Friday 5ive- February 3, 2022

Welcome to the Friday 5ive, a weekly post featuring five things that caught my attention this week. The cold weather finally hit NYC today, it was bitter outside while running errands.

1) I love getting book mail and today I received my Stories & Suspects Mystery Box from Bantam Publishing. This one has some terrific books, including Parini Shroff's The Bandit Queens, a book everyone has been buzzing about. It's a debut novel about a young woman in India who is falsely rumored to have killed her husband. But soon other women come to her asking for her help and she has a new side hustle.  Liv Constantine's upcoming The Senator's Wife is a suspense novel about a DC philathropist whose employee appears to be plotting to steal her life. Heather Darwent's literary suspense The Things We Do To Our Friends, is another debut set in at a university that looks like it will appeal to Donna Tart's The Secret History fans (like me). You know I like a cozy mystery set in a bookshop, so Ann Claire's Dead and Gondola will be at the top of my TBR list. C.J. Tudor's The Drift about three people fighting to survive in a snowstorm where something deadly is occuring is a timely read for this frigid weekend. I read Lisa Lutz's The Accomplice last year and loved the story of two friends-Owen and Luna- who met in college and became best friends. Owen's college girlfriend dies in an accident casting doubt on him and then 20 years later his wife (and Luna's friend) is murdered. What secrets are Owen and Luna keeping from each other and everyone else? They also included a container of Republic of Tea Earl Greyer blend, which will come in handy over the next few days.

2) Speaking of tea, we visited The Spice & Tea Exchange in St. Armand's Circle in Sarasota and I picked up a new blend- Cranberry Apple Tart. It was delicious and warmed me right up after running errands in 20 degree weather today. 

3) We found a new restaurant called 1592 Wood Fired Kitchen & Cocktails located on Main Street in Sarasota last week. It's got a Mediterranean menu and a really cool looking interior. They hung old doors to separate the bar area high top tables from the dining area and the lighting was visually appealing too. I ordered Zucchini Beignets, friend zucchini in the shape of beignets (donuts found in New Orleans) served over a tzatiki sauce that was very tasty. We will return. 

4) I love a good comedy special and Amazon Prime Video has a new Nate Bargatze special -Hello, World. Nate is a very funny comedian, hailing from Tennessee. I laughed from beginning to end at this one, with jokes about growing up in a conservative Christian family, getting older, and golfing with his wife among his best. He is a clean comic, and if you like Jim Gaffigan, give Nate Bargatze a try.  

5)  I read two good books to start off Black History Month. Sadeqa Johnson's immersive historical novel The House of Eve  is set in 1950's Philadelphia. When 15 year-old Ruby Pearsall falls in love with a Jewish boy whose family owns a local coffee shop, her dreams of being the first person in her family to go to college are in peril. In Washington DC, Eleanor Quarles finds herself far from her small-town Ohio roots when she attends Howard University, where she falls in love and marries William, the son of a well-to-do Black family. They are a loving couple who want to have a baby, only to be disappointed. Ruby and Eleanor both have challenges that keep them from achieving their goals, and Sadeqa Johnson writes characters that are three-dimensional and realistic (I liked that the men in their lives are loving and supportive). You get a true feeling for the hardships that women at that time faced. The ending is particularly pleasing, it made me smile. 

Goldie Taylor's memoir The Love You Save is for fans of Tara Westover's Educated and Sarah M. Broom's The Yellow House. Taylor shares her story of growing up in a tough East St. Louis neighborhood in the 1970's. Her mother leaves a young Goldie at her Aunt Gerald and Uncle Ross' house, where there are several other relatives living at any one time. Goldie's saving grace is her thirst for an education and her talent for speech that earns the attention of a few good teachers who encourage Goldie. The memoir shares the resilency of the human spirit and how it can overcome obstacles. I truly loved this, and my full review can be found here. 

Stay warm and safe until next time.

Friday 5ive- June 24, 2022

Welcome to the Friday 5ive, a weekly-ish post featuring five things that caught my eye this week.

1)  We visited our home near Sarasota this week with friends and after a wonderful dinner at Casa Antica Ristorante where we had some truly delicious wines, we popped up to the rooftop bar at the ArtOvation Hotel.   They had a watermelon cocktail that was quite refreshing, a fantastic view of Sarasota, and no one fell into the pool.

The view from the rooftop bar 

2) My dear friend Kelly brought me a special gift- a vintage Tommy Hilfiger dress with a bookcase pattern and a matching belt. Could there be anything more appropriate for me? It's darling.

3) File this under "You Never Know What You'll Find On An NYC Street". I was walking to the bodega across the street from our apartment to pick up a forgotten dinner ingredient and I found this set of 15lb dumbells. If I could have carried them back to our apartment, I would have, but would I have been able to use them on Peloton strength workouts? Probably not.

4) When I returned from our trip to Florida, I had two book boxes waiting for me. The first was titled "Stories & Suspects- A Bantam Mystery Box" from Bantam publishers. It had five mystery/thriller books, a cookie from Carnegie Deli and a silk sleep mask from Brooklinen inside. This was a great surprise, I had no idea it was coming from Random House. I think I'll read Nonna Maria and the Case of the Missing Bride  by Lorenzo Carcarterra first. I'm in an Italy state of mind now.

The other box was from Book Club Girl to celebrate their podcast's second anniversary. I really enjoy listening to the podcast, hosted by Tavia Kowalchuk and Bianca Flores, where they interview authors and we get to hear an audio clip from the book. This season they had Lucy Foley discussing her bestselling The Paris Apartment, Vanessa Riley discussing Island Queen, and one of my favorites Jenny Colgan talking about The Bookshop on the Corner. This box had some terrific summmer swag including four fabulous books, a lightweight tote, a travel tumbler, and an outdoor blanket perfect for taking to the beach or park to lay out and read on. I'm going to read Piper Huguley's By Her Own Design first. It's a novel about a Black designer, the granddaughter of slaves, who designed Jackie Kennedy's wedding dress. I've had my eye on this one for awhile now. 

  5) I read one great book this week. Seamas O'Reilly's Did Ye Hear Mammy Died?, a memoir recounting his early childhood in Derry, Northern Island. Seamas was just seven years old when his mother tragically died of cancer, leaving her husband to raise their eleven children. You might think this is a sad story, and it is at times, but Seamas recounts some hilarous stories from his childhood that had me laughing out loud, and people asking me "What is so funny?" It really is a love letter to his strong, loving, funny, compassionate father whose abiding Catholic faith sustained him throught his life. If you liked the Netflix series Derry Girls, you will love Did Ye Hear Mammy Died. I loved it so much I sent a copy to my Mom for her birthday. (Shout-out to the river's end bookstore in Oswego, New York for getting the book to her in just a day and a half. They have the best customer service!) 

Stay safe and strong my friends.

The Hollywood Spy by Susan Elia MacNeal

The Hollywood Spy by Susan Elia MacNeal

Published by Bantam ISBN 9780593156926

Hardcover, $27, 368 pages

There are a small number of series that I impatiently wait for the next book to publish, and Susan Elia MacNeal's WWII spy Maggie Hope series is one of the few. Maggie has taken us from London to Berlin to the coast of Scotland to Paris, and in the latest book, The Hollywood Spy, Maggie is in 1943 Los Angeles to help her former boyfriend discover who killed his fianceé.

Maggie's old beau RAF pilot John Sterling is in Hollywood training pilots for war. He also has a project in the works at Walt Disney Studio, working on an animated film about pilots. Disney has opened up his studio lot for the war effort, in addition to creating films intended to promote the US involvement in the war. 

Maggie's friend and former spy Sarah has a dance role in one of the films, so Maggie is staying with her at the Chateau Marmont hotel. While investigating the drowning of John's fianceé, which the police have ruled an accident, Maggie discovers an ugly underbelly of Los Angeles.

Los Angeles was a hotbed of Nazism until Pearl Harbor in December of 1941. While the Nazis have seemingly gone underground, the Ku Klux Klan is an emerging power. Their anti-Semitism, anti-immigration, and racism attracts people drawn to the White Power movement, including people high up in the Los Angeles police department.

The more Maggie digs, the more she discovers a possible connection between John's fianceé's death and the Nazi sympathizers. But when evidence in the case disappears, Maggie doesn't know who to trust.

MacNeal immerses the reader in 1943 Los Angeles. We visit such iconic places as The Cocoanut Grove, Disney Studios, and Schwab's Pharmacy. Her descriptions of the architectural mishmash of different styles - Moroccan next to Spanish next to Greek next to Roman- highlight that Los Angeles is "a mirage in the desert- suspended between fantasy and reality", a point made more than once. (One house that Maggie visits actually contains fake marble columns from a film set.)

Since this is Los Angeles, many famous people made cameo appearances- Walt Disney, Linus Pauling, Howard Hughes, Cab Calloway, Lena Horne, Hattie McDaniel, Igor Stravinsky- that add to the atmosphere of the story. It's also good to have our old friends here- Sarah and John.

I learned so much about a time in the history of Los Angeles with which I was unfamiliar, and a glance at the extensive Sources section at the end are a tribute to the substantial amount of research MacNeal did in crafting this fascinating chapter in Maggie Hope's story.

MacNeal opens the book with two powerful quotes- one from Hitler in 1933 about undermining the morale of the American people, and one from Albert Camus' The Plague about a plague lying dormant and rising again. Both of these (unfortunately) resonate with the political dynamics of today. I don't know if it should be a comfort to know that as a country we have faced these problems before or a disappointment that we still have not reckoned with anti-Semitism and racism.

The Hollywood Spy is the tenth book in the brilliant Maggie Hope series and it's good to see that Maggie has seemingly come through the personal troubles she has faced in the last two books. Fans of Jacqueline Winspear's Maisie Dobbs series should start reading the Maggie Hope books, they're a great companion- both women are strong, intelligent, brave and great inspirations for young women. I highly recommend The Hollywood Spy.

New in Paperback- The King's Justice by Susan Elia MacNeal

The King's Justice by Susan Elia MacNeal

Published by Bantam ISBN 9781984819598

Trade paperback, $16.99, 348 pages

Now that I have binged the entire four seasons of Netflix's The Crown, I couldn't wait to return to the world of WWII in Susan Elia MacNeal's Maggie Hope series with her ninth book, The King's Justice.

We last left Maggie on an island in Scotland where she was forced to stay with other British intelligence agents who had been deemed security risks in The Prisoner in the Castle.  (My review here) Now Maggie is back in London, but she is no longer working for British intelligence.

Her job is still dangerous though, as it is 1943 and Maggie is part of a team who dismantles the many unexploded German bombs that lie in wait around London. She is training a young man, a conscientious objector who wants to do his part.

Maggie is dragged back into her past as the man she shot and helped put behind bars, Nicholas Reitter "the Blackout Beast", a wannabe Jack the Ripper, is awaiting sentencing for his crimes. While he is in prison, a copycat killer is on loose.

Reitter, in a Silence of the Lambs scenario, will only talk to Maggie, so she is pressed back into service to help track down the new killer. The scenes between Maggie and Reitter are incredibly tense, something MacNeal excels at as a writer.

MacNeal also does a great deal of research for her Maggie Hope novels, and in this one we learn about the prejudice facing Italian immigrants in Great Britain during WWII. I had no idea that Italian immigrants were rounded up and placed in custody, much like the United States did to Japanese- Americans following Pearl Harbor.

When it becomes apparent that the killer is targeting conscientious objectors, Maggie believes that that the police, including Detective Chief Inspector James Durgin whom Maggie has worked with and cares deeply about, should warn the objectors. Durgin doesn't want to tip off the killer and refuses, which causes Maggie much anguish.

Now that we are back in London after books set in Paris and Scotland, we see the toll that the war is taken on Maggie and her friends. Maggie is drinking way too much, her flatmates Nigel and his wife Charlotte are having marital problems, and her friend Sarah is still struggling after her horrific intelligence mission in Paris.

The King's Justice gives us everything we want in a Maggie Hope novel- a suspenseful mystery to be solved, catching up with Maggie and her friends, and a new look at a piece of WWII history we knew little about. (And as someone who recently visited the Tower of London, I really enjoyed the ravens section, we loved our tour of the Tower.)

 Fans of Jacqueline Winspear's Maisie Dobbs series should begin the Maggie Hope series right away while we await the next Maisie book due in 2021. The new Maggie Hope mystery, The Hollywood Spy, set in 1943 Los Angeles, publishes this summer, and once again the cover is gorgeous. I can't wait!

The King's Justice by Susan Elia MacNeal

The King's Justice by Susan Elia MacNeal
Published by Bantam 9780399593840
Hardcover, $27, 352 pages

Now that I have binged the entire three seasons of Netflix's The Crown, I couldn't wait to return to the world of WWII in Susan Elia MacNeal's Maggie Hope series with her ninth book, The King's Justice.

We last left Maggie on an island in Scotland where she was forced to stay with other British intelligence agents who had been deemed security risks in The Prisoner in the Castle.  (my review here) Now Maggie is back in London, but she is no longer working for British intelligence.

Her job is still dangerous though, as it is 1943 and Maggie is part of a team who dismantles the many unexploded German bombs that lie in wait around London. She is training a young man, a conscientious objector who wants to do his part.

Maggie is dragged back into her past as the man she shot and helped put behind bars, Nicholas Reitter "the Blackout Beast", a wannabe Jack the Ripper, is awaiting sentencing for his crimes. While he is in prison, a copycat killer is on loose.

Reitter, in a Silence of the Lambs scenario, will only talk to Maggie, so she is pressed back into service to help track down the new killer. The scenes between Maggie and Reitter are incredibly tense, something MacNeal excels at as a writer.

MacNeal also does a great deal of research for her Maggie Hope novels, and in this one we learn about the prejudice facing Italian immigrants in Great Britain during WWII. I had no idea that Italian immigrants were rounded up and placed in custody, much like the United States did to Japanese- Americans following Pearl Harbor.

When it becomes apparent that the killer is targeting conscientious objectors, Maggie believes that that the police, including Detective Chief Inspector James Durgin whom Maggie has worked with and cares deeply about, should warn the objectors. Durgin doesn't want to tip off the killer and refuses, which causes Maggie much anguish.

Now that we are back in London after books set in Paris and Scotland, we see the toll that the war is taken on Maggie and her friends. Maggie is drinking way too much, her flatmates Nigel and his wife Charlotte are having marital problems, and her friend Sarah is still struggling after her horrific intelligence mission in Paris.

The King's Justice gives us everything we want in a Maggie Hope novel- a suspenseful mystery to be solved, catching up with Maggie and her friends, and a new look at a piece of WWII history we knew little about. (And as someone who recently visited the Tower of London, I really enjoyed the ravens section, we loved our tour of the Tower.)

 Fans of Jacqueline Winspear's Maisie Dobbs series should begin the Maggie Hope series right away while we await the next Maisie book due in 2021.

Three Great Titles for the End of Summer

Reprinted from auburnpub.com:

It’s hard to believe that summer is almost over. If you want to get in some good last minute reading before the leaves begin to change, this month’s Book Report has a few suggestions.

Don Winslow is best known for his crime thrillers, (“Cartel”) set on the West coast. His latest novel, “The Force” is set in New York City, and it is a propulsive, action-packed crime novel that will leave you breathless.

Denny Malone is the leader of the Manhattan North Special Task Force, known as “Da Force”. They are the alpha cops, the ones you see on the news, making big drug, gun and gang busts, putting the bad guys behind bars and making Northern Manhattan safer. “If there was a secret Da Force didn’t know about, it was because it hadn’t been whispered about or even thought about yet.” 

“Da Force” are supposed to be the good guys, but when the temptation of all that drug money and their desire to provide a good lives for their families collide, trouble follows. The novel opens with hero cop Malone behind bars himself in federal lockup with a big decision to make- protect his family or his partners.

The novel then tells how Malone got there, and it whips along at a breakneck pace. Winslow so submerges the reader into the grittier parts of Upper Manhattan, you actually feel like you’re right there along with him. And if you think only the cops are dirty, let’s just say that no one gets out of this unscathed.

Stephen King calls “The Force” “The Godfather, only with cops”, and that may be the best blurb I have ever read. It utterly describes the vibe you get from reading this heart-pounding book. Winslow dedicates this novel to the law enforcement personnel who lost their lives during the time he wrote the book, and names them all- the list is two and half pages and is a sobering beginning to this outstanding book, which I highly recommend.

Author Susan Elia MacNeal’s WWII heroine Maggie Hope returns in her seventh adventure in “The Paris Spy”. Maggie goes undercover working with the Winston Churchill’s Special Operations Executive in Paris during the German occupation. 

Her work is extremely dangerous, and when an agent who has valuable information about the pending Allied invasion is captured, Maggie and two of her colleagues must find that information and get it back to England, all while looking for the traitor in their midst.

Maggie must also deal with competing intelligence agencies who don’t trust each other, and she has a personal mission- find her missing sister, who was liberated from a concentration camp and hasn’t been seen since.

Maggie and her cohorts risk their lives, and there are many tense scenes in this outstanding entry in this historical mystery. At the end of the book, Maggie faces a troubling decision, one that will resonate in the next book, which I can’t wait to read.

MacNeal does impeccable research for her novels, and “The Paris Spy” is no different. She includes an Historical Notes section at the end, which is fascinating to any WWII history buff, and she gives the reader a list of books she consulted, in case you want to continue your own historical reading.

Taylor Jenkins Reid’s “The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo” may put people in mind of Elizabeth Taylor. Evelyn Hugo was a glamorous movie star during the glory days of Hollywood, beloved by millions and married to seven men. She has been out of the limelight for years, and an interview with her is coveted by many people. 

Only Hugo knows why she chose a relatively unknown reporter to secretly write her biography, each chapter about one of her seven husbands. Throughout the story, we find out that the love of Hugo’s life was not one of her husbands, but a complete surprise, a relationship she kept hidden from the public out of fear.

The characters in this fascinating novel are so well-drawn, particularly Hugo herself. She is a larger-than-life movie star and she jumps off the page as she tells her amazing story. It reminded me of Adriana Trigiani’s “All The Stars In The Heavens”, and if you are a Turner Classics Movie fan, “The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo” is a must-read. It’s a heartbreaker.

“The Force” by Don Winslow- A+

Published by WilliamMorrow

Hardcover, $27.99, 482 pages

“The Paris Spy” by Susan Elia MacNeal- A+

Published by Bantam

Hardcover, $26, 301 pages

“The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo”- A

Published by Washington Square Press

Hardcover, $26, 400 pages

Two More Books About Marriage

Last month my Book Report featured two novels that revolved around marriage- Dennis Lehane's Since We Fell and Deanna Lynn Sletten's One Wrong Turn.  I recently read two more books that featured marriage in very different lights. (My review is here.)

Sarah Dunn's The Arrangement revolves around Lucy and Owen, who moved from hipster Brooklyn to quiet upstate Beekman, a bucolic little Norman Rockwell-y commuter town. They have a son Wyatt, who is on the autism spectrum, and whose illness has caused strain in the marriage.

When friends mentioned that a mutual couple they know have decided to have an "arrangement", whereby both of the spouses can have lovers outside of the marriage, both couples laugh at the notion, even though it apparently has worked for Frank and Jim.

After a particularly stressful day, Lucy and Owen jokingly make up a list of rules for their own little arrangement- no one can know, they can't fall in love, they must use condoms and there is a time limit of six months. They call it their own little "rumspringa" (like the Amish do) and shake on the deal.

Owen meets a woman at the supermarket who flirts with him, and Lucy meets a divorced father of two in New York City. At first it seems to be working, but like all bad ideas, this one falls apart too.

The Arrangement is quick page-turner of a book, with solid, interesting characters that the reader invests in. Peeking into someone else's marriage is an eye-opening experience. I think this would make a fabulous book club selection, the conversations would be fascinating.

My only minor complaint is that it may have been more interesting to go against stereotype with Lucy and Owen and their respective experiences, but I do enthusiastically recommend The Arrangement.

Michelle Richmond's The Marriage Pact is about a newly married couple, Alice and Jake. Alice is a respectable lawyer, who at one time was in a rock band. Jake works with troubled teens. When one of Alice's very wealthy clients gives them a special wedding present, the trouble begins.

Alice and Jake are invited to join a group, The Pact, whose goal is to help couples stay happily married. At first it seems like an admirable goal, making your spouse feel loved and cherished, doing special things for him like buying presents, and planning trips away. But again, things fall apart.

The Pact has very specific rules, and violators of those rules are punished in very specific ways. At first the punishments seem minor, but repeated violations result in more severe punishments. If you are deemed to not be 'with the program', you are whisked away to be reprogrammed- or worse.

The Marriage Pact is a crazy novel. It's sort of like Scientology in its cult-like secret society, but when Alice and Jake find out exactly what they have gotten themselves into, the story takes off like a rocket. You will find yourself holding your breath and saying "what the what?" is happening here. My heart was pounding at times reading this. It's been awhile since I read The Pact, and I still find myself pondering it. If you thought Gone Girl was nuts, read The Marriage Pact.

One thing I learned from reading both The Arrangement and The Marriage Pact is to be very careful what you and your spouse agree to, you never know where it will lead. The Marriage Pact and The Arrangement read together would make for a very intriguing book club meeting indeed, especially if it was a couples book club.

The Arrangement by Sarah Dunn
Published by Little, Brown ISBN 9780316013598
Hardcover, $26, 357 pages

The Marriage Pact by Michelle Redmond
Published by Bantam ISBN 9780385343299
Hardcover, $27, 432 pages

Three Historical Mysteries

Reprinted from the Citizen:

Sometimes you need an escape from the outside world, and books can take you away to another place and time. A good mystery can do that, and the three authors highlighted this month have each written a series set in a different era, with a female protagonist in an interesting profession.

Susan Elia MacNeal set her Mr. Churchill’s Secretary in 1940 London. Maggie Hope is a young American woman, all set to attend prestigious MIT in Massachusetts when she is called to London to oversee the sale of her late grandmother’s home. 

With the looming war, Maggie is unable to sell the house, so she stays in London and finds work as a secretary for Prime Minister Winston Churchill. Maggie had her sights set on working in British intelligence, using her education in math to help break German codes, but as a woman that avenue is closed to her.

There is a mystery to Maggie’s life. For some reason unknown to Maggie (or the reader), British intelligence is keeping tabs on Maggie. At the same time, she discovers something about her dead father that puts her in the middle of a dangerous situation.

Mr. Churchill’s Secretary is a fast-paced and well-researched novel. McNeal reveals in a Historical Note at the end of the book that she came upon the idea while touring the fascinating War Cabinet rooms in London, and researched the women who worked there. (Don’t skip this interesting section.)

Maggie is a wonderful character, and several times in the book, MacNeal had me audibly gasping as she put Maggie in some tight situations. If it was a movie, I would have spilled my popcorn many times.

MacNeal plunges the reader into wartime London, and you get a real sense of what it was like to live with the terror of bombs descending on the city where you live. MacNeal has six more more books in this terrific series, with a seventh due this August, and I can’t wait to read them all in succession.

Radha Vatsal’s debut novel, A Front Page Affair, takes us to 1915 New York City, as Capability (what a great name!) “Kitty” Weeks is working as a reporter on the fashion and society pages for the New York Sentinel newspaper. 

Kitty really wants to cover the hard news stories, something that women just weren’t allowed to do.  While covering a society party on Long Island, a man is murdered and Kitty is the only reporter on the scene.

She takes advantage of her position and works to discover why Mr. Cole was murdered. Was he having an affair with a married woman? Did he owe money to someone shady?

As Kitty delves deeper into the murder mystery, she discovers that her father (like Maggie Hope’s) has something he is hiding. The murder mystery may also have something to do with a wartime conspiracy, and Kitty uses her wits and education to unravel the truth.

Kitty Weeks is an intriguing protagonist, and the jailhouse scene is tense and well done. Vatsal’s second book in the series, Murder Between the Lines publishes in May, and her interest in female silent film directors is supposed to be a running theme in her books, which is unique and interesting.

Victoria Thompson writes about turn of the 20th century New York City in her Gaslight Mystery Series, featuring midwife Sarah Brandt. The first book in the series, Murder on Astor Place introduces us to Brandt and NYPD Detective Sgt. Frank Malloy. 

As a midwife, Sarah has seen many women die in childbirth. But while on one house call to aid in a delivery, she stumbles upon a young woman who has been murdered. The woman comes from a well-to-do family, a family that Sarah knows well, but they seem uninterested in why or how their relative died.

Sarah meets Sgt. Frank Malloy, a widower with a young son. Since the murdered woman’s family is interested in the case, Malloy decided he has other more pressing issues. Sarah pushes Malloy to work the case and insinuates herself in the investigation, and a friendship blossoms.

Thompson has written 18 books in the series, all set in New York neighborhoods, such as Murder in Chinatown and Murder in Little Italy, and her series has an avid fan following. If you are a New York City history buff, the Gaslight Mystery Series gives you a true look at a growing city.

Mr. Churchill’s Secretary by Susan Elia MacNeal- A+
Published by Bantam Books
Trade paperback, $15, 306 pages

A Front Page Affair by Radha Vastal-B+
Published by Sourcebooks Landmark
Trade paperback, $15.99, 312 pages

Murder on Astor Place by Victoria Thompson-B+
Published by The Berkley Publishing Group
Trade paperback, $15, 268 pages

He's Gone by Deb Caletti

He's Gone by Deb Caletti
Published by Bantam Books ISBN 978-0-345-53435-4
Trade paperback, $15, 323 pages

When Dani Keller wakes up after a party at her husband’s work the night before, she finds him gone. She knows she had one too many glasses of wine, and she can’t remember everything that happened. Did they have a fight?

She figures he’s off sulking or went to get coffee, but when he doesn’t return, she begins to realize He’s Gone, the name of Deb Caletti’s incredibly tense, punch-to-the-gut examination of a marriage.

Dani was married to an abusive husband with an adorable daughter Abby when she met Ian. His daughter played on Abby’s baseball team, and Dani and Ian were immediately attracted to each other.

They weren’t the kind of people who had affairs, but this was different. Ian’s wife Mary liked to drink, socialize and spend money. Ian was more introspective.

Dani and Ian have an affair, and though they are conflicted about it, eventually they end up together. Mary and her daughters are furious, and cut Ian out of their lives. Ian is tortured by the breakup of his family.

As the hours tick by, Dani calls everyone Ian knows, but he is nowhere to be found. His car is parked by their houseboat, no one has used his cell phone or credit cards. Finally Dani calls the police, they start an investigation, but there is no sign of Ian.

Ian’s daughters blame Dani, and soon the police focus in on her. Not only does she have to deal with not knowing where her husband is, but she could be a suspect in his disappearance.

As the story unwinds, we see that things are not as perfect as Dani first tells everyone. She and Ian call each other their soulmates, but what does that really mean?

More than a mystery, this is an examination of a relationship. Dani must dig deep to answer some hard questions not only about her marriage, but also about herself.

The writing is superb. Upon discovering Ian gone, Dani thinks

 “I didn’t think about discovering someone else’s breakfast dishes or the change from their pocket left out on the dresser, their presence sitting right next to their absence.”

Her descriptions of people are vivid too. Of Ian, Dani thinks

 “Ian likes things to go right. He liked the towels folded a certain way; he likes the car vacuumed a certain way; he likes an email to be written in a certain way. He doesn’t like errors of balance or manners or grammar. He never makes mistakes, I swear. Never a misstep. It can get exhausting, trying to measure up. You start to feel as if you’re on a perpetual job interview.”

Since Ian isn’t available to tell us his side, we have to rely on other to tell us about him.

Caletti’s observations about relationships rang so true. 

“When you love a person, you come to know so many things about them. You know what they’ll order in a restaurant, and you know that they’ll cut the scratchy tags off their shirt collars and that they get cranky when they need to eat or when the bed sheets become baggy. You know by the lilt and rhythms of their voice if they’re talking on the phone to their mother, or their daughter, or their lawyer. But, maybe most of all, you know their relationship to criticism.”

Dani goes through all of the things that could have happened to Ian- he ran away, he’s injured, he’s dead, he went back to his first wife. But in order to do that, she has to face some hard truths about who Ian really is and who she is, and what they were together.

The resolution to the mystery is my original theory, though Caletti does a good job throwing people off the scent until the last moment. He’s Gone evokes so many emotions as you read it, you’ll find yourself thinking about it for a long time to come.

Some people may compare it to Gone Girl, as they are both mysteries about what happens to a missing spouse, but He's Gone is so much richer and deeper in its themes and execution.

Rating 4 of 5

You can read an excerpt here.