Fiction by Marie Benedict
In 1926, mystery novelist Agatha Christie disappeared for eleven days, sparking a huge scandal, only to return unharmed without much public explanation. This is a historical fact, but what actually happened to Mrs. Christie during that time is a mystery.
In this book, author Marie Benedict puts forth her ideas about what really happened during those eleven days. It's pretty good.
I also read by this author: The Personal Librarian
Fiction by Adrian McKitry
Fiction by Howard Norman
It's 1918 in Nova Scotia. "Come to the window," says Elizabeth Frame to her new husband, as she stands in the moonlight looking from their honeymoon hotel room. She has seen a whale beach itself and finds the sight moving, but her husband doesn't come to look at it. So... she shoots him in the head.
Wait, what?
Yes, this is a weird book. I didn't really like it.
Fiction by Justin Pick
This book is set in 1998; technically, I'd say that's historical fiction, although it pains me to admit it.
In the story an eighteen-year-old boy called Liam Donohue goes to the police station to confess murder, and insists on telling a long convoluted story about it. A long-suffering detective listens to the whole thing with measured skepticism.
It's hard to tell what's real and what is imagined in Liam's recollections, so the detective isn't wrong to suspect his veracity. The reader also cannot be sure of the truth, and indeed the plot stretches believability quite a bit. The ending is definitely a surprise.
It was a pretty good story but I didn't love it.
Amazon Prime Kindle Fiction by Jess Lourey
This is the first book in the "Steinbeck and Reed" series and it's definitely hooked me to read the next one.
Detective Evangeline "Van" Reed works in the cold case division of the Minnesota BCA (Bureau of Criminal Apprehension) and volunteers at the animal shelter in her spare time. Van is a former Minneapolis police officer who operates strongly on hunches, many of which are uncannily correct. In this story she is assigned to reopen the case of "The Taken Ones," a pair of little girls who disappeared in the woods of suburban Minneapolis in 1980. She enlists the help of colleague Harry Steinbeck, who is a by-the-book man opposite her in temperament. Surprisingly, they work well together.
This was an exciting mystery with good characters and several surprises.
I also read recently (FREE!) from Amazon Prime Kindle: Don't Let Her Stay
Fiction by Sadie Jones
Bea Adamson and her husband Dan are a young married couple who decide to leave their home in England for a few months to travel in Europe, subletting their flat and using their small savings. The plan is for Bea (who loves her job) to take a leave of absence and for Dan (who loathes his job) to quit and find a new job when they return.
But first they stop in France to see the hotel that Bea's brother Alex is running, and right away there is a problem. The hotel is still "under renovation," and Alex is clearly incapable of managing it. It's literally just a property that Alex's father has purchased to keep Alex occupied. And so Dan begins to realize the extent of his wife's family's wealth: they are the kind of rich people who can buy a hotel in France for their son to play around with.
The fact of the Adamson's extreme wealth boggles Dan's mind and puts Bea on the defensive. She has always refused to accept any money from her father, whom she sees at best as corrupt (and at worst as a criminal), and maintains that her family's financial status has nothing to do with herself and Dan. Still the fact that the money exists begins to drive a wedge between the two of them. And then tragedy strikes.
This was an interesting story with great characters that gives the reader a lot to think about. The ending was terrible, however.
Fiction by Ken Follett
Ken Follet began writing about British history with the book The Pillars of the Earth, (set in 12th century) and continued in the rest of the Kingsbridge series to explore several other eras. Now he's going WAY back, to the time of Stonehenge.
It is a testament to this author's genius that he can write a story about primitive humans and make the characters just as compelling and real as modern people. This book is amazingly good.
I also read recently by this author: The Armor of Light
Fiction by Catherine Ryan Howard
At the beginning of this novel, a young woman is killed by the Grand Canal in Dublin in the same manner as five women had been similarly murdered ten years ago. But Will Hurley, the man convicted of those crimes, is still locked in the city's Central Psychiatric Hospital. Is this a copycat crime? Or was Will innocent all along?
Will's ex-girlfriend Allison has been living in the Netherlands since his arrest and conviction, trying to forget she had ever known him. But then the Garda call her back to Ireland to help with the case, and she is swept up again...
This was a very exciting story with a big twist at the end!
Fiction by Lisa Scottoline
In this story, defense lawyer Bennie Rosato takes on a case, pro bono, that is nearly sure to lose because she feels bad for the defendant. This is not how she usually operates.
Twenty-five year-old Jason Lefkavik is accused of murdering his lifelong nemesis in a deserted alley after a very public bar fight. His defense (I just woke up with a knife in my hand and he was already dead!) is very weak and the evidence against him is strong. But Bennie feels like she failed Jason when he was a juvenile offender thirteen years before and is determined to help.
This was a good legal thriller with a surprise ending.
Fiction by Jesse Q. Sutanto
This is an interesting story about an obsessive friendship between Thalia and Jane. Or at least, it's obsessive on Jane's part; even though the two women haven't seen each other for nearly ten years --since they took creative writing together at Oxford-- Jane is still missing Thalia. So when she realizes that Thalia will be a thriller writer's convention in New Your City, Jane is determined to go.
This was an exciting thriller with several surprises.
Fiction by Helen Phillips
Molly is a mother of two young children and a paleobotanist, and she's having trouble juggling both roles but still mostly managing. Then her husband has to go away for a week and she hears an intruder in the house one evening. Or is she imagining it?
The beginning of this story was good and grabbed my attention. I was sometimes not sure what was real and what was not. The plot was interesting but also very strange. I did not like the ending at all, but the whole thing was certainly thought-provoking. It would be fun to discuss in a book club.
Amazon Prime Kindle Fiction by Nicola Sanders
Joanne and her husband Richard are getting settled in their new house with their new baby Evie when Richard's grown daughter Chloe comes to stay. Chloe acts super sweet in front of her father, but when he is not looking she is perfectly hateful towards Joanne. Still Chloe is allowed to stay and even babysit Evie, which the reader can see is obviously a terrible idea.
This book gave me such a case of "Oh-No-I-Can't-Look-Syndrome" ** that I seriously had to skip the whole middle. Joanne could definitely have put her foot down and stopped the whole thing. The end was an interesting twist, but the book was mostly painful to read.
I also read recently (FREE!) from Amazon Prime Kindle: Please Don't Lie
**Oh-No-I-Can't-Look Syndrome
(see The Truth About the Devlins by Lisa Scottoline)
That's when you know a main character is making a major error in judgement that's going to have huge and terrible consequences.
Fiction by Jesse Q. Sutanto
Vera Wong is an old Chinese lady who runs a teashop and is smarter than almost everyone else. At least, according to her own opinion she is. So when she finds a dead man in her tea shop one morning, she already knows that she will be better at solving the murder case than the police.
This was a fun and lighthearted mystery. It was a little too slow for an audiobook.
I also read by this author: Dial A For Aunties
Fiction by Catherine Ryan Howard
Adele is an Irish actress, but she's trying to make it in Los Angeles after a wrong decision burned her career back on the Emerald Isle. It's not going well in the USA, so when she gets a last minute offer for a low budget horror film back in Ireland, she decides to take it. And she wants to take it quickly, before any rumor of her previous on-set breakdown gets to the new director. But when Adele gets to the remote location, it's more remote than she'd bargained for. Plus the director is giving her a weird vibe...
This was an exciting page-turner of a thriller with several surprises!
I also read recently by this author: 56 Days
Fiction by Adrian McKitry
This a revenge story, and those kinds of novels can be quite dark. In this book a female detective from Cuba risks everything to try to hunt down and punish her father's killer.
The characters were well-drawn and believable and the story was interesting, but it was just SO dark. And it didn't seem like anyone was satisfied at the end.
I also read recently by this author: The Chain
This was a fun memoir about a comedian reminiscing about his childhood while recovering from a a major depression.
One thing I really liked about it was how the author recounted exact details of the circumstances and set-up for great punchlines he made over twenty-five years ago. I'm glad to not be the only one who does that!
Fiction by Colson Whitehead
Fiction by Shelby Van Pelt
I tried reading this book in print several years ago and couldn't get into it, but I heard people raving about the audio version. I decided to give it a another chance with the slightly different medium.
Interestingly, I liked it much better in the audiobook version. It's a weird premise: the narrator is an octopus, and that's the reason I was hesitant at first. But actually, the octopus is only one of the narrators. There's also Nova, the woman who cleans the aquarium at night where Marcellus the octopus lives, and Cameron, a young man who comes to visit the aquarium while searching for his father.
This turned out to be a fun book.
Fiction by Catherine Ryan Howard
56 days ago, Ciara met Oliver at the Tesco and struck up a conversation. Today a dead body has been found in an apartment. In between the two events the whole of Ireland has been shut down for the COVID-19 pandemic.
This was an exciting story with several twists. I really recommend it!!
I also read recently by this author: The Trap
Fiction by Elyssa Friedland
This was a fun little story about an extended family taking a cruise together at the behest of the matriarch. The Feldmans love each other, but they don't always like each other, and there is more than one secret threatening to be revealed during the trip.
Fiction by Tony Hillerman
Fiction by Catherine Ryan Howard
This was an exciting thriller with several surprises and a twist!
Fiction by Adrian McKinty
Thirteen-year-old Kylie is waiting for the school bus when she's abducted at gunpoint. Her mother Rachel receives a ransom call, but the kidnappers don't just want money for Kylie's return. They also want Rachel to join The Chain and kidnap another person's child...
This was a super exciting thriller with several surprises!
Fiction by Catherine Ryan Hyde
Walter is a soldier killed on a Pacific island during World War Two; Michael is a pot farmer in the early 1980's. What could connect these two? It's definitely weird.
This was a strange story from an author I usually love. The characters were pretty good in this book, but it's not nearly as compelling as her other books.
Fiction by John Marrs
This was an exciting thriller but it definitely stretched the limits of believability almost to breaking, and was populated with believable but unlikeable characters.
It begins with a woman literally trapped under the village bonfire on Guy Fawkes Day with a voice in her ear saying, "You killed me first..."
I also read recently by this author: The Family Experiment
