The Shadow Land by Elizabeth Kostova

 

Alexandra Boyd has come to Bulgaria to teach English and to honor the memory of her brother whose dream had been to come there.  She comes a week or so before her job starts so that she can tour the country and get situated.  The cab from the train takes her to the wrong hotel so she is standing outside it deciding  what to do when she notices some elderly people trying to get into a cab with their possessions.  There is an old man in a wheelchair, a woman the same age and a middle-aged man who is probably their son.  Alexandra goes and helps and in the process, one of their bags ends up mixed in with hers.  The cab has left and she looks in the bag to see if she can find some identification so she can return it.  She is taken aback to see that it contains an urn with cremated ashes and a name, Stoyan Lazarov.

Even more determined to return such a honored possession, Alexandra gets in a cab.  It turns out to be driven by a man who says to call him Bobby and when she explains, he decides to help her return the urn.  Thus are the two drawn into the history of the Lazarov family.  Stoyan had been a violinist around the time of World War II and the taking over of Bulgaria by Russia.  Like many artists, he is declared a criminal working against the government and placed in a labor camp where he almost dies.  

Over the next few days, Alexandra and Bobby go to a monastery, the police and villages from the mountains to the sea.  They find people who know the trio they are seeking and even some relatives but they can't find a trace of the three they are looking for.  Along the way, they find a hidden compartment in the urn in which Stoyan had told his story of the camps and all that occurred there.  Soon they realize that someone else is interested in the urn and the story and will kill to get it.  Where is the family?  Who will end up with the urn?

From the 1940's up to the late 1980's there were over a hundred of these labor camps in Bulgaria.  Although they were said to be operated by criminal labor, most of the inhabitants were merely those the government considered a threat for one reason or another.  Tens of thousands of Bulgarians were confined in these camps.  Elizabeth Kostova is an American author whose three novels are extensively researched.  She married a Bulgarian scholar and in this novel tells the story that was hidden in Bulgarian history.  This is her third and most recent novel, published in 2017, and is recommended for readers of historical and literary fiction.  

These Violent Delights by Micah Nemerever

 

Some love affairs are best never started.  If Paul and Julian had never met, three lives would not have been ruined.  Paul is an introverted young man, just starting college and trying to rebuild his life after his father, who he idolized, dies.  Although Paul is shy, he is also convinced that most people around him are his intellectual inferiors.  He is the only person he knows in his middle class life who loves art and poetry.  His dream is to become a scientist, perhaps studying the butterflies he has always collected.

Julian is the opposite.  From money, he has the assurance and confidence of those who have always been provided for and who know their lives are set up to be a success.  He is also convinced that most people around him don't know how to live the life that he anticipates for himself full of beauty and literature.  He can dismiss others with a word or even a glance.

When these two encounter each other in college, they are instantly drawn together.  Since both are gay, it is not long before they form a romantic relationship.  Paul would do anything to please Julian yet he is the dominant one in their lovemaking.  Julian takes as a project the task of convincing Paul he is as good a person as Julian sees him.  This sets up a relationship where the stakes are constantly being raised as each tries to convince the other that they would do anything for the other and the life they want together.

Unfortunately, that results in their project.  They decide to kill someone who deserves to die to seal their love forever.  They choose someone who was involved in war atrocities.  They spend weeks planning their crime, sure that it cannot fail.  Yet after the crime, things do not go as they had planned.

This is a debut novel and was released to great anticipation in many quarters.  The author, Micah Nemerever, writes that he was these young men, lonely in so many way, offput by most people he met yet yearning for a relationship that could sustain him.  It is also, of course, influenced by such true crime cases as Leopold and Leob and Parker and Hulme.  The reader is drawn into the fevered world of these two men and the bad choices they make as a result of their love for each other.  This book is recommended for readers of literary fiction. 

You Dreamed Of Empires by Alvaro Enrigue

 

This novel is about the clash of two cultures in the early 1500's.  One is the Aztec culture, centered in Mexico and specifically the capital city of Tenochititlan, today's Mexico City.  The emperor is Moctezuma.  The other culture is that of Spain, represented by Hernan Cortes, who has sailed to the New World with an army and horses to conquer the natives and establish a treasure pipeline.

Moctezuma is an absolute ruler.  No one is allowed to look him in the eye or speak until he gives permission.  He condemns those he perceives as crossing him or not showing enough respect to death offhandedly.  The Aztec gods demand human sacrifice and there is a constant need.  He is married to his sister who walks out of the welcome luncheon for the visitors.  The visitors have two things that are unique to the Aztecs and which they desire.  The first is the horse.  If the Aztecs had those in large amounts, their wars would be very different.  The other is the gun which is a weapon unimagined by the natives.  Cortes and Spain want to establish their Christian religion in place of the Aztec gods.  

Which culture will emerge successful?  We see the emperor toying with what he considers his captives, manipulating them in various ways and staying high on hallucinatory plants.  We see Cortes, lying also about his intentions, each planning in subtle ways to annihilate the other.  

Alvaro Enrigue is a Mexican novelist and this is his only novel translated into English.  The translator is Natasha Wimmer, known for her translation of Roberto Bolano's novels 2666 and The Savage Detectives.  The reader will learn about the Aztec culture and also that of the conquistadors who came to conquer and plunder for their king and treasure.  The clash between the two cultures and the mistaken assumptions each make about the other lead to the final confrontation between them.  This book is recommended for readers of historical and literary fiction.

Hyperion by Dan Simmons

 

The time is centuries into the future and all the worlds of the universe are part of the Hegemony.  That is, except for some outriders such as Hyperion.  It has not yet been brought into the Hegemony due to the local inhabitants and the Shrike.  The Shrike is a monster that kills everything it sees and lives in the Valley of the Time Tombs where time moves backward.  After death, it hangs the souls of those it destroys on its trophy tree.

Seven pilgrims have been given the task of going to Hyperion, finding the Shrike and destroying it and figuring out how time can move backward at the Time Tombs location.  There is a famous general, a female private eye, a poet, a scholar, a priest, a government official and the captain of the ship.  They all know one thing; there is a spy among them dedicated to making sure their mission never succeeds.

On the trip, each tells a story.  The general tells of his female lover who shows up during and after battles.  The scholar has a baby with him, Rachel, but she was a grown woman before she visited the Time Tombs and started aging backwards.  The private investigator tells of her time with a cybrid who wants to become human.  The others tell their stories as well and each supplies a clue to the events currently taking place.

Dan Simmons is known as a master in the genres of science fiction and horror.  After he finished university, Simmons taught writing in the public schools for eighteen years.  Since then he has written full time and has won a Hugo, a Bram Stoker, a Locus, a World Fantasy and other awards.  This is the first novel in the four part Hyperion series and the novel he won the Hugo Award for.  The novel reminds me of the Canterbury tales, where seven strangers come together for a mission and each tells his or her individual story.  The stories merge together into the background of the mission and how to move forward.  This masterpiece is recommended for science fiction readers.    

What Happened To The McCrays? by Tracey Lange

 

When Kyle McCray finally checks his voicemail, he learns that his father has had a serious stroke two days ago.  Kyle left Potsdam, his hometown, almost three years ago after a tragedy.  He drifted for a long time but recently has set down some roots on the West Coast.  But he knows his father needs him now so he packs up and heads home.

Kyle had basically left without cutting ties, leaving his wife of sixteen years, Casey, behind because he thought that's what she needed.  He walked out on his business, his coaching, his friends and everything he loved trying to bring her peace.  But now he's back and he has to face the facts of what his leaving has done to everyone.

Kyle slowly starts working his way back into the life of the town.  He helps out in his former garage and helps his brother-in-law in his woodshop where he makes custom furniture.  He helps his father and finally starts to build a strong relationship there.  The local middle school ice hockey team is terrible and he agrees to coach them, building their skills and gaining their respect and affection.  But can he rebuild anything with Casey?

Tracey Lange's work explores family dynamics and how they can go terribly wrong.  The rifts in Kyle's life are almost all caused by miscommunication or no communication and the fact that everyone he knows blames themselves for the tragedy that drove Kyle away.  He and Casey are the worst in that regard and until they can hash out what happened, there's no chance at reconciliation.  The reader will find themselves falling a bit for Kyle who is a decent man trying to build his life back.  This book is recommended for women's fiction readers.  

The Latecomer by Jean Hanff Korelitz

 

Salo and Johanna Oppenheimer are living a life of wealth as they start their marriage.  Salo comes from a wealthy family that donates Old Masters to various museum.  Salo doesn't really care; when the two of them meet he doesn't care about much of anything.  His life is overshadowed by a car wreck in which he was the driver and his girlfriend and best friend were killed.  One other girl survived but was hospitalized.  How can he go on after such an event?

But life must go on and Salo's does.  He married Johanna even if he doesn't exactly love her.  She is head over heels for him and devotes her life to him.  The two want children but it isn't happening.  Eventually they go the IVF route and end up with triplets; Sally, Lewyn and Harrison.  One would think the triplets would be close but they grow up sharing almost nothing; each one just wants to be a person on their own instead of part of a group.  Johanna devotes herself to her family while Salo's passion is art and he collects paintings that end up being worth a fortune.

The rest of the novel follows the lives of the Oppenheimers.  The twins grow up and head off to college.  Salo falls in love with  another woman from his past and for years he moves between the two women.  Johanna realizes his affair about the time the triplets are leaving the home and she decides to use the last fertilized egg that remains in storage and thus Phoebe is born.  Phoebe grows up and an only child due to the age difference and before she in turn leaves she is determined to get the entire family together and end all the family secrets.  Will that work?

This novel won much acclaim.  It was a New York Times Notable book, an NPR Best Book Of The Year and a Washington Post Notable Work Of Fiction.  Balancing the lives of all these characters and bringing all the secrets into the open is a difficult feat that Korelitz pulls off with grace.  The reader will cheer for some characters, dislike others and feel sorry for some.  The novel explores what is it that makes a family and why are family secrets left to fester and ruin lives?  This book is recommended for readers of literary fiction.  

Lady Tan's Circle Of Women by Lisa See

 

Tan Yunxian loses her mother at a young age when her bound feet become infected.  Tan is sent to be raised by her father's parents as his government position requires constant travel.  Tan loves her grandparents, especially her grandmother who is one of the few Chinese women doctors and who trains Tan in her profession.  She is also introduced to the best friend she will ever have, Meiling.  Meiling is the daughter of the local midwife and learning that profession.  While the two girls are of different social status, they develop a friendship that cannot be broken.

When Tan is fifteen, she is married to the man picked by her father, the son of a rich merchant family.  Once she is inside the gates there, she is not to leave.  She must do everything her mother-in-law says and her only purpose is to have a son that can carry on the family name.  Tan cannot give up her knowledge and slowly begins to treat some of the women in the household.  There are many as a rich family's women consists of all the wives of the family, the children, the concubines and the spinsters and widows of the family.

Lisa See is Chinese American and her books are based on extensive research.  In this book, Tan Yunxian was a real person and a real woman doctor.  The reader learns about Chinese medicine and culture, the practice of bound feet and their purpose, and the scheming and duplicity that often arose in the large group of women living in the inner chambers.  It focuses on the real love between Tan and Meiling as well as the love each woman had for her husband and children.  This book is recommended for readers of historical and women's fiction.

Little Threats by Emily Schultz

 

Kennedy Wynn is being released from prison.  Now thirty-one, she has been there since she was seventeen, convicted of killing her best friend, Haley.  The thing is, Kennedy doesn't know if she did it.  She and Haley and her boyfriend were doing drugs that night.  She knows that Haley was also in love with her boyfriend and that he was playing them both.  But did she kill Haley in the woods or did she just find her once her drugs had worn off?

The world hasn't stopped like Kennedy did in prison.  Her twin, Carter, had been Kennedy's biggest advocate but stopped coming to see in the months prior to her release and now seems distant.  Her father, Gerry, just wants everything to be the same and for his girls to be the same as they were as teenagers.  Haley's family used the tragedy to pull themselves out of poverty.  Since Kennedy pled guilty, Haley's family filed a civil suit against the Wynn's and won a huge settlement, increasing the animosity between the two families.  Except for Carter.  She has recently started an affair with Everett, Haley's brother and neither of them are sure where that is headed.  

Now that Kennedy is out, the secrets start to emerge.  Did Kennedy kill Haley?  Or was it someone else?

Emily Schultz is known for her writing in this genre.  She explores the relationships that surround a tragedy with a deft hand, leaving the reader to wonder what really happened.  She also explores family relationships and what we owe our birth family as we mature and become adults.  Should they always be our first responsibility?  Should we stand up for them over anyone outside that family?  Who can be sacrificed and why?  This book is recommended for mystery readers.  

Margo's Got Money Troubles by Rupi Thorpe

 

Adulting hasn't turned out like Margo expected.  When her English professor wanted to start an affair, she wasn't sure how to say no so agreed.  When she gets pregnant, he wants her not to have the baby but she decides to.  That's the good part of adulting; when Bodhi is born she finds a love that is more than anything she has ever experienced.  But being a single mom is no picnic.  Margo is broke and she gets fired from her waitressing job because she can't find child care and even if she did, it would cost as much as she could make.

Margo's parents never married.  Her mother, Shyanne, moves from one man to the next, looking for stability she never quite seems to find.  Her father, Jinx, is a former pro wrestler who had a wife and other family elsewhere.  He is a larger than life character but his life has been marred by his serial cheating and his opiate addiction caused by the injuries in wrestling.  

When Margo is about to get evicted, she knows something must change.  Two of her roommates are moving out leaving only Margo and Suzi to make the rent and Suzi is more broke than Margo.  Jinx comes to town, falls in love with Bodhi and decides to move in and help.  Margo finds a job online but it's porn adjacent, posting semi-nude photos of herself and gaining subscribers.  She has one subscriber, JB, who she starts an online relationship with that feels different than the rest.  But the professor has decided to file for custody and someone has turned her in to Social Services as an unfit mother.  Can Margo make everything work?

Rufi Thorpe has written a laugh out loud book in which the reader will fall in love with Margo.  No matter what the troubles that pile up, Margo faces them all heads on and refuses to give up.  She will do anything to make a better life for Bodhi and her intelligence and creativeness may take her far.  I loved so many of these characters.  Jinx is a larger than life character who loves Margo and Bodhi and does anything he can to protect them.  JB may be the perfect romance but can Margo afford the time for a committed relationship?  Margo herself is such a resilient, empathic character that one can't help but love her and root for her to make sense of it all.  This book is recommended for literary and women's fiction readers.  

Pro Bono by Thomas Perry

 

Charlie Warren is an attorney but it wasn't an easy road getting there.  Charlie's father died when he was young and his mother remarried.  Unfortunately, she married a con man and he took all of the family's money before he disappeared.  Charlie had to put himself through college and law school and the experience of his life molded his practice.  He has a civil practice and specializes in helping those who have experienced what his mother did.

His newest client fits the bill.  Vesper Ellis was widowed three years ago.  Her husband left her well off but after his death, she grieved him and then was busy with her own business.  She didn't track her investments but now that she has, she realizes that her accounts are missing money.  She comes to Charlie to see if he can help.  After investigating, he discovers that the malfeasance is concentrated at two different brokerages and that the managers of Vesper's accounts are related.  He notifies the brokerages that he will be filing a civil case on Vesper's account.  But that stirs up trouble.  Soon the two are being followed and there is even personal violence attempted.  

In the meantime, a strange thing occurs.  It turns out that there may be a way after all these years to salvage his mother's money.  Charlie is given evidence that reveals his stepfather's real name and a way to retrieve the money that was hidden in various accounts and taken over by the states he opened accounts in.  Charlie notifies his mother and she returns to Los Angeles to help Charlie.  Can he get justice for his mohter?

Thomas Perry is known for his intricately plotted mystery novels.  He has several successful series; the Jane Whitfield novels where she helps people disappear, the Butcher Boy series about a criminal family and The Old Man which is now a television series.  I've often thought if I needed to disappear and managed to do so successfully, it would be because of what I've learned from Thomas Perry's books.  In this novel, Charlie Warren opens up the world of legal practice, giving readers an inside look at the intricacies of civil cases.  I listened to this novel and the narrator had a clear voice that moved the action along.  This book is recommended for mystery readers.  

Lazy Bones by Mark Billingham

 

Things are always changing with Tom Thorne's Major Crimes team.  There is a new female detective and transfer Andy Stone is there, at least for now and as needed. Holland and his girlfriend are about to have a baby.  Thorne's days are pretty much the same.  Work until all hours, check in on his dad when he could, sleep and then go at it again.  One thing never changes.  There are always new murders.

The newest ones are grisly.  Men are being lured to hotel rooms, where they are tortured and killed after being raped.  The victims are all men who have been convicted of rape and served time.  They emerge from prison sure they have paid their debt but someone thinks there is more to pay.  Another similarity is that the killer always calls and orders a floral wreath for the victim.  Thorne becomes involved with one of the florists, a woman called Evie Bloom.  Will she become a fixture in his life?

This is the third in the Tom Thorne series.  Thorne suffers a break-in at his apartment in this one and it is interesting to see how he reacts as a crime victim himself.  The usual other characters are here, the overbearing bosses who are only interested in clearance rates and Thorne's pathologist friend.  The plot slowly unfolds and is surprising.  This book is recommended for mystery readers.

Hester by Laurie Lico Albanese

 Isobel Gamble is a Scottish immigrant who comes to the United States, specifically Salem, Massachusetts, in the early 1800's.  She is a seamstress and her family is known for that and for being the relatives of an infamous woman, the first Isobel in the family who was tried as a witch.  Isabel married Edward Gamble and suspects she made a mistake.  He is a gambler and an addict and her introduction to married life has not been pleasant.  On the trip over, he serves as the ship doctor and only a few days after they land, takes off again with the ship, leaving Isobel t make her way as she can.

She finds there is prejudice against the Scottish there but slowly she begins to settle in.  She finds friends in the black family the next farm over and with other serving girls and seamstresses.  She finds a job in a dress shop but the owner is cruel and claims Isobel's work as her own, making Isobel's dream of opening her own shop impossible.  Isobel is slowly being pulled under when she meets Nathaniel.

Nathaniel Hathorne is from one of the town's most famous families.  He feels pressure to live up to his family name and never bring disgrace to it although he disapproves of his forebears including a judge in the Salem witch trials.  He and Isobel are drawn together from their first glance and eventually start an affair.  When Isobel becomes pregnant, she must either get a commitment from Nathaniel or find a way to survive on her own.

This is a retelling of The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne.  The author believes it may be possible that there was a real Hester in Hawthorne's life as the rest of his novels are based on his own life and has written a novel imaging what that relationship could have been like.  Along the way, the reader learns about slavery in the North with slave catchers, about fine embroidery in a time that all clothes were sewn by hand and about the mores of Colonial America.  The author is a novelist and journalist and those journalist features are demonstrated in the extensive research she has done for this novel which won many awards.  Readers will be drawn into Isobel's life and wonder what they would have done in her place.  This book is recommended for readers of historical, women and literary fiction.  

Bringer Of Dust by J.M. Miro

 

This is the second novel in the Talents trilogy.  At the end of the first novel, the Talents Institute was in flames, many of the children dead.  Some of the survivors have gone to France, some to London.  The orsine between the worlds which came open has been closed at great cost and little Marlowe has been trapped on the wrong side.  Charlie has lost his talent in the closing.

But there is word of a second orsine.  The survivors know if they are ever to get Marlowe back, they must find it and find a way to get Marlowe through it.  There are new characters introduced in the novel.  There is a bone witch who starts as an enemy of the survivors.  Clacker Jack rules the underground of London, many of whom are like him, a Talent who lost their powers.  He is determined to get back that power by any means.  He has three feral children, a brother and two sisters, who will do his bidding and are deadly.  

This is quickly becoming one of my favorite fantasy series.  The plotting and writing is dense and intricate like a Dickens novel.  There are many characters and the reader can't help but emphasize with Charlie and the others trying to save Marlowe.  Charlie becomes more prominent in this novel and the last is set up to be an epic battle between good and evil.  This book is highly recommended for fantasy readers.  

Assembly by Natasha Brown

 

We never learn the name of the narrator of this novel, but we know a lot about her and her life.  She is a black British woman, the daughter and granddaughter of Jamaican immigrants.  She is brilliant and worked to get scholarships that allowed her to graduate with high degrees.  She has worked in financial services and banking and has just gotten a huge promotion that she has worked for all her career.  She has a rich white boyfriend, one of the landed gentry.

But there's a flip side.  She feels the racism, mostly covert these days, in every action and conversation.  She is the one chosen to make the school presentations, the face of diversity.  She gets the automatic assumption that she has her job and position only because of a need to show evenhandedness in hiring and promotion.  Occasionally, the racism on the street is more overt.  

This weekend, she is to attend a huge garden party for the weekend at her boyfriend's parents' estate, the place he grew up.  But she has also gotten news of a health issue, one that is serious.  Is it worth the fight it will take to defeat it or is she just too tired of fighting?

Natasha Brown knows the life she writes about.  She was the British girl with the great education and she worked in financial services.  This novel won acclaim and it should have.  It was the Foyles Book Of The Year and won a Betty Trask award.  I don't think I've ever read a book that made it clearer the life that POC live, the way that every conversation can be loaded with racist assumptions and how true accomplishments are waved aside as things that had to be done for appearance's sake.  It is a short novel but it hits extremely hard.  This book is recommended for literary fiction readers.  

Kill All The Judges by William Deverell

 

Arthur Beauchamp's retirement isn't going as he thought it would.  His grandson is visiting for the summer and he likes that.  But his wife Margaret has declared for the Green Party seat and he's not sure he likes that.  Several judges in the area have been killed in the past year and he knows he doesn't like that.

The one getting the most notice is the one in which Arthur's nemesis, Cudworth Brown, is charged.  Cudworth had spent a week or so on a platform up a tree with Margaret in a forestry protest and rumors had flown.  This time, Cud, a poet and ladies' man, had gone to an authors' dinner at a judge's residence.  He and the judge's wife got frisky during dinner and had a rendezvous afterwards.  Sometime during the night, the judge went over the balcony and died and Cud was arrested.  In spectacularly bad timing, Cud's lawyer has had a breakdown due to his divorce and is hospitalized and everyone wants Arthur to take Cud's case.  Arthur surely doesn't want to but feels the pressure.  Can he save the day?

This is the third Arthur Beauchamp novel.  Readers will learn about the Canadian government and courts as well as the British Columbian province.  There are plenty of eccentric characters to round out the cast. Arthur has a new lawyer for an assistant, there's a legal secretary from Hong Kong who seems mysterious, the local mechanic is full of schemes and Margaret's candidacy isn't helping his marriage.  The plot is twisty but tight and the reader will enjoy the unraveling of the crime.  I listened to this novel and the narrator was perfect for Arthur's character, understated but at the top of his game just like Arthur.  This book is recommended for mystery readers.   

NOS4A2 by Joe Hill

 Vic McQueen has a secret.  When she is on her bike and riding as fast as she can, a bridge appears and when she crosses it, on the other side is a world in which she can find lost items.  Maybe it's a bracelet her mother left in a restaurant.  Maybe it's money.  Maybe it's a new friend.  But Vic doesn't tell anyone in this world about her other one.

There is evil in both worlds.  When Vic is seventeen, she is kidnapped by Charlie Manx, who takes children for rides in his 1938 Rolls-Royce with the license plate of NOS4A2, a play on the European vampire's name.  He takes the children to a place he calls Christmasland where the rides are free and everyone eats as much candy as they want.  But they also play dark games and over time the children become vampires as well.  They never return to their parents.  

Vic manages to escape, burning down Manx's house and given a ride out of that world by Lou, a teenager who happens to be riding by on his motorcycle.  She and Lou become an item, Charlie Manx is arrested and charged with her kidnapping.  She testifies against him and he is sent to jail.

Years later, Vic is grown but her life hasn't turned out to be a fairy tale.  She is still with Lou, off and on, and they had a child, Wayne, who mostly lives with Lou.  Vic has been in and out of mental institutions as no one believes her story of another world and convince her that it is the hallucination of a diseased mind.  Manx dies in prison after being in a five year coma.  Vic is trying to put her life back together with Wayne spending the summer with her when he is kidnapped and she knows by who.  She sees Charlie and his sidekick in that Rolls-Royce as they drive away with Wayne and she knows no one can save him but her.  

Joe Hill has written some of the best horror/mystery that I've read.  I loved his book The Fireman and I loved this one.  The villain is scary and powerful, the horrors are believable and Vic is a damaged hero that the reader can't help but love.  Her love for her child and Lou are unmistakable and she is brave enough to do anything to save them.  This book is recommended for horror readers.

Slow Horses by Mick Herron

 

There's a place where disgraced spies go.  It's called Slough House and it's ruled by Jackson Lamb, a former top spy.  If you're a spy, several things can get you assigned to Slough House.  Maybe you messed up an assignment so badly that no one trusts you to ever get it right.  Maybe you slept with the wrong person.  Maybe you were done in by a coworker who wanted that promotion you were about to get and sabotaged you.  Regardless, once you're there, you're not leaving.

In London, everyone is transfixed to their television or laptops.  A young man has been kidnapped and a group of men say they are going to behead him online.  Who could he be and who are the group behind the kidnapping?  The young man is named Hassan and he is from a Pakistani immigrant family; his uncle who stayed behind is high up in the government.  As to who kidnapped him, the group claiming credit is called Sons Of Albion but who are they?

Back at Slough House, several of the agents get caught up in the event.  River Cartwright has a family history of working for the government as a spy but failed his assessment and ended up stealing trash of a character of interest and going through it for clues.  Sid shares an office with him and there are some sparks between her and River.  Catherine is the oldest resident of Slough House and is the former secretary of the former head of MI5 before he was disgraced and she became an alcoholic.  There is a computer whiz and an agent who left classified material on a train.  But all see the event as a chance to make good and maybe make it back into the ranks of MI5.

Except Lamb.  He sees through the plot to what is really going on behind the scenes.  Although he hates to get involved, he hasn't forgotten his skills or his ability to protect himself and those around him when he can be bothered to.  

This is the first in the Slough House series of which there are currently nine novels.  In this one, we are introduced to the series characters, especially Lamb and Cartwright.  The plotting is tight and the language is spot on and full of wry reserved English humor.  Readers who read this one will turn the last page determined to start the next in the series and find out what's in store for the Slough House characters.  This book is recommended for spy and thriller readers.  

Scaredy Cat by Mark Billingham

 

Tom Thorne has a new member on his team now that the crime divisions have been reorganized.  Sarah McEnvoy is new to the team and the area but seems to be fitting in to the Serious Crime team.  But fitting in has to happen fast because crime is never in short supply.  The most recent case is one that hits Thorne hard.  A woman is killed, strangled to death in her home and in front of her son, barely more than a toddler.  In a coincidence, another woman is found the same day, killed the same way and left in a tube station.

As the team investigates, they find another pairing of murders several months back.  Those two women were both stabbed.  Although the methods are different, the chances of pairs of murders, done the same way, on the same day, just doesn't seem likely to happen by chance.  The team realizes that they have a pair of murderers.

Although the murderers are killing at the same time, one is much more savage than the other.  Thorne realizes that like most pairs of killers, there is one who is leading the way and planning the murders and another who is doing his job according to instructions from the leader.  Is this a male/female pair as many of these duel killers are?  Are they men who recently found each other and created a new past time, or men who might have been friends from childhood, when the roles of leader and follower are created in friendships?  Even more important, can Thorne and his team find them before they kill again?

This is the second novel in the Tom Thorne series.   While this series has been a huge hit in England, where Billingham lives, it is not as well known in the United States, although it should be.  This is an intricate police procedural that delivers twists and turns.  The book explores the relationships between the various members of the team and the hierarchy that is concerned with numbers and the press.  There are now nineteen books in this series and I can't wait to continue to read about Thorne and his team.  This book is recommended for mystery readers.  

All Fours by Miranda July

 When a female artist receives an unexpected payment of twenty thousand dollars, she decides to go to New York for a week with her friends.  Her husband is supportive and can handle home and their child.  After he makes a comment about those who dare to try new things, she decides that rather than flying, she will drive cross country.  Since she lives in California, that will extend the trip from a week to three weeks but soon it's all arranged and she departs.

But she never makes it there.  Half an hour from home, she stops to get gas and makes eye contact with a man there.  She goes to eat and he is there also.  Seeing it as a sign, she checks into a motel, fairly seedy.  She knows that the room isn't what she wants for a sexual encounter so instead of going to New York, she spends the twenty thousand turning the motel room into a luxury suite, new wall coverings, carpet, furniture, bed, towels, everything is new and luxurious.  She connects with the man who is about fifteen years younger than her and the two have a two week relationship; no sex but love and total intimacy.

When she returns home, she knows things can't go back to normal.  Over the next few months, she and her husband fight and reconcile, hammering out a new relationship in which each of them can be free and unconstrained by anything except their overriding obligation to provide a safe and loving home for their child.  

This book gained a lot of buzz.  It was a National Book Award Finalist and gained top honors at NPR, the Washington Post, Time Magazine and other publications.  Miranda July is an author and filmmaker, born to parents who were both authors.  The novel explores the complicated relationships we enter and what to do when our relationships no longer nurture us and support us in our own journey to live the life that best supports our dreams.  It started as a series of discussions with other women by July who then combined what she was hearing from other women with what she herself was feeling as she lived her life.  Who do we owe the most to, our partners who have certain expectations of us, or ourselves as we live our only life?  This book is recommended for women's and literary fiction readers.  

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.