A Gathering of Secrets/Linda Castillo/308 pages

     Kate Burkholder is Chief of Police in a small Amish community where a barn fire kills Daniel Gingerich, a likeable, polite, hardworking young Amish teen.  At first no one can understand why anyone would want to hurt Daniel, but little by little Kate uncovers the true story behind Daniel's death and several others.  At the core of the investigation -- the Amish community.  There are sweet young girls and their protective parents.  There are the Amish customs and beliefs and threaded through the story are Dutch phrases that at first frustrated me but by the end of the book I knew what they meant before they were translated.  The author keeps you guessing until the end for this who-done-it.  Spoiler alert:  This is not one of those sweet, light Amish romances.  There is violence, rape, and suicide mixed in with the really gruesome descriptions of the burned bodies.  This one is a different type of read for me but I enjoyed it.

Let Me Lie/ Clare Mackintosh/ 386 pgs

Let Me Lie is the third book I've read by Clare Mackintosh. She writes unconnected suspense novels set in England, usually with one perspective from the victim and the other from the police. I like her writing but there seems to be an instance in each book where I think "That course of action does not make logical sense." It happens again here, but I still enjoyed the book. Anna is a new mother. It's just before Christmas and also the one year anniversary of her mother's suicide, which followed seven months after her father's suicide. Things have been rough for her, to say the least. She receives a card questioning whether her mother committed suicide and goes to the police, asking that they investigate again to determine whether her parents might have been murdered. The police in this instance is Murray, a semi-retired detective with a wife who suffers from bipolar disorder. The mystery surrounding Anna's parents kept me guessing almost until the end. Even more well-done, however, was the subplot of Murray and his wife. Well-done, but heartbreaking.

Dead Scared/ Sharon (SJ) Bolton / 378 pgs

This is the second book in Bolton's Lacey Flint series. Lacey is a British police officer with a very murky past and a sometimes reckless regard for the rules and her own safety. She's still getting over the trauma she suffered in the first book--I liked this realistic aspect--when she's asked by her one-time lover, a higher level officer named Mark, to go undercover at Cambridge University. Mark almost died in the last book and is still recovering physically. It's clear these two care about each other but there is a lot keeping them apart. i.e. the job, the past trauma, their fragile emotions.

Lacey is sent into Cambridge as a supposedly anxious, bordering on depressed, undergraduate because there has been a pattern of suspicious suicides at the university that has some people concerned. Honestly, Lacey didn't do a very good job of being a meek, high-strung student but she's only there for two weeks as things escalate quickly, so... This story is exceptionally creepy, dealing with people who purposefully bully and drive emotionally fragile young women into suicide just for kicks. It's definitely not for the faint of heart. I'm a big fan of Bolton's books and this is a solid entry in the Flint series.

Find Me/ JS Monroe / 400 pgs

Find Me is a thriller that starts out going in one direction and ends up in a completely different direction. The plot twist was a good one, coming out of nowhere (but in retrospect hinted at). However, and this is a big however, the direction the story ended up going was not one that I wanted to read about. Let me explain.

Jar Costello's girlfriend, Rosa, committed suicide 5 years ago. He loved her deeply and hasn't really got over her death. He's never believed that she died (her body wasn't found). He even imagines that he sees her around London.  Then one day Jar is handed a hard drive by Rosa's aunt and told that there is an encrypted version of Rosa's diary on it. With some help from friends, Jar gets into the diary and soon realizes that Rosa really might be alive and might have become a spy.

So, I'm down with a spy thriller and according to the blurb, that's what I'm reading. But then the plot twist happens and this becomes a whole other kind of thriller and it really wasn't one I wanted to read about (being vague to avoid spoilers but there is violence involving humans and animals). The writing is good and I give points to the author for an innovative, though sometimes unbelievable plot. But in the end (literally) I wasn't happy with this story.

It's Always the Husband/Michele Campbell/311 pgs

This book releases in May. I read an Advanced Reader Copy that was sent to the library district.

Kate, Jenny, and Aubrey are 3 friends who met their freshman year at a pseudo-Ivy League school in New England. The book spends time in the present as well as chronicling their freshman year. Something tragic happened at the end of that year and the three women end up going their separate ways. Twenty-two years later they are all back in the same college town and must deal with repercussions from that tragedy as well as present day decisions. This book has lots of twists and turns but I have to say that I did not find any of the characters likable and even the police chief was creepy. There was no one for me to root for and by the end I was kind of hoping all the characters would implode in a flaming heap. Alas, they did not. I felt sorry for the main characters' children, who are really just shadows in the story, but I pity those children for having the parents they do.

The Silent Sister/Diane Chamberlain/343 pages

Riley MacPherson has come home to settle up her father's affairs. She has a house to clean up and sell, an RV park to sell and a will to execute. Her brother lives on the outskirts of town in the RV park, but he has no interest in helping her. His time in Iraq damaged him physically and mentally, but his soul was damaged before that. Living in a home that had lost the oldest child, Lisa, to suicide when he was a child scarred him deeply. Riley was only 2 at the time, so her memory of Lisa and her suicide are non-existent. As Riley goes through her father's things, she begins to discover things about Lisa and her family that have her questioning everything she thought she knew.

Good story with an ending that was just a little unrealistic, but overall, I would recommend it.

Cover of Snow/Jenny Milchman/326 pages

When Nora Hamilton wakes up in her old farmhouse on a cold wintery morning, she knows something is wrong. Her husband isn't in bed, and there aren't any sounds of him getting ready for work as a police officer in the small Adirondack Mountain town. Her whole world is shattered when she finds his body. Brendan has committed suicide. There isn't a note, and she has no idea what could have driven him to do this. After the funeral, people seem to think she should move, especially Brendan's distant and cold mother. As she begins to ask questions about Brendan's childhood, she finds out about a secret he kept from her. As she digs deeper, she puts her life in danger.


Winner of the Mary Higgins Clark award at this year's Edgars, this debut novel is compelling and suspenseful. Some flowery descriptions here and there doesn't detract from a very good story. I'll  be looking for her next novel.

Envy/Gregg Olsen/285 pages

Fifteen-year-old twins Hayley and Taylor Ryan live in the small historic town of Port Gamble, WA. Everyone knows everyone and everyone's business, or so they think. When the town is stunned by their former friend and neighbor's Christmas evening death, the twins work to find out if it was truly accidental or a suicide. When they discover that someone was first flirting with her and then dumping her online, something more evil comes to light.

If the storyline sounds familiar, there is a reason. This is the first in a new series using "ripped-from-the-headlines stories" via Law and Order. The local cyber-bullying case of Megan Meier was the inspiration, although this novel strays away from that story. Olsen is a best-selling adult true crime author trying his hand at Young Adult fiction. He's also added a touch of the paranormal with the characters of the twins. They have a connection and sense that goes beyond the traditional twin-sense. They also have a back story that is slowly being revealed. I'm looking forward to the next book.

Waiting/Carol Lynch Williams/335 pages

This is a sad tale of a family falling apart after a tragedy. London and her family are mourning the death of her brother Zach. Although it's been many months, their grief is still dictating their lives. A couple of new friends as well as some old ones help London start to come to grips with her sadness. It's heartbreaking and hopeful at the same time.

THE HOUSE AT RIVERTON by Kate Morton - 473 Pages

Book Discussion title at McClay Branch

The House at Riverton by Kate Morton is a Gothic novel...told by 90 year "Grace" who began her life in said house as a serving girl. When the story opens Grace is meeting with Ursula who is making a movie about the "suicide" which occurred there years before. Since Grace was in residence the night of the tragedy Ursula wants to interview her as well as get Grace's "take" on the sets. From there we journey back in Grace memories....her Mother's presence in her life...stern, unaffectionate but as best as she could took care of Grace., Grace's own daughter Ruth with whom she has no better relationship than she had with her own Mother.

We get a bird's eye view into the residents of the House at Riverton...the serving staff, caring, warm, a well oiled machine who had "serving" down pat yet who truly cared about not only the lords and ladies of the manner but especially about the rest of the staff who served. We see Grace become mesmerized by Hannah and her sister Emmeline who had "soo much life" about them. Grace feels a special connection to Hannah especially all her life....until the day of Hannah's death. We learn the true story of the "suicide" of Robbie Hunter and like a game of chess...all the pieces fall together to make a tragic but well written ending if a touch unbelievable (my take only!)

Many rabbit trails there are to go down from mother/daughter relationships, WWI with its rationing, the privilege and responsibility of wealth, to the unfairness of life, lost love, being but a few.

As is true of all Gothic novels there is dark side Morton creates which permeates the entire book. Some of her quotes are priceless:

"There's nothing spoils a young lady's loveliness so much as impertinence of intellect."

"...for home is a magnet that lures back even its most abstracted children."

"Photographs force us to see people before their future weighed them down, before they knew their endings."

and one of my own personal favorites: "reading is one of life's great pleasures;talking about books keeps their worlds alive for longer."

The gals gave the book a 2 out of five...with 1 being the best...majority rule.

Ruth - MY Book Club