the decision to drop the bomb and the fact that he would not exist were it not for those events.

I found the biography of H.G. Wells fascinating as I had not known he was such a ladies' man.  I knew of the affair with Rebecca West but didn't realize it was just one of many.  The ability of Wells to write about topics and inventions that were foretelling but later came to fruition is the reason so many science fiction and fantasy writers revere him.  One of my reading goals is to read West's masterpiece, Black Lamb and Gray Falcon.  

Finally, I read Flanagan's wonderful Death Of A River Guide but I hadn't realized that it was grounded in his own life.  He had a job as a whitewater rafting guide and on one trip his craft flipped and he was trapped in a small air bubble, his legs trapped in rocks for over an hour.  He discusses this event in great detail, telling of the man who saved his life at great cost but whom he lost touch with later.  

Richard Flanagan is an Australian author from Tasmania.  He is considered one of the best authors of our time and I read everything he writes.  This work won the Bailie Gillie Prize which is for nonfiction writing and was named a Top Ten Notable Book by the Washington Post.   I appreciated it not only for the things I discovered I hadn't known but for a more in-depth look into the life of an amazing author.  This book is recommended for nonfiction and literary fiction readers.  

The Stepson by Jane Renshaw

 

Lulu and Nick are newlyweds.  They met on a Greek island while on vacation and after a whirlwind romance married.  Lulu is a counselor while Nick is a hugely successful broker.  They live in London.  Lulu grew up in Australia while Nick grew up in the English countryside.  He has a tragedy in his background that he hates to talk about but Lulu knows until he comes to terms with it he will always be troubled.

Nick's mother died while he was a teenager after a fall down the stairs in their home.  Nick found her.  While he was still grieving, his father Duncan brought home a new wife and stepmother for Nick.  Maggie had been a troubled teen when she met Duncan in the organization he ran for teenagers who need help.  Now years later, the two meet again and fall in love.  Nick and Maggie are at odds immediately.  Nick has the ability to make Maggie look bad, that she is lying when she tells Duncan what Nick says and does when its just the two of them.  Maggie and Duncan have a baby and when Maggie sees that Nick will hurt his stepsister, she and Duncan make a decision.  One day Nick comes home to find nobody there.  Duncan, Maggie and the baby are gone and there is no trace of them in the years after.  Nick is sent to boarding school to finish growing up.

Maggie sees Nick as a strong male who is kind and loving.  But when they go to his home to visit, she gets differing opinions.  His aunt openly despises him.  His former best friend believes Nick is evil.  Who is right and what happened to his family all those years before?

Jane Renshaw is a British author who works in the suspense genre.  This novel goes back and forth in time between the present and the past around the time of Nick's family's disappearance.  At one point, he seems evil, at another he seems misunderstood and done hard by.  I listened to this novel and the narrator did an excellent job.  One of my favorite parts was the epilogue when the reader finds out what happens after the novel's climatic end.  This book is recommended for mystery readers.  

Trespass by Rose Tremain

 

This is the story of two brother-sister relationships, set in the South of France.  The first set of siblings are French.  Aramon is the brother and Audrun the sister.  They grew up in wealth but without a mother who died while they were young.  Aramon was always the favored one.  When the father died, he inherited everything except for some woods which Audrun inherited and on which she had a small cottage built.  Audrun was abused by both her father and brother.  It left her introverted and unable to form an adult relationship while it left Aramon so wracked with guilt that he is now an alcoholic, drinking to forget the horrific things he did.

The other siblings are English.  Anthony is a very successful antique dealer in London but as the times have changed, so have tastes and his business is now failing.  He decides to go visit his sister, Veronica, who lives in France with her partner.  Veronica and Anthony have a loving relationship and after a few days, Anthony starts to think about retiring to a house near Veronica.  

The house Anthony is interested in is Aramon's, who had decided to sell his house while the market was hot.  But Anthony wants a spectacular view and Audrun's dilapidated cottage ruins it so he moves on.  But nothing else he sees appeals to him like this property.  He sets off one day to view more properties and never returns.  Has he gotten lost?  Did he go hiking and have a misadventure?  

Rose Tremain is an English author who writes both contemporary and historical fiction.  She has been nominated for both the Booker and Women's Fiction awards and won the Woman's Fiction award.  This book is particularly interesting as it delves into the relationships we have as we get older and often the strongest are with our original family.  Conversely, those relationships may also be our earliest and strongest personality shapers of abuse and rejection.  This novel is recommended for readers of literary fiction. 

Bad Bad Girl by Gish Jen

 

This is a story of the relationship between the author and her mother.  It is a memoir and a biography and a history of China as the old ways crumbled and the Communists took over.  It is an expose, a love letter and an attempt by the author to make sense of her life and that of her mother.

Jen's mother was born to a wealthy family with many servants and a huge mansion.  She was raised until she was six or seven by a nanny who was the person who provided the love and comfort every child needs.  Then the woman was abruptly sent away and Jen was expected to become a dutiful Chinese daughter.  Her mother was cold to her, openly favoring her brother.  For Jen, her most often phrase was 'Bad bad girl, you don't know how to talk!'.

But Jen's mother was not willing to live the life she was expected to.  She always excelled in school and managed to get a scholarship to go to the United States to university.  She was to live with friends of her parents and her father gave her some money to go on.  That was the last money she was to see from her parents and pretty much the last time she would speak with her mother.  Her mother didn't come to the phone when Jen called home and rarely wrote.  When the Communists took over, her family lost most of their money and their property, moving from the large house they inhabited to some rooms in another house shared with other families.  Jen's mother, who had married another Chinese student in America,  rarely replied to their pleas for help and money and even when her mother broke down and wrote, she didn't change her ways.

In the meantime Gish Jen was born.  She was strong willed like her mother and soon her mother was repeating the words she had been raised on, 'Bad Bad Girl'.  But it is evident how much the author loved and respected her parents.  The telling of their last days and the little personal services that she would provide for each of them, spoiling them as best she could, were poignant.  I can only hope that my children will do the same for me when my time comes.

Gish Jen has written several novels and books that explore the Chinese culture, it's modern history and its relationship with the United States.  Her short fiction has been widely used in magazines and anthologies.  In this book, she creates a look inside Chinese families and in particular, the mother-daughter relationship.  Most of what she writes about this relationship portrays that relationship in many cultures as our parents are our world at first and the first love relationships we will have.  Along the way, we learn history, stories about Gish Jen's own life, and the questions about how we ourselves will parent.  This book is recommended for literary fiction and memoir readers.  

The Miracle Life Of Edgar Mint by Brady Udall

 

Edgar Mint has a mixed parentage; his mother is Apache and his father a white guy who came west to try to be a cowboy and who moved on when he found out his girlfriend was going to have a baby.  He is raised for the first seven years of his life on the reservation with a mother who only wanted to drink.  When Edgar is seven, he is in an accident and the postman runs over him.  The postman and everyone else think that with the horrific head injury he has that Edgar is dead but he miraculously survives.

Edgar spends months in the hospital, recovering from the head wound and learning again how to walk and other physical movements.  He is the favorite of the hospital and makes friends with the men who are on his ward.  When he is considered ready to leave, he is sent to his great uncle who is a janitor at an Indian school and Edgar is put in the dormitories where he will live for years.  He makes one true friend and deals with bullies there.

From the school, Edgar is adopted by a Mormon family when he is a teenager.  He stays with them for a while then moves on into his adult life.  His mission is to find the postman who ran him over to let him know that he is still alive.  Will Edgar ever find a home and family?

Readers will become engaged with Edgar.  Although most would consider his life nothing but a series of miserable conditions, he remains an optimist and sees the best in everyone.  Edgar is life affirming and one of my favorite characters I've encountered.  This book is recommended for readers of literary fiction.

The Demands by Mark Billingham

 

When he is overwhelmed by his life, a Muslim shopowner in London takes two hostages.  One is a young man, recently married, who works in a bank.  The other is a policewoman.  When the police are able to speak with him, he demands to speak with DC Tom Thorne.  The man's son was recently killed in prison, a prison he was sent to for a harsh sentence when he and a friend were attacked on the street and in the ensuing fight, a man was killed.  The prison says the son's death is a suicide but the family doesn't believe it.  

Thorne remembers the case well.  He and others were shocked at the sentence handed down to the young man, who was a stellar youth bound for university and great things.  He hadn't heard about his death and he knows he only has a short period of time to investigate before tempers flare in the shop and the hostages are harmed.  Is the man right or is he deluded by grief?

This is number ten in the Tom Thorne series.  It is one of my favorites.  There is so much tension as Thorne fights the clock to find out what really happened, both at the initial crime and at the prison where the young man lost his life.  Thorne also starts a new relationship with the hostage negotiator who is in charge of talking with the hostages and their captor at the scene.  There are many twists and turns and the resolution is satisfactory.  This book is recommended for mystery readers.  

Lula Dean's Little Library Of Banned Books by Kirsten Miller

 

Every town has one and you're lucky if your town only has one.  Troy, Georgia, has Lula Dean.  Lula's husband has passed away, her children grown and gone.  She spends her time spying on her neighbors and spreading rumors, still trying to make up for not being chosen to be a cheerleader in high school.  Her arch enemy is Beverly Underwood who is popular in the town and who was the person who denied Lula high school fame.

Lula has limited success until she hits on the idea of banning books.  It's getting news everywhere and she's sure it will work in Troy as well.  Soon she has created a committee to list all the books that should be banned and then swooped into the school library and carted off any book that talks about sex, being gay, or race relations.  But what can people read instead?

Lula comes up with the idea of setting up a free library in her yard.  She fills its with books on how to crochet, how a Southern woman should behave and other boring tomes.  She is proud of her little library but she doesn't know the secret.  Beverly's daughter has snuck over one night and replaced the books inside the covers with books about sex and the truth about slavery and Jim Crow.  Soon the books taken from the library are wildly popular and the townspeople are showing signs of standing up to Lula.

Kirsten Miller is known for her ability to write humorous books about topics that create conflict.  She started as a writer of children's books about female detectives that solve mysteries but recently is taking on more serious topics.  In this novel, not only is the controversy of banning books discussed but the idea of removing statues of men who were complicit in enslaving and treating minorities badly but who were wealthy and powerful enough to seem like role models at the time.  The people in Troy find ways to come together and own their shared histories while defeating the narrow minded individuals that would limit reading material.  This book is recommended for literary fiction readers.  

Little Face by Sophie Hannah

 

Motherhood is all Alice thought it would be.  She had her daughter two weeks ago and fell in love immediately.  Other things she thought would be wonderful are now questionable.  Like living with her husband's mother on her large estate.  Like having her mother-in-law control her husband, Alice and now expecting to make all the decisions for the baby.  She has already put her down for the school she expects Alice and David to send their daughter to.

Alice goes out for a short visit with a friend, leaving the baby at home sleeping with David watching.  She comes home to an open front door and David asleep.  Alice runs to the baby and there is a baby in the crib.  But Alice insists it's not HER baby but that someone has swapped this child for hers.  David is adamant that Alice is wrong but she insists on calling the police.

The case is given to Charlie Zailer and her DC Simon Waterhouse.  Simon is sympathetic to Alice's obvious belief and upset while Charlie believes it is some sort of delusion brought on by postpartum distress.  This differing belief causes tension between the two police, increasing what was already there as Charlie has a crush on Simon and he rejected her.  When the police are informed that David's first wife was murdered at the estate several years ago, the tension is racheted even higher.  Charlie had worked on that case and now there are suspicions that she got it wrong and an innocent man has been imprisoned.  

This is the first book in what is currently a nine novel series featuring the two detectives.  I read one of the others a few weeks ago and immediately decided to go back and read them in order.  Charlie is an interesting female lead, great at her job but failing at romance.  Simon seems introverted yet confident that he is the best detective in the force.  The mystery is appealing and the change in David as Alice continues to insist her baby is missing is astounding.  This book is recommended for mystery readers.  

To The Bright Edge Of The World by Eowyn Ivey

 

This novel is told in both modern times and in the late 1800's.  In 1885, Colonel Allen Forester leads an expedition into Alaska to open up the Wolverine River and the vast territory that has been unexplored.  He leaves behind his wife, Sophie.  The two write letters to each other about his journey and her studies of photography and birds.  Forrester also writes a journal, hoping that it will somehow survive and tell the story of the journey.

Sophie is not the typical wife of the 1880's.  Left behind on a military base, she scandalizes the other wives by refusing to take part in the established social life of military wives.  Instead, her best friend is the young girl hired to do the housework and the two spend their days out in the wilds, learning about photography and documenting the birds of the area.  

In modern times, one of the Colonel's descendants sends the material he finds in his attic to the curator of the Alaskan museum closest to where the expedition took place.  The two men form a friendship through their exchange of material and information and the museum plans to mount an exhibition.

Eowyn Ivey is an American writer who was brought up in Alaska and lives there now.  She uses Alaska as the location of many of her novels, one of which won the Pulitzer Prize.  In this novel, the reader learns about the Alaskan wilderness and the difficulties encountered opening it up.  They also learn about the Native Americans that lived there along with some of their culture.  The beginnings of photography and the difficulty of taking pictures in that time are covered along with the social mores that constricted women whose every move was prescribed.  The love between Sophie and Allen is warm and gives the book its stable base.  This book is recommended for historical fiction readers.   

The Idaho Four by James Patterson and Vicky Ward

 Kaylee Goncalves.  Madison Mogen.  Xana Kernodle.  Ethan Chapin.  These four young people were students at the University of Idaho and will be linked forever by the fact that they were all murdered one night in the house they rented together.  Most people have heard about this case.  James Patterson and Vicky Ward take readers behind the scenes and into the students' lives, giving their individual stories, what they wanted to do with their lives, what others thought of them, etc.  

Bryan Kohberger.  A thirty-year old PHd student, he was never considered part of the crowd.  He had an ongoing heroin addiction and had been in rehabilitation clinics at least twice in his life.  His doctorate was going to be in crime and he came to the West from his homestate of Pennsylvania to study.  One of his inspirations was another man, an incel, who had committed a murder spree in California due to his inability to get women interested in him.  Likewise, Kohberger did not date.  He was tall and very skinny with bulging eyes and a superior manner that put off those around him.  

After multiple trips to case the house where the four victims lived, Kohberger ultimately broke into the house one night and in less than a half house, killed the four young people.  Leaving, he saw one of the other roommates and locked eyes with her but left her alive along with another girl on another floor of the house.  Although he was a student of forensic processing, he also left behind the sheath of his knife which was the main way he was caught as it provided his DNA.

Along with the victims' stories, the authors also gave insight into the lives and work of the local police who had never encountered anything like these murders and the publicity surrounding the case.  The lives of the victims' families is described and their support of law enforcement.  The book ends before the trial at which Kohberger ultimately pled guilty in order to escape the death penalty.  

James Patterson is known for his mystery writing while Vicky Ward is a journalist.  Together they have researched and done hundreds of interviews for this book.  It is an easily readable accounting of one of the most horrific crimes in recent times.  This book is recommended for true crime readers.  

The Knight And The Moth by Rachel Gillig

 

Sybil Denning is a Diviner, living in the Cathedral and predicting the future for those who came and paid.  She was found as an orphan and like the other five Diviners agreed to serve for a decade in exchange for a home.  She is known only as Six and she always wears a mask over her eyes.  Her predictions come as she is drowning in the water in the Cathedral and are sent by the ten Omens that rule the land.  

When a new king is crowned, he comes to the Cathedral to find out his future.  Benji is a young king and he comes with protection, specifically his right-hand man and best knight, Roderick.  Six finds Roderick common and crude and oh so handsome and appealing.  When the other diviners start to disappear, one by one, Six agrees to go with Benji and Roderick and his entourage to take back the Omens one by one so that the king will be the real ruler of the land.

Accompanied by her favorite gargoyle who calls everyone Benjamin, the group starts their mission.  Some Omens are easier to collect than others.  Along the way, Six is alternately repelled and attracted to Roderick and he to her.  Soon the attraction between them is undeniable.  Can they find happiness together?

Rachel Gillig is an American author who specializes in dark fantasy.  Her writing is lush and appealing and the inevitable love of the two main characters is handled well after building up suspense.  The end of the book is surprising, leaving the reader more than ready to read the next novel in the series.  This book is recommended for fantasy readers.   

The Wide Net by Eudora Welty

 

These eight stories from Eudora Welty give readers a glimpse into life in the South, specifically Mississippi during the 1900's.  Welty was born in 1909 and died in 2001 at the age of 92.  Her work included short stories and novels and she won many prizes and awards, including the Pulitzer and the National Book Award for Fiction.  Her work focused on the people and life of the South, showing the faults of the region but also the love and culture found there.

My favorite story in this collection was the title story, The Wide Net.  In it, William Wallace Jamieson's wife, Hazel, is missing.  She is pregnant and demanding.  All William Wallace had done was stay out all night, drinking and carousing with his buddies.  He returns to find a note saying she can't stand this life and is off to do away with herself.  William Wallace rounds up his friends, sure that Hazel has gone to the river and drowned herself.  They borrow a wide net from a neighbor and the whole collection goes down to the Natchez Trace path and throw the net to see if they can find Hazel's body.  Although they work the entire day, encountering wildlife and other river hazards, they find nothing.  William Wallace returns home to find Hazel there all along.

Another story I liked was The Purple Hat.  In it, the man who watches over the floor of a gambling establishment tells the story of a woman, middle-aged, who comes everyday wearing an old bedraggled purple hat.  She is a ghost and he tells her stories and the deaths he has seen her endure.  All of the stories give insight into the language of the time and the attitudes of the two main races living there.  It is a peephole into a life that has disappeared except in the most rural areas and the enduring relationship such folks had with the land and the rivers that transversed it.  This book is recommended for readers of literary fiction, specifically short stories.  

An Inquiry Into Life And Death by Simone St. James

 

The time is shortly after World War II, and Jillian Leigh is one of the few women at Oxford.  She is determined to graduate and is not pleased when she is notified that her uncle Toby, whom she hasn't seen since she was fourteen, has died and she needs to go wrap up his estate.  Her parents are overseas and there is no one else to do it.  Toby was a ghost hunter of all things and he has died in a small coastal village.

When Jillian arrives at the house Toby rented, she discovers that he died by falling off a cliff to the beach below.  The village has a ghost named Walking John who has been there for two hundred years and Toby was in the village to find him and give him rest.  There are mysterious noises in the house, items that move around without human help.  Jillian meets some of those who live in the area and she is mistaken for a woman who lived there twenty years before.  There are rumors that Toby either jumped or was pushed off the cliff.  

That theory gains weight when Jillian meets Scotland Yard inspector Drew Merriken who tells her he is there to investigate her uncle's death.  There is an instant connection between the two and soon Jillian is head over heads in love, even though Drew lets her know from the start that his career is his priority and that he isn't going to settle down for any woman.  Jillian starts to have stranger things happen and soon it is clear that someone is trying to run her out of town.  Can she discover the truth before she is hurt or worse?

Simone St. James is a Canadian author whose background was in television.  She is known for her books that combine mystery and supernatural influences.  In this book, there are several mysteries besides that of Walking John.  Who is the woman Jillian is mistaken for?  What happened during the war that left those few who returned permanently broken?  Why did her parents and Toby fall out when she was fourteen and never patch things up?  As the reader discovers the answers to these questions, the mystery is solved.  This book is recommended for mystery readers.  

The Western Wind by Samantha Harvey

 

In 1491, the village of Oakham is guided by the local priest, John Reve.  There are not many houses or people and the village is cut off by a large river now that the last bridge, the third one built, has collapsed.  Reve is awakened one morning by the news that the village's wealthiest man, Tom Newman, was seen being carried away by the river.  Despite the fact that everyone came out to search, neither Tom nor his body are discovered.  Tom owned the majority of the land and without him there, the village is in peril of being bought by a nearby group of monks who want the land for themselves.

John notifies his superior who is both above him in the church hierarchy and who has legal authorities.  The dean comes that same day much to the priest's surprise and wants Reve to name the murderer by the end of the second day.  The dean has suspects; the man whose land Tom had bought bit by bit until he owned almost all of it; a woman who is sick now perhaps as a punishment from God, and another man who was known to have disagreements with Tom.  The priest is not willing to name anyone as a murderer because he knows all the town's secrets, even those he hasn't shared with the dean.

Samantha Harvey is an English author although she spent time in Ireland and Japan growing up.  This book takes the reader back into the poverty of the Middle Ages and the superstitions that ruled every aspect of daily life.  The secrets that the village priest knows are slowly revealed and each secret turns the thoughts of what happened to Tom Newman a different way.  Who is ultimately responsible?  Is the priest responsible for the actions of his flock?  Harvey has had her novels garner much attention, with several longlisted for the major literary prizes and Orbital winning the Booker Prize in 2024.  This novel is recommended for historical and literary fiction readers.  

Theo Of Golden by Allen Levi

 

An older man moves to a small town in the South named Golden.  It is on a river which reminds Theo of his hometown long ago.  He spends his days walking around town and sitting in the square in the center of downtown.  He discovers a coffee shop he visits daily.  On its walls are scores of portraits of townspeople down by a local artist.  

Looking at the portraits, Theo finds a way to make friends.  He thinks such lovely art should belong to those portrayed.  He starts buying the pictures and making an appointment with the person illustrated in the town square near the fountain.  There he gives them the portrait and listens to their life story.  He makes a friend of each person he gifts, telling them the positive things he sees in them or hears in their story.  Soon more and more people are aware of him, including a local bookstore owner and a homeless woman who is also an artist.  

Theo doesn't talk about himself not even giving his last name.  When his story emerges, it is an amazing one and the town of Golden is thankful for the months he spent living there.

This is a debut novel that has gained readership by word of mouth.  Those who have read it want their friends to experience the loveliness and optimism this book engenders in those who read it.  Theo's life is one of kindness, doing whatever he can to bring joy to those around him.  His own story is one no one could have expected.  The author is a retired attorney who grew up in the same kind of town as Golden.  This book is recommended for readers who are interested in literary fiction that leaves the reader with happy, satisfied emotions.  

Room by Emma Donoghue

 

Ma has been in Room for seven years, taken off the street one day while walking home by Old Nick and imprisoned.  Jack has just turned five and has never known anything but Room.  Room is in a shed in Old Nick's backyard, a small room surrounded by wire mesh on all sides down into the ground and with a locked door that needs a code to enter.  Room is Jack's world.  Within it, his mother has made an entire universe for him.  The two of them play games, do art, make a snake of eggshells, watch no more than two television programs a day, read books and exercise.  At night, Ma puts Jack into Wardrobe where he stays while Old Nick comes in and bounces on the bed with Ma.  

When Ma finds out that Old Nick has lost his job, she knows that means that is a danger time for her and Jack as the house could go into foreclosure.  There is no way that Old Nick would let anyone find out about her and Jack so he would dispose of them.  Ma thinks of an audacious plan to escape and Jack is the hero of the plan.  Afterwards, she and Jack are taken to a hospital to heal and slowly enter a world that Jack could never have imagined.  

I've had this book for years but I never could bring myself to read it as I thought it would be depressing.  Instead it is life affirming.  Ma's ingenuity and ability to nurture Jack in such dire circumstances is amazing.  That a girl, taken at nineteen, could have a child by herself in imprisonment and build a life for him where he feels safe and loved is astounding.  Much of the book deals with Ma's reintroduction and Jack's introduction to the world and that is fascinating.  Emma Donoghue, an Irish writer, had a son who was five while she wrote this book and that helped her get into Jack's head.  Jack is the sole narrator of the book and we see the world through his eyes and understanding.  This book, later made into a movie, is recommended for readers of literary and women's fiction. 

Bruno, Chief Of Police by Martin Walker

 

Bruno is the Chief of Police in a small town in the South of France.  It is an undemanding job which suits Bruno fine after his time in the military and the fighting he did there.  He believes in talking through situations rather than jumping to arrests and his true joy comes in coaching the town's tennis and rugby teams, letting him know the children of the town before they grow up and cause mischief.  He also delights in cooking and wine and female companionship.

But Bruno's easy routine is about to be interrupted.  An elderly man, a North African immigrant who fought in the French Army, has been murdered, a swastika carved on his chest.  Who would have done such a thing?  Was it someone who was against the Muslim religion?  Someone against immigration?  A personal motive? With anti-immigrant feeling rising in France, the government determines this to be a highly sensitive case and sends a female inspector to work with Bruno to solve the case.  Can they do so before more murders occur?

This is the first in Martin Walker's series about Bruno, which currently sits at nineteen novels.  There is a lot of character development and background setting in this one, as Walker attempts to bring the reader into an environment they would normally not encounter.  Bruno believes in diplomacy rather than strict enforcement and looks out for the town and its inhabitants as a loving father would.  This book is recommended for mystery readers.  

The Straw Men by Michael Marshall

 

Two men walk into a fast food restaurant and start firing.  A man goes to his childhood home in Montana to bury his parents who were killed in a car crash.  While packing up the house to get it ready to sell, he finds a hidden note from his father, telling him that he and the mother are not dead.  In California, a serial killer known as The Upright Man is abducting teenage girls, then delivering purses to their parents with the girl's name embroidered on it in the hair of a former victim.

There are those who are searching for these killers.  Some from the FBI, some former CIA agents.  In California, a former policeman works the case after his own daughter is one of the victims.  As the cases evolve, they start to come together from across the country and so do those who search for The Straw Men.

Michael Marshall is a new author for me and this book was so chilling and compelling that I immediately upon completion went out and starting buying up his backlist.  Marshall writes with so much imagination yet the details of deaths are not gory as some books are.  The terror is hinted at rather than forced upon the reader.  All the separate cases satisfactorily come together in the end as do all those committed to finding and stopping the Straw Men.  This book is recommended for readers of crime fiction.  

Beautiful Children by Charles Bock

 

Charles Bock grew up in Las Vegas and he uses that city for his novel's setting.  We meet a variety of characters, each with dreams that can't be achieved due to weaknesses in the character.  Much of the plot focuses around Newell, the twelve-year old son of Lorraine and Lincoln.  Newell goes out one evening with an older friend the parents have never met and doesn't come home.  The parents don't know how to find the guy Newell was with as they only know his first name, Kenny.  

Lorraine used to be a dancer in one of Las Vegas's revues but she gave that up when she married Lincoln.  He works as an event planner in one of the big hotel/casinos.  Their marriage was already strained before Newell's disappearance and that strain stretches to the breaking point after it.  Lorraine tries a variety of things to  fill her time, ending up working for an organization that helps homeless teens.  Lincoln works more and more.

Another set of main characters are Cheri Blossom and Ponyboy.  Cheri is a stripper who came to Vegas to be an actress.  Now, she has huge implants and they even have a hollow in which candles or sparklers can be inserted.  She lets Ponyboy convince her to do things she would never consider without him.  Ponyboy cheats on her constantly, uses her for money and so he doesn't have to work and constantly comes up with schemes to make money.  He knows some things about Newell's disappearance the night of the big concert in the desert for the underground but he's not talking about that.

Throughout, the city is seen as a temptress that takes the dreams of the characters and warps them into unrecognizable shapes, always unobtainable.  The novel focuses on the plight of runaway teenagers and most big cities are full of them, the kids who were throwaways or who fell into drugs or were abused at home.  There are resources in the back of the book where these teenagers can find help.  This book is recommended for readers of literary fiction.  

The Bridegroom by Ha Jin

 

This collection of twelve stories portray life in modern China.  I had two favorites of this anthology.  In The Bridegroom, a factory supervisor can't understand why the most handsome worker in the factory asks to marry his daughter, who although pleasant, is not attractive and whom he expected to have a hard time finding a husband for.  He learns the truth when his new son-in-law is arrested for homosexuality.  The last story in the collection is After Cowboy Chicken Came To Town.  In this story, an American chain restaurant opens a branch in China.  At first it is an amazing hit but it is a novelty and the chicken is not as good as what the street vendors serve plus it is expensive.  Soon only the young, trendy customers continue to come.  The workers there try to use the rules of Chinese society in their work but are constantly overruled by their American boss.  The workers are appalled when they discover the discrepancy between their salaries and that of the manager and are determined to take him down.  

Ha Jin is the pen name of Xuefei Jin.  He was born and raised in China, serving five years in the Red Army during the Cultural Revolution.  His book about that time, was awarded the National Book Award.  His novels and short stories portray China after the Revolution.  I was impressed with two things.  First, while I enjoyed the stories, each ended what seemed a strange ending, just abruptly ending with one sentence.  The second thing was the China he portrays, where every thought and sentence can be grounds for trouble and where everyday life is still controlled in many ways by the government and its agents.  Everyone is constantly on guard and trust few around them to know their true thoughts.  This book is recommended for multicultural and anthology readers.   

After We Were Stolen by Brooke Beyfuss

 

Avery thinks she is nineteen although she couldn't say when her birthday was.  She has never been off the compound so she knows nothing of modern culture.  She does know how to read but her father would be furious if he knew her mother had taught her.  Avery has been shunned for the past year; while everyone else stays in the compound housing, she has been relegated to a tent where she must make a fire for heat, find water for drinking and sleep on the ground.  But she comes to realize that there was a reason for this.  Her parents have picked her as one of the oldest girls to become the new babymaker for the cult as her mother is getting too old to do this.

After the first night that her father comes to her room, Avery can't believe this is to be her life.  She is sickened and frightened  The only person she trusts on the compound is her brother Cole who is the single person in the world she is closest to.  The two start to make plans to run away but that night Avery wakes to find the compound on fire.  She and Cole manage to get out although most of her sisters and brothers aren't as lucky.  They hide when the emergency units arrive and then they run away through the woods.  

The two live on the streets for a while but eventually are taken into custody and put under the care of Social Services.  When they learn that their parents on the compound might also have survived, the two are frightened as they know if that's true, their parents will be looking for them.  Can Avery and Cole learn to live in society?

This is a debut novel by the author.  She does an excellent job of portraying life inside the cult and the tremendous amount of work it would require to shelter and feed a group of people.  She also helps the reader imagine what life in a cult would be like and to have no freedom to plan your life or even your day according to your desires but rather to always have to obey a leader whose vision of life and what it means varies from that of society.  I listened to this book and the narrator did an excellent job.  There are surprises that await Avery and Cole when they are integrated back into normal society and the reader will be fascinated to learn the truth behind the lies the two have been told all their lives.  This book is recommended for mystery readers.  

The Last Time I Lied by Riley Sager

 

This was to be Emma's first away camp and she can't wait to go to Camp Nightingale for the summer, a camp set on the family land of a wealthy benefactor.  Arriving late, there are no more spaces in the cabins with girls her own age so Emma is put in with three older teenagers.  Allison and Natalie are typical teenagers and Vivian is the camp's Queen Bee, the girl who everyone wants to know and who can make or break a girl's summer with just one word.  

Vivian decides to take Emma under her wing and Emma is delighted.  She also has her first real crush on the camp owner's gorgeous son, Theo.  Of course, he has no interest in a thirteen year old but a girl can dream.  But Emma's dreams turn to nightmares.  The other girls sneak out one night and they don't return.  After searching fruitlessly for them for several days, the camp is closed down and all the campers sent home.  The three girls are never found.

Fifteen years later, Emma is surprised to get an invitation to lunch from the camp owner.  She finds out that the woman is planning to reopen Camp Nightingale and wants Emily to come and be an art instructor for the summer.  Emma has been painting huge canvases of the trauma for years and needs to find something else to work on.  She agrees to go back to the camp for the summer.

But things start to turn out the same.  Emma is forced by lack of space to room not with the other adult instructors but with three teenagers.  Theo is back for the summer along with his younger brother with his fiancée attached.  Several of the other instructors are girls from that fateful summer.  Worst of all, Emma's new roommates go missing one night as well.  Can she find them along with the secrets Camp Nightingale is hiding?

Riley Sager is known as a thriller writer and there are often supernatural elements in his novels.  In this one, Emma's first time at camp is played off successfully with her second time.  She starts off doing well and as the days go by, the strange happenings she encounters takes her back to that summer fifteen years before that threatened to ruin her entire life.  Vivian is another strong character from that first summer even with the tragedy that entered her life.  The tension is built slowly and the resolution is satisfying.  This book is recommended for mystery readers.  

Violeta by Isabel Allende

 

Born during the 1918 Spanish Flu epidemic, this is the story of Violeta, the only daughter of a wealthy South American family.  It follows her life for over a century.  Although born wealthy and spoiled as the first girl in a family with five brothers, the family loses its wealth during the Depression and Violeta grows up on a rural farm in the mountains, far from the city and all its glitter.

She has several loves in her life.  She marries young but doesn't know what love is.  When she meets the love of her life, she leaves her husband and spends years with the man she loves and with whom she has two children.  Late in her life, she marries again in a marriage that brings her love and contentment.

Violeta lives through the liberation of women and she supports herself.  She and one of her brothers start a development business which draws on Violeta's architectural knowledge and provides much needed housing both for the rising professional class and for those less fortunate.  She also makes a fortune in real estate.  On a more somber note, she lives through the time of South American dictatorships and the vanishing of those who opposed the government.  Her own son is forced into exile and lives most of his adult life in Norway, far from those who would kill him for his political beliefs.

Isabel Allende was born in Peru, although she now lives in the United States.  She has had a very successful career with more than twenty novels that bring South American culture and history to the world to discover.  Violeta is a strong female character and her love of family is characteristic of the Latin culture.  There are exciting and saddening events in Violeta's life which is a full and eventful one.  This book is recommended for readers of multicultural and historical fictioin.