The Woman in Cabin 10 (Ruth Ware)

It's the rare book that I read over a 24-hour time period.  I usually like to savor novels over a few days/weeks, especially the ones I'm particularly enjoying.  Ruth Ware's The Woman in Cabin 10 was the exception, as I couldn't put it down and raced to the end to see how Ware would finish it.

Travel journalist Lo Blacklock has just been burglarized at her home but doesn't want to cancel the major assignment she's been given at work: to write about her experience during a week on a new cruise boat.  At the beginning, everything seems wonderful -- luxurious accommodations, delicious food/drink, and pleasant travel companions.  This is a tiny vessel, with only ten cabins, but the last cabin is empty due to a cancellation.  But one night, Lo hears what sounds like someone being dumped overboard from that cabin; she can't get anyone to believe her though because that cabin is supposed to be empty.  Except it isn't -- Lo had previously knocked on that door and talked with the woman who she thought was the inhabitant.  So what's going on here?  Did Lo witness something horrible?  Is she going mad because of the burglary?  As readers, we're never quite sure.

With the mysterious premise and plenty of suspects to go around, The Woman in Cabin 10 reads like an Agatha Christie novel.  It's well written with tons of twists, and Ware succeeds in giving the reader the same sense of claustrophobia that Lo is going through.  I couldn't put it down.

MY RATING - 4

Dear Daughter (Elizabeth Little)

I was excited to devour Elizabeth Little's Dear Daughter, as before-publication reviews were calling it the next Gone Girl. Um...not quite. There are a multitude of reasons why I just didn't care for this book, but I'm only going to mention a few of them.

Dear Daughter is narrated by Janie Jenkins, a woman convicted of murdering her mother but released from prison on a technicality.  Since Janie was considered a socialite and an IT girl, the trial transfixed the country.  Janie is determined to find her mother's "real" killer, and in so doing, finds herself in a small town in the middle of nowhere.  The American media is just as determined to keep tabs on her since they are convinced she got away with murder.

A.) I pretty much hated every character in this book.  None are likable, and it is extremely hard to feel any sympathy for any of them.  From Janie herself to her horrible mother to Leo the cop, I would not give any one of them the time of day in real life.

B.) Since Dear Daughter is narrated by Janie, the reader is forced to see the unfolding mystery through her eyes. Therefore, we are treated to such doozies as Janie getting shot in the shoulder and saying that red is just not her color. What???? What about screaming? Crying? Passing out? Which is what 99.9% of people would do if they were shot in the shoulder.

C.) The mystery is just plain boring, and the ending (when we finally find out who the killer really is) borders on a Scooby Doo revelation.

So Gone Girl this is not, but I'm going to give it a 2. Read it if it's the only book in the house.

MY RATING - 2

The Last Winter of Dani Lancing (P.D. Viner)

P.D. Viner’s The Last Winter of Dani Lancing is a thought-provoking novel, asking the reader how far they would go to protect someone they love.  At times, it kept me on the edge of my seat, as all great books should do; at other times, I was left scratching my head at the author’s easy cop-outs.  However, all in all it’s a worthwhile read and one that I’m going to furnish with a rare in-between rating.

I’m not giving anything away by saying that the title character is dead, hence the title.  From the get-go, you know that Dani has died years ago, and her killer has never been found.  Her mother (Patti), father (Jim), and lovestruck friend (Tom) each are working for justice in their own way.  Patti is taking matters into her own hands, even if that means doing it in vigilante style.  Jim sometimes sees his daughter’s ghost but is trying to move forward as best he can.  Tom loves/loved Dani, but the feelings were not really reciprocated.  He is now working with the police force, who are reopening the case.

As is the norm now in books, the reader is jolted back and forth between time periods, eventually getting the whole cohesive story.  Viner does a wonderful job at making sure it’s a seamless transition, so the reader is not too jarred.  I talked before about easy cop-outs; I just feel that the author’s “coincidences” throughout the novel are borderline ridiculous.  That moved my rating from a 4 to a 3.5.  However, The Last Winter of Dani Lancing is a mostly well-written mystery that’s ideal for any time of year.

MY RATING – 3.5

City of Mirrors (Melodie Johnson Howe)

Every once in awhile a book comes along that gets good buzz but that I just didn’t like.  Samantha Shannon is supposed to be the next J.K. Rowling and signed a 7-book deal, but I couldn’t get through a preview copy of the mega-hyped The Bone Season. Unfortunately, this is also the case with Melodie Johnson Howe’s City of Mirrors.  I was able to finish it but found it difficult to do so; it just wasn’t interesting to me at all.

The subtitle of the novel is A Diana Poole Thriller #1; Howe is on record saying that there will be more.  Poole is living in her deceased mother’s shadow, as her mom was a very famous actress, and Poole struggles to get roles.  However, she is starring in a movie with young starlet Jenny Parson, who Poole later finds murdered.  Not content to rest on her acting chops, she of course plays detective and winds up getting caught in a dangerous web of lies and deceit.  Along the way, there is a forgettable cast of characters such as Diana’s love interest, her best friend, and the movie’s director.

As a book reviewer, I am usually reading three or more novels at a time.  I found myself hurrying up with this one so I could get to the other ones I’m reading nowadays.  While Howe admirably fills in the big puzzle and doesn’t leave any holes, I just didn’t care about any of the characters; none were likable, including the murdered Jenny. And without any redeeming qualities, the characters didn’t make me that interested in this murder mystery.

MY RATING - 2

The Book of Secrets (Elizabeth Joy Arnold)

I seem to be on a completely unintentional kick of reading novels with the word "book" in the title.  My "currently reading" list includes Charlie Lovett's The Bookman's Tale and Markus Zusak's The Book Thief. There is something about the word "book" that is just so comforting...curling up and going into another world for a little while.  The closing of so many bookstores lately is really alarming to me.  I've gone kicking and screaming into the e-Reader age, but I'm certainly not happy about it.  Elizabeth Joy Arnold's The Book of Secrets seems to be written for people like me, those who love nothing better than to take a book off the bookstore or library shelf and lose themselves in its pages.

Chloe and Nate grew up together in a small town.  Almost every day, Chloe would go over to Nate's house, where the two of them, along with Nate's two sisters, would put on plays based on books.  The children were homeschooled by Nate's mother, Mrs. Sinclair, until she became severely ill.  Chloe hardly ever saw Mr. Sinclair, but when he surprisingly came home early one day, it wasn't hard to see why the children seemed afraid of him.  The Sinclair house had a lot of dark secrets, some of which do not come to light until Chloe and Nate have a son, get married, and open a bookstore together.  When Nate disappears one day, Chloe discovers that he's gone back to their small town to see his family for answers.  Chloe goes after him, of course, and finds the answer to the biggest secret of all.

The final mystery is fairly simple to figure out; however, don't let that stop you from reading this wonderful book.  Arnold imbues the novel with tons of literary references, codes, and dark secrets, making this far from a "fluff" book about a bookstore.

MY RATING - 4

A Murder at Rosamund's Gate (Susanna Calkins)

A Murder at Rosamund's Gate is Susanna Calkins's absorbing debut novel.  Just a warning that time WILL easily slip away as you become engrossed in this historical fiction mystery.  I was pleasantly surprised that this is deemed Book 1 of the Lucy Campion Mysteries; if there's a Book 1, there has to be a Book 2, right?  So I look forward to reading Calkins's future tales.

It's set in the mid-1600s right around the beginning of the plague's entrance into London.  Lucy is a young servant girl living in the kind magistrate's household.  A series of murders, including of someone very close to Lucy, soon makes the area a dangerous place to be.  Calkins expertly combines not only a "whodunit" but also great suspense as the plague creeps ever closer.

With this novel, Susanna Calkins proves herself to be a literary talent and her protagonist is interesting enough to star in future books. Calkins is off to a rip-roaring start with A Murder at Rosamund's Gate.

MY RATING - 4

NOTE:  This book will be released on April 23, 2013.

A Curtain Falls (Stefanie Pintoff)

A Curtain Falls by Stefanie Pintoff is the sequel to the Edgar Award finalist In the Shadow of Gotham.  My book club picked the sequel to read so I needed to tackle this one before the first.  I was a little apprehensive, because I thought I would have needed some background, but I needn’t have worried.  A Curtain Falls is a true mystery in its own right and a darn good one at that.

Set in New York City in one of my favorite time periods, the early 1900s, Detective Simon Zeile has been asked to help on another case.  A serial killer is on the loose, murdering chorus girls in their theater houses, and arranging them in macabre positions.  Zeile is asked to keep details very hush-hush, as all relevant theaters belong to Charles Frohman, a very wealthy and powerful owner.  With his gang of motley assistants, Zeile rushes to solve the case before the next killing.

This is definitely a quick page turner, and I must admit I was not able to predict the ending.  While obviously not on the same level as Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and Edgar Allan Poe, Pintoff succeeds in keeping the reader guessing and building suspense.  I look forward to reading In the Shadow of Gotham to get to know the history of Simon Zeile.

MY RATING - 4

The Castaways (Elin Hilderbrand)

I’m slowly working my way through Elin Hilderbrand’s repertoire, my latest being The Castaways.  The setting, as usual, is the author’s hometown of Nantucket; after reading so many of her novels, I really need to get there!  Part soap opera, part unsolved mystery, The Castaways is the perfect mental escape.

Four couples have become the best of friends since meeting on the island.  Some are related (Tess and Andrea), some have even dated each other in the past (Jeffrey and Andrea), but all have secrets.  After an accused infidelity, Tess and Greg are trying to repair their marriage by taking a sailing trip.  Unfortunately, they do not come back alive, causing a sordid web of backstory and grief.  Hilderbrand lets each character (except Tess and Greg) narrate as the huge puzzle they’ve all gotten themselves into slowly comes together.

While I enjoyed The Castaways and found it difficult to put down, I was not enthralled with the ending.  You never really know the true story of how Tess and Greg died; Hilderbrand lets the theories of the other characters influence your conclusions.  I’m all for open endings, but in a supposed mystery, this is ridiculous.  How did a piece of Tess’s hair get ripped out?  Why did Greg have cuts and bruises? 

However, the soap opera of the novel is what truly keeps it going.  Some characters are more likable than others, but all have interesting stories to tell.  This is a great, breezy read for vacation…just not a sailing trip!

MY RATING - 3

The False Friend (Myla Goldberg)

Sometimes life gets in the way of regularly blogging, especially when said blogging is about books. One needs time to carefully read and provide honest and fair reviews. The False Friend, as my first reviewed book in quite awhile, was quite disappointing.

The premise is intriguing enough. One random day, Celia Durst is walking to her Chicago job, and suddenly has a long-suppressed memory. When she was eleven years old, her best friend, Djuna, got into a stranger's car in the woods, and never was seen or heard from again. Celia goes back to her hometown of Jensenville, insisting that there never was a car. Her parents, boyfriend, and childhood friends try to prove otherwise.

What I found so frustrating about this book is that it should be a clear-cut mystery. Did Djuna get into the car? Did Celia cover it up? Instead, Goldberg turns it into Celia's wild goose chase, and the reader is left with no answers. If I am going to spend time with a book, I want to feel satisifed. This just didn't do that for me.

MY RATING - 2

The Glister (John Burnside)

I would really like to get inside John Burnside's mind to see how this novel came about. The premise is extremely interesting...sinister and unsettling. What exactly is going on in Innertown, a place where no one ever visits and no one ever leaves?

Innertown is known for exactly one thing...a decrepit, condemned chemical plant, which many consider to be the cause of strange diseases attacking its residents. It is not known to the outside world that Innertown is also the place where five young boys have disappeared. Morrison, the insecure constable, found the first boy, but made a regretful mistake in the aftermath. This mistake has changed his life and will ultimately be his demise. The book goes back and forth among different narrators and even tenses.

This novel was such a paradox in that I couldn't stop reading it, yet I still don't know if the mysteries were solved. The reader is under the assumption that what happened to those boys is the central mystery of The Glister. However, I was left with more questions than were answered. I would hope that Burnside did this intentionally. If so, he certainly met his mark, because I was left utterly confused. Read this if you care about a good plot but not a satisfying ending.

MY RATING - 3

This rating can also be found at http://www.bookloons.com/.

The Test (Patricia Gussin)

There is nothing like a good mystery story, especially one that is set in your hometown. Landmarks that the author writes about are familiar enough to make the reader understand the story more. Philadelphia seems to be the setting for many of these stories (Lisa Scottoline being the master)...I suppose because of the city's historical value.

"The Test" is the story of a billionaire family with roots in Philadelphia's exclusive Main Line. The many Parnell family members gather after their father's death to hear the reading of his will. They are shocked when they learn that they will only receive their part of the inheritance if they each pass his "test". Paul Parnell, the patriarch, felt guilty that he never really taught his children the morals they need to survive. Their inheritance will depend on if they can learn these morals in one year. Along the way, they will each face much hardship and tragedy.

This novel had such an interesting premise, but never really succeeded in getting where it needed to go. I had a hard time getting through it, as I felt at times that I was reading a Nancy Drew or Hardy Boys mystery. The story is cliche'-ridden, and the ending comes so out of left field that it is laughable. Still, Gussin should be commended for her outline. This could have been a slam dunk.

MY RATING - 2

This review can also be found at www.bookloons.com.