Books Set in North America, Virginia, USA

The Perfect Marriage, by Jeneva Rose (2020)

Sarah Morgan is a high-level and successful defense lawyer.  She seems to have the perfect life with her husband, Adam.  Sarah, however, works long hours and Adam is a would-be writer with too much time on his hands.  He tries to write in their lake house, which is about an hour away from their home.  He spends most of his time there.  He runs into Kelly Summers, with whom he has an affair.  When she is found dead in his bed at the lake house, he is accused of her murder.  Sarah takes on the case to defend him.

There are lots of twists and turns in the book, but specific trial matter doesn't make sense.  That aside, it was a fun and quick read.

Read:  April 29, 2026

3 Stars

 

Books Set in North America; Pennsylvania, United States

The Almost Moon, by Alice Sebold  (2007)

Read: December 31, 2024

3 Stars

Books Set in North America, Baton Rouge and Breaux Bridge, Louisiana

A Flicker in the Dark, by Stacy Willingham (2022)

A Flicker in the Dark is a thriller narrated by Chloe Davis, a psychologist from the small bayou town of Breaux Bridge, but now living and working in Baton Rouge.  When she was a young girl, her life was shattered when her father, Dick Davis, convicted of the murder of several teenaged girls.  Chloe was the one who turned her father into the police, an act that follows her where ever she goes.

Now as the twentieth anniversary of her father’s conviction and incarceration, more teenaged girls go missing.  Chloe is haunted by memories of the past with the news of more missing girls.  She is further troubled when Aaron Jansen, a reporter for the New York Times, approaches her for an interview for an anniversary story about the original murders.

Due to her past, Chloe has had a hard maintaining long-term relationships, so when she meets Daniel Briggs, he seems to be her savior.  She withholds telling him the full story of her childhood and her infamous father, however.  Daniel’s sister also vanished twenty years earlier and Chloe wonders if there may be a link to the earlier murders.

I picked up this book solely because it takes place in Baton Rouge and Breaux Bridge, Louisiana.  The author description of the bayous and marshes of Louisiana in a way that the reader feels the humidity and moss covered trees.  It was a very quick read and was filled with twists and turns.

Read:  January 25, 2024

4.5 Stars

Books Set in Europe: United Kingdom

Payment in Blood, Elizabeth George (1998)

Payment in Blood is the second in the Inspector Thomas Lynley / Barbara Havers mystery series.  This novel starts out as pure Agatha Christie.  On a cold winter night, playwright Joy Sinclair was found murdered in her bedroom in a snowbound estate in a remote town in Scotland.  She had been a guest at the manor along with a handful of actors who were to be in Sinclair’s next play, the producer, a drama critic, the director, and his lady love, Lady Helen Clyde, and the servants.  One of them must surely be the murderer.

For reasons that are not immediately apparent, Lynley and Havers were sent to investigate the murder.  Lynley enlists the help of his forensic friend, Simon St. James, to assist in the investigation.  Odd, because Scotland Yard had virtually no authority over the crime committed in Scotland.  Lynley is in love with Lady Helen, and so focuses his attention on Rhys Davies-Jones, who was sleeping with Helen in the room adjacent to Joy Sinclair’s room.  Havers and St. James, however, focus on Sinclair’s revised play, which they believe holds the key to the murder.

Complicating the investigation is the 1973 of Hannah Darrow.  What is her connection with the manor?  Was her death really a suicide?  Following clues leading to her death point to a spy scandal involving the family that owns the manor.

This is the second novel in the series.  The author is still introducing the characters.  Lady Helen seems to have many lovers.  Havers lives with her working-class parents and feels quite out of place with her aristocratic partner.  Lynley has some skeletons in his past, which are only hinted at, although we learned from the first book that he was the driver responsible for the accident that crippled St. James.

I am glad that I started this series in the middle where the characters are more developed.  Had I started at the beginning of the series, I probably would not have been compelled to read further.

Read: June 23, 2023

3 Stars

Other Books Read in the Series:

A Great Deliverance (# 1)  //  Read June 1, 2023

Well-Schooled in Murder (# 3)  //  Read June 29, 2003

For the Sake of Elana (# 5)  //  Read February 21, 1994

Missing Joseph (# 6)  //  Read June 12, 1996 and January 25, 2003

Playing for the Ashes (# 7)  //  Read January 6, 1996

A Traitor to Memory (# 11)  //  Read January 3, 2004

With No One as Witness (# 13)  //  Read May 13, 2023

A Banquet of Consequences (# 19)  //  Read July 4, 2018

Books Set in Europe: Paris France

City of Light, City of Poison: Murder Magic, and the First Police Chief of Paris, by Holly Tucker (2017)

 

This book is a fascinating look of life in Paris the reign of Louis XIV, King of France.  The book opens in in 1665 with the murder of the city’s criminal lieutenant.  He had been stabbed to death in his home by burglars. Shortly thereafter, one of his colleagues was poisoned.  Nicholas de La Reynie was then appointed to clean up the streets of Paris – quite literally.  Paris, during this period, was quite filthy.  Streets were littered with garbage and the contents of chamber pots.  The dark streets were a haven for thieves.  La Reynie installed gaslights to illuminate the streets at night.  Homeowner were mandated to keep the lights burning at night. That was just one of the reforms brought about by La Reynie.

 

As La Reynie continued to stop criminal activities, he uncovered a series of crimes that involved members of France’s nobility.  No one was safe from these mysterious criminal activities and black magic, not even the King himself.  La Reynie uncovered nobles employing witches to cast spells and create poisons to destroy their enemies.  Priests were in the clutches of dark rituals.  Some of the practices and crimes La Reynie found had direct ties to the King.

 

This is a fascinating window into the history of France and the city of Paris in the late 1600s

 

Read:  December 2022

 

4 Stars

 

Books Set in Europe; Italy

Murder in Matera, by Helene Stapinski (2017)

 

Journalist Helene Stapinski grew up with the family lore of her great-great-grandmother Vita.  Vita had immigrated to the United States in the 1890s with her two teenage son, leaving her husband behind.  Vita was a murderess.  She had killed someone and left Italy to escape punishment.  She was also said to be a loose woman.  Why did she leave her husband behind?  She certainly paid the ultimate price for her crime when she, herself, was killed by a blow to the head at age 64.

 

Once in America, one of Vita’s sons went into a life of crime, as did the author’s grandfather.  Now the author ponders whether there really is a criminal gene, and would it be passed on to her children?

 

This thought haunts her, so she decides to venture back to the family’s ancestral home in Bernalda, Italy ~ the instep of Italy’s boot to learn her family’s history.  With little knowledge of her family background, with limited ability to speak Italian, and with two small children in tow, the author arrived in Bernalda and began asking questions.  She comes up empty.

 

Ten years later, the author ventured back to Italy, this time armed with two capable researchers who assist her as she pores over public birth, death, marriage records, and court murder transcripts.  What she finds astonishes her.

 

In the course of uncovering her family history, the author describes what life would have been like for the average peasant living hand-to-mouth in this rugged part of Italy.  The wealthy landowners were still expected to sleep with a young bride of his peasant worker.  The author envisions that this is what happened to Vita.  Her telling of Vita’s life is largely fiction, but is a plausible snapshot of how people lived in Bernalda in the latter half of the 1800s.

 

Spoiler Alert:  The trial transcript does, indeed, describe a murder.  The murderer is not, however, Vita, but instead, her husband Francesco.  The peasants are starving and do anything to get food for their families.  In the dead of night, Francesco and two of his friends were out taking pears from their landowner’s property.  They were confronted by whom they thought was the landowner.  The landowner had a shotgun and shot at the three men, slightly injuring one.  The other two men confronted the gunman, knocked him to the ground and badly beat him.  The injured man died a few days later.  Only later to they learn that the injured man was a young teenager, probably out to protect his family’s fruit orchard.  Francesco is found guilty of manslaughter and sent to prison.

 

A close look at the birth certificates of Vita’s children reveals that Vita is the wife of Francesco, but that he is “far from town” at the time of the births.  This leads the author to surmise that, with her husband in prison, Vita “gave” herself to the landowner in exchange for food.  The author also realized that if there is a murderous gene, it was not in Vita’s side of the family afterall.

 

This was a fast-paced read.  Much of what the author writes about her “murderous” great-great-grandmother is speculation, but does provide a glimpse of the harsh life of a peasant living in southern Italy in the later 1800s.

 

Read:  April 16, 2022

 

4 Stars

 

 

Books Set in North America: United States, Newton, Massachusetts

Defending Jacob, by William Landay (2012)

Defending Jacob is a courtroom drama that centers around 14-year-old Jacob Barber who has been accused of murdering a classmate who bullied him.  The reader sees the story unfold through the eyes of Andrew Barber, Jacob’s father.

Andrew Barber is the First Assistant District Attorney in Boston.  As such, he was the first attorney called to the scene of the crime.  Andy, as he is known, works with the police on the initial investigation.  Has the First Assistant, he has the option to take case himself, or pass it on to another ADA.  He initially takes the case, and he focuses in on a suspect who is a known pedophile.

Suspicion, however, soon turns towards Jacob.  One of Jacob’s friend’s posts an incriminating statement of Facebook suggesting that “everyone” knows that Jacob committed the crime and he owned a knife, much like murder weapon.  Later Jacob’s fingerprint is found on the victim’s clothing.  Circumstantial evidence seems to pile up against Jacob.  Andy must be recused from the case and his former protégée, Neal Logiudice, takes over.

Jacob’s defense attorney must prepare for all possible defenses.  He looks into the family’s past for inherited violence.  For several generations, the men in Andy’s family have exhibited extreme acts of violence.  Andy never knew his father, Bloody Billy, who is serving a life sentence in prison.  Andy never shared this fact with his wife, but now he must.  This revelation blindsides Laurie, Andy’s wife, and she begins to question whether her son, Jacob, might actually be predisposed to violence and could have committed this brutal murder.

I enjoyed the courtroom scenes.  They were very true to life in a criminal trial.  The novel fell apart at the end with several events coming together that didn’t make sense.

Spoiler Alert:  Andy finally visited his father in prison and his father later arranges, unbeknownst to Andy, to have a hitman “protect” Jacob.  The hitman ultimately tracks down the pedophile, has him draft a confession, then hangs him.  Thus, Jacob, is a free man as the case against him is dismissed.  The family then goes on vacation, where Jacob meets a young girl named Hope.  The two connect, but when she goes missing, Laurie suspects her son might have something to do with her disappearance.  The novel ends with Laurie driving her car over a cliff and Jacob is killed.

Read:  December 23, 2021

3 Stars

Books Set in North America, Washington State, United States

Snow Falling on Cedars, by David Guterson (1995)

 

Snow Falling on Cedars is part trial novel, part mystery.  Set in San Piedro, a remote island in the Puget Sound in the 1950s, it takes place in the years after World War II, where Kabuo Miyamoto, a Japanese-American stands trial for the murder of fellow fisherman, Carl Heine.  Many of the men of San Piedro had fought in the War, and many are still skeptical of the Japanese.

 

Although Kabuo was born in the United States, and thus was American, he was born of immigrant parents.  Even before the War, there was considerable prejudice against the Japanese who lived on the island.  Furthermore, there were laws which prevented its Japanese citizens from owning land.  Underlying this novel is a feud between the Heine and Kabuo families.  Carl’s father had an arrangement to sell Kabuo’s father 7 acres of property for growing strawberries.  Kabuo’s father was making regular payments, but before he could make the final two payments, he and his family were sent off to an internment camp.  While Miyamoto family was interned, Carl Heine’s father died.  Carl’s mother, Etta, was a bitter and prejudiced woman, who took the opportunity to sell the land to another strawberry family.  When the Miyamoto family tried to claim their land, they were surprised to find it had been sold out from under them.  This feud brewed for many years.

 

When Carl was found drowned under suspicious circumstances, the local law enforcement was quick to settle on Kabuo as their prime suspect.  The novel begins with the trial, but the story is told in flashbacks as the reader meets the characters.  The reader learns their backstories and the interactions between the townspeople and the island’s Japanese community.  As evidence piles up against Kabuo, prejudices of the entire community are exposed.  The novel builds the suspense to the end.

 

Read first: December 29, 2003 / Second time: October 21, 2021 (for Hadassah Attorney Council Book discussion)

 

4 Stars

Books Set in North America: United States: Arizona

Credible Threat, by J.A. Jance (2020)  //  Ali Reynolds Series # 15

 

This is the first book I have read by J.A. Jance, but it is the 15^th book in her Ali Reynolds series.  The author spends some time providing the reader with some background from prior books in the series, but the novel can stand on its own.  Apparently in prior novels, Ali works with her husband B. Simpson in solving mysteries.  In this book, B. Simpson is abroad working on his own project, so Ali is left to work on her own to solve this mystery.

 

Rachel Higgins is a 70-year old woman whose marriage to a controlling husband has fallen apart.  When their only son, David, died of an overdose years earlier, her husband basically lost his will to go on.  He lost his job and spends his days making bird houses.  Rachel and her husband barely speak to each other.  The book begins when Rachel learns that David turned to drugs because he had been abused by a priest when in high school and he couldn’t confide in anyone.  

 

Rachel vows to take revenge upon the Church and her target is Francis Gillespie, the aged Archbishop in Phoenix, Arizona.  Little does she know that the Archbishop had taken a strong stand against the pedophilic priests in his diocese.  Rachel begins by sending the Archbishop threatening notes that she drops into the collection plates in a number of churches throughout the diocese.  The Archbishop went to the local police; however, he was told that the threats were not credible, hence, he turns to his friend Ali.

 

Rachel has gone to great lengths to create the “perfect” crime as she continues to plot her revenge on the Archbishop.  Can Ali stop Rachel before she kills?  Will Rachel’s husband come out of his shell and thwart Rachel’s plans?

 

Great literature this is not, however, it was a fun and quick read.  I will definitely go back and start reading this series from its first book.

 

Read:  May 7, 2021

 

4 Stars

 

Books Set in North America: United States: New York and Connecticut

You Should Have Known, by Jean Hanff Korelitz (2014)

 

This is a pretty generic psychological thriller about a marriage gone south.  The protagonist, Grace Sachs, is a couples’ therapist on the verge of having her first book published.  In her therapy practice, she reminds couples that the red flags in their relationship were present from the beginning.  She seemingly has the perfect life ~ a loving husband, who is a pediatric oncologist, a thriving practice, an apartment in the right section of New York, and a beautiful pre-teen son, who is attending the “right” prep school.

 

One of the students in her son class is a scholarship student.  When this boy’s mother is found murdered, Grace is forced to re-examine the relationships in her life.  No one she has loved is who they seem.

 

We soon learn that her husband, Jonathan, had been fired from his job several months earlier, but he failed to inform Grace.  He then becomes the prime suspect in the murder investigation.  He vanishes with all of the jewelry that once belonged to Grace’s mother.  Only then does Grace begin to question her life with her husband.  Why didn’t Jonathan’s parents attend their wedding?  Was Jonathan’s home life as a child really as cruel and as cold as Grace has been led to believe?

 

One thing I found annoying about this book is the author’s brand-name dropping.  While Grace isn’t in the same wealth class as most of the parents in her son’s school, she clearly is not lacking for money.  She laments about only having one Birkin handbag, when other mothers have several.  Really?  Maybe being that shallow is why she missed the red-flags in her life.

 

The book was interesting enough to keep my attention, but not great literature, and I will probably not read other books by this author.

This book was made into a mini-series entitled The Undoing, starring Hugh Grant and Nicole Kidman.

 

Read:  April 22, 2021

 

3 Stars

Books Set in Asia: Turkey

The Sultan’s Seal, by Jenny White (2006)

 

The Sultan’s Seal is a novel that takes place in the 1880’s, the final years of the Ottoman Empire.  When the body of a young English governess washes up on the shore of the Bosporus Strait, north of Istanbul, Kamil Pasha, a magistrate in the secular courts, wonders if there is a link between this death and a similar death of an Englishwoman that occurred 8 years earlier.  Kamil believes this will be a simple murder case.

 

Kamil’s first stop in the investigation is at the English Embassy, where he meets the Ambassador’s daughter, Sibyl.  Although she is English and he is Muslim, they form a friendship.  He tells her details of his investigation, and, because he is unable to meet with the women of the Sultan’s harem, Sibyl attempts to aid in the investigation.

 

The story line is rather convoluted and is far from a simple murder.  The novel is told through the voices of many characters.  The novel is more of a historical fiction than a mystery novel.  The author provides many details of daily life in Ottoman Turkey at this period of history, when there is clearly a tension between the Western influence in the country and the political area of the sultanate.

 

This novel is the first in the Kamil Pasha series.  I enjoyed the first part of the book much more that the final third.  As noted, the story line was convoluted and ultimately, I was not satisfied with the ending.  I learned about Ottoman culture but will probably not seek out other books in this series.

 

Read:  March 4, 2021

 

3.5 Stars