Coming in May

Into the Water by Paula Hawkins

Fans of Hawkins’s first psychological thriller Girl on the Train have been clamoring for her second novel but many may be disappointed with her sophomore offering.  In a small English town, the river meets residents and visitors whichever way they go.  At one point, the river opens up and forms what is known locally as the Drowning Pool, a place where many women have drowned over the years, local lore claims women accused of being witches were drowned there hundreds of years ago, but this year, the river has claimed the lives of two women: fifteen-year-old Katie Whittaker and now Nel Abbott, the mother of Katie’s best friend, a photographer and author who was writing a history about the secrets of the Drowning Pool, many of the locals angry for her bringing these incidents to light and writing about them with a certain distanced eye.  Nel leaves behind a fifteen-year-old daughter Lena and a sister from whom she had been estranged, Jules, who now returns home to sort through her sister’s affairs and care for the niece whom she has never met.  Nel’s story, and those of the most recently drowned women, unfold through the narratives of over half a dozen characters, most of whom are unreliable and have reason to either wish harm to Nel or even be glad she is gone.  This technique makes it difficult for plot cohesion and for pacing which doesn’t pick up until about three-quarters of the way through the book.  If readers haven’t skipped ahead to the last few chapters in impatience, there is a final twist waiting at the end that will surprise most readers, but the trip to get there can be arduous at times.

It’s Always the Husband by Michele Campbell

When Aubrey Miller drops her duffle bag in the ivy-covered Whipple Hall at Carlisle College, an Ivy League school in Belle River, New Hampshire, she feels she has finally made it out of Las Vegas and has no intentions of ever turning back.  She loves her roommates, hard-working, focused Jenny Vega who grew up in Belle River, and spoiled Kate Eastman whose family, currently father, have been longtime donors to the college and board members.  The three form an uneasy and unusual friendship until an event during their freshman year binds them even closer together.  Twenty-two years later, the three are back in Belle River: Aubrey, a yoga teacher with two children, is married to a philandering surgeon; Jenny is the mayor of the town, married to another townie who owns a construction company that benefits from the college and Jenny’s connections to the college, and Kate, who is married to Griff, the boy who adored her through college and until recently, had a trust fund of his own.  Before the weekend is over, one of them will be dead, their husband the first blamed, because it’s always the husband…or is it?  Slowly, long kept secrets are revealed, affairs exposed, and financial and marital troubles come to light providing a cast of suspects, in this twisty suspense novel with an ending that isn’t as easy to figure out as it first appears. 

The Heirs by Susan Rieger

After Rupert Falke’s death, his widow Eleanor and their five grown sons are shocked to learn their father may have had a second family.  Harry (an attorney), Will (a Hollywood agent), Sam (a medical researcher in a committed relationship with Andrew), Jack (a musician), and Tom (a federal prosecutor) grew up privileged in Manhattan, their father an orphan from England, and self-made man with a little help from his wife’s Eleanor’s family fortune.  All five boys attended Princeton and made solid lives for themselves.  A letter from Vera Wolinski claiming her two adult sons were also Rupert’s stating that they should share in the man’s inheritance and legacy sets the boys reeling but not Eleanor. She has plenty of money and is willing to share and it doesn’t really matter one way or the other to her whether or not the boys are in fact Rupert’s.  Her sons do not share her sentiments and as they sort through this new twist in their histories each finds himself examining his life and future leading to some difficult and surprising decisions.  At the same time, more of Eleanor’s past is revealed casting doubt on what the reader knows, leaving room for speculation as to what was and what might have been.  

The Perfect Stranger by Megan Miranda

Boston newspaper Leah Stevens needed a new start after being accused of fabricating a source; a chance meeting with an old roommate Emmy Grey, also in need of a change, lands Leah and Emmy in a small town in western Pennsylvania, Leah with a fresh teaching certificate and a new outlook.  When a woman, looking eerily like Leah is found left for dead near a lake in the town and Emmy goes missing, Leah’s reporter instincts kick in and she finds herself searching for answers about Emmy, answers she thought she knew until the police are able to not only locate Emmy, but verify she even existed.  Now that the police know about Leah’s past, they being to question her credibility, especially when they find Leah has a connection to the man they have in custody for the attack on the woman by the lake.  Leah knows they only way she can restore her reputation is to find Emmy, but how do you find someone who may have never existed in the first place?  How well do we know our friends, but even more, how well do they know us?  Sometimes, it seems, too much, in this psychological thriller with keenly observed characters.

Sycamore by Bryn Chancellor

Eighteen years ago, in a small Arizona town, a teenager disappeared.  Jess Winters and her mother Maud had just moved to Sycamore and Jess often took late night walks, always leaving a note for her mother, always returning.  When she does not return one morning, Maud becomes frantic to find her, hoping that Jess ran away, but not believing that Jess would leave and not get some word to her mother that she was safe.  Now, newcomer Laura Drennan who has also moved to Sycamore to recover from her divorce and start a new life finds bones in a dried out crevice, bones that prove to be those of Jess Winters leading to the entire town wondering, what happened to Jess? Was it a tragic accident or murder?  Told in both the past and present, and from multiple points of view, the tale of a sad town emerges, a town full of sad people, but people who stay with hope.  As the story of the last months of Jess’s life in Sycamore are relived and revealed, her story, and those of her friends, becomes sadder, more tragic and senseless.  As the community comes together to learn what happened to Jess, they begin to forgive and to heal.  This debut novel is full of compassion and wisdom and compelling characters, broken and flawed, but not without hope nor the possibility of redemption. 

Since We Fell by Dennis Lehane

This much different novel from Lehane tells the story of Rachel Childs, whose mother was a best-selling author of a classic relationship book yet has never known her father, something Rachel struggles with, searching for him from time to time; Rachel, a journalist who, while on assignment in Haiti, has a breakdown on air and becomes a reclusive shut in, something that causes her marriage to fall apart.  A series of chance meetings finds Rachel with a second husband who helps her out of her shell and back to the world until another chance meeting makes Rachel question everything she thought she knew about her seemingly perfect husband, drawing her into a web of conspiracy and deception until she no longer knows who to trust.  Rachel knows she must steel herself if she is to learn the truth about her husband and stay alive in the process but must overcome her fears, real and imagined, before it is too late.  Rachel’s story slowly unfolds and readers are lulled into a certain sense of security and comfort until one moment changes everything and they are drawn into Rachel’s world and the fast-paced, high tension chase that ensues.

The Garden of Small Beginnings by Abbi Waxman

Lilian Girvan is the mother of two young children and still grieves for the husband who died in a car accident not fifty feet from their home.  Lili has recovered from a mental breakdown and is able to care for her daughters again, and works as a graphic illustrator and still depends on her quirky, often over-sexed sister Rachel for support and backup.  When Lili is asked to illustrate a series of gardening books for the Bloem seed company she agrees, even though it means taking weekly gardening classes at a local botanical garden.  Encouraged to bring her daughters and sister, Lili arrives and finds an odd assortment of gardeners, all there for different reasons; as the group plans, plants, and tends to their gardens, they begin to form an unusual friendship and begin tending to each other.  Lili predictably finds love with the instructor Edward Bloem, but continues to hold him at arms’ length until she knows her own heart.  This tried and true plot is anything but boring as Waxman keeps the wry observations coming from the most unlikely places, often Lili’s five-year-and seven-year-old daughters, wise and mature beyond their years.  This heartfelt and often humorous story will win many fans for debut author Waxman. 

The Fact of a Body by Alexandria Marzano-Lesnevich

The daughter of two attorneys, Alexandria thought she knew she was firmly against the death penalty until her first summer job at a law firm in Louisiana where she watches a video of convicted child molester and murderer Ricky Langley.  Alexandria has such a visceral reaction to this man, and wanting him to die for his crimes, she begins to question everything she believes and starts to dig more into not only Langley’s case but into his past.  As Alexandria starts to learn more about Langley, a familiar cord is struck. There are no direct parallels to how the two grown up, or so she thinks, there is something that feels very familiar to Alexandria; she finds herself comparing Langley’s childhood with her own and learns family secrets that had long been kept from Alexandria and her siblings, some secrets Alexandria even kept from herself.    As Alexandria begins to face her own past and learns more about the narrative of Langley’s case as it has evolved, she learns more about herself, forgiveness, and the will of the human spirit to triumph even amidst the bleakest of circumstances. 

The Awkward Age by Francesca Segal

After the death of her husband, Julia Alden never thought she would find love again; when she finds it with divorced American obstetrician James Fuller she is more surprised than anyone.  Neither willing to commit to remarriage at this time, James, along with his teenage son Nathan, moves in with Julia and her teenage daughter Gwen.  Gwen and Nathan appear to hate each other and the new adults in their lives and Julia is at her wits end to figure out how to make a go of her new relationship and her new family.  In addition, Julia’s former in-laws, also involved in a tense relationship are still a large part of hers and Gwen’s lives and then there is James’s ex-wife who flits in and out of their lives.  As Gwen and Nathan’s hormones take over the new family’s life turns on end in a predictable twist with predictable outcomes.  What is not predictable however, is the ease and grace with which the story is told and the characters portrayed and laid out.  Segal doesn’t let anyone off with an easy answer or solution, but allows the family to work their problems out with love and humor.

Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine by Gail Honeyman

If ever there was a heroine readers wanted to cheer for, it is Eleanor Oliphant.  Eleanor is an office worker in Scotland who is very strident and has her life scheduled to perfection: Wednesday nights are her weekly chat with Mummy, Friday nights are vodka and pizza from town.  Eleanor has awkward social skills and an often bad habit of saying exactly what is on her mind, being very precise in her observations.  While Eleanor feels all this is perfectly normal for her, she has no friends and still bears the scars, physically and mentally, of a fire she was in and subsequent time in the foster care system.  When her company hires a new IT man, Raymond, and Eleanor’s path begins to cross his, her life begins to change in subtle ways.  When the two rescue Sammy, an elderly man who has fallen in town, they become bound even closer and Raymond, who is unkempt and awkward in his own way, but much less regimented, sees something in Eleanor and becomes determined to be her friend.  Along the way, Eleanor begins to become more a part of everyday life and finally faces the truths and a past that have damaged her and kept her from having relationships and perhaps, a happier life.