Winter Is For Thrillers

Reprinted from auburnpub.com

Winter Is For Thrillers

I’m not sure what it is about the winter months that has publishers releasing so many Mysteries and Thrillers- maybe the cold and dark atmosphere of the days? Whatever it is, there are several books out recently that will please fans of those genres.

True Crime is all over the media these days- popular podcasts, multi-part documentaries, and the three major networks with their popular 20/20, 48 Hours, Dateline series.  Stacy Horn’s 

The Killing Fields of East New York combines true crime with investigative journalism. 

East New York in Brooklyn was once a thriving tight-knit community in the 1960s. In 1968, President Johnson passed the Housing and Urban Development Act which was intended to help low-income families of color become homeowners. 

What actually happened was that banks, lenders, realtors, and corrupt city and Fair Housing Authority officials saw an opportunity to take advantage of the program and low-income people of color, which ended up decimating East New York. Their greed and white-collar criminal activity left East New York with abandoned buildings and empty lots. 

Horn details the steps that led to the largest series of mortgage fraud prosecutions in American history and destroyed a vibrant community, leaving poverty and violence in its wake. It’s a powerful read.

On the fiction side, Joseph Finder’s newest thriller is The Oligarch’s Daughter. Billed as a cross between “Succession” and “The Americans” , this heart-pounding book tells the story of Paul Brightman, who is hiding out in a small New England town under an assumed name.  

Six years prior, Paul was working on Wall Street when he fell in love with Tatyana, a photographer- and the daughter of a Russian oligarch, a fact she hid from Paul. Several U.S. intelligence agencies were interested in Tatyana’s father, which means they became interested in Paul as well- and so were the Russians.

When Russian operatives discover Paul in New England, he must go on the run and unravel a conspiracy with deep roots in the government. If spy novels are your go-to reads, 

The Oligarch’s Daughter should be on your To-Be-Read list.

Scott Turow brings back a favorite character from his earlier popular novels- former prosecutor Rusty Sabich (Presumed Innocent) returns in Presumed Guilty. Rusty is now 70 years old and living in rural Michigan with his younger soon-to-be wife Bea. 

Bea has a 20-something son Aaron, whom she and her previous husband adopted when he was a baby. Aaron lives with Bea and Rusty, and he spent some time in jail on a drug charge a few years back. 

Aaron has an on-again off-again relationship with Mae, a brilliant but troubled young woman. Mae has the ability to make everyone around her angry, including her parents and Aaron.

Aaron and Mae go “off the grid” camping to discuss getting married, they get into a fight, and Aaron takes Mae’s phone and hitchhikes home. When Mae doesn’t return home, her parents, including her prosecuting attorney father, blame Aaron.

After Mae’s body is found in her car in a ditch miles from where they camped, all evidence points to Aaron as a murderer. Bea begs Rusty to defend Aaron in court, and Rusty reluctantly agrees.

There are many twists and turns in this legal thriller, and fans of John Grisham’s novels and the streaming series Presumed Innocent with Jake Gyllenhaal will want to read this one.

Alafair Burke’s new novel, The Note has an intriguing story. Three longtime friends plan a reunion weekend in the Hamptons. When they get cutoff for a parking spot, they leave a note on the car as a prank. 

But the prank turns into something that leads the three friends to become involved in a police investigation, and soon one of the friends discovers something from their past that she never knew. It will have you furiously turning the pages to see what happens next.

 

Locked-room mysteries are having a moment in two recent books. First, cookbook writer Orlando Murrin turns novelist in Knife Skills For Beginners. Set in a London cooking school, it’s called The Maid meets Knives Out with a dash of Top Chef. Will there be a Gordon Ramsey-like character in it? Read it to see. 

Ande Pliego’s locked-room mystery You Are Fatally Invited is set not in a locked room, but on a private island off the coast of Maine where six thriller authors are invited to a writing retreat- and end up getting knocked off one by one. That’s what you get for inviting thriller writers I guess. 

Two Terrific Books Start Off 2025

Reprinted from auburnpub.com

The new year looks to be a good one for readers, with many terrific books on the horizon.

I began 2025 with two books with small town settings- one in Potsdam, New York, and one in a small Irish village of Faha set in 1962.

Tracey Lange’s third novel, What Happened to the McCray’s? continues in her genre of writing wonderful novels about families navigating the travails of life. (Her previous books, We Are The Brennans and The Connellys of County Down are both excellent.) 

Kyle McCray is living a spartan existence in Spokane after leaving his wife and hometown of Postdam, New York suddenly two and half years ago. He gets a call that his father Danny has had a stroke, and Kyle’s former youth hockey coach and his dad’s best friend tells him that he needs to come home to care for his father.

When Kyle returns home, he finds his former wife Casey has been taking care of his Dad in his absence. Things are tense between Kyle and Casey, but the reader is not privy to why Kyle up and left his wife and his auto repair business suddenly.

Casey is a middle school social studies teacher and manages the junior hockey squad. Her brother Wyatt uses a wheelchair and lives with Casey. Wyatt is not happy to see Kyle back in town.

We know that Kyle is not a bad guy, we saw him help a young sandwich shop worker when a group of young men came into her store and harassed her. We get Kyle’s and Casey’s backstory, both children of single parents who helped each other’s families out. They had been high school sweethearts, loving and caring with each other.

Soon the reader discovers the sad reason that led to Kyle leaving his wife and the hometown he loves. 

Lange puts the reader right inside this snowy, cold town of Potsdam, where everyone lives for hockey. Kyle was a hockey superstar in his younger days, beloved by all. She gets the small town, college town vibe just right.

I love all of Tracey Lange’s books, and What Happened to the McCray’s is her best yet. Her characters feel real, as does the way they face the challenges that life throws at them and the relationships among the characters.

Irish writer Niall Williams introduced readers to the small Irish village of Faha first in This Is Happiness. He returns to Faha in his latest novel, Time of the Child. Like Lange, Williams brings readers right into the setting of the book, which is really a character as well.

Fair day is always a big day in Faha, when people bring their animals to the town to try and sell them. There are restaurants and food booths, games, and entertainment. The whole town turns out.

It’s December of 1962, and twelve year-old Jude Quinlan is accompanying his father Pat to town, where his father is hoping to sell his cattle and make enough money to keep the family afloat. Jude’s mother gives him instructions to make sure his father comes home after the sale, rightfully worried that Pat will end up in the pub.

We follow Jude all fair day, where at the end of the day, he finds an abandoned baby. Jude and two neighbors bring the baby to the home of the town doctor, Jack Troy, and Jack’s oldest daughter Ronnie.

Jack tells Jude and the neighbors not to say a word to anyone about finding the baby and they agree. Jack sees that Ronnie has immediately fallen in love with the baby. They care for the child and hide her from the residents of the town while Jack tries to come to some kind of solution. They conclude that someone who traveled from out of town to the fair to abandoned the child.

It’s 1962, and a single woman like Ronnie would never be able to adopt the baby. If they turn the child over to the authorities, Ronnie’s heart will be broken.

Williams writes such gorgeous prose, I frequently had to stop and close the book to ponder the profound things he said about love, both romantic and parental. 

The characters here, as in What Happened to the McCray’s?, are vividly drawn, and I particularly liked the older priest who is suffering from dementia. The friendship between him and Dr. Troy is moving. 

Time of the Child and What Happened to the McCray’s? are both beautiful books, more about character than plot. You grow to know and care about these people, people who are just trying to do their best in sometimes challenging conditions. Just like all of us.

What Happened to the McCray’s? by Tracey Lange- A+

Published by Celadon

Hardcover, $28.99, 352 pages

Time of the Child by Niall Williams A+

Published by Bloomsbury

Hardcover, $28.99, 287 pages

The Most Compelling Books of 2024

Reprinted from auburnpub.com

Each year I set a goal to read 100 books. Out of those 100 books, the ones that stay in my mind- the ones with characters that I just can’t forget and want to know what they are doing now- make my list of the Most Compelling Books, and here I share them with you.

Beginning with A, Anna Quindlen’s emotional After Annie was one of my first reads of the year, and I find myself still thinking about Annie, a thirty-something mother who dies in her kitchen in the beginning of the story. How Annie’s grieving husband, eleven-year-old daughter, and Annie’s fragile best friend handle her death makes up the basis for this powerful novel. 

Years after Colm Toibin gave us the brilliant Brooklyn about Eilis a young Irish immigrant who moves to the United States on her own, he follows up with Long Island. Eilis is still married to Tony, and lives in a cul-de-sac with Tony’s large Italian family on Long Island. After Tony betrays her, Eilis goes home to Ireland to visit and maybe rekindle her relationship with Jim, who now is set to marry Eilis’ best friend. Jim is torn, and the novel belongs to Jim as he must decide where his heart and future lies. 

Jacqueline Winspear winds down her popular Maisie Dobbs series set in post-WWII England as Maisie and company get a most satisfactory send-off to this incredibly well-researched and well-written historical mystery series with The Comfort of Ghosts. It’s one of the few series in which I have read every book. 

Kate Quinn moves from WWII novels (The Alice Network,The Rose Code) to Cold War Washington D.C. in The Briar Club about a group of women who live in a rooming house, and who each have a lot of secrets. Quinn tells each of the women’s stories with such clarity, and I loved how the women grew to support each when a murder or two happens at the house. 

Writing in two different timelines can be tricky, but Lynda Cohen Loigman does it so well in 

The Love Elixir of Augusta Stern which tells the story of an 80 year-old pharmacist who is forced to retire, and when she moves to a retirement community in Florida, she reluctantly reconnects with a man who broke her heart years ago. Augusta Stern is one of my favorite characters of the year.

Rufi Thorpe’s debut novel, Margo’s Got Money Troubles has a unique set-up. Margo is a single mother raising her child on her own. Needing to make money, she turns to the internet and opens an Only Fans account. Her father, a former wrestling manager, turns up to help with child care and hilarity ensues. It’s humorous and heartwarming.

Another humorous novel is Steven Rowley’s The Guncle Abroad, his followup to 

The Guncle. This time the gang is in Italy for Patrick’s brother’s wedding that Patrick’s niece is imploring him to stop. Once again, the dialogue sparkles and I laughed out loud many times.

On a more serious note, James by Percival Everett is cleaning up on the award circuit and for good cause. His intriguing retelling of Huckleberry Finn from the perspective of the slave Jim is brilliant and thought-provoking. This is a must-read. 

I like to read holiday-themed books, and Susan Mallory’s One Big Happy Family about a family gathering at cabin in the woods where the guest list includes Mom, her adult children, Mom’s new hot young boyfriend, his young children, their mother (whose engagement to a another man ended badly), coworkers from the family business, and the adult daughter’s on-again, off-again, currently off longtime boyfriend is a delightful addition to the canon. Merriment and misadventures ensue.

There were two great Nonfiction titles I loved. Ina Garten’s memoir Be Ready When the Luck Happens shares her story of a painful childhood, her longtime loving marriage to her husband Jeffrey, and the part I found most interesting, how she came to own The Barefoot Contessa food shop in the Hamptons when she didn’t live in the Hamptons and had never worked in a restaurant or the food business before. She made it a megahit. 

Francis S. Barry recounts his cross-country trip on the Lincoln Highway during the pandemic in an RV with his wife in Back Roads and Better Angels. Barry, a journalist, wanted to know if we are really as divided in this country as it seems. He shares stories of the interesting people they met and a lot of great historical facts about Abraham Lincoln.

I hope you all have a Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, and Happy New Year. Feel free to share your favorite reads from 2024 in the Comments section.

Book Make Great Gifts Guide

Reprinted from auburnpub.com:

Books Make Great Holiday Gifts Guide

Thanksgiving has come and gone, and it feels like everyone is already shopping for holiday gifts. And so it’s time for my annual Books Make Great Gifts Guide. There’s something for everyone on your list, and remember that books are so easy to wrap!

Biographies and memoirs are popular this season, especially from celebrities. Cher’s memoir is titled simply Cher- The Memoir : Part One because her life is so big (she has been in the spotlight for six decades) it will require two volumes. Volume two publishes next year. 

Ina Garten, known as the Barefoot Contessa, usually publishes a new cookbook every year, but this year she gives us a fascinating memoir Be Ready When The Luck Happens. Your best friend who watches the Food Network will love this one. 

Everyone was a fan of Johnny Carson, and Bill Zehme with Mike Thomas’ new biography, Carson the Magnificent, would make a great gift for Dad, as would Max Boot’s Reagan- His Life and Legend, which shines new light on the life of Ronald Reagan.

Other nonfiction titles that would make a good gift for your son-in-law include Adam Higginbotham’s Challenger-A True Story of Heroism and Disaster on the Edge of Space, and Yuval Noah Harari’s Nexus- A Brief History of Information Networks From The Stone Age to AI. Sy Montgomery has written brilliantly about pigs and octopuses, and now she has What the Chicken Knows for the animal enthusiast on your list.

For your favorite chef, Martha Stewart has Martha: The Cookbook- 100 Favorite Recipes with Lessons and Stories From My Kitchen, or perhaps they would like Stanley Tucci’s What I Ate In One Year- and Other Thoughts as he takes us through a year in his life through food.

If you have fiction fans on your list, Susan Rieger’s stunning Like Mother, Like Mother shares the story of three generations of women and how the decisions they each make affects the following generation.

Liane Moriarty’s Here One Moment starts on a airplane sitting on a tarmac. When one passenger stands up and predicts how and when each person will die, it is disconcerting until one prediction comes true, then it is life-altering for all.

Richard Price’s Lazarus Man takes place in 2008 East Harlem as a tenement building blows up, and we see how it affects everyone who lived there and the police investigating it. 

If your neighbor who loves a good Hallmark Christmas movie, Susan Mallery’s One Big Happy Family is the perfect holiday read. 

Romantasy is a hot genre now, and your adult niece who read the Iron Flame series would enjoy Shelby Mahurin’s The Scarlet Veil. 

You could give your aunt two fantastic reads- Niall Williams has two novels that take place

 in a small Irish town- This Is Happiness, along with his new one, Time of the Child. 

Mystery fans will enjoy Richard Osman’s (of the Thursday Murder Club series) new stand-alone novel We Solve Murders about a retired cop who teams up with his daughter-in-law to discover who is trying to kill her. It’s a real page-turner with terrific characters and some hilarious dialogue. 

Moving on to the younger readers, Katherine Rundell’s Impossible Creatures is for young  readers who are into fantasy novels.

Middle grade readers are big fans of Rick Riordan’s Percy Jackson books, and his new one Wrath of the Triple Goddess continues the series that features mythological themes. 

Book series are big with younger readers, and you can’t go wrong with Dav Pilkey’s newest Dog Man title- Big Jim Begins. Other series that younger readers enjoy include  InvestiGators, about alligator private eyes, and Wings of Fire and Dragon Masters series that appeal to the younger fantasy readers. 

The Bad Guys series is humorous, and Kate DiCamillo’s Mercy Watson series delights elementary school age children. For graphic novels reades, you can’t go wrong with The Babysitters Club and Amulet series of books. 

For the littlest ones, Sherry Duskey Rinker has a new board book- Construction Site: Garbage Crew to the Rescue for fans of all her Construction book series. Mo Willems is hugely popular with kiddies, and his Don’t Let the Pigeons Drive The Sleigh has a holiday theme.

No one is more popular with the toddler set than YouTube sensation Ms. Rachel, and she has a board book- Ms. Rachel and the Special Surprise that will enchant your grandchild. 

I hope you found something here for everyone on your list. Remember to support local indie bookstores, most of them have online shopping, or go to bookshop.org to support independent bookstores.