Louise Erdrich: The Sentence, Little Brown Uk, 9781472157010, Paperback

 ( German: Jahr der Wunder, Aufbau Verlag, Mai 2023)

Ever since "Love Medicine" I have been a fan of Louise Erdrich,  love all of her writing however different in subject. So I am probably biased, just finished her latest "The Sentence" and am a little sad to leave the crazy community around Tookie, the narrator, behind. Tookie, a Native American,  lives in Minneapolis with her patchwork family and works in a haunted bookshop with her friends where the ghost of deceased Flora, one of  their best but most annoying costumers makes a daily appearance causing havoc.

Erdrich somehow manages to keep a witty, funny tone throughout the novel despite covering the seriousness of the pandemic, the race riots and Tookies troubled past. In real life Erdrich has her own bookshop in Minneapolis and I loved how that part of her life flows into this novel, including book recommendations. A real treat to read this wonderfully weird story with some characters that are still stuck in my head. Loved it!

 George Dawes Green: The Kingdom of Savannah, Headline, 9781035401871, paperback

The recommendation for " The Kingdom of Savannah" came through a friend who knew how much I had liked " "Midnight in the garden of good and evil" by John Berendt, both novels set in the Southern gothic atmosphere of that city. 

"Kingdom of Savannah" I did not fall in love with but the quirkiness of the characters, chiefly all family members of the Musgrove family, Savannah royalty for decades but a little on the crazy, shady side, plus the corruptness of city officials and gangsters made for a great  mystery with  sometimes bizarre developments. Total escape reading if you like a crazy southern gothic mystery, I could virtually feel the swampy atmosphere.  

 Cara Hunter: Murder in the family, Harper Collins, July 9th, paperback 9780008530037

I have been a fan of Cara Hunter's Adam Fawley crime series for some time. So naturally I was curious about her upcoming stand alone novel "Murder in the family" which I just finished,  thanks to the early netgalley by Harper Collins.

"Murder in the family" drew me in straight away and almost reads like true crime. A team of experts has been chosen to reinvestigate a cold murder case for a TV series, that of 26 yrs old Luke Ryder who was found dead in 2003 by his step daughters.  He had been brutally beaten up,  his murder had never been solved.  The case drew attention since he had been married to a socialite 10 years older than him.  

What makes this mystery so fun is how the experts, (journalist, two former crime cops, psychologist, lawyer etc ) go about picking the case apart and needless to say it takes numerous twists and turns until the killer is finally identfied. I had several "hold on, who was that again" moments but other than that really liked this crime novel. Perfect beach read...

 

 

 9780349727202 Rebecca Makkai: I have some questions for you, Little Brown UK, Hardback

Right off the bat, Rebecca Makkai's  novel " The Great Believers" is an absolutely fabulous piece of literature, I loved it. Her latest " I have some questions for you" however did not have the same effect on me,  really struggled with it until the middle of the novel when the crime element gained dominance.  Did I expect too much from this novel? Maybe.  Mixing a campus with a crime novel has been done before, see Donna Tartt' s Secret History, but I felt Makkai's story and its character building too long drawn out with the added #Metoo movement mixed into it.

Bodie Kane, a film professor and podcaster, the narrator whose voice switches from the past to the present, has been invited to teach a course at  her old boarding school Granby. During one of her seminars a  female student decides to reinvestigate the murder of Bodie's classmate Thalia Keith, who was found brutally killed at Granby over 20 years ago confronting  Bodie with her miserable time back then becoming convinced that the wrong man was accused of the crime still serving time in prison.  It is when she decides to follow her own suspicions blending her present life with the past that the novel becomes really captivating and alive for me. 

 Jane Harper: Exiles, 9781529098440, Macmillan, hardback, ebook available, paperback September 2023

Jane Harper is an Australian crime writer whose new books I always look forward to.

 "Exiles" features Aaron Falk again, an investigator for the Melbourne financial police, this time on leave  visiting his best friend Raco in the Australian wine county for the christening of his godson. It also happens to be the one year anniversary of the disappearence of their friend Kim who uncharacteristically left her young baby unattended at a festival, never to be seen again.  While Aaron is having a fun time with the tight knit group of friends around Raco, both are drawn again to Kim's unresolved disappearence  involuntarily beginning their own investigation. 

Jane Harper has a subtle way of building her plots but I thought "Exiles" was too long drawn out before the novel starts to gather momentum and is not as strong as her previous Falk books. Still, the plot is solid, had a fine time being transported into the Australian wine country, particulary with Falk enjoying a personal stroke of luck this time.

Elizabeth Strout: Oh William, paperback, 9780812989441, Penguin Random House

( German " Oh William", Luchterhand Verlag)

Elizabeth Strout is a fabulous writer,  I greatly admire her work but i find her books sometimes downright depressing as she gets to the bottom of human struggles,  despair and emotions through her colorful characters. 

But " Oh William" which was shortlisted for the Booker Prize in 2022 , I absolutely loved!  William is Lucy Barton's first husband, the father of her daughters, with whom she is still friends. William has just been left by his second wife and Lucy's beloved second husband has just passed away.

 Their shared loneliness intensifies their memories, thoughts and exchanges. It is an absolutely brilliant book, Lucy's voice so clear as she reflects on her past, upbringing and the failure of her marriage to William. I really felt for her, as she tries to makes sense of what shaped her life and her marriages.  Strout's writing is an absolute treat. 

Five stars from me !

 James Kestrel: Five Decembers, 9781789098679, paperback, Titan Publishing

" Five Decembers" by James Kestrel won the Edgar Award for Best Novel, the reason it caught my attention. A gripping story set in war time Hawaii, Hongkong and Tokyo between 1941 -1945,  it is one of these good old fashioned crime novels reminding me a lot of Chandler or John D. Macdonald,  both writers I loved reading. So naturally I took to "Five Decembers" like a duck to water

 Joe McGrady is a Hawaii homicide detective who is assigned to a brutal killing of two young people, one the nephew of his boss. When the murder trail leads him on a chase through the Pacific islands, he  gets trapped in Hongkong and Tokyo just when Pearl Harbour is bombed. What follows is a fabulous story with many twists and turns which ticks all the right boxes, love, betrayal, imprisonment and revenge. Loved it. Perfect reading over New years.