I forgot a couple of awesome things on yesterday's post. Two days ago was the anniversary of the day I signed up for my very first library and information science course, sixteen years ago. Eve had started kindergarten so both kids were in school, but Matt was still traveling a lot, so my plan was to work my way through the diploma online and lowly, a course or two at a time.
It mostly wasn't difficult - a lot of pretty basic writing - I got credit for a couple of courses from my Comp Lit degree. The Dewey Decimal course brought me to my knees, but that was not unusual. The course coordinator who I had to deal with fairly often did not seem like the sharpest knife in the drawer - once she told me that if I took more courses at a time I would finish the diploma sooner.
For a long time I wasn't sure I would ever have the confidence to apply for an actual job. For one of my placements I worked at my kids elementary school with the librarian I knew and was friends with, so that was a soft landing. I also did one at our local library branch, which was fun and more of a transition to working with people I didn't know.
Another happy anniversary was yesterday, which was when I did my first sub period at a school. It was stressful and I did a lot of things wrong, but I got books to the kids and nobody asked me to leave. My lovely husband drove me because it was far (I really wanted to get one shift under my belt) and I didn't know where I would park.
Also, the first shift was 8 years ago, and soon after that I got my first actual job. This means that, because I had done placements, it did not actually take me ten years to finish my diploma, which in my head it kind of did. That is still a long time for a two-year diploma and... no, screw it, I started the diploma even though I was scared, I finished the diploma and I got a job - I got five jobs, and I still have three (they are baby jobs).
Mystery/Thriller
The Chessmen (Lewis Trilogy #) by Peter May: Synopsis from Goodreads: Fin Macleod, now head of security on a privately owned Lewis estate, is charged with investigating a spate of illegal game-hunting taking place on the island. This mission reunites him with Whistler Macaskill—a local poacher, Fin's teenage intimate, and possessor of a long-buried secret. But when this reunion takes a violent, sinister turn, Fin realizes that revealing the truth could destroy the future.
-”As soon as he entered the cramped little space that was the cottage living room, Fin remembered the impression he had taken away from his last visit, a sense of manic and unmasculine tidiness.”
-”And in spite of himself he felt the stirrings of remembered lust deep in his loins.” (I assume it's due to the perimenopausal brainfog that I made a note here to reassure myself that I only copied this to remind myself to make fun of it)
I read the first in this trilogy in 2016 and the second at the beginning of last year. They are among the most vivid books I've ever read for sense of place (the Isle of Lewis in Scotland). The landscape is a character - harsh, tyrannical, and pitiless. People have either lived there their whole lives and are trapped and resigned, or they've gone away and ended up back there and are bitter. The past is filled with abuse and heartache and the present is full of anger and recrimination, and it's all very, very bleak. I'm not sorry I read this (all appearances to the contrary), but I'm sort of glad the series is over and I don't think I'll rush to start another series by this author.
We Solve Murders (We Solve Murders #1) by Richard Osman: Synopsis from Goodreads: Steve Wheeler is enjoying retired life. He does the odd bit of investigation work, but he prefers his familiar habits and routines: the pub quiz, his favorite bench, his cat waiting for him when he comes home. His days of adventure are over: adrenaline is daughter-in-law Amy’s business now.
Amy Wheeler thinks adrenaline is good for the soul. As a private security officer, she doesn’t stay still long enough for habits or routines. She’s currently on a remote island keeping world-famous author Rosie D’Antonio alive. Which was meant to be an easy job...
-Mr. Kenna,
I understand completely; these things happen. While I still have great faith in you, be assured that if Amy Wheeler is not dead within a week, you will be.
Warmest regards,
Francois Loubet
-”Steve is currently lying down in a darkened room. Some people just can’t handle twelve pints of Guinness.”
-”’Okay, how to play this.
‘I’m afraid that I have a rule,’ says Rosie. ‘I won’t have breakfast with anyone who wants to kill me.’
‘Lucky I don’t have the same rule,’ says the man. ‘I would never eat.”
This kind of book - a bunch of quirky characters who proceed to have madcap adventures all over the world - either works for me or really doesn't, and it's a fine line between one case and the other. This just worked - obviously Richard Osman writes a readable book, I'm not sure why I read this one now instead of the second another Thursday Murder Club. There were just enough grounding details, maybe - grief, past trauma. Or just the right time for a book where people meet other people who lessen their sadness and make their lives better, in between getting shot at and drinking a shit ton of Guinness.
The Christmas Jigsaw Murders (Edie O'Sullivan #1) by Alexandra Benedict: Synopsis from Goodreads: THIS CHRISTMAS, A KILLER TAKES FAMILY GAMES TO A MURDEROUS NEW LEVEL.
Edie contacts her nephew, DI Sean Brand-O’Sullivan, and together they work to solve the clues. But when a man is found near death with a jigsaw piece in his hand, Sean fears that Edie might be in danger and shuts her out of the investigation. As the body count rises, however, Edie knows that only she has the knowledge to put together the killer’s murderous puzzle.
-”December was the worst of months according to Edie O’Sullivan. It brought cold memories and darkness that soaked into her like winter mist. At this time of year, she was never more than a foot away from shadows.Not even four in the afternoon and day was submitting to night. Night – a dark, rearranged thing that dismisses the sun.”
-(Berkeley) “‘I should’ve guessed that a crossword setter would be good at using words to avoid saying what they really mean.’
‘What can I say? You know that internet thing, Am I the Asshole? Well, I don’t need to ask, because I am most definitely, at all times, the asshole.’”
I don't usually read cozy mysteries, or holiday-themed ones, but I accidentally read a book before Christmas that made me think maybe I could branch out a little. Then I decided to read this in January, which is just weird, but here we are. I started reading it and initially it was a little darker than I expected, but basically it was what I was looking for - I love a curmudgeonly old woman (particularly a British one) who thinks she's smarter than everyone else and is often right. Often the device of the criminal mastermind who leaves clues is just too dumb, but it worked here (also I am completely inconsistent in my judgment of this kind of thing and offer no apology).
Apparently this author writes many Christmas-themed mysteries but they are all standalones. I was kind of hoping for more Edie but am still going to read more - I was torn between waiting for the next Christmas or just mainlining them all in January, seasonal appropriateness be damned. Edited to add: I have now started another one in January, so this is just going to be a weird thing I do now, kind of like when Matt's mom got t-shirts made for everyone that said Merry Christmas in red and green and Matt kept wearing his all year round and I said "you think that makes you look quirky, don't you?". Edited again to add: there is another Edie book! Edited a third time to add that I started reading another one and thought that it was not quite as strong as this one, and then read a Publishers Weekly review that said that The Christmas Jigsaw Murders was a "stumble" on the part of the author. That was a little humbling for me.
Bluebird, Bluebird (Highway 59 #1) by Attica Locke: Synopsis from Goodreads: When it comes to law and order, East Texas plays by its own rules--a fact that Darren Mathews, a black Texas Ranger, knows all too well. Deeply ambivalent about growing up black in the lone star state, he was the first in his family to get as far away from Texas as he could. Until duty called him home.
When his allegiance to his roots puts his job in jeopardy, he travels up Highway 59 to the small town of Lark, where two murders--a black lawyer from Chicago and a local white woman--have stirred up a hornet's nest of resentment. Darren must solve the crimes--and save himself in the process--before Lark's long-simmering racial fault lines erupt.A rural noir suffused with the unique music, color, and nuance of East Texas, Bluebird, Bluebird is an exhilarating, timely novel about the collision of race and justice in America.
-”The men rarely stood on common ground – belying the trope of twins who think with one mind – but for the fact that they were Mathews men, a tribe going back generations in rural East Texas, black men for whom self-regard was both a natural state of being and a survival technique. His uncles adhered to those ancient rules of southern living, for they understood how easily a colored man’s general comportment could turn into a matter of life and death. Darren had always wanted to believe that theirs was the last generation to have to live that way, that change might trickle down from the White House.
When in fact the opposite had proved to be true.
In the wake of Obama, America had told on itself.”
-”’Pulled out the bayou on Friday, three days ago. Then the girl, washed up a quarter of a mile downstream just this morning.’
Odd, Darren thought.
Southern fables usually went the other way around: a white woman killed or harmed in some way, real or imagined, and then, like the moon follows the sun, a black man ends up dead. ‘What’s her cause of death?’ he asked.”
This was uncomfortably well done. The main character's intelligence, insight, and conflicts about his home and how he fits into the state and his family are rendered beautifully. Locke writes about racial tensions in the south in a manner that is articulate and instructive without being preachy. I was thinking this book series would make amazing television, and it turns out that not only is the series being developed for tv with Attica Locke writing and producing, but she has also written for tv shows including Empire, Little Fires Everywhere and When They See Us. And then I was impressed that she writes fiction so well, because sometimes when I read books written by television writers the dialogue is good but the connective tissue can be a bit lacking.
Fallen (Will Trent #5) by Karin Slaughter: Synopsis from Goodreads: There’s no police training stronger than a cop’s instinct. Faith Mitchell’s mother isn’t answering her phone. Her front door is open. There’s a bloodstain above the knob. Her infant daughter is hidden in a shed behind the house. All that the Georgia Bureau of Investigations taught Faith Mitchell goes out the window when she charges into her mother’s house, gun drawn. She sees a man dead in the laundry room. She sees a hostage situation in the bedroom. What she doesn’t see is her mother. . . .
Faith is left with too many questions and not enough answers. To find her mother, she’ll need the help of her partner, Will Trent, and they’ll both need the help of trauma doctor Sara Linton. But Faith isn’t just a cop anymore—she’s a witness. She’s also a suspect. The thin blue line hides police corruption, bribery, even murder. Faith will have to go up against the people she respects the most in order to find her mother and bring the truth to light—or bury it forever.-”Jeremy was three years old by then. She had grabbed onto the idea of joining the force as if it was the only life preserver left on the Titanic. Thanks to two minutes of poor judgment in the back of a movie theater and what foreshadowed a lifetime of breathtakingly bad taste in men, Faith had gone straight from puberty to motherhood without any of the usual stops in between.”
-”Dale smiled at her. There was some cheese lodged between his central and lateral incisors. Sara tried not to judge. Dale Dugan was a nice man. He wasn’t handsome, but he was okay-looking, with the sort of features many women found attractive once they’d learned he’d graduated from medical school. Sara was not as easily swayed.” (Piss off, Sara).
I still hate Sara Linton. I will always hate Sara Linton (Engie is not wrong), but this book was good, so dammit, what do I do now? I liked that this book revolved more around Faith, who I love in the book AND in the tv show, and Faith's mom, who, likewise. I think I will still be better off just watching the tv show (seriously you guys, it is SO good) and maybe any of these books that get really well reviewed. It offends the compleatist in me, but the book blogging community probably can't withstand my Sara Linton Bitching for twelve full consecutive books.
One Puzzling Afternoon by Emily Critchley: Synopsis from Goodreads: A mystery she can't remember. A friend she can't forget. I kept your secret Lucy. I've kept it for more than sixty years . . .
It is 1951, and at number six Sycamore Street fifteen-year-old Edie Green is lonely. Living alone with her eccentric mother - who conducts seances for the local Ludthorpe community - she is desperate for something to shake her from her dull, isolated life.When the popular, pretty Lucy Theddle befriends Edie, she thinks all her troubles are over. But Lucy has a secret, one Edie is not certain she should keep . . .
Then Lucy goes missing.
2018. Edie is eighty-four and still living in Ludthorpe. When one day she glimpses Lucy Theddle, still looking the same as she did at fifteen, her family write it off as one of her many mix ups. There's a lot Edie gets confused about these days. A lot she finds difficult to remember. But what she does know is this: she must find out what happened to Lucy, all those years ago . . .
-”There isn’t much to fill the papers with around here, especially judging by last week’s headline: ‘Chip Shop Uses Too Much Vinegar, Local Residents Complain.’”
-”When I first started riding the bicycle, it was far too big for me and, if I rode it to school, my father would lift me onto it outside the house, where I set off, wobbling along the road, praying I wouldn’t have to stop at the level crossing. If I did, I’d have to ask the signalman to put me back on.”
-”I wish I could stay forever in this kitchen with Ridi the doctor, the remnants of her busy family’s breakfast strewn all around us, the smell of toast, the warming mug of tea in my cold hands. But I know I can’t stay here forever. Someone is on their way and I suppose I’ll have to go soon. I want to ask Ridi who is coming and where I’ll be going, but perhaps it doesn’t matter. Perhaps it’s enough to be in this moment, in this warm, familiar yet unfamiliar kitchen, with this kind stranger.” (makes dementia sound heartwarming, like it leads to moments of whimsy and connection, but largely it doesn’t, does it?)
I do like the mystery in the past resurfacing in the future trope, but I had some doubts about a seventy-year lag time. Dementia can be dangerous as a device, risking being bent into shape to serve the plot. It was hard not being angered by Edie's son's reaction to her encroaching dementia, but it's likely a fairly realistic portrayal. The stifling atmosphere of rural England in the fifties is intense, as is the sense of the different socioeconomic statuses of Edie and the vivacious and privileged Lucy. The characterization of several female characters, all struggling with various dilemmas brought on by the way society marginalizes women, was very well done.
The Impossible Thing by Belinda Bauer: Synopsis from Goodreads: From the exceptionally original mind of CWA Gold Dagger Award winner and Booker longlisted author Belinda Bauer comes this sweeping tale of obsession, greed, ambition, and a crime that has remained unsolved for a hundred years. How do you find something that doesn’t exist?
1926. On the cliffs of Yorkshire, men are lowered on ropes to steal the eggs of the sea birds who nest there. The most beautiful are sold for large sums. A small girl—penniless and neglected by her family—retrieves one such treasure. Its discovery will forever alter the course of her life.A century later. In a remote cottage in Wales, Patrick Fort finds his friend, Nick, and his mother tied up and robbed. The only thing missing: a carved case containing an incredible scarlet egg. Doggedly attempting to retrieve it, Patrick and Nick discover the cruel world of egg trafficking, and soon find themselves on the trail of a priceless collection of eggs lost to history. Until now.
A taut, wonderfully imagined novel brimming with skullduggery at every turn, The Impossible Thing is a blazing testament to Belinda Bauer’s status as one of our greatest living crime writers.
-”’Is it real?’
‘I think so’
‘Why is it red?’
‘Search me,’ said Weird Nick.
Patrick thought of the first time he’d heard another boy say those words – search me – and the playground scuffle that had ensued. He’d learned a lot since then.”
-”Nick didn’t bother swearing Patrick to secrecy. Patrick never told anybody anything. Unless they asked – then he told them everything. For instance, he had never told anyone that Weird Nick sometimes grew weed in the old greenhouse, but only because no one had ever asked him about it. Patrick found lies confusing, and happily unburdened himself of them at the earliest opportunity.”
-”The guillemot, or murre, or scout – scoot to use the vulgar Yorkshire – was not a big bird, but it laid an uncommonly big egg…. And, while the guillemot was not a rare bird by any means, every egg was not only decorating – adorned as it was with whirls and squiggles, and of all kinds of colours, from white through tan and grey and blue and green and chocolate – but was also unique. Each bird laid an egg that was unlike any other that had ever been laid by any other guiillemot in all guillemot history.”
Four and a half stars, at least. The description of the egg stuff in the book synopsis did not stir my interest at all, but I will follow Belinda Bauer anywhere, and goddamned if I was not, in short order, weeping for the poor pair of guillemots whose egg kept getting stolen (they didn't understand! They had instinct but no actual knowledge! Those egg snatchers were MONSTERS!) The early descriptions of Celie and her life were so distressing, and I had to push through somewhat, but it didn't take long for me to be completely ensnared.
And then Patrick surfaced, and I thought 'hmm, sounds much like the protagonist of Rubbernecker', because I am an idiot who is constitutionally incapable of seeing the little subtitle that indicates that a book is part of a series, and then I was obviously all in (I was already all in). The egg trade and its evolution, the family life of the Sheppards, and the modern day mystery were all equally engaging. Patrick's internal monologue is wonderful, as is his relationship with Weird Nick (I hope it's not a portrayal that is offensive to people with autism). The sad parts were achingly sad, there were brilliant moments of humour and sweetness, and the whole thing was just masterful.
Things Don't Break On Their Own by Sarah Easter Collins: Synopsis from Goodreads: A heart-wrenching mystery about sisters, lovers, and a dinner party gone wrong. Twenty-five years ago, a young girl left home to walk to school. Her younger sister soon followed. But one of them arrived, and one of them didn’t.
Willa sees fragments of her sister everywhere—the way that woman on the train turns her head, the gait of that woman in Paris. If there’s the slightest resemblance, Willa drops everything, and everyone, and tries to see if it is her.
When Willa is invited to a dinner party thrown by her first love, she has no reason to expect it will be anything other than an ordinary evening. Both of them have moved on, ancient history. But nothing about Willa’s life has been ordinary since the day her sister disappeared, and that’s not about to change tonight.
Sarah Easter Collins has written an extraordinary novel about memory, lost love, and long-buried secrets that sometimes see the light of day.
-”The summer before she disappeared, my sister had spent the entire time bugging me to play chess. It was a pretty boring activity as far as I was concerned, because she could beat me hands down.
‘Do we have to?’ I said, when yet again I saw her setting up the board. ‘I don’t have the strategy.’
‘You’ve got strategy in spades,’ she said. ‘Your problem is that you don’t see the point.’
‘What’s the point?’
‘Patricide,’ she said. ‘You have zero interest in killing your father.’”
-”Claudette instantly rises from the table, slamming her hands on its surface as her chiffon scarf fills with air, flying open like a frill of lizard skin. ‘There is one single reason why a person would leave their known life, one reason alone. And that one, single reason is that the unknown world is ultimately less terrifying than their actual homes, which are hell on earth.’ For a second she glares hard at Jamie. Then she says, ‘Sod this.’”
There is a mystery in here, but it is only nominally a 'mystery', except for the deeper mysteries of why some people are condemned for loving who they do, and why some people think it's their right to abuse the people who love them. The most heartbreaking element is probably the way the violence in the family divided the sisters, because it's as unfair to blame the scapegoat for being resentful as it is to expect the 'privileged' one to be strong enough to defend the other. Also, the way that being the child of an abuser makes one so susceptible to being the partner of another one, however well-disguised. Very sad, very well-written.
This Book Will Bury Me by Ashley Winstead: Synopsis from Goodreads: After the unexpected death of her father, college student Jane Sharp longs for a distraction from her grief. She becomes obsessed with true crime, befriending armchair detectives who teach her how to hunt killers from afar. In this morbid internet underground, Jane finds friendship, purpose, and even glory...
So when news of the shocking deaths of three college girls in Delphine, Idaho takes the world by storm, and sleuths everywhere race to solve the crimes, Jane and her friends are determined to beat them. But the case turns out to be stranger than anyone expected. Details don't add up, the police are cagey, and there seems to be more media hype and internet theorizing than actual evidence. When Jane and her sleuths take a step closer, they find that every answer only begs more questions. Something's not adding up, and they begin to suspect their killer may be smarter and more prolific than any they've faced before. Placing themselves in the center of the story starts to feel more and more like walking into a trap...Told one year after the astounding events that concluded the case and left the world reeling, when Jane has finally decided to break her silence about what really happened, she tells the true story of the Delphine Massacres. And what she has to confess will shock even the most seasoned true crime fans...
-”I know what you’re thinking – that I’m presenting a veneer of false humility to avoid telling you how I pulled off my investigative feats. You’ve heard things about me, from the news and The Person Who Shall Not Be Named. But I’m here to set the record straight. And the truth is, no matter how much I wish I could claim I was some sort of Albert Einstein figure, a failure in school because my brain was too advanced, I’ve never been a savant. Yes, sometimes I can read people well, but what I accomplished, I did through pure luck. Not brilliance and certainly not, as That Awful Book claimed, ‘ a near-sociopathic level of remorseless manipulation.’
As you’ll come to see, I feel plenty of remorse.”
-”Here’s the thing about mortality: the human brain isn’t designed to process it. Think about it. You spend your whole life in active subliminal repression of the fact that one day you will cease to exist. You have to forget this fact in order to get up and eat breakfast and work your menial job and pay the bills. Otherwise, you’d be a sobbing, terrified ball on the floor. The Real Crime Network felt liberating because they trafficked in the truth that death comes for all and, for some of us, in devastating ways.”
I've always been fascinated by the true crime community - people that want to dig into an unsolved crime and think they have a chance at catching something law enforcement has missed (not terribly hard to imagine). It's not a way my mind works at all but I can see it being addictive. Social media connecting a lot of these people just lends it a heightened dimension. This was very readable. Jane being drawn into the true crime group by the twin mysteries of the murder and the backstory of her father who she is grieving is a brilliant narrative technique. The foreshadowing could have been annoying, but stopped this side of overdoing it. The big 'twist' was fairly well telegraphed, but I wasn't mad about it. I had a look at a couple of her other books, but one looks like that thing that I hate - a group of 'friends' who all seem to hate each other, thus rendering it unbelievable that they would continue to get together. Things being what they are, it is likely that I will read another book by her at some point and then remember that I read this one.
Guilty By Definition by Susie Dent: Synopsis from Goodreads: Oxford, England. After a decade abroad, Martha Thornhill has returned home to the city whose ancient institutions have long defined her family. But the ghosts she had thought to be at rest seem to have been waiting for her to return. When an anonymous letter is delivered to the Clarendon English Dictionary, where Martha is a newly hired senior editor, it's rapidly clear that this is not the usual lexicographical enquiry. Instead, the coded letter hints at secrets and lies linked to a particular year.
The date can mean only one thing: the summer Martha's brilliant older sister Charlie went missing.When more letters arrive, Martha and her team pull apart the complex clues within them, and soon, the mystery becomes ever more insistent and troubling. Because it seems Charlie had been keeping a powerful secret, and someone may be trying to lead the lexicographers towards the truth that will unravel the mystery of her disappearance. But other forces are no less desperate to keep their secrets well and truly buried, and Martha and her team must crack the codes before it's too late. From resident lexicographer Susie Dent comes a linguistic mystery that will both delight and shock readers.
-”Martha wanted to seize his audience by their neoprene lapels and tell them there was so much more to it than that. That language defines us and is the framework of our thought, an endless, shifting, complex dance through time and human nature. It is about patterns of life and the need to communicate them; it is about dying, renewal, and everything in between, about chaos and the order we make form chaos, the blood and bones of every history. Above all, it is about the slow, insistent pull into the secret lives of the ordinary.”
-”Martha glanced at her footwear. She opted to wear Doc Martens all year round, beneath long flowing dresses in a variety of prints. She preferred to wait for fashion to come to her rather than endlessly chase its coat-tails. ‘I don’t do heels.’” (ME!)
-chapter 37 heading: “lion-drunk, adjective (sixteenth century): the second of the four stages of drunkenness, in which a man becomes violent and quarrelsome”
In case you're wondering (I know I was):
This progression comes from a concept, famously noted by Victor Hugo in Les Misérables and earlier writers like Thomas Nashe, which linked animal behaviors to intoxication levels.
- Ape-Drunk (First Stage): Lively, silly, singing, leaping, and generally foolishly jovial.
- Lion-Drunk (Second Stage): Bold, aggressive, quarrelsome, and prone to fighting or boasting.
- Sheep-Drunk (Third Stage): Dull, slow, incoherent, and unintelligent.
- Hog-Drunk (Fourth Stage): Complete stupor, oblivion, and brutishness, often leading to sleep.
I know, I know. If a bunch of university students quoting Shakespeare is annoying, surely a book about lexicographical clues about a mysterious disappearance should leave me incoherent with disgust? This was absolutely ludicrous, even before you get to the reveal of who was sending the clues, which is off-the-charts ridiculous. But I liked it. I liked hanging around the editorial pool of the dictionary, judging the various personalities of Martha's colleagues. One of the book's greatest strengths was probably the authenticity of its female characters and their friendships.
Not surprisingly, I also really liked the meandering passages about certain words and their various definitions. There was a good balance between etymology writing and the mystery, with some good commentary about men in positions of authority behaving badly.
Vera Wong's Unsolicited Advice for Murderers (Vera Wong #1) by Jesse Q. Sutanto: Synopsis from Goodreads: Sixty-year-old self-proclaimed tea expert Vera Wong enjoys nothing more than sipping a good cup of Wulong and doing some healthy ‘detective’ work on the internet (AKA checking up on her son to see if he’s dating anybody yet).
But when Vera wakes up one morning to find a dead man in the middle of her tea shop, it’s going to take more than a strong Longjing to fix things. Knowing she’ll do a better job than the police possibly could – because nobody sniffs out a wrongdoing quite like a suspicious Chinese mother with time on her hands – Vera decides it’s down to her to catch the killer. Nobody spills the tea like this amateur sleuth.
-”’You said ‘shit,’ Emma says into Julia’s leg.
‘No,no. I said ‘shoot,’ you just heard wrong because you’ve got an ear pressed into my leg.’ Oh god, now she’s gaslighting her daughter, and she hates herself even more. ‘No, you’re right. Mommy did say ‘shit.’”
With his signature shock and suspense, Alex North brings us The Man Made of Smoke. In turn emotional, introspective, and utterly terrifying, this is a story of fathers and sons, shadows and secrets, and the fight we all face to escape the trauma of the past.
-”My father took the turnoff for the rest area.
-”He turns back to the camper van. None of its own lights are on. The thing looks dead. It can surely only have been here for a handful of minutes without causing an accident, but a part of him can imagine it has sat long abandoned for years in some mirror version of this road, and has just now passed through a veil and shimmered into existence here.”
I sort of find a lot of North's books very similar in tone and plot, and yet I never seem to be able to resist reading the next one. This was the best of the recent bunch. I did get a little weary of the main character's constant harping on how he felt weak, worthless, cowardly, ashamed, and various other synonyms for 'like a pussy', until I realized this was probably me caving into the same unreasonable expectations of masculinity that had warped his life. The father-son relationship was affectingly done - it kind of wrecked me, honestly. There are so many ways that people can do their best, and try really hard, and still just fail to make the connection they're desperate to make. The plot was satisfyingly complex and complete. I guess I'm on the hook for the next one now.
The Puppet Show (Washington Poe #1) by M.W. Craven: Synopsis from Goodreads: A serial killer is burning people alive in the Lake District's prehistoric stone circles. He leaves no clues and the police are helpless. When his name is found carved into the charred remains of the third victim, disgraced detective Washington Poe is brought back from suspension and into an investigation he wants no part of.
Reluctantly partnered with the brilliant but socially awkward civilian analyst, Tilly Bradshaw, the mismatched pair uncover a trail that only he is meant to see. The elusive killer has a plan and for some reason Poe is part of it.As the body count rises, Poe discovers he has far more invested in the case than he could have possibly imagined. And in a shocking finale that will shatter everything he's ever believed about himself, Poe will learn that there are things far worse than being burned alive...
This is probably one of the most perfectly paced mysteries I have ever read. I never felt like the action was too rushed or dragging at all. Poe verges on being a caricature of the world-weary detective who chafes against the tiresome narrow-mindedness of his higher-ups, but it still worked for me. I thought Tilly was a great character - reminiscent of Stephen King's Holly Gibney. It might be unrealistic, but I love seeing when an awkward character's strengths are recognized by someone who bothers to be perceptive. The relationship between Poe and Tilly is nice to watch develop. The Cumbrian setting adds a nice element as well. I really liked this and will continue with the series.
Not Quite Dead Yet by Holly Jackson: Synopsis from Goodreads: A twisty thriller about a young woman trying to solve her own murder.
In seven days Jet Mason will be dead.Jet is the daughter of one of the wealthiest families in Woodstock, Vermont. Twenty-seven years old, she’s still waiting for her life to begin. I’ll do it later, she always says. She has time.
Until Halloween night, when Jet is violently attacked by an unseen intruder.
She suffers a catastrophic head injury. The doctor is certain that within a week, the injury will trigger a deadly aneurysm.
Jet has never thought of herself as having enemies. But now she looks at everyone in a new light: her family, her former best friend turned sister-in-law, her ex-boyfriend.
She has at most seven days, and as her condition deteriorates she has only her childhood friend Billy for help. But nevertheless, she’s absolutely determined to finally finish something: Jet is going to solve her own murder.
Night Watcher by Daphne Woolsoncraft: Synopsis from Goodreads:
After an encounter with a notorious serial killer in the Pacific Northwest as a child, Nola has grown up and tried her best to forget her traumatizing night with The Hiding Man. She installed security cameras outside her Oregon home, never spoke of her experience, and now hosts Night Watch, a popular radio call-in show her semi‑famous father used to run. When coincidences lead Nola to believe that she is being stalked, and a caller on Night Watch has a live incident with an intruder in the caller’s home—the description of whom is chillingly familiar—Nola is convinced that The Hiding Man has resurfaced and is coming for her.
With a mysterious next‑door neighbor lurking in the shadows, more people getting hurt, the police not taking her concerns seriously, and evidence pointing towards her own father, Nola decides to become, like her listeners, a Night Watcher herself, and uncover the monster behind The Hiding Man’s mask.
-”Having heard stories like these my whole life, I automatically believe in it all. Spirits, aliens, even the boogeyman. It’s hard enough to accept that we’re all alive with skeletons and feelings and problems, spinning faster than we can comprehend on a giant sphere. Seeing doesn’t have to be believing.”
-”’And what did you tell them?’ I ask, patting the butt of a ketchup bottle and squirting thick sauce into the basket.” (thick. sauce.)
The mystery was solid. I kind of love Nola. She eats junk food, she drinks too much, she scrolls her phone on the toilet. The love interest worked but was kind of stuck on, could have used more grounding and backstory. I will read the next book by this author.
The Pigment Thief by Myka Silber: Synopsis from Goodreads: Ro is one of North City’s best art thieves, working with her expert team of hackers to steal art from the rich. Pre-collapse tactile pieces, digital installations, she does it all. It’s a pretty good gig, and keeps her out of the crosshairs of her psychotic ex-boyfriend. She’s gotten to where she is by being cautious and not taking unnecessary risks.
This was a tiny gem with beautiful cover art that plays off The Girl With the Pearl Earring brilliantly. Art heist plus cyberpunk plus relationship issues, plus AI is portrayed as creepy and not that effective. I loved the characters and the universe, and I hope both are expanded in the future.
The Ghostwriter by Julie Clark: Synopsis from Goodreads: In June 1975 the Taylor family shatters in a single night when two teenage siblings are found dead in their home. The only surviving sibling, Vincent, never shakes the whispers and accusations that he was the one who killed them. Decades later, the legend only grows as his career as a horror writer skyrockets.
Ghostwriter Olivia Dumont has spent her entire professional life hiding the fact that she is the only child of Vincent Taylor. Now on the brink of financial ruin, she's offered a job to ghostwrite her father's last book. What she doesn't know, though, is that this project is another one of his lies—because it's not another horror novel he wants her to write.
The concept of ghostwriting is rich with possibilities, and this hit a lot of really good notes. Complex family dynamic, generational trauma, woman reconnecting with estranged possible-murderer father, deciding the best way to tell a story, the gradual uncovering of decades-old secrets. The issues of both time periods are resolved well.
Too Old for This by Samantha Downing: Synopsis from Goodreads: A retired serial killer’s quiet life is upended by an unexpected visitor. To protect her secret, there’s only one option left—what’s another murder? From bestselling author Samantha Downing.
Lottie Jones thought her crimes were behind her.Decades earlier, she changed her identity and tucked herself away in a small town. Her most exciting nights are the weekly bingo games at the local church and gossiping with her friends.
When investigative journalist Plum Dixon shows up on her doorstep asking questions about Lottie’s past and specifically her involvement with numerous unsolved cases, well, Lottie just can’t have that.
But getting away with murder is hard enough when you’re young. And when Lottie receives another annoying knock on the door, she realizes this crime might just be the death of her…
-’I’m hardly a Luddite. I have a Wi-Fi network, my own cell phone, even a computer, but I am no expert. It’s impossible to keep up with advances today. If I take a nap, I miss some new technological advance. And I love my naps.”
-”’Baby daddies,’ Sheila says. ‘That’s what they’re called now.’
I cannot possibly be expected to keep up with whatever words are popular today. It’s hard enough to maintain the vocabulary I have.”
Three and a half. It was refreshing having a serial (ish) killer be a woman of a certain age and following all the logical, tedious steps involved in committing murder and getting away with it. I was engaged throughout, watching how murder fit in among church group and feeling that weird sympathetic hope that the bad guy (girl) gets away with it. It just wasn't quite funny enough to gloss over all the killing, and I guess I need a murderer to have some kind of code (like Dexter) in order to not start feeling kind of icked out by all of it. Maybe that's supposed to illustrate that even if you think everyone should get a couple of free murders in their life, it's not really the best idea?
They Never Learn by Layne Fargo: Synopsis from Goodreads: From the author of the “raw, ingenious, and utterly fearless” (Wendy Walker, USA TODAY bestselling author) Temper comes a dynamic psychological thriller about two women who give bad men exactly what they deserve.
Scarlett Clark is an exceptional English professor. But she’s even better at getting away with murder.Every year, she searches for the worst man at Gorman University and plots his well-deserved demise. Thanks to her meticulous planning, she’s avoided drawing attention to herself—but as she’s preparing for her biggest kill yet, the school starts probing into the growing body count on campus. Determined to keep her enemies close, Scarlett insinuates herself into the investigation and charms the woman in charge, Dr. Mina Pierce. Everything’s going according to her master plan…until she loses control with her latest victim, putting her secret life at risk of exposure.
3.5 stars. Lord knows I have all the time in the world for books about angry women dispatching shitty men. The first half held my attention, a little of the tension leaked out for the second half. I bought the rationalization and the logistics, Carly's backstory and progression were credible, and the sleazy English professor was all too believable. There was one reversal that I didn't find wholly plausible, but over all I was rooting for Scarlett.
The Missing Half by Ashley Flowers: Synopsis from Goodreads: Nicole “Nic” Monroe is in a rut. At twenty-four, she lives alone in a dinky apartment in her hometown of Mishawaka, Indiana, she’s just gotten a DWI, and she works the same dead-end job she’s been working since high school, a job she only has because her boss is a family friend and feels sorry for her. Everyone has felt sorry for her for the last seven years—since the day her older sister, Kasey, vanished without a trace.
On the night Kasey went missing, her car was found over a hundred miles from home. The driver’s door was open and her purse was untouched in the seat next to it. The only real clue in her disappearance was Jules Connor, another young woman from the same area who disappeared in the same way, two weeks earlier. But with so little for the police to go on, both their cases eventually went cold.Nic wants nothing more than to move on—from her sister’s disappearance and the state it’s left her in. But then one day, Jules’s sister, Jenna Connor, walks into her life and offers Nic something she hasn’t felt in a long time - hope. What follows is a gripping tale of two sisters who will do anything to find their missing halves, even if it means destroying everything they’ve ever known.
This was good - super dark, but good. Nic's story really hammered home how trauma can cause someone to be arrested at a certain point in their development, something that is often overlooked in books like this.
Detective Aunty by Uzma Jalaluddin: Synopsis from Goodreads:After her husband’s unexpected death eighteen months ago, Kausar Khan never thought she’d receive another phone call as heartbreaking—until her thirty-something daughter, Sana, phones to say that she's been arrested for killing the unpopular landlord of her clothing boutique. Determined to help her child, Kausar heads to Toronto for the first time in nearly twenty years.
Returning to the Golden Crescent suburb where she raised her children and where her daughter still lives, Kausar finds that the thriving neighborhood she remembered has changed. The murder of Sana’s landlord is only the latest in a wave of local crimes which have gone unsolved.And the facts of the case are Sana found the man dead in her shop at a suspiciously early hour, with a dagger from her windowfront display plunged in his chest. And Kausar—a woman with a keen sense of observation and deep wisdom honed by her years—senses there’s more to the story than her daughter is telling.
With the help of some old friends and her plucky teenage granddaughter, Kausar digs into the investigation to uncover the truth. Because who better to pry answers from unwilling suspects than a meddlesome aunty? But even Kausar can’t predict the secrets, lies, and betrayals she finds along the way…
1 comment:
We listened to Vera Wong on a road trip a couple summers ago. I remember it as fun.
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