Books Read in 2023: Three-Star Mystery

I want to thank everyone for their kind comments on the last post while also acknowledging that I was feeling insecure and probably sounded a little bit compliment-fishy.

It is a funny stretch of days right now. The days between Christmas and New Year's are always a little bit marshy and strange. Angus and I worked on our puzzle a little bit every day which was a nice way to punctuate all the reading and get me out of my room. My sister's family came for New Year's instead of Christmas because my niece is doing a master's in the UK right now and they didn't want to make her get in the car for a six-hour drive the second she got home. So it was also a nice way to rouse ourselves for a little more family time. Angus left on the 2nd because he had been invited by his undergrad college to go to the coaching conference he went to last year with his friend who also coaches the team. 

Eve and I went over and had lunch with my mom and dad and sister's family yesterday and then went to the mall to replace her beige t-shirt bra that desperately needed replacing, and go to Sephora to replace her eyebrow gel ("I'm a girl with a lot of brow") and spend a little Christmas money. We also bought popcorn at Kernels so we could come home and have popcorn while watching the silly movie we'd been meaning to watch all break (Family Switch - so dumb, so funny). Eve and my niece Charlotte are so fun to watch together and have such a great time. Charlotte is hysterically funny, and made up a poem about everybody in the family's birthdays that I wish we had recorded because we were all on the floor by the end (the only line I remember is "my Poppa's birthday is September 23rd/ *whistle* *whistle* *whistle* - that's a bird". She is also a very out-and-proud lesbian, and I take great delight in shopping for presents for her. After I gave her a throw pillow with a rainbow 'homosexu-whale' on it (which she loved), I said that I would on some occasion buy her something that was not directly related to her sexual orientation.

This was not that occasion:

Today it is finally sunny and a little bit of snow fell, and Eve went out to run errands and brought me a chai latte, and is now reading Bluebeard's Egg on the couch while I type on the kitchen table. The book is for the lit course she has this term, taught by my old professor, and the book is mine, AND she just found a McMaster University Bookstore on the back, so this is all kinds of feel-good full-circle shit.

Three-Star Mystery

I really try to be more selective then previously when reading mysteries, because a really great mystery is still a really great mystery, and I think the best mystery novels resonate with the way we all search for meaning and answers in so many ways. But when you've read a lot of mysteries, there are some tropes that start to lose their freshness, and you can be surprised, but it takes a little more. So all of these books have the potential to be great reads to someone who hasn't squeezed the mystery genre like an orange.

Killers of a Certain Age by Dianna Raybourn: Synopsis from Goodreads: Older women often feel invisible, but sometimes that's their secret weapon.

They've spent their lives as the deadliest assassins in a clandestine international organization, but now that they're sixty years old, four women friends can't just retire - it's kill or be killed in this action-packed thriller.
Billie, Mary Alice, Helen, and Natalie have worked for the Museum, an elite network of assassins, for forty years. Now their talents are considered old-school and no one appreciates what they have to offer in an age that relies more on technology than people skills.
When the foursome is sent on an all-expenses paid vacation to mark their retirement, they are targeted by one of their own. Only the Board, the top-level members of the Museum, can order the termination of field agents, and the women realize they've been marked for death.
Now to get out alive they have to turn against their own organization, relying on experience and each other to get the job done, knowing that working together is the secret to their survival. They're about to teach the Board what it really means to be a woman--and a killer--of a certain age.

-”They both shrug. ‘Pretty, yes,’ Gilchrist admits. ‘Beautiful even. But she’s what we Canadians call a Winnipeg winter.’

‘A Winnipeg winter?’

‘Great natural beauty but capable of freezing your dick off if you’re stupid enough to get naked,’ Sweeney explains. He surveys Billie with a practiced eye. ‘Of course, you would just –’

Billie holds up a hand. ‘Never mind. I don’t want to know. Coffee is brewing.’”

I was a little disappointed by this, after thinking this was a killer concept. I just wanted something a little more gritty, and I felt like instead of Helen Mirren I got - okay, never mind, I don't want to insult some lesser actress than Helen Mirren. Instead of a big-budget blockbuster this was more like a movie-of-the-week. No delving into the questionable ethics of only assassinating people some shadowy entity deems 'evil'. No chewy internal monologues. The motivations are shallow, the dialogue is phoned-in, the one love story is laughably cheesy and instant. I slightly regretted spending my first reading hours of 2023 on this one, although I'm sure it would be a fun time-passer in another context.

Never Saw Me Coming by Vera Kurian: Synopsis from Goodreads: Meet Chloe Sevre. She’s a freshman honor student, a leggings-wearing hot girl next door, who also happens to be a psychopath. Her hobbies include yogalates, frat parties, and plotting to kill Will Bachman, a childhood friend who grievously wronged her.

Chloe is one of seven students at her DC-based college who are part of an unusual clinical study for psychopaths—students like herself who lack empathy and can’t comprehend emotions like fear or guilt. The study, led by a renowned psychologist, requires them to wear smart watches that track their moods and movements.

When one of the students in the study is found murdered in the psychology building, a dangerous game of cat and mouse begins, and Chloe goes from hunter to prey. As she races to identify the killer and put her own plan into action, she’ll be forced to decide if she can trust any of her fellow psychopaths—and everybody knows you should never trust a psychopath.

-”Is it slutty to be messaging one boy when you are on the way to meet another? Maybe not if you’re planning on killing one of them.”

-”What a dumb name – Daisy. That sounds exactly like someone who would kill themselves instead of carefully plotting a way to destroy their enemies.”

A little messy and possibly doesn't adhere closely enough to true psychopathic personalities in the characters, but interesting with some good twists and black humour. I felt like one of the characters' secrets was underused and the story overall could have used some tightening.

Rise the Dark (Mark Novak #2) by Michael Koryta: Synopsis from Goodreads: Rise the dark. These were the last words written in Lauren Novak's notebook before she was murdered in a strange Florida village. They've never meant anything to the police or to her husband, investigator Markus Novak. Now the man he believes killed her is out of prison, and draws Markus to the place he's avoided for so long: the lonely road where his wife was shot to death beneath the cypress trees and Spanish moss in a town called Cassadaga.

In Red Lodge, Montana, a senseless act of vandalism shuts the lights off in the town where Sabrina Baldwin is still trying to adjust to a new home and mourning the loss of her brother, who was a high voltage linesman just like her husband, Jay. As the spring's final snowstorm calls Jay deeper into the mountains, chasing the destruction on the electrical grid, Sabrina is abducted by Garland Webb, the man Markus Novak believes killed his wife. Drawing them all together is a messianic villain who understands that you can never outpace your past. You can only rise against the future.

Well-plotted and paced mystery/thriller. Possibly suffered by comparison to the previous book which was really good. I was and remain baffled about how the protagonist has no idea who killed his wife in the previous book (not a spoiler, right in the jacket copy) and now suddenly does, with no explanation why. Unless I missed something, this seems like a really weird choice. There are some good female characters and the writing is good, even if the villains often read like something out of central casting.

A Sorrow Called Sarah by Charlotte Roddy: Synopsis from Goodreads: The oldest secrets are the deadliest.

Sarah Hopewell had it all—popular student, loving sister, her parents’ favorite child. Until, weeks before her high school graduation, Sarah vanished from her San Francisco home. An infamous serial killer was convicted of her murder. Justice was served. Or was it?
Fifteen years later, Sarah’s younger sister embarks on a dangerous mission to finally confront her beloved sister’s killer. But as she begins uncovering secrets that threaten to tear her world apart, the bodies of young women start turning up in Golden Gate Park. All of them have dark hair and blue eyes.
All of them look just like Sarah…

-”’Welcome to my house. This is my opioid addicted mother. I don’t think you’ll get a chance to meet my workaholic dad. He never really comes home anymore. Then there’s my brother, Robert. But you don’t have to worry about meeting him. He’s been committed to a mental institution for years after decapitating the neighbor’s dog. So, do you want me to heat up some mac and cheese?’”

Free Kindle read, which I picked up even though the melodramatic title gave me pause. Not terrible, not great. The first bit with the younger sister and the serial killer had me rolling my eyes and about to DNF - completely formulaic, the charming, snarky psychopath and the victim's relative obliging with tears and fury and asking questions that predictably don't get answered.

After this it shifts gears a little and becomes more readable, although never lifts itself above usual thriller fare. There are some twists that are pretty well done. 

The writing is pedestrian - the main character 'screams', 'almost screams', 'tries to keep from screaming' her words much too often. A character who claims to have been in love with Sarah says "she came onto ME", "she was everything in the world to me", and a solitary tear rolls down his cheek. The sections about the mysterious killer dwelling on his connection with the victims are repellent but, again, not groundbreaking. In all fairness, much better than several free reads I read early on in my Kindle experience.

The Kind Worth Killing (Henry Kimble/Lily Kintner #1) by Peter Swanson: Synopsis from Goodreads: A devious tale of psychological suspense involving sex, deception, and an accidental encounter that leads to murder. Fans of Paula Hawkins’ The Girl on the Train will love this modern reimagining of Patricia Highsmith’s classic Strangers on a Train from the author of the acclaimed The Girl with a Clock for a Heart—which the Washington Post said “should be a contender for crime fiction’s best first novel of 2014.”

On a night flight from London to Boston, Ted Severson meets the stunning and mysterious Lily Kintner. Sharing one too many martinis, the strangers begin to play a game of truth, revealing very intimate details about themselves. Ted talks about his marriage that’s going stale and his wife Miranda, who he’s sure is cheating on him. Ted and his wife were a mismatch from the start—he the rich businessman, she the artistic free spirit—a contrast that once inflamed their passion, but has now become a cliché.
But their game turns a little darker when Ted jokes that he could kill Miranda for what she’s done. Lily, without missing a beat, says calmly, “I’d like to help.” After all, some people are the kind worth killing, like a lying, stinking, cheating spouse. . 

-”He wasn’t the only houseguest that summer. In fact, there was never only one guest at Monk’s House, especially in summertime, when my parents’ teaching duties died down and they could focus on what they truly loved – drinking and adultery. I don’t say that in order to make some sort of tragedy of my childhood. I say it because it’s the truth.”

There's something about Swanson's writing that I don't love, so my review should be taken with a grain of salt. This was well-plotted and did something I didn't foresee halfway through. Swanson may not be for me, but I can see why he's popular.

All Good People Here by Ashley Flowers: Synopsis from Goodreads: Everyone from Wakarusa, Indiana, remembers the case of January Jacobs, who was found dead in a ditch hours after her family awoke to find her gone. Margot Davies was six at the time, the same age as January—and they were next-door neighbors. In the twenty years since, Margot has grown up, moved away, and become a big-city journalist, but she’s always been haunted by the fear that it could’ve been her. And the worst part is, January’s killer has never been brought to justice.

When Margot returns home to help care for her sick uncle, it feels like walking into a time capsule. Wakarusa is exactly how she remembered: genial, stifled, secretive. Then news breaks about five-year-old Natalie Clark from the next town over, who’s gone missing under eerily similar circumstances. With all the old feelings rushing back, Margot vows to find Natalie and solve January’s murder once and for all.
But the police, the family, the townspeople—they all seem to be hiding something. And the deeper Margot digs into Natalie’s disappearance, the more resistance she encounters, and the colder January’s case feels. Could the killer still be out there? Could it be the same person who kidnapped Natalie? And what will it cost to finally discover what truly happened that night?

Not bad. An insular small-town setting can really add depth to a mystery. The details about the protagonist's relationship with her uncle who is descending into dementia, and the mother who was finding her marriage stifling even before the tragedy, would have made a fine book on their own. They've stuck in my mind more than the details of the actual mystery. The abruptness of the ending was a really curious choice, in my opinion.

Before She Finds Me by Heather Chavez: Synopsis from Goodreads: Julia Bennett has worked hard to create a stable life for her daughter, Cora, in Southern California. So when Cora leaves for college, the worst thing Julia expects on move-in day is an argument with her ex-husband and his new wife. But a sudden attack leaves the campus stunned—and only Julia’s quick actions save Cora’s life. Shaken in the aftermath, and haunted by a dark secret, Julia starts to wonder: What if the attack wasn’t as random as everyone believes?

Newly pregnant Ren Petrovic has an unusual career—she’s a trained assassin, operating under a strict moral code. Ren wasn’t on campus that day, but she knows who was: her husband, Nolan. What she doesn’t know is why Nolan has broken their rules by not telling her about the job in advance. The more Ren looks into the attack, the more she begins to question: Who really hired Nolan? And why did one woman in the crowd respond so differently from all the rest?

I really have no well-defined reason for why this was a three and not a four. It was an interesting concept, had two strong female leads, and the writing was fine - good, even. I've been up for a story about a pregnant assassin with a moral code ever since Kill Bill. I found the pacing lagged a bit in the second half, but many people loved it, so I am an outlier.

The Bones of the Story by Carol Goodman: Synopsis from Goodreads: It’s been twenty-five years since the shocking disappearance of a female student and the distinguished Creative Writing professor who died while searching for her. The Briarwood College community has never forgotten the terrible storm that caused the double tragedy. Now, the college President—who has his own reasons for drawing attention to the notorious incident—is bringing together faculty, donors, and alumni to honor the victims from all those years ago.

On a cold December weekend after the fall semester has ended, guests gather on the vacant campus for the commemoratory event. But as a winter storm descends, people begin to depart, leaving a group of alumni who were the last ones taught by the esteemed professor. Recriminations and old rivalries flare as they recall the writing projects they shared as classmates, including chilling horror stories they each wrote about their greatest fears.
When an alumna dies in a shockingly similar way to the story she wrote, and then another succumbs to a similar fate, they realize someone has decided at long last to avenge the crimes of the past. Will the secret of what they did twenty-five years ago be revealed? Will any of them be alive at the end of the weekend to find out?

Oh, I was hoping to love this. Dark academia! Stranded by a snowstorm (one trope of which I never tire)! Descriptions of beautiful old college buildings! Technically probably three-and-a-half stars, because I think it was good, just not as good as I was hoping for. The setting was flawless. The rendering of cut-throat academia and the heady and turbulent experience of being a young, idealistic student with lofty aspirations were really good. The descriptions of how Nell felt about the income and social class disparities between her and the other students were good, if a bit formulaic. It tended a bit to the overly dramatic for my taste and strained the bonds of credulity even more than the average murder mystery (and I am not a stickler for verisimilitude or realism - my belief fairly BEGS to be willingly suspended). 

Dark Corners (Rachel Krall #2) by Megan Goldin: Synopsis from Goodreads: Terence Bailey is about to be released from prison for breaking and entering, though investigators have long suspected him in the murders of six women. As his freedom approaches, Bailey gets a surprise visit from Maddison Logan, a hot, young influencer with a huge social media following. Hours later, Maddison disappears, and police suspect she’s been kidnapped—or worse. Is Maddison’s disappearance connected to her visit to Bailey? Why was she visiting him in the first place?

When they hit a wall in the investigation, the FBI reluctantly asks for Rachel’s help in finding the missing influencer. Maddison seems only to exist on social media; she has no family, no friends, and other than in her posts, most people have never seen her. Who is she, really? Using a fake Instagram account, Rachel Krall goes undercover to BuzzCon, a popular influencer conference, where she discovers a world of fierce rivalry that may have turned lethal.
When police find the body of a woman with a tattoo of a snake eating its tail, the FBI must consider a chilling possibility: Bailey has an accomplice on the outside and a dangerous obsession with influencers, including Rachel Krell herself. Suddenly a target of a monster hiding in plain sight, Rachel is forced to confront the very real dangers that lurk in the dark corners of the internet.

Here it is, I thought, a follow-up to The Night Swim, surely THIS will be the Megan Goldin I've been longing for. 

Well, sort of. I think in The Night Swim, if I'm remembering it correctly (entirely possible I'm not and have just thrown some golden filter over it for whatever reason), there was more attention paid to the victim of the crime and less to Rachel Krall herself. 

Is anyone else kind of tired of hearing about the female protagonist's 'delicate beauty'? If I go the rest of my life without reading about some chick's burnished gold hair or sky-blue eyes, I'll be happy. Oh, and since she's a podcaster, naturally her voice is dead sexy - because getting turned on while listening to descriptions of serial killers is totally normal and not at all off-putting. Shouldn't the emphasis be on the podcaster's research skills and professionalism? The most interesting characters, in my experience, don't tend to be conventionally attractive, and the more her looks were described the less engaging she became.

The plot was perfectly serviceable, and I didn't figure out how it would all turn out, and in fact I think there WAS a thread of the socioeconomic commentary that I loved in The Night Swim. I wonder if Goldin was pressured to up the sexy factor of the main character for more mainstream appeal or something. 

The Whispers by Ashley Audrain: Synopsis from Goodreads: From the author of THE PUSH, a pageturner about four suburban families whose lives are changed when the unthinkable happens--and what is lost when good people make unconscionable choices.

The Loverlys sit by the hospital bed of their young son who is in a coma after falling from his bedroom window in the middle of the night; his mother, Whitney, will not speak to anyone. Back home, their friends and neighbors are left in shock, each confronting their own role in the events that led up to what happened that terrible night: the warm, altruistic Parks who are the Loverlys' best friends; the young, ambitious Goldsmiths who are struggling to start a family of their own; and the quiet, elderly Portuguese couple who care for their adult son with a developmental disability, and who pass the long days on the front porch, watching their neighbors go about their busy lives.
The story spins out over the course of one week, in the alternating voices of the women in each family as they are forced to face the secrets within the walls of their own homes, and the uncomfortable truths that connect them all to one another. Set against the heartwrenching drama of what will happen to Xavier, who hangs between death and life, or a life changed forever, THE WHISPERS is a novel about what happens when we put our needs ahead of our children's. Exploring the quiet sacrifices of motherhood, the intuitions that we silence, the complexities of our closest friendships, and the danger of envy, this is a novel about the reverberations of life's most difficult decisions. 

-"The kitchen window is open and the echo of the city floats in. Albert is gone, and she's the only witness to the end, and it all feels impossibly unremarkable."

-"The way Blair has about her. How Chloe is so effortless to enjoy, their love synergistic. Sometimes Xavier feels to her like a gift given by someone who should know her better; something meant for her that feels nothing like her. Her heart hurts in the same way sometimes, of being misunderstood."

I did read Yellowface this year, and although I am not, and no longer aspire to be, a published author, I am intensely aware that some of my critique of this book and the hype around the author could definitely be ascribed to envy.

I might have been less underwhelmed by this if it had come before The Push rather than after. I read The Push almost against my better judgment, the plot-line sounded so off-putting. It absolutely was, but it was also pretty much the electrifying and expertly-written psychological roller-coaster ride it was touted as ("five stars but also one star because it was masterfully written but I hated it" was my review). This was much more a run-of-the-mill novel with some insights about motherhood and social dynamics that aren't bad but are much less incisive and merciless than in The Push. The writing is still very good.

 I just feel like the hype hasn't done Audrain any favours - apparently an international publisher referred to her as 'one of the biggest talents to have emerged this century' and that just raises the bar way too high. The way her path to being published is described sounds ever-so-slightly massaged - she had a child who was medically fragile, which meant she couldn't go back to work because of all the caregiving but somehow she did have time to get away and write (yes, I know, it's very possible she did find refuge in the writing. It's quite probably true, it just sounds a little contrived). She is beautiful and blond and her photo shows her dressed effortlessly in jeans and a blazer and a tucked-in white shirt (no shade here, just envy, she is beautiful, and also probably a publisher's dream (yes, that does sound like shade, but I think it's probably true)). So absolutely it makes sense that she put all that ambivalence about motherhood into a novel, with some generational trauma thrown in to boot. And that was always going to be a hard act to follow.

I did appreciate her writing about how complicated and conflicting the experience of of motherhood is for many women, and how people living in a neighbourhood can have no idea what goes on behind everyone else's doors. But I didn't at all have to read the final twist twice to believe it. The Push was a really great psychological thriller. This was just a good one, in my (not remotely objective) opinion.

Arsenic and Adobo (Tita Rosie's Kitchen Mystery #1) by Mia P. Manansala: Synopsis from Goodreads: The first book in a new culinary cozy series full of sharp humor and delectable dishes—one that might just be killer....

When Lila Macapagal moves back home to recover from a horrible breakup, her life seems to be following all the typical rom-com tropes. She's tasked with saving her Tita Rosie's failing restaurant, and she has to deal with a group of matchmaking aunties who shower her with love and judgment. But when a notoriously nasty food critic (who happens to be her ex-boyfriend) drops dead moments after a confrontation with Lila, her life quickly swerves from a Nora Ephron romp to an Agatha Christie case.

With the cops treating her like she's the one and only suspect, and the shady landlord looking to finally kick the Macapagal family out and resell the storefront, Lila's left with no choice but to conduct her own investigation. Armed with the nosy auntie network, her barista best bud, and her trusted Dachshund, Longanisa, Lila takes on this tasty, twisted case and soon finds her own neck on the chopping block…

-"All five wheeled around as one. I don't know if you've ever been stared down by an elderly Asian woman, but It. Is. Terrifying. Don't be fooled by the cute florals and jaunty visors -- these women will end you, wielding nothing but their sharp tongues, bony elbows and collapsible shopping carts."

Take this one with several grains of artisanal smoked salt, because I was probably never going to be the target audience for a culinary cozy. But I'm trying to read more women, and more POC authors, and I loved the title and the cover.

Even for a cozy, I found some of the reactions to people being killed and attacked odd. At one point the main character goes to meet someone for lunch, then finds out the person didn't show up because they were beaten into a coma. Then she goes to her friend's coffee shop and spends a few hours baking and just... forgets to tell anyone about the person in the coma? I mean, I'm as flighty as the next person, but that's weird, right?
I try really hard to be respectful of cultural differences, but the older members of the family being what sounded like flat-out abusive towards Lila got grating after a while, along with the cop being incredibly unprofessional, even for a small town.
The love interest(s) weren't really described in any kind of detail that made it clear why they were attractive to Lila other than being physically appealing and her having a "crush" on one.
Unlike some people, I had no issue with all the food descriptions - those were my favourite part. I'm not sure I'll continue with the series, but I will absolutely be taking a crack at making chicken adobo.