Kingsolver dusted off an old classic (David Copperfield) and made it into an important and compelling story of life right now. Demon grows up poor and orphaned in drug-ravaged Appalachia, a far cry from Dickens' London, and it's a marvel to witness how she takes David's story and makes it over into something fresh and exciting in Demon's story. It's a sad tale, but Demon's spirit shines through, and the novel leaves us with real hope for him at the end.
Demon's story begins with his traumatic birth to a single mother in a single-wide trailer, looking 'like a little blue prizefighter.' For the life ahead of him he would need all of that fighting spirit, along with buckets of charm, a quick wit, and some unexpected talents, legal and otherwise.
In the southern Appalachian Mountains of Virginia, poverty isn't an idea, it's as natural as the grass grows. For a generation growing up in this world, at the heart of the modern opioid crisis, addiction isn't an abstraction, it's neighbours, parents, and friends. 'Family' could mean love, or reluctant foster…
What a brilliant portrait of New York today. Pavone tackles every walk of life, from lowly service worker to billionaire, and he creates such a rich tapestry. And he does all this while also spinning a thrilling plot!
I'm a huge fan of Mick Herron's Slow Horses novels, so it was a joy to discover this earlier work. His writing is so wry and wonderful, and I love how he crafted his two female protagonists. There's lots of humor, but Herron doesn't shy away from the darkness either. The scene with the big reveal about what was really behind the cover-up was searing.
A brilliant page-turning thriller about a young woman whose fabulously wealthy mother might be the victim of an elaborate con or might be losing her mind––and the daughter can’t tell where the truth lies.
Julie’s mother Kate is a force of nature––a glamorous woman of seventy, a self-made real estate developer, a grande dame in Florida society, and a power broker in Florida politics. It wasn’t easy for Julie to grow up in the shadow of such a dynamo, but she loves her mother, and she and her husband Eric are thrilled when Kate marries her long-lost high school sweetheart, a salt-of-the-earth man named Charlie.
But their storybook romance ends abruptly. On their wedding night, Kate calls the police in hysterics to report that Charlie just confessed to a notorious unsolved crime from decades before.
Charlie says she imagined it. Eric says that Kate has dementia. And the FBI says that Charlie couldn’t possibly have committed that crime.
Julie doesn’t know what to believe. Is her brilliant mother losing her mind? Or is sweet, lovable Charlie gaslighting Kate to gain control of her fortune?
As Julie tries to navigate through this maze of paranoia and mind games, cracks start to develop in her own marriage as it seems that Eric is keeping secrets . . .
Set against a backdrop of rampant development and devastating climate change, Shell Games is a psychological thriller that will make your head spin and the pages turn as you wonder exactly who is doing what to whom.
