Sleeping in Eden

by Nicole Baart

There's a bit of mystery in this book - who is the woman's body under the barn's floorboards and was she murdered by the man who hung himself over that spot?  

The story takes place in two different time periods, approximately 10 years between.  The earlier story involves a charming tomboy, Meg, who falls in love with the new boy at school.  The later story, which is interwoven with the first,  involves Luke whose marriage is strained.

I like this method of storytelling - one chapter about one person and then the next about another and back and forth.  Watching for clues as to how the two stories are connected keeps my mind in a questioning, seeking mode.

Sleeping in Eden is a mystery, I guess, but I think the better classification would be real life drama.  The mystery adds intrigue but the real depth of the book is in the characters and their personal dramas.

Thanks to Anne Staszalek and The Book Report Network for sending me a copy of this book to read and review.  I enjoyed it very much.

The Girl, the Gold Tooth, and Everything

by Francine LaSalaon

I've never done drugs, but this made me feel like I might be on them.  It was mind-boggling, and not as in 'awe-some' but more like 'what was that?'  The first part seemed to drag on.  The last part of the book, when the action finally starts up was good but it didn't rescue the book.  The dentist scene made me think I had missed that this was a fantasy and not a mystery.  But, no, it is a mystery.  I can't imagine anyone I know going to that dentist and not feeling like something was totally off about it.

The language was over the top.  My students used to say that it was part of life and I would tell them that so is human waste but we didn't need to spend our days in the sewer.  I chose not to hang out in the sewer so I won't be reading any more books by this author.  

The Burgess Boys

by Elizabeth Strout

I wanted to read this because my mother loved Olive Kitteridge written by the same author.  Mom highly recommended it to me and to several other people.  Reading it was like a treasure hunt as I searched for and wondered why my mom loved it so.  What was it that 'spoke' to her? I never really answered that question and my mother couldn't really pin it down when I asked her.  She said there was something that resonated within her as she read it.

Now I understand.  Even though I really liked Olive Kitteridge, it didn't resonate with me, but The Burgess Boys did.  It wasn't so much the story but the characters and what they felt at different times.  I highlighted several (okay, lots) of passages that 'spoke' to me but I can't share them because my copy is an advance ecopy and I'm not suppose to quote from it.

Surprisingly, it wasn't the two Burgess boys that spoke to me, but their sister and one of their wives.  The doubts these women expressed were some that I have felt and sometimes still do.  Strout was able to help me see into the hearts of people who, on the surface, I wouldn't have thought I had much in common with.  The two women were not the only ones I felt compassion for - my heart ached for the teenage boy, for his two uncles, and for the Somali people who were forced to move to a small town in Maine.

Here's the write-up from the author's webpage.

Haunted by the freak accident that killed their father when they were children, Jim and Bob Burgess escaped from their Maine hometown of Shirley Falls for New York City as soon as they possibly could. Jim, a sleek, successful corporate lawyer, has belittled his bighearted brother their whole lives, and Bob, a Legal Aid attorney who idolizes Jim, has always taken it in stride. But their long-standing dynamic is upended when their sister, Susan—the Burgess sibling who stayed behind—urgently calls them home. Her lonely teenage son, Zach, has gotten himself into a world of trouble, and Susan desperately needs their help. And so the Burgess brothers return to the landscape of their childhood, where the long-buried tensions that have shaped and shadowed their relationship begin to surface in unexpected ways that will change them forever.

Strout won a Pultizer Prize for Olive Kitteridge and I'll bet she wins a few prizes for The Burgess Boys, too. I liked this book a lot.

The Ophelia Cut

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by John Lescroart

I read this book with my heart in my throat.  In this installment in the Dismas Hardy legal thriller series, Dismas must represent his best friend and brother-in-law against a murder charge.

Brittany McGuire is the beautiful, twenty-three-year-old daughter of Susan Weiss and Moses McGuire—and the niece of defense attorney Dismas Hardy. Popular and pretty, Brittany has always moved easily from one boyfriend to the next, but her most recent ex, a young man named Rick Jessup, can’t seem to get over her. His abuse escalates, culminating in a terrible night when Brittany is raped.
Within twenty-four hours, Rick Jessup is dead, Moses McGuire is the prime suspect in the investigation, and Dismas Hardy has been hired to defend his old friend. Making things even more complicated, this case threatens to bring to light old secrets that could destroy the careers of Hardy and police lieutenant Abe Glitsky.
As the overwhelming evidence against Moses piles up, Dismas Hardy focuses on planting doubt in the minds of the jurors—until, in a feat of legal ingenuity that is staggering in both its implications and its simplicity, Hardy sees a new way forward that might just save them all. But at what price?

I've read several in this series, but not in any order.  Each one read just fine as a stand-alone, although I think it would be nice to know more of the background story.  In fact, I'm going to get my hands on the last several books in the series so I can learn more about something that happened years earlier to Dismas, Moses and a couple other guys.

Lescroart writes a really good story, with substance. Meaty.  The characters are life-like and complex.  Nothing is black or white in this novel - lots of grey, shady areas.  I liked it a lot.

Stalking Sapphire

by Mia Thompson

I received an advance copy eBook of Stalking Sapphire from NetGalley and, as with most ARCs, there were some rough spots.  I almost gave up reading because the first 3rd of the book was so choppy.  Actually, I did set it aside with no intention of going back but I couldn't quit thinking about the story.  I finished it.  First book in a long time that I stayed up until the wee hours to finish.

Despite the illusion Sapphire Dubois presents to the rest of the world, she is not just your stereotypical 22-year old Beverly Hills heiress; she hunts serial killers. While her fellow heirs spend their nights with trending celebs and drugs at the hottest club, Sapphire secretly spends hers luring, capturing, and anonymously handing over So-Cal’s most wanted killers to the police — just your average Tuesday night. 
What Sapphire doesn’t know is that one of her adversaries is watching her every move, aware of both her true identity and her unconventional hobby. Needless to say, he doesn’t approve. Used to being the one who redefines the definition of predator and prey, Sapphire’s world abruptly shatters when a gruesome ‘gift’ arrives for her at the Beverly Hills Country Club. With her involuntary crush, handsome Detective Aston Ridder, close on her tail, Sapphire now has to rethink her routine strategy and figure out how to capture a killer who already knows she’s coming.

What I didn't like:   I've already mentioned that my copy of this book didn't get transferred to my Kindle in the best condition and I assume the finished product will not have the same problems.  The only other problem I had was with Sapphire's rich friends but they toned down a bit towards the end.  

What I liked:  Sapphire.  She's plucky and smart, but not always.  And I loved the idea of a beautiful woman setting traps for serial killers and, of course, catching them.  Then there's the tension between Sapphire and the brash detective.  He's such unlikable character, but he had his moments.

This was Ms. Thompson's first book and she did an amazing job.  Stalking Sapphire is a first-rate thriller.  I'm looking forward to the 2nd in the series.