Colorways by Vicki Welsh

April was a very fine month of reading, although a little heavy with a couple of long books and one heavy topic. My favorite book was probably  The Boonerang.

DNF:
The Book Thief by Markus Zusak – I couldn’t take the narrator’s coice

What were your favorite reads of April?

This book is the reason that my March list was so short. It’s 31 hours long! This is the 8th book in the Cormoran Strike series. I’ll start my review by saying that Galbraith (aka JK Rowling) is, as we know, a phenomenal writer. Her imagination is unmatched. This has to be the most complex plot that she has written in this series. I do believe that you need to read these books in order. If you pick up this book without having read the others I think you will miss a lot of references. Some of Robin Ellacott’s behavior will will be confusing without knowing what she went through in the last book.

This one opens up with the discovery of a dismembered body in the vault of a silver shop that happens to specialize in masonic items. The murder is being investigated by the police but Cormoran Strike and Robin Ellacott are hired by Decima Mullins because she thinks the victim is her missing boyfriend (and father of her newborn baby).

What follows is the most complex mystery book that I have read in a long time. It has more twists than an Appalachian road.

The one thing that’s getting tiring for me is the unrequited love between Strike and Robin. Robin is mid-30’s and Strike is late-40’s. Every chapter seemed to mention something about their relationship. There was some movement on it at the end of the book that left a big cliffhanger for the next book. This book was longer than it needed to be because of the over-emphasis on their personal relationship.

This was the perfect book to follow The Hallmarked Man. I love the Easy Rawlins series from Walter Mosley. It had been a couple of years since I read one and it was good to be back with Easy. Michael Boatman is the perfect narrator.

Easy (Ezekial) Rawlins is a WWII veteran who now (1970’s) has a successful detective agency in Los Angeles. His two adopted children are adults on their own and he lives in a gated neighborhood that provides him some peace. If you have seen the movie Devil In a Blue Dress, you will think of Denzel Washington as Easy. In Gray Dawn, the 17th book in the series, Easy is now 50 years old and starting to think about retiring. He is in a line of work where he interacts frequently with people in the fringes of society and they make great characters.

In Gray Dawn, Easy is asked to find a mysterious woman named Lutisia James. Her son is trying to get a message to her. Easy, once he finds her, will realize that he already knows her, but by another name.

Walter Mosley writes some of the most interesting characters and, since the series takes place between the 1940’s and 1970’s, his plot does not reply on modern technology. Easy uses pay phones and, to find people, he relies on connections at the phone company who have access to address and phone directories. If you have never read any books in this series, start at the beginning. You can’t understand Easy without knowing all of his past. All of the book titles have a color in the name. Devil In A Blue Dress is the first one.

Robert Bailey is a prolific writer and new to me. I saw a recommendation for this on on YouTube and I’m glad I gave it a try. This book reminded me of early David Baldacci but it’s also quite timely with the subject matter.

The new President has terminal cancer and no one, except his Chief of Staff and best friend, Eli James, knows about it. Just as the President seems to be getting miraculously better, Eli’s teenage daughter is diagnosed with terminal lung cancer. Eli is desperate for a cure and approaches is Pharma lobbyist friends for help. He’s sent down a path that leads to a huge medical coverup that’s worth billions to the sick care industry.

Eli’s family is now in danger and he arranges their escape to New Mexico and the protection of Nester Sanchez, a major powerbroker with connections to underworld figures. He was also key in getting the President elected and is expecting a pardon for some legal issues.

There’s a great showdown with a fun reference to my alma mater, Virginia Tech.

I really enjoyed this book and will read others. I think he’s best known for a legal thriller series and I’ll probably start that next.

This book was written about 15 years ago and is the first Sherlock Holmes book ever approved by Arthur Conan Doyle’s estate. All in all, I felt that it stayed very close to Doyle’s style and approach.

It’s 1890 and an art dealer had arrived at Holmes’ office to ask for help. He’s recently returned from Boston and is being followed by a flat-capped man. In the following days his home is robbed and family members are threatened.

The next thing they know they are involved in the crime worlds of Boston and London, opium dens and a mysterious place called The House of Silk.

If you are a Sherlock Holmes fan, you will enjoy this addition to the collection.

John Boyne is one of my favorite authors and his book, The Hearts Invisible Furies, is one of my favorite books of all time. This one is beautifully written but it needed a trigger warning. I generally roll my eyes at trigger warnings, but had I knows that this 17 hour book was basically 4 intertwined stories with a central trauma of child sexual abuse of teenagers, I probably would not have read it. I definitely would not have read it after House of Silk.

There are 4 separate stories starting with a wife who feels she might have been an accessory. The second story is the story of someone who might have been an accomplice. The third is from the perspective of a perpetrator and the last story is that of a victim. Each story represents one of the elements: water, earth, fire, air. The element connection didn’t really resonate with me.

It’s truly a beautifully written book but it’s a heavy read. It’s an excellent exploration of trauma and how it affects everyone involved. The way the characters weave in and out of 4 seemingly independent stories is brilliant. That said, if I had known the underlying theme, I’m not sure I would have read it. But, I liked and had empathy with the characters and I never really considered abandoning it.