The House in the Water

Finished August 9

The House in the Water by Victoria Scott

This novel has two timelines. One is in 2013, where Meredith has fallen in love with a dilapidated estate on an island in the Thames river. The house hasn't been lived in for years and needs a lot of work. She convinces her husband Philip to agree to them buying it. Most of the money will come from Meredith, an inheritance after the recent death of her parents. She and Philip have been through a lot and she has left her job in finance to recover and sees the house as an opportunity to go in a different direction, hosting events and offering rooms to guests. 

The second timeline is in 1942 when Ellen, a skilled nurse, has been transferred from a hospital in Egypt to this house turned hospital for those undergoing what we now refer to as PTSD. The atmosphere is very different from the psychiatrist she worked with in Egypt, and she doesn't always agree with the brutal methods she witnesses and assists with. Arriving just after Ellen is a pilot who has been sent there for help so that he can return to duties. Pilots are badly needed. The two connect and find themselves drawn to each other. 

Philip is also a pilot, and thus is away a lot. Meredith finds herself seeing people in and near the house and hearing them as well. She doesn't know if she is seeing ghosts or if there is really someone there. She also finds that some in town aren't supportive of the changes that she and Philip have put forward for the house and thus finds herself often lonely. 

As the two women adjust to their new home and the work they face, they both undergo changes, learning new skills and becoming more adept and courageous when facing challenges. 

I really enjoyed this read.  There are themes of mental health and isolation, as well as growth. 

The Story Collector

Finished July 24

The Story Collector by Iris Costello

This story has three narrators in three different timelines. In 1915 London, Katarina has taken over the bakery started by her parents after they emigrated from Germany. But with the beginning of the Great War, public sentiment turns against her as a representative of the country England is at war with, and when rioters attack, she is lucky to escape with her life. Helped by an English friend, she ends up taking over an abandoned restaurant in a different part of the city, and calls herself Kat, changing her clothing style and acting like a good English woman. She still worries about her brother, who she argued with before her troubles, and who left for the continent. She also worries about her secrets being revealed. Kat has another skill besides baking, divination. She has read the Tarot from a young age, and senses spirits. She begins doing this again to help bring hope to the women she serves. 

In 1918, German nurse Miriam is serving in a prisoner-of-war camp and besides her medical work assists a fellow German doing language research. He is recording as many English speakers as he can, documenting the variation in language use. One of the soldiers admitted to the camp is mute. He never speaks, and no one knows his name. They call him Prisoner X. When Miriam is attacked on her way back to her room one evening, Prisoner X intervenes and she appreciates his help. They begin to grow close, but he is in danger due to his actions, and the Germans are sensing the end of the war isn't far away.

In the present day, Edie is grieving the violent death of her beloved husband, and decides to spend some time alone in Cornwall at the family cottage that once belonged to her great grandmother. As she begins some renovations on the cottage, she discovers a wooden chest with mysterious contents. When strange events begin to happen, she feels wary, worried about violence following her from London. But she continues to dig for the truth even as she begins a new art commission. 

As these three stories begin to converge in interesting ways, we see how secrets can take generations to come to light, and how the resiliency of all these women serves them well. 

A very enjoyable read. 

Watch Us Shine

Finished June 13

Watch Us Shine by Marisa de los Santos

This novel is a story of trauma and recovery, of families, and of forgiveness. It has dual timelines, one in the present and one in the 1960s. Cornelia Brown is the mother of two children, in a strong marriage. She is also the daughter of Ellie, the main character in the older timeline. 

Cornelia is recovering from a traumatic event that we learn about gradually as she talks about it to others. When her father lets her know that her mother was injured in a hit and run, she returns to her childhood home in Virginia to help. 

Ellie struggles to recovery physically, but sometimes she has periods where she seems to be grasping for a past that Cornelia doesn't understand. Ellie begs Cornelia to bring her the northern lights, and despite not understanding what Ellie means by this, Cornelia promises she will.

This starts a quest, first by Cornelia, and then joined by her older sister Ollie, to dig into her mother's past to find clues to this desire of hers. 

They gradually follow clues to different places from Arkansas to Michigan, to the Carolinas, to learn about their mother's childhood and the people that she was close to, but is no longer in contact with. Ollie has questions deep within her that she has never talked about either, and these drive the quest as well. 

In the past, we see the life that Cornelia and Ollie are searching for, the difficult childhood of abuse, the escape to college and acceptance into a family that Ellie grew very close to, and above all the relationship to her sister Martha, whom Cornelia and Ollie never knew about. 

This is a story of trauma, of the desire to be loved, of recovery, and of families, both blood and found. 

I found myself having trouble putting this book down. Highly recommended. 

The Lost Book of Bonn

Finished May 28

The Lost Book of Bonn by Brianna Labuskes

This historical novel has two timelines. The one the story starts with is that of Emmy Clarke, an acquisitions librarian with the Library of Congress. It is 1946, and she has been sent to Offenbach tasked with going through books at the Archival Depot looking for anything that could be deemed 'enemy literature' in an effort to learn more about why and how all this had happened. As a precaution she would be going as a US Army soldier in uniform.

Emmy was raised in Montana by a single mother who ran a travelling library through logging camps. She later moved east and worked in public libraries before taking her current job. Her husband Joseph died in the Normandy invasion and she holds anger towards the German people for it. Emmy is met by Major Wesley Arnold, of the Monuments, Fine Arts, and Archives unit who has been part of the group searching for cultural works taken by the Nazis. 

As they travel from the train station to the Depot, they drive through rubble and see the hunger in the people along the way. She finds her feelings towards the Germans becoming more complex, and doesn't feel good about the suffering she is observing. In conversation with the Major, Emmy says that she doesn't think this is what justice looks like. Her first visit to the depot she finds overwhelming with the volume of material there. When she randomly opens a box and finds a book of poetry with an inscription written with love, she feels that she must return it to the owner. Despite her desire to put books back into the hands of the owners, that is not her mission. She is only allowed to work on books, documents, and films that originated in Germany or were created or owned by Nazi Party leaders. This is to guard against any accusations of looting. The book that she picked up does not fit in this category, but her emotional reaction to it leads her to take it and try to find the Annelise the book is inscribed to. 

The second timeline begins in 1937 in Bonn, and follows Annelise Fischer, a young woman who is part of a group of teens who enjoy outdoor pursuits like hiking and camping, but who have also started acting against the groups of Hitlerjugend (HJ) increasingly present in their town. They call themselves the Edelweiss Pirates. We see the friendships, the teamwork, and the worries of these young people. Annelise in particular worries about her younger sister Christina who has recently joined the HJ to try to fit in, but who is naive and doesn't understand the full ramifications of what she is part of. As the war begins and the teens move into adulthood, their actions become more serious and the risks become more dangerous. As Annelise falls in love with a young Jewish man, she tries to protect him, and avoid the eye of a German soldier who desires her. Christina ends up in the middle, and we see her growing into understanding and her own way of dealing with her situation. 

As we follow the three women: Emmy, Annelise, and Christina, and learn their stories, this novel takes us into their lives and the decisions they make. Each will find their heart pulled by someone, and each will have to make choices that are sometimes uncomfortable. This book draws these characters with depth and empathy, and the plotlines both fit real history and the lives of these women. A great read. 

The Garden of Evening Mists

Finished May 18

The Garden of Evening Mists by Tan Twan Eng

This literary novel is a slow-paced read, which I took my time over. In Malaya in 1951, the central character Yun Ling Teoh went to the Cameron Highlands area of Malaya to follow her sister's dream. She and her sister Yun Hong had been in a Japanese internment camp for three years, a remote camp that the prisoners didn't know the location of. Yun Ling was the only survivor of the camp, and she and her sister had kept their spirits up by talking about the Japanese gardens that they'd seen and what her sister wanted to create in her garden. Since the war ended, Yun Ling had worked for a few months as a researcher for the War Crimes Tribunal before getting a law degree at Cambridge. She returned to Malaya and became a deputy public prosecutor, but her unhappiness at the way the English-controlled government had dealt with the Japanese war crimes drove her feelings to become too vocal for her superiors. 

She is staying with a family friend, Magnus Pretorius and his wife Emily at their tea plantation, Majuba. She plans to visit out their neighbour, Aritomo, a Japanese man who had once been a gardener for the Japanese emperor and has been building his own garden, Yugiri, since coming to Malaya. She has asked him to design a garden for her sister, but he won't decide until they meet. 

Instead, Yun Ling becomes his apprentice, learning the craft of this type of garden by doing the work herself. She is the one who passes his instructions to the local workers, but she also works just as hard as they do. 

Thirty-six years after that first visit, Yun Ling returns to Yugiri after resigning from her position as a judge for the Supreme Court. She will be meeting with a Japanese historian specializing in wood block printing about using Aritomo's blocks in a book. She also meets her old friend Frederik, the nephew of Magnus, who now runs Majuba. Aritomo had bequeathed Yugiri and the copyright for all his writing and art to Yun Ling, but she hasn't visited in years and finds the house and garden both needing much work. 

The novel moves back and forth in time. In the early 1950s, Malaya was still ruled by the British, and there were communist rebels fighting in the jungle, killing the foreign estate owners, and causing unease across the country. In 1987, the country of Malaysia is independent, calm, and a tourist destination. 

We see how the relationship between Yun Ling and Aritomo grew as they worked together on the garden and how she dealt with her hatred of the Japanese through this growth of her abilities and outlook. There are still unanswered questions that Yun Ling must decide whether to pursue. And she must make plans herself, both for her own story, and that of Yugiri. 

This book is wonderful and eye-opening. The characters are complex and the story is as well. The writing brings the setting to life, not only the garden, but the Cameron highlands themselves. You can see the jungle, the forest mists, and the way that both Majuba and Yugiri have put their own visions on their land. This book made me reflect on many things as I read it. With themes of memory and forgiveness the book is one I will think of often. 

The Djinn Waits a Hundred Years

Finished March 18

The Djinn Waits a Hundred Years by Shubnum Khan

This novel takes place in a ruined mansion on the coast in Durban, South Africa. The main character is a teenage girl, Sana Malek. In 2014, she and her father Bilal move from an inland farm to live in a small apartment in this large house, Akbar Manzil. Akbar Manzil was built over a hundred years earlier, and was abandoned a few years later. The house was used for apartments once before, but abandoned again. Now a strange set of misfits live there. The owner is an old man they call Doctor. He has lived other places, but eventually found himself back in the town he was born in. His secrets are kept close until events and Sana's actions bring him to reveal them. A older thin woman named Razia Bibi seems at odds with her upstairs neighbour and complains a lot. Her neighbour, Fancy, a small woman has a bird named Mr. Patel that she sometimes brings into the hall so he can get more sunshine from the window there. Pinky was hired to clean the house, but eventually became overwhelmed at the task and stopped. She lives in a small room off the main kitchen, where she watches Bollywood movies. Zuleikha is more reclusive, leaving her former fame behind as she ages. As Sana learns about them she records their stories in her notebook, particularly when they talk of love. 

Sana is a quiet girl. Her mother died four years ago, and her twin sister died when they were babies. But her sister has haunted and tormented her for years, Sana is obsessed with the idea of love after seeing a couple kiss at a wedding, and she has searched since to discover how love affects the shape of things. She is curious about her new home and explores the house, venturing into distant hallways, and finding a floor in one wing where the hallway is filled with discarded items, from furniture to boxes of odds and ends. As she looks through these things, venturing further in, she finds a locked door, and begins to wonder what is beyond it. She also explores the garden behind the house, which is filled with cages, many of them broken and odd assortments of bones. . The garden has mostly gone wild, but Fancy gardens in the evenings, and Sana begins to spend time bringing it back to order as well. When Sana finds the room behind the locked door, she becomes obsessed with the woman who lived there, Meena, and reads her words, wanting to know her story. 

We are introduced to the djinn of the title in the first chapter. It is 1932 and the djinn is weeping, hiding away deep in the house. When he hears things happening beyond his retreat, he wanders out, but sees only a mess of abandoned items, trunks and clothes. Outside the house, he looks up at it and wails. We gradually discover what he is grieving and this also leads us to the story of the house and its sad fate. 

The writing here is lovely, drawing you into the story, as it uses the foreign words of its characters to add to the atmosphere. The djinn is interesting, a creature that moves about, obsessed with a past tragedy. The story as it gradually reveals itself is one of love and pain, one of moments of happiness and of great sadness. The setting of the house and its garden come to life for the reader, even in its abandoned rooms. 

The Half of It

Finished April 6

The Half of It by Juliette Fay

This novel is centered on fifty-eight-year-old Helen Spencer. Helen is the mother of three adult children, Barb, Sam, and Danny, and the grandmother of one. Before the pandemic hit, Helen's mother Annabella Iannucci had come to live with her family in North Carolina, but she died a few years after the move. When Helen's husband Jim died suddenly shortly afterward, Helen learned his secrets as well. 

The story starts in the present with an unexpected encounter with a man, Cal Crosby, from Helen's past. It then jumps back to Helen's girlhood where she joined track as a way to use the energy she had within her. We see her friendship with Francie Hydecker, a girl who went her own way, a way that included horses and ceramics. And we see the friendship that developed between teenage Helen and Cal. 

As the book moves back and forth between the present, where Helen is very involved in her daughter Barb's life, and Cal has also taken on a caregiving role with his young grandchildren, we learn what led to the rift between them, as well as what led to other rifts in Helen's life. 

As Helen begins to build a new life in Massachusetts, where she's moved to join Barb's family, she also reconnects with her past and must make choices that lead to new beginnings and new friendships.

Although it covers a lot of time, this book moves at a fairly quick pace, and the characters make the book come to life. This is a story of love, of regrets, and of hope.  

The Painted Drum

Finished March 31

The Painted Drum by Louise Erdrich

This novel has several timelines, with all of them related to a sacred drum created by an Ojibwe man during a difficult time in his life. The story begins with an Ojibwe woman Faye Travers, who works as an appraiser and antique dealer with her mother. As part of their business they value and clear houses as part of estate sales. When she is called to appraise and clear a home of a man in her own community, she is not surprised to find indigenous artifacts there, as his family is descended from an Indian agent who worked on the North Dakota Ojibwe reservation. What surprises her is that she finds herself compelled to take one of these artifacts, a drum, without listing it as part of the estate contents. She finds the drum calls to her and she treats it with the respect it deserves as she quietly searches for the people it came from. 

The book takes a jump back as we learn of a legend that is related to the creation of the drum, and then forward as the drum is returned to Bernard Shaawano whose grandfather created the drum. The story then moves us into the future as the drum plays a role in the lives of another Ojibwe family that is struggling. 

This is a story that I found myself taking my time to read, stopping to go over passages, and thinking about what Erdrich is telling us here. Slow-paced and with an element of magic realism, this story will return to you long after you have finished reading it.  

Homecoming

Finished March 8

Homecoming by Kate Morton

This novel starts in the past, on New Year's Day in 1959, and moves back and forth between that 1959  and the near present, late 2018. The 1959 portion takes place in the Adelaide Hills, around a family, the Turners, that lived in a large house that had a sad past, built for a wife that never arrived. The first scene is an interesting one, letting us into the mind of Isabel Turner, a woman who is beginning to question the life she lives. It also ends on an interesting mysterious note with the arrival at the house of a man Isabel hadn't expected. This is followed by tragedy nearly a year later, with a local man, Percy Summers, the one to make the sad discovery on Christmas Eve. 

This present day part of the novel starts in London, but is set mostly in Australia. Jess, a journalist, is off to meet a friend after time spent at her favourite museum, and grabs a cab as rain begins. She receives a call from Australia, where she was born and grown up, telling her of her grandmother's hospitalization after a fall. Jess travels back to Australia, where she finds herself alone in her grandmother's large house, and begins to reflect on memories as well as look for reasons for her grandmother visiting a part of the house that led to her fall. 

One thing she finds is an old book, written by an American journalist, that tells of the tragedy in 1959, with apparent access to personal papers of the Turner family. As Jess begins to realize the connection between this event and her own family, she must also deal with family issues much closer to home, the relationship between herself, her mother, and her grandmother. 

I found this a fascinating read. As is usual for Morton, the characters are complex and feel real. As Jess uncovers her family's history and faces the strange dynamics between the three generations of women, we see the insecurities, fear, and love that underlie all of it. 

A great read. 

The Downstairs Neighbour

Finished January 25

The Downstairs Neighbour by Helen Cooper

This novel has a mystery that develops soon after the book opens and soon becomes the focus of the main story of the book, taking place in the present. There is another story from 25 years earlier that pops up now and again and it takes some time to see exactly how that story relates to the present day one.

The title is also intriguing, because it is unclear exactly who it pertains to. 

In a house in a London suburb, Paul and Steph live with their teenage daughter Freya on the top two floors. There are a close family, and Freya spends time with both her parents as well as with the family as a whole. Paul is an ex-cop and a data analyst, but he doesn't talk much about his previous career. Steph works in the first class lounge at Heathrow airport, making sure everything there runs smoothly. Freya is a popular and energetic teenager. 

Below them, on the ground floor, Emma lives. Emma owns her own vintage store, where she sells clothing, jewellery and other personal and decorative items. Things haven't been going well lately, and she has closed up shop, and has a deal to sell the shop very soon. She has a hamster named Gilbert, and his nocturnal activity has led her to move his cage to the cupboard underneath the stairs going up to her neighbours. She has discovered that when she is in there she can hear, fairly clearly, conversations going on upstairs. Emma is also waiting to hear from someone, a man named Zeb, that we don't learn much about until later in the story.

Below her, in the basement flat live Chris and his wife Vicky. Chris is a driving instructor, and teaches many of the young people in the area, including Freya. Vicky is a nurse. It seems that they are growing apart lately, although it isn't entirely clear why. 

One evening Emma senses unusual activity and soon hears that Freya hasn't come home from school. No one seems to have heard from her and she isn't answering her mobile. When the police ask Paul and Steph whether either of them have enemies, it seems that maybe they don't know as much about each other as they thought. Emma and Chris get drawn into the investigation too, through contact with Freya and an unknown person who seems to be sending a message to someone in the building. 

In the part of the story twenty-five years earlier, teenage Kate is worried about her mom. It's only been the two of them for a long time, but now her mom has a boyfriend, Nick, and she seems a lot quieter than before. The two of them often stop talking when Kate enters the room. When she sees bruises on her mom she gets scared and isn't sure what to do. So she calls a cousin, who's also a friend, for advice. 

As the two stories slowly unfold, there is a tense feel to both stories as we wonder what will happen, and the secrets that so many people have gradually get revealed. 

This is not a fast-moving story. But it is one that has you turning the pages, wanting to find out more. As we learn more about the different people, they become more and more interesting and imperfect. A fascinating story with long trails to the past. 

The Forgotten Bookshop in Paris

Finished December 18

The Forgotten Bookshop in Paris by Daisy Wood

This is a novel about a woman rediscovering herself, a woman making choices about her life that suit herself, and a woman making a connection to her own family history. 

The book has dual timelines, one in the present day as Juliette discovers that her marriage is not a place she wants to be anymore, and one in the past as Jacques watches the German occupation of his city take things from him. 

Jacques isn't an obvious hero. He is bookish and shy, and wary of taking risks. But as the Paris that he loves comes under their control and the people and things he loves get taken away, he finds that he must take some actions, and he chooses to help those that need it, and keep a discreet record of his actions. 

Juliette has let life happen, and when a sudden discovery makes her really look at where she is, she decides to let herself explore the city of Paris, a place she wants to learn more about to connect to the grandmother who lived there. She has a painting of a square in Paris and wants to find it. When she does, she wants to learn more. 

This is a story of taking chances, or making conscious choices that have risks associated, and of listening to one's inner voice. 

I enjoyed both timelines, and seeing the primary character in each grow as their stories unfolded. 

A Desperate Fortune

Finished December 15

A Desperate Fortune by Susanna Kearsley

This is a novel that I'd been meaning to read for a while since I'd read a later book featuring some of the same characters and really enjoyed it. This is a dual timeline novel, with the outer story in the present day and the inner one in the 1730s, set around the Jacobite community in Europe, exiled from England. 

In the present day IT specialist Sara Thomas is between jobs, when her cousin Jacqui who is a literary agent, approaches her about a freelance job. The job is not in her usual area, but instead involves working to break the code on a diary written by a young woman who was the daughter of a wigmaker in King James the Eighth's household in France. The first few paragraphs of the diary are written in English, but the rest is written in code, and one of Jacqui's authors is interested in using the diary to base his new history book on. 

Sara is on the autism scale, and has been tested as Asperger's, and she doesn't like working on a team, but more independently, which is why she is between jobs. Her affinity with numbers and patterns means that while she hasn't worked to break a code before, it is a natural area for her skillset. Sara will be working in the home of the woman who owns the diary in France, not far from Paris. 

As Sara works to break the code and transcribe the diary, we see adjust to the people in her new environment and make new friends. 

In the second timeline, Mary Dundas is a young woman whose father left her as a child with her French maternal aunt when her mother died. Her diary starts as she is contacted by her older brother to join his household, but she soon finds out that he hasn't told her his real reason for reuniting with her, and she finds a chance encounter with another woman passing through the same household she visits gives her confidence and tools to make the best of her new situation. 

Both woman have facility in more than one language and both face issues outside their comfort zone, and in environments unfamiliar to them. 

I really enjoyed seeing both of them develop. Mary's story is a true coming-of-age tale even though she is in her early twenties, as she has lived in her aunt and uncle's household alongside their children for most of her life. Sara's story also has coming-of-age aspects, even though she is older, as she learns to use the skills her brain has dealt her, find ways to face those times she struggles without being embarrassed, and gains in her confidence on the romantic front. I hope to see more following both these women. 

The Light of Paris

Finished December 2

The Light of Paris by Eleanor Brown

I love Brown's books, and this is no exception. Here Madeleine is a woman who has always felt herself to be a misfit, whether in the private school her parents sent her to or in the social world of her husband's business contacts. What Madeleine loved was art, and although she'd been allowed to do art in school, her work wasn't valued by her parents, and she ended up succumbing to the pressure from her mother to get married. Phillip is a successful businessman who met Madeleine through her father's business and while moving in the world her parents expected, proves to be a very controlling husband. Phillip has an interior designer do their home, not allowing Madeleine to have any input on the minimalist style, nor does he allow her to work, or do her art. The only outlet to pleasure she has is as a volunteer docent at the art gallery, where she leads tours. The book opens on one of these tours, and the comments from the teacher escorting the students Madeleine is guiding around the gallery speak to something in her. She is due to go home to her mother for a week the following day, and while there discovers the diaries of her grandmother Margie, and finds that Margie also had an artistic bent and was denied fulfillment in her passion. The diaries reveal Margie's one experience of true freedom, living in Paris for several months, earning her own living, and as Madeleine reads of Margie's life, she determines what she has to do in her own. 

This is a novel of what happens when family expectations don't lead down the same road as one's own bent, and how hard it is to overcome the path that is set for oneself. Brown makes her scenes vivid here, so that I could experience the situations the characters were in, and found myself urging them to speak up for themselves. It was lovely to see the women bloom when they were in their element. I should note that it wasn't only the women characters who were forced into a life they wouldn't choose by family expectations, as there were men in similar circumstances, although the focus was on the women. 

A great read.

The Venice Sketchbook

Finished June 28

The Venice Sketchbook by Rhys Bowen

This book caught my eye at the library when I was picking up some holds, and I ended up bringing it home and reading the whole book that same day. 

There is a short prologue in 1938 at the beginning, which sets the scene for a place and time that ends up being a key to the book's plot. From there the book follows three timelines. The first four chapters are from 1928, when 18-year-old Juliet Browning visits Venice as a gift from her aunt, and has an encounter that she will never forget. The book then moves to 2001, when Caroline Grant is facing the end of her marriage. Caroline and her husband both have degrees in fashion, but he has chosen to pursuit a career in design and recently travelled to the United States to follow that dream. As the book begins, we find that he has begun a new relationship there. The divorce is now final and Caroline will have their son Teddy during the school year, while Josh will have him for the summer and holidays. Caroline stays at her job at a women's magazine, but considers moving in with her grandmother and great aunt Lettie in the house she grew up in. When her great aunt dies, secrets get revealed and when an opportunity to investigate those secrets opens up to Caroline, her grandmother encourages her to take it. 

The story then moves back to Juliet Browning in 1938, where she returns to Venice as an art teacher accompanying her students. Several things have changed for Juliet since 1928, and while she longed to return to the city, she hasn't been able to until now. When she has a chance encounter that brings back feelings from her 1928 visit, she is once again tied to the city. Soon after, an opportunity to study abroad returns her to Venice, a move she makes despite the looming political situation.

As the 1938/39 and 2001 ones stories begin to connect, we find Caroline making interesting discoveries, and revealing possibilities that may change her own life. 

A book that encompasses romance, suspense, and intrigue, this book was one I had difficulty putting down. 

The Brilliant Life of Eudora Honeysett

Finished June 7

The Brilliant Life of Eudora Honeysett by Annie Lyons

This is a very enjoyable read. The title character is in two timelines, both in London. One begins in World War II when she is a child and her father leaves for war. The other begins in the present day. Eudora is just turning eighty-five and she lives a lonely life. After a bad fall, she now walks with a cane and although she still goes for a swim most days, and Ruth, a social worker now comes to see her regularly, she and her cat Montgomery live a quiet life together. Eudora has recently sent away to Switzerland for information on booking a planned death.

Then, a new family moves in next door, and ten-year-old Rose Trewidney introduces herself into Eudora's life in a way that can't be denied, and soon Eudora is connecting with others in her neighbourhood as well. 

As we gradually see, from the earlier timeline, what events shaped Eudora, we see how those events now connect to her present and how she has created barriers to protect herself, but they have also prevented connections from forming. 

As she and Rose become friends and she shares more of her earlier life with her, and uses her experiences to help Rose face challenges of her own. She also begins to realize that her life has been a better one than she realized. 

This is a story with sad moments, but also joyful and amusing ones. Rose is a force to be reckoned with, and changes Eudora's life in subtle and interesting ways. 

Standing in the Shadows

Finished May 31

Standing in the Shadows by Peter Robinson

This is the 28th book in the series featuring Inspector Banks. Set in Yorkshire, this series always brings in some of the author's own interests, like music. 

This one starts at an archeological dig when a woman hoping for Roman artifacts finds bones much closer to the surface than she expected to find anything. The dig is located in a farmer's field that has been requisitioned by the government for a new highway access and amenity location. 

As Banks works with experts to identify the few traces located with the bones, and figure out a time period to look at, he finds himself and his team finding a link to a retired police officer, and an earlier crime. 

There is also a secondary timeline that begins in late 1980 when university student Nick Hartley is part of an investigation into a female university student who was found murdered. Nick is looking for answers himself and is confused and disappointed when his efforts seem to be dismissed by the police. As he moves forward into life after his studies, he finds his questioning nature helpful in his new career as a journalist. 

As the characters from the two timelines intersect, we see how the earlier crime was treated and how the later one resolves many questions. 

The music is one way that Banks relaxes, and here he has inherited a collection of old albums that he has to make room for and that the book mentions some of. 

I always enjoy seeing the various recurring police officers as well, and several show up here. 

Given that Robinson died in October 2022, I'm not sure whether we'll see any more of this series, which is a shame. He was a fantastic storyteller. 

The Night Gate

Finished October 24

The Night Gate by Peter May

This novel is part of the Enzo Files series and Enzo Macleod is now retired from his job in the  French police as a forensics expert. He has been asked by colleagues to take a look at the site of recently discovered body, buried years ago in a small cemetery. The body came to light when a tree was uprooted during a storm, and was found tangled among its roots. The skull shows that the man had been shot through the head. It would appear that the body has been there for decades, dating back to World War II. 

As Enzo inspects the site, he notices police activity at a house nearby and a police officer, recognizing him, approaches and asks for his opinion on the murder that occured in that house. 

Set in the fall of 2020, this is the first novel that I've read that is set during the pandemic, and I found it interesting how that figured into the action of the novel. 

As Enzo looks at both the historical murder and the contemporary one, he finds an unexpected link between the two, France's most famous painting, the Mona Lisa. With the assistance of some family members, he travels to Paris and to Germany in search of the story behind these deaths.

We also see into Enzo's personal life, his wife, his children from previous wives and relationships, and his interactions with them. 

With some of the action focused on the characters from the war, we see a young Frenchwoman, tasked with keeping the painting safe during the occupation, and two men determined to get ahold of it for their own purposes. 

This is the second book I've read in the series, and I found it quite interesting. 

Who Is Vera Kelly?

Finished June 9
Who Is Very Kelly? by Rosalie Knecht

This historical novel follows a young woman through a difficult few years in her late teens, and in her early twenties as a CIA spy in Argentina as it builds to a revolution. The young Vera is in high school in 1957 in Chevy Chase Maryland struggling with her feelings and an incident when she'd taken medication from her mother's bathroom and ended up in the hospital. Things deteriorate after that between her and her mother and culminate with an argument that causes her to run away to a more sympathetic relative, but her mother calls the police saying she stole the car. Vera is relegated to a young offenders facility and finishes her high school years there with no further contact from her mother. After her release, she begins to build a life for herself in New York City, gaining skills and finding her way.
In the other timeline, Vera is in Argentina in 1966, posing as a Canadian student at the university there, and listening to the conversations captured by various bugs that she and others have planted in both government buildings and private residences. As she follows the instructions from her handler, she eventually finds herself in the middle of a revolution where she is in danger and must use whatever resources she can muster to find her way out and stay safe.
At the heart of both these situations is Vera's sexuality as a lesbian woman. She had a crush on a friend in high school, and her sexuality is part of the issue with her relationship with her mother. In her current situation, her sexuality is both a potential danger and a potential to get closer to a target. In both timelines, it is mostly hidden from those around her.
I liked Vera's resiliency and resourcefulness. She thinks ahead, and takes opportunities as they arise. I'd like to learn what her life was like after this book. She's a very interesting character.