Six Cats a Slayin'

Finished April 28

Six Cats a Slayin' by Miranda James

I've read other books in this series (A Cat in the Stacks Mystery) and enjoyed them. I picked up this one at my local library. In mid-December, Charlie Harris is making his Christmas list, something he always intends to do sooner, but ends up last minute. This year he has a new neighbour, Gerry Albritton, who seems overly friendly, which makes him uncomfortable. She's having a party before Christmas and sent him an invitation. He doesn't want to go, but feels he should. She has a last name known in their town, but no one Charlie knows seems to be able to place her. He and the department secretary work together on trying to figure out who Gerry is.

It is also Charlie's first Christmas with grandchildren, something he is very excited about. Both of his children now have children, and his daughter is dealing with a colicky baby and facing exhaustion, refusing to get help. Both Charlie and others in the family are worried about her. 

When he answers the doorbell one day, he finds a box with five kittens and a note in obvious children's writing asking him to look after them as "he says he'll drown them." Having five kittens is quite a surprise and disrupts the household. His housekeeper Azalea is patient, but Charlie soon gets help on a way to contain them. Diesel, his cat, is very interested in these kittens, and takes an almost fatherly role in looking after them and trying to keep them out of trouble. Meanwhile Charlie tries to figure out who the child is and how he can help them. 

When the night of the holiday party arrives, Charlie and his girlfriend Helen attend, but things seem odd. Many of the partygoers seem nervous, and Charlie and Helen overhear a strange conversation. When the host suddenly collapses, they have another mystery on their hands. 

There is lots going on, and several storylines to keep the reader interested. The kittens are up to trouble, and so is someone else in the neighbourhood. I enjoyed the lighthearted parts, like the kittens, and worried along with Charlie about his daughter. But the neighbour's collapse is the central mystery that involves the police and this time the detective wants Charlie's help. 

I always enjoy this series and this one is a real pageturner with so much happening. 

The Twilight Garden

Finished December 30

The Twilight Garden by Sara Nisha Adams

This novel is about community, human connection, and the healing properties of nature. Winston lives with his partner Lewis in a house in London that shares a garden with its neighbour. For a long time the neighbouring house was empty, but a woman, Bernice and her young son Sebastian have bought the house, renovated it, and moved in. The shared garden is neglected, and Winston has primarily used it to sit outside in an old wooden chair, smoke and think. Bernice thinks his chair is in a dangerous state of disrepair, disapproves of his smoking and seems to look down upon him. He has dubbed her the Queen of Sheba. 

The Winston starts to get enveloped through his mailbox, addressed to the young man at Number 79, and they contain old pictures and clippings of the garden and the two women who made it a community haven, Maya and Alma. Winston has fond memories of his mother and her garden, and begins to get inspired to bring the neglected space back to life. As he does so, he connects with young Sebastian and eventually with Bernice as well. 

Winston quit his job in a bank that he didn't enjoy and as a stop-gap began working in the local corner shop, that Sal and Angela own. He has become part of their family and spends time with them. Lewis and he met while he was working in the bank and Lewis has gone up through the ranks. Lately, he has worked late, including weekends, and Winston feels more alone. He is also missing other relationships, and has been pulling himself away from other people, so the gardening provides not only solace, but also a different means of connecting with him. 

Bernice is divorced from a very controlling man, and she has also retreated into herself, with the exception of her son. She has always dreamed of having a home with a garden and feels possessive of the space, and also protective of Sebastian. The forced sharing of the space is something she fights against initially, and we see her gradually open herself to new relationships and experiences. 

As we learn the story of the garden and the people that created it, we also see the current community and how Lewis and Bernice open themselves up again to happiness. A very enjoyable read. 

Hidden

Finished February 27

Hidden by Rebecca Zanetti

This romantic suspense novel is the first book in a series that is centered around a small unorthodox group of government agents. There are two main characters. Pippa is a woman with a past that she fears will one day catch up with her. Malcolm was an undercover cop who is drafted into the small government team early in this novel. When Malcolm moves into the house that shares a yard with Pippa's it doesn't take long for them to notice each other, but they are both wary for their own reasons. 

The team Malcolm is drafted onto is made up of misfits, people who have traumas, and many have interesting quirks. 

Pippa has a job where she can work from home and interacts with others rarely. She has one woman that she meets from time to time and we learn gradually just how they know each other. Just as we learn the life that Pippa has fled, and what she has left behind.

We also learn about Malcolm's past and why he ended up where he is now. 

There are some formulaic elements to this story, and a few things that seem unlikely as plot devices, but the story is a fast-moving one, with elements of violence and sex in small doses. 

I picked up the book to meet a reading challenge, trying out an author that was new to me. 

Such a Quiet Place

Finished February 21

Such a Quiet Place by Megan Miranda

This suspense novel takes place in Hollow's Edge, a college town somewhere in the northeastern United States. Harper Nash has lived in the community for several years, first with her fiance Aidan, and then after he left her, with a younger woman, Ruby Fletcher. Ruby's dad had retired and moved away and she needed a place to stay. A year and a half before this story starts, Harper's next door neighbours, Brandon and Fiona Truett were found dead in their home, victims of carbon monoxide poisoning. Since their detector was missing, foul play was suspected, and things got very tense. After a short trial, Ruby was found guilty of their murder. But her conviction has now been overturned and Ruby is back. Back in the neighbourhood and back in Harper's house. Harper isn't sure why, it isn't like her job is still there, and Harper disposed of most of her stuff after the conviction, but she isn't the type of woman to ask Ruby to leave, and so she does nothing about it.

As Ruby makes herself at home, talking to people, borrowing Harper's clothes and car, and beginning to ask questions. Questions about what other people were doing that night. When it becomes clear that others have secrets that they aren't telling about that time, things get very tense. Harper is in the middle of things and she too begins asking question. Questions about what people saw, about who they told, about what security cameras picked up and didn't pick up. And then she starts getting threatening notes, and she realizes that she must step outside her comfort zone and face the issues that underlie the tension.

This is a story of a community where everyone seems to know everyone, but they don't know anything beyond the surface. A story where Harper has already faced betrayal and lost friends. Harper is a woman who tries to not make waves, who avoids conflict, and she must act in ways she isn't entirely comfortable with to find the truth. A very interesting story of community and secrets. 

Fractured

Finished May 4
Fractured by Catherine McKenzie, performed by Teri Clark, Scott Merriman, Amy McFadden, and James Foster

Suspenseful, this novel begins just as Julie and Daniel Prentice and their young twins move into their new home in Cincinnati. They've left Tacoma after having issues with a stalker, Heather, following Julie's first novel, The Murder Game, written under her maiden name, Julie Apple. Like the author, Julie went to law school in Montreal, at McGill University, and her novel is based on some of her law school experiences. Julie works off her stress by running, and as she returns from her first run, she meets her neighbour from across the street, John Dunbar, and his teenage son, Chris.
The novel goes back and forth from this time, and the months that follow, to a time nearly a year later after some sort of accident has occurred. The story is told by John Dunbar in the time after the accident, and by alternating voices of Julie and John in the months preceding.
Julie had friends in Tacoma, including a close friend she ran with, but somehow she seems to get off on a bad first start in her new city.
She works at home, writing her next novel while Daniel is at work and the kids at school. She and John sometimes run together, but his wife Hanna, a lawyer, seems to feel threatened by the relationship. There is a homeowners group on their street, started and organized by Cindy Sutton, a woman with definite ideas. Cindy organizes monthly get-togethers, and mans a website, and regular newsletters. At the first party the Prentices attend, at Cindy's house, they learn of the no alcohol rule, and witness her tyrannical and blaming nature. After that, Julie can apparently do no right in Cindy's books, and Cindy keeps making rules to shut Julie out.
With Julie feeling more and more ostracized, the tension in the neighbourhood is high, and, because as the reader you know something happens, the suspense as it leads up to the "accident" is high.
This is a story of inclusion and exclusion, of how it feels when you don't belong, and of the frustrations of that. It is also a tale of guilt and remorse, as characters look back on their actions with "what ifs".

Fish Change Direction in Cold Weather

Finished July 30
Fish Change Direction in Cold Weather by Pierre Szalowski

This novel is set around the 1998 ice storm that hit Montreal. The 11-year-old boy who narrates the story is the kind of kid who notices what goes on around him.
He can see that the Christmas present his dad bought him is something his mother didn't approve. He can see that his parents aren't getting along like they used to. He doesn't want to be another kid whose parents aren't together, like his friend Alex. But it looks like that is what is going to happen. So he prays to the sky to help him.
And then the ice storm hits, and it gets worse and worse. We see how it affects his neighbours. Julie, the disaffected stripper to only wants to be loved for something other than her body. Julie's young cat Brutus, whom her other two cats put in his place. Boris, the young Russian mathematician who has been observing and calibrating his fishes behaviour for months, and for whom a power failure is a potential disaster. Simon, a psychoanalyst, and Michel, who works for the weather office, an older gay couple whom everyone thinks are brothers, and who worry about how coming out will affect the way neighbours treat them. Pipo, Simon and Michel's little dog. Alex and his unhappy father Alexis. The residents of the seniors' home just down the street.
So, you might expect a book about this natural disaster, that affected millions of people, would be unhappy one, but it isn't. The storm brought people out of their homes, had them helping neighbours they hadn't even talked to before, opening people's hearts to new friends, unveiling leadership skills that had been buried until now. And so these neighbours get to know each other and find that they like each other and the feeling of good will towards each grows and strengthens and extends to others.
The author experienced a similar community-building phenomenon when he and his wife experience the ice storm shortly after moving to Montreal, and it is this that made then stay in Canada, and inspired this novel.
This is a feel-good novel, that will bring a smile to your face.