The Chalk Man

Tudor, C. J. The Chalk Man. New York: Crown 2018. Print

First Sentences:

Start at the beginning

The problem was, none of us ever agreed on the exact beginning. Was it when Fat Gav got the bucket of chalks for his birthday? Was it when we started drawing the chalk figures or when they started to appear on their own? Was it the terrible accident? Or when they found the first body? 

Description:

Maybe you are looking for a mystery/suspense novel with a background of youthful adventures and creepiness, full of twists and turns on each page. If so, you will find it all in C. J. Tudor's The Chalk Man.

Narrated over two separate eras, 1986 and 2016, the plot focuses on Eddie and his four twelve-year-old friends living in a small English village. These kids use a secret code of chalk figures drawn on the sidewalk to schedule a rendezvous and other information with each other. But one day Eddie notices a chalk figure outside his house that, when he follows its directions, leads him to a beheaded body in the woods.

Cut to the present when adult Eddie receives a note with no return address or message except a chalk figure drawn on a sheet of paper. He finds his other friends have also received similar chalk figure notes. A prank? Perhaps. But when one of the friends turns up dead, the chalk figure seems much more than a prank.

Turns out there is more than one mystery in this village, more than several suspects in the murder, and more than one pathway leading Eddie and his friends, both in the past and present years, on chilling adventures.

Tudor has an engagingly easy style of writing that makes The Chalk Man a compelling, immensely satisfying mystery. Days and events fly past as Eddie narrates not only his childhood and adult life, but the lives of his closest fellow chalk man friends. Equal parts thriller and character study, the book moves quickly through deep friendships to events to conjectures to action.

A good, solid read for anyone seeking a new mystery with engaging characters and multiple twists and turns along the way to a surprising conclusion. I'm very much looking forward to Tutor's next book and hoping it matches the high quality of The Chalk Man.

Happy reading. 

Fred

Other book recommendations
About The First Sentence Reader blog

____________________

If this book interests you, be sure to check out:

King, Stephen. The Body.   

The classic best-seller about childhood friends who discover a body in their hometown. Later adapted into a Golden Globe winning movie, Stand By Me.

The Dreamers

Walker, Karen Thompson. The Dreamers. New York: Random House 2019. Print

First Sentences:

At first, they blame the air.

It's an old idea, a poison in the ether, a danger carried in by the wind. A strange haze is seen drifting through town on that first night, the night the trouble begins....

Whatever this is, it comes over them quietly: a sudden drowsiness, a closing of the eyes. Most of the victims are found in their beds. 

Description:

Many apocalypse/disaster books detail the results of a deadly plague, war, or zombies - something which threatens to become pandemic and exterminate all humans. Always, there is a random individual or group who somehow survive and try to piece their lives and the world back together.

But for Karen Thompson Walker in her novel, The Dreamers, she portrays an unknown virus that appears only on an isolated college campus and town. And the disaster? People simply fall asleep, whether in their beds, eating meals, walking around, studying -- any time. Kept alive by medical staff using intravenous feeding, the victims peacefully sleep away days, weeks, and months in beds set up in hospitals, gymnasiums, and even libraries. 

Interestingly, someone notices the eyelids of the sleepers keep twitching, leading experts to believe they are dreaming. But of what?

...in some patients, the accompanying brain waves are captured with electrodes and projected on screens....These are not the brains of ordinary sleepers....there is more activity in these minds than has ever been recorded in any human brain -- awake or asleep.

And then, after many weeks, one dreamer wakes up. And what he has to say and do ... well, I'll let you find out.

It's really a simple story without violence, desperation, or noise. The plot concentrates on several adults and students, individually or with partners, trying to understand the virus, help new dreamers get medical attention, and somehow keep themselves, their friends and families from being afflicted. 

But in the hands of a skilled author like Walker, even the simplest of plots can grip readers. Through her narration, we grow to empathize with these characters as they struggle with the unknown. Will they be affected by the virus? How can they live when the food begins to run out? How do parents, cordoned off outside the campus boundaries, feel seeing their children sleeping so peacefully, so permanently? And what about the dreamer pregnant with a baby growing inside her each day/week/month that she sleeps?

The only way to tell some stories is with the oldest, most familiar words: this here, this is the breaking of a heart..

Gripping, compassionate, thought-provoking, and unpredictable. A solid read in every way.

Happy reading. 

Fred

Other book recommendations
About The First Sentence Reader blog

____________________

If this book interests you, be sure to check out:

Ursu, Anne. Spilling Clarence.   

A leak from a local chemical factory sends out a gas that affects residents of the town of Clarence in an unusual way: they suddenly can remember everything with with the associated repercussions of longing, love, and regret. 
brilliantly conceived, funny, and touching. Highly recommended. (previously reviewed here)

Leave No Trace

Mejia, Mindy. Leave No Trace. New York: Holt 2018. Print

First Sentences:

By the time the boy in ward four attacked me, I'd already nicknamed him The Lost One in my head.

He'd been admitted a week ago, transferred from police to orderlies while dozens of reporters swarmed the entrance, overwhelming security in their struggle to get a clear shot of our newest, involuntary patient...The boy who came back from the dead.

Description:

Mindy Mejia's Leave No Trace begins with the startling reappearance of a teenage boy who had been missing for ten years along with his father during a camping trip in the forests of  Minnesota. Due to to the boy's violent behavior and refusal to talk, Lucas is involuntarily placed in a psychiatric facility where he is completely unmanageable. He eventually falls under the observation of the novel's narrator, Maya Stark, a lowly assistant language therapist. 

And now, after two weeks of silent violence and disregard for every human around him, he'd decided to talk. To me.

Slowly, the story of "The Lost One" unfolds. And what Lucas reveals to Maya is the story of parents, dreams, and lives gone askew. Maya, too, has suffered her own familial hardships that include the unexpected disappearance of her own mother. Maya identifies with the pain Lucas feels locked up in the psychiatric facility away from his woods. To get him released or to help him escape seem remote, yet tempting goals.

So who is this boy? Why did he go missing? Where has he (and possibly his father) been for ten years and what were their plans? Questions abound on every page as Maya grows more and more involved in Lucas' case. She researches other historical instances where people voluntarily to disappear and go missing, looking for similarities in their motivations that might be similar to Lucas and his situation, along with any answers to help him find peace.

That's you get from me to avoid spoiling the rest of the totally engrossing story. Lucas and Maya are incredibly well-drawn human characters struggling with their inner thoughts and drives. Their stories are fascinating as are their hopes for the future, whatever that might be. It's a spell-binding tale well-written and executed by author Mejia. 

Happy reading. 

Fred

Other book recommendations
About The First Sentence Reader blog

____________________

If this book interests you, be sure to check out:

Rock, Peter. My Abandonment.   

A teenage girl and her father suffering from PTSD live off the grid in an urban forest until discovered and forced to rejoin the world. Breath-taking writing, characters, and plot. Confusingly, in 2018 this novel was made into a movie called Leave No Trace, and although both the book and movie with the same name focus on people living off the grid, the plots are very different.

Dear Mr. M

Koch, Herman. Dear Mr. M. New York: Hogarth 2016. Print.

First Sentences:

Dear Mr. M,

I'd like to start by telling you that I'm doing better now. I do so because you probably have no idea that I was ever doing worse. Much worse, in fact, but I'll get to that later on.

Description:

Here is a very challenging, maybe I should say "odd," book: Herman Koch's Dear Mr. M. What starts out as a possible thriller with a stalker narrator evolves into a teenage coming-of-age romance, friends vacationing together, student pranks on stodgy professors, literary insights from a mediocre writer, and finally a mysterious disappearance of an odd teacher. 

These elements are poked at by a series of unreliable narrators whose identities are often difficult to ascertain immediately. The exposition of events is not told chronologically, adding to the confusion. But somehow it all works, and immediately after finishing the book, I wanted to re-read it to see piece together these different components.

Basically, the plot centers around a present-day best-selling writer (Mr. M) who feels he is near the end of his popularity. The first chapter of Dear Mr. M consists of an anonymous letter written to Mr. M by someone who apparently knows quite a bit about the author, including buried secrets. The tone of the letter is slightly ominous, and hints of new information that might be valuable to Mr. M for another book, something Mr. M would sorely love to have.

Then the story slips into the past to examine an early relationship between twol high school students: the skinny, outcast Hermann and the beautiful Laura. Both have image issues that somehow disappear when they are together, whether vacationing with friends at Laura's parents' isolated cottage or secretly filming the reactions of teachers to the antics of students.

But everything changes when Landzaat, Laura and Hermann's history teacher, has a brief affair with Laura and then disappears without a trace while walking with Hermann. HOw does that happen? Murder? Suicide? Amnesia? Turns out the aforementioned author, Mr. M, wrote a best-seller about this very disappearance and these students, proposing his own theory about what happened between Landzaat and the teens.

OK, that all sounds very disjointed, but believe me it works mainly because the writing is so strong and the characters so conflicted and interesting. Just when you think you have things figured out, author Koch throws in another curve told by yet another narrator. Who is narrating each of these events? Who wrote the initial letter? Who should you believe? And what should you believe?

Give it a shot. The first chapter was enough to hook me to the end, and I hope it does the same for you.

Happy reading. 

Fred

Other book recommendations
About The First Sentence Reader blog

____________________

If this book interests you, be sure to check out:

Krabbe, Tim. The Vanishing  

A woman disappears from an ordinary rest stop in rural France and her boyfriend  cannot accept that she is gone and obsessively digs into this mystery for weeks, months, and years, searching for the answer. Tremendous tension.

The Misfortune of Marion Palm

Culliton, Emily. The Misfortune of Marion Palm. New York: Knopf 2017. Print.

First Sentences:

Marion Palm is on the lam.

A blue JanSport knapsack filled with $40,000 rests between her ankles. She's taking a train to a midwestern city. She'll buy the ticket under an assumed name. She said goodbye to her two daughters an hour ago and lied about where she was going. She did not say goodbye to her husband.

Description:

Now there's an opening that is loaded with promise. A woman on the run with a bag full of money, leaving her kids and husband without a word. Even better, there is "Misfortune" in the book title. Sounds like some best laid plans will be going astray. I was immediately intrigued and quickly dove in to learn more.

And Emily Culliton's debut novel The Misfortune of Marion Palm, did not disappoint.on every level. Her great story, complex and sympathetic main character, various (unreliable?) narrators, and crisp writing kept me reading right to the very end to discover the final outcome.

Marion Palm has been embezzling money from her daughter's private school for years in order to afford family trips, household expenses, and other necessities. But when a school audit looms, she grabs the remaining cash and takes off without a real plan, leaving family, school, and police detectives in complete confusion.

Slowly it dawns on everyone that Marion is not just missing, kidnapped, hurt, or some other tragic possibility. When it slowly emerges that Marion is a thief, the everyday worlds of the people in her former life are forced to change along with their feelings toward her.

Meanwhile, Marion soon finds herself in an unexpected situation. After drifting aimlessly, she stumbles into a situation that offers her access to further income and high-end living conditions while still allowing her to preserve the secrecy of her past. Of course, she soon resumes her sneaking ways. But this time if her newest indiscretions are discovered, she will not merely answer to a simple school board, but will face repercussions from the mysterious, powerful people she works for. Are the risks she is now taking worth jeopardizing her life?

Unpredictable, thrilling, nerve-wracking, and highly-adaptable, Marion is an unforgettable character on a roller coaster of her own making. Staying one step ahead of discovery and punishment from various sources, Marion lives each day by her wits until new plans can be made and she can continue her new life with all it possibilities, both legal and not.

A previously unknown book and author for me, I thoroughly enjoyed the suspense and edge-of-your-seat situations facing Marion and other characters. Can't wait for Culliton's next book. Highly recommended\.

Happy reading. 

Fred

Other book recommendations
About The First Sentence Reader blog

____________________

If this book interests you, be sure to check out:

Lutz, Lisa. The Passenger  

A woman's husband has just fallen down the stairs, arriving dead at the bottom. The police suspicion of murder would fall to his wife, so she takes off in the family car with their savings and a new name as a fugitive trying to start a new life. (previously reviewed here)

The Storm Murders

Farrow, John. The Storm Murders. New York: Minatour. 2015. Print.

First Sentences:

Sudden on the windshield, the sunlight was blinding.

As the squad car emerged from a canyon formed by towering dense spruce onto a broad plateau of farmland, the officers inside the vehicle snapped down their visors.

Description:

A chilling murder mystery for the sub-zero cold weather we are having.

An isolated Canadian farmhouse in the dead of winter. Inside, the bodies of an elderly couple are discovered. No tracks leading up to the house or away. Murder? Double suicide? Or maybe the killer is still in the house? And one more thing: each body is missing a finger. Surely a job for Emile Cinq-Mars in John Farrow's riveting thriller, The Storm Murders.

But maybe this is more than merely one random killing. Turns out there are similar cases under investigation in the United States. Cinq-Mars finds himself working with a mysterious figure called Dupree from the New Orleans Police, a hotel security man named Flores, the FBI agent Dreher, and even his much-younger wife Sandra to unravel this and other related cases. Can all (any?) of them be trusted?

The plot is exquisitely intricate the writing superbly taut, the characters hard-working and dedicated but somehow suspicious. And the murders continue to occur, including one in Cinq-Mars' hotel itself. Even his wife is kidnapped, but are the good guys or the bad guys behind this episode?

Right up to the final pages the outcome of so many mysteries is in doubt, as well as the fates of many of these characters whom you have grown to know, respect, and certainly don't want to see die (or revealed as a killer).

I'm new to author John Farrow, but definitely will be reading his other crime novels. Turns out The Storm Murders is the first in a new Cinq-Mars trilogy, so I am ecstatic about two more deliciously dark thrillers to come.

Happy reading. 

Fred

www.firstsentencereader.blogspot.com

____________________

If this book interests you, be sure to check out:

Sjöwall, Maj and Per Wahlöö. Roseanna

Classic police procedural novel trying to methodically identify the body and then the murderer of a woman found floating in a lake in Sweden. (previously reviewed here)

Mankell, Henning. The Pyramid

Early mystery stories about Kurt Wallander as he methodically solves his first crimes in Sweden. (previously reviewed here)

The Dry

Harper, Jane. The Dry. New York: Flatiron. 2016. Print.

First Sentences:

It wasn't as though the farm hadn't seen death here, and the blowflies didn't discriminate.

To them there was little difference between a carcass and a corpse.

Description:

Luke lied. You lied. Be at the funeral,

When you receive a note like this from the father of your childhood friend, you definitely are shaken. Thus begins Jane Harper's brilliant debut novel and murder mystery, The Dry.

Aaron Falk, Federal Police Agent in Melbourne, Australia, received this letter. He is even more shaken when he learns that Luke Hadler, his childhood friend from twenty years ago, along with his wife and young son have been found dead, victims of an apparent murder/suicide in the tiny farming community of Canberra. 

Was Luke a desperate man who finally gave into the financial worry of living in the punishing drought that had ruined other farms? Or was there something else that is hinted in that note from Luke's father? Falk decides he must return to his birthplace and the funeral for Luke and his family if for nothing more than to pay his respects and find out more about the implications in that note.

But once there, Aaron is faced by a hostile community which remembers old wounds. Twenty years earlier a teenage girl had drowned in the local river. Townspeople at the time felt Aaron had somehow been responsible. Luke (remember, the man who is now dead along with his family) had provided an alibi for himself and Aaron, but few believed it. Drawing their own conclusions, the community shunned Aaron and his father and drove them out of town. Aaron had not returned to his hometown since.

Aaron is ready to leave town after the funeral when Luke's father reveals how he knows the boys' alibi from that death is false. He now has the leverage to make Aaron at least look into Luke's death. How can Aaron, a federal police agent albeit from far away Melbourne, say "No"? 

So he begins asking, poking, wandering around, and reliving his memories both good and painful. But the town has not forgotten or forgiven, and they make their distrust and anger against Aaron known. What Aaron finds is a tangled web of secrets, of anger, friendship, and fear from almost every person. 

Strong, clean writing perfectly depicts the bleakness and hostility of this drought-stricken land and the people trying to scratch a living from it. You can feel the heat and tension of Canberra from page one. Each person has a history, including Aaron, that twists and turns as questions reveal answers that have been carefully protected for decades. 

It is impossible to predict the new revelations and next pathway revealed on each page, so it is the best of mysteries. Can't wait for her next book. 

Happy reading. 

Fred

(See more recommended books)
________________________________________

If this book interests you, be sure to check out:

Baldacci, David. The Last Mile

When convicted murderer Melvin Mars is freed only minutes before his execution (another man confessed), Amos Decker wants to find out why. Both Mars and Decker had been accused of murdering their families and both found innocent under questionable conditions. Twisty-turning investigation of people holding secrets pulls readers along to the very last page.  (previously reviewed here)

The Passenger

Lutz, Lisa. The Passenger. New York: Simon & Schuster. 2016. Print.

First Sentences:

When I found my husband at the bottom of the stairs, I tried to resuscitate him before I ever considered disposing of the body.

I pumped his barrel chest and blew into his purple lips. It was the first time in years that our lips had touched and I didn't recoil. 

Description:

In Lisa Lutz's compelling thriller, The Passenger, we meet "Tonya" standing at the bottom of the stairs of her home. Her husband has just fallen down the stairs to his accidental death, but Tonya feels the police will blame her. Worse yet, they might discover her true identity and name. So she takes to the road and changes her name, actions we soon learn she has been doing for the past ten years.

Along the way she stops in backwoods towns, meeting several people of questionable pasts like her own, and flees each location just before she is questioned too deeply. But what exactly are her secrets? 

Author Lutz follows Tonya/Amelia/Debra/Emma/Sonia/Paige/Jo closely through her stream of consciousness narration and inner thoughts. We readers are sitting next to this seemingly normal yet elusive character as she makes up new identities and continues to run with no real plans for a future except to keep moving ahead of discovery. There is even another killing, which definitely complicates Tonya's life and any hope of regaining her former peaceful life. 

If you murder someone once, even with a tenuous argument for self-defense, you can blame it on chance, being at the wrong place at the wrong time with the wrong name. But the next time you kill someone, you have to start asking the hard questions. Is it really self-defense or a lifestyle choice? 

But there are hints about her history. Short email correspondence from the past years are revealed that were sent between Tonya and "Ryan," someone who seems to be a friend from the past but also seems to be an enemy who can no longer be trusted. Through these notes, vague hints are given to tease readers about what happened to make Tonya hit the road and never look back.

How long can she survive without much money? Where will she stop next? What identity will she create for herself? Who can she trust? Tonya is an extremely complex character, yet her thoughts reveal her as someone not so different from anyone else. Awkward circumstances and feelings of self-preservation have dictated the course of her life over the last decade, and we ache to see her triumph somehow and be freed from the questionable events of her past.

Highly recommended for its crisp writing and dialogue, as well as a clever story that holds one in suspense up to the very last pages, my favorite kind of tale.

Happy reading. 


Fred

www.firstsentencereader.blogspot.com

____________________

If this book interests you, be sure to check out:

Mackintosh, Clare. I Let You Go.

A woman involved in a tragic car accident that killed a small child disappears with a new name and life on an isolated coastal village, trying to hide avoid the past catching up with her.. (previously reviewed here)

Slow Horses

Herron, Mick. Slow Horses. London: Soho Constableay. 2010. Print.

First Sentences:

This is how River Cartwright slipped off the fast track and joined the slow horses.

Eight twenty Tuesday morning, and King's Cross crammed with what the O.B. called other people: "Non-combatants, River. Perfectly honourable occupation in peacetime." 

He had a codicil. "We've not been at peace since September '14."

Description:

What exactly happens to a James Bond-ish agent of England's elite MI5 intelligence agency if he/she screws up an important assignment? Left an important memory stick on the train? Messed up an arms deal sting? Chased the wrong terrorist so the real suicide bomber was able to blow up an underground tube stop? Each action is an unforgivable display of imperfections that must be addressed by the powers that run MI5.

Well, in Mick Herron's clever, gripping thriller Slow Horses, such foul-up agents are sent to Slough House, a nondescript office building on an unknown street. Here they must carry out "assignments" given by their overweight, sluggish boss, spending their days reviewing thousands of phone messages from ordinary people, delivering packages, going through trash bins for unknown finds, and generally hoping against hope that they will somehow be noticed and moved out of their distinction as a "slow horse" and returned to the thoroughbreds of actual working agents.

Deep down they all know they are stuck in Slough House for the rest of their careers, forgotten, shamed, and hopeless. Even when a prominent teen is captured and threatened with a televised beheading, the slow horses know they won't get in on any of the juicy investigative action.

But wait, there is something suspicious going on. Things and people are not what they seem, from the slow-moving head of Slough House to the bespeckled tech whiz to the second-in-command at MI5 to a suspicious reporter. The beheading threat takes on twist after twist. Some of the slow horses move into action on their own and quietly begin nosing around the case, trying to discover the whereabouts of the captured teen and stop the execution - all without their superiors knowing of their plans. Maybe, just maybe, if they succeed they will get back into the real MI5. But if they fail ...

Slow Horses is a gritty insider look at this interesting scenario and flawed personalities who make up Slough House. One cannot help but sympathize with the embarrassing station held by these slow horses and root for them as they scrape away at evidence and leads in their seemingly futile effort to find and free the captive.

Lots of false leads, betrayels, and complete reversals in this engrossing tale. Definitely a great read. Best of all, author Mick Herron has written two more books about the occupants of Slough House. Can't wait to jump into those.

Happy reading. 

Fred

(See more recommended books)
________________________________________

If this book interests you, be sure to check out:

Herron, Mick. Nobody Walks

Tom Bettany, a simple meat-packer, walks off his job immediately after receiving a message about his son's death. Bettany, much more than he appears to be, conducts his own investigation into a seamy world where he once existed ... and not everyone is pleased he has returned.. (previously reviewed here)

Herron, Mick. Dead Lions

The return of the shamed Slow Horses who messed up in MI5, this time they find themselves looking into the death of one of their own agents, as well as a possible Russian sleeper cell of terrorists awakening to set in motion dangerous plans involving a Russian oil billionaire. Just great.

Nobody Walks

Herron, Mick. Nobody Walks. New York: Soho Press. 2015. Print.

First Sentences:

The news had come hundreds of miles to sit waiting for days in a mislaid phone. 

And there it lingered like a moth in a box, weightless, and aching for the light.

Description:

It's a simple story. A quiet, solitary man working at a dead end job in a meat processing plant in France receives a message on his phone that his son, Liam, has died, a son he barely has had contact with in years. Tom Bettany immediately walks off his job, gathers his few possessions from a locker, and heads to London to learn something about Liam's death. Mick Herron's thriller Nobody Walks starts off quietly enough with this open-and-shut case, but Bettany's involvement soon expands the action in every way conceivable.

Bettany learns that Liam fell from his apartment terrace under the influence of an exotic drug. Whether he fell, was pushed, or "something else" is what Bettany wants to know. The police are of no help, ruling it a simple accidental death. But Bettany plunges in anyways to search for the facts and an explanation.

We soon learn that Bettany is no ordinary father, no run-of-the-mill meat packer. He is a former special ops agent with London's MI5, a man who walked off that job and the grid years ago for unknown reasons. Now, his previous government employers may or may not be happy he has returned to snoop around this case. Certainly the crime bosses and drug lords Bettany dealt with in his former life do not want him back in their territory whether or not they are involved with Liam's death.

The ties Bettany has with his former life prove difficult to reconnect with or to break. After all, nobody walks away clean from a government intelligence position as Bettany soon learns.

Intriguing, confusing, clever, suspenseful, and gripping, Nobody Walks is high stakes criminal investigation and underworld shenanigans by conniving, very hard people around every corner. A challenging, riveting story with one of the most surprising endings to any novel I have ever read. Nobody Walks truly satisfies with its first (and last) sentences and everything in between, a rarity in my experience. 

The best news is Herron has written many other thrillers, so I'm excited to plunge into his well-written characters, plot, and dialogue for many weeks to come. Here's to great, prolific writers!

Happy reading. 

Fred

www.firstsentencereader.blogspot.com

____________________

If this book interests you, be sure to check out:

Hayes, Terry. I Am Pilgrim

The best thriller imaginable. One man, formerly of an ultra-secret intelligence unit for the United State, must find a lone terrorist with the capability to inflict a damaging plague on the entire country. Fabulous in its breathtaking suspense, clever story, and strong, intelligent characters. (previously reviewed here)

The Girl with a Clock for a Heart

Swanson, Peter. The Girl with a Clock for a Heart. New York: William Morrow. 2014. Print.

First Sentences:

It was dark, but as he turned onto the rutted driveway he could make out the perimeter of yellow tape that still circled the property

George parked his Saab, but left the engine running. He tried not to think about the last time he'd been to this almost-hidden house on a dead-end road in New Essex.

Description:

What would you do if your college love approached you in a bar after 25 years of non-communication? What if she had a favor for you to do that involved delivering half a million dollars to the man she stole it from? But what if you also remembered that this was the same woman had apparently committed suicide during her freshman year at college, right in the middle of your relationship?

In Peter Swanson's The Girl with a Clock for a Heart, George Foss weighs each of these ideas before leaping to assist Liana Dector (or as he knew her, Audrey Beck, now known as Jane Byrne, the woman who stole the money). The decision? Maybe if he helps her they will get back together. So he does.

But what a tangled mess he soon finds himself in when Liana's former lover (from whom she stole the money) turns up dead with an open safe and a boatload of missing diamonds. Naturally, there are several very bad men in the picture who threaten George to unless he returns the diamonds (which he never had), as well as the police who are just trying to untangle the deaths and stole property they are investigating.

Liane/Audrey/Jane keeps stringing George along until even he gets suspicious of her motivations as well as her interest in him. But what is the reason for her multiple personalities and involvements with nefarious men who end up dead? And who are these very tough guys who keep popping up looking for Liana and anyone else aiding her?

A hugely interesting story that unfolds slowly to reveal George and Liana's past love as well as their new relationship with all its bumps and bruises. Up to the very last paragraph, the book is intriguing, puzzling, and deliciously mysterious in the identities and motivations of the major characters.

Very satisfying read to try to unravel, with characters who both encourage and reject your sympathy through their plots and actions. Swanson is a terrific writer and storyteller., one of my new favorites. Loved it. 

Happy reading. 


Fred

www.firstsentencereader.blogspot.com

____________________

If this book interests you, be sure to check out:

Swanson, Peter. The Kind Worth Killing

Lily overhears a stranger talking about his wife's infidelities and how she deserves to die. So Lily and Ted team up and hatch a plot to kill her. Should work. After all, Lily has already killed twice before and gotten away with it. Can she succeed again ... and what's in it for her? (previously reviewed here).

Lutz, Lisa. The Passenger

A woman assumes several new identities and personalities as she flees from discovery after being suspected of committing several murders, including that of her own husband.