Thursday, June 28, 2018

Bring Me Back by B.A. Paris

Finn's girlfriend, Layla, disappeared twelve years ago while they were on vacation in France. Now he's engaged to Layla's older sister, Ellen, whom he met more recently. When an elderly former neighbor says he's seen Layla and Ellen finds a Russian doll that is very similar to one she lost as a child outside their home, Finn begins to think that maybe Layla is still alive. He also begins to panic because he wasn't forthright with the authorities when Layla went missing. So the question becomes whether Finn has something to fear, or if someone just toying with him. In addition, will Layla soon turn up? A so-so read, not as satisfying as B.A. Paris' previous two novels.

Monday, June 25, 2018

The Perfect Couple by Elin Hilderbrand

On the morning of the wedding, maid of honor Merritt Monaco is found drowned at the Nantucket estate Summerland, owned by popular author Greer Garrison Winbury and her husband, Tag. Their younger son, Benji, was due to marry Celeste Otis in lavish nuptials that Greer had overseen and organized. With everyone in a state of shock, Chief of Police Ed Kapenash is treating the death as suspicious and goes about interviewing all the family members staying at the house. In The Perfect Couple, the reader follows the investigation and explores the backstories of the characters, leading up to the present time, most notably through the eyes of Greer, Celeste, and Celeste's mother, Karen, who is battling cancer. In this latest novel by Hilderbrand, she mixes it up a bit by having a murder frame the story, but it still contains all the elements that readers love about her novels--the setting, a focus on interpersonal relationships, and descriptions of the daily lives of wealthy islanders.

Friday, June 22, 2018

Broken Ice by Matt Goldman

P.I. Nils Shapiro and his partner, Anders Ellegaard, are hired by wealthy businessman, Roger Engstrom, to find his teenage daughter, Linnea. She went missing while in St. Paul to watch a hockey tournament. One of Linnea's classmates, Haley Housh, disappeared around the same time and was found dead in a local cave. Could their vanishings be connected, even though they weren't friends? In fact, Shapiro becomes even more determined to solve both cases when he is shot with an arrow while at the cave crime scene. In this second book in the Nils Shapiro series, Goldman writes a mystery that will appeal to fans of Robert Crais' Elvis Cole.

Sunday, June 17, 2018

The Endless Beach by Jenny Colgan

In this sequel to The Cafe by the Sea, Flora is enjoying how much pleasure her cafe brings to the residents of Mure, but is worried about her business staying afloat financially. She also wishes her boyfriend, Joel, would spend more time at home rather than flying around the globe in his job as an overworked lawyer, to island millionaire, Colton. Her best friend, schoolteacher Lorna, meanwhile is fond of the local doctor Syrian refugee, Saif, who wonders constantly about the fate of his wife and two young boys back home. While these two storylines dominant The Endless Beach, the reader gets to catch up on the lives of all the residents in this cozy tale.

Friday, June 15, 2018

News of the World by Paulette Jiles

In 1870, Captain Jefferson Kidd is asked to return ten-year-old Johanna Leonberger to her aunt and uncle. Four years ago, Johanna was kidnapped by the Kiowa tribe, the rest of her immediate family brutally murdered. Now, the Kiowa have traded her to the U.S. Army for blankets and silverware. However, Johanna doesn't remember anything or anyone from her life before she was taken. Taking a journey fraught with danger and dealing with the unpredictability of Johanna is quite a challenge for the 71-year-old Captain Kidd, but slowly, during the long trip through the middle of Texas, they bond, and Kidd is able to teach Johanna some aspects of how the white people live. With lots of details of daily life at the time and a descriptive setting, News of the World is an intriguing tale. Give to people who enjoyed Jim Fergus' One Thousand White Women and Nancy Turner's These Is My Words.

P is for Peril by Sue Grafton

Kinsey is hired by Fiona Purcell whose ex-husband, Dow, disappeared two months ago. Dow is now married to the much younger Crystal which upsets Fiona to no end. Fiona doesn't believe the police are doing a good job, so that's why she has hired a private detective. Dow is the medical director at a senior living residence called Pacific Meadows. After a little investigating, Kinsey finds out that the facility is under investigation for Medicaid fraud. Could Dow have disappeared with loads of money or did he come to a sinister end? Suspects and motives abound for Kinsey. In addition, she's found the perfect office to move into, but is the place too good to be true? What a satisfying book, made all the more bittersweet by Grafton's death last year.

Summer Wives by Beatriz Williams

In 1969, famous actress Miranda Schulyer returns to Winthrop Island after an eighteen year absence. In 1951, as an eighteen-year-old, she first visited the island when her mother was about to marry wealthy Hugh Fisher. On the island, Miranda was introduced to an opulent lifestyle as a summer resident living at Greyfriars, the Fisher estate. During that fateful summer, Joseph Vargas was sent to prison for murdering Hugh--and now Joseph has escaped from prison. Everyone is wondering where he is, especially the authorities and Miranda, who fell in love with Joseph all those years ago and has maintained his innocence. In the Summer Wives, forty years of the lives of the Vargas' and the Fishers are explored as the reader gets to know both families' secrets. Now, with Joseph on the run, will Miranda be reunited with the true love of her life?

Tuesday, June 5, 2018

The Death of Mrs. Westaway by Ruth Ware

Twenty-one-year-old Hal is all on her own in the world, broke and making a living reading people's fortunes on the pier in Brighton. When she receives a letter from a lawyer saying that she is one of the beneficiaries of her grandmother's will, she is perplexed since her grandparents died years ago. But with a loan shark threatening to harm her, she decides to travel to Cornwall and pass herself off as the Harriet Westaway named in the will. The Westaway home, Trepassen House, is an old manor house in need of repair and the housekeeper, Mrs. Warren is old and creepy, but the family members embrace Hal as their long lost relative. Yet, as she spends time there, questions form in Hal's mind about her possible connection to the Westaways and if she really should be deceiving them. Soon, she finds herself with more questions and suspicions than ever...