FALL by Colin McAdam

I’d seen FALL described as a “literary whodunit,” and was looking forward to some good sleuthing. It’s not quite like that. Mystery is involved, but plot and intrigue are entirely secondary to the study of adolescent development.

The two main narrative voices are Noel and Julius, both students at St Edbury’s – a Canadian high school for the children of the wealthy. Julius’s narration is an unpunctuated stream of consciousness, immediate and sensory. He’s good-looking, not overly bright and (as the story progresses) increasingly shown to be good-natured.

December 13, 2010 · Judi Clark · No Comments
Tags: , ,  Â· Posted in: Canada, Coming-of-Age, Contemporary, Mystery/Suspense, Reading Guide, y Award Winning Author

PAYING BACK JACK by Christopher G. Moore

Having succeeded so spectacularly in his last case that he’s forced to hightail it out of Bangkok for a spell, PI Vincent Calvino begins his tenth adventure contemplating an expensive case of scotch and the view from his hotel suite in the seaside tourist destination of Pattaya.

Having also saved his satisfied new client from a drive-by assassination, Calvino is anticipating the juicy steak that’s next on his agenda when a beautiful woman falls past his balcony to her death. Calvino is so deeply implicated in her murder that it takes his friend Colonel Pratt to extricate him.

November 21, 2010 · Judi Clark · No Comments
Tags: ,  Â· Posted in: Sleuths Series, Thailand-Bangkok

THE REVERSAL by Michael Connelly

Michael Connelly brings together criminal defense attorney Michael (Mickey) Haller and his half-brother, the cynical and battle-scarred LAPD Detective Harry Bosch, in Connelly’s latest legal thriller, THE REVERSAL. Mickey calls himself “the defender of the damned,” a job he has had for over twenty years. “During that time,” he states, “I’d grown a suspicion and distrust of prosecutors and police….” Still, the Los Angeles District Attorney convinces Mickey to become an independent special prosecutor in the second trial of forty-eight year old Jason Jessup. The defendant has spent twenty-four years in San Quentin for abducting and strangling twelve-old Melissa Landy. Over the last two decades, Jessup has vociferously proclaimed his innocence while filing numerous motions and appeals in an attempt to have his conviction overturned.

October 5, 2010 · Judi Clark · No Comments
Tags: , , , , ,  Â· Posted in: 2010 Favorites, California, Mystery/Suspense, Sleuths Series, y Award Winning Author

BETWEEN SUMMER’S LONGING AND WINTER’S END by Leif GW Persson

At the center of this Swedish espionage thriller is the death of an American journalist, John P. Krassner, circa 1988. Was it an accident, a suicide, or murder? The facts known at the opening is that first his body and then his boot falls from the 16th floor of a student dormitory. The boot struck and killed a Pomeranian named Charlie. Charlie’s owner, Vindel, is trying to recount the seconds between the body and the boot falling from the window. After this wry and arresting opening, the reader is plunged into a dense and plodding world of Swedish politics.

September 15, 2010 · Judi Clark · No Comments
Tags: ,  Â· Posted in: Facing History, Sweden, Thriller/Spy/Caper, Translated, World Lit

A NOVEL BOOKSTORE by Laurence Cosse

A few months ago, someone told me he’d just finished one of the most amazing books he’d ever read. He was visibly shaken by the idea that he’d found the book by accident and could so easily have missed the book altogether. “What if I went through life without reading this novel,” he mused, and this was followed by another thought, “how many other novels as good as this am I missing?” From this point, the conversation moved on to the observation that readers are saturated by publicity for some books while others are quietly published and subsequently sink and disappear without a trace. This conversation came back to me when I read A NOVEL BOOKSTORE, a book written by Laurence CossĂ© and translated by Alison Anderson. On the surface level, this is a mystery, but on a meta-level, A Novel Bookstore is an indictment of the cannibalizing publishing industry, the mass marketing of “taste,” and a subtle examination of fascism. All this in just around 400 pages. A NOVEL BOOKSTORE plays out just like an excellent French film–great entertainment on a surface level, but yet some deep philosophical statements resonate in the background.

August 31, 2010 · Judi Clark · One Comment
Tags: , , ,  Â· Posted in: 2010 Favorites, France, Mystery/Suspense, Reading Guide, World Lit, y Award Winning Author

THE LAST ESTATE by Conor Bowman

This is a short but pungent tale about crime, betrayal, passion, love, and a scar–both real and psychic. How juicy is that? Especially when you blend in the CĂ´tes du RhĂ´ne-Villages wine made from the dark-skinned Syrah, Mourvèdre, and Cisault grapes. Throw in a pivotal love affair, a chateau, a virulent father, and an odious priest, and you have the crushing, pressing, and fermenting ingredients of a serious page-turner. The title refers to the legacy of the protagonist–the chateau, estate, and wine cellar he is set to inherit.

August 27, 2010 · Judi Clark · 3 Comments
Tags: , , , ,  Â· Posted in: France, Mystery/Suspense