The Yard by Alex Grecian
As I watch the first day of school creeping closer and closer, I feel compelled to read as much 'brain candy' as possible.  The Yard defines that idea.  In many ways, Alex Grecian combines some of my favorite genres and motifs...Victorian England, gothic settings filled with fog and darkness, child saviors, love and friendship, and some smart detectives thrown into the mix.

This book is set during the year following Jack the Ripper's spree.  The city is still in fear, as Saucy Jack was never caught, the police are reviled as the men who couldn't catch him, and poverty and violence rule the East End of London.  Grecian then throws his main character, Walter Day, into this environment.  He's a new young inspector for Scotland Yard, plucked out of obscurity in Devon, by the expert older detective who died as the man who couldn't nab the Ripper.  Day's new boss at the newly formed Murder Squad is Sir Edmund, whose one-armed physical presence, intelligence, and sense of humor sets a new tone in the building.  Day's cohorts have distinctive and compelling personalities:  Hammersmith, the former coal-mining boy now a city constable, Blacker, the pun-loving affable fellow inspector, Dr. Kingsley, the coroner who's discovering all kinds of 'new' forensic' science, Day's well-to-do and intelligent young wife, and of course, the resident bad guys.  The murder of a policeman begins the story, and it rolls on from there, through both the upper crust and the workhouses of the desperately poor, in the bars where whores and their pimps rule, and the gas-lit morgue.  It is a thick book, but it never felt long.  I finished it in just a few days, as I truly couldn't put it down.  The characters are so richly drawn, you feel as if you've left their company as you close the book.  I truly hope, and expect, Grecian to write another tale with the fellows of the Murder Squad - I'll be standing in line.

The Homecoming of Samuel Lake by Jenny Wingfield

At the end of a 1,200 mile odyssey and leaving my oldest daughter a couple of states away from home, I was in no shape to sit calmly in an airport, waiting for my flight to be called.   So...what better way to cheer myself up than to buy a book?!  My need for mysteries had been sated this summer, so what next?  As I browsed through the books, I would pull up the Amazon reviews and see what others thought.  This novel by Jenny Wingfield, her first after a couple of screenplays, caught my eye.  When I read the reviews (five stars across the board), I figured why not?  I was expecting a simple, country tale, not much of a barn-burner.  Quite frankly, I was rather shocked at how much I loved this book.  It takes place back in the 1950's, when parents didn't provide the constant 'hovering' of their helicopter rotors and kids could be just that, kids.  No organized club sports, families ate dinner together, and pretending to be cowboys and indians wasn't seen as politically incorrect.
The plot revolves around the quirky, painfully honest Moses family, whose daughter Willadee married a preacher man named Samuel Lake.  Due to his refusal to pull punches with congregations, Sam gets a new church each year and this year, none at all so he's moved the family back to Arkansas to the Moses family farm.  This loving couple has three loud, boisterous, delightful children, with the girl Swan (yep, she's named Swan Lake!!) as one of the coolest kids I've read about in awhile.  There's a sister-in-law who's still in love with Sam, an uncle who's killed a man and lost his leg in the war, a grandmother who's trying to recover from her husband's suicide and has more wisdom in her little pinkie than the rest of the county, the abused child who blossoms with a little bit of love, and of course the stereotypical bad neighbor who beats his wife, children, and animals.  However, there's just something about the writing and the story that Wingfield is able to draw her audience in, not wanting to leave this community each night when you should be closing the book, but yes, you keep on reading until well past midnight.  It's not all sunshine and roses - there's some hard parts of the story that involve children - but it is a beautifully told story of family, faith, redemption, and occasional justice.

And When She Was Good by Laura Lippman

When you take a 1,200 mile road trip, you have got to have a good audio book along for the ride, and Laura Lippman's latest mystery kept my daughter and I thoroughly entertained.  As Alex and I rolled through the ugliest scenery ever (there is nothing between Portland and Los Angeles, in case you were wondering), we listened to the tale of Helen/Heloise and the double-life she leads.  In the beginning, my daugher denigrated the whole idea of listening to a book, but less than an hour in, she was hooked.  The main character, Helen, is a nice little suburban soccer mom, who leads a nasty little double life as a madame and prostitute.  High-end hooker, but at the end of the day, still a hooker.  As the book progresses, the reader moves back and forth in time, seeing Helen's past life and what led to her current role as a madame.  We see the nasty people who warped her (charming dad, weak mom, vile pimp/boyfriend, drug-addled friends), as well as the suburbanites who befriend Heloise, never knowing of her other life.  With Lippman, a best-selling mystery writer, she's got to throw some murders in, which are thoughtful and well planned, but not nearly as engrossing as Helen's life and how it came to be so messed up.  The characters are very well drawn, without the stereotypes Lippman could have fallen back upon.  Helen is less than perfect, as is her handy assistant.  The friendly accountant is perhaps not so friendly, and the neighborly pastor is a gay-loving, liberal truth-teller.  Alex and I had some great conversations about what turns people to a particular way of life, and how hard/easy it is to get out, and if people really want to escape.  It's a surprisingly thought-provoking book, with a bit of a cliche-ish ending that ultimately doesn't wreck the enjoyment of the book.  If you like mysteries, it's a very good one.

Defending Jacob by William Landay

For all of you Law and Order junkies out there, this book is for you.  From the very first page, I was all in.  In this old-fashioned legal thriller,  Andy Barber is the first assistant to the district attorney in a suburb of Boston.  Accustomed to locking up the bad guys, he finds himself in the position of defending Jacob, his fourteen year old son who has been accused of murder.  The author, William Landay, however, adds in a few twists and things are not as straight forward as the reader might like.  Interspersed amid the story of Jacob, is the grand jury testimony between Andy and his old mentee/current nemesis, new number one assistant to the district attorney.  Until the last page, the reader isn't entirely sure what the grand jury is investigating.  Juxtaposed with these two mysteries, is also the story of a family history, the role it plays in the current family, and the dynamics of two parents raising a 'less-than-normal' son.  As the story unfolds, I was constantly asking myself "Who's the naive one, mom or dad?  Is this kid a normal, angst-y teenage boy or a sociopath?  How does Andy's past play into his present?  And is mom deeper than she appears?"  Throw in a few friendly policemen, a vile grandfather, creepy porn web-site visits, and a Harvard-trained psychiatrist, and this is the 'ultimate' in legal mysteries.  It will not take you long to devour this one.

Beautiful Ruins by Jess Walter

This was one of those books that's been building up lots of buzz lately.  I've read about it online, seen it at my favorite bookstore, Village Books, and watched it climb bestseller lists.  However, I wasn't really sure it was 'my kind of book.'  With a little bit of patience, I was proved so very wrong.

Walters takes the lives of a variety of people, relates their varied stories, and eventually pulls them all together in a truly stunning fashion.  We begin with the delightful Pasquale, a young innkeeper on the Lingurian Sea (if you've been to the Cinque Terra in Italy, you know right where this is!).  Throw in a mysterious and young and beautiful actress, a PTSD-scarred war veteran, a creepily preserved Hollywood producer, his idealistic and hopeful assistant, a screenwriter with perhaps the worst screenplay idea EVER, and a drug-addled young man.  (Oh, and let's not forget Richard Burton and Cleopatra)  What, pray tell, could these people all have in common?  Ah, that is the great answer that Walter creates in a compelling and brilliant fashion.  Who knew the doomed Donner party expedition could be such a thoughtful motif to weave through a book?

After listening to it for about six hours (yep, one of my audible.com purchases) however, I was ready to throw in the towel.  The constant changing of story lines, from one character to the next, was disconcerting.  As soon as I got to care a bit about what was going on in one person's life, the story changed and I was on to another.  I think perhaps if I had a paper copy, I could have flipped back through and caught up with that person again once I returned to his/her story.  With that said, the second half of this book is merely...stunning.  I was compelled to push through, becoming completely and utterly engrossed in each person's story, and more importantly, in how we are all connected in so many infinitesimal ways.  I can't wait for my book-reading friends to read this book, as I have SO much I want to discuss with you!!!

Dark Places by Gillian Flynn
Once I read Gone Girl and realized how wickedly twisted Flynn is, I had to read another one of her books.  Dark Places did not disappoint...

The story involves a young woman, Libby Day, whose entire family (mom and two sisters) are killed in a horrific murder scene right out of In Cold Blood.  Yep, think small mid-west farm town, violence, blood on walls, the whole enchilada.  We meet Libby many years later, as her brother has rotted in prison for over twenty years for this horrific crime.  Libby is one messed up girl.  Anger management issues, sticky fingers, poor financial management - and that's putting it nicely.  Libby meets up with some freaky-deaky true-crime followers who want her to recant her testimony and figure out who really killed her family, as they believe her brother, Ben, to be innocent.  This sends Libby on a rather interesting journey of her past.  We see the story through many eyes - grown up Libby and then both her brother and her mother on the day of the murders.  This story brings the idea of a dysfunctional family to a whole new level.  I'm not sure there's any redeeming qualities to any of the characters, and perhaps my sheer love of black comedy wins out, but I thoroughly enjoyed this book.  It's a bit of a slow start but then it gets going around page fifty or so.  If you like rather twisted characters, issue-laden relationships, and a mystery surrounding everything, you'll love Dark Places.