Just Mercy by Bryan Stevenson

 When Bryan Stevenson graduated law school, he knew what he wanted to do.  He wanted to help those who had been wrongly convicted and were on Death Row.  He wanted to stop the state executing those who had been minors when they were convicted.  He wanted to stop the executions of those who had been at a crime scene but had done nothing there.  He moved to one of the worst states for injustice at the time, Alabama, and opened his law firm, a nonprofit.

In this book about his law practice, he illustrates the injustices he fights by narrating the case of one of his first attempts, Walter McMillian.  Walter had been doing fairly well for himself in an area where black people were usually impoverished as he had a timber business.  But Walter had a straying eye and one of his conquests was a white woman.  This was in the 1980's and there was still a lot of prejudice around interracial relationships and lots of people had it out for Walter.  When a young white girl was killed while working in a dry cleaning store, it was a major case.  Although Walter was twenty miles away at a family fish fry with several dozen witnesses, he was arrested on the word of a white witness and a black man who wanted to get his own sentence reduced.  Walter was sent to Death Row and was there for six years.  Eventually, Stevenson managed to prove his wrongful conviction and get him released.  Walter had years left to live but sadly, as he got older, he believed he was back on Death Row and spent many days scared and lonely.

This nonfiction book has won numerous awards, as has Stevenson's law practice which continues its work to eliminate the death penalty or at least to free those wrongfully convicted.  That means not only those who didn't do the crime for which they were sentenced but those who were too young to have formed intent or those who were mentally incapable.  Stevenson even won the McArthur Fellowship which gives a cash award, $800,000 currently, to those who show creativity and talent in a field.  Readers will follow the cases he discusses with disbelief and horror and the book has the potential to change minds about the death penalty.  This book is recommended for nonfiction readers.  

When We Cease To Understand The World by Benjamin Labatut

 

This book looks at various scientific explorations and discovers, mostly in the fields of mathematics and physics.  Names many will have heard are discussed here such as Bohr, Heisenberg, Schrodinger and others more obscure, Haber and Grothendieck.  Each man's work and discoveries are outlined and their lives explored.  Unfortunately, most of them led sad lives with alienated loves and often madness after a promising start to life.  

The discoveries were not all positive.  For example, the discovery of the beautiful Prussian Blue color for painters later resulted in the use of it in the cyanide that was used in Germany's death camps.  Einstein, for one, disagreed with the results of some of the scientists although they were proven correct in the end.  The math was so above the average and even expert understanding that those who made those breakthroughs had no one to discuss their knowledge with and that played some part in their eventual withdrawals and madness.  Many felt that their discoveries had left the world worse off rather than better. 

Benjamin Labatut's childhood was spent between The Netherlands and South America and he has lived in Chile since he was twelve.  This novel was shortlisted for the International Booker Prize and the National Book Award for translated works.  He sees his work as different from others because he feels that most novels focus on character and his work focuses on ideas.  He seems attracted to thinkers in science as his following novel was about John von Neumann, another mathematical genius whose work is pivotal but is understood by few.  One thing I did not like was that in the afterword Labatut says some of what he wrote is true and some fiction but the parts that were not true were not identified.  Since I know little about the scientific fields he was discussing, that left me frustrated not knowing which parts to believe.  This book is recommended for literary fiction readers, especially those interested in science and math.

The River Swimmer by Jim Harrison

 

This book has two novellas in it.  In the first, Clive is a sixty-year old man.  He had been an artist but gave it up and became an art professor and someone who served as an expert when validating authenticity of paintings. He lives in New York City far from his surviving family, his mother and a sister back on the Midwestern farm he fled as a young man.  Now his mother is aging and his sister wants a break and a vacation.  Clive agrees to come home for a month and take care of everything while his sister travels.  He rediscovers his love of painting while there as well as rekindling the attraction of his first love who lives next door.

The second novella is about the River Swimmer.  Thad was born to swim and feels most at home in the water.  He takes long journeys, swimming miles to Chicago and other locations.  He falls in with a rich girl and she takes him traveling and he swims some of the largest rivers in Europe.  But his heart lies back home and the rivers he grew up with and the water babies only he is able to see.  

Jim Harrison was the author of The Legends Of The Fall and thirty other novels.  I love his spare yet beautiful writing.  He often writes of men attempting to make human connections and find love.  He was also a lover of nature and it plays a large part in most of his work.  He also delves into family connections and what they mean to us as adults.  This book is recommended for literary fiction readers. 

Joe Country by Mick Herron

 If Spook Street is where spies live, Joe Country is where they go to die. (Quote from Amazon)

Slough House and its inhabitants move on in a life that is always more of the same.  Same falling down workplace, same colleagues, same make work, same Jackson Lamb who rules over it all.  

But some things happen.  River's grandfather, the OB, has finally died after a long career as a spy and having raised River.  Lech is the newest Slow Horse and he is determined to find out what got him assigned there and who was behind it.  Catherine Standish is starting to buy booze again after years of being dry.  And River's father, the man Jackson Lamb hates above all others, is still out there.

When River sees his father at the cemetery at his grandfather's funeral, he takes off chasing him but once again his father manages to escape.  But this time the group and Lamb have an idea where he is heading.  Louisa Guy has taken on the task of finding her former lover's son who has disappeared.  River's father seems to have been hired to find him as well.  Lamb sends the Slow Horses out to find the son and capture River's father but he has hired guns with him.  Will everyone return?

This is the sixth Slough House novel in the series.  These books are an addiction.  I'm so glad I waited until there were nine of them as I've listened to them as quickly as I can, starting the next as soon as I finish the former.  I've listened to them as Gerald Doyle is the best narrator match I can imagine.  He can hit the sly notes, show the determination of the agents even when wrong and bring Jackson Lamb to life in a way that is perfectly done.  Lamb pretends not to care but his agents are his charge and no one hurts his charges.  This book is recommended for mystery and spycraft readers.  

Acts Of Desperation by Megan Nolan

 When she meets Ciaran in a bar one night, she is instantly attracted.  She soon goes out with him and starts having an affair.  Not a relationship as he seems interested one night and offputting the next.  Ciaran is a beautiful man but cold.  His relationship before her had been with a woman back in Sweden where he is from and over Christmas holidays, he suddenly returns to the former love.

She is gutted and spends her nights drinking herself into oblivion.  Then months later, she sees Ciaran again and they get back together.  She is determined to do whatever it takes to keep him this time and soon they are living together.  She spends her days thinking of what she can do next and her evenings cooking, cleaning, doing whatever he wants.

But can such a one-sided affair continue?  As the weeks go by, she starts to rebel against his continued coldness and his assumption of all power in the relationship.  Eventually, she gravitates to another man who is warm and loving and interested in her, not just what she can do for him.  

This is a debut novel for Megan Nolan who is an Irish author.  She won a Betty Trask award for this book which his given for first books written by someone under thirty.  Readers won't be able to turn away from this love affair but will be sickened by the narrator's willingness to give herself over so totally to someone who doesn't appreciate her.  Personally, I hate to think that love can be so desperate and that women can think so little of themselves.  It is, nonetheless, a book that can't be put down and Nolan will take her place among the many stellar Irish authors.  This book is recommended for literary and women's fiction readers.  

The Definitions by Matt Greene

 

A virus has decimated humanity.  It's effect is that people forget how to speak and what things are called or named or what a word means.  When affected individuals come to the Center to recuperate, most don't know their names, so they take a name from the weekly movies they view.

These people attend classes that instruct them in what they need to know.  Some excel and graduate back into the outside world.  Some never again retain the meaning of language and become lifetime inhabitants of the Center.  The Center gives them work, classes and a social structure.  Newcomers must work to be defined in one of the two main groups; those who go and those who stay.

It seems benevolent but is it?  Over time, some try to challenge the rules and the structure and then they find that they are not the free agents they had imagined themselves to be.  

Matt Greene is an English author.  His first novel, Ostrich, won a Betty Task Award, which is 10,000 pounds and given to a first novel by an author under the age of thirty-five.  In this dystopian novel, he explores the meanings of love and friendship and how individuals can be duped into giving up their freedom.  This book is recommended for readers of dystopian novels.

Jack Of Spades by Joyce Carol Oates

 

Andrew Rush is an author of mysteries.  He has been successful, his books hitting the top of the bestseller lists regularly.  His success has brought wealth and he and his wife have contributed to his community, which also makes him well thought of.

But Andrew has another side.  He writes another series under a pen name, Jack Spade.  Those mysteries are dark and gory and the villain often wins.  No one knows about these novels, not even his wife. 

When Andrew is sued for plagiarism by an elderly woman who lives in his town, his two sides start to merge.  He can't believe someone dares to accuse him and soon he finds himself breaking into her home and stealing her treasures.  Then one night she is there and Andrew becomes one of the villains he writes about.

Joyce Carol Oates has a long history as an author whose work is prolific and on the dark side.  Along with other honors, she is a National Book Award winner.  In this novel, Andrew moves from a respected, staid middle-aged man to someone who finds himself doing things he never thought he would do.  This book is recommended for mystery readers.  

Lucky Day by Chuck Tingle

 

Vera is a statistics and probability professor and she believes in logic and order.  She also believes her mother will not like it when she comes out as gay and engaged to Annie and she is right about that.  Her mother tells her that it's just a phase and then leaves the restaurant in a huff.  Vera goes after her and into mass chaos.  Strange things are happening everywhere.  There are monsters and fires and her mother is killed right beside her by a car whose driver has been killed also.

That is the Low Probability Event and millions died that day all over the world, although the majority were Americans.  Vera's worldview is trashed immediately and she retreats into herself.  Four years later, she has become a recluse, only leaving her house when she must to buy supplies.  Otherwise, she spends hours staring at the ceiling and thinking about that day.

Then Special Agent Layne shows up at her door.  He tells her that he is from the agency that helps survivors and he needs her help to investigate a casino that seems to be connected somehow to the Low Probability Event.  Vera tells him no but Layne is persuasive and soon the two head off to Las Vegas.  Can they discover the cause of the LPE and make sure it never happens again?

Chuck Tingle is a pseudonym of a writer who identifies as autistic and who has a unique style of writing.  He started out writing short stories and then moved into writing novels in the fantasy/horror genre.  His characters are generally gay and his work has become steadily more popular.  In this title, strange occurrences abound but eventually all the threads are brought together and resolved.  This book is recommended for fantasy/science fiction readers.  

Anji Kills A King by Evan Leikam

 

Anji is on the run.  After her parents were killed, she ended up working in the King's palace.  When she was sent to deliver laundry to his chamber while he was sleeping, she took the opportunity and slit his throat.  Now there is a bounty on her head of a million and everyone is looking for her.

Hawk is the one who finds her.  Hawk is part of a group of King's guards, each of whom wears a mask.  Hawk takes everything from Anji and puts a spell on her so that she cannot escape.  As they make their way back to the capital where Anji will be executed, others try to take Hawk's prize but she fights off all comers.  Is there any way that Anji can escape?

This is a debut novel from Evan Leikam.  He started as a musician and while touring with his band, began writing to fill the long hours on the road.  He is also the host of the Book Reviews Kill Podcast and writes in the grimdark genre.  I enjoyed the world building in this novel and loved the concept of the guards who wore animal masks but each had a personality hidden underneath.  The action was fast and furious and the reader will pull for Anji to somehow escape her fate.  I would have liked more story on Anji herself and I felt that Hawk was more developed than Anji but overall it was a great first novel and I definitely plan on reading the next in the series when it is released.  This book is recommended for fantasy readers.  

Dirt Creek by Hayley Scrivenor

 Durton Creek, Australia is a small town where everyone knows everyone and a great place to raise children.  But small towns hide secrets.  Like the boy who realizes that he's attracted to other boys.  Like the drugs that are being dealt.  Like the reason that a dog is kept chained up at the local motel.  Like who Veronica (Ronnie's) father is.  Like the man who beats his wife and children.  Like what really happened at a party thirty years ago.  

Then a twelve-year-old girl named Esther goes missing.  She left school with Ronnie who is her best friend and Lewis who hangs out with them.  They all walk together on the path home until they come to the church where their paths diverge.  They split up.  Ronnie and Lewis make it home but Esther does not.  

An outsider is sent to help the police force.  DS Sarah Michaels has secrets of her own such as what happened in the fight with her girlfriend right before she came to town.  But she is determined to find Esther or find out what happened to her.  

When Lewis tells Ronnie that he saw Esther by Dirt Creek the day she disappeared, everything starts to emerge and the secrets start to be revealed.  As the truth emerges, the people of Durton Creek will never be the same. 

This is Hayley Scrivenor's debut novel and has garnered a lot of attention and won the Lambda Literary Award. She grew up in Australia so the geographical details are spot on.   It delves deeply into the secrets that a small town tends to develop and the way that people have friends as adults that they have had since childhood.  The secrets of children and how loyal they are to their friendships is highlighted.  It also discusses how outsiders feel in such a town.  I grew up in a small Sourthern town and my mother came from a Northern state.  We always had that feeling that we weren't quite on the inside.  I listened to this novel and the accent of the narrator added so much to the realism of the book.  This book is recommended for mystery readers.  

The Queens Of Crime by Marie Benedict

 The year is 1930 and mystery writers have come together to form a club at which they can socialize and talk about their work with others who will understand.  But there's one problem; only two women, Agatha Christie and Dorothy Sayers, are invited to join, and Dorothy was the one who came up with the idea.  She is determined that more women authors should be in the club and hatches a plan to make it happen.

Christie and Sayers ask three more of the best British mystery writers to a meeting.  They are Baroness Emma Orczy, Margery Allingham and Ngaio Marsh.  The women make a plan to solve a real life murder and then present the males in the mystery club with their result.  

The papers are full of the case of May Daniels.  Daniels, a nurse, had gone with a friend on a day trip to France and never returned.  She had gone into the restroom and then disappeared.  Her friend had been standing outside the room and never saw her leave and there were no other doors or windows.  How had she disappeared?  What happened to her?  Daniels's body had just been discovered in France weeks later and the case was headline news in all the papers.  It would be the perfect case to solve.

The group, called The Queens Of Crime, went to France.  They retraced May's route and solved the mystery of how she disappeared.  They came back to England where they interviewed May's family, friends and employers.  They discovered that she had a secret boyfriend who they suspected.  Can they solve the murders?

Marie Benedict is an author and lawyer.  She writes in the genre of historical fiction, focusing on various women whose story has yet to be told completely.  In this one, she covers the marriages of the five women, their secrets, and their work.  The interplay between the five women is delightful and I closed the book with a decision to go back and reread some of their work.  This book is recommended for mystery readers.  

Death Message by Mark Billingham

 

DI Tom Thorne has been getting messages on his cell phone.  No explanation, just an image of a dead person.  Why is he getting these?  Who is sending them?  Who are the victims and why have they been chosen?

He learns that the victims are all related to one person, a man who took the rap for a murder and served his time without complaint for the gang he worked for.  Then just as he was about to get out, a horrific event in his personal life made him decide to wreck vengeance on those who he had worked for.  

That part is easy.  But why Thorne?  He learns that it is the killer is manipulated by a man that Thorne put away; the man he thought was the most evil and cunning of all those he had put away.  When Thorne's best friend is targeted, he must race the clock before his friend joins the list of the dead.

This is the seventh Tom Thorne novel.  Thorne is back on form after the death of his father which had taken him for a loop.  His relationship with a woman on the police force is going well although she is giving indications that it might be more serious than Thorne had planned on.  The manhunt for the killer is full of twists and turns although this is one of the few killers that Thorne can understand and relate to.  Yet he knows that that understanding doesn't matter; he must find him before he kills again.  This book is recommended for mystery readers.  

Booksie's Shelves, October 18, 2025

 

Above is one of my messy bookshelves, this one in my den where I do a lot of my reading.  October is more than halfway over and I'm still getting used to calling it 2025.  This month has been a blur.  We went to visit our son and then our daughter.  There were book groups, investment group, doctors and dentists.  Like many retirees, I'm not sure how I ever found time to work.  I've got a ton of books purchased and sent lately, many of them Booker Prize nominees and the work of Best New British Authors, a list I follow every year.  I've been busy reading the Booker nominees for 2025 and I'm about half through with that.  Here's what's come through the door lately:

1.  Nothing But Blue Sky, Kathleen MacMahon, literary fiction, purchased
2. The Red Winter, Cameron Sullivan, fantasy, sent by publisher
3. Christine Fall, John Banville, mystery, sent by publisher
4. Your Utopia, Bora Chung, anthology, sent by publisher
5. Midnight Timetable, Bora Chung, horror, sent by publisher
6. Cursed Bunny, Bora Chung, anthology, sent by publisher
7. The Definitions, Matt Greene, dystopian fiction, sent by publisher
8. A Little Trickerie, Rosanna Pike, literary fiction, purchased
9. Amma, Saraid de Silva, literary fiction, purchased
10. The Truants, Kate Weinberg, literary fiction, sent by publisher
11. Somewhere Else, Jenni Daiches, literary fiction, purchased
12. Becoming Strangers, Louise Dead, literary fiction, purchased
13. Rules Of The Heart, Janice Hadlow, historical fiction, sent by publisher
14. Genealogy Of A Murder, Lisa Belkin, true crime, purchased
15. The Birthday Party, Laurent Mauvignier, literary fiction, purchased
16. Still Waters, Nigel McCreary, mystery, purchased
17. The Light Of Amsterdam, David Park, literary fiction, purchased
18. Travelling In A Strange Land, David Park, literary fiction, purchased
19. School For Love, Olivia Manning, literary fiction, purchased
20. Fortunes Of War, Olivia Manning, literary fiction, purchased
21. Fool's Crow, James Welsh, literary fiction, purchased
22. On A Woman's Madness, Astrid Roemer, literary fiction, purchased
23. The Wildes, Louis Bayard, historical fiction, sent by publisher
24. Wolf Bells, Leni Zumas, literary fiction, purchased
25. A Cure For Suicide, Jesse Ball, literary fiction, purchased
26. The Maniac, Benjamin Labatut, historical fiction, purchased
27. The Maiden, Kate Foster, literary fiction, purchased
28. Dear Mrs. Bird, AJ Pearce, literary fiction, purchased
29. The Imposter, Javier Cercas, nonfiction, purchased
30. The Well, Catherine Chanter, literary fiction, purchased
31. The Years, Annie Ernaux, literary fiction, purchased
32. Don't Let Him Know, Sandip Roy, literary fiction, purchased
33. White Chrysanthemum, Mary Lynn Bracht, historical fiction, purchased
34. Akram's War, Nadim Safdar, literary fiction, purchased
35. Love, Sex & Other Foreign Policy Goals, Jesse Armstrong, literary fiction, purchased
36. In The Light Of What We Know, Zia Haider Rahman, literary fiction, purchased
37. Mornings With Rosemary, Libby Page, literary fiction, purchased
38. The Things We Thought We Knew, Mahsuda Snaith, mystery, purchased
39. The Girl In The Red Coat, Kate Hamer, thriller, purchased
40. Montpelier Parade, Karl Geary, literary fiction, purchased
41. The Witchfinder's Sister, Beth Underdown, mystery, purchased
42. Sal, Mick Kitson, literary fiction, purchased
43. Part Of The Family, Charlotte Philby, mystery, purchased
44. The Butcher's Hook, Janet Ellis, mystery, purchased
45. Weathering, Lucy Wood, literary fiction, purchased
46. Not Working, Lisa Owens, literary fiction, purchased

Here's what I'm reading at the moment:

1.  The Meaning Of Night, Michael Cox, hardback
2. In Other Worlds, Margaret Atwood, hardback
3. Five Star Billionaire, Tash Aw, hardback
4. Acts Of Desperation, Megan Nolan, Kindle
5. Lucky Day, Chuck Tingle, hardback
6. Lessons In Chemistry, Bonnie Garmus, Kindle
7. Just Mercy, Bryan Stevenson, Kindle
8. Joe Country, Mick Herron, audible
9. Autumn, Ali Smith, audible
10. The Great Man Theory, Teddy Wayne, audible

Happy Reading!

Dimestore by Lee Smith

 

This is author Lee Smith's account of growing up in Southwest Virginia in the small town of Gundy.  It was mountain country and everyone knew everyone.  Her father owned the town's general store which everyone called the dimestore.  Her grandparents lived there also and she and her friends moved happily between each others' houses and those of relatives.  

But all is not perfect.  Like many small Southwestern Virginia towns, the economy was built around one employer and when it closed, the town started dying.  More and more people moved away and few came to settle.  The town was built on a river that periodically flooded and damaged property.  

She also talked about other parts of her life.  About her first marriage which ended in divorce and her second one.  About her son who developed mental illness and who she tragically lost young, joining that horrific mother's club, the one where one has suffered the ultimate loss, that of a beloved child.  About the writing influences she had along the way and about the wonderful city of Chapel Hill, beloved by many as a perfect college town.

I could relate to so much of this book.  I also grew up in Southwest Virginia although more in the foothills than the mountains.  My town was a small mill town, built around textiles and furniture like the other small towns around us.  It was a town where parents could drop their kids off at the pool and let them roam the small downtown without worry and I spent many days moving from pool to the Y to one of the two restaurants.  As textiles and furniture moved overseas, we also saw our little towns struggling to survive.  Finally, like Lee Smith I moved in my adult years to North Carolina where I live about an hour from Chapel Hill.  Lee Smith is an American treasure and her books help us recall the best of Southern life and culture.  This book is recommended for biography readers.  

The Scandalous Hamiltons by Bill Shaffer

 This nonfiction book tells of the rise of tabloid journalism in the Gilded Age and what a story occurred!  Robert Ray Hamilton was the descendant of Alexander Hamilton.  He met Eva Steele in a brothel and fell in love with her although he only expected it to be a dalliance.  Instead, Eva duped him into marriage by, after a trip to Europe he paid for her to take, she presented him with an infant daughter and insisted it was his.  In reality, she had bought the baby for $10 in the black market and it was the third baby she bought, the first two having died due to starvation.  Ray married her but filed for divorce when Eva was arrested for stabbing the baby's nurse.  

The tabloid newspapers couldn't get enough of the story and when it emerged that Eva had been in a common law marriage at the time she married Ray, it just fueled the fires.  Eva was sent to jail and Ray went out west to Montana where a friend was opening a hunting resort.  Unfortunately, he fell into a river while out hunting alone and died but that didn't stop Eva.  

Although she was left out of Ray's will expressly, she filed court cases for many years, alleging that the divorce was faulty, that she was entitled to a dowager's portion of the estate and many other cases.  She was even interviewed by Nellie Bly the darling of tabloid journalism.  Ray and Eva were only acquainted for four years but their story hit the headlines for many, many more.

Bill Shaffer worked in design for over thirty years when he decided to change his career.  He became interested in history and while researching the design of various buildings in New York, he became award of the Hamilton scandal and decided that the story of this couple and the rise of tabloid journalism would be his first project.  His coverage of the story is clear and exhaustive and accomplished his aim.  Readers will also learn about various other subjects occurring at the same time, such as the exploration and settlement of the West, trials, the veneration of the wealthy, etc.  I listened to this book and the narrator was excellent.  This book is recommended for those interested in history and the Gilded Age.   

Dark Crimes 2 edited by Ed Gorman

 

This is an older anthology of Noir short stories.  Readers will recognize author names such as David Morrell, Lawrence Block, John D. MacDonald, Marcia Muller, Ed Gorman, Nancy Pickard, Bill Pronzini, Brian Garfield, John Lutz, Joe Lansdale, Max Allen Collins and Loren Estleman.  These are the authors from a generation ago, authors I grew up loving and who introduced me to crime fiction.  Most are still with us although we are losing authors from this generation sometimes it seems almost daily.  

One of my favorite stories was by Wade Miller, called 'The Memorial Hour'.  In it, a psychiatrist gets a new patient.  As they work together, the doctor uncovers the fact that his patient has been stealing.  The patient brings in what he is stealing and it is bras, some from clotheslines, some from breaking into houses.  The patient gives that up but moves on to house plans and stalking the doctor's receptionist.  The patient moves on to attack the receptionist in the doctor's office only for revelations to be made.  

Ed Gorman was known for his mystery writing in the noir genre and for his anthologies.  In this book, he has collected some of the best writing from the 1970's onward.  This book is recommended for mystery readers, especially those interested in the noir and detectives of that period.

Flesh by David Szalay

 

Istvan grows up in Hungary.  As a teenager, he is isolated, living with his mother in government housing, arriving too late to break into the usual teenage groups at school where everyone has known everyone else for years.  At loose ends after high school graduation and unable to find a career job, he joins the army.  He sees battle and loses his best friend.

After his military time,  he emigrates to England.  He starts as a bouncer in a club but soon starts driving rich people.  One man likes him enough that he asks him to become his employee and drive only for his family, giving Istvan an apartment in his large house.  The family consists of the man, his much younger wife and their son.  The man becomes ill and Istvan becomes embroiled in an affair with the wife.  When the man dies, he leaves his vast resources to his son with his wife as guardian until the son reaches adulthood.

Istvan marries the wife and now lives a life of luxury.  He becomes a property developer, with loans from the son's trust.  He and his wife also have a son who is the pride of Istvan's life.  Tension starts to build between Istvan and the older son who believes he is being cheated, both of his mother and his trust.  When a tragedy occurs, Istvan is thrown back on his early life once again.

This is David Szalay's second shortlisted Booker nominee.  He grew up in London and now lives in Vienna.  In Istvan, he has created a character who lives an internal life, unable to fully engage with others except for his son and who drifts through life, taking what opportunities come but rarely having much of a plan or goals.  Readers seem to either really like this novel or dislike it and question its inclusion in the shortlist.  I would come down on the side of liking it.  I finished it about a week ago and find myself thinking about it and Istvan often.  This book is recommended for literary fiction readers.

The Housekeeper And The Professor by Yoko Ogawa

 

The Housekeeper has been hired to clean for a difficult client.  She must support herself and her ten year old son and cannot turn down any work but she has heard that nine housekeepers before her tried to do the job and failed.  She is determined to do her best.

The Professor had been a brilliant mathematician but he was in a horrific accident that left him with significant brain impact.  He can still do his beloved math but he only has eighty minutes of short-term memory.  That means he will forget who she is and she will have to tell him every day.  He rarely talks preferring to work all day in his study on mathematical puzzles and competitions.

The two reach a satisfactory way of existing together.  When the Professor finds out the Housekeeper has a son, he insists that the son come to his house after school every day instead of being on his own.  He gives the boy a nickname, Root, for the equation of Pi and soon he starts to build a relationship with the boy and then the Housekeeper.  She gains from him as well as she starts to expand her own mind and learn more about the math he loves so that she can relate to him.  They all share a love of baseball as well which brings them even closer.  

Yoko Ogawa is a Japanese author who has won every Japanese literary award and written more than twenty books.  Her work has gained praise and awards elsewhere as well.  It has been listed for the International Booker Prize and won the American Book Award and the Shirley Jackson prize.  In this gentle book, the reader sees how the relationship grows between the three individuals and how each enriches the lives of the others.  Although the Professor's injury and resulting damage will never improve, he can still live a life that is meaningful and that gives to others.  The Housekeeper learns that although she had to leave her education early, she is capable of learning and can do that anywhere.  This book is recommended for literary fiction readers and those interested in other cultures.

 

From the moment Michael Lobb met Kayla on a cruise, he was desperate to have her for himself.  She was the dance instructor and Michael was there with his wife on an anniversary cruise.  But once he met Kayla, that was it.  He throws aside his marriage even though he causes a rupture with his children that can't be repaired and wins Kayla and brings her to his home in Cornwall.

No one knows what Kayla expected but it probably wasn't a small cottage in Cornwall with little money to spare.  During his courtship, Michael spent money like water but in reality he was barely getting by.  He worked on the land in a business handed down through generations, mining and streaming tin which he made into jewelry and other objects he sold.   Now he lies dead, stabbed with some implement that can't be found.

Who could it be?  The representative from Eco-Mining which is buying up Cornwall land to extract lithium from underground water reserves and who found the body?  Michael's brother who owns forty percent of the business and wants to sell?  Michael's children who have plans for the money to buy houses of their own?  Kayla who wants to return to her original home in South Africa or her brother who has come to visit and to talk her into coming home?  The father and son who work for him?

When the local police can't solve the crime in a short time, they ask for help from Scotland Yard.  Inspector Lynley needs to visit his estate to make a plan for extensive repairs and his partner Barbara is on compassionate leave.  It turns out the men who work for Michael are the birth family of the woman Lynley loves and she is in town as well to help her brother who is suspected by the police.  All these individuals do what they can to solve Michael's murder.

This is the twenty-second novel in the Inspector Lynley series.  Mystery readers are familiar with the characters of Lynley and his partner.  The mystery is intriguing and the personalities of Michael and Kayla are slowly revealed as well as how their marriage has led to tragedy.  This book is recommended for mystery readers.  

The Marylebone Drop by Mick Heron

 

John Batchlor is a semi-retired spy for MI5, not that he wanted to be semi-retired.  His only job these days is to check on the old assets who need a place to live and someone to check on them periodically and be there if they need a hospital or when they pass on.  MI5 has also cut his pay and John finds himself homeless.  He has worn out his friends offers to stay a day or two and is faced with perhaps sleeping in his car in a terrible winter.

But one of his charges asks to speak with him.  Solomon Dortmund was having a coffee in a restaurant when he saw an old-fashioned drop; the passing of information from one spy to another.  The giver was a young beautiful girl while the recipient was a middle-aged man.  Solly reports this to John who decides that he needs to check it out.  

In the meantime, political maneuverings are ever present.  Some individuals are moving up in the ranks while others are being sidelined.  There are spies and counterspies and who can tell the difference?  

This is a novella and the Slough House crew are not present.  It is about the main group of MI-5.  I listened to this one as no one is better than Gerald Doyle who narrates all the Slough House series.  He has the perfect voice for this kind of book and it is best suited to the dry humor found in Herron's books.  This book is recommended for mystery readers and Mick Herron fans.  

The Punishing Journey Of Arthur Delaney

 

Arthur Delaney worked on the ships in the harbor in Halifax, Canada.  He lived there with his wife and three children.  When his wife died, there were two events that occurred with long lasting repercussions.  The first was that Arthur wasn't sure if he had the ability to raise his children alone.  The second was a preacher who was recruiting Canadians to fight in the Civil War in America to free the slaves.  Between these two events occurring when Arthur was in the midst of grieving, he made a terrible decision.  He signed custody of his children to an orphanage which promised to educate and look after them.

Although the Canadian recruits had been told that their service would only last a few months, that was not the case.  Arthur was captured and sent to one of the Confederates' prison camps.  Men were starving there as the Confederate Army had fewer and fewer resources.  Finally, the war ended and Arthur's three years of time in the prison camp was over.

But when he returned home, it was to a nightmare.  The orphanage turned out to be a scam and the children there were indentured out to service or sold outright.  Instead of an education, the three Delaney children were forced to work for a series of farmers and the girls were subjected to the attentions of male owners.  The son, who was the oldest, ran away from his indenture.  The two girls fared worse but were taken from the man who had bought them as servants and more.  The family was scattered and no one knew where when Arthur arrived back in Canada.  This started a long journey as he traveled from place to place searching for his family.

This novel was based on a true case although changed quite a bit for the novel.  There were orphanages that sold the children trusted to them to the highest bidder and once sold or indentured, those children were left to the mercy of their owners.  There was a true Arthur Delaney and a court case based on his attempt to get his children back from an orphanage.  When you consider that this was a poor man, who spent years walking from one settlement in Canada to another, working odd jobs, often hungry and sick one can see his determination to reunite his family.  I listened to this novel and the narrator did a great job.  This book is recommended for historical fiction readers.  

Victory City by Salman Rushdie

 

In this epic story, we learn of the life of Pampa Kampana.  As a nine year old girl, she watches her mother burn to death and in her wild grieving, she is visited by a goddess and becomes the goddess's voice on Earth.  The goddess tells her of a city that will grow there, Bisnaga, which translates as 'victory city.'  The girl plants a seed and overnight, the city grows and is populated.

Pampa will live to be over two hundred and fifty years old.  Along the way, she marries three kings and has lovers, almost always red haired travelers.  She has three daughters by one of these lovers.  There are wars, palace machinations and politics and magic.  At one point, Pampa and her daughters move away from the city and into the forest where they live for several generations.  Always, Pampa loves her city and does whatever she can to make it the best and most forward looking with equality for women and everyone involved in arts such as poetry, dance and painting.

I loved this novel.  It was the Rushdie we have come to know and love, reminiscent of some of his earlier books.  There is love, hatred, magic and a story that one is entranced by.  Readers will fall in love with Pampa and follow her enchanted life from start to finish with interest and involvement.  This book is recommended for literary fiction readers.   

White King by Juan Gomez-Jurado

 

Antonia Scott's partner, Jon Guttierrez, has been kidnapped.  They both work for the secret Red Queen project which solves crimes no one else can and which has a queen in every country.  Antonia is the Queen for Spain.  When the queens start to be killed, someone very good at counterterrorism is at play.  Is it the same person who kidnapped Jon?  Antonia has been pursued for several years by a man known as the White King.  He is the man who came to her house and shot her and her husband.  Her husband has been in a coma for the three years afterwards.  Does he now have Jon?

When Jon is released, it's with an added piece of equipment.  A bomb has been attached to his spine at the top.  It has a timer and can be set to go off either at a specified time or when those who attached it desire.  Antonia and Jon are told they have twenty-four hours to solve three cold cases.  They are given anywhere from two to six hours to solve each one, varying at the whim of the White King.  Can they solve the crimes and defeat the King?

This is the third installment in Antonia and Jon's story.  The series has been a huge hit in Spain where the author was raised and still lives.  Antonia is smarter than almost anyone but she underwent cruel training to sharpen her senses.  Jon was one of the best in the police force before he was recruited to partner with Antonia and keep her safe.  Now he is the one in danger.  The interplay between the two, the mystery of the White King and the fast paced action make this a book sure to please.  The ending was left ambivalent so there could be more stories later and I hope that happens.  This book is recommended for mystery and thriller readers.