Multiple Exposure by Ellen Crosby MYS Cro

Photojournalist Sophie Medina returns to her home in London from an overseas assignment to find that her husband Nick has been violently abducted.  Nick worked for a British oil company as a geologist but was also an undercover agent for the CIA.  Days later his boss and owner of the oil company he worked for is found dead in the Danube River in Vienna.

Sophie stays in London, where she and Nick had been so happy, to deal with her grief.  Three months after his abduction a friend in the British government tells her that Nick might not be dead after all.  Nick has shown up in recent pictures taken in Moscow.

Not sure who to believe and wondering why Nick hasn't contacted her, Sophie returns to Washington, D.C. to be with family and friends.  While taking pictures of a Faberge egg exhibit for her new job she is threatened by a Russian oil tycoon who implicates Nick in an international energy scheme.

Sophie isn't sure who to trust but as she tries to solve the puzzle of Nick's disappearance she relies on her knowledge of Washington, D.C. and her close-knit circle of friends from her childhood as well as her wealthy and influential step-father.  What she finds out has national and international implications.

I first read Ellen Crosby's series of mysteries set in the Virginia wine country which is located just outside Washington, D.C.  She has a wonderful ability to create a sense of place.  After reading those mysteries I wanted to visit Loudon County in Virgina and ride a horse or two, go from winery to winery and do some antique shopping.

This mystery, the first in a series, had the same effect.  I've been to Washington, D.C. several times but the author described parts of the city I have never seen.  I wanted to hop on the next plane to experience it through Sophie's eyes.

"First in a series" books can sometimes be difficult to work through.  The author has to set up characters and personalities and sometimes plot can take a backseat.  This book still managed to keep the pace moving and provide an intricate mystery that isn't resolved until the very end.  I enjoyed it and look forward to the next book in the series.

Benediction by Kent Haruf FIC Har

First of all, if you haven’t read Kent Haruf’s Plainsong, drop everything and go do that right now. It’s okay; I’ll wait. When you’re done, don’t be embarrassed if you want to hug the book. I did.

Good. Now that that’s out of the way, we can talk about Haruf’s latest novel, Benediction. Set in the small eastern-Colorado town of Holt, which we have come to know through Haruf’s previous books, Benediction focuses on the final days of Dad Lewis. Dad is the owner of the local hardware store, and the story opens with him learning that he has terminal cancer, with only a few weeks left to live. The book follows Dad, his wife and daughter, his neighbors, friends, and employees, and his church pastor as they cope with the end of one life, while giving the reader the spectrum of lives being lived – a young girl on her first bicycle; teenaged “love”; married couples, widows, spinsters; all navigating the perils of life with and without each other.

Benediction is another fine example of what Haruf does best: character studies, of people we know doing things we recognize in places that feel like home. His prose isn’t flowery or noticeably complex; in fact, it’s simple and direct – much like his main characters.

I love Kent Haruf. His books are comfortable, even as the stories he tells are not.

The Silent Wife by A.S.A. Harrison FIC Har

I had heard good things about this book and was hoping that I had found a new author to read.  Sadly this was Harrison's debut novel and it turns out to be her final one because she died of cancer while writing her second one.  This novel has been compared to  Gone Girl which I just loved.  There were similarities and I enjoyed this one too.  It is told from the viewpoints of Jodi and Todd - and they have rather different points of view!  They have been together for more than two decades.  They live in a beautiful condo in Chicago.  Todd has been cheating on Jodi since the beginning.  Jodi is the "queen of denial".  She is perfectly happy keeping a clean house, fixing gourmet meals, walking their dog and working part-time.  When their happy arrangement begins to crumble it gets nasty.  Remember that "Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned".  No truer words were ever written.  It isn't a very long book - I started it in the afternoon and finished it that night.  If you like books that don't end "happily ever after"  this would be a book for you!

The Good Children by Kate Wilhelm FIC Wil

I ran across this 1998 book while I was shelving....and then I read the jacket and decided it would join the large pile of books I have at my house.  It didn't take long to read and was a nice interlude to the audio book of FDR that I was listening to.  Warden and Lee have four kids.  When Lee was young she was shuffled among foster homes.  When she married Warden she knew that she didn't want to be separated from him because they were a family.  So she and the children followed him as he went from assignment to assignment.  Warden decides it is time to let his children grow some roots in a community so he buys a big old house for his family.  Lee loves gardening and taking care of the house.  Life was good until a tragedy strikes.  After listening to their mom's stories of foster care and the state, the four kids come up with a bold and risky idea to hold onto their family.  They would do whatever was necessary to protect each other.  But eventually the circumstances and lies start to become too much.  It is a good psychological suspense book!

Sum It Up by Pat Summitt with Sally Jenkins 796.323 Sum

  

To be honest, I could not have told you who Pat Summitt was until a few years ago.  I don't follow Women's Basketball so her story of determination, hard work, failures and outstanding successes would never have reached me - except for the fact that she was diagnosed with early onset Alzheimer's in 2011.  That caught my attention because she is just a few years younger than I am.  Although the book talks about changes that led Pat to the doctor and eventually to give up the job she loved, mostly it's just about Pat's life - and it was a fascinating read.  She is incredible.  I would have lasted about 10 minutes in her family - the physical work they did is remarkable.  The demands put on her by her father made her into a strong competitor who never ran into a barrier that stopped her.  The way she fought for women's basketball is unbelievable - she had to do it all in the beginning.  She did the laundry for the team,  set up the chairs and bleachers and swept the floor so that her girls could play in a sub-par gym.  When they traveled she was in charge of driving them and they had no budget so they slept on gym floors the night before a game.  You don't have to love sports to love this woman and her story.  It is one that will stay with me for a long, long time.

The Longings of Wayward Girls by Karen Brown FIC Bro

   

This was an entertaining book.  The main character is Sadie and the narration goes back and forth between her childhood and her life as a wife and mother.  Sadie's childhood was not a happy one due to an alcoholic mother and a father who didn't pay much attention to her.  One of the most traumatic incidents of that time was when a young girl from her neighborhood disappeared without a trace.  As an adult Sadie should be happy as a married women and a stay-at-home mom.  When she loses a baby she can not recover.  Her depression deepens.  Enter Ray, her crush from long ago.  After the death of his father he is back in town - single, looking good and with his eye on Sadie.  Nothing good is going to come of this!  It is well-written but the characters were not all that likeable! 

Bones of the Lost by Kathy Reichs MYS Rei

Dr. Temperance Brennan is having a bad day, and she hasn't even gotten to work at the Medical Examiner's office yet.  And when Detective Erskine "Skinny" Slidell swings by to pick her up in the
courthouse parking ramp, where she's locked her keys, purse and shoes in her car, the day just gets worse. Slidell was at the ME's office with the body of a hit-and-run victim.  Brennan gets dragged in to that case, even though she had a few others on her roster.  The victim, female in her teens, has no ID, and examination shows she was most likely raped and murdered. Brennan's specialty is forensic anthropology, so she shouldn't even be working this case, but the outrage she develops at the fate of the victim will not let her leave the case unsolved.
At the same time she's been asked to determine whether three mummy-wrapped packages confiscated by customs at the local airport do, indeed, contain bones of dogs, or if the importer is smuggling valuable Peruvian artifacts.
As if she doesn't have enough to keep her busy, her almost-ex husband asks her, as a favor to him and a good friend, to be the expert on site during an exhumation of two Afghani locals who were killed under questionable circumstances a year previously.  Brennan's examination and testimony could clear the friend's nephew, a Marine accused of shooting the unarmed men in the back.
Phew!
The good news is that this is a good read.  The pace never lags, the story lines work together in a tightly-woven plot and there are enough little twists thrown in to keep the reader second-guessing the outcome.  Is it great literature?  Well, no, but that's okay.  It is well-written and entertaining.  Oh, and be sure to read the last few pages of the book "From the Forensic Files of Dr. Kathy Reichs" -- but not until you've finished the story.

Big Brother: a novel by Lionel Shriver FIC Shr

Having enjoyed one of Shriver's older novels earlier this summer, I was excited to read her newest one.  The big brother in the title is not some government agency watching us!  It is in fact a brother who got really, really big.  I will admit that part of the 'fun' of reading this novel was because it took place around Iowa City, so I recognized lots of landmarks and street names.  Pandora is married to Fletcher and is a stepmother to his two children.  Her husband makes handcrafted furniture which is beautiful but not a very great source of income.  That isn't a problem because Pandora has a business that has exploded.  Pandora lives far from her siblings and she hasn't seen her brother Edison in four years.  He left home as a teen to chase his dream of being a jazz musician.  He lives in New York and tells a good story but it is obvious that things aren't going well.  When she receives a phone call from Edison's friend telling her of his financial woes she decides to send him a ticket to come out for a visit.

     When she goes to the airport in Cedar Rapids she hears passengers making derogatory remarks about an obese man on the flight.  She sees that man and is shocked to find out it is her brother.  The visit doesn't go well.  Edison is eating an enormous amount of food and making great messes.  He breaks one of Fletcher's most prized chairs and is giving Pandora's stepson the idea of dropping out of school.  Finally Fletcher has had enough - Edison has to go!  But at the last minute she decides to choose her brother for the time being and help him lose weight.  It was an interesting read and there is a surprise at the end.  

The Litigators by John Grisham FIC Gri

I love Grisham's books!  They are so entertaining.  I listened to the audio book and it was great.  This is the story of three lawyers.  Finley and Figg have a 'boutique' firm.  That's what they like to call it.   In their case it is true - in the original meaning of the word, which is 'small'.  They have a secretary who spent so much time there threatening to sue them she just started answering the phone!   They certainly aren't chic!  Mostly they chase ambulances with some divorces and DUI's thrown in. Not much money is coming into the firm - even though they do lots of advertising in such places as bingo cards!  And then one day David Zinc shows up.  He is a Harvard Law School grad and he is drunk out of his mind.  After working 80 hours a week for years at a prestigious law firm he cracks up one morning.  Instead of getting out of the elevator to go to his office he takes it back down and finds a bar.  The partners and David get involved in a law suit against a wonder drug which may be causing deaths or heart problems.  The way they figure it there is lots of money to be made and the pharmaceutical company will probably just settle without going to trial.   That would be a good thing because David has never tried a case and the others....well trial law would not be their specialty!  It is a great read (or listen!).

Godmother: The Secret Cinderella Story by Carolyn Turgeon (SF Tur)

As the cataloger I see every book that comes into the library... I also order all the books and supplies that we receive.  So in my most recent order for new books a book by Carolyn Turgeon was on that list (The Fairest of Them All) which reminded me that a couple years ago I had cataloged a book by the same author that I had added to the infamous "I would really like to read this book when I find the time" list. :)  I was between books looking for just the right book to read and this was perfect!
Godmother is about a fairy named Lil who was banished to "the human world".  The story is about how she realizes that if as a human she can fulfill the same duty that she was given as a fairy but failed at she may be able to return to her sister and friends in the fairy world.
This is definitely a story worth reading, and I look forward to Carolyn's new book when it comes in!

Letters from Skye by Jessica Brockmole (FIC Bro)

In 1912, poet Elspeth Dunn receives a letter from American college student David Graham.  At 24 Elspeth has never left her home on the Isle of Skye.  Over the years she and David correspond and their relationship develops from friendship into love.  When World War I erupts David, frustrated at the lack of American involvement, volunteers as an ambulance driver on the European front.  Elspeth can only wait and wonder what will happen.

In 1940 Edinburgh Elspeth's daughter Margaret has fallen in love with her old and dear friend Paul, now a pilot in the Royal Air Force.  Her mother is not in favor of a wartime romance but Margaret doesn't understand.  When a bomb rocks their home and letters long hidden in a wall come raining down, Elspeth disappears.  Only a single letter remains to give Margaret a clue to her mother's past - and hers.

This book is told entirely in letter format.  Letters from Elspeth to David and David to Elspeth.  Letters from Margaret to Paul and those in return.  Letters from Elspeth to her mother, from Margaret to her uncle.  Surprisingly everyone is an excellent letter writer.  Sometimes I found it difficult to find any difference between the voices of the characters.  Educated Elspeth's voice was very similar to that of her brother.  Paul and Margaret sounded very much like Elspeth and David.

This book was a very quick read.  In spite of the similarity in the voices of all the characters I became caught up in the romance between David and Elspeth.  While the secret of Elspeth's past was relatively easy to figure out I kept reading to see how it would be revealed...and resolved.

This is the author's first book.  I look forward to more in the future.

The Lifeboat by Charlotte Rogan FIC Rog

 

In the prologue of the novel Grace Winter is in prison and on trial.  What did this 22-year old widow do?  No, that would be too obvious - she did not kill her husband.   In chapter one the flashback begins and it finds Grace in a lifeboat (!) adrift in the Atlantic.  She and her new husband, Henry, had been sailing home to America when their ocean liner sinks following an explosion.  (This story takes place in 1914 so think WWI for possible reasons.)  Henry makes sure that Grace is safe on a boat.   And Henry??  Well, you'll will have to read it to find out.  There have been other 'lifeboat' stories written before and I must confess that there are many similarities between this novel and those others.  It seems that people in lifeboats all have similar stories - so it is the personal backgrounds of the people that make the difference.  I enjoyed reading this debut novel and look forward to her next one. 

The Cuckoo's Calling by Robert Galbraith MYS Gal

So the literary story of the year is that J.K. Rowling wrote a mystery for adults under the pseudonym “Robert Galbraith”.  It's an old-fashioned, procedural mystery in which there is no magic, no Harry Potters, and (sadly) no pygmy puffs.   The Cuckoo’s Calling received positive reviews from critics but was not a commercial success.  

What happened next is a source of debate.  According to one story, Britain’s Sunday Times became suspicious of how a first-time author with a military background could write such a polished book.  They hired a linguistics expert to analyze the book and concluded that Rowling wrote the book.  Another story claims that a friend of the wife of Rowling's lawyer tweeted a Times reporter with the scoop.  Perhaps a little of both is true.  Either way, Rowling’s authorship was revealed and Cuckoo’s Calling soared to the top of the bestseller’s list.

Regardless of who the author was or how she was revealed (or the "denouement" as we mystery lovers like to call it), the real story is the book is very good.  In fact, it's more than good, it's pretty fantastic.

The plot follows a typical mystery scenario – supermodel Lula Landry plunges off a balcony to her death in what the police rule a suicide.  Lula’s brother, John Bristow, disagrees and hires a down-on-his-luck private investigator, Cormoran Strike, to discover who murdered her.  

Since losing his leg in the war in Afghanistan, Strike has left the military to start his own PI business.  Unfortunately, he has only one client, he’s living in his office after being kicked out of his girlfriend's apartment, and he has no idea how he’s going to pay his secretary, Robin.  Strike is pretty sure Lula’s death is a suicide but he’s desperate for the money so he agrees to take the case anyway.  And so begins an extraordinary investigation which takes him (and the ever resourceful Robin) into the colorful lives of the vulgar rich and famous.  The more they learn about Lula's last days from her family, friends, and groupies, the murkier the case becomes.

What sets The Cuckoo's Calling apart from being another run-of-the-mill mystery is Rowling's skilled storytelling and rich characterizations.  She has perfected the art of telling us just enough of a character's backstory to make him/her interesting while still holding back enough to keep us wondering.  Strike is one of the most intriguing characters created in recent years, and his relationship with Robin promises to be one of the best collaborations since Harry met Hermoine.

Looking for Me by Beth Hoffman (FIC Hof)

Teddi Overman lives in Charleston, North Carolina, where she is the successful owner of an antiques/restoration store.  She moved there when she was 18 to follow her dream of working with furniture.  Now, 20 years later, she still misses her brother who mysteriously disappeared almost 17 years ago.  Teddi has never really accepted that he might be dead but neither has she heard anything from him in all those years.  Over the course of this novel, she deals with love, loss, and possibilities.

I loved this author's first book (Saving CeCe Honeycutt) and couldn't wait to dive into this one.  I found myself disappointed.  I liked Teddi well enough and found the descriptions of Charleston to be rich enough to make me want to visit there...soon.  I liked the people in Teddi's life, too.

What I found distracting, however, was the pacing of the book.  It jumps back and forth in time which is a technique I generally like.  While the jumps back in time were clearly marked the present time (or was it the present time?) was not so clear.  What year were we in?  How much time had elapsed?  At times it seemed like the time period in the book was only a few months but at others I thought it must have been two years or more.

Ultimately I just wanted to tell Teddi to get on with her life.  I think by the end of the book she had with loose ends that were very neatly (perhaps too neatly?) wrapped up.