40. The Secret Book of Flora Lea by Patti Callahan Henry

listened on Libby
355 pgs.

2023
Adult Historical Fiction/Mystery
Finished 5/4/2024
Goodreads rating: 4.07
My rating: 4
Setting: England, flipping between 1939 and 1960

My comments: Two sisters are sent off to the countryside with hundreds of other kids to be billeted with families to keep them safe from the upcoming bombings of London at the beginning of WWII.  Luckily, these two girls find a home with a wonderful woman and her son.  This is a story of loss, love, and grief.  There were not enough surprises in the retelling, most was told at the beginning and just recapped with a few more details, which made it a little boring in places.  Lovely writing.  I loved the settings.

Goodreads synopsis:  When a woman discovers a rare book that has connections to her past, long-held secrets about her missing sister and their childhood spent in the English countryside during World War II are revealed.

In the war-torn London of 1939, fourteen-year-old Hazel and five-year-old Flora are evacuated to a rural village to escape the horrors of the Second World War. Living with the kind Bridie Aberdeen and her teenage son, Harry, in a charming stone cottage along the River Thames, Hazel fills their days with walks and games to distract her young sister, including one that she creates for her sister and her sister alone—a fairy tale about a magical land, a secret place they can escape to that is all their own.

But the unthinkable happens when young Flora suddenly vanishes while playing near the banks of the river. Shattered, Hazel blames herself for her sister’s disappearance, and she carries that guilt into adulthood as a private burden she feels she deserves.

Twenty years later, Hazel is in London, ready to move on from her job at a cozy rare bookstore to a career at Sotheby’s. With a charming boyfriend and her elegantly timeworn Bloomsbury flat, Hazel’s future seems determined. But her tidy life is turned upside down when she unwraps a package containing an illustrated book called Whisperwood and the River of Stars . Hazel never told a soul about the imaginary world she created just for Flora. Could this book hold the secrets to Flora’s disappearance? Could it be a sign that her beloved sister is still alive after all these years?

As Hazel embarks on a feverish quest, revisiting long-dormant relationships and bravely opening wounds from her past, her career and future hang in the balance. An astonishing twist ultimately reveals the truth in this transporting and refreshingly original novel about the bond between sisters, the complications of conflicted love, and the enduring magic of storytelling.

68. Disappeared - Short Story by Linda Castillo

#12.5 Kate Burkholder

2021

54 pgs.
Adult mystery short story
Finished  6/24/2021
Goodreads rating: 4.22 - 908 ratings
My rating: 3
Setting: contemporary Painters Mill, Ohio

First line/s: "It had been a long time since he'd been this kind of scared."

My comments: A two-year old toddler has been "kidnapped" by his non-Amish dad, and kate has to figure it out by piecing bits of evidence together.  There were hardly any surprises, pretty straightforward, another almost-trite (but memorable) Kate Burkholder installment.

Goodreads synopsis:   Chief of Police Kate Burkholder races against the clock to find a missing child in this new original short story from New York Times bestselling author Linda Castillo.
        As a violent thunderstorm rages in Painters Mill, Kate Burkholder receives a call from a frantic young Amish woman: her two-year-old son is missing. Kate and her officers brave the downpour to search for the toddler, fearing he may have been swept away in the rising creek waters. But an explosive family secret leads Kate to believe this disappearance may be more complicated than anyone is letting on. Can she find the boy and uncover the truth before darkness falls?

51. Sleep Tight by Anne Frasier

read on Kindle 

2003
400 pgs.
Adult Mystery
Finished 5/20/2021
Goodreads rating: 4.10 - 4486 ratings
My rating: 4.5
Setting:  Contemporary Minneapolis

First line/s: "He hovered over the unmoving girl, deftly drawing a thick black line on her eyelid, curving it up at the corner."

My comments: A mesmerizing mystery that I tried to read here and there whenever I could.  Giving glimpses into the minds of several of the characters, it was interesting to be able to put pieces together so that although you knew what was happening by whom, you were there for the ride.  Anne Frasier is quickly become one of my favorite mystery writers.

Goodreads synopsis:  WAKE UP, LITTLE DARLING. DO YOU LIKE WHAT YOU SEE?

He's looking for the perfect woman. Someone who won't disappoint him, like so many have before. Someone who'll love him ... someone who won't have to die for her mistakes.
          GIVE UP, LITTLE DARLING....
FBI agent Mary Cantrell has been called to Minneapolis to hunt down a killer. Her reluctant return home is shaking her to the core, reviving dreadful memories. Years ago, her best friend was murdered. Now the man convicted of the crime, Gavin Hitchcock, is free--and Mary's own sister, Gillian, a local cop, has befriended him.
          NO ONE CAN HEAR YOU SCREAM BUT ME.
As each clue to the new killings leads them closer to Hitchcock, Mary and Gillian put their differences aside and set themselves up as the perfect target--and the perfect trap. Unless Mary's own past has blinded her to an unimaginable truth ... and will plunge them into a waking nightmare....

1. Don't Look for Me by Wendy Walker

listened on Libby, borrowed from the library

narrated by Therese Plummer, beautifully

Unabridged audio (9:51)
2020
342 pgs.
Adult Mystery/Thriller
Finished 1/3/2021
Goodreads rating: 4.03 - 2767 ratings
My rating: 4
Setting: contemporary rural Connecticut

First line/s: "The sky grows dark as I drive."

My comments: First book of 2021!  Told back-and-forth in two voices - one a kidnapped mother, the other her daughter trying to find her.  Both still hurting horribly from the accidental death of the youngest daughter/sister.  It has scarred them both deeply.  Set in contemporary Connecticut and narrated beautifully, the story was mesmerizing.  HEA.

Goodreads synopsis:  One night, Molly Clarke walked away from her life. The car abandoned miles from home. The note found at a nearby hotel. The shattered family that couldn't be put back together. It happens all the time. Women disappear, desperate to leave their lives behind and start over. She doesn't want to be found. Or at least, that's the story. But is that what really happened to Molly Clarke?
          The night Molly disappeared began with a storm, running out of gas, and a man in a truck offering her a ride to town. With him is a little girl who reminds her of the daughter she lost years ago. It feels like a sign. And Molly is overcome with the desire to be home, with her family—no matter how broken it is. She accepts the ride. But when the doors are locked shut, Molly begins to suspect she has made a terrible mistake.
          When a new lead comes in after the search has ended, Molly's daughter, Nicole, begins to wonder. Nothing about her mother's disappearance makes sense.
          Nicole returns to the small, desolate town where her mother was last seen to find the truth. The locals are kind and eager to help. The innkeeper. The bartender. Even the police. Until secrets begin to reveal themselves and she comes closer to the truth about that night—and the danger surrounding her.

105. Jane Anonymous by Laurie Faria Stolarz

listened on Libby
narrated by Emily Bauer

Unabridged audio (8:11)
2020
306 pgs.
YA thriller
Finished 7/8/2020
Goodreads rating: 3.89 - 2504 ratings
My rating: 4
Setting: Contemporary New England

First line/s: "Before ten months ago, I didn't know that the coil spring from a mattress could be used as a makeshift weapon, or that the rod inside a toilet tank worked just as well as the claw of a hammer."

My comments: Oh my goodness, what a story.  Lots of emotions swirl about as I ponder all the things that happened.  I could tell early on what Mason was about, so many extra tragic feelings, insights, yearnings, anxieties...mental health issues...questions and more questions.  Why do some minds repair themselves and others stay ripped and torn?  These are my immediate thoughts after just finishing the book.  I feel so badly for the six main characters; the parents, Jane, Mason, Jack and Shelly.  I'd love more of an epilogue, maybe two or three or even four years in the future.  Can Jane's mind actually be repaired after all that's happened?  SPOILER ALERT:  Having Mason/Martin commit suicide and having so many questions about his motives and intentions, desires and longings, and falling in love with him on top of everything - I just can't imagine how those seven months wouldn't affect Jane for the rest of her life.

Goodreads synopsis:   “Jane” was just your typical 17-year-old getting ready to start her senior year. She had a part-time job she enjoyed, an awesome best friend, overbearing but loving parents, and a crush on a boy who was taking her to see her favorite band. She never would’ve imagined that in her town where nothing ever happens, a series of small coincidences would lead to a devastating turn of events that would forever change her life.

          Now, it’s been three months since “Jane” escaped captivity and returned home. Three months of being that girl who was kidnapped, the girl who was held by a “monster.” But, what if everything you thought you knew―everything you thought you experienced―turned out to be a lie?

82. Blonde Hair Blue Eyes by Karin Slaughter

listened on Audible, through Chirp
read by Kathleen Early
Unabridged audio (2:23)
2015 Cornerstone Digital
67 pgs.
Adult Mystery
Finished 8/29/19
Goodreads rating: 3.44 - 8282 ratings
My rating: 4
Setting: 1991 Athens, Georgia

First line/s:   "The morning mist laced through the downtown streets, spiderwebbing tiny intricate patterns onto the sleeping bags lining the sidewalk outside the Georgia Theater."

My comments:  Oh my, this novella certainly packs a punch.  A pretty 19-year-old college freshman in Athens, Georgia, ponders the mysterious disappearances of other pretty young women.  I'm pretty sure this takes place in 1991, so the plight of women and rape and abduction is still either mostly ignored or spoken in hush-hush tones.  At least a lot more than currently.  I was pretty sure of the ending for quite while, but it still got to me. 

Goodreads synopsis:  A missing girl in the news reminds Julia Carroll of herself: nineteen, beautiful, blonde hair, blue eyes.
          Julia begins to dig deeper and plans an article for her college paper. She becomes gradually more obsessed with the case, never imagining how close she herself is to danger. 
from a reader: Blonde Hair, Blue Eyes is a short-story prequel to Karin Slaughter's September 2015 novel Pretty Girls. It is a brief look at Julia's life before she went missing. In my opinion, I don't feel that it is necessary for readers of  Pretty Girls to read this but it provided interesting insight into local crime at the time, Julia's character, some family dynamics, and of course her abduction. 

48. Lost Girls by Angela Marsons

D. I. Kim Stone #3
read on my iPhone
2015, Bookouture
442 pgs.
Finished 8/16/17
Adult Mystery
Goodreads rating:  4.4 - 8048 ratings
My rating: 4
Setting: Contemporary England

First line/s:  "Emily Billingham tried to scream through the hand that covered her mouth."

My comments:  Kim Stone is great...fearless, smart, and snarky. Unlikeable in so many ways, which makes her even more likeable in just as many. She does have a softer side, which is appearing more and more. No matter how long I go between reading about her, I remember more than I usually do with other serial characters. This particular story made me uncomfortable, there was so much hate and violence, but I couldn't wait to get back to it each time I had to stop reading. Edge-0f-your-seat plot and incredible characterization is making Angela Marsons one of my favorite authors to date!

Goodreads synopsis: Two girls go missing. Only one will return.  The couple that offers the highest amount will see their daughter again. The losing couple will not. Make no mistake. One child will die.
          When nine-year-old best friends Charlie and Amy disappear, two families are plunged into a living nightmare. A text message confirms the unthinkable; that the girls are the victims of a terrifying kidnapping.
          And when a second text message pits the two families against each other for the life of their children, the clock starts ticking for D.I. Kim Stone and the squad.
          Seemingly outwitted at every turn, as they uncover a trail of bodies, Stone realizes that these ruthless killers might be the most deadly she has ever faced. And that their chances of bringing the girls home alive, are getting smaller by the hour…
          Untangling a dark web of secrets from the families’ past might hold the key to solving this case. But can Kim stay alive long enough to do so? Or will someone’s child pay the ultimate price?

73. Die Trying by Lee Child

#2 Jack Reacher
listened to in the car - end of trip to PA and up to Maine, all in December, 2016
originally published in 1998
552 pgs. in Mass Market paperback
12 unabridged cds
Adult Murder Mystery
Finished 12/26/16
Goodreads rating: - 4.0 - 67,368
My rating: 3
Setting: Chicago, then the wilds of northwestern Montana

First line/s: "Nathan Rubin died because he got brave."

My comments: I'm reading this series out of order, which works fine for me.  This is the second book in the series, and what I'm finding is that I like the more recent books better than the beginning titles.  This one was TOO detailed, too much information and explanation about guns, bullets, velocity, too much of the nitty gritty.  (If it were about cutting fabric for a quilt I'd probably feel differently).  It also seemed to go on forever and ever and ever...but no matter how impatient I get, these are great for listening to on a 8 hour plus drive!

Goodreads synopsis:  In a Chicago suburb, a dentist is met in his office parking lot by three men and ordered into the trunk of his Lexus. On a downtown sidewalk, Jack Reacher and an unknown woman are abducted in broad daylight by two men - practiced and confident - who stop them at gunpoint and hustle them into the same sedan. Then Reacher and the woman are switched into a second vehicle and hauled away, leaving the dentist bound and gagged inside his car with the woman's abandoned possessions, two gallons of gasoline. . . and a burning match. The FBI is desperate to rescue the woman, a Special Agent from the Chicago office, because the FBI always - always - takes care of its own, and because this woman is not just another agent. Reacher and the woman join forces, against seemingly hopeless odds, to outwit their captors and escape. But the FBI thinks Jack is one of the kidnappers - and when they close in, the Bureau snipers will be shooting to kill.

16. One Kick - Chelsea Cain

# 1 in a new series about Kit Lannigan

Audio read by Heather Lind

8 unabridged discs

2014 Simon & Schuster

309 pgs.

Adult murder mystery

Finished 2/20/2015

Goodreads rating:  3.77

My rating:    3.5 I liked it

TPPL

Setting: mostly Oregon/Washington and a bit of SanDiego - contemporary

1st sentence/s:

My comments:  Whew!  So what do I think about this book?  Setting, plot, characters, let's see.  Plot, though horribly grizzly, was well conceived and written in an interesting way; jumping back and forth on itself as memories from Kit's kidnapped years keep appearing. There are really three mysteries being examined - current abductions, Kit's abduction, and the mysterious identity and intentions of John Bishop. The setting flips between the American northwest and the San Diego area. The only character I couldn't totally get into was that of the protagonist!  She was so cockily sure of herself, but many of her actions were immature and poorly thought-out.  I felt no sexual pull at all between Kit and Bishop, so when it began straying in that direction, I was disconcerted.  I want to know more information about her "brother", James, and look forward to another book that might answer many of the questions that Kit ... and I ... have about Bishop.

Goodreads book summary:  Kick Lannigan, 21, is a survivor. Abducted at age six in broad daylight, the police, the public, perhaps even her family assumed the worst had occurred. And then Kathleen Lannigan was found, alive, six years later. In the early months following her freedom, as Kick struggled with PTSD, her parents put her through a litany of therapies, but nothing helped until the detective who rescued her suggested Kick learn to fight. Before she was thirteen, Kick learned marksmanship, martial arts, boxing, archery, and knife throwing. She excelled at every one, vowing she would never be victimized again. But when two children in the Portland area go missing in the same month, Kick goes into a tailspin. Then an enigmatic man Bishop approaches her with a proposition: he is convinced Kick's experiences and expertise can be used to help rescue the abductees. Little does Kick know the case will lead directly into her terrifying past…

66. Escape Under the Forever Sky - Eve Yohalem

for: Middle grades (one of my fourth graders lent this to me after loving it...)
Chronicle Books, San Francisco, 2009
Hardcover, $16.99
220 pgs.
Rating: 4.5

Lucy Hoffman is the thirteen-year-old daughter of the American Ambassador to Ethiopia. She leaves the safe confines of "the compound" every day to be driven to school, but other than that her life is pretty restricted. She yearns to get out and explore Addis Ababa and the surrounding game area. She has researched mammals of Africa extensevely and hopes to follow in the footsteps of Dian Fossey, Jane Goodall, and Birute Galdikas. She feels that her parents are being overly protective and much too strict, so she sneaks out a few times, always getting caught.

(Spoiler Alert:) One day, she and her friend Tana sneak out and Lucy is kidnapped. She is taken to a remote hut in the middle of she-knows-not-where, given very little food, unsafe water, and held for some sort of ransom. She figures out a way to escape and takes off, with the knowledge she has gleaned from many books about Africa, into the great unknown. Full of wildlife sightings, good thinking, and lots of pluck and luck, Lucy figures out how to save herself.

Kids will love the adventure and the wildlife in this book. The description of life and celebrations in a remote tribal village only add to the feeling of Africa. Yes, it really feels like you're in Ethiopia. Fascinating. Interesting. Based loosely on a story about a girl who made it through a similar escape. Well researched, and thoughtful. There aren't a lot of stories for American kids with a setting like this - keep 'em comin'!