A Darker Reality

 Anne Perry is a prolific author.  She has written three different historical mystery series. The Thomas Pitt series about a working class police inspector in Victorian London.  Then she writes a spin off series, about Daniel Pitt Thomas and Charlotte's son, a reluctant lawyer living the 1910s.  The William Monk series about a policeman who suffers from amnesia after an accident.  When he fired he becomes a private detective, with the assistance of Hester and Sir Oliver Rathbone solving crimes.

Her newest series stars Elena Standish, a young determined photographer, who after carrying her dead lover's final message into the heart of Berlin as Hitler is coming to power earns herself a secret position with the British Secret Service.  A Darker Reality is the third novel in this series. This time Elena has traveled with her parents to the United States for the 60th anniversary party for her grandparents.

Her grandfather travels in very impressive social circles and the guest list involves many important political figures.  In a back room President Roosevelt is a having a meeting during the celebration. When but when the beautiful wife of a renowned scientist is found murdered in the driveway,  the President is whisked out the back door. Later Elena's grandfather is taken into custody accused of murder. 

Elena was the photographer at the party. Can her pictures help tell the story of what unfolded?  She and her father try to help her grandfather with his case to be released from prison. They must decide if he was set up and why.  Is he involved with growing war movement in Europe and which side is he on?

Perry writes an entertaining mystery that is easy and quick to read, setting the scene with some political and factual historical information. 

The Accomplice

What an intriguing and complicated mystery... Lisa Lutz sets in motion a plot that takes friends, Luna Grey and Owen Mann from college into adulthood as best friends, keeping each other's secrets.  Sometimes they are in agreement on the secrets they are keeping, sometimes they do not even know what secrets they are protecting.  Jumping back and forth between past tense and current problems their friendship seems invincible... that it will last forever.  Well written, you are drawn into the mystery, taken along for the ride as all the facts unravel before your eyes.

Luna Grey has a secret that she is running away from.  She comes to college as a pragmatic, cautious student, from a humble beginning, keeping her head down.  She meets Owen Mann, who is gregarious, charming, from a privileged lifestyle. Their friendship withstands the many troubles they encounter through college and they are still friends later in life, when Owen's wife is found dead.

Told in alternating chapters that take you back to their early friendship and current day as they try to figure out who could have killed Owen's wife the story unfolds.  Secrets are revealed and in a intricate plot with many twists we eventually learn the whole story.  

This is a fun mystery but also a story of relationships. The closeness and trust of friendship, and how far that trust will last before it breaks.

Wish You Were Here

 Jodi Picoult has written the first novel I have read chronicling the CoVid pandemic.  Wish You Were Here is the story of a young couple living in Manhattan when the CoVid pandemic breaks out.  

Diane is a young woman who is climbing the job ladder at Sotherby's just the way she always planned to.  She has her life mapped out.  Vice President at the art auction house.  Married and requisite kids by a certain age.  House in the suburbs. Her live in boyfriend, Finn is a medical intern and she is sure he will propose on their upcoming romantic getaway vacation to the Galapagos Islands.  

Just as they are getting ready to leave the country everything locks down.  New York City goes into panic mode and Finn is working around the clock at the hospital trying to save patients who are getting sick with this new disease.  Finn tells Diane to leave on the dream vacation without him.  Better she is safe and having a nice time while he is facing death in the hospital.  When she lands in the Galapagos she is on the last  ferry  and then the island shuts down.  Stranded in this beautiful exotic island is both freeing and claustrophobic.  Diane has to learn to rely on herself and to slow down for the first time in her life. 

We learn about the catastrophe unfolding in New York though emails Finn is sending to Diane.  We experience the frustration, fear and sadness of  all  the healthcare workers who were on the front lines.

Picoult has researched all the topics in this novel throughly.  She describes the CoVid pandemic in realistic terms from the viewpoints of doctors, patients, giving reader a real feel for being in the thick of the situation.  She also describes the beauty and wildness of the Galapagos Islands, the serenity and the peacefulness. It will be interesting to see if this book is recommended reading to the the future generations who did not experience the last few years in real time as a way to understand what happened in 2020.

Jodi Picoult wrote this book really quickly to get it published while we are still in the pandemic.. a little risky when we do not really know the final outcome yet. But she did a great job chronicling life as we are living it. Of course this novel has a larger life lesson about who we are, how we judge others and should we have a life plan or live more in the moment.  Diane O'Toole is following a road map for her life she has planned out in her mind.  Career, marriage and children.  But when the CoVid lock down happens and her life starts going off course, she has to reexamine all the plans and ideas she thought she had understood. Well written, entertaining though I did not really  want to read some of the details about what was happening in NY hospitals.  Too soon.  But this will be a great resource for readers years from now or those who did not watch the news every day.  For those who did live through it to get a real feeling for what 2020 was about.

Marion Lane and the Midnight Murder

 Marion Lane and the Midnight Murder by T A Willberg is the first in a new mystery novel series.  The second book has been published and Willberg is working on the third.  This is definitely a new and different style of mystery novel.  This novel feels more fantastical.  We are introduced to Marion Lane, a young woman who has grown up with her grandmother, after mother committed suicide.  Her grandmother is an unhappy person, who has resented having to look after her granddaughter and now is anxious to marry her off. 

Marion hopes there is more to life and goes out to get a job and be self sufficient.  When she applies to a dark cobweb filled bookstore for a job she is whisked downstairs underground to find a world of secret tunnels that run under the streets of 1950s London.  She is introduced to a world of crime fighting done after dark to solve crimes that have stumped Scotland Yard.  She joins the apprentices who are learning all the tricks, gadgets and cunning of good detectives.  

When one of their fellow employees is murdered, the investigators must look at themselves to find the murderer.  Now Marion must figure out who she can trust from this mysterious group of detectives recruited for Miss Brickett’s Investigations & Inquiries.  Marion and her friends will use what they have learned to save their colleague accused of the murder as they discover secrets dating back to England's involvement in World War Two.

An entertaining plot, though a little farfetched, if the reader suspends the need for reality this was a fun read.  It will be interesting to see where Marion and the Investigators and Inquirers go next.

The Venice Sketchbook

 Rhys Bowen is such an accomplished author.  She writes a variety of styles, three different mystery series and also stand alone novels.  This newest stand alone historical novel, The Venice Sketchbook is a delightful though painful story of life in Europe leading up to World War II.

A beautiful love story of Juliet, a young girl of eighteen, who travels to the city of love, Venice, with her aunt.  It is 1928.  Venice is enticing, sailing through the canals,  the delicious food and of course a handsome man who she falls in love with.  Her aunt whisks her away before she can get to know this handsome stranger.  A few years later, Juliet gets an opportunity to return to Venice as an art student to study and she runs into Leo again.  This time though he is from a family of royalty and is betrothed to marry a person who will help cement the family's financial future, he and Juliet are drawn to each other.  

The war breaks out and Juliet is caught there.  Her life takes various twists and turns that she writes about in her diary.

Years later, Caroline Grant 's great aunt Juliet dies and leaves three keys to Caroline without any explanation.  Caroline starts on a trip to Venice to help her get over her divorce and try to find out what the keys are connected to in Venice.  As we follow Caroline back to Venice we are reading the diary of Juliet's life and adventures.

The suspense is built as the reader learns more and more about Juliet's life during her year at art school and as the war is encroaching on Italy.  The reader will be caught up in the story until you reach the satisfying ending.

Where There's A Will

 Where There's A Will  is the 10th installment in the Rowland Sinclair WWII mystery series.

I will say this is one of my  favorites in the series.  It is captivating in the plot the scenic descriptions and in the historic references.  So many memorable people from history are mentioned and brought into the storyline.  Sulari Gentill is brilliant at interweaving the historical facts leading up to WWII with a mystery plot that feels like everyday life.  

This time Rowland Sinclair and his friends, Edna, Milton and Clyde are brought to the United States to help figure out why Rowly's friend was recently murdered and why this friend made Rowly the executor of his will. The group travels between Boston and New York City and then spends some time on the North Shore of Massachusetts. The descriptions of each of the cities makes the reader feel like they are walking the street with our protagonists.  The reality of life in the US during the early 1930s is realistic and presented at the beginning of each chapter with a news story from places like the Boston Globe.

As the series has progressed the characters have been developing and growing.  Now it is like I know these four misfits from Australia.  They are distant friends that I read about but don't get to visit with in person.  Loyal to each other saving lives and sharing what they have without jealousy or regret.

Oh to have friends that loyal!   I can hardly wait until the next  installment of this fabulous series.