BookBrowse | Book Reviews and Recommendations

The Lioness: A Novel
by Chris Bohjalian

A Masterfully Crafted Mystery Set in an Exotic Locale (6/9/2022)

Bestselling author Chris Bohjalian says his inspiration for The Lioness was movies. He loves them. One day in 2019 he found himself wondering why he had never written a Hollywood novel or a book set in the era in which he grew up, the 1960's and 70's. He had to think of a …more locale to which he could transport Hollywood people and put them in jeopardy. In the 1960's, the Simba rebellion was unfolding as East Africa sought to escape from colonialism, so he decided on the Serengeti with a simple premise: "The biggest star in Hollywood finally gets married and decides to bring her entire entourage with her on a honeymoon safari" which quickly goes horribly wrong.

Bohjalian and his wife were lucky to go on safari in the Serengeti to conduct research in October 2019, a trip he describes as "life-changing for me as a human being and as a novelist." Far from civilization, he watched the wildebeest cross the Mara River, and observed instances of natural predators conquering their prey. He also had the opportunity to pose numerous, frequently macabre, questions to his knowledgeable guides, who assured him that the key to remaining safe on safari is following the directions provided. The guides explained that exiting a vehicle or leaving a tent at night can prove deadly because "there are so many animals (including snakes) and trees that will kill you." Bohjalian deftly incorporates those tangible dangers into The Lioness, making it terrifyingly suspenseful. Some of his characters fail to heed the guides' warnings, while others find themselves in the wild without their guides by their side through no fault of their own. Regardless, many of Bohjalian's characters are forced to use what knowledge they possess about nature in an effort to stay alive. Not all of them succeed.

The Lioness is a masterfully crafted, engrossing story of a thirty-year-old actress, Katie Barstow, who is a major Hollywood star. She and her older brother, Billy, are the children of acclaimed stage actors who were abusive. They grew up on Central Park West in a sprawling apartment and Billy bore the brunt of their mother's toxicity as their father mostly just went along with her actions. Katie has just married Billy's lifetime best friend, David Hill, whose family resided in the same New York City apartment building. David owns a struggling art gallery in Beverly Hills, and insists that his father works for the CIA but is a 'paper-pusher" laboring in the agency's personnel department. Billy is married for the second time to Margie and they are expecting their first child.

Accompanying them on the safari are Felix Demeter, a screenwriter, and his wife, Carmen Tedesco, an actress who has appeared in films with Katie in supporting roles; actor Terrence Dutton, Katie's co-star and good friend; Reggie Stout, Katie's publicist; and Katie's agent, Peter Merrick. Charlie Patton, renowned for leading hunting safaris with Ernest Hemingway, among others, leads the expedition.

Four days into the safari, the group is kidnapped by evil Russian mercenaries and Bohjalian takes readers along with his characters on a harrowing journey. They are transported in two groups by armed captors led by an intriguing and intermittently charming leader "with ice-blue eyes and a nose that a casting director would kill for if he ever needed a boxer." As the characters attempt to discern the motive for their abduction, they witness and are subjected to appalling violence. Individually and collectively, they assess whether they can outsmart and overpower their kidnappers, and make their way to freedom. But, of course, they are far from civilization with no idea how far they might have to travel to enlist help. And they are in the Serengeti, surrounded by wildlife including leopards, hyenas, and venomous snakes, so they are forced to weight the risks, including the very real possibility that they might evade their abductors only to perish in the wild. The setting is inarguably one of Bohjalian's characters, and he vividly describes the landscape, making readers feel the remoteness and isolation, and looming presence of those things that will kill you. He unsparingly details the dangers his characters encounter. "Character and geography intersect in all of my books," he notes, but they are inextricably and palpably intertwined in The Lioness.

The narrative structure of The Lioness is creative and highly effective. The Prologue, related via a first-person narrative from, presumably, the Lioness, declares, "We went there and (most of us, anyway) died there in 1964." Each successive chapter focuses on a specific character. Bohjalian reveals both the character's history and relationship with the other characters, as well as his/her expectations for the trip and what they are experiencing in Africa. Readers learn about the characters' Hollywood careers and alliances. Bohjalian propels the story forward at a steady pace, but his deftly-timed respites from his characters' fraught circumstances allow readers to understand, relate to (or not), and develop emotional attachments to the characters so that they become invested in the characters' fates. Some of the characters are innocent victims who find themselves in the wrong place at the wrong time. And for some of them, the horror they are experiencing dredges up painful memories. For instance, Katie and Billy's mother used to lock him in a large closet in their home for hours at a time. So when, with his hands and feet bound, he is tossed into a dark hut where all manner of creepy, crawly things might attack, the abuse he sustained as a child intensifies his fears and anxiety. Bohjalian acquaints readers with Benjamin Kikwete, a porter and guest liaison, who proclaims that he'd "rather die charging like a rhino than bleating like a goat." His story is nothing less than heartbreaking, if inspiring. Some of the characters harbor dark secrets and scandalous pasts that, if brought to light, would cause relationships to fracture and derail careers. Some are betrayers . . . some have been betrayed, but may not know it.

The Lioness is a cautionary tale about fame. Like the Serengeti, Hollywood is a critically important character in the book. At the beginning of each chapter, Bohjalian includes blurbs -- some actual, some invented -- from a magazine or newspaper that was published in 1964, among them The Hollywood Reporter and Movie Confidential. To do so, he researched the popular movie magazines of the era, dubbing them "Twitter's ancestor." Much the way social media does today, those magazines influenced the public's beliefs and perceptions about actors and actresses, often exploiting but sometimes keeping performers' secrets, and spreading fake news. Bohjalian also weaves pop culture history into the story, including references to stars of the day. For example, famed Caucasian film director Otto Preminger dated Dorothy Dandridge, a Black actress, but their relationship was "only alluded to" in the magazines and trade publications. As the story progresses, Bohjalian cleverly unveils how fame plays into his characters' predicament, paving the way for the horrors they experience.

And Bohjalian also explores racial tensions. Terrence Dutton, a successful Black actor, recently co-starred in a film with Katie. They have been great friends for some time, but their relationship has remained platonic, in part, because if a romance became public, Katies observes, Terrence would never again work in Hollywood. The movie they made was controversial and one particular scene stopped short of their characters kissing. Bohjalian examines how Terrence's experiences and complex emotions as a Black American visiting Africa differ from those of the other members of the group. He interacts not only with his traveling companions, but also with the African guides and porters who work for Charlie Patton. For example, Benjamin is thrilled to be serving the group and notes how down-to-earth Terrence is. He can't wait to tell his father that Terrence, who is only the third Black man from America Benjamin has ever met, told Benjamin to address him by his first name. Will he get the chance?

Reminiscent of Agatha Christie's And Then There Were None and, more recently, Peter Swanson's Nine Lives, characters are eliminated, one by one, in various dramatic and horrific ways. Simultaneously, Bohjalian reveals who organized the kidnapping and why, pulling together various story threads and clues dropped along the way, and again demonstrating what an adept and creative storyteller he is.

The Lioness is an engrossing, entertaining, and wildly inventive mystery populated with fully developed, compelling characters. It's a page-turner -- an adventure set in the most exotic location imaginable -- filled with plenty of themes to keep readers both guessing and thinking about the price of fame and glamor, and how well anyone can really ever know those closest to them. What might they do if faced with similar threats? And what about the title character? Who is The Lioness? Does she survive? Once again, Bohjalian has created a strong female character who exhibits bravery, determination, and resolve she did not even know she possessed until faced with unimaginable danger. By the end of the story, she confesses, "I really do see myself in my mind as a lioness . . ."

Thanks to NetGalley for an Advance Reader's Copy of the book. (less)

The Personal Librarian
by Marie Benedict, Victoria Christopher Murray

A Timely & Timeless Story That Has At Last Been Told (5/18/2022)

The Personal Librarian is a seamlessly related and meticulously crafted fictionalized account of the life of a woman who presented one identity to the world while hiding her true self because she "didn't want the color of her skin to be used as a weapon against her, an …more excuse to keep her relegated to the lowest jobs, the worst neighborhoods, with little possibility for a better life." It is a poignant, engrossing, timely and timeless story about the lengths to which one woman would go in order to rise above the constraints society placed on her and her family.

Belle's story is told via a first-person narrative, making it powerful and impactful. Authors Marie Benedict and Victoria Christopher Murray meticulously researched their subject but Belle was, of necessity and purposefully, intensely private. Based on the information available to them, Benedict and Murray have believably imagined and crafted conversations, as well as Belle's inner dialogue as she navigates the world. Belle was determined to succeed in a world designed to hold her back. Clever, calculating, witty, and beautiful, Belle was adept at using all of her assets to her advantage. She had to be. Because everything was at stake. And not just for her, but for her entire family because she supported them financially, enabling them to move to increasingly more comfortable apartments as Morgan generously increased her salary when she successfully procured the pieces he desired and elevated the library's stature.

Belle's father was not only the first Black graduate of Harvard University. He was also an activist, a contemporary of Frederick Douglass, Charles Sumner, and Booker T. Washington, known for his oration. But Belle's mother "saw the writing on the wall." When politicians began dismantling Reconstruction, her father lost his job as the first Black professor at the integrated University of South Carolina and the school was converted to a whites-only private men's college. She explains to Belle, "Your father and I lived through a brief, fleeting time in history when equality might have been possible." But the "lofty postwar ideal of integration" evaporated, the world comprised only of "black and white, two races separated, but certainly not equally." She recognized what Belle's father refused to: "Our only hope would be to live as white." And so they did.

But when Belle's mother reported to a 1905 census worker that the family was white, her father was infuriated to the breaking point and left. "Once she made the decision that they were going to live as white, she changed their names, she told them how they had to behave and, from the age of sixteen on, Belle was walking the footsteps her mother laid out for her," explains Murray. Indeed, throughout the book, Belle is "walking a tightrope" and struggling to reconcile her guilt with her ambition. She "felt that she was betraying her father but also helping black people." Belle secretly knew that her achievements were, in fact, the achievements of a a woman but, more particularly, a Black woman. Even if the world did not. Yet.

Belle was a woman compiling a vast and priceless collection of rare books, manuscripts, and art, an unparalleled accomplishment. She traveled abroad and skillfully negotiated to purchase artifacts she deemed necessary to elevate the library to unmatched esteem. But she did so in the employ of J. P. Morgan (1837-1913), a man of vast wealth and power who financed railroads and helped organize U.S. Steel, General Electric, and other major corporations. He was demanding and unforgiving, an anti-Semite who reminded Belle that she was emhis/em personal librarian, sometimes treating her like she was yet another of his possessions. Or worse, in Belle's mind, a slave. They disagreed and quarreled, but she strove to avoid angering or embarrassing him, aware that he would fire her instantly were her secret revealed, bringing ruin upon her entire family. Belle revered him and he was drawn to her -- based on their research, Benedict and Murray suggest a sexual tension between them. He came to consider her the most important person in his life, providing generously for her in his will.

Benedict and Murray effectively portray the evolution of their complex relationship, as well as Belle's interactions with Morgan's mistresses and children, especially his daughter Anne. Unmarried, Anne was rumored to be in a "Boston marriage," a euphemism for wealthy women who chose to eschew marriage to live independently and, perhaps, enjoy an intimate relationship. Their fractious encounters cause Belle concern, especially when Anne makes references to her "people," and questions her background, snidely telling Belle, "I though I heard something about your family having tropical roots." Belle shrewdly leverages the rumors about Anne to her advantage and relates the story that Belle's mother devised about Belle's grandmother hailing from Portugal to explain Belle's olive skin tone. It appeases Anne for a time, as it does others who inquires.

Belle never married, but she did have a decades-long relationship with Bernard Berenson, an expert on Renaissance-era art, which is explored in depth. It is both a heartbreaking and empowering aspect of Belle's life, as depicted by the authors. As a young woman, Belle was forced to accept that marriage and motherhood would not be in her future. She says, "I've always known that, because of my heritage, a traditional relationship would not be possible for me ... because a marriage means children, and that is something I cannot hazard. Without the fairer skin of my siblings, I could never risk bearing a child whose skin color might reveal my deception." But Belle wanted to experience love and romance, and in Benedict and Murray's telling of the story, although she had other lovers, she gets the opportunity to feel loved through Berenson, a man in an unconventional marriage with other secrets of his own. Like her relationship with Morgan, Belle's affair with Berenson changes her profoundly.

How did Belle manage to pass for so many years, her secret never revealed? Murray believes that she would certainly never be able to pull it off today. But in the Gilded Age "to white people she looked white, but to black people, she looked black because of their features." As part of her deception, Belle was taught by her mother never to make eye contact with African Americans employed in service positions. There are times in the story, however, when Belle knows she has been seen by waiters and others, although they do not give her away. After one such encounter, Belle wonders, "Why does she serve while I am served? Why is it that the relative whiteness of my skin has given me this chance at privilege? It seems incomprehensible, but it is thus." Such details included in the narrative illustrate the complicated life Belle led -- always calculating, looking over her shoulder, and devising plausible explanations, constantly afraid that someone who knew the truth about her and her family would reveal it.

Of all of her accomplishments, the one that mattered most to Belle was making two men proud of her -- Morgan and her father -- for very different reasons. Her father's departure from the family impacted Belle deeply because of their close relationship and his tutelage about art and other subjects. Eventually, because of her notoriety, Belle dares not be seen with him in New York, so she is not able to personally show him her life's work. She knows his words are true: "Changing your name is easy. Changing your soul is impossible." She dreams of reinventing herself yet again and ponders coming forward with the truth in order to serve as an example to other Black people. But she never did.

The Personal Librarian is Belle's story, told in a compelling, engrossing, and richly moving manner that provides insight into and appreciation for Belle's triumphs, as well as sacrifices, as she strove to achieve her goals in the only way possible to her at the time. As he father tells her in a conversation imagined by Benedict and Murray, "One day, Belle, we will be able to reach back through the decades and claim you as one of our own. Your accomplishments will be part of history, they'll show doubtful white people what colored can do. Until that time, live your life proudly."

Benedict and Murray hope that readers, especially book club members, will reach out to each other and use the book to launch conversations about race in a way that feels safe.

Thanks to NetGalley for an Advance Reader's Copy of the book. (less)

Home or Away
by Kathleen West

A Story About Abuse of Power Set Against the Backdrop of Competitive Sport (5/13/2022)

Author Kathleen West is a lifelong Minnesotan with more than twenty years' experience as a schoolteacher. She continues teaching English while focusing her writing on motherhood, ambition, competitive parenting, and work-life balance.

West describes Minneapolis as "the …more perfect place to write a hockey book. . . . Minnesota is the state of hockey." It is an integral part of the school and youth culture, and West herself is a hockey mom. Her children fell in love with the sport and she has spent a decade in hockey rinks. Even so, to pen Home or Away she had to conduct significant research to educate herself about coaching and playing hockey. In addition to the fact that "Minnesota and hocky go together," she chose to focus the story around it because children begin playing at a very young age in order to excel at it. And hockey requires players to master several different skillsets, including skating and stick handling, in addition to game strategy. West found the intensity inherent in the sport important for her characters' traits, life choices, and reactions to what they experience.

The story is told from four characters' perspectives. At the center of the tale is Leigh, who grew up in Minneapolis playing competitive hockey and, along with her good friend and teammate, Suzy, goes to Lake Placid to train and, hopefully, secure a place on the 2002 Olympic team. For Leigh, competing in the Olympics will be the culmination of years of preparation, and she is singularly focused on her goal. By the time she leaves for the summer, she is in a relationship with Charlie. When she arrives in Lake Placid, she realizes that competition for the team is even more intense than she imagined it would be, but she has attracted the attention of an assistant coach, Jeff Carlson. She believes him when he assures her that, although he does not have final decision-making power, he can definitely influence the selection of Olympic team members. Leigh is young, ambitious, and determined to achieve her goal at any cost. Still, her compromise is not enough and she listens in stunned disbelief as the team members are announced but her name is not called. She returns home to Minnesota dejected and bitter, and gives up hockey. She persuades Charlie to marry her shortly thereafter and launches her career in investment banking.

Worse, Leigh carries a terrible secret that, if revealed, could destroy the life she builds with Charlie in Florida where he works as the assistant manager of a bookstore and toils sporadically on his first novel which, unbeknownst to Leigh uncomfortably parallels her experience. In their marriage, Leigh is the primary breadwinner, and Charlie bears prime responsibility for their household and rearing their nine-year-old son, Gus. Like his mother and Leigh's brother, who coaches hockey in Minnesota, Gus loves the sport and is excited to move to a place with a more robust youth program.

West also relates the story from Gus's perspective as he maintains a "Hockey Bible" in which he chronicles his practice times, milestones, and advice received from his coaches. His consternation about competition, fitting in, and his mother's role in his placement on the team in a division for which he is not sure he is qualified, is endearing and, at times, heartbreaking. West credibly depicts his emotional struggles and voice. He enjoys hockey and knows that his mother, more than anyone, wants him to excel. But is he playing the sport because he is passionately devoted to it and fueled by the same kind of ambition his mother had? Or is he just trying to please his parents by living up to their expectations?

The story is also related from the vantage points of Charlie and Susy. Charlie is affable, devoted to his family, and a bit overwhelmed as he attempts to assimilate into the the world of hockey parents. He wants only the best for Charlie, and looks to Leigh, her brother and his fellow coaches, and the other parents for guidance since he did not play hockey. His passivity and gentle nature both attract and repel Leigh, who finds herself at a crossroads soon after relocating. She is reunited with Susy, who knows the truth about what happened in Lake Placid. She could see that Leigh's focus was not where it should be and she was not working hard enough. Suzy has remained active in the sport as a coach and mother of a talented daughter who is competing. Susy's growing friendship with Charlie alarms Leigh, who fears that she will reveal to Charlie what she knows about Leigh's past. Divorced, Susy finds herself increasingly drawn to Charlie ("the nicest guy in the universe" who looks "like a literal movie star") and frustrated by Leigh's actions and the way Susy believes she takes Charlie for granted.

Leigh learns that Jeff has been accused of abusing young, vulnerable female athletes that he coached after that lifechanging summer in Lake Placid, and she is asked to provide information about her experiences. Jeff's fundamental character traits remain the same as two decades earlier. He is still overbearing and manipulative, and convinces Leigh that he holds the power to influence her son's success as a competitive player. The secret she has kept for so many years weighs heavily on her, as does her guilt, as she debates whether to accede to Jeff's demands or risk everything and everyone that she loves by telling the truth.

The most compelling and emotionally resonant aspect of Home or Away is West's exploration of the power dynamics between male coaches and female athletes. West places Leigh and Susy in the midst of the emergence of women's hockey in the mid to late 1990's, culminating in Susy earning a place on the U.S. Olympic team when Leigh did not. Seeing Susy again -- an Olympic medalist -- churns up feelings that Leigh has refused to confront for twenty years. Coupled with pressure from both Jeff and other women who want her to speak her truth in order to ensure that Jeff is held accountable for his behavior, Leigh must finally reconcile her past at the risk of the life she has built. She is not just wracked with guilt and afraid of the fallout from having the truth exposed. She is also proud and determined not to let her parents and brother down again. After all, her father created a place in her parents' home where her Olympic medal was going to be displayed and that place has remained empty for twenty years. It represents an empty space deep within Leigh where she has been unable to forgive herself. As West notes, "She refuses to let people in or admit weakness" and her stoicism blinds her to the truth about her behavior in Lake Placid. But at her core, Leigh wants to do the right thing, which forces her to grapple with a stark reality: she has the unique power to aid the young women who have lodged complaints about Jeff's abuse of power. West deftly examines the nuances of the #MeToo storyline from the viewpoints of Leigh and Susy, as well as the voice of Leigh's new friend, Nicole, a savvy and assertive attorney. She also compassionately depicts Charlie's emotional turmoil as pieces of the puzzling truth about his wife and her decisions begin falling into place. Charlie and Leigh eventually grapple with whether their marriage can withstand betrayals and lies through understanding, forgiveness, and abiding love and respect.

Home or Away is at once a charming look at family life in America's heartland and a searing study of the pressures budding athletes feel to succeed, with internal and external stressors weighing upon them. Between chapters, West inserts emails from the officious team manager to the "Listen Heights Hockey Fam" which are darkly hilarious and frighteningly realistic, demonstrating the extent to which some parents become obsessed with their children's athletic pursuits. And although West successfully centers the tale around hockey, she could have fleshed out her universal themes within the context of any competitive sport.

West's characters are multi-layered and believable, and Leigh's conundrum is both timely and, sadly, timeless. Her dilemmas are relatable, and West skillfully makes every character both flawed and sympathetic so that readers will find themselves taking Leigh, Charlie, Susy and, in particular, little Gus into their hearts and hoping that they can successfully navigate the crisis into which they are thrust.

Home or Away is entertaining, engrossing, and, best of all, thought-provoking.

Thanks to NetGalley for an Advance Reader's Copy of the book. (less)

Lies
by T. M. Logan

An Impressive Debut Psychological Thriller (5/9/2022)

How well can one ever really know another person? Is faith always blind? How much trust can be confidently placed in the person with whom one shares a life, home, children?

Those are the overriding questions that haunt Joe Lynch as he unwittingly becomes embroiled in the …more mysterious disappearance of Ben Delaney, a man with whom he is merely acquainted when his four-year-old son, William, spots Mel’s car on the highway. Observant William insists that it indeed is his mother’s car, so Joe gives in to the little boy’s pleas to see her, telling William, “Let’s go and surprise Mummy.” Instead, it is Joe who is surprised to find his wife in a hotel restaurant with Ben, the husband of Beth, Mel’s best friend. Ben is animated and plainly angry, pointing his finger at Mel, “his voice a barely controlled growl.” Matters only worsen when Joe, in an effort to protect William, returns to the parking garage. Mel drives off before he can get her attention. However, he does start a conversation with Ben, who denies having seen Mel in the restaurant. The discussion quickly escalates into violence as Ben yells at Joe that he is a “classic underachiever” and so “dense that you haven’t seen it, have you?” Confused by Ben’s commentary, Joe defends himself against Ben’s assault. When Joe drives out of the garage, Ben is lying on the ground, unconscious and bleeding. By the time Joe returns to the garage, Ben has vanished.

Thus, Joe’s innocent desire to make their young son happy by paying Mel a surprise visit ensnares him in a frantic quest for answers. Joe quickly realizes that everything he has believed about his wife and their relationship has been a lie. It appears that not only is Ben obsessed with Mel, he is determined to destroy Joe in order to get what he wants. Ben is a charming, highly successful, and wealthy businessman known for his ruthless competitiveness. He simply does not lose. And because he is in the tech industry, his knowledge of computers and other devices is far superior to Joe’s and allows him to embroil Joe is a dangerous cat-and-mouse game. Ben’s wife, Beth, claims that he returned home after the altercation with Joe but quickly left the house, taking a shotgun with him. She also reveals dark secrets about their marriage that lead Joe to believe that Ben poses a threat to all of them. Joe is convinced that Ben is alive, but taunting him as he makes it appear that Joe has murdered him. Thus, Joe sets out to prove that Ben is not only alive, but the mastermind behind a series of events that jeopardize Joe’s reputation and career, including an altered photograph that is posted on Facebook. Logan’s inclusion of plot twists involving and illustrating the inherent danger of social media provide an opportunity for Joe’s observations about the “compulsion to share every event, every emotion, every success, every random thought, every half-funny conversation.” Joe opines that “it’s not the photographing and sharing and broadcasting that makes something what it is. It’s the doing. The being. The experience of it. . . . That’s the truth. That’s what’s real.”

Lies is the debut psychological thriller from author T.M. Logan, who admits to telling “quite a few fibs” during his years as a writer. Until he inked the publishing deal for Lies, he kept his writing aspirations from everyone except his family and close friends, noting, “Like a lot of people, I was a secret writer.”

Logan’s talent is no longer a secret. Lies is a tautly imagined and plotted thriller with a jaw-dropping ending, featuring an empathetic and sympathetic main character in Joe Lynch. Joe is truly a good man, devoted to his wife and son, committed to his profession (teaching), and honest. Through Joe’s first-person account of the nightmarish circumstances in which he finds himself, readers understand and can relate to his frustration, anger, and sheer terror at the prospect of being wrongly accused of committing a heinous crime. Assuming, that is, that Joe Lynch is a reliable narrator.

Once Mel is revealed to have deceived her husband, she is also a suspect, although her possible motive for wanting to further hurt Joe is far from apparent. Ben’s inspiration is clear. But Logan keeps readers guessing as to exactly what happened to Ben, who is responsible for his fate, and exactly why Joe finds himself at the center of the mystery until the very end of the story. The pace never slows, accelerating to a shocking conclusion that will take most readers completely by surprise and cause them to ask themselves, “What if your whole life was based on a lie?” Lies is an impressive and engrossing first novel, and bodes well for the prospect of more intriguing thrillers to come from Logan.

Thanks to NetGalley for an Advance Reader's Copy of the book. (less)

The Island
by Elin Hilderbrand

An Enjoyable Beach Read (4/13/2022)

The four women’s time on Tuckernuck is supposed to bring them respite from their troubles. Chess is by far the most troubled, a fact her mother has recognized, and about which she is deeply and understandably alarmed. Prior to leaving for the island, Chess has seen a …more therapist every day who has recommended that she write her thoughts and feelings in a journal. As she does so, readers gradually learn out the real story behind her breakdown.

Chess is easily the most compelling of the four characters, as well, simply because her mental condition seems genuinely fragile. Sure, the others have problems, but they pale in comparison to the fact that Chess is experiencing the first real crisis of her life . . . and it’s a doozie. Although she is portrayed as a bit of a whiner at the outset, Chess is reminiscent of Robert Redford’s “Hubbell” in The Way We Were: Everything has always come too easy to her. She is bright, beautiful, outgoing, competitive. She has attained every goal she ever set for herself and gotten everything she ever wanted. Until, that is, she met Michael and his brother, Nick, and realized for the first time that love can be complicated, hurtful, and impossible to disregard. As her secret is slowly revealed, it becomes clear that Chess is weighed down by guilt and that weight is fueling her retreat from life. But should she feel guilty? Did she do anything wrong? Was she — along with Nick — responsible for Michael’s unhappiness? Or his fate? And where does she go from here? After all, life on Tucknernuck is nothing more than a temporary retreat, not a permanent solution.

India is tough, having survived a tumultuous, if loving, marriage to artist Bill, as well as his suicide and its aftermath. She is looking forward to being a grandmother soon, but her recent experience with Lula has proven deeply unsettling for a variety of reasons. She is attempting to maintain a professional and appropriate distance from Lula, who is plainly interested in much more than a business relationship with India. She is concerned not just about the actual implications of launching a relationship while Lula is a student, but, rightfully, the potential perception of impropriety. More importantly, Lula has stirred feelings in India that she has never experienced before and, although she wants to pursue them — if she can clear the professional hurdles — she is fearful of what her family and friends will think.

Tate has been in love with Barrett since she was a teenager. But back then, he only had eyes for Chess. He was smitten with her older sister as, it seemed, all the boys were, even though Chess had no interest in him. Their father even arranged a date for Chess and Barrett which turned out quite badly. In the thirteen years since Tate has seen Barrett, they have both matured. Tate is a successful businesswoman, while Barrett has taken over his father’s maintenance business. He is a widower with two young sons to raise. Will Barrett finally notice and appreciate Tate? Or will his old feelings for Chess be rekindled when he sees her again, especially now when she is so vulnerable and in need of support?

Lastly, there is Birdie, who divorced Grant because he was more married to his career than to her. She knows that her feelings for Hank are not right — he is, after all, still married, even if his wife is incapacitated with no hope of recovery. Hank has wined and dined her, showering her with the kind of attention she longed for from Grant. But with Grant she has the comfort and familiarity that comes with having been together for over three decades, during which they raised two beautiful daughters. Their time has passed . . . hasn’t it? Grant will never change. He’ll always be obsessed with his career . . . won’t he?

Author Elin Hildenbrand has created four female characters and placed them in an entrancing setting. Her descriptions of Tuckernuck are rich with detail and imbued with loving vignettes about the island, its traditions and inhabitants. It is a place any reader would want to visit, sheltered from society and accessible only by boat, even though the house is somewhat crude, lacking hot water and only generating enough electricity for a few small appliances. No cell phone reception? No problem. A brisk walk to the end of the island where there is reception is good exercise on a warm summer day, and a wonderful opportunity to further explore the island.

After a month at their island hideaway, it is no wonder that by the time the book concludes, all four women are feeling better about themselves and their lives, rested and rejuvenated after lying on the beach, eating light meals, taking walks, and sleeping as much as they want while contemplating their problems, and pondering solutions. With the possible exception of Chess, none of the four women are facing very serious issues, and all are fortunate in that they have complete financial stability. Still, each character is well-developed, her history fleshed out in sufficient detail to place her current concerns in context. And each is at a crossroads — none of their lives will be the same after they leave the island and return to their “real” lives and responsibilities. By the end of their vacation on Tuckernuck, has each woman learned something about herself? Yes, and that makes the read worthwhile.

The Island is enjoyable, the action moving along swiftly with a few surprises and plot twists thrown in to keep things interesting. It is the perfect book to pack in your tote bag and read on the beach or by the pool. The theme, tone, characters, and pace all combine to make it a delightful “beach read.” (less)

What Happened to the Bennetts
by Lisa Scottoline

Nail-Bitingly Suspenseful and Deeply Moving (3/28/2022)

"What Happened to the Bennetts" gets off to an explosive and tense start on the very first page. Bestselling author Lisa Scottoline's inspiration for the story came from being tailgated, an experience that caused her to wonder what could happen should being followed serve …more

Big Summer
by Jennifer Weiner

A Beach Read with Surprising Suspense & Depth (3/23/2022)

Big Summer, by bestselling author Jennifer Weiner, opens with a foreboding prologue set in 1994 involving a young woman named Christina who is happy raising her son on her own at her family's cabin on Cape Cod. "Her story was almost at its end, but that night, she had no …more idea" as she sang to her four-year-old son. The story then advances to 2018 and the focus shifts to Weiner's protagonist, Daphne, an up-and-coming plus-size Instagram influencer who has been offered a chance to showcase the clothing of Leela Thakoon. Daphne is thrilled when the attractive garments fit perfectly and make her look and feel "like the vest version of" herself. A collaboration is born.

In her first-person narrative, Daphne relates how she came to be a young woman who has eschewed dieting and is determined to simply be true self. As the only child of doting parents, she had no idea she was overweight until a fateful weekend with her body size-obsessed grandmother. That was the point at which her psyche was irrevocably altered, and from which she gradually "learned every trick for taking up as little space as possible and not asking for much." She describes her first day at the exclusive new school where her father taught, but a scholarship was required in order for her tuition to be paid, and meeting the other students. Two in particular play prominent roles in Daphne's story. Darshi, who, as the story opens, has been her faithful friend for many years and her roommate for the past four. And Drue Cavanaugh.

Weiner describes Drue as a "thinly veiled Ivana Trump-like" character -- the wealthy and glamorous girl who is the most popular in the school. The other girls emulate her, craving her attention and approval. Shockingly, Drue embraces Daphne on her very first day at school, even inviting her to eat lunch with her and her friends. But Drue is manipulative and calculating, and Daphne details specific instances of Daphne using and abusing her. Still, Daphne remained her loyal friend throughout school, writing papers for her, keeping her secrets, covering for her when she cut class or was too hungover to function. The friendship, such as it was, endured because even though Drue repeatedly abused Daphne's generous spirit and her trust, Daphne still wanted to be like her: beautiful, funny, self-assured, and decidedly cool.

At long last, however, Drue goes too far and a particularly cruel machination causes Daphne to stand up for herself and declare she has had enough. The incident is videotaped and goes viral, transforming Daphne's attitude and life. She changes the name of her blog from "Daphne's Craft Corner" to "Big Time," vows to focus on her health and well-being, rather than her weight, and six years pass during which she has no contact with Drue.

But Drue reemerges, appearing in person when Daphne ignores her emails and texts. And she has a surprising request. She wants Daphne to be her maid-of-honor when she marries in a lavish ceremony on Cape Cod. She pitifully insists that she has no close female friends, has missed Daphne, and acknowledges that her past behavior was horrible. She blames, in part, her parents' dysfunctional marriage and her lack of a relationship with her dismissive father, who has had multiple affairs over the years. She even offers to pay Daphne. Daphne is torn -- resolved not to get reeled back into Daphne's life and the drama their friendship inures, but ultimately swayed by happy memories of time spent together as young girls.

Daphne also recognizes that she can parlay the event into Instagram posts featuring photos taken in a stylish setting at one of the biggest social events of the summer. She relents, despite her misgivings and a strong hunch that she is being used by Drue. Daphne's number of Instagram followers grows as soon as Drue begins posting about the wedding and Daphne's role in it, and Daphne struggles to escape her uneasiness. But Darshi is direct, warning Daphne that Drue will hurt her again and when she does, she will not be there to comfort Daphne, aptly calling Drue her "Kryptonite."

The story veers in a direction most readers won't see coming. The party at the estate the night before the wedding proves to be a magical one for Daphne when she meets a handsome and charming man who wants only to spend time with her. But the party is disrupted by a loud argument between Drue's parents that sends the bride-to-be retreating to her room. The book shifts from women's fiction to a murder mystery, with Daphne searching for two mystery men: the one she caught lurking outside Drue's door the previous night, as well as the one with whom she spent the night who disappears before she wakes up. Worse, Daphne, like all of the other guests, is questioned by the police, and becomes convinced that she could be viewed by the authorities as a suspect. The police are motivated to find the killer quickly, after being embarrassed by their incompetent handling of a murder that occurred in the area years ago. Darshi, being the loyal friend that she has always been, rushes to Daphne's side and they begin sleuthing, determined to unmask the murderer.

Weiner pulls off the genre-switch seamlessly, her cleverly-constructed, intricate plot unfolding during the latter half of the story. She examines the dark side of social media in a credible manner, revealing the ways in which some of her characters connive to use their status as influencers -- and other characters -- to attain fame and wealth. She deftly pulls all the loose threads into a cohesive story in which every character's significance becomes apparent -- including Christina and her son, Aidan, the subjects of the prologue that most readers will have forgotten all about by that juncture.

Daphne and Drue are fully developed characters, and as the story progresses, Weiner highlights the traits that differentiate them, as well as their common humanity. Weiner makes Drue a sympathetic character by exposing the truth about her family and upbringing, illustrating that outward appearances are, of course, deceiving. Readers come to understand the environment and lessons that made Drue who she is. Daphne's narration hits all the right notes as she describes her own familial relationships and home life, as well as her internal struggle to accept and love herself. Daphne is intelligent, self-deprecating, insecure, tenacious, and, most importantly, highly self-aware. She is likable, and has a strong moral center and commitment to justice. Female readers will recognize aspects of themselves in Daphne, whose emotional battles are almost universally relatable. The complicated, sometimes hilarious and frequently heartbreaking relationship between Daphne and Drue is believably and compassionately portrayed by Weiner as is her depiction of the love, envy, exasperation, and, finally, understanding and empathy Daphne feels for the woman who is so consequential in her life.

Weiner has succeeded at making Big Summer a witty and enjoyable beach read, as well as an engrossing exploration of the contradictions between real and virtual life. The book is also a surprisingly thought-provoking examination of friendship and how profoundly the friends we choose can impact our lives.

Thanks to NetGalley for an Advance Reader's Copy of the book. (less)

The Heights
by Louise Candlish

A Riveting Examination of Parenting, Grief, Betrayal, & Revenge (3/22/2022)

Bestselling author Louise Candlish's latest novel, The Heights, is a book within a book, as well as a family drama. The protagonist, Ellen Saint, is a participant in a writing seminar, drafting a memoir. As the chapters of Ellen's story unfold, they are interspersed with …more excerpts about it from a feature in the Sunday Times, the reporter's commentary adding interesting color to the tale.

Ellen suffers from "high place phenomenon," a common form of vertigo that causes people to experience an irrational urge to jump from high places such as bridges, rooftops or balconies. It does not mean that the individual is suicidal, but is, rather an intrusive thought and form of mild anxiety, as well as autonomy. As the story opens, Ellen is meeting with a client when she looks out a window and recognizes Kieran Watts standing on the roof of an adjacent tall building called The Heights. She is convinced she is looking at Kieran and equally convinced that the man cannot be Kieran. She knows Kieran is dead because she killed him. He was a monster who ruined her life.

In her first-person narrative, Ellen takes readers back to 2012, relating how she gave birth to her son, Lucas, when she was quite young. She and his father, Vic, broke up when she later fell in love with Justin, her husband, with whom she shares fourteen-year-old daughter Freya. Theirs is a modern family, with Vic living a fifteen-minute walk away. He has dreamed for years of starting a craft beer company, and continues making pitches in hopes of finally inking a deal.

Lucas is sixteen years old -- a strong student with good enough grades to attend a university of his choice, handsome, and well-liked. Ellen loves him boundlessly and is a fiercely protective mother. Foxwell Academy assigns him to serve as a buddy to a "vulnerable new classmate," the aforementioned Kieran, who resides with his foster mother in a different neighborhood but scored well enough on placement examinations to be enrolled in the exclusive school. Ellen describes having heard tales with "a daredevil theme" about Kieran before she met him, which evoked images of a handsome, athletic boy. Instead, upon meeting him, she sums him up as "short and fleshy, with deep red hair that he had a habit of tugging at and skin bumpy with acne." Her immediate reaction to him is visceral, noting that he looks at her with a "death glare . . . so deadly, so chilling, I actually shivered . . . " Ellen is taken aback by her own response to meeting the boy. She knows that Kieran, who lacks any social graces, has had a difficult childhood and she should be gracious in her assessment of him, but despite her self-awareness, she cannot control herself. She is convinced that he is trouble. Will her instr instinctual reaction be accurate? And how reliable is Ellen's recitation of the facts?

Indeed, Lucas falls under Kieran's influence, despite his parents' attempts to prevent it. Kieran has no interest in college or the future at all, for that matter. He is interested only in taking drugs and partying, and Ellen experiences a mother's worst nightmare. She loses all power of persuasion over Lucas who begins using drugs, lets his grades slip, and jeopardizes his admission to college.

Ellen's fixation on Kieran becomes increasingly pronounced as Lucas grows distant and defiant. Both Vic and Justin love Ellen in their own ways and have, over the years, developed mechanisms to copy with Ellen's anxieties and neuroses. They have found that confronting her with facts and logic is counterproductive so, rather, they appear to be supportive of her machinations. In Vic's sardonic first-person narrative, he details the ways in which he manages Ellen, noting that he probably should have drafted a "how to" guide for Justin. Although they are also concerned about Lucas, neither of them are as alarmed by his friendship with Kieran as Ellen is, which she finds utterly exasperating. Justin chastises her for characterizing Kieran as "evil," put off by what he deems to be histrionic behavior on Ellen's part. He believes that Kieran makes Lucas and his friends laugh and poses no real danger to any of them. "What is it going to take for you to start believing me? When something really bad happens, will you believe me then?" Ellen demands.

And, of course, something really bad happens. When the worst kind of tragedy befalls Ellen and her family, Ellen neither believes that Kieran's version of events is truthful or that justice is served. She wants vengeance, which propels her obsession with Kieran to a reckless new level and she convinces Vic that they must take matters into their own hands. He agrees and they devise a plan that she believes -- but never independently verifies -- is executed successfully, which empowers her to carry on with life, focused on Freya, Justin, and her career as an interior lighting designer. Until, that is, until her fateful sighting of Kieran on that rooftop that launches her on a manic search for the truth. It's a lonely journey, because no one believes her when she insists that he is, in fact, alive.

Candlish's plot is intricately-crafted, inventive and suspenseful. Ellen demonstrates just how far she will go to hold Kieran accountable for his misdeeds, but is she willing to put everything on the line a second time if, in fact, she is right about him being the man on the rooftop? And what is he doing there? Does he actually live in that tony building? How can he afford to do so? Who is the mysterious man who warns her to stop seeking answers and what is his interest in the matter? And how do Vic's actions figure into the mystery?

As always, Candlish's characters are intriguingly multi-layered and fully developed. Vic and Justin are believable as the men who have loved Ellen for years, accepting her as a high-strung, protective, but unquestionably devoted mother. They have always tolerated what they perceive as her quirks. They fail to share Ellen's extreme concern about Kieran's potential impact upon Lucas and their family until it is too late.

Maternal instinct is a powerful, driving, and often unerring force in a mother's life. Candlish deftly portrays the dichotomy between the men's reactions to Kieran's influence over Lucas . . . and Ellen's. She also credibly depicts Ellen's outrage at having her feelings dismissed and being viewed as bordering on hysteria. She believes her instinctual responses justify her actions, and she will not be pacified until she knows the full truth, no matter the cost. Ellen's story will resonate with readers. Through it, Candlish examines grief, neurotic over-parenting, and the ways in which her obsession with Kieran and the aftermath of the tragedy impact young Freya and her relationship with her mother.

Candlish's deviously clever plot is full of unexpected betrayals and revelations, and shocking twists that propel the story forward at an accelerating pace until the very last page. Candlish inspires readers to contemplate what they would do if they found themselves in a situation like Ellen's -- how they would protect their child from harm if they were absolutely convinced that the child was making self-destructive choices and, should the unthinkable occur, the lengths to which they would go to extract retribution. The Heights is another riveting thriller from a master storyteller.

Thanks to Atria Publishing for a paperback and NetGalley for an electronic Advanced Reader's Copy of the book. (less)

Girl in Ice
by Erica Ferencik

A Gripping Adventure Imbued with Science Fiction & Mystery (3/14/2022)

Girl In Ice is set at the extremely remote Tarrarmiut Arctic Science Station, a research facility off the coast of Greenland. At that very venue, linguist and professor Val Chesterfield's twin brother, Andy, allegedly committed suicide five months earlier by walking outside …more in the dead of night wearing only his boxer shorts and freezing to death. What would cause Andy to take his life in that manner? Val and her brother have been deeply troubled not about Andy's death, and skeptical of the reported circumstances surrounding his demise.

Val receives an email from Wyatt Speek, Andy's mentor and fellow researcher, to which he attaches a brief recording, asking her to come to the research station. The recording is just a snippet of a young girl speaking in an unknown language and Wyatt insists that he needs Val's expertise to decipher it. Val suffers from anxiety: "the crippling kind. I'm tethered to the familiar, the safe, or what I perceive as safe," she explains in the first-person narrative Ferencik employs to tell the story. She pays a visit to her ninety-one-year-old father at the nursing home where he is cared for. He was once a climate scientist "with a fierce intellect and fiercer temper," and Val has always known that Andy was his favorite child. Because their father has never believed that Andy killed himself, he convinces Val to go to Greenland not only to solve the mystery about the language the young girl is speaking but also to find the truth about Andy's death. He persuades Val, in part because Andy and Val made a pact to never hurt themselves and Val can't accept that Andy broke his promise.

With her anxiety medication in hand, Val travels to the research station for a seven-week mission. There, in addition to Wyatt, are married polar marine scientists Nora and Rajeev Chandra-Revard who will be working in a dome over the ice, diving into the icy water to retrieve samples and specimens to be studied. Like Val, they have signed a contract prohibiting them from discussing the girl anywhere except at the site. Jeanne, the station's mechanic and cook who lost her husband and daughter to a drunk driver, decided to leave Minnesota to work with Wyatt at the research facility.

Wyatt explains how he found the girl encased in ice, frozen as though running, and with a battery-powered saw cut a huge block loose and transported it to camp. He adamantly claims that she thawed out alive. Since then she has only screamed and thrashed about, breaking lamps and dumping everything out of the kitchen drawers. "She's freaked-out and confused. Inconsolable." Indeed, when Val first comes face to face with her, she screams and runs away. She refuses to bathe and wears a far-too-large, filthy Christmas sweater that once belonged to either Wyatt or Jeanne. Wyatt demands that whatever progress Val makes be reported solely to him.

Ferencik relates a fascinating tale about how Val, a woman who must suddenly confront her demons, bonds with the little girl. Eventually her named is revealed to be Sigrid. Val works to gain the child's trust even as emshe/em becomes increasingly distrustful of Wyatt, the stories he tells, and his motives. Gradually, Val and Sigrid form a tenuous bond, as Sigrid repeats words that Val struggles to understand -- they appear to contain only fragments of the languages about which she is knowledgeable. (The language Sigrid speaks was actually created by Ferencik to tell the tale.) Sigrid draws the same picture over and over, with increasing vehemence that convinces Val she is attempting to communicate something vitally important. But what is she trying to convey? At the same time, Val's suspicions about Wyatt are heightened by her discoveries of evidence related to his ongoing research and experiments. Val forms an alliance with Nora and Raj, who are also growing extremely wary of Wyatt, and keeps her progress with Sigrid a secret from him, fearful of what he may be capable of doing with the information.

Ferencik's evocative prose sweeps readers off to Greenland, along with Val. Her descriptions of Val's trip there, as well as the terrain and harsh conditions, are stunning, providing an immersive backdrop against which her story plays out. Her characters are well-defined, especially Val, a highly intelligent and empathic linguist who has recently divorced a "rageaholic." She battles anxiety that limits her ability to fully experience life, and her trip to Greenland -- the exact place where her twin brother recently died -- exacerbates her fears and misgivings. But she is committed to her work and, once she meets little Sigrid, feels a deep commitment to helping the child communicate what she has endured and, hopefully, be returned her to her home and family.

When Val first arrives, Sigrid does not, according to Ferencik, see the value in communicating. She appears to be about seven or eight years old, but if Wyatt's story can be believed, she was frozen in the ice for hundreds of years. She has awakened in a strange place, surrounded by people who dress and speak in ways she could never have imagined, and as time goes on, she begins to sense who among the adults are her friends and who cannot be trusted. She becomes ill and her desperation to make Val understand what is happening to her and what she needs intensifies. As Val begins piecing together the clues that Sigrid is providing, it is clear that there is no time to waste, and Val emmust/em secret her progress from Wyatt, whose behavior becomes increasingly erratic and frightening. She grows defiantly protective of Sigrid.

Ferencik says, "A big part of being human is a deep desire to be understood. Really understood, because if we don't feel seen, there is no bigger loneliness." Communication is the centerpiece of Ferencik's story, but it is not limited to the burgeoning transmission of information and feelings between Val and Sigrid. Val must look at Sigrid's movements and gestures, listen to her, pay attention to her inflection, and study her drawings (that she hides from Wyatt) in an effort to understand what Sigrid is trying to tell her. Ferencik also showcases the various ways that Val and the other characters communicate, and how their communication style impacts their relationships, especially in the case of Val's troubled relationship with the father she always believed viewed her as second best to Andy.

Grief is another theme explored in the story. Every character is grieving in some way. Val is mourning Andy, Sigrid misses her family, and Jeanne has escaped to Greenland after tragically losing her husband and daughter. Wyatt is "grieving himself and his lack of success," while Nora and Raj have lost a child, which is one of the reasons why they form a strong attachment to Sigrid.

Grief is intricately intertwined with fear, and Val's anxiety causes her to fear many things. Can she overcome her fears in time to prevent tragedy? "I've always loved thrillers that take place in challenging settings," Ferencik relates. And a more challenging setting is difficult to imagine. The "great polar Enormity" -- as Val calls it -- enhances the risks associated with simply existing (the dangers include subzero temperatures, blinding snows, and polar bears, just for starters). That, coupled with the circumstances in which Val finds herself, and Ferencik's deft acceleration of the story's pace toward an explosive conclusion, make the dramatic tension palpable and compelling.

Girl In Ice is an engrossing adventure imbued with elements of science fiction and mystery, at the heart of which is an insightful and thought-provoking examination of the way in which people communicate with each other and overcome fear, as well as a commentary on climate change and what we can let science teach us. Readers will find themselves taking both Vale and little Sigrid into their hearts, cheering Val on as she strives to overcome her fears and provide Sigrid with what she needs to survive . . . before time runs out.

Thanks to NetGalley for a paperback copy of the book to review. (less)

Before She Disappeared
by Lisa Gardner

Fabulous Beginning of a Compelling New Series (3/3/2022)

Bestselling author Lisa Gardner has penned the first volume in another series at the heart of which is a strong female protagonist. But Frankie Elkins, unlike Detective D.D. Warren, is not a trained professional. Rather, she's an ordinary woman with a troubled past . . . …more and a mission.

The fictional D.D. Warren is a Detective with the Boston Police Department, a city in which Gardner formerly resided. Frankie once "had a house, a car, a white picket fence . . . " Gardner does not explain what happened, but Frankie has no home now. Rather, she goes wherever the cases lead her and volunteers her time. She has no interest in payment or recognition, and has so far solved fourteen cases without finding a single missing person still alive. Most recently, she located the body of a twenty-two-year old woman locked in a her vehicle at the bottom of a lake. She had been missing for eighteen months. Usually, Frankie finds her next case online, frequenting chat rooms and forums where family members and friends join "crazy people like" her to discuss the investigations conducted by local authorities, and share theories and information. Frankie doesn't own a computer. Instead, she visited the library in the town where her last case concluded.

That has led her to Boston, a city she has never previously visited, in search of Angelique Lovelie Badeau, who was fifteen years old when she disappeared eleven months ago. She walked out of school on Friday afternoon, but never arrived at home. "No sightings. No leads. No breaks in the case." Her friends call her Angel, but she is LiLi to her family.

Mattapan is a Boston neighborhood with the largest Haitian population in the United States, aside from Florida. It is also a rough area populated by poor working people, replete with gang activity and violent crime. That doesn't deter Frankie who arrives determined to find a job and apartment, and commence working the case. She is particularly interested in cases involving minorities.

Frankie is an alcoholic who needs to attend Alcoholics Anonymous meetings regularly in order to safeguard the sobriety she has maintained for more than nine years. She explains, in the first-person narrative Gardner employs, that she "gave up drinking and took up always being on the move instead." She grew up in a small Northern California town. Her father also drank and her mother worked two jobs in order to support the family. And a man named Paul saved her until she grew strong enough to save herself. She thinks about Paul frequently, but Gardner does not reveal the nature of their relationship or precisely what happened to him. Gardner describes Frankie as "haunted," and "living outside the norms of society — and yet in doing so, finding herself. She is not who the world expects her to be, but she is exactly who she needs to be." She is an endlessly fascinating character, in part because Gardner only offers periodic clues to what motivates her to lead the life she does.

The mystery at the core of this first volume is intricately crafted and populated by intriguing supporting characters. Gardner's story implicates societal issues including immigration, racism, and human trafficking, and is propelled forward at an unrelenting pace as she adds layers of complications, motives, and characters with reasons to keep Frankie from locating the missing girl. Frankie narrowly escapes danger more than once, as she seeks to understand how exactly LiLi went missing, given all of the ways that people's whereabouts are tracked in urban areas. A fifteen-year-old leaves clues through social media, a cellular telephone, friends, and camera feeds located throughout the neighborhood, yet LiLi vanished.

Frankie indeed takes a job in a bar that includes a small, furnished upstairs apartment. An aggressive cat named Piper is included in the deal. Stoney, the owner, is "a man who's seen it all and lived to tell the tale" and can "communicate volumes with a single eyebrow," and he seems to appreciate Frankie and her demons. Frankie's efforts are at first met with skepticism by LiLi's family and, initially, derision by Dan Lotham, the lead detective on the case. But Frankie works to ear the trust of LiLi's family and Lotham recognizes that Frankie gets results -- she has a knack for getting information from people who refuse to cooperate with the authorities -- and if the two of them work together, they might make progress. Because Frankie has no special skills or training, is not a licensed private investigator or affiliated with the local police department, she is not bound by procedures designed to ensure that the rights of subjects or witnesses are not trampled. She can and will submit requests for information in conformity with the Freedom of Information Act or ask the families of the missing to authorize the release of specific documents if law enforcement officials refuse to share information with her. She is committed and determined, and has "a gift for asking the right questions" that Lotham respects and decides to capitalize on. And their attraction is immediate and palpable, but Frankie clearly enunciates her circumstances to ensure that their expectations are manageable and realistic. "Good guys like him have a weakness for train wrecks like me. Just ask Paul," she wryly notes.

Frankie is determined that LiLi's case will be her first real success -- she will find the missing girl alive and return her to her family. But she has to stay alive herself in order to do so. With Before She Disappeared, Gardner lives up to her well-earned reputation as "the master of the psychological thriller." Frankie is a uniquely intriguing, credible character to whom readers will find themselves immediately drawn and invested in her well-being as they strive to understand her. And transfixed to see if she succeeds and, perhaps, decides to remain in Boston with a handsome detective.

Before She Disappeared is Gardner at her very best, which means it is a page-turner that leaves readers clamoring for the next installment.

Thanks to NetGalley for an Advance Reader's Copy of the book. (less)

How to Find Your Way Home
by Katy Regan

Reconciliation, Forgiveness & New Beginnings Are Possible (3/3/2022)

How to Find Your Way Home, author Katy Regan's sixth novel, is a beautifully crafted and deeply moving examination of a family torn apart by betrayals, lies, and alliances, and the impact they have upon the individual members' lives.

In a third-person narrative, Regan …more

The Last Woman in the Forest
by Diane Les Becquets

A gripping and terrifying story about misplaced trust (3/31/2019)

Marian Engström has found her true calling as a field technician. It doesn't pay much, and she must ravel from assignment to assignment, but she loves training rescue dogs to help track endangered or threatened wildlife. It's a profession not for the faint-hearted or out of …more shape. The conditions are brutal, the physical demands extreme.

Marian joins a conservation study in northern Alberta where she is trained to be a dog handler by the handsome and ruggedly charming Tate Mathias. He professes love, talks about their future together, and even gives her a ring. Marian soon realizes that she has fallen for Tate and envisions the two of them forging a life together than combines their commitment to each other with their love of the wilderness and the dogs they train and handle.

Tragically, after Tate leaves on another assignment, Marian is advised that he has been killed by a bear.

Brokenhearted and grieving, Marian finds herself questioning what she thought she knew about Tate in light of inconsistencies between what Tate told her about his background and life experiences, and some of the information Marian learns from Tate's sister.

Four young women have been brutally murdered over the course of six years. When Marian begins to suspect that Tate could have been the killer, she reaches out to a retired forensic profiler, Nick Shepard, providing him with information Tate provided her. She also launches her own investigation into Tate's whereabouts on the dates of the killings and other details, including the real nature of Tate's relationship with coworker Jenness who has a connection to one of the murdered women.

As Marian inches closer to the truth, she is naively unaware that she is being stalked, her every move and thought known to the killer. Can she solve the mystery in time to save herself?

The Last Woman in the Forest is a unique, creative tale that for author Diane Les Becquets proved to be "absorbing, at times personal, and immensely rewarding . . . " It was inspired by the murders of six women along the Connecticut River Valley in the 1980's. The killer was never found. She was assisted in her research by and dedicated the book to John Philpin, a renowned independent criminal profiler. Both Les Becquets and her mother have been assaulted by men, and those experiences informed her writing, as well. She describes the book as her "attempt to address the fear and vulnerability too many women live with every day, and to encourage women to pay attention when something doesn't feel right, to heed that small voice inside themselves."

The result is an absolutely chilling tale of a young woman who falls for a man she does not really know anything about under circumstances that leave her highly vulnerable. After all, Marian and Tate are in the wilderness, Marian is attempting to make a good impression in order to advance in her career, and the very nature of their work takes them on a daily basis into remote regions where they are isolated and must depend upon each other and the dogs that accompany them for their very survival.

Les Becquets weaves the stories of the four victims into the narrative, describing in detail how they met their killer and made the fatal mistake of trusting him. The Last Woman in the Forest is a complexly layered mystery in which Les Becquets takes readers along with Marian as she uncovers, detail by detail, the truth about Tate Mathias and his actions. Marian and Nick are each, in their own right, sympathetic and endearing characters, which adds to the story's tension as the pace escalates to a terrifying level.

With The Last Woman in the Forest, Les Becquets succeeds spectacularly at telling a gripping, contemporary story of a woman who fails to heed that small voice inside, and may have blindly but willingly placed her trust in the wrong man. Will she pay for that mistake with her life? That is the question compelling the story forward to its jaw-dropping conclusion.

Thanks to NetGalley for an Advance Reader's Copy of the book. (less)

Moloka'i
by Alan Brennert

starsA beautiful story -- haunting, compelling, and emotionally rich (3/3/2019)

Molokai is simply a beautiful story in which Alan Brennert features unforgettable characters. Brennert's love of Hawaii and meticulous research are fully on display throughout the rich tale of Rachel who, at the age of 7, is diagnosed with leprosy and torn from her family …more

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