Genre: Literary Fiction

Marrow Island

Marrow Island

Marrow Island by Alexis M. Smith
Published by Houghton Mifflin on June 7th 2016
Pages: 256
See it @ Goodreads


Synopsis

A new novel from a former bookseller, author of the acclaimedGlaciers," tracks a young woman s return home to investigate a secretive community that has mysteriously rescued an island devastated by natural and chemical disaster and taken hold of one of her oldest friends. Twenty years ago Lucie Bowen left Marrow Island; along with her mother, she fled the aftermath of an earthquake that compromised the local refinery, killing her father and ravaging the island s environment. Now, Lucie s childhood friend Kate is living within a mysterious group called Marrow Colony a community that claims to be ministering to the Earth. There have been remarkable changes to the land at the colony s homestead. Lucie s experience as a journalist tells her there s more to Marrow Colony and their charismatic leader than they want her to know, and that the astonishing success of their environmental remediation has come at great cost to the colonists themselves. As she uncovers their secrets and methods, will Lucie endanger more than their mission? What price will she pay for the truth?In the company of "Station Eleven" and "California, Marrow Island "uses two tense natural disasters to ask tough questions about our choices large and small. A second novel from a bookseller whose sleeper-hit debut was praised by Karen Russell as haunted, joyful, beautiful, it promises to capture and captivate new readers even as it thrills Smith's many existing fans."

Marrow Island is it a mini utopia or is it a dystopia? Ecologically devastated by an earthquake that destroyed an oil refinery years ago; the island is now an ecological commune, run by Sister J. Lucie’s father, who died on the island as a result of the earthquake, has returned to the island some twenty years later to visit a childhood friend. Something strange is going on.

Dark and brooding, Marrow Island, a carefully crafted work that left me wanting. I could not engage with the characters.

About Alexis M. Smith

Alexis-M-Smith

Alexis M. Smith was born and raised in the Pacific Northwest. Her debut novel, GLACIERS, has been translated into Spanish and Italian. It was a finalist for the Ken Kesey Award for Fiction and a World Book Night 2013 selection. MARROW ISLAND is the winner of a Pacific Northwest Booksellers Association Award and a finalist for a Lambda Literary Award.

Alexis attended Mount Holyoke College, Portland State University, and holds an MFA from Goddard College. In 2015 she received a grant from Regional Arts & Culture Council and a fellowship from the Oregon Arts Commission. She has written for Tarpaulin Sky, The Portland Monthly, Bon Appétit, The Portland Review, and in Lilac City Fairy Tales Vol. III. She lives with her wife and son in Portland, Oregon.

Website

Wolf Lake

Wolf Lake

Wolf Lake by John Verdon
Published by Counterpoint on July 12th 2016
Series: Dave Gurney #5
Pages: 375
Format: ebook
See it @ Goodreads


Synopsis

Could a nightmare be used as a murder weapon? That’s the provocative question confronting Gurney in the thrilling new installment in this series of international bestsellers. The former NYPD star homicide detective is called upon to solve a baffling puzzle: Four people who live in different parts of the country and who seem to have little in common, report having had the same dream—a terrifying nightmare involving a bloody dagger with a carved wolf’s head on the handle. All four are subsequently found with their wrists cut — apparent suicides — and the weapon used in each case was a wolf’s head dagger.
Police zero in quickly on Richard Hammond, a controversial psychologist who conducts hypnotherapy sessions at a spooky old Adirondack inn called Wolf Lake Lodge. It seems that each of the victims had gone there to meet with Hammond shortly before turning up dead.
Troubled by odd holes in the official approach to the case, Gurney begins his own investigation — an action that puts him in the crosshairs of not only an icy murderer and the local police but the darkest corner of the federal government. As ruthless as the blizzard trapping him in the sinister eeriness of Wolf Lake, Gurney’s enemies set out to keep him from the truth at any cost — including an all-out assault on the sanity of his beloved wife Madeleine.
With his emotional resources strained to the breaking point, Gurney must throw himself into a deadly battle of wits with the most frightening opponent he has ever faced.
Wolf Lake is the page-turning new work by a writer hailed by the New York Times as “masterly” — and it furthers the adventures of Dave Gurney, a detective reviewers have compared to Sherlock Holmes.

This is the fifth Dave Gurney book. Other than the fact that a retired NYPD would be drawn into such complex cases is a little far-fetched, the stories are very interesting and well plotted. I like the tension that Verdon has created between Gurney and his wife, this is something one would expect for a couple that is continually drawn back to a life they have given up.

I look forward to the next Dave Gurney book.

The Last Painting of Sara de Vos

The Last Painting of Sara de Vos

The Last Painting of Sara de Vos by Dominic Smith
Published by Macmillan Audio on April 5th 2016
See it @ Goodreads


Synopsis

A masterful new story charts the circuitous course of the sole surviving work of a female Dutch painter.

This is what we long for: the profound pleasure of being swept into vivid new worlds, worlds peopled by characters so intriguing and real that we can't shake them, even long after the reading's done. In his earlier, award-winning novels, Dominic Smith demonstrated a gift for coaxing the past to life. Now, in The Last Painting of Sara de Vos, he deftly bridges the historical and the contemporary, tracking a collision course between a rare landscape by a female Dutch painter of the golden age, an inheritor of the work in 1950s Manhattan, and a celebrated art historian who painted a forgery of it in her youth. In 1631, Sara de Vos is admitted as a master painter to the Guild of St. Luke's in Holland, the first woman to be so recognized. Three hundred years later, only one work attributed to de Vos is known to remain—a haunting winter scene, At the Edge of a Wood, which hangs over the bed of a wealthy descendant of the original owner. An Australian grad student, Ellie Shipley, struggling to stay afloat in New York, agrees to paint a forgery of the landscape, a decision that will haunt her. Because now, half a century later, she's curating an exhibit of female Dutch painters, and both versions threaten to arrive. As the three threads intersect, The Last Painting of Sara de Vos mesmerizes while it grapples with the demands of the artistic life, showing how the deceits of the past can forge the present.

I don’t know what I was expecting when I picked up this book, I thought that maybe Sara de Vos was a real person, now I know she is a composite of Dutch women painters from the 1600’s – silly me! This was an absolutely charming story, rather bittersweet.

Dominic Smith has with a mixture of history and deft storytelling woven the lives of three people into a wonderful story of love, loss and redemption. I enjoyed Edoardo Ballerini reading of this book, I felt he was perfect.

Missing Pieces

Missing Pieces

Missing Pieces by Heather Gudenkauf
Published by MIRA on February 1st 2016
Pages: 288
See it @ Goodreads


Synopsis

A woman uncovers earth-shattering secrets about her husband’s family in this chilling page-turner from New York Times bestselling author, Heather Gudenkauf
Sarah Quinlan's husband, Jack, has been haunted for decades by the untimely death of his mother when he was just a teenager, her body found in the cellar of their family farm, the circumstances a mystery. For years Jack has avoided returning home, but when his beloved aunt Julia is in an accident, Jack and Sarah are forced to confront the past that they have long evaded.
Upon arriving, Sarah and Jack are welcomed by the family Jack left behind all those years ago. But as facts about Julia’s accident begin to surface, Sarah realizes that nothing about the Quinlans is what it seems. Sarah dives deep into the puzzling rabbit hole of Jack’s past, but the farther in she climbs, the harder it is for her to get out. And soon she is faced with a deadly truth she may not be prepared for.
"An action packed thriller.... Gudenkauf's best book yet!” — Mary Kubica, New York Times bestselling author of The Good Girl
“Missing Pieces is an emotional roller coaster of suspense that will keep you guessing until the final page is turned." — Jennifer McMahon, New York Times bestselling author of The Winter People

Not exactly a thriller, more a who done-it and rather a slow one at that. While I enjoyed the book there was not the spark that I have found in some of Gudenkauf other books.

If there were just a couple more twists to the plot, it would have been a really good read. Not ready to give up on this author yet.