Monday, April 28, 2014

Secret Smile by Nicci French

Talk about Gaslight!!! (Remember the old film with Ingrid Bergman and Charles Boyer about the husband trying to drive  his wife crazy?) Well, if you liked that, you will love this novel.

Miranda has just broken up with Brendan. Although quite a charmer, she caught him reading her diary and that, on top of a few other odd things, is the deciding factor in her decision. But no big deal. After all, it was a short relationship, lasting just a few weeks. It will be easy for both of them to move on, and that is exactly what Miranda does.

Imagine her surprise when her sister Kerri asks to meet with her because she has some big news. Can you guess what the big news is? Kerri has fallen in love with none other than her sister's former lover, Brendan. Kerri hopes that Miranda will be all right even though Brendan told her the whole sad story about their breakup. Is Miranda's heart still broken? Is she still devastated by Brendan leaving her?

Whaaat???

Although Miranda tries to explain, no one will believe her. Miranda's parents and brother love Brendan, and Kerri thinks Miranda is just jealous. Even her friends are on Brendan's side.

As Brendan slowly works his way back into Miranda's life, a devastating turn of events has Miranda questioning her own feelings. Is she going crazy?

Find out in Secret Smile by Nicci French, one of the best psychological thrillers I have read in a long time.

Karen

Read-alike author: Joy Fielding

Saturday, April 26, 2014

How the Light Gets In by Louise Penny

Ring the bells that still can ring
Forget your perfect offering
There is a crack in everything
That’s how the light gets in.

This refrain from singer-songwriter Leonard Cohen’s song, Anthem is the title inspiration for Louise Penny’s ninth Inspector Gamache mystery. The song resonates with weariness, disillusionment, and a faint thread of hope that all is not irredeemably lost. It is also the state of Armand Gamache’s spirit.

How the Light Gets In is a masterful blending of a mystery and the ultimate battle between good and evil. I realize that sounds melodramatic, but the war Gamache has been fighting against the corrupt and malignant power seekers that are taking over the Montreal police force is not just for his own vindication but for the members of his former team as well.

Retreating to the iconic village of Three Pines, the site of many of his cases, he is aware that in claiming its shelter he is jeopardizing both its inhabitants and the spirit of the village. That which makes it the best – the only – place for him to go is what makes it so vulnerable. But when he asks for their help, no one turns away and the battle begins. What follows is a modern, cyber-world shootout at the OK corral; and it is as exciting as the original!

One of the reasons I enjoy mysteries is the satisfaction of having the crime solved and, often, some type of justice or resolution. Penny’s Gamache series always provides that, but the man and his world add an extra layer with a thought-provoking moral or spiritual dilemma. It’s not preachy or sanctimonious, but just a man trying his best to live a decent, honest life despite his own vulnerabilities and a world peopled with flawed characters acting out their own agendas for good or evil.

CAS





Thursday, April 24, 2014

Leaving Everything Most Loved by Jacqueline Winspear

Winspear tackles discrimination in the London of the 1930s as her detective Maisie Dobbs investigates the death of an Indian immigrant, a former ayah with a British family. The woman, Usha Pramal, branched off on her own after she was dismissed by the family, and was living in a hostel for ayahs. As Maisie investigates Usha's life and death, she struggles to understand Usha's motivations for journeying from India to London and seeks to unlock the secrets of what kept Usha in London so long, her circumstances, her past, and the things that may have led to her death. Then another Indian ayah dies in a similar fashion, adding more layers to the mystery.

Reading a Maisie Dobbs novel feels like spending time with an old friend. I'm particularly fond of Maisie as a character, and I appreciate how much has changed in her life over the course of the series. Leaving Everything Most Loved raises the stakes and follows through on numerous storylines in the lives of Maisie and her assistants that have been building for the last several books.

In Leaving Everything Most Loved, Maisie shines brightly. The shared themes of travel, love, loss, and family inhabit the mystery at the center of the novel as well as Maisie's personal life. Solving Usha Pramal's murder is satisfying, but the heart of this novel is Maisie's internal struggles.

Not only is Leaving Everything Most Loved the most emotional Maisie novel yet, it represents a dynamic turning point for the series.

CAS

Tuesday, April 22, 2014

A Light That Never Goes Out by Tony Fletcher

I was initially reluctant to read Tony Fletcher’s A Light that Never Goes Out: The Enduring Saga of The Smiths. This reluctance mainly stemmed from the fact that The Smiths were together for about six years and Fletcher’s biography of them is over six-hundred pages. That’s roughly one-hundred pages per year. But like most good biographers, Fletcher starts long before the four members of The Smiths ever played together. He even gives a brief history of Manchester, the city The Smiths and other bands such as New Order and Oasis hailed from.

Fletcher gives the backgrounds of all four members of The Smiths but focuses mainly on lead singer and lyricist Morrissey and guitarist and music composer Johnny Marr. It’s in fleshing out stories like the fabled meeting of the singer and the guitarist that really makes A Light That Never Goes Out a success. Fletcher examines every step leading up to and during the time The Smiths were together in a way that keeps the book from becoming just a detailed timeline.

The book does end rather abruptly after Fletcher tries to sort out why The Smiths broke up in 1987. Since then, Morrissey has released plenty of solo material and continues to tour, and Marr has been involved with a number of different bands. Including their careers after The Smiths would likely have put A Light that Never Goes Out over the one-thousand page mark. As far as whether or not this book might appeal to people who aren’t familiar with or big fans of The Smiths, it probably won’t. Unlike a lot of the biographies that have come out on classic rock era musicians recently, most of the other bands and solo acts mentioned in the book are even more obscure than The Smiths. Fletcher is clearly writing for fans who want a better understanding of the band’s history and music.

John

Empty Mansions: The Mysterious Life of Huguette Clark by Bill Dedman

Empty Mansions is the biography of Huguette Clark, an heiress that really no one has heard about! She was the daughter of W. A. Clark, a multi-millionaire that earned his fortune in the copper mines in Montana.
W. A. Clark was also a state senator, but again, no one really knows much about him.

When Huguette Clark died at the age of 104 in a Manhattan hospital in 2011, she was worth millions. She was virtually a recluse, living in her hospital room for over 20 years. She would only agree to see a small number of people; a friend or two and her nurse. Attorneys and accountants that worked for her for years never once laid eyes on her. They did not even have her telephone number, as she always contacted them. Same thing with friends and relatives. When she died, most people did not even know where she was. She had kept and maintained several million-dollar estates all over the country, but had not been inside any of them for decades.

And she gave away millions and millions of dollars. And in her will, wanted to give away even more.

Was she crazy, or just a nice woman that became a prisoner of her own wealth? Find out in this fascinating story that reads more like a novel.

Karen

Monday, April 21, 2014

Shakespeare's Restless World : a Portrait of an Era in Twenty Objects by Neil MacGregor

I've been hesitant to pick up one of these "history in objects" books because of my concern that it would be too disjointed, but since we are celebrating Shakespeare's 450th birthday this month, I figured I would give it a go.  Shakespeare's Restless World is not, in fact, a linear history.  However, it is so fascinating that I really didn't care.  It's like wandering through the Tudor/Jacobean wing of the British Museum and marveling at all the memorabilia on display.  That memorabilia includes a Rapier and Dagger from the Foreshore of the Thames, the Funeral Achievements of Henry V, and a Model of a Bewitched Ship.  MacGregor, the Director of the British Museum, puts each object into its historical context and explores its connection to one or more of Shakespeare's plays.  As a reader with a fair knowledge of the plays and the period, I was able to contexualize the information. However, readers without that background might have some difficulty with the text.  All in all this is a great tribute to Shakespeare and a study of how British history and contemporary Elizabethan life impacted his plays.

Dawn

Friday, April 11, 2014

Missing You by Harlan Coben



Missing You is Coben’s 25th novel for adults, and it kills me to say that I didn’t like it. Kat Donovan is an NYPD detective whose father was killed 18 years ago. Right after that, Kat’s fiancĂ© leaves her. In the present day, Kat finds him on an online dating site. Meanwhile, Kat is approached by a college student whose mother has disappeared. Is Kat’s fiancĂ© involved? Keep reading to find out.

Part of the appeal of Harlan Coben is that separate story lines weave together in such good detail. The story lines in Missing You did weave together, but didn’t have the appeal as his previous books. 


Coben is still one of my favorite authors. Try some of his earlier novels.

Carrie