Mercer Island, WA 98040 What We are Reading
Spies of Warsaw, by Alan Furst
Furst solidifies his status as a master of historical spy fiction with this compelling thriller set in 1937 Poland. Col. Jean-François Mercier, a military attaché at the French embassy in Warsaw who runs a network of spies, plays a deadly game of cat-and-mouse with his German adversaries. When one of Merciers main agents, Edvard Uhl, an engineer at a large Düsseldorf arms manufacturer whos been a valuable source on the Nazis new weapons, becomes concerned that the Gestapo is on to him, Mercier initially dismisses Uhl's fears. Mercier soon realizes that the risk to his spy is genuine, and hes forced to scramble to save Uhl's life. The colonel himself later takes to the field when he hears reports that the German army is conducting maneuvers in forested terrain. Even readers familiar with the Germans attack through the Ardennes in 1940 will find the plot suspenseful. As ever, Furst excels at creating plausible characters and in conveying the mostly tedious routines of real espionage.
The Girl Who Stopped Swimming, by Joshilyn Jackson
Jackson matches effortless Southern storytelling with a keen eye for character and heart-stopping circumstances. Laurel, a high-end quilt maker, sees the ghost of a little girl in her bedroom one night. When it leads her to the backyard and a dead girl in the swimming pool, the life Laurel had hoped to build in her gated Florida neighborhood with her video-game designer husband, David, and their tween daughter, Shelby, starts to fall apart. Though the police clear the drowning as accidental, it soon appears that Shelby and her friend Bet may have been involved. Bet, who lives in DeLop, Laurel's impoverished hometown, was staying over the night of the drowning and plays an increasingly important role as the truth behind the drowning comes to light. What makes this novel shine are its revelations about the dark side of Southern society and Laurel's familial relationships, which show just how much thicker blood is than water.
The Somnambulist , by Jonathan Barnes
Set in Victorian London, this superb debut from British author Barnes raises the bar for historical thrillers, starting with its curious opening line: Be warned. It's full of peculiar characters, notably Edward Moon, a highly unorthodox detective, and Moon's bizarre sidekick, known only as the Somnambulist. Moon, a conjuror by profession whose act has fallen on hard times, has cracked some of the city's most notorious murders. Now, he's leading the investigation into a shadowy religious group aiming to overtake London and do away with its oppressive, bourgeois tendencies. Moon is a remarkable invention, a master of logic and harborer of all sorts of unnatural habits and mannerisms. The Somnambulist -- a giant, milk-swigging mute -- doesn't appear to be human at all, yet serves as Moon's moral as well as intellectual compass. Together, they wend their way through a London rich in period detail.
Murder in the Rue de Paradis, by Cara Black
In Black's riveting eighth Aimée Leduc mystery, Aimée reconnects with a former boyfriend, investigative journalist Yves Robert, while Paris still reels from the St.-Michel Metro bombings. But after a romantic evening, Aimée is shocked to be called in to identify Yves's body at the morgue. Believing he was working undercover, Aimée ignores the sanitized police report and enlists her partner and best friend, René Friant, to help solve Yves's murder. Her investigation ignites a chain reaction that reveals assassination plots, informers and secret contracts surrounding the strained relationship of a militant Turkish group and the Kurdish Labor Party, all leading back to Yves. Aimée Leduc takes the reader on an action-packed ride fueled by the hidden secrets of her beloved Paris.
Mistress of the Sun, by Sandra Gulland
In spirit, there was nothing diminutive about Louise de la Valliere, known to her family as Petite. A rambunctious girl who could tame the wildest stallion, the impoverished and unmarriageable Petite was also able to tame the heart of the legendary Sun King, Louis XIV. Once she had captured his eye, Petite was quickly ensconced in his court, where, as his mistress, she was elevated to a titled position. Such a meteoric rise was bound to attract attention of the wrong sort, and Petite's life was filled with the terrors and tragedies that accompany all internecine tales of palace intrigue. Amid rumors of black magic and sorcery, loved ones would die, and Petite herself would ultimately arrive at a crossroads where she would be forced to choose between her loyalty to the king and her own personal salvation. Teeming with the rich period details that make historical fiction so rewarding, Gulland's dynamic and nuanced portrait of Louis notorious reign thrums with page-turning expediency and deliciously seductive machinations.
The Monsters of Templeton, by Lauren Groff
At the start of Groff's lyrical debut, 28-year-old Wilhelmina "Willie" Upton returns to her picturesque hometown of Templeton, N.Y., after a disastrous affair with her graduate school professor during an archeological dig in Alaska. In Templeton, Willie's shocked to find that her once-bohemian mother , Vi, has found religion. Vi also reveals to Willie that her father wasn't a nameless hippie from Vi's commune days, but a man living in Templeton. With only the scantiest of clues from Vi, Willie is determined to untangle the roots of the town's greatest families and discover her father's identity. Brilliantly incorporating accounts from generations of Templetonians as well as characters borrowed from the works of James Fenimore Cooper, Groff paints a rich picture of Willie's current predicaments and those of her ancestors. Readers will delight in Willie's shart wit and Groff's creation of an entire world, complete with a lake monster and illegitimate children.
When You Are Engulfed in Flames, by David Sedaris
With essay collectionssuch as Naked and Me Talk Pretty One Day, Sedaris kicked the door down for the quirky memoir genre and left it open for writers like Augusten Burroughs and Jeannette Walls to mosey on through. Sometimes the originators of a certain trend in literature are surpassed by their own disciples, but this is Sedaris were talking about. When it comes to fashioning the sardonic wisecrack, the humiliating circumstance, and the absurdist fantasy, there's nobody better. Unfortunately, being in a league of your own often means competing with yourself.This latest collection of 22 essays provesthat not only does Sedaris still have it, but he's also getting better. True, the terrain is familiar. The essays "Old Faithful" and "That's Amore "again feature Sedaris's overly competent boyfriend, Hugh. And nutty sister Amy can be found leafing through bestial pornography in "Town and Country." Present also are Sedaris's favored topics: death, compulsion, unwanted sexual advances, corporal decay, and more death. Nevertheless, Sedaris's best stuff will still, after all this time move, surprise, and entertain.
Monster of Florence, by Douglas Preston and Mario Spezi
United in their obsession with a grisly Italian serial murder case almost three decades old, thriller writer Preston and Italian crime reporter Spezi seek to uncover the identity of a vicious serial killer in this chilling true crime saga. The murders took place outside of Florence where Preston had moved with his family. From 1974 to 1985, seven pairs of lovers parked in their cars in secluded areas were brutally killed. With all of the chief suspects acquitted or released from prison on appeal, the authors began to snoop around, although witnesses had died and evidence was missing. Preston and Spezi's sleuthing continued until ruthless prosecutors turned on the nosy pair, jailing Spezi and grilling Preston for obstructing justice. Only when "Dateline NBC"became involved in the maze of mutilated bodies and police miscues was the authors' hard work rewarded. This suspenseful procedural reveals much about the dogged writing team as well as the motives of the killers. Better than some overheated noir mysteries, this bit of real-life Florence bloodletting makes you sweat and think, and presses relentlessly on the nerves.