Devils by Joe Abercrombie

 

Alex is a street thief.  She doesn't know anything about a family if she ever had one.  All she can remember is having to steal to eat, to do whatever it takes to survive.  She is about to be beaten by someone she owes money to when she is saved by a nobleman.  He tells her that he is her uncle and that she is the long lost empress of an empire far away.  Alex cannot believe him but she needs some help so she goes along.

The uncle isn't the only person who believes that Alex is the princess/empress.  She is brought to the home of the ten year old pope and soon she is sent on a trip to her new kingdom with a surrounding of nefarious individuals to protect her.  There is Brother Diaz, a young monk who is put in charge of the journey.  Jacob is a soldier who cannot die and who has taken part in every crusade and military operation for centuries.  Vigga is a female werewolf.  When she lets the wolf out, she will kill any and everybody around.  Baron Rikard is a vampire, incredibly old.  He prefers to remain remote from the battles the group encounters.  Sunny is an elf, the beings that everyone fears and loathes.  She has the ability to be invisible and uses it much of the time.  Baptiste is another woman, one who has been with the group for years and is a pirate and many other things in her past life.  Baltazar is a necromancer who is indigent to be forced into the group.  

The group sets out on their journey.  Not only will they face the rigors of the road but Alex has four cousins each of whom believe they have a better claim to the throne than she does and who want nothing more than to get rid of her once and for all.  As the group moves and faces dangers, they start to form alliances and friendships.  Can they get Alex to her throne?

Joe Abercrombie is known for his fantasy writing although he hasn't published anything in a couple of years.  I loved this book from beginning to end.  Each of the characters is fascinating in themselves and the entire group works like a well-oiled machine to face the dangers encountered.  There is danger and love and betrayals, everything that a reader could want.  The adventures and creatures the group encounters along the way are imaginative and the reader will find themselves holding their breath as each challenge is met. I really hope this book is the first in a series as I'd love to read more about these characters.   This book is recommended for fantasy readers  

The Best American Short Stories 2003

 

This anthology of stories was edited by Walter Moseley who wrote the introduction.  The lineup is full of well known authors.  Contributors include Nicole Krauss, Adam Haslett, Louise Erdrich, Anthony Doerr, E. L. Doctorow, Edwidge Danticat, Dan Chaon, Kevin Brockemeier and Dorothy Allison.  Lesser known authors include Rand Richards Cooper, Ryan Harty, Mary Yukari Waters, Susan Straight, Mona Simpson, Jess Row, Emily Ishem Roboteau, Sharon Pomerantz, Marilene Phipps, Dean Paschal and ZZ Packer.

The story that struck me the most was 'Compassion' by Dorothy Allison.  It is the story of a woman dying and her two daughters who are with her in the hospital.  Also there is the woman's husband, who spent the girl's childhood abusing them and the mother while drinking.  Now he is sober but the girls can't forgive him.  They also need to get him to sign the Do Not Resuscitate order but can barely bring themselves to speak to him.  It is a real slice of life story and one that many families face daily.

I love these anthologies.  The stories are chosen from those printed in American and Canadian magazines.  It's interesting to see what those who are authors consider the best stories and each is different enough that the readers' interest never flags.  This book is recommended for literary fiction readers.  

Guilty Women by Melanie Blake

 

Falcon Bay is the biggest hit serial on television.  It's been a ratings leader for over forty years and it's still going strong.  Helen Gold has been the star for all those years and they are still writing romantic plotlines for her.  Farrah Adams plays her daughter.  Amanda King runs the show while Sheena McQueen is an agent and the casting director.

But all is not fine.   Amanda loses her job to her ex-husband, who has also impregnated Farrah.  Helen is vulnerable and being involved in two real-life deaths makes her even more unstable.  The show has a new owner and it's unclear how he feels about the show as his wife lost her life onscreen live a few months ago.  The new showrunner has brought back Helen's old lover, both onscreen and in real life.  Can the women continue to make the show a hit while fighting off all the distractions?

Melanie Blake was an agent before she started writing so she knows the world she is writing about.  She specializes in scandalous books with lots of romance and love affairs, along with secrets that can ruin everything if they emerge.  I listened to this book and listening added to the suspense as the plots and counterplots continue to pile up.  This book is recommended for mystery and women's fiction readers.  

South by Tash Aw

 

Jay spends a summer with his family visiting the property they have recently inherited when his grandfather dies.  The land used to be productive but droughts and poor management have made it nothing more than land that has no purpose.  Jay's father, Jack, is a professor and they have always used a manager on the land.  The manager is still full of hopes, sure that with only a bit more work and money, the land can be a productive farm once more.  

Jay is drawn to the manager's son, Chuan.  Older and more sophisticated, Chuan is fascinating to Jay and introduces him to smoking and drinking.  The boys grow closer as they realize a growing attraction between them and soon there is a seduction.  But the two young men come from different worlds and it is unlikely that a relationship between them will thrive.

Tash Aw is a Malaysian author and this book is longlisted for this year's Booker Prize.  This is Aw's third time on the Booker nominee list.  The characters in this book are hard to relate to; there seems to be a distance between the reader and the characters.  Each character is facing the reality that their lives will never be what they had hoped and that creates a miasma of loneliness and despair.  While Jay has his first love, he soon recognizes that it is not to be a lasting affair but a short summer fling.  The theme of loneliness and despair makes this a difficult book to be drawn into but it is recommended for readers of literary fiction and multicultural literature.

The Dentist by Tim Sullivan

 

DS George Cross has the highest clearance rate on the Bristol police force.  He is also one of the most irritating men to work with.  Cross is on the spectrum and that means he is like a terrier with a bone when he is working a case.  He doesn't really care about making friends at work or even doing what his bosses tell him to.  Once he latches onto a case, he will work it until it is solved.

The latest case seems like it will be an easy one.  A homeless man has been found dead, signs of a fight and the victim being intoxicated established.  It seems like a case of two homeless men fighting and one dying.  Until Cross discovers that this homeless man was a dentist before he went on the streets.  And that the man's wife had also been murdered shortly before he fell apart.  Cross's boss wants the easy solution but Cross is sure that the two murders are connected and the wife's case was never solved.  He is determined to solve both.

When Cross first started on the force, he was bullied unmercifully by his superior officer.  Now he finds that the same officer was in charge of the wife's murder and the case had a terrible investigation.  While Cross has no fond memories of the man, he was a competent police officer.  Why didn't he solve the wife's murder?

This is the first book in the DS George Cross series.  George lives with his father whom he gets along with.  He loves organ music but refuses to play for others.  He drives his partner, a single mom nuts and intimidates the new female hire but he does include them in the investigation and works with them.  His partner helps him recognize social clues that would normally go past him.  Readers will be fascinated with the way George's mind works and how he never gives up on a case.  This book is recommended for mystery readers.  

The Silver Bone by Andrey Kurkov

 As World War I winds down, Kyiv is being fought over by six different factions.  Regardless of who wins, hunger is everywhere and the streets aren't safe.  Samson Kolechko is walking with his father when a group of Cossacks thunder through on their horses.  Seemingly for fun, they pull their sabers and attack.  Samson's father is killed and he loses an ear.

Now he is rattling around alone in their big apartment.  But the current group who rules Kyiv is starting to requisition furniture and when two soldiers see how big the apartment is, they decide to move in.  Samson doesn't argue as he knows it is useless as they have guns and he doesn't.  He was hoping to let the woman he is interested in move in but he won't ask while they are there.  Samson discovers that his severed ear which he saved can still hear and he soon finds that the soldiers are robbing houses to fund their upcoming desertion.  He goes to the police to report them but is drafted into becoming a policeman himself as he can write and is logical, having studied to be an engineer.

Once the soldiers are arrested, he finds that they are connected to his first murder case.  The clues in the case are a bone encased in silver and a suit that was never made.  While the police are ready to move on, Samson is tenacious and refuses to end the case until he has solved it.  Was a policeman what he should have been all along?

Andrey Kurkov is a well known Ukrainian author, very popular in his homeland.  This book is the start of a mystery series he is writing and was nominated for the International Booker.  Readers will learn about conditions in Kyiv from a hundred years ago and marvel at how similar the situation is today.  Samson is an interesting character and readers will be ready for his next adventure.  This book is recommended for mystery readers and those interested in foreign authors.  

Pale Fire by Vladimir Nabokov

 

This novel is a mixture of prose and poetry.  It starts with a forward by the character Charles Kinbote, explaining his relationship with the English poet John Slade who died shortly after writing the cantos that compose the next part of the book.  The majority of the book is after the poetry where Kinbote gives his commentary on the Slade work.

In his commentary, we discover that the poetry, at least in Kinbote's mind, is the story of a king forced from his kingdom and who ends up in England.  It becomes increasingly apparent that Kinbote is this king and that he believes this is his story, as he told it to Slade in the after dinner walks they took.  He believes that he had a great friendship with the poet and his wife but it emerges that the friendship is mostly in Kinbote's mind as is the subject of the poetry.  He writes about the assassin who is sent to kill the escaped king and about Slade's wife who he dislikes and blames for the fact that the friendship has never become what he wanted.

Vladimir Nabokov was born in Russia, spent significant time in France and England and ended up in the United States from the time of World War II.  This work is a sly comedy, a mystery and a history all rolled into one.  The character John Slade is secondary, used only to serve as an impetus to tell the story of Charles Kinbote who is the king written about.  I loved this work and highly recommend it to those searching for an approachable Nabokov novel to start with.  This work is recommended to literary fiction readers.  

Such A Pretty Girl by T. Greenwood

 

Ryan Flannigan and her ambitious mother had moved to New York from Vermont in the 1970's when Ryan was a young teenager.  They shared an apartment with a family that they had met in the summers at the community theatre where Ryan had been born and grew up and the family of Ryan's best friend.  Although Fiona, Ryan's mother, had only been a bit player, she was sure if she could only get to New York that she would be discovered and have the acting career she had spent her life chasing.

But it is Ryan who is discovered.  She is noticed in a restaurant by a woman who runs a modeling agency and after an interview, signed up.  A movie producer sees her ads and thinks she is perfect for the part of a young girl in his upcoming movie.  That movie catapults her into the limelight and she soon has the career her mother had always wanted.  Ryan isn't sure how much she likes it and after some scary things happen, she had given up acting as an adult and moved back to Vermont.  She and Fiona have been estranged for years, Fiona never forgiving Ryan for her fame and Ryan never forgiving Fiona for her poor mothering, leaving with men and not returning, taking drugs, etc.

But now a scandal has erupted.  A nude picture of Ryan as a young girl which was taken for her to give her mother as a gift, has been found in the home of a wealthy man who has been outed as a pedophile.  He has connections to the woman who discovered Ryan and to Ryan's mother, who has inscribed the picture as a gift to the man.  What was their connection?  The press is chasing the story and Ryan has to return to New York to settle things with her mother once and for all.

T. Greenwood is an American author whose work often focuses on events in American history.  In this recent historical fiction, the reader discovers the excitement of New York's West Side and the artists and actors who lived there.  It also touches on the 'me-too' revelations of recent years when men who dealt in corrupting young girls for favors have been outed; their crimes now on full display.  The relationship between Ryan and Fiona asks the question what will ambition do and where does one draw a line?  This book is recommended for historical and literary fiction readers.  

Flashlight by Susan Choi

 

Anne and Serk married in love and had a child, Louisa, but the love didn't last.  Anne is American, Serk is Korean although he was born and grew up in Japan.  He came to the United States on a student visa and after his education was finished, he taught.  By then the two were barely talking, their initial interest long gone.  

Serk agrees to do an exchange to Korea for a year to please his administration.  While there, Anne becomes ill, the tingles and aches she had been feeling a case of MS.  She was pretty much confined to the house so Serk and Louisa explored the land.  While walking along the beach one night, a tragedy occurs.  Serk and Louisa are swept out to sea.  Louisa is found later, half dead, Serk's body never found.

Back in the United States, Anne and Louisa soldier on.  Although no one knows it, Serk had not died but ended up in North Korea where he is imprisoned for the next decades, suffering starvation and beatings.  Louisa grows up and moves out, rarely if ever even calling Anne.  The family is irretrievably broken and separate.

Susan Choi is an American author whose prior work won the National Book award.  This novel has been longlisted for the Booker Prize of 2025.  In it, Choi explores the idea of identity, family, alienation and trauma.  The characters don't necessarily lead a happy life but they come to learn about what is important to them as they live and grow older.  I listened to this novel and the narrator did a great job, switching between chapters and lives seamlessly.  The novel is written in alternating chapters from the three main characters' point of view and it also goes back and forth in time.  A master work, this book is recommended for readers of literary and historical fiction.

Wellness by Nathan Hill

 

They both came to Chicago to start their lives over.  They fell in love across a space as their windows looked across at each other.  Elizabeth came from money, a long line of robber barons and she just doesn't want to be associated with that anymore.  Jack came from the Midwest, growing up on a farm in a community where almost no one left.  But he wants to be an artist and comes to Chicago to learn how to do that.

Twenty years on, little is left of that idealistic pair.  They have a young child, a son that Elizabeth is sure is on the spectrum but Jack thinks is just sensitive and who looks at the world a little differently.  Elizabeth is corporate in a job where she convinces people that placebos work as well as medicine.  Jack is teaching art at a university but his artwork hasn't appreciably changed in more than a decade.  They are about to move into a high end condo that their friend is building and that will take all their savings.  Jack still loves Elizabeth madly but she's not so sure she loves Jack the same way anymore.  As we discover their backstories, it becomes more clear why each is the way they are as adults.

Nathan Hill is an American author whose debut novel was published seven years ago.  This is his second novel.  The first, The Nix, was a major hit and won many awards.  This novel captures the feel of the 1990's and of the present, how we change as we get older and how difficult it is to keep love alive.  It talks about how hard it is to avoid the common misperceptions of the time and how the world changes for everyone.  This book is recommended for literary fiction readers. 

Black Wolf by Juan Gomez-Jurado

 

In this second Antonia Scott novel, the wife of a Mob figure in Spain is at risk.  The head of the Spanish mob is not forgiving and when he suspects her husband is betraying him, he sends his assassins to kill him and the family.  They get her husband, but Lola is shopping and sees her killer in a shop window seconds before he fires.  She manages to escape but now Lola is on the run.

Antonia and Jon are brought in to find Lola.  Now that her husband is dead, she is the police and the consortium's best chance to get a witness against the Spanish mob.  But the mob chief isn't playing around.  Since the first killer failed, he calls in a specialist; a killer that never misses.  Known as The Black Wolf, this is a female assassin who is deadlier than a black widow spider.

This is Antonia's and Jon's second case together.  Antonia is still not through with the first since the killer escaped but the Red Queen project can't indulge her anymore.  They need her skills and Jon's to have a chance to break the back of the Spanish mob.  I enjoyed this one and it, like the first, is fast-paced and keeps the reader's interest.  This book is recommended for mystery readers

The Colony by Audrey Magee

 It is summer on a small island off the Irish coast.  Two outsiders come to spend the summer.  Mr. Lloyd is a landscape painter who has come to paint the cliffs and sea.  Jean-Pierre Masson is a Frenchman who is studying the native Irish language and has come to a place where it is still spoken with little English influence.  

Both rent a place to stay and get meals from a family who has lived there for decades.  The father and grandfather have been lost at sea, a tragic yet common end for those who fish for a living.  The household now consists of the grandmother, the recently widowed mother and a teenage boy, James.  James doesn't know what he wants except that he doesn't want his life to be one of becoming a fisherman.

As the summer progresses, the two men find they are at odds.  Violence is common on the mainland and news of various killings and bombings are interspersed with the narrative.  Mr. Lloyd changes his focus from landscapes to portraits of the widowed mother who is in her thirties and believes that he has done the best work in his life.   He encourages James to paint and tells him that he has talent and that the two of them can have an exhibit and that James can come with him at the end of summer and go to art school.  

Audrey Magee is an Irish author whose two novels have won much acclaim.  I listened to this book and the Irish accent of the narrator added so much to the book along with the English and French accents of the other characters.  Her choice to include frequent reports of the violence between Catholics and Protestants on the Irish mainland sets a surreal background to the betrayals happening on the island.  The ending of this novel is one that I'll long remember and her ability to transport the reader to a distant land and environment is to be envied.  This book is recommended for readers of literary fiction. 

Nights At The Circus by Angela Carter

 

Sophie Fevvers is the undoubted star of Colonel Kearney's Circus.   She isn't a delicate trapeze artist, no, this is a Viking of a woman who loves to eat and who is almost a giantess.  But she has something no one else can claim.  Fevvers has two wings growing from her back so she has a built-in safety device.  She started life as an orphan and was raised and spoiled in a brothel.  But now she is the toast of the Continent and courted by noblemen.

Jack Walser is an American journalist who comes to do a story on Fevvers and see if she is a fraud.  But he leaves that night as another male conquered by Fevvers beauty and unattainability.  He convinces his editor to let him join the circus undercover to follow Fevvers on her tour.  When he hurts himself, he is repurposed by the Colonel as a clown.  

The circus moves from France to Russia and is headed to Japan.  Fevvers is cheered everywhere but there is also the master of the Clowns, the woman who tames the tigers and finds a mate among the circus regulars and the Strongman along with the usual bears and elephants and chimps.  Together they go forth to perform but fate has more in store for them than they knew.

Angela Carter was born in England but also lived for times in Japan and Australia.  She was known for her short stories and novels which won much acclaim.  Her work focused on feminism and used magic realism as a plot device.  Her most famous work was The Bloody Chamber which was a feminist retelling of traditional fairy tales but readers may prefer this novel as an introduction as it is the closest to expected literature of her work.  Carter creates characters in this novel that are intriguing and weaves together subplots to make a story that can't be put down.  This work is recommended for literary fiction readers  

The Correspondent by Virginia Evans

 

Sybil Van Antwerp was a lawyer.  Now retired, she lives a quiet life and carries on with her biggest hobby; writing letters.  She writes to her family and friends as one might suspect.  She writes notes to her neighbors when they do something kind for her.  She writes to the president of a nearby university where she audits classes and argues when the audit policy is changed.  She writes letters she doesn't send.  She writes to authors whose books she has enjoyed and has established relationships with some through these letters.  She writes to a young teenage boy who is having a hard time adjusting to life with a brilliant mind who is rejected by his peers.

But she doesn't always tell her secrets.  She has one in particular that will change her life drastically that she doesn't share with anyone.  Her letters are not always kind; sometimes she argues and lectures those who have upset her.  Through her letters we see her family relationships.  We see her oldest friendships and how she threatens it.  We see her kindness in her letters to a wounded teenager and her willingness to do whatever she can to help him.  We see her blooming romances with two different men.

I'm so glad I read this novel.  It has been picked as a PBS Top Summer Book and a LibraryReads Pick Of The Month and I imagine it will get more awards.  This is her debut novel and I can't wait to read others.  I expected a saccharine novel but was excited to discover a novel that showed all sides of a woman who has led a full and interesting life.  I'm even excited to discover that she also lives in North Carolina about thirty miles from me which means I have a good chance of seeing her in person at a book event.  This book is recommended for literary fiction readers.   

The Space Between Worlds by Miciah Johnson

 

Cara is an outsider wherever she goes.  She grew up in the wastelands, desperate to get out and do something with her life.  She was the mistress of the emperor but that was a perilous position as he beat her constantly, bringing her repeatedly to the brink of death.  When Cara finds a woman dying on the wastelands one day and hears a voice coming from a transmitter, she takes the woman's place, not knowing what she is doing.

What she is doing is being someone who travels between worlds.  A scientist has discovered the travel process and now heads up a massive corporation, selling data to those who want to know about other worlds.  There are over four hundred worlds that can be traveled to, but there is one caveat; you must be dead in the world you are traveling to.

Cara is dead in over three hundred of those worlds and soon is one of the top travelers.  In some worlds, the emperor she knew is in power, in others he is on the outside.  Cara's family is always there but she can not visit them as they know she is dead.  She slides between power plays in governments and soon in the company she is working for.  Can she ever find peace?

This is Micaiah Johnson's debut novel and it made quite a splash.  It was a finalist for the Locust Award and won the Compton Crook Award while being named one of the year's best books by NPR and Library Journal.  It is an intricate work with Cara moving seamlessly between worlds while trying to discover what she wants her life to be and who she wants to have in it.  She struggles with whether she will have a relationship with her family and knows she wants a relationship with her handler, Dell, who she fantasizes about.  The world building is amazing and this author seems slated for fame in the science fiction genre.  This book is recommended for science fiction readers.  

Story Of A Murder by Hallie Rubenhold

 

This book tells the case of Dr. Crippen who was convicted of murdering his wife, Belle.  Hallie Rubenhold is known for exhaustively researched true crime and I'm always glad to hear she has a new book out.  I thought I knew about the Dr. Crippen case but I learned so much.  I always assumed that he was English; instead he was American.  He had a history here of cons and possibly another murdered wife.  That one went under the radar so no one knows but she died out of the blue far from home and family.

Soon after the death of his first wife, Crippen met Belle.  Belle had thoughts of being a singer, preferably opera but refocused to be a musical hall singer.  Crippen never wanted children and convinced her to have a total hysterectomy, leaving her in pain and prone to gaining weight.  They moved to England where Belle had a successful career and made friends with the other stars of the musical revue world.  Crippen did have medical training and at various times he was a surgeon, an eye doctor and a dentist.  

But Crippen had finally fallen in love with his secretary, Ethel Le Neve.  He was determined to live with Ethel and after seven years of a relationship, he decided that Belle had to go.  He told everyone she had gone to America and then after a few weeks that she had died there.  Her music hall friends didn't believe him and were instrumental in bringing him to justice.

Rubenhold covers the lives of all three characters, Belle, Ethel and Crippen.  She covers the months between the murder and the revelation of it, the escape that Crippen and Ethel made and the trial after their capture.  Hallie Ruberhold's work focuses on the seventeenth and eighteenth British history, especially of women and social causes.  Her work focuses less on the crimes and more on the factors surrounding the crimes; the lives involved, the investigation, and the effects of the crime.  This book is recommended for readers of true crime.  

Gods Of Howl Mountain by Taylor Brown

 

Life is hard on Howl Mountain and memories are long.  This novel follows the life of the Docherty family.  Rory has just returned from the war, minus one leg.  He lives with his grandmother, the woman who raised him after his mother was sent to the insane asylum.  His grandmother was a prostitute but now makes her living seeing to the ills of the mountain folk.  Rory makes his living running moonshine for the man who rules Howl Mountain.

But that life is tough.  He has to outrun the federal and local revenuers weekly on his runs.  He has to match wits and motors with the other men who want to take his territory.  Falling in love with the daughter of a snake-handling preacher wasn't in his plans, but that's what's happened.

This was my first novel by Taylor Brown but it definitely won't be my last.  I was familiar with the landscape of the Appalachian mountains as I grew up in Southwest Virginia and the first spirits I ever drank was moonshine as my best friend's father got some every Friday night when the paychecks came.  Taylor Brown is an author raised in the South and he gets it right.  There's a ton of difference between reading a book set in the South written by someone who grew up there and reading one by someone who didn't.  This book is raw and tough and it is one of the few that makes me think as a woman that I get some feel for what being a man might be, how protecting his family is bred in the bone and how every day can bring a challenge to his manhood he must rise to.  Suffice it to say, I loved this novel and hope more people read it and discover the author.  This book is recommended for readers of literary fiction.

The Love Story Of Missy Carmichael by Beth Morrey

 

Now that her husband is gone, Missy Carmichael finds herself rattling around a big old house by herself.  Her son has moved with his family to Australia so she only sees her grandson infrequently.  She is at odds with her daughter so doesn't see her at all.  Her friends have drifted away over the years, all busy with their own families and careers.

Missy had been a brilliant student who took a First at university.  But she gave up all thoughts of a career when she met and married her husband Leo.  Leo had a grand career, author of many historical books, always off at conferences and book signings.  Missy stayed home, running the household and raising the children, always sure in the depths of her heart that she loved Leo more than he loved her.

But things can change even in your late seventies.  Missy meets Sylvia who knows everyone and is a decorator.  They start having coffee occasionally and soon Missy also becomes close to Angela.  Angela is a young single mom struggling with raising a young son and Missy is delighted to help out.  Soon she also knows many other people who are friends with her other friends and starts to realize that life is not over.  She also agrees to keep a dog for someone who must flee an abusive relationship and soon the dog is one of the joys of her new life.

I loved this novel.  I'm not sure what I expected but I found a woman close to my own age who is rediscovering herself and finding joy in life.  I've been pleasantly surprised after retirement to find a new community of friends who share interests like reading, playing games or working out at the gym.  Missy finds joy in a time of life that she thought would be more and more closed and restrictive and I loved her openness and care for others.  This is a debut novel and I can't wait to read more by Morrey.  This book is recommended for readers of women's fiction.  

Spook Street by Mick Herron

 

Readers of the Slough House series are familiar with River Cartwright, one of the Slow Horses and his grandfather, David, or OB Old Bastard as River calls him.  OB raised River from the time he was seven and his mother dropped him off at OB's house and never returned.  OB was an operative at M15, near the top and in on everything.  Now in his eighties, he is entering dementia and River is concerned about him.

But that concern ratches up when he goes to visit and finds a body in OB's bathroom.  What to do?  River stashes his grandfather where he thinks he will be safe then goes off by himself to try to discover who wants his grandfather dead and what he can do about it.

In the meantime, there's a new Slow Horse.  Cole doesn't talk but goes about his business with headphones on at all times.  He shares a room with Ho who actually has gotten a girlfriend.  Marcus and Shirley are sharing an office while Louisa has struck up a friendship with River.  Catherine Standish hasn't been back to the office since the last blowup and there's a new office manager.  Of course, Jackson Lamb is there as always, keeping his secrets and stepping in when needed.

This is the fourth novel in the Slough House series.  In this one, we learn more about River Cartwright's  background and about the friendships that evolve among the residents of Slough House.  There's a new head of M15 and lots of machinations and power plays there but it's the Slow Horses that the focus in on.  I listened to this novel and the narration of Gerald Doyle adds so much to the book.  This book is recommended for mystery readers.  

The Quiet Librarian by Allen Eskens

 

Hana Babic lives a quiet life.  She is a librarian in a small town, a middle-aged woman who is pleasant to everyone but close to none.  She lives by herself in the country where she keeps a few cows and chickens to remind herself of her life growing up in Bosnia.

Back then Hana had another name.  She was Nura Divjak and lived in the mountains of Bosnia with her parents and younger brother.  The family was Muslim but not observant.  When the war started with the Serbians, they hoped that living in the mountains would save them.  But it didn't.  Serbian soldiers drove up one day and killed Nura's family while she watched from a place of concealment.  She made a vow that day.  No matter what it took she would avenge her family.

Nura joined a partisan group after they saw her drive up to a blockade and kill a ranking Serbian officer, one of the men who had killed her family.  The partisans taught her to fight and made her physically fit.  It also led to her first love, another partisan who hoped for a life with Nura after the war.

Since the war, Nura immigrated and became Hana.  Now her best friend from those war years who immigrated with her has been murdered and Hana knows the past is coming for her again.  The detective who informed her of her friend's death suspects Hana knows more than she is telling him and he is correct.  The two begin to have feelings for each other but what relationship can work that starts like this?

Allen Eskens was a criminal defense attorney before he turned to writing.  That probably explains the intricately plotted mysteries he is known for writing.  In this book, he researched by contacting survivors of the Bosnian war in the Muslim community in his area which had been instrumental in helping Serbian Muslim immigrate to the United States.  Hana is a fascinating character and her relationship with the detective is interesting to see develop.  This book is recommended for mystery readers.  

City Of Thieves by David Benioff

 

Lev is seventeen and has been in Stalingrad for the seige by the Germans during World War II.  Food is scarce if it can be found at all.  He is a night watcher for his neighborhood along with other teenagers from his building.  They see a German paratrooper floating down right outside their building and they go to inspect him.  He is dead and Lev takes his knife.  They are breaking curfew and when Russian soldiers arrive they scurry for cover but Lev is arrested.

As he is sitting in a cell, expecting to be killed in the morning for thievery and breaking curfew, another prisoner arrives.  He is tall, blonde, good-looking and wearing the uniform of the Russian army.  What is his crime?  It turns out he didn't get back to his unit on time and is charged with being a deserter.  

When morning comes, the two expect to face a firing squad.  But instead they face the commander of the troops.  He is willing to give them a chance.  His daughter is about to get married and if they can find a dozen eggs and get them to him before the wedding in three days, they are free to go.

Lev and Kolya take off.  They have many adventures as they move within occupied cities, cities in seige status and behind enemy lines.  Along the way, they stumble upon a house where girls are kept for German officers' pleasure.  They chase rumors of someone who has eggs and Koyla takes time out to find female companionship wherever they are.  The two form a friendship that will endure for their lifetimes.

David Benioff is best known for being one of the showrunners for HBO's Game Of Thrones.  I wish he had written more books because this one was wonderful.  The growing friendship between the two main characters, Lev's journey from being a boy to a man and the history are all engaging.  This book is recommended for readers of literary and historical fiction.

Other Names For Love by Taymour Soomro

 

This novel is set in Pakistan and follows the life of Fahad and his relationship with his domineering father.  His father is wealthy, having carved an estate out of the jungle and mountainous landscape in upcountry Pakistan.  He is a self-man man, revered by the people in the villages nearby but not as much by Fahad who is a sensitive boy.  He wanted to spend the summer at the shore or at home reading books but his father is worried that he is not tough enough and insists that he spend the summer at the estate.

As the weeks go by, Fahad finds himself entranced by the land and the rhythm of life there.  His father suggests that Fahad spend time with Ali, who already looks like a man at seventeen.  Ali teaches him how to drive and shoot a gun.  They spend most days together and an attraction forms between the two.  

Years later, Fahad is living in London, working as a lecturer and living in a committed relationship with a man.  His mother calls and insists he return home.  She says his father is slipping, the money is gone and they are about to lose the house.  He goes home and is shocked to see his formerly dominant father now weakened by early dementia.  His father insists he is on top of things but the reality is that he has neglected the estate and the businesses and things are at a crisis stage.  Can Fahad straighten things out?

Taymour Soomro was born in Pakistan and Fahad's life is much like his.  He attended university at Cambridge and Stanford and has worked as a lawyer, a professor, a rural estate manager and an author.  I listened to this novel and the narrator was wonderful, his voice in particular bringing to life the father and his bluster.  The work explored what it is to be a man and the relationship between fathers and sons, as well as posing the question of what we as adults owe to the family we grew up in.  This book is recommended for literary fiction readers.  

The Tell by Amy Griffin

 

Amy Griffin had what most people would consider a successful life.  She was married to a man who loved her and they had four healthy children.  They lived in Manhattan and money was not an issue.  Amy had a thriving career and got up every morning to run in Central Park at five a.m.  But something was wrong.

Amy grew up in Amarillo, Texas.  She was the golden girl at school, always the top achiever in grades, captains on her sports teams.  She was popular and everyone liked or admired her.  But somehow she has no memories of that time.

After entering therapy after her two daughters confided to her that they felt like Amy wasn't there emotionally for them but had a wall constructed, Amy had a breakthrough.  She suddenly starting remembering things that happened to her in middle school starting when she was twelve.  She was abused for several years by a coach at her school.  He raped her in various ways always on school grounds until she left middle school and even once when she was sixteen.  He was still there and who knows how many girls he had abused before and after.

Amy went on a campaign to have him held accountable legally.  She also started to confide her truth to various people, starting with her husband and continuing with her sister and other siblings, her own children and her parents.  Each was shocked and felt anger and guilt that they hadn't seen anything, hadn't known anything was wrong.  The golden girl was also the best at stuffing down trauma and hiding everything.

Statistics show that sexual abuse of girls is a huge problem.  Some statistics show that one in four girls is sexually assaulted before she is 18 while others show one in nine.  Regardless, it's a rare woman who can't look back to an instance where a man's hands roamed over her body up to violent assault that has long lasting effects.  Girls who are routinely abused find it hard to form trusting relationships as adults as their abuser was likely a coach, a teacher, a relative, someone in their family's circle of trust.  A man who abuses one girl rarely stops there as the more common pattern is serial abuse of many girls.  This book is recommended for nonfiction readers, especially parents and those women who may have experienced this abuse.

No Time Like The Present by Nadine Gordimer

 

The place is South Africa and the time is post-apartheid.  Steve and Jubulile are an interracial couple who met while fighting with the rebels to overthrow the racist government.  Now, they are just another couple trying to live a life.  They have two children a girl and a boy.  Steve is a college lecturer in engineering, Jubulile is a lawyer.  They move to the suburbs where they make friends, some they knew from their rebel days, some new friends.

The couple has different attitudes to the new way of living.  Jubulile was one of the first black women to receive an education and she feels that she needs to take advantage of the opportunities that has afforded her.  Steve has remained closer to his rebel days in his thoughts and is known as the most leftist lecturer at the college.  Eventually, this difference in attitude creates some distance in their marriage.  Jubulile also has differences with her adored father when he continues to support the new head of government because he comes from their tribe even though he has been accused of fraud and sexual misconduct.

Nadine Gordimer is a South African author whose work has won both the Nobel Prize for Literature and The Booker.  She has also had another book longlisted on the Booker Prize.  Her work focused on South Africa both before and post apartheid.  She was also known as an activist and lived and worked during the times of Nelson Mandela's imprisonment and release to become the head of government.  Her work discusses the difficulties of that time and the alienation that both native and white South Africans felt as their country underwent a cataclysmic change.  This book is recommended for literary and historical fiction readers.  

Three Days In June by Anne Tyler

 

This is not how Gail Baines saw her life in her sixties.  She has just been informed that the school where she works is getting a new head and her job has been given to someone else.  She quits on the spot and huffs off home.  Her daughter is getting married tomorrow and she has plenty to do even though she has been left out of the spa day today.  Then her doorbell rings.

She sees Max, her ex-husband, on the porch.  He has a cat with him and he tells her that he can't stay with their daughter as he had planned because her fiancé is allergic to cats.  Can he stay with Gail?  It's the last thing she wants but what can she say?  She hasn't seen much of Max since he moved away after their divorce but she guesses one weekend after all this time won't matter.

Then that night their daughter comes to them in tears.  She found out at the rehearsal dinner that the man she's marrying tomorrow had an affair while they were together.  Should she call off the wedding?  Gail is all for that and is outraged but Max suggests that the daughter go talk things out.  The next morning the wedding is back on and the weekend progresses.

Anne Tyler should be named our author of good feelings.  Reading one of her books is like getting an unexpected bouquet of flowers and her knowledge of people and their quirks is instinctive and forgiving.  Her characters feel like people you've met and their lives are like those of others you've known.  There are surprises along the way and the reader finishes the book with a feeling of satisfaction and that the world is a good place.  This book is recommended for readers of literary and women's fiction.

Has Anyone Seen Charlotte Salter? by Nicci French

 

A party is being held.  It's for the fiftieth birthday of Alec Salter.  Under protest, his four children are there, Niall already out of college and working, Paul still in college, Ollie who plans to take a gap year before college and Etty who still has a couple of years before college.  There is lots of drinking and dancing but one guest is missing.  Charlotte Salter is nowhere to be seen.

She is still missing the next morning.  Etty goes to the family's best friends, the Ackerleys.  They haven't seen Charlotte but the older son, Morgan, agrees to walk with Etty along the river.  They don't find Charlotte but instead find the body of Morgan's father, Duncan Ackerley.  It appears he has jumped from the bridge, a sucide.

The police look into the cases but make no progress.  Thirty years later, everyone comes back to the village.  Morgan is now a successful television presenter and wants to make a podcast about the cases with his older brother.  He wants to interview the Salter children who are back in the village to clear the house and move their father into supported housing.  The Salters want nothing to do with the podcast.  The disappearance of their mother has ruined their lives and they don't want to revisit it.  Will the cases finally be solved?

Nicci French is a husband and wife writing duo who have been known for years as producing some of the best work in the mystery genre.  A book by Nicci French is an automatic buy and read for me as I love their intricate plotting and apt characterization of the people who inhabit the books.  This one is no different.  As the podcast unfolds, secrets that have been held for decades are unveiled and new deaths occur.  This book is recommended for mystery readers.  

The Sewing Girl's Tale by John Wood Sweet

 

In 1793, Lanah Sawyer went out walking with a gentleman.  She was excited, thinking that this might lead to a proposal.  He had told her they would be accompanied by another couple but when they met, he told her the other couple would meet them later and instead he took her to a brothel where he gained entrance, locked her in a room and raped her.  

Lanah was seventeen and living in a Colonial America that prized women's virtue above all.  If they were raped, they were spoiled and their chances of marriage were considered unlikely.  Fathers attempted to make the man marry their daughter, another horrid outcome.  If unsuccessful, the family attempted to hide the crime so that their daughter would not be ruined.

But Lanah Sawyer went another route.  Her stepfather was a boat captain and he and his friends were not fond of gentlemen who often tried to cheat them of wages and tips.  He and Lanah went to a magistrate and filed rape charges against the man, the first rape trial to take place in New York or the country.  Some of the most famous lawyers of the time got involved, including Alexander Hamilton.  Although it took many months, Lanah eventually got retribution but her reputation was stained throughout the new country.

John Wood Sweet is an American author who is also a history professor at the University of North Carolina.  His books have been on early American history and have gained literary prizes.  This book is extensively researched and told in great detail.  The reader will learn about the history of rape charges but also much about New York City and its citizens at the end of the seventeenth century. I listened to this book and the narrator did an excellent job.   This book is recommended for nonfiction history readers.  

The Space Between Us by Thrity Umigar

 

Bhima has had a life of hardship and despair.  She is illiterate and works as a maid and cook in a wealthy Parsi household.  She had been married and had two children.  But her husband is maimed in an industrial accident and can find no other work afterward.  He leaves Bhima to go back to his home village and takes her son with him.  Without his wages, Bhima and her granddaughter are forced to move to the slums.  Bhima's daughter died, leaving her to raise the granddaughter.

Sera is Bhima's wealthy Parsi employer.  She lives in the house she shared with her husband who has died.  Her daughter and son-in-law have moved in with her and her daughter is about to have her first baby.  She says Bhima is almost like family after decades of service, but she doesn't let her sit on the furniture or eat with the same plates and silverware as the family.  She has helped Bhima with the granddaughter sending her to school.

The one bright spot in Bhima's life is Maya her granddaughter.  She is attending university with the help of Sera and has the chance to live an easier life.  When she gets embroiled in scandal, Bhima is furious.  She and Sera decide how to resolve the situation with no input from Maya.  It turns out that neither woman's life is what she thought and that hidden secrets impact both of them.

Thrity Umigar was born in India but immigrated to the United States where she lives.  She was a journalist writing for many newspapers and has written a number of novels that feature India and its people.  In this novel, the relationship between Bhima and those around her are the foundation of the novel.  Her marriage which failed, her loss of her children, her love of Maya and her relationship with Sera each have formed her and make up her life.  She sees nothing wrong with how she is treated by Sera, nor does Sera, both bowing to the strictures of the rigid Indian caste system.  She handles hardship as it comes and is an admirable character.  This book is recommended for readers of multicultural and literary fiction.

Cry Baby by Mark Billingham

 

Two boys are best of friends and love getting together to play.  One is from a wealthy household and goes to a private school, one lives in the projects and goes to a public school.  But both are without their fathers.  The one from money has parents who divorced while the other boy has a father who is in prison.  The mothers, surprisingly, are very good friends and meet regularly at a playground to let the boys play together.  

On this day, while one mother goes to the restroom, the other takes her eyes off the boys while she smokes a cigarette.  The boys run into the woods behind the playground but only one of them returns.  The other boy has disappeared and later witnesses report him being led to a car by a man.

The police are called and DS Tom Thorne heads up the investigation.  Thorne is distracted by his personal life.  His wife has just left him and is pushing him to get the house on the market.  Thorne is a great detective sergeant but doesn't get along with his boss.  He has pulled together a team of men and women who work together well and they all push to find the boy.  Can they save him?

The Tom Thorne series is one of the top rated mystery/police procedural series in the genre.  I've been working on reading them.  While this one is the seventeenth in the series, it is really a prequel in which Tom Thorne is introduced to the reader.  He is a sergeant not a DCI.  He is just recently separated and dealing with the emotions of a upcoming divorce.  He meets his best friend, the coroner who he shares love of football with but he doesn't know the most relevant things about him yet.  The mystery is chilling as always and Thorne is portrayed with the care he always feels for victims while refusing to follow protocol if he has a hunch to follow.  This book is recommended for mystery readers.   

Audition by Katie Kitamura

 

In this novel we get two competing narratives of  three characters.  There is a famous actress, her husband and a young man.  In the first narrative, the actress has agreed to meet with the young man for lunch as he says he has something to tell her.  As they meet, her husband arrives, sees them and immediately leaves again.  The young man tells her that he believes she is his mother.  She informs him that it isn't possible as she has never had any children.  Yet the man stays around the theatre and in her life.

In the second narrative the young man is the son of the actress and her husband.  He asks if he can move back home for a while as he has gotten a job as the assistant to the play's producer.   The couple agrees and he moves in.  They become a family again and then he brings home his girlfriend who eventually also moves in.  

Katie Kitamura is an American author whose work has received much praise.  This novel is longlisted for the Booker Prize and other works have been longlisted for the National Book Award.  I've been on somewhat of a Kitamura kick lately and this is the second novel of hers I've read in recent months.  The earlier one contrasted to this latest, shows her growth as a novelist and her utter command of the genre.  There is underlying drama and tension in both narratives and it is left to the reader to decide which is true and what the shifting relationships mean in terms of family.  This book is recommended for literary fiction readers.  

Red Queen by Juan Gomez-Jurado

 

Jon Gutierre is in trouble again at the police department.  Although he's a closer, he also has little regard for protocol or rules.  This time he let his heart get the better of him and set up a pimp who was beating a prostitute who came to him for protection.  He put heroin in the pimp's car trunk but unfortunately he was videotaped and the video has gone viral.

Antonia Scott may be the smartest person alive.  She had been working for the government in a secret agency that handled sensitive crimes until her work brought tragedy to her home and her husband was left in a coma for the past three years.  She spends all her time at the hospital in his room, hoping against hope that he will emerge from his sleep.

Now the two have been paired to solve the case of an assassin who is committing impossible crimes.  The first is a teenager, the son of wealthy parents who is left in their home completely drained of blood.  Was he kidnapped?  Did something go wrong with the ransom or was this always a plot against the family?  Now the grown daughter of one of the wealthiest men in the world has been kidnapped and taken away.  Can Antonia and Jon solve the case before she too is killed?

Juan Gomez-Jurado is a Spanish author and journalist.  This book is hugely successful there and has been adapted as an Amazon Prime Video series.  The characters are fresh, the plot is delivered at breakneck speed and the crimes are engaging.  The interplay between the two main characters is interesting and this novel is the first of three in a series.  I know I'll be reading the rest of the series and I'm grateful to have discovered a new author to me.  This book is recommended for mystery and thriller readers.    

The Outside Boy by Jeanine Cummins

 

Christopher Hurley, known as Christy, is a traveller.  He loves the outside life, going from town to town with his family.  His group includes his grandparents, his aunt and uncle, his cousins of whom Martin is his best friend and his Da.  He never knew his mother as she died in childbirth.

The group knows it is time for Martin and Christy to take instruction and their First Communion.  That means the group needs to stay in a town for much longer than normal and the boys are actually sent to school for the first time.  Christy is a huge reader and loves the school while he also meets a girl who gives him feelings he has never had before.  Yet there is a mystery he wants to solve.

He found a picture of his mother but she is holding a baby.  If she died in his childbirth, how is that possible?  is this another child, a sibling?  Is it him?  Why won't his father ever talk about his mother? 

Jeanine Cummins is an American author whose best known work is American Dirt.  In this novel, she is able to get inside the heart and mind of a growing boy whose life is different from those around him and holds a secret that even he doesn't know.  It is the best coming of age novel I've read and I've enjoyed all of Cummins' work that I've read.  Christy is a lovely boy who loves his family and life but is intellectually curious and determined to find the truth.  This book is recommended for literary fiction readers.  

The Emperor Of Gladness by Ocean Vuong

 

Hai is on the bridge getting his courage up to jump when he hears a shout.  It is Grazina and she calls for him to come to her yard.  Grazina is an elderly immigrant from Eastern Europe and has dementia but still lives alone.  Hai is nineteen and has no where to go or live.  They form a pact.  Hai will live with her and watch over her and she'll provide a room for him.  Their friendship becomes strong over the next months.

They are living in Gladness, which is a former industrial town in Connecticut but now the factories have closed.  There are few jobs and Hai considers himself lucky when he gets one at what's considered the best fast food restaurant in town, something along the lines of Boston Chicken.  There he finds a group of friends.  His cousin, who is autistic works there and is obsessed with the Civil War.  The grillmaster is from the South and wants nothing more than to go home and open a barbecue restaurant.  The owner has dreams of becoming a female wrestler.  There is another young man who is a Russian immigrant.  Together they also form a family of sorts.

Grazina has a son living about an hour away but she seldom hears from him, his wife or her two grandchildren.  He wants to put her in a home so that he doesn't have to worry about her and so he can sell the house for whatever it will bring.  He suspects Hai of having some sketchy purpose in living with Grazina and tries to take her away from Hai.  

Ocean Vuong is a poet who was born in Saigon, Vietnam.  He is also a MacArthur Fellowship winner and has written a best selling novel, On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous.  His poetry background shows up in his lyrical writing and the reader will be transported to Gladness.  Relating to Hai is easy as we see what he has done with his life and how he has tried to move on but can't seem to fight the obstacles and poverty he has lived with his entire life.  The love between Grazina and Hai is a sustaining one and it is heartrending when they are torn apart.  This is a new author for me but I'll be reading more by him.  This book is recommended for literary fiction readers.

Fever In The Heart by Ann Rule

 

In this compilation of true crime cases, Ann Rule covers several crimes in the Washington area.  The majority of the book covers the case of Morris Blankenbaker and Gabby Moore.   The two were both wrestling coaches in Yakima, Washington, Moore having coached Blakenbaker during his high school days.  Morris was married to Jerrilee, who he courted and won when she was only eighteen.  When Gabby's marriage to his wife fell apart, Morris agreed to let him stay for a while with him and Jerrilee.

That started the issue.  As the days rolled into weeks, Gabby fell in love with Jerrilee and set out to win her  She returned his feelings and soon, she asked Morris for a divorce and married Gabby instead.  But Gabby had issues that had ended his first marriage.  He was drinking more and more and Gabby was a vicious drunk.  Within a year, Jerrilee had left him and returned to Morris.  Gabby was determined to win her back and one night, Morris was shot and killed as he returned from work.

The police suspected Gabby but he had been in the hospital the night Morris died.  Had he paid someone?  Jerrilee didn't return to him as he expected as his drinking and violence had turned her love into fear and loathing.  So around Christmas, another body was found, that of Gabby Moore.  Had someone shot him for some unknown reason?  Had he paid someone to shoot him thinking it would be a flesh wound and bring Jerrilee back to him?  Rule covers the case.

The rest of the book covers several shorter cases in the area.  Rule was known as a true crime writer and many consider her one of the best.  She is best known for having worked with Ted Bundy never suspecting that he was murdering the entire time.  Her book about him shot her to prominence in the true crime world.  I prefer her books that focus on one case but she has lots of these compilations as well.  This book is recommended for true crime readers.  

Lily And The Octopus by Steven Rowley

 

Lily is a dachshund and is Ted's best friend in the world.  They have best friends since the day Ted brought her home from the breeder.  They have routines, daily activities and are each other's emotional support.  Ted is gay and his last relationship lasted several years but ultimately did not work out.  Since then, it's been him and Lily.

But one day, Ted wakes up and sees something on Lily's head.  At first he thinks it is a hallucination but it stays there and continues to grow.  He personalizes it to an octopus and he knows that it is here to take his Lily away.  She is getting older and the vet says they can try surgery but he can't really recommend it.  

Ted is determined to save Lily.  He starts a campaign to kill the octopus, taking the pair of them on a boat voyage to attack it in its natural environment.  Lily continues to be Lily but each day is a little weaker and a few more symptoms appear.

This is Steven Rowley's first book and most readers will be able to relate to it.  Most of us have had beloved pets and if we were lucky, saw them age.  Along with long life is the hardest decision in the pet world, when should we give our beloved friends a pain free exit from this life?  Rowley is an American author and has gone on to success with novels like The Guncle and others.  My favorite of his books is The Editor about working with Jacqueline Onassis when she worked in publishing but this one is much more emotional and hits home.  This book is recommended for all pet owners.  

The Traitor King by Andrew Lownie

 In England, December 11, 1936 is remembered as the date of King Edward VII's abdication of his throne.  He gave it up in order to marry the love of his life, Wallis Simpson.  He was not allowed to marry her and make her Queen because she was a divorcee.  This book tells what happened to the couple after the abdication and their move to France.

It's a sad tale.  The Royal Family ostracized him and even his mother would not see him.  He had no purpose and flitted from one place to another, aimlessly looking for a post where he could be of service.  He was the English top representative in the Bahamas for a while which was an enormous comedown.  He and Wallis were known as German sympathizers during World War II, and the Duke thought he would be the best negotiator England could have.  While he never stopped loving Wallis, she had affairs and treated him scornfully.  

Andrew Lownie grew up in Bermuda and attended university in England.  His work has been in the biography field and this is another example.  I finished the book thinking that England had a good escape from having the Duke of Windsor rule as monarch.  He seemed a dull person, no real interest in education or books or culture.  I believe the second World War would have ended very differently had he been in power during the conflict.  He could be seen as a traitor to his family, his purpose and if he had remained in power, perhaps to the country.  I listened to this book and the narrator did an excellent job.  This book is recommended for nonfiction readers.  

 No one would have expected these women to become friends.  Imogen Fortier is fifty-nine, married and lives on an island outside of Seattle.  Joan Bergstrom is twenty-seven, single and living in Los Angeles.  But Joan writes Imogen a fan letter about her food column and sends her a small packet of saffron.  Imogen doesn't know what to do with it and writes back for instructions.  Imogen has been cooking for many years but pretty much the cuisine she grew up with.  Joan is in the midst of international cuisine and encourages Imogen to broaden her horizons.

The novel is told through a series of letters between the two women.  Through their correspondent, we learn of Joan's forbidden love with a man of another culture and Imogen's husband and how as he learns to cook, trauma he has carried for years starts to unwind.  The two women tell each other everything and are each other's greatest support.  Joan even starts to write a food column in Los Angeles.  

Kim Fay is a former travel writer and has won acclaim in the travel and food literature awards.  This book with its unusual format is life sustaining and celebrates both food and the friendship between women.  Both women draw on their friendship to explore new ideas, meals and life situations.  The reader will finish the last page sustained by the joy and friendship possible.  This book is recommended for readers of women's fiction.

Real Tigers by Mick Herron

 

Jackson Lamb is not the kind of boss you look forward to seeing each day in the office.  That's particularly true if you are an operative of Slough House which means you already did something that ruined your career.  Lamb treats them with sarcasm and disrespect and that's on a good day.  If there is an exception, it's Catherine Standish, who shares the upstairs floor with Lamb.  She is middle-aged and a reformed alcoholic and it's not clear if either of those characteristics are what makes a difference.

When Catherine encounters a man from her past on the street, she wonders for a minute if it is a coincidence.  But she is being kidnapped; the man a soldier of fortune.  When her picture is taken and she is asked who of her co-workers she wants it sent to, she picks River Cartwright, a young impetuous man.  He rushes off to try to save her, not telling anyone else.  

But in the world of Slough House, little is as it seems.  There are layers upon layers behind Catherine's kidnapping and the tendrils reach high into the government.  The other operatives are determined to save Catherine once they discover what is going on while Lamb treats it as just another inconvenience.  

This is the third book in the Slough House series.  It is full of the witty and snide humor that characterizes the series.  Lamb is the sheep in dark clothing who acts as if he could care less but who always has his finger on the pulse of what is happening and who can handle any situation.  It is not until the end of the book that the title gains meaning and it is chilling.  This book is recommended for mystery/spy readers.