Don't Look In and The Forgotten Garden

 Happy Thanksgiving all! 

I finished an ebook and an audiobook last week that I wanted to share.

Don't Look In is the first book in a new series, Gus Young Thrillers, by Tom Saric.

About: 

"Psychiatrist Gus Young didn’t always see patients in the back of a hardware store. Before he came to rural Maine, he was a man with a past—past successes, past scandals... and past enemies. 

Now he lives in the woods, struggling with his memory, trying to reconcile with what little family he has left, and learning the secrets of his neighbors. One of those secrets is getting people killed.

When Wanda Flynn turns up dead, the police are interested in a number of Gus’s patients. Gus himself has suspicions, but when the evidence starts pointing in his direction he must discover who would have killed the troubled young woman, and do it without breaking the confidentiality of his practice.

His investigations will take him into the dark underbelly of the otherwise sleepy town, into his own past failings, and into the brutal path of revenge."

This was one of the best books I have read in awhile. The story grabbed me right away. It is very suspenseful and edgy. Gus is damaged. He is trying to lead a quiet life in this small town yet help people who need help. Gus seems to be having some memory problems though but he tries to cover this. When a patient, Wanda is found murdered, some things point to him, but he is sure he was not at her house, or was he? He doubts his memory. As the police seem more and more interested in him, he decides he needs to find out who killed Wanda himself. The key may be in his files and another patient. Fast paced, quick read. The ending was fantastic! Book two is coming out in 2021. 

Tom Saric has written two standalone thrillers also: Indicted and Compromised - international thrillers. 

"Tom Saric is an author from the Canadian prairies. He spent the summers of his youth on the Adriatic coast. During half of the week, he provides treatment to people affected by war. During the other half, he writes thrillers. He also watches hockey, drinks beer, and barbecues a mean beef brisket."

I received an ARC and voluntarily provided this review.

I listened to: The Forgotten Garden by Kate Morton. 

About: 

"A foundling, an old book of dark fairy tales, a secret garden, an aristocratic family, a love denied, and a mystery. The Forgotten Garden is a captivating, atmospheric and compulsively readable story of the past, secrets, family and memory from the international best-selling author Kate Morton.

Cassandra is lost, alone and grieving. Her much loved grandmother, Nell, has just died and Cassandra, her life already shaken by a tragic accident ten years ago, feels like she has lost everything dear to her. But an unexpected and mysterious bequest from Nell turns Cassandra’s life upside down and ends up challenging everything she thought she knew about herself and her family.

Inheriting a book of dark and intriguing fairytales written by Eliza Makepeace—the Victorian authoress who disappeared mysteriously in the early twentieth century—Cassandra takes her courage in both hands to follow in the footsteps of Nell on a quest to find out the truth about their history, their family and their past; little knowing that in the process, she will also discover a new life for herself." 

I have read a couple other books by Kate Morton and really liked them. I am a fan of historical fiction. I also like books that have multiple time lines. I think it gives the book a "Somewhere in Time" feel. This story has quite a mystery; what happened to Nell - why was she left on the docks, did no one look for her, how did she grow up; who was Eliza Makepeace and what is her connection to Nell or the family at Blackhearst. (Not sure of the spelling since I listened to the book.)

I liked the book well enough. It is very long and therefore my listening time was broken up quite a bit. I had a little trouble keeping track of all of the characters because that I think. Warning; most of the characters are pretty undesirable. The ending was really good.

I have been watching Road Kill with Hugh Laurie on Masterpiece. It is more of a drama than a mystery, I would say but I am enjoying it. I am a big fan of Masterpiece.

Our Mystery Book Club will meet after Thanksgiving and we will be sharing holiday themed mysteries. I will in turn share those here.

Again, have a great Thanksgiving if you are in the US. Try to not think about you know what but stay safe!

The Long Call by Ann Cleeves and a few other Book Club recommendations

 Seems like I have been missing for a couple of weeks. I don't know where I have been though. I guess we lost an hour with the end of Daylight Savings time. Still working at home and missing interacting with people other than grocery store clerk, I think. Oh I lost a filling so I got to go to the dentist twice in a week. Oh boy. Anyhow...time to catch up on my books.

For the November Mystery Book Club, we read The Long Call (Two Rivers #1) by Ann Cleeves. This is a new series for the author.

About: "In North Devon, where two rivers converge and run into the sea, Detective Matthew Venn stands outside the church as his father’s funeral takes place. Once loved and cherished, the day Matthew left the strict evangelical community he grew up in, he lost his family too. Now, as he turns and walks away again, he receives a call from one of his team. A body has been found on the beach nearby: a man with a tattoo of an albatross on his neck, stabbed to death. The case calls Matthew back into the community he thought he had left behind, as deadly secrets hidden at its heart are revealed, and his past and present collide.

For the first time in 20 years, Ann Cleeves --international bestselling and award-winning author of the Vera and Shetland series, both of which are hit TV shows-- embarks on a gripping new series."

I have watched a few episodes of Shetland and really liked it. I didn't get to watch more just because of time. I had not read Raven Black in our book club many years ago and liked it also.

I liked this book enough to want to read another in the series. I thought it was a good mystery and the characters and setting were interesting, with room to grow. I thought the backstory has some "modern day components i.e. Matthew has a husband, who works for a center that provides day care and life skill teaching for people with Down's syndrome. The story deals with aging parents of these people and their worries and hopes for them. Matthew being gay is an issue for the evangelical community he grew up in. He is a very likeable character, I thought. Good story on how he deals with the return to the community, how he leads the murder investigation and then another thing happens that doesn't seem like it is part of the murder, but he has to solve that also.

The other members of the book club mostly liked it. It seemed the people that had read the Vera series, didn't care for this book as much. Those of us that have not read many other books by this author, liked it. Maybe it is very different from her other books?

We then went on to share other books we have read and tv show recommendations. Here they are: 

1. Big Sky: television adaptation of The Highway by C.J. Box will start 11/17/20 on ABC as a new series.

2. Young Wallander is a new series on Netflix, for fans of the Wallander series. I did put it on my list.

3. Lockdown by Peter May: Well well well...

Lockdown is a 2020 mystery thriller by Scottish crime writer Peter May, set against the background of a deadly influenza pandemic. May wrote the novel in 2005, but it was rejected by publishers as being unrealistic. During the COVID-19 pandemic and resulting lockdowns in 2020, the book was finally published.

We read Blackhouse in this group a few years ago.

4. You're in Big Trouble by Laura Lippman: Tess Monahan is in Austin Tx for this book in the series. Also recommended are her "standalones":  several of the characters in these books make appearances from other books. 

5. Murder in Cold Street by Sherry Thomas: the Lady Sherlock book 5

6. The Tenant by Katrine Engberg: takes place in Copenhagen, Korner/Werner #1 in a new suspense series.

7. Miss Scarlet and the Duke: Masterpiece theatre in 2021. 

Currently reading: Don't Look In, which I should be sharing about soon.