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. 

 Janice Hallett: The Appeal, Serpent Tail/Viper, 9781788165297

I always check the books listed for the CWA Dagger Awards and came across Janice Hallet's " The Appeal" which won the CWA New Blood Dagger Award 2022 , sounded really interesting

This is certainly a totally unique crime novel in the sense that it is written entirely as a sequence of emails and WhatsApp messages going back and force when law students Charlotte and Femi are assigned to this case by a law firm. In order to uncover what went wrong in the little town of Lower Lockwood and their alpha family the Haywards during a fund raising appeal for their sick grandchild leading eventually to murder,  they have to read previous emails of all the 15 people involved in this plot to get to the bottom of the murderer. 

I really struggled with this concept,  took me quite a while to warm to the concept but it never took. Another problem was that I really did not like any of the characters in the plot and the book has 432 pages! I finished anyway, the second half of the book saw me more engaged but this is definitely not my favourite mystery of the year. Apparently others see this differently which is part of the fun of reading, different strokes for different folks. 

 Joseph O'Connor:  My fathers House, 9871787300828, Penguin Random House, Harvill Secker, pub date: Jan 26, 2023

" Joseph O'Connor's : My fathers house " is one of these rare books that is literary, thriller and historical novel all in one,  based on a real life figure, Father Hugh ' O Flaherty, who was a priest in Vatican city with an Irish background. Set during the Nazi occupation of Rome in 1943, ( of which I had scant knowledge)  O' Flaherty set up a tight network of people from British diplomat,  Italian contessa, street vendor, nurses or ordinary people who helped Jews or escapees from prison camps to flee Italy via hiding them in Catholic institutions before an escape route could be found. Their hair raising dangerous missions of leading these groups to freedom while risking their own lives left me breathless at times. What human beings were capable of can be discovered between these 300 pages of this novel, be it the brutal reckless rule of SS Officer Hauptmann or the men and many women around O' Flaherty. Taking fictional liberties but based on true facts, this is a fantastic read, great writing and uplifting in the end.

 Ajay Chowdhury: The Detective, Harwill & Secker, 9781787303171 trade paperback , April 2023

Ever since reading the debut "The waiter" of the wonderfully entertaining Kamil Rahman detective series, I have become a fan of Ajay Chowdhury's writing. It has been such fun to read these three detective novels, featuring the demoted former Kalkotta detective Kamil in his new life as a cook and waiter in his friend Anjoli's Indian Restaurant in Brick Lane, London. Like a cat who cannot stop chasing mice, Kamil stumbles from one murder to another and resolves it in his unique way with Anjoli's unorthodox help. 

In " The Detective"  he has finally made it to detective with the British Met police and the plot is the best yet. One of the co-founders of a start up dealing with Artifical intelligence has been found murdered and Kamil is very  eager to show his worth to his superiors. Loved it, excellent mystery, cleverly constructed, gobbled it down.

 Mariana Leky: Was man von hier aus sehen kann, Dumont  Paperback, 9783832164577

ENGLISH: What you can see from here, Bloomsbury

Schon lange kein Buch mehr in Deutsch gelesen, dass so hinreissend komisch, spinnert, rührend und einfach zauberhaft war wie " Was man von hier sehen kann". Habe die Geschichte um Selma, ihre Enkelin Luise und ihre schrulligen  Mitbewohner in einem Kaff im Westerwald mit immer grösser werdender Begeisterung gelesen, weil es mich so an meine Kindheit in einem kleinen Dorf im Rheinland erinnerte und sich gleichzeitig fast wie ein Märchen las  . Wenn Selma von einem Okapi träumt, stirbt jemand im Dorf....Der grosse Erfolg dieses Buches in Deutschland wundert mich nicht mehr, wunderbar erzählt und geschrieben. 

Its been a while since i have read such an enchanting, potty, moving and simply magical novel as "What you can see from here" . I read the story of Selma, her granddaughter Luise and her eccentric fellow neighbours in a tiny village in the Westerwald with growing enthusiasm particulary since i was so reminded of my childhood in the Rheinland growing up in a little village. When Selma dreams of an Okapi, someone in the village dies.....The huge success in Germany of this book is no longer surprising to me, i hope Bloomsbury have the same publishing success. Simply wonderfully written.

 Maggie O'Farrell: The Marriage Portrait, Tinder Press, 9781472223852, large format paperback

(German edition: Portrait einer Ehe, Piper Verlag, 

A book that stays in your head after you have long finished reading is my criteria for an ace read. " The Marriage Portrait" by Maggie O'Farrell defintely falls into this category. 

I was completely drawn in by the fate of  Lucrezia de Medici who became the Duchess of Ferrera at the tender age of 15 and O' Farrells extraordinary writing.  Based on historical facts taking some fictional liberties, the story starts with Lucrezia being convinced that her husband Alfonso is taking her to an unexpected visit to their country fortress in order to murder her.

This delicate, sensitive and artistic young woman who was married off to Alfonso, Duke of Feŕrara by her father Cosimo de Medici against her will and expected to produce a male heir,  was completely ill suited to the brutal and restrictive court life of a noble woman in Renaissance Italy.  Some of the happenings made me gasp. It is a fascinating story and O' Farrell narration is so fine and nuanced.

Loved ever page of it and still cannot get some the characters, particularly Lucrezia and Alfonso, out of my head.