A Divided Duty

A Divided Duty by Seanan McGuire, 400 pages.

 

Toby Daye is finding a new normal in her makeshift family after her baby was born, a normal which may be upended as Rayseline Torquill original term of offense runs up and her mother tries desperately to pull her from October's home (where she has friends and a therapist) to her own domain. Raysel does in fact find herself kidnapped, and Toby has to return to the dark shadows of her past to get her back.

 

This is the 20th book in the October Daye series, and honestly it was mostly fine. I feel like it really needed another pass with the editors. Most of the book felt like rising action, and the payoff felt underwhelming, leaving the pacing sort of lackluster. It's not a terrible book, but if this was the quality of the earlier entries I probably never would have gotten into the series. 

Djinn Patrol on the Purple Line

 Djinn Patrol on the Purple Line by Deepa Anappara, 347 pages.

Jai dreams of being a detective, like the ones he sees on Police Patrol and the other crime shows he obsesses over. When a classmate goes missing it is of course very scary, but it's also an opportunity to convince his friends Pari and Faiz to be his assistants in solving the mystery. But as more children go missing from their basti (an Indian slum), Jai is forced to confront that things are not as simple as they are on tv. The police take bribes, but refuse to help, and nobody outside the basti seems to care about the children. Slowly, fear and suspicion begins to infest their basti as the stakes get ever more personal.

Anappara is an Indian journalist, and this novel is inspired by events that she covered professionally. This expertise helps her to build an immersive community that makes the horrors of the book resonate harder. Jai is also a masterful perspective character. Jai is nine years old, and Anappara does a really great job capturing his voice in a way that felt very believable and enriched the book. This is not a happy novel, but it is deeply compelling, and I would recommend it. 

Good Girls Don't Die

Good Girls Don't Die by Christina Henry, 313 pages

Celia loves to read a good mystery, but — after waking up in a home that's not hers with a family that's also not hers and no idea how she got in this situation — she decidedly does NOT like living in a mystery. The same could be said of horror movie fanatic Allie, whose beach trip with her friends turns into a terrifying weekend at a remote cabin in the woods. And then there's Maggie, who loves reading YA dystopian novels, but is less than impressed to find herself forced into a Hunger Games-esque maze with several other women. Obviously, there's someone behind all of these situations, and if they can survive, they're all determined to make them pay.

Told as three separate stories, this book ended up feeling a bit repetitive and predictable by the time the three heroines came together at the end. Perhaps restructuring the story could've helped combat that and make the suspense hang on just a bit longer. I generally love Christina Henry's books, so I'm particularly disappointed in this one. 

So Shall You Reap

 

So Shall You Reap by Donna Leon 262 pp.

This is book #32 in the Commissrio Brunetti series, which means I only have one more to complete the series (until the author publishes a new one). On a November evening, Brunetti receives a late night call from Ispettore Vianello about a hand seen in one of the canals. Brunetti arrives and crews begin searching in the frigid water before finally finding the body of a man. The victim is a Sri Lankan immigrant that Brunetti met when inquiring about the possibility of a house being for sale. He discovers that the man worked for the owners of the house and was living in a small house in the garden there. Nobody seems to have much information about the man and what the police learn is mainly through the books and other ephemera found in the little house. With much research and memories from his college days he connects a scrapbook with an old political kidnapping. In this case Brunetti has a dog to thank for the final resolution of the crime(s).

The Return of Ellie Black

The Return of Ellie Black by Emiko Jean, 299 pages

After her sister disappeared as a teenager, detective Chelsey Calhoun has dedicated her professional career to finding other lost girls; her first case was when local girl Ellie Black vanished two years back. But now Ellie has returned and Chelsey is determined to find out who kidnapped her and stop him from ever doing it again. But Ellie is reluctant to share any information about her captor, which frustrates Chelsey and convinces her that there's more to this case than she initially assumed.

This is a great suspenseful thriller, with a wonderfully twisty plot and complex characters. I've never read anything else by Jean, but if they're all as good as this one, I'll happily rectify that situation. My only complaint is about an element of the ending, but up to that, this is a fantastic book.

Pony

 Pony by R.J. Palacio  289 pp.

Silas Bird lives with his father in a small town called Boneville. Martin Bird is a photographer by trade and the two of them have enough to get by. One day strangers come and kidnap Martin, calling him Mac Boat, a name Silas has never heard before. When a mysterious horse belonging to the kidnappers returns to the Bird house, Silas rides the horse in search of his father even though he is terrified of the woods he must travel through. His only companion is Mittenwool, a spirit presence who has been a friend of Silas since he was little. Soon he is joined by a Federal Marshal who is on the hunt for the kidnappers. They find the kidnappers but the Marshal is seriously injured. Silas then rides to the nearest town and gets the sheriff and his deputy to join in the effort to save his father. With their help the kidnappers are found and captured but the outcome is not a happy one. The end of the story is bittersweet, with a grown Silas heading off to college after living with the Sheriff and his family. This book is nominated for the 2023-2024 Missouri Mark Twain Award.

Ratking

 

Ratking by Michael Dibdin  266 pp.

This is the first book in the Aurelio Zen mystery series. Zen whose police career has stalled after an unsuccessful kidnapping case and he's stuck in a dead-end office job within the Rome police. Zen is a dark and brooding character with a chip on his shoulder, trying to redeem himself with this investigation. When no one else is available, Zen is sent to Perugia in Umbria to investigate the kidnapping of a powerful industrialist named Ruggerio Miletti. The family has paid a ransom but the kidnappers want more. Zen's investigations reveal dysfunction and dissention within the Miletti family and he suspects this isn't a "typical" Italian kidnapping. The death of Ruggerio after he was released by the kidnappers turns the tale into a murder mystery. The family are suspect, but who fired the deadly bullet? 

This book was narrated by British actor, Michael Kitchen. While I am a fan of his work in Foyle's War and other television shows and movies, I found his very distinctive voice to be a distraction. I'm sure those not familiar with him will think it is fine.

Jackal

 Jackal by Erin E. Adams, 352 pages.

Liz Rocher returns to her hometown in Johnstown, Pennsylvania only very reluctantly. But it's her best friend's wedding, and after a traumatic breakup in New York she has to prove to herself she can still trust her own judgement. Then her best friend's daughter (who is also her own beloved stepdaughter) goes missing in the woods the night of the wedding, and the only sign is a bloodstained scrap of her dress. In the desperate search for the little girl Liz learns that she is not the first little black girl to go missing in those woods, and if she ever wants to find her Liz is going to have to get to the bottom of dozens of disappearances and deaths stretching back decades, including an encounter from her own youth that left her scarred.

This book is a really compelling piece of social horror, and an engaging mystery. For the first half of the book or so I wasn't even certain what genre it was going to turn out to be. And there is just so much plausible evil in this book that I wasn't certain who the villain was until the book revealed it. This was a really interesting read, and I would definitely recommend it for fans of the genre. 

Everyone in My Family has Killed Someone

Everyone in My Family has Killed Someone by Benjamin Stevenson  372 pp.

Yes, the family featured in this book have killed someone either intentionally or unintentionally. The one son who hadn't when the story starts manages to before the end. They all meet for a family reunion at a ski lodge which immediately gets deluged with massive, non-stop snowstorms. A dead body found outside in the snow brings up the possibility of a recent serial killer being in the locale. The story is very convoluted but highly entertaining. The family is highly dysfunctional but takes care of its own. I actually figured out who the killer was only to discover the killer was not who they said were. Kidnapping, robbery, blackmail, substance abuse, murder, suicide, you name it and it's probably in this story. It's odd to say this is a fun book but it is.

Sisters of the Lost Nation

 Sisters of the Lost Nation by Nick Medina, 352 pages.

Anna Horn has plenty of worries. She's constantly bullied at school, her parents' marriage is falling apart, her little sister is growing away from her, her boss at the reservation's casino is sketchy, and when she walks alone she often sees the ghostly severed head her uncle told her about as a little girl. That's all before teenage girls start going missing. Due to some thorny (and all too real) jurisdiction problems surrounding law enforcement on reservations, it is hard to pursue the investigation of these cases, and easier to pretend that the girls all just ran off. So when Anna's little sister joins the missing she throws everything she has into finding her herself, following leads and tribal legends both in an attempt to bring her sister home.

This was more thriller than the horror I think I was expecting, but it was quite good. I found Anna to be an engaging protagonist and the story to be haunting, not only narratively but also in reality. Medina notes at the end that Indigenous women are staggeringly more likely to be murdered or go missing than any other demographic (about 12 times more likely in fact). This book is fiction, but it is obviously very invested in dealing with real world problems. My one major criticism is that I'm not sure the structure Medina decided to use worked very well. Chapters jump back and forth between before and after Anna's sister goes missing, and I found that they really interrupted the narrative tension. There would be very high intensity investigations, and then suddenly we were spending chapters concerned with our clothes and parents marital problems. It also doesn't help that the way we differentiate is by numbering the days at the top of the chapter, which is a little bit too subtle, especially close to where the timelines are meeting up. That being said, I do consider this a pretty strong first novel and would recommend it. 

Depth of Winter

 Depth of Winter by Craig Johnson  292 pp.

This is the 14th book in the Walt Longmire series. In this episode Walt's daughter Cady has been kidnapped by a drug cartel in Mexico in retribution by cartel leader, Tomas Bedarte. The American authorities are negotiating with the Mexican government for permission to enter the country and find the kidnappers. Walt refuses to wait and proceeds on his own with a few locals to enter the northern desert of Mexico in search of the criminals. Just when Longmire thinks he has succeeded in rescuing Cady and her housekeeper, things go horribly wrong and he finds himself alone in the desert, once again trying to reach his daughter. I have skipped a few books in the series and this one had some surprising revelations I missed by skipping those books. Walt's deputy Vic and Henry Standing Bear were absent from the story and I missed them a lot.

The Last House on Needless Street

The Last House on Needless Street by Catriona Ward, 341 pages

At the end of a quiet street near the woods, a man lives with his cat and his daughter. They're reclusive, to say the least: he keeps the windows boarded up and he doesn't let his daughter out of the house too often (and never unsupervised), given her penchant for trying to run away. Certainly, there is something not at all right in the titular house. Told in chapters alternating between the man, the cat, and the daughter's points of view, this story slowly spools out in increasing horror. I'm a bit hesitant to fully call it "horror," though many publications have listed it as one of the best horror novels of 2021. What I will say is that this book is incredibly well-written and captivating and truly impossible to put down. 

How Lucky

How Lucky by Will Leitch, 290 pages

Daniel doesn't get out much. He works from home (responding to angry tweets from travelers on a regional airline), has a few friends who will swing by to visit him, and only really gets out for a weekly game of Azul (he always loses) and University of Georgia football games (Daniel loves tailgating). Probably doesn't help that he was diagnosed with spinal muscular atrophy (SMA) syndrome when he was a toddler, which has progressed to the point of physically confining him to a wheelchair (which he drives with his left hand and a joystick) and limiting his communication to occasional grunts and a text-to-speech program he uses with the iPad on his chair. But when a local graduate student goes missing, it turns out that Daniel was the only person to see her disappear, and he has to figure out how to share the information.

While this was originally suggested to me as a mystery, it's much more a straight-up story of an intelligent young man (Daniel's 26) making the most of his life, one that many of us would probably have trouble even imagining. But Daniel approaches everything with such a great sense of humor, and explains SMA so clearly that it's easy to understand his limitations while not feeling pity for him. Leitch walks a fine line there (and yes, occasionally the explanations of SMA can get a little repetitive and "teachy") and does so admirably. A very enjoyable read, and I highly recommend it.

Chilling effect

 

Chilling Effect / Valerie Valdes, 434 pgs.

This is a fun adventure set in space that include inter-species romance, some kidnapping and high spy level intrigue.  Oh yea, and then there are the cats.  It seems like this is a book written specifically for me.  And, I did enjoy it.  Somehow, it was difficult for me to really get into the story.  I expected reading this to take days but it took me weeks.  Once again, I don't really know why.  If you are looking for an adventure and a crew of kind of wise-ass adventure seeking space hooligans, this could be your book, give it a whirl.

Cut to the Bone

Cut to the Bone by Ellison Cooper, 323 pages

FBI agent Sayer Altair specializes in psychopaths and serial killers, so when the body of a teenage girl shows up just off the National Mall, surrounded by brass baboons and holding an axe, Sayer is called in to catch the killer. But what begins as a run-of-the-mill murder investigation quickly balloons to race against time to rescue a group of kidnapped girls and prevent them from becoming murdered in similar fashion. This is a thrilling procedural, reminiscent of Dan Brown's books, but with a better protagonist, cooler side characters, and a plot with a bit more heart. I'll happily read more of Cooper's books any day.

Automatic Reload

Automatic Reload by Ferrett Steinmetz, 304 pages

Years ago, Mat was a drone operator for the U.S. military. During one of his assignments, Mat accidentally killed a young child while taking out the nearby terrorists, and the misstep has haunted him ever since. Now, he's replaced his four limbs with high tech robotic replacements, which he uses to help save hostages, re-calibrating after every mission to try to minimize casualties as much as possible. On what should be a routine protect-the-package mission, things go haywire, introducing Silvia, a woman whose panic disorder has been weaponized. Now their mission has changed to try to take down the shadowy organization who did this to her.

This is a fast-paced, fun book that reads like a shoot-em-up video game (in a good way), but also handles mental illness with kindness and compassion. It's fun, it's sweet, it's imaginative, and I absolutely loved it.

The Bookseller

The Bookseller (Hugo Marston #1) by Mark Pryor  300 pp.

Hugo Marston is the head of security at the U.S. Embassy in Paris. During his time there he frequents the book stalls along the River Seine. He purchases a couple first editions from one named Max, one of which turns out to be extremely valuable. However, Marston witnesses the kidnapping of Max and the police refuse to believe him. After being told by his Embassy superiors that he must stay out of the local matter, Marston continues to search for Max while uncovering convoluted government agencies and sinister gangs trying to take over the area with the book stalls. The story is a good one but the author gets a little too caught up in his descriptions bogging things down. Not sure if I will venture into more of this series.

Heart of junk

Heart of Junk / Luke Geddes, read by a cast, 240 pgs.

This book about an antique mall in Topeka filled with odd duck "dealers" who are barely making it.  They love their collections more than anything.  Oh yea, but someone has kidnapped a young beauty queen.  Trust me, my description here doesn't make a lot of sense but I come from a family of collectors and for the first time, I really felt "seen" (on their behalf, I'm not a big collector).  This book made my day.  The audio is perfect.  Loved each character more than the last.

Two Graves

Two Graves (Agent Pendergast series) by Douglas Preston & Lincoln Child  484 pp.

When you read certain series out of order you may find yourself confused. That was the case with this book. I have read Fever Dream in which Helen, Agent Pendergast's wife is murdered. I haven't read Cold Vengeance where Helen apparently is found to be alive. This book begins with Helen alive but being kidnapped and then murdered. Pendergast is once again devastated and hides himself away but returns to work when a mysterious serial killer stalks New York. Pendergast realizes he has a personal connection to the killer. That investigation leads him to a plot involving modern day Nazis continuing the horrific work of Josef Mengele. A side plot involving Pendergast's "ward" Constance Greene explains some of the mystery surrounding her existence. I found this episode in the series to be one I had a hard time putting down (or turning off since it was the audiobook).

The Chain

The Chain / Adrian McKinty, read by January LaVoy 357 pgs.

In this excellent thriller, cancer survivor Rachel gets a call saying her daughter has been kidnapped. Pay the hefty ransom quickly or you will never see her again.  But the money is only the start.  The second step is to kidnap ANOTHER child and serve as a conduit to those parents and "the chain" a shadowy group of victims just like you.  It is really a lot to have on your plate.  In addition, Rachel's last test results have her doctor worried about a recurrence of her cancer.  Can she meet all the demand made on her by "the chain?"' The more she learns, the more she realizes you can never escape.  She gets her daughter back but the demands continue.  How can she extricate herself for good?  An exciting story that, at times, will have you on the end of your seat.  Januay LaVoy is the perfect narrator.  If you enjoy audio books, this one is riveting.