The Altruists by Andrew Ridker
Penguin Random House: 3/5/19
eBook review copy; 320 pages
ISBN-13:
9780525522713
The Altruists by Andrew Ridker is a very highly recommended
debut novel about a dysfunctional family struggling after the death of
their wife and mother.
Arthur
Alter relocated his family, wife Francine and children Ethan and
Maggie, from Boston to St. Louis after accepting the non-tenured
position of engineering professor at Danforth University in St. Louis.
While he was sure he would eventually become a tenured professor, it
never happened. Francine is the person who keeps the family together and
it is her income, as a family and
couples therapist, that helps supports the family and pay for the mortgage on the large house Arthur wanted.
Francine died from cancer two years earlier and left her children a
large inheritance - money Arthur knew nothing about. Ethan and Maggie
are still reeling from the death of their mother and haven't seen their
father since. Arthur started an affair with a much younger professor
while Francine was dying, an affair Francine, Ethan, and Maggie all knew
about. Now Ethan and Maggie are both currently living in New York City.
Maggie is a recent college graduate. She is striving to do good things
for her neighbors and lives a life of self-imposed poverty, to the point
of starving herself. Ethan, 31, left his consulting job, is a recluse and was living off his inheritance, but is now deep in debt. His father never understood him.
Now, after not talking to his children for two years, Arthur, 65, has
a scheme he needs to put into action that involves the help of his
children. Arthur is going to lose the house to foreclosure because he
can't afford the mortgage, but if he can get his children to use their
inheritance to pay off the mortgage, then he and his girlfriend can move
into the house. To put his plan into action, he writes to Ethan and
Maggie, inviting them to come home for a visit, but his ploy doesn't go
exactly as he planned.
These are all memorable characters and readers will become
well-acquainted with Francine, Arthur, Ethan, and Maggie.
Francine is clearly the glue that holds this novel (and family)
together. Without her, everyone is self-involved and clueless. There are
moments where their actions or Arthur's obvious schemes to play on
sentiments are so off-the-mark or awkward, that it is both humorous and
yet poignant. Ridker succeeds in presenting the narrative with wit,
compassion, insight, and depth, making these flawed characters human.
The Altruists is an exceptionally well-written family saga. This
outstanding, complex, and compelling novel is a page-turner that will
hold your attention throughout. Both the quality of the writing and the
character development are excellent, resulting in a intricate, dynamic,
insightful, and perceptive debut novel. Chapters presents everyone's
point-of-view, including Francine's, and include flashbacks and the
backstory of the four family members.This novel is a pleasure to read
and makes Ridker a novelist to watch.
Disclosure:
My review copy was courtesy of Penguin Random House.
Before She Knew Him by Peter Swanson
HarperCollins: 3/5/19
eBook review copy; 320 pages
ISBN-13: 9780062838155
Before She Knew Him by Peter Swanson is a highly recommended thriller with unreliable narrators.
Hen (Henrietta) Mazur and her husband Lloyd Harding are settling into
their new suburban home outside of Boston. It's a perfect location for
Lloyd's commute and Hen's rented studio space nearby. Life seems to be
going well for the couple, especially now that Hen is on the right
medication to control her bi-polar disorder. When they meet and are
invited over for dinner by their neighbors, Mira and Matthew Dolamore,
the night is uneventful until Hen spots a fencing trophy in Matthew's
study that she knows looks like one that belonged to a young man who was
murdered two years before. Hen has been obsessed with this case and she
knows the trophy went missing after the murder.
Matthew works at the school where the murdered young man attended and
he knows Hen suspects him of something, so he removes the trophy. This
marks the start of Hen's obsession with Matthew and she begins to
watch/stalk him. Is she having another psychotic episode, like the one
she had during college, or is Matthew a killer? Hen talks to Lloyd and
the police, but it is unclear if anyone believes her due to her history of mental health problems.
Chapters alternate between the points-of-view of the characters.
Clearly none of these people are reliable and it is difficult to
ascertain if any of the characters can be trusted. None of these
characters are likeable either, which can be a plus or minus. As you
enter into their thought processes and actions, you aren't going to
trust any of them. Hen's immediate visceral reaction to Matthew after
seeing the trophy and promptly suspecting him of murder is odd and a
pretty big hurdle. The characters
are developed, although just to the extent that Swanson deems necessary
for his narrative. Bad choices and bad decisions abound in these characters.
The writing is quite good and held my attention, even through my
disbelief. Swanson also manages to ratchet up the tension while building
the suspense and keeping the atmosphere dark and disorientating. It is
clear that something bad is going to come of all of this, it is just
uncertain, with these flawed characters in what form or from whom the
imminent nefarious deed will come. Swanson manages to pull it all together in the end and several of my
questions and doubts were resolved. The ending is satisfying, but does
enter a somewhat well-traveled twist.
Disclosure:
My review copy was courtesy of HarperCollins.
We Must Be Brave by Frances Liardet
Penguin Random House: 2/26/19
eBook review copy; 464 pages
ISBN-13:
9780735218864
We Must Be Brave by Frances Liardet is a recommended novel which opens during WWII and spans decades.
In December 1940 during WWII, Ellen Parr finds a small child alone
and asleep on the bus of evacuees from the bombings in Southampton,
England. The bus arrived in village of Upton and Ellen, along with other
villagers, is trying to help sort out the evacuees and find them places
to stay. It seems that the child, who is later identified as Pamela,
was inadvertently put on the bus without her mother, who is later found
dead. Ellen is newly married to her older husband, Selwyn, owner of the
local mill, and has always known that she does not want children, but
Pamela captures her heart.
After a known aunt rejects caring for her niece, the authorities
continue to search for relatives of the girl. Three years pass and
Pamela becomes, for all intents and purposes, Ellen's daughter, so it is
shocking when a relative does show up and suddenly Pamela is taken
away. Ellen grieves and misses her deeply, but knows she must move on,
be brave, with the help of Selwyn and her many friends in the village.
We Must Be Brave is fundamentally Ellen's life story. The
novel begins in 1940, but later looks back at Ellen's traumatic
childhood through to her marriage to Selwyn, before moving through the
years in to the 1970's and finally to 2010. Through the years Ellen
continued to miss/obsess about Pamela, even after she, later in life,
helps another little girl named Penny. The devotion, obsession, of Ellen
with Pamela seemed a bit too forced to me and reduced her to a
caricature of a mother. She had the girl for three years, but surely
knew that a relative would eventually be found after the war.
There are positives to the novel and fans of historical fiction will
likely enjoy this one more than other readers. The pace to the narrative
is a little slow. The writing can be beautiful, poetic, and
descriptive, but also repetitious at times. The characters are portrayed
as unique, quirky individuals, which helps overcome the tendency to
have the characters also be a bit one-dimensional caricatures of a type
of personality. Additionally, it has the potential to be an emotional
novel for some readers, but, alas, I didn't shed a tear. I actually had a
higher rating in mind after the first two sections but then my opinion
slowly began to slide downhill. (3.5 rounding down)
Disclosure:
My review copy was courtesy of Penguin Random House.
Call Me Evie by JP Pomare
Penguin Random House: 3/5/19
eBook review copy; 368 pages
ISBN-13:
9780525538141
Call Me Evie by JP Pomare is a highly recommended twisty psychological thriller with an unreliable narrator.
Seventeen-year-old Kate Bennet is living in an isolated beach town in
New Zealand with a man who she has to call Uncle Jim. He keeps telling
her that he is trying to keep her safe; that the authorities are looking
for her; that she needs to recover her memory and get better. She has
been told that she did
something terrible one night back home in Melbourne. She is to tell
everyone that her name is Evie.
Chapters alternate before and after; between Kate's memories of her
past, with events leading up to her current house imprisonment as
"Evie," and her present situation in New Zealand. Her past memories seem
like that of a normal teenager. There have been some difficulties in
her life, but she seemed to be handling everything fine. Her present
circumstances seem illogical and sketchy. Jim is giving her some
prescribed drugs to help her feel better and recover her memories. She
doesn't trust him, but doesn't remember the events he claims lead them
to hide out here. He claims he is just trying to protect her and they
don't want "them" to find her whereabouts. Kate is desperate to find out
what she supposedly did and get home to Melbourne. At the same time,
Jim's paranoia and furtiveness is growing.
This is a engrossing thriller that will hold your attention, if only
to try and find out the truth behind Kate's tortured memory and her
current weird imprisonment with Jim. Every character is unreliable in Call Me Evie
so you aren't going to know who to trust. Kate's memory is fragile, but
she seems like she is truthful. Jim seems sketchy, like he's hiding
something, but he seems to want to protect Kate. Who can be trusted? Who
is hiding the truth? What is the truth? When you reach the denouement,
you will be shocked.
Call Me Evie is a well-written debut novel and certainly a
page-turner, making Pomare a writer to watch. The before chapters will
actually hold your attention and keep you reading in order to understand
what has happened in the after chapters. The after chapters move a
little slowly and are written to be vague, with a repetition of feelings and actions. Additionally, a case could be made that some of the information that is withhold until the end could have been slowly released earlier in the after chapters.
Disclosure:
My review copy was courtesy of Penguin Random House.
Dannemora by Charles A. Gardner
Kensington: 2/26/19
eBook review copy; 272 pages
ISBN-13:
9780806539249
Dannemora: Two Escaped Killers, Three Weeks of Terror, and the Largest Manhunt Ever in New York State
by Charles A. Gardner is a very highly recommended examination of the
events that lead to the 2015 breakout and the aftermath of the manhunt.
The Clinton
Correctional Facility is located in Dannemora, New York, in the
Adirondack Mountains, near the Canadian border. In June of 2015 two
convicted murderers, Richard Matt and
David Sweat, were able to escape the maximum-security facility. The two
were aided in their escape by prison employee, Joyce Mitchell. She
provided them with the tools they needed to cut through the steel walls
in their cells. From there they had access to the catwalk behind the
cells
that led to a series of tunnels and underground pipes that allowed them
to escape outside the prison walls through a manhole. For twenty-three
days news reports followed the escape and the manhunt while residents in
the area "were virtual prisoners in their own homes as law enforcement
from across the nation swept the rural wilderness near the Canadian
border."
Gardner, a municipal court judge, a
lifelong resident of the community, and a retired correction officer
does an excellent job presenting the background, complete story, and
timeline of the murderers, and the terrifying manhunt after their
escape. The escape was essentially the perfect storm of bureaucratic
incompetence and cost-cutting measures, combined with Mitchell's lack of
morals, ethics and stupidity. Gardener has professional insight into
the corrections systems history and training, and can pin point state
actions and budget cuts that resulted in an environment that helped
facilitate the escape.
Dannemora is an excellent true crime drama, well-written and skillfully organized.
For those, like myself, who were not familiar with the escape at
Dannemora, Gardner, provides all the information I needed to understand
the background and circumstances of the escape. He shares his personal
history and credentials which allow extra insight into the correctional
system. He furnishes the biographical background of convicted murderers
Richard Matt and
David Sweat. There is succinct information on Mitchell's fraternization
with both men, smuggling in contraband for them, and other,
inconceivable and just plain stupid actions on her part that assisted in
their escape. (She was also supposed to be their get-away driver, but
suffered a panic attack at the last minute and didn't show up.) He
explains some of the lax actions of a few the guards, why some security
measures are no longer followed, and how everything combined with
Mitchell's actions to result in the escape. The timeline leading up to
the end result of the manhunt is clearly laid out and easy to follow.
Disclosure:
My review copy was courtesy of Kensington.
The Last Romantics by Tara Conklin
HarperCollins: 2/5/19
Advanced Reading Copy; 368 pages
ISBN-13:
9780062358202
The Last Romantics by Tara Conklin is a very highly recommended family drama.
Opening in
2079, Fiona Skinner is a 102-year-old poet who, during a rare public
appearance, meets a
young woman whose parents named her "Luna" after a woman mentioned in
Fiona's world-famous work, "The Love Poem," written 75 years earlier.
This Luna wants to know the story behind the real Luna, from the poem.
This request requires a long story from Fiona, which makes up the bulk
of the novel.
1981 marks the beginning of "the Pause" for the Skinner
siblings. This is the year their father suddenly dies, leaving their
mother, Noni, a young widow with four children. They move out of their
beloved yellow house into a smaller, more modest home and Noni falls
into a paralyzing depression that lasts three years. At the beginning of
the Pause, the children were 4-year-old Fiona, 7-year-old Joe,
8-year-old Caroline, and
11-year-old Renee. While Noni stays in her bedroom for days at a time,
the Skinner children must fend for themselves, which creates a powerful
bond between them. Noni eventually reclaims her parental
responsibility, but the Pause deeply impacted the whole family with
reverberations into adulthood. Noni comes out of it as a much more militant woman, wary of men and any dependence upon them.
Fiona serves as the omniscient narrator for the story of her family
and how their traumatic childhood continued to be the root of issues
which followed them into adulthood. The sibling most damaged by the
Pause was Joe, but all of them suffer from consequences and approach
adulthood quite differently. Renee is driven and focused as she pursues a
medical career. Caroline marries early and is devoted to her professor
husband and their children
without considering her own desires. Fiona has a mindless job at a
nonprofit called
ClimateSenseNow! while secretly writing a blog detailing her sexual
encounters. Joe has problems with addiction that are basically ignored
or quietly handled by the family.
The writing is exceptional and the compelling story of the Skinner family will hold your attention throughout the novel. The early trauma from the Pause and the on-going family saga is gripping
enough without framing the engrossing parts of the story with hints of a
climate changed future. Actually, the chapters set in 2079 serve only
as a distraction from the real story. All the oblique references to a
dystopian future and climate change are never adequately addressed. These chapters become a structural problem that only serves to
detract from the real story. It would have behooved Conklin to find a
better venue for Fiona to relate the story of her family. The Last Romantics held
my attention, in spite of the structural problems of looking back from
the future to tell the story. I enjoyed the narrative immensely, but
would go to 4.5 on a rating based on the 2079 chapters framing the real
story.
Disclosure:
My review copy was courtesy of HarperCollins.
Never Tell by Lisa Gardner
Penguin Random House: 2/19/19
eBook review copy; 416 pages
ISBN-13:
9781524742089
Detective D. D. Warren Series #10
Never Tell by Lisa Gardner is a very highly recommended procedural and suspenseful thriller featuring Boston's Detective D.D.
Warren and victim's advocate/vigilante Flora Dane. This is an excellent novel and a superb addition to the D.D. Warren series.
Evie Carter returns home to find her husband, Conrad, dead in his
home office. He has been shot three times, but Evie takes his gun and
shoots his computer twelve times. The police arrive and see Evie, who is
obviously pregnant and still holding the gun. D.D. Warren arrives on
the scene and recognizes Evie from a case sixteen years ago, when Evie
was 16 and accidentally shot her father, a Harvard professor. Two
shootings can't be coincidental, as far as Warren is concerned.
When Flora Dane sees Conrad Carter's face on the news, she immediately recognizes him from when she was still a captive
of kidnapper, Jacob Ness. Ness took her to a bar where they met Conrad.
Now Flora must revisit her past to try and remember what she knows about
Conrad. She is also determined to discover the truth behinds Conrad's
murder and how it may be tied into crimes by Ness.
Never Tell is
an outstanding, fast-paced, intricate procedural that delves into dark
secrets and has questions and complications multiplying with every
chapter. This is an un-put-down-able novel that had me glued to every
page, breathless with anxiety and anticipation wondering what could
possibly happen next and what new information would be uncovered. The
writing and pacing is superb. The plot is complex, intelligent, and
astute. The final climax is disturbing, clever, heart-stopping, and brilliant. Truly, Never Tell is a stay-up-way-too-late-to-read-just-one-more-chapter novel.
The characters are all well-developed and well-established at this
point. For those who are new to the series, you can enjoy this as a
stand-alone novel, but fans of the series will appreciate it even more
as they will have a greater insight into the characters. There simply
has to be another addition to the series as soon as possible as there
are several questions that need answers, and some developments that
require further exploration, and other questions that need to attain a
degree of closure.
Disclosure:
My review copy was courtesy of Penguin Random House.
