Remarkably bright creatures, by Shelby Van Pelt

 

I really loved this first novel by author Shelby Van Pelt. It's about a woman named Tova Sullivan who has endured significant loss over the years and who has taken a job as an evening cleaner at the local aquarium. Tova lost her son when he was just 19 in mysterious circumstances at sea. She lost her husband a few years ago, and her brother has also recently died. Tova's job at the aquarium brings her into contact with a highly intelligent Pacific octopus who has a penchant for escaping his tank for short jaunts around the aquarium to look for snacks. The octopus, named Marcellus, also holds the secret to what happened to her son years ago, and he sets in motion a series of events that lead to Tova learning about her son and much more. There are a lot of great characters in the book, including a local shop owner who has a crush on Tova, a young man who's searching for his father, and the members of Tova's knitting group. The interplay between all of the characters and especially between Tova and Marcellus is funny and touching. The writing is wonderful, and I couldn't put this book down. I'm looking forward to the author's next book!

Mayra, by Nicky Gonzalez

I did not love this horror novel about a young woman, Ingrid, who goes off to the Everglades for a weekend visit with Mayra, a friend she hasn't seen in a long time. They're staying in a home with Mayra's boyfriend, Benji, who is obsessed with caring for the house. The house itself is strange and seems to grow and develop organically, reflecting its occupants' lives. As days pass, it's clear that the house is causing Ingrid to lose track of time and her life outside. When Ingrid finds a diary of a former occupant, she begins to realize what's happening and plans an escape. In the end, she gets out, but Mayra decides to stay behind in the house with Benji. While the premise is interesting, the book didn't coalesce well for me. In flashbacks, Ingrid delves into her and Mayra's past relationship, but none if it seemed to shed light on what's happening in the present. Similarly, the diary did lead to Ingrid's figuring out what was going on, but it seemed like an unnecessary digression from the plot. I also didn't like the author's overemphasis on gross descriptions of sweat and dirt. At one point Benji wipes his finger along a dusty windowpane and then eats the dust ball. I didn't get the point of that at all, given that he's not in any other way depicted as a monster or demented (other than being bewitched by the house). 
 

Among friends, by Hal Ebbott

 

I did not care for this book at all. Two families have been friends since childhood, but the adults all seem to resent and even dislike each other. When one molests the daughter of his best friend, her resulting downward spiral leads to her telling her parents what happened, but they're torn about what to do because they don't want to break up the friendship. WHAT? I found this book incredibly offensive, made even worse by the fact that the adult characters don't even seem to like each other. It makes the conclusion unfathomable and actually unbelievable.

Master slave husband wife, by Ilyon Woo

 

I really enjoyed this true story about a husband and wife, both enslaved, who escape the south by disguising themselves as a master and slave, with the wife posing as a young man and her husband posing as her slave. They had saved enough money from their skilled labor that they were able to purchase train and boat tickets that took them first to Philadelphia, and then to the Boston area. They joined up with abolitionists and went on a speaking circuit to raise money for themselves and abolitionist causes before trying to settle down. However, the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 made their safety uncertain, so they fled to England where they lived until 1968. Author Ilyon Woo provides a deeply researched look at their lives as well as the historical background, but the book reads as smoothly as a novel.

By the second spring: seven lives and one year of the war in Ukraine, by Danielle Leavitt

 

This is an amazing work of contemporary history. In it, author Danielle Leavitt profiles seven Ukrainians during the first 18 months of the Ukraine war. They were ordinary citizens, men and women, old and young, married and single, well-to-do and those of moderate means. They came from all over the country and also include one woman who had emigrated to the US with her American husband but who dropped everything to go back and provide relief efforts when the war began. The author structures her books around the seasons: winter, spring, summer, fall/winter, and spring, hence the title. In each section she provides an update on each of those profiled. One man had just fulfilled his dream by opening a coffee shop a few weeks before the war started, only to see it demolished. A woman flees eastern Ukraine with her parents when her husband decides to volunteer for the Ukrainian army. Others try to stay in place while the war rages around them. Throughout the book, Leavitt provides background information that helps set the context for contemporary Russian aggression, outlining much of 20th century Soviet history through the breakup of the Soviet Union and Russia's subsequent attempts to control and dominate its former fellow republics. This book only covers the period through spring of 2023 and its heartbreaking to think about and not know what has happened to the people profiled in the three years since then. I hope at some point there will be an effort to track them down and provide an update.

Slow horses, by Mick Herron

 

I've been reading about what a great TV series this is, but since I don't currently subscribe to Apple TV, I decided to read the books, a very good decision! I loved this book which starts at a moderate pace but which quickly had me riveted. There are a lot of characters who need to be introduced in the beginning, and they were hard to keep track of at first, but once past that initial 50 or so pages, the book really picks up and moves at a quick pace. I like the way secrets are revealed along the way, each time providing a little twist or turn that changes how you think about the characters and what's actually going on. The premise is that all of the MI5 agents relegated to Slough House have made some mistake that resulted in them being shoved aside to perform menial tasks in the hope that they'll quit rather than be fired. When they're asked to take on a few minor errands that end badly, the head of Slough House, Jackson Lamb (played by Gary Oldman in the TV series) realizes that something much bigger is going on, and he is forced to put all of his agents in the field to save someone from a gruesome death and set things right. Highly recommended!

Caveat emptor, by Ruth Downie

 

I continue to be impressed with the excellent writing in this series. Caveat emptor is the 4th in the Medicus series which follows a 2nd century doctor in Roman Britain. In this entry, Ruso is back in England with his now-wife, Tilla, and looking for a job as a doctor. His friend Valens had promised to help him find a position, but instead he found him a temporary job as an investigator for the tax office. A tax collector in a nearby town has gone missing along with the month's tax receipts, and his wife Camma is strongly denying that he is responsible for the theft. Ruso and Tilla go with Camma and her infant back to their town to investigate, and are later helped by the arrival of Albanus and Valens. They follow the money trail, which leads to a potential forgery ring, but find the town leaders, all British, to be eager to cover up what has happened. I really enjoy the period detail provided in these books, including everything from the food to clothing and decor, and I find them to be very well written.

Murder in the forum, by Rosemary Rowe

In this 4th volume in the Libertus Roman series, author Rosemary Rowe has presented us with the sudden death of Perennis Felix, a high-ranking Roman visiting Libertus' city of Glevum. Upon arriving, Felix had executed a slave in a gruesome manner, then arranged to have a banquet held in his own honor. During the banquet he chokes on a nut, but then dies from what turns out to be poison. There are many with potential motives, including his daughter and her lover, whom he will not allow to marry and who both suspect the other. As Libertus and his assistant Junio investigate the murder, they follow one lead after another before uncovering the truth, along with a much larger conspiracy than expected.
 

Death in the clouds, by Agatha Christie

 

This is the 10th Hercule Poirot mystery that I've read and features Poirot solving a crime that took place in an airplane cabin while flying from France to England. A woman has been murdered with a poisoned dart. Even though multiple devices could have been used to blow the dart, including a blowpipe, a flute, and cigarette holders, no one saw any such thing happening. There are also many potential suspects on board since the woman who was murdered was a money lender and several of those on board were her customers. Once on the ground, Poirot attaches himself to the investigation and ultimately solves the crime. As usual, it was very entertaining. One thing I found interesting was a mention of the Great Depression in America, but no mention of any political unrest or aggressions in Europe, even though the book was published in 1935.

Dispatches from the couch: a neuroscientist and her therapist conspire to reboot her brain, by Stacey Hettes

 

Dispatches from the couch is about the author’s three-year odyssey in therapy to address her issues resulting from sexual abuse when she was aged 4-9. Although she’s been in therapy many times before, she finds herself needing additional work after being triggered at a work meeting where a colleague is disparaging women coming forward during the #MeToo movement, and she outs herself as also being the victim of abuse. That sends her into a tailspin that is only resolved after years of therapy, which she recounts for us in this narrative. This is a highly readable and engaging book that shows how difficult it is for some survivors of abuse to not blame themselves for their victimhood, even though they were children when the crimes took place. I was happy to see the author come through the therapy with a better sense of herself and understanding that she wasn't to blame. I would have liked to find out what happened to her abuser, a family friend and religious leader who may have abused as many as 50 others, including his own daughter. 

We were liars, by E. Lockhart

 

I didn't care much for this book the second time around (I read it before back in 2014). The main character, Cady, is a member of a wealthy family that summers every year on a private island near Martha's Vineyard. Two summers ago she suffered from an accident that left her with amnesia and crippling migraines. When she finally returns to the island at the age of 17, she is still being protected by her relatives who don't want to talk about what happened, hoping that her memories will return by themselves. In the meantime she spends most of her time either with her cousins and their friend Gat (who Cady is in love with) or lying in bed with a migraine. Mysteries abound, such as why her grandfather completely rebuilt his home without keeping anything from the past, why one of her aunts roams the island at night, and why did none of her cousins or Gat respond to her emails and texts of the past two years? The twist at the end is completely unexpected and a little too sudden. The high level of melodrama is perhaps typical of YA fiction, but something that I'm not fond of. Cady repeatedly reports on her emotional reactions to dramatic events by describing herself being shot and bleeding out, or something similar. For example, when her father leaves Cady's mom to be with another woman: "Then he pulled out a handgun and shot me in the chest...Blood gushed rhythmically from my open wound, then from my eyes, my ears, my mouth...Mummy snapped. She said to get hold of myself." That device got really old after a while. In the end, this wasn't a very satisfying book.

Murder in the dollhouse: the Jennifer Dulos story, by Rich Cohen

Murder in the dollhouse is a true crime non-fiction book about the disappearance of a wealthy socialite from Connecticut. Jennifer Dulos grew up worshipping her own father and dreaming that she would meet the right man and have a marriage as happy as her parents had. She dallied through her twenties, then in her mid-thirties she married Fotis Dulos, a Greek-American whom she had known slightly when she was a Brown University. He was a handsome and athletic man, but Jennifer married him only one month after his divorce to his first wife was finalized, and less than a year after she met him. Jennifer’s father financed Fotis’s career in real estate, and he had a running debt to Jennifer’s parents which caused marital tension. Fotis was obsessively interested in their five kids’ waterskiing (the sport that Fotis excelled in) and forced them to spend days at the lake skiing. Eventually Fotis began an affair with another woman, and Jennifer filed for divorce. During the contentious divorce proceedings, which lasted two years, the couple fought incessantly, with the kids as pawns in the middle. In 2019, Jennifer disappeared after dropping her kids at school, and Fotis quickly became the main suspect. Significant audiovisual evidence was collected and analyzed, along with physical evidence from Jennifer’s home that left little doubt as to his guilt. His new girlfriend was also clearly complicit. Fotis was charged with murder; he was able to secure bail but when it was on the verge of being revoked, he committed suicide. In the end, his girlfriend was sentenced to 14 years in jail for her role, one of his lawyers also served time for his role in covering up the crime, their kids are in the custody of their grandmother, and Jennifer’s body has never been found. I think this was a well-written account of what transpired and it serves as a cautionary tale on many levels
 

A pattern of blood, by Rosemary Rowe

 

This is the second in a series of mysteries set in 2nd century Britain. Libertus is a formerly enslaved man who works as a mosaic artist. His patron, Marcus, asks him to travel to Corinium with him to investigate the stabbing of one of his friends. While the original attack was unsuccessful, before Libertus and Marcus have a chance to speak to the victim, he's attacked again, this time fatally. Marcus and Libertus stay on and investigate the murder, uncovering several people with both motive and opportunity. While the plot of the first book was overly complex and difficult to follow, this book is much better written with the twists and turns more easily understood. I really enjoyed this book and will go on to read more. 

The Black Loch, by Peter May

Peter May's The Lewis Trilogy included three novels set on the Isle of Lewis, the northernmost island in the Outer Hebrides, islands off the west coast of Scotland. The trilogy was completed in 2013 but has now been followed by this fourth book, The Black Loch. In this book, a young woman, Caitlin, is found dead and it turns out that she has been having an affair with Fin's son Fionnlagh, who is now married with a 12-year-old daughter at home. Caitlin's body is found near where she and Fionnlagh used to meet in secret, and he's arrested for her murder. Fin and his wife Marsaili return to the island to do what they can to find out who really murdered Caitlin. As in the earlier books, Fin discovers many secrets and intrigues taking place on the island. The narrative alternates between present day, written in the 3rd person, and Fin's memories of the past, written in the 1st person, which shed light on the modern day characters and motivations. The story spotlights the Scottish salmon farming industry (not in a good way), and (spoiler alert) there is a story line that features a large pod of beached whales that all eventually die. I think this plot line was used to introduce a new character who plays an important role in the climax, but I could have done without the whales dying. Nevertheless, the writing is very good in this book; nothing has been lost from his earlier efforts. The pace is compelling, with the tension staying high throughout the book. Loved it! And I wonder if there will now be more to come?
 

Three act tragedy, by Agatha Christie

This is a Hercule Poirot mystery that is framed in three acts: Suspicion, Certainty, and Discovery. Poirot doesn't start out as the lead character. The death in the first act is not deemed a murder, and Poirot agrees with that opinion. It's not until another nearly identical death occurs that Poirot's suspicions are raised and he begins to assist three other characters who are unofficially investigating the murders. They are a retired actor, Charles Cartwright, a young woman, Miss Lytton Gore (nicknamed Egg), and their friend, Mr. Satterthwaite. Egg was present at both deaths along with a group of acquaintances and neighbors, and all of them become potential suspects. They divvy up the investigation, interviewing the others present at both murders, and consult with Poirot, who eventually identifies the killer. I liked the way this mystery was framed in three acts, with Charles Cartwright's performing a variety of characters providing a funny touch.