Murder in Bel-Air by Cara Black: First Paragraph

Murder in Bel-Air by Cara Black, published June 4, 2019, Soho Crime

Murder in Bel-Air (Aimee Leduc Investigations #19)

Genre: mystery set in Paris

First chapter, first paragraph:

Paris. Late October 1999. Monday, Midafternoon

The young woman stumbled on the cobblestones in her worn shoes, fist in her pocket, clutching the steak knife she'd nicked from the cafe. She'd felt eyes watching - fear had charged up her back, impossible to ignore. Her gut had screamed at her to get out of there. 

Now. 

Why hadn't her contact showed?   

A car engine revved up, gears scraping. She glanced back and saw a black Renault slide onto Boulevard Picpus. Her heart pounded. 

Would you read on, based on the opening paragraphs?

Meme: I’d Rather Be At The Beach is the host for First Chapter First Paragraph on Tuesdays. Post the opening paragraph(s) of a book you are currently reading or planning to read. 

Sunday Salon: Book Review, Current Read

Professor Chandra Follows His Bliss by Rajeev Balasubramanyam

March 26, 2019, Dial Press
Genre: multicultural, contemporary fiction, family drama

The title and cover of the book got my attention at the library, so I borrowed it and was delighted with the story and the characters.

Professor Chandra is disappointed he did not win the Nobel Prize for Economics, but he is still considered a successful and internationally renowned economist, based in Cambridge. On retirement, he turns his attention to his family, especially his children, who are distant or estranged from him ever since his divorce from their British mother.

How he manages to discover his family again as well as find a new life, new meaning, and adventures for himself is the theme of the novel. 

Smart, entertaining, and well written and plotted, the book was a pleasure to read. Five stars

Currently reading:

The Dark Bones

The Dark Bones by Loreth Anne White, May 21, 2019

Genre: thriller, mystery, police procedural

Set in Canada, this is the second in the A Dark Lure series.

I haven't read the first in the series, but I learned a lot about it by reading this one.In The Dark Bones. Detective Rebecca North returns home after a long absence, when she is told about the suicide of her father, a retired cop. Not wanting to believe her father Noah North killed himself, Rebecca sets out to find out what led to his death and meets reluctantly again, her first love and high school sweetheart, Ash.

I'm in the middle of the ebook and enjoying this mystery set in rural Canada.

Memes: 

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

Sunday Salon: Guidebook for Couples; Historical Fiction; Reviews

Trouble the Water, a novel by Rebecca Dwight Bruff, July 4, 2019, Koehler Books

Trouble the Water

Inspired by a true story, Trouble the Water is about risking everything for freedom. Born a slave, Robert Smalls commandeered a Confederate arms ship from the Charleston harbor, and with the woman he loved and a small crew of other slaves, delivered it to the Union Navy. After the war ended Smalls was able to purchase the house in which he and his mother had been enslaved, and he became one of America’s first black legislators. (publisher)

Let's Do Us by Charly Ligety and Les Starck, June 11, 2019, Harper Design

Let's Do Us
A pair of playful and romantic twin guidebooks created specially for couples to help them talk about the difficult yet important issues that will affect their relationship and their future. (publisher)

Finished reading:

Where the Crawdads Sing

Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens, August 14, 2018, G.P. Putnam's Sons. Source: personal copy

This coming-of-age novel had me in tears. Wonderfully developed characters and an unusual, to me, setting in the North Carolina swamps. A book for lovers of nature and stories of adolescents enduring extremely trying circumstances. Some parts of the plot are hard to see as completely realistic, but it makes for an excellent story of strife, survival, and accomplishment. Five stars.  

I've recommended this novel to our library book club which meets the first Thursday each month. 

 The Last Time I Saw You by Liv Constantine, May 7, 2019, Harper

The Last Time I Saw You (review ARC from the publisher) is a thriller set around the unexplained murder of a wealthy woman, Lily, the mother of Kate, a heart surgeon. Kate is reunited at Lily's funeral with a childhood playmate, Blaire, who also knew and loved the charming and generous Lily.
   

There are many suspects for the crime, and Blaire, a successful detective author, sticks around, supposedly to help her friend Kate solve Lily's murder. There are unexpected twists to the story that I found improbable and unbelievable, though it did help to prolong the suspense in the plot. I gave the book three stars.  

Currently reading:

The Seven or Eight Deaths of Stella Fortuna by Juliet Grames,  May 7, 2019,  Ecco Press

In this stunning debut novel, a young woman tells the story behind two elderly sisters’ estrangement, unraveling family secrets stretching back a century and across the Atlantic to early 20th century Italy (publisher)

What books have you been reading lately?
Memes: The Sunday Post  hosted by The Caffeinated Bookreviewer. Also,  It's Monday: What Are You Reading, and Stacking the Shelves. 

Short Book Reviews: Thrillers and a Romance

Goodbye Paris by Mike Bond

Goodbye Paris

Goodbye Paris by Mike Bond, June 11, 2019, Big City Press
Genre: thriller, political suspense
The author has written thrillers set in political hotspots around the world. This one is set in Paris.
I was captured by all the what-ifs taken to be true facts in this fictional novel. Five stars. I hope to read his other thrillers set in other parts of the world. 

The Family Upstairs

The Family Upstairs by Lisa Jewell, October 29, 2019, Atria BooksGenre: suspense, family drama

I enjoyed this thriller, suspense novel, with its unusual setting, plot, and characers. The story is primarily told from the point of view of young people and teens living in an old mansion but manipulated and at the mercy of deluded parents being controlled by their new adult friends. How the different characters manage to weather the storms that ensue when  the intruding strangers take over their lives is quite intriguing and hair-raising. I gave this five stars.

If She Wakes

If She Wakes by Michael Koryta, May 14, 2019, Little, Brown and Company

Genre: suspense
I've always enjoyed suspense novels involving patients who wake up from a coma, but this one takes place while one of the main characters, Tara, is still semi-comatose, unable to speak or move her extremities, but able to hear and understand everyone and everything around her.  

Tara understands what is going on with the investigation into the car accident when her passenger was killed and she was injured. She, however, can only move her eyes up and down in response to yes and no questions. Abby, an insurance investigator, tries to help find the truth about whether the fatal crash was truly an accident or if the death of Tara's car passenger was murder. 

Another five star suspenseful read.

Ellie and the Harpmaker

Ellie and the Harpmaker by Hazel Prior, May 2, 2019, Transworld Digital

Genre: romance, contemporary drama
I found this a good change from the thrillers I've been reading. It involves the gradual flowering of a timid unhappily married woman when she begins to take harp lessons from an equally timid but eccentric harpmaker, Dan. 

Ellie is surprised when Dan offers her one of his handmade harps free, and she reciprocates by helping Dan in his private life, apart from falling in love with him. 

Unusual characters and a romantic plot with a few twists and turns makes this very enjoyable reading. 

What have you been reading lately?
Memes: The Sunday Post  hosted by The Caffeinated Bookreviewer. Also,  It's Monday: What Are You Reading, and Stacking the Shelves. 

Sunday Salon: Domestic Drama, Suspense

Domestic drama and books of suspense

The First Mistake by Sandie Jones, June 11, 2019, Minotaur Books

Genre: domestic suspense

(A) wife, her husband, and the woman who is supposedly her best friend.

Murder She Wrote: Murder in Red by Jessica Fletcher and Jon Land

Publication: May 28, 2019, Berkley Books

In what appears to be medical malpractice, Jessica learns her friend was actually a victim of something far more sinister.

Searching for Sylvie Lee by Jean Kwok, June 4, 2019, William Morrow
Genre: suspense, family drama
In one Chinese immigrant family, the book explores what happens when the eldest daughter disappears, and a series of family secrets emerge.

The Last Train to London

The Last Train to London by Meg Waite Clayton, September 10, 2019, Harper
This historical novel centers on the Kindertransports that carried thousands of children out of Nazi-occupied Europe in WWII—and one brave woman who helped them escape to safety.

The Chestnut Man

The Chestnut Man by Soren Sveistrup, Sepember 3, 2019, Harper
Genre: police procedural, thriller
A madman is terrorizing Copenhagen. His calling card is a matchstick doll and two chestnuts. 

Gravity Is the Thing: A Novel

Gravity Is the Thing: A Novel by Jaclyn Moriarty, July 23, 2019, Harper
Genre: contemporary fiction
A single mother's search for happiness. 

What are you reading this week?

Memes:

The Sunday Post hosted by The Caffeinated Bookreviewer,  Stacking the Shelves. Also visit The Sunday Salon hosted by ReaderBuzz, and It's Monday, What Are You Reading by Book Date. and Mailbox Monday 

Claws of the Cat by Susan Spann: Shinobi Mystery #1

Claws of the Cat (Shinobi Mystery #1) by author  Susan Spann is being re-released by Seventh Street Books; Reprint edition (April 23, 2019)

Claws of the Cat

My review:

An unlikely pair of collaborators in 16th century Kyoto risk their lives to solve the murder of a samurai who died from claw and stab wounds in a local tea house. The fatal wounds were made by neko-te or "cat's claws," a type of weapon used mostly be female fighters. But did a female murder the samurai?

Father Mateo, a Portuguese Jesuit priest who is protected and sponsored by the shogun, and his official protector, the ninja Hiro, must prove that Mateo's convert to Christianity, the tea house entertainer Sayuri, is innocent of the crime. The son of the dead samurai threatens to kill both Mateo and Sayuri unless another person is found responsible for the murder.

An engrossing mystery in an intriguing historical setting, with likable and well developed main characters, Claws of the Cat is also an entertaining and well researched novel about the samurai, their code of conduct, and their manner of fighting. I recommend the book for those who enjoy a good mystery and are curious about the old samurai culture of Japan.

Blade of the Samurai

The next in the series, Blade of the Samurai,  originally published July 15, 2014, is also in reprint with a new cover by Seventh Street Books.  Here is my review of the first edition.

See my reviews of the other books in the series:
The Ninja's Daughter
Flask of the Drunken Master
Trial on Mount Koya
Betrayal at Iga

There are six novels in the mystery series so far, all being reprinted in paperback by Seventh Street Books, with a seventh book, Ghost of the Bamboo Road to be released November 2019. I have enjoyed all the books, and am looking forward to the seventh book!

Susan Spann is the award-winning author of the Hiro Hattori mystery novels, featuring ninja detective Hiro Hattori and Portuguese Jesuit Father Mateo. She has a degree in Asian Studies, as well as a lifelong love of Japanese history, food and culture. She currently lives in Tokyo, where she is working on an upcoming nonfiction book about mountain climbing in Japan as well as the next installment in the Hiro Hattori mystery series.Visit her 

website

Book Tour and Review: EXPOSED by Jean-Philippe Blondel

France Book Tours

France Book Tours presents Exposed by Jean-Philippe Blondel, June 4, 2019, New Vessel Press
Genre: literary fiction

My comments:

Alexandre Laudin, an internationally known artist, tries to attract the attention of his former teacher. Monsieur Claret, now a 58-year-old divorced man with two grown daughters. Laudin tells Claret that he played an important role in his life in his student years, and that to him, Claret had become an obsession. He eventually persuades Claret to be a subject of his art, eventually getting his former teacher to pose for his canvas, almost in the nude.

Claret is eventually pulled in by Alexandre's persistence and artistic exuberance, and at the end of the book, the two seem to make a last-minute pact that is as surprising as it is unconsidered by Claret. In other words, Claret seems to be neither unwilling or dismayed by events.  

A book about artists, obsession, and a willingness to go to extreme lengths for the sake of art. The novel, nevertheless, is written with restraint and leaves a lot for the reader to intuit. An intriguing book that I enjoyed for its unusual style, writing, and personalities. 

Book excerpt: (page 26)

"I don't know how to explain it. I think a teacher signs a tacit contract with his students from the moment they walk into the classroom. It goes beyond a pact of non aggression. It is an agreement that stipulates that even over the years, there will be respect between us, and ...how should I put it...mutual protection. I'm not sure this makes an sense." 

"And I doubt whether your feelings would be shared by your colleagues. Or by some of the kids you have there in front of you."

Book excerpt: (page 34)

"All I can say is that when I saw you the other day, I understood that you had played an important role in my life. I thought about you all evening;, part of the night, and all of the following week. You became an obsession."

"Now you're scaring me."

"This happens a lot. But there's nothing to be afraid of." 

The author:

Jean-Philippe Blondel
was born in 1964 in Troyes, France
where he lives as an author and English teacher.
His novel The 6:41 to Paris has been acclaimed
in both the United States and Europe.

Enter here for a giveaway of this novel. 

Thanks to Emma for a review copy for the blog tour. 

@wordsandpeace

#franceBT

http://francebooktours.com/
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