Review of THE SUBSTITUTE by Nicole Lundrigan

3.5 Stars 

The psychological suspense novels of Canadian author Nicole Lundrigan have become my go-to books when I’m looking for an audiobook for my morning walks.

This one has chapters which alternate between two perspectives. There’s that of Warren Botts narrated in omniscient third person. He’s a PhD student taking a leave of absence and teaching science in a middle school. The other point of view, in first person, is that of an unnamed and ungendered teenager identified only as Kiddle. When Amanda Fuller, one of Warren’s students, is found dead by hanging in his backyard, suspicion falls on him though the reader may come to suspect Kiddle.

It is the character of Kiddle that I found most interesting. With a lack of empathy, lack of remorse, and antisocial behavior, s/he fits the definition of a psychopath. Cold, speaking of love as a meaningless emotion, and calculating, s/he carefully plans actions. What also stands out is Kiddle’s exceptional intelligence.

Kiddle and Warren share much in common. Both are solitary people. Kiddle often avoids interacting with people, having an attachment only to a sister named Button and a neighbour who treats Kiddle as an intellectual equal. Warren has only one close friend. Both Kiddle and Warren are socially inept. Kiddle blurts out inappropriate comments whereas Warren counts obsessively to calm his anxiety. Both have fractured families: a dead father, a younger sister to whom they are close, and emotionally distant mothers.

Suspense arises from trying to identify Kiddle and figure out whether s/he is connected to Amanda’s death. What is the motivation for her murder, if she was murdered? It is inevitable that the novel’s two plotlines will eventually intersect, but how? The similarities between Kiddle and Warren even suggest that they might be past and present versions of the same person. Of course Kiddle’s identity is revealed in the end, but there are clues throughout. The novel is well-crafted so the clues are subtle, but a discerning reader might accurately guess Kiddle’s identity.

The title is perfect. Warren is a substitute teacher, but there are other substitutions as well. Certainly, the book will leave readers thinking about the impact of childhood experiences and wondering whether there can ever be an adequate replacement for a lost or neglectful parent.

Though rather slow-paced, this is a chilling read appropriate for a hot summer day. Even at the end, there is a lingering unease which will send a chill down one’s spine.

Review of WHISTLER by Ann Patchett

 4 Stars

This is a gentle, comforting read.

During a museum visit, Daphne Fuller reconnects with her former stepfather, Eddie Triplett. They haven’t seen each other for 44 years since she was nine years old and the two of them were involved in a serious car accident. Their reunion has her looking back on her childhood and slowly coming to see people and events with new eyes.

The novel’s chapters focus on Daphne’s perspective but there are four interstitial sections which provide a third-person account of the accident in January of 1980.

The book will leave readers wishing they had Eddie as a stepfather. He is calm, capable, and charming. He is highly respected in his job and popular at social gatherings. He has a wonderful sense of humour. Eddie and Daphne have a strong bond because they both love reading and books and because of the traumatic experience they shared. It’s obvious that Eddie left an indelible mark on Daphne’s life.

One major theme is how children often misunderstand adult relationships. For instance, Daphne has always held herself responsible for the divorce between Eddie and her mother Abigail because they divorced immediately after the accident. Eddie, however, gives her information that makes her see what happened in an entirely different light. In the end, she reaches a conclusion: “I wondered what anyone ever knows about another person’s relationship. . . . I realized the answer was nothing.” And she comes to see how her mother was heroic in dire circumstances that Daphne does not think she herself could have survived.

There are other messages as well: the power of storytelling, how childhood never leaves us, and how even tragedies can have positive consequences. The latter is particularly clear: the illness of Daphne’s biological father brings the two of them together and brings the man who would become her husband into her life. Daphne has always thought of her and her sister Leda’s childhoods as difficult, especially because Abigail seemed largely indifferent to them, but Leda points out, “’We were loved, not passionately but enough, and we were largely ignored, which allowed for our healthy separation from the primary family. Necessity made us resourceful and brave. We were left to solve our own problems and so we did.’”

The picture of the horse on the cover and the book’s title suggest this is an equestrian-centric novel; in fact, I thought it might be like Horse by Geraldine Brooks. The reference is to a story told by Eddie to Daphne the night of the accident about a horse named Whistler who rescues his owner. In the end, the reader will probably think about how Daphne was Eddie’s Whistler in the past, but he is her Whistler in the present. Though in different ways, they do rescue each other.

I’ve liked Ann Patchett’s novels like The Dutch House (https://schatjesshelves.blogspot.com/2020/06/review-of-dutch-house-by-ann-patchett.html) and Tom Lake (https://schatjesshelves.blogspot.com/2023/11/review-of-tom-lake-by-ann-patchett.html). This one I also enjoyed.

Review of GHOST NOTES by Doug Johnstone

 4 Stars

This is the seventh book in the Skelfs series which follows a multi-generational family of female funeral directors and private investigators.

As in the previous books, chapters alternate among the three women. Dorothy, the matriarch, investigates the grief tech industry. Is there a connection between a man’s death by suicide and the digital avatar of his daughter who died months earlier? Could a bot have encouraged him to commit suicide?

Jenny, Dorothy’s daughter, is asked by a former schoolmate to find out who is attempting to blackmail her. Jenny quickly comes to suspect that Robin is not telling her everything. Things certainly become more complicated when men connected to Robin die in strange circumstances.

Hannah, Jenny’s daughter, is shocked by the unexpected arrival of Yannis, Indy’s ex-boyfriend, whom Indy has never mentioned to her wife. His appearance reveals more about Indy’s past and also brings a threatening menace into their lives.

A visit with these three women is always enjoyable. There is so much to admire about them: they are strong, capable, and compassionate people. What makes them relatable, however, is that they are also flawed. Hannah, for instance, starts to question how well she knows her wife. When she is reminded that she perhaps has misjudged Indy, Hannah feels “shame at her own self-centredness, but she also didn’t want to give up her anger so easily.” Jenny, on the other hand, has engaged in self-destructive behaviours in the past; her tendency to backslide is aggravating since she has a relationship with the wonderful, almost-too-good-to-be-believable Archie.

Also as in the previous books, the theme of connection appears. Dorothy often thinks of “the interconnectedness of things” and tries to bring people together to make connections. Music especially makes her feel “how we’re all connected over millennia.” Hannah echoes this idea in a different way: “Our bodies were made up of elements formed in the furnaces of distance stars at the beginning of the universe.” Even Jenny, during a terramation, reflects that a body “becoming something else in this strange, connected world.”

This, as all the Skelfs books, is eminently readable. The fluid style and short, punchy chapters make for a fast read, and the seamless plotting and engaging characters insure a compelling read. And its message is life-affirming: “People were fucked up” but “despite everything bad in the world, human decency always found a way.”

If you are not already a Skelfaholic, start at the beginning of the series. See my reviews of the books:

A Dark Matter: https://schatjesshelves.blogspot.com/2022/12/review-of-dark-matter-by-doug-johnstone.html

The Big Chill:  https://schatjesshelves.blogspot.com/2023/01/review-of-big-chill-by-doug-johnstone.html

The Great Silence: https://schatjesshelves.blogspot.com/2023/02/review-of-great-silence-by-doug.html

Black Hearts: https://schatjesshelves.blogspot.com/2023/04/review-of-black-hearts-by-doug-johnstone.html

The Opposite of Lonely: https://schatjesshelves.blogspot.com/2023/10/review-of-opposite-of-lonely-by-doug.html

Living is a Problem: https://schatjesshelves.blogspot.com/2024/09/review-of-living-is-problem-by-doug.html

Review of ASHA IN HER GARDEN by Anita Rau Badami (New Release)

4 Stars 

I’ve read all of Anita Rau Badami’s novels (Tamarind Mem, The Hero’s Walk, Can You Hear the Nightbird Call? and Tell it to the Trees) and have enjoyed them all. Asha in Her Garden, the latest, after a 15-year hiatus, is no exception.

The novel begins with seventy-year-old Asha Mohan witnessing the cutting down of an old maple tree in her Montreal back yard. This tree shaded her beloved garden, her sanctuary since she and her husband Suresh bought the house after moving from India decades earlier. The tree’s removal serves as an impetus for Asha’s examining her life, all the way back to her childhood in Bangalore, its joys and sorrows, and her relationships with her family. She wonders if she can change those things she doesn’t like. Can she reconfigure her life just as the removal of the tree reconfigures her garden?

It is the character of Asha that is central to the book. She is a complex, authentic character. She is what would be termed “a force to be reckoned with.” From an early age, she decides “She would be loud and demanding, a force in a world where noisy and pushy and forceful equalled success.” And she is certainly successful in her career. Her son Dilip thinks of his mother as indomitable, noisy, and strong. Suresh fell in love with “her independent nature, her sharp mind, her strength and willingness to take chances.”

But we also see Asha’s flaws. She is a proud person who angers easily. Added to these is her inability to apologize. Suresh comments, “That was her problem. She could not bring herself to admit she was wrong.” As one would expect, these traits affect her relationships with her family, especially Suresh, Dilip, and her cousin Meru. Asha herself also comes to realize that her desire to be independent caused her to make some poor choices: “Now she resented everyone in her family because she had made the wrong choices – she knew it was unfair of her, but she could not stop being angry.” There is no doubt that she loves her family, but she is also often annoyed by them. All of this makes her relatable.

There are several themes. One is a lesson Asha is taught by her uncle: “’What you see . . . or hear . . . is usually not the true nature of a thing.’” She seems to learn this lesson, later commenting, “How you describe a thing depends on how you look at it, and there were as many ways of looking at a thing as there were leaves on a tree.”

What remains with me is the comments about life. Life is not easy. At times it can feel, like Asha’s garden, a ruined landscape, but at other times, “like her perennials which went down every year and then burgeoned back,” life brings joys. When faced with death, Asha decides, “Life was amazing. It was magic. It was this tiny seed of hope, converted into all manner of things.” Change is inevitable, but even when it seems undesirable it can be positive. For example, the cutting of the tree brings “a vast openness” full of potential. Life is all about “The keeping, the letting go. Breathing in and breathing out. You do these things to live when you have breath, and when your life is done, you let go.”

I enjoyed this novel. It’s beautifully written with many descriptions of flowers and trees which serve as metaphors for Asha’s life. And its comments about life are as relatable as is the character of the flawed but admirable Asha.

Note: I received an eARC from the publisher via NetGalley.

Review of THE INNER DARKNESS by Jørn Lier Horst

 3.5 Stars

This is the third book of the Nordic noir series the Cold Case Quartet featuring William Wisting.

A serial killer, Tom Kerr, has agreed to reveal the resting place of his last victim. During the site visit, however, Kerr escapes. The police have long suspected that Kerr had an unknown accomplice whom they have dubbed as the Other One. Now it seems this collaborator has helped Kerr to escape. Both Kerr and the Other One are considered evil, possessing an inner darkness defined as “’an urge to inflict pain on other human beings.’” Wisting and his team are determined to recapture Kerr and also identify and capture the Other One. But can they do so before there are other victims?

As always, Wisting is likeable. He is intelligent, kind, calm, determined and principled. What bothered me however, is his willingness to accept blame when Kerr escapes. He acknowledges often having a sense of inadequacy, but this time he feels “an uncontrollable, relentless sense of guilt.” The operation may not have been perfectly executed, but Adrian Stiller, I think, is much more to blame. Wisting is used as a scapegoat. He even acknowledges Stiller’s being blinded by ambition: “The fact that the site visit had culminated in an escape seemed like an alternative Stiller had envisaged and planned for.” Yet Wisting never points out Stiller’s culpability.

Stiller has appeared in the previous two books in the series and, again, I find him problematic. He is described as “a meticulous investigator” but Line admits that she finds him unreliable because “he always harboured an ulterior motive in everything he did.” He’s an ambitious man who keeps his agenda hidden from others. Then when things go wrong, he seems willing to let others take the fall. He does redeem himself a bit towards the end, but I suspect he will show up unchanged in the next book.

Wisting’s daughter Line is once again heavily involved. She videotapes the site visit operation for the police with the promise that she will later be able to use the footage in a planned documentary. Then she pushes herself further into the case, weakly arguing that “’I was there when Tom Kerr did a runner. I still have a sore head from the explosion. I can’t just wait until it’s over. I won’t be able to rest until he’s safely back in jail.’” It’s irritating how much she leaves her daughter in the care of others. And it’s inevitable that she will get herself into a dangerous situation from which her father must rescue her.

I did find the plot somewhat predictable. I guessed the identity of the Other One early on. It’s almost too obvious. Then the psychiatrist’s description of the Other One as “’a person who has created the illusion of altruism and modesty, someone expert at concealing his egotistical and egocentric motives and who appears for all the world to be honest, good-natured and even noble’” cinched it for me.

There is another description that caught my attention: “The abuse of authority, subjugation and control, and domination of the will of others provided evil with fertile soil in which to flourish, and at the same time both blind obedience and uncritical loyalty to absolute rules were what could transform peaceful democracies into fascist dictatorships.” Did the author have a particular country in mind?

With its short chapters, the novel is a quick read. It starts slowly but picks up pace, and tension increases as the element of danger increases for several people. It’s perfect for an entertaining summer read.

Review of FREYJA by Margrét Ann Thors (New Release)

 3.5 Stars

This psychological suspense novel is set in Iceland.

In 2018 Unnur is a single mother to seven-year-old Lilja. She lives a quiet life in Reykjavík, but she is haunted by what happened when she was eleven years old and living in the remote Dark Valley. There she befriended Freyja who mysteriously vanished one night. Unnur has only fragments of memories of what happened that night so she worries that she might have been somehow responsible for Freyja’s disappearance.

When Unnur’s ex-husband returns to Iceland, he is accompanied by a new girlfriend Lóa who seems to know a lot about Unnur’s past. Lóa is a detective who opens a cold case investigation into Freyja’s disappearance so Unnur is desperate to recover her memories of what happened almost three decades earlier. If she is implicated in Freyja’s presumed death, Lilja would be taken from her.

The chapters alternate between the past (1990-1991) set in southern Iceland and the present (2028) set in both Reykjavík and Dark Valley. Unnur is the narrator, but, as she admits, she is an unreliable one because of her broken memories. Also there is much she did not understand when she was a pre-teen.

Unnur’s love for Lilja is her outstanding trait; she will do anything to keep her daughter safe. There are times, however, where her behaviour is rather strange. She commits a crime to take back a possession that means a great deal to her. Considering the nature of the crime, it’s impossible that her guilt will not be discovered. And if this item means so much to her, why didn’t she get it earlier? She had ample time and could easily have acquired it without committing a crime. (And how did the thief who stole this item know about its importance to Unnur?) Why doesn’t Unnur tell Geir the truth when he’s so open to hearing her story? Instead she confides in Pétur, a man she’s just met? She leaves her key in her car and doesn’t shut the door?

The behaviour of the villain is far-fetched. I’ve heard about playing the long game, but the amount of patience and strategic planning required are unbelievable. Naming a child after a hated person makes no sense. And Nói’s obliviousness seems extreme.

The plot relies too much on coincidence. A novel based on Freyja’s story has just been published, a journalist becomes interested in the case, and Lóa returns to Iceland, all at virtually the same time. Then there’s the timing of the meeting between Elias and Palli. The revelations are timed just too perfectly. Unnur strokes the image on a photo and her memories return?

The novel examines memory and how unreliable it can be. Certainly memories of traumatic events can be buried so Unnur’s fragmented memories make sense. However, her having no memory whatsoever of one person seems strange, especially because she does remember a visit to the church in Dark Valley.

I fell in love with Iceland when I visited a few years ago, so I loved the descriptions of the setting. Of course, when I read about the black sand beach of Dark Valley, I pictured Reynisfjara with its cave, basalt columns, sea stacks, and the dangerous sneaker waves.

This book has some typical weaknesses of a debut novel, but it is entertaining nonetheless. I will be on the lookout for the author’s next offering.

Note: I received an eARC from the publisher via NetGalley.

Review of SEND FOR ME by Lauren Fox

 3 Stars

This book is historical fiction but based on the author’s family letters.

Klara and Julius own a bakery in Feldenheim, Germany. They have a daughter Annelise who, as a young girl, yearns for more than working with her parents in the family business. Eventually she marries Walter and they have a daughter, Ruth. In 1938, Annelise, Walter, and Ruth leave for the U.S. amidst rising anti-Semitism. They settle in Milwaukee and try to arrange for Klara and Julius to join them. After Annelise’s death, her granddaughter Clare finds a cache of letters from Klara to Annelise.

The narrative weaves between the perspectives of Annelise and Clare, interspersed with excerpts from Klara’s letters. Briefly the points of view of Julius, Walter, and other secondary characters are also given. There is little plot, but the reader does see Annelise growing up and then building a new life in the U.S. Then there’s Clare; we see her in her late twenties as she finds it difficult to be far from her childhood home though she is in a relationship with Matthew, a graduate student who will be returning to London in a few months.

I enjoyed the first part of the novel focusing on life in Germany, but as the plot became more fragmented, I lost interest. Much is vague, left unexplained, so I found myself disconnected from the story. Some things that are included seem purposeless. What, for instance, is the purpose of the attraction between Annelise and her husband’s best friend?

I found the characters lacklustre. Clare, for instance, strikes me as whiny young woman waiting for a man. Annelise is also a problem for me. She mentions missing her parents, especially her mother, but she doesn’t seem to worry about what is happening in Germany. She focuses on her new life and suffers anguish about the possessions she had to leave behind. There is a sense of detachment to her; perhaps she distances herself emotionally from what is happening in her home country, but I ended up feeling detached from her.

It is Klara’s letters which I found most interesting – and heartbreaking. Her anguish over the loss of her daughter and granddaughter is palpable. Klara is desperate to be reunited with them. She doesn’t describe conditions in Germany, at least not in any detail, but her obvious anxiety, even if we are given only one sentence, says more than is needed.

The novel is about the legacy of family separation. We see the pain passed down among women of four generations. Clare, the fourth generation, says it’s impossible for her to move far away from her parents; even a few days away is traumatic. She tells Matthew that she can’t leave her parents, that is just not done: “He could never really understand the primordial soup from which she had emerged. She was obligation and reparation, rupture and remedy.”

The prose is beautiful but the fragmented and vague plotline, the colourless characters, and the abrupt ending left me unsatisfied. The entire book just felt flat. I appreciate the theme, but found that it is not developed in an interesting way.