Yours Truly

Finished May 27

Yours Truly by Abby Jimenez

This novel is the second book in the Part of Your World series, but the first that I've read. ER doctor Briana Ortiz loves her work, but her personal life has issues. Her divorce will be final soon, but her husband's cheating with one of her friends is hard to get over. Her younger brother is struggling with the reality of his health crisis and is on a waitlist for a kidney. She was hoping for a promotion but her boss has delayed his retirement and she learns it is partly because a new doctor has just been hired for the ER and he wants him to also have a fair shot at the position. 

Dr. Jacob Maddox left his old hospital to avoid working with an ex, but he's finding the new hospital less welcoming than he hoped. He's an introvert and isn't great at social situations. On the personal front, he is prepping for his brother's upcoming wedding, which is to Jacob's ex-girlfriend. He's honestly okay with it, but his mom and sisters are worried about his feelings around it. He's worried about people paying more attention to him than the happy couple. He impulsively tells a lie about his relationship status. 

Jacob's first encounter with Briana doesn't go well, and so he writes her a letter. Soon they are both writing, and leaving notes, and occasionally meeting for a quick and quiet lunch. When Briana finds out about the upcoming wedding, she offers to go as his girlfriend, and he confesses his own lie to his family. With them spending more time together, they learn more about each other, their pasts, and their vulnerabilities. 

I found these characters had real depth and the plot moved things along nicely. A very enjoyable read. 

Deep Freeze

Finished May 13

Deep Freeze by Anne Louise O'Connell

This is the second book in the Deep Mystery series and a great read, set in an interesting place. The main character, Susan Morris is living in Dubai with her husband Mitch, a pilot for EmAir, and they've been there a couple of years. Susan is trained as a nurse but isn't working now. One of her friends Pat is another woman who followed her husband Barry when he signed on as a surgeon at the American Hospital in Dubai. The couple is planning a ski vacation to Austria at the Christmas holidays, but Pat hasn't skied before. Susan offered to take her to Ski Dubai to teach her. 

Just after their first run, a chair lift collapses and Barry is one of the men injured. Pat is distraught and Susan finds herself helping out. When they discover Pat and Barry's house has been ransacked and their Sri Lankan maid Anu is missing, they begin to wonder whether it was really an accident. 

As Susan finds herself investigating the issues that cause her, Barry, and Pat to be suspicious, Susan is drawn into a situation that may involve hospital and government employees and jeopardize her stay in the country. 

The situation with the missing maids, as Anu is not the only one who has disappeared, is related to the religious attitude of the government, the imbalance of power between servants and their employers,  someone who longs to be recognized for their intelligence, and sheer greed. 

Susan also finds herself reexamining her marriage and whether Mitch is the man she thought he was. 

I really enjoyed Susan, a woman who is forthright, empathetic, and loyal. She sees all people as individuals, no matter their role or status, and that leaves her open to new ideas, new friendships, and new possibilities. The plot was also engaging, and captured my interest. I also found the setting refreshing, one that I am not familiar with and that has rules as customs quite different from the ones I live with. 

I also liked how the ending promises more for Susan perhaps in many different countries, something I look forward to. 

The Winter Station

Finished January 23

The Winter Station by Jody Shields

This historical novel is set in 1910 in the city of Kharbin. Kharbin was a major railway outpost in northern China that was under Russian-rule at the time. The main character in this novel is Baron von Budberg, a man who grew up in St. Petersburg and was educated as a doctor. He traveled to Manchuria in 1904 to serve as a medic in the imperial army, and then found himself in the new city of Kharbin. Kharbin was established in Manchuria in 1898 by order of the Russian czar. The Baron was appointed medical commissioner for the city by the general in charge, General Khorvat. 

As the book opens, the Baron is investigating a report of bodies discovered outside the train station. The man saw the bodies taken away in a cart, but the bodies weren't taken to the nearby hospital, nor reported to him by the men who took them. This begins the story of a plague coming to the city that winter. The Baron learns that the bodies were of Chinese men, which raises other questions, like whether the Chinese authorities had ordered the removal of the bodies and what rank the men were. 

The man who informed the Baron of the incident is Andreev, a man known as a government informer, who also traded on the black market. 

The Baron is also a man who exists between the two worlds of Russian and Chinese people. He is married to a much younger Chinese woman, Li Ju, who had been a servant before they formed a relationship. He has made the effort to learn Chinese, and can understand enough to translate. He is also taking calligraphy classes from a master in the art. 

As the existence of a transmissible disease that is almost always fatal become more and more evident, the community, and the Baron himself, find themselves torn between sides in many arenas. There is traditional Chinese medicine versus Western medical science, distrust between the two communities, and the widespread hiding of bodies to avoid being ostracized which hinders the ability to fully understand the spread. The Baron sometimes finds himself at odds with others in his profession, in particular a newly arrived Western-educated Dr. Wu Lien-teh, who is put in charge by the Chinese, but who speaks neither Mandarin nor Russian, and who conducts the hospital meetings in English, the language that he speaks and that most of the other doctors understand. 

He finds one ally among his peers, a French doctor names Messonier, with whom he has a regular meeting centered around a shared love and interest in tea. 

We see the doctors arguing about the disease, what it is, and how to treat and protect others from it. The Baron is an advocate for masks and disinfectant, practices which after some discussion get adopted. 

The Baron has great depth of character here, we see his compassion, and his observation skills. We also see how his ties to the community from different contacts, from Andreev, to a Chinese dwarf, give him additional information on the situation. We also see how the competitive nature of some doctors keep them from working well as a whole. 

This novel is a slow-moving one, similar to the two Chinese practices that the Baron has taken on, calligraphy, and tea. As we see both his work life and his personal life, we get drawn into the story ourselves.  

Perfectly Undone

Finished May 15

Perfectly Undone by Jamie Raintree

Set in Portland, Oregon, this is a story of self-awareness and dealing with trauma from the past. The main character, Dylan Michels has worked hard to get where she is, a ob/gyn doctor at the Women's Clinic. She has a deep desire to do research in the area of early detection of pregnancy issues, like ectopic pregnancies. Her older sister Abby died from an undiagnosed ectopic pregnancy when she was a teen, and this is a big part of what drives her. 

Dylan lives with her partner Cooper, a pediatrician, and they had long planned to marry. As the book opens, Cooper is proposing, but Dylan finds herself unable to commit. As the two go through weeks of bad communication, it becomes clear that there is a secret about Dylan and her sister that lie at the heart of Dylan's inability to choose happiness. 

I found Dylan interesting. In the scenes in the clinic and hospital, it is clear that she is respected by her fellow doctors and the other staff. She is a good doctor, focused on her patients and their concerns. Her buried trauma around her sister has led her to where she is, but also left her unable to move on. 

None of the other characters here have the depth of Dylan. Whether it is Cooper, the nurse Enrique, Dylan's boss Vanessa, patients like Erika, or her friend Megan, we don't see enough of them to get a real sense of them as people. 

There is an interesting plotline of the landscaping that Cooper has given Dylan as a gift. As the landscape architect Reese creates the garden from Dylan's short burst of input, we see how it relates to Dylan as well. 

The Doctor of Thessaly

Finished September 10

The Doctor of Thessaly by Anne Zouroudi

This book is the third in 'A Seven Deadly Sins Mystery' series. It begins with a woman grieving what should have been her wedding day. The groom did not show up. It soon appears that there is a reason for that, when he is discovered injured in nearby ruins. But he refuses to see his bride.

A stranger from Athens soon appears in the town, Hermes Diaktoros. He says that he is an investigator, but not with the police, and he never reveals exactly who he works for. 

Hermes is a man who observes and listens and he soon discovers what the people think about the doctor, a man who came from France to fill the need. The old doctor is aging and had taken a step back from things. 

Hermes also learns what people think about Chrissa the woman who was to marry the doctor, and the woman's sister Noula. Hermes listens and watches and puts things together and amasses information he gleans from the people he talks to and the conversations that he overhears. 

He manages to subvert some plans, deal with larger criminal issues, and help the townspeople affected find a new way forward. 

This is a slow moving story, with some interesting plot points around the politics of small town life and reaction to change. 

I quite enjoyed it. 

The Swift and the Harrier

Finished March 10

The Swift and the Harrier by Minette Walters

I've always enjoyed Walters psychological thrillers, and I'm glad to say I enjoy her historical fiction as well. This novel is set in the 1640s in Dorsetshire and covers the period of 1642-1649 from just before the English Civil War until the beheading of King Charles I. 

The main character is the Jayne Swift, the daughter of a upper class titled family who has taken the unusual choice of training privately as a physician. While Jayne's father Sir Henry Swift is a Royalist, she has taken a neutral position where she is against the war in general and offers her services to whomever needs them. 

As the book begins, Jayne is making her way to the home of her cousin Ruth Morecott in Dorchester on a day where there is a public hanging of two Catholic priests who didn't leave England before the edict requiring them to. Buffeted by the crowds, Jayne is taken in by an older widow, Lady Alice Stickland and then escorted by Lady Alice's footman, William Harrier, to Ruth's home where she has been called to minister to the toddler son of Ruth. 

Jayne is a taller than average woman in her late twenties who has not yet married, and who is forthright in her aim to provide care to all who need it, regardless of their ability to pay her. She is particularly protective of women and children, and she is soon called on to do that in her visit to Ruth.

Walters really sets the scenes here, including two maps near the front of the book that help to visualize the setting. The scenes of the homes, the streets, and the hanging are all brought to life by the detail that Walters is so good at. 

As Jayne moves from Dorchester to her family's home at Swyre, back to Dorchester, and later on to Lyme Regis, we get a sense of the landscape both geographically and politically. She gets caught up in the war through her treatment of those injured on both sides, and finds herself having to be cautious about her own movements in order to stay safe. Through her services, she witnesses the fighting firsthand and is both horrified by the violence, and inspired by the dedication of those involved in the fighting, particularly the citizens of Lyme Regis, and the servant class who have little say in the decisions that so profoundly affect them.

When she encounters William again in the guise of a soldier, she finds that he is not all that he seems and has his own burdens that he is contending with as he fights to restore his family honour and the country that he loves. 

This is a war tale and a love story, a character novel of two very unusual people, and a snapshot of history at a particular time and place. 

At the beginning of the novel Walter defines the surnames of the title characters, as the two birds they are named for: the swift, a fast medium sized bird that can outdistance most winged predators; and the harrier, a large keen-eyed hawk which hunts by gliding low and silently over open ground. These definitions lend themselves to their namesakes well.

I really enjoyed learning more of this time period, a bit of English history less well-known to me, and seeing the characters develop over these years through their experiences. Secondary characters such as Jayne's family and the doctor who trained her are also brought to life, and we get a good picture of life for these people. 

Very enjoyable read. 

After the Night

Finished February 12

After the Night by Sandra Marie (Romance for All Seasons, #1)

This lighthearted romance takes place around the staff of a small medical clinic. The female main character, Cassidy Joanes, is a billing clerk for the clinic, one of three. The male main character, Jon Bateman, is an obstetrician/gynecologist and a recent new arrival at the clinic. They've encountered each other in the office and Jon even noted her desk decorations and called her "Marvel Girl." There is an office party involving costumes, and Cassidy decides to go as Buttercup from The Princess Bride. Jon was planning a quiet night at home, but he is encouraged to get out and make friends, so he heads out to the party dressed a Dread Pirate Roberts, also from The Princess Bride. 

Naturally the two meet, and when they discover how much geekiness they have in common, and they find themselves drawn to each other, they spend some intimate time together. 

Unfortunately for Cassidy, she was wearing an old pair of contacts to get into character and they were removed early in the evening after irritating her eyes, so she didn't see the real man under the mask and has little to go on in terms of identification.

As she tries to figure out who the mystery man is, Jon is unsure of his status with her. He is a coworker at the clinic, but also a boss of a sort being one of the doctors. He also finds that she treats him in a friendly way, but not as a romantic interest, which confuses him. 

With all this going on, sending the two of them off as part of a group of staff to a medical conference means that they get more time together, but will it be enough to reignite the connection between them.

Underlying all this is another issue, a mystery relating to the finances of the clinic, which Cassidy is trying to figure out. 

Lots going on, but a note of lightheartedness throughout.

The Needle

Finished April 29

The Needle by Francis King

This is a short novel about the relationship between two siblings. Lorna, the eldest is a doctor, with the practice located on the lower level of her home. Her partner, Matty, is also a friend, and up until the return of Lorna's brother Bob from Kuala Lumpur three years earlier, had been a frequent visitor upstairs. Bob and Matty don't seem to like each other much, but they aren't overt about it. Lorna, a widow, also has a grown daughter, Edie who visits from time to time. 

Lorna and Bob grew up with a stepfather who entered the picture shortly after Bob was born. Lorna fondly remembers their father, who died of a sudden illness before Bob was born. Bob was a weak boy, fond of telling fanciful stories, until he was sent to boarding school. He returned more silent and shuttered. 

While he lives with Lorna, and supposedly makes a little money from short-lived acting roles, he doesn't share with her. She has no real idea what he does with his time, who his friends are, or much really about his life. He is in many ways as dependent on her as he was when they were young, but much more secretive about her life. 

As elements of his life begin to intrude on Lorna's life, she begins asking questions and learning more about him, learning about things that aren't that comfortable to know. As she learns of his actions, her reaction is also a surprise. 

An interesting, yet unsettling read. 

Letters Across the Sea

Finished December 24 

Letters Across the Sea by Genevieve Graham

This historical fiction novel takes place from the early 1930s until after World War II and revolves around two characters. Molly Ryan is the daughter of a police officer in Toronto, and her best friend is a Jewish girl the same age, Hannah Dreyfus. Both have older brothers who play league baseball. As the 1930s brought increasing prejudice against Jews, Molly is dismayed to see this appear in her own neighbourhood and among people she knows. 

Molly has been working in a local grocery store to help her family, but as the Depression worsens, she loses that job, and struggles to find another. She also grows more determined to follow her heart by taking journalism classes with the aim of becoming a reporter someday. 

Hannah is involved with a young man, and as the racial prejudice grows the girls drift apart. Her brother Max also has a goal, to become a doctor. Quotas for Jews in the program mean that he doesn't get into the University of Toronto, but he does get into a medical school and, just as he is finishing the war starts, and he enlists as a medic. 

At first, he is stationed in North America, but as things escalate in Europe and the British want a presence in Hong Kong, some Canadian soldiers are sent there. They have little combat training and don't know the small group of islands well, and are sitting ducks when the Japanese attack with more force than predicted shortly after Pearl Harbor. 

As Max tries to protect his fellow soldiers, and struggles to survive himself, Molly tries to follow what is happening in the Far East, and bring attention to it in her role as a reporter. 

This is a story that highlights a lesser known part of WWII, and the Canadians that served there. It also brings to light the racial prejudice of the time, and how media influences what people think.

A very interesting read. 

The Dutch House

Finished March 18 

The Dutch House by Ann Patchett, read by Tom Hanks

I started this book back in March 2020 when I was commuting to work and when the commute stopped, so did the reading. I recently started it up again to listen to while I did crafts and really enjoyed getting back into it. Tom Hanks does a great job of the reading, even breaking into song in one part. 

The story is of a place, a house that was bought by an ambitious young man, Cyril Conroy, for his family after it had been sitting empty for some time, empty of residents that is. 

It was bought full of the art, furniture, and other possessions of the Dutch family that built it. From crystal chandeliers to family portraits, Dutch language books in the bookcase and finely upholstered furniture the house was ready to live in. But Cyril and his wife Elna had come from the inner city. He'd made a career in real estate, but Elna had trouble adjusting to life in such a house, especially with servants who did the work she'd be used to doing. They had two young children, Maeve and Danny, and soon Cyril's wife left, at first for India to work with the poor there. For much of the book we don't learn her story, but she does return to it near the end. 

Meave and Danny were raised mostly by the two women working in the house, sisters Jocelyn and Sandy, who loved them as if they were their own. Danny started going with his father on the weekends to visit the buildings that he owned, help him collect the rents and learn about the business. Right down to the nuts and bolts of maintenance. But a single man of that kind of wealth attracts some attention and a woman had set her sights on Cyril. By this time, Maeve was in college and Danny in high school, and by the time the young single mother Andrea married Cyril and moved in with her two daughters Norma and Bright, Cyril was in her hands. Thus, when Cyril died young, the first thing Andrea did was kick Danny out of the house. Maeve and Danny soon discovered that she had maneuvered things so that she was the sole heir of the estate and the only thing Danny had access to was an educational trust fund. 

As the book begins, Danny and Maeve are sitting in a car on the street looking at the house and wishing they still lived there, so their circumstances are pretty clear from the beginning and how they got there soon gets told. 

The rest of the book tells of their growing up, starting lives of their own, but never able to let go of this house that had been their home. The story is told from Danny's viewpoint and Hanks brings him to life. We see his relationship to his sister, his happenstance meeting of his future wife and how his sister played a role in getting them together, how his history led to his career decisions and some of his personal ones. We also see how Maeve made Danny her project, giving up her own goals to ensure that he became a success despite Andrea's manipulations. 

Andrea is the stereotypical evil stepmother, a caricature of a person. The other characters are more complex, and the story makes some lovely turns bringing it to a quite unexpected ending that seems perfect. 

The Good Doctor

Finished March 17

The Good Doctor by Damon Galgut

This book was shortlisted for the Booker and other prizes and takes place in a more remote part of South Africa. A newly graduated doctor, Laurence Waters, has signed up for his community service and chosen their hospital to do it at. Everyone at the small hospital is surprised. They haven't been looking for more staff. In fact, they aren't very busy at all. 

The town they are in is an anomaly. It is a planned chosen with the location chosen by remote bureaucrats and has no natural attractions. It was for a time the base for a homeland leader, but he is no longer in power and the few bits of government that came due to his presence are now gone. The town has little to offer, a small grocery store, a cafe that tried to also be a hotel for a time, and not much else. 

The staff at the hospital is small: the director, Dr. Ngema, a black woman hoping to get an appointment elsewhere; Frank Eloff, the narrator, an Afrikaner doctor hired to replace her, that stayed even when she didn't go; the Santanders, a doctor couple from Cuba; and Tehogo, a young native man who failed his exams for a nurse but does nursing and orderly and other odd jobs.

When Laurence arrives there are only two patients and one soon gets transported to the nearby city hospital for treatment. The hospital is poorly funded and lacks basic supplies, which limits what they can accomplish and what their patients can be treated for. It is soon apparent that Laurence is an idealist who wants to make this job an altruistic sacrifice for himself.

Frank is unhappy with his arrival, and doubly so when he learns he must share his small room with the new doctor. This is due to a lack of furniture, and the race of the few staff. Even though Tehogo is of lower rank, he is black and thus Laurence and him cannot share a room.

There are several plot points here, one involving a young roadside vendor, a woman that Frank has become involved with, Tehogo and his activities, and new activity around the nearby border. 

One of the reasons that Frank applied for this job and didn't leave when Dr. Ngema's appointment fell through is his marital situation. He is separated from his wife who is seeking a divorce, and she left him while having an affair with his best friend. Frank really has little in the way of outside ties except his father, with whom he has a complicated and distant relationship. 

This is a slow and sad story, a story of hopelessness and apathy, yet somehow one that draws you in. 

Malice Aforethought

Finished March 16

Malice Aforethought by Francis Iles

This book was first published nearly a century ago and the plot and characters are definitely of that time. It is set in a small country town in England where Edmund Bickleigh is a doctor. Edmund was a bit of a player with the ladies before finding himself maneuvered into a marriage. His wife is domineering, and, once married, uninterested in the physical side of the marriage. Edmund continues to philander with the local ladies, yet never harbouring any thoughts of ending his marriage until a young and not-very-social heiress moves to their area. He suddenly begins to consider using his medical knowledge and access to drugs to end his wife's life, freeing him to move on to his new relationship. 

He tries to take his time, and plan things out carefully, but there are things out of his control, and he makes a careless mistake, opening himself up to suspicion and an arrest. 

This novel takes us through his actions, including the court scene, and the ending is one that is extremely ironic. 

None of the characters are particularly sympathetic, so for me, this was more about the plot than the characters. We don't see any point of view except that of Bickleigh, and the other characters lack depth.

The Silent Assassin

Finished February 1
The Silent Assassin by Lori Andrews

This thriller features a female doctor, Alexandra Blake,  who specializes in communicable disease research and works for the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology (AFIP). Her father died in Vietnam when she was a young child, and she had an unconventional childhood. She is involved with a musician, but the two haven't really defined their relationship beyond the present. As the book opens, he is leaving for a European tour, and she is called in to attend an autopsy on a man found in a dumpster, with some conflicting clues about his status and death. She is also involved in a project to repatriate some skulls of Vietnamese people that were brought back to the United States as war trophies by soldiers. Although confiscated as soon as they arrived in the U.S., the skull have been in storage, untouched, for years. Back in the war, they were painted and used in disrespectful ways. Alex is asked what she can do to remove the evidence of this, and is ordered to participate in the repatriation ceremony. She is also told to identify at least one of the Vietnamese victims.
As she works on these projects, she is drawn back into her own personal history and the loss of her father.
This novel is part of a series, but I haven't yet read others. I enjoyed the character and the story. The action moves quickly, and there is lots of suspense and drama, and several more people die before the final act. The personalities of the characters play a role, and it was a page-turning read.

Tears of Salt

Finished October 19
Tears of Salt: A Doctor's Story of the Refugee Crisis by Pietro Bartolo and Lidia Tilotta, translated by Chenxin Jiang

This is the memoir of Pietro Bartolo, a man who grew up on the Italian island of Lampedusa, and returned there as a doctor. His career there has been marked by the enormous flood of refugees arriving from Africa, many in dire physical condition.
The story jumps around from his personal life, growing up, going to school on the mainland, working as a doctor, stories of meeting his wife who is also a doctor, dealing with the huge numbers of refugees arriving on the island, struggling for support for the work he does, working in his field of obstetrics as well as whatever is needed by the local people and refugees, acting as a coroner and doing autopsies on the refugees who don't survive their flight to freedom and a better life.
I learned many things about the situation there, adding to the knowledge I had from news stories.
The book does not move in a linear fashion, but moves around in time back and forth. Bartolo is obviously hugely affected by the stories he witnesses, but also aware that he is only there for a brief moment in these people's lives, and he doesn't know much of their stories before or after their passage through his island.

Cocoa Beach

Finished June 13
Cocoa Beach by Beatriz Williams, read by Eva Kaminsky and Alex Wyndham

This story moves back and forth in time between events during and just after World War I in France and England, and three years later in Florida.
Virginia Fortescue has left her father and sister in New York City to volunteer in France during the War. She has a few reasons for leaving, although she does worry about her younger sister. She has used the mechanical skills her father ensured that she had to become an ambulance driver and mechanic. During her duties, she meets an English doctor, Simon Fitzwilliam, a few years older than her, and is drawn to him. He is in a complicated personal situation, but works to gain her love and trust. Virginia hasn't told him all her secrets, but she does feel safe with him.
Three years later Virginia has come to Florida with her young daughter following notification from Simon's brother that Simon has died in a house fire. Virginia left Simon shortly after their marriage, under circumstances we gradually learn, and has never let him know about their daughter. His voice is given in letters that he writes to her. Again, Virginia has a secret no one knows. She has a letter from him dated after his reported death, and so believes that he is still alive. She searches for an answer to her questions about Simon and his motivations, relying on his siblings for information. But is she trusting the wrong people?
This is a story of secrets, of worry and of trust. In a time of Prohibition, Simon has become involved in illegal alcohol provision, much like the smuggling of his Cornish ancestors. Has this activity become his downfall?
There are several interesting characters here, from Simon and Virginia to the black woman who manages the estate and citrus orchards that Simon inherited. Simon's brother is a bit of an enigma. We know he resents Simon and has all his life, but does that mean that he would actually do Simon harm. The cliffhanger ending leads me to expect another book with some of the same characters.

The Ruin

Finished March 14
The Ruin by Dervla McTiernan

This novel, set in Galway, Ireland is a real page-turner. It is the first in a new series featuring detective Cormac Reilly. The book starts with an event from 1993. Cormac is a young policeman, sent out to respond to what he believes is a domestic incident. He has trouble finding the house, and when he gets there finds a teen girl and a young boy and their dead mother. The radio in his car is broken, and the house has no telephone, so Cormac takes the two children to town to the hospital. He tries to follow up on the case, but isn't given any encouragement by his superiors.
Now, it is twenty years later, and Cormac, recently part of a special ops team, is back in Galway with his partner Emma. The move is partially for Emma's job, but also because Cormac could see that they were going to disband his unit and figured it was a good time to leave. But once back, he is frozen out by most of his colleagues, and put on cold cases.
Meanwhile, a young intern, Aisling, discovers she is pregnant. She knows it is the wrong time to have a baby, that she will lose her chance to become a surgeon if she does. So when she returns home from her hospital shift and lets her boyfriend Jack know about her condition, she also shares the difficulties, which causes him to take time to think as well. When she finds him still gone when she wakes, she isn't sure what to think. Has he taken the news harder than she thought? But then, two police arrive at her door and let her know that they found his body in the river, a suspected suicide.
With everything else going on in her life, this is too much of a shock for Aisling. She's is numb, and not thinking clearly. But there is someone else on the scene who is thinking clearly, and acting on those thoughts. It is Jack's sister Maude, a woman who hasn't been in his life for the last twenty years. And Maude doesn't believe that Jack's death was suicide. And the police aren't interested in her theories.
Cormac becomes involved in the case, when he is asked to look again at the death of the woman he found twenty years ago, Maude and Jack's mother. Did she really die by her own hand as the police thought, or was someone else involved. As Cormac digs into the old case, he finds himself finding that outside influences have effects on investigations, both past and present, and he must make difficult choices.
This is a great series introduction, and I definitely want to read more about Cormac and his colleagues.

Oh My Stars

Finished September 5
Oh My Stars by Sally Kilpatrick

This feel good novel is set in small town Tennessee. Ivy Long lives in Ellery with her mother and younger sister, a place she moved back to after the death of her husband from cancer a few years ago. Her mom helped get her a job at the Dollar General, and she's been mostly keeping her head down and trying not to think about the book her contract says she must submit by the end of the year, after many extensions. Her first book was very popular, but she can't seem to focus on the humour and romance that the next book in the series requires. It's an unhappy coincidence that her series was titled the Merry Widows shortly before she became a widow herself.
This year, her mom signed her up for a week posing as Mary in the drive-thru nativity scene just outside the store she works at. But then she meets the man posing as Joseph, Gabriel Ledbetter, a man who lived most of his life in the city, returned to help out his dad at the farm, and to wait out a malpractice case he is fighting. As a pediatrician, he is a bit out of his element on the farm, but finds some compensations in the people around him, and gradually getting to know his dad better, as well as his own history.
The title of the book comes from a phrase often voiced by Ivy's mom, when she is surprised, and Ivy and her sister Holly have a bet on about who can make their mom say it.
When a real live baby is laying in the manger one evening when Ivy reports for her nativity shift, Gabe is enlisted to check her health before the authorities become involved, and Ivy soon finds herself involved in a situation that takes her out of her resigned state of apathy and into a future she never dreamed of.
With characters that have interesting backstories, and a unique setting, this book brought both tears and a smile to my face as I read.

One Station Away

Finished June 23
One Station Away by Olaf Olafsson

This novel follows neurologist Magnus as he deals with the loss of his lover, the possibilities of an unidentified, seemingly unconscious woman being locked-in, and the resurgance of his mother's classical piano career.
Magnus is a man who really keeps to himself. He doesn't tell the people around him much of his personal life; he doesn't tell his family much about his personal or professional life; and he resents sharing his lover's time with anyone else.
As we gradually learn about his lover, and her reticence as well, we see that like him, she felt deeply, but didn't share a lot.
Magnus distanced himself from his parents years ago, and knows that his father has always been passionate about his mother's piano career, and as her agent has always been her biggest fan. When he finds his father excited at an uplift in her career, he is at first reluctant to believe in it, but finds himself gradually coming around as one of his coworkers, a man knowledgable about this aspect of music, appears to appreciate her work. He hopes that the cycle of rise and fall that has existed for her will be broken. From her, we see little, as she seems a quiet unassuming woman in person, and we don't get a sense of how she feels about everything.
At work, Magnus is interested in the experiences of the patients that he and his team have studied as they research aspects of those patients outwardly unconscious, but having some sense of the world going on around them. He begins to develop a rapport with the most recent patient, but his team begins to feel that he is hiding things from them.
This is a strange book, about a man that ultimately one doesn't quite understand, always, as the title says, one station away.

The Scribe of Siena

Finished November 29
The Scribe of Siena by Melodie Winawer

The book centers on neurosurgeon Beatrice Trovato. Beatrice's mother died given birth to her, along with her twin sister. She was raised by her brother Benjamin, who was 17 at the time. He did a fantastic job, and the two remained extremely close. Benjamin was an historian, but also a scientist, and he was researching the Black Death and why it took a greater toll on Siena than any other area in Italy. Beatrice was already planning to take some much needed vacation and visit him in Siena, when he died suddenly. She is determined to continue his research in honour of him. When she gets to Siena, she finds herself finding a place for herself there. When not buried in research, she explores the city and makes friends with a neighbouring family. When she comes across the diary of a painter who lived in the same time period as the outbreak of the Black Death, fresco artist Gabriele Accorsi, she is drawn to his words, and when she finds one of his paintings that contains an image of a woman with her own face, she is struck by the connection. As her immersion in the past becomes stronger, she finds herself suddenly transported to the Siena of 1347, and extremely grateful for the skills in language and history that she learned thanks to Benjamin.
As she makes a place for herself in this foreign world, she continues her brother's research as best she can, meeting some of the players in the books she's been studying. Meeting Gabriele Accorsi himself is almost more than she can believe, and as she finds a real life connection with this strong-willed but gentle man, she also finds that her life and actions are not always within her control.
For those who love time travel and romance, with a touch of intrigue, this book is a winner. Highly recommended for readers who loved The Outlander and Discovery of Witches. I could hardly put it down.
Like Discovery of Witches, the author knows her history and uses real life historical characters and events to bring the story to life.

Heart of the Matter

Finished October 24
Heart of the Matter by Emily Giffin

This novel centers on Tessa Russo and Valerie Anderson. Tessa quit her tenure-track position to stay home and have children. She and Nick now have Ruby, four, and Frank, two. When Tessa made her decision, her mother decreed it was a mistake, that it would create a chasm between her a Nick, opening an opportunity for him to stray for a more interesting woman. Tessa held her tongue from reminding her mother that her parent's divorce came after her mother started back to work. Tessa and Nick have a very close relationship and his job as a plastic surgeon is a demanding one. Her being home provides stability. As the book begins, the couple are out for dinner on their anniversary when Nick gets paged. He is needed at the hospital, and their evening together ends.
Valerie is a single mom to a six-year-old boy, Charlie. At the urging of her brother, Valerie reluctantly agrees that Charlie can go to a sleepover birthday party at the house of a classmate. Her evening of relaxation is abruptly interrupted when Charlie falls into a fire while roasting marshmallows, and is rushed to the hospital.
Nick is the doctor assigned to Charlie's case, and he takes a personal interest in the young boy.
The viewpoint switches back and forth between Tessa and Valerie as their worlds come together and their each deal with something they never imagined for themselves.
The two female characters here are deeply drawn and we see their inner thoughts and struggles to make decisions as the plot unfolds. I enjoyed the read.