Murder on the Quai by Cara Black

Like A Fine Summer's Day (by Charles Todd) and Blind Goddess (by James R. Benn) this novel in the Investigator Aimee LeDuc series (set in Paris) is a wonderful way to get started in a long-running series by coming in at the beginning, so to speak, without actually going all the way back to the beginning.

Aimee LeDuc is a snappy dresser, a medical student, and the daughter and grandaughter of cops.   This book tells the "creation story," the story of how Aimee went from being a frustrated medical student to a private investigator working in her father's firm.

If you love Paris, and especially if you love eating in Paris, you will be charmed by this book.  After I read it, the first thing I thought was, "I wonder if I should learn French cooking." My jealousy was that acute.

I really enjoyed this book, and I think that in addition to visiting the different streets of the 8th arrodissement, and enjoying Aimee's wonderful dress sense, I loved the pacing of this book.  It swept me up and carried me along.

Me and Earl and the Dying Girl by Jesse Andrews

This novel begs comparison with John Green's The Fault in Our Stars because both stories feature teenagers grappling with illness.  There the comparison must end, as Andrews' book, while well-constructed, is much less "painterly" than Green's novel.

Part of what I loved about this novel is that one of the characters frequently feels compelled to say funny things to his sick friend and I found myself laughing out loud.

I also enjoyed the departures in narrative style that Andrews adopted.  Some of the dialogue is presented as a film script; some in bullet points.  As in Jennifer Egan's A Visit to the Goon Squad, I found these alternative storytelling forms highly engaging.  In fact, Andrews has a good ear, and recounting of dialogue using bullet points didn't diminish his ability to capture the way we talk now in any way.  A very funny book with quite a bit of bad language.

The Light in the Ruins by Chris Bohjalian

I enjoyed this novel, cleverly structured for maximum suspense.  It's set in Florence, in the 1950's, and centers on a female detective (a novelty at the time) investigating a serial killer who seems to have a vendetta against a aristocratic family.  She herself is a former partisan who lived and worked in the area.  She was traumatized by the war and as she investigates the case she learns that the family who is the target of the vendetta also suffered greatly at that time and has a daughter close to her own age.

I love books set in Italy and that was why I guessed I'd enjoy this novel.  Chris Bohjalian is a veteran writer and the author of other novels (his most recent being another suspense novel, The Guest Room). Bohjalian is not a suspense writer, per se; the last novel he wrote was Close Your Eyes, Hold Hands, featuring a teenage protagonist trying to survive in Maine after a nuclear plant meltdown. He's also the author of The Sandcastle Girls, a historical novel about the Armenian genocide.

I enjoy reading author acknowledgements and in this case was delighted to learn that Bohjalian's portrait of the Tuscan family was based in part on writer Iris Origo's account of her own family's experiences trying to survive and protect their farm during the Second World War.  I don't know much about Origo but I loved her book The Merchant of Prato and would strongly recommend it to anyone planning a visit to Avignon.

Brighton by Michael Harvey/The Whites by Richard Price writing as Harry Brandt

Brighton by Michael Harvey is a wonderful novel.  It's very true that if you like Dennis Lehane you'll like this novel.  It's not just that it's set in Boston but that it also features a pretty clear-eyed view of the tensions inherent in the urban scene.

This novel is very suspenseful and in part, that's because the author carefully offers tidbits of information as you go along but also because there is a major plot twist at the end of novel which I didn't anticipate.  There were no red herrings, however, which I appreciate.  Michael Harvey's use of street slang and highly poetic metaphor side-by-side delighted me.  It's so fun, and somewhat unusual, to be surprised by excellence and beauty in prose style.

The Whites is a wonderful novel.  I read Brighton and The Whites back to back and as much as I enjoyed Brighton I loved The Whites even more.  It's hard for me to figure out why.  Part of it may be just that there was so much going on in The Whites: the protagonist has his dementia-burdened father at home, a man who slips in and out of the present but is capable of dispensing wisdom, intimidating his son, and helping his son out of a big, big jam regardless.  His friends from the force are all so interesting as individuals.  There's a lot of details about how we live now.

In both novels there are elements that strain credulity but to me that is more than counterbalanced by the richness of characterizations, the excellence with which the plot has been structured, and the realistic view of urban life.

The Granchester Mysteries: Sidney Chambers and The Problem of Temptation by James Runcie

A friend gave me these books for my birthday.  I feel very fortunate - I love them!  I guess what I like about them is that each books is made up of several novellas, so they are very easy to read in one sitting, something I really appreciate as a busy person.

Runcie, the son a former Archbishop of Canterbury, is well versed in the political as well as practical aspects of church administration and drops just enough authentic details about that world to give the stories a realistic grounding that appeals to the practical side of my nature.

On the other hand, because of his role as a clergyman, Runcie's hero, Sidney Chambers, is able to know people from every strata of society, from his charwoman to a Brit of African descent who owns a club in Soho.  I suppose Runcie would have been wonderful company for Jane Austen, or vice versa.

Last, but far from least, in the books Sidney Chambers wrestles quite a bit with how Chritianity prescribes behavior. He wrestles with his own feelings, and with what expectations to have of others. It's more explicit in the book.

In this book, Sidney is married to Hildegard, and in one of the stories they go to visit Hildegard's family in East Germany. This story is dark and while it's very much like the village mystery in that everyone knows each other and that the buried secrets of the past emerge, the change in setting makes it feel quite different.

I personally think the covers are delightful, too.

All the characters from the TV series are here:  Amanda, Mrs. McGuire, Leonard, Hildegard, Sidney's sister and his club-owning brother-in-law.

The Sisters Brothers by Patrick deWit

I really enjoyed this novel.  It's a quick, easy read, and it has a happy ending.  I also thought that Mr. deWit's prose style was exemplary, and I thought it beautiful. 

It is a great book for reading on a bus, train or airplane - you can read for the rollicking action, or slow down, take your time and appreciate the prose.

It is, however, a very violent novel. 

I would definitely recommend this for you if you are a fan of Quentin Tarantino's movies.

It is the tale, set in the American West around the time of the California Gold Rush (1848) of two (arguably) psychopathic brothers (Charlie and Eli) who are paid killers.  Eli and Charlie are very close, but very different.  As the novel progresses, Eli demands, and gets, a reckoning.  After I'd finished it and considered its ending, I had to admit that it reminded me of Voltaire's Candide.  And, now as I consider the high amount of absurdity in the story, I have to say that it reminds me of Beckett, too.  That erudite Mr. deWit! I think I should probably suggest that Mr. deWit stop showing off his prodigious gifts, as they make the rest of us look bad.  But until he does, enjoy.