Whispering Pines

Finished July 27|

Whispering Pines by Kimberly Diede

The first of a series set in Minnesota, this one moves between Minneapolis and the lake country, with a small detour to Fiji. As the novel opens single mom Renee Clements is let go from her twenty-year career with a company. Stunned, she decides to take the time to spend it with family. When she lets her children know that evening, they decide to take the rest of December into the new year to spend with each other, doing things they enjoy. From Christmas with extended family, renewed contact with her late husband's family, to a trip to an exotic locale, they reconnect with each other and Renee reconnects with her parents and siblings. When her father takes the opportunity to give our envelopes to every family member from Renee's aunt Celia, who died earlier that year, each takes the time to plan when to open the envelopes, which contain personal letters from Celia and information on their individual inheritances. 

Celia has inherited the lake resort that she spent summers in as a child, which has sat unused for a few years, with minimal maintenance. As she determines what to do with this property that needs so much work, she also finds that her family is more than happy to chip in and do the work necessary. Renee's college freshman daughter, is dealing with a man she dated who's become too controlling for her, and doesn't seem to be taking no for an answer. Renee's teen son worries about his advanced team sports opportunity and whether he will be torn away from that and his friends. 

There is a lot going on, and we get glimpses of what other gifts aunt Celia has made that will be expanded upon in later books in the Celia's Gifts series. 

I really enjoyed the central idea of the book that had Renee rethinking her life and how she wants to spend it. The community that she finds herself part of, with both family and friends is also a great message about the importance of human connections. I would definitely be interested in reading more in this series. 

Touched by the Dead

Finished October 2

Touched by the Dead by Robert Barnard

This mystery novel is centered on Colin Pinnock, a man who was adopted as a baby, brought up by loving parents, and has done well for himself. He was elected as an MP a few years ago, and as the book begins is now a Minister in the UK government. When he returns home from work the day he is offered the position and meets his staff, he finds a strange note under his door saying "Who do you think you are?" He isn't sure how to take this, whether it is a hostile message or a deeper one. The question, and subsequent messages set him on the trail to find out who his birth parents were. 

Because he isn't sure of the intent of the messages, he mentions them to the police working at the government buildings. He wants to have a record of them in case things escalate. They do escalate, but he isn't sure that they are related to his search. He talks to people around him, and brings in his old girlfriend who is a researcher and historian to follow up on leads. 

He finds himself first led to a political scandal that happened shortly before he was born, when a politician was disgraced and immediately disappeared. As the present day threat escalate, he finds himself also struck by the limitations of his work in government, and starts to question his life in other ways. 

I enjoyed the way the plot brought different elements together as well as by the real issues that the main character dealt with. A very satisfying read. 

With My Little Eye

Finished April 30

With My Little Eye by Joshilyn Jackson

This suspenseful thriller is centered around actor Meribel Mills, a woman who started off as Didi a side character in a sitcom in the '90s that she's still known for. She done a lot of work since then, but nothing big. So she finds it surprising that she's suddenly being stalked. After finding evidence that he'd been in her home in L.A., she needs to go somewhere else. She accepts a role in a film shooting near Atlanta, Georgia, and rents a condo there for her and her daughter Honor. Honor is adopted and on the autism spectrum. So she worries about the change this means for her and how she will adjust. 

She also worries about being back in Georgia, her home state. She'd grown up here, and got married here, and had a devastating event that led to the end of her marriage. She'd never had full closure on that and so she finds that being near her ex has made her start following his wife on Instagram as she posts a lot of lifestyle and personal stuff there. 

The stalked sends notes written in a smelly marker, and Honor has dubbed him Marker Man for this. He has also sometimes sent 'gifts' that are unsettling. His notes convey that he has an image of her that is an object to be possessed, and he makes some violent statements.

So when Meribel, having coffee with one of her new neighbours, Cooper, in the shop below the condos feels eyes on her, she immediately thinks of her stalker, and starts looking around. 

There are some other things going on as well. Meribel had started a relationship with a man back in L.A. who works in security and she ended it when she moved, but still has the feelings for him. Cooper's ex Addie also lives in the building and has a daughter Sheila and little older than Honor. Honor befriended stray cats back in L.A. and took care of them. She's found a stray of sorts here and has befriended them and is trying to take care of them in ways that she can. 

I loved Honor and her thoughts and how she made decisions and plans. 

There are some twists and turns and lots of suspenseful moments and a very dramatic ending that feels satisfying. 

You All Grow Up and Leave Me

Finished December 31

You All Grow Up and Leave Me: A Memoir of Teenage Obsession by Piper Weiss

This memoir is about Piper's relationship with a tennis coach, Gary Wilensky, who, when she was fourteen, attacked a former student and then later killed himself. As Piper works through her emotions around the man she liked and trusted, she looks at him as well. 

Piper was a private school student, a girl shorter than her peers, who found tennis an activity she could be special in. Gary was a sought after instructor, with a personality that was engaging. He made his teen students feel special, taking them to dinner and buying them presents. He treated them as peers. 

When one of his students felt that something was off and told her mother, she stopped taking lessons from him, and that triggered something in him. He had a plan, but he was also panicking in the moment of action, and that led to mistakes that led to him aborting his plan and finding himself with no way out. 

This is a sad story, a story of questions that don't all have answers. The author also has issues and wonders why this is a story that she still cares about years later. As a journalist, she's done her research, interviewed who she could, and been open about her own story, leaving me sad for her as well. 

The title comes from a conversation she had near the end of her time with Gary when he said this and she promised that she wouldn't, that she'd be there for him, and perhaps this is her way of keeping that promise. 

Girl from Nowhere

Finished August 21
The Girl from Nowhere by Tiffany Rosenhan

This debut novel for teens is fast moving. Sophia Hepworth has grown up with loving parents, but constantly on the move and not really making any friends along the way. Her parents appear to be diplomats, but they are definitely more than that. Her father's public job is facilitating NGOs in developing countries, working for the State Department. He is a spy and many of the skills needed to survive in that world have also been taught to Sophia. She can handle a gun, a knife, and many other tools of defense. She is in good physical shape and can hold her breath underwater for long periods of time. She can get her bearings quickly in places she hasn't been before. She speaks quite a few languages fluently, and knows a decent amount of even more. She has been trained to survive many dangerous situations.
When her family lived in Istanbul, something bad happened to her, and she's been running ever since, and not really recovering from that incident.
Now, her family is finally back in the United States and her parents have retired. They've moved to a small town in Montana, called Waterford. Furniture and smaller items she hasn't seen in years are coming into their new home. Sophia is attending the regular town school and making friends with other girls her age. And there's a boy who she finds compelling.
Of course she stands out. In her first class, French, the discovery that she is fluent has the teacher moving to move her to a different language class, but all the ones on offer are ones that she is fluent in, so she stays. And now her classmates know this about her. They are friendly, but have lots of questions. She answers as truthfully as she feels she can. She has been told that she is no longer in danger, that the men hunting her since Istanbul are all dead, but she still can't be completely honest about her unconventional life.
The boy saves her from a dangerous situation, and only later did she learn his name, Aksel Fredericksen. Then he rescues her again. She notices that he has some of the same skills that she's learned, and that he doesn't seem fazed by her. She likes that. As their relationship grows, the situations that they find themselves up again grow more dangerous. She begins to wonder if she is really as safe as her parents have led her to believe.
This novel is fast-moving and has an edge of the seat plot interspersed with bits of normal love and some romance. It kept me engrossed.

Murder List

Finished December 11
Murder List by Julie Garwood

This romantic suspense novel is part of a series, but I haven't read the others. The main character, Regan Hamilton Madison is the only daughter in a hotel-owning family. Her father died when she was young, and her mother was preoccupied, so she was mostly raised by her three older brothers, Aidan, Spencer, and Walker, who tend to be over-protective, although encouraging. She's smart and beautiful but hasn't had a lot of boyfriends, with the latest one dumped after revealing himself as after her money.
Her job in the family business has to do with the foundation, finding worthy causes to fund with the money earned by the hotels. Her two best friends date back to her kindergarten days, and one, Sophie, is a newspaper reporter with a loving, albeit criminal-minded father, and the other, Cordelia, a science teacher. Sophie is onto a potentially big story, looking into a pop psychologist who charms older women out of their money, and possibly more. Sophie suspects him of murder.
We also see the story unfold from the viewpoint of a killer, an unnamed man with a wife, Nina, in a wheelchair due to an accident. He is obsessed with Regan and determined to both kill her and somehow protect her as she aligns with his wife in his mind.
As the book begins, Regan and Cordelia agree to help Sophie look into the psychologist by attending one of his seminars. One of the activities during the seminar is to create a list of people in your life who'd be better off dead and then ritualistically burn it. Due to circumstances, Regan misses the burning portion of the exercise, and then is involved in a scary situation.
When people on her list start turning up dead, and someone threatens her more directly, she involves the police. But will they and her security team be able to stop someone as determined as the stalker behind the killings?
There is lots of suspense here, and some definite attraction between Regan and the police officer assigned to be her minder. A light, but engaging read.

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".

Murder in Thrall

Finished October 30
Murder in Thrall by Anne Cleeland

This mystery is very different. Narrated mostly by one character, DC Kathleen Doyle, there are also short bits at the beginning of each chapter by another character. This is a case of intense love, serial murder, and stalking. The story is complex as are the emotions of the characters. Kathleen is one of the objects of love at the beginning, but she also develops love for another character herself as the book grows more intense. This is a book about what people will do for love. At first I thought of Kathleen as a weak character, but her inner strength became more obvious as the book continued. At first I thought the relationship she develops unbalanced, but it became more obvious that she was a good match for her partner in many interesting ways. I liked the complexities and how it made you think about obsession, good and bad. This is one you want to reread almost immediately after finishing it, to see the subtleties.

Give Me Everything You Have

Finished February 21
Give Me Everything You Have: On Being Stalked by James Lasdun, read by Robin Sachs

James Lasdun gives an insightful and open account of his stalking by a former student. Starting as a straightforward exchange when she was working on a novel, chapters of which he had read and encouraged her in when she was his student, this relationship gradually devolves into something else entirely. The student approached him a couple of years after the met when she was in his creative writing class, and as he really thought her writing good, he encouraged her and even introduced her to people he thought would be helpful to her writing career.
But the email interactions first became overly friendly, and then hateful and aggressive. She eventually moved into posting comments online, making public accusations of plagiarism and sexually inappropriate behaviour, and impersonating others when making such statements. She progressed into attacks on others he had professional and personal relationships with and sent emails to current and potential employers.
Despite these things, Lasdun found he had little recourse in any legal sense, an interesting development of the Internet Age, showing that some aspects haven't entirely caught up to the realities yet.
He touches on mental illness, reputation, racism, and social norms and looks into his own reactions and how he learns to control what he can and learns to deal with what he can't control.
A window on a very difficult and increasingly present phenomenon.