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.’”
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.
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 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.
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?
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.
