THE IT GIRL

 Ruth Ware. THE IT GIRL. Simon & Shuster, 2022.

This is the first time I have read this writer. The book is a loaner from the friend of a friend. I have enjoyed it, starting with the settings. Edinburgh. And Oxford, which I know only from Morse and Lewis episodes. A man dies in prison still professing his innocence. The woman whose testimony put him in prison begins to wonder. She starts her own investigation, ten years after her college roommate was murdered. 

I love the way the writer deals out the bits of information and we follow the suspense as the protagonist Hannah Jones experiences it. I do not like when the story slips off the tracks into thriller-style where the tension is created by the way the writer is telling the story. Withholding and deliberately misleading the readers in an obvious attempt to manipulate our emotions. Which is why I like mysteries, crime and detective stories, but not thrillers.

WATCHING THE DARK

 Peter Robinson. WATCHING THE DARK. Hodder & Stoughton, 2012.

Set in Estonia, Banks and a female officer from internal affairs, pursue a lead on a cold case. A Yorkshire woman on a hen party trip to Estonia, disappears and is still missing seven years later. After the policeman who investigated her disappearance is murdered. After his wife has died and the blackmailers have no hold on him any longer. Annie Cabot is just returning to work after recovering from an injury.

The title refers to an Estonian column reporting on underworld activities--undocumented immigrant labourers, white slave trade.

Found this in our building's free library. Divination. Robinson is one of my favourite writers. Love going to Yorkshire with him.

READING LIKE A WRITER

Francine Prose. READING LIKE A WRITER: A GUIDE FOR PEOPLE WHO LOVE BOOKS and FOR THOSE WHO WANT TO WRITE THEM. Harper Collins, 2006.

I have read this book before but as I was culling my shelves to make more room, I flipped through this one and decided I wanted to re-read the chapter on CHEKHOV and the final chapter, on COURAGE. Done.

THE HEMINGWAY BOOK CLUB OF KOSOVO

 Paula Huntley. The HEMINGWAY BOOK CLUB of KOSOVO. Putnum, 2003.

Very interesting, a joyful teaching experience in a war-ravaged city. Especially useful because I am so ignorant both of the geography of the area and of the war and NATO action, even though I know Canadian soldiers who were stationed there. 

As I was reading the commentary I thought: Did anyone ever criticize Hemingway for appropriating a Cuban character (The OLD MAN and the SEA).  But then I remembered Atwood's assertion: It's not the appropriation that is a problem. It is the mis-appropriation.

KAIDENBERG'S BEST SONS

Jason Heit. KAIDENBERG'S BEST SONS. Coteau, 2019.

A collection of linked short stories about three generations of men of a Saskatchewan farming community around the turn of the twentieth century. Family ties. Cheating. Jealousy. Violence. Grief. and Curses.

A peek behind the curtains into the emotional lives of apparently stoic characters. I'm glad I lucked into it. Knowing my preference for Canadian writers, a friend gifted me this after mistakenly thinking it was about a Mennonite community. They are German-speaking Catholics originally from around the Black Sea, transplanted to Saskatchewan from the Dakotas. 

IN A HOUSE OF LIES

Ian Rankin. IN A HOUSE OF LIES. Orion, 2018.

Back by popular demand, Rebus wheedles his way into the investigation of how a skeleton with handcuffed ankles ended up in the trunk of a car abandoned thirteen years ago. He suspects the body is Stuart Bloom, missing since 2006. Siobhan tries to distract him by asking him to review a conviction which the family of the youth is questioning. Corruption everywhere. Police Scotland are attempting to instill a new institutional culture. Rebus favours "the old ways". 

THIS IS PLEASURE

 Mary Gaitskill. THIS IS PLEASURE. Pantheon/Penguin, 2019.

I once heard Mary Gaitskill speak at a conference in Toronto. It was my introduction to her writing. This small novel reinforces my love of her style and her subtlety. A story of a friend who falls victim to "me too"-like accusations.