Middle-Grade/Teen Review: Friends Forever

I recently read and enjoyed the middle-grade/teen graphic memoir, Friends Forever by Shannon Hale, with illustrations by LeUyen Pham. It is the third book in the trilogy of graphic memoirs that started with Real Friends and Best Friends. Like those first two books, this book is a warm, fun story of the author's middle school years, tackling several serious issues that many young teens face.

In this third book, Shannon is now in eighth grade. As the oldest ones in the school, Shannon expected this to be a great year, but she doesn't feel great. All of her friends are interested in boys (and vice-versa), but no boys seem to be interested in her. Besides, as much as she yearns for attention from boys, when they give it to her, it makes her feel uncomfortable. She wants to be perfect: successful and pretty and maybe even famous someday! But, instead she feels insecure and out of place and unsure of what she actually wants. Shannon is an high-achiever and a top student, but her Mormon upbringing (not mentioned by name in this book) keeps emphasizing that her only role as a woman is to get married and be a good wife and mother. She's just learned about the Equal Rights Amendment and thinks she might want more out of life. The one bright spot in her life is her drama class, which she loves, but what if she doesn't have what it takes to succeed even there? As Shannon's anxieties build and she dives into depression, she even drives away her friends and family. How will she resolve these problems and move forward into high school next year?

Sample pages from Friends Forever

As with the first two books in this trilogy, this last one is engaging, moving, and fun, though with some serious themes. Many of Shannon's difficulties--based on her own real experiences in eighth grade--mirror those of other young teens, struggling to figure out who they are in light of pressures from peers, parents, and society. The memoir takes place in 1987, but modern middle-schoolers and teens will certainly relate to Shannon's problems and stresses. Full-color drawings and lively dialogue bring Shannon and her friends to life on the page. There is a lot of fun woven into the story, alongside the issues and angst, much like real life for many teens. I enjoyed every volume of this outstanding trilogy, with this excellent wrap-up, and I can't wait to see what this team comes up with next!

304 pages, First Second

Disclosure: I received this book from the publisher in return for an honest review. My review is my own opinion and is not influenced by my relationship with the publisher or author.

 

Note: This post contains affiliate links. Purchases from these links provide a small commission to me (pennies per purchase), to help offset the time I spend writing for this blog, at no extra cost to you.

 

Visit my YouTube Channel for more bookish fun!

 

You can buy the book through Bookshop.org, where your purchase will support the indie bookstore of your choice (or all indie bookstores)--the convenience of shopping online while still buying local!

 

 

Or you can order Friends Forever from Book Depository, with free shipping worldwide.

Fiction Review: Under the Whispering Door

For the past year and a half, I have been hearing rave reviews of The House on the Cerulean Sea by T.J. Klune, so I jumped at the chance to listen to and review the audiobook of Klune's latest novel, Under the Whispering Door. And when I heard one reviewer describe this new novel as "A Man Called Ove meets The Good Place," I was convinced. Now I see why everyone loves this author! This funny, tender novel about the afterlife was a completely unique reading/listening experience--and a very enjoyable one.

Wallace has not lived a good life. He has worked non-stop at his law firm, his marriage failed, and well, he's just not a very nice person. As the novel opens, he's firing his devoted assistant who's been going through a family crisis. Then, suddenly, Wallace dies of a heart attack. He finds himself sitting in a church at his own funeral--which is very poorly attended--dressed embarrassingly in the ragged jeans, old t-shirt, and flip-flops he had on when he died, when a young woman named Mei approaches him. She explains that he's dead and that she is his Reaper. After a lot of questions and anger, Wallace allows Mei to guide him away. She takes him to a strange-looking tea shop in a remote town. Hugo is the owner of the tea shop, and he tells Wallace that he is there to guide him to ... the next step. He will answer all of Wallace's questions, and when Wallace is ready, there is a door on the 4th floor of the building that he can walk through to whatever comes next. Hugo and Mei are both live people, but they can see and talk to Wallace because they have special abilities. The other two residents of the tea shop--Hugo's grandfather and his dog--are dead, like Wallace. The tea shop is a way-station for the recently died and also an ordinary tea shop during the day. As Wallace stays there with Hugo and his family, he slowly begins to discover all that he missed out on in his life and to grow and change.

I'm sure you can tell from the description that this book has a very original premise! There is so much more to it than this simple plot summary, but one of the best things about this novel is discovering its delights for yourself, with surprises around every corner. It's about life, the afterlife, and even love, and the story is told with warmth and humor. I often laughed out loud while listening, as Wallace and the others get to know each other, and Wallace gradually comes to terms with his death--and the way he lived his life. One scene when a "psychic" visits the cafe to record a video is particularly amusing, but there are laughs in almost every chapter. In spite of the humor, though, there is also deep emotion here and even love, as Wallace and the other characters explore what it means to be human. I thoroughly enjoyed listening to this thoughtful, funny, delightful novel.

384 pages, Tor Books

Macmillan Audio

Disclosure: I received this book from the publisher in return for an honest review. My review is my own opinion and is not influenced by my relationship with the publisher or author.

 

Note: This post contains affiliate links. Purchases from these links provide a small commission to me (pennies per purchase), to help offset the time I spend writing for this blog, at no extra cost to you.

 

Visit my YouTube Channel for more bookish fun!

 

Listen to a sample of the audiobook here and/or download it from Audible - this one is excellent on audio, narrated by Kirt Graves.

 

You can buy the book through Bookshop.org, where your purchase will support the indie bookstore of your choice (or all indie bookstores)--the convenience of shopping online while still buying local!

 
 

 

Or you can order Under the Whispering Door from Book Depository, with free shipping worldwide.

Fiction Review: All Clear

Once again, author Connie Willis has leaped onto my Top Ten Books of All Time list (which is constantly changing) with her novel All Clear, winner of both the Hugo and Nebula awards. It is book two of the two-book series that started with Blackout, which I read for Big Book Summer 2021. Both books are part of Willis' Oxford Time Travel series (hear more about it in this video), about a group of historians--grad students at Oxford--in 2060 who travel back in time in order to witness historical events firsthand. Since this is part two of a two-book series, I won't go into much detail with my plot summary, to avoid spoilers--I'll stick with the set-up.

In this two-book series, many of the Oxford historians have all been sent back to World War II in England, each with his or her own assignment in different parts of England and at different times during the war. So, Polly is in London in 1940 to witness the early days of the Blitz. She finds a job as a shopgirl and rents a room (both in locations that she knows from the historical record won't get bombed). Her goal is to see firsthand how ordinary citizens reacted under such extraordinary circumstances. Merope--who is using the name Elaine to fit in-- has also gone back to 1940 but to a rural part of England, where she is helping with (and observing) the evacuation of children from London to the country, including a particularly mischievous pair of siblings, the Hodbins. Meanwhile, their colleague, Michael, is posing as an American reporter named Mike, and has been sent to Dover to witness the evacuation from Dunkirk. His graduate thesis is about ordinary citizens becoming heroes unintentionally, so he wants to see this amazing event where regular people took their own small boats across the English Channel to save soldiers from Dunkirk in the midst of heavy fire. Other historians sent back to WWII include Mary, who is working as an ambulance driver in Kent in 1944, and Ernest, in the same time period but posing as a reporter working undercover as part of Fortitude South, a massive (and successful) undertaking by the Allies to fool the Germans into thinking they would attack at Pas de Calais later in the summer (as opposed to their actual goal of Normandy in the spring). All of these characters are introduced in the first book, where the time travel technology begins to glitch. By the time this second book opens, most of the historians have realized they are stuck in the 1940's and are unable to get home to their own time. This not only puts them each at great personal risk, but they worry that their longer-than-expected stays could have unintended consequences on history, perhaps even on the outcome of the war.

All of Willis' Oxford Time Travel series is outstanding (I especially enjoyed Doomsday Book during Big Book Summer 2020), but these two books--and especially this final volume--just blew me away. All Clear is 640 pages, and it never lagged for a moment; I was sorry when it ended (though it is an excellent ending). Willis has a talent for combining the mind-bending fun of time travel and the potential to change the future with intricate historical detail and gripping suspense, and all of that is in top form here. I sometimes think I've read everything about WWII, but I learned so much reading this novel! The courage and level-headness of regular British citizens in the face of nightly destruction of their city and homes gives a whole new meaning to the phrase, "Keep calm and carry on." And I was absolutely fascinated to learn about the massive effort to fool the Germans, with thousands of people in on it and managing to keep it secret. I am always up for a good time travel tale, and this one, especially in this second book, features all of the thought-provoking features I love about time travel. It's mind-boggling (in a good way) as the characters begin to think about how their actions might be changing the future. And the suspense! Wow. Almost every chapter in All Clear ends with a shocking twist that made me gasp aloud ... but then the narration moves to a different character in the next chapter, making the reader wait several chapters to find out what happens next. So, I was eager to read every single chapter and could not stop turning the pages, staying up much too late every night. And with all that peril, this book has a sense of humor, too! What more could you want from a book? In short, this was a nearly perfect reading experience. I wish I could experience it all over again, for the first time. This is a must-read.

641 pages, Ballantine Books

Note: This post contains affiliate links. Purchases from these links provide a small commission to me (pennies per purchase), to help offset the time I spend writing for this blog, at no extra cost to you.

Visit my YouTube Channel for more bookish fun!

 

Listen to a sample of the audiobook here, a section with Polly musing about the possibility of changing history through time travel, and/or download it from Audible.

 

You can buy the book through Bookshop.org, where your purchase will support the indie bookstore of your choice (or all indie bookstores)--the convenience of shopping online while still buying local!

   

 

Or you can order All Clear from Book Depository, with free shipping worldwide.

Books Read in November

Whew, as you can see, I am REALLY far behind! It happens every year at this time. I usually read a lot in the fall and don't have as much time to write reviews as we move into the holiday season, so my reading outruns my writing! I may end up doing what I did last year and writing a single post with mini reviews for my December reading.

But, looking back at November, I had an excellent reading month! Here's my video November Reading Wrap-Up, which is different than this post. In the video, I talk about each of the books I read.

And here are the books I finished in November:

Hamnet by Maggie O'Farrell (UK) - adult fiction

An Elegant Defense: The Extraordinary New Science of the Immune System by Matt Richtel - nonfiction on audio

 

No Cure For Being Human (And Other Truths I Need to Hear) by Kate Bowler (NC) - nonfiction memoir

Crying in H Mart by Michelle Zauner (OR, Korea) - nonfiction memoir

 

The Sisters of Auschwitz by Roxane van Iperen (Netherlands) - nonfiction history

I'll Be Gone in the Dark: One Woman's Obsessive Search for the Golden State Killer by Michelle McNamara (CA) - nonfiction true crime

Other Boys by Damian Alexander - middle-grade/teen graphic memoir

Lift by Kelly Corrigan (CA) - nonfiction memoir

 

Eight Perfect Murders by Peter Swanson (MA) - adult fiction on audio

As you can see, I was mostly immersed in Nonfiction November (see my Challenges update below). I read nine books in November (which is a lot for me), and seven of them were nonfiction. Most of my books last month were for adults, with just one middle-grade/teen book, which was also my only graphic novel/memoir for the month. I listened to three of my books on audio and read the rest in print. Every one of these nine books was excellent, and I was pleased to read so much variety in my nonfiction. It's hard to pick a favorite among so many diverse choices, but there's a special place in my heart for No Cure For Being Human (And Other Truths I Need to Hear) by Kate Bowler, since I love listening to her podcast.

Progress in 2021 Reading Challenges:
You can see all of the reading challenges I am participating in and full lists of the books read for each at the challenges link above. I have some fun ones going this year!

Mount TBR Reading Challenge 2021 - I read 5 books off my own shelves last month. November is always good for my TBR Challenge!

2021 Monthly Motif Reading Challenge - November was In the Library with the Candlestick, and Eight Perfect Murders by Peter Swanson was a mystery/thriller.

Back to the Classics 2021 - No new classic again in November!

2021 AtoZ Reading Challenge - Most of my spots are already filled (19 of 26), so I didn't have any more to fit in last month, but I did get the Mini Challenge for a book outside your normal genre: I'll Be Gone in the Dark: One Woman's Obsessive Search for the Golden State Killer by Michelle McNamara.

PopSugar Reading Challenge 2021 - this is a unique one, with 50 quirky categories. My list is getting pretty full now, but I added two more last month:

1. A book that won the Women's Prize for Fiction: Hamnet by Maggie O'Farrell (2020)
2. A book from your TBR you associate with a favorite person, place, or thing: I'll Be Gone in the Dark: One Woman's Obsessive Search for the Golden State Killer by Michelle McNamara (my son's girlfriend, who loves true crime!)
   

2021 Nonfiction Reader Challenge - I read seven nonfiction books last month, bringing my annual total up to 13 so far, and I also fit four of my books into the categories provided.

Diversity Reading Challenge 2021 - Four of my nine were diverse books.

Travel the World in Books Reading Challenge - I added Korea and the Netherlands last month.

2021 Literary Escapes Challenge - It's tough at this time of year, with so many states filled already, but I added Oregon and Massachusetts last month.

2021 Big Book Summer Challenge - Finished in September, with a total of 12 for summer 2021!

R.I.P. Readers Imbibing Peril Challenge - Finished in October, with a total of eleven for this year's challenge.

Nonfiction November - I read seven nonfiction books in November.

And finally, Bookish Bingo hosted by Chapter Break - not really a challenge per se, but a fun game that I play each month! Stop by to print out this month's Bingo card and play along. In November, I filled 15 spaces on my bingo card (a lot of the spaces are fiction-specific!).

Spaces Filled: 

Hamnet: library book, book club read, award-winning author

An Elegant Defense: not in a series

No Cure for Being Human: read a physical book

Crying in H Mart: cooking, food on the cover

Sisters of Auschwitz: audio book

I'll Be Gone in the Dark: made into a TV show/movie (documentary), multiple authors, character has an assistant

Other Boys: free book

Lift: shelf love

Eight Perfect Murders: FBI/police

Free Space

What was your favorite book read in November?

It's Monday 12/27! What Are You Reading?

We had a lovely Christmas Day with a few family members here at our house, but unfortunately, our holiday week was a bit too eventful. 

On Thursday, my 96-year-old father-in-law fell and broke his hip. They did surgery on Christmas Eve. He has severe spinal stenosis and ever-worsening dementia, so the broken bone is just the tip of the iceberg. It's tough to heal at that age under any circumstances, but he wasn't moving too well before the fall and surgery. Now, he's so confused in the hospital that he's not eating or taking his meds, and they haven't been able to get him out of bed to stand or walk yet. My husband is there now, hoping to coax him to at least eat and take the pills. Due to COVID, he is only allowed one visitor per DAY, so it was a pretty rotten holiday for him (though he's barely even aware of the holiday). And now we need to find a rehab facility for him.

Then, the day after Christmas, with our son and his girlfriend and my mom and her husband still visiting, we were enjoying a lovely, relaxing day together when we got the news that someone else, who spent Christmas Eve with two of our group, had a positive COVID test. In less than an hour, the two couples packed, loaded their cars, and left for home. It was an abrupt and worrying end to our time together! Several tests from our group have come back negative so far, but it is still pretty early after potential exposure. Our planned annual Cookie Decorating/Grinch party tonight with our oldest friends is now virtual (again).

So, things began and ended with too many upsetting surprises, but we did enjoy a nice Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. Christmas Eve was very quiet (which we needed after a full day of cooking and wrapping!), with just my husband, son, and I. We had a great seafood meal (takeout) and watched some favorite Christmas specials. 

Christmas morning was again quiet, with just the three of us, but with loads of gifts! We were laughing that none of us really ever buys anything for ourselves during the year, but we all tend to go overboard for Christmas and birthdays. 

By 4 pm, our older son and his girlfriend arrived and my mom and her husband (all from out of town), so we opened more gifts and had a wonderful Christmas dinner together. You can see the books we gave and received in my A Very Bookish Christmas post.

Just a note that I decided to make a slight adjustment to my Monday posts (starting today). They've gotten longer and longer, and that takes a lot of time for me to write ... and I suspect too much time for most people to read! So, my book update (and personal update, too, after this week) will be a bit more brief. This is the first step in trying to adjust things a bit for 2022 so that I don't constantly feel stressed and overloaded. Though I know my personal update this week was long!

I uploaded two new book videos last week:

• Your Answers Can't Be Books tag - learn more about my non-reading life!
• Friday Reads 12-24-21 - hear me gush about my current books

So, here's what we've all been reading this past week:

I finished All Clear by Connie Willis, which is book two of the two-book series that started with Blackout, both historical time travel with loads of suspense. OUTSTANDING!!! It won both the Hugo and Nebula prizes. Like her novel Doomsday Book (read for Big Book Summer 2020), this is now in my top 10 of all time (which is getting crowded).

 

Christmas Day, I started A Children's Bible by Lydia Millet, the last of my Mother's Day gifts (trying to catch up!). It's a short novel and unusual but very good so far, about twelve kids and teens left on their own when an apocalypse hits.

 

I finished reading the middle-grade/teen graphic memoir, Friends Forever by Shannon Hale, with illustrations by LeUyen Pham. This is the third book in their trilogy of graphic memoirs that started with Real Friends and Best Friends. This one was excellent!

 

I started a new audiobook, Zara Hossain Is Here by Sabina Khan. With just one week left to the month (and year), I am trying to squeeze one last audio in. This YA novel is about racial prejudice, immigration, and a teen girl just trying to live like any other American teen. It's great so far.

 

My husband is still reading Gardens of the Moon by Steven Erikson, book one of The Malazan Book of the Fallen series, a fantasy novel recommended by our son. He didn't have much reading time this week!

 

Our 27-year-old son is still reading Spinning Silver by Naomi Novak, which was a finalist for both the Nebula and Hugo awards and on many Top Ten lists. I don't know if it is technically a sequel, but it is set in the same fairy tale world as Uprooted, another book he enjoyed reading. He has lots of new books to choose from now!

Blog posts last week:

Fiction Review: Eight Perfect Murders by Peter Swanson - twisty book-related thriller!

Nonfiction Review: The Sisters of Auschwitz by Roxane van Iperen - visceral, fascinating story of two unsung heroes.

A Very Bookish Christmas - see which books we gave and received this year!

What Are You Reading Monday is hosted by Kathryn at Book Date, so head over and check out her blog and join the Monday fun! You can also participate in a kid/teen/YA version hosted by Unleashing Readers.

You can follow me on Twitter at @SueBookByBook or on Facebook on my blog's page.   

What are you and your family reading this week?

A Very Bookish Christmas!

As usual, it was a very bookish Christmas at our house yesterday! Most of us are avid readers, so we love to exchange books. Here's what we gave and received - I hope you got books under your tree, too!

We gave our son:

• The Order War by L.E. Modesitt, Jr. (book 4 in the Saga of Recluce)
• The Great Bazaar and Brayan's Gold by Peter V. Brett - two short stories/novellas set in the world of the Demon Cycle)
• Quill by A.C. Cobble (book 1 of The Cartographer)
• The Merciful Crow by Margaret Owen (book 1 of 2)

My husband got:

• Countdown City by Ben Winters (book 2 in The Last Policeman trilogy)
• A Blizzard of Polar Bears  by Alice Henderson (book 2 in the Alex Carter series)
  
• Never by Ken Follett
• Better Off Dead by Lee Child and Andrew Child (book 26 in the Jack Reacher series)

I gave my mom:

 

• Don't Let's Go to the Dogs Tonight: An African Childhood by Alexandra Fuller (a memoir)
• Redhead by the Side of the Road by Anne Tyler (I love Anne Tyler, and my mom's a redhead!)

And, not shown (it was already packed), we gave her husband for his Christmas birthday: The League: How Five Rivals Created the NFL and Launched a Sports Empire by John Eisenberg. He loves both football and business, so this was a perfect fit!

And, I received:

• The Glass Hotel by Emily St. John Mandel (author of Station Eleven, which I loved)
  
• The Dreamers by Karen Thompson Walker (author of The Age of Miracles, which I also loved!)
• How to Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe by Charles Yu - it wouldn't be a holiday for me without receiving some sort of time-twisting novel!
• Harlem Shuffle by Colson Whitehead

I am so excited to read all of these!!

How about you? What book(s) did you receive or give for the holidays?

 

Nonfiction Review: The Sisters of Auschwitz

For Nonfiction November, I tried to read a variety of different types and genres of nonfiction, so I chose a historical book from my audio backlog, The Sisters of Auschwitz: The True Story of Two Sisters' Resistance in the Heart of Nazi Territory by Roxane van Iperen. I sometimes think that between novels and nonfiction, I have learned everything there is to know about World War II and the Holocaust ... but this book still surprised me and described a wholly unique experience.

Janny and Lien Brilleslijper were two Dutch Jewish sisters, who grew up in Amsterdam with their younger brother and parents. Their peaceful lives were interrupted suddenly when the Nazis occupied the Netherlands in 1940. By then, the sisters were both married (or almost married) to non-Jewish men, which gave them a little bit of flexibility at first, against the Nazi's ever-more-stringent restrictions against Jews. They began by going into hiding in Amsterdam, like many of their countrymen, but soon it became too dangerous for them to stay in their beloved city. They managed to find a huge house out in the forest in a rural area, with no other houses nearby; with the help of their husbands and fake documents, they rented the house from two elderly sisters. It was named the High Nest because it was up on a hill and was a safe haven. Besides housing their own families, the High Nest soon became a hiding place and underground center for the Dutch Resistance and a sort of artists' haven. The sisters did a lot of work to help others and resist the Nazis, but finally, they, too, were captured and sent to a series of camps leading eventually to Auschwitz. In fact, they were in the same camps at the same time as the Frank family and became close friends with Anne and Margot. Against all odds, they were luckier than the Frank sisters and managed to survive the war.

Wow. This story was so vivid and visceral that I was completely immersed in the book from beginning to end. It was particularly powerful on audio, read by narrator Susan Hoffman in a Dutch accent. I did struggle a bit at the beginning to understand the Dutch names, but once I caught on, the story propelled me forward. These unsung--virtually unknown--heroes of the Dutch resistance lived brave and principled lives that inspire awe, though they themselves just felt that they were doing their duty. This outstanding book had the power to convey some amazing--and horrifying--experiences. It taught me that there is always more to learn about the quiet heroes that saved lives and helped to win the war against evil.

320 pages, Harper

Harper Audio

For more about the Frank family's experiences--and another perspective on being a Jew in Amswterdam during the war--these two books were both excellent:

The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank - young Anne's famous memoir of life in hiding 

Anne Frank Remembered: The Story of the Woman Who Helped to Hide the Frank Family by Miep Gies with Alison Leslie Gold - an outstanding memoir by one of the women (a close friend of the family) who helped hide the Franks, also excellent on audio.

Disclosure: I received this book from the publisher in return for an honest review. My review is my own opinion and is not influenced by my relationship with the publisher or author.

 

Note: This post contains affiliate links. Purchases from these links provide a small commission to me (pennies per purchase), to help offset the time I spend writing for this blog, at no extra cost to you.

 

Visit my YouTube Channel for more bookish fun!

 

Listen to a sample of the audiobook here, from the start of the book about the family history, and/or download it from Audible.

 

You can buy the book through Bookshop.org, where your purchase will support the indie bookstore of your choice (or all indie bookstores)--the convenience of shopping online while still buying local!

      

 

Or you can order The Sisters of Auschwitz from Book Depository, with free shipping worldwide.

Fiction Review: Eight Perfect Murders

Although I devoted most of November to nonfiction, my husband and I had a long drive (8 hours each way) to Buffalo and back for a family funeral. It's been years since we've taken a long road trip together, so I have a huge backlog of audiobooks (mostly suspense, mysteries, and thrillers) that I've been saving for he and I to share in the car. For this trip, I chose one of the top books on my audio TBR, Eight Perfect Murders by Peter Swanson. I previously read Swanson's All the Beautiful Lies and Before She Knew Him (reviewed for Shelf Awareness). I even got to meet the author in person at Booktopia 2018, a unique weekend-long book event I attend in Vermont each year it is held. Peter Swanson is known for his super-twisty thrillers, and Eight Perfect Murders was no exception, all wrapped up in a unique and intriguing premise.

Malcolm, a quiet bookstore owner, is visited by FBI Special Agent Mulvey at his store in Boston. She is beginning to suspect there is an unusual serial killer at work in the region and wants Malcolm's help. Years earlier, Malcolm published a list of “Eight Perfect Murders” on the store’s blog, recounting eight different classic murder mysteries that might be considered unsolvable if they happened in real life. Now, Agent Mulvey thinks someone is using his list to actually commit murders. Because the unsolved cases have nothing in common (other than Malcolm's list) and each is based on an entirely different approach, Agent Mulvey is on her own; no other law enforcement officials think her idea has merit. Besides, each murder so far has occurred in completely different places, even different states, so individual police investigations haven't made the connection. Intrigued by the concept and his love of mysteries, Malcolm agrees to work with her and help her understand more about each of the murder mysteries he wrote about. But he also has secrets of his own he is trying to protect, so he needs to be cautious. As the two dig deeper and deeper into the investigation, the tension and danger increase for both of them.

As with all of Swanson's novels, this one is full of surprises and twists, with plenty of red herrings and dead ends to keep you guessing. Malcolm is the narrator, so he admits from the start that there are things in his past he doesn't want the agent to know about, but you don't know exactly what. The premise here is entirely original and very compelling, so this was the perfect choice for a long drive. A thriller plot that is centered around books, a bookstore, and a blog post? Sign me up! We both enjoyed it very much (and were surprised by the ending), and it was excellent on audio. Narrator Graham Halstead does a great job of inhabiting Malcolm's character. Our only complaint was that in telling the story, it was necessary to explain what happened in each of the books on Malcolm's list (plus a ninth that is mentioned), so nine good mysteries were spoiled for us! They are all classic or very well-known mysteries, though I'd only read two of the nine and my husband hadn't read any of them yet. That issue aside, we both thoroughly enjoyed being immersed in this dark and twisty mystery-thriller that made the miles fly by! 

304 pages, William Morrow

Harper Audio

Disclosure: I received this book from the publisher in return for an honest review. My review is my own opinion and is not influenced by my relationship with the publisher or author.

 

Note: This post contains affiliate links. Purchases from these links provide a small commission to me (pennies per purchase), to help offset the time I spend writing for this blog, at no extra cost to you.

 

Visit my YouTube Channel for more bookish fun!

 

Listen to a sample of the audiobook here, from an early scene where Malcolm and Agent Mulveny first meet, and/or download it from Audible.

 

You can buy the book through Bookshop.org, where your purchase will support the indie bookstore of your choice (or all indie bookstores)--the convenience of shopping online while still buying local!

    

 

Or you can order Eight Perfect Murders from Book Depository, with free shipping worldwide.