Vice and Virtue

Vice and Virtue by Libby Klein, 320 pages

Former cop and current aspiring musician Layla Virtue has had a rough go of it since leaving the force with a tattered reputation. She's a recovering alcoholic who has to take any gig that's offered to her, including a thankless performance for a spoiled kid's birthday party, where balloon artist Chuckles the Clown sexually harasses her before he drops dead on stage. While it could've been natural causes, Layla's not convinced, and between gigs, begins investigating his death, starting with his string of ex-wives.

This could've been a fun mystery, especially when Layla's aging rockstar dad pops up in her trailer park, but something about this just hits a bit wrong. Part of that is Layla's questionable investigative practices (approaching and questioning suspects at AA meetings key among them) and part of it is the fact that there is absolutely no reason to care about who killed Chuckles, who was, by all accounts, a jerk. I'd skip this one.

Definitely Better Now

Definitely Better Now by Ava Robinson (2024) 341 pages

Emma, a young woman working in the marketing department of a financial consulting firm, has been going to AA meetings three times a week. She's ready to mark one full year of abstinence from alcohol and is now trying to figure out how to navigate the next part of her life. In her crisis years, she needed alcohol in social situations. Since she's been in recovery, her social life equals AA. The only people who really know her are her mother and her AA sponsor, Lola. She has been mostly estranged from her father, who is an alcoholic himself.

Emma feels split between being "Work Emma," the responsible employee who shares only selective bits of her personal life and who does not go to Friday Happy Hours with her coworkers versus becoming a person who shares her life, opening the possibilities of honest conversations and gaining real friendship.

I find this story to be a thorough telling of the trials of recovery, concerns about backsliding (as well as dealing with others who fear that you may backslide), and the difficulty in dealing with people, especially when one's self-doubts continually resurface.