The Dead Husband by Carter Wilson

 

Rose Yates moves back home with her young son after the unexpected death of her husband to a drug overdose.  Since she is a mystery author, Rose figures she can live anywhere and perhaps it's time that her family gets to know her son, Max.  But soon after she arrives, she starts to wonder what ever possessed her to make this decision.  Her father is still the wealthy tyrant who expects everyone in the family to obey him at all times while her sister is still cruel and cutting as is her daughter, Max's new playmate.  Rose had run from this home years ago after a family tragedy and she knows in her gut that coming home was a mistake. 

It turns out to be more of a mistake than she could have expected.  The tendrils of the long ago tragedy seem to be coming to life while Rose has captured the attention of a detective from her old hometown.  Detective Colin Pearson becomes suspicious of Rose after reading her most recent mystery.  In it, the husband in the story is murdered while his wife, the murderer, is able to pass the death off as an overdose.  Did Rose write the book as a subconscious confession?  Is this what happened to her husband?

Colin decides he needs to interview Rose.  She is initially willing to talk to him but as he returns again and again, Rose cuts him off.  This makes his suspicions grow and as things back home go badly he becomes more and more determined to use Rose to make his career a success.  Rose decides to leave the town again but things spin rapidly out of control.  Will the truth emerge this time?

Carter Wilson is known for writing compelling psychological thrillers.  In this novel, the reader is drawn into Rose's life and the way she keeps fighting back against the blows life constantly throws in her existence.  I listened to this novel and the narrator was perfect, conveying the increasing tension as old traumas emerge to demand attention.  This book is recommended for mystery readers.

The Fifth Elephant by Terry Prachett

 

Sam Vimes is doing exactly what he wants, serving as Commander of the Night Watch in Ankh-Morpork.  But he did marry Lady Sybil and as such is now part of the royalty.  Due to this, he is sent to Uberwald to attend the coronation of the dwarf new Low King, an event that has the potential for many issues as there are charges of theft of royal artifacts and attempted assassinations.  Sam doesn't want to go but Lady Sybil has already packed so off they go.

Some of the Night Watch goes along.  There is Cheery Littlebottom, a transgender dwarf, scorned by the dwarves in Uberwald.  Angua has gone ahead of them.  As a werewolf, she is worried about her brother who will kill anything in his path.  Gavin, king of the wolves, is attracted to Angua as is Captain Carrot, a six-foot dwarf.  Gaspode is a talking dog who feels that he is six foot tall also and lives his life as if he was rather than being a very small terrier.

Sam finds lots of dissension in Uberwald.  There are three factions of dwarves and the proposed Low King is a compromise between them so has little true support.  Along with the werewolves, there are influential vampires, the reigning authority among them being one of Lady Sybil's former classmates when they were girls.  There are kidnappings, murder, theft and lots of other crimes that need solving, even if Sam is not there as a policeman.  Will it all come right in the end?

This is the twenty-fourth novel in the Discworld series.  It is fun and full of wonderful characters and events.  While the plot gets complicated, all is resolved satisfactorily in the end.  Sam Vimes is a marvelous character and readers will fall in love with him.  This book is recommended for fantasy readers.

The Therapist by B.A. Paris

 

When Alice and Leo meet, Alice wants to take it slow.  She hasn't had a relationship with a man in several years plus it will be a long distance one since Leo lives in London and she lives an hour or so away.  Alice is a therapist and leaving her clients behind would be a wrench.  But the relationship seems to work out and thrive and after a while, the couple starts looking at houses.  It's almost unbelievable when they find a marvelous house in a gated community that is everything they would ever want.  They buy it and move in.

Leo still has to travel for his work so Alice is left there to meet the neighbors and start a new life.  She notices that some of the neighbors are very standoffish and she wonders what she could have done to attract that.  Slowly the secret emerges.  There was a murder in their wonderful new house which is why the price was so low.  While Alice is reeling from this discovery, she makes a worse one.  Leo knew all about the murder and just didn't tell her so that she would agree to move and live there with him.

Alice is appalled and unsure about the future of her relationship.  She decides that she will discover the truth about the murder and the couple who lived there before.  Obviously they had relationships with her neighbors and she needs to know what those were.  As Alice starts to delve into the past, she begins to encounter resistance from the neighbors and spooky things around her house.  Did she really hear someone moving around the house during the night?  Have things disappeared and other things appeared?  What other secrets does she not know?

B.A. Paris has written an unsettling portrayal of upper class suburbia.  There are many layers of secrets and betrayals.  I had a hard time sympathizing with Alice.  She seemed incredibly naive and obtuse for someone who supposedly made her living 

The Good Sister by Gillian McAllister

 

Martha is overwhelmed.  She never thought she would be able to realize her dream and start an overseas charity to help the refugee children who needed so much but things fell into place and suddenly everything is happening.  She gets a huge grant and really needs to be overseas on the ground to get things started but there's an issue.  Martha has just had a baby, Layla.

Martha's husband Scott is an IT consultant with a busy schedule also that has him traveling.  Layla is a demanding baby with colic who can cry for hours and often does, leaving Martha completely drained.  She needs help but who can she trust?  When her sister Becky offers to quit her minimum wage job and become Layla's nanny, Martha and Scott jump at the chance.  Who could they ever trust more than Becky?

But at age nine months, on a night when both Martha and Scott were traveling, Layla doesn't wake up one morning.  Becky can't account for every minute of the night before and her actions and soon she is charged with Layla's murder since the autopsy shows that it was not a natural death.  Could this be?  Could Martha's sister have done this thing?  As the trial progresses, Martha remains sure that the truth will emerge and that Becky will be found innocent but as Becky's secrets are dragged out into the light, it starts to appear more likely that Becky is indeed guilty.  Can Martha ever forgive her?  Can she forgive herself?

Gillian McAllister has written a page turner that strikes at the fear of every parent.  How can you protect your child?  Who can you trust to love them?  Will anyone be as careful with them as you would be?  McAllister has written about the fears and loyalties that can tear a close family apart and how when tragedy strikes it is difficult to ascertain the truth.  This novel is recommended for women's fiction readers.

Booksie's Shelves, September 14, 2021

 

The calendar says that summer is waning but here in the South where wearing shorts on Thanksgiving is a common occurance it's hard to tell.  But the days are getting shorter and soon the heat won't be oppressive.  Leaves will turn and then fall and we will move into the autumn and winter.   In the nation, covid rages on with the Delta variant spiking numbers again.  My husband and I got our vaccinations back in late January and early February but we both got breakthrough cases.  Due to our vaccinations, both cases were fairly mild although my husband was sicker than me.  My case was never much more than a bad cold and boredom at isolating in my bedroom for ten days to try to insure my daughter didn't get it.  Still, lots of time for reading and I've been busy.  Here's what's come through the door:

1. Honor, Thrity Umrigar, literary fiction, won in contest
2. Those Across The River, Christopher Buehlman, horror, purchased
3. Wish You Were Here, Jodi Picoult, literary fiction, sent by publisher
4. Hello, Transcriber, Hannah Morrissey, literary fiction, sent by publisher
5. Apples Never Fall, Liane Moriarty, literary fiction, sent by publisher
6. Ghost Wall, Sarah Moss, literary fiction, purchased
7. The Mermaid And Mrs. Hancock, Imogen Hermes Gowar, literary fiction, purchased
8. Number One Chinese Restaurant, Lillian Li, literary fiction, purchased
9. Fleishman Is In Trouble, Taffy Brodesser-Akner, literary fiction, purchased

Here are the ebooks I've purchased:

1. Piranasi, Susanna Clarke, literary fiction
2. No Good Deeds, Laura Lippman, mystery
3. Under The Pendulum Sun, Jeannette Ng, fantasy
4. A Room Full Of Bones, Elly Griffiths, mystery
5. The Forty Rules Of Love, Elif Shafek, literary fiction
6. Crack Down, Val McDermid, mystery
7. Clean Break, Val McDermid, mystery
8. The Golden Rule, Amanda Craig, legal thriller
9. Child Of The Night Guild, Andy Peloquin, fantasy
10. The Informant, Thomas Perry, mystery
11. All Adults Here, Emma Straub, literary fiction
12. The Hunting Party, Lucy Foley, mystery
13. Less, Andrew Sean Greer, literary fiction
14. The Things We Do For Love, Kristin Hannah, literary fiction
15. A Familiar Sight, Brianna Labuskes, mystery
16. A Better Man, Louise Penny, mystery
17. Splinter The Silence, Val McDermid, mystery
18. Janesville, Amy Goldstein, nonfiction
19. Bloody Genius, John Sandford, mystery
20. Serpentine, Jonathan Kellerman, mystery
21. Perfect, Rachel Joyce, literary fiction
22. Spirit Of A Kyrie, T.L. Rese, fantasy
23. How We Disappeared, Jing-Jing Lee, literary fiction
24. The Warmth Of Other Suns, Isabel Wilkinson, nonfiction
25. Entangled Life, Merlin Sheldrake, nonfiction
26. These Toxic Things, Rachel Howzell Hall, mystery
27. Fidelity, Thomas Perry, mystery
28. Purple Hibiscus, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichi, literary fiction
29. Tantamount, Blain Pardoe, true crime
30. A Town Called Solace, Mary Lawson, literary fiction
31. Winter Counts, David Weiden, mystery
32. Red Country, Joe Abercrombie, fantasy
33. The Shadow Of The Gods, John Gwynne, fantasy
34. The Keeper Of Happy Endings, Barbara Davis, literary fiction
35. Ball Lightning, Cixin Liu, science fiction
36. Fool Moon, Jim Butcher, science fiction
37. Snuff, Terry Patchett, fantasy

Here's what I'm reading:

1. Typical, Padgett Powell, anthology
2. Night Ferry, Michael Robothom, mystery
3. Everything Here Is Beautiful, Mira Lee, literary fiction
4. Behind Her Eyes, Sarah Pinborough, mystery
5. Crossroads Of Twilight, Robert Jordan, fantasy
6. The Moonflower Murders, Anthony Horowitz, mystery
7. The Dead Husband, Carter Wilson, mystery
8. Gospel, Wilton Barnhardt, literary fiction

Happy Reading!

Beautiful World, Where Are You? by Sally Rooney

 

In this new novel, Sally Rooney follows a group of friends.  Alice and Eileen are best friends and have been from college.  Alice has struck it big with her first novel and is now courted by the literary world.  Far from being excited about it, she has had a breakdown and is recovering.  Eileen has worked at various entry level jobs in publishing since university.  She dated a man for several years and is still grieving the end of their relationship.  She is flirting with Simon, someone she knew growing up and who is a bit older.  The timing has never been right for them to be involved romantically but maybe it is now?

This first chapter draws the reader in quickly.  The characters are mysterious but fighting to figure out their lives and are typical of young people in their late twenties.  They aren't sure of their work, their attraction to others and what their lives will look like in the future.  Fans of Rooney's earlier novels will be excited to read this new one.  Overall, though, I found it a bit unsettling.  These characters are quick to engage in sex with partners but then find it impossible to make real connections with them, hesitant to assume that the sex means anything in relation to an ongoing relationship.  It just seemed very sad to me.  This book is recommended for readers of literary fiction and those interested in those searching to find their way in the world.

Secrets Of Death by Stephen Booth

 

The Peaks District is known for its beauty and wonderful towns such as Derbyshire and Nottingham.  Tourists flock to view the beauty and hike on the miles of nature trails.  DI Ben Cooper is used to the tourist influx every summer but not what this summer has brought.  All of a sudden, suicides are being found all over the district and the terms suicide tourist is being bandied about.

This won't do and Cooper's superiors want him to look into it and see what, if anything, can be done.  The victims vary in age and gender and in methods of death.  There have been leaps from bridges, drug overdoses, slit wrists and asphyxiation.  What could possibly tie these deaths together?  But shockingly, Ben finds a common thread.  Each of the suicide victims has a card in their possession, a black card embossed with the phrase Secrets Of Death.

In the past, Ben would have been working with Diane Fry, his colleague with whom he had an uneasy work relationship.  But Diane has been transferred to Nottingham to the Major Crime division and is no longer a worry to him.  Until she reappears telling Ben that his latest victim was also one of the Major Crime's suspects in three womens' deaths.  What is the cord that binds these cases?

This is the sixteenth Cooper and Fry novel in the series.  Ben has had some personal setbacks and is just pulling himself out of a personal depression.  He meets several women who make him think about getting back into the dating game although he hasn't done so yet.  The relationship between Ben and Diane is fraught with tension and disconnects as always which makes the book more interesting.  This book is recommended for mystery readers.

Humankind by Rutger Bregman

 

The author of this book sets out the premise that humans are not the murderous individuals motivated by hate and fear that is a common perception.  Instead, he believes that humans are basically kind and in fact are hard-wired to help each other and behave in each other's best interests.  

This point is made by exploring several examples of bad behavior and seeing how wrong the stories are.  The first is the contrasting of a real life Lord Of The Flies scenario vs the one in the novel.  The novel has the stranded boys turning into misanthropes who hunt each other down to hurt and eventually kill.  It is contrasted with a real life group of boys who were stranded on an island for months.  They were found to have continued their friendships, found ways to handle conflicts without violence and validate each other.  Other stories include the Kitty Genovese murder case, the Stanford Experiment which supposedly showed people will revert to cruelty when given power over others.  Both are shown to have been reported incorrectly and that the lessons to be taken away are diametrically opposed to the legends.

One statistic that really struck me was the low proportion of soldiers who actually fire their weapons.  Instead they don't fire or fire over the heads of their enemies.  The point is made that the majority of casualties are done by those who don't really see their opponents; situations like bombers who don't see those they unleash destruction on.  

This is a fascinating book.  The author ends with examples of things that could be different if society acknowledged the best rather than the worst in people.  Examples are given of different ways of schooling or running prisons.  This book is fascinating and life affirming.  It is recommended for nonfiction readers.

The Clockwork Dagger by Beth Cato

 

Octavia Leander is about to start her adult life.  An orphan, she was rescued from the streets and raised in Miss Percival's school for healers.  It turns out that Octavia is extremely gifted in her service to the Lady of the Tree and one of the most successful healers to be found in decades.  She is off to her first job in a village that has many victims of a recent war and famine.  

Octavia boards her first airship in order to get to her new location.  She is given a cabin with a middle-aged lady who is cordial but a bit mothering and nosy.  Octavia is uneasy with the airship technology but fascinated as well.  She meets an airship employee, Alonzo Garrett, who seems interested in her and who wants to help her.  There are several other men on the ship who are also interested and Octavia is not sure their interest is positive.  

That feeling is right.  As the journey progresses, Octavia is attacked as is her roommate.  Someone wants to prevent her from reaching her destination.  With Alonzo on her side, Octavia is able to avoid the attacks.  Can she find out what is going on?

This is the first novel in the Clockwork series and is written for a young adult audience.  Octavia is a feminist and her abilities allow her to avoid disaster and make her way in a threatening world.  The novel was a Locus Award finalist for Best First Novel in 2015.  Readers will be interested in Octavia and her message of strong feminist power.  This book is recommended for fantasy and young adult readers.

All Lies by Andrew Cunningham

 

Del Honeycutt leads a boring life.  He lives in rural New York in the same apartment for years.  He has a job that's so boring that he can't even tell people what he does for a living.  He hasn't had a girlfriend for a couple of years.  But that's all going to change.  He has decided to move into the world of online dating.  

His first foray isn't that successful.  The woman he meets seems overly interested in his family, grilling him about his parents and grandparents.  She seems to lose all interest when Del doesn't know much about them and leaves shortly thereafter.  He writes it off as just the weirdness one finds on the net but has to reevaluate when the woman turns up dead a few days later.  Now the police are involved and they want to know what Del knows which is a big fat nothing.

Del is contacted by the woman's sister who turns out to be mystery writer Sabrina Spencer.  Together they figure out that the murder traces back to a crime committed by Del's grandfather and his cohorts and tied to an art heist.  But there are other people who have also figured that out and they will stop at nothing to find the answers.  Can Del and Sabrina solve the crime before they are killed?

This is the first in what is currently a five novel series.  The characters are very likeable and the reader will be pulling for Del and Sabrina.  They fall in love and their love story is an intriguing secondary story to the crime investigation.  I plan to read more in this series.  This novel is recommended for mystery readers.

The Window Seat by Aminatta Forna

 

This book is a collection of autobiographical essays by Aminatta Forna.  She is not only an author with books such as The Hired Man and Memory Of Love but a professor of writing in various universities throughout the world.  Forna has led a fascinating life.  Her childhood was spent in various countries.  Her father was executed as a revolutionary in Sierra Leon during the period when various African countries were establishing their independence from colonial rule.  Her stepfather was a diplomat so she and her brother grew up in various embassies in such locations as Iran, Zambia and Thailand.  Her mother was Scottish and she also spent time as a child in Scotland.  The first part of this collection are stories from her childhood and these events.

The latter part of the collection are more reaction pieces to various topics that she has an interest in.  She has a real love for animals that comes through in these pieces.  Topics she covers include the inauguration of Donald Trump, various dogs she has owned and the street dogs in Africa, suffering from insomnia, the experience of being a woman and dealing with men's catcalls and attempts to belittle based on gender, chimpanzees kept as pets or used in testing, peanut butter and wildlife she has encountered, especially foxes and coyotes; the foxes in England and the coyotes in various locations in the United States.  I listened to this book and Forna was the narrator.  Often having the author as the narrator is not a good choice but Forna was an excellent narrator and having her own voice narrating her life experiences was a fabulous choice.

I can highly recommend this book.  Forna is an amazing author and I can't imagine anything she would write that I wouldn't find fascinating.  She is determined to live life on her terms and to live a full life and the reader is blessed to be able to share this part of her life with her.  This book is recommended for readers of memoirs and essays.  

Faithless by Karin Slaughter

 When Sara Linton and Jeffrey Tolliver go for a walk in the woods around Sara's parents' house, they don't expect it to end in horror.  But it does.  Jeffrey tripped over something and they realize it is a pipe.  The pipe leads to a coffin buried in the earth and a young girl who has been buried alive and is now dead.  

The two are used to seeing dead bodies.  Jeffrey is the police chief in this small Southern town and Sara the coroner.  But this is a particularly gruesome death.  Who is this girl?  Who hated her enough to do this?  As the investigation progresses, it turns out that the girl did not suffocate.  Instead someone sent cyanide down the pipe and poisoned her.  She is part of a religious family that runs a large farm that grows soy and employs ex-cons and drifters.  Did one of them do this?  Was it part of the family?  The family sends off cult vibes and Jeffrey isn't sure what they would do.  Can the two find the answer before more girls are killed?

This is the fifth of the six novels in the Grant County series.  The crime is arresting and the investigation is interesting.  Jeffrey and Sara are in an on again, off again relationship, moving through marriage, estrangement and reengagement.  A secondary character, Lena, is a detective in the force who faces many issues from her own past and she is featured again in this novel.  Readers will be caught up in the action and horror that only Karin Slaughter can deliver.  This book is recommended for mystery readers.

Reputation by Sara Shepard

 

Things are not going well at Aldrich University.  A hacker has broken into the university's servers and has released an easily searched database of all the emails of each student, administrator, faculty and staff as well as the medical personnel attached to the university.  This leads to revelations of many scandals and gossip runs wild.  The ante is upped when Dr. Greg Strasser is found murdered in his kitchen the night of the Aldrich annual fundraising gala.  Strasser is married to the university president's daughter, Kit Manning, the main fundraiser.  Did she kill him?

Greg had been revealed as having a torrid affair.  Kit doesn't remember coming home that night from the fundraiser just finding Greg.  Although she didn't drink at fundraising events, that night she had in order to face down the gossips whispering about Greg.  But Kit isn't the only suspect.  There is Laura, a nurse whose newborn baby has Greg's piercing blue eyes.  Kit's daughters are acting strangely.  Willa, Kit's sister and a scandal journalist comes home to support her sister and investigate the mystery but she has secrets of her own.  There is Raina, a student who worked as the university president's assistant and who has befriended Kit's daughter.  She seems to have some connection to Greg as well.  Then there are the men whose wives, daughters and girlfriends have been seduced by Greg.  

This twisty tale of gossip, backstabbing and secrets is a real pageturner.  There are multiple characters and the story is told in turn from each character's point of view.  Everyone has a secret they don't want revealed and the hack puts all those tawdry actions out in full view of all.  This book is recommended for mystery readers.

Dead Of Winter by Stephen Mack Jones

 August Snow is a native Detroit guy.  A former policeman, Snow is now retired and a millionaire due to a civil settlement leading from an injury on the job.  Snow grew up in Mexicantown and one of his favorite places was Authentico Foods.  Ronaldo Ochoa, the founder of Authentico was a friend from back when the restaurant was just starting.  Now the restaurant has morphed into a company that supplies tortillas to restaurants throughout the area.

Ochoa asks Snow to come meet him.  To Snow's surprise, Ochoa asks Snow to buy his company.  Ochoa is older and ill and wants to assure that his company will survive to provide for his family.  He has been approached by a shadowy figure to buy him out and Ochoa fears that the proposed purchaser wants to raze the company and develop the area for the professionals who are starting to return to Detroit.  Snow isn't interested in buying but agrees to look around.

As he investigates, Snow starts to see that what Ochoa had feared is true and that violence isn't out of the question for the people behind the offer.  Soon Snow and his friends are caught up in a maelstrom of violence with assassins gunning for them.  Can Snow unravel the business and those behind it before he and his friends are killed?

This is the third August Snow novel.  Readers may find the violence a bit over the top and the lack of police follow-up after multiple killings is a sticking point.  Outside of that, the author explores the topic of gentrification in a realistic manner with the results of such development on those who already live in the area and who are forced out.  It is an interesting viewpoint from a detective of color and one whose roots in the black and Hispanic communities are deep.  This book is recommended for mystery readers.

A Darker Domain by Val McDermid

 

Detective Karen Pirie is in limbo at the police station.  She headed up the case that sent the former superintendent of the station to jail for murder and has now been shunted aside as the head of the Cold Care Review Team.  Her new supervisor is not sure what to make of her but he knows he doesn't like what he sees.  Unfortunately, he has to depend on her when two cases show up at the same time.

Back in 1984, a sensational case happened in this rural locality.  The daughter of one of the wealthiest men in Scotland, Sir Broderick Maclennan Grant, was kidnapped along with her infant son.  During the ransom payoff things went badly and the daughter was killed, her son never found.  Now new evidence has shown up in the case and it has landed in Pirie's lap.

At the same time another cold case from the same time period has been reported.  Misha Gibson shows up at the police station to report her father missing.  Not unusual except that he went missing twenty-two years before and this is the first report filed.  Misha's mother always assumed Mick Prentice ran out on the marriage and his daughter and they learned to live with that.  His best friend went missing at the same time and it was during the coal strikes when society was disordered.  They figured Mick just upped stakes and went to find a better life somewhere else but now Misha's son is sick and needs a blood donor to have a chance at getting better so Misha wants him found.  Can Karen juggle the two cases and solve them both?

This is the second Karen Pirie novel in the series.  She is an interesting character, a confident woman who isn't described as the most attractive woman anyone has ever seen but the average woman most of us are used to seeing in daily life.  Pirie is intelligent and insightful and has the determination and force to follow a case from start to finish no matter the price she has to pay with her superiors in order to get to the solution.  As such, she is a breath of fresh air.  The cases are intriguing and the resolution is satisfactory.  This book is recommended for mystery readers.

Runner by Thomas Perry

 

Jane Whitfield has retired from her work helping people disappear.  These days she leads the life of a surgeon's wife in upper New York, volunteering at the hospital and living her life.  But when the girl comes to her begging for help, Jane decides that maybe she needs to do one last job.  The fact that there is an explosion at the hospital minutes later with the people searching for Christine responsible makes her decision a reality.  She grabs Christine and off they go.

This will be a hard job.  Christine is pregnant.  Her boyfriend wants her back because his wealthy parent will cut him off unless he can produce a grandchild.  Unfortunately, Christine also knows about his unlawful deals and can send him to jail if word gets out.  He sends six people to track her down and bring her home. The six are professional finders and they make it clear early on that they will stop at nothing to bring Christine back.  What they hadn't counted on was that Jane is just as determined and will whatever it takes to help Christine escape to a new life.

This is the sixth novel in the Jane Whitfield series.  Thomas Perry is one of my favorite authors.  His tight plotting and his knowledge of all the details that would have to be attended to in order for a person to escape their life is fascinating.  Jane is an enigma; a woman who will stop at literally nothing in order to help those who must flee for their lives.  What motivates her to put her life at such risk?  How many times can she do this successfully?  This book is recommended for thriller readers.

The Demi-Monde Winter by Rod Rees

 

The Demi-Monde is a computer virtual reality game created to train the military.  It is the most elaborate game ever developed with millions of characters, most of whom are programmed to be vicious and desperate for power.  The world is broken into sectors which are based on reality so there are sectors for England, Europe, the far East, Russia and other geographical regions.  The cultures in each sector is distinct with some having male dominated cultures, other women dominated, some futuristic, some caught up in Victorian times.  The worst villains in history are leaders in these sectors.

Somehow, the President's daughter has been transported into the game.  The government is tasked with getting her back to reality and they recruit Ella to head up the mission.  Ella is a college student just looking for a way to finance her studies and the five million dollar payday is just what she is looking for.  Whether she would agree if she knew what was facing her is another story.

Once inserted, Ella find some allies to help her.  The main one is a magician who can get into any place and who agrees to use Ella as his assistant.  That requires her to play various things such as a magician's assistant and a voodoo queen.  The two manage to find the President's daughter who is a spoiled brat.  Can they now get her back while the Demi-monde is about to break into a war to rival that of World War II?

This is the first novel of four in this series.  The world building is elaborate and detailed and the use of historical characters is interesting.  There are many characters and each is given a full backstory.  The interplay of these characters fuels the novel along with the main mission.  This book is recommended for sci fi readers.

The Maidens by Alex Michaelides

 

Mariana Andros goes to Cambridge to be with her niece Zoe when Zoe's friend is found murdered.  A therapist, Mariana worries about Zoe's mental health after the death.  They are both still grieving the recent death of Mariana's husband.  Simon and Mariana raised Zoe after the death of her parents in an accident.  Zoe has more experience with loss than most her age and Mariana worries that this death may be more than Zoe can handle.

Zoe's friend is just the first.  There is a group of young women who flock around a charismatic professor, Edward Fosca.  After observing him, Mariana is convinced he is the murderer and sets out to prove it.  The police are not convinced, viewing Mariana as an amateur who doesn't have any proof to back up her theories.  They are right but Mariana is convinced her training has given her the ability to diagnose Fosca as a psychopath.  As the murders continue, can Mariana get the proof she needs?

This is Alex Micahelides' second novel.  Like his successful first novel, The Patient, it is based in the world of psychological practice.  As Mariana attempts to prove her theory, she finds that she has put herself in danger, drawing attention from the killer.  I'm not sure that universities would allow the kind of female adulation of a male professor that the book documents or that the police would give Mariana even the amount of attention she gets in the book for her theories.  Those two elements don't ring true for me but work in the book to build tension.  This book is recommended for thriller readers. 

Cat And Mouse by James Patterson

 

Detective Alex Cross is more challenged than ever in this novel.  He is faced with two separate serial killers on the loose and the cases need his insights.  Gary Soneji, the killer Alex caught and put away for life has escaped and is on the loose.  He knows he will be caught again but he is determined to cause as much havoc as he can before then and killing Cross is definitely on his list.  At the same time, there is a killer in Europe who has claimed more than a dozen victims.  He is known as Mr. Smith and one of the FBI's top consultants wants Cross's help on that case.  He agrees to help Cross catch Soneji if Cross will help with the Mr. Smith case.  Another factor is that Cross has fallen in love.  He is starting a relationship with the principal of his children's school and worries that his job will make that relationship difficult to sustain.

The defining characteristic of Patterson's novels is pace.  He writes at a breakthroat pace with short chapters that rush the reader along on a roller coaster ride.  Alex Cross is an intriguing character and readers will be interested in reading about how his mind works.  There are lots of interesting characters around him in his family and friends and plenty of twists and turns to surprise the reader.  This book is recommended for mystery readers.

Mechanical Animals edited by Selena Chambers

 

In this anthology, all the stories are about mechanical animals and how such entities fit into our everyday world.  Although one might think this is a recent idea with the advent of robots and AI, it is a surprising mix of the modern and older stories as the idea has fascinated the imagination of scientists and authors for decades.

Authors in this anthology include Jess Nevins, Tessa Kum, Delia Sherman, Maurice Broaddus and Sarah Hans, Lauren Beukes, Jesse Bullington, An Owomoyela, Stephen Graham Jones, Hans Christian Andersen, Molly Tanzer, Aliette de Bodard, Nick Mamatas, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Kat Howard, Michael Cisco, Adrian Van Young, Robert Toombs, Joseph S. Pulver, Jr, Alistair Rennie, Jules Verne, Caroline Yoachim and Carrie Vaughn.

My favorite story was Closer To The Sky by Carrie Vaughn.  It is about a family on the frontier.  The young daughter of the family has been gifted a mechanical horse by her uncle who is an inventor and this horse is her original living horse who has been retrofitted by the uncle after an accident that should have taken its life.  The horse allows the girl to outwit a gang of outlaws and one of lawmen who all want to find her uncle's workshop and control his inventions going forward.  The horse saves her life out of love and the girl ends the story by vowing to learn her uncle's knowledge in order to keep her beloved companion in good stead going forward.  This book is recommended for science fiction readers.

The Archer by Shruti Swamy

 

From the moment Vidya sees the dance form known as Kathak, she knows what she was meant to do with her life.  She is living in the in Bombay with her father and younger brother, her mother having died.  She is expected to run the household, cook, shop and clean but she knows there is more to her life than this.  She manages to study hard enough to get a scholarship to a school of engineering.

While she is studying to get her degree, it is her secondary priority.  Her first is always Kathak.  She practices for hours daily and goes for lessons with a renowned teacher several times a week.  The teacher encourages her to devote her life to dance and Vidya is glad to.

But life intervenes.  Moving forward, the reader encounters Vidya as a young wife, her husband another artist.  His media is photography.  He comes from a very wealthy family which has disowned him for marrying Vidya but the couple is happy.  When Vidya becomes pregnant, the family is willing to take her in.  Vidya wonders which she will put first, her child or her art?

This Swamy's first novel as her first publication was an anthology.  The text is poetic and dreamy as Vidya describes her feelings for her art, her friendships, her love for her husband and her child.  The message seems to be that each person must find the one thing in life that will bring them the most joy.  This book is recommended for readers of literary fiction.

Olive, Again by Elizabeth Strout

 

In this novel, Elizabeth Strout takes the reader again to the small town of Crosby, Maine and one of the most memorable inhabitants, Olive Kitteridge.  Olive is still the person she always was, quick to say whatever is on her mind and surprising to those around her.  She is older now and life has changed.  Olive's husband Henry has died and she is a widow.  But things change and Olive meets Jack, a retired Harvard professor and they fall in love and marry.  

The novel is a collection of stories about those who live in Crosby and their relationships to Olive.  There is the woman fighting cancer whose friends ignore her because they don't know what to say yet Olive steps in and visits and gives the woman space to say the forbidden things that are preying on her mind.  There is the teenager who is cleaning houses to make enough money to get out of town and who develops a strange relationship with the husband of one of her employers.  The reader gets to find out what is going on with the Burgess brothers, another of Strout's novels.  

Throughout the novel, Olive is the blunt woman who many turn away from and who always speaks her mind.  She isn't sure if her only son likes her although she knows he loves her.  She can show amazing kindness but is also quick to bring her friends and acquaintances to task when she sees them straying.  Those who liked the first novel, Olive Kitteridge, will enjoy returning to Olive's life and hearing more about this unique individual.  This book is recommended for readers of literary fiction.

The Dirty South by John Connolly

 

Another dead girl has been found in Burdon County, Arkansas.  That makes three in five years, all killed in the same brutal way with the same mutilations.  All are young African-American women, teenagers.  Cargill police chief Evander Griffin is determined that this murder will not get swept under the rug like the last one did.  Burdon County is up for a huge investment by a multinational company and it was deemed unadvisable to have a murderer around the last time so the death had been classified as an accident although everyone knew it wasn't one at all.

Griffin hears that there is a new guy hanging around in a bar, asking questions about the dead women.  He goes to talk with the man but his attitude is irritating and Griffin ends up taking him in and putting him in a jail cell while he checks him out.  The man is Charley Parker.  He is a New York City ex-cop, having left when the tragedy hit.  His wife and child were murdered and Parker now spends his time searching for their killer.  Griffin feels that Parker could help them find their killer and after some thought, Parker agrees.

There are plenty of suspects.  There is the Cade family who run the county.  Pappy Cade is getting older and determined that the business deal that will make Burdon County rich will be his legacy.  His older son, Jurel is an investigator with the county police while his daughter handles the politics at the state capital.  His youngest son is considered the family's weak link.  There are drug dealers and meth cookers, strip joint owners and disreputable preachers, all lining up to make money from the deal if it happens.  Which of them is killing off young women?

This is a prequel novel in the Charley Parker series although it is the nineteenth in the series.  It explores what made Parker the man he is and why he feels compelled to seek out the evil found in the world.  Some of the characterizations of the small town grifters and power hungry are a bit trite but overall the novel is a satisfactory chapter in the series and gives readers a deeper understanding of Parker.  This book is recommended for mystery readers.

The Blacktongue Thief by Christopher Buehlman

 

It's not what he'd dreamed of but Kinch Na Shannack finds himself in a forest by the highway waiting on someone to rob.  He needs to pay the Takers Guild for his education.  All that education on stealing, lying, robbing and how to tell a tattoo that contains a spell needs to be paid for and Kinch has no other way to find the money.  But sometimes you are lucky and sometimes not.  Kinch and his cohorts rush out to rob a company only to find it contains a female knight, Galva.  She makes short work of Kinch's crew but at the end of the fight, the two decide to travel a bit together.  Galva is searching for her queen, rumored to be in giant country and she is willing to spare Kinch's life in exchange for his help.

Thus starts an epic quest.  There are dangers aplenty.  Goblins abound and there is nothing they like more than a dinner of human flesh.  Krakens kill everything in their path indiscriminately.  Giants are not jolly folk but terrifying behemoths who can kill with a swat.  Witches abound, including one called Deadlegs who lost her legs in a fight and now gets around by hacking off the legs of her dead enemies and using them until they rot past use. A blind cat takes Kinch as her soulmate.   Kinch is alternately terrified and amazed, falling in love or fighting for his life.  

I listened to this novel and it was wonderful.  The author, Christopher Buehlman, was also the narrator and his accented narration was perfect.  It is one of the few books I'd love to listen to again just to hear his voice some more.  There are songs interspersed throughout and they are done well also.  

This book is a five star rating for me.  It's one of the best fantasy books I've read lately and I read a lot of fantasy.  It is humorous and thrilling by turns.  Kinch is a thief and a rascal but his exploits hide a heart of gold.  The book is getting a lot of positive buzz with accolades such as editor's choice for Best Books of 2021 in the fantasy genre.  It is the first of a proposed trilogy and the reader will finish the last page desperate to read the next.  This book is highly recommended for fantasy readers. 

Midnight In Peking by Paul French

 

January 8, 1937.  It is a cold and bitter night in the city of Peking.  The Chinese inhabitants are uneasy as the Japanese Army is inching its way ever closer to the city with its motto of kill and burn all.  The Foreign Legation of British, French and other countries has fewer and fewer inhabitants as they flee back to their own countries.  A young British girl, Pamela Werner, 19, is missing.  She left the night before to go skating with some friends and never returned.

But she is no longer missing.  Her body is found on the outskirts of the Legation near what is known as the Fox Towers. She has been brutally murdered and the body mutilated with its heart and other organs cut out and missing.  Pamela is the daughter of a former British consul.  The Peking police know that this will be a massive case with political implications.

Two detectives are assigned to the case.  Inspector Dennis is brought in from Shanghai to head up the British investigation while Inspector Han is in charge of the Chinese one.  Although they are to cooperate, it is soon clear that there are political forces which do not want the case solved as it may reflect poorly on the city and its inhabitants.  

There are multiple suspects.  Pamela's former headmaster has rumors of possible pediphile leanings.  A rickshaw operator has been found with a bloody rickshaw.  Pamela was dating many boys, both British and Chinese.  There is talk of a secret club of British men who run parties where young girls are paid to dance naked.  Who has killed Pamela and will the powers that be let the case be solved?

Paul French has discovered and written an in-depth exploration of this case.  He lived and worked in Shanghai for many years as a journalist and his writing skills are on full display.  The book won an Edgar Award for best nonfiction as well as a Crime Writers Dagger for nonfiction.  The case with its intricate layers of political maneuverings is fascinating for readers of true crime and is recommended for them.

Klara And The Sun by Kazuo Ishiguru

 

Klara is an AF or Artificial Friend.  She spends her days in the store window display waiting for a parent to choose her as a companion to their child. When Josie picks her from all the other AFs, Klara is excited.  She goes home with Josie and her mother and fits into the routine of the household.

Josie is pretty much always at home.  She is sickly perhaps as a result of being 'lifted' which is the term for genetic modification to give children advantages.  Klara, of course, being entirely artificial, is more intelligent but since she lacks the emotional responses of a human, filters everything through her logic base and misses much.  One example is that since Klara is solar powered, she believes that the sun is a god.  As Josie becomes sicker, Klara attempts to make a deal with the sun whom she believes can heal Josie.  She also doesn't get the emotional interactions between Josie and her mother or the mother and the neighbors.  Rick, the neighbor boy, is Josie's main friend outside of Klara.  He is not lifted and there is a stark difference between the anticipated futures for the two children.

This book is a Booker longlist nomination.  It is written in a very flat, unemotional way as that is the way that Klara, who is the narrator, views the world but which makes it more challenging for readers to engage with.  Ishiguru explores what artificial intelligence will mean for our world when humans are perhaps not needed to run things.  What will that mean for relationships and for the economy?  Will humans come to be seen as replaceable commodities?  Can a child be replaced by an artificial friend for those who can't have children?  There are lots of questions to ponder yet the unemotional narration makes it more difficult for readers to embrace this work.  This book is recommended for readers of literary fiction.

The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency by Alexander McCall Smith

 

Mma Ramotswe has the life she has always imagined.  As a young girl she made some rash decisions that brought pain and grief into her life.  But after her beloved father died and left her some money, she has gotten her life back on track and done exactly what she has always dreamed of doing.  She bought a house and a shop and has opened the only ladies' detective agency in Botswana.

Mma Ramotswe wasn't sure if there was really a need for a woman detective but she is pleased to see that cases show up as soon as she opens the door for business.  Some are trifling such as finding a lost dog.  There are always women who want to know if their husbands are faithful and men wanting to know the same about their wives.  There are parents who want to be sure their children are on the right path and sadly, parents whose children are missing.  There are insurance fraud cases and even murders to solve.

Mma Ramotswe goes about her business in a common sense manner.  She considers what is the most likely solution and then figures out how to prove what she suspects.  She has a network of friends who can help, from mechanics to lawyers to policemen.  She is not necessarily going to tell the police about her cases but may handle them discreetly.  All in all, she is a successful detective.

This is the first novel in what went on to become a successful series for Alexander McCall Smith. At this time, there are twenty-two novels in the series with the last being published in the last year.  Mma Ramotswe is a favorite with readers with her common sense solutions and her philosophy of life.  Readers will find comfort in this African cozy mystery series.  

Towns Without Rivers by Michael Parker

 

Reka Speight and her brother Randall are determined to see more of the world than their rural town of Trent in Eastern North Carolina.  Born into a poor family with a mother who died early, siblings who grew up and moved right into Trent adulthood and an alcoholic father, these two of the children yearn for something more.  Life isn't easy and Reka has just emerged from a five year prison sentence.  She stood by while her wealthy boyfriend overdosed and his father demanded justice.  Reka didn't have any money and her defense was minimal so she ended up with the blame for the man's death.

Now that Reka is out she is willing to do anything to move on.  When she is offered the chance to go out to the Midwest to sell books door to door she jumps at it; in the early 1960's this is still a viable job.  She does this for a while then continues drifting, ending up in Montana.  In the meanwhile, Randall has gone to Norfolk to live with an older brother and work in the shipyards.  But he yearns for Reka and although he doesn't know exactly where she is, Randall hits the roads determined to find her. Reka finds love along the way but it isn't an uncomplicated situation.  Will Reka and Randall find each other again and will they make their way out of poverty to find happier lives?

This is Michael Parker's second novel and it is a great one.  Parker is a writer who deserves a much wider audience and is local to me, working and writing at the University of North Carolina Greensboro.  I've read almost all of his novels over the years and have never read a bad one.  His strength is character portrayal and those in the South will immediately recognize Reka and Randall as true representations of those found in the region.  He uses these two characters to explore what makes life worth living and the struggles most of us have reaching a satisfactory life.  This book is recommended for readers of literary fiction.

Second Place by Rachel Cusk

 

M is a middle-aged woman, a writer with some small success.  She is living with her second husband, Tony, in the marshes of England in a remote location and her daughter has recently moved back home as well.  Surrounded by family, M should be happy but she feels that she is cut out for a more artistic life and that she needs inspiration.  While Tony was clearing their land, he finds a cottage which the couple sets up as their 'second place', somewhere they can invite guests.

M had admired the paintings of L, an artist who had been quite famous at one time but had now fallen into obscurity.  She invites him to come stay with them and is delighted when he agrees.  She imagines long talks with him and that his work will be reimagined and vibrant once more due to their location.  She sees herself as a patroness of the arts.

The first clue that things will not work out is on L's arrival.  Instead of coming alone, he arrives with a young woman with whom it is obvious he has a relationship.  It is obvious that the couple think little of M and Tony, believing more that they are gracing them with their company rather than feeling any gratitude.  L is interested in painting Tony and M's daughter but has no interest in M and seems to avoid her as much as possible.  This sets the stage for conflict between M and L, and between M and Tony as he tries to put his foot down on her behaviour.

This book has been nominated for the 2021 Booker Prize.  Rachel Cusk has a long history of writing awards including the Whitbread Award for First Novel and nominations for the Orange Prize, the Bailey Prize, the Giller Prize and others.  In this work, she explores the feelings of a middle-aged woman, someone whose first age of beauty has passed and who is working out what the rest of her life will be.  M is someone the reader will want to shake.  Her husband is caring and loving, his only thoughts to watch over her and protect her but M almost ignores him in her quest to become important to another man and to fulfill her expectations of being a patron of the arts.  Similarly, she isn't sure how to relate to her daughter and M's self-image can only be filtered through the thoughts and actions of those around her.  This book is recommended for readers of literary fiction.

The Edge Of The Chair edited by Joan Kahn

 

This is an older anthology of suspense stories from 1967.  It is an interesting mix with both fiction and nonfiction entries.  Authors include classic authors such as Alexander Pushkin, Ambrose Bierce, Harold Pinter, Antoine de Saint-Exupery, Graham Greene,Jack London, Ray Bradbury, Agatha Christie, Rudyard Kipling. Arthur Conan Doyle, William Faulkner, John Buchan. G.K. Chesterton, Guy de Maupassant and Dorothy Sayers.   

I had not heard of any of the true crime cases gathered here.  One in particular was of the story of an imposter claiming to be an escaped John Wilkes Booth.  The story he gave out was that he had escaped and come out West where he lived out his days.  There were many who believed in this story and only his death finally revealed the truth.

The Christie story, The Adventure Of The Clapham Cook, was another I had not read.  An undiscovered story by the grand dame of mystery is always an occasion to be savored.  Overall, although an older book, this was an anthology I enjoyed reading with its unique mix of fiction and nonfiction as well as the interesting and renowned mystery authors found here.  This book is recommended for short story mystery readers.

The Quiet Boy by Ben H. Winters

 

Jay Shenk is a small time lawyer, running his own firm.  He is generally a happy man, although he is a single parent to his adopted teenage son, Reuben, after the death of his wife.  When he hears about a medical injury to another teenage boy, he approaches the parents.  Wesley Keener, 16, hits his head in an accident at school.  At the hospital, the surgeons decide that he needs an emergency surgery to relieve the pressure of the bleed around his brain.  Although it is an emergency, it is a fairly routine surgery. But something goes wrong and Wesley never returns to himself.  Instead he is left a rambling wreck, a boy who incessantly paces in circles and gives no sign of recognizing anything or anyone.  Shenk sues the hospital and has hopes of a large settlement.  Reuben hears about the trial daily from his dad and goes to watch in the courtroom.  Although the doctors don't know what happened, Shenk finds an expert witness, Dr. Theresa Plieggi, who is sure she knows exactly what happens.

Fast forward ten years.  Shenk is still a lawyer but barely getting by.  He has never recovered financially or emotionally from the trial.  Wayne is the same, still pacing in endless circles.  Reuben is chopping vegetables in a restaurant.  Then Jay gets a call.  Richard Keener, Wayne's father, has been arrested for murder.  His victim was Theresa Plieggi.  Jay asks Reuben to help him find out what happened as the DA's office is trying the case as a death penalty case.  Reuben agrees although he doesn't feel qualified.  What he discovers brings up his greatest childhood fears as well as a reunion with Wayne's sister, Eve, who Reuben had a crush on.  Can Reuben find out what happened?

Winters has written a fascinating mashup of legal thriller, coming of age story and science fiction.   There are mystic underpinnings to what happened to Wayne a decade ago and a mysterious man who has haunted Reuben for years.  Although Jay is a prominent character and loveable, it is Reuben's story and quest.  This book is recommended for readers of literary fiction as well as science fiction.

Ariadne by Jennifer Saint

 

Ariadne is born on Crete, the daughter of King Minos and half-sister to the beast, the Minotaur.  Her mother is driven mad by the birth of the Minotaur so Ariadne's childhood is spent mostly with her younger sister, Phaedra.  King Minos delights in the Minotaur although it's existence is proof of his being cucockled.  He is able to extract a terrible revenge from Athens for the murder of one of his sons.  Athens is condemned to send fourteen of their youth to be slain by the Minotaur periodically, seven men and seven maidens.  After several years of this horrific event, the Athens prince, Theseus, volunteers to be one of the victims.  

Ariadne and her sister Phaedra are both fascinated by Theseus.  His beauty and his tales of heroism attract them and when he promises to marry Ariadne she agrees to help him slay the beast.  With her help he is able to do so and then he, his crew and Ariadne sail off.  He marries her on an island but when she awakes, she has been left behind to perish, his love merely a trick.

But life is not done with the daughters of King Minos.  Ariadne has landed on the island owned by the god Dionysus and over time the two fall in love, are married and have a family.  Phaedra is married off to cement a relationship with another kingdom.  The kingdom is Athens and her husband is Theseus who lets her believe that he saw her sister killed during their escape.  After being married to him Phaedra realises that he is a vain man only concerned about his adventures and legends.  When the two sisters are reunited a seed is planted that plays out in tragedy.

This is a debut novel.  Jennifer Saint was a high school English teacher and her love of language and writing leaps from the pages.  The narrator is Barrie Krinik, who is considered one of the best voice actors currently working and her narration is perfect.  Most readers will only have heard the story of the Minotaur and perhaps of Theseus.  Saint brings the women who lived in this story come to life, exposing their weaknesses and strengths and the reality they constantly faced of living in a man's world, prey to men's desires and wishes.  Readers who liked Circe will also like this novel.  It is recommended for readers of literary fiction and those interested in mythology.

Hot Stew by Fiona Mozley

 

Soho is a changing neighborhood in London.  These days it is home to those who don't have anywhere else to go.  There are drug addicts, prostitutes, unemployed and struggling workers.  But neighborhoods are ever changing and there are those who think Soho is due for gentrification and a makeover.

Agatha is one of those who want things to change.  She is the recipient of a huge fortune from a father she never met, her mother having married an elderly man with a fortune who died during her pregnancy.  Agatha owns a building in Soho that with its central location, she believes would be the perfect place for condos.  The sticking point is that the inhabitants of her building don't want to leave.

Precious and Tabitha are two of those inhabitants.  They are sex workers by choice and this has been their home for many years.  They share the building with a group of homeless people and drug addicts in the basement, a restaurant, and other people struggling on the margins of life.  They are determined not to be pushed out and Precious starts a protest and movement to fight Agatha.  There are other characters.  There is a former enforcer for Agatha's father.  There is an actor who isn't sure he wants to be one.  There is a man pining for his ex-girlfriend who has inherited wealth he tires not to use.  There is a struggling magician who makes his living with tawdry tricks in bars and a woman who is so far gone that few notice when she disappears.  Together they struggle to maintain their precarious hold on life in the only place they know.

Fiona Mozeley's first novel, Elmet, was a Booker Prize finalist.  As in that novel, this second one is concerned with the ideas of ownership of property and what becomes of those pushed out by the constant pursuit of profit.  The characters are finely drawn although some are mysterious and remote and the novel raises questions of social justice and the rights of those less blessed with money and power.  It also explores the thoughts of those engaged in sex work and whether such work is sometimes a valid choice.  This book is recommended for literary fiction readers.

Girl A by Abigail Dean

 

She was known as Girl A.  She was the one who set herself and her siblings free from the house of horrors they were confined in.  She was the one who scrapped her flesh raw to escape from the chains, broke a window cutting herself on the glass and jumped from the roof shattering her leg but managing to get to the road and help.  Her real name was Lex Gracie and there were seven siblings in the family, the family where her father went mad and her mother did nothing to help.

The story exploded in the press and everyone knew their story.  The children required extensive medical and dental care, the starvation taking its toll on their bodies.  Having lost both their parents that day as the police took over, once the medical world released them the children were split up and adopted out to separate families.  It was felt that it would be best if the children didn't interact but tried to adjust to a different life and forget the horrors.

Grown now, Lex has finally returned to England.  Her mother has died in prison and someone has to deal with the death and the small estate.  Lex has grown up to be a problem solver, a high flyer in a corporation that arranges company mergers.  She is the best suited to deal with the legal implications left behind.  Other siblings have not dealt with the past as well as she.  One is a lecturer who uses the past as a springboard for fame.  Others have turned to religion or spent their lives in mental care.  Some of the youngest ones don't even know who they are.  As Lex talked with each of her siblings, she finds that their memories don't always jibe and each person remembers events differently or has different pieces of the puzzle.  Can she construct a whole picture from the memories they all have?

This is a debut novel.  Abigail Dean is a lawyer and former bookseller.  The novel explores the meaning of family when family goes awry.  The headlines regularly note cases such as these where a parent goes mad and power hungry and sets up elaborate rules with corresponding punishments for those who live with them.  It is heartbreaking to realize how many people, especially children, are captured in situations where their basic human needs are held against them and their days a long story of horror and deprivation.  The reader will come to know the mechanisms the siblings use to accept their pasts and to put the story together from the shifting memories each child has.  This book is recommended for readers of family relationships.

The Never Game by Jeffrey Deaver

 

The news article catches Colton Shaw's eye.  A nineteen year old girl has gone missing, possibly kidnapped on her way home.  Shaw makes a living finding people for rewards.  Sometimes they are children, sometimes senior citizens with memory issues.  Often they are criminals that law enforcement needs to be found.  He makes contact with the girl's father and is hired to find her.  Although he gets almost no cooperation from the police when he shares his ideas with them, Colton is able to find the girl and bring her home safely.

But things aren't over in Silicon Valley.  Another man is kidnapped and this one isn't as lucky.  Shaw finds him also but he has been killed.  Now the police are willing to listen and Shaw goes into high gear.  It becomes evident that the kidnappings are tied to a video game.  Shaw meets a gamer named Maddie who serves as his entree into the gamer world; a world he isn't a part of at all.  Shaw was homeschooled by a survivalist family on a large forested compound.  Survival he understands; computer gaming not so much.  A female police sergeant becomes Shaw's partner as they rush to find the culprit before more victims are killed.

This is the first in the Colton Shaw series and a New York Times Book Review Top 10 Crime Novel Of The Year.  To this date, there are three books in the series.  Colton is a fascinating character although Deaver makes it clear the reader hasn't been given all of his secrets yet.  His background makes him perfect for finding those who are missing as he knows how to track and survive in any situation.  Readers will find the pace fast and there is a twist that most won't see coming.  This book is recommended for thriller readers.

Madam by Phoebe Wynne

 

Things couldn't be going better for Rose Christie.  Only 26, she has just been hired to head up the classics department at the prestigious Caldonbrae Hall school for young women.  In fact, she is the only new hire for many years and in her interview was told the school looked forward to her innovative views.

The school is supportive.  Rose is given an apartment and even her mother's care, who is confined to a nursing facility, is taken care of.  All she has to do is plan and deliver her lectures.  She finds the girls strangely unprepared and they talk quite a lot about her predecessor who left quickly with no word on her current whereabouts.  The students seem to think that the stories of the Greek and Roman women Rose lectures about, who are strong and can serve as role models, are irrelevant.

Then things slowly start to turn.  Rose is aware of whispers among the staff when she enters a room.  The office staff are, by turns, surly or impudent.  Rose is given tasks that don't seem to match her job description.  There are secrets everywhere.  Girls disappear without warning or notice. Rose starts to get anonymous letters telling her she doesn't belong there but it is soon apparent, she can't leave unless the school wants her to.  There are big secrets being kept and when Rose learns them, she knows she must do her best to change things.

This is a debut novel and has garnered a lot of buzz with accolades such as 'One of the 75 Debuts To Discover In 2021' by Goodreads and 'Best Debuts Of 2021' by Parade.  It has a gothic feel and champions women's rights and challenges the male patriarchy.  Nathalie Buscombe is the narrator for those listening to the novel and she does a perfect job of portraying a naive woman who comes to realize she has made a glaring career mistake and now must fight for her life.  This book is recommended for mystery readers.

The Coffinmaker's Garden by Stuart Macbride

 

Ash Henderson is no longer a Detective Inspector but he's still involved in crime.  These days, he's working with his friend and criminal profiler Alice to review cases and consult with the police.  But he hasn't really changed his focus or methods.  Ever since his own daughter was kidnapped and tortured to death, Ash has been full on set on catching serial killers by any means possible.

Ash discovers the lair of one such man.  Gordon Smith is an inoffensive man, always willing along with his wife to help with the care of children.  But what Ash and Alice find in his basement is a horror show that numbers over twenty victims.  Men, women, children.  Gordon wasn't picky.  The two are only able to retrieve the pictures Gordon had mounted before the entire house is swept off the cliff into the ocean in a storm.  

Of course, that's not the only case going on.  Crime rarely lets an investigator work on only one crime.  There is someone kidnapping and killing small boys, strangling them and leaving their parents to grieve for the rest of their lives.  Ash works with a new partner in the field, a beautiful woman DI who has a chip on her shoulder.  Can these crimes be solved before more killing occurs?

Stuart Macbride is one of my must-read authors.  This is the third book in the Ash Henderson series and readers can't help but cheer for him as he chases criminals while hiding his heart of gold.  The surrounding characters are always interesting and this one also has a dog for those who love their pets.  The action and pace is furious as event after event happens in breathtaking speed.  This book is recommended for mystery readers.

 

Sarah Champlin is a painter in 1924 Paris, about to have her first exhibition.  But her plans are put on hold when she receives a telegram that her older sister, Ada, has been found dead in Carmel, California.  Sarah drops everything and travels to the town which is known as a gathering place for artists.

The inquest declared Ada's death a suicide but Sarah doesn't believe that.  Ada was a force and she was about to have her greatest artistic triumph ever.  Ada's personal life was also blooming and Sarah doesn't believe she would leave it all behind.  But if it wasn't suicide then it must be murder.  Who would want to kill Ada?

Unfortunately, there are more than one suspect.  There is her agent, whom Ada had recently fired.  She had also fired her assistant, a young painter who has secrets of her own.  There was a handsome rich suitor who was a sailor as well as an actor who was another suitor.  Sarah encounters secrets and motives everywhere she looks and doesn't know who to trust.  Can she discover the truth and give Ada back her reputation?

Although I have obviously heard of Carmel, I never knew it's history as a place where women artists gathered to make their art.  The reader will learn about many topics in this novel.  There is the history of women artists, the abalone divers of Japanese heritage, the discrimination those Japanese people encountered as well as the effects of Prohibition and the constraints women encountered in everyday life.  The author's own aunt was Ada Belle Champlin who served as the inspiration for this novel.  This novel is recommended for readers of historical and literary fiction.