The Shoemaker's Wife / Adriana Trigiani / 470 pages

This story is based on the author's grandmother.  The story begins in Italy in the early 1900s.  Enza is the oldest daughter of a large family.  Ciro is being raised with his older brother at a convent after their mother leaves them there when their father is killed in a mining accident in America.  Their mother is mentally unable to care for them.  Enza and Ciro meet when Ciro is hired to dig the grave of Enza's youngest sister who has died.  Shortly after this Ciro immigrates to the United States and becomes an apprentice to a shoemaker.  Later Enza and her father also immigrate to America to earn money to send home to the family to build their own home.  Ciro and Enza both end up in New York City and their paths cross several times, until at last after Ciro returns from fighting in World War I they get married.  From there they move to Minnesota to set up their own shoe business.  This was a beautiful story that does a good job telling the immigrant experience in the United State.

A Dark and Twisted Tide/ Sharon (SJ) Bolton/ 444 pgs

This is book four in the Lacey Flint series. I think Bolton writes outstanding stand alone novels. The Flint series is good too, just not quite to the same level. In this installment Lacey is living on a boat in a creek that feeds into the Thames as well as working for the River Police. Suddenly, shrouded bodies of Pashtun women from Afghanistan are discovered in the river. The question is if those who traffic in illegal immigration are disposing of the bodies or if something more sinister is going on. The river makes for a creepy atmosphere here. The ending was a stretch but it's a fast, intense read.