3. Postcards from a Stranger by Imogen Clark

listened on Audible
narrated by Henrietta Meire
Unabridged audio (10:11)
2018
348 pgs.
Adult Mystery
Finished 1/12/2021
Goodreads rating: 4.07 - 16,272 ratings
My rating: 3.5
Setting: Contemporary Yorkshire, with flashbacks to 1960s and 1980s

First line/s: 1987 "The post hits the doormat with a thud."

What I posted on Goodreads:  Interesting, although predictable, multi-layered story, told in a number of voices, mostly in 2017, but with short forays to the 1960s and 1980s.

My comments: Interesting, although predictable, multi-layered story, told in a number of voices, though the protagonist is far more prolific than the rest.  Cara, a 30ish single woman in Yorkshire, finds a box of postcards that makes her realize her mother never died when she was two as she's been told.  Now a caretaker for her grumpy father with end-stages of Alzheimers, she embarks on a quest to find answers about her mother.

Goodreads synopsis:  A secret lies buried at the heart of her family—but it can’t stay hidden forever.

          When Cara stumbles across a stash of old postcards in the attic, their contents make her question everything she thought she knew.

          The story she pieces together is confusing and unsettling, and appears to have been patched over with lies. But who can tell her the truth? With her father sinking into Alzheimer’s and her brother reluctant to help, it seems Cara will never find the answers to her questions. One thing is clear, though: someone knows more than they’re letting on.

          Torn between loyalty to her family and dread of what she might find, Cara digs into the early years of her parents’ troubled marriage, hunting down long-lost relatives who might help unravel the mystery. But the picture that begins to emerge is not at all the one she’d expected—because as she soon discovers, lies have a habit of multiplying . . .

50. Allusion by Andi Hyldahl

read on my iPhone
2017, CreateSpace Independent
365 pgs.
YA Mystery
Finished 6/7/18
Goodreads rating: 4.26 - 61 ratings
My rating:  3.5
Setting:  Contemporary Yachnats and Eugene, Oregon

First line/s: "A dusty maroon pickup approaches.  My pulse surges.  My timing is dead on.  I duck under the foliage and heft up my dad's ancient binoculars zooming in on two large hands gripping ten and two."

My comments:   Although quite implausible,  this is suspenseful mystery was great fun to read, especially as long as you took everything with a grain of salt and a little bit of eye-rolling…..great-looking-super-athlete-with-no-girlfriend-ha!-Tosh and gorgeous-never-been-kissed-even-though-she’s-eighteen-Lucy do make a great pair.....  And my less-than-five rating does NOT mean I couldn't put it down....because I couldn't!

Goodreads synopsis: Every year, an anonymous gift is left on eighteen-year-old Lucy’s porch. It’s the only gift she receives all year, and it’s exactly what she needs. This year’s gift exposes hidden clues, untangling the undisclosed fates of her parents. Along the way, she finds Toph, a college athlete who’s easy on the eyes and deems to be more useful than suspected. With the help of her best friend Art, a chemistry genius who resides at the nursing home where she’s employed, she delves into an impossible mission for truth, love, and freedom.

10. The Map of True Places - Brunonia Barry

(read the actual hard cover book!)
2010, William Morrow & Co.
402 pgs.
Adult CRF
Finished 2/13/16
Goodreads rating:  3.64
My rating: 4
Setting: Contemporary Salem, Mass.

First line/s:  "In the years when her middle name was Trouble, Zee had a habit of stealing boats.  Her father never suspected her of any wrong-doing.  He let her run free in those early days after her mother's death.  He was busy being a pirate reenactor, an odd leap for a man who'd been a literary scholar all his life."

My comments:  This book has been sitting on my shelf for a long time - purchased because I'd read The Lace Reader, the first book Barry'd written.  The intricate, weaving plotline goes from story to story of the major players - always rejoining the protagonist, Zee Finch.  The setting, Salem, Massachusetts; Boston; Marblehead - encompassing both the maritime history of Salem as well as the witchy history - were familiar and memory-inducing.  However, there was a darkness to this book that was quite depressing, with elements of great discomfort for me.  Zee is now caring for her dad, who is quickly succumbing to Parkinson's as it crosses over to Alzheimer's.  Now a psychologist, she deals with bipolar patients - and we quickly realize that her own mother's suicide was induced by her own bipolar disorder.  There are lots of secrets that keep coming to the surface, some perhaps a bit too coincidental, but they worked for me.  I think if I had realized there was so much depression and sadness in the book - especially  Parkinson's - I might have never read it.  I'm glad I did...but it's going to take me awhile to get over it!

Goodreads synopsis:  Zee Finch has come a long way from a motherless childhood spent stealing boats—a talent that earned her the nickname Trouble. She's now a respected psychotherapist working with the world-famous Dr. Liz Mattei. She's also about to marry one of Boston's most eligible bachelors. But the suicide of Zee's patient Lilly Braedon throws Zee into emotional chaos and takes her back to places she thought she'd left behind.     
          What starts as a brief visit home to Salem after Lilly's funeral becomes the beginning of a larger journey for Zee. Her father, Finch, long ago diagnosed with Parkinson's disease, has been hiding how sick he really is. His longtime companion, Melville, has moved out, and it now falls to Zee to help her father through this difficult time. Their relationship, marked by half-truths and the untimely death of her mother, is strained and awkward.
          Overwhelmed by her new role, and uncertain about her future, Zee destroys the existing map of her life and begins a new journey, one that will take her not only into her future but into her past as well. Like the sailors of old Salem who navigated by looking at the stars, Zee has to learn to find her way through uncharted waters to the place she will ultimately call home.