The Death of Mrs. Westaway

The Death of Mrs. Westaway / Ruth Ware, read by Imogen Church, 368 p.

An atmospheric but not quite cozy mystery set in Brighton and Cornwall.  Hal (Harriet) Westaway is 21 and all alone in the world since the accidental death of her mother 3 years earlier. She barely scrapes by as a Tarot reader on the Brighton pier, if 'scraping by' describes receiving late-night visits from terrifying loan shark enforcers.  When a letter arrives from a solicitor, telling her she's been named in the will of a Mrs. Westaway she's never heard of, Hal's situation is so dire that she persuades herself that it's worth the trip to Penzance to investigate.  There she finds a tumbling-down estate by the sea, a nasty housekeeper, and three bitterly angry men, brothers, who have a stake in the estate. 

The Death of Mrs. Westaway

The Death of Mrs. Westaway by Ruth Ware, 368 pages.
Harriet Westaway, known as Hal, finds out that she may have some previously unkown-to-her family on her mother's side at about the same time she finds out that the consequences of borrowing money from a local loan shark and not paying back the interest can be serious. While Hal doubts that she is in anyway the granddaughter that the late Mrs. Westaway's estate is searching for, she is intrigued by the possible lifeline that the idea of inheritance offers. Hal decides that she is willing to go and meet her possible relatives and to keep her answers vague enough until she can see if there is an inheritance sufficient to keep her bones unbroken.
An intriguing book with plenty of twists and turns. The downloadable audio is brilliantly read by Imogen Church.

The Book of Speculation

The Book of Speculation by Erika Swyler, 339 pages

The son of a carnival mermaid and brother of a tarot reader, Simon Watson is a reference librarian who's about to get laid off (damn budget cuts) when he receives an old, mysterious book in the mail. It's the log book and diary from a traveling circus dating back to the 1770s, and a rare books dealer has sent it to Simon because Simon's grandmother is mentioned. As he starts digging into the book, Simon realizes that the women of his family have all died in the same unlikely manner... and on the same day of the year. Alternating with the chapters about Simon and his dive into history, Swyler presents the story of Amos, a mute wild boy-turned-tarot reader whose story is told in Simon's mysterious book.

The story took a while to get going, but once it did, I really enjoyed it, particularly the historical chapters (I had trouble suspending disbelief when it came to Simon's assertion that a reference librarian has no need to be a "people person."), though once Simon's sister Enola and her electrically charged boyfriend Doyle show up, the modern chapters get a bit more interesting. Well worth the read though, and I'm looking forward to seeing what else Swyler has up her sleeve.