~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 and this is a good one. Lydia Smith, a clerk at the Bright Ideas Bookstore is at work when Joey Molina, a regular customer, hangs himself in the store. From that moment, Lydia’s life begins to unravel at astonishing speed, as a past she rather leave buried, rises up to meet her. And it’s an ugly past. As a child, she was an unwilling witness to a murder. It soon becomes apparent that it is no coincidence that Joey committed suicide knowing Lydia would find him and he knows something of her tragic history. When she discovers the he has left her a collection of books, some defaced and containing hidden messages, Lydia sets about untangling the mystery of Joey’s death, while simultaneously trying to make sense of her own troubling and knotty childhood memories. It’s a clever, intriguing premise with plenty of layers and a cast of well-developed characters. While the subject matter certainly leans towards the dark and gruesome, I wouldn’t describe it as a particularly heavy novel. It’s surprisingly light and 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. It offers a sobering glimpse into the precarious foundations upon which Black people are so often forced to build their lives. This is not a book about race, but race is there, slithering through its pages, dark and menacing, poised to unleash its venom. At its heart, this is an intimate, introspective portrait of a marriage in its infancy, subjected to a tragic situation for which neither of its central characters, Celestial and Roy, can be held responsible. Little time is wasted on the crime or the trial, instead it gets straight to the matter of how a slow and steady erosion of daily connection can whittle away at the foundation of a relationship. What we witness is an ordinary life and an ordinary marriage subjected to an extraordinary injustice, one that corrodes, disrupts and ultimately betrays. Each character in this book is flawed in their own way, and the author is careful not to lay blame at the feet of any of them, in much the same way that the inherent racism is not allowed to take center stage. It is simply woven into the fabric of the narrative, shaping the lives of those caught in its reach. The result is a grounded, and deeply affecting story told with lovely warmth and insight. Its ending managed to pull the entire story gently together in a deeply 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.