The Golden Spoon

 The Golden Spoon was such an entertaining mystery.  Based on the British Baking shows on television this is a baking show with a murder twist.  While reading the book I could definitely hear the words of the announcers and hosts of the actual baking show in my head. 

Though the contestants on this show were a variation on the theme,  they were an entertaining group. The author did a good job of building the background on each character and presenting their connection to baking and their backstory connecting them to the manor house where the baking tent was located.

Not the most incredible prose but the intent was very apparent and the plot was fast moving.  There was a bit of suspense, but I do not think the reader connects enough to any one character to be upset when you find out the murder and the murdered.

With thoughts of the British Baking Show dancing in your head and reading this book, you just want to go into the kitchen and bake!

Everyone in My Family has Killed Someone

Everyone in My Family has Killed Someone is an entertaining novel written by Benjamin Stevenson.

Written from the perspective of Ernst Cunningham, who describes himself as a reliable narrator.  He is writing down the recollection of events that he says happened to his family.  He is both the Sherlock and the Watson for this story.

He and his family are coming together for the first time in three years for a reunion. Ernst introduces us to the members of his family who are gathering a very isolated ski resort, of course during a snowstorm.  Building on the idea that he will give the reader all the facts and backstories about each character, Ernst introduces us to all the family members.  He also tells the reader at the very beginning of the book the page numbers where deaths will happen or be reported.  Then as the plot progresses he refers us back to those page notations as we approach a new death.

New facts about each character are revealed as the story moves through the week the family is gathered together.  Each person in the family is in someway tied to a death.  In a funny, tongue in cheek, retelling of events, Cunningham leads us on a wild goose chase through white snow and on a chair lift, into a frozen pond to uncover the mystery that connects all the deaths and characters who are in the novel.

There are some good twists and turns and even if you think Ernst has been honest and given you all the facts there are still some reveals that lead to the ending.

Intimacies

 Intimacies by Katie Kitamura is a her fourth novel.  Written from the unnamed narrators point of view, this is a short novel that packs a punch.

The protagonist is a young woman who moves for her new job as an interrupter at The Hague.  The description of the job is fascinating in itself.  The entire book is written in the first person from the young woman's perspective of scenes in her life.  Just  as she must remain objective and unemotional when translating for a client in the court, she approaches her life in a similar manner.

We never learn her name, the book is a stream of consciousness with little punctuation, no quotation marks around conversations,  a very little emotion.  Yet as the reader you can feel the tension, the terror and the uncomfortableness of the narrator in  various situations.

Her relationships with friends and her lover are awkward.  Her relationship at work is difficult.  She does not seem to know how to be intimate in contrast to the title of the book.

This book though not well liked by the members of the book group created a terrific conversation and revealed so many themes and connections throughout the novel that in the end ..I would say  it is a great read.

Our American Friend

 Anna Pitoniak writes a quiet thriller here in her third novel, Our American Friend.

It is hard to separate the previous president and his wife from the subjects in this novel, but the author says she just used them as a jumping off point.  It struck her as interesting that Donald Trump was married to a native of Yugoslavia aand her father was a communist, now he was the president of the United States and Melania was the first lady.  

An entertaining plot that brings a young Russian bride into the White House with a overbearing, egotistical president.  He is completely unaware of her background and family.  She, at first, is trying to ignore and distance herself from her family.  Her father was a KGB operative who was killed by the government,  She has a past she is trying to leave behind. 

When Laura Caine, the president's wife haas a story to tell and she picks a newly retired journalist, Sofie Morse to write her biography.  As the two women spend time together recording Laura's life story, there are times of friendship, trust and then ethical questions come up.  As Laura wrestles with questions of ideology and loyalty, Sofie confronts questions of loyalty and ethics and politics.