Venetian Vespers

A friend recommended John Banville's novel Venetian Vespers (#1,375).  I suppose I would describe it as literary gothic.  Set in Venice as 1899 turns into 1900, it is a moody, atmospheric puzzle piece.

British writer Evelyn Dolman and his wife of several months, Laura, arrive in Venice for a delayed honeymoon.  The palazzo where they are staying is grand, cold and understaffed.  So is the relationship between the newlyweds.

Evelyn finds nothing to like about Venice and its chilly miasmas although Laura insisted on going there.  While out on his own, Evelyn is accosted by a man who claims to have been at school with him.  Freddie Fitzherbert knows details about his life there, but Dolman knows that he has never met the man before.  His beautiful twin sister Francesca beguiles him, though.  Enough so that Dolman is soon inviting the pair to come lodge with him and Laura at the palazzo.  The problem is that Laura has disappeared.  She has left most of her belongings behind, but Evelyn is so besotted with Cesca that he doesn't care.  It isn't until Laura's sister and the Italian authorities question her disappearance that Evelyn realizes how serious matters have become.  The question is: who is playing whom?

It is a beautifully written book.  You can feel the damp creepiness of the place as you read.  None of the characters are likeable, so it's hard to tell who to root for in this cat-and-mouse game being played.  If you're in the mood for something dark and twisty, Venetian Vespers will fill the bill.

An Ordinary Sort of Evil

Kelley Armstrong's Rip In Time mystery series continues with An Ordinary Sort of Evil (#1,374).  Mallory Mitchell, a Vancouver police detective, has traveled back in time to 1860s Edinburgh as she both witnessed and became the victim of a murder in its narrow streets.  There she met up with Duncan Gray, an undertaker interested in forensics and his widowed sister Isla.  The trio have formed an investigative team with Mallory in the guise of a young blond housemaid.

In this outing the team are called to a wealthy family's home where the spirits have called for Duncan Gray to find a missing housemaid's murderer.  Duncan is not at all interested in the goings-on of seances, mediums, and ghosts, so he is initially inclined to turn the case down.  However, he has his patron's interests (and his own!) to consider, so Mallory takes the lead.  Is the maid simply missing?  Gone from the house without a word, and taking her belongings?  Or is there more behind the mysterious summons from the dead?

Mallory, Duncan and Isla are on the case!

System Collapse

System Collapse (#1,373) is the seventh outing in Martha Wells' scifi series featuring her sentient rogue SecUnit, the self-named Murderbot.  We've fallen behind, but honestly, I enjoy this sardonic series so much I want to have a book or two in the series to keep in reserve in case I need it!

Murderbot is accompanying its humans from the University on routine scouting expeditions on a planet which has suffered alien contamination in the past.  Part of their mission is to survey the human inhabitants to see where and how they wish to be evacuated from their planet.  

Things seem to be proceeding well when a shuttle from the Barish-Estranza Corporation unexpectedly lands nearby.  When one of the corporation patrols "accidentally on purpose" tries to take out Murderbot, things go from bad to worse. Turns out other Barish Estranza patrols are holding the rest of the residents hostage.  Their aims are predatory.  It would be a bonus to take out the University team at the same time. And to cap it all off, Murderbot just can't seem to get its act together to defend its crew because of [redacted].

It's the usual totally enjoyable mayhem in a short and punchy format.  As I said, I'm keeping some in reserve for when I need guaranteed entertainment!

A Perfect Hand

A funny thing about reading Yann Martel's Son of Nobody and Ayelet Waldman's A Perfect Hand (#1,372) back-to-back that I might otherwise not have noticed is that both novel's plots were driven by characters rarely given any voice of substance in the novels in which they appear.

In A Perfect Hand, the hero and heroine are a gentleman's valet and a lady's maid.  Both Charlie Wells and Alice Lockey have worked hard to rise to the level of upper servants in noblemen's households.  Besides acquiring a wide range of useful knowledge and abilities, they have also learned people-pleasing skills.  Neither are in a position they wish to give up when they meet at a house party and fall in love.  Unlike their master and mistress, Charlie and Alice will never be able to marry.  Unless, that is, they are in the same household.  What if they can persuade their employers to fall in love and marry?

As the wheels start turning, the plot, as they say, thickens.  The merry dance of courtship leads to an entirely different destination for some of those involved.  A chance outing leads to a life changing decision.  And the world will never be the same again for anyone involved.

Okay, I'll admit it.  I did find the ending very affecting.  Bring a tissue.

Son of Nobody

I'll be the first to admit that Yann Martel's newest novel Son of Nobody (#1,371) won't be everyone's cup of tea.  It was very much mine, though.  If you've been doing any serious prepping to watch Chris Nolan's Odyssey this summer, you may have read one of the many translations of Homer's epic.  The usual setup is a scholarly intro followed by divided pages, the top containing the translation and the bottom section the footnotes. (I do love a good footnote!)  Martel has imitated this setup in his own novel.

Harlow Donne is a Canadian scholar who has won a year's postgraduate study at Oxford under an eminent Classics professor because of his facility with ancient Greek language studies.  The problem is that the grant is so spartan he cannot afford to bring his wife or little daughter Helen with him, so he decides to go on his own.  At Oxford he comes across pottery shards and then papyri shreds which seem to have a common thread - they mention Psoas, son of nobody, being present at the siege of Troy.  Bit by bit Harlow puts together an entirely new perspective on the Trojan War, that of an everyday foot soldier.  Harlow is so excited by this he goes to visit the actual sites on his own.  His academic advisor, the famous scholar is apoplectic, insisting that Harlow is making it all up, ignoring the work assigned to him and threatening to ruin him professionally.  

This whole story plays out in the footnotes of Son of Nobody.  But equally fascinating are the scholarly footnotes Martel includes as though his fictional version of The Iliad really existed.  The details on the daily lives and times of common soldiers fighting in the Trojan War are not what we usually read about; The Iliad's point of view is that of gods and kings, not everyday people who rarely merit even a passing mention.  Psoas' story is given pride of place here, as told by one of his friends.

Do either of these men turn out to be the heroes of their own stories?  If you have both patience and curiosity, spend the time to find out!

Thistlemarsh

Thistlemarsh (#1,370) by Moorea Corrigan is one of the most imaginative books I've read in a long time.  It's set in an England which has just come through World War I.  The fairies have been gone from England for over a hundred years, though some people buried in the countryside still believe they could return.  That's the world Mouse Dunne finds herself in when she unexpectedly inherits Thistlemarsh, a fairy-blessed house, and the title of Lady Dewhurst.  Her cousin Bertie, the rightful heir, was a casualty of the war, and so is her brother Roger.  Roger's body has recovered, but not his mind.  Mouse hopes to provide him a safe haven at Thistlemarsh.  Her uncle Lord Dewhurst, however, has left Mouse Thistlemarsh as a spiteful bequest, with an impossible condition attached; restore the rotting remains to its former glory in a month, or it will all pass to the wretched Carlyle, a childhood nemesis.

Mouse is determined not to let that happen, but she is at a loss as to how to do that; no money came with Thistlemarsh, and her skills are limited to battlefield nursing.  Although the fourth member of their childhood quartet is still in the village of Tithe, he is now the vicar, and of no practical use in renovations.

When Mouse meets the mysterious Thornwood in the woods surrounding the estate, he proposes a deal.  He will help with the restoration in time to meet the lawyer's deadline, but for a price.  As Mouse knows from her upbringing, it's a dangerous thing to strike a bargain with a fairy.  The perils they face as they battle enchantments laid in a web across Thistlemarsh bond this unlikely pair.  Will they survive the unlikely return of the Fairy King?  You'll just have to read it to find out. I highly recommend that you do!

The Bookstore Diaries

I think the thing I like best about Susan Mallery's latest romance The Bookstore Diaries (#1,369) is its colorful treatment of the top, bottom and sides of the pages.  They form a series of images, including one of The Painted Lady bookstore featured in the book.

That said, I don't usually read Susan Mallery.  Her story about two sisters in a seaside California town boasts unusual spellings of the protagonists' names (Jax and Ryleigh) several failed marriages, a jilting, a truly terrible ex (although he is a devoted father to his and Jax's two kids) and a bookstore that houses secret diaries.  When renovations on The Painted Lady require the temporary removal and storage of the anonymous diaries, Jax gives her patrons a chance to retrieve their own diaries prior to construction.  Those not claimed are supposed to be stored safely away.  Sounds good, but a snoopy employee just has to read them for the juicy gossip they contain.  You'd think that would be good enough to drive a whole plot, but in the end, it just boils down to two diaries read, and of course they result in positive outcomes for all concerned.

Both sisters have romance woes.  Ryleigh wants to be married in the worst way, so why does she turn down the oh-so-eligible bachelor she's been dating?  And why can't Jax see the handsome contractor right under her nose who is trying to get her attention?  The drama with both siblings dragged on way too long for my taste.  In the end, as far as I was concerned, it rated a big "Meh".  The physical book is still eye-catching, though!