The Overbooked Bibliophile

Rating:⭐⭐⭐⭐ The gruesome murder of a local teen sends shockwaves across the close-knit community of Granite Harbor, a coastal town in Maine. The body of the teenager was discovered strung up for display in a local historic tourist attraction known as The Settlement. Former novelist turned Detective Alex Branwen is tasked to lead the investigation. The nature of the crime has also attracted the attention of the FBI who suspect that a serial killer is at large. Alex, whose teenage daughter was friends with the victim, must leave no stone unturned in trying to find out whether a criminal in is their midst even if it means ruffling more than a few feathers. A second murder , also a teenager, changes the direction of the investigation and Alex must race to find the killer before anyone else ends up dead. Granite Harbor   by  Peter Nichols   is a dark, gritty, immersive read. The narrative is shared from the perspectives of Alex and Isabel Dorr, a resident of Granite Harbor and...

Rating:  4.25⭐️ “Twice upon a time—for that is how some stories should continue” When a car accident leaves eight-year-old Phoebe comatose, her doctors advise her mother Ceres to shift her to a care facility located on the property of a writer who vanished years ago. Devastated and scared of losing her daughter, Ceres, who shares a love for reading, instilled in her by her father, with her daughter spends her time at her child’s bedside reading from her favorite book of fairy tales to her. The writer’s old home located on the property seems to beckon to Ceres who gives in to the temptation to explore further which leads her into a world that she believed only existed in the pages of a book. The narrative follows Ceres as she tries to find a way back to her daughter. “That was what stories did, or the ones that mattered to us: They helped us to understand others, but they could also make us feel understood in turn, and less alone in the world.” Touching upon themes of grief, loss, l...

Rating:  4.5⭐️ “ Stories were different, though: they came alive in the telling. Without a human voice to read them aloud, or a pair of wide eyes following them by flashlight beneath a blanket, they had no real existence in our world. They were like seeds in the beak of a bird, waiting to fall to earth, or the notes of a song laid out on a sheet, yearning for an instrument to bring their music into being. They lay dormant, hoping for the chance to emerge. Once someone started to read them, they could begin to change. They could take root in the imagination, and transform the reader. Stories wanted to be read, David’s mother would whisper. They needed it. It was the reason they forced themselves from their world into ours. They wanted us to give them life.” Twelve-year-old David grapples with the loss of his mother and the changes in his life as his father remarries and they move into his stepmother’s old family home where he struggles to adjust to a new life as WWII rages on. David...

Rating:  2.5⭐️ It has been fifteen years since the events of The Firm and after spending a few years on the run, now forty-one-year-old Mitch McDeere is based in New York and is a partner at Scully & Pershing, an international law firm, working out of their Manhattan office. The narrative follows Mitch as he is thrust into the midst of a complex web of political intrigue, greed and conspiracy when his London-based colleague Giovanna Sandroni, also the daughter of one of his senior associates is kidnapped in the course of an official trip to Libya, where their firm was representing a Turkish construction company in a lawsuit against the Republic of Libya under Gaddafi's regime. Mitch rushes to arrange for the substantial ransom amount failing which she would be executed - an endeavor that has him traveling across the globe all the while the kidnappers have eyes on him and his family back in New York. Will he be able to save Giovanna before it is too late? Having loved The Firm ...

Rating:⭐⭐⭐⭐ The Hive and the Honey  by  Paul Yoon  is a brilliantly penned collection of seven stories set across varying time periods and continents exploring the experiences of the Korean diaspora, touching upon themes of identity, displacement, the migrant experience, loss and regret. In  Bosun , we follow a South Korean immigrant who, after a short stint in jail, begins working in a casino in Canada. (4/5)  Komarov (5/5) revolves around a North Korean defector, a resident of Barcelona who travels to a small hill town on the Costa Brava to meet a Russian boxer who might be the son she left behind. Set in the Edo period,  At the Post Station (4.5/5) follows a samurai who is tasked with escorting an orphan boy to his own people. We meet a Korean couple, both children of North Koreans who settled in London, whose chance meeting with a young Korean boy leaves an indelible imprint on their lives in  Cromer (3.5/5) Set in 1881,  T he Hive and the Hon...

Rating:⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐  I had read this novel way back in the mid-1990s, much before I was on Goodreads. The release of the sequel prompted me to pick it up again (paired with the audiobook this time). One of my favorites from John Grisham, I enjoyed it this time as much as I did over twenty-five years ago. The only difference is that this time, I could visualize the setting having visited Memphis, The Peabody (loved those ducks!) and The Rendezvous (the food is delicious!). It was fun to be able to relate to those experiences! Mitch McDeere, fresh out of Harvard Law School passes up the opportunity to work on Wall Street for a small firm in Memphis, Bendini, Lambert & Locke, with an enviable salary, benefits, and ample opportunity for growth. Mitch promptly packs up and moves to Memphis with his wife Abby. Little did he know then that The Firm was being covertly investigated by the FBI for financial crimes and links to the mob and he would be right in the middle of it all, endangering h...

Rating: 3.5⭐ Set in the aftermath of the Civil War the novel opens in 1874 where we meet twelve-year-old ConaLee and her mother, Eliza, who has been mute for over a year as they are dropped off by a man she calls “Papa” at the Trans-Allegheny Lunatic Asylum in West Virginia. O’Shea, the Night Watch lets them in and eventually, they find refuge in the Asylum, with Eliza under the care of the Physician Superintendent and ConaLee hiding the truth of her relationship with Eliza to be employed with the Asylum as caregiver to Eliza in return for room and board. As the narrative progresses, we get to know more about ConaLee and Eliza’s story and the people and events that led to the present day. Eliza’s husband never returned from the War and with Dearbhla, who had raised her as her only friend, Eliza’s life had not been easy. Eliza’s story of loss and grief, fear, and abuse. Under the care of the kind doctor and the “Moral Treatment” practices in the asylum, Eliza begins to heal and ConaLee ...

Rating:⭐⭐⭐⭐ A series of gruesome murders with the same signature has Detective Constable Scarlett Delaney and her mentor Detective Sergeant Frank Ash searching for The Jackdaw, a brutal killer who likes to decapitate his victims leaving five scratches across their faces. Scarlett, the daughter of a serial killer herself, is determined to prove her worth to her colleagues, even if it means keeping secrets from her mentor or defying orders. In the course of her investigation, she meets an enigmatic character Henry Devlin who claims to be a private investigator hired by the latest victim’s father to find the killer. Scarlett reluctantly teams up with Devlin whom she finds to be quite resourceful and as the narrative progresses it appears that Devlin has his own agenda. As the bodies begin to pile up, Scarlett and Devlin rush to find the killer before he/she strikes again. Well-paced and gritty with an intriguing plot and a good dose of wit and dark humor to keep you entertained  Jackd...

Rating: 4.5⭐️ Inspired by the stories from the real Oneg Shabbat archives,  We Must Not Think of Ourselves  by  Lauren Grodstein  takes us into the heart of the Warsaw Ghetto during WWII. As the novel begins, we meet forty-two-year-old Adam Paskow in 1940, a widower who had been married to a Polish woman from an affluent family and was once a foreign language teacher at the Centralny Lyceum. Tricked by his former father-in-law into surrendering his home and made to move to the ghetto as Nazi occupiers began displacing Jews from their homes, Adam is forced to share a small apartment with two families- a total of ten people sharing the same space. Adam teaches English to the boys and girls in the Ghetto and works shifts at the Aid Society kitchens. He is approached by the head of a secret group of archivists, the Oneg Shabbat (Joy of the Sabbath), to join in their efforts to document life in the ghetto and the stories of the men, women and children forced out of their ...

Rating:⭐⭐⭐ Up-and-coming Manhattan-based photographer, twenty-eight-year-old Dani Campbell, though happy with the success of her latest showing feels that she is losing her grip on her profession of choice. When she finds an envelope of old photographs in an antique shop, she is instantly taken with the photographer's talent and sets out to find him. Lawrence Sinclair, now in his eighties, lives a reclusive life in an old beach house in Rhode Island. She manages to convince him to help her recover her inspiration and mentor her in exchange for a live-in arrangement wherein she is responsible for studying up the place and running miscellaneous errands- an arrangement that has Lawrence’s family, namely his daughter-in-law, suspicious of Dani’s motives prompting her to send Peter, Lawrence’s grandson, to find out more. Peter, once close to his grandfather, is drawn to Dani and finds the opportunity to rekindle his bond with Lawrence, who understands Peter’s unhappiness and regrets not...

Rating: 4⭐ Never Whistle at Night :An Indigenous Dark Fiction Anthology  edited by  Shane Hawk  and  Theodore C. Van Alst Jr.  features twenty-six stories written by indigenous authors. Surrealism and the supernatural, indigenous folklore, traditions, beliefs, racism, legacy and generational trauma are only a few of the themes that are explored in this collection of “dark” fiction. I wouldn’t describe the vibe of these stories as nightmare-inducing but more than a few will leave you feeling unsettled and pondering over what you just read. Do take your time with these stories as they are heavy reads despite the short length. My ratings for the individual stories are as follows:  Kushtuka by Mathilda Zeller : 5⭐  White Hills by Rebecca Roanhorse: 4.5⭐  Navajos Don’t Wear Elk Teeth by Conley Lyons: 3⭐  Wingless by Marcie R. Rendon: 3.5⭐  Quantum by Nick Medina: 4.5⭐  Hunger by Phoenix Boudreau: 4⭐  Tick Talk by Cherie Dimaline: 4⭐  The Ones Who Killed Us by...

Rating:  3.5⭐️ It has been over three years since we met last Molly Gray, who is now Head Maid at the Regency Grand Hotel – a badge she wears with pride. But Molly has been having a difficult day (to put it mildly !). The hotel had been hosting a VIP event and everything needed to be for the VIP guest, award-winning mystery writer J. D. Grimthorpe and the fifty-odd invitees - a task Molly and her trainee Lily approached with much diligence. The reclusive author had chosen the venue to make a rare public appearance to make an important announcement. But when the author drops dead just as he begins the session, Molly finds herself once again in the middle of another murder investigation headed by none other than Detective Stark – someone whom Molly isn’t too happy to see again. Evidence indicates that the author did not die of natural causes, and the suspect list includes Grimethorpe’s associates and the hotel guests and staff. We follow Molly as she uses her unique methods of analyz...

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐ The Goodbye Cat  by  Hiro Arikawa  (translated by  Philip Gabriel ) is a collection of seven stories revolving around the relationship between cats and their humans as told from the perspectives of seven cats and their families with much wisdom, heart, and humor. Written in simple prose, the stories vary in length and tone and touch upon themes of love, loyalty, companionship, family and grief. In the first story, The Goodbye Cat (4/5), we meet an elderly cat who endeavors to change into a supernatural spirit so that death won't separate him from his human family. A new father rescues a kitten from a recycling bin and in caring for it, learns much about fatherhood. Bringing Up Baby (4/5). A family is perplexed by their new cat’s devotion to their indifferent father in Good Father/ Bad Father (4/5). In Cat Island ( 5/5), we follow a young boy’s experiences on a trip to an island inhabited by cats with his father and his ...

Rating:  4.5⭐️ The final installment in author  Elodie Harper’s Wolf Den Trilogy  opens in Rome in 79 AD. Amara is now a courtesan under the patronage of an influential man who is close to the ruling Emperor. She leads an affluent life surrounded by powerful men and their politics but misses her daughter Rufina, whom she left behind in Pompeii in the care of Philos. Amara often reflects on her past, the people she has lost and the events that brought her to the present day. When a twist of fate brings Amara back to Pompeii, amid friends and foes, it is up to her to protect her dear ones from those who wish to harm them and destroy the life that Amara had so painstakingly built for herself. Unbeknownst to her, old enemies aren’t the only threats to her life, as a catastrophic event is about to wreak havoc on Pompeii. “Even the most powerful woman can be broken by love.” Heartbreaking yet hopeful, inspiring and immersive  The Temple of Fortuna  is a worthy conclus...

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐ In 1993, Cincinnati, we meet Clara Vogel, acquiring several porcelain figurines in an auction, among which is a piece called The Viking, which was inspired by one of her late artist mother’s most famous works. Clara’s search for the figure is motivated by her quest to find her father – a man she never met and whose identity is a mystery to her. All she knows is that he was “the porcelain maker of Dachau” – as revealed to her by her ailing mother, Bettina, before she passed away. The porcelain figure has a historically significant maker’s mark, which could be instrumental in tracing its origin and shed light on Clara’s family history. Her quest takes her into a deep dive into her mother's past, Bettina’s life in Nazi-occupied Europe and the man she loved. Told through dual timelines, Bettina’s story begins in 1929 and the Bauhaus movement and how she, a German painter, falls in love with Max, an Austrian Jew studying to be an architect. As they struggle to stay together...

Book: 4.5⭐ Audio Narration: 3.5⭐ A botched mugging leaves one Supreme Court law clerk dead and another seriously injured. The murdered law clerk Robert Finley had been working for Supreme Court Chief Justice Clarissa Baxter who is scheduled to cast the deciding vote for the verdict in a controversial lithium mining case that has several influential people desperate to protect their own interests. Missing from the scene of the crime was Robert’s backpack with important notes on the case. The injured law clerk Brooke Chaplin is the niece of Detective Frank Mancini of the Arlington Police Department and a tenant at the boardinghouse for government employees run by Former FBI Agent Ethel Fiona Crestwater in Arlington, Virginia. Frank is a former boarder and friend of Ethel’s which prompts her to offer to help in the investigation. Joining Ethel in her efforts is her double-first-cousin-twice-removed, Jesse, who also resides in the same boarding house and is a university student. Though ret...

Rating:⭐⭐⭐⭐ “We need a moral: let us be patient with each other and with ourselves, and suffer the diverse paces at which we move through one another’s time and space.” Ladies' Lunch and Other Stories   by  Lore Segal   revolves around a group of friends in their 80s and 90s. While many of the stories have been previously published throughout the author’s illustrious career, a few are relatively newer. Through the course of ten of the sixteen short stories, we follow Ruth, Bridget, Farah, Lotte, and Bessie, friends for over four decades who have a lifetime of memories they share over their luncheons, as they also confront the challenges of aging, loneliness, loss of friends and family, the COVID lockdown and much more. Though the ladies’ luncheons and their discussions form the larger part of the collection, we also get a handful of “other” stories ranging from themes of childhood memories, the Holocaust, age related ailments, and nostalgia. Insightful, heartfelt and bitt...

Rating: 4.5⭐ In the second installment of David Baldacci’s  The 6.20 Man  series Former U.S. Army Ranger Travis Devine is tasked with solving the mystery behind the murder of a CIA operative Jennifer Silkwell in her hometown in Putnam Maine. Her laptop and phone are missing, which raises national security concerns. Travis’s handler has a close personal connection with Jennifer's family, which also makes it personal. Posing as a special investigator with Homeland Security, Travis collaborates with local law enforcement in finding the killer. But a small town has many secrets and people aren't too welcoming to outsiders and local officials extend their hospitality only up to a point. As Travis investigates the Silkwell family, Jennifer’s siblings, and the townspeople, it is evident there is more to Jennifer’s murder than meets the eye. Travis uncovers a possible connection between Jennifer's murder and past crimes (and coverups) committed in the area and soon discovers that t...

  Rating:  4.5⭐️ " There are many crossroads in life. All regrets stem from what happened at one moment we never imagined would happen to us. When our own action brings about an unexpected result, how can we not experience huge regret? After all, do we ever get another shot?” Before We Say Goodbye   by  Toshikazu Kawaguchi   (translated by  Geoffrey Trousselot ) is the fourth installment of the Before the Coffee Gets Cold series and personally one of my favorites (along with Book #2,  Tales from the Café  ) . Set in Café Funiculi Funicula in Tokyo, we meet an interesting cast of characters (both old and new) – café regulars, owners and staff and first-time visitors who come to the café for the unique experience of time travel. The rules are the same and no one can change their past. Then why go back? Love, regret, nostalgia, guilt, the need to say goodbye and to share what was left unsaid. In four interconnected stories we meet a former...

Rating: 3.75⭐ When true crime writer and podcaster Harley Granger arrives in the small town of Little Valley, New York, just days before Christmas, bookstore owner Madeline Martin is compelled to revisit a traumatic event from her past. It has been over a decade since Madeline survived a vicious attack that left her seriously injured. On the same night, her close friend Stephanie was murdered and two other girls, also friends of Madeline and Stephanie, disappeared. Madeline’s then-boyfriend Evan Handy was convicted of the crime and was sentenced to life in prison. Madeline survived, though her memories of the events of that night remain cloudy. She has made life for herself in her hometown, keeps busy with the bookstore and takes care of her ailing father who was once the Sheriff of the town, but is wary of romantic relationships. Evan Handy maintains that he is innocent, and Harley Granger is in town to find out as much as can about the old case as well as the most recent disappearanc...