The Housewife Assassin's Handbook

Finished September 23

The Housewife Assassin's Handbook by Josie Brown

First, you need to know that this book, and the series that it begins is farce, with great humorous moments. Donna Stone is a suburban housewife. The day her third child is born is also the day that she learns that her husband was undercover FBI and was killed by a car bomb. His boss is the one that informs her and asks her not to let anyone else know he is dead. So she spins stories about him being away on business trips. Donna is involved in all the usual suburban mother activities, PTA and driving kids to their various activities. As she begins to think about how she will manage without her husband's income, his boss suggests that she might be cut out to be an agent herself. 

After training, she takes on the role of a not very bright, but sexy woman in many of her agent roles. But things change when another agent, Jack, who has a reputation for being a player, shows up at her house impersonating her husband Carl. As her fellow housewives swoon over 'Carl', she tries not to resent him for gaining the trust and adoration of her children, and for making moves on her. 

But as the pair becomes involved in dealing a fatal blow to the criminal organization that supposedly killed her husband, things become trickier and it is harder to separate fact from fiction. 

Each chapter begins with a housewife tip that has an edge at the end. The scenes have lots of action and suspense, and the body count damage is mostly offscreen. 

I enjoyed this for the farcical aspects, and it reminded me of some of the action shows of my youth (such as Remington Steele). A fun 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. 

Clever Little Thing

Finished April 2

Clever Little Thing by Helena Echlin

This psychological thriller is set in England. Charlotte, who is English, is married to Pete, an American. Pete works for a startup company using mushrooms to make biodegradable packaging. They have had some success, but are trying to get a big company on board, so Pete is working long hours. The couple have a daughter, Stella, who is eight, and Charlotte is pregnant with their second child. 

Stella has a lot of the signs of being neurodivergent, but they've not had her tested. She is very sensitive to noise, likes her food separated, and taught herself to read early. She very interested in birds and science, and as we see at the beginning, on a trip to the beach, she finds a dead bird that she wants to bring home to examine. Some of her behaviours can be offputting for the neurotypical kids in her class, and Charlotte is trying to socialize her more. 

Charlotte has a babysitter that looks after Stella, a woman named Blanka, who is very patient with her, and doesn't talk a lot. When Blanka suddenly quits without explanation, Charlotte is surprised and disappointed. When she finds out Blanka died a few days after quitting she is saddened. Shortly afterward, she begins to notice changes in Stella, who seems to be losing her fear over some things, but is becoming more withdrawn. She is using phrases that Blanka used to use like "Oh yes" in her responses, and doesn't seem interested in her usual passions. As Charlotte tries to make sense of these changes, Pete seems to think that Charlotte is making too much of it, and increasingly Charlotte feels herself alone, without anyone to tell her worries to. She reaches out to an unlikely ally and finds herself trusting to herself more than ever before.

This is a story that escalates slowly. We can see the changes in Stella as Charlotte notes them, and understand her growing worries, and why she takes some drastic actions. Charlotte loves Stella as she is, and while she wants Stella to be able to function more easily in school and have friends, she also feels that Stella isn't herself and finds herself thinking about Blanka and how Stella seems to be exhibiting more and more elements of Blanka's personality. 

This is a story of manipulation, of love between mothers and daughters, with an eerie underlying tone. The touches of creepiness are so well done, and you feel Charlotte's frustration and desperation as she tries to understand and save her children. 

Hard to put down. 

Rose Addams

Finished February 5

Rose Addams by Margie Taylor

Rose Addams is in her early sixties and working at a Vancouver area public library. She's a woman who enjoys her work, and takes an interest in her children's lives. On her way home one day in late August, her daughter Morgan calls and asks her to call back when she gets home. Morgan, who lives in Toronto with her fiancé Ian, and is nearing the final portion of her Ph.D. dissertation tells her that the engagement is off.

A few days later, she on her way to work when a young man she's seen sitting outside the nearby grocery store approaches her and tells her how he knows her. Rose is surprised and saddened. This reminds her of the early days of motherhood and how her and her husband Charles had handled an earlier childcare challenge in their lives. 

When she arrives home, she has more surprises in store. Her husband Charles, just a few years older than her, informs her that he has retired from his job as a university professor, and chair of his department. He tells her that it is due to a conversation that he had with an undergraduate student around student expectations. She is surprised and disappointed that he made such a big decision without even talking about it with her first. She is further surprised by a call from Morgan saying that she is coming home in a few days, just after the Labour Day weekend. 

As Rose and Charles host a dinner party the following evening with friends and colleagues, and he announces his retirement, the guests are surprised and dismayed. They include another professor and friend, Garnet, and his newest paramour a young graduate student, Lauren; the department secretary Bernadette and her brother Richard; and Rose's best friend Marie, a children's author, and her accountant husband Jeff. Bernadette is particularly dismayed and surprised, but Garnet is also disappointed that he wasn't consulted about the move, since he originally took Charles under his wing when Charles joined the department as a young professor. 

Rose likes Morgan's partner Ian, but is less enamored of her son Jason's partner Lee, who she feels judges her. She hasn't spent much time with Lee though, and not everyone see what Rose feels. 

As Rose deals with all these changes, and more, she questions her own feelings, second guesses her impulses, and finds herself dealing with a future she didn't imagine. 

I really enjoyed this book, and many of the issues that Rose is faced with felt very real and relatable. A book from a Canadian writer new to me, that I will definitely look out for. 

The Stranger Inside

Finished August 21

The Stranger Inside by Lisa Unger

This mystery suspense novel takes place around an unnamed American city. There are two main characters that we see the story from: Rain Winter, an woman who worked as a national news reporter, but has taken some time off since the birth of her daughter; and Hank, a childhood friend who is now a child psychologist. There is also another voice that is anonymous at first, a person that we get to know gradually. 

As the story opens, a man who was acquitted on a technicality of his wife's murder has been found dead in his home under unusual circumstances. A prologue has set the scene for this. 

Rain's journalism instincts, along with her own past, are alerted by this and she decides to follow the story. She talks about returning to work in some way, perhaps as a freelance reporter. As she follows up on this, she also gets drawn back into her own past, and we learn of a significant childhood trauma, one that ended a close friendship between three young children and left those who remained alive severely traumatized. 

This is a novel that reveals things slowly in bits and pieces, adding to the mystery and the suspense. 

I liked the character of Rain, her sense of independence, and her drive. Her husband Greg is more of a secondary figure, as is her journalism partner Gillian. 

Hank is a complex character from the beginning, obviously still haunted by his past experiences. 

A fascinating and surprising read. 

Gravity Is the Thing

Finished August 14 

Gravity Is the Thing by Jaclyn Moriarty

This book, set mostly in Australia, with a short section set in Montreal, is the story of thirty-six-year-old single mom Abigail Sorensen. The book opens just before her thirty-sixth birthday, where she is on a small island off Tasmania in response to an invitation she received for a big reveal. Starting twenty years ago, when she was sixteen, she began getting random chapters to something called The Guidebook in the mail. She has faithfully sent in address changes and responded most of the time to an annual reflection prompt and is interested to find out what is behind the mailings. However, another part of her associates these mailings with her missing brother, as that also happened when she turned sixteen, just after her first mailed chapter. Despite have a good police liaison and following up every lead, they still don't know what happened to her brother, so part of her hopes for that truth as well. 

She finds a group of people near her age, all of whom had kept getting the chapters from The Guidebook, just as she had. The getaway is run by a man named Wilbur, who is the son of the couple who sent out the chapters. After a couple days spent doing a variety of activities,  a select group of those attending are let in on the secret behind the chapters, and the reaction is underwhelming. Some are disappointed, some upset.

After she goes back home, Abigail is invited again to continue with follow-up sessions and something in the universe seems to be telling her to attend. 

There is a lot going on here. We gradually learn Abigail's story, about what happened when her brother Robert disappeared and how her family dealt with the situation. We know that her mom has a new partner Xuang, who Abigail likes, and we learn about her ex-husband Finnegan. Abigail's son Oscar, four years old as the book begins is a large presence in the book too. Abigail trained as a lawyer, but now she runs her own cafe, one called the Happiness Cafe, in north Sydney. 

We see a selection of the chapters that she received, and they are pretty off the wall, and quite short. As I said, they arrive in a completely random order, and she didn't read all of them, or follow all the instructions that they gave her, although she did some, and they did have an effect on her life as she thinks back. 

As we see her relate to the various people in her life: employees, friends, family, and the new people she meets at Wilbur's sessions, we begin to learn about Abigail. I liked her. I think she'd be fun to know. We see her worries and her daily life. We see some of her thoughts as she goes through her days. This is a book about a woman's life, as she considers it and makes the decisions that will determine where it goes next. I really enjoyed this book. It is hard to classify. There are elements of romance in it at times, but mostly not. There is the mystery of her brother's disappearance, which continues throughout, but is just one of the plot lines. It is really just about life.

The Dream Daughter

Finished January 20

The Dream Daughter by Diane Chamberlain

This book grabbed me right away with its premise. The book opens in 1965, when Caroline (Carly) Grant is just starting her career as a physical therapist. Her supervisor is debating assigning a new patient with a broken ankle to her, but is concerned about his mental state. Her decision is preempted when the young man, Hunter Poole, sees her across the room and calls out, asking for her to work with him. The two get along well, and share some interests. She's intrigued by his ability to know songs that have just been released. But Carly knows that he and her sister would have more in common.

The story then jumps forward five years. Carly married her childhood sweetheart Joe Sears, and moved with him to North Carolina as he enlisted in the military. But he was recently sent to Vietnam and was killed there. Carly is pregnant, and is getting her baby tested as there seem to be some issues. She is staying with her sister Patti, and her brother-in-law Hunter and their young son. 

When Carly's baby turns out to have a heart defect that will prove fatal after birth, Hunter reveals his secret to her. He has time traveled from the future, and he can send her into the future to get an operation that may save her child's life. Carly doesn't believe him, until he predicts some events that happen. And she remembers other things that have illustrated future knowledge over the years. And she determines to go into that future and try to save her baby's life. 

Carly is a strong woman, one who's taken on a career in her own time, and one who can think on her feet. She will need all of these attributes as she jumps to April 2001 and connects with Hunter's mother to get the help she needs to survive in that time and the paperwork she will need to get her medical assistance. 

As we see Carly face choice after choice, connect to the various people she meets from Hunter and his mother, to the hospital staff, the staff at the residence she stays at, and others, we see her caring nature, as well as her confidence in her own abilities grow. 

There were times that I wanted to put the book down as I was wary of the way the plot was heading, and times when I felt for Carly in her situation. This is a story of hope, of faith, of strength, and one that I thoroughly enjoyed. 

The Lighthouse Keeper's Daughter

Finished May 29
The Lighthouse Keeper's Daughter by Hazel Gaynor

This historical fiction novel follows two women one hundred years apart. In 1838, in Northumberland along the coast of England, Grace Darling lives with her parents and younger brother in a lighthouse. Her father is a lighthouse keeper, and her brother will take on the role after him. Meanwhile Grace does a lot of the work of the lighthouse to assist. When a bad storm hits while her brother is on the mainland, and Grace spots a wreck on a nearby island, she and her father row out to save any survivors. One of the survivors is Sarah Dawson, who was on the ship headed to visit her brother George Emmerson, an artist. Grace has met George briefly, but felt a connection with him that surprised her.
Grace's role in the rescue brings her attention and notoriety, none of which she wants. She is compelled into answering letters, sitting for portraits and other unwanted tasks, until a local lord and his wife take her under their wing and protect her from some of the less savoury attentions.
In 1938, Matilda Emmerson is sent from England to Rhode Island to stay with a distant family member she's never heard of before, Harriet Flaherty, a lighthouse keeper. Matilda has become pregnant and her parents are trying to hide this from the society they move in.
Gradually Matilda and Harriet grow close and Harriet shares with her some of the family history, including that of the locket that Matilda wears around her neck, and the book of instructions on keeping a lighthouse.
I liked the parallels of the two women's stories, and the connections made over the years.

The Confidant

Finished November 30
The Confidant by Hélène Grémillon, translated by Alison Anderson

This novel takes place in France in 1975. Camille is a middle-aged French woman, working in publishing, who has recently lost her mother in an accident. As she goes through the condolence letters, she finds a long letter from someone who hasn't signed their name. The letter seems to be telling a story, and Camille works her way through various thoughts surrounding the letter, and the ones that follow, continuing the story.
At first, she thinks it must be a mistake. Then she thinks that the letters are by one of her authors, trying a new way to get her attention. Then she begins to both hope and fear that the letters are about her own story, one she never knew.
The stories appear to be by a man called Louis, who was a teenager when the war began, and he was separated from a girl from his village that he'd fallen in love with. The young girl, Annie, was an amateur artist, and when a young couple moves into the grand estate near the village, she is drawn into a friendship with the woman, and gradually into a plot to assist them in having a child. As Annie is separated from her friends and family, the impressionable young girl dreams of freedom, of escaping her situation, and of a life beyond her current state.
When Annie and Louis are reunited again in 1942, Annie confides in him, and looks for assistance but the story is one with many tragedies, and as Camille sorts her way through the story to find the truth, she discovers how these events are reflected in her own life.
This is a story of longing, of loss, of revenge, and of a past that returns.

The New Moon's Arms

Finished July 18
The New Moon's Arms by Nalo Hopkinson

This novel was one I picked because of a challenge over at Following the Thread. The story follows a woman, Calamity, as she undergoes some major changes in her life. Her name as a girl was Chastity, but she changed it to Calamity as it felt more fitting to her. Her family was poor, and when her mother disappeared when she was still a young girl, there were all kinds of rumours that put her on the outside at school. Soon after that, a major storm caused destruction to the island where she'd lived until then, Blessée, and when they evacuated that island, her father was offered a house on Dolorosse. When Calamity was sixteen, she got pregnant, and her father kicked her out. She survived, and made a life for herself and her daughter Ife, and eventually when her father became terminally ill with lung cancer, she returned to look after him. As the book opens, she is at his funeral,
When she was young, Calamity was a finder, who seemed to have the skill to locate things that people had lost, but that disappeared around the time her mother did. Lately though, something like it seems to have returned. Calamity feels warm, and her hands go tingly, and something shows up unexpectedly. Her doctor says it is just menopause, but she thinks it is more than that.
At the funeral, it is her pin, that her mother gave her, that she has been missing since childhood. That appearance is followed by others, some former possessions, some larger than herself, and one hurt little boy on the beach near her home.
As new people come into Calamity's life, from old friends, to new men, she finds herself needing to adjust her attitude, and not every interaction goes well. She hasn't talked to Ife's father in years, but finds herself reaching out to him again, and dealing with Ife's choices for her own life. She fights against the term grandma, but loves her young grandson Stanley.
She believes in things that can't be explained, from her finding ability, to the personality of her car Victoria, to the strange physical attributes of the young boy she has found. She calls him Agway, from a noise he makes often, and finds herself wanting to both protect him, and care for him. He reminds her of a child she met a couple of times when she herself was just a child, and we see these memories. There are also a few times where an employee of the local Zooquarium notices things that are odd about the endangered monk seals, and these are interspersed at key moments in the story.
From the salt factories, to the cashew groves, the monk seals to the pressure of hotel chains and resorts, we see how the island and its inhabitants are under pressure to change.
I've all kinds of ideas percolating in my brain about how to take instances and themes from this book and create something, and will post it when it comes to fruition.

Last Lullaby

Finished December 26
Last Lullaby by Alice Walsh

A mystery set in a small town in Newfoundland, this novel features the main character of Lauren LaVallee, a lawyer who also teaches at the local college. Lauren is a single mom of a 4 year-old daughter, Bailey, having left Bailey's father when she became pregnant, knowing that a child didn't fit into his plans.
The college is widely known for its drama program, and attracts talent from outside the province. Lauren is friends with many of the other professors. One of them is Emma, head of the English department. Emma is also a single mom, with a daughter, Dylan, the same age as Bailey. Both women teach a young woman Jade, who seems to be struggling as a single mom. She hasn't been coming to class or meeting deadlines. They go together to have a talk with Jade. Jade's apartment seems a bit of a mess, but her daughter Cara seems well cared-for, and the two women offer support, but Jade seems too worried about her finances to pay attention.
Lauren is reminded of another friend of hers, Claire, who has recently had a baby, Ariel. Claire has been struggling with postpartum depression, and has delayed her return to work at the college, where she teaches in the drama department. Claire's husband Bram is a local doctor and busy with his practice. Claire's doctor Anya has been helpful, but Claire is still struggling. Lauren makes plans to go see Claire soon.
I liked the characters in the book. There is depth to them. Lauren has some things in her past she isn't proud of, and we gradually find that she isn't the only one with secrets.
Because it is a small town, people connect with each other in more than one way. A local police officer, Rebecca, is also a student in Lauren's legal class at college, and has a child in the same daycare as Bailey. A young man, Patrick, is doing a coop at the daycare, but also sometimes babysits for parents like Jade and Claire. He's nearly finished college and plans to start his own daycare. Two other college teachers, life partners, have just adopted a baby girl, but seem reluctant to have visitors or to bring the baby out for a baby shower. One of them also seems very friendly with Patrick.
When Claire wakes up one afternoon and discovers young Ariel dead, and the death seems to be homicide, Lauren takes the case, and believing in Claire's innocence, looks beyond the obvious, to the possible.
This was a very interesting mystery, and, while I guessed at some things, I didn't figure out others until the end.

Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy

Finished December 23
Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy by Helen Fielding, read by Samantha Bond

This novel picks up where the second Bridget Jones left off, and her voice comes through authentically here. The format is diary entries as were the earlier books. Bridget is in her early fifties, still grieving the sudden death of her husband a few years earlier. Her friends want her to get back in the game, but she struggles with being faithful to his memory and being there for her kids. As she works her way through getting back to work, by writing a screenplay, and starting to date again, her emotions range widely. She has a core group of friends, that she has had for years, but finds that she also needs to connect with other mothers. She is drawn to a neighbour, Rebecca, who has kids of a similar age to her two children, and finds a new friendship. Her two children have distinct personalities that reveal themselves through her entries. She also interacts with other school mothers, such as Nicolette who seems superorganized and has it all together, and teachers such as Mr. Wallaker who always seem to be around when she is doing something wrong, or embarrassing. She ventures into social media through Twitter and as she gradually becomes more comfortable with the communication and with texting, you see her development.
I'm a similar age to Bridget, as I was when I read the earlier books, and her uncertainties read true to me. Her life isn't mine, and it wasn't mine then, but the underlying feelings, insecurities, and missteps are all ones I can relate to.
Fielding makes her characters come alive, and this hasn't changed. I thoroughly enjoyed this read, as a good escape novel that made me laugh from the heart.

Where They Found Her

Finished July 20
Where They Found Her by Kimberly McCreight, performed by Tavia Gilbert, Lauren Fortgang, Rachel F. Hirsch, and Therese Plummer

The well-to-do town of Ridgedale, New Jersey doesn't see a lot of crime, but one night the body of a baby is found in the woods near the university. Molly Sanderson has been writing for the local paper, but mostly arts and culture and human interest stories. That night she is the only reporter available, and she takes the job with only a small reservation when she is told by her editor that there may have been a body. The fact of it being a baby's body is a shock, and with Molly still not completely recovered emotionally from having her second child born stillborn, it isn't an easy story at all. For her, something about the story seems to connect with her own feelings and she fights to stay on it. Her best friend Stella is supportive, but has her own issues. Her husband, Justin, is also supportive but seems to fear her relapse into depression.
Sandy has had a tough life, raised by her mother Jenna who isn't the best role model. She is trying really hard to study and get her GED, encouraged by a local teacher and mentored by a senior at the local high school, but money is tight, and Sandy has a hard time separating the difficulties in her life from her goals. When her mother goes missing, she doesn't think she can manage without her.
Barbara has always got what she wanted, she is proud of her two children and works hard to control their lives and ensure they take advantage of every opportunity. She even has a tight control on her husband despite him being the local chief of police. But when things start to go wrong, even she can't control everything.
This story is told by Molly, Sandy, and Barbara, with flashbacks from Jenna's high school diary. With the current events having trails leading way back into the past of Ridgedale, this story is about secrets, lies, and the failure of trust. Molly is stronger than she realizes, and finds that this story will change her life in ways she never imagined.
Great story, with lots of surprises.

Kill My Mother

Finished June 7
Kill My Mother by Jules Feiffer

This graphic novel is told in two parts. The first part is in 1933 and Annie's father, a police officer was killed recently. Her mother, Elsie, went to work for Neil Hammond, her father's best friend a private detective in the hopes that he would find her husband's killer. Neil is often drunk and keeps making passes at Elsie. He seems to think that her husband Sam's honesty in a corrupt police force was the reason behind his death, and doesn't seem interested in investigating. He is interested in finding a woman a new client, who he learns is the wife of a prizefighter, has asked him to find, and his ethics don't question the instructions to kill the woman when he finds her. Unfortunately for him, things don't go as planned.
Annie is resentful that he mother isn't home to look after her, and rebels in as many ways as she can. Her boyfriend Artie is a reluctant companion to these escapades and Annie is constantly bossing him around.
The second part takes place in 1943. Annie is a single mom, looking for a way to be successful in Hollywood. Elsie runs a security and media agency in Hollywood, and has just taken on a new star. The prizefighter is trying to make a career in Hollywood as well, but is still looking to his wife for support and to make things easier for him. All these characters converge on a small Pacific island to do a USO production for the troops. Annie's boyfriend Artie is now an officer and in charge of the troops here. With many of the characters having their own reasons for being there unrelated to USO event, and with the island still held only partially things get out of hand and tragedy comes to many.
I liked this story, the difficult mother-daughter relationships, and the drawing. A good plot, interesting without being predictable.

The Night Rainbow

Finished May 27
The Night Rainbow by Claire King

This enchanting novel lets us into the world of Pea, short for Peony, a girl who is five-and-a-half and dealing with a world that has changed for her. Her papa has died in an accident, and her mother, who is pregnant has retreated into her sadness. Pea spends the day roaming from the farmhouse she lives in down to the lower meadow which is across the stream and past the donkeys, or up to the windy hill, where the windmills turn and she can see the far away sea. She and her younger sister Margot, four, try to do things to bring back mother's smile, but can's seem to get it right.
Pea's mother was pregnant before, but when she went to the hospital she came home without the baby and she was sad. Pea is hoping that this baby will make her happy again.
When Pea meets an older man, Claude, and his dog Merlin, she thinks she might have found a friend, or maybe even a new papa to do the things her old papa used to do like give hugs and fix leaks. But Claude is a lonely a quiet man with secrets of his own. When people see him with Pea they don't seem to like it and Pea wonders why.
Margot seems wise beyond her years, comforting Pea when she is scared, cheering her up when she is sad, and helping her find the right thing to say to her mother.
I've read a few novels that are from a young child's point of view and each one's voice is unique, but they all seem to capture the combination of innocence and knowledge, of wonder and pleasure in simple things that we often lose as we grow up. Pea's voice is sometimes an uncertain one, but that is because her world is a bit uncertain at present.
The story takes place in France, and Pea's mother is English and that foreignness along with her sorrow over her recent losses have distanced her from the others in the village. It is Pea's connection with those who live nearby that will also help reconnect Pea and her mother to each other.

Until You're Mine

Finished April 2
Until You're Mine by Samantha Hayes

This psychological thriller starts with Claudia Morgan-Brown and her husband James advertising for a nanny. James is in the Navy and Claudia is eight and a half months pregnant as well as the stepmother to 4 year old twins Noah and Oscar. Claudia is thrilled to finally be a mother in her own right, but sorry that James will be away for the birth. They both worry about the workload once the baby arrives. Zoe Harper is in her thirties and has a stellar resume, working for families sorry to see her leave. But we see enough background on Zoe to know there is something else going on with her, and she seems desperate to have a baby as well.
When Sally-Ann, a local woman, is found murdered with her baby cut out of her in a botched home Caesarian section, the police can't figure out why someone would do such a thing. Their search takes them to Sally-Ann's friends and acquaintances, including the father of the child and his contacts. The two DIs in charge of this case have different last names, but are husband and wife. They are going through a bad period though after Adam's episode of infidelity. When their oldest daughter Grace shows signs of rebellion, the two draw closer together, but don't know how to stop her.
Zoe is settling in well, with the twins getting along with her and Claudia's close friend Pip, also a pregnant mother, meeting her for playdates and school pickups. But Zoe's past keeps calling her, and she struggles to deal with her job as she sees it. When Claudia suspects her of accessing material she shouldn't, the police also take a closer look.
Lots of suspense here, and some nice twists and turns. Just when you think you have figured things out, the story shifts and you aren't sure of anything anymore. A great read.

The Runaway Wife

Finished March 11
The Runaway Wife by Rowan Coleman

This novel is told by Rose Pritchard, a woman who has fled her home in London to the remote Lake District village of Millthwaite, taking her young daughter Maddie with her. The reader only gradually discovers the reason why she fled, learning each piece of information a shred at a time until the true story of the domestic abuse Rose suffered is laid bare. The reader does know early on that she fled due to something her husband did, but the true extent of the abuse is not made clear until near the end.
Rose has come to this village because of an encounter years earlier when she was pregnant with Maddie, when a young man searching for information on Rose's father, a painter, treated her with kindness and respect and connected with her in a way that Rose found meaningful and enduring. The village is his only clue to where he might be, but her flight to the village also finds another figure from her past, the father who left her and her mother when she was nine, and who has not contacted her since.
The troubled relationship with the man she once adored is something she wasn't looking to revisit and doesn't know if she can stomach at this point in her life, but the presence of Maddie and Maddie's own eccentric nature bring both Rose and her father to make the effort.
Rose's lack of a normal adolescence has her experimenting with love in ways not always well thought out, but this experimentation and the support of her best friend increase her confidence to the point that she is ready to face her husband and deal with the situation as she needs to to move forward.
At times, this novel seems light, but there is a real respect for the complexity of domestic abuse and how women get caught up in this destructive dynamic.

The Winter People

Finished March 10
The Winter People by Jennifer McMahon, read by Cassandra Campbell and Käthe Mazur

This novel is set in and near the small town of West Hall, Vermont. The voice moves back and forth between several characters. In the present day we have Ruthie Washburne, seventeen years old and aching to leave West Hall to go to college. She lives on a farm with her mother Alice and younger sister Fawn. Her father died suddenly a few months ago and her parents live very simply with no computers and as little contact as possible with government and other authority. Ruthie comes home late one night to find the lights on but no sign of her mother. When the next morning finds Alice still missing, Ruthie and Fawn start looking for clues, finding disturbing evidence of a hidden past and dangerous circumstances. Included in their find is an published diary of a previous resident of the farm, Sara Harrison Shea.
Also in the present day is Katherine a woman mourning the sudden loss of her husband in a car accident a couple of years after the loss of their young son to leukemia. As she retraces her husband's last movements, they lead her to West Hall, and include the diary of Sara Harrison Shea.
The past includes entries from Sara's diary as well as the voice of Sara's husband Martin, as he watches his wife lose herself in grief over the loss of their only living child, Gertie, in what seems like a horrible accident.
Ruthie can't help but wonder if Alice's disappearance is related to the diary and the circumstances laid out in it, and when others find their way to the farm following similar clues, she is forced to go to the nearby rocky outcropping known as the Devil's Hand to see if the diary is based on more than a mother's grief-stricken delusions.
Sara's description of "sleepers", the dead brought back to life temporarily, and Ruthie's own dreams of places and people unfamiliar to her also provide clues to the true situation. This is a disturbing book of magic and it's effects.

Hush Little Baby

Finished February 17
Hush Little Baby by Suzanne Redfearn

This novel had a mesmerizing storyline that caught me and didn't let me go. I ended up reading this in just a few short hours. Jillian Kane is a successful architect, with a doting husband who loves to spend time with their two kids. But that is just how it looks on the surface. Her husband Gordon is a police officer with a controlling nature, where he is the one who calls the shots. He is charming and gregarious, but behind closed doors he uses his physical strength and threats to control her behaviour.
Jillian longs to break free as she fears she will be killed if she doesn't, but she fears what he will do to the children. As she tries to make a break for it, his manipulations work only too well and she looks like the one in the wrong. As his threats escalate and she realizes what he is capable of, she takes a chance and makes a run for it with the kids. But without a plan or money, how can she make a go of it.
Jillian finds support where she didn't expect it, and realizes a hidden strength in herself that pushes her forward in her fight to live her own life without fear and in her children's best interests. But even then, she will need to be smart and careful and even then there are no guarantees.
This is an interesting look at appearances and manipulative behaviour, and grew from an experience the author had with a friend who claimed to be abused by her husband. She began to wonder what someone who knew a woman really well could make others believe by using her weaknesses and taking advantage of social expectations.

Stella Bain

Finished December 19
Stella Bain by Anita Shreve, read by Hope Davis

This novel follows a woman from the time she awakes in a field hospital in northern France in early 1916. She was found wearing a British nurse's aide uniform, but has an American accent. She has no personal memory and has difficulty coming up with a name for herself, but feels that Stella Bain is right. She does know that she can drive an ambulance, and as she recovers, she is put to use as both nurse's aide and ambulance driver. When someone mentions the admiralty it strikes a chord with her and she is driven by the certainty that somehow the admiralty holds the key to recovering her memory. As she makes her way to London, she loses her way and is found by a woman in a residential square in London. The woman, Lily, takes her in and Lily and her husband Dr. August Bridge, nurse her through illness and the doctor, once learning of her plight, is fascinated and does everything he can to help her recover her memory.
In the second part of this novel, Stella has recovered her memory and her identity and knows the reason she came to France and the reason she must return home to America. As she fights to regain her family, and find a new life for herself, she is also drawn back to England and those she cares for there.
With themes of love, memory, loss, and forgiveness, this novel has a strong protagonist with a unique story that resonates.