Survive the Night

Finished April 5

Survive the Night by Riley Sager

This psychological suspense story was a great read, with twists and turns along the way. The specific time setting isn't stated, but it is set before cell phones are around. The main character is Charlie Jordan, who is named after a character in a movie. She goes to college in New Jersey, but is from Ohio. Her eccentric, charismatic roommate Maddie was the third victim of the campus killer, a serial killer as yes uncaught. The killer kidnapped and killed the young female victims, and took a tooth for a souvenir. The last piece of information hasn't been made public. 

The night Maddie was killed she pressured Charlie into going out to a bar, and Charlie was not enjoying the night at all. She finally told Maddie that she'd had enough and wanted to go home, but Maddie wasn't ready to go. Charlie actually saw the back of a man talking to Maddie when she looked back, not realizing that he was the killer. Charlie feels extremely guilty for leaving Maddie, and Maddie's family blames her as well. She's been struggling with life since the murder. 

She's finally decided to go home, and goes to put up a post on the Rideshare board at the college, but meets Josh Baxter who is just posting that he is looking for someone to share the trip to Akron with. He's a graduate student. Charlie is a little nervous about the whole thing, given the recent murders and not knowing Josh, but she so wants to get away that she brushes any concerns aside.

On the drive, she begins to notice discrepancies in Josh's story, and becomes suspicious.

Add to this Charlie's love of thriller movies. She's watched them all her life, first with her parents, and later, after their deaths in a car accident, with her grandmother who is a huge fan. Charlie has, at time, had episodes where she kind of zones out and lives a scene in her head. She always has realized that this happens to her as soon as her episode is over, but now she wonders whether things she has seen are real, or one of these "movies" that plays in her head. She doesn't trust her own observations anymore, and isn't sure what is real and what isn't. But she keeps telling herself all she has to do is survive the night.

Before she left campus she had jokingly set up a code phrase with her boyfriend in case something happens, and as a result of her actually using this phrase, he gets drawn into the action as well.

I thoroughly enjoyed the book, the character Charlie is, the character Maddie was, and the well developed plot. 

Breathe

Finished October 1

Breathe by Lucinda Race

This is the first in a series of romance novels set around the Finger Lakes winery industry in New York. Tessa Price has been the marketing manager for her family's winery for several years, hoping for more. But she has realized that her brother is the heir apparent, and begun looking elsewhere. As the novel opens, she tells the family that she's just bought Sand Creek Winery, a relatively new winery in the area that was in danger of going under. Kevin Maxwell was the owner of Sand Creek, and as she did her research before the purchase, Tessa believed that keeping him on board would be helpful to her.

As Tessa and Kevin (Max) began working together, they begin to see how their skills and working styles complement each other, and Tessa wants him to be more involved.

When an accident brings their lives in danger, Max realizes how his feelings for Tessa have grown. This is a story of romance but also a larger story of the winery industry, with a lot of details on how things work, and a story of family for both Tessa and Max.

I found the story a little slow, with sometimes more details than I felt necessary, and put it down a few times before finishing it. I'd be interested to see how further books in the series compare.

The Guest

Finished April 2

The Guest by Emma Cline

I grabbed this book from the library to fill a challenge. I would say that it's a book that made me feel kind of like I was watching a train wreck in slow motion.

The main character Alex is very unlikeable. She behaves very much like a narcissist, and tries to manage the relationships, but doesn't necessarily put a lot of work into it. She moved to New York City as a young woman and lives with roommates. She has been in the city for a while as the book opens, and it appears that she worked as an escort, but never made a lot of money at it, and now is finding it more difficult to draw the men that she wants to. She has also missed rent payments and her roommates have kicked her out. 

After an encounter at a bar, she has decided to go in a different direction, beginning a relationship with an older man with the expectation that it will be long term. He doesn't pay her, but he does buy her things like clothing and accessories. She has traveled with him to his vacation home on Long Island, and accompanied him to various dinners and parties. When she makes a misstep at one of the parties, she finds him distancing himself from her and the sending her back to the city. His assistant buys her a train ticket and leaves her at the station. 

But Alex has another issue. She has got on the bad side of a man who doesn't suffer fools, and he is looking for her to return something she's taken from him. We do eventually find out what that it, but he has been calling her and trying to get her to meet him, so she is wary of taking a chance and going back to the city.

As she maneuvers herself into various living situations through meeting people and pretending she knows them, she has a plan to go back to the man who has sent her away, timing it for a party he has planned for Labour Day. 

Alex is desperate, but also very manipulative. She looks for opportunities to ingratiate herself into others' lives for her own benefit. She can be charming, but also cold and uncaring. I found myself wondering what crazy thing she would do next. 

An interesting and unique look at a life situation beyond anything I could imagine. 

The Night We Lost Him

Finished October 24

The Night We Lost Him by Laura Dave

This was an interesting mystery that also involved more than one romantic relationship. The main story has Nora Noone approached by one of her brothers, Sam, about their father's recent death. 

Their father Liam was a charismatic man who built a luxury hotel empire specializing in unique properties that emphasized privacy and experiences. Nora's mother Rachel was his first wife, and they remained on amicable terms after their divorce. She had regular Friday dinners with her parents, and felt loved and supported by her father. She became an neuro-architect, a specialized emerging area of architecture that I wasn't previously familiar with. He had asked her more than once to either join his company or collaborate, but she preferred to make her own way.

Sam and his twin brother Tommy were children of Liam's second wife and she didn't see a lot of them. She wasn't welcomed by their mother, and so didn't really do family activities with them and didn't know them well. Sam had been on a path to professional baseball when an accident injuring his wrist made that unreachable for him. Both Tommy and Sam became involved in their father's company.

Liam also had a third wife, Inez, and we only see a little of her and only a mention of the young daughter that Liam had with her. 

Nora is grieving both her parents. Her mother died in an accident, and now her father has fallen from a cliff at his California cottage, a place that was always special to him. Sam believes that his father's death was not an accident, but that he was pushed, and he wants Nora to help him get to the truth about the sudden death. 

Nora has reacted to the losses by pulling away from those close to her, first from her father and her partner Jack following her mother's death, and more so now after her father's death. She is reluctant to believe Sam, but agrees to go with him to the cottage to look for more details. 

As they are stonewalled by the detective and other people close to Liam, they use the little information they have to continue their search with Nora's good sense playing against Sam's impetuousness emotions and actions. 

There are also short chapters from the past, gradually moving forward in time, that show Liam with a woman named Cody. They had a very close, intimate relationship that has continued for decades despite relationships that both had with others. This provides another touch of mystery as we wonder who this woman is and whether this relationship played into Liam's death.

I found this book a quick read, with the plot pulling me through the novel. I found the mysteries present in the novel offset by the personal lives of both Nora and Sam as they struggled with their own emotional needs. A winner for me. 

Polly Fulton

Finished April 17

Polly Fulton by John P. Marquand

I heard of this book when I was reading The Trouble with You by Ellen Feldman. The main character in that book mentioned some of her favourite reads and I decide to track a few down. This is one of them. The book is really interesting. It is a character study of a woman in her thirties, set during World War II. Polly Brett, nee Fulton is a woman who was born wealthy to parents who were born middle class. Her father had good instincts, and an eye for machines and created a small empire. He was friendly and talkative and took people at face value. He also was a good judge of character in some ways, and wanted his daughter and son to be happy. 

Polly was sent to a private girls' boarding school where she blossomed after a short time going to a school nearer to home where she struggled to fit in. She went on to Bryn Mawr College, and after some time at home married. 

Her marriage is a big part in the novel as is her relationship with her father, B.F. She is close to both of her parents in different ways. She is comfortable in the world that her father operates in, and intelligent and informed enough to hold her own in conversation. 

As the book opens, Polly has made a sudden decision to go to her country home in the Berkshires. It is winter and snowing, yet she is both testing her staff at the house to see if they are keeping the house ready at all times, and able to pay the high rates she must pay to get there when she wants to. The house evokes both memories of different times earlier in her marriage, as well as times before then as she looks through old scrapbooks. 

A crisis with her father's health helps these thoughts along as he speaks to her of her husband, the life he wanted her to have, and the man he thought she should marry, Bob Tasmin. 

While the major part of the novel is written from Polly's viewpoint, there is some written from Bob's as well, and this is critical to what unfolds later. 

Polly has come to understand that her husband is cheating on her, and rather than turn her head the other way as many women of her time and station do, she decides to face it head on, with a real effort to understand the situation. This also forces her to understand herself better and that is the revelation of the novel and its core. 

I really enjoyed the dry humour here, as well as the character of Polly herself. I'm so glad I was led to this novel. 

Final Assignment

Finished February 9

Final Assignment by Linwood Barclay

This novella is part of his series set in Promise Falls, New York. It is set as #1.5 in the series, and the main character and narrator is Cal Weaver, a private investigator that readers of the series would be familiar with. Here, he is called to the home of an acquaintance of a friend, the mother of a high school student who has handed in an English assignment that includes an act of violence. The school wants him to get a psychiatric evaluation, but the mother has something else in mind to get her son out of trouble.

After Cal leaves their home, he visits the friend who referred him to them, and find another situation. Their son didn't come home the previous night and isn't answering. 

As Cal follows up on the developing situation, talking to his friend the police chief, as well as other students who knew both boys, he comes up with a surprising conclusion that is more nuanced than one first realizes. 

A great short read that gives a great example of Cal's strengths around observation and quick thinking. 

The Best Man

Finished August 30

The Best Man by Kristan Higgins 

This is the first book in a series set in the Finger Lakes region of New York. Set in a small town focused on the many local wineries and the lakes themselves, Faith Holland grew up in a family that ran Blue Heron Winery. She's the youngest of four kids, and her mother died in a car accident when she was still quite young. Faith has epilepsy, and was in the car accident as well, and has always felt guilt for distracting her mother just before the accident. 

Faith had a long relationship with Jeremy Lyons from high school when he and his family moved to town from California, but it ended on the day they were to be married. She left and found herself a new life elsewhere, as a landscape architect, returning home only on occasion. 

Now she's back for a longer period, working on a personal project on the family property, and picking up some other local jobs as well. She's made peace with Jeremy but still has issues with some of other people from her youth, and she finds herself forced into dealing with her past in a number of different ways. 

Levi Cooper is the local police chief, and Jeremy's best friend since high school. Despite being well respected in the community, he still has issues from his social status growing up, and feeling accepted in the community socially. He also has mixed feelings regarding Faith.

As the two are thrown together, they find themselves open to dealing with the past and moving forward. 

You All Grow Up and Leave Me

Finished December 31

You All Grow Up and Leave Me: A Memoir of Teenage Obsession by Piper Weiss

This memoir is about Piper's relationship with a tennis coach, Gary Wilensky, who, when she was fourteen, attacked a former student and then later killed himself. As Piper works through her emotions around the man she liked and trusted, she looks at him as well. 

Piper was a private school student, a girl shorter than her peers, who found tennis an activity she could be special in. Gary was a sought after instructor, with a personality that was engaging. He made his teen students feel special, taking them to dinner and buying them presents. He treated them as peers. 

When one of his students felt that something was off and told her mother, she stopped taking lessons from him, and that triggered something in him. He had a plan, but he was also panicking in the moment of action, and that led to mistakes that led to him aborting his plan and finding himself with no way out. 

This is a sad story, a story of questions that don't all have answers. The author also has issues and wonders why this is a story that she still cares about years later. As a journalist, she's done her research, interviewed who she could, and been open about her own story, leaving me sad for her as well. 

The title comes from a conversation she had near the end of her time with Gary when he said this and she promised that she wouldn't, that she'd be there for him, and perhaps this is her way of keeping that promise. 

Nightbird

Finished March 9

Nightbird by Alice Hoffman

I have enjoyed Alice Hoffman's books and until I came across this one, didn't realize that she had written books for children as well. This story takes place in the small town of Sidwell in the Berkshire mountains. Twig's mom grew up in the town and when Twig was young, they would visit their grandparents there. But after they died, Twig and her mom moved back to town. Her brother, James, also moved back with them, but their father did not. Twig was quite young when this happened and she doesn't really remember her father. James doesn't leave the house very much because he has a secret, and it is one not easily hidden. 

Sidwell is a town that has a legend of a monster, and recently there has been graffiti appearing to be written by the monster warning of consequences should his home be destroyed. The home in question is the forested area of town, just behind Twig's house and quite extensive. It is owned by a family that doesn't visit often, and there have been rumours that they might be planning to sell it to developers. Next door to Twig's house is a dilapidated cottage, that has been empty for decades. Now the family that owns it has suddenly moved back and they have two daughters, one, Julia, the same age as Twig. But Twig's mother warns her against the house and its occupants as it was the home of witches, and once, long ago, a young woman from that family cursed the men in Twig's family. 

As the town ramps up the focus on fabled monsters, Twig fears for her brother James, and his future. She wants him to be happy, but can he still be himself?

I loved this book about this small town, the fear of what we don't know or understand, and the power of love. Twig is a researcher and she looks for information, doesn't just accept what she's told. She has supportive adults in her life, and learns how to be a friend. 

The Life She Was Given

Finished May 2
The Life She Was Given by Ellen Marie Wiseman

This historical fiction work has two timelines. The earlier one starts in the summer of 1931 at a horse farm in the state New York. Lilly Blackwood is nine years old, and is aching, as she often does, to leave her small attic room for the world beyond. Lilly has lived in this room all her life, being told that it is for her own protection, as others would attack and hurt or kill her if they saw her. She isn't allows to eat with her parents, and must abide by her mother's strict rules.
Her father has broken some of them. He has taught her to read, and he has supplied her with books besides the Bible that her mother has her study daily. Occasionaly he lets Lilly out to the attic room beside her own, to allow her to stretch her legs and walk more. But he has never let her go elsewhere in the house, and she only sees the horses the farm raises through her small barred window.
Her father has also given her a cat, one she has had since she was three. The cat is the only creature who gives her love and who touches her affectionately.
Now, Lilly has noticed a circus in the field beyond the barn, and wonders what lovely things they have. When her mother comes to her room one night after she has gone to bed, and insists that she dress nicely for a private trip to the circus, Lilly can't believe it. Lilly's father is away, but she is told that he is waiting at the circus.
But Lilly's world is about to change drastically, and as she gradually realizes that night, her mother has no intention of bringing her home again.
The second storyline begins in 1956, with a young woman named Julia. Julia Blackwood has left home after her father's death and an argument with her mother, but now finds that her mother has died as well, leaving her to inherit the property. As Julia moves back home, and begins to explore the house she grew up in, looking at rooms she wasn't allowed into, she also finds a lot of questions. What is the strange room in the attic about? Who is the strange girl in the clippings that her father has kept in his office?
As the storylines begin to converge, we discover a tale of terrible cruelty, of abuse and neglect, of secrets and lies. This is a story of terrible betrayal and of abuse in many forms. and of a woman learning to move beyond her past.

Wandering Home

Finished January 16
Wandering Home: A Long Walk Across America's Most Hopeful Landscape by Bill McKibben

This memoir covers a short period in the the author's life, a couple of weeks one summer where he walked from his home in Vermont (very near one of Robert Frost's homes) to a previous home in the New York state Adirondacks.
Along the way, he walks some of the time alone, and some of the time with friends from the area. He writes about the landscape he is moving through, the weather, the environmental issues, the social issues, the history of these places, and his own connections, memories, and impressions of these places.
There is a map at the front, showing his path for this trip. The people he visits and travels with include other authors, other environmentalists, historians, farmers, gardeners, vintners, beekeepers, river rafters, and historians. All the them have connections to the last themselves, and are in touch with nature and its wonder.
A book to savour, and one that makes you both hopeful and eager to go out and explore nature yourself.

It Happens in the Hamptons

Finished September 20
It Happens in the Hamptons by Holly Peterson

This novel includes romance, mystery, and new beginnings.
Katie Doyle was in a bad place emotionally when her mother died. A man she had an affair with at a work conference, George Porter, helped her with some of the things that needed to be dealt with, and suggested that she spend the summer at a cottage in the Hamptons owned by his family. Moving from Oregon to New York was a big step for Katie, but she felt her and her young son Huck need a new start. She's done some pre-work, applying for a job in a local school, and registering with a tutoring agency. She also doesn't feel comfortable living in the cottage without paying rent, so George's mother has agreed to accept $500 a month for the rent.
Arriving in her new home, Katie and Huck explore the area, wander through local shops, check out the beach, and get themselves bicycles to get around. Katie finds that George's mother, Poppy is one of the long-time summer people here, with a staid club and lots of good works on her agenda. Katie is corralled into being on a committee associated with one of them.
Katie also attracts the attention of a local man, Luke, who runs a surf school during the summer and teaches during the rest of the year. She enrolls Huck in the surf school to get him more comfortable in the water, and Julia, the mom of another student, befriends her. She starts to settle into her new life.
George doesn't seem to be around much, which surprises Katie, but also frees her to find her own way of doing things.
There are three groups here. One is the old cadre of summer people, who support the library and other local endeavors, but also tend to treat some of the public areas as their own, and come across to me as a bit paternalistic. There is a division here between the locals, such as Luke's group that run the surf school, and the club people who want the beach pretty to look at all the time. This group is led by Bucky and the Seabrook Club.
The locals include the shop owners, the business people such as Luke and his partners Kona and Kenny, and many of the employed staff at people's houses and clubs. They are aware of their reliance on the summer people, but don't like getting treated as objects or impediments.
The third group is the newer summer people, many of them self-made. One example here is the couple Julia and Jake Chase. They have a lot of money and have built fancy homes, but they are just looking to enjoy life and have fun. Jake tries to befriend Luke and the guys, but you can see he tries too hard to impress. Julia is a bit better at this, and successfully befriends Katie.
But this story has a more serious side too, and that involves all three groups. It was interesting the way this unfolded.
An enjoyable read.

The Twenty-Three

Finished July 5
The Twenty-Three by Linwood Barclay

This is the third and final novel in the trilogy that started with Broken Promise and continued with Far From True. The book starts in a very dramatic way, with detailed descriptions of several people as they start their day as normal only to find things going horribly wrong. A librarian is one of the first people to die. As the reader gradually begins to suspect that there is large-scale poisoning of some sort going on, we look at all the players that we found in the first two novels. David Harwood, living with his son Ethan and his parents is worried about a woman he's come to have feelings for, and her son.
Cal Weaver is worried about his sister Celeste and the unfriendly attitude of his brother-in-law, but he also has strong feelings for the little girl Lucy Brighton that he met recently. When Lucy telephones him for help, he knows that he must assist this special girl that he's made a strong connection with.
Marla Pickens, still recovering from the dramatic events that restored her son to her, worries about her father Gill, as well as her young son Matthew.
George Lydecker's parents worry about where he is, now that he's been missing for longer than they've known him to be before.

Detective Barry Duckworth, worries about his son Trevor, and about the community in general. He's also beginning to put together some of the pieces to the puzzling crimes in the town. While the boyfriend of a cold case murder victim is starting to pull himself together after years of guilt and sadness, his girlfriend's father has finally given up trying to help him. 

Duckworth finds that a new murder victim with the same look as two previous unsolved murders may hold the key to finally finding the killer. The larger community catastrophe of the mass poisoning also has him making the connections to finally figure out the meaning of the number 23 that has been appearing all over town. 

At the college, the new head of security finds a lot on her plate as well, and she works closely with Duckworth to make the crimes occurring on campus get the attention they needed all along. 

Lots going on here, grief and relief, but the ending leaves us with new questions.

Do Not Disturb

Finished February 18
Do Not Disturb by Tilly Bagshawe

This romance novel has a lot going on, including some suspense. As the book begins, Honor Palmer has called a formal meeting to transfer management of her father's assets to herself as his dementia makes him unable to do it himself. It is not a smooth transfer, as her father Trey seems to have grown more and more attached to the idea that women don't have business skills and doesn't want her to take the management of the family hotel from him. Her socialite sister Tina doesn't mind as long as she gets a nice allowance as a result.
Meanwhile Lucas Ruiz has fought his way up from poverty in Ibiza, and with the financial help of a well-off lover has graduated from a prestigious hotel management program. Now he is fighting for a dream job at a luxury hotel, a step towards his ultimate goal of owning his own hotel chain. When he succeeds, he also gains a few enemies and finds that not all doors in upper society circles are open to him despite his charm. When Anton Tisch, his hotel's owner's, ambitions pits him directly in competition with Honor's family hotel in East Hampton, the sparks really begin to fly.
We see a lot of very driven characters here, from diverse backgrounds. Lucas cares for his mother despite her weaknesses, but is a player in his personal life, who doesn't treat women all that well. Honor is driven to prove her skills in revitalizing the family hotel, but is naive in her personal life. She both cares about her sister and resents her lifestyle. Lucas has an unlikely friend, who comes from a wealthy family, Ben Slater. Ben is a low-key man with a romantic side and strong sense of ethics. He is good as his job in finance, but isn't skilled with relationships.
The Carter family is a conservative, but wealthy family in East Hampton. Devon plays a role in society and his church that doesn't align with his personal life, and he seems to care more about appearances than other people. His wife is lonely and insecure despite her beauty. His daughter Lola is also driven, focused on a fashion design career despite her father's expectations. She knows how to use her assets to get what she wants, most of the time. Lola's brother Ned is a good talker, but doesn't seem to accomplish as much as he says, and isn't willing to work for it.
Honor's sister Tina also knows how to use her assets, and she can turn any bad situation to her advantage. Her activities are definitely not okay with the conservative set, but she doesn't take herself too seriously.
Sian Doyle is driven towards becoming a journalist, despite her working class mill town background, and she is willing to work hard to get there. She is lucky in the people she meets that give her opportunities, but it is her hard work that brings her success.
On the darker side, Anton motivations aren't always clear, but his competitiveness is extreme, giving him the drive to win whatever it takes.
Lots of sex, dirty deeds, and society viciousness is here, along with the romance and suspense.

The Wishing Thread

Finished August 27
The Wishing Thread by Lisa Van Allen

This book is a romance with a theme of paranormal. The story takes place in Tarrytown, New York and centres around three sisters of the Van Ripper family. The sisters grew up in an old house with a wool shop called The Stitchery contained within. The house was owned by their eccentric aunt Mariah, and the girls were all trained in the art of knitting spells. The spells were knitted to order, and the one who requested each knitted item had to offer something they valued in return. Aubrey, the middle sister has stayed on with Mariah and taken on the inheritance of the store and its services. Bitty married young and has two children, Vanessa and Carson. Meggie took off a few years ago on her own quest. As the book begins, Mariah has passed away suddenly, and the sisters all come back together at The Stitchery to mourn her and find that Mariah has left her own task for them in her will.
Tarrytown is also undergoing a fight. The area of town around Tappan Square, where The Stitchery is located, is planned for redevelopment, a plan that would mean the end of The Stitchery, but also the end of a neighbourhood that has fallen into hard times and yet still has community spirit. Mariah had been fighting against this development and Aubrey tries to overcome her shyness to continue the fight, and perhaps reach out to the man she has a crush on.
Each sister is struggling with her own issues and they haven't shared with each other until now. As Bitty and Meggie reveal their own struggles they help Aubrey, and regain the closeness they had lost.
The knitting projects in the book are shared on the author's website for this novel.

A Tap on the Window

Finished July 27
A Tap on the Window by Linwood Barclay

Barclay is a master of the everyday becoming dangerous. Here the setting is the small town of Griffon in upstate New York, near Buffalo. Cal Weaver and his family moved to Griffon about six years ago, when Weaver started his career as a private investigator. Two months ago, Weaver's teenage son, Scott, died tragically. Cal and his wife Donna are struggling to go on, barely interacting with each other, each finding their own way of coping with their grief and loss.
As Cal is returning home one evening, a girl his son's age, taps on a window when he is stopped at a light and asks for a ride. He knows that a man his age giving a ride to a teenage girl looks bad, but when she says she knew Scott and that she thinks someone might be watching her, making her scared, how can he say no? So, he gives her a ride, and when she asks to stop at a local diner because she feels ill, he does that too. Cal begins to sense there is something wrong at this point, but he has already become involved.
When the police stop at his house the next day to say the girl is missing, he immediately starts following what leads he has, determined to find her. His search uncovers the secrets of many people, and some will guard those secrets with threats and force on others.
As Cal uncovers more of these secrets and starts to find out some of the acts that have been going on in his community, he finds his circle of trust growing smaller.
Cal isn't a perfect man, and his grief has caused him to act in ways he is later ashamed of. But he is a good man at heart, trying to make sense of things and trying to protect the vulnerable when he can.

Inherit the Dead

Finished November 29
Inherit the Dead  introduction by Lee Child, an afterword by Linda Fairstein, and chapters by bestselling authors Mary Higgins Clark, John Connolly, Charlaine Harris, CJ Box, Mark Billingham, Lawrence Block, Ken Bruen, Alafair Burke, Stephen L. Carter, Marcia Clark, Max Allan Collins, James Grady, Heather Graham, Bryan Gruley, Val McDermid, SJ Rozan, Jonathan Santlofer, Dana Stabenow, Lisa Unger, and Sarah Weinman. Read by Christopher Evan Welch.

This novel was a brainchild by Linda Fairstein who wanted to raise money for the victims' assistance organization Safe Horizon. Each chapter is written by a different author, and despite that it flows fairly well. Not as good as a novel by any of these authors working on their own, but still interesting with a plot that keeps you turning the pages.
The main character is an ex-cop turned private investigator, Pericles (Perry) Christo. Perry struggles to stay in his teenage daughter's life, and resents the way his exit from the force portrayed him as a bad guy when he was really a guy trying to expose corruption. Perry is hired by a wealthy woman, estranged from her daughter who has now gone missing. Perry is hired to find her, but he finds that the people he encounters are all playing some game of their own that he struggles to try and figure out.
An interesting idea for a good cause.

All That Is

Finished August 4
All That Is by James Salter

A very different book, character-driven rather than plot-driven.The main character her is Philip Bowman, a man who served in the navy in the Pacific in World War II, went on to college, and became an editor at a New York publishing house.
We see Philip's relationships with women over the years, marriage, affairs, loves and lusts. But it is not only his life we see. There are vignettes of others, some peripheral people in Bowman's life, others who played a larger role.We see the differences between how people see themselves and how others see them. The illusions and the vanities. The decades covered here were a time of great change, changes in art, culture, sexual norms, ease of travel and we see these reflected in Philip's life over this time. We see Philip's thoughts from time to time, about his life and about life in general, about his lovers and about himself.
This is also about the world of publishing, the travel, the parties and dinners, the wooing of authors. We see the industry as it was, made up of many small publishing houses.
This is a quiet book, a book that reveals a life, moments in lives, but doesn't judge or analyze.

Pulp and Paper

Finished March 26
Pulp and Paper by Josh Rolnick
This collection of short stories offers diverse experiences from a varied group of characters.
This collection is a winner of the John Simmons Short Fiction Award. The eight stories here are split into two sections, with four stories set in New Jersey and four set in New York. The main characters in the stories range from children to adults, and include both women and men. From a bereaved father to a young boy struggling with his mom moving on from his father's death, from violent disruptions to slow decay, these stories show loss.
The strength of these stories is in the characters and their reactions to the events that take place around them. An engaging and promising collection.

For Animal Lovers

Finished November 20
Rescue Ink: How Ten Guys Saved Countless Dogs and Cats, Twelve Horses, Five Pigs, One Duck, and a Few Turtles by Rescue Ink with Denise Flaim
This book about Rescue Ink and its members is not only about an animal rescue group, but also about a group that works to educate people about the fact that abuse is wrong. A lot of people that rescue animals are female but this group is definitely male, and they are not afraid to be seen cuddling a small animal. But they are also not afraid to face abusers head on and work in as peaceful a way as possible to show them the error of your ways. They are careful not to break the law, but they definitely have more power than most to get the attention of abusers and then offer them solutions.
As they say, if you see an animal kept outdoors in inadequate shelter, instead of judging and reporting them, offer to help them with shelter or drill deeper to the reason the animal is kept outdoors.
The book shows us each member of the core Rescue Ink group and tells us how they got to where they are now. This was very interesting and thought-provoking.