Well, I spotted this at the library and did not realize it is the second book of a series. That said, it’s a good twisting mystery with a fun-loving amateur sleuth (and I could piece together most of the backstory). It reminds me a bit of Susan Juby’s Helen Thorpe series.
Annie Adams is settling into her new, rural England home that she’s inherited from her recently deceased aunt. Backstory: Annie’s aunt was murdered and Annie figured out the murder, which is how she inherited the house, which was contested by another descendant.
You know the drill. Quaint English village sees its weird share of murders. Young woman at a loss finds herself at the centre of the drama. There’s a love interest.
In this version, Annie encounters a fortune teller, Peony Lane, who holds secrets to a mysterious car crash in 1967 and Annie’s aunt’s involvement. But Peony Lane ends up dead in Annie’s house, which kicks off a series of unfortunate events that help unravel secrets from the past. And luckily enough, the love interest is the local cop.
How to Solve Your Own Murder is the first book in the Castle Knoll Files. I unknowingly read book 2 first. In short, Annie is tasked with solving the murder of her great-aunt Frances in order to claim Frances’ inheritance. If Frances’ step son solves the murder, then he inherits. And if either of them fail, then Oliver the property developer gets his claws into things and a golf course is on its way to quaint village of Castle Knoll.
The story alternates between Frances’ teenage past—where her murder was predicted by a fortune teller—and the present day where Annie discovers and reads Frances’ background story in diary entries, along with all of Frances’ suspicions and research into who her own murderer will be. The structure is great because it allows the reader to piece things together with Annie while also getting some insights directly from Frances’ perspective.
There is a whole cast of quirky (and suspicious) characters, all with connections to Frances and to a past murder. Like all great mysteries, Perrin laces this one with red herrings and twists and turns.
A Court of Thorns and Roses is a fantasy romance series that is wildly popular. I have resisted reading it until now. And although romance is not my favourite type of read, this was a fun escape into a terrifying magical world of warring faeries.
Feyre is the sole provider for her family. She hunts in the woods and sells what she can to feed her father and two sisters. One day in early Spring, she is faced with killing a wolf that is hunting the only wildlife she has seen in days. If she kills both the deer and the wolf then it will be a game-changing act for her family.
Turns out the wolf was a faerie in disguise, one sent by a high lord who turns up at Feyre’s and demands retribution. Feyre is dragged off to his lands, not as a slave, but as a guest. It’s all alarming to her (and perhaps obvious to the reader that she is going to fall in love with this guy).
I can totally see why fans are crazy for this series. I’m mildly interested in book 2 but get the sense that it will be full of angst and melancholy.
The author website has all the books, and info on her other series, so if you’re into a slightly spicy fantasy series then I’d start here.
Kristin Hannah is the author of The Women, which I really enjoyed. The writing here is also exceptional. The Nightingale is the story of the Rossignol sisters who struggle to survive in France during the German occupation in WWII.
Vianne is the elder sister, married, and with a young daughter. Her husband is a prisoner of war and she has a German officer billeted in her home. Not by choice.
Isabelle is the defiant younger sister whose ideals lead her to play a key role in the Resistance. Rossignol means nighingale and she is the Nightingale, a sought after thorn in the side of the Germans. The Nightingale is helping Allied pilots, shot down in France, escape over the Pyrenees.
One sister has everything to lose and the other has nothing to lose. The difference drives them apart, but they each risk their lives for the other.
Having just been to Northern France to the D-Day beaches and through the towns south of there that were occupied, The Nightingale illuminated my experience of those bombed out villages and the stories of resistance that remain at the heart of French culture.
This is a great audiobook if you want to hear the pronunciation of the French villages and character names.
Hank Green — co-creator of Crash Course, Vlogborhters, and SciShow, plus brother to John Green — has written a funny and poignant story about two 20-somethings who stumble into fame.
April May is coming home from work, late one night, and stumbles across a giant sculpture. It’s New York. Things like that happen. But this installation captivates her. It’s a 10-foot-tall Transformer style figure in a suit of armour. April convinces her friend Andy to meet her at the sculpture with his video camera, and they film April introducing “Carl” and upload it to video.
April has a rude awakening the next day when she learns that “Carls” have appeared around the world and every news media wants to interview her and Andy. The news is spreading so quickly that it’s tricky to deal with their new celebrity. But, Andy’s dad is a lawyer and since the news channels have used their video without permission, he is getting them, not only coverage, but cash. A lot of cash.
The novel is about the pressure April and Andy (although mostly April) have to deal with, the way it changes how they interact with other friends, and how they move through the world and make money. It’s a great social commentary on the vilification and adoration that influencers face.
Friendships are formed and lost. Great puzzles are solved. Good intentions devolve. An Absolutely Remarkable Thing is a great novel and a cautionary tale.
John Banville is an exceptional writer. The Drowned is a dark and moody tale set in 1950s Ireland. A loner comes across an abandoned car (still running and with the driver door wide open). Against his better judgment, he has a closer look. What unfolds is a troubled story of a missing woman, presumed drowned, and the deviant nature of her husband and the people he turns to for help.
Called in from Dublin to investigate is Detective Inspector Strafford, and through him we are introduced to pathologist Quirke, Chief Hackett, and Quirke’s daughter Phoebe. Their stories, running in parallel to the mysterious disappearance of the woman, are all about the secrets we hide, and the complicated ways that justice is served.
If you like John Banville, this read is top drawer. Similar writers would be Claire Keegan (Small Things Like These) or Anne Enright (The Green Road).
Butter is a an international bestselling novel that follows a Toyko journalist trying to get an exclusive interview with a female gourmet cook accused of serial murder.
Manako Kajii is awaiting her retrial in the Tokyo Detention House. She is charged with the murders of three businessmen with whom she was engaged to be married. Kajii refuses to speak to the press or entertain visitors but journalist Rika Machida, who knows nothing about cooking, gets a tip from her best friend about how she might infiltrate: Rika asks Kajii for her beef stew recipes. Will Kajii soften like butter and reveal all to Rika? Or will Rika just be another victim who falls prey to Kajii’s manipulations?
Yes, the novel is inspired by the real case of a convicted con woman and serial killer (the Konkatsu Killer), but Butter is more an exploration of misogynistic attitudes and diet culture. There are several female journalists who are treated differently in the office and by sources. There’s the toxic fat shaming Kajii endures from the press and from readers; and as Rika explores the rich meals Kajii loves, she too is shamed by peers and colleagues for her weight gain.
Butter is the story of a tenacious journalist who is committed to uncovering the nature of an accused killer. In the process she discovers more about herself, her family, her values, and her friends. It’s social commentary, personal journey, and a bit of gawker culture. It is not a fast-paced, true crime read but it is worthwhile.
If you like books where a culture and cuisine are highlighted, then this is for you. Or if you like social commentary with wit or some twist, then give this a try. I don’t have a lot of comparable reads but Kazou Ishiguro, Paul Lynch, and Jason Mott come to mind.
Grounded in reality. Rooted in culture. The Firekeeper’s Daughter is a thrilling debut set in the heart of Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan.
In The Firekeeper’s Daughter, Angeline Boulley introduces us to Daunis Fontaine—a bright, science-minded Ojibwe teen navigating the fault lines of identity, family, and community.
Daunis is barely recovered from her uncle’s overdose death when tragedy strikes again. This time her best friend is killed by an estranged boyfriend. Are the two deaths linked? What’s the deal with the new hockey kid who Daunis has been showing around town? Is he involved? Who else is? Daunis suddenly finds herself connected to an undercover FBI investigation into a new, lethal drug that is threatening her community. Daunis must use her wits, her cultural teachings, and her fierce loyalty to protect what matters most. What follows is a suspenseful, emotionally rich journey of self-discovery, betrayal, and ultimately, belonging.
Most of my favourite passages include the French or Ojibwe words Boulley includes in the story. But there are also lessons in Indigenous medicine and healing. In one passage, Daunis reflect on love and control, “real love honours your spirit. If you need a medicine to create or keep it, that’s possession an control. Not love.” There is so much in this story about love and how relationships an be manipulated or used as a form of control. But there’s also a lot about how love can inform our actions.
Boulley opens the story with a gripping scene that sets the stage for Daunis’ complex, brave, and deeply rooted relationship to her family and her community. She struggles to be formally recognized by her father’s Indigenous community while also struggling with her connection to her mother’s prominent white family. There’s a ton of nuance to the story’s larger theme, which I see as the gap between how we’re seen and who we truly are.
The Ojibwe language and cultural references are expertly infused into the story, giving readers a better understanding of Anishinaabe traditions, values, and community structures. For example, in Ojibwe tradition, a Firekeeper tends the ceremonial fire that honours the dead and holds space for ritual. By the novel’s end, Daunis has claimed that role. She is her father’s daughter. She belongs. It’s a powerful reclaiming of heritage and agency.
The Firekeeper’s Daughter is a fierce, moving, and suspenseful coming-of-age thriller that challenges stereotypes and reinforces pride of place and identity. If you crave strong, justice-driven protagonists, this one belongs on your shelf.
Case Histories is the first Jackson Brodie novel by Kate Atkinson, author of Shrines of Gaiety, Transcription, and Life After Life. She’s a marvellous writer but I have only read some standalone titles, not any of her series. In Case Histories, we are introduced to Jackson Brodie, former police inspector turned private investigator, who is following three 30-year-old cold cases, each unconnected but set in Cambridge.
In the first case, we read of a little girl Olivia who disappears in the night. In the second, a young office worker Laura falls victim to a maniac’s knife attack. And in the third, a new mother Michelle is overcome by anger and postpartum depression and brutally kills her husband with an axe.
Jackson attempts to unravel these unusual cases but as he pulls one thread, he realizes there is a great web at work. Olivia grew up in a house that shares a back lane with a current client, Binky Rain. Olivia and her sisters thought of Binky Rain as the witch. Are her missing cats linked to missing girls? Laura’s father Theo was the intended target of the attack, or was he? When Theo ends up having an asthma attack in a park, it is Olivia’s sisters who save him and call for the ambulance. In the same hospital, but in the ICU department, works Michelle’s younger sister Shirley, who has also come to Jackson for help. It’s an strange set of cases, not linked in the past, but with connections in the present.
The Man Who Saw in Seconds is an absolute thrill ride. The first hundred pages read like the single, continuous long shot opening of a Jason Bourne film. The novel is also packed with physics, philosophy, and intel on military and police procedures.
If you liked “The Queen’s Gambit,” this novel has a bit of chess in it and a lot of human dynamics, mastermind thinking, and an anti-hero prodigy. If you liked, the British science fiction mystery thriller miniseries “Bodies,” featuring detectives from different eras investigating the same murder, then you’ll appreciate that time is not absolute. Our main character Preble Jefferson, can see 5 seconds into the future. To paraphrase Einstein’s Theory of Relativity, the past, present, and future is a stubbornly persistent illusion.
Preble finds himself in a Kafkaesque bureaucratic nightmare when his snarky comments to New York police officer in a subway car has him running through a hail of bullets to escape custody. Things escalate from there (truly possible). Preble, with the help of his paranoid, anarchist, Hungarian friend (and lawyer) named Fish, turns himself into police, which makes matters worse (truly possible).
Political thriller, spy novel, science fiction time travel, philosophy of time, police satire, revolutionary drama—this book is exciting.
