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Love gone wrong is the best way I can sum up this twisted tale. All the elements of a Greek tragedy and thriller are here - an unreliable storyteller, questionable morals of all the participants, a good portion of unrequited love, passion and backstabbing. A beautiful actress travels on holiday with her husband, son, best girl friend, confidante and friend (the narrator) and housekeeper to her Greek island home. The winds are picking up, a storm is coming and not everyone is destined to make it off the island. Full of clever twists and turns and misdirection that will appeal to his fans and readers of sad tales of love gone wrong. 4 stars 
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Leah has a rare disease known as motion blindness which allows her to see but not movement. She sees life in a series of blurry still frames. Her mother has just died leaving her alone in her New York apartment with the exception of the caretaker who has been with her since childhood and her doctor. She makes friends uneasily one being a young man at the bookstore she visits daily and the second is her new neighbor who is her age but has an abusive husband she is trying to divorce. Leah's other senses are heightened and she smells and hears much more acutely than most. This hyperawareness alerts her to danger and she senses that something bad is going to happen to her neighbor at the hands of her husband. This leads Leah to take drastic action to help her friend ending in disastrous results. We, the reader, are trapped between feeling sorry for Leah but also don't trust her impressions. As the tension mounts you feel like you are not getting the whole story. The writing becomes frenzied and Leah's fuzzy perceptions only heighten the paranoia that creeps in. A tense Hitchcockian edge of your seat psychological tale with the most unreliable of narrators. Fans of REAR WINDOW, WOMAN ON THE TRAIN AND WOMAN IN THE WINDOW will appreciate this. They say that seeing is believing but what if you are only seeing part of the picture? 4 blurry stars  Maude's sister ran off posing as the ship's boy and joined a search party to hunt for the missing Franklin expedition in the Arctic. Just as Constance is not all she seems so are some of the crew members on board and soon she finds herself in danger and when the ship returns to England Maude is told that her sister has died. She wants answers but gets the runaround with the exception of a kind soul who gives Maude her sister's journal. From the journal she finds herself hunting a man who organizes macabre train excursions to witness prison hangings and other gruesome places like Madame Tussaud's Chamber of Horrors. This historical mystery blends the best of seagoing explorations and misadventure with the Victorian society's fascination with death and the sensational then bundles it nicely with an eerie mystery and a wicked little twist at the end. Perfect for readers of Greer Macallister's ARCTIC FURY and Stuart Turton. 4 stars  We have wiped out every elephant on the the planet thanks to the insatiable thirst for ivory. Once the leading expert on elephants thought she could save them from poachers until she was murdered but now she may get another chance. It is the future and a group of scientists have brought back the mighty mastodon but the herd is struggling so they insert the mind of the scientist who tried to save them before so she can teach them how to survive in Siberia. Damira not only teaches them how to be a herd but will take them to new heights of retribution that the humans are not prepared for. This slim novel is poetic justice for wild animals in danger of extinction brought to life in a sci fi thriller. Anyone who has admired the beauty and gentle intelligence of elephants will inhale this in one sitting. 4 stars  On the coast of South Africa there is a house, once grand and now crumbling, home to a diverse group of haunted people and a djinn. The Doctor leases out rooms to Sana and her dad. As the only young person in the house Sana keeps to herself but soon begins to explore and when she finds a diary of a past inhabitant she finds herself drawn into secrets the house has tried to hide for decades. Driven by her own ghosts Sana becomes obsessed with the mystery of the journal's owner and her life at the house stirring up emotions long buried and mournful ghosts unseen. A tale full dichotomies- of loss and great love, of tragedy and joy and of guilt and forgiveness. Beautifully crafted, the melodic writing pulls you under the spell of the lost souls of the house. Fans of gothic haunted houses filled with tortured souls that always seem to be by the sea will enjoy this. 4 1/2 stars  Evie and her new boyfriend Ryan are in love but Evie seems to always be looking over her shoulder and doesn't give up too many details about herself. There is another side of her and this is just another job for Mr. Smith. Complications arise (as they always do) and Evie (who is really Lucca) must fight or take flight once again. This is full of complicated identities, false clues and a hazy good guy or bad guy outlook with a blockbuster ending. It was just a job where only bad guys got hurt until she met a good guy. Fans of grifter tales and Killing Eve will find joy. 4 stars  At 4 years old Margaret and Agnes do everything together even on that fateful day when Margaret came home and Agnes didn't. Wracked with guilt, Margaret is made to feel even worse when her confession is denied and she is told that she imagined it and she was never there by her caustic mother. After Agnes's mother moves away she appears to Margaret as Poor Deer, a presence that constantly reminds Margaret of her part in the death and that she is at fault for anything bad that happens to those around her. There are many references to religion and sin as well as the verbal abuse Margaret suffers from her mother. When Margaret leaves home as a teen in search of a way to atone Poor Deer is right there with her. Grief and guilt hang over this poor child until she finds a way to do something right to make it right at last. Oshetsky has an unusual writing style and blends animals with people to create this fever dream and sad coming of age story. 4 stars  Rachel Hawkins pulls no punches in the saga of battling relatives and potential heirs to a doomed house and legacy of either really bad luck or just plain evil. Cam is a quiet bartender and his wife a schoolteacher living modestly in Colorado when Cam is summoned back to the North Carolina family he worked so hard to get away from. His mother Ruby has died and left her entire estate to him leaving out her sister, niece and nephew. Bad blood runs deep and there is plenty of mean intentions in the McTavish family as well as a few bodies. Interspersed in the family drama that Cam and Jules find themselves in are a pack of damaging letters written by Ruby that catalogue her interesting life and bad luck with husbands. Even up to the end this whodunnit leaves us wondering who is a hero, who is a villain, who is innocent and who deserved what they got. Fans of wealthy damaged families like those found in SUCCESSION, KNIVES OUT or stories of black widow wives will find much to love. 4 stars  Daniel is an arrogant white man who has a thing for Asian women. He has screwed up every relationship he has ever had and feels no remorse except for Alma, the one that got away. One of the women he had an affair with and then dumped was Emi and her daughter Kyoko, now grown, is obsessed with making Daniel pay. Kyoko and her boyfriend concoct a scheme to kidnap Daniel and get her revenge. This is a story of a love of music and the misguided search for love as much as it is one of incredible rage and correcting racial stereotypes. Sadly, Daniel could be anyone and his fetish/obsession with "tiny little dolls" is a common problem. Katherine Min did not live to see this book published but she has given Asian women a voice and it is fierce. Readalikes would be IF I HAD YOUR FACE by Frances Cha or FIFTY WORDS FOR RAIN by Asha Lemmie. 3 1/2 stars  Marley is a loner until she is pulled into the embrace of the Josephs. They are a family made up of hard headed men and while they may be great at fixing roofs they all need help fixing their relationships with others and between themselves. Marley comes into the family with one brother but then falls in love and marries the middle brother and becomes a surrogate mom to the youngest. She quickly becomes frustrated with the way they handle the business, each other and her mother in laws indifference. At some point this all changes and she will become the sun they revolve around even the tyrannical head of the house. Every family has their secrets and every small town either works to unearth them or hides them right along with you. A quiet but piercing look at family and all those hard things that break you up while the people who are your glue keep you together. It may be 1990 in rural Pennsylvania but the emotional impact, deep characters and love rings true anywhere and anytime. Best read with a tissue box handy. Fans of Ann Patchett, J. Ryan Stradal and WE ARE THE BRENNANS will hold this close to their heart. 4 1/2 stars  |
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