Three Great Reads

Reprinted from the Citizen:

We’ve turned the calendar page to a new year, and that means setting new goals. Reading websites like Goodreads engage their members to set goals for the year and give them tools to do so. I aim to read 100 books annually and usually end up in the 85-90 range. Last year I took advantage of being home most of the year by reading 137 books.

I’m off to a good start this year as well, and today I’ll share three novels that help me forget everything that’s going on in the real world for awhile.

The Queen of Suspense Mary Higgins Clark sadly passed away last year, and her latest collaboration with talented mystery writer Alafair Burke is Piece of My Heart. True crime TV show producer Laurie Moran is preparing for her wedding in the Hamptons when her young nephew Johnny goes missing from the beach. 

Did he drown in the ocean or was lured away by someone? Does the fact that Johnny resembles Laurie’s son Timmy mean that Timmy was the target? Laurie’s husband and Timmy’s father was murdered, and Laurie’s job means being involved with dangerous criminals at times, so that possibility had to be considered.

Laurie’s father is a retired high level police officer in the NYPD, and he becomes convinced that a man he put behind bars years ago is behind it. The man has made recent accusations that Laurie’s dad lied about his confession that help lead to his conviction.

Piece of My Heart grabs the reader right away and never lets go, and although we know that Johnny is alive, the puzzle to discover who took him and why is one that will keep the reader guessing until very near the end. The book is part of a series, but you don’t have to have read any of the others to follow this one. It will encourage you to read the others in this excellent series.

Scottish author Douglas Stuart’s debut novel, Shuggie Bain tells the story of a young boy’s life with his alcoholic mother. Shuggie lives with his mother, father, older sister, and brother in his mother’s parents’ home in Scotland.

Shuggie’s mom Agnes left her first husband for her handsome second husband. She soon tires of his cheating, and he tires of her alcoholism. He moves the family to a remote, impoverished neighborhood into a home of their own. 

The neighborhood women take an instant dislike to Agnes, with her stylish clothes and good looks. Agnes looks down on them as well. Shuggie’s dad stays away for longer and longer at a time until he finally leaves for good, and Agnes falls deeper into her depression and alcoholism. She spends the money the government gives her for food on alcohol.

Shuggie’s sister leaves to get married as soon as she can, and Agnes throws out his older brother in a fit of anger. Young Shuggie is the only one left to care for his mother and himself.

Shuggie Bain is a lyrical, emotional portrait of a young boy whose life is defined by his mother’s alcoholism. The writing is powerful and beautiful, and Stuart based his book in part on his own life. It also gives the reader a look at how Margaret Thatcher’s economic policies affected everyday people. It deservedly won the prestigious 2020 Booker Prize for fiction.

Julia Claiborne Johnson’s new novel, Better Luck Next Time is a lighter read. She takes us to the Flying Leap, a dude ranch in 1938 Reno where wealthy women go to complete a six week Nevada residency in order to obtain a quick divorce.

Told from the perspective of a handsome young cowboy Ward, we meet some of the women staying there one summer. Nina is an aviatrix who arrives to stay for the third time in order to divorce her latest husband. She is a lively one, always ready with a quip or cutting insult.

Nina takes a shine to Emily, who came from San Francisco to await her divorce from her wealthy husband. Emily misses her teenage daughter terribly, but her husband has left her for a younger woman and she has no choice.

The writing is crisp and very witty; I laughed out loud several times at some of the dialogue between the characters. Ward is such a wonderful character, you can see while some of the women fall in love with him. Better Luck Next Time would make a delightful movie.

Piece of My Heart by Mary Higgins Clark & Alafair Burke- A

Published by Simon & Schuster 

Hardcover, $26.99, 319 pages

Shuggie Bain by Douglas Stuart- A+

Published by Grove Press

Trade paperback, $17, 448 pages

Better Luck Next Time by Julia Claiborne Johnson- A

Published by Custom House

Hardcover, $28.99, 288 pages

Friday 5ive- January 8, 2021

Welcome to the Friday 5ive, a weekly blog post featuring five things that caught my attention this week. I'm not going to include the ugly event at the Capitol this Wednesday, as I think that captured everyone's attention. Let's hope we can turn a page on January 20th.

1)  I get up at 6:30am and head to the laundry room in our apartment building twice a week. I'm usually the only one down there, so it's a good time to do laundry. When I got up this morning, I saw this beautiful sky over the East River, just as the sun was coming up. It was a very vivid sight to start the day.

2)  My friend from back home Barbara called me this week and cryptically asked if I was home. When I said I was, she said that I was going to get a delivery today, a surprise. A few hours later, an Instacart delivery person rang my door with all the ingredients to make Barbara's famous meatballs and sauce- along with Italian bread and salad. What a thoughtful, lovely gift! She sent me directions on how to make it, and it was the best meatballs and sauce I've ever made. We had it for two nights and put the rest in the freezer. Sometimes I just open the freezer to look wistfully at it. I love this idea, I hope it catches on.

3) I received my medal from my latest virtual bike ride. I have been riding the Ring of Kerry in Ireland, a 124.3 mile journey. I love that I get "postcards" along the way, describing interesting sights along the way. Next up, I'm riding St. Francis Way, a journey from Florence to Rome in Italy. 

4)  My husband and I starting watching Homeland on Hulu (originally on Showtime). Damian Lewis plays a Marine who is rescued after being missing and presumed dead for eight years and held prisoner by Al-Queda. His homecoming is difficult for his family, his fellow soldiers, and a CIA operative played by Clare Danes who has questions about what happened to him while in captivity. We're into season two, and the acting by Lewis, Danes and the great Mandy Patinkin, as Clares Danes' boss, is fantastic. 

5) I'm back in the groove with my reading. I read Mary Higgins Clark and Alafair Burke's latest collaboration, Piece of My Heart, while watching a New Year's Day Odd Couple marathon. The fast-paced novel quickly captured my full attention as I was drawn into the story of a young boy missing from a beach. It's one of a series of books about Laurie Moran, a producer of a true crime TV show (like 48 Hours or Dateline), but you don't to have had read any of the other books to understand this one. I couldn't put it down and it kept me guessing right up until the end.

Gabriel Bump's coming of age novel, Everywhere You Don't Belong was on the New York Times list of the Most Notable Books of 2020. He tells the story of Claude, a young Black boy growing up on the South Side of Chicago with his Grandma and her friend Paul. Good books put the reader into the mind and shoes of their character, and Bump does an amazing job at getting us to understand Claude's life. My full review publishes on Monday. Fans of Angie Thomas' The Hate U Give have their next read.

Julia Claiborne Johnson takes us to a 1938 dude ranch in Reno, Nevada where wealthy women stayed for  while they waited out their six week residency requirement to get a divorce in her delightful novel Better Luck Next Time. It's witty and had me laughing out loud more than once. 

Stay safe, socially distant, wash your hands, wear a mask, and get a vaccine when it's your turn and we'll make it through this.

Two Fantastic New Mysteries

Reprinted from the Citizen:

This month’s Book Report features the most recent domestic suspense novels from two writers who have written popular mystery series, as well as standalone novels.

Alafair Burke has authored 18 books, five of them the Under Suspicion series with the legendary Mary Higgins Clark, two series of her own, and five standalone books. Her latest standalone, The Better Sister, is thematically related to her two most recent successful books, The Ex and The Wife, but with different characters. 

In The Better Sister, Chloe, the executive editor of the highly acclaimed feminist magazine Eve, returns home from an awards banquet where she was the honoree to find that her husband, Adam, has been murdered. Chloe knew that the spouse was the first suspect in the mind of the police, so she did everything in her power to be helpful.

Things become complicated when the police turn their attention to Adam’s teenage son, Ethan. Ethan is the son of Adam and his first wife, Nicky, Chloe’s older sister. When Ethan was a toddler, Adam returned home to find Nicky face-down in their pool, with Ethan by her side.

He divorced Nicky and moved to New York, where he and Chloe eventually fell in love, married and raised Ethan. Nicky was out of the picture — until Adam’s death. Since Chloe was not Ethan’s legal mother, Nicky returns to take custody of her son.

Chloe and Nicky revert back to their familial roles: Chloe was the good girl who followed the rules and worked hard, Nicky was the partier with little sense of responsibility. Can they work together to clear Ethan?

Burke is a former prosecutor, and she knows how to write a courtroom scene that rings with truth and tension. And every parent’s heart will sink at the thought of their child in the situation that Ethan finds himself in.

The Better Sister is the perfect blend of character and plot. The characters drive the plot, and each character has secrets they are hiding that show they are not the person others believe them to be. This is a book you’ll want for a long airplane trip — time will fly as you furiously flip the pages to find out who did it.

Lisa Scottoline has written 41 books, including two series, several humorous nonfiction books and 15 standalone mysteries. Her newest standalone, Someone Knows, also deals with a big secret that drives the plot. 

Allie comes back to her hometown for the funeral of a man she had a crush on in high school 20 years ago. No one knows why David killed himself, but Allie is sure it has something to do with a tragedy that she, David, Sasha and Julian have lived with for the past 20 years.

After Allie’s sister died of cystic fibrosis, her family fell apart. Her mother couldn’t get over her grief, and her father couldn’t help her. When three of the cool kids in school bring Allie into their small group, she hopes that David will be her boyfriend.

Something bad happens one day in the woods, and the group breaks apart. Allie goes away to college, and marries a great guy, but can’t get over her guilty feelings. It drives a wedge between her and her loving husband, and Allie realizes she must find out the truth about what exactly happened if she is ever to find peace in her life.

But the two remaining people who know, Sasha and Julian, don’t want to talk about it. They have moved on, and don't want Allie to stir up the past.

The end of the book is filled with suspense, and you’ll be biting your nails and holding your breath, especially as everything comes to a furious conclusion. I found myself screaming, “Don’t go there, what are you thinking?” at one point. If it was a movie, I’d be peeking between my hands covering my eyes. (And it should be a movie.)

Scottoline really nails the teenage mind: the inability to think things all the way through, the longing to be part of a group, and the willingness to follow instead of doing what you know is right.

She also brings great empathy to Allie’s family situation when her sister dies. The family can’t find their way to grieve together, and it’s heartbreaking. Scottoline’s books get better with each one, and Someone Knows is among her very best.

If you read

BOOK: The Better Sister by Alafair Burke

GRADE: A-

PUBLISHER: Harper

COST: Hardcover, $26.99

LENGTH: 311 pages

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BOOK: Someone Knows by Lisa Scottoline

GRADE: A-

PUBLISHER: G.P. Putnam's Sons

COST: Hardcover, $27

LENGTH: 400 pages

The Friday 5ive- Post-Easter Edition

The Friday 5ive

The Friday Five is a post about five things that caught my attention this week.

1) Sunday was Easter, and we had a lovely pre-Easter dinner on Saturday at our apartment. It was great to sit down together and enjoy each other's company, good food and a lovely wine. And my family surprised me with a sweet Easter basket! Anna painted the basket (she is very creative), and Monica was tasked with shopping with Scott to pick out some beautiful gifts from Lily Pulitzer. (Nice job Monica!)

My pretty Easter basket

2) I went to see the Broadway revival of Kiss Me, Kate, starring the incomparable Kelli O'Hara. I've seen her in several shows- The King and I, South Pacific and The Bridges of Madison County, (which was my favorite). She was marvelous as always, and I have to say that Will Chase, who played her ex-husband and current co-star and director, was absolutely fantastic. I saw him in The Mystery of Edwin Drood and Something Rotten! and he gets better each time. The ensemble performance of Too Darn Hot, led by Corbon Bleu and James T. Lane, blew the roof off the house. They will be performing that song on Tuesday's Today Show, and you're going to want to see it. The website for the show is here.

3) This week I attended a book signing for Alafair Burke's latest suspense novel, The Better Sister, at Barnes & Noble on the Upper East Side. I read this timely, twisty mystery in one sitting. Burke read from the prologue of the book, and then spoke and took questions. I didn't realize that she has written 18 books (five of them with the legendary Mary Higgins Clark). My review of The Better Sister is here. It's a must-read for suspense fans. 

4) Today is a rainy, gloomy day in NYC, so this cheery sign that I saw on the exterior of the Church of the Epiphany is a good reminder that if I want sunshine today, I'm gonna have to be it.

5)  I'm halfway through Lisa Scottoline's newest suspense novel, Someone Knows, and it is as good as Adriana Trigiani has been saying. I've read several of Scottoline's stand-alone mysteries and each one is better than the last. This one is about four people who as teens are involved in a tragic incident that haunts them twenty years later. She really nails the mind of teenagers, and how they often can't comprehend that the decisions they make have long-lasting consequences. Put this one on your list too, mystery fans. Read more about it at Lisa Scottoline's website here.

What caught your eye this week? Let me know in comments.

The Better Sister by Alafair Burke

The Better Sister by Alafair Burke
Published by Harper Books, ISBN 9780062853370
Hardcover, $26.99, 320 pages

The Better Sister is the third book from Alafair Burke that is related thematically, although the characters are different in each book. The Ex deals with a lawyer called upon to defend her ex-boyfriend from a murder charge. The Wife features a woman whose high-profile professor/author husband is accused of preying sexually on young women. And in her latest, The Better Sister, a high-powered magazine editor finds her husband murdered in their  East Hampton vacation home.

Chloe worked her way up in publishing to become the editor-in-chief of the last successful feminist magazine standing. She married Adam, a former prosecutor for the Southern District of New York, now a lawyer in a white shoe firm. Adam was previously married to Chloe's older sister Nicky, who was always the wild-child bad sister to Chloe's rules-following, hard-working good sister.

One day Adam found Nicky floating facedown in their pool, with their toddler Ethan next to her. She had been drunk or on drugs (not unusual), and Adam divorced her and took Ethan to live in New York, where Chloe began to spend all her free time with them.

Adam and Chloe married, and Chloe became Ethan's defacto mom. Nicky was out of the picture, staying back home in Cleveland to care for their parents.

When Chloe finds Adam stabbed to death in their East Hampton home, she knows that the police will look hard at the spouse, they always do. She also has to contend with the fact that she is not legally Ethan's mother and has to contact Nicky, who soon shows up.

Chloe and Nicky revert back to their sibling relationship- Chloe is the responsible one, Nicky is the screw-up. But when the police turn their attention to Ethan as a probable suspect, Chloe and Nicky must make amends and decide to work together to prove Ethan innocent.

The Better Sister is a twisty, timely suspense story. Chloe is a women who is a prominent media person, and with that comes the trolls who send her hateful, even threatening, messages on social media. Chloe believes that perhaps one of them could be the killer.

Burke throws in a lot of red herrings, and she excels in letting the reader believe they may have solved the mystery, only to be surprised at the big reveal. Being a former prosecutor, she brings a sense of reality and tension to the courtroom scenes.

As the mother of two young men, I really felt such empathy for Chloe as a mother, trying to protect her son. I had a pit in my stomach during many scenes.

One thing you learn from The Better Sister is that secrets can destroy people, and I can only think that if they communicated better, some of their big problems could be avoided.

I read The Better Sister in one sitting, furiously turning the pages to find out who dunnit and why. I highly recommend it for anyone who likes a great suspense story.

Friday Five- Good Friday Edition

Welcome to the Friday Five, where I share five things that caught my attention this week.

1)  The flowers are finally in bloom in NYC. It made me smile to walk out of our apartment building and see these bright, beautiful tulips greeting me.

2)  My eyeglasses fell off a shelf and so I had to add a trip to Warby Parker to my errands to get them fixed. While I wasn't too thrilled with their customer service when I purchased my glasses, their customer service to get them repaired was quick and efficient. I waited less than five minutes for a optician to straighten those babies out. In the middle of their store is this huge round column, and at the top of the column are color-coordinated books, sans their dust jackets.

Warby Parker

3)  While I was walking the Upper East Side getting all my Easter items, I listened to the latest Conan O'Brien Needs A Friend podcast. This week's guest was Patton Oswalt, a comedian who right now is starring on NBC's comedy, A.P. Bio, which is hilarious. Oswalt has guested on so many TV shows (Parks & Recreation, Justified, Veep, the narrator on The Goldbergs), I can prett much guarantee you've seen him somewhere. I laughed so hard listening to him and Conan that my side literally hurt by the time I got home.

Conan O'Brien's podcast is https://teamcoco.com/podcasts

4)  The second episode of FX's limited series Fosse/Verdon aired this week. Sam Rockwell plays choreographer/director Bob Fosse and Michelle Williams plays Fosse's wife and partner, Gwen Verdon who inspired him, worked closely with him, and was betrayed by him, and they are both brilliant. This week's episode dealt with Fosse directing the movie Caberet, and we got deep into their relationship from the first meeting to their affair while he was married to someone else, and his affair while married to Gwen. Williams was amazing in a recreation of a dance sequence from the Broadway show Damn Yankees. Don't miss this one.  The link to the trailer for Fosse/Verdon is here.

5)  So many great books published on Tuesday, April 16th! Last week, I told you about Stephanie Evanovich's Under the Table (my review here) and Helen Ellis's Southern Lady Code (my review here). I read Irish novelist Sally Rooney's Normal People, which tells the story of two young people, a wealthy young lady and the son of her mother's housekeeper, who have an off-an-on relationship over the years. It's beautifully written, and it's hard to believe Rooney is just 28 years old.

I read Alafair Burke's The Better Sister in just a few hours because I could not put it down. When Chloe's lawyer husband is murdered, she and her estranged sister Nicky (and his previous wife) come together to protect Ethan, his son who the police believe to be a suspect. The are so many secrets here, and I gasped more than once as they were revealed. It's a great airplane/beach read .My reviews of the last two books will be up soon.

I wish you all a Happy Easter and Happy Passover.

Two Terrific Mysteries That Will Have You Guessing Until the Very End

Reprinted from the Citizen:

Sometimes a novelist will write a story that, when published, often more than a year later, is so topical that you wonder if the author has a crystal ball. Two recent novels, filled with nail-biting suspense and an end twist that will stun you, fit that bill.

Author Chris Bohjalian has written nearly two-dozen books, and what sets him apart as a writer is that he writes in so many different genres. He has written historical fiction (“The Sandcastle Girls," “A Light in the Ruins”), a ghost story (“The Night Strangers”), mystery (“The Double Bind,” “The Sleepwalker”), romance (“Trans-Sister Radio”) and a coming-of-age story (“Close Your Eyes, Hold Hands"). What they all have in common is that they make you think. 

His latest novel, “The Flight Attendant,” begins with flight attendant Cassie waking up hungover in a stranger’s bed in Dubai. While most people might be frightened by this fact, Cassie is used to it.

Cassie frequently drinks until she passes out or blacks out and sleeps around. This morning, she vaguely remembers that she came back to Alex’s hotel room, got drunk on vodka and had wild sex.

She painfully opens her eyes and looks over to find that Alex, a man who flew first-class on Cassie’s flight, has had his throat slit from end to end, and is covered in blood. Cassie panics: Did she do this? She has never been violent before.

Cassie quickly showers the blood off herself, tries desperately to wipe away any fingerprints she may have left behind, and rushes to get back to her hotel and her flight back home. Calling the police in Dubai is not a good idea.

The flight home to New York was stressful, and Cassie’s friend, another flight attendant, notices that Cassie is crying and upset. When the police begin to question the airplane crew about Alex, someone tells them that Cassie and Alex got very chummy.

Cassie remembers that a female work acquaintance of Alex’s showed up that night. What she doesn’t know is that the woman, Elena, is a Russian assassin who works for some oligarchs whom Alex supposedly stole money from.

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The tension is racheted up as Cassie tries to figure out who Alex was and who killed him, and Elena monitors Cassie, hoping she doesn’t have to kill her in this cat-and-mouse game that will have your heart in your throat until the crazy twist at the end. Anyone who is a fan of TV’s “The Americans," about Russian spies among us, should put “The Flight Attendant” on their list.

Alafair Burke is a former prosecutor turned author. Her newest novel, “The Wife,” tells the story of Angela and Jason Powell and their teenage son Spencer. Jason is a media sensation, author of popular nonfiction book “Equalnomics," NYU professor and owner of a consulting company that advises other companies on “how to make corporate decisions based on principles of equality.” He is the darling of the liberal 1-percenters. 

Angela was from the other side of the tracks on Long Island. She worked as a caterer to wealthy Hamptonites, where she met Jason, who swept her off her feet. Jason loves Angela and her young son Spencer, and they made a happy home in Chelsea, with Spencer at a private school and Angela at home caring for both of them.

All is well until the day a young intern accuses Jason of sexual harassment. He quickly becomes persona non grata until a police investigation is completed. His name is splashed all over the media, and the family comes under the spotlight, something that frightens Angela.

There is something in Angela’s past that she doesn’t want to come to light. She has gone to great lengths to begin a new life with Jason, and this incident could jeopardize that.

Then another woman accuses Jason of rape, and Angela now begins to doubt Jason. Could he have done what these women said he did?

A dogged female police detective is determined to get to the bottom of this when the woman who accused Jason of rape suddenly disappears. She believes there is more to the Powell family’s story.

There are so many layers to this gripping story. Burke keeps you guessing at to what the real story is, and there is more than one twist that will leave you breathless. By the time you get to the end, your head will be spinning. “The Wife” is a first-class mystery from a fantastic writer.

If you read

BOOK: “The Flight Attendant” by Chris Bohjalian

GRADE: A

PUBLISHER: Doubleday

COST: Hardcover $26.95

LENGTH: 368 pages

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BOOK: “The Wife” by Alafair Burke

GRADE: A+

PUBLISHER: Harper

COST: Hardcover $26.99

LENGTH: 352 pa

Diane La Rue is a member of the National Book Critics Circle and blogs about books at http://bookchickdi.blogspot.com. You can follow her on Twitter @bookchickdi, and she can be emailed at laruediane2000@yahoo.com.