Mary
Mary will read just about anything, but tends toward historical fiction, mysteries, thrillers, and well-researched nonfiction (especially if it reads like a novel). She's frequently reading one of each, with a little literary fiction thrown in as well. Mary recommends...
The Titanic Survivors Book Club by Beautifully-told historical fiction about a group of Parisians who did not board the Titanic and hence found themselves to be a different sort of survivors. Focused on Yorick, who bought a bookstore with a sudden inheritance after losing his Titanic Library Steward position, and the friendships he develops with Haze and Zinnia. An artfully developed series of characters and relationships, told through a lens of books, writers, and letters.
How to Solve Your Own Murder by Using the time tested "whoever solves my murder inherits the house" plot, this is a delightful cozy mystery. Interspersed with diary entries from the victim's young adult years in the late 1960s, there are well-developed characters in both timelines and things move along at a good pace.
The Mystery Writer by Interwoven with the story of a young Aussie writer who leaves law school and decamps to Lawrence, Kansas to live with her brother, an attorney, is the story of a prepper family, conspiracy theories, and a controlling agent. Very twisty with several unexpected turns, there is not much to say without giving away too many plot details. A rollercoaster-of-a-read that had me wanting to finish in a hurry!
All We Were Promised by Three young African American women in Philadelphia in 1837: Nell, a free-born Philadelphian of means involved in Abolitionist causes; Charlotte, an escaped slave who poses as her father's housemaid while he passes as white; and Evie, an enslaved girl who is brought North to assist her mistress, from whom Charlotte escaped four years ago. As the three communicate clandestinely and try to coordinate Evie's escape, the city prepares for the Abolitionist Convention scheduled to celebrate the creation of the opening of Philadelphia Hall, built to support the abolition of slavery.
The Great Divide by Epic and sweeping historical fiction set during the construction of the Panama Canal, encompassing the lives of a professor studying malaria, workers at the Canal Zone from Panama, the US, Barbados, Bermuda and beyond, as well as locals who work in their homes. The plotting involves a town required to relocate for the placing of a dam and how all the interconnected lives were affected by the work and the environment of the Zone.
The Silver Bone by Set in Ukraine in 1919 as six factions fight for control of the country, this historical mystery delves into Kyiv's history between the world wars. Samson, a young man studying electrical engineering, finds himself alone after Cossacks slay his father and cut off Samson's ear. There's a bit of magical realism to the mystery, as well as a bit of coming-of-age as Samson navigates Kyiv's new reality under the Communists and finds himself employed as a police detective. Highly enjoyable with a great sense of atmosphere.
