The Turn of The Key – Ruth Ware

This book was recommended on an online book group I’m a part of, so I requested it from my local library.

Stats: First published in 2019, the paperback is 352, audio book is 10 discs, read by Imogen Church

Blurb: When she stumbles across the ad, she’s looking for something else completely. But it seems like too good an opportunity to miss—a live-in nannying post, with a staggeringly generous salary. And when Rowan Caine arrives at Heatherbrae House, she is smitten—by the luxurious “smart” home fitted out with all modern conveniences, by the beautiful Scottish Highlands, and by this picture-perfect family.

What she doesn’t know is that she’s stepping into a nightmare—one that will end with a child dead and herself in prison awaiting trial for murder.

Writing to her lawyer from prison, she struggles to explain the events that led to her incarceration. It wasn’t just the constant surveillance from the home’s cameras, or the malfunctioning technology that woke the household with booming music, or turned the lights off at the worst possible time. It wasn’t just the girls, who turned out to be a far cry from the immaculately behaved model children she met at her interview. It wasn’t even the way she was left alone for weeks at a time, with no adults around apart from the enigmatic handyman.

It was everything.

She knows she’s made mistakes. She admits that she lied to obtain the post, and that her behavior toward the children wasn’t always ideal. She’s not innocent, by any means. But, she maintains, she’s not guilty—at least not of murder—but somebody is.

What I liked: I mostly like the narration done by Ms Church. She was good at making it a bit creepy. Of course, that means that the writing was good at making it creepy, and it was. And the characters in the story were very real but from the word and from the narration.

What I didn’t like: The story itself was a bit slow. The twist at the end did surprise me a bit, but it wasn’t an OMG moment by any means. And it was a touch hard to believe the the person that died could have done what he/she did, especially related to the house. (I don’t want to give anything away for those that want to read this story.) And finding out who did kill the character was actually a sad moment in the story, almost believable but also not quite.

Rating: 2.5/5

One By One by Ruth Ware

This book was recommended by one of my local librarians.

Stats: Published in 2020, Audio – 11 CDs, Narrator – Imogen Church, Print – 372 pages

Blurb: Getting snowed in at a beautiful, rustic mountain chalet doesn’t sound like the worst problem in the world, especially when there’s a breathtaking vista, a cozy fire, and company to keep you warm. But what happens when that company is eight of your coworkers…and you can’t trust any of them?
When an off-site company retreat meant to promote mindfulness and collaboration goes utterly wrong when an avalanche hits, the corporate food chain becomes irrelevant and survival trumps togetherness. Come Monday morning, how many members short will the team be?

What I liked: As people started getting picked off “One by One” in a situation where there is only so many people involved in a place where they can’t get away from each other (in a snowed in chalet), I definitely thought of Agatha Christie’s Ten Little Indians (which started out with a not socially acceptable – now – title). And Ruth reproduces the feeling of that great Christie story pretty well. You definitely feel like you’re in the chalet. You definitely get the feeling of the different characters (and Imogen Church helps this a lot too), and I didn’t know “who done it” until she tells you. I was listening so I couldn’t really go back and see if she “cheated” at all in how she used the different people’s voices (the different sections are told by different characters), but I trust that she’s a good enough author that she didn’t do that. I also like how the Ware does tell you who the murder is but there is still more of the book to go. The final ski down the mountain was a nasty. I’m not a skilled downhill skier, so it put me on edge for sure.

What I didn’t like: The end was a bit slow and I don’t remember learning with happened to some of the other characters when they split up. I would have liked to know why they didn’t come back in time.

Rating: 4/5

Echo Burning – Lee Child

I needed an audio book to listen to and this one was available from my library.

Stats: Published in 2002 this is the 5th Jack Reacher Novel by Child. Print it is 432 pages, audio is 17′, narrator is Dick Hill

Blurb: Thumbing across the scorched Texas desert, Jack Reacher has nowhere to go and all the time in the world to get there. Cruising the same stretch of two-lane blacktop is Carmen Greer. For Reacher, the lift comes with a hitch. Carmen’s got a wild story to tell—all about her husband, her family secrets, and a hometown that’s purely gothic. She’s also got a plan. Reacher’s part of it. And before the sun sets, this ride could cost them both their lives.

What I liked: This story was interesting because it had Reacher stumped (and me too). In the typical Child way, Reacher figures things out the only way Reacher can, with his background knowledge of… (I won’t tell you and give away the fun of discovery). As usual, Child’s characters are all so real and the situation plausible (mostly). The setting helps enhance the mood of the story and the child increases the stakes. And in the typical Child way, there are people in the story that you don’t know why they are in the story until toward the end. I always enjoy Dick Hill’s narration of the Reacher stories. He was a good pick for the job.

What I didn’t like: Some of the detail is overdone a bit but that is Child’s style too. Easy to overlook in an audio format.

Rating: 4.5/5

Beating About the Bush by M.C. Beaton

Since I can’t get into my local library yet to pick out audio books, I saw this one and thought it might be a light, cozy mystery. I don’t know about you but I don’t want to “read” anything too serious right now. I had seen one Agatha Raisin BBC program and wasn’t that impressed by it, but I thought I’d give one of the books a go.

Stats: The audio was produced in 2019, same year as the print edition. The print is 236 pages. I didn’t pay attention to the length of the audio book – sorry. Narrated by Penelope Kieth.

Blurb: When private detective Agatha Raisin comes across a severed leg in a roadside hedge, it looks like she is about to become involved in a particularly gruesome murder. Looks, however, can be deceiving, as Agatha discovers when she is employed to investigate a case of industrial espionage at a factory where nothing is quite what it seems.

The factory mystery soon turns to murder and a bad-tempered donkey turns Agatha into a national celebrity, before bringing her ridicule and shame. To add to her woes, Agatha finds herself grappling with growing feelings for her friend and occasional lover, Sir Charles Fraith. Then, as a possible solution to the factory murder unfolds, her own life is thrown into deadly peril. Will Agatha get her man at last? Or will the killer get her first?

What I liked: There were some funny bits, and I liked the donkey.

What I didn’t like: I wasn’t pulled into the story and didn’t really care for the two main characters, especially Agatha Raisin. Her personality grated on me and I don’t know why her sidekick stayed with her and took her verbal abuse (even if it was meant to be helpful.) So it was hard to care about how the story ended up. The body didn’t show up for quite a while into the story and I had a hard time keeping the bad guys straight. I’ll be staying away from Agatha Raisin. The narration was okay, but also not my favorite.

Rating: 2/10

 

The Magician’s Assistant – Ann Patchett

I was given Bel Canto (another Patchett book) from my daughter and enjoyed it so I thought I’d try this one too.

Stats: Published in 1997, 357 pages.

Blurb: Sabine– twenty years a magician’s assistant to her handsome, charming husband– is suddenly a widow. In the wake of his death, she finds he has left a final trick; a false identity and a family allegedly lost in a tragic accident but now revealed as very much alive and well. Named as heirs in his will, they enter Sabine’s life and set her on an adventure of unraveling his secrets, from sunny Los Angeles to the windswept plains of Nebraska, that will work its own sort of magic on her.

What I liked: The story was entertaining. I really enjoyed the magic. It shows Patchett’s skill to make writing about magic entertaining. Her characters are all very real and their actions, emotions, and interactions all believable. The winter in Nebraska sounded more like my home state of Wisconsin but since I’ve never been in Nebraska in winter, I can’t really say how accurate it was. What makes a writer think – ‘I’ll write a story about love and loss and make the main character a magician’s assistant’? Interesting.

What I didn’t like: The ending was a bit disappointing. Not sure what I was expecting but it made me feel… disappointed. That is the best word for it. There was a touch of hope, which saved it but still just… disappointing. It’s interesting how an ending can color your feeling of a book.

Rating: 3.5/5

 

Just Mercy by Bryan Stevenson

Sometimes my work allows me to listen to books while I work. I was happy to see this one available from my library online service. I had heard the title and was interested in the topic.

Stats: It was published in 2014, which surprised me. I didn’t know I was so slow on the draw, but it explains why it was available to me from the library. Narrated by the author. It is 11 hours in length.

Blurb: Bryan Stevenson was a young lawyer when he founded the Equal Justice Initiative, a legal practice dedicated to defending those most desperate and in need: the poor, the wrongly condemned, and women and children trapped in the farthest reaches of our criminal justice system. One of his first cases was that of Walter McMillian, a young man who was sentenced to die for a notorious murder he insisted he didn’t commit. The case drew Bryan into a tangle of conspiracy, political machination, and legal brinksmanship—and transformed his understanding of mercy and justice forever.

Just Mercy is at once an unforgettable account of an idealistic, gifted young lawyer’s coming of age, a moving window into the lives of those he has defended, and an inspiring argument for compassion in the pursuit of true justice.

What I liked: Mr. Stevenson is an impressive man and this book does a good job telling his story. It’s not surprising that they picked this up to make a movie about it (which I would also recommend). It’s quite a story. A definite eye opener of the continued injustices in our judicial system.

What I didn’t like: Not sure I can think of anything.

Rating: 5/5

A Better Man by Louise Penny

I always enjoy a stroll through the small but dangerous town of Three Pines 🙂

Stats: Published in 2019, print is 437 pages, audio is 11 discs, narrator, Robert Bathurst (as always)

Blurb: It’s Gamache’s first day back as head of the homicide department, a job he temporarily shares with his previous second-in-command, Jean-Guy Beauvoir. Flood waters are rising across the province. In the middle of the turmoil a father approaches Gamache, pleading for help in finding his daughter.

As crisis piles upon crisis, Gamache tries to hold off the encroaching chaos, and realizes the search for Vivienne Godin should be abandoned. But with a daughter of his own, he finds himself developing a profound, and perhaps unwise, empathy for her distraught father.

Increasingly hounded by the question, how would you feel…, he resumes the search.

As the rivers rise, and the social media onslaught against Gamache becomes crueler, a body is discovered. And in the tumult, mistakes are made.

What I liked: There are enough questions about “Who done it” that you really don’t know until Penny tells you (or at least I didn’t). I don’t know what number this is in the Gamache series and I’ve only read a few of this series, but it still feels fresh. Penny is so good at making the characters and their lives seem very real. The backstories of the supporting characters play into the mystery so well. Bathurst does a wonderful job, as usual. I love his interpretation of the duck.

What I didn’t like: (Spoiler Alert) To keep the real “killer” hidden, Penny kind of lies to the reader. The person really responsible tries to pin it on someone else. Is that lying or is that what a person might actually do. For this character, it seems unlikely, but it makes the story work.

Rating: 4.5/5

The Giver of Stars – Jojo Moyes

I have read this author before so I thought this would be a safe pick.

Stats: The audio book (which I “read”) is 11 discs, 14 hours, narrated by Julia Whelan. The print book is 400 pages, published in October of 2019.

Blurb: Alice Wright marries handsome American Bennett Van Cleve hoping to escape her stifling life in England. But small-town Kentucky quickly proves equally claustrophobic, especially living alongside her overbearing father-in-law. So when a call goes out for a team of women to deliver books as part of Eleanor Roosevelt’s new traveling library, Alice signs on enthusiastically.

The leader, and soon Alice’s greatest ally, is Margery, a smart-talking, self-sufficient woman who’s never asked a man’s permission for anything. They will be joined by three other singular women who become known as the Packhorse Librarians of Kentucky.

What happens to them–and to the men they love–becomes an unforgettable drama of loyalty, justice, humanity and passion. These heroic women refuse to be cowed by men or by convention. And though they face all kinds of dangers in a landscape that is at times breathtakingly beautiful, at others brutal, they’re committed to their job: bringing books to people who have never had any, arming them with facts that will change their lives.

What I liked: I enjoyed the story in part because it was obvious it was based on some facts. It initially appears to be about Alice – the immigrant from England, but it really seems more about Margery – the feisty local that does and says what she likes. The library and the bond that forms with the women that run it is heartening and the things they encounter seem very real, as do the characters. I can see how, if they enjoyed reading, how they would like sharing that with people that would normally not be exposed to books. Plus, it’s understandable for the time period for the women to appreciate the independence this job gave them, a job men would generally have little interest in so suited them perfectly. Julia Whalen does a wonderful job with the narration, making each character unique.

What I didn’t like: It seems to takes Alice an extra long time to figure out what she decides to do once she (spoiler alert) leaves her husband. It also takes too long for the trial to happen. (I won’t tell you who is on trial.) I’m not sure why Moyes draws this out for so long. Generally, the book moves along in a saunter, like the women on their horses. It’s not the “epic” the publisher would have you believe, but it’s enjoyable.

Rating: 3.5/5

Big Sky by Kate Atkinson

I haven’t read anything by this author but it looked good, so I picked it up.

Stats: Published in June of 2019, 352 print pages, 10 audio discs, 11.5 hours. Audio narrated by Jason Issacs. Book 5 in the Jackson Brodie series.

Blurb: Jackson Brodie, ex-military police, ex-Cambridge Constabulary, currently working as a private investigator, makes a highly anticipated return, nine years after the last Brodie, Started Early, Took My Dog.

Jackson Brodie has relocated to a quiet seaside village, in the occasional company of his recalcitrant teenage son and an aging Labrador, both at the discretion of his ex-partner Julia. It’s picturesque, but there’s something darker lurking behind the scenes.

Jackson’s current job, gathering proof of an unfaithful husband for his suspicious wife, is fairly standard-issue, but a chance encounter with a desperate man on a crumbling cliff leads him into a sinister network—and back across the path of his old friend Reggie.

What I liked: An awful lot (hows that for vague). If you like happy endings (and British humor), you’ll like this book. It’s not that the book is light and fluffy stuff – it is far from that, but all the bad guys get their just due and frequently at the hands of people that need to see justice done. The characters are all very real (drag queens, teen angst, parent angst, pasts that catch up to you… I don’t want to give anything away so I’ll stop there), the story line is also all very real (the underbelly of human kind), other than the lovely ending for all the good characters and the not so lovely ending for all the bad ones. But it feels so cathartic that you can overlook the unlikelihood of this happening in real life. Jason Isaacs does a wonderful job narrating. Each character is very distinct; I could see them all in my mind’s eye.

What I didn’t like: The only down side was it took until disc 4 for the story to really start. I was listening and the characters in the story before disc 4 are all interesting, but they don’t all start to come together until then, and then it’s off to the races. I don’t think it would have made a difference if I’d have read other Jackson Brodie books first. This one stands on it’s own just fine.

Rating: 4/5 (I’ve hit the jackpot recently, two really good book in a row!! (see my The Casual Vacancy review). Maybe I just like British humor, growing up on Monty Python. They seem particularly good at highlighting the silly things we humans do.

The Casual Vacancy By J.K. Rowling

I hadn’t read anything else by Rowling other than the Harry Potter series, so when I saw this audio book on the library shelf, I thought I’d give it a go.

Stats: Published in 2012 (boy, am I behind the times), print is 503 pages. Don’t remember how many discs but it’s 17′ 51″ long. Narrator is Tom Hollander

Blurb: When Barry Fairbrother dies in his early forties, the town of Pagford is left in shock.

Pagford is, seemingly, an English idyll, with a cobbled market square and an ancient abbey, but what lies behind the pretty façade is a town at war.

Rich at war with poor, teenagers at war with their parents, wives at war with their husbands, teachers at war with their pupils … Pagford is not what it first seems.

And the empty seat left by Barry on the parish council soon becomes the catalyst for the biggest war the town has yet seen. Who will triumph in an election fraught with passion, duplicity and unexpected revelations?

What I liked: Most everything about this book I liked. I could tell right away is was written by Rowling – her Harry Potter style of deep omniscient point of view is unmistakable and I think even better in this book than in the Potter series. I recently read Where the Crawfish Sings and I think the author Delia Owens was trying for this point of view (though not deep, like this book) but wasn’t able to pull it off. (I’ll go more into that in a specific review of that book in another post). And what a topic – the death of a small-town politican (or whatever his “seat” was on the parish council – not church parish but district/parish. This is set in England). How does one make a story about a banal subject like that? Well, by creating wonderful, real characters with wonderfully messy lives. I wanted to get to know many of these characters upon first introduction, they were done so well. I think I have to buy this book just to study how she does this.

And the narration of Tom Hollander is superb! Definitely listen to the audio on this one. He’s so entertaining and makes the characters that much more richer.

What I didn’t like: It was a bit ago that I read it so maybe there was something, but it wasn’t enough that I remember what it was.

Rating: I guess I’m on the fringe on this one with Goodreads averg at 3.3/5 and Amazon at 3/5. Were people expecting something fanciful because of her Potter series? I’m not sure. But it’s superb writing (and narration) so I giving it a 5/5