Trust Me When I Lie by Benjamin Stevenson
Sourcebooks: 8/13/19
eBook review copy; 352 pages
ISBN-13:
9781492691150
Trust Me When I Lie by Benjamin Stevenson is a highly recommended mystery set in Australia.
Jack Quick produces a true crime TV series on the murder of Eliza
Dacey, an English backpacker working as an itinerant grape-picker whose
body was found on the land of Curtis Wade. Curtis was quickly charged
and convicted for the crime. Jack's documentary is slanted to show that
circumstantial evidence and police bias were responsible for his
conviction. Jack's series results in the retrial of Curtis and he is set
free four years after his conviction. Although Jack has private doubts
about Curtis's innocence, he keeps quiet about his concerns. When
another murder occurs after Curtis's release that seems to be an
imitation of the first, Jack is conflicted. Is it a copycat murder or is
Jack back killing again after his release?
Jack Quick is a well-developed complicated character with moral
conflicts and more than his fair share of secrets and regrets. He
travels back to the small town that was the scene of the first crime,
essentially placing himself and Curtis in close proximity after the
second murder. The prejudicial, insular, and isolated setting of the
small Australian wine town becomes another character and plays an
integral role in the plot as Jack searches for the truth.
The writing is straight forward, but there are twist embedded within
that you won't notice - until you do. The tension increases
incrementally and gradually, building to a climax in this novel. I will
admit that it was slow going for a while and I had to purposefully keep
focused on the plot until it picked up. Then it became clear that no one
could really be trusted. The ending surprised me.
Disclosure:
My review copy was courtesy of Sourcebooks.
Radio Dark by Shane Hinton
Burrow Press: 8/20/19
eBook review copy; 130 pages
ISBN-13:
9781941681602
Radio Dark by Shane Hinton is a recommended quirky, dark, weird apocalyptic story.
Memphis is a custodian at a radio station in Florida when the apocalypse begins.
In this end of the world scenario people fall inexplicably into a
catatonic state where they require neither food nor water but they can
be led around and posed. There
is a DJ at the station who is still broadcasting and a local preacher
who has a regular show when Cincinnati, an FCC field agent, visits the
station with her procedure manual to enact emergency measures to keep
the station on the air. As the power grid fails, Cincinnati's solution
to keeping the station on the air and broadcasting to any survivors, is
to build a tower of catatonic people (they are great conductors).
While there are a few comical incidences, there
is no doubt that this is a weird, dark, bleak, odd story. Memphis is
the narrator, but he is just relates the events without emotion or
personality. It is never revealed why the plague occurred, though the
preacher blames it on the radio waves, on all the noise. There is also
no resolution to the plot. In some ways I feel as if I need to reread it
in order to unearth any allegorical connections or references that I
may have missed or some conclusion that slipped by me.
Disclosure:
My review copy was courtesy of Burrow Press.
We Are All Good People Here by Susan Rebecca White
Atria Books: 8/6/19
eBook review copy; 304 pages
ISBN-13: 9781451608915
We Are All Good People Here by Susan Rebecca White is a highly recommended multi-generational drama that follows two college roommates over three decades.
The narrative begins in the radical 60's. Daniella Gold, from
Georgetown, was raised by a Jewish father and a Methodist mother as a middle-class, liberal Unitarian.
When she attends Belmont
College in 1962, her roommate is Eve Whalen. Eve grew up as a
privileged daughter of an old-money Atlanta family. Despite their
different backgrounds, the two young women became best friends. For the
first time, Eve actually notices prejudice and tries to improve
conditions for their college house maid, but instead the results are
harmful and ruinous. Daniella experienced prejudice before and continues
to when she was told none of the sororities on campus would ask her to
pledge due to her Jewish father. Eve, who had never experienced any
prejudice, supports her and refuses to pledge in support of Daniella.
They both
transfer to Barnard College in NYC for their sophomore year.
At this time the two become more deeply involved in social issues and
expand their awareness of the injustice and prejudice in the South. They
also grow apart as Eve becomes more radical while Daniella works with
others to bring about change and pursues her education. Daniella earns a
law degree and marries. Eve takes up with a violent, radical anti-establishment,
underground group and the two lose touch. When Eve is involved in a
destructive tragedy, she turns to Daniella to overcome her radical past.
The novel then jumps to the daughters of the two friends.
White excels at capturing the history, events, time, and place of the decades involved and covers
the gamut of social injustices, racism, diversity, family,
the South, history, religion, and the complexities of life. Starting
with the sixties and moving through the decades to the nineties, the
questions of social consciousness and morality continue to the end. If
it sounds like it is a whole lot to cover, it is and although she does a
very good job, it is almost too much to cover with any degree of
serious insight. This means you have to go with the flow and follow the
plot and the very basic social ramifications of the decades as presented
to appreciate the novel. In reality, the entire time span is too
complex to be captured in so few pages.
The
quality of the writing is outstanding. The narrative is best viewed as
women's fiction and a character study of the lives of these two women
and their daughters. At the beginning of the novel when Daniella and Eve
are well developed characters, but we lose this later in the novel when
the focus shifts to their daughters. In some ways this was a
regrettable choice as it makes only the early years of a woman's life as
an interesting time. Sure we get glimpses of their lives, but lose the
close contact with the characters.
In a chapter when Eve is radicalized, there is an incident with a cat
that... (shaking head) is very hard to stomach and may be difficult for
animal lovers to overcome. I hate having this scene in my head and I
even skimmed through it after I realized where it was going.
Disclosure:
My review copy was courtesy of Atria Books.
The Turn of the Key by Ruth Ware
Gallery/Scout Press: 8/6/19
eBook review copy; 352 pages
ISBN-13:
9781501188770
The Turn of the Key by Ruth Ware is a highly recommended psychological thriller with Gothic overtones.
Rowan Caine is hired for an unbelievably generous salary by a
wealthy couple to be a live-in nanny for their children at their estate,
Heatherbrae House, in the
Scottish
Highlands. The house has been remodeled and wired to be a smart home,
where everything - lights, music, grocery lists, coffee maker, phones,
cameras in rooms, and more - are all controlled by technology called "Happy."
The three young girls who will mostly be in her charge seem sweet and
the teenage daughter is away at school, so when Rowan learns she is in
charge and being left alone with the girls in the house as soon as she
arrives with only the handyman, Jack Grant, around, she thinks she can handle it. But all is not as it seems.
The narrative is told through a letter to a solicitor from a Rowan
who is in prison awaiting trial for murder for the death of a child in
her charge. Rowan wants to tell her side of the story, a story that
wasn't listened to by her solicitor. Caring for these children is much
more trying than she thought it would be. The baby is a handful, and the
other two girls, eight and five, are hardly the sweet children she met
at the interview. She heard that the house is believed to be haunted,
but she doesn't believe in ghosts. However, Rowan is hearing footsteps
at night and then there is the malfunctioning technology doing things
like blaring music at night and operating lights at will.
This is an atmospheric psychological thriller that has a Gothic feel
but combines it with creepy cutting edge technology in an isolated
location. There is a feeling of unease and tension that is created
right at the start and then both increase incrementally as the novel
progresses. You know Rowan is in prison, but you don't know who dies and
what happened. There are little clues, but they are carefully embedded
in the narrative. You get the sense that Rowan might be an unreliable
narrator, but you aren't sure. The ending was a big surprise for me, but
it was satisfying and answered all my questions.
The characters are well developed, but bits and pieces are held back
with good reason as Rowan tells her story in her own way, only revealing
what she wants us to know, when she wants to tell us. This style helps
increase the atmospheric creepiness factor. The other characters are all
viewed through Rowan's point-of-view. Even the house and grounds become
a character. Rowan may not be a likeable character, but she is
believable in her thoughts and reactions.
The writing is quite good and I liked the way the plot unfolded and
the story played out, carefully and incrementally. I was surprised that
one of the huge plot twists which surprised me was withheld until the
end. It seemed that it would be the first thing you'd want to tell a
lawyer when you were awaiting trial for murder. Another final shocker,
though, explained why. All in all, though, this was a very good thriller
and I am going to look into more novels by Ruth Ware. 4.5
Disclosure:
My review copy was courtesy of Gallery/Scout Press.
The Victim by Max Manning
Sourcebooks/Landmark: 8/6/19
eBook review copy; 336 pages
ISBN-13:
9781492667018
The Victim by Max Manning is a so-so examination of two choices and two outcomes during an attack.
Gem Golding, a public relations executive, has two choices when she
is accosted in a parking lot by a man with a knife: to fight or to
comply; to be a warrior or a victim. The attacker, Con Norton, is a
psychopath who has made the attack a game where he alone decides what
happens. Gem doesn't know this or the rules to his game, but her choice
of how she will react will determine what he will do.
After the initial encounter where Con demands the keys to Gem's car,
two different versions of the future are presented in parallel
timelines. Chapters are alternately from the point-of-view of "Gem, the Warrior" or as "Gem, the Victim," and then within the chapters the alternate stories are told through Gem, Det.
Insp. Elliot Day, Con, and Gem's boyfriend, Drew Bentley. Also present is journalist
Matt Revell who is using Gem's story to advance his career. The
alternate story lines oscillate between the two different outcomes based
on Gem's initial decisions.
The two different story lines sort of reminded me of the choose your
own adventure books my children were obsessed with while in grade
school. In this case, while it was an interesting idea, I'm not sure it
was a great choice. The choice to present the two different narratives
in this rather contrived format simply didn't work for this reader in
this story. Perhaps if Manning stuck with alternating simply on Gem as
either a warrior or a victim it would have been a more successful
alternate universe sort of story. Adding all the other characters and
their reactions and choices to Gem's initial choice lessens the dual
perspective of the consequences of her initial choice. I started out
liking the book, thinking it might be an interesting way to tell the
story, but it soon became tiring for me and the resolution to the two
narratives were both not completely satisfying.
Disclosure:
My review copy was courtesy of Sourcebooks/Landmark.
The Perfect Wife by JP Delaney
Penguin Random House: 8/6/19
eBook review copy; 432 pages
ISBN-13:
9781524796747
The Perfect Wife by JP Delaney is a recommended domestic thriller featuring artificial intelligence.
Five years after her death, Tim Scott, the founder of Scott
Robotics, has created a cobot, or companion robot, of his wife, Abbie
Cullen-Scott. Abbie, the cobot, has memories, but not all memories, only
those Tim has chosen to download. She knows she was an artist, mother,
good cook, and a surfer. Tim, however, won't tell Abbie how she died.
Abbie, while trying to regain whatever memories or knowledge she can,
learns that she supposedly drowned in a surfing accident, but a body was
never recovered and Tim faced murder charges in her death.
After starting out as an intriguing premise with the possibility of The Perfect Wife
becoming a compelling addition to the science fiction genre, it soon
became clear that little significant sci-fi evolution in the plot was
actually going
to happen. The novel, after the exciting opening, suddenly becomes a
domestic thriller along the lines of the "new" woman researching the
former wife. Few facts and little real usage was made of the AI needed
to make a cobot and program one to resemble a dead person. In order to
continue reading, I had to set my love of hard sci-fi aside.
The narrative unfolds through the points-of-view of Abbie the cobot
and the Scott Robotics employees. The chapters alternate between the
past and present and are told in the second and third person omniscient. It feels awkward when reading. What
does work is the depiction of Danny, Tim and Abbie's Autistic son.
Danny is the only character who felt real, believable. I'm afraid the
rest of the characters fell a bit flat for me.
Viewing The Perfect Wife as a domestic thriller, with the new
wife researching the previous wife, is what kept my interest in the
plot. In that aspect, the writing certainly kept things moving and
propelled the plot forward. The ending, however, was a let down, as were
the many plot points left hanging. This novel is okay - a good
airplane book.
Disclosure:
My review copy was courtesy of Penguin Random House.
Strange Harvests: The Hidden Histories of Seven Natural Objects
by Edward Posnett
Penguin Publishing Group: 8/6/19
eBook review copy: 336 pages
ISBN-13: 9780399562792
Strange Harvests: The Hidden Histories of Seven Natural Objects
by Edward Posnett is a very highly recommended, fascinating look at seven uncommon natural products.
In a synthesis of travel writing, history, interviews, and nature writing, Strange Harvests is a captivating, engaging, and thought-provoking adventure. Posnett traces the current and historical use of
seven precious natural objects from their historical origin to their
harvesting for use. These natural items include: eiderdown, swiftlet bird nests, civet coffee, sea silk, vicuña fiber, tagua, and
guano. As Posnett points out, "Each object
served an important purpose in the natural world... yet its removal, its harvest, need not spell
discomfort, mutilation, or death." The book includes notes and an index.
"The eider is
a
fat seabird, more penguin than duck..." that can be found nesting in
Iceland today where they are a protected species. Eiders don't naturally
nest in large colonies but after years of co-habitation they will
congregate close to humans for shelter and protection when nesting. They
line their nests with eider down, which can then be collected after the
eider's leave. If a harvester cares for the ducks, more will come to
nest, which, in turn, will increase the amount of eider to be harvested.
The coat of a vicuña is another incredibly soft, insulating fiber that is treasured. Vicuñas roam in the Andean puna,which accounts for the development of their coat. After facing extinction, vicuñas are now protected by the communities that have a stake in their survival, with the reserve of Pampas Galeras at the forefront of the efforts.
The black-nest Swiftlet makes nests that are edible and treasured by the Chinese. The nests have been a major export commodity, perhaps as far back as the
T’ang dynasty (618–907). "During breeding
season, both male and female birds begin to retch and chew, excreting
small strands of a thick, gelatinous substance from these modified
salivary glands lying below their tongue. This they spread in arched
form across the cave wall, inserting dark brown or black feathers from
their plumage. After thirty days, the initial arch has grown to form a
shallow cup into which the bird lays one egg." These nests are made on
the roof of caves and harvesting them is a physical challenge. Recently
harvesters have been making birdhouses to attract swiftlets to live in
buildings.
The story of civet coffee, or kopi
luwak, is as riveting as it is somewhat disgusting. Civet musk has been
collected and sold for years. A more recent development is collecting
coffee beans after they have been eaten and excreted by civets, and selling this as kopi luwak, civet coffee. The digestive
enzymes are supposed to add a distinctive flavor to the coffee. Along
the same excremental lines, guano has been collected off of some eighty
islands off the coast of Peru. These island receive little rain, so the
guano built up and accumulated to vast amounts of organic fertilizer.
The tagua nut is from a palm, Phytelephas, found mostly in northwestern South America. It is creamy white,
dense, and smooth and its cellulose is arranged in concentric
circles. In the
past, it was discovered that the tagua nut could easily be carved into
buttons, figurines, and toys. Plastic has now replaced the market for
tagua buttons, but there is hope among botanists and development experts that if people learned they could make money for the
harvest of “nontimber forest products” (NTFPs), it might induce forest conservation.
Bivalve mollusks, such as mussels, clams,
scallops, and pen shells, produce silken threads known as byssus.
This sea silk or
byssus, is used as an anchor by the mollusks to tether themselves to the seafloor against the
push and pull of the waves. Underwater, the beards look like brown moss, full of
algae and small shells, but when cleaned and combed, they appear to be golden threads, commonly known as sea silk. These
threads have been prized for their shine and strangeness for nearly two thousand years. Harvesting them is now prohibited. Until October, 2016, a weaver in Sardinia who called herself the "Maestro Chiara Vigo" ran the "The Museum of Byssus" and claimed a history of weaving that discounted others. Now that the museum has been closed, other women in Sant’Antioco, the descendants of the weavers from
Italo Diana’s school, are exchange their stories and reclaiming their heritage.
Disclosure:
My review copy was courtesy of Penguin Publishing Group.
