The 17th Suspect

The latest Women's Murder Club novel from the prolific James Patterson and Maxine Paetro. Someone is targeting San Francisco's homeless population, but they haven't yet committed a murder in Sergeant Lindsay Boxer's jurisdiction. Yet, thanks to her confidential information, she has been first on the scene to three different murders, leading her to believe her fellow investigators may be padding their hours. Assistant District Attorney Yuki Castellano, meanwhile, tries a high profile assault case that could change legal precedent, if her client is telling the truth. And the search for a murderer is hampered by Boxer's unusual medical symptoms. But her friends are with her each step of the way. This book is just fast moving fluff. I got hooked on this series from the beginning and read each new one when it comes out. The series is basically a soap opera in book form. I kind of hate to admit I read it....

Island of the Mad

One of the Mary Russell and Sherlock Holmes series by Laurie R. King. I love this series! I'm this one, Russell and Holmes help an old friend track down a missing, and aunt. Lady Vivian Beaconsfield has spent most of her adult life in one asylum or another since the loss of her brother and father in the Great War. Her mental state seemed to be improving, but she's now disappeared after an outing from Bethlem Royal Hospital (better known as Bedlam). Together, Russell and Holmes search Bedlam to Venice, only to find the increasing shadow of Benito Mussolini.

Vinegar Girl

A modern retelling of The Taming of the Shrew by Anne Tyler. Kate Battista is running life for her scientist father and stuck-up sister, Bunny. She also works at a preschool where the children love her but the parents don't. Dr.Battista is close to a breakthrough, but his brilliant lab assistant, Pyotr, is about to be deported. If that happens, all will be lost. So Dr. Battista hatches a plan, expecting Kate to help him. She is furious;it's too much! Yet the very ludicrousness is touching.

Leave no Trace

Fascinating novel by Mindy Mejia. Ten years ago, Lucas Blackthorne and his father trekked into the Boundary Waters wilderness; and didn't come out. They were presumed dead. Until... a decade later, mostly mute and prone to violence, Lucas walks out. He is put in a psychiatric hospital. Maya Stark, assistant language therapist, is charged with making a connection. She has secrets of her own, and abandonment issues. She's drawn closer to Lucas, and will risk all to reunite him with his father.

The Shadow of the Wind

A gorgeous novel by Carlos Ruiz Zafon, translated from Spanish by Lucia Graves. Daniel works with his father in their bookstore in Barcelona just after the war in 1945. He is initiated one night into the secret of the Cemetery of Forgotten Books, where he findsa a novel by Julian Carax called The Shadow of the Wind. Daniel loves the work so much, he sets out to find the rest of Carax's body of work. Only someone has been there first, systematically destroying all the Carax books he can find. Daniel must find the truth of his quest which has opened up one of Barcelona's deepest secrets, or those he loves will suffer greatly.

Wives and Daughters

A novel by Elizabeth Gaskell. I read and enjoyed Gaskell's book North and South, so I thought I would enjoy this classic as well. I was wrong. The pace was slow, for one thing, and I just couldn't be enthusiastic about any of the characters. I can see the worth of the novel, but I finally had to abandon it. A rare thing for me. Perhaps it just wasn't the right time and if I pick it up again someday I'll be able to enjoy it. Perhaps not.

What Happened That Night

A gripping novel by Sandra Block. Dahlia is a senior at Harvard, successful and pretty. Then, one night at a party, she is brutally attacked. Her memory of the assault is vague, and she is left with a cold rage. Five years later, she is tattooed as a survivor, working as a paralegal, depending on her gay best friend to get her through the pseudo-seizures that PTSD leaves. Then a video of the attack surfaces online; and her rage becomes white hot. With the help of James, the awkward IT guy, Dahlia vows revenge on her attackers.

The author describes depression accurately. She also is spot on in her description of a character with Asperger's Syndrome, and what he does to compensate for his differences. I saw the final twist coming, but I am intuitive and at one time made a steady diet of books such as this in my reading life. I still stayed up way too late to read this well-crafted novel.

We Have Always Lived in the Castle

A short novel by Shirley Jackson. I found this book, though highly recommended, to be just ... weird. I didn't like it at all. It's narrated by Merricat Blackwood, a teenager, (though she comes across as younger, her emotional growth has been stunted). Merrckat, her sister Constance, and their disabled Uncle Julian live together in a large house. Merricat runs their errands in the village, where the villagers treat her with disdain. The rest of the Blackwood family has died through poisoning four years before. Connie had been tried and acquitted for their murders. One day Cousin Charles shows up, a mercenary soul who has heard the rumors that all the Blackwood money is kept in the house. He woos Connie, befriends Julian, threatens Merricat. A fire chases him away and shows the nature of the villagers. (Horrible, all of them.) Merricat and Connie salvage what they can and move into the kitchen, the only inhabitable room. It's an overview of obsession, greed, mob mentality, remorse (on the part of some of the villagers), but it's just weird.

Under Rose-tainted Skies

A young adult novel by Louise Gornall; difficult to read at times. Norah is seventeen, smart, funny ... and afraid to leave her house. She has a number of fears and phobias; her mental health is so fragile that she stays indoors, communing with the world through windows and social media. Then Luke shows up on her doorstep. He sees her as smart, funny, and brave. He researches her mental illnesses. He becomes her friend. Their relationship turns deeper, but Norah knows Luke deserves a normal girlfriend, one at least not afraid of kissing! Can she let him go for his own good? Or can she see herself through his eyes?

Absent in the Spring

Written by Agatha Christie under the pseudonym of Mary Westmacott, this was not her usual fare of mystery, but general fiction. Joan Scudamore is traveling back to England after visiting her daughter in Baghdad, and the rains have caught her between trains on the Turkish border between trains. Stranded in the desert with nothing to do and nothing to read, Joan is left to simply reflect on her life, her family, and come to grips with some harsh realities about herself. I found this novel gripping, perhaps because of Christie's keen observations of people, and I found it ultimately disappointing, because of Joan's final decision.