Kiss, Slay, Replay

Horror novels aren't usually my thing, but I really did enjoy Rachel Harrison's Kiss, Slay, Replay (#1,386).  Willa Sullivan has recently broken off her engagement and she just seems stuck, second-guessing her decision.  Which makes the fact that her friends from college are tying the knot at a destination wedding event in the Hudson River Valley particularly painful.  What if her ex is there?  What will she say?  What will he say?  

Once she arrives at the picture-perfect spot, things are even worse than she imagined.  She takes off into the woods to escape, only to run into a murderous slasher intent on taking out everyone at the wedding.  Things go downhill from there.  

Until she wakes up the next morning back in her apartment on the day of the wedding.  This time the horrific ending is different, but it JUST. KEEPS. HAPPENING!  Willa is in a time loop.  Unless she can find a way through, this day is doomed to continue forever with her eternally dying.

Rachel Harrison has quite the imagination, and I mean that in a good way.  I had to keep reading to see what the next day would bring, and if Willa would ever be able to find her way out.  Great scary fun!

Agrippa

Robert Harris' latest historical fiction Agrippa (#1,385) carries an intriguing subtitle: A Novel of Ancient Rome's Descent Into Dictatorship.  In case you're rusty on your ancient history, Agrippa was Caesar Augustus' right hand man and enabler.

Presented in the form of a memoir written at the end of Agrippa's long life the reader is whisked along with him through some of the most formative events in the history of the Roman Empire as it slides from a Republic through the sticky manipulations of dictators culminating in Julius Caesar's assassination.  This all occurred when Agrippa and his close companion Octavius, Caesar's nephew, were still barely shaving.  How they survived and managed to thrive in this ultraviolent era makes for gripping reading.

Were the Romans really so different from us today?  Robert Harris' book proves that they weren't.  There are lessons to be learned here.  Highly recommended.

One other note; I really admired the cover art on this book, simple and elegant in design.

Dreamers of the Full Moon Coffee Shop

I have recently been on a roll reading small Japanese translations of books which interweave individual stories into a satisfying conclusion at the end of the book.  They are the ultimate "feel good" stories.  I expected Mai Mochizuki's novel Dreamers of the Full Moon Coffee Shop (#1,384) to follow the same pattern, and it mostly did but with a distinctively astrological flair.  This is the third book in this series, so I will have to see if I can track down the first two.

Here the stories of Satsuki, a rising film and TV star and best-selling author Wataru Ayuzawa are linked together.  As the stories progress, it becomes clear who the link is that ties these two disparate characters together.  The enjoyment is in the ride to get there.

Mona's Eyes

Everyone I know seems to be raving about Thomas Schlesser's best-selling novel Mona's Eyes (#1,383).  I know every book has its readers, but I couldn't wait to finish this one.  If I had not had to read it for my book club, it would definitely have wound up in my Did Not Finish pile, and I could have gotten on to Robert Harris's Agrippa much sooner.

In case you haven't heard about this translated book, Mona is a ten-year-old Parisian girl who suddenly loses her sight for a short period.  As physicians struggle to find a clinical reason for this, her grandfather Dade steps forward to escort Mona to her weekly appointment with a psychiatrist.  However, he has decided Mona will benefit far more by visiting a different work of art each week for a year and imprinting those images on her mind.  So far, so good.

However, I found the execution preposterous.  Dade (who is named after author Schlesser's own artistic grandfather) may hold her hand and buy her ice creams on the way to and from the three museums he takes her to, but he speaks to her as though she is taking graduate level art courses at university.  She, of course responds with unbelievably mature insights into the works (despite calling the subject of one such picture "Whistler's mommy"!).

The further into this book I got, the more things bothered me.  Did no art exist prior to Botticelli?  Or from other cultures than Western European and American art?  Why was more than a third of the book dedicated to abstract modern art on canvas or sculpted form when the author argues that art can exist in multiple forms?  Where are they here?  Why didn't he take the opportunity to enlighten Mona about art thievery when he was in such a rush to bring her to see the Klimt work at the Museum d'Orsay before it was returned to its rightful owners (at much inconvenience to Dade!)? When I came across a factual error in his description of the David, I had to wonder what else was wrong in what he had to say.

It's why I avoid the eager docents at our regional art museums who are bursting to share their art history major backgrounds with unwitting visitors.  I would much rather they left me to the business of looking for myself.  I would never recommend this pretentious book to anyone else.

Dead Men Don't Play Fetch

Andy Carpenter doesn't want to defend a client in Dead Men Don't Play Fetch (#1,382).  In fact, he would much rather be retired.  But there's a dog involved and the client had been putting his life back together after the tragic loss of his son.  He's been working at a halfway house.  The same halfway house where a billionaire tech's body is found in the alley behind it by Jason Maddox, Andy's potential client.  As a favor to an old friend who runs that rehab facility, Andy agrees to meet Jason.

Everybody but Andy is convinced Jason is guilty; but Andy thinks that the evidence is just a little too neat and tidy. And then things start to get interesting.  Is this a coverup for a Mafia gang war?  Or something else entirely?

A typical twisty, sardonic Andy Carpenter mystery.  Just when it's looking as if Andy has finally taken on a guilty client, another clue unravels that casts doubt on the prosecutor's case.  Please, keep them coming!

Road Trip

What's not to like about a Mary Kay Andrews book?  Especially one that puts two feuding sisters in a car on the wrong side of the road in Ireland?  That's the premise of Road Trip (#1,381).  Maeve is the dutiful sister who gives up her job to take care of their ailing mother in her own home.  Therese is the maverick who arrives late at their mother's funeral.  She's just planning to stick around long enough to collect her portion of their mother's estate.  

Their uncle throws a monkey wrench in the works when he reveals that their mother has fallen under the spell of a televangelist and lost her entire savings and the house to boot to him.  Maeve and Therese are devastated; they each had plans for that money.  Now they're stuck with only an oil portrait of a relative; a portrait that was recently sold at a New York auction for over a million dollars.  

Uncle Billy to the rescue!  He has saved enough money for them to take a road trip to Ireland, a trip that their mother wanted them to take together, to find out the truth behind the mysterious portrait...

Spellbreaker

In Charlie Holmberg's fantasy Spellbreaker (#1,380) there are wizards who cast spells, and there are those born with the ability to break those spells.  You must be licensed by the government to do either.  Elsie Camden is too poor to obtain such a license, but being a foundling, she has a strong affinity for doing good for those like her who otherwise would not be able to afford to break a spell working against them.  She thinks of herself as Robin Hood, but she is aware that she, too, is committing what the government considers a crime.

She is doing fine, however, until a handsome almost-fully-qualified wizard catches her in the act of undoing spells from the servant's entrance of the local manor house he is visiting.  Bacchus Kelsey is in England to take his final qualifying exam to become an accredited wizard.  He threatens to turn Elsie in to the authorities until she convinces him that a spell is binding him, too.  If he becomes a full wizard, he may be marked for death and his spell book stolen, a fate that has befallen too many other wizards in the past few months.  Elsie promises to help Bacchus track down the culprit responsible for the murders in return for her own freedom.  A magical romp.