Louise Penny: The Grey Wolf, 9781399730525, hardback, pub date Oct 31, 2024, Hodder & Stoughton

For fans of the formidable Louise Penny the waiting is soon over, another Amande Gamache novel "The Grey Wolf" is out Oct. 31st! 

Thanks to an early netgalley, I could escape into the world of Three Pines which this time is not at the center of the plot.

 Amande Gamache and his team are on the chase of a threat that could effect the lives of millions sending them all over the place trying to stop the inevitable.  I will not say more, but the plot is so embroiled with a string of possibilities and developements which  had me retracing characters and connections several times to pick up the thread again.   

It is perhaps not my favorite Penny mystery but a great escape into the world of crime with Amande Gamache  The cover of  " The Grey Wolf" by the way is really strong.

 Tana French: The Hunter, Penguin UK, 9780241684306, C format paperback

Tana French returns with " The Hunter" to the village of Ardnakelty/ Ireland,  where Cal Hooper, a retired Chicago cop, has settled and semi adopted Trey who was running wild in a very troubled disfunctional family. When her crook of a father returns with another friend and a money making scheme, the whole village is thrown into chaos with Trey heading for serious trouble.

What I love about French is her skill to describe so vividly every character in the novel, that I had a complete picture of everyone in my  head and they are still there!  Add to that a complex, slowly building plot where the crime is a minor factor making place for colorful protagonists  and you are set up for a great read. 5 stars! 

 Gabriel Garcia Marquez: Until August, 9780241686355, Viking, Penguin Random House, small hardback 

Gabriel Garcia Marquez next to John Steinbeck is probably my favourite writer. When I heard the news that Marquez's  sons and editor had decided to publish the last novella he had been working on before losing the battle to dementia, despite his wish to have it destroyed, I was very eager to form my own opinion.

"Until August" is tale of Ana Magdalena Bach who takes a ferry every year in August to an island where her mother is buried to commemorate her death. One year she takes a lover during that visit spending a passionate night,  a habit she continues annually despite being in a happy marriage. Typical Marquez material, one can feel the former brilliance of a master storyteller but it lacks the shine of his old magic, at least in my view. Still a Marquez despite its weekness and I am grateful his sons and editor added their story why they decided to forgo his wish... 

  "Love in the time of Cholera" remains my all time favorite,  with all its magic.

 Trisha Sakhlecha: The inheritance, Penguin Random House UK, Century, 9781529928723, ebook, coming February 2025

Thanks to an early netgalley of "Trisha Sakhlecha's : The Inheritance", my end of summer reading was a gripping mystery, a perfect escapist novel. 

A very wealthy Indian patriach with three children, Myra, Aseem and Aisha, decides to announce how his estate will be split up  amongst them. The Agarwals retreat to the Scottish island Myra is turning into a luxury retreat for a family reunion. As soon as they arrive, family dynamics set in and their mother's manipulative love and expectations do nothing to cover up the reason why everyone came and is so eager to receive their share of the fortune. This includes Zoe, Assam's wife whose voice and that of Myra narrate the mounting toxic developments, climaxing in a death with one of family members losing his/her life. A tight plot, several twists, well drawn out characters against an Indian/English background. 

 Elizabeth Strout: Tell me everything, Viking, 9780241634356, hardback

I loved the latest by Elizabeth Strout "Tell me everything" which I cannot say for all of her books that I have read, her best book in my opinion. 

It left me upbeat,  made me curious what was the next stories that Lucy Barton and Olive Kitteridge tell each other, about seemingly ordinary things but revealing so much about the inner lives of people they know. 

And then there are the walks between Lucy Barton and Bob Burgess which are more intimate in conversation then their relationships with their current partners, potential trouble looming ... Bob Burgess is by far my favorite character.. a book about friendship, old and new loves, trust, the complexity of relationships  and my favourite quote in the book: Love comes in so many different forms but it is always love! 

 Attica Locke : Guide me home, Viper / Little Brown, 9781788163972 c format paperback, 26. Sept 2024, i read the ebook 

"Guide me home" caught my attention by being awarded the CWA Ian Fleming Steel Daggar Award. 

Set in East Texas, the 3rd book centered around Texas Ranger Darren Mathews who has justed handed in his badge,  is not exactly a crime novel, although at the center is the search for a missing young black sorority student Sera Fuller.  For me this is a fine, engaging novel about a man at a crossroad with very conflicting personal relationships, be it with his current girlfriend, his divorced wife or his mother who drifted in and out of his life but is now making a reappearance or his former superior or colleagues. It is also a great portrait of America's less fortunate, far from the dreamland politicians would like everyone to believe . 

Really was surprised by the captivating story and the exellent writing.

 Tracy Chevalier: The Glassmaker, Harper Collins,  9780008153878, c format paperback, available

" The Glassmaker " by Tracy Chevalier begins in Renaissance Venice, Murano to be precise,  and is a wonderful historical novel of the Rosso family, traditional glassmakers, with  strong female characters  and the charismatic Orsola Rosso at its center,  which I really got into and enjoyed ...until I did not anymore.  

Chevalier chose to tell a story spanning over 500 years,  where she played with time progressing as we know it from history,  but her characters are only aging marginally. Meaning Orsola only ages 8 years wheras in reality 100 yrs have passed. 

 I liked this in the beginning, i loved the characters, the storytelling about glassmaking and its difficulties as a family business through history  but towards the end I felt this was not working anymore, the ending constructed and wobbily in my opinion. Sorry, i loved a lot about this novel but the concept did not work for me.