Wild Dark Shore by Charlotte McConaghy

Dominic Salt is the caretaker of Shearwater, a remote island near Antarctica where he lives with his three children, Raff, Fen, and Orly. The island is mostly inhabited by seals but visiting researchers have created a vast seed bank – which would help the world replant if there were a natural disaster. Because the sea is rising, the island will soon be uninhabitable so the Salts, after many isolated years, will be forced to begin again somewhere on the mainland. If they really leave.

Mastering the Art of French Murder by Colleen Cambridge

It is quite trendy to write mysteries around famous, real-life characters and I tend to stay far away from these undertakings, as I usually find them unconvincing, anachronistic, or both. However, my friends at Publishers Weekly raved about this new series which features Midwesterner Tabitha Knight, who is making a protracted visit to her grandfather in Paris after WWII and meets aspiring chef Julia Child at the local market. 

Northern Spy by Flynn Berry

One day, Tessa, a producer for a weekly political radio program at the Belfast office of the BBC, looks casually at a nearby television monitor and freezes when she sees her sister Marian:

She is standing with two men outside a petrol station, by a row of fuel pumps. Her ambulance must have been sent out to a call, though for some reason she isn’t wearing her uniform.

“The police are appealing for witnesses after an armed robbery in Templepatrick,” says the closed caption. A ringing starts in my ears. Only Marian’s face is in view of the security camera, the two men are turned away . . . .

Marian has something in her hands. She is leaning down and pulling it toward her. It takes me a moment to understand what I’m watching, as her hair and then her face seem to disappear. When she straightens, she’s wearing a black ski mask.

Mrs. Plansky’s Revenge by Spencer Quinn

Loretta Plansky is a tennis-playing retiree in Florida; she is comfortably off but misses her deceased husband. She has a demanding family: a 98 year-old-father whose unruly behavior in assisted living is about to cost her additional thousands per month, a daughter who wants money for a start-up (and her new fiancé), and a son who wants her to fund a dubious business venture. It is easier to say yes than to argue, also she's generous.

The Various Haunts of Men by Susan Hill, an addictive series launch

Title: The Various Haunts of Men: A Simon Serrailler Mystery
Author: Susan Hill
Narrator: Steven Pacey
Publication: The Overlook Press, hardcover, first published in 2004.
Genre: Mystery
Setting: England

Description: People – and a dog – are disappearing without a trace in the fictional Cathedral town of Lafferton. After leaving an unhappy marriage in London, Detective Sergeant Freya Graffham is making a new life for herself at the CID division in Southern England, regaining her confidence and joining the local choir.

Going Zero by Anthony McCarten - you have two hours to get off the grid!

Title: Going Zero
Author: Anthony McCarten
Narrator: Marin Ireland
Publication: Harper Audio, 2023
Genre: Suspense
Setting: United States

Description: Ten Americans – five skilled, five amateurs – have been chosen to test a new surveillance software in a partnership between the CIA and a no-holds-barred company called WorldShare, run by brilliant Cy Baxter and his girlfriend/co-founder Erika Coogan. Any contestant who can go off the grid and avoid being caught by Cy’s Fusion spyware and brilliant analysts for an entire month will win $3 million tax free.

The Phoenix Crown by Kate Quinn and Janie Chang

Title: The Phoenix Crown
Authors: Kate Quinn and Janie Chang
Narrators: Saskia Maarleveld and Katherine Chin
Publication: HarperCollins, Audiobook, 2024
Genre: Historical Fiction
Setting: San Francisco, 1906; Paris, 1911

Description: Four unusual women meet in San Francisco, just days before the infamous earthquake of 1906 and resulting fire that lasted three days, destroying nearly thirty thousand buildings and killing at least 600.

The Helsinki Affair by Anna Pitoniak

Title: The Helsinki Affair
Author: Anna Pitoniak
Narrator: Amanda Dolan
Publication: Simon & Schuster, audiobook, 2023
Genre: Suspense/Espionage

Description: Amanda Cole is the CIA’s Deputy Station Chief in Rome and longs for a more exciting assignment. She gets her wish when a Russian comes to the embassy to share information on a plot to kill a prominent American senator.

My December 2023 Reads

Holiday shopping and planning prevented me from as many December reviews as I had planned but I read some good books, although none that made my top ten for the year.  The two best were The Couple Next Door by Shari Lapena and Babbacombe's by Noel Streatfeild, writing as Susan Scarlett:

Favorite Reads of 2023

Although I have not yet summarized my December reading, it is the time of year when it is fun to contemplate the entire year and my top ten. Unusually for me, many were recent pubs and four were audiobooks. I think the latter is just a coincidence – sometimes I put both the hardcover and audiobook on reserve at the same time so read whichever is available first and sometimes I will opt for an available audiobook that I expect to enjoy. Seven of these ten were historical fiction, which is definitely one of my preferred genres but my favorites are generally more evenly distributed. I read a lot of books in 2023 but a number of these were rereads or children’s books, which obviously take less time to read.

The Little Wartime Library by Kate Thompson - set in an underground library in Bethnal Green

Title: The Little Wartime Library
Author: Kate Thompson
Publication: Hachette, audiobook, 2023
Narrator: Sarah Durham
Genre: Historical Fiction
Setting: WWII London

Description: When a bomb destroyed the Bethnal Green Library on the first night of the Blitz in 1940, thousands of books were lost.  However, there was a half-completed Tube station nearby and, over the next year, it was transformed into an underground shelter, built over the boarded-up subway tracks, complete with a small library for East Enders needing distraction from war worries.

Beyond That, the Sea by Laura Spence-Ash, an evacuation novel for adults

Title: Beyond That, the Sea
Author: Laura Spence-Ash
Narrator: Ell Potter
Publication: Macmillan Audio, 2023
Genre: Historical Fiction
Setting: 20th century London, Greater Boston, Maine

Description: When Millie and Reggie Thompson make the difficult decision to send their eleven-year-old daughter as an evacuee to America to escape the Blitz, they could not have guessed she would be gone for five long years.

The Soulmate by Sally Hepworth - psychological suspense from Down Under

Title: The Soulmate
Author: Sally Hepworth
Narrators: Barrie Kreinik, Jessica Douglas-Henry
Publication: Macmillan, audio, 2023
Genre: Suspense
Setting: Present-day Australia

Description: Pippa and Gabe Gerard bought their dream house, several hours from Melbourne, on the coast and planned to live there happily with their young daughters. They did not realize the cliffs behind their house are a popular place for would-be suicides until it was too late.

Our Castle by the Sea by Lucy Strange - an exciting novel set on England's southeast coast during WWII

Title: Our Castle by the Sea
Author/Narrator: Lucy Strange
Publication: Scholastic, audiobook/paperback, 2019
Genre: Juvenile Historical Fiction
Setting: WWII Britain

Description: Petra Smith and her family live on the southeast coast of England; her father is the lighthouse keeper and they have been very happy until war begins. Then Petra’s older sister Magda starts getting into fights, defending their German-born mother, and becomes secretive.

Meet Me at the Lake by Carley Fortune

Title: Meet Me at the Lake
Author: Carley Fortune
Publication: Penguin Random House audiobook / Berkley, hardcover, 2023
Narrator: A.J. Bridel
Genre: Fiction/Romance
Setting: Ontario, Canada

Description: Fern Brookbanks loves the Muskoka resort she grew up in but she also enjoys Toronto, where she went to college, and the big city experience. Just before graduation, when she is reluctant to tell her mother she doesn’t want to return home to help manage the resort, she meets an artist her age, Will Baxter.

Two Nights in Lisbon by Chris Pavone

Title: Two Nights in Lisbon
Author: Chris Pavone
Narrator: January LaVoy
Publication: Macmillan, audio, 2022
Genre: Suspense
Setting: Lisbon and New York

Description: When Ariel Pryce wakes up alone in her Lisbon hotel room, she knows almost immediately that something is wrong. Her husband is missing and she is sure he would not have gone anywhere without leaving a note, plus he left his phone behind.

The Secret River by Kate Grenville, for Australia Reading Month

Title: The Secret River
Author: Kate Grenville
Publication: Blackstone Audio, 2005

Narrator: Simon Vance
Genre: Historical fiction
Setting: 19th century Australia

Description: William Thornhill, his wife Sal, and son Willie are transported to New South Wales in 1806 – a more merciful option than hanging him for theft but still a dramatic and terrifying change from the destitute but familiar life they knew in London.