The Aviator's Wife by Melanie Benjamin

It is 1974, and Anne Morrow Lindbergh and her children have brought Charles Lindbergh, Lucky Lindy, home to die.  As Anne sits with him in his final days, she reflects back on their lives and what sharing a lifetime with such a famous man has been like.  Anne is a senior at Smith College when they meet, while Lindbergh has already completed the solo transatlantic flight from the United States to Paris that made him a hero wherever he goes.  He takes her flying, and she instantly adores the sensation.  She can't believe that such a man has chosen her as his wife, and agrees, unable to believe her luck.  Anne feels she is living a fairy tale.

But there is a dark side to hero worship.  The couple is mobbed wherever they go, the photographers and reporters fighting to get an inch closer, to get their shouted questions answered.  They print every detail of the Lindbergh's lives that they can discover.  When the couple's toddler son, Charles Junior, is kidnapped and killed, the press is unbearable.  Anne can't help but feel that they played a part in the tragedy by singling them out and reporting every detail of their lives.

Anne comes to realise that life with Charles is on his terms.  He is the bravest man she has ever met, and he has an unerring sense that he is always right.  Distant emotionally, he plans every minute of his day and expects to plan Anne's also.  She is his co-pilot and navigator in those early years, leaving behind her babies whenever he wants her to.  As the years go on, she begins to resent his assumption that he and only he knows best in every situation.

Yet Anne stays with him loyally, unable to imagine a life without this man she loves.  She sticks with him during the war years, when his hero's mantle is tarnished by his campaign to keep America out of the war, and by his statements that make him appear anti-Semitic.  She stays during the war when Charles finally gets involved and leaves her alone to manage the household and children.  She stays during the long years after when he stays away for long stretches, leaving her to raise the family while he attends to business.  Anne learns to carve out a life on her own terms, with writing as her saving grace.

Melanie Benjamin has done a masterful job with this novel.  Most readers will learn many things they didn't know about the Lindberghs, who will always be defined by his heroic flight and the kidnapping that was one of the first nationally reported crimes.  I didn't know Anne was a pilot in her own right, or that after Charlie's death, they went on to have five other children.  This is an interesting book sure to catch the interest of any reader.  It is recommended for all readers.

The Bay Of Foxes by Sheila Kohler

It is 1978 and Dawit is in Paris.  But this is no fairy tale.  Dawit is an illegal immigrant from Ethiopia where he grew up rich and secure due to his father's high position in the government.  That all changed when the rebels came.  Dawit went from riches to absolute poverty as his family exploded.  His father dead, Dawit and his mother sent to the prisons where few ever emerge.  After weeks or months of torture, Dawit manages to escape and eventually makes his way to Paris.

In Paris, he wanders the streets penniless during the days.  At night, he can sleep in an apartment crammed full of other Ethiopian immigrants and grab a few bites.  One day Dawit manages to make a bit of money working for cash and wanders into a cafe where he can order a coffee and sit at peace for a while in the kind of surroundings he used to take for granted.  Also there, Dawit recognizes the famous woman author, M.  For some reason, when M. sees him looking at her, she beckons him over.  Soon they are talking, and M. seems impressed by his beauty and obvious education.  The encounter ends with her asking Dawit to come to her apartment in a few days time.

When he goes, M. quizzes him more about his former life.  She ends up offering him shelter in her apartment.  Dawit's life undergoes a dramatic change.  Now he acts as her secretary, arranging her life and serving as her editor.  M gives hm money and buys him beautiful clothes.  Dawit knows this is due to his youth and beauty, but makes an uneasy bargain.

As summer approaches, M tells Dawit they will be going to her summer home, a villa on the island of Sardinia.  Things start to fall apart.  M is becoming impatient that Dawit will not give her the physical love she craves.  Things escalate when Dawit falls in love with another and M starts to realise it.  How far will M go to get the payback she believes is her due?  What will Dawit do to maintain his precarious climb out of poverty and obscurity?

Sheila Kohler has written a beautiful, chilling spellbinder.  The writing is languorous, echoing the hot country of Dawit's birth and the island luxury he finds himself in.  The question of motives, of what we owe those who help us, of reciprocation of desires, is hauntingly raised.  This book is recommended for readers of general and literary fiction.

Orphan Train by Christina Baker Kline

In Christina Baker Kline's Orphan Train, she narrates the story of a practice meant to be kind that was often cruel.  Due to the waves of immigration, epidemics of illnesses and the difficulty of living in poverty, many children were left as orphans.  Many families had multiple children who were set adrift when their parents died or disappeared.  Organizations sprang up to help with the problem and the orphan trains were created.  Large numbers of children from the big Eastern cities were shipped to the Midwest where couples looking for children could adopt them.

That was the way it was supposed to work.  In reality, many families were only looking for free labor.  Boys were taken as farm hands while girls were used as maids, nannies and other darker occupations.  Families were torn apart and the children were often even stripped of their names and renamed to suit their new families.  It was, in many ways, indentured servitude.

Vivian Daly, a ninety-one year old widow, was one of those children.  She came over in the great Irish immigration and lost her family in a tenement fire.  Handy with a needle and desperate for an education, she grew up in a series of households, never quite belonging anywhere or to anyone.  As she nears the end of her life, Molly Ayer enters it.  Molly has a similar background in modern America,  Her father was killed in a car accident, her mother couldn't cope and was hospitalized, and Molly entered the foster care system, where she also bounced from family to family.  When she needs community service hours to avoid juvie, she meets Vivian and agrees to help her sort out her lifetime of possessions.

As they sort through Vivian's possessions, the older woman starts to share her memories of that painful time with Molly.  Molly instantly relates and a relationship develops between the two women regardless of the decades in age separating them.  They are sisters under the skin, both belonging to the group that never fit in anywhere or who could afford to trust anyone.  Slowly, as the trunks and boxes are sorted, they also sort out their feelings and secrets and learn to trust each other.

This is a charming novel.  The reader will be sympathetic with Vivian and Molly, and ache that there is no better solution for the children left alone in the world.  Although we no longer use mechanisms such as the orphan train, for many foster children the end result remains the same.  One of the most surprising things is the time period.  This occurred around the 1920's, not in the 1800's.  Both the main characters are believable and strong and the reader will hope for a better life for each of them.  This book is recommended foe readers of more recent historical fiction and those interested in reading how the human spirit can overcome tragedy.

A Cottage By The Sea by Ciji Ware

Blyte Barton Stowe has rented a cottage in rural Cornwall for the summer.  After having her messy divorce from award-winning movie director Christopher Stowe splashed across the media in gory detail, all she wants is a chance to get away and evaluate her life.  The fact that the manor house that owns the cottage is named Barton House is appealing.  After all, her grandmother always insisted that their family had ties to the landed gentry in England.  Raised on a ranch in Montana, Blyte doesn't believe that, but its fun to dream about.

Complications soon arrive.  Blyte starts to have visions of the former inhabitants of Barton House, particularly four of the current owner's ancestors.  The Barton estate was combined with that of the neighboring one owned by a family named Tremayne.  The merger was accomplished by the marriage of an earlier Blyte Barton to Christopher Tremayne, although her heart belonged to the younger Tremayne son, Ennis.  After a mystery that involved all three disappearing or dying, the estates ended up with a cousin inheriting everything.  This cousin, Garrett Teague is the direct ancestor of the current lord, Jack Teague.  Why does Blyte feel such a strong attachment to people she never even heard of six months before?

Jack is a widower with a young son and is desperately trying to keep the estate going,  Blyte, who was a production creative force in Hollywood, helps Jack develop a business plan to save the estate, and becomes his business partner.  A romance blooms, although there are many issues working against a successful ending.  Can Blyte and Jack become a couple and resolve these issues, both current and those going back for centuries?

Ciji Ware is best known for her historical fiction.  A Cottage By The Sea draws on that strength, while bringing in a mix of other genres.  There is historical fiction, romance and some paranormal aspects such as past life regression.  Readers will be entranced by Ware's careful balancing of the genres to produce a compelling story that will enchant.  This book is recommended for readers in all three genres.

War Of The Seasons: The Human by Janine Spendlove

Story isn't sure where she is or how she got there.  A teen, angry with the world due to the loss of her family, she has gone spelunking and fallen through into another world.  A world where the first beings she encounters are an elf and stump-like creatures trying to kill him.  Story instinctively saves the elf, but things keep getting stranger.

Eirnin, the elf,  seems transfixed by Story.  She matches the description of the one who will be sent to save the land and it's inhabitants.  A land where fairies are evil, and who have blighted the elf clans and sealed their fate to become extinct.  A land where mermaids and dryads exist.  A land that Story wants nothing to do with.

Thus begins the saga of War Of The Seasons.  Story forges a partnership with Eirnin.  He will take her to his queen for help to get Story back to the world she came from. Story will do what she can to help the elf clans, even though she doesn't really believe the legends and especially, her designated role as the savior of the land.  Along the way there will be many dangers to overcome and a tentative relationship between human and elf, as each learns the culture and ways of the other.

Janine Spendlove has written an engaging fantasy.  This is the first book in the series, and readers will find themselves anxious to read the next, which has already been published.  The novel's audience is that of the young adult, as Story is seventeen and facing typical teen dilemmas of finding out who she is and forging relationships.  The book is interesting enough, however, that adult readers will also enjoy it.  This book is recommended foe fantasy and young adult readers and is a strong debut novel.

Creature Features by Tim Rowland

Creature Features is a compilation of articles about Tim and Beth Rowland's life on their farm with an assortment of animals.  There are cows along with a clueless bull named Dim Dan.  There are geese which terrorize every creature around them,  The goats are more stable, until one tries to get them to do something against their inclination.  The two large horses are docile, but outshone by the miniature horse who believes himself to be master of all he surveys.  Pigs are friendly in Tim's experience, but difficult to convince of the wisdom of doing what their owner wishes.  The battles in the hen yard and the difficulties of the few roosters are daunting.  Then there are what most people consider pets; the dogs and cats.  Hannah is an English bulldog while Opie is a large bouvier des Flandres herding dog.  Julie is the head cat, a Siamese, while Genna the stray who comes to live on the farm while pregnant (is there such a creature as a stray cay who isn't pregnant?) is biding her time to take over.

If you suspect that a menagerie like this provides plenty of stories a newspaper columnist can use for benefit, you'd be right,  If you suspect that the animals are running the farm, you wouldn't be far wrong,  If you suspect that the resulting book is a hilarious telling of daily life, you would be as pleasantly surprised as I was.

Be careful; this book can be hazardous to your health, if the standard for healthy individuals doesn't include someone cackling manically as they quietly read.  Readers who enjoy stories of rural life and man's attempt to be lord of his estate will be pleasantly surprised to meet Tim Rowland.  The articles are short and easy to pick up for a few minutes between tasks, but different enough from each other that sitting down and gulping the entire book in one sitting is definitely possible.  This book is recommended for animal lovers as well as those who love humor.

In Sunlight And Shadow by Mark Helprin

Harry Copeland, a war hero, has arrived back in New York City, his time as a paratrooper in Europe during World War II over.  While much is familiar, there are lots of changes and issues to resolve.  He meets Catherine Hale and is instantly enthralled.  However, it turns out that Catherine is an heiress; the only child of an old and extremely wealthy family.  Then there is the fact that Harry is Jewish, which makes him an anomaly in monied circles.  Finally, there is the fact that Catherine is already engaged to another man.

Then there is the matter of Harry's family business,  Copeland Fine Leather is known worldwide for their quality goods, and the business thrived under Harry's father. Now that Harry is in charge, problems have arisen.  The business is targeted by the Mafia and the protection money they extract each week is draining the business dry and putting its survival at risk,

These two issues form the backbone of the novel.  Mark Helprin fans will be delighted to see him return to the locale of his A Winter's Tale, his wildly popular novel of 1983.  The same lyrical prose and compelling story lines carry this novel.  The reader is transported to the various locales Harry's story unwinds in; Broadway, the New York manufacturing districts, Long Island mansions, Central Park and war-torn England and Europe.  Helprin does not shy away from the big questions of what makes a life worthwhile, the role of love, or the meaning of the law if it does not protect those who need it.  This book is recommended for all readers.

Exciting News For Fantasy Fans; 2014 Author Calendar!

I've just heard about an exciting project going on that fantasy fans can help with!  Lauren Zurchin, a marvelous photographer and fantasy bibliophile, has decided to create a fantasy calendar for 2014.  Each month will have a photograph of an amazing fantasy author, dressed in a costume symbolic of all things fantasy.  Here is the lineup of authors:

Holly Black (The Spiderwick Chronicles; The Curse Workers Series)

Gail Carriger (Soulless; The Parasol Protectorate)

Cassandra Clare (The Mortal Instruments; The Infernal Devices)

Lauren Kate (Fallen)

Gregory Maguire (Wicked; The Oz Chronicles)

The Merry Sisters of Fate- a trio of authors consisting of: Tessa Gratton (Blood Magic; The Blood Keeper), Maggie Stiefvater (Shiver; The Scorpio Races; The Raven Boys), and Brenna Yovanoff (The Replacement; Paper Valentine)

Brandon Mull (Fablehaven; Beyonders)

Lauren Oliver (Delirium; Before I Fall)

Christopher Paolini (The Inheritance Cycle)

Patrick Rothfuss (The Name of the Wind)

Brandon Sanderson (Wheel of Time; Mistborn)

Tad Williams (Otherland; Memory, Sorrow and Thorn)

Here's how you can help make this exciting project a reality.  Lauren needs some help geting started.  She has created a Kickstarter where you can donate to help with the funding.  Donators will get some amazing prizes; signed calendars, signed prints, bookmarks, computer wallpaper, chats; all kind of marvelous things.  In order to see the various prizes and to donate if you've so moved, go to the Kickstarter page .  Booksies has made a contribution and can't wait until the calendars are ready!

Heart Of Ice by P.J. Parrish

Louis Kincaid is at a crossroads in his life.  He has been making a living as a private investigator in Florida, but that's not where his heart is.  His heart is in Michigan.  Michigan, where he has just discovered that he has a daughter, Lily,  whose life he wants to be involved in.  Michigan, where his former girlfriend lives as do his foster parents.  But he can't be a policeman in Michigan due to being blackballed in a case that went south.  He might be able to become a policeman again in Florida.

But, for now, Kincaid is getting to know his daughter.  He has brought her to one of the scenes of his childhood, Mackinac Island, for a short vacation on which they can become acquainted.  Kincaid turns his back for a second, and his daughter slips away and enters a deserted lodge.  Before he can get to her, he hears her fall.   Luckily, she isn't badly injured, but that doesn't mean all is well.  Lily has fallen into a basement and landed on a heap of bones.

The sheriff on Mackinac isn't used to handling crimes like cold case investigations.  Cold cases are Louis' specialty, and the sheriff asks for his help.  The bones are a young girl's.  Further investigation determines that they are probably twenty years old.  The two men research all the missing girl cases from that time, and one stands out.  Julie Chapman was the daughter of a rich man, and disappeared on New Year's Eve twenty years ago.  Is this Julie, and if so, can Sheriff Flowers and Kincaid discover what happened to her?

This is the latest in the Louis Kincaid mystery series by P.J. Parrish, two sisters who have banded together to collaborate.  Fans of the mystery genre will welcome another novel in the series, and the chance to explore more of Louis Kincaid's personality and history.  The mystery has a satisfying resolution after many twists and turns.  This book is recommended for mystery lovers.

The Sound Of Breaking Glass by Deborah Crombie

In this fifteenth novel about London detectives Gemma and Duncan Kincaid, the couple's lives have changed.  They are foster parents now to three year old Charlotte and Duncan has taken leave from work to stay at home with her.  Gemma has gotten a promotion and is eager to show her expertise in her first assigned case.

Someone is killing barristers.  Two men have been found killed, each bound naked and strangled.  There seems to be little that connects the men.  Victor Arnott was an older man, sixtyish, powerful and at the top of his career.  He made a habit of picking up women in bars and taking them to a seedy hotel nearby.  Shaun Francis was a young barrister just starting out and feeling his way in his profession.  There seems to be no connection between the two men except that no one seemed to like them much, and they both lived in the same part of town, near the Crystal Palace of historical importance.

As Gemma delves into their lives, connections start to appear.  Both seemed to have been involved with a young guitarist who is about to make a breakthrough in his career.  Andy also comes from the neighborhood and has connections with both men.  Could he be involved?  Gemma's new detective sergeant, Melody Talbot, hopes that this is not so, as she has felt an instant connection with Andy.  Andy's manager is a man both Gemma and Duncan know.  Should Gemma continue to work the case when she and her team have personal connections to the participants?  If she does, can they solve the case before more men are killed?

Fans of Deborah Crumbie's Kincaid series will welcome this new chapter in the series.  Crumbie mixes the details of a police investigation with just enough information about the personal lives of the police investigating it to draw the reader in and make them feel as if they are revisiting old friends.  The story is satisfactorily complex and the personal relationships move the plot along as the line between work and home responsibilities is finely drawn.  This book is recommended for mystery readers.

The Mongoliad, Book Two by Neal Stephenson and others

In this second book of the trilogy, those banded together against the Mongols continue to make plans to overthrow the invaders by assassinating the Khan, Ogedei.  The main group in those banded together against the Khan are the Shield-Brethren who have vowed their mission to defeat the Khan even at the cost of their lives.

As before, there are multiple threads that move the novel along.  Some of the Brethren have been taken hostage and are forced to do battle for entertainment in the Khan's Circus of Swords.  Between fights, they recruit others who have also been forced into this slavery as gladiators for the pleasure of their captors.  Father Rodrigo has received a vision and has made his way to Rome to deliver the message he believes he has been entrusted with.  He arrives as the current Pope has died, and becomes mired in the struggle between the various Cardinal enclaves as they fight to have their own candidate declared the next Pope.  Lian, the beautiful Chinese slave who is teaching Gansukh the ways of the Khan's court, has determined to try to escape.  Gansukh is torn between his mission to help the Khan and his love of Lian.

As the story advances, some characters die  and others join the group.  The reader needs to be vigilant to keep all the characters in order.  Neal Stephenson, Greg Bear, Mark Teppo, Erik Bear, Joseph Brassey, E.D. de Birmingham and Cooper Moo have created an intricate fantasy that leaves the reader eager to continue the story in Book Three.  This book is recommended for fantasy readers.

The Dinner by Herman Koch

Two Dutch couples meet for dinner.  Serge and Paul are brothers; their wives Babette and Claire sisters-in-law.  But these are not close brothers.  These are brothers for whom sibling rivalry has defined their lives, and Serge is definitely the winner.  Serge is in the race to become the next Prime Minister and is expected to win, while Paul has been unemployed for nine years.  Everything about Serge sets Paul's teeth on edge.

The two couples each have a fifteen year old son who are cousins and close friends.  Serge and Babette also have a daughter and an adopted child from another country.  The purpose of the dinner is to discuss the sons.  They have committed an act that has the potential to ruin not only their own lives, but those of the parents.  How far will these four adults go to shield their sons from the consequences of their actions?

Herman Koch has written a compelling suspense novel.  The reader will not soon forget the narrator, Paul.  As the story begins he seems like the guy next door, although a bit supercilious about his brother and quicker than most to take offense.  As the book progresses, the secrets in each family are slowly revealed, pulling each family unwittingly down a path from which they cannot return.  This book is recommended for suspense readers and those interested in familial relationships.

Joseph Anton by Salman Rushdie

On February 14, 1989, Salman Rushdie, one of the era's preeminent novelists, awoke to find that he had been sentenced to death.  Not by a court of law after a long trial of evidence for some heinous crime.  Not by a doctor who after exhaustive tests had determined that he had a fatal disease.  No.  Rushdie had been put under a fatwa by radical Islamic extremists who objected to his latest novel, The Satanic Verses.  Most had not read it, but decided that it was blasphemous and that he must die for his ideas.  For the next thirteen years, Rushdie was a marked man who had to live under the strictest security imaginable.

Joseph Anton is Rushdie's memoir of this time in his life.  Joseph Anton was the pseudonym he chose, Joseph for Joseph Conrad and Anton for Anton Chekhov.  For thirteen years, this was his name as he lived undercover.  He was moved from location to location, rarely having the luxury of being in the same place for more than a few months.  Airlines refused to fly him and countries refused to let him enter due to the security issues.  He had four policeman who lived with him for those years.  Imagine how this works.  You are trying to live a family life but there are four strangers always there.  Strangers who decide what you will be allowed to do.  You can't go to your child's school functions, and there are whole months that you can't even see your child.  You can't decide to walk down to the corner store or go see friends.  You can't even go outside to check your mail. 

During this time, life did go on after a fashion.  Friends came and went.  Children were born and they grew, knowing only the reality of a restricted life and the constant fear that their parent would not be there tomorrow.  Marriages were made and broken; a constant wonder about whether love would have lasted without the artificial restraints it was lived under.  Governments showed courage at times, but often only political expediency, and the constant recalculation of whether standing up to the terrorists was a smart political move.

Salman Rushdie has long been one of my favorite authors so I knew I would like this book.  The writing is superb as he takes the reader through the long years of disenfranchisement and constraints.  The issue about whether freedom of ideas and speech is indeed an issue we are willing to protect is paramount.  Does one stand up for that right knowing that death may be the result, or cave in to those who would take it from you?  While Salman survived, there were those who didn't; translators and editors who were targeted and killed, rioters who lost their lives.  Can a society give in to the fear that a dedicated group of extremists is willing to die to defeat?  All these are important questions, and Rushdie's book gives the reader the ability to frame the discussion and make a decision. 

Friendfluence by Carlin Flora

In Friendfluence, author Carlin Flora does an exhaustive survey of the literature and research surrounding friendship.  She discusses the desire for friends that we all are born with, and how our friends allow us to develop our personalities fully, providing support for our hopes and desires.  She goes back to the roots of friendship, talking about the research on how children find and make friends as small children, and how their success or failure impacts their later life and even their career and marriage successes.  She then moves on to the teen years, when friends are the most important influence in an individual's life, as they move to create themselves as individuals outside of their nuclear family structure.

There are many types of friends and friendships.  The work friendship is different from that of two people who share a common interest.  There are friends who have influence for good in our lives, and there are friends who impact us in a negative way.  Flora talks about how to disengage from a negative friendship, which is a skill set many of us are not familiar with.  She also discusses the difference in male-male friendships, as opposed to male-female friendships, and how those differ from love relationships. 

In an interesting chapter, the author discusses the way that virtual friendships are dominant in many people's lives, and how these friendships can fill voids when no one in the everyday routine meets the specific needs of an individual.  The pitfalls of this type of friendship is also covered, along with the research on whether the new paradigm of online time changes the core relationships an individual might have.

While exhaustive, the book does not read like a textbook.  Rather, the author has written in an engaging style, and includes many examples that illustrate points in a manner that is familiar to the reader.  The reader will finish the book both validated in their own friendships and with ideas how to extend and expand their friendship circle.  This book is recommended for many types of readers; parents struggling to help their children establish friendships, those interested in the role friendship plays in our lives, and those with friendship issues they need to resolve.

Rally 'Round The Corpse by Hy Conrad

Amy has started a new travel agency, and has had a wonderful idea.  Instead of the traditional European tour, she has contracted with a mystery writer to offer a tour based around solving a mystery.  Not sure if it would be popular, she was pleased to see the tour sell out. 

As the tour progresses, Amy starts to see issues.  Shepherding twenty-four strangers from place to place is more difficult than she thought, with conflicting personalities and lots of demands.  Amy gets a call from her mother back home who shares the news that the writer of the mystery has been murdered; not a auspicious start.  It also becomes apparent as the days go by that instead of creating a new mystery the writer appropriated the details of an unsolved murder he had heard about.  Even worse, there are members on the mystery tour who were involved in that unsolved murder.

Still, the tour ends in Rome on time, and the winners are chosen.  Everyone seems to have had a grand time until one of the participants is killed at the celebration dinner.  Who could have done this and what was their motive?  Was it dislike generated during the tour or did it hark back to the original murder?  Can Amy and the mystery tour participants solve the murder before the Italian police can?

Hy Conrad was the writer and producer of Monk, the TV show built around the quirks of an intelligent detective unsuited for everyday life by his obsessions.  Fans of the show will love the book as it has much of the same charm.  Those unfamiliar will also enjoy the book as it is offbeat enough to be interesting but the pacing and plot are professionally done.  This book is recommended for mystery readers.

Stone Maidens by Lloyd Devereux Richards

Young girls are disappearing in the Midwest.  When found weeks or months later, their bodies show that their killer has removed all their internal organs and left them hollowed out.  Except for one thing.  The killer has inserted a carved stone figurine in their throats.

FBI Special Agent Christine Prusik is heading up the investigation into these serial murders.  A forensic anthropologist, her ability to make the most minute evidence speak has propelled her to the forefront in the agency.  But this case, her first as a lead investigator, has her confused and uneasy.  The method of the killings seems to mimic that of native New Guineans; a remote tribe that practiced cannibalism.  This tribe was the focus of Prusik's doctoral dissertation years ago, and she barely escaped with her life.  How can murders in Indiana mimic cases in New Guinea, which are known only to a few people?

The case progresses, and a suspect is identified.  His actions seem to shout guilt, yet Christine is unsure that he is the correct suspect.  The forensic evidence doesn't support the circumstantial evidence that has led to his arrest.  Has the Bureau made a mistake, or has Christine's past clouded her vision?  Can she unravel the clues to explain the mystery before another girl goes missing?

Lloyd Devereux Richards has written a fascinating debut thriller.  His background as a law clerk in the Indiana Court of Appeals, is clearly demonstrated by the inside knowledge of murder cases and the investigative process found in the novel.  The question of genetic inevitability is raised and left to the reader to decide.  The pace is fast enough to be compelling, and the reader will turn the last page with a racing pulse.

Life Among Giants by Bill Roorbach

Lizard Hochmeyer is a giant.  Not literally, but he is 6'8" tall and the star quarterback of his high school football team.  He is taller than those around him.  But Lizard also has a giant heart.  His concern for others, especially his family, takes him on a tailspin that starts his senior year and is finally resolved decades later.

Lizard's parents are mysteries to him, as parents mostly are to their children.  His mother comes from money but in the Midwest.  She marries Lizard's dad who she sees as glamorous, since he comes from the East.  Unfortunately, he is a charismatic guy who cuts corners and makes his way through life more on charm than skill.  Their marriage is rocky, two disparate individuals who share nothing in common but the kids and an undying lust for each other. 

As are his parents, Lizard can't figure out his sister, Kate.  She is gorgeous, bright and full of secrets.  As the book starts, she has gone to Yale.  Then there are the neighbors.  Not your ordinary country club couple, although there are plenty of those folks in town.  No, the neighbors in this case are one of the world's power couples.  Dabney is a major rock star, one whose every action is followed by the press.  His wife is Sylphide, a ballerina considered to be the world's best talent.  Their house is shrouded in more mysteries.  Ordinarily the two families' paths would never cross, but Dabney and Sylphide have a son, Linsay, who needs constant care, and they hire Kate to be one of his main caretakers.  Soon Kate is full of new secrets she learns at the house of Dabney and Sylphide.

Tragedy strikes.  Lizard's dad is arrested, part of a major financial scandal.  He agrees to turn state's evidence.  The family gathers for a final luncheon before he enters protective custody, and in front of Lizard and Kate, the parents are gunned down. 

Years pass.  Lizard becomes the star quarterback at Princeton and later has a mediocre career in the NFL.  He can't move past that senior year.  He and Kate are consumed with the desire to discover what went on and who killed their parents.  Over the years, Lizard has met and become entangled with Sylphide, and he tries to push through the concealments and secrets there to determine if she is involved in his parent's death, as Kate believes.  He can't move into a love of his own as Sylphide comes and goes in his live, picking him up occasionally for a few weeks, then jetting off to do whatever she wants to do.

Bill Roorbach has written a fascinating novel, full of intrigue and vividly drawn characters.  Readers will retain memories of Lizard long after the last page is turned.  The book deftly draws the line between the falseness and damage of secrets held, sometimes for decades, and the clarity found when the truth is known.  This book is recommended for readers of family conflict and any reader looking for a wonderful novel to get lost in.

The Big Exit by David Carnoy

Richie Forman is slowly putting his life back together.  He spent years in prison after being convicted of vehicular manslaughter.  In a messy case that made the headlines, Richie's car hit another on his way home from his bachelor party and killed the other driver.  Richie acknowledges he had been drinking, but doesn't remember driving.  Was he the driver as the evidence says, or did his best friend, Mark McGregor,  swap places with him after the wreck when he saw that Richie was passed out?  The possible betrayal goes even deeper when Richie finds out that Mark used the time of Richie's sentence to woo and marry Richie's ex-fiance, Beth.

Whatever happened is now in the past, Richie thinks.  He is out, making a living with his singing at night, and starting a new job at a law firm set up to exonerate those falsely convicted.  His life is starting to come together again.  All that changes when Mark is found hacked to death in his garage.  Beth came home and found him.  Is she the main suspect or is Richie the obvious candidate with his bitterness about Mark's actions? 

The evidence linking Richie to the murder starts to pile up.  One of the main detectives in his first case, Hank Madden, seems convinced that Richie is the culprit.  Beth has hired a lawyer, and it turns out to be the prosecutor who tried and convicted Forman.  Is history repeating itself?

David Carnoy has written a fresh, interesting mystery.  The characters are engaging, and the book's pace is such that the reader is drawn along.  The plot is intricate, and the police procedures are satisfactorily researched rather than being unrealistic as is often the case with mysteries.  This book is recommended for mystery readers.  They will turn the last page satisfied and ready for another Carnoy novel.

Blood Innocents by Thomas H. Cook

Detective John Reardon can't believe this is the case he's been assigned.  Two fallow deer have been killed in the Central Park Zoo, and since they were donated by one of the wealthiest, most influential men in the city, it's a top priority case.  Although he doesn't agree, Reardon treats the case with the same doggedness and integrity he has given all his cases over his career.

The scene is similar to a butcher house.  One deer has been hacked to death by fifty-seven blows with something such as a hachet or axe.  The other deer was killed by one blow.  There is a two written in blood at the scene.  Why the savagery of one death and the relative ease of the other?  Was this targeted at the deer themselves or at the wealthy donor?  Who would be willing to kill with such a savage nature?

The stakes are soon raised.  A day later, two career women, roommates, are killed.  Their deaths seem to mimic that of the deer.  One woman is killed with one blow while her friend is hacked to death with fifty-seven blows.  This time the word Dos is written in blood.

Surely the two cases must be related.  As Reardon follows the trail of clues, the political pressure mounts.  The case must be solved quickly, and sure enough, soon a suspect is arrested.  There is evidence against him, and everyone is quick to congratulate themselves on a case solved.  But Reardon doesn't believe the suspect is guilty.  His investigation is leading to a different suspect, but can he fight the administration that is desperate to close the case?

This is Thomas H. Cook's first novel.  Mystery fans know him as one of the masters of the genre, and the features that make him a first-rate author are easily found in this early effort.  The plot twists and turns, and there are psychological issues that must be resolved.  This is a very satisfactory start to a stellar career.  This book is recommended for readers who enjoy mysteries and suspense.

French Illusions by Linda Kovic-Skow

When Linda Kovic-Skow was turned down for a job as a flight attendant on an international airline due to not speaking another language, she came up with a plan.  She would move to France by advertising her services as an au pair, and learn French by immersion.  She put the plan into action and quickly found a job.  There was one catch; the family wanted an au pair already fluent in French.

Desperate to get to France, Linda let the family believe she met their criteria.  Thus, her first experience meeting the family was a confession that she had come to France under false pretenses.  The family was not happy, but agreed to let her stay.  It was a wealthy family, living in a large castle-like home.  There was a young girl and a boy, and the mother delivered a baby girl shortly after Linda started with them.

Things did not go as well as she had hoped.  While Linda was willing to do whatever was needed, the mother in the family quickly stepped over the line.  She started assigning Linda tasks that were not in the au pair job description, and often had her working at household tasks for up to twelve hours a day.  While she got along well with the son, the daughter was haughty and refused to follow Linda's directions.

Things were not all bleak.  Linda went several times a week to a nearby town where she started college classes as another way to learn French.  She met some fellow students, and then Adam, who was a gorgeous man who also seemed interested in her.  These weekly classes quickly became her escape from drudgery.

Things went from bad to worse with the mother starting to make demands on Linda's limited free time and making comments about her sexual nature.  When things got to the absolute limit, Linda knew she had to make a change.  Could she change her relationship with her family or would she have to find another way to extend her journey abroad?

Kovic-Skow has written an entertaining memoir of her time in France.  It is full of her adventurous nature and the pitfalls that a young person alone in a foreign country can encounter.  This book is recommended for readers who enjoy travel writing and those who like memoirs.