Shari Lapena: What have you done ? , 9781787635777, trade paperback, pub date : July 2024

I never read anything by Shari Lapena but really recommend "What have you done " as a perfect summer thriller, I was able to enjoy the book thanks to a proof.  

When high school senior Diana Brewer is found murdered in a field , Fairhill a small Vermont village where violence is virtually unknown, is shaken to the core. Lapena slowly peels of the mask of a seemingly perfect cast of characters, be it her boyfriend, her best friends,  the high school principle or her sports instructor until the person who killed her makes a mistake..and Diana had a few secrets to hide herself.  

Despite an excellent plot, towards the end of the book I suspected who it was....but than i am a veteran of having read very many crime novels 

 Chris Hammer: Cover the Bones, 9781472295712, Wildfire, hardback, ebook available 

Chris Hammer is an award winning Australian crime writer whom I just read for the first time. Great plot, great writing and not quite as noir as Disher 's Hirsch series or Jane Harper, authors i love,  Will definitively read more of Hammer's  crime novels. 

Nell Buchanan, a female detective and her male counterpart Ivan Lucic, are the chief protagonist in the murder investigation of Athol Hasluck's death, a member of one of the seven dynasty families in the town of Yuwonderie. He was found stabbed & tortured in the river. What soon becomes apparent is a web of old secrets carrying into the present with the unresolved death of a young promising heir, Davis, of one of the great estates in the 1990ties .  Told thru the voices of the detectives, an Aborigine maid , Bessie, in 1910,  and in 1993 by Davis, whose investigation into the families history becomes a threat to his life, this makes for a complex plot that keeps you fully engaged throughout the unfolding of the mystery. Love it ! 

 Ron Rinder: The Suspect, Century, 9781529196412, hardback, pub date 20. Ajune 2024, ebook available 

I enjoyed the  first book featuring Adam Green, " The trial",  a young barrister trying to find his place amongst his peers in a highly political ambitious British court system.  

"The Suspect" is as much a continuation of Adam Green's career, trying out the ropes,  as it is to uncover who set a fatal allegic reaction of a prominent female breakfast TV presenter in motion. Was it really Sebastian Brooks, the TV celebrity chef who is the one accused of murdering her? A fun read, i learned a lot about how the British court system works and enjoyed the plot.

 Uwe Wittstock: Marseille 1940, C.H. Beck Verlag, hardback,  9783406814907, deutsche Sprache 

Eines der besten Sachbücher, die ich in jüngster Vergangenheit gelesen habe ist Wittstock's " Marseille 1940". Ich habe die 450 Seiten im Urlaub förmlich verschlungen.  Ein Buch, dass eindringlich das Schicksal vieler deutschstämmiger, jüdischer Schriftsteller, Künstler, Kommunisten oder Sozialisten schildert, die in den 1930 iger Jahren nach Hitler's Machtergreifung nach Frankreich flohen und sich nach dem Einmarsch der Deutschen in Frankreich in einer schier auswegslosen Situation befanden. 

Die Rettung für viele war der mir völlig unbekannte Amerikaner Varian Fry, der mit Unterstützung reicher Amerikaner ein Komittee ins Leben ruft, dass vor Ort unter hochriskantem, selbstlosem Einsatz zahlreicher Literatur- Prominenz wie Lion Feuchtwanger, Hannah Arendt, Heinrich Mann, Anna Seghers die Flucht in die Sicherheit ermöglichte. Dramaturgie und tiefe Verzweiflung wechseln in dieser Dokumentation ständig ab, aber der unfassbare Mut, die Menschlichkeit und Kraft aller Beteiligter ist ein Beispiel, was in einer fast unmöglichen Situation doch erreicht werden kann. Fry und seine Helfer kämpfen in Marseille nicht nur gegen die Nazis, sondern auch gegen die Widerstände in Amerika und Frankreich und ernten wenig Dank.

Ein Buch, das perfekt in unsere derzeitige instabile weltpolitische Situation passt. Ich hoffe, uns allen bleiben ähnliche Schicksale erspart.. 5 Sterne von mir!! LESEN.