Synopsis: The residents of a London apartment building come together during a bizarre accident, but have no idea of the secrets they are all keeping (hint: one guy turns girls into mummies). Review: The Killer Next Door was so so so good and it reminded me a lot of Ruth Rendell, a writer I love. In fact, it had a very similar premise to Tigerlily’s Orchids, which I read recently but didn’t blog. I think I liked Alex Marwood’s version better.
Synopsis: A series of murders in a resort town lead to the unexpected reunion of two women who have been sentenced never to see each other again after they murdered a child when they were only 11. Review: Heavenly Creatures is one of my favorite movies of all time, so I was keen to read The Wicked Girls after reading it compared with Peter Jackson’s thriller about two preteen girls who commit an unspeakable murder. The structure of The Wicked Girls is quite cleverly executed.…
Synopsis: In this book about Cormoran Strike, beleaguered amputee veteran turned private eye, an egotistical novelist has gone missing, and all signs point to a literary puzzle with potentially deadly consequences. Review: Listen, writing mysteries is harder than it seems. The best writers (Barbara Vine) conceal the works so deftly that you forget how necessary machinations and contrivance are to the genre. So don’t think I’m picking on The Silkworm just because I want to take JK Rowling down a peg (I don’t) when I…
Synopsis: When a brilliant and ruthless scientist is asked by mutilated being to help it to fly, his research unleashes a deadly terror on the sprawling, rambunctious, decadent city of New Crobuzon, and only his belief in crisis theory may save the human and non-human inhabitants, including Isaac’s lover Lin, a khepri with the body of a beautiful woman and a scarab beetle for a head. Review: I have long passed over China Mieville out of a kind of reverse snobbery, assuming that a writer…
Synopsis: When her daughter falls into a coma, a politician’s wife goes searching for the truth, even as a past abusive relationship and her own mental instability come back to haunt her. Review: Before I Wake was a wild enough ride. It had enough juicy backstory to keep me engaged even though the present-day mystery was a bit of a slog. Though Susan’s sordid previous relationship didn’t hit any fresh notes, it attacked all the expected ones with gusto. The mystery was a little implausible…
Synopsis: When a childhood friend asks PI Cormoran Strike to investigate the suspicious-looking suicide of his supermodel sister, Strike battles personal demons in order to revive his career and prevent the killer from striking again. Review: I am really, really picky when it comes to crime novels. I don’t love the genre in its own right, and I’m not generally a fan of recurring detectives. However, I’m desperately hoping that JK Rowling is planning to write more murder mysteries featuring Cormoran Strike because I just…
Synopsis: Subtitled: A History of How We Cook and Eat. Review: Consider the Fork combines two of my loves: history and cooking. I picked it up after hearing author Bee Wilson interviewed on America’s Test Kitchen and I was not disappointed by the breadth and depth she brought to her explanations of how cooking has developed over the eons. I particularly loved the discussion on the art of spit roasting, and the interlude on the quirky missteps in egg-beater developments was fun to read. This…
Synopsis: A new school year at St. Ambrose means fundraising for the moms, and all the concomitant social climbing, gossiping, and backstabbing. Review: The Hive was an immensely fun read, though I didn’t agree with the author’s choice to leave some key moments off the page. Structuring the story around a series of fundraising events was a great idea, because it gave the in-fighting and social machinations some shape. I felt that all the characters were well distinguished from each other, though I didn’t think…
Synopsis: Maudie’s childhood friend disappeared without a trace when they were girls–but now Maudie is seeing her everywhere, but nobody else knows what she is talking about. Review: Lost Girls had a great sense of place and character, but was lacking in the plot department. I felt like it was missing at least 2-3 twists and the ending was the obvious one, unfortunately. If you like supporting up-and-coming authors and indie publishing, then this is definitely one to get because Celina Grace definitely will improve…
Synopsis: When a young woman is suspected of murdering her father, a mismatched team of detectives, both haunted by their own ghosts, seek out the truth and risk losing themselves. Review: I am very picky about the detective novels I will read, and A Great Deliverance had everything I look for–emphasis on character over procedure, excellent sense of place, and complicated interpersonal dynamics. The story was definitely dark but not edgy, which I also like, and I fell in love with the partnership between public…