My January 2023 Reads

Not as much variety in my reading last month as usual.  My favorite book was The Man Who Died Twice by Richard Osman, second in a mystery series set in an upscale retirement community in Britain.

YA Historical Fiction

Salt to the Sea by Ruta Sepetys (2016). Three young people, thrown together by fate in East Prussia at the end of WWII, are among the thousands of refugees are on a desperate trek to reach the Wilhelm Gustloff, a ship that is evacuating civilians from the Russian army. After very difficult travel in which they lose companions, they think their troubles are over when they board the ship. However, the submarine sensor on board the escorting torpedo boat had frozen, rendering it inoperable, as had her anti-aircraft guns, leaving the vessels defenseless.  A Russian submarine hit the ship with three torpedoes and in the worse-than-Titanic chaos more than 9,000 passengers died. The book is both tragic and hopeful and won the Carnegie Medal in 2017.

Mystery/Suspense/Crime

Long Shadows by David Baldacci (2022). In the seventh book about Amos Decker, a one-time NFL player whose career-ending injury endowed him with an incredible memory, he and a new partner investigate the homicides of a federal judge and her body guard. This may be his 51st book but he is not phoning it in. I have become fond of this character and am worried by his medical prognosis – I want him to be happy!

Dead Scared by Sharon Bolton (2012)(reread). Reading the newest book in this series in December made me go back to start at the beginning again. When a series of suicides rips through Cambridge University, DI Mark Joesbury recruits DC Lacey Flint to go undercover as a student to investigate. Of course, it is more dangerous than he anticipates and Lacey always takes too many risks.  This is the second book in the series.

Sad Cypress by Agatha Christie (1940). Elinor is accused of killing the woman her fiancé fell for and she certainly had motive and opportunity. It is a race against time as Hercule Poirot exerts his gray cells to solve the crime before Elinor is found guilty at trial.  This was for ReadChristie 2023.  My review.

The Man Who Died Twice by Richard Osman (2021). In this sequel to The Thursday Murder Club, the four retired friends are pulled into the theft of £20 million diamonds when Elizabeth’s first husband helps himself to a criminal’s treasure, then is on the run for his life. I thought this was better executed than the first one and the characters continue to delight so gave it five stars.

The Labyrinth Makers by Anthony Price (1970). Price wrote 19 espionage novels featuring historian David Audley and various his colleagues, and this launched the series. A WWII plane has been found in a lake 25 years after it went missing and Audley is asked to figure out why the Russians are so interested. My review.

Killers of a Certain Age by Deanna Raybourn (2022). Four women who spent their lives as assassins for a secret organization have now retired, not very willingly. But when they find they’ve been targeted for death by their former employer, they decided to use their skills to eliminate their enemies. This was an amusing and enjoyable read. My review.

The Listening Eye by Patricia Wentworth (1955). When Paulina Paine visits an art gallery and lip-reads a discussion of murder from across the room, she assumes the police would scoff at her. So she goes to consult Miss Silver and is pushed under a bus on the way home. My review.

The Last Housewife by Ashley Winstead (2022). Three friends at a progressive women’s college got mesmerized into an abusive relationship that morphed into a sex cult – eventually, one committed suicide and the other two escaped. Years later, when the second friend dies, Shay leaves her comfortable life in Texas and returns to campus to avenge her friends. This book was dreadful and I had to skip most of the abusive parts, plus the bits where Shay put herself in danger and seemed unlikely to avoid being hurt. However, I was curious about how it would so finished it. Not a good use of time.

Fiction

Smouldering Fire by D.E. Stevenson (1935). Iain MacAslan is forced to rent his Highland estate to a wealthy London couple to pay the bills but lurks in a cottage by the loch, where he finds himself irresistibly drawn to Linda Medworth and her young son, invited to a hunting house party by his tenants. My review.

Historical Fiction

Trust by Hernan Diaz (2022). In 1920s New York, the story of power couple, Benjamin and Helen Rask, is told in several different ways, none of which is wholly accurate. My review.

The Winter Guest by W.C. Ryan (2022). When an IRA ambush goes wrong, Maud Prendeville, eldest daughter of Lord Kilcolgan, is killed and her former fiancé is sent from Dublin to investigate. My review.

Romance

Gigi, Listening by Chantel Guertin (2023). Gigi is still mourning her deceased parents when she becomes smitten with an audiobook narrator and takes an impulsive trip to England to meet the man behind the microphone.

In Times Like These by Emilie Loring (1968). Vance Cooper is trying to stop a security link at an electronics company that threatens national security. Page Wilburn, down on her luck after her father’s death, pretends to be his girlfriend to provide cover.