At the Stroke of Midnight

Finished September 7

At the Stroke of Midnight by Jenni Keer

This historical mystery is a fun and suspenseful read. It is 1923 and Pearl Glenham lives with her accountant father in a small town in England. He mourns his wife, and is fixated on the time she supposedly died, four minutes past ten, and doesn't seem to be interested in anything but his job. Pearl does all the domestic chores, submitting to his demands, and leads a quiet life. But her best friend Harriet is more adventurous and has always encouraged her to rebel against her father's expectations. Pearl also has a secret, that she also has developed a secret compulsion regarding time, and has a collection of timepieces that she has stolen over many months. She also has an obsession with water, and has taken up swimming, becoming quite competent.

Her father tells her that they have been invited to Highcliffe House, a country house on the Dorset coast for the weekend, and must go. He plans for them to travel there in two days so they arrive fresh, and seems to know how to get to the house, although he claims that it is for business and that he doesn't know the house or the host. The owners of the house, the English woman who grew up there, Lenora, and her husband, an American named Virgil Brockhurst haven't been seen in twenty years. They had spent time traveling when they first married, and had returned with a young child, saying that they intended to stay for some years, but disappeared again shortly after their arrival. 

Pearl had come across the invitation her father received before they left home and suspected that the contents implied blackmail coerced her father to accept the invitation. So she is watching what happens carefully. Once they arrive at the house, it soon becomes apparent that he has met the other two guests, although they all pretend they haven't. Besides the guests, one of them has brought her husband, an Italian man who knows no English, and there are two temporary servants, a young man named Ellery Brown, who is rooming offsite, and an older woman named Mrs. Dawson who is doing the cooking. After lunch, Pearl is able to escape the house and go down to the beach for a swim in the ocean. While there, she sees an unusually dressed man go to a cave she hadn't noticed before and then return to the path to the house. When she enters the cave she notes many odd items, seemingly overflow from the many strange collectables she'd seen in the house itself. As she investigated a curious clock with funnels that seemed to run it, she tripped and fell and a drop of the liquid in one of the funnels spilt and ran into her mouth. She immediately returned to the house and after an uncomfortably tense afternoon and dinner, retired to her room, awakening later to find smoke at her door and unable to escape the fire in the house. But after succumbing to the smoke she finds herself back in the cave in the afternoon, replaying the day she just went through. 

As she goes through this again and again, trying to change the outcome of the day, escape the fire, and make sense of what is happening, she is joined by someone else who gets caught in the same repetitive time period and the two join forces to find answers. 

This is a story of a young woman finding her independence, a story of romance and intrigue, death and second chances. Very enjoyable and I found myself eager to see what each new iterance of the day brought and what the truth of the circumstances was. 

The Hangman

Finished September 2

The Hangman by Louise Penny

This novella is part of a literacy imprint, Good Reads, aimed at adult readers. It also fits into the Chief Inspector Gamache series as 6.5 in the series. 

Set in the village of Three Pines in Quebec, a jogger discovers a man's body hanging from a tree in the woods. Both the jogger and the dead man are guests at the village Inn and Spa, a large older home that has been recently remodelled. 

Many questions arise. Did the two men know each other before coming to Three Pines. Why did either of them come to stay at the Inn and Spa? If the dead man was murdered, why did he write a note? 

This is an interesting addition to the series that I hadn't been aware of until recently and I was glad to come across it. I read it in a single sitting. 

Mourning Gloria

Finished August 31

Mourning Gloria by Susan Wittig Albert

This is the 19th book in her China Bayles series. Here, China's husband McQuaid is away on a case and her stepson Brian is at camp, so it's just her, her niece Caitie, and the dog Howard Cosell around. Caitie is helping China in both her home garden and the shop garden, as well as helping at the weekly farmers' market. She's also doing some supervised babysitting for friends. 

After a backyard party where Caitie is staying on to do some babysitting, China notices a house trailor on fire on her drive home, calls emergency services, and stops to see if she can help. When she hears a woman calling for help from inside, she tries to get in, but is injured before she can. The experience haunts her, and she can't stop thinking about the trapped woman. 

Jessica Nelson is an intern at the local paper and on the story. When she hears China's details, she becomes personally motivated. Jessica lost her parents and sister to a house fire, something she is still dealing with. She is motivated and good at her job, so when she disappears after leaving a truncated phone message for China, China gets worried. Worried enough to start following in Jessica's footsteps, except she's involving both the local sheriff, whose territory covers the trailer location, and the town police chief. 

There is an subplot about the relationship between the sheriff and police chief as it becomes more serious. 

We also see how Caitie is excelling at her violin lessons, and growing more confident after her past trauma. 

As there sometimes is, a plant theme is clear here. This time it is hallucinogenic plants which covers many plants from coffee and tea to the titled reference to morning glory. This theme also relates to the plot in multiple ways. 

A good read, as usual. 

Midnight Storm Moonless Sky

Finished August 30

Midnight Storm Moonless Sky: Indigenous Horror Stories by Alex Soop

This collection of stories by Blackfoot writer Alex Soop begins with his thoughts on what horror is, and a recognition of the indigenous culture of storytelling that he is drawing on. I liked the way he connected horror with everyday life. His tales draw on indigenous legends, indigenous reality, Canadian history, and common horror tropes to build stories that feel real, possible, and tied to their settings. Hauntings along the Highway of Tears, gatherings of ghosts that welcome a stranger, racism, bullying, gang mentality, residential schools, Wendigos and other paranormal creatures, despair, alcoholism, cursed objects, the foster system, and mental illness.

I found the stories captivating, but also thought-provoking. A great read. 

Accidentally Yours

Finished August 29

Accidentally Yours by Alexa Rivers

This contemporary romance is the first in the Little Sky Romance series. Here, New Zealand CEO and developer Eli Lockwood is starting a new project in the small south island town of Itirangi. There is some community pushback on the impact to local businesses and the tourism the town is starting to attract. 

Aria Simons is a local reporter up for a promotion and looking for interesting and newsworthy stories to help her win the senior position. When she writes about the project, Eli notices and fearing negative impact decides to go to Itirangi in person to represent his company. He is a bit gun shy of media attention after a previous girlfriend dumped him publicly through the media.

He finds himself surprised by Aria, and also attracted to her. She's not the type of woman he usually goes out with, but he finds himself pursuing her.

When his parents unexpectedly dump his teenage sister on him for the summer, hoping that his business mindset and hard work will have a positive influence on her, he finds himself asking Aria for help. He hasn't spent much time with his sister lately and doesn't know how to talk to her. He himself rebelled against his parents by starting his own company rather than joining theirs and he knows the pressure on his sister to join the family business. 

Aria is wary of mixing business with pleasure after an unfounded rumour about doing so negatively impacted her at a previous employer, so although she is attracted, and can see beyond his professional exterior, she doesn't want to be seen as using personal relationships for professional gain. 

As the two give in and pull back from each other, they find themselves dealing with classism, family, and unplanned outcomes. 

An engaging read, with interesting characters, and a great setting. 

Song of a Blackbird

Finished August 26

Song of a Blackbird by Maria van Lieshout

This graphic novel is based on real historical events, but has fictional people inspired by real ones. There are two timelines in the book. In the present day, Annick is researching her grandmother's past to try to find biological family members after her grandmother's health situation led to discovery that her grandmother was adopted by the family she grew up in. There are five prints on the wall of her home that are clues to the past. Each of the prints takes us to a building that played a role in the Nazi deportations of Jewish people in the Netherlands and the resistance that worked to save lives. We quickly learn that Annick's grandmother had an older brother that was also spirited away from his Nazi captors, but the two were separated, and never reunited. He thought she was dead, and she was young enough at the time not to realize that she had lost him. 

Using the prints as clues is an interesting plot device that also takes us to printers that created false documents for the resistance, and even to an historic bank robbery that I hadn't known about before reading this.

The limited palette works well here, and the blackbird in the title serves as both a narrator and a symbol of hope that helped people survive. 

The Christie Affair

Finished August 26

The Christie Affair by Nina de Gramont

This novel takes the real eleven-day disappearance of Agatha Christie that was never explained to a reimagined version that completely captivated me. Some elements of the disappearance were kept, but most names have changed and some people characterized differently than they were.

This novel is told from the point of view of Agatha's husband Archie's mistress, here named Nan O'Dea. Nan grew up in London, but spent summers at the home of her father's sister in Ireland and grew close to a young man there. The first world war upended her life, and after losing a family member she remained in England until after her young man Finbarr returned home. There was an event following this that determined her actions going forward and had a large effect on her state of mind.

Meanwhile Agatha had become a successful author, earning enough to support herself and it is implied that her husband may have resented her attentions to her craft rather than himself. Agatha was determined to save her marriage after she learned of his betrayal, but he finally made the decision to divorce. They argued and he left to spend the weekend with his mistress. Agatha disappeared late that evening, with her car found in strange circumstances the next day, sitting on the edge of a quarry. 

As the novel progresses, Nan tells the story from a variety of points of view, with explanations of how she knew what happened with these others, from Agatha herself, to Archie, to police officials. The crossing of paths between Nan and Agatha is interesting and well-thought-out. 

A large portion of the novel takes us through Nan's past and what led her to the affair with Archie. This portion of the novel is entirely fictional and takes us through other serious issues, mostly in Ireland. 

I enjoyed the way this novel humanizes Agatha and we see her vulnerability, and how she took the time to understand that she had limited choices going forward and had to accept the end of her marriage. A very engaging read. 

Totally and Completely Fine

Finished August 25

Totally and Completely Fine by Elissa Sussman

This contemporary romance novel follows Lauren Parker, who grew up and lives in the small town of Cooper, Montana. In the present, Lauren runs a craft and book store with her mother, a retired school teacher. Her younger brother Gabe is a famous actor and has helped all the family out financially. Three years ago, Lauren's husband Spencer died in a car accident, something she and her teen daughter Lena are still struggling with. She also has a difficult relationship with Lena as Lena is a moody teen. When the two go to visit Gabe on set, Lauren meets actor Ben Walsh, and there is instant chemistry. Ben is younger than Lauren and she struggles with her attraction, her worries about the age gap and their different trajectories. 

We see Lauren's younger years, after her own father died when she was eleven and she herself was a rebellious teen. Living in a small town, she earned a certain reputation that some locals still paint her as. She knows how reputation can affect her life and doesn't want to go through that again, or bring attention on her own daughter in a negative way.

This is a romance, but also a story of struggling with grief and moving forward after loss. It is about family and intimacy, and how we all long to be seen, even though it can be scary to be vulnerable.

I enjoyed this novel and found it a real page-turner. 

The Knowledge of Water

Finished August 21

The Knowledge of Water by Sarah Smith

This historical novel has elements of suspense and romance, as well as an interesting historical setting. It is 1910 and in Paris. 

One of the main characters, Alexander von Reisden adopted his current life when he was very young. At the age of eight, he was an American boy who killed in self-defense and fled, changing his name and his country. For years he had buried his memories of the past, but eventually remembered and now feels the weight of his actions heavily. He worried that his crime is a personality and moral flaw that he cannot escape. But the three people who know of his past have absolved him, recognizing the circumstances of the action he took. He now runs Jouvet Medical Analyses, an institute that specialized in mental disturbances and has an impressive case archive going back decades.

Perdita Halley is the other main character. She is a young American woman studying music, specifically piano, persevering in spite of her instructor's misogyny and her own failing sight.  She is the protégée of American rare book expert Gilbert Knight, who funds her studies and worries about her enough that he sends his friend, investigator Roy Daugherty to Paris to check on her, determine whether an outright gift of money is a good idea and see if his hoped-for union of Perdita and Alexander is likely.

Perdita and Alexander are close, and they grow closer despite their misgivings. They are drawn to each other, but Perdita worries that marriage will mean giving up music, and Alexander worries that Perdita won't be happy. 

Meanwhile the rain in France is at record levels and flooding issues grow more dire. There is also a murdered woman, who identified with the Mona Lisa, and whose body sits in the morgue waiting for the investigation on her death to lead to her murderer, and the museum guard who may have killed her. There is Milly Xico, a French writer whose ex-husband still tries to control her and exploit her talents as he did during their marriage, even as she makes strategic choices of her own. There is a possible art fraud regarding paintings by an artist who died a few years earlier, and his widow, Madame Mallais, who may be part of the fraud. 

I enjoyed the undercurrent of feminism here, with Perdita, Milly, and Madame Mallais, as they each navigate a world where women have different rules and expectations. There is also the very real flooding that happened in Paris and the immense damage it did, with both infrastructure damage and lives lost. 

Alchemy and a Cup of Tea

Finished August 13

Alchemy and a Cup of Tea by Rebecca Thorne

This novel is the fourth and last book in the Tomes and Tea series, but the first I've read. I picked it up for the title, not realizing that it was part of a series. That said, it reads well on its own, and puts you into the action right from the start when you find one of the main characters, Queen Reyna held by a gang who kidnapped her for unknown reasons. She works out how to free herself, while her wife Kianthe, a woman with strong magical abilities who hold the position of Arcandor, launches a rescue mission. 

The rescue team discovers a mysterious alchemy circle hidden in Reyna's holding cell, and begin asking about its unusual design and potential purpose.

The reader soon learns that the pair are recently married, and that Reyna is the new head of a parliamentary kingdom. They live in a New Leaf, small mountain town in the Queendom, and together run a bookstore and café. Reyna is a skilled tea sommelier and they both love books. The marriage has brought tourists to the town hoping to see the couple and the town is not equipped to handle the large influx of people. As they work with town officials on possible solutions, they worry that they might have to close the shop and leave the community they love.

They are due to attend an important magical conference, and hope to learn more there about they alchemical circle, but find there are other strange happenings and attempts to disrupt the core magic that Kianthe is one with. 

This book has tame griffins, powerful ancient dragons, small communities trying to survive difficult conditions, and common goodwill from many citizens of the neighbouring countries. I found it a cosy fantasy with touches of romance, mystery, and danger. It portrays loving relationships and friendships that are accepting of differences and supportive of each other. 

The Prisoner

Finished August 13

The Prisoner by B.A. Paris

The main character, Amelie, lost her mother when she was young and afterwards her father sued the hospital where she died for malpractice, a case which has dragged on, and the pair moved to England. They are very close. As the book opens we see Amelie in the present, where she has been kidnapped from her husband's home and is being held prisoner in a dark room, with minimal contact with her captors, none of which is verbal.

We are also taken to a past timeline, beginning when Amelie is in high school, caring for her father whose health is bad. As we watch her make choices to move to London, to befriend an older woman, and to enter into a problematic marriage, we also see how she has ended up where she is now. 

She is a young woman with an independent spirit who doesn't want pity or sympathy, just wants a chance to be the best she can be. Her circumstances limit her or change the timeline for her dreams, but they don't take the dreams away. She is kind and friendly and somewhat naïve, and thus others take advantage of her. 

In the present we soon learn that her husband is also a prisoner in another room of the building she is in, and that his security guard has been recently killed. We watch Amelie learn about her environment, use any tool that she can find to work for her, and try to figure out what the kidnappers want. She also fears being released with Ned for reasons that become clear. 

This is an interesting psychological suspense novel, as are all the ones I've read by this talented writer. 

Polar Opposites

Finished August 10

Polar Opposites by Barbara Kellyn

This novella is one I picked up to meet a reading challenge and because it has a Canadian setting, Churchill, Manitoba. American magazine journalist Zora Dunn has been struggling with life in general and with writing since the death of her father a couple of months earlier. Her editor sends her to Churchill to do a story on polar bears, the disappearing sea ice, and how the community is adjusting to climate change. Zora has done a lot of research, but her intention is to see the situation for herself and to talk to locals about how they see things and how their lives are impacted.

She has been paired with a Canadian freelance photographer, Luke MacNeil. He has a great reputation as a photographer, but has an abrasive attitude and seems to enjoy getting under Zora's skin. For example, when she introduces herself to him, she says that her friends call her Zee, but he responds by calling her Zed, a reference to how Canadians say the alphabet, but also disrespectful. 

Luke is also facing a health issue that will impact his ability to do his job, and is dreading this loss. The job has brought them together, but how they react to each other and treat the people they interact with will impact the article overall.

I enjoyed the witty banter, but found that the novella format limited the character depth. There were a lot of local characters that seemed interesting that I would have wanted to learn more about. I also wanted more information on the issue that Zora was writing about included. 

Short Circuit

Finished August 9

Short Circuit by Wolf Haas, translated by Jamie Bulloch

This fascinating thriller novel was inspired by the artwork of M.C. Escher and jigsaw puzzles. One of the main characters is Franz Escher, a man who works as a funeral orator and lives a quiet life. Years ago, a woman gave him a birthday gift of a jigsaw puzzle of one of Escher's pictures and he became hooked. Now he has bookcases filled with jigsaw puzzles. He does them often. His other hobby is reading about the mafia, both fiction and nonfiction. Some time ago Franz wrote a fiction book about working in the funeral business, that drew heavily from his real life and real people, including a co-worker named Nellie. Nellie had not gotten angry exactly, but she brought up certain elements of the fictionalized version of herself, and why he made certain choices. Franz felt embarrassed at his literary work, and took the small advance he earned from it and invested it in an online bookstore that he read about that was doing badly financially and expected to go into bankruptcy. He just wanted the money to go away. 

Franz has a faulty outlet in his kitchen, that has been getting gradually worse, and now has a loose connection that makes him nervous. He only has the one countertop outlet, and must constantly unplug appliances in when he wants to use a different one: kettle, coffeemaker, toaster. He has called for an electrician and while he waits he first finished a jigsaw puzzle, and now he is reading a book about an Italian mafioso turned informant Elio Russo. Russo is awaiting being released from prison into a witness protection program. 

Meanwhile, Elio is nervous about his upcoming release and can't sleep, so he is reading a book about a man named Franz Escher, who is waiting for an electrician to come fix a faulty outlet in his kitchen.

As we move back and forth between these two stories, and a third voice related to one of the protagonists, we find ourselves in a surreal world as we wait for them to realize what is happening. 

Thoroughly enjoyable.

A Merry Little Lie

Finished August 7

A Merry Little Lie by Sarah Morgan

I found this a delightful read. There's a lot going on and I found it hard to put down. Set mostly in Northumberland, UK, the novel finds Becky, an IT worker in London, stranded at the airport when a snowstorm downs flights. She is rescued by Will, her brother Jamie's best friend, a doctor in London, who is also going home for Christmas. He has a car and offers her a ride so they can share driving. With weather and road conditions, they have to stay overnight at an inn and must share a room. Becky finds herself thinking about Will in new ways, but isn't sure how to deal with that. 

Rosie, Becky's twin married Becky's former co-worker and friend Declan in the spring after a whirlwind romance. Becky's been less close with both as she gives them space, and they both miss her. Rosie is a costume designer for a ballet company, while Declan works in IT. The two have had a few bumps in their relationship recently and haven't worked it out yet. This will be Declan's first Christmas with Rosie's family and as a married couple and there are things that are new for him, who doesn't have a close family.

Jamie is also bringing someone home for Christmas, Hayley, who he met only a few months ago, and has told the family they have an announcement. The family is worried about how fast this relationship is moving, as Jamie had a previous long term relationship that broke up when the woman left. Jamie is a doctor in Edinburgh, and Hayley is an illustrator who has lived a nomadic life, growing up in care and not having a home base as an adult but travelling a lot. She longs for a real family Christmas, but worries about being accepted.

Add in a nosy grandmother who asks probing questions, a father who has retired recently and finds himself unmoored, and mothers who worry about their grown kids and also have some secret agendas of their own, and this book kept me wanting more. A feel good, cosy, Christmassy, romantic novel.

I loved the varying points of view, the snowy setting, the lovable dog, the thoughtful presents, and the family nature of the situation. 

Bleeding Hearts

Finished August 5

Bleeding Hearts by Susan Wittig Albert

This is the fourteenth book in the China Bayles mystery series set in Pecan Springs, Texas. China runs and herbal shop and café with a friend and they've recently added a new partner and expanded into catering. The book includes herbal information and lore and recipes. 

Here China is approached by the local high school principal to discreetly look into the past of the high school football coach. The principal recently received an anonymous call that the coach has been involved with female high school students before. Her legal advisor downplayed it, but she's worried enough to want it looked into. China's mom lives near the town the coach worked in previously and goes to visit the mother of the girl he was supposedly involved with. She discovers that the accusations were dismissed by the school, police, and church there, and the mother was frustrated with the situation, but had let it go until recently, when her daughter, now in college, was found dead in a hotel room.

The death was deemed a suicide, but as China looks into things further, she has more and more questions and concerns. 

On the home front, her partner McQuaid has taken a case in New Mexico, where his ex lives, her stepson Brian has something with a friend that he's worried about, and China's mom has been contacted by her late husband's late secretary's son about some letters he found in his mother's belongings. She's asked China to deal with it and let her know if there is anything she needs to know.

There is a unique cultural part of this novel about the way US football is treated. High school coaches are paid very well, often higher than any other school employee, not always required to teach any classes, and treated as heroes and celebrities when the teams are doing well. This gives a coach a layer of untouchability when rumours arise, and this is definitely in play here.

We also see a lot of China's professional life, with her business partners who are also friends. She's concerned about things in their lives, and about the employees they share. There is a real sense of the community nature of a small town, the politics and social structure, and the activities that have people's lives overlap in unexpected ways. 

Kitty St. Clair's Last Dance

Finished August 1

Kitty St. Clair's Last Dance by Kate Robb

I enjoyed Robb's first novel and was excited to see this one at my local library. I'm glad I picked it up as this is a definite winner. Set mostly in the small Ontario town of West Lake on Lake Huron, the main character here is a local girl, Julia (Jules) DeMarco. Jules works at the local retirement home, Sunnydale, as does her best friend Zoe. Jules had wanted to go to med school, and had taken her MCAT, but financial and family issues made that not an option for her. She loves West Lake, and has seen the influx of tourists and the introduction of more vacation homes in the nearby towns drive out local residents and small businesses, such as her favourite butter tart bakery. 

When one of the residents, Kitty St. Clair, dies, Jules is surprised to learn that Kitty left her a building in town. It used to be a dance hall, but has been sitting empty for years. When Jules comes across Kitty's diary from the months before she married a Toronto man, she begins reading it for clues to why Kitty left her the building. Instead, each time she reads a diary entry, she finds herself back in the past as she sleeps, existing there as Dotty O'Brien, one of Kitty's friends. Her first dream visit takes her to May 1949, where Kitty and Dotty go to the dance hall one night where Kitty hopes to meet Beau St. Clair, a young man from Toronto she's been corresponding with since the previous summer. She also sees a local boy, Knots, who works at the dance hall, and who is very interested in Kitty himself. 

As the dreams give Jules more knowledge of Kitty's circumstances, she also considers that the building, once probate goes through, may offer her a chance to pursue her dream of med school after all. When she finds out that a man from Toronto is in town looking to acquire the property for a condo development she is torn in two ways. The first is whether to sell for her own future, but draw the town into the real estate issues she's seen in nearby towns. The second is when she realizes that the man is one she has a past with. Two years earlier, she spent a night with Reeve Baldwin and never heard from him again. Can she trust him? Why is she drawn to him still? 

I enjoyed the characters here, seeing both Kitty and Jules deal with their dilemmas, and the other small town residents, both those in the retirement home, and the locals like Zoe, and Donny at the Legion, the centre of the town's social life. I got a real feel for the community and the way people look out for each other and are involved with their community. 

The romances between Kitty and her suitors, and between Jules and Reeve were well written and I could feel the attractions. Jules' and Zoe's friendship is also drawn well, and Zoe is a real character. A book that I found hard to put down. 

The One Day You Were My Husband

Finished July 29

The One Day You Were My Husband by Rosie Walsh

This compelling read takes us through Carrie's situation as she is faced with revising her past. Carrie is married with six year old twins and is feeling ready to return to her career as a surgeon after stepping back when her children were born prematurely. Her mother is less present in her life; her stepmother is preparing to move her father, who suffers from advanced dementia, to a care home; her sister is now living in the U.S. and her husband is supportive of her decision. 

While planning a trip to Sweden to reconnect with her surgical mentor, and attend a conference for the short-term rental company she is part of, she comes across a rental owned by her first husband, Swedish Johan. She is taken aback. Twelve years ago, the two met through a patient brought into the hospital she was interning at and felt an instant connection. They had moved in together, and impulsively married when she visited Thailand to meet him when he was on location in Cambodia. Johan was apprehended violently by armed police on the evening of their wedding day as they were dancing on the beach. Despite her efforts, Carrie was unable to get Johan released and was actively discouraged from doing more by the threat of violence against both of them and others. It took her years to move on. She wasn't even aware he'd been released from Thailand. 

At first she isn't sure whether she should cancel her trip but, even after talking to her sister and mother, she checks that he isn't on the list of attendees at the conference and decides to go, as meeting with her mentor is important to her and will give her a better restart to her career. But she still wonders about what really happened back then, why he's been released, and why she didn't know about it. When she runs into him in person, the questions are even louder, and she decides she needs answers, even if they are difficult. 

I found this to be a real page-turner, with interesting plot twists and character dynamics. 

The Midnight Train

Finished July 25

The Midnight Train by Matt Haig.

This book came out of the responses from his previous book The Midnight Library, compelling him to explore these ideas about life in another way. Since I loved that book, I decided to try this one as well. 

The central character is Wilbur. First we see a vignette from his life, when he is on his honeymoon in Venice. Then we see him in the present, as he is nearing the end of his life, in his 80s, with regrets over his choices. He had a successful life, founding a bookstore chain and making lots of money, but he has sacrificed people and personal life over those choices. Unexpected contact with someone from his past gets him thinking and he finds himself in death, which is nothing like what he expected.

He is by train tracks, waiting for a train, greeted by someone from his past who will guide him on his journey, explaining the rules of travel and helping him understand what is happening. He is a version of himself where he was most himself, on that trip to Venice. The train will take him through time, over the course of his life. It will stop and key moments where he must get off and observe them, feeling the joy or pain or other emotions again and perhaps noticing things he hadn't noticed in the moment. The purpose of the journey is to help him better understand his life. When he hears the train, he must reboard and travel forward in time again. The train is a larger version of a toy train he had as a child.

As Wilbur witnesses his life, seeing things he hadn't noted, feeling the feelings again, he wants himself to have noticed, to choose differently, but that isn't how this journey works. But he can't help wondering whether it is possible to influence his younger self and make different decisions.

This is a fascinating read, that had me as a reader considering my choices, and what I might have done differently. What moments would my train stop for? This is a book that will stay with me.

The Confession Club

Finished July 16

The Confession Club by Elizabeth Berg

This novel is the third in a loose series set in the small town of Mason, Missouri. They have recurring characters with a focus on different characters in each book. Here, the focus is on Iris, a middle-aged woman who moved to town a few years ago. She is divorced and now teaches baking classes. As the book begins, Iris agrees to help out a friend who has taken on a complicated cake for a get-together that day. The cake takes hours to make, and Iris is pleasantly surprised when her landlord Maddy has unexpectedly returned to town with her seven-year-old daughter Nora and helps with the cake. When the two deliver it, they find a group of women wide-ranging in age who meet weekly for food and sharing confessions. The confession part started at one of their meetings and has proven to be cathartic and helpful and they take turns sharing. The women invite Iris and Maddy to join the group, making representatives from every decade from the 20s to the 70s. Maddy finds herself sharing her insecurity about her life and her urge to return to Mason from the city where she had moved for her art career. She is concerned how her husband will feel about her hard-to-describe urge to leave the city and has avoided talking about the details with him. 

Iris is also having an experience she finds unsettling, an attraction to John, a man she's met recently who has been squatting in an abandoned farmhouse outside of town. John is kind and handy, but also suffering from PTSD from Vietnam and guilt over actions in his past. He's attracted to Iris as well, but is also concerned about his own mental state.

I was really struck by this group of women, sharing details of their lives that are difficult, embarrassing, and deeply personal. They are at different stages in life, and face a variety of life circumstances. They are honest with each other, but also have senses of humour that help lighten the atmosphere when it becomes weighty. I always enjoy Elizabeth Berg as she depicts everyday human struggles so clearly. Her books always leave me thinking. 

A Cold White Sun

Finished July 15

A Cold White Sun by Vicki Delany

This is the sixth book in the Constable Molly Smith series, set in the fictional town of Trafalgar, near Castlegar, in the mountains of British Columbia.  

At the beginning of March break, high school English teacher Cathy Lindsay is up early, looking forward to spending time skiing with her kids. She takes her dog for a walk and is shot dead by a skilled shooter. The police have little to go on, and cast a wide net looking for clues. Molly is on the scene soon after the crime occurred and gets involved in some of the questioning. 

We see a glimpse into her personal life as her relationship with her boyfriend Adam seems to be getting more serious and Molly is unsure about how she feels about that. She also sees her mother beginning a new relationship that involves someone from Molly's work and must deal with her feelings around that change. 

The victim's husband Gord is an IT consultant and their marriage hasn't been great lately, so he comes under scrutiny and has some things that he is hiding. We also learn that Cathy was having feelings for one of her fellow teachers Mark Hamilton, who has issues of his own as well. 

The lead on the case is Sergeant John Winters and we see his personal life as well. His wife Eliza is a retired supermodel and now owns a couple of art galleries, one locally. She has a relatively new employee, Margo, who has losses from her past that come into the plot. 

We also see Cathy's kids and the impact this loss has on them. 

I found the characters interesting and the plot compelling. An enjoyable read.