All These Things I've Done by Gabrielle Zevin

 

The year is 2083, the place New York City.  Chocolate and caffeine are outlawed and teenagers have a curfew imposed by the government.  Yet, teenage life goes on.  Anya Balanchine's life, however, isn't the typical teenage one.  She is the daughter of the former head of the organized crime family that rules NYC.  Her father is dead, shot in his office at home, and her mother was killed in a car accident that left her big brother, Leo, damaged for life.  She also has a little sister and they all live with her grandmother who is dying of old age.

Still, life goes on.  Anya goes to school and has the typical teenage dramas with friends and boys.  She has recently broken up with a boyfriend and isn't looking to replace him.  But then there is the new boy in school, Win.  He is the son of the assistant district attorney and should be avoided like poison ivy.  But he is determined to ask Anya out and she can't resist.  Soon they are in a relationship although his father forbids it.  

This is a young adult book and not really my normal reading preference but I did enjoy it.  It was fairly predictable but Leo gets into trouble and it's interesting to see how Anya protects everyone and interacts with the other crime lords.  She is an interesting character and the reader cannot help but be on her side as she sacrifices for others and protects them.  This book is recommended for young adults.  

Lum by Libby Ware

 

Lum isn't like the others in her mountain town in Virginia.  She was born with a different body, one that could be male or female.  Her mother told her she could never marry and the boys who knew bullied and teased her.  As she grew up, she became the one in the family who cooked and cleaned.  Now in her thirties, she spends her time moving from one relative's house to another, no place to call her own and always at someone else's beck and call.

But changes are about to come to the small town.  The President is planning a scenic mountain route, the Blue Ridge Parkway.  It will bring tourists with their money to the area and new jobs for the tourist trade.  But to make the road, the government needs to buy land and it's coming through Lum and her brothers' family farm.  The town splits into those supporting the plan and those opposing.  Soon there is violence in the air and neighbor is set against neighbor.

Changes are coming to Lum as well.  She is offered a job after spending time taking care of the town's banker when he is home sick for an extended time.  That leads to him offering her a job in the tourist trade that would give her a home of her own and money she can count on.  Can she leave the life she has always known for one with more freedom?

I loved this book.  I grew up near the Blue Ridge Parkway and my family was one of the tourists who went there on Sunday drives for picnics and to see the leaves turn and the stunning mountain views.  There were curvy mountain roads where you couldn't go over twenty or thirty and Mabry Mill with its buckwheat pancakes and chocolate milk.  Ware has captured that mountain magic and created a character in Lum that the reader will fall in love with.  This book is recommended for women's fiction readers.  

Leave The World Behind by Rumaan Alam

 

Amanda and Clay are a married couple who want to take a week's vacation out on Long Island.  Their son, Archie, is already a teenager and their daughter, Rose, is about to be.  This could be one of the last vacations they can take together.  They rent a house on Long Island, not on the water but a few miles back in the country which has a pool.  Everything is lovely.  They swim, lounge around and read, do puzzles and just relax.  

Then the television and the phones stop working.  They had heard a booming noise so their guess was that a substation had gone out although they still had lights.  A few hours later, after dark, a knock comes at the door and an African American couple are standing there.  They are G.H. and Ruth Washington and they own the house.  They told Amanda and Clay that the electricity was out in New York City and elsewhere and they had already been out of the city attending an event so decided to come to their house.  They ask if they can stay in the downstairs suite and offered to reimburse the family half their rent for the week.

Everyone tries to reassure everyone else that this is just something normal, but the fear is seeping in.  Rose sees hundreds of deer one morning on the move further north.  The adults see a flock of flamingos that night where flamingos should never be.  Amanda insists that they fill the bathtubs in case the water supply goes out and then Archie gets sick.  More loud noises occur, so loud they crack the windows in the house.  Is this the beginning or war?  A natural disaster?

This book got a lot of buzz when it was released.  It was a Best Book of the Year choice by multiple publications and a finalist for the National Book Award.  A movie has been made and is available to view.  Alam is a writer who lives in New York.  This book allows the reader to think about what they and their family would do in the event of a national emergency and how they would react to others.  Would they think only of their own family's safety?  How prepared would they be?  This book is recommended for literary fiction readers.  

The Last Devil To Die by Richard Osman

 

Things are about the same as always in the senior home that houses the Thursday Murder Club.  Elizabeth is mysterious as ever but her time is taken more and more taking care of her husband, Stephen, who is slipping into dementia.  Ron has a girlfriend but is on the outs with her after an argument on when presents should be opened on Christmas.  Joyce is between boyfriends while Ibrahim is alone except for his friends and a few patients he still sees.

Then something shocking happens.  An antique dealer who is a friend of theirs is found murdered.  Who would want to hurt such a harmless man?  As the Thursday Murder Club starts their investigation, they are soon up to their necks in a drug deal gone wrong.  They meet the head of the drug trade in their area who warns them they are putting themselves in danger.  Another hard man, a Canadian who is married to an art forger, is also in the picture.  As the bodies start to pile up can the Club solve the case of the missing drugs that are causing all the mayhem?

This delightful series is now on its fourth book and the characters are as fascinating and humorous as ever.  Richard Osman is an author, television producer and presenter in England.  His writing style is slyly funny while pointing out the issues faced by those getting older and there are many twists as the story progresses.  This book is recommended for mystery fans.  

Two Nights In Lisbon by Chris Pavone

 Ariel Pryce hasn't been married long, so when her husband suggests that she accompany him on a business trip to Lisbon, she agrees.  It is to be somewhat of a honeymoon and the first night lives up to that promise.  A great meal, a lovely hotel and a night of passion.  But when Ariel wakes up the next morning, her husband isn't in the room.  At first she thinks he must be walking or eating breakfast but when he doesn't return and she notices belongings he should have with him still in the room, she starts to worry.

She goes to the police but they think she is an overanxious wife.  She tries the American Embassy but the same thing happens.  Unsure where to turn, she is given a cell phone on the street by a stranger and then it rings.  John has been kidnapped and the ransom is three million in cash within two days.

Ariel doesn't know what to do.  She and John are middle class and don't have anything like that kind of money.  She calls her first husband who is wealthy but he isn't willing to help.  Finally, she is forced to make a call she hoped she would never have to make to the man with whom she shares a dark secret but who is the only person she knows who has that kind of money.

Chris Pavone is a thriller writer whose work has been awarded most of the awards in this genre.  In this clever mystery, each chapter starts with the time and the day which increases the tension as Ariel's deadline to pay the ransom inches closer and closer.  There are many twists and turns which I didn't see coming and a very satisfactory ending.  This book is recommended for mystery and thriller fans.

Falling by T.J. Newman

 

Bill Hoffman is a pilot at the top of his game.  He has been a pilot for many years now and except for his wife, son and baby daughter, he loves his job more than anything in his life.  Today's journey should be easy.  He is flying from Los Angeles to New York and his favorite flight attendant is working the flight.  He doesn't know his co-pilot Ben very well but he has liked what he's seen.

But today's flight will be different.  Bill finds out his family has been kidnapped.  The kidnapper gives him a choice:  Bill can crash the plane with all its passengers or they will give his family.  He must make the decision.  Readers may well have to put the book down occasionally as the tenseness of the situation is almost more than one can handle.

T.J. Newman is a former flight attendant and it's obvious she knows about flights and the relationship between a pilot and his crew after they have flown together numerous times.  The tension in this one starts out right at the beginning and is ratcheted up again and again until the reader's pulse is racing.  The book debuted at number two on the New York Times bestselling list and her subsequent novels are doing as well.  This novel has already been commissioned to become a television series in the near future and is recommended for thriller readers.   

The Impossible Fortress by Jason Rekulak

 

Billy Martin is a fourteen year old, just starting high school where he didn't make any of the cliques.  He doesn't care about sports, he is too shy to be popular with the girls and he isn't one of the brains.  He's just an average kid making it through with two best friends, Alf and Chase.  If anything sets Billy apart, it's his new found hobby, a Commodore-64 he and his mother won in a contest.  He loves reading about programming, he loves putting in the programs and getting them to run and he even has been programming his own ideas.  

Everything changes when Playboy features Vanna White in its monthly edition.  She is every teenage boy's dream woman and Billy and his buddies know that they have to get their hands on a copy.  They make impossible plans but the magazine remains out of reach.  The only place to get it is Zelinsky's Newstand and Mr. Zelinsky isn't about to sell an adult magazine to teenagers.  As they plot schemes, Alf decides it would be a great opportunity to make money.  Soon he is taking orders for copies of Vann's pictures to guys in school and the pressure is on.

When Billy goes to the store to scope things out, he meets Mary Zelinsky, the owner's daughter, his age.  She is in the back where they kept the computers and as he talks with her, he realizes she shares his interest in programming and probably is even better than him.  Billy starts going to the store every day making friends with Mary so the boys can get the security code.  But something happens along the way; he starts having feelings for Mary.  This is his first crush and he doesn't know if she shares it but she is the most optimistic person he's ever met and she seems to believe in his ability to create the best game ever.  

This is a new author for me and a charming book.  The author is an Edgar nominated writer who is also an editor at Quirk books.  The book brings back memories of growing up, that first love and all the anxieties of high school.  Since I was in the IT field, it also brings back memories of those early days of computing.  It's a sentimental look back and an exploration of friendship, growing up and how easily things can go awry.  This book is recommended for those interested in looking back and remembering their younger days.  

Apples Never Fall by Liane Moriarty

 

The Delaneys are known in Australia as a tennis family.   Joy and Stan ran a tennis school for decades, coaching the next generation of tennis players after Stan's knee was injured ending his own career.  He had one player who made it to and won Wimbledon.  Now they are retired and not exactly sure what to do with themselves.

Their children are grown and have varying success.  Amy is the oldest and still searching.  She has always had issues fitting into the world and shares a house with flatmates, working various part time jobs.  Logan is a teacher at the local community college but his long time girlfriend has just left him.  Troy has made it big, trading commodities.  He is wealthy but lonely, having no one to share his success with.   Brooke has open a physical therapy business but the hours she is pouring into making it a success are affecting her marriage.

One night the doorbell rings at Stan and Joy's house after dark.  On the porch stands a young girl, barefoot in the winter cold and bleeding on her face.  She asks to come in for a minute stating that she is fleeing from an abusive boyfriend.  The couple let her in and before they know it, have fed her, drawn her a bath and offered her a place for the night.  Savannah slowly inserts herself into the household, doing all the cooking and cleaning and going on shopping trips with Joy.  The children are all alarmed.  Who is this girl?  What does she want?

Then the worst occurs.  Joy disappears.  At first everyone thinks she has gone away for a few days after a fight with Stan.  But there are scratches on Stan's face and Joy's phone is found under her bed.  No money is being taken from the couple's accounts or credit cards used.  As the days stretch on, the police extend the search but everyone suspects Stan may have done something although beforehand, everyone would have said their marriage was strong.  

Liane Moriarty is an Australian author whose books have soared to the top of the thriller genre although the author doesn't consider herself a thriller writer.  Her interest is in her characters, how they relate to each other and how they grow and change over the course of a novel.  This book shows the truth of parenthood; you are never done and worry about your children even when they are grown.  It also shows the varying nature of a long term marriage, how the partners grow together and apart, how small resentments can build to large ones but how almost losing someone reminds you how much you love them.  This book is recommended for women's and suspense readers.  

Fragile Things by Neil Gaiman

 

This anthology is a compilation of several kinds of pieces.  There are poems, twenty or so short stories and a novella written in the world after the time of American Gods featuring Shadow, the hero of that book.  My favorite story was Closing Time where a man in a bar tells his personal ghost story, of an abandoned house with a little playhouse in the woods and what happened the day he and three other boys went there to dare each other to be brave.

But the gem is The Monarch Of The Glen.  Shadow has been traveling the world and finds himself in Scotland.  He is offered an enormous amount of money to be security at a large party at a former estate, a party held once a year for those who are so rich that they constantly seek novelty and excitement.  What happens at that party and what happens when things don't go as planned is the mystery that unfolds around Shadow.

Neil Gaiman is a prodigiously talented author.  His novels, stories and essays form a large body of work and he is considered one of the masters of the genre.  Gaiman fans will enjoy this book especially the novella.  I became a fan after reading American Gods which I still think is one of the masterpieces of fantasy.  This book is recommended for fantasy readers.  

Sleeping In The Ground by Peter Robinson

 

This is a crime that Yorkshire doesn't have.  A large group is celebrating a local couple's wedding.  The bride is a former successful model; the groom a war hero.  But as they are leaving the church, shots ring out.  The bride is shot first, then the groom, then the maid of honor.  By the time the carnage is done, five are dead and several more wounded.  Who would do such a thing and why?

Banks and his team rush to the site and the investigation is made top priority.  Soon suspicion falls on one man and when they go to his home, he is found dead apparently by suicide.  Things are resolved or are they?  Banks and the medical examiner are not sure.  Although the crime is almost perfect to prove the man's guilt, there are a few things that don't fit.  Soon Banks and his team start to wonder if this crime is tied to another murder fifty years ago.

This is the twenty-fourth of twenty-eight books in the Inspector Banks series.  Robinson has chosen to age his characters along with the series so Banks is now in his fifties and thinking about retirement.  A woman he was formerly attracted to has moved back to town and perhaps things will start up again with her.  Annie Cabbott's father is moving to the area to be closer to his daughter as he ages while much of the investigation now is done by younger members of the team such as Gerry a young detective who can be headstrong in her pursuit of justice.  This book is recommended for mystery readers.  

Valentine by Elizabeth Wetmore

 

Odessa, Texas, is a hot, rural poor town in the 1970's.  About the only thing going are some farming and the oil fields.  One morning, Mary Rose Whitehead hears knocking on her family's farmhouse door.  She opens the door to find Glory, beaten to a pulp and desperate for help.  Mary Rose brings her inside and calls the police and an ambulance.

This act of brutality has far-reaching effects.  Glory is only fourteen and took the offer of a ride from a rich boy in town when she shouldn't have.  He is arrested and charged with rape and assault.  Mary Rose takes her family except for her husband and moves into town, frightened now at how remote the farm is.  There she meets Corrine, a recent widow who is adjusting to life without her husband.  Debra Ann is the neighborhood child who never seems supervised as her mother walked away and no one knows where she is or if she will return. 

The novel centers around the crime and the subsequent trial.  It also explores the relationship between the various women and how the support they give each other is what makes life possible for them in such a desolate place.  Karla is a young waitress who is a recent single mother and who finds her support in the diner where she is a waitress and where the older women take her under their wings.  Glory was born in the United States but is of Mexican heritage and the prejudice against Hispanics and the differing justice accorded to them is highlighted.  

This is Elizabeth Wetmore's debut novel.  She was born and raised in Odessa which she left at age eighteen.  She experienced firsthand the changes oil brought to the area and the casual racism that is the hardest to eradicate.  We learn about the town through the stories and viewpoints of the various women who live there and how they experience life.  This book is recommended for readers of literary fiction.

Strange Sally Diamond by Liz Nugent

 

Sally's dad always said, 'When I die, just put me out with the trash'.  So that's what Sally did, incinerating him in the burn barrel in the barn.  But it turns out, that's not what one does when your parent dies.  The police are called and Sally is in the news.  Everyone wonders about her anyway as she lives out in the country and doesn't socialize with anyone in town.  She has lived there for years with her father.

As things emerge, Sally learns the truth about her life.  She was the daughter of a man who kidnapped her mother at age eleven and kept her imprisoned for fourteen years.  When they were rescued, Sally was five and while her mother never recovered, Sally was adopted by the doctors who were given her care in the hospital.  They kept her apart and never really socialized her into the village life.  

But things are changing.  Sally slowly starts to make friends.  She enters psychiatric counseling and she slowly starts to integrate into society.  She also makes other discoveries.  She has relatives she has never met.  One is her uncle Mark who becomes a friend and someone to guide her along with the village doctor and her counselor  But Sally worries that the man who kidnapped her mother might still be alive and now might know where she is.  

Liz Nugent is an Irish writer whose work falls into the crime genre although her work is not the typical murder mystery.  Readers will be interested in Sally and her attempts to integrate into society after a life that was stunted for three decades, first by her captor and then by her family.  There is tension as the story of the man who is her birth father is revealed and what his life was like after Sally and her mother were discovered.  This book is recommended for crime and literary fiction readers.  

Dreadful by Caitlin Rozakis

 

Gav wakes up with his memories gone and his eyebrows burned off.  He appears to be in a wizard's workshop.  As he tries to determine what is going on, he slowly realizes that he is the wizard and apparently one who is known for cruelty and intimidation of those around him.  His castle is staffed by goblins and his village is known for growing garlic. 

Gav doesn't want to be an evil wizard.  He is appalled when he realizes that he apparently has kidnapped a princess and is holding her prisoner.  It is even worse when he realizes that she is to be a sacrifice when three other dark wizards show up in a few days and try to call another being from another world to rule this one.  

This is Caitlin Rozakis debut novel and it is a light fantasy that will delight the ruler.  Gav goes on a journey to change himself from an evil wizard to a guy anyone could like, maybe even a certain princess?  The tone is light as Gav goes on his journey and he discovers that those around him are more than he had ever imagined them to be.  This book is recommended for fantasy readers.  

My Name Is Red by Orhan Pamuk

 

'Black' Effendi has returned to Istanbul after a twelve year absence.  His uncle had sent him away because Black fell in love with his daughter Shekure.  Enishte Effendi runs a studio of miniaturists and illustrators.  He has traveled extensively and now the Sultan has given him a dangerous assignment.  He is to create a new book honoring the Sultan but it is to be illustrated in the Western style.  This directly contradicts the religious ban on what can and cannot be included in illustrations.  

Shekure is now a young widow with two sons.  Black still loves her and hatches a plan to marry her now that she needs protection.  In the midst of his courtship, one of Effendi's illustrators is murdered.  Before the murderer can be caught, Enishte is also murdered.  Who would do such a thing?  The Sultan insists that Black and Enishte's rival find the murderer.

Orhan Pamuk is a Turkish novelist, his country's most successful one.  He has been honored with the Novel Prize for Literature for his body of work.  In this novel, multiple points of view are used with each chapter being written by a different character, many of whom are unreliable narrators.  It is at once a murder mystery, a love story and an exploration of the Turkish culture and the relationship between men and art.  Readers will be interested to read about the dichotomy between Eastern and Western art and the strictures of the culture in terms of how religion guides every facet of life there in this time period.  This book is recommended for readers of literary and historical fiction.

Let's Not Do That Again by Grant Ginder

 

Nancy Harrison is running for the Senate from New York and this race is close.  She has two grown children.  Her son Nick was her assistant but now is teaching at Columbia.  Her daughter, Greta, seems to be at loose ends.  About a year ago, she suddenly distanced herself from her family, broke up with her fiance and moved out of a great apartment.  Now she is living in a room with strange roommates and working at an Apple store.

Then Greta falls in love with a man she meets online.  Unfortunately, he is a French right wing radical who is filled with prejudice and looking to become famous by spouting horrendous diatribes on YouTube.  Greta heads to Paris and the next the family sees of her, she is throwing a champagne bottle through a glass window of one of the finest restaurants in Paris.  The video goes viral and Nancy's prospects of winning are looking slimmer.  She sends Nick to Paris to bring Greta home.  Will he succeed?

Grant Ginder is an American novelist whose life is very similar to Nick's.  He has woven a tale of family relationships and secrets that will have the reader enthralled.  Although Greta seems to have gone off the tracks, the reader will discover what made her change so dramatically and what happens to her as the book progresses.  Nick starts a relationship with an FBI agent and thinks about moving away to get some distance from his family and their constant crises.   The tone of the book is actually light and the reader will find it easy to read.  This book is recommended for readers interested in family relationships.  

Beasts Of A Little Land by Juhea Kim

 

This novel follows the lives of three Korean women, courtesans for decades.  Luna, Lotus and Jade came to Seoul as young girls, accepted by the best courtesan school in the country which was run by Dani.  Dani was acknowledged throughout the land as the most beautiful and accomplished courtesan.  Luna and Lotus were sisters while Jade was Lotus's best friend.  They received lessons in dance and song, art and music and etiquette.

When the girls were young women, each went a different way.  Luna was the victim of a horrific attack and became a recluse.  Lotus became a noted singer while Luna was a dancer and movie star.  Both Lotus and Luna had men that they loved above all else but no man was willing to marry a courtesan no matter how much he loved her.  The men were involved in business and politics as Korea was desperate to break away from Japanese rule.  

This is a debut novel for Juhea Kim.  She received her BA from Princeton in Art and Archeology and is very tied up in animal conservation.  The substory of a tiger which runs through the novel is an indication of her love for these animals.  Readers will be exposed to the history of Korea as it broke out from Japanese rule after World War II and became broken into the two Koreas existent today.  The women, no matter how accomplished and how lauded were doomed to solitary lives.  This book is recommended for readers of historical and women's fiction.  

When They Come For You by James W. Hall

 

Grace McDaniel is a photographer living in Florida with her husband and infant son.  Her mother had been a famous photographer, jetting all over the world to photograph rulers, rock stars, actors and other famous people but Grace doesn't want that life.  Her quiet life with her journalist husband suits her fine.  When Grace arrives home one day to find her house in flames and her husband and son murdered, she must decide what to do.

Ross never talked about his work but Grace manages to find out what he was working on.  A man had come to him exposing the horrors being committed in Africa in the name of bringing chocolate to market.  Grace is determined to find out exactly what was going on and who took away her family.  Although she is living a quiet life now, in her past she had worked for one of the secret services and is a martial arts expert.  Her grandfather had been one of the big names in the Florida mafia and he still has connections as does her brother who works worldwide in the banking industry.  With their connections and her determination, Grace is going to get to the bottom of what has been going on regardless of what it takes or who she offends.

James W. Hall is known for his work in the thriller genre.  His most well known series is that of Thorne who is a loner who teams up with a partner to solve crimes native to Florida.  This novel is the first in a new series.  Grace draws on everything she can in order to put the world back to order and get revenge on those who took her family.  This book is recommended for thriller readers.  

While Idaho Slept by J. Reuben Appelman

 

Kaylee Goncalves.  Madison Mogen.  Xana Kernodle.  Ethan Chapin.  These were the four University of Idaho students whose murders stunned the nation.  Who could do such a horrific act?  Kaylee had finished with school and was about to start her first adult job.  She had come back for the weekend.  Ethan was Xana's boyfriend and didn't live at the house where the murders occurred but was there that night.  

The act sent the university and town into panic.  Streets were deserted at night and restaurants were empty, with home delivery of food skyrocketing.  Everyone demanded answers but the police were taking their time and working the case methodically, determined that any case they built would stand up in court.  Rumors were rampant and one was that the police weren't really working on the case or weren't up to the job.  The local police had immediately called in the state police and the FBI were also involved so there was plenty of expertise and resources.  

The police actually had fairly good clues early on.  The murderer had left a knife sheath at the scene which had his DNA.  There were camera shots of his car and going back, showing that he had staked out the house far before the actual murders.  As the suspect was investigated, he turned out to be a man who was heavy as a child and bullied.  He had managed to turn himself around physically but women could tell that there was something off about him and he had few if any relationships.  

J. Reuben Appelman is known for his work in the true crime genre.  He wrote and produced a series for television about the Detroit Area child killings that won great acclaim and he is a private investigator in Idaho who specializes in human trafficking.  In this book, he devoted chapters to each victim, giving the reader a look into their lives.  He then described the police investigation and how they narrowed in on the suspect although many of the facts of the case won't be available until the trial.  He has written a sensitive account of this tragedy making his focus the personalization of the victims. This book is recommended for true crime readers.  

The Island by Adrian McKinty

 

When Tom, an orthopedic surgeon, goes to a conference in Australia, he decides to make it a family vacation.  His wife had died a year or so ago and he had recently remarried to Heather.  There are two children, Olivia and Owen.  The children aren't thrilled about Heather and this should be a trip to bring the family together.

While there, the family hears about an island only a mile and a half offshore which is private and has an amazing variety of animals.  Since the children want to see native animals, Tom decides the cost to go is worth it, especially when they meet a German couple who agree to split the cost.  The six of them head off to the island on a ferry and then they split up, each heading out in their own cars.  But something goes terribly wrong.  Tom commits an act that puts the family at odds with the strange cultlike family that owns the island.  This group are the only inhabitants of the island and they live a life dictated by Ma, the matriarch.  The group has its own rules and Tom and Heather are now on the other side of the law.

It's clear that the family wants revenge and soon Heather and the children are being hunted along with the German couple.  As they fight capture, burning temperatures, lack of water and dangerous animals, Heather and the children come together to survive until they can be rescued.  The family has decided that only death will do for Heather, Tom, the children and the other couple and they hunt them relentlessly.  But Heather had grown up in the remote wilderness herself with parents both from the military and she knows a thing or two about survival.  Who will win?

This was one of the most heartstopping books I've read.  I'm pretty tough but I had to put it down a time or two when the suspense got to be more than I could take.  Heather has survival skills few would know about and she manages to keep herself and the children going while bonding with them more than any of them ever expected.  Adrian McKinty is an Irish author who also lived for a while in Australia so the environment rings true.  He is known for his Sean Duffy series about a Protestant detective working in Northern Ireland and his standalone hit, The Chain.  He has won numerous awards in the mystery genre and this book is recommended for mystery and thriller readers.  

End Of Story by A. J. Finn

 

Nicky Hunter is a professor who teaches writing and criticism, specifically of mysteries.  One of her favorites has always been Sebastian Trapp one of the masters of the genre.  The two have been corresponding for years and she feels as if she knows him both as an author and a man.  So she is quite upset when she gets the letter that he writes, saying that he has been given three months to live and asking her to come to San Francisco to write his memoirs.  Since she is between semesters she agrees and is soon knocking on the door.

Twenty years ago, Sebastian had been involved in a scandal when on New Year's Eve, his wife and young son had disappeared after a New Year Eve's party.  Neither has ever been found and many thought that Sebastian killed them both.  Now he lives in his mansion with his second wife, Diana, his daughter Madeline and his nephew Freddy.  Do they know Sebastian's secrets?

As Sebastian tells his story to Nicky, other things start to happen.  Soon Nicky is caught up in the mysteries and feels that she is getting closer to the answers of that original scandal.  But does she really know what is going on around her?

This is A.J. Finn's second novel and there's no doubt that the man can write a compelling mystery.  The action moves quickly and the twists and turns are unexpected. Readers will be caught up in the mystery of what happened to Trapp's family all those years ago and what is happening now.  This book is recommended for mystery readers.   

The Covenant Of Water by Abraham Verghese

 

This novel follows one Indian family in the province of Kerala for over seven decades.  It begins when a twelve year old girl is married to a forty year old landowner.  She doesn't know how to be a wife but slowly learns and although she starts out fearing her husband she learns to love him over the years.  They have three children, JoJo, who is the husband's child from his first wife, Baby Mol and Philipose.  Over the years, the young girl becomes the family matriarch known as Big Ammachi.

There is also an alternate storyline following an English doctor named Digby who is a surgeon but who ends up spending his life working in a leprosy sanitarium.  The two stories end up coming together at the end of the novel.

Along the way, the reader will learn about many things; the caste system of India, the scourge of leprosy, medical practice in the 1900's in India, Indian culture and art.  The family hides a secret; that the men especially have what they call The Condition.  That condition is an inordinate fear of water in a watery environment and many with the condition end up drowning.  As the book progresses we learn that this is a medical condition and the grandchild of Big Ammachi becomes a surgeon and dedicates her life to studying the condition.

Abraham Verghese is a medical doctor and some readers have thought there was too much medical detail in this novel.  Overall, it was released to great anticipation and was an Oprah's Book Club pick.  I enjoyed the novel but thought it ended too abruptly as one of the main stories was left in limbo.  Overall I enjoyed learning more about the Indian culture and especially reading the twists and turns of this family over many decades.  This book is recommended for readers of literary and multicultural fiction. 

Such A Fun Age by Kiley Reid

 

Emira is drifting.  She has graduated college but what's next?  She has patched together a couple of parttime jobs to make the rent in the small apartment she shares with a roommate.  She works a couple of days as a transcriptionist for a nonprofit and the rest of the time she babysits for two children.  Briar is almost three and she has a baby sister.  Their parents are upwardly mobile professionals.  Alix is an influencer with her own company while her husband, Peter, is a local newscaster.  They are both white while Emira is black.  Emira knows she needs to find a job with benefits and potential but doesn't really know what she wants to do and she and Briar have a special relationship.

She meets Kelly one night in a grocery store.  Emira had been called away from a party by Alix.  They had had an emergency and wanted Emira to take Briar to a grocery store while the police came to their house so she wouldn't be scared.  But a store security guard, seeing a black woman with a white toddler at eleven-thirty, accuses Emira of kidnapping the child and won't let her leave.  Kelly sees what is going on and videos it on his phone.  The store incident is over when Peter arrives to vouch for Emira but she is left shaken and angry.

Soon after she runs into Kelly again and they begin a relationship.  As it advances, she can tell Kelly wants her to figure out a better job while Alix wants to be Emira's friend.  She starts to feel pressured by both of them and when it turns out that the two have a former relationship, everything comes to a crisis point.

Kiley Reid is an African American author.  This novel, which explores the aimlessness of youth, racial relationships and the pushiness of those who think they know better what one's life should be is her debut.  She attended the Iowa Writer's Workshop where she received the Truman Capote Fellowship and is now an associate professor as well as an author.  I could relate best to Emira as I have a daughter the same age.  She went through a year or so of this after she graduated from college.  Her graduation occurred during the lockdown for covid and she ended up moving home for a while as employers weren't hiring.  She felt pressured to start the rest of her life while not knowing what that rest would look like.  Just as she figured it out and is now happy and employed in a job she loves, I feel Emira will do the same.  This book was longlisted for the Booker Prize in 2020 and is recommended for readers of literary fiction and those interested in other lives.

White Cat, Black Dog by Kelly Link

 

In this anthology of seven stories, Kelly Link takes fairy tales and modernizes them with characters searching for what will make their lives complete.  My favorite story was The Lady And The Fox about a man who had been entranced by a fairy lady and the human woman who broke the spell.  The longest story is the last one, Skinder's Veil about a cottage in the remote Maine woods where visitors must be admitted all except the one who owns the cottage.  

Kelly Link is known as an editor and author.  She also owns a bookstore with her husband.  She specializes in fantasy and says that the reader knows going in that they will be asked to imagine a world different from what they know.  She has won various awards.  Best known for her short stories, she wrote her first novel in 2024.  The characters in these stories will make the reader imagine how things could be different and how we can make the world around us over to our choosing.  This book is recommended for fantasy readers.  

The Breaker by Minette Walters

 

Two crimes face the police in a normally quiet sailing town.  A woman's body has been discovered, nude, washed up on shore.  In the nearby town, a toddler is found wandering, mute and unwilling to say anything.  The woman is Kate Summer, the child hers.  Kate was raped, strangled then thrown into the water.  The killer assumed she was dead but even with broken fingers, she had been alive and tried to swim to shore.  Her daughter, Hannah, is almost three and will speak only to women; she screams whenever her father tries to interact with her.

The police have two main suspects.  Steven Harding is the man who called in the discovery of the body.  He says he was hiking and found two boys who had discovered the body and just called it in and waited with the boys.  But the police soon discover that Steven, an actor, had a boat nearby and more suspiciously, had had an affair with Kate.  The other suspect is Kate's husband.  Kate had been a secretary at the pharmaceutical plant where he worked and she set her cap for him and quickly married him to gain the money and house she had always dreamed of.  He has an alibi, attendance at a conference but was he really there?

Minette Walters is a British author whose career is unusual.  She started off writing psychological thrillers and mysteries and I thought was one of the best around.  Apparently she tired of the mystery genre, took a ten year break and since then has written a series of successful historical novels.  The plotting in this mystery is taut, the police procedures spot on.  There are side stories of a policeman in love with a local stable owner and smuggling in the coastal town the murder occurred in.  This book is recommended for mystery readers.  

Savage Vengence by Gary C. King

 

Renae Ahlers Wicklund thought that sunny day in December of 1974 would be the worst day of her life.  She was at home with her 16-month old daughter when a man burst into the house.  He attacked Renae and told her to strip, saying that he would kill her daughter otherwise.  He left only after oral sex.  Renae ran to the neighbor's house and reported it immediately to the police.

The man was Charles Campbell.  Although he was young, only twenty, he had a long record of victimizing women.  He had no problems beating them and threatening their children.  He was also into drugs and committed burglaries.  When he was captured, he was sentenced to many years in prison and Renae finally felt safe.

But Campbell was the kind of man who managed to work the system.  Instead of the years he was given, he managed to get out in only seven years although he hadn't been a model prisoner.  His first act upon moving to a halfway house?  He tracked down Renae, broke in once again and this time killed her, her daughter who was eight by then and a neighbor who came to check on Renae.  

Gary King is recognized as one of the genre's best true crime writers.  His career has spanned thirty decades and he's written nineteen books as well as writing shorter fiction for true crime magazines and content for the various television shows on true crime channels.  It is apparent that he does extensive research and follows the criminal from the crime, through the trial and then gives the reader the disposition of the case.  This book is recommended for true crime readers.  

Sleeping Giants by Rene Denfeld

 

Larry Palmer is retired and at loose ends.  When he left the police force, he moved to the coast to please his wife who had always wanted to live there.  They ended up in a small town in Oregon and then unexpectedly, she died.  Now Palmer is left in a place where he has no real friends and nothing much to do. 

One day on the beach he meets a young woman.  Her name is Amanda and she has come there to try to find out about her brother.  The children had been separated and she didn't know about him until recently.  Amanda had been adopted but her brother had been turned over to the state and ended up in a home for troubled youths in the town where Palmer now lives.  The home had been closed for many years and Amanda's brother had died in the waves twenty years ago.  The ocean there is dangerous with rocks and rip tides and when he went in for the first time, he was swept away. 

Amanda is crushed to learn this and she and Palmer do what they can to learn about his life.  They learn that the boys there were mistreated and that the director retired and is still living in another state. The only friend Dennis the brother had was a maintenance worker and no one knows what happened to him.  It seems like a dead end.  

Rene Denfeld is a foster mother herself and has adopted three children she fostered.  Her work was as an investigator for the Public Defender's office and since she started writing she has used her knowledge to form the background of her work.  She has won numerous awards for her writing and her hope is that it makes the way of children left without parents easier.  There is suspense in the book and readers will be on Amanda and Palmer's side as they investigate.  This book is recommended for mystery fans.

Young Mungo by Douglas Stuart

 

Mungo is fourteen and lives on a housing estate in Glasgow, Scotland.  His mother had the children young, only twenty when Mungo the youngest was born.  She is an alcoholic who is rarely home, off with men who will keep her supplied with drink.  Mungo's oldest brother, Hamish, is eighteen.  He is the leader of a group of Protestant boys who fight with Catholics and immigrants.  Hamish already is a father and spends most of his time with his young girlfriend and baby.  That leaves Mungo alone most often with his big sister Jodie.  Jodie is smart and yearns to go to college one day if she can break free.

Lonely most of the time, Mungo meets James.  James lives with his father but his father works on the oil rigs, away for weeks at a time, leaving James to live alone.  His family is Catholic so he and Mungo should never be friends according to those around him.  James raises pigeons and the boys bond over their care.  Eventually the friendship turns romantic although both boys are ashamed of their love for each other.

There are two main stories that intertwine in the book.  One is the friendship between Mungo and James and how that progresses over time and the other is a weekend that Mungo spends camping with two old men.  His mother has sent him away with them, saying they will show Mungo how to fish and survive in the woods but really because they provided her with money to buy the drink she cannot live without.  What happens on that trip will affect Mungo's life forever.  

Douglas Stuart got off to a huge start in the literary world.  His first book, Shuggie Bain, won the Booker Prize which is unheard of.  This book echoes many of the same themes, the Scottish lower class families, the enmity between the two religions and homosexual love.  The book is lyrical and the reader will just want to reach into the pages and save Mungo from the disasters one can see coming for him.  I listened to this novel and the narrator's Scottish accent made the characters and place come alive.  I'm looking forward to Stuart's third book to see if he can break away from this environment and write about different things.  This book is recommended for literary fiction readers.    

All The Colors Of The Dark by Chris Whitaker

 

Saint lives with her grandmother, friendless because she's so smart and loves things like beekeeping instead of regular kid stuff.  Patch lives with a junkie mother, his nickname the result of only having one eye from birth.  The two find each other and start a friendship that deepens quickly.  

When they are thirteen, a man tries to kidnap the school beauty.  Patch intervenes and he is instead taken away.  He comes to in a dark underground room where he is imprisoned for almost a year.  The only thing that keeps him going is the company of another captive, Grace.  He is found when Saint, who never gives up on him, discovers where he is hidden and manages to free him.  Grace, however, doesn't make it out.

That sets in motion the paths of each life.  Saint starts a law enforcement career, first locally then with the FBI.  Patch spends his life looking for Grace and the rest of the girls the man who took him took and killed.  Along the way, he becomes an artist and paints pictures of the girls he gives to the parents who will never see their daughters again.  Over the years, the two friends continue to be thrown together at times and their friendship never fades.  Each is the most important person in the other's world.

This book was released to great fanfare.  It lives up to the expectations set by all the buzz.  Whitaker explores the nature of love and friendship and whether obsession is ever valid or if it ruins lives.  The two main characters are such that the reader will fall in love with both of them and cheer them on as they live their lives.  This book is recommended for readers of thrillers.  

Seventh Decimate by Stephen R. Donaldson

 

The countries of Belleger and Amika have been at war as long as most men have been alive.  Amika has the advantage in number of men but Belleger has rifles which evens the field.  Both sides have sorcery which allows use of fire, earthquakes and other deadly occurrences.   The war is basically in a stalemate then one day Belleger forces wake up and their sorcery no longer works.

An ancient sorcerer tells them that there is a Seventh Decimate that rules the six that they know about.  Surely Amika has somehow managed to gain that Seventh Decimate and without their sorcery, Belleger is doomed to be conquered and extinguished.

Prince Bifalt who has fought the Amikaians as long as he was old enough is chosen to lead a mission.  There is talk of an ancient library where the Seventh Decimate can be found.  He and a group of men are to find where this library is, go to it and return with the Seventh Decimate.  It is a fool's errand as no one knows where they should go or how they will manage to get it.  

The men set out and have many adventures and battles.  By the time Prince Bifalt gets to the library, his troop is down to him and one other man.  Now that he is there, Bifalt must figure out how to convince the monks that run the library to give him the tome he desires.  Will he be successful?

Stephen R. Donaldson is known for his fantasy works.  His books about Thomas Covenant are a fantasy classic.  This book is the start of a new trilogy, The Great God's War.  Readers will be interested in the world building and the quandary those living in Belleger and Amika are caught up in.  Prince Bifalt starts out as a crude soldier but grows as he travels and encounters people and cultures he never imagined.  This book is recommended for fantasy readers.  

The Wedding People by Alison Espach

 

Phoebe Stone's life has fallen apart.  Before the Covid pandemic, she had a happy marriage with Matt, a job she loved and the hope of having a family.  Afterwards, not so much.  Matt leaves Phoebe for her best friend after Phoebe and Matt realize that one of them is infertile and they won't be having a family.  Worse, they both work as professors where Phoebe does so she will be running into them daily.  Then to top everything off, her cat who loved her regardless of what she did dies.

Phoebe goes to work for the first day of classes and snaps.  She leaves the university and ends up at the luxurious Cornwall Hotel where she plans to take all of her cat's pain pills, have a great meal and die in her sleep.  But Lila isn't having that.  Lila thought she had reserved the entire hotel for a week as it's her wedding week.  She isn't happy to see Phoebe there and when she hears what Phoebe is planning, she is outraged.  How could Phoebe ruin her wedding?  Who does she think she is?

But Phoebe's plans don't work out.  She can't have a great meal because the kitchen isn't doing room service because of the wedding festivities.  The cat pain killers don't seem to do much and Phoebe wakes up the next morning.  When Lila storms into her room, they start to talk and soon Lila has decided that Phoebe should stay for the week as she is the only person who is indifferent to everyone and who will tell Lila the truth about things.

As the week goes on, Phoebe becomes attached to the people in the wedding.  There's Jim who thought he was taking the groom along as a wingman the day Lila and the groom, Gary, met and fell in love.  There's Lila's mother who has a huge nude portrait of herself commissioned and which Lila gives to Gary.  There's Gary's sister who dislikes Lila and is having an affair.  There's Gary's preteen daughter, Juice, who really dislikes Lila and is suspicious she is trying to replace Juice's mother who dies.  Then there is Gary who Phoebe feels an instant attraction to and it's clear as the week goes on that the attraction is returned.  What will happen?

This is my first Alison Espach book but it definitely won't be my last.  I expected a frothy romance but instead there is a gradual realization by Phoebe what was wrong with her life before and how to fix it going forward.  The characters are well drawn and the reader will be pulled into the plot as the week of the wedding goes forward.  This book is recommended for readers of women's and romance fiction.