Deeper than the Dead

 Fiction by Tami Hoag

https://www.barnesandnoble.com

It’s 1985, and a serial killer is stalking the small town of Oak Knoll, California. Detective Tony Mendez is sure of it, but his supervisor Sheriff Dixon is hesitant to label the murders that way and possibly bring in the FBI. But Tony has a friend in the Bureau who takes an interest in the case, and Agent Vince Leone comes to town on an unofficial basis. Will they be able to solve the case and stop the killer before he strikes again?

This is the first book in the Oak Knoll series, of which I recently read the last.(See below.) It was an exciting mystery thriller with several surprises. Now I have to find the book in between!

I also read by this author: Down the Darkest Road

gods in alabama

 Fiction by Joshilyn Jackson

https://www.barnesandnoble.com

This book was published in 2005 and I have read it before, but I didn't remember exactly what had happened. Some characters in it were mentioned in the book Backseat Saints (see below), and I decided to go back and read this one again. The only thing I remembered was that the title had seemed problematic; anything referencing "gods" plural is not a great concept for Southern religious girls like me. But I also remembered that the title didn't refer to actual paganism...

Arlene Fleet begins her story by saying that there are gods in Alabama other than the God worshipped in Alabama churches, and football heroes are an example of that. But Arlene had killed one of those little-g gods, and made a deal with the big-g God in hopes of getting away with it. She promised God that she would never again lie, fornicate, or set foot in her hometown of Posset, Alabama. But then Posset, Alabama, came to her in form of her old schoolmate Rose Mae Lolley.

This was a great story with believable characters. I still think the title could use a tweak for the Southern audience though...

I also read by this author: Backseat Saints

The Secret Book of Flora Lea

 Fiction by Patti Callahan Henry

https://www.barnesandnoble.com

In 1939 London, war is raging and bombs are falling. Parents are strongly encouraged by the British government to send their children away from the city where they will be safe. Hazel and Flora, ages fourteen and five, are sent to Oxfordshire, where they are well-treated by the Aberdeen family but still miss their mum terribly. For comfort, Hazel invents a fairytale story of the magical world of Whisperwood. Together, the girls play a secret make-believe game where they visit Whisperwood and have adventures. 

But one day Flora is left alone by the river and disappears! Hazel blames herself, and the police blame the Aberdeens, but eventually everyone concludes that poor Flora must have drowned. Twenty years later, Hazel is working in a book shop and discovers that a woman in America has published a children's book all about the magical land of Whisperwood! Could Flora be alive after all?

This was a good story with lovely characters. I didn't love it as much as I wanted to though.

I also read by this author: Once Upon a Wardrobe

The Book of Etta

 Fiction by Meg Elison

https://www.audible.com

This book is the sequel to The Book of the Unnamed Midwife. It continues the story of the post-apocalyptic world where the population had been almost wiped out about a hundred years before by a plague that still threatens the human race, especially the women.

The city of Nowhere, the place where the Unnamed Midwife had taken refuge, is surviving, but there are at least ten men for every woman still. Women who have borne a living child are revered, but many still die in childbed fever. Raiders from Nowhere go out to find Old World goods, and to rescue women and girls from slave traders around the country, and Etta is one of those raiders.

This was an exciting continuation of the tale begun in the first book. The story does get darker and more brutal though. There is one more book in the series that I plan to listen to next.

I also read by this author: Find Layla

Broken Country

 Fiction by Clare Leslie Hall

https://www.barnesandnoble.com

In 1968, Beth and her husband Frank are living in tenuous peace on their farm in England, having only partially recovered from the death of their nine-year-old son Bobby a couple of years ago. But then Beth’s first love Gabriel Wolfe returns to town, bringing his own son Leo who reminds Beth strongly of her lost Bobby. 

Beth is first drawn by the motherless boy, but it soon becomes clear that she never stopped loving Gabriel. In the clash between Beth’s love for two men, tragedy ensues, and the story slips back and forth into the past and present, and on to a murder trial in 1969. But which of the men is dead, and who is the killer?

This was an interesting historical novel with good characters. 

Rabbits for Food

 Fiction by Binnie Kirschenbaum

https://www.barnesandnoble.com

At the beginning of this book, a woman (possibly named Bunny) is institutionalized after a long slide of depression followed by a violent breakdown. She is refusing treatment.

A few chapters in, I realized that reading the chronicle of her spiraling decline might devastate me beyond repair, and I had to stop reading. Maybe the author should take it as a compliment that her prose affected me so...

I'm logging the book here as a Did Not Finish so I don't accidentally try to read it again.

When the Moon Hits Your Eye

Audible Original Fiction by John Scalzi

https://www.audible.com

What if the moon turned into cheese? LITERALLY?!

There's the premise of this strange book, which is funny and very odd. The story jumps around to different characters and how the moon-change affects them personally. At first I was slightly annoyed by how the characters kept switching out --just when I'd gotten interested in a character, he/she would be unceremoniously dropped and a new one would be introduced-- but after a while I got used to it. I decided to treat the book like a series of connected short stories.

The ending was a surprise!

I also read by this author: Head On

I also listened to from Audible Originals: Hitch Hikers