That Strawberry Moon hanging behind the trees outside my window has me in thrall. It has for the past two early mornings, too. It was most beautiful and golden Friday morning way before dawn.
My brief period of distaste for books lasted a day or two, and happy to say, I'm back in the reading mode. I've finished
The Last Mrs. Summers by Rhys Bowen
Publication: August 4, 2020, Berkley
Genre: historical mystery
Georgie, of Her Royal Spyness fame, travels to Cornwall with her friend Belinda, who has inherited a cottage there from her late grandmother.
They meet Rose, an old childhood acquaintance of Belinda's, who invites them to stay at her mansion, where Rose lives in lonely splendor, waiting for her husband Tony to return from his business travels.
The author says this book is loosely based on DuMaurier's Rebecca, but the plot is different enough to make it interesting. There is a spooky and threatening housekeeper who runs things efficiently, as in Rebecca, and Rose seems out of her comfort zone in the stately mansion, as did the heroine of DuMaurier's novel. However, there is enough difference to make the mystery novel suspenseful enough to keep your interest. There is a murder, for one.
I give this a five for entertainment and originality in spinning the plot of Rebecca into a new weave!
Our House by Louise Candlish
Publication: August 7, 2020, Berkley
Genre: thriller, domestic suspense
A warning about fraud in real estate deals; sales made and transferred online can be intercepted and stolen. The story was entertaining and informative, as well as suspenseful. A woman returns home after a short trip and finds strangers moving into her house saying they are the new owners. Then she has to figure out how the mistake was made and what her husband Tony has really been up to. The ending is a surprise. Four stars.
The Last Savannah by Mike Bond
Published November 19, 2013, Mandevilla Press
Genre: thriller, travel adventure
Bond uses his international settings to point out political and environmental problems that affect the people and their world. This book deals with wildlife poaching in Africa. Going after poachers from Somalia, who enter into Kenya to gather valuable elephant tusks, Bond goes on a tortuous journey to save a female archaeologist kidnapped by the poachers for ransom.
The novel is both an adventure, a thriller, and a romance. I gave this read five stars for plotting, suspense, atmosphere.
I've dropped a couple of books along the way, as too uninteresting or improbable. But I'm currently enjoying a few others, such as the one below.
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All This I Will Give You
September 1, 2018
Domestic drama set in Spain
Translated novel
Novelist Manuel Ortigosa learns that his husband, Álvaro, has been killed in a car crash and finds out that Alvaro has been hiding his past all these years.
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What are you reading this week?
