This fall, there were several authors I returned to over and over – Katherine Center being the most frequent, but I also returned to Kristin Hannah, Ann Cleeves, and John Farrow. What pulled me back to the first two was that each book stands alone; no repeat characters, but a recurring theme of perseverance and happy(ish) endings. In the case of Ann Cleeves and John Farrow, it’s the draw of any really good mystery/detective series: a character that grows with each instalment, along with cases you really want to see solved.

SEPTEMBER

Ball Park, by John Farrow. I skipped right to the most recent of the Émile Cinq-Mars books because I wanted to be up-to-date when I met their author, who was getting ready to launch a new one. Thankfully, these don’t need to be read in the order in which they were written, since the stories are often told as flashbacks.

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Murder in My Backyard, by Ann Cleeves , the second in her Inspector Ramsay series. I really enjoyed it …. but the Ramsay series is no competition(in my opinion) to her Matthew Venn books.

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The Stolen Marriage, by Diane Chamberlain was one of those period pieces that pulls you completely into another time period and makes you feel what the characters feel in a very visceral way. The big question in this one: can “true love” ever truly be forgotten?

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Night Road, by Kristin Hannah. I rarely cry. Well, not as rarely as when I was younger, but still rarely – and most often when reading something that really touches my emotions, or brings back sad memories. This book did both, taking me back to a tragedy that involved 4 of my own high school classmates. I hope their families were able to find the kind of resolution that this book’s characters found.

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I chose Tangerine, by Christine Mangan, because I wanted to read a book set in Morocco before we headed there on our tour. It turned out to be a psychological thriller with a very creepy tone, and didn’t really teach me anything about Morocco at all! But…. if you enjoy books like Gone Girl, or Rebecca, you’d probably enjoy this too.

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Nomadland, by Jessica Bruder, was recommended by a friend over a lunch during which we were discussing the difference between people like Ted and me, who are “homeless” travellers by choice, and those who cannot afford a home. This is non-fiction of the most readable kind, populated with real people instead of sterile statistics. It really makes you stop and think. I don’t know if the movie/documentary can be as good as the book, but the choice of Frances McDormand in the “lead” role is promising.

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OCTOBER

I read The Sultan’s Wife, by Jane Johnson, after we got back from Morocco, where we’d heard the “legends” of the Sultan featured in the novel. Given what we learned there, and what’s available in Wikipedia, I can’t help but think that the book’s depiction of the sultan’s temper and hubris is over-the-top, but it makes for a good read!

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We Measure the Earth with Our Bodies, by Tsering Yangzom Lama, was a bit of a difficult slog, but I persevered and was glad that I did, because (again) I learned lots about a country about whose emigrant history I knew very little, despite the fact that many Nepalese immigrated to Toronto while we lived in that region.

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Things You Save in a Fire, by Katherine Center. I’ve returned to this author several times, because she never fails to create fascinating female characters and plots that are both interesting and truly fun.

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Looking for Jane, by Heather Marshall, written just last year. Riveting. Emotional. Insightful. Moving between 1971, 1980, and 2017, and based on real events in Toronto Ontario during the years leading up to and just after the Morgentaler trial that led to legalized abortions in Canada. I couldn’t put it down.

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NOVEMBER

The Bodyguard, and What You Wish For, both by Katherine Center – because I couldn’t resist seeing who she’d create next! Each has a strong story line and surprising female main characters.

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The Dictionary of Lost Words, by Pip Williams

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The Maid, by Nita Prose. How could I possibly resist a book that starts like this?

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What follows is an absolutely hilarious murder mystery, as told by Molly in excruciatingly funny, incredibly literal, detail interspersed with a perspective that is ALWAYS firmly rooted in cleaning routines and the lessons learned from her Gran. All this despite somehow having become suspect #1. Her beloved Regency Grand hotel and its cast of equally charming and unsavoury characters come alive through her voice. And as Gran would say, things always turn out in the end. If not, it’s not the end.

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The Address, by Fiona Davis. For many of my generation, The Dakota is seared into our memories as the place where John Lennon lived and was assassinated, but of course New York City’s iconic building has been overlooking Central Park and collecting people’s stories for almost 150 years. It was a treat to be immersed in the fictional lives of two very different women and a mystery involving the Dakota that may (or may not) link them across almost a century.

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The Department of Rate Books and Special Collections, by Eva Jurczyk, was one whose title I just couldn’t resist. It had a slow start, but I persevered mostly because it was set in the University of Toronto Fisher library https://onesearch.library.utoronto.ca/library-info/FISHER. It reminded me of the university’s medical sciences library (now called the Gerstein Sciences Library) where I spent many, many hours doing research in the underground stacks back in the mid 1970s. Once the pace of the narrative picked up, it was a more than satisfying book heist mystery.

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Staying with the library theme, my next read featured murder rather than thievery. The Woman in the Library, by Sulari Gentill, has an intriguing style: a story within a story within another story. Is it fiction or real life? And who exactly is in charge of the plot? Thoroughly delightful!

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With a synopsis like the one below, how could I not be intrigued by Eleanor Catton’s The Luminaries?

“The story, steeped in astrology, charts the interwoven fates of scheming colonial fortune seekers, star-crossed half-brothers, indentured Chinese gold diggers, a Maori aboriginal and, pivotally, an exploited, opium-addicted prostitute bequeathed a small fortune by a young admirer who has unaccountably disappeared and may or may not be dead.”

Unfortunately, the writing is very old-fashioned, almost like reading Charles Dickens or Edgar Allan Poe, and I found it too difficult to get past the prose and into the story.

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Counterfeit, by Kirstin Chen is a crime caper novel told in the form of a confession/deposition. It centres on two Asian American women, a rekindled “friendship”, and a global counterfeit handbag scam. The narrative has a little of the outrageous tone of the movie Crazy Rich Asians. In all, a quick, satisfying read… and a delicious con.

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Knowing we only had 2 weeks left in our rental suite and would then be off to Germany for their Christmas markets, I borrowed a couple of quick Christmas-themed reads to devour, plus a book written by an author named Christmas!

Time for a little non-fiction. Open House, by Jane Christmas, is a memoir written by a 63-year old Canadian author and editor (a renovator of books?) who loves finding and renovating homes – an almost pathological desire developed after a childhood of being uprooted over and over again as her parents chased their version of the perfect home, and a traumatic adult event. This is largely the story of renovating her latest home, in Bristol England, with her latest husband, but it’s also an insight into her life. The bonus: lots of memories set in Toronto’s familiar neighbourhoods, filled with places and situations reminiscent of my own childhood.

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I’m a huge Anne Perry fan, and have read every book in every one of her mystery and World War series, plus at 14 of her 21 Victorian/Edwardian era Christmas mystery novelettes, all coming in at just around 100 pages. They often feature peripheral characters from her series, making them feel familiar. I’ve enjoyed them so much that I’ve even gifted them to friends as stocking stuffers over the years. Unfortunately, Anne died this year, so there won’t be any new additions to her large body of work. A Christmas Return was published in 2017, but somehow I missed it that year and inadvertently lost track of the annual releases, so will have to catch up on her last seven.

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In this instalment, Charlotte Pitt’s grandmother Mariah Ellison (Charlotte is the wife of Inspector William Pitt, from one of Perry’s original series) is featured. If you’re a fan of curling up with a cup of mulled cider on a wintry night, reading a period piece with witty dialogue and a nice tight mystery plot, this entire series fits the bill. It certainly helps if you’re familiar with Perry’s characters, but it’s not essential to the enjoyment of each stand-alone story. Be aware though – these are no nice gentle Christmas romances. They’re MURDER!

And to round out November, a compilation of three Christmas-themed mysteries, collected as Christmas Sweets: The Twelve Desserts of Christmas by Joanne Fluke, Nightmare on Elf Street by Laura Levine, and The Christmas Thief by Leslie Meier. Joanne Fluke writes “cozy” mysteries with titles like “Chocolate Chip Cookie Murder” and “Banana Cream Pie Murder”, always with recipes included as part of the story. Laura Levine’s mysteries include “Death by Pantihose” and “Killing Bridezilla”. Leslie Meier’s titles evoke holidays gone wrong, like “Turkey Day Murder” and “Easter Bunny Murder”, so you know these 3 authors’ stories have lots of fun characters. A quick seasonal read to get you in the mood – but whether to bake, to solve a mystery, or to commit a crime remains debatable!