The Exchange by John Grisham

 

 The Exchange: A Novel by John Grisham. Doubleday, 2023.                                                 Adult fiction.

    Mitch McDeere and his wife Abby are back! In The Firm, the young couple started out with a Memphis law firm that almost derailed both Mitch's career and their lives.  Now, it's fifteen years later, and Mitch is still a high powered lawyer, but with an international firm in New York City. His friend and colleague, Luca, has a grown daughter, also a lawyer with connections to Mitch's firm, who has been kidnapped and is in danger. From Rome to Tripoli to Istanbul to Marrakech and Maine and New York, the action involves the McDeeres and their young twin sons. Time is running out for Giovanna. Can the McDeeres help?

The Wife, the Maid, and the Mistress: A Novel by Ariel Lawhon

 

The Wife, the Maid, and the Mistress: A Novel by Ariel Lawhon. Doubleday, a division of Random House, 2014. Adult fiction.

  When Judge Crater disappears in 1930, no one seems to know what happened to him. His wife is in Maine at the summer house. The maid, Maria, and her Detective husband, Jude, want a child, but she works as a maid in the mornings and a seamtress later and cannot seem to conceive. The showgirl, his mistress Ritzi, knows a lot more about the judge and the underbelly of old New York than would be good for anybody. The twisty action follows what the author imagines might really have happened. It begins and ends in 1969 with an ailing Mrs. Crater. The novel has a noir feel and a helpful list of real and imagined characters at the end tells who is who and what happened to them.

Chenneville by Paulette Jiles

 

 Chenneville, A Novel of Murder, Loss, and Vengeance  by Paulette Jiles. William Morrow, an imprint of HarperCollins, 2023. Adult fiction. Western.

John Chenneville has fought valiantly in the American Civil War and been injured. When he wakes up after months in a field hospital, the war is over, the President is dead, and he must make his way home to Missouri. He finds that his beloved sister, her husband, and their baby have been killed. He determines to find their killer.

Thus, the novel is a journey, a quest, for Chenneville. It takes him through big cities and uninhabited regions into Texas. Jiles is a master at writing the thoughts of characters and the places they go. The book does not plog, but makes readers feel as if they are right there along side Chenneville. Of course, Texas was Confederate and the Union greatcoat Chenneville wears marks him as Union in a place where resentments run high. He meets a telegraph operator who tells him of a woman telegraph operator whose messages help in his search. Will he find the killer? Keep reading!

Arsenic and Old Silk by Mary Blount Christian

 

 Arsenic and Old Silk by Mary Blount Christian. Series: Secrets of the Quilt. Historical fiction. Annie's  2016, 2019. Children's chapter book. 

    A mom in Vermont has inherited a diary and a quilt that lead her to believe that her ancestor, Maddalena Vitari, worked as a seamstress in the 1532 court of King Henry VIII in England. But, Sofia Parker knows that her family came from Venice, Italy. Can she make any connections and solve the mystery? In the meantime, someone seems to be stalking the Parker family. Are these things related and is the family really in danger? Alternating stories are well done and build suspense. 

Sargent's Women by Donna M. Lucey

 

 Sargent's Women: Four Lives Behind the Canvas by Donna M. Lucey. Nonfiction, biographical, 2017.

The author examines the lives of four women who are painted by John Singer Sargent: Elsie Palmer, Sally Fairchild, Elizabeth Chanler, and Isabella Stewart Gardiner. While Sargent is well known for his paintings of society women in the late 1800's, this exploration is fascinating and follows the women through their lives. The interactions of Sargent and the people in his world and these four women form a spider's web of connections. Reading the book will definitely make you want to look up more about all of them!

Yours from the Tower by Sally Nicholls

 

 Yours from the Tower by Sally Nicholls. Walker Books, 2023. Young Adult fiction.

Told in the form of letters, this novel follows the lives of three school friends who are searching for their next steps in life. It's the late 1890's in Great Britain. Sophia is doing "the season" in London and looking for a wealthy husband to secure her future. Polly is working in an orphanage in Liverpool. Tirzah is, unhappily, the companion to her remote grandmother in Scotland. The three pour out their hearts in letters to each other and others. Like in Jane Austen and the Bridgerton tv series, all does not go smoothly as they dream about adult life. 

The Radcliffe Ladies' Reading Club: A Novel by Julia Bryan Thomas

 

 The Radcliffe Ladies' Reading Club: A Novel by Julia Bryan Thomas. Sourcebooks Landmark, 2023. Adult fiction. 

    Four freshman year students at Radcliffe are brought together for monthly book groups at a newly founded local bookshop. It's the 1950's and women are often overlooked for careers except as wives, teachers, or nurses. Tess, strong willed and smart, and her roommate the beautiful and wealthy Caroline, as well as Evie who grew up on a farm, and Merritt from California whose mother is dead and whose artist father is remote, all live in the same dorm, but are very different. The young woman who owns The Cambridge Bookshop, Alice, provides a safe haven during rocky times for those who need it.  Friendship, books, jealousy, and trauma blend in this well written novel of their first year away from home and in college.