116. Before She Disappeared by Lisa Gardner

#1 Frankie Elkin

2021

400 pgs.
Adult Murder Mystery
Finished  12/26/2021
Goodreads rating:  3.94 
My rating: 4
Setting: Contemporary Mattapan (Boston)

My comments: Interesting plot and characters.  I could not envision the tough Mattapan neighborhood, because in the lat 1950's, early 1960's I was able to wander around freely while visiting my Aunt Laura who lived on Hollingsworth Ave.  Now it's a really rough Haitian neighborhood full of gangs.  

     There's a lot of sadness in the story, which overlaps Frankie's own sad history with the current sad story.  Frankie's a wreck - an alcoholic with many, many issuead, but she's looking for redemption in the only way she can -- her knack for finding missing personas who no one else can. Great premise, looking forward to the second in the series, which will come out in 2022

Goodreads synopsis:  From #1 New York Times bestselling author Lisa Gardner, a propulsive thriller featuring an ordinary woman who will stop at nothing to find the missing people that the rest of the world has forgotten

Frankie Elkin is an average middle-aged woman, a recovering alcoholic with more regrets than belongings. But she spends her life doing what no one else will--searching for missing people the world has stopped looking for. When the police have given up, when the public no longer remembers, when the media has never paid attention, Frankie starts looking.

A new case brings her to Mattapan, a Boston neighborhood with a rough reputation. She is searching for Angelique Badeau, a Haitian teenager who vanished from her high school months earlier. Resistance from the Boston PD and the victim's wary family tells Frankie she's on her own--and she soon learns she's asking questions someone doesn't want answered. But Frankie will stop at nothing to discover the truth, even if it means the next person to go missing could be her.

36. Dead Letters by Caite Dolan-Leach

read on my iPhone and Kindle
2017 Random House
352 pgs.
Adult Mystery
Finished  4/15/18
Goodreads rating:  3.59 - 4848 ratings
My rating:  3
Setting:  Contemporary upstate New York

First line/s:  "A born creator of myths, my sister always liked to tell the story of how we were misnamed."

My comments:  The story was pretty decent. A good mystery, no surprises but interesting to watch them play out. The characters were, for the most part, pretty unlikable. Major alcoholics, narcissists, self/centered idiots. I know you don’t have to like the characters to have a good book, but in this case it would make the book that much more enjoyable.!

Goodreads synopsis: A missing woman leads her twin sister on a twisted scavenger hunt in this clever debut novel of suspense for readers of Luckiest Girl Alive and Reconstructing Amelia.
          Ahoy, Ava! Welcome home, my sweet jet-setting twin! So glad you were able to wrest yourself away from your dazzling life in the City of Light; I hope my death hasn't interrupted anything too crucial.
          Ava Antipova has her reasons for running away: a failing family vineyard, a romantic betrayal, a mercurial sister, an absent father, a mother slipping into dementia. In Paris, Ava renounces her terribly practical undergraduate degree, acquires a French boyfriend and a taste for much better wine, and erases her past. Two years later, she must return to upstate New York. Her twin sister, Zelda, is dead.
          Even in a family of alcoholics, Zelda Antipova was the wild one, notorious for her mind games and destructive behavior. Stuck tending the vineyard and the girls increasingly unstable mother, Zelda was allegedly burned alive when she passed out in the barn with a lit cigarette. But Ava finds the official explanation a little too neat. A little too Zelda. Then she receives a cryptic message from her sister.
          Just as Ava suspected, Zelda's playing one of her games. In fact, she's outdone herself, leaving a series of clues about her disappearance. With the police stuck on a red herring, Ava follows the trail laid just for her, thinking like her sister, keeping her secrets, immersing herself in Zelda's drama and her outlandish circle of friends and lovers. Along the way, Zelda forces her twin to confront their twisted history and the boy who broke Ava's heart. But why? Is Zelda trying to punish Ava for leaving, or to teach her a lesson? Or is she simply trying to write her own ending?
          Featuring a colorful, raucous cast of characters, Caite Dolan-Leach's debut thriller takes readers on a literary scavenger hunt for clues concealed throughout the seemingly idyllic wine country, hidden in plain sight on social media, and buried at the heart of one tremendously dysfunctional, utterly unforgettable family.

63. The Impossible Knife of Memory - Laurie Halse Anderson

2014, Viking Books for Young Readers
391 pgs.
YA CRF
Finished 11/9/15
Goodreads rating:  3.93
My rating: 4
Setting: Contemporary New York State - somewhere between Albany and Poughkeepsie, which are both mentioned more than once.

First line/s:  "It started in detention.  No surprise there, right?"

My comments:  I read this book in one afternoon/evening/late night.  It was hard to put down. It's about PTSD and its effect on a family.  It's powerful and is a wonderful blend of good characterization and excellent plot.  There are two things that keep me from giving this a 5 - and I don't want to dwell on them, only mention them, because this book is really good.  The hard-to-get-to-know, leave-me-alone protagonist becomes instant best friends with Gracie, a girl she knew, but doesnt' remember, when she way little.  Excellent.  However, there is never any mention of any other friends that Gracie might have.  None.  She's not the type of young lady that would be friendless.  What happened to them?  This didn't work for me.  And then there's the ending, or at least the wrapping-it-up part.  Too quickly told, and not quite totally believable to me.  I love happy endings, but I need to feel they could really happen in the way they're told.  Oh well. I will definitely be recommending this book.

Becky's review from Becky's Book Reviews

Goodreads Summary:  For the past five years, Hayley Kincain and her father, Andy, have been on the road, never staying long in one place as he struggles to escape the demons that have tortured him since his return from Iraq. Now they are back in the town where he grew up so Hayley can attend school. Perhaps, for the first time, Hayley can have a normal life, put aside her own painful memories, even have a relationship with Finn, the hot guy who obviously likes her but is hiding secrets of his own.
        Will being back home help Andy’s PTSD, or will his terrible memories drag him to the edge of hell, and drugs push him over? The Impossible Knife of Memory is Laurie Halse Anderson at her finest: compelling, surprising, and impossible to put down.

MOVIE - God's Pocket

R (1:28)

Limited release 5/9/2014

Saw it at The Loft on Friday, 5/16/2014

RT Critic: 32%  Audience:  35%

Cag: 2/It was okay

Directed by John Slattery

IFC Films

Philip Seymour Hoffman, John Turturro, Richard Jenkins

My comments:  I kept wondering where this was going, since they showed the near-ending at the beginning and then told the story leading up to it.  Was it supposed to be a dark comedy?  There were a few tongue-in-cheek places that made me laugh, but not enough comedy to count it as a COMEDY.  Yes, there was a feel for this neighborhood (a real one?  in Philly?), but it was bleak, dark, depressing and filled with alcoholism.  I did think the ending was particularly good, however.

Rotten Tomatoes says:  In the gritty, blue-collar neighborhood of God's Pocket, Mickey Scarpato's crazy stepson, Leon, is killed in a construction "accident," and Mickey quickly tries to bury the bad news with the body. But when a local columnist comes sniffing around for the truth, things go from bad to worse. Mickey finds himself stuck in a life-and-death struggle compounded by a body he can't bury, a wife he can't please, and a debt he can't pay. Acclaimed actor John Slattery makes an impressive jump behind the camera with an assured directorial debut that shows he has a razor-sharp eye for conveying the absurdity, cruelty, desperation, and tragic optimism of the people he portrays. Like life, his scenes seamlessly fuse humor and heartbreak, but it's Slattery's wit and confident style that make the portrait so authentic. Featuring a top-shelf cast and impeccable cinematography, God's Pocket oozes with talent and marks the emergence of an inspired directorial presence.

MOVIE - The Spectacular Now

R (1:35)

Limited release 8-2-2013

El Con 9-6-13

RT Critic: 91 Audience: 85

Cag: 5 Loved it 

Directed by James Ponsoldt

Miles Teller, Shailene Woodley, Kyle Chandler, Jennifer Jason Leigh

Fandango Summary:   Tim Tharp's unsentimental tale of adolescent frustration comes to the screen in this comedy-drama following the story of a sociable high-school senior whose self-delusion shattered by his emerging friendship with an unpopular classmate. Sutter Keely is one of the most popular kids in his class. Outgoing and fun-loving, he's completely oblivious as to what awaits him beyond high school. Lately, however, his drinking has started to become a problem. So when Sutter's girlfriend breaks things off, he reaches for the bottle without hesitation. Awakening in the grass under the gaze of studious, practical-minded sci-fi nerd Aimee Finicky, he isn't quite sure how he got into such a predicament. Over time, however, the two teens who couldn't be any more different on the surface realize they have more in common than either ever suspected..

My comments:  I thought this was a particularly good movie. Miles Teller reminded me greatly of John Cusack....and Shailene Woodley pulled off her part beautifully.  This was a really believable story - and even with all the drinking and self-doubt, I left the movie feeling optimistic.  I'd see it again.  It wasn't fluff.