Sunday Salon: Three Reviews

I have finished three paper books recently, very different from each other but enjoyable in their own way. 

Five Days by Douglas Kennedy, April 2012, Atria Books
Genre: contemporary fiction, romance, family drama

Laura and Richard are both in unsatisfactory marriages and they also have troubled sons going through personality and personal crises. When the two both visit Boston for five days for a conference and for business, they meet while at the same hotel and romantic sparks begin to fly as they discover how alike they are.

Laura and Richard reveal their secrets  to each other - their pasts, their unhappy present, and what they envision their future to be. We wait to see how this will unfold.

The romantic and the realistic come together as the novel focuses on these two personalities, how they handle the limits they have put on themselves, and their wish to change their lives.
I rated this four stars.

Singapore Sapphire by A.M. Stuart, a Harriet Gordon Mystery, August 2019, Berkley
Genre: historical fiction, mystery

The first in an historical mystery series set in early 20th century Singapore.

Harriet Gordon arrives in Singapore from England in 1910 to join her headmaster brother Julian after leaving England in disgrace, having served time in jail as an arrested suffragette. 
She gets a job as a typist with Sir Oswald Newbold, an explorer, who is writing his memoirs. When Harriet finds Sir Oswald murdered and his manuscript missing, she becomes involved in solving the crime, working with Inspector Robert Curran.

The investigation centers around people connected to a Burmese exploratory trip  and the Hotel Van Wijk, whose missing employee is also murdered.

Historically interesting for  atmosphere, setting, and time, the novel is a kind of police procedural in colonial Singapore.
I gave this five stars.


A Good Marriage by Kimberly McCreight, May 5, 2020, Harper
Genre: mystery, legal thriller, family drama 

A corporate lawyer is coerced into defending a former law school classmate, who has been accused of the murder of his wife. The plot involves other couples in an upper scale community in Brooklyn, couples who are connected through their children's local school. The novel looks at four different families in total, each with their own dynamic. Two of the families seem ideal, but the couples are interconnected in more ways than being parents of children in the same school. The solution to the mystery murder comes as a surprise. A good story is revealed slowly through the eyes of the women in the families, including the point of view of the murder victim. An unusual and entertaining family mystery and legal thriller.  I gave this five stars. Thanks to the publishers for the above galleys for an objective review

Current ebooks:

A corporate lawyer is coerced into defending a former law school classmate, who has been accused of the murder of his wife. The plot involves other couples in an upper scale community in Brooklyn, couples who are connected through their children's local school.

The novel looks at four different families in total, each with their own dynamic. Two of the families seem ideal, but the couples are interconnected in more ways than being parents of children in the same school.

The solution to the mystery murder comes as a surprise. A good story is revealed slowly through the eyes of the women in the families, including the point of view of the murder victim. An unusual and entertaining family mystery and legal thriller.  I gave this five stars.

Thanks to the publishers for the above galleys for an objective review

Good Dogs Don't Make It to the South Pole 




The Florios of Sicily

A corporate lawyer is coerced into defending a former law school classmate, who has been accused of the murder of his wife. The plot involves other couples in an upper scale community in Brooklyn, couples who are connected through their children's local school.

The novel looks at four different families in total, each with their own dynamic. Two of the families seem ideal, but the couples are interconnected in more ways than being parents of children in the same school.

The solution to the mystery murder comes as a surprise. A good story is revealed slowly through the eyes of the women in the families, including the point of view of the murder victim. An unusual and entertaining family mystery and legal thriller.  I gave this five stars.

Thanks to the publishers for the above galleys for an objective review

The Night Bird

Reading from my shelves:

The Silent Dead by Tetsuya Honda, May 2016, Minotaur Books
Genre: thriller, police procedural, crime fiction
Setting: Tokyo

Reiko, age 29, is a lieutenant in the Tokyo police force, handling a bizarre set of murders, and being a target of the killer as well.

What are you reading this week?

Memes: The Sunday Post hosted by The Caffeinated Bookreviewer. Also,  It's Monday: What Are You Reading, and Sunday Salon

Sunday Salon: Exotic Environments for Three New Mystery Novels

Mysteries and cozies are more and more using exotic environments and atmosphere to appeal to readers who may want something different from the traditional settings - bookstore, library, specialty and candy shops, local tea and coffee shops, bed and breakfasts, or hotels, etc.

I  have three new mysteries with an African safari theme, a Singapore setting, and a Budapest-style, Hungarian tea house.


Love and Death Among the Cheetahs by Rhys Bowen, August 6, 2019, Berkley Books
Setting: 1930s England and Kenya
Georgie and Darcy are finally on their honeymoon in Kenya's Happy Valley, but murder intervenes (publisher)

Death in a Budapest Butterfly by Julia Buckley is the first Hungarian Tea House Mystery, publication July 30, 2019, Berkley Books. Hanna Keller runs her family's Tea House,  but when a customer keels over from a poisoned cuppa, Hanna and her tea-leaf reading grandma will have to catch a killer. (publisher)

Singapore Sapphire by A.M. Stuart is the first Harriet Gordon Mystery, August 6, 2019, Berkley, Harriet Gordon stumbles into a web of stolen gems and cutthroat thieves as she runs from her tragic past in a new historical mystery series set in early 20th century Singapore.  (publisher)

Memes: 

The Sunday Post hosted by The Caffeinated Bookreviewer. Also,  It's Monday: What Are You Reading, and the Sunday Salon,  Mailbox Monday.