The Avenue of
Mysteries by John Irvine is a “sprawling, imaginative tale about a writer
whose life’s journey has all the qualities of a modern Dickens novel.” Irvine is a talented writer but this is far
from his best book. I haven’t been able
to finish it but will try again next year.
*X by Sue Grafton
is “Perhaps her darkest and most chilling novel.” Featuring a sociopathic
serial killer who leaves no trace of his crimes. Kinsey Millhone quickly identifies
the killer but take some time to review past cases, reintroduce the loveable
characters in her circle and drop a few almost current tidbits about Santa
Barbara before building a case to bring the villain to justice. NPR’s Maureen Corrigan says, “Makes me wish
there were more than 26 letters.”
**The Little Paris
Bookshop by Nina George is a literary apothecary, a floating bookstore in a
barge on the Seine where Monsieur Perdu prescribes novels for the problems of
life--for everyone except himself. After 20 years of mourning a lost love,
Perdu unties his barge and travels along the country’s rivers, dispensing his
wisdom and his books with a bestselling but blocked author and a lovelorn
Italian chef. “A charming international best seller that believes in the
healing properties of fiction, romance, and a summer in the south of
France."
The Girl in the
Spider’s Web by David Lagercrantz who attempts, unsuccessfully, to pick up
the mantle of the late Stieg Larsson. In this follow-up to The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest finds genius-hacker Lisbeth
Salander and journalist Mikael Blomkvist teaming up to confront a dangerous new
cyber threat to the free world. There’s lots of review of Larsson’s previous
books in a lumbering story with the plot being largely developed by long
conversations with the key players instead of a description of the events as
they unfold.
See Me by Nicolas
Sparks, the best male writer of ‘chick lit’ is predictably charming but far
from his best effort. Colin Hancock, a young man with a destructive past who is
focused on keeping his life on course to become a teacher. His monis regime of work, study and exercise
is challenged by Maria Sanchez, a hardworking lawyer, her immigrant family who is
nervous about his tattoos and police record.
Despite attempts by her former lover and a cynical police detective to
derail their romance, their inherit goodness prevails.
*Everybody Rise by
Stephanie Clifford is another in this year’s parade of “witty tales about
high-society wannabes…” Reminiscent of Edith Wharton's The House of Mirth
and the more modern Primates of Park
Avenue and Luckiest Girl Alive, NY
Times reporter Clifford’s debut is a “relentlessly fascinating story of old
money and callous ambition.” Yes, it is
chick lit and beach reading, but still insight and good fun.
