The Book of Polly: A Novel by Kathy Hepinstall. Pamela Dorman Books/Viking, 2017. Adult fiction.
Polly is the mother of ten-year-old Willow Havens. The duo live in a small Texas town. Polly was in her 50's when she had Willow and the girl is obsessed with the idea that her mother will die. Willow knows nothing about why Polly left her Louisiana home and she resolves to find out the answers that she longs to know. The book is funny, sad, and right on target with its wry humor. Both Willow and Polly are characters you will remember for a long time.
Lockdown: A Novel of Suspense by Laurie R. King. Bantam Books, 2017. Adult fiction.
Guadalupe Middle School is the setting for Career Day speakers. With a fairly new principal, her rather mysterious husband, a caring custodian with ties to an uncertain past, an astute female cop, and the various students, life is never dull. But, someone is planning to disrupt Career Day with violence. King, ever the keen observer and careful plotter, introduces readers to each character and gives clues to heighten anticipation and dread. Can disaster be averted?
Below Stairs by Margaret Powell. The Classic Kitchen Maid's Memoir That Inspired Upstairs, Downstairs and Downton Abbey. St. Martin's Press, 1968.
The title really tells everything that readers need to know about this witty memoir. Written with humor, the tale of young Margaret who goes to work in an English "big house" tells the real story of life in the servants' world. Although it is not a new book, the details and conversational tone will enchant those who miss Downton Abbey.
A Talent for Murder by Andrew Wilson. Atria, an imprint of Simon & Schuster, 2017. Adult mystery.
In 1926, British novelist Agatha Christie disappeared for two weeks. She surfaced in Harrogate at a luxury hotel where she was registered under the name of her husband's lover. She and her husband later divorced.
Using these real details as a starting point, Andrew Wilson has added a fictional detective and a young journalist with a talent for putting clues together. When a doctor tries to get Mrs. Christie to murder his wife, the tables are turned and Agatha is sucked into a daring and complicated scenario. Wilson does a good job of connecting the dots and alternates the different points of view so that the first person makes the person talking seem quite real. The plot is plausible. After all these years, no one really knows what happened to Agatha Christie during those mysterious two weeks.
