Ordeal by Innocence

I recently watched the Amazon Prime Video version of Ordeal by Innocence and thought it could not be accurate to Agatha Christie’s book. So I read it, and I was right. The book is far superior. The characters are the same—five adopted children, their father, two employees, a spouse, and a man that throws everything into turmoil when he alibis the accused murderer of Rachel Argyle, their mother. However, the motives, personalities, and actions are significantly different, and Christie does not have to rely on shock or disgust to weave her tale or entertain her reader. Ordeal isn’t my favorite Christie mystery, but it did leave me wondering who done it.

Lying in Wait

Liz Nugent’s Lying in Wait is different from other suspense novels that I have recently read. The reader knows from the beginning who the murder victim is and who the murderers are. Told from multiple points of view—the victim’s sister, the perpetrators, their son—the reader isn’t left confused, guessing, or deceived as happens in so many contemporary novels. This style of storytelling is refreshing and shows respect to the reader. That said, it also leaves the reader wondering what the surprise or twist could possibly be—but it did not disappoint. Lying in Wait is a fast, easy—and disturbing—end of summer read.

The Long Game

Tess Kendrick Keyes is back in Jennifer Lynn Barnes’ second installment of The Fixer series: The Long Game. This time, Tess is trying to help her classmate win a school election. What could be a simple high school story instead deals with corruption, terrorism, and even the #metoo movement. Barnes does not shy away from unhappy and uncomfortable situations and topics. People die. Characters aren’t exactly who you think they are. Barnes takes risks, particularly for a young adult novel, and I respect her for it—and for expecting her YA readers to take those risks with her.

Be Prepared

Vera Brosgol’s graphic novel Be Prepared is based on her experiences as a child at summer camp. Vera, a young Russian immigrant in New York, doesn’t quite fit in with the other girls at her school. Every summer, her friends go off to summer camp, so Vera jumps at the chance to attend a camp for Russian diaspora. She longs to have the camp experience and to fit in with other children. However, camp isn’t exactly what she was hoping for. Vera’s feelings of loneliness and isolation and her longing for acceptance is a universal human experience than any reader can relate to.

Bring Me Back

Finn’s girlfriend, Layla, disappears under puzzling circumstances at the beginning of B.A. Paris’s Bring Me Back. Several years later, Finn is engaged to Layla’s older sister, Ellen, and starts receiving mysterious messages from his past. Bring Me Back is an easy and fast read. I was happy to finally have an unreliable narrator that is male but surprised that Paris decided to resolve some of the mystery so early on in the novel. As such, I suspected the ending, but it was still a fun and painless ride.

The Death of Mrs. Westaway

Hal, a young, impoverished tarot card reader, is surprised when she learns of the passing of her grandmother, Mrs. Westaway—particularly since her grandmother had died before Hal was born. Hoping to alleviate some of her financial distress, Hal attends Mrs. Westaway’s funeral and discovers everything isn’t as she initially imagined.

The premise of Ruth Ware’s latest novel, The Death of Mrs. Westaway, is intriguing. However, it took me a long time, almost to the last 80 pages, to feel hooked on this book. The execution is slow and sometimes rather dull, but ultimately the story grabbed me and I had to know the ending.

Death of an Honest Man

Hamish Macbeth is back in another installment of MC Beaton’s series. This time, he is investigating the murder of a man known for offending everyone he meets with his “honesty.” Although nothing ever really seems to change in Hamish’s life, at first I was impressed that Beaton seemed to be embracing progressive ideas of equality in the book. Yet, as it progressed, some sort of “evil” possessed Hamish and filled him with alarmingly misogynistic ideas that may have tainted my love for him permanently. It seemed a strange move for a 2018 novel. Other than this glitch, the rest of the book maintained its cozy mystery standards and was an easy, relaxing read.

The Perfect Mother

Aimee Molloy’s The Perfect Mother is a fast, easy, and entertaining read. A mother’s group in Brooklyn is rocked when one of the babies is kidnapped. The kidnapping reveals that not all the members of the group are what they appear to be. As a mother, I could relate to many of the group members’ feelings, but more than anything I was engrossed by the story and finding out what actually happened to baby Midas. Molloy does a good job of concealing, yet revealing, the truth, leaving me feeling intrigued and only slightly manipulated. Definitely a fun summer read.

Seven Letters from Paris: A Memoir

Seven Letters from Paris is American Samantha Vérant’s memoir of rekindling a romance with a Frenchman she met 20 years earlier while traveling. The premise is romantic—that the spark of true love can remain for many years, and it gives hope to readers that are down on their luck or struggling in bad relationships. Although the memoir is written as a narrative, and Vérant gives a lot of description and details (sometimes too much of both), the book lacks a certain literary quality. It was interesting to read her story, and I stuck with it because of my love for Paris and obvious desire to marry a Frenchman and move to France, but I never felt captivated by the writing.

The Agency: A Spy in the House

The Agency: A Spy in the House is the first in a series of YA novels by Y.S. Lee. Young Mary Quinn is rescued from the gallows by an unusual school for young women in Victorian England. The school educates girls in desperate situations, and Mary finds herself with the opportunity to become a spy in the guise of a domestic servant.

Mary is an appealing heroine, although she does make some decisions that really boggle the mind. Lee does a nice job of describing a realistic Victorian London that many of off us have probably romanticized and introduces some history I was previously unaware of. I was both educated and entertained by the novel and will certainly read the second book in the series.

Emma: A Modern Retelling

Emma: A Modern Retelling by Alexander McCall Smith is just that—a version of Jane Austen’s Emma taking place in the modern day. McCall Smith adds a few modern “twists” that purists might find distressing or at least distracting, but he mostly stays on Austen’s plotline. McCall Smith has an easy style of writing that is comfortable and entertaining. His Emma, though, lacks the genuineness of the original and the attractiveness of Paltrow’s Emma and Silverstone’s Cher. His Emma seems to be less clueless, if you will, and more malicious, which takes away from her appeal. However, he does try to redeem her in an ending that feels rushed. Casual Emma fans will enjoy the retelling, but fanatics should probably stay away.

The Breakdown

In B.A. Paris’s The Breakdown, Cass sees a car broken down on the side of the road during a storm. After hesitating to help, and ultimately deciding not to, Cass is shocked when she learns the fate of the stranded driver. This shock, combined with a family history of early-onset dementia, leads to Cass’s own mental breakdown.

The premise sounds intriguing, but I found the first 250 pages to be extremely tedious. Paris recounts incident after incident of Cass’s mental demise. Ok, I get it, now move on. The final 100 pages finally pick up, but I’m not sure they made up for the slog of the first two-thirds of the book. This was my first Paris novel--and likely my last.

The Lying Game

Ruth Ware’s The Lying Game unites four friends seventeen years after their expulsion from boarding school. What brings them back together? A tragic secret on the brink of being revealed. The story is told from the perspective of Isa, on maternity leave after giving birth to her daughter. The big problem with The Lying Game was it was rather boring. Isa was boring. Her worries and concerns felt boring and redundant. The secret, at many junctures, was boring. The reasons the girls were expelled from school and their treatment from the local population seemed artificial and emphasized victim shaming and blaming. Although the book picks up in the last 100 pages, I was disappointed and rather bored for the first 250. If you have read other Ruth Ware, pick this one up. If not, skip it.

The Child

A baby’s body is found on a construction site. Fiona Barton’s The Child follows several characters as they react to this discovery, including a newspaper reporter and the mother of a missing child.

More than anything, I read The Child because I needed something to read. I didn’t love Barton’s The Widow, but I clearly enjoyed it enough to read the author again. I was pleasantly surprised by The Child. I guessed the ending early on, but even that did not diminish my enjoyment. It was a fast and engaging story—a good pick for a summer read.

Jane Steele

Lindsay Faye’s Jane Steele is an interesting play on Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre. Jane Steele is fan of Jane Eyre, and her life in Victorian England often parallels that of the other fictitious Jane. Their paths differ, though, from the beginning of the book when Jane Steele confesses to the reader that she is a serial killer. Despite this confession, Jane is generally a sympathetic main character and the situations she finds herself in, including her romance, are interesting and unique. I wouldn’t consider Jane Steele must-read fiction, but it certainly does the job of entertaining a reader on a summer afternoon.

The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven

Sherman Alexie's collection of short stories The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven deserves a lot more intellectual effort than I was willing or able to give it. The stories follow different residents of the Spokane Indian Reservation. Each story has a unique focus and voice, and I felt like each invited discussion appropriate for one of my graduate-level literature courses. The book does not shy away from topics such as racism, alcoholism, and mysticism. This collection takes work to read, understand, and appreciate, and I wish I were still that kind of reader.

Into the Water

The first few chapters of Paula Hawkins' Into the Water reminded me of Hawkins' The Girl on the Train and similar books in the genre. Someone was dead, but I didn't understand who, why, or how. I felt deliberately disorientated, confused, and frustrated over how obfuscated the writing was. Fortunately, that feeling did not last long, and Hawkins let me in on enough secrets of the river that had taken more than one life to keep me satisfied. For this reason, I ended up enjoying the novel much more than The Girl on the Train. Into the Water was engaging, interesting, and a page turner from start to finish.

Death of a Ghost

Death of a Ghost is the 32nd installment of M.C. Beaton’s Hamish Macbeth series. Ghost finds our Scottish hero once again dealing with murder, slightly inept underlings, completely inept supervisors, and botched relationships. Hamish, though, seems to handle everything with amazing dexterity, managing to solve murders without losing his cozy position to promotion. I have felt frustrated the last several books with Hamish’s stagnation and lack of growth as a character. However, Ghost gave me a glimmer of hope that these books might finally be moving out of the mire. For Hamish fans, let’s believe that is the case.

Blackmoore

Kate wants to flee to India, away from her scandalous family in Regency England. The only way she can get that freedom is to accept—and reject—three marriage proposals.

The only likable character in Julianne Donaldson’s Blackmoore is Henry, owner of the titular estate. Henry’s mother and sister are atrocious. Kate’s mother and sister are atrocious. And Kate, herself, is rather atrocious. I had little care or concern for her destiny and thought nothing recommended her to the story’s hero. I am a sucker for a good romance, but this book wasn’t romantic at all. Instead, it was an almost painful read due to the characters’ unattractive personalities.

Last Train to Istanbul

Selva, the daughter of a former Ottoman pasha, defies her family to marry Rafael, the son of a well-known Jewish doctor. They relocate in France but find their lives in peril as Hitler invades the country.

 Ayşe Kulin’s Last Train to Istanbul was an interesting read due to the history it presents. I have never before seen WWII through the lens of the Turkish government and people. I feel like I need to do further research on the topic, but if the history presented in this book is true, the government and its representatives have much to be lauded for in terms of their conduct during the war. Again, though, I need to do my research.

Overall, I was invested in the book and the characters, but it was at least 100 pages too long and could have benefited from more focus. I read the book in translation, so it is somewhat difficult to judge the writing, but the story tended to meander, introducing too many characters and seemingly forgetting most of them by the end. If nothing else, though, this book inspired me to read the history of Turkey during WWII.