Finished: I Will Find You (Coben) A great new book by Harlan Coben, my favorite thriller/mystery author! It's the story of David Burroughs who is in prison for murdering his three year old son, Matthew, five years earlier. When his ex-sister-in-law brings a picture to the prison and insists that he needs to look at it, he sees what she sees. It's Matthew, alive and well! He just knows, and so does she. David is in extreme danger in prison, as the people who set him up and concocted the elaborate scheme that took his son away from him, want him dead. Until this moment, David had not cared what happened to him. His marriage was over, not to mention his entire world shattered, at the death of Matthew. Once David sees the picture, and believes that Matthew is still alive and was taken from he and his ex-wife, he concocts a plan to get out of prison, and begins confronting people from the past to try and find his son. It's another page-turner, with several twists and turns. I love Harlan Coben's voice of each character, and how he always manages to bring in at least one character from one of his previous books! He's a great story teller and I just wish that I didn't read his books so fast. :-) 

 Finished: The Caine Mutiny (Wouk) Pulitzer Prize winning book that follows the life of Ensign Willie Keith, a wealthy young man who gets assigned to a run down mine sweeping destroyer during World War II. We see the ship through his eyes, and watch as Willie does things we agree with and don't agree with, all the while coming into his own aboard the ship. When a new captain is placed on board not long after Willie arrives, none of the crew knows what a nightmare they are in for. The executive officer of the boat, Steve Maryk, has his hands full being responsible for all the men, being an example to Willie, and being 2nd in command to Captain Queeg, the new captain. As it turns out, Queeg is basically a coward who would rather berate men for the tiniest little details (i.e., shirttails untucked, etc.) rather than get anywhere near actual gun fire. Many incidences occur aboard The Caine which are a result of his incompetence, but he always blames the reasons on the crew to his higher ups. At a critical point in the South Pacific, the ship is hit by a typhoon, and with his irrational behavior, and after weeks of watching the captain deteriorate mentally, Maryk relieves the captain of his duties via an emergency navy rule. Maryk calmly saves the ship that was about to capsize, and when the crew returns to home base, Maryk is court marshalled and stands trial, with Willie named as his accomplice. I've had this book on my list to read for awhile, but was always a bit daunted by its 500+ page length. I'm so, so glad I finally read it! Wouk is such a good writer and develops each character to a tee. His descriptive prose takes you right to each location as well. If you've seen the movie, it really doesn't do the book justice...but it's a pretty good condensed version. :-) 

 Finished: The Last Party (Mackintosh) A very good whoddunit! Luxury condos for the wealthy have been built on the shores of remote Lake Mirror....on the exact border of Wales and England. The wealthy man responsible for the building is Rhys Lloyd, a local Welsh "boy" who left his hometown village and made it as a famous opera singer. Using the land inherited from his family, Lloyd comes back to Lake Mirror with his wife and teenage twin daughters after his career begins to wane. His land, in the years before, had been settled to be officially in England...so he's one of the wealthy people who comes to build and live at the upper, upper crust neighborhood, The Shore. The town members of Cwm Coed, who live and work and raise children across the lake in Wales, are not happy. Not only is the view of the landscape drastically changed, but the difference between the wealthy "summer home" owners and townspeople, who barely make ends meet, is tremendous. When the first handful of lake front homes is complete, the wealthy owners start moving in. We meet all kinds of interesting characters, both home owners and townsfolk. Rhys Lloyd and his wife, Yasmine, throw a New Year's Eve party and, along side their wealthy neighbors, the entire town is invited to come. By the end of the night, Lloyd is dead! His body washes up on shore at the annual New Year's Day dip in the lake. The Detective Constable in charge on the Welsh side is Ffion Morgan, a thirty year old divorcee who lives with her mother Cwm Coed. She's outdoorsy, very truthful and holds a painful past close. The Detective Constable on the English side is Leo Brady, also a divorcee and father of a young son, who has just relocated from London to the area. DC Brady has problems of his own, as his ex-wife is holding a secret over his head to keep him from seeing his son as the custody arrangement states. He's more the meek type and is surprised by the outspokenness of DC Morgan when he meets  her. Neither one is happy being saddled with the other as a partner, but they must work together to figure out what happened. It gets particularly dicey when Leo begins to discover that Ffion has secrets that may be directly involved with the evening in question...and she has lied to him about it. You can't help but like both characters and root for them to at least become friends and lean on each other. Eventually Ffion's secret, and how it relates to Rhys Lloyd, does come to light just in time to throw them together into another tricky situation. All The Shore neighbors are suspects, as well as many of the townspeople, even  Ffion with her motive. The story does a good job of weaving together all the characters and their stories and why, as it turns out, nearly each and every person who knew him despised Lloyd, and with good reason. I was hoping by the end of the book that Ffion and Leo might work together again on another case, and was just happy to read that this is apparently book #1 of the DC Morgan series! Can't wait for more. :-) 

 Finished: I Have Some Questions For You (Makkai) I was so anxious to read the new book by Rebecca Makkai since I LOVED her The Great Believers! This one did not disappoint. :-) It wasn't as meaningful to me as TGB, but was a nice mystery with very developed characters. Bodie Kane is a successful crime blogger and film professor who is 20 years past her boarding school days in New Hampshire. She's put her painful childhood and teenage years from boarding school behind her, but it all comes rushing back when she's invited back to Granby as a visiting film professor for two weeks. Her students have been given the assignment to create their own documentary podcasts, and one student has chosen a tragedy from Bodie's senior year at Granby that opens up all the old wounds, and most importantly, some nagging doubts. In her senior year, Bodie's roommate, Thalia, had been murdered and the athletic trainer was still spending his life in prison for it. But, did they get the right man? The student's documentary is about Omar, the athletic trainer, and how he was imprisoned unfairly and is an innocent man who should get a retrial. The entire book is narrated to one specific teacher from Bodie's years who had a physical relationship with Thalia. Bodie has convinced herself that it was this teacher and not Omar who killed Thalia. As we get deeper into the story, we see that not only did that teacher have motive and opportunity, but so did a few of the students....Thalia's hotheaded boyfriend, her jealous girlfriends, her rejected suitors, etc. The mystery is cracked at the end with a surprise, but not off the rails, twist. A good read and very well written! 

 

Finished: Exiles (Harper) I’ve read all of Harper’s books and really enjoy her writing! Aaron Falk is a character that has been developed from the first book. He always solves the mystery, but along the way we also see his own personal relationships, past mistakes, loves, etc. Can’t wait for (hopefully) more! Again, being lazy and using Amazon blurb. J

“Federal Investigator Aaron Falk is on his way to a small town deep in Southern Australian wine country for the christening of an old friend's baby. But mystery follows him, even on vacation.

This weekend marks the one-year anniversary of Kim Gillespie's disappearance. One year ago, at a busy town festival on a warm spring night, Kim safely tucked her sleeping baby into her stroller, then vanished into the crowd. No one has seen her since. When Kim's older daughter makes a plea for anyone with information about her missing mom to come forward, Falk and his old buddy Raco can't leave the case alone.

As Falk soaks up life in the lush valley, he is welcomed into the tight-knit circle of Kim’s friends and loved ones. But the group may be more fractured than it seems. Between Falk’s closest friend, the missing mother, and a woman he’s drawn to, dark questions linger as long-ago truths begin to emerge. What would make a mother abandon her child? What happened to Kim Gillespie?”

 Finished: A Town Called Solace (Lawson) I'm going to be super lazy and just use the Amazon blurb. A pretty good book, but I wanted to love it more than I did. I liked all the relationships that developed between various characters, like Clara and Liam, and Elizabeth and Liam much earlier. Both sets of parents in the story left alot to be desired. 

"A Town Called Solace, the brilliant and emotionally radiant new novel from Mary Lawson, her first in nearly a decade, opens on a family in crisis. Sixteen-year-old Rose is missing. Angry and rebellious, she had a row with her mother, stormed out of the house and simply disappeared. Left behind is seven-year-old Clara, Rose’s adoring little sister. Isolated by her parents’ efforts to protect her from the truth, Clara is bewildered and distraught. Her sole comfort is Moses, the cat next door, whom she is looking after for his elderly owner, Mrs. Orchard, who went into hospital weeks ago and has still not returned. 

Enter Liam Kane, mid-thirties, newly divorced, newly unemployed, newly arrived in this small northern town, who moves into Mrs. Orchard’s house - where, in Clara’s view, he emphatically does not belong. Within a matter of hours he receives a visit from the police. It seems he is suspected of a crime.

At the end of her life, Elizabeth Orchard is also thinking about a crime, one committed thirty years previously that had tragic consequences for two families, and in particular for one small child. She desperately wants to make amends before she dies. 

Told through three distinct, compelling points of view, the novel cuts back and forth among these unforgettable characters to uncover the layers of grief, remorse, and love that connect them. A Town Called Solace is a masterful, suspenseful, darkly funny and deeply humane novel by one of our great storytellers."

 Finished: Just the Nicest Couple (Kubica) A pretty good book...one that picks up a bit more during the last half. It is told in alternating viewpoints by Christian and Nina. Christian is happily married to Lily, and they are expecting their first child after several first trimester miscarriages. He comes home one night to find Lily in a state of panic and finally gets her to tell him what is wrong. Lily teaches high school math and has a good friend there, Nina. Nina is five or six years older than Lily and took her under her wing when Lily began teaching, and they became fast friends. Nina is married to neurosurgeon, Jake. Jake is a bit full of himself and loves living the high life that his salary provides. He and Nina are pretty happy in their marriage until Nina has to start spending weekends with her mom, who has been diagnosed with macular degeneration. Jake is very childish about not getting all of Nina's time, so their marriage has been a bit rocky lately. Lily finally tells Christian that when she went for a walk on the trail in the park that day, she ran into Jake, who convinced her to go down a more remote trail with him to see some deer. Once there, Jake put the moves on Lily and got out of control angry when she told him no. He grabbed her and pushed her down and Lily picked up a rock and bashed him in the head...more than once. She's afraid she might have killed him. Meanwhile, Nina can't believe that Jake has not come home after their fight the night before. More importantly, he hasn't shown up at his work for his patients and surgeries. Christian has Lily take him to the exact spot where everything happened, and there is so much blood, but no body. As Christian panics and moves to erase any evidence of Lily being in the park, weird things start happening at Nina's house. Weird because Christian has snuck in looking for Jake's car key to move his car, which is parked at the park. Nina's mother thinks, with her poor vision, that Jake has returned home briefly when he runs out the door. Nina, who has filed a missing person's report with the police, tells them it's not necessary any more. She still just can't figure out how Jake could have disappeared and not want to see her. Certainly things hadn't been THAT bad. The story unfolds and we find out what really happened in the woods between Lily and Jake, what happened to Jake, and who did it! My guess was right. It's always the one you least suspect. :-) Pretty good book, but not one that kept me up late reading. 

 Finished: One True Loves (Jenkins Reid) Not my favorite Taylor Jenkins Reid book, especially after starting with Malibu Rising and The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo, and then the amazing, Daisy Jones and the Six. Anyway, this one was written earlier and is a solid book, just not one of my favs. :-) It's the story of a woman, Emma, who has moved back home to the small hometown in the northeast, after the death of her husband of one year, Jesse. Jesse was the absolute love of her life...her one true love. They met in high school, realized they were kindred spirits, and then traveled the world together for ten years before finally tying the knot. When Jesse accepts a work assignment right before their first anniversary, Emma asks him not to go, but he says no worries, he'll be back in a flash. Of course, his helicopter goes down over the ocean and his body is never found. The pilot's and co-pilot's bodies are both found. Emma is devastated and refuses to believe Jesse is gone. Her sister finally convinces her that Jesse isn't coming back. Emma breaks down then, and returns home to work at the family bookstore...the one she didn't want to take over as an adult...the one she ran away from. Emma deals with her grief day by day and finally starts going about the town...and working at the book store! She reconnects with another boy from high school, Sam. Sam had always been in love with Emma and was heartbroken himself when she suddenly fell for Jesse. Of course, Emma had no idea how he felt, as they were just the best of friends. Sam is now back in town and teaching music, what he always wanted to do. After gradually dating, and then moving in together, they finally get engaged. Emma loves Sam and loves that he knows her so well. He has become her true love as well. The wedding is only a couple of months away when Emma gets a phone call from a number she doesn't recognize....it's Jesse. He's alive! He's been stranded on an obscure island and trying everything he can to get back to his wife, to his Emma. And, from there the book goes as you'd expect. Emma becomes torn between Sam, who knows the person she is now and loves her for it...and Jesse, who is in love with the girl he left behind who would never have moved back home. Who does Emma end up picking? Of course, you've got to read to find out. :-) 

 Finished: Five Survive (Jackson) A good thriller about six students headed south for spring break in an RV. Four are high school seniors and friends. Two are college students, the big brother of one of the girls and his girlfriend, going along as chaperons. They get lost on a small road with no cell service, looking for the place they are supposed to meet their other friends. It's not long before they are being terrorized by a sniper with a high-powered rifle. The sniper shoots out all the tires and the gas tank of the RV, stranding the kids with no way to leave. He leaves them a walkie talkie and tells them if any of them try to leave, he will kill them on the spot. Then he taunts them, telling them, one of you has a secret and I want to know what it is. When I do, the rest of you are free to go unharmed. He says he'll give them some time to talk it out and figure out who has the secret. A night of accusations, suspicions, guilt and confessions ensues as each of them wonders if their own secret is what the sniper is talking about. When they finally figure out that one of them must be working with the sniper for him to know the things he does, things escalate quickly, and then tragedy strikes. I'm not going to give anything away. The book was slightly slow at first, but then really picks up the pace and was hard to put down trying to put all the pieces together. A good read! :-)

 Finished: Babel (Kuang). The entire title is Babel: On the Necessity of Violence: An Arcane History of the Oxford Translators' Revolution. To understand what that means, you really have to read the whole 560 page book! :-) The book is good! I started it during the holidays and it officially becomes my first read book of 2023. It's good, and complicated, and tragic, but also very timely, to me at least. In 1828 a ten year old boy is dying of cholera in Canton. Most of his entire family, and his English born tutor who has been with him for years, are already dead and his mother lays dying beside him. After his mother dies, an English man appears and holds a bar of silver over him that instantly makes him feel funny inside, but ends up healing him. The man is Professor Lovell and he is the man who sent the English tutor to the family so the boy would grow up speaking fluent English, as well as his native Cantonese. (He is also the man who hung around in China for two weeks waiting for the mother to die before he went in and saved the boy.) Professor Lovell insists that the boy come up with an English name and say goodbye to his Chinese name. Having been provided with all kinds of books during his childhood, the boy decides on the name Robin Swift. Professor Lovell takes Robin back to London where he spends the next several years having him trained in Latin, Ancient Greek, and Chinese. The goal? For Robin to be accepted into Oxford University's Royal Institute of Translation...called by all who know it, Babel. Babel is the most important translation center in the world, and England wants to keep it that way. Babel is also the center of the mysterious magic of silver! With the silver bars, translators enchant the silver bars with translations of words from different languages that have enough of a connection to evoke the results they want. The silver can enhance most things...make carts go faster, make music pitch perfect, make buildings sturdier, heal a sick person,etc. They can also be used as weapons of war. In England, they are used by the ultra rich for frivolous things like automatically opening and closing curtains, or making a room appear brighter. While the poor die of diseases that could possibly be cured, or starve from  hunger, the rich enjoy these unnecessary pleasures. What Professor Lovell and his cohorts do is shameless. They "sponsor" children from other countries whose languages they need to master in order to turn around and have dominance over those very countries. The children are so struck by either the loss of their families or by their "luck" at being singled out by a sponsor, that they go along semi-willingly, not knowing that the end result will actually be damaging to their native countries when they are eventually asked to attend important meetings with those countries and translate for the English men who are there to take every advantage they can. It's really just despicable. As Robin grows up in Professor Lovell's household, he is rarely offered true encouragement or caring from the professor, and often physically abused if he strays from his studies. By the time he is seventeen and ready for the Institute of Translation, he is accepted at Oxford and all his expenses and clothing are paid for. However, Oxford is still Oxford and is attended mostly by the elite white children of the rich in England. Being half Chinese and half English (having never met his father, this is his assumption), Robin can blend in somewhat, but most of the students don't accept him. Thankfully in his first week there, before classes even start, Robin meets his roommate, Ramy, a boy from India who has been sponsored by an English man that his family works for. They instantly bond and become best friends. Together they run into Letty and Victoire....two girls! Girls at Oxford is unheard of at the time, so they must dress like and pretend to be boys. Victoire is from France, but Jamaican born. She is the least accepted of the four students because of her black skin. Letty is from a rich white family in England whose son, who all their hopes and dreams were pinned on to attend Oxford, were dashed when he was killed by his own careless actions. Wanting to prove to her father that a girl can be just as smart, she learns all kinds of languages and passes the entry exam to both Oxford and Babel. Though she's not of a foreign nationality, she is a female, so the four of them are completely alone, but with each other, at Oxford. Just the four of them have been brought in this year for the Institute of Translation, so as long as they try and avoid the regular Oxford students, they should be ok. They form an incredible bond, which is why it makes what happens as the years progress and the book hits it's climax, heartbreaking. In addition to meeting Ramy the first week he is at school, Robin also meets a boy that looks strikingly like himself named Griffin. Griffin is a former student of the Institute of Translation who was also sponsored by Professor Lovell, but is now working for a secret society called the Hermes Society. The Hermes Society is all about stealing as much silver as they can from the institute and using it for good and for the poor, and keeping it out of the hands of the rich. Most of them are former students of Babel who realized exactly what was going on and how they were being used. By the time they are fourth year students and actually learning to work with the silver, we realize exactly how involved or not involved in Hermes each of the four friends are, and the tragic results of the revolution they are about to participate in. A long book, but it kept me reading each time I picked it up!