Lone wolf (2012) by Jodi Picoult

On an icy winter night, a terrible accident forces a family divided to come together and make a fateful decision. Cara, once protected by her father, Luke, is tormented by a secret that nobody knows. Her brother, Edward, has secrets of his own. He has kept them hidden, but now they may come to light, and if they do, Cara will be devastated. Their mother, Georgie, was never able to compete with her ex-husband’s obsessions, and now, his fate hangs in the balance and in the hands of her children. With conflicting motivations and emotions, what will this family decide? And will they be able to live with that decision, after the truth has been revealed? What happens when the hope that should sustain a family is the very thing tearing it apart? (Review thanks to Goodreads, online) 

The bat (2002) by Jo Nembo

Somehow this novel did not grab me the way Nesbo's others have.  Though it is the first of his series. Harry Hole was dispatched by his police force in Norway to liaise with police in Australia because of the death of a Nowegian woman.  She appeared to be a murder victim.  Harry got close to many of the characters, with hindsight incidating that he should not have.  The characters were weakly drawn, with the exception being the red haired woman. She was the only one who seemed sincere in the macabre cast of misfits. (Review by Carol-Anne)

The imposter bride (2012) by Nancy Richler

When a young, enigmatic woman arrives in post-war Montreal, it is immediately clear that she is not who she claims to be. Her attempt to live out her life as Lily Azerov shatters as she disappears, leaving a new husband and baby daughter, and a host of unanswered questions. Who is she really and what happened to the young woman whose identity she has stolen? Why has she left and where did she go? It is left to the daughter she abandoned to find the answers to these questions as she searches for the mother she may never find or really know.

Nemesis (2009) by Jo Nesbo

Grainy closed-circuit television footage shows a man walking into an Oslo bank and putting a gun to a cashier's head. He tells the young woman to count to twenty-five. When the robber doesn't get his money in time, the cashier is executed, and two million Norwegian kroner disappear without a trace. Police Detective Harry Hole is assigned to the case.

While Hole's girlfriend is away in Russia, an old flame decides to get in touch. Former girlfriend and struggling artist Anna Bethsen invites Hole to dinner, and he can't resist a visit. But the evening ends in an all too familiar way as Hole awakens with a thundering headache, a missing cell phone, and no memory of the past twelve hours. That same morning, Anna is found shot dead in her bed. Hole begins to receive threatening e-mails. Is someone trying to frame him for this unexplained death? Meanwhile, the bank robberies continue with unparalleled savagery.



As the death toll continues to mount, Hole becomes a prime suspect in a criminal investigation led by his longtime adversary Tom Waaler and Waaler's vigilante police force. Racing from the cool, autumnal streets of Oslo to the steaming villages of Brazil, Hole is determined to absolve himself of suspicion by uncovering all the information needed to crack both cases. But the ever-threatening Waaler is not finished with his old archenemy quite yet.

Ruby and Iris (2006) by Rosie Thomas

Cairo now and Cairo during the Second World War.The present belongs to Ruby, a twenty something who has shown up on her grandmother's doorstep in Cairo.  Ruby is pierced, shabby looking, and ill-mannered.  Slowly her realtionship with her grandmother grows into love, as a new maturity developes while Iris recounts her past to Ruby. A heart warming narrative.

The creative odyssey of Joni Mitchell: Joni (2012) by Katherine Monk

In her acknowledgments, Katherine Monk thanks “every writer who’s ever written anything about Joni Mitchell,” without whom “this book would not have been possible.” She means this literally. Her new biography of the iconic Canadian singer-songwriter relies exclusively on secondary sources, most of them previously published interviews and biographies. When one of Mitchell’s “last remaining business representatives” told Monk the notoriously prickly singer no longer grants interviews, Monk appears to have accepted the assertion at face value, which is odd given her background as a journalist, and her own observations about Mitchell’s tendency to change her mind. The singer, Monk notes ruefully, has “retired from the business so frequently not even she can keep count of her departures from the poker table.”

Monk’s motive for writing this book is a bit hard to grasp, as she admits to not being a huge Mitchell fan “before all this started.” Once she had begun, she was confronted with the “huge problem” of how to “add
anything original to the already exhaustive amount of Joni material without any new Joni Mitchell musings.”

Her solution is to focus on Mitchell’s “various creative challenges and life themes,” which she groups into nine chapters with alliterative titles such as “Impersonation and Identity” (about Mitchell’s “history of defying gender”); “Expecting and Expectation” (touching on the musician’s brief marriage to Chuck Mitchell – a “nice-faced folksinger from Detroit with a mild degree of fame” – which resulted in the daughter she gave up for adoption); and “Myth and Mythmaking” (which looks at Mitchell’s legendary non-participation in the Woodstock music festival of 1969).

Far too much time is spent, however, on awkward metaphorical musings about art, authenticity, and “the creative process.” To take just one of many cringe-worthy examples (and a mixed metaphor to boot): “[Mitchell] was more of an artist-astronaut, extracting the ore of human meaning from the act of personal creation.” Although Monk promises not to deliver “a fawning chronicle of a life,” she appears to buy wholeheartedly into Mitchell’s own ego-driven self-mythologizing, including her well-publicized criticisms of Bob Dylan and Leonard Cohen on the grounds that they were inauthentic and imitative. Monk’s sources often seem random – why, for instance, is the opinion of Sopranos actress Edie Falco important?

“Joni Mitchell’s creative courage certainly stoked my personal furnace,  changed my life,” Monk declares. Her enthusiasm is, regretfully, not infectious, and this uneven compendium ends up stoking little else.

 Reviewed by Emily Donaldson (from the September 2012 Quill and Quire issue)

The Nightmare by Lars Kepler

This creative couple are Lars Kepler.  Together they write from both the female and male perspective and sensitivity.


A drowned young woman is discovered on an abandoned pleasure boat drifting by the Stockholm archipelago---strangely, her clothes are dry. The next day in Stockholm, a man turns up dead, hanging from a lamp hook inside his completely bare apartment---but how could he have hung himself with no furniture to climb upon? As Detective Inspector Joona Linna begins to piece together the two mysteries, he discovers that they are a mere prelude to a dizzying and dangerous course of events. From the internationally bestselling author of The Hypnotist comes The Nightmare, another spellbinding tale of Nordic crime.(Thanks to Goodreads for another review.)

Kinsey and me by Sue Grafton

Kinsey and me by Sue Grafton  New York:  Penguin Group, 2013

Short Stories of an autobiographical nature as the author takes on the persona of 'Kit', re-living events from her childhood with her mentally ill and alcoholic mother and lawyer, alcoholic father.  Very sensitive writing, with a level of introspection nver seen in her 'Alphabet Series'. Second half of book the superior, showing her sensitivity and humanity.

The witch's daughter (2011) by Paula Brackston



My name is Elizabeth Anne Hawksmith, and my age is three hundred and eighty-four years. Each new settlement asks for a new journal, and so this Book of Shadows begins…

In the spring of 1628, the Witchfinder of Wessex finds himself a true Witch. As Bess Hawksmith watches her mother swing from the Hanging Tree she knows that only one man can save her from the same fate at the hands of the panicked mob: the Warlock Gideon Masters, and his Book of Shadows. Secluded at his cottage in the woods, Gideon instructs Bess in the Craft, awakening formidable powers she didn’t know she had and making her immortal. She couldn't have foreseen that even now, centuries later, he would be hunting her across time, determined to claim payment for saving her life.
In present-day England, Elizabeth has built a quiet life for herself, tending her garden and selling herbs and oils at the local farmers' market. But her solitude abruptly ends when a teenage girl called Tegan starts hanging around. Against her better judgment, Elizabeth begins teaching Tegan the ways of the Hedge Witch, in the process awakening memories--and demons—long thought forgotten.
Part historical romance, part modern fantasy, The Witch’s Daughter is a fresh, compelling take on the magical, yet dangerous world of Witches.Readers will long remember the fiercely independent heroine who survives plagues, wars, and the heartbreak that comes with immortality to remain true to herself, and protect the protégé she comes to love.(Review by Goodreads)

Six years (2013) by Harlan Coben



Six years have passed since Jake Sanders watched Natalie, the love of his life, marry another man. Six yearsof hiding a broken heart by throwing himself into his career as a college professor. Six years of keeping his promise to leave Natalie alone, and six years of tortured dreams of her life with her new husband, Todd.

But six years haven’t come close to extinguishing his feelings, and when Jake comes across Todd’s obituary, he can’t keep himself away from the funeral. There he gets the glimpse of Todd’s wife he’s hoping for . . . but she is not Natalie. Whoever the mourning widow is, she’s been married to Todd for more than a decade, and with that fact everything Jake thought he knew about the best time of his life—a time he has never gotten over—is turned completely inside out.
As Jake searches for the truth, his picture-perfect memories of Natalie begin to unravel. Mutual friends of the couple either can’t be found or don’t remember Jake. No one has seen Natalie in years. Jake’s search for the woman who broke his heart—and who lied to him—soon puts his very life at risk as it dawns on him that the man he has become may be based on carefully constructed fiction. (Review by Goodreads)

The Hypnotist (2009) by Lars Kepler

Solving two unrelated, but peculiar, serial killings becomes the mission of Stockholm police detective, Joona Linna., Very suspenseful.



Touch & Go (2013) by Lisa Gardner

The Shoemaker's Wife by Adriana Trigiani

The Shoemaker's Wife by Adriana Trigiani  New York, NY:  Harper Collins, 2012

This review by Carol Memmott, USA TODAY April 01, 2012. 

 "At first glance, there seems to be a disconnect between the sturdy, simple title of Adriana Trigiani's new novel, The Shoemaker's Wife, and the breathlessly gorgeous photo that graces the book's cover. It ran in Harper's Bazaar in 1949 and its model, decked out in a strapless, fiery red gown, is the epitome of sophistication. But within the pages of this novel, Trigiani's 10th, is a gloriously romantic yet sensible world that seamlessly blends practicality and beauty.The novel's real-life back story is as arresting as the one Trigiani creates. It's inspired by the love between the author's grandparents, who grew up in the Northern Alps of Italy but did not meet until they emigrated to the United States. That's the gem of an idea that Trigiani nurtured in her imagination for more than two decades before she put it on paper. The Shoemaker's Wife begins in the Northern Alps in 1905 and follows the lives of Ciro and Eduardo Lazzari, brothers who grew up in a convent because their widowed mother could not care for them. It's also the story of Enza Ravanelli and her big-hearted family whose financial struggles come to a fateful bend in the road when Enza decides to go to America to earn money. She would not know until a chance meeting in New York that Ciro, a boy she kissed and thought never to see again, had also traveled to America to seek his fortune.
What transpires is a classic immigrant success story, but the tale of Enza and Ciro transcends the commonplace because of their great love. It's a love so big that Enza, whose seamstress skills have earned her a spot creating costumes for the Metropolitan Opera House's biggest stars, gives up her dream job. She leaves a fiancé at the altar and marries Ciro. They move to Minnesota, where he makes shoes for working men. Like other period pieces set pre- and post-World War I (think Downton Abbey) that are capturing our imagination, The Shoemaker's Wife is built around the staggering cultural and social changes the war years swept in. In America, the flood of mostly European immigrants changed the country's look and landscape. You don't need to have an immigrant family history to adore this novel — it ranks as one of Trigiani's very best."



You only need a deep appreciation for exquisite writing and a story enriched by the power of abiding love.





Reader Reviews - From Goodreads

Sue Grafton's alphabet series

Sue Grafton's Alphabet Series

"A" is for Alibi

When Laurence Fife was murdered, few mourned his passing. A prominent divorce attorney with areputation for single-minded ruthlessness on behalf of his clients, Fife was also rumored to be a
    dedicated philanderer.

"B" is for Burglar

      Beverly Danziger looked like an expensive, carefully wrapped package from a good but  conservative shop. Only her compulsive chatter hinted at the nervousness beneath her cool surface. It was a nervousness out of all proportion to the problem she placed before Kinsey Millhone

"C" is for Corpse

He was young—maybe twenty or so—and he must once have been a good-looking kid. Kinsey could see that. But now his body was covered in scars, his face half-collapsed. It saddened Kinsey and made her curio

"D" is for Deadbeat
 He called himself Alvin Limardo, and the job he had for Kinsey was cut-and-dried: locate a kid who'd done him a favor and pass on a check for $25,000. It was only later, after he'd stiffed her for her retainer, that Kinsey found out his name was Daggett. John Daggett.

"E" is for Evidence
It was the silly season and a Monday at that, and Kinsey Millhone was bogged down in a preliminary report on a fire claim. Something was nagging at her, but she couldn't pin it. The last thing she needed in the morning mail was a letter from her bank recording an erroneous $5,000 deposit in her account. Kinsey had never believed in Santa Claus and she wasn't about to change her mind now.

"F" is for Fugitive
Floral Beach wasn't much of a town: six streets long and three deep, its only notable feature a strip of sand fronting the Pacific. It was on that sandy beach seventeen years ago that the strangled body of Jean Timberlake had been found.

"G" is for Gumshoe
Kinsey is run off the road by a red pickup truck, wrecking her '68 Volkswagen and landing herself in the hospital. Maybe a bodyguard is a good idea after all...Enter Robert Dietz, a burnt-out detective, "late forties, five ten, maybe 170, [who arrives in] jeans, cowboy boots, a tweed sport coat with a blue toothbrush protruding from the breast pocket like a ballpoint pen."

"H" is for Homicide
His name was Parnell Perkins, and until shortly after midnight, he'd been a claims adjustor for California Fidelity. Then someone came along and put paid to that line of work. And to any other. Parnell Perkins had been shot at close range and left for dead in the parking lot outside California Fidelity's offices.

"I" is for Innocent
Readers of Sue Grafton's fiction know she never writes the same book twice, and "I" is for Innocent is no exception. Her most intricately plotted novel to date, it is layered in enough complexity to baffle even the cleverest among us.

"J" is for Judgment
Wendell Jaffe was dead these past five years. Or so it seemed until his former insurance agent spotted him in the bar of a dusty little resort halfway between Cabo San Lucas and La Paz.
Lorna Kepler was beautiful and willful, a loner who couldn't resist flirting with danger. Maybe that's what killed her.

"L" is for Lawless
Kinsey's skills are about to be sorely tested. She is about to meet her duplicitious match in a couple of world-class prevaricators who quite literally take her for the ride of her life.


"M" is for Malice
"M" is for money. Lots of it. "M" is for Malek Construction, the $40 million company that grew out of modest soil to become one of the big three in California construction, one of the few still in family hands.

"N" is for NooseKinsey Millhone should have done something else—she should have turned the car in the direction of home. Instead, she was about to put herself in the gravest jeopardy of her career.

"O" is for Outlaw
The call comes on a Monday morning from a guy who scavenges defaulted storage units at auctionThe weekend before, he'd bought a stack of cardboard boxes. In one, there was a collection of childhood memorabilia with Kinsey's name all over it. For thirty bucks, he was offering Kinsey the lot.

"P" is for Peril
Dr. Dowan Purcell had been missing for nine weeks when Kinsey got a call asking her to take on the case. A specialist in geriatric medicine, Purcell was a prominent member of the Santa Teresa medical community, and the police had done a thorough job. Purcell had no known enemies and seemed contented with his life.

"Q" is for Quarry
She was a "Jane Doe," an unidentified white female whose decomposed body was discovered near a quarry off California's Highway 1. The case fell to the Santa Teresa County Sheriff's Department, but the detectives had little to go on.

"R" is for Ricochet
Reba Lafferty was a daughter of privilege, the only child of an adoring father. Nord Lafferty was already in his fifties when Reba was born, and he could deny her nothing. Over the years, he quietly settled her many scrapes with the law, but he wasn't there for her when she was convicted of embezzlement and sent to the California Institute for Women. Now, at thirty-two, she is about to be paroled, having served twenty-two months of a four-year sentence.

"S" is for Silence
In "S" is for Silence, Kinsey Millhone's nineteenth excursion into the world of suspense and misadventure, "S" is for surprises as Sue Grafton takes a whole new approach to telling the tale.

"T" is for Trespass
In what may be her most unsettling novel to date, Sue Grafton's "T" is for Trespass is also her most direct confrontation with the forces of evil. Beginning slowly with the day-to-day life of a private eye, Grafton suddenly shifts from the voice of Kinsey Millhone to that of Solana Rojas, introducing readers to a chilling sociopath.

"U" is for Undertow
Calling "T is forespass "taut, terrifying, transfixing and terrific," USA Today went on to ask, "What does it take to write twenty novels about the same character and manage to create a fresh, genre-bending novel every time?" It's a question worth pondering. Through twenty excursions into the dark side of the human soul, Sue Grafton has never written the same book twice. And so it is with this, her twenty-first. Once again, she breaks genre formulas, giving us a twisting, complex, surprise-filled, and totally satisfying thriller.

"W" is for Wasted
Two dead bodies changed the course of my life that fall. One of them I knew and the other I'd never laid eyes on until I saw him in the morgue.
The first was a local PI of suspect reputation. He'd been gunned down near the beach at Santa Teresa. It looked like a robbery gone bad. The other was on the beach six weeks later. He'd been sleeping rough. Probably homeless. No identification. A slip of paper with Millhone's name and number was in his pants pocket. The coroner asked her to come to the morgue to see if she could ID. Two seemingly unrelated deaths, one a murder, the other apparently of natural causes.

More room in a broken heart: The true adventures of Carly Simon (2012) by Stephen Davis

Penguin Pub.
Not a good read.  Book is a collection of cut and pastes from articles and other sources.  Ms. Simon was never interviewed for this publication and does not authorize.  It was a list of recordings and people.  Very little about her emotional and intellectual being or her profuse composition.  No notes ,no references, no bibibliography. When Carley Simon is quoted, one never knows from whence the source. Very weak story line.