Lost Books and Old Bones by Paige Shelton
When Delaney Nichols left Kansas to work at The Cracked
Spine in Edinburg, Scotland she never guessed she would fall in love with the
country, with her new boss Edwin MacAlister, with her job, and with local pub
owner Tom. Delaney forges a friendship
with some local medical students when they bring in a set of rare illustrated
medical books, An Atlas of Illustrations
of Clinical, Medical, Surgery, and Pathology to sell. Sophie and Rena have been best friends
forever and introduce Delaney to fellow student Mallory one night when they are
out at a pub. Delaney also meets Dr.
Bryon Eban, a professor at the school, who Delaney suspects is having affairs
with at least one of the young women if not more. Eban is also obsessed with a 19th
century professor at Edinburgh University, Robert Knox who bought the murder
victims of William Burke and William Hare for his medical students to practice
on. Delaney finds a set of scalpels with
the books that were brought in and wonders if there is a connection to Knox,
but before she can research the provenance, Mallory is found murdered in the
alley next to the bookstore and Delaney finds herself off and running on
another murder investigation. Complicating matters is Bridgit, a reporter
who once dated Tom and is not above putting out damaging, if not outright lies,
stories about Delaney. Though Delaney is
headstrong and independent and often takes the lead, almost pushing her friends
aside, in her investigation which seems a little discombobulated at times and
may not win new fans to this series, but the book history and the Scottish
setting will hold the interest of readers who have read the first two mysteries
in the series.
All the Beautiful Lies by Peter Swanson
Just before his college graduation, Harry Ackerson learns
his father Bill has died after a fall from his usual cliff walk. Harry heads for his father’s home in
Kennewick, Maine where his 35-year-old stepmother Alice is waiting with arms
more open than makes Harry comfortable: Alice goes back and forth between hovering
and fussing over Harry and his loss and making sexual advances toward him. Harry agrees to stay the summer and help out
at his father’s bookstore until things are more settled. Harry, already on edge, learns from the
police that Bill may have been murdered and a mysterious young woman, Grace
McGowan shows up at Bill’s funeral.
Grace says she casually knew Bill when he had his bookstore in
Manhattan, and just happened to show up in Maine, but Harry thinks there’s
more. Chapters alternate between Harry
working through Bill’s death and probable murder, and Alice’s teenage and young
adult years until the two stories collide in a not entirely unexpected
way. The tension is often high, but
there are a few too many loose ends and coincidences to keep this story as
tight as it could be.
After Anna by Lisa Scottoline
Scottoline’s latest stand-alone tells the same story using
two separate chronologies with mixed results.
Maggie Ippolitti has been estranged from her daughter Anna for sixteen
years: Maggie was diagnosed with post-partum psychosis shortly after Anna’s
birth and her husband Florian, divorced her, took full custody of Anna who he
promptly placed in prestigious boarding schools, and never allowed Maggie to
see her again. Maggie has since
recovered, and is remarried to widowed pediatric allergist Noah Alderman, and
has a loving relationship with her step-son, ten-year-old Noah who suffers from
apraxia. Maggie is shocked and overjoyed
when she gets a call from Anna who announces since her father has died (which
Maggie knew), Anna would like to leave boarding school, and live with Maggie
and her family finishing out her senior year in a suburban Philadelphia high
school. Barley consulting Noah, Maggie
agrees, and in an almost euphoric state throws herself into giving Anna the
ideal family life. Anna too, seems to
slide right into her new life and it all seems too good to be true: until it’s
not. Maggie finds some notes in Anna’s
old textbooks that make her wonder if Anna is involved in a missing student
from the boarding school. The other
narrative, told in reverse chronological order, begins with Noah awaiting the
verdict after his trial for murdering Anna.
As Noah’s trial unfolds, readers learn of the tension between Anna and
Noah, Anna accusing him of unwanted sexual advances, Noah being removed from
his home, and Maggie immediately taking Anna’s side. As Noah’s verdict is being read, Maggie is
unraveling Anna’s story and the two collide in a rather rushed conclusion,
leading to a too-good-to-be-true epilogue a year later, missing the healing
that would have needed to occur to arrive at such a state. Also not fully explained is why Maggie never
sought out Anna once Maggie recovered, and especially once Florian died. Nonetheless, fans of Scottoline will overlook
these aspects and quickly turn the pages to find out what is really going on.
Paris by the Book by Laim Callanan
Leah and her husband Robert, a young adult author, both
yearn for Paris---France, not Wisconsin where they live---but each through
their own children’s book. Leah is
obsessed with the movie The Red Balloon,
based on the book, while Robert prefers the Madeleine series by Ludwig
Bemelmans. Leah and their two daughters,
Ellie and Daphne, are used to Robert’s disappearances while he writes and are
certain he will return when as he leaves notes.
One day he disappears without a note and with no contact. Leah finds tickets to Paris that Robert
purchased; thinking that this is a romantic gesture meant to bring his family
to Paris to find him, Leah and the girls set off, but they do not find him in
Paris and though they don’t want to think he has left them, they can’t bear the
thought that he is dead, either. Before
long, Leah and the girls find themselves part of Paris, Leah running a
bookstore and dating a younger man, the girls attending school, and all of them
becoming involved with the store’s owner, her son, and grandchildren. A manuscript written by Robert shows up and
Leah, using the manuscript, The Red
Balloon, and Madeline as guides, searches for her husband, uncertain what
she will do if she finds him. This book
will charm Francophiles and bibliophiles alike with plenty to discuss for book
groups.