I read seven very good books in May. Six crime fiction books, including one spy fiction thriller, plus one science fiction novella. Looking back, I was surprised to see that five of the authors were new to me.
Science Fiction
Exit Strategy (2018) by Martha Wells
This is the fourth entry in the Murderbot Diaries series. The main character, Murderbot, is partly robotic and partly human. This novella concludes a story arc concerning Murderbot and Dr. Mensah and her scientific research team. It would spoil too much to tell much about this story, so I will just say that I have enjoyed the first four books and intend to continue reading the series. I found each book a fun read because Murderbot is such a good narrator. This was the perfect time to read this book because the new Murderbot TV series premiered in May. See my review of the first book in the series, All Systems Red.
Crime Fiction
The Charm School (1988) by Nelson DeMille
This is the first book I have read by Nelson DeMille. It is a spy fiction novel set in the USSR, first published in 1988, not long before the dissolution of the Soviet Union and the end of the Cold War. The copy I read, a trade paper reissue published in 2017, includes a very good introduction by the author. The most interesting thing about this novel for me was seeing a portrayal of political and diplomatic relations between Russia and the US at that time. The setting is primarily in Moscow. The Charm School is a secret facility that was training Russian operatives to infiltrate the US and live there as US citizens. If you like spy fiction, I would recommend trying this, even though it is 750 pages long. I enjoyed reading it very much.
Common or Garden Crime (1945) by Sheila Pim
This is a cozy mystery published in 1945 and set in 1943 in Ireland. Gardening is a central theme in the story. I like the characters and the village setting, and the story was told with subtle humor. See my review.
Claire DeWitt and the City of the Dead (2011) by Sara Gran
This was another very different mystery novel with a strange private detective. I read this book because it was compared to The Spellman Files by Lisa Lutz, and there are similarities; for example, a detective who is driven and doesn't fit in with others. Claire DeWitt describes herself as the best detective in the world, and she is very expensive. She returns to New Orleans, where she was mentored by a rich female detective for several years, to attempt to find a man who disappeared at the same time as Katrina devastated the Gulf Coast. Everyone assumes he is dead, but his nephew wants to find out for sure. There are flashbacks to Claire's earlier years in New Orleans; a multitude of quotes from a French detective, Jacques Silette; and several strange dream sequences. I liked the setting of New Orleans, a couple of years after Katrina, showing how much the area was affected. I borrowed the book from my husband and he has the other two in the series, so I will read more of them.
Thursday Night Widows (2005) by Claudia Piñeiro
I was introduced to this book by author and blogger Margot Kinberg. This book by Argentinean novelist Claudia Piñeiro is set in a secluded elite community thirty miles outside of Buenos Aires, where only the wealthy are able to live. The crime that occurs is revealed in a limited way at the beginning of the book, then the story starts again from when the main characters buy into the neighborhood. The story is told from multiple viewpoints. One notable feature is that several chapters are told in 1st person plural, which combines the voices of multiple women who live in the community. That works well to convey certain information, but can be confusing, especially the first few times it is encountered. The relationships within the community begin to fall apart when the changing economy in the early 2000s affects people's jobs and income. This novel is focused on what leads up to the crime and not on who did it. Thursday Night Widows is an excellent book and I will be looking for more books by this author.
A Meditation on Murder (2024) by Susan Juby
This is the second book in the Helen Thorpe mystery series, following Mindful of Murder. The author is Canadian and the setting is British Columbia. The main character is a former Buddhist nun, currently working as a butler. Helen isn't really a sleuth, but more or less solves the crimes accidentally, and helps people out along the way. In this book she is working for a very rich couple who loan her out to an impossibly cranky rich man who needs help with his daughter, who has used her money to get involved with a group of social media influencers. Helen starts out knowing about as little about influencers and social media as I do. This is not a thriller by any stretch of the imagination, but tension is provided by the cutthroat behavior of the influencers and two murders of people associated with the influencers.
My favorite part of the book is the mindfulness theme. Helen is a very appealing character, who is (almost) never ruffled by anything. I was introduced to the series by Bill Selnes at Mysteries and More from Saskatchewan.
Star of the North (2018) by D.B. John
This is a thriller that mostly takes place in North Korea. The story revolves around three characters: a Korean American woman whose sister went missing when she was spending her gap year in South Korea; a highly placed official in North Korea who goes to the US for a diplomatic mission; and an older peasant woman who is living and barely surviving in a North Korean penal colony. See my review.
The photos at the top and bottom of this post were taken at the Santa Barbara I Madonnari Street Painting Festival, which takes place every Memorial Day weekend. I plan to share more photos from the event in a future post. Click on the images for the best viewing quality.
