Under the Cold Bright Lights

Finished May 12
Under the Cold Bright Lights by Garry Disher

This Australian mystery features the Melbourne detective Alan Auhl. Alan had retired from the police, but recently rejoined to work cold cases. Alan also has an unusual living arrangement. He lives in the large old house that he inherited from his parents. He rents out rooms to university students, and his university attending daughter also lives there. His ex-wife has a room in the house that she sometimes uses and the two get on well. There is a small suite at the back of the house that has been used from time to time by people who need time to get themselves together, and is currently being used by a young mother and daughter fleeing from a domestic abuse situation with a powerful man.
As the book begins, a body is found in a former agricultural area hidden under a concrete pad. Alan and his team are assigned the case, looking to find both the identity of the man and who might have killed him. Another case that Alan brings to the job himself, is one that he worked on before he retired. The two daughters of a murder victim call him every year to see if anything has turned up. He decides to look into the case again and see what he can find. Alan is also brought into another case from his past when a man that Alan had investigated for murder when both of his first two young wives died under suspicious circumstances. Alan could never prove it, but he believed the man was guilty. Now, though the man is accusing his third wife of trying to kill him, a twist that Alan doesn't believe for a minute.
On the home front, Alan is finding himself drawn into the situation with his vulnerable tenant as well. As Alan starts to make more of a productive relationship with one of his new colleagues, he also gets drawn into her personal life. There is lots going on here, and Alan is a very interesting man, who strongly believes in justice, even if it isn't always formal.

The Red Daughter

Finished May 7
The Red Daughter by John Burnham Schwartz

This is a fictionalized biography of Svetlana Alliluyeva, the only daughter of Joseph Stalin. A lot of the story is real, but the main relationship between Svetlana and her American lawyer is not, and the lawyer here is heavily fictionalized. The author has access to a lot of documents and people that were unique as his father was the real lawyer that worked for Svetlana during much of her time in the United States.
Here, the lawyer, Peter Horvath, is made literary editor for Svetlana after her death, and as he puts together the various papers, he also takes his mind back to the past and their complicated relationship. Brought in by the CIA to travel with Svetlana from Switzerland to the U.S., Peter and her share a unique experience. As he tries to make her transition more comfortable, he brings her into his personal life by inviting her to his summer home near the ocean. And thus begins a lifelong antipathy by his wife for this woman she deems a rival.
As Svetlana makes connections, she also gets drawn into a controlling relationship by Frank Lloyd Wright's widow and the lawyer was the one asked to give her away when she married Wright's widowed son-in-law. The marriage doesn't last, but it does produce a son.
This insight into the life of an extremely troubled woman, manipulated by many in her life, was a fantastic read. I learned about the real story with empathy.

Home Safe

Finished May 3
Home Safe by Elizabeth Berg, read by the author

Helen Ames, an accomplished writer, has had writer's block since her husband died nearly a year ago, but she hasn't been able to tell anyone. She lives in the Chicago suburbs, and her daughter Tessa lives closer to the center of the city. Tessa is also a writer, currently working for a magazine. Helen's husband Dan died very suddenly, and Helen is still coming to terms with it. She has been depending on Tessa a lot for things Dan used to do, and letting other things slide. When her accountant gives her a wake-up call on her finances, she is hit by the fact that she didn't know as much as she thought about her husband. And she needs to get her mojo back regarding her writing.
Helen accepts a grant-funded position to run a writing workshop at the public library, something she's not sure she's comfortable doing. But as the librarian indicates, this is not your usual writing workshop, and Helen finds the diverse group of people attending interesting. She experiments and goes with what seems to work, and her students respond enthusiastically.
As Helen learns to do things for herself more, she also learns to let Tessa go and to move on with her own life.
This is a story of love and loss, and finding hope. A comforting read.

The Paris Diversion

Finished May 2
The Paris Diversion by Chris Pavone

This book continues the story begun with The Expats. Now living in Paris, intelligence agent Kate is running her own team, but is increasingly feeling that she isn't measuring up. And her husband Dexter is acting like he has secrets again, which didn't pan out well for them last time.
Kate is trying to fit in more with the expat community here, but she's way overdue to host, and so tonight she is having a bunch of people over for dinner. After dropping the kids at school, she goes to the market and gets the ingredients for the meal, but that is when things start to go wrong.
First she hears about a bomb scare at Gare de Lyon, and then there is the suicide bomber at the Louvre. What is happening and why didn't she hear any noises about it beforehand?
Dexter has risked a bigger chunk of their money than he usually does on one deal. But this time it is personal, and he's sure he's done his homework. But as things progress he begins to wonder and worry. And when Kate finds out even part of what he's done, she worries too, and starts to put the pieces together. He's right, it is personal. Very personal.
I love Kate just as much as I did in The Expats, and was rooting for her throughout. There's a lot going on here, and you can see her professional know-how come to the fore. I loved the scene where she played the knight in shining armor rescuing the damsel, nabbing Dexter and taking off with him. I loved the whole story around the Lego. And I loved her human worry and caring.
I also loved the smaller stories. The irony of the sniper's story really got me. The greed of the plotters angered me. Unputdownable.

Before You Were Born

Finished April 30
Before You Were Born by Deborah Kerbel, illustrated by Suzanne Del Rizzo

This lovely book is a perfect gift for a new mother or father, and a perfect bedtime read for a little one, sending them to sleep with lovely images and the comfort of knowing how much they are loved. It tells through rhyming phrases of the parents' love for their child even before he or she arrived.
I loved this author/illustrator combination in a previous book Sun Dog, and this book was even better. The lyricism of Kerbel's words is beautiful, each phrase of anticipation leading you on to the next page. It just flows and the words are full of love. I loved the phrase "a mountain of promise, a valley of calm".
Del Rizzo's 3D illustrations using polymer clay bring everything to life, from the animals are birds, to the trees, flowers and other plants. And the details were just right: the lanterns hanging in the trees, the expressions of the faces of all the creatures, the feathers and fur and rubbery-looking noses, the surface of the moon, the bear's tongue, the raindrops on leaves,
One of my favourite is the scene of the birch forest, with a woman leaning on a tree, enjoying the world around her, with birds in the trees above, deer and foxes, and the water beyond. I wanted to step into it.
An absolutely beautiful picture book

Paula Knows What to Do

Finished April 28
Paula Knows What to Do by Sanne Dufft

This lovely picture book uses two styles of drawing, one to tell the story, and one to show the drawings that Paula makes, bringing them together in wonderful ways.
Paula is a young girl who is very resourceful. When she awakens one morning and her father isn't up to greet her and she's waited a while, she gets up and begins drawing pictures for him. But he still doesn't get up. When she goes to check on him, he tells her he is sad, and agrees when she asks if it is because her mother is gone. But Paula takes charge, getting out paints and paper and drawing an adventure that draws on one of her mother's favourite activities, sailing. As the adventure progresses, she gets her father involved, and when her story is over, some of his sadness has lifted.
I loved how the drawings tied into the bed covering, and how the sense of adventure that Paula instigated brought energy into the story. A great book to use to begin discussions of loss and grief.

Craving

Finished April 25
Craving by Helen Hardt

This is the first book in the series Steel Brothers. There are two points of view that the reader sees here. One of them is Jade Roberts, a young woman recently jilted at the altar by her long term boyfriend, now staying with her best friend Marj while she waits for her bar exam results so that she can look for a job as a lawyer. Marj lives with her brothers on a large Colorado ranch. Two of the brothers live in separate houses, but Talon still lives in the main house with Marj.
Talon Steel is the second point of view here. He is a troubled young man, with a secret in his past that feeds both anger and shame. He is attracted to Jade, as she is to him, but isn't really ready for a relationship in his current state.
Jade is drawn to Talon, and recognizes that he has some kind of past wound, but doesn't want to alert her friend to her feelings. This leads to lots of push and pull between the couple.
This book doesn't resolve the relationship, but it does move it forward, and the reader is aware of at least part of the issue that Talon is dealing with, but I'm not sure that all the information has come to the surface yet.
This is a romance with explicit sex scenes and lots of drama.

Ruin Falls

Finished April 23
Ruin Falls by Jenny Milchman, read by Cassandra Campbell

This thriller follows Liz Daniels, a woman who is setting off on a family vacation as the book begins. She, her husband Paul, and their two children, Reid (8) and Ally (6) are heading to the western part of New York State to visit Paul's parents. She's never visited them before, although she's met them a couple of times. Paul doesn't have a close relationship with them. Paul is a professor at the agricultural college that he graduated from and Liz works with a friend to supply local restaurants with organic and specialized produce and make products with the crops they raise.
But as the drive west progresses and a couple of incidents make Liz nervous, when Paul suggests they stop at a hotel, so they can be fresh to arrive at his parents, Liz agrees. When she wakes up in the morning though, the children are missing. Liz is beside herself and Paul helpful, yet distracted.
As things grow more and more confusing, Liz learns that she didn't know her husband as well as she thought, and that she needs to grow more independent.
There are side stories about a young woman with a six-year old son and a controlling husband, and young pregnant woman with a controlling mother whose stories eventually converge with Liz's.
This is a story of relationships with dominant people, of how much we really know about those we think we are close to, about idealism and the dangers of the internet. A book that kept me engaged right to the end.

Last Things

Finished April 20
Last Things: a graphic memoir of loss and love by Marissa Moss

This heart-wrenching memoir tracks Marissa's family life from shortly before her husband was diagnosed with ALS to the time after his death. Marissa and her husband Harvey are on a sabbatical year in Rome when his symptoms begin. Harvey was a medieval art historian, a curator at the Metropolitan Museum in New York City, and a full-time university professor in California. He was working on a long term book project about Louis IX's personal prayer book. The couple celebrated their Jewish heritage and once they return home are immersed in planning for their oldest son's bar mitzvah. The day after the event, Harvey collapses and is rushed to the hospital. They stabilize him and determine that it is some sort of neurological problem. The following month his diagnosis arrives. It's another month before their first visit to the ALS clinic in San Francisco, near their home. Harvey has a particular type of ALS called Bulbar ALS that starts with the tongue and throat muscles. Breathing often weakens before the arms and legs, which explains Harvey's symptoms in the summer. It also advances more quickly than other forms of the disease.
As Marissa is open about the reactions of various family members from anger to distancing to denial, she shows the devastating effects the situation has on her entire family. One of Harvey's legacies to his children is his book, and Marissa works with the assistance of other scholars and finished the book four years after his death. She deals with each of their sons individual reaction to the loss, and on her own life as one of the still living.
The diagnosis and quick pace of Harvey's decline didn't allow for the time she would have wished for to come to terms with it. All they did at the time was react. Writing the memoir helped her to sort it out for herself so she understood it better, deal with her guilt at not doing better in the moment.
In the preface, Marissa is clear about her reasons for writing this book. She shares her story to show that what seems at times impossible pain can be lived through and make you stronger. She wants readers to feel her family's pain, bear witness to it, and gain some of that strength for themselves.
The drawings are simple, but evocative, expressing the emotions of the situations. A moving read.

Star-Crossed

Finished April 19
Star-Crossed by Minnie Darke

This Australian novel was a delightful read. Justine Carmichael has been working as a copy-runner at the Alexandria Park Star, doing whatever is asked of her while she waits for a reporting position to open up. The Star has developed over the last thirty years from a street rag to a glossy current affairs magazine. Justine runs errands, gets coffee, delivers messages and generally does whatever needs to be done. Justine has an incredible memory, a love of literature, and a penchant for correct grammar. She carries a sharpie in her purse and corrects signs, menus, and other sources of grammar and spelling mistakes that she encounters in her day. Nick Jordan is an actor, so far not very successful. His latest gig has him wearing a fish costume at the local market, which is where Justine and him meet, or rather meet again after several years of not seeing each other. Their mothers had been best friends, until his family moved across the country. Justine has never really forgot Nick and the one evening they spent together at the young age their were then.
Catching up on each other's lives, Justine discovers that Nick is a big believer in horoscopes, particularly the ones that run in the magazine she works for. When an unexpected opening at work brings the transcription of the horoscopes under Justine's purview, she can't resist tweaking them to encourage Nick to think of her romantically. But of course, Nick is not the only Aquarius reading those horoscopes, and there are other people who make life choices based on what Justine has done.
I really enjoyed this read, liking Justine, and Nick and several of the other characters that come along. There is a good deal of humour, a general light-hearted flavour to the book, and of course some romance. Definitely recommended.