Evil by Dr. Julia Shaw
Doubleday Canada 2019 320 pages
In this post-modern age of relativity, the concept of evil seems passe. Yet, when confronted by the immorality of exploitation and the horrors of abuse, violence and terrorism, many of us, in an effort to understand motivation, describe perpetrators of these acts as evil. Relying on neuro-scientific studies, Dr. Shaw presents information to explain such heinous acts as the result of brain structure.
Dr. Shaw also poses interesting and discomfiting questions about the readers’ own moral decision-making that serve to illustrate how individuals can engage in behaviours that aren’t necessarily immoral but are later characterized in such a manner given social and cultural norms.
Well written, Dr. Shaw elucidates scientific studies in an apprehensible manner. In challenging readers with respect to their own decision-making, the book is thought-provoking.
High praise.
To buy or not to buy…
The Golden Tresses of the Dead by Alan Bradley
Penguin Random House 2019 305 pages
Alan Bradley had me hooked from the first sentence in his first book, Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie.
A 12 year old super-sleuth in 1950s England, Flavia de Luce is a precocious chemist. In the preceding nine books, readers are introduced to Flavia’s older sisters Ophelia (Feely) and Daphne (Daffy), cook Mrs. Mullet, her de-mobbed father and de-mobbed and traumatized manservant, Dogger, all living in a shabby country pile.
Missing in the Himalayas, and presumed dead, is Flavia’s mother, leaving the family living almost in a state of penury (it was her family money) and paralysis, not knowing her whereabouts. Living with the trauma of war, her father, loving but in some ways absent, is trying to provide his daughters a strong family foundation.
While the mystery of her mother is solved in an earlier book, it is the death of her father that leads Flavia to establish a detecting agency with reliable and supportive Dogger.
Following her courtship with Dieter, a young German soldier who had been a POW in England during the war, Feely marries him. Disconcertingly, her wedding reception is marred by the discovery of a human finger in her wedding cake. There’s no doubt but that Flavia, with Dogger, solve this mystery.
One wonders how an 80 year old man can portray a 12 year old girl so realistically (except for her advanced understanding of chemistry) as well as capture relationships between sisters.
As always, Alan Bradley’s Flavia books are well -written — with humour and entertaining turns of phrase — and a pleasure to read.
High praise. To buy or not to buy…
Though the Heavens Fall by Anne Emery
ECW Press Toronto 2018 420 pages
Books tend to come alive, I believe, when we can picture the setting, see ourselves there. Anne Emery’s ten book series featuring mysteries solved by husband and wife lawyers Monte Collins and Maura MacNeil who live in Halifax, are set in the 1990s and typically, in that city or in other parts of Nova Scotia. It’s easy to imagine Halifax. Their children, older adolescent Tommy Douglas, insightful 11 year old daughter Normie and three year old son, Dominic, in addition to close family friend Father Brennan Burke, feature in the books.
Irish culture figures prominently in all the books with Though the Heavens Fall set in 1995 Belfast where Monte is currently working at a law firm while Maura and their two youngest children are living in Dublin as she lectured part time at University College of Dublin’s Law School.
This was a time when the IRA and RUC (Royal Ulster Constabulary) were still at war although the IRA was initiating peace talks. Father Burke is in Belfast visiting his relatives who, involved with the IRA, are part of the peace talks. When Monte takes on a murder case, he has no idea that his investigation would lead back to Father Burke’s family.
Well-developed and authentic characters and dialogue create a sense of the reader hanging out with Monte, Maura and Father Brennan.
High praise. To buy or not to buy…
The Last Lie by Alex Lake
Harper Collins Publishers London 2018 348 pages
Boy meets girl. Boy sees girl comes from a monied background. Boy wants the money but not the girl. Girl turns the tables.
Easy to read but predictable. If you’re looking for a quick read that makes no demands of your intellect, and you have nothing better to do.
Well….
The American Agent by Jacqueline Winspear HarperCollins Publishers March 21, 2019 384 pages
Maisie Dobbs has had an interesting life. Starting life “in service” to a rich family, when discovered curled up in the library clutching a book, Maisie was then mentored by a psychologist leading to her becoming a consulting detective (via a stint in WWI as an ambulance driver.) In this book, Maisie solves the mystery of the death of a young woman.
An excellent writer, Jacqueline Winspear’s mysteries are well-constructed; Maisie is portrayed as an intelligent, detective. In addition to Maisie, Winspear has developed the characters as three dimensional. The impact of war and other losses on Maisie and her family, friends and co-workers is insightful and compassionate.
Always a pleasure to read Maisie Dobbs’ latest mystery, this book, like virtually all of Winspear’s other books, are worth collecting.
Reviewed December 22, 2019.
The Lying Room by Nicci French William Morrow July 2, 2019 417 pages
When her lover is murdered the morning after their last tryst, Neve is frantic she may be implicated in his death. The reader can almost feel her guilt and fear.
Suspenseful, this book is well worth reading. Borrow it from the library.
Reviewed December 28, 2019.
The Accomplice by Joseph Kanon Atria Books June 2, 2019 324 pages
What would you do if you came face to face with evil? 17 years after WWII, elderly Max Weill, a Nazi-hunter, sees Nazi doctor, Otto Schramm on the streets of Vienna after disappearing at the war’s end. To honour his uncle Max, Aaron, a CIA analyst, decides to locate him. Tracking him to Buenos Aires, Argentina, Aaron meets his daughter, Hanna Schramm, aka Crane, living among a large community of former Nazis, and engages in an affair with her. But their affair is rather like a cat and mouse game with Aaron determined to uncover her secrets (and perhaps discover the whereabouts of her elusive father) and Hanna just as determined to keep them hidden.
Set in Buenos Aires — a hotspot for spies from many nations — during the Cold War, Joseph Kanon creates an atmospheric book that captures the period in history following Reconstruction and the cleaving in half of Europe into the West and the Soviet Bloc.
An enjoyable read to borrow from the library.
Reviewed December 29, 2019.
The Second Sleep by Robert Harris Random House Canada August 20, 2019 327 pages In this allegorical novel, Harris tackles the tensions between religious belief and science and the consequences they can wreak.
Travelling to a remote parish to say the funeral of the parish’s former priest, young priest Christopher Fairfax encounters a closed community that appears to be hiding something.
An eerie sense prevails and a plot twist makes this a genre-bending book.
An interesting read, the book prompts the reader to reflect on how we live and to consider.
An interesting read to borrow from the library.
Reviewed December 29, 2019.
The Family Upstairs by Lisa Jewell Atria Books August 6, 2019 340 pages
Alternating between the past and the present, the author recounts the story of Libby, adopted as a baby, who learns the tragic history of her family which was destroyed when they became enthralled by a psychopath.
A page-turner well worth reading.
Reviewed December 29, 2019.
The Wives by Tarryn Fisher Graydon House December 16, 2019 320 pages
There’s an expression, “Curiousity killed the cat” but in the case of The Wives, curiousity leads to an unraveling. A suspenseful tale that’s hard to put down, The Wives is a riveting read.
Reviewed January 6, 2020.
Mr. Nobody by Catherine Steadman Ballantine Books January 7, 2020 344 pages
Found on the beach unconscious, a mysterious unknown man is taken to hospital where his amnesia attracts medical experts. Neuropsychiatrist Dr. Emma Lewis is called in to assess Mr. Nobody for possible trauma-produced fugue states associated with Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID), a rare diagnosis. During this assessment, Emma learns that Mr. Nobody aka Matthew, knows about her hidden past.
Steadman does a masterful job explaining how severe psychological trauma can fragment a person’s mind. Well-written and enthralling, Mr. Nobody is a suspenseful read.
Reviewed January 19, 2020
Never Forget by Martin Michaud Dundurn Press English Translation January 2020 545 pages
The first of Michaud’s books in the Victor Lessard series to be published in English, but not the first book in the series, we learn that Lessard is a detective in Montreal. Separated from his wife, he has two adolescent children and is in a relationship with another police officer. From allusions to an earlier book, Lessard was wounded somehow.
Fresh from recovering, Lessard’s first case back on the job is perplexing for the victims, with no apparent connections to each other are murdered in a gruesome manner. He and his female partner, Jacinthe, sometimes at odds over method, work to discern the link between the victims so to understand the why.
Rooted in historical events (the FLQ crisis and the assassination of President Kennedy), Michaud deftly weaves the past and the present so that, ultimately, the motive for the crimes make sense. With elements of suspense and mystery, Michaud’s Never Forget is an engrossing read.
My only criticism is his description of Lessard’s work partner, Jacinthe, who I liked immediately.
A very engrossing read and well worth the time.
Martin Michaud, author of the book, is a screenwriter on the TV series Victor Lessard, based on his books. The series is quite popular in Quebec and France.
Reviewed February 10, 2020.
This Poison Will Remain by Fred Vargas Penguin August 20, 2019 408 pages
Three elderly men in the south of France, seemingly unrelated to one another, are dying by spider venom. Although the eccentric Commissaire Adamsberg is based in Paris, he takes on the case trying to unravel the connections between the victims as a means to understand the motive for their deaths.
An archaelogist and historian of medieval history by training, Fred (Frederique) Vargas’s books, featuring quirky plots, are always entertaining, witty, and immensely creative and imaginative. In This Poison Will Remain as well as Vargas’s other books, Adamsberg’s internal reflections and musings about the cases and his relationship with his second-in-command Danglard (everything Adamsberg is not: down to earth, practical and methodical), as well as the rest of his team Mercadet, Veyrenc and Froissy, Estalere and Voisenet, creates three dimensional characters who, to varying degrees are as exceptional and unconventional as Adamsberg himself.
Unlike other mysteries or police procedurals, Fred Vargas’s books are never formulaic. Always refreshing for their offbeat plots and unusual characters, her books are must reads. No surprise then that This Poison Will Remain is well worth reading.
Reviewed February 12, 2020.
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