My idea of an ideal day is nice weather for porch sitting and reading an excellent book. That said, I’ve had some good reading days. Not all the books I read are exceptional and I can’t list all my favorites on one page, but I’ve listed a few good ones here for you to think about when you’re out of something good to read.
Psychophilia: A Novel: A Disturbing Psychological Thriller by Michelle Muckley
Wow! Just wow! When I began reading this I had a hard time getting acclimated. When I was finally there, I ran with it. This poor, poor lady is delusional. Or is she? She keeps repeating things. She couldn’t seem to remember the most simple things, like her accident on the lake. Everyone else thinks she’s crazy, so she must be, right? I couldn’t tell until the end what was wrong with her. This writer got me. I really didn’t see it coming. This was j
just as good as anything by Gillian Flynn. Wow!
Broken Harbor by Tana French
I have loved all of Tana French’s books. This was no exception. I loved the first person point of view. I thought it was handled well and I had no trouble picturing the action. The story moves quickly from the start when the bodies are discovered, and then throughout the interviews with the doubts this detective has. The sadness about the children was done well. I didn’t like that I knew about mid-way through who had done it. I wasn’t disappointed, however, at the twists that happen near the end. I did love how the characters are so well-developed it hardly feels like a first person narrative, which I often find irritating in fiction.
In a Dark, Dark Wood by Ruth Ware
This was an interesting premise. The entire hen party (like a bachlorette bash for the bride to be) was to take place in the middle of the woods in a glass house with no curtains and lots of snow. It was like a “closed” room murder mystery. Who could have done it?? Who else was there? The person whose POV the story is in, wakes up in the hospital with little or no memory of what happened. I really didn’t know who done it until almost the end. The author kept me guessing and I liked that. Recommended.
When I read Faithful Until Death by Stephanie Jaye Evans I loved the story for several reasons. First, it is set in Sugar Land, Texas. Yes, Sugar Land, two words. As a resident of Sugar Land for more than twenty years, I could locate all the places mentioned in the story, but I could also relate well to the type of people who live in the various neighborhoods, and to Bear Wells, the humble, kind-hearted gentle giant of a Church of Christ preacher. I lived there. I don’t live there now. The book rang true. All the way. It could happen, finding a body on the golf course during a morning jog. It could, surprised it hasn’t. Secondly, there was a Newfoundland dog. I’ve always wanted a Newfie. So I wrote one in my book, Deadly Thyme. They are great dogs – great as in huge, and great as in dogs who love humans and other animals. If you have a 180 pound dog, that’s a good thing.
Here I am. Me. Fallible. Ready to disappoint. It’s Friday February 5, 2016 (can you believe time has flown so quickly?) and I have decided that my YA novel, which is in the second draft stage is just toooo darn boring. Well, okay, I realize it’s just me saying that, but it is now on my proverbial shelf, being thought about but not worked on. I think of that shelf as the back burner of my stove, the one with the various degrees of “simmer” which may mean that spaghetti sauce could sit there all day getting better by the minute. Thing is I need to put conflict on every page as my friend Roger Paulding always says in critique group. He is so correct. Conflict on every page moves the reader to turn the pages. If there is no conflict the reader is just going to fall asleep. My YA has no conflict in it, or at least not enough to keep every reader involved. So say goodbye to the YA novel I’ve been working on for two years, and say HELLO to a new murder mystery set in London with Jon Graham as the hero. It’s true. I think it’s going to be a winner. And I don’t mean that in a Donald way. I mean, if you liked Deadly Thyme I think you might like the one I am now writing set just before Jon Graham goes to Cornwall.
After I finished reading Try Not to Breathe by Holly Seddon, I sat stunned from some time absorbing the feelings I had about the story. There aren’t many stories that I can say that about. You may even say this story left me breathless.
I’m fortunate to be able to get books before they are published through Netgalley. Tumbled Graves by Brenda Chapman is one of those books.![41zlOSzTsuL._SX331_BO1,204,203,200_[1]](https://rebeccanolen.files.wordpress.com/2015/11/41zlosztsul-_sx331_bo1204203200_1.jpg?w=200&h=300)
Young Clay, one of the recipients of her recorded tapes is torn between guilt over something he may have done, and horror that he may not have done enough. His very “teen” voice sounds so authentic it’s hard to believe that Mr. Asher did not follow some teen boys around with his own tape recorder.
Rebecca Nolen 