The Maidens: A Novel by Alex Michaelides

 

  The Maidens: A Novel by Alex Michaelides. Celadon Books(Macmillan), 2021. Adult fiction, suspense.

Mariana's niece, Zoe, is a student at Cambridge. One of her friends is murdered. Mariana is a group therapist still grieving for her husband who drowned in her homeland, Greece. When Mariana goes back to her own campus to comfort Zoe, she becomes entangled in the mystery. Is the dazzling American professor involved? What about the troubled patients Mariana is treating? And, then, can the handful of beautiful young women be connected? Just as the plot thickens, another young student is killed. Can Mariana help find the killer before she is a victim herself?

The tale is fast paced with relatively short chapters. There are lots of characters, but the author keeps them all delineated well. While there is some Greek mythology central to the plot, readers do not have to be experts to figure out the allusions. This is Michaelides' second novel following his highly successful The Silent Patient.

Murder on an Irish Farm by Carlene O'Connor

 

Murder on an Irish Farm by Carlene O'Connor. Book 8 in An Irish Village Mystery series. Kensington Books, 2022. Adult fiction.

Thanks to a prepublication copy, I was able to totally enjoy this story! The long engaged policewoman, Siobhan O'Sullivan is finally to marry fellow garda Macdara Flannery in Kilbane, County Cork, Ireland. Ah, but true love does not run smoothly as the ceremony itself is paused and postphoned after a skeleton is found nearby. Apparently, the skeleton is that of a groom whose own ceremony many years before was also interrupted on the very same day! 

The large family of the O'Sullivans are an appealing lot. With a definite Irish setting and interesting characters, readers may feel they have been transported to the Emerald Isle itself! They certainly will be rushing to find the other mysteries in this warm and welcoming series. 

The Au Pair by Emma Rous

The Au Pair by Emma Rous. Berkley (an imprint of Penguin Random House), 2019. Adult fiction.

The tale is told in alternating voices by Laura, the au pair, and Seraphine, one of a set of twins born at Summerbourne, an estate on the coast of Norfolk, England. Laura comes to work for the family in 1991.  In 2017, after their father dies, Seraphine finds a photo taken on the day she was born that shows her mother holding only one baby. In the hours after the twins' births, Seraphine's mother had killed herself. Now their father has died. Who can answer the many questions Seraphine has now? 

Well plotted and with enough action to keep readers guessing, this mystery is a winner. Who's who and what's what keeps shifting as we root for Seraphine to find out the truth about her heritage and to plan her future.

Forever Young: A Memoir by Hayley Mills

  Forever Young: A Memoir by Hayley Mills. Grand Central Publishing (Hachette), 2021. Adult autobiography.

     Those of us of a certain age remember child actor Hayley Mills fondly. We wanted to be her best friend! Now, she is grown and has written her own account of the magical years with her acting family including her famous father, John Mills, and her actor sister, Juliet Mills. Always a sweet and hopeful person, Hayley does not dwell on the unpleasant aspects of her schooling (or lack of it), the difficult financial arrangements made for her (and that cheated her out of much of what she earned as a child through British taxation rules), and the lack of time and consistency needed to make true friends as an adolescent. It is fascinating to read of Old Hollywood and Walt Disney. Apparently, Disney opened the archives for her to use files on her time with the studio. The ending seems rushed as Hayley never really talks about the father of her son, Ace. She does not update readers on her father, mother, or second son either. While she is still acting, this book is proof that she can write, too! 

     

My First Pop-Up Mythological Monsters by Owen Davey

 

  My First Pop-Up Mythological Monsters. By Owen Davey. 2020.  Candlewick Press, First US edition, 2021. 

   Certainly millennial parents who are great fans of mythology will want this simple pop-up book for their little ones! Fifteen monsters from all over the world are portrayed in the beautifully colored pop-up pages. The illustrations have been created digitally and really fill the square pages disgned to fit inside a child's hands.  A dragon, a unicorn, and a jackalope may be recognizable to some readers, but griffin, chimera, shachihoko, and fenrir may be new to many. The kraken, Medusa, and cylclops are also included as are others. Certainly, younger children need help navigating the delicate pages of pop-up books. The one or two sentences about each creature will make it easy for an adult to share with a child. Use this as a resource when one of the creatures is mentioned in another storybook. What a fun addition to the library of mythology fans! 

Scribbles, Sorrows, and Russet Leather Boots: The Life of Louisa May Alcott by Liz Rosenberg.

 

 Scribbles, Sorrows, and Russet Leather Boots: The Life of Louisa May Alcott. By Liz Rosenberg. Illustrated by Diana Sudyka. Candlewick Press, 2021. Biography for older children, tweens, teens, and adults. 

     This 410 page biography of Louisa May Alcott covers her whole life. The author cites her sources in the back. Each chapter is preceded by a full page, white and black illustration. While many readers already know some of the detail presented here, others will find Alcott's  very short nursing career in the Civil War a surprise. The poverty of the family and Alcott's poor health during most of her life are described with sympathy and honesty. It is Louisa's courage and determination to succeed and to care for her family that thread throughout the narrative. Rosenberg's book will be a good addition to especially middle school and high school libraries. 

Palace of the Drowned: A Novel by Christine Mangan

 

 Palace of the Drowned: A Novel by Christine Mangan. Flatiron Books, 2021. Adult fiction, mystery

Frankie Croy can't seem to get past her writer's block long after an early successful novel. She has a very public mental breakdown after a negative review is published and goes to 1966 Venice to rest and write. When she is approached by a young woman who claims to have met her before, Frankie can't quite remember. Gilly becomes a strong presence in Frankie's solitary life. Can Gilly be trusted? Will the relationship destroy Frankie's decades long friendship with Jack? What about the swirling images and memories in Frankie's mind?  The suspense and atmospheric, moody setting of the great flood in Venice in 1966 make great reading. Readers will find themselves fascinated by it all! 

There must have been something in the water during the pandemic when writers seem to have concentrated on writing about writers! See review of The Plot: A Novel also.

If you enjoyed the creepy first novel, Tangerine, by this author, you'll love this new one! Mangan writes complicated characters and no one is better at time and place descriptions.