1414 Degrees by Paul Bradley Carr

 

Lou McCarthy is a journalist in San Francisco, her beat business, technology and the Silicon Valley.  She is about to break a huge story about the biggest business and it's upcoming IPO.  Unfortunately, the company is so enmeshed in the 'bro' culture that it has to keep a slush fund to pay off the women their executives mistreat.  Lou breaks the story of its CTO's latest mishap only to find that she has been rooked and the story is not true.  Even worse, that night at the company's gala, the man she wrote about leaps to his death in front of everyone.

Now jobless and homeless as the company bought her apartment building and tore it down to build their new headquarters, Lou is targeted by a group of online vigilantes who protect the misbehaving men of technology.  They can't target Lou but they find her mother back in Georgia and target her, breaking into her health records, banking and putting her address and phone number online.  Lou meets Helen, a high flying corporate fixer and she hires Lou to help her discover what is going on.

When the two women get to the bottom, it is to find that the huge new company is based on an algorithm that was stolen from a woman more than ten years ago.  The two work to restore the woman's work to her and to bring the company's executives to heel.  That won't be easy as a Saudi prince is on the board of trustees and the rest of the board are influential individuals as well.  But the two don't give up.

This is Paul Bradley's debut novel.  He is British but has lived in the United States for many years, working as a journalist similar to Lou, covering the Silicon Valley beat.  His inside knowledge of the work and culture is evident.  The insistence on the 'bro' culture is a bit heavy handed to me, as I worked in the IT industry for most of my career and while I saw some of that, I didn't encounter it in the same degree that it is shown here.  The book is exciting and Lou is a character who seems a bit naïve for a reporter in a big city.  She seems to be easily manipulated by those around her but smart enough to figure out what is going on.  This book is recommended for thriller readers.   

White Dog Fell From The Sky by Eleanor Morse

 

Oscar Muthethe had planned to be a doctor and was in medical school in South Africa.  But when he witnessed a crime by the South African police, he knew his life was in danger and he fled to Botswana.  There he had nothing, but on his first day there, he ran into an old acquaintance from home and offered lodging.  He also found a dog who he claimed as his after naming him White Dog.

Oscar searched for work, asking at every house in the white area of the city.  Eventually, he finds work as a gardener at the home of Alice who followed her husband to Botswana and now works for a government agency.  Oscar and Alice form a friendship and she gives him money to send home for his remaining brothers and sisters.  But when Alice goes out of town on a work trip, disaster strikes.  The house where Oscar has been staying is raided as his acquaintance is believed to be in the revolutionaries fighting against the South African government.  The wife is killed and Oscar's belongings are left there.  When he tries to sneak back to get them, he is arrested and deported back to South Africa where he is imprisoned in a jail known for torture and murder.

When Alice returns, she does what she can to find Oscar and get him freed but she knows she has little chance of doing so.  She has her own troubles and is in the process of working those out as well.  What will happen to these two individuals who have formed such an unlikely friendship?

Eleanor Morse has lived in South Africa where she taught.  In this novel, she highlights how unstable life can be there, how everything can change in one day with a mine cave in or notice by the police and suspicion of crimes with torture until confessions are gained.  But it also offers hope in the finding of friendship, of love of children and in doing the work that makes life better for others.  This book is recommended for literary fiction and multicultural readers.  

Gilded Mountain by Kate Manning

 

When the Pelletier family comes to Moonstone, Colorado, it is with high hopes.  They have come so Jack, the father, can work in the marble mines as he is a skilled explosive worker.  But things do not work out.  It turns out that the mine work is full of danger, work that isn't paid for, required overtime and other things.  The Padgetts who own the mine, are extremely wealthy but they gained that wealth exploiting workers and they don't plan to change anytime soon.

Sylvie is the oldest girl.  She does whatever she can to help out, taking what load she can from her mother and working odd jobs when she can.  She gets a job working on the local newspaper and then one summer, a dream job.  She will be working and living at the Padgett estate, being a secretary and companion to Padgett's second wife.  While there, she meets Jasper, the Padgett son and heir and they begin a relationship.

But Moonstone is about to explode and Sylvie is there for all of it.  A union organizer comes and sets up a union and soon the workers are on strike and living in tents in the frigid Colorado winter.  The mine owners and bosses bring in the Pinkertons, not as detectives but as enforcers and bullies.  Even Mother Jones comes to talk with the union men, and Sylvie meets her.  But things explode and soon Moonstone isn't a safe place to be.

This book is written on true events and uses some true historical figures like Mother Jones, the Pinkertons and King Leopold of Belgium.  But the story belongs to Sylvie and the miners and the book's sympathies are with them.  Sylvie is a brave individual and the twists and turns of her life make interesting reading.  This book is recommended for readers of historical fiction.

The Velveteen Daughter by Laurel Davis Huber

 

Most people are familiar with the book The Velveteen Rabbit.  This is the story of Margery Williams, the author, and of her daughter Pamela.  While Margery has attained lasting fame, Pamela, who was in her time much more famous has been relatively forgotten.  Pamela was an artist and was hailed as a child prodigy.  As her life progressed, she found it more difficult to capture that same artistic excellence as her health was never good and she spent quite a bit of time in a mental hospital after frequent breakdowns.

The book discusses the people who made up the Williams's world.  They were English but came to the United States sponsored by Gertrude Whitney.  The family was surrounded by others who were figures in the art and literature worlds.  Richard Hughes was a family friend as was Picasso.  Eugene O'Neill was married to Margery's niece.  

But as she grew up, Pamela found herself floating from one romantic obsession to another.  She spent years in love with Richard Hughes, known to the family as Diccon.  He was much older and never thought of her as a romantic interest and she was heartbroken as he formed his own romantic affairs.  She married in haste in her twenties to a man who was unreliable and left her after she had his baby.  She was almost fifty before she found a love that worked for her. 

Laurel Davis Huber has done a superb job of research and written a book that explores the lives of a family.  Margery wrote a series of children's books.  Pamela had her art and later in life, she also wrote and illustrated children's books.  The reader will be drawn into the world of the arts in New York and in the country where the family would retreat to renew their spirits.  This book is recommended for literary fiction readers who are interested in fictional treatments of real events.  

The Best American Mystery And Suspense 2021 Edited by Alafair Burke

 

These twenty stories were chosen as the best mystery short stories of 2021 and edited by Alafair Burke.  Some of the authors are well known names such as Laura Lippman, Alex Segura, Lisa Unger and Chris Bollen.  Others are names that are still making their way in the genre.  These include Jenny Bhatt, Nikki Dolson, E. Gabriel Flores, Alison Gaylin, Gar Anthony Haywood, Ravi Howard, Gabino Iglesias, Charis Jones, Preston Lang, Aya De Leon, Kristen Lipionka, Joanna Pearson, Delia C. Pitts, Eliot Schrafer, Brian Silverman and Faye Snowden.

One of my favorite stories was The Green-Eyed Monster by Charis Jones where the narrator has the good luck (?) to be married to the Nobel prize winner Martina.  Unfortunately, Martina believes that she has done the narrator a favor by marrying him and slowly over the years has come to the point where she micromanages every aspect of his life.  How he responds is striking.

In Wings Beating by Eliot Schrafer, a father takes his son to a resort where they have the bad luck to encounter a pair of oafs who try to bully the pair of them.  The bullying, however, brings the two closer together and they both find a way to get back at their tormentors.  

This is an part of an annual series which chooses twenty of the best North American mystery stories first available in the year featured.  I've read several of these and they all are worth the read.  The stories can be read one a day which is how I do it or in a marathon of mystery.  It is a great opportunity to read some of mystery's best known authors as well as newcomers.  This book is recommended for mystery and anthology readers.  

1Q84 by Haruki Murakami

 

This lengthy novel (over 1100 pages) is, at its core, a love story.  Aomame and Tengo attended the same school twenty years ago.  They shared a moment as children that neither has ever forgotten.   Soon afterwards, Aomame moved away and they lost each other.  She is now a physical fitness instructor and therapist.  Tengo teaches math at a cram school which gives him the needed time to do what he wants which is to become a novelist.  

But this is not a straightforward love story.  Each, by different means, falls into another world, a world which is similar but tellingly different.  It has two moons, just like the best selling novel that Tengo ghostwrote in collaboration with an autistic teenager raised in a religious cult.  They both realize that their lives will only be complete when they find each other again and search for each other.

There are many other elements in this novel.  There is the religious cult.  Tengo has a father who is entering the end of his life.  There is a wealthy woman who spends her fortune rescuing victims of domestic violence and her employee, Tamaru, who makes sure she is safe.  There are the Little People who speak to the religious cult.  Women become pregnant without having sex.  There is a former lawyer who is now a private investigator who searches for Aomame.  

All of these different characters and storylines are resolved by the end of the novel.  The book is part mystery, part romance, part fantasy.  I've read several other Murakami books and this one was the one that was most approachable.  It flowed even with all the strange events that happened.  Haruki Murakami is a Japanese writer with over thirty books, which have been translated into over fifty languages.  His work is full of magic realism but always has a realistic message underneath.  This book is recommended for literary fiction readers.  

Squeeze Me by Carl Hiaasen

 

Palm Beach is in full swing, with the President in the Winter White House and balls and soirees to attend every night.  But when one of the island's grande dames disappears when she goes outside to get some air, everyone is desperate to find her.  That won't happen because she has been the victim of one of Florida's invasive Burmese pythons.  A snake like that can get to over twenty feet and can kill and eat a deer or even a crocodile.  An eighty-pound older lady isn't even a stretch.

The snake is seen the next morning and Angie Armstrong is called.  She studied as a vet, then became a wildlife park ranger, roaming the Everglades in an air boat.  When she went over the line arresting a poacher, she was imprisoned for a year and of course, lost her job.  Now she runs a pet removal service.  Angie knows right away what the lump in the snake means and she removes it for autopsy.  Is there about to be an invasion of pythons?

Carl Hiaasen is known for his comedic mysteries featuring his beloved Florida.  There is a wide cast of characters; the President who is ridiculed for his weight and lack of knowledge, the First Lady who may have roaming eyes, an immigrant who is blamed for the woman's death, various Secret Service and Palm Beach policeman, the recurring character Skink who was once the governor, Angie and a vengeful man who is stalking her.  As others have said, the humor is a bit heavy-handed and this novel is not as enjoyable as others I've read.  This book is recommended for readers who enjoy humor in their mysteries.  

An Irish Bookshop Murder by Lucy Connelly

 

Twins Mercy and Lizzie McCarthy have led separate lives as adults.  Lizzie has lived in Texas growing and running a lavender farm.  Mercy lived in New York and writes hugely successful mysteries.  When a grandfather they never knew dies in Ireland and leaves them a cottage and a bookshop, they decide to combine forces and move there for a new start.

The cottage is in a small Irish village named Shamrock Cove and they will live on the most desired part; a close of only a few houses.  There is Lolly who has lived there the longest and who preserves the Close's history.  Brenna is a newer addition who was a model.  Their grandfather of course and his friend, the judge.  The judge is retired and cranky and often involved in disagreements with the others.  A former chef and his partner are the Close's entertainment couple.  A married couple, Linda and Dave, run a quilt and fabric shop and finish out the inhabitants of the Close.

The twins are welcomed with a party.  The judge tells them he hasn't heard of them and suspects they are somehow there on a fraud.  As the two walk home, they see the judge fall outside his home.  Mercy tries to save him as he seems to be having a heart attack but he dies on the way to the hospital.  Worse, it turns out he is murdered and Mercy is suspected as others heard their disagreement and the judge accused her as she was trying to save him.  

Lolly's grandson is head of the local police and he seems to be sure Mercy is the culprit.  When she seems to be targeted by someone, he starts to change his mind but who else could it be?  Suspicion moves from inhabitant to inhabitant and Mercy decides that she will have to solve the murder.  How different could it be from writing a solution?

Lucy Connelly writes in the cozy mystery genre.  This is the first of the Mercy McCarthy series and she has also written other series set in Ireland and Scotland.  Mercy and Lizzie's backstories are given and the other characters are well fleshed out.  The ending will surprise the reader.  This book is recommended for mystery readers.  

Who Killed Jane Stanford by Richard White

 

Leland Stanford made his fortune in the railroad industry.  He and his wife, Jane, had one child, a son named Leland Jr.  He was the focus of their lives and when he died of typhoid while traveling in Italy as a teen, it was the tragedy of their lives.  They started an educational institution in his honor and Stanford University is still existent and one of the top universities in the country.

Leland Sr. died many years before his wife and that left Jane to manage the fortune and unfortunately, to manage everyone around her.  She insisted on having a voice in every decision, down to the kind of doorstoppers used in the buildings.  She ruled her household with an iron hand.  Jane had more say in the workings of the university than its president, who knew he served at her pleasure as well.

As she aged, she became more tyrannical. One night when she drank her last glass of water, she was soon ill.  It seemed out of order and the water was analyzed only to find the poison strychnine in it.  Who did it was never determined.  

In 1905, Jane and her entourage left on a trip to Hawaii and then on to the East to Japan.  But Jane never made it.  She died in Hawaii in convulsions, the victim again of strychnine poisoning.  It worked this time and it was ruled the cause of death by the doctors there.  However that created an issue for the university as if she didn't die a natural death her will leaving her money to the institution could be in jeopardy.  So the officials concocted a story that made the death one of natural causes much to the disbelief of the newspapers and most people at the time.  

Richard White has done an extensive job of researching the story and all the side tracks surrounding any story.  I learned quite a bit about the Stanford family, the beginning of the university, the art that young Stanford collected and the personalities of Jane and the the university president.  Jane's penchant for spiritualism was discussed.  However, the mystery of who killed Jane was never solved.  I listened to this book and the narrator was only average, his voice seldom varying.  Readers interested in the time period or the history of California and Stanford University will be interested in this book and it is recommended for them.  

The First Fifteen Lives Of Harry August by Claire North

 

Harry is a kalachakra, one of a few humans who are born with an ability.  Harry lives and dies a life like any others but when he dies, he goes back to the beginning and starts again.  He is always the product of a rape between the rich son of the manor and his mother a housemaid.  His mother dies in childbirth and the wealthy family he belongs to are appalled at the thought of raising him.  So he is raised by the gardener and his wife and learns about landscaping.

But with the help of the few other kalachakras, he always gets out of the rural landscape.  In his various lives he lives all over the world, practicing various professions and becoming richer.  There is a club for those of his sort and they help each other.  Harry is a subset of the kalachakras as he never forgets anything from life to life while others do.  That makes him the best candidate to stop another man who is trying to end the world in his attempt to know everything.

Victor is a friend of Harry's and then his enemy.  Vincent wants to build a machine more advanced than anything even imagined in physics that will contain all the answers of the world.  Unfortunately, it will destroy the world but Victor regards that as a fair price to pay.  Harry helps Victor for ten years but comes to realize that their work is wrong and then determines to stop him, no matter how many lives it takes.

Again and again, the two men chase each other through lifetimes.  Victor wipes out the clubs wherever he finds them as he isn't sure who is behind the attempts to stop him.  Harry works his way next to Victor and pretends that he has no idea of their past histories.  Who will win this ultimate battle?

This is Claire North's first major work.  She started writing at age fourteen and her name is a pseudonym for Catherine Webb.  She writes in the fantasy genre and recently has focused on retelling the Greek myths surrounding the Trojan War.  Her work introduces the reader to Harry and makes them ponder what they themselves would do with the ability to live life over and over.  This book is recommended for readers of literary fiction.

The Night Before by Wendy Walker

 

Laura never thought she would be living back in her hometown.  The place where she grew up with her sister Rose and her husband, Joe and their best friend, Gabe.  The place where she was notorious.  The place where everyone suspected that she might have killed her high school boyfriend.

But after a brutal breakup with the man she thought would be her forever love, Laura fell apart and Rose came to get her and take her home.  Laura had received a text that said he didn't love her and was going back to his wife and she never heard from him again although she tried to text and call.  

Now after a summer of getting herself back together, Laura is finally ready to start dating again, or at least she thinks so.  She goes on a dating site and soon is talking with a man who is in finance as Laura was.  He's the right age and seems nice so they set up a first date.  Laura is driving to meet him.  But when she doesn't return that night or the next day, Rose, Joe and Gabe are frantic.  Who did she meet?  What happened the night before?

Wendy Walker is known for her psychological thrillers and this one doesn't disappoint.  Before writing, she worked as a lawyer and a financial analyst so her background information is always on target.  Laura has never recovered from the night her high school boyfriend was killed in front of her and the suspicion she encountered afterwards.  She has drifted from one bad relationship to another and her family is afraid that this time she won't recover from a bad decision.  This book is recommended for mystery readers.  

Sleepyhead by Mark Billingham

 

The Champagne Killer plies his victims with champagne and then strangles them.  So far three women have been killed and one woman, Alison, is still alive after her encounter with him.  DI Tom Thorne is assigned to the case.  Although Alison is alive, she is totally paralyzed, a victim of locked-in syndrome.  As Thorne investigates, he comes to realize that this is the aim of the killer and that the three dead women are mistakes he made.  

Thorne meets a doctor at the hospital who is overseeing Alison's care.  There is an instant attraction between the two and they are soon seeing each other.  But even this is complicated.  Thorne comes to believe that the killer is his new girlfriend's best friend for many years and this belief causes friction between the two and with the rest of the police force.  He has a cast iron alibi for one of the murders and if he didn't do that one, he couldn't have done the rest which are obviously a series.  But Thorne has made his career following his hunches and he is sure he isn't wrong.  Is he?

I can hardly believe that I haven't yet read the Tom Thorne series.  The series has won award after award and this first one was lauded as one of the most influential books of the century.  Thorne is a complicated man, sure of his instincts but harried by guilt for all those he couldn't save.  His relationships with others are complicated and he tends to be standoffish.  A new detective is working beside Thorne in this case and I'm interested to see how things develop between the two of them as well.  One of my reading goals for 2025 is to read the entire Tom Thorne series and if they are all as great as this one, I can hardly wait.  This book is recommended for mystery readers.  

Colored Television by Danzy Senna

 

Jane and Lenny seem to have it all.  A great marriage, two children and a house in the Hollywood Hills that has been in designer magazines.  Jane is a professor and novelist, Lenny an artist.  But the picture isn't true.  Jane has had one book published, and that was nine years ago.  Lenny is productive but his paintings don't sell.  They don't own the house.  They move from dingy apartment to housesitting assignments almost every year and this house belongs to a friend of Jane's from college who hit it big in television.  Their son may be on the spectrum but the doctors can't agree.

Jane has been working on a novel for nine years.  It is a theme close to her heart, the history of mulatto people and their place in American history.  It is an epic and has sprawled into hundreds of pages.  When she finally finishes it, she sends it off with pride only to get negative feedback.  Her friend is coming home soon and where will they go?

Jane takes a meeting with a producer who is on the rise.  He wants to make a television comedy featuring a mulatto family and thinks Jane is exactly the right person.  She is mulatto herself and has all the research she has done for her novel.  Will this be her big break?

Danzy Senna is an American author who has written six novels, most featuring some aspect of the racial divide.  She is mulatto herself and knows the territory she writes about.  This book is her most successful.  It was a New York Times Notable Book of 2024, a Good Morning America book club pick and a Washington Post Top 10 Book Of The Year.  Jane is a character who the reader will come to admire.  She is willing to do anything to keep her family healthy and happy.  Her struggles to survive and thrive with makeshift jobs and living arrangements make me tired just reading about them.  The reader will cheer for Jane and wish her the best.  This book is recommended for literary fiction and multicultural fiction readers.  

Prior Violations And Brazen Violations by Jonathan Macpherson

 

These are the first two books of Jonathan Macpherson's series, Betts and Walker.  The first book is a novella and leads seamlessly into the second, Brazen Violations.  Mitch Walker is a man who hasn't found his path in life.   He is on the verge of criminal activity with a few toes over the line from time to time.  

Mitch's nephew, Peter, has leukemia, and his only hope is an expensive new drug that insurance won't cover yet.  Mitch's sister is a single mom and there is no way the two of them can find enough to buy the treatment.  Mitch makes a deal with the head of a criminal enterprise.  He will work for him and in return, he will get the drug his nephew needs.

Bett is the policeman who is seeking to take down the criminal enterprise.  He has Walker right in his sights and is forcing him to inform on the man who is going to save his nephew.  How will it all end?

This is a new author to me.  Macpherson is an Australian although the setting for these books are in Los Angeles.  The plot is fast and furious but the plotting is not intricate and involved which is my preference in mysteries.  These books are recommended for mystery fans who want a lot of action and a very fast pace.  

The 9:20 Man by David Baldacci

 
Travis Devine thought he'd be a career Army man.  But when another soldier dies under suspicious circumstances, Travis is tainted and resigns.  Looking around at what to do with his life now, he uses his MBA to get a job at a prestigious investment firm in Manhattan.  At least his father will be happy as that is what he always wanted Travis to do.  Travis, however, hates the job and is bored to death.

Every morning he catches the 6:20 train in from the outlying suburb where he shares a townhouse with three roommates.  There is a Russian immigrant who is a computer whiz, a woman who just finished law school and is prepping for the bar exam and another woman who has her own business, a dating service.  They all seem focused and into their careers while Travis is just putting in time.  The highlight of the day is when the train stops along the way and the passengers can see a swimming pool at one of the mansions.  Some days they are lucky and a beautiful woman in a bikini is out taking the sun.

Travis may have gone along like this for years, but one day he gets an anonymous email saying only 'She is dead'.  When he gets to the office, he realizes that the 'she' is a woman who worked there; a woman Travis had been briefly romantically involved with.  That's enough that the police home in on him as a suspect.  To complicate things, his former general calls him in and tells him that he needs Devine to work as an undercover agent as the government suspects the firm of financial crimes that could undermine the nation.  Beset on two sides, Devine sets out to find the killer.  He is aided by the woman in the bikini as it turns out the mansion is that of Devine's boss and the bikini woman his mistress.  Can they solve the murder?

This is the first novel in a new series by David Baldacci and Travis Devine is a new main character.  I wasn't entranced by Travis but anything Baldacci writes will be compelling and draw the reader along at an irresistible pace.  The mystery evolves to include each of  Devine's roommates in various ways and the relationship between him and the mistress grows slowly but surely.  I listened to this novel and the narrator did an excellent job.  This book is recommended for thriller fans. 

Dear Edward by Ann Napolitano

 

Edward Adler is famous but he surely doesn't want to be.  When he is twelve, Edward is in a plane crash with his father, mother, older brother and over one hundred and eighty other people.  Edward was the only survivor and is considered a miracle.  Edward does not consider himself that.

This novel is about Edward's life afterwards and how he regains a life he can live with.  When he finally leaves the hospital it is to go live with his aunt and uncle.  He knows them a little but not a lot and he surely doesn't consider them his parents.  He misses his birth family all the time.  He can't sleep in the room they give him as it was the room they wanted to put a baby in.  He meets the next door neighbor and her daughter, Shay, who is his age.  The only place he can sleep is on the floor of Shay's room.

School is a disaster.  Edward had been home-schooled so this is his first experience.  He walks around in a fog barely listening to his teachers, his thoughts constantly circling.  The other children don't like him as he isn't friendly and some consider him lucky with the money he received as a survivor.  But Edward doesn't even realize that they don't like him until Shay tells him.  He talks only to the principal, who involves him in caring for plants, and his counselor, Dr. Mike.  Eventually he starts to eat again and to focus on what is around him but it takes months.

This book was an instant bestseller, an award winner and has since been made into a television series.  Readers cannot help but emphasize with Edward and cheer for him to make it after the accident.  It is not always clear that he will survive and he has to learn that the grief will be with him forever but that there is a life out there if he can only reach out and grab it.  This book is recommended for readers of literary fiction.  

Jack's Boys by John Katzenbach

 

They found each other online on the dark web.  Five serial killers, scattered throughout the United States.  They are young, old, educated, blue collar, wealthy and poor.  None of that matters.  They have found their people.  They meet online in a site called Jack's Boys, where they tell each other the details of their crimes and bask in the glow of their approval.

Then the unthinkable happens.  A teenager finds his way into Jack's Place and immediately, he starts to make fun of the men there.  Connor lives with his grandparents and his girlfriend, Nikki, lives two doors down.  Until tonight, his biggest thoughts were the next soccer game and college next year.  

Jack's Boys are absolutely outraged.  They immediately take down the site and go to the plan B for online they had never thought they would need.  They are worried the teens will go to the police but even more, they can't let such humiliation stand.  They decide that they will kill both the teens.

Although they try, their first attempt doesn't work.  But they aren't going to let that stop their plan.  They can wait forever, years if need be, but they will find a time and place to wreak vengeance.   Will they succeed next time?

Reading a John Katzenbach novel means suspense.  He has written many and they are page turners.  Katzenbach was a criminal court reporter for a newspaper and he uses this experience to make his books exciting.  My only hesitation with this one was that it seemed unrealistic that five men would all be so outraged because a teenager called them names that they would devote months of preparation to try to kill him and all those he loved.  But the pace is so fast that this hesitation went by quickly.  This book is recommended for thriller readers.  

False Witness by Andrew Grant

Cooper Devereaux has personal issues.  He's been living with his seven year old daughter and her mother since they reconnected about a year ago.  But Alexandra isn't sure she is ready for the next step or that she ever will be.  Cooper's father was a policeman like Cooper is, and there's evidence that the father may have been a killer.  Is that the sort of thing that can be passed down?  Can she live with that for her daughter and any future children?

But a policeman rarely can wait until personal issues get fixed and Cooper is no exception.  A young girl's body has been found, wrapped up like a present.  She was about to turn twenty-one.  The young woman had come back to town about a year ago and was turning her life around after a bad boyfriend had upended it.  Now she is dead and Cooper and his partner are assigned the case.

Another body is soon found, wrapped like the first.  Like the first, it is a young woman about to have her twenty-first birthday.  Another thing ties the women together.  In the last year, both have had a baby that they gave up for adoption.  Who is killing them?

Andrew Grant is an English author although this book is set in Birmingham, Alabama.  He is the brother of Lee Child and sometimes writes with him.  This is the third Cooper Devereaux novel in the series.  The interplay of Cooper's personal problems and the search to find a serial killer is interesting and moves the plot and pace along.  Readers will be cheering for Cooper on both fronts as he seems a good man who is forever fighting his past.  This book is recommended for mystery readers.  
 

You Don't Love Me Yet by Jonathan Lethem

 

Lucinda, Denise, Bedwin and Matthew have a band that's on the cusp of making it big.  The four have been friends for years and Lucinda and Matthew have been lovers on and off.  They are off at the moment with Lucinda having just broken up with him again.  To free themselves up for the band, all work part time or dead end jobs that are just enough to keep them going.

Lucinda's latest job is to answer phones in an art galley for an exhibit about complaining.  The complaint number has been widely advertised and Lucinda and others take complaint calls from anyone complaining about anything, making notes about type of complaint, time of day, frequency, etc.  Lucinda starts to get a caller who calls every day and entrances her with his philosophical complaints.  When she meets him in person, Carl is as intriguing as he was on the phone.

Lucinda and Carl start an affair but there's a problem.  The more Lucinda is around Carl, the more phases of his start to creep into the band's songs.  Once Carl finds that out, he wants to join the band and it's hard to say no.  What will happen?

Jonathan Lethem has captured the essence of Gen Z; fresh out of college, still looking for their identity, in and out of relationships and jobs and everything else that ties them down.  His portraits of the characters, especially Lucinda, will stay with the reader for quite some time as will his portrayal of the intimacy between various characters.  This book is recommended for literary fiction readers.   

The Vegetarian by Han Kang

 

This novel is composed of three interrelated novellas.  Yeong-hye and her husband are living a normal life.  Then Yeong-hye starts having violent nightmares, dreams of blood and brutality.  She is desperate to find a way to stop the nightmares as they start affecting her waking hours with lack of sleep and a racing mind.  She decides that she will give up eating meat.

It seems a small thing.  Her husband eats his breakfast and lunch elsewhere so it is no hardship to give up meat for one meal.  He often has business dinners as well so it is even less of a hardship.  But Yeong-hye's family is concerned as she loses weight.  Her mother and sister beg her to go back to the way she ate before.  Her father tries to use his paternal power and force her to eat.  All it does is drive a wedge between Yeong-hye and her family.

When her husband decides to work on his art, he has a vision of what he wants to paint.  He asks Yeong-hye's sister to be his model and eventually a friend of his.  He has a vision of flowers occupying the world and paints them on his models and on himself.  This obsession leads to a further tearing apart of his marriage.  In the final novella, time has moved on.  Yeong-hye has been hospitalized in a mental hospital from which it is unlikely that she will ever leave.  Her marriage is gone, her family relations left far behind.

Han Kang is a South Korean author.  This novel won the International Booker Prize in 2016 and the Novel Prize For Literature in 2024.  It is an examination of how violence pervades society, even in the food we eat.  When one chooses a different way, it challenges society and there are consequences.  The novel also examines mental health and how it is treated.  It portrays a patriarchal society where women are subservient to men, both in family life and in the outside world.  This book is recommended for literary fiction readers.  

Murder 2 by Colin Evans

 

This book is a compendium of articles written around the topic of  criminal forensics.  The author has chosen three topics; crimes in which forensics helped to solve the crime, early and outstanding people in the field of criminal forensics and lastly, explanations of the various techniques such as fingerprinting and DNA analysis.  He chose to mix all three of the categories and organized the book alphabetically which is a bit strange.

I found the cases most interesting.  There were cases I had heard of as I read a lot of true crime, but there were many many more that were new to me.  There were several that I wished to learn even more about and have noted down to research later.

Colin Evans developed an interest in criminal cases as a young man.  He spent hours researching various cases and to this point, has written seventeen books in the fields of true crime and forensic methods.  While I wished for more detail about many of the cases, overall, this was an astonishing collection of cases, people and methods.  This book is recommended for nonfiction and true crime readers.  

The Seduction Of The Crimson Rose by Lauren Willig

 

Mary Alsworthy is determined that this will be the year that she finds a husband.  Although considered the catch of the last two seasons, she hasn't managed to gain a proposal she found acceptable.  In a stunning blow, the man she agreed to marry instead turned around and married her sister instead.  Although she is living temporarily in their house, she cringes at their solicitous glances and offers to sponsor her for another season.

So when Lord Vaughn offers her an assignment on behalf of the spy The Pink Carnation, Mary accepts.  She is to discover the identity of the Black Tulip who has a thing for women who look like Mary.  There is danger but the biggest danger is Mary's attraction to Lord Vaughn who sometimes appears to return it but others acts as if she were something the cat dragged in.  Then there is the little matter of Vaughn's marriage....

This is the fourth novel in the Pink Carnation series.  Lauren Willig has made a name for herself in the genre of historical romances and this one follows the formula but is nonetheless, great fun.  This book is recommended to romance and historical fiction readers.   

The Children's Blizzard by Melanie Benjamin

 

The blizzard is still talked about.  It occurred January 12, 1888, and by the next morning, over 400 people had died.  It came out of nowhere; the morning had been warm with settlers opening windows and hanging laundry outside.  But by noon, a blizzard of unheard of proportions moved in.  Within minutes, you could not see three feet in front of you nor find a path that had been plain to see minutes before.  Farmers died on the trip from the barn to the house and cattle and horses froze where they stood in the fields.

We see the effects of the blizzard through the lives of three girls, Raina and Gerda Olsen and Anette, a young servant girl.  Raina and Gerda were both teachers, fifty miles apart and their decisions set them apart.  Raina released her pupils to go home but kept them together and shepherded them to safety, with the exception of the boy who ran off with Anette early and one little girl too fragile to survive the trip.  Gerda, who had planned an illict afternoon with her boyfriend, released her students to make their own way home and they all died on the trip.  Anette had run off early, terrified that her boss would punish her if she wasn't home on time.  Her friend went with her, and while Anette survived, he did not.  Raina was considered a heroine while Gerda was considered a murderer and shunned and scorned.

The book then relates what happened after the storm when the papers related the horrible tragedy.  People sent money and gifts to Anette and Raina, enough to insure that they would be able to attend college and make their way.  Anette had lost a hand to frostbite and was the recipient of many gifts from those touched by her story.  

Melanie Benjamin specializes in historical fiction and often biographies of those who came before us.  Her retelling of the blizzard and the hardships suffered trying to get home is fact based and full of tragedy.  The character of Raina is based on that of Minnie Freeman, who saved her thirteen pupils in the blizzard.   The second half of the book, telling what happened afterwards is less strong but still interesting.  This book is recommended for readers of historical and women's fiction.

Learning To Talk by Hilary Mantel

 

This is an anthology of Hilary Mantel stories.  Like everything she writes, each story is a gem, a pearl of great value.  In the title story, a girl relates her childhood through the lessons she took to lose her accent so that she could rise in society as an adult.  Another story tells of a girl's last summer at home and her work in a department store where her mother also works; a mother who had been frumpy and at home and who reinvented herself as a gorgeous fashion plate who rises in management.

The first story tells of a father who disappears and the man who moves in and takes over, terrorizing the family.  Another story tells of a girl's friendship and how it feels to be lost in the days before GPS and when nature was still right there and quite wild.  It also talks about adult friendships.

Hilary Mantel is known as one of England's best authors.  She is best known for her trilogy about Thomas Cromwell, two of which won the Booker Prize.  But her craftmanship and ability to portray human interactions shines in everything she writes.  She is a master of the short story, longer novels and historical fiction.  This book is recommended for readers of literary fiction.

Salt Lane by William Shaw

DS Alexandra Cupidi has moved herself and her teenage daughter from the busy city life of the London Met to a small rural police force in Kent.  Her daughter is going through a teenage rebellion and Alex needs to get away from a disastrous romance.  She is assigned to mentor a newer detective, Jill Ferriter, and isn't sure she likes that part of her job.

Then things get busy.  A woman is found murdered in a ditch.  She has no identification so it takes several days to find out who she is and even then it's not a certainty.  She has been living under a name for about five years but there is also a homeless woman who uses the same name.  It's unclear who is the woman born with that name and who is the imposter.  Then another murder is discovered.  This one is a man, probably an illegal immigrant from North Africa.  With two murders to work, Alex is distraught when her daughter starts to roam all hours of the day and night and convinces her own mother to come and stay.  Can she solve the murders?

William Shaw is a mystery author who has written several series.  This is the first one in the Alexandra Cupidi series.  I liked his writing well enough that I immediately went back and bought several of his other books.  Alex is a strong woman who is facing her personal demons while still performing at the height of her skills on her job.  She is troubled but ultimately likeable.  This book is recommended for mystery readers.   

Rust And Stardust by T. Greenwood

 

Sally Horner, eleven, just wants some friends.  When the popular girls clique offers to let her in, she is willing to do about anything.  But the price is to go to Woolworth's and shoplift something.  Sally knows it is wrong but she wants to be one of the group so badly that she picks up a small notebook and hides it in her sweater.  Then it happens.

As she is leaving, a man grabs her arm.  He tells her that she is under arrest and that he is an FBI agent.  He tells her that he can keep her from going to jail but she will have to go with him to Atlantic City to talk to a judge.  Sally doesn't know what to do but agrees to tell her mother that a friend asked her to spend a week there with her family.  The man calls Sally's mother and charms her, telling her to meet him with Sally at the bus station.

But of course, the man isn't an FBI agent and Sally's mother has just handed her daughter over to a pedophile who has kidnapped a girl before.  When the man finds that Sally has managed to send her mother information, he moves with her to Baltimore.  There Sally is locked in an attic room during the long summer days and subjected to heinous attentions at night.  Once Baltimore gets too dangerous, he moves them to Texas then eventually to California.  

Sally never knows who she can trust and he tells her that he will kill her family if she tells anyone.  Along the way, she occasionally tries to find someone who can help, but it never works out.  There is a nun in Baltimore, a circus lady and a neighbor in the Texas trailer park but somehow Frank, her captor, always knows when help is near.  Eventually, after two years, Sally is rescued when she finds the courage to trust someone.

This novel is based on a true case and Sally Horner is a real person as was her victimizer.  The other characters are mostly made up but the fear and longing that Sally experiences is real.  This case is one of the inspirations behind the infamous novel Lolita.  Sally is stripped of her home, her name and her innocence.  This book is recommended for readers of literary fiction.

We Bought A Zoo by Benjamin Mee

 

It was 2006 and Benjamin Mee's family was used to him taking on big projects.  He had been a journalist and tv writer, swimming with dolphins in Florida one day and visiting the Amazon another.  Then he picked up his family from England and moved to France where he went about restoring a farmhouse and barns for their family complex.  But Mee wasn't done yet.  He heard about a zoo for sale in Dartmoor.  It was the perfect time for his family to take on a project like buying and restoring a zoo.  His father had just died and his mother was selling the family home, giving them capital.  Eventually, Mee, his wife and children, his mother and one of his brothers all moved to the zoo.

It was in bad shape.  The former owner had gotten old and stopped renovating.  The exhibits were old and in need of repair and the animals had to be fed daily.  In order to open as a tourist attraction, everything had to be repaired.  The house was barely liveable and the animals were getting older as well.  It was a huge struggle to find the money and over and over banks promised loans and then reneged.  

Benjamin Mee has devoted his life to animals and conservation.  Before he bought the zoo, it was just a tourist attraction.  Mee turned it into a vibrant center where animals had the correct habitat and the focus was on preserving animals and breeding endangered species.  There were lots of problems, family problems, money problems and animal problems.  One was always getting sick, starting to fight with the other inhabitants in its enclosure, or escaping.  Mee did a masterful job, hiring the correct people and putting his whole life into helping these animals.  This book is recommended for memoir readers.

The Door-To-Door Bookstore by Carsten Henn

Carl Kollhoft is a bookseller and he has always lived the life of the book.  He worked for years in his friend's bookstore and developed a routine that distinguished them from all others.  Every day he took a pile of books that had come in for their special customers.  He wrapped each one meticulously and then walked around the city, delivering books.  It was one of his main social outlets.  There was the wealthy man who lived alone and never left his house, a woman he suspected was being abused by her husband, another woman afraid of life, a former wrestler who after retirement is eager to read all the books he missed while performing.  Carl delivers to them all, talking about books and checking on them.

His life is changed as he gets older.  A young girl starts to walk with him on his deliveries.  She is full of life and ideas and Carl is entranced with her.  She doesn't have friends at school but she has Carl and his customers.  She lives with her father who is always working and doesn't have time for her. 

But things change.  The girl's father is incensed that Carl is spending so much time with his daughter and forbids her to go with Carl.  Carl's friend who owns the bookstore dies and his daughter takes over.  She resents Carl and starts easing him out and finally fires him.  What will Carl do with his life now?

Carsten Henn is a German author who has written several novels.  This one explores the relationship between readers and how an interest can change a life and form friendships.  None of the people in the book would have met or formed friendships without their common interest and Carl's desire to do everything the best that he can.  Carl doesn't realize how important he is to all these people until he has a crisis in his own life.  This book is recommended for literary fiction readers.  

In The Shadow Of Lightning by Brian McClellan

 

Demir Grappo should have lived a charmed life.  He was the son of one of the ruling families of his country and he was a Glass Dancer as well.  Glass is the material that fuels the economy and gives its wielders abilities others don't have.  But Demir, as a general who won the most fabled battles, grew sickened of war and his role in them and left his family and its wealth and power.  He became a grifter, moving from town to town as his cons are discovered.

When his mother is assassinated, Demir returns home.  He finds a country on the verge of ruin.  Godglass and all its power is running low.  Sensing that the country is getting weaker, its most feared rival has declared war.  Demir reluctantly agrees to head up the battle for his country.

Tessa is a glass master.  She has the plans to create a new source of godglass, one that works with lightning to give it power.  She is captured and enslaved at a glassworks.  When Demir rescues her for her knowledge, a spark lights between the two.  Can they unite to save their world?

McClellan is known for his work in the epic fantasy genre.  The world building in this novel is well done and the characters are interesting, especially Baby Montego, Demir's best friend and a renowned fighter.  There are rival families trying to gain power and the loyalty of men to Demir and their country as it faces a challenge that could end it.  This book is recommended for fantasy readers.  

Babel by RF Kuang

 

The Babel Institute at Oxford fuels the entire British economy.  It is the place where translators are trained and the most special of these, are trained in the engraving of silver bars that then have magic properties.  Maybe they make a factory's machines run smoother.  Maybe they make a cart horse's load feel lighter.  Regardless, most things have silver installed and only those at Babel can make them.

But not everyone can be a translator.  The best are those who came to England as a child and grew up bilingual.  That is Robin's story.  He was rescued as a child from Canton and brought and raised in England under the guardianship of one of Babel's professors.  Now he is studying at Babel along with Ramy who came from India, Victiore from Jamaica and Letty, who is from a wealthy elite English family.  The four are each other's society and they band together.

At first Robin is excited and feels privileged to be at this place he trained for all his life.  He is wowed by the traditions of Oxford and amazed that he will be one of the elite himself when he finishes his work there.  But he soon hears about a society that doesn't agree with Babel.  It's called Hermes and it's goal is to destroy Babel and the colonization of other countries that it was built to support.  Robin finds he has a half brother named Griffin who attended Babel but now is one of the leaders of Hermes.  He wants Robin to do the same.  Robin becomes more educated about the disparities of British society and he starts to wonder if he is in the right place.  What will he choose?

RF Kuang has been a force in the fantasy world since she burst onto the scene with her Poppy War trilogy, all of which were Hugo nominees.  She attended both Cambridge and Oxford and is currently working on a doctorate in Chinese studies at Yale.  She has worked herself as a translator.  In this novel, she poses the question about whether violence is the only vehicle that can change an entrenched society and whether it is a force for ultimate good.  Readers will follow Robin on his journey from a grateful child to an adult who sees the evil in the world and questions his role in it.  This book is recommended for fantasy readers.  

Booksie's Shelves, January 20, 2025

 

Two-thirds of the way through January and a cold spell has hit the United States.  North Carolina even got some snow and ice last week so that's enough of that, thank you very much.  Football playoffs are in the works and college basketball is in full swing.  Add in all the great books that have hit my shelves or my Kindle and it's a great year start!  Here's what's come through the door:

1. Tall Bones, Anna Bailey, mystery, purchased
2. A Grandmother Begins The Story, Michelle Porter, indigenous lit, purchased
3. In The Distance, Hernan Diaz, literary fiction, purchased
4. Bad Nature, Ariel Courage, literary fiction, sent by publisher
5. We Pretty Pieces Of Flesh, Colwill Brown, literary fiction, sent by publisher
6. Cooking With Fernet Branca, James Hamilton-Paterson, literary fiction, purchased
7. Sixty Lights, Gail Jones, literary fiction, purchased
8. Prayer For The Dead, David Wiltse, mystery, purchased
9. The Edge Of Sleep, David Wiltse, mystery, purchased
10. The Hangman's Knot, David Wiltse, mystery, purchased
11. Cherry, Matt Thorne, literary fiction, purchased
12. Restless Dolly Maunder, Kate Grenville, literary fiction, purchased
13. O Caledonia, Elspeth Barker, literary fiction, purchased
14. All Of Us Are Broken, Fiona Cummins, mystery, purchased
15. The Bog Wife, Kay Chronister, horror, purchased
16. The Vegetarian, Han Kang, literary fiction, purchased
17. The Best American Mystery And Suspense, 2021, Alafair Burke, mystery, sent by publisher
18. The Gardener Of Eden, David Downie, mystery, purchased
19. Perfect Explanation, Eleanor Anstruther, literary fiction, purchased
20. All We Shall Know, Donal Ryan, literary fiction, purchased
21. You Will Be Safe Here, Damian Barr, literary fiction, purchased
22. The Innocent Sleep, Karen Perry, literary fiction, purchased
23. The Art Of Prophecy, Wesley Chu, fantasy, purchased 

Here's what I'm reading:

1. Babel, RF Kuang, Kindle
2. The Book Of Form And Emptiness, Ruth Ozeki, hardcover
3. Rust And Stardust, T. Greenwood, paperback
4. We Bought A Zoo, Benjamin Mee, hardback
5. In The Shadow Of Lightning, Brian McCleelan, audio
6. The Children's Blizzard, Melanie Benjamin, Kindle
7. The Door To Door Bookshop, Carsten Hann, Kindle

Happy Reading!

The Good Lord Bird by James McBride

 

Most people have heard of Harper's Ferry and the man, John Brown, who captured it believing that it would force the hand of the government to free the slaves.  Many regard it as the opening salvo of the Civil War although formal declarations didn't happen.  But few know John Brown, an evangelist with twenty-two children, as Henry Shackleford does.

Henry is a young African American boy.  He is raised in a saloon by his father, a drunkard who clears the tables.  Henry does the same, plus cutting hair and singing.  The two eke out a living but his father knows hard times are coming.  He convinces Henry to dress as a girl thinking he would be safer and after his father is killed, Henry leaves, seeking his way in life.

He ends up with John Brown's ragtag army out in Kansas.  John Brown is determined to free the slaves and improve the lot of the Indians he feels kinship with.  Brown is a master strategist and can inspire men, but he never had more than a handful of soldiers, many his own sons.  He renames Henry Onion and Onion he is.  This is the story of the four years leading up to Harper's Ferry.  Onion is sometimes with Brown and sometimes on his own but his path always leads back to Brown.  With him he meets famous African Americans such as Harriet Tubman and Fredrick Douglas.  The Northern abolitionists promise Brown supplies and men but their words are not good.  Brown wants to take Harper's Ferry, believing a vast army of slaves will join him there and that they can retreat to the mountains for a sustained battle.  

James McBride is a former journalist for such publications as the Washington Post and People Magazine.  He moved into full time writing and his books have been best sellers.  This novel won the National Book Award in 2013.  I've heard about it for years and finally found time to read it and found it amazing.  Onion is the narrator and his life in disguise as a girl exemplifies the disguises that those in slavery had to live under to survive.  I always thought The Good Lord Bird was a person but it is indeed a bird with distinctive feathers that was considered lucky.  Both Brown and Onion had a feather from a good lord bird and when Onion gives Brown his feather as he is leaving Harper's Ferry, it symbolizes that Brown's good luck has left and he will not survive his dream.  This book is recommended for readers of literary fiction. 

Black Heels And Tractor Wheels by Ree Drummond

 

When Ree Drummond broke up with her college boyfriend after four years, she moved back to her childhood home in Oklahoma to figure out what she would do with the rest of her life.  She decided to relocate to Chicago where her brother lived, but before she could move, she met the man she called Marlboro Man, Ladd Drummond.

A more unlikely pair would be hard to imagine.  Ree was a country club girl, daughter of a doctor and a socialite mother.  She knew all about manners and clothes and living a wealthy lifestyle.  Ladd was a rancher.  His days started before dawn and he worked cattle and horses all day.  But the two sparked an immediate interest and several months later, started dating.

The connection was real and sustained, with the couple getting serious very fast, exchanging vows of love and getting married within a year.  Instead of clubbing all night, Ree was now watching old cowboy movies after dinner (usually steak for this former vegetarian) and sitting on the front porch listening to the night around her.  

Most readers know Ree Drummond as The Pioneer Woman.  She is known for her blog about life in rural Oklahoma and for her cooking, having a television show and numerous bestselling cookbooks.  But this is life before all that fame.  She tells the sad along with the happiness; her parents' marriage breaks up as she is starting hers, her grown brother on the spectrum, sadness as various elderly relatives pass away.  But mostly she talks about the love between Ladd and she.

I have a few quibbles with the book.  Ree is now in her fifties and while those of us similar in age know what she means when she calls Ladd her Marlboro Man, younger readers probably do not as we no longer idealize smoking.  The other is that she glosses over the fact that as rich as she has become with her writing and television show, Ladd is far richer with she.  He is one of the top one hundred landowners in the United States and owns land in association with his family as large as half of Rhode Island.  Of course, this book tells of their early years, but I think it gives a false impression to portray him as a rustic cowboy when he is now worth over two hundred million dollars.  Outside of that, this is a delightful book that will lighten the heart and is recommended for readers of momoirs.

The Witness For The Dead by Katherine Addison

 

Thara Celehar is a witness for the dead.  He can touch a recently dead person and know their last thoughts.  After losing favor at court, he now lives in a small town and works for the common people.  His newest case is that of the murder of an opera singer.  Thara learns that she was not a woman that people liked; she was vindictive, a thief and a bully.  But he doesn't judge the dead; he just serves them.  

Along the way to the solution to the singer's case, Thara has other cases.  He discerns the last wishes of a man whose family found two wills with differing inheritances.  He discovers a man who is marrying and killing women who are plain but who have money.  He quiets a ghoul, one of the more dangerous duties of his office.  Ghouls start by feeding on the dead but always eventually move on to live victims.  Each case gets Thara's best efforts as he serves his calling.

Katherine Addison is a best selling fantasy author.  This book is the first in the Cemeteries Of Amalo series.  Readers will enjoy Thara's quiet manner, his determination to do the best with his talents that he can and the variety of cases he encounters.  This book is recommended for fantasy readers.  

Devils Kill Devils by Johnny Compton

 

Sarita has a guardian angel.  She first realized this as a small child when she almost drowned at the beach and he appeared out of nowhere to save her, leaving when she was safe without a word.  He appeared again when she was older saving her once more, then again when she was in college, saving her from a wreck that killed her friends.  She has no idea why she has the man she calls Angelo but it makes her feel safe.

Then she meets Frank and marries him.  When a tragedy occurs, Sarita starts to find out who Angelo is and why he has been by her side.  A cult believes that she is the person they have worshipped for centuries, come to fulfill prophecy.  As they attempt to take her and as they take others around her, Sarita learns that she must save herself rather than waiting on Angelo to do everything.

Johnny Compton specializes in the horror genre, writing short stories and hosting a horror podcast.  This is his second novel with his first, Spite House, being nominated for the Bram Stoker Award.  While this book started out strong, it seemed to spin away from him about halfway through, getting more and more frantic.  Horror that creeps up on one is often most effective; this is 'in your face' terror.  Sarita changes from a scared child to someone who, by the end, realizes that only she can save herself and that family is more important than anything else.  She was the strongest character and readers will emphasize with her.  This book is recommended for horror readers.  

Mudwoman by Joyce Carol Oates

 

M.R. Neukirchen is a trailblazer, a woman philosopher who is now the first female president of a New England Ivy League university.  Although she is feted for this accomplishment, no one knows the true story of what she has overcome.

She was born into poverty where food wasn't certain on any day.  She lived with a psychotic mother, a sister and various boyfriends of the mother.  One day the mother decides she doesn't want the children anymore.  M.R. is thrown out onto a mudflat, starving, too feeble to climb out.  She is rescued by a fisherman and enters the social service system.  

She is adopted by a Quaker couple and given every material advantage from that point on.  But they change her original name to Meredith Ruth and she comes to realize that to them, she is only a replacement for their daughter who died, also Meredith Ruth.  They pressure her to become a teacher and live in their town forever, but M.R. applies to an Ivy League university and is accepted, and moves on to become an accomplished woman.

But a woman who doesn't believe anyone could every love her.  She has a lover of many years, but he is married and unavailable to her.  The new job is taxing and overwhelming but M.R. refuses to delegate or ask for any help.  As the weeks go by, she moves closer and closer to a nervous breakdown.

Joyce Carol Oates is one of the most prolific American authors.  Her work often has a tinge of the Gothic and this one is in that genre.  There is a relationship with a crow and various supernatural things start to happen.  But it can also be seen as a feminist work, outlining the difficulty of breaking the glass ceiling and the need to overcompensate.  This book is recommended for literary fiction readers.  

Afternoon Of A Faun by James Lasdun

 

Two English writers, friends, are now both living in the United States.  One is Marco Rosedale, son of a prominent English barrister and famous in his own right as a journalist and television presenter.  He comes to his friend with a problem.  Marco received a call from an English newspaper telling him that he is featured in the recollections of a woman, Julia, from forty years ago.  She says that Marco forced her to have sex one afternoon.  

Marco remembers the affair but has a very different perspective.  He remembers it as totally consensual and that it lasted for several more encounters.  He knows that in the era of the 'me-too' scandals, if this memoir is printed it will ruin his life.  A quote from the book says it all: "The truth might be hard to bring to light, but that didn't mean it didn't exist, because it did exist: fixed in its moment, unalterable, and certainly not a matter of 'belief'"

Marco manages to quash the newspaper but then Julia finds a publisher.  Marco becomes obsessed with preventing this book from being published and his friend is drawn further and further into the event, both as a listener and then when he visits England, as a participant.  What is the truth?  Marco readily admits that in another generation he treated women horribly but he insists that it was nothing more than the attitude of many men and that he would never be coercive.  Can reality be unearthed after all this time?

James Lasdun is an English poet and author although he now lives and teaches in the United States.  He has written a memoir of being cyberstalked by one of his own students for years and has insight into fighting perceptions versus truth from that experience.  This novel was written as the 'me-too' movement became prominent and men from all walks of life were called to account for their behavior, often from years before.  The reader will get the slow reveal of this scandal and their sympathies may move from one character to another as they read.  This book is recommended for literary fiction readers.