The Puzzle Master by Danielle Trussoni

Hello everyone. I hope you're having a great day.

With four kids (girls), going on a vacation was always a real adventure for my parents.  My dad had his routine shtick he did asking why we packed so many shoes; which became a huge issue when we threw them all in the trunk loose and then had a flat tire.  It was 4 am...in the cold...with no winter coats...and to get to the spare everything (including each and every shoe) had to come out of the trunk, while we stood on the side of the road ... and it started to snow.  We never had a flat tire before, but had two others on that trip. Naturally, my dad blamed it on the shoes. My mom, on the other hand, wasn't concerned about the trunk; she concentrated on keeping us occupied in the car.  She wanted to reduce the likelihood of my sister complaining that my hair blew into her "airspace."  Anything to keep NASA junior quiet. (It is still quite a feat.)  One of the things Mom did was to bring puzzle books. You know the kind, the ones with paper one step down from newsprint.  They featured connect the dots, crosswords, mazes, and lots of word searches. Don't laugh! It was a time before phones and thumb-orific handheld video games. Those puzzle books led to my obsession with the backs of cereal boxes and finding my way to the bee in the center of the maze, or finding the 47.5 spoons hidden in the picture.

I recently read The Puzzle Master by Danielle Trussoni.  This is the story of Mike Brink.  He suffered a brain injury while playing football.  The result was savant syndrome, a rare medical condition.  Mike became able to read 18,000 words a minute with complete retention.  He could decipher patterns, allowing him to solve the most complex puzzles.  Having turned this unusual situation into a positive, he became a famous puzzle maker.  Mike is contacted by a psychiatrist who is treating a woman in prison, Jess Price.  Jess is serving a thirty-year murder sentence but perplexes all as she hasn't spoken a word since her arrest.  One day Jess draws a puzzle that her doctor doesn't understand.  Could it explain what happened during the murder?  The doctor contacts Mike to help solve the mysterious drawing.  This set of events takes Mike on a wild ride, meeting a slew of interesting characters.  The locations change often as fate the of many hangs in the balance, building the suspense as the story crests to a jaw-dropping ending.

This is a new author for me. Where have I been? I have been missing out!  This book is a edge-of-your-seat thriller.  The writing is wonderful, crisp and concise.  The 362 pages are all plot and no tangents, no meandering. Despite the fast-moving story, the characters are well developed.  Likeable or not, they are often surprising.  The settings are different and engaging, told with just enough description. The storyline is rich with puzzles, ancient traditions, and religion.  I found myself mesmerized, ignoring everything and everybody around me. This heart pounding thriller is a roller coaster, and a ride not to be missed.

Many thanks to the author Danielle Trussoni, Random House and publicist Alexis, for bringing this book to my attention.  Not only was it an honor to read, but I've found a new author to follow.  

The Last Flight by Julie Clark

Hello everyone.  I hope you're having a great day.

I have written endlessly about how my family can talk strictly in movie lines.  I can't help it.  My parents were big movie fans, especially of mysteries that were also comedies. I like some more serious movies like Gaslight, where I drive my husband crazy afterward saying "Pauuulaaa" like Charles Boyer. Then there is Hitchcock.  If you're a very young person, go check him out, and don't forget Rebecca from the book by Daphne Du Maurier.  Another not to miss is Strangers on a Train, where people meet on a train, each unhappy about someone in their life.  They agree to trade murders, to avoid being discovered because they might have a motive.  It's just a simple trade..."criss-cross".  The same theme is used in the much later comedy, Throw Momma From the Train, with Billy Crystal and Danny DeVito.  They also decide to trade murders, well at least Danny DeVito thinks so and kills Billy Crystal's author book stealing wife but then expects Crystal to kill his annoying mother.  When Crystal refuses DeVito tries wacky methods like blowing a trumpet in her ear while she is sleeping, only she wakes to say, "Holy S*** what a dream I was having, Louis Armstrong was trying to kill me!"  The trading of evil deeds is popular in movies and in books.

I recently read The Last Flight by Julie Clark.  This is the story of a woman, Claire Cook, who has a perfect life.  She is wealthy, wants for nothing and is surrounded by servants.  Her life is elegant.  Claire's husband is a member of a political dynasty, think something like the Kennedys only more flaunting with their money.  The problem is that Claire is deeply unhappy.  Her husband has a terrible temper which frightens Claire and she is certain he tracks everything she does and everywhere she goes.  Bound and determined to find a way out of this dangerous situation, Claire devises a way to disappear. When she goes to the airport to enact her plan, Claire meets another woman, Eva, also in desperate circumstances.  Together they make a plan to switch places (criss-cross).  While they aren't killing anyone like a Hitchcock movie, the two women decide to take each other's flights.  The problem is that the flight Eva is taking, pretending to be Claire, crashes.  Now everyone is looking at a picture of Claire as her famous family's stature has caused the media to post a story and photos of her everywhere.  Hard to disappear when everyone is staring at your face.  As Claire tries to become Eva, she realizes she has traded more than just a airline ticket.

This story is a welcome relief to thrillers in traditional settings.  It is thoughtful and complicated but doesn't get bogged down in too many details.  Characters are well developed but still leave room for the reader to discover more about them as the book progresses. The plot moves forcefully forward making for a quick and satisfying read.  A fun book, it would be great on vacation.

Hubby is about to tell me to "criss-cross" myself into the kitchen to make him some chicken salad.  I wonder what direct flights there are taking off this afternoon.

My Darling Girl by Jennifer McMahon

Hello everyone. I hope you are well.

Well, it is October.  I'm sure you needed reminding of the date so there is it, you're welcome.  For me, October is a time when I breathe a slight sigh of relief that there aren't as many hurricanes coming up the coast. I now start dreading something new, turning on the heat and its associated cost. Fall also makes me terribly homesick.  I come from a place where the most excellent apples are grown, cider mills dot the landscape, and pumpkin farms host all kinds of fun activities.  Living near the coast where shrimp are plentiful, but locals have never met, let alone tasted, a decent apple. I miss fall in the north. I suppose for many of you, the crisp air dipping down into the country makes you think of chili, football, and trick or treating.  Some of you participate in the great American debate, is candy corn good or the fall equivalent of melted crayons?  I don't want to discuss politics here but for today I will make an exception.  Candy corn is delicious and for you that don't agree, well, I just shake my head and picture you standing in the corner coveting your Twix.  Feel free, I'll take the corn.  One thing many book lovers have in common is seasonal reading.  You want a great beach book on vacation, a cute little Hallmark Channel-ish Christmas novel, and a spooky read in October.  I think I can help.

I recently read My Darling Girl by Jennifer McMahon. I have read and reviewed several books by Ms. McMahon, one of my favorites is the The Drowning Kind.  I was anxious to "dive" into her latest.  This is the story of Alison, who lives in a Vermont farmhouse with her family.  They are getting ready to celebrate Christmas, she isn't a fan of the holiday but puts up with her husband's love of it.  Out of the blue, Alison receives a call that her mother is very sick and dying.  Reluctantly, she goes to see her mom in the hospital.  Their relationship is not good.  Alison's mom, Mavis, who is now a famous artist, was an abusive mother.  When Mavis asks to come live the last few weeks of her life with her daughter and family, Alison wrestles with the decision.  Finally, she agrees, hoping they can improve their mother/daughter dynamic. As their time together begins it becomes very apparent something is wrong, Mavis is not who she says.  In fact, Alison is sure that her ill mother is a threat to her own family and has to figure out what is truly going on and how to protect those she loves.

My Darling Girl is the perfect October read.  Despite being set at Christmas, this book will give you the major creeps.  The story is fast moving, interesting, and will leave you feeling uneasy.  What else can I say?  It's fall, this is a fun, spooky read by an established author who doesn't disappoint.  Turn on all your lights, grab this book and some candy corn and make a weekend of it.

For those "crayon criticizers," how do you feel about black jellybeans?

Never Lie by Freida McFadden

Hello everyone.  I hope your day is going well.

Hubby and I are old house addicts.  Not just ours but other peoples'.  We have talked our way into gobs of various old houses, some personal residences, some historic sites.  I can't help it; I'm curious and poor hubby gets pulled along to insure I don't end up in jail (which one of my sisters insists is coming any day now). One of the houses looked like ghosts would be frightened haunting it, in fact, it had been used in a haunted house movie.  Finally, someone purchased it to restore and we were right there, getting the full tour.  It was amazing inside, great raised paneling under each window.  There were a few, not open to the public, houses in Colonial Williamsburg..."gosh I'm so sorry, isn't this part of the tour?"  Then there were closed off rooms in Carter's Grove, various other James River plantations, all our neighbors' houses and then some.  Old houses are fun and always surprising.

I recently read Never Lie by Freida McFadden.  This is the author of the very popular books The Housemaid and The Housemaid's Secret. I've read, enjoyed and reviewed both.  Never Lie is about a couple that want to buy a house.  Tricia and Ethan are enjoying married life and are ready to purchase a home.  While going to see a listing, they are trapped in a snowstorm and are forced to walk to the house they were hoping to see.  Although the realtor never shows in the dangerous weather, they count themselves lucky to find a key and shelter in their possible new property.  Impressed with the grand rambling estate, they discover curious things. A light on upstairs, yet a thick layer of undisturbed dust on every surface, including the footprint free floor.  They find fresh food in the fridge, yet again, no evidence anyone has been in the old mansion, just the opposite, it has been and remains vacant.  As the story progresses, we find out that the house last belonged to a famous psychiatrist Dr. Adrienne Hale, who disappeared four years ago and is presumed dead. Despite the troubling history it is worth it to live in such an elaborate home, until odd things start happening.  

This story is told in dual timelines following the modern-day homebuyers, Tricia and Ethan, and another exploring the life of Adrienne revealing what happened leading up to her disappearance.  This story is fast moving, never really letting the reader catch their breath.  It is one of those that you gasp out loud wondering how you could have missed the amazing twists that leave you shaking your head and grinning. A wild ride and fun from beginning to end.  A classic domestic thriller.

I might be a bit more careful about seeing old houses, they may hold more secrets than I want to know!

The Stranger Upstairs by Lisa M. Matlin

Hello everyone.  I hope you are having a great day.

It is funny how every family, no matter what size, has its own communication system.  My family can speak almost exclusively in movie lines. Oh sure, you can say it is somewhat limiting and we should get a larger "vocabulary" to which I respond, "You're going to need a bigger boat!"  My husband has the luxury of being bilingual, he can converse in movies and grunts, often accompanied by just plain no response due to not hearing...more likely not LISTENING... to avoid any topic of discussion he does not approve of.  My dad, he spoke with "the look." The "don't make your mother cry or you'll be sorry" look was especially effective.  My mother could speak in thumps.  We had a family room in our basement and when she wanted your attention, she would stomp on the floor, once.  You would wonder what was going on upstairs, but if it was around dinner time, it was a widely accepted dialect for "get your butt up here, it's time for dinner."  Now if she stomped twice, look out, that was akin to be being called by your first AND middle name.

I recently read The Stranger Upstairs by Lisa M. Matlin.  This is Matlin's first book.  This thriller with horror thrown in, is about an Australian woman, Sarah, who buys a house she has found for a bargain.  She purchased the dwelling for a fraction of what it costs to have a house in such a posh neighborhood.  The house has been empty for quite a while, and Sarah hopes to remodel the home and make a bundle.  The problem is that it was the scene of a grisly murder, making the neighbors insist that the place should be torn down instead of rebuilt.  Sarah, presses on, and as the renovations begin so do the weird events.  Not only is it unsettling with the house being her current home and critical investment, but Sarah is a therapist and self-help book author who should be firmly planted in reality.  As the house's secrets are revealed so are Sarah's, making for an interesting yin and yang.  The story builds to a telling of everyone's truth.

This book was a fun, quick ride.  If you ever read The Amityville Horror, it will remind you of that tale.  The story is short, at under 300 pages, so tends to move along yet there were a few places where it seems like the author is marking time, postponing the next twist.  Sometimes that can be annoying and slow the plot, but anticipation is often the name of the game with building suspense.  The story is pleasant, easy to read, and the characters interesting.  This would make a great book for a spooky October and practically demands fall weather.  Fun and enjoyable.

Spooky things always remind me of Cloris Leachman's famous line, "Stay close to the candles, the staircase can be treacherous." 

From Below by Darcy Coates

Hello everyone.  I hope you're having a great day.

I am an odd bird. I can hear you telling me not to be so hard on myself, thanks that is nice of you.  Of note, if you are any member of my family the response to my saying I'm an odd bird would be "That's an understatement!"  Forget them, you read, you get me...although my statement has nothing to do with reading.  I am afraid of dark water, especially deep water.  The thought of being underneath a ship, freaks me out.  Yet, I am obsessed with several large ships, especially the old liner the SS United States.  I think being a naval architect would be interesting, I just don't want to know about the big dark dangerous ocean being around my creation. 

In addition to the water being spooky, there is that whole issue of not knowing what is underneath you.  How can that not scare the marbles out of you?  I keep watching those fishing shows where they pull tuna out of the ocean that are 100 inches long and 500 pounds (2.5 meters long, 227 kilograms...God bless Google). To think about those giants swimming around my feet, I just had a shiver go up my back and it is a bazillion degrees here. Then there is the story of the USS Indianapolis.  If you are a fan of history or the movie Jaws, you know what I mean.  If not just google it, okay I'll shorthand it.  Ship sinks, sailors in the water with sharks. It crushes me just thinking of them.  Terrible way to go.  By the way, did you know that they originally wanted to use a "trained" great white shark for the movie Jaws?  Can you imagine?  Anyway, dark water = no, deep water = no, rain = yes if it creates a rainbow especially if there is a leprechaun at the end with a pot of gold.

I recently read From Below by Darcy Coates.  I have read several Darcy Coates books before and have liked them all.  If you are unfamiliar with her, she writes haunted house books.  Yep, how is that for a niche...just haunted house books.  You would think that it is impossible to make a writing career from such a narrowed genre, but she does a remarkable job.  In fact, she is often nominated as horror writer of the year on Goodreads.  This book is different, and I had to know how the heck she was going to accomplish her spooky norm when the "haunted house" was an old transatlantic liner, sitting at the bottom of the ocean.  Intriguing huh?  The gist of the story is that there are a group of people in modern day that are making a documentary about the ship.  There is much interest in the ship Arcadia because it suddenly vanished while on a routine voyage. At the time, ships close by had received a garbled message about some kind of emergency, not an SOS or Mayday, but something else was happening.  Then the ship disappeared.  Now that the Arcadia has been discovered one team gets permission to dive the wreck and film it for all to see.  The ship is sitting, basically whole, on the bottom in a state of remarkable preservation.  Despite this advantage for exploration odd things start happening.  Are the divers getting too little oxygen or is something more sinister at work?  At the same time the story follows the Arcadia, days before her sinking in 1928, counting down the events that lead to the end of the once great liner. 

I'll start with my only criticism; it is 469 pages and could have been a bit shorter.  That being said, I was "on board" for every single page! The book is moody and atmospheric.  It does exactly what Coates always does so well, hold the suspense.  She is going to make you wait to find out specifically what is going on, but she will give you hints, views out of the corner of your eye, all the while building your interest.  She delivers, so don't worry that you'll be left unsatisfied, won't happen.  Coates will artfully guide you through the story, slowly unraveling things little by little, with finesse and little gore.  Once again, Darcy Coates proves herself the master of the haunted house book, no matter the location or size of the house. 

You take your cruise vacation, I'll be home...on dry land!

None of This is True by Lisa Jewell

 

Hello everyone.  I hope you're staying cool in all this hot weather.

Do you enjoy your birthday?  I don't.  Not only do I lament getting older, but each year seems to bring a catastrophe during that time.  There were hurricanes, one so bad we actually moved because of it.  There has been illness.  Work issues surfaced during that period, cancelling a birthday trip.  Oh, and we had to put one of our dogs down on my birthday...like on the day. Now I tend to dread it.  My birthday wasn't always like that.  I used to love that day, not only because as a child I received presents and cake, but I shared my Aunt Mary's birthday.  She was a great aunt and an amazing woman.  Even though she didn't have any crafting classes, that I know of, if she saw something she wanted for her home she could and would make it.  Her creations were indistinguishable from that of pros.  Want a wooden valence?  No problem, she'd buy the wood, cut it into a shape she liked, upholster it, hang it, etc.  If she wanted a wing back chair reupholstered, she'd do it herself. Somehow, she figured out how to do all these things on her own, with spectacular results.  She also built doll houses, so fun. In addition, she was super ladylike and very kind. We used to go out to a swanky local restaurant when I was a kid, on birthday night, we'd find my aunt and family at the same eatery.  They kind of had a formal, slightly Tudor atmosphere with a huge stone fireplace and chargers and goblets made of pewter.  Sounds like nail on a chalkboard for my teeth now, but as a kid it was so cool. Such special memories.

I recently read None of This is True by Lisa Jewell.  I've read many Lisa Jewell books and enjoyed them all.  In this story, we are following two families, mostly the two women who are wives and mothers.  Alix and Josie meet at a restaurant where they are to celebrate their birthdays.  Not only are they born on the same day and year, but in the same hospital.  They are birthday twins. As the story unfolds, we learn that Alix has a popular inspirational podcast about women who have survived difficult times. After a chance meeting, Josie tells Alix that she has an idea for her podcast, to tell the story of a woman as she is doing through that "difficulty" and indeed, significant life changes.  To document Josie's life, as it happens.  To start this project, the women start by recording Josie's past, so they can have some sort of context for what is to come in the future. As is often true with psychological thrillers, all is not what it seems.  Josie and her family are hiding dark, terrible secrets.  As Alix tries to figure out what she has gotten herself into, Josie wiggles her way into Alix's life and home.  Quickly it becomes clear that someone in Josie's family is lying and someone is very dangerous.

This book is my new favorite Lisa Jewell.  The story line is a bit unusual and keeps the reader guessing.  The pacing is well done, allowing enough time for characters to be developed but still propelling the story forward from not only the plot but short chapters. This book becomes one of those where it is so easy to say, "I'll just read a tiny bit of the upcoming chapter," soon it's over and your eyes peek at a few words from the next.  It becomes simple to consume a chapter or two during tv commercials, on hold at some annoying company after yelling "agent" 45 times, or nonchalantly while your spouse is talking...remember to nod and say um-hum.  No matter how you sneak in those short, addicting chapters you'll be happy you did.  None of This is True is a very fun read.