Pretty Is

My friend Wendy Starkweather's niece, Maggie Mitchell, wrote this--her first novel. So  I approached it with both a bit of extra curiosity and apprehension. What if I didn't like it--what does one say? Fortunately, it was a really intriguing book, not exactly a thriller, but more a psychological exhumation.
Two 12-year old girls, whose paths would otherwise never have crossed, are both abducted by the same handsome charming man and kept for almost two months at a rundown lodge deep in the woods. Carly May, from a small town in Nebraska is exceptionally pretty and her step-mother seeks to get attention for herself by promoting Carly May to be in beauty pageants. Tiny attractive Lois is precociously smart and is kidnapped miles away in Connecticut. Each girl is notable in her own way but very different from each other. It's never entirely clear to the girls or the reader why they were chosen. But the fact that they were seems to exert a psychological hold over both girls and they never seriously try to escape. Two stories--then and now-- are told from each girl's/ woman's perspective in alternating chapters,  starting when both women are adults. Carly--now Chloe Savage--is a B-level actress in Los Angeles; while, former spelling bee champ Lois is teaching literature at a small college in upstate New York. Under a pseudonym, Lois has written a book, a fictionalized account of two girls who are kidnapped, that is popular enough to have been optioned for a movie. She has worked hard to separate herself from that past as has Carly/ Chloe. But a student in one of Lois' classes has ferreted out the connection and begins subtly blackmailing Lois to keep from revealing her identity. Predictably, Chloe is tapped to play a role in the movie and their lives once again collide. Coherent characters, well-crafted settings, and a slightly disturbing sense of mystery will keep you engrossed in this book.
Good reviews from The Guardian, Kirkus, and The New York Times.

A Cotswold Killing

First of the "Cotswold Mysteries" by Rebecca Tope, the protagonist is 42-year-old and recently widowed Thea Osborne, who has decided to try out house sitting to  keep herself occupied and bring in a little extra money. Along with her spaniel, Hepzibah, she has taken a job in the village of Duntisbourne Abbots looking after not only a lovely home, but a couple of dogs, and a small herd of sheep. On her first night she awakens to a scream, but because the dogs don't bark and the security lights don't come on, she assumes it is just a fox calling and goes back to sleep. While out walking the next day, however, she finds a body in the creek and it turns out to be a neighboring farmer, Joel Jamison--one of the only village people to have stopped by and said hello when she arrived. We find out that the deceased's brother was found dead in the same field just 6 weeks earlier. Thea is curious how this could possibly happen in such a small, close-knit community. As she begins to learn more about the neighbors, however, she finds lots of history, secrets, grievances, and underlying tensions. Quite a colorful cast of characters and, since I love the Cotswolds, I enjoyed the setting as well.  Solid "English cozy" fare. I've read a couple other books of Tope's, a later book from this series, and the first in her "West Country mysteries," A Dirty Death. Tope was also the ghost writer for one of my favorite British TV mystery series, Rosemary and Thyme. 
Kirkus has written reviews of several of her books, although not this one.

Grave Doubts

This is the third in Elizabeth Corley's "Inspector Fenwick" series. Fenwick has just returned from a secondment to the Met and is trying to catch up with  current cases. The big news is that Sargeant Louise Nightingale was used as bait to catch a serial rapist/ killer and, although she is back at work, she is having second thoughts about staying with the police. Her feelings for Fenwick she assumes are unreciprocated and it is emotionally painful to work around him, although it is clear he thinks she is a good detective and feels protective of her. Fenwick persuades her to take a leave of absence rather than resigning and she retreats to a crumbling old house in Devon that once belonged to her aunt but has been derelict for years. She tells no one where she is going, and since she has no cell service there, she is largely out of touch with her former colleagues. So unbeknownst to her, the rapes and murders have started again, even though the person they are sure was responsible is in prison. Fenwick digs deeper and concludes that there have been two people involved in the serial crimes and it seems likely that the one who is still free has targeted Nightingale as revenge for putting his partner in jail.
Surprisingly, Corley is a well known financial executive and yet manages to write these novels in her spare time. The characters are interesting and the settings are well described. This is primarily a plot-driven book and it is certainly tense and engaging. A good read for those who like this genre.

The English Monster

I tried to read this debut novel by journalist Lloyd Shepherd but just could not persist. Two stories are taking place in alternating chapters. There are the real-life murders of two families in 1811 London near the docks of Wapping, frequently called the Ratcliffe Highway murders. An officer in the newly formed Thames River Police, Charles Horton, is trying to solve the case and thus tamp down rising public hysteria. The second story line takes place in 1564 and features a young man, Billy Ablass, who seeks to make enough money to marry and have a home by serving on one of Queen Elizabeth's ships--the first slaving ship.
I'm sure they must connect at some point. Maybe I will try again later.
Summary and reviews from The Financial Times, The Guardian, and The Independent.

A Man Called Ove

This debut novel by Fredrik Backman was turned down by numerous publishers before finally being bought and has now become an international best seller. As is too often the case, I was lukewarm while  others rave about it. The premise is that Ove is a committed curmudgeon with a hidden heart of gold.  The outcomes are predictable. Behind his grumpy exterior is the painful loss of Ove's wife, Sonja, 6 months ago and now he has lost the will to live. In a touch of black humor, Ove keeps devising new ways to kill himself but is constantly being interrupted by neighbors dealing with the problems of living. He adopts the abused feral cat, he helps out the immigrant neighbor, Parvana, when her inept husband falls and breaks a leg, he intervenes when social services try to remove another neighbor to a care facility. Eventually he has reconnected with enough people that life again takes on promise. It is a nice story, apparently has been made into a movie. The text has a distinctly Scandinavian flavor but is much lighter fare than the predominantly noir novels that usually make it here.

There are lots of reviews including The New York Times, and Kirkus. And if you want to know how to pronounce the title, go to the video clip on the publisher's website.

Tricky Twenty-Two

Any of you who are Janet Evanovich fans will recognize the title as the latest in her "Stephanie Plum" series, featuring a not terribly competent bond enforcement agent who tracks down clients who have skipped on their bail. Set in New Jersey with lots of local color as well asnvery colorful characters, readers have come to know and love, including Grandma Mazur, who refuses to act her age, Lula, former 'ho and Stephanie's sidekick, and of course the hot and sexy men in her life, Ranger and Morelli.
At the start of the book, Morelli tells Stephanie that he needs a little time away from the relationship and she is hurt and confused, even more so when he says he is thinking of leaving the police department. She is trying to figure out what is going on with him. This time Stephanie is after a college kid who supposedly broke the dean's arm in a scuffle over fraternity pranks. But it turns out to be much more complicated to find him than she imagine for he has gone into hiding. Someone is keeping secrets in the basement of the fraternity house and they might be very deadly.
 As usual, Stephanie destroys cars, has to have Ranger bail her out of numerous confrontations with big bad FTA's, and goes to her parents' house for dinner when all else fails. Rex the hamster is still alive (the most long-lived hamster ever). Stephanie's mom gets a taste for chasing bad guys and likes it. Just the usual predictably zany antics strung together in a well-constructed "who done it" mystery. I think Lula gets some of the best lines this time around. 

Every Fifteen Minutes

This stand-alone thriller from Lisa Scottoline features psychologist Dr. Eric Parrish who runs the psychiatric unit at the general hospital. Dr. Parish also sees a few private clients at his home office. He has recently separated from his wife and is surprised to find she has sold their house, even though their verbal agreement was that she would live there with their daughter, Hannah, to minimize the trauma of the divorce. He also finds out that his wife is pushing Hannah to participate in sports, which she abhors, and that his ex-wife has a new boyfriend who seems to be living at their house. He decides to file for primary custody of their daughter.
Meanwhile, on a referral from a friend and colleague in the ER, he starts seeing a very troubled teen, Max, a math whiz, whose primary caretaker, his grandmother, is imminently terminal. Eric learns that Max has an obsessive crush on a girl and has actually kept a cell phone she left behind at a math tutoring session. As Eric debates whether or not to warm the girl, she is murdered and Eric initially becomes the prime suspect. Then attention quickly shifts to Max and Scottoline leads the reader on with lots of other information that suggest Max is the killer. Eric is unconvinced and wants to support Max. Meanwhile, however, he is dealing with professional issues as a woman intern on the psych unit has filed sexual harassment charges, the wife of a patient is filing suit with the hospital for what she considers to be the mistreatment of her husband as a patient on the psych ward,  and a fire starts on the unit.
Little does Eric realize that he is actually the target of a sociopath's intention to destroy him personally and professionally. There are no clues as to who hates Eric this intently and he eventually finds that his allies may be his worst enemies.
I have read a lot of Scottoline's other books, both her individual novels and her "Rosato and Associates" series about a women-owned law firm, and she never disappoints. She is a fine writer. However, I was a little annoyed that the reader was so clearly being led to believe Max was the killer; it seemed a bit overdone to me. Minor gripe, however.

The Fifth Season

Another new author to me, N. K. Jemison is referred to as a "speculative fiction" writer of short stories and novels, many of which have received literary nominations and awards. The Fifth Season, the first part of her "Broken Earth" series,  won The 2016 Hugo Award. One of the common themes of her writing is oppression and this book is no exception. People oppressing others because they are different and mostly because they are afraid, should certainly resonate in our current political climate. This description of The Fifth Season's precipitating events, from Jemison's own website, sums it up more succinctly than I could.
"Three terrible things happen in a single day. Essun, a woman living an ordinary life in a small town, comes home to find that her husband has brutally murdered their son and kidnapped their daughter. Meanwhile, mighty Sanze — the world-spanning empire whose innovations have been civilization’s bedrock for a thousand years — collapses as most of its citizens are murdered to serve a madman’s vengeance. And worst of all, across the heart of the vast continent known as the Stillness, a great red rift has been torn into the heart of the earth, spewing ash enough to darken the sky for years. Or centuries."
Essun goes in search of her missing daughter, trying to navigate a broken world, and a rapidly deteriorating social order where her kind--the Orogenes--are trained and used, or killed, but above all, feared.
There's a great review by Naomi Novik (see my post on her novel, Uprooted) in the New York Times. Also good reviews from Publishers Weekly, Kirkus, and NPR.

Third Grave Dead Ahead

If you follow my blog, you will quickly realize this is the 3rd installment in Darynda Jones' "Charley Davidson" series, which I really enjoy when I want a little light reading with a kick-ass female protagonist and a dose of the supernatural (for other books like that see Gail Carriger, Charlaine Harris, Patricia Briggs, Kim Harrison, etc.). For a little more background on Charley Davidson, aka The Grim Reaper, you can also read my earlier posts.
Fueled by gallons of caffeine, Charley has gone days without sleep--on purpose--because every time she goes to sleep, handsome and sexy son of Satan, Reyes Farrow, invades her dreams and he seems pretty upset with her. Maybe it is because she bound his spirit to his human body just when he was trying to leave it, and now he is back in jail. He tells her he is sure that the man he was convicted of killing, his sadistically abusive foster father is actually alive and Charley is determined to find him and free Reyes. The self-induced insomnia is making Charley a little crazy, however, and she jumps at the chance to find a "missing wife" even though she can sense that her client, the husband is guilty as sin about something. In the process, she checks in with Rocket, her one-stop fount of info regarding all those who have "passed," has a falling out with her ex-detective dad who wants her to stop being a PI, and helps a biker gang avenge the death of one of their dogs.

Midnight in Europe

I am so far behind in posting my book blogs that none of these recent ones are in chronological order. This novel by Alan Furst, an author called by Vince Flynn "the most talented espionage novelist of our generation," and lauded by the NYT as "America's  preeminent spy novelist," is set during the run-up to WWII as Spain tears itself apart in a civil war. A lawyer for a well-respected law firm in Paris with offices in New York City, Christian Ferrar, is himself a refugee from Spain along with his family. So when he is approached by someone from the Spanish embassy in Paris to aid the Spanish Republic in procuring weapons to fight Franco's Fascists, he barely hesitates. He knows that if the nationalists win and the Nazi expansion continues, his new home in Paris will no longer be safe. With the silent blessing of his law firm he works  legal and not so legal avenues to funnel weapons into Spain from any country who will help the opponents of Franco. The characters in this novel (and apparently in Furst's novel generally) are not super-heroes, but ordinary people responding to extraordinary times, and I learned a some about this particular convulsion in a Europe on the eve of world war. However, it felt oddly as though there was no real  conclusion....realistic, perhaps, but a bit anti-climactic. In spite of all efforts, Franco's forces won and Ferrar moved his family to New York. I might read more of Furst's books just because I enjoy this genre (espionage and historical novels) as well as the quality of his writing, characterization and settings. He excels at evoking the unspoken tension and paranoia that gripped Europe during Hitler's rise to power. A balanced review from the New York Times elucidates this particular book's strengths and weaknesses. Also a good brief review from Kirkus, and the reviewer at the Boston Globe says he has read every one of Furst's novels twice!

Lethal Treasure

This is the 8th entry in the "Josie Prescott Antique Mysteries" by author Jane Cleland. The protagonist buys and sells antiques and does appraisals for other businesses or individuals who need her research skills, knowledge and network of experts. She lives and work in Rocky Point, New Hampshire, a small coastal town, and in this installment, has a gorgeous, thoughtful and loving partner, Ty.  They are good friends with a couple who run a new interior design business in town, Henri and Leigh Ann Dubois. When Henri is found murdered inside a storage unit for which he had the winning auction bid, Josie gets involved in trying to help find the killer. Nothing is found in the unit that seems worth much, but Henri had previously brought Josie some very old original movie posters for appraisal and Josie and her crew begin to realize that they may be worth a great deal. There are interesting lines of investigation for the appraisal process that also may move Josie closer to finding Henri's killer, but when the murder weapon turns up in Josie's car, and supposed love letters between Henri and Josie are discovered in an e-mail account, Josie realizes someone is clever and desperate enough to frame her. Now solving the mystery has become very personal. I loved reading about the appraisal process, have a fondness for antiques, and thoroughly enjoyed the setting and the characters. I will definitely find more of these to read.

Strangled in Paris

A "Victor Legris" mystery from Claude Izner, a pseudonym for two sisters who are used book dealers in Paris. Protagonist Victor Legris is also a book seller in late 1800's ("Belle Epoque") Paris, but would rather be solving mysteries, like that of a poor woman, wearing fine clothes and a mask, found strangled on the streets. This book and others by these authors have received very favorable reviews from some trusted sources (Kirkus,  The Historical Novel Society, and Publishers' Weekly who called it Izner's "best yet"), and has numerous elements I like--hints of the occult, murder mysteries, bookstores, historical novels. Nevertheless, after 100 pages, I was not engaged and am getting more hard-nosed about letting things go without finishing them.

The Bookshop on the Corner

This is a cozy mystery by Jenny Colgan (originally published in Britain under the title The Little Shop of Happy-Ever-After) set in Birmingham and the Highlands of Scotland. Anyone who has ever mourned the digitization of libraries to the exclusion of books will identify with Nina Redmond, librarian and literary matchmaker extraordinaire, who has recently had to re-apply for her job at the Birmingham public library--and failed. But she has taken a stash of the books that were destined for the recylcing and, when added to all those she has accumulated at her flat, feels she could start her own mobile library. Responding to an advertisement in the paper, she makes the long trek to the Highlands of Scotland to check out a big (really big) van for sale. Although the crotchety owner won't sell it to her, the friends she makes at the local pub (where she recommends books for them to read) decide to buy it from the recalcitrant owner and sell it to Nina. They also help her get it fixed up and running and she makes the enormous leap of faith to leave home and friends and everything she has known until now to move to Scotland. Former landlord/ flat-mate/ best friend, Surinder, takes a leave of absence to join Nina for a few weeks to help her get settled. Nina quickly realizes she loves the wide open spaces and the wonderful people (most of them) and cannot imagine moving back to the crowds and crime of Birmingham.

Nina has never been particularly good at matchmaking for herself and engages in yet another dead-end attachment, this time with a refugee train engineer, who leaves books and poems for her at the railroad crossing near her village. Eventually she learns he already has a son and long-time girlfriend back home, so Nina subsequenly--and predictably-- gets involved with her rude landlord. This is the least interesting part of the book, but Nina's explorations of Scotland, her growing involvement with her tiny village community, and her finding her own life and ways to express it are really enjoyable.

The Monster of Florence

Although this was a stylishly written novel by English author Magdalen Nabb, I will have to re-read it to figure out who actually committed the murders....or maybe I can just do the last few chapters. This series, with protagonist Marshal Guarnaccia of the Carabinieri, is based on an actual person and on actual events (although in real life they were not connected). There are a series of "couple" murders where lovers are slain and mutilated in their cars while parked in quiet country lanes around Florence (Italy). Supposedly a new suspect has come to light, or has more likely been manufactured by an ambitious and highly political superior officer, Simonetti. The settings, procedural details, and characters are well developed as different agendas are pursued by Simonetti, who wants a publicity grabbing conviction regardless of the suspect's guilt, and by Guarnaccia and a few of his more honorable colleagues who are trying to find the real killer. Not quite sure if I will pursue this author's other work or not.