~The Woman in the Window A.J.Finn Well, imagine…a thriller that actually thrills and doesn’t induce you to lob it in the bin. This book seemed to get so many great reviews that I found myself unable to pass it up. And it’s really good…but only if you like slow atmospheric reads and not ones that are heavy on action and drama. The book jacket refers to it as a “sophisticated novel of psychological suspense that recalls the best of Hitchcock” and that’s exactly what it is. Anna Fox lives alone in her NYC brownstone and is completely unable to venture outside and spends a lot of time spying on her neighbours through the lens of her camera. It is, of course, reminiscent of Rear Window and our protagonist spends large chunks of time watching and re-watching Hitchcock classics as well as other black and whites like Gaslight, so the shades of Hitchcock are clearly intentional. And it works beautifully. Anna, never without her wine glass, is a classic unreliable narrator. There are hints of a past incident and a family who no longer lives with her, a downstairs lodger and an across the way murder that may or may not have happened. Three quarters of the way through there’s a shock revelation that I’d already figured out and an ending that may or may not surprise but no matter really, it’s all about the ride. This is film noir in book form and a welcome change from other psychological thrillers. This one’s all about the writing not the action.
~Midnight at the Bright Ideas Bookstore Matthew Sullivan I love books about books. This is a good one. Lydia Smith, a clerk at the Bright Ideas Bookstore is working when Joey Molina, a regular customer, hangs himself in the store. From this point on Lydia’s life begins to unravel at an astonishing speed as her past rises up to meet her. And it’s an ugly past which found her the unwilling bystander of a murder as a child. And as it happens it’s no coincidence that Joey committed suicide when he knew Lydia would find him. He knows something about her past and when he bequeaths her books that have been defaced and seemingly carry hidden messages, Lydia begins to untangle the mystery of Joey’s death along with all her own knotty childhood memories. It’s a clever, intriguing concept with lots of layers and well fleshed out characters and while the subject matter leans towards dark and some aspects of Lydia’s past turn out to be a bit gruesome I wouldn’t say this is a heavy novel. It’s pretty easy to read. And you should.
~Beartown Fredrik Backman This is one of those books that absolutely everyone raved about and I have been meaning to read for donkey’s years. And absolutely everyone was right. It may be a book about hockey, but this is a book that proves that an excellent writer can make you enjoy a book about anything, even something you don’t particularly like. Beartown is a small town in the back of Swedish beyond which is suffering economic decline. It’s also a town that lives and breathes hockey so when the junior boys hockey team looks like it’s within reach of bringing both fame and fortune home, the whole town goes bonkers. Meanwhile the teen players are treated like royalty and so when the star player is accused of an egregious act, you can only imagine how the town is divided by the news. And so while it may be about hockey, ultimately this book is about people and their relationships and deep character flaws. How what has come before us deeply affects who we are and how we act. It’s also about peer pressure, homophobia, integrity and a young woman, Maya, whose strength keeps her family from falling apart. Fredrik Backman is a wonderful writer with wise insights into people and life and his writing is just so fabulously readable. Throughout the book, he repeats certain things in a single solitary line, over and over like a drumbeat growing ever louder, signalling impending dread and doom. Not exactly subtle, but it works so well. I look forward to reading all of his other books.
~ The Underground Railroad Colson Whitehead What is there to say, really, about this book and its searing portrayal of slavery, other than that it’s pure genius? The novel weaves a story from characters who are all carrying a heavy burden and I have never wanted so strongly for a book to have a happy ending. It doesn’t, not really, but that’s hardly surprising when, 150 years later, racism still yearns for its happy ending. There is a passage about the torture of a slave that is so horrific you can only hope that it never actually happened, yet feel, deep within your bones that some variation of it did. Again and again. Cora is a young slave on a plantation who escapes with Caesar, following a path set by her mother many years before, travelling on the Underground Railway. By making the railway a literal thing, Colson opens the door to all manner of things, taking the key facts of slavery and bending and pushing them to their limit. At the same time it is all presented with such subtlety and so matter of factly that the lines blur and it makes you stop and wonder at times if certain bits were true or not. And that’s what I loved about this book. When Cora arrives in South Carolina she lands in a world which feels idyllic to her, yet hides its horrors. From here she ends up in North Carolina, where nothing is hidden, in fact everything is very much out in the open, with endless black bodies hanging from the trees on what is known as the Freedom Trail. And throughout it all Cora and Caesar are pursued by a relentless slave catcher, Ridgway, who ultimately connects her to the fate of her mother. It’s a brilliant read as Whitehead takes endless little things and twists and warps them into hyper-versions of themselves, distorting time and place, turning this book into a powerful and shattering portrayal of a dark and vicious period of history.
~An American Marriage Tayari Jones There is no denying the power of this story and, quite frankly, it should be mandatory reading for all white people as a peek at the jolting fragility of the foundation upon which black people seem to be forced to build their lives. This is not a book about race, per se, but it’s there, slithering throughout its entirety, dark and menacing, just waiting to unleash its venom. At its core this book is an intimate, introspective portrayal of a marriage in its infancy, subjected to a tragic situation for which the two key players, Celestial and Roy, can take no blame. No time is wasted on the crime or the trial, it gets straight to the matter of how a slow and steady retreat of daily connection can whittle away at the foundation of a relationship which may, or may not have stood the test of time if left to its own devices. Ordinary lives and an ordinary marriage subjected to injustice which corrodes and betrays. All the characters in this book are flawed in their own way and the author lays no culpability at the feet of any of them, in much the same way that the inherent racism is not allowed to take center stage. It’s a down to earth and subtle approach told with warmth and insight with an ending which really, really worked and somehow managed to pull the whole book gently together in a very satisfying way. This would make a fabulous book club read because there are so many issues worthy of discussion.
~Then She Was Gone Lisa Jewell I reviewed her last book here, which I thoroughly enjoyed. I had put a hold on this one at the library several weeks before it came out to ensure I received a copy relatively quickly but then BOTM had it as a selection for April, so I ordered it immediately. Unfortunately it bore all the same markings as many other psychological thrillers that have come before it and failed miserably. It starts out great, mainly because I like the writing style but the plot, about half way through just devolves into… drivel? silliness? utter lunacy? Take your pick. I am being overly harsh, in part because I was really hoping to enjoy this one. Nevertheless, this book just did not work for me. Basically, it’s about Laurel Mack whose fifteen year old “perfect daughter” Ellie goes missing without a trace one day, right before exams. Ten years on, Laurel, now divorced and still struggling to put her life back together, meets a man in a cafe. Later she meets said man’s youngest daughter who bears a striking resemblance to Ellie. From here it’s pretty easy to figure out how 90% of it will fit together and to be perfectly honest, it felt like the author wasn’t even trying to hide anything and once it all played out it felt a bit daft and convoluted. All in all this book felt flat and one dimensional and gets a big fat no from me. Others, on the other hand rave about it.
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