03 Friday May 2019
This is the fourth in a series of popular police procedurals about Stockholm police superintendent Martin Beck, a likeable, flawed and deeply human police detective. In this story Beck seeks the murderer of nine passengers on a Stockholm bus, one of whom was his best detective.
“A tantalizing, intricate tale.”—The New York Times Book Review
“Sjöwall and Wahlöö write unsparingly and unswervingly. . . . Their plots are second to none.”—Val McDermid
19 Friday Apr 2019
Tags
Ex-New Yorker Faith Fairchild copes not only with the culture shock of the Massachusetts village in which she, her minister husband, and their baby have settled, but also with the shock of finding a woman’s body in the church’s belfry.
“A humorous and entertaining addition to the murder-in-the-village genre.”—Booklist
05 Friday Apr 2019
Rush to grab this moving, unlikely story narrated in alternating chapters by Grace, abandoned in foster homes her whole young life, and Nate Larson, her grandfather recently released from prison. Magic tricks, magic patter, and magic shows advance the mounting tension and enrich the larger questions concerning loyalty, love, and wonder. This is storytelling at its best and it takes place in our New England!
“A tender tale of loyalty, gratitude, and the healing power of magical wonder; Rosen’s gifted storytelling will appeal to readers beyond genre boundaries.” –Booklist
“Nate Larson has been in federal prison in what the feds admit is a miscarriage of justice….The feds release him to take custody of his granddaughter, who, as an orphan, has gone into foster care. The hitch is that he must testify against his brother, Dima, who is suspected of child sex trafficking….Fourteen-year-old Grace Larson is stuck in “foster care hell” in Massachusetts, being shunted from one “rental parent” to another, some of whom sexually abuse her. So when a court order sends her to live with Nate, whom she doesn’t know, she is deeply suspicious. Nate shows her magic tricks he’s perfected during his confinement, leaving her slack-jawed with wonder…So whom to betray, his brother or granddaughter? Nate and Grace are both smart and deeply sympathetic people who have felt great pain in their lives. .. The story twists, turns, and—presto! A brilliant solution” – Kirkus Reviews
15 Friday Mar 2019
Posted in Fiction, murder and investigation, mystery
Tags
detective, grandmothers, missing persons, murder and investigation, Narragansett Bay (R.I.), police chiefs, suspense
Another selection from the Weston Mystery Book Discussion group!
David Hazard wanted nothing more than to forget his renegade family and the foggy New England village “on the wrong side” of Narragansett Bay where he grew up. When sudden tragedy brings him back to Little Compton to care for his grandmother during her struggle with dementia, he discovers her fragile memories may hold the key to a bizarre mystery half a century old – and perhaps to the sudden and brutal murder right next door.
“Elegant prose, a veritable Chinese box of puzzles, and authentic, well-rounded characters make this a standout.” (starred review) (Publishers Weekly)
“Drop everything and read this book. A terrific story in a terrifically honest voice – it’s intelligent and original, hilarious and heartbreaking, evocative and charming. A beautifully written tale of murder, dementia, family, love – and surprises! Standing ovation.” (Hank Phillippi Ryan, Bestselling, award-winning author)
“Fogland Point is first-class fiction, a multilayered and original mystery underscored by fine writing, fully developed characters, and a wonderful sense of place. Doug Burgess writes with humor and poignancy while creating an eerie, atmospheric tale that is sure to please.” (Michael Koryta, New York Times bestselling author of How It Happened)
22 Friday Feb 2019
Another Weston Public Library Mystery Book Discussion pick!
In 1926, the exotic Miss Elizabeth Channing arrives in Chatham , Massachusetts, to teach art at the Chatham School, a private school for the rebellious sons of well-heeled families. The headmaster assigns his son, Henry, to assist Miss Channing in getting settled into her new home, a cottage on Black Pond. To the dismay of the community, Miss Channing begins keeping regular company with another teacher at the school, Mr. Reed, a veteran of the Great War who is married and has a small daughter. The affair begins slowly, but it sparks unimaginable romance in young Henry’s fervid teenage imagination and leads to murder, suicide, jail, and loneliness for those involved directly and indirectly. Cook’s novel takes the form of Henry’s memoir–an attempt to understand what led to tragedy at Black Pond.
Like much of Cook’s previous work, it is the story of how our secrets control our destinies. This is a powerful, engaging, and deeply moving novel, highly recommended for all who enjoy well-crafted, genre-bending crime fiction. –Booklist
“Thomas Cook’s night visions, seen through a lens darkly, are haunting” – New York Times Book Review.
10 Monday Dec 2018
In a rural East Texas town of fewer than 200 people, the body of an African American lawyer from Chicago is found in a bayou, followed several days later by that of a local white woman. What’s going on? African American Texas Ranger Darren Mathews hopes to find out, which means talking to relatives of the deceased, including the woman’s white supremacist husband — and Mathews soon discovers things are more complex than they seem. With fully realized characters and a timely look at race relations in the U.S., this book by award-winning novelist Attica Locke (who’s also written and produced for TV’s Empire) is the 1st in her Highway 59 series.
Winner of the 2017 Edgar Award
Locke is a gifted author, and her intriguing and compelling crime novel will keep readers engrossed.—Starred Review, Library Journal
“A quick course in plotting and nimble characterizations rooted in a vividly evoked setting”―Nicole Lamy, New York Times Book Review
“In Bluebird, Bluebird Attica Locke had both mastered the thriller and exceeded it. Ranger Darren Mathews is tough, honor-bound, and profoundly alive in corrupt world. I loved everything about this book.”―Ann Patchett
19 Friday Oct 2018
Posted in mystery
Tags
Selected by the Weston Mystery Book Discussion Group, October 2018. A New York Times Notable Book and Winner of The Los Angeles Times Book Prize.
Fegan has been a “hard man,” an IRA killer in northern Ireland. Now that peace has come, he is being haunted day and night by twelve ghosts: a mother and infant, a schoolboy, a butcher, an RUC constable, and seven other of his innocent victims. In order to appease them, he’s going to have to kill the men who gave him orders.
“In this well-crafted and intriguing series debut, Neville evokes the terrors of living in Belfast during ‘the Troubles’ and manages to makes Fegan, a murderer many times over, a sympathetic character…The buzz around this novel is well deserved and readers will be anticipating the next book in the series.”
—Library Journal, Starred Review
“Neville’s debut is as unrelenting as Fegan’s ghosts, pulling no punches as it describes the brutality of Ireland’s ‘troubles’ and the crime that has followed, as violent men find new outlets for their skills. Sharp prose places readers in this pitiless place and holds them there. Harsh and unrelenting crime fiction, masterfully done.”
—Kirkus Reviews, Starred Review
05 Friday Oct 2018
Posted in 20th century, Fiction, murder, mystery, nature
I can’t say enough about this book and have already placed it in the hands of my favorite readers. The main character survives an impoverished childhood at a very young age in the North Carolina marshes only to remain isolated for the rest of her life. She opens her heart to everything that lives and breathes in this foreboding, haunting place. You will too. It is nature writing at its best with an added coming of age story, romance, and murder mystery. Guaranteed a deep reading experience.
“A lush debut novel, Owens delivers her mystery wrapped in gorgeous, lyrical prose. It’s clear she’s from this place—the land of the southern coasts, but also the emotional terrain—you can feel it in the pages. A magnificent achievement, ambitious, credible and very timely.”—Alexandra Fuller, New York Times bestselling author of Don’t Let’s Go to the Dogs Tonight “
A painfully beautiful first novel that is at once a murder mystery, a coming-of-age narrative and a celebration of nature….Owens here surveys the desolate marshlands of the North Carolina coast through the eyes of an abandoned child. And in her isolation that child makes us open our own eyes to the secret wonders—and dangers—of her private world.”—The New York Times Book Review
“Carries the rhythm of an old time ballad. It is clear Owens knows this land intimately, from the black mud sucking at footsteps to the taste of saltwater and the cry of seagulls.”—David Joy, author of The Line That Held Us
18 Monday Jun 2018
Another Weston Mystery Book Club choice and also a New York Times Notable Book. Set in the Washington, D.C., suburbs during the summer of the Watergate break-ins, Berne’s assured, skillful first novel is about what can happen when a child’s accusation is the only lead in a case of sexual assault and murder.
“A remarkable first novel…that captures the history of child-parent relations for the last quarter of a century.”–The New York Times Book Review “Like Alice McDermott’s That Night and in the tradition of Harper Lee’s To Kill A Mockingbird, Suzanne Berne has crafted a child’s disillusionment that mirrors a greater disaffection.”–Newsday
“The ethical issues that unfold as a result are at least as absorbing as Marsha’s own guilt and fascination over her act of false accusation. Berne’s skill with language and her talent for evoking believable, all-too-human characters add to this fascinating story of evil and fear, and the unexpected consequences they engender.” — Copyright ©1997, Kirkus Associates
26 Saturday May 2018
Tags
book editors, crime writing, detective, England, London, murder, mystery
This is a fun, twisty murder mystery within a murder mystery. It’s got some hallmarks of a classic Agatha Christie and a touch of the modern thriller as well. Two mysteries for the price of one, and both are very engrossing.
Each of the narratives in Magpie Murders is engaging and fluid, each with its own charm, though Horowitz’s joyful act of Christie ventriloquism is, in particular, spectacularly impressive. – Washington Post
Magpie Murders is an ingenious, twisting tribute to the sleepy English countryside murder and will thoroughly entertain readers of old fashioned detective thrillers. – New York Journal of Book
An ingenious funhouse mirror of a novel sets a vintage ‘cozy’ mystery inside a modern frame – Wall Street Journal
feastonbooksblog 