Death of a Red Heroine by Qiu Xiaolong

I read about this series in the St. Louis Post Dispatch and had to check out a local author's work. I was not disappointed!  The series opens with the death of a "model worker" in Shanghai, a woman who was famous for representing the ideal worker and party member, much like rock stars, actors, and athletes are celebrated in our culture.  In the course of the murder investigation we are introduced to Chief Inspector Chen, his lieutenant Yu, and Yu's wife Peiquin. As Inspector Chen works the case methodically, we learn about the changes taking place in 1990s China: the privatization of state run industries, the rise of the high cadre children class, and the growing gap between the well-connected and the average worker. I didn't know anything about living conditions in China and was shocked to learn that even in 1990 many families lived in one-room apartments with communal bathrooms and kitchens. I enjoyed how Chen uses insights from classic Chinese poetry to understand motive and solve the case. Highly recommended. 463 pages.

Corridors of the night by Anne Perry

Hester, Monk, and Scruff their adopted street urchin are back on the case in this latest installment of the William Monk series.  Hester has agreed to take over the night nursing duties of a friend called away on a family emergency. On her first night, she encounters a young girl calling for someone to help her dying brother.  What are children doing in the Royal Naval Hospital? Why does Hester fail to return home after a shift at the hospital? Monk and Scruff call on all their friends to help find out what has happened to Hester.

The first part of the book is a fast paced search for Hester against the backdrop of medical care in post-Crimean War England.  Imagine a time when patients routinely bled to death because doctors didn't know how to give blood transfusions. Perry makes the reader question just how far medical research should go in search of life-saving treatments. As is always the case in the series, the solving of the crime is followed by the court case.  I found this part of the book less interesting and the ending a bit abrupt, as if Perry didn't know how to end the story.  If you like the series, you will enjoy reading about the continuing development of Hester and Monk's family and friends in the Corridors of the Night. 271 pages.

The promise by Robert Crais

Elvis Cole is back on the case with his silent partner Joe Pike, and his military contractor friend Jon Stone.  This time out, Elvis is asked to find Amy Breslyn, an explosives engineer who has been behaving strangely since the death of her son in a terrorist attack. Elvis starts his investigation by checking out a house in Echo Park.  He walks into the middle of a police pursuit and almost gets shot.  The police officer who doesn't shoot him is Scott James, the hero of Crais's earlier book Suspect. Officer James decides to help Elvis find Amy after the real suspect tries to poison James's K-9 partner Maggie. Sound complicated? It is! This book starts off fast and the action keeps on rolling.  A great suspense read and anyone who's been to LA or Pasadena will love all the references to places like Union Station, Vroman's Bookstore, Bellefontaine Street, Glendale, Silver Lake, Encino, and the freeways!  402 pages.

Hospice voices: lessons for living at the end of life by Eric Lindner

Anyone who has experienced the hospice care of a loved one knows it is an unforgettable experience.  I picked up this book hoping to get a glimpse of other folks' experiences.  Eric Lindner volunteered to be a hospice companion and then wrote about his experiences with several patient families. The first problem I had with the book was its organization.  I imagine Mr. Lindner struggled with how to tell his story in a meaningful way.  He decided to write a chapter about  the lesson he learned from each patient.  I found this structure confusing because he was often volunteering with several patients simultaneously.  For example, Bob Zimmerman, his first patient, passes away at the end of the second chapter but Lindner mentions him, as still living,  in later chapters.  I think the book might have worked better for me if it had been arranged chronologically rather than thematically.  I did like that he included photos of his patients that captured the essence of their personalities.  The photos helped me to see that his patients were not just deaths-in-waiting but vital personages who had lived full lives. 211 pages.

The nature of the beast by Louise Penny

What a treat to have a new Inspector Gamache book to read!  I brewed myself a cup of tea and settled in to read the latest installment.  Inspector Gamache has retired to the village of Three Pines with his wife Reine-Marie. A young boy in the village goes missing not long after a play by an infamous serial killer is chosen by the local amateur theater group for its next production. Gamache is the only person who thinks the two events are linked. Gamache's former team is called in to investigate when the boy is found dead. Penny does a great job of continuing to develop her characters.  In this book for example, Gamache has to learn how not to be in charge. The author's note at the end of the book gives the historical basis for the mystery.  Read this series if you want to be reassured that goodness exists in the world,  376 pages.

Lunch in Paris: a love story with recipes by Elizabeth Bard

I picked up this book in the New Books section of my local library-(shout out to Scenic Regional Hermann Branch). I had a little trouble getting in to it at first.  Elizabeth Bard is a self-described "free spirit with a five-year plan" who attended a boarding high school, I'm guessing an Ivy League college, and who met her French boyfriend while in graduate school in London.  But she drew me into her story first with the recipes and then with her increasingly complex relationship with France.  She writes very candidly about encouraging her husband to leave behind the boring but safe job at a state run digital archive to start a consulting business helping French cinemas go digital. In one chapter, she describes observing her mother-in-law for clues for staying slim: no eating between meals, drinking lots of water, small portions, and regular walking, swimming, dancing, etc.-not for exercise but for fun!  On their two week family beach vacation, Elizabeth observed that all the women wore bikinis, no matter their age-a good incentive for following her mother-in-law's regime! Anyone who ever dreams of living the expat life in France will find this a worthwhile read.    324 pages.

Long Upon the Land by Margaret Maron

Margaret Maron delivers another solid installment in the Deborah Knott series.  Judge Deborah Knott gets to delve into her parents' past when her father becomes a suspect in the death of a wife-beating former moonshiner.  Thankfully, there are other suspects in Vick Earp's murder.  He not only battered his wife, he beat up his younger brother, his cousin, the neighbor's cat, and whoever was unfortunate enough to cross his path.  Deborah and her husband Dwight work the clues in the present and back to the 1940s to try to find out who killed Vick and dumped his body on Knott land. 288 pages.

A Light in the Window by Jan Karon

In the second book of the Mitford series, Father Tim is dating his neighbor Cynthia but is unwilling to admit that he loves her.  Complications develop when Cynthia sees Father Tim return home after an unplanned all-nighter at a rich widow's house.  Can Father Tim fight off the unwanted attentions of Edith Mallory?  Will he overcome his fear of commitment and ask Cynthia to marry him?  You'll find out the answers to these questions and more.  Another satisfying read! 432 pages.

A Dangerous Place by Jacqueline Winspear

I probably was pre-disposed not to like this installment of the Maisie Dobbs series because I drove my Mom out to the St. Louis County Public Library to see the author and she had cancelled due to illness! Argh! (Belated note to self: always remember to call ahead and confirm that an event will take place as scheduled before driving more than 20 minutes away to attend said event! Duh!) Anyway, at the end of the last book Maisie had decided to close down her detective agency and travel to India.  I was looking forward to reading about Maisie's experiences but the new book sums up her time there in a few sentences and skips ahead to Gibraltar during the Spanish Civil War. Wait, what? Winspear tells us via letters written to Maisie by various friends and family that Maisie has experienced a catastrophic personal loss.  Maisie is so distraught that she cannot face returning to her home in England.  Gibraltar acts as a kind of limbo for Maisie as she struggles to regain her purpose and the will to go on. 308 pages.

Sydney Chambers and the Shadow of Death by James Runcie

I watched the Grantchester Mysteries on PBS and loved them so much I had to read the books! Sydney Chambers is an Episcopal priest and WWII veteran in post-war England.  Sydney becomes a de facto detective when he is asked to perform the funeral service for a man believed to have committed suicide. The dead man's mistress tells Sydney after the service that she doesn't believe her lover committed suicide.  They had been planning to run away together.  Sydney is persuaded to look into the matter, using his position as a priest to get information not readily available to the police. Along the way we are introduced to Sydney's housekeeper, a new deacon, the local police inspector, and Sydney's friends and family. A well written, enjoyable read! 400 pages.

At Home in Mitford by Jan Karon

I had to go back to re-read the Mitford series after reading Jan Karon's Somewhere safe with somebody good.  I just love Father Tim.  He's overweight, tired all the time, and burnt out at his job at the Mitford Episcopal Church.  His bishop suggests that he take a vacation and his doctor warns him to get his diabetes under control or else!  Father Tim starts running again and opens his house to a stray dog.  It all snowballs from there and soon Father Tim finds himself raising a young boy and dating his neighbor.  Who would have thought it could happen!  A very enjoyable read.  413 pages. 

Rise and Shine by Anna Quindlen

Rise and Shine is a tale of two sisters.  Meaghan Fitzmaurice is a successful television journalist, happily married, and the mother of a wonderful son.  Her younger sister Bridget has had many careers over the years and has finally found her life's calling as a social worker.  They have settled into their proscribed roles over the years but everything changes when Meaghan slips up and makes a derogatory comment on-air.  The gaffe was but a symptom of a personal unraveling. The beautiful life is falling apart and Meaghan runs off to the Caribbean. Once again Anna Quindlen creates a realistic story of women coping with changing circumstances and re-negotiating personal relationships. And it has a happy ending!  337pages.

The Hare with the Amber Eyes: a hidden inheritance by Edmund De Waal

I was given this book for my birthday-something I probably would not have discovered on my own. I was immediately drawn into the story of one family and their collection of Japanese netsuke.  De Waal starts his family biography in Japan with the death of his great uncle Ignaz and his inheritance of the collection.  Then he takes us back to the beginnings of the collection in Paris during the 1870s when the craze for all things Japanese was just beginning.  De Waal traces back his family's start as wheat traders in Odessa, the accumulation of wealth, the establishment of the family banking business in Paris, and the expansion into Vienna.  The family's wealth did not insulate them from anti-Semitism. Their collection of netsuke and other fine arts was often their entree into high society. Sadly, the rise of Hitler marked the downfall of the family.  Many family members were murdered in the Holocaust and their wealth appropriated by the Nazis.  The netsuke collection was miraculously restored to the family thanks to a loving family servant. Today the netsuke are an actual, physical link to past family members. The miniatures were handled by them and each one evokes a family memory. In the end, the Hare with the Amber Eyes is a different kind of Holocaust memoir- one told by the silent witness of a family's lost possessions. 354 pages.

The Cellist of Sarajevo by Steven Galloway; Read by Gareth Armstrong

Most people probably remember bits and pieces about the Bosnian War of the 1990s.  The mass killings of Bosnian Muslim men and boys, the rapes of Bosnian Muslim women, and the failure of the U.N. to intercede.  In the Cellist of Sarajevo, Galloway takes us into the lives of four citizens of Sarajevo during the war.  An anonymous cello player decides to play every day for each of the 22 people killed in a mortar attack on a street market. A young sniper called Arrow is assigned to keep him alive. Kenan must make a day long trek across the city, dodging snipers and mortar attacks, to get water for his family and neighbor.  Dragan spends hours trying to make it across the street without getting shot. Each must grapple with the choice between cowering and acting.  These glimpses into wartime life are accompanied in the audiobook by haunting cello music. 235 pages. Unabridged audiobook. 5 hours and 33 minutes.

Ran Away by Barbara Hambly

A Turk living in 1830s New Orleans is accused of murdering two of his concubines. Someone saw him throw the women to their deaths from an upper story window. Enter Benjamin January- musician, doctor, and unofficial detective. It turns out that Benjamin knows the Turk, Huseyin Pasha, from his medical school days in Paris.  Hambly takes us back to Benjamin's earlier life in Paris. We get to know his first wife Ayasha and the role she played in the first encounter between Benjamin and Huseyin Pasha.  Once again, Benjamin uses his connections among the servants and working class of New Orleans to solve the murders.  An engrossing story with lots of historical detail.  256 pages.

Still Life with Bread Crumbs by Anna Quindlen

Rebecca Winter has fallen on hard times.  She's an award winning photographer who hasn't had an exhibit or sold a work in years. She's decided to take drastic measures in order to pay her monthly bills-she's leased out her New York apartment and rented a ramshackle house in upstate New York. It's very satisfying to read how Rebecca creates a new life for herself. 252 pages.

Paradise Lost by J. A. Jance

It's been three years since Joanna Brady became sheriff of Cochise County. She's become a more confident manager, has solved many cases, and has successfully juggled the demands of her job and her personal life.  Should she run for re-election? This question lingers at the back of Joanna's mind as she tries to solve a new murder.

Joanna's daughter Jennifer and a troubled fellow Girl Scout discover the body of a brutally murdered woman. When the troubled Girl Scout is later killed in a hit and run, Joanna races to find the killer before her daughter becomes the next target. Jance continues to develop the relationships that make this series worthwhile reading, especially the one between Joanna and her mother. 371 pages.

The woman from Paris, a novel by Santa Montefiore

I picked up this book solely because it had Paris in the title and had a blurb on the cover by the creator of Downtown Abbey!  It's a light bit of fluff that has nothing to do with Paris. Instead it's about a British country estate and its family. The book opens with the funeral of the current Lord Frampton. He died unexpectedly while skiing in Switzerland and the family is struggling to come to terms with his early death. His illegitimate daughter crashes the funeral and shakes the family out of their grief.  Is she really his daughter or just plotting to get her hands on a piece of the estate? Total escape reading. 392 pages.

The shirt on his back by Barbara Hambly

Benjamin January is a free man of color in 1830s New Orleans.  When the book opens, Benjamin's family is down to their last two dollars and fifty cents.  The local banks have failed and Benjamin is unable to earn money as a musician because no-one can afford to host a ball or pay for piano lessons.  Enter Benjamin's friend, Lieutenant Abishag Shaw of the New Orleans police.  Shaw's just learned that his younger brother was murdered out west and wants Benjamin to go with him to find his brother's killer.  Once again, Benjamin risks losing his freedom to help out a friend. They travel up the river to join the annual fur trappers rendezvous.  Hambly manages to mix historical detail with a very engrossing adventure story. I couldn't put it down! 250 pages

Left Bank by Kate Muir

I picked up this book at the library because it was about a modern day french family.  Olivier is a hip, young french philosopher who is married to Madison, a ex-pat Texan and popular french film star. They have a young daughter, a nanny, and a cook. The story begins with their daughter's disappearance at a popular theme park just outside Paris and then looks back at the events leading up to the fateful day and its aftermath.  I felt I was getting a behind-the-scenes look  at the daily life of a french power couple and their friends.   346 pages.