Reading from my TBR pile: a mixed bag

 

DAISY DARKER by Alice Feeney

 

Feeney knows how to write a good plot twist, so I always know I’m in for a wild ride when one of her books comes out. DAISY DARKER was no exception. Just as I thought I was so very clever to have seen through her ploy, wham-bang! I was wrong again.

 

But let’s start at the beginning. DAISY DARKER takes off just like a classic whodunnit in the vein of Agatha Christie’s AND THEN THERE WERE NONE. A family reunion at an old mansion on a remote island, only accessible at low tide. Here we have the whole happy Darker family in their bickering glory, gathered together for grandma’s birthday, when they start dying, one by one. The killer has to be one of them, right? Seeing that none of them are particularly likeable, the list of suspects is long, until they fall off the perch. Feeney is especially clever, giving enough hints to let you guess some plot twists, but always keeping the joker up her sleeve.

 

Dark, twisty and cleverly plotted, DAISY DARKER is the sort of mystery I have come to expect from Feeney, and which always makes me come back for more. Suspend a little bit of disbelief and enjoy!

THE LINCOLN HIGHWAY by Amor Towles

 

With characters like Emmet, Billy, Duchess, Wooley, Sarah and Ulysses , this was never going to be a dull tale. I just loved the cast in Amor Towles’ latest book and soon lost myself in the story of their escapades. There was nothing predictable about this book and each character brought something unique and unusual to the story, making this tale one I won’t forget for a while (not to mention that ending).

 

A story about mateship and family ties, of loyalty and adventure, of choices we make and consequences we reap. A tale that would fit nicely into Billy’s “big red book” and can be enjoyed by a variety of readers of all ages and genders. If you would love to lose yourself in a multi-layered adventure story set in the 1950’s, then this book is definitely for you.  

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BEFORE SHE DISAPPEARED by Lisa Gardner

 

Every time a new Lisa Gardner book comes out, I know that I can’t go far wrong with it – she has never written anything I haven’t enjoyed. As a seasoned thriller writer, Gardner knows how to create interesting, fleshed out characters who instantly come to life on the pages. I liked Frankie Elkin, even though I admit I am getting a little bit tired of the troubled alcoholic protagonist trend (maybe I am just reading too many of these type of books). I kept thinking that there could be more satisfying and original explanations for Frankie’s drive to find missing girls than her alcoholism, which was the first thing in the story that didn’t quite add up for me. Secondly, I was a bit disappointed that Frankie was portrayed as a middle-aged white woman going into battle for missing people from minority groups. I thought that she could have brought more insight and credibility to the racial issues she discusses in the book if she had belonged to a minority ethnic group herself (such as Sheena Kamal’s main protagonist Nora Watts in EYES LIKE MINE).

That said, I really enjoyed Gardner’s descriptions of one of Boston’s troubled neighbourhoods, a backdrop that added both atmosphere as well as tension to the story. As Frankie slowly uncovers more and more clues in her search for the missing teenagers, readers are prompted to form their own conclusions and theories in real-life time just as Frankie is – my favourite type of mystery. The balance between suspense and action provided just enough tension to keep me reading until I had found out all the answers. Whilst Frankie Elkin wasn’t a stand-out character for me, I would probably still pick up the next book in the series and see where it leads me.

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