The Order, by Daniel Silva (Gabriel Allon #20)

In this most recent entry in the Gabriel Allon series, Gabriel’s vacation in Venice is interrupted when the Pope dies under mysterious circumstances, and Gabriel is called to the Vatican to investigate.  I won’t share more from the plot because I don’t want to spoil anything for the reader.

I love Daniel Silva’s work and I always look forward to new books in this series.  Like in many popular series, returning to Silva’s characters is comfortable and entertaining. Having said that, I have mixed feelings about this book.  Some of Silva’s best books have been set at/around the Vatican, and so I had high hopes for this one. But something here just didn’t work for me.  The story felt rushed and extremely superficial, while alternatively the action slammed to a halt with long periods of historical exposition.  Overall, I read it quickly and found it mildly enjoyable, but I expect more from Silva. 

The Shadows, by Alex North

With his mother in hospice, Paul Adams finally returns to his English home town. It’s been twenty-five years, and he’s still haunted by the brutal murder of one of his childhood friends. When murders begin anew, Paul must finally face the truth of what really happened so many years ago.

This novel was creepy and engaging. I liked it a lot, though not quite as much as North’s previous novel, The Whisper Man. If you haven’t read either book, I’d start with The Whisper Man first. I’m very much looking forward to North’s next novel!

Fair Warning, by Michael Connelly (Jack McEvoy #3)

Fair Warning is the third book by Michael Connelly featuring reporter Jack McEvoy, who was first introduced in The Poet, one of Connelly’s first novels. The Poet is one of my all-time favorite books, and Michael Connelly is one of my favorite authors, so I couldn’t wait to read this book. (Connelly’s Bosch series is a stand-out of the genre and is reliably excellent.)

That said, this novel was a huge disappointment. Jack was unlikeable from start to finish — he came off as needy, paranoid and annoying. The storytelling was often tedious and lacked any emotional connection to the characters. Overall, I was shocked at how consistently bad this novel was. I’m going to chalk it up as a very rare miss from Connelly. Skip it.

The Last Flight, by Julie Clark

Two women, both desperate to flee their lives, meet in an airport bar and decided to switch tickets. At first, Claire Cook is relieved to step into someone else‘s life and to disappear from her own. But then she realizes that all is not as it seems, and that her new life may be even more dangerous than the one she left behind.

The Last Flight is an enjoyable thriller. It’s not perfect, but I think it works as a beach read.  Recommended for readers who are looking for a quick read and a few hours of distraction.

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Fans of Tana French, rejoice! There’s a new Irish detective mystery series to love. Dervla McTiernan’s debut novel, The Ruin, features detective Cormac Reilly, as he navigates a recent transfer to Galway and tries to solve a decades-old mysterious death. I really enjoyed the Ruin. It is not quite as literary as Tana French’s work, but the writing is quite good and the story was engaging.

I liked The Ruin so much that I immediately read McTiernan’s second novel, The Scholar, which also features Cormac Reilly and picks up almost right after The Ruin ends. The Scholar revolves around the death of a student on a university campus, and involves a lot of faculty intrigue. It was good, and I recommend it, but I didn’t like it quite as much as The Ruin.

Overall, I’m excited about this series and can’t wait for McTiernan’s next book. Highly recommended!

Don’t Ever Get Old, by Daniel Friedman (Buck Schatz #1)

I was so excited to read this novel, which is the first in a series I just recently discovered about Buck Schatz, a retired detective in Memphis, Tennessee. A few months ago, read an advance copy of Running Out of Road (Buck Schatz #3), and I loved it! (It’s reviewed earlier on the blog.) So, I went back to start the series with the first book.

Don’t Ever Get Old follows Buck, who is ornery and profane, but often hilarious, as he tries to unravel a decades-old mystery. I really enjoyed this novel, and I recommend this series highly. I’m looking forward to catching up with Buck Schatz #2!

A Good Marriage, by Kimberley McCreight

 Set in Brooklyn, A Good Marriage is an enjoyable legal thriller/mystery (and I’m very tough on legal thrillers),  featuring female  leads.  However, my book club split on this one: some liked it and some really hated it.  I think it’s a good vacation read if you set your expectations accordingly.  

I enjoyed McCreight’s previous novel, Reconstructing Amelia, very much, definitely more than this one, so I’d read that one first.

The Glass Hotel, by Emily St. John Mandel

Emily St. John Mandel’s previous novel, Station Eleven, is one of my all-time favorites and anyone who hasn’t read it should have it at the top of their to-read list (though, given the subject matter, if you haven’t read it, I’m not sure now is the right time).  The Glass Hotel is quite different from Station Eleven — the subject matter, setting, characters are all different. What remains the same, fortunately, is Mandel’s exceptional writing.  It was her writing that pulled me into this novel and kept me reading, despite the fact that I didn’t really like any of the characters.  It’s a testament to Mandel’s skill — her almost hypnotic prose — that I raced to the end of the novel, even though I wasn’t sure I really cared how it ended.

Based loosely on the Bernie Madoff Ponzi scheme, The Glass Hotel follows a disparate cast of characters as they weave in and out of each others’ lives.  The main character is a young woman named Vincent who benefits from the scheme but also is caught up in the aftermath.  (I have to say, I found her name distracting and annoying.  I know that girls can have boys’ names and vice-versa, but even 100 pages in, I had to keep reminding myself that Vincent was not male.  This seemed like an odd choice.)

I think my favorite character in the novel was not a character at all, but the hotel itself.  Maybe it’s because I love Vancouver and could really visualize the place, but those were my favorite scenes.  Wish I could get beamed up to that hotel right now!

Overall, I really liked this book and gave it a high rating because it drew me in completely, and I was mesmerized by Mandel’s writing.  Still, it will not stay with me the way Station Eleven did and for that reason, it was a bit of a let-down.

Year of Wonders, by Geraldine Brooks

The plague comes to Anna Frith’s small English village in 1666.  Through her eyes, we see how the plague devastates the town, forever changing her and the few who manage to survive. 

Perhaps it was an odd choice to read this book during our current pandemic crisis, but I found it fascinating.  Brooks does an incredible job with language in the novel — it feels authentic for the time period.  That said, it does take a bit of getting used to.  Once I was used to the language, I was pulled into the story and really couldn’t put this book down.  It was interesting to me to see so many parallels in the social reaction to the plague to what we are seeing now with COVID.

I found the ending of this novel disappointing which kept me from giving it my highest rating. (I felt like things really went off the rails in the last 50 pages or so.) Still, it’s worth reading for everything that comes before that.  Highly recommended.