Part historical romance set in the second half of the 1800s, part supernatural mystery, Bone River brings to life an isolated, starkly beautiful area of Shoalwater Bay, Washington Territory from the viewpoint of a woman who loves the area and its dying-out native traditions. Leonie seeks, in her father's footsteps, to preserve what remains through the science of the times, ethnography, though she is also caught between reverence for traditional cultures, wanting to meet the expectations for a scientific career despite the handicap of being a woman, the desire for children that would jeopardize that career, and the inability to conceive. The story revolves around her discovery of a mummified body and her husband's insistence on sending it to a collector. Strangely drawn to the mummy, Leonie wants to be the one to discover its secrets, but she is warned off by dreams and conflicting warnings from two natives. Then her husband's long-lost son shows up. The setting and mood are strongly established, though the supernatural messages were repetitious and the mystery predictable.

After the death of her mother and younger sister on the Titanic, Sybil turns to her mother's medium for solace. The medium gives her a scrying ball, through which Sybil glimpses ever more detailed visions of an endangered ship. Are they the imaginings of a susceptible mind, dreams induced by a painkiller, or something supernatural? The author weaves together several timelines and locales, bringing the reader to opium dens, seance parlors, wealthy Boston society houses, the Cambridge campus, and of course, places promising death. The pace may be a bit slow for readers interested in action, but others will be rewarded with a rich sense of visiting the past along with insight into how visions may be viewed as a curse.

Set in one of the grimmest urban areas of India, this beautifully written book examines three years in the daily lives of people struggling to survive in a slum near the Mumbai airport. It's not a work of fiction, though it's reminiscent of Slum Dog Millionaire and A Fine Balance. One wants the story to end well and with finality, but reality doesn't always have a neat ending. The author, Katherine Boo, brings the reader remarkably close to the slum dwellers, given language barriers, the presence of an outsider, and the difficulties of communicating with people who don't have the luxury of having much to say. It's a tale of the effort and ingenuity of people trying to improve their lot, and the obstacles that prevent this, from natural disasters to political decisions to global economics, and most of all, corruption. It shows how empathy can be squashed, and injustice can run amok. The themes are compelling; this book would be an excellent choice for readers in a group to explore how they apply to our own communities, and how to change others for the better.

This story is a letter to a beloved sister. The narrator, Bea, describes her search for the truth behind her sister's disappearance, which becomes linked with a pregnancy and apparent suicide. The immediacy of the telling is subtly layered, focusing on the history of the sisters' bond to understand present events, which are relayed in three close time periods: the first, Bea's observation of the investigation; the second, her retelling of events to a lawyer; and the third, the drafting of the letter. Sister is a suspenseful mystery touching on devotion, betrayal, self-absorption, madness, and above all, grief.

The writer of this mystery, unlike many modern works written for an English-speaking audience, takes a leisurely approach with many layers. The story begins by establishing the relationship between two Japanese neighbors before a murder occurs and continues with a game of cat-and-mouse between one of them and a police consultant who understands how his mind works. The murder cover-up is the real focus of the story. Recommended for the plot, but pacing may be slow and characters too thin for some readers.

Fans of a good mystery that keeps the reader engaged without resorting to gratuitous bloodshed will appreciate this story of a local historian's murder. The story is rich in characterization and setting, bringing to life tension between French and English interests in Quebec, the pain of an investigator dealing with loss of comrades, and the stark beauty of winter.