Books, Books & More Books

The Last Chinese Chef by Nicole Mones was an absolute delight. Maggie McElroy is a food writer recently widowed. She has to go to China to deal with a claim that has been made against her husband’s estate. While there, she undertakes to interview a Chinese American chef who has gone back to China to learn to cook the traditional way. He ends up acting as her guide, and she observes and listens as he explains the history and behind-the-scenes intracacies of Chinese cooking. I’m a bit of a foodie, so I just loved this part of the story-telling. Wonderfully engaging.

The Silent Girl by Tess Gerritsen is another terrific story that keeps you guessing right to the very end. In an alley lies a woman’s severed hand. On the rooftop above is the corpse to whom that hand belongs. Two strands of non-human hair are the only clues, but they’re enough for to link this death to a horrifying murder-suicide in a Chinatown restaurant many years before. One woman connected to that massacre seems to be the target of someone, or something, deeply and relentlessly evil. a great murder mystery, seasoned with mystical elements of ancient martial arts, and tossed with the otherworldly to add even more spice of the conundrum.

In the Morning I’l be Gone by Adrian McKinty is perhaps my favourite in the Troubles Trilogy. It’s book three, and McKinty really does up the end well. Set in the early 80’s in Belfast, Sean Duffy is an ex-cop who was fitted up for a hit and run and given the bum’s rush off the force. But his connection to an IRA master bomber – they were kids together at school in Belfast – may be the only thing that can stop the plans of the IRA to make a big boom! And then there’s the mystery of the locked-room murder that Duffy must unravel if he hopes to have a hope in hell of finding Dermot—that IRA guy – before it’s too late.

An Uninvited Ghost by E. J. Copperman was fun. Alison owns a guesthouse. She lives there with her daughter and her mom pops over often. All three are completely unfazed by the two ghosts that share their lives. From time to time other ghosts float in with issues they need resovled. The fact that the guesthouse is haunted isn’t a secret; visitors come specifically to interact with the other-worldly guests, who are a little disdainful of the living humans. Then a television crew shows up to shoot a reality TV show and witness the shenanigans. And a woman is murdered. And Alison, with help from her other-worldly mates, must figure out who dun it. Delightful.

Indelible by Karin Slaughter weaves together a story from the past with a present day hostage taking in a police station to show how everything the characters did and that people thought about them were connected. There’s the good police chief, Jeffrey, who is lying wounded, his ex-wife the brave but distrusting Sara, and Lena who has been newly reinstated to the force. And, of course, there are the crackpots, broken souls who have been driven by misdirected anger. And that’s just in the present. Back in the past are a couple of other mysteries that unfold to show how this whole mess came to be. Nicely paced. If you like Patricia Cornwell’s or Tess Gerritsen’s books, you’ll enjoy Karin Slaughter.

Speaking of Tess Gerritsen, The Mephisto Club was great! When Dr Maura Isles is called to a crime scene she fines a woman massacred and her parts strewn about the house. Her hand is sitting on a plate in the dining room. Her head sits in the middle of the kitchen floor surrounded by burnt out candles. And this won’t be the last victim in this bizarre killing spree. What the hell is going on? And does the strange Anthony Sansone, leader of the Mephisto Club, pose a threat to the good doctor? It looks like a spooky story, with one character on the run from the spirit of a dead man, but Jane Rizzoli won’t have any of this hocus pocus stuff. If you watch Rizzoli and Isles on TV, the books are much better.

What Alice Forgot by Liane Moriarty. Her best yet, this book was both a story wonderfully woven and well written. It all begins when Alice falls off her bicycle at the gym and hits her head. Then comes the best line I’ve read in quite some time: “That was the day Alice Mary Love went to the gym and carelessly mislaid a decade of her life.” When Alice wakes up in the hospital, she has lost the last 10 years of her life: the birth of her children, the disintegration of her marriage, her new love affair. Gone. Everything. And as she uncovers who she had become in the decade she lost, she is a little uncertain that she likes who she has become. Wonderful, wonderful story, with all the interesting side diversions I’ve come to love in a Liane Moriarty book. The only downside is there’s only one unread book left on my bookshelf by this woman.

Why Can’t I Be You by Allie Larkie had an interesting premise. A woman gets mistaken for someone else and decides to assume that person’s life, embracing her old high-school friends because she’s lonely and, well, Jessie’s life seems so much better. What if you could shed your life and take on someone else’s? What about all the complications with holding up the charade? Jenny, now Jessie, finds the challenges scary, but when love presents itself, she has another good reason to hold on to the life she’s assume. Of course, everything comes to bump… but you’ll have to read the book to see what happens. Good writing. Thoroughly engaging story.

The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss is the first in a trilogy, only two of which have been written so far. It’s a big book… no lie… 28 hours of reading people. Intricately woven, seemingly minor details are part of an intricately woven story. While the world Rothfuss creates is imaginary, it is so precisely executed you feel like you are there. The story features Cvothe who has, as he says, “trooped, traveled, loved, lost and was betrayed”. It’s a coming of age story, in which young Cvothe loses his family and comes to terms with his magical powers. Rothfuss is among a small group of fantasy writers like Neil Gaiman and JRR Martin, who can build an intriguing world while spinning a fascinating story. I did find the early (maybe the first six hours) a bit slow, but I am so glad I stuck it through because the rest of the book was terrific.

The Invention of Wings by Sue Monk Kidd is set in the U.S. Deep South during the nineteenth century. Inspired by real events the story is written in the voices of the two main characters. Sarah is the middle daughter in a white land-owning family and is based on a well-known early abolitionist and women’s right activist. Hetty also called ‘Handful’ is a slave child, a completely fictional character, who is gifted to Sarah on Sarah’s 11th birthday. The book celebrates the power of friendship and shows the cost of seeking freedom while exploring the complex relationships between the owned and their owners. The language is lush, and full of imagery.