My rating: 4 of 5 stars

These books keep getting better and better. The only reason I didn’t rate this a “5″ was because I found the American narrator’s “fake” Scottish and Irish accents very annoying. (Audio book narrated by Ellen Archer.) Jackson Brodie gets on the wrong train and ends up in a horrific train crash near Edinburgh. Reggie is a wonderful character, and provides the glue that holds the various plot threads together. Louise Munroe is back, but both she and Jackson have made life choices that would seem to put any chance of romance even farther away. Ms. Atkinson writes wonderful character studies, and tackles dark themes with an undercurrent of humor.

The first three books have now been turned into a three-part television series starring Jason Isaacs as Jackson Brodie. The first episode just aired this past Sunday in the US on Masterpiece Mystery, and will continue on the following two Sundays. It was mostly faithful to the book, although some of the more humorous or extreme elements were removed: Binky Raine’s cat “Nigger” was never mentioned by name, Jackson’s house is not blown up, the nudist club is missing, Amelia does not attempt suicide… Nevertheless, the end result is perhaps a bit easier to follow. I look forward to the next two episodes.

Description:
On a hot and beautiful day in the English countryside, six-year-old Joanna Mason witnesses an appalling crime. Thirty years later, the man convicted of the crime is released from prison. Sixteen-year-old Reggie works as a nanny for a doctor devoted to her new young son. But Dr. Joanna Hunter has gone missing, and Reggie, no stranger to bad luck and worse, seems to be the only person who is worried. Detective Chief Inspector Louise Monroe is also looking for a missing person, unaware that hurtling toward her is an old friend – Jackson Brodie – himself on a journey that becomes fatally interrupted. As lives and histories intersect, as past mistakes and current misfortunes collide, Jackson is caught up in the most personal, and dangerous, investigation of his life.

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Sound recording narrated by Anne Flosnik. This was a very interesting dual-timeframe story. The author’s prose evokes detailed images. I loved many of her descriptions, especially the minutiae of motion. It was like reading a film or a screen play, if that makes sense. It fits the story, since Ted is a film editor. Things move back and forth in time, sometimes you get a kind of slow-motion sequence, scenes cut back and forth and somehow all ends up as a satisfying whole. I will admit that I expected the ending to be more dramatic somehow. As you move through the story you wonder if it is going to turn into some kind of gothic horror or murder mystery, and hopefully, it isn’t a spoiler to say that in the end it is really only about motherhood and the power (both for good and bad) of the mother/child connection. (Which really I should have figured out from the title, and the picture on the audiobook cover of a child’s hand holding a woman’s hand…but I didn’t.)

The author, Maggie O’Farrell, was born in Northern Ireland in 1972, and grew up in Wales and Scotland.

Description:
Lexie Sinclair is plotting an extraordinary life for herself.

Hedged in by her parents’ genteel country life, she plans her escape to London. There, she takes up with Innes Kent, a magazine editor who wears duck-egg blue ties and introduces her to the thrilling, underground world of bohemian, post-war Soho. She learns to be a reporter, to know art and artists, to embrace her life fully and with a deep love at the center of it. She creates many lives–all of them unconventional. And when she finds herself pregnant, she doesn’t hesitate to have the baby on her own terms.

Later, in present-day London, a young painter named Elina dizzily navigates the first weeks of motherhood. She doesn’t recognize herself: she finds herself walking outside with no shoes; she goes to the restaurant for lunch at nine in the morning; she can’t recall the small matter of giving birth. But for her boyfriend, Ted, fatherhood is calling up lost memories, with images he cannot place.

As Ted’s memories become more disconcerting and more frequent, it seems that something might connect these two stories– these two women– something that becomes all the more heartbreaking and beautiful as they all hurtle toward its revelation.

The Hand That First Held Mine is a spellbinding novel of two women connected across fifty years by art, love, betrayals, secrets, and motherhood. And it is a gorgeous inquiry into the ways we make and unmake our lives, who we know ourselves to be, and how even our most accidental legacies connect us.

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My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Five stars may be a bit generous, but I was completely absorbed in the story from the beginning and it didn’t lose my interest. Impossible to categorize – it isn’t exactly fantasy, nor a mystery, nor a horror story. It reminded me a bit of Philip Pullman’s His Dark Materials trilogy with elements of Harry Potter and Alice in Wonderland. Geeky 16-year-old boy is sent on a coming-of-age journey by his dying grandfather. I won’t say any more than that, because half the fun of this book is going along on the journey not knowing any more than the protagonist. I loved the blend of paranormal explanations for historical events. The horror and violence are relatively mild, but I wouldn’t recommend this book for younger children. The vintage photographs are certainly strange and thought-provoking. The perfect test for my Nook Color, and it came through with flying colors! (No pun intended.) Warning: There is a bit of a cliff-hanger ending, so hopefully that means there will be a sequel! 20th Century Fox has bought the rights, so a movie is in the works. And a note for you Welsh-o-philes: Cairnholm Island is fictional and not based on any real island off the Welsh coast.

Description:
A mysterious island. An abandoned orphanage. A strange collection of very curious photographs.

It all waits to be discovered in Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children, an unforgettable novel that mixes fiction and photography in a thrilling reading experience. As our story opens, a horrific family tragedy sets sixteen-year-old Jacob journeying to a remote island off the coast of Wales, where he discovers the crumbling ruins of Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children. As Jacob explores its abandoned bedrooms and hallways, it becomes clear that the children were more than just peculiar. They may have been dangerous. They may have been quarantined on a deserted island for good reason. And somehow—impossible though it seems—they may still be alive.

A spine-tingling fantasy illustrated with haunting vintage photography, Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children will delight adults, teens, and anyone who relishes an adventure in the shadows.

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I loved this book. It was much more tightly plotted than the first book, featuring multiple points of view with quirky, interesting characters, witty dialogue, and a satisfying conclusion. This time I did not figure out the ending before I got there. Ably narrated by Steven Crossley. The style reminds me very much of Alexander McCall Smith. Jackson still remains something of a mystery himself, although I feel I know him better than after the first book. I didn’t understand what he saw in Julia, so not surprised to see that relationship unraveling. Martin was a wonderful character. I also liked the detective inspector, Louise, and her troubled son Archie, and perhaps we shall see them again in the next book?

Description:  In One Good Turn Jackson returns, following his girlfriend, Julia the actress, to the Fringe Festival in Edinburgh. He manages to fall into all kinds of trouble, starting with witnessing a brutal attack by “Honda Man” on another man stuck in a traffic jam. Is this road rage or something truly sinister? Another witness is Martin Canning, better known as Alex Blake, the writer. Martin is a shy, withdrawn, timid sort who, in a moment of unlikely action, flings a satchel at the attacker and spins him around, away from his victim. Gloria Hatter, wife of Graham, a millionaire property developer who is about to have all his secrets uncovered, is standing in a nearby queue with a friend when the attack takes place. There is nastiness afoot, and everyone is involved. Nothing is coincidental.

Through a labyrinthine plot which is hard to follow because the points of view are constantly changing, the real story is played out, complete with Russians, false and mistaken identities, dead bodies, betrayals, and all manner of violent encounters. Jackson gets pulled in to the investigation by Louise Monroe, a police detective and mother of an errant 14-year-old. There might be yet another novel to follow which will take up the connection those two forge in this book. Or, Jackson might just go back to France and feed apples to the local livestock.

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I am not quite sure how to categorize this one. It’s not really a mystery/thriller nor is it a cozy mystery. While there was some suspense, it really wasn’t very compelling. So it is a sort of domestic/mystery/psychological/humorous story about a detective and three different cold cases that he is working on. The story isn’t so much about how he solves the cases, as it is about the people’s lives that are looking for resolution. I had figured out the who-dun-its well ahead of the resolution by the author. There were a few twists in the tale(s), the characters were quirky and interesting, but the way they were tied together seemed a bit forced and improbable. I enjoyed this and will read the next in the series, but I couldn’t quite give it a “4″. There is not really enough development of the main character, Jackson Brodie, but I am hoping he will be further developed in the next books, and that some of the other characters will be returning.

Description:

Case one: A little girl goes missing in the night.

Case two: A beautiful young office worker falls victim to a maniac’s apparently random attack.

Case three: A new mother finds herself trapped in a hell of her own making – with a very needy baby and a very demanding husband – until a fit of rage creates a grisly, bloody escape.

Thirty years after the first incident, as private investigator Jackson Brodie begins investigating all three cases, startling connections and discoveries emerge . . .

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

A lovely book about a woman’s obsession with the Jewish family forced from their home in the Vel’ d’Hiv roundup. And the girl, Sarah, who survived and whose life story became entwined with her husband’s family in Paris. As she puts together the pieces of this shattered woman’s life, her own marriage is falling apart. Family secrets uncovered have the power both to hurt and to heal… This book is also a tribute to the 76,000 Jews deported from France to the death camps. Zakhor, Al Tichkah. Remember. Never forget.

Description:

Paris, July 1942: Sarah, a ten year-old girl, is brutally arrested with her family by the French police in the Vel’ d’Hiv’ roundup, but not before she locks her younger brother in a cupboard in the family’s apartment, thinking that she will be back within a few hours.

Paris, May 2002: On Vel’ d’Hiv’s 60th anniversary, journalist Julia Jarmond is asked to write an article about this black day in France’s past. Through her contemporary investigation, she stumbles onto a trail of long-hidden family secrets that connect her to Sarah. Julia finds herself compelled to retrace the girl’s ordeal, from that terrible term in the Vel d’Hiv’, to the camps, and beyond. As she probes into Sarah’s past, she begins to question her own place in France, and to reevaluate her marriage and her life. Tatiana de Rosnay offers us a brilliantly subtle, compelling portrait of France under occupation and reveals the taboos and silence that surround this painful episode.

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

The “remarkable creatures” here could refer to the first discoveries in the early 19th century, of the fossil remains of extinct creatures, the Ichthyosaur and the Plesiosaur, which set the scientific and religious communities on their ears. Or it could refer to the two remarkable women, whose friendship helped them to thrive and survive in an age when women had no public voice and no recognition beyond motherhood. As Jane Austen so ably depicted, unmarried women, particularly in the upper classes, were a burden to their families. At least lower class women could become servants, laundresses, etc. and eke out a living. 10-year-old Mary Anning, the daughter of a poor cabinet maker and amateur fossil collector, helps to support her family by scouring the beaches and cliffs of Lyme Regis for “curies” which are sold in the family shop. Elizabeth Philpot, at age 30 and still unmarried, has been settled in Lyme Regis by her brother who cannot afford her upkeep in London. In that out of the way location, Elizabeth is able to pursue an interest in science and fossils. Because of her class, she is not really free to hunt for fossils on her own, but relies on Mary to find them for her. I loved how the two women learned and grew through each other. Elizabeth is envious of Mary’s “freedom”, while Mary is constrained by poverty. Elizabeth has the connections to bring Mary’s discoveries to the world, but she needs a bit of Mary’s boldness to step outside of the constraints of being a woman in a man’s world. It is remarkable that Mary Anning’s name is still remembered at all. I also loved learning about the early days of fossil hunting and seeing how these discoveries forced people to reassess the world and their place in the scheme of things, a reassessment that paved the way for Charles Darwin and his theories of evolution.

The story is told in alternating points of view by each woman. I listened to the audiobook which was narrated by two different women. This really helped to bring out the cultural differences between the two women, and made me feel as if I were “there” hearing about the events and relationships through their eyes.

Description: On the windswept, fossil-strewn beaches of the English coast, poor and uneducated Mary Anning learns that she has a unique gift: “the eye” to spot fossils no one else can see. When she uncovers an unusual fossilized skeleton in the cliffs near her home, she sets the religious community on edge, the townspeople to gossip, and the scientific world alight. After enduring bitter cold, thunderstorms, and landslips, her challenges only grow when she falls in love with an impossible man. Mary soon finds an unlikely champion in prickly Elizabeth Philpot, a middle-class spinster who shares her passion for scouring the beaches. Their relationship strikes a delicate balance between fierce loyalty, mutual appreciation, and barely suppressed envy, but ultimately turns out to be their greatest asset.

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

A fairly well-written book, from a very interesting point of view. Although it deals with murder and grief, it is not a heavy or dark tale, being ultimately about hope and healing. I did find a few plot points rather implausible, but Susie and her friends and family are memorable characters that will stay with me.

Description: When we first meet Susie Salmon, she is already in heaven. As she looks down from this strange new place, she tells us, in the fresh and spirited voice of a fourteen-year-old girl, a tale that is both haunting and full of hope. In the weeks following her death, Susie watches life continuing without her–her school friends trading rumors about her disappearance, her family holding out hope that she’ll be found, her killer trying to cover his tracks. As months pass without leads, Susie sees her parents’ marriage being contorted by loss, her sister hardening herself in an effort to stay strong, and her little brother trying to grasp the meaning of the word gone. With compassion, longing, and a growing understanding, Susie sees her loved ones pass through grief and begin to mend. Her father embarks on a risky quest to ensnare her killer. Her sister undertakes a feat of remarkable daring. And the boy Susie cared for moves on, only to find himself at the center of a miraculous event.

This story of the worst thing a family can face is transformed into a suspenseful and even funny novel about love, memory, joy, heaven, and healing.

My rating: 2 of 5 stars

Another view of love and murder in early 20th-century rural Wisconsin…

If this had not been an audiobook, I probably would not have finished it. It is a psychological tale about desire and despair. It reminded me very strongly of a macabre book that was popular when I was in college in the 70s – Wisconsin Death Trip – which was a catalog of the gruesome and bizarre told through antique photos and newspaper articles. As a gothic suspense novel, I wasn’t sold. It is okay, if you like listening to the inner world of two completely self-absorbed people. At nearly halfway through, I really didn’t care if they ended up killing each other. All the man thinks about is sex, and how “bad” he is. All the woman thinks about is trying to be anybody but herself. And if you think those two are depressing, wait until you meet the “son”. I kept going, only to find out if there was any hope of redemption. The characters are obsessed and conflicted. The prose is tiresomely repetitive, and the plot twists incomprehensible, but “these things happened…” It could make a pretty good movie, though…

Description:
He placed a notice in a Chicago paper, an advertisement for “a reliable wife.” She responded, saying that she was “a simple, honest woman.” She was, of course, anything but honest, and the only simple thing about her was her single-minded determination to marry this man and then kill him, slowly and carefully, leaving her a wealthy widow, able to take care of the one she truly loved.

What Catherine Land did not realize was that the enigmatic and lonely Ralph Truitt had a plan of his own. And what neither anticipated was that they would fall so completely in love.

Filled with unforgettable characters, and shimmering with color and atmosphere, A Reliable Wife is an enthralling tale of love and madness, of longing and murder.

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I listened to the audio version read by Grover Gardner and enjoyed this very much. Boyle has a way of describing locations in a way that brings all the details vividly to life. The “narrator” of the story is a fictional Japanese apprentice who comes to live at Taliesin, and who muses on the foibles of his master, through the lens of the women in Frank Lloyd Wright’s life. The story is told backwards from his last wife Olgivanna, perhaps the most successful at accommodating herself to Frank’s ego, ending with the tragedy of the murder of Mamah and her children. In between, is the drug addicted and extremely narcissistic Miriam Noel, who evoked no sympathy for the hell she created for herself. I would have liked the book to continue backwards with the story of Kitty, his first wife, but perhaps that would be another book in itself. I found myself sharing the assessment of Tadashi, the narrator – a mixture of admiration for the genius of Frank Lloyd Wright along with shaking my head over his bull-headedness and inability to learn from his mistakes.

I should add that FLW’s wives are not the only “women” in this story. Also of interest are Svetlana, the daughter of Olgivanna, FLW’s housekeeper and cook, Mrs. Breen, FLW’s mother, and the wife of the Barbadian servant.

Description:

Having brought to life eccentric cereal king John Harvey Kellogg in The Road to Wellville and sex researcher Alfred Kinsey in The Inner Circle, T.C. Boyle now turns his fictional sights on an even more colorful and outlandish character: Frank Lloyd Wright. Boyle’s incomparable account of Wright’s life is told through the experiences of the four women who loved him. There’s the Montenegrin beauty Olgivanna Milanoff, the passionate Southern belle Maude Miriam Noel, the tragic Mamah Cheney, and his young first wife, Kitty Tobin. Blazing with his trademark wit and inventiveness, Boyle deftly captures these very different women and the creative life in all its complexity.