Echoes From The Dead by Johan Theorin. I liked this mystery so much that upon completion I immediately started reading the second in the series. It’s one of four books known as the Oland Quartet, since all take place on the island of Oland off the coast of Sweden. This one was about the disappearance twenty years in the past of a 5 year-old boy, Jens Davidsson. His mother, Julia, returns to Oland to help her aging father, a retired fisherman, Gerlof. Gerlof has been trying to solve the mystery of his lost grandson, and the more he discovers, the more he and Julia get caught up in a series of murders and crimes on the island. The writing is excellent, as are the characters, and it was a treat to follow along with Gerlof’s simple unraveling of several long-past events. It was all very well done.
The Darkest Room by Johan Theorin. This also takes place on Oland, and shares a few of the characters from the first book, although they do not play a central role. A young family has moved to the mansion by the lighthouse on Oland and has started to renovate it, when a tragic death occurs. Most of the police treat the death as an accident, but Tilda Davidsson, a new policewoman on the island and Gerlof’s niece, has her suspicions. The chapters alternate between Tilda, to the family at Eel Point, and to a group of thugs who are burgling the summer houses on the island. It was a good read too; my only criticism was that the Eel Point part of the story contains a lot of ghosts and spirits, which somewhat work in the story and somewhat do not.
The Marsh King’s Daughter by Karen Dionne. This was an excellent and suspenseful read that was hard to put down. In a nutshell, it is about a woman Helena, who was raised out in the wild marshland in Michigan by her parents and didn’t discover until age 12 that her father had kidnapped her mother as a teenager and was holding her hostage. When the book begins, Helena is an adult with children of her own, and her father has just escaped from prison. Helena decides to use her excellent hunting and tracking skills – learned from her father – to find him before he wreaks more havoc. The book switches from the present back to Helena’s childhood in the marsh and is really fascinatingly done.
What Happened by Hillary Clinton. I wasn’t sure if I wanted to read this at first – I thought it would be too painful – but it wasn’t and I am very glad I did. It was really interesting to re-live the campaign from Hillary’s point of view, and see what her reasoning was for certain decisions. The book is certainly infuriating, in that once again you see how hard the press worked to make Hillary into everyone else’s criticisms of her, but she is a very funny writer, and of course so intelligent that I read the whole thing quickly and wished I had bought a physical copy instead of a kindle copy so that I could more easily go back and peruse. If you are or were a Hillary supporter, I recommend the book.
How To Not Hate Your Husband After Kids by Jancee Dunn. I have always admired the writing of Jancee Dunn, and although the title made me snort a bit, I was curious to see what she had to say. And she did not disappoint. It is basically a relationship book and primarily about communication, and as such I found it extremely helpful, and definitely one of the best of its kind that I have read. Well, actually, I don’t think I have read any relationship books, but I was very impressed at the usefulness of her advice, and wish I had heard a lot of it years previously. She is as funny and as down to earth as ever, and the book is a mixture of her own experience, combined with the consultation of experts ranging from marriage counselors to organizers. It tends towards the gist of how men and women hear things differently and communicate differently, and is basically all about being forthright and direct. I thought it both wise and entertaining.
The Long Drop by Denise Mina. Denise Mina is one of my favorite mystery writers and is known for her Scottish noir. She tends to write series, but this book was a stand-alone and about a true story: a serial killer named Peter Manuel who was charged and convicted of killing at least eight people in the 1950’s. It’s an interesting and quick read: Mina uses court transcripts, but then also gets into the heads of her characters and creates back stories. The writing is sparse, and she alternates between the trial itself and a night Peter Manuel and another suspect, William Watt, spent on the town a few days before Peter’s arrest. There is nothing cheery about this book, but it is nonetheless a good read.
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