Heart-Shaped Box by Joe Hill

 

Judas Coyne was one of the great of the metal era in rock.  But he hasn't toured or released anything in years.  The rest of his band has died and he just doesn't have the enthusiasm for it anymore.  He lives in his mansion with the latest groupie.  There have been so many that he just calls them by their birth state and this one is called Georgia although her name is Marybeth.

One day his assistant Danny shows him an online ad where someone is selling a ghost.  Judas is intrigued and tells Danny to buy it.  Soon an old man's suit arrives in a black heart-shaped box.  Judas assumes he's been rooked but soon he starts to see an old man in the hallways or wherever he is.

After investigating, he learns that this is the ghost of his last girlfriend's stepfather.  He put Florida on the bus one morning when her bipolar disorder needed treatment.  After getting home, Florida killed herself and her stepfather and sister blame Coyne, not the years of abuse she suffered as a child.  Now the stepfather is in Coyne's house and determined to make him pay.

This is Joe Hill's debut novel and it was praised from the beginning.  Of course, he is the son of Stephen King and King's wife Tabitha who are both authors so it's hardly surprising that he should be an author.  But the praise from media outlets for a debut novel are surprising and the book is definitely a great start for his career.  One of his talents is making everyday situations seem horrific and he does that in this novel, turning an unsympathetic Coyne into a hero.  This book is recommended for horror fans.

Counterplay by Robert Tanenbaum

 

Butch Karp is running for another term as New York District Attorney but things aren't going as smoothly as one might expect.  His arch-nemesis, Andrew Kane, has escaped from the maximum security prison where Butch put him.  Kane escapes during a prisoner transfer and a busload of schoolchildren are killed in the escape.  One of Kane's closest associates at work is getting ready to close his career due to illness.  All he wants before he goes is to prosecute a murderer who has avoided trail for fifteen years for the murder of his wife.  

Karp knows that Kane will try to target him through his family.  His wife, Marlene, works in counter-terrorism and is in constant danger from that.  She has gotten close with some of Butch's relatives who are involved with Russian terrorism.  Marlene and Butch's daughter is out West, with a cowboy boyfriend and living in a remote location.  Their twin sons are about twelve and not as willing to be protected as they once were.  

As the stakes get higher with the visit of the Pope to New York, can Butch protect those he loves?

Robert Tanenbaum is the author of twenty-nine books in the Butch Karp and Marlene Ciampi series.  This one is the eighteenth.  I've been reading these since the first one came out in 2010.  While the books follow intricate crimes, they are full of frantic action as Butch and his cohorts continue to fight evil and bring criminals to justice.  This book is recommended for thriller readers.   

Measuring The World by Daniel Kehlmann

 

In the early 1800's, two German scientists find ways to measure the world they inhabit and bring knowledge and clarity to areas that were undefined.  One is Alexander von Humboldt who is known for his travels and all of his scientific discoveries.  He visited South and Central America, parts of Europe, the United States, and Siberia and Central Asia.  He discovered many previously unknown plants and animals and made maps more accurate instead of just guesses.  He is well-known.

The other man, Carl Fredrich Gauss is a brilliant mathematician and astrologer.  He doesn't need to leave his home to visualize and prove the truths he discovers.  He formulated the golden theorem of number theory and the fundamental theorem of algebra.  He created the bell curve of statistics and discovered methods to accurately predict and find astrological bodies.  

The two men were very different.  Humboldt was in constant motion and was pretty much a loner.  He had one companion who accompanied him on his South American travels but left him behind when he returned to Europe.  Most these days consider him gay.  Gauss was interested in women early on and married young and had children.  When his first wife died, he remarried.  The two men met at the ends of their lives but prior to that had carried on correspondence and worked together on some projects.

I've been on a Daniel Kehlmann kick this year and this is his third novel that I've read.  This one is his debut novel and the mastery he will later develop is seen here in glimpses.  What I like most about him is that every novel is completely different.  This one outlines the lonely lives of those that explore our world and better define it and the sacrifices they make to do so.  The writing is clear which is another of his defining characteristics as an author.  This book is recommended for those interested in the discoveries of science and the development of an author who is increasingly important for his body of work.

How Beautiful We Were by Imbolo Mbue

 

The villagers of Kosawa in Africa have inhabited the land and the village from time immemorial.  But things are not good these days in the village.  An American oil company has come to extract the oil from the land and with no one to enforce standards, has created an environmental crisis.  The water has been turned into poison, killing the fish and making the people sick, especially the children who are dying.  The jungles are being destroyed, taking away the wild game the people depend on.  The head of the government cares only for the money he receives from the company and uses his soldiers to enforce their work.  

The villagers come together to try to decide what to do.  They decide to send a delegation to talk to the company but the men never return.  When another group tries, the company talks a good game but nothing changes until more serious action is taken.  That results in more tragedy for the village.

From despair, a new leader emerges.  Thula is a young girl who everyone knows is smart.  She is picked out to go to America for an education but her exposure there instead turns her into a revolutionary.  When she returns to Africa, can she effect meaningful change?

Imbolo Mbue is an African author from Cameroon.  This is her second novel and it was chosen as one of the Ten Best Books of The Year by such publications as the Kirkus Review, The New York Times Book Review, The Washington Post and Esquire.  It is an eye-opening telling of how environmental disasters can be perpetuated on native populations, destroying their way of life.  The balance between those who wish to fight and those who are willing to take whatever is offered by the company provides an interesting dynamic.  Thula is a fascinating character as she evolves in her views as she receives education and is exposed to those who have fought for various causes.  This book is recommended for multicultural and literary fiction readers.  

Dandelion by Jamie Chai Yun Liew

 

Lily grew up in British Columbia, Canada, the child of Southeast Asian immigrants.  Her father was determined to fit in but her mother desperately missed the land of her birth and youth and the relatives she had left behind there.  When Lily was eleven, her mother disappeared.  She and her sister thought her mother would return but her mother never did.  Her mother never wrote them, called them or sent them messages.  She just disappeared.

Now Lily is grown and has just had her own baby.  But something is wrong and Lily knows she will never be able to be a good mother until she solves the mystery of what happened to her own mother.  How had she just left them?  Did she not love them?  Was the same makeup in Lily and would she let down her own child?  Lily, her husband and the baby decide to visit her parent's home territory and see if she can find the answers she has wanted her whole life.

Jamie Chai Yun Liew is a Canadian author and lawyer.  Her legal work centers around immigration and she also hosts a podcast on this topic.  This is her debut novel and it won the Emerging Writers Award.  I listened to this novel and the narrator sounded exactly as I imagined Lily sounded.  Lily is a hurt soul and she fears she will never be whole until she solves the mystery that has defined her life.  Her husband is a great character who is very supportive of his wife's quest and her fears that she can never be a good mother.  Readers will relate to Lily as she unpeels layer and layer of secrets and clues.  This book is recommended for multicultural readers and those interested in family relationships.

The Land In Winter by Andrew Miller

 

This novel is set in the remote English countryside in 1962 and focuses on two different couples.  The Parrys are considered gentry, he one of the village doctors while she is a housewife who grew up in a typical middle-class family.  The Simmons are their neighbors across a large field and are farmers.  He comes from money but disapproves of his father and takes nothing from him while his wife grew up poor and a party girl.  He has a university education but decided that farming might be the life for him and Rita.

Both marriages are full of remoteness.  The doctor, Eric, is having an affair with one of the practice's patients, a rich lonely woman whose husband goes to London each day on business leaving her alone.  Bill Simmons is very introverted and spends his days doing farm chores and dreaming of big plans, leaving his extroverted wife Rita on her own.  Bored, one day Rita goes across the field, taking eggs to her neighbors.  Both Rita and Irene are pregnant and they bond over that.

When the greatest blizzard in history comes, the entire village is snowed in.  The trains can't run and the roads are impassable.  The village stores soon have empty shelves and relationships soon show strains.  Irene finds a note from her husband's mistress and vows to leave.  Rita is left on her own while Bill goes to London to ask his father for money to fund his plans for the farm.  Will everything have changed when the weather passes?

Andrew Miller is an English author whose work has gained much acclaim.  This novel was shortlisted for the Booker Prize and won both the Walter Scott and the Winston Graham Prize for Historical Fiction.  The writing draws the reader along and they become more and more deeply entrenched in these lives that have entangled due to proximity during both internal and external crisises.  Miller explores marriages, friendships, the impact of early childhood on adult lives as well as documenting what is known as The Big Freeze in English history.  This book is recommended for literary fiction readers.  

Death On Demand by Carolyn Hart

 

Annie Laurance has inherited her uncle's bookstore on the exclusive island of Broward's Rock.  It specializes in mysteries and there are several famous mystery authors also living there.  They make a point of getting together on Sunday evenings when the store is closed to other patrons and call themselves the Sunday Night Regulars.

But one Sunday things go awry.  Elliot Morgan, who owns the building, threatens to raise Annie's rent and run her out of business.  At the gathering he stands up and says he has secrets about everyone there and is writing a book that will expose everyone.  Then the lights to out and when they are restored, Morgan is dead.  

The next day Max Darling arrives.  He is a handsome, wealthy man who is determined to win Annie but she doesn't think he takes life seriously and resists his advances.  He agrees to help Annie find out who murdered Morgan as the police chief has Annie in his sights and believes she murdered her uncle as well.  As more and more victims start to accumulate, things aren't looking good for Annie.  Can she and Max solve the murders?

Carolyn Hart is a well-known author in the mystery genre.  This is the first Death On Demand entry but there are currently twenty-six novels in the series.  Annie is an interesting character but it's Max Darling that steals the show.  He is so determined to win Annie that the reader will fall in love with him, even if Annie won't admit she has as well.  There are plenty of suspects and the ending is satisfactory.  This book is recommended for mystery readers.  

Leviathan Wakes by James S.A. Corey

 

Man has pretty much conquered the solar system with colonies on Earth, Mars and the in-between Belt.  But though all three colonies are thriving, that doesn't mean they get along.  There is constant tension between Mars and Earth and both regard the Betweeners as they are called, as very different.

Jim Holden captains a ship that hauls ice from Jupiter to those places needing water.  While on a routine trip, they come across a salvage ship but when they go to explore, they find a secret they never expected.  A secret that could change everything.  

Detective Miller is a policeman, handling things like break-ins and other mundane police items.  He is pulled aside by his boss and given a secret job.  One of the wealthiest men on Earth wants someone to find his daughter and bring her home.  She had left years before and is associated with a radical group.   With tensions rising between Earth and Mars, he wants her home safe.

But as these two men handle their missions, they are brought together, sometimes as enemies, sometimes viewing each other with respect.  Holden releases information to the universe that precipitates a war between Earth and Mars with the rebel groups seeing a chance to get what they want as well.  Along with the war, they discover that a group of aliens from an immeasurable distance are also in the mix and that they have plans that are millenniums old.  

James S.A. Corey is the pen name of two science fiction authors, Daniel Abraham and Ty Franck.  This long book (over 700 pages) is only the beginning of the nine book series, The Expanse.  The series was also optioned and made into a Prime Video series.  The plotting is intricate and the characters are interesting.  I'm looking forward to the next adventure!  This book is recommended for science fiction readers.  

London Falling by Patrick Radden Keefe

 

On November 29th, 2019, a nineteen year old young man leaped from a fifth floor balcony to the Thames.  He did not survive the fall.  The police assumed it was suicide but his parents, well-to-do Londoners, weren't sure.  Zac Brettler, their son, had changed so much in his teenage years.  What they were to find out would shock them.  

Zac had been running a scam on everyone in his life.  He told people he was the son of a Russian oligarch and soon was running with the wealthy set that were billionaires.  He schemed his way into business deals and told his parents he didn't need university as he was making his own money.  The people he was associating with had lives of their own and some were scammers themselves or criminals.  Was Zac about to be found out and held to account for his lies?  He had been living with a wealthy man who it turned out, was one of the heads of criminal activity in London, strongarming money from others.  Did Zac jump because he was scared of what would happen next as his lies were being discovered or did he think he could survive the fall and just wanted to escape?

Patrick Radden Keefe is an American author who is known for his investigative reporting.  His previous books were about the IRA and about the opioid industry and epidemic.  In this book, he follows the years long battle of the Brettler family to find out what really happened to Zac.  He lays bare the criminal history of the middle-aged men who were associating with Zac and what might have happened as they discovered that they had been taken in by a mere teenager.  The reporting is intricate and so well researched and the reader will be fascinated with the story while wondering why the parents had let things get so out of control with their son.  This book is recommended for nonfiction readers. 

Home Before Dark by Riley Sager

 

Maggie Holt is determined to get answers.  Growing up, she barely remembers the couple of weeks her family lived in Baneberry Hall, a rambling mansion set back in the woods.  But she remembers the rest.  The book her father wrote after they fled the place outlining the horrors they encountered there.  The fame and money that book brought.  The way neither her father or mother would tell her what happened there and if the book was true.  And the avoidance the other kids gave her as they decided she was strange and not to be believed about anything.

Now Maggie's father has died and she is shocked to learn that he never sold the house and that she has inherited it.  Maggie and her partner renovate houses as a business so she decides to do the same with the Hall and sell it afterwards.  What will she remember?  She has lost the ability to get answers from her father and her mother is still refusing to talk.  Maggie was only five so she can't trust what she remembers.  

When she arrives, she discovers that there is still staff.  There is a handyman and the housekeeper, who is too old to work anymore, has a daughter who has taken her job.  Both live in cottages right outside the gate.  When Maggie tours the house, she starts to remember bits and pieces, especially when she goes into what was her bedroom, with a huge armoire that she remembers was where Mr. Whisper used to emerge from to scare her.  Things start to happen again.  There is a record player in the attic that her father used as a study that comes on randomly.  The bells connecting the rooms with the servant's quarters peal out at odd hours.  And is she seeing flashes of ghosts?  

Riley Sager is an American author who writes psychological thrillers.  In this novel, Maggie is determined to rectify the ignorance that her parents kept her in and discover the truth once and for all.  She realizes that through the decades, the daughters of the various owners had died of various things and that they seem to be the focus of whatever was happening in that house.  The mystery is revealed slowly and Maggie ends up knowing the truth and wondering if she really wanted it.  This book is recommended for mystery fans. 

Desert Places by Blake Crouch

 

Andrew Thomas has a successful life.  He's an author of thrillers and each has been more successful than the previous ones.  He lives in his native state of North Carolina on a lake and within an hour of his mother.  He's just about to release his latest book and start the round of book tours and signings when he gets a message.

The message tells him that a missing woman who is all over the news has been murdered and buried on his land.  If he doesn't do exactly as he is told, the police will be notified and the killer has planted Thomas' DNA on the body.  Andrew checks and sure enough, the body is where he was told.

He agrees to do as told and is soon knocked out and transported out to the mountains and deserts of Wyoming.  There he meets his captor and is shocked to see that it is his twin brother, Orson.  He hasn't seen Orson in decades, ever since the day Orson left their college dorm room and disappeared.   Now he is Orson's prisoner and Orson soon reveals what he has been doing all these years.  He is a serial killer and determined to bring Andrew into his life and make him do the same killings he has been pursuing for years.  Andrew is determined not to cave to Orson's demands, but little by little he is broken until he is doing things he never imagined.  Andrew realizes that the only way to free himself from Orson is to kill him and the hunt is on between the two.  Who will win?

Blake Crouch is an American author who writes in the thriller genre and has had both his Wayward Pines and his Dark Matter series adapted to tv series.  I love that he is a North Carolina author and that he writes about the places I recognize in my state.  This book will be too graphic for some readers and if sensitive this is probably not the book for you.  But it is an intriguing take and very suspenseful as the brothers are locked in a battle for supremacy.  This book is recommended for thriller readers.  

The Murder Book by Mark Billingham

 

Things are going well at work for DI Tom Thorne.  Nicola Tanner, who he worked with before after the death of her partner, has transferred in to the homicide squad and is partnered with Thorne.  He and Helen have broken up but he is dating another woman, a psychiatrist who in addition to her private practice consults with the squad when they need a profiler.  When a set of grisly murders pop up, Thorne and Tanner are able to find the murderer and stop her spree after three murders.

But things are afoot.  It turns out that the woman is only a catspaw for a man in Thorne's past who has the most evil man Thorne has encountered.  He and Thorne have a long relationship as Thorne was the man who caught him and imprisoned him and also the man who years later, let him escape from an island where he had been sent to find the man's original victims.  Now he has popped up again, determined to ruin Thorne's life by taking away everything and everyone that Thorne loves.  Can he be stopped in time?

This is the eighteenth Tom Thorne mystery and I really will be sad to see the series come to an end with the next book.   I was disappointed to see he and Helen were no longer together but Fiona seems a good replacement for Tom.  In addition to his long-time friendship with Phil Hendricks, the pathologist, Tom and Nicola have also developed a good relationship as partners and friends.  The man they are chasing is Tom's Moby Dick and it's unclear who will eventually win.  This book is recommended for mystery readers.  

The True True Story Of Raja The Gullible by Rabih Alameddine

 

Raja is sixty-three and lives in a tiny Beirut apartment.  He has always lived in Beirut and is a philosophy teacher.  He values his privacy not the least because he was kidnapped as a teenager and talked about all over the neighborhood when he was released because he broke free wearing a dress.  His despicable brother has scammed Raja's octogenarian mother out of all her savings, including selling her apartment, so Raja moves her in with him.   She is the ultimate extrovert and knows everyone in the neighborhood and their stories.  She insists on knowing everything about Raja which she then shares with all her friends.

Then things get even worse.  The relatives Raja despised the most are his elderly aunt who started the wildest rumors about Raja as a gay man after the kidnapping and his cousin who spent her childhood beating him up.  But when they lose their apartment, Raja's mother moves them in as well.  Soon Raja has no privacy but he gains something more; love of his family.

Rabih Alameddine is a Lebanese author who is also an artist.  This novel won the National Book Award in 2025.  The journey Raja takes from a curmudgeonly introvert to a man who learns to value family and friends is one the reader will enjoy taking with him.  The interplay between the characters who have to endure wars and rumors of wars is interesting and overall, the book is entertaining.  This book is recommended for literary fiction readers. 

Tyll by Daniel Kehlmann

 

In a small Austrian village, one boy is not content to grow up and live a routine life.  He teaches himself to walk a tightrope and to juggle.  When his father who is the miller is singled out by witchhunters for his interest in books, Tyll and the baker's daughter, Nela, run away.  They find a mentor and become traveling folk, singing, dancing and entertaining as they move from village to village.

Over the years, Tyll and Nela are there for many of the biggest events of the time.  They spend time in a monastery, a circus, on the road, and at the court of the King and Queen of Winter, a foolish pair whose ambitions start the Thirty Year War.  Tyll remains an elusive figure, skilled not only in acrobatics and entertainment but in manipulation of those around him.

Daniel Kehlmann is a German writer and is rapidly becoming one of my favorite authors.  Each one of his books is very different from the next and that is a characteristic that I look for in an author.  Tyll was shortlisted for the International Booker as was Kehlmann's latest novel, The Director.  The character in this novel was based on the medieval trickster, Tyll Ulenspiegel.  This book is recommended for readers of historical and literary fiction.

The Collector by Fiona Cummins

 

Brian Howley is known as the Butcher of Browley for his serial killings.  His niche is collecting victims with deformities and then saving their skeletons in his museum.  He even captured DS Etta Fitzroy a few months back but she managed to escape and Howley disappeared.

Now he is back with a new identity and a determination to settle the score with Fitzroy.  He has kidnapped a young girl with pincher hands and is holding her until he is ready to 'collect' her.  He also has his eye on a young boy with myriad disabilities that restrict him to a wheelchair.  Crowley is also grooming a young teenager from a dysfunctional home to become his mentee and eventual partner.  

But Etta is determined to catch Howley and put an end to his crimes.  Her police superiors don't believe her theories and attempt to reign her in but she knows she has to do this even if it ends her career.  Can she stop Howley in time?

Fiona Cummins is a British author who is a former journalist.  This book is the second in a series with the first telling the story of when Howley captured Fitzroy and how she escaped.  It is a chilling read as this killer targets children who have already been born with more challenges than most people ever encountered.  The ease with which Howley moves around the country and manages to evade the police net in place to catch him is amazing and disspiriting.  I found the ending quite dramatic and satisfying.  This book is recommended for mystery readers.

Murder Takes A Vacation by Laura Lippman

 

Muriel Blossom had a mid-life surprise.  Walking along the street, she found a lottery ticket and it turned out to be for a huge amount of money.  Retired from her job as a private investigator, she has to decide what she will do with the rest of her life as her husband has passed and her daughter and family are moving to Japan.  Muriel buys a condo back in Baltimore, her hometown, and books a cruise, paying for her best friend to go with her.

Before the cruise, Muriel decides to treat herself to a week in Paris.  When she misses her connection to Paris in London, she is consoled by a man on the plane who spends the day with her touring London.  She wonders if this could be something for the future.  Landing in Paris, she starts sightseeing but soon realizes that someone is following her.  Why her?  She meets a younger man who tells her he is a designer and takes her shopping to do over her wardrobe.  But it turns out he is an FBI agent and the man she met in London died the next day in a fall from a balcony and is suspected of being a thief.  

Muriel and her friend start the cruise but soon her friend is eyeing a man for her fourth husband and Muriel is left on her own quite a bit.  She makes a few friends and realizes that the FBI agent (or is he?) is also on the cruise.  What has she gotten herself into?

Laura Lippman is known as one of the genre's best and most prolific authors.  Muriel is a character from her Tess Monaghan detective series as she works for Tess as a private investigator.  Lippman gets the feel of being middle-aged to elderly perfect as Muriel is able to go unnoticed when she wants to be as women become invisible as they age.  She also captures the reality of so many women having to reinvent their lives as their husbands are no longer with them, either through divorce or death.  The mystery is intriguing and the resolution is satisfying.  This book is recommended for mystery fans.