The murder at the vicarage, by Agatha Christie

This is Agatha Christie's tenth mystery and first one featuring Miss Marple. Colonel Protheroe was shot dead in the vicar's office, but no one mourns him because he was universally disliked. Two people come forward quickly to admit guilt, but Miss Marple and Vicar Clement don't seem satisfied with their stories. While Colonel Melchett and Inspector Slack are officially investigating the case, the vicar (who also narrates the story) conducts his own investigation, and Miss Marple pops up regularly to provide information and steer the men towards clues and scenarios that she believes are relevant. There are a lot of characters here, including villagers, Protheroe's family, an archeologist and his assistant, and the investigators, and the plot includes several subplots and intrigues that interfere with the investigation and lead everyone on false trails. This is a pleasant and engaging page turner of a mystery!

Tehran at twilight, by Salar Abdoh

 

I picked up this book to read a few days before the recent hostilities between Israel, Iran, and the U.S., but it's a stark reminder of the difference between the Iran we see on the news and the day-to-day life of real human beings. In this book, Iranian-American Reza Malek is asked by a friend to return to Tehran to help him with an unnamed task. Once he gets there, he realizes that he's being used in a larger scheme to help the friend disappear so that he can get away from the terrorist group that he's been helping. In return, he gives Reza information that will help him locate Reza's mother who was thought to have emigrated to Australia decades prior. The action in the book takes place over the course of a year and a half. Reza is helping to sell off his friend's family holdings, lost originally in the 1979 revolution but which he still has a claim to, so that he can get his mother a visa to leave Iran and return to the U.S. with him. Author Salar Abdoh packs a lot into this short 236 page novel. In addition to his family drama, Reza also helps his mother and her friend Anna, a Polish Jewish refugee who has been in Iran since the second world war. Apparently, many Jewish refugees fled to Iran first before making their way to the new state of Israel, but some stayed behind. I had read Abdoh's more recent book about 18 months ago, A Nearby Country Called Love, which I really liked a lot. I'm looking forward to reading more by him.

Before the coffee gets cold, by Toshikazu Kawaguchi

 

This is a slight but charming book about a cafe in Japan where customers can travel though time. There are a lot of rules about time travel; you can only do it from one seat in the coffee shop, you can only do it once, you can't actually change history, you have to stay in your seat, and you can only stay as long as it takes to drink one cup of coffee. This book includes four interrelated vignettes that show how four people traveled through time to address regrets they have. I enjoyed the stories, although they would have benefited from some editing; there's a little too much repetition with each story including the set of rules. There are now five books in this series, attesting to its popularity; however, even though I enjoyed it, one was enough for me.

Vietnam: a history, by Stanley Karnow

This is a substantial (750 page) deep dive into the Vietnam War with a heavy focus on the politics surrounding most of the major U.S. decisions about the war along with the various factions within South Vietnam that made the South particularly difficult to partner with. One of its strengths is how the author sets up the story by delving into the history of French colonialism leading to Vietnamese nationalism and later embrace of communism by many. Another strength of the book is the author's inclusion of his personal experiences as a reporter in Vietnam, allowing him to share his front-row perspective with readers. This edition was published in 1983, and some of the commentary reflects the situation in Vietnam in the early 1980s. There is a 2nd edition available from 1997, and I would recommend going with the later edition.
 

The burnt house, by Faye Kellerman

 

After an airplane crashes into an apartment building in Los Angeles, one of the supposed passengers is missing, but in the wreckage of the building a different body is found. It's not certain that the missing passenger was every on the doomed flight. Detective Decker and his team work both crimes, eventually identifying one man who links both the missing woman and the body. This is a page turning detective story that is well written and engaging. My only beef is the huge coincidence of having one person linked to two crimes decades apart.

The St. Zita Society, by Ruth Rendell

 

Like many of Ruth Rendell's books, this one is filled with zany characters who make incredibly poor decisions. The St. Zita Society is an informal gathering of the servants who work in one block of a wealthy London neighborhood. The Society serves as a way to bring many of the characters together and provide a backdrop for the many subplots going on throughout the book. There is a "crime" early on, which was really an accident but becomes a crime when those involved decide to cover it up; this leads to a much more serious and premeditated crime later in the book. I found myself thinking that almost every character in the book is eccentric in some fashion. They all have desires, goals, and motivations that lead them to act in bizarre ways. While the book comes across as wildly improbable, it is nevertheless entertaining.