www.nytimes.com/2020/11/23/books/review/best-books.html

www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/books/notable-books.html

I reviewed this title. Here is the author.

A Novel

by Anthony Horowitz

Anthony Horowitz is a creative and imaginative author of complex mysteries. This book follows on his earlier novel, The Magpie Murders that also featured Susan Ryeland and the story within a story detective, Atticus Pund. I liked this title more than that first title in the series.

When the story starts, Susan has left England to run a hotel on a Greek island. It seems that venture is beginning to pale so when the opportunity comes to return to England, Susan is on her way. Susan is asked to investigate the disappearance of a hotelier’s daughter. Cecily was not seen again after calling her parents to tell them that, based on an Atticus Pund novel, she believes that a guest murdered at the hotel a number of years previously, was not killed by the accused and then convicted hotel worker. Does this sound a bit confusing and convoluted? Well, it just may be.

Susan investigates the case and, as part of her research, rereads the Atticus Pund book. That novel is very cleverly inserted in the middle of the book. I found this to be so appealing. There was the book cover, the blurbs, the copyright, everything one would expect but, again, it is a novel within the novel.

Will Susan solve the case? What happened to the missing daughter? Who committed the murder at the hotel and that is then fictionalized in the Pund book? There are many characters and there is lots to solve here.

This book is original and intriguing. I very much enjoyed it. It is long at over 600 pages so settle in for a long read.

Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher. All opinions are my own.

So many good choices here. I just finished and recommend The Paris Secret but it is just one of many titles today. I think that I will buy The Exiles.

Novel Advice

Practical Wisdom for Your Favorite Literary Characters

by Jay Bushman

A Biography

by Lucy Worsley

I am currently re-reading (and enjoying) Pride and Prejudice in anticipation of a three class sequence in early December. This will be about the fourth time that I have read P and P. It continues to enchant and feels like the perfect read for our current unsettled times.

While reading, I remembered that I had not yet read Jane Austen at Home, even though I have had this title for quite some time. Well, this was just the right moment to read it as it has offered yet another lens through which to see P and P and its author.

Lucy Worsley is known to many because of her tv appearances. She is also a writer, and a good one. This title is a biography of Jane Austen that focuses on the many places where she spent time and the importance of home. (Perhaps she was in advance of Virginia Wool’s A Room of One’s Own.). Ms. Worsley reminds the reader that it was often through marriage that women secured a safe place to live. This is one reason that Charlotte Lucas chooses her husband in P and P.

Throughout this book was an engaging read. I highly recommend it to Austen fans.

Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for this title. All opinions are my own.

A Refugee Story

by Thao Lam

I have read and recommend The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek, The Secret Bone and Scone Society, Unnatural Death and Tara Road.