Flesh by David Szalay

 

Istvan grows up in Hungary.  As a teenager, he is isolated, living with his mother in government housing, arriving too late to break into the usual teenage groups at school where everyone has known everyone else for years.  At loose ends after high school graduation and unable to find a career job, he joins the army.  He sees battle and loses his best friend.

After his military time,  he emigrates to England.  He starts as a bouncer in a club but soon starts driving rich people.  One man likes him enough that he asks him to become his employee and drive only for his family, giving Istvan an apartment in his large house.  The family consists of the man, his much younger wife and their son.  The man becomes ill and Istvan becomes embroiled in an affair with the wife.  When the man dies, he leaves his vast resources to his son with his wife as guardian until the son reaches adulthood.

Istvan marries the wife and now lives a life of luxury.  He becomes a property developer, with loans from the son's trust.  He and his wife also have a son who is the pride of Istvan's life.  Tension starts to build between Istvan and the older son who believes he is being cheated, both of his mother and his trust.  When a tragedy occurs, Istvan is thrown back on his early life once again.

This is David Szalay's second shortlisted Booker nominee.  He grew up in London and now lives in Vienna.  In Istvan, he has created a character who lives an internal life, unable to fully engage with others except for his son and who drifts through life, taking what opportunities come but rarely having much of a plan or goals.  Readers seem to either really like this novel or dislike it and question its inclusion in the shortlist.  I would come down on the side of liking it.  I finished it about a week ago and find myself thinking about it and Istvan often.  This book is recommended for literary fiction readers.

The Housekeeper And The Professor by Yoko Ogawa

 

The Housekeeper has been hired to clean for a difficult client.  She must support herself and her ten year old son and cannot turn down any work but she has heard that nine housekeepers before her tried to do the job and failed.  She is determined to do her best.

The Professor had been a brilliant mathematician but he was in a horrific accident that left him with significant brain impact.  He can still do his beloved math but he only has eighty minutes of short-term memory.  That means he will forget who she is and she will have to tell him every day.  He rarely talks preferring to work all day in his study on mathematical puzzles and competitions.

The two reach a satisfactory way of existing together.  When the Professor finds out the Housekeeper has a son, he insists that the son come to his house after school every day instead of being on his own.  He gives the boy a nickname, Root, for the equation of Pi and soon he starts to build a relationship with the boy and then the Housekeeper.  She gains from him as well as she starts to expand her own mind and learn more about the math he loves so that she can relate to him.  They all share a love of baseball as well which brings them even closer.  

Yoko Ogawa is a Japanese author who has won every Japanese literary award and written more than twenty books.  Her work has gained praise and awards elsewhere as well.  It has been listed for the International Booker Prize and won the American Book Award and the Shirley Jackson prize.  In this gentle book, the reader sees how the relationship grows between the three individuals and how each enriches the lives of the others.  Although the Professor's injury and resulting damage will never improve, he can still live a life that is meaningful and that gives to others.  The Housekeeper learns that although she had to leave her education early, she is capable of learning and can do that anywhere.  This book is recommended for literary fiction readers and those interested in other cultures.

 

From the moment Michael Lobb met Kayla on a cruise, he was desperate to have her for himself.  She was the dance instructor and Michael was there with his wife on an anniversary cruise.  But once he met Kayla, that was it.  He throws aside his marriage even though he causes a rupture with his children that can't be repaired and wins Kayla and brings her to his home in Cornwall.

No one knows what Kayla expected but it probably wasn't a small cottage in Cornwall with little money to spare.  During his courtship, Michael spent money like water but in reality he was barely getting by.  He worked on the land in a business handed down through generations, mining and streaming tin which he made into jewelry and other objects he sold.   Now he lies dead, stabbed with some implement that can't be found.

Who could it be?  The representative from Eco-Mining which is buying up Cornwall land to extract lithium from underground water reserves and who found the body?  Michael's brother who owns forty percent of the business and wants to sell?  Michael's children who have plans for the money to buy houses of their own?  Kayla who wants to return to her original home in South Africa or her brother who has come to visit and to talk her into coming home?  The father and son who work for him?

When the local police can't solve the crime in a short time, they ask for help from Scotland Yard.  Inspector Lynley needs to visit his estate to make a plan for extensive repairs and his partner Barbara is on compassionate leave.  It turns out the men who work for Michael are the birth family of the woman Lynley loves and she is in town as well to help her brother who is suspected by the police.  All these individuals do what they can to solve Michael's murder.

This is the twenty-second novel in the Inspector Lynley series.  Mystery readers are familiar with the characters of Lynley and his partner.  The mystery is intriguing and the personalities of Michael and Kayla are slowly revealed as well as how their marriage has led to tragedy.  This book is recommended for mystery readers.  

The Marylebone Drop by Mick Heron

 

John Batchlor is a semi-retired spy for MI5, not that he wanted to be semi-retired.  His only job these days is to check on the old assets who need a place to live and someone to check on them periodically and be there if they need a hospital or when they pass on.  MI5 has also cut his pay and John finds himself homeless.  He has worn out his friends offers to stay a day or two and is faced with perhaps sleeping in his car in a terrible winter.

But one of his charges asks to speak with him.  Solomon Dortmund was having a coffee in a restaurant when he saw an old-fashioned drop; the passing of information from one spy to another.  The giver was a young beautiful girl while the recipient was a middle-aged man.  Solly reports this to John who decides that he needs to check it out.  

In the meantime, political maneuverings are ever present.  Some individuals are moving up in the ranks while others are being sidelined.  There are spies and counterspies and who can tell the difference?  

This is a novella and the Slough House crew are not present.  It is about the main group of MI-5.  I listened to this one as no one is better than Gerald Doyle who narrates all the Slough House series.  He has the perfect voice for this kind of book and it is best suited to the dry humor found in Herron's books.  This book is recommended for mystery readers and Mick Herron fans.  

The Punishing Journey Of Arthur Delaney

 

Arthur Delaney worked on the ships in the harbor in Halifax, Canada.  He lived there with his wife and three children.  When his wife died, there were two events that occurred with long lasting repercussions.  The first was that Arthur wasn't sure if he had the ability to raise his children alone.  The second was a preacher who was recruiting Canadians to fight in the Civil War in America to free the slaves.  Between these two events occurring when Arthur was in the midst of grieving, he made a terrible decision.  He signed custody of his children to an orphanage which promised to educate and look after them.

Although the Canadian recruits had been told that their service would only last a few months, that was not the case.  Arthur was captured and sent to one of the Confederates' prison camps.  Men were starving there as the Confederate Army had fewer and fewer resources.  Finally, the war ended and Arthur's three years of time in the prison camp was over.

But when he returned home, it was to a nightmare.  The orphanage turned out to be a scam and the children there were indentured out to service or sold outright.  Instead of an education, the three Delaney children were forced to work for a series of farmers and the girls were subjected to the attentions of male owners.  The son, who was the oldest, ran away from his indenture.  The two girls fared worse but were taken from the man who had bought them as servants and more.  The family was scattered and no one knew where when Arthur arrived back in Canada.  This started a long journey as he traveled from place to place searching for his family.

This novel was based on a true case although changed quite a bit for the novel.  There were orphanages that sold the children trusted to them to the highest bidder and once sold or indentured, those children were left to the mercy of their owners.  There was a true Arthur Delaney and a court case based on his attempt to get his children back from an orphanage.  When you consider that this was a poor man, who spent years walking from one settlement in Canada to another, working odd jobs, often hungry and sick one can see his determination to reunite his family.  I listened to this novel and the narrator did a great job.  This book is recommended for historical fiction readers.  

Victory City by Salman Rushdie

 

In this epic story, we learn of the life of Pampa Kampana.  As a nine year old girl, she watches her mother burn to death and in her wild grieving, she is visited by a goddess and becomes the goddess's voice on Earth.  The goddess tells her of a city that will grow there, Bisnaga, which translates as 'victory city.'  The girl plants a seed and overnight, the city grows and is populated.

Pampa will live to be over two hundred and fifty years old.  Along the way, she marries three kings and has lovers, almost always red haired travelers.  She has three daughters by one of these lovers.  There are wars, palace machinations and politics and magic.  At one point, Pampa and her daughters move away from the city and into the forest where they live for several generations.  Always, Pampa loves her city and does whatever she can to make it the best and most forward looking with equality for women and everyone involved in arts such as poetry, dance and painting.

I loved this novel.  It was the Rushdie we have come to know and love, reminiscent of some of his earlier books.  There is love, hatred, magic and a story that one is entranced by.  Readers will fall in love with Pampa and follow her enchanted life from start to finish with interest and involvement.  This book is recommended for literary fiction readers.   

White King by Juan Gomez-Jurado

 

Antonia Scott's partner, Jon Guttierrez, has been kidnapped.  They both work for the secret Red Queen project which solves crimes no one else can and which has a queen in every country.  Antonia is the Queen for Spain.  When the queens start to be killed, someone very good at counterterrorism is at play.  Is it the same person who kidnapped Jon?  Antonia has been pursued for several years by a man known as the White King.  He is the man who came to her house and shot her and her husband.  Her husband has been in a coma for the three years afterwards.  Does he now have Jon?

When Jon is released, it's with an added piece of equipment.  A bomb has been attached to his spine at the top.  It has a timer and can be set to go off either at a specified time or when those who attached it desire.  Antonia and Jon are told they have twenty-four hours to solve three cold cases.  They are given anywhere from two to six hours to solve each one, varying at the whim of the White King.  Can they solve the crimes and defeat the King?

This is the third installment in Antonia and Jon's story.  The series has been a huge hit in Spain where the author was raised and still lives.  Antonia is smarter than almost anyone but she underwent cruel training to sharpen her senses.  Jon was one of the best in the police force before he was recruited to partner with Antonia and keep her safe.  Now he is the one in danger.  The interplay between the two, the mystery of the White King and the fast paced action make this a book sure to please.  The ending was left ambivalent so there could be more stories later and I hope that happens.  This book is recommended for mystery and thriller readers.  

The Ministry Of Time by Kaliane Bradley

 A civil servant is caught in the lower levels of her government agency.  She is biracial, a mix of a Cambodian mother and an American father and she is seen as only of use in the translation department.  But things are changing.  She, along with others, are given a chance to try for a new position in the Ministry of Time, one called a bridge.  A bridge to what?

The agency has come in possession of a time traveling door.  They have collected individuals from across the centuries and brought them to the present.  Each one will have a 'bridge', someone who lives with them as a roommate and eases their transition to what is the future to them.

The servant, whose name we never learn, is assigned to a time traveler named Graham Gore.  As far as the world knows, he died in a polar exploration where no one survived.  But he is definitely alive and he tries to use the skills he has gained in his former life to exploring the time period he is caught in now.  It is a fascinating yet mind-blowing experience and he needs the companionship not only of his bridge but of the other time travelers.  As time goes on, Gore becomes more acclimated and he and his bridge form a relationship that is forbidden.  Yet, as things start to fall apart at the agency, it is his relationships that could save his life.

This is a debut novel and it is amazing.  Kaliane Bradley is an editor and author but has written short stories before this novel.  She shares the same ethnic background as the civil servant.  The novel is a Hugo finalist for best novel and chosen as a Best Book of 2024 by many publications such as NPR, Kirkus Reviews and others.  The exploration of how these time travelers try to acclimate to a totally new world with very different customs and social mores is fascinating.  The love story is enthralling and the machinations of the Agency as it tries to weaponize the discovery is another whole topic.  This book is recommended for readers of science fiction and historical fiction.    

The Rest Of Our Lives by Ben Markovits

 

Tom Layward is a middle aged man, married, a lawyer with two children.  His son is grown and living in Los Angeles; his daughter about to start university.  Twelve years ago, his wife had an affair and Tom eventually decided to stay for the children.  Now, after he helps his daughter move into her dorm, he gets in his car and keeps moving.  

Tom isn't sure what he is doing.  Is he leaving his wife and marriage?  Not ready to say that, he decides that he is just driving and visiting people from his past.  He visits his college roommate who has just been fired and has a legal case he wants Tom to investigate.  He visits his brother whom he hasn't seen in several years and who is recently separated.  He visits his college girlfriend who is also single these days.  Eventually he makes it to Los Angeles and visits his son who seems to be working towards a new relationship with a woman Tom likes for him.  But what is Tom's life to be going forward?

Ben Markovits was born in the United States but now lives in England.  He has had a varied career with stints as a professional basketball player, a teacher, a job at a magazine and as an author.  He was chosen as one of the Best Young British Novelists in 2013 and this novel has been shortlisted this year for the Booker Prize.  Markovits explores the questions one has in middle age when the jobs of our youth such as raising children have been finished, marriages are not fresh and exciting necessarily and the rest of one's life looms.  Will the same path continue to be traveled or is it time to strike out on a new life, a new path?  As the reader watches Tom make this decision, they will think about their own paths and what lies ahead.  This book is recommended for literary fiction readers  

Husbands And Other Sharp Objects by Marilyn Simon Rothstein

 

This is finally Marcy Hammer's time.  After years of marriage and three children, she has finally separated from her husband who can't see anything but his own wishes and desires.  She hasn't filed for divorce because she wants her ex to do that so that he will internalize that the marriage is over.  But she is living her life, going out with her friends and she has a new love, an artist who wants nothing more than to be with her forever.

But life always has more surprises to come.  Her younger daughter has gotten engaged and wants a huge wedding.  At first she wants a destination wedding but finally agrees to have it at a Florida resort the family went to every year.  Unfortunately, she like many others, turns into a Bridezilla and refuses to invite Marcy's new partner.  She wants her family there and nothing that threatens her memory of that family.  The artist is insulted and suggests that they might break up until Marcy is ready to stand up for their relationship.

Marcy's ex has never believed that a divorce was really going to happen and he comes to Florida, sure that this will be the site of their reconciliation.  Marcy balances him, her gay son and his partner, her older daughter who is caught up in a relationship with a married man and her mother while trying to find some fun in this family time.  

Marilyn Simon Rothstein is known for her family novels which are lighthearted takes on various issues that women face in their lives.  I've attended a talk by her at a book convention and she is the same warm, engaging personality that comes through in the books.  Marcy has spent her life living for others and is finally brave enough to get some of what she wants now that her children are grown.  Readers will laugh out loud at some of the situations Marcy has to handle and nod in recognition at touchstones in a woman's life.  This book is recommended for readers of women's literature.

Acts Of Violet by Margarita Montimore

 

Ten years ago, Violet Volk was the top magic act around.  Her elaborate presentations are like nothing anyone has seen and the talk about her and her personal life is the top topic of the tabloids.  Then one night, she disappeared from the stage during an act and disappeared from her life at the same time.  Now, people think she might reappear at the ten year anniversary.

We learn about Violet's life in a variety of ways.  There is a podcast that interviews Violet's ex-husband, those who gave her a start, and her friends.  There are letters that her sister, Sasha, who is still angry at Violet for ignoring her family and from her husband, who is the man Violet couldn't get.  While many women idolized her, Violet left a trail of broken hearts and undelivered promises behind her.  Where did Violet go and what happened to her ten years ago?

Margarita Montimore was born in the Soviet Ukraine but grew up in the United States.  She worked in publishing and social media before starting her writing career.  She has focused on writing about women's lives and has several other novels that have been bestsellers.  In this novel, she slowly reveals more and more about Violet and about all those whose lives she affected.  I listened to this novel and the narrator did an excellent job, especially with all the men's voices, the men that alternatively used and loved Violet.  I was enthralled and most readers will feel the same.  This book is recommended for literary fiction readers.  

Our Little World by Karen Winn

 

It's a hot sweltering summer in New Jersey.  School is out so Bee Kocsis has all time in the world to play with the other kids on her cul-de-sac.  A new family has just moved in and Max will be going to school with Bee in the fall.  Bee has a younger sister, Audrina and everyone is charmed by her.  She seems to swim effortlessly through the teenage angst that envelops Bee and makes friends with no problem.

Then it happens.  Bee and Audrina are invited to go to the lake with Max, his mother and little sister.  They all go swimming except Sally who is a bit afraid of the water and stays on the shore digging in the sand.  One minute she is there, the next she's gone.  Despite a massive search, no sign is found of her.

The days and then weeks go by.  Bee starts high school and all of a sudden she is popular since everyone assumes she knows the inside story of what happened to Sally.  Max's mother spends her days drinking and Max only comes to school sporadically.  Bee and Audrina seem to be growing apart, going to different schools and having different friends.  Then another tragedy occurs.

This is Karen Winn's debut novel and she does a good job getting inside the thoughts and feelings of a teenage girl.  The reactions she reports are the ones I've observed in families that have lost a child and the secrets that grow between the two sisters are part of most sibling relationships.  This was my first novel by the author but I'll be interested in seeing what she does next.  This book is recommended for women's fiction and mystery readers.  

The Girl Who Fell From The Sky by Heidi Durrow

 

Rachel has been left alone, the only survivor of a family tragedy.  Her mother was Danish, her father black.  The two met when her father was sent overseas by the Army and the family, Rachel and a brother and sister, lived in Denmark.  When her parents broke up, her mother came to the US with the man she loved next.  

After the tragedy, Rachel is sent to live with her father's mother, a grandmother she has never met.  Rachel looks more like her mother and this is the first time she has lived in an African-American neighborhood.  She knows nothing about the culture and her grandmother is much stricter than she is used to.

At school, she is ostracized.  Her looks make the others think she feels superior and one girl in particular wants to fight her from the first day.  When she finally makes a friend, it is one of the few white girls in the school.  She gets a lot of attention from the boys as the beauty she inherited from her mother is compelling.   She hides the secret of what happened to her family as she feels it is shameful.

This book won the Bellwether Prize which is an award given to books concerning social issues.  It is the story of what it means to be biracial and how it often means not being accepted by either side that makes up the genetic makeup.  It was published in 2010 and I hope things have improved as the biracial population becomes larger.  This book is recommended for literary fiction readers.  

The Lighthouse At The Edge Of The World by J.R. Dawson

 

At the edge of Chicago on the shores of Lake Michigan is the way station for the dead.  Each night they come, guided by dogs and the lighthouse that sends out a beacon to the station.  Most board a ferry that takes them to the Veil where they pass into the Afterlife.  Some are not ready for that final trip and stay at the station until they are.  They are escorted by Nera and her father.  Her father created the station at the time of the Great Fire of Chicago.  Nera has grown up there, found in the lake by her father when she was a baby and she will be the next Master of the Lighthouse when he leaves.

Charlie is searching.  Her sister was killed while Charlie was nearby but she didn't get to say goodbye.  She has been searching for months looking for some clue that some part of her sister still survives.  Like Nera, Charlie can see the ghosts and she finds her way to the Lighthouse where she asks Nera to help her find her sister so she can see that she is safe and okay in the next world.  Nera and Charlie form a friendship that could become something more as they look for Charlie's sister and decide what comes next in their lives.  

This is a lovely book.  The writing is lyrical and the whole world building is magical yet feels real.  Both Nera and Charlie are searching for what comes next and perhaps that will be them as a couple going forward while in love.  Nera, in particular, grows from a shadow of her father's decisions for her, into a strong, loving individual who finds the strength to do what she believes is best.  This book is recommended for fantasy readers.  

The Book Woman Of Troublesome Creek

 

Life is hard in the Kentucky mountains.  There are few jobs except the coal mine where men are overworked and unprotected from the constant danger of cave-ins.  Most get by with farming where they can and hunting and gathering.  It is not unusual for death to come by starvation, especially for children.  

Cussy Mary Carter knows about this.  She lives with her father outside the only town.  He works in the mines and is slowly dying of lung disease from his job.  She has a job as well; delivering books to the school and farms of the area.  She and her father are treated as outsiders because they have a strange condition that makes their skin blue.  They are treated as non-whites and discriminated against as are the few black residents.  

Cussy Mary loves to read and knows that books are as important as anything else to the people of the area.  She especially wants the children to hear books to know that there is something else out there and to entertain them.  But she is condemned by the local preacher as being God cursed and that those who deal with her are the same.  Regardless of that and how she is treated in town, Mary gets on her mule every day and takes books to those who want to learn.  She also takes food when she has it and newspapers and magazines full of suggestions on how to run a household.  

This novel is based on the true Blue People of Kentucky and on the true book express in the Kentucky mountains.  The book has garnered much praise in various media outlets.  More of the book is devoted to the discussion of the Blue People than the book delivery service.  I didn't know about these people who can trace the condition, which is a blood enzyme issue, back to one ancestor who migrated to the hills from France.  Cussy Mary and her father believe that she is the last of the Blue People.  Readers will be awed by the realization of how hard life was for people in this time and place and fascinated by Cussy Mary and her family.  This book is recommended for readers of historical fiction.  

Billy Summer by Stephen King

 

Billy Summers is the best, a real pro at assassination.  But he's tired of the game and is ready to retire.  When he hears about the biggest job he's been asked to do and what the payout would be, he decides this will be his last job.  This one isn't an in and out.  It will require him to spend several months in one location, under an alias and making those he meets think that he is a writer so that he can have the office in a skyscraper that has a window that oversees the courthouse.  An underground figure is going to go on trial and expose the organization and the organization doesn't like that.

After the job, Billy is hiding out in an apartment no one knows he has, waiting for the heat to die down.  He is about to leave when one night he hears something going on outside.  He looks out and sees three guys dumping a girl out of a van and driving off.  The girl isn't moving and he goes to see what's going on.  She is half-conscious and it's clear she is drunk or high and probably been assaulted as her clothes are just barely there.  Not wanting police attention to the area, he takes her into his apartment.

Thus starts a partnership.  Alice is a freshman at a local college and picked the wrong guy to date.  Billy helps her get revenge and then the two are on the road.  Alice discovers what Billy does and is willing to help him.  They visit Billy's arranger who has gone to his Colorado cabin after the hit and he and Alice form a father/daughter relationship.  But she goes with Billy when he goes after the man who sold him out on the last job.

I really love the later Stephen King books.  He has moved away from gore for gore's sake and is writing instead about ordinary people caught in unusual situations.  The reader will emphasize with Billy even if he is a criminal and revel in the relationship that he and Alice form.  This book is recommended for mystery readers.  

London Rules by Mick Herron

 

Someone is trying to kill Roddy Ho of Slough House, the agency for failed spies.  One of his coworkers sees a car aiming at him and tackles him, saving his life and getting complaints for hurting his phone.  Everyone at Slough House has no trouble believing that someone is trying to take Roddy out but what none of them can believe is that Roddy has a girlfriend and not only a girlfriend but a gorgeous one.

In other news, things are dicey in London.  A massacre has occurred at a shopping mall and J.K Coe, the newest Slow Horse, sent over from Psychological Evaluation, has remembered something.  There is a list of how to create an unstable government and it seems whoever is out there killing is following it.  How did they get it?  Will they follow it exactly?  What comes next?

This is the fifth book in the Slough House series.  There is lots of political infighting and jockeying as Britain prepares for elections.  Jackson Lamb remains the same, gruff, never met a rule he didn't like breaking and full of secrets about those in power.  He alternately berates and protects those in his Slough House and does whatever it takes.  This book is recommended for spy thriller readers. 

The Killer Question by Janice Hallett

 

One of the best ways to drive traffic to a pub is to hold a weekly quiz.  Sue and Mal Eastwood have just reopened a vacant pub and they decide to do just that.  Soon they have a group of regulars.  There's the group of locals who usually win.  Their noses are put out of joint when a new group that no one knows starts to come and begins winning every week.  There's a group of cyclists, a group of married couples and a couple that is staying in a house boat at the dock.  

The Eastwoods are former police officers so when the local groups charges that the new group is cheating somehow, they believe they can solve the case.  Checking with other pub owners in the area, they find the new group has done the same at other pubs.  In the meantime, Sue decides to hire a lost, homeless college girl to work at the pub and live with them until she gets her feet under her.  Then one night a bunch a rowdies come to the pub and Mal must throw them out.  Later that week, the body of the worst of the rowdy group is found in the water at the end of the lane.  Who killed him and why?

Janice Hallett is an English author who worked first as a journalist, editor and government communicator.  She has a trademark style which is to tell the story through communications and this one uses that same format.  The story is advanced through the reading of texts, pub quiz categories along with the team compositions and scores, a group chat among pub owners in the locale and a text conversation between a young girl and a social worker.  There are also texts between Sus and Mal.  The story is slowly revealed and teased and there are so many twists and turns that the average person can get whiplash.  The book is recommended for mystery readers. 

The Cutting Edge By Jeffrey Deaver

 

One of New York's most fascinating districts is the Diamond District.  Here diamonds are cut, polished and sold, often to newly engaged couples.  When Lincoln Rhyme and Amelia Sachs hear of a murder there, they are more than glad to serve as the police department's consultants.  One of the merchants and an engaged couple have been shot down and left dead.  Another employee managed to escape as he was just arriving to work as the crime was occurring.

This is the work of the Promisor, a serial killer who delights in killing couples during their happiest time.  It becomes clear that he plans to track down and kill the witness, who is trying to leave the diamond business and become a sculptor.  But more is going on.  Someone is also planting bombs on gas lines throughout the city and it becomes clear that this is also tied to the diamond thefts.  Can Lincoln and Amelia find him before scores are killed in a gas explosion?

This is the fourteenth Lincoln Rhyme novel.  Lincoln and Rhyme are now married after years of being in love.  Lincoln is still a quadriplegic although over the years he has gained a bit of movement in his hands.  The same intricate collection of trace evidence is found in this book and allows the team to get valuable clues to the criminal and where he is hiding.  Readers will learn not only crime solving techniques but about the diamond trade from mining to selling.  There are lots of twists and turns and suspense mounts throughout the book which is recommended for mystery readers.  

Love Forms by Claire Adam

When Dawn was sixteen, she had a baby girl that is her biggest secret.  Raised in Trinidad by a wealthy family, she is spirited away to a home in Venezuela run by nuns and has her baby there.  After the birth, Dawn returns to her family and goes on with her life.  She ends up marrying and moving to London with her husband.  The couple has two sons and time moves on.

Now fifty-eight, Dawn is alone.  Her sons are grown and gone while her husband and she have divorced.  She finds herself wondering more and more about the daughter she never got to know and starts looking for her online.  When the entire family returns to Trinidad for a holiday, she finally discovers some answers such as where she was all those years ago and what the home was called.  Now she has concrete clues she can use in her quest.

Claire Adam was born in Trinidad.  Her work has garnered significant acclaim with her first novel, Golden Child, being listed for the Women's Prize In Fiction and this second novel being longlisted for the Booker Prize.  We learn about the yearning a mother feels for her children, whether she has raised them or not and the birth connection that cannot be broken.  This book is recommended for readers of literary fiction.