My Sister, the Serial Killer is short, tense and wonderful. One sister is beautiful and deadly, the other plain and efficient. Oyinikan Braithwaite gives us a glimpse into how a society values beauty. The sisters seem like two halves of a whole, each supporting and providing something to the other. A lovely little short read that won't take up to much space in your bag, but will take up a big space in your mind.
Kate Atkinson is an amazing writer. I adore her handling of her characters, bringing the little nuances out so subtlety that when you put it down you have to step back to see the whole because you have been IN the story and WITH Juliet Armstrong so intimately. I am always blown away, and this new book was no exception.
Anthony Horowitz takes the Agatha Christie-style mystery and doubles down in this ingenious novel. When an author of a popular detective series is found dead, his editor starts looking for clues and the missing pages of his latest book. Christie reverences abound and the whole set up is wonderfully clever and delightful. Great for fans of British mysteries, both modern and vintage.
Given the unreliable narrator trend, it's hard to really give readers something new. Sometimes I Lie totally hit the mark. Amber is in a coma when the book opens, but she can hear. The story is told in 3 timelines, before the accident, what Amber can hear, and excerpts from a diary when she was a kid. I had to work very hard to untangle myself from the story when it was over, because the end was brilliant.
Long has Kelly Barnhill impressed me with her amazing middle grade novels (winning the Newbery last year). Her wonderful use of language and stunning imagery make her such a delight to read. The way she places each word and emphasis to get every last nuance out of the sentence never ceases to astound. Each of these short stories in this adult collection will surprise and leave the reader breathless.
Meg Howrey takes 3 astronauts, puts them in isolation and shows us remarkable observations into love and life in her new book, The Wanderers. Told from the view points of the astronauts and the people they leave behind, the reader is encouraged to look beyond roles we play and determine what is real and what is a façade. And in the end does it matter? I will be thinking about this book for a long time.
This was my first Colin Cotterill novel, and it will NOT be my last! I have fallen in love with Dr. Siri, Madame Daeng and the rest of the crew. The intertwining mysteries involving various forms of Buddhism can only have happened in Communist Lao, a country as wacky and interesting as the characters themselves. If you like fun, insightful and foreign mysteries, I encourage you to give Colin Cotterill a try!