Cynthia D’Aprix Sweeney: The Nest, 9780062666420, Harper Collins, paperbackGerman edition: Das Nest, Klett Cotta, 9783608980004, hardback 

Right up front:  I greatly enjoyed “The Nest”, got sucked in from the very beginning. This is such a cleverly constructed novel, it is hard to stop reading it is so intoxicating, you just want to find out what happens next to all the Plumbs.  Full of gossip, very funny at times but serious and dark in other parts, a very New Yorkish family portrait in my opinion. 

The four Plumb siblings try hard to hide their less than perfect lives from each other, desperately waiting for their trust fund to bail them out once Melody reaches the age of 40 to ease some of their severe financial strains.

Leo, the notoriously bad boy of the family with a trophy wife who is about to divorce him, has been freshly released from rehab and is summoned to a lunch with his three other siblings Melody, Beatrice and Jack. To their horror the Plumb siblings were informed that their sacred trust fund was slashed into by their mother to bail out Leo from a disastrous car accident with a nineteen year old waitress while driving intoxicated filled to the brim with alcohol and coke.  A seriously smaller payout would be a disaster to them all.  What plans does Leo have to repay his siblings?   Melody has college tuitions at a private university for her twins coming up and a mortgage the family budget can no longer handle. Jack’s antique business isn’t what he has led his partner Walker to believe secretly borrowing against their summer cottage and Beatrice is a former writer with a decade long writers block wasting away as an editor at a New York literary magazine on a ridiculous salary. 

I will not reveal how this clever, witty story unfolds, but I could hardly believe this is D’Aprix Sweeney’s debut novel it is so masterfully constructed. I loved her fluent style of writing, her sharp sense of humor and how all the characters become part of your life as you keep wondering what’s next.  The book fully deserves to be in the bestseller lists, the German edition, also called “Das Nest” came out early in 2017 and is available. 

Reed Farrel Coleman: Where it hurts, Putnam (Penguin Random House), 9780425283271, paperback

Reed Farrel Coleman is a new discovery for me, although a seasoned thriller writer, a former colleague at Penguin Random House US only pointed him out to me recently.  “Where it Hurts” is written in the best tradition of Chandler and Hammett, American Private- eye, modern noir crime fiction. It does not come as a surprise that the novel has been nominated for the Edgar Award for Best Novel, not his first nomination. Farrel Coleman was also chosen to continue writing Jesse Stone novels after Robert B. Parker passed away.

The book develops tempo from the very beginning, never lets up, there are no boring stretches to bridge in this thriller and the main character, Gus Murphy, a former Long Island cop, is a very likeable guy.  The next book “What you break” was published in February 2017 and is already sitting on my ever growing pile of books to read.  “Where it hurts” also comes with very strong recommendations from fellow thriller writers such as Lee Child, Linda Fairstein, Jeffrey Deaver and CJ Box.

Gus Murphy lost everything he once held dear when his son dies unexpectedly sending him into a downward spiral of grief and rage, eventually costing him his marriage and leading to his resignation as a Long Island cop.  He now drives a courtesy van for a run- down hotel spending each day in a grey, depressed fog not caring whether he lives or dies.  He is shaken out of his pain when Tommy Delcamino, a small time criminal, looks him up trying to hire him as a private eye to look into the 4 month old killing of his son TJ, as the Suffolk police do not seem interested to solve his son’s murder.  Gus brushes him off rudely despite feeling sympathy for the man’s grief. When Tommy is killed himself, Gus feels he owes it to father and son to check into whether Tommy’s original accusations against the Suffolk PD hold true. Once he starts digging,  there is no turning back.  

Farrel Coleman introduces a whole cast of bad ass, low life characters in "Where it hurts"  with a counterbalances of Gus's new friends, broken figures such as Father Bill and Slava who like Murphy have experienced the vinegar taste life can leave.  Great modern noir crime fiction at it's best.

Nelson deMille: The Cuban Affair, Simon & Schuster, 9781501101724, $ 28, - pub date: September 19, 2017

Thanks to the courtesy of Simon & Schuster I was able to read the proof of Nelson DeMille’s latest book, “The Cuban Affair”. I had read previous thrillers by him and liked Plum Island in particular.  His style of writing reminds me a little of the late Robert B Parker but America's greatest living thriller writer he is not.

To my great disappointment I never got into “The Cuban Affair” however much I tried, the plot felt improbable,  too far stretched , the sex and romance too matter of fact and not romantic at all (perhaps guys will disagree with me here) to qualify for the turn of events later  in the book.  We need a little work here Mr. DeMille.  The story as such sounded interesting when I read the blurb but having read the book, I feel the concept was put together too quickly to coincide with reader’s interest during the defrosting period of American / Cuban relations under President Obama.  Having visited Cuba myself,  I found his descriptions of the island and political atmosphere authentic and well written.

Dan MacCormick, Mac for short,  is a former army veteran who fought in  Afghanistan  and is now  the owner of “The Maine” , a charter boat sailing out of Key West whenever tourist book her for fishing cruises or other expeditions.  When mysterious Carlos, a lawyer from Miami, approaches him on behalf of an older Cuban exile Eduardo Valazques offering him very serious money for a dangerous mission into Cuban territory to retrieve 60 million hidden US dollars, Mac accepts against his better judgement as this would bail him out of financial issues.  Sara Ortega, a beautiful Cuban American woman appearing as the other client Carlos represents, makes the deal even sweeter for Mac. But as I said, perhaps this is a “wham bam thank you Madam” type of thriller meant for guys mainly; it did not do it for me.