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 Presidents Club (Nancy Gibbs and Michael Duffy)

The Presidents Club by Nancy Gibbs and Michael Duffy is a comprehensive read into the lives of ex-Presidents upon their departure from the Presidency and into "private" life, from Herbert Hoover through to George W. Bush. Stories are interwoven through the narrative of "the club", ranging from the work that Hoover provided to Harry Truman in providing food to Western Europe to the partnerships between Bill Clinton and both Bush presidencies in dealing with natural disasters abroad and at home.

The writers approach each former President without bias, pulling in details from people who were in the inner circles of various administrations to people impacted by the work these men did in public service. Each story wove into the connections, rivalries, and friendships that these men developed, as well as their willingness to protect office over party in many instances. Their wisdom in various arenas (Nixon with foreign policy, Hoover with commerce and facilitating action, Carter in negotiation) aided...and sometimes hindered administrations, but the wisdom provided helped shape each successive administration and build new legacies from prior administrations. In some cases, unlikely friendships developed and in others, friendly rivalries intensified.

The work is not brief -- coming in at 530 pages -- but the book serves as a great story and thorough read for the history buff and for the political junkie. Largely true to chronological order, The Presidents Club is a solid, thorough historical account that had me laughing at some points, shaking my head in others, and kept me intrigued to know more about the people that held the office and how they lived their lives once they left the Presidency.  Gibbs and Duffy have taken care to ensure that stories are well-cited, resourced, and lacking the bias that sometimes can cloud a good political book.

MY RATING - 4

Memoir of the Sunday Brunch (Julia Pandl)

Disclaimer: When I picked this book to review from the catalog, I thought I was getting one of my favorite types of books...recipes with background vignettes.  However, be warned that there are no recipes in Julia Pandl's Memoir of the Sunday Brunch, which definitely would have added something to Pandl's heartwarming stories.

From a ripe young age, Julia was put to work in her father's restaurant.  George Pandl was a taskmaster, running his restaurant with ultra precision and requiring the same dedication from his children.  While most women went out to eat on Mothers' Day, George's wife Terry knew that he and the kids would be working the busiest brunch of the year.  She took pleasure in knowing that her day would be spent in peace and quiet.  Pandl takes us through her life when child labor laws were less-than-stringent to the days when she took care of her ill parents.  She knew that she and her siblings, while having unique childhoods in the restaurant business, were always loved.

As I stated, interspersed recipes would have added depth to this memoir.  Most of us have recipes that have been passed down from generation to generation, and throwing in, for example, George Pandl's whitefish recipe would have added an extra layer to Julia's remembrances.  However, she certainly has a wonderful story to tell in its own right...sometimes sad, often hilarious, but always one of love.

MY RATING - 4

The Secret Keeper (Kate Morton)

I wholeheartedly and without reservation recommend Kate Morton’s The Secret Keeper as the best book of 2012 (so far).  Not many people I know are familiar with the Australian’s work, and I wouldn’t have been either if I had not gone looking for similar books to Diane Setterfeld’s The Thirteenth Tale.  The Distant Hours, The Forgotten Garden, and The House at Riverton all received a well-deserved 5 from me for their unbelievable depth and layering.  Even though The Secret Keeper is not Morton’s usual “Gothic English mystery” genre, it’s still historical fiction and absolutely jam packed with breathtaking suspense.

Weaving effortlessly and seamlessly between present day and World War II England, The Secret Keeper is the story of secrets, betrayals, and utter heartbreak.  It begins in the early 1960s with teenage Laurel lazing the day away in a treehouse.  While the rest of her family is a little ways away having a birthday party, Laurel sees Dorothy, her mother, who is carrying Laurel’s baby brother, stab and kill a strange man.  Due to Laurel's lies, the matter is swept under the rug with no repercussions for Dorothy.  Fast forward to present day, Laurel and her siblings are called back to their hometown to be at their dying mother's bedside.  However, Laurel desperately wants to solve the mystery of the man's murder before Dorothy passes away. 

The Secret Keeper, as are all of Morton’s books, is one giant puzzle.  Morton plays tricks on the brain, and if you don’t pay attention to each and every detail, she will get you!  There were so many little nuances and questions throughout this novel that I kept thinking to myself there was no way Morton would answer them all.  But she never, ever leaves a stone unturned.  By the time you finish, you are left with a story that completely makes sense and has you asking yourself why you didn’t see it coming all along.

MY RATING - 5

The Island (Elin Hilderbrand)

As I’m gradually making my way through Elin Hilderbrand’s books, one thing is for certain.  Because her novels are set on Nantucket, her current home, the beautiful setting is almost always as integral a part of her books as the main characters are.  The Island is set on nearby Tuckernuck, the ultra-exclusive, privately owned island with no shops or restaurants to speak of.  In fact, the characters summering there need to give a grocery list to their caretaker, who goes back and forth from Nantucket.  While I probably will never see Tuckernuck’s light of day, Nantucket is definitely on my must-do list.

The Island revolves around four women, each harboring secrets and/or pain.  Chess has just cancelled her wedding to a guy deemed perfect because she’s in love with his brother.  That “perfect guy” is soon found dead, but what are the circumstances surrounding it?  Tate, Chess’s sister, is trying to find a life outside of work.  Birdie, their mother, is trying to pick up the pieces of her life after her divorce, while her sister, India, is still coming to terms with her artist husband’s suicide.  The four converge on Tuckernuck for a month’s respite, with only themselves and their caretaker, Barrett, for company.  The ins and outs of their day, filled with drama after drama (no surprise), then ensue.

The Island is the perfect summer read, as there’s really not much substance to it.  As opposed to Hilderbrand’s later novels, Summerland and Silver Girl, I wasn’t that enthralled with any of the characters.  In fact, some attempts at garnering sympathy went out the window because the characters just weren’t that likeable.  However, Hilderbrand has a huge fan base for a reason.  Even her breeziest of books are still fun and great to take on vacation.

MY RATING - 3

Room (Emma Donoghue)

Wow…I haven’t read a more powerful book than Emma Donoghue’s Room in a very long time.  While it has an extremely disturbing (and sadly, true-to-life) premise, Room also brings out the sweetness and innocence of a child in a way that is truly remarkable.

The narrator of the story is Jack, who proudly just turned five years old.  He’s been living with his Ma (we never learn her first name) in a small room since he’s been born, held captive by a man they call Old Nick.  Since Jack doesn’t have any friends to call his own, he makes the items of the room his friends…Sink, Meltedy Spoon, Eggsnake (a long train of eggshells), and Plant.  Now that Jack is older, Ma tells him that there is an “Outside” he never knew, and they make plans for a grueling-on-the-reader escape.  Split into five sections with two distinct parts, Room is the most unique book to come along in some time.

Room’s writing is extraordinary and extremely original.  Making Jack the narrator, who doesn’t know anything about “Outside”, makes the novel less disturbing to the reader.  Some reviewers have found Donoghue's writing in Jack's voice “annoying”, specifically with the use of multiple proper nouns.  However, my thoughts are that it had to be this way.  Donoghue imbues innocence onto Jack and in so doing, inspires the reader to want to get him and his Ma out of that room in any way possible. 

Read through the many pages of gushing blurbs in the front of the novel.  Every one is true.  Room is highly original and both heartbreaking and inspiring at different times. 

MY RATING - 5

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