Blue Monday by Nicci French

Dr. Frieda Klein is a psychotherapist who practices in London.  Intensely private and reclusive in her private life, she is insightful and able to help those few patients she agrees to take on. 

London is abuzz with the latest crime story--five year old Matthew Farraday has been kidnapped from the street and is missing.  The police are trying everything they can, but Matthew has just vanished into thin air.  Drawing on his years of expertise, Chief Inspector Karlsson believes that this crime may be related to one that occurred twenty years ago where five-year-old Joanna Vine was also taken from the street. She was never found, her body never identifed although common wisdom says she is long dead.

Frieda meets Karlsson when she is moved to break a patient's confidence; something she has never done.  This man, a new patient, has recurring dreams of having a child; specifically a son.  That son looks exactly like Matthew Farraday.  Dr. Klein is disturbed enough by the resemblance that she has her patient checked out.  His alibi for the time of the disappearance is solid, but as Frieda continues to probe she uncovers the shocking secrets of his life.

This is the first book in a new series by the writing team of Nicci French, the writers Nicci Gerrald and Sean French.  Readers will be immediately drawn to the reclusive Dr. Klein and interested in both the Chief Inspector and the flow of the investigation.  The writing is brooding, mysterious, compelling.  This book is recommended for mystery lovers.

Wide Open by Deborah Coates

Hallie Michaels is home from Afghanistan, but not for a good reason.  She has been given ten days compassionate leave to come home to bury her sister, Dell.  She arrives home full of grief and straight from the war zone where she was recently involved in a firefight that left her dead for seven minutes.  Hallie was brought back to life, but you can't say it didn't affect her.  She can now see and feel ghosts, and her combat friend and Dell both go with her everywhere.

Hallie doesn't understand anything, it seems.  She doesn't understand why or how Dell died, and there seems to be controversy about it at the sheriff's office.  Some people are saying that Dell committed suicide and Hallie knows that can't be true.  She doesn't understand why there are a series of mysterious fires in the area; fires that seem intentional and focused like arson but are started by lightning.  She doesn't understand how a man she dated a few times before entering the military is now the head of a new company that is employing more and more people in the area, but none of the employees can describe exactly what the company does.  She can't understand whether she likes or dislikes the new deputy in town, Boyd, who seems a part of it all.  Most of all, she can't understand why so many women in the area have gone missing in the last few years while she has been away.

Deborah Coates has written a knock-your-socks-off story in this debut novel.  It is hard to characterize, as there are elements of feminism, of magic, of life on the ranches and farms of South Dakota.  Coates has created one of the strongest heroines imaginable in Hallie, a women who has seen a lot and is not ready to roll over and give in to despair.  It has crime and fantasy, all the elements mixed into a glorious tale that grabs the reader by the throat and won't let go.  The story builds to a gripping finale, one that leaves the reader gasping.  This book is recommended for both mystery and fantasy readers.

Shore Excursion by Marie Moore

Sidney Marsh left Mississippi for the Big Apple and has never looked back.  She spends her time as a travel agent and a lot of her travel agent time is spent shepherding tours throughout the world.  Sidney's specialty is acting as the tour specialist for senior citizens tours; specifically the High Steppers.  She has been on several tours with this group of friends.

This trip they are headed to the northern European countries; Denmark, Sweden, Russia.  But someone else has boarded the cruise ship and they spell danger.  One of the High Stepper women is killed, although the cruise ship tries to hush it up.  Then another High Stepper, this one a male, is killed.  Who is trying to kill these innocuous senior citizens, and why would they be targets?  Sidney is determined to find out since the authorities don't seem interested in anything except sweeping the murders under the rug so that the tour can go on.

There are plenty of suspects.  There are some younger men who are touring with the group, and why would interesting, attractive young men want to spend time with those of an older generation?  Then there is the cruise ship captain.  One minute he seems to be interested in Sidney, the next he is ordering her around and thwarting her investigations.  There's the blonde bombshell who flirts with all the men, and even Sidney's best friend Jay is acting suspicious.  Can Sidney find the killer before anyone else is killed?

This is a debut mystery from Marie Moore.  It is written in the cozy, light-hearted style of a Joan Hess or Carolyn Hart.  The narrative is written in first-person style from Sidney's perspective.  Along with an engaging mystery, readers learn tidbits about successful cruising.  Shore Excursion is the first novel in a series, and readers will be interested to see what Ms. Moore serves up next.  This book is recommended for mystery readers interested in light crime dramas. 

The Girl With The Crooked Nose by Ted Botha

In The Girl With The Crooked Nose, Ted Botha follows the career of Frank Bender and his forsenic sculpting work.  Frank was a commercial photographer but his love was sculpting.  As with most sculptors, he hired models to try to determine how human anatomy worked to make his pieces more authentic.  This desire to know about human anatomy eventually led him to the Philadephia medical examiner's office.  There he started to study corpses.

After several visits, the police approached Frank about a murder victim who was unidentified.  They explained that they had mimimal luck with sketch artists producing a likeness in such cases that helped with identification, and wondered if Frank could produce a bust that would be better.  Frank didn't know anything about forensics but was persuaded to make an attempt.  He created a bust that led to an identification, and found his life's work. 

Over the years, Frank worked on multiple cases.  He was successful in finding identities in many cases.  The ones that he was proudest of were the children, often found in suitcases or boxes, thrown away after being murdered.  Frank's work was able to give them back an identity, and to let them be buried under their own name instead of being sent to an anonymous grave. 

Frank's biggest case was that of the scores of Mexican women who were murdered in the early 2000's.  The Mexican government brought him in, along with an FBI consultant, but it was soon clear that there were politics at play and forces that did not want this case solved.  While Frank went back to Mexico several times and created multiple busts, the cases still remain a mystery, although many believe either the Mexican police or the military had a hand in these deaths. 

Another area Frank's expertise was used in was age regression and advancement.  He was the sculptor that created the bust of John List that was used on America's Most Wanted to identify this man who a decade earlier had killed his entire family and disappeared.  That case led to the government using Frank for several other busts to identify fugitives who had been missing for many years.

Ted Botha has outlined the life history of a fascinating man.  Bender loved the work he did, but never made enough money at it to support his family.  He had to take side jobs throughout his life to make ends meet.  Frank lived life on his own terms, and his work was so valuable that he was able to live life as he wanted while still fitting in with the highly structured world of police work.  This book is recommended for readers of true crime and those interested in forensic work.

Collecting Innocents by C.K. Webb and D.J. Weaver

Something is very wrong on I-10.  Parents who encounter car problems while riding on the interstate are disappearing along with their children.  The parents all make 9-11 calls from callboxes along the interstate and that is the last contact anyone has with them.  The bodies of the parents are found in a few days or weeks but the children are never found.

The police are slow to put together the cases as they happen in different jurisdictions.  That's where The Saving Angels Agency comes in.  The agency was started by Sloanne Kelly and her fiance, Shawn Taylor, two years ago.  They were involved in a similar case and Sloane's goddaughter was kidnapped and murdered.  When that killer was apprehended, the couple swore that they would spend their lives working on missing child cases.  Two years later, they not only had helped put that killer behind bars, but had reunited multiple children with their parents.

Many of the individuals from the earlier case work on this one.  Jake MacKenzie was a detective in the earlier case.  He moved to Louisiana where the most recent kidnappings are taking place and is the first to make the connection.  He calls in Sloanne and Shawn along with their friend Birney Sullivan.  Sullivan is a reporter with the ability to take a news story nationwide.  Together this team, along with the sheriff in Louisiana and his men, work to discover the killer and try to locate the missing children.  Can they be successful against such a diabolical killer?

C.K. Webb and D.J. Weaver have created an interesting cast of characters.  Collecting Innocents is the second book in their series, but is easily accessible without having read the first.  The Saving Angels team is an interesting mix of people who have been affected by those who prey on children and have determined to devote their lives to making children safe.  This book is recommended to mystery lovers looking for a new series to follow.

By Blood by Ellen Ullman

It is the 1970's and a disgraced professor has come to San Francisco, awaiting the judgement of his college. A tenured professor, there is an allegation of improper student contact, and now he must wait for the wheels of collegial justice to grind out his fate. Knowing that it will take months, he has fled to another city where he is to work on research and papers. It is an unsettled time in San Francisco. The peace and love generation has given way to terrorists similar to those who kidnapped Patty Hearst. The Zodiac killer is stalking the streets. There is unease everywhere, including the professor's mind.

He takes an office in a cheap location, and there he finds his solace. He is placed next to a psychiatrist's office, and the construction is so cheap that he can hear through the walls. Not everyone; for most patients there is a white noise machine. But one patient, the one that the professor begins to think of as 'his patient' wants the machine turned off and he can hear everything she says.

The patient is caught up in the same identity crisis the professor has fought his whole life. Both feel they don't belong anywhere, that there is something unique about them that sets them apart and makes them unlovable. The patient believes it is her past as an adopted child. The professor comes from a family rife with mental disease and suicides. Both struggle to determine if they are a product of their genes, fated at birth to become what they are, or if they have the strength to define themselves apart from their heredity.
The professor has spent years in therapy and has removed himself from that setting. Yet he finds himself drawn into the struggle of the patient as she confronts her adoptive parents. He uses his research skills to find her birth mother and the truth of her background and mails the results to her pretending to be a clerk at the adoption agency. He then sits back and waits to see what will happen, if his gift will enable the patient to move forward with her life or if the truth of her background will swamp her.

Ellen Ullman has written a brooding tale that draws the reader in hypnotically. Set in short chapters, the hour long therapy sessions are juxtaposed with the actions of the professors. The story rackets up the suspense as the truth is revealed a bit at a time. Will the therapist have the skills to free the patient, and the professor who looms in the background and is just as needy? This book is recommended for all readers, an atmospheric tale that will not soon be forgotten.

The Imperfectionists by Tom Rachman

In 1953, the millionaire Cyrus Ott, head of a large corporation with far-flung interests, comes to Rome to make a proposition.  His former lover, Betty, now lives in Rome with her husband Leo.  Cyrus suggests that he will found a daily newspaper in the city and leave it to Betty and Leo to run it as editors.  They agree and the newspaper is founded.

Tom Rachman's debut novel, The Imperfectionists, follows this newspaper over the next fifty years along with the lives of the many people who make up the work force that creates a daily newspaper.  He structures the novel so that each person gets a chapter that shows his life, both at work and at home.  Each character ties to the other people at the newspaper, yet each remains separate.  This is the way of corporations and most large enterprises.  Each individual has their own agenda yet somehow, if lucky, these agendas are chained together to create a complete structure which none could have done alone.

Along with the short glimpses into individual private lives, Rachman portrays the dying days of the newspaper.  This is a fate that seems to be inevitable for most newspapers as readers' expectations are for instant information which they can get on the television news channels and the news on various Internet outlets.  There is little time for the leisurely exploration of topics that newspapers were able to create in years past.  The Ott corporation forgets about the newspaper in Rome, with few visits or inquiries from the home headquarters, and the newspaper is left to flounder and lose its way.

Rachman has done an impressive job.  His own background is as a journalist and an editor on foreign newspapers, so he knows the territory he writes about.  His slice-of-life vignettes are cunningly constructed to shed light on individual lives while typing them together to make a united whole.  This book is recommended for readers interested in modern fiction and for those interested in the writing industry.

The Night Swimmer by Matt Bondurant

Fred and Elly Bulkington are the luckiest couple alive.  They have won a genuine Irish pub in a contest, lock stock and barrel.  All they have to do is open the doors and their new lives will begin.

But this is not the Ireland of sunny skies, laughing children and warm communities.  This is the Ireland flung out on the outskirts of civilization, a dark, brooding, inbreed place where anyone not born there is called a 'blow-in'.  A place with secrets that outsiders only catch occasional glimpses of.  A place that is ruled by one family and where everyone else bows to that family's wishes.  A place of menace, contrasted with occasional flashes of casual violence.

Fred opens the doors, but customers are few and far between.  The only tourists who come here are birders, as this is the first landfall for migrating birds.  Elly is a distance swimmer, the kind of swimmer who only feels alive in the water.  She spends her time swimming in the ocean, an occupation that the natives view suspiciously.  To them the water is a necessary evil, a force that gives livilhoods but in return may demand a life in payment.  The couple is ostracized, not overt acts but just treated as if they don't exist.  The strain mounts with Fred falling into the bottle and their marriage starting to crack.  Will they be able to make a go of things in this remote, desolate place?

Matt Bondurant has written a stunning book, one that grips the reader, insinuating its way into thoughts at strange times, leaving behind an impulse to drop whatever is being done to get back to Elly and Fred's story.  The language is brooding, building suspense with each vignette the story unfolds, leading to a climatic finish that won't be soon forgotten.  This book is recommended for all readers who are interested in connection and remoteness and how we find our way in the world, clinging to others to save us from the cruelty we encounter. 

The Stranger's Child by Alan Hollinghurst

The Stranger's Child follows two British families, the Vances and the Sawles, from before WWI to the present. Both families were in the British upper class, with the Vances a bit higher, having a title. The sons of the families, Cecil and George, become friends at college, and the book begins with Cecil Vance's visit to George Sawle's family home on a weekend. Daphne, George's teenage sister, is infatuated with Cecil, too innocent to understand that the young men are sexually involved with each other. Cecil, a budding poet, dashes off a poem in Daphne's autograph book before he leaves. This poem becomes his most famous, and the one by which he is forever known.

The next section occurs after the war. Daphne is now Lady Vance, but is not married to Cecil. Cecil is killed in the war, and Daphne has married his brother Dudley. George is now married and teaching. The section follows their married years and their friends and acquaintances. They are part of an artistic circle with poets, authors and artists.

Fast forward a generation. The Vance family home has now become a boy's school, and Peter Rowe is a schoolmaster there. He begins an affair with Paul Bryant, who works as a bank teller in Daphne's son-in-law's bank. The circle of connection moves forward with Peter being invited to play duets with Daphne's daughter, Corrine, at gatherings at their home.
Another generation. Now Paul has become an author, specifically a biographer. He trades on his acquaintance with the Vance and Sawle families to ferret out their secrets and create a best-seller. George became the author, with his wife, of a famous historical textbook that became the milestone of every British child's education. Daphne spends her old age living with her son, who guards her jealously.

Alan Hollinghurst has created a fascinating book that looks at an era in British history where there were only a limited number of people who 'counted' and they all knew each other in some way, or had some tangential relationship or acquaintance that brought them into the charmed circle. He also plays with the idea of memory, how we are remembered when we are no longer here, and whether memories are ever true or are instead tinged and shaped by what we want to have happened. Families rise and fall, fortunes and titles come and go. The sections are tied together interestingly, with minor characters tieing back in unexpected ways to the two main families. This book has been nominated for the Mann Booker Prize in 2011, and is a well-deserved nomination.

Paris My Sweet by Amy Thomas

Amy Thomas fell in love with Paris on a trip in her late teens.  She dreamed of living there, and after years of work in the advertising field, she was offered a dream job.  She could take a contract to work on the advertising of Louis Vuitton, but would have to move to Paris and work there.  Amy jumped at the chance as it was her dream come true.

Amy's other passion was quality desserts.  She had, as a side interest, created a blog about sweets and where to find the best ones in New York.  She dreamed about expanding this with all the wonderful new sweet shops and French confections she would find in Paris.  Amy spent her first weeks there touring the famous shops and discovering new ones. 

Paris My Sweet combines both the story of Thomas's two years in Paris and her love of anything sweet.  Each chapter talks about an issue common to those starting a new job, moving to a new city, or being a woman on the cusp of middle age who is still single and adventurous but starting to wonder about love, marriage and children.  Each chapter also features a category of sweet such as the madeline or cupcakes or macarons.  At the end of each chapter is a page outlining the best places to find that category of sweet, both in New York and in Paris.

Paris My Sweet will appeal to a wide variety of readers.  It is great travel writing.  Foodies will be thrilled to read about the variety and intensity of flavors available in the dessert category as well as the guide to the best places to find specific categories.  Overall, the book will appear to women working on finding their place in the world, finding that mix of work and family/love that works for them.  Throughout the book, Thomas is revealed as a woman questioning her life but ultimately satisfied with her choices, a woman with a zest for life and who loves to share with others.  This book is recommended for all these categories of readers. 

Chasing China by Kay Bratt

Mia has come to China to discover the truth about her birth family.  She is one of the many Chinese girls who were adopted overseas.  Although Mia had a wonderful childhood and a loving adoptive family, part of her cannot rest until she discovers more about who she is, where she came from, and why her birth family deserted her at the age of one in a train station, leaving her to spend several years in a state-run orphanage before being adopted at age four.

When Mia visits the orphanage where she lived with a translator, she is appalled at the shabbiness but even more at the emotional starvation the children there encounter.  In order to feed, clothe and educate so many children, every minute of their day is strictly scheduled, and the caretakers don't have time to give praise or affection.  The children are treated as items on an assembly line.  Mia is also suspicious when her questions go unanswered or given an airy reply of  "Later".  She is unsure if her translator is giving her all the information the officials speak.

As the days go by, Mia explores other avenues to discover her past.  She meets Jax, another Chinese-American who helps her.  Jax is in China on an internship and is willing to help Mia find out whatever they can.  They post fliers and hunt down clues.  Mia also starts to work with a group of foreign women; expatriates who are in China for a year or two and who have chosen the orphanage as a charity.  Through these avenues, Mia gets closer to the truth, but it is uncertain if she will ever discover what occurred all those years ago.

Kay Bratt has worked in the field of overseas adoption for many years.  Chasing China allows her to educate readers as she entertains them, and to share the issues surrounding intercultural adoptions.  This book is recommended for readers interested in adoption, and those interested in other cultures.

Narrows Gate by Jim Fusilli

Narrows Gate is the kind of immigrant neighborhood in New York that everyone is familiar with from books and movies.  Lots of poverty, but close-knit families.  Not many chances for economic success leading to enterprising men making their way however they can.  Started as an Italian immigrant neighborhood, by WWII it was divided between the Italians and the Irish.

This is the world Leo Bell, his friend Sal Benno, and Bebe Marsela grow up in.  Each chooses a different path for his life.  Leo is smart and joins the military during the war where his intelligence is recognized and he is recruited to work for the government.  Benno has to hustle to make a living, and finds ways to make himself useful to the Mafia figures that control the city.  Bebe recreates himself as Bill Marsela, a crooner that makes the women swoon and all the men jealous of his luck. 

Jim Fusilli has written an intriguing novel that follows the life of these three characters as they navigate life in the city in the 1940's.  Full of well-researched details, the reader learns how criminal organizations grow and take over any enterprise in their vicinity that has the potential to make money.   This was the heyday of the Mafia and their plans to control the entertainment industry.  It was the time that Las Vegas was built, created by Mafia figures as a money-making enterprise.  The tension between the main characters, the government and the Mafia is carefully crafted and ratcheted up leading to a satisfying resolution.  This book is highly recommended for readers interested in a compelling read with fascinating characters and an intricate plot.

Pigeon English by Stehen Kelman

Prepare to fall in love. Harrison Opuku bursts off the page and into the reader’s heart. Harri is eleven, a recent immigrant from Ghana. He is now living in England with his mother and sister; his father, grandmother and baby sister left behind until the family can afford for them to come also. Living in the projects, Harri is amazed at all the new things he sees. The subway is an amazing item that he can’t quite believe work. He thinks it is bo-styles; the word for the ultimate cool. He is thrilled by remote control cars, cell phones, and new trainers. Harri’s best skill is his running; no one can catch him when he runs. He is the kind of boy who is open to all experiences, taking them in and finding the good in everything around him. Harri tends to like everyone; even the pigeons who flock around the housing projects, occasionally getting inside. Where others see a mess that should be cleared away, Harri sees a friend.

But not everything is positive in Harri’s world. Gangs abound, and as a newcomer, he is tested for inclusion. Daily life is full of insults and casual violence, and Harri is sometimes tempted by these acts. Worst of all, a boy who is the star of the basketball court, is murdered on the streets. The motive? No one knows for sure, maybe even just for his dinner. Harri and his friend Dean decide that they will find the killer. Full of facts gained from CSI shows, they attempt to lift fingerprints and find DNA, sure that they can find the culprit and bring him to justice.

Stephen Kelman has created a character that readers will not soon forget. The language is spot-on for a child growing up in modern England in the housing projects. The language is sometimes rough, and the facts that are commonplace knowledge breathtaking, but through it all, the sweetness of Harri’s personality shines through. Kelman himself grew up in the housing projects of England and worked as a careworker, a warehouse operative, in marketing and in local government administration before focusing on writing. Pigeon English has been nominated for the Booker Prize and readers will not be surprised by that fact. This is a stunning, excellent book; the fact that it is a debut novel is almost unimaginable. This book is recommended for all readers.

Dark Side Of Valor by Alicia Singleton

Lelia Freeman, a child advocate, knows what she speaks about.  She herself spent years on the street, running from a miserable homelife.  She managed to find a way out, but not before a tragedy occurred that stole her best friend from her, a victim of the streets and the predators that prowled them.

These days, Lelia is well past those days.  Her adopted family supported her as she used education to build a life for herself.  A life that not only sustained her, but allowed her to give back to society, to help others who found themselves on the streets due to poverty, drug or alcohol abuse, or lives filled with sexual and physical abuse.  She can relate to the children she saves since she was one of them.

Her work does not go unnoticed.  She is nominated to go work in Africa with the children orphaned from a civil war.  Once there, she discovers that all is not what it seems; that those who requested her did so to use her work as a cover for the evil they had done and planned to continue doing.  She escapes from the government, her allies two mercenaries who are there for their own purposes.  Relieved at first, she comes to realise that this was no accident; the men she was counting on to save her life had old ties to her past that left her anything but safe.  Could Lelia escape the danger she finds herself in and make it back to the kids that give her reason for living?

Alicia Singleton has written a compelling story that highlights the pain behind the lives of street children and abused and neglected children all over the world.  The reader will cheer for the heroine who attempts to assuage their pain, while learning more about what goes on in their world.  This book is recommended for readers interested in social justice, an exciting story and tales of those who rise above their background to make a new life.

The Black Echo by Michael Connelly

Harry Bosch, Hollywood homicide detective, is called out one night to investigate a body found in a large drainage tunnel.  He is surprised when he gets there to realise that he knows the man.  They served together in Vietnam, where they were 'tunnel rats'; the soldiers that went down in the tunnels to flush out the enemy soldiers.  Some vets came back and found their way as Bosch had.  Some, like Billy Meadows, the victim, never seemed to make it all the way back as a productive member of society.

Bosch discovers that Meadows is a suspect in a large bank heist that happened six months ago.  The robbers had tunnelled into the bank's vault over the Labor Day weekend and made off with the contents of the safety deposit boxes.  The FBI is investigating, and Bosch is soon attached to work with the FBI.  His partner there is Eleanor Wish, one of the few female agents on the bank robbery squad.

As the team investigates the robbery, it becomes clear that it may have been only the start of a larger plan and that another robbery may be occurring in the coming weeks as Memorial Day weekend comes up.  Additional victims are killed, and Bosch becomes even more determined to discover who is behind the plan.  Can he and Agent Wish discover what is going on in time to prevent the next robbery?

The Black Echo was Michael Connelly's first book in the Harry Bosch series, and the reader is interested to not only discover how the murder is solved, but to look back and see how the series originated.  Bosch is the outsider, a cop not loved by the police organization he works for.  He has issues relating to others but is recognized as a consummate detective, worth the hassle he tends to bring along with his investigations.  This book is recommended for mystery lovers, and especially for Michael Connelly fans.

Midnight Rising by Tony Horowitz

Painstakingly researched, Midnight Rising is Tony Horowitz's account of John Brown and the raid at Harper's Ferry. Militarily, this was a small operation, but most people have heard of it. What makes it so important? Horowitz explains the country's environment and ambiance at the time which made this such an explosive event.

Tensions ran high in the country. The Abolitionists were convinced that slavery was an abomination; one that there was no action too desperate to try to eradicate. Those who owned slaves were convinced that without slavery their entire economic world would collapse. As always, when there are two such diametrically opposed viewpoints, tensions ran high and extremists on both sides were willing to take drastic actions to further their beliefs.

Horowitz examines the life and philosophy of John Brown, a figure that most recognize but few know much about. He covers Brown's early life and his start as an Abolitionist vigilant in Kansas, the place that gave him his reputation as a bloody yet effective leader.  A staunch Abolitionist, he was willing to sacrifice his livelihood, his family and the lives of others as well as his own to further his beliefs. The result of Harper's Ferry, which stunned the nation, was to move the country even closer to the brink of the Civil War. 

Tony Horowitz has had a fascination with the Civil War. His earlier book, Confederates in the Attic, explored this topic, and Midnight Rising continues this exploration. His writing style is fluid and entertaining and the reader is educated without feeling that he is lectured to. This book is recommended for history readers and those interested in the Civil War and the events leading up to it.

Defending Jacob by William Landay

Andy Barber has achieved the middle-class dream. He has a great job he loves as the lead assistant district attorney, a long-term marriage to a woman he still loves, a fourteen year old son, a wide circle of friends, a house and enough money not to worry about it. Then tragedy strikes. A child at his son's school is murdered, knifed down in a near-by park. Andy heads up the investigation and is shocked when the evidence starts to point at his son Jacob.

Jacob is arrested and everything starts to fall apart. He is suspended from his job. Their friends drop them cold. The marriage becomes strained as they struggle to extradite their family from this nightmare. Jacob is sullen and uncommunicative. Their savings are demolished by the cost of retaining a lawyer to fight the charges. Even worse, old family secrets Barber has repressed come to light.

William Landay has written a compelling novel that readers won't be able to put down until they find out what happens to this family that rings so true and that could be their own. It forces the reader to consider how precarious their own life and happiness may be, and to what lengths they would go to protect what they have. Those who have read it will want to seek out others to discuss the book with. This book is recommended for all readers, and is one of the season's best.

The Little Book Of Bitchy Thoughts by Elizabeth Fairlight

The Little Book Of Bitchy Thoughts by Elizabeth Fairlight is a compendium of sayings to give the reader pause, to make them think.  This is a book to pick up and read when the reader has a few minutes and wants something to reflect on.  The book is organized into topics with thoughts about each category.  Here are a few of my favorites, although it probably says more about me than the book:

On Music
Opera is only vaudeville with attitude

The Arts
Spare design is for the emotionally autistic

On Religion
Most Southerns are Baptists because the Baptist religion allows you to live a life full of sin, but lets your repent on your deathbed.  Many Southerners would never get to heaven otherwise.

On Taxes
Do you know what poor is?  Reaching the age of 40 without knowing when taxes are due.

On Writing
Writers with talent need to avoid reading James Joyce's Ulysses the way a flawless skin needs to avoid smallpox.

On Mountain Climbing
So what?  You climbed up.  You could do that on a ladder and clean your gutters while you're at it.

And my favorite:

On Adulthood
To hell with grace under pressure.  Give me effectiveness under pressure.

This is a fun book, one that can be dipped into when the reader needs a quick life.  This book is recommended for readers that don't take life that seriously and are quick to appreciate humor.

History Of A Pleasure Seeker by Richard Mason

It is 1907, and Piet Barot has come to Amsterdam to make his fortune.  He has applied to be the tutor to the ten year old son of the fabulously wealthy Vermeulen-Sickerts family.  Piet is moderately well-educated, can play the piano adequately and can sing.  But his real assets are his looks and his ability to charm.  His mother was a singer before marrying his father, and raised him to have the manners and knowledge that a wealthy young man would have. 

Piet is successful in getting the job, and uses it as a station to improve his lot.  He charms each member of the family.  Maarten is a successful businessman, but one who also made his way to the top and he sees himself in Piet.  The two daughters of the family try to play with Piet as they do their suitors but he is able to avoid that trap and instead become their friend.  The mother, Jacobina, is attracted to Piet, and he plays on that attraction to solidify his position.  Piet is also, after many months, able to free the son from the phobias that have restricted his life.

Mason has created a character that will long remain in the reader's mind, as they try to determine if he is an admirable figure or a scoundrel.  Piet shows flashes of both, along with a steely determination to live life on his own terms and use all his strengths to make his way in the world.  This book is recommended for readers interested in the golden age of Europe and the way the upper class lived.

Gravestone by Travis Thrasher

Can anything be worse than being picked up in your junior year of high school in a big city and plunked down in a small rural town where you’re known as the outsider? That’s Chris Buckley’s predicament. When his parents divorce, he is forced to leave his normal teenage life in Chicago and move to the small Southern town of Solitary in North Carolina. He has no friends, his mother is caught up in her own world of grieving, and Chris is left to his own devices to figure out what his life will be from this point on.

That would be a crushing blow for most teenagers, but Chris has added issues. Solitary is a town full of secrets that can’t be discussed and evil that can’t be hidden. Chris’ girlfriend, the one person he trusted, has supposedly moved away with her family, but Chris knows better. He saw what happened to her one night. Of course, no one in town will believe him. Not his mother, not the school, not the sheriff. He has never been more alone, and now it appears that he is the next one targeted. Can he find out what is occurring in the town, and how to survive it?

Gravestone is the second book in Travis Thrasher’s series, The Solitary Tales. Fans of suspense and horror will enjoy the slow unraveling of the evil that surrounds Chris, and his attempts to discover what is happening before it overwhelms him entirely. The writing is moody and somber, with an insistent pulse of eminent disaster that grows and grows as the reader discovers more of Solitary’s secrets. This book is recommended for horror fans looking for a series that will satisfy their interest in things that go bump in the night.