Baltimore Blues is the first in Laura Lippman's series featuring reporter turned private investigator Tess Monaghan. The novel begins with Tess a bit adrift--she has recently become unemployed when the newspaper she worked for went under. To pass the time, she spends her days running, rowing, and doing odd jobs for family members to earn some much-needed cash.
Not having seen her childhood friend Clare Cavendish for over 10 years, Nora Shaw is surprised to receive an email invite for Clare's bachelorette party. Nora calls Nina, a mutual college friend, and they reluctantly decide to go to the party together. When they arrive they are shocked to find a modern house, virtually a glass castle in the woods. Nora is disturbed right away by the chilly landscape and isolated location.
This is a gritty urban tale but it is also a look at how newspaper reporters go about their business. This is a well-constructed thriller by a former reporter for the Washington Post. When the daughter of a judge is murdered, Sully Carter is assigned the job even though Carter has had problems with the judge in the past.(The judge lied, but Carter couldn't prove it.) Carter finds that things are not what they seem to be! Tucker has left deftly placed clues throughout the novel that point to a great ending. I admire the craft he used and thoroughly enjoyed the novel!
Full disclosure: I'm a middle-aged, married mom who's a teeny, tiny bit obsessed with teen fiction. Not that I'm a creeper or anything. But my teenage angst phase is more like a personality trait. I relate to people who feel uncomfortable and awkward. People who lack confidence and discipline. People who float through life like they haven't got a clue. More often than not, that's not adults. Something about growing up in our society makes people cocky. It changes people. It makes them think they're some kind of authority figure or expert on life. Not me.
When Will There Be Good News? is the third book in Kate Atkinson's series featuring Jackson Brodie. It was the first one I read, however, and you shouldn't let it stop you if you're thinking about making this the first one you'll read, too. In fact, Jackson Brodie seems more like a peripheral character in this novel, with most of the action being linked together by a sixteen-year-old girl named Reggie Chase.
Night of the Living Deed, is the first in a new cozy mystery series by E. J. Copperman. Alison Kirby wanted a new start. After breaking with her daughter’s father, “…hereafter known as The Swine,” Alison pins all of her hopes (and savings) on renovating an old Victorian beach house on the Jersey Shore. Things are proceeding moderately well but why do unexplainable mishaps always seem to occur just after she leaves a room?
Reading All There Is is like being engulfed in a giant bouquet of love in all its vast intricacies. While there are plenty of heartwarming, kissy-face snippets in this StoryCorps gem, many stories are edged with bittersweet moments of heartache, regret and loss.
The science fiction aspect to this book is both obvious and subtle. The major plot point of the book is pure science fiction - parallel universes. The main character, Patricia Cowen, experiences two separate lives, stemming from a decision she makes shortly after college.
Once we reach the divergent paths, the chapters alternate between the two realities. From there, the story is pretty straightforward domestic fiction – the daily trials, tribulations, and joys of the main character.
