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....

Confessions of a Queen B*

By Crista McHugh, this was a thoroughly enjoyable young adult book; apparently book 1 in a series. High school hallways everywhere have a type of queen bee - usually head cheerleader, drawing everyone into her orbit out of desire to be near her. Alexis Wyndham is the other type of queen B - the queen bitch. She makes the in-crowd quiver by what she posts on her blog, using her position to help unpopular kids. Posting video of freshmen being bullied, etc. She doesn't care about acceptance, from anyone. Enter Brett, the star quarterback. They're teamed up for a unit on reproduction, or how to avoid it. It involves pretend-parenting a doll that needs changed, bottled, and burped. Head cheerleader, who claims Brett, doesn't like this. Neither does Alexis, at first. Stereotypes don't always fit.

The Grave's a Fine and Private Place

This is the ninth in the Flavia de Luce series by Alan Bradley. Flavia is now 12, and reeling from a family tragedy. Dogger, loyal servant that he is, suggests a boating trip for her and her two older sisters as a necessary escape from moping about the house. Dogger took them boating near a church where the vicar had recently been put to death for poisoning three of his parishioners with cyanide in the communion wine. Of course Flavia, an expert chemist with a passion for poison, is excited about this. Then, while punting near the church, dabbling her fingers in the water, Flavia hooks something. it is not the Hemingway-sized fish she first imagined, but a body. AH! The perfect remedy for sorrow, in Flavia's book, is solving a murder. Though it could bring about her own.

This may just be my favorite of the delightful Flavia de Luce series. And it leaves plenty of room for more books to come. The children and I pass these books around as we get them; they are adult fiction, but no cursing, sex, or gratuitous gore. Flavia is a worthy young heroine, especially for unschooled kids, as most of her learning (and that of her sisters) was achieved on her own. I'm hooked!

The Girl in the Spider's Web

By David Lagercrantz, continuing Stieg Larsson's Millennium series, translated from Swedish by George Golding. Lisbeth Salander is back. She has hacked into some delicate, government computers. The journalist Blomkvist gets a call from a source late one night claiming to have information vital to the USA. He needs a scoop; Salander has her own agenda. Together, they go against a web of governments, cybercriminals, and spies. The price could be death.

With Every Letter

This is a historical novel by Sarah Sundin, the first of the Wings of the Nightingale series. Set in WW II, Lieutenant Mellie Blake is training as a flight evacuation nurse. Lieutenant Tom MacGilliver is an engineer stationed in North Africa. They participate in a morale boosting program, writing to each other anonymously. They both have reasons to keep their identities secret, but they both need real friends. Through the letter writing campaign a friendship develops. Could it be more? Should they meet? Then they're both stationed in Algeria. Will their friendship bloom once they meet or will their fears of the past keep them from meeting? This book really resonated with me, as writing letters is how I got to know my husband in the days before computers were ubiquitous. Living in two different states we were "set up" by my college roommate, his colleague. I gave her permission to give him my address but not my phone number. And so we began. By the time we met, months later, we knew each other quite well. It's a system I would recommend.

The Trespasser

By Tana French, sixth in the Dublin Murder Squad series. Aislinn Murray, well-groomed and pretty, is found dead in her right-out-of-a-catalog living room, next to a table set for a romantic dinner. Detectives Conway and Moran are given the case, and Detective Breslin as backup. He's pushing for a quick solve; just a simple domestic quarrel, pin it on the boyfriend who swears he never got into the house. But is that where the evidence is leading? And what about the shadowy figure haunting Conway's lane? A convoluted tale.

The Secret Place

The fifth in Tana French's Dublin Murder Squad series, this book is about loyalty and friendship. Sixteen-year-old Holly Mackey finds a card with a picture of a murdered boy on it and the caption "I know who killed him" on The Secret Place, a board where the girls at St. Kilda's school can post their secrets anonymously. She is a detective's daughter, but doesn't want to take the card to her dad, so she takes it to Detective Stephen Moran, in Cold Cases. Moran has wanted to get on the Murder Squad and sees this as his chance. The photo is of Chris Harper, who was killed a year ago on the grounds of St. Kilda's. The investigating officer was Antoinette Conway, a prickly, abrasive murder Detective. They join forces to find out who posted the card and from there to solve the case. Narrowed down, their search focuses on two cliques in St. Kilda's Boarding School for girls; Joanne, a queen bee, and her three lackeys; and Holly and her three free-spirited friends. The dangers for the detectives are many, not least of which are the machinations of teenage girls. 

Unwind

Book 1 in the Unwind Dystology by Neal Shusterman. An incredible book! Based on the premise that a second civil war, also known as The Heartland War, has been waged in the United States over a single issue; abortion. To end the war, a set of constitutional amendments known as the "Bill of Life" was passed, stating that from the moment of conception until a child reaches age 13, that child's life could not be touched.  Between 13 - 18, however, a parent may "retroactively" choose to "abort" a child on the condition that the child's life doesn't technically end; every bit of the child is salvaged for parts for transplant in others. This solution satisfied both pro-choice and pro-life armies (obviously, the author is equating pro-life with pro- birth). The process of salvaging for parts is called "unwinding".

Connor is a troublemaker, so his parents want to be rid of him. Risa is an orphan, has no utility for society, and the orphanage wants to free up her bed. Lev is a "tithe", a sacrifice his strict religious family has planned from his birth. All three are slated for unwinding. this is the story of how they try to escape their fate and the challenges and characters they meet on the way. It's a very thought provoking book. What is a "meaningful" life? Where does the soul go after death? Abortion, transplants, adoption (through the unusual practice of "storking"), and other heavy issues. The author is good about just asking the questions without inserting his own solutions, but letting the reader come to conclusions on his/her own. It is rather heavy for a young adult novel, though that seems to be the norm. I have passed this one on to my kids.

Going Underground

Autistic Detective Jonathan Roper Reveals a Dark Conspiracy in a Gripping Thriller. This is an independently published work of fiction by Michael Leese. It was one of the freebies on my Kindle, and I decided to read it because of the premise: an autistic detective. The book is well done, and the character of Jonathan Roper seems spot on as someone with high functioning autism. Chief inspector Brian Hooley is given the task of discovering what happened to Sir James Taylor, a highly regarded billionaire/philanthropist who went missing six weeks prior to his torso being found in an abandoned warehouse. He calls on the special investigative skills of Jonathan Roper, who has been on administrative leave since his challenges almost ruined his last investigation. Together, Hooley and Roper solve this case that puts Roper in personal danger.

Broken Harbor

Dublin Murder Squad series number four from Tana French. Mike "Scorcher" Kennedy is a true blue cop of twenty years. He is given the biggest case of the year; in a half built, half abandoned development the Spain family has been attacked. Husband Pat, daughter Emma, and son Jack are dead while wife Jenny is in intensive care. Kennedy and his rookie partner, Rich Curran, think at the beginning this will be an easy case to solve. Yet so many things don't add up - all the baby monitors, the holes in the walls, the trap in the attic... Plus, the location is Brianstown, now. It used to be known as Broken Harbor, a summer caravan park for the less affluent to vacation by the sea. Kennedy's family used to vacation there every year when he was young until a tragedy occurred.  Knowing he has a case there unsettles his already unstable sister Dina, and doesn't do a whole lot for Kennedy himself.

Faithful Place

Dublin Murder Squad series number three by Tana French. Back in 1985, Frank Mackey and Rosie Daly are set to run away together: go to London, marry, get good jobs, leave inner city Dublin and their dysfunctional families behind. But on the night they were to leave, Rosie doesn't show. Frank, at nineteen, thought his family was too crazy even for her and she'd given him the brush-off. He never went home again. Neither did Rosie. Everyone assumed she went to England on her own. Until her suitcase shows up in a run down house 22 years later. Now Frank is back in Faithful Place with his family and old neighborhood trying to figure out what happened to Rosie. But he's a detective now; the neighborhood doesn't trust the police on principle. The police handling the case won't talk to him, in case family and neighborhood loyalty make him a liability. What will Frank sacrifice to discover the truth?

Still Life

By Louise Penny, this is the debut of the Chief Inspector Armand Gamache series. Gamache and his team are called to a suspicious death Thanksgiving morning at Three Pines, an idyllic village south of Montreal. Jane Neal, retired school teacher, seems to be the victim of a hunting accident. But things are not what they seem. Gamache is an experienced investigator; he is also an experienced, compassionate human being. His observations and interactions are enlightening. I look forward to reading the rest of this series.

Dark Road to Darjeeling

Deanna Raybourn's fourth in the Lady Julia Grey series, this novel is exotic in setting and the plot is full of unexpected twists. Lady Julia and Brisbane have finally settled things between themselves. After an extended honeymoon in the Mediterranean, they are ready for adventure. They head to India at the request of Julia's sister Portia and brother Plum to aid an old friend, the newly widowed Jane Cavendish. She questions her husband's death; it may have been murder for his estate, the tea plantation where she lives. If it were murder, is she and her unborn child at risk? Amid the lush foothills of the Himalayas, the danger is palpable and the investigation could prove deadly.

Silent on the Moor

Deanna Raybourn's third installment of the Lady Julia Gray series, this book finds Lady Julia, her sister Portia, and their brother Valerius in Yorkshire. They have come to Grimsgrave Hall, a hulking pile of a place newly acquired by Nicholas Brisbane. Portia has come to set the household in order; Julia has come to (finally) see what there is between herself and Nicholas; Valerius to see that outward decorum is observed (this is Victorian England). However, upon arrival, they find the former owners of the Hall still very much in residence. The Allenby Family can trace their family back to kings (and use every opportunity to remind one of this). And they may not be as cordial as they appear.

A Perilous Undertaking

Veronica Speedwell is back! This is the second in the series by Deanna Raybourn, and it is delicious! Veronica, lepidopterist and adventuress, is invited to the Curiosity Club, a ladies-only club for intrepid women. There she meets Lady Sundridge, who begs her to take on an impossible task; Miles Ramsforth, art patron, has been convicted of the murder of Artemisia, his artist mistress, and will hang in a week's time unless Veronica can unmask the true killer. For various reasons, Veronica accepts this challenge. With the help of Stoker, her natural-historian colleague, she hares about 1880's London, from palace to pleasure grotto, to resolve the case.

This book in the series is more raw than A Curious Beginning, but just as delightful. The characters are well drawn and likeable. The plot hums along. The tension between characters is recognizable and utterly believable. I look forward to the next installment.