New February Fiction!

 

Adams, Taylor  Her Last Breath

Armstrong, Kelley  First Sign of Danger (Haven’s Rock)

Beaton, M.C.  Death of a Groom (Hamish)

Berry, Steve  The Devil’s Bible (Cotton Malone)

Box, C.J.  The Crossroads (Joe Pickett)

Burke, James Lee The Hadacol Boogie (Dave Robicheaux)

Coulter, Catherine The Heir of Whitestone

Farnsworth, Christopher Robert B. Parker’s Big Shot (Jesse Stone)

Fawcett, Heather  Agnes Aubert’s Mystical Cat Shelter

French, Nicci  What Happened That Night (Maud O’Connor)

Greaney, Mark  The Hard Line  (Gray Man)

Goodman, Allegra  This Is Not About Us

Hurwitz, Gregg Antihero (Orphan X)

Johnson, Sadeqa  Keeper of Lost Children

Kellerman, Jonathan  Jigsaw (Alex Delaware)

Kubica, Mary  It’s Not Her

Lawson, Mike The Asset (Joe DeMarco)

Marshall, Kate Alice The Girls Before

McAllister, Gillian  Caller Unknown

Nesbo, Jo  Wolf Hour

O’Connor, Carlene  Murder at an Irish Session (Irish Village Mystery)

Page, Libby  This Book Made Me Think of You

Paris, B.A.  When I Kill You

Parks, Brad  The Flack

Patterson, James  Cross and Sampson

Phillips, Susan Elizabeth  And the Crowd Went Wild (Chicago Stars)

Quindlen, Anna  More Than Enough

Quinn, Kate  The Astral Library

Robb, J.D.  Stolen in Death

Rollins, James  Trust No One

Sanderson, Brandon  Isles of the Emberdark (Cosmere)

Shimeno, Nagi  Messenger Cat Café

Sundin, Sarah  Mists Over the Channel Islands: A Novel of World War II

Thor, Brad  Cold Zero

Ward, J.R.  Crown of War and Shadow

Woods, Evie  The Violin Maker’s Secret

Zhang, Jenny Tinghui  Superfan

Maigret

 

Reviewed by Jeanne

When the library acquired “Maigret” on DVD, I was curious to see it. Based on Georges Simenon’s classic mystery novels about a police commissioner in Paris, it starred Rowan Atkinson, an actor I knew best from his comedic turns as Blackadder and Mr. Bean as well as movie appearances. I had read a couple of the Maigret books in high school but that was—um—let’s just say awhile ago.  I did have the distinct impression that Maigret was a big man:  Michael Gambon played him in an earlier version and he more closely fit my vaguely remembered image of the detective. Casting a slender British comic actor in the role of a serious, heavy-set Frenchman sounded intriguing.

But first, I wanted to reacquaint myself with some of the source material. I read a couple of the early Maigret books.  I was expecting something more along the lines of Agatha Christie, but instead of a follow the clues, fair play mystery, I found them to be more atmospheric and focused on the psychology of the crimes rather than physical clues.  Since the first books in the series were published in 1931, I found that a bit surprising—but then Simenon wasn’t trying to compete with the other mystery novelists of the era. He was trying to sell stories to earn a living.

Simenon does a brilliant job of setting scenes so vividly one can almost see them.  The characters aren’t particularly well developed, not even Maigret, but there’s still a power to the story that carries the reader along. Unlike the more recent trends in crime stories, the detective’s personal life doesn’t play a large role. It’s all about the crime. They’re grittier books than the usual Golden Age detective stories, sometimes set in the seedier areas of Paris among the less reputable shops and bars. They certainly aren’t set in a cozy village and more beer is consumed than cups of tea.  The novels tend to be short, less than 200 pages and sometimes less than 150.  I didn’t see the translator listed on the copies I read, but the books were originally written in French.

With that background, I moved on to the DVDs.  The stories are set in the 1950s, with at least one reference to the German occupation. The visuals are very well done, with narrow streets, era appropriate cars and clothing, and some of the darkness and grit from the books.  Newspapers blare headlines in French, with handy English translations superimposed on some scenes, giving a bit of an edgy feel to the historical scenes.

Being an aficionado of British TV mystery series, it was a bit startling to see a detective pull out a gun, something the detectives of Midsomer* would never do.  Maigret is known for smoking a pipe, and he most certainly did in almost every scene.  Others were puffing away on cigarettes, as would have been appropriate for the time and place.  And, in keeping with the books, there was more than a bit of beer consumed even while on duty.  The rest of it—plot, story structure, and characters—did seem to reflect the sensibilities of the books I read.  I checked and Simenon’s son, John, was am executive producer on the series, and is very protective of his father’s work.

As for Atkinson, he did pull off the role as far as I’m concerned. While he didn’t have the heft, he had the thoughtful, calm persona down.  Maigret is interested in people; he seeks to understand both the victim and the murderer, and doesn’t render judgment on either.  Atkinson seemed to embody that attitude. I also liked the relationship between Maigret and Madame Maigret was portrayed: just as in the books, they’re a mature couple, comfortable with each other but also considerate.

I certainly enjoyed the series and do recommend it.

 

*Yes, I am addicted to Midsomer Murders. The library has some episodes of that series on DVD as well and some are available through Hoopla.

The Lost Bookshop by Evie Woods

 

Reviewed by Jeanne

London, 1921: Twenty-one year old Opaline Carlisle has just been informed by her brother that he has arranged a marriage for her with someone she has never met.  A spirited girl, she has no intention of being forced into wedlock, so she pretends to agree. Instead, that night she slips away with some books from her late father’s prized collection and escapes to Paris with the intention of becoming a bookseller.

Dublin, the present: Martha is also running away, trying to escape an abusive husband. With no firm plan in mind, she ends up in Dublin and takes a job as a live-in housekeeper for the flamboyant and imperious Madame Bowden. She’s startled one day to find an Englishman pacing beside the house. Henry is an odd young man, a scholar, who claims he is looking for a bookshop that is supposed to be beside the house.  The bookshop was supposed to belong to a renowned bookseller and collector, Opaline Gray.  Martha is a bit skeptical, but there’s something attractive about him.

Henry, for his part, realizes that Martha is perhaps the most intriguing woman that he has ever met. Unfortunately, he also realizes that he has not made the best of impressions.  He’s going to have to find some charm if he is going to learn anything about the bookshop—or the woman.

The book goes back and forth between these three characters, telling us of Opaline’s life as Henry and Martha search for clues—and deal with their own feelings.  They all have secrets, but as we all know secrets have a habit of not staying buried for long.

This is a charming book with beguiling characters who draw you into their stories.  There’s a thread of magical realism running through the book, and not just the mysterious bookshop. Opaline’s story is darker, though, and at times a sad and sobering look at women’s rights in past eras, or rather lack thereof. Overall the book is a beautiful tribute to readers and books, and the transformative power to be found there.  I was invested in all three of the main characters, and anxiously turned pages to discover their fates. There were a number of surprises along the way as well.

One of my favorite parts is when Opaline ends up in Paris where she gets a job at the legendary bookstore, Shakespeare and Company.  In the 1920s, the store was a second home to many great writers, including James Joyce, Ernest Hemingway, and F. Scott Fitzagerald, all of whom were supported by the store’s owner, Sylvia Beach.  Woods did a lovely job of evoking that era—I wish there had been more chapters!

I am very much looking forward to her next book, The Story Collector, which deals with an Irish farm girl who helps an American translate Irish folk and fairy tales. It’s due out in August, and promises to be just as magical as this book.

Nevermore: Lost in Paris, David and Goliath, Therapist, Spy, Other Queen, Greenlanders, Harlem Shuffle, Fuzz

 

The Nevermore members were out in force for this meeting!  The book discussion portion opened with Lost in Paris by Elizabeth Thompson. Hannah Bond enjoys her life as a guide for Jane Austen themed tours, in part because living in England puts her an ocean away from her alcoholic mother in Florida.  She’s startled when her mother shows up at her door, telling her that they have inherited Hannah’s great-grandmother Ivy’s apartment in Paris.  Once there, they find themselves excavating the past, including Ivy’s accounts of life in the City of Lights when it was home to Hemingway, Fitzgerald, and other luminaries. As they discover Ivy’s secret past, mother and daughter try to forge a new relationship.  Our reader recommended the book as she really enjoyed it.  Another member said wistfully that she wished she could inherit something like that! 

 

Next up was Malcolm Gladwell’s David and Goliath: Underdogs, Misfits, and the Art of Battling Giants which our reviewer very highly recommended.  She listened to it on audio and also read the book. The author contends that sometimes the “little guy” may have to resort to extreme tactics in order to benefit the greater good.  One example was a staged photo which caught national attention in a way that speeches alone did not. This started a lively discussion about morality. Obviously, this is a thought-provoking book!

 

The Therapist by B.A. Paris is a thriller about a young couple who move into a new home in a gated community.  Soon they discover that the neighbors are keeping secrets, including that something terrible happened in the house they have just bought. Our reader said this was a really good thriller. She said she could usually figure out what was going to happen in such novels, but this one surprised her.  

 

The Spy by Paulo Coelho is a novel about Mata Hari, the woman who was alleged to have been an agent during World War I.  The book is in the form of a letter written by Margareretha Geertruida MacLeod (Mata Hari’s birth name) before she is to face execution.  Our reviewer likes Paulo Coelho’s work as a rule, but found this one not to up to his usual standard.  She was disappointed in the book, and said she could not recommend this title.

 

Another novel featuring a historical figure was up next.  The Other Queen by Philippa Gregory is the story of Mary, Queen of Scots at the time she was in the custody of the Earl of Shrewsbury and his wife, Bess of Hardwick. What seems like a sure way to curry favor with Queen Elizabeth for keeping her cousin soon proves to be a dangerous move as Mary seems to weave her plots.  Again, this book was deemed a disappointment from a usually reliable author.  The reader slogged through the pages, which she summed up as, “Everyone is miserable.”  The book was not recommended, unsurprisingly.

Jane Smiley has definitely picked up some fans after Perstroika in Paris made the rounds.  This time, The Greenlanders was the title and, despite it being a very different sort of book, it was met with approval.  The book is set in the fourteenth century, and revolves around a family in a Norse colony set up by Erik the Red as they struggle to survive in Greenland.  Our reader said she was loving it!

 

Harlem Shuffle by Colson Whitehead is set in the 1960s in (you guessed it!) Harlem.  Ray Carney has built up a small business selling used furniture and trying to keep mostly on the straight and narrow—well, more or less.  His cousin, Freddie, on the other hand keeps bringing Ray some hot items to sell, which he does. Then Freddie tries to make a big score and ends up involving Ray with some very shady and possibly very dangerous characters.  The reviewer said she liked the author, but was struggling with this book a bit, possibly because the characters all had names and then nicknames so it was hard to keep track of who was who.  She also said it was “as funny as heck.”

 

Finally, Fuzz:  When Nature Breaks the Law by Mary Roach was lauded as one of the best non-fiction writers out there.  Roach likes to take somewhat off-beat topics and explain the science behind them in easy to understand fashion, and being hilarious along with it.  In this new book, she takes up the problem of human-wildlife conflict, from elk who cause car wrecks to gulls who take out a floral display to welcome the Pope.  Our Nevermore member said she laughed out loud while she learned and highly recommends anything Mary Roach writes.

 

The Five People You Meet in Heaven by Mitch Albom

The Summons by John Grisham

13 Reasons Why by Jay Asher

Mortal Engines by Philip Reeve

Sacred Contracts by Caroline Myss

Waiting for Snow in Havana by Carlos Eire

The Book Artist by Mark Pryor

Reviewed by Jeanne

Bibliophile and ex-FBI profiler Hugo Marston usually finds his job as head of security for the U.S. Embassy in Paris to be interesting and challenging, but there are some duties he finds rather tedious. Escorting the Ambassador to an American artist’s exhibition at the Dali Museum should make for a fairly boring evening but Hugo is intrigued when he finds that the artist’s medium is books.  He’s even more intrigued when he meets the artist herself and finds her to be young and charming as well as talented.  Unfortunately, the gala opening is marred by a murder, and one of Hugo’s friends stands accused. It’s going to take a lot of sleuthing as well as diplomacy for Hugo to find a solution.

There is a second strong plot concerning Marston’s best friend, the rough and often profane Tom Green, who is on the trail of a man named Cofer who holds a grudge against both Green and Marston.  Cofer has just been released from prison and is headed to Europe, and his intentions aren’t good.  Tom is determined to find him before he can carry out whatever nasty little plan he has.

This is the eighth and latest in the series of Hugo Marston books.  For me, they work well as standalones, Hugo is one of the good guys; he’s not overbearing or condescending, even when he feels someone is in the wrong.  He is also very good at his job.  I like the way he works with the French authorities, and how he treats people in general. 

I have mixed feelings about the competing plotlines.  Both were well done, but it seemed almost an embarrassment of riches. The primary one is more mystery, follow the clues and find the murderer type, while the second is more like a thriller. Each could have carried its own book, and the second one could have been fleshed out more, but those are minor points.

Pryor does a good job of giving the reader a sense of Paris the city, the people, and especially the food.  I am still not convinced that I want to eat snails, however. The descriptions of the book sculptures were well done; I wished I could have seen them! While there can be some thriller elements, for the most part these are straight on mysteries, which I like.  I was especially interested in a solution in this book which involves how DNA could be transferred.  I won’t say more, but it was ingenious.

Nevermore: Mississippi, Mortuaries, and Mysteries

Reported by Ambrea

Nevermore started things with Crooked Letter, Crooked Letter by Tom Franklin, a thriller set in the heart of rural Mississippi.  During the 1970s, Larry and Silas were friends.  Their worlds were vastly different—Larry was the child of middle-class white parents; Silas was the son of a poor, black single mother—but their unexpected friendship did not last long.  When Larry took a girl to the drive-in and she was never heard from again, Larry’s and Silas’s lives diverged.  Twenty years later, another girl goes missing—and, suddenly, Larry and Silas are brought together again to confront the past.  Our reader Tom Franklin’s novel was a great book.  “It’s a very good, very fast read,” she said and she highly recommended it to her fellow mystery fans.  She noted it was a surprisingly engaging story that delves deep into the psychology of a small Southern town.

Next, Nevermore looked at Down Among the Dead Men:  A Year in the Life of a Mortuary Technician by Michelle Williams.  When Williams turned thirty, she made an impulsive decision:  she became a mortuary technician.  At times comical and heart-breaking, Down Among the Dead Men is an insightful memoir that explores life and death and the realities of both that morgue technicians explore on a daily basis.  Our reader said Williams’ book was “really very funny,” which she didn’t expect; moreover, it was very interesting.  Williams is an adept writer, making her story accessible yet entertaining.  She also uses wit, humor, and heart to create a memoir that, while the focus is death, isn’t ghastly.  Overall, it was an enjoyable book that our reader recommended to fellow fans of Mary Roach.

In Two Days Gone, a thriller by Randall Silvis, Ryan DeMarco is confronted by a grim and startling mystery:  what causes a man who has everything to suddenly destroy everything he held dear?  Thomas Huston has everything—a brilliant career, a wonderful home, and a family he loves—but then, in a single night, Huston goes missing and his family is found murdered.  DeMarco doesn’t quite believe Huston could have killed his whole family; however, he has no real proof except a half-finished manuscript and a trail of bodies...and a sinking suspicion that nothing is what it seems.  Our reader praised Two Days Gone, saying it was a fantastic page-turner with a gripping story, a macabre murder, and a fascinating detective.  Grim and suspenseful, Two Days Gone was a phenomenal novel that, according to our reader, “always left you guessing.”

Nevermore also picked up The Breakdown by B.A. Paris, bestselling author of Behind Closed Doors.  When Cass decided to take a shortcut home from work, she didn’t expected to come across a woman by the side of the road—and she didn’t expect to later find out that same woman had been murdered.  Since then, she’s been forgetting everything:  where she left her car, if she took her medication, her alarm code and more.  But she hasn’t forgotten one thing:  the woman by the side of the road and the nagging sense of a guilt that she could have saved her.  Our reader said The Breakdown is her favorite book from this year; in fact, she admitted that she loved this book.  Unexpectedly haunting and incredibly gripping, Paris’s latest novel was a fascinating, suspenseful story that left you hoping for the best, suspecting the worst, and wondering who you can trust.

Keeping to our theme of thrillers, Nevermore checked out The Waters of Eternal Youth by Donna Leon, the 25^th novel in the Commissario Guido Brunetti Mystery series.  In this latest mystery, Commissario Brunetti finds himself investigating the fifteen year old case of a teenage girl who was thrown into a canal in Venice and left with irreparable brain damage.  Although he hesitates to tackle the case, knowing the statute of limitations has certainly passed, he decides to investigate and see if there really is something to the girl’s case.  Our reader told Nevermore she enjoys reading Donna Leon’s novels, saying it’s like “having a travelogue with a mystery thrown in.”  Incredibly detailed and finely crafted, The Waters of Eternal Youth is both an interesting examination of Venice and a thrilling story of an unsolved crime.