The Silkworm by Robert Galbraith

Novelist Owen Quine has gone missing.  His wife comes to detective Comoran Strike.  She wants Comoran to find him and bring him home.  Quine goes away periodically, but always returns and this time he hasn't.  They have a daughter with special needs and Quine knows only he can produce the money needed to keep the family afloat.

Strike takes the case and expects it to be an easy one.  But as he investigates, it becomes more complicated.  Quine has written a new novel, one in which he skewers many of the literary circle of England.  He has a mistress who is sure he is leaving his wife and child to be with her, an agent who seems to despise him and a publishing house that would be more than glad to drop him.  Every individual thinly disguised in the book would be glad to see him disappear for good.  When Strike discovers Quine's body and realizes that he has been killed in a parody of the novel, the race is on to discover the murderer.

The reader also learns more about the personal lives of Strike and his assistant, Robin Ellacott.  Strike is a former soldier who has been left with an artificial leg and investigative skills from his time in the military.  Huge and focused, he is considered without social skills yet has friends in every circle who would do anything for him.  Robin, his assistant, is about to get married and starting to wonder if that is the right course for her, or if it would be more fulfilling to become an investigator herself.  Together the two work through the lengthy suspect list to discover who killed Quine.

This is the second Comoran Strike book and it is equally as delightful as the first.  In the worst-kept secret in the literary world, Robert Galbraith is the pseudonym of J.K. Rowling, and she delivers the plotting and characterization that made her famous as an author.  The reader finishes the book eager to read the next installment in the series.  This book is recommended for mystery readers.

Girls On Fire by Robin Wasserman

You remember teenage friendships.  That fierce cleaving to another person, the two of you against the world, united against anyone or anything that would dampen your dreams or try to make the two of you ordinary.  That's how it was when Lacey and Dex found each other.

Dex, who everyone else knew as Hannah Dexter, was the ignored girl.  Her parents were on the fringes of the social life in their small town, but somehow Hannah was the one always left out, always made fun of when someone actually noticed her.  She drifted through school trying to be invisible.  She was the good girl at home although her parents wanted her to be popular.

Lacey was the rebel.  Raised by a single mom who was always working or out with various boyfriends, she grew up doing whatever she wanted.  She hung out with undesirable boys, drank and did drugs, and learned about sex way too early.  When her mom finds and marries a born-again Christian with a mean streak and has a baby with him, Lacey is uprooted and moved to small town Battle Creek, Michigan.

Dex can't believe it when Lacey talks to her in the bathroom one day after a brutal encounter with the queen bee of their high school.  It's even more unbelievable when she takes her out in her car and they start to learn about each other.  Soon, it is them against the world and Dex learns about life and what is real.  There is nothing but Lacey and the united front the two of them present to the world.  But fairy tales aren't real and soon hidden secrets start to crack the foundation of their friendship.  How far will one go to continue to live in the exclusive world of the other?

Robin Wasserman has written a fierce, raw novel that will strike an instant chord in all those who grew up on the fringes.  The fringes of high school popularity, of boys and parties and being desired.  Who wake up with white-hot anger growling right beneath the surface as they go through the halls of their school, who pretend it doesn't matter and pretend they are normal for their parents and teachers.  Who if they are lucky emerge on the other side and go out into life and wrest from it what they want.  Who if they are unlucky fall deeper into dependence on the other person in their world and let that dependence take them down into actions they would never have done alone.  This book is recommended for young adult readers and for mothers raising daughters.

Booksie's Shelves, May 20, 2016

It's a week of lasts in our house.  Last prom, last chorus concert, last awards ceremony, last day of high school and last dance recital!  I unplugged and threw away my alarm clock yesterday as I no longer have to get up on someone else's schedule.  My favorite time to read is in the morning in bed but I only got to do it on the weekends.  Now I can do it anytime.  The sadness of my daughter graduating and moving on to college is setting in, but I'm excited as she moves on to the next stage in her life.  She got the AP English award this year, so she's on the right track with reading!  Here's the books that I got recently:

1.  Auntie Poldi And The Sicilian Lions, Mario Giordano, mystery, sent by publisher
2.  The View From The Cheap Seats, Neil Gaiman, nonfiction, sent by publisher
3.  Orchard, Jack Bailey, historical fiction, sent by publisher
4.  I Do It With The Lights On, Whitney Thore, nonfiction, sent by publisher
5.  Behind Closed Doors, B.A. Paris, thriller, won in contest
6.  Red Platoon, Clinton Romesha, nonfiction, sent by publisher
7.  The Mother, Yvvette Edwards, literary fiction, sent for book tour
8.  Monsters:  A Love Story, Liz Kay, contempory fiction, sent by publisher

Here's what I'm reading:

1.  The Silkworm, Robert Galbraith, Kindle Fire
2.  Lady Cop Makes Trouble, Amy Stewart, Kindle
3.  The Lore Of The Evermen, James Maxwell, audio
4.  The Portable Veblen, Elizabeth Mckensie, paperback
5.  Murder At Breakfast, Beth Gutcheon, paperback
6.  Lexicon, Max Barry, hardcover
7.  A Dance With Dragons, George R. R. Martin, hardcover

Happy Reading!

The Dream Lover by Elizabeth Berg

Aurore Dupin is a typical French woman of the nobility in the early to mid 1880's.  She was raised by her grandmother after her father died when she was young and her mother went to Paris to live her life.  She was educated in the arts and sciences by a tutor who lived on the estate and learned to ride, make conversation and all the social graces.  Yet Aurore was not a happy child.  She felt deserted by her mother who had agreed to leave Aurore behind with her grandmother in exchange for the money to live as she chose.

When Aurore grew up, she was faced with marriage and all the disadvantages that imposed on a woman of the time.  She married a man and had high hopes, but the marriage soon evolved into a prison with him controlling all of her fortune and her estate.  He was brutish and lived only to hunt and have other women.  Her only joy was in her children, Maurice and Solange.

Finally, the marriage became more than she could bear and she went to Paris after agreeing to a separation with her husband.  There she started to write and explore other relationships.  She found a community of like people, artists and writers and musicians.  One of her first jobs was a theatre critic and she began to wear men's clothing in order to obtain the cheap seats they were allowed to buy.  Soon she was also using a man's name, the none under which she lived for the rest of her life.  That name was George Sand.

Over the years, Sand became famous for her writing and for her passionate love affairs.  She loved men who depended on her to support them both and inevitably, the affairs ended badly.  She desperately loved a famous actress of the time, but the other woman was not interested in that kind of relationship.  Her most famous and long-lasting love affair was with Frederick Chopin.  That relationship lasted almost a decade.  She was friends with Flaubert, Balzac, Liszt, Eugene Delacroix and a host of other individuals in the arts.  Yet she always searched and was disappointed in love.

Elizabeth Berg has written a novel about George Sand that will introduce this great writer to the reader who has always been interested in learning more about this influential writer who forged the path for women's independence to pursue what gave them joy.  She uses some of Sand's letters and those she received to illustrate the tempestuous personality that moved Sand onward, constantly pursuing the right to live life as she wanted.  This book is recommended for readers of historical fiction.

Death At Breakfast by Beth Gutcheon

Now that they are retired, two old friends decide they would make good traveling companions.  Maggie Detweiler was the head of a prestigious private school while her old friend, Hope Babbin is a wealthy socialite.  Eager to test their compatibility, they sign up for a cooking school at a quaint Maine inn and head off.  The surroundings are wonderful and the cooking school is marvelous.  Everything is proceeding satisfactorily when trouble arrives in the form of obnoxious guests.

Alexander and Lisa Antippas are loud and obnoxious, using their wealth to bully others and make demands of everyone around while constantly fighting.  Lisa's sister, Gloria, an actress, accompanies them.  They are the kind of guest whom everyone notices and clears out of the room for, murmuring to each other about how unpleasant they are.  After a family tragedy strikes, the other guests try to make allowances but it is difficult to find empathy for such obnoxious people.

The tension mounts when Alexander's body is discovered.  The deputy sheriff arrives, and to everyone's surprise, turns out to be Hope's long estranged son.  Buster Babbin has floundered a bit in life, but has to his own surprise, found his standing in this small town where a sheriff is more of a community representative than a hardcore law and order person.  He starts to investigate, but Alexander's wealth and power insure that the state investigators turn up and try to take over.  Can Buster, with the help of Maggie and Hope, solve the mystery?

Beth Gutcheon has written a charming first entry in a new detective series.  The two women bring years of experience with observing human nature mixed with wry humor while Buster reveals hidden depths.  The reader will be interested in how events play out and close the back cover with a feeling of satisfaction.  This book is recommended for mystery readers.

The Body In The Wardrobe by Katherine Hall Page

This should be an ecstatic time in attorney Sophie Maxwell's life.  She has just moved to Savannah after marrying the love of her life, Will.  She quickly finds a job and the couple start house hunting.  Sophie starts to get comfortable in Savannah with its love of parties, wonderful weather, friendly people and lots of preserved history.  But all is not perfect.  There's an ex-girlfriend on the scene who hints that maybe Sophie doesn't know all she thinks she does about Will.  Will does seem to have secrets, as do many of his wealthy, well-connected family.  His job takes him out of town, leaving Sophie on her own.  The worst is when she opens the wardrobe in her bedroom one night and a man's body falls out.  By the time she summons help, the body is gone.  Did she imagine it as everyone wants her to think?

Her best friend, Faith Fairchild, a minister's wife and caterer in New England, has her own problems.  A neighbor seems to have a problem that is straining her health, but won't share her burden.  Faith's husband is thinking about a career change which would mean a family move.  Worst, her teenage daughter is having issues at school that are changing her sunny personality.  The two friends commiserate over the phone, but the problems keep them from getting together in person.  Can everything be resolved?

This is the twenty-third mystery in the Faith Fairchild series.  Fans of the series will enjoy another visit with Faith, while becoming acquainted with her new heroine, Sophie.  There is lots of history, food  and city tidbits about Savannah and of course, recipes from Faith's catering business.  This book is recommended for mystery readers.

Devil's Harbor by Alex Gilly

Nick Finn isn't sure exactly when his life went off the rails.  Was it the night he and his brother-in-law, working their shift as Marine Interdiction Agents for Customs and Border Protection, intercept a suspicious boat with tragic consequences?  Was it the day they found a teenage boy floating in the channel, his legs gone in a shark attack?  Or was it the day Finn decides to take another drink after months on the wagon?

Whichever was the decision point, Finn is now faced with issues.  His wife, Mona, has left him.  His job is in jeopardy as he faces an investigation into what happened on the water that night.  Worse, as he tries to find out what is really happening, he stumbles into a plot that is sickening and far beyond anything he ever expected having to deal with.

Alex Gilly's debut novel is a fast-paced thriller that will keep readers going until the last page.  Full of surprises and twists and turns, the reader will not only be surprised but educated about the work of Customs on the seas surrounding us and the drug cartels they battle.  This book is recommended for thriller readers.

Booksie's Shelves, May 7, 2016

We're well into May and what a busy month it's turning out to be.  Lots of events happening for the last time with a daughter graduating high school and leaving her dance studio after fourteen years.  Two weeks till her last dance recital and three weeks till graduation!  I'm trying to be supportive and get things done around the house.  I finished The Fireman by Joe Hill which I absolutely loved, and Free Men by Katy Simpson Smith, a great historical from the late 1700's in rural Alabama.  Here's the books that have come into the house since my last post:

1.  Discovering You, Brenda Novak, romance, sent by publisher
2.  Pretty Girls, Karin Slaughter, mystery, sent by publisher
3.  A World Between, Robert Herzog, science fiction, sent by publisher
4.  A Brief History Of Seven Killings, Marlon James, historical/literary, purchased
5.  Lost And Gone Forever, Alex Grecian, mystery, sent by publisher
6.  Night Life, David C. Taylor, thriller, sent by publisher
7.  Night Work, David C. Taylor, thriller, sent by publisher
8.  Finding Fontainebleau, Thad Carhart, memoir, sent by publisher
9.  Sunborn Rising, Aaron Safronoff, fantasy, sent by publisher
10.  Death At Breakfast, Beth Gutcheon, mystery, sent for book tour
11.  Girls On Fire, Robin Wasserman, literary fiction, sent for book tour
12.  Lillian On Life, Alison Lester, historical fiction, sent by publisher
13.  Aunt Dimity And The Buried Treasure, sent by publisher

Here's what I'm reading:

1.  The Silkworm, Robert Galbraith, Kindle Fire
2.  Lady Cop Makes Trouble, Amy Stewart, Kindle
3.  The Lore Of The Evermen, James Maxwell, audio
4.  The Dream Lover, Elizabeth Berg, hardcover
5.  Devil's Harbour, Alex Gilly, hardcover
6.  Lexicon, Max Barry, hardcover
7.  A Dance With Dragons, George R. R. Martin, hardcover

Happy Reading!

Free Men by Katy Simpson Smith

Three men come together in 1788 in the rural country of what would become the state of Alabama.  Bob is a slave who has decided in his thirties that there must be something more and has decided to run away and make another life out in the Western territories.  Istillicha, a Creek Indian, has been ousted from his tribe and what everyone expected would be his place of leadership.  His woman and his silver have both been stolen from him.  Cat is a young white man who seems lost most days.  He has spent his life trying to fit in and find someone to love him to little avail.

Brought together by chance, the three men travel together to help each other.  Everything changes when they encounter a group of men on the roadway.  The three are worried that the men might take back tales of seeing them; each of them wanted elsewhere for various reasons.  Even more damning, the men have sacks full of silver coins that clatter and clang and give their location away.  That night, the three men creep into the camping place of the group and start to steal the money.  When the men awake and give fight, things escalate until all are dead and the three men are now wanted for murder.

Le Clere is a tracker.  He has come to America from France to learn about what makes men do the things they do.  He is hired by the Creek chief of Istillicha's tribe to find him.  He quickly picks up the men's trail and finds himself following them rather than capturing them.  He is fascinated by the makeshift friendships and commonality that seems to bind the three men, unknown to each other a week ago, together in common purpose.

Katy Simpson Smith has a PhD in history from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.  Her devotion to research and to portraying the average individuals that settled America is on full display in this novel as she explores the nature of freedom, friendship and hope in desperate situations.  This book is recommended for readers of historical and literary fiction.

The Wages Of Sin by Nancy Allen

The murder is a brutal one.  Jesse Dent is eight months pregnant.  Her live-in boyfriend and the father of the baby is arrested for the crime.  The main witness is Jesse's six year old daughter Ivy.  The police in McDown County, Missouri,  know the Dent household well; they have been called to it multiple times for domestic abuse.  Now the worst has happened.

The county prosecutor, a frosty woman named Madeline Thompson, has promised to not only convict the boyfriend, but get a death penalty as the sentence.  Thompson's main assistant cannot help as he witnessed some of Jesse's abuse; her next choice won't work on a death penalty case.  That means the Elsie Arnold is next up as Thompson's co-counsel.

Elsie isn't sure that she supports the death sentence either, but when she thinks about the abuse Dent underwent, she is swayed in favor of it.  Elsie dates the local police homicide chief and she knows how bad the abuse they saw was.  She is put in charge of shepherding little Ivy Dent's testimony, and as the trial gets closer, she starts to realise that Ivy may be in danger.  Can Elsie help win the case while protecting Ivy?

Nancy Allen served as a trial lawyer in Missouri as well as the Assistant Attorney General there.  She now teaches law at Missouri State University.  She knows the inside track of how a murder trial is conducted, and the ethical hesitations attorneys may face.  This book is recommended for mystery readers.

The Fireman by Joe Hill

At first, no one knew what was happening.  People started to get a tracery of images on their skin, black and gold, almost like lace. At first, people called it dragonscale and were not that concerned.  But when the lacework started to smolder and then erupt into full flames that killed the host, reality set in.  Draco Incendia Trychophyton was a virus like none ever seen.  Thousands, then millions were infected.  Entire states were burned.  Society broke down as the power grids failed and food was hard to find.  Those not infected did anything they could to avoid those who were.

Harper Grayson is one of the unlucky ones.  Her work as a nurse put her in daily contact with those infected and soon she was also.  Her husband, Jakob, showed his true colors by revealing his hate of her for having the disease and his anger that she could have exposed him.  He leaves her, after failing to convince her that a mutual suicide would be the best choice.  But Harper has a reason to try to live; she has just found out she is pregnant.

Reeling, she leaves her house and all she knows.  She wanders until she finds a refuge, a camp of those with dragonscale who have found a way to keep the virus from erupting and burning those infected with it.  The camp is run by a kindly man known as the Father and protected by a mythical figure called The Fireman.  He has learned to control dragonscale and bend it to his will.  He fights against those who would do anything to destroy those infected.  Can this camp of individuals find a way to survive in a world determined to stamp them out?  Can they manage to live in peace or will power struggles cleave them into factions and cliques fighting for control?

Joe Hill has created a novel that touches readers' lives.  With the reality of the Ebola and Zika viruses and constant scares about bird flu and swine flu, most people are convinced of the inevitability of a virus that will sweep the world and wipe out millions of people.  The Fireman is a remote, scary figure that is not soon forgotten.  In Harper, he has created a heroine who is so full of common sense and practicality that she is instantly likable.  One can't help but continue to read to find out who, if anyone, survives.  This book is recommended for readers of dystopian novels and thriller fans.

Strange Bodies by Marcel Theroux

This novel opens with a prologue by a woman who has just had an encounter with a long-ago boyfriend.  She is glad to see him until she remembers that she read of his death in a motor accident several months before.  Yet he is definitely the man she remembers.  He knows the little ancedotes of their relationship, what they were eating when an event occurred, the weather when they were on an outing, conversations they had when alone.  His name is Nicolas Slopen and he gives no explanation for the fact that he is considered dead.  He leaves her with a flash drive and when it is opened, a strange story unravels.

Dr. Nicolas Slopen is an academic; his specialty the life of Samuel Johnson as documented by his cohort, Boswell.  Slopen is intrigued when he is approached by a rich musician who has taken up the hobby of acquiring first editions and literary trophies.  The man has a packet of letters he wants Slopen to authenticate as the work of Johnson.  At first glance, the letters seem authentic but are totally unknown in the history of Johnson's life and work.  Excited about perhaps finding a new trove of work, Slopen asks to see the originals.  When he does, he falls into a rabbit hole of intrigue and hubris the like of which can hardly be imagined.

Slopen's explorations in the matter take him from London to Russia to a madhouse.  He is befriended by a mysterious Russian woman named Vera and her bodyguard.  They live in London in a house where they care for Vera's brother, who is the passkey into a mystery that can hardly be believed.  Nicholas is drawn further and further into the mystery until he is totally changed.

Theroux has written a highly original novel that questions what makes us human.  His novel Far North was a finalist for the National Book Award and the Arthur C. Clarke Award for science fiction.  This book with its questions about personality and the foundation of human experience will remain with the reader as each person answers the questions of what it means to be a person.  This book is recommended for science fiction and philosophical readers.

The House Of Rumour by Jake Arnott

Jake Arnott is one of Britain's best novelists.  His books have a huge fan following and several have been made into major TV dramas.  In The House Of Rumour, he takes the reader on an intriguing journey through the twentieth century as he attempts to reconcile the nature of the world with the glimpses of other worlds each of us instinctively feels.

The reader is taken through the early stages of rocket propulsion, the rise of the hippie cults and philosophies in the sixties and seventies, the spy games that went on below the surface in World War II, the rise of science fiction, Jonestown, the heyday of B-movies about alien abductions, the Cuban revolution and the later raft migration of those revolutionaries to Florida, the long mysterious story of Rudolph Hess and the study of the occult.  These worlds are seen through the unifying thread of the story of Larry Zagorski, a young boy fascinated by the emerging science fiction scene, who went on to fight in World War II as a fighter pilot, and returned to make a living writing fiction and working for movies.  Larry was at the fringes of many of these stories and spent his life trying to work out what was reality and what was just the appearance.  Is this world merely a hologram or a figment of someone's imagination?

Arnott has created a fascinating look at the nature of the world through the myriad stories that he weaves together in this novel.  He is reminiscent of David Mitchell, Don Delillo, and John Barth as he creates a world that the reader will be mesmerized by.  The book could have used some editing as some threads seem to go on too long or not entirely mesh with others, but this is a masterpiece of literature that the reader will not soon forget.  This book is recommended for readers of literary fiction and those interested in the nature of the world.

The Innocent by Harlan Coben

Matt Hunter expected his life to be successful but routine.  That plan changed forever the night he tried to break up a bar fight and another boy died.  Matt was sent to prison and his life changed from his early hopes and dreams.

Now Matt has been out for a while and things are looking up.  He has a job as a paralegal, a step down from his plan to be a lawyer but one for which he is grateful.  His brother arranged it at his law firm.  Most importantly, Matt has Olivia.  She was the most beautiful thing he had ever seen and he could hardly believe it when she fell in love with him and agreed to marriage.  Now Olivia is expecting and they are closing on a house in the suburbs.

But Matt's life has taught him one thing.  That is the fact that the best laid plans can go astray in a moment.  Matt's next moment occurs when he gets a strange image and video on his camera from Olivia.  He is faced with the realization that his marriage may be based on secrets and lies.  Can he find his way through a maze of untruth and find reality before his life explodes again?

Harlan Coben cannot write a bad mystery.  The reader emphasizes with Matt and wishes him the best.  As the plot unfolds, the tension mounts and it is hard to believe that things will ever have a happy ending.  This book is recommended for mystery readers.

Booksie's Shelves, April 22, 2016

April is coming to a close, although I surely don't know how.  The days are getting longer and warmer and hopefully I'm through with traveling for a while.  We went to the University of South Carolina in Columbia last weekend for Admitted Students events for our daughter who will be attending this fall.  It is such a warm, student-centered environment that I hope will launch her into a successful adulthood.  We even found a California Dreaming restaurant, one of my favorites, a block off campus.  I've been buying a lot of books lately, filling in my list of Booker and Bailey's Prize nominees.  Here's what's come through the door:

1.  Dinner With Edward, Isabel Vincent, memoir, sent by publisher
2.  City Of Secrets, Stewart O'Nan, historical fiction, sent by publisher
3.  Narcopolis, Jeet Thayil, literary fiction, purchased
4.  Reckoning And Ruin, Tina Whittle, mystery, sent by publisher
5.  Eleven Days, Lea Carpenter, literary fiction, purchased
6.  Almost English, Charlotte Mendelson, literary fiction, purchased
7.  To Rise Again At A Decent Hour, Joshua Ferris, literary fiction, purchased
8.  Sugarland, Martha Conway, mystery, sent by publisher
9.  The Body In The Wardrobe, Katherine Hall Page, mystery, sent for book tour
10.  The Spinning Heart, Donal Ryan, literary fiction, purchased
11.  Reader, I Married Him, Tracy Chevalier, anthology, sent by publisher

Here's what I'm reading:
1.  Lexicon, Max Barry, hardback
2.  The House Of Rumor, Jake Arnott, audio
3.  Lady Cop Makes Trouble, Amy Stewart, Kindle
4.  Strange Bodies, Marcel Theroux, hardback
5.  The Innocent, Harlen Coben, hardback
6.  The Fireman, Joe Hill, Kindle Fire
7.  The Lore Of The Evermen, James Maxwell, audio
8.  A Dance With Dragons, George R. R. Martin, hardback

Happy Reading!

The Small Backs Of Children by Lidia Yuknavitch

It was an award-winning photo, one that was instantly recognizable and that defined a war.  It was shot in Eastern Europe in one of the wars that was fought so long that people forgot there was even a war going on.  It caught a young girl in mid-flight as she was flung out of her house which was exploding after a direct mortar hit.  Her blonde hair haloed her head and she seemed to emerge from the picture, asking for help and recognition.  She disappeared as she had emerged, into the war torn country.  No one knew who she was, where she went or if she was dead or alive.

In America, the photographer won prizes and launched her successful career.  She sent a copy to her first love, a writer.  The writer had been married to a famous painter, but was now married to a filmmaker.  Her brother was a successful playwright.   Another friend was known far and wide for her poetry.  Each of them was affected by the photograph, but none as viscerally as the writer.  She had just had a stillborn daughter and was having a difficult time adjusting to the world without her child.

These artistic individuals came up with a plan to help the writer recover.  They decided that they would find the girl in the picture and bring her to America.  They hoped that giving the girl a second chance at life would help the writer to also find her way back to life.  Undeterred by the difficulties, they came up with a plan that would allow them to find the child and smuggle her into the country.

This book was is gripping.  It bursts into the reader's mind and refuses to let go until the last page.  It turns thoughts of bodies and love, violence, relationships, war and art on their heads and shows them in differing ways.  The sex and violence are raw and this book is probably not for everyone.  But it is one of the most important books I've read and it will stay with me for quite a while.  This book is recommended for readers of literary fiction and those who want to know how the world works and how people fit into it.

Booksie's Shelves, April 13, 2016

I've been traveling and not through yet!  My daughter is a huge Elvis fan (not sure how the daughter of hard rockers is so retro) so we went to Memphis for spring break and toured Graceland.  Then a few days later, DH and I headed to Georgia to see all the grandkids.  We took the boys to Legoland and then our four year old granddaughter to the movies and babysat all four.  Home this week then off to Columbia for a college weekend with our daughter.

Reading, I've been to the swampland around the Dismal Swamp with Lincoln Rhyme, the quadriplegic detective, spent time with the Beatles in an alternative world and I'm on a wild ride in The House of Rumors that has me with British spies, sci-fi writers, Nazi traitors, Cuban revolutionaries, and in cults that believe in aliens.  There's always a new world to explore in books.  Here's what's come through the door:

1.  The Girls, Emma Cline, literary fiction, sent by publisher
2.  The Moor's Account, Laila Lalami, literary fiction, purchased
3.  A Little Life, Hanya Yanagihara, literary fiction, purchased
4.  Forest Park, Valerie Davisson, mystery, sent by publisher
5.  Where We Fall, Rochelle Weinstein, literary fiction, sent by publisher
6.  The Whole World, Emily Winslow, mystery, purchased
7.  The Weekenders, Mary Kay Andrews, sent by publisher
8.  Kill Me Again, Rachel Abbott, mystery, sent by author
9.  History Of The Rain, Niall Williams, literary fiction, purchased
10.  The Lives Of Others, Neel Mukherjee, literary fiction, purchased
11.  A Shadow All Of Light, Fred Chappell, fantasy, sent by publisher
12.  The Luckiest Girl Alive, Jessica Knoll, memoir, sent by publisher
13.  One Flew Over The Banyan Tree, Alan Jansen, literary fiction, sent by publisher
14.  Drafter, Kim Harrison, thriller, sent by publisher

Here's what I'm reading:

1.  Lexicon, Max Barry, hardback
2.  The House Of Rumor, Jake Arnott, audio
3.  Lady Cop Makes Trouble, Amy Stewart, Kindle
4.  The Small Backs Of Children, Lidia Yuknavich, hardback
5.  The Innocent, Harlen Coben, hardback
6.  The Lore Of The Evermen, James Maxwell, audio
7.  A Dance With Dragons, George R. R. Martin, hardback

Happy Reading!

The Death And Life Of Mal Evans by Peter Lee

In this alternate reality novel, Mal Evans, assistant to the Beatles for many years, lies dying in an LA apartment.  He has been shot by a police officer who mistook Evans air pistol for a gun.  As he lies on the floor, his life fading away, his last sight is of that police officer.

When he awakes, it is in England, and the time has regressed to five years ago.  He heads to the recording studio, and it is all as it has been back then.  Mal realises that he has the opportunity to get the band to never break up and for them to release more great music and avoid the downward spiral each encountered after the Beatles disbanded.

Beatle fans will be interested in this insider look at what it was like day after day living and working with the Beatles.  Mal Evans is a real person, although few know his name.  He did die in LA in an encounter with the police.  He was there day after day with the Fab Four and knew them and their secrets better than almost anyone.  Peter Lee has taken that insider knowledge to imagine a different story, one that works better for Beatles fans.  This book is recommended for music lovers and readers who enjoy alternate reality novels.

The Empty Chair by Jeffrey Deaver

Lincoln Rhyme, renowned forensic criminalist and a quadriplegic, has come from New York City where he knows the environment to North Carolina, a massive culture and environmental shift.  He has come to a notable medical center where promising surgery has been done on others in his condition with some improvements in their quality of life.  Of course, with his condition, he never travels alone.  He is accompanied by his partner and lover, Amelia Sachs and his constant medical assistant, Thomas.

While he is waiting through the pre-surgical tests and scheduling, the local sheriff turns up.  He has heard that the famous Lincoln Rhyme is in town and he needs help.  Two women have been kidnapped and a man has been killed.  The whole town is sure they know who the culprit is.  Garrett Hanlon is a sixteen year old boy, known as Insect Boy, for his fascination with insects.  He is an orphan, his family having been killed in a car accident.  His time in foster care has not been pleasant and he is suspected of many crimes in the area.  Now he has disappeared with both a young college student who was on a historical dig and a nurse who was also in the area.  Local law enforcement feels they need more expertise to solve a crime this complicated and they prevail on Lincoln.  Restless as he waits for treatment, he agrees to give the local police force his assistance.

Rhyme is at a disadvantage.  He has left behind his lab, where he has every forensic instrument he could ever need.  His expertise in in items found in a city, not a rural North Carolina town with bogs and swamps and flora and fauna he has never encountered.  Amelia heads up a search team and as she and the deputies go in pursuit, things get more complicated than either Rhyme or Sachs could ever have imagined.

This is the third novel in the Lincoln Rhyme series.  Rhyme is one of the most fascinating detectives currently being written about and the reader is easily drawn back into the world of forensic science and its role in solving impossible cases.  There are plenty of the twists and turns Deaver fans have come to expect and a surprising ending.  This book is recommended for mystery readers.

The Murderer's Daughter by Jonathan Kellerman

Grace Blades has not had an easy life.  She started out as the only child of violent drug addicts who either ignored her or beat her.  When she was five, she witnessed their grisly murder-suicide, leaving her orphaned and an immediate candidate for the foster care system.  She bounced around from house to house, interacting as little as possible and being ignored at most of them since she was quiet and no trouble.  Grace's saving characteristic was her intelligence.  She scored in the genius ranks and attracted the attention of mentors as she got older.  Grace ended up being a psychologist and her specialty is working with those impacted by violence.

One day she gets a huge shock.  She has a new patient and when he walks in, she realizes that she has met him before.  They were both at a foster home together.  He hints about his reasons for seeking treatment and they fall into Grace's specialty but neither of them are comfortable and he leaves without committing to continuing.  Grace learns the next day that he was killed after he left her office.

Soon it is obvious that Grace is being followed and someone seems to have her in their sights.  She believes the only way to save herself is to find out what happened to her patient and if it related to the time they spent together as children.  As she races against time to discover his secrets, she starts to uncover a vicious killer's trail.

This novel is a departure from Kellerman's usual mystery novels that focus on Dr. Alex Delaware and his police friend Milo.  Grace is a less sympathetic character than Delaware but the reader feels that they can get further into Grace's mind and motivations, increasing the interest in her mystery.  It will be interesting to see if this is just a standalone for Kellerman or if he plans to develop Grace as character in other novels.  This book is recommended for readers of mystery novels.