Burying Water ~K.A. Tucker

Tucker, K.A.  2014.  Burying Water. New York: Atria Books.
ISBN:  978-1476774183.  $15.00 USD.

I picked this book out and put in on a Christmas list on Amazon last year and promptly forgot about it once I opened it.  I’m glad it jumped off my bookshelf into my hands last week!  K.A. Tucker is a prolific writer of New Adult books, and came onto the scene with the 2013 publication of Ten Tiny Breaths, which I have not read.  The description of Burying Water reminded me of another New Adult novel I really enjoyed, The Sea of Tranquility by Katja Millay, which was a 2015 Lariat winner (5 stars on Amazon, with over 1,150 reviews)!

In Burying Water, the traditional plot of an amnesiac awakening in a hospital is enhanced by the alternating chapters which go back in time and quickly impart the identity of main character.  You would think that revealing this information so early in the novel would take away from the story; but it actually propels the narrative and entices the reader to keep turning pages to find out the whole story, which isn’t revealed until the very end.

Jesse is a twenty-something mechanic in Portland, Oregon who agrees to repair a classic car for a Russian businessman, whom he soon suspects is a mobster.  He meets Alex, the very young wife of the Russian, and her obvious abuse by her husband brings out Jesse’s protective instincts.  In the future time-line, Alex awakens in a hospital with extremely severe injuries and has no idea who she is.  She eventually takes the name “Water” instead of the Jane Doe everyone calls her in the hospital, and goes to live with a cantankerous friend of her doctor in a small Oregon town.  Over time, she notices an attractive neighbor working on his muscle car who seems to be more than a little interested in her.

 As Jesse and Alex/Water’s stories alternate, the reader is drawn into not only their lives, but the lives of the surrounding characters. The author adeptly pulls all the plot threads together to a satisfying conclusion, making the amnesia theme fresh and unique.  This book is the beginning of a series, with three additional titles exploring the lives of other characters introduced in Burying Water.  Recommended for fans of New Adult novels, which deal with more mature themes than Young Adult books, and typically are more explicit.

The Crooked House ~ Christobel Kent

Kent, Christobel. 2016. The Crooked House. New York: Simon & Schuster.
ISBN 978-0374131821. $26.00 USD. 

I was intrigued by the premise of this new novel by Christobel Kent, a prolific London born novelist who now lives in Cambridge.   The main character, Alison, is a London accountant with an academic boyfriend who has been hiding her past from everyone.  As a teenager, when she was known as Esme, her entire family was murdered and only she survived, along with her father, whom everyone assumes committed the atrocity.  She moved away from the village of Saltleigh, assumed a new name and tried to put her past behind her.  When her boyfriend is invited to a wedding in her hometown, Alison agrees to accompany him, despite severe misgivings.  The novel moves back and forth between the current events and Esme’s memories of what happened to her family.  Once she is back in Saltleigh, people, places and events conspire to gradually reveal more and more about the night of her family’s murder, and she comes to believe that her father is not the true mass murderer.  Plenty of twists and turns, and an unsettling feeling throughout, made this book an enjoyable read.  I did figure out “who done it” before the end, and the outcome left a bittersweet feel, as Alison’s life has been filled with so much tragedy.  Worth the read, but I was not a fan of the ending!

Career of Evil ~ Robert Galbraith

Galbraith, Robert. 2015. Career of Evil. Boston: Mulholland Book Books.

I didn’t get very far in my first attempt to read the third title in this series by Robert Galbraith, the pseudonym for J.K. Rowling.  I loved the first book, Cuckoo’s Calling, and the curmudgeonly private detective, Cormoran Strike, along with his savvy and determined assistant, Robin.  The second title, Silworm, was a lot darker, with a ritualistic killing that was hard to stomach.  I wanted to give the third title a chance, but the evil thoughts of the serial killer in the first few chapters were too dark and disturbing, so I decided to give it a pass.  Subsequent to a discussion with a colleague who informed me that the book got better, I decided to try again, once the library holds on the book diminished. 

I did end up enjoying the mystery, the interactions between Cormoran and Robin, and the various characters they encounter in their investigation of an unusual mystery: Robin receives a severed leg delivered by motorcycle courier at their office.  Cormoran believes that the leg was sent by one of four enemies he has made, his step-father or one of three criminals he investigated when he was in the army. The novel alternates chapters conveying the thoughts and actions of the unknown killer, Cormoran and Robin.  I, obviously, preferred the latter chapters to the former and had to skim some of the darker chapters.  Maybe it’s my age, but I find I have less patience reading descriptions of evil and cruelty, and I feel that many authors feel they need to keep raising the “shock” value of their novels as we become increasingly desensitized to dark crimes.

I will continue to give Ms. Rowling a chance with this series, and, as she left a bit of a cliff-hanger in Career of Evil, I will be eagerly looking forward to learning more about the main characters in the next book.

 

A Darker Shade of Magic ~ V.E. Schwab (audiobook narrated by Steve Crossley)

Schwab, V.E. A Darker Shade of Magic. Narrated by Steve Crossley. Tantor Audio. 2015. CD.

I chose to listen to this book on CD, rather than read it in print, due to the number of holds placed on it in my library, and I am so glad that I did.  Audiobook narrators can be very good or very bad, just like books in print.  Steve Crossley has an impressive background in theatre and narration, having recorded over 200 audiobooks (according to his website).  The author, V.E. Schwab, set this tale in London, or one of many Londons, so Crossely’s British accent fits the setting nicely.  He has an impressive range of British accents, from the Queen’s English, to Cockney, and is able to clearly narrate the story so that the listener always knows who is speaking.

Kell is a rare Antari, a magical being able to travel between three different Londons: Red, White and Gray.  There was, at one time, a Black London, but magic there became so powerful that the door to that London was closed permanently.  Now there exists only three Londons, and Kell travels between them delivering correspondence among the royal families of Red and White London.  Gray London has very little magic left and most citizens know nothing of the other Londons.  It is in Gray London that Kell meets Delilah, a scrappy pickpocket who steals a piece of black stone from him and sets off this magical swashbuckling tale.  I do think I enjoyed this book more, having listened to it, than I would have by reading it alone, which is high praise for an audiobook, indeed!

Eligible ~ Curtis Sittenfeld

Sittenfeld, Curtis. 2016. Eligible. New York: Random House Publishing Group.
$28.00 USD.  ISBN 978-1400068326.

Kudos to Ms. Sittenfeld for delivering an excellent modern adaptation of the classic Pride and Prejudice, which I am sure was a daunting task!  Part of “The Austen Project” which pairs six bestselling contemporary authors with Jane Austen’s six complete works, Eligible is the most recent title published after Sense and Sensibility by Joanna Trollop, Northanger Abbey by Val McDermid,  and Emma by Alexander McCall Smith.

There have been a number of other prequels, sequels, movies and adaptations to, arguably, Ms. Austen’s most famous novel.  I am very impressed with how Ms. Sittenfeld was able to capture the character traits of each of the major players and keep some of the dialogue and diction consistent with the original, as well – especially the hilarious comments made by Mr. Bennett!  In this adaptation Elizabeth is a magazine editor who has been in a long-term relationship with the married Jasper Wick.  She and Jane, who is a yoga instructor,  both live in New York  and agree to travel to the Bennett family home, set in modern day Cincinnati, Ohio, to care for their father who recently had heart surgery.  Mrs. Bennett’s frivolousness, Lydia and Kitty’s uselessness, Mary’s extreme misanthropy, and Jane’s humility and goodness all shine through, like the original characters.  Darcy is just as awkward and egotistical, and is modernized by being a brain surgeon at a local hospital.  The title, Eligible, is derived from a “Bachelor” – like TV show on which Chip Bingley agrees to appear prior to the opening of the story.  There are many other differences, of course, as would be needed in a contemporary adaptation, especially Lizzy and Darcy being able to work out their tension with “hate sex, “ which would not have been appropriate in the time of the original text!

I thoroughly enjoyed this novel and will add it to other adaptations the next time I put up my library display called “For Fans of Jane Austen.”  I applaud Ms. Sittenfeld for thoroughly modernizing this tale, yet keeping the characters and story-line consistent to the original.  A charming and engaging read!

A Bed of Scorpions ~ Judith Flanders

Flanders, Judith. 2016. A Bed of Scorpions. New York: St. Martin's Press/Minotaur.
$24.99 USD.  ISBN 978-1-250-05646-7.

Judith Flanders’ follow-up to A Murder of Magpies takes the reader back into the British publishing world, this time focusing on intrigue in the art world, as well.  The main character, Samantha Claire, cautiously settled in with her detective boyfriend from the previous novel, finds herself in the middle of a suicide investigation that is more than it seems.  She is caught between an old friend who owns an art gallery and her boyfriend, Detective Inspector Jake Field, who is investigating the suspicious death.  The author provides amusing details of the publishing and art worlds as the plot meanders along like stroll through a museum.  The obscure Colophon, which was a new publishing concept to me, is a fascinating plot point, and the suspenseful denouement is satisfying.  The author is an assured writer, but this second entry into the series didn’t quite capture this reader’s attention as much as A Murder of Magpies did.  However, I enjoy the main characters and the setting quite a bit, so will look forward to the next title, if one comes.

The Do-Right ~ Lisa Sandlin

Sandlin, Lisa. 2015. The Do-Right. El Paso: Cinco Puntos Press.
$16.95 USD. USBN 978-1941026199

Lisa Sandlin has hit a home run with her assured debut, The Do-Right, a full-length novel based on her short-story, “Phelan’s First Case.”  Tom Phelan is a brand new PI working in a Texas port city during the Watergate era of the 1970’s who hires a recently released female parolee named Delpha Wade to work as his assistant.  Tom is a Vietnam veteran who a hangs out his shingle as a private detective after losing a finger in an oil rig accident, and does a favor for a probation officer friend by hiring Delpha, recently released from a women’s correctional facility after serving fourteen years for killing one of the two men who raped her.  Both Tom and Delpha are narrators of this tale in which a variety of unusual cases (and characters) cross their doorstep, including a betrayed wife (or is she?), a missing prosthetic leg, an inheritance mystery, and an ultimately satisfying resolution to the violent assault suffered by the teen-aged Delpha.  Sandlin adeptly weaves the history of her protagonists’ lives throughout the story and shows how those histories affect their cases. The author, a Beaumont, Texas native, has an ear for southern dialogue, especially in the uneducated Delpha; but Delpha’s lack of education is not indicative of her intelligence or her street smarts, the latter honed by her years in prison.  Here’s hoping we’ll see more of Tom, Delpha and new cases for Phelan Investigations! (Warning: some fairly graphic intimacy is described in parts of the novel).