The Night Swim by Megan Goldin

 

Hello everyone.  I hope you are well.

My husband says I should have been a lawyer.  I used to be fascinated by court cases broadcast on television.  Perhaps he thinks I'd make a good lawyer because I always win our arguments. I can't help it, I remember things from the past to support my point and when he accuses me of something I insist he give me specific examples, which he never can. It doesn't give him more confidence knowing that over the last year I've read several thrillers that feature court cases.

I recently read The Night Swim by Megan Goldin. If the author sounds familiar to you, she wrote the very popular The Escape Room, which I  enjoyed.  The Night Swim is the story of, Rachel, an owner of a podcast that looks at true crime. When she arrives in a small North Carolina town for a real time rape trial, Rachel finds that she is being stalked.  The person following Rachel desperately wants her to review an old case, the death of the stalkers sister, which is ruled drowning but the stalker believes was murder.  Of course, the town is full of a rich cast of characters some of which lived there during both crimes.  

The thriller part of this novel, is page-turning and suspenseful. The legal areas may have some procedural errors but unless you are a criminal attorney, I doubt it would detract from your experience. One thing I want to warn you about is rape. This book is about rape, no way around it. Some of the descriptions are disturbing. If you have been the victim of this crime in the past, I would skip this book. All other thriller lovers you might want to find this book a spot on your "to be read" list.

One by One by Ruth Ware

                                               
Hello everyone.  I hope you and your family are doing well.

Do you ski?  It was a big deal where I grew up, the high school even sponsored skiing trips. Of course, many of my classmates went skiing whenever given the opportunity.  Not me though, my mother absolutely refused to let any of her children hurdle down the side of a mountain on two sticks.  I admit, it does look a kind of frightening.  For the record, we were forbidden to ever even so much as touch a snowmobile as well.

I recently read One by One, by Ruth Ware. I've read all of Ruth Ware's books and count several as my all time favorites, especially The Death of Mrs. Westaway which is so atmospheric I swear it physically transports you to the story setting. Of course, I was very anxious to read the latest offering, One by One. This new book is about a software company that goes on a retreat together to a ski chalet in the French Alps. The London based company, of nine employees, is the creator of a very popular application which is currently the recipient of a lucrative buyout offer. As they start to discuss whether to accept the offer, people start dying. Sounds like a lot of books from the past (Shari Lapena, Agatha Christie, etc), with some interesting twists.  Unfortunately, there really aren't enough twists and it isn't that interesting. For example, the group goes skiing and description of each trail goes on for pages. I guess maybe the snowy feeling came through, because the endless babble about the skiing froze my brain. Then when it gets down to the killer, I guessed it at the very beginning. Granted, I read tons of thrillers so I might be able to pick out writers tricks more easily than others, but this was blatant. The parts in between were slow. Don't get me wrong , I read this in two days and found it difficult to put it down. I kept hoping there was going to be some diabolical genius twist in the very last chapter, there wasn't.  Was this book hideous? No, it's Ruth Ware. Will I be first in line to buy her next book. Yes. It just felt like to plot wasn't as strong as her other novels and she struggled to fill up the pages.

Now, as I said when I disliked something of Stephen King's, remember Ruth Ware is a major writer and I'm tasked with figuring out which vegetable to serve with dinner.  Take my opinion with a grain of salt, just don't spill in on the floor!

By the way, after reading this book, I'm think my mom had the right idea about winter sports. Perhaps snowman building is more my speed.

Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno-Garcia

Hello everyone. I hope you are well.

Does your spouse tell you all their secrets? I doubt we tell our spouses everything. I wish I could say that to you all in person and exaggerate "everything" and have a sly smile on my face. In our case, I am certain my husband has told me most life details.  How do I know? He's told me the same stories over and over, actually to be truthful I should add a couple of more "overs". One time, while driving to Florida I was imitating him talking about his old neighborhood and who painted his house, who left their trash cans out. I was so good (because I'd heard it all repeatedly), he had to pull over he was laughing so hard.  If he gets together with his friends God help you, it's a flurry of where they rode their bicycles, what each obscure corner has been renamed, and how such and such an area is over built. I suppose I should be grateful he isn't some criminal mastermind (stay tuned, just in case) or have some heinous life plan. Anyway, you get the picture, we're boring.

I recently read Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno-Garcia. I didn't know anything about this book going in, not even the genre. This is the story of a young socialite, Noemi, whose father gets a letter from his recently married niece.  In this letter, the niece, Catalina, sounds crazy. She's not doing well physically and it is feared perhaps she needs some mental care. It is decided that Noemi will go pay a visit to her cousin and casually investigate to see what the situation requires. Nobody really knows Catalina's new husband and they certainly don't trust him.  Our heroine, Noemi, travels to Catalina's new home, to discover what secrets her new husband holds and why he is keeping his bride so isolated.

This book is a little bit thriller, but mostly horror and fantasy. Not usually my thing, but I raced through this story.  Part of the reason I think I liked it so much is the setting. The majority of the novel takes place in an old mansion at the top of a hill, surrounded by fog. The picture is complete with a road that is often impassible, broken-down outbuildings like a greenhouse and a spooky cemetery.  Naturally the house has unused rooms with furniture covered with dusty sheets, the mansion barely has heat and not any lighting that is usable. The setting, like in The Death of Mrs. Westaway, draws you in and the cast of bizarre characters keep you reading.

If you like horror and fantasy, definitely read Mexican Gothic. If you are not huge fans of those genres but looking for something new, I think you'll find this story well written, interesting, fast moving and the fantasy/horror takes itself so seriously that it will have you believing it too. If you are willing to go where this story takes you, you'll find it very entertaining.

By the way, I appreciate those stories of hubby's just a little bit more now. A peeling house or trash cans blown away sounds pretty darn good now.