The Storm

Another book by Rachel Hawkins that will keep you guessing til the very end about who actually murdered the governor's rich and philandering son 40 years ago.  Lo (short for Gloria) Bailey is back in the tiny coastal town of St. Medard's Bay, Alabama, after being exiled by gossip and rumors that she was the one responsible. Even though she was found not guilty of the murder, popular opinion remained against her; but now she says that she has come back to clear her name once and for all. She is accompanied by a journalist, August, who says he wants to write her story. Geneva Corliss is the struggling owner of the Rosalie Inn, the only structure in town that has survived the periodic hurricanes that seem to seek out this otherwise out-of-the-way corner of the coast. The arrival of August and Lo promises to be a boon to the flagging business prospects of the Inn but everything turns out to be more complicated than that as Rachel learns secret after secret about her mother who is now forever silenced by Alzheimer's. 

Publishers Weekly says of this "sleek suspense novel" that "Hawkins toggles back and forth between Lo's return to St. Medard's Bay and the days leading up to Landon's death, marking each timeline with the name of a contemporaneous hurricane. She shrewdly orchestrates the plot twists in each story line, folding in letters, emails, newspaper articles, and excerpts from August's unfinished manuscript to raise new questions and ratchet up suspense. When the pieces finally click into place, readers will be more than satisfied." I personally found this structure to be disjointed and a bit off-putting as some of the reporting is not identified with an author and you have to figure out from the context who is speaking. Library Journal calls the novel "fast-paced" and "atmospheric" and indeed the weather plays a key role in both structuring the storyline and ratcheting up the suspense as chapter titles count down the days until the next hurricane is going to hit. Booklist concludes their review with this positive note: "Hawkins uses her mastery of multiple time lines and characters to great effect in this quick and enjoyable read." Similarly, Kirkus closes with "the story is gripping from beginning to end."

Gone Before Goodbye

This thriller from Reese Witherspoon and Harlen Coben will keep you guessing what's real in the world of uber wealthy clients who demand ultimate discretion from their medical providers. And Maggie McCabe is the one called upon to provide the skills and the willingness to go to an opulent palace in the wilds of Russia to perform some unique plastic surgery. Having always served the poorest patients in the most dangerous places, Maggie has lost her medical license and is thrown a lifeline by a former professor who has connections with this rarified clientele. It will wipe out the debts left behind after her mother died of cancer. Kirkus summarizes "A whirl of surgeries, chases, and escapes ensues as Maggie gradually comes to understand who these people are and what they have in mind for her, and how it connects to [her deceased husband] Marc and their missing friend and business partner, Trace Packer. She is aided by her delightful father-in-law, Porkchop, owner of a biker bar in New York City and a very handy guy to have on your team if you've run afoul of an international criminal organization. From the palace in Rublevka the action moves to Dubai and then Bordeaux, climaxing in a high-stakes illegal heart transplant. But wait—is Marc really dead? What happened to Trace? Who is Nadia really?" And they conclude: "Maybe not the most thrilling thriller, but the role of AI in coping with grief gives this novel pathos and interest." The Los Angeles Times calls it a "fun ride about the super rich...at the same time that it ponders real questions about the ethics of social engineering via medical advances in organ regeneration." Read the rest of their review for a more detailed story line. 

Murder at the Christmas Emporium

First of all, this novel by Andreina Cordani has a terrible book jacket image which does not represent the setting in any way, shape, or form--picky I know but really. I found the plotting entirely too complicated and the multiple flashbacks distracting, but Publishers Weekly loved the book. Here is their review in its entirety:

"Holiday magic goes horribly wrong in Cordani's delightfully eccentric follow-up to The Twelve Days of Murder. Merry Clarke steals her boss's invitation to the reopening of Verity's Emporium, a bespoke London toy store that's home to elaborate displays and strange mechanical attractions. After Montagu Verity, the store's Willy Wonka--esque proprietor, offers a warm welcome to Merry and a handful of other VIPs, the shoppers discover they've been drugged by their complimentary hot cocoa. They awake trapped in the multilevel, secret passage-filled building, their phones having been confiscated upon entry, and soon discover the dead body of the store's head toymaker. From there, flashbacks tease out each character's backstory and relationships to the Veritys, while tense conversations in the present slowly reveal their links to one another. Meanwhile, the store brims with clues and terrors, including a display depicting each guest's brutal murder. Cordani's plotting is devious and perfectly calibrated, revealing just enough to heighten dramatic irony while leaving plenty of room for shocking twists. This canny combination of whodunit and horror makes for a gleefully demented stocking stuffer." 

Likewise, Booklist praises characters and setting: "Told from multiple points of view, both past and present, this compelling, stand-alone mystery with its myriad plot twists, well-drawn characters, and a lovingly described Christmastime setting will appeal to locked-room-mystery fans." 

Kirkus, on the other hand felt much like I did. "...The problem is that at no time do any of her retrospective thumbnail sketches give readers much reason to wish for the grown-up characters’ survival. Even Merry, stuck in a dead-end job and hopelessly in love with co-worker Ross, is foolishly controlling, and TV celebrity Fran, tortured by a secret Cordani teases for more 100 pages before revealing as the most obvious thing possible, is shallow and self-serving. When bad things happen to good people, justice cries out for an explanation. But when bad things happen to bad people, well…why the hell not? A joyless Yuletide tale offers little to celebrate."

 

 

The Killing Stones

This is the latest installment resurrecting characters from the "Shetland Island" series by Ann Cleeves. Detective Jimmy Perez is now living on Orkney with his live-in partner Willow and their 4 year old child James. Another baby is imminently due.  Willow is technically Jimmy's boss but they don't seem to step on one another's toes when a missing person turns out to be a murder victim--Jimmy's best friend from childhood, Archie Stout. Archie has been killed near a neolithic archaeological site with one of the two "story stones" unearthed in the excavation. Jimmy constantly struggles with the boundaries between his own personal sense of grief and friendship with the deceased's family and his role as investigating detective. It's approaching Christmas and bad weather has grounded flights from Glasgow so Jimmy and Willow are on their own to figure this out. Two subsequent deaths, also at archaeological sites convince them that it is a single murderer they're seeking. The culprit will come as a total surprise to most readers. I loved the sense of place and the well-developed characters.  

Publishers Weekly calls the plotting "crafty," and ends their review with this endorsement: "The intensely personal nature of the case infuses it with welcome emotional depth, and Cleeves keeps readers guessing until she delivers a gutting climactic reveal that few will see coming. This proves Detective Perez still has the goods. " Kirkus likewise praises "A first-rate mystery full of historical detail and descriptions of a beautiful place."

The Predicament

This novel by William Boyd is the second of his "Gabriel Dax" series about a reluctant spy. Dax is, by profession, a travel writer with several published books to his credit and just about to finish another one called Rivers. Somehow--and one would ostensibly have to go back to the beginning of the series (Gabriel's Moon) to find out the origins of this situation --he has become an occasional spy for MI6 and a double agent for the Russians. Reviews are glowing and Booklist gushes "...this John Le Carré-esque Cold War thriller is something rare--a sequel that surpasses the original. Full of wry humor, this is a compelling novel full of intrigue..."

Dax's profession allows him to travel without suspicion and he is sent first to Guatemala to report on an up and coming labor leader who is expected to become the next President--until he gets assassinated right after Dax's abortive interview with him.  Dax feels he's been set up by the CIA and, to top it off, he gets attacked and stabbed for his trouble. After recovering, he is sent to Berlin to keep an eye on a man suspected of plotting an assassination of John F. Kennedy who is coming for a week-long state visit. Dax manages to "... thwart disaster via a string of accidentally heroic acts inspired by his instincts as a writer. Readers will be charmed by Dax's tendency to fail upward, and Boyd smoothly incorporates real history into his wildly entertaining plot. This is a treat" (Publishers Weekly).  Kirkus concludes their positive review by saying "A thriller that's always in motion but, unlike its hero, always knows where it's going."

The Woman in the Library

This thriller/ mystery by Sulari Gentill will keep you on the edge of your seat as each chapter ends with something of a cliff hanger. Four patrons in the reading room of the Boston Public Library--strangers to each other we are led to believe-- are suddenly united when they hear a woman scream. A dead woman is found in the library later that day, they undertake to find out who the killer is. This is a story within a story and a mystery within a mystery. Writer Winifred "Freddie" Kincaid is joined by fellow writer Cain McLeod, failing law student Whit, and graduate psychology student Marigold in the hunt. Is one of them the killer? Of course they all alibi each other at the time of the scream and supposedly of the murder. Someone begins to terrorize Freddie with text pictures of her own front door as well as that of Whit's house. It's coming from Cain's phone which he says he lost. An interwoven plot line is the correspondence between famous Australian author Hannah Tignone, who is using the events of the 4 to fuel the plot line of her next manuscript, and American wannabe writer Leo. His responses to her manuscript become increasingly sinister and graphic, making you glad they are on different continents--or are they?  Booklist says "The two story lines work together beautifully, amping up the suspense before reaching a surprising conclusion." 

Library Journal concludes their review of the book as "a complex, riveting story within a story. The fictional story of an author writing about another writer with messy, complicated friendships and suspicion is an innovative literary mystery. " Publishers Weekly calls the book a "thrilling excursion into metafiction from Australian author Gentill [which]... wittily examines the writing process itself." They close with this endorsement: "This elegantly constructed novel is intelligent, funny, and profound. Who could ask for more?" Kirkus concludes their review by saying "A sharply drawn fictional hall of mirrors sure to tantalize and occasionally frustrate." 

Bangalore Detectives Club

This light read from Harini Nagendra is like an east Indian cozy, the first in the "Bangalore Detectives Club" series.  Kaveri Murthy is a recently married young woman whose husband Ramu is a doctor at the local hospital in Bangalore. Set in the caste, class and gender structured Raj of 1921, stirrings for independence are afoot. Here is most of the plot from Publishers Weekly: "... Kaveri Murthy, who has a passion for advanced mathematics, lives just outside the sprawling city of Bangalore. While Kaveri and her physician husband, Ramu, are attending a reception at the prestigious Century Club, the body of a pimp is found murdered in the garden. When the deputy inspector of the local police force arrives to investigate, Kaveri confides that she saw the dead man in the garden with his hands around the throat of a beautiful woman. Kaveri's desire to see justice done takes her from the bastions of British wealth to humble mud-floored shacks. By placing her intelligent and clear-eyed protagonists in the multilayered and multicultural milieu of colonial India, Nagendra...imbues this mystery with a rich, edifying, and authentic feel."

Booklist calls this book "A fine start to a promising series." They describe Kaveri as ingenuous and brave, intelligent an charming. Her husband and the local police superintendent, although worried for Kaveri's safety chasing after a murderer, applaud her investigative skills. They make comparison to the "No.1 Ladies' Detective Agency" series by Alexander McCall Smith, and also to the "Nancy Drew" series mysteries. You'll like all the characters here. A fun read.  

The Great Gatsby

Hard to believe I've lived this long and never read the book although I vaguely remember seeing the movie. Such a tragic story...love gained, love lost, love gained, love lost. Gatsby is considered to be the seminal representation of the Roaring Twenties. Maybe for the ultra rich. I would agree with the reviewer in the Guardian who notes that "...the characters in The Great Gatsby are in themselves very flawed and very hard to sympathise with."  And also with the quote he picks out that characterizes their flaws: "They smashed up things and creatures and then retreated back into their money and vast carelessness." Even our narrator, Nick Carraway, offers little to hold onto or empathize with. Here is the conclusion to their review: "Their inability to care is what makes The Great Gatsby the stark opposite to Romeo and Juliet where the lovers are sacrificed and Verona is healed. In Fitzgerald's masterpiece nothing is made whole by this tragedy. Many consider The Great Gatsby to be depressing because, in the end, those who dream do not achieve their aspirations. However, the main message that Fitzgerald sends to us isn't that dreaming will lead to despair, but that chasing an unworthy dream will lead to tragedy." Gatsby is stuck in a memory from years ago and he can't seem to imagine that, while he has been working to earn Daisy's love, Daisy has changed.

The New York Times examines the reviews of the book, both positive and scathingly negative, e.g., meritricious, a bauble, work of an author who is "barely literate" (Gore Vidal). And they note that perhaps the best way to gauge the immortality of a work is by reviewing the "insane glut" of influence that the book has had on literature, stage and screen.   In that regard, Gatsby certainly deserves its reputation. 

The Heart of a Stranger

This memoir by Angela Buchdahl talks not only about her life circumstances but also about her inner journey to claim community with her father's Jewish heritage. Her mother is Korean Buddhist and never converted, but supported both of her daughters' participation in Judaic culture and practice. Angela became the first  Asian American rabbi in the United States and was eventually given the head office over one of the largest congregations in the world, streaming services to over 100 countries. She faced the usual issues of antisemitism, but also prejudices without the religious about her gender and her mixed parentage. 

The Washington Post calls the book "inspiring" and has this to say about its author: "She’s the rock star rabbi, the Beyoncé of the clergy set. She’s called upon to explain the Jewish holidays on network television, her online sermons draw more than 100,000 views and her name once was an answer on “Jeopardy!” Angela Buchdahl’s improbable rise from an early childhood in Korea to the pulpit of Central Synagogue in New York City, one of the leading Reform synagogues in the United States, all while deftly overcoming gender and racial barriers, is a story that begs to be told."They go on to describe her writing style as "warm and engaging" and have more to say about Buchdah's writingl: "She presents herself as both author and teacher, memoirist and evangelist. This unconventional structure will surely engage readers interested in but unfamiliar with Jewish history and precepts. " 

Kirkus praises "Buchdahl’s eloquent memoir braids a narrative of growth and discovery with sermonic reflections on biblical texts. This is a book about finding a calling, but it is also a book about inclusion..." and close their review with "An inspiring life story of believing and belonging, told by one of the most influential figures in modern American Judaism." 

Publishers Weekly concludes their glowing review by saying "In a moment of rising social division, racism, and antisemitism, this stirring call for unity resonates." You can find multiple interviews and videos of her sermons online. 

The Book of Magic

This is the conclusion of Alice Hoffman's "Practical Magic" series which is preceded by The Rules of Magic and Practical Magic. Although this book's storyline is about trying to reverse the ancestral curse on the Owens family that dooms any of their beloved partners to early death, it's also about love winning out over everything. The two orphaned sisters, Sally and Gillian, have kept themselves from falling in love to avoid the curse and have also hidden the truth from Sally's two daughters, Kylie and Antonia. Of course Kylie falls in love and her fiancee is seriously injured in a car accident which sets her on a path to discover the truth about the curse and to find a way to reverse it. Sacrifices will be required. 

The New York Times offers a fairly complete synopsis of the storyline and closes with this: "If the ending feels overly tidy, well, fairy tales don’t enchant with nuance so much as the sweep of their stories. And, like the witches who populate her stories, Hoffman certainly knows how to enchant." Kirkus commments "Ultimately, for better or worse, each Owens woman must face her fear of love. For all the talk of magic, the message here is that personal courage and the capacity to love are the deepest sources of an individual’s power."  Booklist calls this "a tale of finely wrought female relationships, magic, and love." Publishers Weekly concludes their review by saying, "Hoffman runs through the Owens family history over the centuries, and though the accounts of bloodlines and varied relationships can be confusing, the story brims with bewitching encounters and suspenseful conflicts revolving around good magic versus bad magic. Hoffman brings satisfying closure to the Owens saga." 

Evensong

I have not previously read anything by Stewart O'Nan. This is a story without a plot line, rather a series of vignettes revealing the inner and outer lives of 4 aging women who are key players in an organization called the Humpty Dumpties in Pittsburgh. Publishers Weekly offers this good summary and review: O'Nan...once again finds extraordinary resonance in the lives of ordinary people. In Pittsburgh, 89-year-old Joan Hargrove, leader of the Humpty Dumpty Club, a group of elderly women who help each other out, lives the "nightmare" they all share when she falls down a flight of stairs and breaks her leg. With Joan recovering in the hospital, it's left to other club members to fill the void: Kitzi delivers prescriptions to Gene and Jean Sokolov, brother-and-sister hoarders who live with a houseful of cats, and slowly becomes enmeshed in the siblings' lives; Susie, a divorcee, takes care of Joan's cat and finds romance with a retired postal worker who plays in a bluegrass band. Meanwhile, Emily, a recurring character in O'Nan's fiction, is having trouble with her sister-in-law, who is showing the first signs of dementia. The drama here is strictly low-key (a funeral is the emotional high point), but O'Nan proves that he has no peers when it comes to evoking the quotidian challenges and routines of daily life. It's a bittersweet celebration of the twilight years. " 

Kirkus closes their review with these positive comments: "This frank depiction of people nearing the ends of their lives might sound bleak, but O’Nan’s brilliantly rendered characters refuse to be pitied, matter-of-factly accepting loss and physical decline as they go about their days quietly sustained by their faith and commitment to service. Unsentimental yet deeply moving: more wonderful work from the versatile, masterful O’Nan." There are excerpts from multiple review sources here. 

 What left me dissatisfied was the difficulty in figuring out the relationships (besides HD membership) between the primary characters and between them and many of the secondary characters as well as the lack of resolution for some of the crises facing the group.  It was also a challenge at times to know who was speaking in the dialogue exchanges. Apparently there are previous installments that deal with the Maxwell family: Henry Himself and Emily Alone. Seems like it might be advisable to read these before tackling this one. That being said, the characterizations are poignant and rich, the characters' struggles all too real and familiar. His writing merits further investigation.

The Secret of Secrets

This latest (sixth) installement in Dan Brown's series featuring religious historian and symbology professor Robert Langdon is a wild ride. Not only is there a complicated plot but there are some big ideas being promoted here, namely nonlocal consciousness. At the close of their lengthy review, the New York Times says, "It may be best to read “The Secret of Secrets” as an artifact of a lost civilization, a misty evocation of vanished literary glory. It made me nostalgic for a golden age when a single written work could not only sell millions of copies, but also galvanize public opinion, spark furious debate and rotate history a few degrees on its axis." The Guardian effuses "Here’s a plot that starts thick and gets thicker. Every few pages brings a cliffhanger..." 

Kirkus opens their review with "...Robert Langdon explores the mysteries of human consciousness, the demonic projects of the CIA, and the city of Prague." And they continue, "But first—Langdon’s in love! Brown’s devoted readers first met brilliant noetic scientist Katherine Solomon in The Lost Symbol (2009)...It’s the night after Katherine has delivered the lecture quoted above, setting the theme for the novel, which features a plethora of real-life cases and anomalies that seem to support the notion that human consciousness is not localized inside the human skull. Brown’s talent for assembling research is also evident in this novel’s alter ego as a guidebook to Prague, whose history and attractions are described in great and glowing detail..." and they conclude, "There’s no shortage of action, derring-do, explosions, high-tech torture machines, attempted and successful murders, and opportunities for split-second, last-minute escapes; good thing Langdon, this aging symbology wonk, never misses swimming his morning laps. Readers who are not already dyed-in-the-wool Langdonites may find themselves echoing the prof’s own conclusion regarding the credibility of all this paranormal hoo-ha: At some point, skepticism itself becomes irrational. A standout in the series."

The Impossible Fortune

This fifth installment in the "Thursday Murder Club" series rejoins our fearsome foursome a year after the death of Elizabeth's husband Stephen has died. Joyce's daughter, Joanna, is getting married and one of the wedding guests, Nick--best friend of the groom--approaches Elizabeth and asks her to find out who is trying to kill him. There may well be a veritable fortune--a quarter of a billion in Bitcoin-- at stake. But getting to the money requires finding both his 6 digit code and that of his business partner, Holly. Nick disappears and it's feared that he is dead. Then Holly is killed. Every character has a whole other story going on besides the search for the money and at times it is a bit confusing as the POV narrator switches so frequently. 

An interview with the New York Times about the book and his writing generally is here. The interviewer notes that "Osman’s work reflects his own witty and openhearted view of human nature..." and also observes that his characters "are aging almost in real time. Tucked inside the crowd-pleasing plots are themes of grief, loss, friendship, the renegotiated relationships between parents and their adult children, and the indignities and sorrows of old age." Osman himself comments that "he wants to present his sleuths as complicated and flawed, just like anyone else."

Kirkus says in their review that "the Thursday Murder Club is back and better than ever." And they go on to conclude: "There are satisfying red herrings and a well-constructed answer to the puzzle of what happened to Nick and why. And you’ll be happy just to have spent some time in Osman’s delightful world. "If you’re coming to the series from the Netflix movie, start at the top. If you’ve read the others, this is a high point.

 

The Lost Tomb: and Other Real-life Stories of Bones, Burials, and Murder

This is a collection of essays by Douglas Preston that all deal with actual mysteries he explored as a journalist, and which he later used as the bases for much of his thriller fiction (several written with James Patterson). He writes non-fiction as compellingly as his thrillers, for example the book length story of an expedition that locates a long-lost kingdom in the unexplored jungles of Honduras, The Lost City of the Monkey God. 

Publishers Weekly praises this work and offers brief summaries of some of the selections: "in this gripping compendium of his journalistic work, much of which was previously published in the New Yorker. Selections include the masterful "Monster of Florence," in which Preston and an Italian crime journalist attempt to identify a serial killer who claimed 14 victims in the 1970s and '80s, and Preston himself gets accused of complicity in the murders. "The Skiers at Dead Mountain" is another highlight, and has a more satisfying ending: Preston provides a persuasive explanation for the "apparently inexplicable" mass deaths of skiers in Russia's Ural Mountains in 1959, which some attributed to a murderous yeti. There are also intriguing natural puzzles, such as "The Mystery of Hell Creek," about a graveyard in North Dakota containing animals killed by the asteroid that wiped out the dinosaurs. " Booklist concludes, "Though these are all republished from earlier work, the pieces are so good and the reporting so thorough that The Lost Tomb is a worthy addition to library collections."

An Evil Eye

I quite liked the other books by Jason Goodwin featuring Investigator Yashim: The Janissary Tree, The Snake Stone, and The Bellini Card.  This 4th installment in the series, however, I found to be extremely confusing and convoluted. We still get to deal with our two main characters, the eunuch Investigator Yashim and his friend, Palewski, the Polish ambassador to the Ottoman Empire. And the flavor of Istanbul is still rich although a map would have been tremendously helpful. We get glimpses into Yashim culinary skills once again and his diplomatic skills are on display throughout. We also get a chunk of Yashim's background that is new.  Even having read the 3 previous books, I found it hard to follow and The Historical Novel Society agrees, saying "I quickly discovered the need to have read the previous three novels to fully understand the author’s tale.As it stands, I had limited success. I also found the number of subplots and characters to be far too numerous for even the most ambitious reader to digest. I still wish to stand with Yashim as he searches for truth, but reading the series in sequence may be required."

The Washington Post has this to offer: "In "An Evil Eye," Goodwin's fourth novel, Yashim's world is the decaying Ottoman Empire of the early 19th century. The year is 1839, and a new sultan, Abdulmecid, has replaced the old one in Istanbul. In the novel's most atmospheric, least realized subplot, this change in monarchs occasions a corresponding change in the monarch's harem. In an echo of Goodwin's first book, "The Janissary Tree" (2006), the sultan's harem also contains a mystery that will eventually involve our detective. But in "An Evil Eye," the more immediate puzzle is posed by a dead body found on the island of Chalki in the well of the monastery....The complicated plot that unfolds is deftly controlled throughout, with dangers, chases, intrigues and frequent trips back to the harem. Goodwin’s prose is sharp and surprising..." Publishers Weekly notes in their review that "While Goodwin excels at plotting, the book's main strength lies in the assured depiction of a nation restrained by a corrupt leadership far removed from the old traditions of transparency and justice." Booklist offers a positive review "Goodwin continues to create historical mysteries with A-quality plots, excellent historical detail, and a strong sense of place, conveyed through vivid description of the sights, sounds, and foods of Istanbul. Series newcomers won't have a hard time picking up the backstory here, and established fans will be thrilled to see that Goodwin is still at the top of his game..."