Paula McLain: When the Stars Go Dark, 9780861540808, Oneworld Publication UK, hardback ,
Pub date May 13, 2021

(US edition 9780593357231, Ballantine, large format paperback)

 

All the novels I previously read by Paula McLain had historical backgrounds featuring strong female characters like Beryl Markham, Martha Gelhorn or Hadley Hemingway; all three terrific reads, she is a great storyteller in my opinion.  With “When the Stars go Dark” she enters a new terrain, that of a literary thriller/mystery and having just finished the last page, she has my all thumbs up!   

Set in Mendocino, Northern California, the main character is Anna Hart, a missing person detective who retreats to her home town to recovery from a personal tragedy only to walk into another missing person case of a local teenage girl, Cameron.  Will, her former high school friend and now the chief of police, gladly accepts Anna’s seasoned expertise and offer to help with the investigation. This case has a familiar ring to both of them from an unresolved disappearance of Jenny, one of their friends from teenage days.  In Anna,  McLain created a very likable, intelligent, strong protagonist who after a very troubled childhood was able to turn her life around with the help of loving forster parents.  In her author’s note McLain reveals how her own autobiography helped with the plot and the female lead and that she poured a lot of her past experiences into the book which makes it so believable. 

I had a reluctant “well let’s see about his” approach when I started the novel as I was biased being a fan of her historical novels but she won me over fast and I raced through the book towards the finale.  Paula McLain can very clearly write excellent mysteries too!   

 

Matt Haig: The Midnight Library, Canongate, paperback, 9781786892737

(German edition: Matt Haig: Die Mitternachtsbibliothek, Droemer, hardback)

 

I had to buy a copy of Matt Haig’s “The Midnight Library” to cast my own verdict since it has been such a huge bestseller internationally.  The storyline appealed to me and having just finished,  I can definitely see where the attraction of this book lies for so many in these rocky times. It is a life affirming book, a bit of a fairy tale/fable which makes you feel better about own mistakes or regrets. I liked it but it did not blow me away. 

We have all been faced with the question what would have happened if one had taken a different direction in one’s life. For Nora the list of failures and regrets becomes so enormous that depression and suicidal thoughts start to overtake her life. When she is transported to the Midnight Library on the brink of suicide which houses all the books of different outcomes of her previous life decisions and is run by the formidably librarian Mrs. Elm, she is given the chance to try on these other lives.  It is a warm, uplifting type of book offering food for thought and comforting affirmations. 

I was reminded of a book I read many years ago, “Hector and the Search for Happiness” by Francois Lelord,   which I  loved and can highly recommend if you liked “Midnight Library”.

 

Lara Prior-Palmer: Rough Magic, Ebury Press (Penguin Random House UK), 9781785038860, paperback
 

Through this pandemic I have been magically drawn to travel non- fiction and by chance Lara Prior-Palmer extraordinary memoir found me which I tore through in record speed. Literally could not put it down. 

In 2013 Lara entered the Mongol Derby as a restless, bored 19 year old, supposedly the toughest horse race in the world which she never expected to win.  This race takes place over 10 days where competitors ride 25 semi wild horses totally unfamiliar to the riders, racing from ger to ger (Mongolian nomadic tents),  suffering through all the elements, hunger, dehydration and disease, often accidents occur, even death.  As Lara recounts her 10 days, I was pulled in by her observant, exquisite writing voice which gives this book such a literary quality and sets it apart from many memoirs.  She is a truly gifted writer and storyteller as she switches between childhood memories of an eccentric, privileged  family, her lifelong love for horses with a famous horse champion aunt, her scatterbrain self and the daily ordeal of the race itself.  Her portrait of the Mongolian landscapes and horses she rides every day, the people in whose tents she sleeps and the riders competing with her, while battling with her inner self  held me transfixed. 

I adored this book and hope Lara Prior-Palmer continues to write.

 

Donna Leon: Transient Desires, 9781785152627, W. Heinemann/Penguin Random House UK, C format paperback
 

Whenever I get the latest copy of a new Donna Leon novel I know I am in for a treat of some very pleasurable reading hours escaping to Commissario Brunetti’s Venice.  At the moment my concentration level is often poor for various reasons and “Transient Desires” broke that spell.  Every writer who turns out a book a year is bound to have better and not such brilliant ones.

“Transient Desires” falls into the first category: two young American women are found badly injured at the back entrance of a hospital, the victims of a boating accident as it turns out, with two young men abandoning the unconscious women after dropping them with their boat in the very location.

The investigation falls to Brunetti and his colleague Claudia Griffoni and as is often the case in Leon’s novels, the original crime leads to a far more sinister one but I will not reveal more as it would spoil the reading pleasure.  These novels are always a fine study of Venetian and Italian life, the human psyche, politics
and social interaction which are the reason I enjoy them so very much. 

The German edition has not been announced yet.