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.  

Sleepyhead by Mark Billingham

 

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

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

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

Colored Television by Danzy Senna

 

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

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

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

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

Prior Violations And Brazen Violations by Jonathan Macpherson

 

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

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

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

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

The 9:20 Man by David Baldacci

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

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

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

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

Dear Edward by Ann Napolitano

 

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

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

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

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

Jack's Boys by John Katzenbach

 

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

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

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

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

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