Before you even open the cover of “The Astral Library,” you know immediately that this novel is something special. At least in the first edition of this book, the edges of the pages are stenciled in blue with a dragon-scale pattern and the endpapers are gorgeously illustrated in blues and gold. But the physical appearance of this masterpiece by Kate Quinn is no greater than the story itself, which is a true love story.
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I’m a huge fan of Sadeqa Johnson, and this new novel is as emotionally riveting and filled with fascinating — and often horrifying — historical details, as her novel “Yellow Wife.” The three main characters are all very different individuals: Ethel is a married Black woman living in post-war Germany in 1950 with her husband who is in the military. Ozzie is a Black teenager, only 19, when he volunteers in the Army. He is heading to Germany in 1950, and he’s optimistically hoping to be able to use his intellect in Army Intelligence. And then there’s Sophia, who is 16. She finds out that she was selected to receive a scholarship to integrate a posh private high school, but she’s worried her parents won’t let her go because they need her help on the farm. Her story begins in 1965.
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The latest Robert Dugoni novel is the third in the Keera Duggan series, and in “Her Cold Justice,” Keera Duggan faces another murder trial in which she must defend the accused. This time Michael, the accused, is a young man who also happens to be her private investigator, J.P. Harrison’s nephew. Michael insists he didn’t do it.
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Nature versus nurture. Genes versus upbringing. What forces form a child into the adult he or she becomes? In “What Boys Learn,” author Andromeda Romano-Lax delves forces us to consider that dilemma as we meet Abby Rosso, a counselor whose childhood was really rough. Her only sibling is a brother who is a psychopath and ended up in prison. But Abby also has done things she’s ashamed of.
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In “Run for Your Life, Callie Kingman,” authors Alli Frank and Asha Youmans combine their considerable talents to bring us the eponymous main character, Callie Kingman. Callie is currently living in Sacramento, California, after giving up her career and her family to move across the country to follow her husband for his career.
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With her debut novel, “The Wondrous Life and Loves of Nella Carter,” author Brionni Nwosu presents a stunningly beautiful story about a woman who makes a deal with Death. The result is that the title character, Nella Carter, evades her own imminent death and becomes immortal. Her quest is to prove to Death that there are enough worthwhile humans, humans who are kind and good and loving, that Death should not end all human lives and start the human race anew.
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“Hurricane Heist” is the second book in James Ponti’s new detective series, “The Sherlock Society.” This very clever middle grade series features the first person narrator Alex Sherlock, his two best friends Yadi and Lina, his sister Zoe, and his grandfather, a retired journalist. They live in South Florida in Coconut Grove and since the first book, have been looking for Al Capone’s missing Florida treasure — a stash of money that was secreted somewhere in Southern Florida and never found.
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The newest entry into the delightful time-travel murder mystery series by Kelley Armstrong, “Death at a Highland Wedding,” might be my favorite of the four books in the “Rip Through Time” series. In this mystery, Mallory Atkinson, a 21st century Canadian detective who has traveled in time back to the 1870s, journeys with her employer and his family and friends to Scotland for the wedding of Hugh McCreadie’s sister.
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Catherine Ryan Hyde’s novels deal with the human condition; our complex natures, our frailties, the mistakes we make, as well as our ability to forgive, to learn, to change, and to show compassion to others. All of her novels feature, to some extent, unlikely people who forge families. In “Falling Apart and Other Gifts from the Universe,” we meet Addie Finch, a tough security guard who hides her emotions behind the brittle walls she has erected around herself.
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In her seventh book, “The Deadly Book Club,” author Lyn Liao Butler presents a thrilling murder mystery filled with likely suspects, all of whom might have had a reason to kill the victim. Five women, prominent book influencers, meet online once a month to talk business and books, drink cocktails, and dish dirt. During one meeting, when several of them happen to be in Hawaii, the screen freezes. But the audio continues, and those in the meeting hear bloodcurdling screams as one of them is surely being murdered.
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Author William Kent Krueger’s latest novel, the twenty-first entry in his Cork O’Connor series about that small-town sheriff and detective, is filled with fascinating, superbly drawn characters, but it’s certainly more than just a character study. It’s a complex and puzzling murder mystery featuring so many likely suspects that we readers are as stumped as O’Connor himself in trying to figure out not only who committed the murder, but where to even begin the investigation. The most confusing situation is that the murder he must solve happened twenty-five years before the present day.
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In today’s polarized world, people are often talked about as “them” or “those people,” pejorative terms to say the least. In “One of Them,” author Kitty Zeldis takes that phrase, those words, and exposes the microaggressions, the ignorance, the prejudice behind them. There are two main characters whom we meet as they both attend Vassar College. While both are Jewish and from wealthy families, their approach to life is very different.
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