Appointment in Samarra

Finished June 3

Appointment in Samarra by John O'Hara

This novel, written in 1934, is set in 1931, and was the first novel by O'Hara. It is considered a modern classic. The main character is Julien English, a manager of a Cadillac dealership in the town of Gibbsville, Pennsylvania. He has been married to his wife Caroline for five years, and has recently turned thirty. We know that he had a previous relationship, that wasn't public, with a Polish immigrant woman named Mary. 

Julien's father is a doctor in town and Julien has always been somewhat of a disappointment to his father, from his antics as a boy to his lack of ambition as a man. Julien and his wife are active socially, belonging to clubs and part of a friend group that parties regularly. It is the Christmas season and we see Julien begin a series of self-destructive incidents that compromise his friendships, his position in society, and even his marriage. They start with throwing a drink in the face of a friend and important business associate.

There are issues of mental health, infidelity, and economic difficulties as the Depression has begun in the country. We see things from Julien's perspective, but also from others such as his wife Caroline's, has salesman, and some of his friends. 

The title comes from an ancient Mesopotamian tale about a man who tries to escape death but can't. It speaks to the inevitability of Julien's self-destruction. 

An interesting psychological read. 

Clear My Name

Finished May 30

Clear My Name by Paula Daly

This novel is set around Tess Gilroy, up to now the only employee of Innocence UK, a charity that helps people wrongly convicted of crimes. They have just wrapped up a successful case as the book starts and the board is meeting to decide what case they will tackle next. They've narrowed it to three options. They've also hired a new employee, Avril Hughes, who will be shadowing Tess as she prepares to be a second investigator for the organization. The board consists of Tom Robinson, a solicitor who sifts through the many cases sent their way and decides which ones have merit; Tess, who was a probation officer before she took this job; Vanessa Waring, a Home Office pathologist; Chris Pownall, a forensic scientist with an interest in fibre analysis; Fran Adler, a forensic scientist with an interest in blood; and Clive Earle, an ex-DI. 

The case they end up going with is that of Carrie Kamara, who was convicted of killing her husband's lover. She is three years into a fifteen-year sentence. It was her own barrister that pushed the case to Innocence UK. As Tess and Avril dig into the evidence and begin interviewing witnesses and others, they find some of the evidence questionable, some police work lazy, and some things that truly puzzle them.

Tess is also having a casual sexual relationship with Clive, who is married and pushing for more than Tess wants to give. We also are given clues to a personal complication to this case for Tess. The town where Carrie lived is the same town that Tess grew up in. She left years before, for reasons we only gradually learn of, and is wary of spending time there now. She is a diligent researcher though and follows up on all lines of the case despite her personal issues. 

I found this story intriguing, both in the way of evidence and for the personal life of Tess. 

False Impressions

Finished December 16

False Impressions by Sandra Nikolai

This is the first book in a series featuring a ghostwriter and investigative crime journalist. Megan Scott and her husband Tom's marriage has been more stressful lately as their efforts to have children have been unsuccessful. Tom travels a lot for work, and is off on another trip as the novel begins.

Megan is starting a new project as a ghostwriter for investigative journalist Michael Elliott, and when they realize they knew each other years before, they begin to develop a friendship as well.

When Tom goes off for a retreat, Megan doesn't have any concerns until police arrive at her door telling her that he and his female companion are dead. The discovery of his infidelity at the same time as his death is confusing for Megan emotionally, and she relies heavily on Michael for support. 

It also puts her under suspicion for his murder, and the ties between her and the crime continue to grow. The police seem to have their minds already made up, and Michael and Megan begin their own investigation to find the truth. 

I enjoyed the premise of the novel and the plot. As the book began, some of the dialogue seemed stilted and awkward, but that improved as the book went on. While it took me a while to get truly interested, I was glad I stuck with it. A good read.

The Doorman

Finished October 25

The Doorman by Chris Pavone

This novel is a slow build, giving background on the three main characters: the doorman of the Bohemia, a historical luxury apartment building in Manhattan, Chicky Diaz, a widower with two adult daughters, who is still trying to pay off his late wife's medical bills; Emily Longworth, who lives in the penthouse suite at the Bohemia with her husband and two young children and who is facing recent revelations about the sources of her despised husband's income and questioning what she is willing to live with; and Julian Sonnenberg, an art dealer who lives on a lower floor with his wife and teenage daughter, and who is facing both a career and a personal crisis. 

On a larger level, a Black man has recently been killed by the police, resulting in demonstrations and outbursts of violence. Most of the staff of the building are black and are unsettled by the news. 

With Chicky's personal situation facing increasing pressure, along with the wider unease in the city, he opts to bring a gun he has just purchased along to his night shift at the building. 

Emily and her husband Whit, and Julien and his wife Jen are both at an art awards dinner. Emily is active in the arts world, both as a buyer and as a philanthropist. Julien and his business partner Ellington, a black man, have sold pieces to the Longworths. 

There has been information leaked recently about Whit Longworth's business activities and there have been protestors at the building he works at. He is considering his options. 

All three of the main characters, as well as some others, have secrets they'd rather not have widely known. They also have people who would relish in their bad luck. 

Both Emily and Julien have lived at the Bohemia for a while, Julien longer than Emily. Chicky has worked there for several decades. They have people they trust and people they don't. 

I really enjoyed this novel, as I have other of Pavone's books, both the plot and the characters. A great suspense novel with some unexpected situations. 

Death on the Diversion

Finished October 8

Death on the Diversion by Patricia McLinn

I was introduced to the main character in this series, Sheila Mackey, in the novella Before the Murders. Here Sheila is on a cruise, something that she has done plenty of times before, but this is her first time without her aunt Kit. They've also taken a relative along with them, and this trip Sheila is travelling with a distant cousin, Petronella, who is recently divorced from her abusive husband because he found a new woman. She has obvious confidence problems and is also protective of Sheila. 

Sheila meets a member of a group travelling together as she gets a manicure at the start of her voyage. Odette is friendly and has travelled on with her group before, but there are interesting dynamics between what used to be three couples. Spouses are now in relationships with other of the group's partners, with Odette the odd woman out and seemingly not bothered. Another woman in the group, Leah, is the one who seems often in a bad mood, and is unpleasant to fellow travellers and staff alike. 

There is also another repeat group aboard, a group of women who are loud, with flashy clothing, cosmetic enhancements and and entitled attitudes. 

As Sheila, with long distance advice from her aunt Kit, endeavours to figure out the mystery, she gathers information from crew members, members of both travel groups, her own companion, and her helpful dinner table companions. 

I enjoyed this mystery, and the way that Sheila became more confident of her own observation and problem-solving skills. There is humour here as well. An entertaining read. 

The Marriage Hearse

Finished July 13

The Marriage Hearse by Kate Ellis

This is the tenth book in the series featuring DI Wesley Peterson. Here the book opens with a crime scene, where we see a young woman, dead and in a state of undress, be staged for a misdirection as to her death. We then jump to a wedding scene, at the registry office. The registrar is Joyce Barnes, a middle-aged motherly woman who notices an unusual emotion in the bride's eyes, fear. The reader is moved again, to a different wedding scene, opulent and formal in a church, where things are not going well. The bride, Kirsten Harbourn, is late, and her father finally appears, but instead of walking her down the aisle, he is alone and announces that she is dead, murdered. 

This is one of the cases that Wesley is now engaged in, as they endeavour to discover who killed the bride-to-be and why. The situation is a little unusual, with the bride preparing for the wedding on her own, instead of with friends and female family members, and this raises the question of whether she had planned on meeting anyone during this time.

Kirsten worked as a secretary at a local ESL school where European students came to board and learn the language. Wesley and his team take a look at the situation there, as some people close to Kirsten have mentioned that something odd was going on there, and that she may have endangered herself if she discovered something. 

When a local man with a metal detector investigates a field with permission from the farm owners, he finds jewelry, but also human remains. The police are called in and Wesley calls Neil as the bones look as if they've been there for some time. As he learns more, Neil is determined to solve the riddle of who this woman was, and enlists the help of an archivist friend. 

Wesley's archeologist friend Neil Watson is in charge of a dig at local Tradington Hall, where discoveries have been minimal to this point. 

On the personal side, Wesley's sister Maritia is about to get married to the new vicar of Belsham, and the couple and friends, including the best man who is visiting from London, are working on the vicarage which has been neglected for some time. Meanwhile, she is staying with Wesley and his wife Pam and their kids, and been helpful with the kids as well. 

The local theatre group is putting on a play, newly discovered, but dating back to the late 1500s. The playwright, Ralph Strong, was born locally, and went to London to further his prospects as an actor and playwright. This is the only one of his plays to survive, and is titled The Fair Wife of Padua. Each chapter is introduced with either lines or programme notes from the play, and we begin to see how it aligns with different parts of the many plotlines. 

I always enjoy the way the various plotlines link in Ellis's books and how there is an historical story that has things in common with the current day crime. 

This was an engrossing read that I finished quickly. 

Meet Me Under the Mistletoe

Finished June 8

Meet Me Under the Mistletoe by Jenny Bayliss

I always enjoy this author's books, she has a nice way of drawing you in and making you care about her characters. Here the main character is Elinor (Nory) Noel, who runs a secondhand bookshop in London. She comes from a working class family, with her parents running a greenhouse. She was accepted as a scholarship student at a prestigious boarding school and made friends with a group of kids there. She has kept loosely in touch with most of them. Two of them are now getting married and have proposed a reunion in the days leading up to the wedding, at the manor house (now inn) that backs onto the school property. They aren't far from Nory's parents' home and she plans to visit them while she's there.

A few years ago, one of the friend group died, and it brought the group together in grief at the time. Several of them questioned the way their life was going, and Nory was among them. She didn't enjoy her work, and that is when she determined to open the business she runs now. She is much happier and has one close friend from the school group, Ameerah, and is also friends with her one employee, Andrew. 

Nory is looking forward to the reunion in some ways, but not so much in others. She had a night with one of the former school friends, Guy, years ago, but he hadn't told her that he was married, and neither had the friends that were aware of it. She is determined to avoid him as much as possible. On the first night there she goes out into the gardens, which she knows fairly well from childhood, to avoid him and ends up getting startled by the head gardener Isaac, who father used to head the gardens. 

As the two get to know each other, they find a lot of things in common, but there is also pressure from someone close to her against her choice, and a secret Isaac has that complicates things. 

The friends are an interesting bunch, all from wealthy backgrounds except Nory, and some of them are definitely out of touch with the real world. It's not necessarily because they don't care, but their lifestyle just hasn't exposed them to the awareness of other lives. Nory is someone who is sure of herself, but less sure of how others feel about her. A fun 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 Summer without Men

Finished June 28

The Summer without Men by Siri Hustvedt.

This short novel is very engaging. Mia Fredrickson, the narrator and central character, had a breakdown after her husband of thirty years left her for another woman, a French woman that Mia refers to as 'The Pause'. She was hospitalized for a short time, diagnosed with a Brief Psychotic Disorder, and once she was well, decided to return for a few months to the small Minnesota town of her childhood. She rents a small house near the senior complex where her mother lives in a small apartment. She also gets a job teaching a group of teen girls poetry. 

Her mother has a group of friends that spend a lot of time together, and Mia thinks of them as the Five Swans. She regards them as women who "shared a mental toughness and autonomy that gave them a veneer of enviable freedom". We get to know these women. George is one hundred and two and has a great sense of humour. Regina is eighty-eight had married a diplomat and lived in several countries and had several relationships after her husband's death. Peg, at eighty-four spent her life in a smaller town nearby, and has six children and numerous grandchildren that she keeps detailed track of. Abigail, at ninety-four has osteoporosis and hearing issues, worked as a teacher, but is a textile artist with hidden depths that she gradually reveals to Mia. 

We also get to know the teenagers. Mia has taught graduate students for years, but she adjusts quickly to this younger group of students. Peyton, thin and tall, is still getting used to her longer limbs. Jessica is small but has a woman's body, and talks in a babyish voice. Ashley is self conscious, but confident of her developing body. Emma is shy. Nikki and Joan function in tandem and giggle a lot. Alice has moved recently from Chicago, and is interested in books and art. Mia teaches them three times a week for six weeks, giving them interesting exercises and prompts for their writing. 

Mia also starts getting anonymous emails that are nasty and critical. When she begins to engage with this unknown person, the conversation becomes very interesting. 

She also has emails with her husband Boris and her daughter Daisy. During the summer both Daisy and Mia's sister Bea visit her. 

She also engages with the family living next door to her house, Lola and Pete, and their children Flora, and Simon. Flora makes quite an impression with her stuffed animal menagerie and her Harpo wig. Lola makes and sells jewelry and is a calm and capable mother. Pete travels a lot for work and Mia seldom interacts with him. She hears the arguments between the couple and helps sometimes with the children when Lola gets overwhelmed. She describes Flora so well, I can see her in my head. 

Scattered throughout the novel are poems, some by other poets, some by the teen characters, but many of Mia's own, and this is part of the skill with language that Hustvedt has. She also has insights that touched me. One example is this:

Sitting across from her in the small apartment, I had the thought that my mother was a place for me as well as a person. ...But it was my mother herself whom I had come home to.

Her other insights about her mother were also interesting to reflect on. Mia cooks for her mother and visits, listening to her talk about earlier times in her life, and walks back to her rented house reflecting on her own life. She has weekly telephone sessions with her psychiatrist Dr. S. and spends time writing poetry. 

This is a novel that drew me in, that made me read slowly with attention, and that made me care about the characters. A gem. 

The Guest

Finished June 27

The Guest by B.A. Paris

A twisty mysterious suspenseful tale of the type I've come to expect from B.A. Paris. The couple at the center of this novel, Iris and Gabriel have been married a long time. Their daughter Beth is taking a gap year volunteering in Turkey for an organization that works with abandoned and abused dogs. 

Recently Gabriel was the first one on the scene when a teenager, Charlie died after going over the edge of a nearby quarry. Charlie was still alive and said some things to Gabriel before he died. Gabriel had coached Charlie a few years back, and was deeply affected by this tragic experience. He is now on leave from his medical practice for an indeterminate time. Iris has a home-based business where she works with homeowners to decorate and furnish their spaces. The experience that Gabriel had has made for a distance in their marriage. 

As the novel begins, they arrive home a day early from their holidays and find an old friend Laure in their home. Laure is distraught, and says that Pierre, her husband has told her he had a child with someone and has just discovered her. He hasn't told Laure who the woman is, but Laure has suspicions. Iris had long wanted children, but Pierre did not, so she feels very betrayed at this point and is trying to figure out what she wants to do. As Iris tries to escape Laure's presence, she finds new friends in the village, a couple near her age that recently moved into a large property that had been abandoned for years. Hugh and Esme are in a second marriage for both of them, with Hugh widowed with a grown child and Esme divorced. Esme is now pregnant and eager to make new friends as well as bring the old house back to life. Along with them is Joseph a gardener that Esme's parents knew, who has recently lost his job. Joseph is helping with the grounds of the house. 

As the friendship begins, the presence of both Laure and Joseph bring tension to the atmosphere. Most of the characters have secrets that they haven't shared that will soon come to be uncovered, unless circumstances allow them to stay secret. 

There is lots of suspense here, with tension between many of the characters, and the ending is unexpected and unnerving. A real page-turner. 

Polly Fulton

Finished April 17

Polly Fulton by John P. Marquand

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

If We Had Known

Finished January 22

If We Had Known by Elise Juska

This novel is set around a shooting in a small college town in Maine. The shooting occurs in a mall and the shooter is a recent graduate of the college. Maggie Daley recognizes the name of the shooter, Nathan Dugan, as a former student. She teaches English composition a required course that many of her fellow teachers resented because of the challenge of teaching students who didn't want to take English. But Maggie is an enthusiastic teacher who loved the challenge. The students wrote papers, shared them in class, and talked about them with each other. In many cases the topics were deeply personal and the experience was a meaningful one in their lives. Maggie loves her job and really enjoys getting the students enthused about writing about something important to them. After Maggie's marriage ended she begin seeing Richard, another teacher at the college, but he still lives with his wife even though he says their marriage is over. Because he is worried about his wife's mental health, he and Maggie have kept their relationship secret. 

While Maggie is at the center of the story, she is not the only voice here. Another is the voice of her daughter Anna, who is just about to leave for college herself. Maggie and her husband Tom divorced and Anna hasn't been taking it well. Anna has a history of anxiety issues that began a few years ago and that this event is somewhat triggering for. As Anna leaves home, and adjusts to college life, she finds a good friend in her roommate, but soon is triggered in another way by someone new in her life and finds herself struggling again.

A third voice in the story is Suzanne, Richard's wife, who can see that Richard is pulling away from her and suspects that he is having an affair. She had a brief contact with one of the shooting victims and finds herself reacting to the news with a lot of emotion. We see as she discovers who Richard is seeing and takes some action against Maggie. 

Another voice in this book is Luke Finch, who was in Maggie's class at the same time as Nathan. For some reason he doesn't fully understand himself, Luke posts on Facebook about his memories of Nathan and then is taken aback when the post goes viral. People start responding to it from all over, and Luke has a variety of reactions to it. Luke is living at home, working in a donut shop and dreaming of a different life. His sudden fame has him reacting, but not always in a way that is helpful for him.

As these four people try to move on with their lives, but find themselves connected in a variety of ways, we see how this terrible event has changed their circumstance so their lives won't be the same. 

Maggie struggles to figure out whether she should have or could have noticed that this young man would do something so awful and tried to help him. She isn't sure of her ability to connect with the students anymore and we see her become more and more isolated. With Anna at college, she is alone, and she cuts off most of the world. 

This is a book that looks at our connectedness to others and what our responsibility to each other is in a larger way. These four people react in different ways, some of them harmful to others, some harmful to themselves, as they try to figure out how to move forward from in their own lives. 

A gripping story. 

All Her Little Secrets

Finished January 8

All Her Little Secrets by Wanda M. Morris

This thriller moves back and forth between the childhood of the main character, corporate lawyer Ellice Littlejohn, with occasional viewpoints of other people like her younger brother Sam. Ellice escaped her small town, and the life of poverty she lived there through scholarships. She now has an Ivy League degree, and a secret relationship with her married white superior Michael, the EVP and general counsel for Houghton Transportation in Atlanta. That's just one of her secrets. She also keeps secret her origins, passing herself off as an orphan with no family. The woman that saved her, helping protect her from that early life is now in the later stages of dementia and Ellice pays for her stay at a high-scale living facility. But she knows Vera would rather be back on her farm. 

Ellice also hides her younger brother Sam, who's had some legal issues and doesn't seem to be able to keep away from the temptations of that life. She and Sam are close, and she loves him, but she also feels guilty for leaving him behind when she escaped. 

After an episode from the early part of her life, the present-day part of the novel begins with Ellice finding her boss shot in the head when she goes to meet him for an early pre-work assignation. So she hides the fact that she found him too, and goes to her own desk and tries to get on with things. But, soon she finds that with the gossip, the police, and the sudden interest in her from the executive suite, that all those secrets are pretty hard to hide.

Ellice is also one of the very few black employees in the building. Outside of the security staff, and other low-paid workers, she is it. There have been protests outside the corporate building about the lack of racial presence and a threat of a class action suit. This is another thing looming on the horizon. 

As Ellice starts trying to figure out what happened to Michael to save her from the threats now coming at her, she finds even more secrets to deal with. 

The plot is a good one, and I found the main character interesting. The author is also a corporate attorney, so she brings in realistic elements from that life. A good read. 

The Merchant's House

Finished January 5

The Merchant's House by Kate Ellis

I enjoyed The Armada Boy so much (a book I picked up in a charity shop) that I have got most of the rest of the series, and started with this one, which is the first in the series. The Armada Boy was the second in the series, so I'm mostly doing it in order. 

Here, DS Wesley Peterson has just transferred into the local force from London. As he walks to work the first morning, he sees his friend archeologist Neil Watson engaged in a dig at an old structure. They talk briefly and Wesley correctly identifies the structure as a merchant's house from the 17th century. Recently, Neil's team had discovered a child's skeleton that was confirmed to be from the same time.

As Wesley arrives at work, so does a new case, that of a body found by a woman walking her dog. Wesley is pulled into it and gets to know his superior officer Gerry Heffernan, and his fellow officers, including DC Rachel Tracey, who I liked from the book I already read. 

On the homefront, Wesley and his wife Pam are consulting with a fertility clinic as they try to have a child, and Pam is a bit emotional and sensitive about it. 

I liked how the archeology/historical part of the novel echoed what was happening in the present, showing that some issues and behaviours are universal. I also found it interesting to see the chapters starting with a historical diary entry as a bit of foreshadowing what was to be revealed. 

Once again, the various characters are interesting and I can see how the series as a whole will fill them out with added depth. The plotlines here were also intriguing and I enjoyed pondering the ethical dilemmas they revealed. 

If You Ask Me

Finished August 7

If You Ask Me by Libby Hubscher

Violet Covington is the writer of an advice column, Dear Sweetie in her local North Carolina newspaper. As the book opens, she is told that her column is up for syndication and she is a bit excited about this opportunity. She is good friends with her boss Kyra, whom she originally met at college, as well as her coworkers, Ashleigh and Tyler. She decides to go home early to prepare a celebratory dinner for her and her lawyer husband Sam, but gets an unpleasant surprise that rocks her sense of self and her plans, her husband in bed with another woman. 

After kicking him out, Violet goes through the normal stages of grief around such an experience and both does and says some things that she regrets later. Giving advice that is more open than anything she's written to date means that she gets a more prominent profile, especially after her real name is revealed and she must consider how to deal with both new opportunities and deal with blowback. 

Her more personal actions lead her to new relationships, including a professional encounter with a local firefighter, Dez, that turns personal. 

This is a story of a relationship that had issues long before the abrupt end, and how we don't always know what kinds of personal issues people are hiding from the world. 

I liked the inclusion of the letters and Dear Sweetie's replies that appeared here, showing some new ways of thinking about interpersonal relationships that I found hit the mark for me. 

I was rooting for Violet as she grew as a person here, and found this book hard to put down. 

Bookworm

Finished July 30

Bookworm by Robin Yeatman

I picked up this book at my local library based on the title and the fact that it is this year's book choice for Markham Reads. Because I hadn't read anything about the book before starting it, I found myself getting drawn into the story of a submissive wife, who has an inner life that is very unexpected. Victoria is a massage therapist who works at a local spa in Montreal and spends most of her free time reading. She doesn't socialize much, just with one friend from high school, Holly. Victoria also likes watching people. She believes that she can "read" them as well, sensing information about their lives that is surprisingly detailed. 

As the book begins, Victoria is seated at her local cafe, reading, when she notices an attractive man reading the same book. She is immediately captivated by him, but he doesn't seem to notice her and leaves soon after. Victoria is unfamiliar with the feelings that he aroused in her and is a bit unsettled, finding her thoughts wandering to him despite what else she does. 

We soon find that Victoria is married to Eric, a lawyer hoping to be offered a partnership. She is Eric's second wife, his first having left him for someone else of a lower class, and we see that he is a controlling figure. Their condo is decorated to his tastes, the food she makes is for his limited palate, and the clothes she wears are mostly his choices. 

As we learn the background of how they came to be married, despite the lack of real interest in each other, we also see how Victoria's inner life is her escape. She often gets ideas from the books she reads, and she often fantasizes about her husband's death. 

She also commonly experiences an out-of-body sensation at night just before she sleeps, where she looks down on herself and her bedroom from above. But this experience soon grows to allow her to float beyond her home and observe others that she senses strongly, in particular the man from the cafe. 

Victoria's thoughts are hers alone, not shared with her ambitious lawyer parents, her critical mother-in-law, or her friend Holly. And they are often dark and plotting. 

But when those thoughts begin to have real shape in her daily world, she finds she might actually get what she wants. 

This book is disturbing and my opinion of Victoria changed radically as the book unfolded. This is a unique and startling tale of desire. 

The Party

Finished June 19

The Party by Lisa Hall

This dark mystery begins on New Year's Day as Rachel wakes up. She is in a strange bed and some of her clothes are missing. Her body has bruises and she suspects that she's had sex. She is in the spare room at a neighbour's house and remembers arriving at the party with her husband Gareth, but can't remember anything after that. She doesn't know if she's had an argument with her husband (they'd been having some issues, but had been working on improving their relationship). She doesn't know who else was at the party. 

Her husband had been distant recently, pushing her away and deflecting her questions. There have been some unsettling encounters with a man who worked with her husband, as well. As Rachel first returns home, then is convinced to go to the police, she talks to her friends and neighbours, gradually piecing together what happened that night. Many people have secrets of their own that makes them less than forthcoming about what happened and what they saw. 

The novel jumps back to earlier in the year at times, and this gives more insight into Rachel's relationships and the possibilities of the night in question. 

This is a fast-moving novel, with a narrator that has a lot going on in her life, and is now fuelled by anger. An unexpected and clever ending that will leave you with many questions. 

Left You Dead

Finished February 22

Left You Dead by Peter James

This is the seventeenth book in the series featuring Roy Grace, a police officer in Lewes, Sussex. Grace gets a case that seems straightforward, but he keeps feeling that something isn't quite right. Niall and Eden Paternoster are returning from a visit to a country house. She likes to look at them, and he feels that this is the life that he will someday be living. Niall is currently unemployed, picking up a few shifts for a friend that has a taxi, usually ones in the middle of the night. Eden has a good job, and it's one that she enjoys. 

Niall wants to get home to watch some live sports on TV, but Eden reminds him that they need cat litter and he keeps forgetting. So they stop at a local grocery, and she gets out to run into the store, and never comes back. 

At first Niall thinks that maybe she got distracted, but when he goes in, he doesn't see her anywhere. When he goes home, she isn't there. He figures that she's gone to a friend's place in an effort to teach him a lesson. So he waits until morning to start making enquiries and comes up empty-handed. 

This is when the police get called in, and they start asking some questions as well. The police suspicions, based on what they see and find, place Niall in the suspect box, and he isn't sure what's going on. 

As the story progresses, we see things from a variety of viewpoints, Niall's, Grace's and others. We get insight into the relationship between the couple and into the dynamics of the police hierarchy as well. There are side stories here as well as the main story of the missing woman, and we learn more about Grace as a person as well. 

I enjoyed this book and will definitely look for others in this series. 

So Say the Fallen

Finished February 12

So Say the Fallen by Stuart Neville

This is the second book in the series featuring DCI Serena Flanagan of the Belfast police. It is also the first one that I read. Serena is assigned a case that looks fairly straightforward. A man, Henry Garrick, who was in a car accident a few months ago and lost both his legs has been found by his wife dead, with the means to kill himself at hand. 

The widow, Roberta Garrick, first called her priest Peter McKay before he summoned the police. 

Serena has a lot on her mind, with things not going well in her personal life, and having questions about her future. Her superior is planning to resign soon, and doesn't have a lot of patience for Serena's sense that something isn't quite right about this case. 

As Serena digs deeper into the widow's past and the reverend begins to have doubts about his own actions, things slowly move forward and Serena has new questions. 

I like the Serena Flanagan character, how she doesn't doubt her professional intuition even when her personal life is having issues that make her question some of her choices. She is a complex character with nuances that make her interesting. 

The case includes a few people who don't want to see anything but the obvious, and Serena must take risks to follow her suspicions through to the end. 

The Awakening

Finished December 12

The Awakening by Kate Chopin

This is a very languid read, and very much about the central character and her reactions to her situation. Edna Pontellier is a young woman, married to a Louisiana businessman somewhat older than them. They have two young sons, and have a domestic who looks after them. 

Edna is not a natural mother, and while she spends time with her children, she doesn't dote on them or worry over them. 

This is their first summer that she has spent on Grand Isle, a resort community not far from New Orleans. Her husband joins her on weekends as do most of the other husbands, and she spends the week with the other wives, her children, and one of the sons of the resort owner who is of a similar age to her. His name is Robert Lebrun, and Mr. Pontellier is aware of the attentions paid by him to his wife, but does not worry over it. Robert does this with a young woman every summer, and it is generally attention with mild flirting.

But this attention awakens something in Edna, and she reacts in an unexpected way. She grew up in Mississippi and Kentucky on her father's plantation and led a sheltered existence. This new experience has left her unsettled, longing for something else in her life, and dissatisfied with her luxurious lifestyle. As she ventures away from expected behaviours, her husband makes moves to save face, and reaches out to her, but she seems to not realize her situation.

This is a sad novel, one where I wished I could change the course of what I could see developing.