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(originally posted on October 11, 2006)
Talley's appealing breast cancer survivor sleuth returns in her seventh appearance and it's likely her most gut-wrenching: trying to find her kidnapped grandson Tim, taken from under his parents' noses. Talley explores family relationships with a sharp eye, compassion and keen urgency and makes me want to read all the books that preceded this one.
(originally posted on October 11, 2006)
Why is Carlotto among my very favorite authors? Because on the surface, he has no moral compass, equating heroes with villains and giving everyone a dark path to wander down, but deep down his explorations of thwarted justice and contempt for the Italian system stems from deep-seated idealism cruelly taken away - and brilliantly explored here, as always.
(originally posted on October 11, 2006)
Bar none, one of the best books I've read this year, possibly in many years. How a novel has such an ability to alter my thought processes, to give me a brief phantom glimpse into the Capgras syndrome that plagues Mark Schluter, and to make me see the world in an entirely new way both baffles and thrills me. THE ECHO MAKER is lightness and joy, despair and darkness, and every nuance in between.
(originally posted on October 11, 2006)
Can you really go wrong with the curious adventures in urban Boston as told from the perspective of a rat? And what a rat this is - erudite, literate, thoughtful, and yes, a rather sentimental sort. Savage's debut is readable and opaque, leaving questions at the end about the book's entire premise. But then, looking for identity often leads to serious altering of ideas and expectations...
(originally posted on October 11, 2006)
This memoir had all the things I could pretty well ask for: a great premise (crime journalist runs off to France and finds salvation and welcome at a Paris bookstore) appealing characters, self-reflection and oh yeah, shout-outs to my hometown, which also happens to be Mercer's place of birth and raising. If you want to know about independent bookstores, of passionately eccentric folk and about community, this is the book to pick up.
(originally posted on September 20, 2006)
This is so, so my kind of book. A broken young man gets mixed up with a shadowy underground group - headed by the mysterious Aris Kindt - to perform staged murders upon those hoping to feel something, anything in the aftermath of 9/11. And that's only scratching the surface of this dreamlike phantasm of a novel that perches itself on the edge of a surface brimming with uncertainty and even madness.
(originally posted on September 15, 2006)
This may well be one of the most plausible noir novels I've read in some time as Ward takes his psychiatrist protagonist down what seems to be an innocent path, only to morph into something scarier and more calamitous with every plot turn. The things we do for love, it seems, turn out to be the worst decisions with ever lasting consequences.
(originally posted on September 15, 2006)
How would Burke follow up the bravura performance that was BLOODLINES? As it turns out, she went with a more linear, contemporary story that - while straining the believability factor just a tad - is still pure Irene Kelly all the way. And once again, Burke shows she has a wonderful ear for how children talk and relate to each other, and a great sense of warmth and compassion to her writing.
(originally posted on September 15, 2006)
Some may remember how much I flipped for Braffet's creepy, wonderfully written debut JOSIE AND JACK. Her second book opens up the action much more in its exploration of disappearances old and new, the tenuous tendrils that link mothers and daughters and the horror that lurks in every corner, no matter how innocuous the setting may be. Braffet has a real gift and it's only going to develop and mature over the course of her career.
