Book Reviews by vicki rock

Paul and Chelsea Tanner are on their honeymoon in Paris. Chelsea has posted a daily schedule of their trip. They don’t realize that someone has been watching them since the third day.

Chelsea did a semester in Paris while she was in college and is proficient in French. Paul, who graduated from the Naval Academy, now works for the Department of Justice. They are on a day trip in a private car driven by Malik Farro when Malik is drugged and they are kidnapped.

Chelsea’s father, Lowell Clayburn, is an orthopedic surgeon. Her mother, Justine, becomes concerned when a day goes by without a text from them. She calls Fritz and Linzy Tanner, Paul’s parents, who also haven’t heard from the couple. Then Chelsea’s parents get a video showing Chelsea with a $2 million ransom demand. They call their son, Sam, for help.

Fritz Tanner works for a company that is a defense contractor. Sam goes to his office to tell him of the kidnapping. Lowell and Justine decided they won’t call the FBI, and that Lowell will go to Paris to pay the ransom. Fritz and Linzy then get a similar ransom call.

Although they pay the ransoms, Chelsea is released but Paul isn’t. When Lowell and Chelsea return to the U.S., their flight is met by two FBI agents. Then Rea Claire Russo and Stuart Nash are recruited to be the bait in an elaborate CIA rescue operation.

It is intense. The main characters are good, but my problem with the novel is the number of characters who are introduced but either play minor roles or are not heard from again. The lead up to the rescue is a little long, with the rescue itself shorter. Still, John Grisham’s many fans will enjoy it.

I rate it four out of five stars.

A scorching heatwave marks the start of the summer in England. Hannah Armstong and Lottie Cauldwell, both 17, travel from London to Hannah’s family’s summer home in North Devon to celebrate the end of their exams.

A few days later, Detective Inspector Matthew Venn is called to investigate. Lottie’s body was found in the swimming pool and Hannah is missing. Hannah’s father, Paul, is a doctor who became a member of Parliament. He and his wife, Cath, found the body. Lottie was an Olympic-hopeful swimmer, so it is unlikely that her death was accidental. Her parents, Elaine and Keith Cauldwell, are divorced. He is a movie director and is in America.

Detective Sergeant Jen Rafferty and Detective Constable Ross May are also at the scene. The Armstrongs tell police that there are social media posts by people who resent their wealth. Hannah was dating a local guy, Jacob Brennan, who is a few years older. Geoff Kinzalow, a journalist, and his wife, Karen, both American, are glamping at the Brennan’s farm.

Venn wonders if a disgruntled local lashed out or if Hannah was targeted because of her father. Or did Lottie anger someone? The characters are finely drawn and the pacing is very deliberate. Ann Cleeves connects all the plot threads in the end. It is a thoughtful addition to this series and it is a fast read.

I rate it five out of five stars.

Steve Wheeler is a retired police officer, now living in a small village in England. He has an investigations agency, We Solve Murders, along with his daughter-in-law, Amy Wheeler, and author Rosie D'Antonio, who is bankrolling the business.

They haven’t had a murder to solve yet. Steve knows that if they don’t get a case soon, Amy will go back to her old private security job.

Then Vern Blackwood, who lives in a private villa in the Italian hills, finds the murdered body of his bodyguard, Esteban. He finds a threatening note on the body. Vern can’t go to the police. He thinks that Jakob Eriksson is finally making a move on Vern's territory.

Steve is on his way to Rosie’s latest book launch in London. The book is “And the Devil Blinked First.” Amy is acting as Rosie’s bodyguard. Rosie is on a television show where she mentions the agency. Vern sees the show and calls We Solve Murders for help.

Vern tells them that he works in an industry populated with criminals. He says he sells online vitamins that were made in China. He says that Jakob Eriksson has murdered others in the fake prescription industry. He suggests they investigate Jakob Eriksson, Tommy Griffin and Vern’s ex-wife, Georgie Glazier.

Then Felicity Woollaston, the detective agency’s office manager, and Tony Taylor, Steve’s friend, are attacked while leaving a restaurant. They are told to quit investigating Jakob Eriksson.

This is the second in this series by Richard Osman, who also wrote The Thursday Murder Club series. The characters have good chemistry. The book is filled with humor and pop culture references. The plot does require suspension of disbelief.

I rate it four out of five stars.

On September 11, 2001, when Molly Fitzgerald was only two months old, her mother, Eloise Ambrose, went to an appointment at the World Trade Center and never came home. More than three thousand children lost a parent that day.

Now an adult, Molly runs the Rhode Island Department for Emergency Preparedness. She is married to Jesse Fitzgerald, a detective with the Providence Police Department. He is the state’s polygraph expert.

Jesse’s sisters’ story was the Jodi Picoult novel “My Sister’s Keeper.” His sister, Anna, 13, sought medical emancipation from her parents after years of medical procedures so she wouldn’t be forced to donate a kidney to her sister, Kate, who had acute leukemia.

Molly’s father, Adam, is now married to Evie, who was her mother’s best friend, and Molly and her stepmother are close. Then something unexpected upends their lives. They learn that even emergency preparedness experts can’t be prepared for everything.

“Hollow Bones” is about family, friends and what someone in the novel calls “radical kindness.” It is one of Jodi Picoult’s best novels, and is expertly plotted, but if you haven’t read “My Sister’s Keeper” you may want to read that first because “Hollow Bones” reveals details about it. Jodi Picoult does a great deal of research for her novels and her plots and characters are outstanding.

I rate it five out of five stars.

When former crime correspondent turned war reporter, then prisoner of war, Harry Flynn returns to Britain from Singapore in 1946, he takes a quiet office position. His job is to write anything from wedding invitations to advertising posters.

He is eating lunch one day when Gerald Barry, his old boss at the newspaper, sees him. Barry offers him a job with Festival of Britain, a government-funded project aimed at celebrating the nation’s creativity and ingenuity.

Fast-forward to 1951. The Festival of Britain launches in a few weeks. One evening, Flynn goes out for drinks with Delphine Dubois, a Frenchwoman, who works in the home and garden section of the festival. The next morning, Flynn doesn’t remember much about the evening, but he has a black eye. And Delphine doesn’t come to work. She is missing.

Flynn becomes the suspect in her disappearance and possible murder. He was the last person to see her alive, yet he has no memory of the evening they spent together. As evidence against him mounts, Flynn begins to wonder if he might actually be guilty. Then his ex-wife’s daughter, Veronica, 13, is suddenly left in his care when her mother goes on a trip. Veronica is fond of murder mysteries.

The story seems to take a long time to really get going. The story of the festival and the mystery don’t quite mesh together. I usually like Kate Atkinson’s novels, but this one just didn’t work for me.

I rate it three out of five stars.

By the 1950s, Cambridge, Massachusetts feels far removed from the legendary witch trials that marked its early days as a colony.

Ava Abbott is from the small town of Genesis, Maine. Her parents keep her isolated except for school and want her to stay after she graduates to work in the family orchard. But her science teacher convinces her to apply to Radcliffe College. She is accepted and is offered a scholarship. Her parents allow her to go.

There she meets Lauren Bell, her opposite in every way. Lauren is a rebel from a wealthy and well-established Cambridge family. She has long wanted to be a member of the Lilith Society, a secret organization of witches at Radcliffe dating back to colonial times. Members of the Bell family are born with magic.

Lauren and her brother Lionel are four years apart. Their parents were killed in an accident in Greece when Lauren was nine. They were raised by their grandmother.

Both Ava and Lauren are recruited by the Lilith Society, a secret organization of witches at Radcliffe dating back to colonial times. As they learn more about their legacy, Ava and Lauren form a close bond. Ave gets a waitressing job at Harvard’s dining hall where she sees Jamie Mather, a descendent of Cotton Mather, a notorious witch hunter. She and Jamie become obsessed with each other.

While Radcliffe seems like a safe haven, the shadow of McCarthyism looms large, an ever-present threat to the creative and intellectual life in Cambridge. And as girls from the Lilith Society disappear, Ava and Lauren realize the witch trials of the past may not be as deeply buried as they once believed.

This isn’t entirely about magic: it’s about the choices we make, family and friends. It’s about women who are thought to be less than men. I didn’t guess who was behind the disappearances, but the reveal makes sense.

I rate it four out of five stars.

Carl Mørck has retired as the head of Copenhagen Department Q. He is at a book promotional event for his second book when a woman approaches him and asks to speak in confidence.

She works at the Heath and Human Care Administration and came across an answering machine with a disturbing recording. She plays it for Carl. Mørck turns it over to his former colleagues, who are struggling to keep the cold case department up and running on their own.

Detective Constable Rose Knudsen and civilian assistant Hafez el-Assad are still with Department Q. Terje Ploug is the chief of homicide who brings in a new transfer, Helena Henry, a Frenchwoman who throws herself into the investigation

When the team realizes that the audio recording might shed new light on a supposedly open-and-shut murder-suicide case from four years earlier, suddenly everything they thought they knew is called into question.

Meanwhile, a spurt of seemingly random violence—an explosion off the coast of Jutland, a young woman shot dead in Copenhagen—leads the Department Q team to investigate a possible connection to a different long-ago event.

At first this novel is complicated with the number of attacks, but as the plot becomes more clear it also becomes more intense. The reader knows who is behind the attacks, but doesn’t know the motive right away. Carl isn’t as prominent in this novel as he is in the others in the series, but the other characters are good. It can be read as a stand-alone work.

It is unusual to see three people listed as authors. The publisher has said that for this continuation of the Department Q series, Jussi Adler-Olsen has teamed up with criminal experts Stine Bolther and Line Holm. Bolther is a specialist on matters relating to emergency services and Holm is an investigative journalist.

I rate it four out of five stars.

San Francisco Police Homicide Inspector Raquel Laing was adopted at nine by Tom and Emma Laing. She still lives with her adoptive sister, Dee, an online investigator for international organizations. Al Hawkin, Raquel’s mentor, is now semi-retired and works in the cold case unit.

Ten months earlier, Dee considered doing an online DNA test. She was 14 when Raquel was adopted. Then a search into her family’s ancestry throws Dee into her own world of turmoil.

Early one morning, Raquel and her partner, Pam Fawcett, are called to a homicide. The victim is Gilbert Gallegos, a drug dealer. After the killer is identified, Raquel is removed from Homicide and put onto the Cold Case Unit. On the one hand, Cold Case lets her work with Al Hawkin. On the other, it leaves her free to look at some facts about her past.

This is the second in this series. It is a fast read and the characters are good, but I like Laurie R. King’s Mary Russell and Sherlock Holmes series better.

I rate it four out of five stars.

The last time we saw the women of “Big Little Lies” — Madeline, Celeste, Jane, Renata and Bonnie — their children were in kindergarten. They live in a coastal town north of Sydney, Australia.

In “Big Little Truths,” 10 years have passed and the children attend Pirriwee High School. When the principal, Dr. Ferdinand Seawright, receives a severed finger in the mail, word quickly spreads. Anna Kennard, head of science, says it is real. Detective Chief Inspector Adrian Quinlan is sent to investigate.

Madeline Mackenzie is divorced from Nathan Carlson. They have a son, Fred, and a daughter, Abigail. She and her second husband, Ed, have a daughter, Chloe. Bonnie is now married to Nathan and they have a daughter, Skye. Jane and Tom Chapman have a son, Ziggy. Celeste Wright has twin sons, Max and Josh. Her husband, Perry, is dead. Renata Kline has a daughter, Amabella. She is divorced. The twins and Ziggy are half-brothers.

But the women have other things to worry about. Celeste’s mother-in-law, Mary-Louise, is behaving oddly, Madeline is facing perhaps the biggest challenge of her life, Jane is at an impass in her marriage and Bonnie has realized there’s only so much solace in yoga. Only Renata is living her best life.

When a stranger begins lurking around the school and asking questions, the women must finally face the truth with themselves, each other and their kids. The chapters about the women are interspersed with transcripts of the kids talking with a counselor. The reader doesn’t know why the kids are seeing a counselor until near the end.

Liane Moriarty creates characters who are so believable they could easily be someone you know. You don’t have to read “Big Little Lies” first because the author weaves in the back story. It’s good to see how the different dynamics play out between the women and their families. On top of that, it is a well-crafted and suspenseful plot.

I rate it five out of five stars.

It is October of 1896. Private investigators Cyrus Barker and Thomas Llewelyn are told that Barker’s longtime nemesis, Sebastian Nightwine, previously believed dead, is alive and in London. Barker’s cook, Etienne Dummolard, who also owns a restaurant, saw Nightwine.

Dummolard tells Barker, then he and his wife flee to France for safety. Barker advises Llewelyn to send his wife, Rebecca, and their daughter out of London, too.

Meanwhile, Dr. James Cantlie arrives at Barker’s office. His friend, Dr. Sun Yat-Sen, is missing. Yat-Sen, a would be reformer and revolutionary, is running away from China's Imperial Qing Secret Service, who has placed a bounty on his head for his political activities. Cantlie hires them to find the missing Sun Yat-Sen.

This is the 17th in the series. The author has a writing style that brings readers into the well-paced story. The relationship between Barker and Llewelyn, who is the narrator, is good. And of course, Dr. Sun Yat- Sen was a real person who founded the Republic of China and served as its first president. This is a well-written and entertaining series, but you can read “For Services Rendered” as a stand-alone novel.

I rate it four out of five stars.

Cork O’Connor is the former sheriff of Tamarack County, Minnesota. He is now a private investigator in Aurora. His son, Stephen, and grandson, Waboo, have visions. Waboo, 7, is troubled because he had a vision of a wolf eating his grandfather’s heart.

Cork’s daughter, Jenny, and her husband, Daniel, who is Native American and is a police officer, are Waboo’s parents. They are all preparing for a family reunion over the Memorial Day weekend. The men will take a canoe trip into the Boundary Waters Area Wilderness. When Stephen and his wife, Belle, arrive, Stephen tells Cork he had a vision. It was the same as Waboo’s.

Cork goes to the outfitters to pick up a rented canoe from his friend, Cordell Bishop, owner of Borealis Outfitter. Cordell isn’t there. His wife, Belle, tells Cork that Cordell is working as a guide for three city men. When Cork’s group arrives at the Boundary Waters, they find Cordell’s vehicle parked. After they canoe to an island off of Strike Lake and set up camp, Stephen finds dried blood.

Cork uses a satellite phone to call Sheriff Marsha Dross, who calls Belle. Belle gives her the names of the men that Cordell is guiding. When she checks, she finds that the names they gave are false. So Cordell may be in danger. Fifteen years earlier, he guided two brothers, Dillon and Declan Kennedy, who were later found to be dangerous criminals.

The key issue in “God’s Country” is what lengths Cork will go to protect others. Overall it is a story of the choices he makes and of survival. It is a good plot, but this one is almost all Cork and little of the other characters. I really enjoy the insights into Native American culture. This is the 21st in the series, but it can be read without reading the others.

I rate it four out of five stars.

Acting Sheriff Emmy Clifton’s mother, Myrna Joy Clifton, dies just six weeks after Emmy’s father, Sheriff Gerald Clifton, was killed in the line of duty. At the cemetery, Emmy’s sister, ex-federal agent Dr. Jude Archer, is comforting Emmy’s son, Cole, who is a deputy.

As Emmy, Jude and Cole leave the cemetery heading for the funeral lunch, they hear gunfire coming from the Vickery family’s house. Allison Vickery was a detective with the Clayville police, but recently retired. She was murdered in her kitchen. Her daughter, Mandy, 16, was shot in the head and is alive. When they break into the house, the killer shoots at Jude, who is wounded. The shooter gets away.

Allison was married to Bill Garrison, who isn’t Mandy’s father. The Garrison family owns a high-end appliance store. Bill is abusive, but Allison would never follow up with the charges against him. And Mandy is seeing Wesley Woodrow, who helps his uncle sell drugs.

This has an excellent plot with multiple twists and small-town intrigue, although I figured out the main plot early on. The characters are outstanding, especially Emmy and Jude. This is the second in the series. It can be read as a stand alone, but one of the big story lines is revealed in the first novel “We Are All Guilty Here.”

I rate it five out of five stars.